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In the summer of 2014,
we realized that our lives would never be the same again.
Christine Robinson was killed
at the game lodge she owns in South Africa.
- She was found on the floor.
- Strangled, stabbed, raped.
This lady on the end of the phone said,
"Your aunt's been murdered."
- The perpetrator had already escaped to Zimbabwe.
Once someone has gone across the border,
it's extremely difficult to get them back.
- He could feel the sun on his face and the wind in his hair
when she couldn't.
This man raped and murdered my aunt,
but the chances of them finding him are nil.
- The murder rate in South Africa is extreme.
Eight out of 10 murders,
someone will get away with killing someone.
- Nobody was doing anything,
it just wasn't enough.
The only tool that I had was the internet.
I looked at his Facebook profile
and it appeared that he was posting on dating pages.
Knowing he was actively seeking females,
I just thought, what the hell?
I'd set up a fake Facebook account
and I just put, "You've got sexy eyes."
And then he commented back.
I needed to hook him in, I needed to catch him.
Everybody else had given up,
but I was going to get justice.
I'm Lehanne and I'm Christine Robinson's niece.
Having photos of her in her life is really comforting.
Here she is, a photo from 1959.
Chris is the youngest there with my mom and my grandparents.
They grew up in Liverpool and they were quite poor.
Christine was aspirational
and wanted to do better for herself.
Growing up, I remember Christine was always fun.
She was a teacher, so had a very good rapport with children.
She didn't have any children of her own.
So as I grew older,
Chris and I had a really close relationship.
As a teenager, I had severe asthma.
I was going into hospital every month, every six weeks
as an emergency admission,
it causes a lot of stress,
but Chris was a great one for finding the good in life.
She was fun-loving and had a good energy about her.
So we would lift you as a person
and I think that's important
when you've got challenges with health.
In her 20s, Chris moved to London.
She's definitely a chatty Scouser, would chat to anybody,
so she had a very big circle of friends.
- Chris and I first met in London
when we were beginning a new job at a small international school.
She was the sort of teacher that every parent
would want their child to be taught by.
She was gentle and kind and caring.
If you heard Chris chuckle,
you would automatically feel like she was a person
that you wanted to spend more time with.
She would be hosting parties.
She would be making new friends everywhere she went.
Chris made the most of her life.
She was a very spontaneous person.
Took every opportunity to explore something
that was a little bit out of the ordinary.
- She was adventurous.
Australia, China, Galapagos Islands, South America,
you name it, she had been there.
She taught English as a foreign language,
so she lived abroad a lot.
She was living in Germany.
Then she lived in Moscow.
And we all thought that she was nuts.
Then she went to Kuwait.
And then we thought definitely nuts.
There was always an adventure to be had with her.
She was very inspirational.
And while she was living in Kuwait, in her forties,
Chris met Robbie.
I remember her calling, saying he had blonde hair and bright blue eyes
and a lovely Irish accent,
and that was, she was stoked by it all.
Robbie stole her heart.
He had a son and daughter,
so there was that lovely family for her.
They got married on the beach, just the two of them,
so she got a holiday out of it,
so she was probably happy about that as well.
They were happy
and they were excited about the next stage of their life.
I remember Chrissy sent a postcard saying,
we're thinking of moving to South Africa.
They went on holiday there, did a tour,
stayed in lodges and went to the game parks.
Had a fabulous time
and she painted such a beautiful picture of South Africa,
all the wildlife,
the sunshine,
the people.
She was really quite smitten with the place.
Her and Rob decided to buy somewhere
in a place called Thabazimbi,
right next to Marakele National Park,
four hours north of Johannesburg.
It was a small game lodge.
The idea was people on holiday could stay there
and do tours,
see the animals.
It had around 50 hectares of land.
Neither of them had experience of running a game lodge,
so we were a bit--
are you sure that's what you meant to be doing?
But in for a penny, in for a pound and all that.
They started advertising on Facebook
and really endeavored to do their best
to make it a success.
- I met Christine and Robbie in 2006.
They were a lovely, a lovely couple.
I become close to Christine.
Yes, with the time,
I was lodging manager,
I was taking care about the reservation.
Welcome the guest, of course,
give some instruction to the staff.
Sustan was a chef
taking care about all the restaurant,
three ladies taking care about the chalet,
be sure that everything was perfect
for the guests when they arrived.
Then we got a Gardner, his name was Andrew.
He was from Zimbabwe.
He was there a year before me.
The staff and I, we all lived on the property.
I was living at the lodge with Thomas, my son,
and there was a good ambiance, you know?
Everybody was very nice.
- Are you all right?
- I'm right and you? - Fine thanks.
Quite a social person.
So yeah, I used to hang a bit with the staff,
We had Moses.
- Hello!
- I had good relation with every one of them.
I used to see Andrew with other members of staff
from all the lodges at a little bar that's near the lodge.
It's called a shebeen
On weekends, everyone would be there and you'd have a beer together.
- Nice people, really nice people.
It was a really nice life.
For four years, the place of Christina and Robbie
was a happy place.
And then one day changed everything.
Christine told me that Robbie was not well.
She told me, I will need to travel because it's really bad.
Robbie got cancer, liver cancer,
and she say, "I know that it will not be long."
- They decided very quickly to return to the UK
to be with his family from Northern Ireland.
