What Happened Inside That Flat? | The Dolly Tshabalala Story

[00:00:00]and convicted murderer Donald Silai has broken down in the witness box while testifying in the mitigation of his own sentence. Silai cried in the witness box as he described how difficult the trial has been for him and through tears he told the court that he was remorseful over his actions. He further added that the trial has also denied him the opportunity to support his three children.

[00:00:24]Even if he's arrested, he will be eating and drinking. And where will I see my child? The same child who took care of me, who was working towards a second degree.

[00:00:33]>> Chavala died from a stab wound after the two had an argument at Sibai's flat in Soetto. Subai has pleaded not guilty to murder.

[00:00:41]>> What do you do when the person advocating the loudest for women's rights is the same person who takes a woman's life. Today's case is a great example for us to remember that what people show to the world is not always who they are behind closed doors. and how do you prevent and protect someone from dangers that happen behind closed doors and that are hid so carefully from the world. Hi everyone, welcome to or welcome back to my channel and thank you for joining me here again today. Last week when we were here, we spoke about the case of the laughing killer or Peter Barber and how he weaved so many lies and tried to run from them when he moved from England to South Africa. But when in South Africa, he did the unthinkable and his lies would catch up to him. But today we are going to talk about a case that really shocked South Africa and especially to those who were listeners of Josie FM at the time. And it is a case where the mask of activism really hid the face of a murderer. And it really puts to question whether we know the person who we're going to bed with every night and how much they really hide their true colors. And this case is about how a woman's life was cut short by a man who was a hero in everyone else's eyes. And with that being said, let's get into today's case >> intended for mature audiences only.

[00:01:56]>> So I do just want to start the case off by just apologizing because there is this building behind me that is having a kind of functional party today and they have a lot of loud music and chatter. So if you can hear that, I will try my best to try and get rid of it post-production. But just so you know, they're having a party behind me. I know I was not invited sadly, but it is happening in the background. So with that said, let's get back into it.

[00:02:17]Flavia Rachel Dolly Chabalala was born on the 17th of March 1982. Her mom's name was Elizabeth and Elizabeth said that most people called Flavia Dolly which is what we will call her.

[00:02:28]Elizabeth said that Dolly was a fantastic daughter and an absolute delight to raise. She was a very good student. She did well in school and she always wanted more out of life. Dolly was also quite young when she first got married and she did have a child with her then husband and that was in 2007.

[00:02:44]But Dolly, like I said, was incredibly determined and she was dedicated to learning and getting more out of life.

[00:02:50]When she had her first child, she also graduated with her first degree. And then she was in the process of studying to obtain a second degree in psychology while working, studying, and raising her daughter with her husband. She was also working full-time at Vitz University in the engineering faculty. So, we sadly can't say that everything was really fantastic for Dolly because while she was doing really well work-wise, study-wise, and with her daughter, sadly, her relationship was falling apart, and they were trying to make things work, but there were a lot of fights and just things that they couldn't reconcile anymore. And sadly, this was deteriorating their marriage.

[00:03:26]So, then in 2012, Dolly and her then husband Timber did decide to separate, but they were not fully divorced yet.

[00:03:32]They were still in the process of getting this sorted because they were kind of thinking, should we try and sort this out? Maybe we might get back together. So, they were separated but not fully divorced. But like I said, Dolly was so full of life and she just wanted to enjoy everything that was given to her. And one evening she was out with her friends. They were having a girls night when a man walked up to their group and he wanted to talk to Dolly specifically. And the man who walked up to the table on the day, his name was Donald Cibili. And as far as love at first sight stories go, this was one of them. Dolly and Donald hit it off immediately. They were absolutely smitten with each other. They were flirting. They were touching. And we know the drill and they got close very quickly. But if we talk about Donald Sealai for a second, he was actually very well known to the public. You may not recognize his face, but he was a very well-known radio DJ and he worked at Josie FM. So, he was mainly the segment between 9:00 a.m. and 12, but also what he was very well known for was called the Woman Lifestyle Show. And this is where a lot of women would come onto the radio and they would talk about a lot of women's issues, be that gender- based violence, career growth as a woman, relationships, and so on. But most of the talk and what Donald was really well known for was the gender-based violence. And he was very much an advocate for this on the show, he would get very emotional when the woman would come on and talk about what they've experienced and almost become very defensive of them. And a lot of people really appreciated this from Donald and they thought that he was someone they could talk to and an ally in the GBV space and they would come and tell him the stories and also he would be one who wanted to really help them and because of this he was very popular amongst women and he would be affectionately known to a lot of his listeners as Donald Duck. Donald would also talk to the women about relationships. Like I said they would talk about relationships within this woman's show and Donald had a lot of opinions on relationships as well. He had three different children with three different women at the time. And when he met Dolly that night at the club or at the tavern, Donald had actually just broken up with his girlfriend who he had his third child with. So overall, what we know so far is Dolly works at Vitz University and Donald is a very well-known radio DJ. And overall, Donald and Dolly's relationship moved very quickly. Donald had a flat in Jabulani and Dolly didn't live there per se, but she would bring clothing and leave it over. And eventually she was staying there most nights. And I couldn't really find much information about whether Dolly would bring her child to Donald's home or if her child was mostly with Timber. It was unclear whether her child was living with her or with her ex-husband. But Elizabeth, who remember is Dolly's mom, she didn't really appreciate the relationship between Donald and Dolly. She said that she just really wanted Dolly to focus on herself for a little bit because she said that she's going through the separation.

