Mississippi student 'mutilated to death by ex who begged to keep him in jail'

The former boyfriend of a woman savagely beaten to death and left mutilated i n the backseat of a car in Mississippi faces her murder charges just days following his release from prison.

22-year-old nursing student Lauren Johansen was tragically found deceased, her body wrapped in a sheet in the rear of her vehicle within a Harrison County graveyard last Thursday.

Upon police arrival at the grim scene, they spotted her ex, Bricen Rivers, attempting to flee from the automobile into nearby woodland.

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After a gruelling six-hour manhunt, authorities apprehended the 23 year old Rivers and accused him of the murder of Johansen.

Merely nine days before the ghastly discovery, Rivers had been bailed out of incarceration where he'd previously spent seven months for a vicious assault and abduction of Johansen, an event occurring during a distinct altercation in Nashville the prior December, reports the Express US.

Following a bail reduction from a staggering $251,000 down to $150,000, Rivers was freed.

Lance Johansen, Laurens father and an orthopaedic surgeon, expressed that he beseeched the magistrate not to diminish Rivers bond, fearing that Rivers would end his daughters life upon his release.

"I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her," recounted Johansen in an interview with WLOX.

"He had assaulted her. This was probably the fifth or sixth time where they would get into a fight and he would beat her."

A missing persons report for Johansen emerged on July 2 after her sister discovered their apartment door ajar and their security camera tampered with early in the morning.

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Her disappearance became even more alarming when her father noticed her Life360 tracking application had been deactivated.

Lance Johansen revealed he assisted the coroner in removing his daughter's body from the vehicle.

"She was brutally beaten to death. He made her suffer and beat her until her eyes were swollen shut. Her head was caved in where he beat her with a pistol like he did before. She was mutilated," he expressed.

Rivers is currently detained at the Harrison County Adult Detention Facility in Gulfport, with bail set at $1 million.

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