Speaker 1: Hey, listeners Jessica here, be sure to check out new
Speaker 1: episodes of Undetermined every Tuesday for free wherever you get
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Speaker 1: Tenderfoot plus on Apple Podcasts. The views and opinions expressed
Speaker 1: in this podcast are solely those of the individuals interviewed
Speaker 1: and participating in the show, and do not represent those
Speaker 1: of Tenderfoot TV and Resonate recordings. All individuals described or
Speaker 1: mentioned in the podcast should be considered innocent until found
Speaker 1: guilty in a court of law. This podcast contains subject
Speaker 1: matter such as violence and graphic descriptions, which may not
Speaker 1: be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. October
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the same month, Jessica's neighbor Laura sees authority
Speaker 1: swabbing of futon and head board near the driveway of
Speaker 1: the Journeys residence. A heated text message exchange starts between
Speaker 1: a man from the Lakeview neighborhood and another individual who
Speaker 1: he believes to be a fellow neighbor.
Speaker 2: I guess if you ask like my family of friends,
Speaker 2: they would probably be like I'm they wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 2: I'm curious by nature and these types of things, and
Speaker 2: when it happens so close to your home, it tugs
Speaker 2: on you a little bit more.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 1: It started pretty simple, like I said, just a neighbor
Speaker 1: texting someone he believed to be another neighbor. But what
Speaker 1: it led to is well astounding, and now for the
Speaker 1: first time, this neighbor is ready to share his story.
Speaker 2: I felt like I had, I guess, a responsibility or
Speaker 2: a duty to tell my side and say what happened,
Speaker 2: And you know how everything went to.
Speaker 1: In our last episode, we learned how Jessica's sister Audrey
Speaker 1: formed her own village of sorts within the Lakeview neighborhood,
Speaker 1: with many Lakeview residents stepping up and helping in this
Speaker 1: investigation in various ways. But as I had mentioned, there's
Speaker 1: one other neighbor we spoke with who may arguably hold
Speaker 1: the biggest piece of evidence in this case that we
Speaker 1: know of, So we headed over to his Lakeview home
Speaker 1: to sit down and hear his story. He asked to
Speaker 1: go by a pseudonym for this podcast.
Speaker 2: My name is Jay Royce. I live in the neighborhood
Speaker 2: where Jessica Easterly was found.
Speaker 1: Jay's involvement in this case started just like his neighbor Laura's,
Speaker 1: when he spotted a crime stoppers flyer on a telephone
Speaker 1: pole near his home.
Speaker 2: I came across the sign one day on my way
Speaker 2: home from work and googled her name because I hadn't
Speaker 2: heard of the case or her and that kind of
Speaker 2: opened a Pandora's box of things online with podcasts and
Speaker 2: websites and news stories, and I started just kind of
Speaker 2: doing a little more research and digging into.
Speaker 1: It as a concern. Neighbor Jay quickly turned into an
Speaker 1: Internet sleuth of sorts.
Speaker 2: I was apparently living here at the time of it happening,
Speaker 2: and no one that I know had heard of it,
Speaker 2: so it kind of pequed my curiosity a little bit
Speaker 2: that a body.
Speaker 3: Was found not far from my house. It's a little disturbing.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's no way anyone can feel good about that,
Speaker 2: especially not knowing officially what happened to her. But it's
Speaker 2: just an unsettling feeling.
Speaker 1: He nervously takes a sip of his bourbon on the
Speaker 1: rocks as we continue our conversation. Holding his low ball glass.
Speaker 1: He tells us about Lakeview.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good neighborhood.
Speaker 2: I mean, we have your petty theft stuff where people
Speaker 2: break into cars here and there, but something like that
Speaker 2: is definitely out of the ordinary. I mean, it was
Speaker 2: kind of a running thing where it was if you
Speaker 2: had your car broken into or something to report that,
Speaker 2: don't hold your breath while waiting for the police to
Speaker 2: come and check on it, because they may not even
Speaker 2: show up. And that's happened multiple times from what I've heard.
Speaker 2: Not saying that they're bad people or anything like that,
Speaker 2: but I think they're probably understaffed and overwhelmed and have.
Speaker 1: It was Jay's lack of faith in the NPD that
Speaker 1: led him to continue his online search in an attempt
Speaker 1: to learn more about Jessica's case. Of course, in his research,
Speaker 1: he learned of her husband, Justin. He also learned that
Speaker 1: Justin lived in the neighborhood. So Jay opened up his
Speaker 1: next door app, a neighborhood forum of sorts, and that's
Speaker 1: when he spotted Justin.
