LaVena Johnson
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She eagerly told her parents she would soon be arriving, just in time for Christmas. The storybook ending for all military members. The young private did arrive in a coffin. Not all stories have happy endings. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 100, The Lavinia Johnson Story. ♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.

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Now, let's jump right into this very special episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome to this very special episode of Forensic Tales. It is finally episode number 100.

So before we get into the Lavinia Johnson story, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to my listeners. I'm so beyond grateful to be putting out our 100th episode of the show. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for supporting Forensic Tales. It's been such a fun and amazing journey so far, and I can't wait to see what's in store for the next 100 episodes of the show.

So for listening and for supporting, thank you, thank you, thank you. On July 17, 2005, 19-year-old private first class LaVena Johnson called home, like she did every night. LaVena called home to talk to her parents and assure them that she was safe. For the last eight weeks, LaVena's entire unit had been deployed and stationed in Balad, Iraq.

So when she got on the phone with her parents, Linda and John Johnson, she excitedly told them that she would be home for Christmas. She also said that her unit would be rotating back to the United States in the next couple of months.

On the phone with her parents, Lavina was ecstatic, not just about coming home for Christmas, but she was happy about everything. She was just about to start a new job on the base, and she had lots of friends in her unit. She was just about to turn 20 years old. She was living her dream life in the military.

Before she hung up the phone with her parents, Laveena told them not to decorate the Christmas tree until she was home. They agreed and she hung up the phone. But Laveena Johnson wouldn't make it home to decorate the Christmas tree. This phone call was the last time that Linda and John Johnson would ever hear from their daughter.

Two days later, on July 19th, two soldiers knocked on the front door of the Johnsons' home in Missouri, a knock that no military parent wants to hear. When Linda Johnson answered the door, the soldiers told her that Lavina was dead. Although the Army was investigating the case, they said that they believed she was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The news was heartbreaking to the Johnsons. They couldn't believe their daughter was dead and that she killed herself. Nothing about suicide made sense.

They spoke with her on the phone less than 48 hours earlier, and everything seemed completely fine. Besides getting typical complaints from their daughter about the heat and scorpions in Iraq, everything seemed normal. They hoped that the soldiers were just wrong about this being a possible suicide.

Lavina Johnson was born on July 27, 1985, in a family-friendly Missouri suburb. She grew up in a close-knit family. She was the first of two girls and one of five siblings. Her family described her as a good, quiet child. At four months old, she was named Baby of the Year at Walnut Park Church.

Growing up, Lavina was a natural-born leader. Every Sunday morning, she would wake up early just to make sure that her family got up and got to church on time. She always volunteered to watch and take care of her baby sister. She attended high school at Hazelwood Junior High in Missouri. In high school, she was involved in many different activities, from the school's D.A.R.E. program to being a member of the Student Citizenship Club.

As a teenager, she had three primary goals in life. Number one, she wanted to attend college to study performing arts so that she could grow up to become a movie producer. Number two, she and her younger sister, Lakeisha, wanted to start a family-owned music and movie production company. And number three, she wanted to make a difference in the world. In 2004, Lavina graduated from high school and immediately enrolled in the Army.

Her decision to join the Army was strongly influenced by her father, John Johnson's own career in the military. Dr. John Johnson served in the Army for three years, then went back on to work in civilian jobs in troop support for the Army. So her decision to enroll was also influenced by her desire to pay for college on her own.

Even though her parents told her, don't worry that they would help her with tuition, Lavina wanted to pay for her degree on her own. She even told her parents to save their money so that they could spend their money on her younger sister's education. She really wanted to enroll in the army so that she could pay for everything on her own. She attended basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

In May of 2005, she was assigned to her unit and was deployed to a service tour in Iraq. Her quick deployment after basic training came as a shock because her recruiter had assured her that it would likely be months if she was ever deployed. Her recruiter even said that there was a chance that she would never be deployed to either Afghanistan or Iraq. When she arrived in Iraq, she was assigned a working job in the communications department.

