Sometimes in an investigation, you have to seek out all of the leads. Other times, a lead comes to you.
Reporter Amory Sivertson learns more about Marlyne Johnson, Sophia Johnson’s late mother-in-law, and her murder is explored through footage of Sophia's 2003 murder trial.Clark County Detective Rick Buckner and his team narrowed the field of suspects to siblings Sophia and Sean Correia .
I’m freshly back from a trip to New York to see Shane Correia… and share the latest with him about his sister, Sophia, who was charged with murdering her mother-in-law back in 2002. I’ve fired up the footage of Sophia’s trial. That box of VHS tapes I got in the mail. On screen: a drab courtroom, grainy faces, outfits from 20 years ago, and… the prosecutor, delivering his opening statements.
People like Keith Jesperson… AKA, the"Happy Face Killer," who killed at least 8 women in the 90s and drew smiley faces on letters to police and the media. Rick Buckner: I think she came back from a yoga class that day. Yep. Went out grocery shopping. We had the grocery receipts in the bag so we could pretty much pinpoint the time that she actually would've arrived home. And by all, you know, indications, she just parked her car in the garage, came in from the garage into the house carrying groceries and somebody just viciously attacked her.
Rick Buckner: Well, first off, as a lead investigator, it's my responsibility to direct and guide the investigation to evaluate the information that comes in. I'm also responsible for the, the crucial interviews. So obviously we wanted to contact the family.Roylene Hamilton: In fact, we made a pledge that we would never leave the state, we would never be long distance from each other ever.
Someone did prove that to Marlyne. Likely, someone she knew. But WHO... that was Detective Buckner's job.Rick Buckner: Yes, I did. I interviewed Brad, Sophia Johnson, Richard Johnson.Rick Buckner: So we asked everybody, you know, what was your day like, what did you do, who were you talking to? Those kind of things. Do you know of anybody that could have done something like this? Anybody that would've wanted to hurt Marlyne. I mean, she was a housewife.
Rick Buckner: So then we were pretty much at square one. You know, who would've done this? I mean, what are we looking at? Is it some kind of a robbery gone bad? Is it a burglary in the house? Rick Buckner: Based on what we were told, our investigation focused on Sean Correia at that time and Sophia Johnson.Rick Buckner: There is no connection between Marlyne Johnson and Sean Correia. The only connection is Sophia Johnson.Rick Buckner: Eventually he said that he didn't actually do it, but he was there when it happened and that his sister is the one that actually bludgeoned Marlyne Johnson to death.
But Sean doesn't stop. He dances around WHATever, exactly, was done by WHOever for about 4 minutes. Until... finally... he says this.Sean Correia: If these people find out that we had anything to do with this, we’re gonna go to jail.“Do you need me to get you an attorney?” Sophia Johnson: You know, I don’t. I really don’t think he’s capable of something like that. I don’t know what his motive would be. He never really knew her.say she'd head down to the police station to share more of what she'd heard. Or, at least, that's all she THOUGHT she’d be doing…
Sean is on the stand for three and a half hours... so I’ll summarize his version of events. You’re gonna want to listen closely...Sean says he had gone to Sophia's house early that morning with his girlfriend, Susie. He was technically married to ANOTHER woman at the time, and Sophia had agreed to help him file for divorce.
This… is kind of a weird plot point, right? Skipping work to clean carpets... at your sister’s in-laws’ house? It’s a fishy story that either Sophia cooked up for Sean, or that Sean cooked up for detectives. And was NOW feeding to a jury.Again, no one was home. Pretty soon after they get there, Seans says, Sophia admits: there are no carpets to clean. I made it up. And she starts looking around for something. Her coat, with the money in the pocket, Sean assumes. But then...Ten thousand dollars.
Sophia drove them back to her house, Sean says. She could see blood on his undershirt and pants. So Sophia took the shirt and gave Sean a pair of her husband Brad's pants to change into. Then Sean says, she instructed him to drive the van to a particular parking lot where he'd be able to catch a bus home.Tom Duffy: Did you take that as an implied threat?
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