Irene Gakwa emigrated from Kenya to America in 2019 with plans to live near her brothers and go into healthcare.
Then she vanished.
Gakwa’s parents knew something was wrong when communication from Gakwa became less frequent and awkward, her texts reading as if someone used Google Translate to format them.
Gakwa’s family reported her missing.
Gakwa had been living with her boyfriend, Nathan Hightman. After she was reported missing, police learned Hightman stole $3,700 from Gakwa's accounts and used her credit cards.
One of his buys were gloves and a shovel, purchased around Gakwa’s disappearance. Even more suspicious, Hightman’s neighbor shared that Hightman bought a 55 gallon drum and burned “something” in it.
Hightman refused to return Gakwa’s possessions to her parents, changed her banking passwords and deleted her Gmail. Police have issued 24 search warrants but haven’t found enough “probable cause” to arrest Hightman for her disappearance.
In 2021, 89,020 Black women and girls went missing in the U.S. Gakwa’s community hasn’t given up – if you have any information please visit whereisirene.com.
We cannot depend on police to find her, we must fight for those white supremacy works to erase.