She was one of the soldiers in charge of opening and closing this particular communications building. And working in communications meant that she had the privilege of calling home pretty much any time that she wanted to, and that it also meant that she wouldn't be working in a position of combat.

She would only be deployed for eight weeks because on July 19, 2005, she became the first female soldier from Missouri to die in Iraq. She died just days before her 20th birthday and only one year after her high school graduation. After Lavina's death, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command launched an investigation into her death.

Anytime a service member dies or involved in a crime, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command always investigates the incident. Investigators learned that other service members discovered Lavina's body inside of a contractor's storage tent on base. They found her body after noticing that the tent was on fire. She had been shot with her own M16 automatic rifle, which was lying on the ground next to her.

All signs seem to point in the direction of suicide. You've got Lavina in a storage tent, dead from a single gunshot wound, and then you've got her service weapon, her M16 rifle, lying on the ground next to her. Investigators interviewed dozens of other service members who were stationed with Lavina.

Many of the soldiers reported to Army investigators that Lavina seemed depressed and seemed anxious in the days leading up to her death. They said she didn't seem like herself.

Several soldiers told investigators that she had been speaking about killing herself on more than one occasion. And according to them, she didn't just tell one person that she was considering suicide. She told a handful of people.

Although these soldiers came forward and told investigators that Lavina was depressed and suicidal before her death, not one person reported this to anyone in positions of authority any time before this happened. All of this information is coming out about Lavina after she died and after she apparently killed herself.

If Lavina expressed being suicidal or depressed, why didn't anyone think to take that M16 high-powered automatic rifle away from her? When Army investigators asked these eyewitnesses why Lavina may have been depressed and suicidal, they said it was because of a recent breakup.

Lavina had reportedly broken up with her boyfriend at the time and that the breakup was likely what drove her to take her own life that day. After a prompt and quick investigation, the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command concluded that Lavina had shot herself in the mouth with her own M16 rifle and that her death was a suicide.

They told the Johnson family that she was upset because she had broken up with her boyfriend of two months in an email. The investigator said that she had printed out that breakup email on the night she committed suicide and had it with her inside of her pocket.

After printing the email, she went to go buy some M&Ms and a six-pack of soda at a military store with a male friend of hers. Investigators then said that the two of them returned to the barracks where they hung out for around four hours, but then Lavina left again, alone.

She then made her way to a tent belonging to a military contractor. Once inside of this KBR tent, Army investigators say she found an arsenal can and lit the breakup email on fire. And as the piece of paper was burning, she put her M16 rifle into her mouth, fired it, killing herself.

At 1.20 a.m., her body was found inside the tent in a pool of blood. Once they wrapped up the investigation, the Armed Services Committee in the Senate signed off on Lavina's death and the case was officially closed.

But the Johnson family wasn't satisfied with the Army's investigation. Nothing about her suicide made sense to them. Her parents just spoke with her less than 48 hours before. She was thrilled about coming home in the next couple weeks for Christmas and to commit suicide over a boyfriend who she had only been dating for for two months.

To the Johnson family, that just seemed so bizarre for their Lavinia Johnson.

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Immediately after the Army declared LaVena's death a suicide, the Johnson family asked officials if a rape kit, an autopsy, had been conducted. They wanted to see if investigators had checked off all the boxes when coming to this suicide conclusion. But again, the family was told no. They said that a rape kit didn't need to be done because there was no evidence or reason to suggest that she had been sexually assaulted.

And when the family asked for a copy of the official autopsy, military officials once again said no, they weren't going to release it to the family. After the case was closed and her death was ruled a suicide, Lavina's body was flown back to family in Missouri. Now, if the Johnsons weren't suspicious about their daughter's alleged suicide before, they sure were by the time they received her body.

Before receiving the body, Army officials recommended to the Johnson family that they should have a closed casket funeral. But the Johnson family disagreed. They wanted to give their daughter a proper funeral and proper burial, which should include an open casket so that family and friends can come say their goodbyes right to Lavina's body.

