LaVena Johnson: Murder or Suicide?
LaVena Lynn Johnson was born on July 27, 1985 in Florissant, Missouri to Dr. John Johnson who was a service veteran and Linda Johnson. LaVena was one of five children, so to help out her family she decided to join the Army to pay her own way through college. LaVena was an E3 Private First Class in the United States Army.
LaVena was an honour student who enlisted in the Army after graduating from Hazelwood Central High School. She was deployed to Iraq and was stationed in Balad. She had only been there for 8 weeks before she died.
LaVena was found dead in her tent on July 19, 2005, 8 days before her birthday and the autopsy report and photos showed that she had suffered from a broken nose, a black eye, loose teeth and burns from a chemical on her genitals. There was a gunshot wound and the Department of Defense officially ruled her death as a suicide.
Two days later, a soldier came to the Johnson’s home to tell them that their daughter was dead. When he told them it was suicide the Johnson’s were immediately suspicious. They had just talked on the phone with LaVena 2 days earlier, and she had told them about her future plans, how she was getting a new job on the Army base and how she would be home for Christmas and to not decorate the tree without her because that was her favourite thing to do during the holidays.
Investigators believed LaVena had shot herself in the mouth with her M-16 rifle. They thought maybe she was depressed over a recent breakup but John did not believe that for a second.
John was very suspicious by this ruling when he saw his daughter’s body in the funeral home so he decided to further look into this. The Army actually refused to release information about LaVena’s death, however they eventually did under the Freedom of Information Act after Representative William Lacy Clay, Jr. raised questions.
It is believed that the chemical burns on LaVena’s genitals were used to destroy DNA evidence of her being raped, and the gunshot wound is inconsistent with a suicide. There were also bloody footprints outside of LaVena’s living quarters, showing that someone had been there. Also the shot wound was too small to be made by a M-16 rifle as this is a huge rifle and her arms would’ve been too short to shoot herself at that angle. The bullet that killed LaVena was never found.
In February 2007 a KMOV news report covered LaVena’s death, gaining attention and a petition was made to the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee with 37, 319 supporters. There was an official website made for LaVena Johnson to prompt the Army to start a new investigation into her death.
In June 2008 a spokesman from the House Armed Services Committee said that they were looking into LaVena’s death but were not committing to a formal investigation. Christopher Grey, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Criminal Investigative Command for the Army said that the case is closed according to them.
In July 2008 a black activist group named Color of Change started another online petition calling on Henry Waxman, who was chair of the House Oversight Committee, to conduct a hearing into LaVena’s death and the Army’s handling of not only her case, but other similar cases.
In 2010 a documentary about LaVena’s family’s struggle to get justice for her was made and directed by Joan Brooker. It was titled “LaVena Johnson: The Silent Truth.”
On July 19, 2011, 6 years to the date that LaVena died, some students in the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI) selected LaVena’s case to focus on and they reconstructed the crime scene which got worldwide attention.
One of the students said the case of LaVena was “gut-wrenching” and that usually the group would only focus on a case for a year, but they ended up looking into LaVena’s case for 3 years. The CCIRI did not agree with the Army’s findings of suicide, though they also did not dispute it. A student, Sheryl McCollum said that the Army did have poor communication but she did not disagree with their conclusion.
If LaVena was murdered, the person responsible has never been found. Many believe the Army is covering up her death.
