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The Vanishing of Jasmine "Jazzy" Pace: A Tennessee Tragedy Unraveled · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep Dive. Today. We're looking into a
• 0:02
  case that's just it's a really stark picture of modern
• 0:05
  intimate partner violence, a story where digital tech wasn't just
• 0:10
  used to track someone, but to actively try and hide
• 0:13
  a murder.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the case of Jasmine Pasce Chazzy Pasts having
• 0:16
  around Thanksgiving twenty twenty two in Chattanooga, and it's chilling
• 0:19
  because the cover up was so calculated, so digital.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Right. So we've pulled together sources from well everywhere, national
• 0:26
  coverage like dateline, detailed forensic reports, police documents, even you know,
• 0:30
  what the local community was saying online as things.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Unfolded, exactly. And our goal here, our mission for this
• 0:36
  deep dive is to really walk through the whole thing
• 0:38
  Jazzy's life, the relationship, how the digital lives were built,
• 0:42
  the investigation, and where the legal case stands now in
• 0:46
  late twenty twenty five.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's set the scene, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Thanksgiving weekend twenty
• 0:51
  twenty two, the Pace family. They should be together, feeling
• 0:53
  that holiday warmth, right, but instead there's this this emptiness.
• 0:58
  Jazzy's missing.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, two two year old woman just vanished. But it
• 1:03
  wasn't only her physical absence that immediately set off alarm
• 1:06
  bells for the family, It was what was happening online.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: That's the really strange part, isn't it. She was known
• 1:11
  for being pretty reserved, private, even very.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Private, not someone who lived her life loudly online. And
• 1:18
  suddenly her social media passwords are changed, her family can't
• 1:22
  get into her accounts, posts are being altered.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And then that photo appeared, the one that was so
• 1:27
  completely not her right.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: This sort of provocative picture. It just screamed fake to
• 1:33
  everyone who knew her. It suggested she was fine, just
• 1:36
  you know, feeling herself and needing space. But it was
• 1:39
  the opposite of who Jazzy was.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: It's that combination, isn't it. The physical disappearance coupled with
• 1:43
  this deliberate digital deception. It's like a violation on two fronts.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, the killer wasn't just trying to hide a body.
• 1:51
  They were actively trying to rewrite her reality to control
• 1:54
  the narrative immediately after the crime.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: It's incredibly insidious, and that's why we need to break
• 2:00
  this down. We need to look at the relationship itself,
• 2:03
  the actual crime, the step by step of the digital manipulation.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: The technology involved like the cars tracking data, the surveillance cameras,
• 2:12
  and then the wider picture. What does this case tell
• 2:15
  us about dating apps, about cyber enabled violence and the
• 2:19
  legal challenges that come with it.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, so before we get into the darkness, let's understand
• 2:23
  who Jazzy was. Who was Jasmine Pace.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: She was born in May two thousand, grew up in Chattanooga.
• 2:29
  Just seems like a genuinely good soul. Everyone describes her
• 2:32
  the same way. Thoughtful, generous, fiercely loyal, especially to her family.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: That's Southern charm, but maybe quieter, not loud or attention seeking.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly, prefer deep conversations, one on one connections rather than
• 2:43
  big parties. She was described as like the family anchor,
• 2:48
  very dependable.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: And a devoted aunt and godmother. Right I read about
• 2:51
  this video?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the twenty twenty video Kids mentioned a lot
• 2:54
  her singing softly to her baby knees. It's incredibly poignant.
• 2:57
  Now just captures that gentle, maturing side of her perfectly.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: It sounds like she had a lot of empathy.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Immense empathy, and not just for people. Her love for
• 3:06
  animals was apparently legendary in her neighborhood. They called her
• 3:09
  the cat whisperer.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: H the cat whisperer because she had her own right.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Four of them, fliffy whiskers mittens in shadow. She absolutely
• 3:19
  doated on them, but neighbors also said she'd taken injured strays,
• 3:22
  nursed them back to health, just really cared for vulnerable.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Creatures, and that caring nature extended to her career path too,
• 3:29
  it did.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: She was studying early childhood education at the University of
• 3:33
  Tennessee at Chattanooga. At UTC also worked part time at
• 3:36
  a daycare. What was her goal there, simple but profound.
