COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WRIC) – It has been almost one year since a 19-year-old Chesterfield man first went missing and his body was found just a few weeks later.
Marcus Johnson, 19, of Chesterfield, was reported missing by his family on Nov. 27, 2022. Johnson was last seen around 6 p.m. on Nov. 17 of this year and his body was found on Dec. 21 near the wood line of the 1300 block of Yacht Basin Drive in Colonial Heights.
However, it wasn’t until Tuesday, Jan. 3, that the body was confirmed to be Johnson’s.
His family tells 8News they now want answers as to what happened to him.
“It was just so devastating to know that somebody took him off and killed him,” said Phyllis Hudson, Johnson’s aunt.
Hudson will never forget the day she heard that her nephew wasn’t coming home.
“They had it on the news, [and] they said they found a body and I looked at it and I said that that that’s Marcus,” Hudson said. “It just was a shock to me.”
His body was found covered with a tarp and with signs that he had been shot multiple times.
In the year since Johnson’s death, the Colonial Heights Police Department has been working to find his killer.
A spokesperson with the department told 8News he was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera footage wearing the same clothes he was found in. This leads officials to believe he was possibly killed the day that footage was taken which was shortly after he first went missing.
“We put his ashes to rest, you know, and I said, ‘Lord, we closed on this part of it now, give us closure on who did it, you know?’ So that whoever did it can, you know can come to justice,” Hudson said.
Hudson said if her nephew was still alive today, he’d be following his dreams and serving his country in the military.
“I think he would have been a good soldier in the army, and his life has just taken away from him, you know, a senseless death.” Hudson said.
The Colonial Heights Police Department said there are no new leads in the case, and they have come up on a dead end in the investigation.
Authorities are urging anyone with any information on this case to contact them at (804) 520-9311.
