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27-year-old NBA G League player Chance Comanche and his 19-year-old girlfriend Sakari Harnden have been charged with murder in Las Vegas.
Comanche and Harnden allegedly executed a plan which resulted in the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman Marayna Rodgers on December 6th. Rodgers, a surgical tech from the state of Washington, had gone missing while visiting Las Vegas.
Comanche, who played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats before turning pro, had initially been arrested on a charge of first-degree kidnapping by the FBI in Sacramento County, California. Harnden was also initially charged with kidnapping.
According to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police press release, “On December 7, 2023, at approximately 3:32 p.m., two individuals walked into an LVMPD substation to report Marayna Rodgers missing.
“Through the course of the investigation, detectives learned that Rodgers was out with friends on December 5, 2023, and had a pre-arranged meeting with her friend Sakari Harnden (19) who would bring her boyfriend Chance Comanche (27).
“Since then, Rodgers had not been seen or heard from. Early in the investigation, detectives suspected foul play and obtained evidence to arrest Harnden and her boyfriend Comanche for their role in the kidnapping and disappearance of Rodgers.”
A GoFundMe set up to help pay for private investigators in the search for Rodgers stated that her last known location was “near the freeway heading towards both Reno and California.”
Rodgers had last been seen getting into a car with Sakari Harnden.
Two individuals have been arrested in connection with the disappearance and killing of a 23-year-old female after executing murder plan.
Click below for additional information. pic.twitter.com/yI7LlCIcqG
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 17, 2023
Following their arrest, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police detectives were able to recover human remains in a desert area in Henderson, Nevada. The Clark County Coroner would go on to identify those remains to be of Marayna Rodgers.
Following the discovery, both Comanche and Harnden had their charges amended to open murder.
Comanche’s team, the Stockton Kings, had played the NBA G League Ignite in Henderson the night before Rodgers’ reported disappearance.
Comanche played one game in the NBA, scoring 7 points in 21 minutes for the Portland Trail Blazers in April of 2023. He had most recently played for the Stockton Kings of the NBA G League, but was waived following his arrest. The 6-foot-10 Comanche was averaging 14 points and 7 rebounds per game for the Kings at the time of his arrest.