On the morning of October 31 this year, police were informed that some body parts had been dumped near Lang’ata cemetery.
Officers from Lang'ata Police Station were dispatched to the scene and were soon joined by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
It was a gory scene. Mutilated body parts had been scattered around there. By the time the DCI detectives were done with documenting and photographing the scene of the crime, it was evident to the investigators that the victim was a woman.
Detectives said some of the bones appeared to be freshly boiled and part of the flesh meticulously removed.
Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei at the time said police were yet to establish the identity of the victim or motive of the murder.
Among the items recovered from the scene was a receipt from a leading supermarket. At the time, it was not clear if this receipt had anything to do with the crime.
The receipt, however, provided crucial details to the investigators that would help unmask the identity of the victim.
These details included the name of the supermarket, time of purchase and mode of payment which indicated the shopper had paid through M-Pesa. The receipt had the mobile phone number used to make the payment.
Detectives from the Nairobi area Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau on Monday, November 4, visited the supermarket in Nairobi’s central business district.
At the customer case desk, they showed the supermarket personnel the receipt.
The supermarket officials retrieved transaction details. With the time of payment clear, detectives then combed the CCTV footage with the exact time stamp and spotted the shopper.
A screengrab from the CCTV footage of the woman at the supermarket.
Photo credit: DCI
Detectives then verified records on the registration of the mobile phone number used to make the payment at the supermarket. They found the line was registered under the name Deka Abdinoor Gorone.
Identity of woman on CCTV
At this point, detectives revisited a missing person’s report that had been filed at California Police Station on October 24, seven days before the mutilated body was found near the cemetery.
They contacted the family that had reported their kin, Deka Abdinoor Gorone, had gone missing to verify whether the woman on the CCTV was their missing relative. They confirmed she was the one.
Further analysis of the missing woman’s mobile phone revealed that there was frequent communication between the cellphone registered under Deka and a number registered in the name of Hashim Dagane Muhumed.
Muhumed is the prime suspect in the murders of a mother, her daughter, and her 12-year-old niece in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
The late Waris Daud (left) and her niece, Amina Abdirashid Dhahir.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
Five days after the body was recovered from the cemetery, this receipt would prove to be the crucial piece of evidence that eventually helped the DCI unravel the foul murder of Deka and the connection to the Eastleigh triple murders.
DCI sleuths are convinced that the bones found in Lang’ata are the remains of the missing woman. They are awaiting a DNA analysis.
On Wednesday, DCI boss Mohammed Amin said that Deka was killed in a rented apartment in Lavington where she spent time with the suspect in custody.
In a message on the DCI X account, Amin said Dagane had been captured on Camera on October 31 leaving the said apartments with two bags, which are said to have contained the remains of Deka.
“The remains are being subjected to forensic analysis to ascertain the identity of the victim,” Mr Amin said.
Dagane Muhumed, who is being held at the Ruaraka Police Station for 21 days, is being investigated for the murder of the three women in Eastleigh.
The bodies of —Amina Abdirashid, her aunt Waris Dahabo Daud, and her niece Nusayba Abdi Mohammed — were found mutilated at different locations across Machakos, Parklands, and Bahati in Nairobi.
Police said the man was captured on CCTV inside a car that was used to pick up the women before their bodies were found dumped in separate locations.
Said Amin: "The vehicle was later found abandoned near the ENA Coach stage at Wakulima Market and towed to DCI Headquarters for forensic examination, further linking Hashim Dagane to the killings," stated the DCI in a post on X.
