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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Lauren Johansen · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
0:55
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
0:58
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
1:10
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
1:14
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
1:17
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:30
Speaker 2: On Monday, December eleventh, twenty twenty three, twenty two year
1:34
Speaker 2: old Lauren Johansson and her boyfriend Bryson Rivers were on
1:37
Speaker 2: vacation in Nashville and out at the var Bryson and
1:41
Speaker 2: Lauren had known each other for years. They had dated
1:44
Speaker 2: on and off since high school, and on the surface,
1:47
Speaker 2: they seemed happy. You can look online and see that.
1:50
Speaker 2: Photographs of Lauren and Bryson from that time period show
1:54
Speaker 2: a smiling, happy, young couple who were in love, but
1:58
Speaker 2: behind the scenes that relationship was violent. Lauren's father, Lance Johansson,
2:04
Speaker 2: later told police that Bryson was physically abusive to his
2:07
Speaker 2: daughter and that Bryson had stalked Lauren for years. On
2:12
Speaker 2: December eleventh, things took a horrific turn. Lauren and Bryson
2:17
Speaker 2: were hanging out at a bar when Bryson flew into
2:20
Speaker 2: a jealous rage and accused Lauren of having sex with
2:23
Speaker 2: a bartender. The fight continued after they left the bar
2:27
Speaker 2: in a vehicle, and the fight escalated. Police came to
2:31
Speaker 2: the scene and found Lauren screaming in a parking lot.
2:35
Speaker 2: She had been hit dozens of times and the inside
2:38
Speaker 2: of the car was covered in blood. Police arrested Bryson
2:43
Speaker 2: and he was charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated stocking, and
2:47
Speaker 2: coercion of a witness. He was taken to jail and
2:50
Speaker 2: a judge set his bail at two hundred and fifty
2:52
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. It seemed like Lauren and Bryson's violent relationship
2:58
Speaker 2: was finally at an end, but tragically that was not
3:01
Speaker 2: the case. Lauren Johansson's father, Lance attended Bryson's hearing with
3:07
Speaker 2: his daughter. He later told the news station w LOX
3:11
Speaker 2: quote I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told
3:14
Speaker 2: the judge that if they let him out, he was going.
3:17
Speaker 3: To kill her. He had assaulted her.
3:20
Speaker 2: This was probably the fifth or sixth time where they
3:22
Speaker 2: would get into a fight and he would beat her.
3:24
Speaker 2: We would get her away from him for a while,
3:27
Speaker 2: but he would find a way to weasel back.
3:29
Speaker 3: In end quote.
3:32
Speaker 2: Later, Bryson's lawyer asked for a reduced bond, and in
3:35
Speaker 2: March the judge, Cheryl Blackburn, agreed to lower the bond
3:39
Speaker 2: amount to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This meant
3:43
Speaker 2: that Bryson's mother could afford to put up the twelve
3:45
Speaker 2: thousand dollars needed to secure his release with the help
3:48
Speaker 2: of two bailbond companies. So on June twenty fourth, twenty
3:53
Speaker 2: twenty four, Bryson Rivers was released.
3:55
Speaker 3: From the Davidson County Jail.
3:58
Speaker 2: Eight days later, Lauren Johansson was found dead in the
4:02
Speaker 2: trunk of her car. Lauren's father told WLX quote, I
4:08
Speaker 2: knew she was dead.
4:09
Speaker 3: She was basically beaten to death.
4:11
Speaker 2: Her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in,
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Speaker 2: she was brutally beaten to the point she couldn't see
4:17
Speaker 2: out of either eye. When she finally died, there were
4:20
Speaker 2: multiple holes.
4:21
Speaker 3: In her head. End quote.
4:25
Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making
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Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helling Gone, I've learned that there
4:32
Speaker 2: is no such thing as a small town where murder
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Speaker 2: never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people
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Speaker 2: all around the country asking for help with an unsolved
4:42
Speaker 2: murder that's affected them, their faire families, and their communities.
4:45
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
4:47
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
4:50
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
4:53
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
4:56
Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five, or you
5:00
Speaker 2: can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod.
5:05
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Lauren Johanson's murder was
5:52
Speaker 2: not a who done it?
5:54
Speaker 3: Instead.
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Speaker 2: I wanted to do this episode because this is something
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Speaker 2: that we see all too often.
6:00
Speaker 3: How could the system fail her like this?
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Speaker 2: As we'll talk about here, police chased Bryson, their only suspect,
6:08
Speaker 2: into the woods shortly after Lauren's body was found. They
6:11
Speaker 2: had him on camera stalking her, and he confessed to
6:15
Speaker 2: a family member. On this podcast, we get so many
6:19
Speaker 2: calls from people who were either in a domestic violence
6:22
Speaker 2: situation or have a friend or family member dealing with
6:25
Speaker 2: those issues, and so often the systems that are in
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Speaker 2: place to protect us fail. So I wanted to go
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Speaker 2: back and find out in detail what happened between the
6:36
Speaker 2: time when Bryson was released and the time when Lauren
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Speaker 2: was murdered.
