Searchers recover body of Rianna Johnson, 16, in rain-swollen creek

Searchers have found the body of a 16-year-old girl who was missing after being swept away Friday in a swollen creek.

Police identified the girl as Rianna Tarell Johnson, a student at Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology.

She and her mother, who also drowned, were chased from a clothing store, suspected of shoplifting.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they received a report of a larceny about 2:20 p.m. Friday at the Burlington Coat Factory in Crown Point Plaza shopping center off East Independence Boulevard.

When police arrived, one person was already in custody. But two others, police said, had fled.

A security guard ran after the two others, apparently chasing them behind the shopping center, down an embankment and into a creek that rose quickly after heavy rain Friday.

The security guard was able to escape the creek and told authorities where he last saw them.

About 4 p.m. Friday, firefighters found 43-year-old Gracie Nell Johnson about an eighth of a mile from where officials said she entered the creek. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Records show Johnson was arrested June 30, charged with felony common law robbery. She was convicted of misdemeanor larceny in 2008, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.

Police sources said searchers walking on foot along the creek's banks found Rianna's body about 1:40 p.m. Saturday. The area where they found her was about a half-mile from where she and her mother entered the creek.

Normally the creek is so shallow one could easily walk across it, said Charlotte Fire Capt. Rob Brisley. But on Friday, it had swollen to about 14 feet deep after heavy rain pounded the Charlotte area.

The security guard was apparently unharmed.

Stephen Johnson, who said he had dated Gracie Johnson for about six years, said she was a giving person known to give food to people when they were down on their luck.

Rianna, who was just two weeks shy of her 17th birthday, was a rising senior at Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology. She was in the school’s ROTC program, Stephen Johnson said, and was considering joining the military after graduation.

“She was happy, friendly, positive,” Stephen Johnson said between tears.

A police crime scene van was parked in front of Burlington Coat Factory on Friday night, as customers continued their shopping.

Employees referred questions to the store's corporate office, which could not be immediately reached for comment.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.