COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to prison for what an Ohio judge described as “one of the most horrific murders” ever seen in court. Prosecutors said the man strangled his 46-year-old girlfriend, hid her body in the garage for weeks, and forced her 10-year-old son to help.
Kandawaswika Kahari was sentenced Friday for the murder of Susan Ramberg. Prosecutors said after killing Ramberg, Kahari placed her body in a makeshift “bed” inside her garage, where it remained for weeks. During that time, he allegedly abused her son and made him participate in covering up the crime.
“He should never have to hug his dead mother, put her in the car with her murderer,” Ramberg’s family said in a statement at the sentencing, according to WSYX. They described how the boy lived in fear, suffering abuse and neglect while his mother’s body decomposed nearby.
“He should never have been left alone in a house for three weeks where he knows his mother’s body is in the garage,” the family said. “He should never have to live in fear, wondering if and when he would be fed by a man who tried to kill him.”
Kahari’s sentencing brings closure to a case that prosecutors say involved not only a brutal killing but also prolonged psychological and physical abuse of a child.