As a Lawrenceville man charged with murdering his wife asks a judge for bond today, his teenage daughters are proclaiming his innocence.
Matthew Leili was arrested last month for the murder of Nique Leili in 2011. Her body was discovered a week after she disappeared in some woods near the entrance of the family’s subdivision on Russell Road.
Gwinnett Police called her husband a suspect early on but it wasn’t until detectives recently found forensic evidence of surveillance footage on his computer that he was charged. He was arrested outside federal court in Atlanta where he was attending a hearing involving an insurance payout.
Leili is charged with three counts of eavesdropping in addition to murder.
While police and family members of Nique Leili paint a picture of an abused wife, the couple’s daughters Amanda and Rebecca, now 16 and 13, posted a video this week defending their father.
“They were in love and my dad loved my mom; he still does,” says Amanda in the eight minute video.
The girls say they witnessed their mother making a 911 call two weeks before her disappearance claiming her husband wouldn’t let her leave the house. They say their dad was sitting on the couch with them at the time and did nothing to keep her there.
The couple argued the night before she disappeared and Matthew filed for divorce three days later citing abandonment.
Police say the cause of death was asphyxiation but were unable to say what method was used.
In the video, the girls lay blame on a strained relationship with their mother’s side of the family and blamed the media for the hype of the case.
“The media and the news picked up on a Jerry Springer-type sob story of domestic violence and they spread it like wildfire all over the place,” says Amanda.
The two say they miss their father and that his place is with them.
"Our day in court will come and hopefully our dad will be able to come home," she says.