A 22-year-old university student in the United States was found beaten to death and wrapped in a sheet in the back seat of her car – days after her boyfriend was let out of jail. According to the New York Post, Lauren Johansen’s body was discovered wrapped in trash bags and a sheet on July 3 at a cemetery in Mississippi. Her father said he pleaded with a judge not to release her ex-boyfriend from jail, warning he would “kill her” if he did. However, the judge didn’t heed his warnings and five days later, the body of the 22-year-old was found mutilated in her own car and police say her boyfriend was responsible. 

According to the Post, Ms Johansen’s former partner, 23-year-old Bricen Rivers, has been arrested and charged with her murder. He had been released on a bond just five days before the 22-year-old’s death. He was previously held for aggravated kidnapping for brutally beating Ms Johansen and holding her hostage during a December trip to Nashville. 

Ms Johansen was on track to get her nursing degree. She was first reported missing on July 2 when her sister woke up alone in their shared apartment with the front door wide open and their security camera smashed. The same morning, her father said he woke up to a notification that her location-tracking app had been turned off. He then reported her missing, and the next day, officers informed him that they had located her car in a nearby cemetery. 

Ms Johansen was found dead in her car which was parked in the middle of a cemetery in Harrison County, Mississippi. Her mutilated body was wrapped up in trash bags over the back seats.

“She was basically beaten to death. Her face was smashed in, her head was smashed in, she was brutally beaten to the point she couldn’t see out of either eye when she finally died and there was multiple holes in her head,” Ms Johansen’s father said. 

“I helped the coroner lift her body out of the car. It was just mutilated,” he continued. 

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The father also said that he had warned the judge that if her boyfriend was let out of jail, he would kill her. He alleged that Rivers had held his daughter hostage in December and beat her while the couple were on vacation in Nashville. He also added that in the moments leading to Rivers’ December arrest, police officers found Lauren Johansen badly beaten and trying to escape a rental vehicle as Rivers reached for a firearm.

The heartbroken father slammed the criminal justice system in Tennessee for failing his family. “I think the criminal justice system in Nashville, Tennessee, failed my daughter and our family. The world shouldn’t work this way,” he said. “She was really beautiful, super, super smart. She had dreams and hopes that were larger than life. Everything she did, everything she touched,” he added. 

Now, Rivers, who was arrested following a six-hour manhunt, faces a murder charge and is being held on a $1 million bond.
 

Image for representational purposes only. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on May 13 that he has signed a new law regulating transgender people’s use of bathrooms, locker rooms and dormitories in public education buildings.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on May 13 that he has signed a new law regulating transgender people’s use of bathrooms, locker rooms and dormitories in public education buildings, making Mississippi at least the 12th State to restrict transgender students from using facilities that align with their gender identity.

Mr. Reeves criticized a federal regulation banning blanket policies that bar transgender students from school bathrooms aligning with their gender, among other provisions. Republican attorneys general from Mississippi and some other States are challenging the federal regulation.

“It’s mind-blowing that this is what Joe Biden’s America has come to,” Mr. Reeves wrote on social media. “Having to pass common-sense policies that protect women’s spaces was unimaginable a few years ago. But here we are … we have to pass a law to protect women in bathrooms, sororities, locker rooms, dressing rooms, shower rooms, and more.”

The law requires all public education institutions in the State to equip their buildings with single-sex bathrooms, changing areas and dormitories, as well as at least one gender-neutral bathroom and changing room.

The new law, which took effect immediately, says people would only be allowed to enter spaces that correspond to their sex assigned at birth, regardless of their appearance or any procedures they’ve had to affirm their gender identity. Those who violate the policy could be sued, but schools, colleges and universities would be protected from liability.

It also declares that people are either male or female “as observed or clinically verified at birth, without regard to a person’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience, feelings, actions, or sense of self.”

During legislative debate, Democrats said the new restrictions on bathrooms and other facilities would put transgender people at risk. They also criticized Republicans for spending time on the issue as other legislative priorities remained unfinished.

In 2021, Mr. Reeves signed legislation to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls’ or women’s sports teams. Last year, he signed a bill to ban gender-affirming hormones or surgery for anyone younger than 18.

The Mississippi proposals were among several bills being considered in State legislatures around the country as Republicans try to restrict transgender people’s access to gender-affirming care, bathrooms and sports, among other things.