After searching for three aspiring Michigan rappers, the search ended on Thursday after Detroit authorities found bodies in an abandoned Highland Park apartment complex, believed to be theirs.
Almost two weeks after the Michigan men went missing on the night of their canceled Jan. 21 performance at Lounge 31, police believe they have located Armani “Marley Whoop” Kelly, 38, Montoya Givens, 31, and Dante “B12” Wicker, 31.
Michigan State Police shared updates from the scene on Twitter upon discovering “multiple victims” in a building at the corner of McNichols and Log Cabin.
“Detectives are continuing to investigate this incident and more than likely will be there throughout the night,” MSP stated. “As of now, we haven’t confirmed the identity of any victims inside or a manner of death.”
Although it has been stressed that the bodies have not been identified, Givens’ mother Cat Fogle confirmed that police notified her of her son’s death Thursday afternoon.
“They told me they found the three bodies,” said Fogel. “I don’t know what I’m going to do; how I’m going to bury him.”
Kelly told his fiancée Taylor Perrin the night he went missing that the Lounge show was canceled over an equipment issue and he was planning to meet up with friends and do some open mic shows.
Perrin said he stopped responding to communications at around 7:30 p.m. By the next morning, all three of their phones stopped sending data.
Kelly’s mother Lorrie Kemp reported him missing on Jan. 23, when she was able to use OnStar to help police locate her son’s car in Warren.
Givens and Wicker’s families made the connection when they saw the news report four days later and realized all three men knew each other.
“I just beg for help, for anything. I need answers and, if it comes to it, I need closure, because I will never forget and I will never stop,” Perrin said. “He was working, going to school, and making a rap career for himself while recovering from a robbery arrest.”
Kemp noted in a post on Sunday that her son met Givens and Wicker in the Department of Corrections while calling out law enforcement’s response to their disappearance.
“Yes these young men were at DOC but they didn’t deserve this!” she wrote. “Shame on the police shame on the whole state & shame on u Detroit. If only 1 police dept. would have listened maybe we would NOT b here!”
A source said, “The bodies were found after police raided a home on Wednesday and brought in a person of interest, but it’s unclear if he provided the information that resulted in the discovery.”
The bodies were found under a pile of debris in the basement of a vacant Highland Park apartment building. Members of several units from multiple police agencies searched the building, finally discovering the bodies in the basement, beneath old construction equipment. The victims had been shot.
Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Mike Shaw said, “It’s supposed to be abandoned, but there are a lot of squatters in there.”
Early Thursday evening, police had yellow crime scene tape draped across Log Cabin at McNichols, while parked outside were the Detroit Police Mobile Command Center and units from the Michigan State Police, which was leading the investigation, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
Warren police last week arrested a 15-year-old boy driving Kelly’s 2017 Chevrolet Equinox without a license plate. A Detroit police source involved in the multi-agency investigation said the teenager told police that a man had told him to pick up the car on Schoolcraft on Detroit’s west side.
Police looked in the boy’s cellphone, and calls and texts led them to the man, who lives on Ashton on Detroit’s northwest side.
The man had an outstanding warrant involving alleged fraud. Police got a warrant to search the man’s house Monday, and he was taken into custody for questioning.
Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer confirmed Thursday that a 15-year-old has been charged in connection with possessing Kelly’s vehicle.
“The youth was arrested last week at an apartment complex in Warren,” Dwyer said. “It’s significant the arrest was made.”
Another break in the case came after investigators pored over high-definition video from Project Green Light locations in Detroit and found a video of the man wearing gloves cleaning out Kelly’s car.
