Crime Junkie - CONSPIRACY: Women in the U.S. Military

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

In 2010, statistics came out that 120 female U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq had died. Half of those deaths were reported to be non-combat related. 30 those non-combat related deaths were ruled suicides, but there is evidence to suggest many of them may have actually been murders.In this episode, we dive into the case of LaVena Johnson and other women of the U.S. military who died very suspicious deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/conspiracy-women-in-the-us-military/   

Hey Crime Junkies, I am back to tell you a crazy story this week. A story of systematic cover-ups in the US military that I think will shock you. This is one of those episodes where I walk away thinking, why isn't everyone talking about this? So I need you to help get people talking about this. Please share this episode on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Help get people informed about how the US military is covering up the murders of their female soldiers. I want to start this story today by telling you about the very first story I learned about which brought my attention to all of these cases. It's the story of LaVenia Johnson. LaVenia was a very smart young girl who grew up as the fourth of five children in Missouri. After high school,

LaVenia told her dad that she wanted to join the military to help pay for her education. Now her parents did have money, but LaVenia was talking about going to an out-of-state school in California and she didn't want to put that burden on her parents, so she enrolled in the US military. After all, her dad was a veteran and LaVenia wanted to continue the family tradition. By the time July of 2005 rolls around, LaVenia had been stationed in Iraq for about eight weeks. She tries to write home as frequently as she can telling her parents about the conditions in Iraq. You know, she tells them it's super hot, like really, really hot, but the nights there are beautiful. When she first got there, she tells her parents that they made all of the soldiers dump

out their belongings and personal items like shampoo and soap, and they were forced to rebuy everything in the military store. There are also some early signs of the disrespect that LaVenia and other women in the armed forces were facing. She wrote that when she got there, at first, they were called female warriors, but as time went on, they were just called females, and then eventually they were called soul because it's only half of a soldier. Despite the sometimes derogatory way in which she and other women were treated, LaVenia's letters home were mostly upbeat, catching her family up on her life, wishing them happy birthdays, and asking what's been going on at home. Now, she's able to speak to them

on the phone pretty frequently. Her job in Iraq was in the communications building, being the one to open and close it each day, so she had frequent access to the phone. The first sign of trouble, at least the first sign that her family got, was on July 14th of 2005. LaVenia called home and she tells her dad that she had a run-in with the general. Apparently, the night before, she went to close up the communications building, like she did every night, but this night, the other soldiers wouldn't leave. Eventually, the general had to show up and kick them out, and instead of getting on these soldiers for not listening to orders or respecting their fellow soldier, he pulls LaVenia aside and says, they aren't listening to you because your

voice is too soft. Her dad was upset by this and said it was very unusual and almost improper for a general to speak directly to a private like this, and to tell her that she isn't doing something right and no one will respect her or listen to her. LaVenia's dad told her she needed to request a battle buddy, someone who would be side by side with LaVenia so they could look out for one another. But LaVenia didn't want to rock the boat. She said, I can't go to my supervisors and demand something or tell them what to do. That's not going to make me look good. But her dad said, if you don't do it, I will. Her dad wanted to give her the chance to go to her supervisor, so he didn't say anything right away. But there was something happening just

below the surface, a reason that LaVenia would never speak up. You see, she had recently been sexually assaulted and was being treated for an STD. It's still unknown who assaulted LaVenia, or whether it was fully reported or documented, but we know for sure that her parents had no idea because she didn't tell them. She likely didn't want to worry them, so she kept her spirits up for them and tried to lay low around base. LaVenia's family hears from her by phone just three days later on July 17th. This time, she has really great news. She might actually be getting to come home early. And so she asked her family, you know, I'm going to come home around Christmas time, so please don't decorate the Christmas tree until I get there. By all accounts,

