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Speaker 2: I feel like.
Speaker 3: If somebody has disappeared and they don't have a vehicle,
Speaker 3: they don't have have a cell phone to communicate, they
Speaker 3: don't have any means of paying for anything.
Speaker 2: At that point you have to treat it like it's
Speaker 2: a missing child. That means going door to door, going
Speaker 2: and looking under bushes and cars. So don't make excuses
Speaker 2: to me about manpower, because that just means you don't
Speaker 2: want to. That's what I feel all of this boils
Speaker 2: down to, is they just don't want to.
Speaker 4: But when they get a call that there's a body
Speaker 4: found two and a half, everybody.
Speaker 5: Everybody shows up.
Speaker 4: People in suits, don't even talk to you, people in
Speaker 4: uniforms coming up and asking questions.
Speaker 5: And the one detective.
Speaker 4: That wasn't there an hour and a half before, there's
Speaker 4: all of a sudden there and hey man, how are.
Speaker 5: You guys doing. We just did your job and we
Speaker 5: found our relative. How are you doing?
Speaker 4: You know, all of a sudden you have more than
Speaker 4: enough people to come out.
Speaker 5: That's kind of embarrassing. And I was probably about.
Speaker 4: Where you see those uh those little like concrete things
Speaker 4: over there, when I heard her yelling from over here,
Speaker 4: and then they ended up calling me and I rushed back,
Speaker 4: but there was a stop training over here, so I
Speaker 4: had to hop over and walk.
Speaker 5: And and just just kind of look down. That goes
Speaker 5: pretty deep. It's way down there, so it's it's crazy.
Speaker 4: And you guys see about where she lived, just down
Speaker 4: the road, not very far at all, so it was
Speaker 4: extremely close.
Speaker 5: Yeah, gives me chills being back here.
Speaker 1: This is on Thursday, August twenty second, twenty nineteen, about
Speaker 1: a week after Jessica's disappearance. Sisters Audrey and Amanda, along
Speaker 1: with their cousin Doug, made the long trek from Mississippi
Speaker 1: to New Orleans. First stop in OPD District three, they
Speaker 1: wanted to speak to Detective One, but when they arrive,
Speaker 1: he's not there, so they make the best of their
Speaker 1: time and start looking around Jessica's Lakeview neighborhood, the last
Speaker 1: place she was seeing. Scouring a map of the area,
Speaker 1: they decide to look just on the outskirts of the
Speaker 1: residential part of the neighborhood. Something drew them to an
Speaker 1: overgrown area just passed an interstate overpass. There's a pumping
Speaker 1: station and a hillside that leads up to some train
Speaker 1: tracks dividing Lakeview and its adjacent neighborhood.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna led al drug kind of walk you guys
Speaker 4: over there.
Speaker 5: It was greways down there.
Speaker 6: So me, Doug, and Amanda got here by the pumping
Speaker 6: station number seven and was scouting out places to look at.
Speaker 6: Amanda stayed in the car to talk to Maria to
Speaker 6: tell her what was going on, what our next plan was,
Speaker 6: And me and Doug got out the car and.
Speaker 7: We went over the railroad tracks.
Speaker 8: We crossed the train and he told me go look
Speaker 8: over that way by the woods, and that's what I did.
Speaker 8: I went over there, and I was walking alongside of
Speaker 8: the train and I seen like a white tarp down
Speaker 8: there's like a leg a hill with rocks on it,
Speaker 8: and I've seen a white tarp, and I thought, oh
Speaker 8: my god, I hope my sister's not underneath there. So
Speaker 8: to walk down there, but I slid all the way
Speaker 8: down and my foot hit the tarp, and I just
Speaker 8: remember thinking, please, don't let my sister be underneath there.
Speaker 8: And I pulled up the tarp and she wasn't there,
Speaker 8: and I was so relieved.
Speaker 1: Though Audrey felt a sense of relief in this moment,
Speaker 1: her search continued. She had a strong feeling about this
Speaker 1: area and felt something calling to her, urging her to
Speaker 1: keep looking.
Speaker 8: And then literally maybe five ten feet I just stayed
Speaker 8: down there, and I jumped on a railroad tie and
Speaker 8: then I turned around, and then as clear as day,
Speaker 8: I heard a voice that said, no, look again. And
Speaker 8: I looked again. And that's whenever. So when I seen
Speaker 8: her legs, when I seen her back, and I started screaming.
Speaker 7: No one heard me. I was just sitting here screaming.
Speaker 9: I walked back up the hime, and then I walked
Speaker 9: back down and I looked again because I thought, maybe
Speaker 9: that's not what I'm seeing. And I fell to the
Speaker 9: grand and just started screaming, and and then I called
Speaker 9: my sister on the phone and I said, I found Jessica.
Speaker 8: She was just laying there, and I knew it was
Speaker 8: my sister, Like I knew it was her.
Speaker 5: And it was her.