[00:06:09]there's no need to rush into this relationship with Donald. And she said that she just wants her to focus on the divorce, get that all sorted, get your emotions in check. You know, you're going to study, finish that, sort yourself out, and then you can go into a relationship with Donald if you really want to. So, Elizabeth was not really that happy about this relationship. But like I said, Donald talked for a living.

[00:06:28]So, he was very good with his words, and he was able to charm Dolly. And whenever they got into arguments, he was able to charm her and make her feel better. But them talking it out would not last very long. Also, just a side note before we get into the relationship further, I do just want to remind you, remember Donald had three kids with three different women. So, when it was school holidays, his three kids would often come and stay with him. He was not the sole guardian for his children. All his children stayed with their mother, but during school holidays, they would come and stay with Donald. And it was said that when the children would come and stay with Donald, often Dolly would move out because there wasn't enough space. So, she would then go home and spend time with her child during school holidays.

[00:07:04]But not only did Elizabeth, who's Dolly's mother, not really appreciate the relationship, but also Dolly's friends didn't really like the relationship because Dolly would often confide in them like one does with their girlfriends. She would confide in her girlfriends and just speak about the relationship on a deeper level and things that she might not really tell her mother. But what Dolly said was that she felt so self-conscious about herself after the divorce because generally one when you're in a relationship you kind of become comfortable with your partner and you don't really take that much care into your appearance as you would if you were outgoing dating all the time. Very much hyperfocused on what you look like going on these dates. So in a relationship obviously she was comfortable and now that she's being thrown into this dating pool she's a lot more aware of what she looks like or how she presents herself to other people.

[00:07:47]And she said to her friends that she felt self-conscious because now people are looking at her whether they want to date her or not, whether as when she was in her marriage, this wasn't really the factor that much. But Dolly also said that not only did she feel self-conscious about her looks now that she was dating, but she also said that Donald would kind of berate her often enough where she felt that she needed to speak to people about it. She said that he would put her down often and that sometimes he would lay hands on her. And with regards to Donald putting his hands on Dolly, later in trial, he would actually say and confess that he didn't find this a problem. Donald would say that he would often slap the woman that he was in relationships with. And he said that he would do this because he felt that it was necessary that if they stepped out of line or if they were kind of giving attitude back. He felt that this was fine because they just needed to know their place. And he said that he did not see this as abuse, he thought that it was completely normal. And in Donald and Dolly's relationship, Dolly would often call the police on Donald because she often felt threatened and sometimes the arguments would get very hostile and very violent and Dolly did not feel safe very often. But when she did go to the police stations and she did report something when they wanted to file documentation and put names and everything on these documents, Dolly would often back off because she felt like if I do go to the police station and I do report Donald, this will ruin his career and I don't want to do that because she felt that sometimes she was maybe overexaggerating and she felt now that by her going to the police station and telling the police that Donald laid a hand on her that she was now being the bad person because she could now ruin this man's career. And I find it ironic because even though Dolly was the one who was being abused by Donald, I kid you not, that one day Donald walked up to the Jabulani police station and he asked for an officer to come with him to his flat. And when the officer went to the flat and this was on the pretense that he wanted to get someone in his flat removed because they were refusing to leave. So police officer under good intent to try and help this man get someone who was not allowed in his flat out of the flat. The police officer goes with Donald to his flat and when he gets there, he tells the officer that he wants this woman and this woman is Dolly. He wants this woman removed because he says that the sex that these two are having, Dolly and Donald, is no longer good enough. He is no longer satisfied and she needs to leave because of this. And the officer was really taken back by this because he thought that he was getting like a squatter out of his flat. He didn't think that he was coming there for a domestic disturbance.

