Latest / Crime and Horror / She left an HR meeting and never came back

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She left an HR meeting and never came back · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One morning in March of 1999, a detective in Norcross, Georgia,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: leaned in close to his computer monitor. He was reviewing
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: video footage that his team had recorded at a murder scene,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and finally, he had arrived at the exact frame that
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: he wanted to analyze.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: And so he looked at it, he zoomed in, and
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: as he did, he smiled.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Because he saw that the exact thing he was looking
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for in this frame was not there. But before we
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and Mysterious delivered in story format.
• 0:29
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• 0:35
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• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Around 1030 in the morning on March 15th, 1999, 20-year-old
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Danielle Jennings sat in her cubicle at the offices of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a landscaping company in Atlanta, Georgia, anxiously watching the door
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to her boss's office. She was nervous because in just
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: a few minutes, she had a meeting to discuss a
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: sexual harassment complaint that she had recently filed against one
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of her coworkers.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: A guy named Jeff Copeland.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Now, Danielle had hoped that her human resources department would
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: handle this complaint quietly, discreetly, But instead, HR had.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Asked Danielle, her boss, and Jeff to sit down together.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, they wanted them all to sit down face to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: face to talk this problem through.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Now, for Danielle, I mean, this was horrifying.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: However, even though this was like the last way Danielle
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: wanted to handle this, she had ultimately agreed to do
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: this meeting. Because really, she needed this job, and she
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: was worried if she didn't take this meeting, it could
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: jeopardize her role here. And so just then, she looked
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: over and she saw the head of HR walk into
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: her boss's office, followed closely by Jeff. So at this point, Danielle,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: she took a deep breath, stood up from her desk,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: she straightened her clothes, and then.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Headed into the meeting.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: An hour later, Danielle walked back out of her boss's
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: office and her hands were shaking because the HR meeting
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: had basically gone exactly how she'd been afraid it would go.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Jeff had completely downplayed the whole thing as like this
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: big misunderstanding. And even though her boss had talked a
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: lot about, you know, repercussions for Jeff, Danielle had gotten
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the feeling that nothing was.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Actually going to be done here.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: And so this whole experience had been really embarrassing.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: And also just overwhelming. And now Danielle really.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Just wanted some distance, not just from Jeff and her
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: boss in HR, but from everyone.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: She just wanted to go be alone.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So she decided she would use her lunch break to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: just go home for a bit and try to recover.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So she grabbed her purse and her jacket, and then
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: she also told a coworker that she was stepping out
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: for a bit, and then she made her way to
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the exit. A half an hour later, around noon, Danielle
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: pulled into the parking lot of the Ashley Lake Apartments
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: in Norcross, Georgia. She parked her car, she got out,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and then she started walking through the sprawling complex toward
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: where she actually lived.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: As she neared her building.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Danielle noticed that a light fixture under the awning that,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, led into her building was flickering again.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: This complex admittedly was sort of a dump.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Things were always breaking and it always seemed to take
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the management company months to send someone around to repair anything.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: If they even sent anybody at all.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: And also beyond just being sort of a rundown place,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the apartment complex objectively was just not safe. Domestic violence
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: disputes were very common. And lately, there had been a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: rash of break-ins that had Danielle and a lot of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: people who lived here on edge. And so Danielle, she
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: really wished she could be raising her three-year-old son, Tristan,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: somewhere nicer, somewhere safer. But for now, this really was
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: like the best she and her fiancé, Luis, could afford. Now,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Danielle walked under the awning, and she unlocked the door,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and she went inside. And it was quiet, because Luis
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: was at work, and her son Tristan was at daycare.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: So she had the place to herself, which was... ideal
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: because again, she just.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Wanted her space.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: She headed into the kitchen and she put her purse
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: on the table. And as she did, she just looked
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: at the engagement ring on her finger. So Louise, her
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: fiance had proposed to her three months ago at Christmas.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And Danielle was still getting used to how good it
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: felt to be with someone as reliable and grounded as
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: he was. Now she dated some downright dangerous guys before,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: including Tristan's biological father, And next to them, Louise was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: like a saint.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Also, Louise just had this.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Ability to know exactly what to say, to calm Danielle down,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: like whenever she was stressed.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: But obviously he was not here now.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: And so Danielle was still just, you know, wound up
