Murder warrant issued for man suspected of killing girlfriend, dumping her body in river
A warrant for murder was issued Thursday for the Tri-Cities man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and dumping her body in the Columbia River. The move comes more than a month after he was arrested in Oregon.
The nationwide warrant for second-degree murder, with bail set at $1 million, was issued for Richard Jacobsen, according to a news release from the Kennewick Police Department.
Jacobsen, 34, was arrested in the Portland area just three days after Brandy Ebanez’s body was spotted in the Columbia River on Sept. 27 by an off-duty Kennewick police officer who was fishing in the area.
Investigators said she was wrapped in plastic and weighted down.
After she was found, investigators discovered Jacobsen had fled their apartment and their two daughters were also missing.
Jacobsen’s initial arrest was on a fugitive warrant for a protection order violation.
He had been charged on Sept. 6 with second-degree assault with substantial bodily injury. Jacobsen’s name is also spelled Jacobson in some court documents.
He was located in the Portland area, where investigators say his family lives, after the FBI was able to track his cellphone and the phone of one of the children missing at the time, according to court documents.
He is expected to be extradited back to Benton County, Wash., in the near future, according to the release.
While the initial autopsy didn’t determine how she died, a pathologist found she had a broken bone in her neck and head injuries, according to court documents. The mother of two also was 16 to 20 weeks pregnant.
She had no water in her lungs so investigators have ruled out drowning and believe she was killed before being dumped into the river, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Benton County for Jacobsen’s arrest.
Cameron Probert contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 6:48 PM.
