Son of murdered couple arrested, knife recovered in toilet

Lawrence Simon Warunge was arrested together with his 23-year-old girlfriend to help police unravel the January 5 murder of Nicholas Njoroge, his wife Ann, two children and a construction worker.

Warunge, a third year IT student at the Mt Kenya University was arrested at a relative’s house at Wangige on Friday night by officers from the Karuri Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

The girlfriend, only identified as Muthoni and who sells eggs at Biafra in Thika Town, was arrested at her rented house in Kijabe Town.

The two are being locked up at Muthaiga Police Station.

DCI chief George Kinoti tweeted that the two had been arrested.

Kinoti said the duo would help the police in the investigations including the recovery of the murder weapons.

Kinoti said Warunge as person of interest in the murder case investigations.

Yesterday, investigators from the DCI Homicide Unit recovered a kitchen knife in a pit latrine in a house in Naivasha in which the suspect  is believed to have taken cover. Investigators say the knife was the weapon used to stab Njoroge 34 times. 

Also found in the toilet was a black trouser and a white jacket. The detectives also took for analysis remains of clothes set ablaze at the rented house.

The DCI has managed to reconstruct what they believe were the last moments of the four family members and their worker on the night of the attack.

These timelines also include events of the day before the attack and after.

The evidence gathered so far indicate that the killings were executed by one person.

According to the police, on the fateful night January 5, the attacker arrived at the house where the construction worker was sleeping at around 8.15pm.

Details pieced together by investigators indicate that the attacker who was riding on a bike is said to have proceeded straight to a detached two-roomed house, a few feet from the main house. 

Victims’ last moments

The killer is believed to have attacked his first victim –the construction worker who was sleeping in this house.

Police say after butchering this worker, the killer came face to face with the second man who is the site supervisor.

The site supervisor was returning home from the local shopping centre where he was having drinks.

The supervisor, who has since recorded his statement with the police said the attacker attempted to grab him but he managed to flee into the bush.

The lone attacker, investigators found, then proceeded to the house where Njoroge and his family were at around 8.30pm. Here the attacker, who had keys to the two gates in the compound then opened the gates and proceeded straight to the kitchen door where he gained access into the main house.

The killer must have then bludgeoned Anne Njoroge and a son with the crude weapons inside the kitchen.

He then moved to a second bedroom where a second victim –also a boy was clobbered to death. This victim had his throat slit with a knife.

All this time, detectives believe Njoroge was in his bedroom upstairs where he was also having his supper.

There is a possibility that Njoroge heard the commotion and decided to escape by jumping from the balcony of the first floor of his house.

After jumping to the ground floor, Njoroge appears to have met with his attacker who stubbed him 34 times in the chest and once in the stomach.

After the extermination, the killer then locked the family house and the two gates and took off.

Investigations have established that the killer used motorbike to flee the scene of crime. A boda boda operator who transported the suspect from the home to Wangige town is among the suspects that the police are hunting.

At Wangige town the suspect is said to have boarded a matatu to Kijabe where he may have spent the previous night before January 5 attack. Police believe that the attacker was well familiar with the home.

“This explains why there was no alarm by the family. We noted that there was no forced entry into the compound and we suspect that whoever it was must have had the keys to the two gates,” said a senior officer privy to the matter.

Police have also established disharmony in the family which climaxed last year when one son reported his mother, Anne to Rweno Police Station alleging a plan to poison him.