6:40
Speaker 3: First, we're going to back up and.
6:42
Speaker 2: Take a look at the beginning of the relationship. Lauren
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Speaker 2: grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, with her parents, Lance and Tamala,
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Speaker 2: and three siblings. Her father, Lance is an orthopedic surgeon
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Speaker 2: who has been very outspoken about how much danger his
6:58
Speaker 2: daughter was in from Bryson. He told True Crime News
7:01
Speaker 2: that when Lauren was born, he delivered her himself. In
7:05
Speaker 2: high school, Lauren was popular and made straight a's. According
7:08
Speaker 2: to her father, Bryson was her high school sweetheart. Bryson
7:12
Speaker 2: was a star athlete in high school. He played football,
7:15
Speaker 2: so on paper, Bryson and Lauren looked like the perfect
7:19
Speaker 2: high school couple, but those cute photos hid a very
7:23
Speaker 2: ugly reality. Lauren was being terrorized. Lance told True Crime
7:28
Speaker 2: News that he didn't like Bryson from the very first
7:31
Speaker 2: time he met him, and that he believed that Bryson
7:34
Speaker 2: had influenced his daughter to use drugs in high school.
7:38
Speaker 2: Lance said Lauren's grades dropped after she met Bryson, but
7:42
Speaker 2: he said Lauren was getting back on track and hoping
7:45
Speaker 2: to begin a career in nursing. In an interview with
7:48
Speaker 2: The Daily Mail, Lance said that Lauren struggled with breaking
7:52
Speaker 2: out of what he called an abusive relationship with Bryson
7:54
Speaker 2: for years. He told True Crime News that Bryson would
7:58
Speaker 2: do what he called crazy things, like threatened to kill
8:01
Speaker 2: her dog if Lauren left him. Lance said that when
8:06
Speaker 2: Lauren graduated from high school, she told her father she
8:09
Speaker 2: thought it was over with Bryson, but even after she
8:12
Speaker 2: got accepted to college and went to the University of
8:14
Speaker 2: Southern Mississippi, Bryson was obsessed with Lauren. He tried to
8:19
Speaker 2: stay in constant contact. Her father claimed that Bryson would
8:23
Speaker 2: even break into her home and confront man Lauren was
8:26
Speaker 2: dating and try to start fights. Lauren and Bryson broke
8:31
Speaker 2: up and got back together several times. Reading between the lines,
8:35
Speaker 2: it seems like Lauren didn't tell her family about the
8:38
Speaker 2: last time that they reconciled in late twenty twenty three.
8:42
Speaker 2: In December of twenty twenty three, Lauren and Bryson were
8:46
Speaker 2: on that vacation together in Nashville.
8:49
Speaker 3: There were other.
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Speaker 2: Friends on the vacation too, so Lauren and Bryson went
8:52
Speaker 2: out to bars, saw friends, hung out, and played top golf.
8:56
Speaker 3: They seemed to be having.
8:57
Speaker 2: A good time at least at first, but then on
9:00
Speaker 2: December eleventh, they had that fight, the one where Bryson
9:04
Speaker 2: accused Lauren of having sex with a bartender. He got angry,
9:08
Speaker 2: grabbed her phone, and drove her to a parking lot.
9:12
Speaker 2: Once they were alone and isolated in that car, Bryson
9:16
Speaker 2: started violently beating Lauren with his fists and with a gun.
9:20
Speaker 2: Police also found rocks covered in blood in the car
9:23
Speaker 2: which he had hit her with. Now this went on
9:27
Speaker 2: for three hours. He held Lauren captive in that car.
9:31
Speaker 2: Bryson's mugshot shows his face was completely covered in blood.
9:36
Speaker 2: This attack was brutal and prolonged. At some point, Bryson's mother,
9:42
Speaker 2: Chelsea rivers. Now. It's not clear from media or police
9:47
Speaker 2: reports whether he answered on purpose or accidentally, but whichever
9:50
Speaker 2: it was Bryson's mother could hear what was happening. She
9:55
Speaker 2: called the police and told them where the couple was.
9:57
Speaker 2: Officers rushed to the parking lot and they found Laurence
10:00
Speaker 2: screaming for help. She was wearing just her bra and underwear.
10:04
Speaker 2: She was asking for her father. According to police reports,
10:08
Speaker 2: Lauren was traumatized and was quote severely beaten. Her eye
10:12
Speaker 2: was swollen shut, and she also had a severe laceration
10:15
Speaker 2: to her forehead end quote. Bryson was arrested and charged,
10:20
Speaker 2: and Lauren went back to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she lived
10:23
Speaker 2: with her sister. They believed that because Bryson was in custody,
10:28
Speaker 2: that Lauren was safe, but they were wrong. Lauren's family
10:33
Speaker 2: first realized that something was very wrong on July first.
