LOS ANGELES (TCD) — A 34-year-old self-described astrologer and reiki master teacher allegedly fatally stabbed a 29-year-old man in their apartment and then threw their two young children out of a moving vehicle shortly before the solar eclipse this week.
On Monday, April 8, at approximately 7:35 a.m., officers with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga Division responded to the 6200 block of Variel Avenue after neighbors noticed the front door open and 29-year-old Jaelen Chaney deceased inside.
A neighbor told KTLA-TV, “The 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.”
Another neighbor reportedly saw “a pair of legs sticking out from the kitchen area.”
Homicide detectives suspected the stabbing was connected to two incidents, one involving two young children on the 405 Freeway and another fatal vehicle collision in Redondo Beach.
Investigators allege that in the early morning hours of April 8, Danielle Johnson got into a dispute with Chaney and stabbed him to death in their apartment. Police later recovered a knife with biological evidence at the scene.
Following the stabbing, Johnson allegedly fled with the couple’s 9-year-old and 8-month-old children in a Porsche SUV, crashing through a parking garage security gate in the process.
At approximately 4:30 a.m., officers said Johnson allegedly threw the children out of the moving vehicle on the 405 Freeway near Howard Hughes Parkway. The 9-year-old child sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital for treatment. The 8-month-old baby died from the fall, and officials pronounced the infant dead at the scene.
At approximately 5 a.m., Johnson drove the SUV at speeds over 100 miles an hour and hit a tree, dying from the crash.
According to KTLA-TV, Johnson went by the name Ayoka on the social media platform X. Leading up to the suspected murder-suicide, Johnson reportedly posted warnings about the upcoming eclipse. However, according to The Associated Press, Lt. Guy Golan said police are not considering the eclipse as a motive to the killings “because we just don’t know why she did what she did.”
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Tyler Mitchell