Latest / Crime and Horror / Party boy made his FINAL CALLS at 3am - MrBallen

Transcript

Party boy made his FINAL CALLS at 3am - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One day in 2004, a young man was watching the
0:03
Speaker 1: news when a story about this savage murder case came
0:06
Speaker 1: on the TV. And at first, the young man really
0:09
Speaker 1: wasn't paying that much attention. But then a picture of
0:13
Speaker 1: the victim in this murder case flashed across the screen.
0:16
Speaker 1: And at first, the young man just stood there frozen
0:19
Speaker 1: in shock. But then he got up, ran to his computer,
0:23
Speaker 1: and began frantically searching through the chat logs of this
0:26
Speaker 1: old conversation he had had. And after a few minutes
0:28
Speaker 1: of searching, he found what he was looking for, he
0:31
Speaker 1: printed it out, and he called the police. But before
0:34
Speaker 1: we get into today's story, if you're a fan of
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Speaker 1: any of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:24
Speaker 1: On the evening of June 3, 2004, a 23-year-old college
1:28
Speaker 1: junior named Jesse Valencia walked into a restaurant in Columbia, Missouri.
1:32
Speaker 1: His friends were already there. They were sitting at a
1:34
Speaker 1: table in the back of the restaurant, and as soon
1:36
Speaker 1: as they saw him, they waved him over. And so
1:38
Speaker 1: Jesse made his way over to sit with them. Jesse
1:41
Speaker 1: was a student at the University of Missouri, and he
1:43
Speaker 1: was majoring in journalism and pre-law. The spring semester had
1:46
Speaker 1: just ended a few weeks ago, and as much as
1:49
Speaker 1: Jesse had loved the semester and he really had enjoyed
1:52
Speaker 1: what he was studying... he was looking forward to some
1:54
Speaker 1: time off. He wanted to see his friends and go
1:57
Speaker 1: to some good parties. Jesse had always been a very
1:59
Speaker 1: outgoing person with a very active social life, but sometimes
2:03
Speaker 1: that characteristic sort of got him in trouble. In fact,
2:06
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks ago, he'd had to go
2:08
Speaker 1: to court over a charge of obstructing a government operation,
2:13
Speaker 1: which he'd picked up two months earlier when he refused
2:15
Speaker 1: to leave a house party that the cops were breaking up.
2:17
Speaker 1: And as soon as he sat down at the table
2:19
Speaker 1: with his friends... One of them immediately asked him, like, hey,
2:22
Speaker 1: how'd that court hearing go? And Jesse had said, you know,
2:25
Speaker 1: it didn't go too well. He thought the whole thing
2:27
Speaker 1: was kind of ridiculous, and he had hoped the charge
2:30
Speaker 1: would have been dropped already. But when he had gone
2:32
Speaker 1: to the courtroom, he found out the charge had actually
2:35
Speaker 1: been upgraded. The prosecutor had changed it to obstructing a
2:38
Speaker 1: government operation by physical interference, which was worse. But Jesse said,
2:43
Speaker 1: you know, he still wasn't that worried about it. He
2:45
Speaker 1: said he had pleaded not guilty, and his plan was
2:48
Speaker 1: to fight this thing to the very end even if
2:50
Speaker 1: it took all summer. However, the reality was this charge
2:54
Speaker 1: was actually the least of Jesse's problems. He had much
2:57
Speaker 1: bigger things weighing on his mind that summer. His longtime boyfriend,
3:00
Speaker 1: Jack Berry, had broken up with him recently, and he
3:03
Speaker 1: was having a very hard time coping with that. Jack
3:05
Speaker 1: had wanted to stay friends, but the reality was, even though,
3:08
Speaker 1: you know, the intention was good, it just made things
3:11
Speaker 1: harder for Jesse because it meant that Jesse and Jack
3:14
Speaker 1: were still spending quite a bit of time together and
3:16
Speaker 1: still talking and socializing and And while Jack felt like
3:20
Speaker 1: things were over romantically, Jesse didn't feel that way. It
3:24
Speaker 1: just sort of felt like they were perpetually on the
3:25
Speaker 1: verge of getting back together, even though they weren't. And
3:29
Speaker 1: then whenever Jesse would try to talk to Jack about,
3:32
Speaker 1: you know, maybe trying to make things work again, Jack
3:35
Speaker 1: would immediately just turn him down. And so the whole
3:37
Speaker 1: situation was just really difficult. And so without Jack anymore,
3:40
Speaker 1: Jesse had become very lonely. And he had been trying
3:43
Speaker 1: to fill that void with random hookups, you know, meeting
3:45
Speaker 1: guys online and inviting them to the hotel where he
3:48
Speaker 1: worked as a night clerk. But for the most part,
3:50
Speaker 1: it was sort of shallow and didn't mean anything. At
3:53
Speaker 1: one point, Jesse had been having this secret affair with
3:55
Speaker 1: an older man, which had been exciting. But deep down,
3:59
Speaker 1: what Jesse really wanted was just a real relationship like
4:02
Speaker 1: he had had with Jack. And these random hookups were
4:04
Speaker 1: not that. And so at this point, basically every time
4:07
Speaker 1: Jesse went out socially, you know, no matter what he
4:10
Speaker 1: was doing, he was always kind of on the hunt
4:12
Speaker 1: for somebody who could potentially have you know, long-term relationship potential.
4:18
Speaker 1: And this night was no exception. And so that night,
4:20
Speaker 1: Jesse and his friends had a nice dinner together. And
4:23
Speaker 1: then when they were done, they left the restaurant and
4:25
Speaker 1: walked a few blocks to a gay dance club called
4:27
Speaker 1: SoCo Club. It was dark and the music was loud
4:30
Speaker 1: and thumping. And as soon as they walked inside, Jesse
4:33
Speaker 1: immediately weaved his way through the crowd on the dance
4:35
Speaker 1: floor over to the DJ booth. He asked the DJ
4:38
Speaker 1: to play his favorite song, which was Billie Jean by
4:41
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. And the DJ just sort of rolled their eyes.
4:44
Speaker 1: Jesse knew the DJ was very likely annoyed with him
4:46
Speaker 1: because Jesse requested that song every single time he came
4:50
Speaker 1: to this club. But Jesse never had let other people's
4:53
Speaker 1: opinions stop him from doing what he wanted. And so
4:56
Speaker 1: he didn't care. He just wanted the song played. And
4:58
Speaker 1: so after he had made his request, Jesse went over
5:00
Speaker 1: to the bar and ordered a drink. And while he waited,
5:03
Speaker 1: he saw a young man standing alone at the other
5:05
Speaker 1: end of the bar. Once the bartender passed Jesse his drink,
5:09
Speaker 1: Jesse went over and asked the man if he wanted
5:11
Speaker 1: to dance. The man smiled and said, sure. And then
5:15
Speaker 1: one dance turned into two, turned into three. And pretty soon,
5:19
Speaker 1: the two had spent the whole night together. Now, it
5:21
Speaker 1: was hard to hear each other over the loud music.
5:23
Speaker 1: But over the course of several dances, Jesse had learned
5:26
Speaker 1: that this man's name was Ed McDevitt. And he was
5:29
Speaker 1: training to be a chef. Jesse felt like Ed was
5:31
Speaker 1: a really nice, cool guy. And it seemed like they
5:34
Speaker 1: had an immediate connection. And so when the club closed,
5:37
Speaker 1: Jesse asked if Ed wanted to come home with him.
