The Mystery of Missing Kenyan Woman Irene Gakwa in Wyoming

More than four years after Irene Wairimu Gakwa disappeared from her home in Gillette, Wyoming, investigators continue to search for answers. 

The 32-year-old nurse-in-training from Kenya was last seen on 24 February 2022 during a WhatsApp video call with her parents, and her disappearance remains an active missing-person investigation. Gakwa moved from Nairobi to Boise, Idaho, in 2019 to live closer to her brothers, Kris and Kennedy.

She worked as a healthcare assistant while studying nursing and hoped to become a doctor. Family members and friends described her as quiet, hardworking and devoted to those close to her.

She later met Nathan Hightman through a Craigslist personal advertisement. Their relationship was marked by periods of separation and reconciliation. In 2021, Gakwa moved with him to Gillette, Wyoming. Her family believed she had ended the relationship and did not know she was living with him.

According to Hightman, Gakwa left their home suddenly after packing her belongings into rubbish bags and getting into a dark SUV driven by an unidentified person. Investigators questioned this account after examining financial records and other evidence.

Police found that Hightman accessed Gakwa's bank accounts after she disappeared. Investigators said he withdrew thousands of dollars, used her credit cards and deleted her Gmail account without permission. 

Surveillance footage also showed him buying a shovel, boots and work trousers from a Walmart store the day after Gakwa was last heard from. Some of these items were later recovered during a search of his property.

Neighbours reported seeing a fire burning in an oil drum in Hightman's back garden around the time Gakwa disappeared. Investigators have not officially confirmed this information. Over the following years, volunteers searched large areas of land in an effort to find evidence linked to the case.

In May 2022, Hightman was arrested on charges connected to Gakwa's finances rather than her disappearance. He later pleaded guilty to theft, unauthorised use of a credit card and crimes against intellectual property. He was sentenced to between three and six years in prison.

Hightman was granted conditional parole in October 2024 after serving about two years of his sentence. Although he has not been charged with kidnapping or murder, investigators continue to identify him as a person of interest in Gakwa's disappearance.

Gakwa's family have said they were unaware she was still living with Hightman before she vanished. Her brother, Kennedy, believes Hightman isolated her from relatives during the final months before her disappearance.

The investigation remains active under new leadership, although no major developments have been announced. Hightman continues to maintain that Gakwa left voluntarily, a claim investigators and her family do not accept. More than four years after she disappeared, her whereabouts remain unknown and her family continue to seek answers.