10:36
Speaker 2: On that day, her dad, Lanced, said that he received
10:39
Speaker 2: a text message from Lauren's phone. He later said that
10:42
Speaker 2: message did not seem like it came from Lauren, so
10:46
Speaker 2: her family started checking up on her. On Tuesday, July second,
10:50
Speaker 2: Lauren's sister said that she was not at home, and
10:53
Speaker 2: according to court documents, the sister noticed their front door
10:56
Speaker 2: security camera had been destroyed. Lauren's family reported her missing
11:01
Speaker 2: to the Hattiesburg Police Department, and they immediately told the
11:04
Speaker 2: police they suspected that Bryson Rivers was responsible. Shockingly, even
11:09
Speaker 2: though Bryson had been arrested for severely beating Lauren and
11:13
Speaker 2: the bail bond company was supposed to be monitoring him,
11:16
Speaker 2: Lauren's family soon discovered neither police nor the bond company
11:20
Speaker 2: had any idea where he was. The company that was
11:23
Speaker 2: monitoring his ankle bracelet said that on July second, the
11:26
Speaker 2: battery in his device had started to run out and
11:28
Speaker 2: he wasn't responding to messages, so they reached out to
11:31
Speaker 2: his mother. His mother said she hadn't heard from him either,
11:35
Speaker 2: so the court issued a warrant for his arrest. Bryson's
11:39
Speaker 2: ankle monitor had last pinged on Beach Boulevard in Biloxi,
11:43
Speaker 2: but one police were alerted on July second, it was
11:46
Speaker 2: already too late. According to the Harrison County Coroner's Office,
11:51
Speaker 2: Lauren was already dead. What laurence family didn't know was
12:08
Speaker 2: that after Bryson left Tennessee, he had gone straight back
12:11
Speaker 2: to Lauren's house and he had been texting her. Police
12:15
Speaker 2: say he had texted and called her over one hundred
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Speaker 2: and twenty times within a short period of time, but
12:20
Speaker 2: she never responded. Camera foot had showed Bryson being dropped
12:24
Speaker 2: off close to the place where Lauren and her sister
12:27
Speaker 2: lived on South eleventh Avenue in the early morning hours
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Speaker 2: of July second, according to court documents. At that time,
12:34
Speaker 2: Lauren and her sister were home and a male friend
12:36
Speaker 2: of theirs was also there. The male friend told detectives
12:40
Speaker 2: that Lauren was alive. On that morning, July second, between
12:43
Speaker 2: the hours of four am and six am, police took
12:47
Speaker 2: camera footage from laurence neighbors. They saw footage of Bryson
12:51
Speaker 2: walking toward her house at around five am. Cameras show
12:55
Speaker 2: him leaving the house without a shirt on. Then he
12:58
Speaker 2: comes back to the house, gets into laurence car, and
13:01
Speaker 2: backs it out of the driveway. He then returns to
13:04
Speaker 2: the house for just a few minutes before leaving again.
13:08
Speaker 2: After Laurence family reported her missing, police used her car's
13:12
Speaker 2: on Star system to track the vehicle, and on July third,
13:15
Speaker 2: it showed the location as Wolf River Cemetery near some
13:19
Speaker 2: woods in Harrison County. The Hattiesburg Police Department called Harrison
13:23
Speaker 2: County and asked the officers to do a welfare check
13:26
Speaker 2: on her. At that location, a deputy found the car
13:30
Speaker 2: and when he opened the trunk, he found Lauren's body
13:33
Speaker 2: wrapped in a trash bag in sheets from her house.
13:38
Speaker 2: According to court testimony, forensic testing showed that Lauren's body
13:43
Speaker 2: could have been in the air area where she was
13:44
Speaker 2: found for over twenty four hours. The coroner estimated it
13:48
Speaker 2: could have been there anywhere between thirty to thirty five hours.
13:52
Speaker 2: While they were on the scene, police talked to witnesses
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Speaker 2: who said they saw a man running into the woods.
13:59
Speaker 2: Police chased and caught the man who was hiding. The
14:02
Speaker 2: man was Bryson Rivers. They arrested him and took him
14:06
Speaker 2: into custody.
14:07
Speaker 3: This time his bail was set at one million dollars.
14:17
Speaker 2: The evidence against Bryson Rivers is overwhelming. He was caught
14:21
Speaker 2: on camera entering and leaving Lawrence house, he was hiding
14:25
Speaker 2: in the woods, and according to police, during the period
14:27
Speaker 2: when he was hiding in the woods, he called his
14:30
Speaker 2: brother and confessed to Laurence murder. He said, quote, I
14:34
Speaker 2: killed the bitch end quote. But there were still a
14:37
Speaker 2: lot of questions about what happened to Lauren. One of
14:41
Speaker 2: them was where exactly.
14:43
Speaker 3: Was she killed and how.
