Minnesota, MN: Minnesota Man Charged With Killing Wife, 2 Kids

Angry over a suspected affair, a 43-year-old Minnesota man struck his wife in the head with a golf club and strangled her with an electrical cord until she died, then drugged two of his children and killed them while one struggled and begged for him to stop, according to criminal charges filed Friday.

Justus Ogendi Kebabe was charged Friday in Ramsey County with three counts of intentional murder in the deaths of his wife, Bilah Omare, who was in her 30s; his son, Kinley Ogendi, 12; and daughter, Ivyn Ogendi, 9.

The three were found dead Wednesday night in the family's third-floor apartment in Vadnais Heights. Kebabe, who had threatened to kill his wife in the past, was arrested that night in southern Minnesota. He had the couple's 4-year-old daughter with him, unharmed.

He made his first court appearance Friday, and bail was set at $3 million.

"Our entire community feels the pain and sadness of these horrific deaths," Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said. "They remind us, in such a tragic way, that domestic violence continues to take a horrible toll despite so much effort to prevent it."

A telephone message left at the public defender's office Friday was not immediately returned.

According to the criminal complaint, Kebabe initially lied about the killings — saying his wife died of a diabetic reaction and his two older children were with his brother. But after further questioning, he allegedly confessed to the murders in detail.

According to the charges, Kebabe told authorities that at around 11 a.m. Monday, he argued with his wife over affairs he thought she was having. Kebabe told investigators he hit her in the head with a golf club, and after she started screaming, he strangled her with an electrical wire.

He then told investigators he brought her body into the bathroom, locked the door and put a towel under the door to keep blood from coming out, the complaint said.

Kebabe told investigators the children came home from school Monday and went to bed. On Tuesday morning, "he prepared a drink of cranberry juice putting inside a handful of Tylenol PM pills and disguising the taste of those with sugar," the complaint said. He then gave the drinks to his children.

After they finished drinking, Kinley went to take a bath in another bathroom — not the one that held his mother's body. Kebabe told authorities he went into the bathroom and held his boy's head under water while the boy struggled and said, "Stop daddy stop!" according to the complaint.

"Kebabe said that he held Kinley Ogendi under the water until he was dead," the complaint said. He then brought his son into his bedroom, but him in the bed, covered him with blankets and closed the door.

The complaint said Kebabe told authorities he then went into Ivyn's room, where she was groggy and lying on the bed. Kebabe told investigators he smothered her with a pillow and choked her with his hands until she was dead.

Kebabe, who is from Kenya, told authorities he put a plastic bag over his head to try to kill himself, but realized he had no plans for the couple's 4-year-old girl and didn't want her to go back to Africa. According to the complaint, Kebabe typed up notes about his daughter's future care, then panicked and drove away with the girl.

Kebabe's car ran out of gas on Interstate 35 in southern Minnesota. Kebabe ran away before police arrived, but the trooper who responded noted the girl was naked from the waist down. Kebabe allegedly told two women who stopped to help that the girl had wet her pants so he took them off, the complaint said.

When the trooper found Kebabe, he admitted he took Tylenol PM and was arrested for impaired driving. He told authorities his wife died and his kids were at his brother's house, but when police contacted Kebabe's brother, the man said he didn't know Omare was dead and did not have the children.

Kebabe's brother told Ramsey County authorities that Kebabe had been making recent threats to kill himself.

Sheriff's deputies went to the family's apartment and found several doors locked. Police opened the locked bathroom and found Omare, "with her body discolored and blood on the floor around her head," the complaint said. They then opened other locked doors one-by-one, and discovered first Ivyn, then Kinley.

Ramsey County put out an alert for Kebabe, and learned he was already in custody in southern Minnesota's Rice County.

Kebabe has a prior arrest for domestic assault. According to a sheriff's incident report from 2008, Kebabe was arrested for pushing Omare and threatening to kill her. Online court records show the assault charges were dropped and Kebabe pleaded guilty to disorderly conduc