Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / DNA Match Results in Murder Charge in 1993 Cold Case of 12-Year-Old Jennifer Odom

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DNA Match Results in Murder Charge in 1993 Cold Case of 12-Year-Old Jennifer Odom · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine you know, Florida, Orange Grove, Sunshine Citrus, that kind
• 0:06
  of thing, right, right, But instead of that picture, there's
• 0:11
  a chilling discovery. Okay, a twelve year old girl, Jennifer
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  Odom found murdered awful six days after she vanished from
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  her bus stop.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: And this wasn't just a news story, right, yeah, this
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  was real life.
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  Speaker 1: This was Pasco County, Florida, nineteen ninety.
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  Speaker 2: Three, nineteen ninety three.
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  Speaker 1: And get this, this case it stayed ice cold, wow
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  for three decades.
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  Speaker 2: Thirty years. Yeah. What gets me about cases like this
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  is well, how they really show what forensic science can do, right,
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  but also you know where it falls short. Yeah, back then,
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  DNA tech.
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  Speaker 1: Was so new, it was like the very beginning.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like just starting. Yeah. But it's that
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  promise right, yeah, that promise that we are seeing fulfilled.
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  Speaker 1: Now thirty years later.
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  Speaker 2: Thirty years later exactly.
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  Speaker 1: It's crazy to.
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  Speaker 2: Think they had some pieces, right, Yeah, like a puzzle.
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  Speaker 1: A puzzle exactly, like a faded blue pickup truck scene
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  around the fingerprints, but they were on her things and
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  those were found miles.
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  Speaker 2: Away, so they have that, but they can't connect anything.
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  Speaker 1: They couldn't connect it. No, and Jennifer you know she
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  wasn't just a name and a file, right. She loved
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  to water ski Oh wow, played clarinet, a real person,
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  a vibrant girl, somebody's daughter friend.
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  Speaker 2: It's a It's a stark reminder, isn't it. Yeah that
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  for every case, every headline, there is a human story. Yeah,
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  and families shattered by it, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, absolutely, and for her family that wait, it just
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  went on and on.
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  Speaker 2: I can't imagine.
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  Speaker 1: No, but here's where things change. Okay, So remember how
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  we talk about patterns and criminal behavior.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, a year before, same county. Okay, there's another attack.
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  Oh wow, very similar? Really, a seventeen year old girl
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  attacked after she gets off.
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  Speaker 2: The school bus. No way, samemo.
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  Speaker 1: Now she survived, thankfully.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's good.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but think about what we know now about DNA. Right,
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  even then, they could get it, preserve.
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  Speaker 2: It right, like a time capsule, almost like a silent witness.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what's amazing. So DNA tech back then, it
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  couldn't tell them who it was. Right, But years later, yeah,
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  there's a hit. What but not how you think?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm intrigued.
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  Speaker 1: How it wasn't a match to the attacker. It was
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  a match to his.
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  Speaker 2: Son, You're kidding. So they find the son's DNA, yes,
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  and that leads them back exactly.
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  Speaker 1: It was like finding a needle in a haystack, but
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  the needle was pointing to someone else entirely. We're talking
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  about Jeffrey Norman Crumb.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, he was.
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  Speaker 1: Already serving life for that ninety two attack. Oh wow, Okay,
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  And it's like those true crime documentaries, right, all these
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  parallels bus stop abductions, young victims Pasco County, even how
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  violent the attacks were, Oh my gosh. And guess what
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  back then he drove a blue pickup truck.
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  Speaker 2: Are you serious? It's like it's like those little things
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  they seem small at the time time, Yeah, but they
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  could be huge later on.
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  Speaker 1: It's wild. And this case really shows how important the
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  police's work is. Oh yeah, but also, you know, just
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  not giving.
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  Speaker 2: Up persistency, being patient. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Thirty years after Jennifer was murdered, Crumb was indicted because
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  of that DNA match.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine the family? Finally, I bet a little
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  bit of peace, a little piece yeah closure. Yeah, the sheriff,
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  Sheriff Ninhu's he did a press conference. He called it
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  a beacon of hope, you know for other families.
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  Speaker 2: That's nice, that's nice because there are so many cold cases,
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  so many cases that you know, even a few years ago,
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  you would have thought unsolvable, right, but now with DNA,
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  think about how ancestry testing is so popular. Now, it's everywhere,
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  it's everywhere. They've got new tools now. Yeah, it's giving
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  people hope.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you wonder how many more families you know,
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  might get those answers they've been waiting for, absolutely because
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  of forensic science. Because it's all evolving.
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  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
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  Speaker 1: And if anyone listening, you know, if you have any information,
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  anything at all about a.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Cold case, yeah, don't stay silent.
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  Speaker 1: Jennifer's story proves that sometimes Jessice takes time. Yeah, a
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  long time. Yeah, but it can happen when you least
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  expect it.
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  Speaker 2: That's true. That's true.