Today was a whirlwind of news in the case of 11-year-old Logan Nicholas Cline, whose body was found in an abandoned vehicle in Wichita Falls, Texas on February 20, 2020.

I’ve covered Logan’s story at length in the past, and this sweet boy has a piece of my heart, which immediately sank when I read today’s VINElink alert:

“NVVINE MSG: STORMY JOHNSON was released on 08/13/21.”

I knew Stormy’s sentence was nearing expiration, but I couldn’t help worrying that she might conveniently disappear before she could be held accountable for her role in her son’s death. Not to worry, as it turns out; Wichita County authorities were very much on top of this, and they even threw in a hefty new charge to boot. Charging documents also give new, horrifying details about the circumstances surrounding Logan’s death.

I’ll get to that, but first, I’ll do a quick overview of Logan’s case, which is both infuriating and heartbreaking.

On February 26, 2020, police in Las Vegas, Nevada responded to a domestic disturbance call involving 31-year-old Corey Trumbull and his girlfriend, 37-year-old Stormy Johnson. The couple, who moved in together in July of 2019, had recently traveled from Texas to Las Vegas, where they were living out of their truck, along with Stormy’s 15-year-old daughter and three dogs.

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Stormy, who told police that Corey beat her with a pipe and choked her with a dog chain, among other brutal acts, suffered from multiple broken bones, bruises, swelling, and lacerations and required orthopedic surgery to repair the damage. She told authorities she spent months dulling her physical and mental pain by doing a great deal of meth.

Corey Trumbull was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in addition to four felony charges: first degree kidnapping; domestic battery with a deadly weapon resulting in significant bodily harm; domestic battery by strangulation; and coercion constituting domestic violence using threat or physical force.

During Stormy’s police interview, she also dropped a bombshell that led Las Vegas police to contact police in Wichita Falls, Texas. The following day, on February 27, 2020, inside a grey older model Ford sedan that had been abandoned for months on Kenley Lane, Wichita Falls police found the remains of Stormy’s 11-year-old son, Logan Nicholas Cline, who Stormy said had died in December of 2019.

Although the results of Logan’s autopsy have not been released, his death is believed to have been caused by blunt force trauma to the head.

Stormy was arrested in Las Vegas on February 29 on a Texas fugitive warrant for tampering with evidence in connection with Logan’s death. Corey, still in custody in Nevada, was charged in Texas, as well; these charges included tampering with evidence and capital murder.

In March of 2020, both Corey and Stormy were charged in Nevada with possession of visual pornography of a person under 16, three charges of sexual assault against a child under 16, two charges of lewd acts committed by a person over 18 with a child of 14 or 15, and child abuse or neglect. I won’t go into those details, but if you want to know more, this post laid everything out on the table.

In May of 2020, both defendants entered plea agreements in their Nevada cases. Stormy pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of child abuse, and her remaining sex abuse charges were dismissed. She was sentenced to 12 to 30 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections with credit for 98 days time served.

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Corey pleaded guilty to two felony charges: lewd acts committed by a person over 18 with a child of 14 or 15 and child abuse. He was sentenced to two to ten years in the Nevada Department of Corrections for the lewdness charge, to run concurrently with his sentence for child abuse, which was two to 5 years. He received time served credit for 149 days. He must register as a sex offender with lifetime supervision, and he was ordered to pay victim restitution just under $1,300.

On his felony charges relating to domestic violence against Stormy, Corey pleaded guilty in June of 2020 to a single felony charge of battery with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to two to ten years, which will also run concurrently with his other sentences. He is currently housed in Nevada’s High Desert State Prison, where his sentence is projected to expire in May of 2025. He may be eligible for parole as early as March of 2022, but based on the swiftness with which the Wichita Falls authorities acted today, I highly doubt parole for Corey would equal freedom.

When Stormy’s Nevada sentence expired today, she was released into the custody of Wichita Falls authorities, who booked her into the Wichita County Jail on not only the evidence tampering charge she received last year, but also a brand new charge of murder. I don’t believe she has been seen in court yet since her return to Texas, so for now, she is being held on recommended bonds of $250,000 for the evidence tampering charge and $1 million for the murder charge.

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Now for the details that hadn’t previously been released. Warning: this story is about to get a lot more infuriating and heartbreaking.

As I previously mentioned, Logan’s body was located in an abandoned car; the Times Record News reported today that the little boy was found in the backseat of the car, covered with articles of clothing.

After meeting in June of 2019 and moving in together within a month, Corey, Stormy, and her two kids lived in room at the Red Roof Inn, within walking distance of the car in which Logan was ultimately found. Stormy told a Wichita Falls police detective last year that she saw Corey beat Logan multiple times while they lived together; she neither reported the abuse nor intervened to stop it.

The same detective conducted a forensic interview of Logan’s 15-year-old sister, who I’ll call L.C.. The girl told the detective that in July of 2019, Stormy met Corey and told her and Logan to pack their things, because they were moving out of their home. At that point, they began bouncing from hotel to hotel and from city to city.

While living with Corey, L.C. told the detective, Logan was abused repeatedly. She gave horrifically detailed descriptions of incidents of abuse that began as soon as the family moved in with Corey and continued until Logan died. L.C. said that in Wichita Falls, Corey beat and abused Logan every day using, among other things, his hands, his feet, a club, and a knife, and often, her mother joined in the beatings. More than once, Logan’s nose was broken; he was also cut, and his body was bruised from head to toe, but he was never taken for medical treatment.

According to L.C., Logan was beaten for no reason, and to add insult to injury, he was forced to sleep in a closet, away from the rest of the family.

L.C. described sexual abuse committed against both herself and her brother by both Corey and their mother. Logan’s sexual abuse, she said, involved bestiality on several occasions. During the interview, L.C. became emotional and broke down crying, as well as becoming angry that Stormy did nothing to protect her and Logan.

About two weeks before Logan died, L.C. said, Corey “stomped” on her brother’s head. After that, Logan no longer acted like himself, and he was no longer able to speak clearly.

On the night of Logan’s death, Corey and Stormy beat the boy relentlessly and repeatedly with a belt, a stick, and their hands, L.C. said, adding, “They just kept hurting him.”

Logan began having seizures. The couple tried feeding him soup, but he coughed up blood and soon became unresponsive. When he was unable to find a pulse, Corey attempted CPR, but before long, he told Stormy and her daughter that Logan was gone. Corey put Logan’s body into the bathtub, which Stormy filled with cold water; then, they both put ice on him. His body stayed in the bathtub until they moved it, ostensibly to hide it in the abandoned car, after which they skipped town and headed for Vegas.

The Times Record News reported that on December 14, 2019, a Wichita Falls police officer performed a welfare check on L.C. and Logan at the Red Roof Inn, speaking with both children. Stormy did not attempt to report any type of abuse to the officer, who later reported that a dog crate in the room contained two dogs.

On December 28, 2019, the family was evicted from the hotel room for non-payment. Two police officers stood by while Corey, Stormy, and L.C. were evicted; Logan was not present, and Stormy did not attempt to report her son’s abuse or death.

I swear, just when I think Logan’s story couldn’t get any more awful and tragic, more details like those come out and prove me wrong. This story is one of the most gut-wrenching I’ve ever covered, and my heart hurts for Logan, for his sister, for his dad, and for everyone who loved him.

Click here for my ongoing coverage of Logan’s story.

Sources: VINElink, Nevada Department of Corrections inmate search, Wichita County Jail inmate search, Texoma’s Homepage, the Times Record News