The Daily Beast
The shocking case of triple murder in the Roiling Humboldt County family
via Facebook The nightly meeting of Shelly Moon with her cousins had an abrupt and bloody stop in the early hours of a clear Wednesday morning. , a member of the Bear River tribe, found the group drinking alcohol around 3:30 am on February 10, according to a statement from a police search warrant. In 30 minutes, the cousins were picked up by the family. But at some point, officials said, a resident of the house invited Mauricio Johnson, then 18, who is also a relative of the Moon family and indigenous, to the house. And two hours after the cousins left, statements from family members and people familiar with the events – some of them secondhand – included in the testimony suggest that Margarett Moon’s fiancee, Nikki Metcalf, found Johnson “dating” his daughter. , which was when things took a deadly turn, according to the deposition, which contains information from Humboldt County Sheriff’s investigator Scott Hicks. Johnson started shooting at him and Margarett Moon, before fatally shooting teenager Shelly Moon too and fleeing to Utah, according to statements in the deposition, which was issued by the Utah State Bureau of Investigation. The reason? “Because he didn’t want to have any witnesses,” says a statement included in the statement. ‘La Llorona’ is a fascinating horror film about the ‘Silent Holocaust’ against indigenous peoples Agora Johnson, who was arrested in Utah under a murder warrant issued by the Humboldt County District Attorney’s office after allegedly being found with his mother , Melissa Johnson, and her boyfriend, Von Keener, are being held without bail. He is also battling his extradition back to California, according to Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal. The crime involving a single family, which shocked this small community near Highway 101, further emphasized the widespread issue of violence against indigenous people, especially women. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice found that more than four out of five American Indians and Native Alaskan women experienced violence, while a Department of Justice survey in 2008 found that native women in some tribal lands were murdered in more than 10 times the national average in some places. With a national movement of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crying out for awareness and justice around this crisis, crimes like these illustrate how high the risk is. “The last people you would think would be in any kind of, you know, situation like this or anything, would be Margarett, Nikki and Shelly, you know?” Cameron Moon, 22, who is a cousin of Shelly and Margarett Moon, told the The Daily Beast. “So when I heard it was all three, it’s … honestly, I started to cry.” Cameron Moon said he remembered Shelly volunteering for the local elementary school, helping to teach classes to students, he described her as having a “generous heart”, just like her mother. In Humboldt County, authorities were alerted about the homicides around 8:15 am on February 10, when Shelly Moon’s 13-year-old surviving sister called 911 to report that she found “her mother, sister and father bleeding,” according to the statement. tragedy around, “Sheriff Honsal told The Daily Beast.” We cannot remember a time, you know, during my tenure here, when we had a triple homicide. And so, this took this community by surprise and, you you know, we’re all devastated. “Shelly Moon and Metcalf were found dead, while Margarett Moon was still alive and transported to the nearest trauma center, according to the statement. She later succumbed to her injuries. All three were injured. the bullet in the head. Tooele County Sheriff’s Office, David Moon, 32, who is Margarett Moon’s nephew and lived with the family, said his sister took her daughter and niece home just 30 minutes before the shooting. He added that his sister told him that Johnson, the accused killer, was acting “weird”. David Moon also said he learned from another cousin, who lived next to Margarett Moon and his family, that Johnson and Keener knocked on his door “frantically”, trying to catch a ride, before Johnson allegedly escaped from the state that morning. at the testimony, Mauricio Johnson’s brother Damon said the accused came to his home in the early hours of February 10 with a pistol and blood on his clothes. Mauricio Johnson reportedly told him “that he shot someone and later clarified that he shot several people”. The statement states that, after the shooting, authorities were able to track Melissa Johnson’s vehicle because it had been purchased at the Sole Savers dealership. The authorities were then able to find that vehicle, along with another associated with Mauricio Johnson in Utah. At around 2 pm on February 11, the Utah Highway Patrol caught up with vehicles, which were passing in front of each other, about 30 miles west of Salt Lake City, according to Sergeant Evan Kirby of the Highway Patrol. from Utah. He told the Daily Beast that they activated the emergency lights and, while the vehicle with Melissa Johnson stopped immediately, the other continued on. He said the police threw stakes and after about two miles, the vehicle containing Johnson and Keener stopped in the middle of the highway. He said the police then “took them safely into custody. They didn’t resist or anything like that. They followed our commands. ”Stephen Colbert blames Trump’s ‘Kung Flu’ racism for anti-Asian hate crimes. Melissa Johnson has since been released without charge, but Sheriff Honsal said the charges of aid and complicity could come in the future. Keener was arrested for parole violation and can also be charged with help and complicity. He is held without bail in the Humboldt County prison. Melissa Johnson did not return messages asking for comment. Attempts to contact Mauricio Johnson and Keener’s lawyers were unsuccessful. According to Sheriff Honsal, the California attorney general issued a warrant from the governor at the Utah Superior Court, requesting that Johnson be sent back to Humboldt County. Sheriff Honsal said he expected Johnson to be back in custody in California for the next four weeks. for committing several murders ”. She added: “As soon as he is extradited, he will be prosecuted for these charges. ”When asked about the allegations of Melissa Johnson and Keener, she said the investigation was ongoing,“ but no charges so far. ”David Moon, who started a fundraising campaign to help raise money for the victims’ family, said that Mauricio Johnson’s mother, Melissa, and Margarett Moon actually grew up together. He described his late aunt, Margarett, as someone who “would always do what he could to help someone.” He said she was depressed, but things were starting to get better after she met Metcalf and started working at the local elementary school. “She was, like, in a really bad situation before she met Nikki,” he said. “And then, when Nikki came, they were happy…. He was like everything she needed. And he treated my little cousins as if they were his children. ”Bear River Band president Rohnerville Rancheria Josefina Cortez told The Daily Beast that they were not prepared to make a public statement about what happened, but confirmed that the tribal police are involved in the investigation. Jesse Armstrong, 31, said he worked with Margarett Moon for two years, through his role as a father and facilitating professor in the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, and coached his 13-year-old daughter’s basketball team. told The Daily Beast that she, along with other members of her all-native team, spent the 2019 season working to spread awareness about MMIW. They painted red handprints on their mouths for games, which symbolize violence against indigenous women, and wrote the name of a woman who has been missing since 1991 on her arms and legs. Armstrong said a few months before the young woman found her family dead, she had been extremely dedicated to the problem and was trying to plan an out-of-state awareness game. “It is, you know, strange that a year ago they were supporting the movement with me in basketball, and now they are part of the statistic,” he said. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top news in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! 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