FUGITIVE: Oscar Pistorius

by Lisa Wilson, Nick van der Leek

They're back! In FUGITIVE the rising stars of True Crime blast their spotlight back onto the skulking figure of Oscar Pistorius. In this trailblazing narrative, Wilson and van der Leek hit home with grueling analysis and a raft of groundbreaking chapters. The most radical is a swashbuckler titled INTENTIONALITY. By establishing a pattern of Oscar's intentionality over the course of his life, using 32 individual examples, the authors juxtapose the focused, purposeful and ambitious Blade Runner with Another Oscar - the anxious, uncertain interloper we saw sniveling and retching for the first time in court. Is Oscar really two people, or is he a lot more of one than Another? Continuing with the theme of intention, the authors examine and comment on the strength of the State’s case to appeal Masipa’s murder acquittal, as well as the status of Oscar’s pending probation. Will he get out? Should he get out? The narrative also takes a reflective turn as van der Leek, in his typical provocative style, illustrates the inner workings of both Oscar and Reeva by taking deeply personal leaves out of his own experience and putting them through a litmus test. The startling reality of this narrative is that if Oscar is a fugitive, he may not be the only one... While the authors have covered some territory before, as a result of so-called 'new evidence' entering the fray [the so-called 'candy-cane toilet’], Wilson and van der Leek turn their electron-microscope-like faculties onto the central pieces of evidence in this case - the door and the toilet itself - and the results are spine-chilling. There is humor, there is insight, but above all, the authors are a loud and clear broadcast on behalf of Reeva Steenkamp herself. "Oscar flushed away the first evidence then dragged Reeva out, beginning a process of ‘distributing’ the crime scene evidence from the original location. One of the critical pieces of evidence is not only banged out of the door, but thrown onto the opposite side of the bathroom and partially covered in towels...” “We must also note if Reeva had originally fallen over the toilet bowl as Oscar suggested, the toilet bowl would be covered in dark red films of blood. In other words, the toilet – inside and out – would be painted dark red, but it’s not. Secondary blood [diluted, pale] has smeared lightly onto the upper side of the toilet, and flowed lightly from the toilet rim above the area where flushed films reach, and the blood spooling into the toilet is the same pinkish colour as the pool above it on the rim. Yes, some of the blood in the bowl has been completely rinsed away, and some hasn’t...” “ ...Also, the door as we see it in the courtroom is not the door as it was found on the crime scene....”

188 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2015

About the author

Lisa Wilson (aka Juror13) is a trial blogger who resides in California, USA.

She and South African freelance photojournalist Nick van der Leek, under the partnership of #SHAKEDOWN, have paired up to co-author many trial narratives.