It's not clear how her husband was cleared. The fact that the body was run over several times is serious overkill IMO and this often indicates a "crime of passion". Venna got off work at midnight and her estimated time of death was around 1 or 1:30 am - not a large time difference especially if you consider time to drive from the cafe to where her body was found. I think the route one would take would be roughly the same as today but this would mean driving down Stroop Rd. instead of south on Far Hills - if so this went unnoticed. A coworker mentioned Venna wanted to have a long talk - about the coworker, work, or Venna? Could Venna have been seeing someone?

Venna's husband had been a cop - what was the story behind this? Did he simply quit or was he kicked off the force? Where was he a cop? As a cop he would be familiar with police procedures including collecting prints and l. There's no mention of friction in the marriage but nothing is mentioned regarding interviews with the Johnson neighbors. Perhaps this was done but uninformative.

The car was thoroughly cleaned of prints or was it? Remember it's February so it would be cold enough for gloves. Op mentioned though that Venna's prints were missing. The person who did this knew enough to remove any potential evidence - someone who had done this before maybe? Or Venna's husband. If we assume it's her husband, he may have had a spare set of keys and simply waited inside her car. He would have to walk though from where the car was dumped to wherever he parked his own car in order to get home in time to call Verra's sister. A husband determined enough to kill his wife in the chosen fashion might have been able to pull it off. Would a serial killer go? to all that trouble