But when they opened the coffin after receiving it from military officials, they discovered several discrepancies in the army story. The family's first observation was the condition of Lavina's body, particularly her face wasn't terrible. Now, for someone who allegedly shot themselves in the mouth with a high powered M16 automatic rifle,

you wouldn't think that there would be much left of her face. But that wasn't the case. Yes, she was injured, and we'll talk about what those injuries looked like, but overall, her condition wasn't that bad.

Now, the first injury, so let's talk about it. The first injury the Johnsons noticed was that it looked like her nose was broken. She had severe bruising all over her face, which is consistent with a broken nose. However, there was also indications that someone had performed plastic surgery on her nose to conceal this injury. She also had a pretty large cut on one of her lips and a black eye.

plus a handful of loose and broken teeth. But the inconsistencies don't stop there. The only gunshot wound found on Lavina was to the left side of her head, not inside of her mouth, like the army investigators had said. What was also strange about the gunshot wound was how small it was.

Remember, Lavina supposedly shot herself in the mouth with her M16 rifle. Now, if you aren't a gun person, which I am not, M16s are big guns. These are big, big rifles. We're not talking about a pistol or some small sort of handgun. This rifle is a large military weapon. And large rifles, well, large rifles leave behind big gunshot wounds.

But the injury to the left side of LaVena's head was small. The hole didn't look like it came from a rifle. Instead, it looked like it came from a smaller weapon, like a handgun or a pistol. Then there were LaVena's hands. So get ready for this one. Military white gloves had been glued onto her hands. Yes, glued.

Now, the issue isn't that she had these white gloves on her hands. Typically, when the army returned bodies home to the family, and they still do, they dress them in their military uniform, a uniform that typically includes white gloves. So the issue isn't that she was wearing these white gloves. It was that they were glued to both of her hands, right?

And when the funeral home removed the gloves, they found evidence that someone had burned her hands with acid or some sort of other corrosive chemical. The burns appeared to be more severe on her dominant hand, her right hand, the hand that she would have used to pull the trigger. Now, if these discoveries on Lavina's body aren't horrific enough, it gets worse.

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To create your free gift exchange today, go to elfster.com or download the Elfster app. That's elfster.com. With Elfster, everyone gets a gift they really want. Besides the broken nose, cut lip, black eye, and burns to Lavinia's hands, there was also chemical burns found on her inner thighs and genital area.

Now, this evidence not only suggests that Lavina probably didn't kill herself, but she could have been a victim of sexual assault and murder. To the Johnson family, the chemical burns prove a cover-up. Whoever sexually assaulted her ultimately killed her and then attempted to cover up DNA and other valuable forensic evidence.

After learning about the injuries and chemical burns to Lavina's body, the Johnson family once again went to the military officials demanding to see a copy of the original autopsy. They wanted to figure out how the army could say that this was a suicide when so many injuries to her body were inconsistent with such a finding. And then they wanted answers to the obvious question of,

Why were parts of her body chemically burned if she committed suicide? The Army once again refused the family's request to read the autopsy. They refused to release any information about their investigation. But this refusal didn't stop the family. The Johnson family eventually filed a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

This federal act allows for full or partial disclosure of previously undisclosed information and documents that are currently controlled by the U.S. government. Before this point, the Army was withholding Lavina's autopsy report, and because the military was the one who performed her autopsy, this report was controlled by the U.S. government. It was a U.S. official document.

So the Johnson family used this Freedom of Information Act to basically compel or force the army to release their autopsy findings. And besides the autopsy report, the army was also required to turn over photographs to the family.

The initial autopsy performed by the military supports the cause of death as reported by the army themselves. In the report, they noted that Lavina sustained a busted lip, broken teeth, scratch marks on her neck, but no other serious injuries.

One of the Johnson's arguments was that the bullet wound on Lavina's head looked far too small to be from an M16 rifle and that it was on the left side of her head and Lavina was right-handed.

