At the commencement of the trial for the murder of Mireille Dysseleer (65), a Belgian lady who resided in Kenya after falling in love with an African dancer, a lawyer startled everyone. The lawyer maintains, “She is still alive.” According to reports, the ‘dead’ lady sent him WhatsApp messages explaining why she had vanished.
The remarkable tale begins in 1991 when Mireille Dysseleer went on a three-week vacation to Kenya. She met Manuel Lesoipa, a professional African dancer, there and fell in love with him. Mireille was 35 years old at the time, and Manuel was 21. Mireille was able to explore the delights of African life because of her great love.
Mireille returned to Kenya eight times in two years. She agreed to marry him in 1993. She relocated to Kenya permanently and adopted the moniker ‘Laila Samburu’.
Mireille’s love story came to an end when she learned about ‘polygamy,’ or the phenomenon in which a man is permitted to marry many women. Her husband picked a second wife on the spur of the moment. Mireille felt deceived by her spouse and divorced him in 2004.
Meanwhile, the couple had made a lovely life for themselves and were even wealthy by local standards. Years of litigation over the joint properties ensued until her ex-husband died in 2017 at the age of 45. Mireille downsized her property portfolio and relocated to a new home in Nairobi’s wealthy suburbs.
House sold
Mireille was last spotted at the residence at the end of last year. She has been missing since then, but her corpse has never been discovered. She was cremated, according to police.
Mireille’s closest friend, Lucy Waithera, was arrested in February 2020 on suspicion of murder. Mireille’s home in Nairobi is alleged to have been sold by her. She utilized a bogus death certificate to conceal her identity. Another forged document was to prove that Mireille had left the house to her.
The trial over the suspected murder started on Wednesday. Lucy Waithera is the prime suspect. However, her lawyer, Brian Khaemba, suddenly came up with startling new elements. He claims that the ‘dead’ Mireille Dysseleer contacted him and showed the Whatsapp messages she sent him.
WhatsApp messages
In the reports, the alleged dead woman claims that a lover faked her murder and is trying to put the blame on her friend Lucy Waithera. His motive would be jealousy. “Please help my friend, she is innocent”, it sounds. “I am still alive and my lover is behind this (…) today is 10/11/2021, please help me.”
The prosecutor has his doubts about the new elements in the lawsuit. According to him, it has not been proven that the woman is still alive. He says it’s just a photo and text messages, not video footage. The telephone number used also turned out not to be in the name of Mireille ‘Laila’ Dysseleer. In addition, the woman in the photo does not resemble the alleged fatal victim at all.
New research
However, the judge ordered that the new information be presented to the police for investigation. “We are tracking down the owner of the phone,” it sounds. Location data would already show that the owner of the mobile phone that sent the WhatsApp messages is near Nairobi.
The lawyers for the main suspect Lucy Waithera want the trial to be stopped because a body has never been found. The Public Prosecution Service fears that the WhatsApp messages are a maneuver to derail the lawsuit. The judge ruled that the trial will continue pending the results of the police investigation into the WhatsApp messages.
