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Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: A Judge's Decision - The Death of Lauren Johansen · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:01
Speaker 1: Body does, but Joseph's gotten more. Every now and then,
0:07
Speaker 1: I try to recenter myself as a dad, because you
0:13
Speaker 1: know when when your kids get older and they get
0:17
Speaker 1: out of the house, many times you forget those moments
0:28
Speaker 1: that are so very precious, when that little life was
0:36
Speaker 1: delivered into this world and swaddled by perhaps a labor
0:41
Speaker 1: and delivery nurse, and you're terrified. It doesn't matter how
0:45
Speaker 1: many kids you have, you're terrified every single time. And
0:50
Speaker 1: they hand that child to you, this little life that
0:54
Speaker 1: has come into the world, and you know you've been
0:59
Speaker 1: in great anticipate all this time, you've gone through the
1:01
Speaker 1: pregnancy with in my case, with my precious wife, and
1:07
Speaker 1: you don't really know what's on the horizon. But when
1:11
Speaker 1: they hand that little life over to you and you
1:16
Speaker 1: hold them to your chest and they're trying to make
1:19
Speaker 1: that little cry, you know they haven't quite got their
1:22
Speaker 1: voice even for crying at that point in time. Their
1:24
Speaker 1: mouth up and you look down and you see the
1:28
Speaker 1: fragility of what you're holding, and you know that it
1:34
Speaker 1: is your responsibility to bring them up in a world that,
1:40
Speaker 1: as an adult, you already know is just rife with
1:44
Speaker 1: danger at every turn. It's something I try to return
1:51
Speaker 1: to regularly and try to remember at this point in
1:54
Speaker 1: my life. Today, I want to talk about as a father,
2:06
Speaker 1: another father who probably had the same experience. This man's
2:13
Speaker 1: a physician now, of his little girl that he probably
2:19
Speaker 1: held for that brief moment as she tried to form
2:27
Speaker 1: that first cry in that labor and delivery room. We're
2:33
Speaker 1: going to talk about the murder, the savage murder of
2:40
Speaker 1: Lauren Johansson Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this
2:50
Speaker 1: is Bodybacks Brother Dave. Got to tell you, man, we
2:58
Speaker 1: have these moments where I will come to the mic
3:03
Speaker 1: and I'll sit down and we've discussed the case. We've
3:06
Speaker 1: you know, communicated through electronics and all these sorts of things.
3:11
Speaker 1: But you sit down and you you kind of take
3:16
Speaker 1: the measure of what you're about to talk to and
3:18
Speaker 1: it's I don't know, it becomes I'm not saying I'm
3:21
Speaker 1: sacred anyway, but it's a sacred. It's a sacred task,
3:25
Speaker 1: I think, to tell the story of someone that has
3:31
Speaker 1: passed on, and in this case, there's something about this
3:35
Speaker 1: that just so resonates with me because of the brutality
3:38
Speaker 1: of this Dave. That's just absolutely heartbreaking about this child.
3:44
Speaker 1: And she is a child to me. She's only twenty
3:47
Speaker 1: two years old.
3:48
Speaker 2: Lauren Johansson's twenty two years old. She's an our end student.
3:52
Speaker 2: She's studying to become a nurse. Her dad is a doctor.
3:55
Speaker 2: And Bryce Rivers is her twenty three year old on again,
4:00
Speaker 2: off again boyfriend. And in this case, today we're going
4:06
Speaker 2: to talk about domestic violence, the impact of how somebody
4:12
Speaker 2: in a relationship over a period of years crying out
4:17
Speaker 2: for help on one day, crying out for their life
4:22
Speaker 2: in one day, and within forty eight hours, while the
4:25
Speaker 2: swelling is still so severe one eye cannot even be opened,
4:31
Speaker 2: and yet telling the person who did this incredible damage,
4:34
Speaker 2: I love you, I love you. I will do anything
4:36
Speaker 2: for you. What can I do? That's what we're talking about.
4:39
Speaker 2: This is a classic case. Her father, Lauren Johansson's father
4:43
Speaker 2: said she was a Stockholm syndrome. He used that term. Wow,
4:48
Speaker 2: And I don't know enough about psychology to dig into that.
4:55
Speaker 2: We have friends that do those things, oh yeah. But
4:58
Speaker 2: over the years of covering crime and domestic violence issues,
5:02
Speaker 2: and we have cases that are not that dissimilar. But
5:06
Speaker 2: in this case, Lauren Johansson was beaten by her boyfriend
5:10
Speaker 2: in December while they were on a quick vacation to Nashville.
5:14
Speaker 2: The beating was so severe that Bryce Rivers was locked
5:18
Speaker 2: into the county jail while they were prepping all the
5:20
Speaker 2: paperwork slated to go to court and go on trial.
5:26
Speaker 2: And his bond was set so high it wasn't expected
5:29
Speaker 2: that he would get out on bond. It was very high.
5:32
Speaker 2: And yet over a period of months, his attorney his
5:37
Speaker 2: family got the judge to lower his bond and they
5:40
Speaker 2: bonded him out. Once out on bond, everything was messed up.
5:45
Speaker 2: Bryce Rivers was not supposed to leave Tennessee, specifically Nashville.
5:49
Speaker 2: He wasn't supposed to do anything. Lauren Johansson should have
5:52
Speaker 2: been safe, but she wasn't. And there were so many failures.
5:56
Speaker 2: The fingers are pointing at a lot of different people
5:58
Speaker 2: in Nashville for the death of Learning Johansson.
6:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, the her daddy in particular, has
6:07
Speaker 1: pretty plainly stated, you know that system did fail for
6:11
Speaker 1: his daughter. And you know, you and I were talking
6:13
Speaker 1: about this just a moment ago. We've you know, you
6:17
Speaker 1: and I have both got you know, kids, that we're
6:21
Speaker 1: proud of and that we love. But you know, as
6:24
Speaker 1: a parent, you sit there and you you know, you
6:27
Speaker 1: kind of you know, they tell you take your hands
6:29
Speaker 1: off your kids, right, And I mean that in the
6:31
Speaker 1: sense that once they reach a certain level, they're going
6:37
Speaker 1: to have to learn right or they won't survive in
6:40
Speaker 1: the world. And you can say to a child, I think,
6:46
Speaker 1: and I know I have, I wouldn't do that, you know,
6:51
Speaker 1: I would not involve myself in the situation any further.
