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Thinking about Vanessa Guillen makes me think of PFC LaVena Johnson, who was found dead in her tent in Iraq in 2005. After her father had questions about her disfigured body, the DoD refused to give the family any information. A thread:
Representative William Lacy Clay Jr brought questions about PFC Johnson’s death to the table at the congressional hearings when Pat Tillman (Arizona Cardinals QB turned Soldier killed by friendly fire, also DoD coverup) died.
The autopsy and photos of PFC Johnson’s body showed a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, burns from a corrosive chemical on her genitals, and a gunshot wound that seemed inconsistent with suicide. Several reporters have suspected that the chemical burns were to destroy DNA.
In 2007, a media outlet picked up a report of this soldier’s death which started an online petition getting over 37,000 supporters, prompting a website launch dedicated to reopening an investigation of what really happened to PFC Johnson.
The petition closed in May 2008 with a little over 12,000 signatures. In July 2008, Color of Change launched another online petition calling on the chair of the House Oversight commitee to reinvestigate PFC Johnson’s death.
The House Armed Services committee started looking back into the case in 2008 but had no plans to commit to a formal investigation into any possible wrongdoing of the case.
A documentary about LaVena Johnson and her family’s struggle to find out what really happened and to get justice was made in 2010, titles LaVena Johnson: The Silent Truth.
In 2011, criminal justice students in the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute took up Johnson’s case for investigation. CCIRI's crime scene reconstruction aimed to help shed light on this case. The CCIRI investigation did not agree with nor dispute the Army's findings.
Sheryl McCollum of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute calls the case "gut-wrenching." McCollum says the institute normally spends one year on a case, but spent three years on the LaVena Johnson case.
In a phone interview with St. Louis Public Radio, McCollum said that she faults the Army for poor communication, but she does not disagree with its conclusion.
"The problem is – number one – the way the notification happened. And the lack of information given to that family fast enough," McCollum said.
"There was nothing about this case that we could go back to the Army to say you need to re-look at it," she said. "We didn't have anything new. We didn't have anything that suggested wrongdoing."
Since then, there’s been no movement on that case. It’s been 15 years. What the hell happened to PFC LaVena Johnson in Iraq?
