She was Murdered & Found in a Graveyard DAYS After her Abusive Ex was Released on Bail

0:00This is the case of Lauren Johansson. Lauren Johansson was born on October 30, 2001 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi to parents Robert, who went by his middle name Lance and Tamela. By all accounts, Lauren had a good upbringing with parents who loved her. Her mother Tamela worked as an RN while her father Lance worked as an orthopedic surgeon in the area, so he's well known and respected in the community. Overall, Lauren was described as loving to spend time with her family, especially her siblings Kyler, Christian, and Caitlin. Her younger siblings were born premature, so according to her parents, they had disabilities which required a lot more attention. So with both Lance and Tamela working, Lauren made sure to step up and help take care of her siblings to help take some of the burden off of her parents. The best quality about her according to her dad is that she had a huge heart and she wanted to do what she could to help those around her, especially

1:00her family. Lauren went on to attend Van Cleve High School before graduating and enrolling at the University of Mississippi for nursing. There she did exceedingly well, becoming a part of the National Honor Society and making it onto the Dean's List. She was just one year away from graduating and becoming an RN when her life was taken from her. Lauren was described as being smart, kind, loving, and would do anything to help anyone in need. She was also known to love being outdoors. She loved horseback riding and going to the beach. She absolutely loved animals, so naturally she volunteered at an animal shelter to help rescue injured animals. She had a dog, Bentley Joe, and a cat, Marley, who she took everywhere she went. She also had a rescue horse named Coco, and if she could fit him in her Jeep, he would also go everywhere with her. She also loved doing makeup, becoming a makeup artist and working at an Alta Beauty store while working towards her nursing degree. At the time of her death, 22-year-old Lauren was in a relationship with

2:0123-year-old Bryson Rivers. We don't know a lot about how their relationship started or how they met, but what we do know is that eventually their relationship grew extremely tumultuous and abusive. They went through these seemingly endless cycles where things were going great, and then they would have a big fight, and things would turn explosive. Then the fight would end in physical violence, which gets to the point that Lauren finally decides to leave. She could find peace and solace with her family, but then Bryson would always find ways to weasel his way back into Lauren's life and get back together with her. According to Lauren's father, this happened multiple times throughout their relationship. It was just a toxic violence cycle that terrified Lauren's parents. Anytime Bryson would hurt Lauren, they begged her to just stay away from him. But as we see in so many cases of abuse, he had a very strong hold on her. When it comes to abusive relationships, it's not just the physical violence that affects the victim. They're also usually

3:06being mentally, verbally, and emotionally abused to the point where they genuinely believe that their partner will change. Every time they leave after a big fight or an instance of abuse, the abuser finds a way to tear the victim down to the point where the victim starts to feel guilty for leaving. They feel guilty for not giving their abuser another chance. After all, they promised to get better. However, by December 11, 2023, something happened that changed absolutely everything in their relationship. At the time, Bryson and Lauren had been on a vacation together in Nashville, Tennessee, when they got into an argument at a bar because apparently Lauren had been chatting with another guy. After the verbal altercation started, they went back to the car to leave. Once in the car, the argument turned physical. As Bryson was driving with Lauren in the passenger seat, he started hitting her over and over and over and then he took her phone. Eventually, Bryson stopped the car in a parking lot where Bryson continued the assault, beating her to the point

4:07where she was almost unconscious. As the attack was starting, Lauren managed to call her family to tell them that she was scared Bryson was about to kill her. In the call, her family listened in horror as they heard Lauren banging on the window and the door to the car to try and escape. Of course, her family called the Nashville police while using a location app to pinpoint where Lauren was. They relayed that information to police who were able to locate her in that car in the parking lot. Once officers arrived to the scene, they found Lauren inside the car, banging on the window and screaming for help. But as officers approached, they saw as Bryson reached into the back seat trying to grab a gun. He wasn't able to reach it in time before authorities got to the car and confronted him and at that time, Bryson was removed from the car. Lauren was also intercepted and taken to first responders for treatment. When inspecting Lauren, they were appalled at her condition. She was naked except for her underwear and she was covered

