According to investigators, a “family dispute” that escalated into a double murder-suicide on Monday led to the deaths of an adult and a baby at three different sites in the metro Los Angeles area.
At around 3:30 a.m., neighbors of the posh Montecito Apartments on Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills reported hearing a fight between a man and a woman. This is when the weird and horrific series of events started.
One neighbor claimed to have seen blood all over her apartment when she went outside later that morning.
“The door stood agape. The neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, told KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade, “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.” “I just freaked out and called my dad to come check it out right away.”
When the neighbor’s father got there and dialed 911, he discovered 29-year-old Jaelen Chaney dead from numerous stab wounds inside the apartment, according to the police.
When I spoke with the EMT, they instructed me to go in and see how the corpse was doing. Thus, I did,” her dad said. “He had passed away. He was lying on the ground, face down.
Richard Berglund, a different neighbor, also came across the grisly sight.
Berglund remembered that their front door was “wide open, like propped open.” It was jumbled up. Then I noticed that the kitchen area had two legs protruding from it. There was blood and tipped-over furniture.
Investigators have determined that Chaney and Danielle Johnson, 34, who resided in the flat with Johnson’s two children, ages eight months and nine years, got into a verbal argument that resulted in the stabbing death.
In an update on Tuesday afternoon, the LAPD stated that Johnson had driven off the site with her two kids in a dark-colored Porsche SUV.
According to TV footage, Johnson slammed her SUV through a security gate leading to the apartment complex’s parking garage.
The California Highway Patrol arrived at the northbound 405 Freeway in Culver City around 4:30 a.m., hours before Chaney’s corpse was located. There, they discovered the 9-year-old girl with minor injuries and the newborn girl dead on the pavement.
“The two children were ejected from the vehicle while it was moving, and the dark-colored SUV was seen driving on the 405 Freeway,” according to authorities.
Then, at about five in the morning, Johnson is said to have perished when her SUV, traveling at over 100 miles per hour, crashed into a tree on the Pacific Coast Highway near Vincent Street in Redondo Beach.
Since there were no other cars involved, the authorities think the collision was intentional.
“Homicide detectives found that the incidents were all connected and there was no additional threat to the community after conducting a thorough investigation and working with [other] agencies,” the LAPD stated.
The baby’s name wasn’t made public right away.
Before he was slain, Chaney, an Air Force technician, wanted to become a meteorologist, according to his brother, who spoke with KTLA. He said he didn’t know the specifics of Chaney’s connection with Johnson, but he did know that Chaney adored his girls and was a wonderful parent.
The LAPD’s homicide investigators were asking anyone with information to call 818-374-9550.
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