U.S. Army Pfc. Dewayne Johnson sits with his teammates during an exercise at Helemano Military Reservation, Hawaii, in November 2023. (Joshua Linfoot/U.S. Army)
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — A Hawaii-based soldier whose pregnant wife went missing a month ago has been charged with making false statements, obstructing justice and distributing child pornography, the Army said Tuesday.
The Army Office of Special Trial Counsel preferred the charges against Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, 28, in connection with the disappearance of his wife, Mischa Johnson, the service said in a news release.
“The general nature of the charges are providing false official statements, obstruction of justice, and the production and distribution of child pornography in violation of Articles 107, 131b and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” the release states.
Johnson reported his 19-year-old wife missing from their Schofield Barracks home on Aug. 1 to the Honolulu Police Department and military police. He told police his wife was emotionally distraught.
Army Criminal Investigation Division offered a $10,000 reward for a tip that led to finding the missing woman.
Mischa Johnson’s family said in a video posted to social media last week that Army CID agents told them evidence found in her home and in her husband’s car had led them to believe she was dead.
Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson was last seen in her home at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on the evening of July 31, 2024. (Honolulu Police Department)
Dewayne Johnson was arrested on Aug. 7 and is being held at Ford Island, according to the family. He will be held in pretrial confinement pending a preliminary hearing. The hearing is required before charges can be referred for trial by general court-martial, the news release states.
If the charges are referred, Johnson will be arraigned. A military judge would then preside over pre-trial hearings and the trial.
Johnson, of Frederick, Md., is a cavalry scout with the 25th Infantry Division, where he was assigned in June 2023.
He led his platoon on a six-mile search for his wife on and near Schofield Barracks days after he reported her missing, Marianna Tapiz, Mischa Johnson’s older sister, said in an Instagram livestream Thursday.
Tapiz said the family’s focus had morphed to “justice for Mischa” in light of the evidence investigators had found. She pleaded for anyone with information on Dewayne Johnson’s movements in the last days of July to contact CID.
Anonymous tips can be submitted to the CID via an online form at www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=325 or by calling 808-208-0059.
“This case remains an active investigation,” Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman with the Office of Special Trial Counsel, said in the news release.
“We are confident that law enforcement will exhaust all efforts to find Mischa and the likelihood of additional charges is certainly a possibility as the case develops,” she said.
