Update Three

[huntone]

The family of a missing teenager is pleading with the man who last saw her to tell police everything he knows. 17-year-old Paige Johnson disappeared on September 23rd and has not been seen since.

Local 12 was the first station to tell you that Jacob Bumpass, the last man to see Johnson, ran from police when they tried to question him. He's now locked up on an unrelated charge and is refusing to talk. And according to police, his travels the night she disappeared have them concerned. Local 12's Joe Webb broke the big developments in the story yesterday and has the very latest.

Cell phone records make police think Jacob Bumpass made a trip near East Fork Lake early in the morning that Paige Johnson disappeared. Her family and friends worry he may have been dumped there. They're pleading with Bumpass to talk.

At 4:18 on the morning Paige disappeared, police say phone records show that Bumpass's cell phone was accessing the tower just off Half-Acre Road near East Fork State Park. Police cite the 5000 acre park and 2000 acre lake as a place where a lot of people have hidden bodies. This morning, a handful of Paige's friends were at the park looking for answers. "We're just walking around, looking. Never know. We hope we don't find her out here."

Paige Johnson has been missing for three weeks and a day. Her family is still holding out hope, but the new information about Jacob Bumpass is troubling. Brittany Haywood is Paige's sister. "I don't have good feelings about East Fork at all. I don't understand why he'd be at East Fork at 4 in the morning."

Haywood says she's known Bumpass for years and can't believe he'd hurt anyone. She says he told her two days after her sister's disappearance that he'd picked her up and taken her to his house and they'd had drinks before he dropped her at 15th and Scott. The cell phone records dispute all that. Brittany Haywood wants answers. "Bumpass, if you're watching this I wish you would just talk and tell what happened that night. And my God, if you've done something to Paige but I mean it's not looking good. I don't understand. My mom needs comfort, my grandma needs comfort, I need comfort, we need to know what happened that night. I wish you would just cooperate and tell the truth and talk to the cops and tell what happened."

Jacob Bumpass is not charged with anything related to Johnson's disappearance. He violated his parole by having weapons and alcohol at his home and using marijuana.

If you have any information about Paige Johnson's whereabouts or what might have happened to her, contact Covington Police. That number is 859-292-2222

Joe Webb's story on Jacob Bumpass from Thursday, October 14th
Local 12 has uncovered some startling new information about the disappearance of a 17-year-old Northern Kentucky girl. Court records fill in some gaps and identify the 22-year-old man that police have said was the last to see Paige Johnson alive. The records also raise some serious questions about his story that he dropped her off on a Covington street three weeks ago today. Local 12's Joe Webb has been following the story.

Yesterday we told you how this story has taken on a life of its own on Facebook. This morning a Channel 12 producer spotted Jacob Bumpass's name on a Facebook post, identifying him as the last person to see Paige Johnson. After some checking, we found out Bumpass has drawn a lot of attention from Covington Police who've got search warrants for his home, a car and his cell phone... all in efforts to find Johnson.

22-year-old Jacob Bumpass has been locked up in the Kenton County jail since October 4th for a parole violation. He was arrested after Covington Police showed up at his Latonia home to question him about Paige. According to an affidavit for a search warrant, they were told he was with her the night she disappeared and had given her alcohol. In the same affidavit, Detective Brian Frodge says Bumpass ran when police announced who they were but they caught him. He let them inside the home, where Frodge says he saw what he thought was dried blood on a sink and a latex glove. Bumpass refused to talk.

Police also got a search warrant for a car. According to the search warrants, police obtained Jacob Bumpass's cell phone records from Cincinnati Bell. They tracked the movement of his phone the morning Paige disappeared.

Bumpass says he dropped her off at 15th and Scott about 1 a.m. The cell phone records show he, or at least his phone, was somewhere else. The affidavit says at 1:03 that morning Bumpass' phone accessed or pinged a cell phone tower on Tanner's Lane in Florence, a few blocks from Johnson's home. At 1:32 it pinged from a tower in Wilder... the one closest to Bumpass' home. Just before 3 a.m., his phone pinged on a tower in Edgewood and at 4:13 a.m., it pinged on a tower on Filager Road in Batavia. Five minutes later there is a hit on a tower on Half-Acre Road near the entrance to East Fork Lake State Park. At 9:43 the phone was back near the Wilder tower. All on the night Paige Johnson was last seen with Jacob Bumpass.

Bumpass is not charged with anything related Johnson's disappearance. Police say they have not opened a criminal investigation but the search warrant affidavits speak for themselves.

We do not know what police found or if they have actually conducted the searches, yet. The affidavit for the house was dated October 4th. The one for the car was dated October 12th.

