Lauren Johansen (22) was discovered crushed to demise and wrapped in a sheet on July 3, 2024 in Harrison County, Mississippi. Her physique was discovered within the backseat of her car.
Lauren’s boyfriend Bricen Rivers is her alleged killer. He had simply bonded out of jail days earlier than her demise. He had been imprisoned for aggravated kidnapping and holding Lauren hostage throughout a visit to Nashville, Tennessee in December 2023.
As some background into Lauren, she was born on October 30, 2001 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Her dad and mom are Surgeon Lance Johansen and Tamela Johansen. She had three siblings – Kylar, Christian and Katelyn.
She graduated from Vancleave Excessive Faculty and she or he was finding out nursing on the College of Southern Mississippi. Her father stated she needed to be a nurse as a result of she beloved serving to folks. “The highest quality about her was that she had a extremely huge coronary heart.”
Her household have stated she beloved horseback driving and going to the seashore. She additionally loved make-up artistry. She took her canine, Bentley Jo, and cat, Marley, together with her in all places, and she or he even had a rescue horse she named Cocoa, her father stated.
Lauren began courting Bricen years in the past. He was stated to be the star participant on his highschool soccer group.
Bricen does have a previous legal historical past. He was arrested in January 2021 in Hancock County, Mississippi for DUI.
He was additionally arrested in October 2022 for auto housebreaking in close by Harrison County and once more in December 2022 for possession and trafficking of a managed substance
Their relationship looks like it was turbulent and Lauren determined to finish issues when she headed off to the College of Southern Mississippi.
Her household declare ‘obsessed’ Bricen stalked her on and off for years, breaking into her condominium and beginning fights with any males she tried thus far.
In late 2023, Lauren’s household had been shocked to study that she had gotten again with Bricen and that the 2 had gone on trip to Nashville.
Lauren’s father Lance stated he places this determination all the way down to her affected by ‘battered lady syndrome.’
Some information about battered lady syndrome:
Battered lady syndrome (BWS) is a sample of indicators and signs displayed by a girl who has suffered persistent intimate companion violence—psychological, bodily, or sexual—from her male companion. It might be identified as a subcategory of post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD).Victims could exhibit a spread of behaviors, together with self-isolation, suicidal ideas, and substance abuse, and indicators of bodily harm or sickness, akin to bruises, damaged bones, or persistent fatigue.
When Lauren and Bricen went to Nashville, they went to Topgolf and likewise checked out a museum. On December 11, Bricen received drunk and flew right into a rage at Lauren. He accused her of getting intercourse with a bartender.
Bricen took Lauren’s cellphone so she couldn’t name for assist and drove to a parking zone the place he allegedly clubbed her with a pistol and pulled out chunks of her hair.
He held her captive contained in the car for an hour till his mother, Chelsa Rivers, overheard screaming within the background on a name to her son and tipped off cops to their location, in keeping with courtroom filings.
Some extra information concerning the incident from Tennessean.com:
She advised police she had a gun in her bag on the again seat, however Bricen held her down, stopping her from attending to the gun, in keeping with the affidavit.
She recalled that they had been in a parking zone for about an hour, and she or he kicked and screamed and blew the automotive’s horn each time she noticed a car cross them, the affidavit stated.
Rivers held his forearm in opposition to Lauren’s throat till she noticed black and received dizzy as she continued to scream for assist, the affidavit stated.
Officers arrived to seek out ‘traumatized’ Lauren in simply her bra and panties, screaming and banging on the window for assist and calling for her father.
She was ‘severely crushed, her eye was swollen shut and she or he additionally had a extreme laceration to her brow,’ in keeping with cops.
We gained’t submit the pictures of Lauren’s accidents however there may be an article with info right here.
A gun was discovered on the ground of the automotive that they’d rented.
Lauren was hospitalized for 2 days after the assault.
