BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – A platonic, one-armed hug between his estranged wife and another man may have set Johan VanNiekerk on a path that left his 72-year-old mother and 3-year-old daughter dead from overdoses in a motel room on the outskirts of a small Michigan town in May.

Charged with two counts of murder and one count of child abuse in connection with the deaths, the 41-year-old Fort Wayne man remained shackled in an orange jail uniform during a two-hour hearing in a Calhoun County courtroom Thursday.

The hearing, which will continue next month, was designed to spell out evidence against VanNiekerk, a South Africa native, prior to a trial that could result in him spending the rest of his life in prison.

Most of that evidence came from the testimony of his estranged wife, who spoke to prosecutors and defense attorneys through tears while family and friends watched from the gallery.

She described the night of April 30, when VanNiekerk allegedly beat and raped her in her Fort Wayne home and the following day, when a frantic search for him, his mother and the couple's youngest of three daughters led police to a Comfort Inn just outside of Marshall, Mich., about an hour and a half north of Fort Wayne.

His wife also spoke of constant mental issues VanNiekerk dealt with over the years, how he was never the same after his father died in 2004, how he saw multiple doctors and at least one therapist at various times and was once taking lithium and other medicines.

"He said, 'Don't worry about the girls. When I'm done killing you, I'm going to kill them, too,' " VanNiekerk's wife said, describing his threat to her and their three children as he straddled and choked her in their Fort Wayne apartment.

That night, VanNiekerk's wife said, a man she is friends with stopped by between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. to pick up a computer he offered to fix. He stayed about 45 minutes and left holding the computer in one arm. At her doorway, he gave her a hug with his free arm.

"I told him, 'You can't do that,' " VanNiekerk's wife said. " 'You never know who will see that or who's looking.' "

Minutes later, she said, VanNiekerk, who had been living away from the couple's apartment, used a key to enter the home. In front of one of the couple's daughters, he knocked a phone out of his wife's hand and forced her into the bedroom where he's accused of beating and raping her. When she screamed their children's names, he said it would just make him kill her that much quicker, she testified.

But at some point, he stopped after he asked to move back in, she said, and told her he just wanted to make her happy.

VanNiekerk told his wife that he didn't kill her because he could see her eyes, she said, making her stay awake the rest of the night while he slept next to her - fearing he would kill her if her eyes were closed.

Allen County prosecutors have filed charges of rape and domestic battery against VanNiekerk.

The next morning, VanNiekerk's wife tried to act as normal as possible, in order to get out of the house. She showered, dressed and took all three of their daughters with her - just like every morning.

She dropped Laura at Brenda VanNiekerk's apartment - she trusted and was friends with Brenda - just like normal and then took the other two to their south-side elementary school.

When the school principal saw bruising on the woman's face, police were called.

VanNiekerk sent several text messages that morning, according to his wife's testimony, and at some point she said he realized police had been contacted. When she tried to call his mother's cell phone, it went straight to voice mail, which she said was unusual because Brenda VanNiekerk never turned the phone off.

When police went to Brenda VanNiekerk's apartment, officers found it unlocked with nobody inside.

According to testimony from a Comfort Inn employee, VanNiekerk checked into the Michigan motel at about 1:30 p.m. and requested two rooms - one a smoking room with a double-bed, the other a non-smoking one with a king-sized bed. The employee saw nobody with him but did hear the voice of a small child in one of the rooms at some point.

About 4:15 p.m. that day, VanNiekerk sent his wife a text message that said, "We've reached the point of no return," and then another that read, "This is all your fault. You have nobody to blame but yourself."

When his wife finally got a hold of him on his cell phone, he talked about how the children loved her more than him and that she loved them more than him, his wife testified.

VanNiekerk wouldn't say where he was, his wife said, but when she asked where his mother was he replied, "She's already dead. You don't have to worry about her."

When she asked where Laura was, he said, "She's dead, too."

According to VanNiekerk's wife, she began screaming that Laura was her baby. She said that prompted a cold reply from VanNiekerk before he hung up: "Not anymore."

Police eventually traced the phone call to the Comfort Inn, where officers with the Michigan State and Marshall police forced their way into the motel rooms.

Marshal Police officer Andrew Groeneveld was one of the first into the room with double beds and testified about finding VanNiekerk and his daughter inside.

According to Groeneveld, VanNiekerk was on one bed breathing laboriously as if he were "snoring." The girl was on the other bed, half covered by a blanket and not breathing. Foam came from her mouth and red stains were on her clothes as well as a towel near her head, Groeneveld said.

Officers began resuscitation efforts on her after handcuffing VanNiekerk, who did not wake up until he was taken to a hospital. The girl, though, never regained consciousness. VanNiekerk's mother was presumably found in the other room.

Though detailed causes for Laura and Brenda VanNiekerk's deaths have not been released, court documents have indicated both were due to some type of "overdose." According to testimony Thursday, pills were found at the scene as well as a note, though its contents have not been revealed.

Groeneveld's testimony ended the hearing Thursday, with Judge John R. Holmes adjourning matters until a day to be scheduled where a pathologist will testify. In the meantime, VanNiekerk remains in Calhoun County