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- Hi guys, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and it's Monday, which means it's murder, mystery and makeup Monday. If you're new here, every Monday I've been sitting down, getting ready, doing my makeup and then talking about a true crime or a murder that's happened or something that's true crime related. I know the two don't make sense, but I mushed them together and this is what we got. Today I want to talk about Lavina Johnson. Have you heard about this story?
So the thing is, this story like pisses me off to the core. It makes me so angry and I don't know, I guess it's just the whole idea of when somebody bigger tries to take advantage of somebody who's much smaller than them and they get away with it. That drives me absolutely up the wall. And so this story just like pisses me off.
And I will leave in the description box the links. If you wanna look further into the story or read up about it on your own, I'll leave that in the description box as well because there's only so much I can cover to be honest. So let's just get into it now. Here I go. The Johnson family grew up in Missouri. Lavina,
In high school, she was an honor roll student. She was very smart and she obviously wanted to go to college when she graduated. So she told her family that after high school, she actually wanted to join the military and that way her college would be paid for if she joined the military. Her parents had no problem paying for
her college education and paying for college in general, but she wanted to go to school out of state. So she lived in Missouri and she wanted to go to college in California and she wanted to work in the movie industry. Since her father was in the military and he was a retired veteran, she would follow in his footsteps and join the military, have school paid for, and just take
initiative herself and she didn't want it to be a burden on her family for them to pay you know when you go to college out of state all those fees that they add she said i'm joining the military let's flash forward to 2005 um lavina was stationed in iraq and she was a private first class in the united states army um at this point she had been in iraq for about seven to eight weeks um
She would call home as often as she could. It was pretty often because she worked in the communications building, so she was around a telephone all the time. So she would check in with the family. She would even write letters as well and just see how the family's doing. She always sounded very positive in her letters and from what her family said, just very...
upbeat, positive. She was always trying to look at the bright side. She was always excited to hear what was going on with the family. She didn't give off the impression that like she wasn't doing well at all based off of what the family said, but also based off her letters. Yeah, she just seemed very positive and I applaud her for that because being in, I couldn't imagine being in Iraq, being away from your family, it would be so scary. And she just seemed very positive though.
So Lavina did mention early on that there was some disrespect happening. In her letters, she mentioned that her fellow soldiers would call her and any other of the women there female warriors, and then they would call them just females, and then they would call
them a soul, because soul was half of a soldier. So July 14th, 2005, Lavina called home and she talked to her dad about her day. She said she was locking up the communications building just like any other night, but this night the soldiers that were inside of the communications building were not listening to her. So she was saying like,
that they had to leave because the building was closing down and that they needed to get out. This day, like the soldiers just were not listening to her. They were ignoring her. They weren't moving. They weren't getting up. They just were not listening to her. And then the general had showed up and he ended up having to kick the soldiers out. The general did not get upset with the soldiers that weren't listening to her. Instead, he got a little upset with Lavina because she wasn't being stern enough with the soldiers.
The general told Lavina that she was too soft-spoken and nobody was going to listen to her if she spoke the way she did. That's why nobody listens to her is because she's too soft-spoken and that she needs to be more aggressive. Lavina's dad was upset hearing this because he knew that a general shouldn't be speaking to a private the way that he was speaking to her.
So he just knew like it wasn't right for the general to be speaking to her, Lavina, and her in her position the way he was. And it was upsetting to Lavina's father that the general didn't get upset with the soldiers instead getting mad with Lavina. So it just made her dad upset. Dad is kind of worried for her. Just like you need to get a...
a battle buddy is what he told Lavina. So a battle buddy is pretty much someone that's with you all the time who has your back, who is like your shadow. So if she needs to stand up to somebody, she has this partner there who has her back. She'd kind of just told her dad like,
I don't feel comfortable getting one of those or I don't feel comfortable asking for a battle buddy because I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. I don't want, you know, to bring more attention to myself. I don't want to make it seem like I need help. She wanted to be able to do it on her own and she didn't want to ask for help. So she expressed that she wasn't comfortable doing that. And Lavina's father said, like,
You need to do this. I'll give you some time. I'll give you a chance to step up and ask for one. But if you don't, I'm going to step up and ask that you have one because you know how you're being treated isn't right. Let her handle it. She's grown up. Just step away. Like he was just letting her daughter do it. Like he knew she could do it on her own.
