Man sentenced in shocking strangulation of cousin whose decaying body was dumped in the woods

The New York man who strangled his Phenix City cousin in 2014 before dumping her body in the woods around Seale, Ala., will spend the rest of his life in prison.

A Russell County jury on Sept. 1 convicted 32-year-old Christian Grissom Jr. of murder in the death of cousin Keonte Chavis, 19, whose decaying body was found covered by a blanket Aug. 9, 2014, in the woods off Ridge Road in Seale.

Forensic evidence was difficult to collect there because the body was found after a heavy rain, and it had decomposed quickly in the August heat and humidity.

The woman had been reported missing two days earlier, and witnesses said she last was seen with Grissom. He was arrested Aug. 11, 2014, in New York, where relatives said he grew up.

Russell County Circuit Court Judge David Johnson sentenced Grissom on Tuesday morning.

The case was particularly shocking in its involving a relative whom the victim trusted, and proving predators sometimes lurk within families.

“A lot of young beautiful women in the family now have to take in consideration not just predators outside, but sometimes it can be a predator inside the family circle,” the victim’s father Anthony Chavis said after the verdict.

He said the two cousins grew up together in Newburgh, N.Y., near the West Point military academy. His daughter was around 12 years old when she moved to Phenix City to live with a great-grandmother, he said.

She graduated in 2012 from Central High School, where she played varsity basketball before sustaining a knee injury. She had a scholarship to Alabama State University.

When she was reported missing, Chavis and Grissom’s father joined in the search, Chavis said, and they were mystified by Grissom’s absence: “We both couldn’t understand. ‘Nah, it couldn’t be Little Chris.’ That was not a thought in our minds … ‘cause they grew up like brother and sister.”

During four days of testimony in Grissom’s trial, witnesses said they saw the cousins together on Aug. 6, 2014, traveling in Grissom’s silver Honda. Security camera footage recorded them visiting a Phenix City liquor store.

Cell phone records showed Grissom used his phone within a mile of where his cousin’s body was found, investigators said. Witnesses also reported seeing Grissom later cleaning out his car.

Particularly suspicious was his leaving town while his relatives frantically searched for the missing woman. He drove to his mother’s home in New York, authorities said.

After his arrest in 2014, the victim’s grandfather told reporters: “When Chris finally showed back up, after the fog cleared for me, I assumed and felt in my heart that he was the one, because he left. And no one leaves their family members in a crisis like this.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Man sentenced in shocking strangulation of cousin whose decaying body was dumped in the woods."