An Alabama dad has recalled finding the bodies of his two kids after they were killed by his estranged wife in a murder-suicide amid their bitter divorce and custody battle.
Derek Johnson, 33, found the bodies of 2-year-old Jacob and 5-year-old daughter Mia under a blanket on the sofa of his home in Semmes, about 20 miles west of Mobile.
They had been drowned by their mom, Nancy Johnson, 37, who also slashed Mia’s throat before hanging herself in a closet — just two days after a judge ordered her to share custody of the kids.
“I’m dead inside,” Derek told Fox News Digital. “I feel lost. I have nothing, absolutely nothing, and I don’t know how I’m going to recover,” he said.
He called his wife his “angel” who had a history of mental health problems.
“She lost her grip on reality,” he said. “She didn’t want me to have the kids. The kids were hers, and if she had to share them, she was going to take them with her.”
The distraught dad — who has been cleared of any involvement — feared something was wrong when he woke that morning and didn’t hear the children from the RV where he was staying in the garden.
“I had a really bad feeling,” Derek told the outlet, adding that he had to drill out the deadbolt of the home’s doors to get inside.
“I looked to my right and saw my son and daughter, and they were covered in blankets. It looked like they were taking a nap,” he said.
“I put my hand on my son’s back to wake him up and realized he was completely stiff and had foam coming out of his nose and mouth.”
Derek said he then noticed that Mia’s throat had been slashed.
“I started panicking,” he said about the moments before he also discovered Nancy’s body. “I went into shock. I was yelling. I called the police.”
He said detectives told him Nancy had drowned the kids in the bathtub.
“But my daughter was fighting my wife, and so she cut her throat then put her back under the water,” he said, adding that the tub was filled with red-colored water when he made the ghastly discovery.
Derek said Nancy — whom he met at their church in 2015 — blindsided him by first asking for a divorce last Christmas.
He agreed to her request and moved to Washington state to work as a mechanic for Boeing so he could make child support and alimony payments, Fox News Digital reported.
But Nancy grew increasingly paranoid and made wild accusations to the police, including that he had poisoned the family even though he was nowhere near them, according to Derek.
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He filed for emergency custody, which he was granted, amid her erratic behavior, the outlet reported, citing court records.
Nancy then asked him to cancel the emergency order and said she wanted to reconcile — but when the order was dropped, she took off to Utah with their children for about three months, according to the outlet.
But on Sept. 20, a judge granted the couple joint custody and placed their kids under “protective supervision” under the Alabama Department of Human Resources, Fox 10 News reported.
Derek was ordered to place the camper in the backyard for both parents to sleep in when they alternated weeks spent with their kids, according to the outlet.
But he said that, in retrospect, he realizes she planned to kill their children the moment the judge ordered them to split custody.
“I loved Nancy very much but later realized she was manipulating me,” Derek said. “I had so much planned for my kids. My purpose in life was taken away.”
Derek also posted a message in a GoFundMe created by his sister, Kendra Bandock.
“I loved Mia, Jacob, and Nancy so much. Nancy had been struggling with mental issues and was having an identity crisis since the pandemic started,” he wrote.
“She let the teaching and rumors of the world consume her and no matter how I tried to help her she pushed me away and I could not force her to get help. We have been in a custody battle for the past 6 months and she kidnapped my kids for around 2.5 months,” Derek wrote.
“The amount of happiness and love that emanated from Mia and Jacob was very apparent to all that they were around. Our house was filled with joy and happiness, their future was so bright in every way possible,” he continued.
“So much love and care was put into them for the 7 years of our marriage. Now I am at ground [zero] and left with around 25k in debt, a bathroom that I can’t possibly stare at where my children were drowned, I want to tear it all out,” he added.