Kidnapped student Leigh Matthews was alive and bound up in a car, metres away from her father when he dropped off her ransom money, court documents stated on Thursday.
That same night she was taken by her kidnapper and shot at close range in the bushes near Walkerville, south of Johannesburg.
Donovan Moodley will stand trial for the crime on July 25 in the Johannesburg High Court.
The 25-year-old son of a preacher is accused of kidnapping, extortion, robbery and murder.
Moodley appeared in leg irons in the Wynberg Regional Court on Thursday and was handed the court documents by his attorney.
He appeared thinner than when he was arrested last year, and spent some time reading the indictment. The man whose work caused him to be arrested, Detective Superintendent Piet Byleveld, stood against a wall nearby.
The documents allege that Moodley, who was a student with Matthews at Bond University in Sandton, planned his crime from the Formula One hotel in Bramley Park.
They state that he booked into the hotel on July 6 2004 — three days before the kidnapping and murder — and booked out on July 10.
”The accused visited the Bond university daily from July 6 to July 9 2004 in search of a victim to kidnap for a ransom,” the documents state.
Once finding a target, he allegedly pretended to Matthews he was a fellow student needing a lift.
He allegedly drew a gun in her car and proceeded with his plan.
Her hands and feet were tied with masking tape, and a balaclava was put over her head.
She was transferred to another vehicle and ”the accused then drove off with the deceased to a piece of veld in the vicinity of Walkerville, where he kept her in his custody”.
Ransom demand
Meanwhile, according to the documents, the victim’s mother, Sharon Matthews, was informed by Moodley that he had her daughter and wanted a ransom.
He answered the victim’s cellphone when Sharon called.
The documents state that Moodley originally asked for R300 000 but after negotiations agreed to R50 000. This was dropped off by the father, Rob Matthews, near the Grasmere toll plaza on the same day his daughter disappeared.
In the trial, the state will allege that Rob waited at the drop-off point as instructed.
”After some time, the accused tapped on Mr Matthews’s back window and instructed him to drop the money from the window.”
Rob threw a brown envelope containing R50 000 in cash from his window, unaware that his missing daughter was apparently alive and bound and hidden in the kidnapper’s car, a few metres away.
The state will allege that Moodley then ”drove Leigh Matthews to a secluded place in the vicinity of Walkervillle” — the spot he had already picked out for her murder.
Leigh was told to ”undress completely”, the prosecution will argue.
She was shot at close range in the back of her head, behind her left ear. The body was dragged into the bushes before a further two shots were fired at close range into her neck and chest, the documents state.
Moodley then allegedly took Leigh’s personal effects with him back to the Formula One hotel, where he slept the night.
Booking out on Saturday July 10 2004, Moodley allegedly took the clothes he had been wearing the previous evening, as well as Leigh’s clothes, handbag, ring and cellphone, and burnt the items ”in an open space” near his home in Brackenhurst.
Later, he allegedly returned and retrieved her ring as a souvenir.
Leigh’s body was discovered in the veld near Walkerville on July 21 2004.
Moodley, however, was only arrested on October 4 after investigations by Byleveld linked him to the crime.
The courtroom on Thursday was filled with friends and relations of both the Matthews and the Moodley families. — Sapa