‘You cannot prevent kidnappings, but can change the outcome’
The father of murdered Leigh Matthews, Rob Matthews, has spoken to Rekord about the eleven years that have passed after his daughter's death and his involvement with eBlockwatch.
Every evening – for the past eleven years – Rob Matthews dreams about his daughter.
“It is always nice dreams. I remember her as she was and one day I would see her again,” Rob, the father of the murdered Leigh Matthews, told Rekord in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
Sitting with Andre Snyman, the director of eBlockwatch on a stoep in Bryanston in Johannesburg, Rob said that he would never, never forgive Donavon Moodley, who kidnapped and murdered Leigh in 2004. “And you know what, I sleep very comfortably. I just could not forgive him and I am not even going to try,” he said.
Leigh attended Bond University with Moodley. She knew him and trusted him and when he asked for a lift, she did not hesitate for a second. But the greedy Moodley had plans of his own. He kidnapped her and wanted a ransom of R50 000 from her parents and then killed her, but her family still believed justice would prevail and that his accomplices would be behind bars one day.
They were a middle-class family and would have never expected something like that to happen to their family. “Leigh was the most safety-conscious of all of us. She would have locked her car doors. She would have adhered to our golden rule never to talk to strangers or to give them a lift.”
A few days after she was kidnapped, police found her body in a field near Walkerville on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Moodley was arrested for her murder… but until today, he was still mum about his accomplices.
Since the murder of his beloved daughter, Rob has become actively involved in eBlockwatch, a civil society against crime organisation. Thousands of people are registered to it and are the eyes and ears of the community, helping to solve crimes and find criminals.
“After Leigh was kidnapped, I immediately contacted Andre and his team. If technology was as advanced at that stage, Leigh could have been still alive.
“Donovan used her cell phone a couple of times but the police needed a warrant in order to trace her cell. When they finally acquired the warrant it was too late for Leigh.”
“If it would have happened today,” said Andre, “we could have traced her cell within an hour without invading anyone’s privacy as users register their cell phones on our network.”
But for same parents, Leigh’s kidnapping and death might not be in vain.
Andre and his team recently started working on its so-called “cold case” files. Leigh’s case and those of Inge Lotz, a student from Stellenbosch who was murdered just a few years after Leigh, would be looked into. “We are going the get information some or other day,” Andre said.
Talking about the recent spate of attempted child-kidnappings in Pretoria, Rob said parents cannot do anything to avoid kidnappings, but if you register on eBlockwatch the outcome could be different.
“I did as much as I could to save Leigh. I do not have any regrets about our actions and how we reacted after she was kidnapped,” Rob said.
Rob and his wife often visit the site were Leigh’s ashes became part of the wind and they remember her. They would never forget.
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