A BBC employee was violently killed by a hotel intruder according to a new coroner report released in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 25. This comes as the British family claims reluctance to close investigations with the Kenyan police.
A Newcastle Coroner’s Court was told that the deceased, Kate Mitchell, 42, was murdered by a man who subsequently jumped or fell to his death from eight floors three years ago.
According to a postmortem conducted after the repatriation of Mitchell’s body to the UK, she died from a head injury and pressure on the neck.
Mitchell worked as a project manager at BBC Media Action, which promotes democratic reporting.
At the time of her murder in November 2021, Mitchell was in Nairobi from Addis Ababa after an emergency evacuation following an escalation in hostilities in Ethiopia at the time.
On the fateful night, Mitchell was found in her room on the eighth floor after an intruder had gained entry and attacked her. The intruder would be found eight floors down, dead. The circumstances that led to the death of the intruder remain unclear.
The coroner, Karin Welsh, told the court that that is all the UK has been able to find out about the murder that took place three years ago.
"That man either fell or jumped from the eighth-floor bedroom window, and he also was found deceased,” Welsh told the court. He concluded that the death was unlawfully killed.
Despite the revelation of the manner of death, many questions remain, and the family, led by the brother, Paul Mitchell, is pushing the Kenyan police to reveal more.
The family instructed a lawyer to push for an inquest in Nairobi, which could explain more about the circumstances of her murder.
“The Kenyan police have just stonewalled any inquiries,” Mitchell told reporters after the hearing. Insisting, “They have refused to do anything about it.”
Among the issues that are yet to be resolved is the fact that a laptop and other personal effects belonging to the BBC employee have yet to be returned to the family.
He added, “Whatever it is that the Kenyan police are reluctant to have brought to light the collateral damage is that we don’t have answers about Kate’s death.”
