LA police say woman threw her 2 girls, one of whom died, onto freeway after killing partner

LOS ANGELES — A little girl and her 9-year-old sister were found on a busy highway in the Los Angeles area and thrown from a moving SUV. Investigators believe their mother was responsible and died by suicide after also killing her partner, authorities said Tuesday.

The eight-month-old child was pronounced dead at the scene early Monday and the older girl was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, according to law enforcement officials.

The girls’ mother, Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, fatally stabbed her partner, Jaelen Allen Chaney, in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and fled in a Porsche Cayenne , according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The couple had an argument in the early morning hours that turned violent, and detectives found a knife at the scene “containing biological evidence,” authorities said.

Johnson, 34, then drove along Interstate 405 in Culver City, about 9 miles west of downtown LA, and her daughters were “expelled” from the SUV while it was in motion, the LAPD said. The girls’ names have not been released.

Half an hour later, the LAPD said, Johnson was driving more than 100 miles per hour when she crashed into a tree in Redondo Beach, about 20 miles southwest of downtown LA. Investigators said the solo crash was an apparent suicide.

The medical examiner identified Chaney as 29. Although police were called to his apartment after neighbors saw the front door open around 7:30 a.m. and he was pronounced dead there, investigators believe he was killed before the children were discovered on the highway.