Juja homicide detectives are after two suspects believed to be involved with a murder that unfolded on the city’s East Side a weekend ago.
Detectives are on the trail of a complex tale of money, love, blackmail and murder as they try to piece together the last moments of Mary Wambui Kamangara, the businesswoman whose lifeless body was retrieved from a dam nearly two weeks ago.
Ms Kamangara(Koris wife) was killed in the house of her husband Joseph Kori Karue’s mistress, Judy Wangui Mungai, on Saturday January 26 under circumstances that are yet to be fully established.
Detectives initially worked with information given by Ms Mungai that she and Mr Kori(man in the center) were at the scene of the murder. Later, detectives removed Mr Kori from the scene without exonerating him following their tracking of his phone signal and vehicle.
Fourways Junction Phase II
Investigators used cell phone data and car-tracking solutions to conclude that Mr Kori was not at Fourways Junction at the time of the murder.
Evidence based on witness accounts and CCTV footage shows that Ms Wambui and Ms Wangui shared a hearty afternoon at Homeland Inn, off Thika Road, before leaving for Fourways Junction in Ms Wambui’s car at sunset.
It is not clear how and why the two women decided to go to Ms Mungai’s residence, and this will be a key factor in establishing whether the murder was premeditated.
According Mr Mathenge’s account, the women started arguing over Mr Kori’s photos in the house and the logbook of an identical Mercedes Benz, which Mr Karue had apparently bought for the mistress.
A fight ensued, Mr Mathenge said, and the two wrestled over a knife, which Ms Mungai wanted to use to stab her rival, before the suspect rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a pressure cooker and hit Ms Wambui with it on the head.
The knife is part of the items that police found at Ms Wangui’s residence and forwarded for forensic examination.
The pressure cooker has not been found after it was thrown in a thicket along the Ruiru-Kiambu road.
Mr Mathenge(taxi operator) said when Ms Wambui(Kori’s wife) screamed for help, Ms Mungai (suspect) suffocated her to death, dragged the body to the kitchen, and wrapped it in bedding.
A post-mortem report shows that she was hit with a blunt object nine times and suffered internal bleeding to the brain.
The suspect Ms Mungai is said to have left the body in the house , gone to Homeland Inn, where she was trying to get another car to dispose of the body and failed to get one. It is then that Mr Mathenge(taxi operator) says Ms Mungai(suspect) called him around 10pm .
The suspect Ms Mungai then drove back home in Ms Wambui’s(koris wifes car) car. Mr Mathenge (taxi guy) arrived several minutes after midnight in his Toyota Noah. They left again for Homeland Inn in his car but could not convince the guards to release the other vehicle.
The other vehicle she wanted was the one that after the mechanic had repaired , brought it to her in the hotel while they were still with Kori’s wife but failed to give her the car pass and that is why gourds could not allow her to use it.
These movements were captured on CCTV.
They drove back to the estate, parked Mr Wambui’s car near the stairs, carried the body downstairs, and placed it in the back seat. The two then used the Kiambu-Kamiti-Ruiru road, escaped a near-detection at a roadblock at the Kamiti Junction and proceeded to dump the body at Mugutha.
While on their way back, Mr Mathenge said they stopped at Gitambaya, between Ruiru and Kiambu, where Ms Mungai threw away the pressure cooker and the bedding.