Phylicia Simone Barnes, 16, disappeared on Tuesday, December 28, 2010, while visiting her half-sister in Northwest Baltimore. Her body was found on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, floating in the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam in Harford County. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists the cause as asphyxiation and gives a tentative address in the 6500 block of Eberle Drive.
The Baltimore Police Department investigated alongside Maryland State Police, and the Sun's database lists the case as a homicide.
Phylicia was an honor student from Monroe, North Carolina. According to Wikipedia's account of the case, she "was on track to graduate early and had plans to attend Towson University." She had come to Baltimore to spend the Christmas holiday with relatives. She was initially believed to have disappeared while walking toward Reisterstown Road Plaza from a nearby apartment complex, and after that day she never used her cell phone or credit cards or updated her Facebook page.
Her disappearance drew national attention. Searchers combed Patapsco Valley State Park, police drained a well, billboards went up along major highways, and a $36,000 reward was offered for information. Baltimore police called it the most vexing missing person case they had ever investigated. After her body was found, family and friends gathered for memorials in Baltimore and in North Carolina, and a private funeral was held in Conyers, Georgia.
In April 2012 police arrested a suspect and charged him with her murder. A jury convicted him of second-degree murder in 2013, but the trial judge granted a new trial. Prosecutors later dropped and then refiled the charges, and after he stood trial three times, a judge acquitted him in 2018. No one else has been charged. Her family has never stopped speaking out. "That's right, the system really failed our daughter really bad," her father, Russell Barnes, told WBAL-TV in 2026. Her cousin Harry Watson said "the system in Baltimore City flat out just failed this family."
The 6500 block of Eberle Drive lies in Northwest Baltimore, not far from Reisterstown Road, one of the main commercial roads running out of the northwest part of the city. The Sun noted that the address is tentative, since investigators never publicly said exactly where she was killed.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No one has been convicted in the death of Phylicia Barnes, and no other arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to her death could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw Phylicia in Northwest Baltimore in late December 2010, or who noticed anything unusual near the Susquehanna River or the Conowingo Dam in the months that followed, may hold information that still matters. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