[00:10:09]But also he said that the way that Donald was describing the whole incident, he was crudely speaking about Dolly's genitalia and how he was no longer satisfied. And the officer was just like, I don't want to hear any of this. This was not the reason that I came here. And Dolly was hearing this.

[00:10:24]She was actually packing her bags when the officer arrived. And she was hearing how Donald was speaking about her and how cruel he was being. And Dolly did pack her bags. She did leave that day and they did break up. But Dolly would then go and live with her mom because she was kind of in between homes at the time. Like I said, she was still going through the divorce and it was just a messy process. But she was staying with her mom and Elizabeth would often say that Donald would come to the home all the time and knock on the door very loudly and then scream for Dolly to come out and speak to him. And he honestly just treated her like he had no respect or regard for her feelings at all. So then by the beginning of June of 2014, Dolly and Donald did end up getting back together. But then on the 28th of June, Dolly, Donald, and Donald's sister decided to go to a pub together. Dolly was the first one to arrive, then Donald, and then Donald's sister. And the three of them then drank and party till roughly around midnight when they all got into Dolly's car, and they then dropped Donald's sister off. And then Donald and Dolly went back to Donald's flat. Then on the 29th of June, so the morning after they all came back from clubbing or partying at the pub, Donald's sister, who they just dropped off a couple hours after they arrived back home and she slept a little bit, she actually got a text from Donald that morning on the 29th of June. And the text said to Donald's sister that I hurt Dolly, but don't worry, she's fine. Now, firstly, if we just pause right there, if my brother texted me to say that he hurt his girlfriend, firstly, there would be some very choice words from me.

[00:11:53]I would probably find a wooden spoon somewhere, but I would go to find out whether my brother's girlfriend is okay.

[00:11:59]It's very strange to me that a lot of articles didn't really say whether or not she went to find out if Dolly was okay. And I'm not sure if that was a common text that she would get and that it's normal from Donald to do these things to his girlfriend, but there didn't seem to be much of a reaction from Donald's sister. But later on that morning, one of Dolly's very close friends would actually call her and Donald answered. And when Donald answered, he said that Dolly's eating and she can't come to the phone right now. And then he hung up. And Dolly's friend like immediately called back and she's like, "Um, I want to speak to Dolly now, please." And Donald was like, "Well, you can't because she's dead.

[00:12:31]Hang up." Like just like that over the phone. No shame, nothing. Just she's dead. Hang up. And the friend actually paused for a moment and she was quite takenback by this. She thought that it was some really sick joke that Donald was playing. And so she calls back for a third time and she says to Donald, "Donald, you need to stop with this joke. I want to talk to Dolly now." and he said, "Well, you can't stop calling back." And he hung up again. Then, close to the afternoon on the 29th of June, Timber, who remembers Dolly's soon to be ex-husband, Timber gets a call from Donald saying that firstly, you need to come pick up your wife. She's been killed and she's in my flat, so if you could come pick her up, that would be great. Hang up. And it is so crazy at how candid Donald is. So, Timber tries to call Donald back and he's not answering. So he then starts calling around to Dolly's close friend and also to Donald's sister whoever went out with Dolly that night. Donald's sister didn't answer, but then he gets hold of Dolly's really close friend who tried to call that morning. And she then answers and she says, "Yes, I had the same kind of message from Donald saying that Dolly's been killed." And so now because Timber's heard this from another source, he also thought initially that it was some really sick joke that Donald was playing. Don't know why you would ever play that joke. It's not funny. But he kind of thought it was a joke. Dolly's friend thought it was a joke. But now that Tim has heard it from two different people, he does not find this funny. And then he immediately goes to the police station in Jabulani and he tells the officers they need to come with him right now. Something's wrong at this flat and I need a welfare check. So one police officer goes with Timber and they are now in Jabulani and they head towards Donald's flat. They first get there, they knock on the door, silence, nothing coming from the flat. They put the ear to the door. They don't hear anything. But the officer that's there, Timber's starting to stress now because he can't get hold of Dolly. Dolly's car is also not in the driveway anymore and they now think that this is quite suspicious. So the officer who is with Timber outside the flat, he doesn't like this at all either and he thinks he needs to gain entry into the flat. So he's calling back to the precinct and he's waiting to see if he can get confirmation to go into the flat and break down the door. It takes a couple of hours, but they manage to get confirmation. And by the time he's got the confirmation, another few officers have arrived. So they've got this now.

