The man wanted for allegedly killing his girlfriend and dumping her body at a Boston airport before fleeing to Kenya escaped police custody in the African country, officials said.
Kevin Kangethe, 40, ran out of a Kenyan police station and sped off in a privately owned minivan after it took investigators three months to find and arrest him, Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said on Thursday.
Kangethe was arrested by local police last week at a nightclub in Kenya three months after investigators found the body of his girlfriend, Margaret “Maggie” Mbitu, dumped in a garage at Logan International Airport on October 31.
Mbitu, a 31-year-old nurse, suffered large gashes to her face and neck and cuts to her side, police said. His body was found in a car registered to Kangethe covered in blood.
Massachusetts police quickly identified Kangethe as a suspect but he had already boarded a plane to Kenya.
Kevin Kangethe is seen on surveillance footage at Boston Logan International Airport. Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office
In the weeks and months since he fled the country, Massachusetts police have been working with Kenyan investigators to find and arrest the alleged killer.
Now, Kenyan police are once again looking for the man who is awaiting extradition back to the United States.
The exact circumstances of his escape from the police station are unclear, but four police officers who were on duty at the time are in custody and have issued statements, according to the Associated Press.
Margaret “Maggie” Mbitu’s body was found in a car in the Logan Airport garage on October 31. Cheryl Fiandaca/X
“We have detained the officer on duty when he fled to explain how it happened. It’s just embarrassing for us,” Bungei said.
At about 4pm on Wednesday, a man named John Maina Ndegwa who claimed to be Kangethe’s lawyer came to the station and asked the police if he could speak to his client alone.
“The officer agreed to his request and removed the prisoner from the cell and took him to [an]office … left them there. After a while the prisoner escaped by running away and leaving [lawyer] in the back,” the police report said.
Kevin Kangethe appears at the Mililani law court in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 31, 2024. AP
Ndegwa was arrested, but officers were unable to catch Kangethe.
Police in Kenya are notoriously corrupt, fueling suspicions that an accused killer could bribe his way to freedom.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
