Officers in Brighton, Colorado, responded to a welfare check at a home on the 400 block of North 6th Avenue on March 28, 2023, and found 44-year-old Joseph Johnson unresponsive with apparent gunshot wounds. The Brighton Police Department opened a homicide investigation and identified a 15-year-old female known to Johnson as a suspect.

That same day, officers located and arrested the teenager in Castle Rock, Colorado. She was transported to the Brighton Police Department, later booked into the Prairie Vista Youth Services Detention Center, and charged with first-degree murder (a Class 1 felony), first-degree aggravated motor vehicle theft (a Class 5 felony), and possession of a handgun by a juvenile (a Class 2 misdemeanor). The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will decide whether she is prosecuted in juvenile or district court.

Johnson, who grew up in Morris, Illinois, was remembered by family as generous, kind, patriotic, and protective of women and children. Does anyone in the Brighton area have information about Joseph’s last days or his connections to the teenager?