The Kenyan Diaspora woman Irene Gakwa who moved to the United States about four years ago stopped communicating with her friends and family in February 2022.
Irene has now been missing for many months and her family suspects her boyfriend Nathan Hightman whom she met on Craiglist has something to do with her diasappearance.
According to CNN, Gakwa’s father claimed that the last time he spoke with his daughter over WhatApp video chat, she didn’t look herself. Her smile was more subdued and her hair which was normally well kept and braided was disheveled and messy. “Make sure you drink hot milk and relax,” he begged of his daughter. That is the last time he saw her and no one else has heard from her ever since.
At the time of her disappearance, Irene was living with the American man Nathan Hightman whom she had met on craigslist in Gillette, Wyoming. It is reported that thier relationship rocky and later after her disappearance, Nathan was accused of maxing out Irene Gakwa’s credit cards, removing money from her checking account and deleting her email account.
Irene’s father Francis Kambo knew something was not right when his daughter did not call home as she regulary did. He said that “She’s always been a daddy’s girl,”
Accordong to the theblast.com, the 32-year-old Irene Gakwa who was known to call her parents every day has her family so shaken that they dropped everything to find her. Gakwa’s two older brothers, Chris Munga and Kennedy Wainaina, live in the Idaho city of Meridian and made the long drive to their sister’s city to inquire about her whereabouts.
They claimed that their sister’s texts sounded odd and this prompted them to see her in person. Normally, their baby sister would write in a mixture of Swahili and English but her text had “stilted English” as if someone was trying to write like her. “The texts would be out of place,” said her father.
The Boyfriend Hightman is currently a person of interest for the police and the family. When he was questioned about Gawker’s whereabouts, he claimed that she came home one evening, packed her belongings in bags, and retreated into a dark-colored SUV. He hasn’t seen her since.
As for that missing money, he claims he emptied her account so she would be forced to call him if she needed money. He is also not cooperating with the family or local police by refusing to give over anything belonging to her in the house including her Kenyan passport. His behavior is extremely suspicious to Gillette police.
Court documents allege that Hightman transferred almost $3,700 from Gakwa’s bank account to his account and spent about $3,230 on her credit card. He has pleaded not guilty to the financial crimes and was released on a $10,000 bond.
Meanwhile, Gakwa’s community in Gillette and her family have banded together to help find the young woman or find out what happened to her. Search parties have been organized and a website whereisirene.com has been set up to help the efforts.
Source-https://theblast.com/
