MIAMI — Authorities found the body of an aspiring hip-hop artist inside the trunk of a Virginia man’s car after he crashed on a Miami highway, police said.
Robert Deupree Avery Coltrain, 25, was arrested and charged with illegal transport of human remains and second-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Brian Trotter, news outlets reported.
A Miami-Dade police report said Florida Highway Patrol responded to a crash on the Palmetto Expressway Sunday afternoon and found Coltrain and his silver Acura.
Troopers towed the car to the parking lot of Hialeah’s Westland Mall and became suspicious of Coltrain when he asked to remove his belongings from the car, which included a gun case.
Authorities said they were also suspicious because they noticed buzzing flies and the smell of rotting flesh around the car.
Troopers opened Coltrain’s trunk and found Trotter’s body “wrapped in a piece of fabric and in an advanced stage of decomposition,” the police report said.
An autopsy revealed Trotter was fatally shot multiple times.
A motive for the killing wasn’t immediately released. It’s unclear whether Coltrain had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Trotter was last seen Oct. 17 leaving his home in Triangle, Virginia, with Coltrain, who is also from Virginia.
The two had been friends for more than a decade. Trotter’s family said he was trying to forge a hip-hop career. His rap name was “Kent Won’t Stop.”
