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in: New Mexico, Arizona, 1994,
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Jonathan Francia

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Jonathan francia

Jonathan Francia

Real Name: Jonathan J. Francia
Nicknames: Jon, Einstein
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Date: January 12, 1994

Case[]

Details: Sixteen-year-old Jonathan Francia was the second of Larry and Betty Francia’s three sons. He loved to play basketball and football. He also loved to run; he completed several 5K races with his uncle. He was known to be very responsible. Tired of the gangs and violence at his high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he decided to drop out in late 1993. He got a job at a local Taco Bell and planned to take his GED test in mid-January 1994. After that, he planned to go to college.
At around 8:30pm on the evening of Wednesday, January 12, 1994, Jonathan drove a friend, Jerry Williams, to JB’s Restaurant at 904 Medical Arts Avenue in northeast Albuquerque so that Jerry could pick up his paycheck. While Jerry went inside, Jonathan sat in his mother’s car, a 1978 Chevrolet Camaro, in the parking lot behind the restaurant. When Jerry came back outside about five minutes later, Jonathan and the car were gone. Two men had abducted him. His family reported him missing later that night.
Five days later, on January 17, Jonathan’s body, charred almost beyond recognition, was found in the trunk of his burned-out car. He had been stabbed to death. The car was found in a remote desert area on the Navajo Reservation in northeast Arizona, two miles north of Bird Springs, just south of Dilkon, and more than 200 miles from Albuquerque. One of his killers, a drifter known only as Jason, is still at large.
The FBI turned to famed sketch artist Jeanne Boylan to help with the case. Investigators asked her to meet with a key witness, Scott Johnston. He had innocently spent several hours with the killers at his home in a trailer park in Winslow, Arizona.
Jeanne instinctively began to assess Scott’s potential as an eyewitness. She says he is a very interesting man. She could tell that visual things are important to him because he cares about the way he looks. She felt she could work with him in a visual context. During their meeting, she gave him Play-Doh to feel and play with so that he could anchor himself in the present and remain in the moment.
As Scott told his story, Jeanne began to sketch Jason. Scott had met him on January 13, 1994, the day after Jonathan disappeared. Scott’s friend, twenty-one-year-old Trena Yellowhair Richardson, was staying at his trailer, along with her three children. They were awaiting the arrival of Trena’s husband of one month, twenty-seven-year-old Paul Daniel Richardson, who had gone to Alabama. One month earlier, he had been released from prison after serving five years for burglary.
At around 6am, Paul pulled in, accompanied by a stranger – Jason. Scott’s first impression of Jason was that he dressed like a cowboy. He was tall, slender, and attractive. He had a velvet hat, long hair, a jacket, jeans, and worn-out tennis shoes. Scott noticed something else about Jason — something he would not truly understand until much later. When he looked at Jason’s hands, he noticed that they were red. It looked like there was clay or dirt on his hands. However, Scott now believes that Jason’s hands were stained with blood.
Soon after he arrived, Jason took a shower. It was the only time Scott saw him without a hat. At the time, Scott had no idea that anything was wrong or that a crime had been committed. He says he just went along and did his normal routine, and Paul and Jason did the same. At around 9am, Scott and Trena went out to run errands, leaving Paul and Jason at the trailer.
When Scott and Trena returned, they noticed that Paul and Jason were washing the car that they had driven to Winslow in. Paul and Jason apparently saw them pull up and immediately shut the car’s trunk. Scott says Paul and Jason acted like they did not want him or Trena to see what was in the trunk. At the time, Scott had no idea that Jonathan’s body was inside.
As Scott and Trena walked up to Paul and Jason, Paul asked Scott if he had a gas can. He did not, but his neighbor did, so he went next door to get it. When he came back, he found Trena, Paul, and Jason standing there talking. An hour later, Trena and Paul told Scott that they were leaving to escort Jason to the main highway. That was the last time Scott saw Jason. He figured that Jason was going back to Dallas, Texas, which is where he said he was from. Four days later, on January 17, the police followed an eyewitness report to a remote corner of the desert, some thirty miles from Scott’s trailer. There, they found Jonathan’s car and body.
