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Norfolk mother who found murdered daughter speaks out on suspect’s suicide

Posted at 6:15 PM, Sep 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-09-03 18:15:52-04

Norfolk, Va. - Shadosha Johnson's mother told NewsChannel 3 she is left without answers to her questions surrounding her daughter's death now that authorities say her killer committed suicide.

"Don't nobody hold the answers but her and him, and both of them are gone," said the mother, who did not want her name used.

Johnson's mother found her daughter's bloody body inside the 24-year-old mother's Norfolk apartment Saturday morning.  Police said that her boyfriend, 44-year-old Jeffery Watkins, was a suspect in the murder.  Authorities found his body in the Lafayette River Sunday. The Norfolk Medical Examiner's Office is ruling it a suicide.

"I wanted them to bring him to justice," Johnson's mother said.  "He took the coward way out."

Johnson's mother found her daughter's body bloody and beaten Saturday morning in her bedroom.  Her mother said she knew something was wrong when she walked in and saw her three-year-old granddaughter in distress.

"My granddaughter was laying in a fetal position balled up shaking," the mother said.  "When I opened the door [to Johnson's bedroom] I saw my daughter, covered in blood."

"I ran out the house screaming 'Oh my God, he killed my daughter!'" the mother said.

The Norfolk Medical Examiner's office said Johnson's cause of death was blunt and sharp force trauma to the head.

The family is struggling for ways to pay for Johnson's funeral.  Family friends are in the process of setting up a donation fund with Towne Bank.

Related: 

Body found in Lafayette River is man wanted for Norfolk woman’s murder

Woman found dead in Norfolk home; 4-year-old child with her unharmed