Wanjiru died in the wee hours of Monday when he fell from the first floor balcony of his house located in Nyahururu, 94 miles North West of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

His death has been received with shock from the athletics fraternity. Former world marathon star, Paul Tergat described it as “sad and shocking.” Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga expressed shock and grief upon hearing it while Ethiopian long distance ace Haile Gebrselassie, also expressed shock and sent condolences to Wanjiru’s family. He wrote on his twitter status, "One wonders if we as an athletics family could have avoided this tragedy.”

It is alleged that the athlete jumped to his death after quarrelling with his wife. Initial reports indicated that the youngster had arrived home from a social outing accompanied by a female friend on Sunday at around 11pm. His wife unexpectedly stumbled upon them and a brief exchange of words ensued. It is still not yet known what transpired before the athlete fell off the balcony, but the police are investigating whether it was suicide, an accident or he was pushed.

The Nyandarua Police Chief, Jasper Ombati said that both Wanjiru's wife, Triza Njeri Wanjiru and the female company are being held for further questioning. He also added that Wanjiru died as a result of the injuries he sustained after the fall. When relatives arrived at the scene, they found Wanjiru lying on the concrete outside his house, with blood oozing from his mouth and ears.

Prior to his death, Wanjiru was facing a court case of illegal possession of an AK47 assault rifle. He was slated to appear in court May 23. In December, he was charged for threatening to kill his wife, as well as assaulting her and his watchman. The two cases were withdrawn and settled out of court. On Valentine’s Day, Wanjiru and Njeri made headlines after the wife announced that she was withdrawing a divorce case she had earlier filed following their brawl. Many have blamed his death on his failure to manage his success.

It is alleged that since he was charged for the illegal possession of the gun (No licenses are issued for AK47 rifles in Kenya), Wanjiru has been a disturbed man. This had led to his manager, Federico Rosa, to contemplate flying the athlete to abroad to lead a quite life. Plans were still underway before he passed away.

His death marks an end to an illustrious career for a man who first burst into the limelight when he broke the world half-marathon record in 2004 at age 18. In 2007, he broke the 20km road running record and improved the half marathon record by over 20 seconds. He later surprised many when he clinched gold in the marathon with a record time of 2:06:32, in the Olympic Games held in Beijing, China, in 2008. Since then, the young-man has been recording hat-tricks on the racecourse.