Published: May 20, 2009 10:31 am      

Johnson remans identified, murder charged

Gray man charged with Jeremy Johnson's murder

Times-Tribune Staff Report

The remains found on May 15 in Knox County have been identified as the 25year-old missing Knox County man, Jeremy Johnson.

One man who was in jail on separate counts has been charged with his murder.

Daniel Grubb, 23, of Gray is in the Knox County Jail charged with tampering with physical evidence for allegedly moving Johnson's body. According to a release from the Kentucky State Police, Grubb was charged with murder Wednesday morning after the body was positively identified. Grubb is being detained in the Clay County jail.

Johnson's body was identified using medical records by the Kentucky State Medical Examiner Dr. Emily Craig.

Johnson, 25, of Woodbine, was last seen leaving the now defunct Angels & Wings Restaurant in Corbin last June. About a month after his disappearance, his car was found on a rural path off of KY 459, about four miles from Johnson’s home, but there was no sign of Johnson.

In April, Daniel Grubb and Bobbie Ray Walters were arrested for tampering with physical evidence after allegedly moving Johnson’s body. Both pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Following the arrests, police stepped up searches for Johnson’s body. In early April, cadaver dogs searched a wooded area near the junction of KY 6 and KY 456, and although the dogs appeared to hit on an area of interest, police never reported finding anything at the site. From April 27-28, police used a backhoe to drain part of a creek behind Grubb’s trailer, where Walters claimed Johnson’s body had been dumped.

After an exhaustive two-day search, police found nothing.