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Families distraught after missing minors found dead in car at Athi River police park

Friday, July 3rd, 2020 00:00 | By
20 year old Fenny Aoko who is a parent of Henry Jackton who went missing on June 11. His body discovered at a vehicle towed at Athi River Police Station on Wednesday. Photo/PD/CHRISTINE AOKO

The families of two children whose bodies were found stuffed in a vehicle parked inside a police station in Athi River yesterday said they suspect foul play in the bizarre deaths and have urged police to expedite investigations into the matter.

The decomposed bodies of the two minors – Alvina Mutheu, aged three years and nine months, and Henry Jacktone, four, who have been missing for three weeks, were discovered on Wednesday evening in a saloon vehicle that had been parked at the Athi River Police Station yard after being involved in an accident near Gateway Mall in Syokimau, along Mombasa Road in March this year. 

The parents recounted to People Daily how they had received numerous calls from strange people demanding ransom two weeks ago.

A dark cloud engulfed the homes of Clinton Odhiambo and Fenny Aoko (Jacktone’s parents) and Stephen Mulinge and Catherine Musembi 36, parents of Alvina Mutheu at KMC estate, located barely a kilometre away from the police station as they relived the moment police broke the news to them.

“My daughter and my neighbour’s son might have been abducted by persons known to them in broad daylight.

Two weeks ago, we received calls from two different mobile numbers demanding money to release them.

We reported the matter, but we received no response from detectives,” said Musembi.

 The parents described the anguish they went through when police finally broke the news of their children’s killing on Wednesday evening.

Went missing

“I was asked to give the description of the clothes my son was wearing when he went missing.

I was so hopeful that my son had been found alive. After the description, the officer told us that it is unfortunate that the description we have given matched the description of a body that had been found there in the morning.

My wife began wailing uncontrollably,” narrates 26-year-old Odhiambo as he cuddled his one-year-old daughter.

Odhiambo, a casual labourer in Athi River town said the children disappeared on June 11.

 After frantic efforts to find the missing child, Odhiambo said he received a call on Wednesday evening asking him to report to Athi River Police Station where they learnt that their child had been killed. 

Odhiambo said that at first, the police officers insisted on showing them the child’s clothes for identification, rather than the body, and that it took an hour of heated exchanges for the officers to allow them to view the bodies of the children.

“We experienced double torture. It was the worst moment of my life,” he said. 

He accused the officers of failing to visit the families to follow up on the investigations since they first reported the disappearance of the two minors.

In the same building, Mulinge, 35, and his wife Musembi 36, were also struggling to come to terms with the macabre killing of their daughter Mutheu.

 “The bodies were fully decomposed. We could only identify the clothes. We fail to understand how the bodies ended up in a vehicle parked within the police station. How did our children mysteriously disappear while nobody noticed how they got out the compound,” said Mulinge. 

The two families said they are living in fear since the assailants are still at large. 

“The evil assailants seemingly wanted to hurt us. We fear they might strike again.  Let the relevant authorities protect us. We feel we are facing a faceless enemy,” said Musembi.

Neighbours said the children were schoolmates at Shaum Academy in Athi River town and had been close friends who often seen playing together.

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