A year after Richard Johnson disappeared from the Lansing area, his family continues search
DELTA TWP. — In the year since Richard Johnson seemingly vanished, apparently while walking home from a friend's apartment, the anniversaries and other notable dates in his family's lives have kept passing without him.
On April 12, Johnson's wife, Kim, marked the couple's 38th wedding anniversary without him. On April 24, family and friends celebrated Johnson's 64th birthday, again with him absent.
And for Kim and Richard's daughter, Jessica Johnson, there was no getting around April 29, the one-year anniversary of the last time she saw her father or talked with him. It was a very difficult day, she said.
Tuesday probably won't be any easier: It will mark the one-year anniversary of his disappearance.
"It's been a living nightmare for the past year," Jessica Johnson said. "It's hard to describe the feelings and emotions we're going through. A year with no answers is the loneliest and scariest thing in the world."
There have been "absolutely no updates," in the year since her father disappeared the night of May 7, 2023, from the area of 203 Gatewood Drive at Plumtree Apartments in Delta Township, just south of Saginaw Highway, Jessica Johnson said. Johnson had visited someone there and purportedly left to walk home at Delta Square Apartments a short distance away.
Family and community members spent days searching the area and posted fliers asking for information, but there have been no developments and no leads, family members said.
Richard "Rick" Johnson was a laborer who was forced to retire at age 42 because of Huntington's disease, his daughter said.
Jessica Johnson, a 36-year-old mother of three, is a medical assistant and lives in south Lansing. Her brother, Justin Johnson, 34, is married and lives on Lansing's east side.
Their mother now lives with Justin and is doing well, Jessica said.
"We are so proud of her," Jessica said, noting that her father and mother were together for 48 years. "(Richard) was her best friend. She's doing the best she can regarding the situation."
Bringing 'everybody together in remembrance'
The family wants to bring more awareness of missing persons with a "Walk for Rick," planned for 11 a.m. May 11 at the state Capitol. Donations are welcome, but the event is free, Jessica Johnson said.
"It's just a gathering to bring everybody together in remembrance," Jessica Johnson said. "There is no way to really describe what you go though during this process. You don't ever think about what kind of resources are needed. You're hurting. In the meantime, you have to do all this work yourself.
"We would love to be able to help others. It is lot bigger of an issue than most people know. There are so many people missing that we don't really know about," she said.
The family would like to start a nonprofit to provide resources, she said. Local police departments should have missing persons units, she said.
'It all starts there'
Richard Johnson was last seen about 11 p.m. May 7, 2023.
The Eaton County Sheriff's Office waited for a week after Johnson was reported missing to publicize his disappearance, posting a news release giving a physical description of Johnson and asking for information.
In that posting, police said Johnson was last seen wearing a long, camo jacket, baseball cap, gray sweatpants and and white or gray T-shirt. They asked that anyone with information call them at 517-543-3512 or 517- 323-8480.
Family members criticized investigators for waiting so long to go public with the disappearance, which they claimed made it harder to get leads about what happened to him.
A police official last year said the department followed standard procedures and explained to the family why it acted the way it did. He said the department could not publicly talk about certain aspects of the investigation.
Through spokeswoman Jerri Nesbitt, sheriff's officials declined to discuss the case on Friday.
Jessica Johnson said she still doesn't know what might have happened to her father. She said she believes the people who were in the apartment he visited have "a lot of the answers." Richard Johnson was said to have left the apartment on foot, but he didn't show up on any surveillance camera video, Jessica Johnson said.
"It all starts there," she said, referring to the apartment.
As for the police investigation, the family has heard nothing in a long while, she said.
The search continues
Jessica Johnson continues to search for information about her father on a daily basis.
She said she checks the National and Missing and Unidentified Person System, a central repository for missing, unidentified and unclaimed people across the U.S. The group tries to match unidentified remains with long-term missing persons to provide resolution to families, according to its website.
While searching online on April 2, Jessica Johnson said, she found a man resembling her father who died in Detroit in January. She went there a few days later to give a DNA sample for a paternity test, but it may be weeks or months before the results come in, and she hadn't heard anything as of Monday, she said.
She said her father has no dental records or fingerprints on file that could be used to identify him.
"What we learned with this is that after a little bit of time has passed, you have to do the work, you have to do the legwork, you have to make all the phone calls," she said.
The "Walk for Rick" is a chance to help families in the same predicament as hers, she said.
"We've had immense support from the community," she said. "We want to bring attention to our case and help others who are dealing with the same thing. We know everybody has been praying for us. But just to see it all in one place at one time is needed."
Nothing special is planned for Tuesday to mark the anniversary of her father's disappearance, Jessica Johnson said, but she plans to spend the day with her mother.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: One year later, family still searching for missing Delta Township man
