Search for Johnson continues

By Brian Hassler
Staff Writer

HOGBACK — Investigators have yet tocatch Michael D. Johnson, the lone fugitive from the Nov. 7 triple homicides in Hogback.

Johnson, who authorities believed was the ringleader in the execution-style deaths of Vickie Benally, Lars Yazzie and Bobby Fulton, has continued to elude authorities into the new year.

Federal authorities even pushed for a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the capture of Johnson, an act that has yet to result in information that will lead authorities to Johnson.

"They (investigators) are still covering a lot of leads," said Bill Elwell, FBI special agent.

Despite the introduction of the reward, investigators haven't been able to locate Johnson and have even been pushing for his profile to appear on America's Most Wanted.

Such a move requires the necessary paperwork on the federal level, which is currently where the paperwork is being completed.

Another option that investigators and federal agents could possibly use is to increase the amount of reward money offered for Johnson's capture, a move that authorities are hesitant to undertake.

"You can increase the amount, but you have to remember it's taxpayers' money that is used for the reward," said Elwell. "If you do get someone that has information, you want to catch them and not put a price on the homicide. You don't want the reward to overshadow the leads. We want the agents to do their job instead of using more of the taxpayers' money."

Until Johnson is captured, Elwell added that investigators are taking every lead seriously and are looking at narrowing down where Johnson could be according to the leads received.

"People will say they saw him here or there, and you can have a lot of people say that's him ... we don't mind covering things," he said. "If it happens to be him, we want to make sure we covered all our leads."

Anyone with information on the location of Michael D. Johnson should contact (505) 334-TIPS.

— Brian Hassler is The Independent's Four Corners reporter based in Shiprock. Contact him at (505) 360-7862 or via email at brianhassler@hotmail.com