Bricen Rivers, 23, was in jail for holding his longtime girlfriend Lauren Johnsen, 22, captive and viciously beating her while the were on vacation together in Nashville.
‘I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her,’ he said.
His words were prophetic, as Lauren’s body was found mutilated and dumped in her own car on Wednesday,
‘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.’
Dr Johansen drove from Biloxi, Mississippi, to make the impassioned plea to the court in Nashville after Rivers’ arrest in December, and for a time, it worked.
But after rotting in jail for seven months, Rivers’ lawyer convinced Judge Cheryl Blackburn to lower his bail from $250,000 to $150,000 so he could get out.
He was supposed to go straight to a company that would install a GPS ankle monitor as a condition of his bail, but instead he disappeared.
‘They let him out and didn’t tell us, and didn’t put the ankle monitor on him. They just let him walk out of jail,’ Johansen told WLOX.
The father had no idea Rivers was out of jail until he got a voicemail from Davidson County District Attorney’s Office on Monday.
‘This is Bailey calling from the district attorney’s office in Nashville. Bricen Rivers was released from custody,’ the message shared with WLOX began.
‘He was supposed to report straight to a GPS company and be put on a GPS monitor and he was not to leave Davidson County.
‘But as soon as he was released, he did not report to that GPS monitoring company, and he has not been heard from. I wanted to make sure Lauren is safe.’
