A driver was busted after asking Iowa troopers to help jump-start his car — because they then found a bullet-riddled body stashed under a pile of clothes in his passenger seat, according to a charging document.
The motorist, Jihad Gasaway, 23, was arrested Tuesday on charges of murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of 26-year-old Kemp Harriel, according to a statement from the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
He’d first been spotted by Iowa State Patrol just after 8 a.m. with his stranded Chevrolet Malibu on the shoulder of Interstate 80 in Poweshiek Count.
“He advised that his vehicle had stalled and needed a jump start,” two responding troopers wrote in an affidavit.
After asking for help, Gasaway allegedly told the officers he had a Taurus 9 mm pistol in his pocket — leading to a search and the gruesome discovery in the passenger seat, the affidavit said.
“Harriel’s body was concealed underneath clothing items and appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds,” officials said.
An autopsy later found that Harriel died from two gunshot wounds to the chest fired from the Taurus pistol, and his manner of death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.
During a police interview, Gasaway allegedly said that he and Harriel “got into it” while traveling together from Cedar Rapids to Des Moines — but claimed he did not know his passenger had died.
He said he’d covered Harriel because he “thought he was very cold” — and “didn’t know [he] was gone” until he “watched the police eyes and read his lips,” the affidavit said.
“‘That’s when I started crying in the car,’” the affidavit quoted Gasaway as telling cops.
Gasaway is being held in the county jail on a $50,000 bond. His next court hearing is set for October 12.