her family thought she was happy and that they were going to see her very soon. But little did they know that would be the last time they ever would speak with LaVenia. Just a couple of days later, the family gets visited at their home by a soldier who informs them that LaVenia is dead. And none of this makes sense to the Johnson family. They just spoke with her. How could she be dead? She wasn't in active combat. She was in charge of the communications building. So as they probe this soldier, he slips up a little bit and says something, alluding to the fact that LaVenia took her own life. And her dad immediately stops him and says, wait, are you trying to tell me that my daughter committed suicide? And this soldier says, no, no, no, everything's

still under investigation. But I think he slipped up. The army was already developing a story. They had been from day one. And this is the first time we hear their version. As the Johnsons get more information about their daughter, they find out what happened to her between the time they got off the phone with her on the 17th until she was found in the early morning hours of the 19th. Now on the 18th, LaVenia got off sometime between four and five p.m. Her normal routine would have been to go to physical training next. And we think this was her plan, because when she was found, she was still in her PT sweats, tennis shoes, and reflector belt. But she never made it to PT. Apparently, the army's official version is that somebody actually

went looking for her and she wasn't in her room, didn't answer her door. And they say she had met up with another male soldier. And they were in his room and they hung out for about four hours, then went to the shopping area together and finish around nine or 10. And then this guy supposedly walked her back to her room before he goes to his. And the next thing we know for sure, according to official reports, is that LaVenia's body is found at 120 in the morning on the 19th. Now she was in a contractor's tent, laying on her back in a pool of blood with her right arm covering her face. There are pictures that have been released of her crime scene, and I'm going to post some of them to the blog, because I think they're critical when discussing what happened.

Now, if I'm describing this picture to you, in the left of the frame on what would be LaVenia's right side, you see a pile of burned papers and an aerosol can. To the left of LaVenia, on the right of the frame, there's a green cot. And on the other side of the cot, not the same side as LaVenia is on, is an M16 rifle. Now before LaVenia's body is sent back to her parents in Missouri, the army does an autopsy and rules her death a suicide. They say that she took some papers like maybe some notes from a boyfriend and built a small fire with those letters in this contractor's tent and then shot herself with the M16 by putting it in her mouth and pulling the trigger. Now, none of this was making sense to the family. What reason would she have to kill herself? And

at first, the army said it had something to do with hardship she was having with this boyfriend, but her family was like, no way, they've only been together a couple of months. She's not going to kill herself over this guy. And the family is in complete and utter shock. How could they have not seen this coming? They had just spoke with LaVenia two days before she was found. She didn't say a word about being unhappy. In fact, she talked about the future and coming home to see them. If the Johnsons had suspicions when they got her autopsy report, those suspicions would only be compounded when her body was sent back for the funeral. Before LaVenia was returned home, the casualty liaison officer that was sent to help the family recommended that they have a

closed casket funeral because LaVenia was in such bad shape. She had, after all, been shot through the mouth with an M16. So one would expect her to not look like herself. But LaVenia's parents decide that they're going to go against this. They're going to have an open casket funeral. And what they see in her body at the funeral, like nothing seems to fit with the army's official story. The first thing that her dad notices is while her face seems almost pristine, not at all what you would expect from a rifle wound, her nose appears to have been broken and then reset. And her lips seem to have been cut. Also, the only sign that LaVenia had died of a gunshot wound was a small bullet hole on the left side of her head. But how would that be if a gun

was in her mouth? How could she have angled it for an exit wound to come out of the left side? And let's pretend even if she could, somehow. This exit wound does not look like an exit wound at all. Remember, LaVenia's dad was a vet himself. He knows what an M16 exit wound should look like. And this is not it. This looks more like the entry wound of a 9mm. But there's no report of a 9mm in the army's findings. No report of this being an entry wound. But that wasn't even the strangest thing he found. LaVenia's gloves had been glued onto her hands for the funeral. This seemed totally unnecessary. And when they talk to the funeral director about this, they say that they've never even done this before. And this is when LaVenia's dad decides

