Detectives have arrested the murder suspect believed to be behind the gruesome death of a couple in Nyamira County.
The 40-year-old suspect Denis Ondara, who was armed with a ceska pistol loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition, was arrested following a 4-day chase that ended at the Isebania border, in Migori County.
The sleuths from the Homicide department, which is also leading in the Shakahola exhumation exercise, pounced on the armed and dangerous murder suspect yesterday afternoon, shortly before he crossed the border to evade justice.
On the morning following the murder, the country woke up to the shocking news of a couple that had been brutally murdered in Nyamakoroto village in Keroka, Masaba North Sub-County in Nyamira County.
Edward Morema Nyangechi, 62 and Grace Mong’ina Morema, 58, both based in the U.S were found murdered in the house after they failed to turn up for breakfast by 10am on the fateful morning. The couple lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States.
According to the initial report filed at Gesima Police Station, the house help Silvia Barongo, 19, was the first to become suspicious before she called the farmhand, a 30-year-old Jeremiah Bosire, and together they raised alarm attracting the attention of other villagers.
It is while the villagers were conducting search that the lifeless body of the woman was discovered sprawled on a bed in a pool of blood in one of the bedrooms, while the man’s body was found in the garage. The bodies bore deep cuts on their heads while their legs and hands were tied together using electric cables.
An autopsy report released later by the government pathologist indicated that the two died as a result of strangulations and blunt object injuries on their heads and upper limbs.
Investigation into the incident was immediately launched as the Director of Criminal Investigations Mr Mohamed Amin, ordered a comprehensive probe into the murder most horrid, prompting the deployment of the extremely efficient homicide sleuths.
Four days ago, the team of detectives received information that the murder suspect had been spotted in Ruai, where he had gone into hiding after the incident. The officers moved with speed and as they were closing in on him, he slipped their dragnet by a whisker.
However, unknown to the murder suspect – whose time of arrest was nigh, the determined sleuths had trialled him and were breathing down his neck waiting for the most best moment to pounce.
Yesterday at 3pm, the sleuths posing as hawkers struck in one swift move and whisked the armed murder suspect away without the latter firing a single shot, leaving a cloud of dust whirl in their wake.
Before the other traders selling merchandise at the border could know what had just transpired, the hatchback carrying the murder suspect was negotiating the first bend towards Migori, en route to the capital.
Upon searching the suspect, 14 more rounds of ammunition, of 9mm calibre, were recovered, assorted spanners, nuts, screw drivers and pliers all used for breaking into parked vehicles.
The suspect is also believed to be behind a number of reported robbery with violence and murder incidents in Nairobi, Nyamira, Kisii and Migori counties.
So far, 3 suspects have been arrested in connection with the twin murders.
The successful investigation into this case was also made possible through the research and analysis conducted by detectives based at the Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau, and the Cyber Forensics team from the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, that placed the main suspect at the scene of the murder on the night of the attack.
