Seven people are charged with murder in the slaying of a woman who went missing from the District in December.
Police in Durham, N.C., say 28-year-old Antoinetta McKoy was the victim of a religious cult there. Remains that police believe belong to her were found in a backyard on Wednesday.
“Everything indicates to us that it’s her,” Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said at a news conference.
McKoy was last seen on Dec. 5 on 1600 block of K Street NE as she was preparing to leave for North Carolina, according to D.C. police. Family members reported her missing to District police in February.
The search for McKoy spanned from Washington to Durham to Teller County, Colo., where members of the religious group she stayed with in North Carolina moved. In Durham, McKoy lived at a house with about 10 other members of a home-based religious group called the Black Hebrews.
All seven people accused in her death are in custody and face murder charges, jail records show. They are: 27-year-old Pete Lucas Moses Jr., 40-year-old Lavada Quinzetta Harris, 21-year-old P. Leonard Moses, 20-year-old Sheila Falisha Moses, 56-yeare-old Shelda Evelyn Harris, 40-year-old Larhonda Renee Smith and 25-year-old Vania Rae Sisk.
Kammie Michael, a Durham police spokeswoman, said Thursday that a medical examiner is still working to confirm the body to be McKoy and to determine when and how she died.
A young Durham boy is also believed to have been killed by the group, according to court records, but his body has not been found and no one has been charged in his death.
