Police Arrest Man In Connection To The Murder Of Phylicia Barnes

April 26, 2012 at 3:22 pm by Morbid  

BALTIMORE, MD - Police announced they have a man in custody in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes.

In January 2010, Barnes traveled from North Carolina to visit her half-sister in Baltimore during Christmas break.  She disappeared from her sister’s apartment complex on Dec 28 shortly after leaving to get something to eat.  On April of 2011, her dead body was found floating in the Susquehanna River.

On Wednesday, police arrested Michael Johnson, the ex-boyfriend of Barnes’ older sister and the last person to see her alive.  Johnson had been questioned several times during the investigation and was asked to provide a DNA sample.  He dated Barnes’s sister for over 10 years, according to Barnes’ father.

This arrest comes on the heels of the lead investigator, Detective Daniel T. Nicholson IV, being suspended after being accused of using his position to investigate his own daughter’s disappearance last weekend.  She was eventually found safe, but an investigation was launched into whether or not Nicholson improperly used departmental resources in his search.

Johnson’s lawyer, Russell Neverdon, hinted that this arrest is simply an attempt to salvage the credibility of the case following Nicholson’s suspension.…