Missing Black woman Felicia Marie Johnson’s is pleading with the public to come forward with details of what happened to the woman after her bloody cellphone was discovered near Bear Creek Park in West Houston.
KHOU reported that the Houston Police Department (HPD) and search and rescue organization Texas EquuSearch went looking for Felicia in the park on Apr. 19 and Apr. 21, respectively. However, it was her family’s private investigator who found her cellphone.
“It’s unreal. It’s unreal. I’m numb right now,” her father, Kevin Johnson, told the news outlet. He flew into Texas. from California to assist authorities in the search for his daughter.
According to Quanell X, the New Black Panther Nation leader in Houston, the 24-year-old woman disappeared on Apr. 15 after applying for a job at Cover Girls Night Club located at 10310 W. Little York Road. He added that an unidentified man at the club offered her a ride because her Uber was running late.
“Felicia has not been seen since. No cell phone activity, no credit card activity, no social media activity. She has absolutely just vanished off the face of the earth,” he reportedly said during a press conference on Apr. 20.
He also said that he believed the young woman was a victim of foul play.
“We believe that she is the victim of foul play. We believe that she’s being held against her will. We want whoever is holding her to know that we will not rest. We will not stop looking. We will continue looking for her. We will continue hunting you. No matter what takes place. We will continue hunting [to find] you, and we will not forget Felicia.”
The Black Panther member said his organization was looking into Felicia’s disappearance alongside her family’s hired private investigator.
HPD reportedly said they considered Felicia’s disappearance a missing persons case, but they didn’t confirm whether or not foul play was suspected. They have also been in touch with her family and asked that anyone with information about her contact them as soon as possible.
“Just come forward. You don’t want to get caught up in the net when the authorities do catch these people,” her dad told new reporters.
Quanell noted that there had been an “epidemic” of “Black girls going missing and coming up murdered.”
“This is the fifth Black girl to come up missing,” he said. “The previous four were all found murdered—and this is all in the past five months…it seems like when young Black females go missing in the city — it’s not a priority.”
Kevin described his daughter as a sweet person that loved all things glamourous.
“She wanted to be a dancer, model; anything had to do with glamour. That’s who she was; who she is,” he told KHOU. “[She was] a very sweet person, kind heart, gives you the shirt off her back. It’s just a shame she’s being put through this.”