The vital question may linger forever: Did Oscar Pistorius know he was shooting at his girlfriend?

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — In the decade since Oscar Pistorius pulled the trigger four times on his 9mm pistol, firing into the head and body of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp as she stood inside a locked toilet cubicle in his home, the vital question has still never been answered: Did the world-famous Olympic runner know he was shooting at and killing his girlfriend that Valentine’s Day in 2013? As Pistorius attended his parole hearing at a prison in the South African capital of Pretoria on Friday, the words of Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, rang out outside the jail gates. June Steenkamp said the rest of her life threatens to be “an unending black hole of pain and loneliness” after yet another loss, that of her husband and Reeva’s father. June Steenkamp said she still believed Pistorius was lying about the killing, but had managed to forgive him as “I would not be able to survive if I had to cling to my anger.” She said she and Barry had “big dreams” for Reeva, who also was an activist fighting the scourge of violence against women in South Africa — a tragic precursor to her own death.