A baby’s death on a highway on Monday has been linked to a probable murder-suicide in Los Angeles, police informed ABC News.
The Los Angeles Police Department discovered the body of an 8-month-old girl on the 405 Freeway early Monday morning. The Los Angeles Police Department reported the discovery of a 9-year-old girl, alive but with moderate injuries, on the shoulder.
Authorities identified the woman as the children’s mother shortly after she crashed her car into a tree near Redondo Beach. Authorities declared her dead 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. Jaelen Chaney, 29 years old, was recognized by police on Tuesday.
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.”
The site revealed a knife containing biological evidence.
There is also suspicion that the mother abandoned the two children on the highway before 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.
Authorities treated the 9-year-old girl, who is believed to have witnessed the murder, for her injuries and have placed her in safe custody.
Neighbors told Los Angeles ABC station KABC that they heard an altercation in 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 was in the hallway leading up to the elevator, and I saw some blood on the wall,” the lady, 26, told KABC.
She said that after the woman’s father called 911, they received instructions to check inside the apartment, where they found the man dead.
“He was deceased; he was facedown on the floor,” she went on to say. “And there was a lot of blood.”
