She was a good person, a good mother, a good sister, a good daughter.

 

 

She didn’t deserve that.

When 36-year-old Ebony Owens vanishes from Edwards, Mississippi without a trace, her husband tells investigators he has no idea where she is.

But 10 days later, her body surfaces in the Big Black River, shot, wrapped in a blanket, and thrown from a bridge in the middle of the night.

And when the investigation concludes, the people of Edwards will realize that the monster they never saw coming had been hiding in plain sight the entire time.

Edwards, Mississippi, is the kind of town that doesn’t make the news.

Small, quiet, close-knit, the kind of place where neighbors still wave from their porches and everybody knows everybody’s name.

Crime, if it happened at all, was rare.

And for the people who lived there, that was exactly the point.

Ebony Owens had grown up in this community.

Born on October 13th, 1986, she was the kind of person Edwards liked to claim as its own.

From the time she was a young girl, she was known for her warmth, her humility, and a kindness that never seemed to run out.

She was never the loudest person in the room.

But she had a way of making everyone around her feel seen.

She carried that same spirit into her career.

Nursing was never just a job for Ebony.

It was an extension of who she was.

Her patients loved her.

Her co-workers loved her.

At the Jackson Hines Comprehensive Health Center, she had just received a promotion, a recognition of the hard work and dedication she brought to that building every single day.

The the reputation that she had is that she was a good team player for uh the employees that she worked with.

uh they um quickly fell in love with her and her work at this.

We’re we’re saddened by her untimely death and we pray for uh strength for her family.

>> Outside of work, Ebanese’s whole world revolved around her four children.

She was that mother, the one who helped with homework, played in the yard, and made sure her kids felt loved every single day, regardless of whatever else was going on in her life.

Her neighbors called her a good girl.

Her friends called her irreplaceable.

And the children in her neighborhood called her the candy lady because she always had something sweet in her pocket for them.

But behind the warmth and the smiles and the community love, Ebony was carrying something heavy.

Her marriage to Michael Owens had been unraveling for years.

Friends noticed the strain.

Family saw the toll it was taking on her.

And though Ebony being Ebony never stopped trying to hold things together, the cracks in that relationship had been growing wider for a long time.

Michael Owens was 36 years old, the same age as his wife.

To the outside world, he was just another man in a small Mississippi town.

But behind closed doors, the picture looked very different.

Their marriage had been marked by emotional turbulence, infidelity, and attention that people close to Ebony had grown increasingly uncomfortable with over the years.

Still, nothing nothing could have prepared anyone for what was about to happen.

On the evening of March 14th, 2023, Ebony Owens was home with her husband.

By the following morning, she was gone.

When she failed to show up for her shift at the Jackson Hines Comprehensive Health Center on March 15th, her colleagues knew immediately that something was wrong.

Ebony did not miss work.

She did not go silent.

She did not disappear.

Her family contacted the police.

Friends began reaching out.

The community started asking questions.

And as the hours passed with no word from Ebony, what had started as concern quickly turned into fear.

Then came the discovery that turned fear into something else entirely.

On March 16th, deputies responding to reports found Ebony’s white [music] 2015 Acura TLX on the side of Old Highway 80 near Jones Road, completely engulfed in flames.

The car had not caught fire by accident.

Someone had set it.

And nearby in the surrounding woods, investigators found her license plate removed deliberately and discarded as if whoever did this had come prepared.

>> I just got here and the police was everywhere and I asked I’m like, “What’s going on?” They said her car was found on the side of the road uh burnt up.

I’m like, man, >> the missing person case was immediately upgraded to a suspected homicide, and investigators did not have to look far for their first person of interest.

Michael Owens, Ebony’s husband, was the last known person to see her alive, and his behavior from the moment investigators started asking questions raised every red flag there was to raise.

In his first conversations with law enforcement, Michael claimed he had no idea where his wife was.

He offered vague answers, shifting details, and a timeline that simply did not hold together.

Investigators described him as lacking credibility from the very start.

