Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Eye Drop Killer Murders Woman She Loved Like a Mom
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Imagine you're walking into a living room, right? And you
- 0:04Speaker 1: find a woman dead in her recliner.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Just a horrific thing to walk into.
- 0:07Speaker 1: Right, totally. But here's the thing. There's this mountain of
- 0:12Speaker 1: crushed pills resting just perfectly undisturbed right on her bare chest.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Which is strange right off the bat.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Exactly. And to the left, there's a plate with, like,
- 0:21Speaker 1: Even more crushed medication. And prescription bottles are just flanking
- 0:25Speaker 1: her on both sides.
- 0:26Speaker 2: It's very theatrical.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks like a textbook, almost a cinematic suicide scene.
- 0:31Speaker 1: But then, three months later, the toxicology report drops this
- 0:35Speaker 1: massive bombshell.
- 0:36Speaker 2: The twist nobody saw coming.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Right. Not a single trace of those pills is actually
- 0:40Speaker 1: in her blood. The real murder weapon was just, you know,
- 0:43Speaker 1: sitting in plain sight on the nightstand the entire time.
- 0:46Speaker 2: A $ 5 bottle of eye drops.
- 0:48Speaker 1: A literal bottle of Vizine. Welcome to this deep dive, everyone. Today,
- 0:54Speaker 1: our mission is to untack a truly chilling true crime case.
- 0:58Speaker 1: We're pulling from a Law and Crime Network video. It's titled,
- 1:02Speaker 1: I Drop Killer Murders Woman She Loved Like a Mom.
- 1:05Speaker 2: It is a wild case.
- 1:06Speaker 1: It really is. And we are going to dissect exactly
- 1:10Speaker 1: how a seemingly sudden, you know, tragic death unravels through
- 1:15Speaker 1: these tiny microscopic anomalies.
- 1:17Speaker 2: Right. We'll be getting into the psychology of manipulation, the, uh,
- 1:21Speaker 2: forensic physics of a staged crime scene, and a really
- 1:25Speaker 2: devastating trail of financial deceit.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Yeah, the money stuff is just mind-blowing. But let's start
- 1:30Speaker 1: by heading to Pewaukee, Wisconsin. It's the city in the
- 1:33Speaker 1: Milwaukee area, kind of near Madison.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Right, in that region.
- 1:36Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's where a victim was born in June
- 1:38Speaker 1: of 1956. Her name is Lynn Hernan. And Lynn, she
- 1:43Speaker 1: was someone who really commanded a room.
- 1:45Speaker 2: She had a presence, for sure.
- 1:47Speaker 1: Definitely. She was a former hairdresser, a salon owner. And
- 1:50Speaker 1: people who knew her, they said she was just impeccably
- 1:52Speaker 1: dressed like all the time.
- 1:53Speaker 2: Every detail was curated.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely. Down to her hair, her nails, her jewelry.
- 1:58Speaker 1: She lived alone with her cats. She never married, didn't
- 2:00Speaker 1: have biological kids, but she had this really robust social circle.
- 2:04Speaker 2: And that background as a salon owner, it's actually a
- 2:07Speaker 2: really crucial psychological baseline for her.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Oh, how so?
- 2:11Speaker 2: Well, someone who runs a salon, who makes their living
- 2:14Speaker 2: curating appearances and kind of holding court in a social environment.
- 2:20Speaker 2: They usually possess a very strong sense of autonomy.
- 2:22Speaker 1: Right. They're the boss. They're in charge of the vibe.
- 2:24Speaker 2: Exactly. They are highly accustomed to controlling their environment and
- 2:28Speaker 2: their public presentation. So when we look at how she
- 2:32Speaker 2: was later completely stripped of that autonomy, the contrast is
- 2:37Speaker 2: just stark.
- 2:38Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking, really, because then we have the foil of
- 2:40Speaker 1: our story, right? Jesse Kerchevsky.
- 2:43Speaker 2: The caretaker.
- 2:43Speaker 1: Yes, but also the daughter of Lynn's absolute best friend,
- 2:47Speaker 1: Jennifer Flower. I mean, Lynn had basically watched Jesse grow up.
- 2:50Speaker 1: She viewed her as the daughter she never had.
- 2:52Speaker 2: There was deep bond there.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Yeah, they had photos together showing this really loving familial connection.
- 2:57Speaker 1: But where Lynn was polished and curated, Jesse was described
- 3:01Speaker 1: by people around them as being, you know, a bit
- 3:03Speaker 1: rough around the edges.
- 3:04Speaker 2: Which is putting it mildly, considering her background.
- 3:06Speaker 1: Right, because she had a criminal history. Specifically, a recent
- 3:10Speaker 1: prison stint for forgery and identity theft.
- 3:12Speaker 2: And that detail... it immediately changes the threat matrix here.
- 3:17Speaker 1: What do you mean by threat matrix?
- 3:19Speaker 2: Well, identity theft and forgery, they aren't crimes of sudden passion, right?
- 3:22Speaker 2: They aren't impulsive. They are systemic, highly cognitive crimes of manipulation. Ah, gotcha.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Like you have to plan them out.
- 3:29Speaker 2: Exactly. They require the offender to confidently construct and maintain
- 3:34Speaker 2: a false reality over a long period of time. So
- 3:37Speaker 2: you have an offender who has practiced in deception and
- 3:40Speaker 2: she's entering the inner circle of a woman who extends
- 3:43Speaker 2: complete maternal trust to her.
- 3:45Speaker 1: That is a terrifying combination. So I guess the big
- 3:48Speaker 1: question is, you know, how does a trusted caretaker, someone
- 3:51Speaker 1: who is quite literally picking a sick woman up off
- 3:54Speaker 1: the floor, how does she transform into the prime suspect
- 3:57Speaker 1: in her murder?
