The savage rape and murder of three generations of...

The savage rape and murder of three generations of a family during a carjacking in which a baby was executed in front of her mother has led to widespread calls for the return of the death penalty in South Africa, the Sunday Telegraph reported. During the ordeal, one of the victims, the baby's 24-year-old mother Janine Drennen, managed to send two desperate text messages to her fiance, Clifford Rawstone. "Hijack", read the first. The second one pleaded: "Call cops". The police, who describe the murders in July 2003 as the "most gruesome" they have ever experienced, believe that the gunmen caught Miss Drennen sending the messages, prompting the vengeful killing spree. Miss Drennen, her daughter Kayla and her future mother-in-law, Hester Rawstone, were on their way to celebrate Kayla's first birthday in a suburb of the capital, Pretoria, when they were ambushed and abducted by the heavily armed black gang members. According to a witness in the car - a teenage girl whom the gang had also abducted - they forced Miss Drennen to watch as her daughter was shot in the back of the head and Mrs Rawstone, 52, in the neck. Miss Drennen was then raped, shot dead and her body dumped in a field. More than 20,000 cars are hijacked in South Africa each year, often at gunpoint, but few attacks end in such extreme violence. The incident prompted 8,000 people to e-mail the Justice Department on one day alone, calling for the death penalty - which was abolished in 1995 by the African National Congress - to be reintroduced.