SANDPOINT - Three people were charged Monday in connection with the shooting death of a 19-year-old Bonner County man last September.

The remains of Michael Wyatt Smith were recovered from a shallow grave in the Rapid Lightning Creek drainage earlier this month.

Austin Blake Thrasher is charged with first-degree murder. His wife, Jennifer Dunnagan Thrasher, and a third suspect, Christopher Robin Garlin, are charged as accessories in the slaying.

All three suspects made initial court appearances Monday via video link with the Bonner County Jail. The trio was already in jail while awaiting trial for burglarizing a Ponderay Pawn Shop in December.

Austin Thrasher, 19, raised his eyebrows and dejectedly rubbed his palm over his head when Judge Debra Heise advised him of the murder charge.

Austin Thrasher was ordered held on $500,000. Bail for Jennifer Thrasher, 22, and Garlin, also 19, was set at $50,000. Jennifer Thrasher told the court she intends to hire private counsel to represent her. Austin Thrasher and Garlin have court-appointed defense counsel.

Preliminary hearings are pending to determine if enough evidence exists to justify trying the suspects in 1st District Court.

Sheriff's officials said the victim and the accused were acquainted with one another and ran in the same social circles.

Smith, who had been living in Hope, was last seen walking from his home on Sept. 13, 2011. He had no contact with friends or family after that date and was reported missing on Sept. 15.

Investigators said the trio picked Smith up on the premise that they were going to party in the Cocolalla area. After they arrived at their destination, Austin Thrasher shot Smith once in the torso and once in the head with a handgun.

The location in Cocolalla where Smith was slain was not released by sheriff's officials.

A motive for the killing, according to probable cause hearing testimony, appears to be romantic rivalry. Smith was involved with a young woman with whom Austin Thrasher had some form of relationship.

The exact nature of the relationship between Austin Thrasher and the teenage girl was not immediately clear on Monday.

Investigators learned of the homicide last month from information supplied by Garlin, sheriff's officials said.

"That is when we started putting feet to the ground," Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said.

Detectives obtained more than a dozen search warrants for vehicles, properties, mobile phones and personal computers.

Coincidentally, the trio had already been arrested in connection with the Pawn Now burglary. Officials kept the investigation under wraps partly because the suspects were already incarcerated.

The homicide investigation dovetailed with burglary investigations conducted by Ponderay Police, Idaho State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, which probed the burglary because more than 30 firearms were stolen during the break-in.

Wheeler was grateful for the cooperation of Ponderay Police, ISP and ATF, and said sheriff's detectives Gary Johnston, Christian Frye and their colleagues were relentless in running down leads and turning up evidence.

"Our investigation was developing day by day," said Wheeler. "They would not stop on this."

Jennifer Thrasher, court documents indicate, led investigators to the makeshift grave containing Smith's body, which was recovered on Feb. 3. The site was located off Wellington Road, a property Jennifer Thrasher's family used to have a connection to.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out Michael Smith's family. We're sorry for what they have to endure now," Wheeler said.