UK UK - 'Adam' 4-7 YO Boy found in Thames in 2001

[ChatteringBirds]

Was able to find this thread:

Identified! - UK - 5yo boy, 'Torso in the Thames' voodoo ritual victim - Patrick Erhabor aka Adam

 

[BritishSleuth]

Was able to find this thread:

Identified! - UK - 5yo boy, 'Torso in the Thames' voodoo ritual victim - Patrick Erhabor aka Adam

That is him, however the thread is wrong. The boy was believed to be Patrick Erhabor, but DNA testing showed that he wasn't him.

 

[dotr]

2017

 

[Goecke]

This case has stuck with me for years.

If DNA has ruled out Patrick Erhabor, then who was 'Adam,' and where is Patrick? I feel like the fact that it seems like most people believe he was identified is slowing down progress on the case.

IMO, I feel like Kingsley Ojo is involved somehow. It sounds like he trafficked a lot more kids, and 'Adam' was probably one of them.

 

[BritishSleuth]

I'm totally torn.
On one side, it seems like a really good fit. He was also linked to smuggling children from Nigeria to Europe and his house also had voodoo ritual items. It seems like such a good fit.

On the other, despite a significant and lengthy investigation, police never managed to link Kinglsey Ojo with Adam or with smuggling kids for voodoo purposes. Also, he didn't just smuggle children, and the group he was involved with mainly smuggled young men.

I think it's unlikely we will find out now though. We know he has/had mental health issues and police deemed his answers as unreliable. He's already been released from prison and deported to Nigeria now.

 

[Al Ka]

rbbm.
Torso found in Thames identified: 'Victim of voodoo ritual' named as 5-year-old 'Adam' | Daily Mail Online

Dumped in the Thames: The five-year-old boy identified as Adam
''He was drugged with a ‘black-magic’ potion and sacrificed before being thrown into the Thames, where his torso washed up next to the Globe Theatre in September 2001.''
''Now Nigerian Joyce Osiagede, the only person to be arrested in Britain as part of the inquiry, has claimed that the boy in this picture is Adam. She said his real name is Ikpomwosa.
In an interview with ITV’s London Tonight, Mrs Osiagede said she looked after the boy in Germany for a year before travelling to Britain without him in 2001.
She claimed she handed the boy over to a man known as Bawa who later told her that he was dead and threatened to kill her unless she kept silent.''

"She added: ‘They used him for a ritual in the water.’
Claiming the boy was six years old, she said: ‘He was a lively boy. A very nice boy, he was also intelligent.’
Detailed analysis of a substance in the boy’s stomach was identified as a ‘black magic’ potion.
It included tiny clay pellets containing small particles of pure gold, an indication that Adam was the victim of a Muti ritual killing.
Muti murders, common in sub-Saharan Africa, are carried out in the belief that the body parts of children are sacred. Bodies are often disposed of in flowing water.''
2011
Police to fly to Nigeria following new lead in Thames torso case
''Boy, aged five or six, may have been identified, 10 years after police found a mutilated body in river near Tower Bridge''

29 Mar 2011
''Detectives investigating the case of a boy whose mutilated torso was discovered floating in the Thames nearly 10 years ago are to fly to Nigeria in a fresh attempt to find his killer.
The development comes as it was reported that the child, aged five or six and referred to by police as "Adam" in the absence of a real name, may have been identified. A Nigerian woman who cared for the boy while living in Germany a decade ago said that his real name was Ikpomwosa, according to a report on ITV London Tonight.
Joyce Osiagede, who was shown a photograph of the boy earlier this month in Nigeria, was reported have been questioned by police in Glasgow in 2002 before she was deported, after they connected her to the case. Osiagede, who said she was willing to talk to police if they went to see her, said she had looked after Adam in 2001 as a favour to a friend but then gave him to a man she calls Bawa.
"I travelled with my two children to Britain to seek refuge ... I phoned Bawa and said: 'Where is Ikpomwosa? He said: 'He's dead'." She was asked: "You say you didn't have anything to do with the killing?" She replied: "No. I'm a mother, I have children. I can't kill somebody's child."

UK police plead for help over Nigerian boy's torso found in Thames in 2001
Sept 21 2021
''Asked if she knew who killed Adam, she said: "Yes ... No. I don't know the group of people.''
''I gave Ikpomwosa to Bawa and when I go to Scotland, Britain, he said Ikpomwosa is dead."
''The case has been the subject of numerous high-profile appeals over the years, including by Nelson Mandela who asked all African communities to help the police
British detectives have made inquiries in Britain, South Africa, Holland, Germany and Nigeria.''

Those news articles are from 2011-2013 when Adam Doe was misidentified due to information provided by Joyce Osagiede.

Joyce Osagiede, main contributor to all the leads in this case, information and lots of misinformation, changing her story on every occasion and news and police interview.

