The woman who crashed into a Redondo Beach tree killing herself Monday is suspected of arguing and then stabbing to death a man she lived with in a Woodland Hills apartment earlier in the morning and fleeing with her two children — who ended up on the shoulder of the northbound 405 Freeway in Culver City, the infant dead and an older sister injured, authorities said on Tuesday, April 9.
The children, eight months old and a 9-year-old, either fell or were thrown out of a moving vehicle, said Luis Quintero, a California Highway Patrol officer and spokesman. A 911 caller told authorities that a black sedan was seen in the area where the girls were found. The older child suffered moderate injuries.
About 30 minutes later, in Redondo Beach, a dark-colored Porsche Cayenne SUV hit 100 mph before crashing into a tree on Pacific Coast Highway at Vincent Street, authorities said, killing the sole occupant, the mother, Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, 34.
Law enforcement learned about the tragedies over time.
The girls were found abandoned about 4:30 a.m. on the freeway near Centinela Avenue, the sedan crashed, and then, around 7:30 a.m., Jaelen Allen Chaney, 29, was found unresponsive at the apartment building in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue and pronounced dead, Los Angeles police Officer Kevin Terzes said.
A man who lived next door to the family of four and discovered Chaney’s body told NBC Los Angeles reporters that he “saw two legs that were on the floor, so I called 911 and said, ‘Something bad has happened here.’”
“I went outside of our unit, and I saw blood on the floor,” the neighbor, Richard Berglund said. “I started calling in there and said, ‘Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?’ And nobody answered.”
A knife with forensic evidence was found at the scene.
