Leigh Matthews (8 July 1983 – 9 July 2004) was a South African university student who was kidnapped and murdered. Her disappearance and murder sparked a

media frenzy Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to ...

, with the ensuing investigation and court case being one of the most closely followed in South African history.

Kidnapping and murder

Matthews was born on 8 July 1983 to Rob and Sharon Matthews. She had one sibling, her sister Karen. At the time of her murder, the family lived in the

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

suburb of

Fourways The area referred to as Fourways (which is a collection of suburbs, including the traditional suburb of Fourways) is the fastest-developing commercial and residential hub in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, South Africa. The main access routes to ...

and Matthews was studying for a

BCom A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa ...

Finance degree at Bond University in the Johannesburg suburb of Morningside. Her 21st birthday party was planned for the day after she disappeared. On Friday 9 July 2004, she was abducted from the parking lot at Bond University. Shortly after the kidnapping, a ransom demand was made to her father, who dropped off R50,000 near the Grasmere Toll Plaza south of Johannesburg. He was able to hold a short telephone conversation with her afterwards, which was their last communication. On 21 July 2004, her body was discovered by a municipal worker cutting grass in the open

veld Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Bot ...

next to the R82 highway in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg. She had been shot four times. Although she was found naked, she had not been sexually assaulted.

Investigation and legal proceedings

On 24 August 2004, police detective Superintendent Piet Byleveld took over the investigation. He identified 24-year-old Donovan Moodley as his prime suspect. Moodley was also a student at Bond University attended by Matthews, but was not acquainted with her. On 4 October 2004, Byleveld arrested Moodley outside his home in Alberton. Moodley appeared in the

Randburg Randburg is an area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly a separate municipality, its administration devolved to the newly created City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, along with neighbouring Sandton and Roodepoort, ...

Magistrate's Court on

charges Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * '' Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

of murder, kidnapping and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

. On 25 July 2005, he pleaded guilty to all three charges in the

Johannesburg High Court The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...

. Judge Joop Labuschagne found him guilty as charged, but ruled he had not acted alone in his judgement. Moodley was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, 15 years for kidnapping and 10 years for extortion. He began serving his life sentence on 4 August 2005. In his initial version of events, Moodley said he was driven by a need for money. He said he approached Matthews in the campus parking lot and asked her for a lift. They rode in her car together, where he then kidnapped her. Moodley said shortly after he extorted the R50,000 from her father he was unsure what to do with her, and then took her to a deserted field in Walkerville and shot her in the back of the head. He then burned his clothes to hide evidence. Friends and family of Matthews wore

white ribbon The white ribbon is an awareness ribbon sometimes used by political movements to signify or spread their beliefs. It is usually worn on garments or represented in information sources such as posters, leaflets, etc. The White Ribbon has been t ...

s during the trial.

Appeals

Less than two weeks after sentencing, Moodley informed the Johannesburg High Court he wished to file an application for leave to appeal his sentence. He now claimed he did not kill Matthews and was framed. He withdrew this original application on 18 November 2005. In 2006, he claimed he had not acted alone in the murder and had been framed. On 25 November 2009, another application filed in the Johannesburg High Court for leave to appeal his sentence was dismissed by Judge Joop Labuschagne. On 25 May 2010, his sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal. On 4 August 2010, an application filed in the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

for leave to appeal his sentence was dismissed unanimously by then Chief Justice

Sandile Ngcobo Sandile Ngcobo (born 1 March 1953) is former justice in the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He served as Chief Justice from 2009 to 2011. In 2017, the Southern African Public Law journal published a special issue in volume 32 of the jou ...

and the other ten judges of the Constitutional Court. On 1 February 2012, an application filed in the Johannesburg High Court for his conviction to be set aside or a

retrial A new trial or retrial is a recurrence of a court case. A new trial may potentially be ordered for some or all of the matters at issue in the original trial. Depending upon the rules of the jurisdiction and the decision of the court that ordered ...

was dismissed by Judge Joop Labuschagne.

Ongoing investigation

Piet Byleveld, the investigating officer who arrested Moodley, retired from the

South African Police Service The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,154 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the provincial borders, and a Provincial Commissioner is appointed in ea ...

in 2010. His statement was never presented to court as Moodley pleaded guilty. He said he believed Moodley had accomplices in his biography published in 2011. A new investigating officer was appointed to the case in 2011.

Television documentary

In July 2012, the murder was covered in two episodes of the

M-Net M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

''Crimes Uncovered''

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

docu-drama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typi ...

television series titled "A Family's Nightmare Begins: The Leigh Matthews Story (Part 1)" and "A Web of Lies: The Leigh Matthews Story (Part 2)".

References

External links

The Leigh Matthews Trust website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Leigh 1983 births 2000s missing person cases 2004 murders in South Africa 2004 deaths July 2004 events in South Africa Deaths by firearm in South Africa Deaths by person in Africa Female murder victims People murdered in South Africa Kidnapped South African people Kidnappings in South Africa Missing person cases in Africa Murdered students South African murder victims History of women in South Africa