A Casper “house from hell” full of mold and sitting on a bad foundation is listed with a value of $310,800 on a real estate auction website.
A retired journalist who wrote about the property as well as the former owners of the property have gone public warning potential buyers to beware.
Tom Morton, who wrote a story on the house in 2023 for K2 Radio, appeared before the Casper City Council on Tuesday, urging the city to condemn the house at 2141 Thorndike Ave.
He had been invited in August 2023 to inspect the home and write about it by its owners at the time, former Casper councilman Shawn Johnson and his wife, Rebecca.
The house, which can be found on the Zillow website, appears to be listed under the Xome real estate auction site, which states the starting bid is “coming soon.”
The page also emphasizes there is “no trespassing” on the property.
“My question for you ‘city’ is, can this building be condemned?” Morton asked the council during public comment. “Because somebody out there is going to look at this … and they get it for $150,000 (and they think) we’re going to have a good life, and they’re going to end up losing what the Johnsons did.”
Morton’s story told readers that the Johnsons lost everything.
The house, built in 1980, had once been owned by a doctor and his wife who were sent to prison for dealing oxycodone in 2019, Morton wrote. It was taken by the government under forfeiture law and sold at auction by the IRS in 2022 to a Casper man who allegedly had the house remodeled.
In September 2022, the Johnsons bought the house. They had it inspected.
Morton’s story in August 2023 outlined how the Johnsons’ daughter, who had a basement bedroom, started getting sick. She had an asthma attack and was taken to the hospital.
The family, who initially thought they had a small mold issue that their realtor ordered remediated in the sale, learned they had been deceived and lied to by the seller when other contractors later found a false floor in the basement under carpet that was covered in mold.
The former owners of a house on Thorndike Avenue in Casper and a journalist who wrote a story on it have gone public warning potential bidders to beware of the property. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
A sign on the door of the house at 2141 Thorndike Ave. directs people to a Florida mortgage company for issues. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Disclaimers on the Xome website tells potential buyers there is no access to the house prior to a purchase. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Deceptive Floating Wall
Drywall on a “floating wall” in the basement covered a major crack in the foundation as well as mold.
Morton told Cowboy State Daily that he went with the Johnsons into the house with a protective suit on to see the extent of the mold. The family, on the advice of a contractor who found the mold, were told to leave the house. The kitchen floor was in danger of caving in.
“We went downstairs and the pictures don’t do it justice,” Morton said of the photos he snapped at the time. “It was incredibly deceptive in building out that wall where the concrete is collapsing.”
The Johnsons did everything they were supposed to do, Morton said. They had the house inspected and did their due diligence and the owner and an unlicensed contractor deceived them.
Morton said he understands that the former owner has since passed away.
Morton Tuesday told the council that the Johnsons lost everything in the home because their possessions were all contaminated by the mold.
Attempts to reach the Johnsons were not immediately returned.
Rebecca Johnson posted on social media Dec. 2 a warning about the house and asked that people share the message about “the house from hell.”
“If you’re looking at this property as an auction curiosity or an investment opportunity, stop. Read this. And then run! This house didn’t just ‘need work,’” she wrote. “It robbed us of our stability, our financial security, and every single personal possession we ever owned. It stripped our lives down to the bone and left us with nothing but debt, trauma, and hospital bills that could crush a person.
“Let me be painfully clear: THE FOUNDATION IS NOT JUST DAMAGED — IT’S A DEATH SENTENCE,” she wrote.
Words Of Warning
In an update on Dec. 3, Rebecca Johnson posted that her family did everything “you are supposed to do,” yet in the end their attempts to find legal remedies and justice hit dead ends. She wrote her only reason for posting her warning about the house is to keep another family “from being destroyed.”
A check on the Natrona County assessor’s website shows Shawn Johnson continues to be listed as the owner of the property.
However, on the door of the home Wednesday was a sign telling anyone who came to the door to report any emergency, vandalism, or city ordinance violations of the property to Mortgage Contracting Services in Tampa, Florida.
A sign next to it says the property was winterized on Sept. 10, 2023.
A message left with the company’s number listed on the sign was not immediately returned.
The disclaimer on the Xome listing for 2141 Thorndike Ave. states that the buyer “assumes all responsibility and liability for any occupancy.” It also states that there is no physical access or ability to conduct inspections prior to the purchase. The buyer assumes all the risk.
Casper City Attorney Eric Nelson said Wednesday that the sale or auction of the house would be a private matter and not fall under the purview of the city.
If the house were to be deemed dangerous under the city’s code, then the owner would have time to abate the building and bring it up to health and safety codes before any condemnation, he said.
“If they don’t, then the city has the option of demolishing or razing the structure,” he said. The costs involved could be recouped by putting a lien on the property, but if there were already liens on the property the city and taxpayers would be stuck with the cost.
Administrative Warrant
Nelson said initiating any action against the property would involve the need for an administrative warrant from one of the city’s municipal court judges. They would have to review an affidavit from a building official who inspected the property to determine if a warrant should be issued.
Nelson said he has referred the matter to the city’s building and code enforcement staff. He noted that Morton’s comments as well as the publicity surrounding the house in 2023 through Morton’s article — and the fact it belonged to a former city council member — made it worthy of scrutiny.
“I think we’re going to do some diligence to see if there is enough to warrant taking a closer look at the property,” he said.
The property’s listing showed 101 views for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom property. Other Xome properties for auction on its website, including two others in Casper, also do not allow any inspection or opportunity to view the property prior to bidding.
The three photos posted on the Xome web page just show an exterior photo, backyard photo, and down-the-street photo of the Thorndike Avenue address.
For Morton, once he learned the property was being auctioned, he said he felt he had to do something to raise awareness and try to protect unsuspecting bidders.
“This is awful,” he said. “How they think this is worth $310,000 is just beyond me.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
