20/20 on ID tonight looks at the mysterious death of Dominique Leili, who was murdered by her husband Matthew.
Exactly how Dominique — known as Nique to friends and family — died, however, remains a mystery.
Her naked body was found in the woods near the couple’s home and she was covered in dead leaves and branches.
The autopsy found she had high levels of GHB, the date rape drug, in her system, but Dominique’s body was too badly composed for the medical examiner to find the cause of death.
The circumstances leading up to Dominique’s death are strange to say the least.
The couple were known to have problems and argued a lot. They were also in $300,000 of debt. Matthew installed 21 cameras around their house and there were over 500,000 hours of audio recordings which investigators spent over a year and a half listening to.
These recordings painted a picture of a couple in crisis. They were in counselling and often fought over sex and money.
Alex Peters, Dominique’s daughter from a previous marriage, left the house when she turned 16. She told 20/20: “It was very uncomfortable all of the time, you know?
“He had a camera in the living [room] that faced the couch, so if you wanted to sit down and watch TV, you were being monitored.”
On June 28 2011, Dominique called the police to say that her husband was refusing to let her leave the house.
The police came to the house but didn’t do anything. That same day, Dominique packed a bag and left, later being persuaded to come back home by Amanda, the couple’s daughter.
Only two weeks later, Dominique went missing — never to be seen alive again. Matthew said he and Dominique had fought and he had slept in his office. When he woke up the next morning, she had gone.
Matthew then tried to convince the police (and everyone else) that his wife had been becoming increasingly mentally unstable, a claim that is strongly refuted by Alex Peters when she told 20/20: “My mother was the farthest thing from crazy you could get.”
Before the police search had started, Matthew had filed for divorce and had filled out paperwork to get Dominique committed. A 100-strong group of people started to look for his wife, but he did not join the search.
Police suspected Matthew was responsible for his wife’s death, but there was not enough evidence to charge him at the time. Shortly after, Matthew and his two daughters moved to Vermont.
Back in Georgia, Gwinnett County Sergeant John Richer kept working on the case. New technology became available and he organised another review of Matthew’s computer files, which showed that footage from around the time of Dominique’s disappearance had been deleted.
This set into motion a chain of events resulting in Matthew’s arrest and trial, after which he was convicted of Dominique’s murder.
Alex Peters believes Matthew is guilty, although his two daughters maintain their father is innocent.
20/20 on ID airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on ID.