Charlize Theron's childhood home a crime scene again, 21 years after shooting

Charlie Theron's childhood home in South Africa has once again become a crime scene, more than 20 years after her mother killed her father there in self-defense.

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Police are currently investigating a murder at the house, which took place last Friday, according to local newspaper The Star. A group of five robbers killed the home's resident, a car salesman and mechanic man named Barry Newland, inside the home, the outlet quoted a police spokesperson as saying. No arrests have been made.

The spokesperson told The Star the robbers gained access to the hom! e by pre tending to be interested in seeing one of Newman's girlfriend's cars and were let in by domestic workers. The group tied them and Newland up in separate rooms and later suffocated the man with a plastic bag. They stole a cellphone and his girlfriend told police that a laptop, two cameras, an iPod and gold chain were also taken, according to The Star.

Theron grew up in the small farm town, Benoni. Her last name is pronounced "Thron" in Afrikaans, which was her first language. She is an only child. On June 21, 1991, when Theron was 15, her mother, Gerda, shot and killed the actress' alcoholic father, Charles, in self-defense. Theron is named after him.

In 2004, the actress talked about the trauma in an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer.

She said her father and his brother came home after a bout of drinking and that an aunt called to warn her and her mother. When her dad arrived, he began shooting at the house's locked gate and at the kitchen door and then began banging on the door of her bedroom. According to ABC News, her mother testified that her husband then said: "Tonight I'm going to kill you both with the shotgun."

She said he fired his gun into her room, after which her mother grabbed her handgun and shot him and her uncle. Her dad was killed and his brother was wounded. She was never prosecuted and the killing was determined to be an act of self-defense.

"It was a huge tragedy in my life," Theron said on the show "Inside The Actors Studio" in 2004. "I've been fortunate enough to be kind of brought to this place where I can actually have this experience with acting where I can make sense of my life and maybe that's therapy for other people or meditation ... for me, it's experiencing emotion, confusion, loss or any emotion through a character."

Theron worked as a model in Milan and also studied at the Joffrey ! Ballet S chool in New York City before she pursued an acting career. She made her official big-screen debut in 1996 with the films "2 Days in the Valley" and "That Thing You Do!." She won an Oscar for her role as a serial killer in the 2003 film "Monster."

In recent years, Theron has appeared in movies such as "Prometheus," "Young Adult" and "Snow White and the Huntsman" with Kristen Stewart.

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