Charlene Johnson-Lane

Sunday, February 12, 1978 In 1978, astonishing things happened…many astonishing things. Egypt made peace with Israel, Rhodesia transferred to a black majority rule, and cult leader Jim Jones was responsible for the deaths of hundreds in a mass suicide. In the summer of my second grade year a cross was set on fire by the Ku Klux Klan in the front yard of one of my schoolmate’s houses, because they were a bi-racial family, moved to a very white community. Jesus Christ Superstar closed, we keep records of who won golf championships and figure skating championships, even the price of gasoline. All of these things are etched in our minds forever. Memories that we can research, categorize and trace back to their beginnings. Events that some of us didn’t experience firsthand but witnessed on television or heard adults discussing. Why then are some things so easily forgotten and swept away from our consciousness? One such thing, the death of Charlene Johnson-Lane. Though I didn’t know her personally, it doesn’t make it matter less that she was found dead in a residence at 1616 Walnut Street in Saginaw, Michigan. She was found at 10:30 at night on Sunday, February 12, 1978. No one seems to remember Charlene, no one seems to be able to locate death or birth records on her. The house in which she spent her last moments was torn down in September 2008 and sadly the Cold Case Unit in Saginaw was denied a new grant and closed in October 2010.