22-year-old US woman found beaten to death days after judge releases ex-boyfriend
PTC News Desk: Days after her boyfriend was released from jail, a 22-year-old American university student was discovered dead, battered, and wrapped in a sheet in the back seat of her vehicle. The New York Post reports that on July 3 at a Mississippi cemetery, Lauren Johansen's body was found wrapped in garbage bags and a sheet.
Her father claimed that he begged the judge to keep her ex-boyfriend in jail, threatening to "kill her" if he did. The court, however, disregarded his advice, and five days later, the 22-year-old's body was discovered mangled in her own car. According to the authorities, her lover was the person responsible.
The Post reports that 23-year-old Bricen Rivers, Ms. Johansen's ex-partner, has been taken into custody and accused of killing her. Only five days had passed since his release on bond, according to the 22-year-old. After severely abusing Ms. Johansen and holding her captive during a trip to Nashville in December, he was previously detained for aggravated kidnapping.
With her nursing degree in hand, Ms. Johansen was on schedule. On July 2, after her sister woke up by herself in their shared apartment with the front door wide open and their security camera broken, she was first reported missing. Her father claimed that when he awoke the following morning, he saw that her location-tracking app had been disabled. After filing a missing person's report, he was notified by the police the following day that her car had been found in a local cemetery.
In Harrison County, Mississippi, Ms. Johansen was discovered dead in her automobile, which was parked in the middle of a cemetery. Over the back seats, her disfigured body was covered in garbage bags.
"She was essentially fatally beaten." Ms. Johansen's father stated, "She was viciously beaten to the point where she couldn't see out of either eye when she finally died and there were multiple holes in her head. Her face and head were smashed in."
"I assisted the coroner in removing her body from the vehicle. It was merely disfigured," he went on.
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The father added that he had threatened to kill her if her lover was allowed to leave jail. While the couple was on vacation in Nashville in December, he claimed that Rivers had beaten and held his daughter captive. He further stated that just before Rivers was arrested in December, authorities discovered Lauren Johansen in critical condition and attempting to flee in a rented car as Rivers was reaching for a gun.
The distraught father attacked Tennessee's criminal justice system for failing his family. "I believe that my daughter and our family were let down by the Nashville, Tennessee, criminal justice system. This isn't how the world should operate," he remarked. "She was extremely intelligent and quite gorgeous. She had aspirations and ideals that would never die. Everything she touched and everything she did," he said.
After a six-hour manhunt, Rivers was apprehended and is currently being jailed on a $1 million bond. He is accused of murder.
- With inputs from agencies
