School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
On Monday, December eleventh, twenty twenty three, twenty two year old Lauren Johansson and her boyfriend Bryson Rivers were on vacation in Nashville and out at the var Bryson and Lauren had known each other for years. They had dated on and off since high school, and on the surface, they seemed happy. You can look online and see that. Photographs of Lauren and Bryson from that time period show a smiling, happy, young couple who were in love, but
behind the scenes that relationship was violent. Lauren's father, Lance Johansson, later told police that Bryson was physically abusive to his daughter and that Bryson had stalked Lauren for years. On December eleventh, things took a horrific turn. Lauren and Bryson were hanging out at a bar when Bryson flew into a jealous rage and accused Lauren of having sex with a bartender. The fight continued after they left the bar
in a vehicle, and the fight escalated. Police came to the scene and found Lauren screaming in a parking lot. She had been hit dozens of times and the inside of the car was covered in blood. Police arrested Bryson and he was charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated stocking, and coercion of a witness. He was taken to jail and a judge set his bail at two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. It seemed like Lauren and Bryson's violent relationship was finally at an end, but tragically that was not the case. Lauren Johansson's father, Lance attended Bryson's hearing with his daughter. He later told the news station w LOX quote I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going.
To kill her. 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 end quote.
Later, Bryson's lawyer asked for a reduced bond, and in March the judge, Cheryl Blackburn, agreed to lower the bond amount to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This meant that Bryson's mother could afford to put up the twelve thousand dollars needed to secure his release with the help of two bailbond companies. So on June twenty fourth, twenty twenty four, Bryson Rivers was released.
From the Davidson County Jail.
Eight days later, Lauren Johansson was found dead in the trunk of her car. Lauren's father told WLX quote, I knew she was dead.
She was basically beaten to death.
Her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in, she was brutally beaten to the point she couldn't see out of either eye. When she finally died, there were multiple holes.
In her head. End quote.
I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast, Helling Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their faire families, and their communities. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five, or you can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Lauren Johanson's murder was not a who done it?
Instead.
I wanted to do this episode because this is something that we see all too often.
How could the system fail her like this?
As we'll talk about here, police chased Bryson, their only suspect, into the woods shortly after Lauren's body was found. They had him on camera stalking her, and he confessed to a family member. On this podcast, we get so many calls from people who were either in a domestic violence situation or have a friend or family member dealing with those issues, and so often the systems that are in
place to protect us fail. So I wanted to go back and find out in detail what happened between the time when Bryson was released and the time when Lauren was murdered.
First, we're going to back up and.
Take a look at the beginning of the relationship. Lauren grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, with her parents, Lance and Tamala, and three siblings. Her father, Lance is an orthopedic surgeon who has been very outspoken about how much danger his daughter was in from Bryson. He told True Crime News that when Lauren was born, he delivered her himself. In high school, Lauren was popular and made straight a's. According to her father, Bryson was her high school sweetheart. Bryson
was a star athlete in high school. He played football, so on paper, Bryson and Lauren looked like the perfect high school couple, but those cute photos hid a very ugly reality. Lauren was being terrorized. Lance told True Crime News that he didn't like Bryson from the very first time he met him, and that he believed that Bryson had influenced his daughter to use drugs in high school. Lance said Lauren's grades dropped after she met Bryson, but he said Lauren was getting back on track and hoping
to begin a career in nursing. In an interview with The Daily Mail, Lance said that Lauren struggled with breaking out of what he called an abusive relationship with Bryson for years. He told True Crime News that Bryson would do what he called crazy things, like threatened to kill her dog if Lauren left him. Lance said that when Lauren graduated from high school, she told her father she thought it was over with Bryson, but even after she got accepted to college and went to the University of
Southern Mississippi, Bryson was obsessed with Lauren. He tried to stay in constant contact. Her father claimed that Bryson would even break into her home and confront man Lauren was dating and try to start fights. Lauren and Bryson broke up and got back together several times. Reading between the lines, it seems like Lauren didn't tell her family about the last time that they reconciled in late twenty twenty three.
In December of twenty twenty three, Lauren and Bryson were on that vacation together in Nashville.
There were other.
Friends on the vacation too, so Lauren and Bryson went out to bars, saw friends, hung out, and played top golf.
They seemed to be having.
A good time at least at first, but then on December eleventh, they had that fight, the one where Bryson accused Lauren of having sex with a bartender. He got angry, grabbed her phone, and drove her to a parking lot. Once they were alone and isolated in that car, Bryson started violently beating Lauren with his fists and with a gun. Police also found rocks covered in blood in the car which he had hit her with. Now this went on for three hours. He held Lauren captive in that car.
