A baby’s death on a highway on Monday has been linked to a probable murder-suicide in Los Angeles, police informed ABC News.
Early Monday morning, the body of an 8-month-old girl was discovered on the 405 Freeway. The Los Angeles Police Department reported that a 9-year-old girl was discovered on the shoulder, alive but with moderate injuries.
Shortly after, a woman, identified by authorities as the children’s mother, drove her car into a tree near Redondo Beach. Police reported that she was pronounced deceased at the scene. On Tuesday afternoon, police recognized her as 34-year-old Danielle Johnson.
On Monday, authorities discovered the father dead from suspected stab wounds in a residence in Woodland Hills. Police recognized him on Tuesday as 29-year-old Jaelen Chaney.
Police stated Tuesday that during the early hours of Monday morning, the two “became involved in a verbal altercation that escalated into Johnson becoming violent, stabbing Chaney, who succumbed to his injuries at the scene.”
A knife containing biological evidence was found at the site.
The mother is also suspected of abandoning the two children on the highway and then colliding with a tree.
According to authorities, the two children were “expelled” from the automobile as it was going. It is unclear whether the baby died immediately or later on the highway.
The 9-year-old girl, who is thought to have witnessed the murder, was treated for injuries and is currently in safe custody, according to authorities.
Neighbors told Los Angeles ABC station KABC that they heard an altercation from the apartment the night before and discovered blood in the neighborhood the next morning.
“Their door was wide open, there was blood on the floor leading into their apartment, and then a trail of it in the hallway leading up to the elevator and I saw some blood on the wall,” a lady in her mid-twenties told KABC.
The woman’s father contacted 911, she said and was directed to check inside the apartment, where they discovered the man dead.
“He was deceased, he was facedown on the floor,” she went on to say. “And there was a lot of blood.”