Katara Johnson would have been 40 years old this year. She might have been a mother, a wife, maybe even a young grandmother. Instead, according to her brother AJ Johnson, her slaying remains a mystery that has fractured a family and still haunts the thoughts of her brother and sisters nearly 20 years later.
“She brought a sense of peace to the family. We don’t know what her life would have been like, what she would have become. However it would have turned out, people robbed her of that opportunity to live that life and be that person,” Johnson said.
His sibling’s death is just one of several “cold cases” in eastern Williamson County that remain open in local law enforcement files, cases where there are few answers and no prosecution.
Deputies and police said tenacious investigation, improved technology, publicity and often a sliver of luck can mean clearing an unsolved cold case that is months, years or even decades old.
According to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, on Aug. 25, 2004, Katara Johnson worked a late shift at the Taco Bell in Taylor. After closing, she left work and drove to her home on North Dolan Street in Taylor where she lived alone.
The next day, Johnson was found shot to death inside her home. Her red Mitsubishi Lancer had been stolen and was later found at the Thorndale Community Pool. She was 21 years old when she died.
“I named my son after her, the male version of the name, as a tribute,” said AJ Johnson. “I don’t want her to be forgotten.”
He still commemorates her death every year and the family keeps up a memorial page on Facebook. He believes there are people in the community who know what happened to his sister, and maybe even some who have information they don’t know is important.
“I personally think several people know what happened. It may not be direct knowledge, but it could be that rumor or secondhand information that can actually tie the bigger picture together,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s holding people back, but it’s time to speak up.”
Detective Mark McKinney with the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division works full time investigating cold cases. His department took over investigation of the Johnson case in 2019.
“I definitely believe there are people out there who have information or know what happened to her. People talk amongst themselves in smaller communities,” McKinney said. “Her car following her death was moved out to Thorndale. I believe that someone knows something about how that car got out there and what really happened to Katara that night.”
In addition to McKinney, the Sheriff’s Office has six other officers assigned full-time to cold cases, as well as a sergeant overseeing the unit. They are working on cold cases from across the county dating back to 1979.
McKinney believes tips from people who remember some small bit of information will be the key to solving each of these cases.
‘TIP’ OF THE ICEBERG
Tips are just one of the tools that police use to solve older, uncleared crimes. Advances in scientific equipment that can test for DNA or blood samples, the advent of three-dimensional imaging for sketches and a greater connectivity among law-enforcement agencies have given even smaller departments more resources than they previously had for solving current crimes, as well as cold cases.
Smaller towns like Thrall and Granger depend on the county to bring these resources to bear when those police departments run into complex offenses.
“If we have something major we interact with the county. We’re a really small agency. They have crime-scene technicians and they can take the time,” said Thrall Police Chief Whitney Whitworth.
One technology now emerging in importance uses sonar equipment created for fishing. Several companies across the country have developed a method of using sonar to hunt through lakes and waterways for bodies or submerged cars, then performing diving and recovery operations.
The methodology was successfully used last year in Waco to find Stephanie Torres, who had been missing for four years. Her body was submerged in her car. The company that discovered and recovered the missing woman’s remains, Adventures With Purpose, also found two other missing Texans, both similarly underwater in their vehicles: Carey Mae Parker, missing 30 years, found in 2022 in Hawk Cove and Thomas Thornton, gone seven months, found in 2021 in Huxley.
Mike Sullivan, who runs a similar underwater search-and-recovery business called Sunshine State Sonar in Florida, said his company has found more than 250 submerged vehicles and six bodies so far in 2023. Many of the vehicles recovered were used in the commission of a crime. He works directly with law enforcement agencies on these cases.
“When you look at sonar in your boat you’ll see all types of shadows and anomalies on the screen. It takes years of practice and skill to learn to analyze and recognize what might be a car or a body,” Sullivan said.
COOPERATION, CLEARANCE RATES IN WILCO
McKinney credits new technology, advances in training and interagency cooperation as reasons he is seeing fewer crimes go to cold-case status and more crimes get solved faster, or cleared.
“I think with the better technology and better training for the officers that we have today, we have more resources and tools we can use to solve homicides and similar cases,” the investigator said.
The region has seen this play out in real time. The Hutto Police Department worked with the U.S. Marshal’s Office, Williamson County deputies, the Williamson County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office and the Round Rock Police Department to solve a shooting early this year.
On Jan. 31, two people were shot in a Hutto neighborhood, one of whom died.
By Feb. 13, a warrant had been served and an arrest made.
“The arrest was a result of the Hutto Police Department’s strong relationship with the community and the department’s ongoing dedication both to crime prevention and effective response,” according to a release from the city.
For new cases or old, tips from the community remain an important part of an investigator’s arsenal. McKinney believes that for every cold case, there is someone who has information that could provide a key to bringing a killer to justice. “Anything is significant. There is nothing that’s
not worth reporting. If anyone can think of anything that might help in any of these crimes I’d definitely like to talk to them,” he said.
McKinney said there are two other cold cases in East Wilco that he would like to have information on in addition to Katara Johnson.
SONIA WALLACE, ROCKDALE
On Feb. 19, 1999, 15-year-old Sonia Wallace told her family she was going to buy some stamps at the post office in Rockdale, just four blocks away.
Then she disappeared.
Her body was found near Coupland on March 14, 1999, in a creek bed on CR 490 just off the side of the road.
It’s unclear if she ever made it to the post office, investigators said.
“You know, as kids we’d often leave the house if we wanted to talk to someone. We might not have wanted our parents to know if we were dating some guy or some girl. Any kind of information like that would possibly be significant,” McKinney said.
“She was a popular girl with a lot of friends. If she were not really going to the post office, who was she real
ly going to meet?” the investigator added. “Was there a party somewhere, or any kind of gathering she could have been going to?
If anyone remembers anything like that around that timeline, that’s definitely information I’d be interested in.”
S.E. RITCHEY, TAYLOR
S.E. Ritchey and his wife, Ethyl, ran a laundromat in Taylor. Once a week, like clockwork, they would visit the grocery store after closing the laundry and before heading to their rural home near the Shiloh Baptist Church.
At about 10 p.m. March 5, 1988, the couple was attacked in their driveway as they unloaded the groceries from their car, according to deputies. S.E. Ritchey died from his wounds on March 22, 1988. The investigation determined the motive was a targeted robbery.
“I don’t know that they actually meant to cause Mr. Ritchey’s death, they more likely intended to just take his things,” McKinney said. “I think somebody definitely knows something about that.
Like noticing someone who might have randomly had some money after that, might have bought some expensive things that they could normally not have been able to afford. That might signify that they could have something to do with this crime.”
REWARDS WITHOUT RISK
McKinney said sometimes people may be afraid to share the information they know, or may need a little more incentive. Williamson County Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards for tips that lead to an arrest, and tipsters can remain anonymous.
There are several ways to contact Crime Stoppers: by phone at 1-800-2537867, online at www.wilcocrimetips.org or with the mobile app “P3Tips.”
People can also reach McKinney’s cold case unit at 512-943-5204.
“We understand how someone could be frustrated if their loved one’s murder has not been solved in all these years.
That’s why the sheriff still has someone working these, because we all understand that,” McKinney said. “We all want nothing more than to identify the suspect and hopefully prosecute someone in each and every one of these cases. That’s what we come to work every day and try to do.”
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