Police probe cult link in couple's bizarre death

Lawyer Paul Magu and Lydia Wangui in a jovial mood during their wedding. (Photo: Courtesy)

Could the dead parents of the three missing children in Nairobi have been members of a religious cult?

That was one of the theories that detectives were pursuing Monday after the family revealed to them that lawyer Paul Magu and his wife Lydia Wangui were staunch followers of controversial Nigerian TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan).

Magu's passport showed he had travelled to Nigeria more than 20 times since 2009 to attend the church services.

On September 12, 2014, the church's guesthouse collapsed in Lagos killing 84 South Africans.

Monday, the family and police intensified their search for the missing children, concentrating on major dams in Kiambu and Thika.

The children went missing on Tuesday after the bodies of their parents were found in separate locations in Nairobi and Thika. They were identified as Allen, 9, Ryan, 8, and Tiffany Muthoni, 5.

Police suspect Magu may have killed the wife on November 23 in their house at Muthaiga Pipeline Estate after he sent their house-help to town twice for shopping. This was after bloodstains were found in their bedroom.

And after the woman was killed, her body was burnt outside their house and later stashed in a sack waiting for disposal the following day, police said.

Bodies found

The mutilated body of Wangui was found near Paradise Lost along Kiambu Road in Nairobi on November 24 and later taken to the City Mortuary.

And the body of Magu was found on the Thika-Garissa highway near Ngoliba on Wednesday where police believe he had either committed suicide after jumping onto a speeding bus.

Officers from CID's Serious Crime Unit handling the case and have visited the scenes where the bodies were found and home of the couple.

Head of the Unit John Kariuki said they are yet to know the motive of the deaths and the link to the missing children.

The family said Monday they had searched thickets near where Magu's car was found abandoned with the engine running, mortuaries, dams and talked to the extended family and friends in a bid to find the children in vain.

Magu's younger brother Andrew Kamau said before he died, Magu had contacted his lawyers to sign a will whose details he refused to divulge.

On Tuesday, Magu spent the night at his father's home in Thika before he woke up early on the fateful day. Whereas he had left his city home with his children, he was not with them when he arrived at his father's home in Thika, police said.

According to Kamau, Magu arrived at their home in Thika at about 2pm and held a brief talk with the parents before he excused himself and walked away.

He returned about five hours later while wet, claiming he had been attacked by thugs and robbed his mobile phone near a pond near his father's homestead.

The mobile phone was, however, found near the pond and police say they want to know who he had talked to before he died.