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: 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. Through
Speaker 1: all the twists and turns in the three years since
Speaker 1: losing Jessica, the one thing her family has always managed
Speaker 1: to cling.
Speaker 2: To is hope.
Speaker 1: For Audrey, all she needs is a small token from
Speaker 1: Mother Nature to remind her she's not alone in all
Speaker 1: of this. Dragonflies are often revered as a symbol of
Speaker 1: transformation and rebirth. In some cultures, they're even believed to
Speaker 1: symbolize a link between this world and the next. Audrey
Speaker 1: tells me that the day she found her sister's body.
Speaker 1: She remembers seeing a dragonfly right there in that overgrown
Speaker 1: patch of land near the train tracks.
Speaker 3: If I'm standing right here, my sister was right there
Speaker 3: where that blue cover was.
Speaker 1: That's how close I was to her.
Speaker 3: And I've just seen the most beautifulest blue dragonfly. I've
Speaker 3: never seen a ballooon like that before.
Speaker 1: Ever. Audrey didn't make much of it at the time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until one night after returning home to Mississippi
Speaker 1: that it sank in. As she sat on her porch
Speaker 1: that evening thinking about her sister, she heard a buzzing sound.
Speaker 1: It was another dragonfly, and it didn't just pop in
Speaker 1: for a visit. It stuck around for some time. It
Speaker 1: was as if that little blue insect was trying to
Speaker 1: communicate with her. Audrey felt it had to mean something,
Speaker 1: and looking back on it now, she's even more convinced
Speaker 1: because these run ins have become a regular occurrence.
Speaker 3: One time I woke up and I was crying and
Speaker 3: there was literally twenty or thirty dragonflies in my ard.
Speaker 3: They were nowhere else, they were just in my art.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if that's just me holding on
Speaker 3: to hope or whatever, but I mean, I believe that
Speaker 3: that was my sister.
Speaker 1: For Audrey, the dragonflies are a reminder that her sister,
Speaker 1: Jessica is always with her, she always has been. That
Speaker 1: gives her hope and strength to keep fighting. Momentum had
Speaker 1: now shifted in the family's favor. Jessica was finally laid
Speaker 1: to rest, and her case had moved into the hands
Speaker 1: of the Die's office, who were investigating it as a homicide.
Speaker 1: Things were looking up.
Speaker 4: Now it was.
Speaker 1: Time to try and put Jessica's case to rest once
Speaker 1: and for all. We don't know how long he saw
Speaker 1: her before twelve thirty. They talked about bills, They talked
Speaker 1: about this, They talked about that. Our time in New
Speaker 1: Orleans has been quite the roller coaster. Days of phone calls, interviews,
Speaker 1: and debriefs. We've learned a lot about Jessica's case its
Speaker 1: own roller coaster of sorts, and at this point we
Speaker 1: feel we've discovered most everything we can. Now it's time
Speaker 1: we take a step back and examine all the pieces.
Speaker 1: Sitting inside our fringe Quarter hotel room, Todd and I
Speaker 1: start creating a timeline board on Jessica's case, starting from
Speaker 1: January twenty nineteen, when that first message was sent to
Speaker 1: Maria from Jessica saying she was scared. We grab the
Speaker 1: biggest bulletin board we can find and prop it up
Speaker 1: on an easel against the white brick wall with a
Speaker 1: slew of brightly colored index cards and post its in
Speaker 1: hand and a old black sharpeat. We get to work
Speaker 1: about up pinning cards to the board for each and
Speaker 1: every notable event, along with the corresponding date and time. Visually,
Speaker 1: the timeline board helps Todd and I organize and connect
Speaker 1: the dots, allowing us to really zero in on some
Speaker 1: key points along the way based on the timeline. Here's
Speaker 1: what we know, so let's start laying it out. So
Speaker 1: we're going to start with January sixteenth, twenty nineteen, and
Speaker 1: this is eight months before Jessica goes missing. That's the
Speaker 1: day at three o'clock in the afternoon she texts her
Speaker 1: friend Maria, and Maria is supposed to come and visit
Speaker 1: and stay with her and Justin, and she texts her
Speaker 1: and apologizes that she can't stay with her because they're fighting,
Speaker 1: and she's.
Speaker 5: Come hiding in the bathroom right now, So Justin doesn't
Speaker 5: hear me. We've been fighting like fighting for the past
Speaker 5: three days about everything. He's threatening to kick me out,
Speaker 5: put me in jail. He's hit me.
Speaker 4: It's bad.
Speaker 5: He told me you guys can't come, or it's going
Speaker 5: to be worse for me.
Speaker 1: Lo.
Speaker 5: I'm so sorry. I know it's last minute and I
Speaker 5: feel awful. I don't know what to do. I can
Speaker 5: recommend somewhere that's reasonable and nice, the Beyond Canal. We
Speaker 5: stay there a lot, or we used to. Lo I'm scared.