But in the military's autopsy report, they said that the bullet wound the Johnsons are referring to is an exit wound from an M16. In many cases, a bullet's exit wound will be much smaller than the entrance.

However, since then, two ballistics experts, Donald Marion and Cyril Wetsch, who are experts in the field who have studied Lavina's case, they both believe that the size of the wound is far more consistent with a 9mm pistol or some other smaller handgun, and that both of these experts believe that the size of the wound is not consistent with an M16.

Now, the military's autopsy report made no mention of finding the bullet that someone used to kill Avina. In fact, to this very day, the bullet that killed her has never been recovered.

The military's stance is that the bullet likely went through an open tent flap window, and that's why the bullet has never been found. However, if you ask the Johnson family, this information is just another sign pointing towards a military cover-up. Gunshot residue tests performed by the military on LaVena's hands to determine whether she had fired her rifle were found, quote, in significant residue.

The military's report itself notes that they weren't able to collect gunshot residue to determine if she had fired a weapon or not. And surely if she had fired that rifle, there would have been some significant traces of GSR on either one of her hands. As the Johnsons continued to study the crime scene and autopsy photographs, they saw what they believed to be blood inside and outside the contractor's tent.

Now, if the pictures are accurate, if there was blood found inside and outside of the tent where Lavina's body was found, this suggests that maybe Lavina was killed somewhere else and then her body was dumped inside of the tent. Because why would there be blood found outside of the tent if she was shot in the inside?

Crime scene photographs taken from the army also captured what appeared to be boot prints in blood outside the tent and on a bag of cement. And just like before, this evidence suggests that someone may have dragged her body inside of the tent. But according to the army, the only blood found outside of the tent was on a bench that had been used when her body was removed.

Army investigators say that they are unaware of any boot prints in blood or on a cement bag inside of the tent. Also, according to them, quote, they found no cuts, bruises, or abrasions on her body that would have led us to believe that they had been created by suspicious means, end quote. So what about inside of the tent?

The first thing I want to mention about inside of the tent is where Lavina's body was discovered. She was found lying on the ground next to a cot with her M16 service weapon lying perfectly by her side. Her hand wasn't on the gun, and it looked like someone had neatly placed the rifle perfectly perpendicular to her body. You've got her body and then literally this big weapon just lying perfectly by her side.

And inside of the tent, the military investigators didn't find any blood or brain splatter on the inside of the tent. Now, I know that's a little graphic when I say brain splatter or blood, but let's talk about that because I think this is really, really important.

If Lavina allegedly shot herself in the mouth with her M16, you would expect to see a lot of blood splatter inside of the tent. You'd also expect to find some brain matter. Shooting yourself in the mouth with a rifle isn't going to be a pretty picture. You're going to see blood everywhere. You're going to see pieces of brain, pieces of skull, pieces of bone. It's going to be a really, really messy crime scene.

But that's just not what we see here. The photographs suggest that there wasn't any blood spatter anywhere inside the tent. The tent was relatively clean, except for a small amount of blood found underneath LaVena's body. Other than that, there was pretty much nothing. The photographs taken of LaVena's body and face suggest someone had badly beat her.

Besides the black eye and broken teeth, they also found scratches on her arms, which might be defensive wounds, like she was holding her arms up, trying to protect herself from her attacker. Now let's go back to the gun, the M16 rifle. The Johnson family doesn't believe that Lavina, who was only 5'1 and weighed less than 100 pounds, could pull the trigger on herself.

An M16 rifle is over 40 inches long. In the Army's report, they said they believed that Lavina cradled the rifle between her two legs, put the gun inside of her mouth, and then extended her arm down to reach the gun's trigger, all while sitting on a cot. And according to them, that's how she was able to shoot herself.

But the Johnson family disagrees with what the army found. They don't believe that their five foot one daughter's arms were long enough to pull the trigger from this position. To them, it was simply impossible. Someone that small can't cradle a 40 inch long automatic rifle between their legs and then take one of their hands, reach down to be able to pull the trigger.

