Delaware : Janteyl Johnson
My case is in Delaware. It is actually just outside of Newark, Delaware, and it's a town of just under 32,000 people. , which makes it the third-largest city in Delaware. And that seems like a small city for most states. But when you're as small as Delaware, that's a pretty big city.
That's crazy to me. That is not a lot of people. But yes, just like last week with my Connecticut, very small towns. Yes, it's located 12 miles west of Wilmington and it's home to the University of Delaware. It's. Known for being a recognized center of us and international figure skating. What? That's shocking.
The university there has a world-renowned skating club. People come from all over the world to train there. Most Olympic athletes have trained there at some point. Well, that's really exciting. Yeah. Newark has an award-winning downtown 650 acres of Parkland and miles of trail. Including one that connects to the East Coast Greenway, and this trail system runs from Canada all the way down to Key West covering over 3000 miles.
Holy mackerel. And for all of you history buffs out there, Newark is home to the site of the only battle of the American Revolutionary War that was fought on Delaware soil. It was fought at Koch's Bridge in 1777. It was also the first battle where the stars and Stripes were. Gladice for cute and historical.
That's, I think that's my favorite part of the East Coast is all of the histories that are there. You'll see all the old buildings and a lot of those places, like when we went to Boston, those still have the brick roads that you can walk on, and it's just, I always lean back to thinking what it sounded like when horses, what am I thinking?
Drawn? Carriages. Carriages. I was like, trolleys, but that's not right. . Horse-drawn carriages, clambered over them. That's always the sound I would hear when I would visit those historical places. I just think they're so cute. I know. I just stand there and think about all the other people that had walked on that road or in that exact spot.
Mm-hmm. and it's just, it's insane to think about my case this week is that of a missing person, Janteyl Johnson, the then 15-year-old Janteyl had dreams of attending cosmetology school in Philadelphia. She wanted to gain her license as a hair stylist, then returned to school to attend business school and learn how to open and run in her own salon.
That's a great plan. It is. She's 15 and she's already got this figured out. She would always sit and do everyone else's hair. So for prom, her mom said it was great having a live-in hair hairstylist. She never had to worry about doing her own hair, and Gentil really enjoyed doing it. That's awesome, but not only have a passion but realize, hey, that business degree will really help her succeed.
She was kindhearted and never caused any trouble. Her family called her Puff because when she was a child, she had round chubby cheeks. Franz would call her that originally, but when she got a little bit older into her teenage years, it switched to just J. In late 2009, Janteyl would find herself pregnant.
And originally the family was shocked. But it quickly shifted to excitement. Her mother did, of course, ask Janteyl, who is the father, and he was a 26-year-old man. Holy crap, that she had been dating. Janteyl was very excited about this baby, and though she was anxiously awaiting her doctor's appointment to find out the sex of her child, unfortunately, she never made it to that appointment.
Oh no. On February 3rd, 2010, Janteyl went home from school around lunch because she wasn't feeling. She was five months pregnant at the time and she had called her mom from school telling her that she was going to head home to rest and that she would return to school later that evening for some activities she was involved in.
She also had made plans with her brother that evening to pick her up and drive her the approximate 45 miles to Philadelphia for a church service. She asked her mom to call or text her before her brother was supposed to pick her up and her mom agreed.
Janteyl's home was right a mile away from where she attended school at Glasgow High School. On her way home to the Auto Park Apartments, Janteyl stopped at a convenience store and bought some candy while talking on her cell phone. She arrived home and her mom thought she may have laid down to take a nap.
The time came for her to call and check on Janteyl before her brother. She texted and called Janteyl multiple times, but thought she was just sleeping and she didn't grow overly concerned when she didn't answer the call.
When Janteyl's brother Prentice arrived at the family apartment, he found the door unlocked, but Janteyl was not home. . He called his mom to let her know that Janteyl wasn't home, and they both began making phone calls to the school to friends, anyone that may know where Janteyl may be, or that Janteyl might be with at 10:00 PM when Janteyl hadn't made it home, her mom called the New Castle County Police and reported her missing.
They list her as an endangered runaway immediately and thankfully started investigating. Why did they assume endangered runaways at this point? Did they have anything else? Because she was pregnant, but it wasn't like it was making the family divided, or her parents were kicking her out like they were okay with it.
But just because she was pregnant, they assumed she was a runaway. Yeah. Then, she had run away once before, and I'll get into a little bit about this in a second. She had run away once before, but she came back earlier on her own. Okay. But her mom was supportive of the pregnancy. We get into it. A canine unit was brought out to begin searching, and they also sent out an automated alert system message called a child is missing to neighbors, at a nearby residence to alert them that a search was happening.
