Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Loving wife found bloody, dead in Palm Springs home; NO LEADS??

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Loving wife found bloody, dead in Palm Springs home; NO LEADS?? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Why was a loving wife found dead in her home
0:12
Speaker 1: and seemingly the investigation is stalled. Neighbors are speaking out
0:25
Speaker 1: about a woman found dead in her home two weeks
0:27
Speaker 1: ago in Palm Springs. Police now calling this case a
0:30
Speaker 1: homicide and they're searching for help. News Channel thrus Jake
0:33
Speaker 1: Garcia livetight in Palm strings with more and what neighbors
0:36
Speaker 1: are saying they saw Jake a gruesome discovery inside this home.
0:41
Speaker 1: Neighbors say they were checking on their friend after they
0:44
Speaker 1: didn't hear from her. They found her body inside, covered
0:47
Speaker 1: in blood. But that was two weeks ago, and now
0:50
Speaker 1: they want to know what took police so long to
0:53
Speaker 1: investigate this as a homicide. Okay, you were just hearing
0:56
Speaker 1: our friends John White and jac and Garcia a k E.
1:01
Speaker 1: S Q. Why are police just now saying that this woman,
1:07
Speaker 1: Jenny Jennifer Dillon, was a victim of a homicide. For
1:10
Speaker 1: my understanding, she was found in her home covered in blood.
1:15
Speaker 1: So what took so long to add two plus two
1:19
Speaker 1: to get four? And why is the case seemingly stalled?
1:25
Speaker 1: Joining me an All Star panel, Christy Missourich, Emmy Award
1:28
Speaker 1: winning investigative reporter and President of successful Strategies PR and
1:32
Speaker 1: crisis communications firm. Katherine Maloney. That's doctor Katherine Maloney, Deputy
1:38
Speaker 1: Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County Medical Examiner's Office and you
1:42
Speaker 1: can find her at Nicols City Forensics dot com. Chris
1:47
Speaker 1: Buyer's former police chief, John's Creek twenty five years on
1:52
Speaker 1: the force, now private investigator and polygrapher at Chris Buyers
1:56
Speaker 1: Investigations and Polygraph dot com. Board certified clinical psychologist, professor
2:02
Speaker 1: at Truro College and you can find him at doctor
2:06
Speaker 1: Jeff Gardere dot com. He's the author of the Causes
2:10
Speaker 1: of Autism. Ashley Wilcott, judge, trial lawyer, court TV anchor
2:14
Speaker 1: at Ashley Wilcott dot com and joining us two very
2:18
Speaker 1: special guests who feel the need to speak out on
2:23
Speaker 1: behalf of Jenny Dylan with me, her neighbor who discovered
2:29
Speaker 1: Jenny's body. What a shock that must have been. That's
2:33
Speaker 1: everybody's nightmare, something that never goes away from your mind.
2:37
Speaker 1: And that bane is with us and also with me
2:41
Speaker 1: the victim's wife Athena Kelly. To everyone joining us, thank
2:47
Speaker 1: you for being with us. I don't understand why this
2:50
Speaker 1: case has been stalled. First to you Christy Missourich. You know,
2:53
Speaker 1: I hear about people leaving the rat Race and going
2:58
Speaker 1: to Palm Spring. That's where everybody in that region wants
3:04
Speaker 1: to live. What's so special about Palm Springs that it's
3:08
Speaker 1: a vacation area. I know it's beautiful. Tell me about it. Well,
3:12
Speaker 1: it's clearly the opposite of a high crime community. I mean,
3:18
Speaker 1: this is a palatial neighborhoods. As you mentioned, Jennifer was
3:23
Speaker 1: very well loved and respected in her community. They had
3:27
Speaker 1: planned neighborhood events. So this is where people either want
3:31
Speaker 1: to raise a family or it's a utopia for people
3:34
Speaker 1: who have gotten out of the rat race and just
3:37
Speaker 1: want to rest and relax. Palm Springs has been described
3:43
Speaker 1: as an elite getaway in the Sonoran Desert and it's
3:48
Speaker 1: in southern California. It's known for hot springs, natural hot springs,
3:54
Speaker 1: posh and expensive hotels, golf courses and spas. Now this
4:00
Speaker 1: is how I first heard about Palm Spring. It's famous
4:03
Speaker 1: for a mid century modern architecture, and there is a
4:09
Speaker 1: shopping district I've heard of is super expensive along Palm
4:13
Speaker 1: Canyon Drive with all these vintage boutiques and design shops.
4:18
Speaker 1: My point is out to you, chief buyers. Is I'm
4:24
Speaker 1: not pointing out that all these wealthy people live there
4:27
Speaker 1: and it's this destination venue. I'm pointing all this out
4:31
Speaker 1: because it's a very low crime rate you find in
4:35
Speaker 1: Palm Springs. I mean, people often have weekend homes. When
4:38
Speaker 1: I was out in La doing Dancing with the Stars,
4:42
Speaker 1: I ran into some people that had vacation or second
4:46
Speaker 1: homes in Palm Springs and they would drive through the night,
4:50
Speaker 1: through the desert and night to get to Palm Springs.
4:53
Speaker 1: Not a place where you expect to find this woman,
4:57
Speaker 1: a loving wife, an it wizard dead in our own
5:03
Speaker 1: home covered in blood. Yeah. Absolutely. And again where I
5:10
Speaker 1: was the police chiefer, we were the safest city in
5:13
Speaker 1: Georgia and the fourth safest in the United States during
5:17
Speaker 1: about six or seven years of my teener there, and
5:20
Speaker 1: it was the same thing. But unfortunately, these type of
5:23
Speaker 1: violent crimes found their way into our community as well.
