The victim’s girlfriend was forced from the killing scene and made to shower under threat, police say.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — A Phoenix murder case includes a kidnapping charge because police say the suspect forced the victim’s girlfriend from the apartment after the killing and made her shower to destroy evidence.
Christopher Ebanks, 32, is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the May 7 death of a man police said was stabbed repeatedly with a triangular ax-like blade. The kidnapping allegation focuses on the girlfriend’s account that Ebanks ordered her through a cleanup, made her leave with him and threatened her at his apartment. Police said he refused to speak with investigators and was held on a $1 million bond.
The girlfriend was present before the killing, during the attack and after the body was hidden, according to a probable cause affidavit. She told police that the victim had called Ebanks to the apartment for help getting rent money while the couple argued about payments. Ebanks arrived as the dispute continued. Police said the argument became physical in front of him, and Ebanks challenged the boyfriend to “fight an actual man.” The woman said she then saw Ebanks pull out the blade and stab her boyfriend more than once. Investigators have not released the victim’s name in the reports reviewed or said whether the couple lived alone.
Police said the girlfriend’s status changed from witness to captive during the alleged cover-up. After the stabbing, the affidavit says, Ebanks told her they “needed to clean this up.” He directed her to help clean the apartment and conceal the body, police said. The victim was placed in a bathtub, wrapped in carpeting and an air mattress, bound with a white extension cord and other items, and moved into a closet. Investigators said the body appeared to be missing the head and hands. The affidavit says the missing remains were later placed in a suitcase. The records do not say whether the woman was physically restrained inside the first apartment.
The movement to the second apartment is the clearest basis for the kidnapping count in the police account. Ebanks allegedly forced the girlfriend into his car after the body was hidden and drove her to his residence. Once there, police said, he forced her to shower at knife or gunpoint in an attempt to destroy evidence. The allegation suggests investigators believe she was not acting freely after the killing. It also places Ebanks’ apartment inside the chain of events, not just as his home. Police later searched that apartment and said they found a suitcase containing the victim’s head and hands.
The woman eventually told her father, who called police, investigators said. That family report became the turning point in the case. Officers used the information to search Ebanks’ apartment and recover the suitcase, according to the affidavit. The father’s call also gave police a witness timeline that connected the rent argument, the stabbing, the body concealment, the forced car ride and the alleged shower. The affidavit does not say how much time passed between the killing and the report. It also does not say whether the girlfriend contacted anyone else before telling her father.
The first-degree murder charge rests on the alleged stabbing, while the kidnapping charge rests on the alleged threats and forced movement after the killing. Prosecutors may treat the two charges as connected but distinct. The murder count addresses the victim’s death. The kidnapping count addresses the girlfriend’s loss of freedom after she saw the attack. Police said Ebanks declined to give a statement, so the public account does not include his explanation of the confrontation or the trip to his apartment. Any later defense argument would come through court filings or hearings, not through the affidavit summarized by police.
Several questions remained open in the early record. Authorities had not released a detailed autopsy report, a complete list of evidence seized, or the results of forensic testing. Police had not said whether the blade was recovered, whether a gun was found, or whether surveillance footage showed the trip between apartments. They also had not said whether the girlfriend suffered injuries during the original rent dispute, the cleanup or the alleged threats at Ebanks’ residence. The affidavit identifies cleaning products, knives, towels, carpeting, an air mattress and an extension cord as part of the concealment, but it does not say which items were tested.
The case’s timeline begins with a financial dispute and ends with formal charges, but police describe the most important turn as the moment after the stabbing. Instead of calling 911, investigators said, Ebanks told the girlfriend to help clean. Instead of leaving the scene, they said, he moved the body into a closet. Instead of keeping all evidence in one place, they said, he carried the victim’s head and hands in a suitcase to another apartment. Those alleged choices may be used by prosecutors to argue intent, concealment and control over the witness. The defense may challenge those claims as the case moves forward.
The apartment setting added to the force of the allegations because the reported cover-up unfolded with items found in many homes. Police said carpeting and an air mattress were used to wrap the body. Towels and cleaning products were used during the cleanup. A white extension cord helped bind the remains. A closet hid the body from view. A suitcase moved part of the remains away from the scene. In the affidavit, those objects form the path investigators say the crime followed after the fatal attack. Officials have not released photographs from the scene in the records reviewed.
Ebanks remained in custody on the murder and kidnapping counts. The next steps were expected through Maricopa County court proceedings, where prosecutors would move from probable cause allegations toward formal hearings tied to the May 7 killing, the alleged forced shower and the suitcase found at Ebanks’ apartment.
Author note: Last updated June 4, 2026.