Shanta Marie Johnson
This quarter's Action-Oriented Advocacy technically takes place in two states. We traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, because, under initial research, this is where the child in today’s case went missing. However, after deep diving into this, we have learned that this touristy town we traveled to might not be where we should have been looking.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a resort city along the east coast of the United States. About half a million people are living within the metropolitan area. There has been about a 28% increase in population over the last eight years. A few interesting facts Myrtle Beach is known as the "Golf Capital of the World" due to its abundance of golf courses. With over 100 courses in the area, it offers a diverse range of options for golf enthusiasts of all skill levels. With its warm waters and diverse marine life, Myrtle Beach offers excellent opportunities for water activities. Visitors can engage in surfing, paddleboarding, kayaking, parasailing, and even deep-sea fishing to experience the thrill of the ocean.
Myrtle Beach, like many tourist destinations, faces some challenges related to crime. The most prevalent crimes in the area are property crimes, such as theft, burglary, and vehicle break-ins. Tourists, who may be unfamiliar with the area, can sometimes be targets for opportunistic thieves. It is advisable for visitors to take precautions by securing their belongings and not leaving valuables unattended.
Additionally, drug-related offenses and instances of public intoxication occur, particularly during peak tourist seasons. The authorities maintain a strong presence to enforce laws and ensure public safety. Myrtle Beach Police Department works diligently to prevent and respond to these incidents, aiming to maintain a safe environment for residents and visitors alike.
About a 100-mile drive straight north, you will find yourself in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and this is where our missing person case starts. Some information on Fayetteville is that it is located in the southeastern part of North Carolina and is a vibrant city with a rich history and diverse attractions. Fayetteville is renowned for its deep military roots. It is home to Fort Bragg, one of the largest military installations in the world. The presence of Fort Bragg has a significant impact on the city's economy and cultural fabric, with many active-duty and retired military personnel residing in the area.
Fayetteville's downtown area has undergone significant revitalization in recent years. The streets are lined with charming boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and bars, creating a lively and welcoming atmosphere. The Fayetteville Market House, a National Historic Landmark, stands as a prominent symbol of the city's history and is located in the heart of downtown.
Fayetteville has a higher crime rate compared to the national average. The city experiences various types of crimes, including property crimes, violent crimes, and drug-related offenses. It is essential to note that crime rates can vary across different neighborhoods within Fayetteville.
We will get into how and why we are crossing state lines for this one, but first, we want to tell you all about Shanta Marie Johnson. Now, there isn't much known about her because this little girl didn't have reporters and investigators asking all the questions. It was before the time of influences and true crime podcasts that would make sure the public knew her name. So all we know is that Shanta Marie was actually born as Shante Marie Reid on January 3rd, 1989. She tested positive for cocaine, resulting in her being taken from her drug-addicted mother and put into foster care. Shanta would eventually be diagnosed with special needs, but the extent or types of that disability is unknown to the public. According to the national institute of drug abuse, “Babies born to mothers who use cocaine during pregnancy are often prematurely delivered, have low birth weights and smaller head circumferences, and are shorter in length than babies born to mothers who do not use cocaine.” Studies have been conducted to see the long-term effects of drug use while pregnant, but so much more goes into the lifestyle than the drugs, and it is hard to know what action causes which effect. However, it has been linked to behavioral problems, language, and memory issues, to name a few.
We would never get the chance to know if Shanta had these problems because she went missing when she was only three years old. Shanta was in the process of being adopted along with her little brother by her foster parents, Susan Marie Davis Johnson and Willie Johnson. The couple was about three months into the preceding and appeared to have already changed her last name to match theirs and changed the ending of her first name from an e to an a. However, when looking into if this was standard protocol, Everything I read stated the name change wouldn't occur until the adoption was finalized. My niece and nephew were adopted out of foster care, and their names were not changed until they legally became my sister’s children, so why was this not the case for Shanta?
We would all think getting out of the foster care system into a loving, church-going family would be where Shanta’s short difficult life would change. However, that would not be the case for this brown-eyed toddler.