[00:14:36]They've gained entry to the flat. And as soon as they enter the flat, they call out Dolly's name, but she's not answering. But as they've bashed the door, they've obviously made quite a lot of force to get into the flat. And as they push the door, it kind of knocks a broom that was behind the door. And you know those brooms with like the long white strands that was behind the door and it was full of blood. It was red basically. And the officers are now entering. They've got their guns drawn and they're looking around. But as they are going through the kitchen, one of the officers notices that between the kitchen and the lounge, there is some blood between the tiles and the carpet.

[00:15:09]Not a lot, just enough that it looked like a serious enough cut to make that much blood. They call out again for Dolly. She's not responding. And one of the police officers then goes into the main bedroom and sadly that's where they find Dolly. Dolly was on the bed. She was face up and had clearly been there for a while. But when police officers were looking at Dolly's body, they didn't really notice anything. They could see, yes, she was deceased, but they didn't really see from the naked eye what the cause of death could have been, they noticed that there was blood around and obviously there was the bloody mop, but when they looked at Dolly, there was not a lot of blood at all, especially enough to cover that mop full of blood. So, there were some conflicting reports about how many times Dolly was actually stabbed in the end.

[00:15:52]But like I said, when police first got to that flat, they initially did not see any obvious cause of death. But when the crime scene detectives came and they were looking at the crime scene, they were taking photos. One of the detectives noticed that between Dolly's legs, kind of in her groin area, there was a little bit of blood, like a little patch of blood. So they kind of opened her legs up a bit and they saw a bit more blood on the pajamas that she was wearing. And they decided to take her pajama pants off. in the groin area of Dolly was a massive laceration and that being around a centimeter wide and 5 cm long. And so they thought that this might be the main cause of death because it was in a very precarious area within the groin. But when the pathologists did all their testing and they looked at Dolly's body and tried to find a cause of death, which was not that obvious at the scene, they found that that incision that was in her groin was actually very deep. Like I said, it was around 1 cm wide and about 5 cm long, but it was around 9 cm deep. And according to the pathologist, it looked like someone initially stabbed and then dragged the knife down 5 cm. But the force that it would have taken to push that knife 9 cm deep was extortionate. And also, when they pushed the knife into her thigh initially and they dragged it down, they actually nicked one of Dolly's arteries in her thigh. And nicking an artery, cutting an artery is absolutely catastrophic to the body. There is little chance that you're going to survive unless you get immediate medical attention. But the amount of blood that would have pumped out of this wound after hitting the artery would have been a lot cuz the heart is beating every time. The blood is going to pump everywhere and anywhere. But that's why it is so strange that on Dolly's body when investigators first got there, they only saw this teeny tiny bit of blood in her thigh area. So, while Dolly's body had been taken to the morg for the pathologist to look over everything, police still thought that this was strange, they knew now from the testing that she had been stabbed and that an artery had been hit. But when they were doing all of the investigations, they're like, "There's not enough blood in this scene to figure out where she would have been murdered firstly and also to kind of justify the forensic evidence." So, the police started to look around and they're looking under everything and then they start going to cupboards and then they're walking around the back of the flat. And when they do walk around the back of the flat, they do notice that there is a men's trousers or jeans that have been stuffed into the bin that is full of blood. So they take this out and they also go back into the flat.

[00:18:15]They're looking everywhere and then they look into the washing machine. And in the washing machine is a rug full of blood, some towels and the bedding. So obviously the bedding had been changed.

