Kriti Mehrotra
Although we’ve heard that domestic violence has unfortunately been on the rise among teenagers over the past few years, the case of Jholie Moussa makes the serious extent of it very evident. After all, as explored in the episode titled ‘She Was Hiding a Secret’ of ‘How I Caught My Killer’ season 2, she was brutally slain at the tender age of 16 at the hands of someone she once trusted.
Jholie Moussa Went Missing After Texting Her Twin About Attending a Party
While many are just starting to figure out what they wish to pursue following graduation at the age of 16, Mount Vernon High School student Jholie already had big dreams as well as aspirations. In fact, according to loved ones, this Alexandria-area, Fairfax County, resident who never once hesitated to shine her light upon others had hoped to attend New York University without a gap. Therefore, when Jholie suddenly disappeared upon leaving home on January 12, 2018 — having told her family she’d return in a short while — it baffled everyone to the very core.
She had texted her identical twin sister, Zhane Moussa, that she was going to a party nearly 200 miles and 3 hours away in Norfolk before never returning any call or text again. So, knowing it was completely unlike Jholie to suddenly stop communication and not return home without prior information, the Moussas filed a missing person’s report the very next morning. The local police had initially classified this teen as a runaway as they didn’t believe her to be in danger, only to quickly change their mindset upon learning the details of her recent personal life.
That’s how the FBI got involved in the search for Jholie a mere four days later. Regardless, despite everyone’s best efforts, it was her body that was recovered 14 days later, on January 25. She had been buried in a shallow grave under a pile of leaves deep in Woodlawn Park, and her subsequent autopsy ascertained she had been brutally beaten before being strangled to death.
The Killer Took Jholie Moussa’s Life in a Fit of Rage
According to reports, Jholie was in her first ever serious relationship with Nebiyu Ebrahim at the time of her homicide, but it was far from a perfect bond as he had a history of abusing her. It turns out he’d attacked her not once, not twice, but thrice in a period of several months, with the first involving him strangling her until he thought she was dead and simply walked away. Thankfully, she survived and went to the police, claiming he “would not allow her to break up with him,” just for it to result in him being kicked out of their high school, transferred to a special school, and ordered to stay away from her.
However, as per records, Nebiyu and Jholie didn’t stay away – they apparently continued their connection, and he managed to assault her once again, just for her to keep it quiet. The only person she told about this was allegedly a friend, just for him to then admittedly choke her to death in a blind rage and bury her in a shallow grave in a Mount Vernon park before returning a short while later to throw leaves over her body. According to Nebiyu’s own account with the police, she’d agreed to meet him in the park on that fateful night, and they argued until he snapped in the heat of the moment.
“I started choking her out more and more to the point where it was like – – like, I don’t know what drove me to the point,” he said. As if that’s not enough, Nebiyu then went into detail about how he only stopped once she lost consciousness and he realized she was dead, following which he dragged her into the woods and covered her with leaves without once calling for help. Then, when he was in the area again a few hours later, he returned to her burial spot and scattered even more leaves on her to ensure she wouldn’t be found. He even pulled her sim card and threw it in a nearby mountain with weights to ensure nobody could figure out they’d been in communication.
Nebiyu was hence immediately charged with Jholie’s first-degree murder, only for him to plead guilty to the same roughly a year later before being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 40 years. He did apologize for his actions during the sentencing hearing, but the court did not get swayed as they believed he was still trying to control the narrative. Then, the tearfully emotional yet powerful victim impact statements from Jholie’s mother and twin sister also helped the judge stick to the long sentence.
“In a way I feel like this was a distraction in the grieving process for us,” Jholie’s mother, Syreeta Seward, said, “and now we are going to another level of grieving…our lives will never be the same.” Then, her identical twin sister, Zhane Moussa, stated, “It’s been hell. It’s been human torture this whole entire thing how court works, it’s human torture and I am just so glad it’s over… I felt like you ruined my life, but I’m not giving you the power anymore. No one in this situation has to suffer but you. You think you won by ending my sister’s life, but you are in for a rude awakening.”
Read More: Nebiyu Ebrahim: Where is Jholie Moussa’s Killer Now?
