Cynthia M. Johnson:1977, Independence, Ohio

  


   Cynthia M. Johnson was born on January 31st, 1961 to Pearl and Roy Johnson Sr. 

  Pearl and Roy divorced sometime along the way. Pearl remarried a man named Florine Volpe. 




  On October 30th, 1977, 16 year old Cynthia  Johnson left her home at 9157 Garfield Boulevard in Garfield Heights, Ohio, at about 7 p.m. with a friend. She told her mother that she would be back around 11 p.m. They went walking east down Garfield Avenue. It would have been dark out then. But they were together and that felt safe enough. 



   Sixteen year old Cynthia told her friend, Terese Perchinske, that she was going to meet a 39 year old male friend of her step father. The pair had met up several times in the past according to Terese and several other friends of Cynthia’s. The two were planning to meet up at a parking lot near Garfield and Turney. It wasn’t far from Cynthia’s home.


  Terese said that she walked with Cynthia part of the way. When they were within a half mile of the parking lot, Terese headed back home.



  Cynthia was found in a dumpster the next day behind Titen Fastener Company at 7395 Riverview Road in Independence, Ohio. That’s about a 20 minute drive from Garfield Heights. She was fully clothed. She had been strangled using some sort of ligature. 

Her Mother and her 21 year old brother were called to identify her remains. 


   It appears that this business is no longer there. 



   The 39 year old Cleveland man that Cynthia said that she was going to visit denied ever having seen her that Sunday night. What was his life like? Was he married? Was Cynthia pregnant? Did this 39 year old family friend suddenly see Cynthia as a problem? He was not named in the newspaper articles about Cynthia’s murder.


  Or, was Cynthia abducted by someone else? Ralph Richard Howell was a serial killer who strangled his victims. He was active in Ohio for decades. He had a job that gave him the opportunity to drive all over Ohio. He delivered bulk newspapers to newsstands, shopping centers and convenience stores for a major Cincinnati newspaper. Bundles of newspapers were tied up with cord. He used that same cord to strangle his victims. 


  He has recently been linked definitively to the 1978 murder of Cheryl Thompson.  She was heading out to meet her boyfriend when she was abducted, assaulted and strangled. Several other murders have also been attributed to Howell because the cord used to strangle the victims was identical. 


   Was Cynthia a victim of a man she knew or a stranger? Did anyone see anything that night? Has anyone heard anything since? Was evidence saved in her case? 




   Cynthia was a sixteen year old sophomore at Garfield Heights High School. She had hopes, dreams and aspirations. She has many friends who still miss her. 





   Hopefully, in the years to come we will have answers. 


   Rest in peace, Cynthia


If you have information about the murder of Cynthia M. Johnson please submit a tip here: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Johnson-23



   


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