Fort Drum Soldier Fatally Shot Allegedly By Another Soldier, Suspect In Custody

A U.S. Army soldier was found fatally shot in New Jersey after he went missing from a base in upstate New York. Authorities have detained a fellow soldier in connection with the shooting.

The body of Cpl. Hayden Harris, 20, was discovered in a wooded area near Byram Township, New Jersey, on Saturday following an intense multi-state search.

Harris, originally from Guys, Tennessee, disappeared after he left Fort Drum Army base in Jefferson County, New York, to travel to the state’s Watertown area for a vehicle transaction, Army Times reported.

Harris was last heard from between 8 p.m. ET on Thursday and 6:30 a.m. ET on Friday. The Army had sought public help in finding Harris, and several police departments in various states joined in the search, Syracuse.com noted.

Harris was scheduled to meet fellow soldier Jamaal Mellish for “some type of vehicle exchange,” according to Gregory Mueller, First Assistant Sussex County Prosecutor, who was quoted by Army Times. Authorities detained Mellish on Monday on suspicion of abducting and killing Harris.

Mellish, 23, was being held in New York with charges against him pending. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Mellish had obtained legal representation.

Harris was a 2018 graduate of McNairy Central High School in Tennessee. He joined the Army in March 2019 and was posted in Fort Drum four months later. An infantryman in the 89th Cavalry regiment of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Harris was promoted from specialist to corporal after his death.

"We are devastated," Brigadier General Brett Funck, acting commander for Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division, said in a statement after Harris’ body was found.

"It was well known here that Corporal Harris was a great soldier," Funck continued. “As we share our grief with his friends and family. I hear again and again how he was also -- and most importantly -- a really wonderful, caring person. His death is a tremendous loss for his loved ones, this division and our nation.”

Harris is survived by his mother, father and sister, according to Syracuse.com.