A Philadelphia man was arrested and charged Wednesday in connection with the 2019 stabbing death of 22-year-old Rashid Young in Pottstown.
Keyshaun Sheffield, 20, has been charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, possessing an instrument of crime and related offenses, in connection with the investigation. He is being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
Investigators said Sheffield was intimately involved with Young at the time of his death. Friends and family members told police that Young and Sheffield had known each other for two years and had a volatile — and sometimes violent — relationship, charging documents show.
The Montgomery County Detective Bureau received a request from a private investigator in April to investigate the disappearance of Young, who went missing on Aug. 19, 2019. His body — unidentified at the time — was found approximately six weeks later after Philadelphia Police responded to a radio call about buried remains on the grounds of the Awbury Arboretum.
The following day, Philadelphia Associate Medical Examiner Khalil Wardak conducted an autopsy on the skeletal and decomposed remains. Wardak identified multiple stab wounds on the left upper back, right mid back, left lateral chest wall and posterior neck. Wardak stated the cause of death was multiple stab wounds and the manner of death was homicide.
During the time of Young’s disappearance, Sheffield had reportedly been in control of Young’s social media accounts and used his cellphone to communicate with Young’s family and make it appear that Young was still alive from August to December 2019, according to police. Sheffield also allegedly made numerous withdrawals from Young’s $2 million trust fund prior to Young being declared missing, resulting in the account being frozen.
Last Saturday, county detectives interviewed a witness who claimed he had been involved in an intimate relationship with Sheffield during a time that Sheffield was residing with Young in Pottstown, according to the criminal complaint. The witness also stated Sheffield told him in August 2019 that Sheffield and Young were fighting, both had knives and Sheffield made the first move in the living room of Young's Pottstown apartment, police said.
Following the revelation, the witness stated he helped Sheffield "bury the body,” the report states. Sheffield allegedly picked him up in Young’s Honda Pilot, which had a trash/recyclable container that emitted a foul odor. The witness said that he and Sheffield dug a hole at Awbury Arboretum during nighttime hours, then departed the area before burying the body, according to the complaint.
Sheffield then returned to arboretum at a later time to finish burying the body, police said. The witness told investigators that he didn’t know whose body it was, according to the complaint.
An Arboretum landscaper discovered a hole dug in one of the trails on Aug. 26, 2019. The landscaper planned on filling the hole the next day, but when they returned, the hole had been filled in, investigators said. The landscaper located a full-size trash/recyclable container approximately eight-to-10-feet from where the hole had been filled, which they described as having a foul odor and containing "slime" and maggots, according to the complaint.
Dental records belonging to Rashid Young and familial buccal swabs were provided to investigators on May 28, and the remains were positively identified as Young the following day.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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