5:39
Speaker 1: Ed said yes. And after that, Jesse asked his friend
5:42
Speaker 1: Jennifer if she wouldn't mind giving them a ride back
5:44
Speaker 1: to Jesse's apartment. She said, of course. And so shortly
5:47
Speaker 1: after that, the trio left the club. They got in
5:50
Speaker 1: Jennifer's car and they drove back to Jesse's apartment. And
5:53
Speaker 1: when Jesse and Ed got out, Jennifer said, hey, you know,
5:56
Speaker 1: tomorrow night I'm having a party at my place. You
5:58
Speaker 1: two should come by. And Jesse, he turned to Ed
6:01
Speaker 1: and kind of winked at him and said, yeah, hopefully
6:04
Speaker 1: we'll both be there. And then Jennifer drove off. After
6:07
Speaker 1: Jennifer had driven off, Jesse walked Ed down the stairs
6:10
Speaker 1: to his very run-down basement apartment. And as soon as
6:13
Speaker 1: they went inside, Ed saw the sea of all these
6:16
Speaker 1: history books stacked all over the living room. It would
6:18
Speaker 1: turn out Jesse was really into ancient Greek history. And
6:21
Speaker 1: so Ed began walking around, opening up all these old
6:24
Speaker 1: history books. And as Ed did, you know, Jesse began
6:27
Speaker 1: regaling him with tales of the Battle of Thermopylae, how
6:31
Speaker 1: the Spartans were outnumbered and how they prevailed and talking
6:34
Speaker 1: about Zeus and the ancient Greek gods and just kind
6:37
Speaker 1: of going off all the stuff that Jesse really enjoyed
6:39
Speaker 1: about ancient Greek history. And Ed, as he listened to it,
6:43
Speaker 1: just said, I really don't know much about history, but
6:46
Speaker 1: it's really fascinating that you're so into it. And so
6:48
Speaker 1: from there, the rest of the night went great for
6:51
Speaker 1: the two of them. They would spend the night together.
6:53
Speaker 1: And then at 10 a.m. the next morning, as Ed
6:56
Speaker 1: was getting ready to leave, They made plans to meet
6:58
Speaker 1: up again at Jennifer's party that night. Before Ed left,
7:01
Speaker 1: he wrote his phone number down on a scrap piece
7:03
Speaker 1: of paper and gave it to Jesse. And Jesse took
7:06
Speaker 1: the paper and then walked Ed to the door and
7:08
Speaker 1: gave him a hug and a kiss before he left.
7:10
Speaker 1: And then once he was gone, Jesse just hoped that,
7:13
Speaker 1: you know, maybe this wasn't just a meaningless hookup. Maybe
7:17
Speaker 1: this had the basis of a strong long-term relationship. The
7:21
Speaker 1: one thing Jesse really wanted. Around noon that day, Jesse
7:25
Speaker 1: was eating a quick lunch before heading out for work
7:28
Speaker 1: when he heard a knock on his door. He walked
7:30
Speaker 1: over and opened it up, and he saw his landlord
7:32
Speaker 1: standing in the hallway. And his landlord looked pretty mad.
7:36
Speaker 1: He told Jesse that, hey, it's the fourth of the month,
7:39
Speaker 1: and you still haven't paid rent. Jesse apologized profusely and
7:42
Speaker 1: just said, you know, it totally slipped his mind. And
7:45
Speaker 1: he promised he would get it to the landlord that afternoon.
7:47
Speaker 1: But after the landlord accepted his answer and, you know,
7:50
Speaker 1: Jesse shut the door... he couldn't help but have this
7:53
Speaker 1: sort of sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach
7:55
Speaker 1: because the truth was he didn't have the money. Jesse
7:58
Speaker 1: had grown up in a very poor family in a
8:01
Speaker 1: small town in Kentucky. He was actually the first person
8:04
Speaker 1: in his whole family to go to college and he
8:06
Speaker 1: had paid his bills by working as a hotel clerk,
8:08
Speaker 1: the same job his mother had had back home. Now,
8:11
Speaker 1: Jesse loved his family and he spoke to them basically
8:14
Speaker 1: every single day. He would call them all the time.
8:16
Speaker 1: But at the same time, he had always felt so
8:19
Speaker 1: trapped in his conservative, ultra-religious hometown. So he had left
8:24
Speaker 1: and tried to sort of reinvent himself as someone new,
8:26
Speaker 1: the kind of person who can do anything and go anywhere.
8:29
Speaker 1: And so even though he had done that, it would
8:31
Speaker 1: turn out that making real money was something that he
8:35
Speaker 1: just hadn't quite figured out yet. Before Jesse left for
8:37
Speaker 1: work that afternoon, he scrounged up all the cash he
8:40
Speaker 1: could find, but it still wasn't enough to make rent.
8:43
Speaker 1: He dropped the cash in the landlord's mailbox anyway, with
8:45
Speaker 1: a note promising he would get the rest of it
8:47
Speaker 1: together in a couple of weeks. Then he walked to
8:50
Speaker 1: his job at the Campus Inn and spent an uneventful
8:53
Speaker 1: evening behind the front desk, counting down the hours until
8:55
Speaker 1: the end of his shift. And as soon as the
8:57
Speaker 1: end of his shift came, when the clock struck 11 p.m.,
9:01
Speaker 1: he bolted home and immediately changed clothes before heading out
9:04
Speaker 1: to Jennifer's party, where he was supposed to meet his
9:07
Speaker 1: new love interest, Ed McDevitt. However, when Jesse walked into
9:11
Speaker 1: that party, he didn't see Ed. He did a lap
9:14
Speaker 1: around the apartment, checking every room, but he wasn't there.
9:18
Speaker 1: And so Jesse just grabbed a beer out of the
9:19
Speaker 1: fridge and began chatting with Jennifer while he waited. But
9:23
Speaker 1: after a while, he checked his watch and realized that
9:26
Speaker 1: either Ed was running really late or he just was
9:29
Speaker 1: not coming. So trying to tell himself that it was
9:32
Speaker 1: not quite time to be disappointed, you know, maybe there
9:34
Speaker 1: was an explanation here. Jesse went outside and called the
9:37
Speaker 1: phone number that Ed had written down on that piece
9:39
Speaker 1: of paper that morning. Now, this phone number was for
9:42
Speaker 1: a landline phone. And so, you know, Jesse, he punched
9:45
Speaker 1: it in and he listened and it rang for a
9:47
Speaker 1: few beats. And then somebody picked up and it was
9:49
Speaker 1: a guy, but it was not Ed. It was somebody
9:52
Speaker 1: whose name was Mark Butler. And, you know, Jesse had
9:55
Speaker 1: never heard of this guy. And he asked, you know,
9:56
Speaker 1: where's Ed? And Mark explained that he was Ed's roommate.
10:00
Speaker 1: and that actually Ed was asleep right now. He had
10:03
Speaker 1: to work in the morning. And so he had decided
10:05
Speaker 1: actually not to go to the party, to Jennifer's party.
