Purity Njeri who disappeared on July 18, 2020 and her lifeless body was discovered, stuffed in a sack and buried in a shallow grave.
In the quiet hills of Murang'a, seven-year-old Purity Njeri's laughter was silenced in a way too cruel to fathom.
Nearly five years later, the soil that covered her tiny body has outlived the justice her family so desperately seeks.
A father is left with nothing but memories and heartbreak as his home crumbles under the weight of grief, suspicion and abandonment.
Patrick Kombo, the accused -- then just a boy -- disappeared from custody, slipping through the cracks of the justice system.
Now, as months turn into years, the family's wounds remain open, raw and forgotten by a system that promised to heal them.
Purity Njeri's father, John Marubu, who is fighting for justice for his daughter's murder.
The nightmare began on July 18, 2020, when young Njeri disappeared. Hours later, her lifeless body was discovered, stuffed in a sack and buried in a shallow grave.
Suspicion quickly fell on Kombo, a 15-year-old neighbour who had visited Njeri's parents and claimed she had left some avocados.
When pressed, he led the villagers to a nearby thicket where the girl's remains lay partially exposed, her ribs sticking out of the ground. The villagers handed him over to the Gakoigo police patrol base before he was transferred to the Maragua police station.
"We have apprehended the boy to help us with investigations after all indications pointed to the fact that he was involved in the gruesome murder," said then Murang’a County Police Commander Josephat Kinyua.
"The boy has tentatively admitted to the police that he [knows] how the girl lost her life and was buried, hence why we have him in custody as our prime suspect."
The murder shook the community, and the Kenya Women Parliamentarians (Kewopa) visited the girl's parents and promised legal aid.
Kombo was arraigned on July 21, 2020, and the Maragua South DCI was granted 21 days to complete investigations. When he returned to court on August 11, his age was confirmed to be 15, leading Judge Kanyi Kimondo to remand him at Murang’a Juvenile Remand Centre.
He was charged with murder and unlawful disposal of a body for allegedly strangling the Grade Three pupil in Ihiga-ini village and burying her in a sack.
He denied all charges.
After several adjournments, Judge Kimondo set October 5, 2022, for the mention of the case, but the prosecution failed to produce the suspect.
A two-week extension was granted and an arrest warrant was issued. Since then, efforts to re-arrest Kombo have stalled.
In a status report prepared by the Murang'a South Security Committee on November 20, 2023, the then police boss, Mr Alexander Shikondi, said that "recent intelligence indicates that the suspect may be hiding in Nakuru or Lamu counties where relatives are hiding him".
Mr Shikondi has since been promoted to the position of Kajiado County Police Commander.
In his briefing to family members, including the girl's father, Mr John Marubu, Mr Shikondi said justice would eventually be served.
"I want to assure the family of the little angel whose life was brutally cut short in a manner that shocked the country that justice will be seen and felt. We are taking the search for the suspect very seriously. Although the search is national, we have reason to believe that he is hiding in one of the two counties," said Mr Shikondi.
On April 3, 2025, Mr Marubu told Nation.Africa that the murder of his daughter tore his family apart.
"My wife left our matrimonial home because of social pressure. Some started saying we conspired to murder our daughter in pursuit of wealth...others said we were bribed to abandon seeking justice in court...we were accused of helping the suspect to escape," he said.
Mr Marubu said his wife found the stigma too much to bear and left.
He also said he was shocked to learn that the suspect had escaped custody.
"It has been almost five years since my daughter was killed. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been very reluctant to give me factual information about the case," he said.
The father said he had visited the Maragua police station, the Assistant County Commissioner’s office and the DCI offices on several occasions in search of information about the case, "and it was only the other day that someone told me that the suspect had since escaped from custody".
"The legal aid that Kewopa promised my family has never come and none of the leaders who visited my house to condole with us has ever retraced their steps to check on us.”
Mr Shikondi had said the major hiccup was that while the case was a Murang'a South case, the suspect's escape happened in Murang'a East Sub-county.
"Murang'a police station is the one investigating how the suspect escaped and who helped him or slept on the job for him to just saunter out and melt into the free world. He did not escape from our jurisdiction even though he is our suspect and the murder case is ours. His escape means that our case has stalled, but we intend to liaise with our colleagues nationwide to apprehend him," he said at the time.
Murang'a South Deputy DCI Abdul Wako told Nation.Africa that the search for the fugitive was complicated by the fact that he was a minor who had no known phone that could be traced.
"He had no identity card that we can monitor where it is being used... no bank account that we can monitor transactions. It's a search out there in the vastness of the country... The other problem is that when he was arrested, the police officers did not take his photograph," he said.
As a result, the DCI cannot even issue a wanted notice because there is no photograph to go with it.
"We have a challenge in tracking the fugitive, but we remain optimistic that he will soon be arrested and made to face the law," Mr Wako said.
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