Bryson's mugshot shows his face was completely covered in blood. This attack was brutal and prolonged. At some point, Bryson's mother, Chelsea rivers. Now. It's not clear from media or police reports whether he answered on purpose or accidentally, but whichever it was Bryson's mother could hear what was happening. She called the police and told them where the couple was. Officers rushed to the parking lot and they found Laurence screaming for help. She was wearing just her bra and underwear.
She was asking for her father. According to police reports, Lauren was traumatized and was quote severely beaten. Her eye was swollen shut, and she also had a severe laceration to her forehead end quote. Bryson was arrested and charged, and Lauren went back to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she lived with her sister. They believed that because Bryson was in custody, that Lauren was safe, but they were wrong. Lauren's family first realized that something was very wrong on July first.
On that day, her dad, Lanced, said that he received a text message from Lauren's phone. He later said that message did not seem like it came from Lauren, so her family started checking up on her. On Tuesday, July second, Lauren's sister said that she was not at home, and according to court documents, the sister noticed their front door security camera had been destroyed. Lauren's family reported her missing to the Hattiesburg Police Department, and they immediately told the
police they suspected that Bryson Rivers was responsible. Shockingly, even though Bryson had been arrested for severely beating Lauren and the bail bond company was supposed to be monitoring him, Lauren's family soon discovered neither police nor the bond company had any idea where he was. The company that was monitoring his ankle bracelet said that on July second, the battery in his device had started to run out and he wasn't responding to messages, so they reached out to
his mother. His mother said she hadn't heard from him either, so the court issued a warrant for his arrest. Bryson's ankle monitor had last pinged on Beach Boulevard in Biloxi, but one police were alerted on July second, it was already too late. According to the Harrison County Coroner's Office, Lauren was already dead. What laurence family didn't know was that after Bryson left Tennessee, he had gone straight back
to Lauren's house and he had been texting her. Police say he had texted and called her over one hundred and twenty times within a short period of time, but she never responded. Camera foot had showed Bryson being dropped off close to the place where Lauren and her sister lived on South eleventh Avenue in the early morning hours of July second, according to court documents. At that time, Lauren and her sister were home and a male friend of theirs was also there. The male friend told detectives
that Lauren was alive. On that morning, July second, between the hours of four am and six am, police took camera footage from laurence neighbors. They saw footage of Bryson walking toward her house at around five am. Cameras show him leaving the house without a shirt on. Then he comes back to the house, gets into laurence car, and backs it out of the driveway. He then returns to the house for just a few minutes before leaving again.
After Laurence family reported her missing, police used her car's on Star system to track the vehicle, and on July third, it showed the location as Wolf River Cemetery near some woods in Harrison County. The Hattiesburg Police Department called Harrison County and asked the officers to do a welfare check on her. At that location, a deputy found the car and when he opened the trunk, he found Lauren's body wrapped in a trash bag in sheets from her house.
According to court testimony, forensic testing showed that Lauren's body could have been in the air area where she was found for over twenty four hours. The coroner estimated it could have been there anywhere between thirty to thirty five hours. While they were on the scene, police talked to witnesses who said they saw a man running into the woods. Police chased and caught the man who was hiding. The man was Bryson Rivers. They arrested him and took him into custody.
This time his bail was set at one million dollars.
The evidence against Bryson Rivers is overwhelming. He was caught on camera entering and leaving Lawrence house, he was hiding in the woods, and according to police, during the period when he was hiding in the woods, he called his brother and confessed to Laurence murder. He said, quote, I killed the bitch end quote. But there were still a lot of questions about what happened to Lauren. One of them was where exactly.
Was she killed and how.
At first, it seemed like police believed she had been murdered at or near the cemetery where her body was found, but later media reports said that new information had led police to believe she may have been killed not in Harrison County, but somewhere else. A news channel interviewed Forest County Sheriff of Charlie Simms, who said that as the investigation continued, evidence started to point to Lauren being killed in Forest County.
The investigation involved.
