John Jefferson
Top inset: Heather Ann Bodden (GoFundMe). Bottom inset: Craig Allen Nichols Jr. (Yankton County Sheriff). Background: The location where Bodden’s remains were found (KTIV).
A South Dakota man faces charges after his girlfriend’s decapitated body was found inside her apartment, and her head was found in a trash bag a day after she messaged a friend that her boyfriend had threatened her with a weapon.
Craig Allen Nichols Jr., 32, faces second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Heather Ann Bodden, 41, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a press release.
The grisly discovery was made on Thursday after friends of the victim had gone to check on her at her apartment on Memory Lane in Yankton, about 80 miles southwest of Sioux Falls, and found her decapitated body, according to an affidavit.
Inside, police found “what appeared to be a deceased headless person.”
One of the victim’s friends told cops she had received a text message from the victim a day earlier saying her boyfriend, who she identified as the suspect, had threatened her with a weapon, and she hadn’t heard from her in over 24 hours.
Video footage of the exterior of the apartment complex showed two males arriving at the apartment at 9:59 p.m. the night before the victim was found.
The men told investigators they had been in the apartment doing drugs with the suspect and the victim, who was alive when they left at 11:02 p.m. on Wednesday.
Further surveillance video showed Nichols leaving and returning to the apartment multiple times between 2:50 a.m. and 6:44 a.m. Thursday, court documents said.
He was arrested at his apartment, where he had barricaded himself inside.
A search of his apartment turned up “wet shoes with reddish brown substance on them,” according to the documents.
At Bodden’s apartment, police found her head in a trash bag that was the color of a bag similar to the one seen in surveillance footage.
A plastic grocery bag was also found with “bloody male clothing,” the document said. A label found on the underwear in the plastic grocery bag read, in part, “CRAIG N,” the affidavit said.
Police also found three weapons wrapped in a floor mat in a trash bag close to the bag containing Bodden’s head.
Nichols asked for a lawyer and declined to provide a urine sample, saying “he wished to go to sleep,” the affidavit added.
Bodden leaves behind a 12-year-old daughter, a GoFundMe page said.
“Heather Bodden was tragically and brutally taken from us by someone who claimed to care about her,” the page said. “The family is understandably shocked by this loss and unfortunately not prepared for all that goes along with planning a funeral at this time. Heather did not have life insurance, so we are raising funds to help cover the cost of cremation and a memorial service. Any leftover funds will be used to help care for Heather’s daughter, Lily.”
“Heather was a bright spark in this world,” the page added. “Her friends and family loved her quick wit as she was always ready with a joke or snappy comeback. She loved her daughter Lily to the ends of the earth and her mom, Pat, was her best friend in the world.”
Nichols is being held in the Yankton County Jail with bail set at $500,000. He is set to appear in court on Wednesday.
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