Katharina Buczek
Afterward, Ebonee was next spotted at the police station, which was located just a few blocks away. While at the station, she reportedly asked to use a phone to place a call and appeared disoriented. However, Ebonee was not able to make the call, and she paced back and forth for around 10 minutes before leaving the station– without accepting help from police officers.
Then, surveillance camera footage captured Ebonee walking to her apartment complex. And at about 10:45 p.m., she was last seen asking a neighbor for a cigarette.
At the time, Ebonee’s neighbor claimed not to have any, which prompted Ebonee to leave. She reportedly planned to visit a nearby store to buy some cigarettes but never returned home that evening and has been missing ever since.
At 11:00 p.m., Ebonee’s boyfriend reportedly arrived at her apartment and let himself in. Her car was still parked outside, and her purse was found inside the unit. But her cell phone wasn’t anywhere to be found, and when her boyfriend tried to call her cell, he was sent straight to voicemail.
Ebonee’s boyfriend reportedly waited two hours to see if she would return home before phoning her parents. So, the following afternoon of January 16, 2016, Ebonee’s parents contacted authorities at the Wilmington Police Department and reported her missing.
Since then, the cause of Ebonee’s disappearance has remained unknown, and her loved ones have continued searching for answers.
Last year, her mother, Harriet Rivers, detailed how heartwrenching it is to go on without knowing what happened to her daughter.
“When I think about it coming up on seven years and we still don’t know nothing, it’s just unbelievable,” Harriet said in a 2023 interview with WECT6.
“How can anyone endure not knowing nothing about a family member that’s been missing– beyond a year really– but seven years?”
According to Ebonee’s family, she was also known to be a devoted mother and loving family member. So, they believe it’d be extremely uncharacteristic of her to just leave without any warning.
“She’s loving, always happy, always caring,” said Terence Spears, Ebonee’s nephew, who fondly recalled his trips to Chuck E. Cheese with Ebonee when he was just a toddler.
