Murder mystery: Why was Jeff Johnson gunned down outside his Hamilton home?

Jeff Johnson was a man of routine.

He left his West 4th Street bungalow on the Hamilton Mountain at 6 a.m. every workday. He'd drive his well-used 2002 Mercedes Benz to the yard of the small concrete business where he worked. From there, he would go to whatever job site they were working that day.

At the end of the day, he would drive home to his wife, Christine Garrett, and their two children. At work, he was the likable, dependable employee. At home, he was the fun dad, setting up Nerf gun games at the doorway or pasta fights at dinner time.

The messages in his phone records reveal no secrets. They're predictably normal: Takeout tonight? Maybe Harvey's?" He was a homebody. A husband. A dad. A son. An average guy.

We never spent a night apart from each other in over 10 years," Garrett says.

She still sometimes feels like he's going to walk through their door. But Jeff Johnson isn't coming home.

Someone else knew Johnson was a man of routine. And early on the morning of Dec. 6, 2019, there was a killer - or killers - waiting for him as he left the house that cold, dark day.

Nobody heard a gunshot. But a neighbour found the 39-year-old on the ground outside his car about half an hour later. The 911 call came at 6:38 a.m.

In the days leading up to his death, Johnson was being followed by what police believe is a dark grey 2016-2017 Honda Accord sport or Touring V6 model, with silver door handles, four doors, sport rims, a sunroof and dual exhaust.

Now nearly a year later, Garrett, her sister Nicole Griffo, and Johnson's mom, Lori Schaller, are seated at one end of a row of tables arranged in a square inside a large room at the Hamilton Police Service's investigative services building. At another end are Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk, case manger with the major crime unit, and Det. Dave Brewster, the lead detective on Johnson's case.

They are hopeful this unusual and candid conversation will help them out of what seems to be a dead end - police have no idea who killed Johnson or why. The murder remains a mystery.

Right out of the gate, (we) had concerns about the lack of evidence," Bereziuk says. And here we are, a year later admitting that this is where we're at."

It is common for police to hold back information. And that is true in this case. For instance, police will not talk about the shooting itself: how many shots were fired, ballistics evidence, autopsy results, what the video surveillance shows of the exact movements of the suspect vehicle.

That's all we have," Bereziuk says, explaining that is information only the killer or killers would know.

But the truth is, despite detectives taking some real interesting and drastic steps to dig into people's backgrounds," they have no suspects and no motive.

Police do not know if they're dealing with criminal masterminds who plotted a perfect" murder, covering their tracks so well that it is near impossible to solve, or if they are looking for criminals who botched the job and mistakenly targeted the wrong man.

Detectives have not ruled out any possible motives, Brewster says. This includes the possibility that it was a case of mistaken identity.

But this is the mind-bender" for detectives, he says. Johnson was being followed and the murder does appear targeted. But why? And by whom?

There is another reason Bereziuk and Brewster believe they need to speak plainly about the case. There has been speculation that Johnson's murder is part of traditional organized crime violence in Hamilton.

Perhaps it's easier for the public to stomach what happened if they assume he was up to no good. Police use the word targeted" only to assuage public concern that attacks are not random. It does not mean a person was targeted for a clear reason.

This has created a certain amount of apathy from the public, Brewster says.

Tips to police have been few and far between. Even a GoFundMe account set up to help Garrett and the kids has raised a paltry $540 after nearly a year.

I (think it's) important to change that narrative," Brewster says.

First, there is the shooting itself. The way Johnson was killed, shot getting into his car outside his home, mirrors recent Mob hits. Then there is the fact that he worked in construction and drove a Mercedes. But police want to put an end to that speculation. There is no evidence Johnson was involved in crime.

The car, while maintained nicely on the outside, was only worth maybe $3,000. He bought it used and it needed a lot of maintenance. Then there is his work. Johnson worked for a small business with only a few employees.

Garrett said her husband had worked there for about six years and everyone was close and got along well. Johnson never complained about conflicts.

Johnson wasn't the type to come home and vent, she says. He was easy going. But she also believes he would have told her if something unsettling had happened to him.

Police also found nothing suspicious tied to his work. He was well-liked and dependable.