Speaker 1: And Lo is the nickname she uses for Maria. Right,
Speaker 1: So then fast forward to August twelfth, twenty nineteen. This
Speaker 1: day starts with an eleven oh seven am call from
Speaker 1: Jessica to Maria, and she calls her and Maria misses
Speaker 1: the call, and she does this through Facebook messenger. She
Speaker 1: calls the second time, there's a three minute and eleven
Speaker 1: second conversation. She calls a third time and there's a
Speaker 1: fifty two second conversation, and then at two forty three
Speaker 1: pm that same day, August twelfth, twenty nineteen, a Facebook
Speaker 1: message from Jessica's Facebook messenger is sent to Maria. We
Speaker 1: have no way of verifying who is sending any of
Speaker 1: these messages. I want to make that clear, and she
Speaker 1: essentially in that message on Facebook to Maria is asking
Speaker 1: her to come and get her in that very moment,
Speaker 1: and Maria can't come right then, so they actually make
Speaker 1: plans for Maria to come the next morning and get Jessica.
Speaker 1: And the last thing that Jessica says in those Facebook messengers.
Speaker 5: Okay, just hang on. I don't know what's going to
Speaker 5: happen when I get home.
Speaker 1: And that is the last time that Maria ever heard
Speaker 1: from Jessica. So moving into August thirteenth, the next day
Speaker 1: to TWI I was in nineteen. That's the morning that
Speaker 1: Maria had planned with Jessica to come and get her,
Speaker 1: but Maria never hears from Jessica. The following day, August fourteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Jessica's family and her friend Maria start calling
Speaker 1: local shelters, hospitals, anywhere they think Jessica could be, but
Speaker 1: have no luck finding her. It's not until nine pm
Speaker 1: that night that Justin gets on Jessica's Facebook messenger and
Speaker 1: sends a message to Maria asking if she knows where
Speaker 1: Jessica is.
Speaker 2: Is jess with you, Grace and I are worried. If so,
Speaker 2: that's fine, We just don't know where she is and
Speaker 2: Grace can't handle stress like this right now.
Speaker 6: No, she's not.
Speaker 5: When was the last time you spoke to her?
Speaker 2: About noon today? And she left everything here? Keys, car, money,
Speaker 2: what about her phone here too? Fucking weird, worried She's
Speaker 2: never done this. I have no idea, checked everything and
Speaker 2: everyone I know.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, I'm sending the police over there.
Speaker 1: Maria does in fact call in a wellness check at
Speaker 1: this time, and police confirm they'll be heading to the
Speaker 1: Dernings residence. So sometime after ten pm, the first unit
Speaker 1: of the District three Police Department show up for a
Speaker 1: wellness check based off of Maria's call to them out
Speaker 1: of concern that something has happened to her friend. Now,
Speaker 1: when they show up, they don't seem armed with that information.
Speaker 1: They think it could be an elderly person living alone
Speaker 1: or a sick person, and they meet with Justin at
Speaker 1: this time. Some notable information from that initial conversation with
Speaker 1: Justin with the two officers are that he tells them
Speaker 1: that we know that Grace likely came home from school
Speaker 1: at three pm. Grace is there when he gets up,
Speaker 1: she tells him she hasn't seen Jessica.
Speaker 7: That's his statement. Yeah, right, when you walk up at four,
Speaker 7: she's not there. He noticed that there was a pizza
Speaker 7: maid and that she was wearing jeans and.
Speaker 1: A T shirt sometime prior to noon that day, before
Speaker 1: he goes and takes a nap. He tells police that
Speaker 1: he and Jessica sit down, they're having a conversation. They
Speaker 1: talk over their bills, what they're going to have for dinner,
Speaker 1: things like that, and then he goes and takes his nap.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and lists.
Speaker 7: That's where we first find out that all these articles
Speaker 7: a person would normally leave the house with were left behind.
Speaker 7: Her ID, her phone, all her medications, her wallet, and
Speaker 7: the car and car keys all there right.
Speaker 1: The officer admitted that the circumstances seemed suspicious, but it's
Speaker 1: important to note that police never entered the home during
Speaker 1: this first visit. The visit lasted about fifteen minutes, and
Speaker 1: as the officers were leaving, they told Justin to expect
Speaker 1: a call as they'd be sending out another unit to
Speaker 1: do a missing person's report. That second unit arrived just
Speaker 1: a couple hours later. It's past midnight, so we're in.
Speaker 1: We're still in the same timeframe, but it is now
Speaker 1: the next day before the next officers come to the
Speaker 1: house and meet with Justin. It's about one am when
Speaker 1: Officer Gatner and Officer Griffin arrive at Justin's house to
Speaker 1: do the missing person report. He again meets them outside
Speaker 1: and they go to the driveway side of the house
Speaker 1: and they go inside this time, Yeah, they walk.
Speaker 7: Through the house as far as the open area when
Speaker 7: you meet idiately entered from that side of the house.
Speaker 7: They're seeing the living room in the kitchen at that point.
Speaker 1: And also at this point he lets them know that
Speaker 1: his daughter Grace and father, Justin Sr. Are sleeping. He
Speaker 1: offers to wake Grace up to talk to officers about Jessica,
Speaker 1: but they tell him that's okay, she's got to sleep.
Speaker 1: Justin gives his phone number to police. It is the
Speaker 1: same phone number he gives at the first stop with police.
