Melody Gooch.Photo:Courtesy of South Dakota Attorney General’s Office
Courtesy of South Dakota Attorney General’s Office
A Michigan truck driver has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman, whose headless body was found in South Dakota, according to an arrest affidavit.
Anthony Harris, 60, was arrested in Washington state on March 14 on charges of second-degree murder and burying a body without legal authority, per the affidavit.
Gooch’s body was found without her head, according to an autopsy cited in in the affidavit, and with a portion of her spine missing.
When police carried out a search at the site where her remains had been found, they located a “skinned” and severed head and a bloodied sneaker in a bag inside a dumpster on the property of the travel stop, per the affidavit.
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They saw the truck allegedly back up more than five times on the spot where Gooch’s body was later found, police said. The video also allegedly showed the driver picking up an object from that area, then driving toward the dumpster where he briefly stopped, police said.
Subsequently, upon interviewing Gooch’s family, police learned that she was last seen with Harris, authorities noted in the affidavit. Harris allegedly denied knowing where Gooch was.
Police also interviewed Harris' employer and, using his work log hours and cell phone records, they placed him near both scenes where Gooch’s body was found, with timing that was consistent with the activities of the semi-truck they saw in the security footage, per the affidavit.
When he was arrested in Yakima, Wash., Harris was reportedly in the same semi-truck as the one seen in the security footage, police alleged in the affidavit. Gooch’s cause of death has not been determined.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Harris has entered a plea to the charges or retained an attorney.
source: people.com
