Name: Peggy Lynn Johnson.
Died: July 21, 1999.
Age at death: 23.
Cause of death: Pneumonia.
Location: Racine County, Wisconsin, USA.
Disability: Intellectual disability.
Details:
After the death of her mother, 18-year-old Peggy went to a nearby hospital and asked for help. There, a nurse took her in. But her new caregiver abused Peggy, yelling at her, starving her, and beating her; once she attacked Peggy with a pitchfork. Peggy was made to live in a crawl space, and banished there whenever she wasn’t doing chores. After years of abuse, Peggy died from sepsis pneumonia due to her many injuries.
Peggy’s body was found dumped on the side of the road, but she could not be identified for many years. She was known as the “Racine County Jane Doe”, and nearby residents bought her a gravestone. It wasn’t until 2019 that a tipster reported overhearing the nurse talking about having killed someone and called the police, who arrested the nurse and identified Peggy as the victim who had long gone unidentified. When she was finally identified and journalists went to photograph her gravestone, they found that a member of the community had been there and left some flowers, a balloon, and a little wooden sign with Peggy’s real name. It had been a full 20 years since her murder.
Case status:
Linda La Roche (Caregiver), convicted of convicted of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse; sentenced to life without parole plus five years.
Source:
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