By Dan Whitcomb
(Reuters) – The remains of three rappers reported missing in late January have been discovered in the basement of an abandoned apartment building in Detroit, the victims of a homicide, police said on Friday.
The bodies of Montoya Givens, Armani Kelly and Dante Wicker were found in the “rat-infested” basement by Detroit police officers conducting an unrelated investigation, said Mike Shaw of the Michigan State Police.
“They were going into an abandoned apartment complex and notified us of human remains located in the basement of one of those buildings,” Shaw said.
An autopsy cannot be performed for at least 48 hours because temperatures in Detroit that had dipped into the single digits overnight had rendered the bodies difficult to examine, he said, and coroner’s investigators had not yet determined a cause of death.
The Detroit News, citing an unnamed source, said all three of the men had been shot, their remains found under a pile of debris.
Givens, 31, Kelly, 28 and Wicker, 31, were reported missing on Jan. 21 after their scheduled performance at a Detroit club was abruptly canceled, reportedly due to equipment issues. Police have said their mobile phones stopped working the following day.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested last week while driving Kelly’s car but has not been charged in connection with the murders.
Investigators with a homicide task force asked the public to contact them with any information about the case.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Berkrot)