The 21-year-old woman accused of killing a northwest Georgia convenience store clerk was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Skyy Raven Marie Mims was arrested around 5 p.m. Tuesday in Bartow County, Gavin Duffy, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her arrest came hours after investigators said they believed she may be in the Atlanta area. Mims was charged with murder, and late Tuesday night she was booked into the Whitfield County jail.
Mims, originally from Detroit, is accused of killing the store employee late Sunday. But her whereabouts remained a mystery until Tuesday afternoon, when she was found at a home on Southmont Drive in Bartow County, Capt. Rick Swiney with the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office said. Mims tried to run from officers, but was captured, Swiney said. Investigators also found the car Mims was allegedly driving late Sunday — a Kia Soul that had been reported stolen from Michigan.
Now, investigators want to know why the aspiring model allegedly ended up at a Whitfield County gas station, about four miles off I-75, late Sunday night.
“That’s what has us puzzled right now,” GBI Special Agent Greg Ramey told The AJC on Tuesday afternoon. “With this lady’s connections to Atlanta, why drive to Whitfield County, four miles off the interstate? Why pick that particular one? I have no idea. We’re sitting here scratching our heads, too.”
Mims is accused of stabbing to death Dahyabhai Kalidas Chaudhari, 37, inside the Kanku’s Express on Airport Road in Dalton shortly before midnight Sunday. Mims then allegedly left the store with cash and lottery tickets, leaving Chaudhari to die. A customer called 911 after finding the man on the floor, the store’s owner said.
Video surveillance cameras show images of the suspect, later identified as Mims, inside the store. Police have not said how Mims was identified as the suspect.
“Right now, I’m lost. My mind is lost,” store owner Kanu Chaudhari told Channel 2 Action News. “I cannot say anything. He’s always happy, smiling to customers, and he’s always smiling.”
Kanu Chaudhari, who is not related to the clerk, said the man known as “D.K.” was popular with customers, including longtime Whitfield County resident Nancy Langley.
“He was the best. He did anything for anybody,” Langley said by phone late Tuesday. “I just don’t understand how somebody so good — that the people need to be around — can just be taken from us.”
Dahyabhai Chaudhari didn’t have family in the area, but made up for it by making friends with his customers, Langley said.
“He called everybody his buddy,” Langley said. “Everybody to him was his buddy. That man had the purest heart.”
It’s not known why investigators, including both the GBI and Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, believed Mims was in Atlanta. But Mims posted one word on what appear to be her personal Facebook and Twitter pages within hours of the killing: Knowledge.
Social media outlets were filled with comments directed at Mims and urging her to surrender. Mims has at least two public Facebook pages that allow commenting. “God is love,” is part of her Twitter description. Mims also has a webpage promoting her work as an entertainer.
Mims was being held in the Whitfield County jail late Tuesday. She is scheduled to have a first appearance hearing before the Whitfield County Magistrate Court at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
