Speaker 1: Hey listeners, just a quick note to let you know
Speaker 1: that this week we are taking a break from our
Speaker 1: regular release schedule to bring you a special bonus episode.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune in next week when we return
Speaker 1: with episode five. If you miss past episodes, you can
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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
Speaker 1: those of the individuals interviewed and participating in the show,
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Speaker 1: All individuals described or mentioned in the podcast should be
Speaker 1: considered innocent until found guilty in a court of law.
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Speaker 1: which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion
Speaker 1: is advised. Hey everybody, Jessica here. In this special bonus episode,
Speaker 1: we're continuing our behind the scenes analysis of Jessica Easterly
Speaker 1: Derning's case. Now that we're a few episodes in we're
Speaker 1: starting to hear more about some of the events that
Speaker 1: happened before and after Jessica's death. In this episode, we
Speaker 1: want to provide some insider perspective on what it looks
Speaker 1: like to investigate a case like this, as well as
Speaker 1: offer an overview of what we know about how NPD's
Speaker 1: investmenttigation has been going up to this point in the podcast.
Speaker 1: Joining me here to offer an experience perspective on investigations
Speaker 1: is of course, our own former detective Todd Macoma's Hey Todd.
Speaker 2: Hey Jessica, thanks for having me so.
Speaker 1: Todd, There's one thing that I want to know right
Speaker 1: off the bat before we go deep into this investigation.
Speaker 1: Tell me what it's like to investigate a case like
Speaker 1: this for a true crime podcast as opposed to what
Speaker 1: it was like investigating it as a police detective.
Speaker 2: I really like it.
Speaker 3: I wondered initially what it was going to be like
Speaker 3: compared to being a police detective. But what I'm finding
Speaker 3: is now I get to focus one hundred percent of
Speaker 3: my energy, time and effort on just one case, one
Speaker 3: investigation right now. When you're a police detective, you have
Speaker 3: a stack of other cases that compete with the one
Speaker 3: you're trying to devote your efforts to and there's all
Speaker 3: the other things that come with working for a government agency,
Speaker 3: the bureaucracy of it, you training, the interrupts things.
Speaker 2: All the time that you have to attend.
Speaker 3: You might have to stop a criminal investigation because they
Speaker 3: need you to do an applicant background investigation. So all
Speaker 3: those things I really really like. I like that we
Speaker 3: can go so in depth and just focus our efforts
Speaker 3: in one direction.
Speaker 1: And something that I have always had to deal with
Speaker 1: being a journalist is not having necessarily access to everything
Speaker 1: that has to do with the case. And so that's
Speaker 1: kind of different for you. And maybe one of the
Speaker 1: drawbacks in this type of investigation, Oh.
Speaker 3: Man, it tries to be bonkers not to have all
Speaker 3: the tools and resources that I had while I was
Speaker 3: a police detective, you know, being able to just quickly
Speaker 3: run on someone's driver's record, their criminal history, you know,
Speaker 3: just to call another police department and them openly share
Speaker 3: any information they have on someone that you're looking into.
Speaker 3: All those things are hampering and they do handcuff.
Speaker 2: Us a bit.
Speaker 3: But again it's it's a new challenge also, right, so
Speaker 3: to have to navigate the challenges of that is stimulating.
Speaker 1: I find I also think it forces us to get
Speaker 1: creative and take our investigation to a different level and
Speaker 1: then bring it back to the whole storytelling aspect of this, right,
Speaker 1: you know, focusing on the victim's story. And also I
Speaker 1: have found as a journalist we can sometimes get people
Speaker 1: to talk that may not want to talk to law enforcement.
Speaker 3: Those interviews it's a different dynamic because You're right, it
Speaker 3: can be scary talking to the police. So we're just
Speaker 3: talking to people that are potential witnesses, or that we
Speaker 3: know are witnesses, or we're just trying to gather that
Speaker 3: initial round of information. A lot of times we can
Speaker 3: get them to open up more so than when I
Speaker 3: walk in with a badge on my belt and a
Speaker 3: gun on my hip. And I've learned a lot from
Speaker 3: you in that regard, because you've been interviewing people under
Speaker 3: these circumstances your entire career, and I'm really enjoying that
Speaker 3: aspect as well. And listen, I now compare this to
Speaker 3: because I like to use my experience, I'm really going
Speaker 3: to kick out of using my experience to be able
Speaker 3: to analyze a police investigation now, So I very much
Speaker 3: find myself in a position now like Troy Aikman, you
Speaker 3: know who used to play in the NFL and now
Speaker 3: he's going to armchair quarterback instead of quarterback and be
Speaker 3: an analyst.
