Johnny Johnson, a man who sexually assaulted and killed Cassandra ‘Casey’ Williamson, 6, in St. Louis in 2002, has been given an execution date of August 1.
The Missouri Supreme Court has pronounced his execution date and is scheduled to be put to death August 1 at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
Johnson, 45, was staying with friends in Valley Park, Missouri, in July 2002 when Cassandra ‘Casey’ Williamson went missing.
Dozens of volunteers joined police in the search for the little girl who was a kindergartner at Valley Park Elementary School.
She was said to be a young, happy girl with a bright smile who loved riding her bicycle and singing.
According to DailyMail, the girl’s body was found in a pit less than a mile from her home, buried beneath rocks and debris. Johnson confessed to the crimes.
Johnson, a drifter and ex-convict, was 24 when he killed Casey, who would now be 27 years old.
He had been invited to spend the night on the couch of a home on Benton Street in Valley Park, where Casey’s father, Ernie, was staying.
EsB learnt that Ernie woke at 7 a.m. to see his daughter standing in the living room with Johnson. But by the time he came back from the restroom, both Casey and Johnson were gone.
Johnson managed to lure Casey out of the home and down the street, taking her into a labyrinth of tunnels, old ovens and underground rooms of an abandoned glass factory.
He killed her by pummeling her with bricks and rocks after she began screaming and kicking as she attempted to crawl away from Johnson when he tried to sexually assault her.
Ernie and Angie Williamson, Casey’s parents, contacted police to report their daughter missing.
St. Louis County police, members of the FBI, together with almost 100 volunteers, spent the next several hours combing the nearby woods along the Meramec River in a desperate search for the youngster.
People who lived in the area reported seeing Johnson carrying the 6-year-old in his arms, still wearing her nightgown.
Following the killing, he washed himself off in the Meramec River before returning to the house to pick up a pack of cigarettes. He was soaking wet and apprehended by the police.
Casey’s body was found shortly afterwards when one of the volunteers who had been searching the site of the old St. Louis Plate Glass Company found her in a pit, less than a mile away from her home.
