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DOWAGIAC — The girlfriend of a Dowagiac murder victim, along with an accomplice, have been arrested in connection to the crime, according to police.

On Thursday, the Dowagiac Police Department began an investigation into a homicide that occurred at the Hillcrest Apartments in Dowagiac.  Officers located a male subject deceased from a gunshot wound in an apartment at the complex.

Police soon narrowed in on the victim’s girlfriend as a suspect. Officers learned that the suspect and victim argued on Monday, during which the victim was shot.

The suspect and another roommate solicited help from another acquaintance of theirs to dispose of the victim’s body. The suspects were unable to remove the body and left him in the apartment in a trash dumpster and fled the area.

Police were able to locate the suspects at a residence in South Bend. With the help of South Bend Police and South Bend Police SWAT, the suspects were taken into custody.

Police arrested the suspects, a 39-year-old woman from Dowagiac, and a 41-year-old female from Mishawaka, who was staying at the apartment. Both suspects have been lodged in Indiana, while charges for open murder are pending from the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office.

The names of the suspects are being withheld pending charges being filed. Police are withholding the victim’s name pending family notification.

Dowagiac Police were assisted in this investigation by detectives with the Cass County Drug Enforcement Team, detectives with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Pokagon Tribal Police, Michigan State Police, and the South Bend Police Department.

Dowagiac police ask anyone with information from this incident to call Dowagiac Police at (269) 782-9743, or the Cass County Tip Line at (800) 462-9328.