The search for three men — two rappers and their friend — led Michigan police to finding “multiple bodies” in a vacant apartment building in Highland Park, near Detroit.
The bodies were found Thursday and have not been identified by officials; however, sources reportedly claimed they belong to the three men that have been missing for nearly two weeks.
Rappers Armani Kelly, 27, of Oscoda, Dante Wicker, 31, of Melvindale, and their friend Montoya Givens, 31, of Detroit, were meant to perform at a party in Detroit on Jan. 21. But the gig reportedly got canceled over some equipment issue, as per AP News.
Kelly reportedly told his fiancée, Taylor Perrin, about the cancellation and added that he, along with Wicker and Givens, was going to see if they could find other open mic events. Perrin said Kelly stopped responding to her texts, calls and Facebook messages around 7:30 p.m.
As the search for the three missing men began, investigators found a 15-year-old boy driving Kelly’s 2017 Chevrolet Equinox without a license plate last week and arrested him.
The boy told cops that a man instructed him to pick up the car. Text messages on the teen’s phone led investigators to the man, who had an outstanding warrant involving alleged fraud, a source told the Detroit News.
The man was taken into custody Monday and questioned before the discovery of the corpses in the abandoned apartment building Thursday.
The bodies were found under mounds of debris in the basement, Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Mike Shaw told the outlet. “It’s supposed to be abandoned, but there are a lot of squatters in there,” Shaw reportedly said about the building.
“The building is in very poor condition and rat invested which is slowing progress,” the state police said on Twitter.
Although the bodies were not officially identified, three police sources familiar with the investigation told the outlet that the two rappers and their friend were the deceased. One source also reportedly said the bodies had gunshot wounds.
“They told me they found the three bodies,” Givens’ mother, Cat Fogle, told the outlet “[…] I don’t know what I’m going to do; how I’m going to bury him.”
Lorrie Kemp, Kelly’s mother, also told the outlet that cops informed her about the discovery of the bodies, “but they didn’t identify them,” she said.
Further details were not provided by the police.
“Please remember all victims have families and we don’t have the luxury of guessing on their identity and then retracting if we didn’t get it right,” officials said. “Once information is confirmed we will update … “