It was a very short illness
and he sadly passed away.
It was devastating for everybody.
I remember Chris calling me and--
she was--
she was just heartbroken, I think,
and devastated.
It was--
it was tough for her.
But she decided to go back to South Africa, to Thabazimbi.
I was driving her to the airport
and said, "You don't need to do this Chris."
She said, "No, I've got to do it."
She needed to go back.
There was loose ends.
She needed to get the lodge in a good place.
- Christine was back,
but she was lost, she was lost.
Sometimes in a very good mood
and sometimes completely depressed,
and she was alone to care about the lodge.
She start to think, "Okay,
do I sell the place or not sell the place?"
- She had hopes to return to England.
There was no urgency about it,
but that's what her focus was.
- One day Christine and I go in town to get the money,
to pay the wage of the staff the day after
and to make some shopping.
Then she was back from town.
It was 6:30 this night.
I ran to the staff quarter
to ask the gardener Andrew to help us.
We offload the car with all the shopping.
I say, bye-bye,
and then, yes, she was back at home.
I was back at home.
It was winter, at seven, it's dark and it's cold,
so all of us, we go early sleep.
It was a normal night.
The next morning, wake up very early.
And then I follow the road to go for my shopping.
I get a phone call from Sustan, the chef of the lodge.
He asked me if I knew about Christine, where she was,
because there was no one when they knocked at the door
and I say, I don't know, but probably she sleep
and probably she took something to sleep better.
Then five minutes later
I got a second call from Sustan.
"Hey madam, you need to come back.
There is a problem here.
Madam, Christine is dead."
I mean, it's like a nightmare
because you don't know if they are right
or they are not.
My car was, I don't remember
because I arrived like a bomb.
There was already a lady from the police.
They come out of the house.
They explain me what was happening inside.
She was strangled,
stabbed,
raped.
Yeah, just stop five minutes please.
I was sick,
I was in the toilet for 10 minutes.
I couldn't-- I couldn't cope with that.
No one was supposed to move.
I remember the staff, they were front of the office.
It was very, very quiet.
It's so difficult to react
because you can't believe it.
You can't, it's so unreal.
It's like, no, she will come back.
One of the staff asked me,
"Where is Andrew?"
At this time, we realize the gardener is missing.
Straight to the police,
we discuss and we say that there is a problem.
- As soon as I arrived there, they were talking about Andrew.
Yes, and the fact that it was weird that he had left.
If I remember correctly, someone called him
and he was saying, "it's not me, it's not me, It's not me."
and you could hear he was driving
and then nothing after.
- I didn't know what to think.
Andrew was really friendly.
I would never, never think that Andrew could do that,
never.
- I was out for lunch with one of my friends.
I had my phone on the table
and it's a South African number.
I explained to my friend, it was my aunt in South Africa.
I picked up the phone--
and--
it wasn't Christine's voice.
And this lady's on the end of the phone
said, "Christine's been murdered."
I felt like everybody was looking and everybody knew.
I remember then calling my mum
and saying, "Mum, I don't know how to say this,
but I've had this call."
My mum called the lodge
and tried to find out what was happening,
but it was chaotic there with police.
We kind of got drip fed information.
I was on the phone to the foreign office.
They were very formal
and said, "No, we've had no report of a murder
of a British citizen in South Africa."
So I'm thinking, "Well, this can't be right."
My head was in a spin.
I just couldn't believe it was happening.
Until I remember in the evening, I just Googled.
Christine Robinson murder.
And it was all over the internet
and suddenly it became very real,
excruciatingly painful,
like a electric shock running through my body,
and then I called my mum
and I told her that it was on the internet
and that there was a suggestion
that she'd been raped and then murdered
and that was it.
Oh gosh,
it was a--
really brutal and traumatic,
really, really brutal
and traumatic death for a lovely,
kind, generous woman.
- Our bodies in South Africa are crime scenes.
We have 900 women being killed in a three month period,
that is 11 women being killed on a daily basis.
- Levels of crime are shockingly high
and violent crime especially.
The levels of poverty, homelessness,
joblessness are all very, very high.
For very many people, crime simply becomes a way of life.
- In the last three months, around 6,500 people
have been murdered in South Africa.
- From its birth, this was a violent society.
It was founded on violence.
Apartheid was kept in place through violence.
So violence is part of the sort of fabric
of the society, of everyday life.
- I got a call to say, we've got a murder,
and a serious case in Thabazimbi.
You know, when I got to the scene, Noelle was very upset.
She and Christine, the victim, was very close to each other,
so could see she's not well.
She's not taking it very well.
The crime scene itself took place in the main bedroom
where Christine was sleeping.
The body was already removed.
According to our officer, she was killed on the floor.
Her body was found on the floor, covered in a duvet.
The knife was still stuck in her neck,
so it was quite brutal in the way that she was murdered.
I got myself the background and all the detail
that I have to start the investigation.
There was the employer there by the name of Andrew Ndlovu
from Zimbabwe that was employed as a gardener there
and he was missing.
We established that there's another Zimbabwean guy
by the name of Hope.
He stays about five kilometers from the crime scene towards Thabazimbi
and the information was
that Hope gave Andrew a lift to the Zimbabwean border.
Zimbabwean border from Thabazimbi is 550 kilometers,
so it's quite far off, but you can drive there,
it's possible to get there before the next day,
so it's possible that he would've been over the border already.
