It began with a trembling voice on the phone - 32-year-old Lucy Wamaitha, weary and afraid, asking her mother, Nancy Wambui, to pray for her.
That was on January 14, 2025. Three days later, she disappeared. And on January 29, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations retrieved a torso without limbs, a skinned skull and dreadlocks similar to hers - and a mother's worst fears began to unravel.
However, authorities have yet to confirm the identity of the remains.
"As I sit here in my temporary house, waiting for God's mercy to ease my blood pressure which has worsened since my daughter went missing, I sincerely hope that these are not her remains," says Ms Wambui.
She says the DCI has since taken her DNA samples to investigate whether the remains they have belong to her missing daughter.
"God, let this not be true. Let it turn out that my daughter is alive and will come back to me," she prayed.
Wamaitha, she says, had put off marriage and children to concentrate on caring for her.
As the last born of three siblings, she was the only one with a stable income and was responsible for her mother's daily expenses. She was also responsible for the Sh10,000 monthly cost of her mother's medication, Ms Wambui said.
Recalling her last conversation with Wamaitha, the distraught mother said, "She called me on January 14, 2025, at about 11pm. After checking on me and assuring me that she cared for me and loved me, she told me that she was afraid of her boss."
Wamaitha, the mother said, told her that her male boss was threatening her.
"She asked me to pray for her because they were planning a work trip to Meru County on January 16, 2025," says Ms Wambui.
At the time, Wamaitha was working for a small NGO based in the Kiandutu slums of Kiambu County, involved in rescuing and rehabilitating less privileged children.
Ms Wambui reveals that her daughter had revealed to her that there was a pupil under the NGO's care who was being taken to a school in Meru County.
"She wanted this assignment to be the last of her employment with the NGO and then travel to my home in Punda Milia, Murang'a County, to relax and re-strategise," the mother said.
DCI investigations revealed that Wamaitha disappeared after the Meru tour, accompanied by her 29-year-old boss.
According to the missing persons file at the Thika West DCI office, the two dropped the pupil off at the school in Meru County before returning to Embu town in her boss’s car, with him as the driver.
"The two had lunch at Java Blue Hotel in Embu town. Her phone went off at around 4pm, which is the last recorded signal. It has remained off since then," the report says.
The DCI's preliminary investigation report shows that her boss's phone went off at the same time but came back on the following day in Thika town.
On the morning of January 18, 2025, Ms Wambui received a phone call from Wamaitha's neighbour in Kisii estate in Thika, expressing concern that Wamaitha had not returned home since January 16, 2025.
Ms Wambui says she went to her daughter's house and collected the spare keys from the neighbour, Eunice.
"We decided to wait for her, but on January 20, 2025, we decided to report the matter to Kiandutu, Makongeni and Thika West police stations. These are the police stations near where she works, where she rents and where the general authority is located," says Ms Wambui.
In his statement, Wamaitha's boss confirms that he went with her to Meru and they also had lunch in Embu town before they went to Thika town together.
"At about 10pm, she asked me to drop her at the outskirts of Thika town where a small white car was waiting. I left her in the company of the occupants and drove off...only to learn later that she was missing," he says in his statement.
For her part, Eunice said it was unlike her neighbour not to return home without explanation, hence her suspicion when she did not return home for three days.
"It was also uncharacteristic of her not to respond to calls and text messages... something was certainly amiss," she adds.
Ms Wambui also says in her statement that her daughter had expressed fears about her workplace, adding that "she had asked me to pray for her non-stop".
As the investigation progressed, the DCI told the mother that a body had been retrieved from River Tana.
"The officers came to my house with some pieces of brown dreadlocks and asked me if I could recognise them. They were strikingly similar to those I had last seen my daughter with," she said.
When she arrived at the Embu mortuary, where the unidentified body lay, she was in for more shock.
"Some charred remains were taken from a cupboard. First came a skull without skin. This was followed by a torso with no hands and no neck. From the waist down there were no parts. They asked me if I could recognise any part. I shook my head, too shocked to find my voice," she said.
A post-mortem carried out on January 29, 2025, did not reveal the cause of death.
"The nature of the destruction against the owner of the remains makes it impossible to attribute the cause of death. However, traces of uterus material in the torso make it certain that the remains are those of a female," the report said.
The DCI took DNA samples from Ms Wambui for testing on February 12, 2025.
"To date, I have not been informed of the DNA results. I am anxiously awaiting the call from the DCI to be informed of the results. The last time I called the investigating officer, I was told to expect a call on April 3, 2025," she says.
Thika West Sub-County Police Commander Lawrence Muchangi told Nation.Africa on March 19 that the case had been taken over by DCI headquarters.
"The case is complex and we have since referred it to the homicide unit at the DCI headquarters," he said.
The head of the homicide unit, Martin Nyuguto, did not respond to our calls on the matter.
However, an officer privy to the homicide investigation told Nation.Africa that "we suspect that the body we have was cut into pieces, doused with acid and the remains thrown into the River Tana".
The officer added that "what we are not sure whose body it is... the DNA sampling is a difficult process under the circumstances but we will get to the truth".
Meanwhile, Ms Wambui remains anxious.
"I have heard stories that murder cases are rarely solved. But I'd rather this case remain unsolved than confirm that the remains in Embu mortuary belong to my daughter," she said.
For now, she continues to wait – hoping and praying.