Speaker 2: Of the game.
Speaker 1: Or Tony Romo or Tony Romo.
Speaker 2: Ah, I'm an Akman fanily can I say?
Speaker 3: And you know, I think because when I first started podcasting,
Speaker 3: there were literally no cops podcasting. Now again, I started
Speaker 3: in the comedy realm, in the sports realm, but as
Speaker 3: I started to gravitate back toward that law enforcement world
Speaker 3: and eventually into true crime, there were very few cops podcasting.
Speaker 2: If any.
Speaker 3: And now just in a matter of three four years,
Speaker 3: it's flooded. The podcast industry is flooded with former forensic experts,
Speaker 3: lab personnel, police, former prosecutors or current prosecutors. And I'm
Speaker 3: happy to see it because I know for you, it
Speaker 3: was initially kind of an investigative journalist thing. But now
Speaker 3: that we have people like you and people like me
Speaker 3: that can mesh together, it's a well rounded, in depth
Speaker 3: look into these cases.
Speaker 2: And I think it's only.
Speaker 3: Improving the quality of the podcast in regards to how
Speaker 3: effective they are with helping these.
Speaker 1: Families right, let's talk a little bit about We just
Speaker 1: came out of the Jessica V episode. We've heard the
Speaker 1: caam footage from the first two episodes, so we have
Speaker 1: a lot of police interaction with THEPD so far with
Speaker 1: characters within this story. So I want to kind of
Speaker 1: go into a little bit of depth with you of
Speaker 1: things that should have been done from the moment she
Speaker 1: went missing, from the moment she was found. We had
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about investigating not just from that
Speaker 1: moment she was missing, but starting to look back at
Speaker 1: her life prior to that day she went missing. So
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about as a detective,
Speaker 1: how you go into this case from ground zero.
Speaker 3: Okay, So, what the listener so far has been able
Speaker 3: to experience in witness is the initial taking of a
Speaker 3: missing person's report. That's what the bodycam footage was about.
Speaker 3: That's what Officer Gantner was doing. What they haven't been
Speaker 3: privy to yet, and to beyond, we're not privy too
Speaker 3: because we have not been handed the case file is
Speaker 3: what happens after that. So we heard Officer Gantner speak
Speaker 3: over the phone with Detective One. Detective One at that
Speaker 3: time was a detective assign to the missing person's unit.
Speaker 3: So his job from that point is to do some
Speaker 3: of the things you just touched on. The main focus
Speaker 3: is going to be trying to fill in gaps in
Speaker 3: Jessica's timeline.
Speaker 2: The officers that.
Speaker 3: Initially responded to take the missing person's report, they did
Speaker 3: a good job of filling in the timeline for the
Speaker 3: most part, hours prior day of her disappearance. Now it's
Speaker 3: the detective's job to go back further, go back weeks,
Speaker 3: maybe even months, to try to determine if there was
Speaker 3: a significant change in her life, if there was a
Speaker 3: signal an event that occurred that could possibly be directly
Speaker 3: related to why she is now deceased.
Speaker 1: And one of those things that we already know from
Speaker 1: the bodycam footage and from Maria herself is there was
Speaker 1: some turmoil in Jessica's life the day before and leading
Speaker 1: up to the day she went missing.
Speaker 3: They have that knowledge, sure, So now he's going to
Speaker 3: take an in depth dive, or he should take an
Speaker 3: in depth dive in filling in that timeline and maybe
Speaker 3: what led up to the events that Maria touches upon
Speaker 3: when she relays that information to the police to cause
Speaker 3: the missing person's report to even occur. So he's going
Speaker 3: to start with the husband. Most cases like this do
Speaker 3: most cases like this, where you have a missing person
Speaker 3: under suspicious circumstances, you have some suspicious information or at
Speaker 3: least concerning information coming in from the initial reporting party Maria.
Speaker 2: So now you.
