Cellphone data ties Kentucky man to teen mom's disappearance, death 13 years ago
Ohio prosecutors said Jacob Bumpass was the last person to see 17-year-old Paige Johnson alive in 2010
Paige Johnson vanished on Sept. 23, 2010, before her remains were found.
An Ohio jury on Monday convicted a Kentucky man in the September 2010 disappearance of Paige Johnson, a 17-year-old single mom.
Jacob Bumpass, 35, was found guilty of abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence in connection with Johnson's mysterious death.
"We are pleased to have been able to bring some semblance of justice to the Johnson family", Clermont County Assistant Prosecutor Clay Tharp said in a Monday statement after the jury reached its decision.
The state was able to prove Bumpass was the last person to see Johnson, then the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, alive.
Jacob Bumpass, 35, was found guilty of abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence in connection with Paige Johnson's death.
Johnson was reported missing to the Covington Police Department in Kentucky on Sept. 23, 2010. Prosecutors said Bumpass was her friend and the pair got in an argument at his home that day, when they say she died, and he tried to cover up her death, WLWT5 reported.
Bumpass initially said he dropped Johnson off at the intersection of 15th and Scott streets in Covington after she visited him that day.
A decade later, an individual looking for deer sheds in a wooded area of Williamsburg Township in Ohio – about 33 miles from where Bumpass said he last saw her – reported finding a human skull. Authorities found more remains over a three-day period.
A forensic dental consultant eventually identified the remains as belonging to Johnson. It is unclear exactly how Johnson died due to the state of her limited remains, according to local reports.
Paige Johnson's mother, Donna Johnson, told reporters on Monday that the verdict made her feel like she was bringing her daughter back "home."
"It has been a long wait and that part has been very hard. So… the joy and the happiness with being able to bring her home finally and give her what she deserves after having to wait all this time is a feeling I can't even describe. It's just like I get to bring my baby home and give her the dignity she has deserved this whole time and has had to wait for," she said, according to WLWT5.
Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said his office hopes Monday's "verdict will bring justice" to Johnson's "friends and family."
Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said his office hopes Monday's "verdict will bring justice" to Paige Johnson's "friends and family."
"While I could not be more proud of my assistants’ work on this case, unfortunately, no amount of prison time will truly hold Bumpass accountable for all of the pain and suffering that he has caused over the last 13 years," he added.
Prosecutors argued that Bumpass' phone records placed him in Clermont
County on the day of Johnson's disappearance, when they say he dumped
her body in the woods "with a complete disregard for the value of her
life. He dumped her like she was nothing more than a bag of trash,"
according to FOX 19 Cincinnati.
1 comment:
He ought to be locked up just for his name.
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