[imagesource: Facebook / Vicki Terblanche]

42-year-old Vicki Terblanche was murdered in October, with her body found in a shallow grave in Greenbushes, Gqeberha.

It’s alleged that she had been drugged, suffocated, and possibly strangled.

On October 23, 32-year-old Reinhardt Leach and 24-year-old Dylan Cullis were arrested for her murder.

The story then took another twist when Vicki’s estranged husband, Arnold Terblanche, was also arrested in connection with her murder.

During proceedings in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court yesterday the state laid out its case against Arnold and his co-accused.

News24 reports that the allegations in the affidavit “remind one of a horror movie with several twists and turns”:

The affidavit alleges that Terblanche [below right, with Cullis and Leach] was the mastermind behind the murder, did everything in his power to make life difficult for Vicki and wanted to portray her as an unfit mother who was addicted to drugs.

This is despite the fact that Vicki allegedly underwent four drug tests during the divorce proceedings, all of them being negative…

The information read into the record added that Terblanche allegedly bribed an 18-year-old family member to make an affidavit saying that he had received drugs from Vicki. In order to get the young man to do this, claims are made that Terblanche bribed him by buying him a car and threatened him that his father would lose his job if he did not make the affidavit.

It also emerged that Vicki had attempted suicide a year before her murder due to alleged verbal and physical abuse at the hands of Arnold.

That claim is backed up by the fact that one of Arnold’s previous wives was admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to his alleged abuse.

Court battles ensued over the custody of the couple’s son and the amount of maintenance Arnold was required to pay.

The state’s affidavit states that Arnold was unhappy that Vicki wouldn’t accept the divorce terms he wanted.

Co-accused Leach’s relationship with Arnold is also under the microscope:

Leach [with Vicki below] is described as possibly being a psychopath, as he pretended to be in love with Vicki, whilst spying on her and reporting her every move to her estranged husband, even taking pictures of her notes to her legal team to keep Terblanche updated…

Leach also at one point apparently told Terblanche in a message that they might have to start using a spare phone to communicate.

Vicki was murdered on October 18, a day before she was due in court for her divorce matter.

The state alleges that WhatsApp messages between Leach and Arnold on the day prior to Vicki’s murder show the former asking for a fast car as well as firearms.

During the night of the murder on October 18, it is alleged that Leach crushed a large quantity of Percocet tablets, mixed it with a fizzy drink similar to Berocca and gave it to Vicki. After wanting to vomit, Cullis allegedly took Vicki to lie down and turned her on her side whereafter she was allegedly suffocated by Leach.

Afterwards, Percocet tablets were left in the house to allegedly create the impression that Vicki was an addict.

Co-accused Cullis is said to have cracked under police questioning and pointed out where Vicki’s body was buried, as well as offering a confession that explained his role and the murder plot.

Before burying her body in the shallow grave, Cullis and Leach allegedly went to ride go-carts at the William Moffett Centre.

At the time, the state says that Vicki’s body was in the boot of their car.

This via Algoa FM:

The State said it would also rely on witnesses, “X”, “Y” and, “Z” for the case, all of whom either identify Leach as the driver of the rented BMW vehicle used to transport Vicki’s body to the grave or as the person who approached witness “Z” to get rid of the body.

Yesterday, Leach abandoned his bid for bail with other applications postponed until today.

[sources:news24&algoafm]