Image Credit: Facebook & Harrison County Sheriff’s Office.
Article by Paula Gomes, Tennessee Conservative News –
The man who murdered his Mississippi girlfriend after he broke the conditions of his bond requiring that he remain in Davidson County has received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Bricen Rivers pleaded guilty on Friday to the capital murder of 22-year-old Lauren Johansen.
A college student at the University of Southern Mississippi, Johansen, who aspired to be a registered nurse, took a trip to Nashville in December of 2023 with then 23-year-old Rivers.
During their stay in Music City, Rivers attacked Johansen, was arrested, and received charges for kidnapping and interfering with an emergency call, landing him in jail for several months.
The following April, Rivers made a motion to have his bond reduced by $100,000 to $150,000 and despite objections from the prosecution, it was granted because Rivers had no prior criminal history.
Rivers was required to wear a GPS monitoring device and remain in the county as a condition of the bond which he posted on June 24th.
Two bonding companies split the bond between them but neither they nor the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office received a copy of the conditions due to an error on the part of a Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office employee.
While Rivers was fitted for a GPS tracking device, no location restrictions were set.
Four days later, the oversight was made known and Rivers was called back in but as the company used for tracking is owned by an employee of one of the bond companies, he was not turned into police. The employee believed she was acting in her capacity as the monitoring company only and not as a bonding agent.
In Tennessee, the state contracts with private services to assure compliance with the financial conditions of bond. State law authorizes these private bail bonding companies to arrest, without a warrant, criminal defendants who violate the terms of their bond.
Just two hours later, Rivers left the Nashville area and was tracked to Biloxi, Mississippi before the GPS tracker’s battery died.
Johansen was found mutilated in the trunk of her car at a cemetery on July 3rd in Gulfport, Mississippi, having sustained many horrific injuries from being beaten until she died.
Her father Dr. Lance Johansen, who helped the coroner remove her body from the car said that the number of skull fractures that she sustained were far more than what could happen from being hit by “a Mack truck.”
In October of 2024, a panel of six Davidson County judges ruled that a “calamity of human and institutional errors” led to Rivers’ release but determined that neither of the two bonding companies violated any rules.
Despite that ruling, the Johansen family initiated a lawsuit against the two companies in June of 2025 for $150 million.
The lawsuit states that despite knowing that Rivers had left Davidson County, none of the bail bonding companies contacted Tennessee authorities so that they could attempt to apprehend him. Authorities in Mississippi were also not warned that a violent criminal had violated the conditions of his bond in crossing state lines.
Neither Johansen nor any of her family was contacted by the bail bonding companies with warnings that Rivers had returned to Southern Mississippi.
Sources:
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
One Response
If we had effective punishments he’d’ve been terminally dispatched, no more expense to taxpayers, no profits for incompetent bail outfits.