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: from that awful meeting she had had with no clear
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: way to sort of get rid of the anxiety. So
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: she decided that for now, she would just go lay
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: down in the bedroom and hope.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: That she could relax that way.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: So she left the kitchen and She made her way
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: towards the bedroom, and as she stepped through the doorway.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: She stopped because she noticed something in the bedroom that
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: was off.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: The top drawer of her dresser in the bedroom was
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: wide open, but Danielle was sure it had been closed
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: when she had left for work that morning. So, like,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: what's going on here? Then she heard movement coming from
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: behind her, and then before she even had a chance
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to turn around, Danielle felt something press tightly around her neck.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: About five hours later, at 4.45 p.m., Danielle's fiancé, Luis Payano,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: hurried up to the apartment that he shared with Danielle.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Danielle had not been returning his calls all afternoon, so
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: he had ultimately left work early to come home and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: make sure she was okay. As he reached the door,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Luis pulled the keys from his pocket and he slipped
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: them into the lock, only to discover that the door
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: was already unlocked. And so with some trepidation, he pushed
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the door open and stepped inside. As Luis passed by
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, he looked in and he saw Danielle's purse
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was lying on the floor with its contents scattered everywhere.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And so instinctively, it's like Luis knows something's off here.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: His pulse picked up.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: He began calling out Danielle's name. And when she didn't respond,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: he left the kitchen and made his way over to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the bedroom. And as Luis stepped through the bedroom.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Door, he saw Danielle. She was lying on the bed.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: But again, something just seemed wrong.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: She was lying fully dressed on the bed, like her jacket, jeans, shoes,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: everything is on. And she was lying face down in
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: such a way that it almost seemed like it would
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: be hard to breathe. And so his heart is racing
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: now and he rushes over and nudges her.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: To see if she's okay.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: But she didn't move. And so he had to forcibly
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: push her and roll her over. And as soon as
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: he did and he saw what she looked like, he
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: jumped back because Danielle's face was dark blue. 45 minutes later,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Detective Bob King of the Gwinnett County Police Department was
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: standing in the bedroom of the Ashley Lake apartment. Around him,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: members of the forensics team bustled around, dusting for prints
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and recording the crime scene with a video camera. King
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: leaned down to examine the nylon stocking that was cinched
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: tightly around the throat of the young woman's body on
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the bed. By this point, he knew her name was
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Danielle Jennings and that she had lived in this apartment
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: because when he'd arrived, he'd spoken briefly outside to her
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: hysterical fiancé who had made the 911 call. However, at
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: this point, this was about all King had to go on.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: He'd done a sort of cursory sweep of the apartment
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: on his way to the bedroom where he knew the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: body would be, and there was little in the way
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of obvious evidence. The front door showed no signs of
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: forced entry, and nothing appeared to have been stolen in
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the apartment. Danielle's purse was overturned on the kitchen floor,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: but there was literally a wad of cash just sitting
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: right there on the floor. So you would have seen
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: that if that's what you were looking for, and you
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: would have taken it if robbery was your angle. And
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: then also the TV and the computer were still in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the apartment. Those are two very valuable things. And also
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Danielle's jewelry box looked like it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Had not been touched.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So again, this just didn't feel like a robbery. The
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: nylon stocking, though, was telling King something. The stocking that
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: had been cinched around Danielle's neck and tied off in
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the back suggested that Danielle had been attacked from behind.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Someone had wrapped it around her neck and tied it off,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you know, behind her. And since Danielle was found still
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: wearing her jacket and shoes, it seemed like she hadn't
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: been home for very long before she was attacked. King
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: stood back up and looked around the bedroom and he
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: noticed there was a dresser nearby with the top drawer
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: hanging open. He walked over to it and he looked inside.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and he saw that this drawer was full of women's underwear.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: So he guessed the stocking, the murder weapon, had come
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: from here. And to King, if that was true, this
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: seemed like a pretty important detail, because it suggested that
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the killer had not planned on killing Danielle, or they
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: likely would have brought their own weapon.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: It's like they're here.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Danielle appears or something, and it's like target of opportunity,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: they're grabbing what they can to take her out.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Also, King was thinking, like, strangling?