Speaker 7: Knee that was black, and she had black shorts, she
Speaker 7: had on a black shirt. Her feet were covered by
Speaker 7: some bushes, and then like her head was kind of
Speaker 7: covered by some bushes.
Speaker 8: Too, but I could see her.
Speaker 7: She was just laying there like someone set her down
Speaker 7: or something like a pizza trush. She was only two
Speaker 7: enough foughts from her house. She was a person, no
Speaker 7: matter what what she was into or anything, she didn't
Speaker 7: deserve to die like that.
Speaker 4: We were all kind of shocked, you know, we were
Speaker 4: all kind of kind of scared. Obviously, reality kind of
Speaker 4: kicks in.
Speaker 1: This is Jessica's cousin, Doug Schmidt, who accompanied Audrey and
Speaker 1: Amanda in their search for Jessica. Doug works in the
Speaker 1: funeral home industry and sees the deceased on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: Still the scene was jarring to him.
Speaker 4: She wasn't facing us, she was facing another direction, and
Speaker 4: she was kind of more or less sitting in a
Speaker 4: fetal position, and the surroundings didn't really seem really natural
Speaker 4: as far as Okay, well, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 4: I'm not a police officer, not a detective. But I
Speaker 4: told him, I said, look, if this is her or
Speaker 4: if it's not, this is still a dead body, and
Speaker 4: we need to get away from this right now and.
Speaker 5: Call the police.
Speaker 1: And they did just that. As they waited, Amanda call
Speaker 1: Jessica's friend Maria to let her know what had happened.
Speaker 10: She was like, we found a body. Police are on
Speaker 10: the way, like just that quick, so fast, We're going
Speaker 10: to look around. We found her, and I remember like
Speaker 10: just howling like a bansheet and like walking around my
Speaker 10: living room in circles and being like, oh my god,
Speaker 10: I'm so sorry, just like I knew it was her.
Speaker 1: Back at the scene, it wasn't long before the area
Speaker 1: was flooded with emergency personnel and police, including Detective lun When.
Speaker 4: They showed up, it was a few detectives and we
Speaker 4: walked them to where we found her and of course,
Speaker 4: they doing their thing. They're asking questions about what's the
Speaker 4: story here, and we kind of filled them in a
Speaker 4: little bit about what we knew up to that point
Speaker 4: that look, she was missing. We came down because it
Speaker 4: had been ten days and we were worried about our
Speaker 4: relative and went over everything with them, and of course
Speaker 4: they took pictures. Corners Office showed up and removed her
Speaker 4: and all. And I remember my cousin Mandy really wanted
Speaker 4: to see because at the point, you know, you couldn't
Speaker 4: really see anything, and the level of decomp ten days
Speaker 4: and the heat in that area, I mean, it kind
Speaker 4: of was rapid.
Speaker 5: We asked them, said, look, these are her sisters.
Speaker 4: Man to hear wants to see her because she wants
Speaker 4: to know if this is her or not, because they
Speaker 4: had this gut.
Speaker 5: Feeling that look, no, that's that's my sister. I remember
Speaker 5: him saying, the level of d comp's bad.
Speaker 4: Soft tissues are removed, it's you don't want to see.
Speaker 1: The family was certain it was Jessica, but sadly, due
Speaker 1: to the level of decomposition from the New Orleans heat,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't get a positive identification that day. In fact,
Speaker 1: they didn't feel like they got much of anything out
Speaker 1: of the NPD that day. According to Doug, the scene
Speaker 1: was cleared within an hour.
Speaker 5: Looking back, I kind of expect a little bit more.
Speaker 4: They interviewed us, of course, they took some pictures of
Speaker 4: the immediate area, and then that was it. They didn't
Speaker 4: really expand past just that one little section, And that
Speaker 4: always seemed kind of to me.
Speaker 5: It really did, really really odd.
Speaker 4: It didn't seem like it wasn't as big a deal
Speaker 4: as it should have been to them. This was a
Speaker 4: missing person's case that was reported missing. This wasn't like,
Speaker 4: oh she was missing and no one reported its Like.
Speaker 5: No, they knew.
Speaker 4: They knew our level of interest, our level of involvement.
Speaker 4: They knew it. The detective that we were going to
Speaker 4: see that day showed up on the scene and talked
Speaker 4: to us. You know, of course we're kind of looking
Speaker 4: at them, like, I mean, the house is a straight
Speaker 4: shot from here. This seems awfully closed for so many
Speaker 4: miss in ten days, and three amateurs who don't even
Speaker 4: live in the area, have never been to this area
Speaker 4: can put two and two together and just start looking around.
Speaker 4: Even looking back, it just still feels odd to me
Speaker 4: because I expected more. I expect a lot more, and
Speaker 4: it just never happened.
Speaker 5: It just never happened.
Speaker 1: And when the NOPD wrapped up at the scene, what
Speaker 1: was left was a police report, a fairly brief one
Speaker 1: at that the incident is listed as an unclassified death
Speaker 1: and specifically states that is not a result of a
Speaker 1: hate crime or domestic violence. The narrative says, in part.
