What happened to Laura? Arlington Heights woman's 1990 disappearance remains a mystery

Thirty years after Laura Johnson walked out of a Northwest suburban bar never to be seen again, her daughters harbor few illusions about a miraculous reunion with their long-lost mother.

But they still hope one day to know what happened to their mom in the early morning hours of May 5, 1990. And they hope to see justice done to anyone responsible for ripping her from their lives.

“I don't think she's out there,” Ashley Vagary, only 18 months old when her mom vanished, told us this week. “A mother out there this long, separated from your children ... you're going to do everything you can to get back to them.”

Johnson's disappearance has haunted her family and frustrated police for three decades, leaving them with more questions than answers. Why did she leave a favorite hangout just blocks from home that night with a group of people unknown to other regulars? Who was the mysterious truck driver witnesses said they saw her with hours later? Why did her husband wait two days to report her missing, then leave town - and leave behind his young daughters - just weeks later?

And, more than anything else, what happened to Laura?

The disappearance

Johnson was 24, living in Arlington Heights and a married mother of two - Ashley and her little sister Amber, then 5 months old - when she vanished.

She spent May 4, 1990, at Arlington Park with her husband, David Johnson. Later that night, David dropped Laura off at the Billy Club tavern in downtown Arlington Heights before heading home to relieve brother-in-law Richard Desecki, who had been watching the girls.

The Johnsons were regulars at the Billy Club, just a few blocks from their home, and the staff recognized her there that night. But they didn't recognize the people they say she left with at closing time.

It would be the last confirmed sighting of Laura.

About a week later, after authorities sought the public's help locating the missing woman, two people called police saying they believe they saw Laura later that morning at the Hob Nob bar in Palatine. She left with a man who claimed to be a truck driver from Memphis, Tennessee, according to the witnesses.

In the following weeks and months, police were never able to find a trace of Johnson or the truck driver, or even confirm the witnesses' account.

“That's absolutely one of the avenues we're exploring,” Arlington Heights police Detective Joe Murphy, who's now leading the investigation, told us Thursday. “But we're not limiting the scope of our investigation to that.”

The investigation

It wasn't until two days after May 5 that David Johnson reported his wife missing. At the time, he told police he believed she had been staying with friends.

David Johnson could not be reached for this story. Listed phone numbers for his last known addresses in Georgia were either disconnected or calls went unanswered.

In the three decades since she was reported missing, police have chased dozens of tips and leads, plugged DNA, dental records and other evidence into national databases, and contacted law enforcement agencies across the country when an unidentified body that could be Laura's is discovered.

So far, nothing has led them to a resolution.

“It's a frustrating case,” Murphy said. “The thing that keeps us going is that a young mother of two children is out there. She obviously was someone who touched a lot of people over her lifetime, because 30 years later people still care about what happened to her.”

Breaking the case might ultimately require someone with knowledge of what happened to Laura speaking up.

“Maybe someone who knows something will see this and come forward,” Murphy said.

Frustrated by the lack of success tracking down her mother, Vagary said she launched her own investigation after the 20th anniversary of the disappearance. But after seven years, lots of frustration and plenty of roadblocks, the former Schaumburg resident gave up the quest and found a new home in the Denver area.

“I just woke up one day and (I felt) like my mom wouldn't want me to constantly be in this stage of my life,” she said. “I needed to let go.”

Still, while she no longer dwells on her mother's disappearance and long ago accepted an unhappy conclusion, she and her sister hope for answers.

“There's a lot of darkness in this world, and our job is to shine a little light when we can,” Vagary said. “Maybe someone can shine a little light on this case that's 30 years old.”

Can you help?

Anyone who has information that could help is urged to call Arlington Heights Crime Stoppers at (847) 590-7867 or email Murphy at jmurphy@vah.com.

Honored, remotely

With courtrooms closed for all but the most urgent matters, the Kane County Treatment Alternative Court had to get creative last week and hold its graduation remotely.

The April 23 ceremony recognized two people who completed the program, which offers defendants in nonviolent cases treatment for their mental-health conditions and disorders as an alternative to the traditional criminal justice system.

Judge Marmarie J. Kostelny presided over the Zoom videoconference ceremony attended by relatives, friends and treatment professionals.

“Graduations in TAC provide a special recognition of the accomplishments and achievements of the successful participants,” Kostelny said.

Swearing in by Zoom

Keith Cross, in full dress uniform but seated on a couch at home, was sworn in via Zoom Tuesday as deputy chief of the Aurora Police Department.

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