14:45
Speaker 2: At first, it seemed like police believed she had been
14:48
Speaker 2: murdered at or near the cemetery where her body was found,
14:51
Speaker 2: but later media reports said that new information had led
14:54
Speaker 2: police to believe she may have been killed not in
14:57
Speaker 2: Harrison County, but somewhere else. A news channel interviewed Forest
15:01
Speaker 2: County Sheriff of Charlie Simms, who said that as the
15:04
Speaker 2: investigation continued, evidence started to point to Lauren being killed
15:08
Speaker 2: in Forest County.
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Speaker 3: The investigation involved.
15:11
Speaker 2: Multiple counties, which, as we all know, can lead to
15:14
Speaker 2: more complications. However, in this case, it seems like they
15:18
Speaker 2: were all pretty cooperative. In addition to the police from
15:21
Speaker 2: Harrison County being involved, there was Forest County, the Hattiesburg
15:24
Speaker 2: Police Department, and the Pedal Police Department. Charlie Simms said
15:29
Speaker 2: that Forest County would collect and compile the evidence and
15:32
Speaker 2: present it to the District Attorney's office, and he stressed
15:34
Speaker 2: the importance of communication between all these different agencies, keeping
15:38
Speaker 2: in mind that they all had the same goal catching
15:40
Speaker 2: and bringing Lauren's killer to justice. Bryson Rivers was indicted
15:47
Speaker 2: by a grand jury. He pleaded not guilty to capital
15:50
Speaker 2: murder stealing a vehicle and tampering with evidence. But how
15:55
Speaker 2: did Bryson Rivers end up going from being incarcerated in
15:59
Speaker 2: Davidson County, Tennessee to fleeing the state and stalking and
16:03
Speaker 2: killing Lauren? How was that ever allowed to happen? It
16:07
Speaker 2: turned out that this happened because of a catastrophic series
16:11
Speaker 2: of mistakes, mistakes that Lance Lauren's father believes crossed the
16:15
Speaker 2: line into criminal He is alleged in a civil lawsuit
16:19
Speaker 2: that the administrative errors that were made by the court
16:22
Speaker 2: and by these bailbond companies directly contributed to his daughter's death.
16:28
Speaker 2: After Bryson was released from prison on Monday, June twenty fourth,
16:31
Speaker 2: at four oh five pm, he was met by a
16:33
Speaker 2: Brooks bailbonding agent. The agent then signed his release form.
16:38
Speaker 2: Now that release form specifies that Bryson was not allowed
16:42
Speaker 2: to leave Davidson County in Tennessee.
16:45
Speaker 3: The judge had.
16:46
Speaker 2: Ordered him to wear an ankle monitor from a specific
16:48
Speaker 2: company called Tracking Solutions, But because Bryson got out of
16:53
Speaker 2: jail after four PM, the time that Tracking Solutions closed,
16:56
Speaker 2: the Brooks bail bonding agent used an ankle monitor supplied
16:59
Speaker 2: by another company called Freedom Monitoring Services. According to the lawsuit,
17:05
Speaker 2: something happened there that meant that Bryson's bond order form
17:09
Speaker 2: was not available. The lawsuit stated this happened according to
17:13
Speaker 2: the switch in companies. I want to reiterate all of
17:16
Speaker 2: this information comes from Lance Johansson's lawsuit, and there are
17:20
Speaker 2: obviously two sides to every story, but there are some
17:23
Speaker 2: things that are not in dispute. The Davidson County Clerk
17:26
Speaker 2: has publicly admitted that mistakes were made by that office.
17:30
Speaker 2: They said that none of the conditions of Bryson's release
17:34
Speaker 2: ever made it to the Sheriff's office when Bryson was
17:36
Speaker 2: let out. Julius Schlaus, the chief deputy clerk in Davidson County,
17:41
Speaker 2: told news Channel five quote, one of our employees didn't
17:44
Speaker 2: completely follow that process end quote. He said that the
17:48
Speaker 2: employee who made the mistake will face quote some form
17:51
Speaker 2: of disciplinary action, but he didn't specify what kind of
17:55
Speaker 2: disciplinary action that would be. He also said the office
17:58
Speaker 2: will focus on eliminating human error in future. Lance Johanson's
18:03
Speaker 2: lawsuit states that it was the bail bond company's responsibility
18:07
Speaker 2: to verify Bryson's release conditions.
18:10
Speaker 3: Either way, I find it.
18:12
Speaker 2: Incredible that a felon who had been charged with kidnapping, stalking,
18:16
Speaker 2: and coercion was allowed to walk away and lead the state.
18:20
Speaker 2: And also the GPS parameters were never set so that
18:24
Speaker 2: there would be an alert if Bryson left Davidson County.
18:28
Speaker 2: Freedom Monitoring finally got Bryson's bond paperwork several days later.