10:07
Speaker 1: You know, he just wanted to sleep. Now, as Mark
10:09
Speaker 1: was telling him this, Jesse was trying to make sense
10:12
Speaker 1: of like, OK, is Mark like Ed's boyfriend or something?
10:15
Speaker 1: Are they together or are they just roommates? And also
10:18
Speaker 1: Jesse couldn't help but feel like Mark clearly did not
10:21
Speaker 1: want to be talking to Jesse right now. It was
10:23
Speaker 1: pretty clear in his tone that he was trying to
10:25
Speaker 1: just get off the phone, but Jesse was not ready
10:28
Speaker 1: to just, you know, mail it in here. He wanted
10:30
Speaker 1: to see Ed. And so he told Mark, well, hold
10:32
Speaker 1: on a minute. Can you please go wake him up?
10:34
Speaker 1: I need to talk to him. And at first Mark
10:36
Speaker 1: was like, no, he's asleep. He has work in the morning.
10:39
Speaker 1: Like he does not want me waking him up. But
10:42
Speaker 1: Jesse was relentless and just begged Mark to please just
10:45
Speaker 1: for a second, put him on the phone. And eventually,
10:48
Speaker 1: Mark relented. About a minute later, a very groggy sounding
10:51
Speaker 1: Ed hopped on the phone. And as soon as Jesse
10:54
Speaker 1: heard his voice, he was so excited. And he basically
10:57
Speaker 1: pitched Ed hard on why he should not go to
11:00
Speaker 1: bed and come out to this party and that he
11:01
Speaker 1: really wanted to see him. And also, hey, bring your
11:04
Speaker 1: friend Mark too. That was fine. Now, it's not really
11:06
Speaker 1: clear if Ed was excited about this idea, but he
11:09
Speaker 1: would eventually say, fine, I'll come out and meet you
11:12
Speaker 1: and I will bring Mark. When they got there, Mark
11:14
Speaker 1: would only stay at Jennifer's party for a little while
11:16
Speaker 1: before he headed out on his own. But Ed and Jesse,
11:19
Speaker 1: they would stick around until about 2 a.m. And then
11:22
Speaker 1: at that point, they would leave Jennifer's house and go
11:25
Speaker 1: to another party across the street. At around 3 a.m., though,
11:28
Speaker 1: Ed said he really did have to get going. It
11:30
Speaker 1: was so late. He had to get up in the
11:32
Speaker 1: morning like he had to go. And so at this point,
11:34
Speaker 1: Jesse understood that this was reasonable. And so he walked
11:37
Speaker 1: him out to the sidewalk and then asked him if,
11:39
Speaker 1: you know, hey, do you want to come over to
11:41
Speaker 1: my place? But Ed said, no, really, I have to
11:44
Speaker 1: get home. I have to go to bed. However, before
11:46
Speaker 1: Ed did finally leave, the two of them would make
11:48
Speaker 1: plans to see each other in just a couple of days.
11:51
Speaker 1: After Ed had taken off, Jesse wandered across the street
11:54
Speaker 1: to say goodbye to Jennifer. And then after that, he
11:56
Speaker 1: began making the walk to his own apartment. And as
11:59
Speaker 1: he was making this short walk to his own place,
12:02
Speaker 1: he began to think that he didn't want to go
12:04
Speaker 1: home alone. You know, if Ed didn't want to come over, well,
12:07
Speaker 1: he was going to find somebody else who would. And
12:09
Speaker 1: so his first thought was to call his ex, Jack.
12:12
Speaker 1: And so Jesse called Jack a few times. And when
12:15
Speaker 1: Jack did not pick up, after all, it's three in
12:18
Speaker 1: the morning and they are no longer in a relationship.
12:21
Speaker 1: It's sort of reasonable that he wouldn't, you know, but
12:23
Speaker 1: at that point, Jesse still wanted to see him. And
12:26
Speaker 1: so he walked a few blocks out of his way
12:28
Speaker 1: to make an actual stop at Jack's apartment. Jesse went
12:32
Speaker 1: right up to the door and banged on it, but
12:35
Speaker 1: nobody came to the door. Jack didn't answer. At this point,
12:38
Speaker 1: Jesse began to wonder if Well, maybe Jack's out with
12:41
Speaker 1: somebody else right now and he suddenly felt so jealous.
12:45
Speaker 1: Or worse, maybe Jack is here and he knows I'm here,
12:48
Speaker 1: but he doesn't want to see me and he's ignoring me.
12:51
Speaker 1: After a couple of minutes of standing there and knocking
12:53
Speaker 1: a few more times and still not hearing anything from Jack,
12:57
Speaker 1: Jesse finally gave up and stumbled back to his own apartment,
13:00
Speaker 1: drunk and lonely and a bit heartbroken. Jesse finally stepped
13:04
Speaker 1: foot inside his apartment and shut the door behind him
13:07
Speaker 1: at about 3.45 a.m. However, right after he'd gotten undressed
13:12
Speaker 1: and flopped down on his bed, he heard a knock
13:15
Speaker 1: at the front door. At 2 p.m. the following day,
13:18
Speaker 1: so Saturday, June 5th, 2004, a college student walked out
13:22
Speaker 1: of an apartment just down the street from Jesse's building,
13:25
Speaker 1: and they were carrying a backpack and a cooler. His
13:27
Speaker 1: friends had just pulled into the parking lot, and they
13:29
Speaker 1: were about to head out for a weekend trip to St. Louis.
13:32
Speaker 1: But while he was loading his stuff into the trunk,
13:34
Speaker 1: he noticed somebody lying in the grass nearby, wearing nothing
13:38
Speaker 1: but a pair of running shorts. Now, at first, he assumed,
13:41
Speaker 1: you know, this was just somebody passed out drunk from
13:43
Speaker 1: a crazy Friday night party, which sort of happened all
13:46
Speaker 1: the time in a college town like Columbia. But when
13:49
Speaker 1: he took a few steps closer to be sure this
13:51
Speaker 1: person was okay, he saw flies buzzing around their body.
14:05
Speaker 1: About 30 minutes later, Columbia Police Detective John Short... felt
14:09
Speaker 1: his pager go off. He unclipped it from his belt loop,
14:12
Speaker 1: and he saw there was a message from his boss's
14:14
Speaker 1: phone number that just read 911. Detective Short called his
14:18
Speaker 1: boss right away, and he was given the address for
14:20
Speaker 1: a crime scene just off the University of Missouri campus.
