Man accused of killing Massachusetts nurse whose body was found in airport garage is arrested in Kenya
By Emma Tucker and Raja Razek, CNN
(CNN) — A man has been arrested in Kenya in connection with the killing of a Massachusetts woman whose body was found inside a car in a parking garage of a Boston airport in November, state officials said.
Kenyan authorities on Monday arrested Kevin Kangethe, a Boston-area man who US investigators believe killed Margaret “Maggie” Mbitu before flying from Boston to Kenya, the Massachusetts State Police said.
The body of Mbitu, a 31-year-old nurse who investigators say had a relationship with Kangethe, was found in a garage at Boston Logan International Airport on November 1, two days after she was reported missing, state police said.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden thanked the US State Department, the FBI, the state police and the Kenyan government and law enforcement agencies for facilitating Kangethe’s 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 release.
The week of her killing, an arrest warrant was issued for Kangethe, a Lowell resident, who had already boarded a flight to Kenya when investigators determined he was a suspect, police said.
Kangethe is being held in Nairobi awaiting extradition to Boston, where he will face trial, Massachusetts State Police said Tuesday. Kenya has an extradition treaty with the United States.
CNN has contacted the Massachusetts State Police to ask for additional information.
After Mbitu was reported missing, investigators “were led to Mbitu’s boyfriend” – Kangethe – according a criminal complaint from state police obtained by CNN affiliate WFXT.
License plate recognition cameras had picked up the whereabouts of Kangethe’s Toyota SUV and it appeared consistent with the location of Mbitu’s phone, according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities tracked the vehicle from Lowell to the Logan Airport parking garage, where they found Mbitu dead in the front passenger seat with slash and stab wounds on her face and neck, police say.
Investigators learned that Kangethe had bought a plane ticket to Kenya the previous morning, state police said. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the parking garage and entering an airport terminal, where he boarded a flight, police said.
Police haven’t announced a motive in Mbitu’s death.
Mbitu, of Whitman, Massachusetts, was the youngest in a family of health care workers – her two older sisters and her mother are all nurses. The family came to the United States from Kenya in 2007 and Maggie Mbitu earned a nursing degree from Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts.
CNN’s Faith Karimi and Aaron Eggleston contributed to this report.
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