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| The attack, which killed Jane Kuria, 47, and her daughters Isabella Kuria, 19, and Annabel Kuria, 16, also left her son Jeremy Kuria, 7, and his (Jeremy’s) cousin Peter Thande, 10, seriously injured and unconscious. Photo credit: Family album |
The brutal murder of a Kenyan woman and her two daughters in their home in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2007 remains unsolved 16 years later. Jane Kuria, 47, and her daughters Isabella Kuria, 19, and Annabel Kuria, 16, were killed in their home, while Jane's son Jeremy Kuria, 7, and his cousin Peter Thande, 10, were left severely injured and unconscious.
The case has been taken up by Investigation Discovery, an American pay-TV network specialising in true crime documentaries, to search for missing clues and solve the cases.
The crime scene was described by Detective John Dawes, who was with the Cobb County Cold Case Unit at the time, as "one of the most vicious I had ever seen, it was completely shocking evil that a person would do that".
When Diana Maina and Pauline Thande, Jane's sister-in-law and niece, arrived at the home to check on Jane and her daughters, they discovered four separate crime scenes, all horrific and gruesome.
Jane was found in the kitchen, Isabella near the front door entrance, and Annabel in her bedroom. Jeremy was found unconscious in his bed, and Peter was found unconscious next to a couch in the living room. Jeremy and Peter survived the ordeal.
No murder weapon or other usable DNA was left behind, but an acquaintance of Jane emerged as a “person of interest”. The boys eventually recovered but have no memory of their assault.
For nearly 16 years now, the police have not made any arrests, even as the family calls for action by the authorities. Homicide investigators in the past indicated they had gone over reams of evidence in search of a motive but said they have no idea who committed the crime and why.
The late Jane and her children moved to the US in 2001 from Kenya after the death of her husband. In 2002, she moved to the suburb of Powder Springs. Until she met her death, she was working at a local hospital and nursing home.
Isabella was a college student, while Annabel was in high school. According to GAFollowers, a local news site, Jane and her daughters had applied for asylum because of their opposition to female genital mutilation in Kenya.
Jane said that their lives were in danger if they returned to their native country, Kenya. The asylum was denied, and Jane was in the process of appealing when she and her two daughters were murdered.
The two survivors of the massacre have moved on with their lives but cannot help but look back at the crime that changed everything, knowing that their family’s killer is still out there somewhere.
It has taken Jeremy, now 18, time to heal—both physically and mentally, after losing his entire family to the unknown assailant. He recovered in the hospital for two months following the attack. But the mental scars have taken years to overcome.
According to Diana, who spoke to 11Alive in 2018, while Peter was eating ugali, he looked at his mother and said he remembered that that was the meal he was eating the day of the attack.
"He remembered the man who came to the house was wearing an African shirt,” she said. “Detectives said that they've never found... any kind of blood that was not for the family,” Diana said then. “There was just nothing. So, it's like somebody just came in and killed them and just left. But how does that happen? And how is it that it's been 10 years, and nobody has found anything?”
Five years ago, Jeremy appealed for help to settle a Sh5 million hospital bill after undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumour. A family member based in the US said Jeremy might have sustained severe injuries when unknown assailants attacked his family at their Powder Springs home in the city.