Breakthrough in Shantel murder case

Detectives investigating the kidnap and subsequent murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kitengela yesterday started cracking the case open, with arrest of their first suspect.

The officers have been looking into how Shantel Nzembi, a Grade Two pupil at Five Hills Academy, went missing as she played with her friends at a plot adjacent to her parent’s home at Ashut area.

Their probe focused on unmasking the owners of the many private numbers that the kidnappers used to contact Shantel’s mother, Christine Ngina, 37, as they demanded Sh300,000 ransom.

Also targeted in the investigations were the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, unique electronic identities, of handsets that were used to make the calls.

And on Wednesday at 1pm, detectives pounced on a boda boda rider in possession of a mobile handset they say was used by abductors to contact Ms Ngina.

The rider was arrested at Orata area in Kitengela town, a few metres from the spot where Shantel’s body was found dumped on Monday.

Sweating profusely

The middle-aged man was one of the two mobile subscribers police said were in constant contact with the main suspect in the murder plot, a hitherto unnamed woman.

During the boda boda rider's arrest by armed plain-cloth officers and witnessed by the Nation, the suspect, named withheld, put on brave face but did not resist the rough-up.

He was at pains to explain to detectives the whereabouts of his previous handset after claiming that he had picked up the phone officers used to locate him on a roadside.

Sweating profusely, he was whisked away and locked up at Kitengela Police Station to help with investigations.

Officers looking into the case said the man’s arrest came after four days of tracing several unregistered mobile numbers that had been used to communicate with the main suspect, who they say was the extortion ringleader.

The boda boda rider is said to have been working with another suspect, a middle-aged woman who is still on the run, with the two taking orders from the ringleader.

"There is no perfect crime. At least we have a breakthrough. The two identified suspects will help us with more information. We are building a strong case against them,” said a detective.

Preliminary investigations, police said, indicated the boda boda rider and the woman picked up Shantel, held her captive and murdered her after her parents failed to pay Sh300,000 ransom.

Later, the motorcycle rider is said to have dumped the body wrapped in wet bedsheets and stashed in a gunny bag near Shantel’s Ashut home on Monday morning.

Previously, detectives had established that the eight-year-old girl was duped and kidnapped by a light-skinned, middle-aged woman who claimed she was a new tenant looking for vacant flats.

According to detectives, the main suspect was using an unregistered Airtel line, which she discarded immediately she received some money. It was this line that was used to make more than 51 calls to Shantel’s mother’s phone at the weekend.

Mistaken target?

Investigations have also revealed that the killers could have mistaken Shantel for her playmate — the daughter of a police officer who is being treated as a person of interest in the probe.

Neighbours said the two girls were friends, lived in the same neighbourhood and both schooled at Five Hills Academy.

Police are seeking to establish if the officer, who has since recorded a statement twice, had received threats to her or her daughter’s life, and why her statement had discrepancies.

In the first statement, the officer told detectives that her daughter had left home on Friday with a relative for a visit.

However, a witness questioned by detectives on Tuesday afternoon disputed that account, saying on the day Shantel was abducted, she was playing with her friends, including the officer’s daughter.

In earlier interview, Ms Ngina, Shantel's mother, told Nation.Africa that in the first call the abductors made on Saturday, they wanted to know if she was the mother of Shantel’s friend.

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