Authorities reported that a woman from Delaware, missing since last week, was discovered dismembered inside a vehicle over the weekend. A man from Maryland has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.
Tracy Nyariki, a 31-year-old resident of Newark, Delaware, was reported missing by her employer last Friday evening after she failed to show up for work for several days, raising concerns.
Officers from the New Castle County Police Department visited Nyariki’s home in the 2700 block of Stone Place located in the Village of Kent but did not find any indication of her whereabouts.
During the investigation, officers found several alarming signs that prompted worries about Nyariki’s safety. They also attempted to reach her by phone, but those efforts were unsuccessful.
A Gold Alert was issued to notify the public about her disappearance, and the case was forwarded to the Criminal Investigations Unit for further inquiry.
Police later identified a 32-year-old man named Nobert Matara as a potential suspect in the case, according to a statement posted on social media by the New Castle County Police Department.
On Saturday, December 21, around 5:00 p.m., detectives requested assistance from the Aberdeen Police Department in Maryland to help locate Tracy Nyariki, Nobert Matara, and Matara’s vehicle.
With the help of Aberdeen police, detectives tracked down Nobert Matara in the 1100 block of South Philadelphia Boulevard in Aberdeen.
“Subsequent investigation revealed human remains in a car,” stated the Aberdeen Police Department in a separate news release.
This find led to Matara being arrested promptly.
He is currently in custody in Maryland and waiting to be extradited to Delaware to face first-degree murder charges.
While the identity of the remains is not yet confirmed to be Nyariki’s, law enforcement mentioned that further charges might arise as evidence continues to accumulate during this ongoing investigation.
Presently, the New Castle County Police Department has four women on their missing persons list who have been unaccounted for over the past decade.
The police department’s website also includes a list of 17 “cold cases” spanning back to the 1970s.
Recent advancements in forensic DNA technology are assisting detectives in solving cases that have been unresolved for decades.
For instance, last month, DNA analysis led to the identification of a suspect in a murder-rape case from over 45 years ago in Riverside County, California.
The individual had initially been cleared after passing a lie detector test, but despite being positively identified years later, he evaded justice as he died in Florida a decade ago.