It's not so easy then to trace a person.
- I received a call about a foul murder in Thabazimbi in Limpopo.
We've got the team together and we decided to go there.
At that time I worked at a civil rights organisation
and my specific role was to look at violent crime in rural areas
that seemed to be really neglected in terms of police resources.
My job was to provide support to really make sure
that we catch the perpetrator.
When we got to the lodge, there were a lot of rumors
about who that perpetrator was.
Everyone was speaking of a Zimbabwean man called Andrew
and there was a really big fear that he was back in Zimbabwe.
A lot of people were talking about potential motive.
It seemed like the relationship was good.
He had been working there for quite some time,
according to what people said,
and people liked Christine, so it didn't really make sense.
Why would this have happened, if it was him,
why would he have killed her?
- The crime scene was not very ransacked.
if I can put it that way,
so it gave me the impression from my experience
that somebody that knows
what he wanted and where to look for what he wants.
I took a look around the lodge
In the room next door, next site,
15,000 Rand, according to
the information we had and that was missing.
- During the night,
Christine was preparing the money to pay the staff,
one envelope for each one with the right amount inside.
- He knew what to take and took it and left.
- The foreign office called back, said,
"Yes, the British citizen has been killed
and we need to identify the body with the passport."
I just wanted to be there,
to go to the crime scene,
to the place that it happened.
I wanted to understand, I wanted to understand
how something like this could happen,
but suddenly it dawned on me,
there was no way for me to be there.
The last, oh gosh,
20 years maybe, I haven't been able to fly.
I've got severe asthma
and if you know anybody who has severe asthma,
it's very different to people living with a blue puffer.
I go into hospital every six weeks
for intravenous treatments
so that I try and avoid intensive care.
I have a lot of steroid treatments.
Then it affects my bones, so there's been surgeries
for hip replacements, spinal surgery,
I am on approximately 30 different medicines.
I have to have a lot of nebulisers,
still often I can't walk.
I'm too breathless, I can't speak.
I'd been ill all my life.
I'd had health struggles,
but other things I'd find a way,
working I'd find a way,
university I found a way,
I'd find a way to get through things,
but this had no solution for me.
There was no way for me to be helpful
and that really hurt.
My uncle and my father went to South Africa without me.
I remember my dad speaking to me
and they said a police officer had been to the lodge
called Saki.
I remember them saying he seemed switched on.
He's going to get it sorted, he's made promises.
There was also a call from a guy called Ian Cameron
and he wanted to help.
He'd been to the lodge to find out what was happening.
It was a friendly voice at the end of the phone
that knew about South Africa, that was on the ground.
- Maybe we could put some pressure on the South African government
to get Andrew back into South Africa
and potentially have him arrested
and what I said to her is,
"Let's keep it alive on social media."
If we keep it alive on social media,
if we keep it alive in the media
and anything that she heard, I asked her to communicate and vice versa,
and that's the way of keeping it alive.
- It was a really confusing time.
You think, "Oh, the government are involved.
They're going to find out what's happened
and give a full account of what's happening.
He's going to be found."
It's not going to bring Chrissy back,
but there might be consequences
for somebody who's taken someone's life.
So you have these huge expectations,
massive expectations,
everything is going to be sorted out,
but it wasn't.
I needed support,
so I went to a meeting with a group called Murdered Abroad.
- The Foreign Office say that the 60 to 80
British people murdered abroad every year.
It's more than one a week.
For those families, it's devastating and it's lifelong,
and the Foreign Office doesn’t have enough resources
to help those people.
Abandoned is a word that I hear at every meeting.
Nobody's gonna come and hold your hand,
if you want some sort of justice,
you've got to be proactive.
- The foreign office did what was expected of them.
They went to the lodge to identify
Christine's body with a passport,
but the help, the support,
it was all platitudes.
It was ticking boxes, it wasn't enough.
That's the bottom line.
It just wasn't enough for what I needed,
for what my family needed
and let's face it, for what Chris needed.
I always remember Chris saying,
"Should anything happen to me, I want to come back to England."
There obviously had to be an autopsy,
but we knew the date when she was coming
so we could set the date for the funeral.
The vicar did a really beautiful service
and we had the choir sing the South African National Anthem.
It felt like a celebration of her life
and people were generous and kind
and mindful of the situation as well.
Time was just marching on and we weren't getting anywhere.
The South African authorities
would supposedly update the foreign office.
They would update me,
but the updates got less and less.
Andrew was supposed to be in Zimbabwe.
The South African judiciary
was seeking a extradition order,
but that never seemed to come together.
It was as if she was forgotten about.
- A detective in South Africa
has easily close to 300 dockets per detective on average,
a docket represents a case.
You can understand why it is such
a tremendously difficult space to work in.
- Apartheid South Africa, so much investment
and so much policing went into simply enforcing apartheid laws,
but almost no investment
went into protecting ordinary people from criminal violence.
The nature of policing needed to change.
The South African government has invested in policing
quite substantially, but not nearly enough.
- Christine's case had been going on for quite some time,
and it sounds like you know, no compassion whatsoever.
I don't mean it that way,
but at that stage I just felt, well,
if he's back in Zim, there's no use.
We'd need to give attention to the cases that are current
where we can assist
and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.
