Murder victim's father outraged over Nashville court system, GPS monitor mistakes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A murder victim’s father is outraged over failures he believes caused his daughter’s death including new information on the suspected killer’s GPS monitor.

Robert Lance Johansen said the failures cost the life of his daughter. He said the suspect should have never been released from jail, in the manner in which he was, and should have been tracked correctly.

“This is something that nobody should have to live through," Johansen said. "We have been crying for a week."

It has been a little over a week since his daughter Lauren was found dead in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Her ex-boyfriend Bricen Rivers is the suspected killer.

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Rivers already faced charges for previously beating Lauren in Nashville, which he has been accused of doing multiple times.

“We knew he was going to come for Lauren when he got the opportunity,” said Johansen.

The pain of her loss is a hole that will never be filled. Nevertheless, he still wants justice.

He said multiple fumbles took place leading to his daughter’s death.

“It is really a failure in the system in many facets," he said. "I will just tell you I think this could have been done a whole lot better."

The first, he said, was a reduced bond by Judge Cheryl Blackburn.

Rivers bonded out on June 24 where we discovered he was released by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office without bond conditions even though he did have conditions that required he wear a court-ordered GPS monitor and stay in the county.

That didn’t happen.

“When he wasn’t supposed to leave after hours, and he left after hours, it’s just unacceptable to turn him loose on the street that is this violent,” he said.

Two bonding companies, Brooke’s Bail Bonding and On Time Bail Bonding, did not take him to get his court-ordered GPS monitor by Tracking Solutions.

Brooke's Bail Bonding said they did not know the bond conditions when they took Rivers to the afterhours GPS tracking company “Freedom Monitoring.”

Brooke’s Bonding denied they were aware of the bond conditions. Signatures suggested otherwise, which was revealed to Johansen.

“They didn’t know the bond conditions and they have been waiting for five days," he said. "It’s clear that is not true."

The blame was placed on the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office by Brooke’s Bail Bonding, then the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office placed the blame on the state’s bonding office.

On Tuesday, FOX 17 News came to find out after the state’s bonding office showed us a fax sent to the DCSO, alleging it has his bond conditions—it turned out not to be true. The Criminal Court Clerk’s Office told us it was a mistake that they forgot to send the bond conditions.

But at the heart of all of this is a father who has to live with their mistakes.

“There are just too many people trying to cover up what happened instead of trying to figure out what happened and how this can be prevented in the future,” he said.

We reached out to the Nashville District Attorney’s Office to find out if they plan to take action on the failures to make sure this doesn’t happen again. They said they would be checking.

For Johansen, it’s not just about justice for his daughter but also for others.

“Lauren Johansen would want not just justice for this but she would want to make sure no other woman would ever have this happen to her,” he said.

Johansen said he wants more answers before they lay her to rest this Saturday. FOX 17 News will continue to follow this story.

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