Susan Reddick:1977, Toledo, Ohio

 

  Susan Reddick was born on March 16th, 1958.  She went to Charleston High School, in Charleston, Illinois. 

  On Saturday April 23rd, 1977, Susan was in Charleston, Illinois at a teen and young adult nightclub enjoying her evening. 

  Almost inexplicably, 19 year old Susan Reddick was found in Toledo, Ohio by mushroom hunters on Sunday April 24th, 1977. Susan was lying facedown in “the Fulfer Branch of Muddy Creek” about five miles north of Toledo. Another article says 6 miles northwest of Toledo. I think she was sexually assaulted, beaten to death and thrown from a bridge. 

  How did she end up hundreds of miles away overnight?

  I couldn’t find anything written about her in Ohio newspapers. She does not appear on the state list of unsolved homicides in Ohio. 

  Her case appears in Illinois newspapers, though. 

  Articles about her death report that she had sustained severe head injuries. 

  Based on the fact that she was taken from Charleston, Illinois to Toledo, Ohio; I think she was killed by Jerry Leon Johns. I immediately thought of Jerry Leon Johns in her case because of the geography. He practically led us to his door here. 

  He was a serial killer trucker from Flat Rock, Michigan. That is just a short drive north of Toledo. 

  Jerry Leon Johns was not caught until March of 1985 in Knoxville, TN. when his last victim lived. She was gravely injured but survived to tell police who had attacked her. Johns was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He died there in 2015. 

  In 2018, DNA connected him to the murder of Indianapolis native, Tina Marie McKenney Farmer. She was found next to I-75 on January 1st, 1985. The spot that she was found is near Jellico, Tennessee. She had not been dead long. 

  Also found that day were a set of skeletal remains that would eventually be identified as Tracy Sue Walker. In 1978, Tracy Walker went missing from Lafayette, Indiana. 

  I think his first victim was a girl from Michigan who was found thrown off a bridge in Miamisburg, Ohio. Jane Louise Allan had been hitchhiking in Michigan when she disappeared in 1976. 

  I think Jerry Leon Johns was stopped for dinner in Charleston on Saturday night and saw Susan Reddick. I think he abducted her and then drove toward home through Indiana and eventually Ohio. At some point he stopped to assault and kill her. Then he threw her off the bridge in Ohio before heading back into his home state. 

  In these two early murders he left the victims in water. Later his murders seem to be connected by leaving them on the side of busy interstates. He doesn’t leave them in dumpsters or behind a truck stop. He pulls over in inconvenient spots where a helpful person is unlikely to stop to offer aid. 

   I have a growing list of cold cases that I believe are the work of Jerry Leon Johns.  

     Jerry Leon Johns could also be responsible for the 1981 murder of Marcia Sossaman King. She was also found not far from I-75 in Troy, Ohio. She had been strangled and beaten. For decades she was known as “Buckskin Jane Doe” for the fringed buckskin pullover she had worn. 

  Another woman who disappeared from Vandalia, Ohio, along I-75, was Brenda Sue Black. Brenda Sue Black was born around 1955. I wasn’t able to find her date of birth or family information. Brenda Sue Black was found along I-80 in Illinois in April of 1981 after going missing in 1980.  She was heading back to California and accepted a ride from a trucker, I believe. 

  In November of 1981, Marie Bridget Donae Patrick and a friend accepted a ride from a trucker leaving Cincinnati and headed west on I-64.  Near the Ferdinand exit the girls realized that they were in extreme danger.  Marie and her friend decided to jump out of the moving truck.  Marie pushed her friend out but was unable to get out herself.  Marie's friend walked west along the interstate until she found the body of Marie.  She had serious head injuries and had been thrown out of the vehicle by the trucker.  I believe that trucker could be Jerry Leon Johns.

  In April of 1982, Patricia Sue McCabe was found dumped by the side of I-64 in Warrick County, Indiana. Her death was not really investigated as a murder at the time.  She seems to have been forgotten. 

  Connie Lorraine Christensen was found in 1982 further off I-70 in Indiana east of Indianapolis.  She had left Tennessee with a trucker who said he would take her back to Wisconsin. 

  Bobbie Lee Wells from Taylor Michigan was found west of Toledo. Joann Jaso and Sharon Louise Ward were murdered in the Toledo area. 

  Sharon Hurley lived in St. Louis and was abducted, assaulted and murdered and then thrown off the Poplar Street Bridge in 1981.

  Annette Stewart was a high school student who was abducted from Cleveland and dumped near Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania in November of 1982.

  Michelle Franks was a fast food worker who was abducted from St. Louis, assaulted, murdered, and dumped across the river in 1984.

   Regina Jane Pierce was dumped by the side of Interstate 70 in Indiana near Monrovia in 1984. 

   Jacqueline Lambert accepted a ride from a trucker in Texas. She was found by the side of the road near Big Lake, Texas in August of 1984.

   If you have a tip for Toledo Police about Susan Reddick you can call them at (419) 255-3246.

    Susan Reddick should still be here.  She was only 19.  She had so much living left to do.  Susan is buried at Fairview Cemetery in a town called Kansas, Illinois.

     Rest In Peace, Susan