Missing Johnny Davis
“God, I've run out of things to ask you, it is up to you now, if my son is alive just send me a sign.” Jeannie Davis asked.
It had been over two years since Johnny Davis, her son, had gone missing during a hunting trip on October 24th, 2021 from Mendocino County California.
“ It's not just a sense. I've always known he is somewhere we just don't know where. I’ve seen geese a mile away and I looked up to heaven and I prayed to God to let them fly back over me, and they did right over my head.” Jeanie Davis said.
Johnny with his sisters in 19TK.
“Quote here to come about Johnny.”
“The second time it was damn crows. I saw them flying. And I prayed again and again to God, please, if my son is still alive, show me a sign in Jesus' name. And the crows flew right in front of my windshield.” Davis said.
This was enough for Jeanie to hold onto the hope in her heart and continue the search for Johnny despite being told the odds are against her.
“He had a passion for people and a love for God, we are not Christians but he could tell you every word of the Bible.” Jeanie Davis said.
Some posters still remain of Johnny as a reminder of his disappearance, in the Davis living room the mention of Johnny's name fills the space with memories, laughs, and tears. For the community the missing person flier serves as a reminder that someone is missing, for the Davis family, there is no poster needed to remember what is lost.
Johnny is the oldest of four, with three younger sisters. “ He always just made sure everyone was laughing, he was a jokester.” Jessica Lackey, the youngest Davis sister said.
“My mom had a little dog and I loved dolls, and a little dog would fit my Barbie doll clothes when we couldn't catch the little dog and couldn't get the Barbie doll clothes on him, my brother caught the dog and helped me put Barbie doll clothes on him. And then he drove it around on the four-wheeler when my dog was dressed in doll clothes.” Jessica laughed.
As the memories of her brother floods in, she reflects on not just who Johnny is as a person, but also what he meant to the Davis family.
“He was my first ever hero, any problems I ever came into, he would be the first one there to try to get me out of it and just always try to protect me.” said Jessica Lackey.
This is the reason Jessica Lackey fights so hard when it comes to finding answers about her missing brother.
“He fought fiercely for the ones he loved. I know if I was the one missing. He wouldn't have left that mountain.” Jessica said.
The Davis family has been adamant about their search for Johnny since the beginning of his disappearance, they have taught themselves how to gain attention for Johnny when it comes to gathering search parties, creating Facebook groups, and trying to keep Johnny’s case open. However, the family reports that no matter how much is done, it has not been enough.
According to Officer Quincy Jones of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s department, it is no surprise that the family feels this way as the case, from the beginning there has been no evidence found regarding what happened to Johnny Davis on the night he disappeared.
“I'm stumped on this one. It's like he vanished out of thin air…and I don't know how else to say it. Because usually somebody who has gone missing for a reasonable amount of time, we're going to find a clue that they were there. And we didn't on this one.”
Various factors play into Johnny’s disappearance on that October morning. Mendocino County California was experiencing historic weather conditions that may have contributed to the lack of evidence, and the theory that Johnny could have potentially drowned in the Eel River according to Quincy Jones.
“This was one of the largest rainstorms we had had in numerous years because we had been suffering from a drought for quite some time. So the water level rose expeditiously, I mean, very quickly in that area, and that river beds filled and even from searchers that were down in that riverbed where their campsite was that they found watermarks like 10 or 12 feet up trees. That's how much water went through that area in a short period of time.” Jones said.
The rain is originally what caused Johnny and his son Adam to separate from each other. According to police records as well as family recounts, the father and son were camping and woke up to water rising in their tent. California’s deer hunting season was ending, and Johnny wanted to make the most of it. He decided to keep hunting while his son headed back to their car.
Eventually, according to Jeannie Davis his son Adam lugged back his hunting gear and his gun on a raft, pulling behind him.
“So my grandson decided he wasn't going to hunt and he went back to his car. He floated on a raft while he was supposed to be pulling the raft; it had his gun and two backpacks on it. And then, my grandson is lazy and so he decided he was going to ride the raft too but it wasn't that big and it popped and down went his gun and the backpack, but he swam across. I mean, it wasn't that bad. The current wasn't that bad that he could swim across.” Jeannie Davis said.
Johnny’s son made it back to the vehicle and waited for his father, once he grew concerned he called his family members to tell them about Johnny not making it back. The Davis family immediately headed to Mendocino County California from Humboldt County, around 150 miles away. Arriving around midnight the family started conducting their own search before reporting Johnny missing almost 24 hours after he had last been seen.
Law enforcement received the report of Johnny missing around 9 am on October 25th, 2021.
“The first starting point was that same day.” Quincy Jones states. The Mendocino County Search and Rescue as well as the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reported to the scene on October 25th, 2021, and conducted a search off of Highway 162 at the 8-mile bridge near Covelo, California where Johnny was last seen.
Initially, the Eel River was a focal point in law enforcement’s search due to the weather conditions. However, the family disputes the theory that Johnny could have potentially drowned in the water.
The only piece of evidence that was left behind by Johnny was his dog, a black terrier found on the opposite end of the river.
