Dad pleaded for daughter’s ex-boyfriend not to be freed from jail. Days later, her mutilated body was found in a car
‘If they let him out, he was going to kill her,’ Lauren Johansen’s father said he warned a judge just days before his daughter’s death
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A young woman’s father said he pleaded with a judge not to release her ex-boyfriend from jail, warning he would “kill her” if he did.
The judge didn’t heed his warnings.
And five days later, the 22-year-old’s body was found mutilated in her own car – and police say her boyfriend is responsible.
University of Southern Mississippi student Lauren Johansen, who had been on track to get her nursing degree, was found dead on Thursday in the vehicle which was parked in the middle of a cemetery in Harrison County, Mississippi.
Her beaten, bloodied remains were wrapped up in trash bags over the back seats.
Now, her former partner Bricen Rivers, 23, has been arrested and charged with her murder.
Rivers had been released on a bond just five days before Johansen’s death.
Nashville Metro Police first arrested Rivers on December 12 on an aggravated kidnapping charge, according to charging documents.
Johnasen’s father Lance Johansen alleged that Rivers had held his daughter hostage and beat her while the couple were on vacation in Nashville, Tennessee, he told WLOX News.
A spokesperson from Nashville Metro Police confirmed to The Independent that Rivers was arrested on an aggravated kidnapping charge after he visciously beat Johansen causing her to “nearly lose consciousness” in a parking lot near Scovel Street.
Rivers’ bond was originally set at $250,001, according to the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office.
But months later, Judge Cheryl Blackburn reduced it significantly 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 orthopaedic surgeon, told the outlet.
On Monday, the father received an eerie voicemail from the district attorney’s office warning him that Rivers had been released and that they were unable to locate him.
“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, a source from the DA’s office said. He was also told to stay within Davidson County.
“But as soon as he was released, he did not report to that GPS monitoring company, and he has not been heard from,” a staff member at the office said to the father in a recording obtained by WLOX News.
“I wanted to make sure Lauren is safe,” he added.
Johansen immediately tried to call his daughter but she failed to pick up the phone. After receiving a text from her phone, he noted that there was something off in the reply.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the student’s family tracking app had been switched off and his youngest daughter – who lived with her sister – said that she had not been home.
The front door of their home had been flung open, security cameras were destroyed and her car was gone.
The family filed a missing persons report with the Hattiesburg Police Department, which then went on to track the vehicle down – making the tragic discovery.
“I knew she was dead,” Johansen said.
The distraught father said that “her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in, she was brutally beaten,” before adding that there were “multiple holes in her head”.
Rivers allegedly ran off when authorties arrived on the scene, and was arrested after being found in the woods several hours later.
Jail records first seen by Law&Crime show that Rivers was booked with a $1,000,000 bond not long 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.