A Kalamazoo, Mich. student reported missing by her family was found dead under mysterious circumstances last week.
The family of Mujey Dumbuya reported her missing on Jan 25. The 16-year-old never returned home after school and had no reason run away, according to her family. On Jan. 28, her body was found in a wooded area about 50 miles away by a couple out on a Sunday walk.
But her tragic death is no coincidence, according to authorities.
Dumbuya was set to testify against 42-year-old Quinn Anthony James, a man she claimed raped her in a car in the parking lot of Ridge Park Charter Academy in Grand Rapids. She was a student at the high school and James was an employee.
According to BuzzFeed, James is now a person of interest in Dumbuya’s death, which has been ruled a homicide.
Court documents state that James forced the teen to have sex with him several times, beginning when she was 15 years old, Buzzfeed reports. Because of this claim, James was charged with four counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor. And because it was his fourth offense, prosecutors charged James as a habitual offender, which comes with a mandatory 25-year sentence.
On Feb. 1 —five days after Dumbuya was reported missing— James was arrested for another rape case involving a teenager in 2014.
James was an employee of the Kentwood Public School District, hired as a groundskeeper in 2011. Prior to this case, the Michigan resident had a criminal history dating back to 1991 that included armed robbery and possessing a weapon while in prison.
According to WWMT, court records also show that James had been ordered to stay away from Dumbuya. He’s currently being held on a $500,000 bond on one count of criminal sexual conduct in a case unrelated to the homicide investigation in Kalamazoo.