18:34
Speaker 2: On that same day, they noticed that Bryson was not
18:36
Speaker 2: responding to alerts. They couldn't get in touch with him,
18:40
Speaker 2: so they ordered him to come in and get fitted
18:42
Speaker 2: with a new monitor. In all that time, the lawsuit
18:46
Speaker 2: alleges that Brooks bail bonding did not communicate the conditions
18:49
Speaker 2: of release to Freedom Monitoring. It was Bryson's probation officer
18:54
Speaker 2: who eventually noticed that Bryson was failing to respond. This
18:58
Speaker 2: chain of events led to the District Attorney's office being
19:01
Speaker 2: contacted and to the DA's office finally reaching out to
19:05
Speaker 2: the Johansson family. This was the first time that the
19:08
Speaker 2: Johansson family was contacted. The District Attorney's office called Lance
19:13
Speaker 2: and told him that Bryson had not reported in for
19:16
Speaker 2: the new ankle monitor fitting and that they couldn't get
19:19
Speaker 2: into contact with him.
19:21
Speaker 1: Bryson Rivers was released from custodies and he has not
19:25
Speaker 1: been heard from. So I want to make sure that
19:27
Speaker 1: Lauren is safe and that you all take proper precautions.
19:30
Speaker 2: Tragically, Lance did not hear that message until Monday. By then,
19:36
Speaker 2: Lauren was already dead. The discovery of Lauren's body, investigators
19:46
Speaker 2: were trying to piece together what happened and how Bryson
19:49
Speaker 2: Rivers could have slipped through the cracks. On June twenty eighth,
19:54
Speaker 2: the bail bond company knew Bryson had violated his bond conditions.
19:59
Speaker 2: On Saturday, June twenty ninth, Bryson reported in to get
20:02
Speaker 2: a new GPS monitor fitted, but again, for the second time,
20:06
Speaker 2: there was no alert put in place if Bryson left town.
20:10
Speaker 2: By that Monday, when the company Freedom Monitoring called Bryson
20:14
Speaker 2: and told him his monitor battery had gone down to
20:16
Speaker 2: six percent, he called back and said he couldn't come
20:19
Speaker 2: to court in Nashville the next day. He claimed it
20:22
Speaker 2: was because he had no transportation. Now by this point
20:25
Speaker 2: he had crossed county and state lines and was already
20:28
Speaker 2: in Biloxi. And yet nothing happened as a result of that,
20:32
Speaker 2: except that the court issued a warrant for him, and
20:35
Speaker 2: by the time they figured this all out, a deputy
20:38
Speaker 2: had found the car in the woods with Lawrence's body
20:40
Speaker 2: wrapped in a sheet, and Lawrence's family wanted to know
20:44
Speaker 2: how it could have happened that he was taken to
20:46
Speaker 2: the wrong company in the first place, because he got
20:48
Speaker 2: out five minutes late, why they didn't communicate that he
20:51
Speaker 2: wasn't allowed to leave the county, and why the GPS
20:55
Speaker 2: tracker on the ankle monitor was never programmed to alert
20:58
Speaker 2: if he left Davidson County. Lance Johansson filed a civil
21:03
Speaker 2: lawsuit against Brooks Bonding, the bail bonding company, and the
21:06
Speaker 2: civil lawsuit for me really highlights how a lot of
21:09
Speaker 2: these things work. It's really shocking how little supervision there
21:13
Speaker 2: is when the court puts conditions on a defendant. Because
21:17
Speaker 2: after Bryson's bail was lowered to one hundred and fifty
21:19
Speaker 2: thousand dollars by Judge Blackburn at that bond hearing on
21:22
Speaker 2: June fifth, Judge Blackburn had set bond conditions. Bryson was
21:27
Speaker 2: supposed to wear a GPS bracelet, he was supposed to
21:29
Speaker 2: stay in Davidson County. He had told the court he
21:32
Speaker 2: would be living with his mother in Nashville, and apparently
21:35
Speaker 2: no one was checking on that, and it was emphasized
21:38
Speaker 2: he was to have absolutely no contact with Lauren in
21:42
Speaker 2: case there are people out there who don't know how
21:44
Speaker 2: a bailbond system works. What happens is that the bond
21:47
Speaker 2: company will take a deposit, normally around ten percent of
21:51
Speaker 2: the amount of money they're putting up. Then they give
21:54
Speaker 2: the money to the court so the inmate can be released.
21:56
Speaker 2: If the inmate fails to show up in court later,
21:59
Speaker 2: the bail bond officers will go after and try to
22:02
Speaker 2: apprehend the suspect. Two different bail bond companies were responsible
22:06
Speaker 2: for Bryson Rivers Release, Brooks bonding, and on time bonding.
