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Background: Rainor Joiner allegedly showing New Mexico cops where he and Matthew McLaughlin dumped the dismembered remains of their old Army roommate David Degroat, according to police (KOB/YouTube). Left inset: Rainor Joiner (Taos County Adult Detention Center). Center inset: Matthew McLaughlin (The AWARE Foundation/Facebook). Right inset: David Degroat (Taos County Adult Detention Center).
Newly released video shows a New Mexico man who allegedly killed and chopped up a U.S. Army veteran that served with him in the same unit — with help from another Army pal — guiding cops to where the victim”s dismembered remains were dumped, according to police.
“If it’s not [there], I assume animals got to it,” Rainor Joiner, 23, can allegedly be heard saying on video, obtained by local NBC affiliate KOB, that was captured inside a squad car he was in. “That is definitely the spot.”
Joiner and his old Army buddy David Degroat, 22, are accused of killing their roommate, Matthew McLaughlin, 25, in Taos County and scattering his body parts in “several locations” along U.S. 64 near Tres Piedras, according to local police.
Joiner can be heard talking to cops in the footage obtained by KOB about what they allegedly found, per the station.
“The head and hands, are they with the head, or no?” a cop asks him.
“Yes, all that’s together. All the important, like, identifiers are together,” Joiner allegedly says. “It should be his arm, what I cut from his arms, legs and torso. … The whole body.”
Joiner allegedly adds, “The head and hands were in a trash bag that were then put inside a Harbor Freight f–king bucket.”
McLaughlin, who was from West Virginia, was reported missing on July 31 and a search was conducted locally by New Mexico authorities and a group out of Virginia, The AWARE Foundation, while cops opened a missing persons case and investigated.
On Aug. 17, deputies detained Joiner and Degroat for questioning. They learned that the three men had served together at Fort Benning in Georgia and were living together in New Mexico, according to a Taos County Sheriff’s Office press release. Joiner and Degroat allegedly deserted and had active military warrants for their arrests at the time of McLaughlin’s disappearance. McLaughlin is described by police as an “Army veteran.”
During police questioning, Joiner allegedly admitted to shooting McLaughlin, “and with the help of Degroat, dismembering him and disposing of the body parts,” according to the sheriff’s office. “Joiner led deputies to these areas where they recovered several plastic bags just as Joiner described,” the press release says. “The bags contained human remains and were turned over to the Office of the Medical Investigator.”
Both Joiner and Degroat were promptly taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder and “other violent felonies,” according to police.
Court documents obtained by KOB say Joiner allegedly told investigators that McLaughlin was a bad roommate who started rumors about him, was using drugs regularly, and was bringing people to the residence that Joiner and Degroat didn’t know. The two men allegedly ambushed McLaughlin on July 25 and shot him dead, according to the court documents.
“[Joiner] admitted he shot the individual with a rifle and then again with a pistol, then, subsequent days later, he continued to dismember the victim,” TCSO Undersheriff Gabriel Ortiz told local ABC affiliate KOAT. “The individual was very much non-remorseful. No emotions, just a kind of blank face and told them [deputies] exactly what he did and didn’t have any emotions at all.”