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

Transcript

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

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