As far as I am aware she was the one who provided the boy's photo at one of the interviews claiming him to be Adam Doe and his name to be Ikpomwosa. In other interview she stated photo was of boy Danny, son of her friend in Germany. Some years later she stated that Adam's Doe real name was Patrick Erhabor. No one of such a name was ever found and as far as I am aware until this day it could not be confirmed or ruled out if boy by name of Patrick Erhabor is really him. (If he exists, there is still possibility it could be him).

In 2013, BBC journalists travelled to Germany and traced the boy in the original photo. His name was indeed Danny and he was surprised to hear about his photo travelling around the world years ago.

(Danny in 2013 photo)

Joyce Osagiede, as per police, is unstable, has mental and psychiatric issues and is on medication. Police had deported her back to Nigeria one year after Adam Doe was found.

Despite all above, main and important fact is child shorts of similar colour and of the same brand as Adam Doe unique shorts, were found in her flat in Glasgow. Adam Doe shorts were made in Germany and were sold only in Woolworths shops in Germany and Austria. Joyce moved to UK from Hamburg, Germany in 2001 (not sure in which month), but would be good to find out if around or just before Adam was found.

Forensic tests (probably isotopes?) showed Adam Doe was from the Benin City area of Nigeria. Joyce Osagiede is from there and lives there again after being deported from UK.

Only due to her being investigated it led police to her associate, known as violent man, "Bawa" aka Kingsley Ojo at whose flat certain items important to Adam investigation were found, (in a plastic bag, a mixture of bone, sand and flecks of gold very similar to a concoction found in the dead boy's stomach).

It also of note that she did not come forward herself. She was reported to police by Glasgow social services after certain statements she made to them and also to immigration police.

I will add some of those brief statements here, just in case they are needed to be revisited at some point in the future:

In 2002 A woman called Joyce Osagiede told Glasgow social workers that she belonged to a cult and her daughters must attend a ritual ceremony.

Osagiede had already told immigration officials that she had married a member of a cult called The Black Coat Eyes Of The Devil Guru Maharaj.

She claimed he had sacrificed her youngest child.

In December 2002, she was deported, and when later interviewed by British police in Lagos, she said she had been a cult organiser and had bought a pair of orange-red shorts similar to those found on Adam.

She added: ‘I know he was killed in Lewisham.’

She also claimed in 2008 to an ITV journalist that she had brought Adam to London and even had a photograph.

His real name, she said, was Ikpomwosa.

In 2013 for the first time she revealed what she claimed was his real name.

She said he was called Patrick Erhabor - and that his mother's surname was Oghogho - and she claimed the child was brought to her when she lived in Germany after his parents were deported back to Nigeria.

In my humble opinion, I personally have no doubt that in some way she was involved in Adam's Doe life before his demise and perhaps even in murder, and that some parts of her different stories are true. Question is, which ones.

One other thing, its fair to assume that she is no blood relation to Adam Doe as that would be first thing police would test when she was questioned and arrested.

Published Feb 2013 Torso case boy 'identified'
Published May 2012 How a criminologist probing the ritual 'boy in the Thames' murder had to confront the personal tragedy of his own daughter's mysterious death in Africa | Daily Mail Online

Edit to add: Lewisham is part of London, Borough of South East London. I wonder how come Joyce knew London if she only lived in UK for short time and thousands miles away in Glasgow, Scotland.

 

[Al Ka]

I'm totally torn.
On one side, it seems like a really good fit. He was also linked to smuggling children from Nigeria to Europe and his house also had voodoo ritual items. It seems like such a good fit.

On the other, despite a significant and lengthy investigation, police never managed to link Kinglsey Ojo with Adam or with smuggling kids for voodoo purposes. Also, he didn't just smuggle children, and the group he was involved with mainly smuggled young men.

I think it's unlikely we will find out now though. We know he has/had mental health issues and police deemed his answers as unreliable. He's already been released from prison and deported to Nigeria now.

I have bolded certain parts for relevance.

It has been pointed in many other discusions out there about this case (not on websleuths) that there is huge difference between (religion) voodoo and (practice) muti. As per official police statements this case was linked to muti ritual. So for the sake of correctness let's not associate voodoo with this case as some tabloid news did in the past.

While he was charged with human trafficking, I have not seen anywhere that he was ever linked to smuggling children from Nigeria to Europe. Do you have link to that source/statement?

It was not him but rather Joyce who had mental health issues.

(BritishSleuth welcome to Websleuths. Just to clarify I am not trying to nitpick, but with so much confusing and conflicting information in this case already out there in press, it would be good to untangle some of it in here).

 

[BritishSleuth]

To my layman understanding, voodoo and muti are one and the same. Not all people who follow voodoo do muti of course just as few Catholics I know abstain from meat on a Friday, and oppose abortion and gay marriage. Apologies for connecting them if they are truly different, but the multiple media outlets which reported on them as one and the same suggests that I am not alone in doing so.

