Who Murdered The Little Rock Girl, Ebby Steppach?

📸Ebby Jane Steppach📸

"And I said, hey, what's on your mind?

I think about my life without you and I start to cry

And I said, hey, it's alright

We'll make it

I love you and I'll never leave your side.." 

Circles by Pierce the Veil

“Ebster”, “Ebjane” and “Ebby Jane” was a joy to have around. She was bubbly, had a big heart and was loyal. Ebby was known for going out of her way to help the ones she loved. She saw the best in people and loved anyone who came into her life with a fierceness that was unmatched. Ebby loved the Lord and cared so much for others especially if she felt they had been wronged. 

Ebby loved children, the color purple, good music and hot pockets. She loved dressing up with lipstick and the newest hair styles. 

Ebby was beautiful in a dress or in a ball cap and her laugh was contagious. 

She never left a room unless she knew you were smiling. If there was a disagreement, she always asked for forgiveness to make things right. Ebby's family was so important to her. She adored her grandparents and loved spending time with them. She was from a family of talented artists and loved photography most. She was a true artist.

One of Ebby's favorite places to visit was the beach. She loved the sand, the ocean, the wind and collecting seashells. 

During a vacation, when Ebby was 10 years old, a tropical depression was going to last for seven days. Ebby wanted to go out to play and her mom said “We’re praying the storm away.” She walked right out into the storm and “prayed it away” and the family watched the sun come out and the rest of the week was full of sunshine.

Ebby and her mother were very close. “I knew when she took a breath, her first breath, that we would be close and that she would be a very special young lady. Sometimes a mother just knows what their child can’t say and we were like that. The beach was one of our favorite places and I will always feel as if she’s still there with me," said Ebby's mom.

She was born on March 31st, 1997 in Little Rock, Arkansas to Laurie and Peter Steppach. Growing up she lived with her mother, her stepfather, Michael Jernigan; her older brother, Trevor; and her younger sister, Harris.

When it came to her education, Ebby spent most of her life attending charter schools, before transferring to Central High School in Little Rock during her senior year in 2015. She was to be a 2016 Central High School graduate and her dream was to be a cosmetologist and real estate agent. She was studying two languages, Spanish and Turkish, and was learning Hebrew with her “Grandma Debi”. During this time in her life, she also got a job at the Foot Locker in McCain Mall, a move her family says coincided with a change in behavior.

Ebby was 18 and her decision to transfer schools had come after she began dating a new boyfriend. She started being late for school, but her parents never addressed this with her, wanting to give her more independence. She also had moved out of her parents’ house, mainly staying at her grandparents' houses and that of a friend from her time at LISA Academy.

On October 21st, 2015, Ebby missed school.

On the night of October 23rd, 2015, Ebby attended a house party to kick off the weekend. According to a text sent to her friend, Gage Fulton, Ebby said she had felt forced into a sexual encounter. She also mentioned it had been recorded on a cell phone without her knowledge or consent.

On October 24th, Ebby texted her stepfather and told him what happened. She wanted to report the incident to authorities. 

Later that evening, when her mother and stepfather attempted to reach her by phone, they got no response. Phone records also showed that Ebby texted the men implicated, threatening to report them to the authorities.

Michael text his stepdaughter and told her he would meet her at her grandparents’ house, where she was reportedly staying at the time. He received no response. When he called the grandparents house to ask if Ebby was there, her grandparents said she had left to go and meet him. However, the pair had made no arrangements to meet away from the house.

On October 25th, at around 2:00 p.m., Trevor managed to get a hold of his sister. He described her as seeming "disoriented" during their conversation. She told Trevor that she was parked outside his house. Trevor was relieved and hung up the phone. He went to his front door, but found neither his sister nor her car were outside. He then called her back. Ebby admitted that she was in her car, but didn't know where it was parked. She told him "I'm fucked up,"  and then the phone call ended. 

Ebby was never heard from again.

Trevor immediately called the police and told them to look for Ebby's car. They listed her as runaway and no search was conducted, despite her family saying she would never run away and not talk to them. 

Concerned, the family conducted their own search for Ebby, but had no luck in finding her.

On October 27, Ebby's 2003 Volkswagen Passat was discovered by security guard, Guy Hooper, abandoned in a parking lot near a wooded area in a neighborhood park named Chalamont Park. After Guy notified police, he waited 2 hours for an officer to arrive however none did. 

The next day, Ebby's car was still there, after seeing the vehicle still Guy once again called police. They finally arrived around an hour later and discovered it belonged to Ebby. The car had an empty gas tank as well as a dead battery, and the key had been left in the ignition. Her clothes, makeup and cellphone were all left in the car as well her contact lenses that she couldn't see without.

Ebby's family was devastated. They hoped that she would have been found inside her car, alive and probably a little messed up, but ok. And they still can't convince police that she is not a runaway.

