A police detective testified on Thursday that Amber DeLoach was upset that two male companions left her at a downtown Savannah bar early Sept. 30.
“She was upset she had been left” shortly before 2:45 a.m. and was walking from Pour Larry to her car parked on St. Julian Street when she was last seen alive, Savannah-Chatham police Detective Robert Santoro testified.
Her body, curled in a fetal position under a partially burned blanket in the trunk of a burning car, was discovered about 6:39 a.m. by firefighters near Yamacraw Village, Santoro said.
Shan Demetrius Cheley, 36, was sent to Superior Court on murder and related charges Thursday following a preliminary hearing before Chatham County Recorder’s Court Judge Harris Odell Jr.
Cheley remains in the Chatham County jail without bond. His case next goes before a Chatham County grand jury for indictment.
DeLoach, an 18-year-old former St. Vincent’s Academy student and Islands High School alumna, died from strangulation, Santoro said an autopsy determined.
Police initially identified Cheley from an anonymous CrimeStoppers tip on Oct. 4 based on the release of video from 6:13 a.m. at the BP at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Bay Street, Santoro said.
They further identified him from a pair of blue house shoes with broken back heels found outside the 2012 Dodge Avenger auto where the victim was found. Police tracked her identity from the Enterprise Car Rental by William DeLoach, the victim’s father, Santoro said.
“He’s got a very distinct walk,” Santoro described Cheley. “He almost shuffles.”
Detectives also tracked Cheley on surveillance cameras buying $2.93 of gas and putting it in a can, Santoro said.
And police linked Cheley to his 1972 Pontiac Catalina parked in Yamacraw Village, the detective said.
After police interviewed Cheley Oct. 4, he identified himself as the person caught on a surveillance camera at the BP service station, but gave an alibi, Santoro said.
He was initially held on a contempt-of-court warrant and a possession of controlled substance charge.
During a second interview on Oct. 18, Cheley told detectives he had been on a cocaine binge a few days earlier and admitted meeting DeLoach near a St. Julian Street pub where they agreed to exchange drugs for sex, Santoro said.
Cheley told police DeLoach drove him to his house but never went in, Santoro said. He said Cheley told police they had sex and did drugs before she drove him downtown.