Nairobi News

The last moments of Ms Maureen Gitau, a Kenyan woman who went missing in London, the United Kingdom (UK), can now be revealed.

Ms Gitau, on December 5, 2022, left their home in Evelyn Street in Deptford, Lewisham, Southeast London in the United Kingdom (UK) with a promise that she would be back the same evening, but this was never to be.

“When she left I never knew that it was the last time I was going to have a word with my lovely daughter and that I would spend the rest of the days up to now looking for her,” Ms Jane Kigotho, the mother of Ms Gitau exclusively told Nairobi News.

Also read: Details of a guard’s crime of passion involving a university student emerge

She spoke to this reporter on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, as she said that the family was really disturbed by the fact that the police had already said something bad might have happened to her daughter.

When she failed to return home that day, her mother got concerned and started calling her, but she never received any response.

Five days later, Ms Kigotho and her sister Ms Faith Njeri opted to make a report on the matter to the police in Lewisham.

On the evening of December 10, 2022, the same day that she reported that something was not okay, concerns about the well-being of Ms Gitau followed an upward trajectory which saw the Scotland Yard’s Specialists Crime command take over the investigations.

Ms Kigotho said that the family had been informed by the officers tasked to know the lady’s whereabouts that she was last seen entering a building in London while she was in the company of a man.

Also read:  I fired DCI boss, Kinoti! President Ruto

The police later identified the man as Mr Mark Moodie, 54, who could later be captured leaving the building alone, but he was carrying some luggage.

“The police told us that the man was captured by CCTV footage carrying something as he left the premises. The officers have visited the building but have never found my daughter either alive or dead,” Ms Kigotho said.

Mr Moodie the main suspect in the disappearance, hails from Woolwich in Southeast London and is currently in police custody as the matter is being investigated.

Police believe that he was the last man seen in the company of the Kenyan lady. The Bromley Magistrates’ Court will handle his case.

In a statement, Metropolitan Police, who received the information about the missing girl, said that Ms Gitau’s family have been informed about the arrest of Mr Moodie and continues to be supported by specialist officers.

Also read: My dad read a book to treat our ailments – MCA Alai on his upbringing

Ms Kigotho has been making appeals on various social media sites asking her daughter to return home. In her appeal, she detailed how hard it does not to have her at home, especially during the Christmas and New Year festivals.

“Maureen is much-loved and is such an important part of our lives. We are desperate to have her back home with us. If anyone knows where Maureen is, let us know. Maureen – please come home to us,” part of her appeal reads.

Ms Kigotho also said that her daughter was born in Kenya at the Consolata Mathari Hospital in Nyeri County, and “their native home is in Njoro, Nakuru County”.

By the time she disappeared, her contract had ended, and she was out trying to get another job before she went missing.

Also read: Two Naivasha men lose Sh250,000 to ‘mchele babes’