Gwinnett Police detectives closed a cold murder case Wednesday with evidence they had in their possession for four years.
The right forensic examiner and the right software finally enabled them to recover evidence from a seized computer that made detectives comfortable they had evidence to charge Matthew Leili with murdering his wife in 2011, said Cpl. Jake Smith Thursday.
“It was just the right combination of software and personnel in 2014 and they were able to get things off of that computer that they never were before,” Smith said “We always had some evidence. We just didn’t have enough.”
Detectives always suspected Leili in the death of his wife, Dominique Leili, whose body was found in woods four days after he reported her missing in July 2011, Smith said.
Smith would not say what the data evidence was recovered — only that it was tied to the surveillance camera system in Leili’s home. But the veteran officer warned that the new evidence still didn’t make the circumstantial case a slam dunk.
“This was not the magic bullet,” he said. “This was enough to tip the scales.”
Leili was a “tech guy” who built his own computers and hooked them up for a surveillance system, Smith said. Leili used special software that allowed him to shred computer files so thoroughly that were not easily recoverable, Smith said.
Leili, who had moved to Vermont, was arrested Wednesday in Atlanta when he appeared for a federal court hearing dealing with his dead wife’s life insurance policy.
Smith was unaware of the particulars of the court hearing or the policy. He said detectives hope to get a chance to interview Leili’s two children, who are now teenagers, in Vermont where they’re in custody of Leili’s father since the arrest.
Leili had always denied investigators access to the children following the death, Smith said.
Dominique Leili, 44, had been missing for more than a week when a co-worker taking part in an organized search discovered her decomposing body under a pile of leaves in the neighborhood near Lawrenceville where the couple had lived for nearly 12 years.
Matthew Leili, who was 43 at the time, had filed for divorce five days after he told police he had last seen his wife, and was named at the time as a suspect in her death even though her cause of death had still not been determined five months later.
On Thursday, Smith said that investigators believe Dominique Leili was asphyxiated but “whether it was by hands or a belt or a pillow, we are unable to say at this point.”
Smith did not offer a motive for the killing but said interviews with family members and friends painted an unhappy picture of the couple’s marriage. He noted police had been called to the house once previously when Dominique Leili told the 911 operator her husband wouldn’t let her leave the home. But after police talked to the couple she chose to stay, Smith said.
“Nique was not particularly happy in the matrimony nor for that matter was Matthew,” Smith said.
Leili is being held there without bond in the Gwinnett County jail.
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