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Was such an intimate way to kill someone, like way
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: more than shooting someone or even stabbing someone. I mean,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: this forces the killer to get up close and personal
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: with their victim. And in King's experience, that pointed to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a personal motive, even if this had been sort of
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: a a crime of opportunity, this felt like someone who
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: knew Danielle. An hour and a half later, Detective King
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: walked into the main office of the Ashley Lakes apartment
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: complex to speak with the leasing manager. By this point,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: King had been all over the complex, questioning a maintenance
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: employee and dozens of other tenants. But No one had
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: seen anyone coming or going from Danielle's apartment. And now,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: when King explained the entire situation to the leasing manager,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: she told him, unfortunately, there weren't any security cameras near
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Danielle's unit.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: So King just sighed and.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Pulled out a business card and handed it over and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: told her to please call him if anything came up,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and she said she would. Then King headed back out
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to the parking lot, trying his best not to get discouraged. However,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: that was proving pretty difficult to do because so far,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the case was off to a pretty rough start. Really,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: he had no witnesses, he had no security cameras, and
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: so far, the team hadn't found any fingerprints, blood, hair,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: or anything else that might help them.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: ID the killer.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: All King knew for sure at this point was that,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: at least based on what he saw at the scene,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the victim had been strangled to death and that the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: killer had gotten into the apartment without having to force
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: open a door or window... and statistically, that pointed to
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the victim's romantic partner. So, King was going to head
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: back to the station right now where Danielle's fiancé, Luis Payano,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: was waiting to be interviewed. I'm a big believer that
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the little everyday moments in life are usually the ones
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: you remember the most. Like a warm summer evening, your
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: family's hanging around after dinner, and Everybody reaching into the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: freezer for dessert.
• 11:47
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• 11:48
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• 11:51
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• 11:55
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• 12:02
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• 12:25
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• 12:29
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• 12:31
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• 12:47
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• 12:52
  Speaker 2: At around 8 p.m.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: On March 15, 1999, Detective Bob King sat down inside
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of an interview room at the Gwinnett County Police Station
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: across from Luis Payano, the fiancé of Danielle Jennings, who
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: had been found strangled to death in their apartment earlier
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: that same day. Now, Luis was very clearly distraught, But King.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Needed answers now, and he didn't have any other suspects.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So he asked Louise, who again is sort of borderline hysterical,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: to please walk him through his day.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Be as detailed as you can be.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Louise took a few breaths and wiped his eyes, and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: even though he was still pretty emotional, he began to speak.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: And he said that he and Danielle had both left
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the apartment that morning around 6.45 a.m. He said she
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: had gone to drop her son Tristan off at daycare
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: on the way to her work, and that he had
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: gone straight to his own office. And then later that
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: same morning, around 11 a.m., Luis said Danielle had called
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: him back, asking if he would meet her for lunch,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: but he had said that he was too busy. He
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: said later on that afternoon, he had called Danielle again
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: just to check in with her, but she wasn't answering,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: and so he had left messages on her work and
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the home answering machines, expecting her to call back eventually,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: but she never did. And so Luis said eventually he
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: had actually left work early, and gone to their apartment
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: to check on Danielle because he hadn't heard from her.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And when he walked into their apartment, obviously he found
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: what he found and called 911. As Luis told his story,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: King was listening to the details, but he was also
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: just sort of studying Luis. If Luis really had been
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: at work all day, like he had said, it would
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: be pretty easy to verify.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: There was other co-workers who could say he was there
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: or he wasn't.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: But King would not be able to verify the alibi
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: at least until the next morning. And so for now,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: King was just trying to pick up on any sort
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of cue that maybe Luis was being deceitful or something.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: But so far, he couldn't quite tell.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And so for now, King decided he would just try
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: to get as much information as he could from Luis.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And so after getting, you know, the detailed chronology of
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: what happened from Luis's point of view, King began asking
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: him if.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Luis knew of anybody who might have had a problem
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: with Danielle.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: And when he asked that question, it did change Luis's
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: entire demeanor.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: He got quiet. He got sort of reserved.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And then he nodded and said, actually, yeah, there were
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: two people in particular. He said the first was a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: man named Carl Buford, who was actually the father of
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Danielle's son, Tristan. According to Luis, Carl was this aspiring rapper.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: With a criminal record.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: And apparently, at least again, according to Luis, he had
