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Baltimore Police Department / AP
North Carolina teen Phylicia Barnes went missing in 2010 while visiting family in the Baltimore area.
A year after the body of North Carolina teenager Phylicia Barnes was found floating in a Maryland river, her sister’s ex-boyfriend has been arrested and charged with her murder, authorities said.
Michael Johnson, 28, was arrested late Wednesday at his home, Baltimore police said. Authorities announced Thursday he has been indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge in the death of the 16-year-old Barnes, who went missing on Dec. 28, 2010, while visiting relatives in Baltimore during the Christmas holidays. Her body was found in April 2011.
At a news conference, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein said that he "hopes this will provide [the family] with some measure of closure," The Baltimore Sun reported. He declined to comment on specifics of the investigation, including how Barnes was killed and what evidence led to Johnson’s arrest.
"I cannot overstate how much effort and dedication have been invested to achieve justice in this tragic case. The Baltimore City Police, Maryland State Police, the Harford County State's Attorney's Office, the FBI and my staff worked relentlessly to bring us to this point," Bernstein added in a written statement.
Police say Johnson had once dated Barnes’ 27-year-old half-sister Deena and was the last person to see Barnes alive. The three were in Deena’s apartment the day Barnes disappeared, according to police.
"It's been a long day coming. It's a bittersweet day," Barnes’ father, Russell Barnes, told The Associated Press upon news of an arrest. "I can rest better and maybe Phylicia can rest a whole lot better."
AP
Michael Johnson. 28, has been indicted on a murder charge in the death of Phylicia Barnes.
At the time she disappeared, Barnes lived in Monroe, N.C., and was an honor student at Union Academy, a public charter school.
Baltimore police launched an extensive search, but it wasn’t until April 2011 that her body was found floating in the Susquehanna River by workers at the Conowingo Dam in northeast Maryland, about an hour’s drive from the apartment in Baltimore where she was last seen.
Medical examiners ruled the death a homicide but the cause was not publicly released.
During the frustrating search, Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi implored the national media to take note of the case.
"We would really like the national outlets to help us out here, so if somebody sees her in Missouri, they are able to alert authorities quickly," Guglielmi told AOL News in January 2011. "It has been incredibly frustrating for me. We've been pitching this since the 29th [and] have not gotten any traction. This case is no different than the Natalee Holloway case. The only difference is Phylicia is from North Carolina, she went missing in Baltimore and she is African-American."
Holloway is the blonde-haired Alabama teen who vanished while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. Her disappearance attracted international media attention. An Alabama judge early this year declared Holloway legally dead although her body has never been found.
The Barnes case prompted the Maryland Legislature to pass “Phylicia’s Law,” a bill aimed at improving coordination between law enforcement and community groups when a child disappears. The bill requires state law enforcement to post a list of missing children and annual statistics.
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I remember when she first went missing. I had not read after that of her being found dead. I am glad that the SOB has been indicted in her murder and she and the family will finally see justice. Such a beautiful and smart girl. To her family: May you find some measure of peace and may justice be served. I am sorry for your loss. She had such a great smile.
I don't remember hearing that her body had been found either. Sad to hear it ended this way.
I echo your post.
Yeah, really an epic fail by the media. I mean what has happened to the cases where kids have been left in cars and disappeared, taken from homes and we never hear or read follow ups. sorry for the family, i pray that you can find closure soon and may she rest in peace.
Yea I agree what did happen to all those little kids that have gone missing. I don't recall hearing about this beautiful girl being found. Such a sad situation for all involved. Prayers to that girls family.
I remember reading when they found her. I had so hoped they would find her alive. I hope they caught the right person, for everyone's sake.
where is the outrage from the hypocritical black community? this is obviously a hate crime , he hated her and killed her , where is the media convicting him before he has had a trial? where is Sharpton? , where is Jackson?, where is Obama? , where are the New Black Boneheads? , they wrap themslves in cloak of stupidity and it doesn't help the "black power"
prayers to her family , they should be outraged that those afore identified idiots haven't got a thing to say
Doesn't matter.... You wish she had company anyway.
you sound like a racist , did you leave your hood on when you wrote your little quip?
Nah...your the dildo that called not one,not two or even a few but a whole community hypocrites. There's no damn way in the world I would assume every Individual of a "certain group" is conniving because of a few.(And believe me... I have been done wrong by someone in pretty much every community).So you can ride out with your pompous attempt at callin' me racist.(People like you make me wonder how Black Republicans feel when they read or hear such generalizations.)
hmmm...only 40 comments. i wonder why?
calling a "whole community hypocrites" is the same as your racist hate accusation about "what I wish" ? , is that from the new liberal dictionary? , I better go check The Funk and Wagnalls section on that
" Black Republicans feel when they read or hear such generalizations." , they hear it from those you vote for every time they point out this same hypocrisy from the "community"
That was the dumbest statement you've made yet. You're trying too hard to sound even semi-smart. Just another gnat on racism's nutsack(don't get pregnant). You have a serious need for bigotry,and without it you'd probably have no sense of self-worth. It's never too late to apply some common sense, and start thinking for yourself...your too damn old for that.
ouch , you make a racist comment and yet the poster that you attack is at fault , typical liberal manifesto follower
Hey,keep tongue kissing the tube when Hannity's on,man(must be a republican thing)...whatever tickles your fancy.
I had a hunch it could have been someone close to the family. Just like Jennifer Hudson's family. Screwed up on both counts.
