The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is investigating an alleged murder case after a woman stole her lover's body at a morgue in Nyeri and secretly buried him.
Police and morgue attendants exhumed Hudson Wanjohi's body on Friday, June 25, after the woman, Lucy Muthoni, hastily buried him in May 2021.
The suspect was accused of dodging the police and the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital attendants prior to an autopsy being conducted on the man she claimed had lived with her for 16 years. A claim opposed by the brother and children of the deceased who claimed she was cohabiting with him.
His children had reported the case at Nyeri Police Station claiming that the father suddenly died while admitted at the hospital and the cause of death was unknown. They demanded an autopsy to be conducted on his body after suspecting that the death was plotted.
Nyeri Police Ward Commander Gitonga Mwimbi liaised with the hospital and directed a pathologist to conduct an autopsy on May 19. The coroner-general was also notified of the intention to investigate the case.
Muthoni, however, had allegedly registered herself as next of kin at the mortuary and secretly dodged with the body before police could unravel the mystery. At her home in Kagongo Village, Nyeri, her relatives and neighbours attended the funeral of a man they alleged they were familiar with for 16 years. '
Detectives were puzzled by how Muthoni got access to the man's body without permission from relevant authorities. DCI sued her and the hospital for negligence and circumventing the law.
Muthoni wrote to the court and asked them to postpone the postmortem. She further urged the judge to allow her private pathologist rather than the government's one to conduct it. Her request was granted.
Wanjohi's son, James, in a signed affidavit argued that his father was lawfully married to their mother in 1978 and they weren't aware of any Lucy Muthoni who purportedly claimed to be his wife.
"We don't know her. I have never met her. We were not involved in dowry. We have heard that she is married here (Kagongo). I don't know which family that is as this land isn't my brother's land.
"Our family is well off. We have adequate land and the deceased owns two parcels in Murang'a where he could be buried," Samuel Ndinda, the late's brother added.
"Daktari (the deceased) divorced his first wife and parted ways with his children. They have exhumed his body while pretending that they care, yet they rejected him when he was alive," Muthoni, the estranged lover complained.
