And sign this petition. Tomorrow is the three-year anniversary of LaVena Johnson's death (on July 19), which was ruled a suicide but was, in all likelihood, a rape and murder.
Phillip Barron has been working incredibly hard to bring attention to her case. And you may have read about LaVena recently on Feministing, or from Cara, Megan at Jezebel, Gina at What About Our Daughters, and Kate at Broadsheet,.
Retired Army Col. Ann Wright explains what we all want investigated:
From the day their daughter's body was returned to them, the parents had grave suspicions about the Army's investigation into Lavena's death and the characterization of her death as suicide. In charge of a communications facility, Lavena was able to call home daily. In those calls she gave no indication of emotional problems or being upset. In a letter to her parents, Lavena's commanding officer Captain David Woods wrote: "Lavena was clearly happy and seemed in very good health both physically and emotionally."In viewing his daughter's body at the funeral home, Dr. Johnson was concerned about the bruising on her face. He was puzzled by the discrepancy in the autopsy report on the location of the gunshot wound. As a US Army veteran and a 25-year US Army civilian employee who had counseled veterans, he was mystified how the exit wound of an M-16 shot could be so small. The hole in Lavena's head appeared to be more the size of a pistol shot rather than an M-16 round. He questioned why the exit hole was on the left side of her head, when she was right handed. But the gluing of military uniform white gloves onto Lavena's hands hiding burns on one of her hands is what deepened Dr. Johnson's concerns that the Army's investigation into the death of his daughter was flawed.
They glued the white gloves onto her hands to hide burns. A literal cover-up. It's so clear that this and other details of LaVena's case don't add up to suicide. And it's sadly not exactly far-fetched that she was sexually assaulted: A full one-third of women veterans report rape or attempted rape during their time in the military. So it's important to keep the pressure on Congress and the military to open an investigation into her death. For LaVena, yes. Absolutely. But also for other military women whose rapes and murders have been covered up. Wright writes,
The military has characterized each of the deaths of women who were first sexually assaulted as deaths from "non-combat related injuries," and then added "suicide." Yet, the families of the women whom the military has declared to have committed suicide, strongly dispute the findings and are calling for further investigations into the deaths of their daughters. Specific US Army units and certain US military bases in Iraq have an inordinate number of women soldiers who have died of "non-combat related injuries," with several identified as "suicides."
Please sign that petition today. There may also be a legal fund established in the near future. We'll keep you posted.
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This is terrible, but I am a little confused about one of the details.
If she were right-handed, wouldn't that mean that the exit hole would indeed be on the left side? Or did they mean entry wound on the left side?
This is so important. I hope there is a legal fund in the future. Thank you for making this a post!
There are also a couple of Facebook pages devoted to her-- http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=LaVena+Johnson&init=q .
Thanks for posting this. I've already signed the petition.
**petition signed**
Kelsey, I'm a little confused about that also. I'm not saying there's no possibility that she was raped and killed, because for sure that happens. But a lot of seemingly happy people do kill themselves, it's not unusual at all.
Regardless, I'll sign in support of an investigation.
It seems to me that it's hard to shoot yourself if both of your hands are significantly burned.
Regardless, this instance is terrible but is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Various branches of the military have long histories of covering up crimes against not only their female comrades-in-arms, but against wives and girlfriends as well. There is significant pressure to "handle it" within the unit rather than through the criminal justice system. "Handling it" ranges from telling the guy to knock it off while pressuring his victim to not press charges, all the way to outright coverups like this one.
I have no doubt she could have been raped and murdered. I'm just wondering if there's a typo in that story, because it seems to me that if someone is right-handed and they "shot themselves in the head" (though I doubt she did), the exit wound would be on the left side of the head.
I signed the petition without hesitation, of course. I just wanted to be 100% sure what the story was before I told it to my family, who does not understand how to use a computer let alone is able to read Feministing.
I wonder if he meant his left rather than her left. So Dr. Johnson is facing her and sees the exit wound on the left, her right. That's my best guess anyway.
Also, there was apparently a suspicious transfer a couple of days after Pvt. Johnson's murder of the likely rapist/murderer back to the States. That's another thing that pisses me off about this case and I've mentioned this in many other places. The Army likely knows who the rapist/murderer is and they sent him home to possibly commit this crime again. How dare they?! If even just one more woman is harmed by that scumsucker, it's on the Army's hands.
From the article:
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
It's not just whether she shot herself. It's whether she beat the crap out of herself, including biting herself in places that would be pretty damn near impossible to reach with your own teeth, and then shot herself and set her own dead body on fire. All in all, there's really not a whole lot of room to doubt that something's being covered up here.
Are they just acting stupid? Because, from what I've read, it sure doesn't sound like suicide. The marks left behind indicate abuse. How can they claim otherwise?!
and i am proud to say that i signed the petition and passed it along.
Mags- I think it was the setting her own dead body on fire part that finally made me roll my eyes and put my head in my hands.
Open question to the US Military: Why do you think it is a good idea to cover stuff like this up? Do you honestly think that even with the pitiful amount of facts available that those of us who are paying attention don't notice shit like this? Well, we did.
Clean up your mess, military. Please.
LlesbianLlama: They cover this shit up because we use the pretense of moral superiority over other people to justify going to war with them. How much did the shithats in charge publicize women with ink on their fingers to try and show they support women?
If it were known that we shit on women about as much as the evil Islamists do then where would our moral justification be for waging a war (a war which kills hundred of thousands of women and kids, shhh! don't tell anyone) on them be?
The pigs in charge are at the very least accomplices after-the-fact to murder. Your life, my life, the lives of anyone you care about is worth precisely shit if one of these well-connected pieces of filth kill you. the message is this: just bend over and take it, work for your master and shut up or we'll rendition your ass.
p.s. I love your handle.
Signed and shared.
Whether or not one aspect of the article is sketchy or poorly written, the fact that it all doesn't add up means it needs to be looked into further. Everyone deserves at least that much. And this is a woman who was also a soldier! You'd think the US gov't would spend a few days looking into her death!!