Man Charged With Murdering Woman at Elbur Manor Apartments

Correction: Police provided the incorrect name of apartments on Detroit Avenue where the woman was found. The name of the apartment building complex is the Elbur Manor.

Police have arrested a 56-year-old Cleveland man and charged him with murder after officers discovered a woman stuffed in a closest at the Elbur Manor apartments on Thursday.

Johnny L. Johnson, who lives on the Cleveland side of W. 117th Street, has been charged with murder, an unclassified felony.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner is still investigating the cause of death — and for a positive identification — and her name hasn’t yet been released.

Sources say she died from a blunt force trauma to the head, but police haven't confirmed that report.

Police first learned that the woman was missing on Aug. 20. At that time, officers checked the apartment at 13531 Detroit Avenue. “Officers found the apartment neat and orderly except for the cat which had defecated and urinated throughout the apartment,” according to a police department news release. 

But she wasn’t found.

Officers continued their investigation into the missing woman, and again searched the apartment at around 10 a.m. Thursday, when they found her stuffed in a closet inside the apartment.

After she was discovered, “further information and leads were developed” that resulted in a warrant for Johnson’s arrest. He’d been hospitalized for 10 days at two area hospitals during the woman’s disappearance.

Johnson was picked up in Maple Heights later in the day Thursday. He is awaiting arraignment in Lakewood Jail.