Jeremy Brilliant/Eyewitness News
Bedford - The colleagues of Eric Johnson, the man believed to have purposely crashed a small plane into his former mother-in-law's house Monday, killing himself and his eight-year-old daughter Emily, are in shock over what happened. They say Johnson gave no clues that he was about to engage in a desperate act.
Jackson-Washington State Forest manager Eric Johnson wanted to reconstruct an old shelter house. Lee Otte offered to help out and the two quickly became friends.
"We spent a hundred hours at least working together on this. Eric was almost always here," Otte said.
"From the Eric that I knew, he was just a wonderful, sincere, conscientious, fun guy to be around," said Otte.
Otte spoke with Johnson last week and everything seemed fine. "Like I said, I just didn't have a clue that he was this close to the edge," she said.
Police say nothing seemed out of the ordinary when Johnson took a rented plane for a flight Monday - until the student pilot with less than four months' experience came crashing into his ex-mother-in-law's house.
Investigators don't think it was premeditated.
"He planned several months ago - I'm going to take pilot lessons and I'm going to do this and this is how I'm going to get even with my wife - we don't know that. Will we turn up anything in the investigation that leads us to that? Possibly, but that's doubtful," said Sgt. Dave Bursten, ISP.
Now Johnson's colleagues can only wonder how a father could take the life of his own daughter. They express total shock at what happened Monday.
"I got the impression Emily was the love of his life," said Otte. "I think the forestry will miss him and we'll miss him as a friend."
