{"id":47416,"date":"2017-07-20T03:19:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T03:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=47416"},"modified":"2017-07-20T03:19:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T03:19:12","slug":"mother-insists-daughter-found-hanging-mailbox-murdered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=47416","title":{"rendered":"Mother Insists Daughter Found Hanging From Mailbox Was Murdered"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mail carrier found her, legs curled under her, hanging from a mailbox by shoestrings that had been fashioned into a noose.<\/p>\n

The coroner estimates that Jessica Re\u2019nee Johnson, 37, hung there for several hours before she was found on June 2. The preliminary cause of death is ligature strangulation, and authorities in Horn Lake, Mississippi, suspect it was a suicide.<\/p>\n

Horn Lake police Capt. Nikki Lanphere told HuffPost that suicide is the preliminary classification, pending a final report by the medical examiner, which Lanphere said would be available in four to six months.<\/p>\n

To Johnson\u2019s friends and family, it\u2019s an absurd theory \u2015 one on which valuable time is being wasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my daughter, and there is no way possible this is a suicide,\u201d her mother, Linda Appleton Johnson, told HuffPost. \u201cThis was murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leigh Ann Moreno said there was no indication that her friend, whom she describes as a doting mother of two, was suicidal. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe would not take her own life,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cShe loved life, and she loved to make people laugh. Everyone adored her, and I want [her children] to know she would never have done this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jessica Johnson lived with her mother, who said she last saw her on May 31, when Jessica left her Horn Lake home to spend a few days with her on-again, off-again boyfriend. \u201d[Jessica] FaceTimed her daughter on June 1 and said she was coming home, but she never did,\u201d Linda said.<\/p>\n

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According to Moreno, Jessica and her boyfriend had been visiting the occupants of the home she was found in front of. It\u2019s unclear what happened between the time she arrived and the time her body was found by the mail carrier.<\/p>\n

Jessica\u2019s boyfriend did not respond to a request for comment, and authorities have declined to comment on specifics of the investigation.<\/p>\n

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Many questions remain unanswered, which is why family and friends say they are not relying on local authorities alone. They recently convinced Dr. Maurice Godwin, a criminal investigative psychologist, to look at the case.<\/p>\n

Godwin, who said he is still in the early stages of the investigation, told HuffPost it seems an unlikely scenario that Jessica Johnson hanged herself from a 38-inch mailbox.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this examiner\u2019s opinion, Jessica died at another location and was then positioned at the post with the string and [the] scene [was] staged as a hanging,\u201d Godwin said.<\/p>\n

He said the position of her purse by her knees appears to have been staged, and he suspects the shoestring \u201cwas not tied before it was placed around the post and [her] neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreno said she\u2019s troubled not only by the crime scene, but also by the injuries observed while preparing Jessica\u2019s body for the funeral.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is what appears to be a footprint indented in her arm,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also marks on her wrists and arms,\u201d Linda Johnson added. \u201cIt looks like she might have been bound and possibly injected with something.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Clicking on the image above will remove or restore the blur.)<\/p>\n

Linda Johnson says her daughter struggled with drug addiction and sometimes hung out with the wrong crowd. If it weren\u2019t for Jessica\u2019s past, she believes authorities would be taking the case more seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier for them to write her off as a suicide,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The status of Jessica\u2019s smartphone also bolsters the family\u2019s belief that she was murdered.<\/p>\n

According to her mom, a new lock code was enabled prior to Jessica\u2019s death, and no one has been able to access the contents of the device.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe phone is still locked,\u201d said Linda. \u201cEven though it\u2019s in my husband\u2019s name, [Apple] won\u2019t help us access it. We have to go through an attorney, and that\u2019s going to take several months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Johnson also claims she\u2019s been in contact with the family of another Horn Lake woman who died under suspicious circumstances last year. That woman was also known to hang out with Jessica\u2019s boyfriend, Linda said.<\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n