Speaker 2: We had just googled his name just to see who
Speaker 2: he was, and I noticed on one of these apps,
Speaker 2: on like a neighborhood app. It was right around the
Speaker 2: time of her death, where he starts posting on this
Speaker 2: neighborhood app, just trying to be friendly with people and saying, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I know about this, know about that. If you need
Speaker 2: any help, call me, and he would post his number
Speaker 2: and nobody's posting their number ever, And he did that
Speaker 2: multiple times, and then all of a sudden had stopped,
Speaker 2: like right around the time where it was confirmed that
Speaker 2: it was her.
Speaker 3: I literally just stopped. He had never posted again.
Speaker 1: Jay was upset about everything he'd read on Jessica's case,
Speaker 1: and since Justin had posted his phone number in the
Speaker 1: next door app, Jay decided to text him, but since
Speaker 1: he was a stranger to Justin, he didn't really expect
Speaker 1: a conversation to form, but it did. While the number
Speaker 1: J texted is the same number Justin gave to police
Speaker 1: when Jessica went missing, and the same number her loved
Speaker 1: ones had saved as Justin in their phones, it's important
Speaker 1: to note that we have no way of verifying whether
Speaker 1: or not Justin was in possession of the phone number
Speaker 1: at the time of these text messages. Jay shared the
Speaker 1: original text exchanges with us, and we're going to read
Speaker 1: the ones we can and have Jay fill in the gaps.
Speaker 1: I'll have Todd voice Jay Royce's text, and I'll voice
Speaker 1: the other individual's text. It started on September twenty, twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: Hey, justin how.
Speaker 3: You've been.
Speaker 1: Great, struggling a bit.
Speaker 3: Too bad?
Speaker 4: Better than being in the sandbox though, huh.
Speaker 1: True? My dog died.
Speaker 2: And I thought that was kind of funny because I
Speaker 2: did see his dog being walked in the neighborhood the
Speaker 2: day before, and I've seen his dog walked subsequently after
Speaker 2: that as well.
Speaker 3: I didn't text him anymore at that moment.
Speaker 1: While the initial text exchange ended at this point, that
Speaker 1: wasn't the end of their communication. To Jay's surprise, things
Speaker 1: would continue and become much more personal. For legal reasons,
Speaker 1: we can only read certain excerpts of the next portion.
Speaker 1: The texting commenced again on October fifteenth.
Speaker 4: Thought your dog was dead? You aren't very sealer, silence, mortalous,
Speaker 4: sleep tight?
Speaker 1: What the fuck you lay mass bitch?
Speaker 3: Lol?
Speaker 4: You can't even spell fuck you bitch.
Speaker 1: As the conversation starts to spiral, Jay makes strong accusations.
Speaker 1: The unknown individual replies to Jay's accusations, saying, quote, she
Speaker 1: was cheating. At this point, you may be thinking, as
Speaker 1: I am, why would this other individual be so open
Speaker 1: and candid with a total stranger doesn't make sense. Well,
Speaker 1: it quickly becomes evident that this person was under the
Speaker 1: impression that Jay was someone they knew very well, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: you were my best friend, and.
Speaker 2: He somehow thought I was his best friend when we
Speaker 2: were texting, never questioned who I was. So when I
Speaker 2: realized that he thought I was somebody else, I decided
Speaker 2: to press him a little bit, went adam hard to
Speaker 2: get him to be a little defensive. He ended up
Speaker 2: saying that you know, I didn't kill her.
Speaker 1: She slip and fell. Where in the bathroom?
Speaker 4: Then how'd she get to the train tracks?
Speaker 1: Bro, I panicked and drove there.
Speaker 4: You need to come clean and let the family have peace.
Speaker 1: Why if I'm an incident? We believe the other individual's
Speaker 1: final message was intended to be why if I'm innocent?
Speaker 1: This was the last text exchanged between Jay and the
Speaker 1: other unknown person.
Speaker 2: So that's when we knew that there was that he
Speaker 2: probably is not. He's got a screw loose. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised if he was high on something in the
Speaker 2: midst of this, because apparently within a couple of days
Speaker 2: he deleted this number and it was no longer his.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: It belonged to someone else.