This is very similar to an Amber Alert. The program is also called A C I M. It is a national rapid response communication network that offers free assistance to law enforcement agencies to aid in the recovery identity or apprehension of missing persons through the use of immediate public notification and dissemination and via telephone in a targeted community.
It's basically a reverse 9-1-1 call. Okay. So it's going out to everyone in that local area. Correct. It's a geo-targeted area. Gotcha. The A C I M alert and canine unit warranted no leads. Janteyl's, mom, brother, and law enforcement are all positive that she made it home after leaving school. But from there, they're unsure of what happened because not only was the door unlocked, Janteyl's, purse, glasses, or glasses and contacts that she needed to see and clothing were all left behind in her bedroom.
Okay. But they know she came home because the stuff was left there and she had some of it with her. Mm-hmm. when she went to school, so they know she came home. Mm-hmm. and then left. And that definitely doesn't seem like a runaway. If you're gonna run away, you're gonna take your purse and your glasses or contact so you can see where you're going.
Yeah, absolutely. That was the biggest thing they kept talking about. She didn't take her glasses, she didn't take contacts, she wouldn't be able to see without them. Even though she had run away once before, it didn't make sense to her mom that she would run away this time. The family was all very supportive of her pregnancy and they were looking forward to helping Janteyl continue her future plans of pursuing and furthering her education after high school.
She was motivated. They didn't think she was. In any trouble. She was making a plan for her future and, and, and she was looking forward to finding out the sex of the baby. Mm-hmm. , there's a lot happening right now, and it doesn't seem like she was upset about her life circumstances at this point. She had a very good support system.
It was very exciting and very positive. There were no fights, no arguments, no nothing. She just wasn't feeling well one day and then she wasn't seen. The only other time she had run away, she returned within days. Mm-hmm. O of her own Recognizant recognizance. Police were able to confirm Janteyl's last known location before her apartment was the convenience store that she stopped at for candy.
Photos: Claudia Rivero TV
The store had surveillance cameras that showed her checking out while talking on the. She walks in, grabs a bag of candy, checks out, and then leaves the store. She stops momentarily and scratches the front of her leg all while talking on the phone and then disappears off camera. And this is on the way home from school.
So she was here then at home to drop off her stuff or whatever happened, and then after that, she disappears. Do you know, you might come into this, who she was talking to on the phone at this point? We get into that. Okay, perfect. There was little to no media coverage of Janteyl's disappearance. One of the few news articles placed a small snippet beside some other criminal posts.
One photo is less than 10 sentences. One. Local reporter Claudia Rivero has extensively covered Janteyl's case since. . She's been in regular communication with the family and she's really pushing to further Janteyl's case. She was even working on creating a documentary at one point. I can only find the trailer that's out there on YouTube.
I'm not sure if the documentary ever was fully released, but we absolutely will share the trailer in the show notes. And the fact that the headline of this small article says, pregnant teen Missing, why do you have to even say pregnant? Honestly, I think that the ploy to gain more attention, people are more likely to help someone with a baby as opposed to without a baby.
Yeah. Well, give her more than a tiny article on. Yes. What makes me sad is that a harp sill that was rescued like this is a very positive article. I'm so glad a harp seal was rescued on this beach and was given a full page. Article here and a little bitty snippet for a missing teenager. Exactly. It's just, it's, yeah.
Not good. While authorities found all of Janteyl's items at her apartment, there were no signs of struggle or a fight inside the home either. After not receiving any leads for a couple of days, law enforcement pulls Janteyl's phone record. Okay. They see that the last call she received was at thirty-eight.
From the man that was the father of her unborn child. What made it a little more difficult is that when they tried to trace this call, it went to a burner phone. Oh, no. So, did her family know the guy that got her pregnant? Had they, he, he's never been named. Okay. In the interview I watched with her mom, she said that when Janteyl told her that she was pregnant, she sat her down and said, do you know who the father is?
And Janteyl said, yes, it's ex. Okay. And because he's so much older than her, it was a very big deal because statutory rape is a real thing. Yeah. And that might, she's under 16 though too. So it might even be a bit more than that. Yes, I did. Actually, we talked a little bit about it here in a second, but the age of consent in Delaware is 16 for those assigned female at birth and 18 for those assigned male at birth.
So he's well outside of any questionable. If he was 17, she was 15. They're in the same high school, that relationship. Yeah, I understand a little bit. 26 and 15 is a bit of a stretch for me. Yeah. And absolutely not. Okay. This unnamed man, he still to this day, has not been named, Hmm. Was questioned by police, but never officially listed as a suspect or a person of interest in her disappearance.