Army has a different belief. In their official statement regarding this claim by the Johnson family, they believe it's, quote, easily possible for a person of LaVena's stature to shoot themselves through the mouth with an M16. They even claimed to have replicated this using a female soldier with a very similar statute as LaVena. And according to them, according to the Army, this individual was easily able to do it.

Paul Stone, a spokesman for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, stated that the damage to Lavina's face was consistent with an M16 gunshot wound. He said the rapidly expanding gases discharged by an M16 could break bones and that these gases could leave behind cuts and bruises.

According to Paul Stone, this could explain the bruises and cuts to LaVena's face. Where the Johnson family says, on the other hand, these injuries point to the fact that someone beat her. But the military says no. These injuries are consistent with M16 gunshots.

In the Army's official report, they reported no evidence of a sexual assault. Because there was no evidence of sexual assault, they didn't collect vaginal or fingernail swabs from Lavina's body. The Army reported these findings in the autopsy report. Still, the findings didn't change the investigator's belief that Lavina killed herself.

So if you're the army and you believe she killed herself, you would also have to think that she intentionally burned herself with these chemicals before turning the gun on herself. Two years after her death, the Johnson family had Lavina's body exhumed in 2007 for a second and independent autopsy.

Because of the notoriety and response from the public, CBS decided to sponsor the second autopsy. ABC also contributed funds to the project. Dr. Michael Graham, the St. Louis City Medical Examiner, was the one assigned to perform this second and independent autopsy.

After examining the case, he concluded that Lavina died of a gunshot wound fired through her mouth, but couldn't determine whether it was self-inflicted or not. But here's where this case gets more mysterious and utterly disgusting.

The second autopsy revealed that she also had a broken neck on top of all of the other injuries that we've already talked about. And plus, listen to this. Warning, this is extremely, extremely graphic. The medical examiner discovered that parts of Lavina's vagina, tongue, and anus had been removed.

What's stranger is that the Army's autopsy report doesn't reveal any of this. There's no mention that any parts of LaVena's genitals or tongue are missing. And the Army never mentioned this to the Johnson family. If it weren't for the fact that they had exhumed her body and had this second independent autopsy performed, the Johnson family would have never known.

Someone who had allegedly shot and killed themselves. They don't just go and remove parts of their body. They don't go and burn themselves with acid. And then, oh, by the way, she was found completely clothed. So why would these parts of Lavina's body be missing? Well, number one, her tongue.

Removing her tongue could eliminate the possibility of any medical examiner determining whether she shot herself in the mouth or not. Number two and number three, her vaginal area and anus. These parts would be removed if someone was trying to get rid of semen or any DNA evidence after a sexual assault.

This second autopsy revealed that a doctor performed plastic surgery on LaVena's face to conceal a broken nose. But again, the Army did not mention this in the original autopsy. They also did not inform the Johnson family that someone had performed plastic surgery.

The second autopsy also confirmed that Lavina had third-degree burns to her hands. The reason the Army glued her white gloves to the hands was likely someone trying to cover up any DNA or valuable forensic evidence that would have otherwise been recovered from Lavina's hands.

So after spending thousands and thousands of dollars exhuming her body and performing this second autopsy, you would think that CBS, the large nationwide network, would run a story on the case exposing this military cover up. Well, I'm sad to say that that's wrong. CBS didn't cover the case and neither did their sister station, ABC.

This decision left many wondering why no major national media outlet wanted to cover the case. Was it because Lavinia Johnson was a black female? A second theory is maybe the news outlets were threatened by the army. They were threatened that if they covered her story and talked about these inconsistencies and this exposure of a possible military cover-up,

Then the Army would pull advertising funding or possibly other threats against these major media outlets. Who knows for sure, but there's enough evidence out there that suggests something suspicious happened. Why no major news outlet covered Levina's story, we may never know.

