When someone just disappears, loved ones typically assume something is wrong. After all, disappearances aren’t normal. But law enforcement are the first to say that missing loved ones usually turn up. Maybe they just wanted some alone time. Maybe they got lost. Maybe they made plans and forgot to communicate. Maybe something bad did happen but they made it home safely. Adults have free will and the right to missing if they want to, which is what makes missing persons cases particularly challenging. You don’t always know if a missing person wanted to disappear or not.
In the case of Jean Johnson from Capitan, NM, the answer to that question remains unclear, but her daughter is certain something terrible must have befallen her mother. She knows that her mother would never have left of her own accord and she knows that her mother would have reached out to let her loved ones know that she is all right. It’s been over two years at the time of this writing with no word and no sign of Jean. The community is beginning to lose hope but Jean Johnson’s daughter Heidi perseveres.
When I think of New Mexico, I think instantly of Capitan, a peaceful, rural community at the foot of the gorgeous, rugged Capitan Mountains, not too far from the ski town of Alto and Ruidoso. This village embodies the spirit of the state for me: green chile cheeseburgers at the local cafe, the smell of cedar logs burning in woodstoves, the view of nearby dramatic mountains and pine forests, sunsets that drench the skies in lurid colors, and ranching are all integral to the town. In winter, Capitan may get quite a few inches of snow as it is buffeted by cold wind; in summer, it is mild and ranchers herd their cows while Texan tourists flood the streets of Ruidoso just fifteen minutes away. Beyond a community thrift store, the Oso Grill, a post office, a grocery, a Family Dollar, and a little gas station, there isn’t much in this town, but that’s how the locals like it. They don’t want to become inundated with out-of-towners like Ruidoso has.
Jean Johnson was a seventy-year-old widow who loved the solitude of Capitan, after living in Ruidoso for much of her life. She raised her daughter, Heidi, there. She enjoyed living near Heidi and her grandchildren but also kept to herself. A tough woman, she carried a .357 pistol in a hope chest to protect herself from mountain lions on her remote property at the end of a winding drive, as well as any person who might try to harass her. Though Heidi tried to get her to date, no one could measure up to her late husband, so she preferred her own company. The closest to male company she kept was her husband’s ashes in a pendant on a chain around her neck.
Jean disappeared mysteriously on May 27, 2019. Jean was kindly taking care of a friend’s dog in her home. She was supposed to bring the dog back to her friend’s house on Monday the 27, but did not. Jean’s daughter Heidi and Jean typically talked on the phone multiple times a day. When her daughter couldn’t reach her by phone for a day and a half, she went to her mom’s house. She noticed that her mom’s gate was locked. When she reached her mom’s car, the car was locked, with her mom’s phone and purse inside it. Then she noticed the front door was ajar. Inside, the dog had messed in the house a few times, something Jean would not have allowed because she was an attentive dogsitter and a clean person. While nothing appeared to be missing, Heidi did discover that the gun was not in its hope chest.
Perhaps the oddest part of the whole thing is that Jean’s gun was eventually turned into police two months later. The police won’t say who turned it in. The fact they didn’t arrest this person suggests that there wasn’t enough evidence for a conviction. So was the gun abandoned somewhere? Was there no forensic evidence on it? Did the cops do their job and get all DNA and fingerprints off it that they could? There is a pretty extensive history of evidence mishandling in Lincoln County (*cough cough* Judy and Cotton McKnight *cough cough*).
A different account says that the gun was found in a pouch on top of a laundry bag. Where? In Jean’s home? Why is this so much different than the other article? Who found it there, police? And why did Jean take it out of its hope chest where she usually kept it? It still seems suspicious, even if it still was in her home, because it means that Jean took it out and Heidi reports that her mother only removed the gun from its hiding place in the chest when she felt like she was in danger.
The police think Jean committed suicide. OK, but if that is true, then her body should have been found near the gun, wherever that was found. Also, while it’s not always the case, people who commit suicide usually have some semblance of finality in their actions. They don’t just agree to watch a friend’s dog and then leave it in the house without arranging for other care or taking it back to the friend’s house before committing their final act. They also probably don’t leave their phone and purse locked in their car as if they might have been planning to go somewhere. It is a myth that most people who commit suicide leave notes – in fact, most don’t leave notes – but most do make some sort of plan and tie up loose ends. So the circumstances seem odd for suicide. Heidi says her mother was a happy person who loved her family.
