Toronto, Ontario — June 20, 2019 – A connection that many in the automotive industry share is the love and interest in reading about the cars they make, repair, and drive. For automotive journalist, David “Davey” Gordon Johnson, his passion was writing about it. And now Johnson is missing.
On the morning of June 5, Johnson, 44, took a vehicle out for a test drive for a magazine he was writing for when he disappeared near Mokelumne Hill, California.
The motorcycle he had taken out was found parked on the side of a river, with his gloves, helmets and clothing folded up next to it alongside his backpack, phone and wallet.
Police predict that he went into the river for quick swim as he sent one of his friends a picture of himself hanging out in front of it earlier that morning.
Johnson’s friends, family, and co-workers have reported that Johnson is an incredibly adventurous and resourceful man.
“He was in his element,” said Chris Cantle, editor of a motorcyclist magazine and friend of Johnson. “The thing that makes me adore the guy made him go missing. That’s hard to reconcile”.
Up until Wednesday of this week, the police had treated the case as an active search and not one for recovering a body.
Johnson wrote for several automotive publications such as CARandDRIVER, Road&Track, Autoweek, Jalopnik, and Popular Mechanics
According to the many publications that he’s written for, Johnson’s work is “enthusiastic” and “highly respected”. Readers in the collision repair and automotive industry also celebrated his work.
“His stories about cars and bikes were really vignettes about love and song and culture, they burst across boundaries and mingled, loosely anchored by some conveyance but never beholden to it,” wrote friend and fan of Johnson, Alex Kiersten.
It was announced on Wednesday that search efforts have halted as more than 2 weeks have passed without a significant lede in the case. Police are now considering this a case of accidental drowning.
If anyone has any information on Johnson’s location or on the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, contact the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office at (209) 754-6500
