Friends and family of Ivy Anyango are seeking answers over her death after identifying her as the young woman whose decomposing body was recovered from a water reservoir behind Orange County Hostels near Daystar University’s Athi River campus on September 5.
Ivy had reportedly been missing since June, around the same period when she lost her phone, according to information circulated by friends who have now launched an appeal for anyone who interacted with her during the intervening months to come forward.
Friends describe Ivy as a kind and cooperative university student who lived with a roommate in Rongai but regularly travelled to Athi River, where she had friends studying at Daystar University.
Before she disappeared, her friends said they maintained regular communication with her, but contact stopped around June following the loss of her phone, leaving a major gap investigators will now have to reconstruct.
The first public reports concerning the body emerged on September 6, a day after a caretaker at Orange County Hostels reported discovering the remains of an unidentified woman inside a man-made water reservoir behind the hostels.
Police responding to the scene initially had no identity for the woman because the body was already decomposed and appeared to have remained inside the reservoir for some time.
Preliminary investigations produced disturbing evidence around one of the hostel rooms, with police reports at the time indicating that investigators found blood stains on the walls of room A031 and broken panes on a rear window.
Investigators suspected that the woman’s body may have been forced through the rear window before being dumped into the reservoir, although the exact circumstances surrounding her death remain under investigation and no suspect has publicly been identified.
The room was initially reported to have been associated with a former occupant identified only as Natasha, who was said to have vacated the premises approximately one month before the body was discovered.
Crime Scene Investigation officers from Kitengela processed the hostel and surrounding area before retrieving the remains and transferring them to the Machakos Level Five Hospital mortuary for identification and postmortem examination.
The remains are still at Machakos Level Five Hospital as the investigation continues, according to information provided by people familiar with the case.
Friends of Ivy have now connected the September discovery to the young woman who disappeared months earlier and are appealing for information that could help detectives reconstruct her final movements.
They particularly want to hear from anyone who saw or communicated with Ivy from June onwards, encountered her around Daystar University or Athi River, or has information concerning Orange County Hostels and the circumstances surrounding her death.
There are also claims that several people were previously questioned in connection with the discovery and subsequently released, although this has not yet been independently confirmed and investigators have not publicly explained the circumstances of those interrogations.
The matter has been reported to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, with further information from investigators expected as detectives establish Ivy’s movements, the circumstances under which she reached the hostel and what happened before her body ended up inside the reservoir.
One of the biggest unanswered questions is the period between Ivy’s disappearance in June and the discovery of the body on September 5, particularly when she was last independently seen alive and who was with her during her final known movements.
Her friends are asking anyone holding even seemingly insignificant information to approach the DCI, arguing that details about a phone call, sighting, visit, vehicle, hostel resident or interaction during those months could help investigators piece together what happened.
For Ivy’s family and friends, the discovery has ended one uncertainty while opening another much more painful question: what happened to Ivy between the moment communication with her stopped and the day her body was discovered in Athi River?