There are too many other cases to look at,
so we just, we stood back.
- People moved on with their lives.
It felt like I was the only person
that was actively looking for answers.
I just so wanted to be there, but it wasn't possible.
So the internet became a useful tool.
I had a Facebook account.
It helped keep the connections with South Africa
and with Ian and with Saki.
The one person I did have
some more regular contact was with Noelle.
She'd been a friend of Christine,
so it was easier to build that relationship.
I remember I was on Facebook
and I just wanted to see the man's face
and I looked him up
and I thought, "So that's who you are."
This is the man that raped and murdered my aunt.
His profile wasn't active.
Every now and again I'd check to see if there was any updates
that might show where he was.
One day out of the blue,
I got a message from Noelle.
Andrew had been seen in a church in South Africa.
- We got a guy that was working at the lodge.
He saw him in Johannesburg.
The problem, Johannesburg is so big,
where to find him?
- I had spoke to the police officer
that was looking at the case at the time
and they said they would observe the church,
but he wasn't seen,
so that option went away.
There was no further dialogue really with the police officer.
The chances of them finding him are nil.
So at that point we thought it was a lost opportunity.
I remember reading a quote online
and it said, "The dead cannot cry out for justice.
It is a duty of the living to do it for them."
and I was so frustrated with nothing happening.
I needed to do something.
The only tool I had was the internet,
and I just thought, "What the hell?"
Opened Facebook.
I went to his Facebook profile.
I started looking at who his friends were
and from looking through their profiles
and their friends,
I just couldn't believe it.
He had other accounts,
slight variations of his name,
Andrea Ndlovu, not Andrew Ndlovu,
different photos,
but of the same man.
My head's shooting off all over the place.
My stomach's in knots.
He was having an active life on Facebook.
I could see there was four different profiles
and they were all connected by the same friend group.
There was one that was a little bit more religious,
stating quotes from the Bible.
There was one that was actively
posting comments on some dating pages,
which really concerned me knowing what he’d done,
but I thought,
if he wants female companionship,
then let's see if he bites.
Without thinking it through, I made up a profile of a woman.
There was no planning, it was just instinct.
I've got two ex-racing greyhounds.
One is called Slow Lane Missy and the other Felix Falcao.
Join them together, Missy Falcao.
It was all just on the hoof.
I didn't think anything of it,
just a back of somebody's head.
If somebody wants to befriend me,
I always look at how the connection is made.
I had to try to make it look like Missy Falcao
wasn't a brand new person.
So I connected to his friends.
After a period of time,
I actively commented on the friends' accounts as Missy Falcao,
so there was some history to it.
A few weeks later, I'd noticed that on one of his old posts,
somebody had made a comment about him being attractive
and he'd posted something
and then
I sent a direct message.
I panicked,
I was going down a route, I didn't know where I was going.
The emotions were here, there and everywhere.
And then he commented back.
I could barely take a breath.
My heart was in my mouth.
My stomach was doing somersaults.
I told my husband that he'd replied,
he was shocked,
but we agreed that the important thing
was to keep him hooked in.
Andrew and I started messaging.
And so it was true.
He'd actually told me he was living in Johannesburg.
Half of me didn't want to believe it
because that showed that he was living his life.
The other half of me was thinking, okay,
there might be something to hold onto here.
Let's see where this takes me.
But very quickly I realized
you had to make this backstory up of Missy Falcao.
And as questions were coming in from him,
I just went with my gut,
so she was from Ghana.
I'm in hospital a lot.
There's time differences,
so she was a young air stewardess.
She wasn't immediately accessible all the time.
There would be a delay,
quite a glamorous lady,
a bit sassy.
Google Maps was a great help.
I couldn't physically be there,
but by creating Missy Falcao,
I could contact him
and be effectively in South Africa.
She lived in an area called Eden Vale.
Within close proximity to the airport,
it gave me some control,
which I hadn't had in any aspect of this investigation.
Before this whole backstory, she was just a picture.
But now he was very interested.
He was flattered
and I knew that flattery was going to win him over
and keep a contact going.
As the messaging continued,
he became more needy.
He wanted to speak to Missy Falcao.
He wanted to FaceTime, to meet.
There was a fear
that because he wasn't getting what he wanted,
he'd soon become very disinterested and just walk away.
It was a double-edged sword.
I had to try and string it out,
so if the authorities were going to get on board,
there's still that time.
So the idea was Missy Falcao became flirty
and give him her response that
there's a possibility of a relationship
that the meeting was going to happen.
There was never any sexual content.
She was a good Christian, went to church,
looked after her family.
It was butterflies in my stomach.
Can't wait to hear from you again.
Sorry I haven't been in touch, this has happened.
But it hurt, every time I contacted him, it sickened me
and it was something that turned my stomach.
It was, all I wanted to do was say,
"I know who you are. I know what you've done."
I did what I felt I had to do to get justice.
I told the foreign office,
I'd set up a fake Facebook account
and I was now having conversations with the man that murdered my aunt.
They told the consulate, the police
and still nothing happened.
I could see his telephone number.
I could have called him and nothing happened,
and as far as I can see, they can just go and arrest him.
So out of sheer frustration
and fear that he would disappear and lose interest,
I reached out Saki,
the original investigating officer.
He wasn't part of the South African police force any longer.
