Shanta Johnson

Three-year-old Shanta Johnson was last seen on July 19, 1992 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Her foster mother, Susan Marie Johnson said that she and Shanta visited the Briarcliffe Mall and she told the police that Shanta disappeared near the toy department of the K-Mart store inside of the mall at approxmately 3:30 p.m.; however, the store's surveillance cameras showed Susan entering the store by herself without Shanta.

In 1992, Shanta's biological mother was in prison on a drug charge; she lost custody after Shanta tested positive for cocaine at birth. Her mother was interviewed by the police, but she had no useful information for them.

Shanta's birth relatives was holding a family reunion in Myrtle Beach on the same weekend she went missing and police believed that either her relatives abducted Shanta or Susan voluntarily gave her to them; however, the relatives have been ruled out as suspects in her disappearance.

A few months before Shanta went missing, Susan and her husband, Willie began adoption proceedings for Shanta and her younger brother, who were still in the legal custody of the Department of Social Services. Shanta's brother was removed from Susan and Willie's custody after Shanta went missing and he was later adopted by another family.

In 1995, Susan was charged with abusing Shanta after a hospital nurse reported signs of abuse a month before Shanta's disappearance and noted that Shanta was behaving fearfully. Shanta's babysitter also stated that she saw severe burns on Shanta's buttocks which Shanta said was caused by Susan burning her with hot grease, but Susan claimed that it was only a sunburn. The outcome of the child abuse case against Susan is unknown.

During that same year, investigators found unspecified evidence on a property owned by the Johnsons linked to Shanta and believe that her body was buried there at one time, but that it has since been dug up and moved to another location.

Shanta has not been found and it is suspected that she was the victim of a premediated homicide with Susan as the main suspect.