Justine Johnson: Michigan mom stabs daughter, 3, to death and stuffs her in trash bag
OSCODA, MICHIGAN: A Michigan mother is accused of having stabbed her three-year-old daughter to death and stuffing her lifeless body into a garbage bag.
Justine Johnson, 22, was arrested after her brother spotted the child’s foot poking out of the bag inside their home in Oscoda, Iosco County, about 190 miles north of Detroit, last Friday. The brother called 911 at about 4 am to alert the police. The affidavit states that the day before finding the bag, he had asked Johnson where the child was and she told him to mind his business.
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We have reported many similar cases in the past. Texas woman Tisha Sanchez killed her eight-year-old son with a pillow because "demons told her to sacrifice him," and another Florida mother, Cheyanne Jessie, killed her father, six-year-old daughter as "boyfriend didn't like child." Another Las Vegas mother, named Jovan Trevino, killed her one-year-old daughter and four-year-old son by drowning them.
Responding officers found the child’s body stuffed inside the bag when they searched the home. The toddler had suffered multiple stab wounds to her torso. Johnson wasn’t home when police made the grim discovery but they managed to track her down some four hours later walking on railroad tracks near her home.
The mother allegedly told officers she didn’t want to speak about her daughter’s death. The little girl lived primarily with her grandmother, but Johnson would visit frequently, according to police. It remained unclear how the child came to live with her grandmother.
The girl's grandmother, Alisa Johnson, said she believes her daughter is innocent and would never have hurt her young child. “Justine loved Sutton with all her heart. She’d never let anybody hurt that baby,” she said.
"It's unusual to have something like this in a town like this, this is a close-knit community," local laundromat owner Martin Gayeski said. "She was a customer here, I knew who she was, shocked me because she didn’t seem to be that kind of a person." Johnson was arraigned, facing two criminal charges, including felony murder.