• 3:41
  She wanted to teach kids to believe themselves. That was
• 3:44
  her focus, not chasing status or money, but nurturing confidence.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: In little kids, which fits with that picture of quiet
• 3:51
  contentment you mentioned.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Completely, and her online presence reflected that quietness, didn't.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah her Instagram, it was pretty sparse, not curated like
• 3:58
  an influencer's page at all.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: It was just life, canon shots, maybe a sunset or cats,
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  lots of cat selfies. Apparently it painted a picture of
• 4:07
  someone grounded, private.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: And knowing that baseline is so crucial, isn't it for
• 4:12
  understanding what came later?
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely critical when investigators look at a missing person, especially
• 4:17
  now they established that digital baseline, what's normal for this
• 4:21
  person online?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: So when you see that sudden shift, yeah, from quiet
• 4:26
  cat picks to well, that lingerie photo.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: It's a massive red flag. It tells you immediately that
• 4:32
  the person posting probably isn't the person who's missing. It
• 4:35
  suggests manipulation, somebody trying to create a false narrative, a
• 4:39
  reason for the disappearance.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: It highlights the scale of the deception right from the
• 4:42
  start exactly.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It wasn't just a physical crime, it was an immediate
• 4:46
  attack on her digital identity too.
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  Speaker 1: So Jazi was looking for connection, like a lot of
• 4:50
  people her age, especially post pandemic summer of twenty twenty two.
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  She uses a dating.
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  Speaker 2: App, Yeah, popular one, and that's how she.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Meets Jason Chin, student at UTC.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Right, he was adding engineering. On the surface, maybe it
• 5:04
  seemed like a good match. Fellow students, similar.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Age group, and the early days seemed okay, picnics, study dates,
• 5:11
  standard college relationship stuff.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: That's how it started. Yeah, seemed to fit into her
• 5:15
  stable world. But that phase didn't.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Last long, Okay, So when did things start to sour?
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Pretty quickly? According to friends she confided in. Later, The
• 5:26
  sources say Chen started showing these controlling tendencies and they
• 5:29
  apparently escalated quite fast.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: What kind of controller are we talking about? What were
• 5:33
  the specific signs?
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Well, classic red flags for intimate partner violence. Unfortunately, First
• 5:40
  there were jealous outbursts, getting angry about the time she
• 5:43
  spent with her family, especially her mom Katrina, or her niece.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Trying to isolate her.
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  Speaker 2: Seems like it, that's a common tactic. Then came the
• 5:51
  more subtle stuff, digs about her appearance, questioning her dedication
• 5:55
  to her studies, undermining her confidence, and.
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  Speaker 1: The surveillance aspect that seems really promp here.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Hugely prominent, insisting on knowing where she was all the time,
• 6:04
  and the big one, demanding to check her phone regularly.
• 6:08
  Need you see her messages, her calls.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: That's not just insecurity, is it.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: That's monitoring, It's absolute control. And her friend Bailly Putman
• 6:17
  is quoted saying, Jazzy initially tried to excuse it. You know, oh,
• 6:21
  he's just insecure.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: People do that, try to rationalize it, especially early on
• 6:25
  they do, because maybe it starts disguised as intense caring
• 6:29
  or fear of losing the person.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: But Jossy was empathetic, maybe she wanted to give him
• 6:33
  the benefit of the doubt.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: But friends saw it differently.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Bailly Putman said, it was clearly wearing on her,
• 6:39
  this constant need to account for her time. This pressure
• 6:43
  was chipping away at her. He wasn't looking for reassurance.
