Henri said he survived the brutal axe murder of his family. Today he handed himself in.

After 18 months of suspicion and police questioning, 21-year-old South African man Henri van Breda has reportedly handed himself into police over the brutal axe murders of his family.

Van Breda handed himself in on Monday 13 June with a man believed to be his lawyer by his side.

Following a call to police in January 2015, the bodies of Henri’s mother Teresa, father Martin and older brother Rudi were all found in their home in the De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate in Stellenbosch, around 50km outside of Cape Town.

Henri van Breda. Source: Facebook.

Henri's younger sister Marli was also found at the scene in critical condition with severe head wounds and a severed jugular, but has since fully recovered, and Henri was found with only minor wounds.

At the time of the attacks van Breda - who had lived with his family in Perth for six years before returning to South Africa in 2014 - told police that he and his family were attacked by an axe wielding intruder who had knocked him unconscious.

But his minor wounds and four hour delay in contacting local police quickly lead to him being a prime suspect.

van Breda's younger sister, Marli. Source: Facebook.

He reportedly told police that his family were attacked by an intruder, who knocked him unconscious.

At the time of the murders, police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said the motive for the killings was not yet known.

“We would not want to speculate on the motive for the killing and we indicated yesterday that we have not made any arrests at this stage,” he said.

“We have not even taken in anybody for questioning. We would rather wait for our investigations to actually tell us what is going on, what went wrong in that particular scene.”

Martin and Theresa van Breda. Source: Facebook. 

It is not yet known why van Breda has since handed himself into police at this time, but he is expected to attend a local court on Tuesday afternoon to face three charges of murder against Theresa, Martin and Rudi, and the attempted murder of his sister.