The college student suspected of killing and eating parts of a man staying at his home ranted months ago about “mass human sacrifices” on Facebook, one of several details that emerged Friday in the second gruesome case of alleged cannibalism in the U.S. in a week.
Authorities say Alex Kinyua, 21, admitted using a knife to kill and carve up Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, 37, before eating his heart and parts of his brain. The older man had been staying with Mr. Kinyua’s family for about six weeks at their townhouse in the Baltimore suburb of Joppatowne.
Both the victim and his alleged killer had attended nearby Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore. Mr. Kinyua had just finished his junior year, and Mr. Agyei-Kodie was a graduate student who last attended classes in 2008. Both men were also originally from Africa. Mr. Kinyua was from Kenya and Mr. Agyei-Kodie from Ghana.
Investigators haven’t given a possible motive in the slaying. In a separate case on May 19, police said Mr. Kinyua beat a man with a baseball bat on Morgan State’s campus, fracturing his skull and making him lose sight in one eye. Mr. Kinyua was free on $220,000 bail in that case. He is now being held without bond on a murder charge.
In February, Mr. Kinyua posted a question on Facebook, asking fellow students at historically black colleges and universities if they were “strong enough to endure ritual HBCU mass human sacrifices around the country and still be able to function as human beings?”
He referred to the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech and “other past university killings around the country” and warned “ethnic cleansing is the policy, strategy and tactics that will affect you, directly or indirectly in the coming months.”
Mr. Kinyua wrote on his page that he attended Morgan State and was a member of an ROTC-affiliated military honor society at the university, the National Society of Pershing Rifles. ROTC is a college-based U.S. military program that allows students to be commissioned as officers when they graduate. The page was linked to an Internet radio show called Warrior Syndicate Radio, which displayed a photo of Mr. Kinyua in green-and-white facepaint. A Twitter account linked to him also had nonsensical and repetitive tweets that ended in February.
Lt. Col. James Lewis, a professor of military science at Morgan State and the head of the ROTC program, said Friday that Mr. Kinyua participated in ROTC for 2-1/2 years but was “disenrolled” in January. He could not say why.
James Holt, a friend of the victim for about 10 years, said Mr. Agyei-Kodie had met Antony Kinyua, the father of his alleged killer, while pursuing a doctoral degree. Antony Kinyua is a physics lecturer at Morgan State.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Mr. Agyei-Kodi came to the United States on a student visa but was not in compliance with the visa’s terms. He was ordered removed from the country by an immigration judge in 2010 and was under ICE’s supervision pending removal to Ghana. The agency had been waiting for documents from Ghana before returning him to the country.
Mr. Holt said the Kinyua family took in Mr. Agyei-Kodi when he hadn’t worked for three years and was trying to re-establish his life.
” … Dr. Kinyua was extremely kind in taking Kujoe into his house while Kujoe got his feet back under him.” Mr. Holt said. “And I think Kujoe was on his way to re-establishing his educational status and completing his Ph.D. when this happened.”
Authorities went to the Kinyua home Tuesday after Mr. Kinyua’s brother found what he thought were human remains in two metal tins in the family’s basement. Investigators found what they believe are Mr. Agyei-Kodie’s head and hands. More remains were found outside a church about a mile away.
A woman who answered the door at the family’s townhouse Friday morning said the family would not be commenting.
Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane, who has been with the office for 40 years, described the area as a quiet and semi-rural community. He said the county has had some gruesome investigations in the past but never an incident of cannibalism.
The Maryland attack came a few days after another alleged instance of cannibalism in Miami where a man in Miami chewed away another man’s face along a busy highway and wouldn’t stop until an officer shot him to death. Witnesses say 31-year-old Rudy Eugene growled at the officer and continued to chew. The victim, identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, a homeless man who lived under the causeway, was in critical condition and will be permanently disfigured.
• Associated Press photographer Patrick Semansky in Bel Air, Md., and reporters Alex Dominguez in Baltimore and Jessica Gresko in the District contributed to this report
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