The U.S. Army claims that LaVena Johnson died by suicide in July 2005, but her family believes that she was raped and murdered, and that the military concealed the truth.
Johnson FamilyLaVena Johnson’s family doesn’t believe that LaVena died by suicide.
When LaVena Johnson was 19 years old, she enlisted in the U.S. Army to put herself through college. A few months after enlisting, she was deployed to Iraq. And a few months after that, LaVena was dead.
Army investigators claimed that LaVena Johnson had died by suicide. But LaVena’s family questioned the official explanation — and began an investigation of their own. According to LaVena’s father, John, there’s plenty of evidence that LaVena Johnson was actually murdered.
So what happened to 19-year-old LaVena Johnson? This is the murky story of her 2005 death in Iraq and the questions that linger to this day.
LaVena Johnson’s Career In The Army
Born July 27, 1985, in Missouri, LaVena Johnson grew up in a military family. According to reporting from St. Louis Public Radio in 2015, LaVena’s father, John, served for three years in the Army before earning his doctorate in psychology. Both he and LaVena’s mother Linda also had civilian jobs supporting U.S. Army troops. Still, it was a surprise that LaVena enlisted.
One of five children, LaVena had decided to follow in her father’s footsteps, and put herself through college by serving in the military. Though her family was initially hesitant, LaVena thought it was a good idea.
Demand Justice for PFC LaVena Lynn Johnson / FacebookLaVena Johnson enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in order to put herself through college.
After enlisting in the Army in September 2004, LaVena Johnson deployed to Balad, Iraq in the spring of 2005. According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times in 2009, her commanding officer recalled that she was “happy” and “seemingly very healthy physically and emotionally.” To her family back home, LaVena also seemed to be in good spirits. Her father remembered receiving a “beautiful” Father’s Day card from his daughter that June; Just two days before LaVena’s death in July, her mother remembers talking to her on the phone, and sharing their excitement about the family’s Christmas plans.
“She was her normal jubilant self,” Linda Johnson recalled to the Los Angeles Times. “She talked about coming home and Christmas plans… This was not a girl getting ready to harm herself.”
Yet, on July 19, 2005, a soldier appeared at John and Linda Johnson’s front door. To their shock, he told them that LaVena had died by suicide.
LaVena Johnson’s family couldn’t believe it. And they still don’t.
How Did LaVena Johnson Die? The Murky Circumstances Of Her Death
What happened to LaVena Johnson on July 19, 2005 in Balad, Iraq? In her last moments alive, Johnson reportedly visited the military store to buy soda and M&Ms. According to the Army investigation, Johnson then went into a military contractor tent, burned several pages of her journal, and fatally shot herself in the mouth with a M16 automatic rifle.
Army investigators also later found that Johnson had been depressed over a sudden breakup, and that she had recently been diagnosed with genital warts. They ruled her death a suicide.
But her father has conducted his own investigation. John Johnson has poured over crime scene images and LaVena’s autopsy photos, and even had her body exhumed for an independent autopsy. What he’s found, he says, contradicts the Army’s account — and suggests that LaVena was murdered.
Johnson FamilyLaVena Johnson in uniform.
For starters, LaVena seemed to have abrasions on her face, and scratches on her arms, suggesting to her father that she was attacked before her death. John Johnson also believes that bloody boot prints at the scene, and the inability of the Army to find the bullet that killed his daughter, suggests that her body was dumped in the contractor’s tent. He further claims that the fire found near his daughter’s body was meant to destroy evidence of the crime, and that, chillingly, there was a “caustic substance” on LaVena’s genitals, which he suspects was meant to cover up traces of sexual assault.
What’s more, John Johnson does not believe that his five foot, one inch tall daughter had long enough arms to pull the trigger of the M16 automatic rifle that killed her. Indeed, even the Army investigation found an “insignificant” amount of gunshot residue on Johnson’s hands.
“All of us can’t be wrong about the evidence that we’ve compiled. It is awful, awful, awful compelling,” John Johnson told St. Louis Public Radio. “And, unfortunately, Lavena got lost in all of this and just lost everything trying to be a good American citizen.”
But though the Johnson family found an ally in U.S. Representative William Lacy Clay, who even helped the family obtain LaVena’s autopsy report and other photos, the Army has been steadfast in their ruling.
They maintain that LaVena Johnson died by suicide.
“All available evidence, to include forensic and testimonial, clearly demonstrate that LaVena Johnson’s death was a tragic suicide,” the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command has stated.
‘They Plucked Out A Part Of My Heart’
Despite the Army’s verdict, the Johnson family has continued to search for the truth about what happened. In 2011, the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute spent three years digging into Johnson’s case, but didn’t find any new evidence that would contradict the Army’s conclusion.
Find A GraveLaVena Johnson’s grave.
“There was nothing about this case that we could go back to the Army to say you need to re-look at it,” Cold Case Investigative Research Institute director Sheryl McCollum told St. Louis Public Radio. “We didn’t have anything new. We didn’t have anything that suggested wrongdoing.”
However, her family continues to believe that LaVena was murdered. And decades later, the Johnson family continues to mourn their loss.
“They plucked out part of my heart,” John Johnson told St. Louis Public Radio. “I can’t get it back. But I’m going to fight until I get justice for her. We’re just going to keep doing what we can to keep our story alive.”
After reading about the strange death of LaVena Johnson, go inside the military coverup of the death of Pat Tillman in Iraq. Next read about Mike Day, the Navy SEAL shot 27 times in Iraq who later died by suicide.
