One year ago this week, Eric Johnson received the most crushing news of his life, followed by "a tremendous, joyous blessing."
On Wednesday, Johnson, 47, will mourn the death of his youngest daughter a year after Kia Johnson was kidnapped and bound with duct tape, and her fetus was sliced from her womb.
The baby, Terrell Kian Johnson, survived, and on Thursday, the family will celebrate his first birthday.
"We decided his birthday would be July 16, because Kia died on July 15, and we can't celebrate that day," he said. "That day was the best and the worst of everything you can imagine. I will never get over that day."
The "ray of sunshine" in Eric Johnson's life the past year is the baby he calls "Kian," whom he is raising along with a cousin. When Kian is with his grandfather, he clutches the blue urn painted with butterflies that contains his mother's ashes.
"He just holds it so tightly, and he won't let go," Johnson said. "It's almost like he knows she's in there."
Kia Johnson was 18 years old and 36 weeks pregnant when police say she met Andrea Curry-Demus, 40, who is awaiting trial on homicide charges connected to Johnson's death in a filthy Wilkinsburg apartment.
They met while the younger woman visited Kian's father, who is incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail. Police found Kia Johnson's remains three days later.
Her father had six small, sterling silver angel charms made, and each contains a small dash of Kia Johnson's ashes. Her pictures sit throughout his McKeesport home, mixed among baby clothes, toys and a high chair.
When Johnson hears his grandson laugh, it's the memory of his daughter's voice that echoes in his mind.
"He looks just like her, he sounds just like her," he said.
The baby is starting to walk, and his favorite food is chicken wings, Johnson said. His birthday party probably will include a clown, Johnson said.
Johnson has been struggling to sleep and crying a lot as the anniversary of his daughter's death approaches, he said. On Wednesday, he'll probably be "lying on the couch, trying to pretend all of this just didn't happen."
Prosecutors say Curry-Demus lured the young woman to her apartment to steal the baby and then tried to pass off Johnson's son as her own. She's in a state mental hospital until a judge decides whether she is competent to stand trial.
Defense attorney Christopher Patarini visited her Friday but said he could not discuss details of the case or what they talked about. He said the hospital is a much better setting for her than the county jail but could not say when she might be ready for trial.
It wasn't the first time Curry-Demus was accused of trying to take a baby.
Doctors found Curry-Demus to have major depression and a mixed personality disorder during examinations in connection with two other criminal cases involving acquiring babies.
In May 1990, several months after Curry-Demus said she had a miscarriage, she stabbed a woman in an apparent plot to steal her newborn, according to court records. The next day, she kidnapped a baby from a hospital.
She pleaded guilty in 1991 to kidnapping, concealing the whereabouts of a child and related offenses, and was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison. She pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was placed on probation for 10 years. She was released in August 1998.
Johnson is struggling with his feelings about Curry-Demus.
"I know I should forgive her; I know that's the right thing to do," he said. "But that woman didn't care about my daughter. She cut my daughter open, stole my grandson and then had a baby shower. She isn't crazy. She knew exactly what she was doing."
Johnson said that in the past year, he has been so depressed he quit his job as a customer service representative. He said he stays up most nights watching television and remembering when his daughter was sitting next to him on the couch, laughing and mimicking funny voices.
"I try to remember the good times and concentrate on that," Johnson said. "But I will make sure Kian knows who his mother is. There's no doubt about that. That's all I have now. It's what I hold onto. Because losing her that way has just about killed me, too."
