January 10th, a dear friend of mine was murdered in a murder/suicide by her husband in which they were in the process of going through a divorce. I am posting this here so that I will have Jennifer’s letter on hand at all times. It was published in the Columbus Packet and she also sent the letter to the Daily Journal in Tupelo and to the Daily Corinthian in Corinth. I know for sure that the Daily Corinthian has failed to return phone calls and emails back to Jennifer about her letter as of January 29, 2010. I am not sure if it was ever printed in the Daily Journal.
Below you will find a note to the editor of the Columbus Packet (Roger Larson) and a note from him (in italics). All of this was posted on http://myweb.cableone.net/columbuspacket/letters.html
Editor’s note: Jennifer Smith, who wrote the following letter, included this note with it.
Roger,
Many people in Columbus and Starkville know the two people that the attached letter is about as they both lived here and in Starkville for years, which is why I found it hard to believe that Tupelo covered their deaths but not Columbus. Amanda was a graduate of MSU and her husband Brad was a graduate of MUW.
Thanks for your time,
Jennifer Smith
Ms. Smith’s e-mail was the first I had heard of the murder/suicide.
Editor:
I am writing in response to the January 10 murder/suicide of Amanda Millsaps and Brad Johnson in Corinth. Their deaths did not garner much attention here, but they had resided in the Golden Triangle area for the past two years, up until last June. While living here, Amanda worked at a Columbus bank and taught water aerobics at night at the W. Brad graduated from the W in May with a business degree. Amanda was my college roommate and best friend. The news of her death devastated me, but the resulting news coverage on WTVA angered me. It was insinuated that this came out of the blue, that no one could see this coming. That is, in fact, horribly wrong. Brad had been stalking, harassing and threatening Amanda since their separation in October. He even went so far as to follow her 120 miles from Corinth to Columbus, where he stalked her all night and then physically assaulted her when she was separated from her friends. I took her to the police station that night where she filed a report against him. I will forever feel guilty that I did not push her to press charges against him that night.
Amanda sought protection from Brad, but the system and everyone involved failed her. Amanda sought a restraining order in Alcorn County, but the judge would not listen to her—too busy on his cell phone to listen to a woman who feared for her safety. He would not grant her an emergency restraining order but instead told her to bring it to open court. This means that Brad would have to be served and then face her in open court to defend himself against the protective order. Please explain to me how it makes sense that a woman who fears for her safety would want the person doing this to her to know the exact date, time, and place (the courthouse) where he can find her? Brad’s counselor hung up on her when she called to report that Brad had threatened both Amanda’s life and his own. Her divorce attorney did not return her calls when she called for weeks seeking advice on what to do. The people in his camp (I will not name names as you know who you are and will have to live with that) told her she was a liar and that Brad would never do those horrible things when she sought for the people close to him to help her by encouraging him to seek help and move on.
I know rationally that Amanda’s death is no one’s fault but Brad Johnson’s, but I am so angry that no one with the power to help her even listened to her, much less actually tried to help. I hope in the future that judges take the time, and have the courtesy to hang up the cell phone, to listen when a woman comes to them fearing for her safety, especially as she already had a police report from Columbus where he had followed her across numerous counties and miles and physically hurt her. I hope in the future that counselors/ psychologists listen that a man has threatened his life and others. I hope in the future that attorneys take ten minutes out of their day to return a call. I hope in the future that friends and family of a man take seriously that the man is threatening harm against someone and actually get involved instead of sitting on the sidelines.
Evil presides when good people do nothing. But, most of all, I hope that women will take seriously any threats made on their life. Amanda feared that Brad would harm her, but she never believed that he would kill her. She was tragically wrong. Nothing will bring back this beautiful, warm, vivacious lady whom her family and friends loved and adored, but I hope that we all can learn something from her death. I believe that this case shows how and why we need tougher laws on domestic violence in Mississippi and more protection for the women in danger. Let us never allow this to happen again.
Jennifer Smith
Columbus
Thank you so much for posting this. It is so sad that Amanda couldn’t get help from anyone who was supposed to help her and so many women have the same experience. Unfortunately Amanda’s was one of the many cases that ended in a senseless loss of life. Amanda was a person beautiful on the inside and out who worked tirelessly to help others yet no one could be bothered to help her.
I want to start out by saying this was a truly tragic incident that has happened. I knew both of them, went to college with Brad, I was in attendance at their wedding. I strongly think the whole truth should be told. I think we should start at the beginning, to start with they were both invited to the party in Columbus so he had just as much right to be there as she did.. Next let’s talk about when he physically assaulted her, that occurred when he seen her walk out with a man get into his truck and saw them kissing. He then pulled her out of the truck shook her by the shoulder and ask her “what are you doing you’re a married woman.” He then took her wedding ring off of her finger and left. Brad attended marriage counseling every Wednesday , Amanda attended once and told the counselor that Brad was “just to nice.” All Brad wanted was for Amanda to sit down and talk to him and try to work things out, if things could not be worked out then he just wanted a answer as to why she left. This couple never even had an argument the entire time they was married. Brad was so hurt when she left because she never gave him a reason why. The last three months of Brad’s life was torture for him he had lost almost twenty pounds in a month he could not eat or sleep. Brad did everything within his power to get better, but its very hard to move on with out closure. Why would you try to put the blame on the judge Amanda dropped the charges when he signed the divorce papers at the end of December. Also they begged her at the court house not to drop the charges. Why did her divorce attorney drop her as a client? You said in your letter that she was so very afraid Brad, can you answer me this question why did Amanda move .5 mile away from him. If your truly afraid of someone you don’t move next door to them, that is a slap in the face to anyone. Amanda knew that Brad would not stay in Corinth his friends and family were all in Rienzi, plans were already in the works for him to move in with one of his friends down there. Have you seen the emails that were exchanged between Brad and Amanda I have and he was tormented for 3 months. What do you do when the love of your life just decides to leave with no explanation and then starts dating several different men before the divorce papers are ever even signed, and all you want is to know why. That person who you have given up your friends and family for, he gave up everything for her. She did not like him spending time with anyone except her, he could not take his own son to the movies or out to eat without her getting mad. Brad was a honest, caring, and great person just ask the 1200 people that came to the funeral home to say there last goodbyes to a good friend. I do not blame the other papers for not printing your letter it did not contain the truth, it was just a one sided story from a very hurt friend. I know you blame all of this on Brad but I can tell you that he did everything he could to move on. Between the vicious emails she sent to his friends and the taunting comments she daily put on facebook counting down the days until the divorce was final to the final breaking point of moving down the street and happily posting that on facebook as well. Its very hard to move on with your life when someone is constantly being so cruel.