It took 2 years, 5 deaths for honor student's killing to be solved. This is what happened

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On a wall of the gymnasium at DePaul Cristo Rey High School in Clifton hangs a basketball jersey bearing the number 3.

Usually, retiring an athlete's number is a joyous occasion meant to acknowledge their athletic prowess. In the case of 18-year-old Serreno Foster Jr., it was a somber celebration of a life taken far too soon.

At the time of his death in December 2020, Foster had recently graduated as an honor roll student with scholarship offers from multiple colleges and was saving money from his job going door-to-door for an energy provider. He had plans to attend Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, to become a traveling nurse, just like his mom.

It’s been three years since he was shot and killed sitting in the driver’s seat of his car while parked on a residential street in Avondale.

It took another five deaths before Foster's murder was finally solved. His killing was the first in a series of tragedies that destroyed two families and perplexed investigators for more than two years.

Since the case was never taken to court, because the sole suspect died by suicide, sparse details have been revealed about the investigation in the years since his death.

To uncover more information about what hindered the investigation, The Enquirer obtained copies of the case files for Foster’s killing and a February double murder-suicide that ultimately led to the investigation’s closure.

Those documents show how a lack of evidence stymied investigators’ efforts to find answers and how an unlikely confession solved the case.

What happened to Serreno Foster Jr.?

Late in the morning of Dec. 12, 2020, Cincinnati police were called to Canyon Drive after a neighbor called 911 and reported finding someone dead inside a parked car.

When first responders arrived at the scene, they found Foster seated in the driver’s seat of a gray 2010 Ford Fusion, a gift from his mom for his 18th birthday.

The driver's side window was rolled down, the engine was left running and the lights were still on. He had been shot in the head and was declared dead at the scene.

Neighbors told police they saw Foster’s car running all evening and throughout the night. Police also received reports that gunshots were heard around 7-9 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2020, but no one called authorities until roughly 11 a.m. the next morning.

The Hamilton County deputy coroner who performed Foster’s autopsy said it’s possible he would’ve survived the shooting if he received help sooner. The bullet didn't immediately kill Foster, who was shot from close range. Instead, it knocked him unconscious and he likely bled out overnight.

There was no weapon found at the scene but police did recover the remnants of a bullet from the passenger-side floorboard and a .40 caliber shell casing from underneath the car.

As always happens when Cincinnati police begin investigating a homicide, the department issued a press release identifying Foster as the victim and asking for the public’s help in solving the case. That was the last major update police would give on the investigation until 2023.

‘Just keep pushing forward’

Tangie Hardy, Foster’s mom, was in Texas for work when she got a call from her son’s dad, who said that Foster hadn’t returned home the night before.

Hardy immediately knew something was wrong when she learned her son wasn't answering anyone's calls, which eventually began going straight to voicemail.

She talked to his friends and girlfriend but no one had heard from him. She even called local hospitals, jails and morgues in an attempt to locate her son − still nothing.

Cincinnati police finally met with Foster’s father at home and informed him of what happened.

Hardy vividly remembers the lonely flight home, her phone being bombarded with notifications.

As months passed, detectives exhausted their leads and the investigation eventually hit a wall. Those months turned to years with no answers as to why Foster was shot or who did it.

In the aftermath of her son’s death, Hardy said, she’s tried not to dwell on what the police were or weren’t doing or the questions left unanswered, as she still has to care for Foster's younger brother and sister.

“It was hard,” she said. “I can’t lay down and be depressed and everything because then that affects them. So, I’m just trying to stay focused and stay busy, and try to just keep pushing forward.”

"It's hard not having him here," she added.

While Hardy said she always believed those responsible would face consequences, she could never have imagined what would happen next.

‘I know he was hurting’

In fact, no one could have prepared for what police found when they arrived at 3657 Canyon Drive in Avondale on Feb. 3.

Dispatchers received a call just before 5:30 a.m. from a man who reported that his grandson texted another family member saying he just killed his mom and younger brother, and that he intended to take his own life.

Other family members and friends received similar messages and rushed over only to find police had already cordoned off the scene.

Police entered the house to discover 38-year-old Darlene Flores, 16-year-old Rodrigo Johnson and Eric Johnson Jr., 19, dead from gunshot wounds to the head. They were all lying in a bed in the second-floor master bedroom.

Also on the bed was a hand-written note that police say was penned by Eric Johnson Jr., in which he claimed responsibility for killing his mom and younger brother. He wrote that he did so in response to the death of his little sister, who was killed less than six months before.

“He loved (his sister) more than anything,” Timyone Andrew, a friend who played football with Eric Johnson Jr. at Roger Bacon High School, told reporters that frigid morning as police worked to process the scene. “Losing her just, it destroyed my boy deep down and I know he was hurting.”

Johnson's family had experienced tragedy

In August 2022, 6-year-old Iyla Johnson was shot and killed by her father, 40-year-old Eric Johnson Sr., during a SWAT standoff at a Mount Healthy apartment complex, police said. The eldest Johnson then turned the gun on himself. Officers were initially called to the apartments for a dispute involving a custody exchange.

In an interview with police, Rodrigo Johnson’s girlfriend said that the night before Flores and her sons were found dead was the first time the family had really been left alone.