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: really never been involved in Tristan's life.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: But lately, he'd been pushing for more visitation time.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: And Louise suspected this was because he had recently proposed
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: to Danielle.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: She said, yes, they're going to get married. Carl was
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: aware of that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: And Louise suspected that Carl didn't like the idea of
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: being replaced. So he was kind of inserting himself pretty
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: aggressively back into Tristan's life to sort of stay relevant.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: At least that was Louise's theory. And so King, he's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: listening to this and he jotted down everything he said.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And then he asked Louise about the other name. The
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: second person that he had mentioned had a problem with Danielle.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And Luis, he began telling another story about how Danielle
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: had recently filed a sexual harassment complaint against one of
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: her co-workers, this guy Jeff Copeland. Luis said Danielle had
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: been really stressed about it when she had left for
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: work that morning because she'd had this meeting scheduled with HR,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: her boss, and Jeff that day that she had to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: go do. And when King heard this, he stopped Luis
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: right there because he actually thought he'd misheard.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: It's like, wait a minute.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: So this sexual harassment meeting, this really personal, like intense meeting,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: had taken place that morning, just before Danielle was killed.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: And Lise confirmed and said, yep, that happened today. Around
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: noon the next day, Detective King was back inside of
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: the interrogation room, but this time he was sitting across
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: from Jeff Copeland, the co-worker Danielle had filed that sexual
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: harassment complaint against. Jeff was 40 years old, so literally
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: twice Danielle's age. And if he was uncomfortable about having
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: been dragged down here to the station to be interviewed here, he.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Was not showing it.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Jeff just kept saying how devastated he'd been to hear
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: about Danielle's death and how he'd always been fond of her.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And when King asked him about the sexual harassment complaint,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Jeff just brushed it off, saying Danielle just hadn't understood
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: his sense of humor. But by now, Detective King had
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: actually read the HR complaint himself, and he knew that
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: This likely had been more than a few off-color jokes.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: According to what Danielle had reported, Jeff had made these
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: creepy comments about how he and Danielle would make a
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: really good couple. And he'd repeatedly pressured Danielle to go
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: out with him, even though she kept saying no. And
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: then when she kept saying no, he'd eventually left this
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: dirty movie on her desk, like a pornographic movie, and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: he'd left a note comparing her to one of the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: main women in this pornographic film.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: And to King.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: If this behavior was true, if this was an actual
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: narrative of what he did, it wasn't just obnoxious or,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of in bad taste. It showed what
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: looked like a pretty clear pattern of escalation by Jeff,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: like he was being rejected, not accepting the answer, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: sort of ramping up his approach. However, King let Jeff
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: tell his version of the story without interrupting him. And
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: then when Jeff was done, King asked him, what did
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: you do immediately after the HR meeting? And Jeff replied
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: that he had spent the afternoon doing some off-site visits.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: And when King heard that answer, he perked up.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Because if Jeff had left the office, maybe he would
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: have had the opportunity to follow Danielle back to her
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: apartment and kill her.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: But Jeff seemed to know what King was thinking.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: And Jeff immediately clarified that he had not been alone
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: during these off-site visits. He'd done them with another co-worker
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: who could definitely back up his story.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: And so King told Jeff.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: that he was definitely going to need contact info for
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that colleague.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Later that same day.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Detective King walked back into his office at the police
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: station and he found Danielle's autopsy report waiting for him
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: on his desk. And he was desperate to get into
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: this thing and see if there was any new lead
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to follow. Because by this point, his team had checked
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the alibis of all three of his suspects to that point,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and they all held up. Jeff Copeland, the man who
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: had the sexual harassment complaint filed against him, Well, the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: colleague who had done the off-site visits with him had
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: vouched for him and said that exactly what Jeff said
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: is what happened.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Coworkers of Danielle's.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Fiancé, Luis Payano, also confirmed that he had been at
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: his desk all day long, just like he had said.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: And then Carl Buford, the biological father of Danielle's son Tristan,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: he had arguably the most bulletproof alibi. because he'd literally
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: been in jail on the day Danielle was killed. So
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: it seemed that none of King's suspects so far could
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: possibly be the killer. And now, as he was reading
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: through this autopsy report, it really wasn't giving him much
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: of anything either. It just confirmed everything King already knew.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Danielle died of asphyxiation and and that no prints or
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: useful forensic evidence had been recovered at the crime scene.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: But just then, King heard a knock on his door,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and he looked up and he saw the other detective
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: who was working the case standing in the doorway. This
