Update on LaVena Johnson...
By Elizabethe Holland / St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FLORISSANT, MO • The envelope contained images no parent would want to see. Still, after 10 months of waiting for answers to what had happened to his daughter, John Johnson knew he had to look.
He opened the envelope and nervously began thumbing through black, white and gray photocopies of photos depicting his daughter's lifeless body. "But my heart was beating so fast, I had to close them up," recalled Johnson, whose oldest daughter, Army Pfc. LaVena Lynn Johnson, was Missouri's first female soldier to die in Iraq. "It stung me so badly. ... I couldn't even look at them. I couldn't even compose myself."
In the two years since the envelope arrived and nearly three years since LaVena died, Johnson has learned to steel himself. The mission he has set for himself demands it, for in those photos he sees evidence of murder, proof of rape, signs of a coverup. And nothing can make him think otherwise.
"There is nothing they can say," Johnson said in a recent interview.
The Army ruled that LaVena's death on July 19, 2005, in Balad, Iraq, was a suicide. Investigators and coroners determined that LaVena, alone in a small contractor's tent in the dark of night, shot herself in the mouth with an M-16 rifle.
LaVena never would have killed herself, her father maintains. She loved life, was close to her family and planned to go to film school and become a producer or director, her parents say.
"Beyond a doubt, LaVena was murdered," Johnson says firmly, angrily. "And my opinion is that people want me to go away. But that isn't going to happen."
Chris Grey, spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command in Fort Belvoir, Va., said the Army stood by its findings. Its Criminal Investigative Division found her death to be self-inflicted, as did the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner in Rockville, Md.
"CID conducted a very thorough and complete investigation, as well as a very thorough review of the case, and we stand by the findings of our investigation," Grey said.
Johnson has been fighting to have LaVena's case reopened. To that end, he has pored over dozens of pages of documents detailing the Army's investigation. He has studied the photocopied photos — and once he was able to get them, graphic color photographs from LaVena's autopsy. He has argued with Army officials and has pleaded with legislators. And last April, determined to prove that LaVena died at someone else's hands just eight days shy of her 20th birthday and only 10 weeks after her arrival in Iraq, Johnson had her body exhumed [VIDEO] from Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery and autopsied again. Not satisfied with the results, he said, he's considering having her remains exhumed and autopsied a third time.
"I have one goal and one goal only, and that is to get LaVena her due process of law. She's entitled to that," says Johnson, of Florissant. "I'm trying to get justice for my daughter."
Johnson contends that the investigation into LaVena's death was full of holes. He is troubled that no bullet was recovered and even questions whether the M-16 was the weapon used to end her life.
He says he believes LaVena was attacked by someone who may have raped her previously and feared she was about to turn him in, or that someone ambushed her on her way to go jogging and then beat, raped and murdered her. Regardless, he says he thinks someone dumped her body in the tent and started a fire in hopes of destroying her remains.
PHOTO EVIDENCE
The proof, he insists, is in the photos. Johnson says his brother, Joseph Johnson of St. Louis County, has an associate's degree in criminal science and has helped him spot problems in them.
The photos, John Johnson says, indicate that someone broke LaVena's nose and split her lip, that her arms were scratched and bruised, and that she suffered burns on her right leg and hand. He says they also indicate that her vagina was "torn up" and that something unnatural, perhaps lye, was evident in her genital area.
Johnson's belief that LaVena was set on fire stems from accounts of witnesses in the Army's records on the case. And he says an aerosol can that the records say appeared to have exploded at the scene may have been used as an accelerant.
According to the documents — many of which are heavily redacted — one witness said he had heard an explosion, then saw a flash of flames coming from the tent. He and another witness found two fires inside the tent, and the soldier lifeless on the floor.
Also of note are redacted interviews with people who knew LaVena and described her as upbeat, fun, never one to appear stressed, and a religious person with high moral standards.
A statement written after her death by her company commander, Capt. David Woods, says: "The soldier was clearly happy and seemingly very healthy physically and emotionally."
