A pair of 14-year-old women have been arrested for first-degree homicide in reference to the brutal slaying of a 93-year-old Kansas girl over Labor Day weekend final 12 months.
The kids had been arrested on Thursday for the demise of Joanne Johnson. Kansas Bureau of Investigation stated that they’re now being held at separate juvenile detention facilities.
‘How did one thing like this occur right here?’ the lady’s grieving son Tim Johnson instructed KWCH. ‘It is a peaceable, tree-lined road that is in a neighborhood in the course of a 9,000-person city.’
Though authorities declined to establish the suspects as a result of they’re minors, they did reveal that they had been from the identical city because the sufferer.
In September 2023, Joanne Johnson was discovered useless at her dwelling on Robbins St. in Augusta.
A pair of 14-year-old women have been arrested for first-degree homicide in reference to the brutal slaying of a 93-year-old Kansas girl over Labor Day weekend final 12 months
In September 2023, Joanne Johnson was discovered useless at her dwelling on Robbins St. in Augusta
Investigators shortly dominated her demise a murder and decided that the sufferer, who lived alone, was killed someplace between Saturday night, September 2, and Sunday night, September 3.
Tim Johnson has struggled to make sense of the stunning improvement within the case.
He described his mom’s alleged homicide by two fourteen-year-old women as ‘inexplicable.’
Tim likened the state of affairs to ‘getting struck by lightning on a cloudless day.’
‘The household has no phrases, or means to know what has occurred,’ the assertion, reported on by KWCH, concluded.
Investigators shortly dominated her demise a murder and decided that the sufferer, who lived alone, was killed someplace between Saturday night, September 2, and Sunday night, September 3
Johnson’s physique was found by members of her household.
Though her family members had been at a loss for a motive, it was evident to them that the crime was brutal and calculated.
‘To have an inexplicable, brutal, mindless murder- it is extremely arduous,’ he continued, earlier than including: ‘I do not assume we nonetheless can course of it.’
In Could, eight months after the homicide, Johnson’s household and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly every put up $5,000 for a complete $10,000 reward for any data resulting in the arrest and conviction of these accountable.
The latest arrests of the 2 teenaged women have left Johnson’s household, in addition to the broader Augusta group, shocked.
In Could, eight months after the homicide, Johnson’s household and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly every put up $5,000 for a complete $10,000 reward for any data resulting in the arrest and conviction of these accountable
The sufferer’s family members, nevertheless, additionally indicated that they’re ready to search out some type of decision.
For the previous 12 months, Johnson’s household and the remainder of the city has lived in a state of perpetual concern, as these answerable for the brutal homicide remained at giant.
In consequence, the arrests of the 2 teenage women has introduced a modicum of aid to the heartbroken group.
‘We simply beloved her and this was essentially the most devastating factor for our block, our neighborhood,’ Holly Randol, Johnson’s former neighbor, instructed KWCH.
Randol added: ‘Nonetheless heartbroken that this complete factor needed to occur. It was youngsters, youngsters. My coronary heart is simply damaged.’
The sufferer’s household stated that they have no idea the ladies who’ve been arrested.
Regardless of the age of the murderers, Johnson’s family members hope that the punishment might be commensurate with the brutality of the crime.
The sufferer’s son described the road on which his mom lived as ‘peaceable’ and ‘tree-lined’
Johnson has been bear in mind as a sort particular person and an exemplary member of her group
Tim Johnson remembers his mom as a sort particular person and an exemplary member of her group.
‘She was the the kind of one who was all the time excited about different individuals…She would discuss to you for a pair minutes and he or she’d know the place you’re from, the place you went to high school, what you had been doing and what you wished to do,’ he instructed KWHC.
‘The following time she’d discuss to you she’d bear in mind each a kind of issues, , the kind of particular person a number of us aspire to be, I do know I do.’
Presently, formal expenses are pending and the investigation is ongoing.
