The Murder of Sutton Mosser

On the evening of September 16, 2021, Justine Johnson's younger brother, a teenager, saw her in the bathroom of their parents' Oscoda Township home doing what he believed were drugs. When he asked where Sutton was, he later told investigators Justine responded, "Mind your f***ing business." He left the home for several hours; when he returned that night, no one was home.

Justine's other brother, Knesley Johnson, testified that he last saw Sutton and Justine before he left for work that evening and described the interaction as typical. When he returned home around 3:30 to 4 a.m. on September 17, he could not find his sister or niece. He asked his younger brother where Sutton was, and the two began searching the house, discovering a human foot protruding from a garbage bag at the back of the home.

Inside the bag, investigators found Sutton's body wrapped in a comforter, along with a pair of blood-stained jeans. Sutton was dressed only in a disposable diaper and had suffered multiple stab wounds. A forensic scientist with the Michigan State Police Crime Lab testified that three knives were recovered from a bedroom, and bloodstains were found on couches in the living room, a hallway closet door, and items in a bedroom. Blood was also found at Justine's own separate apartment, though investigators believe Sutton was killed inside the family home.

According to a Child Protective Services investigator who interviewed Justine in jail, she said she had been going through heroin withdrawal and had not slept in approximately two weeks at the time of Sutton's death, and that she had also used cocaine that day. Justine told the investigator she began hallucinating that the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants was speaking to her through the television, instructing her to kill Sutton or she herself would be killed. She said she was afraid for her life and had "lost her mind."

After Sutton's death, Justine left the home on foot, reportedly passing out at one point in a nearby graveyard, and later told investigators she had attempted suicide at her own apartment. Police located and arrested her approximately four and a half hours after Sutton's body was found, while she was walking along railroad tracks in Oscoda Township.