Video Update: NC Teen Phylicia Barnes killer finally found:sister's Ex charged with murder

[Update 4.28.12, Maryland, Baltimore]--An arrest has finally been made in the death of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes who was found floating in the Northeast Maryland river a year ago on April 20th after she disappeared about 4 months before.

According to Baltimore police, on Thursday, a grand jury indicted Phylicia's half sister 27 year old Deena Barnes's ex-boyfriend Michael Johnson 28, with 1st degree murder. He is currently being held at the Baltimore City Correction Center. (See attached video above for more).

Phylcia, who was originally from Munroe, North Carolina went missing on December 28th while visitng family in Maryland for the Christmas holidays in 2010-- arriving on December 17th. The family had told police that the teen disappeared on her way to the local mall and Johnson was the last person to have seen her.

The 12 grader was reportedly an A student whose family and friends said had a promising future ahead of her.

Early in the case, police had expressed frustration with the slow media response in helping get the word out on Phylicia's disappearance.

Baltimore police spokesmand Anthony Guglielmi had this to say, "It has been incredibly frustrating for me. We've been pitching this since the 29th [and] have not gotten any traction. This case is no different than the Natalee Holloway case. The only difference is Phylicia is from North Carolina, she went missing in Baltimore and she is African-American."

To read my earlier reports, click on links below:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8859978-update-phylicia-barnes-the-nc-missing-since-christmas-found-dead-in-river

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7829038-police-are-frustrated-with-media-response-of-missing-phylicia-does-the-media-only-care-when-caucasian-children-go-missing