On December 26, 2022, Christina Ra'e Hobbs, a 26-year-old white woman, was found deceased in an apartment at the Florida Vista Condominiums on Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She had died from a gunshot wound, and authorities initially investigated her death as a suicide. For seven months, that was the official story, but the discovery of a second victim at the same address would force investigators to uncover a grim and violent truth.
The case was dormant until July 3,
2023, when police were called back to the very same apartment unit. There, they found the body of 42-year-old Rachel Johnson, who had been beaten to death. Her death was immediately ruled a homicide, and the investigation led police to a person of interest, Cedrick Demond Lang, then 35. The shocking coincidence of two women dying violently in the same apartment prompted investigators to take a second, harder look at Christina’s death.
As detectives delved into the circumstances surrounding both deaths, they learned that Lang, Hobbs, and Johnson were all acquainted, and the two women were friends. With new evidence gathered in the course of the investigation into Johnson's murder, police reclassified Christina’s death as a homicide. Lang, already a suspect in the beating death of Rachel Johnson, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in both killings. He was also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly taking a firearm from the scene of Christina's shooting.
Cedric Lang went to trial for the deaths of both women. In March 2026, a jury returned its verdict, finding the 37-year-old guilty of negligent homicide in the death of Christina Hobbs and manslaughter in the death of Rachel Johnson. He was also convicted on the obstruction of justice charge. As of that month, Lang was awaiting a sentencing hearing scheduled for May 21, 2026.
