CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A North Carolina man accused of killing his girlfriend and driving to Carter County in her vehicle to dispose of the body, faced charges in court Wednesday.
Michael Cadogan, 24, appeared in Carter County court Wednesday morning where, in addition to being charged with abuse of a corpse, he is also charged with being a fugitive from justice.
In High Point, North Carolina, he faces first-degree murder and concealment of death charges for allegedly killing his girlfriend, 19-year-old Gianna Rose Delgado.
“We’ve obtained warrants for first degree murder and felony concealment death against Mr. Cadogan, the actual service of the warrants and the extradition of Mr. Cadogan from Tennessee will get coordinated in the near future,” Lt. Brent MacFarland, supervisor of the Violent Crimes Unit for High Point, N.C. Police Department told News Channel 11.
A social media acquaintance of Cadogan’s alerted police of Delgado’s death in a 911 call.
“He called me this morning and he said that he had done something and I asked him what he had done and he FaceTimed me and turned the camera around and he had chocked and beat his girlfriend to death.”
911 call to High Point, N.C. police, Monday, 21 June, 2021
MacFarland said police learned Delgado and Cadogan lived together in a High Point apartment.
“As officers checked that area, we believed as a result of an assault that she received that she was deceased and Mr. Cadogan was attempted to dispose of the body by traveling to Tennessee,” MacFarland said. “We executed a search warrant on their shared apartment in search of evidence.”
MacFarland said detectives are still going through that evidence.
The 911 caller, a woman over 200 miles away from High Point in Kingsport, described the crime scene to a High Point emergency dispatcher.
“Are you sure this isn’t – it’s not a joke?” a dispatcher asked the caller relaying the crime scene tips to the High Point police.
The caller answered: “No, ma’am, I’m telling you I’m scared for my own life because of how he is talking and I seen this girl with my own eyes over the phone.”
Dispatcher: “What did it, what did she look like?”
“It was like there was a commotion around the room and she was just laying there beside the bed,” the caller replied.
A neighbor of the victim and the suspect, said they were in disbelief.
“My heart is just broken for the young girl,” the neighbor said. “Seeing both of them walk around, would have never guessed that something like this would happen right on the second floor of me. It’s just crazy, it’s scary, you know, that someone could snap like that… it’s sick, really.”
MacFarland told News Channel 11 that resources are available to women in domestic violence relationships.
“This appears to be a domestic violence situation … And we hope that anybody that’s in that situation, seeks help,” he said.
The next step for High Point authorities is getting Cadogan out of Tennessee to face the more serious charges that have been placed in North Carolina.
“It’s just a matter of going through the court process and the procedure for getting him extradited back here. A lot of that will depend on his decision. What he does is whether he waives extradition or fights extradition,” MacFarland explained.
Cadogan was appointed a public defender and is scheduled to return to court in Carter County on June 28.
