A man accused of killing his girlfriend in Boston and fleeing to Kenya has been extradited back to the United States — the latest twist in an international case that saw his arrest at a Nairobi nightclub and his escape from jail.
Kevin Kangethe, 42, is accused of killing nurse Margaret “Maggie” Mbitu, whose body was found in a parked car last November at Boston’s Logan International Airport, two days after she was reported missing. Authorities say he then immediately boarded a flight and fled the country.
For months, the suspect eluded authorities after he arrived in Kenya. In January, investigators spotted Kangethe at a nightclub in Nairobi and arrested him. He escaped from jail days later and was on the run for a week before he was rearrested in Nairobi in early February.
Kenya has an extradition treaty with the United States.
Kangethe’s extradition Sunday returns him to the jurisdiction of his alleged crime, some 7,000 miles away. He is expected to face a murder charge at Suffolk Superior Court on Tuesday, said Renson Ingonga, Kenya’s director of public prosecutions.
“I wish to reiterate my commitment and support, whenever needed, to the United States of America, and in particular the prosecution team as they proceed with the next phase of the case,” Ingonga said in a statement Monday.
He boarded a flight the day before her body was found
Mbitu, 31, lived in Whitman, a Boston suburb, and was the youngest in a family of health care workers. Her two older sisters and her mother are all nurses.
She was reported missing in late October after she didn’t show up for work, which was uncommon for her.
Her family notified the police and called nearby hospitals to check if she was a patient. Investigators believed her boyfriend was a suspect, according to a criminal complaint from the state police.
With the help of surveillance cameras, police tracked his Toyota SUV to the airport and found it in a parking garage. Inside they found Mbitu’s bloodied body with slash wounds on her face and neck, Massachusetts State Police said in an affidavit.
The day before her body was found, Kangethe boarded flights from Boston to Kenya. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the parking garage and entering an airport terminal, police said.
Investigators learned he had bought a plane ticket the previous morning, state police said.
“Why her?” her sister, Ann Mbitu, told CNN in November. “Nobody’s daughter deserves this, but why my sister? Why Maggie?” “I’m so angry, I’m still trying to process everything. At 31, we’re not supposed to be planning her funeral. We’re supposed to be planning celebrations, birthdays, weddings, travel.”
The fugitive was arrested in a Nairobi nightclub but escaped from jail a week later
Kangethe has been arrested twice with the help of tipsters.
After he arrived in Kenya, he eluded authorities for three months. Then in late January, someone alerted police that a man at a nightclub in Nairobi resembled images of the suspect they’d seen on social media, Kenyan authorities said.
An undercover officer tracked him down and struck up a conversation with him, a police official told CNN. Within hours, authorities identified the man as Kangethe, whom authorities in Massachusetts had obtained an arrest warrant on a murder charge.
A week later, a man claiming to be his lawyer appeared at the police station where he was being held and asked to speak with him. Officers released the suspect from his cell and left them alone in an office. The suspected escaped on foot and evaded authorities for days, police said.
He was re-arrested a week later at a relative’s house in a suburb of Nairobi after another tip-off, Kenyan police said.
Kevin Hayden, District Attorney of Suffolk County in suburban Boston, thanked the US State Department, the FBI, the state police, the Kenyan government and Kenyan law enforcement agencies for facilitating the arrest.
“Their tremendous and untiring efforts will provide Margaret’s family and friends the opportunity to see Kevin Kangethe face justice for this terrible crime,” Hayden said in a statement in February.
Investigators have not revealed a motive in the killing.