Go do it. And if you don't, I'm going to step up and do it. So it would come to light later. Maybe the reason Laveena didn't want to like speak up and say anything was because Laveena was recently or had been recently sexually assaulted. And she was also being treated for an STD. It's unknown who the assaulter was or whether it had been fully reported or documented, but it was not known to the, um,
Johnson family at all that this had happened. She didn't say anything. I think probably because she didn't want them to worry. So once after it had happened, she was trying her best just to lay low and not commentate
cause any more issues I mean we don't really know what happened like as far as after she reported it and she was being treated for an STD like we don't know did they blame her did the person who did this to her get in trouble because there was no documents there was just nothing showing that anything really happened she was sexually assaulted and then it was just kind of like
Moving on. So I'm assuming when her father had asked her to get a battle buddy, that probably went through her mind like, "I don't want to say anything because I just caused this issue about being assaulted and you know, now I have to ask for a battle buddy, like they're just gonna..." Something was obviously going on where she didn't feel safe to even ask for any type of help. So three days following that last phone call, Lavina called home saying,
that she might get to come home early, that she would be home around Christmas time and to not decorate the Christmas tree because that was something that she really enjoyed doing with her family and that she was gonna be home. Very sadly, that was the last time
The family spoke to Lavina. A couple of days after that phone call, the family at home, the Johnson family, they got a knock on the door and it was a soldier. And he came to tell the Johnson family that Lavina had died. Family obviously in complete shock. Lavina's mother is just on the floor crying. Lavina's father is asking, "Well, how could this be? How could she be dead? Like we just talked to her." Lavina wasn't in active play.
so they didn't understand how could she die? She's in a safe place. She worked in the communications building. Nothing was going on over there. They kept asking for more details, trying to figure out how could she be dead? There's just no way, like we need answers. The soldier who was at the home, I think he accidentally slipped and said that Lavina took her own life. Lavina's father just kind of looks at the soldier like,
"Are you telling me that my daughter killed herself?" And the soldier kept trying to backtrack. Like, "No, I didn't say that. They don't know how she died. I didn't say that she took her own life." You know, word vomit. That's not what they said at all. They just wanted me to tell you that she passed away.
So this kind of raised obviously some red flags like why would he randomly say that she committed suicide? That just doesn't make any sense. Sorry if I'm having a hard time talking. I'm having a very hard time talking. So the following day they get a phone call which is gonna better explain what happened to Lavina. The mother and father of Lavina are first of all they're just
Your heart breaks for them. The mother is more of, she shows all of her emotion. She's crying, obviously. She lost her daughter. She lost her baby. She's just very upset. Her father is upset as well, but he's more of the like, I know how this goes. I've been in this situation. Like I know that they're hiding more. I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to handle all of this and don't worry about it. Like I don't want you to be more upset by it. So let me handle all of this.
and then you just mourn and I'm gonna find the answers. So her father steps up and he is such like a, just a well-spoken, calm, he's upset, but like he's just, you're just rooting for him because they just seem like such good people.
Again, I'm gonna list links down below where you could see interviews with them and you will just like, you just want to hug them and help them and yeah. Anyway, so her father is the one who like mainly investigates this more and presses for answers. So he gets on the phone and gets some answers. Okay, well, what happened? Like what, how did she die? On the phone, they,
they explained, well, she had a normal day. She was at the communications office working and then she got off about four or 5:00 PM. So she locked up the building. From the building she would walk to her physical training but she was found in her physical training sweats. So they assumed that she was on her way to the physical training. The guys on the phone, they told him, well,
She didn't show up to physical training, so somebody went looking for her and she was just kind of nowhere to be found. Eventually, Lavina was found in a contractor's room and she was laying on her back in a pool of blood with her arm covering her face.
Why she was in her contractor's room, I don't know. There were photos released now that you can see and it's just such an awful scene. So I will explain the photo as best as I could. So Lavina's laying on her back and her left arm I believe is covering her face. On her right side was a pile of burned papers. On the left of Lavina, on the right hand side of the frame,
was a green cot and on the other side of the green cot was an M16 rifle. So right away you're thinking, well if she killed herself, how did the gun get on the other side of the cot? Doesn't make any sense.
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for a really special gift for the special people in your life check out before lavina's body was sent back home the army does an autopsy and they rule it as a suicide they say that she lavina she took notes from her
boyfriend at the time they had been dating for about six months she then lit them on fire then she put the m16 rifle in her mouth and she shot herself the army said that she was having a hard time with this boyfriend and that's why she did it because she was just very upset over this boyfriend so
Once Lavina's body had come back home, the army had recommended that they do a closed casket because of how bad Lavina's body was in shape. I mean, she took an M16 rifle and she shot herself, you know, do significant damage. There should be a lot of damage
if that is what happened. So they recommended that the family do a closed casket just because of how traumatic it was. But naturally, because her parents are like,
There's just something fishy going on. They decide to go against that and they do an open casket. And I'm glad they did because her father notices right away her face was in pristine condition. He did notice a few things. So her nose looked like it had been broken and shifted to the side, but then it looked like someone tried to pop it back into place. He also noticed a bunch of small cuts and bruises
on her face and around her lips. And her teeth were loose as well, like she had been punched or... The only sign that she had died of a gunshot wound was because she had a small bullet wound on the left side of her head. And it was small, first of all. And secondly, it was on the left side of her hand and she's right-handed. I mean, it was on the left side of her head and she was right-handed. So the position doesn't make sense. Plus it's an M16.
