Police Search For A Suspect in Toddler's Decapitation

A murdered child whose identity has baffled Kansas City police for four years, finally has a name. The decapitated body of the little African- American toddler, dubbed "Precious Doe," was found in a wooded area near the intersection of Kensington Avenue and 59th street, by patrol officers on April 28, 2001. Three days later, Billy Stegall, a citizen-volunteer searching the area, discovered the child's head inside a plastic bag approximately one hundred yards from where the headless torso had been found. In the four years that have passed since then, Kansas City Police Department homicide detective sergeant David Bernard and his colleagues have followed up on more than one thousand leads, from around the country and even as far away as Jamaica. Hundreds of those leads were generated as a result of the case being profiled on America's Most Wanted five times over the last four years.

From the day her body was found, Precious Doe captured the hearts of the residents of Kansas City, and the quest to find her killer became a mission the community, local media, and the police aggressively pursued in an unprecedented collective effort together.  Initially, police released a composite sketch of Precious Doe and an approximate age of three to four years old. There were no children in Kansas City reported missing that fit her description at the time the body was discovered. No relative came forward to claim her body. There were no witnesses to the crime or the dumping of the body parts in the woods. It was as if Precious Doe dropped out of the sky. 

During the past four years every lead turned into a dead end. A forensic bust was made in 2002 by renowned sculptor Frank Bender. Citizens in the community raised money for a funeral. Precious Doe was laid to rest. Then, months later her body was exhumed for another autopsy. DNA samples were compared to numerous missing children around the nation, including missing Florida toddler, Rilya Wison. In 2004, another forensic artist made a second likeness of what the little girl may have looked like when she was alive, and the FBI lent its resources to the investigation. Alonzo Washington and other activists in the community raised money to erect a memorial to Precious Doe in Hibbs park near the site where her body was discovered.

Community Efforts Lead To Break In The Case

On April 28th, 2005, a memorial was held in Hibbs park on the anniversary of Precious Doe's murder. That week, community activist Alonzo Washington took out an ad in the Kansas City African-American newspaper, THE CALL, pleading for someone to come forward with information on the case. On Saturday, April 30th, Alonzo told AMW that he received a phone call from a tipster in Oklahoma who subscribed to the Kansas City newspaper Alonzo had placed the ad in. 

The tipster gave the crime-fighting community activist specific, verifiable information about an Oklahoma woman named Michelle Johnson, aka Michelle Pierce. The caller claimed to be certain Johnson was in fact, the mother of Precious Doe. Johnson, a thirty-year-old mother of eight with a criminal past, was still living in Muskogee, Oklahoma. According to the tipster, Johnson had traveled to Kansas City accompanied by one of her young daughters and her common-law husband, Harrell Johnson, 29, during the spring of 2001. The caller indicated that the daughter was three years old when she went to Missouri in the spring of 2001. However, the caller stated that the child did not return to Oklahoma from Kansas City with her mother and that he was a relative of the Johnson couple.

A Long-Awaited Arrest

Alonzo immediately forwarded the tip to Kansas City homicide detective Dave Bernard. It turned out to be the case-breaking tip Sgt. Bernard had been seeking for four, long years.  This week that tip led to the arrest of Michelle Johnson, her husband Harrell Johnson. On Wednesday night Kansas City detectives interviewed Michelle Johnson at the Muskogee City/County Denteion Center. That interview resulted in the announcement today by Jackson County Kansas prosecutor Mike Sanders that Michelle Johnson has been formally charged with the brutal decapitation-murder of her own daughter, Erica Michelle Maria Green. During the press conference, Sanders praised the collective effort of Alonzo Washington, Detective Dave Bernard, the community and the media for tirelessly and collectively pursuing justice for a precious little girl who now has a name...Erica Green, born on May 15th, 1997. A child who in death was adopted and loved by a city she never really got a chance to know in life. Kansas City police say Michelle Johnson confessed and told detectives that Erica was killed by a lethal kick from her husband. Then, she said they dismembered and disposed of her daughter's body in the woods near Kensington and 59th street and left Kansas City. Johnson has been charged with second-degree felony murder was extradited to Missouri to face justice. She is being held on a $500,000 bond.  Her common-law husband, Harrell Johnson is being held in Kansas City without bond.

Precious Doe Identified, Mother Charged

For four years, she was known only as Precious Doe, a little girl whose headless body was found along a road. On Thursday, May 5, 2005, police identified the girl, arrested her mother on murder charges and pronounced the sad mystery solved.

The girl with big brown eyes and neat cornrows in her hair was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green, just shy of 4 when she was found.

Her mother, Michelle M. Johnson, 30, was charged with murder and endangering the welfare of a child. Police said she told them her husband, Erica's stepfather, killed the girl with a kick to the head and used hedge clippers to sever her head.

Johnson and her husband, Harrell Johnson, have been extradited from Oklahoma back to Kansas City. Michelle Johnson is being held on a $500,000 bond and her husband is being held without bond.

"We have closure," Police Chief James Corwin said. "The little girl that we've known for four years as Precious Doe has a name."

Police said a tip enabled them to identify Erica, but they would not elaborate. And they gave no motive for the little girl's slaying.

On Thursday morning, among flowers and balloons, a handwritten sign announced the news: "My Name Is Erica Michelle Maria Green."

The break in the case apparently came after community activist Alonzo Washington, who has long championed efforts to find out who the little girl was, placed another advertisement seeking leads in a local paper.

"There's something about it that just bothers me that a child could be thrown away and people forget about it," said Washington, who has worked to raise awareness of missing black children.

A man who had spoken to police before on the case came forward again, talking with detectives and Washington last weekend. Washington said the source sent photographs of the child as well as hair samples from the child and the mother.

Police and prosecutors refused to confirm specifics or identify the source, but Washington said the man "had a relationship with some of the people involved."

A photo displayed by police during a news conference, showing the girl with a slight smile and adornments in her braided hair, may have been a picture of the wrong child. Oklahoma police saw the picture and said it appeared to be one of the girl's cousins.

Oklahoma records show Michelle Johnson has convictions for theft and forgery. The stepfather has convictions for several offenses, including assault with a dangerous weapon and possessing a sawed-off shotgun.

In Kansas City, people who long had been transfixed by the case welcomed news of the arrests.

Billy Stegall, a retired post office worker and Army sergeant, discovered Erica's head in 2001 and has gone back to the site regularly to pray.

"This is a day I have been looking for," he said. "I just asked the Lord to say who she is so she could be at peace, because she wasn't at peace and I wasn't at peace." -AP

Body Of Little Girl Unidentified For Five Years

Authorities said the little girl was killed in Kansas City. According to court papers, Johnson said her husband, Harrell Johnson, kicked Erica in the head, and they left her on the floor for two days. They did not seek medical help, she said, because both had warrants out for their arrest.

The child died, and the couple carried the body to a church parking lot, then through the woods, where the stepfather cut the girl's head with hedge clippers, police said. The girl's body was found near an intersection on April 28, 2001. Days later, her head was found nearby, wrapped in a trash bag.

In the months after she became known as Precious Doe, hundreds attended candlelight vigils, volunteered to answer witness hot lines and passed out fliers with an artist's rendering of the gir.

The FBI took blood samples from family members of missing black girls, and the case was featured on television's "America's Most Wanted."

A makeshift memorial of poems, teddy bears and flowers was eventually replaced by a permanent memorial in a park near where her body was found.