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Dad says soldier's loose teeth, head wound suggest foul play

By Norman Parish
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friday, Jul. 29 2005

The father of Army Pfc. LaVena L. Johnson says his daughter had a disfigured lip, loose teeth and a wound on the left side of her head when he reviewed her body this week.

John Johnson said those discoveries are key reasons why he fears that foul play may have been involved in his 19-year-old daughter's death July 19 near Balad, Iraq.

"She was serving her country in good conscience, and her death deserves to be investigated," Johnson said in an interview Friday. "The truth needs to be revealed."

The former Florissant resident was the first female soldier from Missouri to die while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The military has said only that LaVena Johnson died from noncombat injuries and that the cause of death remains under investigation. John Johnson said an Army representative told him the death was the result of self-inflicted injuries but
was not suicide.

John Johnson said a military source had told him the military was investigating the death as a "criminal investigation." But Army spokesmen said that while a criminal investigation unit was performing the review, it did not mean a crime
was committed.

In the interview, he said the wound to the left side of his daughter's head may be an indication that someone else was involved, since she was right-handed.  "I'm not a forensic expert, but I am just talking about what seems obvious to me," he said.  Johnson also said his daughter's lip seemed to have been damaged.

"I saw a busted lip," he said. "Her front two teeth were loose. The funeral home said they had to reconstruct her lip. This tells me that someone might have punched her in the mouth."

Johnson, an honor roll graduate of Hazelwood Central High School, was assigned to the 129th Corps Support Battalion based at Fort Campbell, Ky.  Her funeral was Thursday at San Francisco Temple Complex Christian Assembly in north St. Louis County. She was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

John Johnson said he served in the Army during the 1960s and then worked for 25 years as a civilian personnel specialist for the military. After retiring from that job, he has worked as a consultant, motivational speaker and author.

Johnson said his wife, Linda Carter Johnson, had a dream two weeks before the death in which her daughter appeared to be attacked. "She talked to LaVena but didn't tell her about the dream," Johnson said. "She told her to be careful."



Reporter Norm Parish
E-mail: nparish@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-298-0832

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