2 held in death on Montana Indian reservation
BILLINGS (AP) — Two people have been arrested in Wyoming and South Dakota on charges of killing a single mother on an Indian reservation in southeastern Montana.
Garrett Sidney Wadda, 35, faces charges of first-degree murder and sexual abuse, and Eugenia Ann Rowland, 41, faces a second-degree murder charge.
A federal indictment handed up in Billings on March 20 accuses them of killing a person identified as H.H. on July 4 near Lame Deer.
That was the day Hanna Harris, 21, disappeared. Her body was discovered four days later along a creek on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, a few miles from where her car was found.
The body of Hanna Harris, 21, was found that day on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
Wadda and Rowland were arrested Wednesday. On Thursday, Wadda appeared in court in Lander, Wyo., and Rowland appeared in court in Rapid City, S.D. Both face extradition to Montana.
Officials at jails in Lander and Rapid City said they didn’t know whether the suspects had lawyers.
Harris had a 10-month-old son at the time she died. He is in the care of Harris’ mother, Malinda Harris Limberhand.
“I’m just happy that these people have finally been arrested,” Limberhand said Friday. “I know there’s a long road ahead. I don’t know if I’m ready to hear the details of my daughter’s death or not.”
She thanked people who had offered their support and prayers. “That’s what’s keeping me going,” Limberhand said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the agencies investigating Harris’ death, have said little about the case. The indictment did not describe the circumstances of the death.
Rowland had been living in the Rapid City area, said Pennington County Sheriff’s Capt. Marty Graves. Pennington County includes Rapid City.
Rowland was arrested by the FBI’s Safe Trails Task Force on a warrant alleging second-degree murder, Graves said.
Harris’ death prompted a rally in August in Lame Deer to demand justice for victims of unsolved slayings on American Indian reservations nationwide.