Trusting your life to the Justice System.

Not a good bet.

HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - Thursday, Lauren Johansen’s mutilated body was discovered in the back seat of her car in Harrison County.

The man charged with her murder, ex-boyfriend Bricen Rivers, was released on bond for a violent felony just days earlier.

In December 2023, Rivers was arrested by Nashville Metro Police and charged with aggravated kidnapping. Lauren Johansen’s father, Lance Johansen, told WLOX News that Rivers brutally beat his daughter and held her hostage while the two were on vacation in Tennessee. He also said that he warned a Nashville judge that Rivers was too dangerous to be let out of jail.

“I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her,” Lance Johansen said. “He had assaulted her — this was probably the fifth or sixth time where they would get into a fight and he would beat her. We would get her away from him for a while, but he would find a way to weasel back in it.”

According to the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, which serves Nashville, Rivers’ bond was originally set at $250,000. After sitting in jail for seven months, his bond was reduced to just $150,000.

Murder victim’s father alleges years of abuse by boyfriend, claims judicial system failed daughter

We will argue another time that she should have dumped him after the first moment of abuse and the use of drastic measures made very clear to the abuser if he would ever be near her again. Here is the cherry on top of the icing.