Speaker 3: Start with that husband because that's the person, for one,
Speaker 3: as far as you know, was the last.
Speaker 2: Person to see her before she went missing.
Speaker 3: And also he's going to have the most intimate knowledge
Speaker 3: of what's happening in her life day to day, so
Speaker 3: you expect him to immediately touch base that next morning,
Speaker 3: if not an hour or two after the report is generated,
Speaker 3: and really explore with him what was going on in
Speaker 3: the last couple months. Did you see anything, did you
Speaker 3: get suspicious of anything significant that was going on with
Speaker 3: her that would cause her to want to leave or
Speaker 3: could cause someone to have done something horrible to her.
Speaker 2: It starts there, and then you go to other.
Speaker 3: People that are intimately involved in her life, family, very
Speaker 3: close friends. All this an attempt to create that timeline.
Speaker 3: Now you don't have to rely on people's word either,
Speaker 3: right because we're in the technological.
Speaker 2: Age that we are.
Speaker 3: One are the very first steps you're going to do
Speaker 3: to help complete that timeline. Is you going to send
Speaker 3: or you should send a preservation request to the service
Speaker 3: provider of her cellular device, as well as probably the
Speaker 3: husband's anyone else who could be very intimately connected with
Speaker 3: her in.
Speaker 2: The time period preceding her disappearance.
Speaker 1: Stepping away a little bit from the technology side of things,
Speaker 1: boots on the ground, I mean, canvassing the neighborhood. You
Speaker 1: and I we spoke to people in that neighborhood who
Speaker 1: had no idea that someone had gone missing, someone had
Speaker 1: been found dead. In fact, someone we spoke to didn't
Speaker 1: know for a year until he saw flyer up asking
Speaker 1: for information. He had no idea that in his own neighborhood,
Speaker 1: what was it, a block away from his home, there
Speaker 1: was a body found.
Speaker 3: Well, this is where the detective is going to elicit
Speaker 3: the help of the uniform side of the house officers
Speaker 3: that work that area. He's going to reach out to them.
Speaker 3: He's going to say, hey, I'm going to be doing
Speaker 3: some stuff. I'm going to be sending out preservation requests
Speaker 3: all these cellular providers, and then the same thing for
Speaker 3: you know, Facebook accounts, social media stuff. Because, for one,
Speaker 3: if you ever want to go back to actually view
Speaker 3: texts from her device in particular, that's going to disappear
Speaker 3: in a matter of days, that gets purged.
Speaker 2: By the phone company.
Speaker 3: But if you send that preservation request, the cellular provider
Speaker 3: will freeze that from happening until they hear back from
Speaker 3: you and you say it's okay to go ahead and purge,
Speaker 3: So that will always be there in case you need
Speaker 3: to subpoena or get a court order or search.
Speaker 2: Weren't for it.
Speaker 1: Later, even if someone were to delete it from the
Speaker 1: actual device.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that doesn't matter, right, It's going to be on
Speaker 3: the server. So two things, You'll be able to get
Speaker 3: some insight on communications she was having preceding her disappearing.
Speaker 3: It's if not the content of it, who she was
Speaker 3: communicating with. You also be able to check for geolocation
Speaker 3: where she physically was in that timeline. So those things
Speaker 3: are happening, they're going to tie you down to a
Speaker 3: desk for a while. So let's reach out now to
Speaker 3: the uniform side of the house officers that work that
Speaker 3: district and say I need a thorough canvas right away
Speaker 3: of that Lakeview neighborhood. Okay, Now at this point she's
Speaker 3: not found yet, she's still a missing person, So you
Speaker 3: really want to focus heavy on that neighborhood. Do houses
Speaker 3: nearby have cameras on them, blink systems, whatever, And if
Speaker 3: they find those, then get permission from the homeowner to
Speaker 3: maybe dump that footage and start to review it. Do
Speaker 3: we see her walk off, Do we see a car
Speaker 3: pull up at the intersection near her home and pick
Speaker 3: her up after she walks off? Any of these things
Speaker 3: that could be important to help fill in that timeline.
Speaker 3: And here's something else to keep in mind right when
Speaker 3: we're looking for maybe eyewitness within the neighborhood during this
Speaker 3: canvas or hopefully some video footage, is that we know
Speaker 3: she left items at her home that a person would
Speaker 3: normally take with them. She didn't leave in her own car.