Speaker 1: He reiterates all the things that she's left behind, which
Speaker 1: is ID, phone, medication, wallet, car keys, and they ask
Speaker 1: to see her ID that she has left behind, and
Speaker 1: at that time he goes to the side of the
Speaker 1: bed that is opposite of the officers at the far
Speaker 1: end of the bedroom that they're standing in and seemingly
Speaker 1: picks up Jessica's wallet from the floor. He brings it over,
Speaker 1: pulls out her ID and we can see clearly in
Speaker 1: the bodycam footage we obtained, you can clearly see that
Speaker 1: it is a Louisiana State ID. The card is vertical,
Speaker 1: unlike their driver's licenses, which are horizontal. We can't make
Speaker 1: out all the details on it, but the officer does
Speaker 1: comment that their last names are different, implying the card
Speaker 1: reads Jessica Easterly rather than Darning. Then he starts telling
Speaker 1: them the same information of timeline to these officers that
Speaker 1: they had a conversation that he took a nap around
Speaker 1: noon twelve thirty, woke up at four. However, he says
Speaker 1: when he woke up around four, she was missing, but
Speaker 1: he did notice that there was and he couldn't remember
Speaker 1: what they're called.
Speaker 4: He was doing.
Speaker 1: He was showing with his hands, you know the pizza
Speaker 1: things that they're frozen, you cook them, and they say
Speaker 1: the pizza roles, and he said, yeah, there were pizza
Speaker 1: roles when I woke up. So they continue speaking to him.
Speaker 1: He shows them the Facebook messenger messages that he and
Speaker 1: Maria shared on Jessica's Facebook page. He pulls out the
Speaker 1: tablet shows the officer that conversation. He had told them
Speaker 1: the last thing he saw her wearing was jeans and
Speaker 1: a T shirt. She asks him, do you remember the
Speaker 1: color of her T shirt? He tells her, I don't
Speaker 1: remember the color of her T shirt because we were
Speaker 1: laying in bed together. After the officers finished gathering information
Speaker 1: and filling out their report, they returned to their cruiser.
Speaker 1: Officer Gantner calls her superior, Detective Anthony Lunn, to voice
Speaker 1: her concerns over Jessica's disappearance, and this essentially gets the
Speaker 1: ball rolling on a missing person's investigation. So at about
Speaker 1: one fifty three am, the second unit of officers, who've
Speaker 1: now taken his missing person's rep for Jessica, leave his house.
Speaker 1: Two days later, August seventeenth, twenty nineteen, is Jessica's forty
Speaker 1: third birthday. Still no one has heard from her at
Speaker 1: this point, eight days later from the time that she
Speaker 1: went missing. August twenty second, twenty nineteen, her family is
Speaker 1: in town and they're mapping out a search area within
Speaker 1: the Lakeview neighborhood, which they hope to be able to
Speaker 1: give to police. At twelve thirty four pm, her family,
Speaker 1: her two sisters and her cousin discover Jessica's body in
Speaker 1: an overgrown area about two and a half blocks from
Speaker 1: her home. It's about a two minute drive from her residence.
Speaker 1: She's found wearing a black tank top, black shorts, and
Speaker 1: black shoes at thirteen hundred five hours or one oh
Speaker 1: five pm. She's pronounced dead on the scene. So when
Speaker 1: the family found Jessica, she was laying on her side
Speaker 1: in an overgrown area just on the other side of
Speaker 1: this overpass.
Speaker 7: And we also know from a source that was at
Speaker 7: the scene who makes their living dealing with dead bodies,
Speaker 7: she had liver mortis on the outside of her knee
Speaker 7: that was the opposite knee of the knee that was
Speaker 7: touching the ground.
Speaker 1: This would imply that Jessica died laying on one side
Speaker 1: of her body, but was found on the opposite side,
Speaker 1: which brings up an important question. Could she have been
Speaker 1: moved to the spot sometime after her death? Just days later,
Speaker 1: on August twenty fourth, twenty nineteen, the corner's autopsy report
Speaker 1: would reveal other suspicious findings. In that corner's report, they
Speaker 1: documented she had a broken nose, a broken jaw, a
Speaker 1: post mortem broken sea four vertebrae, and a broken rib
Speaker 1: post mortem.
Speaker 7: We also know from the toxicology report that was included
Speaker 7: in the Corners report that they did tissue samples from
Speaker 7: her liver and found measurable levels of methemphetamine, m fetamine,
Speaker 7: while bututrin which is antidepressant, and ethanol or drinking alcohol.
Speaker 1: And the reason they could only at this point test
Speaker 1: her liver was because when her body was recovered, she
Speaker 1: was in advanced decomposition stage. Then, on January fifteenth, twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the corner gave their ruling on the cause and manner
Speaker 1: of Jessica's death undetermined, and then things go quiet for
Speaker 1: a stretch. During this time, Audrey remains steadfast hounding the NPD,
Speaker 1: hoping for any new information, when out of nowhere, she
Speaker 1: gets a call from a couple in Jessica's Lakeview neighborhood.
