Pathologist rules out suicide in Nairobi mystery death

A woman who was found dead in her bed and initially thought to have committed suicide was strangled, pathologists established on Friday.

Careen Chepchumba, 26, left a hand-written note addressed to Kilimani Police Commander.

It read: “A note to OCPD Kilimani reporting a complaint against LO for extortion.”

Her father Hosea Kili, told the Nation that the note appeared incomplete and that she died on Tuesday before she could write more.

She had made similar complaints to her relatives three days earlier when they met at her father’s home in Kilimani.

“She was complaining that somebody was harassing her and that somebody was extorting money from her,” said Mr Kili, hours after a post-mortem revealed that she was murdered.

He said he had shared the information with the police and declined to reveal the details.

Initially, Chepchumba was thought to have either committed suicide or died in a diabetic coma, because she was ill.

A bottle containing pills for treating diabetes was found on the bedside table when police took away her body from her apartment at Santonia Court, off Kirichwa Road in Nairobi.

Police now believe Chepchumba was murdered and are looking for the killer.

“Because the body had injuries, we are investigating murder. Some unknown person or persons committed this offence. It was not sudden death. It was not suicide,” Kilimani CID boss Harrison Meme, said.

He added that Chepchumba had not made any complaint to the police. A pathologist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she died of “strangulation.”

Police have interviewed several people in a bid to unravel the murder puzzle. A well-known former TV anchor has been interviewed by police on three different occasions, a detective told the Nation.

He drove to Kilimani police station on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and was interviewed by one of the officers. At the crime scene, music was playing from a laptop found on the bedside table.

Her father said she appeared to have vomited and there were blood traces on the pillow.

“You must suspect people who have been close to her. The door to her apartment was not locked. Everything was neat in the house and initially we did not suspect anything,” Mr Kili, a lawyer, said.

Chepchumba’s younger brother drove her to the apartment around 9pm, on Sunday, after spending the day at her family’s home at Rose Park on Rose Avenue, Kilimani.

Mr Kili had picked her earlier at 4pm, after she requested to meet him and share “some concerns.”

Chepchumba, an electronic engineering graduate, had worked for two years at Kenya Power.