Jean Johnson 2/24/2007, Tennessee

Closure still awaited by missing woman's family
By Ben Garrett, Editor
February 26, 2009

Two years have passed since Jean Johnson disappeared from her Ditney Trail home, but her family has not stopped searching for the whereabouts of their missing loved one.


On Tuesday, supporters from the community gathered with Johnson’s family in the Oneida First Trust & Savings Bank parking lot — where Johnson’s van was discovered five days after authorities believe she was abducted and murdered — for a candlelight vigil. It marked the second consecutive year that her family and friends have gathered on the anniversary of her disappearance, a gesture that is symbolic of the ongoing search for her whereabouts.


“It’s a never-ending search,” Johnson’s daughter, Dorothy Taylor, said. “There is no way to heal until she’s found.”


Johnson, who would have celebrated her 68th birthday last Thanksgiving Day, had planned to travel to her boyfriend’s home in Stearns, Ky., on Feb. 24, 2007. However, his mother became ill, prompting her to return to her Ditney Trail home. At around 10 p.m. that night, her brother — Carl Harness — phoned her to make arrangements for her to join him at his Somerset flea market booth the following day. That was the last contact any of her family had with her.


Video surveillance from businesses in the Oneida Plaza would later reveal that Johnson’s van was delivered to the parking lot behind First Trust & Savings Bank by an unidentified male individual the following morning. Authorities say they believe that man was Doug Whisnant, Johnson’s ex-husband, who has since been indicted for her murder. He is scheduled to stand trial on those charges on March 30, and continues to maintain that he is innocent.


For Johnson’s children, the outcome of that trial will not provide them with closure. The healing process, they say, cannot begin until they locate their mother.


“We don’t know if we’ll ever know [where she is],” Taylor said. “That’s the most painful thing for us. It’s something that has a grip on our lives; something we live with every single day.”


While investigators are confident that they have gathered enough evidence to proceed with something that is a rarity in the legal system — a murder trial without a body — Sheriff Anthony Lay said the case will not be closed until Johnson’s remains are recovered.


“We occasionally get a tip and we always investigate it,” Lay said. “In the past year we have had several leads on the case. Every time we get a call, we immediately get the TBI up here.”


Lay said that as recently as two months ago, TBI agents accompanied himself and his department on an investigation of some “serious accusations,” but met with a dead-end.


“We will continue to look for her,” Lay said. He went on to mention two cold cases: the 2005 murder of Helenwood resident JB Posey and the discovery of a decapitated body in the Smokey Creek area.


“We haven’t forgotten about these cases,” he said. “We do follow up on them and we do sit down occasionally and look at the files.”


For Taylor and her family, it is a search that never ends.


“We’ve been out searching constantly,” she said. “As soon as the weather warms up, we’ll be out looking again.”


Taylor believes that there is someone in the community who has information that would lead to the discovery of her mother’s whereabouts, and implored them to come forward with that information.


“We’d like to find her and bury her,” she said. “She deserves a Christian burial.


“We know she’s no longer with us, but it’s still Mom.”