It is important to note that the last place Janteyl's cell phone pinged, was near this man's mother's house. Oh, of course. A couple of days after she disappeared. He also originally answered all of the authority’s questions, but very quickly became uncooperative
By gathering the cell phone records. Police also discover that Janteyl was not just in communication with this older dude. Police learned that she was in communication with a 42-year-old. Oh no. He also was interrogated, but again, not identified publicly or listed as a person of interest or a suspect. A third man who was 24 at the time was also contacted.
Again, no leads and not enough evidence to list the person to list as a person of interest, so investigations into Janteyl's disappearance slowed shortly after. Her family believes she left the house with the intention to come back. Given that she took none of her belongings, especially her glasses, maybe one of these men called her.
She stepped outside to speak with them because the door was left unlocked. Nothing was disturbed and she either got into the vehicle willingly at that moment or was taken at that moment. . But the fact that she was seen on the phone at the convenience. and do we know exactly what time she was at the convenience store?
I'm going to guess the surveillance. There are a lot of details that are not released. Okay. So I'm assuming the surveillance video is timestamped and that they are able to narrow that down and cross reference cell phone records. Okay. To see who, if that last call was the call that she was on at the convenience store, which would be the baby's daddy.
Yes. Okay. It would. In 2013, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released an age progression photo of what Janteyl may look like by the age of 23, police would officially label her case as cold in 2018 due to the lack of new leadership at the time of her disappearance. Janteyl was described as standing five foot, two inches tall, 120 pounds, with black hair, and brown.
She did have braids in her hair when she went missing. Both ears are pierced and she has a scar on her chin under her lip. She wore glasses or contacts but did not have them on when she left or was taken from her apartment on February 3rd. She was wearing a short. Black ski jacket and this is, I found multiple reports that she was wearing a short black ski jacket, but when you look at the surveillance camera, and it might just be a reflection or something with that surveillance video, it looks light, gray, or white.
To me, it looks like a lot lighter color than black. Oh yeah, definitely. Especially, oh yeah. That does not look black at all. But is it reflective? Could it be black and reflective? or did they find this jacket at the house and another one missing? And so they know it wasn't this one that she was wearing.
They said a short black ski jacket with fur around the hood. Oh, this one clearly has fur around the hood, so I'm assuming that this photo is the one they're going with. Yeah, but you could be right. Maybe. Maybe there was a different jacket. Yeah, possibly. But yeah, definitely has fur and it's shorter. In 2019, the Delaware Crime Stoppers placed Jan Till's photo on a billboard and had her added to a deck of playing cards that are distributed through the jails and prisons in Delaware, hoping that someone inside would have some information that could help find Janteyl police believe Janteyl could have traveled outside of Newark as well.
Possibly to Wilmington, Delaware, or to Philadelphia as one of the older men that she had been talking with had ties to both of those locations. Okay. They've also mentioned San Antonio, Texas as a possible location where she was taken. Now, how they came to that conclusion, I'm not sure. I do know that Claudia Rivera, the reporter that's actively
working on this case nonstop, said that she was in Texas at one point. Looking into another case and some ties somewhere, some lead came up that kind of tied back to Janteyl. So the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, they have listed San Antonio as a potential place where she could be.
Holy moly, that's interesting. Texas is nowhere near Delaware, nowhere near, they have to have some kind of lead or sighting or something to be that specific of a. Ooh, that's interesting. Janteyl followed through with her pregnancy, she would have a 12-year-old child. Oh my God. At this point, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also said that she could be in the company of a juvenile female.
I don't know if they've seen someone and maybe her, maybe she had a daughter, or if there is a juvenile female that took it. I'm not sure what they mean by that, but she could be in the company of a juvenile female. So is this female a juvenile now or a juvenile back then? I would assume a juvenile back then.
Okay. Wow. I last too. These feel very much the same. Oh, they are? Yes. Between this one and Leisha Stein that went missing. Yeah. In Colorado, correct? In Colorado, yeah. Yes. It's, because they feel very much the same. We have someone leaving a. Not in the middle of the night, but leaving a house. We've got two girls on surveillance videos.
Obviously, they're across the country from each other, so I don't think it's some big ring. I don't think they're connected in any way, shape, or form, but they're very similar. And this is probably two out of a hundred that happened exactly like this, which, oh, thousands. I would even say thousands. It's very not even gonna get into the whole human trafficking thing again, cuz I won't go off on a tangent exactly about that, but it's, I don't know.
So what theories are out there? Did Janteyl run away? She'd done it once before. Why wouldn't she do it? I think 12 years. I think there would be a lead-up to a runaway, an argument, or something that was making her not happy with the situation she was in. , as far as everyone can tell, everything was perfectly okay.
Yeah. And 12 years later it seems less likely. Yeah. The one time she did run away, she came back. , her mom was excited about getting a grandchild. Why would she have not? If she had a successful pregnancy, why would she have not brought the grandchild back into her mom's life at this point? She didn't, as you said, she didn't have a fight.
