NewsLocal NewsButler CountyFairfield Township

Actions

Grandparents of murdered teen Chelsea Johnson express frustration with Fairfield police

Posted at 12:16 AM, Jan 16, 2013
and last updated 2014-04-12 23:22:43-04

For nine months frustration, anger and grief have been building for Chelsea Johnson's family. 

The teen was found stabbed to death near a creek about a mile from her Fairfield home last April.

Johnson's grandparents Donna and Phil can't help but wonder why police have arrested no one for the 15-year-old's murder. They said they are losing faith in the Fairfield Police Department.

"A break in the case would be made in December and that's come and gone," Phil Johnson said. "That's more smoke that they blew."

Fairfield Police Public Information Officer Doug Day says the department is working on the investigation.

"As everybody's aware, we took the case up to the prosecutor's office and they reviewed it," Day said. "They had some things they wanted us to look back into. Investigators are looking into those things now and they're going to take those up and review it again."

Donna Johnson says the family is not seeing progress in the investigation.

"They give us a little bit and say we're working on it, a few leads and that will settle us down, then it would go months and nothing," Donna said.

Last week, the Johnsons said they were told that no one was assigned to the case. However, Fairfield police said it has just been handed from one investigator to another.

"It's hard to come in everyday and look at a case and you work it for seven, eight hours and feel like you're moving nowhere," Day said.

Phil Johnson said he won't give up without a fight to find answers.

"I'm going to keep complaining," he said. "If the attorney general doesn't call back, I'm going to bug the governor's office."

In addition to Johnson's case, Fairfield police said they are working on two other murder cases. Police found Joseph Oakley, 19, murdered near the same creek where Chelsea Johnson was found in August. Damien Taylor, 29, was found dead in his Fairfield home in March.

Day said the department has made five arrests in the murder of Julian Slaven, 19, found dead in his home in November.