“It's distinctly possible John made it across the river or tried to make it across the river. Because the dog was on the other side of the river and according to the family, the dog was genuinely afraid of water and didn't like it. So unless the dog was trying to cross with John, they didn't believe the dog would go in the water.” Quincy stated.
The Davis family has been public about their frustrations when it comes to the efforts being made by law enforcement and their focus on the water.
“They wanted to just blame the river, they didn't want to deal with the landowners or the pot growers. They just wanted to say he went in the river.” Jessica said.
While law enforcement’s search efforts focused on the river, the search party the family had gathered went to search for Johnny in the surrounding area. The family claims that at one point a landowner had shot at the family for trespassing.
“ Sometimes marijuana cultivators are not so friendly to people trespassing on their property or just walking up along the river. So I believe there've been some issues between the family volunteer searchers they had out there and potentially some of the nearby property ow
Around 48 hours had passed since Johnny was last seen, the family was told that if they were to continue to do their own search, that law enforcement would call off their search and rescue efforts for Johnny.
“ The family had a bunch of searchers out there as well, which is a tough situation for law enforcement because we as the sheriff's office are required to have a resolution or some sort of search and rescue unit. But when other people come in, and we don't know their training or experiences, we can't necessarily deploy them. Because then we accept responsibility for them. If they get hurt or overextend themselves or do something they aren't capable of doing.” Quincy Jones said.
Although the Davis family search party was told to put a pause on the efforts, the outpour of volunteers, according to Quincy was notable.
“We had so many volunteers, we were getting approached by people in counties that we don't regularly work with volunteering to come up and help and we accepted any response from any trained certified search and rescue member. So it's always appreciated when we encounter a situation where people are wanting to come to help us.. we are a smaller agency in a very large, rural, geographically large area.” Quincy said.
Another search effort took place for Johnny on November 23rd, 2021, over one month after Johnny’s disappearance. The Mendocino County Sheriff's office received mutual aid assistance from a CHP helicopter from Redding, California. The aerial search was conducted 15-20 miles downstream of the Eel River from the campsite according to police records.
On December 3rd, 2021 Five Type-1 Search and Rescue members were sent to conduct another search in the Eel river, from the 8 Mile Bridge. In this search, debris was found in the river but nothing linking back to Johnny, leaving the family once again without answers and law enforcement frustrated.
This was the last official search effort by Mendocino County that has been conducted regarding Johnny’s disappearance.
There was and still is hope for the Davis family, according to Jeannie, Johnny had been hunting and camping since “ he was in diapers,” and he might be able to survive for a longer period of time with his experience.
“At the end of the day, we never found a single clue of John… except for the dog... and usually we'll find a campsite or a fire, or footprints or a piece of clothing or something that somebody will tie to a tree to help searchers find them…John based on talking to the family is a very experienced hunter. And for that reason, I believe is probably rather experienced in maintaining and taking care of himself. But at that point, after all of these operations, we had to basically suspend our search at that point, because we had no clues to work off of.”
The Davis family was now left to their own devices to keep searching for their loved ones. This was devastating news, as it was a devastating call to make.
“The thing that I'm left with in this case it's just the overall frustration of literally putting everything we have towards the search and coming up completely empty-handed…I can tell you the years that I've been doing this, it's very rare, where we'll put in, you know, 10, or more operations with hundreds of searchers involved in 1000s of staff hours and search for hours combined, and not find a single clue. So, being a human being that does get frustrated that you keep trying everything you can try to hopefully bring some resolution to the family because that's what they deserve. And that's what they're asking for. And you try to treat it as if you're missing one of your own family members and you treat it that way because it helps you understand where they're coming from. But it does get frustrating even as a search manager saying I've tried absolutely everything I can possibly imagine” Quincy said.
The Davis family had no answers, and really no direction, just the hollowness of feeling the fact that Johnny was truly missing. They were back to square one, trying to figure out how to get media attention and get others involved in their search. Traveling back and forth every week since Johnny's disappearance, which remains a huge financial burden on the family.
“My mom and dad put a GoFundMe out there for a while, and that raised about $4,000. But between its two and a half hours away hotel cost, and then it went, the hotel costs went up, and it was pretty much bankrupt. My parents have no money, no savings. Now, I went through a lot of money and credit cards. And so now we're limited on how many times we can go up.” said Jessica.
While sorting through the financial burdens of having a missing loved one, the family also experienced physical problems, they believe the physical manifestation of not being able to bring Johnny home.
“ We were going up every weekend searching and with my dad, you know, there's some areas he wouldn't let us walk to. But it's so hard because my dad would cry and he feels like he's letting my brother down.” Julie Peren, Johnnys' sister said.
Every Sunday for a year the family would head to Mendocino County and walk three miles just to get to the campsite, then search for miles more.
“ My dad suffered a heart attack since my brother's been missing. I've suffered a heart attack. It's all the stress and we can't get the sheriffs to do anything now.” Jessica said.
All of the pain, financial loss, and labor is worth it to the Davis Family if it means bringing answers or even just a sign of Johnny's disappearance.