Investigators said the victim’s missing remains were found after his girlfriend reported the killing to her father.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — A suitcase allegedly containing the missing remains of a slain Phoenix man helped police connect Christopher Ebanks to a killing and cover-up that began inside another apartment, investigators said.
The discovery followed a report from the victim’s girlfriend, who told her father that Ebanks had killed her boyfriend and forced her to help hide the body, according to a probable cause affidavit. The father then contacted police. Investigators searched Ebanks’ apartment and said they found the suitcase with the victim’s head and hands inside. Ebanks, 32, was later charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping and held on a $1 million bond.
The suitcase mattered because police said it matched the girlfriend’s account of what happened after the May 7 stabbing. She told investigators that the victim had been attacked inside the couple’s apartment with a triangular ax-like blade. Afterward, she said, Ebanks directed her to help clean the apartment and conceal the body. The affidavit says the victim was first placed in a bathtub, then wrapped in carpeting and an air mattress. A white extension cord and other items were used to bind the body before it was moved into a closet. Police said the body appeared to be missing the head and hands when it was found.
Investigators said the physical evidence also pointed to an attempt to erase the scene. The affidavit mentions cleaning products, knives, towels, carpeting, an air mattress and the extension cord. Police said those items were used in the cleanup and concealment after the killing. The girlfriend told police Ebanks said they “needed to clean this up” after the stabbing. The records do not say which items were recovered, which were tested, or whether blood evidence was found on each object. They also do not include a full forensic report, leaving the final laboratory results unknown in the early public account.
The alleged attack was preceded by an argument over rent money, police said. The victim had called Ebanks to the apartment because he and his girlfriend were fighting about rent payments and he wanted help getting money. When Ebanks arrived, the argument continued. Police said the couple’s dispute became physical in front of him. Ebanks allegedly told the victim to “fight an actual man” before the confrontation between the men escalated. The girlfriend told police she saw Ebanks pull out the blade and stab her boyfriend repeatedly. The affidavit does not say whether the men exchanged blows before the stabbing or whether anyone tried to leave.
Police said the girlfriend was then pulled deeper into the alleged cover-up against her will. After the body was wrapped and placed in the closet, Ebanks allegedly put the missing head and hands into the suitcase and left with her. Investigators said he forced her into his car and took her to his apartment. There, according to the affidavit, she was made to shower at knife or gunpoint in an effort to destroy evidence. That allegation links the suitcase discovery to the kidnapping count, because prosecutors allege the woman was moved and threatened after witnessing the killing. The available records do not say how she got away from Ebanks before telling her father.
The father’s role turned the woman’s account into a police response. He contacted authorities after hearing what she said had happened. Officers then had two locations to investigate: the apartment where the killing allegedly occurred and Ebanks’ apartment, where the suitcase was allegedly found. The case file described by police does not identify the victim by name, does not state whether a medical examiner had completed an autopsy and does not say whether surveillance cameras captured movements between the apartments. Those unanswered points may become part of later court filings as prosecutors build the case.
The charges reflect two different parts of the alleged crime. First-degree murder accuses Ebanks of killing the boyfriend during the confrontation. Kidnapping accuses him of forcing the girlfriend to go with him and submit to the shower under threat. Police said Ebanks refused to speak with investigators after his arrest. His silence left the public record without an explanation from him about why he went to the apartment, what happened during the fight, or how the suitcase came to be at his residence. No defense response was included in the police account reviewed for the case.
The probable cause affidavit lays out a chain of evidence rather than a full trial record. It begins with a rent dispute and a call for help. It continues with the girlfriend’s statement about a blade attack. It adds the body wrapped in carpeting and an air mattress, the closet placement, the suitcase, the forced shower and the father’s report. Police used that chain to support the arrest and charges. At trial or later hearings, prosecutors would still need to prove the allegations with admissible evidence, and defense attorneys would be able to challenge witness statements, searches, forensic results and intent.
The case also shows how investigators often rely on ordinary objects to reconstruct violent events. A carpet, an air mattress, a cord, towels and cleaning supplies became key details because police said they were used to move, bind and hide the body. A suitcase became central because it allegedly carried the missing remains to another apartment. The girlfriend’s statement gave meaning to those objects, while the search provided a way to test the account. Police had not publicly said whether fingerprints, DNA or other forensic results had been returned from those items.
For now, Ebanks remains jailed on the murder and kidnapping charges as the case moved forward in Maricopa County. The next public milestones were expected to come through court hearings, charging updates or additional police records tied to the May 7 killing and the alleged suitcase discovery.
Author note: Last updated June 4, 2026.