A woman who lights up the room, a best friend, a lover of silly jokes, a great laugh, a good mother with a heart of gold and a desire to be happy and free.
These are just some of the words used to describe slain Gqeberha mother Vicki Terblanche, a stark contrast to the picture painted by her alleged killers and estranged husband Arnold who wanted everyone to believe that she was a drug addict and an unfit mother.
Speaking to those close to Vicki a clear picture emerged of a woman who was imprisoned in a loveless marriage where she was controlled to such an extent that she was told what to wear, when to speak, how to act and to know her place.
For roughly R20 000 a month Vicki was paid a salary to do what she was told and to run the household exactly the way Arnold liked it. It also came with the unwritten rule that she was not allowed to work or own any assets, besides the asset he paid for, her breasts.
If any of the rules were not followed it would reflect in her bank account at the end of the month.
Two days before Christmas in 2006, Vicki's late father "Oom At" walked her down the aisle to present his most precious possession to Terblanche. But, according to a friend who spoke to Algoa FM News on condition of anonymity, Vicki's father had no time for Arnold.
While driving to the church on the day of her wedding, he gave her one last chance to change her mind and said he would have no hesitation in turning the car around – all she had to do was say the word.
"I should have listened to my father" is something that Vicki would often say when the alleged abuse from her husband became untenable.
Fourteen years later the marriage of Arnold and Vicki would be on the rocks and while the country was stuck in a nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19, Vicki found out about his infidelity with a much younger woman.
Vicki's cousin, Leoni who spoke exclusively to Algoa FM News, says she heard about Krystal Wiggill while driving back from the Terblanche's R6.5 million home in St Francis Bay where they had celebrated Vicki's 41st birthday.
"She showed me a picture and said "cuz" this is the woman my husband is with, in East London," said Leoni.
Little did Vicki know that the photo taken at her birthday celebration, with her grey jersey and beautiful smile, would go viral on social media and become an image forever associated with an unthinkable tragedy.
This would be Vicki's last birthday.
A year later she was lying dead in a shallow grave in Greenbushes on the outskirts of Gqeberha.
Ironically she was also due in court the next day for her divorce proceedings with Arnold, where the fight over custody of their minor child was at the forefront.
Leoni says the last message she received from Vicki's phone was on the 19th of October 2021, a day after her murder. She now believes that message was sent by Vicki's boyfriend, Reinhardt Leach.
Leoni, who works as a real estate agent in Gauteng, said she spoke to Vicki earlier in October last year to ask for advice on purchasing a camera she needed for work.
Vicki enjoyed photography in her spare time and had a great camera she was not willing to sell.
Leoni says the message she received on the 19th of October was a picture of a camera which she believed to be Vicki’s.
"I found the message very weird and never responded, I now believe it was Leach who was trying to pawn Vicki's camera off to me."
Leoni says on the 22nd of October she messaged Vicki begging her to make contact but the messages never went through. Others said when they called Vicki on her birthday the phone did not even ring.
According to the State, Vicki's phone was factory reset and they are continuing their efforts to extract the data from her device.
During Vicki's very brief relationship with Reinhardt, she thought she might be expecting and was thrilled when a home pregnancy test confirmed it. But, according to Leoni her daily interactions with Vicki became less frequent when Leach came into her life until the news about the pregnancy.
"One day I spoke to Vicki and asked her how the pregnancy was going and she said, "cuz - you won't believe it, but I lost the baby."
Another source, however, said that once Vicki went to a doctor it was established that she was never pregnant and her hormones were blamed for the false positive.
Speaking to those close to Vicki it became clear that nobody liked Leach, who seemingly appeared in her life overnight.
She insisted to her friends and loved ones that Leach, a former Primary School teacher, was a great guy. She also adored his parents saying that she missed having parental figures in her life.
People who knew and loved Vicki were all in agreement that Leach knew exactly how to control her, much like Arnold did.
The State's opinion of Leach is that he was just that, a leech. They also called him a liar and psychopath who used Vicki as his "cash cow" to fund his illicit abalone dealings.
Leach, who last taught at St Dominic's Priory, was also a teacher at Kabega Park and Charlo Primary Schools according to the State. However, Leach failed to mention the fact that he was asked to leave two of the schools because of his drug and alcohol habits.
Less than a month before Leach appeared in Vicki's life he miraculously escaped a horror accident on the N2 towards Van Staden's Bridge.
The accident claimed the life of well-known stock car champion Mario De Ridder, aged 48, whose son Mario Jr is now a state witness in the murder of Vicki Terblanche.
Leach, de Ridder and another friend reportedly had a flat tyre when Leach got out to inspect the car.
It was then that a truck ploughed into their stationary Audi, killing Mario snr.
At the time, the De Ridder family appointed a lawyer to look into the circumstances that led to the accident.
Family Lawyer Lunen Meyer told Algoa FM News that they were still assisting the family in this regard.
Vicki's father died following a long illness which spared him the ordeal of having to bury his daughter. His wife and Vicki's mother took her own life not long after her husband died.
According to a friend, Vicki accused her mother of being weak and resented her for killing herself.
When Vicki's marriage started to unravel, she too thought that taking her life would make her problems disappear.
Leoni says she was very close to Vicki during this time, especially after she was released from hospital following a suicide attempt – which was labelled as accidental by some.