[00:18:25]Dolly's pajamas seem to have been changed and there's some kind of cover up here. So immediately a bolo is put out for Donald Cibuli and also for Dolly's vehicle and they assume that Donald left in Dolly's vehicle and also Donald was 37 years old at the time that this whole incident took place. So like I said of course with Donald being I wouldn't say a celebrity but well known to a lot of people. News spread pretty quickly and of course Timber was texting everybody to say do you know any information before Dolly was even found do you know where she was? So, a lot of people were aware that something had happened to Dolly before she had been found and before people knew that she had been murdered. So, a lot of people were aware of the situation and eventually news got out to Jos FM and also to Donald's boss. So, I'm not sure if it was actually Donald's boss who texted him or someone who knew Donald who worked at the station, but basically someone from Josm texted Donald and they're like, "Look, come to the station. Let's talk about it. Let's figure out what happened. If you didn't do it, just come here. Like, we can talk about it." And then Donald texts whoever texted him, he texts them back and he said, quote, "I don't want to spoil your brand. I did some [ __ ] and my girlfriend is dead." End quote. And then Donald ran away. He disappeared. And for 9 days, Donald Sebuli was on the run. And a lot of people came in with tips of where they could find him. Police were constantly tracking his trail. And an award for 50,000 rand was put out if anyone could come and tell them where Donald could be found. So Donald's on the run in one instance and then as a side note 3 days after Dolly's body had been found, her vehicle had actually been found abandoned in a field. And when police got there, they found a lot of bloody towels in the back of the vehicle. They also found Dolly's bloody robe. And they also found immensely bloody pajamas in the back of the vehicle, which they assumed were the pajamas that Dolly was actually wearing at the time. And they also found a stake knife in the back of the vehicle which they assumed to be the murder weapon.

[00:20:19]Then on the 8th of July 2014, a tip came in which eventually led to the arrest of Donald at a petrol station. And the tip was that a neighbor who knew Donald's family and was aware that Donald's family lived next to them. Basically, this neighbor said that they saw Donald entering this home of this family member. And so they then called the police and when they were on the phone with police, they said that they are seeing Donald leave the property. He's put something in the back of the vehicle and they then gave the registration number of this vehicle. So police are now on it. They are trying to find out where he is and obviously the neighbor gave the direction of where this vehicle was traveling while they were on the phone. So the vehicle's being tracked and eventually Donald was found at this petrol station and immediately the police go into the petrol station. They arrest Donald and there was no fuss.

[00:21:07]Donald didn't fight. But in the back of the vehicle was a suitcase. In the suitcase was a change of clothes, some personal items and essentials like toothbrush, toothpaste, that kind of thing. And when Donald's family members were interrogated as firstly, you are harboring a fugitive or a potential fugitive who is suspected of murdering his girlfriend. Secondly, what was Donald doing with that suitcase in the back of your car? And the neighbor then said, "Look, I didn't mean to do it, but basically Donald said that he was going to try and start a new life in Batswana and he was going to cross the border and that's why he had the suitcase." When police actually questioned Donald as to why he had the suitcase, he said that he had it because he knew that he was going to trial and he was on his way to handing himself in, but he wanted the suitcase because he wanted to have change of clothes for when he was on trial and he thought that he had to have personal items as well. Then 4 days after Donald was arrested, Dolly was laid to rest. In the trial, Donald was charged with murder, theft for taking Dolly's car, and defeating the ends of justice for cleaning up the crime scene.

[00:22:06]When Donald appeared in court in his initial hearing, he was denied bail because the court deemed him a flight risk, and rightfully so, because he had already spent a week on the run. Then on the 18th of July, Donald pleaded not guilty. Initially, Donald said that he got into an argument with Dolly because of the school holidays coming up. And he said that because his son was coming to stay with them, Dolly must leave. Donald then said that Dolly was really angry because of this. And then she got up, grabbed a kitchen knife, and tried to stab Donald. But Donald then said that because they were fighting with the knife, she was then stabbed as a result of them struggling. And he said that he did not mean to kill her, but she was the one who stabbed herself. When Donald was then questioned, okay, but why did you then change Dolly's clothes? Why did you clean up the crime scene? He said that he wanted to prepare her to go to the hospital and he didn't want her to go in dirty pajamas. The trial of Donald Sebuli began in August 2015 in Johannesburg High Court and it was a media sensation. Like I said, he was a popular DJ, a public figure, and a man who positioned himself as an advocate for women. But now he was sitting in the defendant's chair accused of murdering his girlfriend in the most brutal way.