Speaker 1: Take me there. How do you know that?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I know that for a couple of reasons. I know
Speaker 2: a police officer told me it was someone else's number
Speaker 2: at that point, and then to verify that, we texted
Speaker 2: the guy and said, you know who is this?
Speaker 1: A few days later, Jay calls the number.
Speaker 2: We called him and he said this isn't him, and
Speaker 2: I said, prove you aren't him and call me. So
Speaker 2: then he called and I could tell by his voice
Speaker 2: it wasn't him, but it was a kid, definitely wasn't
Speaker 2: a man.
Speaker 3: He's like, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: Jay reached out to Audrey and Maria and shared screenshots
Speaker 1: of the text conversation.
Speaker 3: She was like, holy shit.
Speaker 2: And within about fifteen minutes, a detective from NOPD called
Speaker 2: me to their credit in which I wasn't expecting, and
Speaker 2: he was trying to set up a time for me
Speaker 2: to come in and hand over my phone so they
Speaker 2: could do some forensic analysis on it.
Speaker 3: So we did that.
Speaker 1: What was the timeframe in which you had your phone in?
Speaker 3: Just a few days? Yeah, like two or three at
Speaker 3: the most.
Speaker 4: And then the police told you specifically that that phone
Speaker 4: was no longer his.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I wanted to verify that, and I did.
Speaker 4: Did he define it like a it stopped being his
Speaker 4: two days after those texts or.
Speaker 3: They didn't get into specifics on that.
Speaker 2: Apparently it's one of those like internet numbers where you could, like,
Speaker 2: you know, get rid of quickly or something like that
Speaker 2: and request a new one and it just gets a
Speaker 2: sign to somebody else who's wanting a new one or something.
Speaker 2: But I know that whatever he was using, it allowed
Speaker 2: him to get rid of the number and move on
Speaker 2: and have that number be.
Speaker 1: A sign of someone else, regardless of who owns the
Speaker 1: phone number. Now Jay believes what he believes. He's learned
Speaker 1: even more about the case since that text conversation, and
Speaker 1: over time he's only become more troubled by everything. But
Speaker 1: since we are unable to verify that Justin still used
Speaker 1: that phone number at that time without supporting evidence, there's
Speaker 1: also a real possibility that this was just simply another
Speaker 1: person Jay was texting with. There's no real way to know.
Speaker 1: What I can say is that if this was in
Speaker 1: fact a different person, it does seem striking to Todd
Speaker 1: and I that there were a lot of parallels between
Speaker 1: the text exchange and what we do know about Jessica
Speaker 1: and the circumstances surrounding her death. The fact that NPD
Speaker 1: took these texts and investigated them seems to show they
Speaker 1: took this exchange seriously. But I want to be very
Speaker 1: clear and remind everyone that no charges of any kind
Speaker 1: have been brought against Justin in relation to Jessica's death.
Speaker 1: After ending our conversation with Jay, I'm left with so
Speaker 1: many questions, and it feels more important now than ever
Speaker 1: before to try and make contact with Justin myself to
Speaker 1: see if he may have any insight into all of this,
Speaker 1: some kind of explanation to this conversation and all the
Speaker 1: other things that are left unanswered. We figure there's no
Speaker 1: better option than to go straight to Justin's front door.
Speaker 1: I make my way up to the front door while
Speaker 1: Todd waits in the car. After a few knocks, the
Speaker 1: door opens. It's not who I expected. Hi is justin home. No,
Speaker 1: he is not doing know when who might be back.
Speaker 3: I haven't heard from him for a week.
Speaker 1: A week, I'm greeted by an older Asian man who's
Speaker 1: tall but hunched over in the doorway. He's shirtless and
Speaker 1: appears to have just woken up. The door is kept cracked,
Speaker 1: but I can see a glimpse of the inside. It's
Speaker 1: dark and still on the other side. It's not clear
Speaker 1: whether Justin's daughter Grace or his father justin senr or home.
Speaker 1: Do you know where he might be?
Speaker 3: He's probably he's on a job site right now, so
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: In New Orleans no, Oh, okay, Oh, he's out of town. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I remember that Laura, Justin and Jessica's neighbor who we
Speaker 1: heard from previously mentioned that a man moved in sometime
Speaker 1: after Jessica's death. Laura believes the man's name is Bart.
