On July 16, 2011, Nique Leili’s body — naked, decomposed, covered with leaves — was found near the entrance to her family’s Lawrenceville-area subdivision, setting a years-long cycle of suspicion, discord and mystery into motion. Her parents and siblings would wage battle against her husband, fighting for her remains, her children and her estate while simultaneously lobbying for him to be charged in her death.
Thanks to a reexamination of evidence from a seized computer — findings authorities have not yet described in detail — those charges came last year, and the murder trial of Matthew Leili is scheduled to begin Monday.
Even four-and-a-half years later, the case remains littered with unanswered questions. The road to Gwinnett County Superior Court has been a complicated one.
• Two days after his wife’s July 8, 2011, disappearance, Matthew Leili reported her missing. The then-42-year-old filed for divorce two days after that, telling officials Nique had deserted her family.
• Soon after a search party found Nique's body, Gwinnett County police publicly named Matthew as a suspect and seized the network of computers and surveillance cameras he'd set up around the family's home. Friends and family painted an unhappy picture of the couple's marriage, and authorities pointed to a recent 911 call in which Nique told a dispatcher that Matthew wouldn't let her leave the house.
Matthew was not, however, arrested.
• Before the end of July, Matthew and his wife's family were battling over her remains and custody of the couple's young daughters, ages 9 and 12. Two separate funerals were ultimately held.
Around the same time, Matthew released through an attorney what remains his only public statement.
“Contrary to the allegations as reported, Mr. Leili cooperated with police and provided every known fact and circumstance regarding his wife’s disappearance,” the statement said. “Mr. Leili has done nothing wrong, and as such, is refusing to respond to allegations reported in the media.”
• Nique Leili's death certificate was released in December of that year. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death inconclusive but did not exclude homicide by strangulation or asphyxiation.
In February 2012, Matthew Leili moved to Vermont, taking his daughters with him and, according to Nique’s sister, eliminating all communication with other family members.
• On March 4, 2015, after years of inertia, Gwinnett County police suddenly announced they had charged Matthew Leili with murder and eavesdropping. He was arrested following a court hearing in Atlanta, during which he was lobbying for the payout from his wife's life insurance policy.
Police attributed the arrest to evidence recovered during a new forensic examination of computers seized from the Leili home back in 2011. No further insight has been released, but the case is believed to be largely circumstantial.
“This was not the magic bullet,” a Gwinnett County police spokesman said at the time. “This was enough to tip the scales.”
• Nearly two months later, the Leilis' daughters posted a video defending their father on YouTube.
“Because of all the lies and hate that the family has for my father,” the caption said, “they have managed to get him arrested for a murder he did not commit.”
• On May 27, a Gwinnett County grand jury returned an indictment charging Matthew with murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and three counts of unlawful eavesdropping and surveillance. One of the aggravated assault charges alleged that he "[made] an assault upon the person of Dominique Leili, with intent to rape."
A cause of death, however, remains a mystery — the indictment alleged that Matthew Leili killed his wife in a “manner … unknown to the grand jury.”
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning. Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones, who is prosecuting the case, said the trial could take up to two weeks.
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