JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After police said they found the body of Torrance Tremayne Johnson, 40, the man they say jumped off the Mathews Bridge in a bizarre incident Tuesday night, the son of his girlfriend is opening up about the man in the middle of the mystery.
Police said that Johnson took an SUV belonging to his girlfriend, Shatahnya McMillian, Tuesday night, crashed into another car and then jumped off the Mathews Bridge in what they are calling a suicide.
Jaqwon Wright, McMillian's son, said that Johnson was like a father to him and his two brothers and dated his mother for 13 years, but that they had previous problems in their relationship and had just broken up, which Wright said might have sparked the whole situation.
Johnson was arrested by JSO last November for domestic battery on McMillian, but Wright said that though there were problems in the relationship, Johnson was a good man.
"Most people don't know him like we know him. He was a really good person. Most people didn't see that, but we did," Wright said.
Johnson's neighbors are also stunned and trying to piece together exactly what happened.
Ronald Stone lives down the road from Johnson and said that McMillian told him what happened.
"He called her and told her that he loved her and said goodbye. She was real upset," Stone said.
Bizarre incident on Mathews Bridge
After the bizarre incident Tuesday night, police called off the search at about 5:15 a.m. Wednesday for Johnson, who they said jumped into the water after crashing his girlfriend's SUV into another car. Investigators had searched for about seven hours.
According to the incident report, police were looking at the incident as a possible suicide. They said Monday that the investigation is continuing after Johnson's body was found.
According to the FHP report, two SUVs -- a Ford Explorer and a Chevy Captiva -- were heading westbound, just before 10 p.m. Tuesday when Johnson, the driver of the Explorer, switched lanes and for unknown reasons, lost control of his SUV.
The Explorer struck the center median barrier, then struck the wall of the bridge and spun out.
That SUV, then rear-ended the Captiva, driven by Roberta Bruhn, 54, from South Dakota. Bruhn had four other passengers in the vehicle at the time of the crash -- all from out of state.
Johnson then got out of his car and jumped off the bridge.
According to FHP, the damage to the other SUV was minimal, and no one else was injured.