These are the gruesome injuries inflicted on nursing student Lauren Johansen by the ‘psychopath’ ex who would go on to allegedly kidnap and murder her after a judge lowered his bond.
The 22-year-old was pistol-whipped and beaten to a pulp by warped Bricen Rivers, 23, after he flew into a jealous rage during a night out in Nashville last December.
She survived the violence but photos taken afterwards – and published for the first time by DailyMail.com – reveal her petite body riddled with bruises and her face so bloody and swollen she was barely recognizable.
Lauren’s wounds were cataloged by her physician dad Lance Johansen, 58, who wanted the courts to see what Rivers was capable of as he awaited trial on kidnapping and stalking charges.
Lance was so worried for his ‘wonderful, kind’ daughter’s safety that he attended the preliminary hearing to warn a Davidson County judge that Rivers would ‘finish the job’ if he ever got out of jail.
To his astonishment, Judge Cheryl Blackburn, a longtime Democrat jurist, later decided to lower the alleged attacker’s bond from $250,000 to $150,000, paving the way for his June 24 release.
Gruesome photos published for the first time by DailyMail.com show Mississippi nursing student Lauren Johansen’s brutal injuries after she was beaten by ex-boyfriend Bricen Rivers in December
Rivers spent seven months in jail for the barbaric attack and was released in June only to beat Lauren to death nine days later
Just nine days after he posted bond and walked free, Lauren was found beaten to death in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Rivers was arrested on suspicion of murdering her.
‘You can see what happened when he hit her 100 times back in December so just imagine what he did to her when nobody was around to save her,’ Lance told DailyMail.com, fighting tears.
The heartbroken dad-of-four, a respected orthopedic surgeon, added: ‘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.’
Bubbly, popular Lauren grew up in Gulfport where she started dating Rivers, the star player on his high school football team.
Respected surgeon Lance Johansen pleaded with the judge not to let Rivers out of jail, warning it was highly likely he’d kill Lauren if released
Their relationship was plagued by violent episodes and by the time she headed off to the University of Southern Mississippi she was determined to call it quits.
Her family claim ‘obsessed’ Rivers stalked her on and off for years, breaking into her apartment and starting fights with any men she tried to date.
They were shocked to learn late last year that Lauren had reconciled with Rivers and gone on vacation with him to Nashville, a decision Lance puts down to his daughter suffering from ‘battered woman syndrome’.
The pair played Topgolf and attended a museum before Rivers flew into a drunken rage on December 11 and accused Lauren of having sex with a bartender, according to a police report.
Rivers snatched Lauren’s phone so she couldn’t call for help and drove to a parking lot where he allegedly clubbed her with a pistol and pulled out chunks of her hair.
He held her captive inside the vehicle for an hour until his mom, Chelsa Rivers, overheard screaming in the background on a call to her son and tipped off cops to their location, according to court filings.
Officers arrived to find ‘traumatized’ Lauren in just her bra and panties, screaming and banging on the window for help and calling for her father.
She was ‘severely beaten, her eye was swollen shut and she also had a severe laceration to her forehead,’ according to cops.
Despite Lauren and her father’s pleas to keep Rivers behind bars, Judge Cheryl Blackburn would ultimately agree to lower is bond, noting that ‘it does not appear that Mr. Rivers has any prior criminal history’
She was ‘severely beaten, her eye was swollen shut and she also had a severe laceration to her forehead,’ according to cops
The shocking images show Lauren’s face was so bloody and swollen she was barely recognizable
Lauren’s wounds were documented by her physician dad who wanted to show the courts how much of a danger and threat Rivers posed to his daughter as the 23-year-old awaited trial on kidnapping and stalking charges
Lauren’s family claim ‘obsessed’ Rivers stalked her on and off for years, breaking into her apartment and starting fights with any men she tried to date
A gun was found on the floor of the couple’s rental car which can be seen spattered with blood in exclusive DailyMail.com images.
Lauren and Lance attended a preliminary hearing on December 18 where he testified that his eldest daughter had been ‘hit over 100 times’ and he feared for her life if Rivers ever got to her again.
The gun-obsessed bully languished in jail for four months before his lawyers filed a motion in March asking Judge Blackburn to reduce his bond.
She noted in an April 3 order there was a ‘high likelihood of conviction’ due to police body camera footage and audio recordings from inside the car.
Nonetheless the judge concluded that a ‘bond of $150,000 is appropriate in this case’ noting that ‘it does not appear that Mr. Rivers has any prior criminal history.’
