A man that Kenyan authorities said had confessed to the homicides of multiple children was beaten to death by a mob after escaping from custody this week, police said Friday.

       The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said on Twitter that agents were unable to apprehend Masten Wanjala before “the law of the jungles as applied by irate villagers prevailed.”

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       Wanjala, whom authorities had referred to as a “bloodthirsty vampire,” was arrested in July. Police said that he confessed to killing at least 10 children over five years, allegedly posing as a soccer coach who drugged his victims before executing them. On some occasions, he drank their blood, according to law enforcement.

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       The Washington Post could not identify an attorney for Wanjala.

       Wanjala’s arrest made newspaper front pages across the country, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. Though he had not been convicted of the alleged offenses, there were calls at the time of his arrest for him to be subject to vigilante violence.

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       The suspect fled from a Nairobi police station on Tuesday night, the Standard newspaper reported. He was later spotted near his parents’ home in Bungoma county, some 250 miles northwest of the capital. Neighbors saw the alleged serial killer and attacked him, police said.

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       “We are not sure how he managed to travel all the way from Nairobi to his rural home,” police spokesman Musyoki Mutungi said, according to the BBC. “It is the curious villagers who first identified him and went ahead to kill him even before the police could be informed.”

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       Three police officers were arrested on suspicion of aiding Wanjala’s prison break. All three officers — who were subsequently released on bail — were on duty on Tuesday night, according to the Star newspaper. Their lawyer didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

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       Wanjala’s father said earlier this week he was “surprised” to hear that his son had escaped, according to the NTV Kenya news channel. “I have not seen him,” Robert Wanjala added. “And I’m not interested in seeing him.”

       Following news of his son’s lynching, Robert Wanjala apologized to the victims’ family members, telling NTV that he was “heartbroken but ready to bury” his son.

       But the younger Wanjala’s death may not bring closure to those hoping to see him answer for his alleged crimes.

       Grace Adhiambo, the mother of one of Wanjala’s alleged victims, told the BBC that she would have preferred to see the accused murderer in court. Her son’s body was found outside Nairobi in July.

       “So that I get to know why he did this — why he brutally killed our children and left us with pain,” she said.