Rodney Johnson

Rodney Peter Johnson was one of four brothers and a half-sister, a young man who attended Darrington High School and was remembered in a family photo from 1986, smiling alongside his siblings Chris, Raider, and Randy. As a young adult, the 25-year-old White male lived with a cousin and an aunt on NW 60th Street in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. He worked at The Golden Dragon, a Chinese restaurant on 17th Avenue. Family members last saw him in late 1987 or early 1988, when he told them he was leaving for a camping trip. After a brief time in jail in late 1987, records of his life seemed to stop. He wasn't officially reported missing until 1994, when a sister contacted the Salvation Army. Two years later, his sister and father filed a missing person report with the sheriff's office.

On the afternoon of June 11, 1994, two fishermen on the north shore of Lake Stickney, in an unincorporated area of south Everett, Washington, found a man's body floating face down among the lily pads. The remains were heavily decomposed and clothed in work boots, jeans, a belt, and briefs. An autopsy performed by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner revealed the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, and the case was ruled a homicide. The body was covered in a soap-like substance called adipocere, or "corpse wax," an indication that the man had been submerged for a significant period, possibly for years. Investigators believed he had been killed around 1987, his body weighted down in the lake until it finally surfaced seven years later.

For more than a quarter of a century, the victim was known only as "Lake Stickney Doe." The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office and the Medical Examiner's Office worked for years to identify him. Without fingerprints available due to the condition of the remains, investigators relied on other methods. Forensic artists created reconstructive sketches of his face, and his case was entered into national databases for missing and unidentified persons. He was even featured as the seven of hearts in a cold case playing card deck distributed by Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound in 2008. Despite these efforts, every lead went cold, and his identity remained a mystery.

The breakthrough came decades later through the use of advanced DNA technology. In January 2020, Snohomish County cold case detective Jim Scharf and the Medical Examiner's Office began working with Othram, Inc., a private lab specializing in forensic genealogy. Using a tiny amount of degraded DNA extracted from a tooth, Othram built a genealogical profile. The profile was uploaded to a public genealogy database, where it matched with a cousin, Eleanore "Ellie" Perry, a genealogy hobbyist who had opted to share her DNA with law enforcement. This crucial link pointed investigators toward the Johnson family. In June 2020, DNA samples were voluntarily provided by Rodney's father and brother, and on August 4, 2020, the remains found in Lake Stickney were positively identified as Rodney Peter Johnson.

With his name restored, the focus of the investigation shifted to finding his killer. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office re-opened the homicide case, now with a victim they could name and a past they could investigate. They appealed to the public for any information regarding Rodney's life and activities in the mid-to-late 1980s. "Our work in this case isn't over yet," Sheriff Adam Fortney said in August 2020. "We are determined to find out who killed Rodney and get justice for him and his family."

Rodney's family, after decades of uncertainty, was left seeking closure. His sister, Mary Ann Lambert, pleaded for help in finding who was responsible for her brother's death. "We are asking the public if they know something, to say something," she said at a press conference. "Our family wants closure and justice for whoever did this to Rodney. His life was snuffed out."

As of August 2020, the murder of Rodney Johnson remains an active and unsolved homicide investigation. Detectives continue to seek information from anyone who knew Rodney in the years leading up to his disappearance, anyone who knew about his last known whereabouts, or anyone who has information about his murder. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has asked that anyone with information related to this case call their tip line at 425-388-3845.