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: detective explained that he'd just finished running a background check
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: on Danielle Jennings, and the search had turned up a
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: restraining order that Danielle had filed years earlier, not against
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Jeff Copeland or Luis Payano or Carl.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Buford, but instead, somebody new.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: And judging by the details of this restraining order, it
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: seemed like Danielle had had a stalker.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Around 10 a.m.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: On the morning of March 17, 1999, so now two
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: days after the murder of Danielle Jennings, Detective Bob King
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: stared down a man named Eddie McElwaney in an interview
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: room at the Gwinnett County Police Station. Eddie was Danielle's ex-boyfriend.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and apparently he was her stalker as well. He was
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: this big, intimidating guy who worked as a tow truck driver,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and he seemed pretty irritated about being brought down here
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: for an interview in the first place. Right now, he
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: was explaining to Detective King that he didn't know anything
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: about Danielle's murder, and that he hadn't talked to her
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: in well over a year. But as he was saying this,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: King knew that was a lie, because King had spent
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: yesterday afternoon calling up Danielle's friends and family members, And
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: they told him the whole story. Danielle and Eddie had
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: dated in high school. And after they had broken up,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Eddie's behavior had become so aggressive that Danielle had filed
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that restraining order to stop him from interfering with her life.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: And that restraining order had worked for a while until
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: just a few months ago when Eddie had begun calling
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: her again. So this clearly contradicts his, I haven't talked
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: to her in a year. He had tried calling her just.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: A few months ago.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But beyond the fact that he was clearly lying, I mean,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to King, just the fact that Eddie had reached out
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to her again right before basically she was murdered, that
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: was very suspicious.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: And he told Eddie so. And then he waited to
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: see how Eddie would respond.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: And at first, Eddie, you know, after basically being told,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: you're lying and we think you might have killed her,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: at first, he didn't say anything. But as King watched him,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Eddie's expression tightened. And then his face turned beet red
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: like he was about to explode. And then suddenly King
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was very aware of just how enormous Eddie was. And
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: that it was just the two of them in here
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and he was not handcuffed. Like this could get really
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: bad really quickly. But Eddie, despite looking like at any
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: moment he was going to jump across the table and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: attack King, he didn't. He just stayed in his seat,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: you know, gritting his teeth and glaring at King. And
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: then he took a deep breath and he just said
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he didn't care how any of this looked.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Because he had not killed Danielle. And actually, he could
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: prove it.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Early the next morning, Detective King was hunched over his desk,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: sorting through all these crumpled gas station receipts.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: And as he was doing.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: That, and he was sort of angry as he did it,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: his phone rang, and he picked it up, and without
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: even looking at who was calling, he just snapped at
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the caller and said, Who is it?
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: What do you want? So the reason King was in
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: this bad mood was because of all those gas station
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: receipts on his desk.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: They were Eddie's alibi, and they did prove that Eddie
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: had spent the day of Danielle's murder driving around for
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: work and towing cars, and that based on these receipts,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: he had been too far from her apartment to have
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: killed her. So King was once again back to square one,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: with no evidence, no witnesses, and no clear suspects. Now
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: he listened to the voice on the line, and he
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: recognized the caller as Danielle's fiancé, Luis Payano. And Luis,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: who was sort of taken aback by King's tone, sort
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: of gently explained that he was just calling to ask
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: if the police had Danielle's engagement ring. And if there's
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: a chance, you know, if they were done with it,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: could he get it back soon? And at those words,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Detective King, it was like everything changed. He sat up
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: straight and he realized they'd been looking at this case
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: all wrong from the start. Based on evidence collected at
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the crime scene and witness testimony, the following is a
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: reconstruction of what police believe happened to Danielle Jennings on
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the afternoon of March 15, 1999. The killer slipped inside
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the apartment and locked the door behind them. And then,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: for a moment, they just stood there, listening, making sure
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: nobody was here. And after, you know, several moments went
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: by and they didn't hear anything and they were satisfied
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: that they were alone, the killer moved past the kitchen
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: and went into the bedroom. And then once inside the bedroom,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: they went straight for that dresser. And they pulled open
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: that top drawer and they were about to go through
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: it when they heard a noise coming from behind them
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and they froze. It turned out there was somebody in
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the apartment. Or more specifically, someone had just arrived into
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the apartment.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: And so the killer... They.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Looked around the bedroom in a panic and then just
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: darted behind the bedroom door and tried to be still,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: hoping that, you know, this person would not see them
