The Karatina University Student who was strangled to death by her boyfriend lied to her friends that she was passing by a relative’s house in Nakuru before proceeding home only for her to end up dead in the hands of her suspected lover.
Police yesterday arrested Ezra Kipkemoi, a security guard in Nakuru who is being considered as the suspect in the murder of Karatina University student Maths and Biology student Phyllis Jepleting Jeruto. A court in Nakuru today allowed the police to detain the suspect for 14 more days in order to complete investigations.
Nakuru Chief Magistrate Isaac Orenge on Thursday ordered that Ezra Kipkemei Kemboi be held at Nakuru Central Police Station.
“He will be detained until January 19 after which the police will be required to decide whether to charge or free the suspect,” said Mr Orenge.
The University Student’s body was discovered on New Year’s day, six days after she went missing and her phone was switched off. The main suspect in the murder disappeared on December 26, five days after Phyllis was seen by neighbours entering his house at Naka estate in Nakuru.
“The decomposing body was discovered in the boyfriend’s house on January 1. Blood was oozing from the mouth, nose, and ears. We are pursuing the suspect to aid in the investigations,” said Nakuru County Criminal Investigations boss Anthony Sunguti.
“The main suspect’s phone number is switched off and neighbours say he was last seen on December 26,” he said.
Everything would however been different had Phyllis gone home as she was supposed to on December 19 when the school semester closed. The student received Sh2,600 to enable her travel home in Aldai from Karatina but decided to make a detour and visit her boyfriend to spend some quality time.
There was nothing out of the ordinary at this point since Phyliss had made a habit of visiting Anthony whenever she was on her way to school in Nyeri County or on the way home. Most of the times she would spend a few days
Sources close to the investigation have told us that Phyllis and Ezra have both stayed in Kibwareng in Nandi where her alleged killer was arrested at one point of their lives. Their relationship started last year before Phyliss joined university.
Preliminary investigations show that Ezra who is a lowly paid security guard was using his meager resources to support Phyliss who was a first-year student financially. In return the girlfriend visited him when she could to spend some quality time.
Police however suspect that Phyllis may have gotten a new boyfriend in campus while at the same time seeing Ezra who she only met when schools were opening or closing. According to detectives, this angle seems to be the most likely why Phyllis was killed.
A mobile phone belonging to Ezra which detectives tracked until they found him has already been sent to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Forensic Lab along Kiambu road in Nairobi where it is set to undergo an analysis.
Among the things detectives want to establish is the nature of conversations between the deceased and his alleged killer in the days leading to her murder. They also want to know how much money Ezra could have sent to Phyllis and what was the frequency.
Additionally, they want to establish the location of Ezra’s mobile phone between December 19 to December 27 which they could use to place him at the scene of murder.
A postmortem conducted by Government Pathologist Titus Ngulungu on Monday evening indicated that Phyllis, 19, died from asphyxiation, caused by manual neck compression.
“As a result of my examination, I formed the opinion that the cause of death was asphyxiation, caused by manual neck compression,” stated Dr Ngulungu in his report.
Vaginal swabs taken for further analysis to establish whether she was raped before she died are yet to be completely analysed.
