Katharina Buczek
“He started isolating us from our sister,” Kennedy added.
The last time Irene’s loved ones saw her was when she had a video call with her father, who was still in Kenya, on February 24, 2022. After that day, Irene never contacted her family again and has never been seen since.
Yet, on March 3, 2022, Irene’s brother started receiving strange text messages from Irene’s phone in which she discussed moving to Texas.
The communication was particularly unusual because Irene and her siblings typically spoke in a mix of Kenyan and Swahili slang. Yet, each message consisted mostly of English.
About two weeks after receiving these strange texts, Irene’s family then found out from their family phone plan that Irene had moved to Gillette without ever telling them.
At that point, they contacted the Gillette Police Department and filed a missing person report.
Irene and Nathan were known to have a tumultuous relationship, according to her family members. And given her disappearance, authorities began investigating Nathan Hightman as a person of interest in the case.
Nathan alleged that one night in February, Irene returned home late, packed her clothes away in two plastic bags, and left their residence in a dark-colored SUV. He claimed to have not heard from Irene ever since.
“All of her social media was deleted. Her friends hadn’t heard from her. All of us were freaking out,” Kennedy said.
During the investigation, however, it was discovered that Nathan had purchased a 55-gallon metal drum on February 24, 2022. And the very next day, his neighbors claimed he burned something in his backyard.
So, investigators searched Nathan’s home with cadaver dogs. Then, on May 10, 2022, he was arrested and charged with two felony counts of theft, two felony counts of crimes against intellectual property, and one felony count of unlawful use of a credit card.
