Hi, crime junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett, and the story I have for you today is about control, and the length some people will go to when they're starting to lose it.

This is the story of Danielle Johnson.

A lot of the stories we tell start with someone beginning to worry about a loved one.

Whether it's a parent, a sibling, friend, there's always that moment when someone realizes something's off.

That moment when people's lives change forever.

And this one is the same.

When Mack and Juanita Johnson's 21-year-old daughter, Danielle, doesn't come home from her college class one April day in 1989.

Now, if this had happened in a different place and time of life, maybe not coming home right after class wouldn't be that weird.

But here, now, it is, because things haven't exactly been smooth sailing for Danielle lately.

Her parents had just recently found out that she had been seeing this much older man, a 41-year-old married guy named Cleveland Hill Jr.

I don't love that.

And they don't either, especially because the whole situation has been spiraling out of control.

Now, they only found out about it in the first place when Danielle showed up with this $22,000 car that Cleveland had purchased for her.

And her parents were like, oh, hell no.

Like nothing good comes from a married guy gifting expensive things to a girl half his age.

So they told Danielle that she had to give the car back.

And the car wasn't even the only thing.

Apparently, Cleveland had also been in the habit of giving her cash when they were together.

And I'm not talking about like 20 bucks here or there.

I'm talking like 600 a pop and usually twice a week.

So whatever this dynamic was, all Mac and wanted to saw were red flags for miles.

And so when she doesn't come home, they assume right away that he did something.

...