A young model was found stabbed to death yesterday with her three-year old-daughter crying next to her in a pool of blood. The body of Linah Keza, 29, understood to have taken part in Miss Africa 2010, was found at a flat in King Edward Road, Leyton, early yesterday morning.
The case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which will look at contact police had with her and a 38-year-old man who has been arrested over her death. London Ambulance Service paramedics accompanied police to the address just before 4.30am, but Linah, a Rwandan national living in London, was pronounced dead at the scene. She is believed to have had a panic button installed by the police.
It is understood that her daughter was at the address at the time of the attack, according to a family friend. Herbert Muhire said: ‘Her daughter is being taken care of and treated for trauma and other consequences as she was found crying next to the mother who was in a pool of blood. Family and friends have been briefed how she was killed and died a gruesome death. Everything is being done that Linah’s body be brought and buried in respect at home in Kigali, Rwanda.’
Tributes to Linah from friends and relatives were left on a Facebook page set up soon after her death. Her devastated friends posted a video on YouTube in memory of the 29-year-old.
Friend Alex Vuningorna posted: “I have trouble accepting the fact you’re gone, so I won’t. It will be like we went for a while without seeing each other.”
Posting underneath the video, friend Debbie Makumi told how she was speaking to Ms Linah hours before her death. She posted: “Linah, my darling friend, I can’t stop weeping.”
Detectives are continuing to question the 38-year-old man suspected to have been connected to her death at North London police station. A post-mortem examination is due to take place today at Walthamstow Mortuary.