Speaker 1: March fifteenth, twenty twenty, nearly six months after Jessica's body
Speaker 1: is recovered, a couple named Chuck and Margaret find Jessica's
Speaker 1: ID in the area where her body was discovered. The
Speaker 1: ID is also a Louisiana State identification card that is vertical,
Speaker 1: not horizontal as a driver's license would be. It also
Speaker 1: states her name as Jessica Easterly, her maiden name, and
Speaker 1: this identification expires in twenty twenty three. The ID, when
Speaker 1: they find it, appears to have been run over by
Speaker 1: a lawnmower, so when they find it, it's crumpled and
Speaker 1: a little torn, but completely legible. After police obtain the ID,
Speaker 1: the family is left wondering its significance and how this
Speaker 1: wasn't found until some seven months after Jessica's body was discovered.
Speaker 1: But after some time, the family starts to feel like
Speaker 1: this could be yet another dead end. That is until
Speaker 1: they hear from another Lakeview neighbor, Jay Royce. October fifteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. More than a year later, a man named
Speaker 1: Jay Royce notices that Justin Derning on a neighborhood app
Speaker 1: or someone using Justin's account and photo is posting about
Speaker 1: neighborhood stuff. But in those posts that he's putting into
Speaker 1: this neighborhood app, he's also posting his phone number. It
Speaker 1: is the same phone number that over a year earlier,
Speaker 1: the night he reported Jessica missing to police. It's the
Speaker 1: same phone number that he gave to them. This brings
Speaker 1: us to that text exchange between Jay Royce and an
Speaker 1: unknown individual who he believed to be Justin. As you
Speaker 1: heard in a previous episode, the text conversation got pretty
Speaker 1: volatile and near the end of it, Jay makes some
Speaker 1: strong accusations and this pretty much summarizes the timeline. But
Speaker 1: after stitching together this immense timeline board, we look at
Speaker 1: one of the final pinned index cards, Jay Royce text
Speaker 1: October fifteenth, twenty twenty. There's been a lot of question
Speaker 1: about who may have sent those texts to Jay Royce
Speaker 1: and whether they are a critical piece of evidence that
Speaker 1: could help solve Jessica's case or merely a random coincidence.
Speaker 1: To this point, there's not been any clear answers provided
Speaker 1: that we know of. These are important questions and their
Speaker 1: answers have an expiration date. Todd remembers that the service
Speaker 1: provides for the number in question only keep phone records
Speaker 1: with historical location for two years. After that they are purged,
Speaker 1: meaning authorities only have until October of twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: to preserve the records before this evidence is gone forever,
Speaker 1: along with any chance of ever identifying who sent those messages. So,
Speaker 1: knowing Jessica's case had moved into the hands of the
Speaker 1: DA's office, we decide it's time to reach out to
Speaker 1: Jason Williams with an urgent recommendation. While we did not
Speaker 1: record our conversation with the DA per his request, I
Speaker 1: can share with you the context of it in very
Speaker 1: general terms. Most of our conversation was, of course, centered
Speaker 1: around those text messages from October of twenty twenty. Obviously,
Speaker 1: these text messages are very concerning in nature, but they're
Speaker 1: even more concerning when compared to Jessica's case and more specifically,
Speaker 1: her death. Here's why. We know from the coroner's report
Speaker 1: that Jessica received a broken nose and fractured jaw while
Speaker 1: still alive. This could be indicative of injuries that would
Speaker 1: occur from a fall in the bathroom, which is exactly
Speaker 1: what the individual described in their text message. She had
Speaker 1: liver mortis on the outside of her leg facing the sky,
Speaker 1: indicating she died elsewhere and was later dumped in the
Speaker 1: spot she was found. And in those text messages, when
Speaker 1: the individual was asked how she ended up there, they
Speaker 1: said they panicked and drove her there. Both of these
Speaker 1: statements are consistent with crime scene and autopsy findings that
Speaker 1: were not released to the public. Now, again, no matter
Speaker 1: who sent these texts, this is considered circumstantial evidence, which
Speaker 1: is fine, but in this case it also has potential
Speaker 1: to lead to physical or direct evidence. If Jessica really
Speaker 1: did fall in the bathroom, breaking her nose as a result,
Speaker 1: and then laid their dead for an extended time, there
Speaker 1: could still be blood present in whatever bathroom the incident
Speaker 1: occurred in. There could also be blood in the individual's vehicle,
Speaker 1: as they admitted to moving her body. But police would
Speaker 1: need probable cause to obtain a search warrant, which means
Speaker 1: they need to determine who sent those text messages through
Speaker 1: historical records for that phone number. But for now, their
Speaker 1: priority should be to simply preserve these records before they
Speaker 1: are purged. That's why we refer the DA to an
Speaker 1: expert who Todd knows personally in their area. Dealing with
Speaker 1: service providers can be tricky. You have to know what
Speaker 1: you're doing in this line of expertise, so it was
Speaker 1: important that we referred someone we knew was properly qualified.
