DECATUR - Kelly Dunn is a wife and a mother of four children who wants the world to know that 23-year-old Robert W. Johnson was more than Decatur's second murder victim of 2008.

"Robbie had a dark side, but he also was a son, a brother, a nephew, and he could make you laugh," Dunn said Thursday during an interview in her home.

Dunn's dining room table was littered with buttons bearing pictures of "Robbie" that she made for his mother, Tina Tarpey of Leland, to distribute at graveside services scheduled today in Plano.

"(Tina) and I met online in a chat room nine years ago before we lived in Illinois," Dunn said. "We became really good friends."

When Dunn's family moved to Decatur, the two families began to visit in person.

"Robbie was living at Webster-Cantrell Hall," Dunn said. "Every weekend, Tina came down with his sisters, Kristi and Melissa, and they would stay with us. They'd take him to lunch or shopping, and then Sunday night, they'd zoom back north."

Over time, her children began calling Tarpey "aunt," and Tarpey's children did the same with her, Dunn said. Robbie was a regular visitor in the Dunn home.

"Robbie moved and talked very fast," she said. "He reminded me of a car salesman trying to close a deal. He was funny. He was a good kid and always had a smile."

During his teenage years, Johnson was in and out of trouble with burglary and citations for speeding in his background, Dunn said. Then, he and his girlfriend had a baby, she said.

"He came over all puffed up and said now he had to grow up and be responsible because he had a son to care for," Dunn said. "He worked a couple jobs for a while."

Eventually his girlfriend left him, got an order of protection against him and then married and moved to another state.

Johnson got involved in selling drugs.

"I knew that. My children did, too, and so did his mother," Dunn said. "I told him if you don't get your crap together, you'll wind up dead. I told him to think about his mother."

Dunn said her family will attend today's funeral, and Saturday, Tarpey will come to Decatur and they will post fliers around the neighborhood in the 600 block of South Sycamore Street, where Johnson was found shot to death in his residence. The fliers, which Dunn made, ask that anyone with information about the crime call Decatur CrimeStoppers at 423-8477.

Decatur Deputy Police Chief Todd Walker said Thursday that police do not have a suspect in Johnson's killing but continue to pursue a number of leads.

"Yesterday, due to the volume of information and the number of witnesses we'd interviewed, we decided to step back and review the information we had," Walker said. "We're trying to find out if we've missed something where witnesses' stories intersect. This is still a very active investigation."

Walker said police knew of Johnson's drug dealing, but that makes no difference.

"Whether he had a dark side or not, we won't give up on this," Walker said. "A life was taken, and we want to find out who did it."

Ron Ingram can be reached at ringram@herald-review.com or 421-7973.