The provocative headline from The Gallup Independent over the weekend sure got our attention.

But far from being another chapter in the long-running JFK conspiracy saga, this is a story about the McKinley County Sheriff's Office continuing investigation of the death of Lyndon Oscar Johnson of Smith Lake, who was found without any clothes on near the Gallup landfill a year ago tomorrow, the Independent reported.

Temperatures went as low as 12 degrees above zero that night, and Johnson died of exposure, according to the Independent. 

While there were no signs of a struggle or a fight, investigators are calling it a suspicious death because Johnson was naked, the paper said.

"The body was found about a mile from the Community Pantry, and he couldn't have traveled that far without any clothes on and not be noticed," sheriff's investigator Merle Bates told the Independent.

Johnson was last seen alive on March 3, 2007 at the Gallup Flea Market and in the parking lot of the Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprise in Window Rock, Ariz., where he was seen in the front passenger seat of a dark or black car that could have been a Pontiac Firebird, witnesses told police.

The witness who saw Johnson in Window Rock said the driver of the car was a Native American male, about 50 years of age with graying hair and a mustache, about 6 feet tall, wearing a white cowboy hat, blue jeans, the Independent reported.

A younger man was seen in the back seat, wearing baggy pants and a pullover shirt, and referred to the driver as "Dad," the paper said.

There was also some evidence that Johnson stopped by his mother's house in Fort Defiance, Ariz., that day and left some of his belongings in a duffel bag, the Independent reported.

Bates said whoever dropped Johnson off at the spot where he was found dead could be facing manslaughter charges, the paper said.

"Robbery could be a motive," Bates told the Independent.

Anyone with information on Johnson's whereabouts last March 3 or about the people he had been with is asked to call Bates at (505) 722-7205.

Or you can call the local Crime Stoppers at (505) 722-6161, which is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of whoever may have been responsible for Johnson's death. 

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