5:10in blood. She had a severe laceration to her eye and one of her eyes was swollen shut. Inside the car, they found two rocks covered in blood. They found Bryson's 9-millimeter pistol. There was blood splattered all over the front of the car and the floor of the car was also covered in blood. To note, when Bryson was arrested, he was found to have absolutely no sign of injury. So, if he tried to claim self-defense or saying that, you know, this was provoked because Lauren attacked him, it was not going to work. There was not a single scratch on him. After being arrested, Bryson was taken to the station and charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated stalking and one count of coercion of a witness. His preliminary hearing took place a week later on December 18, 2013, where his bail was set to $250,000. Lauren's father was present at the bail hearing and he begged the judge not to let Bryson out of jail. He emphasized how dangerous this man is. He had every intention to kill her that night

6:16and he just might have if she wasn't able to call her family. He told the judge that this was probably the fifth or sixth time that Bryson has beaten Lauren and this time was definitely the worst. He pistol whipped her and beat her with rocks. He was escalating. Next time, he was going to kill her. The prosecution also argued that the likelihood of Bryson being convicted of this crime was high. As I stated, Lauren was on the phone with her parents while she was being beaten and while they called the police. So police actually had audio recordings which heard Lauren desperately trying to escape the attack. They also had the photos they took of her after the beating which showed Lauren's horrific condition and the police body cam footage which showed Bryson reaching for that gun before he was apprehended. At the time, Bryson could not afford his bond, so for the seven months that followed, he sat in jail. But in the meantime, Bryson's defense attorney worked with Judge Cheryl Blackburn to get him a reduced bail. By April of 2024,

7:17they reached an agreement where she lowered his bail to $150,000. According to the Davidson County DA's office which serves Nashville, they did not agree with the reduced bond, but I guess there wasn't much they could do about it. Bryson Rivers posted his bail and was set to be released from jail with certain conditions. In the agreement between Bryson's defense team and Judge Blackburn, he was not allowed to leave Davidson County, Tennessee. He was also supposed to wear a GPS ankle monitor. With that, the bail condition stated that he was not allowed to be released after 4 p.m. because the GPS monitoring company tracking solutions closes at that time. So in order to be fitted with the GPS monitor, he was supposed to be released some time during their business hours. The courts also were supposed to notify Lauren's family about his release to ensure they were aware that he was no longer behind bars. This was for Lauren and her loved one's safety. For the months that followed this agreement, Bryson remained in jail as the courts and his defense team got everything prepared for his release. By May 15, Bryson and his mother

8:22attended a hearing requesting to modify the conditions of his bond so that he could live in Mississippi with his family rather than staying in Davidson County, but this was denied. By June 4, Bryson was assigned a probation officer who then sent over a copy of the judge's orders to tracking solutions. This was done so that tracking solutions could contact the DA's office to obtain the parameters for where Bryson was allowed to go. This included exclusion addresses which would notify the company if Bryson ever went to these areas. For example, he wasn't allowed to go to Mississippi or anywhere near Lauren. They also provided the company with an address for where Bryson would be staying while in Nashville awaiting his trial. Finally, by Monday, June 24, 2024, Bryson was let out of jail at 4.05 pm. That's right. Even though his bail conditions specifically said he was not to be let out of jail after 4 pm, he was let out after 4 pm. Of course, this meant that he could not get his ankle monitor from tracking solutions as he was ordered to do.

9:27Even though Bryson's bail agent signed the release form which stated these parameters, he decided to take Bryson to a different monitoring company, freedom monitoring services. Again, because tracking solutions was closed. When Bryson was brought to freedom monitoring services, they apparently did not have access to his bond order. So naturally, they took Bryson's word for where he was allowed to go. Bryson told them that he was allowed to leave Davidson County and go back to Mississippi and they just believed him. So he was given his GPS monitor with Bryson's chosen parameters. He was now free to come and go as he pleased. So again, literally none of his bond conditions were actually followed through with. He was released, given free range to go where he wanted. Not only that, but Lauren's family was not contacted upon his release. Absolutely absurd. It took until four days later on Friday, June 28 until freedom monitoring services

