Police say the 24-year-old returned home from a social engagement with a woman
at around 11.30pm on Sunday night. Shortly afterwards, was confronted by his
wife Triza Njeri who had arrived at the house unexpectedly.
There are conflicting reports about what happened next. At first, police said
that Mr Wanjiru had committed suicide.
But Jasper Ombati, the area's police chief, said later it appeared that Mr
Wanjiru's intention was to chase his wife.
"They got into an argument," he said. "His wife locked them in
the bedroom and ran off. He then jumped from the bedroom balcony.
"He is not here to tell us what he was thinking when he jumped. We do not
suspect foul play. In our estimation, he wanted to stop his wife from
leaving the compound."
Mr Wanjiru's Italian agent, Federico Rosa, said that the notion of his client
deliberately taking his own life was "completely out of the question".
"I am 100 percent sure there was no suicide," he said.
He conceded that his marriage to Miss Njeri "was not going well" but
that he been looking forward to running the San Diego Marathon next month.
"There was no depression," Rosa said. "We got him out of this
environment.
He was happy and focused and relaxed."
Both Miss Njeri and the unnamed woman whom Mr Wanjiru was with are being
questioned by police.
Mr
Wanjiru became Kenya's first marathon champion after winning his race in
Beijing in 2008 in an Olympic record time.
But he had a notoriously turbulent home life. Last December, he was charged
with threatening to kill his wife, assaulting a bodyguard and the illegal
possession of an AK-47 assault rifle. The wife and bodyguard later dropped
the charges and Mr Wanjiru and his wife were said to have been reconciled.
Expressing his shock at the news on his Twitter page, Haile Gebrselassie, the
Ethiopian world record-holder, wrote: "Of course one wonders if we as
an athletics family could have avoided this tragedy."
