A Navajo man anally raped his buddy's 18-year-old girlfriend on a dark road south of Kayenta early Sunday, then either suffocated or strangled her, federal court records allege.
The woman's half-naked body was found in a ditch, a tire track over her chest.
Sankey Reid, 30, admitted he drove over her body before going home to bed, says an FBI affidavit.
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Kayenta, a tiny northeast Arizona Navajo Nation town of about 5,200, has been witness to unusual violence in the recent past: In late 2012, two men and two women were found murdered in three separate incidents in a 12-hour period.
Sunday's slaying has several chilling details, including the fact that a Navajo Nation police officer had chatted with the suspect and victim less than two hours before the crime.
According to the affidavit:
Officer Tracey Walker was near the small town's skate park about 2 a.m. looking for a man who'd complained to police that he'd been beaten up by gang members. A red Nissan Murano flashed its lights at her. She walked over to it and found Reid in the driver's seat. He had two passengers, a man -- the one who'd made the complaint -- and a young woman. Walker then left "on a more pressing call."
Reid later said he'd been there to help the male passenger beat up the guys who attacked him. But the man took off after the talk with Officer Walker, leaving his girlfriend and Reid alone. About 4 a.m., the passenger called police to report his girlfriend missing, and that her "bloody underwear" had been found in the Murano, which belonged to Reid's longtime girlfriend.
Police arrested Reid at his townhome on a liquor violation. Officer Walker asked him, "Where's the body?"
FBI agent Bruce Applin's affidavit describes Reid's alleged confession.
Reid said he'd driven south out of town on Navajo Route 591 with the woman, who'd been drinking peach schnapps heavily all night. After stopping for a smoke, he claimed, he saw that the woman had passed out. He pulled down her shorts and raped her anally for several minutes, continuing as she bled on him, he admitted to police.
The woman then "woke up, and she began crying and asking Reid what happened," the affidavit states. She fought with him as he restrained her.
Reid said he didn't want her to "run off and tell anyone what (he) did... he then placed his hand over [the woman's] mouth and intentionally suffocated her to kill her."
He placed her lifeless body on the ground and backed his car over her to try to make the death seem like an accident, Reid told Applin in his interview.
After doing that, he drove for a few miles and dumped the body in the ditch. He didn't remember exactly where, but it didn't take cops long to find the remains. From the body's condition, it was unclear to one investigator whether the woman had been suffocated or strangled.
Reid is charged with first-degree murder.
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