Authorities released details about a grisly murder-suicide in Los Angeles in which a woman stabbed her longtime boyfriend to death and pushed her 8-month-old baby onto a freeway before killing herself.
The investigation started after Los Angeles police found a 9-year-old girl sitting next to the body of her baby sister on the shoulder of the 405 Freeway around 4:30 a.m. on Monday, according to multiple local reports.
Police located the body of the children’s mother, Danielle Johnson, 34, about 15 miles away. They determined she crashed into a tree and killed herself.
Investigators learned that earlier that night, she murdered her partner 29-year-old Jaelen Allen Chaney at their apartment. Chaney’s body was found later that morning by a neighbor who saw blood seeping from the apartment.
“Their 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 walls,” the neighbor said, according to KTLA.
“Called the police and told them that something was not right,” he recalled. “And they told me, when I spoke to the EMT, to go in and check on the body. So I did. And he was deceased, he was facedown on the floor. And there was a lot of blood.”
In the moments that led up to Chaney’s death, police say Johnson and Chaney were heard arguing at 3:40 a.m. before Johnson stabbed Chaney and fled the home with her two kids. The knife Johnson allegedly used was found inside the apartment.
Witnesses saw Johnson’s Porsche SUV on the freeway and caught her pushing her two kids out of the car while it was still in motion.
“The suspect slowed the vehicle and opened the passenger door for her daughter and told her to get out of the car,” LAPD Lt. Guy Golan told ABC7. “When the daughter didn’t do that, she forcibly pushed her out of the vehicle in the middle of the freeway while moving.”
Golan said the 9-year-old was holding her sister as they were thrown out of the car but lost her grip during the fall. The baby died after being struck by another vehicle. Medics transported the older sister to the hospital with moderate injuries. She’s now in the care of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
Afterward, Johnson drove her car to Redondo Beach and crashed into a tree at Pacific Coast Highway and Vincent Street at speeds over 100 mph. Investigators are still working to determine the motive for the murder-suicide.
Johnson and Chaney had been dating for about three years, and living together for more than a year with the two children in an apartment in Woodland Hills. Detectives say Chaney was still married to another person and going through a divorce. He was not the 9-year-old child’s biological father and it’s unclear at this time if he was the father of the baby who died.
“We really don’t know why this incident escalated to such violence,” Golan said. “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.”
Chaney’s brother, Matthew Chiricas, said his brother and Johnson traveled around Europe while he was stationed in Italy. Chiricas recalled one concerning text message from November 2022 in which Chaney shared he had been dealing with a lot with his girlfriend, but didn’t go into details because it wasn’t “appropriate.”
“He was in the Air Force, but he had dreams to become a weatherman,” Chiricas told the Daily Mail. “He was just like the rest of us, trying to have fun and trying to have a family.”
Johnson, who goes by the name Daniella Ayoka online, identifies as an astrologer and certified reiki master teacher, “who is also trained in over 10 different alternative healing modalities,” according to her website.
Reiki is a Japanese healing technique used for stress reduction and relaxation that involves “laying on hands” to control unseen “life force energy.”
Social media posts from Johnson’s X page revealed alarming details about the woman’s state of mind in the days leading up to the murder-suicide.
Johnson expressed strong opinions about the partial solar eclipse that took place Monday, April 8, the same day she took her boyfriend and infant’s life.
“This eclipse is the epitome of spiritual warfare. Get your protection on and your heart in the right place,” Johnson wrote in April 4 post on X, where she has over 100,000 followers. “The world is very obviously changing right now and if you ever needed to pick a side, the time to do right in your life is now. Stay strong you got this.”
She also pinned a post on her X page alleging “the apocalypse is here.” Her last X post was a retweet from the page @QTHESTORMM, which says: Alert: This is the final warning. Turn notifications on. Do not look at the eclipse. Something big is coming.”
