Her body was found mutilated in a cemetery. Read more: https://trib.al/yAitLPu

Respected surgeon Lance Johansen pleaded with the judge not to let his daughter’s boyfriend out of jail, or he would kill her.

Bricen Rivers, 23, was in jail for holding his longtime girlfriend Lauren Johnsen, 22, captive and viciously beating her while the were on vacation together in Nashville.

I sat in the courtroom in Nashville and told the judge that if they let him out, he was going to kill her,’ he said.

His words were prophetic, as Lauren’s body was found mutilated and dumped in her own car on Wednesday,

‘He had assaulted her — this was probably the fifth or sixth time where they would get into a fight and he would beat her. We would get her away from him for a while, but he would find a way to weasel back in it.’

Dr Johansen drove from Biloxi, Mississippi, to make the impassioned plea to the court in Nashville after Rivers’ arrest in December, and for a time, it worked.