Dateline: Who was Sandi Johnson and what happened to her? Disturbing details of the 1996 case, revisited 

In April 2024, Dateline: Secrets Uncovered re-aired the chilling case of Sandi Johnson, who disappeared without a trace in 1996.

Sandi Johnson, a Kirkland, Washington resident, was separated from her ex-husband, Greg, and lived with her two children. According to her friends and family, she was a dedicated mother who worked hard at her job.

However, a fatal event changed the trajectory of the Johnson family forever. On April 26, 1996, Sandi failed to show up at her son's birthday party, following which she was reported missing by her family. Initially, the police only found her wallet and abandoned station wagon away from her home, but no traces of the woman.

The official synopsis of the Dateline episode reads as follows:

"Sandi Johnson, who always put her kids first, vanishes without a word; police discover dark secrets in Sandi's marriage and several men in her life."

Eight years later, Sandi's skeletal remains were finally discovered, leading to a bittersweet closure to her murder case.

More on this Dateline episode in our story.

Dateline: What happened to Sandi Johnson? Details of her 1996 disappearance

April 26, 1996, was a busy day for Sandi, which is why she left her children with a babysitter and went out to run errands and get lunch with a friend. As she was planning a birthday party for her son, she was expected to run late. However, Sandi Jonson never showed up to the lunch and was also absent from her son's birthday party, which was unusual for her.

Concerned, Greg and her family called the police, who initiated a search for Sandi. As shown on Dateline, Sandi's wallet was found in the parking lot of a Rainier Valley hardware store, which was 20 miles away from her house. Two days later, the police discovered her wagon in a grocery store parking lot near Tukwila, with the keys still in ignition and her mobile phone in plain view. Since the doors were unlocked, it was clear that somebody had abducted Sandi from the parking lot.

As featured on Dateline, the police later discovered that Sandi's co-worker, Clifford. E. Reed, was obsessed with her and had also proposed to her multiple times. Since Sandi's abandoned wagon was very close to Clifford's house, he became the primary suspect in her murder. However, without a body or murder weapon, the police could not arrest Clifford, and Sandi's case was closed.

Dateline: Was Sandi Johnson's case ever solved?

Dateline victim Sandi Johnson's case was reopened with a tragic discovery. Eight years after her disappearance (in 2004), her skeletal remains were found near Highway 410 in Pierce County.

While the police could not extract Sandi's dental records, and her body was too decayed for an autopsy, Clifford's obsession (with Sandi) was enough to prove that he murdered her in April 1996. While Clifford was arrested from his home in Victor, Montana in 2012, he maintained his innocence at his trial.

Since the evidence in the case had degraded over time and the prosecutors were not able to establish Sandi's manner of murder, Clifford was given a choice to opt for a manslaughter plea, which would shorten his prison sentence.

On April 11, 2012, Clifford E. Reed accepted the manslaughter plea, which charged him with a prison sentence of only 41 months.

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