DNA ties KC man to killing of ex-girlfriend who went missing last year, police say

Nearly a year after Ebony Duncan vanished after leaving work in Independence, her ex-boyfriend has been charged with her murder.

Charles Smith-Howell, 42, faces second degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, abandonment of a corpse and two counts of tampering with evidence. The six felony charges were filed in an amended complaint July 17.

Authorities have long suspected Smith-Howell’s involvement in Duncan’s disappearance. Police now say in court documents that blood recovered in a car Smith-Howell was driving is an exact match to Duncan’s DNA.

Cellphone records also place the two together the day Duncan went missing and at the location Duncan’s body was found, according to court records.

Weeks after Duncan, a 44-year-old mother of three children, went missing in September 2023, police found her body in a wooded area in South Kansas City.

For nearly a year, her family has been waiting for an update in the investigation. They were left to wonder what happened, Duncan’s 10-year-old daughter Ebony Willaims told The Star last year.

“We’re all just confused,” Williams said, adding that they are longing for closure.

Ebony Duncan’s disappearance

Duncan was last seen on a surveillance camera Sept. 6 getting inside a silver-colored Chrysler 200 a short distance from her work in the 19200 block of East 37th Terrace, according to court records. After investigating, police came to suspect Smith-Howell may have kidnapped her.

Detectives spoke with one of Duncan’s co-workers who said an ex-boyfriend sent threatening messages to her. She had been trying to get Smith-Howell to pick up the last of his belongings from her apartment, police said.

According to court records, Duncan’s daughter told an officer she reached out to Smith-Howell to see if he had seen or spoken to Duncan and was told, “I saw your mother last night” and “I’m sorry if something bad happened to her.”

Phone records obtained by police allegedly show Duncan’s phone registering in areas where the Chrysler 200 was spotted by license-plate-reading cameras in the Kansas City area in the immediate hours after she disappeared.

The Chrysler 200 was registered to another girlfriend of Smith-Howell, a witness in the case who was later found by police in Tampa, Florida.

Smith-Howell and Duncan’s cellphones traveled together on Interstate 70 from Independence to near a residence of his other girlfriend in Jackson County the day she went missing, according to court records. Duncan’s cell phone stopped transmitting location data on Sept. 7, 2023, the day after Duncan went missing.

Police said the woman they found in Florida said she and Smith-Howell used to be intimate partners and had lived together at an address in Jackson County. It was the same address where Smith-Howell and Duncan’s phones registered on the evening of Duncan’s appearance, according to court records.

Police conducted surveillance on the home and followed Smith-Howell as he drove away in a Buick SUV.

A police helicopter tracked Smith-Howell to a parking lot in Kansas City, where he was arrested by the Independence Police Department’s SWAT unit on Sept. 14, 2023, a week after Duncan went missing.

A search warrant later turned up a wallet with Smith-Howell’s IDs, paperwork for the Chrysler registered to his girlfriend and a license plate registered to that vehicle. Police also reported finding a gun magazine loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition.

Smith-Howell was charged with illegally possessing ammunition and was placed in federal custody without bond.

Police found Duncan’s phone in possession of a homeless woman, who police said was unrelated to the investigation. The woman told police she picked up the phone on a bridge. The inside of the phone case tested positive for human blood, police said.

DNA from Chrysler was exact match to Duncan

Police obtained search warrants for the Chrysler 200 on Sept. 21, 2023, and found blood on the driver’s side interior door handle. The blood was sent to a lab for processing and was an exact match to Duncan’s DNA, according to court records.

During a search on Halloween last year, a K9 cadaver dog discovered heavily decomposed human remains under some brush near East 83rd Street and Hillcrest Road.

An autopsy on Nov. 1, 2023, of the remains discovered a bullet in the shoulder, and according to court documents, the remains were confirmed through fingerprint comparison to be Duncan.

Forensic testing of DNA from a toothbrush obtained from Duncan’s residence also showed a match, according to court documents. The medical examiner ruled the death to be a homicide.

When the FBI reviewed Smith-Howell and Duncan’s phone records, they showed cell site connections in the same areas between 6:14 and 6:34 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2023, according to court records. Duncan and Smith-Howell’s phones both had cell site connections between 7:46 p.m. and 7:53 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2023, in the general area where Duncan’s body was recovered, according to court records.

Smith-Howell awaits sentencing in federal case

Smith-Howell entered a plea agreement earlier this year on a federal felony charge of illegally possessing ammunition. He pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing in federal custody.

Lawyers requested 14 to 24 months of prison and three years of supervised release in Smith-Howell’s federal case.

As of Saturday, there are no hearings scheduled in the state case where Smith-Howell is accused of murder.

The Star’s Bill Lukitsch contributed.