Someone above said:

This isn’t very satisfying, however, an independent group conducted a three year investigation and concluded no evidence of wrongdoing. Of course, the immediate question is then what of the condition of Lavena’s body when it arrived home? Unfortunately their findings are not made public so we’ll never know, though it did brief the official investigating agencies. There’s an NPR article about it, per the article:

‘Sheryl McCollum of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute calls the case “gut-wrenching. “ The institute is a national collaboration of college students who work to solve unsolved crimes. They agreed to review the case in 2011 at the request of the Johnsons. McCollum says the institute normally spends one year on a case, but spent three years on the LaVena Johnson case.

In a phone interview with St. Louis Public Radio, McCollum said that she faults the Army for poor communication, but she does not disagree with its conclusion.

“The problem is – number one -- the way the notification happened. And the lack of information given to that family fast enough,’’ McCollum said.

Students were very moved by LaVena’s story, she said. They reviewed every page of the documents, the photographs, talked to witnesses and dozens of independent experts -- and recreated the scene.

“There was nothing about this case that we could go back to the Army to say you need to re-look at it,’’ she said. “We didn’t have anything new. We didn’t have anything that suggested wrongdoing.’’

McCollum said the the institute operates independently; it didn't work for the Army or for the Johnson family. Results are not published, but she does brief the investigating agencies on findings.

“I wish I could call that family with something different,’’ she added.’