The main suspect in the murder of 25-year-old Joy Kanini Gathu will stay in custody for 21 days after a court granted detectives additional time to complete their investigations.
On Wednesday, July 15, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) reported that suspect John Nderitu Mureithi appeared before the Nyeri Law Courts on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. Detectives then secured court orders to keep him detained as the probe continues.
Detectives said multiple government agencies carried out the recovery operation together in a coordinated effort to retrieve the remains from the scene.
“A determined multi-agency team comprising detectives from the DCI Homicide Investigations Bureau and DCI Nyeri Central, forensic experts, officers from the National Government Administration Office, Nyeri Police Station, and the Nyeri County Disaster and Rescue Team conducted a painstaking recovery operation,” the statement added.
The DCI said officers had to demolish part of the pit latrine structure to recover the victim’s head safely, along with clothing believed to connect to the case.
“The team partially demolished the pit latrine before carefully retrieving the victim’s head and blood-stained clothing,” the statement explained.
The DCI also reported that officers later handed the recovered exhibits over for further examination. The victim’s head went to the mortuary for a post-mortem, while investigators secured the clothing for detailed forensic analysis.
“The recovered head was taken to the Nyeri County Referral Hospital Mortuary, where it will undergo a post-mortem examination, while the clothing has been secured for detailed forensic analysis as investigations continue,” the statement concluded.
Mureithi was arrested on Friday, July 10, by detectives from the Homicide Investigations Bureau.
The DCI said detectives arrested him along the Nanyuki–Isiolo Road as he allegedly tried to flee to Uganda.
After his arrest, the DCI detectives searched and recovered four mobile phones, including one believed to belong to the deceased. Detectives treated the handset as a key exhibit in the ongoing investigation.
The DCI added that investigators traced the events to a deadly confrontation between Mureithi and the deceased inside his home in Ngangarithi Estate, Nyeri, on June 9.
The suspect later dismembered the victim’s body and disposed of the remains in different locations in a calculated attempt to conceal the crime and frustrate investigations.
