Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and I'm writing solo today to bring you a story about a very strange disappearance that took place in the summer of 2024. A man who was with a big group at a busy campsite goes into his tent to sleep one night, and by morning, he's just gone.
The initial assumptions that maybe he walked away, maybe he just kept going, that's the theory police appear to accept pretty fast. But over a year and a half later, there's still no reason why. There's no recovered wallet, no cell phone, no physical trace of where this man went. Just one clue that might suggest he never left at all. This is the story of Daryl Bubba Johnson Sr.
It's Saturday, June 29th, 2024, just after noon, when New Mexico State Police Officer Jonathan Gonzalez arrives at Conjas Lake State Park. It's windy out in the desert where he's meeting a crew of campers who just reported a friend of theirs missing. Are you the one that called? Did you call?
Yeah.
He's talking to a small group of campers that appears to include Alejandra Diaz, who goes by Allie, her daughters Vanessa and Roxanne, and Roxanne's husband, George. It was Roxanne who made the report about their missing friend. And in it, she mentions 30-plus people in their camping party.
But according to the report, when Gonzalez arrives, these are the only four from their group that he notes speaking with. Now, we spoke to a couple of these same people, like Allie, and she said that everyone else, including her boyfriend, who was with them, Ernie, was out searching for Bubba. Now, the story that these four give starts shaping everything.
They tell the officer that the missing man's a family friend, 67-year-old Daryl Johnson Sr., known as Bubba. He made the nine-hour drive from Phoenix, Arizona, where he lives, to New Mexico with Vanessa, arriving the day before on Friday to celebrate Roxanne's birthday. Now, this was a big family-friendly event. I mean, Roxanne says most of the party were kids under the age of 18.
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Chapter 2: What happened to Darrel 'Bubba' Johnson Sr. on that summer night?
and midnight, Ali says that she checked on Bubba in his tent before he went to sleep. He said he was all good. But then, by 7 a.m., once she was up, Bub was not there. And not like he had packed up and left, his bag still in Vanessa's car, and he couldn't have left without her anyway because she's the one who drove.
But according to Allie, his phone and wallet were gone too, like all the stuff he normally had on him. So at first, they thought that maybe he just went to find the bathroom or maybe he took a walk. But after a few hours pass, they end up reporting him missing.
Does he take off like this? No. I mean, he walks home every now and then because he lives with me. But that's in Arizona, not out here. No, you don't have nobody here. Here, that's what we're, like, looking for him. We went around and... Did you find him? No, that's the thing.
Like, this area is really, really rough terrain, so it's kind of awkward for him just to walk off in the middle of nowhere. Why would he take off all of a sudden? oh you guys weren't trying to figure out you didn't get into it with him or anything no that's my mom's best friend
Gonzalez asked about drinking, medication, anything that would change the urgency. And they say, no, Bubba doesn't drink. And this comes up more than once.
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Chapter 3: What were the initial assumptions about Bubba's disappearance?
They're adamant. Now, there were other people drinking, but according to Allie, nothing was out of control or anything. Though she does mention that her boyfriend, Ernie, may have been drinking a little more than she would have liked.
So anyways, I was like, you need to stop drinking. And then Bubba says... Did he upset you? I said, no, he just needs to stop drinking. He said, all right, because I wouldn't want him to upset you, you know. And then I might have got upset because I told him, you know, that.
When our reporter Madison spoke with Allie, she said that there may have been something going on between her and Ernie because of his drinking. But whatever it was, it wasn't a blow up and it didn't even involve Bubba. She said at most Bubba might have been upset just because Allie was upset, but that's it.
According to her, soft spoken Bubba wasn't involved in anything that she would even label as an argument, let alone an actual altercation. So within 15 minutes of responding to this report, Gonzalez is already circling around an explanation.
Well, at this point, it sounds like he might have just wandered off and hitched right out of here. So at this point, we're going to put out a bolo for him. I mean, that's all we can do.
OK.
Because if he was around here, they would have spotted him.
I think he's right about that. Depending on what part of the country you're from, you might hear camping and think trees and forest, but this campground's mostly flat, almost as far as the eye can see. And no one sees Bubba. At least not that morning. But someone had seen Bubba the night before, after Allie said goodnight to him in his tent.
