Inset, left to right: Daniel Varnes (Saginaw County Jail) and Teressa M. Johnson (Swartz Funeral Home). Background: Authorities at the motel where Varnes killed Johnson (WJRT).
A 47-year-old man in Michigan will spend decades behind bars for torturing and killing his visually impaired girlfriend after locking her in a motel room, where he abused her for more than a week before staying with her body for days.
Daniel J. Varnes pleaded no contest Tuesday to one count each of second-degree murder, torture, and concealing a death in the slaying of Teressa M. Johnson, court records show. Varnes reached a deal with prosecutors to serve 32 years in a state correctional facility.
Johnson”s mutilated body was discovered at the Rodeway Inn and Suites in the 4900 block of St. Mary’s Lane in Saginaw, which is about 100 miles northwest of Detroit, in the early morning hours of Sept. 1, 2024.
According to a report from MLive, Johnson’s body was discovered by a drug dealer who met Varnes at a nearby gas station to sell him crack. But Varnes reportedly took the drugs and ran without paying the dealer the agreed-upon $60. The dealer called Varnes, who told him to come to his motel room.
Inside, the dealer testified that he saw a human body on the bed covered with a blanket as Varnes tried to explain why he stole the drugs. Varnes then gestured toward the bed and told the dealer he also had “this situation going on.”
The dealer then asked what was beneath the covers on the bed, per MLive.
“You know exactly what that is,” Varnes reportedly responded. He then removed the blanket, revealing Johnson’s body, which the dealer said appeared to have been dead for a few days.
Varnes reportedly claimed Johnson had died from injuries she sustained while visiting friends a few days earlier. Noting that no one knew Johnson was with him at the hotel, Varnes indicated to the dealer that it would be easy to dispose of her body.
The dealer left the room and called 911 to report the body. Police arrived shortly after, and Varnes fled the motel on foot, running into the forest nearby. Authorities located him in the woods at about 4 p.m. that day.
During an interview with detectives, Varnes “admitted to committing several acts of brutality” against Johnson, Flint-based ABC affiliate WJRT reported, citing prosecutors. Such acts reportedly included beating the woman with his fists, boots, and various objects as well as using needle-nose pliers on Johnson’s mouth “to shut her up.”
“He had said at one point that he ‘beat the s— out of her,'” a detective reportedly testified. “At one point in the conversation, he said he hit her at least 10 times.”
Inside the motel room, police recovered scissors, a ratchet, side cutters, screwdrivers, and pliers, all of which reportedly tested positive for Johnson’s blood.
An autopsy determined that Johnson’s cause of death was “multiple traumatic injuries, recent and remote with related complications.”
A woman who had been staying next to Varnes for more than two months told WJRT that she had no inkling anything so violent could have been happening in his room.
“Absolutely not, no, for the entire whole two, two and a half months that he has been our neighbor we have seen him every single day,” she told the station.
Varnes is scheduled to appear for his sentencing hearing April 13.