Speaker 11: At approximately twelve thirty six pm, police officer Everett Briscoe
Speaker 11: was dispatched to the intersection of Orleans Avenue in Kenilworth
Speaker 11: Street to investigate a report of a miscellaneous incident, Whereas
Speaker 11: the reporting person, Amanda Barnes, stated, while searching for her sister,
Speaker 11: who was reported missing, she located the deceased body of
Speaker 11: an unknown white female.
Speaker 1: Officers reported her as wearing a gray shirt and blue shorts,
Speaker 1: and also noted that she was in an advanced stage
Speaker 1: of decomposition. It, in essence, that's the police report. As
Speaker 1: Doug Audrey and Amanda drove away from the scene that afternoon,
Speaker 1: they were at a loss. The only thing they knew
Speaker 1: for sure in that moment was that Jessica was no
Speaker 1: longer missing. She was gone forever, you know.
Speaker 5: There was a lot of emotions going on.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of anger, there was a lot
Speaker 4: of confusion, a lot of sadness, and it just felt
Speaker 4: like it was just like a roller coaster. I know,
Speaker 4: we all had hoped that she was still alive somewhere,
Speaker 4: and you kind of hang on to that, and then
Speaker 4: you start hoping that maybe this wasn't her.
Speaker 5: Because me not being.
Speaker 4: Near as close to Jessica as my two cousins were,
Speaker 4: I felt the degree of sadness because I mean, I
Speaker 4: I can't even imagine I couldn't you know, I have
Speaker 4: three sisters of my own, and even trying to look
Speaker 4: at it from their perspective just makes me just want
Speaker 4: to shut down.
Speaker 1: Eventually reality would set in, but it would take some time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until nearly three months later, in November of
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, that the body would officially be matched to
Speaker 1: Jessica through DNA. According to the family, the delay was
Speaker 1: a result of the NPD misplacing the original DNA sample
Speaker 1: submitted by Jessica's mother. Nonetheless, they got their answer, a
Speaker 1: rather unwanted one, and there would be more to follow.
Speaker 1: Two months later, January of twenty twenty would turn out
Speaker 1: to be a quite eventful month for the case. The
Speaker 1: corner listed both the cause and manner of death as
Speaker 1: undetermined or a coroner's examination. They typically include the cause
Speaker 1: and manner of death. Manner of death can be natural,
Speaker 1: accidental suicide, homicide, or if it's unknown but is not
Speaker 1: considered natural causes, they can classify it as undetermined. In
Speaker 1: Jessica's case, her injuries, which we'll get to in a minute,
Speaker 1: did not indicate exactly how she died. Therefore, they also
Speaker 1: ruled her cause of death as undetermined. This obviously didn't
Speaker 1: sit well with the family. It seemed they were even
Speaker 1: further from closure than they thought. Everything was up in
Speaker 1: the air. To make matters worse, that same day, Audrey
Speaker 1: and Amanda learned that they wouldn't even be able to
Speaker 1: lay their sister to rest. Her remains were released to
Speaker 1: her husband justin This came as a surprise to them
Speaker 1: and they were crushed. And as if that wasn't enough
Speaker 1: bad news for one month, the most shocking revelation would
Speaker 1: come the last day of the month, January thirty first,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, when the coroner released the autopsy report to
Speaker 1: the family. They hoped it would provide some answers. Instead,
Speaker 1: it would only raise more questions. We were given access
Speaker 1: to the report by Jessica's family. Here's what it says.
Speaker 1: Jessica's time of death was listed as August twenty second,
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, one h five pm, which is when she
Speaker 1: was found and officially pronounced deceased at the scene. The
Speaker 1: autopsy indicates several injuries to Jessica's body, including a broken
Speaker 1: nose and jaw. She also sustained post mortem injuries, meaning
Speaker 1: they happened after she was deceased. Those include a broken
Speaker 1: rib and C four vertebrae, which is located in the neck.
Speaker 1: At the time of her autopsy, Doctor O'Sullivan, a forensic
Speaker 1: pathologist with the Orleans Parish Corner's Office, collected evidence samples
Speaker 1: from Jessica's body, including two envelopes of fingernail clippings, a
Speaker 1: heart charmed necklace from her neck, and her clothing black
Speaker 1: tank top, black shorts, pink underwear, and a pair of
Speaker 1: black shoes, which contradicted what the nopedie reported her wearing
Speaker 1: gray shirt and blue shorts. The doctor also notates a
Speaker 1: sun and moon tattoo on her lower right abdomen following
Speaker 1: the autopsy, a toxicology screening was conducted by forensic toxicologist
Speaker 1: doctor Sherry Katinko with NMS Labs. Testing shows levels of
Speaker 1: memph amphetamine, amphetamine, alcohol, and prescription drugs including buproprian and
Speaker 1: hydroxyu approprian. The report raises a lot of questions, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to better understand what everything meant to do
Speaker 1: that I sought on an expert, a woman I had
Speaker 1: connected with a few years back, ironically in New Orleans
Speaker 1: during Crime con an annual true crime convention, where she
Speaker 1: was speaking as a forensics expert.
