A month-long search for a missing North Carolina woman ended in a tragic discovery. Investigators tracked her final phone signals, which led them to the discovery of her body in a shallow grave. Authorities have arrested her boyfriend in connection with her murder. 

Floyd Long, 45, faces multiple felony charges, including first-degree murder, failure to report a death, and theft of a dog, a long-haired Yorkie-Terrier mix, in connection with the killing of his girlfriend Shaquina Harris. 

Authorities have not yet disclosed a potential motive or a cause of death in the murder of Harris. Her dog remains missing.

Long was arrested on Saturday and booked into the Mecklenburg County Jail, where he is currently being held without bond. A date for his next court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

Harris was last seen at Atrium Hospital in Charlotte around 10 a.m. on July 2. Cellphone records showed that she returned to Long’s residence shortly after.

Her final outgoing call was to her grandmother just before noon that day. A social media post followed that call around 4 p.m. Authorities noted that her phone never left the area surrounding Long’s home after that afternoon.

Long told investigators he returned home around 5 p.m. to find Harris gone. He also claimed he sent her a text message asking why she had left the back door unlocked.

Family members formally reported Harris missing on July 13. They emphasized that it was eerily out of character for her to cut off communication with loved ones.

“On Thursday, July 2, at around 10 a.m., Shaquina Harris was last seen leaving Atrium Hospital in uptown Charlotte. She may have also been in the Beatties Ford and Woodford Bridge Dr area in North Charlotte in the afternoon of July 2,” the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s (CMPD) Missing Persons Unit put out a notice asking for the public’s assistance at the time.

“She was last seen wearing grey sweats. Anyone with information on Ms. Harris’ whereabouts is asked to please call 911 immediately.”

Despite law enforcement’s involvement, relatives actively distributed flyers and combed the surrounding neighborhoods where she had last been seen before law enforcement uncovered her remains.

Long became a primary suspect in the case after Ring security camera footage captured him and another man walking out of his home with a dog, matching the descriptions of Harris’s missing dog, following behind. This contradicted Long’s initial claims that his missing girlfriend had packed up her belongings and left with the dog.

Thorough searches of both Long’s residence and his vehicle unveiled multiple areas of suspected blood along with a firearm.

Investigators located the man in the video, which ultimately helped them piece together Harris’s final hours. The witness led investigators to the skeletal remains of Harris in a wooded area.

He told them that Long got into his vehicle with the dog following behind. When he asked, Long simply answered that his girlfriend had left her pet behind. According to him, Long kept asking him about his favorite fishing spots and other remote areas. He allegedly confessed to doing “something bad” and asked for help moving something.

He told authorities that after driving around, the two returned to Long’s residence and entered a back bedroom. When Long turned on the light, the man saw a woman matching Harris’s description lying dead on the bed. She was “cold to the touch” with blood coming from her nose.

He also brought law enforcement back to a remote spot off the road where he and Long had previously stopped. With the help of a cadaver dog, police located Harris’s remains. Cellphone data later placed Long in that exact area around 8.30 p.m. on July 6.

Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public record.