5:26
Speaker 1: But you just don't expect it, and it definitely shocked
5:29
Speaker 1: the conscious when these things happen. And you know, doctor
5:31
Speaker 1: Jeff Cardier, I'm not saying that these people should be
5:36
Speaker 1: immane from crime. I'm saying a lot of people go
5:40
Speaker 1: to great extremes. They changed their life. I did. I
5:45
Speaker 1: changed my life, I changed my career, I changed everything
5:50
Speaker 1: to try to give a safer environment from my children,
5:54
Speaker 1: because it's just not worth it to have them in
5:57
Speaker 1: a high crime area. I don't care how your career changes.
6:03
Speaker 1: I don't care about any of that. What matters is
6:05
Speaker 1: safety and living your life free of fear. And I
6:10
Speaker 1: think that's why a lot of people go to Palm Springs, Jeff, absolutely,
6:15
Speaker 1: and that's why this crime is so ironic that it
6:19
Speaker 1: would happen. I would think that Jenny Dillon was a
6:23
Speaker 1: woman who gave of her life to many, many people,
6:27
Speaker 1: and this was a time that she wanted to finally
6:30
Speaker 1: reward herself and her wife by now finally being able
6:34
Speaker 1: to take some me time, you know, as she will cut,
6:37
Speaker 1: I just gotta flash all over me. I'm looking at
6:41
Speaker 1: Jenny's picture right now, and it looks to be beautiful brown.
6:46
Speaker 1: She's got sunglasses up, because you know, she's out there
6:49
Speaker 1: in the beautiful California son to smile and looking at
6:55
Speaker 1: the camera. Have you seen this, Jackie. She just looks
6:58
Speaker 1: like the kind of woman you just want to go
7:00
Speaker 1: up and hug her. She is just coming out of
7:03
Speaker 1: her in the picture, and Ashley her family, her wife
7:10
Speaker 1: is left struggling feeling helpless because they can't get answers.
7:15
Speaker 1: What crime victim deserves that. No crime victim deserves that.
7:19
Speaker 1: And the other issue that I have with this is
7:22
Speaker 1: every description you just gave it a picture that I've
7:24
Speaker 1: looked at as well. I'm beautiful and glowing and in
7:27
Speaker 1: a place in life where she seems to have kind
7:29
Speaker 1: of achieved it all for her own personal self. And
7:32
Speaker 1: guess what that means is when someone like that is
7:36
Speaker 1: found dead, there should be an immediate investigation because it
7:40
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense whybody has found Danni's so obvious to me.
7:45
Speaker 1: You're covered in blood and they can't figure out it's
7:47
Speaker 1: a homicide. I mean, I don't like that at all,
7:49
Speaker 1: but for a family to be left reeling, I mean,
7:53
Speaker 1: when my fiance was murdered, the last thing on my
7:56
Speaker 1: mind was trying to figure out who did it and
8:00
Speaker 1: accept what had happened to him. And now this family's
8:04
Speaker 1: out trying to get answers. Her brother has just put
8:07
Speaker 1: up a twenty five thousand dollar reward because they're not
8:10
Speaker 1: getting answers. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, I want
8:23
Speaker 1: to go now to our very special guests Athena Kelly
8:27
Speaker 1: and Annette Bain. Annette, you found Jenny's body, and I
8:34
Speaker 1: can't imagine the trauma that I mean. I've had dreams
8:39
Speaker 1: after being in a crime for so long, of finding
8:42
Speaker 1: a dead body. I guess because I've been to so
8:45
Speaker 1: many crime scenes where there were dead bodies and so
8:48
Speaker 1: many Morgue visits. Guys, for those of you just joining us,
8:52
Speaker 1: we want answers in the homicide the murder of Jenny Dylon.
8:58
Speaker 1: You may know her as Jennifer tip line seven six seven,
9:02
Speaker 1: seven eight eight four two two or seven six three
9:05
Speaker 1: two seven fourteen forty one. Hey, guys, before you go
9:09
Speaker 1: to Annette, take a listen. What do we know about
9:14
Speaker 1: this woman? Who is she? Listen to our friends at
9:17
Speaker 1: crime Online. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone with
9:21
Speaker 1: harsh words to say about Jennifer Dillon. Her neighbors in
9:24
Speaker 1: Racket Club Estates say she is well known in their neighborhood.
9:28
Speaker 1: Dylon bought her home in two thousand and three, and
9:30
Speaker 1: since then has often taken part in community events, including
9:34
Speaker 1: helping people prepare for natural disasters. She also served on
9:38
Speaker 1: the Racquet Club Estates Neighborhood Organization board of Advisors. Dylan's
9:42
Speaker 1: younger brother, Tom describes his sister as a sweet, kind person,
9:46
Speaker 1: one of the good ones, and that's a sentiment echoed
9:49
Speaker 1: by her neighbors. Business owner Joy Meredith told the Desert
9:52
Speaker 1: Sun dot Com that she has come to know Dillon
9:55
Speaker 1: as sweet and funny over the last fifteen years. Dylan
9:58
Speaker 1: is married and works as an my specialist and had
10:01
Speaker 1: become an ordained minister. To you and at Vain, What
10:06
Speaker 1: led you to Jennie's home? Tell me about the discovery
10:11
Speaker 1: of her body. And Sina had called me after school
10:15
Speaker 1: about three o'clock and she had asked me if I
10:19
Speaker 1: had talked to her, and the last text I had
10:21
Speaker 1: was on Friday. She was We found her on a Monday,
10:25
Speaker 1: and so I sent her a text and she didn't
10:27
Speaker 1: respond back. But Jenny was the type of person that
10:29
Speaker 1: always sent you something back right away. So that made
10:34
Speaker 1: me nervous, and so I see asked if I could
10:38
Speaker 1: go over there. So myself and my husband went over
10:41
Speaker 1: and we found her about four thirty that afternoon. How
10:46
Speaker 1: did you get into the home while we were supposed
10:49
Speaker 1: to go to the neighbor. But the neighbor wasn't there.