He was working as a private investigator.
- When I retired, there was cases that we couldn't solve,
but it's always frustrating not to solve a case.
You'll never forget those cases.
- He still had a lot of contacts in the police force
and whilst he was based in Thabazimbi,
he still had contacts in Johannesburg.
He was on board
and from that, it snowballed.
It was, okay, well, let's see what we can do.
We knew who he was, we knew where he was.
They looked to see if there was a position
that everyone could get to, we could make an arrest.
- Lehanne said, she's got a cell phone number of Andrew.
I knew there's a starting point to start looking for him.
There's something to work on.
- The idea was because they knew he was in Brixton,
Saki with a group of police officers
could triangulate his phone,
find his location and arrest him.
It was the first time that there was an activity.
There was a group of people that were willing
and that was really important.
Having somebody that was willing to step out
and to do something.
It had taken a little while to set up
because it was a dangerous area of Brixton,
so they needed to have the right staff members there.
But one night I heard from Saki
they were going to do this operation overnight.
- We arranged a Sting operation to go and look for Andrew,
there's certain systems in place that you can place a cell phone
onto exactly where the person is,
so we joined the police.
We went through to Johannesburg.
We waited to sit in garage, started coming together,
seeing where the phone is.
- I'm at home knowing that this operation
is going to take place,
but there was no communication that night.
- We were close to him. We were obviously not very far.
We actually get a signal through the tower from the phone,
and then you have to start driving around
to pick up where the phone exactly is.
It's a system that the police have.
- It was the first time
that there was something really positive.
Something was happening on the ground.
I felt the pressure because although I'd shown them
all the details of who he was, where he was, the Facebook page,
it was still my doing.
It was me influencing them to make this action.
There's a lot of resources being spent.
I was worried that it was going to wrong
or that he would escape.
I remember the day of Christine's funeral,
my uncle saying to me,
"Don't even consider it, trying to track him.
It is never gonna happen."
I didn't want him to be able to hurt anybody again,
and he was within the grasp of the police.
I woke up the next morning,
there was a message from Saki,
the phone tracking hadn't been successful.
- We're not far from him.
That's what's so frustrating.
We were so close to him, but yet so far.
Lehanne went through all this trouble to get hold of him
and then things didn't go right.
Two o'clock in the morning, the phone went off,
the battery went dead or something went wrong
and we couldn't trace it anymore.
- I was angry and saddened and disappointed
and all the raft of emotions that come with that.
It was the one thing I thought would pull it all together.
I had such high hopes, you can't help yourself.
I went to the Missy Falcao account and contacted Andrew.
There was no response,
so I was left not knowing what was happening.
I didn't know anything,
he just kind of was off the radar again.
But a couple of days after.
I did get a message back from Andrew
and he told Missy that his phone had been stolen
and I was really suspicious.
It seemed very coincidental
that this had happened the night of this operation,
but at the same time, I was really happy
that there'd been some contact
and he hadn't totally abandoned Missy.
There was still a tiny possibility
that something might happen.
There was an exchange of messages
and I become increasingly suspicious
that he was suspicious of Missy Falcao.
I was delaying Missy meeting up or calling him.
He sent a message.
"Are you for real Missy?"
And that rang an alarm bell.
That was the first time he'd actually questioned anything.
His interest was waning.
I was nervous,
we were losing a hold on him.
So then I was more mindful to send more messages
and be more active in messaging him,
but I felt as if I was losing my grip on the situation
and it was slipping away from me.
The South African police had a view to organise a sting operation
so that Andrew would physically meet up with Missy Falcao.
I was a bit apprehensive that somebody might get injured.
I, all I know is that the man's a murderer.
The police decided they would take over
the Missy Falcao account
and have a female police officer message him.
So it was at that point I effectively
handed over the Missy Falcao account
to the South African police.
I was relieved that somebody else would talk to him.
I thought, well, they're professionals.
They know what to do.
I've just been winging it for the last however many months,
and at the same time I was apprehensive
because I'd lost control.
And it all seemed to be going well
until the date started to be suggested.
It'd be next Saturday,
and then we couldn't get the right officers in place.
The timeline was being pushed back all the time.
Then there was a point, they suggested a date
they could get all the personnel that were needed,
and then stoney silence from Andrew.
There was nothing back.
He just lost interest and disappeared.
Nobody heard from him again.
It was at that point I realized
that the moment to capture him, arrest him
and get justice was gone, gone forever.
Missy Falcao is no more.
I remember I just broke down.
I just physically cried and cried and cried.
They couldn't make it happen
and they should have.
It felt like she didn't matter
and that's what hurt the most.
There was no more chances,
Missy had gone.
I just felt lost.
All that effort, all that stress,
writing these messages
to a man that murdered my aunt,
that was the need I had for justice,
but now it was over.
Justice wouldn't be possible.
He was gonna live his life.
He would be free for the rest of his life
and there'd be no consequences for his actions.
There's a remembrance page that was set up for Christine
and every birthday on the anniversary, Christmas.
I always write something and I know she's not reading it,
I know, but it just helps.
On the sixth anniversary of her death, I couldn't sleep,
so it was about four or five o'clock in the morning.
I checked his profile.
He'd posted a picture of himself.