14:24
Speaker 1: Short drove there, parked his car on the curb, and
14:27
Speaker 1: then walked over to the yellow tape that was keeping
14:29
Speaker 1: crowds of worried neighbors away from this crime scene. Another detective,
14:33
Speaker 1: Tim Geiger, waved to Short and led him over to
14:36
Speaker 1: the patch of grass where the victim was lying. It
14:39
Speaker 1: was a young man sprawled out on his back, and
14:42
Speaker 1: he was wearing a pair of light blue running shorts
14:44
Speaker 1: with no shoes, no socks, and no shirt. And across
14:47
Speaker 1: his throat was this very deep gash. The medical examiner
14:51
Speaker 1: was already there, and she was crouched down next to
14:53
Speaker 1: the body. And she told Detective Short that a few
14:56
Speaker 1: things were already standing out to her. She pointed to
14:58
Speaker 1: the bruises that were all over the victim's face, their arms,
15:01
Speaker 1: and their torso. But when she lifted the victim's hands,
15:05
Speaker 1: there were no defensive wounds on them. She told Short
15:07
Speaker 1: that that was pretty unusual for a knife attack, where
15:10
Speaker 1: the victims usually got their hands up, you know, trying
15:12
Speaker 1: to defend themselves. And as a result, they got their
15:15
Speaker 1: hands cut up. She also pointed out that the blood
15:18
Speaker 1: had run down both sides of the victim's neck and
15:21
Speaker 1: pooled under his body. But there was no blood at
15:25
Speaker 1: all on the front of his body, which meant he
15:27
Speaker 1: was probably lying down right there in the grass when
15:31
Speaker 1: his throat actually got cut. Finally, the medical examiner pulled
15:35
Speaker 1: back the victim's eyelids and showed Short the hemorrhaging in
15:38
Speaker 1: his eyes, which they both knew was typically a sign
15:41
Speaker 1: of strangulation. And so putting it all together, Short theorized that,
15:45
Speaker 1: you know, the victim's killer had likely choked him out
15:48
Speaker 1: and then laid him on the grass and then slit
15:51
Speaker 1: his throat while he was laying there unconscious, unable to
15:53
Speaker 1: defend himself. The detective looked down at his victim's bare
15:56
Speaker 1: feet and noticed they were covered in dirt, like he
15:59
Speaker 1: had been running at some point outside. Short doubted that
16:03
Speaker 1: the encounter between his victim and the killer began on
16:06
Speaker 1: the lawn where the body was found. And now he
16:09
Speaker 1: just wondered if maybe there had been some sort of
16:11
Speaker 1: a chase here and that this was just where the
16:13
Speaker 1: killer had finally caught up to the victim. But since
16:16
Speaker 1: there was no ID on the victim, Short had no
16:18
Speaker 1: idea who he was or where he'd been running from.
16:21
Speaker 1: And so Short stood up and stepped away from the
16:23
Speaker 1: body so crime scene techs could load it into a
16:25
Speaker 1: body bag. Just then, another squad car pulled up and
16:29
Speaker 1: two more officers got out. Sergeant Kenneth Smith and Officer
16:32
Speaker 1: Steven Rios. Rios was the beat cop who typically patrolled
16:36
Speaker 1: this neighborhood. So another sergeant on scene had radioed for
16:39
Speaker 1: him to come over and see if maybe he could
16:41
Speaker 1: help identify the victim. And so at this point, Short
16:44
Speaker 1: told the crime scene techs to go ahead and unzip
16:46
Speaker 1: the body bag and let Officer Rios take a look.
16:49
Speaker 1: And Rios came over and he looked inside. And after
16:53
Speaker 1: a second, he said that he did recognize this young man.
16:56
Speaker 1: He said it was a college kid that he'd actually
16:58
Speaker 1: arrested at a house party in just a couple of
17:00
Speaker 1: months ago. He said his name was Jesse Valencia. And
17:04
Speaker 1: so less than an hour into his investigation, Detective Short
17:08
Speaker 1: now had a name for his victim and some pretty
17:10
Speaker 1: good guesses about how his victim was killed. His next
17:14
Speaker 1: task was figuring out who might have wanted Jesse Valencia dead.
17:18
Speaker 1: So Short looked up Jesse's address and he found his
17:21
Speaker 1: apartment building was only a block away. So he walked
17:24
Speaker 1: over there. And while the forensics team went inside the
17:27
Speaker 1: apartment to look for evidence... An officer was posted outside
17:31
Speaker 1: the building to make sure no one came or went
17:33
Speaker 1: until the crime scene was officially cleared. Short walked into
17:36
Speaker 1: the building and headed down the stairs to Jesse's unit.
17:39
Speaker 1: And there, the crime scene tech who was dusting the
17:42
Speaker 1: doorway for Prince told him that when they'd arrived, the
17:45
Speaker 1: door was actually already open. And so Short went inside
17:48
Speaker 1: the actual unit and began looking around. There was no
17:51
Speaker 1: blood anywhere, and nothing was broken or overturned, so there
17:54
Speaker 1: was no clear sign of a struggle. But the door
17:57
Speaker 1: being left open suggested that Jesse must have left in
18:00
Speaker 1: a hurry. And this certainly matched Short's theory about the
18:03
Speaker 1: fight between Jesse and his killer starting in one location
18:06
Speaker 1: and ending on the lawn. Short figured that, you know,
18:09
Speaker 1: Jesse must have run out of his apartment in a
18:11
Speaker 1: panic and made it a block away to that grass
18:14
Speaker 1: before his killer finally overtook him. And so as Short
18:17
Speaker 1: began to consider this, he also started to think, okay, well,
18:20
Speaker 1: you know, Jesse, who appeared to be in reasonably good
18:23
Speaker 1: shape for his age... You know, if he was chased
18:25
Speaker 1: down and tackled and killed only a block away from
18:28
Speaker 1: his apartment, it sort of suggested that his killer likely
18:32
Speaker 1: was pretty strong and pretty fast. So we're talking about
18:35
Speaker 1: somebody who is in relatively good shape. That's the killer.
18:38
Speaker 1: At least that's the profile he's developed in his mind.
18:41
Speaker 1: And also, you know, the way that Jesse was actually killed,
18:44
Speaker 1: having his throat cut open so violently, it just seemed
18:48
Speaker 1: kind of personal, which suggested that whoever killed Jesse was
18:52
Speaker 1: likely was somebody Jesse actually knew. And so with that
18:55
Speaker 1: in mind, Short finished a sweep of Jesse's apartment and
18:59
Speaker 1: then asked a crime scene tech to prioritize getting access
19:02
Speaker 1: to the cell phone and computer that he saw on
19:04
Speaker 1: Jesse's desk. Then he walked out of the apartment and
19:07
Speaker 1: across the hall to the door of Jesse's closest neighbor,
19:10
Speaker 1: and he knocked. A moment later, a very confused-looking young
19:14
Speaker 1: man poked his head out and asked Short what was
19:16
Speaker 1: going on. Short told him that he was investigating a murder,
19:20
Speaker 1: wanted to ask him a few questions. The young man
19:23
Speaker 1: at first just seemed totally shocked and appalled to be
19:25
Speaker 1: hearing this but then it was like this look of
19:28
Speaker 1: realization washed over his face. He told Short that the
19:31
Speaker 1: previous night he had actually woken up to the sound
19:34
Speaker 1: of very clearly two grown men fighting in Jesse's apartment
19:39
Speaker 1: and one of those men was clearly Jesse because this
19:42
Speaker 1: neighbor heard Jesse clearly saying over and over again no
19:46
Speaker 1: and stop it to this other man. Now the neighbor
19:49
Speaker 1: kind of she said, you know, they didn't actually do
19:52
Speaker 1: anything about this. They actually just kind of banged on
19:54
Speaker 1: their own wall and said, hey, stop it over there.
