SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A South Carolina woman under police suspicion for months has now been charged with the murder of her one-time boyfriend.
Local news outlets report Jessica Marie Strachan, 28, was charged Friday with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Sheriff's investigators said she killed Devantae Griffin. He was reported missing on March 30 and his body was found in a shallow grave near Spartanburg in late April.
Strachan was already in jail when the new charges were brought, and it's unclear if she has a lawyer. A circuit judge will consider bail at a later date.
Investigators had initially charged Strachan with obstruction of justice. She aroused suspicion after investigators sought to interview her a second time, believing her statements misleading, only to find she had left for Florida without telling them. Deputies charged her with obstruction in part because she took Griffin's phone with her.
Strachan was arrested in Miami and sent back to Spartanburg, where she was allowed to leave jail on house arrest. Strachan was then arrested on April 29 for violating the terms of her release.
A second person had been named as a person of interest but has not been charged.
Investigators said Griffin’s blood was found “throughout” Strachan’s home. The Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide.
Griffin’s family was in the courtroom Saturday.
“To know that I’ll never see him again really hurts,” Griffin’s mother, Felicia Griffin, told WSPA-TV. “He didn’t deserve to be thrown away like trash.”