Another theory is that Jean developed sudden onset dementia and wandered off. This is definitely possible. Heidi swears that her mother had no signs of dementia, despite occasional forgetfulness – which, let’s face it, we all have. But dementia can set in rather quickly. Plus, some people hide their dementia because they don’t want to admit something is wrong, they don’t want to give up their way of life, and they don’t want to seem helpless. An independent woman like Jean, who lived on her own with only her husband’s ashes on a clear pendant around her neck to keep her company, probably would have been the type to resist moving in with her daughter or going to a care facility, so she would have hidden any cognitive issues she was having. This theory would certainly explain the scene. There was no sign someone broke in. In fact, the gates were locked, which makes it look like no one entered the property at all. Jean had put her phone and purse in the car like she was going somewhere, maybe to take the dog back to her friend. She had left the door ajar, maybe to go back in to get the dog after putting her things in the car, or maybe she had already been inside and she had opened the door from inside to go out when she wandered off and was never found. Her body may be on her property still. There was no sign of violence or a struggle, nothing missing, no blood.
Then there is the theory that she was attacked by a mountain lion. I find this highly unlikely for several reasons. For one, mountain lions don’t attack humans very often. There are a total of 27 documented fatal mountain lion attacks on humans in the US in the past century. Now that is enough to make mountain lions a threatening species, but they are not that common of a deadly threat. They tend to prefer easy prey and it would take a pretty desperate mountain lion to attack a human. A starving mountain lion or a rabid one might be brave enough to go after a grown woman. But neither is likely in that area, where there are plenty of rabbits, foxes, feral cats, coyotes, raccoons, mice, and other prey to eat, not to mention livestock. I suppose rabies is a possibility, but there are other issues that discount this theory in my opinion. Mountain lions hate dogs and likely wouldn’t go near the house with a dog barking inside. And they would not go near a woman screaming in terror and firing a gun. Jean had that gun mainly for protection against the big cats. Finally, mountain lions would leave some sort of carnage, a sign of a violent scuffle – something to show what had transpired. But there was no sign of violence at the scene. So a mountain lion seems extremely far-fetched.
The thing that seems most unusual to me is how the gate was locked. Heidi stated that there were two gates on Jean’s property on Towhee Drive outside Capitan and the bottom one, closest to Jean’s home, was locked. The first gate was not. So someone could have driven through the first gate, parked at the bottom gate, clambered over it, and walked up to Jean’s house. But then they would have had to kill or kidnap Jean and carry her body all the way to the gate, over the gate, and into their vehicle. That sounds like a lot of work, as well as a lot of risk of getting seen.
The other possibility is that they didn’t get in through the gate at all. Perhaps they got in through another part of the property. If there was a gate, there was probably a fence all around the property, likely a barbed wire fence to keep cattle out. It’s not that hard to climb through barbed wire. Your clothes might get snagged, but you can make it through the strands. So this could explain why Jean had left the house with the door ajar and why she had taken the gun. Maybe she heard something or saw someone on her property. She went to confront them with the gun for her safety. The person somehow overpowered her and kidnapped or killed her. Then they removed her from the property somehow, the way they came, which wasn’t through the gate. The fact Jean had left her things in the car may be unrelated – she may have been getting home from somewhere or getting ready to leave with the dog and had just put her purse and phone in the car when the perpetrator appeared.
Heidi says nothing was missing from the house. Well, maybe nothing she knew about. Maybe the door was ajar because the perpetrator broke in. Either the perpetrator kidnapped Jean in the house or he broke in after accosting Jean outside at her car as she got out of it or prepared to get in it after slinging her purse and cell phone inside it, something I will often do. He stole whatever he was after, maybe papers implicating him in some crime or some item that was deeply personal. Maybe he also stole the gun and then used it – maybe on Jean – and left it somewhere to be found and turned in to the police two months later.
I have so many questions! And no answers. Same as Heidi, unfortunately.
In desperation, Heidi has turned to psychics for advice. They have all told her that Jean is dead and buried near a road. One said that Jean is buried on a property near Alamogordo under some Afghan pine trees and that the owners don’t know she is there. That is creepy but obviously one can’t put much stock in it. I hope that Heidi has tracked down the owners of any properties with Afghan pine trees in Alamogordo and gotten closure in that aspect. It is certainly understandable that she would seek out answers in that way because, as she describes it, “I’ve had this like movie reel of 50,000 things that could’ve happened to my mother that plays through my mind, and I would really like to know what happened so that that would stop.”
Heidi was very close to her mom. She is determined to find her. But as the years go on, that hope is becoming more and more frustrated. Heidi and her kids deserve closure so they can at least begin the healing process and lay their beloved Jean to rest. Jean looks like a fun, loving lady in her pictures and my heart aches for what she must have gone through in her last moments and for what her family continues to go through.
Jean is 66 inches tall, weighs about 130 pounds, has long grey hair, and has If you have information, please call the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 575-648-2341.