If you don't know what an M16 is, it's pretty effing huge. I can't give you the exact dimensions because I don't know, but I have seen pictures of it and it's humongous, right? Lavina is five foot one. She's little. If your M16 is almost as tall as you, how is she even gonna reach it, pull the trigger, not completely blow her head off, I'm sorry,
but you know, it's just none of it's making sense. Also, they were telling the family that she put the gun in her mouth. How did she put the gun in her mouth and on the left side of her brain, left side of her brain have a small hole? The whole thing, none of it makes sense. It's like they didn't even try to cover this up properly. They were just like suicide, out.
Her dad was a vet, like he knew what an M16 exit wound should look like. And he knew this small hole was not that. And right away he knew that it was a nine millimeter that was used to shoot her. But there was nothing about a nine millimeter on the report at all. But wait, there is more. When they got her body and they opened up the casket, they noticed that her gloves were glued onto her hands.
When the family had talked to the funeral director about this, they mentioned, the funeral director, they mentioned like, yeah, gluing gloves onto a hand isn't even a thing. So why they glued these gloves onto Lavinia's hand, they don't know. I don't know if they ever took off the gloves from her hands. I'm assuming they did. I didn't really see anything or read anything about like what her hands look like. Oh, you know what? You know what I just thought of?
they probably glued it on her hand so they couldn't get any DNA underneath her nails. Or maybe they like burned off her fingers or something to make sure they couldn't get any DNA evidence from her hands. Because you know, if look, real talk, if somebody's attacking you,
Try your best to scratch the shit out of them and get as much DNA under your goddamn claws as you possibly can, you hear me? If you learn anything, I pray that it does not happen to you, but if it does, make sure you scratch the shit out of them, okay?
Don't let them get away. So LaVena's family knew this is not a suicide, okay? This is not a suicide. This is a coverup. One thing that really bothered LaVena's father was that there was no rape kit done. They didn't do any fingernail testing. So they hire a criminal investigator to take over the case.
They know that they're not going to get anywhere with the army. They're not going to get the answers they want and they just have to do it themselves. They find themselves up against the United States Army who will not budge on their findings. They want nothing to do with the case. They're not just going to willingly hand over any information about Lavina unless they have the proper documents. Family eventually does get some documents regarding Lavina and like what had happened. So these documents...
contain the crime scene images. They haven't even seen the crime scene yet. I'm sure nobody wants to see that, but it's important. They finally received these images. They are just the worst and lowest quality you can think of. I'm talking, if you look at these images, it's like black and white, Xeroxed, grainy. You can't really make out what anything is. Nothing's in color.
It's like they just didn't even try to give the family the proper images. I mean, why would they? They're obviously hiding something, but it was just kind of, it's just ridiculous. It's like, really, this is what you're sending me? All you can see is like shadows, but even from the shadows, they could tell it doesn't make sense.
So they see like the grainy, like a shadow of Lovina's body, but they notice that the gun is on the other side of that cot. So it's like, okay, this right away. Yeah, you sent me this grainy photo, but I can tell right here, this doesn't even make sense.
So another finding in these documents that the family received was that there was no gunpowder on her hands, on Lavina's hands. There were witness reports saying that Lavina was raped and that she was also being treated for an STD. So this is the first time now that the family's hearing about this.
So what happened? What was the outcome? Who did it? It just left him with so many more questions, no answers. When he asked anybody from the army, they would always just give him the runaround. I mean, even with all this evidence thrown in his face, in their faces,
They still were like, no, she committed suicide. Nothing we can do about it, case closed. So in the documents that they received, there was a random page and it was a Xerox copy of a CD-ROM. Now, a lot of people would say that the Xerox copy of the CD-ROM was an accident, that somebody just mistakenly like Xeroxed this CD-ROM and like threw it in there. But the family believed that this was like
somebody trying to give them a hint or a clue like there's actually a lot more to this and they're hiding it from you and it's on this CD-ROM. So of course the battle begins trying to get this CD-ROM because the US Army is not just gonna hand it over. No, they're not. Lavina's father is asking, okay, I need this CD-ROM and they're giving him pushback like we'll give it to you but you need to get like, you need to go to court and get the correct paperwork to essentially
get this. And it's not just an easy process. Of course, the army comes back and says that they can't release the CD we're on because it has, you know, other people's names on there and they have the right to, um, their own privacy, you know, and then Levine's father comes back saying, well,
Now I want the CD-ROM even more because if this has to do with my daughter's death or giving me answers as far as what happened to my daughter and these names are in there, then I have the right to these people's information and their names because they had something to do with my daughter's murder. The US Army still said, "You know what? We're not gonna give this to you. And if you want it, you can get a lawyer and come after us." Johnson family ended up going straight to congressmen for help.
