The victim in a 30-year cold case may finally be seeing justice inch just a little closer after the arrest and charging of a suspect in Sydney, Australia.
This is related to the death of Scott Johnson, a 27-year-old American math scholar, in 1988 who was believed to have been thrown or chased off a cliff to his death.
The Ph.D. student’s death was ruled a suicide at first and members of the gay community saw it as evidence of the willingness of authorities back then to overlook hate crimes against them.
Multiple coronial inquests resulted in a 2017 finding that ruled that Johnson was actually attacked and fell off the cliff because of “actual or threatened violence” by parties who “perceived him to be homosexual,” said the New South Wales police.
The suspect, Scott White, 49, was charged with murder on May 12 in connection with the suspected hate crime, reported ABC News.
Bail has been refused and was scheduled to appear at Parramatta Court the next day. A plea has also not been entered.
Steve, Johnson’s brother, never thought for once that he had committed suicide and has spent years searching for the truth and justice. The NSW Government announced an AUD$1 Million reward in 2018, and the family matched that amount in the hopes of enticing information that would lead to justice.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said that when he called Steve to inform him of the arrest, he saw it as “a career highlight.”
“Steve has fought so hard for so many years, and it has been an honor to be part of his fight for justice,” Fuller said.
The police commissioner also credited the Johnson family’s tenacity towards getting to the truth as helping detectives soldier on with the decades-long investigation.
“While we have a long way to go in the legal process, it must be acknowledged that if it wasn’t for the determination of the Johnson family, which inspired me and the Strike Force Welsford team led by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” Fuller said.
In March, Yeomans announced that they had their sights on a “particular individual,” reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
Steve thanked the police for their efforts and said in a statement to the Herald that the arrest was a “near-miracle.”
“Scott would be pleased to see how far the gay community has come toward living openly and freely … Despite the sometimes fierce institutional resistance to investigating the death of my brother, the Australian people have always welcomed me with open arms and embraced this case,” he told the outlet.
“Many dozens of people in the US and Australia worked hard for justice for Scott not only for this wonderful human being whose life ended too soon but because Scott died violently as so many other gay men did in the 1980’s and 90’s in a world full of anti-gay prejudice and hatred,” Steve continued. “All the men who died need a voice and in some small way I hope Scott has provided it.”
Replaced!