Father’s Plea Ignored: Woman Found Murdered Days After Ex-Boyfriend’s Release
A young woman's father had pleaded with a judge not to release her ex-boyfriend from jail, warning that he would "kill her" if he did. Despite his desperate pleas, the judge did not heed his warning. Five days later, the 22-year-old was found mutilated in her car, and police say her ex-boyfriend is responsible.
Lauren Johansen, a University of Southern Mississippi student on track to earn her nursing degree, was discovered dead on Thursday in her vehicle, which was parked in the middle of a cemetery in Harrison County, Mississippi. Her beaten, bloodied body was wrapped in trash bags over the back seats.
Bricen Rivers, 23, her former partner, has been arrested and charged with her murder. Rivers had been released on bond just five days before Johansen’s death.
Nashville Metro Police first arrested Rivers on December 12 on an aggravated kidnapping charge. Lance Johansen, Lauren's father, alleged that Rivers had held his daughter hostage and beat her while the couple
was on vacation in Nashville, Tennessee.
Rivers' bond was initially set at $250,000, but Judge Cheryl Blackburn later reduced it to $150,000. “I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her,” Johansen, a respected orthopedic surgeon, told WLOX News.
On Monday, Johansen received an eerie voicemail from the district attorney’s office, warning him that Rivers had been released and was unaccounted for. “They let him out and didn’t tell us, and didn’t put the ankle monitor on him. They just let him walk out of jail,” Johansen said.
Rivers was supposed to report to a GPS company to be fitted with an ankle monitor and was ordered to stay within Davidson County. However, he did not report to the monitoring company upon release and disappeared.
Concerned for his daughter's safety, Johansen tried to call Lauren but received no response. A text from her phone seemed suspicious, and the family's tracking app for Lauren was turned off. His youngest daughter, who lived with Lauren, reported that she had not been home, the front door was open, security cameras were
destroyed, and Lauren’s car was gone.
The family filed a missing persons report with the Hattiesburg Police Department, which eventually led to the tragic discovery of Lauren’s body. “I knew she was dead,” Johansen said. He described the brutal state of her remains, saying, “her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in, she was brutally beaten,” and that there were “multiple holes in her head.”
Rivers allegedly fled when authorities arrived at the scene but was arrested several hours later in the woods. Jail records indicate that Rivers was booked with a $1,000,000 bond shortly after midnight on July 4.
The Independent has contacted Nashville Metro Police, Hattiesburg Police Department, Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, and Judge Blackburn for comment.
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