The Sheriff’s Office in Greenville County, South Carolina, has confirmed that immigration services determined a man accused of shooting and killing a local high school girl was in the U.S. illegally.
Officials arrested 19-year-old Daniel De Jesus Rangel Sherrer and charged him with the murder of 18-year-old Diana Martinez-Gonzalez, who was found shot to death last week in a patch of woods along the 400 block of Saluda Dam Road in Easley, South Carolina.
Deputies said they received a call from a friend of the victim who was “frantic” over the crime, according to Fox Carolina.
At a recent press conference, Master Deputy Ryan Flood said they arrested Rangel Sherrer very quickly and added, “Immediately upon contact he confessed to one of the deputies.”
Rangel Sherrer allegedly said he was upset with the girl for spreading false rumors about him, so he took her to the secluded area and killed her.
Police also alleged that Rangel Sherrer held another girl against her will, but she later escaped his grasp.
Sheriffs stated their investigation is continuing in the “vast” wooded area where the girl’s body was discovered. The murder weapon has not yet been recovered.
The coroner’s office reported that the victim, an eleventh-grader at Greenville High School, had been shot multiple times in the head, and her death was pronounced a homicide.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed at his court appearance that the suspect is in the U.S. illegally. Rangel Sherrer was also denied bond and will remain in jail until his next court date.
The young victim, Diana Martinez Gonzalez, leaves behind her parents and a brother and sister.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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