Online dating is always tricky. Despite the advances in video chatting and verification of people, it still cannot account for those who have bad intentions. While sometimes meeting someone online can lead to love and a healthy relationships. Other times can end unfortunate. This is the case for various people including a Texas woman by the name of Felicia Johnson.
Former Virginia Tech football player Isimemen Etute thought he was communicating with a young woman on Tinder back in April 2021. He had heard some friends mention that they had been with the same girl and decided to go see her as well. The pair connected twice, but on the second meet-up, Etute discovered the girl to be 40-year-old Jerry Paul Smith. When he made the discovery, Smith reached for protection, and Etute proceeded to kick the man, who later passed. Etute was later found not guilty, but the incident had a huge impact on his football career. Following the case, Etute returned to college.
A man named Stephen Port used dating app Grindr to lure men in Essex, England. Between 2014 and 2015, he met four different men on the app and lured them in with false stories of who he was. Upon meeting the men, Port laced their cocktails with a ‘club substance’ called GHB and proceeded to take advantage of them when they passed out. All four men unfortunately passed away from OD’ing on the substance. Families of the four men blamed the law enforcement for their handling of the cases.
A Houston, TX, woman recently lost her life as well after connecting with a man she met online. Felicia Johnson was only 24. She went missing on April 16th, 2022. Chekweubuka Nwobodo was convicted with her passing. He is said to have lured Johnson through Snapchat and offered her $500 after connecting on an escort site. Nwobodo had reportedly premeditated the whole thing based on his Google Search history.
Johnson’s remains were found this week in a heavily wooded area in Houston, TX. A Texas Department of Transportation worker found Felicia Johnson in Sam Houston National Forest near Flamingo Lakes and Highway 149. Johnson’s family had been working hard to bring her justice and had been praying she was being held against her will, but still alive. Sadly that was not the case.
