Mother's crusade to solve murder

A mother's dogged campaign to solve her son's murder 30 months ago may see the involvement of UK's Scotland Yard detectives.

Scotland Yard have docketed the case, which bears baffling similarities to another unresolved killing 60 years ago barely a mile away at Nairobi's upmarket Karen suburb, and are only awaiting clearance from the Kenya Police, Mrs Errol Trzebinski said last week.

She remains baffled by the the similarity between her son's murder and that of Lord Errol, about which she wrote in the Life and Times of Lord Errol.

"I am stunned at the similarity," she says of the murder of her son, Antonio Trzebinski (pronounced Zebinsky) who was murdered on October 16, 2001.

Tonio, as he was better known, was an established artist in Karen-Langata where he lived with his wife of 12 years, Anna Cunningham-Reid, 35, and their two children, Stas, 9, and Lana, 8.

Tonio was a fanatical surfer, a big game fisherman and an artist, with a mop of ringlets and a muscular physique. He would trek with his wife and friends in the bush, fly to safaris in his small plane and go deep sea fishing in the Indian Ocean.

He studied at the Slade School of Art and the Chelsea School of Art in London and has exhibited in Kenya, Sicily and the UK. His artistic work attracted many, his painting power and intensity depicted the man he was, strong and aggressive. He loved classical music. His canvasses adorned galleries and restaurants around the world. Education minister Prof George Saitoti is a collector of his works.

Tonio's wife, a distant relative of the illustrious pioneering settler Lord Delamere, was a passionate promoter of his art and used her contacts around the world to get his paintings out to a wider market.

But all was not well in their marriage. For some time they had been trying to patch up their differences for the sake of their children but things were not working out.

For one Anna could do little to stop him from visiting a woman friend, Natasha Illum Berg, known to friends as the Ice Queen, who also lived in Karen.

Natasha, a 30-year old Danish blonde who writes about game hunting and conservation, had been staying alone for three months. Her British fiance Willis-Fleming worked as a United Nations aid worker. He had been out of Kenya with the UN peacekeeping force in Nigeria. In his absence, Tonio would visit and spend time with her in the evenings, to the chagrin of Anna.

September 25, 2001 was the turning point of their marriage. Tonio and Anna had just seen off his parents, Trzebinski and Sbish who were returning to Mombasa. He excused himself to go to buy turpentine for his paintings. But Anna thought Tonio was going to see Natasha.

When he returned, all the paintings he had done had been destroyed and Anna was furious. A major fight ensued and Tonio took off and went to put up with a male friend.

"When I called to inform them we had reached Mombasa safely," said Trzebinski, "I was shocked when she told me they had had a big fight and she had gone ballistic. I was left wondering what could have gone wrong because all was well when we left."

Tonio was planning to file for divorce and had even asked her mother to get him a good lawyer in Nairobi.

Anna was giving up on the marriage. In an e-mail exchange with Natasha, Anna said she was welcome to Tonio because she would be seeking a divorce. 

With that decision, Anna left to spend time alone in Arizona in the US on October 12. She had not seen Tonio since the day of their quarrel.

Her departure gave Tonio even more freedom to spend time with the Ice Queen.

And it was during one of his ever increasing evening visits that Tonio met his death by a single bullet, outside Natasha’s gate.

On this day, October, 16, Tonio had taken his children, Stas and Lana, to meet friends at a Japanese restaurant.

After returning home to put them to bed, he drove round to Natasha's house in his wife's white Alfa Romeo.

He had earlier in the day visited her for several hours and left on a motor cycle. Natasha was expecting him that evening.

According to police reports, Natasha’s nightwatchman recognised the sound of Tonio’s car approaching at around 9.15pm and opened the gates. But it stopped short. Almost immediately, there was a single shot and a choked scream. After a short pause, there was the sound of a car being revved furiously; and then cutting out.

A second car then accelerated up the dirt track to the main road. One minute later, armed guards from a private security firm, alerted by the watchman's alarm, arrived four minutes after the shot was fired. They found Tonio’s car facing away from the house. The keys had been flung five metres in front, and his body was lying 10 metres behind. The knees of his blue jeans were stained with dirt as if he had been dragged. But nothing had been taken, except his mobile phone. An expensive Rolex watch and Sh20,000 were found on him.

Anna faced a bizarre homecoming. She had been planning to return to Kenya when she learnt of her husband's death.

Investigations into the murder have hit several setbacks. Police have never found the cartridge of the fatal bullet. Further progress is hampered by the unavailability of forensic data and the death of one of the first officers at the scene of crime. The original investigation team was disbanded and most of the officers transferred.

Three weeks after the murder, police arrested six suspects. One of them, Robert Nyagah, was found with a SIM card from Tonio’s cellphone. Three of them were charged with murder and remanded in custody, only to be released on a directive by the Attorney-General's office.