19:58
Speaker 1: And then shortly after that, the noise had stopped and
20:00
Speaker 1: the neighbor had kind of forgotten about it and gone
20:03
Speaker 1: to sleep, not realizing what he was likely hearing was
20:06
Speaker 1: the beginning of Jesse's murder. The neighbor told Short that
20:09
Speaker 1: when they had woken up that afternoon, he'd actually gone
20:12
Speaker 1: across the hall to apologize to Jesse for being so
20:14
Speaker 1: rude the night before. But the neighbor said he found
20:17
Speaker 1: Jesse's door was open. And he didn't look inside. He
20:20
Speaker 1: felt like that was kind of rude. But what he
20:23
Speaker 1: thought was, you know, okay, maybe Jesse was so drunk
20:25
Speaker 1: the night before, you know, that was part of the
20:27
Speaker 1: reason that he must have been having this fight. And
20:29
Speaker 1: so perhaps he was so drunk, you know, he just
20:32
Speaker 1: forgot to close the door. The neighbor said he did
20:34
Speaker 1: try knocking on the opened door a couple of times,
20:37
Speaker 1: but Jesse never came to the door. And so the
20:39
Speaker 1: neighbor just kind of left it at that and went
20:41
Speaker 1: about their business. And so after hearing this, Detective Short
20:44
Speaker 1: asked this neighbor if he had any idea who the
20:47
Speaker 1: other man was that Jesse was fighting with. But the
20:51
Speaker 1: neighbor said he didn't. You know, Jesse, for the most part,
20:53
Speaker 1: kept to himself. And really, the neighbor didn't know Jesse
20:56
Speaker 1: well at all. So he did not know who this
20:58
Speaker 1: other person was. After that, Short thanked the neighbor for
21:01
Speaker 1: the information. Then he turned around and headed back inside
21:04
Speaker 1: of Jesse's apartment. And so at this point, Short was
21:07
Speaker 1: convinced that, you know, based on the neighbor's testimony, that
21:10
Speaker 1: whatever fight led to Jesse's death likely did begin in
21:14
Speaker 1: Jesse's apartment. And so now Short just had to figure
21:17
Speaker 1: out who were the people that could have potentially been
21:21
Speaker 1: inside of Jesse's apartment late at night like that. You know,
21:24
Speaker 1: was this somebody who was a friend, a love interest?
21:27
Speaker 1: You know, was Jesse trying to kick them out and
21:29
Speaker 1: it spurned a fight? Like he didn't know, but Who
21:32
Speaker 1: were the people in Jesse's life that could have been
21:34
Speaker 1: there late at night? That's what he had to figure out.
21:37
Speaker 1: And luckily, at that very moment, one of the crime
21:40
Speaker 1: scene techs had Jesse's cell phone and he was holding
21:42
Speaker 1: it in the air like he had found something. Now,
21:44
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be able to do a full phone dump
21:46
Speaker 1: until they got it back to the station. And they
21:49
Speaker 1: hadn't even touched the laptop yet. But they had gotten
21:52
Speaker 1: access to Jesse's call logs. And the tech told Short
21:55
Speaker 1: that there was something in there that he definitely wanted
21:58
Speaker 1: to see. Because the last time Jesse used his cell phone,
22:01
Speaker 1: according to this log, it was to call somebody named
22:04
Speaker 1: Jack Berry seven times between 3 and 3.18 that morning.
22:16
Speaker 1: So right away, Detective Short looked up Jack Berry's information
22:20
Speaker 1: and he found his apartment's address and saw it was
22:23
Speaker 1: not far from Jesse's. And so he drove right over there.
22:26
Speaker 1: Short knocked on the door and just a moment later,
22:29
Speaker 1: a young man answered, and he had very red, puffy
22:31
Speaker 1: eyes like he'd clearly been crying. Even though Jesse's body
22:35
Speaker 1: had only been discovered a few hours ago, this young
22:37
Speaker 1: man did not seem surprised at all to see the detective.
22:40
Speaker 1: He told the detective that he had already heard the
22:42
Speaker 1: terrible news a friend had told him. After exchanging niceties
22:46
Speaker 1: and the young man confirming that he was in fact Jack,
22:49
Speaker 1: Short followed Jack into his living room, and as they
22:52
Speaker 1: sat down, Short asked Jack about all those 3 a.m.
22:55
Speaker 1: phone calls from Jesse. Jack looked like he was really
22:58
Speaker 1: struggling to hold it together as he told the detective
23:01
Speaker 1: that Jesse was his ex-boyfriend and Jesse had kept badgering him, Jack,
23:06
Speaker 1: for them to get back together and Jack didn't want to.
23:09
Speaker 1: And so those phone calls were very likely a product
23:12
Speaker 1: of more badgering from Jack. Jack said the night before,
23:16
Speaker 1: He had been woken up by his phone ringing over
23:18
Speaker 1: and over and over again. And before he could even
23:21
Speaker 1: look at the caller ID, he heard a knock at
23:23
Speaker 1: his front door. And he saw it was the middle
23:26
Speaker 1: of the night. And then he leaned over and saw
23:28
Speaker 1: the caller was Jesse. And he sort of figured that, okay,
23:31
Speaker 1: he's calling me. It's very likely him at the front door.
23:34
Speaker 1: I don't want to see him right now. And so
23:37
Speaker 1: Jack just decided he would ignore Jesse and hope he
23:39
Speaker 1: went away. Now, when Jack said this, it seemed very
23:43
Speaker 1: clear he was sort of reliving that moment in his mind. Like,
23:46
Speaker 1: you know, maybe if he had let Jesse in or
23:49
Speaker 1: engaged with him in some way, you know, maybe Jesse
23:51
Speaker 1: would still be alive. That was sort of the insinuation.
23:55
Speaker 1: But Detective Short was thinking, okay, well, even though he
23:58
Speaker 1: seems like he's being very earnest in telling me this,
24:01
Speaker 1: it does mean that he doesn't really have an alibi.
24:03
Speaker 1: He's basically saying, at the time, you know, Jesse was killed,
24:06
Speaker 1: I was home alone by myself, which was pretty weak. However,
24:10
Speaker 1: before Short could begin to poke holes in the alibi,
24:13
Speaker 1: Jack said that, you know, despite the fact that they
24:15
Speaker 1: had broken up, that he and Jesse were, at least
24:18
Speaker 1: in his mind, still on good terms. In fact, they
24:20
Speaker 1: had spoken just the day before on the phone, you know,
24:23
Speaker 1: before getting all those nighttime phone calls. It was during
24:25
Speaker 1: the afternoon, and during that phone call, Jesse had told
24:29
Speaker 1: him about a new guy he'd met at a club
24:32
Speaker 1: the night before, and his name was Ed McDevitt. That night,
24:38
Speaker 1: Detective Short stood outside of an interrogation room at the
24:41
Speaker 1: police station, watching Ed McDevitt through the two-way glass. Short
24:45
Speaker 1: knew his investigation was moving basically at lightning speed here.
24:49
Speaker 1: But there was still quite a bit of pressure on
24:51
Speaker 1: him to get this case solved even faster. Because Columbia
24:55
Speaker 1: was a college town where kids were used to feeling safe.
24:58
Speaker 1: And the murder of a student just a few blocks
25:00
Speaker 1: off campus had sort of shattered that sense of trust.
25:02
Speaker 1: And so, you know, students and parents and, you know,
25:05
Speaker 1: staff of the university really wanted Short to get this
25:09
Speaker 1: thing done. And now, looking at Ed through the glass...
