Woman entered 'sickening' fake 'honeytrap' relationship to catch her aunt's murderer
A gripping new true-crime documentary details how a British woman used a fake Facebook profile to track down the man who murdered her aunt 6,000 miles away in South Africa.
Christine Robinson was described by her family members as 'kind' and 'caring', as well as 'adventurous'. Raised in Liverpool, UK, Christine went on to travel the world teaching English before she eventually settled in South Africa, where she and her husband, Robbie, bought a game lodge.
Christine briefly returned to the UK following the death of Robbie, but in 2012 she went back to the lodge to 'tie up loose ends'.
It was during this period that Christine, who was 59 years old at the time, was raped, stabbed and ultimately murdered at the lodge.
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Now, a Prime Video documentary titled The Facebook Honeytrap: Catching A Killer details how Christine's niece, Lehanne, managed to find Christine's murderer and even strike up a fake relationship with him, all in a bid to get justice for her aunt.
In the documentary, staff members from the lodge recall how one employee was missing when police descended on the scene - a gardener named Andrew Ndlovu.
Andrew was described as 'really friendly', and when contacted after Christine's death he insisted it was 'not [him]' that was responsible - but his sudden disappearance raised suspicions.
Police learned Andrew had fled to the border of Zimbabwe, where he was originally from, leaving them with little power to catch him.
According to Lehanne, Andrew's extradition order simply 'never seemed to come together'.
Having suffered all her life with severe asthma that required her to go into hospital every six weeks, Lehanne wasn't able to travel to South Africa herself to try and get justice for her aunt. What she could do, however, was track Andrew down on Facebook.
In 2016, Lehanne quickly found Andrew's profile online, but his page was inactive. Determined not to give up, Lehanne began looking into Andrew's friends, and noticed something strange.
Many of the contacts on Andrew's Facebook page had other friends whose names were variations of Andrew's, with profile pictures of the same man. One of these profiles was actively posting on dating pages, so Lehanne decided to reach out.
She created a fake profile using the names of her two dogs, Missy Falcao, and DM'd Andrew a flirty message, saying he had 'sexy eyes'.
Andrew responded and the pair struck up a conversation which led to Lehanne asking where Andrew was living. In response, he said 'Johannesburg'. South Africa - not Zimbabwe.
She also secured Andrew's phone number, with the information allowing officials in South Africa to start closing in on Andrew.
Initial attempts to triangulate his location unfortunately failed, and when police used the Missy Falcao account to try and set up a 'date', Andrew suddenly stopped replying.
By July 2020, eight years after Christine's death, Lehanne remained desperate to get justice for her aunt, but felt helpless as to what more she could do.
The family had been advised by the foreign office not to share details about Andrew online, but when she noticed him update his profile picture, she decided to defy the advice and take action.
Using all the images she'd found while digging into his online life, Lehanne created a post which described Andrew as the man who was wanted for her aunt's murder.
The post was shared by a man named Ian Cameron, who had been working on Christine’s case for a civil rights organization, and overnight it went viral.
Before long, a woman named Mellissa got in touch with Ian. Andrew had been living in an apartment in her dad's back yard for a year while working for him.
Thanks to the details Lehanne had collected about Andrew, police finally had his location. They swarmed the apartment, and when they asked Andrew if they knew why they were there, he simply replied, 'yes'.
Andrew initially denied being responsible for Christine's death, but witness testimony in the trial revealed that on the night of the murder, Andrew had called his girlfriend at the time and confessed.
Andrew's DNA also matched DNA that was found at the crime scene.
After being found guilty of rape and murder, Andrew was sentenced to the maximum possible punishment - two life sentences.
To this day, Lehanne isn't sure if Andrew is aware of the role that Missy played in his capture. She said having a fake relationship with Andrew 'sickened' her, but it led to the justice that Christine deserved.
The Facebook Honeytrap: Catching a Killer is now streaming on Prime Video.
Topics: True crime, Facebook, Crime, World News, Amazon Prime
Emily Brown