Accused killer who fled to Kenya for 10 months called "coward" by victim's family in Boston
BOSTON - Kevin Kangethe was ordered held without bail Tuesday as disturbing new details were released about the murder of his former girlfriend Maggie Mbitu, nearly a year after her body was found in a car at Logan Airport in Boston.
Kevin Kangethe hides in court
Kangethe, 42, of Lowell, hid in a hallway during his arraignment at Suffolk Superior Court. He did not face Mbitu's family as they tried to see him in person for the first time since he fled to Kenya ten months ago.
"We will continue to fight until this coward is locked up and never sees the light of day again," Maggie's cousin Mary Kinyariro said, reading a statement from Maggie's sister Ann.
"We worried days and nights that today would not come and I haven't slept well until today. Because of the hard work of the law enforcement and everyone here that my sister is finally getting justice."
Maggie Mbitu murder
Prosecutors say Kangethe met Mbitu, 31, as she left her job as a nurse in Halifax, Massachusetts late on Monday night, October 30, 2023.
"Sometime between leaving Halifax and arriving at Mr. Kangethe's home in Lowell, he brutally attacked Miss Mbitu in the car with a knife," prosecutor Mark Lee told the court.
30 hours in a car
"Ten wounds just to her face and neck alone, including fatal lacerations to her carotid and jugular. Mr. Kangethe then left her body in the front seat of a heavily tinted car from the moment of her death until some 30 hours later when he drove the car to Logan Airport with Miss Mbitu's body in the front seat, face down, seat reclined. Her body covered with bags and random items to make it harder to see her and then took a one-way flight to Nairobi, Kenya," Lee said.
Mbitu's family reported her missing and her body was found in a parking garage at the airport on November 2.
In the three days Mbitu was missing, investigators say Kangethe answered her phone and had conversations with people looking for her, before ditching the phone in a dumpster in Chelsea on the way to the airport.
"Everything about Mr. Kangethe's flight from the United States suggests that he intended for it to be permanent. He left with a one-way ticket. In the process, he abandoned a fully furnished apartment, a job and a vehicle in his name," Lee said.
Kevin Kangethe captured twice
Kangethe was arrested in Kenya on January 29 and allegedly had Mbitu's driver's license, Bank of America debit card and a visa card with him. But he escaped from police there a few days later.
He was captured again on February 14 outside of Nairobi. Kangethe renounced his American citizenship while he was overseas.
The extradition process to get him back to Boston took nearly seven months until he was brought back by federal agents Saturday.
"The most serious case"
"The end result here today would not have occurred without seamless cooperation at both the federal and state level," said Matthew O'Brien, the Special Agent in charge for the State Department in Boston.
Lee called this "the most serious case we have in the Commonwealth."
"Maggie was taken from us too soon," said Mbitu's cousin Joe Muhoro. "She was our sister, our daughter, our friend, our colleague. Today we remember her kindness."
Kangethe pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge. He is due back in court, Tuesday, November 5.