Speaker 3: She left her wallet, her ID, all these things, her phone,
Speaker 3: things that a normal person would take with them if
Speaker 3: they were just going to go run an errand, or
Speaker 3: even if you were going to run off with the
Speaker 3: intention of never coming back, you would want to have
Speaker 3: those things on you. So officers and detectives should not
Speaker 3: be afraid to use common sense in the absence of evidence. Yet,
Speaker 3: or to follow their gut. When you're armed with that information,
Speaker 3: you have to immediately use common sense and think, well,
Speaker 3: she left that home on foot.
Speaker 1: I do want to point out, though we also don't
Speaker 1: know if she left by foot.
Speaker 3: What if there's camera footage from a neighbor's house the
Speaker 3: covers the front her house, and another camera from another
Speaker 3: neighbor's house that covers the rear exit or the side exit,
Speaker 3: and during this timeframe you never see that door open.
Speaker 2: That could be important.
Speaker 3: Right we have video of every exit from that house
Speaker 3: and we never see her leave. Wouldn't that be important
Speaker 3: information because that would contradict probably what you were told
Speaker 3: initially when this missing person's report was taken.
Speaker 2: I mean, think about this.
Speaker 3: I worked at a time well before body camps as
Speaker 3: a detective. So if I wasn't the first person at
Speaker 3: the scene to take the initial report, which many times
Speaker 3: I was not, I had to rely on that first
Speaker 3: responding officer's report, which is going to be a summary
Speaker 3: as best that officer can recall by the time they
Speaker 3: sit down to actually type out that report. Now, why
Speaker 3: would I want to rely on that when I could
Speaker 3: visually and audibly win witness the interaction with the person live,
Speaker 3: I'm going to hear exactly how it happened.
Speaker 2: Not only that, because I can see it visually.
Speaker 3: Not only can I hear exactly what the person was reporting,
Speaker 3: but I can visually see body languids, facial expression, all
Speaker 3: those nonverbal behaviors that are important when trying to determine
Speaker 3: if you're getting truthful information from them. So it's an
Speaker 3: invaluable tool, and it is standard practice today for detectives
Speaker 3: to pull that bodycam footage and then thoroughly look through
Speaker 3: it to aid them in their investigation.
Speaker 1: Just to be fair, we don't know because we don't
Speaker 1: have access to the case file or any investigative notes
Speaker 1: from Detective lun or anyone else with the n OPD.
Speaker 1: Maybe they did use the bodycamp footage as part of
Speaker 1: that investigation. Maybe they did thoroughly canvass the neighborhood, albeit
Speaker 1: not with neighbors we spoke to. But let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about how police have had this case for
Speaker 1: ten days and her family from out of state who
Speaker 1: comes in to do a search uncovers her body.
Speaker 3: Okay, so let's think in these terms everything that I
Speaker 3: just talked about. We don't know obviously, whether or not
Speaker 3: those were things that were done by detective Want or
Speaker 3: anyone else for that matter. We just know that these
Speaker 3: are things that should be done. So everything I just
Speaker 3: listed off should let the listener know. At this point
Speaker 3: this case potentially had a lot of positive things working
Speaker 3: for it. Now it's in the hands initially for somewhere
Speaker 3: between seven and ten days of a missing person's detective
Speaker 3: and the family is not hearing anything back. According to them,
Speaker 3: that leads them to believe that any sort of physical
Speaker 3: search in the nearby and surrounding area of her home
Speaker 3: is going to be conducted by police or anyone via police.
Speaker 3: So they're organizing their own search. They're going to go
Speaker 3: scalt best locations in that area to form a search
Speaker 3: party and conduct.
Speaker 2: Their own search. That shouldn't have to be done.
Speaker 3: Not to say that police have time on every missing
Speaker 3: person's case to pull in a bunch of bodies and
Speaker 3: conduct searches everywhere that they can find in the surrounding
Speaker 3: area of where the person went missing. What they have
Speaker 3: to do is take a look at the circumstances surrounding
Speaker 3: that person's disappearance in its totality, is it suspicious, Does
Speaker 3: it lead me to believe in my gut and using
Speaker 3: my common sense that it's likely this person fell victim
Speaker 3: to foul play of some sort, and then decide from there.
