South Dakota airman charged in killing of woman missing since August

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A 24-year-old airman has been charged with killing a Native American girl who went lacking in South Dakota about seven months in the past.

Quinterius Chappelle made his first court docket look Monday on one depend of second-degree homicide within the killing of Sahela Sangrait, 21. The court docket paperwork within the case are sealed, however authorities mentioned Sangrait was killed in August on the Ellsworth Air Pressure Base in western South Dakota, the place Chappelle was stationed as an active-duty airman.

Chappelle is being prosecuted in federal court docket, and court docket data present he’s being represented by the federal defender’s workplace. A girl who answered the cellphone at that workplace declined to touch upon his behalf. He’s being held on the Pennington County Jail.

The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned he pleaded not responsible. If convicted, he may face life in jail.

Chappelle is an plane inspection journeyman assigned to the twenty eighth Upkeep Squadron on the Ellsworth base, in keeping with an announcement from the bottom. He started serving in April 2019.

“At the start, our ideas and prayers are with the family and friends of Sahela,” Col. Derek Oakley, twenty eighth Bomb Wing commander, mentioned in an announcement. “We maintain Airmen accountable for his or her actions, and if service members are present in violation of navy or civilian legislation, they are going to be punished.”

A hiker found Sangrait’s physique on March 4 close to the Pennington County and Custer County traces, in keeping with a Fb put up from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Workplace. Sangrait was reported lacking on Aug. 10, and her stays had been badly decomposed, authorities mentioned. Her explanation for loss of life was not made public.

Sangrait was from Field Elder, South Dakota, the place the Ellsworth base is situated. Officers didn’t share whether or not Sangrait knew Chappelle.

In line with a lacking individual poster shared on Fb, Sangrait was staying with a buddy in Eagle Butte and was going to return to Field Elder to assemble a few of her issues earlier than heading to California. It’s unknown whether or not she ever reached Field Elder.

Sangrait was Native American, in keeping with the poster. There are 59 circumstances of lacking Native People in South Dakota and greater than half of them are ladies, in keeping with the lawyer common’s lacking individuals database. Federal and state process forces had been created to analyze circumstances of lacking and murdered Indigenous folks throughout the nation.