NORFOLK, Va. — A man has been sentenced in Norfolk to a little over 20 years in prison for the murder of Faith Ann Johnson and hiding her body.
On October 25th, 2019, near midnight, 40-year-old Dustin James Wilder called 911 and told the operator, "My girlfriend is dead. I am pretty sure that I am the culprit," according to a release from Norfolk's Commonwealth Attorney.
Wilder identified his girlfriend as Mrs. Johnson and said that she was not breathing and was at his address on West 26th Street while he called from a 7-Eleven on Monticello Avenue. When officers arrived at the 7-Eleven they detained him and he repeated that Johnson was dead inside his home.
Officers took Wilder with them to his home where paramedics entered and found Johnson's body on the kitchen floor under a pile of blankets.
Wilder told a detective that Johnson visited his home several days before, that they had both been using drugs, and the next day she was dead from what he claimed was an overdose.
Johnson's autopsy, however, revealed 50 fractures to her ribcage that had not healed, meaning they may have happened at the time of her death, dozens more injuries to her ribcage in multiple stages of healing, blunt force trauma to her head and trauma to her neck consistent with strangulation.
A forensic anthropologist concluded that her injuries indicated she had been crushed to death while lying on a firm surface.
Johnson's husband had reported her missing on October 22 after not seeing or hearing from her since the 18th. On October 23 Johnson noticed that her card had been charged at 7-Eleven on Monticello Avenue, the only charge that had occurred since October 20. Norfolk police found video surveillance footage showing Wilder driving up to the gas station and making a purchase.
Mr. Johnson told police that he thought she had been visiting Wilder who he knew to be her friend. He also told officers that in the past he had seen bruises on her body after returning home from hanging out with Wilder.
Mr. Johnson visited Wilder's home with police and saw his wife's car in the driveway. No one answered the door when officers knocked and because they didn't have proper cause to enter the home at the time, they advised Johnson to continue monitoring his wife's bank records and to report her missing in Norfolk as well.
Wilder pleaded guilty on March 6, 2023, to second-degree murder and concealing a dead body, Judge David Lannetti accepted his plea with an agreement to a maximum active sentence of 20 years and six months in prison.
On Friday Judge Lanetti sentenced him per that agreement on the conditions that Wilder be of good behavior for 10 years, complete an indefinite period of supervised probation, pay $6000 restitution to Johnson's family and not contact them.
“Mrs. Johnson suffered a terrible death at Mr. Wilder’s hands, and my condolences go to her and her family,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Good police work and the persistence of Mrs. Johnson’s husband — to whom we are all grateful — helped to ensure Mr. Wilder will serve a sentence that fits his crime. I hope that the verdict and sentence offer some closure to Mrs. Johnson’s loved ones.”