Speaker 1: Are you Bart? By chance? Would you actually? I'm I'm
Speaker 1: a journalist. I'm working on a story about Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, I'm a journalist. My name's Jessica Nole and
Speaker 1: I'm working on a story about Jessica. And I had
Speaker 1: just heard that you had that he had a roommate
Speaker 1: named Bart. That was all did you know, Jessica?
Speaker 5: You know, well, I came I met chessman after sit maskaway.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, but.
Speaker 3: You're totally you know the people in this neighborhood. I
Speaker 3: will tell you pluck me and then you're publicly.
Speaker 4: Fuck these people.
Speaker 1: Why what's going on?
Speaker 3: Okay, same reason you know my name?
Speaker 1: After Bart slams the door, I leave my business card
Speaker 1: on the mailbox and then return to the car to
Speaker 1: update Todd on the encounter. Let's move along for a minute. Okay,
Speaker 1: do you hear that? With no luck on our door, knock,
Speaker 1: Todd and I takes some time to strategize and make
Speaker 1: the decision to head back to the hotel and try
Speaker 1: reaching Justin by other means.
Speaker 6: For Colin has been forwarded to voicemail.
Speaker 1: Todd first dials the number for what we believe is
Speaker 1: Justin's landline, and after several unanswered calls, someone finally answers,
Speaker 1: this time it's not Bart, and it's not Justin, but
Speaker 1: rather Justin SR. Unfortunately, he seems to have trouble hearing,
Speaker 1: making the conversation difficult.
Speaker 4: Justin Hello, Hello, Justin? Hello?
Speaker 3: Hello? Can you hear me? Go ahead?
Speaker 4: Is this Justin Senior?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Hi?
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 4: How are you doing today? Well? Hey, my name is
Speaker 4: Todd Macomas, and I wanted to see if I could
Speaker 4: talk to you for a second, I'm trying to find Justin.
Speaker 3: Do you know where he's at?
Speaker 1: Where is he?
Speaker 4: I'm trying to find Justin, trying to get a hold
Speaker 4: of him. Do you know where he is or how
Speaker 4: I can get a hold of him.
Speaker 8: I assume he's at work.
Speaker 3: Oh, he's at work. Does he work here?
Speaker 4: Local?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Oh, you don't know what kind of works he do?
Speaker 4: Is he new construction? I?
Speaker 8: No, No.
Speaker 4: When was the last time you saw Justin?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Has it been a while?
Speaker 3: Like four days?
Speaker 4: Five days?
Speaker 3: Know?
Speaker 4: A long time? Short time? Hello?
Speaker 3: He hung up?
Speaker 1: So no luck via phone either. Back to square one.
Speaker 1: Over several late night caffeine field conversations in our French
Speaker 1: Quarter hotel room. We remember a name that Justin mentioned before.
Speaker 1: It was in the bodycam audio we listened to a
Speaker 1: while back.
Speaker 4: A good friend of mine, a prominent lawyer here. I
Speaker 4: called him and I was like, Ralph Whalen is his
Speaker 4: last name?
Speaker 5: Like Ralph?
Speaker 4: He goes, I did remember what a reasonable person would believe.
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, you know what's not reasonable this?
Speaker 7: There's nothing reasonable about this.
Speaker 1: Maybe Ralph will know where we can find Justin, so
Speaker 1: we look him up Ralph Whalen is apparently a prominent
Speaker 1: white collar criminal defense and personal injury attorney in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: He's been practicing law since nineteen seventy one. We thought
Speaker 1: maybe Justin would be open to a sit down if
Speaker 1: his attorney friend was present. So Todd makes a call
Speaker 1: to Ralph.
Speaker 4: Hi, Ralph, my name is Todd Mcomas. I'm calling about
Speaker 4: an individual that you may or may not be representing.
Speaker 4: His name is Justin Derning. Yeah, yeah, he's retained your services. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: are you generally retained or are you retaining him for
Speaker 4: a specific matter.
Speaker 2: Well, he's a friend, and I mean I can't even.
Speaker 9: Tell you that I'm specifically retained or anything.
Speaker 2: He's a friend of mine.
Speaker 7: So, oh, okay, who are you with.
Speaker 4: I'm a retired detective with the Indiana State Police.