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: or hear them. And as this person got closer, the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: killer looked down at the nylon stocking that they had
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: in their hand.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: They had just grabbed it out of the top shelf
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: of that drawer.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: And so at this very moment, as the killer is
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: sitting there wondering if they're going to have to do
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: something here, Danielle, who was the person who came into
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the apartment, she stepped through the doorway. into the bedroom,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and she was moving toward the bed. And the killer,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: they're right behind the bedroom door. They can see Danielle.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: She hasn't seen them yet. But Danielle, she stopped in
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the middle of the bedroom. She was looking over at
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the top drawer of the dresser.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: It was wide open. The killer had left it open.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: And the killer, they realized that Danielle is recognizing.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: That something is off. Someone's in this apartment. She knew it.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: It was obvious in her body language. And so the
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: killer left. they made a decision.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: They were not going to let her turn around and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: see them hiding here and get caught. And so the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: killer jumped out from behind the door before Danielle could
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: do anything, and they wrapped that nylon stocking around her neck,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: and they pulled it tight.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And Danielle, she fought and clawed. She has no idea
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: what's going on.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: But the killer, they had her in a bind, and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: they just kept squeezing as tightly.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: As they could until Danielle went still. But that wasn't enough.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: The killer needed to make sure Danielle didn't wake up
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: again and see them.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: They didn't want to get caught.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: And so they tied the stocking in a knot as
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: tight as they could get it around Danielle's neck. So
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: she has like this cinched down loop around her throat.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It guaranteed she would die. And so once Danielle is,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you know, tied off around the neck and she's just
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: lying face down on the bed, the killer just stood
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: there for a minute catching their breath and And then
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: their eyes fell on the ring on Danielle's finger.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Her engagement ring.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: So they reached down, they slipped it off her finger,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: put it in their pocket, and then they hurried out
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: of the bedroom. And then on their way out of
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the apartment, like on the way to the front door,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the killer noticed there was a purse on the kitchen table.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: So real quick, they reached over, they grabbed it, and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: began rummaging through it. But after only a few seconds,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: they decided that, you know what, they don't have time
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: for this. They're going to get caught if they stay
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: here any longer. So they just dropped the purse on
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the floor and left. It was not until they were
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: almost all the way back to their own apartment that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: they realized they'd forgotten to lock Danielle's door behind them
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: with their master key. A key that gave them access
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: not just to Danielle's apartment, but to every unit.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: In the entire apartment complex.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: It would turn out the killer was a maintenance worker
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: at the Ashley Lake Apartments whose name was Calvin Oliver.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: And using that master key in virtue of being a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: maintenance worker, for months he had been robbing tenants in
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: this complex and he had been getting away with it,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: in part because nobody had caught him red-handed. But of course, Danielle,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: she came home right as he was in the process
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: of robbing her apartment and ultimately she got killed because
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: The crucial tip that broke the.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Case came when Luis Payano called the station and asked
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Detective King if he could please have Danielle's engagement ring back.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Luis had falsely assumed that the police just had it
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: and were using it as part of their investigation. But
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: it would turn out Detective King had no knowledge the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: ring even existed because nobody had mentioned it. And then
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: when King, following this exchange with Luis, had gone and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: checked the crime scene footage recorded by the forensics team,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: he was able to confirm that there had not been
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a ring on Danielle's finger when.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: The police first arrived.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Now, to this point, the police had become totally convinced
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: that this murder was not a product of robbery or
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: not a byproduct of robbery because there was the cash
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: left out in the TV and the jewelry. But the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: fact that this engagement ring was clearly missing off the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: victim's finger told King that they had been wrong. This had,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: at least on some level, been robbery-oriented. So, King went
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: back to the complex and, after asking around... a very
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: clear pattern emerged. A number of Danielle's neighbors had noticed
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: valuable items missing from their units in recent months. But
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: in each case, there was never any sign of forced entry.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: So naturally, Detective King began to hone in on employees
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: of this complex who had master keys and could get
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: into these apartments. And when police ultimately searched Calvin Oliver's apartment,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: they found stolen items from all over the complex, including
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Danielle's ring. Calvin Oliver was arrested on March 24th, 1999.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Later on, Danielle's parents would gain custody of her son, Tristan.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: They also sued Ashley Lake apartment complex for wrongful death
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and were awarded more than $ 13 million.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Until next time. See ya.