By Mark Haynes | OBSERVER Correspondent
Chance Comanche, a former member of the Stockton Kings, 27, was arrested December 15 by FBI agents in Sacramento for kidnapping and murdering a 23-year-old woman, Marayna Rodgers. The basketball player’s girlfriend, Sakari Harnden ,19, was arrested two days earlier in Las Vegas for the same crime.
Rodgers, a medical assistant from Lakewood, Washington, was visiting Las Vegas with friends.
Police said on December 7, two people entered a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department substation to file a missing persons report for Rodgers. The last time friends saw the victim was on December 5, before Rodgers left to meet with Harnden and Comanche. That day, Comanche and the Kings played the NBA G-League Ignite squad in Henderson, Nevada.
“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,” police said in a statement. The Kings released the ball player on the same day of his arrest.
Once both suspects were in custody, authorities acquired information that helped discover human remains in a Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas. The Clark County Coroner identified the remains to be Rodgers.
Comanche confessed to authorities that he and Harnden planned the attack they executed on December 5. Many of his confessions were supported by text messages between him, Harnden, and a third member who was aware of the plan but didn’t take part in committing the crime. The person was a friend of Comanche, whom he tried to hire to kill Rodgers. According to police, the former G-League player admitted to the couple strangling her to death and leaving her body in the desert covered in rocks.
Harnden’s bail is $500,000, while Comanche is ineligible for bail. They both face open murder charges.