Slain Glenwood guest house owner Jacqueline Needham was chatting to a friend about the state of the country, saying a miracle was needed to reverse crime and poverty, minutes before she was robbed at gunpoint and murdered.
This was testified in the Durban high court on Friday by Needham’s life-long friend Jenny Moore, 74, in the trial of the four men accused of Needham’s murder and robbery in July 2022.
The accused, who are being represented by Legal Aid, are Mzotelwa Manelisi Jali, 24, Mdumiseni Gumede, 21, Bernard Langa, 25, and Fana Bruce Nomfemfe, 51, They have pleaded not guilty to the murder.
Moore said the pair were chatting on WhatsApp at 5.24pm.
“Around the time I was starting to cook my supper. She replied that she had watched the video at 5.28pm. I went to bed after 8.07pm,” said Moore.
She said the last message she sent was at about 8.07pm which was not blue ticked, meaning it wasn’t read.
The following day Needham’s brother Oscar Swanlund broke the grim news to her.
“I could not believe it it was such a shock. He [ Oscar], who was already travelling to Durban, had also asked me to phone Jacqeuline’s daughter who is based in New Zealand,” said Moore.
Moore and the husband, who live on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, travelled to Durban.
When they got to the cordoned-off Glenwood crime scene, Moore checked her phone and realised her friend had not responded to the last text message sent the previous evening.
She said when police allowed them to enter the property — a double-storey house and a one bedroom cottage — everything was in disarray.
Moore said she deposed an affidavit about her last conversation with Needham a few months later.
She told the court she could not recall Needham having problems with her family or anyone else before her death and there was one guest booked in at the guest house when she died.
“Our normal chats would last well into the evening anything from 10pm to 11pm. We did not talk much during the day because of the work,” said Moore.
She said Needham was known to be a flexible host to her clients.
The property had security features which included electric fencing, cameras and a monitor.
On Friday, W/ O Mpho Johannes Tsipa of Ethekwini local criminal records centre told the court Needham was found covered in a grey blanket.
She was lying diagonally on the floor of a bedroom of an outside cottage on the morning of July 12, a day after intruders invaded her property.
“Her head was partly covered in a white sheet and you could see she had been murdered. The intruders had also torn a part of the mattress to bind her hands and feet,” said Tsipa.
Tsipa said he had conducted a tour of the property, starting at the main double-storey house.
“Toilet paper was on the bed and on the mat in the main bedroom. There was also a comb, a lip balm and sunglasses case,” he said.
He had also scanned the open plan lounge and sitting room where he found nothing untoward.
“When I went back to the reception I saw that it was disorganised and messy. There were electrical cables which looked like they were pulled out. When you enter the reception those cables were on the right hand side. I did enquire about them and was told they were connected to the server. I got the impression there was some sort of searching that occurred in the reception,” said Tsipa.
However he could pick up that there was no forced entry from the doors and the burglar guard.
Inside the cottage were two single beds with a wooden headboard.
“Those beds were not looking normal. It looked as if they were separated from each other. Needham was between the two beds and she appeared to be slanted and not lying straight. Her head and feet were tied,” he said.
He said Needham’s face had turned purple.
Tsipa said while processing the crime scene he was informed by investigating officer W/O Chetty that Needham’s car had been taken from her house and later recovered in Cato Manor, about 5km away.
He arrived at Cato Manor at 2.10pm and processed the scene where her car, a Kia Soul, was dumped in an isolated area near the Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital.
He took DNA swabs.
“On the driver’s side there were fingerprints on the door.”
He later took all the evidence to the uMbilo police station.
The trial was adjourned to Monday.
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