Body of registered sex offender found wrapped in plastic; death ruled homicide

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ohio — The man whose body was found wrapped in plastic Monday afternoon by a Browns Nursery worker was identified as a 47-year-old Clay Twp. man.

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Steven T. Johnson died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, but it’s too early to know how long he’d been dead, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

Johnson reportedly was identified through fingerprints.

Johnson’s body was discovered off Arlington Road on nursery property, Sgt. M.D. Hutchison of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.

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“Employees of Browns Nursery reported they found a deceased person in one of the fields a couple thousand feet off the road,” he said.

"I think I found a dead body," the Browns Nursery worker said in a 911 call made around 12:15 p.m. "I was driving through and I looked over to the right and I saw this blue blanket on the woods line."

Johnson’s body was transported to the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab as it was found for an autopsy.

It is not known how long the body was in the field.

“The body was found wrapped in some items and we’re going to remove it just as we found it to preserve any evidence that could possibly be contained inside those items,” Hutchison said Monday.

Johnson was on the state’s sex offender registry for a December 1999 conviction for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, records show.

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Johnson had several cases in Greene County Common Pleas Court, including for charges of domestic violence, illegal cultivation of marijuana, failure to notify of change of address and the sex crime conviction.

Cox Media Group