Norfolk Man, Dustin James Wilder, Sentenced to 20 Years for Crushing Girlfriend to Death and Hiding Her Body in His Apartment

A Virginia man has been sentenced to over 20 years in prison for crushing his girlfriend to death and hiding her body in his apartment for days.

Dustin James Wilder, 40, was convicted of second-degree murder and concealing a dead body in the October 2019 death of Faith Ann Johnson, 44.

Wilder was sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison, the maximum sentence for the charges. He was also ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution to Johnson's family.

According to court documents, Wilder called police on October 25, 2019, and told them that his girlfriend was dead. He said that he was "pretty sure" that he was the culprit.

When police arrived at Wilder's apartment, they found Johnson's body "stashed on the kitchen floor under a pile of blankets," according to police reports.

An autopsy revealed that Johnson had 50 fractures on her rib cage and that the injuries appeared to have happened at the same time of her death. There were "dozens more" injuries to her ribs that the examiner found in various stages of healing plus "blunt force trauma to her head" and indications of "trauma to her neck consistent with prior strangulation," police said.

"A forensic anthropologist concluded that Mrs. Johnson's injuries were indicative of her being crushed to death while lying on a firm surface," prosecutors said.

Wilder told police that he and Johnson would fight sometimes and that as a couple, they did drugs together. He also initially told police they were getting high for a few days before he found her body.

One day he blacked out, he said, and then woke up to find her on the floor.

The Virginian-Pilot reported that Wilder admitted to police that he had been smoking crack and drinking alcohol before this episode. Wilder said he saw her body on the floor, fell asleep and then woke again some time later. That's when he realized Johnson hadn't moved, he said.

Johnson had come to his home "several days before" he told police in 2019, then suggested he thought she had overdosed. During the interview, police noted that Wilder had open wounds on his knuckles on both hands.

Johnson had been reported missing by her husband, whose name was not identified publicly, on Oct. 22, just a few days before Wilder called 911.

The man told authorities he hadn't heard from his wife for days and when she hadn't come home, he said he noticed his wife's car was parked in Wilder's driveway. When he knocked on Wilder's door, there was no answer, however.

Johnson and Wilder were friends, he told police in 2019. But disturbingly, he also told police that he noticed sometimes after his wife would spend time with Wilder, she would have bruises on her body.

The deputy commonwealth attorney's office said last week that it was on Oct. 23, 2019 — more than a day after she was reported missing — that Johnson's husband noticed a charge on his wife's debit card.

It was the only time her card had been used in 72 hours.

The purchase was made at a 7-Eleven in Norfolk. With the help of police, surveillance footage was secured and upon review, officers said they found footage of Wilder driving up to the store in Faith Ann Johnson's car.

Wilder was then seeing going inside the store to make a purchase.

Other footage obtained from the same 7-Eleven showed Wilder driving the woman's car on two separate occasions, parking and then going inside to use her debit card to make a purchase. Johnson's husband had frozen his wife's card when he Wilder tried it a third time.

Wilder pleaded guilty this March to second-degree murder as well a concealment of a dead body. His sentence of 20 years and 6 months is the maximum allowed and a court has ordered him to pay $6,000 in restitution to the Johnson family.

 

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