The funeral home’s obituary for John Thomas Johnson, who died in September 2022 at the age of 52, describes him as the “beloved husband” of Hannah Johnson and a “loving father” to their children.
However, John Johnson was Hannah Johnson’s uncle, and according to court records and Hannah’s attorney, he fathered four children with her, first getting her pregnant when she was 18.
Hannah Johnson’s father, according to her attorney, allowed John Johnson, a registered sex offender, to bring her into his home as his “common law wife.”
Court documents state that three children, aged 4, 6, and 7, lived in Cincinnati but did not attend school, were not taught to eat, were severely malnourished, wore diapers, were nonverbal, and unable to walk.
According to a social worker, the fourth child, a boy whose age was redacted in court records, did not appear to be as malnourished as his siblings, but he had never attended school, wore a diaper, had “difficulty walking” and struggled to use a spoon.
Hannah Johnson, 28, is currently serving a 10- to 14-year prison sentence in Ohio. In Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, she pleaded guilty to child endangerment and kidnapping charges, and Judge Melba Marsh sentenced her in January.
In 2023, Johnson lived in a house in Sedamsville, a Cincinnati neighborhood just west of downtown, with her four children and her uncle’s 72-year-old mother. In June of that year, police responded to a complaint from neighbors about an odor coming from the property.
Police took no action, but prosecutors say Johnson drove three of the children to her mother’s house in Warren County, Kentucky, and left them there.
Her mother, Donna Canler, hadn’t seen Johnson in about eight years, Assistant Prosecutor Elyse Deters stated at the January sentencing. According to documents, Canler told law enforcement that she was unaware Hannah had children.
Neglected 7-year-old weighed 22 pounds
Canler, who attended the sentencing via video, stated that the three children were severely malnourished when Johnson dropped them off. The oldest, a 7-year-old girl, was in the worst shape. She weighed just 22 pounds.
“It was like her skin had melted to her bones − she had no fat on her,” Canler told me. “She could barely walk.”
Canler claimed the 7-year-old did not know how to use a spoon.
“They don’t eat like they should because they weren’t fed as babies,” she told me.
The children were transported to a hospital in Bowling Green, but due to their condition, they were airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Canler said that all of the children are now doing well, though they still need to be fed through gastronomy tubes. The 7-year-old now weighs approximately 50 pounds.
Dianna Johnson, Johnson’s paternal grandmother who also lived in the Sedamsville house, was charged with child endangerment, but she died at the Hamilton County Justice Center in September 2023, just days after being arrested. She was 72.
What Hannah Johnson said about her children
Court documents described the three children as emaciated, “in a state of extreme malnourishment” and “in dire need of medical intervention.”
When Job and Family Services workers spoke with Johnson, who had returned to Cincinnati after leaving her children with her mother, she “could not provide an explanation as to why the children were malnourished.”
According to a complaint filed in Hamilton County Juvenile Court, Johnson told a Job and Family Services caseworker that none of the children had ever been to daycare or school.
She claimed she was estranged from her mother and the rest of her family because her uncle refused to let her feed the children or take them to medical appointments.
The children had not visited a doctor in “several years.” Johnson failed to explain why the children’s condition did not improve after her uncle died the previous year.
A fourth child, a boy, was better cared for, according to prosecutors, and appeared to live in the same room as John Johnson’s mother. Prosecutors believe he was treated differently because he resembled John Johnson. He was placed in foster care, according to records.
Mom had 2 arrests for alleged drunken driving
Hannah Johnson was arrested in Logan County, Ohio, on July 2, 2023, for misdemeanor driving while intoxicated, less than a day after speaking with the caseworker. She was able to post a bond. According to court records, she was arrested for driving while intoxicated on November 18, 2023, in Dearborn County, Indiana.
Records show she spent 11 days in jail in Indiana before pleading guilty. She was sentenced to one year on probation.
Chelsea Panzeca, Johnson’s attorney, stated in court documents that her client “will be the first to admit she has various mental health concerns and has… struggled with turning to alcohol as a coping tool.”
Panzeca did not respond to requests for comment.
The JFS caseworker stated that Johnson never contacted the agency or attempted to see or speak with her children in the five weeks following her release from Indiana’s jail in early January 2024.
According to Deters, while in custody at the Hamilton County Justice Center, she never asked anyone on jail calls how her children were doing.
Johnson only discussed her children with a friend about deleting photos of them on her phone, Deters stated at the January sentencing, so authorities couldn’t “figure out what she did to (them).”
Johnson displayed no emotion in court. When asked if she wanted to say anything, she gave a brief statement: “I am deeply sorry. Given the circumstances, I wish I had done something sooner.”
She met the uncle at her brother’s funeral
According to court documents, Johnson’s relationship with her uncle began in 2014, when they met for the first time at the funeral of Johnson’s brother, who died when he was a teenager.
She told a child welfare caseworker that she had started a sexual relationship with her uncle that same year. She was seventeen.
According to court documents, when her mother learned about the relationship, she contacted law enforcement, but was told they couldn’t intervene because Johnson “was an adult.” According to the documents, she was forced to drop out of high school.
Johnson’s father could not be reached by phone for comment and did not respond to an email addressed to him.
Panzeca testified in court in January that Johnson’s uncle controlled and threatened her. Johnson, Panzeca stated, “was doing what she could.”