25:13
Speaker 1: Short wondered if maybe this was the killer. Maybe this
25:16
Speaker 1: was the guy. I mean, after all, Ed was shaking
25:19
Speaker 1: and fidgety looking. I mean, he seems sort of like
25:21
Speaker 1: an emotional wreck, which could mean, you know, of course
25:24
Speaker 1: he was just upset because he was connected to the
25:27
Speaker 1: murder victim. You know, that's traumatic. Or it could mean
25:31
Speaker 1: he's hiding something and now he's about to be interrogated
25:34
Speaker 1: by the police, something that would certainly cause a big
25:37
Speaker 1: emotional reaction. Eventually, Short went inside and sat down across
25:42
Speaker 1: the table. And he asked Ed to explain exactly what
25:45
Speaker 1: he had done the night before. And Ed, in a
25:48
Speaker 1: very nervous, shaky voice, told the detective that he and
25:51
Speaker 1: his roommate, a guy named Mark Butler, had met Jesse
25:55
Speaker 1: at a party a little after 11 p.m. He said
25:57
Speaker 1: he ultimately went back home again around 3 a.m., leaving
26:01
Speaker 1: Jesse on the sidewalk, still very alive and well. Ed
26:04
Speaker 1: said his roommate, Mark, had actually seen him return to
26:07
Speaker 1: his apartment at 3 a.m. And Ed said when he
26:10
Speaker 1: went inside, he went straight to bed. And then he
26:13
Speaker 1: had gotten up early for work. Ed said he was
26:15
Speaker 1: at work when he got the call from police telling
26:18
Speaker 1: him that Jesse had been found dead. Detective Short listened
26:21
Speaker 1: to Ed's story and asked a few follow-up questions and
26:25
Speaker 1: then also took a DNA sample from Ed. And then
26:27
Speaker 1: after that, he told Ed that he was also going
26:30
Speaker 1: to get a warrant to search Ed's home. Ed was
26:33
Speaker 1: already such a wreck that, you know, when Short told
26:36
Speaker 1: him about this, you know, search of his home, Ed
26:38
Speaker 1: didn't even really react. However, when Short left the interview room,
26:42
Speaker 1: despite feeling pretty confident that Ed could absolutely be a suspect,
26:47
Speaker 1: he also went and, you know, followed procedure and looked
26:50
Speaker 1: up Ed's roommate, Mark Butler. And he discovered in the
26:53
Speaker 1: police department system that there was Mark Butler. And sure enough,
26:57
Speaker 1: he had a criminal record. So overnight, while a forensics
27:02
Speaker 1: team was searching Ed and Mark's home, Short actually brought
27:05
Speaker 1: Mark down to the station for an interview. But in reality,
27:08
Speaker 1: Short wasn't expecting Mark to become this primary suspect here.
27:13
Speaker 1: He just wanted to be thorough and rule out anybody
27:15
Speaker 1: who'd seen Jesse that night, and obviously Mark was one
27:18
Speaker 1: of those people. But almost immediately in their interview, Mark
27:22
Speaker 1: started saying some very odd things. He told Short right
27:25
Speaker 1: out the gate that he did not like Jesse, and
27:28
Speaker 1: actually he said point blank that he didn't really care
27:31
Speaker 1: that Jesse was dead. But he also clarified to Detective
27:35
Speaker 1: Short that, you know, he was just Ed's roommate. He
27:38
Speaker 1: was not seeing him romantically. So this had nothing to
27:41
Speaker 1: do with jealousy. He just did not like Jesse. Mark
27:44
Speaker 1: confirmed that he did see Ed when he returned from
27:46
Speaker 1: the party around 3 a.m., just like Ed had said.
27:49
Speaker 1: But Mark had actually not stuck around. He said that
27:52
Speaker 1: after Ed had come back to the apartment, Mark had
27:55
Speaker 1: left to go on a date of his own. And
27:57
Speaker 1: he actually didn't know what time he got back. And
27:59
Speaker 1: so as he was saying this, Short realized that that
28:02
Speaker 1: meant Mark was out and about sort of unaccounted for
28:06
Speaker 1: at the same time that Jesse was killed. And so
28:09
Speaker 1: obviously something seemed off about Mark. And so Short took
28:13
Speaker 1: a DNA sample and added Mark to the suspect list.
28:17
Speaker 1: The next morning, Sunday, June 6th, after catching a few
28:20
Speaker 1: hours of sleep, Detective Short gathered his team for a meeting.
28:24
Speaker 1: The mood was tense. Everybody was exhausted and very much
28:27
Speaker 1: on edge from spending nearly 24 hours straight working on
28:30
Speaker 1: this case. But when they went around the room and
28:34
Speaker 1: talked about the flood of leads they'd all followed up
28:36
Speaker 1: on yesterday, it didn't actually seem like they had much
28:39
Speaker 1: to show for it. There were now several suspects in play,
28:43
Speaker 1: but none of them seemed to have a good reason
28:45
Speaker 1: to want to kill Jesse Valencia. Jesse apparently had been
28:48
Speaker 1: hounding his ex-boyfriend Jack about trying to get back together,
28:52
Speaker 1: which Jack did not want, and the multiple late-night phone
28:55
Speaker 1: calls and the knocking on the door unannounced, you know,
28:58
Speaker 1: it just seemed like harassment. So it was possible that
29:01
Speaker 1: maybe Jack had gone over to confront Jesse and things
29:05
Speaker 1: got out of hand. But Jack had told Detective Short
29:08
Speaker 1: that he and Jesse had remained friends after the breakup.
29:12
Speaker 1: And some of the other detectives said that Jesse's friends
29:15
Speaker 1: had said the same thing. The two had remained friends.
29:18
Speaker 1: So it seemed pretty unlikely that things between them would
29:20
Speaker 1: have escalated so much that, you know, somebody got killed.
29:24
Speaker 1: Then there was Ed McDevitt, Jesse's new lover, who had
29:27
Speaker 1: seemed pretty nervous during his interrogation. One of the detectives
29:30
Speaker 1: told Short that while searching Ed's house, they'd found a
29:33
Speaker 1: bag full of chef's knives, and some of them were
29:36
Speaker 1: large and sharp enough that they could easily have been
29:39
Speaker 1: the murder weapon. But Ed worked in a restaurant and
29:42
Speaker 1: was training to be a chef, so owning kitchen knives
29:45
Speaker 1: was hardly a smoking gun. And then as for Ed's roommate,
29:48
Speaker 1: Mark Butler, you know, he did have a criminal past
29:51
Speaker 1: and openly said he did not like Jesse and didn't
29:54
Speaker 1: care that he died. But they'd only met one time,
29:57
Speaker 1: and very likely they would never have seen each other again.
30:00
Speaker 1: So it seemed very unlikely that he would go through
30:03
Speaker 1: the trouble of following Jesse home and killing him. Like,
30:06
Speaker 1: to what end? And so Detective Short was getting really frustrated.
30:10
Speaker 1: He just couldn't make sense of any of these suspects.
30:13
Speaker 1: It was like something was missing here. And so he
30:16
Speaker 1: turned to two of his detectives, Jeff Westbrook and Barbara Cook,
30:20
Speaker 1: and told them to go to some local bars that
30:22
Speaker 1: Jesse frequented and just sort of ask around about Jesse.