DailyMail.com has located records and a mugshot indicating Rivers was arrested in January 2021 in Hancock County, Mississippi for DUI.
He was also arrested in October 2022 for auto burglary in nearby Harrison County and again in December 2022 for possession and trafficking of a controlled substance.
Stephen Hayslip, Director of Communications for the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office told DailyMail.com that it contested the reduced bond but didn’t flag up any prior arrests.
He said this was because Assistant District Attorneys working the case were not aware of any criminal convictions and that arrests that did not result in convictions wouldn’t be considered evidence of prior criminality.
The horrifying assault unfolded on December 11 after Rivers flew into violent rage while the two were in a car and drove to a parking lot where he allegedly clubbed her with a pistol and pulled out chunks of her hair
A gun was found on the floor of the couple’s rental car which can be seen spattered with blood in exclusive DailyMail.com images
After rotting in jail for seven months, a lawyer for Rivers convinced the judge to lower his bail from $250,000 to $150,000 so he could get out
Judge Blackburn graduated from the Nashville School of Law in 1979 and has been on the city’s bench since 1996.
She was expected to retire in 2021 after suffering a stroke but stayed on and won re-election a year later.
The judge has not commented publicly on the Rivers case and when DailyMail.com asked if she would be willing to do so, an assistant snapped: ‘It’s a no comment. The office as a whole has no comment.’
Authorities face further questions over exactly how Rivers was monitored after his family paid $15,000 to secure his release via a company named Brooke’s Bonding.
Judge Blackburn’s order, which was signed by the defendant, said he was barred from leaving Davidson County and should be ‘placed on electronic monitoring’.
Freedom Monitoring Services, the company involved in keeping tabs on Rivers, didn’t appear to know he was supposed to stay in the Nashville area, however, according to reporting by News Channel 5.
DailyMail.com understands that the local accommodation lined up for Rivers fell through and he went back to Mississippi to live with family instead.
Lance wasn’t notified that Rivers was at large until June 28 and it wasn’t until July 2 that a hearing was hastily convened to figure out what had happened. By then it was too late.
At 4:01am that day Lance got an alert saying Lauren was disconnected from Life360, a phone app that he and his wife Tamela, 55, used to keep tabs on her and their three other kids, Kylar 16, and twins Katelyn and Christian, 14.
Lauren’s mutilated body was found wrapped in sheets and garbage bags in the back seat of her car at the Wolf River Cemetery in an isolated part of Gulfport, Mississippi, on July 3
Rivers was in the car, but fled into the woods as soon as police showed up, leading them on an hours-long chase
DailyMail.com has located records and a mugshot indicating Rivers was arrested in January 2021 in Hancock County, Mississippi for DUI (left) and again in December 2022 for possession and trafficking of a controlled substance
Katelyn, who was staying over at her big sister’s Hattiesburg home, awoke to find the front door open, her animals in the yard and the security camera tossed into a bush.
A day later police traced Lauren’s Chevy to an isolated cemetery outside Gulfport where they located her body in the back, wrapped in sheets and trash bags.
Rivers fled into the woods but the shaven-haired brute – who claims to be a US Marine Corps veteran on social media – was tracked down at 11:30pm after an almost nine-hour manhunt.
‘We realized early on that the subject still had his cell phone on him,’ Harrison County Sheriff Matt Haley said.
‘So undercover officers were able to, through text message, have Rivers believe that he was corresponding with a friend, and we were able to lure him out of the woods.’
Rivers was booked into the Harrison County jail at 1am Thursday, where he remains on a $1million bond, charged with murder.
‘It all came to a head because of this new court date,’ Lance told DailyMail.com.
‘He knew they were going to throw him back in jail for violating the order and he wouldn’t get out for the next 20 years. He had nothing to lose so he came for her.’
Judge Cheryl Blackburn, a longtime Democrat jurist, initially set Rivers’s bond at $250,000, only to later slash it to $150,000, paving the way for his June 24 release
Lance helped the coroner remove his daughter’s shattered body from the back of her car.
He doesn’t have an official course of death yet but says, as an experienced physician, he doesn’t need one to know she was savagely beaten, mutilated and made to suffer.
‘My daughter was a wonderful, kind person. She had so much compassion and love for others, there wasn’t a mean bone in her body,’ he added.
‘All I can do to honor her memory is try and stop this happening to someone else’s daughter or granddaughter. Lauren would have hated that more than anything.’
Lauren’s funeral will take place Saturday.
Mourners can donate to the family’s GoFundMe page here.
