NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The new Lifetime movie “Black Girl Missing” draws attention to the documented disparity in news coverage for missing Black women and girls while shining a light on real-life cases, including missing Newport News mother and daughter Keir and Chloe Johnson.
“When my sister first went missing, I would contact radio stations, and it’s like you just get pushed to the side,” said Teir Pettway, the twin sister of Keir Johnson, who recalled facing uphill battles when she tried to expand news coverage of her sister and niece’s disappearance beyond Hampton Roads. “[They said] ‘We care. We support.’ But do we really support?”
WATCH: 'The world is full of evil people': Sister speaks out on 5-year anniversary of Keir and Chloe Johnson's disappearance
The movie, which stars Garcelle Beauvais as a mother forced to take matters into her own hands to find her daughter after police and reporters don’t rise to meet her cries for help, exposes the frustrating experiences many Black families have faced to get mainstream media coverage of their missing loved ones. The movie also calls attention to missing white women and girls who have traditionally received more national news coverage.
“We don't have in our [Black] community a name like Gabby Petito or Natalee Holloway, or anything. We just don't have it, and we need to change that,” said Karen Kaufman Wilson, the Director of Programming for Lifetime Original Movies. “We see [missing Black women and girls], and we care.”
Kaufman Wilson said the movie’s writers enlisted the help of the Black and Missing Foundation to ensure art imitated life.
“Every family that has a missing loved one, their heart bleeds the same way,” said Derrica Wilson, the co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation. “We understand that not every case is going to elevate to mainstream media, but we have to start somewhere.”
At the end of the movie, Beauvais’ character reads a list of names of missing Black women and girls whose cases have yet to garner widespread media attention, like Relisha Rudd, a little Black girl who went missing in Washington, D.C. in 2014.
“Our goal is to find one, just one,” said Kaufman Wilson. “If we could get one, we would have done our job.”
After the intense media coverage of Gabby Petito’s disappearance in 2021, News 3 launched the “Have You Seen Me?” series to draw attention to lesser-known missing persons cases in Hampton Roads, including Janice Wright, Kathryn Griffin and Sharon Ivy Jones.
“You and I are on the same page of hoping that our work helps to contribute to changing those matters,” Kaufman Wilson said.
The News 3 team of investigators reached out to the Newport News Police Department about Keir and Chloe Johnson's case. A spokesperson for the department said "At the NNPD, unsolved criminal investigations remain open investigations and our detectives continue to work all cases until they are solved. In reference to the disappearance of Keir and Chloe Johnson, NNPD has worked diligently with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and continues to pursue information that would help solve this case. We encourage anyone with information to come forward. Tipsters can remain anonymous and the Newport News Police Foundation continues to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in this case."