10:52
Speaker 1: Who had the key? And so I kept the whole
10:55
Speaker 1: time I was texting her, she wasn't answering. I was calling,
10:58
Speaker 1: she wasn't answering. I had my husband pushed me over
11:02
Speaker 1: the wall on the left side of the house. Okay,
11:06
Speaker 1: so you got over the wall. I did, And so
11:09
Speaker 1: I took a look around in the yard. I didn't
11:12
Speaker 1: see anything. When around opened up the garage door to
11:15
Speaker 1: let my husband. Then how did you do that? How
11:18
Speaker 1: did you know how to open the garage? Was there
11:21
Speaker 1: a code? No? No, no, it's just the inside button. Gotcha.
11:25
Speaker 1: I knew there was an inside button, so I just
11:27
Speaker 1: opened it. And so my husband and I went in
11:29
Speaker 1: together into the house and the slider was opened. What
11:33
Speaker 1: do you mean the slide are you saying sliding glass door? Yeah, yeah,
11:37
Speaker 1: it was unlocked. I wouldn't say it's opened, but it
11:39
Speaker 1: was unlocked. Interesting, hold on, let me let me just
11:42
Speaker 1: understand what you're saying. So you go in through the garage,
11:45
Speaker 1: because he has an indoor inside button, you can get
11:47
Speaker 1: in without a code. Then from the garage you go
11:51
Speaker 1: through a sliding glass door. Yeah, there's a breezeway. In
11:54
Speaker 1: the mid century homes, there's a break between the garage
11:57
Speaker 1: and the rest of the house, and so it's like
11:59
Speaker 1: a breathe away. Oftentimes you can get to the garage,
12:03
Speaker 1: but then you have to find your way into the house.
12:06
Speaker 1: They're not always connected. Okay, So to get into the house,
12:09
Speaker 1: you had to go through a sliding glass door, right,
12:12
Speaker 1: And that sliding glass door was unlocked. It was was
12:16
Speaker 1: it closed? I try and remember all the time. Yeah,
12:20
Speaker 1: it was closed, or if it were kind of open,
12:23
Speaker 1: it was for the dogs to go in and out.
12:25
Speaker 1: There was a neighbor that had been over there at
12:27
Speaker 1: three pm earlier and found her. Yes, interested hadn't found her,
12:33
Speaker 1: So I wonder why she isn't. Well, she's an elderly lady.
12:38
Speaker 1: She doesn't hear that well, she doesn't see that well,
12:41
Speaker 1: so it wouldn't surprise me that. And she said she
12:44
Speaker 1: wasn't looking on the ground. Okay, so you go in
12:47
Speaker 1: the sliding glass door. And then what happened to My
12:50
Speaker 1: husband goes one way, I go the other. Which way
12:52
Speaker 1: did you get calling her phone? I went straight and
12:55
Speaker 1: then left because I was calling her phone and I
12:58
Speaker 1: could hear her phone going off. You're absolutely correct. I
13:01
Speaker 1: read that fact. Take a listen to our friend Jake
13:04
Speaker 1: and Grassia k E s QTV listen. Jenny Dillon was
13:10
Speaker 1: an amazing human being who loved everyone, and everyone loved
13:14
Speaker 1: her and neighbors in the Racket Club is six community
13:17
Speaker 1: in Palm Springs are mourning the loss of fifty nine
13:20
Speaker 1: year old Jennifer Dillon, who police was killed two weeks ago.
13:23
Speaker 1: We found her in the house face down. Mallorie Morris,
13:30
Speaker 1: along with a Nette Baine, and her husband, did a
13:32
Speaker 1: welfare check after Dylan's wife, who they say was out
13:35
Speaker 1: of town at the time, said she wasn't answering her texts.
13:39
Speaker 1: They started looking around and I'm calling her phone and
13:42
Speaker 1: I'm hearing it go off, and her phone's there. So
13:45
Speaker 1: if I know her phone's there, I know Jenny's there.
13:47
Speaker 1: So she's kind of person always has her phone with her.
13:50
Speaker 1: So you're calling her during this and you hear her
13:53
Speaker 1: phone and you go toward the ring. Then what happened?
13:56
Speaker 1: I do so her bed was it was connected to
14:01
Speaker 1: her charger along with her iPad on her bed, and
14:04
Speaker 1: she wasn't in that room. So then my husband went
14:08
Speaker 1: to So there's just a three bedroom, so we did
14:10
Speaker 1: the two outside bedrooms, and then Mallory had come in.
14:13
Speaker 1: Mallory had seen the garage door go up, and so
14:16
Speaker 1: Mallory joined us at that point, and we still Mallory
14:20
Speaker 1: is the neighbor, the one that was talking earlier. Anyway,
14:24
Speaker 1: So there was one room in the middle that looked
14:27
Speaker 1: really dark, and I thought, well, there's there's a room
14:30
Speaker 1: right there. I haven't really checked, so I pushed it
14:32
Speaker 1: and she was laying on the ground. It was really
14:36
Speaker 1: super dark in the middle room, and so I could
14:39
Speaker 1: see it would be easy commissir if you weren't really looking.
14:45
Speaker 1: So I see you turned on the lights. There were
14:47
Speaker 1: no lights in that room because there was no lights.
14:53
Speaker 1: It's hard to explain, but there was no lamp in there.