But the documents also show hints of a breakup that might have occurred, thoughts on why LaVena had recently begun smoking, and questions by investigators regarding whether she had talked about suicide.
A couple of friends said LaVena had talked about suicide, but in a joking manner. According to the reports, one said that LaVena had "asked me about being scared to meet God and the end of the world. I then asked her if she wanted to kill herself and she said, 'Hell naw, stupid!' I then asked again and she said, 'Why would I? I have a lot to live for.'"
Johnson says that if his daughter had been depressed, his family would have known. LaVena, an honor roll graduate of Hazelwood Central High School, frequently called home. When she did, she and her mother made a habit of never saying goodbye at the end of their visits.
"We would just say, 'I love you, I love you' ... until one of us had sense to hang up the phone," Linda Johnson says. "I never wanted to say goodbye."
LaVena's family last spoke with her two days before her death. Linda Johnson says her daughter was bubbly and told her that she planned to come home for Christmas.
"We were a very close family," John Johnson says. "She would have told us if she was having some problems. At the very least, she would have asked us to pray for her."
Johnson, who works for a job-training program, emphasized that he has degrees in psychology and that as a former counselor for an Army drug-abuse program, he was trained long ago to identify suicide risks. His daughter, he insists, was not suicidal.
TWO AUTOPSIES
But autopsy results contradict his theories.
A report from the autopsy at Dover Air Force Base three days after LaVena's death says that she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that injuries to her face "were a direct result of the discharge of the weapon." The report makes no mention of burns, scratches or bruises, other than two abrasions on her right thumb. It also indicates no vaginal injuries but notes evidence of a sexually transmitted disease.
Johnson said he believed that if LaVena had such a condition, it was because of a previous sexual assault. His daughter never mentioned any involvement with men, he said.
Johnson arranged for the second autopsy, which was performed in St. Louis by Dr. Michael Graham, the city's medical examiner. Dr. Mary Case, St. Louis County's medical examiner, sat in as a consultant to a television network interested in Johnson's story.
Neither Graham nor Case, however, disagreed with the results of the military's autopsy, though each stopped short of labeling the death a suicide.
"What we found in the autopsy was basically what had previously been found," Case said, adding that there were questions that couldn't be answered and potential evidence that couldn't be gathered because the body had been prepared for the funeral.
Graham said he might be able to explain some of what Johnson had tagged as troublesome by examining the photos.
"There are a lot of things that happen to the body after you die, especially when you've gone through what (LaVena) has," Graham said, such as the transportation of her body from the Mideast to the United States.
Johnson said that he was disappointed in the medical examiners' findings and that he didn't want to show the photos to Graham.
"They took a middle-of-the road path," he said. "All it does is make me more determined."
Johnson's outcry has gotten attention.
Helping to make his case for a new investigation is a website (www.lavenajohnson.com) and an online petition that has more than 11,400 signatures.
And in a House committee hearing last spring involving misleading information from the war front, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, spoke of the Johnson family's frustration in getting information about LaVena's death. It was there that Clay successfully pushed the Army to provide the family with a compact disc of investigative photos the family had been trying to get.
Now, Johnson is pushing Clay for a congressional hearing on LaVena's death. Clay has not dismissed the possibility.
"I continue to provide my full support and the resources of my office to (Pfc.) Johnson's family, as they pursue the truth about her death in Iraq," Clay said through a spokesman.
While the mystery of what happened to LaVena and the grim photos of her body drive Johnson in his crusade, his wife can no longer even look at photos of LaVena from a happier time. There are no pictures displayed in the Johnson's home of the sweet, soft-spoken young woman the family used to call "Squeaky."
"I wear her T-shirts all the time, her socks," Linda Johnson says. "But I cannot look at her pictures. There are no pictures around because of that smile. She was so beautiful and such a loving, caring daughter.
"It breaks my heart on a daily basis."
Much of what keeps Linda Johnson going is that her husband, stalwart in his mission, continues to fight to expose what he is certain happened to LaVena.
"She was my hero," Linda Johnson says. "And so is he."
