PFC LaVena Johnson

Unresolved

Unresolved Productions

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.”

On 19 July 2005, Private First Class LaVena Lynn Johnson was found dead in a contractor’s tent on an Army base in Balad, Iraq. The Army officially ruled her death a suicide, but when her father, Dr. John Johnson, saw LaVena’s body and spoke with the doctor who performed her autopsy, something didn’t quite add up. He started asking questions.

What followed were years of administrative red tape and agonizing heartache for the Johnson family. Despite everything, Johnson refused to take the Army’s flaccid excuses at face value, and he wasn’t going to stop until he discovered the truth...

Researched & written by Maggie Coomer

Hosted & produced by Micheal Whelan

Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music

Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

Producers: Roberta Janson, Travis Scsepko, Ben Krokum, Gabriella Bromley, Bryan Hall, Quil Carter, Steven Wilson, Laura Hannan, Jo Wong, Damion Moore, Scott Meesey, Astrid Kneier, Aimee McGregor, Sara Moscaritolo, Sydney Scotton, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Meadow Landry, Tatum Bautista, Denise Grogan, Teunia Elzinga, Sally Ranford, Rebecca O'Sullivan, Ryan Green, Jacinda Class, Stephanie Joyner, James Weis, Kevin McCracken, Brooke Bullek, Lauren Nicole, Shane Robinson, Matthew Traywick, Sara Rosario, and Stacey Houser

Learn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.me

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Transcript

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0:00.0	At 7.30 a.m. on a Tuesday in late July of 2005, Dr. John and Mrs. Linda Johnson were
0:12.5	going through the motions of their daily routine when they heard a knock at the door.
0:16.9	Linda looked out the window and saw a soldier in army fatigues standing outside.
0:21.6	John, she said, there is a soldier on our front porch.
0:25.5	Oh my god.
0:26.7	Was John's immediate reaction.
0:28.8	John in Linda had five children, three sons and two daughters.
0:33.6	Their fourth child, a daughter named Levina, had just joined the army in September the
0:38.4	year before, and she was currently 7,000 miles away and six weeks into her first deployment
0:45.0	to Iraq.
0:46.0	John Johnson had served as active duty in the military and worked for the US Army for
0:50.6	nearly three decades as a civilian psychologist, so he was well aware that a soldier did not
0:56.2	show up on your front porch unless they had bad news.
0:59.7	John knew something had happened to his daughter.
1:02.7	Sure enough, when they opened the front door of their fluorescent Missouri family home, the
1:08.1	soldier came bearing tragic tidings.
1:10.8	Levina was dead.
1:12.5	She'd been found that morning with a gunshot wound to the head that they believed to be
1:17.2	self-inflicted.
1:18.5	Linda Johnson dissolved in grief while John fell back on the stairs and utter shock.
1:24.0	The soldier simply stood there with a cold look on his face.
1:27.8	Self-inflicted Dr. Johnson asked in disbelief, are you saying my daughter did this to herself?
	...

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