Man Was Wearing a GPS When He Killed Woman and Disposed of Her Body, Police Say
A Michigan man was wearing a GPS device when he allegedly a woman and disposed of her body, according to police.
Cory Coddington, 40 of Lansing, Michigan, was identified as the man who allegedly shot and killed 33-year-old Melissa Nicole Murray in February, and during a recent testimony Lansing Police Detective Ellen Larson said that Coddington was wearing a GPS device at the time of the killing.
Larson testified that the GPS device placed Coddington at a home on Mahlon Street on the night Murray was killed as well as a location in Isabella County, where the body was eventually discovered.
"After finding that GPS tether, we did and were able at a later time to go up and recover her remains," Larson testified, according to the Lansing State Journal. "Feb. 2nd takes him to the area in Isabella County directly to the burial site where Ms. Murray's body was located."
Prior to finding the body, 61-year-old Daniel Lawrence Dutton told police that he helped Coddington hide the body and went with officers to Isabella County to show them where Murray's body was buried.
"That first time up there we did not locate her body, we were not in the correct location," Larson said during the testimony, according to the Lansing State Journal.
The testimony from Larson comes shortly after Coddington was charged last week with murder and felony firearm possession in Murray's death. Court documents show that police believe Coddington shot Murray at the home on Mahlon Street on February 2 and burned her body before burying it.
Murray's family first reported her missing to the Ingham County Sheriff's Office on February 28, but her body was not found until March 24. In addition to her family reporting the disappearance, the Lansing Police Department also received an anonymous tip that a woman had been killed at a home on Mahlon Street.
According to the Lansing State Journal, Larson testified that after investigators found a piece of human skull at the home on Mahlon Street, staff at Michigan State University's anthropology department confirmed that the fragment matched Murray's remains.
DNA samples of of the body also confirmed that they belonged to Murray despite being "badly burned," according to the Lansing State Journal.
In addition to the charges against Coddington, Dutton was also charged as an accessory to Murray's murder.
Newsweek reached out to the Ingham County Prosecutors Office where Coddington was arraigned for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
