Suicide or kidnap? Detectives follow leads in Thika trader’s disappearance

The search for Julius Gitau Wanyoike — the prominent Thika millionaire businessman who vanished in broad daylight on September 21 — now enters day 15 with the puzzle of his whereabouts getting more complex.

According to Mr John Kanda, who is the lead detective in the case, six statements have since been recorded “and we are now training our eyes on two possibilities — that Mr Gitau was kidnapped or he staged his own disappearance”.

This is a departure from the initial belief that Mr Gitau could have committed suicide by jumping into an unspecified river on the strength that a suicide note found in his vehicle indicated he had resolved to kill himself owing to dipping financial fortunes occasioned by the negative impact of Covid-19 on his businesses.

The detectives have marked Blue Post Hotel as the most possible last site where Mr Gitau is known to have been at around 10am before he mysteriously vanished.

“At 10am, it is very unlikely he jumped into the nearby River Chania. The water levels are too low to kill an adult and that is a very busy spot where we would be having a dozen witnesses confessing they saw him take the fatal dive,” said Mr Kanda.

Mr Kanda, who is the Gatanga Sub-County DCI boss, said Mr Gitau’s three wives, brother, driver and business manager have since been called to record statements.

Exam suicide note

“We are now waiting for the government documents examiner to give us a report on whether Mr Gitau authored the suicide note that was found in his vehicle. We are also waiting for the information technology analysis on his phone, which was also found next to the said suicide note, to ascertain his last moment’s contacts,” he said.

Mr Gitau reported to work in Thika town on September 21 accompanied by his first wife and at around 9.30am, took his Canter lorry and said he was driving himself to a gym located three kilometres away.

Half an hour later, he is said to have called his driver to go and collect the lorry from Blue Post Hotel and on the dashboard were the suicide note and his phone and, interestingly, a masking tape which is heightening suspicion that Mr Gitau might have been kidnapped.

According to a source privy to the investigations, “the naked eye analysis on the suicide note indicates it was not authored by Mr Gitau since his handwritings on previous documents does not match the one on the note”.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, some of the detectives in the case said they are perplexed by the way Mr Gitau’s family members are going on with their lives, apparently boldly convinced that no harm has befallen him, suggesting that the  businessman could have stage managed his disappearance in order to buy time with his creditors.

The Nation has also found out that there had been frosty relations between his first wife and the other two. A family member revealed that Mr Gitau was living under constant domestic pressure ever since he became polygamous. The businessman has 11 children aged between three and 19 years.