6:55
Speaker 1: This is dangerous. The common parlance is this is toxic. Yeah,
7:00
Speaker 1: you know that sort of thing. And you see it.
7:02
Speaker 1: You know, as a parent, you can see it, and
7:06
Speaker 1: many many nights, you know, on your knees, crying out
7:09
Speaker 1: to God saying please help them, you know, see the
7:11
Speaker 1: light because I can't. I can't do this, you know,
7:14
Speaker 1: all my own I can't. I can't intervene any further.
7:18
Speaker 1: But yet it happens, and and David's like a it's
7:22
Speaker 1: almost like a science experiment where you know, one of
7:25
Speaker 1: the things that we're looking for in science is to
7:28
Speaker 1: have if we conduct an experiment, an experiment, we're looking
7:32
Speaker 1: for repeatable results, right that if you use a particular
7:37
Speaker 1: methodology in order to achieve a goal you have in
7:40
Speaker 1: a hypothesis and you put that into work with the
7:44
Speaker 1: scientific method and you're thinking about this that it's is
7:47
Speaker 1: it repeatable? And you know you said something key just
7:51
Speaker 1: a moment ago about domestic violence. There are certain ingredients
7:56
Speaker 1: that go into a lot of these things that we
8:00
Speaker 1: have covered over the years where you see the same
8:05
Speaker 1: little data points along the way, you know, where you
8:09
Speaker 1: know that if you if this continues on, we're gonna
8:13
Speaker 1: wind up with the same results. And I don't know,
8:16
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know enough about Lauren's relationship with Bryson,
8:21
Speaker 1: but I can tell you this. There there were signs
8:25
Speaker 1: I think probably along the way. And dude, the biggest
8:30
Speaker 1: sign was that trip to Nashville. And it's it's striking
8:36
Speaker 1: to me. You know that you know what would compel
8:40
Speaker 1: her because you and I have seen the images and
8:42
Speaker 1: the images are horrific. I mean even by my by
8:47
Speaker 1: my measure, these things are horrific. And these are photos
8:51
Speaker 1: that are taking of her in the emergency room probably
8:56
Speaker 1: and you consider that and you think, oh my god.
9:02
Speaker 1: When she talks to him on the phone, she says,
9:05
Speaker 1: I love you. How does how do you how do
9:10
Speaker 1: you fight that, you know as a parent, you know,
9:13
Speaker 1: how do you how do you redirect in some way?
9:16
Speaker 1: I don't know. And I think that that's that might
9:18
Speaker 1: be this idea of him, you know, uh, speculating about
9:23
Speaker 1: Stockholm syndrome where you know she you know you you
9:26
Speaker 1: have great sympathy for this, for this person that's doing
9:29
Speaker 1: these horrible things.
9:30
Speaker 2: When her father is speaking up and I have a
9:36
Speaker 2: really strong feeling that when he does let his guard
9:39
Speaker 2: down right now, he's very clinical, he is the father.
9:42
Speaker 2: He is very again, he's a isn't he a surgeon?
9:45
Speaker 2: He's a doctor, yeah, to be a surgeon.
9:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:49
Speaker 2: And so he and he was there when they found
9:52
Speaker 2: her body. And here's what happened. Okay, just so you know,
9:54
Speaker 2: this is a dating relationship that dates back to high
9:57
Speaker 2: school where he was the star football player and she's
9:59
Speaker 2: the beautiful co ed right after high school. And by
10:03
Speaker 2: the way, her dad has indicated that this relationship went
10:08
Speaker 2: through many periods of violence to varying degrees. I don't
10:13
Speaker 2: know it, like we don't. I have to say alleged
10:17
Speaker 2: because the man is alive and he is innocent until
10:20
Speaker 2: proven guilty. And let's be very clear on that the
10:23
Speaker 2: accusations made by her father are first hand accounts. I
10:26
Speaker 2: don't know all of the relationship issues, but I will
10:29
Speaker 2: tell you this, Lauren, one of you, Johansson was her
10:39
Speaker 2: mother had. There are issues in their family dynamic that
10:43
Speaker 2: made Lauren grow up faster inside the home where she
10:46
Speaker 2: was serving as not just the older sister of her siblings,
10:49
Speaker 2: she at times had to step in as a mother
10:52
Speaker 2: figure and run the household. Her father has indicated as
10:57
Speaker 2: much in writing as in particular in a gofund me
11:00
Speaker 2: writing he talked about Lauren and what she was like.
11:03
Speaker 2: But just to back up from it, Lauren and Bryce
11:06
Speaker 2: no different than any other high school couple and young
11:09
Speaker 2: adult couple that go to college. You know, we all
11:11
Speaker 2: have these relationships that are built on any number of
11:15
Speaker 2: infatuations that we go through in junior high, high school,
11:18
Speaker 2: and early college. It's after your second or third year
11:21
Speaker 2: of college when you get past that immaturity of the
11:27
Speaker 2: relationship and start looking forward. And that is where they were.
11:30
Speaker 2: They were at that part and the violence appeared to
11:35
Speaker 2: be going up, and they had been broken up so
11:39
Speaker 2: many times, and her father, Lauren's father was happy about
11:43
Speaker 2: this when he found out. When Lauren's father found out
11:48
Speaker 2: that Lauren and Bryce and were in Nashville on vacation,
11:52
Speaker 2: he was shocked. He thought they were broken up for
11:55
Speaker 2: good when Lauren went to college. He thought her dad
11:59
Speaker 2: thought she was done with Bryson Rivers. He was positive
12:03
Speaker 2: of this, so much so when he found out that
12:07
Speaker 2: not only were they in Nashville on vacation, but his
12:10
Speaker 2: daughter was once again beaten, he was shocked at multiple
12:16
Speaker 2: levels and you know went right there. The pictures are
12:19
Speaker 2: available and you can look them up, as Joe and
12:22
Speaker 2: I have of the beating that took place December eleventh
12:26
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty three. They had Bryson and Lauren had
12:31
Speaker 2: gone out. They'd gone to Nashville for a couple of days.
