Body of a 22-year-old student from Mississippi was discovered in a cemetery, following a warning from her father, who is a surgeon, to a judge in Nashville that her life was in danger
Esteemed surgeon Lance Johansen implored the judge not to release his daughter’s boyfriend from jail, warning that the boyfriend would kill her if set free. Bricen Rivers, 23, had been incarcerated for the abduction and severe assault of his long-term girlfriend, Lauren Johansen, 22, during a vacation in Nashville.
Dr. Johansen recounted sitting in the Nashville courtroom, forewarning the judge about the potential danger Rivers posed to his daughter. Tragically, Dr. Johansen’s words proved prescient when Lauren’s mutilated body was discovered in her own vehicle on Wednesday.
Dr. Johansen had previously expressed how Rivers had repeatedly assaulted Lauren, leading to her being separated from him on multiple occasions, but he always managed to evade the precautions.
Dr. Johansen traveled from Biloxi, Mississippi, to make a passionate appeal to the Nashville court following Rivers’ arrest in December, and for a period, his efforts proved effective.
However, following a seven-month incarceration, Rivers’ attorney successfully persuaded Judge Cheryl Blackburn to reduce his bail from 250,000𝑡𝑜150,000, facilitating his release from jail. It was stipulated that he was to promptly proceed to a company responsible for outfitting him with a GPS ankle monitor as a prerequisite of his bail. However, instead of adhering to these conditions, he vanished.
“They released him without informing us and neglected to affix the ankle monitor on him. They simply allowed him to walk out of jail,” Johansen expressed to WLOX. Unaware of Rivers’ release, the father only learned of it upon receiving a voicemail from the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office on Monday.
“This is Bailey calling from the district attorney’s office in Nashville. Bricen Rivers was released from custody,” the message disclosed to WLOX began.
“He was expected to promptly engage with a GPS company for the installation of a GPS monitor, and he was not authorized to depart from Davidson County.
“Nevertheless, following his release, he failed to comply with the requirement to engage with the GPS monitoring company, and there has been no communication from him. I wanted to ensure that Lauren is safe.”
Regrettably, Lauren was not safe.
Johansen made frantic attempts to reach her, but she did not answer, and he noted that the texts he received from her number “didn’t sound like her usual way of speaking.”
Around 4 pm the following day, he received a notification that her Life360 tracker had been deactivated.
Subsequently, his younger daughter, who resided with Lauren, informed him that the security camera had been destroyed and the door was left ajar. Lauren was nowhere to be found.
Johansen then filed a missing person report with the local Hattiesburg Police in Biloxi. However, he claimed that when he called the following morning, very little action had been taken.
“We assumed they would track the vehicle and initiate a search, but they didn’t do so until Wednesday at 3 pm, when I insisted they locate the car,” he recounted.
The tracking signal from Lauren’s car led to the Wolf River Cemetery in a remote area of Gulfport, Mississippi, prompting the police to swiftly respond.
Rivers was inside the vehicle, but he fled into the woods as soon as the police arrived, sparking an extensive pursuit that lasted for hours.
According to Johansen, the moment he arrived at the scene, he knew that Lauren had passed away.
Her severely injured body was discovered in the car, covered in sheets and garbage bags and positioned across the rear seat.
Her father described her as having been brutally beaten to the point of being unrecognizable, with multiple injuries to her head.
The suspect, who claims to be a US Marine Corps veteran on social media, was eventually located after a nearly nine-hour search.
Law enforcement used undercover tactics and technology, including drones, helicopters, and dogs, to track down the suspect.
Rivers was arrested and taken to Harrison County jail at 1 am on Thursday, where he is being held on a $1 million bond for the charge of murder.
Johansen expressed her disappointment in the criminal justice system in Nashville, stating that it failed her daughter and their family. She described her daughter as beautiful, incredibly intelligent, and ambitious. She also mentioned that Lauren was studying at the University of Southern Mississippi with the goal of becoming a nurse.
An autopsy will be performed on Lauren’s body next week.
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