According to Susan Johnson, the foster/ adoptive mother, this is what happened on July 19th, 1992. Susan stated the family of four made the approximately one-hundred-mile drive from their home in Fayetteville to Myrtle Beach. On the way they stopped at a plot of land they owned in the town of Burgaw to put a for sale sign up. Then the plan was to go to a restaurant for crab legs along a touristy area known as Restaurant Row. Before that, they stopped off at the Briarcliff Mall while Willie and Michael, Shanta’s two-year-old brother, waited in the car. Susan and Shanta went inside a K-Mart department store. Susan would tell authorities that the last time she saw her three-year-old daughter was when Shanta was looking around in the toy department. She states she turned her back for just a moment, and then her little girl vanished.
Susan would rush to the customer service counter to report her daughter missing, and then the police would be called and on the scene quickly. The mall was searched, witnesses talked to, and there were a few ponds on the property that dive teams would search for any sign of Shanta. They would come up empty-handed.
Police followed a few leads in those first few days. Shanta’s biological mother’s family was having a reunion in Myrtle Beach that particular day. This seemed like a perfect start to the investigation. Did someone in the family want custody of their blood relative and take her, or did the Johnsons make some sort of deal with the biological family to take custody of Shanta? Within two weeks, police would say they have no new leads. They searched every crawlspace a three-year-old would fit into at the mall, nothing was unturned, and there was no trace of Shanta. They tried to think like a toddler where they would go, what they would get distracted with, and what they would want to see, but when they exhausted all of that, still nothing. Shanta’s biological parents were both checked into. However, they were both in prison serving time in North Carolina, and were eliminated immediately. It honestly seemed like she vanished into thin air, except we know that can't happen. Someone had to have taken her.
It was 1992, and surveillance videos were not as common as today, but many businesses had them. Especially at large malls like the one Shanta went missing. Authorities watched the tape and saw Susan walk in; however, there was no sign of little Shanta in her arms or walking next to her. Yes, the video isn't the quality of today’s videos, but there is zero proof Shanta walked in with her mother. Her only defense in this was that the camera did not catch from Susan’s knees down, so it is possible it just missed the little girl walking next to her, or did Shanta never make it to Myrtle Beach? Another very strange fact is that from the time Susan walked into the K-Mart, she lost sight of Shanta and made her way to the customer service desk; only 14 seconds passed. There have been a few times I lost eyesight of my kids, but I usually walked to the next aisle over and called their names, maybe looked under the clothes where rambunctious kids like to hide before I would alert the store. Fourteen seconds does not seem like a long enough time to walk to the toy section, let alone lose a child and then make the decision to report it.
Needless to say, authorities would scrutinize these parents over the next few weeks, and it seems like the police believed their account of what happened. Well, at least to the media. Were they keeping what they thought quiet while they worked on leads? At first, police would say that they believed a stranger had taken Shanta, but it didn't take long before they added that they didn't think that little girl ever made it to Myrtle Beach and that she was most likely deceased. There was zero proof she was ever at Kmart. No surveillance, no witnesses, and the timeline seems off. This all happened around 3:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday at a busy mall in the middle of summer in a tourist destination. Someone would have seen her considering she was reported missing so quickly.
By December 1992, the search for this adorable toddler was classified as inactive. The police didn't have any new leads. They didn't know where even to look next. They still had their suspicions about Susan Johnson, but the lack of any type of evidence made this case challenging to move forward. Shanta’s little brother was taken from the Johnsons and returned to state custody. He would eventually find a new family that would adopt him. The state stated this was a routine procedure when there was an unexplained disappearance. Susan stated that she went to visit Shanta’s biological mother and see if she had any information about Shanta. She would also tell reporters she could not conceive children on her own because she was a diabetic, and I quote, “ I always wanted a little girl. My husband wanted a little boy. It was the kind of answer for both of us.” end quote.
After the FBI found no evidence of a kidnapping, they were pulled from the case. And since local police marked it as inactive, the case was passed onto Bill Atkins, a retired marine that joined the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office as a homicide detective. He stated always had a soft spot for Shanta. He would get new motivation to solve this case whenever he looked at that little girl's photo. Less than a year after Shanta disappeared, Bill stated his opinion on the subject, and he believed Shanta never even made it to South Carolina that day. He also believes Shanta is no longer alive. Bill would pass away in 2022 without knowing what happened to the little girl that plagued his thoughts and career for so long.
