Joan Tribblet and Everette Johnson had four children, one of whom was Oncwanique, who was 16 months old. Joan was going to have their fifth child. (“One of the children was from Joan’s ex-partnership. The little kid slept with Joan and Everette in the bed.
Oncqanique Wakes Up
Ocwanique woke up in the middle of the night on December 19, 1997. She was irritable and pulling on the blankets. To get some rest, Joan told her to stand at the foot of the bed. It was an accident that the toddler touched the bed, so Joan choked her until she passed out.
When Oncwanique woke up, she started crying again. She was hit with a wooden ruler by Joan, who then threw her on the bed. Then Everette woke up mad that Oncwanique wouldn’t close her eyes. He hit her over and over with the ruler until she passed out in his arms and stopped breathing.
Joan tried to wake Oncwanique up by giving her cold water, but she didn’t respond. Joan put her on her back in bed, which is where she died.
Joan, Everette ‘Dispose’ of Remains
They didn’t call the police or paramedics the next morning because they were afraid they would go to jail and lose their kids. The other option was to get rid of Oncwanique’s body.
Joan said they should cut her body up and fry the pieces in a pan. Everett suggested that they use battery acid to break down her body, which is something he had seen done in a movie. The two people put newspaper on the bathroom floor, moved Oncwanique’s body, and then started cutting her up. Joan cut off her sleeves and hands, dipped them in flour, and then fried them in oil on the stove.
People in the neighborhood didn’t like the smell and smoke, so they finally decided to dissolve Oncwanique’s body in battery acid. Every day, Everette bought a big stock pot and a container of battery acid. He then put Oncwanique’s body in the pot and covered it with acid.
Joan had to cut out the body’s spine so it would fit in the pot because it was stiff. Joan and Everette put the pot under the kitchen sink, then threw the already-cooked meat into nearby alleys and fed some of it to the family dog. She fell backwards into a swampy area behind his office.
For a few weeks, Joan and Everette let the body parts dissolve in the acid under the sink, stirring the mixture every so often with a screwdriver. At one point, Everett asked a neighbor for a blender, which he used to help break down the body.
He flushed some of the mixture down the toilet and into a nearby city sewer after it was broken up.
Granddaughter Missing
Six months later, Oncwanique’s maternal grandmother, Ms. Freddie Robinson, said her granddaughter was missing. Over the months, Joan and Everette gave a lot of different reasons for where she was, and Ms. Robinson got tired of hearing them all.
When police went to the Johnson/Tribbet home two days after the report, they found the blender, the large pot, and a pair of blue jeans with holes in them from the battery acid spilling on them.
“There were portions that had been cooked up that [Johnson] then basically distributed at another location so that dogs and vermin would get to the child,” said prosecutor Thomas Epach.
Conviction & Sentencing
At first, both Joan and Everette said they didn’t ki*ll Oncwanique. But later, Joan admitted it and agreed to testify against her boyfriend. She said Everette made her hide the fact that her daughter had died. Both she and Everette were found guilty of mu*rder and given life sentences.
Joan is eligible for parole in 2027 and has a tentative release date in 2030. Everett is eligible for parole in 2047 with a tentative release date in 2050
Joan changed her story after the trial, claiming that Everette took Oncwanique out of the home the morning following her de*ath but refused to tell her what he did with the body.