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  He was asserting ownership.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Establishing that power dynamic. It really lays the groundwork for well,
• 6:52
  for what happened next.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Tragically, Yes, that need for control, that view of her
• 6:57
  autonomy as a threat, it fested.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's move to that awful night November twenty second,
• 7:03
  twenty twenty two, the day before Thanksgiving. Jazzy's getting ready
• 7:06
  for the holiday.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that day was already marked by sadness for
• 7:09
  a family. Her great grandmother, who was ninety eight, had
• 7:11
  passed away peacefully earlier that morning.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, so Jazzy was grieving.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: She was, and apparently she decided to go see Jason
• 7:20
  because it will be for comfort.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And that's when she left her mother's house.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, the last time her mother, Katrina saw her alive,
• 7:27
  Jazzy hugged her goodbye and said something like, I'm going
• 7:30
  to see Jason, He'll understand she was seeking solace from him,
• 7:35
  trusting him in that vulnerable.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Moment, heartbreaking, and then the phone data places her near
• 7:40
  his apartment.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Correct around eleven two seven PM, her phone pinged near
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  Tremont Street, specifically Tremont Towers. That's where Chen lived, Apartment
• 7:49
  two ten, pretty typical student housing near campus, so she arrived.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: There late Tuesday night and the violence seems to have
• 7:55
  started in the early hours of Wednesday morning, November twenty third,
• 7:59
  That's what.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: The neighbors reported. Around two am. People in nearby apartments
• 8:03
  heard sounds muffled arguing at first, then it cut louder, crashing,
• 8:07
  sounds like furniture breaking, and cries. Yes, the arrest documents
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  mentioned multiple neighbors hearing a woman's voice pleading, pleading, then
• 8:15
  more crashing, and then just silence, abrupt silence.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: That sequence argument, chaos, pleading, silence.
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  Speaker 2: It's chilling, it really is, and the forensic evidence later
• 8:25
  confirmed the absolute brutality of what happened in that silence.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: The Hamilton County Medical Exaoner's report came out in January
• 8:31
  twenty twenty three. What did it find?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: It found that Jazzy Pace had been stabbed sixty times
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  sixty sixty. That number itself, it speaks volumes. It's not
• 8:42
  indicative of an accident or a quick struggle, or even
• 8:45
  self defense, as was later claimed. It points to sustained,
• 8:48
  excessive rage.
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  Speaker 1: Were there signs of a struggle, Oh, definitely.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: The report detailed extensive defensive wounds on her hands and arms.
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  She fought back, She fought.
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  Speaker 1: For her life, and toxicology.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Drugs, no alcohol in her system. She was fully aware,
• 9:02
  fighting desperately.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost impossible to comprehend the level of violence sixty
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  wounds against someone fighting back. It just points to an uncontrollable.
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  Speaker 2: Fury, an absolute loss of control, or perhaps the ultimate
• 9:13
  exertion of control and intent far beyond just causing harm.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: So the violence ends, and Schen doesn't call nine one one,
• 9:20
  He doesn't panic in a way that leads to seeking help.
• 9:22
  He immediately starts cleaning up, covering up Immediately.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: The focus shifts instantly from violence to concealment. It's methodical, calculated,
• 9:31
  and it unfolds over ours.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: What were the steps? How did he dispose of her body?
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  Speaker 2: According to the prosecution, the first step was horrific. He
• 9:39
  allegedly used handcuffs to shackle her ankles, bound her right arm,
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  treating her body like an object to be managed.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: And then the suitcase.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, he forced her body into a large, hard shell suitcase.
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  That must have been incredibly difficult physically. That he put
• 9:56
  the suitcase into her own.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Car, her red Chevrolet Equinoc. That's a key detail, isn't it?
• 10:01
  Using her car a huge detail?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Because modern cars like her Equinox often have telematic systems,
• 10:08
  in this case, the Mychevy.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: App, which tracks the car's location and movements nicely.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: It essentially created a digital breadcrumb trail for investigators. They
• 10:16
  could see exactly where he drove in those pre dawn
• 10:19
  hours of November twenty third, and where did he go?