30:26
Speaker 1: you know, in case there were other leads that they
30:28
Speaker 1: had not uncovered yet. However, right after Detective Short walked
30:31
Speaker 1: out of that meeting that morning, another detective ran up
30:34
Speaker 1: to him and pulled him into a quiet corner and
30:37
Speaker 1: told him a tip had just come in, and it
30:39
Speaker 1: was so sensitive that they were going to have to
30:42
Speaker 1: keep it under wraps even amongst the investigators. The detective
30:45
Speaker 1: told Short that a friend of Jesse's who lived in St.
30:48
Speaker 1: Louis had called the tip in through Crimestoppers. He said
30:52
Speaker 1: that he and Jesse chatted online all the time, and
30:55
Speaker 1: that Jesse at one point had told him about a
30:58
Speaker 1: secret affair he was having with an older man. And
31:01
Speaker 1: this older man was actually an officer in the Columbia
31:05
Speaker 1: Police Department. Later that day, so this is Sunday, June 6, 2004,
31:16
Speaker 1: two days after Jesse was killed, Detective Short sat at
31:21
Speaker 1: his desk, flipping through printouts of all these online chat logs.
31:25
Speaker 1: And these logs showed conversations between Jesse and the friend
31:29
Speaker 1: of his who had called in the tip that Jesse
31:31
Speaker 1: was having this affair with an officer from Short's own
31:34
Speaker 1: police department. In the chats, Jesse wrote all about this relationship.
31:39
Speaker 1: Jesse had seemed to find it pretty exciting at first,
31:41
Speaker 1: having this police officer come by in uniform and carrying
31:45
Speaker 1: on these secret meetups in the middle of the night.
31:48
Speaker 1: But recently, Jesse had begun to suspect that this police
31:51
Speaker 1: officer was married. And this made Jesse furious. He had
31:55
Speaker 1: told this friend in the chat log that he wasn't
31:58
Speaker 1: going to be someone's other woman. However, to Short's frustration,
32:02
Speaker 1: Jesse never actually named the officer that he was having
32:06
Speaker 1: this affair with. He only ever referred to him as
32:09
Speaker 1: Columbia's Finest. And so whoever this mystery cop was, Detective
32:13
Speaker 1: Short thought they were the most likely suspect. because unlike
32:17
Speaker 1: Jesse's other lovers, this officer had something to lose if
32:20
Speaker 1: this relationship went south. If Jesse told anybody about this affair, well,
32:25
Speaker 1: the police officer's career could be on the line because
32:28
Speaker 1: they clearly were carrying on this totally illicit affair while
32:32
Speaker 1: on duty. You know, that's not okay. And also they
32:35
Speaker 1: were using their position and power potentially to actually land
32:38
Speaker 1: this relationship. And then also on top of that, the
32:42
Speaker 1: police officer's marriage would likely be destroyed. But Short also
32:45
Speaker 1: knew that he had to move very carefully here because
32:49
Speaker 1: now he was investigating his own department, which meant that
32:53
Speaker 1: the killer could literally be in the room with him
32:55
Speaker 1: at any time. And so as he walked through the
32:57
Speaker 1: office to refill his coffee, Short found himself scanning the
33:01
Speaker 1: face of every officer he passed. And he realized there
33:05
Speaker 1: wasn't a single person here he could actually trust. Short
33:08
Speaker 1: brought all the files on Jesse's case into his office.
33:11
Speaker 1: And then he told his secretary to find him a
33:13
Speaker 1: roster of the department's entire staff. Then he locked the door,
33:17
Speaker 1: sat at his desk, and pulled out the records on
33:19
Speaker 1: Jesse's friends who had been interviewed already. And he went
33:22
Speaker 1: down the list himself, calling each and every one of
33:25
Speaker 1: them to dig for more information. Quite a few of
33:28
Speaker 1: them said that Jesse had told them about this cop
33:30
Speaker 1: he was sleeping with. And one of them remembered Jesse
33:33
Speaker 1: referring to this officer as just Anderson. And so when
33:37
Speaker 1: Short's secretary came back with the staff roster... Short began
33:41
Speaker 1: looking through it, and he discovered out of the 200-plus
33:44
Speaker 1: officers in the entire department, there were only two officers
33:49
Speaker 1: that had the name Anderson. Brad Anderson and Ted Anderson.
33:54
Speaker 1: And so the next step was trying to figure out
33:56
Speaker 1: if either of them had a connection to Jesse Valencia.
33:59
Speaker 1: And so Short pulled out the records from Jesse's arrest
34:02
Speaker 1: at the house party back in April, and as he
34:05
Speaker 1: flipped through it, he realized... Brad Anderson was one of
34:08
Speaker 1: the three officers who responded to that party. The pieces
34:11
Speaker 1: fit together perfectly. Jesse and Brad Anderson, the police officer,
34:16
Speaker 1: would have met around the same time that Jesse began
34:19
Speaker 1: messaging his friend in St. Louis about this secret affair
34:22
Speaker 1: with a cop. And so at this point, Short felt
34:25
Speaker 1: like he had just found the killer. So he grabbed
34:28
Speaker 1: a manila folder off his desk, stepped out of his office,
34:31
Speaker 1: locking the door behind him. Then he did a lap
34:34
Speaker 1: around the whole station, and eventually... he spotted Brad Anderson
34:37
Speaker 1: in the locker room chatting with a few other officers
34:40
Speaker 1: as he put on his uniform. Now, Short wanted to
34:42
Speaker 1: be very careful here because if Brad Anderson was the killer,
34:47
Speaker 1: he certainly didn't want him to realize he was under
34:49
Speaker 1: suspicion right now. So Short waited in the hallway until
34:52
Speaker 1: Brad walked out of the locker room and then as
34:55
Speaker 1: casually as possible, Short caught up with him and pulled
34:58
Speaker 1: him aside. Short opened up the manila folder he had
35:00
Speaker 1: brought with him and showed Brad a photo of Jesse Valencia,
35:04
Speaker 1: asking if he recognized him. And Brad squinted at the
35:06
Speaker 1: photo for a second, and then after thinking, he said, yeah,
35:09
Speaker 1: that's the kid I arrested at a party a few
35:11
Speaker 1: months ago. Short asked Brad if he had seen Jesse
35:14
Speaker 1: at all since the arrest. And Brad nodded and said, yeah.
35:17
Speaker 1: He said that about a month ago, Jesse had called
35:20
Speaker 1: in a noise complaint and Brad had been the one
35:22
Speaker 1: sent out to check on it. But by the time
35:24
Speaker 1: Brad got there, the noise had stopped. So he was
35:27
Speaker 1: only there for a couple of minutes before leaving. Man,
35:29
Speaker 1: that was it. To short, nothing about Brad's demeanor seemed
35:33
Speaker 1: nervous or suspicious. In fact, it really seemed like he
35:36
Speaker 1: didn't have any clue why the detective was asking him
35:39
Speaker 1: about Jesse Valencia. So if he was the killer... It
35:42
Speaker 1: seemed like he was going to be very hard to crack.