14:56
Speaker 1: What did you do when you saw body? I saw
15:00
Speaker 1: her and I sent some here. I founder, I founder,
15:03
Speaker 1: and I was so did you go it? Did you
15:07
Speaker 1: realize immediately that she was dead? I did because her
15:11
Speaker 1: arm was kind of twisted weird, and and when Jake
15:16
Speaker 1: and Grassie said she was covered in blood, it's it's
15:18
Speaker 1: not that she was. There was just a big pool
15:21
Speaker 1: of blood underneath her head. She wasn't I mean, I'm
15:24
Speaker 1: sure if he turned her over, she would be covered
15:26
Speaker 1: in blood. So that's kind of a I understand there
15:29
Speaker 1: was a lot she was lying on a pool of blood.
15:32
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends A K E. S
15:35
Speaker 1: Q TV. They found Dylan's body in the middle bedroom.
15:39
Speaker 1: They say she'd been gone for a while. There was blood.
15:41
Speaker 1: I could see some blood and she wasn't moving. Her
15:45
Speaker 1: arm was kind of twisted, weird. It's scary to live
15:48
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood because without could my house be next.
15:52
Speaker 1: Police initially considered the death suspicious, but it wasn't until
15:56
Speaker 1: more than two weeks later that the investigation was elevated
15:59
Speaker 1: to that of a homicide. Who wish that they would
16:01
Speaker 1: have made it a crying scene immediately, Guys, I want
16:05
Speaker 1: to follow along with the events of that day. Take
16:10
Speaker 1: a listen to Sargeant Mike Cassavan of California PD. On
16:15
Speaker 1: January twenty fifth, at approximately four to fifty nine pm,
16:18
Speaker 1: our dispatch center received a call from Jenny's neighbor. Officers
16:22
Speaker 1: responded to the residence and found Jenny deceased. Officers believed
16:26
Speaker 1: the circumstances and evidence at the scene were suspicious and
16:29
Speaker 1: made a request for the Riverside County Corner's Office to
16:32
Speaker 1: assist in the investigation, and they responded. A short time later.
16:36
Speaker 1: Palm Springs PD in the Corner's office conducted a parallel
16:39
Speaker 1: investigation because of the suspicious circumstances at the scene. Once
16:43
Speaker 1: the scene was processed, evidence collected, and Jenny's body removed
16:46
Speaker 1: by the coroner, we released the residence to a neighbor.
16:50
Speaker 1: Now that's interesting because we're getting another story. Take a
16:53
Speaker 1: listen to k Sq Baines as an officer told her
16:57
Speaker 1: that it was okay to clean up a little so
16:59
Speaker 1: dilly wife wouldn't have to see the bloody scene. He
17:02
Speaker 1: knew that she was my friend and it might be
17:05
Speaker 1: disturbing for her wife's to get home and see it.
17:09
Speaker 1: I disturbed everything. I'm sure I disturbed everything. There is
17:12
Speaker 1: still so much blood everywhere, and they're worried. The investigation
17:15
Speaker 1: has now lost critical time. The longer we wait, the
17:18
Speaker 1: more we won't know, the easier it will be for
17:22
Speaker 1: someone to get away with it. The search now just
17:25
Speaker 1: beginning for justice for Jennifer Dillon. It's amazing to me
17:29
Speaker 1: that an officer would actually tell a neighbor to go
17:34
Speaker 1: ahead and clean up the scene. That's a critical, critical
17:40
Speaker 1: evidence that was being cleaned up crime stories with Nancy Grace.
17:56
Speaker 1: This woman, loving, beloved, an it wizard found dead in
18:02
Speaker 1: her own home in a third bedroom. Why did weeks
18:06
Speaker 1: pass before this was named a homicide? Take a listen
18:10
Speaker 1: again to Sergeant Mike Cassavan. The next day, January twenty six,
18:16
Speaker 1: investigators received additional information from the Coroner's office that there
18:19
Speaker 1: was additional evidence that Jenny's death was looking like a homicide.
18:23
Speaker 1: Investigators responded back to the scene where they collected more evidence.
18:27
Speaker 1: Investigators also continued canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses and potential
18:30
Speaker 1: video surveillance. It should also be noted that an autopsy
18:34
Speaker 1: had been scheduled, and our investigators worked with the coroner's
18:36
Speaker 1: office to have the autopsy completed a week earlier than anticipated.
18:40
Speaker 1: On January twenty eighth, three days after the initial report,
18:43
Speaker 1: the coroner's office confirmed Jenny's death was a homicide and
18:46
Speaker 1: provided our investigators with a cause of death. The cause
18:49
Speaker 1: of death was critical because it provided us with how
18:51
Speaker 1: Jenny was killed and provided us with new direction in
18:54
Speaker 1: the case. To protect the integrity of this investigation, Jenny's
18:57
Speaker 1: cause of death will not be discussed here. January twenty eighth,
19:01
Speaker 1: after receiving the cause of death notification, investigators responded back
19:04
Speaker 1: to Jenny's residence to conduct further follow up in the
19:06
Speaker 1: investigation and to canvass the neighborhood for more witnesses and
19:10
Speaker 1: surveillance footage. Straight out now to Athena Kelly we loved partner,
19:17
Speaker 1: Jenny Dillon. Athena, thank you for being with us. Thank you, Athena.
19:25
Speaker 1: Tell me how that day unfolded for you. That was
19:33
Speaker 1: the Monday, the twenty fifth. I was here. I was
19:37
Speaker 1: not home. I was at my sisters in Orange County.
