Months after a Baltimore woman was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the horrific deaths of her nephew and niece, official body cam footage from her arrest has been released to the public. Now, the shocking story is going viral online, subsequently traumatizing many viewers of the footage in the process.
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In July 2021, Nicole Johnson, 36, was pulled over in Baltimore County for driving a vehicle without insurance, registration, and with a fake temporary tag, according to ABC 2 News. But soon, officers noticed a horrid smell coming from the car’s trunk, and they moved to investigate further.
This led to the discovery of the decomposed bodies of 7-year-old Joshlyn Johnson and 5-year-old Larry O’Neal, Johnson’s own niece and nephew. The officer’s body camera footage from the night of her arrest shows Johnson attempting to flee once the remains were discovered in a suitcase and container wrapped in layers of garbage bags. It also details the heartbreaking reactions from responding officers, one of which began praying while in the middle of the shocking scene and another who had to stop themselves from throwing up.
The full video has over eight million views as of Monday (July 28) — just one day after it was posted to YouTube. The gut wrenching footage has caused massive uproar online. “Man that body cam footage is so sad she traumatized them officers,” @MsJonesssss_ tweeted.
“Johnson should’ve got the chair for what she did to them babies,” @amaisha_ tweeted. “Smh everybody don’t deserve to raise kids.” Johnson’s neice and nephew were placed in her care by their mother, Dachelle Johnson. She took to a now-deleted GoFundMe page saying, “This is my blood sister, she was my family. The mistake I made in trusting will always fall on me but I never could imagine this outcome.”
Johnson pleaded guilty last year and was given a 50-year sentence in February 2025. Another X user, @_TyJenay, tweeted about the case saying it “just broke my mf heart cause how sick can one be.”
“Those babies were given to you for you to care for them, love them, clothe them nurture them, protect them. And you failed to do so, Nicole. You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” @shamekadelgado said on TikTok.
In the footage, one devastated officer said he was able to tell the age of five-year-old O’Neal because “my daughter turns five Saturday.” @queeniemonay_ responded on X, “I can’t imagine first of all what those babies endured, and secondly, being the officers to discover them.”
“That body cam video of Nicole Michelle Johnson is so sick bro the 50 years she got was a lowball she deserves the death penalty,” @ThattKidRobert said.
Johnson told police she placed seven-year-old Joshlyn’s body in a suitcase and kept it hidden. Two months before being stopped by police, Johnson told police five-year-old O’Neal suffered an injury and went unresponsive, prompting her to place his body in a plastic bag.
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