35:45
Speaker 1: Short was about to let Brad go and just wait
35:47
Speaker 1: to talk to him once he had more evidence. But
35:49
Speaker 1: just then, Brad's partner, Officer Rios, walked by. And when
35:54
Speaker 1: he walked by, he looked over and he saw the
35:56
Speaker 1: manila folder with Jesse Valencia's photo inside of it that
35:59
Speaker 1: Short was showing Brad Anderson. And Rios, without even thinking,
36:03
Speaker 1: made this comment under his breath that was clearly directed
36:06
Speaker 1: at his partner. It was like this really in-bad-taste comment
36:09
Speaker 1: where he was like, oh... Looks like your gay lover's dead.
36:13
Speaker 1: When Short heard this, he practically sprinted back to his office.
36:17
Speaker 1: Brad Anderson sort of shrugged off the comment made by
36:20
Speaker 1: Rios about, you know, Jesse being his gay lover. But
36:23
Speaker 1: Short felt like what Rios said was a pretty big deal.
36:27
Speaker 1: Because even though, again, it was terrible in bad taste humor,
36:30
Speaker 1: you know, that's a terrible thing to say. But maybe
36:33
Speaker 1: there's truth there. Maybe Rios knows that Brad Anderson... was
36:37
Speaker 1: seeing Jesse Valencia. Maybe they really were in a relationship. Now,
36:41
Speaker 1: in the moment, Short did not aggressively follow up on
36:45
Speaker 1: that comment and demand to know if Brad had actually
36:48
Speaker 1: been in a relationship with Jesse before he died. Instead,
36:51
Speaker 1: all three of them just kind of went their separate
36:53
Speaker 1: ways and Short hustled back to his office. And when
36:57
Speaker 1: he was in his office, right as he sat down,
36:59
Speaker 1: there was a knock on the door. And when the
37:01
Speaker 1: door opened, it was Short's secretary. And she told him
37:04
Speaker 1: there was someone who had been waiting to see him.
37:06
Speaker 1: And then she let in this very nervous-looking young man
37:09
Speaker 1: who introduced himself as Jesse's friend. And he said his
37:12
Speaker 1: name was Andy Shermerhorn. Andy sat down and told Short
37:16
Speaker 1: that just a few weeks earlier, he and Jesse had
37:18
Speaker 1: gone out together and then gone back to Jesse's apartment.
37:22
Speaker 1: But around 3 a.m., they were interrupted by a knock
37:25
Speaker 1: on the door. Jesse went to answer it, and a
37:29
Speaker 1: uniformed police officer walked in, shining a flashlight. And to
37:33
Speaker 1: Andy's surprise, Jesse led this officer right into the bedroom
37:38
Speaker 1: and he joined them for a threesome. And then after
37:40
Speaker 1: they were done, the cop told Andy, you better keep
37:44
Speaker 1: this a secret. Detective Short couldn't believe it. I mean,
37:47
Speaker 1: the final piece of evidence he needed had just fallen
37:50
Speaker 1: into his lap. Andy said he did not know the
37:52
Speaker 1: officer's name. So Detective Short got out a department yearbook
37:56
Speaker 1: and told him to flip through it to see if
37:58
Speaker 1: maybe the guy he saw that night was in there.
38:00
Speaker 1: But Andy just held up his hand and said he
38:02
Speaker 1: didn't need to do that. And Detective Short was like, well,
38:06
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Why can't you do that? And
38:08
Speaker 1: Andy said, well, because when I came in here, the
38:12
Speaker 1: guy I met, he was out in the hall. Based
38:18
Speaker 1: on the investigation that would follow this revelation, The following
38:22
Speaker 1: is what happened to Jesse Valencia in the early morning
38:25
Speaker 1: of June 5th, 2004. Around 3 a.m., right around the
38:33
Speaker 1: time that Jesse was leaving his friend Jennifer's party, Jesse's
38:36
Speaker 1: killer was drinking beers with a few friends after work.
38:39
Speaker 1: And then, just before dawn, the killer wrapped up, got
38:43
Speaker 1: in their car to drive home. But as they were driving,
38:46
Speaker 1: they decided to make a stop along the way at
38:49
Speaker 1: Jesse's apartment. They were expecting another quick, no strings attached,
38:53
Speaker 1: late night secret hookup. But when they got there, Jesse
38:57
Speaker 1: was very drunk and in a terrible mood. Jesse told
39:00
Speaker 1: the killer that he had figured out they were married.
39:03
Speaker 1: And so now he was not interested in them at all.
39:05
Speaker 1: He didn't want to see him anymore. But when he
39:07
Speaker 1: told the killer to leave and the killer refused, Jesse said, fine,
39:12
Speaker 1: I'll go to your police chief and I will tell
39:13
Speaker 1: them about our affair. And that's when the killer snapped.
39:18
Speaker 1: If their secret got out, it would cost them everything.
39:21
Speaker 1: So in their mind, they had to silence Jesse before
39:25
Speaker 1: he could ruin them. Jesse tried to run, but he
39:29
Speaker 1: only made it about a block. before the killer caught
39:31
Speaker 1: up with him, wrapped an arm around his neck, and
39:33
Speaker 1: put him in a vicious chokehold until his body went limp.
39:37
Speaker 1: And then the killer laid Jesse out on the grass,
39:39
Speaker 1: took out a pocket knife, and brutally slashed his throat.
39:44
Speaker 1: And then on the way home, the killer very skillfully
39:47
Speaker 1: disposed of the murder weapon, ensuring nobody would ever find
39:50
Speaker 1: it because they knew the knife was the only piece
39:53
Speaker 1: of hard evidence that could ever link them to the murder.
39:56
Speaker 1: After that, they made their way back home, parked in
39:58
Speaker 1: the driveway. And as they were walking up to the
40:01
Speaker 1: front door, they looked up and saw their wife in
40:04
Speaker 1: the kitchen window preparing a bottle for their baby son.
40:07
Speaker 1: And then just before going inside, the killer unpinned the
40:10
Speaker 1: name tag on their uniform that said Anderson. and they
40:14
Speaker 1: swapped it for another name tag that they had hidden
40:17
Speaker 1: in their glove box. And this name tag was the
40:20
Speaker 1: killer's real name, Officer Steven Rios. Rios was Brad Anderson's partner.
40:27
Speaker 1: He was the one who identified Jesse's body at the
40:30
Speaker 1: crime scene and made that awful comment about Brad Anderson's
40:33
Speaker 1: gay lover. It's believed that Officer Rios was lying to
40:38
Speaker 1: Jesse about his name. And in fact, he actually stole
40:40
Speaker 1: the name tag not of Brad Anderson, but of the
40:43
Speaker 1: other Anderson, Ted Anderson. He was using his name tag
40:47
Speaker 1: and parading around like he was him whenever he was
40:49
Speaker 1: with Jesse. Rios was arrested, and in May of 2005,
40:53
Speaker 1: almost a year after Jesse's murder, he was found guilty
40:56
Speaker 1: of first-degree murder. But after an appeal, he got a
41:00
Speaker 1: new trial, and the charge was reduced to second-degree murder. However,
41:04
Speaker 1: he was still found guilty and was sentenced to life
41:06
Speaker 1: in prison. Thank you so much for watching. Let me
41:16
Speaker 1: know what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
41:18
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
41:21
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now. So click
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Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
41:27
Speaker 1: see ya.