Jessica Marie Strachan and Devantae Alzondrae Griffin.
The woman whom authorities implicated in her sometime boyfriend’s disappearance is now charged with murdering him. Jessica Marie Strachan, 28, was already in jail for obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to investigators looking for Devantae Alzondrae Griffin, 28.
Griffin’s family showed up to court on Saturday as a judge was going to set bail for new counts of murder, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, according to WSPA.
“We’ve been praying for this moment for a few months now,” his aunt Beverly Griffin told the outlet. “We just need some closure about what happened to him and why.”
Devantae was last seen alive leaving 399 Winsmith Avenue in the city of Spartanburg, South Carolina, shortly after midnight with “on and off” girlfriend Strachan, deputies said during the missing persons case.
His mother — identified in the WSPA article as Felicia Griffin — reported him missing the next day. Investigators said they soon spoke to Strachan on March 31.
“During the course of the investigation it was determined Jessica Strachan was misleading in the information she had provided during her initial interview,” deputies said. “She became a person of interest in the disappearance of Devantae Griffin.”
Deputies asked to meet her again, but after this request, she went to Florida without telling them, they said. Authorities executed a search warrant at her home, they said.
Griffin’s blood was “throughout” that residence, authorities said, according to the WSPA report.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant. Cops down in Miami, Florida, arrested her on April 1. Strachan bonded out of jail on April 15 but allegedly violated her home detention. Deputies said they arrested her again on April 25. It was the following day when they discovered Devantae dead in a shallow grave. He was in the woods behind the Evans Acres neighborhood of Spartanburg County.
“To know that I’ll never see him again really hurts,” Griffin’s mother Felicia Griffin told WSPA. “He didn’t deserve to be thrown away like trash.”
“We just want him to be remembered as a good person,” Beverly reportedly said.
Authorities in April determined this death was a homicide, but they did not point at any suspects until announcing the murder case against Strachan on Friday.
Deputies also identified Tarus Dorail Crook, 33, as a person of interest in the case. Law&Crime reached out to the sheriff’s office to learn more about his current place in the investigation.
“Investigators are asking for anyone with information about Crook’s location or his involvement in this incident to contact Investigator Megan Bennett at (864) 503-4608 or mbennett@spartanburgcounty.org,” authorities said on April 29.
Strachan has been locked up since then. Her bond in the new charges was not set in a hearing Saturday, according to the outlet. A circuit court judge will make that decision later.
[Images via Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office]