Body of murdered girl exhumed for DNA testing

Grace Njeri, 12, is suspected to be one of the five minors who were abducted. [Courtesy]

The body of one of the victims of the Moi’s Bridge serial killer has been exhumed by police for postmortem and DNA tests.

Grace Njeri, 12, is suspected to be one of the five minors who were abducted, defiled and killed by the self-confessed serial killer Evans Juma Wanjala.

Her body was exhumed at her grandparent’s home in Karara-Nyakinyua in Moi's Bridge in a three-hour exercise by detectives from the Homicide and Forensic department, as family and neighbours watched.

On July 22, Peter Kamau, the officer investigating the murder of the five minors, had requested the court to order the exhumation for a DNA test to ascertain if the body that was buried on June 24, 2020, was indeed Njeri’s.

Njeri was reported missing on May 21, 2020, and the decomposing body parts found on June 18, 2020 at Soronoi Farm.

According to the DCI, the body parts were not subjected to postmortem or DNA tests before burial.

Wanjala, who is set to appear in court on Monday, is said to have confessed to defiling and killing four other children.

He was captured on CCTV footage with his latest victim, 13-year-old Linda Cherono, occasioning his arrest and stay in custody since June 16. Cherono went missing on June 11, 2021. Her body was found on June 15 near Baharini Dam.

All the bodies had evidence of defilement.