Sahela “Shy” Sangrait (GoFundMe).
A South Dakota woman who went missing months ago was found dead — and an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force has been accused of her murder.
21-year-old Sahela “Shy” Sangrait was reported missing by her family on August 10, 2024, according to a press release from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Nearly seven months later, on March 4, a hiker discovered a “badly decomposed body” in Hill City, South Dakota, and promptly alerted the authorities. After an autopsy and a thorough investigation involving multiple agencies, the remains were positively identified as those of Sangrait.
On Saturday, the sheriff’s office announced that it had named a suspect in her murder.
Quinterius Chappelle, aged 24, was taken into custody on Friday for second-degree murder charges at the federal level. The sheriff’s office announced on Facebook that Sangrait was believed to have been murdered at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota, which placed the investigation under federal jurisdiction. Chappelle, an active-duty airman, was held without bond in the Pennington County jail before being transferred to federal custody under the U.S. Marshals Service.
Authorities confirmed that the case would be handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota. The Sheriff’s Office revealed that various law enforcement agencies, including the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, the FBI, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, collaborated in the extensive investigation.
According to The New York Times, a missing persons poster that was distributed when Sangrait went missing said she had told a friend in Eagle Butte — which is located about 160 miles northeast of the Air Force base — that she intended to go to the city of Box Elder to retrieve some of her belongings before taking a trip to California. The poster stated that it was not known if Sangrait ever made it to Box Elder, which is near the Ellsworth Air Force Base.
While the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office did not provide details about how Chappelle and Sangrait were connected, The New York Times received a comment from Ellsworth Air Force commander Col. Derek Oakley. He told the Times, “First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Sahela. We hold airmen accountable for their actions, and if service members are found in violation of military or civilian law, they will be punished.”
The missing persons poster also claimed that friends reached out to Sangrait’s family after having trouble filing a missing persons report for Sangrait, who was identified as Native American. According to a GoFundMe page for Sangrait’s funeral expenses, her loved ones believed that “South Dakota police failed her when they failed to take several attempts of missing person reports stemming from August 2024-February 2025. Our girl could still be here today had our efforts been taken more seriously.”
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