Fugitive who fled US after girlfriend’s airport murder is finally captured in Kenya

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A man accused of killing his girlfriend and leaving her body in a parking garage at Boston’s Logan Airport last year has been arrested in Kenya after fleeing the US, Massachusetts State Police said.

Kevin Kangethe, 41, was taken into custody at a nightclub in Nairobi on Monday after Kenyan authorities received a tip, the Associated Press reported.

He is now expected to be extradited back to the US to face trial.

“I’m extremely grateful to the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the FBI, Kenyan law enforcement agencies, the Kenyan government and the Massachusetts State Police for bringing the person accused of Margaret Mbitu’s brutal murder into custody,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement following the arrest.

“Their tremendous and untiring efforts will provide Margaret’s family and friends the opportunity to see Kevin Kangethe face justice for this terrible crime,” he added.

Kangethe is believed to have fled to Kenya shortly after killing 31-year-old Whitman resident, Margaret Mbitu.

Mbitu was found dead in a pool of blood in the front passenger seat of her Toyota Venza in November last year at Boston’s Logan Airport after she was reported missing two days earlier.

The 31-year-old had slash wounds on her face and neck and appeared to have been stabbed on the side of her body, according to police.

Law enforcement at the time said her killing did not appear to be random. State police later confirmed Mbitu and her alleged killer had a romantic relationship.

“Kangethe fled to Kenya shortly after killing the 31-year-old Whitman resident, with whom he had been in a relationship, according to the investigation by State Police detectives,” Massachusetts State Police said in a statement. “Ms Mbitu’s body was located in a parked car in the Central Parking garage at Logan International Airport on the evening of November 1, 2023.”

“The subsequent investigation identified Kangethe, who lived in Lowell, as Ms. Mbitu’s assailant and determined that he had boarded a flight to Kenya,” police added. “State Police Detectives obtained a warrant charging Kangethe with Ms. Mbitu’s homicide and began working with the State Department DSS, Interpol, and Kenyan authorities to locate him in Kenya.”

Police added that Kangethe is expected to appear at a court hearing in Kenya “within the next few days” before he is extradited to the US.

Before her death, Mbitu worked as a nurse for a nonprofit for people with developmental disabilities and behavioural health challenges in the city of Brockton.

“We have lost a beautiful girl that we all loved,” her cousin George Kamu told NBC in November. “Whenever you saw that beautiful smile, that’s what you would see all the time.”