On September 2, 2023 at about 11pm, officers at Kiirua police station in Buuri, Meru County, received a signal that a man had been found dead in his home a few kilometres away.
Kiirua East police boss Joseph Oduor said when the matter was reported, he immediately dispatched officers to the shopping centre, where they dealt with what appeared to be a suicide scene.
"He had a curtain wire around his neck and the body was hanging from the bathroom window in his bed-sitter. There was no money in the newly occupied house, nor was there any identification on him," Mr Oduor said.
There was also no written note by Murithi; the police also said they found some women's clothes in the room.
What they did not know was that the man, later identified as Evans Muriithi, had rented the room just four days earlier. Nor did they know that the victim had arrived in the country from Dubai on August 27, according to statements later recorded by two women at the police station in Tutua, about 20 kilometres away, the village from which Muriithi hails.
As the mortuary at Meru Level Five Hospital was full, the body was taken to Nyambene Level Four Hospital in Maua, Igembe South, some 70 kilometres away, where it was kept pending identification by relatives so that a post-mortem could be carried out.
It was only on September 4 that two women drove to the police station and recorded statements that their relative was missing.
"One woman identified herself as his wife, who lives in Nairobi, while the other said she was his sister from Karatina," said a detective close to the investigation.
They told a story of how Muriithi called them on August 27 to say he had arrived in the country. After a meeting in Nairobi, Muriithi expressed a desire to visit his mother in Tutua, Meru.
The next day they travelled to Meru, stopping in Makutano to join a 'sherehe' (party) at a popular club until the early hours of August 29. The trio spent the night in a guesthouse in the bustling town that never sleeps, waking up after 10am.
Over breakfast, Muriithi told them he wanted to set up a business in Kiirua market, so they accompanied him and he rented a bed-sitter, paying in advance, and bought a mattress and bedding. One of the women (the wife) went to Nairobi while the sister went to Karatina expecting Muriithi to visit his mother. But according to investigations, he did not.
When they could not reach Muriithi by phone for two days, the sister travelled to Kiirua, where they had rented a room, only to receive the shocking news.
On September 4, the two women went to Tutua police station, recorded a statement and were accompanied by police to Nyambene mortuary, where they positively identified the body.
A post-mortem carried out on September 19, 2023 revealed even more shocking details. While Muriithi's neck showed no signs of strangulation consistent with suicide, his organs showed no signs of having been deprived of oxygen.
He had no visible bodily injuries, while his stomach showed no signs of having eaten for several days.
Dr Miriti Tirima, the pathologist, wrote that he could not determine what killed Muriithi and took samples of organs for toxicology tests, the results of which the police are awaiting as they step up investigations into the mysterious murder.
And as police abandon the suicide theory, it is clear that Muriithi, who was buried on September 21, was murdered in cold blood. But who killed him, and why?
Also lending credence to the murder theory is information posted on social media X (formerly Twitter), with some users calling for a thorough investigation into how the 28-year-old met his death.
But it is the allegation that he stole Sh2.5 million from a "business associate" before he was found murdered that has set the social media platform ablaze.
Photos of his funeral and eulogy have also been posted, describing him as "loving and kind" and leaving behind "cherished memories that will forever remain etched in the hearts of his family and friends", a wife and two children "who were the light of his life".
Evans was buried on September 21, 2023 in Meru County.
Photo credit: Courtesy
Mr Oduor said police were trying to unravel the mystery and were still taking statements, adding that no suspect had yet been arrested.
"We are trying to establish the truth of the allegations that money was involved, which will shed more light on the murder," he told Nation.Africa in an interview at Kiirua police station.