Speaker 1: But about six months later Todd ran into that very
Speaker 1: expert whom he had recommended to the D at a
Speaker 1: conference he was attending. Unfortunately, when Todd asked him how
Speaker 1: this case was going, he discovered that the DA never
Speaker 1: contacted him. So in January of twenty twenty two, more
Speaker 1: than a year since we spoke to the DA on
Speaker 1: the phone, and five months after his press conference announcing
Speaker 1: his cold case unit, we reached back out to him
Speaker 1: to find out if there's been any movement on Jessica's case.
Speaker 8: You've reached Curtis Almo, the third Communications director of the
Speaker 8: District Attorney's Office of New Orleans. Unfortunately, I'm away from that.
Speaker 1: Since leaving a voicemail, we've yet to receive a callback.
Speaker 1: Aware of the clock, we're up against what the text messages,
Speaker 1: we reach out to the NPD to relay the same
Speaker 1: information regarding phone records, now with even more urgency, hoping
Speaker 1: maybe they will heed Todd's advice, just in case the
Speaker 1: DA hadn't. We make a call to Lute Ernest Luster,
Speaker 1: whom you may remember from a previous episode. This call
Speaker 1: was on January twenty fifth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 7: Hi, Lieutenant Lester, this is Todd mccombus. Call on you back, Yes, yes, Hey, thanks.
Speaker 7: First of all, thanks so much for taking time to
Speaker 7: talk to me. So basically, we found something that we
Speaker 7: feel like we have to pass on to you that
Speaker 7: could be important to your case. So if you got
Speaker 7: a second, maybe the ability to take some notes, I'll
Speaker 7: pass it on to you real quick. Okay, So there
Speaker 7: was a neighbor of Justin Deernes.
Speaker 4: He goes by Jay Royd.
Speaker 1: We go on to share the same recommendation with Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Luster that we shared with DA Jason Williams regarding the
Speaker 1: potential importance of the text messages and the urgent need
Speaker 1: to preserve the records.
Speaker 9: Just to let you know, we've turned this active investigation
Speaker 9: over to the DA's office, so they're looking into it
Speaker 9: as well.
Speaker 7: Okay, well, this is information we did pass on to
Speaker 7: the DA as well. Whenever we had to have our
Speaker 7: meeting with them. I tried to get it to you first,
Speaker 7: and I think you were on vacation or something. I
Speaker 7: wasn't able to connect with you, so I had to
Speaker 7: provide this to them during that meeting.
Speaker 9: Yeah, send it to me, because what I'll do is
Speaker 9: I'll send it up to the digital forensics unit because
Speaker 9: we do have one and see where because they have
Speaker 9: the technology that I can track cell phone data and
Speaker 9: locations and what towers. I'll ford this information to Digital
Speaker 9: Forensic can see if they can help us out.
Speaker 4: Lieutenant you're a good man. I appreciate you for your time.
Speaker 9: Thank you, and I listen. Send me your email addresses. Well,
Speaker 9: I'll keep in the loop as to where we are
Speaker 9: with it.
Speaker 4: Hey, you're the man.
Speaker 1: For a long time, we waited patiently, checking in every
Speaker 1: so often for any sort of update, hoping to get
Speaker 1: confirmation the records from the phone that sent and received
Speaker 1: those text messages had been analyzed properly, or at the
Speaker 1: very least had been preserved. And then on January twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, exactly one year to the date since
Speaker 1: our last conversation with Lieutenant Luster, and just weeks before
Speaker 1: this episode's release, Todd received a call from the NPD.
Speaker 8: So they said you had information on the case.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8: What'd you say?
Speaker 6: Your name was detective one?
Speaker 8: Yeah, how you went in?
Speaker 10: Okay?
Speaker 1: So the call is from Detective Anthony Lunn. You might
Speaker 1: remember us mentioning him earlier in the podcast. He was
Speaker 1: the missing person's investigator who was initially assigned Jessica's case
Speaker 1: back in twenty nineteen. We were surprised to learn that
Speaker 1: he had some relevant information to share about her case.
Speaker 8: Was that about a neighbor receiving texts?
Speaker 10: It was, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I used to be
Speaker 10: for the state police here, I was before I retired.
Speaker 6: I was in.
Speaker 10: The left surveillance units. I was like, oh, yeah, this
Speaker 10: is a case like I would work all the time.
Speaker 8: But yeah, so we actually looked into that actually before
Speaker 8: he sent us the info. Okay, it actually we didn't
Speaker 8: get anything out of it. The phone's actually not to him, so.
Speaker 10: And so at that time, even it was subscribed to
Speaker 10: you by someone else.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, yeah, we thought we had something and then
Speaker 8: turns out it was something else. We did the phone
Speaker 8: records request and there was everything came back.
Speaker 10: So you could tell by the people that phone was
Speaker 10: communicating with that these weren't people in justin Dirty's life. Yeah,
Speaker 10: like the whole profile, life analysis and all that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so we we looked into We followed up with that.
Speaker 8: I mean, I can't really give you much because I
Speaker 8: mean it's an ongoing investigate.
Speaker 10: So okay, all right, so Babby, you can't say that
Speaker 10: number that the neighbor tested, that that was given on
Speaker 10: the Justin Durty mean profile and then next door app
Speaker 10: that number was not in the possession of Justin Darning
Speaker 10: on that day.
