BOSTON (WHDH) - A man accused of killing his girlfriend and fleeing the US to avoid prosecution last year was ordered without bail Tuesday after he was extradited from Kenya.
Authorities started investigating on Nov. 1, 2023 after state police troopers found 31-year-old Margaret Mbitu dead in a car in a garage at Boston’s Logan Airport. Officials soon settled on Mbitu’s boyfriend, Kevin Kangethe, as a suspect in her death.
Officials said Kangethe lived in Lowell when he allegedly killed Mbitu.
“Mr. Kangethe brutally attacked Ms. Mbitu in the car with a knife, causing multiple sharp force injuries to Mbitu’s body — 10 wounds just to her face and neck alone, including fatal injuries to her corroded and jugular,” said prosecutor Mark Lee.
Lee said Kangethe then left Mbitu’s body in the front seat of his car for 30 hours before reclining the seat, butting bags on her body, and dumping the car at Logan.
By the time they secured an arrest warrant, though, the Massachusetts State Police said Kangethe had boarded a flight to Kenya.
The FBI’s Boston office in a statement said Kenyan law enforcement arrested Kangethe on Jan. 29. Though he escaped custody in early February, authorities rearrested him one week later.
The Associated Press reported Kangethe renounced his US citizenship after he fled to Kenya, prompting a monthslong extradition process. The process ended over the weekend, according to the FBI, when federal agents and a state police trooper escorted Kangethe back to Logan Airport.
The FBI said the flight carrying Kangethe landed in Boston Saturday night. The FBI then transferred custody to the state police. Kangethe was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Tuesday.
“Kevin Kangethe tried to get away with murder, but thanks to the law enforcement team standing here today, he did not. After a long road with many twists and turns, Kangethe is back in Boston to answer to the alleged murder of his girlfriend,” said FBI Boston Special Agent Kimberly Milka.
District Attorney Kevin Hayden thanked investigators in his statement and said he is grateful Mbitu’s family was able to see Kangethe appear in court.
Family members said Mbitu went by the nickname “Maggie.” She worked as a nurse in Halifax and was reported missing after she did not show up for work one day.
“She was the most lovely, soft-spoken, beautiful, happy, go lucky kind of girl — the most friendly person we know,” said Mbitu’s cousin, Virginia Ndunga, shortly after troopers found her body.
“Obviously, we’re devastated,” Ndunga said. “We love her.”
Kangethe is due back in court on Nov. 5.
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