Grisly details emerge in strangulation case
Murder suspect befriended victim at mall a few days before killing her, prosecutor says
A man accused of strangling a woman and stashing her body in a recycling bin had known the victim only a few days before she was killed, according to a Harris County prosecutor.
Alex Akpan, 24, stood in court Thursday morning wearing a black T-shirt with the words “#Lightthefuture” and Bible verse “Psalm 82:3.”
His court appearance provided the latest details in the slaying of 23-year-old Irene Yemitan, a student and aspiring beauty stylist involved in the Nigerian community.
Akpan’s mother discovered Yemitan on Sept. 5 when she went to her son’s bedroom to see if he was home, the prosecutor read in Harris County Probable Cause Court.
She saw a large recycling bin with the lid closed and noted that it wasn’t normal for her son to have that in his bedroom, according to the prosecutor. The mother then lifted the lid and saw a human foot before she tipped the bin over and saw a woman inside.
Akpan’s mother called her exhusband to come over to her home in the 9600 block of Wellsworth Drive, near Bissonnet and Eldridge Parkway. They pulled the woman from the bin and attempted CPR, the prosecutor said.
They called 911, and officers arrived to find the woman on the dining room floor. Authorities pronounced her dead at the
scene.
Akpan got a call from his mother while officers were at the house, and he said he was on his way home and knew what happened, the prosecutor said. When he arrived, however, he didn’t give a statement and requested a lawyer.
Investigators didn’t see obvious trauma but did notice that the woman’s eyes gave signs that she’d been strangled. County medical examiner later determined strangulation as the cause of death.
The mother said only she and her son have access to the house, and that it was locked before she arrived home and saw the body.
Authorities identified the body as Yemitan. Akpan was initially charged with tampering with evidence of a human corpse and posted a $10,000 bond before he was again arrested Wednesday on a murder charge.
A witness spoke with police Wednesday and offered clues as to how Akpan and Yemitan were connected.
The witness told investigators that she was with Yemitan when they met Akpan at West Oaks Mall and that Yemitan and Akpan had been friends only a few days before she was killed. They exchanged texts and phone calls, she said.
Yemitan and her friend had gone to Akpan’s house on several occasions and were there just a day before Yemitan’s body was discovered, she told investigators.
The witness said that Akpan became upset that day after Yemitan parked her car on the street, and he scared them both as he screamed, cursed and threw a chair, according to the prosecutor.
Yemitan’s friend identified Akpan as the man they met at the mall, as well as the person that she knew Yemitan to be with the day of her death, the prosecutor said.
Akpan is being held on $250,000 bond. Prosecutors requested double that amount because they said he was a flight risk. Officers learned that the family was planning to send him to Nigeria, where he has family, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor described Akpan as an “extreme danger to community” and said that he threatened his sister in 2017 with a firearm. That charge was dismissed at his sister’s request, the prosecutor said.
Public defenders requested bond no higher than $100,000, saying that the 2017 incident was not a conviction. Akpan is currently unemployed and is studying computer science at Houston Community College, a public defender said.