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  He drove out to Suck Creek Road. It's a remote
• 10:24
  winding road outside Chattanooga, runs along the Tennessee River gorge,
• 10:28
  lots of steep embankments, dense woods, a place.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Where something could be hidden easily, especially in the dark.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Exactly he pulled over, dragged the suitcase out, and dumped
• 10:38
  it down an embankment. The Mychevy app data corroborated this
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  timeline perfectly.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, so disposal done. Then he returns to.
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  Speaker 2: The apartment, returns to apartment two ten at Tremont Towers,
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  and starts the cleanup phase, using bleach on bloodstains, sweeping
• 10:54
  up broken glass, trying to erase any trace of the
• 10:57
  struggle of Jazzy ever having been there.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: But he wasn't entirely successful. He left things behind.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Right, He left her driver's license in credit cards in
• 11:05
  the apartment. They were found later, got a conspicuously placed.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Why do that? Was it intentional, maybe to suggest she
• 11:12
  just left? Or was it panic?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: It's debatable. Maybe he thought it supported or walked away narrative,
• 11:18
  or maybe in the midst of trying to be meticulous
• 11:21
  he just overlooked them or didn't think through the implications.
• 11:24
  Either way, it tied her last known location firmly to
• 11:27
  his apartment.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And he also left with his own piece of physical evidence.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, the lacerations on his right hand cuts consistent with
• 11:34
  a knife slipping during a violent struggle, particularly one where
• 11:37
  the victim is fighting back.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And he didn't stay in Chattanooga, No.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: He fled pretty quickly, drove towards Nashville, ditched Jazzy's equinox
• 11:46
  somewhere along the route, and went to his parents' house
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  in Nolansville, a suburb south of Nashville, but about one
• 11:52
  hundred miles between him and the crime scene.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: And as he's physically distancing himself, he's simultaneously launching the
• 11:58
  digital deception campaign.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: We talked about it exactly. The physical cover up and
• 12:02
  the digital one happened almost in parallel.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Right. So days pass, Thanksgiving comes and goes. Jazzy is silent,
• 12:10
  which was unusual for her, right, especially on a holiday.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Extremely unusual. The family is trying to reach her, getting
• 12:16
  more and more worried. Then they try to log into
• 12:17
  her social media or.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Accounts and they can't passwords changed.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: That's when the real panic must have set in, because
• 12:24
  alongside the silence, there's this active barrier being put up.
• 12:27
  And then the fake messages start appearing.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: What kind of messages Texts.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Send from her phone, claiming she was okay, just needed space,
• 12:35
  visiting a friend in South Carolina, grieving her great grandmother,
• 12:39
  plausible deniability, right.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Trying to sound like her but not quite right.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly, using emojis she never used, like the sparkle emoji
• 12:48
  or kissy faces, just slightly off. Then updates on social
• 12:52
  media again saying she needed space using old photos, maybe
• 12:56
  slightly edited to.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Look new, building this narrative that she'd just take off.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, But the one that really broke through the facade
• 13:03
  was that lingerie photo posted November twenty fourth, Thanksgiving Day
• 13:08
  caption feeling myself tonight GI.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: And that just wasn't jazzy at all, not even close.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Her friends, her family, they knew instantly she was private, modest,
• 13:18
  she loved cozy sweaters, not posting sultry selfies, especially not
• 13:23
  right after her great grandmother died. It felt fundamentally wrong.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So they started looking closer at the posts themselves.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: They did, they became instant digital detectives. They recognized the
• 13:32
  background in the photo. It matched an old picture she'd taken.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Months before, so it wasn't recent, definitely not.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: And then they noticed the timing her account was showing activity.
