Johanna had been "seduced" in St. Louis about four years earlier and bore a child out of wedlock. The father was sued for seduction and paid $125 as a settlement but refused to marry Johanna. Afterward, the young woman began leading a somewhat reckless life, and at the time of her death, it was reported that "her reputation was not good." Recently she'd started staying out late at night and "running with colored men." Many people thought her death might have something to do with the wild lifestyle she'd been leading, but no definite suspect was identified at first.
Interviewed on the 24th, Mayor Ed Stephens of Sedalia said he had employed Johanna for the past six months as a domestic but that he'd let her go just the evening before her death because her imprudent behavior had become too much to put up with.
Described as "very good looking," Johanna had several boyfriends, both white and black. A young man she'd known in Germany before the family emigrated to the United States had been writing to her and wanted her to come to Nebraska, where he lived, and marry him. She was reportedly thinking about taking him up on the offer, and he had even sent her money to make the trip. Two young black men in Sedalia were also vying for her affections. One of them, Dick Robinson, was employed by Mayor Stephens, who'd also employed Johanna. However, Stephens said his "boy" was home when the crime was thought to have been committed, and the mayor vouched for Robinson's character.
An inquest after Johanna's death determined that she was pregnant again and that the fetus was about four months old. One theory of the crime was that Johanna had told the father about the unborn baby, that she and the father had argued, and that he'd killed her in the struggle. This did not tally exactly with the fact that she had supposedly been raped. When Johanna's body was re-examined, it was decided that she might not have been raped after all but had, instead, merely had normal sex.
Despite the mayor's vote of confidence in Robinson, suspicion began to settle on him over the next day or two. Evidence against him was uncovered, and, when he was questioned, his story contained inconsistencies. It was learned that he, like the white man in Nebraska, also wanted to marry Johanna, and she had consulted her uncle, who lived in Sedalia, about it. The uncle had advised her against it, telling her that "she would disgrace the whole family by marrying a negro." Investigators thought that perhaps Johanna had turned Robinson down in his offer of marriage, and he had reacted violently.
On the afternoon of October 25, Robinson was arrested, and later that evening he was moved to the Moniteau County Jail at California because of rumors of mob violence in Sedalia. The Pettis County sheriff visited Robinson at California the next day, and the prisoner gave a confession. He said he was with Johanna on Sunday night the 23rd and that they got into an argument about Taylor Williams, the other black man whom Johanna had been spending time with. Robinson claimed Johanna called him a son of a bitch, drew a knife, and came at him with it, threatening to kill him. He knocked her down but she got up and came at him again. He knocked her down again, took the knife away, and held her down. Finally he let her up and gave her back the knife, but she came at him with it yet again. She kept saying that one of them would have to die, and finally he took the knife and stabbed her. He denied that he had outraged the young woman or even that they had been intimate.
Robinson was tried and convicted of first-degree murder. His case was appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, but the justices sustained the lower court's decision. He was hanged at Sedalia on December 15, 1893, a little over a year after the murder.
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