For seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and his family, Monday’s apparent murder-suicide involving his in-laws and nephew was not the first tragedy they have had to endure.
Johnson’s wife Chandra Janway’s parents, Jack and Terry, were found dead on Monday in their Muskogee, Oklahoma, home in what police are looking at as a crime committed by Terry.
Johnson and Janway’s 11-year-old nephew, Dalton Janway, was also found dead in the home.
The Johnson family has asked for privacy in a statement released by Legacy Motors, which is co-owned by Johnson.
But Johnson and Janway have had to deal with a significant loss in the public eye before when Janway’s 27-year-old brother, Jordan, was tragically killed in a 2014 skydiving accident in San Diego.
Jordan was an experienced skydiver with more than 1,000 jumps under his belt at the time of the incident.
He was unable to open his parachute after a mid-air collision rendered him unconscious, and a chip that would have automatically deployed his chute in the event of an emergency was undergoing maintenance, according to USA Today.
Since he had so many jumps completed, he was not required to make that dive with the chip and had decided to go without it on that day.
“He was a free spirit,” Johnson said at the time, according to the Oklahoman. “He was a very adventurous guy — base-jumping and parachuting and wearing the squirrel suits, like you see the guys flying along the cliff sides, that’s what he did.
“He’s in a lot of those videos shooting that footage.
“A tragic death, for sure. But he was doing something he loved. He was very passionate about it. He never met a stranger, very warm, caring young man and he’s definitely going to be missed.”
Johnson’s sister-in-law, Marianne Janway, was left in disbelief by the apparent murder-suicide.
“Please tell me this isn’t really happening please god someone,” she wrote on Facebook.
Johnson elected to withdraw from this weekend’s upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race in Chicago following this tragedy.
Johnson married Janway in 2004.