Murder for hire plot
By Jack Stephens
Published in News on April 21, 2004 2:13 PM
A 16-year-old girl was arrested Tuesday by Wayne County Sheriff's officers and charged with asking two people to use a stolen firearm to kill her parents.
One of the two accomplices was charged with possession of the stolen firearm and five other offenses in connection with three break-ins.
Johnson
Heather Nicole Johnson of Sandhill Drive was charged with two felony counts of solicitation to commit a murder. She was placed in the Wayne County Jail in lieu of an $80,000 secured bond.
Edward Glyn Long, 23, of U.S. 13 South was charged with the firearms offense and also three felony counts of larceny and one felony count each of breaking and entering and possession of stolen goods. He was jailed in lieu of a $50,000 secured bond.
Long
Two sheriff's detectives, Sgt. Tony Morris and Tom Flores, received a report last week of a stolen firearm in southern Wayne County, they said. Their investigation led them to Ms. Johnson. The detectives said she had stolen the weapon and asked two friends to use it to kill her parents, Michael and Nancy Johnson.
Long and the other unidentified man whom Ms. Johnson allegedly solicited have cooperated with investigators, Morris said.
Additional charges are pending through indictments by the Wayne County Grand Jury, the detectives said.
Long also was accused of stealing about $10,000 in property from three residents in southern Wayne County. The property, including a jet ski, has been recovered, Sgt. Morris said. The jet ski was recovered before the owner had reported that it was missing from his home in Sleepy Creek, he said. Neighborhood canvasses and a search warrant enabled officers with the recovery. Additional arrests are expected.
Long also was convicted in 2000 of assisting his sister, Kimberly Rose Long of U.S. 13 South, in burying the newborn son that she had suffocated to death in a bathroom at Herman Park Center.
Glyn Long was sentenced to 60 days for concealing a child birth, given a six-to-eight-month suspended term, placed on supervised probation for 36 months and ordered to do 50 hours of community service.
Kimberly Long had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to about 15 to 20 years in prison.
Ms. Long had given birth to a son Jan. 20, 1999. The Sheriff's Office received a tip about the birth and subsequent death. Ms. Long's mother, Alice, had discovered the body a few days later, and it was buried behind the home of Kimberly Long's boyfriend, Jimmy Chadwick Sutton.
In the meantime, Sutton stole Mrs. Long's car and said he would report the baby's murder if they charged him with car theft. He was charged, and then Glyn Long dug up the baby and reburied it in the woods off Raynor Mill Road. Sutton was convicted and sentenced for other crimes. A charge against the mother of concealing a child birth was dismissed.
Morris was assisted in his investigations into the murder for hire and the break-ins by Detective Sgt. Rick Farfour, Detectives Chris Bezio, Robert Chunn and Tom Flores, and D-shift Patrol Sgt. Jeff Williams, Cpl. Ken Lupton and Deputy Michael Biggins.
There is a followup to this story, Father doubts account of daughter's alleged plot.