The suspect in the murder of a Brockton behavioral health nurse who’s body was left at Logan airport has escaped police custody in Kenya weeks before he was due to be extradited to the U.S., Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden said Thursday.

“We have been informed by federal officials that Kevin Kangethe has escaped from police custody in Kenya,” Hayden said. “It is our hope that Kenyan law enforcement will do their utmost to recapture Kangethe so that we can continue seeking justice for Margaret Mbitu and her family.”

Margaret Mbitu, a 31-year-old nurse at the BAMSI facility in Brockton, was found dead in a car in the central garage at Logan airport around 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 1.

State Police quickly identified Kangethe, 40, of Lowell, as a suspect in her death. Kangethe was known to Mbitu, police said, and had already boarded a flight to Kenya.

Kenyan authorities, working with police in the U.S., found and arrested Kangethe in late January. His extradition back to Boston was set for late February, Hayden said previously.

Related Articles

DA: Suspected killer of Brockton nurse not expected from Kenya until end of February

Man accused of beheading his father in suburban Philadelphia home and posting gruesome video online

Suspected murderer of Brockton nurse arrested in Kenya

Dorchester man pleads guilty in murder-for-hire plot

Lawyers in the ‘Turtleboy’ case blast each other with dueling sanctions requests

Kangethe was reportedly held in Muthaiga Police Station in Nairobi, and police said he was meeting with a lawyer when he slipped out and jumped on a matatu, a privately owned minibus used as share taxis in Kenya, the Kenya-based news outlet Nation.Africa reported.

Mbitu worked as a per diem nurse a BAMSI, an organization that works with people with disabilities, mental health and addiction challenges.

A spokesperson for the company called Mbitu “warm, caring and loved by everyone she worked with, both staff and the people she cared for in our group homes,” following her death.

— Developing