Wambui murder: Mystery of disappearing object baffles detectives

Judy Wangui MungaiWhat about when a murder case seems clear-cut except for the important detail that there is no apparent weapon at all?

Detectives piecing together the last moments of Mary Wambui Kamangara, the businesswoman whose lifeless body was retrieved from a dam nearly two weeks ago have found themselves in a  “Hello, Dead Morning!” situation.

In the Tamil writer Rajesh Kumar’s cheesily titled short story “Hello, Dead Morning!” -a man is found hanging from the ceiling in a windowless room that’s locked from the inside. This seems to point to suicide…except that the room has no chair or stool that he could have stood on and kicked away.

The solution, provided at the end of a twist-laden narrative, is that the man did himself in by using a big block of ice, which melted quickly in the summer heat, leaving only a damp patch on the ground. And no, this isn’t a big spoiler: most long-time readers of crime fiction would already have figured it out.

Mary Kamangara and her husband Joseph Kori

Ms Kamangara was killed in the house of her husband Joseph Kori Karue’s mistress, Judy Wangui Mungai, on Saturday January 26 under circumstances that are yet to be fully established.

Detectives initially went with the lead given by Ms Mungai that she and Mr Karue (wambui’s husband) were at the scene of the murder. Later, detectives removed Mr Karue from the scene without exonerating him following their tracking of his phone signal and vehicle.

Mr Mathenge also appeared to remove Mr Karue from the scene during interrogation in custody after he was arrested on Monday.Mary Wambui's murder

Basing his narration on what Ms Mungai also apparently told him, Mr Mathenge(taxi guy) said Ms Mungai killed Ms Kamangara by hitting her on the forehead with a pressure cooker.

This is in line with post mortem findings, seen by Nation, that Ms Kamangara’s was hit with a blunt object nine times before being suffocated.

Missing, however, was the pressure cooker and a carpet that Mr Mathenge told police was spread on the back seat of the deceased’s Mercedes car where the body was laid on the way to disposal. In what would be an indictment of the lax manning of road blocks, Mr Mathenge told detectives they passed a police check at Kamiti Corner and they were waved on with only insurance being checked.

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