Man arrested after transporting Fairfield teen to North Carolina

FAIRFIELD – A Fairfield teenager who was reported missing early Sunday morning was found later that day in North Carolina, and has been reunited with her family.

The Fairfield Police Department used its Facebook page to alert the public on Aug. 17 that 15-year-old Aleena Hall had gone missing, and was last seen in the 700 block of South Second Street in Fairfield walking a chihuahua. The department asked the public to share any information it had on Aleena’s whereabouts. Thanks to information obtained from Aleena’s phone, and from eyewitnesses in Fairfield, police identified a man they suspected of being with Aleena at the time of her disappearance, a 25-year-old named John Michael Johnson of Reidsville, North Carolina.

Fairfield Police notified law enforcement in Reidsville, specifically the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, about a suspect and an address in Reidsville that may be connected to Aleena’s disappearance. The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office dispatched officers to 837 Willow St. in Reidsville, where they discovered both Aleena Hall and John Johnson.

After an investigation by Rockingham County’s sheriff’s office detectives, department of social services officials and county attorney’s office, Johnson was interviewed and subsequently charged with Felony Second Degree Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, and Felony Solicitation by Computer. According to information released by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson’s bond was set at $850,000, and he is scheduled to appear in district court on Aug. 26. The sheriff’s office announced that more charges are expected.

Aleena’s mother, Jessica Hall, said she cried tears of joy when the Rockingham County Sheriff called her Sunday evening with the good news that they had found her daughter.

“All my other kids were with me and we were all crying because we didn’t know if we’d ever see her alive again,” Hall said. “We were scared, so it was such a relieving phone call, such great news.”

One piece of evidence that sent chills down the Hall family’s spines was discovering Aleena’s phone on the side of the interstate south of town, smashed and unusable. They were able to turn on the phone but it was too badly damaged to unlock, until Shea Barber of PC Repair Specialists volunteered to fix the phone’s screen. Verizon found Aleena’s call log, which showed that exactly 10 minutes after she left home, her phone dialed 911.

“We were really scared because we thought she had called 911. We were just freaking out, and we went to the police department again and told them about that,” Hall said.

Hall said she later learned that Aleena’s iPhone has a feature where it automatically calls 911 when it hits the ground with enough force, and that’s what she believes happened in this case.

Once police had access to the phone thanks to Barber’s repairs, they saw that Aleena had been communicating with Johnson. On Sunday, after the Fairfield Police Department posted a missing person’s report on Aleena, more information started pouring in. Aleena and her dog had shown up on someone’s doorbell camera, an image that was later circulated on social media. Family members also shared a photo of John Michael Johnson hoping to solicit information about him, and an employee of Jet Stop came forward to say she had seen that man Saturday night. The Jet Stop employee sold him a beer, and even remembered that he had an unusual name, “John Johnson.”

Hall said she was very thankful to hear about how many Fairfield residents were knocking on doors and asking people if they had cameras showing her daughter, and Fairfield Police Lt. Joel Smith also said this played a critical role in locating Aleena.

“There were so many complete strangers who were helping, and a lot of people sharing posts, and it really helped a lot,” Hall said.

Hall spoke with The Union Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 19, while en route from Reidsville, North Carolina back to Fairfeld, a nearly 15-hour trip that they began early that morning. Hall said she was thankful that her daughter did not appear to have been physically harmed during this ordeal, but was shaken up.

Hall said that her daughter began speaking with somebody in July over SnapChat, but she said the person was “psycho” and she blocked him. On Saturday, the Hall family was traveling back from Wisconsin after attending a concert, and Aleena received a message from Johnson saying he was on his way to Iowa.

On Saturday night, members of the Hall family went to bed, and didn’t realize until they woke up Sunday morning around 6:30 a.m. that Aleena was missing. Aleena had waited for the rest of her family to go to bed before leaving the house with the family’s chihuahua, Lucy. Hall said that Johnson had been waiting in Fairfield for two hours before picking Aleena up.

Hall said her daughter didn’t really want to go with Johnson, but didn’t know how to tell him no, and he was able to convince her to go with him. The Union asked Hall if Aleena felt like she was being kidnapped.

“She’s really unsure about why she even did it, and shocked that she actually followed through with it,” Hall said. “She doesn’t know what she was feeling, and she was really anxious. She was alone with a 25-year-old guy that she’d never met before, and in the car for 14 hours with him. That must be scary. She had taken our little dog with her, too, so at least she had her emotional support animal with her.”

Hall said Aleena and Johnson went to Johnson’s brother’s house in Reidsville, and that Johnson told her to pretend that she was 19. They were only at the house an hour when law enforcement officials arrived.

Hall said she hopes Johnson goes to prison for manipulating her daughter and taking her over 14 hours from home, and she hopes other parents will learn something from this incident.

“You have to go through your kid’s phone and tell them not to talk to strangers online,” she said. “I never expected it would happen to one of my kids.”

In a news release, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page echoed Hall’s comments imploring parents to monitor their children’s cell phone and internet usage.

“This should be an eye-opener for citizens not just in Rockingham County, but across the country,” Page said. “Individuals will use current technologies such as messaging applications and other internet accessible means to not only conduct scams, but to also exploit and prey on our children.”

  Buy Photo

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

  Buy Photo