A second athlete has been killed in the same town that another Olympian was killed in just a year ago.
Kenyan born Damaris Muthee Mutua was found in the town of Iten in western Kenya on Tuesday, the same town record-breaking distance runner Agnes Tirop was found dead in.
Police have launched a manhunt for Mutua’s Ethopian boyfriend who is believed to have been the last person to see her.
“According to Mutua’s immediate neighbour, her boyfriend was seen in the house on Sunday morning. It’s likely that the incident happened late Saturday or early Sunday since the body was in a state of decomposition,” county police chief Tom Makori told AFP.
“We have launched a manhunt for the Ethiopian who is believed to have fled the country.”
The 28-year-old was a junior athlete and two times bronze medalist at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore and the East African junior athletics championships in Khartoum, Sudan before deciding to represent Bahrain.
Her story is similar to Tirop who was only 25 when she was found with stab wounds in her abdomen and her husband missing in October last year.
Athletics Kenya said the country had “lost a jewel who was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage, thanks to her eye-catching performances.”
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also paid tribute at the time, saying, “It is unsettling, utterly unfortunate and very sad that we’ve lost a young and promising athlete who, at a young age of 25 years, she had brought our country so much glory through her exploits on the global athletics stage including in this year’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics where she was part of the Kenyan team in Japan.”
Image: Twitter
This article first appeared on OverSixty.