Multiple counties, which, as we all know, can lead to more complications. However, in this case, it seems like they were all pretty cooperative. In addition to the police from Harrison County being involved, there was Forest County, the Hattiesburg
Police Department, and the Pedal Police Department. Charlie Simms said that Forest County would collect and compile the evidence and present it to the District Attorney's office, and he stressed the importance of communication between all these different agencies, keeping in mind that they all had the same goal catching and bringing Lauren's killer to justice. Bryson Rivers was indicted by a grand jury. He pleaded not guilty to capital
murder stealing a vehicle and tampering with evidence. But how did Bryson Rivers end up going from being incarcerated in Davidson County, Tennessee to fleeing the state and stalking and
killing Lauren? How was that ever allowed to happen? It turned out that this happened because of a catastrophic series of mistakes, mistakes that Lance Lauren's father believes crossed the line into criminal He is alleged in a civil lawsuit that the administrative errors that were made by the court and by these bailbond companies directly contributed to his daughter's death. After Bryson was released from prison on Monday, June twenty fourth, at four oh five pm, he was met by a
Brooks bailbonding agent. The agent then signed his release form. Now that release form specifies that Bryson was not allowed to leave Davidson County in Tennessee.
The judge had.
Ordered him to wear an ankle monitor from a specific company called Tracking Solutions, But because Bryson got out of jail after four PM, the time that Tracking Solutions closed, the Brooks bail bonding agent used an ankle monitor supplied by another company called Freedom Monitoring Services. According to the lawsuit, something happened there that meant that Bryson's bond order form was not available. The lawsuit stated this happened according to
the switch in companies. I want to reiterate all of this information comes from Lance Johansson's lawsuit, and there are obviously two sides to every story, but there are some things that are not in dispute. The Davidson County Clerk has publicly admitted that mistakes were made by that office. They said that none of the conditions of Bryson's release ever made it to the Sheriff's office when Bryson was
let out. Julius Schlaus, the chief deputy clerk in Davidson County, told news Channel five quote, one of our employees didn't completely follow that process end quote. He said that the employee who made the mistake will face quote some form of disciplinary action, but he didn't specify what kind of disciplinary action that would be. He also said the office
will focus on eliminating human error in future. Lance Johanson's lawsuit states that it was the bail bond company's responsibility to verify Bryson's release conditions.
Either way, I find it.
Incredible that a felon who had been charged with kidnapping, stalking, and coercion was allowed to walk away and lead the state. And also the GPS parameters were never set so that there would be an alert if Bryson left Davidson County. Freedom Monitoring finally got Bryson's bond paperwork several days later. On that same day, they noticed that Bryson was not responding to alerts. They couldn't get in touch with him, so they ordered him to come in and get fitted
with a new monitor. In all that time, the lawsuit alleges that Brooks bail bonding did not communicate the conditions of release to Freedom Monitoring. It was Bryson's probation officer who eventually noticed that Bryson was failing to respond. This chain of events led to the District Attorney's office being contacted and to the DA's office finally reaching out to the Johansson family. This was the first time that the
Johansson family was contacted. The District Attorney's office called Lance and told him that Bryson had not reported in for the new ankle monitor fitting and that they couldn't get into contact with him.
Bryson Rivers was released from custodies and he has not been heard from. So I want to make sure that Lauren is safe and that you all take proper precautions.
Tragically, Lance did not hear that message until Monday. By then, Lauren was already dead. The discovery of Lauren's body, investigators were trying to piece together what happened and how Bryson Rivers could have slipped through the cracks. On June twenty eighth, the bail bond company knew Bryson had violated his bond conditions.
On Saturday, June twenty ninth, Bryson reported in to get a new GPS monitor fitted, but again, for the second time, there was no alert put in place if Bryson left town. By that Monday, when the company Freedom Monitoring called Bryson and told him his monitor battery had gone down to six percent, he called back and said he couldn't come to court in Nashville the next day. He claimed it was because he had no transportation. Now by this point he had crossed county and state lines and was already
in Biloxi. And yet nothing happened as a result of that, except that the court issued a warrant for him, and by the time they figured this all out, a deputy had found the car in the woods with Lawrence's body wrapped in a sheet, and Lawrence's family wanted to know how it could have happened that he was taken to the wrong company in the first place, because he got out five minutes late, why they didn't communicate that he wasn't allowed to leave the county, and why the GPS
tracker on the ankle monitor was never programmed to alert if he left Davidson County. Lance Johansson filed a civil lawsuit against Brooks Bonding, the bail bonding company, and the civil lawsuit for me really highlights how a lot of these things work. It's really shocking how little supervision there is when the court puts conditions on a defendant. Because after Bryson's bail was lowered to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars by Judge Blackburn at that bond hearing on
June fifth, Judge Blackburn had set bond conditions. Bryson was supposed to wear a GPS bracelet, he was supposed to stay in Davidson County. He had told the court he would be living with his mother in Nashville, and apparently no one was checking on that, and it was emphasized he was to have absolutely no contact with Lauren in case there are people out there who don't know how a bailbond system works. What happens is that the bond company will take a deposit, normally around ten percent of
the amount of money they're putting up. Then they give the money to the court so the inmate can be released. If the inmate fails to show up in court later, the bail bond officers will go after and try to apprehend the suspect. Two different bail bond companies were responsible for Bryson Rivers Release, Brooks bonding, and on time bonding. Each company posted a seventy five thousand dollars bond to
the Davidson County Warrant in Bond Office. Lauren's family alleges that from the beginning, these bond companies should have known that because this defendant was facing serious felony charges, they should have been diligent about getting information about the exact conditions of Bryson's release, but they didn't. Instead, according to the lawsuit, after Bryson was released from jail. On June twenty fourth, an agent from Brooks Bail Bonding picked Bryson
up and then went back to the office. At that point, they realized the Core ordered monitoring service was closed, so they contacted the owner of the company. She allegedly told the employee that wasn't a problem. They could use a GPS device from this other company called Freedom Monitoring. So the agent put the Ankle monitor on Bryson, but did not program the monitor so that an alert would go
off if he left the county. The lawsuit states that the bail bond company knew that Bryson was planning to leave town, because they said Bryson didn't hide that fact.
