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March 5, 2003
By JOHN CHARLES ROBBINS
Staff writer
As Kirk Johnson hung up the phone at his Holland home, memories rushed in of a younger Kristi Johnson hugging and
kissing him and telling him, "Daddy, I love you."
He would always respond, "Kristi, I love you."
Moments after receiving the phone call that his daughter was found dead in California, he walked outside his house
and looked to the sky.
"I stared up to the heavens, I lifted my eyes and I called out her name and I repeated, 'I love you. I love you.
I love you,'" Johnson said.
"And then, suddenly, my whole body just relaxed and I smiled I knew she was in heaven with God."
Johnson spoke with the Sentinel Tuesday, the day after police in Santa Monica said his daughter's body was found by
hikers in Los Angeles.
Kristine Louise Johnson, 21, had vanished Feb. 15 after driving to meet a photographer for a movie audition and photo
shoot.
Monday afternoon her body was found in the Hollywood hills. A flowery tattoo across her lower back -- a youthful diversion
she got on her senior class trip to Florida -- told police it was Kristi.
Standing in the ravine where Kristi's body was, Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. called Kirk Johnson.
"He had a sorrowful voice. He said, 'Are you at home?' I said, 'Yes I am.' He said, 'Do you have someone with
you?' and I said, 'Yes, my wife (Pam).'
"Then he said, 'I'm very sorry. We have found Kristi and she's no longer with us,'" Johnson said.
"I was not prepared, mentally or otherwise (for this outcome). I didn't allow myself to think that way. I felt
like she was still out there ... I had a feeling. So, I denied that she may have been involved in a violent death," said
Johnson.
The next few days will not be any easier for the family.
Johnson and his son, Derek, 24, on leave from the U.S. Air Force, and Johnson's ex-wife, Terry Wark, who is Kristi
and Derek's mother, must make the funeral arrangements once the LA coroner's office releases the body.
An autopsy is scheduled for today.
Johnson was busy Tuesday arranging for his daughter's dental records to be sent by overnight courier to the coroner.
Late Tuesday, Johnson said, "Right now she's Jane Doe No. 22 -- she'll be Kristi again tomorrow."
A 1999 graduate of Saugatuck High School, Kristi had lived in California for the last two years.
She was working for a small cellular phone company and had dreams of getting into the entertainment industry, with
plans to study make-up.
Her disappearance quickly attracted the attention of newspapers and television news crews in Los Angeles, and soon
became a national story.
Kirk Johnson said the outpouring of concern and affection from strangers was astounding.
"I want to thank all of the people, every single one who prayed for her," he said. "I want the people
of Holland to know how much I appreciate them following the case."
He said he wants her funeral to be open to everybody, from long-time friends who sang with Kristi in the church choir
at All Saints in Saugatuck, to the people across the nation who only recently got to know her.
"They came to love and care for her," he said.
Johnson cherished his daughter's beautiful disposition.
"Kristi was an incredibly loving girl. She was sunshine. There was an incredible sweetness to her," he said.
The day of her disappearance she told her roommate she was going to meet a photographer in Beverly Hills for a photo
shoot related to a movie project.
Police found her car Feb. 24 and released a composite drawing of a man wanted for questioning in her disappearance.
Santa Monica police said Tuesday they have identified a possible suspect in the killing.
Chief Butts said the possible suspect was in police custody for felony parole violation in an unrelated case but had
yet to be charged in the kidnap-killing of Johnson because the investigation was ongoing. He declined to release the name
of the person.
"We have a strong belief that the person in custody is the one involved," Butts said.
The county sheriff's crime lab is conducting forensic tests on evidence seized from Johnson's car and 10 other undisclosed
locations.
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