[00:23:15]But the prosecution's case was really strong. They had forensic evidence. They had the murder weapon. And they also had the pathologist testimony about the cause of death. They also had evidence of Donald's attempt to cover up the crime scene and him being on the run for around 9 days. They also had testimony from at least 10 witnesses that included officers who were at the scene and also the officers who had known of reports that Dolly made which were later withdrawn about Donald being abusive towards her. But strangely enough, Donald said that he wanted to take the stand and he wanted to testify for himself. And this is generally frowned upon because you don't really want the defendant to go up and speak and try and defend themselves on the stand. But Donald basically said that when he first saw Dolly, it was love at first sight and he was immediately smitten with her.

[00:23:58]And he said that their arguments were boring. They never really had big arguments. They didn't have many problems in their relationship and that their relationship was fine. It was good. But then it seemed like there was a break for around 2 days within the proceedings. And then the trial would kind of continue 2 days later. But from the first reaction where Donald said that he was absolutely in love with Dolly, he was smitten to now coming back 2 days later, there was a massive shift in the relationship. He said now that Dolly was an alcoholic. She was very jealous and that she was often the one who started fighting about everything.

[00:24:31]And he did a complete flip and now all of a sudden there were some really bad problems and he was really trying to tarnish her reputation when she was not there to be able to defend herself. The prosecution then brought up that Donald was the one who asked Dolly to leave because they were not having good enough sex for him. And he said that that's an absolute lie. They had great times together and that they would do it at least five times a week. And he also brought up in trial that apparently they had a lot of threesomes and that it was apparently with Dolly's very close friends. But then Donald would say that when they had the threesims, Dolly would get very jealous and she would get really upset because Donald felt that the sex that he had with her friends was better than that of what he was having with Dolly. And this is what he's saying on trial. He's just saying the most absolutely ludicrous things in trial.

[00:25:16]And he said that she would often become jealous and very violent in these relations that they would have with other people. and he was trying to really portray her as unstable, aggressive, and someone who was very difficult to be with. But once again, Donald brought up exactly what happened that night. And in trial, he said that Dolly was very drunk. And while they were getting ready for bed, Donald brought up again that his son is coming to stay for the school holidays and that she needed to leave. He said that she got really upset and aggressive and accused Donald of wanting to bring other women into the home while she was not there. Donald then said that he had had enough, so he went to sleep on the couch because he just didn't want to deal with it anymore. And then he said that while he was lying on the couch, apparently Dolly went to get a knife. And when she got the knife, she walked up to Donald and she was about to stab him, but Donald then managed to kind of dodge all of the stabbings that were coming his way. And apparently Dollyy's still trying to stab him. Donald is now standing up trying to fight her off. And he said that as Dolly kind of stabbed or tried to stab Donald as she swung the knife, she kind of fell forward and then Donald grabbed her arm and squeezed it and didn't let go until Dolly let go of the knife. And then Donald said that as she let go of the knife, he then picked the knife up. He put it back into the kitchen and then he thought that it was all over and that they could go back to bed. But then apparently Dolly went back into the kitchen, grabbed the knife again. They then fought and tried to get this knife away from each other and then she accidentally stabbed herself in the groin. He said that when she stabbed herself in the groin, she then fell onto this rug and he kind of looked at her.

[00:26:46]He saw that she was bleeding but he tried to help her. He said that he got some towels out of the cupboard and he was trying to push it onto her wound, but he said that she was not very responsive. When she was coming in and out of consciousness, according to Donald, he said to her that we need to take you to the hospital, so you need to get up and get dressed. We can't go in these pajamas. So apparently after Dolly had been stabbed in the groin and she's bleeding from her artery. Apparently she got up off of this rug, she then walked to the bedroom. She managed to get dressed, changed her pajamas. Then apparently she was very tired, so she was lying in bed. Donald then said that while she was getting dressed, he was tidying up the area. He was tidying up the rug and everything like that, putting the rug in the washing machine, changing the bedding, which was now bloody, which Dolly was still lying on, but he changed the bedding and he put it all in the washing machine. and he was also prepping the vehicle for them to go to the hospital. Mind you, they only lived 900 m away from the hospital. I don't know why they had to prepare a vehicle. They just had to get into the car and then they could go to the hospital. But apparently Dolly was lying on the bed. Donald then said that he went to see if Dolly was okay and he then noticed that she was not waking up.

[00:27:53]So he thought, "Okay, maybe she's just tired. She just needs to rest a little bit." So he then went to sit on the couch. A little while later, he got up off of the couch. He then went to Dolly and he noticed that, okay, she's clearly dead now. She's not moving at all. And that's how he said that all of this happened and he just got really scared and he decided to drive away and leave her there. But of course, forensic evidence did not match what was at the scene. There was a lot of cleaning up.