But what he did not know was that behind the scenes, the evidence was already beginning to stack up against him.

When detectives searched the couple’s home at Ridgand Ranch Apartments on County Line Road, what they found made the picture unmistakably clear.

Bloody blankets, bloody clothing, rifles and ammunition magazines, discarded documents and bank statements seemingly tossed in a hurry.

This was not the home of a man whose wife had simply gone missing.

This was a crime scene.

>> We believe that the deceased body of Miss Owens was put into the Big Black River here uh near this particular location.

>> Deputies found Ebony’s white Acura burned Wednesday morning near her and her husband Michael Owen’s home.

After a welfare check, Ebony was reported missing.

>> Based on the evidence recovered and Michael’s own statements, which kept shifting each time investigators pressed him, Hines County Sheriff Tyrie Jones made the call.

On March 16th, Michael Owens was arrested and charged with murder and arson.

But finding Ebony was still not over.

Authorities believed her body had been thrown from a bridge over the Big Black River.

And so began one of the most exhaustive search and recovery efforts the state had seen in years.

>> Search for the body of Ebony Owens has intensified.

12 News’s Morgan Gil has an update on the search and recovery efforts.

For a week, police and recovery teams have been searching the Big Black River near Warriors Trail for the body of Ebony Owens.

Officials have brought in more multi-jurisdiction personnel and more equipment as they continue their search.

>> Been here since last Thursday each day trying to locate uh this young lady’s body, try to bring some closure to the family.

There are several uh boats in the water today from Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, from Hines County Emergency Management, Warren County Emergency Management here, and Warren County Sheriff’s Office.

>> 12 News spoke with the Warren County Emergency Director, and he describes how extra technology that has been brought in can help the search efforts.

>> It can see through muddy water.

Basically, it’s sidescan uh sonar, which uh shoots out a beam on both sides of the boat.

Uh we’ve got some very experienced uh operators out out here on the river.

Um and you know, we’ll be out here as as long as the Hines County Sheriff’s Office requests our assistance.

>> Officials say the river has dropped about 3 ft in the past several days, making it more difficult to get in and out of the water.

Says this isn’t the only variable making it harder to find Owen’s body.

>> Everybody has a theory about where where the body might be, where the body might wind up.

Uh this river in particular uh has got a lot of debris in it.

So uh it’s just really difficult to say, but but they’re they’re searching every inch that they can get to.

>> Day after day, search crews returned to that river.

Multiple agencies joined the effort.

The Warren County Sheriff’s Department, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Hines County Emergency Management deploying boats, drones, and sidescan sonar technology capable of cutting through the muddy water to search the riverbed below.

But the conditions made everything harder.

Swift currents, debris filled water, dropping temperatures, and a river that swallowed evidence as easily as it swallowed anything else thrown into it.

For 10 days, Ebony’s family waited.

Her four children waited.

Her mother waited.

Her best friend waited.

And the community of Edwards waited alongside them, holding vigils, [music] organizing support, praying for a woman who had given so much of herself to everyone around her.

On March 25th, 2023, the waiting ended.

Search teams located Ebony’s body on a sandbar in the Big Black River.

She had died from at least one gunshot wound to the head.

She had been wrapped in a blanket, driven to a bridge in the dead of night, and dropped into that water like she was nothing.

Her family’s worst fears had been confirmed.

>> The search for Ebony Owens is over.

This after an unidentified body was found in the Big Black River around 4 this afternoon, and that body has since been identified as Owens.

Now, Owens has been missing since March 15th.

And the investigation turned into a murder investigation after her husband, Michael Owens, was arrested and charged with her murder.

Michael Owens is also charged with arson and sexual battery of a minor.

>> With Ebon’s body recovered, the murder investigation shifted into a higher gear.

Forensic evidence was collected and analyzed.

Investigators reconstructed the timeline of her final hours, and the case against Michael Owens grew stronger with every piece they turned over.

But the murder and arson charges were not the end of it.

Shortly after his arrest, Michael Owens was hit with additional charges.

