Police said Christopher Ebanks came to an apartment before a fight escalated into a killing and alleged kidnapping.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — A dispute over rent payments brought Christopher Ebanks to a Phoenix apartment before he allegedly stabbed a man to death and forced the victim’s girlfriend into a cleanup, police said in court records.
The May 7 case began with a request for help, according to a probable cause affidavit. The victim, whose name was not released in the reports reviewed, allegedly called Ebanks because he and his girlfriend were arguing about how to make rent payments. Police said that call set the stage for an encounter that shifted from a money dispute to a homicide investigation, with Ebanks later charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping.
The girlfriend told investigators that she and her boyfriend were still arguing when Ebanks arrived. The dispute became physical in front of him, police said. Ebanks allegedly reacted by telling the boyfriend to “fight an actual man,” a challenge that changed the focus of the conflict from the couple to the two men. According to the woman’s account, Ebanks then pulled out a triangular ax-like blade and stabbed the boyfriend repeatedly. Police did not release the exact time of the attack or say who else, if anyone, was inside the apartment. The affidavit describes the girlfriend as a witness to the stabbing and the person later forced to help conceal what happened.
After the stabbing, investigators said, the apartment became the center of an alleged effort to hide evidence. Ebanks told the woman that they needed to clean up, according to the affidavit. Police said the victim was moved to the bathtub, then wrapped in carpeting and an air mattress. The body was bound with a white extension cord and other items before being placed upright in a closet. Investigators said the body appeared to be dismembered, missing the head and hands. The affidavit lists cleaning products, knives, towels, carpeting and the air mattress as items used during the concealment. It does not say whether the woman was threatened during each step, but it says Ebanks directed her actions.
The allegations did not stop inside the first apartment. Police said Ebanks put the victim’s head and hands into a suitcase, then forced the girlfriend to leave with him. The woman told police he took her to his apartment and made her shower at knife or gunpoint to destroy evidence. That allegation forms the basis for the kidnapping charge, along with the claim that she was forced into his car and taken from the scene. The affidavit does not identify whether the weapon used to threaten her was the same blade described in the killing, and it does not say whether police recovered a gun.
The first outside report came from the woman’s father, police said. After she told him what had happened, he contacted authorities. That call shifted the case from a hidden crime scene to an active investigation. Officers searched Ebanks’ apartment and allegedly found a suitcase containing the victim’s missing remains. Police said that discovery matched a key part of the woman’s account and tied Ebanks’ residence to the alleged cover-up. The affidavit does not describe the condition of the first apartment when officers arrived, but it does outline the items the woman said were used to clean and move the body.
The case now depends on both witness statements and physical evidence. The woman’s account gives police the sequence: rent argument, arrival, confrontation, stabbing, cleanup, dismemberment, forced travel and report to family. The search of Ebanks’ apartment gave investigators a location where the missing remains were allegedly recovered. The wrapped body in the closet gave police a separate scene tied to the killing. The records available for review do not include autopsy findings, DNA results, surveillance footage, phone records or a complete list of seized items. Those gaps leave several facts unknown at the start of the prosecution.
Ebanks, 32, was arrested on one count of first-degree murder and one count of kidnapping. Police said he refused to speak with investigators. He was held on a $1 million bond, signaling the seriousness of the charges while the case moved into court. The first-degree murder count accuses him of the killing. The kidnapping count centers on what police say happened to the girlfriend after the attack, including the forced trip to his apartment and the shower under threat. Prosecutors had not publicly released a full charging narrative beyond the allegations summarized in the probable cause affidavit.
The rent dispute remains important because police describe it as the reason Ebanks came to the apartment. It does not explain all that followed. Investigators did not say whether Ebanks brought the blade with him, whether the confrontation was planned, or whether the victim knew he was armed. They also did not say whether the couple’s earlier fight led to any separate domestic violence investigation. The girlfriend’s statement that Ebanks stepped in after seeing the boyfriend get physical with her may become a central part of the case, but the charge filed against Ebanks alleges murder, not lawful defense.
What happened after the alleged stabbing may carry its own weight in court. Police said Ebanks did not call for help, report the violence or leave the scene after the attack. Instead, according to the affidavit, he directed a cleanup, hid the body and removed the head and hands in a suitcase. The woman’s father became the first person outside the apartment described as alerting police. That sequence could shape how prosecutors argue intent and consciousness of guilt. Defense filings, if any, were not included in the available reports, and Ebanks’ side of the story was not provided because police said he declined to speak.
Arizona authorities had not announced whether more evidence reports or additional charges would follow. Ebanks remained jailed on the murder and kidnapping counts, with the case tied to the May 7 apartment killing and the alleged recovery of remains from a suitcase at his apartment.
Author note: Last updated June 4, 2026.