Police Tuesday were continuing to explore what appears to have been a tragic series of events that left a man fatally stabbed in Woodland Hills, an infant girl dead on the San Diego (405) Freeway in Culver City and a woman killed in a single-car crash in Redondo Beach.
The California Highway Patrol on Tuesday identified the woman believed to be behind the deadly crime spree as Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson. Her age was not provided.
The deadly series of events unfolded at about 4:30 a.m. Monday, when the CHP responded to the northbound 405 Freeway near the Sepulveda Boulevard/Howard Hughes Parkway exit, where they found a baby girl believed to be 5 or 6 months old on the roadway and a girl between 7 and 9 years old on the right shoulder.
The infant was pronounced dead at the scene, while the young girl was taken to a hospital with “moderate” injuries, according to the CHP, which said a witness reported seeing a black sedan in the area where the girls were found.
On Tuesday, CHP officials said Johnson “is suspected of carrying out a homicide in the city of Woodland Hills, prior to the minors being located by CHP on the freeway. It is believed that Johnson fled the murder scene in a dark colored Porsche Cayenne. While traveling northbound on I-405 near Centinela Avenue, the minors fell or were thrown out of the moving vehicle.
“Johnson then fled the scene and made her way to Redondo Beach where she was involved and a traffic crash and succumbed to her injuries,” according to the CHP.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers responded to a Woodland Hills apartment building in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue around 7:35 a.m. Monday in response to a report of an unresponsive man in his 30s. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.
On Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner identified him as 29-year-old Jaelen Allen Chaney of Woodland Hills.
Police quickly began investigating possible ties between that killing and the discovery of the two children on the freeway, and a deadly crash that occurred around 5 a.m. Monday on Pacific Coast Highway and Vincent Street in Redondo Beach. In that crash, the driver of a black Porsche slammed into a tree, leaving the female motorist dead.
The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed law enforcement source not authorized to publicly speak about the investigation, reported that the Woodland Hills killing had occurred around 3:30 a.m. Monday, with a neighbor telling the paper his daughter heard screaming around that time.
Richard Berglund, who lives in the Montecito Apartments in Woodland Hills where the killing took place, said he was the one who found his neighbor’s body. He told The Times his daughter had left for work later that morning and seen blood in a hallway and an elevator. Berglund then went to the neighbor’s unit, where the door was open, and looked inside to see blood splattered around the unit and a man’s legs sticking out from the kitchen, the paper reported.
“The apartment was in disarray. Everything was knocked over,” he told The Times.
Berglund said he called 911 and the dispatcher told him to check on the man in the unit, who was lying face down wearing only socks and underwear. The man was dead, he said.
According to The Times, the infant who died on the freeway was an 8-month-old girl. Her 9-year-old sister, who was also found on the freeway, witnessed the Woodland Hills slaying earlier in the morning and told investigators what had happened, The Times reported.
Anyone with information about the Woodland Hills killing was asked to contact Detective Z. Guillermo at the LAPD’s Topanga Division, while anyone with details on the Redondo Beach crash should call Detective S. Martin with the Redondo Beach Police Department.
Anyone with information regarding the discovery of the girls on the freeway was asked to contact CHP Detective E. Kim at the Southern Division Major Crimes Unit at 323-644-9550. After business hours, people can call 323-259-3200.