2 Brokers Murdered

Former high school star wrestler, model were mortgage brokers

December 7, 2004

By PATRICK CROWLEY

After a career working in the real estate and mortgage industries, the 37-year-old Johnson had recently started his own mortgage brokerage, KBK Capital, in Chicago.

He was a former U.S. Navy medic who had a second career as a successful fashion model.

He was a caregiver to a 67-year-old friend who was bound to a wheelchair after suffering multiple strokes.

And he had a wife and a three-year-old daughter.

But at about 6:30 on the morning of Nov. 30, a boater found Johnson’s lifeless body near the entrance to Lovers Key State Park near Fort Myers Beach, Fla. According to a statement from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson apparently died of stab wounds to his chest.

Grieving friends and colleagues were left wondering what happened to Johnson, who was in southwest Florida on a business trip to consummate a deal.

Farley said Johnson flew to Florida on Nov. 29, was scheduled to have meetings most of the day on Nov. 30 and then fly back home to Chicago.

“We’re just shocked,” friend Pam Farley said in an interview with MortgageDaily.com. “It’s just so senseless and tragic. He was an amazing guy, a great guy. Everybody who knew him liked him.”

Farley’s father, Philip Farley Sr., a real estate developer, was a mentor to Johnson and the two were close friends. After Farley’s father had strokes Johnson helped care for him.

“He loved being around my dad, they were the best of friends,” Farley said. “He helped care for him. That’s the kind of guy he was.”

Johnson also worked as a fashion model for the Stewart Agency in Chicago, said his agent, Wade Childress.

“He did very well for us, he was a good person,” Childress told MortgageDaily.com.

Farley said Johnson appeared in magazines and clothing advertisements.

Police would not say if Johnson was killed in the park, or if his body was dumped there. His wallet and cell phone were not taken but police refused to confirm if Johnson’s money and credit cards were missing.

Johnson leaves behind his wife, Benedicte, and his 3-year-old daughter, Kaisa. His firm was named from the first initials of his name along the names of his wife and daughter.

The story of Johnson’s death was reported in the Chicago and south Florida media. While families and friends sometimes shun the media after the loss of a loved one, Farley said something good can come out of the attention Johnson’s tragic death is receiving.

Farley said she is saving all of the news stories for when Johnson’s daughter grows up.

“Someday she will ask what happened to her daddy,” Farley said. “I want her to read about her father so she knows who he was and how much people cared for him.”

In North Long Beach, New York, Robert Calabrese, 24, was shot several times in the back of the head and left lying on the ground outside his idling 2003 Infiniti, according to the New York Post. Calabrese was reportedly a mortgage broker and a regular Top 10 wrestler in the state while attending high school in the mid-1990s.

Police at the scene speculated the execution-style killing resulted from what seemed to be a meeting with another individual that went awry, the Post reported.

Patrick Crowley is a political reporter and columnist and former business writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Email Patrick at: pcrowley@enquirer.com