22:10
Speaker 2: Each company posted a seventy five thousand dollars bond to
22:13
Speaker 2: the Davidson County Warrant in Bond Office. Lauren's family alleges
22:18
Speaker 2: that from the beginning, these bond companies should have known
22:21
Speaker 2: that because this defendant was facing serious felony charges, they
22:24
Speaker 2: should have been diligent about getting information about the exact
22:27
Speaker 2: conditions of Bryson's release, but they didn't. Instead, according to
22:33
Speaker 2: the lawsuit, after Bryson was released from jail. On June
22:36
Speaker 2: twenty fourth, an agent from Brooks Bail Bonding picked Bryson
22:39
Speaker 2: up and then went back to the office. At that point,
22:42
Speaker 2: they realized the Core ordered monitoring service was closed, so
22:46
Speaker 2: they contacted the owner of the company. She allegedly told
22:50
Speaker 2: the employee that wasn't a problem. They could use a
22:52
Speaker 2: GPS device from this other company called Freedom Monitoring. So
22:56
Speaker 2: the agent put the Ankle monitor on Bryson, but did
22:59
Speaker 2: not program the monitor so that an alert would go
23:02
Speaker 2: off if he left the county. The lawsuit states that
23:05
Speaker 2: the bail bond company knew that Bryson was planning to
23:08
Speaker 2: leave town, because they said Bryson didn't hide that fact.
23:12
Speaker 3: Bryson's mother, Chelsea.
23:13
Speaker 2: Sent Brooks Bonding Company one hundred and thirty dollars to
23:16
Speaker 2: pay for a bus ticket so Bryson could travel to Mississippi,
23:19
Speaker 2: and Brook's Bail Bonding apparently sent him the money from
23:22
Speaker 2: his mom.
23:23
Speaker 3: So he could buy the bus ticket.
23:25
Speaker 2: The lawsuit alleges the bail bond agent knew that Bryson
23:28
Speaker 2: had left Davidson County and that this was a violation
23:31
Speaker 2: of his parole, but alleges that they did not take
23:34
Speaker 2: immediate action. So then June twenty seventh, th rolled around,
23:39
Speaker 2: Bryson's ankle monitor was dying, he was losing battery charge.
23:42
Speaker 2: The company ordered him to show up, but he doesn't,
23:45
Speaker 2: and then the next day they get the paperwork from
23:47
Speaker 2: Davidson County. So by now by Friday, they know for
23:50
Speaker 2: sure he's not allowed to leave Davidson County, and presumably
23:54
Speaker 2: that by going to Mississippi he was violating his bail conditions,
23:58
Speaker 2: and yet this saga was allowed to continue.
24:00
Speaker 3: On June twenty ninth.
24:01
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty four, Bryson Rivers came back to Brooks Bonding
24:05
Speaker 2: to meet the agent, and the lawsuit alleges the owner
24:09
Speaker 2: of the company had planned to be there but was
24:11
Speaker 2: unable to attend due to what was referred to as
24:14
Speaker 2: a personal matter. The lawsuit pointed out there was no
24:17
Speaker 2: policy in place in case that happened. At that meeting,
24:21
Speaker 2: the agent put a new ankle monitor on Bryson, and
24:24
Speaker 2: once again he was allowed to leave that bail bond office.
24:28
Speaker 2: They took him back to his car on June twenty ninth,
24:32
Speaker 2: and after that Bryson headed toward Mississippi and toward Lawrence House.
24:38
Speaker 3: The lawsuit alleges that.
24:39
Speaker 2: In addition to that, no one from the bail bond
24:43
Speaker 2: company notied guide anyone in Tennessee, that Bryson's GPS had
24:47
Speaker 2: left the county in the state, and that none of
24:50
Speaker 2: the bail bonding agents contacted the authorities in Mississippi or
24:54
Speaker 2: Lauren Johansson or her family. Lance Johansson is suing for
25:01
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty million dollars, and it seems clear
25:04
Speaker 2: that for Lauren's father this is about much more than money.
25:08
Speaker 2: This is about holding these companies accountable. Lance has gone
25:13
Speaker 2: very public with his daughter's brutal injuries. He gave photos
25:17
Speaker 2: to The Daily Mail, photographs that he said he took
25:20
Speaker 2: after Bryson beat her. In these pictures, laurence face is
25:24
Speaker 2: bloody and bruised. Lance told the Daily Mail he did
25:29
Speaker 2: everything right. He attended the hearings, and he told the
25:33
Speaker 2: judge straight up that Lauren was in danger and that
25:36
Speaker 2: if Bryson ever got out of jail, he would come
25:39
Speaker 2: back to kill Lauren. And yet the judge, share Old Blackburn,
25:44
Speaker 2: decided to lower the bail, which may have been instrumental
25:47
Speaker 2: in facilitating Bryson's release. So why did the judge agree
25:52
Speaker 2: to reduce his bond. Judge Blackburn stated in court that
26:05
Speaker 2: she thought that due to the evidence, there was quite
26:08
Speaker 2: a high likelihood that Bryson would be convicted of this crime,
26:11
Speaker 2: but she also stated that the bond of one hundred
26:13
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars was appropriate in this case because quote,
26:17
Speaker 2: it does not appear that mister Rivers has a prior
26:20
Speaker 2: criminal history end quote. I bring this up because I
26:24
Speaker 2: see this over and over in cases involving domestic violence.
