While the recent eclipse visible across the United States served for some as a once-in-a-lifetime communal experience, for Danielle Johnson and her family, it was a much more disturbing event.
Johnson, a 34-year-old woman who worked as an astrology influencer based in Los Angeles, killed her partner, eight-month-old baby and herself, plus injured her nine-year-old child, seemingly in response to the eclipse.
On the day of the solar event, April 8, she was driving her car, a Porsche SUV, through a busy freeway in Los Angeles around 4:30am local time, when she pushed her two children out of the moving car, and later, speeding at over 100mph, crashed into a tree in Redondo Beach, killing herself.
Per a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department, Johnson and her partner, Jaelen Chaney, 29, had become "involved in a verbal altercation that escalated into Johnson becoming violent."
Johnson stabbed Chaney to death, before fleeing her residence with her two children. After being expelled from the car, the eight-month old was later pronounced dead at the scene, while the nine-year-old "sustained moderate injuries from the fall and was transported to a local hospital."
Per the Associated Press, Johnson, under the moniker "Ayoka" on X, formerly known as Twitter, described the forthcoming eclipse as "the epitome of spiritual warfare" in the days leading up to the murders.
© GettyShe wrote: "Get your protection on and your heart in the right place," and emphasized: "The world is very obviously changing right now and if you ever needed to pick a side, the time to do right in your life is now. Stay strong you got this."
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Another tweet from April 5 also read: "WAKE UP WAKE UP THE APOCALYPSE IS HERE. EVERYONE WHO HAS EARS LISTEN. YOUR TIME TO CHOOSE WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS NOW. IF YOU BELIEVE A NEW WORLD IS POSSIBLE FOR THE PEOPLE RT NOW."
© Getty"THERE IS POWER IN CHOICE. THERE IS POWER IN CHOICE!!!! REPOST TO MAKE THE CHOICE FOR THE COLLECTIVE."
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Still, Lieutenant Guy Golan, head of the homicide unit investigating the case, told the AP that though they have reviewed the concerning posts, they are not considering the eclipse to be a contributing factor to her actions "because we just don't know why she did what she did."
He maintained: "We've taken all the facts we can, but without being able to interview her and without having something more tangible than a post on X, I don't know how much weight you can give to somebody [saying] there's an apocalypse and attribute it to one of the most horrific murders we've had in LA."
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