The young woman was excited when her boyfriend sent her a message telling her he was sending her a gift, but she couldn’t understand why he would send her a bullet in a box only until her mother was shot dead.

It was two days after she’d received the bullet on 6 May that she found out in the most tragic way the message was a warning she was supposed to die.

Her mum (53) opened the door when somebody knocked and was shot dead by izinkabi on Sunday 16 May.

It appears the hitman thought he was shooting at the young lady, who arrived home from work a few minutes after the incident and found her mum lying in a pool of blood.

Her mum had been with her brother, who can’t be named, when two unknown men shot her twice in the head.

The attackers fired shots at the brother, missed, and fled the scene in a car. An ambulance was called but she died a few minutes later.

The family from Tsakane, Ekurhuleni, suspect her abusive boyfriend could be the one who sent the killers.

“My mum had the same features. They must have thought it was her but it was the wrong person,” said the terrified brother.

“We can’t believe our mother is gone, just like that.”

The woman showed us some of the messages her boyfriend sent her.

She said her boyfriend was abusive and she broke up with him a week before the shooting.

“I don’t know what to say,” she told Daily Sun.

The woman said they met last year and he became abusive just three months after they met. She said the boyfriend told her if she went to the police she’d pay a heavy price.

The younger brother said after the mum was killed, the boyfriend came and pretended he was comforting them.

“But my aunt was angry and told him she knew what had happened and he left,” said the brother.

The grieving family is living in fear as the boyfriend has disappeared, and no one has been arrested.

Sergeant Lerato Mngomezulu of Tsakane Police Station said murder and attempted murder cases were opened.

No one has been arrested.