He was convicted of smuggling children so there must have been significant evidence for that to happen. I think it's pretty safe ground.
''Ojo headed a "substantial" network that is thought to have smuggled in hundreds of children and adults to work as prostitutes or domestic slaves.''
Jail for torso case people smuggler

You are right about his mental health. I was confusing the two characters. My apologies.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Decades after boy's dismembered body was found in Thames, DAVID JONES uncovers shocking revelation | Daily Mail Online

 

[dotr]

Decades after boy's dismembered body was found in Thames, DAVID JONES uncovers shocking revelation | Daily Mail Online

Thanks for the new, lengthy link!
Oct 2 2021
''...... he had been plied with a powerful voodoo potion that included gold dust and quartz, drugged into paralysis (though, appallingly, not unconsciousness) using a type of African bean, then held aloft by his legs as his throat was slit.

Certain types of voodoo sacrifice require the victim's blood to be drunk. As for the child's severed head, legs and arms, they have never been recovered.''

''Among those still deeply affected are two retired detectives who spent years investigating the sacrificial murder of this wretched boy, whose identity remains unknown but who was named 'Adam' by police.''

''In the words of one, what was done to him 'simply beggars belief'. They are troubled by the strong suspicion that some of the sadists who orchestrated this sadistic ritual remain at liberty in Britain, and feel sure they know the identities of some involved. Indeed, though we can't identify them for legal reasons, one of the former officers, retired DCI Nick Chalmers, gave me the name of the person he believes to have despatched and dismembered Adam.''

''The two retired detectives highlight another key figure: a brash Nigerian whose real name is Mousa Kamara but uses the alias Kingsley Ojo. Now in his mid-50s, he was one of only two contacts logged in Joyce's phone. He was recently seen flaunting his dubiously-acquired wealth in a Dubai shopping mall, an image he posted on Facebook. Ojo is worthy of an entire chapter in this saga.

When police searched his house in Hackney, East London, they recovered substances and artefacts used in voodoo rituals, plus a ghastly 'entertainment' video featuring the beheading of a man whose skull was served up on a platter. Along with his glamorous girlfriend, they also found one of his associates at the address — a Nigerian with a German passport who hasn't been named''.

''In Brixton, informants saw him perform 'juju' ceremonies for other inmates, who seemed to fear and revere him. In one of many disturbing subplots, however, Ojo was freed early and allowed to remain in London after promising to help police catch Adam's killers.''

A brash Nigerian whose real name is Mousa Kamara but uses the alias Kingsley Ojo (pictured) was one of only two contacts logged in Joyce's phone

 

[Mrs Marple]

I remember this case as l grew up near Tower Bridge and was back living there shortly after.

I wonder if they were able to identify where Adam went into the river. Lewisham and Catford have been mentioned so the Greenwich/ Deptford area seems logical. Deptford, Lewisham and Catford have diverse ethnic communities.

I didn't realise that Adam was still not identified. Is it likely that the thin boy spotted in Germany was the same well nourished boy who ended up in the Thames weeks later? Edit: I suppose he could have been removed to be looked after as it's not uncommon for family friends to remove children to other countries (Victoria Climbie). Then he could have been fed up for the ritual


I assume putting his body in water had some significance. Imagine if he had not been spotted that morning none of this would have been uncovered.

A family member lived in South London in social housing. Her Nigerian neighbours have got a problem with her black cat. They hiss at it. A few years ago the car went missing a few days before Halloween. It turned up the morning after unharmed but covered in some sort of slime type material. Sounds like the cat had a lucky escape.

There might be a family in Nigeria that think they have lost touch with their son when he has been dead all this time. Beyond words really.

 

[Mrs Marple]

Thames torso boy was sacrificed

'Experts on African religion consulted by Scotland Yard believe Adam may have been sacrificed to one of the 400 'Orisha' or ancestor gods of the Yoruba people, Nigeria's second-largest ethnic group. Oshun, a Yoruba river goddess is associated with orange, the colour of the shorts, which were placed on Adam's body 24 hours after he was killed as a bizarre addition to the ritual. The body was then stored for a further 24 hours before being offered to the Thames.'

 

[Mrs Marple]

Official Met appeal

Appeal on 20-year anniversary of torso in the Thames murder

'A woman was previously arrested on suspicion of murder, she was later bailed and released with no further action. A man was previously arrested and interviewed in connection with the possible trafficking of Adam into the UK. He was later bailed and released with no further action. Another man was also arrested and interviewed on suspicion of alleged trafficking offences. He was later bailed and released with no further action.'

Just thinking do we know who the third person was?

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Bumping. I respect people’s cultures and rituals but I think dismembering and killing children all for the sake of sacrifices is just barbaric. He didn’t deserve to go out like that, poor boy.