A man faces charges in connection with the murder of a missing teen whose body was found under a pile of clothes on an apartment balcony in Cleveland, Ohio.
39-year-old Bennie Washington faces a charge of aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse.
Washington, who has several prior felony convictions, was arrested Saturday — one day after eluding Cleveland officers who spotted him as he ran into another home and jumped out a window, court records show.
The body of Audreona Barnes was found on March 17. She had been missing from Warrensville Heights since July 2021.
A maintenance man who had been hired to clean an apartment in the 4300 block of Warner Rd. called police when they found a body on the balcony under a pile of clothes. The cleaning person told police that the apartment’s previous tenant was evicted on March 11.
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The medical examiner identified the victim as Audreona.
Members of the Cleveland Division of Police homicide unit responded to the scene.
A medical examiner has not determined Audreona’s cause of death.
He has been charged with aggravated murder and gross abuse of a corpse in Audreona’s slaying.
An autopsy indicated she was shot in the head and cops found bullet casings near her body, as well as a bullet hole in a wall in Washington’s former residence, court records show.
He was arraigned on the charges Tuesday morning in Cleveland Municipal court. A judge ordered him held on a $2 million bond. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for April.
Friends, family, and activists held a rally for Audreona Tuesday afternoon. People at the rally accuse the police of not taking enough action to find Audreona when she was missing.
“Where was y’all at when I asked for help?” Audreona’s mother cried at the rally.
On the day Audreona went missing, she had met with a US Army recruiting officer, police said. Detective Gregory Curry said at the time that Army recruiters picked up Audreona at her boyfriend’s house and then dropped her back off, but it’s unclear if she went into the apartment or walked away.
Audreona’s mother, Akua Avegnon, said her daughter was last seen being dropped off at her boyfriend’s house in Cleveland.
That same day, Washington received a text from her phone asking that she be picked up at a gas station, but the message “didn’t seem like it came from her,” her mother told WOIO.
Audreona’s social media accounts then went dormant and her phone was later turned off, Avegnon said.
Authorities had tried to interview Audreona’s boyfriend, but were unable to do so.
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