TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Family Grieves After Helping Police ID Tampa Woman's Body

News Channel 8 photo by ANTHONY ALLRED

Tampa and Lakeland police investigate the vacant house where the body of Jennifer Denise Johnson was found.

ADVERTISEMENT

By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: November 19, 2008

Updated: 11/19/2008 06:03 pm

Related Links

• Sign Guestbook
• Body Found In Lakeland
• Previous Coverage
• Family And Crime Scene Photos

  Jennifer Johnson

Vincent Brown

TAMPA - Two-year-old Je'Neiyce Johnson pedaled a three-wheeler on the sidewalk outside her apartment today, waving at relatives.

Her name, tattooed on a forearm, had helped police identify the body of her mother, found dead in a vacant house in Lakeland on Tuesday, her family said.

Police in Tampa and Lakeland are investigating what happened to Jennifer Denise Johnson, 31, after she was seen 11 p.m. Friday at the Apollo Club, 5110 N. 40th St., arguing with Vincent Brown Jr.

Brown, 38, is her ex-boyfriend and the father of her daughter. He surrendered at the Orient Road Jail on Sunday on a warrant for violating his probation on a cocaine-possession charge. He is being held without bail.

A prosecutor previously called Brown a suspect in Johnson's disappearance. Detectives are investigating whether Brown was involved in Johnson's death, Lakeland police spokesman Jack Gillen said today. He declined to say how she died.

Relatives had reported Johnson missing Saturday evening after she did not appear in time for her daughter's birthday party. The family scrapped the party, anxious and worried.

Monday, police found her car at Oak Park on East 15th Avenue, with her purse and credit cards inside.

Tuesday, residents living near 1810 W. Elliott St. in Lakeland found Johnson's body after noticing an open back door at the house, which is in foreclosure, Gillen said.

That night, detectives asked Johnson's mother, Alma Dorsey, and her sisters and aunts to describe her tattoos. They told police about the words "God got my back" on her back, the butterfly on her foot, cherries on her upper arm and her daughter's name inscribed on her forearm.

Police told them the body found was Jennifer's.

Alma Dorsey said detectives also said Johnson had called 911 from the trunk of a car, saying, "Help me." Gillen said today that he had no knowledge of such a call.

"I'm glad they found her," Alma Dorsey said Wednesday. "I was hoping and praying my daughter was still alive, but it came another way."

Johnson was born in California and the oldest of three sisters. "She always smiled and liked to want to dance," Dorsey said.

She stood about 5 feet 10 inches tall and was "a fighter," added her aunt Betty Dorsey, 34.

Johnson had worked for a medical supply company and doted on her little girl.

"She didn't deserve this," Betty Dorsey said, clutching pictures of Johnson to her chest and weeping. "I just want to know why. … Why, Lord? Why?"

Brown and Johnson had had a tumultuous relationship for years, Alma Dorsey said. "Bud," as she called Brown, for days had called the apartment where Dorsey, Johnson and the 2-year-old live.

"I kept hanging up," Dorsey said.

Public records show Brown is a convicted felon who was released from a state prison in 2003 after serving 18 months on battery charges.

Brown's sister, Wanda Tillman, said this week that Brown and Johnson "had their ups and downs" but loved each other.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT