NEW DETAILS: Timeline of events leading up to murder of Lauren Johansen
Court documents show how her alleged abuser was let out of a Tennessee jail and was able to return to Mississippi.
HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - We’ve learned new details in the murder of 22-year-old Lauren Johansen, allegedly beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend Bricen Rivers.
WLOX received court documents from our sister station WSMV in Nashville, showing how the accused abuser was let out of a Tennessee jail and the apparent communication breakdown that led to his release.
We now have a timeline and paper trail, detailing the circumstances that allowed Rivers to get out of jail, return to Mississippi, and find Lauren Johansen— her father calling what happened a failure of the criminal justice system.
Monday, December 11, 2023
Johansen and Rivers were on vacation together in Nashville. According to court documents, an argument between the couple escalated after leaving a bar.
Metro Nashville Police officers said they found Johansen severely beaten inside a car with Rivers in Germantown, a Nashville suburb. The interior of the car was covered in blood, including a handgun police found inside.
Rivers was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated stalking, and one count of coercion of a witness.
Monday, December 18, 2023
A week later, a preliminary hearing set Rivers’ bond at $250,000. Lauren Johansen’s father, Lance Johansen, told WLOX last week he begged the judge not to let Rivers out of jail.
“I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her,” Lance Johansen said. “He had assaulted her— this was probably the fifth or sixth time where they would get into a fight and he would beat her. We would get her away from him for a while, but he would find a way to weasel back in it.”
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Rivers requested a reduced bond.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Judge Cheryl Blackburn approved a reduced bond of $150,000, with specific conditions. Rivers was ordered not to leave Davidson County, Tennessee, and to wear a GPS monitor after posting bond.
Also noted in his bond order— Rivers was not to be released from the jail after 4 p.m. to ensure he could get fitted with the court-ordered GPS monitor company, Tracking Solutions, which closed at that time.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
A hearing is held, where Rivers and his mother ask for the conditions of his bond to be changed so he could live in Mississippi instead of Davidson County. The judge denied this request.
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Rivers’ assigned probation officer sent a copy of the judge’s order to Tracking Solutions. She requested they email the District Attorney’s office to retrieve the appropriate addresses for exclusion zones.
Rivers’ attorney provided the Court with the address he would allegedly be staying at in Davidson County.
Monday, June 24, 2024
Records show Rivers was let out of jail on Monday, June 24 at 4:05 pm.
A Brooke’s Bail Bonding agent signed his release form, which shows Rivers was not to leave Davidson County.
Although the judge ordered Rivers to get his ankle monitor from Tracking Solutions, the bail agent took him to a different company— Freedom Monitoring Services— because Tracking Solutions was closed.
A court report from Freedom Monitoring says when Rivers was brought in, the bond order was not available. They apparently took Rivers’ word that he was allowed to return to Mississippi and did not set the GPS tracking perimeter to Davidson County.
Friday, June 28, 2024
It wasn’t until the following Friday that Freedom Monitoring received the bond paperwork. Around 5 p.m., the company also received a “no communication alert” and contacted Rivers, ordering him to return to Nashville immediately to be fit with a new monitor.
On the same day, Rivers’ probation officer reached out to Tracking Solutions, who informed her Rivers had never reported to them. Tracking Solutions then sent a violation report to the District Attorney’s office, who informed the Court that Rivers was in violation of his bond conditions.
The District Attorney’s office called Johansen’s dad to alert him Rivers had not reported for an ankle monitor and had not been heard from— a message he didn’t hear until Monday.
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Rivers arrived back in Nashville Saturday around 4 p.m. and was fitted with a new GPS monitor.
Monday, July 1, 2024
Freedom Monitoring said that Rivers’ monitor battery went down to six percent. They say they called him at 10:09 p.m., telling him to charge it, which he did.
Around midnight, Rivers called in to say he wouldn’t be able to make it to Court in Nashville the next day due to him not having a ride.
On this day, Johansen’s dad discovers the message the District Attorney left on his phone Friday. He says he could no longer get in contact with her, and that he received a text message that didn’t seem like it came from her.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Early Tuesday morning, Johansen’s dad received a notification that her Life360 tracker had been turned off. Johansen’s sister, who she lived with, said she wasn’t home, and the security camera at their front door was destroyed.
Johansen’s family reported her missing to the Hattiesburg Police Department.
Freedom Monitoring says Rivers’ battery started going down around 10 a.m., and he was not responding to messages throughout the day. They say they contacted Rivers’ mother, who hadn’t heard from him or seen him.
The Court issued a warrant for Rivers for being in violation of court orders, after learning he had been in Mississippi since June 24 and on a GPS monitor with the wrong company.
Rivers’ last location before the monitor died was on Beach Boulevard in Biloxi. Once the tracker was at zero percent, Freedom Monitoring alerted his probation officer and bonding company.
July 2 was also the day Lauren was killed, according to the Harrison County Coroner’s Office.
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Hattiesburg PD used OnStar to track Johansen’s car. They locate it at Wolf River Cemetery in Harrison County.
HPD requests Harrison County Sheriff’s Department’s help in conducting a welfare check at that location.
That’s when a deputy finds the car and witnesses Rivers allegedly running from the vehicle into the woods. Johansen’s body was found in her own car, wrapped in trash bags and sheets.
A six-hour manhunt ensues before law enforcement lures Rivers out of the woods and takes him into custody.
He was taken to the Harrison County Adult Detention Center and issued a $1 million bond.
There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding this case.
- Why was Rivers released after 4 p.m. when his bond order said it wasn’t allowed?
- If Rivers’ bond company knew the conditions of his bond, why was that not communicated to the tracking company?
- Why did the bond company take him to a different tracking company, instead of waiting until the next day for the court-ordered tracking company to open?
- Once the tracking company had Rivers’ bond conditions, why was a GPS perimeter not set to Davidson County?
These are all questions we are pursuing. We’ll continue following this story until we get answers.
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