Aurora – Even after “JD” was convicted of stealing from Richard Johnson’s elderly mother, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, Johnson kept JD’s belongings on his back porch for safekeeping.
But on Wednesday, the soft-spoken Johnson choked up when he described finding a badly decomposed body in a plastic crate among JD’s things a day earlier.
“It’s not real yet,” the retired Johnson said while sitting on a fence in front of his home at 1325 Lansing St. “I thought he was a friend.”
Johnson was moving the crate and some of JD’s other belongings into a shed Tuesday when he opened it and discovered the body.
The Arapahoe County medical examiner’s office removed the body from the house Wednesday and performed a preliminary examination. Police say the death is suspicious.
Aurora police spokesman Marcus Dudley Jr. could not say whether JD, who is currently in prison, is a suspect. Dudley said police are following several leads and that authorities have not yet identified the sex of the body.
Police aren’t even releasing JD’s real name.
“They know exactly where to find him,” Johnson’s brother, Dennis Johnson, said Wednesday. “He’s not going anywhere. I can’t honestly say he had anything to do with it.”
Richard Johnson said police asked him not to reveal JD’s full name to anyone. Neighbors said they knew the man – who used to borrow the car belonging to Johnson’s mother to drive to work – only by his nickname.
JD, who is about 40, was a friend of a friend when he asked Johnson for a place to stay several years ago. JD stayed for about 1½ years and would help with chores around the house. He worked as a landscaper.
When JD was convicted of forging checks belonging to Johnson’s 90- year-old mother, Johnson left the plastic crate sealed with duct tape in the back of his home.
Richard Johnson said he had been smelling what he thought was a dead squirrel for about a year. The smell was much more intense when he opened the crate, he said.
“It’s our hope that what little we know will help police,” Dennis Johnson said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