Sexual battery of a minor, two counts of sexual assault of a minor, filed separately with the details sealed to protect the identity of the minor involved.

Those charges never made it into the murder trial.

The court kept them separate, but they were there on record, filed by the same department that pulled Ebony from that river.

and they cast a long shadow over everything else in this case.

The original script for this story described Ebony as having discovered her husband in a compromising situation involving a minor in their home and that this discovery may have been what set the events of March 14th into motion.

That detail was never confirmed in open court.

The minor’s identity was protected throughout, but the charges existed and they told their own story.

What investigators would come to piece together was this.

On the night of March 14th, 2023, something happened inside that home that pushed Michael Owens to pick up a gun.

Whether it was a confrontation over what Ebony had discovered, an argument that escalated beyond control, or something he had been planning, the result was the same.

He shot his wife in the head inside [music] their home.

And then he went to work covering it up.

He wrapped her body in a blanket.

He loaded her into his vehicle.

He drove to the bridge over the big black river and threw her over the railing in the middle of the night.

Then he drove back to her car, doused it in fuel, and set it on fire.

He took a drill and removed her license plate and threw it into the nearby woods.

He went home, got rid of the bloody evidence inside the house, and when investigators came knocking, he looked them in the eye and said he had no idea where his wife was.

That was the plan.

And for a moment, he may have believed it would work.

It did not.

In March 2023, Michael Owens was arraigned before Hines County Judge Fay Peterson.

He appeared via live stream from jail.

Bound in shackles, he was denied bond.

He would remain behind bars at the Hines County Detention Center in Raymond.

As the case against him was built piece by piece over the next two years, >> you received a copy of your indictment charging with offenses of murder, arson, and sexual battery.

Yes, ma’am.

>> Were you able to read and understand it? >> No, ma’am.

>> After that, Michael Owens heard the six counts read to him by Jesse Peterson.

She also appointed a public defender.

The 36-year-old has been in custody since March when his wife, Ebony Owens, was reported missing.

>> And in April 2023, Edwards, Mississippi gathered to say goodbye to Ebony Owens.

Her funeral was held at New Horizon Church International.

The building was filled beyond capacity.

Family members, lifelong friends, neighbors, people who had followed the case from the moment she disappeared.

They came from all corners of the community to honor a woman who had spent her entire life showing up for others.

She was laid to rest at Garden Memorial Park on Highway 49 North in Jackson.

And as the people who loved her stood around that grave, the grief was immeasurable.

But so was the anger because Ebony Owens did not have to die.

And everyone standing in that cemetery knew it.

2 years passed.

The case was prepared.

Witnesses were lined up.

Evidence was organized.

And in September 2025, the trial of Michael Owens finally began in Hines County.

It did not take long for the courtroom to understand exactly who they were dealing with.

Investigators took the stand first.

Investigator Richard Brown, who had been involved from the earliest days of the case, told the jury plainly that Michael Owens had been inconsistent in every single version of his story, that he had lied repeatedly, that he lacked credibility, and that in his professional assessment, nothing Michael Owens told investigators from the very beginning could be trusted.

It’s the state of Mississippi versus Michael Owens.

And as evidence was shown, Owens covered his face.

Two witnesses took the stand today and they shared their memories of the investigation.

Owens is accused of killing his wife, Ebony Owens, in March of 2023.

He told police he shot her, wrapped her body in a blanket, and threw her into the Big Black River.

He also admitted to lighting her car on fire, and removing the license plate.

Owen said all this stem from seeing a mysterious man in his home in bed with his wife.

The first witness to take the stand, investigator Richard Brown said there were many inconsistencies in Owen’s story and he felt Owen lacked credibility.

Owen’s team said although his stories were inconsistent in every story story, Owens did say that he saw a mysterious man in his home and that the man ran out of his home.

The second witness to take the stand was investigator Steven Sims.

He said he took pictures throughout this investigation.

He gave firstirhand accounts of the graphic pictures shown in court.

Sim says these were pictures of Ebony Owens burned car, removed license plate and blood soiled bed sheets.