Speaker 2: Okay, I know I can't.
Speaker 3: Do this in every case, but this is a case
Speaker 3: that I think likely is going to elevate into something
Speaker 3: much worse. So I'm going into help as much as
Speaker 3: I can with that. Not that I can pull thirty
Speaker 3: or forty cops off the street from what they're doing.
Speaker 3: We know New Orleans is a very busy city and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of violent crime there and a lot
Speaker 3: of things actively to be worked on that you don't
Speaker 3: want to pull that many people away from being able
Speaker 3: to respond to. But there are resources within the area
Speaker 3: of New Orleans in every big city to lead a
Speaker 3: search and get community involvement. You know, you can use
Speaker 3: the National Guard. There are these other private resources that
Speaker 3: you can access to bring you bodies to search, and
Speaker 3: all you got to do is help manage it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to jump ahead a little bit to this
Speaker 1: encounter that Jessica Vee had and the letter that she received.
Speaker 1: I think the episode flushed that out enough, but I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about the interactions that she had
Speaker 1: with NPD and get your take on how they could
Speaker 1: have used Jessica v as more of a re source
Speaker 1: than they did.
Speaker 3: So a couple of things with Jessica Vee. Without reiterating
Speaker 3: all the details of the interaction she had with Justin,
Speaker 3: we do know that she was concerned enough that she
Speaker 3: reached out to police and whoever it was on the
Speaker 3: police and told her there was not a homicide investigator
Speaker 3: assigned to this investigation. So they direct her to the
Speaker 3: coroner's office because from other things that she is telling them,
Speaker 3: they are concerned that this might be a mental health crisis,
Speaker 3: so they direct her the coroner's office because that's the
Speaker 3: first stage and initiating maybe a seventy two hour mental
Speaker 3: health hold, an involuntary hold of someone for mental health concerns.
Speaker 2: So she goes.
Speaker 3: There and despite the lack of professionalism and some of
Speaker 3: the things that happened, protocol wise, things are done correctly.
Speaker 3: What I don't like about it was that a copy
Speaker 3: of made of this letter and then prepares her paperwork
Speaker 3: and then puts it in an envelope along with possibly
Speaker 3: the original letter, seals it up and then gives it
Speaker 3: back to Jessica Vie and says, what you need to
Speaker 3: do now is go hand deliver this to this office
Speaker 3: within the police department. So now she's acting as kind
Speaker 3: of an employee herself of this process, like she's an
Speaker 3: employee of the City of New Orleans and has to
Speaker 3: go do this. The reason I don't like that is
Speaker 3: it's very discouraging for people.
Speaker 2: To bring forward information.
Speaker 3: It's scary enough to interject yourself into this situation if
Speaker 3: you're Jessica Vee, But now that just adds further discouragement
Speaker 3: of her or anyone else ever wanting to do the
Speaker 3: right thing and insert themselves in such a situation.
Speaker 2: And then she gets to the police.
Speaker 3: Department, and you know, they do properly what they should
Speaker 3: to help initiate a seventy two our mental health hold.
Speaker 2: On an individual.
Speaker 3: But there are other circumstances involved here. This is wrapped
Speaker 3: within now at this point, a death investigation that is
Speaker 3: considered suspicious.
Speaker 2: There are suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 3: The police department knows that a detective currently assigned to
Speaker 3: that case knows that, and whether or not this particular
Speaker 3: person she dealt with has any kind of direct knowledge
Speaker 3: of this.
Speaker 2: They are now being informed.
Speaker 3: By Jessica Vee of the parties, and after a quick
Speaker 3: little CAD search, you would see that this is in place.
Speaker 3: So then you might want to get a hold of
Speaker 3: the detective that is assigned jess Caasereely during death investigation, right,
Speaker 3: whether that be a district detective or whoever has it
Speaker 3: at that point, reach out to them and let them
Speaker 3: know what's going on, so at least they have the
Speaker 3: chance to decide whether or not Jessicavi's intervention now is
Speaker 3: of use to that investigation if you decide it is.
Speaker 3: There are a couple creative outside the things that are
Speaker 3: simple to do, and I have done very similar things
Speaker 3: in my career, and I've witnessed it done by other
Speaker 3: people in investigations similar to this before. And that is
Speaker 3: simply I have a person here who had what they
Speaker 3: deem as an uncomfortable interaction with the husband of Jessica
Speaker 3: Easterly Journey.
