Taking Alex

Kristen Pflum

Alex Johnson had it all. He was brilliant, an avid outdoorsman, a talented chef, artist and botanist with friends all over the world. In 2013, days shy of his 33rd birthday, Johnson vanished after wrapping up a phone call with his girlfriend. For more than a month, the Johnson family did everything to try and find him. They held vigils, organized searches, brought in specialized K-9's and put up billboards. But Alex was dead. Beaten in the back of a Mercedes Benz, his body put in a barrel and rolled into a frigid Kentucky river. And one of his best...