North Carolina man accused of hiding woman’s body sent to Will County jail

A North Carolina man was taken to the Will County jail and booked on charges alleging he tried to conceal the homicide of his 22-year-old girlfriend by placing her in a hole at a property in Joliet, according to court records.

About 1 p.m. Saturday, Deiontae S. McMillian, 24, of the 1800 block of Tryon Drive, Fayetteville, North Carolina, was taken to jail on a charge of concealment of a homicidal death.

A grand jury indicted McMillian on the charge that accused him of having knowledge that Danica Shernay Ford, 22, of Concord, North Carolina, died by homicidal means. The charge alleges McMillian placed her body in a hole at a property in Joliet.

At 9 a.m. Nov. 12, Will County sheriff deputies were sent to the area of Jefferson Street and Eden Lane in Joliet Township after a man hunting on private property discovered a body later identified as Ford in an open hole in a heavily wooded area.

The Will County Coroner’s Office concluded Ford’s cause of death was strangulation.

McMillian was previously taken into custody in Fayetteville, where he and Ford resided. McMillian recently moved to Schaumburg for work, police said, and Ford, who has a child with him, followed soon after.

McMillian’s bond was set at $2 million, of which 10 percent is needed for his release.