26:28
Speaker 2: Prior convictions are counted, but prior arrests are not. And
26:33
Speaker 2: as so many of us know, not every domestic violence
26:37
Speaker 2: incident ends in an arrest and conviction. So if someone
26:41
Speaker 2: has one hundred domestic violence complaints, that it's not necessarily
26:44
Speaker 2: going to be considered at this type of hearing. In
26:48
Speaker 2: Bryson's case, he did have prior arrests, including arrest for
26:52
Speaker 2: DUI auto burglary and possession and trafficking of a controlled substance,
26:57
Speaker 2: but again, because they didn't end in conviction, those would
27:00
Speaker 2: not necessarily be considered by the judge. Lance told the
27:04
Speaker 2: Daily Mail, quote, I realize people have rights, but you
27:07
Speaker 2: can't just let loose a wild animal they knew he
27:11
Speaker 2: was a psychopath. They knew he was going to kill
27:13
Speaker 2: her if he got out. I warned them how this
27:15
Speaker 2: was going to play out, and they went ahead and
27:17
Speaker 2: did it anyway.
27:18
Speaker 3: End quote.
27:20
Speaker 2: Lance Johanson hopes that his civil suit can help change things,
27:24
Speaker 2: and sometimes one case can have an effect on how
27:27
Speaker 2: the justice system works. I don't know how many of
27:30
Speaker 2: you are familiar with the case of Tracy Thurman, but
27:34
Speaker 2: her case became a movie in nineteen eighty nine called
27:36
Speaker 2: a Cry for Help The Tracy Thurman Story.
27:38
Speaker 3: It's one of the very first.
27:40
Speaker 2: Movies about domestic violence that left a lasting impact on
27:43
Speaker 2: me as child. Tracy Thurman was married to an abusive
27:47
Speaker 2: man named Charles Thurmant, and when she tried to escape
27:49
Speaker 2: the relationship with her young son, Charles terrorized her.
27:54
Speaker 3: Her case changed.
27:55
Speaker 2: The way that police departments deal with domestic violence, because
27:58
Speaker 2: back in nineteen eighty two, domestic violence was treated very differently.
28:03
Speaker 2: It was almost like whatever happens behind closed doors stays there.
28:06
Speaker 2: These issues were treated like something you handle within the family,
28:10
Speaker 2: something that wasn't anyone else's business. It was treated like
28:14
Speaker 2: a shameful secret, which, sadly, in many places sometimes it
28:17
Speaker 2: still is. Police departments back then also did not have
28:22
Speaker 2: anywhere near the same level of domestic violence training that
28:25
Speaker 2: they have now. This was back in the time where
28:28
Speaker 2: marital rape was still legal. Tracy left Charles and filed
28:33
Speaker 2: for divorce. Over the next several months, he kept showing
28:36
Speaker 2: up at her house and stalking her. Just like in
28:39
Speaker 2: Lauren's case, Charles was very well known to police. Did
28:44
Speaker 2: everything quote unquote right. There was a paper trail. She
28:48
Speaker 2: got a restraining order against Charles. She kept calling the
28:50
Speaker 2: police to report every single violation. Once she came to
28:54
Speaker 2: the police department because Charles had a warrant out on
28:56
Speaker 2: him related to her case, and the officer there told
28:59
Speaker 2: her only one officer could handle this request and he
29:03
Speaker 2: was out on vacation, so Tracy would have to wait.
29:06
Speaker 2: Police told her they would arrest Charles, but they didn't. Finally,
29:10
Speaker 2: in June of nineteen eighty three, Charles came to the
29:13
Speaker 2: house where Tracy was staying with a friend and demanded
29:15
Speaker 2: that Tracy come outside again. She called the police, but
29:19
Speaker 2: it didn't seem like anyone was going to show up. Eventually,
29:23
Speaker 2: after twenty minutes of waiting for the police, she agreed
29:26
Speaker 2: to go outside. Her friend was outside talking to Charles,
29:29
Speaker 2: and Charles was getting increasingly agitated. After twenty five minutes,
29:34
Speaker 2: one officer finally responded to.
29:36
Speaker 3: The scene, but it didn't stop Charles.
29:39
Speaker 2: He continued to scream and threaten Tracy, and then he
29:43
Speaker 2: pulled out an eye. The officer watched while Charles stabbed
29:46
Speaker 2: her over and over thirteen times. Eventually, the officer convinced
29:52
Speaker 2: Charles to drop the knife, but the officer continued to
29:56
Speaker 2: stand there and watch while Charles went back into the house,
29:59
Speaker 2: got his two year old son and dropped the little
30:02
Speaker 2: boy on too Tracy, who by now was unconscious. The
30:05
Speaker 2: officer also stood there while Charles kicked Tracy over and over,
30:10
Speaker 2: and one of those kicks broke her neck. Charles was
30:14
Speaker 2: arrested and taken into custody finally, but Tracy's injuries were lifelong.
30:20
Speaker 3: That kick partially paralyzed her.