Speaker 12: My name is doctor Kimberly Massik.
Speaker 13: I am an assistant professor of criminology and Victimology at
Speaker 13: Indian River State College, as well as the founder and
Speaker 13: director of.
Speaker 14: The Institute for Cold Case Investigations, which works directly with
Speaker 14: law enforcement agencies going through cold cases that are in
Speaker 14: our local area.
Speaker 1: While doctor Masnik hasn't conducted an official investigation into this case,
Speaker 1: we asked her to look over the documents we have
Speaker 1: and share her thoughts.
Speaker 12: And the Jessica Easterly case.
Speaker 13: Jessica was found ten days after she actually went missing.
Speaker 12: She's in New Orleans.
Speaker 13: She's in a fairly good state of decomposition from the
Speaker 13: trunk up so the body is Jessica's body is removed
Speaker 13: and she is taken to the examiner's office and when
Speaker 13: they receive her, she is received in the bag upside down,
Speaker 13: and the process for her very little is actually done
Speaker 13: because of the level of decomposition. And you have to
Speaker 13: think it's New Orleans is very much like where I
Speaker 13: live in Florida. It's extremely hot, it's extremely humid, which
Speaker 13: is going to make the person their level of decomposition
Speaker 13: happen much quicker. So she's not in the most pristine
Speaker 13: condition she can be in to run all of the
Speaker 13: tests that would normally be run. You go ahead and
Speaker 13: do toxicology on her, but unfortunately they can't take it.
Speaker 12: We can't get blood samples.
Speaker 13: She's been out there for ten days, so either her
Speaker 13: blood has dried up or because of the decomposition, the
Speaker 13: blood has flowed into her body cavity, so therefore it's compromised.
Speaker 13: So the one thing that they're really able to do
Speaker 13: is to send off and have a piece of her
Speaker 13: liver examined. Again, you have to remember that Jessica's liver
Speaker 13: has now been out and in the public sun that
Speaker 13: and everything else for ten days, so it is also
Speaker 13: going through changes both chemically and physically.
Speaker 1: There are many challenges experts face when dealing with a
Speaker 1: highly decomposed body, as was the case here. Doctor Masnik
Speaker 1: puts it simply, if you don't test for it, you're
Speaker 1: not going to find it. But in Jasica's case, they
Speaker 1: were able to find some things.
Speaker 13: So there were only about five or six drugs that
Speaker 13: were tested for that we know of.
Speaker 12: Most of them come back to either.
Speaker 13: Illicit drugs that she was on potentially for depression, or
Speaker 13: she was being given by somebody for depression, or they
Speaker 13: are items that could have shown up in her liver
Speaker 13: in her system just simply due to this. The ethanol
Speaker 13: is absolutely an alcohol, a drug that shows up in
Speaker 13: the system due to decomp When I look at the
Speaker 13: things that are said about Jessica in the report, the report.
Speaker 12: Say she's either a very low.
Speaker 13: Level user of myth because it doesn't say anything about,
Speaker 13: you know, major blemishes to her skin, her teeth, or
Speaker 13: in fair condition. There's nothing that we see when we
Speaker 13: look at people that are major meth addicts.
Speaker 1: However, she says it's important to understand how meth metabolizes
Speaker 1: in the body.
Speaker 13: Meth breaks down very quickly based on when you take
Speaker 13: it and how much you take and how you take it.
Speaker 13: So it's more than likely that if they're finding meth
Speaker 13: in her body, that it was very recently taken and
Speaker 13: it would not have been ingested because the stomach would
Speaker 13: have dissolved it. That would lower the level very quickly.
Speaker 13: Meth isn't going to increase because of decomposition.
Speaker 12: Or anything else. If meth is there, then meth is there.
Speaker 1: We asked doctor Masnak. If there's a potential overdose here.
Speaker 13: You have to remember they were not able to run
Speaker 13: tests as extensively as they would have if it had
Speaker 13: been a fresh or an interior past. You have to
Speaker 13: realize they used her liver to do most of the testing,
Speaker 13: so the liver itself was also going through changes.
Speaker 12: So yes, it is very likely that it did go down.
Speaker 13: But then again, I still have to I'm speculating, and
Speaker 13: it's based on just my knowledge of what the average
Speaker 13: meth addicts looks like. One, if she's not a consistent user,
Speaker 13: and two, even a heavy dose ten hours later, only
Speaker 13: half of it's going to be in her system. And
Speaker 13: then After that, you've got the ten days until we
Speaker 13: even pick her up, and then you've got extra time
Speaker 13: before the autopsy even happens.
Speaker 12: So there's no way.
Speaker 13: Of knowing exactly how much meth was in her system
Speaker 13: at the time of her death.
