Cold Case Files: The ten-year-old daughter of a salvage yard owner found the body of her father in 1990
- Dennis McCaslin
- 5 minutes ago
- 2 min read
On a warm June day in 1990, a 10-year-old girl made a discovery that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
She found her father, Donald "Stub" C. Johnson, shot multiple times at the salvage yard he ran along busy Highway 70 near Millerton in McCurtain County. The date was June 5, 1990, and Donald Johnson was 43 years old.
Johnson, known locally as Stub, worked at the salvage yard where old cars and scrap metal filled the lot. That afternoon his young daughter came upon the scene and found him dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
The brutal killing shocked the small rural community in southeast Oklahoma. No clear motive was ever made public. There was no mention of robbery, a personal dispute, or stolen parts that might explain why someone would gun him down in broad daylight along a major highway.Donald
Johnson was remembered by those who knew him as a local father trying to make a living in the salvage business. In a tight-knit area like McCurtain County, his death left a lasting scar on his family and friends.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation took the lead on the case. Detectives worked the crime scene at the salvage yard, but leads were few. The case quickly grew cold. More than 35 years later, no suspects have ever been publicly named and no arrests have been made.
The OSBI still lists the murder of Donald Johnson as an open homicide on its cold case files.
The rural setting may have played a part in why the case remains unsolved. Salvage yards in 1990 often operated with cash deals and irregular hours. Witnesses were scarce, and modern forensic tools like DNA testing were not yet widely available.
Whatever evidence was collected at the time has not been enough to bring the killer to justice.Today the murder of Donald "Stub" Johnson stands as one of McCurtain County's longest unsolved cases.
His daughter, now a grown woman, and the rest of his family still wait for answers.
Anyone with information about the shooting at the Highway 70 salvage yard on June 5, 1990, is urged to contact the OSBI Cold Case Unit.
Somewhere out there, someone may still hold the piece of information that could finally close this chapter for Donald Johnson's family.
