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What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

STAS 15: LaVena Johnson

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.71.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Scott, and you're listening to What Was That Like?

0:06.6

Every other Friday, I have a guest come on and talk about something they experienced that was extremely unusual.

0:13.7

Well, today's Friday, and we're in between new episodes, so I want to tell you a story.

0:19.2

And this story comes with a content warning for discussion of suicide.

0:30.3

On a summer day in 2005 at 7.30 a.m., a doorbell was ringing in Florissant, Missouri.

0:40.1

For Linda Johnson, seeing a lone soldier standing on her porch through the window was a gut punch.

0:49.1

She went to find her husband John in order that they might face the news together.

0:55.0

It's a scene that has played out across America for generations, but for the Johnsons, the news delivered that morning was only the beginning of their nightmare.

1:06.0

The soldier on the porch told them that their 19-year-old daughter, Army Private First Class Levina Johnson, was dead.

1:18.7

The official word from the Army was that Levina had died of a self-inflicted non-combat injury.

1:26.8

They claimed she had taken her own M-16 rifle into a contractor's tent on the base in

1:33.8

Ballad Iraq, placed the barrel in her mouth, and pulled the trigger.

1:40.3

To the Army Criminal Investigation Command, it was an open and shut case of a heartbroken young woman pushed to the brink.

1:50.1

But to John and Linda Johnson, the story didn't just feel wrong.

1:55.8

It felt like an impossibility.

2:06.6

Right, home from work, walk the dog, kids are back. Mom!

2:07.6

Up the stairs for something.

2:09.6

Ugh.

2:10.6

Back down, no idea what I went up for.

2:13.6

Mom, what's for dinner?

2:15.6

Chop, sizzle, done.

2:19.5

Hello Fresh can't slow life down,

...

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