12:33
Speaker 2: They're both from Mississippi in the Gulfport area and that's
12:37
Speaker 2: where their families are from. They went to Nashville for
12:40
Speaker 2: a little vacation. They'd gone out to a bar and
12:44
Speaker 2: you know, they were drinking. Bryson when they left the bar,
12:46
Speaker 2: Bryson accused Lauren of having sex with a bartender or
12:52
Speaker 2: somebody at the bar. Think about that for just a minute.
12:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, the dynamics of that's that's crazy talk in and
13:00
Speaker 1: I mean that, Yeah, how do you show up, you know,
13:04
Speaker 1: all the way from golf Board if you if, if
13:06
Speaker 1: you're not, if you're not familiar with geographically where these
13:12
Speaker 1: two locations are are situated. You know, it's kind of
13:16
Speaker 1: a drive, you know, from the Gulf Board area, going
13:19
Speaker 1: from the Gulf Coast, you know, golf Board, uh, all
13:23
Speaker 1: the way up to Nashville.
13:24
Speaker 2: Yeh uh?
13:25
Speaker 1: And logistically, how let me you know, how does that
13:30
Speaker 1: work out? You know? You do you do the math here?
13:33
Speaker 1: You're you're actually going to accuse her of engaging in
13:36
Speaker 1: sexual congress with an employee of this bar. And at
13:41
Speaker 1: this moment time, I don't care how much firewater you
13:43
Speaker 1: got on board at that point in time. How do
13:46
Speaker 1: you even do how do you even do the calculus
13:49
Speaker 1: on that? Dude? You know that you're going to sit
13:51
Speaker 1: here and actually accuse this young woman who you've been
13:55
Speaker 1: involved with for years and years? How are you how
13:59
Speaker 1: are you going to How does that? How does that
14:00
Speaker 1: work out?
14:01
Speaker 2: It doesn't? You're crazy, man, you know? He She was
14:05
Speaker 2: showing another vanittion. She talked to a guy, right you're
14:07
Speaker 2: in a bar having a drink. Guy, I asked you
14:09
Speaker 2: a question, you talk to him. That's what happened, and
14:11
Speaker 2: that's what sent Bryson Rivers over the edge. They left
14:13
Speaker 2: the bar and inside the bar or inside the car rather,
14:18
Speaker 2: he's hitting her. He is beating his girlfriend in the
14:21
Speaker 2: car as they're driving now. Bryson Rivers mother called him
14:26
Speaker 2: several times. It's a mother's intuition to know when a
14:30
Speaker 2: child is messing up. It's they know what's going on.
14:34
Speaker 2: They know the sound of A parent knows the sound
14:36
Speaker 2: of their child's voice. But a mother even takes it
14:38
Speaker 2: a step farther than a dad. They catch things that
14:44
Speaker 2: normal people can't when when a woman becomes a mother,
14:49
Speaker 2: they become like a superhero. And Bryson's mother knew something
14:55
Speaker 2: bad was happening, and she kept calling Bryson and at
14:58
Speaker 2: one point during one of these punk calls, she could
15:01
Speaker 2: hear a female voice crying out for help, and in
15:04
Speaker 2: that voice she heard fear, panic, everything. And it was
15:08
Speaker 2: Bryson River's mother who called police and described a couple
15:14
Speaker 2: having a disagreement, a physical disagreement inside a car, and
15:20
Speaker 2: the police found the car parked in a parking lot
15:23
Speaker 2: in Nashville. The windows were fogged up. It is December eleventh,
15:27
Speaker 2: by the way, so it is wintertime in Nashville. Not
15:29
Speaker 2: extremely cold, but certainly chilly. The windows inside the car
15:33
Speaker 2: have fogged up. The police arrive on site and Lauren
15:37
Speaker 2: is able to escape out of the car. She is
15:40
Speaker 2: now wearing just panties on her bra and blood everywhere.
15:44
Speaker 2: Her head is a mangled mess of swollen blood. When
15:49
Speaker 2: they looked inside the car, there's blood everywhere. Inside the
15:53
Speaker 2: car they found two rocks and a pistol that were
15:58
Speaker 2: all covered in blood. So Bryson Rivers apparently allegedly beat
16:03
Speaker 2: his girlfriend with two rocks and a pistol, and by
16:08
Speaker 2: the way, Joe he had blood on him as well.
16:12
Speaker 2: Police were concerned he was injured, that this had been
16:16
Speaker 2: a mutual attack, until they discovered he didn't have any injuries,
16:21
Speaker 2: he didn't have any play coming from him. The blood
16:25
Speaker 2: on Bryson Rivers belonged to Lauren Johanson.
16:31
Speaker 1: And for that one moment in this absolute horror show,
16:40
Speaker 1: there was a ray of hope. It came in the
16:43
Speaker 1: form of miss Rivers, Bryson's mother, where she was able
16:51
Speaker 1: to direct the police to intervene in this circumstance. Maybe
16:58
Speaker 1: just maybe there was a chance that Lauren could have survived.
17:06
Speaker 1: But the story takes a much darker turn after that, Dave,
17:23
Speaker 1: I want to reveal something to you that I don't
17:26
Speaker 1: know that I've ever talked about on bodybacks before. Maybe
17:30
Speaker 1: I have. It's hard to say, you know, my first
17:34
Speaker 1: exposure to massive trauma was not in the morgue as
17:41
Speaker 1: an autopsy assistant or later as a corner investigator, but
17:46
Speaker 1: my first exposure to massive trauma as a young man.
17:52
Speaker 1: While I was in college. I got a job as
17:55
Speaker 1: an emergency room technician, and essentially, you know, it meant
18:01
Speaker 1: that I was cleaning a lot. They taught me how
18:08
Speaker 1: to do blood pressures, and if there were you know,
18:13
Speaker 1: violent patients that came in, I would be the person
18:15
Speaker 1: to you know, restrain them in some way and just
18:20
Speaker 1: deal with the things to make life easier for the
18:24
Speaker 1: actual people that were you know, rendering aid, the nurses
18:28
Speaker 1: and of course the physicians. That's where I first saw
18:32
Speaker 1: you know, trauma, and it was great for me going
18:38
Speaker 1: into forensics because this is it's almost like living pathology
18:42
Speaker 1: that you're seeing these people that we had our deaths
18:44
Speaker 1: that would come into the mercy room. But you would
18:47
Speaker 1: actually see people that were still alive and if they
18:51
Speaker 1: sustained trauma, you could actually see Now just imagine this.
18:55
Speaker 1: You could actually see the result of the trauma before
18:59
Speaker 1: your eyes. Eyes worsen, you know, when you're thinking about
19:03
Speaker 1: hemorrhage and all of those sorts of things. And I
19:06
Speaker 1: remember how shocking it was because when.
19:09
Speaker 2: So somebody comes in having just gone through a violent event, Yeah,
19:13
Speaker 2: and you're actually watching as the wounds they swell more.
19:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's that's the key word here. Wow, this
19:20
Speaker 1: idea of swelling, because the little vessels are all broken
19:25
Speaker 1: just beneath the skin, and so you've got you've got
19:27
Speaker 1: blood that's leaching out and you've heard me use this
19:30
Speaker 1: term into what's called the interstitial tissue, right, and it
19:33
Speaker 1: begins to swell, and it's it's a it's a response,
19:37
Speaker 1: a trauma response that your body has as a result
19:40
Speaker 1: of this. And Dave, there would be people that would
19:44
Speaker 1: come in. I have a vivid memory of this. There
19:47
Speaker 1: would be people that would come in and I remember,
19:51
Speaker 1: as a very young man standing bearing witness to this, thinking,
19:56
Speaker 1: how how's this person alive? And you would hear them
20:00
Speaker 1: through the crusted blood. You would hear them through the swelling,
20:07
Speaker 1: you would hear them mumble something, and it's almost shocking
20:10
Speaker 1: that they're actually I wouldn't say alert and oriented, but
20:14
Speaker 1: they're conscious. And because you look at this, particularly through
20:20
Speaker 1: you know, a young man's eyes, I had no experience
20:22
Speaker 1: with this sort of thing to begin with, None of
20:24
Speaker 1: us do when we start off in life like this.
20:27
Speaker 1: I was shocked by my measure at that point time,
20:30
Speaker 1: the person was still living, was still drawing breath. And
20:35
Speaker 1: when I see these images of Lauren in these circumstances
20:40
Speaker 1: and the swelling, which you know, fancy term for that
20:43
Speaker 1: is echamosis, this trauma response, I'm thinking probably there may
20:50
Speaker 1: have been some technician, some young technician in there that
20:53
Speaker 1: bore witness to this, that was in the same shoes
20:55
Speaker 1: I was in all those years ago, thinking how how
20:59
Speaker 1: in the world world is she still alive? Because they're
21:03
Speaker 1: even on my scale, Dave, this is this is horrific
21:08
Speaker 1: stuff that we're talking about.
21:10
Speaker 2: What did the pictures tell you about the injuries to
21:15
Speaker 2: Lauren Johansson from that night and the items that the
21:18
Speaker 2: police found in the car. What do you get out
21:20
Speaker 2: of all that?
21:21
Speaker 1: Well, Look, my first blush is when I take When
21:24
Speaker 1: I take a look at at this image in life,
21:28
Speaker 1: it's it's these are not post mortem images.
21:32
Speaker 2: This is.
21:34
Speaker 1: Was a beautiful, living, breathing young lady. When I take
21:39
Speaker 1: a look at these photos that they took, it took
21:41
Speaker 1: of her, uh, post this first event. Her eyes are
21:48
Speaker 1: bilaterally swollen, and that's commonly what we refer to as
21:52
Speaker 1: raccoon eyes. That tells me that if it, if it
21:57
Speaker 1: hadn't happened, if there was not an indication of it.
22:03
Speaker 1: As a death investigator, I would make kind of the
22:08
Speaker 1: intellectual leap here and say that she's got underline fracture,
22:11
Speaker 1: probably maybe even a basel er skull fracture.
22:14
Speaker 2: Okay, looking at her eyes, Joe, Yeah, and seeing how
22:18
Speaker 2: her head appears to be lopsided, right, can you tell
22:24
Speaker 2: what could have been used to cause us? Was it
22:26
Speaker 2: a fist, an open hand, or rock a gun? Can
22:29
Speaker 2: you kind of tell what that is?
22:30
Speaker 1: You know, after she was after she's in obviously she's
22:34
Speaker 1: been cleaned up, you know, relative to this blood wiped away? Yeah,
22:39
Speaker 1: the blood's wiped away. And there are not a lot
22:45
Speaker 1: of in just the image that we have in this status,
22:50
Speaker 1: there are not a lot of what we refer to
22:52
Speaker 1: as specific pattern injuries. That draws into question here the
23:00
Speaker 1: contact that came about as a result of wielding these rocks.
23:05
Speaker 1: You know, the rocks have been weaponized. And also you've
23:08
Speaker 1: got a firearm that is not being used as as
23:15
Speaker 1: a firearm. It's being used as a bludgeon at this
23:18
Speaker 1: point in time. And the thing about and typically you know,
23:22
Speaker 1: I'm sure that people have heard the term pistol whipping,
23:25
Speaker 1: and that's a real thing. It does occur.
23:28
Speaker 2: I've only heard it in movies before. Now, in the
23:31
Speaker 2: movie JFK when they showed the Ana, Yeah, ed Asner's
23:36
Speaker 2: character beating up Jack Leman's character with the pistol. And
23:39
Speaker 2: then in Goodfellas where you know he got Henry Hill
23:44
Speaker 2: after his girlfriend future wife has been across.
23:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a thirty eight caliber snubnose that he
23:51
Speaker 1: had and he used it almost like in that instance,
23:54
Speaker 1: he used it almost like brass knuckles.
23:56
Speaker 2: Right, is that what we're talking about with a pistol whipping.
23:59
Speaker 1: That is a pistol whipping, and it's a methodology that
24:02
Speaker 1: has been used. It's almost like, see, how can I
24:06
Speaker 1: say this? It's almost like the individual that is wielding
24:10
Speaker 1: the handgun in this particular case, is using it as
24:17
Speaker 1: a precursor, okay to what could happen in the final moments, like, Okay,
24:24
Speaker 1: we're ramping up at this point in time, I'm going
24:27
Speaker 1: to take this pistol and I'm not going to shoot you.
24:30
Speaker 1: I'm going to beat you with it. And typically with
24:34
Speaker 1: a weapon, and a lot of it has to do
24:36
Speaker 1: with the various surfaces. Let's say, for instance, you gave
24:39
Speaker 1: the example from the movie Goodfellas that was a revolver
24:41
Speaker 1: that Henry Hill, that the character of Henry Hill was
24:45
Speaker 1: wielding at that point in time. I've seen pistol whippings
24:49
Speaker 1: with a revolver where the wheel part of the weapon
24:54
Speaker 1: is kind of extended out on both sides, and I've
24:57
Speaker 1: seen there's kind of these indentation along the wheel along
25:02
Speaker 1: the revolving part of the weapon. I've seen that actually
25:06
Speaker 1: imprinted onto people's skin. I've actually seen if someone has
25:12
Speaker 1: the hammer on the back of a weapon, which is
25:15
Speaker 1: where the hammer is not internal, it's external and it
25:19
Speaker 1: kind of sticks out on the back. You see this
25:21
Speaker 1: like an old cowboy weapons. That particular feature can be
25:26
Speaker 1: driven into the skull and it's almost used almost like
25:32
Speaker 1: a spike if you will. The weapons have so many
25:38
Speaker 1: handguns have so many little features on them that are
25:40
Speaker 1: unique to those weapons. You can actually take a firearm
25:46
Speaker 1: and if you're keen enough to do this, compare the
25:50
Speaker 1: actual weapon that was used to images of the weapon
25:54
Speaker 1: or better yet, and I've done this in the morgue
25:57
Speaker 1: where somebody's been beaten to death with a pistol. Actually
26:00
Speaker 1: the police will actually bring that weapon to the morgue
26:04
Speaker 1: and hold it adjacent to the juries Dave that we're
26:09
Speaker 1: witnessing on the autopsy table and take a comparative photograph
26:14
Speaker 1: at that point in time. It's amazing what you can
26:16
Speaker 1: come up with this. The one thing that's striking to
26:19
Speaker 1: me about this though, are the rocks, Because rocks, as
26:24
Speaker 1: we know, and they don't really define the rocks here. Yeah, okay,
26:27
Speaker 1: if you go out too, Yeah, if you go out
26:30
Speaker 1: and you pick up, like, I don't know, say, a
26:33
Speaker 1: piece of kind of quartzy kind of rock that's out there,
26:36
Speaker 1: it's got these little sharp angles on it that's going
26:40
Speaker 1: to have a very definitive pattern to it. But if
26:45
Speaker 1: it's if it's like a river stone, and we you know,
26:49
Speaker 1: if you've ever been to the mountains and you've been
26:51
Speaker 1: in one of those cold streams up there where the
26:53
Speaker 1: water is rushing over there. They're very smooth, aren't they.
26:56
Speaker 1: Native Americans would take those stones and make like access
27:00
Speaker 1: out of more bludgeons out of them because they had
27:03
Speaker 1: this kind of predictable, predictable structure to them. That's going
27:08
Speaker 1: to appear different than this kind of jagged rock that
27:10
Speaker 1: you might find out. But she's got a significant laceration
27:14
Speaker 1: that you can see in the photo. As a matter
27:17
Speaker 1: of fact, it's kind of elliptical in shape, and referring
27:23
Speaker 1: back sound like I'm in court if you'll allow me
27:26
Speaker 1: to refer back to the images as you're as you're
27:29
Speaker 1: looking at this in her hairline, there's this kind of
27:34
Speaker 1: elliptical laceration that's that's in dwelling there. That's that's very nasty.
27:42
Speaker 1: It's right at the edge of her hairline, and it's shape,
27:45
Speaker 1: there's actually kind of a pattern to it. Well, what
27:49
Speaker 1: could in fact generate that, Well, if you've got a
27:53
Speaker 1: weapon that actually has a curved edge to it, that's
27:58
Speaker 1: that's milled, it's manufactioned like that, that specific pattern could
28:03
Speaker 1: be married up. She's also got and this is kind
28:07
Speaker 1: of interesting, Dave, just looking at this, she's got a
28:12
Speaker 1: what I would say is probably an abrasion. Perhaps that's
28:17
Speaker 1: over her left eye. And again it's kind of elliptical.
28:21
Speaker 1: You know what that looks like?
28:22
Speaker 2: To me?
28:23
Speaker 1: That looks like almost as if the end of the barrel,
28:28
Speaker 1: the opening of the muzzle was driven into her forehead
28:31
Speaker 1: right there, because it's got that kind of rounded appearance,
28:35
Speaker 1: and that would like maybe he was pointing forehead and
28:39
Speaker 1: then driving it, you know. And again that goes to
28:42
Speaker 1: this domestic violence piece because one of the things, you know,
28:46
Speaker 1: we use that term domestic violence all the time. You know,
28:49
Speaker 1: a term I like to use quite a bit is
28:53
Speaker 1: the term menacing, and menacing is an element of domestic violence.
28:59
Speaker 1: And whence if you've ever been menaced in your life,
29:03
Speaker 1: and what that means is it's a threat, but it's
29:06
Speaker 1: more than a threat. It's like, you know, people can
29:10
Speaker 1: menace you with their eyes, with their words, but they
29:12
Speaker 1: can also menace you with weapons that can display it
29:16
Speaker 1: to you, that can shove it in your face and
29:18
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And Dave, they're locked up in
29:21
Speaker 1: this in this car together for a protracted period of time.
29:28
Speaker 2: It was apparently an hour. Okay, that's what we're getting
29:31
Speaker 2: from what miss what Chelsea Rivers is telling police about
29:38
Speaker 2: the beating, and as they put the information together from
29:42
Speaker 2: Lauren the timetable from when they left the bar. I mean,
29:44
Speaker 2: all of these things coming together an hour straight of beating.
29:50
Speaker 2: And that's why the charges included kidnapping and not allowing
29:54
Speaker 2: we're to leave in coercion and a few other things.
29:56
Speaker 2: Because you've got her phone from her, see he acts
30:00
Speaker 2: was able to get control of her phone where she
30:02
Speaker 2: was trying to call nine one one, trying to call
30:04
Speaker 2: for help. She said that she was screaming once they
30:06
Speaker 2: got parked. She was screaming at passing cars, hoping somebody
30:09
Speaker 2: would hear her screaming. And it was during one of
30:12
Speaker 2: those calls to his mother when Chelsea Rivers called his
30:16
Speaker 2: phone that you know, I can imagine him saying, hey,
30:20
Speaker 2: shut up, I'm talking to my mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
30:22
Speaker 2: you know. And then and so when police arrive and
30:26
Speaker 2: they see her, they see the foggy windows, and as
30:29
Speaker 2: they approach, she has the ability to get away because
30:31
Speaker 2: he's now afraid because real men showed up. Wait a minute, yeah,
30:34
Speaker 2: because this real guy is beating up a girl, and
30:37
Speaker 2: now these cops show up immediately, his demeanor has to change. Oh,
30:41
Speaker 2: it's all her fault. She was scratching me, she was
30:43
Speaker 2: threatening me. What did the police see inside that car
30:45
Speaker 2: in terms of blood because they said it was a
30:47
Speaker 2: bloody mess. Are we talking cast off because it's very tight?
30:50
Speaker 1: No? No, no, you're you're right, it's going to be
30:53
Speaker 1: the Yeah. And here we have an event where someone
30:58
Speaker 1: is you know me cases we talk about on body
31:01
Speaker 1: backs or things that happen after death. Okay, Now this
31:04
Speaker 1: is a dynamic event. This is her trying to shield herself.
31:07
Speaker 1: And one of the things we cannot pick up on
31:10
Speaker 1: in the imagery that we have right now. I bet
31:13
Speaker 1: you dollars to donuts right now, if we had, if
31:18
Speaker 1: they had, if we could go back in time and
31:20
Speaker 1: take a look at her arms, I guarantee you, my friend,
31:24
Speaker 1: that we would see contusions on her arms where she
31:26
Speaker 1: was blocking or attempting to block. And of course, anytime
31:30
Speaker 1: you block somebody like this that's in this state of mind,
31:33
Speaker 1: that just infuriates them even more. It drives that temperature higher.
31:37
Speaker 1: And Dave, you know, looking at Lauren, and she's a
31:41
Speaker 1: little video thing. I mean, she ain't big as a minute.
31:44
Speaker 1: She's diminutive. And I'm glad you brought that up about
31:47
Speaker 1: the real men showing up here, because you know what
31:54
Speaker 1: type of man using air quotes here, as Nancy always says,
31:59
Speaker 1: what type of man beats down a tiny, little willowy
32:06
Speaker 1: woman like this and can actually feel good about it.
32:10
Speaker 1: I guess at some point in time, somebody will stand
32:12
Speaker 1: up and say, well, you don't understand still, waters run deep.
32:17
Speaker 1: He had a lot going on, But I do know this.
32:21
Speaker 1: I do know this. It's as a result of not
32:26
Speaker 1: just his actions, but also the actions of that judge
32:34
Speaker 1: up there in Nashville who allowed him out of jail,
32:40
Speaker 1: and somebody that had created arguably one of the most
32:46
Speaker 1: horrific scenes that you can possibly imagine as an investigator.
32:52
Speaker 1: She allowed him to leave custody, to leave custody, he
32:58
Speaker 1: was not they were that bond. His mother met it.
33:03
Speaker 1: And it's at that point in time I think I
33:07
Speaker 1: think that Lauren's fate was sealed. Holy smokes, you know
33:29
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about this, David. I'm thinking, you know, there
33:31
Speaker 1: are certain times when we can't take the measure. I
33:38
Speaker 1: think of the decisions that the judiciary makes so many times,
33:44
Speaker 1: you know, you want so desperately to grab somebody in
33:48
Speaker 1: one of those black robes and drag them out to
33:52
Speaker 1: emergency rooms, into crime scenes and to see the weeping
33:57
Speaker 1: parents and have them visually see what's going on, because
34:03
Speaker 1: it's and look, I know, justice is blind, and you
34:07
Speaker 1: can tell me that all day long. I've stood over
34:09
Speaker 1: too many dead victims over the course of my career
34:14
Speaker 1: and over the course of what I've done in the
34:16
Speaker 1: media to simply take that and say, okay, well we'll
34:21
Speaker 1: just move on. No, no, no, no. It's something like this
34:24
Speaker 1: where you witness what happened and then you see the
34:30
Speaker 1: end result. Here, I don't understand, we've got this.
34:34
Speaker 2: How do we go from in jail, locked up in Nashville,
34:37
Speaker 2: I don't know, six months later being dead?