19:41
Speaker 1: It's about an hour and a half away. I was here,
19:44
Speaker 1: I was getting my car fixed, and I was actually
19:48
Speaker 1: going to go home Sunday, and then I talked to Jenny,
19:54
Speaker 1: and I was going to come home Tuesday. So I
19:56
Speaker 1: wasn't home. But I always talked to Jenny every day
20:00
Speaker 1: in text and I didn't hear from her. And I
20:05
Speaker 1: sent her a couple of texts, and I my neighbor Mallory,
20:11
Speaker 1: that you're hearing. She lives next door, very close to her.
20:15
Speaker 1: I called her to ask her if she had heard
20:20
Speaker 1: from Jenny and Mallory had said no, and she called
20:24
Speaker 1: her and texted her and didn't get an answer, and
20:26
Speaker 1: Mallory said to me that she had a key, and
20:29
Speaker 1: I asked her to go over and go in, and
20:31
Speaker 1: Mallory is older and so she was worried about it,
20:36
Speaker 1: afraid I could tell. But she went in and I
20:39
Speaker 1: waited to hear back from her, and then Mallory had
20:42
Speaker 1: told me later that the middle bedroom, Mallory pushed the
20:47
Speaker 1: door and she just looked in, but she didn't push
20:49
Speaker 1: the door hard enough. She didn't know Jenny was laying
20:51
Speaker 1: behind the door. And then Mallory went out then called
20:55
Speaker 1: me from the front, closed the door and she said,
20:57
Speaker 1: Jenny's not there. There's no dead body. And I was
21:01
Speaker 1: very relieved to hear that, but still I knew something
21:07
Speaker 1: was wrong because Jenny's not answering the phone or my text.
21:11
Speaker 1: So I reached out to Annette, who's also in the neighborhood,
21:16
Speaker 1: and told Annette that I couldn't reach Jenny, and so
21:19
Speaker 1: then Annette called also and didn't hear from Jenny, and
21:25
Speaker 1: then I said, would you please go over. Mallory was
21:29
Speaker 1: across the street at the time. After she looked because
21:31
Speaker 1: she's playing cards, and and Mallory wouldn't answer the phone again,
21:37
Speaker 1: she's kind of hard at hearing. So Annette and her husband,
21:40
Speaker 1: as you know, scaled the wall and went in the house.
21:43
Speaker 1: And I was waiting, and then I forget what time now,
21:49
Speaker 1: I received a call. The person said, this is the
21:55
Speaker 1: Palm Springs Fire Department. I hate to tell you your
21:59
Speaker 1: girlfriend is dead. And then and some time after that,
22:06
Speaker 1: I talked to the corner. I was still here as
22:10
Speaker 1: too far to drive. It's a nighttime now, and I'm
22:13
Speaker 1: I'm in shock, as is my sister, and so the coroner.
22:18
Speaker 1: I spoke to the corner, and the corner kept asking
22:20
Speaker 1: me if Jenny had any medical conditions or anything was
22:25
Speaker 1: wrong with her physically, and I said no. The corner,
22:30
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't know. Jenny was still in her
22:32
Speaker 1: pajamas and I said, no, she didn't have any medical conditions.
22:39
Speaker 1: And the corner said, well, you know, basically, oh, she
22:43
Speaker 1: may have hard had a heart attack and fell down
22:45
Speaker 1: and hit her head. Corner didn't tell me, I think
22:50
Speaker 1: the corner said she had a black eye, didn't tell
22:53
Speaker 1: me how much blood there was basically, and said, oh,
22:55
Speaker 1: there was a tremendous smell of bleach in the house,
23:00
Speaker 1: and that just really trying to convince me it felt
23:06
Speaker 1: like that Jenny just died of a heart attack or
23:10
Speaker 1: asphyxiated from the smell of bleach or something, and you know,
23:18
Speaker 1: never expressed me, I'm going to jump ahead, expressed to
23:21
Speaker 1: me that my house was a disaster that had been ransacked,
23:24
Speaker 1: everything thrown all over the place. I don't know how
23:28
Speaker 1: anyone can enter a home and see someone laying there
23:32
Speaker 1: deceased and take a look around the house and not
23:35
Speaker 1: understand that someone went through and did that, that this
23:41
Speaker 1: was not normal. So that's how that happened Athena. What
23:48
Speaker 1: did they tell you ultimately was the cause of death.
23:52
Speaker 1: I still have not received a cause of death. I
23:55
Speaker 1: have asked the detectives over and over, and I have
23:58
Speaker 1: Jenny's death certificate that said is pending for the cause
24:01
Speaker 1: of death. And I know from rumor from hearsay my
24:05
Speaker 1: friend Vicky, who's retired captain of animal Control in San Francisco,
24:12
Speaker 1: very dear friend of Jenny's, from when Jenny was seventeen,
24:16
Speaker 1: they told her. They told Vicky that it was blunt
24:20
Speaker 1: force trauma, but that they're not allowed to release that
24:24
Speaker 1: information because it will jeopardize the investigation. And I don't
24:28
Speaker 1: understand that at all. Who killed Palm Springs Jennifer Dylan,
24:39
Speaker 1: That's the question. And according to what we are learning,
24:43
Speaker 1: there have been several leads and persons of interest. According
24:47
Speaker 1: to Cops Sergeant Mike Cassavan, each one of those have
24:51
Speaker 1: been thoroughly investigated and all of the persons of interest
24:54
Speaker 1: ruled out as suspects. There have been multiple search warrants,
24:58
Speaker 1: key audience of evidence collect at the same but still
25:02
Speaker 1: no answers. Guys, the family is left wondering what happened
25:09
Speaker 1: to her? Why was the home ransacked and nobody seemed
25:15
Speaker 1: to notice? Guys, take a listen to our cut eight.
