Ebby Jane Steppach

Ebby Jane Steppach, born March 31, 1997, was an 18-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas. On the evening of October 24, 2015, she told her stepfather that she had been gang-raped by four individuals at a party she had attended, that the assault had been recorded on video, and that she wanted to report it to authorities. Two brief calls were made from her phone to police that evening, though the Little Rock Police Department reported having no record of receiving a report. The following afternoon, around 2 p.m. on October 25, Steppach made her last known contact: a phone call to her older brother, Trevor, in which she sounded disoriented and, according to family accounts, said she was lost and could not find her car. The call ended, and she was never heard from again.

On October 27, 2015, her 2003 Volkswagen Passat was found abandoned in Chalamont Park in west Little Rock. According to case reporting, the car had an empty gas tank, a dead battery, and the key left in the ignition, with personal belongings including her phone and purse inside. Steppach was reported missing and the case was investigated as an endangered missing person. The four men she had accused spoke with police, but according to Wikipedia's account of the investigation, no formal searches of their cell phones were conducted for the alleged video. Her family publicly criticized aspects of the early investigation, appeared on the Dr. Phil show in December 2017 to raise awareness, and offered a $50,000 reward for information.

On May 22, 2018, cold case investigators conducting follow-up work at Chalamont Park discovered skeletal remains inside an underground drainage pipe that opened near where Steppach's car had been found. A police spokesman said investigators acted on instinct during the renewed search; the park had last been searched in November 2016. The Arkansas State Crime Lab confirmed on May 23, 2018 that the remains were Steppach's. Her death was subsequently classified as a homicide, though the cause of death has not been publicly disclosed. No arrests have been made, and while investigators have referenced persons of interest over the years, no one has been charged in her death.

In 2024, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin established a Cold Case Unit within his office's Special Investigations Division, and the unit began working with the Little Rock Police Department on the Steppach case, reviewing the case file, conducting new interviews, and pursuing modern DNA testing opportunities. On the tenth anniversary of her disappearance in October 2025, investigators announced a new lead and asked the public whether anyone had seen Steppach near 53rd Street and University Avenue in Little Rock between Saturday, October 24 and the early morning hours of October 25, 2015. Her mother, Laurie Jernigan, has continued to advocate for the case through the 'Justice for Ebby Jane' social media campaign, and investigators encourage anyone with information to contact the Little Rock Police Department or submit tips to ebbytips@gmail.com. The case remains unsolved.