When 43-year-old Tony Johnson died of malaria in the rural African village where he'd taken his two daughters, he left behind a mystery.

Investigators may never know why Johnson decided to take 5-year-old Ashanti and 3-year-old Faith to start a new life in Alavanyo-Agorme, in the Volta Region of Ghana.

His death and the girls' safe return to their mother brings the missing children's case to a close.

Johnson's family has been reluctant to discuss his disappearance. Johnson, recently divorced from the girls' mother, Griffin resident Valencia Head, picked up his daughters for regular visitation last April --- but never brought them home.

Consuello E. Brown, victim advocate in the Griffin Judicial Circuit district attorney's office, assisted Head, 25, in trying to locate her children. But the women didn't dream that solving the disappearances would take them to Ghana. One child abduction expert described the trip as a nearly impossible mission.

"What makes this story so surprising is that the kids are back, and that doesn't usually happen in international abductions," said Nancy Hammer, director of the international division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

The center helped Brown arrange and pay for the children's return.

Ultimately, what made the journey possible was Johnson's death --- and Brown's resolve.

"Had the father still been alive and the kids were located, it would have been difficult," Hammer said.

Head, who returned to Atlanta with her children last Thursday, had not seen her daughters since April 20. The couple was completing a custody agreement when Johnson left with the children.

Head initially feared the children and their father had been in an accident. When no word came, Head concluded Johnson had abducted the girls.

Police referred her to the district attorney's office. Weeks later, authorities told her that Johnson had gotten the children passports in Miami before the divorce.

That was the last Head heard about her girls until Nov. 6, the day after Head's mother died of cancer. Word came from the U.S. Department of State that Johnson had died in a rural Ghanaian village, and the children were there.

Brown said it was clear Johnson had planned the trip for a long time. The children's passports were issued Dec. 8, 1999. Weeks before Johnson left, he had obtained entrance visas for Ethiopia, Ghana and Gambia.

Johnson's connections to Africa were also mysterious, Brown said. Three of his four children have African names. Coincidentally, Ashanti is one of the regional dialects of Ghana. Nevertheless, his extended family goes back at least three generations in Atlanta.

Johnson's teenage son by a previous marriage --- Zaire, the name of another African nation --- eulogized his father at his funeral last Wednesday at a small southeast Atlanta church. Zaire, who is blind, said his father always encouraged him to pursue his dreams. But Zaire avoided talking about the African journey.

"I don't want to go into that," he said.

To bring the children home, Brown and Head had to go to the village where Johnson had settled. The girls were staying with Emma Foley, a woman described as the village matriarch.

Foley was supposed to bring the children to the capital, Accra, where Brown and Head were staying at a hotel near the American embassy. The village was at least three hours from the capital.

Brown said Foley was holding out for money. She drew up a bill for $600 --- a phenomenal sum in Ghana.

"A family in Ghana can live on $50 a month," Brown said.

Foley said Johnson ended up in the village after he met Foley's son at the airport in Accra. Brown said it's common practice for locals to offer their homes to visitors.

During the negotiation for the children --- Head ended up paying Foley $75 --- Brown wondered about a woman standing in the background saying nothing while others chatted away in the local language.

Brown suspected she might be American and perhaps have a connection with Johnson. But she didn't ask about her because she was focused on getting the children out of the village.

"I thought it was strange," Brown said.

Brown said Johnson's death was probably awful. He had gotten sick in August and went to Accra for treatment. However, U.S. officials got wind that there was a sick American in a local hospital and began asking questions about who he was and why he was in Ghana.

Brown said Johnson quickly left the hospital --- perhaps without completing his treatment --- and went back to Alavanyo-Agorme. He became sick again in October with a form of malaria that affects the brain. Brown said Johnson's last weeks were filled with dementia and convulsions.

"By that time, he was having one seizure after another," she said. "He was very weak."

Despite their safe return, Ashanti and Faith still face many difficulties. Ashanti is kindergarten age and Faith will be soon. They both speak the Agorme dialect to each other.

When they arrived at Hartsfield International Airport with bright brown eyes and smiling faces, they looked like happy American kids. In Ghana, though, things were different.

"You could tell they had been through a lot," Brown said. "It's not going to be an easy situation for Valencia."

They complained that their teeth hurt. Their stomachs bulged, which Head attributed to malnutrition, and they had sores on their legs from irritated mosquito bites. Brown said they had subsisted mostly on rice.

After finding their mother, neither child would let her out of their sight, Brown said. Both probably will need extensive counseling, she added.

Brown, 27, usually deals with victims of violent crimes, child molestation, sexual assault and battery --- but this case topped them all.

"This is my first missing child case," Brown said, "and, God, I hope it's my last."