Speaker 2: That's my victim.
Speaker 3: That person seems very forthcoming in conversation with information about
Speaker 3: the death of his wife to this person, Jessica V.
Speaker 3: Maybe I could explore the possibility of using Jessica V
Speaker 3: as a means of recording conversations either over telephone or
Speaker 3: in person with Justin Dearney.
Speaker 2: Now, at this point, we don't.
Speaker 3: Know obviously if Justin is considered a suspect or if
Speaker 3: he is not considered a suspect. But what we know
Speaker 3: is that there are some suspicious things surrounding her disappearance
Speaker 3: and her death. So it's possible that they're considering that
Speaker 3: option or they're not ready to dismiss him as a
Speaker 3: person of interest.
Speaker 2: Story suspect yet.
Speaker 3: So this could be a mechanism to help you get
Speaker 3: off or on the fence about this with Justin to
Speaker 3: decide once and for all if he's someone who should
Speaker 3: be considered a person of interest or a suspect or.
Speaker 1: Not not necessarily information that's going to implicate him, but
Speaker 1: just additional information that had not been gathered yet from police.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I will be looking to see if he provides
Speaker 3: information that contradicts information that he reported to my officers.
Speaker 3: If so, you know, that's going to be of concern.
Speaker 3: You know, I just think it's an opportunity. And again,
Speaker 3: I've done this before in past investigations I was involved with,
Speaker 3: So it's something that's easily done. And I'm not saying
Speaker 3: Jessica vee would even be willing to do it, But
Speaker 3: you know it's worth exploring beyond this seventy two our
Speaker 3: mental health hoold.
Speaker 1: We don't know if once she was found then that
Speaker 1: investigation was then handed off to another investigator. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that there was a homicide detective on
Speaker 1: the scene when her body was discovered, but we don't
Speaker 1: know from that point on who may have been investigating it.
Speaker 1: Talk to me a little todd about why it would
Speaker 1: be so harmful if there was a gap in the
Speaker 1: investigation while they're waiting on a manner of death. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is we go from missing
Speaker 1: person to death investigation. Meanwhile, six months later, her cause
Speaker 1: and manner death is ruled as undetermined.
Speaker 3: Let's explore that, and maybe this is a good way
Speaker 3: to wrap up this conversation.
Speaker 2: Let's thoroughly look into just.
Speaker 3: What happens in cases like this when missing person's report
Speaker 3: is first made. Obviously that and immediately gets assigned to
Speaker 3: a detective within the missing person's unit. If your agency
Speaker 3: has such a thing, Larger agencies do, so let's just
Speaker 3: stick with protocol at these large agencies, so it goes
Speaker 3: immediately to a missing person's detective, and it will stay
Speaker 3: with that missing person's detective until that person is no
Speaker 3: longer missing, meaning they are found alive or deceased. In
Speaker 3: this instance, she's found deceased seven or ten days later.
Speaker 3: So at that point it leaves the hands of the
Speaker 3: missing person's detective. It gets transferred to a detective at.
Speaker 2: The district level.
Speaker 3: So once we know this is a death investigation, you're
Speaker 3: going to have a homicide detective and a district detective
Speaker 3: show up when that body's found, and there's a conversation
Speaker 3: that takes place. Both just kind of way I've seen this.
Speaker 3: Both are like chomping at the bed. You know, am
Speaker 3: I going to get to work this case? Or am
Speaker 3: I going to get to work this case? Well, you
Speaker 3: hope for that because you want detectives to be passionate
Speaker 3: about solving these cases. So both will be there and
Speaker 3: then there will be an initial determination of is this
Speaker 3: going to most likely be a homicide or not. So
Speaker 3: if the determination is made, we can't say that this
Speaker 3: is probably going to be a homicide, So right now
Speaker 3: we're going to assign a district detective to it. If
Speaker 3: something changes because of the medical examiners examination, and as
Speaker 3: classified as a homicide, then that district detective will hand
Speaker 3: it off to the homicide detective.
Speaker 2: Now, all this I.
