Columbus Woman Pleads Guilty in Murder of 8-Year-Old Son

Posted on 7/15/2025

Defendant: LaShanda Wilder

A Columbus woman has pleaded guilty to murdering her 8-year-old son and concealing his body in an attic while police scoured the neighborhood for the child.
 
On June 15, LaShanda Wilder, 33, pleaded guilty to murder, gross abuse of a corpse and theft from her workplace. Following the recommendation of prosecutors, a judge sentenced Wilder to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, the maximum sentence for a murder conviction.
 
Wilder had initially pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, endangering children and abuse of a corpse. She’s been held in the Franklin County Jail for more than a year on a $2 million bond.
 
Case Background
 
Just after noon on June 28, 2024, Columbus Police were called to the 1000 block of Olmstead Avenue on the report of a missing child.
 
Wilder told officers she’d last seen her son, Martonio Wilder, 8, when she put him to bed the previous night around 9:30 p.m. She said she feared he had run away.
 
After hours of searching the neighborhood, including by police helicopter and cadaver dog, at around 6:20 p.m. police found Martonio’s body hidden in a trash bag in the small attic of his home. By then, Wilder and two other children had left the house — prompting an Amber Alert for the children, who were later found safe with the mother of Wilder’s girlfriend.
 
A subsequent autopsy showed that Martonio had died of asphyxia by neck compression. It also revealed a history of abuse: Martonio had signs of blunt force trauma, including multiple bruises and cuts to his face and head. He was seriously malnourished and dehydrated — his eyes and abdomen were sunken, and his pelvis, collarbone, ribs and kneecaps were clearly visible through his skin. He weighed just 35 pounds.
 
Wilder’s girlfriend, Johnna Lowe, 34, also pleaded guilty to charges of murder and gross abuse of a corpse in Martonio’s death. On June 5, Lowe was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
On July 7, Lowe's mother, Mary S. Johnson, 69, pleaded guilty to a fifth-degree felony charge of obstructing justice and was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence and two years of community control.