She argued with her boyfriend for hours. Now, new details into her disappearance

When Brandy Ebanez’s two daughters came home from school on a mid-September afternoon, they heard their parents fighting in a bedroom.

They turned on the television to tune out the screaming. Amid the bangs and thumps coming from the room, they went to bed to the sounds of the arguing.

Neither girl saw their mother alive again.

Recently-filed court documents share new details about Ebanez’s murder and the steps their father Richard Jacobsen, 34, is accused of taking to hide her body.

Jacobsen, who also is listed in court filings as Jacobson, remains in the Multnomah County, Ore., jail awaiting extradition to Benton County to face second-degree murder, violating a protection order and assault.

A $1 million warrant has been issued for the murder charge.

Ebanez’s body was discovered on Sept. 27 about 100 yards east of the cable bridge by an off-duty Kennewick police officer who was fishing.

She was naked, wrapped in black plastic, with two large landscaping-style rocks tied to her feet.

The 34-year-old mother of two was 16 to 20 weeks pregnant, according to the autopsy.

Ebanez’s friends have said she was a victim of domestic violence, claiming Jacobsen had cut her off from contacting friends.

Bricks, plastic and gloves

While no one saw what happened in the bedroom, Jacobsen was seen on camera on Sept. 21 buying the items he allegedly used to try and conceal her body.

Home Depot security footage shows him buying contractor trash bags, black duct tape, nitrile gloves and a 36-inch blue bungee cord at 10:50 a.m.

He returned to Home Depot at 6:22 p.m. and and bought two specialized planter wall bricks and a hand truck, according to court records.

The bricks were the same style as the ones found tied to Ebanez’s body. And that type of brick had been purchased just four other times that month, according to court documents.

Police also asked for the cellphone records from the two girls’ cellphones. The younger girl’s phone was tracked to the east boat at Columbia Park early on Sept. 22 between 4:50 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Jacobsen had that phone with him when he was arrested in Portland.

Investigators also say they discovered a glove that tested positive for blood and small pieces of brick in the trunk of Ebanez’s green Honda Civic that Jacobsen was driving when he was arrested.

When police found Jacobsen driving the Honda Civic in Oregon, a blue bungee cord was holding down the front hood of the car.

Previous assault reports

Court records show that apartment complex neighbors reported hearing the couple arguing frequently in the past.

Earlier in April, Ebanez called police after he grabbed her by the hair, pulled her off the bed and strangled her until she passed out. Police arrested him, according to court documents.

The attack was enough to land Jacobson in the Benton County jail for fourth-degree domestic violence assault. A month later, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a month in jail that he had already served and to undergo mental health treatment.

The judge ordered him to stay 500 feet away from their apartment he shared with the girls, who were 12 and 9 at the time.

But on Sept. 5, police found him at the apartment when he allegedly attacked a neighbor. He was charged with assault and violating a protection order.

He was initially being held on $5,000 bail. Judge Jacqueline Stam allowed him to be released without bail on Sept. 9 despite Deputy Prosecutor Josh Lilly arguing that bail should remain at $5,000.

Court documents don’t detail when Jacobsen returned to the apartment or when their daughters heard the fight, but it was the final time anyone reported hearing her.

On the morning after the fight, Jacobsen’s now 13-year-old daughter asked her dad where their mother was. He said she had left to be with another man and to do drugs, according to court documents.

While the older daughter didn’t believe him. She told investigators this wasn’t the first time her mother had left for a few days because of a fight with Jacobsen.

Jacobsen spent the next several days cleaning the apartment, much of that time he focused on the bedroom. He also made several calls to Ebanez’s employer to collect her pay, according to court documents.

Prosecutors don’t say where she was working at the time, but she had worked at Fieldstone Memory Care for a time.

Leaving Washington

Then, Jacobsen told the girls he was taking them to Oregon for what was supposed to be a couple days. He took them to an arcade and to have their hair cut, and the rest of time they spent at their half-brother’s home in Portland.

Jacobsen later told the girls that they might move to Oregon or Texas.

The older girl continued to ask where their mother was, but he continued to say that he didn’t know and that she was with another man.

Two days after Ebanez’s body surfaced, Jacobsen was arrested in Portland on a warrant for a protection order violation while making food deliveries, according to court documents.

And Ebanez’s mother asked for an emergency court hearing to get custody of the girls.

This story was originally published November 15, 2022 at 12:58 PM.