SALINAS – A chilly case homicide greater than three a long time outdated has been solved in keeping with the Monterey County District Legal professional’s Workplace, however the suspect won’t ever be charged as a result of he died earlier than DNA testing confirmed proof discovered below the sufferer’s fingernails matched his.
On Jan. 3, 1991, Vicki Johnson, a 34-year-old mom of three from Seaside, was discovered useless in Sabado Park at Darwin Avenue and H Place in Seaside.
Johnson had been strangled, asphyxiated, and her physique had been set on hearth, in keeping with a press launch from the District Legal professional’s Workplace. The bodily proof indicated that Johnson had struggled along with her killer. No eyewitnesses to the crime may very well be positioned, and no vital suspects had been developed.
No arrests had been made within the preliminary investigation of Johnson’s homicide and the case remained unsolved for greater than 32 years.
In 2021, the Johnson homicide case was reopened when investigators with the DA’s Chilly Case Activity Power labored along with the Seaside Police Division to submit objects of proof from the case for DNA testing.
This previous month, California Division of Justice Crime Laboratory criminalists matched DNA discovered beneath Johnson’s fingernails to Frank Lewis McClure who was 46 on the time of Johnson’s homicide.
McClure’s DNA profile was within the Mixed DNA Index System database because of a earlier felony conviction for assault with a lethal weapon, in keeping with the discharge. McClure had not been a suspect within the authentic investigation.
The motive for Johnson’s homicide stays unknown as McClure died in 2021 on the age of 77.
The Monterey County District Legal professional’s Workplace Chilly Case Activity Power was established in 2020 to examine, clear up and prosecute cold-case homicides in Monterey County.
Anybody who has extra details about Frank Lewis McClure or the murder of Vicki Johnson is inspired to contact the Seaside Police Division.
