Identified! WI - Racine Co., WhtFem 199UFWI, 14-25, cauliflower ear, July 1999 #2 - Peggy Lynn Johnson *Guilty*

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BLParks12 said:
I gather from your post you aren't from the USA. Being from the USA I am not familiar with the meaning of the phrase "where are we searching for." Are you asking why posters are still searching for information? If so I agree with the one poster who stated that putting a timeline together is helpful to understand the events leading to Peggy's death. I think it is also a way for those of us who are grieving over Peggy's story to cope and feel like we are participating in the justice process.

Second, you state that her "possible murderer is known and incarcerated," stating that the US Court System is bad because the media and the jury make a person a murderer before justice can be served. I want to say first of all that the US Court System believes in innocent until proven guilty, but like all human institutions, it has its flaws. But many of our flaws are getting better with the improvement of technology and the globalization of information. So feel free to not like the USA Court System, but understand that there is no perfect system, and our system has plenty of checks and balances that I think we get things right most of the time. I do agree that the media tends to distort public opinion by sensationalizing information and taking the facts out of context to make a person look guilty before they've even been tried. But there are a lot of instances where media has helped exonerate wrongfully accused people. The West Memphis Three is a good example of this.

The jury's job, however, is to find a person guilty or not guilty. So I'm not sure what you mean when you say juries make a person a murderer before justice can be served. The jury is part of the justice system.

Finally, this not a case of a person being charged based on circumstantial evidence alone. She confessed to many people in Florida that she killed someone in Illinois. Her former husband stated he came home one day to find Peggy dead on the floor, Linda leaving with her soon after, and then returning without her. We have Linda's statement to the police changing time after time after time. She has not made a full confession to murdering Peggy, but we have her placing Peggy in her home, dying in her home, and confessing that she disposed of the body. There are also statements from her kids about the abuse Peggy suffered at Linda's hands. The evidence against her is too much to overcome at trial. My guess is she will plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence, if the DA allows her to do that. Although the DA may very well decide based on the circumstances to deny any plea deals.
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Thank you for taking the time to react on my post. You are right; I'm not from the USA. I feel the need to explain my post and I'm going to be very honest. Maybe I reacted a little shortsighted. Sorry, for that. Everybody has the right to feel and do as he/she likes. My line of thinking...identified.....great...a miracle.....somebody incarcerated....even better... justice is going to be served in this horrible story.... let go.....back to other unsolved cases. Honestly.....I couldn't say goodbye to this one immediately. If I may say so, I have put a lot of hours in this unfortunate lady's faith, I gladly did and I feel sad knowing the outcome now. Personally I don't have any doubts that this killer is going to be convicted...there is enough "on the table" to do so. I don't need all the insight information....I wait for the conviction. The words 'possible killer': you said it; US Court System believes in innocent until proven guilty....that's what I meant with the word possible. I also didn't mean to say the court system with a jury isn't oké per se. Mentioning the jury and the media in one sentence was unfortunate. I actually think that our thoughts and opinions are not very different in the end. American English is not my mother tongue and sometimes that gets in the way.....
 
Armalita said:
The abuse made me think of her and the height I knew was off but none of these are accurate. But I was wrong at least I try. Usually the ones we least expect end up being the right one. It was just a thought and I was wrong so I stand corrected.
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I was also wrong but at least we try. Sometimes these people just seem forgotten so sad
 
@Bit of hope

To answer your question, personally I like to follow cases until they are fully resolved. For myself that includes the trial, sentencing..... seeing the case come full circle. Idk about Wisconsin, but there are cases here in Illinois which have taken 5 years from arrest to trial. That's a long time and the victim shouldn't be forgotten during that long process. An arrest is just the beginning, imo.
 
Bit of hope said:
Thank you for taking the time to react on my post. You are right; I'm not from the USA. I feel the need to explain my post and I'm going to be very honest. Maybe I reacted a little shortsighted. Sorry, for that. Everybody has the right to feel and do as he/she likes. My line of thinking...identified.....great...a miracle.....somebody incarcerated....even better... justice is going to be served in this horrible story.... let go.....back to other unsolved cases. Honestly.....I couldn't say goodbye to this one immediately. If I may say so, I have put a lot of hours in this unfortunate lady's faith, I gladly did and I feel sad knowing the outcome now. Personally I don't have any doubts that this killer is going to be convicted...there is enough "on the table" to do so. I don't need all the insight information....I wait for the conviction. The words 'possible killer': you said it; US Court System believes in innocent until proven guilty....that's what I meant with the word possible. I also didn't mean to say the court system with a jury isn't oké per se. Mentioning the jury and the media in one sentence was unfortunate. I actually think that our thoughts and opinions are not very different in the end. American English is not my mother tongue and sometimes that gets in the way.....
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Thank you for your well thought out post. I apologize for jumping to conclusions and if I came across to harshly. For English not being your native tongue, you communicate very well.
 
