Homicide Watch D.C.

I’ve sent @chichi$$$ a message asking for more details. I’ll update this post if I hear more.

More coverage of the case is here.

The Washington Times has run an excellent series over the past several weeks examining D.C. youths who are wards of the city and have been involved in crime.

Tonight reporters Jeffery Anderson and Matthew Cella published their latest finds: 16-year-old Prince Okorie, who was shot in the head and killed Tuesday afternoon in Petworth, had been in the care of a DYRS shelter since Nov. 9. And Ebony Franklin, the 17-year-old Prince George’s County girl whose body was found stabbed and stuffed in a trash bin in Columbia Heights on Monday, had worked with youth-outreach counselors for more than a year.

Franklin was not a ward of DYRS and Okorie, though in the care of DYRS, had not been committed to them, the Times added.Read more

Ebony Franklin, photo memorial created by a friend published at www.lostnmissing.posterous.com

For now, Metro Police have released the following information: (Local news reports and links follow after the jump)

November 30, 2010
Homicide in the 1000 Block of Fairmont Street NW
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch are investigating the death of a female found in the rear of the 1000 block of Fairmont Street, NW. Read more

Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham released the following message this afternoon regarding a girl’s body found in a trash receptacle in Columbia Heights Monday afternoon. Graham says the victim is believed to be a missing Maryland girl and the investigation is ongoing.

Friends:

Yesterday’s discovery of the body of a young woman in a dumpster was horrendous. MPD Detectives are actively investigating the death and will keep me advised as appropriate.Read more

Local news reports a girl’s body was found today by a Public Works employee in a trash can in Columbia Heights. According to reports, the girl appeared to be in her late teens and police are investigating the death as a homicide.

Nini Jin is one among about a dozen neighbors who live in the apartment building that sits in front of the trash bin. She said when she came home and went out her back door to take out her trash, she was met by police officers.

“They told me I better not go out that way because a body was found in the blue recycling bin,” she said. “Then they told me I’d see it on the news tonight.”

Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham said in an email message to Ward 1:

The loss of life anywhere is tragic. However, the circumstances in which this young woman was found is especially troubling.

Read more