South Dakota airman charged in killing of woman missing since August

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- A 24-year-old airman, Quinterius Chappelle, has been charged with the second-degree murder of 21-year-old Sahela Sangrait, a Native American woman who went missing in South Dakota last summer. Chappelle appeared in court on Monday, with the case's documents sealed, though authorities indicated that Sangrait was killed in August at the Ellsworth Air Force Base, where Chappelle was stationed.

Chappelle is being prosecuted in federal court and is represented by the federal defender's office. He is currently held at the Pennington County Jail, having entered a plea of not guilty. If convicted, he could face a life sentence. As an aircraft inspection journeyman with the 28th Maintenance Squadron at the Ellsworth base, he has been in service since April 2019. Col. Derek Oakley, the 28th Bomb Wing commander, expressed condolences to Sangrait's family and emphasized accountability for servicemembers.

The body of Sahela Sangrait was discovered by a hiker on March 4, near the border of Pennington and Custer Counties. She had been reported missing on August 10, and authorities noted that her remains were in a severely decomposed state. The specific cause of death has not been disclosed, and it remains unclear if Sangrait had any prior connection to Chappelle.

Sangrait, a resident of Box Elder, South Dakota, was reportedly staying with a friend in Eagle Butte before her disappearance. She planned to return to Box Elder for personal belongings before heading to California. The circumstances surrounding her journey remain uncertain, particularly whether she ever reached her destination.

The case highlights broader issues of missing Indigenous individuals; there are currently 59 unresolved cases of missing Native Americans in South Dakota, with over half being women, as tracked by the state's attorney general's database. In response to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, federal and state task forces have been established to investigate such cases.