A Watch Inside a Sealed Pipe: The Murder of Julie Johnson

A Watch Inside a Sealed Pipe: The Murder of Julie Johnson

A yellow-gold Seiko watch, face-up and unscratched, sits inside a bolted corrugated culvert four miles outside of Harver - a small, precise clue that pointed detectives toward a fuel-billing discrepancy at Dolton Aggregate Supply. How did a watch worn every day for eight years end up in a sealed pipe, and who moved it there the night Julie Johnson disappeared?

In this episode, we lay out the timeline from the empty rabbit feed dish noticed on July 8 to the watch found by a farmer the next morning, then follow the inquiry into Julie’s work notes, coworkers, and a suspect with access to company vehicles - asking whether the answer had been recorded and overlooked all along.

Person: Julie Johnson Date: July 8-15, 2001 Location: Harver (watch found four miles outside town on Crestline Road) Case: Missing person turned homicide with remains found July 15, 2001 Detective: Leonard Pace

- The watch was a women's yellow-gold Seiko with a rectangular face worn by Julie for eight consecutive years. - Roger Russo found the watch inside a dry, clean, bolted corrugated metal culvert on the morning of July 9, 2001. - Julie’s daughter Stacy filed a missing persons report at 8:22 PM on July 8, 2001, twelve hours before the watch was found. - Julie worked nine years as office manager at Dolton Aggregate Supply and tracked a fuel-billing discrepancy in late June, noting the name Zimmerman beside the account. - Robert Zimmerman was 51 in summer 2001, had been fleet coordinator for six years, and reported being home alone the evening of July 8 while briefly filing a delivery manifest at the office.

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