On April 8, 2024, at approximately 7:35 a.m., the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga Division responded to a radio call regarding a homicide investigation in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue. Operations Valley Bureau homicide detectives were alerted and promptly arrived at the scene.
During the investigation, detectives uncovered two related incidents that occurred subsequent to the homicide on Variel Avenue. The first incident involved the discovery of two young children on the 405 Freeway near Howard Hughes Parkway. The second incident was a single vehicle fatal traffic collision in the city of Redondo Beach.
The victim, 29-year-old Jaelen Chaney, and the suspect, 34-year-old Danielle Johnson, lived together in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue along with Johnson’s two young children, aged eight months old and nine years old, as per the LAPD report. Around 3:40 a.m. on April 8, 2024, Chaney and Johnson engaged in a verbal altercation that escalated into violence, resulting in Johnson stabbing Chaney, who succumbed to his injuries at the scene. A knife with biological evidence was recovered from the scene. Johnson subsequently fled the residence with her two children in a dark-colored Porsche SUV.
[adinserter name="One"]At approximately 4:30 a.m., the dark-colored SUV was observed on the 405 Freeway, where the two children were expelled from the vehicle while it was in motion. The nine-year-old child sustained moderate injuries from the fall and was transported to a local hospital, while the eight-month-old child sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Around 5:00 a.m., Johnson was involved in a single vehicle fatal collision in the city of Redondo Beach near the intersection of Vincent Street and the Pacific Coast Highway. Johnson, the sole occupant of the vehicle, did not survive the crash.
[adinserter name="Eight"]After an extensive investigation in collaboration with the California Highway Patrol, the Redondo Beach Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, LAPD homicide detectives determined that all the aforementioned incidents were related.
“These events all transpired before LAPD personnel were notified of the crime,” states the LAPD press release. “After a thorough investigation and collaboration with the above agencies, homicide detectives determined that the incidents were all related and there was no further threat to the community.”
