Is Moodley lying about Leigh?

2005-07-26 22:13

Johannesburg - A pathologist's version of events between Leigh Matthews' murder and the discovery of her body 11 days later has raised questions about Donovan Moodley's confession.

Pathologist Hendrik Scholtz told Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday: "The amount of blood we found in the body, and on the scene, did not make sense."

Moodley has confessed to the murder, has explained why he did it and even how he spent R50 000 in ransom money he received.

But, the State still maintains he placed her body on ice before staging the scene of the crime.

Scholtz said litres of blood missing from the corpse and the crime scene were key to determining the location where the Sandton student was murdered.

The crux of the matter appeared to be blood and the rate of decomposition.

Scholtz said that during the post-mortem he found only 400ml of blood in Matthews' body.

'A lot of blood missing'

Small traces of blood were found south of Johannesburg where a municipal worker cutting grass found her body.

The remaining litres usually found in a human body were not there.

"There is a lot of blood missing."

Other factors also led Scholtz to his conclusion.

There was little rigor mortis in the shoulders, but much of it in the rest of the body.

Rigor mortis is the stiffening of the body's muscles that normally begins three to eight hours after death and ends within 36 hours.

To halt rigor mortis for any number of days would take embalming or cooling the body to 4°C or less.

The average temperature in the Walkerville area recorded at that time was between 5°C and 15°C.

The fact that rigor mortis had not been found on the shoulders suggested the body was moved by the shoulders, "breaking" the rigor mortis.

The body had irregular patterns of lividity and blanching. Lividity is the pooling of blood, while blanching describes pale areas from which blood is drained away by gravity.

Marbling and lividity puzzles

Lividity was prominent in both buttocks and the right eye. But the post-mortem showed the "head was turned to the left" when the body was found.

If the corpse had been lying on its back, there would have been no lividity in the buttocks.

Marbling - where the deceased's skin takes on the appearance of marble - is caused by the blood decomposing and staining the blood vessels.

According to the report it was prominent in the shin areas and the left arm.

"You would expect the whole body to go through marbling (at the same pace)," Scholtz said.

Freezer burn and mummification was present on the toes and soles of the feet.

Freezer burn is identified by a reddening of the skin.

This would suggest that the feet came into contact with the walls of a refrigerator while the rest of the body was wrapped up in a blanket, Scholtz said.

There was no post-mortal gas formation or discolouring of the abdomen (usually the first sign of decomposition).

There was minimal damage by animals and insects, and no flies had laid eggs inside the body, which usually occurs within 24 hours in South Africa.

Body not frozen

Scholtz said that while the body was kept cool, it had not frozen.

By studying cells under a microscope pathologists can tell whether freezing has occurred as the "architecture of the cells is destroyed".

Scholtz testified that no post-mortem sunburn was found on Matthews' body, her hair was clean and her French manicure was pristine.

The toxicology report, part of the post-mortem report, also showed that she was on the anti-depressant Citalopram at the time of her death.

Scholtz said she died within 24 hours of taking the last dose.

In their cross-examination, Moodley's defence asked if the cold night temperatures, a cold wind or overcast skies could have had the same effect as a refrigerator.

Scholtz said he did not feel he could answer that.

Advocate Johan Pretorius maintained his client denied these allegations.

He said Moodley had already admitted to shooting Matthews and dragging her into the bushes.

It would now be up to the State to prove otherwise.

The post-mortem report documented four fatal wounds, in the head, neck and chest and about 30 smaller wounds and scratches.

A ballistics expert will start his testimony on Wednesday.

- SAPA