Bryson's mother, Chelsea.
Sent Brooks Bonding Company one hundred and thirty dollars to pay for a bus ticket so Bryson could travel to Mississippi, and Brook's Bail Bonding apparently sent him the money from his mom.
So he could buy the bus ticket.
The lawsuit alleges the bail bond agent knew that Bryson had left Davidson County and that this was a violation of his parole, but alleges that they did not take immediate action. So then June twenty seventh, th rolled around, Bryson's ankle monitor was dying, he was losing battery charge. The company ordered him to show up, but he doesn't, and then the next day they get the paperwork from
Davidson County. So by now by Friday, they know for sure he's not allowed to leave Davidson County, and presumably that by going to Mississippi he was violating his bail conditions, and yet this saga was allowed to continue.
On June twenty ninth.
Twenty twenty four, Bryson Rivers came back to Brooks Bonding to meet the agent, and the lawsuit alleges the owner of the company had planned to be there but was unable to attend due to what was referred to as a personal matter. The lawsuit pointed out there was no policy in place in case that happened. At that meeting, the agent put a new ankle monitor on Bryson, and once again he was allowed to leave that bail bond office.
They took him back to his car on June twenty ninth, and after that Bryson headed toward Mississippi and toward Lawrence House.
The lawsuit alleges that.
In addition to that, no one from the bail bond company notied guide anyone in Tennessee, that Bryson's GPS had left the county in the state, and that none of the bail bonding agents contacted the authorities in Mississippi or Lauren Johansson or her family. Lance Johansson is suing for one hundred and fifty million dollars, and it seems clear that for Lauren's father this is about much more than money. This is about holding these companies accountable. Lance has gone
very public with his daughter's brutal injuries. He gave photos to The Daily Mail, photographs that he said he took after Bryson beat her. In these pictures, laurence face is bloody and bruised. Lance told the Daily Mail he did everything right. He attended the hearings, and he told the judge straight up that Lauren was in danger and that if Bryson ever got out of jail, he would come
back to kill Lauren. And yet the judge, share Old Blackburn, decided to lower the bail, which may have been instrumental in facilitating Bryson's release. So why did the judge agree
to reduce his bond. Judge Blackburn stated in court that she thought that due to the evidence, there was quite a high likelihood that Bryson would be convicted of this crime, but she also stated that the bond of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriate in this case because quote, it does not appear that mister Rivers has a prior criminal history end quote. I bring this up because I see this over and over in cases involving domestic violence.
Prior convictions are counted, but prior arrests are not. And as so many of us know, not every domestic violence incident ends in an arrest and conviction. So if someone has one hundred domestic violence complaints, that it's not necessarily going to be considered at this type of hearing. In Bryson's case, he did have prior arrests, including arrest for DUI auto burglary and possession and trafficking of a controlled substance, but again, because they didn't end in conviction, those would
not necessarily be considered by the judge. Lance told the Daily Mail, quote, I realize people have rights, but you can't just let loose a wild animal they knew he was a psychopath. They knew he was going to kill her if he got out. I warned them how this was going to play out, and they went ahead and did it anyway.
End quote.
Lance Johanson hopes that his civil suit can help change things, and sometimes one case can have an effect on how the justice system works. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the case of Tracy Thurman, but her case became a movie in nineteen eighty nine called a Cry for Help The Tracy Thurman Story.
It's one of the very first.
Movies about domestic violence that left a lasting impact on me as child. Tracy Thurman was married to an abusive man named Charles Thurmant, and when she tried to escape the relationship with her young son, Charles terrorized her.