so they just like one-upped him. So they went to Congressman Lacey Clay. Two years later they finally get the CD-ROM. Two years later. It had the original pictures in color of the scene of the crime and it pretty much showed um it was all photos of Lavina
her body, her surroundings, the gun, her body. I already said that. The autopsy, like her body laid out with no clothing on before they did the autopsy. Her body after the autopsy, it was just like picture by picture of
the whole process. These photos were just hardcore proof that she did not commit suicide, which the family already knew. In these images on the CD-ROM, on Lavine's body, you could see that she had bruising and cuts to the face, like she had been struck by a blunt object or instrument. Her elbow, it had been popped out of place, like you could tell it was dislocated. On her backside, it was covered in mud, dirt,
debris, like she had been dragged across the floor. Pictures of blood outside of the tent. The images of her where she was fully undressed showed even just more. There were burn marks on her hand and her back as if someone was trying to set fire to her body. She had so much bruising on her stomach, it looked like when she was down on the floor, somebody or people were trying to
beat her up on the floor, kicking her. And if that's not bad enough, the worst part of all, her lower regions, her genitals, there was acid poured into her lower regions as if somebody was trying to get rid of any type of DNA evidence. So once again, here's the family like calling them up, like, okay, so you're telling me that Lavina beat herself up. I'm sorry, this isn't a phone. Lavina beat herself up.
Okay, she took off all her clothes, attempted to set herself on fire. Then she poured acid into her lower regions, put her clothes back on. She then must have dragged herself across the dirt. And then finally, after all of that torture, she shot herself. So you're telling me that's what happened? What a joke, right? So, you know, the US Army is like, well, this case is closed. It's a suicide, we're not reopening it. Okay, so there's actually more.
as if that all wasn't bad enough. So on the CD-ROM, there are more images. And in these images, it shows that Lavina's tongue, anus, and part of her vagina were cut out. None of this was even reported on the original autopsy report. And the theory is based on the cuts and wounds around these areas is a material called Wundstat was used on her. This material Wundstat
is used in the field when someone is shot or hurt. It's a liquid that goes into your open wound. It hardens and what it does is it prevents more bleeding or just blood loss in general. In order for it to be removed from the body, it does have to be surgically removed. So you can't just like take it out on your own. So it was believed that the wound stab
was placed into these areas, it would cover up any more like DNA evidence because it would have to be cut out. Like you can't just take it out. So her family, they have done everything they can to keep fighting and they are still fighting the entire like US government to try and get answers as to what happened to their daughter. They just want the US government, they just want this to go away and they want absolutely nothing to do with it.
They still have it listed as a suicide and they report that there was no foul play with Lavina's death. I don't know if they have fully gotten closure on what had happened to their daughter. I was kind of trying to figure out like where the family is now and I couldn't really find too much that's recent. They were doing a lot of interviews for a while up until like 2009, 2010 and then they just kind of like stopped so
I hope they're okay. Lavina like stepped up. She went to the army. She was paying for her own school. She was really smart. She was an honor roll student. She was just doing the right thing. She was following like her father's footsteps.
She just wanted to go to school. That's the only reason why she signed up for it. And in return, she gets murdered and then covered up. And then like the family is just completely dismissed. Like nothing they are saying is credible and that they're crazy for even doubting. What benefit does the military have
by not acknowledging this. Like that's what I have a hard time understanding. I mean, yeah, I'm sure it doesn't look good on them. This, where they're covering it up and not even acknowledging that they have issues going on inside the military, it's like, makes it look worse. So I don't understand why, why, why? I don't get it. Anyways, I hope a lot of my rambles make sense. And I'm not trying to discredit the military at all. Like if you were in the military,
or if you know someone who was in the military, I'm not trying to say like they're bad people at all, that that's not what I'm trying to get at at all. I applaud you joining the military and serving the country because it's honestly something that I could never do.
I just don't have the balls, I'm a bitch, like realistically. It takes a very strong person to do that. But I do think like there are issues going on in the military and why can't they bring it to light and why can't they fix it? I just don't understand. I'm very confused. Again, I apologize if this was kind of like all over the place, I was really trying my best here, but I'm day quill, I'm not feeling well. Rest in peace, Lina, and I really hope her family
found some kind of peace. I hope that you have a good day today. Please make good choices out there. Be safe. I think that's it. And I'll see you guys later.
