A man accused of murdering his wife is now facing additional charges for sex crimes against a minor.
According to Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones, 36-year-old Michael Owens, who is charged with the murder of 36-year-old Ebony Owens, is facing an additional charge for sexual battery of a minor as well as two charges of sexual assault of a minor.
Ebony Owens was first reported missing on Wednesday, March 15 after she did not show up for work, with investigators later finding her vehicle burned near Old Highway 80 and Jones Road.
Later that evening, investigators found evidence connected to Owens’ disappearance after searching the couple’s residence at the Ridgeland Ranch Apartments on County Line Road.
The following day, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones announced that Owens’ husband, 36-year-old Michael Owens, was charged with her murder and arson.
Jones stated that Owens is believed to have died from at least one gunshot wound, according to information provided by her husband.
“We know that there was a fatal shot that actually resulted in her death,” Jones explained. “Of course, we won’t know more until we are actually able to recover the body. That’s just based on some of the evidence and some of the manifest that we recovered during the course of the investigation, along with information obtained by the husband that led us back to the location where she was put into the river.”
Since then, officials with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office have been searching for her body near the Big Black River on Old Highway 80 near the Hinds and Warren County lines.
