A Clark Atlanta University student who disappeared from her home nine days ago has been found dead in a suburban Atlanta park, according to Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields in a news conference Friday afternoon.
Alexis Crawford, 21, had last been seen on the evening of Oct. 30 before her family reported her missing two days later.
Shields said in a news conference Friday afternoon that warrants are being issued for the arrest of Crawford’s roommate Jordyn Jones, 21 and Jones’ boyfriend Barron Brantley, 21 in connection with the young woman’s death. The roommate was the last person to have reported seeing Crawford alive. Shields also said that Crawford previously had reported unwanted kissing and touching from her roommate’s boyfriend. The report against Brantley was filed just 3 days before Crawford’s disappearance.
Jones and Brantley are expected to be charged with murder.
In the last photos of Crawford seen alive, she was shown inside a liquor store at 595 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd in southwest Atlanta with a pink sweatshirt on.
The Atlanta University Center collectively mourn the loss of a member of their community. Clark Atlanta University’s President Dr. George T. French Jr. released a statement via Twitter.
Since her vanishing, the woman’s family and friends had been desperate to find her, with her disappearance prompting the hashtag #LETSFINDLEX.
Volunteers also gathered Tuesday to search an overgrown area across the street from her off-campus apartment.
Activist and spokesman for the family Rev. Markel Hutchins said at a press conference Monday Crawford had “recently experienced some things that no young woman should never have to experience.”
He did not elaborate then, but said the HBCU student went missing under what her family described as a “difficult set of circumstances.”
Police spoke with Crawford’s relatives, as well as the roommate who reported last seeing the young woman in their apartment around 12:30 a.m. before Halloween. The pair had gone on a liquor store run that night, but the roommate said when she woke up for class the next morning Crawford was gone.
The front door was locked, and Crawford’s phone, ID and debit card were missing from the apartment, authorities said.
