Foto:US Army Criminal Investigation Command / Cortesía
A teenager of 16 years and a 23 were charged with the kidnapping and murder of Hayden Harris (20), an Army corporal disappeared in Fort Drum (NY) and later found shot and buried under the snow in New Jersey, in December.
Private Jamaal Mellish and an unidentified teenager were charged with first degree murder, kidnapping and charges of arms in Harris’s death, the Sussex (NJ) county prosecutor’s office said Monday.
Harris, a Tennessee native, was reported missing from Fort Drum military base on 18 December. A day later, firefighters in Byram Township (NJ) discovered her body in a wooded area after a report of blood and a pair of shoes in the area.
The soldier i had a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities immediately arrested Brooklyn resident Mellish, who was placed in military custody in Oneida County (NJ).
The suspected teen is being held in a juvenile facility, the prosecutor’s office said.
Harris grew up dreaming of joining the military, family friends said. He enlisted in March of 2019 and had been stationed at the base in upstate New York since that July.
A motive in the case and the exact location of the crime has not been revealed. Prosecutors did not provide additional information about the teenager, nor did they say how he knew the two soldiers, reported New York Post.