Police say "psychopathic serial killer" arrested over murder of 42 women

Johannesburg — Kenya's National Police said Monday they had arrested a 33-year-old man whom they called a "psychopathic serial killer with no respect for human life." They said the suspect, Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, had admitted to murdering 42 women, including his wife, whom they say he acknowledged as his first victim.

Mohammed Amin, chief of Kenya's national Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said Khalusha had murdered some victims as recently as just four days prior to his arrest, but that his alleged killing spree began in 2022.

Amin made the statement during a news conference at DCI headquarters in Nairobi on Monday, and his remarks were also shared by the agency in a series of social media posts, which included a photo of Khalusha in custody.

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The police said they had been tracking Jumaisha's cell phone signal.

"It is the transaction of mobile money transfer using Josphine Owino's phone number that led detectives to tracking the suspect," Amin said, referring to one of the victims.

Khalusha was arrested early Monday morning outside a club where he had gone to watch Sunday's European soccer championship final. The police said that after he was arrested, Khalusha confessed to "having lured, killed and disposed of 42 female bodies," including that of his wife and Owino.

The suspect lived in a one room rented house just 300 feet from the Kware dump, an abandoned quarry now filled with garbage, where the remains of some of the victims had been found earlier, the police said.

Khalusha was allegedly working to lure another victim, a woman police identified only as Susan, when he was arrested.

"We have a second suspect who was caught with one of the handsets from one of the victims," added Amin, without providing any further information on the second suspect's identity or how they were believed to be connected to the murders.

At the news conference, police displayed a number of items they said had been found in Khalusha's possession, including 10 cell phones and 24 SIM cards, six ID cards for men and two ID cards for women, one pair of rubber gloves, 12 nylon sacks, ropes, gloves and a machete, which police believe was used to dismember some of the victims.

Officials started discovering the mutilated remains of women between the ages of 18 and 30 stuffed into sacks last week near the Kware dump, prompting locals and police to speculate about whether there could be a cult or a serial killer operating in the area.

As the slain women's remains were being discovered last week, the leader of a doomsday cult went on trial in the country, on terrorism charges over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers, in an unrelated case that shocked the country.

Owino's sister said she disappeared on June 26 from Nairobi's sprawling Mukuru slums, and that her body had been among those found dismembered at the dump.

The police said autopsies would be carried out on the nine mutilated bodies recovered so far at the Kware dump, and that extra police officers had been brought in to continue scouring the area.