Who was Johnny Whited and what happened to Christopher Alvin Dailey?
JOHNNY WHITED waited 25 years to confess the truth about the murder of Christopher Alvin Dailey.
Dailey died in 1995 but it wasn’t until 2020 that the truth about his death was revealed.
Who was Johnny Whited?
Johnny Whited was 53 when he went to the police to confess to the murder of Christopher Alvin Dailey, which took place in 1995.
He died on June 27, 2022, after he had been suffering from lung cancer, even at the time when confessed.
On November 19, 2020, he went to the police at the Decatur in Alabama to confess to killing Christopher Alvin Dailey who was 26 at the time.
Dailey’s body was found in Lake Chula Vista was found in the area of Decatur on April 26, 1995, dead of a single gunshot wound in the head.
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When he confessed, police struggled to connect him to the murder because he couldn’t remember the date and year when it happened.
Decatur Police Detectice Sean Mukaddam said: “The first thing out his mouth was: ‘I want to confess a murder I did years ago.’
“It’s the kind of phone call you don’t get every day.”
Having been initially skeptical, Mukaddam was careful with Whited and asked him several questions that only the killer would know.
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Mukaddam added: “On the phone, I was a little pessimistic; this kind of thing just doesn’t happen.
“Confessions take time to get to that point – you don’t start with the confession and work backward.
Whited showed the exact location of where he murdered and submerged Dailey’s car.
Mukaddam further said: “Yeah, he could have rehearsed it, but it really started to click then.
“He gave me the specifics about the vehicle and how it entered the river – things only crime scene techs would know.
“He said he was sorry multiple times. He was embarrassed about it; I can tell it had been weighing on him for a long time.
“It’s not an excuse. He killed somebody. He should have come forward all those years ago.”
What happened to Christopher Alvin Dailey?
On April 26, 1995, Decatur police found a dead body after it was reported being found by two teenagers in Russell Road, off Chapel Hill Road.
It was the same day that he was reported missing by his family after he was last seen at an employee meeting at the Huntsville Hilton Hotel, where he worked as a server.
The teenagers found his body while collecting leaves for a nature collection.
Then-Coroner Gene Shelton deemed identified the male body to be Christopher Alvin Dailey and deemed his death to be a homicide from a gun shot to the head.
His ID and wallet were found in his car.
His vehicle – a 1983 tan Toyota Tercel – was found half submerged in the Tennessee River in Mallard Fox Industrial Park.
According to police, the car had a rock tied to the accelerator.
At that time, the police didn’t have any suspects, witnesses, discovered weapons or any motives.
They described it as a “real whodunit” and couldn’t move forward for years.
What happened to Johnny Whited?
Johnny Whited was jailed at first on a $15,000 bond.
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However, he had been out of jail since November 19, 2020, after he paid his dues.
He then went on to live his life until he lost his battle with cancer on June 27, 2022.