MARION COUNTY, Fla. — On April 24, 1999, 38-year-old Roberta Johnson took her teenage daughter to school.
Johnson, who was nine months pregnant at the time, was found buried in a shallow grave in a wooded area of Ocala two days later.
"It's been a very long road. An emotional road," Roberta’s daughter, Arkeisha Johnson, said.
Roberta Johnson was a veteran of the U.S. Army and a middle school teacher who worked with troubled kids.
Her child, a baby boy, was due to be born any day.
"To be able to brutally murder somebody like this, to literally beat her to death and then discard her in a shallow grave, leave her there, while she was nine months pregnant,” Marion County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit supervisor, Sgt. Clint Smith said. “She was days away from having this child. So not only did he take away her life but he took away this unborn child's life. So for somebody to be able to do something like that, to me that's the worst of the worst.”
Arkeisha described her mom as her best friend.
She was looking forward to turning 18, graduating high school, and becoming a big sister. She never imagined having to reach these milestones without her mother.
"(The homicide) happened three or four days before my 18th birthday, a week or two before I graduated high school,” Arkeisha said, crying. “So to have to go through those two very important milestones without her, when she had been there for me since day one, it breaks your heart.”
Roberta Johnson’s slaying is one of the 33 cold cases the MCSO Cold Case Unit continues to investigate.
On the 17th anniversary of her death, detectives and Johnson’s family hope that someone has the puzzle piece that could finally bring some closure.
"Help us bring peace to my family and justice for the mom and my brother," Arkeisha said. "No matter how small you may think it is, it could be the one missing key that we need to solve this case."
Anyone with information on Roberta Johnson’s death is asked to call Smith at 352-368-3544.
Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers of Marion County at 352-368-STOP.
Cox Media Group
