Digital Forensics Help in Solving the Murder of Four Women in Kenya

In October 2024, Kenyans were shocked by the brutal murders of three women (including a young child) from Eastleigh, Nairobi. These murders came at a time when Kenya was and is still grappling with increased cases of femicide. While pressure mounted on the authorities to investigate, a fourth female mutilated body was dumped near a cemetery. A series of digital footprints and investigative works linked the four murders and unveiled the killer. Read the chilling recount pieced from different police reports and media accounts.

The Chronology of the October Murders, Kenya

21, Oct 2024 - Three women; Waris Dahabo Daud Said (38), Amina Abdirashid Dahir (22) and Nusayba Abdi Mohammed (12) go missing.

22, Oct 2024 - The bodies of Nusayba and Amina are found at Bahati in Makadara and 6th Avenue Parklands respectively, while that of Dahabo is retrieved in Khyumbi, Machakos. The Killer’s motive for scattering the bodies remains unclear.

23, Oct 2024 – Two human hands are recovered in South C, Nairobi along Five-Star Road.? It was later established they were severed from Dahabo.

25, Oct 2024 -? A post-mortem conducted on the bodies of the women by Kenya’s Chief Government Pathologist, Dr. Johansen Oduor, revealed:

1.??? Waris Dahabo’s neck was severed, her hands were chopped off, and she was tortured

2.??? Amina died of a direct stab wound to her heart

3.??? Nusayba was strangled, there was no sign of rape/sexual violence

31, Oct 2024 – A badly mutilated female body is discovered at the entrance of Langata Cemetery, Nairobi.? The bony remains appeared to have been boiled and the flesh meticulously removed. ?Exhibits retrieved around the cemetery included personal clothing for the woman, alluding to her identity as a Muslim lady. It was later confirmed that she was indeed Deka Abdinoor Gorone and her murder was linked with the three women killed on the 21st Oct 2024

CCTV Footage Helps in Identifying the Murderer

03 Nov 2024 - Hashim Dagane Muhumed, the primary suspect in the murders of three women in Eastleigh, was apprehended by sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).? The arrest followed a detailed review of CCTV footage that captured Hashim’s vehicle picking up the victims in Eastleigh, shortly before their bodies were found dumped in two separate locations in Nairobi; and in Machakos. The vehicle was later found abandoned near the ENA Coach Stage at Wakulima Market and towed to DCI Headquarters for forensics.

Why did Hashim Kill the Three Women?

?Hashim is said to belong to a "gang for hire" that tortures, rapes, and kills its victims based on "assigned works." The Kenyan authorities are netting in, on his accomplices.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the three were killed over a ransom demand dispute by their abductors.? A woman whose identity remains undisclosed claims she was abducted and held for hours in the same room with the three slain women. She told the police she heard the killers argue that the slain women could identify them and had to be silenced. The woman said she was released because her family met the ransom demand of USD 7000 which was deposited into an Ethiopian bank account. The Ethiopian authorities have been involved in the investigation.

Linkage Between Deka and the Murderer, Hashim

23 Nov 2024 – Hashim confessed to killing Deka and dumping her body at the entrance of Langata Cemetery. He slayed her to silence her after she discovered his involvement in the murders of Warris, Nusyaba, and Amina Abdi. ?Hashem led the detectives to the cemetery where he dumped the body. ?Unfortunately, not all her body parts were recovered as it's believed some parts were eaten/scavenged by Hyenas from the nearby park. Langata cemetery is near the Nairobi National Park.

Hashim had a romantic interest in Deka though her family was not keen on the relationship.? She, however, went ahead and met him in an AirBnB, where he brutally murdered her, hacked her body to pieces, boiled it, and scattered it around the cemetery.

How Digital Footprint Helped Identify Deka's Body and Linkage to Hashim

The investigation into Deka’s death commenced when she was reported missing by her family on 24th October at the California Police Station. Detectives used a combination of CCTV footage, mobile phone records, m-pesa transactions, and a supermarket receipt to trace her last movements.

The GPS facility placed her in an apartment in Lavington, Nairobi, where she had gone to meet Hashim. The two had checked into an Airbnb, but before that, Deka had gone shopping at a nearby supermarket. She settled her bills using m-pesa and pocketed her receipt before exiting the supermarket.

The receipt was recovered while police were searching the scene where the portions of her body wrapped in a black plastic bag were found near the cemetery. The receipt led the detectives to the supermarket, and they retrieved the transaction details including confirming her identity via her registered m-pesa account.

DCI contacted Deka’s family but they were unable to identify her from her gruesome remains. A subsequent DNA analysis confirmed what the devastated family feared.

Detectives conducted further investigation and paid attention to her phone records. They stumbled upon a string of conversations between her and a phone number belonging to Hashim, the primary suspect in the murder of the three women. This led them to the apartment in Lavington.

When a search was conducted on the premises, authorities discovered some of Deka’s belongings including her shoes and handbag. A machete-like tool was confiscated, bloody, and believed to be used in perpetrating the crime.

CCTV footage from the apartment environs captured on 31st October shows Hashim leaving the apartment with two bags, which police suspect contained Deka's remains, later dumped at Lang'ata Cemetery.

Using Chemicals to Douse Deka’s Body

Hashim is suspected to have used an unnamed chemical to strip Deka’s flesh from her bones. ?He was determined to obliterate her after she discovered he had murdered the three women. It's not clear if this violent, cruel act was performed after hacking her or before she died.

How Hashim was Arrested

Hashim eluded the authorities by hiding between Eastleigh and Lavington and even venturing back to Somalia and Ethiopia. An informant tipped off the police on his whereabouts.

A November (02) footage captured Hashim casually exiting a building in Eastleigh, which he frequented to scout for taxi customers. ?A manhunt was launched, combining digital footprints that included the analysis of all the phones he had used, which led to his arrest. Police discovered multiple fake identification documents in his possession, including a counterfeit Kenyan ID, raising questions about how he had managed to operate covertly for long.

Deka’s mobile phone is still missing – however, her family reported that they received a mysterious call on the same day her body was discovered.

The landlord of the Lavington apartment, who fled, is a person of interest. The landlord is suspected to have worked in cohorts with Hashim as he reportedly repainted the rooms and cleared evidence from the crime scene and then disappeared. An act that could be a confirmation of his guilt as an accomplice.

Who is Hashim?

Hashim Dagane worked with the Ethiopian Army's Yahedic Commandos between 2010 and 2015, and he left under mysterious circumstances.

DCI established Hashim had his primary and secondary education between 2006 and 2010 in Ethiopia, State Five Godey where his father, Mohamed Khalif still resides.

The DCI investigations did not disclose the specific time Hashim relocated to Garissa and later to Nairobi, but it shows that in February 2024, he was employed as a part-time driver at a school in Eastleigh.

An affidavit sworn by Detective Sergeant Hassan Mohamed of the DCI's Homicides Unit and filed in court by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) however, revealed that the DCI had established that Hashim had a Somali passport, which he obtained using a different name.

In the affidavit, Hashim made an application to the Ministry of Interior and National Administration to be issued a Kenyan National Identity (ID) card on June 15, 2023. An identity card was issued to him under the name Hashim Dagane Muhumed.

Hashim, a father of three, is facing four counts of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code after allegedly killing Dahabo Daud Said, alias Waris, 37, together with her 13-year-old daughter Musyaba Abdi Mohamed and niece Amina Abdirashid Dhahir.