Army Pfc. Dewayne Johnson has been charged with murder in the deaths of his wife and unborn baby. (Joshua Linfoot/U.S. Army)
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Army on Wednesday referred five charges, including murder and killing an unborn child, against a Hawaii-based soldier in connection with his pregnant wife’s disappearance last year.
The Army Office of Special Trial Counsel referred charges against Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, 29, in “the death of Mischa Johnson, intentionally killing her unborn child, obstruction of justice, providing false official statements, possession of child pornography and the production and distribution of child pornography,” the Army said in a news release Wednesday.
Johnson, of Frederick, Md., waived his right to an Article 32 preliminary hearing, the Army said. His case will now be assigned to a military judge who will schedule dates for an arraignment, pretrial hearings and trial.
Johnson was arrested Aug. 7 and is being held in the brig on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor.
He has served as a cavalry scout with the 25th Infantry Division since June 2023.
Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, 19, the pregnant wife of a service member, was last seen in her home at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on the evening of July 31, 2024. (Honolulu Police Department)
Mischa Johnson, then 19, was six months pregnant on Aug. 1 when her husband reported her missing from their home on Schofield Barracks in central Oahu.
“Mischa Johnson is presumed deceased and her body has not been found,” the Army said.
Agents with the Army Criminal Investigation Division continue to probe the case, the Army said.
CID agents told Mischa Johnson’s family that based on evidence found in the home and the soldier’s car, they believe she was killed, Marianna Tapiz, the missing woman’s older sister, said during an Instagram livestream in August.
Johnson’s report of his missing wife set off a flurry of searches on and around Schofield Barracks, the largest Army base in the state and home to the 25th ID.
He led his platoon on a 6-mile search for his wife near the base days after he reported her missing, Tapiz said in the livestream.
Johnson told officers with the Honolulu Police Department and military police that his wife had been “emotionally distraught.”
CID is asking anyone with information regarding the case to contact the Army CID Pacific Field Office at 808-208-0559.
