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Attorneys seek dismissal of case against suspect in Typhenie Johnson disappearance

Attorneys for Chris Revill, the suspect, allege prosecutors have engaged in "misconduct" after misleading the court on a crucial DNA lab test.

FORT WORTH, Texas — A pair of motions by attorneys representing the suspect in the disappearance of a Fort Worth woman could drastically reshape the case.

Typhenie Johnson first vanished in October of 2016 from an apartment complex in east Fort Worth.

In a motion to dismiss filed last week in Tarrant County District Court, attorneys for Chris Revill, the suspect, allege that prosecutors have engaged in "misconduct" after misleading the court on a crucial DNA lab test.

The document says prosecutors repeatedly told the court and the defense that a broken lab machine had prevented the tests from being performed.

"That is why we've seen delay," said attorney Lesa Pamplin. "We heard it hadn't been filed, the DNA machine was broken, just excuse after excuse."

Pamplin said last month, she noticed a prosecutor in a hearing looking at something that looked like the DNA report. She said only then was it handed over, and that it has a date that indicates testing was done in December of 2017.

"I don't think this was an oversight," she said.

But perhaps more damning is that the lab report shows "...no positive finding to connect Christopher Revill to the crime," according to the motion.

Revill has been behind bars since October of 2016, when Johnson first went missing.

She has not been found, despite repeated and sustained search efforts by her family and friends, who again put out a public plea during the past few months.

The original affidavit for Revill's arrest states that he was the last one seen with Typhenie, and that personal items of hers were found in his family's backyard directly around the time she disappeared.

A spokeswoman for the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office said they couldn't comment because the motion is still pending.

Pamplin said she also filed a second motion to get a new judge, because she thinks the presiding one will need to be a witness in the motion to dismiss. She wouldn't discuss what specifically was and wasn't found by the DNA test.

It's likely a hearing on the dismissal will be held in December.

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