When Dr John Johnson finally brought himself to look at the slain body of his beautiful 19-year-old daughter flown home from Iraq, he knew immediately he was looking at murder. This was no suicide from a self-inflicted M-16 wound, as the military would later claim.

Private LaVena Johnson's nose was broken, teeth were loose, one eye was concave and there were abrasions over her body. The supposed M-16 hole to the head was far too small for the revolver-sized exit wound, and was on the wrong side of her skull for a right-handed woman to have pulled the trigger. Her genital area showed evidence of acid, perhaps used to destroy DNA evidence. She had white military gloves glued to her burned hands.

When I asked LaVena's mother if she felt her daughter's case was being covered up by the US military, she replied without hesitation: "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind."

Three years after her daughter's body had been flown home from Iraq, it was still too painful for Linda Johnson to describe the first moments when she realised her daughter had been raped, shot, burned with acid, then dumped in a contractor's tent and set on fire.

"I'm telling you there is no pain like it - there is no pain like it in this world. My daughter, the way they took her and what they did to her - it's inhuman. I did not believe my daughter was placed among a group of predators. They treated her like an animal ... " Linda Johnson said, then added quietly: "And she was fighting for this country."

When the coroner ruled her death a suicide and failed to include any of the physical trauma in his report, Dr. Johnson told him, "Somebody murdered my daughter and you picked the wrong person to **** with."

It reads like next year's Oscar-winning screenplay, but there's no real-life ending in sight. The death was initially taped off as a crime scene but the investigation was shut down by a general's order.

The Johnsons are still fighting for answers. It was only recently, when they met anti-war activist Retired Colonel Ann Wright, that there has been a flicker of movement. Her contacts got Dr Johnson an audience with Congress. Since then, he's received word that LaVena's case may make it on to the congressional agenda.

Tragically, the Johnson family are not alone.

This is no single aberrant case. John Johnson has discovered far more stories that have matched his daughter's than he ever wanted to know. Ten other families of "suicide" female soldiers have contacted him. The common thread among them - rape.