Indiana man, 24, is arrested for the 2014 murder of his ex-girlfriend, 15, whose body was found in a shallow grave in Illinois three years later

 An Indiana man has been charged with murdering his 15-year-old ex-girlfriend who was reported missing in the summer of 2014, only to be found buried in a shallow grave in Illinois more than three years later.

Brody Murbarger, 24, was arrested on Wednesday at his place of work in Evansville, Indiana, on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder, concealment of a homicidal death and home invasion in the killing of Megan Nichols. 

Deputies executed a search warrant at Murbarger’s home in the Lakewood West apartment complex.  

According to an indictment that an Illinois grand jury returned on September 25, Murbarger strangled and suffocated Nichols to death on July 3, 2014, and later buried her body in a shallow grave in a rural part of Wayne County, Illinois.

Brody Murbarger, 24 , has been charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a homicidal death and home invasion in the killing of Megan Nichols, 15

Nichols was reported as missing by her family and was initially deemed a runaway by the police, until her skeletal remains were unearthed in December 2017. 

Murbarger lived in Fairfield, Illinois, and met Nichols at New Hope School, where he was senior and she was a sophomore. Friends said the pair had been dating at the time of the girl's disappearance. 

Nichols' mother, Kathy Jo Hutchcraft, told police she went into the girl's bedroom at their home in Fairfield to say goodnight at around 11.15pm on July 3, 2014, and saw she was not there, reported Courier & Press. 

Nichols disappeared from her family's home in Fairfield, Illinois, on July 3, 2014

Nichols had allegedly left a note for her mother, stating that she loved her but thought she would never be happy at home, and urged her not to go looking for her because she did not want to be found. 

Hutchcraft said the note appeared to have been written in her daughter's hand, but it seemed the words did not came from her. The family reported the teen missing at around 1am on July 4. 

Nichols was last seen on ATM surveillance video riding her bicycle to a local bank to withdraw money. 

The missing girl's remains were found buried in a shallow grave in rural Wayne County, Illinois, in December 2017

She had left her cell phone on her bed at home, but the device had been wiped clean.  

Nichols' fate remained unknown until December 26, 2017, when a man preparing to cut firewood outside Boyleston, Illinois, stumbled upon a shallow grave containing human remains.  

The body was positively identified as Nichols a month later. 

Holden August, Nichols' friend from high school, told 14News he was not surprised when he heard of Burbarger's arrest in connection to her death. 

'It’s one of those things where you kind of always knew it was him,' August said. 

Murbarger is being held at the Vanderburgh County Jail without bond pending his extradition to Illinois. 

Nichols would have turned 22 years old on July 18 of this year.