[00:28:17]There was a lot of cover up and why he didn't call an ambulance where it was less than a kilometer away. And the pathologist in trial would actually say that the wound, like I said earlier, in her thigh was so deep that they needed so much force to be able to go that deep to hit her artery. And he also said that it was highly improbable that she would be able to take this stake knife and then kind of put it into her thigh and drag down when she's stabbing up. He said it's not a very common motion to drag the knife down if you're stabbing yourself. And he also said people don't often stab themselves because it is so incredibly painful. And also she would not be able to make that much force pulling it down and 9 cm deep into her thigh. So there was just a lot of inconsistencies here. The pathologist also said that based on Dolly's body, she had already been dead by the time that she got into that bed and by the time that her pajamas had been changed.

[00:29:08]And this of course is evident by the blood pooling. When someone passes away, when the heart stops beating, your blood doesn't circulate anymore and it starts to pool. So he said that when she was on that rug in the lounge, she was lying there for quite a while. By the time that she had been moved to the bed, she was long gone. And I do find this part a little bit interesting, but there was a psychologist that was brought into the trial to kind of defend Donald. And he said that he did a whole like hypnosis on Donald. And he said that what Donald said to police initially was exactly what he said under hypnosis. And he kind of wanted to allude that he didn't change his story, so it must be accurate. And he also then said that Donald under hypnosis said that the only reason that he ran was because he was scared and that he didn't know what he was doing and this was his loved one and he was terrified. And that was really the psychologist's defense basically of Donald. He said that yes, sometimes people react differently in horrific situations and I can agree with that.

[00:30:06]Not everyone is the same. Some people do have fight or flight. But I do think that if you are watching your loved one bleed out in front of you and you can potentially help them, either that by putting pressure on the wound if they did accidentally stab themselves, I don't think that you would watch them bleed out on the carpet or on a rug, clean up the scene, move their body, put them in bed, and then drive away. I can understand where the psychologist is going with this in terms of people don't react in the same way to high pressure situations, but I do not agree that this is what Donald was doing that day. Then in 2015 after hearing all the evidence, all the testimony, all the arguments from both sides, the court then reached its verdict. Donald Sebili was found guilty of murder and he was also found guilty of defeating the ends of justice.

[00:30:50]The evidence was incredibly overwhelming. They saw through the attempts to blame Dolly for everything and they also saw through the excuses about bad sex, jealousy, and relationship problems. Donald Sabula had stabbed Rachel Dolly Tabulala to death and then he tried to cover it up and run away. On the 4th of March 2016, Judge Kasim Musa handed down Donald Cibili's sentence. 20 years in prison for murder and 5 years for defeating the ends of justice, 20 years for murdering a 32-year-old mother, 20 years only for stabbing his girlfriend to death and then trying to cover it up. But Judge Moose's reasoning was clear. He said that this was an incredibly serious crime. It was a violent murder followed by a deliberate cover up. He said that Donald showed absolutely no remorse. He had fled from the scene and tried to destroy evidence. And even in court, he had refused to take responsibility.

[00:31:39]Instead, he chose to blame the woman that he killed. And just out of interest, yes, Donald will most likely be up for parole soon. And I find this trial incredibly frustrating because it seems in court, and it might just be me reading into it incorrectly. Kind of seems to me that they found Dolly's murder to be an unfortunate sequence of events, but stabbing someone in the groin area to me, especially given Dolly and Donald's history about him saying that the sex was not very good, their relationship, and him specifically speaking about Dolly's private area to friends, family, and police. It feels to me that stabbing in the groin was kind of purposeful and he clearly wanted to make a point. I don't know if he thought that he would hit her artery and actually kill her that day, but stabbing her in that area to me seems kind of purposeful. But I also find it incredibly sickening that he had no remorse and that he watched his girlfriend bleed out on the floor. And Donald was loved by so many. He was seen as a hero to so many people. He was someone who apparently stood up for women's rights. But that's clearly not what Dolly experienced. And one of the last things that she saw was the person who was supposed to love her standing above her watching her bleed out. This is just a horrible case. And let me know what you think of it down below. I hope that you are all staying safe out there.

[00:32:54]Have a fantastic week ahead and I'll see you again next time. Bye.