• 13:41
  These posts were appearing during times when her phone records
• 13:44
  later showed her device was completely offline.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Meaning someone else had her logins and was posting maybe
• 13:49
  scheduling them.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Precisely, someone was impersonating her online, and then the online
• 13:55
  community got involved. The Reddit thread Yeah a relative posted
• 13:58
  about the suspicious photo on mussing persons and people started
• 14:02
  dissecting it.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: And they found something specific, didn't.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: They They did a crucial detail. Jazzy had recently gotten
• 14:08
  a new tattoo, and in that supposedly recent lingerie photo,
• 14:14
  the new tattoo was missing.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's definitive proof. An old photo doctored or just
• 14:20
  reposted trying to make it look current.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely irrefutable. That confirmed for everyone, especially the family, that
• 14:26
  this wasn't Jazzy. This was a lie, a deliberate fabrication
• 14:29
  to make it seem like she was alive and well
• 14:31
  and had simply run off.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: That must have been the tipping point for reporting her
• 14:34
  missing officially.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: It was all these digital red flags piling up. Katrina
• 14:39
  her mom, officially filed the missing person report with Chattanoogapedia
• 14:42
  on November twenty sixth UH Detective J. D. Tumblin got
• 14:45
  the case.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: But the family felt the investigation wasn't moving fast enough.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: They were desperate, terrified, and that led them to do
• 14:53
  something understandable but problematic legally. Katrina and some relatives went
• 14:59
  to Chin's apartment, which was empty at the time, and
• 15:01
  went inside without a warrant.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: And they found Jazzy's ID and credit cards there.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, the ones Chin had left behind.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, we have to unpack that. From a human perspective,
• 15:11
  you completely get it, a terrified mother needing answers. But legally,
• 15:16
  why is a warrantless entry by civilians such a big issue.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: It creates huge problems for the prosecution regarding the chain
• 15:22
  of custody for that evidence. The defense can argue, well,
• 15:25
  how do we know this evidence wasn't planted? How do
• 15:27
  we know it wasn't contaminated, it wasn't collected according to
• 15:30
  legal procedures.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: The fruit of the poisonous tree idea evidence obtained illegally
• 15:34
  might taint other evidence potentially.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, it forces the prosecution, led by DA Cody Womp
• 15:41
  in this case, to spend valuable time in pre trial
• 15:45
  hearings proving that they would have found that evidence anyway
• 15:48
  through legal means, or that its discovery by the family
• 15:52
  didn't compromise the overall investigation. It just adds a layer
• 15:55
  of legal complexity and potential grounds for appeal down the line.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Cation born from desperation.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly, a really difficult situation all around.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, So, despite that complication with the ID cards, the
• 16:07
  police investigation was moving forward, particularly on the digital front right.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: By November twenty ninth, they were actively tracking Jazzy's car,
• 16:15
  the Equinox, using that myshivy app data we mentioned.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And cross referencing it with other surveillance.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, specifically RTIC cameras that stands for Real Time Intelligence
• 16:23
  Center cameras think advanced license plate readers traffic cameras systems
• 16:28
  law enforcement uses to track vehicle movements over wider areas.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: So combining the car's own GPS data with these external
• 16:35
  camera hits, they.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Could pinpoint the Equinox's route after it left Chattanooga and
• 16:39
  ultimately tracked it to the vicinity of Chen's parents address
• 16:42
  in Nolansville.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Which gave them probable cause for a search warrant there exactly.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: They executed that warrant on November thirtieth, and the evidence
• 16:50
  they found at the Nolansville house was pretty damning.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: What did they find?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: They found blood traces visible under black light. They found
• 16:57
  the knife, the likely murder weapon, which each Chin had
• 17:00
  tried to get rid of in a trash chute, and
• 17:02
  they could clearly see the fresh cuts on his right hand.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Tying him directly to the struggle and the cleanup.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, all the pieces were clicking into place.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: So arrest followed quickly.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Immediately, he was arrested right there at his parents' front door,
• 17:15
  charged with first degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
• 17:18
  Bail was set at five million dollars.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: A huge amount reflecting the severity. And then the discovery
• 17:25
  of Jazzy's body the.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Very next day, December, first, acting on the Mychevy app
• 17:30
  data and reportedly a tip from a hiker who noticed
• 17:33
  something suspicious off Suck Creek Road, officers went to that.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Embankment and they found the suitcase.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: They found the black rtic suitcase. It had been partially opened,
• 17:42
  likely by animals. Inside were Jazzy's remains, still handcuffed and shackled.
