Fugitive wanted for allegedly killing girlfriend at Boston airport is arrested in Kenya

A suspect who fled the U.S. after allegedly killing his girlfriend and leaving her body in a parking garage at Boston’s Logan Airport last year has been arrested in Kenya, the Massachusetts State Police say. 

Kevin Kangethe, 41, was taken into custody at a nightclub in Nairobi on Monday after Kenyan authorities received a tip, according to The Associated Press. Kangethe is now expected to be extradited back to the U.S. to face justice. 

"I’m extremely grateful to the U.S. 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.

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Kevin Kangethe has been arrested in Kenya following the homicide in Boston late last year. (Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles/Suffolk County District Attorney's Office)

Mbitu, a resident of Whitman, Massachusetts, was first the subject of a missing person investigation before she was found dead on Nov. 1 at Logan Airport.  She reportedly worked as a nurse with an organization based out of Brockton, Massachusetts.

"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." 

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Kevin Kangethe departed Boston's Logan Airport in November 2023 on a flight to Kenya, authorities say. (Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

"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." 

Margaret Mbitu was found dead in a parking garage at Boston's Logan Airport on Nov. 1, 2023. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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State Police also said Kangethe is expected to appear in a court hearing in Kenya "within the next few days" and "the process to extradite him to Boston for prosecution has begun."