there is absolutely more to this story that he needed to find out. Even though the autopsy report was completed on July 22, LaVenia's dad didn't get a copy until August. And what he finds in this autopsy report is truly disturbing. It seemed that the medical examiner conducted the autopsy with the conclusion of suicide already predetermined. There were no rape kits done. There were no fingernail scrapings taken. Absolutely nothing. At this point, the Johnson family is certain that they cannot trust the army's investigation. Either they're totally incompetent or they're hiding something intentionally. So the family decides to hire a criminal investigator to look into the case. And they have to fight like hell to get the investigative records. After a long

battle, the family finally gets some copies of what they're told are all of the files in LaVenia's case. All the documents that they have been given are super low quality black and white Xerox copies of original pictures and documents. But even in these black and white pictures that are super grainy and super bad quality, the family knows that the stories are not adding up. And this is the first time that the family sees how far away that M16 rifle is from LaVenia's body. The gun she was supposed to have been holding and supposed to have shot herself with. And there's even the question of how LaVenia at just five one could have pulled the trigger. But for the sake of argument, let's say it's possible. How on earth did the M16 end up so far away from her body? And why didn't gunpowder

residue show up on LaVenia's hands if she was the one to have pulled the trigger? These documents that they got also revealed for the first time to the family that witnesses say LaVenia was raped and being treated for an STD. Everything they thought they knew about the government LaVenia was serving, the government her dad had served for so many years was unraveling. But of everything disturbing in the file, there was a picture of something that caught their eye. It was a Xeroxed picture of a CD-ROM. Now some people say that whoever made this copy was an idiot who didn't understand what a copy of a CD actually meant. But I have a feeling it was someone trying to help. Someone who wanted the family to know that there was more information,

more to this story, and they needed to keep digging. And so began a battle between the Johnson family and the US army that is still going on to this day. The army doubled down on their stance, saying that in the days before LaVenia died, she was deranged and depressed. And her dad's like, whoa, wait a second, you're telling me you thought she was so deranged and depressed yet you're letting her walk around with a rifle? Clearly you didn't think she was in that bad of a state, or she was that much of a threat to herself or other people. And if she was, show me proof. You can't just say that she's depressed. He says we talked to her just days before her death and she was excited about coming home. What makes you think that she was depressed? And they say,

well, she was eating a ton of ice cream like three or four times a day, which is literally the craziest excuse I've ever heard for saying someone is deranged and depressed enough to commit suicide with their M16 rifle. The more the army insists that LaVenia was deranged and killed herself, the more her dad knows he needs to find out what it is they're covering up. He pushes for that CD-ROM in the Xerox picture. And the response he gets is basically that there are certain names on the CD-ROM and those people have rights and those rights need to be protected. And her dad's like, oh, hell no. If there are names on that CD, it's because they have something to do with my daughter's death. And if they have something to do with her death, I have every right to them. And the army's

basically like, cool, if you believe that, that's fine, but you're going to need to get a lawyer and you're going to need to come after us. So her dad does one better and he goes to their congressman for help. Their congressman, Congressman Lacey Clay, happened to be on a governmental reform committee and he addressed this specific CD-ROM on a live TV interview to a high ranking government official and he's looking this guy dead in the eyes and saying, okay, you're saying the military isn't hiding anything. I want this CD that you sent him a picture of. And this military official is like, we'd be happy to provide this if you want to fill out the proper forms, the Freedom of Information Act. Once we get that, we're going to have that process looking all good in front of

the cameras. But as soon as he gets off of TV, he's like, you're not entitled to any of this, bye. But they continue their fight for two years. And finally, they get their hands on this CD-ROM. And on it are all the original pictures from the scene where Lavigne was found. And these pictures in color were so much more shocking and revealed so many more secrets. The photos revealed severe damage to Lavigne's face as though she had been hit in the face with a blunt instrument. One of her elbows was even distended and there seemed to be some kind of dirt or debris on her back indicating that she could have been dragged. And there apparently is reports and pictures of blood outside of the tent. And this also confirms a theory that she was killed somewhere else and

