CUMBERLAND COUNTY: Why will no one provide helpful information to investigators? Creg Johnson's family does not understand how people can be so heartless. NC WANTED takes on the troubling 'No Snitch' tendencies in various communities of North Carolina. NC WANTED airs on Saturday nights, after WRAL's 10 O'Clock News on FOX50.
Background On The Unsolved Murder Of Creg Keith Johnson
Creg Johnson’s red Isuzu Rodeo sits idle in a driveway in Greensboro. A “For Sale” sign hangs in the window but Vernice and Linda Thomas say they have no plans to get rid of it. At least not until Fayetteville police solve Creg’s murder.
He was shot five times in the barbershop where he worked, on Yadkin Road in Fayetteville, on Saturday, November 19, 2005.
A man and his young son found Creg lying on the floor the next morning. They went to three neighboring convenient stores before finding a clerk who would let them call police; the phones at the first two stores weren’t available for public use. Thus began a frustrating homicide investigation.
So police arrived and initially were optimistic the case would be solved quickly. Yadkin Road is a well-traveled, commercial area and Creg likely was shot with the blinds of the large window in the shop wide open. It was dark outside and the lights were on inside.
Right away, investigators pleaded for information in media reports, hoping someone who saw something that night – a car parked in the lot or someone in the barbershop – would come forward and help solve the case. That never happened and despite the frequent pleas, detectives have had to actively seek out people with knowledge of Creg’s activities in the weeks leading up to his death.
Sometimes tips come to the police through Vernice, because people feel more comfortable talking to him than they do the cops.
Meanwhile, a family suffers. Linda Thomas, who works in human resources at Aetna, can barely hear Creg’s name before her eyes well with tears. Vernice, supervisor of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program in Guilford County, is kind but serious and sad.
Vernice and Linda are familiar with the hard truths of life that most only experience at arm’s length. They know those feelings – the futile anger, the helplessness at irrevocable tragedy – well.
Creg was their nephew, but they loved him like a son. Creg’s parents, Linda’s sister and brother-in-law, were killed in a car crash when Creg was 18 months old. Creg and his brother, three years older than he, were raised by their grandmother in Raeford.
Creg’s older brother died of cancer at 19. The boys’ grandmother lived more than a century, but Creg was home when she lost her balance and fell. She never recovered.
Then, Creg’s murder -- Vernice and Linda remember getting the call that Sunday morning. Thanksgiving was coming and Creg would come for dinner with his 10-year-old son, Tyrin. Not now. Not ever.
And in September, they lost their four-month-old granddaughter, Zuri, in a house fire. They don’t talk about that much.
Anytime Vernice and Linda call their great-nephew to chat he asks the same question before the conversation even begins. Have they found who killed my daddy yet?
Each time the answer is the same.
The lead investigator insists the case is not cold. Police continue to work leads and every so often, one of them shows promise. Still, most of the promising leads so far have proved little more than an attractive dead-end street.
“This case has taught me patience,” said Fayetteville Detective Chuck Dew. “It has been very frustrating.” It has taken a lot of time to find out about the victim’s social activities leading up to his death that may shed light on a motive, he said, especially given people’s reluctance to come forward with information.
He was a “ladies man” and enjoyed a good party. He very well could have met up with the wrong woman. His murder could have been the end of an ongoing argument. Robbery has been all but ruled out – Creg had very little money on him at the time he was killed and police don’t think he was selling drugs.
Lawrence Mason owns the barbershop where Creg worked, and remembers business got so slow after the murder he almost had to close it. Things have picked up, but Creg’s barber station sits empty.
Lawrence saw Creg earlier in the day on the Saturday he was killed, and says he’s nearly certain Creg knew his killer. Without question, he says, Creg would have kept the door locked after dark. There was no sign of forced entry and police seem sure the killer came in and left through the front door.
Creg had plans to meet up with his cousins that night, but police say there’s no indication they saw each other.
Someone – likely a handful of people – in the Fayetteville area hold the key to solving this case, police say. Clues haven’t come to them, so in some cases they’ve gone out and got them. On the anniversary of Creg’s death, investigators hit the streets with flyers asking for people who know something to do the right thing. Vernice and Linda were with them, and they’ll be with them again this year if the case isn’t closed. If police can’t make it, they’ll go alone.
“We’re in this now,” Vernice said. “We didn’t choose this, but we’re in it, and we’ll be in it until the end.”
Linda and Vernice may have resigned themselves to the fact that life is short and sometimes mean, but they continue the struggle to find their nephew’s killer because it is proper they should. It is a task God placed on their unwilling shoulders and besides, no one ever said life is fair.
If you have information on the unsolved murder of Creg Johnson, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED or click on 'Report A Tip.' Your identity can be kept confidential.
