• Police picked the head for preservation and analysis as the probe and hunt on the killer goes on.
• Also recovered were some of the slain woman’s belongings including her mobile phone.
Image: INTERNET
Detectives on Sunday recovered a human head believed to be that of slain university student Rita Waeni Muendo.
The head was found in a dam in Kiambaa, Kiambu County, police said.
This gave a clue on where the killer may have headed after murdering Waeni on January 13 at an apartment in Roysambu.
The rest of her remains were found wrapped in a plastic bag and sheet and placed by a dustbin.
Police picked the head for preservation and analysis as the probe and hunt on the killer continues.
“We have a human head believed to be that of the slain woman but we will say more after probe,” said an officer aware of the probe.
Also recovered were some of the slain woman’s belongings including her mobile phone.
The motive of the murder is yet to be known so far.
Image: HANDOUT
The detectives handling the matter said they are now following crucial clues on the killer and hope to make an arrest.
But they added that the murder seemed to have been committed by a professional killer.
Mystery surrounds the move by the killer to clip off her fingernails.
A postmortem conducted on the body on Friday showed she had missing nails.
"This person who did all these also tried to clip off the fingernails for reasons which I might not be able to know but for us scientists when we see fingernails clipped off, we think probably the person was trying to hide evidence so that we are unable to get his DNA from the victim," government pathologist Johansen Oduor told reporters after the exercise.
The finding has left detectives puzzled with the motive of the killing still not yet established.
"I don't know why but in investigations, such nails help in gathering evidence. People fight when dying and DNA evidence can be hidden there," Oduor said.
Oduor, however, said there were remnants of some fingernails and that samples were taken for further analysis to help police in their investigations.
The autopsy confirmed that the body was dismembered with the head chopped off and the legs also cut off from the trunk.
"The skin looks like it was cut with a sharp object but the bone was sawed off with what looks like a hacksaw. This is the first time I'm seeing something like this. In my forensic life, I have never come across such an incident, Oduor said.
The pathologist picked samples from the kidney, stomach, vagina and blood for toxicology analysis at government chemist for further tests to ascertain if their were substances introduced to the body.
This is after police suspected the woman was drugged before being murdered.
A team from Directorate of Criminal Investigations joined the probe with the aim focused on the killer who is still at large.
Image: HANDOUT
Detectives believe contrary to reports, the killer could be a Kenyan.
Witnesses in the murder probe say the killer spoke in Swahili when he interacted with them.
Preliminary findings show he had bought the mobile phone he used in communicating with the owner of the apartment and to lure Waeni to the scene and used a fake line registered in a woman’s name.
Police are now focusing on the motive of the murder given the woman had just known his killer days earlier.
They are talking to the parents and fellow students at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and her friends as part of efforts to know why she was killed.
The family said the killer had demanded a ransom of Sh500,000 for him not to kill Waeni.
It also emerged that the killer had sent a picture to the family using Rita’s mobile phone as he prepared to kill her using a hacksaw as part of efforts to push them send the money he had demanded.
According to the family, she left her aunt's residence in Syokimau to meet with a friend.
They say at around 5am on Sunday, her father received a message, delivered from her phone number, demanding a ransom of Sh500,000 within 24 hours for the release of the student.
“With this message, the family reported the matter to the police and DCI, and investigations began,” said the statement.
They said an additional two messages were sent to the family demanding the ransom.
“Unfortunately, the family did not get further details about the ransom or an opportunity to explore this route. Additionally, some demands were made when she had already been murdered,” the family said.
The body parts of the student, who was due to join her fourth year of university, were found inside a trash bag in the apartment by the caretaker on Sunday, January 14.
Her head was, however, missing.
“We believe she was lured by her killer, who also tried to extort money from her family, even after killing her,” the family added.
They described her as “an intelligent, smart girl beyond her age at the very start of her youth,” who was known for her kindness, laughter, and “ability to light up any room she entered".
The team of detectives stumbled upon details indicating that Waeni and her killer met on the social media platform, Instagram.
The information was obtained from the slain woman’s account, which was cracked by detectives investigating the January 13 murder at an apartment in Roysambu area, Nairobi.