drug into this contractor's tent. There are also pictures of Lavigne from her autopsy when she was undressed that show bruises and scratches all over her body as though she had been beaten and kicked. There were even burn marks on her right hand and her back as if someone had tried to light fire to her body. Most disturbing of all. And I will give you a warning. This is disturbing as anything we've ever talked about. It was obvious from pictures that some type of corrosive liquid had been poured into her genitals likely in an attempt to destroy DNA evidence of rape. Now I want to remind you that Lavigne was found completely clothed. So for the army's account to be accurate, if Lavigne is totally responsible for what happened to her, are you

telling me that she undressed, beat herself up, set fire to multiple parts of her body, then proceeded to pour corrosive acid on her genital area, then redress herself and shoot herself? Who does this make sense to? Anyone with ears can hear that this is absolutely insane. And what, the army just forgot to include this in their autopsy report? Originally when her dad asked why there was no rape kit done, it's because they said there was no sign of a struggle and nothing to indicate rape was even a possibility. I'm sorry, someone has acid in their vagina and that's not a sign of something sinister to you? I think incompetence is completely ruled out at this point and we're just talking about straight up malicious cover ups. And there's more.

These pictures of Lavigne's body show that part of her vagina, part of her anus and part of her tongue had been removed. Again, none of this was noted on the original autopsy report. The theory is, based on the cuts and what's around these areas, that a material called wound stat could have been used on her. Wound stat is something that they use in the field and it basically goes into an open wound and hardens to prevent people from bleeding out. And it actually has to be surgically removed from a body. So I don't think anyone could make the argument that Lavigne shot herself, then put wound stat in her body. So whoever used the wound stat on Lavigne, for whatever reason, had to have cut it out in order to remove any kind of proof that they were

ever even there. It's likely that wound stat was placed into her genitals as just another way to cover up a sexual assault. But you might be thinking, then why was her part of her tongue cut out as well? Well, most people who think Lavigne didn't kill herself, and to be clear, that's anyone with eyes and ears who doesn't work for the US Army, thinks that the hole in the left side of Lavigne's head is actually an entrance wound of a nine millimeter. And the bullet likely got lodged into her tongue, which her killer, or someone covering up for her killer, had to cut out. Another important thing I should mention is that the bullet from Lavigne's M16 that she's supposedly shot herself with was never located. On the initial paperwork found on the CD-ROM,

there is evidence that at first when they found her body, someone did rule this investigation as a homicide. Then inexplicably, a decision is made by someone to classify her death as a suicide and the rest is history. Lavigne's family have done everything in their power to keep fighting and to keep her story alive. They say they're working against the entire United States government who just wants this to go away and who refuses to budge on their stance that Lavigne's death was due to suicide. The government did an entire review of this case that lasted years and they still say there's nothing to indicate foul play and everything is inconclusive. It is incredible how blatant of a cover-up this is and they're just getting away with it and they even have

pull over media too. CBS invested a lot of money looking into this case and even paid for an independent autopsy, but for an unexplained reason they pulled on the story and never reported on it and a lot of people think that the government is silencing them. Lavigne's story has become the poster case for the army covering up rape and murder while people are stationed overseas, but her story is not the only one. Did you know that one in three women in the U.S. military will be raped? One in three. That's not a statistic they give incoming recruits and according to a former U.S. Representative Jane Harmon, women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq. As of 2010, 120 women have died in

