‘We need answers’: Family’s search for missing woman continues
(NewsNation) — A parent should never have to bury a child, but losing a child to the unknown – having no body and no answers – is a different kind of hell.
Deb Johnson is living that nightmare. Almost six years ago, she says her daughter Typhenie Johnson vanished on an autumn night in Texas at the hands of an ex.
“I told him if he ever hurt her, I’d kill him. And this is where we ended up,” Deb Johnson said.
The then-25-year-old woman was last seen talking with her ex-boyfriend outside of her apartment building near Fort Worth in 2016.
To her family, Typhenie is lovingly known as “Pippy” or “Kit Kat.” They say she was the one whose dimpled smile could instantly light up a room.
Her Instagram page paints the picture of a typical 25-year-old, selfies, fun nights out with friends and quotes about love. Also included on her feed, two seemingly happy photos with former boyfriend Chris Revill, a man and relationship Typhenie’s family calls “controlling.”
“He was very jealous of Typhenie,” Aunt Janelle Hofeldt said. “Typhenie and I had conversations about Chris.”
Hofeldt adding: “If something didn’t go his way, it was Typhenie’s fault, always Typhenie’s fault.”
Typhenie’s mother chiming in, “He would tell her what to wear, what was appropriate to be with him, how she should look, don’t wear makeup if you’re out alone.”
They dated for about six months before Typhenie broke things off and tried moving on, her family says.
In October of 2016, Typhenie was hanging out with her twin brother and his girlfriend at their apartment near Fort Worth. A new guy she was spending time with was about to come over when Revill showed up instead. The two took what became a heated conversation outside the apartment.
Typhenie hasn’t been seen since.
Sergeant John Phillips with the Fort Worth Police Department responded to the scene that night. He’s been on the case since the 911 call came into dispatch.
“It was a missing person. It was a probable kidnapping. It was all wrapped up in the relationship they were in,” Phillips said.
According to Phillips, lead detectives and investigators are looking at a 90-minute window. Authorities reported finding Typhenie’s keys, her cell phone and her sock in the parking lot. They say Revill had driven off, but then returned to the scene.
“Once we started interviewing Chris, yes, we knew,” Phillips said. “Because of the answers he was giving to the questions, we knew he was being deceptive about specific events and that led us to be very suspicious that something bad had happened to Typhenie.”
Investigators arrested Revill that night. Three years later in 2019, he was convicted of Typhenie’s aggravated kidnapping.
In a twisted turn of events, his sentencing of life behind bars was delivered after Revill was connected to the disappearance of a second ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old Talibaah Islam, who also disappeared from Fort Worth back in 2006.
“I can tell you emotionally, myself and a lot of detectives who have worked on this case imagine them together,” Phillips said. “I mean that’s just…they’ve become inextricably linked because of the circumstances of their disappearance.”
Family across the country are demanding justice.
“It’s like you’re in hell. It needs to stop. We need answers. We need Typhenie and Talibaah home,” Hofeldt said.
Deb Johnson still talks about her daughter in the present tense, preferring to believe Typhenie is still alive.
“I just don’t have that gut feeling yet,” she said.
In the meantime, the time passes, the years go on and she has no peace.
“Yeah, I don’t go to birthday parties or family functions. I’ve missed reunions, you know, I can’t do them,” Johnson said, later adding: “Because Typhenie loved them. She loved to be with family. She loved to be with friends, and she’s not there.”
There are two missing women, one suspect, but not a single credible lead to come in on either case since the moment they both disappeared.
Typhenie’s mother believes her daughter has been sold into sex trafficking. Police believe Revill killed both women and hid their bodies in a wooded area. They say if Revill buried Talibaah 16 years ago and nobody found her, there’s a chance he would have buried Typhenie with her to try his luck at evading police a second time.