More questions than answers: What court documents reveal about accused murderer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — News 2 reviewed court documents Tuesday that raised questions about the lowering of a man’s bond before he allegedly killed a woman.
Bricen Rivers was in a Nashville jail serving a sentence for allegedly beating his then-girlfriend Lauren Johansen while in Music City on vacation in December 2023. He had been charged with aggravated kidnapping and interference with an emergency call. Months later, he bonded out and allegedly killed Johansen in Mississippi.
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News 2 reviewed notes on the casefile from Johansen’s beating and Rivers’ subsequent arrest. Johansen recorded Rivers while he was beating her inside a vehicle. The audio recording from Johansen’s phone, taken the night of the abuse, captured the moments as Johansen seemed to fear for her life.
The audio recording was never played for any Nashville court because it was filed too late.
“If you move at all tonight, I swear you are not waking up tomorrow,” Rivers said in the recording.
In the recording, Rivers allegedly threatened to kill Johansen and hide her body where no one could find it.
“Nobody is going to be able to find you, baby,” Rivers said.
For the rest of the 11-and-a half-minute recording, News 2 heard what sounded like Rivers choking Johansen as she begged him to stop.
“Your head is swollen up like a f*cking bowling ball,” Rivers said on the tape.
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“I have mental problems…I have issues…I have been holding everything back trying to work with you,” Rivers said.
Johansen was apparently able to call Rivers’ mother, who then called Johansen’s father. It was Johansen’s father who called 911. By pinging her phone, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) was able to track the couple down.
MNPD officers arrived to find Rivers lying on top of Johansen as she banged on the car window and screamed for help. In the body camera footage, officers said that they believed she was hit multiple times with a gun that was found in the car. That gun was covered in what appeared to be blood.
“What’s going on?” Rivers asked at least two officers.
Body-worn camera footage from MNPD showed Johansen shaking and crying on the phone with her dad.
“I was in a car with Bricen, and he was holding me down so I couldn’t scream,” Johansen said in the bodycam footage. “…I thought he was going to be OK.”
In photos taken that night at the hospital, Johansen’s blonde hair appeared to be caked in blood. Her neck was put in a brace, her eye was swollen shut, her arms were bruised and her lips were swollen.
“My left eye isn’t opening,” Johansen said in the bodycam footage.
A representative with Awake Tennessee, a nonprofit focused on the well-being of women and children in the state, said that when it comes to domestic violence, victims can be drawn in repeatedly.
“If you don’t block the partner right away, they may ambush your phone with all of these messages of ‘I love you,’ ‘You are everything,’ ‘I didn’t mean it,'” policy and advocacy associate Natalie Schilling said. “All these apologies and things to the point that a person might gaslight themselves to think, ‘Did I make it up? He’s being so nice now. Maybe he’s changed. Maybe it’s not going to happen again.'”
Over the course of Rivers’ seven-month sentence, court records showed that he completed over 2,000 calls. Some of those calls were to Johansen.
In one of those calls, Rivers told Johansen to tell the court that she was just drunk at the time of the incident. He told her to say that she hit her head on the dash and continued banging her head on the window. He also encouraged Johansen to push for considering probation as Rivers desired a military career.
That call ended with ‘I love yous’ and Rivers expressed his hope to be released and see Johansen the following day.
Schilling said emotional manipulation can keep the victim coming back.
“People who have gone through a breakup know it’s hard. There’s usually some doubt [of] ‘What if I should be back?'” Schilling explained. “Well, multiply that by 100 if you’ve been in a manipulative and controlling relationship. That can be really hard.”
Rivers’ bond was eventually lowered from $250,000 to $150,000. He was released by Nashville judge Cheryl Blackburn on June 24.
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On July 2, Johansen was reported missing.
The next day, her body was found in the back of a car, wrapped in blankets and trash bags. Hours later, Rivers was arrested and charged with murder. As of publication, his bond is set at $1 million.
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