FLORISSANT, MO • The envelope contained images no parent would want to see. Still, after 10 months of waiting for answers to what had happened to his daughter, John Johnson knew he had to look.
He opened the envelope and nervously began thumbing through black, white and gray photocopies of photos depicting his daughter's lifeless body. "But my heart was beating so fast, I had to close them up," recalled Johnson, whose oldest daughter, Army Pfc. LaVena Lynn Johnson, was Missouri's first female soldier to die in Iraq. "It stung me so badly. ... I couldn't even look at them. I couldn't even compose myself."
In the two years since the envelope arrived and nearly three years since LaVena died, Johnson has learned to steel himself. The mission he has set for himself demands it, for in those photos he sees evidence of murder, proof of rape, signs of a coverup. And nothing can make him think otherwise.
"There is nothing they can say," Johnson said in a recent interview.
The Army ruled that LaVena's death on July 19, 2005, in Balad, Iraq, was a suicide. Investigators and coroners determined that LaVena, alone in a small contractor's tent in the dark of night, shot herself in the mouth with an M-16 rifle.
LaVena never would have killed herself, her father maintains. She loved life, was close to her family and planned to go to film school and become a producer or director, her parents say.
"Beyond a doubt, LaVena was murdered," Johnson says firmly, angrily. "And my opinion is that people want me to go away. But that isn't going to happen."
Chris Grey, spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command in Fort Belvoir, Va., said the Army stood by its findings. Its Criminal Investigative Division found her death to be self-inflicted, as did the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner in Rockville, Md.
"CID conducted a very thorough and complete investigation, as well as a very thorough review of the case, and we stand by the findings of our investigation," Grey said.
Johnson has been fighting to have LaVena's case reopened. To that end, he has pored over dozens of pages of documents detailing the Army's investigation. He has studied the photocopied photos — and once he was able to get them, graphic color photographs from LaVena's autopsy. He has argued with Army officials and has pleaded with legislators. And last April, determined to prove that LaVena died at someone else's hands just eight days shy of her 20th birthday and only 10 weeks after her arrival in Iraq, Johnson had her body exhumed [VIDEO] from Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery and autopsied again. Not satisfied with the results, he said, he's considering having her remains exhumed and autopsied a third time.
"I have one goal and one goal only, and that is to get LaVena her due process of law. She's entitled to that," says Johnson, of Florissant. "I'm trying to get justice for my daughter."
Johnson contends that the investigation into LaVena's death was full of holes. He is troubled that no bullet was recovered and even questions whether the M-16 was the weapon used to end her life.
He says he believes LaVena was attacked by someone who may have raped her previously and feared she was about to turn him in, or that someone ambushed her on her way to go jogging and then beat, raped and murdered her. Regardless, he says he thinks someone dumped her body in the tent and started a fire in hopes of destroying her remains.
PHOTO EVIDENCE
The proof, he insists, is in the photos. Johnson says his brother, Joseph Johnson of St. Louis County, has an associate's degree in criminal science and has helped him spot problems in them.
The photos, John Johnson says, indicate that someone broke LaVena's nose and split her lip, that her arms were scratched and bruised, and that she suffered burns on her right leg and hand. He says they also indicate that her vagina was "torn up" and that something unnatural, perhaps lye, was evident in her genital area.
Johnson's belief that LaVena was set on fire stems from accounts of witnesses in the Army's records on the case. And he says an aerosol can that the records say appeared to have exploded at the scene may have been used as an accelerant.
According to the documents — many of which are heavily redacted — one witness said he had heard an explosion, then saw a flash of flames coming from the tent. He and another witness found two fires inside the tent, and the soldier lifeless on the floor.
Also of note are redacted interviews with people who knew LaVena and described her as upbeat, fun, never one to appear stressed, and a religious person with high moral standards.
A statement written after her death by her company commander, Capt. David Woods, says: "The soldier was clearly happy and seemingly very healthy physically and emotionally."
But the documents also show hints of a breakup that might have occurred, thoughts on why LaVena had recently begun smoking, and questions by investigators regarding whether she had talked about suicide.
