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An active member of the Air Force was arrested Friday for allegedly killing a 21-year-old woman on his South Dakota military base, authorities announced.
Airman Quinterius Chappelle, 24, was hit with federal second-degree murder charges after the badly decomposed body of Sahela Sangrait was discovered earlier this month, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office said.
The young woman was initially reported missing in August before her remains were discovered by a hiker south of Hill City near the Pennington and Custer county lines on March 4 – roughly 50 miles from the Ellsworth Air Force Base where she was killed, the agency said.
A motive in the slaying and information on how Sangrait, a resident of the city of Box Elder, was killed were not revealed by the sheriff’s office. It’s also unclear when she exactly died.
The Department of Justice will handle the prosecution of Chappelle.
“We hold airmen accountable for their actions, and if service members are found in violation of military or civilian law, they will be punished,” Ellsworth Air Force commander Col. Derek Oakley said in a statement to the New York Times.
A missing person’s poster for Sangrait, who is Native American, indicated she was staying with a friend in Eagle Butt, but left to travel to Box Elder, just a few miles from the base, to pick up some items and travel to California.
An Air Force spokesperson from the base said Chappelle was an aircraft inspection journeyman assigned to the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, according to the Times.
Chapelle, who first joined the service in 2019, is in custody at the county jail.
The sheriff’s office did not reveal the relationship between the suspect and the victim.
