Kenya, who went to the United States to pursue a romantic dream, has not been seen since February. The disappearance sparked suspicion among his family, more than 14,400 kilometers away.
Irene Gakwa met Nathan Heitman on a Craigslist forum. Recently she was accused of financial crimes.
The couple lived together until recently in Gillette, Wyoming. Between February and March, the spouse transferred nearly $3,700 from the woman’s bank account to his account and spent another $3,230 on his credit card, according to court documents.
Afrika’s last videoconference with her parents took place on February 24, a discussion filled with sweet antics. But behind the jokes are hints that something is amiss.
When her face appeared on the phone screen, her father, Francis Combo, teased her that she was hungry and tired. Her smile grew more subdued, he noticed. Her short hair, usually braided, was disheveled.
“You drink some hot milk and relax,” he whispered to her from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
A month later — less than three years after Gakwa left Kenya for the United States — his family reported him missing. At the time of the WhatsApp call, her parents were unaware that Gakwa was living in Wyoming with a man she had met on a dating forum.
They also knew police would later accuse the man of withdrawing money from his checking bank account, overcharging his credit card and deleting his email account. They imagined that six months would pass without a word from her.
“She’s always been daddy’s girl,” Frances Kambo told CNN in a recent phone interview from Nairobi.
“She’s supposed to be home for Christmas this year. If she can’t afford it, I’m going to buy the ticket myself,” his voice trembled.
“Now I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again.”
Irene Gakwa and her father Francis Kambo. (CNN)
Irene Gakwa’s troubled family spans two continents. His parents live in Nairobi, while his two older brothers, Chris Munga and Kennedy Wainaina, live in Meridian, Idaho, a suburb of Boise.
Her father became concerned in late February after she repeatedly failed to make video calls. It’s unusual for a 32-year-old to talk to her parents every day.
The couple regularly drives 12 hours from their home in Meridian, Idaho to participate in local searches.
According to her family, the text messages sent from the 32-year-old’s device seemed strange. Instead of being written in a mix of Swahili and Kenyan, the messages were in stilted English — as if someone had used Google Translate to send them, said Anna Vainaina.
(CNN)
In early March, the parents received text messages via WhatsApp, some of which purported to explain why she was not making video calls.
“Dad, I dropped my phone in water and now the microphone doesn’t work,” they received.
Another read: ‘I want you to know I love you and miss you mum’.
The boyfriend told the police that she packed up and left. The last message to the parents was on March 9, her father said.
Three siblings share the family cell phone plan. After the Gakwa brothers were unable to reach her, they looked through her phone records and called a close friend with whom she had spoken on several occasions.
They found her living with her boyfriend, Nathan Heitman, 39, in a three-bedroom house in Gillette.
The couple formed in 2020, but broke up several times, says Vainaina. Her brothers believed they had broken up and had no idea the couple had rekindled their love and moved in together.
Chris Munga and his wife Gyoise Abeti. (CNN)
Her brothers reported her missing to the Gillette Police Department on March 20, and an officer spoke with Heitman the same day, the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, the spouse told the officer the last time he saw Gakwa was when he came home one evening, packed his clothes into two plastic bags and put them in a dark colored SUV.
He told the police that he had not heard from her since then. According to the affidavit, he also said that she had withdrawn money from his bank account and that she should contact him if she needed money.
Wainaina said Heitman did not respond to the brothers’ requests to return his belongings to their home. They begged him to give them his documents, including his Kenyan passport, but Heitman refused, Wainaina added.
The man is considered a person of interest in her disappearance and “has not made himself available to detectives to address issues pending investigation,” Gillette police said in a statement.
“We believe he has information regarding Irene’s disappearance, but he chose not to provide that information to law enforcement at this time,” said Gillette Police Detective Dan Strupp.
CNN made several attempts to reach Heitman, but he did not follow up. CNN also left messages to its spokesman, Dallas Lamb, but did not hear back.
Heitman has not been charged in connection with Gakwa’s disappearance, but has been suspected of financial crimes since her disappearance.
Nathan Heitman (CNN)
Gillette police arrested him in May and charged him with two counts of theft of intellectual property, one count of unlawful use of a credit card and two felonies for allegedly changing her bank account password and deleting her email account after she disappeared.
He also changed his banking passwords and deleted his Gmail account, according to court documents. According to the probable cause affidavit, all the changes were made from an IP address associated with Heitman after the date he said police Gaqua had moved.
“This indicates that Nathan Heitman accessed Irene’s account, withdrew money and changed the password to deny Irene access,” the affidavit reads.
“These transactions commenced on February 25, 2022 and continued through March 2022.”
Heitman pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on $10,000 bond. His pretrial conference is scheduled for November.
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