The LAPD has launched an investigation into a trail of violence across Los Angeles County that involved a fatal stabbing, the death of a baby on a freeway, and the suicide of the woman behind it all.
The whirlwind of events began early Monday morning when Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, 34, allegedly killed her live-in boyfriend at their Woodland Hills apartment in the San Fernando Valley. The 29-year-old victim, Jaelen Allen Chaney, died at the scene.
The couple got into a verbal altercation that escalated and turned violent when the woman stabbed her boyfriend, according to officials. Detectives found a knife with “biological evidence” at their residence, authorities said.
A neighbor told local media that she left behind a gruesome crime scene.
“I walked out our front door and looked to the left, their door was wide open and there was blood all throughout their front door, all the way to the hallway, into the elevator and blood on the walls,” the neighbor said.
After stabbing her boyfriend, the woman then left the scene with her two daughters, who apparently witnessed the murder, the LAPD said in a statement.
She drove northbound on the 405 freeway in Culver City, where the children were “expelled” from the moving vehicle. The older daughter, 9, was carrying her 8-month-old sister at the time. But she lost hold of the infant when they were ejected from the car and hit the roadway, officials said.
The younger daughter was struck by at least one vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. The older daughter was able to make her way to the shoulder of the roadway. She was taken to a hospital to be treated for moderate injuries, according to the highway patrol.
The mother then drove to Redondo Beach, where she crashed her SUV into a tree at an excess of 100 miles per hour and killed herself. Aerial footage from a local media helicopter shows the tree collapsed on top of the vehicle near a crosswalk.
The domestic dispute between the victim and suspect remains under further investigation, but police revealed that Ms. Johnson was in the process of divorcing another man, who is the father of the child who survived. It’s unclear if Mr. Chaney was the biological father of the deceased infant.
“Looking at the history between the victim and suspect, they have been dating for a few years, but there’s no prior incidents of domestic violence reported between the two,” said LAPD Lt. Guy Golan.
The 9-year-old child is now in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Meanwhile, investigators continue to work on piecing together a more detailed timeline of events that started with a family dispute and ultimately ended in a double murder-suicide.
Witnesses are urged to call the LAPD with any information on the case. Additionally, the Highway Patrol has asked the public for help in confirming details of the incident on the freeway that resulted in the baby’s death. Anyone who may have driven in that area around 4:30 a.m. on Monday should review possible footage from dash cameras that may help with the investigation.
