BOSTON- Kevin Kangethe was held without bail on Tuesday after disturbing new details emerged about the murder of his former girlfriend Maggie Mbitunearly a year after her body was found in a car at Boston’s Logan Airport.
Kevin Kangethe hides in court
Kangethe, 42, of Lowell, hid in a hallway during his arraignment in Suffolk District Court and failed to encounter Mbitu’s family when they tried to meet him in person for the first time since his death. fled to Kenya ten months ago.
“We will continue to fight until this coward is locked up and never sees the light again,” Maggie’s cousin Mary Kinyariro told reporters after the hearing.
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Maggie Mbitu murder
Prosecutors say Kangethe met 31-year-old Mbitu as she was leaving her job as a nurse in Halifax, Massachusetts, late Monday night, October 30, 2023.
“Sometime between the time he left Halifax and arrived at Mr Kangethe’s home in Lowell, he brutally attacked Ms Mbitu with a knife in the car,” prosecutor Mark Lee told the court.
30 hours in a car
“Ten wounds to her face and neck alone, including fatal lacerations to her carotid artery and jugular vein. Mr Kangethe then left her body in the front seat of a heavily tinted car from the time of her death until approximately 30 hours later when he drove the car to Logan Airport with Miss Mbitu’s body in the front seat, face down, the seat reclined. Her body covered with bags and random objects to make it harder to see her and then took a one-way flight to Nairobi, Kenya,” Lee said.
Mbitu’s family reported her missing and her body was found on November 2 in an airport parking garage.
According to investigators, during the three days Mbitu was missing, Kangethe picked up her phone and spoke to people looking for her, before throwing the phone in a trash can in Chelsea on her way to the airport.
“Everything about Mr. Kangethe’s flight from the United States suggests he intended it to be permanent. He left on a one-way ticket. In the process, he left behind a fully furnished apartment, a job and a vehicle in his name,” Lee said.
Kevin Kangethe jailed twice
Kangethe was arrested in Kenya on January 29 and reportedly had Mbitu’s driver’s license, Bank of America debit card and a visa card with him. But he escaped from police there a few days later.
He was captured again on February 14 outside Nairobi. Kangethe renounced his U.S. citizenship while abroad.
The extradition process to get him back to Boston took nearly seven months, until he was brought back by federal agents on Saturday.
“The most serious case”
“Today’s end result would not have been possible without the seamless cooperation at both the federal and state levels,” said Matthew O’Brien, special agent in charge of the State Department in Boston.
Lee called this “the most serious case we have in the Commonwealth.”
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“Maggie was taken from us far too soon,” said Mbitu’s cousin Joe Muhoro. “She was our sister, our daughter, our friend, our colleague. Today we remember her kindness.”
Kangethe pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and is due back in court on Tuesday, November 5.
