2nd person charged after missing Warrensville Heights woman found dead in Cleveland

Audreona Barnes, 19-year-old Warrensville Heights woman missing since July 2021.
Audreona Barnes, 19-year-old Warrensville Heights woman missing since July 2021.(Katie Tercek)
Published: Apr. 18, 2022 at 8:24 AM EDT
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Court records obtained by 19 News show a second person has been charged in connection to the death of Audreona Barnes, a Warrensville Heights woman who was missing for several months before being found dead on March 17.

Cleveland police said Barnes’ body was discovered by a cleaning worker on an apartment balcony in the 4300 block of Warner Road in the city’s Broadway - Slavic Village neighborhood.

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas records show Marquetta Wallace, 34, was indicted on March 31 on one count of gross abuse of a corpse.

Barnes’ boyfriend, identified by police as Bennie Washington, 39, was arrested March 19 and is being held without bond.

Bennie Washington at arraignment
Bennie Washington at arraignment(Source: WOIO)

Washington has been indicted on charges of aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping, felonious assault, gross abuse of a corpse and having weapons under disability, according to court records.

Washington will appear in court Monday for a pretrial conference, the records said, and Wallace is due in court on Friday for arraignment.

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