A judge ruled Thursday that a double-murder case can proceed against the Newport News man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and daughter eight years ago.
Keir Johnson, 34, and her 8-month daughter, Chloe, vanished on April 30, 2017, after heading out for an afternoon trip to Hampton's Buckroe Beach.
Their bodies were never found.
Carlos Andrew Johnson Jr. -- Keir's former boyfriend and Chloe's father -- was the chief suspect from the very beginning, law enforcement sources said. But it was only earlier this year that Newport News prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to move forward.
Johnson, 47, was arrested in February and charged with two counts of first-degree murder -- only the second time that Newport News prosecutors have filed murder charges without a body.
After a lengthy preliminary hearing Thursday in Newport News, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Esther L. Wiggins -- a retired Alexandria jurist substituting on the case -- found probable cause to move the case forward.
Wiggins certified the charges to a Newport News Circuit Court grand jury that meets in early September. If the panel indicts Johnson, the case will be set for trial.
According to court documents, when Johnson learned in 2016 that Keir Johnson -- his on-again, off-again girlfriend -- was pregnant, he pushed her to get an abortion. But Keir instead gave birth to a daughter in August 2016 and named her Chloe.
Keir's family members told police that Johnson wouldn't pay child support, leading to arguments. He also questioned whether he was actually Chloe's father, getting a November 2016 paternity test, which established that he was.
About 2:30 p.m. on April 30, 2017, Keir and Chloe left the Hampton home that they shared with Keir's mother and siblings, according to a criminal complaint affidavit.
Keir told family she was taking the baby to the beach that Sunday afternoon, and only took "limited supplies." But they never returned, with her mother releasing a heartfelt plea to the community to find her.
Police learned that the couple had previously argued in front of coworkers at Smithfield Packing.
Two months before the disappearances, the affidavit said, Johnson ran internet searches on his phone for "accidental baby deaths," as well as "can rat poison kill you" and "how much rat poison is needed to kill a human."
On Jan. 23, 2017, Johnson searched on the internet, asking "is forced fatherhood fair." He also asked "should men be forced to pay for children they didn't want," and what would happen "if a man is tricked into fathering a child they don't want."
On Feb. 9, 2017, he asked whether a man has to pay child support if he had wanted an abortion and given the woman money for it.
The affidavit doesn't say whether Keir and Chloe ever made it to Buckroe Beach. But they were at Carlos Johnson's home on 35th Street within an hour of leaving home, according to GPS tracking data.
A phone call from Keir to a friend at 3:31 p.m. -- saying she and the baby would be coming by in 10 minutes -- was the last call made from Keir's phone.
When the friend called Keir at 4:37 p.m. wondering where they were, Keir didn't pick up. Then the phone "lost contact with the network."
Later that afternoon, Johnson, then 38, went to a Suffolk Walmart and bought new pants and a shirt, according to store surveillance footage.
An acquaintance of Johnson's was interviewed by detectives, telling them Johnson sold him a couch in the evening of April 30, 2017. The sofa "looked brand new," the man told police, saying he didn't know why Johnson was "giving it away."
The man also said that later that evening, he and Johnson got into Keir's sedan. The man said Johnson backed the car into his own driveway and "accessed the trunk."
The men then drove across the James River Bridge, turning off their cellphones before driving across the water. Once in Isle of Wight County, the affidavit said, Johnson told the man to turn off near a Raceway gas station near Ragged Island.
The man said he parked, and that Johnson "accessed the trunk" again, the affidavit said. "Mr. Johnson walked toward the marsh area and was gone a short time."
Once he got back into the car, the men drove over the bridge back to Newport News and abandoned Keir's car at a mobile home park off Jefferson Avenue. The witness said Johnson told him to "wipe down the interior of the vehicle" before they left.
Police found the sedan a couple weeks later.
Five days after that, police searched Johnson's home on 35th Street, finding blood under the carpet that matched Keir Johnson, according to the affidavit.
Johnson is being held pending trial at the Newport News City Jail.