Police in Nakuru County are piecing together clues to resolve the mystery surrounding the death of a woman whose decomposing body was discovered in a bush in Kagoto Quarry, days after she was reported missing.
The grim discovery was made on Wednesday, August 26, at around 3.30pm after a herder stumbled upon the body while tending to his goats within the quarry area.
According to a police report seen by Nation, a resident of Kagoto was herding his goats when he detected a strong foul smell coming from a bushy section down a cliff.
Curious about the source of the stench, he moved closer and, to his surprise, discovered the decomposing body of an unidentified woman.
The man immediately alerted the authorities, prompting officers from Kiugoine Police Station and Kagotho Police Post, alongside detectives and Crime Scene Investigation officers, to visit the scene.
The body was found lying on its back in an advanced stage of decomposition. She was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a red jumper and socks.
Her skull had been exposed, with no flesh covering it, further complicating efforts to establish her identity at the scene.
“Crime Scene Investigation officers processed the area and documented the scene before the remains were removed and taken to the County Municipal Mortuary, where they were preserved pending identification and a postmortem examination,” read part of the report.
But as detectives began tracing the identity of the dead woman, they made a breakthrough after investigations established that the woman had previously been reported missing in Nakuru East Sub-County.
Her family was contacted and positively identified the body, bringing an end to the search for their missing relative.
The identification also marked the beginning of a more complex investigation into how the woman ended up dead at the quarry and who was responsible for her death.
Nakuru North Sub-County DCI boss Andrew Warui confirmed the discovery, saying that officers at the scene assisted in reconstructing the scene before handing over the matter to detectives from Nakuru East.
“The matter is now being investigated by DCIO Nakuru East, where the case was reported initially as a missing-person report. We only assisted in the reconstruction and secondary visit of the crime scene,” he said.
Investigators also obtained CCTV footage, which proved crucial in tracing the woman's last known movements.
According to police, the footage showed the woman during her final moments wearing the same clothes in which her body was later discovered.
The CCTV evidence is expected to help detectives establish where the woman was before her disappearance, the people she may have interacted with and possibly how she ended up at the quarry.
