Rwanda police arrest serial killer suspect after finding bodies in kitchen

A man has been arrested in Rwanda after more than 10 bodies were discovered buried in a hole in the kitchen of his home in the capital, Kigali, according to the police and local media reports.

Police said on Wednesday the 34-year-old suspected serial killer had lured his victims from bars to his rented home in Kicukiro, a Kigali suburb.

Local media said more than 10 bodies had been found and a source in the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) told AFP anonymously that the number of victims so far was 14.

RIB spokesman Thierry Murangira declined to confirm a figure, telling the news agency that “the final number will be determined by forensic investigations”.

The suspect had initially been arrested in July on suspicion of robbery and rape among other offences but was granted bail due to a lack of evidence, he said, quoted by local media.

Investigations continued, however, and he was rearrested on Tuesday and his home searched, leading to the discovery of the bodies dumped in a pit he had dug in his kitchen.

“The suspect confessed that he learned to kill from watching famous serial killers. He dissolved some of his victims in acid,” the RIB source said.

“He would study his victims before stalking them and usually went for those that are most likely not to have close family or friends to look out for them.”

Murangira said the suspect had confessed during interrogation to the killings and that preliminary investigations had found the victims were male and female.

“He operated by luring his victims, mostly prostitutes, to his home where he would rob them of their phones and belongings and then strangled them to death and buried them in a hole dug in the kitchen of his rented house,” he added.