Speaker 3: Could give a shit less about from an investigation standpoint,
Speaker 3: because there should be no gaps, as you mentioned, in
Speaker 3: investigating this case, and everybody should be working it in
Speaker 3: the same manner, regardless of the title of the unit
Speaker 3: that you work with. In so everything the detective lun
Speaker 3: is doing would be the same things that the district
Speaker 3: detective and that the homicide detective would be if they
Speaker 3: were working this from the ground up. So once it's
Speaker 3: handed off, it should be a seamless transition for the
Speaker 3: missing person's detective to hand this off to the district detective.
Speaker 3: The district detective now has all the information. They will
Speaker 3: work in concert with the missing person's detective for a
Speaker 3: period of time long enough that they feel comfortable Okay,
Speaker 3: I am up to speed to where you are. I
Speaker 3: can now take it over, and then the missing person's
Speaker 3: detective is freed up to work other missing person's cases.
Speaker 3: So the district detective has it and picks up where
Speaker 3: they left off. Hopefully everything that we discussed earlier has
Speaker 3: already been done. That's the advantage this district detective has,
Speaker 3: so now his job is to follow up from there. Okay,
Speaker 3: help solidify that timeline. If there are still gaps, I know,
Speaker 3: I've got these preservation requests for all this data from
Speaker 3: electronic devices and social media accounts. I can now decide
Speaker 3: if I want to send subpoenas, court orders or warrants
Speaker 3: for that stuff, and continue to try to find more
Speaker 3: and more people to talk to. Then when we reach
Speaker 3: this point in January where finally a cause and manner
Speaker 3: of death is listed, each undetermined, then we know it's
Speaker 3: going to stay with that district detective. It's not gonna
Speaker 3: be handed off to a homicide detective. But the emphasis
Speaker 3: I want to place on this is, let's say it
Speaker 3: does at some point change to a homicide, and then
Speaker 3: it must be transferred from the district detective to a
Speaker 3: homicide detective who gives a shit. It does not change
Speaker 3: the way you investigate this. And I will say this,
Speaker 3: if within this process at NPD we find out that
Speaker 3: there is a gap that someone at some investigative level
Speaker 3: is not working it because they're just simply waiting for
Speaker 3: the right classification or for the right circumstances to present themselves.
Speaker 3: That will be a shame because that's potentially catastrophic to
Speaker 3: this investigation.
Speaker 1: Sure, because we're going from the first forty eight to
Speaker 1: the first six months, and how much of anything then
Speaker 1: is completely gone and lost.
Speaker 3: So we just have to hope that's not the case
Speaker 3: here because there would be irreversible damage costs from that.
Speaker 3: So we have to hope for the best and that
Speaker 3: everybody is doing the right things up to this point,
Speaker 3: and that if a handoff must occur, that that happens
Speaker 3: seamlessly and it does not burden this investigation at all.
Speaker 1: Well, what you and I can tell listeners at this
Speaker 1: point we will be talking to the NOPD to find
Speaker 1: out where their investigation stands.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode. I want to
Speaker 1: remind you again that we'll be back next Tuesday with
Speaker 1: episode five. Until then. Is a production of Resonate Recordings
Speaker 1: and Tenderfoot TV in conjunction with Cadence thirteen, written and
Speaker 1: hosted by me Jessica Nole and produced by Dennis Cooper
Speaker 1: and Todd McComas, with additional production by Whitney Bozarth. Executive
Speaker 1: producers are Dennis Cooper, Mark Minnery, Jacob Bozarth, Donald Albright,
Speaker 1: and Payne Lindsay. Our senior producer is John Street. Editing, mixing,
Speaker 1: mastering and sound design by Caleb Melcher, Dayton Cole and
Speaker 1: Pat Kicklider of the Resonate Recordings team. If you have
Speaker 1: a podcast or are looking to start one, check us
Speaker 1: out at Resonate Recordings dot com. Our theme song and
Speaker 1: original score is by Dirt Poor Robbins, with additional scoring
Speaker 1: by Dayton Cole. Our cover art is by Station sixteen.
Speaker 1: You can follow Undetermined Podcast on Facebook and on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Undetermined Pod. Show notes as well as bonus content
Speaker 1: can be found on our website undeterminedpod dot com. If
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode, please take time to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. And finally, if
Speaker 1: you have any information about this case, call crime Stoppers
Speaker 1: at one eight seven seven nine zero three seven eight
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