The main suspect in the murder of a Mlolongo hairdresser Jeniffer Mwende was arrested by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
In a statement on Saturday, October 28, DCI stated that they cornered the suspect as she was about to escape to Tanzania through Namanga.
According to DCI, the suspect was arrested past 9:00 pm in Kitengela town after boarding a Matatu that was headed to Namanga.
“The suspect was arrested in a Namanga-bound matatu minutes past 9pm after weeks of relentless manhunt by crime research detectives who were actioning forensic-led intelligence,” read the statement in part.
The body of Jeniffer Mwende was discovered dumped at a pit latrine in Mlolongo.
DCI Explain Love Triangle that Led to the Death of Mwende
Moreover, the directorate stated that the case of the murder of the hair stylist was a love triangle gone bad.
According to the sleuths, one of the suspects had on several occasions threatened the deceased regarding a man that they were both intimate with.
After a series of threats, Mwende went missing alarming her friends and coworkers who reported that she had disappeared.
“Mwende’s fellow hairdressers and friends became concerned after Mwende failed to show up at her workplace for days, prompting a report of her disappearance to the police.
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“Mwende’s brother who made the formal report at Mlolongo Police Station on August 29, 2023, told the OCS that she had been missing since August 25,” added DCI.
Further, the brother noted that Mwende disappeared after receiving a phone call from an unknown person.
DCI Hunt on Mwende
After the missing person’s report, the OCS circulated a signal of the missing lady to all station commands countrywide for search.
However, after days of searching for her, Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau detectives backed up by teams from the DCI National Forensic Laboratory began their hunt.
“After days of fruitless search for her, the case was forwarded to the DCI where fresh investigations were instituted, and statements recorded from various persons of interest.
“Investigative interviewing of the caretaker where Mwende had rented a room indicated that on Aug 22 and Aug 24, some unknown women had visited Mwende’s house while she was away and enquired of her whereabouts,” DCI explained.
Later, the officers learnt that Mwende was lured by two women to a house in pretense that there were clients who needed her services.
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“Once inside, Mwende was subdued by the two women before they called a third woman. The Third suspect was the wife to the man entangled in the affair,” added the statement.
The Murder of Jane Mwende
After roughing her up and threatening her with death, the suspects were afraid that the woman would report them to the police and decided to strangle her.
Notably, one of the women strangled her with a bedsheet while another suspect suffocated her with a piece of cloth.
“Interrogations on two of the suspects who had since been arrested indicated that the wife of the man planned to have the body sneaked out of the compound to a forest by an unknown taxi driver.
“However, the plan failed after they realized that they did not have the key to the main gate through which the car was to enter. It was then that they resorted to dumping the body into the pit latrine,” noted the statement.