16-Year-Old Girl Found Dead in Michigan Was Strangled, Officials Say

Associated Press
Updated
It was in a passenger's carry-on luggage

(KALAMAZOO, Mich.) — Officials in western Michigan have ruled a 16-year-old girl found dead in Kalamazoo was strangled.

MLive.com reported Tuesday that Mujey Dumbuya’s cause of death was listed as “asphyxia, including strangulation” on the death certificate.

Dumbuya’s partially clothed body was found Jan. 28 in Kalamazoo, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from her Grand Rapids home. Her family last saw her alive on Jan. 24 as she headed off to school.

Quinn James faces trial in Kent County Circuit Court on criminal sexual conduct charges. James is accused of sexually assaulting Dumbuya last summer.

He was arrested in November and was released on bond. Authorities picked him up on Feb. 1 on an unrelated 2014 sexual assault charge.

MLive.com says Dumbuya was to testify against James, who has not been charged in her death.