Iraq. 50% of those, which is 60, were non-combat related and of those 60 deaths, half of them died in very strange circumstances, many of which are written off as suicides. One of those women was Tina Priest. Tina was found in her room in 2006 dead of a gunshot wound. In a familiar twist, it was also an M16 and Tina had been raped by a fellow soldier just a month before her death. Tina's mother was adamant that there was no way her daughter killed herself. Not only did she believe that her daughter was not in that kind of state of mind, but physically it didn't seem possible. Like Lavigne, Tina was a small girl just five feet tall and her mom kept saying how is this even physically possible? She could not reach the M16 trigger and the army came at her multiple

times with different scenarios, but each time she would say nope it doesn't work, here's why, and each time she would debunk them with science until finally their solution was to say that Tina pulled the trigger with her big toe and the army has closed the case, never again investigating it as a homicide. Unlike Lavigne, Tina's family knew about the rape charges that she was bringing against a fellow soldier. A few weeks after Tina's death though, the charges were dropped and this guy was just fined less than $1500 given some extra duty and forced to stay on base for 30 days and that was the extent of his punishment. Seems unfair, huh? Well, just 10 days after Tina was found, another woman who's about the same age as Tina and Lavigne, but this girl has remained

unnamed in all the articles I've read. While she is found dead from surprise surprise, a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and this is at the same camp that Tina was found. In her room was a diary open to a page where she confessed to being raped when she arrived for training. Unlike Tina's case, her rapist was charged, but her family also had a lot of problems with the idea of her killing herself, but the army insisted it was a suicide and refused to reinvestigate. There's another story of a 27-year-old linguist named Alyssa who went to Iraq in 2003. After just two nights of working with the interrogation unit, she refused to continue work because she objected to how those being interrogated were actually treated. After she refused to participate,

she was assigned to monitor Iraqi guards at the base gate. She died shortly after this from a gunshot wound to the head with her service rifle. When her colleagues were asked about the interrogation techniques that she had a problem with, they refused to speak about them, and they all now say that all of the records relating to those techniques have been destroyed. And her family, too, disputes this claim of suicide, but it has remained unchanged. In yet another case, 26-year-old Alyssa died in 2003 of two gunshot wounds to the abdomen. You guys, this is not how a person can commit suicide, but nonetheless, the army has not made a ruling on her death and won't call it a homicide. You guys, these are just a couple of stories. The list goes on and on, and although

I focused on women in the military because I'm particularly disturbed at the rate in which women are sexually assaulted, this is not a phenomenon specific to women. There are also a number of very strange deaths of men that have been ruled a suicide when there is clear evidence of foul play like in Levinia's case. So, what now? If you're outraged like me and wondering if you can do anything, you can. There is a group called Military Families for Justice who are trying to raise awareness and enact change in the US military justice system through the passage of the Bill of Rights for bereaved military families, meaning that they want to help people like Levinia's family get access to good investigation, access to records without multi-year fights and tens

of thousands of dollars in legal fees. They want the military to be held accountable. They don't ask for or accept monetary donations. They're strictly here to serve as an online resource center to empower bereaved military families with knowledge to help them navigate the military justice system. So, here's how you can help. There is a petition to Congress to change how military deaths are investigated and what information is shared with the families. You can go to militaryfamiliesforjustice.org to sign that petition or I will post a direct link to it on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com. You all listen to this show every week and these are real people we're talking about, not just entertainment. If you listen to this story,

you owe it to the families to try and do something about the injustice that they have faced. It will take you less than five minutes and you can help make a huge difference in the lives of our servicemen and women and their families. Again, to sign that petition, you can go to militaryfamiliesforjustice.org or you can get the direct link on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com. And don't forget to follow us on social. We are actually running a contest on Instagram right now. Our handle is crimejunkie podcast. We're doing a Halloween costume competition and giving away prizes for first, second, and third. All we need you to do is post a picture of you or your dog in their Halloween costume and tag us in the picture. Mention us in the comments, but make sure if you're going to enter

that your profile is public. Even if you tag us and mention us, we cannot see private profiles. The contest is going to run through the 31st. We will announce that evening. So good luck and we will be back next week with a brand new episode. This week's episode of Crimejunkie was written and hosted by me. All of our editing and sound production was done by David Flowers and all of our music, including our theme comes from Justin Daniel. Crimejunkie is an audio chuck production. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?