Cubby said:
@Bit of hope

To answer your question, personally I like to follow cases until they are fully resolved. For myself that includes the trial, sentencing..... seeing the case come full circle. Idk about Wisconsin, but there are cases here in Illinois which have taken 5 years from arrest to trial. That's a long time and the victim shouldn't be forgotten during that long process. An arrest is just the beginning, imo.
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Thanks for you answer Cubby. I agree with you that the victim should never been forgotten. In the proces of a trial and the heat of it, focus shifts often to the perpetrator. For example the attention serial killers get (and I do understand the fascination) annoy me sometimes. Peggy (and her sad PM recons) will always stay on my retina. I hope I can replace them with the "living" pictures of her over time.
 
“Twenty years is a long time for an innocent victim to be nameless to the world,” Schmaling said. “Peggy Lynn Johnson can now rest in peace with her killer behind bars. Justice will finally be served.”

The sheriffs and their deputies remained true to one of the most important law enforcement principles: They spoke for someone who could no longer speak for herself.
Justice for Peggy Lynn Johnson
 
Genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter (who ID'd the Golden State Killer) has shared that she helped to ID Peggy Lynn Johnson (birth name Jennifer Lynn Johnson) through genetic genealogy on CeCe Moore's facebook page, commenting on a Nov 14th post. There has been no mention of her help in any news reports.

"I absolutely agree, CeCe. I helped to identify the victim, Jennifer Lynn Johnson, in the case out of Racine County in which a suspect has just been arrested in Florida. Reading the ME's report on the injuries to this poor woman was bad but paled in comparison to the reality of the abuse she suffered over a period of years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../linda-laroche-peggy.../."
 
Suspect, victim identified in 20-year-old Wisconsin cold case


The Racine County Sheriff says they’ve identified the victim in a 20-year-old cold case homicide.

He also said the person responsible for Peggy Lynn Johnson’s death is now in custody.

Sheriff Christopher Schmaling gave a timeline of the events surrounding her death at a news conference Friday morning.

Over the years, Johnson’s DNA was submitted for genealogical DNA testing and her body was exhumed for chemical isotope testing conducted by the Smithsonian Institution, Schmaling said at a Friday morning news conference.

It was only recently that investigators developed information that led to Johnson’s identification.

He said Johnson, who was cognitively disabled was 18 when her mother died. When Johnson went to seek medical help, she encountered Linda LaRoche, a nurse in McHenry, Illinois, who took Johnson into her home.

It was there, Schmaling said, that she suffered horrific abuse that led to her death five years later.

Johnson’s body was found in a cornfield on July 21, 1999. Schmaling said Johnson was never listed as a missing person. She was buried as Jane Doe.

The sheriff said that now that they’ve identified Johnson, she’ll be reburied next to her mother, father, and brother.

Schmaling said LaRoche was arrested Tuesday in Cape Coral, Florida by Racine County Sheriff’s Office investigators. She has waived extradition and is expected back in Wisconsin soon to face charges.
 
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aThousandYearsWide said:
Who was Peggy Johnson? And why didn’t anyone say she was missing for 20 years?

I don't know if this article has been posted yet but it has accounts from people that knew Peggy and has some new pictures of her. Apparently she was remembered as Peggy Schroeder (her mother's last name).
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Does Linda LaRoche (or Peggy's family) have any connections to Cincinnati, OH? There is a Jane Doe who had the name "Schrader" written on her clothing tag. That's close to the name Schroeder so it peaked my interest when I saw that was Peggy's mom's last name. It's probably unrelated but here's the thread for that case: OH - OH - Cincinnati, Partially Buried, WhtFem, silky pajama bottoms, gray top, “Schrader”, 31 May 2018
 
I believe that was dragged, I remember reading that when found, one of her arms looked as if they were broken. I truly believe that she was beaten before she died and disposed where she was discovered
Amstorrs said:
Respectfully, I disagree. In the initial reports it was stated that there were clear drag marks found from the road to where Peggy’s body was found.

Either her dead body was dragged from a car to the location she was found, or her nearly dead body was, and she passed away there without ever moving or being moved.
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