Speaker 12: You have to go back and look. There's nothing.
Speaker 13: Nobody mentions anything about her. The husband is saying, you know,
Speaker 13: they were taking a nap, so it's not like they
Speaker 13: were at a party. There's nothing there that jumps out
Speaker 13: to me and says that she took a heavy dose
Speaker 13: of myth at that point in time, even though there's
Speaker 13: also nothing that tells me that she didn't.
Speaker 1: And while Jessica had traces of methamphetamine in her system
Speaker 1: at the time of her toxicology examination, her family doesn't
Speaker 1: believe she was habitually using meth. It's also unclear what
Speaker 1: exactly Jessica had prescriptions for and whether or not the
Speaker 1: drugs found in her system at the time of her
Speaker 1: death or prescription. But apart from the drugs, I also
Speaker 1: wanted to know if there was any way to determine
Speaker 1: what Jessica's cause of death could have been based off
Speaker 1: her injuries she.
Speaker 13: Was found with Basically her nose is broken and her
Speaker 13: jaw is broken, and they do not state, so I
Speaker 13: can only assume or presume that that was either.
Speaker 12: Pre mortem or anti mortem.
Speaker 13: They don't ever mention whether or not there's any blood
Speaker 13: in or around those areas, so I can't tell exactly
Speaker 13: at what point she received those. But they do state
Speaker 13: that her C four vertebrate as well as her rib
Speaker 13: or broken, and those are post mortem. I am feeling,
Speaker 13: based on what very little information we have, that this
Speaker 13: is Jessica's.
Speaker 12: A dumb sight. Because we have such little information.
Speaker 13: That's why the coroner up there turns around and gives
Speaker 13: us a manner and cause of death of being undetermined.
Speaker 13: As much as I don't like it, undetermined is actually
Speaker 13: probably the best thing to leave it at at this
Speaker 13: point in time.
Speaker 1: Although doctor Masnik is of the belief that Jessica's body
Speaker 1: was dumped at the site, implicating some degree of foul play,
Speaker 1: she says ultimately there's just not enough information to know
Speaker 1: for sure, and adds that a classification of homicide would
Speaker 1: be an overreach without definitive evidence on her body to
Speaker 1: support it. But before we move on, I want you
Speaker 1: to know there was something else found on her body.
Speaker 1: That further supports the theory of it being moved, something
Speaker 1: my partner Todd and I discussed at length.
Speaker 15: We do know from a source that was at the
Speaker 15: scene when her body was discovered, who makes their living
Speaker 15: working with dead bodies, she had liver mortis on the
Speaker 15: outside of her knee that was the opposite knee of
Speaker 15: the knee that was touching the ground.
Speaker 1: Let's break that down for someone who may not know
Speaker 1: what post mortem liver mortis is, because I had to
Speaker 1: have you explain it to me. And so let's begin
Speaker 1: with Jessica's found laying on her side.
Speaker 13: Right.
Speaker 15: Yeah, for this argument's sake, we're not saying which side
Speaker 15: she was discovered on right, but if she was discovered
Speaker 15: on her left side, then we would be talking about
Speaker 15: the right knee, and the liver mortis had set in
Speaker 15: on the outside of that right knee, which is facing
Speaker 15: the sky, pointed to straight up at the sky. From
Speaker 15: a layman or detective's understanding of what liver mortis is
Speaker 15: and what it occurs, it's post mortem lividity, which means
Speaker 15: it happens after death. So about twenty minutes after you die,
Speaker 15: the red blood cells start to separate themselves from the
Speaker 15: plasma because your heart's not beating anymore and it's not
Speaker 15: circulating the blood, so it works its way out of
Speaker 15: vessels and whatnot into tissue and then it pulls and
Speaker 15: it's falling because of gravity, tore the ground. So they're
Speaker 15: able to determine how you were positioned at the time
Speaker 15: you died, and it would mean that you laid there
Speaker 15: in that position for a minimum probably of two hours,
Speaker 15: probably closer to six the way this was described.
Speaker 1: So what this proves is she died laying on one side.
Speaker 1: She was found laying on the opposite side. Right between
Speaker 1: this revelation and everything we discussed with doctor Masnik, there's
Speaker 1: plenty of process here, and still something that gnaws at
Speaker 1: me is just how close her body was to her house.
Speaker 1: So now with all of this in mind, Todd and
Speaker 1: I decided to go back to the spot where Jessica
Speaker 1: was found. This time at night, it's eerie. Visibility is lacking.
Speaker 1: I'm on edge with every little noise I hear. It's
Speaker 1: a little unsettling out here this late at night. It's
Speaker 1: almost ten o'clock, it's dark, it's desolate this time of night.
Speaker 1: Quite the contrast from the bustling neighborhood we first visited
Speaker 1: in the daytime. Now no one is around, and one
Speaker 1: lonely street light illuminates a small patch of street and grass. Now,
Speaker 1: in August of twenty nineteen, this grassy area was overgrown,
Speaker 1: very weedy. You know, it didn't look like it does now.