Sim said there were also pictures of Owen’s body near the big black river and blood stains on the bridge over the river.

Investigator Steven Sims followed.

He had documented the evidence throughout the investigation and walked the jury through it.

photograph by photograph.

Ebony’s burned car, the removed license plate, the blood soaked bed sheets from inside the home, the blood stains on the bridge above the river, and the images of where her body had been recovered.

When those photographs were shown in court, Michael Owens covered his face.

But the moment that drew the most attention, the moment the entire courtroom held its breath, was when Michael Owens himself took the stand.

He testified that he had come home that night and discovered Ebony in bed with another man.

He said the sight of it did something to him, that they argued, that she reached for a gun, that he feared for his life and fired first.

He removed his glasses at one point because he was crying so hard.

But the prosecution dismantled his story methodically and without mercy.

They pointed to the drill he had brought to remove the license plate, something a man acting in a sudden rage does not think to bring.

They pointed to the gas he used to burn the car.

They pointed to the clean clothes he had ready.

They pointed to the 4 hours of recorded interview footage in which he denied everything before finally breaking and the way his story changed again the moment he took the witness stand.

They pointed to a man who after shooting his wife did not call for help, did not call an ambulance, did not call anyone.

Instead, he wrapped her up, drove her to a river, and threw her in.

His defense held their ground throughout the trial.

They argued that this was a marriage defined by mutual pain, mutual infidelity, and a moment of catastrophic emotional collapse.

They asked the jury to see a man who had broken, not a man who had planned.

But the jury had seen the evidence.

They had heard the testimony.

[music] They had watched 4 hours of recorded interview footage in which Michael Owens denied, deflected, and lied before eventually admitting what he had done.

After 2 weeks of testimony, they had made up their minds.

On September 8th, 2025, Michael Owens was found guilty of firstdegree murder and thirdderee arson.

Judge Fay Peterson, who had presided over the case from the very beginning, did not hold back at sentencing.

She described the details of the case as among the most disturbing she had encountered in her time on the bench.

She used words like narcissistic, devious, selfish, childish, and she called the killing exactly what it was, a selfish act committed by a man who thought only of himself.

Michael Owens was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ebony Owens.

an additional three years for the arson charge to be served consecutively.

Before the verdict was read, Owens had stood and offered an apology to Ebanese family.

It did not land the way he may have hoped.

Just before the verdict was read, Owens apologized to the family for his actions.

Mr.

Jenkins Johnson says sorry just doesn’t cut it.

>> Sorry.

I mean, hey, that ain’t going to get it for me because I never forget this.

Never.

Eby’s mother, Alice, is grateful for a guilty verdict.

I’m >> thankful that um justice was served today.

No human, no human should have gone through things that my daughter went through, but the only thing I can do is continue to be strong but myself, my family, my grandchildren.

>> Defense attorney Trent Walker addressed the press outside the courthouse after the verdict.

>> We put on the best possible case uh on behalf of Mr.

Owens given the information that was out there and uh we are satisfied that we did the best job that we could for Mr.

Owens.

>> Michael Owens is expected to appeal.

But for now, he is exactly where the jury decided he belongs.

Ebony Owens was 36 years old.

She was a mother of four, a nurse who had just been promoted.

A woman her community called the candy lady.

A woman whose best friend had known her since they were 5 years old.

a woman whose father stood outside a courthouse and said the words that no parent should ever have to say.

The charges of sexual battery of a minor filed against Michael Owens remain a sealed and separate matter.

The details of that case have not been made public and the identity of the minor involved has been protected throughout.

But those charges exist and they sit in the record of this case as a reminder that what happened to Ebony Owens on the night of March 14th, 2023 [music] may have roots far darker than a troubled marriage and a moment of rage.

Ebony deserved better.

Her children deserved better.

And the town of Edwards, Mississippi, the town that loved her, that searched for her, that filled a church to say goodbye to her, deserved better than to find out that the danger had been living among them all along.

She is gone, but her story is not forgotten.