An active-duty airman has been charged with killing a South Dakota woman who was reported missing in 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Monday.

Quinterius Charles Chappelle, 24, was charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of Sahela Toka Win Sangrait, 21, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota. Chappelle made his first court appearance on Monday and pleaded not guilty to a federal criminal complaint.

The complaint accused Chappelle of killing Sangrait on the Ellsworth Air Force Base in western South Dakota in August 2024. Authorities said Chappelle was stationed at the Ellsworth base at the time of the incident and arrested on Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether Sangrait and Chappelle knew each other.

Chappelle is currently being held at the Pennington County Jail, according to the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Online records show that he was booked into the jail on Friday and no bond has been set.

Chappelle faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine, five years of supervised release, and $100 to the Federal Crime Victims Fund if he is convicted in the case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Restitution may also be ordered.

“This charge, filed just ten days after the victim’s remains were discovered, reflects the dogged work of federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals who seamlessly collaborated to run down every lead with absolute expediency and care,” U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell said in a statement.

“At this time, our hearts are with the victim’s family and friends, who after many agonizing months of searching for answers, are now grieving the tragic death of their loved one,” Ramsdell added.

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Sahela Toka Win Sangrait reported missing in August 2024

Sangrait was a Native American woman from Box Elder, a suburb of Rapid City, South Dakota, according to a missing person poster shared on Facebook. The Ellsworth base is located in the northern area of Box Elder.

Sangrait was reported missing since August 10, 2024, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office said. According to the missing person poster, she was last known to be staying with a friend in Eagle Butte, about 156 miles northeast of Box Elder.

“She left stating she would be traveling to Box Elder to get some of her things, then planned to travel to California,” the missing person poster states. “It is unknown if she ever made it there and there has been zero contact since.”

A hiker discovered Sangrait’s body on March 4 in an area south of Hill City near the Pennington County and Custer County line, according to the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies responded to a report of a “badly decomposed body” at around 1 p.m. local time, the sheriff’s office said.

On March 12, the sheriff’s office said the remains were identified as Sangrait and that authorities were investigating the case as a homicide.

The investigation was conducted by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies including the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, Rapid City Police Department, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

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Missing and murdered indigenous people in the U.S.

There are 59 cases of missing Native Americans in South Dakota, according to the state attorney general’s missing persons database. Of those cases, 36 of the victims are women.

Native Americans are at a “disproportionate risk of experiencing violence, murder, or going missing and make up a significant portion of the missing and murdered cases,” according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A 2023 survey released by the First Nations Development Institute found that the biggest concern on Native Americans’ minds was missing and murdered Indigenous women.

In 2016, the National Crime Information Center said there were more than 5,700 reports of missing Native American women and girls. According to the non-profit Native Hope, only 116 cases had been logged in the U.S. Department of Justice’s missing person database.

A 2018 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute cited that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that murder is the third-leading cause of death among Native American women and that “rates of violence on reservations can be up to ten times higher than the national average.”

“However, no research has been done on rates of such violence among American Indian and Alaska Native women living in urban areas despite the fact that approximately 71% of American Indian and Alaska Natives live in urban areas,” according to the report.

Contributing: Minnah Arshad, USA TODAY