34:40
Speaker 1: Being dead? Yeah, And the next thing we know, you know,
34:43
Speaker 1: they're popping up on the radar down Mississippi and what's
34:47
Speaker 1: going on? What's going on that he's now walking the
34:51
Speaker 1: streets and he's not only had this is the thing.
34:56
Speaker 1: Not only is he walking the streets, he's walking streets
34:59
Speaker 1: in Mississippi. He's not walk in the streets in Nashville.
35:01
Speaker 2: Man, Yep, you know Joe, I'm gonna give you a
35:04
Speaker 2: very quick thumbnail sketch of the timetable between December eleventh,
35:08
Speaker 2: when Bryson Rivers is arrested for nearly killing Lauren Johanson
35:12
Speaker 2: by beating her in their car in Nashville, to the
35:14
Speaker 2: time he gets out of jail on June twenty eighth.
35:17
Speaker 2: See when doctor Johanson was with Lauren in Nashville. They
35:21
Speaker 2: expected the bond of two hundred and fifty one thousand
35:23
Speaker 2: dollars to keep Bryson Rivers in jail until the case
35:26
Speaker 2: went to court. At that point they were hoping to
35:28
Speaker 2: get a conviction and have him sentenced for up to
35:31
Speaker 2: life in prison for nearly killing her. But that's not
35:34
Speaker 2: what happened. Bryson Rivers attorney was able to get a
35:37
Speaker 2: judge to lower his bond from two hundred and fifty
35:40
Speaker 2: one thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand. Judge Cheryl
35:44
Speaker 2: Blackburn in Nashville lowered it. That meant his mother, Bryson
35:47
Speaker 2: Rivers mother only had to come up with fifteen grand
35:49
Speaker 2: to get him out, and she did. He was released
35:52
Speaker 2: and there were a number of conditions that applied to
35:56
Speaker 2: his release from jail. He didn't abide by any of them.
35:59
Speaker 2: So well. Doctor Johnson, Lauren's father, wrote this on go
36:04
Speaker 2: Fun to Me about when Bryson Rivers got out of
36:07
Speaker 2: jail on the twenty eighth. He said, early Tuesday morning, Kaylin,
36:12
Speaker 2: by the way, Kaylin is Lauren's sister, and they were
36:16
Speaker 2: living together in Mississippi, and Kylen found the front door open.
36:22
Speaker 2: Her cats were outside in the front yard. Lauren was gone.
36:26
Speaker 2: A security camera had been ripped off the house, and
36:29
Speaker 2: doctor Johanson said that Lauren's life three point sixty was
36:32
Speaker 2: cut off at four one am. So the thought is
36:36
Speaker 2: that Bryson Rivers kidnapped Lauren that morning at four oh
36:41
Speaker 2: one am. She was reported missing right away to the
36:45
Speaker 2: police two separate times. Doctor Johansson said, I called and
36:48
Speaker 2: talked to anyone and everyone who would listen and help
36:51
Speaker 2: me find her. The next day we found her car
36:54
Speaker 2: and Bryson ran from the car. Now let me give
36:56
Speaker 2: you this very quickly here because second is the day
37:00
Speaker 2: they believe Lauren was killed. It was Wednesday, July third.
37:07
Speaker 2: Hattiesburg Police Department used on Star. They couldn't find where
37:11
Speaker 2: Lauren was. They knew that Bryson Rivers probably had her.
37:14
Speaker 2: They knew that his UH monitoring ankle Brasil wasn't working
37:19
Speaker 2: and they couldn't find him well. On Star was able
37:22
Speaker 2: to track Lauren Johansson's car. They located in July third
37:26
Speaker 2: at Wolf River Cemetery. Think about that, it's in a cemetery.
37:30
Speaker 2: Hattiesburg Police Department requests the Sheriff's Department's help in conducting
37:34
Speaker 2: a welfare check at that location. As deputies find the
37:38
Speaker 2: car in the cemetery, Bryson Rivers is in the car,
37:42
Speaker 2: He gets out and Bryson Rivers runs away from the
37:45
Speaker 2: car into the woods. When they get to the car
37:48
Speaker 2: and doctor Johansson is with the medical examiner when they
37:53
Speaker 2: found her body in her own car, wrapped in trash
37:58
Speaker 2: bags and sheets. Lauren's father, doctor Lance Johansson, said this,
38:04
Speaker 2: I knew she was dead when we got there. Her
38:07
Speaker 2: car was in the middle of the cemetery and she
38:10
Speaker 2: was in the back of the car, wrapped up in
38:12
Speaker 2: sheets and trash bags. She was basically beaten to death.
38:16
Speaker 2: Her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in.
38:20
Speaker 2: She was brutally beaten to the point she couldn't see
38:23
Speaker 2: out of either eye. When she finally died and there
38:26
Speaker 2: were multiple holes in her head. I helped the coroner
38:29
Speaker 2: lift her body out of the car. It was just mutilated.
38:34
Speaker 2: That was doctor Lance Johansson talking about his daughter Lauren
38:39
Speaker 2: and finding her body.
38:40
Speaker 1: Dave, I'm going to give you one word here that
38:46
Speaker 1: issued forth from doctor Johansson's lips. Mutilated. Let that sink
38:58
Speaker 1: in just for a second. Mutilated. Now, when she was
39:06
Speaker 1: found in her car, by the way, her body was
39:15
Speaker 1: wrapped in sheets and plastic. She's lying there in that car,
39:26
Speaker 1: and her daddy is the one that actually found her
39:31
Speaker 1: in this state, I'm you know, I think that I
39:39
Speaker 1: could say that words fail me, but they really don't.
39:43
Speaker 1: There's a way to describe this. I think failure. Failure
39:50
Speaker 1: is the biggest one. But here's the thing we have
39:56
Speaker 1: to reflect back on here because this this is all
40:00
Speaker 1: going to play out in court relative to him. And
40:03
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about back to things that I've heard Nancy
40:06
Speaker 1: Gray say over the over the years where they talk
40:09
Speaker 1: about you can't use you can't use prior bad acts
40:16
Speaker 1: in a case to to impugne the person. And I
40:23
Speaker 1: really wonder how all of this is going to come
40:25
Speaker 1: into play, because you know, it's like the old poem.
