Laura Johnson

• Missing Since 09/13/2018
• Missing From Billings, Montana
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Age 49 years old
• Height and Weight 5'4, 130 - 140 pounds
• Medical Conditions Johnson has a history of mental health problems, for which she has been hospitalized in the past, and also a history of heroin addiction. For about a month prior to her disappearance she went to a methadone clinic every day and was given the drug to prevent opiate withdrawal symptoms. She will become sick with complete opiate withdrawal if she goes without methadone for more than three days.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Buick Park Avenue (accounted for), White 2012 Chevrolet Silverado crew cab pickup truck
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Johnson has a tattoo of a bird around her ankle. She may use the last name Braaten.

Details of Disappearance

Johnson was last seen in Billings, Montana on September 13, 2018. She has never been heard from again. She had moved to Billings four months prior to her disappearance to be with her sometime boyfriend of several years, Gregory Scott Green, at a rented mobile home in the 300 block of south Windsor Circle. A photo of Green is posted with this case summary.

When Johnson arrived in Billings, she had no car, no bank account and no job. She found a position delivering pizzas for Papa John's, and Green let her drive his personal vehicle, a Buick Park Avenue.

She and Green broke up several weeks before she went missing and she was sleeping in a separate bedroom at the residence, subletting from Green. She told a provider at the methadone clinic she attended that Green kept her from carrying cash, not even enough to take the bus, and that "things weren't working out" between them, but when asked directly, she said she thought she was safe with him.

After Johnson's disappearance, Green said she had packed her belongings in "two red suitcases" and simply left, never to return, leaving Green's Buick and keys behind. He speculated she had moved back to Oregon to be with her family. She also has ties to Nevada and to Spokane, Washington, where she'd previously lived with a sister.

None of Johnson's relatives have heard from her since September 2018, which is uncharacteristic of her; she always kept in touch, even during her struggles with drug addiction, and never went more than a day or two without responding to her son's messages. The staff at the methadone clinic said she'd been making a lot of progress in treatment and seemed committed to her recovery, but she suddenly stopped showing up. She also stopped going to work without giving notice.

When Green initially moved to Billings with Johnson and got a job at Architectural Doors and Hardware, he told his boss he wanted a fresh start after the death of his wife, who was found dead when their daughter returned home one night. After Johnson went missing, Green's boss and other employees at his company became suspicious, looked up Green's wife obituary, and learned the couple had been divorced and would not have been living together at the time of her death in 2016.

In the days following his statement to police after Johnson's disappearance, Green suddenly left town. He didn't give notice at Architectural Doors and Hardware, and he left behind numerous items at his rented home, including speakers, kitchen appliances and chairs, which he never tried to reclaim.

He drove back to Nevada, where he'd lived before moving to Billings. In April 2019, Green was arrested in Henderson, Nevada and charged with deliberate homicide in Johnson's case. He has a history of domestic violence, and surveillance video from the couple's neighbor's home showed Johnson walking into her residence on September 13 and never coming out.

The video showed Green on the evening of September 14, taking a large heavy object wrapped in a red blanket out of the garage and putting it in the cab of his work vehicle, a white 2012 Chevrolet Silverado crew cab pickup truck. A photo of the truck is posted with this case summary. After putting the blanket-wrapped object in his truck, Green started a small fire on the driveway toward the rear of the truck.

Cellular phone data shows Green and Johnson's phones were together with him as he drove in a rural area south of Billings the day after Johnson disappeared, and blood was later found in his pickup truck.

He is known to have replaced the carpet and carpet pad in a back bedroom in his house just days after Johnson disappeared. The original carpeting was repurposed in another room in the house, but a 30-by-15-inch piece was cut out and couldn't be accounted for. Johnson's two red suitcases, which she took with her to Billings when she moved there and which Green said she took with her when she left, are also missing.

On September 14, the evening after Johnson's disappearance, Green's work truck was seen driving across the Yellowstone River Bridge south of Laurel, Montana. The truck was sighted again on the early afternoon of September 15, in the Shepherd, Worden and Huntley, Montana areas. Authorities believe it was used in the disposal of Johnson's body and asked people to be on the lookout for any possible grave sites, as well as two red rectangular suitcases, south of Laurel.

Green was tried in early 2020, and was convicted in March, in spite of his defense's argument that the prosecution had not met the burden of proof. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison, the maximum allowed under state law. He will become eligible for parole after serving 25 years.

Johnson's body has never been found. Both Montana and Nevada authorities are investigating.