10:28finally received the bond paperwork. By around 5 p.m., the company contacted Bryson and ordered him to return to Nashville immediately to get his new monitor. That same day, Bryson's probation officer finally checked in with tracking solutions again four days after his release, who then informed her that Bryson never reported to them, never got the monitor from them. They sent the notification to the DA's office to inform them that Bryson was violating his orders. So then finally four days after Bryson's release, the DA's office decided to contact Lauren's father, Lance, leaving him a voicemail to alert him that Bryson was released. Not only that, but he wasn't wearing an ankle monitor, and they weren't able to reach him. This is Bailey calling from the District Attorney's Office here in Nashville. Bryson Reverse was released from custody. He was supposed to report straight to a GPS company and he put on a GPS monitor, and he was not to leave Davidson County. But as soon as he was released, he did not report to that GPS

11:31monitoring company, and he has not been heard from, but I want to make sure that Lauren is safe. We thought he was out of our lives forever, told the judge and the DA and all the members in the court system that if he release him, he's going to kill her. No one called us and ever told us they were having a new hearing to reduce the bond. Really? See, we're never aware of that. We had no idea. Surprisingly, by Saturday, June 29, Bryson did report back to Nashville at around 4 p.m. where he was fitted for a new monitor. Again, he was at freedom monitoring, not tracking solutions. By Monday, July 1st, freedom monitoring contacted Bryson to let him know that his battery was at 6% and told him to charge it, which he did. But by around midnight, now going into July 2nd, Bryson called to say that he wasn't going to make it to his next court appearance in Nashville, which was at 4 p.m. because he didn't have a ride. But as we would soon find out, that is not actually why. As that was happening around the same day on July 1st, Lance finally saw the message

12:35that was left on his phone a few days prior on Friday. He wasn't even aware that anyone left him a message until about three days after it was left. So still, all throughout Bryson's release, neither him, Lauren's mother, nor Lauren herself knew that Bryson had been released. By the late night hours of July 1st, going into July 2nd, Lance contacted the DA's office to alert them that he was unable to get into contact with Lauren. After finally hearing the voicemail, he tried desperately to call Lauren over and over and over again to make sure she was aware and needed to watch out for Bryson. But he wasn't able to get a hold of her. At some point that day, he had received a text message from her phone, but he did not think it sounded anything like her. Something was going on. By early Tuesday morning, Lance received a notification from Life 360 that Lauren's tracker had been turned off. That prompted him to contact Lauren's sister who lived with her. She informed Lance that Lauren wasn't home. She didn't know where she was and couldn't get a hold

13:40of her. And she said that the security camera at their front door had been destroyed. Obviously, none of this is looking good. Immediately, Lance called the Hattiesburg Police Department in Baloxie to report her as a missing person. When reporting Lauren missing, her family thought that police would immediately go out and start searching for her. After all, she was in a dire situation and they told them that her boyfriend who beat her with an inches of her life was out of jail and nobody could get a hold of either of them. To their dismay, though, when they checked in with police, the following morning to see what progress they made. Lauren's family found out that the police were doing nothing to search for her. There were no leads, no communication. They wouldn't even track down her car until Lance begged them to. Finally, by Wednesday afternoon, they went out and searched for Lauren's car. As that was happening, Freedom Monitoring started noticing that the battery on Bryson's GPS monitor was low so they tried contacting him about it, but he wasn't responding

14:41to any of their messages. They then contacted Bryson's mother who said that she hasn't seen or heard from him all day. It was also the same day when the courts finally learned that Bryson had been in Mississippi this whole time and when they learned that he got his GPS monitor with their wrong company. Finally, an arrest warrant was issued for him. When they checked his GPS monitor, they found that Bryson was in a taxi before the monitor died and stopped recording his location. Like I said, it wasn't until Wednesday, July 3rd when police finally started tracking Lauren's car. Finally, they were able to see that her car last pinged at the Wolf River Cemetery in an isolated area in Gulfport, Mississippi. Immediately, police and Lance rushed to the scene where they found her car parked pretty much right in the middle of the cemetery. When they got closer, they saw that Bryson was still in the car with Lauren, but as soon as he saw police, he got out and booked it into the nearby woods. Upon looking inside the car, they found Lauren's badly beaten,

15:45mutilated body lying across the back seat, wrapped in notable sheets and garbage bags. Lauren had been severely beaten, her head was caved in, her eyes were swollen shut, and she had so many injuries to her face and head that she was unrecognizable. By the time Lance arrived to the scene, he knew his baby was dead before he even saw her body. He then had to witness the horrific condition his daughter was in and even helped the coroner lift her body out of the car because of how bad her condition was. Meanwhile, police started what would turn out to be an almost nine-hour chase after Bryson fled. About 50 officers joined in the search. They first started by searching for him in the woods using helicopters, drones and dogs, but that proved unsuccessful. Pretty quickly, officers realized that Bryson still had his phone on him, so they started texting him, posing as a friend until they were eventually able to lure him out of the woods where he was apprehended at around 11.30 p.m. on July 2nd.