Speaker 8: I mean I can just say we did a follow
Speaker 8: up on it, and I mean the case is still
Speaker 8: open and we're still investigating.
Speaker 10: So okay, do you guys have it now or does the.
Speaker 6: DIA's office have I Can I ask you that.
Speaker 8: Right now? We both have it.
Speaker 6: I guess oh, you're just both kind of sharing duties
Speaker 6: on it. Yeah, okay, well he's better than one, I
Speaker 6: reckon that's the case. Okay, Well, I appreciate your time,
Speaker 6: appreciate you calling me back. Are you still with missing
Speaker 6: persons or are you in homicide now?
Speaker 8: No, I'm not. I just deal with the person crimes.
Speaker 10: Okay, And so does this Can I ask you if
Speaker 10: this sets within missing persons now or yehu?
Speaker 8: Or I mean it's still it's still listen as an
Speaker 8: unclassified death right, that's how it's being enough to me?
Speaker 10: Can I ask you what unit that means that it's
Speaker 10: left with?
Speaker 8: I mean it's still with me and I guess DA's
Speaker 8: office now, Okay, But if you get anything else, Just
Speaker 8: give me a call and look into it, all.
Speaker 6: Right, We'll take appreciate your call.
Speaker 1: To be honest, Todd was caught off guard by LUN's
Speaker 1: call as well as what we learned from it. That's
Speaker 1: because Lieutenant Luster told us the n OPD was no
Speaker 1: longer officially investigating Jessica's case and had handed it over
Speaker 1: to the DA. But now Detective Lun tells us that
Speaker 1: both the n OPD and the DA's office are actively
Speaker 1: working it, and that the NOPD did follow through and
Speaker 1: look into the phone records, and we're able to confirm
Speaker 1: that Justin was not the user of that phone number
Speaker 1: at the time when those texts were sent. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, this call from one provided some
Speaker 1: major updates in Jessica's case. The LUN's response is helpful
Speaker 1: in trying to understand the origin of the messages. The
Speaker 1: vague nature of it does leave a lot unanswered on
Speaker 1: the technical side. Saying we looked into that does not
Speaker 1: answer other important questions such as what type of records
Speaker 1: they obtained, who analyzed them, and what type of analysis
Speaker 1: was conducted. In other words, it doesn't tell us how
Speaker 1: they reached their conclusion. And furthermore, who sent those text messages.
Speaker 1: In discussing this with Todd and piggybacking off of his
Speaker 1: original recommendation to the DA and Lieutenant Lester, we made
Speaker 1: several attempts to follow up with Detective lun over the phone,
Speaker 1: but we have yet to receive a call back. With that,
Speaker 1: we shifted our focus back to the other agency we've
Speaker 1: been told is working Jessica's case, the DA's office. Maybe
Speaker 1: they can shed some more light on everything if they
Speaker 1: are working the case. One of my questions to them
Speaker 1: would be if they did their own analysis of those
Speaker 1: phone records, as Todd recommended, among other things. The problem
Speaker 1: is we don't know who at the DA's office is
Speaker 1: working this case. That's something we've been trying to determine
Speaker 1: for over a year now. Todd asked Detective Lawn via
Speaker 1: text if he knew who the investigator was at the
Speaker 1: DA's office, but he never received a reply, so we're
Speaker 1: left to try and figure this out ourselves. We start
Speaker 1: by visiting the DA's website. We see that he is
Speaker 1: a page dedicated to the cold case unit supposedly overseeing
Speaker 1: Jessica's case, with a phone number and the following promise.
Speaker 1: The Cold Case Unit of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's
Speaker 1: Office is charged with getting murderers off the streets and
Speaker 1: bringing healing to families. So we call that number.
Speaker 5: Good afternoon, I'm going to help you.
Speaker 1: Hi, May I speak to the District Attorney's Cold Case Unit.
Speaker 8: Okay, what do you call in regards to them?
Speaker 1: I'm calling about the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
Speaker 8: Okay, so they have your information.
Speaker 11: I remember speaking with you.
Speaker 1: Just to clarify, I had called the DA before. This
Speaker 1: was just the first time i'd called the front desk
Speaker 1: asking specifically for the cold case unit.
Speaker 6: Is it justice for Jessica?
Speaker 10: Do you know that website?
Speaker 1: I do know that website, but that is not I'm
Speaker 1: the Audrey. She seems to think I'm Jessica's sister. Audrey.
Speaker 1: I try to clarify, Well, I'm not fafiliated with that website.
Speaker 2: I just know of it.
Speaker 10: Okay, Well, what's your relation to Jessica.
Speaker 1: I am an investigative journalist. I'm working on a podcast
Speaker 1: about her case, and I attended the press conference and
Speaker 1: spoke to the District Attorney Jason Williams last year about
Speaker 1: the cold Case Unit and her case, and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to do a follow up to see where thinks.
Speaker 11: Okay, okay, so you're not a family member, no, ma'am.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, let me give.
Speaker 11: You kindreds email address and you can email Jason's assistant
Speaker 11: and they take it from here.
