Nine months after burying their son, a family found their daughter's bed empty and the back door standing open.
Ara "Niecie" Denise Johnson, 5, disappeared from her family's mobile home in Big Sandy, Texas, sometime after 1 a.m. on April 2, 1986. Nearly 40 years later, she has never been found.
A Family Already Grieving
Nine months before Ara vanished, her 6-year-old brother, Corey, drowned during a family trip to Galveston. Ara's parents were still grieving that loss when they woke around 6:30 a.m. to find the back door of their home standing open and Ara gone, along with the dark orange bedspread she'd been sleeping under.
No Signs of a Break-In
Ara's father said he'd checked on her between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Her bedroom was otherwise undisturbed, there was no sign of forced entry, and no one in the household heard anything unusual overnight. Tracking dogs found no scent trail leading away from the home. Both of Ara's parents took polygraph tests and were cleared as suspects. Investigators have said they believe whoever took Ara was likely familiar with the family's routines.
A Person of Interest, Never Charged
In 2007, more than 20 years after Ara's disappearance, investigators named David Elliott Penton, then incarcerated in Ohio, as a person of interest in her case, along with the unrelated disappearances of Amber Crum, Angelica Gandara, and Shannon Sherrill. Cellmates had told investigators Penton implicated himself in Ara's case during conversations in prison. Penton has never been charged in connection with Ara's disappearance, and no physical evidence has ever tied him to it.
It's worth being precise about Penton's actual criminal history, since it's often conflated with Ara's case: he was convicted of manslaughter in the death of his own infant son in 1984, and later convicted of murdering a friend's 9-year-old niece in Ohio, for which he's serving a life sentence with parole eligibility in 2027. Separately, in 2004, he pleaded guilty to murdering three different young girls in the Dallas area in the mid-1980s — Christi Lynn Meeks, 5; Christie Diane Proctor, 9; and Roxann Hope Reyes, 4 — none of whom are the same girls he's been named as a person of interest in regarding Ara's case.
Still Missing
Ara was 3 feet tall and weighed 39 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She has never been found, and her case remains officially unsolved.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Upshur County Sheriff's Office at 903-843-2541.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has Ara Johnson ever been found?
No. She has never been located, and her case remains unsolved.
Was David Elliott Penton ever charged with Ara's disappearance?
No. He remains only a person of interest in her case and has never been charged. He was, however, convicted of murdering three other young girls in a separate set of Dallas-area cases.
Is David Elliott Penton still in prison?
Yes. He's serving a life sentence in Ohio with parole eligibility in 2027; if released there, he would then be transferred to Texas to serve additional life sentences for the murders he pleaded guilty to there.