An Alabama middle school principal has been arrested and charged in connection with a cold case that left three people dead in Georgia more than a decade ago.
The Clayton County Sheriff's Office said in a news release this month that Union City, Ga., police officers arrived at the victim on Jan. 13, 2013, after they observed an abandoned 2010 Dodge Charger in Fulton County. announced that it had been discovered.
No arrests had been made in the case until last week, when the sheriff's office received murder warrants for Keante Harris, Kenneth Thompson, Kevin Harris and Darrell Harris. All were arrested across three states, the sheriff's office said.
Keante Harris, 45, worked as an assistant principal at McAdory Middle School in McCalla, Alabama, reported NBC affiliate WVTM in Birmingham. Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Walter Gonsoulin told the news station before the murder charges were announced that he was “still gathering facts about the details of this situation.”
“However, early indications indicate that the charges are not related to this person's employment with Jefferson County Schools,” Gonsoulin said.
NBC News reached out to the school district for comment on Tuesday. It is unclear whether Keante Harris has hired an attorney.
Authorities said a 2013 triple murder investigation determined the victims were “tortured and murdered” in Clayton County and abandoned in nearby Fulton.
Investigators believe the victims were “lured to a residence” in Jonesboro, Georgia, and forced inside at gunpoint, the sheriff's office said.
“They were then loaded into the back seat of a Dodge Charger and transported to Fulton County,” authorities said.
Keante Harris was taken into custody Wednesday on a fugitive judicial warrant in Alabama, online jail records show. All four suspects are charged with three counts of malicious homicide, the sheriff's office said.
