Josephine Karimi murder: Postmortem reveals torture, rap* of woman inside Embu Catholic Church centre
Josephine Karimi, 24, was found brutally murdered and her body dumped in a disused pit latrine at the St Mary’s Catholic Women Association (CWA) centre in Kiaragana, Embu County, where she worked as an office secretary.
New reports have revealed that her left hand, left rib and sternum were broken.
According to the post-mortem report, Karimi was also strangled.
“The post-mortem conducted at the Embu Referral Hospital mortuary revealed that my daughter’s hand, rib and sternum were fractured. She had also been strangled. The killer may have used a scarf to snuff out Karimi’s life. My daughter died in great pain,” said Mr Simon Kivuti Gatumu.
The assailant, whose motive, according to detectives was ra*e, may have used a blunt object to inflict injuries on the young woman and silence her forever.
A court has since allowed police to detain a casual labourer suspected of murdering a Catholic Church worker for 14 days to allow them to complete their investigation.
Detectives arrested Mr Boniface Yakulula in connection with the murder after he led them to the scene.
“It was the suspect who told us he knew where the deceased was,” said a senior police officer who declined to be quoted due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“The motive was ra*e, the assailant took advantage of the fact that the woman was alone in the CWA centre to attack and rap* her,” the officer alleged.
According to detectives, Karimi and Mr Yakulula lived in separate houses within the centre, which is run by the Catholic Diocese of Embu.
It is suspected that the woman was attacked in the early hours of Thursday last week before she was murdered and her body thrown into a pit to cover up the evidence.
The suspect, a school dropout, was employed at the centre last year to clear bushes and look after cows, among other menial tasks.
Karimi had landed a new job and had only worked at the centre for a week when she was killed.
According to her family, Karimi went missing on June 28.
That Wednesday, she had lunch with her mother and returned to work.
The next day, her family became suspicious when calls to her mobile phone did not go through. They had called to check on their daughter and found her phone switched off.
The family later reported the matter to the Runyenjes police station and recorded a statement.
Karimi’s body was found five days later in a disused pit latrine at the centre.
“When we did not see our daughter at the centre, I personally reported the matter to the police and detectives immediately started investigations,” said Mr Simon Kivuti Gatumu, Karimi’s father.