They were supportive. Everyone was excited about the future. This one just does not make sense to me. Does not to me. She would've taken her stuff with her knowing that she was about to have a baby. She would need a purse with her ID or her glasses. It. I cannot get on board with her being a runaway this time.
Okay. So was she a kid? With the last phone call she received being from her baby's father who was much older, did he take her against her will? I think she could have gone willingly with him, but it didn't end up with her willingly staying with him. Was he concerned with the fact that he could be arrested for statutory rape when she gave birth?
Because Delaware's age of consent laws are extremely strict. I think we've all recently seen this on an episode of, I don't know, it wasn't even Dateline. What was the one where it might have just been the regular news where a young couple went in to have a baby and they arrested the dad on site because she was 16 and he was 18?
Oh, yeah. And he didn't even get to go to the birth. I, it just recently happened and now the names are like, Pleading my mind to me. This probably would be my number one theory in all of it. Usually, the easiest answer is the one The most possible. Yes. Yeah. He had a reason to not want her to give birth.
I would vote for that one. If It's also worth noting that Delaware is a state where abortion is legal. Up to the point of fetal viability. With Janteyl being five months pregnant, she was very close to the end of this window. Was he forcing her to have an abortion? And she said, no, I'm keeping it. And that led to this disappearance.
I definitely could be something. Next, was she a victim of foul play, just like completely from the get-go, or human trafficking? Or either way. Well, to me, there are no signs of a struggle inside the home or even outside the home. The dogs found zero evidence on the outside of the home. Police found zero evidence of the outside of the home.
She, I highly doubt she was just a victim of opportunity. She made it inside her home. She would've had to come back out somewhere for there to not be a struggle. In my mind, I feel like she would fight for her life. There would've been a struggle inside if someone came in and taken her from inside the home.
I completely agree. The chances are slim. The chances are so slim that it, in my mind, it's not even worth mentioning it. Okay. It's always worth mentioning because it has happened before. , but the likelihood that in the middle of the day, without a struggle and the without a struggle is the number one part that she knew.
Whoever she went with, if she went with someone, she knew it because there was no struggle, especially in an apartment complex. People would've heard or seen something if she did not want to go with the person that she went to. There's no evidence to support this theory at all, but it's one that's out there.
I just. Get on board with it. It still just boggles my mind that people can literally disappear and have no clue where they went. Now I'm not one to speculate, but it was in one article that, and I believe it was a web sleuths article, so take that as you will. That stated the man who was her baby's father.
Was later arrested for the murder of an 18-year-old by strangulation. What? But not being able to find his name. I couldn't verify that. So take that as you will. He also was the father. In the same article, it listed that he was the father of three other children by three other underage women. And there's a whole theory behind that, but I didn't want to bring too much into it because it's special.
Okay. Did they have his name in those articles? They did not. Oh, okay. Wow. And if you search man, arrested for murder, 18-year-old strangulation, you can't really narrow it down. Gosh, no. Wow. So, okay.
I know that for the first time since we've started this podcast, we reached out for a freedom of information request on this case and while they were very quick at responding, Obviously this is still considered an active cold case.
They would not give us any information, which that's their right to do, but I've never once had a detective reach out to me asking what I knew, and that's what they did. They immediately emailed us and said, what do you know about Janteyl so clearly there's still some desire to close this one out.
Within the organization, there is a retired detective that is a private investigator that is still actively working on Janteyl's. And that is refreshing to know that it's been 12, almost 13 years, and they're still following up on every single email that comes across with her name attached to it. I thought that was amazing.
Regardless, we didn't get anything from them. Information-wise, but the fact that they were so quick at emailing us back and trying to see if we knew anything was admirable like this is, I would consider this definitely a cold case. They probably don't have leads coming in and the fact that they were jumping at the chance to find out more means that they care.
Absolutely. And that's Delaware.
What happened to Janteyl Johnson?
If you have any information regarding the February 3, 2010 disappearance of Janteyl Johnson, please contact Detective Roberto Herrera-Cortes at (302) 385-2784 or through his email at RJHerrera-Cortes@nccde.org. You can also submit a tip through Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) THE-LOST (800-843-5678).
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Sources:
http://www.whereisjanteyl.com/blog/timeline-of-janteyl-johnsons-disappearance
https://uncovered.com/cases/janteyl-johnson/sources
https://wherearetheypodcast.medium.com/the-unsolved-disappearance-of-janteyl-johnson-e41a3bc2eba6
https://newsone.com/2846087/janteyl-johnson-delaware/
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/1141215/1/screen
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/5z1rk1/what_happened_to_janteyl_johnson/
