A man has been indicted in the killing of a North Carolina teenager who went missing while visiting relatives in Maryland.
Michael Johnson is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes, who went missing while visiting her half-sister in Baltimore in December 2010, Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein announced.
Johnson, the boyfriend of Barnes’ half-sister, was the last known person to see the teenager alive, Bernstein said.
Investigators considered the girl’s disappearance suspicious because she was a straight-A student and track star and had never run away or gotten into trouble with the law. Her body was found in the Susquehanna River in Harford County last April and her death was later ruled a homicide.
Authorities have not said exactly how and when they believe she was killed.
