The Chilling Murder of Diane and Alan Johnson
By: Ana Coughlin
Tags: Murder, Crime, Short Read, True Crime, Family

The Chilling Murder of Diane and Alan Johnson

Photo credit to the Johnson family

Sarah Marie Johnson, age 16, murdered her mother, Diane, and her father Alan Johnson.

Sarah was in love with a 19 illegal immigrant from Mexico. Her parents forbid her to ever see him again. And told her she must break up with him and never see him again.

But Sara wasn’t having it. Teenage love.

Sara believed it was her life and if she wanted to see him, she would. She didn’t care that he was older and not in the country legally.

Like most sixteen-year-olds, Sarah didn’t care what her parents thought of her boyfriend. She would do what she wanted. And she wanted him. Her parents were in the way of her fairytale romance. So she decided to dispose of her parents and live happily ever after with her prince charming, Bruno.

They were not going to stop her. With her parents gone, they could be together. Only it didn’t work out that way.

The Perfect Family

Diana and Alan Johnson lived in Bellevue, Idaho, Blaine County, USA. They were well off and lived in a big house in the nicest part of town.

Alan was a co-owner of a successful landscaping company. He was an honest, solid guy. Diane worked for a financial firm. She was loving and loyal. And lived to make her family happy.

They were involved in their community and enjoyed spending time with their two children, Matt and Sarah. They especially liked to do outdoor activities together. It soothed them.

The Bad Boy

What sixteen-year-old girl doesn’t love a bad boy?

Bruno Santas was a former classmate of Sara’s, he was nineteen and she was sixteen. He had a reputation for breaking the law and it was rumored that he sold drugs. He was not what parents would call boyfriend material.

When Diane and Alan found out about the odd relationship they were angry and afraid he would ruin their daughter’s life. He had to go.

So after finding out she was seeing him behind their backs, they punished her and took away her car. The furious parents also threatened to press charges with the police for stationary rape.

As a result, he would be deported back to Mexico but Sarah would never let that happen. She had a plan.

Sarah’s Plan

First, she took the tenant’s rifle from his upstairs apartment in the guest house. Second, she killed her parents. Third, she would get the 600,000 in insurance money and her inheritance. Fourth, freedom to do and go where she wanted with whom she wanted.

That was her plan. However, it was far from perfect.

On the early morning of the murders, Sarah ran out of her home screaming that an intruder had killed her parents. However, no one believed her.

When interviewed by police about the situation she said it must have been the upstairs tenant, Mel Speegle, who was renting the second-floor apartment in the guest house. It was his rife. So it had to be him. But he had a solid alibi. He was out of town when the murders happened.

Finally, she claimed her innocence and said she had nothing to do with the murders.

The Bloody Murder Scene

On September 2, 2003, at around six am. Alan and Diane Johnson were shot and killed in their bedroom. While Diane slept, Sarah took the end of the hunting rifle to her mother’s head and pulled the trigger.

Alan, upon hearing the gun blast ran out of the shower, and that’s when she shot him in the chest. She dragged his bleeding body to the bedroom near his bed and died soon after.

At first, the cops were interested in the boyfriend, Santos. He looked good for this. But there was no DNA evidence to connect him to the crime. Only Sarah’s.

The Overwhelming Evidence

Detectives saw no sign of a forced entry. Nothing was stolen. The police found a pink robe and a latex glove in the garbage can outside the home. There was blood from both parents and the defendant in her pink robe. The lab found Sarah’s DNA inside the latex glove. The matching glove was found in her bedroom. They also found biological particles from her parents in Sarah’s t-shirt that she wore the morning of the killings.

The police found a .264 Winchester Magnum in the garage. A rifle that had to be reloaded rapidly to kill both parents.

The rifle used in the murder.

And the boyfriend, Bruno Santos, the one she couldn’t live without, agreed to testify against her.

The conviction

On Oct 29, 2002, in Blaine County, Idaho, Sarah was sixteen when she was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. After her eighteen birthday, she went to trial. After five-weeks she was found guilty of the first-degree murder of her parents. The judge sentenced her to two concurrent life sentences.

Sara appealed her conviction to the Idaho Supreme court but it was denied.

Justice did prevail, and she is sitting in prison, where she will spend the rest of her life without the possibility of parole.

Not a happy ending, but justice was ultimately served in the end.