Test results might yield clues to body's identity

Web posted September 22, 1997

By Tracie Powell
Staff Writer

Investigators should find out today whether a body they found in Warren County last week is that of a missing Covington, Ga. woman.

A woman's body was found in a 55-gallon drum in Norwood last Thursday. Warren County and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents believe it is that of Patricia Reagin, 38, who has been missing since Aug. 29, Sheriff Joe Peebles said Sunday.

Marvin and Wanda Johnson were found dead earlier this month in their Covington home in an apparent murder-suicide, Sheriff Peebles said.

``Someone, a brother or somebody, relayed to police how Mr. Johnson said he'd also killed another woman he'd had a connection with - allegedly a girlfriend who he had hidden on some property he owned,'' he said. ``They were checking various counties ... he did own property in Warren County.''

After obtaining a search warrant last Thursday, Warren County officials, in conjunction with GBI, Newton County and Covington investigators found the woman's body in an abandoned building that used to be Norwood Middle School.

The woman had been in the barrel for at least three or four weeks, said Sheriff Peebles. Investigators are awaiting autopsy results to determine how the woman died and to positively identify her as the missing woman.

Norwood is about 55 miles west of Augusta.