The teenage girl found dead in a garbage can in Columbia Heights on Monday had been reported missing just days earlier. D.C. police have identified the victim as 17-year-old Ebony Franklin, of the 4600 block of Pistachio Lane in Capitol Heights.
Prince George’s County police said the girl’s mother reported Ebony’s disappearance Saturday night after she hadn’t heard from her daughter in more than 24 hours.
She was last seen in D.C., and police said the mother last heard from her daughter about 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, and that she was staying with her father in Northwest Washington over the weekend.
The mother contacted D.C. police to file a missing-person report, but they told her to file the report with Prince George’s police.
“If she’s from Prince George’s County, they would handle it,” said D.C. police spokesman Officer Paul Metcalf.
According to TBD.com, the girl’s mother said she had recently attended Northwest High School in Hyattsville. Schools spokesman Darrell Pressley said he did not have any information late Tuesday that Ebony was enrolled as a Prince George’s County schools student.
Around 1 p.m. Monday, authorities were dispatched to the back of the 1000 block of Fairmont Street NW for a report of an unconscious female. In the alley behind town houses and apartments, police found Ebony stuffed in a plastic two-wheeled recycling bin. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
She was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who ruled the death to be homicide, police said. Authorities would not say how she was killed.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or 888-919-CRIME. D.C. police offer a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction in Ebony’s death.
Anonymous information may be submitted to D.C. Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS and to the department’s text tip line by text messaging 50411. If the information provided by the caller to the Crime Solvers Unit leads to an arrest and indictment, that caller will be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