Now, one last thing emerged around the second autopsy was that only 10 days before her death, Lavina was undergoing treatment for a sexually transmitted disease. She was being treated for an infection that she had caught after being sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier just 10 days earlier.

Now, to this day, the name of the alleged perpetrator who sexually assaulted her just 10 days before her death remains a mystery. In fact, not even Lavina's parents knew that their daughter was receiving treatment for an STD after she was allegedly sexually assaulted.

But not telling her parents that she was sexually assaulted or was being treated for an STD, none of that bothers me. I understand why she wouldn't tell her parents. She's a 19-year-old girl. What bothers me is that the Army didn't tell the parents. This information came out years later.

The Johnson family was never told that Lavina reported a previous sexual assault. The Army never told the Johnson family that she was under treatment for an STD from this attack. The Army kept all of this a secret. This information about an earlier sexual assault also didn't seem to influence their opinion about what caused her death.

The results of the second autopsy further convinced the Johnson family that their daughter was murdered and that her murder was a part of a more extensive military cover-up. But who or whom is the military protecting? That's the burning question at the core of this story. Was she sexually assaulted and murdered by a fellow soldier? Was it her commanding officer? Was it someone even higher in rank?

Nobody on the outside knows for sure, but for the military to engage in this level of a cover-up, they must be covering up for someone powerful. In 2008, supporters created a Change.org petition to generate signatures in hope that the signatures would prompt the Army to reopen LaVena's case.

But even after generating over 30,000 signatures, the Army refuses to look into her case. Instead, the Army's official position was that Lavina Johnson committed suicide and it is not a matter of a military cover-up. Lavina's parents, John and Linda Johnson, continue to fight to reopen the case and look for answers.

They are hopeful that someone will come forward with information to push the Army to reopen the investigation. According to an email submitted to the show Dateline, the Criminal Investigation Command said, "...the Army stands by its findings," but added that they would reopen the case should credible information surface.

Any information about LaVena Johnson's death should contact the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command at 1-844-ARMY-CID, your local military office, or submit tips at army.cid.crime.tips at mail.mil.

In a statement released by Jessica Williams, a Johnson family appointed ambassador for LaVena issued the following, quote, quote,

However, the official response from the military still remains case closed. It doesn't matter who tries to help. Congress, persons, government, and legal officials are all met with the same reply. It's unfortunate, but not a losing battle. We just have to keep pushing and wear them down. We can't give up."

Unfortunately, Lavina Johnson's case isn't the only tragic story about military sexual assault and murder. According to activist and retired Army Colonel Anne Wright, there are 20-plus non-combat deaths of female soldiers under scrutiny right now, all of which have occurred on bases in Afghanistan and on bases in Iraq.

Of these 20 cases, the military reports 14 of them as suicides. According to Protect Our Defenders, a national human rights organization dedicated to ending sexual violence, 14,900 members of the military were sexually assaulted in 2016.

Of that total, 8,600 victims were female and 6,300 were male. So over one in four and one in three men were sexually assaulted with someone in their chain of command. But the military doesn't discuss sexual assaults. 81% of victims did not report their crimes in 2016.

Even when all forensic evidence points to murder, Lavina Johnson's case is still closed as a suicide. How many more need to suffer? How many more need to die before the military takes action? I'm grateful for our brothers and sisters that serve. The least we can do is provide a safe and trusting environment.

Together, we can bring this topic to the light, out of the shadows, and hopefully, one day, out of our military. To share your thoughts on the LaVena Johnson story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. Do you think her death was a military cover-up? Or do you agree with the military that LaVena committed suicide?

To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. This is where I get the opportunity to say what I really think happened.

To check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. This is where I'll post crime scene photos from the case. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings. ♪

Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio production. The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. For a small monthly contribution, you can help create new compelling cases for the show, help fund research, and assist with production and editing costs.

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A true crime friend of yours is a true crime friend of ours. Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers. If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page or send me an email at

me at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you so much for listening. Your support means the world to me. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.