Egypt Covington, a 27-year-old aspiring singer and beloved bartender from Michigan, was found dead in her Belleville home in June 2017, a crime that shocked her community and led to a complex investigation. Her death sent shockwaves through the quiet lakeside community where she and her brother D’Wayne Turner worked side-by-side as beloved bartenders.
Egypt was planning to start a new chapter with her boyfriend, Curtis Meadows, when tragedy struck. The details of her murder and the subsequent investigation have been featured on Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Discovery of a Haunting Crime Scene
Egypt's boyfriend, Curtis Meadows, discovered a haunting, bloody crime scene. On the morning of June 23, 2017, Meadows got no response to his usual good morning text to his girlfriend. The fact that Egypt and Meadows were closer than ever made it even more unusual when, on the morning of June 23, 2017, Meadows got no response to his usual good morning text to his girlfriend.
Concerned by the lack of response, Meadows went to Egypt's home after work. When he arrived, he found Egypt’s car in the driveway and the external door to the duplex ajar. Once inside the door, Egypt’s apartment was on the left, while her neighbor’s portion of the home was on the right. He found Egypt dead on the living room floor, her hands bound behind her back with Christmas lights.
“She was tied up, hands behind her back in, like, a fetal position on the ground. Blood clearly covering the side of her head,” Meadows said. “So, I ran out. I was in shock. My phone was in the center console of my truck and I called 911.” Meadows can be heard sobbing as he waited for members of the Van Buren Police Department to arrive.
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When Van Buren Police arrived minutes later, they confirmed that Egypt had been killed with one fatal bullet to the head. “I just dropped and all I can remember is screaming and crying... ’Not my baby’ and ‘How could that happen?’” Egypt's mom, Tina Covington, said of getting the devastating news.
Man to testify against other suspects charged in Egypt Covington's murder
Initial Investigation and False Leads
As with most investigations, police began by taking a look at those closest to the victim, including Meadows. But Meadows was fully cooperative with authorities, passed a polygraph test and was eventually ruled out as a suspect.
Police also questioned Egypt’s ex-boyfriend, mechanic Kenny Michalak - even going as far as to name him as a “person of interest” at one point in the investigation. Just five days before Egypt’s death, Egypt and Michalak had gotten into an argument at a local strawberry festival. According to police, Michalak also failed a polygraph test.
Michalak told authorities and a private investigator hired by Egypt’s family that on the night Egypt was killed, he had been out bar-hopping with friends before returning home alone and streaming shows on his phone. Michalak - who said he handed his phone over to authorities to confirm his alibi - denied having anything to do with Egypt's death and described her as being like “family” to him.
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Family Division and the Quest for Justice
Egypt Covington's murder investigation divides family. Egypt’s mother was convinced Michalak wasn't involved in Egypt's murder and publicly stood by him, even sitting next to him at a memorial concert for Egypt, while her father, Chuck Covington, supported the direction the police were taking.
Tensions within the family only grew after Turner’s new girlfriend, Lindsay Brink - who had never known Egypt - launched her own investigation, questioning suspects, forcing police to answer tough questions, and calling for the Michigan State Police to step in to take over the case after no arrests were made. All of Brink's efforts finally paid off in 2020, when Michigan State Police assumed control of the case.
The Breakthrough: Geofence Warrants and DNA Evidence
They quickly ruled Michalak out as a suspect, but found other evidence in the case file that pointed them in a shocking new direction. In an exclusive interview with “Dateline,” one of the state investigators who took over the case pointed to what he described as an overlooked clue that was key to solving the crime - cellphone location data gathered through an investigative technique known as a geofence warrant.
A “geofence” conducted by police at the time identified phones in the area at the time of Egypt’s murder. Michigan State Police Detective James Plummer was able to link one of the phones that was “in her house” at the time police believe that Egypt was killed to Shandon Groom, an Ohio man with no apparent connection to Egypt. In 2017, when authorities sent the Christmas lights used to bind Egypt’s hands out to labs, three genetic profiles were found, one from Egypt and two from unknown sources.
By 2020, there had been DNA advances that allowed authorities to develop a more complete profile. One of the DNA samples matched to Tim Moore, an Ohio man with a criminal record who knew Groom.
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Using Moore’s cell phone data, investigators discovered that on the night of the killing, the men had stopped by the home of Shane Evans, Moore’s half-brother. Evans lived down the street from Egypt and worked for the company that cut her lawn. Evans knew that the residents who lived on the other side of the duplex had a business growing medical marijuana - and were heading out of town for a music festival.
The Confession and the Motive
Evans would later confess to authorities that he agreed to drive by the house and “point” to the home so that Moore and Groom - who were following behind in the truck - could rob Egypt's neighbors' home while they were away, hoping to make off with a large stockpile of drugs. But, confused, Moore and Groom went into the left side of the duplex where Egypt lived, rather than the right side.
There, they found Egypt inside, tied her up and shot her. But Moore was on parole for another crime in which a female witness had identified him and he didn't want to leave another witness behind this time.
The Arrests and Guilty Pleas
All three men - Moore, Groom, and Evans - were arrested and later agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Evans received a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison, while Groom received 17 to 26 years behind bars.
| Defendant | Role | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Shane Evans | Drove the perpetrators to the wrong house | 15-25 years |
| Shandon Groom | Perpetrator | 17-26 years |
| Timothy Moore | Perpetrator | Not specified |
The Significance of Geofence Warrants
In Covington’s case, the data helped lead investigators to three men who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced to prison in October. The increasingly popular and much-debated surveillance tool has allowed law enforcement agencies to gather anonymous location data for anyone whose location history is turned on - the setting is off by default - and is in a designated area during a designated time, according to Google.
But a recent announcement from the main recipient of most geofence warrants, Google, has left the tool’s future in doubt - and investigators searching for their next source of data in a post-Google world. Throughout 2024, the company said in December, changes will be introduced so that users’ location data is unavailable to Google, making collaboration with law enforcement impossible.
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