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CULVER CITY (CNS) - A Woodland Hills mother killed her male partner in a Woodland Hills apartment, then fled with her two children, who later were either pushed or fell from her moving car on the San Diego (405) Freeway before the woman crashed her car at high speed and died in Redondo Beach, authorities said Tuesday.
Authorities on Tuesday identified the woman believed to be behind the deadly crime spree as Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, 34.
The deadly series of events unfolded at about 4:30 a.m. Monday, when the California Highway Patrol responded to the northbound 405 Freeway near the Sepulveda Boulevard/Howard Hughes Parkway exit in Culver City, where they found an 8-month-old girl on the roadway and a 9-year-old girl 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.
According to police, Chaney and Johnson got into a verbal altercation around 3:40 a.m. Monday "that escalated into Johnson becoming violent, stabbing Chaney, who succumbed to his injuries at scene." Johnson then fled the scene in a dark-colored Porsche with her two children, police said.
Police said a knife "with biological evidence" was recovered.
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 was traveling at speeds topping 100 mph when she slammed into a tree, leaving the female motorist dead.
Richard Berglund, who lives in the Montecito Apartments in Woodland Hills where the killing took place, told the Los Angeles Times 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 LAPD Operations Valley Bureau Homicide Detectives at 818-374-9550, or during non-business hours, at 877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anonymous tips can be made through Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or at www.lacrimestoppers.org.
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.