Cold cases from Indiana discussed, mapped, and brought back into public eye. In this book, every chapter is a new case with new victims. From Burger Chef to Lauren Spierer, I cover all types of unsolved cases. Theories and serial killer studies incl...
Being a single mom is hard, even harder when you are stuck in a cycle of generational poverty and nothing is looking up. Many people stuck in the cycle turn to drugs for a pick-me-up when they face endless days with no hope in sight of things getting better. They say dying young is the fastest way to become a saint, which is true unless you're lower middle class or poverty level.
This is the story of Johanna Weaver. Johanna was a single mom who fell into drugs like a lot of 20 somethings do when they are looking for an escape. She might have made poor decisions, but she always tried to shield her children from her troubled life.
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Johanna's mother would take the kids on weekends when Johanna would drop them off before she would engage in unsavory activities. Johanna was addicted to cocaine, which was quickly growing in usage in Indiana in 1995. The young mother would spend her weekends chasing highs and hanging out with less than decent people, so she would always leave the kids with her mother so that they were not exposed.
Johnnie Huddleston, Johanna's mother, tried multiple times to put her daughter in rehab. Sadly, since these programs were not court ordered Johanna was allowed to leave at any time. Many times Johanna would start a program, but then leave before finishing. Her mother was left with no choice, but to watch her daughter continue to make poor decisions and try to protect her grandchildren from them.
When Sunday night rolled around, Johanna would sober up and pickup her two small children. During the week she was a typical single mom, hustling to provide for her children. She was a semi-functioning addict who used prostitution to pay for her addiction according to many accounts.
In June of 1995, a Sunday night rolled around and Johanna did not return to her mother's home to retrieve her children as she normally did. That was when her mother began to suspect that something was terribly wrong. Her mother managed to find help to watch the children while she went to work the next morning.
Johnnie Huddleston, Johanna's mother, over the next week would receive a series of voicemails from her daughter that made her fear for the young mother's life. Nothing was explicitly said in the messages, but Johnnie said she could just tell from the tone. When she contacted the police over her daughter's absence, she was told that the voicemails constituted contact. Johanna could not be reported missing at that time.
After all these years, Johnnie can't remember the exact day on which the voicemails stopped and the phone companies didn't keep those records for very long at the time. When they stopped Johnnie began to fear for the worst.
On July 13, 1995 a mowing crew found a body in a ditch covered with tree branches about about 8 in the morning. The body was that of a tall slender, black woman. The state of decomposition made it difficult to tell gender, let alone anything else about the remains.
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After a week, on July 21, 1995, the body from the median was finally identified as Johanna Weaver. The picture above indicates where the body was found.
Shortly after Johanna's remains were identified, a local newspaper ran a story about the case. Instead of beseeching the public for information related to solving Johanna's murder, the article focused on her criminal record. The article pointed out that during the time of her disappearance, Johanna missed a court date. It was as if by having a record, Johanna was less of a person.
Most cases that I research have anniversary articles and news coverage every year. Johanna's case doesn't. After September of 1995, I was unable to find any coverage of her story until 2007.
In 2007, twelve years after Johanna's murder, a detective from the Indiana State Police was assigned to the cold case. Sergeant Jeff Coffey was the officer that took over the case. He was able to narrow down the timeline of Weaver's disappearance. He discovered that the last time Johanna was seen alive was on July 8 in 1995. Her "friends" had seen her with a man that they didn't know. This sighting occurred near 17th and Park Street.
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(The highlighted box is the area in which Johanna was last seen. The highlighted road is an area in which she worked as a prostitute and where she obtained drugs.)
Sergeant still had a period of four days where he was unable to account for her. He tried reaching out to her "friends," but many have remained tight-lipped. This has proved problematic since DNA was recovered from the body that is believed to belong to Johanna's murderer.
Anyone who saw Weaver in those for days has been asked repeatedly to contact police. Call the Indiana State Police at (317) 899-8577 or 1-(800) 582-8440 if you have any information regarding the murder or disappearance of Johanna Weaver.
"Decomposed Body Found Partially Burned." The Indianapolis Star. July 1995.
"Indiana Unsolved: Four Days a Mystery in Death of Troubled Mom Johanna Weaver." Diana Penner. Indy Star. January 17, 2014. http://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2014/01/17/indiana-unsolved-four-days-a-mystery-in-death-of-troubled-mom-johanna-weaver/4582213/
"Indy Unsolved: Mother's Body Found Burnt Beneath 1-70 Overpass in 1996." Russ McQuad. Fox 59. October 24, 2016. http://fox59.com/2016/10/24/indy-unsolved-mothers-body-found-burnt-beneath-i-70-overpass-in-1996/
"Stabbing Victim Identified." The Indianapolis News. July 1995.
"Woman was due in Court." The Indianapolis News. July 1996.
