Shoes, backpack, sweatshirt missing from teen found shot, burned in Harbison area

Several items a teenager was wearing before his body was found shot and burned in the Harbison area are missing, officials said Friday.

Keon Malik Brantley, 18, was recorded on surveillance video leaving his apartment where he lived around 9 p.m. April 15, wearing a burgundy sweatshirt with a hood and a backpack while carrying a “very large box” that contained an AK-47 rifle, said Capt. Adam Myrick, spokesman for the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.

Within an hour, the Columbia Fire Department received a call of a brush fire in the 200 block of Columbiana Drive near Columbiana Centre shopping center. Brantley’s body was found in a wooded area near the Paces Brook apartments about a mile from his home, Myrick said.

It’s unclear where Brantley was headed or what he did during that hour, Myrick said. Investigators found the rifle, which was legally purchased by Brantley in the fall, at the crime scene, Myrick said.

Myrick said he did not believe the firearm “was a part of the slaying” but would not reveal if the rifle had been fired that night.

The missing items have stumped investigators, who are asking anyone who is familiar with the location of the items to call 1-888-CRIME-SC with an anonymous tip. The missing shoes were size 8 Nike Air Foamposites, Myrick said.

“Those items are important in our investigation because they were not recovered by first responders when they arrived on the scene,” he said. “We are urging anyone who has seen those items, who has heard any discussion, talk, chatter about those items to call Crimestoppers.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Shoes, backpack, sweatshirt missing from teen found shot, burned in Harbison area."