Speaker 1: And Todd explains to Ralph that we were working on
Speaker 1: a story regarding Jessica that we would really like to
Speaker 1: talk to Justin if he'd be open to it. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Ralph wasn't able to answer our questions, but he told
Speaker 1: us he would pass along our information to Justin and
Speaker 1: said we could follow up with him via email. So
Speaker 1: after their conversation ended. I sent an email to Ralph,
Speaker 1: but I have yet to receive a response. As it stands,
Speaker 1: Justin is mia. After unsuccessfully trying Justin multiple times by
Speaker 1: various means, we tried to think outside the box. If
Speaker 1: we couldn't speak with him directly to get our questions answered,
Speaker 1: maybe his family could give us some insight. We spoke
Speaker 1: to several members of his extended family, and while it
Speaker 1: helped provide some context to his family's history and roots
Speaker 1: in the area, it didn't get us any closer to
Speaker 1: learning what he may have known about the days around
Speaker 1: Jessica's death and disappearance. The family feels terrible about Jessica
Speaker 1: and how her family is still left looking for justice.
Speaker 1: While they may not have been close to her, they
Speaker 1: still feel a connection. After all, she was Justin's wife.
Speaker 1: If you remember, we've previously mentioned Justin's second wife, Lauren,
Speaker 1: who he was married to when he first met Jessica. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Lauren was not willing to talk to us for the podcast,
Speaker 1: but someone who was willing to speak with us was
Speaker 1: his other ex Dolores Wenzel Lacasio, who is Grace's mom.
Speaker 1: So I reached out to her, not really knowing what
Speaker 1: to expect, but I was surprised to find that not
Speaker 1: only was she open to talking with us, she was
Speaker 1: very candid about their life together. Dolores doesn't shy away
Speaker 1: from the fact that over the years she has had
Speaker 1: some issues in her life stemming from addiction, and that
Speaker 1: brings us to the beginning of her and Justin's story.
Speaker 9: I was thirty two at the time, and I was
Speaker 9: in my first marriage, and I'll just be completely brutally honest,
Speaker 9: which is that I had an overdose that I had
Speaker 9: on purpose, trying to kill myself. Subsequently, I told the
Speaker 9: doctor that I needed help with getting off of medication,
Speaker 9: and so they sent me outpatient day program from eight
Speaker 9: in the morning to four in the afternoon, kind of
Speaker 9: like a school for etics. That's where Justin and I met.
Speaker 1: Although she admits to battling with addiction, then Delores can
Speaker 1: vividly recount her life by Justin's side. After living together
Speaker 1: in Louisiana for some time, the couple moved to Arizona,
Speaker 1: and it was while they were living out west that
Speaker 1: she found out she was pregnant with Grace.
Speaker 7: I took a pregnancy test and I was in the bathroom.
Speaker 7: He's like, well, what the fuck does it say? And
Speaker 7: I'm like, he broke the door down in Arizona. He's like, mother, whatever,
Speaker 7: And he took the test and it's like ping ping, ping, ping, ping,
Speaker 7: off of all the sides of the freaking wall. And
Speaker 7: he punched me right there, like congratulations.
Speaker 1: She vividly remembers the look in his eyes that night
Speaker 1: in the bathroom and she was holding the pregnancy test.
Speaker 9: The eyes go black and you're looking right through them.
Speaker 7: It's like their eyes are full of dust.
Speaker 9: There's no soul.
Speaker 7: But when you look at him, they don't see you.
Speaker 7: You're looking or they're looking right through you, and it
Speaker 7: is horrific.
Speaker 1: Delores describes a very turbulent relationship with Justin. But this
Speaker 1: is not the first time we've heard accusations like this
Speaker 1: made against Justin. We heard similar comments in regards to
Speaker 1: Justin's second marriage to Lauren. Again. We had reached out
Speaker 1: to Lauren directly, hoping she'd be open to sharing her story,
Speaker 1: but she explained she did not want to participate, and
Speaker 1: I can understand the hesitation. But we were able to
Speaker 1: obtain a copy of a petition that Lauren filed for
Speaker 1: domestic abuse protection order with the Justice Court of Golfport, Mississippi.
Speaker 1: We requested a copy of that restraining order from the
Speaker 1: Golfport Police Department, but there was no order of protection
Speaker 1: on file. However, in her sworn statement in that petition
Speaker 1: dated August third, twenty eleven, Lauren stated that on July twelfth,
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, Justin attacked and choked her inside their home.
Speaker 1: She checked a box on that petition that states petitioner
Speaker 1: submits there exist immediate and present danger of abuse. She
Speaker 1: also checked the box that states that a divorce is pending.