17:43By around 1 a.m. on July 3rd, Bryson was booked into the Harrison County Jail where he was charged with Lawrence murder and granted a $1 million bail. As of right now, Bryson remains in jail as he awaits his trial. Of course, this is a very recent case, like literally all of this happened just a few days ago by the time I'm recording this, and I was honestly surprised that I was able to uncover as much as I did about how this all went down. Obviously, Lawrence's family is absolutely furious with how this happened. Lauren was one of the kindest, sweetest young woman that you could ever meet. Although he's too emotional to go on camera, Lance Johansson will tell you his daughter, 22-year-old Lauren Johansson, was the most beautiful and caring person he knew. She was dating Bryson Rivers, the star football player from high school. He became a man her

18:45dad didn't want Lauren to be around. This week, Lauren's body was found wrapped in a sheet inside a car at this Mississippi cemetery. Rivers is now charged with her death, but Lance Johansson says they weren't aware he was even out of jail until it was too late. The Davis County District Attorney's office says Rivers' bond was reduced from $251,000 to $150,000. He was led out of jail on June 24th. Four days later, Lance says the Davidson County District Attorney's Office left him a voicemail he didn't see until July 1st. The voicemail says the man's on the way to kill your daughter is basically what that means. Had someone made sure Rivers had a tracker on him, Lance believes Lauren would still be here. Do you believe this would have happened if he actually had an ankle monitor on? Well, if he had an ankle monitor on and things were done properly, I think that there's almost no way possible this could have happened. Like I've been stressing all throughout the video,

19:45none of what happened makes any sense. And we're left with so many questions starting with the bail hearing. Why did Judge Blackburn grant his decreased bail? She saw Lauren's condition and saw what he did to her. Her judgment is now being questioned by everybody who's seen this case. Then why were none of his bail conditions followed? He was ordered to be released before 4 p.m. So why did his bail agent let him out at 405 p.m. rather than just waiting until the following morning? Then when he realized that tracking solutions was closed, why did he allow Bryson to go to the wrong company? And then he saw on those papers that Bryson wasn't allowed to leave Davidson County. Even though freedom monitoring solutions didn't have the papers, his bail agent should have known he wasn't allowed to leave. So why didn't they say anything? Did they just fail to read the papers altogether? That's my assumption, because if they really were on the bail orders that he was not allowed to leave Davidson County, it makes me think that the bail agent just

20:47did not even read the papers and also just took Bryson's word for it. Then once he had to come back to get the new monitor, how was he still allowed to go back to Mississippi even after the company realized he wasn't supposed to? Why did it take so long for the DA to realize that he never reported to tracking solutions? And finally, why did it take them so damn long to contact Lauren's family? And saying they contacted them to begin with is actually pretty generous because they just left him a voicemail. They tried calling one time almost a week after his release, never actually getting a hold of anyone and felt that it was enough to leave a voicemail. They felt that was enough to protect this young woman's life. Lauren was failed so many times and I am fuming. I know that again, this is so very recent and her family is still coming to terms with what happened and I know they have a very long road ahead of them, but the fact that so many things were allowed to happen and so many things were just ignored when he was released, it's just appalling. It's

21:51shocking that these things still happen in 2024 when we absolutely have the technology to prevent this many mistakes from happening. This is a case that I definitely will be following in the coming weeks and months because again, I know it's a very recent one, so I know or at least I hope there will be a lot of movement. I hope that Bryson has to pay the absolute biggest price for what he allegedly did. I desperately hope this system stops cutting him so much damn slack after saying what he is capable of at time and time again, but after hearing all of this groups in this case, I am a little jaded. I just hope that Bryson is suffering for what he allegedly did to his girlfriend. I know he's technically innocent until proven guilty, so I'll just throw that allegedly in there, but this is such an open-and-shot case for me. No questions asked. With that, I hope you guys have an amazing week. Stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope to see you next time. Bye.