"We showed up every day. We came here every single day,” Andrew said of himself and Eric Johnson Jr.'s other friends. "We can't replace that love that he had for his little sister, but we was trying to be close to it.”

While Flores' and the Johnsons' friends and family were left reeling from the shock and horror of an all too familiar scene, police made a discovery that would at long last bring relief to another grieving family.

Near the end of his suicide note, Eric Johnson Jr. made another confession – that he was responsible for Foster’s killing.

Why were police interested in Eric Johnson Jr.?

It didn’t take long after detectives launched their investigation before they identified Eric Johnson Jr. as someone who might know something about Foster's death.

Foster was supposed to hang out with a friend for their birthday on the evening of Dec. 11, 2020, but he never showed up.

Instead of going straight to his friend’s home on Gardenview Lane in Winton Hills, Foster told his friend he needed to make a “pit stop” first.

When investigators searched Foster's phone, they discovered he had been in contact with a user over Snapchat who went by “lile_21.”

Detectives obtained a search warrant for lile_21’s Snapchat account and found a cellphone number attached to the account, which was registered to Flores, Eric Johnson Jr.’s mother.

Flores spoke with police on Dec. 12, 2020, saying she lived on Canyon Drive and noticed Foster’s car but thought it belonged to her teenage son’s girlfriend.

Detectives concluded that Eric Johnson Jr., then 17, was the person Foster was talking to on Snapchat. Messages show the two made plans to meet up briefly the night Foster was killed.

The last directions Foster input to his phone were for 3665 Canyon Drive in Avondale – just a few doors down from where Eric Johnson Jr. and his family lived. He reached the address around 6:50 p.m.

At 6:57 p.m., Foster had a 12-second Snapchat call with Eric Johnson Jr. At 7:02 p.m., Foster's iPhone was unlocked and locked again. That's the last known action he took.

GPS tracking for the Snapchat accounts belonging to Foster and Eric Johnson Jr. showed the two were both around where the shooting took place at the time investigators believe Foster was shot.

What halted the investigation?

Detectives made numerous failed attempts beginning in March 2021 to get in contact with Flores and Eric Johnson Jr.

Eventually, police tried to get to the 17-year-old through his high school, but administrators first contacted Flores, who said she wanted to consult with an attorney before allowing her son to talk with investigators.

The family’s attorney then reached out to police in April 2021 to let them know his client would not be giving a statement.

At that point, investigators went to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office to obtain a grand jury subpoena in an effort to force Eric Johnson Jr. to sit down for questioning.

However, that subpoena was never given to the police, said Cincinnati police detective Marcus McNeil. There were concerns at the time that a subpoena would do little to aid the investigation, as Eric Johnson Jr.’s lawyer would likely advise him not to answer questions to avoid self-incrimination.

"Unfortunately, because no one has been charged in the Serreno Foster homicide, we are not able to discuss the details of the investigation," a Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office spokesperson said in response to a question about why the subpoena wasn't approved.

Even with the GPS records placing Eric Johnson Jr.’s phone near the shooting when it happened, it wasn’t enough on its own to implicate him, especially because he lived on that street.

Without any witnesses, video or forensic evidence pointing to Eric Johnson Jr. as the shooter, investigators didn’t have enough to charge him.

“That’s where all of our efforts led us to and that’s where it stopped at,” the detective said.

McNeil still wonders what might’ve happened if police had a chance to hold his feet to the fire.

“We wanted to have an opportunity to question him, that’s all,” the detective said. “Until he left the note saying what he did, we still had no idea that he was the person involved with it.”

Police records show that at one time investigators believed more than one person may have been involved in the shooting and Eric Johnson Jr. was thought to be a co-conspirator.

How did Serreno Foster Jr. and Eric Johnson Jr. know each other?

Hardy said she was familiar with her son’s friends, but didn't know Eric Johnson Jr. She’s still uncertain about how exactly her son knew him, or what their connection was.

McNeil said Foster’s dad remembered the two of them playing sports together as children.

They also attended DePaul Cristo Rey High School together for a time before Eric Johnson Jr. was booted from the school, according to McNeil. He then enrolled in Roger Bacon High School, where he played football until his graduation in 2022.

It’s still not clear what kind of history Foster and Eric Johnson Jr. had, though McNeil said the police investigation didn’t reveal any indication of animosity between them.

Foster’s family says truth ‘finally came to light’

While police have finally closed the book on their investigation into Foster’s murder, Hardy says Eric Johnson Jr.’s death wasn’t justice for her son.

She knew for a long time that police were looking at Eric Johnson Jr. as the primary person of interest in her son’s death, but she shared that knowledge with only a few people.

“What we knew all along just finally came to light,” she said. “So, we were happy that he did leave a note confessing to what he did, you know, so that chapter is closed and we could move forward.”

Since last February, the family has come together monthly to reminisce over their favorite memories of Foster and look through his pictures, she said.

After so long waiting for answers and some form of closure, the goal now is just to keep her son’s memory alive.

“To know him was to love him," Hardy said.

In the end, Hardy says she isn’t angry and she even feels for Eric Johnson Jr.’s family.

“They had to bury five family members,” she said, “I had to bury one.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Teen was killed 3 years ago. Here's why it took 5 deaths to solve case