Homicide detectives are investigating the gruesome murder of the 75-year old American environmentalist Esmond Bradley Martins at his Karen residence in Nairobi.
So far, four people have been arrested in connection with the killing. Preliminary police findings show Esmond had three deep stab wounds on the neck and was found unconscious in a pool of blood by his wife identified as Mrs Martin on the floor next to his bed at 6:30pm on Sunday.
“Yesterday (Sunday) at about 6:30 to 7pm the wife of Martin came into the house from work and found the deceased lying unconscious next to his bed. Police were called in.
“He had some stab wounds on his neck. We are baffled over the motive of killing because the house was not disturbed and nothing was stolen,” Karen Divisional Police Commander Cunningham Suiyanka said.
Yesterday, detectives were holed up in the house seeking to piece together the motive of outright murder and those behind. According to police investigation findings deduced so far, the deceased checked in the house at 2pm from work.
Esmond was an elephant researcher working with the ‘Save the Elephant Foundation’ while the wife aged 70 years works as a volunteer. At the time, the casual labourers, a gardener and a cook were not present. However, CID officers have already recorded statements from them.
Ordinarily, the couple is said to give an off duty to their workers on Sunday’s when they are at home. The wife was also away but upon her return, she told the police the lifeless body of her husband lay on the floor almost under the bed.
Police have ruled out possible case of suicide and are now pursuing a case of premeditated murder. The deceased has made extensive research on trans-boundary wildlife trophy illicit trade especially on rhinoceros horns and ivory smuggling in Kenya, China, Vietnam, and Laos.
Investigators drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations were yesterday ‘reconstructing’ the scene of crime inside the bedroom, sitting and the dining area where cooked food had been placed untouched.
However, since the arrangement inside the house was intact, police are keen to establish the precision with which the assailants executed the heinous act, the understanding of the house architectural plan and if there was no form of resistance to fight back by the deceased.
At the scene of murder, blood was in the bedroom and had not spilt to other areas an indication he was either sleeping. The residence occupying 30 acres of land along Mutamaiyu Road off Mukoma