40:28
Speaker 1: You know, for the want of a nail, a horseshoe
40:30
Speaker 1: was lost, for the one of the horseshoe, you know,
40:33
Speaker 1: horse was lost, so forth and so on. If it
40:36
Speaker 1: wasn't for that one thing back in time, the fatal
40:42
Speaker 1: event would not have occurred here. And of course Rivers
40:48
Speaker 1: uses the same methodology with her. He beats her to death.
40:55
Speaker 1: He actually has a pistol with him. Now, this is
41:00
Speaker 1: this is an individual who has been accused of arguably
41:05
Speaker 1: one of the most horrific things you can be accused
41:08
Speaker 1: of period. Where a weapon was previously involved, a handgun.
41:12
Speaker 1: Now he's got his hands on another weapon. And not
41:17
Speaker 1: only that, he's planned this out. He knows And I
41:20
Speaker 1: have to back up here and say that her she
41:26
Speaker 1: was domiciled currently. You know, she was a college student.
41:29
Speaker 1: She's going to University of Southern Mississippi. That's in Hattiesburg.
41:32
Speaker 1: Now that's due north of Gulfport. So she was there
41:40
Speaker 1: with her sisters. He was familiar with this property, familiar
41:44
Speaker 1: enough to the point where he had disabled the security cameras.
41:48
Speaker 1: He's familiar enough with the property to know where she
41:55
Speaker 1: slept inside of this environment.
41:58
Speaker 2: We know that her dad I'd helped find her body.
42:02
Speaker 2: You mentioned sheets, back, trash bags, he mentioned mutilated. What
42:07
Speaker 2: kind of injuries are we talking about? Because she hadn't
42:10
Speaker 2: fully recovered. I mentioned this before we started taping, having
42:13
Speaker 2: had a couple of head injuries in my life. I
42:16
Speaker 2: know that my last concussion, I didn't really feel good
42:19
Speaker 2: about driving no for almost a year. Yeah, and she
42:24
Speaker 2: had serious She was beaten so bad in December, Joe,
42:29
Speaker 2: that she couldn't have been fully recovered. Now by the
42:32
Speaker 2: time this takes place six months later, there.
42:34
Speaker 1: Is no way in God's green earth that she would
42:39
Speaker 1: have been to the point where she was able to
42:42
Speaker 1: really handle life in the way that she would have
42:46
Speaker 1: prior to that. And she would have there still would
42:49
Speaker 1: have been evidences there, right, she's still injured, Oh my gosh. Yeah.
42:54
Speaker 1: And the thing about it is one of the things
42:55
Speaker 1: that we do in forensics is that we have this
42:58
Speaker 1: kind of layering of injuries when and again back to
43:02
Speaker 1: this idea of chronic abuse. You see this with children
43:06
Speaker 1: with like chronic cases of child abuse, where you'll have
43:09
Speaker 1: these overlapping injuries that occur over a period of time.
43:13
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, if somebody gets let's see,
43:17
Speaker 1: how can I phrase this If somebody gets to the
43:19
Speaker 1: point where they're going to go out of town with
43:20
Speaker 1: you and beat you to the extent that he beat her.
43:27
Speaker 1: This ain't his first rodeo. He's put hands on her before,
43:32
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I don't know to what degree,
43:36
Speaker 1: and maybe some of that will come out. He's harmed
43:39
Speaker 1: her before. I have no doubt in my mind, just
43:43
Speaker 1: knowing what I know about cases like this.
43:46
Speaker 2: Her dad said, Stockholm syndrome, Joe.
43:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that she you know, this person that is
43:53
Speaker 1: pretty wicked.
43:54
Speaker 2: I'd have to.
43:54
Speaker 1: Say, for some reason, she feels compelled to protect him,
44:01
Speaker 1: to still stay within that circle, within their little confined
44:05
Speaker 1: space where she's you know, he can lrd over her
44:10
Speaker 1: at any moment time that he wants to. And also
44:13
Speaker 1: taking that to to a more intense level, he feels
44:17
Speaker 1: like that he can put his hands on her to
44:19
Speaker 1: any degree that he wants to. He had there was
44:22
Speaker 1: no shame in him leaving Nashville to come back down
44:27
Speaker 1: south to Gulfport Hattiesburg, that area that she that she uh,
44:33
Speaker 1: you know, that they lived in where they both had
44:35
Speaker 1: a life. He felt no shame in that he's going
44:39
Speaker 1: to return to it. So he feels very comfortable, apparently
44:43
Speaker 1: in this environment, doing what he has done to this
44:46
Speaker 1: poor young lady that had such a bright future. But Dave,
44:49
Speaker 1: I got to tell you something here, and in this case,
44:57
Speaker 1: I I came across something that I in all of
45:02
Speaker 1: my years in forensics and as a medical legal death investigator,
45:07
Speaker 1: I never encountered on street ever. And it's a statement
45:13
Speaker 1: that doctor Johansson made. Not only did he use the
45:18
Speaker 1: word mutilated, Dave, but he also revealed something else. He
45:29
Speaker 1: helped helped the corner remove his precious baby's body from
45:43
Speaker 1: that car. He helped with that. Now I go on
45:49
Speaker 1: and on about the value of evidence, I talk about
45:53
Speaker 1: the cards principles, I talk about all of these issues
45:57
Speaker 1: in forensics, and just for a moment, we have to
46:01
Speaker 1: consider that, aside from the science, that there is horror
46:11
Speaker 1: here that none of us can appreciate. Doctor Johnson can
46:17
Speaker 1: because not only did he bear witness to this slow
46:20
Speaker 1: motion train wreck where he sat there helpless, probably hopeless,
46:28
Speaker 1: he was there to view where her life terminated and
46:35
Speaker 1: how she was treated in death. I'm Josephcott Morgan, and
46:41
Speaker 1: this is body backs