30:23
Speaker 2: Eventually, she sued the police department and the city of Torrington,
30:26
Speaker 2: where she lived, for failing to protect her. This was
30:29
Speaker 2: the first time that a woman had sued a town
30:31
Speaker 2: for violating her rights in a domestic violence case. The
30:35
Speaker 2: case went to federal court. Tracy won a settlement of
30:39
Speaker 2: two point three million dollars. This also resulted in new legislation.
30:44
Speaker 2: The Thermon Law requires officers to make an arrest in
30:47
Speaker 2: domestic violence cases if there is probable cause. And this
30:50
Speaker 2: also changed the way that a lot of police departments
30:53
Speaker 2: handle domestic violence calls. They got additional training and for example,
30:58
Speaker 2: now officers are routinely sent out in pairs to respond
31:01
Speaker 2: to these domestic violence calls. It really marked a difference
31:05
Speaker 2: in the way that domestic violence was seen for what
31:07
Speaker 2: it is. These are not just little scuffles. These are
31:11
Speaker 2: very dangerous and potentially lethal situations for everyone involved, including
31:16
Speaker 2: the police officers.
31:18
Speaker 3: Tracy was partially paralyzed for.
31:20
Speaker 2: Eight months, but now uses a wheeled walker to assist
31:24
Speaker 2: her in getting around. Today, she is still an advocate
31:28
Speaker 2: for victim's rights and Tracy's case shows the effect that
31:32
Speaker 2: one person in one civil lawsuit can have on affecting
31:36
Speaker 2: change in a community and around the country. But as
31:40
Speaker 2: we see from cases like Lawrence, there is a lot
31:43
Speaker 2: that still needs to change. I wonder why, with all
31:46
Speaker 2: the technology that exists now, why bail bond companies and
31:49
Speaker 2: courts can't create an alert system like the Amber Alert
31:53
Speaker 2: system so that families can be immediately notified if an
31:56
Speaker 2: offender crosses state or county lines. In my opinion, it
32:00
Speaker 2: is not sufficient to leave a message. These are life
32:04
Speaker 2: and death situations and these laws need to change. In
32:11
Speaker 2: February of twenty twenty five, Bryson Rivers pleaded not guilty
32:15
Speaker 2: to Laurence murder.
32:17
Speaker 3: Lauren's father, Lance.
32:18
Speaker 2: Told WLX that he believes that the Forest County District
32:22
Speaker 2: Attorney Lynn Carter should seek.
32:24
Speaker 3: The death penalty.
32:25
Speaker 2: He said, quote, if any case should seek the death penalty,
32:29
Speaker 2: this is it. There's enough evidence that he should be
32:31
Speaker 2: executed this week. But we have a system of rules
32:34
Speaker 2: and laws in this country, and we have to follow
32:37
Speaker 2: the system how it's set up.
32:39
Speaker 3: End quote. Bryson rivers murder.
32:41
Speaker 2: Trial was due to start on June twenty fifth, twenty
32:44
Speaker 2: twenty five. The most recent information that I have is
32:48
Speaker 2: that he was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Lance
32:52
Speaker 2: also says that he hopes that as a result of
32:54
Speaker 2: his daughter's brutal murder in the civil litigation, he hopes
32:58
Speaker 2: that laws will change. He has publicly stated that he
33:01
Speaker 2: would like to create Lauren's Law, legislation that would require
33:05
Speaker 2: people who are charged with crimes related to domestic violence
33:07
Speaker 2: to stay in jail. The domestic violence charge would be
33:11
Speaker 2: an automatic disqualification from getting bond.
33:14
Speaker 3: This is the type of.
33:15
Speaker 2: Law he believes could have saved his daughter's life. This
33:19
Speaker 2: case is still ongoing and police are still looking for
33:23
Speaker 2: the public's help and figuring out exactly what happened to Lauren.
33:27
Speaker 2: The sheriff has said they are looking for members of
33:29
Speaker 2: the public who may have camera footage from the woods
33:32
Speaker 2: or from Lauren's neighborhood. They still want to talk to
33:35
Speaker 2: those people, and they ask that those people reach out
33:38
Speaker 2: to law enforcement. So if there is someone out there
33:42
Speaker 2: who believes that they have information, the sheriff is asked
33:45
Speaker 2: that they contact the Forest County Sheriff's Office on six
33:48
Speaker 2: oh one, five eight two, seven, eight sixty seven. I'm
33:53
Speaker 2: Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone
33:58
Speaker 2: Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and
34:00
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend
34:04
Speaker 2: and produced by Gabby wattson Special thanks to Amy Tubbs
34:08
Speaker 2: for her research assistance and to James Wheaton for legal review.
34:12
Speaker 2: Noah camer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song
34:15
Speaker 2: is by Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
34:19
Speaker 2: and L. C.
34:20
Speaker 3: Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free by.
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Speaker 2: Subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plush channel on Apple Podcasts.
34:27
Speaker 2: If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from
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Speaker 2: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
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34:36
Speaker 2: You'd like me and my team to look into, you
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Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
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