Accused killer who left girlfriend’s body at Boston airport escapes police custody in Kenya
The man wanted for allegedly killing his girlfriend and dumping her body at a Boston airport before fleeing to Kenya escaped from 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 Thursday.
Kangethe was nabbed by local cops last week at a nightclub in Kenya three months after investigators found the body of his girlfriend, Margaret “Maggie” Mbitu, discarded in a garage at Logan International Airport on Oct. 31.
Mbitu, a 31-year-old nurse, had massive slash wounds on her face and neck as well as puncture wounds to her sides, police said. Her remains were found inside a car registered to Kangethe that was covered in blood.
Massachusetts police immediately identified Kangethe as a suspect but he had already gotten on a plane to Kenya.
In the weeks and months since he fled the country, Massachusetts police have been working with Kenyan investigators to locate and arrest the alleged murderer.
Now, Kenyan cops are once again looking for the man who was awaiting extradition back to the States.
The circumstances of how exactly he escaped the police station are unclear, but four police officers who were on duty at the time are in custody and have released statements, according to the Associated Press.
“We have arrested the officers who were on duty when he escaped to explain how it happened. It is just embarrassing to us,” Bungei said.
At around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a man named John Maina Ndegwa claiming to be Kangethe’s lawyer came to the station and asked police if he could speak with his client alone.
“The officers agreed to his request and removed the prisoner from the cells and took him to [an]office … leaving them there. After a short while the prisoner escaped by running away and left the [lawyer] behind,” the police report said.
Ndegwa was arrested, but officers weren’t able to catch up to Kangethe.
Police in Kenya are known to be corrupt, fueling suspicions that the accused murderer could have bribed his way to freedom.
With Post wires