There is this campsite that was two spots south who says that at 12.30 a.m., Bubba walked up to them and asked to borrow a flashlight. He didn't say why or what he needed it for, but they loaned him one. And then they watched him continue to walk south along the shoreline of the nearby lake. But before you go thinking he fell in, let me tell you two things.
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Chapter 4: Who were the key witnesses in Bubba's case?
Our reporter Madison even tracked down the witness just to be extra sure that nothing was lost in translation. And she confirmed, yeah, they saw a different person. Total coincidence. But even in the short time before they rule Bubba out as being this guy walking on Highway 104, something important has already happened. This walk away theory has basically been reinforced.
And it's reinforced again in officers' minds when they call in to notify Bubba's family of his disappearance. They first talk to Bubba's son, Daryl Johnson Jr., who is back in Phoenix.
So the son said if she would have pissed him off, he would have taken off.
The she he's referring to is Bubba's girlfriend, Allie. Now, Daryl Jr. told us that when he said that to the officer, the officer was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, what do you mean girlfriend?
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Obviously, the officer had already been told by Allie herself that she's dating Ernie. Bubba is just a friend. but not according to Daryl Jr. This was the first time he was hearing about this other guy, Ernie. In that moment, he says he felt like he was being gaslit. Like, what do you mean my dad wasn't with Allie in that way?
He says he'd seen text messages between the two, even heard conversations that made it seem otherwise. None of this was making sense to Daryl Jr., Never mind the alley stuff. His dad hadn't given him or his sister Jaina a heads up that he was going out of town, which was really odd because normally he would ask Daryl Jr. to take care of his dog Muffin if he's going to be away.
But he says that he hadn't heard from his dad. So this is kind of the test. When Daryl Jr. gets off the phone with authorities, he asks friends to go by and check on Muffin. Now, the dog's fine. Bubba had left some food out and water, but not enough for a longer trip. So within an hour of getting the call from the state police, Daryl Jr.
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Chapter 5: How did the police respond to Bubba's missing person report?
If that's the case and anyone hears this who might know who that was, please let us know so we can rule this out. The witness feels confident that this couldn't have been the younger man people saw on Highway 104 earlier. She was clear that this man that she saw was at least in his 50s. And that leaves the second possibility, that this was Bubba and whatever happened to him
didn't involve anyone at the campsite. Meaning that maybe Bubba did go for a walk or something, and then he met with foul play at the hands of a stranger. The most statistically improbable, sure, but not if your story makes it onto this show. Crime junkies know that the unlikely happens more than you'd think, and to the most unsuspecting people.
When we reached out to the New Mexico State Police, they wouldn't do a formal interview. But they did agree to answer some questions via email. They told us there is no evidence to suggest criminal activity and that, according to witness statements, it is believed that Bubba walked away from his campsite.
They also said in part, quote, especially when environmental factors, time or location, may affect the ability to locate physical evidence. Therefore, the absence of items alone is not treated as proof of foul play, unquote. And while it is possible for someone to go missing and never be found, everyone else familiar with this area, who we spoke to, told us the same thing.
It would be hard, especially with this many people around, especially without a single confirmed piece of evidence left behind. Allie agrees with that. She thinks there is a chance Bubba's disappearance could be the result of foul play, just not by her hand or anyone else in their group for that matter. She says they would never hurt Bubba.
She even told us she doesn't think the New Mexico State Police did a thorough job enough because, I mean, they never tracked down the rest of her group. They never went to her boyfriend Ernie to get his statement. Now, she and Ernie have since broken up, but she still said no way, no chance did he do anything. even if he had been drinking.
She told Madison she's willing to take a polygraph to prove to Bubba's family that she wants to find out what really happened just as much as they do. Now, we tried reaching out to Ernie for this episode, but as of this recording, we haven't heard back. Over a year and a half after Bubba's disappearance, there is still no body, no phone, no explanation that fully makes sense for Bubba's family.
And that's been unbearable. So if you know something that hasn't been shared, please call the New Mexico State Police Dispatch at 505-841-9256 and they'll get you in touch with the right person. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkie.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. And we'll be back with a new episode.
Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. I think Chuck would approve. Some cases fade from headlines. Some never made it there to begin with. I'm Ashley Flowers, and on my podcast, The Deck, I tell you the stories of cold cases featured on playing cards distributed in prisons designed to spark new leads and bring long overdue justice.
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