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Marvin Bailey Charged With Murder Of Chaunti Bryla, Woman Missing Since March

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man who was on parole for an aggravated battery conviction has been charged with the murder of 43-year-old Chaunti Bryla, who has been missing since March, but whose body has yet to be found.

Marvin Bailey, 27, was ordered held without bail Wednesday afternoon, after he appeared in court on a charge of first-degree murder. Cook County prosecutors said he killed Bryla after she demanded he move out of her apartment in the Avalon Park neighborhood earlier this year.

Bryla has been missing since March 15, when she was last seen near her home near 85th Street and Bennett Avenue.

As CBS 2's Chris Tye reported, the last person to see Bryla alive was her regular cab driver, who dropped her off at her apartment.

Chaunti Bryla
(Credit: CPD)

Two weeks earlier, she'd kicked Marvin Bailey out. Bryla had a child with Bailey's father, and prosecutors said Bryla let Bailey live with her after he was paroled from prison in February. But after his girlfriend got into a fight with Bryla on Feb. 28, she wanted him to move out.

Bryla had been staying with her aunt on March 13, and her aunt dropped her off at home the next morning, according to prosecutors. The next day, the cabbie picked her up at home and took her to a liquor store, where she used her ATM card before returning home.

Later the same day, March 15, Bailey was caught on surveillance video using Bryla's ATM card to make two withdrawals of $201 each, prosecutors said.

Marvin Bailey
Marvin Bailey is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Chaunti Bryla. (Source: Chicago Police)

One day later, he bought a large blue bin from a Walmart at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue, and later was seen carrying it out of Bryla's apartment. Prosecutors said Bailey and a companion also were caught on surveillance video buying a dolly and tie-down straps from two stores, and later dragging the bin on the dolly at a mostly vacant apartment building in South Shore.

The bin ended up in Bailey's green truck. While they hauled the bin in the truck, police said they stopped to eat and drink – using Bryla's ATM card to find it.

Police stopped them at one point when they had the van. Both Bailey and his accomplice were briefly detained, but released, prosecutors said.

A charging document explained: "The officers were told the Defendant and W3 (Witness 3) were on their way to Home Depot to get a chain saw. This was on body cam video. The Defendant and W3 were released without any citations and the green van was not searched."

On March 17, a Lyft driver picked up Bailey and his companion from the South Shore apartment building and drove them to the King's Inn at 128th Street and Ashland Avenue in south suburban Calumet Park, where they unloaded the dolly and the blue bin from the Lyft driver's SUV and struggled to haul it up three flights of stairs because the elevator was broken, according to prosecutors. The Lyft driver estimated the bin weighed at least 100 pounds.

During Bailey and the other man's stay of several days at the hotel, the manager reported smelling cleaning solution from the room.

Three days later at 4 a.m., surveillance video captured Bailey dumping the bin in the alley behind an Advanced Auto Parts store at 128th and Ashland. The same day, Bryla's aunt reported her missing.

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Police recovered the bin from the alley on March 29, and later collected Bryla's DNA from a toothbrush in her apartment, prosecutors said. The DNA matched evidence found inside the blue bin, and a police cadaver dog also hit on the scent of human remains in the alley where the bin had been dumped.

In an attempt to find Bryla's body, police scoured an Indiana landfill where the dumpsters in that alley are emptied, but nothing was found.

Meanwhile, forensic tests on Bailey's room at the Kings Inn also found evidence of human blood, according to prosecutors. Police also found evidence of human blood on a penny found on the floor of his van.

Although Bryla's body has not been found, prosecutors said there has been no activity on her cell phone since her aunt dropped her off at home on March 14, and no activity on her credit or bank cards since the next day.

At the time of his arrest, Bailey was out on parole for hitting a girlfriend with a hammer, and setting her on fire.

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