MO MO - 'Johnny Lee Mills' aka 'Steven L Johnson' & 'Randi Smith', 13, Maryland Heights, 21 Sep 1990

[iulia]

His NamUs page is down at the moment.

 

[Diavola]

Bump, his NamUs is still down.

 

[Nell91]

Bump

 

[bflocket]

He was moved to DoeNetwork's closed cases page on 11/14/2023 without much of an explanation at all.

Johnny Lee Mills​

Johnny Lee Mills (111DMMO) was reported missing on September 21, 1990. His case was closed per NamUs. No further information is known.

 

[LucyOso]

Any updates?

 

[Ciriii57]

Sorry if this is stupid, I just wanted to ask, is "working the truck stops" a reference to sex work? I never heard this before. I never imagined truck drivers being so openly into picking up boys when their peers might see?
Having never been to a truck stop, is there anything else it could be?
Sorry if that's dumb.

Since he was used to truckers, I guess after running away from the kids shelter the natural thing woukd be to hitch a ride in a truck out of the area. He could have gone anywhere, or met any dangerous trucker. Were there any truckers found to have been preying on young men at that time?

 

[Irishknit]

Sorry if this is stupid, I just wanted to ask, is "working the truck stops" a reference to sex work? I never heard this before. I never imagined truck drivers being so openly into picking up boys when their peers might see?
Having never been to a truck stop, is there anything else it could be?
Sorry if that's dumb.

Since he was used to truckers, I guess after running away from the kids shelter the natural thing woukd be to hitch a ride in a truck out of the area. He could have gone anywhere, or met any dangerous trucker. Were there any truckers found to have been preying on young men at that time?

Not stupid at all. Yes, working the truck stops is part of sex work lingo. The overnight lots are dim, and the majority are sleeping to make their quota hours of rest between hours driving. It is also a "mind your own business" atmosphere.

 

[Ciriii57]

Not stupid at all. Yes, working the truck stops is part of sex work lingo. The overnight lots are dim, and the majority are sleeping to make their quota hours of rest between hours driving. It is also a "mind your own business" atmosphere.

Thanks so much! I would never have imagined this! Every day is a school day!

 

[Moev]

Thought it was worth mentioning a few weeks ago I had talked to someone through Reddit who mentioned being in a group home in the same area of someone who looked like Johnny Lee Millis. Might have been the same group home, know it was in the St Louis area though which was where he was.

They mentioned if this was him his name was Mike Hembrough and he had a tendency to run off from the group homes and use different aliases.. usually at some point they'd figure out it was him and send him back into them.

He had a brother named Joe but he seemed looking through the web to also use the name Joeseph Hemburough. Which Joeseph looks a lot like the age progressions of Tommy Lee Mills based off a few Facebook profiles I could find looking around.

They told me they were planning on sending some kind of report to local police, but I haven't heard anything back in the past few weeks.

 

[Moev]

Thought it was worth mentioning a few weeks ago I had talked to someone through Reddit who mentioned being in a group home in the same area of someone who looked like Johnny Lee Millis. Might have been the same group home, know it was in the St Louis area though which was where he was.

They mentioned if this was him his name was Mike Hembrough and he had a tendency to run off from the group homes and use different aliases.. usually at some point they'd figure out it was him and send him back into them.

He had a brother named Joe but he seemed looking through the web to also use the name Joeseph Hemburough. Which Joeseph looks a lot like the age progressions of Tommy Lee Mills based off a few Facebook profiles I could find looking around.

They told me they were planning on sending some kind of report to local police, but I haven't heard anything back in the past few weeks.

Thought I would mention since it’s been many months that I never heard anything back but I definitely believe that Michael Hembrough was the guy..

Thought I would include a few mugshots I could find of his brother Joseph in comparison to the age progressions..

Very similar eyes, nose, lips…

Thought it was worth mentioning if Michael Hembrough truly is Johnny Lee Mills he’s still alive and has a lengthy criminal record.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/cnet/nameSearchResult.do?courtType=SW&countyCode=&newSearch=Y&essn=&courtCode=SW&lastName=Hembrough+&inclAlias=true&_inclAlias=on&firstName=Michael+&middleName=&caseType=All&yearFiled=

 

[AliceInPain]

Is it just me or have NCMEC's recons become seriously bad. As opposed to just bad.
Kids don't seem to be of the same generation to me? Joe and Johnny.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Is it just me or have NCMEC's recons become seriously bad. As opposed to just bad.
Kids don't seem to be of the same generation to me? Joe and Johnny.

I’d say NCMEC age progressions have definitely improved from what they were in the 1980s-2000s. I think mugshot and AP look similar IMO.