Grisly new details have emerged of the murder of a young nurse who was found dead inside a Boston Logan International Airport parking garage.
Margaret ‘Maggie’ Mbitu, 31, suffered horrific facial injuries including slash wounds to her face and neck, and a puncture wound to her side, investigators have revealed.
Cops have launched an international manhunt for the suspected killer, Kevin Kangethe, 40, who was reportedly in a relationship with Mbitu and is feared to have boarded a flight to Kenya after the murder.
With investigators working with Kenyan authorities to find Kangethe, Mbitu’s grief-stricken mother Rose said: ‘I don’t get how somebody can take somebody’s life away for no reason… even now I have so many questions.’
Margaret ‘Maggie’ Mbitu, 31, was found dead inside a Boston Logan Airport parking garage on Wednesday, two days after she went missing
Kevin Kangethe, 40, is being sought by cops under suspicion of the grisly murder, and is feared to have fled to Kenya
Mbitu was last seen leaving work in Halifax, Massachusetts at around 11pm in her white 2013 Toyota Venza.
Her co-workers, who described her as the kind of person who would ‘pick up Christmas shifts so others could spend time with their families’, shared a flyer online soon after labelling her ‘missing’ when they couldn’t get hold of her.
Her body was discovered two days later on Wednesday evening by the Massachusetts State Police, who arrived on the scene at Logan Central Parking Garage at 6:30pm, according to a warrant for Kengethe’s arrest released Friday morning.
Officers tracked down Mbitu’s car in the parking garage, where they found an ‘unresponsive individual’, later identified as Mbitu, in the front passenger seat.
The SUV contained a significant amount of blood, and the body showed ‘obvious signs of death’, according to state police, including large slash wounds to her face and neck and a puncture wound to her side.
No motive has been established for the killing.
Tributes have poured in for Mbitu, who was described as the kind of person who would ‘pick up Christmas shifts so others could spend time with their families’
Kengethe was reportedly in a relationship with the nurse, although no motive has yet been established for the alleged murder
Mbitu’s body was found in a parking lot at Boston Logan International Airport, where she suffered slash wounds to her face and neck and a puncture wound to her side
Investigators released surveillance footage of a suspect, believed to be Kangethe, leaving the parking garage shortly after and boarding a flight
The warrant also noted that Kangethe bought airline tickets on Tuesday morning, the day after Mbitu went missing.
Surveillance footage released by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office showed a man believed to be Kengethe leaving the Central Parking Garage shortly after the Toyota was seen entering the parking lot.
The suspect was then tracked through the Logan airport terminal and boarded a flight.
Massachusetts investigators are now working with Kenyan authorities to track down the suspected killer, reports NBC Boston.
Tributes have poured in for Mbitu after her body was tragically found, with her loved ones saying they are struggling to come to terms with the ‘huge loss.’
‘We have lost a beautiful girl that we all loved,’ her cousin George Kamu said. ‘Whenever you saw that beautiful smile, that’s what you would see all the time.’
A missing poster produced after Mbitu went missing on Monday evening
A wanted poster detailing the arrest warrant out for Kangethe, with US investigators reportedly working with Kenyan authorities to track him down
Rose Mbitu, Maggie’s mother, addressed her daughter’s alleged killer directly as she told of her grief, adding: ‘I don’t get how somebody can take somebody’s life away for no reason… even now I have so many questions’
‘It’s a huge loss,’ said Ulea Lago, a representative of BAMSI in Brockton, where Mbitu worked. ‘She was an amazing young woman. People described her as having a ray of sunshine.’
Her cousin Virginia Ndungu lamented her passing as Mbitu had ‘so much ambition, she had drive… she was a beautiful soul.’
‘Her loss is not just a loss to us but to her friends, her co-workers, her patients, and to the entire community,’ she added.
‘I don’t get it,’ said her mother, Rose. ‘I don’t get how somebody can take somebody’s life away for no reason… even now I have so many questions.’
Rose Mbitu addressed her youngest daughter’s alleged killer directly in her remarks, adding: ‘I say to Kevin, wherever he is, dedicate his life to God because only God can change whatever mentality he is in.’