Speaker 1: So, without any further information about the cold Case Unit
Speaker 1: or Jessica's case, we take the woman's recommendation and reach
Speaker 1: out via email to Kendrick, the DA's executive assistant. Well,
Speaker 1: he's unable to set up a meeting for us with
Speaker 1: the DA, stating that Jason Williams is in the middle
Speaker 1: of prosecuting two murder trials. He does offer us two
Speaker 1: investigators within the cold case Unit to call.
Speaker 4: Hello, Hi, Naomi Jones.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Hi Naomi, this is Todd McComas and I'm calling
Speaker 7: you about a specific case you may or may not
Speaker 7: be assigned to. And that's the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
Speaker 7: The what Jessica Easterly Darning case?
Speaker 11: I am not assigned to that?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 7: Are you currently assigned to the Cold Case Unit at
Speaker 7: the DA's office.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm in the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Unit, okay,
Speaker 1: which just cold cases.
Speaker 7: Okay, but you are not assigned or working in any
Speaker 7: way on Jessica Easterly Darning's death investigation.
Speaker 8: No, no, I am not.
Speaker 4: Would you by chance know who is?
Speaker 8: I do not.
Speaker 4: Okay, you're just not familiar with the case at all.
Speaker 1: I mean I've seen it in the news, but other
Speaker 1: than that, No, no luck with the first detective. So
Speaker 1: we try the other detective, he recommended.
Speaker 4: Hi, can I speak with Mary Glass please?
Speaker 8: Gees actually not in yet, can't take a message.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, it'll be full.
Speaker 7: My name is Todd Macomas, and I had some questions
Speaker 7: about your unit. Do you work within the same unit
Speaker 7: I do? Okay?
Speaker 4: Is this I believe the DNA unit.
Speaker 8: No, we worked specifically on cold case sexual assaults.
Speaker 7: Okay, do you have a cold case homicide unit there
Speaker 7: within the DA's office.
Speaker 11: I work in my little corner and I don't know.
Speaker 1: But let me give you so Kendrick's contacts for the
Speaker 1: cold case unit weren't exactly helpful. But then we remember
Speaker 1: that we do know of one other detective within the
Speaker 1: DA's office, the one who was initially assigned Jessica's case
Speaker 1: and who I met briefly at the DA's press conference
Speaker 1: Detective Joe Lorenzo. Looking him up online, it appears as
Speaker 1: though he may have left his position at the DA's
Speaker 1: office and moved into real estate. Nonetheless, we're hopeful he
Speaker 1: can provide some information as to where the case stood
Speaker 1: when he left.
Speaker 11: Hello.
Speaker 4: Hi is this Joe? Yes, Hey Joe. My name is
Speaker 4: Todd Macombus.
Speaker 7: I'm a retired detective with the Indiana State Police and
Speaker 7: currently I work with Resonate Recordings that's doing the Jessica
Speaker 7: Easterly Dirning case.
Speaker 8: I don't have anything to say, brother, thank you?
Speaker 4: Okay? Are you retired?
Speaker 1: So no help from the former investigator either. In a
Speaker 1: moment of pure frustration, Todd tries the cold case phone
Speaker 1: number listed on the District Attorney's website one more time,
Speaker 1: and this time we seem to be getting somewhere. The
Speaker 1: woman at the desk gives us contact information for the
Speaker 1: DA's first assistant, Ned McGowan. We promptly make a call.
Speaker 11: Ned McGowan is not available at the moment. At the
Speaker 11: tone record your message. To end your recording, press number
Speaker 11: sign to reat operator PRIs zero. Hi.
Speaker 5: Ed.
Speaker 7: My name is Todd Mcomas. I am currently working with
Speaker 7: Resonate Recordings that is doing the podcast on the Jessica
Speaker 7: Easterly Darning case. For months now, I've been trying to
Speaker 7: just get a simple answer from someone at the DA's
Speaker 7: office to answer the question, does the DA's office have
Speaker 7: a cold case homicide unit? Is your office actually investigating
Speaker 7: cold case homicides? Are members of your cold case homicide
Speaker 7: unit actively working in the Jessica Easterly Durning case.
Speaker 4: It a'll need specifics.
Speaker 1: As of this episode's release, we have not been able
Speaker 1: to confirm who at the DA's office is investigating Jessica's case,
Speaker 1: or if there is even a detective assigned to investigating
Speaker 1: homicides in their cold case unit. I also want to
Speaker 1: point out that the family has not heard from anyone
Speaker 1: in the DA's office since the press conference a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago, despite numerous calls and in person
Speaker 1: visits from Audrey. I find myself in familiar territory yet again,
Speaker 1: with many questions and very few answers, the same place
Speaker 1: that Jessica's family has become all too familiar with over
Speaker 1: the years. As you know, DA Williams called that press
Speaker 1: conference to address the thousands of unsolved homicides in New
Speaker 1: Orleans and announced his intentions of establishing a dedicated cold
Speaker 1: case unit, with Jessica as a proverbial poster child for
Speaker 1: that endeavor. He also publicly announced for the first time
Speaker 1: that her death would be investigated as a homicide, but
Speaker 1: for now, the status of the investigation remains unknown. Despite
Speaker 1: any recommendations we've given to the DA directly for Todd
Speaker 1: and I, finding out who, if anyone, is investigating Jessica's
Speaker 1: death has felt more challenging than discovering what happened to
Speaker 1: her in the first place, And simply put, that's not okay.
