John R. F. JJ Johnson was 25 when he disappeared from Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood in late October 1982 and was found dead on December 25, 1982, in a field near Belshaw, outside Lowell, Lake County, Indiana. The distance between where he vanished and where his body was discovered contributed to an early investigation that treated his death as an isolated, baffling disappearance.

As other young men went missing and were recovered in remote locations reachable by interstate highways, patterns emerged linking several cases across county lines. Larry Eyler attracted scrutiny in the area: he was detained in Lowell in September 1983, arrested in 1984 and later convicted in Illinois for the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Bridges. While on death row Eyler told his appellate attorney, Kathleen Zellner, he had confessed to 21 killings in Illinois and Indiana and described a pattern of luring victims with alcohol, drugs, or money, then restraining and killing them. Eyler also named an alleged accomplice, Robert David Little, who was charged but ultimately acquitted.

Does anyone who knew Johnson or saw him in Uptown in late October 1982 have information that could clarify his last movements?