25:20
Speaker 1: This is Sergeant Mike Cassavan. Investigators have also searched records
25:25
Speaker 1: for all violent offenders living in the immediate vicinity. To date,
25:29
Speaker 1: our investigators have not identified a person of interest from
25:31
Speaker 1: this list. The Palm Springs Police Department has also kept
25:34
Speaker 1: the public informed of this investigation via our social media platforms,
25:37
Speaker 1: the local media, and most recently via a neighborhood zoom meeting.
25:42
Speaker 1: Investigators use the Ring Camera portal to request surveillance footage
25:45
Speaker 1: from the local area of Jenny's residence, and as a result,
25:49
Speaker 1: are reviewing more than eleven hundred videos to see if
25:51
Speaker 1: the videos hold any clues in this investigation. Most importantly,
25:56
Speaker 1: our investigators are in regular communication with Jenny's family. Our
25:59
Speaker 1: investigation is not complete until we find Jenny's killer. We
26:02
Speaker 1: are still gathering information and processing several items of evidence
26:06
Speaker 1: that may contain key information to Jenny's homicide. Back to Athena, Kelly, Athena,
26:12
Speaker 1: did you guys have video surveillance in your home? No,
26:15
Speaker 1: we didn't know, Hardy. Did you have a burglar alarm? No?
26:22
Speaker 1: You know, as you said at the beginning of this
26:23
Speaker 1: is it seemed like very safe place to live Athena.
26:29
Speaker 1: How many pets? Did you guys have two cats? I'm
26:33
Speaker 1: three cats and two dogs, and the neighbor was coming
26:37
Speaker 1: over to take care of them. Uh no, no, because
26:40
Speaker 1: Jenny was home then our neighbor just went over. Mallory. Yeah,
26:47
Speaker 1: when was the last time you spoke to Jenny the
26:49
Speaker 1: day before she died? At what time? I don't Probably
26:55
Speaker 1: in the evening. Okay, let's think through that. You say,
27:01
Speaker 1: probably in the evening, Yes, would it have been before
27:06
Speaker 1: you go to bed that night. Oh, yes, yes, And
27:10
Speaker 1: what time would that have been? Oh, I would probably
27:13
Speaker 1: be like ten o'clock. And what if anything did she say?
27:18
Speaker 1: I mean, nothing unusual. I'm just in our normal conversation,
27:22
Speaker 1: you know, nothing out of the ordinary. Web So that
27:26
Speaker 1: would have been on January the twenty fourth. Yes, yes,
27:30
Speaker 1: m which yes, Sunday Night Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
27:48
Speaker 1: I want to go to Katherine Maloney. Doctor Katherine Maloney,
27:54
Speaker 1: Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County Medical Examiner's Office at
27:58
Speaker 1: nicol City Forensics dot com. Catherine, I've never heard of
28:04
Speaker 1: authorities not releasing cause of death because they think it
28:10
Speaker 1: would hinder an investigation. Accepted one other case, and that
28:16
Speaker 1: is in the case of Coultmum Laurie Valo's husband's wife,
28:23
Speaker 1: Tammy Day Bell, who died in her sleep. That's the
28:27
Speaker 1: only time I've ever heard a cod not released to
28:31
Speaker 1: the family. What about that, doctor Kathery Maloney, Um, Well,
28:36
Speaker 1: it's it's difficult to say why the decision was made
28:40
Speaker 1: not to release the cause of death. It's possible that
28:45
Speaker 1: that the whoever the forensic pathologist is that performed the
28:48
Speaker 1: examination is not one hundred percent certain of the cause
28:50
Speaker 1: of death, so that might be why they've chosen to
28:53
Speaker 1: pend it, or it may have been something that was
28:56
Speaker 1: requested by the person who was in charge, which I
29:00
Speaker 1: believe in that jurisdiction would be a sheriff coroner. So
29:03
Speaker 1: that person works for both the police department and is
29:06
Speaker 1: also the coroner, so I kind of straddle both roles.
29:10
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure if that's why. But me personally,
29:13
Speaker 1: when I know something is a homicide, I don't think
29:15
Speaker 1: I've ever had a case where I've not called it
29:18
Speaker 1: a homicide. If I think it's a homicide for the
29:21
Speaker 1: purpose of the investigation, I don't really know that. That interesting,
29:25
Speaker 1: Doctor Maloney is that they have absolutely stated it is
29:29
Speaker 1: a homicide, but they refuse to release cod cause of death.
29:34
Speaker 1: So they've released it it's a homicide. But according to
29:38
Speaker 1: what a thing that Kelly is telling us she's heard
29:40
Speaker 1: through the Great Vine, which I think is entirely unfair
29:43
Speaker 1: to victims families, that it was blunt forced trauma. To
29:47
Speaker 1: Annett Bain, the victims neighbor who actually discovered Jenny's body,
29:54
Speaker 1: you said that you saw a pool of blood under
29:59
Speaker 1: her body, correct, Yeah, under her mainly toward her head.
30:04
Speaker 1: So it just like she bled out, and I had
30:08
Speaker 1: in my mind the scenary that she was found near
30:11
Speaker 1: the foot of the bed. But now I'm understanding she
30:14
Speaker 1: was kind of behind the door. She was in a
30:17
Speaker 1: room that was had a lot of clutter in it
30:21
Speaker 1: and like a storage ring on the floor. No, that
30:24
Speaker 1: was I'm sorry, that was her office. Okay, that office,
30:29
Speaker 1: So she was founding an office I had a lot
30:31
Speaker 1: of stuff in it was behind the door and a
30:34
Speaker 1: vain Yes, yes, it almost sounds as if she were
30:38
Speaker 1: in there with the door shut, against the door or
30:42
Speaker 1: behind the door, and somebody pushed it open and then
30:45
Speaker 1: hit her in the head. I mean, sure, I'm sure
30:49
Speaker 1: you know. I don't. I don't know. But she fell
30:52
Speaker 1: and her her head was down, face down, and right
30:56
Speaker 1: underneath her head was a tremendous amount of blood. When
30:59
Speaker 1: you say she fell, could this have been an accident?
