John Eric Armstrong

Serial Killer

John Eric Armstrong: The Detroit Serial Killer and Former U.S. Navy Sailor

Background and Military Service

John Eric Armstrong was born on November 23, 1973, in New Bern, North Carolina. He graduated from New Bern High School and entered the United States Navy in 1992. Beginning in 1993, Armstrong served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, where his duties included work connected with aircraft fueling and ship services. He remained in the Navy for approximately seven years and was honorably discharged in April 1999. During his military career, Armstrong traveled extensively as the Nimitz visited ports in the United States and throughout Asia and the Pacific. Those travels later became an important part of the investigation into him because, after his arrest in Michigan, Armstrong claimed that his murders had begun years before the killings for which he was ultimately convicted. He told investigators that he had attacked people in several of the same places visited by his ship. Although police agencies around the world investigated those statements, most of the alleged overseas murders could never be independently verified. After leaving the Navy, Armstrong settled in the Detroit metropolitan area with his wife and family. He lived in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, attended classes at Schoolcraft College, and held several jobs. To neighbors and acquaintances he did not outwardly resemble the violent offender police would later describe. Behind that appearance, however, Armstrong began targeting vulnerable people in Detroit, particularly women associated with street prostitution along the Michigan Avenue corridor.

The Murder of Monica Johnson

The first of Armstrong's five confirmed Detroit-area victims was 31-year-old Monica Johnson. On December 3, 1999, Johnson encountered Armstrong in Detroit. Armstrong later admitted that he had sex with her and strangled her. Johnson was abandoned near an I-94 service drive in Detroit. She was still alive when she was discovered, but her injuries were fatal and she died at a hospital later that day. At the time, Johnson's death was one of hundreds of violent deaths being investigated in Detroit, and there was not yet an obvious connection to the man who would eventually be identified as her killer. It was only after Armstrong's arrest months later that investigators were able to place Johnson's death within the larger series of attacks. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Wendy Jordan Age: (39), Date of Death: 2000-01-02

Suspected Victims:

Linette Hillig Age: (34), Date of Death: 1998-03-05

John Eric Armstrong - Wikipedia