Speaker 1: Now it's pretty manicured. I mean, it could probably use
Speaker 1: a mo but it looks like it's been mowed recently,
Speaker 1: within a week or so. I'd say.
Speaker 15: There's a little pool in area, a little cutout in
Speaker 15: the curb so that vehicles can pull into the slot
Speaker 15: and it splits the lot in the middle. So if
Speaker 15: it was this light wasn't here, then it was really dark.
Speaker 15: You could pull in there, and if it were overgrown,
Speaker 15: you could pull anything out of your car and just
Speaker 15: slide it.
Speaker 1: We find out after leaving New Orleans the light was
Speaker 1: in fact newly installed this year. If they pull in
Speaker 1: to this, I'm gonna say, now you were you were
Speaker 1: mentioning this. This pull in kind of divides this this area,
Speaker 1: so you got half the lot over here. The other
Speaker 1: half on the other side is not far at all
Speaker 1: from another house.
Speaker 15: No from Oh, I'm standing now, I could throw a
Speaker 15: baseball and hit that house, So it's it's risky. It's
Speaker 15: a risky spot, even though it's dark and it is
Speaker 15: visually and esthetically separated from this very nice edition they
Speaker 15: lived in.
Speaker 1: It's perplexing how she ends up this close to her
Speaker 1: house if you're wanting to conceal her. Right, there are many, many,
Speaker 1: many places we've seen driving around within minutes of driving
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes that would seemingly be easier to
Speaker 1: conceal long term, possibly forever.
Speaker 15: This is so close, and not only that, you have
Speaker 15: way more privacy in these other areas, you're way less
Speaker 15: likely to be spotted being parked there or doing something
Speaker 15: wrong there. I mean, granted we're talking about you know,
Speaker 15: this is kind of creepy. It's dark, it looks different
Speaker 15: than the other side of the overpass. All that, yet
Speaker 15: we are very very close to houses and people, and
Speaker 15: that's never a great strategy for dumping a dead body.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And as we have discussed, the location could have
Speaker 1: been the opportunity that presented itself to do something quickly
Speaker 1: and with haste, as opposed to planning and thinking of
Speaker 1: a location that would be better suited to conceal.
Speaker 15: It's hard to believe that this was anyone's master plan.
Speaker 15: If any time at all was invested in what should
Speaker 15: I do with this woman's body?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 15: Where should I put it? Then I doubt this was
Speaker 15: plan A.
Speaker 1: We didn't stay long, but seeing this place at night
Speaker 1: did add some perspective. It's not the best place to
Speaker 1: hide a body by any stretch of the imagination, but
Speaker 1: at night it is a very easy place to get
Speaker 1: away with it, albeit if only temporarily, which is why
Speaker 1: Todd believes this was not some thought out plan, rather
Speaker 1: a rush decision made on the fly. So at this
Speaker 1: point we have at least some clarity as to how
Speaker 1: her body got to where it was found. But what
Speaker 1: about the cause and manner of death. That's something that's
Speaker 1: still seemed difficult to draw any conclusions, not to mention
Speaker 1: who's responsible. Theories were beginning to swirl, especially between those
Speaker 1: closest to her. But what I really wanted to know
Speaker 1: is what Justin thought. After all, he was Jessica's husband,
Speaker 1: they lived together. He was the last person to see her.
Speaker 1: Jessica's family had virtually no contact with Justin during this time,
Speaker 1: but he was talking one of the people he was
Speaker 1: talking to was Jessica's friend, Erica. He may remember from
Speaker 1: episode one she attended their wedding, and while she got
Speaker 1: to know Justin a little, they certainly weren't close. But
Speaker 1: shortly after Jessica went missing, Erica received a text from
Speaker 1: Justin which would ultimately turn into an extended conversation spanning
Speaker 1: from August fifteenth, twenty nineteen, to February twenty sixth, twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Erica sent me screenshots of their text conversation. Let's begin
Speaker 1: where their conversation started on August fifteenth, twenty nineteen, one
Speaker 1: day after Jessica was reported missing and one week before
Speaker 1: she was found. The text messages will be voiced by actors.
Speaker 5: Hey, it's Justin.
Speaker 16: Hey, what happened to Jessica. I just saw the post
Speaker 16: on Facebook.
Speaker 17: She left some time after twelve pm yesterday. I was
Speaker 17: a sleeper and I have no idea where she is
Speaker 17: or if she's okay.
Speaker 18: At first, I didn't know what to believe. I was like,
Speaker 18: what is going on? Because I saw the post on
Speaker 18: Facebook where he said Jessica, where are you? Grace misses you?
Speaker 18: And I'm like, what do you mean? I texted him
Speaker 18: I was like, where's Jessica. He said, I don't know.
