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5th and final arrest made in DC woman’s 2023 disappearance

A fifth and final person has been arrested and charged in the October 2023 disappearance of a D.C. woman, according to police.

Chyna Crawford, 25, of Southwest, was last seen around 10 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2023, in the 4000 block of South Capitol Street. A missing person report was filed Oct. 26, D.C. police said in a news release.

Later, police said there were suspicious circumstances surrounding Crawford’s disappearance.

On Friday, police announced a fifth arrest in the case. Niquan Odumn, 25, of Southeast D.C., has been charged with first-degree murder while armed, armed carjacking and armed robbery. Odumn was already being held in the D.C. jail at the time of his arrest.

It caps off a wave of recent arrests in the case.

After 32-year-old Lashawn Washington’s arrest in March 2024 on murder, kidnapping and obstruction of justice charges, no arrests were made in connection to Crawford’s disappearance until this year.

Deionta Person, 28, and Tyjuan McNeal, 29, both of Southeast, were arrested Thursday on the same charges as Odumn, and 31-year-old Bjarni Cooper, of Northeast, was arrested in January.

WTOP’s Tadiwos Abedje contributed to this report.

Washington archbishop removes priest as exorcist after comments on UFOs and demons

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons. McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti.
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