A botched carjacking theory was ruled out. Alfa Romeos are least targeted by carjackers, unless intended for a quick escape and then abandoned.

It is also hard to explain why the body was removed from the car unless his killer wanted to make off with the vehicle; or why the car had been turned around. Perhaps a man tried to steal it but gave up when he realised it was a notorious staller and difficult to restart and threw down the keys in disgust.

The police have yet to explain these oddities, though they believe the murder was premeditated.

Said Inspector Jonathan Kutto who headed the investigations: "It (the killing) had nothing to do with a robbery gone wrong. Tonio recognised his killers."

According to Dr Kirasi Olumbe, the then government pathologist who conducted a postmortem examination, Tonio was shot at the wheel with his arms by the sides and with the pistol or revolver pressed tight against him.

Dr Olumbe dismissed the theory that Tonio was a victim of carjackers, saying: "Carjackers only shoot if there is a panic situation, here there is no evidence of a struggle."

Mr Geoffrey Mwathe, the then Nairobi Provincial Police boss, also dismissed the carjacking theory. "The car was intact and nothing had been stolen. If the killers were carjackers or robbers, they would have stolen the car or frisked the victim."

To the police, a love triangle intrigue was the most plausible explanation they could offer for the murder.

When it became apparent that it will be difficult to arrest those involved, the family and friends, on advice from the police, posted a Sh500,000 reward for information but nobody has responded to date.

The family believes some of Natasha’s neighbours witnessed the murder but were unwilling to talk to the police for fear.

Tonio’s friends took charge after his killing and instructed the police not to speak to the Press, a decision his mother defended. Journalists who were following up the case became targets of mistreatment.

The body was embalmed and left to lie in state for four days in a tent filled with flowers and jasmine candles, pitched on the Trzebinski grounds – part of a wooded giraffe sanctuary. It was cremated at sunset on an open pyre overlooking the Rift Valley, with 150 selected guests present.

Friends put his surfing shorts, motorbike crash helmet, a painting and photographs among the cedar poles, and covered the pyre with one of his surf boards. They recited poems, sang and eulogised. Journalists were locked out.

Finally, Tonio's son and closest friends set the pyre alight. The Ice Queen, who was not invited, flew past twice in a light aircraft to pay her last respects.

This secrecy was entirely baffling. 

The family is still seeking answers to why a 9mm bullet was fired into Tonio’s heart.

She has, through a UK organisation, Support After Murder and Manslaughter (Samm), managed to contact the Scotland Yard detectives who are willing to take up investigations into the case. 

Samm brings together more than 1,000 members who have lost relatives to murder.

Trzebinski is still awaiting a reply from the Police Commissioner over her clearance plea for the Scotland Yard detectives.

Police say the file is still open and they welcome any information that can lead to the arrest of the killers.

They face a daunting task. No one came forward to claim Sh500,000 offer for any information that may help investigators arrest the murderers soon after the murder.

Also, murder mysteries are not new to Karen, known as the Happy Valley, and the setting of the famous film White Mischief .

The Lord Errol's murder is a true story.

Josslyn Victor Hay or Lord Errol, a prolific philanderer, was at the centre of a love triangle. He was shot dead in his car at Karen in mysterious circumstances after a furious row with his mistress, Diana, wife of Sir Jock Delves Broughton, who was later tried for the murder but acquitted.

That was in 1941 and the murder remains unresolved to date.

Errol Trzebinski published her book 60 years after the murder and tried to dismiss the theory that Lord Errol was the victim of a crime of passion. She suggested that he had been assassinated by British intelligence because he was a Nazi sympathiser.

Now all she wants to know her son's killers. "All I want is to have the case resolved," she said.

The family believes that the Commissioner of the Kenya Police with his unparalleled experience of the underworld locally, together with a British team of investigators and their cutting edge techniques, could combine to solve the case of the killing of Tonio Trzebinski, hence sending a clear message to the perpetrators of such crimes - that in the modern era of international co-operation - the long arm of the law will prevail.

But as of now, the long arm is yet to nab Tonio’s killers. No one will explain or confess to how the life of Tonio Trzebinski was snuffed out.

Do you have any information about Mr Tonio's murder or his killers?

If you do – or you can help in any other way – please call the numbers below or your nearest police station.

• Police Hqs: (020) 24 00 00; Mobile 0721 22 89 99
• Nairobi Area Police Hqs: (020) 272 42 00; Mobile 0721 23 39 99
• Langata Division: (020) 50 19 16
• Special Anti-Crime Unit: (020) 52 10 30; 52 11 04 (Director)
• CID headquarters: (020) 271 3330
• Flying Squad: (020) 676 7730