When Ebby’s parents received her car back from Little Rock Police, the interior and many of her personal belongings were water damaged due to the trunk being left open during a storm by police. Her stepfather meticulously photographed the inside of the car and her belongings.

Surveillance footage was located about a week after Ebby went missing, which showed her car travelling along Cantrell Road in west Little Rock. However, where she was on the road has never been publicly released, nor if there was anyone else in the car with her.

Ebby's family approached the media to help try to find her as well as creating a Facebook group called, Official: Find Ebby Steppach to help spread awareness via social media. Her family hired private investigator Monty Vickers. 

Vickers initially hesitated to take the case, but once he saw the shotty investigation he knew he had to get involved. He began to track Ebby's last known movements before she disappeared. He  searched areas around the accused men’s homes, ditches, the woods and other areas that someone could dump a body.

Five months into the investigation, he spoke with Guy, who said it was the first anyone had contacted him about his discovery of Ebby's car. He also told Monty that he believed he’d seen Ebby three different times before her disappearance. The first time he saw her, she was with two young black men and had asked the trio to leave, which they did without argument. The second time, she was with another black man in the backseat of her car. The final time she was with more unknown men. All three times there was one constant man, whom Guy said was hugging and kissing Ebby. He was about 5'6"-5'7" with long dreads. 

In November 2015, the family offered up a $3,000 reward for information leading to her discovery. 

In April 2016, volunteers searched for Ebby, beginning in the area near where her car was found and moving toward a wooded area near Markham and Bowman. 

By June, 2016, the Little Rock Police Department began investigating the case as more than a runaway and handed her case over to the Violent Crimes Division. 

Ebby’s mother said Little Rock Police couldn't check which tower Ebby’s phone pinged off when she made the final call to her brother due to a lack of resources. After that, Ebby’s family wrote letters to the governor begging for help. The FBI voluntarily got involved but crucial evidence had already been lost.

In November 2016, police searched Chalamont Park. Searches stumbled on a site consisting of clothes, handcuffs, a shoe and what a apeared to be a skeletal leg bone of a human were found. It was later determined the leg bone belonged to an animal and this had nothing to so with Ebby's disappearance.

By 2017, the men implicated in Ebby’s rape were spoken to by investigators, but there were no formal searches of their cellphones for the alleged video of her rape.

Also in 2017, Ebby's  mother and brother Trevor appeared on Dr. Phil as well as Nancy Grace. The Steppach family offered a reward of $50,000 with information leading to their daughter's discovery. By this time, Ebby’s face and information were featured on billboards and banners across central Arkansas.

True Crime Daily picked up the cause to help find out what happened to Ebby. True Crime Daily showed Guy a mug shot of sex traffickers that were picked up in La two-state prostitution ring that transported young women from Little Rock to Bossier City for sexual purposes. Guy recognized two of the criminals. He claimed that both of the sex traffickers were among those men he had seen with Ebby. 

One of them was 21-year-old Keith Pruiett of Little Rock. He was the man that Guy had seen with Ebby all three times. 

The other man was 23-year-old Gary Jackson.

On February 12th, 2018, after waiting for Ebby's case to change departments to the Cold Case Unit, Laurie filed a complaint with the Little Rock Police Department. A Captain, a Lieutenant and a Sergeant had sent her threatening text messages, had yelled at her during questioning and had refused to update her on the case during the early days of the investigation. Had recordings of conversations, text message threads, emails and witnesses to back up her claims. Despite this, there was “insufficient evidence” of any mistreatment. However, the officers implicated were no longer with the Major Crimes Unit.

On May 24th, 2018, a gruesome discovery happened at around 10 a.m. The Cold Case Unit teamed up with the FBI and the Public Works Department were performing another search of Chalamont Park when. Investigators were close to Ebby's car, using robot's with video cameras when they noticed an obstruction about 70 feet down a drainage pipe. 

When they dug up the pipe they discovered skeletal remains, which later were positively identified as Ebby's.

Margie Foley, a family friend and mother of one of Ebby’s best friends, claimed that she had smelled decomposition while previously doing a private search of the same area and alerted the authorities. Upon the arrival of police, Foley claimed she was “kind of dismissed” by the officers. They told her the park had been searched with recovery canines who would have picked up on the scent of human decomposition, and assured her it “must be an animal or something.” Ebby’ family were unaware of this until after the remains were ID’d.

On April 17th, 2019, Ebby’s older brother, Trevor, died from a massive heart attack at just 35 years old.

Tommy Hudson with the Little Rock police’s Cold Case Unit said the case is considered an open homicide investigation. He also said the medical examiner has determined a preliminary cause of death. But that information will not be released, to avoid jeopardizing the case.

If you have any information regarding the murder of Ebby Steppach, please contact the Little Rock Police department at 501-371-4829.

RIP EBBY JANE