Speaker 1: The Gulfport Police were unable to locate any record of
Speaker 1: this domestic abuse protective order, which could simply mean that
Speaker 1: the request was not granted by the court and therefore
Speaker 1: no order was given to the police, or the order
Speaker 1: may have been granted but has since expired. In some cases,
Speaker 1: police departments purge records after a few years, depending on
Speaker 1: what they are. Either way, no record was on file
Speaker 1: with the police, but they did send us a copy
Speaker 1: of a police report from May twenty six, two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: in which Justin was arrested for the offense unlawful for
Speaker 1: convicted felon to possess any firearms, which followed a felony
Speaker 1: conviction for prescription fraud in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Further jail
Speaker 1: records show that on August sixteenth, twenty eleven, Justin was
Speaker 1: arrested and charged in Harrison County, Mississippi, on a domestic
Speaker 1: violence charge. We have requested that report. While we're on
Speaker 1: the topic of records, there was one item that comes
Speaker 1: up many times in conversations about justin his military record.
Speaker 1: If Justin had, in fact served in the military, I
Speaker 1: wanted to be able to confirm this important chapter in
Speaker 1: his life, so we made public records requests through multiple
Speaker 1: veteran and military agencies, including the Department of Justice and
Speaker 1: the National Archives Personnel records. Based on the information we
Speaker 1: provided in those requests, there were no military records of
Speaker 1: any branch of service that could be verified for Justin
Speaker 1: Derning Junior. As we continue our conversation with Dolores, she
Speaker 1: tells us that after the incident in the bathroom, she
Speaker 1: and Justin's relationship began to sour, but eventually the couple
Speaker 1: moved back to Louisiana.
Speaker 9: When we came back from Arizona. That was the end
Speaker 9: of our relationship.
Speaker 7: You know, when somebody's sitting right next to you, but
Speaker 7: for all purposes, they could be on another planet. He
Speaker 7: was there physically, but he had gone.
Speaker 9: He was gone.
Speaker 7: I call him a narcissist because he fits just the profile,
Speaker 7: not because I'm like this mean angry ex Yes, I'm
Speaker 7: angry over a lot of things, but is he wanted something.
Speaker 7: He was being so nice and he picked me up
Speaker 7: and he brought me over to see Grace and not thinking.
Speaker 7: I didn't think it was going to be the last time.
Speaker 7: And she was beautiful, but I could already see the
Speaker 7: distances coming. She didn't recognize me, you know, that short
Speaker 7: of a time.
Speaker 9: And then I held her and she smiled, and then
Speaker 9: guess who drives up.
Speaker 1: It's Justin's mom.
Speaker 7: What they wanted was a long form my birth certificate
Speaker 7: because they wanted to get childcare benefits or money. And
Speaker 7: then they wanted me to sign a paper for temporary
Speaker 7: custody and I said, not on your life. He said, oh, well,
Speaker 7: f you, because guess what when the cops arrested you,
Speaker 7: you signed over custody. I said, Justin, oh, that's a
Speaker 7: good one. Put that one in the books. I said, please,
Speaker 7: don't make you sign over custody. You're full of shit,
Speaker 7: and then he was mad, that'll be the last time
Speaker 7: you ever seen me here this kid. Yeah, well you're right.
Speaker 1: That's forward to twenty nineteen. When Dolores heard about Jessica's death,
Speaker 1: she went straight to the ENOPD to help in any
Speaker 1: way she could. Having had a close relationship to Jessica's husband,
Speaker 1: she figured she could give them some insight, But according
Speaker 1: to Dolores, talking to the NOPD was a pretty fruitless effort.
Speaker 7: He was very dismissive and he said, look, we've already
Speaker 7: solved it. I said, so basically, I'll just say it.
Speaker 7: You're thinking, what Junkie Jr. Goes to cop.
Speaker 6: Dope and deal goes wrong and guy breaks her neck
Speaker 6: and leaves her and she falls without her shoe in
Speaker 6: the womb position.
Speaker 7: He goes, you're being sarcastic. I said, of course, absolutely, because.
Speaker 9: That's a ridiculous theory.
Speaker 7: I said, the truth of the matter is this is
Speaker 7: someone's daughter, okay, and this is bullshit.
Speaker 9: I don't care that you think you have to prioritize
Speaker 9: because there's five sillion murders. This woman is important.
Speaker 7: She's a sister, she is a daughter, she was a wife,
Speaker 7: and she was a stepmother to my child. They need
Speaker 7: to take this shit into account.