Bumpass is being held for violating his parole by having alcohol and weapons at his home and using marijuana. Covington Police did not return a call today. The prosecutor did not want to comment on Bumpass.

Paige Johnson is still missing. If you have any information about her whereabouts or what may have happened to her, contact Covington police at 859-292-2222.

[huntone]

COVINGTON, Ky. - Court records are revealing new details into the disappearance of Florence teenager Paige Johnson and the man last seen with her.

Search warrants filed by Covington police state 22-year-old Jacob Thomas Bumpass of Taylor Mill, Ky., was last seen with 17-year-old Johnson on the evening of Sept. 22 and that Bumpass had given her alcohol.

Bumpass is a parolee for a theft conviction.

"I honestly did not see him as the type to do anything to Paige. We've all been friends for a long time and from what I knew he was a good guy," said Brittany Haywood, Paige Johnson's Sister.

Paige was supposed to be dropped off at Brittany's house around 1 a.m. The teen, who is a mother to a two year old daughter, sent her sister a cryptic message on facebook a half hour before.

"She facebooked me and said, 'Girl, I need to talk to you immediately.'

When his parole officer attempted to contact him on Oct. 4, court records state Bumpass "attempted to flee the residence upon officers and Covington Police Detective Bryan Frodge announcing their presence."

Bumpass was taken into custody and is being held on a parole violation for having alcohol at his home.

According to court documents, a search of Bumpass' home on Decoursey Pike found dried blood in the kitchen sink.

The affidavit states that while in the kitchen Frodge observed in the sink a substance resembling dried blood and two latex gloves with "one of the gloves having a small drop of the same red substance which to the detective resembled dried blood."

Police said Bumpass told them he dropped the 17-year-old off at 15th and Scott streets in Covington.

However, court documents state Bumpass' cell phone records show he was never in that area.

"What the records show are that approximately 1:03 a.m. on Sept. 23, Bumpass' phone pinged on cell phone tower near Tanner's Lane in Florence. Det. Frodge learned that Johnson lived on Cantebury in Florence which would be the tower location at Tanner's Lane."

The next record, according to court documents, shows a location near Wilder which at 1:32 a.m. which police believe is near Bumpass' residence on Decoursey Pike.

Court records indicate that Bumpass' phone pings off a tower near Dudley Pike, in Edgewood at 2:58 a.m., then off a tower near Filager Road in Batavia at 4:13 a.m.

Bumpass' phone pings off a tower near Half Acre Road in Batavia at 4:18 a.m. The location is near the entrance to East Fork Lake, an Ohio State Park in Clermont County.

On Oct. 8, detectives interviewed a roommate of Bumpass' brother, Caleb.

According to court documents, the roommate told police Caleb Bumpass had extensively cleaned his car two to three days after Johnson went missing. The roommate said that he found it odd because Caleb was "a trashy person" and he had never known him to clean his car.

The roommate told police he had heard Jacob asked to borrow the vehicle, according to the affidavit. After the car was cleaned, he saw spilled red paint in the trunk area.

Jacob has not been charged with any crime in connection with Johnson's disappearance. He's being held at the Kenton County Jail on a parole violation from a theft charge.

Haywood is pleading for anyone with information to call.

"If anybody knows where my sister is at please contact us, the cops and let us know," said Haywood. "Bumpass if you know something then you need to come clean because this is tearing all of us up."

Friends and family of Johnson gathered at Paint Yourself Silly in Latonia Friday night.

Owner Lisa Little says it’s is a time for those who know Johnson best to come together and brainstorm about what the next step should be.

"We started on facebook, there's over 3,000 people on it. Also this is huge and I just wish that everybody would share their ideas. Not what they think happened but where she might be," Little said.

[huntone]

Friends and family members of Paige Johnson searched several locations in Northern Kentucky Saturday, looking for clues that might answer the question: What happened to the 17 year old Florence girl.

More than 30 people gathered Saturday morning on Decoursey Avenue in Covington before starting the search.

Among the places they combed were an area off Locust Pike in Taylor Mill, near the Licking River and in Covington, around 47th and Decoursey, near Banklick Creek.
They also looked in a scrapyard near the railroad bridge that crosses the Licking River between Covington and Newport.

Johnson was last seen September 23rd. She was supposed to be dropped her off at 15th Street and Scott Street in Covington.
Nobody has heard anything from her since that day.

Jacob Bumpass, the last man to see Johnson, ran from police when they tried to question him. He's now locked up on an unrelated charge and is refusing to talk.
Investigators are taking a close look at his travels the night she disappeared.

The night she vanished, Johnson was wearing a multicolored jacket and blue jeans. She is about 5'1" and weighs about 110 pounds.

If you have any information about Paige Johnson, police ask you to call Covington Police Department at [phone] or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678