Man arrested for assaulting, defiling and killing five girls

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has arrested a serial killer who has brutally murdered five young girls after assaulting and defiling them.

The suspect, Evans Juma Wanjala, who procured the heinous murders between December 31, 2019 and June 15, 2021, first defiled his victims before strangling them to death.

The DCI said the minors, all aged between the age of 10 and 15, were lured by the suspect from different locations within Moi’s Bridge in Uasin-Gishu county, before being taken to secluded areas where he defiled and strangled them.

The DCI added that the suspect gave account of how he killed the five girls

"In a chilling confession by the killer who took detectives on a re-enactment of how he executed his ghastly missions, he gave a blow-by-blow account of how he took away the lives of Linda Cherono, 13, Mary Elusa, 14, Grace Njeri, 12, Stacy Nabiso, 10 and Lucy Wanjiru, 15, after defiling them," DCI explained.

The pedophile led detectives to the scene of every murder that he had committed, where charred remains of the murdered minors had earlier been recovered.

In one such instance, Linda Cherono’s decomposing body was found on June 15, 2021, near Baharini Dam, after she went missing a few days earlier.

In an incident that sparked protests along the busy Eldoret - Kitale highway, Cherono’s decomposing remains were found half dressed in a bush, with signs of strangulation, defilement and physical injuries visible on her body.

DCI explained that the modus operandi of the pedophile was replicated in all the other four murders where the victims were first defiled before being strangled to death and left in the bushes to be devoured by wild beasts.

In two such instances, the lifeless bodies of the victims were stashed in gunny-bags covered with vegetables and left to rot away in the bushes.

During the re-enactment, Homicide detectives augmented by their Scenes of Crime and Photographic and Acoustics counterparts, documented forensically each of the five murder scenes, as the executioner demonstrated how he abducted, defiled, murdered and dumped the bodies of the minors.

Further forensic analysis at the DCI forensic lab, positively connected the suspect to the murder of the minors.

Detectives have further established that Evans Juma is a habitual offender with pending warrants of arrest against him.

The pedophile had on diverse dates in 2018, defiled two minors in Kibwezi and upon being arraigned in court was released on bond.

After his release he immediately went into hiding prompting a warrant of arrest to be issued against him by the Makindu Law Courts.

This murder puzzle was cracked after homicide sleuths based at DCI headquarters, travelled to Eldoret West and took over the various case files regarding the wanton defilement and killings of the girls.

"The suspect is currently in our good hands and will be arraigned in court to answer to charges of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the penal code," DCI concluded.