• 17:47
  Has described in the allegations.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Just devastating confirmation. Katrina Pace had to announce that discovery
• 17:54
  publicly incredible.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Strength, unbelievable strength, and she'd needed for the legal battle ahead,
• 17:59
  because the prosecution started building its case for premeditation, not
• 18:03
  just the heat of the moment killing.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: And a key part of that premeditation argument was sticky notes.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds almost mundane, but these sticky notes found
• 18:12
  at Chen's family home were incredibly revealing. According to the prosecution,
• 18:16
  what was on them. There weren't love notes. They were lists,
• 18:19
  detailed lists about Jazzy, her past relationships, her supposed flaws,
• 18:23
  notes about specific arguments they'd had.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: It sounds less like relationship processing and more like data collection,
• 18:30
  catalog and grievances.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: That's exactly how the prosecution framed it. Diacutti Wampa argued,
• 18:35
  it showed Chen was collecting her like a specimen, objectifying her,
• 18:40
  building a case against her in his own mind.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: How does that support premeditation Because it suggests the anger
• 18:45
  the resentment wasn't sudden.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: It suggests he'd been dwelling on these perceived flaws, documenting them,
• 18:52
  obsessing over them for some time before the murder. It
• 18:54
  paints a picture of a calculated mindset, not just a
• 18:57
  spontaneous explosion of rage. It implies thought beforehand.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's the prosecution's view, premeditated murder supported by
• 19:05
  the cover up in these disturbing notes. What was the
• 19:08
  defense's narrative?
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: The defense claimed it was a spontaneous event, a heated
• 19:13
  argument that got out of control. They suggested maybe an
• 19:16
  accidental stabbing happened while Chen was defending himself followed by
• 19:19
  a panic induced blackout that led to the disposal.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: How does that square? With sixty stab wounds and defensive
• 19:25
  wounds on Jazzy doesn't easily square?
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Does it? Sixty wounds as hard to frame as accidental
• 19:30
  or simple self defense. The sheer level of violence seems
• 19:33
  to contradict a narrative of panic or accident. Plus the
• 19:37
  methodical cleanup and complex digital deception don't really screen canic
• 19:41
  blackout right.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: And the trial itself has faced delays.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Multiple delays, appeals likely related to the admissibility of evidence,
• 19:49
  maybe that warrantless entry by the family, maybe other procedural issues.
• 19:53
  Defense attorneys also cited appalling jail conditions at one point.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: So as of late twenty twenty five, it's still still.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Looming, and there's been mentioned a voluntary manslaughter as a
• 20:03
  possible plea.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Deal, voluntary manslaughter that carries significantly less time, maybe up
• 20:08
  to fifteen years. Why would the prosecution even consider that?
• 20:13
  Given the evidence for first degree murder?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: It's often a pragmatic, if painful calculation. Trials are unpredictable
• 20:20
  even with strong evidence. Legal technicalities like the warrantless entry
• 20:24
  issue could potentially lead to evidence being excluded or create
• 20:27
  enough doubt for a jury. A plea deal guarantees a conviction,
• 20:30
  guarantees accountability, even if it's not the maximum possible sentence.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Trading the chance of full justice for the certainty of
• 20:36
  some justice.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Essentially, yes, it avoids the risk of an acquittal and
• 20:41
  the trauma and expensive a full trial, but it's a
• 20:43
  deeply unsatisfying compromise for victims' families.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: This case really resonated far beyond Chattanooga, didn't it. It
• 20:50
  got national attention. So let's talk about the bigger picture.
