Oklahoma man supplies key evidence incriminating grandson in precious doe murder case

Jet, June 20, 2005

Thurmon McIntosh, 81, recently congratulated activist Alonzo Washington for helping to find the alleged killers in the Precious Doe murder case-even though one of the alleged killers was McIntosh's own grandson.

"Today is my birthday, and it's the best birthday present I ever had to get to see you and know the case is solved," Alonzo Washington told Thurmon McIntosh when they met in Muskogee, OK.

McIntosh sent Washington hair samples from the mother of Erica Michelle Green, the headless girl, who for years was only known as Precious Doe.

Washington, 38, an activist who produces comics books on missing Black children, asked Kansas City police to run DNA tests on the hair of Michelle Johnson, the murdered girl's mother.

Johnson and her husband, Harrell Johnson, were eventually arrested and charged with second-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. Harrell Johnson, McIntosh's grandson, admitted killing and beheading the little girl (JET, May 23).

McIntosh tried for a year to convince a Kansas City detective he knew who Precious Doe was and that his grandson was responsible for killing her. But, the detective he kept calling thought he was a drug addict wanting a reward, McIntosh said.

"I knew it was all on the back burner," McIntosh told Washington. "That's when I called you."

Washington posted a half-page ad paid for by General Mills in an April edition of a weekly newspaper, the Kansas City Call, then he told McIntosh to get some DNA from the mother and to send him a picture of Erica Green.

"You got it to me on a Saturday. They were arrested on Monday and by Wednesday there was a confession-it's just amazing," Washington told McIntosh.

McIntosh said although he loved his grandson, he couldn't rest until justice was done.