Police on Friday arrested the main suspect linked to the brutal murder of a couple in Nyamira County, which was reported on March 21, 2023.
The 40-year-old suspect Denis Ondara, who was armed with a ceska pistol loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition, was arrested following a 4-day chase that ended at the Isebania border in Migori County.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) the suspect is also believed to be behind a number of reported robbery with violence and murder incidents in Nairobi, Nyamira, Kisii and Migori counties.
“Upon searching the suspect, 14 more rounds of 9mm calibre were recovered, assorted spanners, nuts, screw drivers and pliers all used for breaking into parked vehicles,” said the DCI
The arrest comes two months after DCI Director General Mohamed Amin launched a comprehensive probe into the horrific murder.
Amin noted that the arrest was possible through the research and analysis conducted by detectives based at the Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau, and the Cyber Forensics team from the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, that placed the main suspect at the scene of the murder on the night of the attack.
On the morning following the murder, the country woke up to the shocking news of a couple that had been brutally murdered in Nyamakoroto village in Keroka, Masaba North Sub-County in Nyamira County.
Edward Morema Nyangechi, 62 and Grace Mong’ina Morema, 58, both based in the U.S were found murdered in the house after they failed to turn up for breakfast by 10am on the fateful morning. The couple lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States.
According to the initial report filed at Gesima Police Station, the house help Silvia Barongo, 19, was the first to become suspicious before she called the farmhand 30-year-old Jeremiah Bosire and together they raised alarm attracting the attention of other villagers.
It is while the villagers were conducting search that the lifeless body of the woman was discovered sprawled on a bed in a pool of blood in one of the bedrooms, while the man’s body was found in the garage.
The bodies bore deep cuts on their heads while their legs and hands were tied together using electric cables.
An autopsy report released later by the government pathologist indicated that the two died as a result of strangulation and blunt object injuries on their heads and upper limbs.
