SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota: A Native American woman who went missing in South Dakota about seven months ago has been charged with murder by a 24-year-old airman.
Quinterius Chappelle, 24, went to court for the first time on Monday to face one count of second-degree murder in the death of Sahela Sangrait, 21. Although the court records for this case are secret, the police say that Sangrait was killed in August at Ellsworth Air Force Base in western South Dakota, where Chappelle was working as a soldier.
Chappelle is being tried in federal court, and records show that the federal defender’s office is his lawyer. The person who answered the phone at that building wouldn’t say anything about him. The Pennington County Jail is where he is being held.
The US Attorney’s Office said he said he was not guilty. Being found guilty could mean life in jail for him.
A statement from the base says that Chappelle is a journeyman airplane inspector who works at the Ellsworth base with the 28th Maintenance Squadron. He began his job in April 2019.
The leader of the 28th Bomb Wing, Col. Derek Oakley, said in a statement, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Sahela’s friends and family first and foremost.” „We hold Airmen responsible for what they do, and they will be punished if they are caught breaking military or private law.”
A Facebook post from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office says that Sangrait’s body was found on March 4 by a walker near the border between Pennington County and Custer County. Sangrait was last seen on August 10 and her body was badly decomposed, according to the police. No one knew what killed her.
The Ellsworth base is in Box Elder, South Dakota, which is where Sangrait was from. The government did not say if Sangrait knew Chappelle.
A Facebook post about a missing person said that Sangrait was living with a friend in Eagle Butte and was going to go back to Box Elder to get some things before going to California. No one knows if she ever got to Box Elder.
The sign said that Sangrait was Native American. The attorney general’s missing persons website lists 59 Native American people who have not been seen since January. More than half of them are women. Task teams at the federal and state levels were set up to look into cases of indigenous people who went missing or were killed across the country.
