Tina Marie McKenney Farmer:1984, Jellico, TN. (Elk Valley)
The other day I came across the case of Tina Marie McKinney Farmer. I found out that she went missing from Indiana. I read that she was found in Campbell County Tennessee and I read that she was identified in 2019. I also found that her killer has recently been identified as Jerry Leon Johns of Cleveland, Tennessee. He died in prison in 2015.
I thought I should write about her murder so I started digging a little deeper. I found an article that said that she had been found near Jellico, Tennessee. The name Jellico immediately rang a bell.
Not long ago, I wrote about the case of another young girl who went missing from Indiana. She was also found near Jellico, Tennessee.
That seemed to me to be a very strange coincidence. Now, of course, these two victims were found along an interstate. Thousands of people travel past Jellico, Tennessee each day. And it’s not particularly unusual for bodies to be dumped by killers along interstates. But to have two young women both go missing from Indiana and both found near Jellico, Tennessee seems like more than a coincidence.
Tina Marie McKenney was born on March 7, 1963. I could not find much information about her early life. She had a daughter, Dana Renee Farmer, on April 19th,1984. She married Richard L. Farmer on September 20th, 1984. The little family lived at 411 North Jefferson Avenue on Indianapolis’ east side.
In 1984 she was last seen by her family on Thanksgiving. That would have been Thursday, November 22nd, 1984. Apparently her marriage was not going well. She was reportedly with a truck driver who was heading to Kentucky. Her family reported her missing very shortly after she disappeared when they heard nothing from her.
Her family did not hear any news about her case for years. They again called police in 1992 to ask if police knew anything and to assert that Tina was still missing and that they were still desperate to find her.
She was found on January 1st, 1985 by Interstate 75 near Jellico, Tennessee. She had been there for several days. She had been strangled and was wrapped in a blanket which was tied up. Her fingerprints were taken at her autopsy. But, she wasn’t identified until September of 2018.
Her daughter, Dana Renee Farmer, had already passed away on March 28th, 2017. She never knew that her mother had been murdered though Dana may have assumed so.
In 2019, DNA proved that Tina Marie McKenney Farmer’s killer had been Jerry Leon Johns of Cleveland, Tennessee. He had died in prison in 2015.
He had strangled a woman named Linda Schacke and left her in a storm drain in 1985 but she did not die. She testified against him and he was convicted. Linda Schacke was having a late dinner with two men that she had met at the Katch One Club in Knoxville. Jerry Leon Johns approached her in the parking lot and said he was a narcotics officer. He showed her a gun. She was doubtful that he was really a police officer and kept walking to her car. He then grabbed her and overpowered her and took her away in her own car. He tore strips of cloth from her shirt and tied her up with them. He drove around for hours before taking her to a storm drain and tying strips of cloth tightly around her neck. She pretended to be dead. He kicked her to attempt to be sure and she bravely and smartly suppressed any noise or movement. Linda Schacke went to the police with her story and a description.
That part about pretending to be a police officer and ultimately abducting her got me thinking. Had he used that tactic before? Are there victims that were assumed to have gone with him willingly but actually they were abducted.
Jerry Leon Johns was questioned in 1985 about the murders of six women initially.
One case that I wish someone could question him about is the murder of Tracy Sue Walker. Tracy disappeared from Lafayette, Indiana in 1978. It is believed that Tracy wasn’t reported as missing to police in 1978. She was found just off I-75 near Jellico, Tennessee as well. Her remains were found in 1985 also but I wasn’t able to find the date. She had been there for years. She was probably murdered not long after she was abducted.
Jerry Leon Johns died in prison in 2015. Did he also kill Tracy Sue Walker? It is possible.
That spot along I-75 near Jellico, Tennessee and Elk Valley is not an easy place to pull over. I’ve driven through there a few times in my life. It’s a bit precarious with a Cliff off the side of the interstate. To me, Tina was discarded there because he had also discarded Tracy’s remains there.
Jerry Leon Johns is buried in Flat Rock, Michigan. That’s in Wayne County. The cemetery there has quite a few people with the last name Johns. Did he grow up near there? It seems he did. I-75 would have been a road he was familiar with up there.
Could he have killed Jane Louise Allan? She was picked up in Michigan not too far from Flat Rock on I-75. She was tied and also strangled using strips of cloth from her own shirt. That’s very similar to what Linda Schacke endured. She was found not far off I-75 in Miamisburg, Ohio.
Could he have killed Marcia Sossaman King? She was known as Buckskin Jane Doe and was found strangled and discarded in Troy, Ohio. She was also not far off I-75.
Tina Marie McKenney Farmer was only 21 when she was murdered. She deserved a long life to figure things out. Her family desperately missed her all those years.
When she went missing Indiana did not have a law that required law enforcement to report missing persons to a national database or put out a report so that other states could identify victims. She was found in January only a few days after her murder. She would have been fairly recognizable still. If a missing persons report had been available to Tennessee authorities with a photo of Tina…she could have been identified immediately and her remains returned to her family in 1985. Instead, they wondered and worried for years.
She’s identified now and her killer was identified too. At least he was in prison for other crimes for decades and died in prison.
Rest in Peace Tina
Watch and share the YouTube video of Tina’s case: https://youtu.be/97vitTRuYt0?si=TpA6iphIzOfhe411
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