We have conducted a complete background on Jeff," Bereziuk said.

Usually, police find something, he said. In most unsolved homicides, detectives have an idea of who or why, they just may not yet have enough evidence to lay charges. But not here.

I think people are scared," Garrett says. We aren't involved in anything."

She finds herself wondering did he anger someone on the road? Did he see something he wasn't supposed to see? None of that makes sense, because he never mentioned anything to her and he didn't appear to know he was being followed.

Police first spotted the suspect vehicle in surveillance footage at the time of the murder. Then as they combed through other footage, they kept seeing it pop up again and again. It was obviously, deliberately following Johnson.

Without a plate, they can't narrow it down. By coincidence, one of the family's neighbours has that car, but police have ruled it out.

Everyone in the area has been co-operative, but the surveillance video they have is limited.

Police don't know if whoever was involved in the murder was using other means to track him. Were other vehicles involved or other elaborate techniques used? Police do not know.

Garrett also points out there was no windfall or big insurance payout when he died. They are just an ordinary family who was trying to get by.

He just was a regular, average guy that made average mistakes," said his mom, Lori Schaller.

Johnson was an artist," she says. He did the walkway in front of her house, doing the details by hand to perfection. Now she can never move, she says.

Johnson grew up in Owen Sound. He met Garrett online and then she invited him to a May 24 party at her house in Burlington. Soon after, they moved to Hamilton together and married at Edgewater Manor in Stoney Creek in August 2017.

He was amazing," Garrett says. He was always fun."

Their kids, now seven and six, talk about him all the time. Garrett has printed photo books and they sit together and talk through their memories - everything from wedding pictures, to family trips to places such as Great Wolf Lodge. They miss his laugh, his jokes.

I can't even cook pasta in my house because I get in trouble if I don't throw the noodles on them, because he would always do that," she says.

Johnson's work was seasonal, so he was often home in the winter. He would be the one waiting for the kids to come home to play. Sundays were and still are for football in the Johnson house. Each family member has their own NFL team to cheer for. For Johnson, it was the New Orleans Saints.

He was forever almost winning" at Proline, the family jokes. But they were just $2 bets.

The last year has been hard, Garrett says. Her children act out and she knows they are grieving. The loss has affected her son particularly hard. While her daughter clings to her, her son was scared. She would have to go around the house with him and triple-check locks on doors and windows.

They ask me questions a lot still too, still ask what happened," she says.

They know that daddy got hurt and he didn't come back out of the hospital. And they know there are some bad people out there.

They miss their dad so much, of course I do too," she says. Sometimes it gets easier, until something takes her right back to that horrific morning.

The family is still in their home, which they rent, in a cul-de-sac near Mohawk Road West and West 5th Street. It's the home where the children are comfortable and have memories of their dad. They have their friends and she has a support team.

The hard part of it is every day just walking out my door," she says.

Some family members cannot bear to be there and have not come back to the house since the day of the murder. Garrett understands that.

For Schaller, it is hard but she knows she needs to come to the house to see Garrett and her grandkids.

I just have to get enough courage up to walk past the place," she says. It's easier with snow on the ground. The city tried to patch the road, but it is still discoloured where Johnson was found dead.

The week of his murder, the family had taken the kids to get pictures with Santa. They had their tree up already and had plans for the holidays. Johnson loved Christmas. It had been Garrett's birthday the day before, Dec. 5. The couple had planned to take a trip to Niagara Falls to celebrate their birthdays, leaving at noon that day.

Johnson's birthday was Nov. 7. This year to mark what would have been his 40th birthday, the family had cupcakes. The kids blew out his candles.

On Sunday to mark the anniversary of Johnson's death, they will gather in the evening for a small, private candlelight vigil.

More than anything the family wants answers. And for the team of detectives from the major crime unit working the case, they want nothing more than to solve this case for Jeff Johnson and his family.

Detectives have looked at everything they can think of. But clearly, everything we can think of isn't the right thing to look at," Brewster says.

For Garrett, there is nothing more to say, except whoever has information needs to come forward.

We're getting very angry," she says. We just want some closure."

Nicole O'Reilly is a Hamilton-based reporter covering crime and justice for The Spectator. Reach her via email: noreilly@thespec.com