In the autumn of 2018, the life of 25-year-old Dakota Michael Calhoun was tragically cut short. On the afternoon of October 9th, Dakota had borrowed his mother's car and cell phone with a promise to be back by 5 p.m. to help her at work. He was last seen on video surveillance at a gas station at 4 p.m. with his cousin, Gabriel Dantray Curry. When Dakota failed to return to his mother's job that evening, his family grew concerned as this was highly uncharacteristic of him.
The following day, on October 10, 2018, they reported him missing to the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office.
The investigation into Dakota's disappearance soon turned into a homicide case. Tracking information from his mother's cell phone led authorities to a wooded area off of Sandy Springs Road in Trenton, South Carolina, not far from where Curry lived. There, they discovered Dakota Calhoun's body; he had sustained a single gunshot wound to the back of his head. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's crime scene unit processed the area and found a single shell casing near his body.
Suspicion quickly fell upon his cousin, Gabriel Dantray Curry. After initially avoiding law enforcement, Curry provided a false statement, claiming Dakota had dropped him off around 5 p.m. on the day he disappeared. However, evidence began to mount against him. Investigators found a receipt from a Burger King in the recovered vehicle, which Curry had denied visiting. Furthermore, gunshot residue was discovered on the steering wheel cover of the car.
Gabriel Dantray Curry, then 33, was arrested and charged with the murder of his cousin. During the trial, the jury heard testimony from Dakota's mother, who recounted the last time she saw her son alive and the events leading up to his disappearance. A forensic pathologist confirmed that Dakota died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Ultimately, an Edgefield County jury found Gabriel Dantray Curry guilty of the murder of Dakota Calhoun. He was sentenced to thirty-eight years in prison. Under South Carolina law, murder is a 'no parole' offense, meaning Curry will serve the entirety of his sentence.