• 20:53
  What are the main takeaways here for us, for the listener, Well, first.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: And foremost, it's a brutal reminder of the dangers that
• 21:00
  can hide behind dating app profiles and the reality of
• 21:03
  intimate partner violence. IPv abs connect people, which is great,
• 21:08
  but they also give controlling individuals new tools for manipulation
• 21:11
  and surveillance.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the level of digital stocking and impersonation Chen engaged
• 21:17
  in is terrifying, and those stats are stark. Something like
• 21:21
  one in four women experience intimate partner stocking, often with
• 21:24
  a digital component.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Now right, his actions hacking her accounts, faking posts, trying
• 21:29
  to build an entirely false narrative online. It's a form
• 21:32
  of cybercrime directly linked to lethal violence.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Has there been any response to that legally?
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Actually? Yes? In Tennessee, lawmakers did strengthen the state's cyber
• 21:41
  stocking laws in twenty twenty three, partly in response to
• 21:44
  cases like this one. There's a growing recognition that digital
• 21:47
  harassment and deception can be precursors to, or tools for
• 21:50
  concealing physical harm. The law is slowly trying to catch up.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: The case also exposed some challenges in the investigation itself,
• 21:57
  didn't it beyond the digital side?
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: That warrantless entry by the family, while completely understandable from
• 22:04
  their perspective, ignited debate about evidence rules and the pressure's
• 22:08
  family's face when they feel official channels are too.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Slow, that tension between procedure and urgency exactly.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: And we also have to acknowledge the social context. Jazzy's
• 22:18
  case got significant media attention. Dateline covered it, hashtags trended.
• 22:24
  As a young black woman, her story received a level
• 22:26
  of amplification that sadly isn't always afforded to missing persons
• 22:30
  of color or those from less privileged backgrounds.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Her family's advocacy really drove that attention, didn't it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, They refuse to let her be forgotten, and that
• 22:39
  highlights the disparities that still exist in which cases capture
• 22:43
  the publics and the media's focus.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: And her mother, Katrina Pays, has turned that grief into action.
• 22:48
  Jazzy's Voice.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's a nonprofit she founded. It is two things,
• 22:52
  beautifully reflecting Jazzy's own passions. It helps fun therapy for
• 22:56
  survivors of intimate partner violence, and it supports cat rescues.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Wow, helping people heal and helping animals. That's a powerful legacy.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: It really is keeping Jazzy's compassionate spirit alive. And Chattanooga
• 23:08
  remembers her too. There's a plaque by the river. Vigils
• 23:11
  at UTC. Friends hold Jazzy nights to celebrate who she.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Was, ensuring she's remembered as more than just a victim,
• 23:19
  as that bright.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Light exactly, and Katrina remains steadfast. She plans to be
• 23:23
  there for every court date, seeking peace for Jazzy. She says,
• 23:27
  not revenge, just seeking justice for that quiet, kind life
• 23:31
  that was so brutally taken.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, this case was solved because the killer despite his
• 23:36
  attempts at calculation underestimated the truth. He tried to erase
• 23:40
  Jazzy and replace her with a fake online persona.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But her families love their refusal to accept the lies.
• 23:46
  Combined with a digital trail, he couldn't fully erase the
• 23:49
  car data, the notes, the inconsistencies. It all brought the
• 23:52
  truth to light.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: So this deep dive really underscores how intertwine our physical
• 23:56
  and digital lives are now and how fragile trust can
• 23:59
  be online.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: It's a stark warning deception can be crafted with just
• 24:02
  a few clicks, a stolen password, a manipulated photo. It
• 24:06
  forces us to think about authentication, about digital identity, and it.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Leaves us with a final thought, maybe, in a world
• 24:13
  overflowing with information, with carefully curated online selves, how closely
• 24:18
  do we really listen to the quiet truths, the authentic
• 24:21
  signals from the people around us? And what assumptions are you,
• 24:24
  the listener, making about the digital personas you encounter every day?
• 24:27
  What needs questioning