Autopsy reports: Man who fled to California killed girlfriend, her two kids with fentanyl
Autopsy reports from the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that a mother and her two children who were found murdered in March all died from fentanyl poisoning.
Benjamin Joseph Taylor, 35, was arrested in California in March in the murder of his girlfriend, Markayla Johnson, 22, and her kids, Miracle, 4, and Messiah, 7 months.
Police have not commented on a motive.
According to an autopsy report, Markayla Johnson had fentanyl in her body, as well as Naloxone, a medicine that can help reverse an opioid overdose.
Johnson’s children were also both found with fentanyl in their systems. A medical examiner found fentanyl to be the cause of death for all three.
Miracle also had bruises around her face and neck.
“The focal small bruises located around the jaws are consistent with marks that are made when an adult hand grabs tightly or squeezes around the jaw/mouth area,” the autopsy report said.
And Messiah also had cocaine, diphenhydramine, and melatonin in his body. The cocaine was “contributory” to his death, the report said. It’s not clear what role the diphenhydramine and melatonin played in his death, but they are known to be sedating and “are likely contributory.”
Johnson and Taylor met online in 2023, the autopsy report said. She then moved with her kids from South Carolina to his apartment in Charlotte.
Her family had last spoken with her in January, the report said, and started receiving “strange” text messages they did not think were actually coming from her. The family requested several welfare checks, but when law enforcement went to the apartment, they “were unable to locate anyone home at that listed residence.”
A person with the leasing office at the apartment also went into the apartment in February to take photos, as the lease was coming to an end, and did not see anything suspicious or out of place, the report said. Neighbors told police they did not see or hear anything suspicious during another welfare check in March.
The family was reported missing on March 3, officials said previously.
On March 15, police searched the apartment in the 400 block of Orchard Trace Lane in northeast Charlotte and found Johnson’s body in a large plastic storage bin in the bedroom closet. Her two children were later found in the trunk of Taylor’s car.
Taylor fled to Slab City, a remote desert community in southern California near the Mexican border. Imperial County investigators previously said he was arrested after “a suspicious call” made from Slab City’s “Church of Enlightenment,” which referenced a man wanted for murder.
He was extradited to North Carolina in April, CMPD previously said in a press release. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of concealing or failing to report a death, court documents said. He is also facing a habitual felon charge.
An administrative hearing in Taylor’s case is scheduled for Aug. 22 at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
