City Confidential on A&E: What happened to Brittany-Jane Royal?

In one of the most bizarre cases Hawaii has ever seen, Brittany-Jane Royal's naked body was found in the ocean off Kalapana on May 28, 2013. This led to a string of unusual discoveries, including the decomposed dead body of a man hanging from a tree months later. The man was identified as Royal's boyfriend Boaz Johnson, who hanged himself after murdering his pregnant girlfriend.

Boaz was identified as Royal's killer based on the confessions he made in a three-page note before killing himself. He claimed to have strangled the 10-week pregnant woman over a domestic dispute before throwing her body in the ocean. The confessions also mentioned his intentions to take his own life.

This week's episode of City Confidential will take views back to 2013 when Big Island witnessed Brittany-Jane Royal's murder case. The episode, titled Big Island Blow Out, airs on A&E this Thursday, April 20, 2023, at 10 pm ET.

The synopsis for the upcoming episode reads:

"When a young woman's body is pulled from the ocean off the Big Island, Hawaii, accusations threaten to destroy the local community; as tensions grow, a surprising discovery leads detectives to a devastating truth that no one saw coming."

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Brittany-Jane Royal was 10 weeks pregnant when she was strangled and dumped in the ocean near Big Island

Brittany-Jane Royal, a 25-year-old originally from California, was pregnant and living in Hawaii with her 22-year-old boyfriend Boaz Johnson in 2013. Boaz was an Arctic fisherman from Alaska.

They were living at a campsite in a remote town on Big Island, and Royal had informed her parents about her pregnancy. Her mother said that they were all about the pregnancy and starting a new life.

However, it all ended when a fisherman found Brittany-Jane's body on May 28, 2013, in the ocean near Hawaii's Big Island. She was strangled and dumped in the ocean. Reports state that she was strangled with a cord, dragged across rocks, and thrown into the ocean.

While investigating her death, local police canvassed remote campsites and in one of them, they discovered a backpack with Johnson's ID inside. During the initial stages of the investigation, authorities suspected the involvement of her boyfriend Boaz Johnson, who was missing at the time.

However, Brittany-Jane's family members insisted that Boaz had no money to escape or motive to kill his pregnant girlfriend. He was scheduled to meet with a realtor before going missing but never showed up for the meeting.

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How was Brittany-Jane Royal's murder solved months after her strangulation death?

Brittany-Jane Royal met her boyfriend Boaz Johnson just a couple of months before her death. They soon got pregnant and declared their plans for the future. Royal planned to work as a yoga instructor and open her own studio one day, while Johnson wanted to give lava tours in Kalapana. However, after Royal's body was found, authorities were actively searching for him as a murder suspect.

The case took a complicated turn in September when a local news site received an anonymous letter that alleged Johnson was killed following racial tensions. The letter also mentioned specific details about the claimed murder. It stated that the missing man intended to buy land on the island and conduct lava tours without giving the locals their cut.

Police only got a breakthrough the following January when a man walking in the woods found the decomposed body of a man hanging from a tree. The man was later identified as Boaz Johnson using dental records. A three-page note found on him stated that he murdered Brittany-Jane Royal, after a domestic argument over their unborn child on May 27, 2013. He killed himself after her body was found.

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A&E's City Confidential will further delve into the case on Thursday, April 20, 2023, at 10 pm ET.