A missing Ohio woman has been found dead by a housecleaner on the balcony of her boyfriend’s former apartment in Cleveland, authorities said.
Audreona Barnes, 19, was discovered beneath a pile of clothes and a blanket Thursday on the balcony of an apartment where her boyfriend, Bennie Washington, 39, lived before he was evicted on March 11, according to police and court records cited by Cleveland.com.
Barnes was reported missing from Warrensville Heights in July.
Investigators believe her body was intentionally placed outside in order to quicken decomposition, the outlet reported.
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.
He has been charged with aggravated murder and gross abuse of a corpse in Barnes’ 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.
On the day Barnes 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 Barnes at her boyfriend’s house and then dropped her back off, but it’s unclear if she went into the apartment or walked away.
Barnes’ 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.
Barnes’ social media accounts then went dormant and her phone was later turned off, Avegnon said.
Authorities had tried to interview Barnes’ boyfriend, but were unable to do so, WOIO reported.
Warrensville Heights police had not ruled out foul play in Barnes’ disappearance as recently as October, WOIO reported.
