Woman, 2 young children found dead in home

SEMMES, Ala. (WALA/Gray News) - On Thursday, Nancy Johnson and her two children, 2-year-old Jacob Johnson and 5-year-old Mia Johnson, were found slain inside their Semmes home.

It’s still unclear if she killed her children and then killed herself, or if she, too, is a victim.

The couple was from Utah and Washington and had only been living in Semmes for the last six months.

Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said the husband was living in a camper behind the home. He said the man is not a suspect, and he’s the one who found the bodies.

Numerous court documents detailed a lot of trouble between the children’s mother and father.

In one particular court document, which was filed in June, the children’s father claims a DHR worker told him she was concerned about Nancy Johnson’s mental health and the children’s safety.

The document stated, “The DHR worker informed the Defendant (the father) that they do not feel it is safe for the minor children to remain in the care and custody of the Plaintiff (the mother).”

The court documents also said the father was trying to get custody of the children, but just a couple of weeks later, another court document shows the couple agreed to go to counseling instead.

Burch said Semmes officers have responded to several calls at the house.

“Semmes is very familiar with this residence. They’ve responded to numerous domestics,” the sheriff said. “And our understanding there’s a pending divorce. As far as whether its a murder suicide or if the mother was murdered too, that’s still yet to be determined.”

According to court documents, Nancy Johnson and her husband have been married since 2016 and filed for divorce earlier this year.

It also shows that Nancy Johnson took out a restraining order out of fear for her life.

Curt documents show this month a violent encounter between the two just one week ago, where the children’s father allegedly broke into the residence, attacked the woman and tried to take one of the children. He was arrested on domestic violence charges.

Semmes Police Chief Todd Freind said they’ve responded to 6-8 calls of abuse from both the husband and the wife.

“The last several months, we’ve had a lot of domestic disturbance calls out here from the couple,” Freind said. “Just different domestic type calls, anything from harassment to physical.”

“We know DHR was involved in I guess some of the filings and, I guess, domestic-type situations,” Burch said. “We’ve been made aware there may be the possibility of some mental instability.”

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, including Nancy Johnson’s cause of death, which should be determined by an autopsy.

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