The Karen Phillips case
The Karen Phillips case
Dayton Daily News
Apr. 1998:Karen Phillips, a native of Twin Oaks, Pa., arrives in the city of Oyem in northern Gabon, as a Peace Corps trainee.
Dec. 17, 1998: Phillips is raped and murdered. Her body is found in the weeds near her home later that morning.
Dec. 21, 1998: Oyem resident Thierry Ndoutoume Nzue, nicknamed Rambo, first implicates Herbert "Jimmy" Ondo, a former Gabonese rock star, in Phillips' death.
Feb. 4, 1999: Ndtoutoume Nzue would change his story at least three times before Ondo is arrested and charged with murder. Ndoutoume Nzue and Ondo's cousin Jean Clement Mintsa are charged as accomplices.
Feb. 21, 2000: Ondo's brother, Bonjean-Francois Ondo, former ambassador and minister, publishes in a local paper a letter that says Jimmy Ondo is a victim of the scheming American government.
Mar. 9, 2000: A Gabonese lawyer hired by the Peace Corps reports to the U.S. government that the DNA test results of suspects have gone missing; Those results would be recovered about a month later.
June 24, 2000: A jury panel in the capital city of Libreville acquits Ondo, Mintsa and Ndoutoume Nzue, and they are set free from prison.
Dec. 9, 2002: The Gabon Court of Appeals overturns that not-guilty verdict and orders a reinvestigation of the case.
Oct. 2003: Despite a decision by the Gabonese and American governments to involve the FBI in the case early 2003, investigators have not arrived.
[From the Dayton Daily News: 10.30.2003]
