Transient Charged In Cassandra's Death
A transient was accused Saturday of abducting, trying to rape and ultimately slaying a 6-year-old girl who he allegedly snatched from her father's suburban home.
St. Louis County warrants charge Johnny A. Johnson, 24, with first-degree murder, kidnaping, armed criminal action and attempted forcible rape in Friday's killing of Cassandra "Casey" Williamson, who vanished from the home where Johnson also had spent the night. Johnson could face the death penalty if convicted.
Cassandra's naked body was found blocks away covered with debris at an abandoned glass factory where police say Johnson sometimes slept. Johnson told police the girl's location, investigators said.
A group of search volunteers who had been going door-to-door arrived about the same time as investigators at the factory, where the girl's body was found.
Late Friday night, Cassandra's parents went to the crime scene and identified the body, said James McCrady, a St. Louis County Medical Examiner's Office investigator. The parents, hugging and crying, were chauffeured away behind the coroner's van carrying their daughter's body.
Johnson was jailed without bond Saturday in the St. Louis County Jail in Clayton. It was not immediately clear when he would make his first court appearance.
An autopsy on Cassandra was planned for later Saturday.
A St. Louis County Police Department news release on the charges against Johnson did not specify how Cassandra died or other details about the case. It said only "detectives from our agency were able to build a strong case against (Johnson)."
"We're basically not releasing anything beyond the news release," said Mason Keller, a St. Louis County police spokesman.
St. Louis County Police Chief Ron Battelle told NBC's "Today" show Saturday that Johnson had confessed to the slaying. He declined to comment on a motive.
Battelle said Johnson was the last person seen with Cassandra, and he was seen carrying her piggyback down the street Friday.
"We took him to our station and began interviewing him at that point in time, and as they went on he admitted to his involvement in the murder," Battelle said.
Johnson spent the night at a home shared by Cassandra's father, Ernie Williamson, and a roommate. Johnson had staying up drinking with the roommate, the father said.
Ernie Williamson and Cassandra's mother, Angela Williamson, had separated but still spent some nights together.
Ernie Williamson said he had only known Johnson a few days, and that Johnson was sleeping on the couch Friday morning. Authorities said Cassandra was in the kitchen about 7:30 a.m. with her father. Williamson said he was about to pour his daughter a bowl of cereal and left the room briefly to go the bathroom. When he returned, the girl, barefoot and dressed in a white nightgown, had disappeared.
The father said he also noticed that Johnson was gone. About a half-hour later, Williamson said, Johnson returned to the house, wet and muddy, and said he had been swimming in the nearby river. Police began questioning him soon after he returned.