31:04
Speaker 1: I know I thought that too. In fact, that's the
31:06
Speaker 1: first place I went. And so when the officer came
31:08
Speaker 1: to talk to me and said it looks as if
31:11
Speaker 1: she's lost consciousness and she fell, I was like almost relieved,
31:15
Speaker 1: like thank God, no one did anything. Horror. I'm not
31:18
Speaker 1: not that it would Wait, what object in that room?
31:23
Speaker 1: Based on where she was Annette Baine, what object could
31:28
Speaker 1: she possibly have hit? If she's right behind the door,
31:32
Speaker 1: I'm just in seemtively looking over at the door in
31:34
Speaker 1: our studio. There's got to be a space for the
31:37
Speaker 1: door to open unless it's a pocket door. Was it
31:40
Speaker 1: a pocket door Athena? No door that opens, So you've
31:45
Speaker 1: got to have that amount of space for the door
31:48
Speaker 1: to open, what like three feet for the door swing.
31:52
Speaker 1: So if she's behind the door, what had she fallen hit?
31:56
Speaker 1: There's no furniture there or is there? Athena? Uh, it's
32:01
Speaker 1: a computer room, Like I'm not sure because I wasn't there,
32:04
Speaker 1: but I know they took a computer tower as evidence,
32:09
Speaker 1: But I don't I can't imagine that she would fall
32:12
Speaker 1: on hit her head on a computer tower and that
32:13
Speaker 1: would make her I think. Is the Is the floor carpeted? No,
32:19
Speaker 1: there's really no carpeted stone floor or wooden floor. Yeah,
32:24
Speaker 1: it's a you know, stone stove floor. So if she
32:29
Speaker 1: fell on the stone, would that have been enough? Was
32:33
Speaker 1: she on any kind of blood thinner or any kind
32:36
Speaker 1: of medication that would make her bleed out? No? Nothing, Okay,
32:39
Speaker 1: Catherine Maloney, Doctor Maloney, this is what I'm getting at.
32:44
Speaker 1: It's very hard to just fall on the floor and die.
32:50
Speaker 1: I mean, what object is she going to fall on
32:53
Speaker 1: with so much velocity that it breaks her head open
32:58
Speaker 1: and then we hear there's been blunt force trauma. There's
33:02
Speaker 1: a big difference when you conduct an autopsy when somebody
33:05
Speaker 1: falls on the floor and they bleed out as opposed
33:08
Speaker 1: to blunt forced trauma. Explain the difference between a single fall.
33:14
Speaker 1: People fall all the time, but they don't die, and
33:17
Speaker 1: blunt force trauma. Doctor I completely agree, Nancy, and I
33:21
Speaker 1: feel like this is a common misconception. People generally don't
33:24
Speaker 1: fall down and hit their heads and die. The only
33:27
Speaker 1: way this happens is you can fall down and hit
33:29
Speaker 1: your head and then have internal bleeding inside your brain.
33:32
Speaker 1: But that's something that's going to take hours, maybe even days.
33:35
Speaker 1: They're going to have a headache, you're going to feel
33:37
Speaker 1: like something's wrong. They're going to have obvious injuries to
33:40
Speaker 1: your scalp, like bruises or lacerations, breaks in the skin.
33:44
Speaker 1: But it's going to take time. People generally don't fall
33:47
Speaker 1: down from a standing height and hit their heads and
33:50
Speaker 1: then immediately become unconscious and die. It just doesn't happen. Well,
33:54
Speaker 1: when do you expect to find in an autopsy when
33:57
Speaker 1: there's been blunt forced trauma to the head and the
34:00
Speaker 1: person dies. So with blunt force trauma, it can really
34:04
Speaker 1: depend on whatever object was used I guess to injure
34:08
Speaker 1: the person. So they may have lacerations or breaks in
34:12
Speaker 1: the skin. They may have abrasions or scrapes. They may
34:15
Speaker 1: have bruises, they may have skull fractures. There may be
34:19
Speaker 1: bleeding in the brain or bruising on the brain. It
34:21
Speaker 1: really depends on the extent of the injury and what
34:24
Speaker 1: object may or may not have been used to strike them.
34:27
Speaker 1: An example we're talking about everyone recalls Liam Neeson's What
34:33
Speaker 1: Beautiful actress Natasha Richardson was skiing, hit a tree with
34:39
Speaker 1: her head and didn't want to go to the doctor,
34:42
Speaker 1: went home and laid down that night, and she had
34:45
Speaker 1: internal bleeding and she died. There's nothing to really see
34:49
Speaker 1: on the outside, maybe a bruise, but she had the
34:52
Speaker 1: internal bleeding that doctor Katherine Maloney's talking about. I want
34:55
Speaker 1: to circle back to Chris Buyer's former police John's Creek
35:01
Speaker 1: twenty five years on the force. Why would you tell
35:04
Speaker 1: a neighbor to clean up a crime scene? Why, Yeah,
35:08
Speaker 1: he would never do that. And as we've talked about
35:12
Speaker 1: in the past, when you go into these scenes, you
35:15
Speaker 1: always go in treating them like a homicide. You always
35:18
Speaker 1: treat it to the highest degree it could possibly be,
35:21
Speaker 1: because then you can scale back as the investigation unfold.
