Inset left: Charles Smith-Howell (Jackson County Jail). Inset right: Ebony Duncan (Independence Police Department). Background: A still image from surveillance footage showing the car that Duncan got into on the day she was killed by Smith-Howell (Independence Police Department).
A Missouri man is facing substantial time behind bars after shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend before dumping her body in the woods.
Charles Smith-Howell, 44, was found guilty by a jury of his peers in Jackson County on one count each of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, and abandonment of a corpse, as well as two counts of tampering with physical evidence in the 2023 death of 44-year-old Ebony Duncan.
The victim was last seen alive leaving her place of employment at a senior care facility in Independence on Sept. 6, 2023. Surveillance footage showed Duncan walking toward her home while talking on a cellphone just before she got into the passenger seat of a silver sedan.
On Halloween 2023, investigators operating on a tip discovered the mother of three's remains in a wooded area of Kansas City, Missouri, located near the intersection of 83rd Street and Hillcrest Road, The Kansas City Star reported.
Detectives had long suspected foul play in the woman's death since a co-worker they spoke to said Duncan had been receiving threatening messages from an ex-boyfriend before she disappeared.
The man had even threatened to kill her, according to court documents obtained by Kansas City-based Fox affiliate WDAF.
As it turned out, Duncan was on the phone with Smith-Howell at the time she got into the Chrysler 200 — which was the same model as a car owned by the defendant's then-girlfriend, police said.
Law enforcement also said cellular data and license plate readers showed Duncan's cellphone and Smith-Howell traveling from Independence into Kansas City after the woman went missing.
The woman's daughter was long aware of Smith-Howell and told police she messaged him on Facebook — where he went by the name "Charles Smith" — after her mother vanished, police said.
"I saw your mother last night," the man messaged the victim's daughter back. "I'm sorry if something bad happened to her."
In July 2024, the daughter told WDAF that Smith-Howell frequently waited outside Duncan's place of work in order to pick her up and would wait outside her home without her mother's knowledge.
"She was kind of like breaking off from [Smith-Howell], trying to get away," the daughter told the TV station. "I want to say the day before she [disappeared], she told Charles to come get his belongings from her house."
In the end, Smith-Howell shot Duncan and then destroyed both her cellphone and her car in an effort to cover up the murder, prosecutors proved during a trial that lasted four days.
Smith-Howell was convicted on July 17. He is slated to be sentenced Oct. 5.