Nevertheless, she did take an overdose of pills and whether or not it was accidental would not change the fact that Arnold would use this as leverage in his alleged plot to get rid of her.
Money is certainly believed to be Arnold's main driving force, it was what he used to control those around him - seemingly a habit that landed him in prison awaiting trial on a string of charges including murder, two of conspiracy to commit murder, and no less than seven charges of defeating the ends of Justice, as is set out in two separate charge sheets.
According to the State, Arnold bribed officials to circumvent the provisions of his bail and wanted to have a say in selecting the Judges deciding on his latest bail application (based on new facts).
The State submitted that Terblanche also wanted to have one of the country's top Investigating Officers, Kanna Swanepoel, removed from the case.
Money is at the centre of all these allegations.
According to Algoa FM’s source, Vicki would on more than one occasion say that if anything ever happened to her or if she should disappear, Arnold would be involved.
She said he’d done it before as he had a lot of money to make people disappear.
"He would make it look like an accident" she would say.
Algoa FM News reached out to a number of people in an attempt to get an insight into the personas of Vicki and Arnold Terblanche. When it came to describing Arnold, words like passive-aggressive, narcissistic, rude, unpleasant, and aggressive were just some of the adjectives used.
The State also submitted in papers in court that Terblanche was domineering and dictatorial and that this pattern was established through his numerous previous relationships and marriages. Vicki was his third wife.
Terblanche, who is currently an awaiting trial prisoner at St Albans, on more than one occasion asked to have contact visits with his son and girlfriend, which were granted by senior officials whose names are known to Algoa FM News.
The last request made by Terblanche was in a handwritten note dated the 16th of August 2022 and addressed to the Head of the Centre for Medium A at St Albans Prison.
A source told Algoa FM News that one of the senior officials at St Albans had met with Arnold's current girlfriend Krystal Wiggill and children at a parking lot opposite the Greenacres Shopping Centre where gifts were allegedly exchanged.
Wiggill has since been given custody of Terblanche's teenage son.
The allegation of Wiggill taking the child to visit Arnold in prison was the final straw for cousin Leoni, who said she would stop at nothing to get custody of the boy.
Leoni's name was mentioned during Arnold's very first bail application as a possible guardian, however, it was said that the child was happy attending a private school in Gqeberha and did not want to leave.
She says there are many private schools in Gauteng and a move for him would be perfect now as he is starting high school next year.
Shortly after the Terblanche couple was separated, Arnold told Vicki to move out of their R4 million home in an upmarket Mill Park complex as he wanted his lover Krystal Wiggill to move in.
The lovebirds had been living in his luxury home in St Francis Bay at the time.
Leoni then suggested that Vicki move to Gauteng to help in the business, but leaving her child alone with Arnold was not an option for her.
A tearful Vicki eventually cracked under pressure and moved out of the home to a property in another part of the complex.
Arnold rented the place for her, but without any furniture.
Vicki grabbed what she could and moved in with her favourite pots and pans, pot plant, and her late father's crystal glasses.
Her first night in her new place was spent drinking a glass of wine on a blanket on the floor.
According to Algoa FM’s source, Arnold eventually bought Vicki a bed to sleep on and kitted out their son's bedroom with absolutely everything his heart desired.
Described as a good father, Arnold reportedly never said no to his son and gave him whatever he wanted.
During this time, Vicki had to ask her divorce lawyer to write a letter to Arnold for her to get access to her parent's furniture which was being kept in storage. He eventually complied but reportedly dumped the furniture on the sidewalk when she was not home.
Vicki also became convinced that secret cameras were installed in the house for Arnold to watch her every move. She told those close to her that he would often phone her when he was out of town to question her about what she was doing and why she was visiting friends on a school night.
These allegations will have to be tested in court when the Arnold Terblanche murder trial eventually gets underway.
It was also in Vicki’s new pad in the Mill Park complex where Leach made himself at home.
Long before Leach and Krystal came into the picture, Vicki did feel loved, but not by Arnold though.
One of Algoa FM News’ sources stated that Vicki had become romantically involved with a woman, and said she had experienced true love for the first time.
Arnold, who was reportedly aware of the relationship, eventually drove her out of Vicki's life, because they allegedly would not submit to his sexual fantasies.
On the 21st of October 2022, Vicki would have celebrated her 43rd birthday and who knows how her life would have turned out had she listened to her father on the way to the church all those years ago.
According to evidence already before the court, Vicki was drugged on the 18th of October 2021 with a schedule 6 drug called Percocet. She was then suffocated with a pillow by her killer as the drugs had purged out of her system.
The next day, Vicki's body was wrapped in her son's bedding, and thrown in the back of a BMW, while her killers tried to figure out what to do with her body.
She was buried in a shallow grave at Greenbushes and her body was found by police on the 23rd of October, after being pointed out by a co-accused who is now a state witness.
According to the lead investigating officer Kanna Swanepoel, the investigation into Vicki’s murder continues to evolve.
In his latest affidavit before the court, Swanepoel indicated that the State had established that Vicki was in fact using drugs, most definitely on or around 12 October 2021.
He also stated that more arrests in the matter were imminent.
If our readers or anyone they know is in an abusive relationship please contact People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) Counselling number: 076 694 5911 OR contact the SAPS Women's Network
Domestic Violence Helpline 0800 150 150