Speaker 18: Gray's been throwing up, She's worried, sick, and I was
Speaker 18: hopeful that he had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1: You can actually see this in Erica's text. She was
Speaker 1: there for Justin during this time. Sure, she had her
Speaker 1: questions about Jessica's disappearance, and occasionally she'd throw out an
Speaker 1: idea of how to maybe find her, But for the
Speaker 1: most part, she was there to empathize.
Speaker 16: You need to be there for Gracie, hang in there
Speaker 16: and keep in touch, don't be too hard on.
Speaker 1: Yourself, And by his responses, Justin seemed to appreciate her kindness.
Speaker 17: I'm gonna try and take a nap. If I hear anything,
Speaker 17: I'll call you immediately. Thanks for being a good friend.
Speaker 1: In a way, it seemed like Erica became Justin's sounding board.
Speaker 1: They texted frequently. Sometimes it was even lighthearted, but for
Speaker 1: the most part it was serious. They both wanted to
Speaker 1: find out what happened to Jessica. On August twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: Erica asked Justin for an update.
Speaker 16: Nothing today, do you remember saying anything or doing anything?
Speaker 16: Are her saying anything the last day? You saw her
Speaker 16: that would help find her.
Speaker 1: Justin responds the following day, August thirtieth, at two twenty
Speaker 1: six in the morning, giving the full story of what
Speaker 1: happened the day Jessica went missing. I just want to
Speaker 1: note that at this point Jessica's body had been found,
Speaker 1: but neither Erica nor Justin seemed to know that. Here's
Speaker 1: their exchange.
Speaker 17: Gone over that day in my mind with police, even
Speaker 17: my daughter more than just a few times. The problem
Speaker 17: with that day is there isn't a lot to it.
Speaker 1: Justin explained how exhausted he was that day, between getting
Speaker 1: great ready to go back to school and Jessica coming
Speaker 1: out of what he called a depressive cycle after a
Speaker 1: flare up with her fiber mayalgia. He remembered sleeping in
Speaker 1: that morning and waking up to find Jessica in the
Speaker 1: kitchen doing laundry.
Speaker 17: She asked if I was hungry, and I said yes.
Speaker 17: We talked about Grace School for a while, and she
Speaker 17: said she was going.
Speaker 5: To put a pizza in the oven.
Speaker 17: She came back in the room when the pizza was ready,
Speaker 17: and we ate watched TV. After we ate, she said
Speaker 17: that I looked tired and I was abnormally tired because
Speaker 17: Grace had just gotten out of the hospital. I was
Speaker 17: getting her uniform for school, school supplies, all kinds of stuff,
Speaker 17: and I didn't have any help from Jessica because she
Speaker 17: was feeling like crap and sleeping a lot. So I said, yes,
Speaker 17: I am, and she said that she had to move
Speaker 17: the clothes to the dryer and she'd come lay down too.
Speaker 17: She went in the kitchen with the plate, and I
Speaker 17: remember her coming back in getting in the bed. That's
Speaker 17: the last thing I remember for Grace woke me up
Speaker 17: after getting home from school. That's when this all began.
Speaker 17: I don't know, there's not a lot to it, but
Speaker 17: that's what happened that morning.
Speaker 1: This should all sound pretty familiar to you, as it's
Speaker 1: the same narrative he gave to the NPD, but there's
Speaker 1: one minor inconsistency. If you remember from the previous episode,
Speaker 1: Justin told the first NPD unit that came to his
Speaker 1: house for the wellness check that when he woke up,
Speaker 1: he went into the kitchen and saw the pizza Jessica
Speaker 1: made later that night and early the next morning, he
Speaker 1: told the second INNOPD unit, who filed the missing person's
Speaker 1: report that he and Jessica ate pizza rolls together in bed,
Speaker 1: and now he tells Erica Jessica made a pizza and
Speaker 1: they ate it in bed together while watching TV, and
Speaker 1: that after taking their dishes to the kitchen and switching
Speaker 1: out the laundry, Jessica returned to bed and lay down
Speaker 1: with him. Of course, Erica had no knowledge of this,
Speaker 1: so as Justin answered whatever questions she had and described
Speaker 1: the events of that day, Erica took it all at
Speaker 1: face value. Her angle at the time was to simply
Speaker 1: try and figure out what happened to her friend, and ironically,
Speaker 1: the moment her and Justin's conversation started drifting into theories
Speaker 1: about what happened, that's when things started to take a turn.
Speaker 18: Nothing in my mind pointed to the facts that it
Speaker 18: could have possibly been him, And so the more he
Speaker 18: started texting me, and the more I started talking to
Speaker 18: Maria and she would contradict himself.
Speaker 1: Once Erica got in touch with Maria for the first time,
Speaker 1: she started hearing maria side of things. All the while
Speaker 1: Justin was throwing out a range of theories about what
Speaker 1: might have happened to Jessica. A stalker, a creepy neighbor.
Speaker 1: She admitted herself to the hospital, and the list goes on.
Speaker 18: He even tried to feed me the story that she's online.
Speaker 18: She must have got a new phone, probably somebody she's with.