He looked very smart in his attire, he was dressed up.
there was a Ferris wheel in the back
and there was a Ferris wheel in Joburg,
so he was still in Johannesburg
living his life,
still living his life.
He was still out there to do what he wanted to do.
The foreign office had always said never to post anything online,
no pictures of him, what he'd done,
anything that could jeopardize any investigation,
I thought to hell with it.
Why shouldn't people know who he is and what he's done?
I took the picture I'd seen of Andrew
and I put it on the Facebook page saying,
this is the man
that's wanted for the rape and murder of my aunt.
Within an hour or so of posting, Ian Cameron contacted me.
- I saw that post and I said to her,
"Let's just try to do something, just one more shot."
Would she be able to send me the pictures again
of Christine, of Christine's husband,
of Andrew so I can rewrite something
and post it again on my own social media?
She had built this entire fake profile
and now thanks to Lehanne,
we had a whole lot of new pictures of Andrew.
Not only was it more updated,
but it could also indicate to us
how he may look if he was different
to what we originally thought.
Pictures of him in the car,
some of them he had slightly longer hair.
Some of them he was wearing clothes
that was almost smart, casual.
It was incredible,
and I posted the pictures on Facebook
and it just went viral.
People from all over started sharing this thing,
started commenting.
In all my years working with farm attacks,
I had never seen a post on Facebook do that.
I was reading the comments the whole time.
Then later on that day,
I noticed someone saying that she sent me a direct message.
- I was at work, I scrolled through Facebook
and I saw this picture.
I was shocked and scared and afraid.
I immediately told my dad.
I messaged Ian, "I know this guy, he's working for my dad."
He knows our every move, our daily life.
- Like I couldn't believe it.
I mean, I was astounded.
Literally six years
after Christina had been murdered,
someone says that they know the guy that killed Christine Robinson.
It just didn't make sense, it was too good to be true.
She said, I should speak to her father.
I called and they immediately answered
and said, "There's no doubt this is him in the pictures.
but it can't be him, he's the best employee."
- We were on our way to work, so he was sitting next to me.
I thought it was not him.
I think no, can't be him.
He's this amazing guy that works with them
and he's much closer than the rest of them.
- I'm a installer for industrial and domestic garage doors.
The day Andrew started working there,
I saw him that he's clever, he did good work.
We had a room in the back of the yard.
He came and moved in with his girlfriend there
that was working for us.
They moved in and stayed there for the last year.
We trusted him,
I left him with my wife, my daughters.
He was fixing things in the house.
- And I said to them, "Well, I've got bad news for you,
but if you are saying that it's definitely him on the picture,
his real name, from what we know, is Andrew Ndlovu
and he killed Christine Robinson."
- Ian called me and I couldn't believe
that this was happening.
- We only have one opportunity to sort this out.
I phoned a good friend of mine that's involved
with the South African Police Service called Reg Crewe.
- I've been the head of reservist
at the police station in Pretoria for a number of years.
Ian Cameron phoned me.
He explained to me the situation
and asked me if I had any connections
with policemen in Johannesburg.
I said, well, instead of giving him policemen from Joburg,
then we'd rather go and do it ourselves.
Had to get clearance from my commander
that we could leave our jurisdiction
to go to the Johannesburg area.
Arranged three additional members to go with me
and then move out towards Joburg.
- Ian called later that day
and told me he was getting a team together
to go and arrest him
and that he would call me as they set out
to do the arrest.
- Reg picked me up just between Joburg
and Pretoria where I lived on the way.
They came there with one marked police vehicle
and one unmarked police vehicle,
and we just spoke about how do we approach this.
- We've done many attempts to do take downs of suspects,
many of them unsuccessful.
The suspect may attempt to flee
or we arrive there and it's a red herring
or the suspect is not the person we are looking for.
However, we had to go through the plan
to see if we could catch him.
- I felt anxious.
I mean, I felt anxious on behalf of Lehanne.
- From a tactical point of view, we never stop outside the address.
We stop a few houses away.
The homeowner came to our vehicles
in the darkness.
It was quiet.
He confirmed that the suspect was present.
He was in the room.
- I was sitting in the corner. My husband's pacing up and down
and then the phone call, FaceTime through WhatsApp
with Ian commentating as to what's happening.
We're walking down the street, there's a group of police officers.
- I had one phone in one hand trying to film,
but I was shaking so much, I couldn't believe it.
I opened the gate just slightly.
We then walked to that little apartment.
- There was a light on in the room.
I could hear movements inside,
the adrenaline pumps.
1
Every situation we treat with extreme caution,
every door that we knock on, you get a different response,
could explode into something violent.
If this person was willing to do the things
that he was alleged to have done,
we don't know what he could try with us.
- I'm watching them potentially arrest the murderer.
It's very real, but surreal at the same time.
- The other policemen were behind me with assault rifles.
I knocked on the door,
not really expecting a reply.
And Andrew opened the door.
- The signal was poor, the camera judding around.
- He looked like he had seen a ghost.
- I stepped forward into the room, he stepped back.
I asked him, "Do you know why we are here?"
And his answer was simply "Yes."
I warned him that we were placing him under arrest.
I warned him of his constitutional rights.
- I said to Lehanne, "We've got him."
Even when I think about it now, it's emotional to me.
- And the next thing I'm seeing seeing him in handcuffs
and him walking down the street and they've arrested him.
