An adorable two year-old girl died an avoidable death after her father downed 30 beers then got behind the wheel and crashed his truck.
Christopher Johnson, 44, was fleeing from police in his Chevy pickup truck with his 20-month-old daughter, Addison ‘Addi’ Jo, when he killed his little girl and himself in March 2020 by driving off an embankment and into a river.
Addi’s body wasn’t found until a month later and had been trapped in a beaver dam.
More than four years after their deaths, Johnson’s fiancee and Addison’s heartbroken mom, Janelle Sharbutt Johnson, is working to raise awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving – particularly on the festive holiday of New Year’s Day.
‘Addison and her father went into the river due to bad choices made by alcoholism,’ Janelle previously told KWCH 12News.
She still grapples with the loss of her daughter and questions why Johnson would get behind the wheel with their child when he was three times over the legal limit.
‘There’s a lot of anger, there’s a lot of grief. I wonder why,’ she told KSNW this week.
Today she is an advocate speaks on the panel for the DUI Victims Center of Kansas. ‘I speak because I want to hopefully keep one person from experiencing something like this,’ she said in part.
On New Year’s Eve, she posted a picture of her daughter with angel wings. ‘Please don’t drink and drive, she wrote.
‘If anyone needs a ride, please call me! Think about and remember Addi!
Johnson had just picked up his daughter from daycare because she wasn’t feeling well and reassured his wife, they would be ‘fine.’
But after a friend spotted Johnson in a store buying alcohol Janelle called the Butler County Sheriff’s authorities to perform a welfare check.
Police found Johnson in a field near Little Walnut River with his daughter on his lap. There was no car seat in the truck, and they discovered he had been drinking.
When they tried to take his child from him he refused and drove off.
During the chase, Johnson’s truck crossed the field, drove off the embankment and plunged into the river with the with the truck landing on its top.
It took emergency crews 90 minutes to reach the deceased Johnson, who was found trapped inside the vehicle, with its rear window smashed.
Police believed Addison had gone out threw the window.
Her body wasn’t recovered until April, a month after the devastating tragedy, with Addi’s remains found jammed in a beaver dam.
Police believe that alcohol played a role in the tragic accident.
Johnson keeps her daughter’s memory alive by sharing her story, and has designated March 11 as ‘Addi’s Day.’
The bridge at Little Walnut River located in Leon, south of El Dorado, where the accident took, serves as a memorial with pink balloons, ribbons, and teddy bears.
When people pass they honk their horns in remembrance, Jones said.
Johnson, a father of five from his first marriage, worked as a mechanic and electrician.
Family members remembers Baby Addison Jo as ‘the sweetest little girl who would always leave a smile on your face.’