The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) officers in Malindi have commenced investigations into the brutal murder of a German tourist inside a hotel room in Malindi town on Monday night.
The Malindi Sub County Police Commander, Vitalis Otieno confirmed the incident that took place at Moriema Cottages, noting that the 75-year old male tourist could have been murdered by a known female lover, who police officers are pursuing.
“It is true that the German national was killed in cold blood and we believe a known female lover was involved. We are pursuing her and we will definitely catch up with her today,” Otieno said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
When journalists visited the murder scene on Tuesday night, they found the man’s body, which was wrapped in hotel beddings, lying on the floor a few feet from a pool of clotting blood. It had several deep stab wounds on the chest, legs and thighs.
The assailant must have been very meticulous, since there were no traces of blood outside the hotel room, nor were there any footprints indicating that the killer had stepped on the huge pool of blood in the room.
Hotel workers gave the possible description and size of the man’s lover and considering the huge stature of the deceased tourist, there was a likelihood that it was not the first time for the assailant to kill, or some people helped her to commit the crime.
Hotel staff said the tourist, only identified as Herman, could have been killed by one of his many frequent female visitors, whose identity details he did not allow the hotel staff to take.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at the hotel, one of the Managers, Kelly Kazungu said that hotel workers realized something was wrong when the tourist failed to show up for breakfast and lunch on Tuesday.
“In the evening, a room attendant informed me that the guest had not left his room since morning and that incessant knocking on his room’s door yielded no fruit. It was then that I peeped through the window and saw some blood on the bed and immediately rushed to the police station to report the incident,” he said.
He said when the officers arrived, they used a spare key to open the room and discovered that the guest had been killed. The killer was said to have locked the room from outside and left with the key.
The manager said the tourist had a habit of keeping his room key instead of leaving it at the reception when he left the hotel as was the norm in most hotels.
“The man has been keeping his key since he checked in on December 4, 2019 and room attendants have been using a spare key to access the room to clean it whenever the tourist was out,” said Kazungu.
“But this time, he was still in the room so the room attendants did not go in since he did not like disturbances,” he said.
Kazungu said none of the workers heard any commotion or any distress call from the room, but attributed this to the fact that the guest’s voice was hoarse since he had throat cancer.
Police took the tourist’s body to Malindi Sub County Hospital Mortuary where an autopsy was expected to be conducted to establish the actual cause of death.
By Emmanuel Masha/Wellington Oketch