On January 22, after the police learned that a man matching Paul’s description was seen near Jonathan’s abandoned car, they decided to question him. He admitted being at the Albuquerque bus station shortly before Jonathan disappeared. However, he denied any involvement in the case. At that time, Scott had not come forward. The next day, January 23, Trena’s parents contacted the police after Paul confessed that he and Jason had abducted and killed a teenager from Albuquerque. However, Paul disappeared before the police could arrest him.
One week later, on February 2, Paul stole a pickup truck in Winslow and headed for Trena’s parents’ ranch, twenty miles to the south. While he drove through Winslow, a woman spotted him and called the police. About five miles from the ranch, the truck broke down, and he set off on foot. He was finally arrested after a police helicopter spotted him trying to hide in a nearby rocky canyon. Trena believes Paul was heading to the ranch to kill her and her parents.
Paul was charged with kidnapping and carjacking. Under questioning by the FBI, he admitted that he and Jason had abducted and murdered Jonathan. He said that he had met Jason on a bus that was going from Alabama to New Mexico. They got off in Albuquerque but missed the bus that was supposed to take them to Winslow. They decided to steal a car so that they could make their way to Winslow.
According to Paul, after he and Jason failed to steal a car at gunpoint from an Albuquerque woman (who later identified them as her assailants), they targeted Jonathan. They forced him into his car’s trunk, drove to Winslow, and stabbed him to death. Then, they set the car on fire.
Two days after his confession, on February 4, Paul tried to hang himself with a bed sheet in his jail cell in Flagstaff, Arizona. One week later, on February 11, he died. On April 19, Trena was arrested after she confessed to detectives that she was involved in Jonathan’s murder. She initially said that she had never seen Jonathan alive and that she only accompanied Paul and Jason when they dumped the car.
Detectives told Trena that Paul had told his relatives that she had played a role in the murder. She then changed her story. She said she went to the Winslow bus station on January 12 to pick up Paul, but he never showed. At around 3am on January 13, he arrived at Scott’s trailer and woke her up. He then took her outside, where she met and talked with Jonathan.
According to Trena, minutes later, Paul and Jason attacked Jonathan. They shoved dirt in his mouth and eyes to quiet him. Jason used his belt to strangle Jonathan. Jason then put him in the trunk of the car, thinking he was dead. But he was not. When he tried to escape, Paul and Jason stabbed him and placed him back in the trunk. Somehow, he was still alive, and he tried to escape again. This time, Paul stabbed him repeatedly, killing him.
According to Trena, around noon, she and Paul opened the trunk and cut Jonathan’s body open. She poured gasoline into his body. Later, she, Paul, and Jason drove Jonathan’s car and another vehicle to the Navajo Reservation and set Jonathan’s car on fire. During her interview, she claimed that Paul threatened to kill her and her children if she did not do what he said.
On April 28, Trena was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution, and petty theft. Finding Jonathan’s remaining killer is now up to Jeanne Boylan. Authorities are counting on her unique interviewing skills and artistic talent to help them flush out the mysterious drifter Jason. When Scott first looked at the composite, he felt that it looked pretty close to Jason. He was amazed at how well it turned out.
Detective Gil Moreno of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department believes that Jeanne has a “magician’s touch” when it comes to dealing with witnesses and has a way of extracting a photo from their minds.
When Jonathan’s mother, Betty, first saw the composite drawing of Jason, she felt a lot of anger toward him. There had never been a picture of him before. But now, she says, there is a face and a real person out there who killed Jonathan and might kill someone else. Jonathan’s father, Larry, says their hearts would be at ease if they could get Jason arrested. He says it would not bring Jonathan back, but at least it would put Jason where he belongs.
In all, Jeanne drew three portraits of Jason. She says if there is some way that her drawings can help bring some peace to Jonathan’s family, then she would be delighted. She wants to do whatever she can, and this is all she can do for this case.

