IA IA - Kenny Johnson, 14, Dubuque, 10 Oct 1987

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Marksgirljess

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In 1987, my fiance's younger brother, Kenny Joe, ran away from a group home and was murdered. His body was found wrapped in a carpet and dumped by a lake in Dubuque, IA. There is DNA evidence, as Kenny Joe was sexually assaulted before his death. Despite the presence of DNA, it seems as if there has been little progress in apprehending his killer in the more than 25 years since Kenny Joe died.

Here is a link to his case:

http://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/kenny-joe-johnson/

Any information or help you all may be able to offer would be of great comfort to my fiance and his siblings.
 
This is so sad -- if only Kenny had been able to stay with his mom and the horses, where things seemed to be improving for him. I bet his plan when he ran away was to head back there.

It is for certain that he ran away, right? I trust personnel at the group home/school were checked out ... . Am I understanding correctly that the estimated time of death indicated he was alive for a couple of days after last being seen at the school?

Really strange about the carpet, someone coming forward after so much time to say it had been theirs. I wonder if, what with the advances in DNA, etc., they grew worried that it might get linked to them and put them under suspicion for the murder -- or maybe they just wanted to clear things up after all those years.

Good that it sounds they DO have DNA! Also sounds like investigators/community have not forgotten about Kenny and are determined to do what it takes to find who killed him. I hope they will, soon.

Any other similar deaths in the area around that time? Maybe some WSers might recognize some detail that corresponds to another case.

Prayers and best wishes to all of Kenny's family.
 
What a sad little life for this little man :(
Would they just automatically run the DNA against the current data bases for
offenders?
 
You know what I'm thinking is MORE likely than the staff at this facility ? The other ' patients' or ' guests' or whatever term they used . Back then , not as much was known about the dangers of sexual abuse compared to today. They took troubled kids in but could have thought this kids' in trouble for a sex crime and this kids' in trouble for graffiti , why not house them all together? Know what I mean? I don't think there were as clear of divisions in those days between dangerous or deviant behaviors and more run of the mill ' acting out'. He might have had an older boy there who saw him leave or maybe he even told him I'm leaving and the older boy said he'd tag along.
 
Thats a thought.

His mom was horrible, from what i know. She put Kenny Joe and my fiance in group homes several times for being boys.

Regardless, i was curious if anyone saw similarities in time frame or victims or technique, etc. More than anything, some resolution to this would do a world of good for this family.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk 2
 
Marksgirl, do you think your fiance remembers what town that Hillcrest House was in? I'm googling for it like mad . I'm not sure if it's still operational today. tks !
 
I think it was in Dubuque, but i will ask him when he gets home.

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SCHMAE said:
http://www.hillcrest-fs.org/programs_services/

The article you put up top said Hillcrest House was run by Hillcrest Family Services, but I see no mention of that . So maybe they've changed the name or closed it down. tks !
Click to expand...

http://www.hillcrest-fs.org/about_hillcrest/history.cfm

" In 1979 a new youth cottage (Peterson Lodge) was constructed on the Hillcrest campus in Dubuque.
The 1980s

Hillcrest expanded its Iowa City programs in 1984 by opening a transitional residential rehabilitation program for both men and women with serious mental illness. The Hillcrest Special Education Program began in 1988 with the opening of an on-campus school designed to serve students in grades 7 - 12 with severe behavioral problems. Over the next decade it would expand to serve elementary, junior high and high school students. "

MUCH more at the link
 
Here's something I've been wondering. There are clear registries in every state of registered sex offenders, RSO's. But when someone is IN prison , they are not on that list. They don't have to register when they are in jail because , obviously, the state knows where they are. So it's difficult to search which pervs may have been active around that time. Also, I was thinking most ( not all) RSO's have a standard victim type, specific gender and approx age. I do not know if that would be the case in Kennys' death . If it was another boy living in the boys' home and this person were younger than 18 and possibly just beginning their sick life and Kenny was their first or very nearly first victim, then I don't know that would mean that person would stick with that age / gender of victim from then on. He may have just had a ' golden' opportunity . However , if it is not a boy from the school and a perv in the community, then Kenny would fit into his victim type. Sadly, with so much time passed that person could have moved many , many times so while looking in the immediate area is a good idea, it doesn't necessarily mean much if a match is not found there. If he go away with it way back then , he likely got the heck out of town at his first chance .


To MARKSGIRLJESS , does your fiance have an investigator he's been in touch with recently ? It's been so long and that police department has probably very few, if any , of the same people working that it did back then. If he hasn't already, I'd think he should contact whichever department handled this back then and tell them he's interested in getting some action on that case and find a friendly voice inside that's willing to help that he can correspond with !
 
:rose: Kenny is our featured cold case from 6/2/2013 to 6/9/2013 :rose:
 
This has probably been brought up, but -- was just thinking about Johnny Gosch being abducted in 1982, Eugene Wade 1984, Marc Allen 1986. Of course they were from Des Moines and never found.
 
http://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/kenny-joe-johnson/

This article also includes a semi profile they made of the killer. I say semi because it wasn't detailed; but it does state that the killer is most likely to be a local. (That's what I'd assume anyways). If I can find out where/who the carpet came from we could see about people in that general area.
 
You know what's odd?
I pulled up NAMuS to see if there were any other disappearances also matching Kenny's profile and there were two cases that shouted out to me right away.
Eugene Martin MP#6348 disappeared/reported missing on a Sunday 8/12/84
Marc Allen MP#5790, disappeared/reported missing on a Saturday 3/29/86
Kenny Joe Date found 10/10/87 (assuming he was there the night before (traces of alcohol in his system) Friday night to Saturday..

Do we have a probable serial killer on our hands? A weekender? Someone centrally located or moved northward?
Des Moines to Dubuque is a 3 hour stretch but what if this guy moved around?
Like to Cedar Rapids or Iowa city? Cutting travel time either way in 1/2.

Just theorizing.. My own opinion.
 
I am just taking this all on right now, making notes and doing some research. Thank you thank you.

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I would like to ask if there were any men in the mother’s life at the time of Kenny's death. Is it possible he made it back to the area he was from? It's common for a pedophile to watch movies and drink with their victims before killing them. I guess it just makes me feel like he was with someone he knew... at least felt like he knew.

Sad for his family. I hope they find who is responsible soon.
 
That is great there is DNA evidence. You would think with all this passage of time that the perp would be in the system by now. Are all DNA linked in a system? If you are in prison or arrested is your DNA on file?
 
I wonder if Tommy Lynn Sells ever provided a DNA sample?
He Committed a murder about a month after KJJ was found. The Dardeen Family~ in Ida, Illinois (11/18/1987)
Knowing him to be a drifter/train hopper/traveler at random with the carnival; as well as a victim of sexual abuse, I would say that he's high on my suspect list. Not only for KJJ, but the two other boys' abductions as well.
Here is a link that I believe supports my theory:

http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sells-tommy-lynn.htm

what do you guys think?
 
danzn16 said:
That is great there is DNA evidence. You would think with all this passage of time that the perp would be in the system by now. Are all DNA linked in a system? If you are in prison or arrested is your DNA on file?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure which crimes requires prisoners to submit a DNA sample; but there is a DNA system that links LE to all DNA ever submitted here is the link that will tell you more about it :)

Combined DNA Index System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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