Speaker 1: As you can hear in her voice, the weight of
Speaker 1: her past still spills over into her present, despite being
Speaker 1: in a much better place in life these days, but
Speaker 1: everything she's experienced has helped her gain a newfound perspective.
Speaker 7: The first narrative you hear, unfortunately, is usually the one
Speaker 7: you believe. It's all about perception because everyone has a
Speaker 7: different perception of the truth. Think about it. Because everyone
Speaker 7: has a reason and everyone has a motive.
Speaker 9: Justice will be sirved. Karma needs to happen, maybe not
Speaker 9: in my life, but somebody's time.
Speaker 1: No matter how obvious it all seems to Dolores, this
Speaker 1: case remains undetermined and is in dire need of some answers.
Speaker 1: It still feels like the one person in this who
Speaker 1: could possibly hold some answers is Justin. But as for
Speaker 1: our efforts to find Justin while in New Orleans, door knocks,
Speaker 1: phone calls, emails, and text messages, well, unfortunately, for now
Speaker 1: they're all a bust. One of the reasons we had
Speaker 1: hoped to speak to Justin was simply to get his story.
Speaker 1: But another reason we wished to speak with him was
Speaker 1: because at this point, more than five hundred days since
Speaker 1: Jessica's death, he'd yet to claim her remains from the corner,
Speaker 1: and her family was desperate to have at least that.
Speaker 1: Even Jay Royce, the neighbor we spoke to at the
Speaker 1: beginning of this episode, has an opinion when it comes
Speaker 1: to this topic.
Speaker 2: Her poor family was one enclosure and just wanting, you know,
Speaker 2: to be able to have a ceremony of some sorts.
Speaker 2: You know, some one dies, you have a funeral.
Speaker 3: That's what you do.
Speaker 2: He had the sole decision power on allowing her to
Speaker 2: stay in the morgue.
Speaker 3: Why would you do that?
Speaker 2: Even if he couldn't afford a funeral, then might not
Speaker 2: just release it to the family so they.
Speaker 3: Could do it. It made no sense.
Speaker 1: Again, we haven't been able to speak with Justin about
Speaker 1: this or about anything. Like I said, he's mia at
Speaker 1: this time, but in an interesting turn of events, his
Speaker 1: absence might just lead to a bit of resolution. Out
Speaker 1: of the blue, Jessica's sister, Audrey, receives a phone call
Speaker 1: not from Justin, but from the coroner's office.
Speaker 8: The coroner called me and asked me if my name
Speaker 8: was Audrey Schmidt and I said yes, And I said,
Speaker 8: can we have Jessica? He said, well, he goes, I'm
Speaker 8: going to have to make it legal and send justin
Speaker 8: legal notices.
Speaker 5: I was like okay.
Speaker 8: I was like, well, can you give me a timeline?
Speaker 8: He said, I cannot give you a timeline.
Speaker 5: I felt like, oh my god, finally they're releastener to us.
Speaker 1: Undetermined is a production of Resonate Recordings and Tenderfoot TV
Speaker 1: in conjunction with Cadence thirteen, written and hosted by me
Speaker 1: Jessica Nole and produced by Dennis Cooper and Todd McComas,
Speaker 1: with additional production by Whitney Bow. Executive producers are Dennis Cooper,
Speaker 1: Mark Minnery, Jacob Bozart, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Our
Speaker 1: senior producer is John Street. Editing, mixing, mastering and sound
Speaker 1: design by Caleb Melcher, Dayton Cole and Pat kid Glider
Speaker 1: of the Resonate Recordings team. If you have a podcast
Speaker 1: or are looking to start one, check us out at
Speaker 1: resonate Recordings dot com. Our theme song and original score
Speaker 1: is by Dirt Poor Robbins, with additional scoring by Dayton Cole.
Speaker 1: Our cover art is by Station sixteen. You can follow
Speaker 1: Undetermined Podcast on Facebook and on Twitter at Undetermined Pod.
Speaker 1: Show notes as well as bonus content can be found
Speaker 1: on our website undetermined pod dot com. If you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode, please take time to subscribe, rate, and review.
Speaker 1: Your feedback is greatly apreciate it. And finally, if you
Speaker 1: have any information about this case, call crime Stoppers at
Speaker 1: one eight seven seven nine zero three seven eight sixty
Speaker 1: seven