Speaker 1: Jessica's not just a case number. She's not just a
Speaker 1: poster child for cold case unit initiatives. She was a
Speaker 1: human being and she was loved. Jessica, like so many
Speaker 1: of us, was a woman who was finding her way.
Speaker 1: She wanted a family and a happily ever after, and
Speaker 1: with so much of her life hidden away, it's hard
Speaker 1: to say exactly what was happening behind the curtain. Jessica's
Speaker 1: family entrusted Todd and I to tell her story with respect, empathy,
Speaker 1: and compassion. Our goal was to do just that and
Speaker 1: hopefully bring more awareness to her case, uncover truth about
Speaker 1: her suspicious death and shed light on her investigation. But
Speaker 1: along the way, we uncovered a systemic issue in the
Speaker 1: city of New Orleans. Jessica's case is just one of
Speaker 1: countless others that have gone unsolved by a system whose
Speaker 1: main players don't seem to be on the same page.
Speaker 1: On one hand, we have a coroner who has ruled
Speaker 1: both her cause and manner of death as undetermined and
Speaker 1: told us that their work is done until the INNOPDE
Speaker 1: gives them more evidence to rule her manner of death
Speaker 1: as anything else. On the other hand, we have the
Speaker 1: person who supervises NOPD detectives tell us that they're not
Speaker 1: allowed to investigate an undetermined death. And in addition to
Speaker 1: all of this, we now have a detective telling us
Speaker 1: that despite that classification, he is still actively working her
Speaker 1: case until someone in authority reevaluates this process and takes
Speaker 1: some sort of action. Questions surrounding Jessica's suspicious death remain
Speaker 1: unanswered and her case remains undetermined. So where do we
Speaker 1: go from here? Well, even if there is someone assigned
Speaker 1: to investigate Jessica's case, as detective Law told us, why
Speaker 1: not seek additional resources? We know there are other agencies who,
Speaker 1: if invited in, could assist in the investigation. One such
Speaker 1: agency is the Louisiana State Police's Bureau of Investigations, but
Speaker 1: they can only join existing investigations upon request by local
Speaker 1: law enforcement, an invitation if you will. And the person
Speaker 1: who holds the reins of the New Orleans Police Department
Speaker 1: is the superintendent and her superior is the Mayor of
Speaker 1: New Orleans, who appoints the superintendent. So with that said,
Speaker 1: here's what can be done. Mayor LaToya Cantrell can encourage
Speaker 1: NPD's superintendent, Michelle Woodfork, to extend an invitation to the
Speaker 1: Louisiana State Police to help investigate Jessica's case. We worked
Speaker 1: with Jessica's sister Audrey to create a new petition on
Speaker 1: change dot org asking the Mayor of New Orleans to
Speaker 1: do just that. You can sign the petition at change
Speaker 1: dot org slash justice the number four jess Or on
Speaker 1: our website undeterminedpod dot com. I encourage you to read
Speaker 1: the petition and consider signing it in hopes that Jessica's
Speaker 1: case can get the help it needs so her family
Speaker 1: can get a step closer to answers. Thank you to
Speaker 1: all who participate, Thank you for listening. Undetermined is a
Speaker 1: production of Resonate Recordings and Tenderfoot TV in conjunction with
Speaker 1: Cadence thirteen, Written and hosted by me Jessica Nole and
Speaker 1: produced by Dennis Cooper and Todd McComas, with additional production
Speaker 1: by Whitney Bozart. Executive producers are Dennis Cooper, Mark Minnery,
Speaker 1: Jacob Bozart, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Our senior producer
Speaker 1: is John Street. Editing, mixing, mastering and sound design by
Speaker 1: Caleb Melcher, Dayton Cole and Pat Kicklider of the Resonate
Speaker 1: Recordings team. If you have a podcast or are looking
Speaker 1: to start one, check us out at Resonate Recordings dot com.
Speaker 1: Our theme song and original score is by Dirt Poor Robbins,
Speaker 1: with additional scoring by Dayton Cole. Voice acting by Sabrina Sewert,
Speaker 1: Whitney Bozart and Paul Frields. You can follow Undetermined Podcast
Speaker 1: on Facebook and on Twitter at Undetermined Pod. Show notes
Speaker 1: as well as bonus content can be found on our website,
Speaker 1: undetermined pod dot com. If you enjoyed this episode, please
Speaker 1: take time to subscribe, rate and review your feedback. Is
Speaker 1: greatly appreciated and finally, if you have any information about
Speaker 1: this case, call crime Stoppers at one eight seven seven
Speaker 1: nine zero three seven eight sixty seven. The tone and
Speaker 1: inflection used by voice actors is not contextually accurate and
Speaker 1: is a matter of creative interpretation