Looks like someone got to him before the police did....notice his right eye.
And he deserves a whole lot more from wherever it came from.
Nothing worse than murders of this sort.
Very sad. I am also surprised that a black on black murder made the news with all the hoopla over TM's death.
You call the death of a young man "hoopla"? Very sad. Oh, FYI: blacks kill blacks, whites kill whites, asians kill asians, etc. Hard to believe this happens everyday in America.
he didn't say the murder was "hoopla" , he said there was "hoopla" over it , your admonishment , very sad
Oh, no! The accused is a black man. This is a proportional representation case; blacks are about one-fourth the total population. Blacks on trial for crimes should be a 1:4 ratio with whites. So, this guy must murder four people before he can be brought to trial. That method would put the prison population more in line with the black:white national population. Go get'um, you have 3 more to go.
An innocent young life was taken in both cases, but other than that these two stories have nothing in common. Please take your rhetoric somewhere else.
that's the problem , you don't see the connection
if you have to ask.... then please enlighten me on the connection. I will try not to imagine exactly what you will say.
blacks aren't about one fourth of the population- they are about 12% of the total population.
the "connection" is that the "community" gets all fired up if they think a "white" guy (who is actually Hispanic ) has taken an "innocent young life" but fails to utter a single syllable when a "black" guy takes an "innocent young life" , that is called being diametrically opposed and you can't have that without the "connection" , ya that is about right
And you thought Zimmerman was going to take the hit for this one
Well it only took 5 posts before someone tried to put a racial spin on the story.
Wonder many post it will take for the political trolls to join in as well?
IT'S ALL OBAMAS' FAULT!!! He didn't bring everyone the " Cornucopia of Libel Bliss " yet. This young loser had to take it out on someone.
Sorry, no harm intended and I am in no way trying to make light of the loss of a beautiful young woman. da doc just spoke about political trolls and I couldn't help myself. If the accused is found guilty, than I hope he gets life with no parole. Then he can suffer without ever having a woman again. Or better yet, he can become someones woman, ( b-tch ), in the penitentiary.
I am sorry for the familys loss, it is never easy to lose a child. At least Phylisia is at rest and the family can move on... never forget that beautiful girl. I remember this case but I never heard anymore about it... the media must have found something more important than a poor child missing especially at Christmas time...
It was Bush's fault!
Which one-or both:)
I gotcha by one post!!! ha! ha!
Haroldwolf, you must be a Boston Bruins fan. Your 1860 is showing.
I've been following this heartbreaker of a case since it first happened here in Baltimore. A bright, innocent young girl comes to town to visit her family for the holidays and doesn't go home. Big coverage in her hometown and huge coverage here, but hardly anything nationally. Guglielmi was constantly on the television here, begging for better coverage, and he's right about the Natalie Holloway thing. Phylicia deserved the same type of national coverage as Holloway did, it just happened to be that she wasn't a "sexy" (media terms) story.
Interesting side note that MSNBC isn't covering. Over the weekend, the teenage daughter of the lead investigator went missing. Turns out she ran off with her boyfriend and was recovered safely, but Daddy went overboard looking for her, using department resources to conduct a private search, et. al. Mere hours after it was announced he'd been suspended from the force, word of the arrest came down. According to the reports I've seen, the BCPD was sitting on the suspect for a while, but the officer's conduct over the weekend precipitated the arrest before the case was "tainted." Still, I get it. Not the whole using the departments resources thing, but, yeah, if I was the lead on a missing girl case and my own kid suddenly disappeared, damn skippity I'd go apesh*t trying to get her back!!
It is not shocking that MSNBC is not covering that part of the story, they halfa** everything they do. I too live in MD and remember clearly when she was found. At the same time in the same area a dead male was found, but I never heard if he was identified. Also around the same time a human skull washed ashore in another area of the river and was later found to be the mother of a Russian man in Baltimore, he was arrested.
You lost me JMU - was the lead investigator's daughter found?
Yes. As I said, "she ran off with her boyfriend and was recovered safely."
JMU, that is what is known as a perk.
He could been Half&Half's son.
Odd that the Natalie Holloway case was brought up for comparison. At least, Phylicia Barnes was not the victim of Joran van der Sloot ; otherwise, the media and NAACP would have a field day, ala Trayvon Martin replete with chanting and hoodies.
ur so smart!
You obviously are not so smart. I came to this logical deduction via your spelling and lack of capitalization skills. Also, sentence fragments show a true lack of basic writing skills. GO BACK TO SCHOOL!
I live very close to where her body was found and remember very clearly when that story broke, a dead male was found in the same area at the same time, but I never did hear if he was identified.
BTW MSNBC it is not northeast Maryland, like the northeastern part of the state, it is the town of North East Maryland where she was found, just outside of Port Deposit. It is called fact checking and edititing and it is done less and less; for shame.
I was heart broken when I heard she had been found dead but I am so very happy to hear her killer has been caught and I hope he is quickly brought to justice. Of course true justice would have been if his mother drowned him at birth.
Well Cecil county (where North East is located) is definitely the "northeastern" part of maryland. MSNBC has got it right here.
I hope they tear that ass up everyday for the rest of your life.
Why oh why do these things happen? What is wrong with these awful people who harm and kill?
Poor baby! My heart goes out to the family. Rest in peace young lady. So sorry you didn't have a chance to live your full life.