On July 19, 2005, 19-year-old Private First Class LaVena Johnson, stationed in Iraq, stuck an M-16 rifle in her mouth and pulled the trigger. At least that’s what an Army medical examiner told her family.
The House Armed Services Committee announced Tuesday that the committee is looking into her death but said no decision has been made regarding a formal investigation.
Her father, John, a psychologist and motivational speaker, said, “She had a bullet entrance wound in the left side of her head, but LaVena was right-handed.” The bullet was never found and the young soldier looked as if she had been badly beaten.
Her mother, Linda, who spoke with her on the phone two days before she died, said, “She was her bubbly self. This wasn’t someone thinking of killing herself.”
Her father argues that the death investigation photos indicate that Johnson was “raped and murdered and that her body was dumped in a contractor’s tent and set afire”.
A spokeswoman for the House committee said she does not know when the committee will decide whether to open a formal investigation into Johnson’s death. 8 women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) have died of “non-combat related injuries” on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious “non-combat related injuries” on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as “suicides.”
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