Death struck Ruth Kinyua just when things were looking up

Ruth Wanjiru Kinyua, 24, had just received good news.

She had just signed her employment contract at a firm along Mombasa Road and was to report the next day.

Besides, her mother had just approved her relationship with one Francis Kinuthia and it was just three days before he would visit their home at Kayole Junction.

All that did not happen.

Instead, Ruth would be found dead on the floor of her former boyfriend’s house on Wednesday last week, with a knife lodged in her neck, with her laptop bag still on the back.

SUICIDE
Her ex-boyfriend, Simon Musyoka, who had sent a text message to his friend and told him that he was planning to commit suicide, was not in the house.

His phone was switched off and has remained so to date.

After he received the text, Simon’s friend went to his house only to find the door locked.

POLICE

Since he could not ascertain whether the door was locked from the inside or from the outside, Simon’s friend decided to peep through the key hole.

“When he looked inside, he saw the body of a woman covered in blood and so he decided to go to the police station to report the matter,” a police officer attached to Ruai said.

He said Ruth’s half-naked body was on the floor near the door.

Kayole police boss Joseph Gichangi has appealed to anyone with information on the whereabouts of Simon, who worked as a salesman at Dune Petrol Station in Ruai, to inform the police.

SHOCKING CALL
On Monday, Ruth’s mother, Ms Salome Muthoni, a nurse in Dandora, recounted the events of the fateful day when she saw the bloody body of her first born child in a police vehicle at Ruai Police Station.

“I was at work when someone called me with a strange number. The caller, a man, told me that my daughter was very sick and that I needed to get back home immediately,” she said.

She added: “Just after the call was disconnected, my friend Mama Ciku called. She told me to meet her at Ruai so that we can go and see my daughter.”

BODY IDENTIFICATION
On her way to Ruai, she received another call this time from someone who identified himself as a police officer.

“He asked me to go to the police station immediately because he wanted some information from me. I decided to go the police station first,” she said.

At the gate of the police station, Ms Muthoni was drawn to a police pick-up around which a crowd had milled.

“I looked into the pick-up and saw the body of a woman covered in blood. On a closer look, I realised it was my daughter. My body got numb and I started screaming. I cannot recall what happened after that,” she said.

INVESTIGATION
Ms Muthoni claimed Simon, whom she knows, had tried twice to kill her daughter.

He once kidnapped her and tried to set ablaze the house they were in but they were rescued, she said.

Detectives are analysing Ruth’s phone and her laptop.

An officer privy to the investigations said the suspect’s phone signal was last traced to Matuu.