Mysterious Labor Day weekend slaying of 93-year-old great-grandmother who lived alone leads to stunning arrests of 14-year-old girls

Joanne Johnson appears inset against an image of her home where she was brutally murdered.

Inset: Joanne Johnson (Obituary). Background: The Augusta home where she was killed (Kansas Bureau of Investigation).

A heartbroken son. Wholly baffling cruelty weighing down the loss. A placid community riven by gruesome, seemingly senseless violence. New details were revealed this week in the mysterious death of a nonagenarian Kansas woman who authorities believe was murdered by two teenage girls in her own home on Labor Day weekend last year.

Joanne Johnson, 93, was slain by two 13-year-old girls, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The accused did not know the woman they allegedly killed. To this day, the motive remains elusive.

On Tuesday, Johnson’s family revealed that she was beaten — not chopped — to death with a hatchet. The violence was so excessive the victim’s distinguishing physical features had all but disappeared.

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