Bricen was arrested and cost with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one rely of aggravated stalking, and one rely of coercion of a witness. A preliminary listening to was held on December 18. Lance and Lauren attended. Lance testified on the time and stated that Lauren had been ‘hit over 100 instances’. He stated he feared for her life if Bricen ever received to her once more.
“I sat within the courtroom in Nashville and advised the choose that in the event that they let him out, he was going to kill her,” Lance stated. “He had assaulted her — this was most likely the fifth or sixth time the place they might get right into a combat and he would beat her.”
Bricen remained in jail for 4 months. In March 2024, his legal professionals filed a movement requesting that his bond be decreased.
Choose Blackburn famous in an April 3 order there was a ‘excessive chance of conviction’ because of police physique digicam footage and audio recordings from contained in the automotive.
Nonetheless the choose concluded {that a} ‘bond of $150,000 is acceptable on this case’ noting that ‘it doesn’t seem that Mr. Rivers has any prior legal historical past.’
Stephen Hayslip, Director of Communications for the Davidson County District Legal professional’s Workplace advised the media that it contested the decreased bond however didn’t flag up any prior arrests.
He stated this was as a result of Assistant District Attorneys working the case weren’t conscious of any legal convictions and that arrests that didn’t end in convictions wouldn’t be thought-about proof of prior criminality.
Bricen was launched after his household paid $15,000 to safe his launch by way of a bonding firm.
Choose Blackburn’s order, which was signed by Bricen stated he was barred from leaving Davidson County and ought to be ‘positioned on digital monitoring’.
Freedom Monitoring Companies, the corporate concerned in retaining tabs on him, didn’t seem to know he was supposed to remain within the Nashville space, nevertheless, in keeping with reporting by Information Channel 5.
Bricen was meant to be given an ankle monitor and this didn’t occur.
“They let him out and didn’t inform us, and didn’t put the ankle monitor on him. They simply let him stroll out of jail,” Lance stated.
Bricen apparently had lodging lined up in Nashville however that fell by and he went again to Mississippi to reside together with his household. He arrived again there on Saturday, June 29, 2024.
On Monday, July 1, Lance obtained a voicemail from the Davidson County District Legal professional’s Workplace warning him about Bricen’s launch and that he wasn’t being tracked. WLOX Information obtained a duplicate of that voicemail, which learn:
That is Bailey calling from the district lawyer’s workplace in Nashville. Bricen Rivers was launched from custody. He was purported to report straight to a GPS firm and be placed on a GPS monitor and he was to not depart Davidson County. However as quickly as he was launched, he didn’t report back to that GPS monitoring firm, and he has not been heard from. I needed to verify Lauren is secure.
On the identical day, Bricen referred to as in to say that he wouldn’t make it to courtroom in Nashville on July 2 as he didn’t have a experience.
Lance referred to as Lauren however she didn’t reply. When she texted him again, he stated it “didn’t actually appear to be the best way she talks.”
On Tuesday July 2, Lance stated that he awakened at 4am and received a notification that Lauren’s Life360 Tracker was turned off. He then received a name from his different daughter, who had been residing with Lauren. She stated that the entrance door had been left extensive open and the safety digicam had been destroyed. There was no signal of Lauren.
Freedom Monitoring (the GPS monitoring service) began to contact Bricen because the battery on his gadget began taking place at round 10am. He didn’t reply to messages from them. They contacted Bricen’s mom who stated she had not seen or heard from her son.
Bricen’s tracker received to zero % battery on this present day and his probation officer and bonding firm had been alerted.
The courtroom issued a warrant on this present day for Bricen as he was in violation of courtroom orders.
The household contacted Hattiesburg Police Division to file a lacking individual report.
Lance stated “Once I received up there within the morning, I referred to as to see what [Hattiesburg Police] discovered in a single day. There was no communication. They didn’t do something. We assumed they had been going to trace the car and attempt to discover her, however they by no means did it till Wednesday at 3 o’clock after I insisted they discover out the place the automotive was.”