Her case changed.
The way that police departments deal with domestic violence, because back in nineteen eighty two, domestic violence was treated very differently. It was almost like whatever happens behind closed doors stays there. These issues were treated like something you handle within the family, something that wasn't anyone else's business. It was treated like a shameful secret, which, sadly, in many places sometimes it
still is. Police departments back then also did not have anywhere near the same level of domestic violence training that they have now. This was back in the time where marital rape was still legal. Tracy left Charles and filed for divorce. Over the next several months, he kept showing up at her house and stalking her. Just like in Lauren's case, Charles was very well known to police. Did everything quote unquote right. There was a paper trail. She
got a restraining order against Charles. She kept calling the police to report every single violation. Once she came to the police department because Charles had a warrant out on him related to her case, and the officer there told her only one officer could handle this request and he was out on vacation, so Tracy would have to wait.
Police told her they would arrest Charles, but they didn't. Finally, in June of nineteen eighty three, Charles came to the house where Tracy was staying with a friend and demanded that Tracy come outside again. She called the police, but it didn't seem like anyone was going to show up. Eventually, after twenty minutes of waiting for the police, she agreed to go outside. Her friend was outside talking to Charles,
and Charles was getting increasingly agitated. After twenty five minutes, one officer finally responded to.
The scene, but it didn't stop Charles.
He continued to scream and threaten Tracy, and then he pulled out an eye. The officer watched while Charles stabbed her over and over thirteen times. Eventually, the officer convinced Charles to drop the knife, but the officer continued to stand there and watch while Charles went back into the house, got his two year old son and dropped the little boy on too Tracy, who by now was unconscious. The officer also stood there while Charles kicked Tracy over and over,
and one of those kicks broke her neck. Charles was arrested and taken into custody finally, but Tracy's injuries were lifelong.
That kick partially paralyzed her.
Eventually, she sued the police department and the city of Torrington, where she lived, for failing to protect her. This was the first time that a woman had sued a town for violating her rights in a domestic violence case. The case went to federal court. Tracy won a settlement of two point three million dollars. This also resulted in new legislation. The Thermon Law requires officers to make an arrest in
domestic violence cases if there is probable cause. And this also changed the way that a lot of police departments handle domestic violence calls. They got additional training and for example, now officers are routinely sent out in pairs to respond to these domestic violence calls. It really marked a difference in the way that domestic violence was seen for what
it is. These are not just little scuffles. These are very dangerous and potentially lethal situations for everyone involved, including the police officers.
Tracy was partially paralyzed for.
Eight months, but now uses a wheeled walker to assist her in getting around. Today, she is still an advocate for victim's rights and Tracy's case shows the effect that one person in one civil lawsuit can have on affecting change in a community and around the country. But as we see from cases like Lawrence, there is a lot
that still needs to change. I wonder why, with all the technology that exists now, why bail bond companies and courts can't create an alert system like the Amber Alert system so that families can be immediately notified if an offender crosses state or county lines. In my opinion, it is not sufficient to leave a message. These are life and death situations and these laws need to change. In February of twenty twenty five, Bryson Rivers pleaded not guilty to Laurence murder.
Lauren's father, Lance.
Told WLX that he believes that the Forest County District Attorney Lynn Carter should seek.
The death penalty.
He said, quote, if any case should seek the death penalty, this is it. There's enough evidence that he should be executed this week. But we have a system of rules and laws in this country, and we have to follow the system how it's set up.
End quote. Bryson rivers murder.
Trial was due to start on June twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. The most recent information that I have is that he was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Lance also says that he hopes that as a result of his daughter's brutal murder in the civil litigation, he hopes that laws will change. He has publicly stated that he would like to create Lauren's Law, legislation that would require people who are charged with crimes related to domestic violence
to stay in jail. The domestic violence charge would be an automatic disqualification from getting bond.
This is the type of.
Law he believes could have saved his daughter's life. This case is still ongoing and police are still looking for the public's help and figuring out exactly what happened to Lauren. The sheriff has said they are looking for members of the public who may have camera footage from the woods or from Lauren's neighborhood. They still want to talk to those people, and they ask that those people reach out
to law enforcement. So if there is someone out there who believes that they have information, the sheriff is asked that they contact the Forest County Sheriff's Office on six oh one, five eight two, seven, eight sixty seven. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and
iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby wattson Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and to James Wheaton for legal review. Noah camer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C.
Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free by.
Subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plush channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Hell and gonepod.
If you have a case.
You'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven four four six' one four. Five that's six seven eight seven four four six one four.
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