Inset: Savannah Copeland (Background: Mynatt Funeral Home). Background: Malakiah Harris during a court hearing for allegedly killing Savannah (WBIR).
A grand jury in Tennessee indicted a boy who was just 15 when he allegedly stabbed a 13-year-old girl along a trail 93 times and then bragged to his girlfriend he got his “first body.”
Malakiah Harris, now 16, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Savannah Copeland near Knoxville. Harris will be tried as an adult, a judge ruled earlier this year.
Savannah had apparently sneaked out of her house to meet up with Harris and his brother to get a vape in the early morning hours of Oct. 22, 2024.
“I turned around and she was coming at me,” Harris claimed to detectives, according to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate WBIR.
But detectives determined Savannah, who stood just a tick over 5 feet tall, posed no threat to Harris. The suspect allegedly continued to stab her even as she tried to run away and fell to the ground. He and his brother reportedly left Savannah”s body on the ground and walked home.
“All you need to know is it was self-defense,” Harris allegedly told his brother.
Savannah’s twin brother and Harris’ brother were friends, per cops.
Harris went to school the next day, where he allegedly told his then-girlfriend, “I got my first body.” He allegedly admitted to stabbing someone but did not identify the victim. He also texted a buddy the “deed is done” on the night of the slaying, cops say.
Savannah’s mother reported her missing when she realized she was not in the home that morning, detectives said, per WBIR.
There’s no known motive for the alleged murder, which does not sit well with Savannah’s father.
“I have — I guess you can say — a horrible, horrible fear that there’s not gonna be any kind of real motive and so there’s not gonna be a good answer to any of this, and that part breaks my heart as much as anything, and certainly if there’s other people who are involved or who were neglectful,” Michael Copeland told local CBS affiliate WVLT.
Savannah was a student at Powell Middle School and had hoped to attend the University of Tennessee to study forensic anthropology.
“She loved her family, she loved her friends, and she loved art,” her obituary said.