Speaker 18: She met up with a new guy because she signed
Speaker 18: on a messenger. He goes, go, look, you can see
Speaker 18: it's active. So I would message her through Messenger, and
Speaker 18: of course I would get a response. I'd be like,
Speaker 18: is this to you?
Speaker 13: Where are you?
Speaker 18: I'm worried, sick, and a response would come back. So
Speaker 18: then I would call for a Facebook messenger because you
Speaker 18: can call, and then he answers the phone and I'm like.
Speaker 13: What the fuck Jessin?
Speaker 18: And I was pissed. I was livid. I was at
Speaker 18: work on the month's break and I'm like, why are
Speaker 18: you answering the phone? Hees, what do you mean? I said,
Speaker 18: what do you mean? What do I mean? You said
Speaker 18: she he was a messenger. I just called her through
Speaker 18: messenger and you're answering what is going on? And what's
Speaker 18: just completely come up with some random story again, and
Speaker 18: it was just it was crazy.
Speaker 1: But once news was out that Jessica's body had been found,
Speaker 1: he settled on one theory suicide.
Speaker 17: I'm sure they've all jumped on the Maria bandwagon. I mean,
Speaker 17: why not everyone else has, and it's a better story
Speaker 17: than the truth. Let's see, Jessica had mental illness and
Speaker 17: committed suicide or Justin's a no good piece of shit
Speaker 17: because Maria says so, he must have had something to
Speaker 17: do with it. Yeah, I can guess which one's easier
Speaker 17: for people to deal with.
Speaker 1: In fact, he seemed certain that Jessica had taken her
Speaker 1: own life and that everyone would realize it soon enough.
Speaker 17: After all this shit's over, and the information I've come across,
Speaker 17: along with the truth that I've been saying all along,
Speaker 17: will be validated by the corner's findings and the police
Speaker 17: closed the case. You know what will change, nothing, not
Speaker 17: a damn thing. My image in people's minds will still
Speaker 17: be the same. Grace is going to be left with
Speaker 17: the legacy of a mom who committed suicide and a
Speaker 17: dad that everyone blamed except the police. And she'll still
Speaker 17: be gone, and most people will be left with more
Speaker 17: questions than answers.
Speaker 18: Like I laid into them. I was like, what the
Speaker 18: fact did you do to her? I mean I just
Speaker 18: went off. I couldn't, couldn't fake being nice anymore.
Speaker 16: You say you miss her and claim it was suicide,
Speaker 16: but you tell me why in the hell should I
Speaker 16: ever believe you. You haven't done anything but throw and blame
Speaker 16: the other way. I tried to believe you, I tried
Speaker 16: to empathize with you, but you have done nothing to
Speaker 16: make me believe otherwise. You say you're distraught because Grace
Speaker 16: won't have her mom to bring her to dances, but
Speaker 16: you tell me who was really at fault. Did you
Speaker 16: just get too mad at her? Did she try to
Speaker 16: leave you? Jesus justin what the fuck?
Speaker 8: She was one of my best.
Speaker 17: Friends, Erica. I could respond to this in a number
Speaker 17: of ways, most of them would not make either of
Speaker 17: us feel very good. But I will say this, Jessica
Speaker 17: meant the world to me, always has, and if you
Speaker 17: or anyone else wants to blame me, I totally understand,
Speaker 17: and I'll tell you why. None of you have any
Speaker 17: idea what the fuck I've been going through, but the
Speaker 17: links I've gone to see that jess was taken care
Speaker 17: of in every possible way. I've come to understand why
Speaker 17: you all blame you. Through counseling and fighting to keep
Speaker 17: my own sanity.
Speaker 1: By January twenty twenty, Justin sent his final text messages
Speaker 1: to Erica.
Speaker 17: I promise you. I miss Jessica minute to minute and
Speaker 17: am really struggling with life. I swear my kids I
Speaker 17: didn't have anything to do with what happened. But what
Speaker 17: else can I say or do to prove it. So
Speaker 17: many people have been so busy making me out to
Speaker 17: be a monster. I really cannot believe it. Still, I
Speaker 17: understand completely. It's hard to live here in some ways,
Speaker 17: and it's a comfort in a few others. Every morning
Speaker 17: I wake up, I still think she's next to me
Speaker 17: until I wake up, and it's like going through initial
Speaker 17: shock every day for about thirty minutes until my brain
Speaker 17: realizes what's happening. It's fucking torture, Erica. I really don't
Speaker 17: want to be here.
Speaker 5: At all.
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 Bozart. 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 Culcher, Dayton Cole and Pat kit 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. Voice acting by Whitney,
Speaker 1: Bozarth and Paul Friels. You can follow Undetermined Podcasts on
Speaker 1: Facebook and on Twitter at Undetermined Pod. Show notes as
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 5: The tone and
Speaker 1: Inflection used by voice actors is not contextually accurate and
Speaker 1: is a matter of creative interpretation.