The daughters of a missing Bronx woman were relieved to know their mother was alive and at a local hospital after receiving disturbing texts indicating she was dead. Arlena Johnson, 45, later called one of her daughters and confirmed she was at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx borough of New York City.
“She called us and said she was in a hospital,” Ashannia Johnson, the middle daughter of Arlena Johnson, told PIX11 News. Arlena Johnson also reportedly called her sister, Rae Dean, who lives in Pennsylvania, to let her know she was alive at the hospital. “She said, ‘I heard that I was dead,'” Dean told PIX11 News. “I said, ‘We got some horrible texts.'”
Arlena Johnson's oldest daughter received strange text messages from her mother's phone on Christmas Day stating her mother was dead.
“Around 8 or 9 p.m. on Christmas, my mom’s boyfriend and my older sister received a text message stating my mother was raped and murdered,” Ashannia Johnson said, according to PIX11.
The unidentified person sent several text messages to Arlena Johnson's oldest daughter, including the text: “Your mother is in Brooklyn Hospital." Another text read, "I'm sorry, she's dead."
The family continued to receive puzzling text messages about Arlena Johnson reportedly fighting 'for her life' before she was presumed dead.
“I have to pay attention to where they taking her. She fought for her life,” another message reportedly read.
Dean said she tried to file a missing person's report over the phone, but she was told her sister had an outstanding criminal warrant, PIX11 reported.
Arlena Johnson's boyfriend, who also lives in the Bronx, forwarded the disturbing text messages he received to his phone, according to the news outlet. “Imma get in trouble,” the alleged text to the woman’s boyfriend read. “They’re trying to put her in a f—– up situation. Please u can’t tell who I am she’s asked about u so please come in the morning and claim her body …”
Dean reportedly called multiple hospitals in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens looking for her sister.
“We checked Brooklyn Hospital,” she said. “No Jane Does. Nobody with my sister’s description. No description of anyone coming in with an overdose or as a homicide.”
On Thursday, the NYPD said they didn't receive any missing persons report for Arlena Johnson at the Bronx precinct near where she lives.
The chief medical examiner's offie also was notified and called Arlena Johnson's family members on New Year's weekend to gather more information about the woman before realizing the 47-year-old had called her family on Friday.
Arlena Johnson reportedly had a history of substance abuse, and her two daughters were placed in foster care when they were younger.
The sisters however, maintained a close relationship with their mother and had plans to spend Christmas Day with her. Although they couldn't enjoy their mother's cooking as they had hoped, the siblings were thankful to learn Arlena Johnson was alive.
Still, the entire ordeal remains a mystery. "We don’t know who wrote those texts,” Ashannia Johnson asserted via PIX11.
