'Forget Me Not' Cold Case, Kanika Powell Murder Mystery

by Michelle Sigona

Kanika Powell's case is still a Prince George's County, Maryland, mystery.

Kanika Powell graduated from Largo High School in 1998 and enlisted in the Army two years later. She proudly served in Korea and, after her tour, returned to her home in Prince George’s County. Trying to figure out the next steps in her life, Kanika decided to take on a job as a security contractor at Hopkins laboratory. She was very private about the work she was doing for the laboratory and would sometimes travel for days at a time to handle work projects before returning home. Judy Powell, Kanika's mom, said she always knew where her daughter was going, but her daughter was not allowed to discuss what she was doing when she was on location.

Kanika lived alone in her garden-style apartment in Laurel, Maryland. On Saturday, August 22, 2008, she heard a knock at her door. Judy says Kanika told her she peeked through the hole and a man was holding up a badge claiming he was an FBI agent. Kanika wouldn’t open the door without seeing ID, and the mystery man left. She called 9-1-1 and police came to her apartment, but nothing was found. Judy says Kanika was planning to install a security system thereafter. The incident jarred her so much that she wrote this e-mail to share with her friends and family:

“I just wanted to share with you the scariest thing that happened to me this weekend. Saturday evening around seven pm a man was knocking at my door (as all of you may know I live alone). I asked who it was and he didn't answer, so once I got close to the door and looked out of the peephole I saw a male figure that was not familiar to me at all. I asked who he was and all he stated was that he was from the FBI and that he was looking for Kanika Powell.

"It freaked me out completely because this man knew my name. He held a shield up but no picture ID and he never gave his name. He told me he was looking for me in regards to an investigation. I told him that I had no idea as to what he was talking about and that he would need to show me documentation as well as a warrant of some sort. So he left and I looked out my bedroom window and saw him walking. I also heard a voice tell him to walk in the opposite direction. The whole situation was scary and seemed so false. So because of this incident not only did I get no sleep for the rest of the weekend but I am now trying to get an alarm system installed in my apartment. I had one in my old apartment, but I just hadn't had it transferred over to my new one. As far as everything that happened with the guy. I did call the FBI and they told me that it was more than likely bogus because they never come to your door by themselves and they always leave a card of some sort so that you can contact them. I called the local police as well to give them a description just in case someone is out there trying to rape or harm single woman... pass this on ladies. This is not a fake forward this happened to me, Kanika... Who knows who these guys are and what they are doing and in what areas other than mine.” 

A mere five days later, on August 27, 2008, Kanika had another knock at her door. It wasn’t an FBI agent this time, but someone claiming they had a package for her. Again, Kanika wouldn’t open the door, and a package was never left. The very next morning,  there was another knock at the door, the same routine, Kanika would not answer. Judy says the police were called again and an officer came out to speak with her, but again nothing was found.

After the police left, Kanika decided to leave to run errands. When she came back, the unknown person who had claimed to have the package was now waiting in the hallway. The suspect opened fire, shooting Kanika on the first landing of her apartment. She was transported to the hospital, but sadly Judy says her daughter never regained consciousness and died the next day.

Kanika would have turned 30 on January 31, 2010. She wasn’t married and didn’t have children, but her mother Judy says, “What makes her so remarkable was that she was a donor. I signed the papers and two people in the metropolitan area were able to receive her kidneys. We also donated some tissue and bone and her liver was donated to a research lab.” Let’s get justice for Judy and Kanika Powell’s family.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the county's Crime Solvers hotline at 866-411-TIPS (8477). Crimesolvers is offering a $25,000 reward in this case.

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The Arrogance of Psychopaths

by Pat Brown

People often wonder how smart psychopaths can make such stupid mistakes that cause them to get caught for their crimes and make it easy for the state to get a conviction. In one word: arrogance.

Arrogance is going to put Prince George's County, Maryland's County Executive Jack Johnson behind bars for the rest of his life and we who live in his jurisdiction are ecstatic. Jack has a massive ego, and he ran this county like the corrupt leader of a poor African nation. In spite of this, Johnson has been in office for almost eight years. Why the voters here reelected this scumbag, I will never understand. During his two administrations, Johnson has contributed to the demise and bad reputation of our county by giving his unqualified buddies large contracts, ignoring the requirement that these jobs have to be bid on and the work given to the company with the best offer. He and his wife have been arrested for tampering with evidence and he is accused of taking large kickbacks for giving his friends numerous deals that they would not have won if they had gone through the required process.

Graft, extortion and corruption have been rampant in Prince George's County for a very long time. A number of politicians have been arrested in the last few years for using their appointments to pad their pockets. In spite of these arrests, the ever arrogant Johnson thought he was above it all.

The height of his brain-clouding arrogance was Jack Johnson's incredibly stupid last few minutes before he and his wife were arrested. As the FBI descended on his home, his wife called him in a panic and this is the conversation that ensued:

"Don't answer it [the door]," Jack Johnson told his wife, according to the records. He told her to go to a bedroom drawer and grab a check from a developer--believed to be for $100,000, agents wrote. Leslie Johnson asked if she should get rid of cash that was in the drawer as well.

"Tear it up!" he said of the check. She asked about cash that was in the basement. "Put it in your bra and walk out or something...."

Mrs. Johnson must have gone from a 32B to a 38DD with almost $80,000 stuffed in her bra when she met the agents looking like Pamela Anderson. It really didn't matter, though, that she looked ridiculous. The FBI had it all on tape. They had been wiretapping Jack's cell phone since January of this year.

Now, one might think the county executive had no clue he was under suspicion. When others in his administration had been arrested and search warrants had been served in 2008 on the homes and offices of two of his top aides, ya think he would have had an inkling he was being watched. Heck, I was told over a year ago by folks in the know (that would be anyone on the Prince George's County police force who despises Johnson because of his strong anti-law enforcement attitude and any one of the employees of the county government) that he was going to go down.

He was so well known as a crook that when his office asked if Jack Johnson could come to my home to have a photo op with my pet pig (the famous Gwendolyn, who the county tried to send off to die after she had lived on my property for twenty years) I told them, "No, only one swine allowed on the property at a time."

Yet, Jack seemed to think he was above it all and kept right on wheeling and dealing. It apparently never occurred to him that his phones were tapped. Stupidity or arrogance? I would say arrogance.

Arrogant to the very end, Johnson vows to finish out the last three weeks of his term declaring he is innocent of any wrongdoing. His equally arrogant wife/partner-in-crime is planning to be sworn in on December 6 as one of our new council members.

County government "won't be impacted in the least," county spokesperson Jim Keary said.

Thanks, Jim! That is comforting....

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