Suspects: Paul Richardson and the man known as “Jason” are believed to be responsible for Jonathan’s abduction and murder. Paul, a reported Aryan Brotherhood member, confessed to the FBI that he and Jason were responsible. Two days later, he committed suicide. Trena told the police that she watched Paul and Jason kill Jonathan and dispose of his body. She also confessed to having poured gasoline on his body. However, she later retracted her confession.
Jason has never been positively identified or apprehended. He is described as a white male, 5’10” to 6’0”, mid-to-late twenties (in 1994), with a medium or slender build. His hair was wavy and shoulder-length. It was combed straight back and curled up at the end. It was either a light sandy blond, dishwater blond, or sandy brown. He also had a thin, blond mustache. His teeth were crooked and stained. He had a small, narrow face and sharp features, including a long, pointed nose.
Jason smokes cigarettes, chews tobacco, uses drugs, and wears Western-style clothing, including a velvet cowboy hat, a jacket, jeans, boots, and a woven horsehair belt with a Western buckle. He was also seen wearing worn-out tennis shoes. He was last seen carrying a large, dark-colored (possibly blue) backpack with an attached sleeping bag and a metal frame. He has also used other first names, including Jeffrey, Jerry, David, and Roger.
Authorities believe Jason has relatives in Dallas, Texas, and either Flagstaff, Pinetop, Payson, or Prescott, Arizona. He supposedly frequents Las Vegas and homeless shelters in Laughlin, Nevada. He travels frequently by bus, hitchhiking, and hopping freight trains. He claimed to have an ex-wife in the Dallas area who has two children fathered by another man. He also claimed to have a girlfriend in Dallas who has a child fathered by him. He was reportedly last seen in the Winslow area around February 13, 1994. Trena believes he is now in Texas or Albuquerque. He should be regarded as extremely dangerous.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the October 2, 1994 episode, which also focused on Jeanne's suspect drawing abilities.
  • The FBI contacted the show about this case.
  • The witness in this case, Scott Johnston, is not to be confused with seven-year-old Scott Johnson, who died in a fire in 1974.
  • Investigators were initially unable to determine if the body found in Jonathan’s car belonged to him. DNA testing was done, but the results were inconclusive. Despite this, investigators ruled that the body was his, and his family accepted the ruling.
  • Some sources state: Jonathan’s friend Jerry went into the restaurant to borrow money and check his work schedule; Jonathan’s car was found fifteen miles from Winslow; the car was found the day after he disappeared; Paul was twenty-eight; and the case aired on September 7, 1994.

Results: Unresolved - In February 1995, Judge Fred Newton ruled that most of Trena’s confession could not be used in her upcoming trial, saying that detectives illegally coerced her by promising leniency during the eight-hour interrogation. At one point, they told her that she could get twenty-five years in prison if she told them Jason’s whereabouts and life in prison if she did not. Judge Newton believed that she told detectives what they wanted to hear so that she could be released from jail. In March, Judge Newton ruled that statements made by Paul to his parents, in which he implicated Trena in the murder, were inadmissible hearsay.
In April, Judge Newton dismissed the murder charges against Trena without prejudice (meaning they could be refiled at a later date). Prosecutors had requested the dismissal due to Judge Newton’s previous rulings and the fact that Jason had still not been found. In June, Trena pleaded guilty to a probation violation in another county and was sentenced to five years probation.
In September, Jonathan’s family sued JB’s Restaurant and its landlord for having inadequate security, alleging that it led to his death. They claimed that there was no lighting or other security provisions in the area where Jonathan had parked. The outcome of the suit is unknown.
Jason has never been identified, and his whereabouts remain unknown. However, prosecutors and some investigators believe he is deceased. In one of her statements, Trena claimed that Paul killed Jason shortly after Jonathan's murder to keep him from talking and then dumped his body in East Clear Creek. If he is still alive, he would be in his fifties.
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