The police used OnStar to trace Lauren’s car and it was found at Wolf River Cemetery in Harrison County, Mississippi on July 3.
Police knowledgeable Lance that Lauren’s car had been discovered and he went to the cemetery.
“I knew she was lifeless,” Lance stated. “She was principally crushed to demise. Her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in, she was brutally crushed to the purpose she couldn’t see out of both eye when she lastly died and there was a number of holes in her head,” he stated.
He continued: “I helped the coroner elevate her physique out of the automotive. It was simply mutilated.”
After dumping Lauren’s physique and the car, Bricen fled into the woods. He was captured after a manhunt that went on for hours.
“We most likely had upwards of fifty regulation enforcement officers out right here,” Haley stated. “A number of drones, our helicopters, we had dogs-canines from all around the coast,” Harrison County Sheriff Matt Haley stated.
‘We realized early on that the topic nonetheless had his mobile phone on him,’ Sheriff Haley stated.
‘So undercover officers had been capable of, by textual content message, have Rivers consider that he was corresponding with a buddy, and we had been capable of lure him out of the woods.’
Bricen was booked into Harrison County Jail and was charged with homicide. His bond is at the moment set at $1m.
Davidson County Chief Deputy Prison Courtroom Clerk Julius Sloss acknowledged this week that his workplace made a mistake when it got here to sharing info with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Workplace on how Bricen ought to have been launched.
“Somebody in our workplace made a mistake,” Sloss stated. “When the discharge was despatched to the sheriff, it didn’t include the circumstances that had been outlined within the order, particularly the portion speaking concerning the individual needing to have a GPS monitoring gadget. On the very least, a duplicate of the order ought to have been connected to the discharge.”
Bricen’s bonding firm stated it, too, didn’t know the complete circumstances of his launch as a result of the clerk didn’t present them. The clerk, nevertheless, stated it’s the full duty of the bonding firm to know the circumstances and perceive what’s being signed beforehand.
Sloss stated the clerk’s workplace is working to implement a stopgap measure that can ask workers to verify they’ve communicated with the Sheriff’s Workplace any circumstances of the defendant’s launch from jail.
“On the finish of the day, I hope it doesn’t get misplaced in all of the finger pointing that errors had been made and a life was misplaced,” the clerk, stated. “And that’s what we’re scuffling with on this facet of the legal justice system.”
A reason behind demise has not been launched. Mississippi officers advised The Tennessean that post-mortem data, particularly these related to murder instances, aren’t thought-about public report of their state.
Lance has spoken about what he thinks Bricen’s motivation for the homicide was.
‘All of it got here to a head due to this new courtroom date,’ Lance stated.
‘He knew they had been going to throw him again in jail for violating the order and he wouldn’t get out for the subsequent 20 years. He had nothing to lose so he got here for her.’
‘My daughter was a beautiful, form individual. She had a lot compassion and love for others, there wasn’t a imply bone in her physique,’ he added.
‘All I can do to honor her reminiscence is attempt to cease this taking place to another person’s daughter or granddaughter. Lauren would have hated that greater than something.’
SOURCE LIST
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/information/2024/07/12/lauren-johansen-of-mississippi-death-after-bricen-john-rivers-released/74378572007
https://www.wlox.com/2024/07/09/new-details-timeline-events-leading-up-murder-lauren-johansen
https://nypost.com/2024/07/11/us-news/nursing-student-lauren-johansen-found-beaten-to-death-after-dads-chilling-warning-to-judge
https://www.wlox.com/2024/07/04/murder-victims-father-alleges-years-abuse-by-boyfriend-claims-judicial-system-failed-daughter
https://www.bradfordokeefe.com/obituaries/lauren-johansen
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/information/article-13620877/Mississippi-nursing-student-Lauren-Johansen-brutal-injuries-beaten-stalker-ex-boyfriend.html
