Convicted rapist and triple-murder suspect moved to Hamilton County jail for hearings

Christopher Jeffre Johnson
Christopher Jeffre Johnson

A convicted rapist who faces murder charges in two cold-case slayings has been moved from state prison to the Hamilton County Jail.

Christopher Jeffre Johnson, 52, faces murder charges in the 1997 slayings of Sean and Donny Goetcheus, of Brainerd. He faces a separate murder charge in the 2004 death of Melissa "Missy" Ward.

And he already is serving a 50-year prison term after pleading guilty in 2014 to kidnapping, raping and torturing two teenage girls, one his niece, in 2011.

Johnson was moved from the state prison in Bledsoe County and was booked into the jail Friday, jail records show.

"He's been in state prison but will be having some hearings related to the three pending murder charges so they've moved him to the jail for convenience," Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston, said in a text Sunday.

Missy Ward, 33, went missing on Oct. 29, 2004, after she was seen getting into a pickup truck at the old Bi-Lo grocery store on East 23rd Street. Her remains were found about a month later on rural Cash Canyon Road in southwest Hamilton County, but those hunting her killer found only a cold trail for years.

Then in 2011, Johnson was charged with the crimes against the two teenage girls. Investigators said he incriminated himself in Ward's disappearance then, but it took until January 2016 for the DA's cold case unit to develop the case and obtain an indictment.

Police had been interested in Johnson in the Goetcheus brothers' slayings since he shared leads with them in a 1999 prison interview, according to Times Free Press archives.

The brothers were shot to death in their Brainerd home in January 1997.

When Pinkston announced Johnson's indictment on two counts of murder in October, he said investigators believe Johnson was acting for gold and diamond store owner Rick Davis.

He said Sean Goetcheus had a videotape showing Davis involved in illegal activity and Johnson went to the house to buy it. Instead, he became angry and shot both brothers, Pinkston alleged.

Davis has denied any involvement with Johnson.

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