This is an automated archive.
The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/TaraCalicosBike on 2024-01-04 00:48:18+00:00.
Original Title: In April of 1999, 38 year old and 9 month pregnant Roberta Johnson was discovered dead in a shallow grave in Ocala, Florida. She had died from blunt force trauma to the head, and suffered a severe beating. Who killed Roberta Johnson?
Typically, I cover cases from Arizona, but for the next 41 write ups, I will be covering one case from each state in alphabetical order. Today will be a case from Florida.
In April of 1999, thirty eight year old Ocala, Florida native Roberta Vivian Johnson was busy preparing for a huge life event- she was mere days away from giving birth to a baby boy. Roberta was excited to add on to her family, eager to share the excitement and joy with only daughter, seventeen year old Arkeisha Johnson, whom she considered her best friend. Though Roberta had only one daughter at the time, she was well acquainted with what it took to deal with multiple children at a time: Roberta was a former middle school teacher who specifically worked with troubled children. On top of that, she has also spent time in the United States Army- and, at the time of her death, Roberta had been employed as a bus driver. Sadly, aside from her employment history, there wasn’t a lot of information available about the actual life of Roberta Johnson: her likes and dislikes, her daily activities, her personality or favorite color or meal, for example, have never been shared- only day the days and circumstances leading up to her murder have been reported on.
On April 24, 1999, Roberta Johnson had quite a busy day. She started her morning out by driving Arkeisha to Ocala High School, so her daughter could attend her Saturday morning classes in preparation for graduation, before driving Arkesiha’s boyfriend to his own home and dropping him off. After these errands, Roberta returned home and phoned her mother. Roberta spoke of an appointment that she had at a local Winn Dixie at 10 a.m., and while she never divulged who this mystery appointment was with, Roberta’s mother assumed it was with Drayton Florence Sr- a friend of Roberta’s and a fellow member of the United State’s Army. While it was never officially concluded, and Roberta never conclusively linked him, everyone in Roberta’s life assumed that Drayton was the father of Roberta’s unborn baby boy.
Days later, on April 26th, Roberta was officially reported missing by her family when she never returned home after her appointment at the local Winn Dixie. That same day, a local policeman noticed something strange in the 6400 block of North West 44th Avenue- there was some freshly upturned dirt off the side of the road on the popular lover’s lane, with a Chevrolet truck hood covering the disturbed soil. Sadly, Roberta’s body was lying in the 4 foot shallow grave, where she had been dead for days. Roberta had suffered a severe beating, and had died from blunt force trauma to the back of her head. Sargent Clint Smith, supervisor of the Marion County Cold Case unit, has this to say about the discovery of Roberta’s body:
”To be able to brutally murder somebody like this, to literally beat her to death and then discard of her in a shallow grave, leave her there, while she was nine months pregnant. She was days away from having this child. So for somebody to be able to do something like that, to me that's the worst of the worst."
Roberta’s car was discovered in the parking lot of the Winn Dixie which she had her meeting that Saturday morning. When witnesses were spoken to, they recall having seen Roberta there, accompanied by a man who had been shaking his fists at her while they spoke. The witnesses had said an altercation was clearly happening, and when they were spoken to a second time, they positively identified the man as Drayton Florence Sr.
The men in Roberta’s life were spoken to next, including Florence Sr. Investigators discovered that a few men had personal relationships with Roberta, and while each of them were spoken to, including her estranged ex-husband, it was discovered that they had all been out of the Ocala area on the day of the murder, having either been in nearby Orlando, or Tampa. Only Florence Sr. had still been in Ocala. Florence Sr. was said to be non-cooperative when it came to the investigation, and it was reported that Florence Sr. was asking fellow colleagues to switch his government issued vehicle with theirs, perhaps in an effort to confuse investigators. However, Florence’s car was in fact tracked down, and when it was combed for evidence it was discovered that the car had traces of amniotic fluid as well as vaginal discharge on the fabric seats. Florence attempted to explain these discoveries away, stating that Roberta had sat in his car the Friday prior to her disappearance, and that he was at work the Saturday morning that she disappeared- that of which his coworkers could corroborate.
Drayton Florence Sr also had motive. If the baby boy was indeed his, this would be his third child outside of his marriage. The other two mothers- one only a 19 year old woman who conceived his child in the back of his government issued car- had already taken Florence to court for child support. It is said that Florence Sr. may have been worried about Roberta also taking Florence Sr. to court for child support, and putting his pension, let alone his marriage, at risk.
Despite having a promising suspect, the murder of Roberta Vivian Johnson, and her unborn child, has never been resolved. Had her son been born, he would have turned 25 years old this year, and Roberta, 63. When interviewed for the Ocala Star Banner in 2016, Arkesiha, who is now a nurse and a mother herself, had this to say about the deaths of her mother and brother:
”The person who killed my mom, he took away my best friend. … He took away a part of my heart. And it's unfair to my mom and unfair to my unborn brother, to me and my family, for someone to be so mean and take away her life and still walk around free.”
Editing to add: due to some very helpful commenters, it was discovered through articles that Florence Sr. was NOT the father to the unborn child. Thank you for those who dug up that info!
Links: