Leigh: New questions

2005-07-21 21:38

Adriaan Basson, Yvonne Beyers, Sapa

Johannesburg - Donovan Moodley didn't plan to kill Leigh Matthews when he kidnapped her from her university campus in July last year.

Moodley, 24, was merely looking for a victim to kidnap for ransom.

This is one of the new allegations in the preliminary, dramatically altered charge sheet for Moodley's murder trial, which starts in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday.

The new charge sheet tells the story of a desperate man looking for a victim to kidnap. He found Matthews and shot her dead later that same night after his plans went awry.

More questions

The new charge sheet, however, instead of providing answers, creates more questions about Matthews' disappearance and murder.

It alleges that Moodley placed Matthews' body in cold storage after shooting her in the neck and twice in the chest.

He allegedly moved her body to the open veld in Walkerville, where it was found, only 11 days later.

But how did Moodley manage to move Matthews's frozen body by himself? And where was the cold-room where her body was allegedly stored for 11 days?

Moodley will on Monday plead to charges of murder, blackmail and abduction. A charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances was scrapped.

According to the charge sheet, Moodley shot Matthews in the veld, took her body to the cold-room and returned to the Formula 1 hotel in Sandton he had booked into a few days earlier to plan the abduction.

Moved the body

Eleven days later, on July 20, he allegedly returned to the cold-room and moved the body to the veld in Walkerville. He left four cartridge shells with the body.

The body was found the next day after a grass cutter stumbled upon it.

Police earlier denied reports in the Sunday Times that Matthews' body was frozen when it was found. They said such reports were undermining the police's investigation.

A pathologist allegedly found that different parts of her body took longer to decompose than others.

The places that had not decomposed were consistent with parts of the body that would come into contact with ice in a large container.

The new charge sheet also alters the events of July 9, the day of Matthews' abduction.

The state now alleges that Moodley phoned Matthews' mother, Sharon, from her daughter's cellphone at 12.27 after her mother tried in vain to reach her.

Two minutes after he told Matthews' mother that he had abducted Leigh, he called father Rob Matthews from her cellphone and demanded a ransom of R300 000.

He apparently told Rob Matthews that he would kill his daughter if he failed to pay the ransom or if he phoned the police.

The previous charge sheet did not mention Moodley's threat about the police.

On the same night, during the ransom drop-off, Rob Matthews came within metres of his daughter's killer when he dropped an envelope with R50 000 out of his car window.

Instalment

Initially the kidnapper demanded R300 000, but agreed to pick up an instalment on the dark N1 highway near the Grasmere tollgate south of the city.

Instead of returning Leigh, the kidnapper drove her to a dark field in Walkerville Manor, ordered her to strip naked, and shot her in the back of the head. But he did not leave her there.

Meanwhile, Moodley's defence team said on Thursday they were keeping their options open as to whether the alleged kidnapper and killer would give evidence.

Advocate Johan Pretorius, due to meet the prosecution on Thursday, said things could still change before Monday, when the trial begins.

"We'll see on Monday," he said, referring to newspaper reports this week that Moodley would not testify.

- Beeld