Nairobi — The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Homicide detectives have taken over the murder case of 20-year-old university student Rita Waeni whose dismembered body was discovered at an apartment in Roysambu last week.
Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor postponed the autopsy on the recovered head, believed to be that of the victim, which was found in a dam in Kiambaa on Sunday.
The Homicide team, now in charge of the case, is set to conduct a forensic analysis on the head to determine the identity of the victim.
The investigators also located the missing mobile phone of the victim.
Two Nigerian nationals, along with four Kenyans and an individual with a Mozambican passport are in custody in connection with the gruesome murder.
However, they have not yet been formally charged or asked to plead.
While the motive behind the murder remains unknown, the detectives believe that the perpetrators were professionals.
Her body was found in a dustbin hours after she had been killed in cold blood and a postmortem showed she had missing nails.
"This person who did all these also tried to clip off the fingernails for reasons which I might not be able to know but for us scientists when we see fingernails clipped off, we think probably the person was trying to hide evidence so that we are unable to get his DNA from the victim," government pathologist Oduor said after the exercise.
The finding has left detectives puzzled with the motive of the killing still not yet established.
"I don't know why but in investigations, such nails help in gathering evidence. People fight when dying and DNA evidence can be hidden there," Oduor said.
Oduor however said there were remnants of some fingernails and that samples were taken for further analysis to help police in their investigations.
The autopsy confirmed that the body was dismembered with the head chopped off and the legs also cut away from the trunk.
"The skin looks like it was cut with a sharp object, but the bone was sawed off with what looks like a hacksaw. This is the first time I'm seeing something like this. In my forensic life, I have never come across such an incident," Oduor said.