It's still hard for me
to believe it's real
and oh gosh, the tears just came
and I contacted lots of members of my family and friends
and I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops really.
- I was just crying and she was crying.
That was the best day.
- I felt relief first
and then I felt really angry.
To do such a horrific thing and now you come back
and you put on this big show
of what an amazing so-called employee you are.
- It was a big shock for all of us, it was a big shock.
For nearly five years, he was in my house,
stayed with my wife, my children.
I was so relieved that I know he's off the streets.
He won't do that again to anybody.
- We found a passport in the name of Andrea Imbayaru.
and he confirmed that is him.
He denied knowing who Andrew Ndlovu was.
We'd secured him, we'd secured the evidence
and then detained him in our cells,
until the Thabazimbi police could arrive and take him away.
- After all this time,
maybe at last there might be some justice.
- A lot of people think that when the arrest is done,
then it's all over.
That's only the beginning.
- The criminal justice system
as it stands, is extremely tricky.
- It's very close to about 80% of murders
are not successfully convicted.
- Quite often the South African police
simply losing documents.
Forensic services are quite often lacking.
- The South African police service is under enormous pressure
and operating with limited resources.
Cases are being postponed because of further investigation
or they're waiting for DNA results.
A court case can last up to three to four years.
It moves at a pregnant snail's pace
and in between that, anything can happen.
- The police build a dossier on that specific incident.
Now, if there's any gap in that dossier,
it'll have a negative impact on successful prosecution
because of the sheer pressure and the volumes of cases.
They're so overburdened that both the detective
and the prosecutor, if it is thrown out the case,
they just say, well onto the next one.
- Leading up to the trial is all these doubts in your head
of all the things that could go wrong.
I still had reservations and doubts
that they'd arrested the right man.
I was nervous as to whether they'd have enough evidence,
that everything would've been documented.
It hadn't been lost.
All these things run through your mind.
I couldn't travel for the trial.
I go into hospital every six weeks.
In fact, I was doing hospital when the trial was happening
because I couldn't attend and my parents couldn't attend,
I was frantically reading legislation
in South Africa and trial reports.
I was nervous as to whether we'd get a good prosecutor.
- I was the prosecutor in the case of Andrew Ndlovu,
I'm employed within the National Prosecuting
Authority of South Africa.
We look at complex offenses
with a lot of investigating officer from rural stations
who may lack experience.
- I thought there could have been a video link
so we could watch the trial
and understand what was happening,
but it came back that that doesn't happen in South Africa,
so we appointed a lawyer to act as a watching brief.
- I'm going to look at my notes just to confirm the facts.
I received instructions from Lehanne Sergison
to do a watching brief during the court hearing
and to report to the Robinson family
what transpired at court.
- Unfortunately, just before the trial,
I became very unwell,
became more unwell in hospital
and the doctors did some tests
and thought it may have been tuberculosis.
I ended up in intensive care.
- It was a high-profile case
and attracted media attention.
The atmosphere in court was everyone wanted the truth.
- I received a call to go and testify in his trial.
By this time, I had a full understanding of what happened
to Christine Robinson, so to go and testify
in that instance is extremely important to do.
- Lehanne sent me a message with all the details
concerning the trial.
I say to myself, they will get him.
They will get him,
but you never know with the judge.
- Five counts were put to the accused on which he pleaded not guilty.
- He's not showing a response.
If he had committed that crime,
he was showing absolutely zero remorse.
- He looked confident
that we did not have anything against him.
We don't have a jury, decided by the judge,
under this case, I did not do an opening statement.
I said to the judge, let me paint a picture.
So after I gave the plea explanation,
I called my witnesses.
The first witness that I called was the police officer
who came at the scene.
I then presented the photographs,
the place itself where she was found.
You can see that there was a fight inside that particular bedroom.
- The state then called the witness, Mr. Cormor known as Hope.
He testified that on the 30th of July, 2014,
he received a telephone call
from the accused around about 6:00 AM.
- Hope was the friend who transported him,
Andrea promised him money to take him to the border.
While in transit, he was threatened with a knife.
- The state called the third witness,
the ex-girlfriend of the accused.
She testified that they were in a relationship
for three years in July 2014.
- While in transit, Andrea called his girlfriend.
He said, I'm on my way home, Zimbabwe,
but I just murdered the white lady that stays at Rra-Ditau Lodge.
Under the South African law, it's a confession made to a private person
so it is admissible in court.
- I had no idea that this woman was on anybody's radar.
I knew nothing about this witness.
I discovered the prosecutor,
George looked at their case file
six months before Andrew was arrested,
was just a crazy turn of events.
- We do a lot in preparation before arrest,
I realised that there were statements
that ought to have been taken.
For instance, the girlfriend
and I then realized that there was DNA,
which was obtained from the deceased,
but there was no one to match with.
Fortunately, there was an arrest.
I requested the police to obtain the DNA from the accused.
The result came back and he was positive.
This person is the one who deposited semen.
- It was at that point I was more certain that it was Andrea
and they'd arrested the right man.
- The day after, the accused will have a turn
to go into the witness box
and then it'll be my turn to
But in court, the accused denied everything.
His plea explanation was to the effect
that he was in love with the deceased.
- His evidence was he did not murder the accused
and she consented to the sexual intercourse.
- To my mind, he was lying.
