Police considered the victim’s girlfriend a “primary suspect” as they search for someone else who may be connected to the murder.
Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images
The Body of 28-year-old man who disappeared after ‘getting into a car with his girlfriend’ found in shallow gravewhile she was detained.
Police considered the victim’s girlfriend a “primary suspect” as they search for someone else who may be connected to the murder.
“We have a murder,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told WYFF. “This is no longer just a missing person.”
South Carolina officials said identified the remains of Devantae Griffin after discovering the body on Tuesday.
Authorities ruled the death a homicide upon finding the body.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Devantae Griffin’s mother, Felicia Griffin, told WYFF.
“He wouldn’t hurt anyone. He would give you the shirt he is wearing. He wouldn’t hurt anyone, and for someone to do this to him, he just infuriates me.”
Jessica Strachan, Griffin’s on-and-off girlfriend, was identified as a person of interest and taken into custody after Griffin was last seen “getting in the car” with Strachan..
Strachan had previously been arrested for giving false information to police after Griffin’s disappearance.
Officials also identified Tarus Dorail Crook, 33, of Spartanburg, as a person of interest in Devantae Griffin’s death.
“I don’t think this was a fluke,” Wright said. “I think after this murder there was some collaboration with another person and that’s where he was found, in a shallow grave.”
“They just treated it like it was nothing,” Felicia Griffin said. “Like she was just trash.”
Devantae Griffin, 28, was reported missing on March 30.
Griffin’s cousin, Consana Ferguson, said he was last seen with Strachan shortly after midnight on March 29.
Ferguson said that “when he didn’t answer the phone Tuesday morning, I knew something was wrong.”
He called Devantae’s brother and asked who he was with, and the brother reportedly said “Jessica picked him up,” according to a video interview with WYFF.
Investigators said they spoke to Strachan the day after Griffin was officially reported missing, on March 31.
The sheriff’s office said they eventually learned that Strachan gave them false information after this conversation, and he later became a person of interest.
Investigators said he was asked to come back for another interview, but he left for Florida without notifying authorities.
They obtained a search warrant and entered his home that day.
The next day, the sheriff’s office obtained a warrant for her arrest for obstruction of justice, and she was reportedly arrested in Miami, Florida.
The family told the outlet that the couple has a volatile history.
Griffin’s aunt, Beverly Griffin, claimed the family has heard Strachan threaten Devantae before in what she describes as a “toxic relationship.” Authorities say it’s unclear what relationship Devantae Griffin had to Crook, but they believe the two knew each other well.
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Source-laopinion.com