Driver of black SUV key to resolving murders of woman, daughter

 

75-year-old Judith Wanjiku Mwai who was found dead in her South B residence.

The identity of a driver of a black SUV who dropped a woman and her daughter at their house in Nairobi at 2.30am on Sunday, only for their bodies to be found in their bedrooms on Monday, will be crucial in unravelling the murders.

Also at the centre of investigation into the killings of Judy Wanjiku Mwai, 73, and her daughter Catherine Nyaguthii Mwai, 47, is what their mission was on the fateful night.

The two women’s bodies were found on Monday inside house number 275 within Golden Gate Court in South B Estate.

Alex Makosi, who is in charge of the guards at the court, told The Standard yesterday that the guard who was on duty said the two first left the house in the four-wheel drive at around 11pm on Saturday.

They returned at about midnight, stayed briefly and left again in the same car, this time with a driver who is yet to be identified. 

The same car would later drop them at their residence at 2:30am on Sunday. That was the last time the two were seen alive. 

They had failed to visit Nyaguthii’s father, John Mwai, in a city hospital on Sunday and Monday as had been routine, prompting a relative to go to their house on Monday evening, only to find them dead.

The elderly woman had been strangled using a sisal rope. Her body was lying on the bed with the sisal rope around her neck and tied on the bed stand.

According to preliminary findings, blood was oozing from her mouth.

Nyaguthii’s body was found on the floor and had injuries on her neck, indicating strangulation.

Mwai was a retired Treasury employee, while Nyaguthii retired from a local bank.

Police suspect they were killed on Sunday night.  

The two would take turns to visit Mwai, who was admitted to a city hospital late August. He has been ailing for the last 10 years.  

Nyaguthii’s sister Peris Wambui accompanied them sometimes. On Monday, she visited her father and realised the two had not checked on him for two days.

From the hospital, she went to their home, but did not get a response when she knocked the door. She forced her way in, went to the bedrooms upstairs, where she found the bodies. She reported the matter to the Industrial Area Police Station. 

Julius Mukhebi, a guard at the court, said the last time he saw the two was on Saturday during the day. He says they used to access their house through Gate C, which he mans.

According to Mr Mukhebi, Wanjiku used to go for shopping every Sunday evening, except this last one.

Mukhebi says Nyaguthii would wake up early for church but on Sunday she did not. After attending her service, she would return home and then the mother would leave for service. They found it unusual that this did not happen on Sunday.

Eric Mwangi, a family member, says the two did not express any fears for their lives and they did not have any disputes that he was aware of.

If they did, he added, they were very open that they would have disclosed.

He described Nyaguthii as the most reliable cousin in their family.

“Whenever we had any meeting, she was the one who followed up on everybody,” Mr Mwangi said.

Mukhebi described Mwai as generous and welcoming.

“At times, she would give me Sh100 and tell me to go buy milk,” he said.

When The Standard visited the scene, the house did not seem to have been broken into and everything inside was in order.

Mukhebi said the only time the compound where the house sits was accessed was on Sunday when a tenant who lives in the servant quarters, together with her brother, arrived at around 10am.  

By the time his shift was ending on Sunday, Mwai and Nyaguthii had not left the house.  

Neighbours said they neither heard nor saw anything to suggest something was amiss.

The police said there were signs of struggle in the house, which indicated more than two people were involved in the killings. Nothing was stolen from the house as electronics, including the victims’ mobile phones, were found intact.

The bodies were taken to a Nairobi mortuary.

Nairobi police boss Philip Ndolo said no arrest had been made, adding that they had not established the motive of the killings.

“This seems to be murder but experts are on the ground looking for leads,” he said.

Yesterday, detectives from Makadara DCIO were busy trying to piece together the circumstances leading to the killings.