Mother sentenced to life for killing 3-year-old daughter

TAWAS, Mich. (WNEM) - A mother was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing her 3-year-old daughter.

On Sept. 17, 2021, officers from the Oscoda Township Police Department responded to a call at a residence in the 5400 block of Cedar Lake Road regarding a small human foot seen protruding from a garbage bag outside a home.

Upon arriving to the scene, police found the remains of 3-year-old Sutton Mosser wrapped in bedding and placed in a garbage bag. The toddler was dressed only in a pink and white disposable diaper, according to court records.

Sutton died from multiple stab wounds.

Police located the toddler’s mother, Justine Johnson, a few hours later. When she was told her daughter had been found dead, officers noted Johnson gave “no reaction to the news of her daughter being deceased and appeared unemotional.”

Johnson was charged with her daughter’s murder and later pleaded guilty to homicide and child abuse on Feb. 14, 2022 after reportedly telling social workers SpongeBob SquarePants told her to kill her daughter.

Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for her daughter’s murder on Monday, March 27, 2023.