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Nearly three years after Ebony Duncan vanished after leaving work in Independence, a Jackson County jury has found her former boyfriend guilty of second-degree murder.
The jury, on July 17, found Charles Smith-Howell, 44, guilty of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, abandonment of a corpse and two counts of tampering with physical evidence in felony prosecution, according to a Jackson County court document.
Duncan, 44, vanished after leaving work in Independence on Sept. 6, 2023. Investigators found the certified nursing assistant’s body nearly two months later, in a wooded area in south Kansas City.
Prior to his arrest, investigators had long suspected Smith-Howell, Duncan’s ex-boyfriend, of being involved in her disappearance.
Duncan’s daughter reported her missing on Sept. 7, 2023, after Duncan’s coworkers reported she hadn’t shown up for work at Sunterra Springs earlier that morning, according to a probable cause statement filed in support of Smith-Howell’s arrest.
Friends and coworkers told investigators that Smith-Howell had been arguing with Duncan as she worked on Sept. 6, “as he believed she had been cheating on him,” the court document said.
Duncan’s family said she had previously broken up with Smith-Howell, and had been trying to schedule a time for him to pick up his belongings from her apartment, the probable cause statement said.
As she was walking home from work that night, Smith-Howell picked Duncan up in a silver Chrysler. The pair’s cellphones registered in areas where the Chrysler was spotted by license-plate-reading cameras in the hours following Duncan’s disappearance.
Duncan’s daughter reached out to Smith-Howell following the incident, she told police, and the man told her he had seen her mother the night before, and he was “sorry if something bad happened to her,” according to court records.
The Chrysler was registered to another girlfriend of Smith-Howell. The woman was later found by investigators in Tampa, Florida. She told investigators she and Smith-Howell previously lived together at an address in Jackson County.
Both Smith-Howell and Duncan’s phones registered at the address on the night of Duncan’s disappearance, the court document said.
Smith-Howell was arrested by the Independence Police Department’s SWAT unit on Sept. 14, 2023. At the time of his arrest, Smith-Howell was driving a Buick SUV, in which investigators found the man’s IDs, paperwork for the Chrysler registered to his girlfriend, a license plate registered to the Chrysler and a gun magazine loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition.
Duncan’s phone was later found in the possession of a homeless woman, who was unrelated to the investigation. The inside of her phone case tested positive for human blood, court records said. Investigators later located Duncan’s blood in the Chrysler.
Duncan’s body was found with a bullet wound to the shoulder in a wooded area near 83rd Street and Hillcrest Road on Oct. 31, 2023, according to the probable cause statement. Autopsy results confirmed the remains to be Duncan’s.
Phone records revealed both Smith-Howell and Duncan’s phones were in the area on Sept. 6.
Duncan’s family remembers her as “a ray of sunshine” that lit up any room she entered.
“She was the sort of person who left your soul feeling refreshed and a bit more whole anytime she came around,” a 2024 GoFundMe fundraiser said.
Smith-Howell is being held in the Jackson County Detention Center, according to the jail’s inmate listing. He is set to appear for a sentencing hearing on October 5.
The Star’s Kendrick Calfee and Bill Lukitsch contributed reporting.
