Cops arrest man suspected of killing girlfriend, 2 kids

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Markayla Johnson, middle, and her two children 4-year-old Miracle Johnson, left, and 7-month-old Messiah Johnson, were reported missing out of Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 8, 2024. Investigators found them dead on Friday near where they were last seen. On Saturday, Johnson’s boyfriend Benjamin Taylor was arrested in California. (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department)

Police in California near the U.S. border with Mexico arrested a man accused of killing his girlfriend and her two children, ages 4 and 7 months, in North Carolina, who were missing for more than a week.

Benjamin Joseph Taylor, 35, is charged with three counts murder and one count of concealment of death. He’s accused of killing 22-year-old Markayla Johnson, 4-year-old Miracle Johnson and 7-month-old Messiah Johnson.

Johnson and her two children were reported missing March 8 when she stopped communicating with family. They were last seen in the area of the 400 block of Orchard Trace Lane in Charlotte. Officers were searching the area around 1:45 p.m. Friday when the discovered three bodies in an apartment. Investigators identified them as Johnson, Miracle, and Messiah.

“This is difficult for me as a police chief,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said at a press conference Saturday. “Nothing is worse than than homicides of small children and family members that we are seeing and talking about here today. We’re doing everything that we can to make sure that we bring closure for the family and also bring justice to the person responsible for these murders.”

Jennings did not identify Taylor as a suspect during Saturday’s press conference but said police had identified him as a person of interest. Jennings said they believed that Taylor may be in the Carolinas but were conducting a nationwide search. Taylor and Johnson were “in a relationship” but Taylor was not the father of either of the children. Jennings did not release the cause of death or give a motive for the slayings.

One of reporter asked whether Taylor may have killed Johnson and then her two kids to eliminate witnesses.

“Well, I’m not sure how much a 7-month-old can be a witness, but at the same time, I don’t want to speculate about the reasoning behind any of these murders,” Jennings said. “It’s too early to tell and those are some things that he might be the only one that can answer those questions for us.”

It’s not clear how cops tracked Taylor to California, but a press release thanked the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI field office there. Taylor is the Imperial County Jail awaiting extradition back to North Carolina.

The Johnson family is devastated with the loss of their family members.

“I just want to say, I miss my baby,” Johnson’s mother Markeysha Johnson told Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC. “I miss my grandkids. She was a good person and everybody knows Kayla would do anything for you. She didn’t deserve this. She did not deserve this. She was such a loving person. Everybody knew that.”