'I need to know why' - stabbed teenager's mum says

Irene says she is still hopeful that Eddie's killer will be brought to justice

The mother of a teenager who was stabbed to death has said that once his killer is found, she wants them to tell her "why they would devastate our lives like this".

Eddie King Muthemba Kinuthia was fatally stabbed in the St Paul's area of Bristol in July 2023.

Police have made six arrests in connection with the investigation, but more than seven months on, nobody has been charged.

Irene Muthemba said she wants to speak with his killer, adding that her life had been shattered into a million pieces".

A £20,000 reward is now being offered for information that leads to a conviction

“It’s the only way you can understand," she added.

“I know that it will never bring him back but I feel like it will give me some kind of closure.”

The family said the past seven months have been like an "endless nightmare"

Irene, who is a health care assistant at the hospital where Eddie died, said she wanted young people who carry knives to realise the pain they are inflicting on the whole community.

“The life that they take may have ended but the devastation for everyone who is left around that family will never stop," she said.

“We will never get our life back.

"You are just broken and devastated and your life is shattered into a million pieces."

She said the past seven months have been like an “endless nightmare” but the trauma has been made worse knowing other teenagers have lost their lives to knife crime, after Eddie’s death.

“It’s been really difficult to witness because it takes us back to the moment this happened to us,” she said.

“We’re trying to be on the journey to recovery but then we’re always going backwards when this happens.”

Elliot said he still thinks about his brother every day

His brother Elliot is trying to keep Eddie's memory alive by releasing tracks he had written and recorded, as well as making his own music in tribute to his Eddie’s life.

For him, it's a way of processing his grief.

"I'm not really into therapy or counselling and I feel like that is my way of speaking out about how I feel," he said.

"It was just a piece of our world that’s been taken away.

"That’s a void that’s never ever going to get filled."

Elliot is now planning on setting up a foundation in memory of Eddie.

He is hoping to work as a mentor for young people to try and show them that violence is not the answer.