Shada Esther

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The boyfriend of a Moultrie woman missing for more than two and a half years has been charged with murder after police identified her remains, which were found in 2017 in Northeast Georgia.

Michael Heads was arrested on Tuesday in Slidell, La., with the assistance of the St. Tammany’s Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday morning.

Heads, 49, is charged with murder and two counts of financial transaction card fraud, the agency said.

He is accused in the slaying of Shada Esther, who was reported missing on Aug. 23, 2016. Her family went to police that day when she did not show up at the bus stop to pick up her children after school.

“The investigation determined that she was last with her live-in boyfriend (Michael Heads),” the GBI said in a news release on Thursday. “Heads left Moultrie and traveled to Atlanta within an hour of Esther’s last contact with anyone else.”

Police interviewed Heads in Conyers and searched his car early in the investigation.

In February 2017 the Banks County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office requested assistance in identifying the remains of a woman found in a wooded area, the GBI said. Earlier this month DNA analysis confirmed those remains were Esther’s.

The case is still active and the GBI asks anyone with information about the case to contact the Moultrie Police Department at (229) 985-3131 or the Thomasville GBI office at (229) 225-4090.