Mother fears she'll never get answers in disappearance of daughter Janteyl Johnson who vanished from Delaware home in 2010
Janteyl Johnson had a plan. She wanted to go to beauty school in Philadelphia where she would train to be a hairstylist. And she wanted to go to business school to learn how to open and run her own salon.
“She loved doing hair… she was always changing hers up,” Janteyl’s mother Kyma Johnson told Dateline. “She always did mine. And her sister’s. It was great having a personal hairstylist.
---
Janteyl was just 15 years old and five months pregnant when she disappeared from her Newark, Delaware home on February 3, 2010.
“It was a shock when we found out she was pregnant,” Kyma said. “But she continued to go to school. She kept working toward her goal.”
Kyma told Dateline that Janteyl had an upcoming doctor’s appointment to find out if the baby would be a girl or a boy. But she never made it to the appointment.
---
On February 3, 2010, Janteyl’s brother, who is about 18 months older, drove Kyma to the train station so she could commute to her job in Philadelphia and then took Janteyl to school, all part of their daily routine.
But that day, Janteyl started feeling sick and called her mother just after noon to let her know that she was going home early. Kyma told Dateline that her daughter was planning to return to school in the late afternoon for after school activities and then her brother would pick her up so they could meet Kyma in Philadelphia for church.
---
But when Janteyl’s brother got to the family's home at Autumn Park Apartments on Winterhaven Drive, she was nowhere to be found. Kyma told Dateline it was evident she had been there, taken a nap and made herself something to eat.
Kyma added that the door was unlocked and Janteyl’s personal belongings, including her glasses, her purse and clothing were left behind.
---
Around 10 p.m. that night, Kyma filed a missing persons report with the New Castle County Police Department, who listed her as an endangered runaway.
---
According to Kyma, phone records revealed that Janteyl received a phone call that afternoon from someone that lasted a few minutes. Kyma added that the number was traced back to a burner phone and the caller was never positively identified.
“I think someone she knew called her outside to go for a drive and talk,” Kyma said. “That’s why it looks like she left so quickly.”
---
Kyma told Dateline there are a few theories that have been tossed around over the years, including that the man Janteyl said was the father of her unborn baby came to pick her up.
A few days later, Janteyl’s cell phone pinged near the house of the man’s relatives, according to her mother. He has not been publicly identified.
---
Janteyl would be 26 years old today. Her baby would be 11 years old.
“I never even got to find out if my grandchild was a girl or a boy,” Kyma said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
---
“When she was born, she had the biggest squishy cheeks,” Kyma said with a laugh. “I said she looked like a little puffball.”
The nickname “Puff” stuck.
“Everyone called her that really until she got older, then her nickname became “J” by her friends and people at school,” she added. “But she was always Puff to us.”
No trace of pregnant Delaware teen Janteyl Johnson who went missing 11 years ago