It was an alibi just to get him off,
but I wasn't in the courtroom.
I couldn't read the faces of the judge.
I didn't know how convincing he was.
- The defence argument in short was the evidence
of the state was based substantially
on circumstantial evidence.
They plot an application
to discharge the accused on all the accounts,
but the state advocate aggressively opposed the argument.
- Hey, Lehanne. - Yeah, please don't feel negative
about the case.
I mean, obviously they would have to give him an opportunity
to make his case, stay positive.
We'll see what happens and we'll take it from there.
- I will make closing argument
to try and persuade the court
that what I have is strong against the accused.
- His argument was based on the fact
that there was a prevention from the accused.
The state also argued
that the court must take into consideration
that it is clear that the accused was a man on the run.
- It'll now be left to the court
to decide whether the accused is guilty or not.
It hadn't been a smooth ride to get to this point.
- The judge comes to court.
We all stand up.
I had the fear that he was still going to walk away.
But was never certain that he was going to be convicted.
- The verdict was delivered in an open court.
She did not find him guilty on robbery
with aggravating circumstances.
Then she found the accused guilty of murder
and the rape.
The death of Christine touched a lot of people.
She was somebody who was lovable, friendly with people.
I believe I brought justice to the families.
I was so insanely happy about what had happened,
but I was in a room by myself.
I was detached from the whole situation
and then the ward sister came in
and I just cried and cried and I was just,
the man that murdered my aunt had been found guilty.
- Hi, Lehanne. - I'm tremendously happy
and I hope this provides some closure and relief to you and your family.
- As far as I know, Andrew doesn't know
the role that Missy Falcao had in his arrest.
Would you like him to know?
- Yes. 1
It really sickened me as to what I was doing at the time,
but Chris lost her life brutally
that she needed justice.
That's what drove me to keep going,
and after all this time,
everything had come together.
- I think that finally, there is a justice.
He will pay for what he did.
He will not pay enough for me, never.
- Knowing what he had done, you want him to be punished.
This was the conclusion of something that had started years before.
It's something that you sort of hope happens in every instance.
- It's easy to actually lose hope.
The conviction was one of the most satisfying feelings
and what makes it special is to see the reaction of the family.
We were obviously relieved,
but then we had to wait for sentencing.
- It felt really important to me
that there was a victim impact statement.
I was led to believe it'd have some weight with the judge,
with the sentencing,
and it was really quite difficult.
I was in hospital, I hadn't slept,
but I felt I had come this far,
I had to write this statement.
I can clearly remember the day I received
the devastating phone call that my aunt,
Christine Robertson had been raped and murdered.
That day changed my life forever.
Her violent death turned my world upside down.
I have a chronic lung condition.
In fact, I'm currently in hospital as I write this statement,
I'm unable to attend court.
Please do not take this as a reflection
that Christine wasn't cherished.
Her life had value,
meaning and happiness.
Christine was kind, honest, charismatic
and moreover, she was brave.
Christine was a much loved sister, aunt, stepmother
and a dear friend to many people all over the world.
Christine's life was taken by a vile cowardly predator
who subjected her to the most horrific
and terrifying death simply because he could.
His actions stole her future
and had a huge impact on all of her friends and family.
For all of us, we realized
that our lives would never be the same again.
Not only has he stolen Christine's future
in the most violent of ways,
but he has stolen the joy
of sharing our lives with her.
He didn't even have the decency to plead guilty.
He did not count on the kindness of the people of South Africa
to be so alarmed by his crime that they wanted to help.
I could not bear the thought
that he could do the same to someone else.
I couldn't have it on my conscience.
Can you?
You have the final say.
I asked that you sentence to the maximum sentence
permitted under South African law.
Andrew was given two life sentences,
which is the maximum sentence that could be given.
It's not gonna bring her back,
but I'm pleased he was found guilty
and I'm pleased that his freedom's been taken away.
But more importantly, I'm pleased he can never hurt anybody
or do what he's done to someone like that again.
- It is a very good inspirational story.
What Lehanne did, it was commendable.
- It's really, it's unbelievable.
She's still stuck to it,
if it was not for Lehanne, this case would not have been solved
in the next many years, if it would have been solved.
- What Lehanne managed to do was actually give a lot of people hope
by not only being determined,
but by actually deciding that she's not gonna wait
for someone else to do it for her.
Organization I worked for at that stage was an NGO,
combating violence against women and children,
and after this,
it was such a massive motivation to us to say,
you don't have to wait for government to do everything.
Just get it done.
- Highlighting this story is essential.
Gender-based violence and femicide.
People don't know about it and yet it's happening.
This is the reality that we are dealing with
and what are we gonna do about it?
- We have amazing examples of groups of women
that have started to fight back,
to make their communities safe.
People realize that they can actually get involved somehow,
not only to speak out,
but to actually do something about it.
- There's so much violence and misogyny against women.
Unless people speak out, change is never gonna happen.
If this journey's taught me anything,
it's taught me never to give up on anything
and it's only by pursuing what you think is right
and being tenacious, being noisy,
making yourself a nuisance.
It might just help one person
and if it helps one person, then that's good enough.
What do you think Christine
would say about what you did?
- I think she'd probably think--
it was pretty gutsy, a bit foolish.
But deep down, I think--
I think she'd have done the same for me.