35:24
Speaker 1: The problem is when you go in at a lower level,
35:26
Speaker 1: you can never get the things that you missed by
35:30
Speaker 1: not treating this as a homicide from the beginning. That
35:34
Speaker 1: scene should have been completely processed that day, again as
35:38
Speaker 1: a homicide, that you would never ever tell a neighbor
35:41
Speaker 1: to go in and say that it's okay to clean
35:43
Speaker 1: up that scene. To Dona Jeff Gardeer, the Clinical Site
35:48
Speaker 1: Board certified psychologist professor at Turnau College, Doctor Jeff to
35:55
Speaker 1: deal with the loss of the person you love the most,
35:58
Speaker 1: and then to deal with the fact that you don't
36:02
Speaker 1: know what happened. How debilitating is that. I'm sure that
36:08
Speaker 1: Jenny's family and Athena very much are grieving, but now
36:14
Speaker 1: we look at a sort of a complicated bereavement in
36:18
Speaker 1: that you don't have any answers, so there's no completion
36:22
Speaker 1: there's no wondering at this point when this will ever end.
36:29
Speaker 1: And now that we're hearing Nancy that this may have
36:33
Speaker 1: been mishandled initially by the police officers, then there's got
36:37
Speaker 1: to be some measure of anger that is part of
36:40
Speaker 1: this situation which prolongs the process of ever getting your
36:45
Speaker 1: own life back together again. To ask you, Wilcott, what
36:48
Speaker 1: if any writes does the victim's family have to get
36:52
Speaker 1: the truth out of the medical examiner cops. Well, listen,
36:56
Speaker 1: you know, as you well know, prosecutor offices frequel we
37:00
Speaker 1: have victim assistance right to help victims. And so if
37:04
Speaker 1: the medicalist Emmer's office or the police are saying nope,
37:07
Speaker 1: we're not going to release any of this information to family,
37:10
Speaker 1: my suggestion thought would be to go to the prosecutor's
37:14
Speaker 1: office to enlist their help as the victim, even if
37:17
Speaker 1: there're no charges at this time, to say, listen, we're
37:20
Speaker 1: the victims in this case and we want information. Nancy.
37:23
Speaker 1: The other thing I have to say, and it's just
37:25
Speaker 1: to point out and highlight that cases always need to
37:29
Speaker 1: be treated as a homicide from the get go. I'm
37:31
Speaker 1: not suggesting that she hurt herself in any way, shape
37:35
Speaker 1: or form. But I'm wondering if the injuries might have
37:38
Speaker 1: been such that there was an assumption by police that
37:42
Speaker 1: she had hurt herself and therefore, okay, let's let them
37:46
Speaker 1: clean it up and we're not going to treat it
37:48
Speaker 1: as a homicide. Again. The highlight of that to me
37:52
Speaker 1: is regardless of the injuries, it should always be treated
37:55
Speaker 1: as something happened to this person that needs to be investigated.
38:00
Speaker 1: To Chrissy Missourich joining US investigative reporter, where does it
38:04
Speaker 1: stand now? I mean, the brother is feeling the same
38:08
Speaker 1: way her brother feels helpless, he says, and it's offered
38:12
Speaker 1: a twenty five thousand dollar reward. What is the latest?
38:15
Speaker 1: Christy Well and the members of the media that are
38:18
Speaker 1: trying to help this family track down a killer are
38:23
Speaker 1: also becoming angered and dispelled by the police department because
38:29
Speaker 1: they have changed their story. You know, when the media
38:31
Speaker 1: shows up on a tragic scene like this, we either
38:35
Speaker 1: become the friends or full of investigators. So they either
38:41
Speaker 1: want the media to help them get information, or once
38:45
Speaker 1: there's a screw up, they put the freeze. And I'm
38:48
Speaker 1: telling you, my colleagues out in California have been telling
38:51
Speaker 1: me since this occurred weeks ago, they have been frozen out,
38:56
Speaker 1: and as recently as just a few weeks back, they
38:59
Speaker 1: held this virtual zoom meeting right to finally address the residence. Well,
39:05
Speaker 1: when residents started questioning the police department about why they
39:10
Speaker 1: haven't received any information, they pulled the plug on the meeting. Okay,
39:14
Speaker 1: that's not a good signal to san to Athena, Kelly,
39:17
Speaker 1: what can you tell about tell me about nearby surveillance video. Well,
39:23
Speaker 1: the thing is in our neighborhood over the past maybe
39:29
Speaker 1: I don't know, six years, like the Kent Rippall, we
39:33
Speaker 1: had a full neighborhood, all the homes people lived in
39:36
Speaker 1: full time, and then our neighborhood changed into our bnb's
39:43
Speaker 1: where we didn't know the neighbors anymore. On my street,
39:46
Speaker 1: in particular, there's only three permanent residents, myself, Malory, and
39:51
Speaker 1: someone across the street, a friend. So there are surveillance.
39:55
Speaker 1: Malory's wasn't working. She had a camera, it wasn't working.
40:01
Speaker 1: I guess my point saying that is just that the
40:04
Speaker 1: neighborhoods are more empty because people have sold and the
40:09
Speaker 1: homes have been turned into urbnb's, So it's very empty.
40:14
Speaker 1: Interesting that there are a lot of airbnbs in that area,
40:18
Speaker 1: so who knows who is coming in and out of
40:20
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. If you know or think you know anything
40:24
Speaker 1: about the death of this woman, Jenny Dylan in Palm Springs,
40:30
Speaker 1: please dial seven six zero seven seven eight eight four
40:33
Speaker 1: two two. We wait as justice and falls. Nancy Gray
40:38
Speaker 1: scribe story, signing off, good bye friend,