It's been a difficult few months for the family of a woman who was found fatally stabbed in a vehicle parked at Boston's Logan International Airport.
The body of 31-year-old Maggie Mbitu of Whitman was found on Nov. 1. Kevin Kangethe, the 40-year-old man sought in her murder, made his way to Kenya.
On Tuesday, loved ones finally got word that Kangethe, who was Mbitu's boyfriend, had been arrested in the African country.
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"I think right now, Maggie, where she is, I think she's happy," said her mother, Rose Mbitu. "She's happy, because this is the beginning of the justice."
Speaking from her living room in Whitman, she expressed gratitude for the investigation that resulted in Kangethe's arrest.
"I want to say thank you to the government and to the community," she said. "Thank you for standing with us and for the prayers. Now this prayer has been answered."
Her family has been seeking answers for nearly three months.
"Day in and day out, we are thinking about Maggie and all that happened to her," Rose Mbitu said.
When her family spoke with NBC10 Boston last month, they were desperate for an arrest.
"What we just want to hear is that he's been caught," Maggie's sister, Ann Mbitu, said at the time.
Tuesday morning, family members learned Kangethe had been captured 7,000 miles away at a nightclub in Nairobi, Kenya.
Rose Mbitu said she didn't think this day would come. She said investigators had recently received a few tips about Kangethe's whereabouts and were moving in on him.
"Every day, I was just looking at my phone, because they had told us they would call us and let us know," she said.
The U.S. Embassy in Kenya says authorities from both countries worked together to locate and capture the fugitive.
"I'm extremely grateful to the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, the FBI, Kenyan law enforcement agencies, the Kenyan government and the Massachusetts State Police for bringing the person accused of Margaret Mbitu's brutal murder into custody," Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. "Their tremendous and untiring efforts will provide Margaret's family and friends the opportunity to see Kevin Kangethe face justice for this terrible crime."
"We are overjoyed by the news of the capture of Maggie's murder suspect," Mbitu's family said in a written statement Tuesday. "We have confirmed with law enforcement and the DA of the arrest of Mr. Kangethe in Kenya and are waiting on the next step of extradition and eventual prosecution. We want to thank our friends, law enforcement here in the US and in Kenya and the community at large for the efforts in the capture of Mr. Kangethe. We are confident that the truth will prevail and that justice for Maggie will be achieved."
Speaking with NBC10 Boston, Rose Mbitu said her family just wants to look Kangethe in the eye and ask him why this happened.
"Of course we would like to know why," she said. "And even the community, everybody would like to know why."
The family is hoping to learn a lot more once Kangethe is back stateside to face charges.
There is no timeline yet, but authorities say the process is underway.
