Her Family Heard Her Arriving Home, But She Never Made It Inside, And Her Remains Were Later Found By Deer Hunters: What Happened To Jannette Johnson?
In 1985, Jannette Johnson was a 29-year-old mom of two living in Kankakee, Illinois. She is remembered by her mother, Mary Moore, as a “spicy” and determined young woman.
“You know it was her way or the highway. And I know where she got that. I’m still that way,” Mary said in 2015.
Yet, after going to a bar with friends on August 2, 1985, she supposedly returned home before mysteriously disappearing.
That evening, Jannette had attended a birthday party at the Party House Bar, leaving her 11-year-old daughter, Joretha Hampton, and some of Joretha’s cousins in the care of her sister, Jane Lynette Evans.
But even though Jannette’s sister put the children to bed, they eventually got up when they heard Jannette arrive home sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.
At that point, Joretha ran to her mom’s bed and acted as if she were asleep. Then, she actually fell asleep and woke up the following day to find her mother missing.
Joretha had heard her mom’s keys being put in the front door. However, Jannette did not make it inside. She was reported missing on August 3, 1985.
In the wake of her mom’s disappearance, Joretha recalled some strange details from the night prior. Hours before Jannette vanished, her on-and-off boyfriend, Lionel Thomas, with whom she’d been for three years, reportedly visited Jannette’s home three times while she was still at the Party House Bar. He also allegedly asked when Jannette would be returning home.
Then, when Joretha and her cousins heard Jannette arriving home, they looked outside the window and saw her parking her car in the side alley, her normal parking spot. But the next morning, they found Jannette’s car had been moved, as it was parked in front of their home.
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Even more peculiar was that Jannette’s keys had been left in the ignition, her wallet was sitting on the passenger seat, and a cigarette was left burning in the vehicle’s ashtray.
Jannette’s skeletal remains were ultimately discovered on November 24, 1985, by two deer hunters. They’d been partially scattered and buried in a shallow grave in a rural region of Kankakee County. But at the time, the remains could not be identified.
It wasn’t until decades later, in 2020, that DNA testing proved the remains belonged to Jannette. She likely sustained a gunshot wound to the head, and her manner of death was determined to be a homicide.
Still, it’s unclear if the gunshot was the cause of her death, and the bullet and its casing were never found.
“She’s been dealing with this for approximately 38 years. I just want closure, not only for her but for her family and friends,” Detective Sergeant Logan Anderson with the Kankakee Police Department said of Joretha.
Following the positive identification of Jannette’s remains, authorities launched a homicide investigation and began looking into her on-and-off boyfriend, Lionel Thomas. He’d worked as a photographer and lived five or six blocks away from her house.
Investigators analyzed letters that Lionel had penned to Jannette during their relationship, and according to both the letters and witnesses, the pair had planned to go to a Chaka Khan concert the day after she went missing.
Lionel’s writings also allegedly suggest he’d become jealous after Jannette broke up with him for a final time. This led authorities to indicate that “borderline stalking” had occurred.
According to Jannette’s sister Jane, who watched the kids on the night she vanished, Lionel had a habit of showing up randomly wherever Jannette was. Nonetheless, the police had no evidence linking Lionel to Jannette’s murder.
Detective Sergeant Logan Anderson actually issued a plea to community members in 2021, asking for help conducting a search in the area where Jannette’s body was uncovered. In reality, the ask was a rouse.
“The actual reason for that search was to see if any of the people that the police department identified as suspects would show up and what their reactions would be to that search,” detailed homicide investigator Steve Spingola.
When Jannette disappeared, Lionel had previously told the police that he had spotted a light blue vehicle pulling up to her home before he lost sight of the car. His claim had checked out when compared to other reports, which stated a blue Ford Grenada had been circling the block.
Lionel showed up for the 2021 search, though, and supposedly contradicted past statements. During an interview with authorities, he said he’d been at the birthday party with Jannette earlier that night, which hasn’t been corroborated, and only visited Jannette’s home once in the hours leading up to her disappearance, not three times, as reported by Joretha.
“Lionel’s whole story has basically small contradictions in it, but there are no major shifts in his story, which is problematic from a prosecution standpoint,” homicide investigator Steve Spingola explained.
The police determined there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Lionel in connection with Jannette’s disappearance and homicide, and today, the search for answers continues.
“One of our questions was answered: where it happened. We still need to learn the who, what, when, and why,” Joretha stated.
Anyone with information regarding Jannette’s case is urged to contact the Kankakee Police Department at (815) 933-3321.
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