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Family, Friends Mourn Loss Of 'Hopeless Romantic'

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2008

TAMPA - Before her death this week, Jennifer Denise Johnson imagined owning her own hair salon and sharing a family with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Vincent "Bud" Brown Jr.

Like a high-school girl in love, Johnson doodled "Bud [hearts] Jennifer" and "Jennifer + Vincent All 2gether" on her blue work binder at Dermatec Direct, where she sold medical supplies for six years. Her daughter's name, Je'Neiyce, was written there, too, in correction fluid and ink.

"She just was a hopeless romantic," her boss, Tony Singleton, said today. "I think she wanted so much to have a normal family."

Police in Lakeland and Tampa continue to investigate Johnson's slaying. Her family reported her missing Nov. 15 after she missed the second birthday party for Je'Neiyce that she had planned for weeks.

Prosecutors have called Brown, 38, a suspect in her disappearance. He is being held without bail at Orient Road Jail for violating his probation on a cocaine-possession charge. He has not been charged in her death.

Johnson's body was found Tuesday in a vacant house in Lakeland. Police have not said how she died.

Today, Singleton said those who knew her were shaken after Plant City police confirmed receiving a 911 call from Johnson, 31, on a cell phone in a car trunk Nov. 15. Authorities sent officers to the general location where cell phone towers said she might be but didn't find her in time.

"Everybody's just tore up about that," Singleton said.

They're also sad the tall woman with the radiant smile lost her life before she escaped her troubles, he said.

Johnson developed a loyal customer base that recorded about $300,000 a year in sales, Singleton said. Away from work, her passion was hairstyling. "Je'Neiyce's hair was never the same two days in a row," he said. "Her eventual goal was to own a hair salon."

Singleton last saw Johnson on Thursday at a company pizza party.

On Nov. 9, he said, Johnson had called him "crying hysterically," saying that Brown had slashed her tires and left her a cell phone message laughing about the damage. Singleton said he gave her money to stay in a motel and urged her to seek help.

She confided to a co-worker that she had visited the domestic-violence shelter The Spring of Tampa Bay that same week, Singleton said. For confidentiality reasons, The Spring could not confirm or deny the visit today.

Police and court records from four occasions show that Johnson accused Brown of violence. Earlier this year, she said he choked her and slammed her into a coffee table.

"I'm tired of him putting his hands on me," she wrote in a July 2006 report, when Brown was accused of punching her face. "He's been to court before and I thought it would change, but I'm now pregnant and tired of being abused!"

Brown was not prosecuted in these instances. Police and court records say Johnson recanted her statements, gave conflicting statements or would not cooperate with authorities.

Singleton said not every instance was reported to police. Brown came to the Adamo Drive workplace a few times, once threatening to "pull her out by her hair," Singleton said. Singleton ordered him to leave.

At least Johnson will have a proper burial, he said. "We didn't want to think of her being out in the cold. We wanted to find her for Je'Neiyce."

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

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