Woman’s partially dismembered body found at South Dakota truck stop

MITCHELL, S.D. (TCD) — A Detroit man was arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman’s dismembered body was discovered at a local truck stop.

According to court records shared by KELO-TV, on Monday, March 11, at 10:54 p.m., the Mitchell Police Department received a call from a truck driver who said he found a woman’s body under a pile of pallets in the I-90 Travel Center parking lot. The driver was reportedly backing up his vehicle but did not want to run over the pallets, so he got out of the vehicle to inspect how much space he had.

The truck driver reportedly “noticed what appeared to be a gut pile lying in the middle of the parking lot” and initially thought it was from an animal. He walked closer to it and discovered a human foot and hand, so he called police.

A detective arrived at the scene and noted it looked like the victim had been hit by a car and dragged away. The victim was about 11 to 13 feet away from the suspected point of impact. The affidavit said the woman was wearing a yellow shirt and black underwear. A pair of jeans was found near her body, while a pair of socks were left where she was most likely hit.

The affidavit said the victim’s body “appeared as if it had been tangled in the axle of a semi or ran over multiple times, due to the twisting and distortion of the body.”

The body was taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy, where she was identified as Melody Gooch. Gooch’s “entire skull was missing from her body,” as well as a portion of her spinal cord. She wore dentures, and the lower set was still attached to her jaw. The forensic pathologist said she had most likely been dead 24 to 36 hours.

The pathology also reportedly noted Gooch did not die “from any other trauma other than being hit, struck, or run over by a vehicle.”

Additional detectives looked through a nearby dumpster and discovered a trash bag containing a woman’s shoe covered in blood as well as a skinned severed head. Surveillance footage from the area reportedly showed a truck “making suspicious movements” in the parking lot and was in the area for about 30 to 35 minutes. The truck reportedly stopped at the dumpster, briefly left, and returned to the lot minutes later. The truck backed in and out of a parking lot and looked as if the driver was “trying to precisely park in a spot, even though there are no other trucks or trailers directly beside it.”

Detectives contacted Gooch’s next of kin and learned she was last seen with Anthony Harris, who is a truck driver. Harris reportedly told Gooch’s family she walked into a store to get food but never came out. His truck records, however, allegedly put him in the area around the time Gooch was killed.

The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office announced Harris was arrested in Washington and is being charged with second-degree murder and improper disposal.

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