A couple of friends said LaVena had talked about suicide, but in a joking manner. According to the reports, one said that LaVena had "asked me about being scared to meet God and the end of the world. I then asked her if she wanted to kill herself and she said, 'Hell naw, stupid!' I then asked again and she said, 'Why would I? I have a lot to live for.'"
Johnson says that if his daughter had been depressed, his family would have known. LaVena, an honor roll graduate of Hazelwood Central High School, frequently called home. When she did, she and her mother made a habit of never saying goodbye at the end of their visits.
"We would just say, 'I love you, I love you' ... until one of us had sense to hang up the phone," Linda Johnson says. "I never wanted to say goodbye."
LaVena's family last spoke with her two days before her death. Linda Johnson says her daughter was bubbly and told her that she planned to come home for Christmas.
"We were a very close family," John Johnson says. "She would have told us if she was having some problems. At the very least, she would have asked us to pray for her."
Johnson, who works for a job-training program, emphasized that he has degrees in psychology and that as a former counselor for an Army drug-abuse program, he was trained long ago to identify suicide risks. His daughter, he insists, was not suicidal.
TWO AUTOPSIES
But autopsy results contradict his theories.
A report from the autopsy at Dover Air Force Base three days after LaVena's death says that she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that injuries to her face "were a direct result of the discharge of the weapon." The report makes no mention of burns, scratches or bruises, other than two abrasions on her right thumb. It also indicates no vaginal injuries but notes evidence of a sexually transmitted disease.
Johnson said he believed that if LaVena had such a condition, it was because of a previous sexual assault. His daughter never mentioned any involvement with men, he said.
Johnson arranged for the second autopsy, which was performed in St. Louis by Dr. Michael Graham, the city's medical examiner. Dr. Mary Case, St. Louis County's medical examiner, sat in as a consultant to a television network interested in Johnson's story.
Neither Graham nor Case, however, disagreed with the results of the military's autopsy, though each stopped short of labeling the death a suicide.
"What we found in the autopsy was basically what had previously been found," Case said, adding that there were questions that couldn't be answered and potential evidence that couldn't be gathered because the body had been prepared for the funeral.
Graham said he might be able to explain some of what Johnson had tagged as troublesome by examining the photos.
"There are a lot of things that happen to the body after you die, especially when you've gone through what (LaVena) has," Graham said, such as the transportation of her body from the Mideast to the United States.
Johnson said that he was disappointed in the medical examiners' findings and that he didn't want to show the photos to Graham.
"They took a middle-of-the road path," he said. "All it does is make me more determined."
Johnson's outcry has gotten attention.
Helping to make his case for a new investigation is a website (www.lavenajohnson.com) and an online petition that has more than 11,400 signatures.
And in a House committee hearing last spring involving misleading information from the war front, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, spoke of the Johnson family's frustration in getting information about LaVena's death. It was there that Clay successfully pushed the Army to provide the family with a compact disc of investigative photos the family had been trying to get.
Now, Johnson is pushing Clay for a congressional hearing on LaVena's death. Clay has not dismissed the possibility.
"I continue to provide my full support and the resources of my office to (Pfc.) Johnson's family, as they pursue the truth about her death in Iraq," Clay said through a spokesman.
While the mystery of what happened to LaVena and the grim photos of her body drive Johnson in his crusade, his wife can no longer even look at photos of LaVena from a happier time. There are no pictures displayed in the Johnson's home of the sweet, soft-spoken young woman the family used to call "Squeaky."
"I wear her T-shirts all the time, her socks," Linda Johnson says. "But I cannot look at her pictures. There are no pictures around because of that smile. She was so beautiful and such a loving, caring daughter.
"It breaks my heart on a daily basis."
Much of what keeps Linda Johnson going is that her husband, stalwart in his mission, continues to fight to expose what he is certain happened to LaVena.
"She was my hero," Linda Johnson says. "And so is he."
1 comment:
I hope a soldier who know the truth will come forward or at lease tell the Johnson Family the truth about what really happen to LaVena. I don't expect any Generals or Captions to care as most want to protect themselves for not protecting the soldiers.
Post a Comment