DC Police Make Final Arrest in Chyna Crawford Murder Case

Police say they have made the fifth and final arrest in the Chyna Crawford case, closing out a sprawling homicide probe that began when the 25-year-old vanished from Southwest Washington in October 2023 and her gray Mercedes-Benz disappeared with her.

Crawford was last seen at about 10 p.m. on October 23, 2023, in the 4000 block of South Capitol Street Southwest. She was reported missing on October 26, 2023, and by November, the Metropolitan Police Department had moved the case into its major-crimes unit after spotting suspicious circumstances. The missing woman’s gray 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550, with Virginia temporary tag 998859V, was also gone.

The first arrest came on March 26, 2024, when police charged Lashawn Washington with first-degree felony murder, kidnapping and obstruction of justice. That case then widened in January 2026, when U.S. Marshals arrested Bjarni Cooper and charged him with first-degree felony murder, conspiracy, armed carjacking and armed robbery. By February, prosecutors had filed a 126-count D.C. Superior Court indictment tied to the case.

That indictment alleged that Washington, Cooper and Tyjuan McNeal purposely and with deliberate and premeditated malice killed Crawford by shooting her with a firearm. Police then announced arrests of Deionta Person and McNeal on April 2, 2026, before adding the fifth suspect, Niquan Odumn, on April 3 while he was already in custody at D.C. Jail. MPD said Odumn was charged under the same Superior Court indictment and sent back to the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections.

The final arrest matters because it shows where investigators have landed: this was not being treated as an isolated disappearance, but as a coordinated killing with robbery and carjacking layered on top. MPD Commander Kevin Kentish said police believe Crawford was murdered and then moved to a location where her body was dumped, but investigators still do not know where that location is. That missing piece has kept the case open even as the arrests piled up.

Crawford’s family has spent more than two years waiting for answers. In a NBC4 interview, a family member said, “we are happy that evil people, you know, are now in custody, and we will be getting justice very soon.” The arrests have brought the case into the courtroom, but the central mystery remains the same: where Crawford was taken after she disappeared, and what happened in the final moments before police say her body was dumped.