I could not find one article written about Shanta in 1993 or 1994 in the Myrtle Beach area. It would be my hope that there was work being done behind the scenes, but my heart breaks that this little girl was almost forgotten until Shanta’s biological maternal grandmother spoke out. She told the media that not a day goes by that she doesn't miss her granddaughter and regrets giving up custodial rights of her. You see, Mable Reid was already raising two other grandchildren from her daughter, that was dealing with an addiction problem. Mable couldn't take care of another child, and she couldn't help but think that Shanta would be safe if she had only stayed with her.
In one article, there was a comparison between Shanta’s disappearance and a white mother who stated her two sons were taken by a black man. That case received national attention, while Shanta barely made the local news. It would turn out that the white mother, Susan Smith, was the person actually responsible for her children’s death. This is a prime example of why we do what we do. Everyone deserves to have their story told, and everyone deserves justice, including three-year-old Shanta Marie Johnson.
As far as the investigation went, police were searching and things were happening even though they didn't have a clue where Shanta was at. They found out that on May 5th, 1992 prior to Shanta going missing, Susan had taken her to the doctor. She got a clean bill of health, Shanta was a thriving three-year-old she was even described as an extrovert for her playful and outgoing personality. A month later for some reason, Shanta was taken back to the doctor at Duke University Medical Center. Here in her chart, it would be notated that Shanta had physical and mental problems. This included bruises and scratches and she was experiencing what doctors described as extreme fear. She was no longer that extroverted toddler. She was biting her nails so far down her fingertips bled. Why in the world wasn't this little girl taken then, we all know there is a process. Doctors have to contact social services, social services have to do their investigation. However, the Johnsons only had these kids for a few months at this point. I would think it would be an open-and-shut situation. Susan kept canceling appointments to have Shanta re-evaluated after that. As we all know, Shanta would disappear before anything was sorted out in relation to these possible abuse allegations. That didn't stop police from pursuing charges after the fact. The good news was Michael, the little brother, was taken away and never given back.
In July of 1995, three years after Shanta went missing, Susan Johnson was arrested and charged with child abuse and a bunch of writing bad check charges. Sargent Bill Adkins stated Susan invoked her right to a lawyer and didn't say anything but sat there with a smirk on her face. I couldn't imagine the emotions that man had to hold back. Knowing for the last three years, he had been dedicating his time to finding a little girl, and one of the people that vowed to protect her was smirking while being arrested for abusing her. I don't know if I could have held back my anger. I do want to notate Willie Johnson, the soon-to-be adopted father, was not charged with his wife.
Remember we told you about the land the Johnsons owned in Burgaw, North Carolina, and they supposably stopped by there to put up a for sale sign on the day Shanta went missing. Well, authorities search that 11-acre plot of land with cadaver dogs. The dogs hit on a section of land, and upon further investigation and digging in that spot, police found a piece of plastic and other small items that they could tie back to Shanta. They did not find Shanta’s remains, but they do believe that she was buried there at one point and then moved. Authorities also collected soil samples from the area to test for bodily fluids.
I hate to say this, but that is all we know. There has not been an update made to the public since 1995. After some searching, we found Susan and Willie Johnson are both now deceased, but they live years after the disappearance of Shanta. Did they tell someone what really happened on the day Shanta went missing? Did she ever make it to South Carolina? Did Susan kill her soon-to-be daughter?
Shanta Marie Johnson formally known as Shante Marie Reid was three years old when she went missing in 1992. That would make her 34 years old at the time of this recording. She is a black female that was 3 feet tall and 44 pounds and had black hair and brown eyes at the time of her disappearance. She was known to be in the areas of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Fayetteville, and Burgaw North Carolina, and anywhere in between. She went missing in a navy t-shirt with Mickey Mouse, white shorts, and white sneakers with blue trim and a rabbit design.
If you have any information on Shanta Johnson please contact the Cumberland County Sheriff’s office at 919-323-1500 or the Horry County Police Department at 843-915-5350
Age Progression of Shanta
