A 45-year-old man charged Monday with killing his teenage daughter and stuffing her body in a trash can had sex with the girl sometime before he fatally stabbed her at least 15 times, charging documents filed in D.C. Superior Court say.
Rodney McIntyre, of the 3300 block of 18th Street in Southeast, was charged with killing Ebony Franklin, 17, of Capitol Heights and ordered held without bond.
Ebony was found dead in a Columbia Heights trash receptacle on Nov. 29 , three days after her mother reported her missing. According to charging documents filed by the Metropolitan Police Department, Ebony was supposed to meet with her father Nov. 26 to pick up Christmas presents that he had for her and then meet an acquaintance who would give her a ride home.
Though cellphone records indicate that she made it to the Columbia Heights area where she was supposed to meet with her father, she never showed up for the ride home.
Three days later, a passer-by noticed her body in a trash can in the 1000 block of Fairmont Street in Northwest. Police determined that she had been stabbed at least 15 times.
DNA evidence indicated that McIntyre had sex with Ebony within 72 hours of her death, charging documents state. A police spokesman said he was unable to comment on whether evidence indicated that the sexual relationship was consensual or not.
When asked, McIntyre offered police no explanation as to how his DNA came to be found on his daughter.
“I don’t know how I would explain it,” he said, according to court records.
McIntyre told police he had planned to meet with his daughter in Columbia Heights on the day she went missing but that he never received a phone call from her indicating it was time for him to meet with her, charging documents state. Instead, he said, he remained in the 3300 block of Brothers Place Southeast, where he was staying at the time.
Police say cellphone data from both Ebony’s and McIntyre’s cellphones indicate that the phones were used in Columbia Heights the morning of Nov. 26 and later that day in the vicinity of 3300 Brothers Place.
Confronted with the information, McIntyre told police, “I don’t care what my cell phone records say, I was in Southeast,” the charging documents say.
Ebony’s body was found less than a block from Keely’s Boxing Gym, where McIntyre was employed, according to the court papers.
Although Ebony lived in the 4600 block of Pistachio Lane in Capitol Heights, she was a frequent presence in Columbia Heights Village, a troubled housing project in the District’s Ward 1, according to youth-outreach workers who discussed her case with The Washington Times.
She attended Cardozo High School in Northwest and Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, the outreach workers said.
McIntyre has a litany of convictions for felony offenses in the District spanning 30 years, according to Superior Court documents. The most recent conviction, stemming from an offense in 2005, was for threatening to injure and kidnap a person, and McIntyre was sentenced to about 2 1/2 years in prison. In the 1980s and 1990s, he pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon and was found guilty of cocaine distribution.
At the time of Ebony’s death, her father criticized the police department for harassing his family during the investigation.
“He was a suspect from very early on in this investigation and, yes, he was very critical of the police department, of detectives for harassment. But now, at the end of the day, we understand why,” Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said Saturday when she announced the arrest.
McIntyre’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 7. A public defender representing him could not be reached for comment Monday.
