Second man arrested in Anitra Gunn murder case was friend of slain FVSU student, GBI says
A friend of slain Fort Valley State University student Anitra Gunn who was also an acquaintance of the boyfriend now accused of killing her was jailed here Wednesday on charges of concealing Gunn’s death and making false statements to investigators.
Jaivon Abron, 22, was arrested in Valdosta after detectives probing Gunn’s Feb. 14 disappearance interviewed him there.
Abron was being held at the Peach County Jail on Wednesday. Authorities declined to say how they connected him to the case.
“Abron and (Gunn’s boyfriend) Demarcus Little were friends,” said Todd Crosby, a GBI agent helping oversee the case, said at a news conference.
According to a warrant for Abron’s arrest on the death-concealing charge, Abron, sometime on Feb. 14 “hindered the discovery of Anita Gunn’s death.”
The warrant added that Abron allegedly did so by “transporting Demarcus Little” from the area of Montrose and Belle streets in Fort Valley where Gunn’s 2013 Chevy Cruze was found after Little allegedly abandoned it there.
Crosby said Gunn’s cellphone was found roughly half an hour before a Wednesday news conference to announce Abron’s arrest, but Crosby declined to elaborate on the potential significance of the phone’s discovery or where it turned up.
Little, who was Gunn’s 23-year-old boyfriend, was charged with one count of malice murder Friday afternoon.
Little’s arrest came hours after he was arraigned on charges of criminally damaging Gunn’s car and apartment in early February.
Little was jailed on the lesser charges on Feb. 18, hours after Gunn’s body was found hidden beneath some tree limbs in a pine thicket east of U.S. 341 north of Fort Valley in rural Crawford County.
Gunn, a senior agriculture major from Atlanta, was reported missing after Valentine’s Day when relatives couldn’t reach her.
Asked what led authorities to Abron, GBI’s Crosby said, “We have talked to him already several times, so we went back and re-interviewed him.”
Crosby said Abron had gone to high school with Little in Peach County and was living in Valdosta.
“They were all three friends,” Crosby said, adding that more arrests could “potentially” be coming.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 5:27 PM.