- 3:58Speaker 2: It's a slow burn.
- 3:59Speaker 1: Yeah. And I want you, the listener, to really consider
- 4:02Speaker 1: that dynamic. Like, what would you do if your primary
- 4:06Speaker 1: lifeline to the outside world, the person managing your literal
- 4:09Speaker 1: daily survival, was secretly your greatest threat?
- 4:12Speaker 2: It's a nightmare scenario.
- 4:13Speaker 1: It really is. So we have to look at how
- 4:15Speaker 1: this web is spun, right? It's 2016. Jesse is released
- 4:19Speaker 1: from prison and almost immediately she steps in as Lynn's
- 4:23Speaker 1: full-time caretaker.
- 4:24Speaker 2: Because Lynn's health was failing.
- 4:26Speaker 1: Right. It was deteriorating rapidly. She's suffering from severe gastrointestinal distress,
- 4:31Speaker 1: high blood pressure, lung disease.
- 4:33Speaker 2: A lot of complex issues happening all at once.
- 4:35Speaker 1: Yeah. And she is just constantly in and out of hospitals.
- 4:39Speaker 1: But the crucial detail here is that her illness remains
- 4:42Speaker 1: totally undiagnosed.
- 4:43Speaker 2: And if we connect this to the bigger picture, that
- 4:46Speaker 2: lack of diagnosis is the absolute breeding ground for dependency.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Because there's no clear answer, right? Right.
- 4:52Speaker 2: Think about it. If you have a broken arm or
- 4:54Speaker 2: a known pathogen, there's a protocol, there's a timeline, an
- 4:58Speaker 2: expected outcome. You know you'll get better.
- 5:00Speaker 1: But with chronic undiagnosed illness, it's just endless fear.
- 5:04Speaker 2: Exactly. Especially severe gastrointestinal distress. It is terrifying. The patient
- 5:09Speaker 2: is undergoing all these endless invasive tests. endoscopies, blood panels,
- 5:14Speaker 2: and the doctors just keep coming back empty-handed.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Which has to be so frustrating.
- 5:18Speaker 2: It creates a profound information vacuum. The medical establishment feels useless,
- 5:23Speaker 2: and the patient feels completely abandoned.
- 5:25Speaker 1: So the caretaker just steps right into that vacuum and
- 5:28Speaker 1: becomes the only constant. Jessie is the one doing the
- 5:31Speaker 1: grocery shopping, paying the bills, picking Lynn up when she falls.
- 5:35Speaker 2: She controls every aspect of survival.
- 5:37Speaker 1: But wait, I have to ask, if Lynn is constantly
- 5:40Speaker 1: in and out of the hospital for this severe distress,
- 5:42Speaker 1: how on earth did every single doctor miss the fact
- 5:45Speaker 1: that she was being poisoned? I mean, don't they do
- 5:47Speaker 1: toxicology screens when you enter the ER?
- 5:49Speaker 2: You do, yeah. But we have to understand what a
- 5:52Speaker 2: standard hospital toxicology screen actually looks for.
- 5:55Speaker 1: Okay, what do they look for?
- 5:56Speaker 2: The typical ER panel, which is often an ID5 or
- 5:59Speaker 2: a 10-panel drug screen, it's really just designed to catch
- 6:03Speaker 2: common drugs of abuse.
- 6:04Speaker 1: Like street drugs. Exactly.
- 6:05Speaker 2: Exactly. Opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, benzos, barbiturates. They're looking for the
- 6:11Speaker 2: usual suspects of an accidental overdose.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Oh, wow. OK. Right.
- 6:15Speaker 2: They are not running broad spectrum mass spectrometry to look
- 6:19Speaker 2: for obscure over-the-counter chemical compounds unless they have a very,
- 6:24Speaker 2: very specific reason to suspect poisoning.
- 6:27Speaker 1: And they had no reason to suspect that. None.
- 6:30Speaker 2: A chronically ill patient coming in with GI distress and
- 6:33Speaker 2: shifting blood pressure That just looks like a complex internal
- 6:36Speaker 2: medicine case. It doesn't look like a crime scene.
- 6:39Speaker 1: That makes total sense, but it's also terrifying. And the
- 6:42Speaker 1: judge in this case, she actually theorized later on that
- 6:45Speaker 1: the hospital visits were the only thing keeping Lynn alive.
- 6:48Speaker 2: Which is a chilling thought.
- 6:49Speaker 1: Yeah. The theory was that Jesse was conducting this long-term
- 6:53Speaker 1: calculated poisoning campaign, artificially inducing this illness to keep Lynn
- 6:58Speaker 1: weak and compliant.
- 6:59Speaker 2: And she would only pause the poisoning when Lynn was hospitalized.
- 7:02Speaker 1: Right, because of the cameras, the oversight, the constant blood drawing.
- 7:05Speaker 2: Because the hospital is an objective environment, it breaks the isolation.
- 7:09Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good point.
- 7:10Speaker 2: Yeah, if a predator is chemically engineering an illness, a
- 7:14Speaker 2: prolonged hospital stay is highly dangerous for them. The victim's
- 7:18Speaker 2: baseline vitals might actually start to normalize once the toxin
- 7:21Speaker 2: is removed from their daily intake.
- 7:24Speaker 1: And that threatens to expose the whole lie.
- 7:26Speaker 2: Exactly. It exposes the baseline reality that the victim isn't
- 7:30Speaker 2: actually sick on their own.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Man. And, you know, Jesse gave investigators this incredibly telling
- 7:35Speaker 1: detail during all this. She claimed Lynn was so frustrated
- 7:39Speaker 1: with the medical system that she had, get this, 10
- 7:42Speaker 1: boxes of medical documents in her condo.
- 7:44Speaker 2: 10 boxes.
- 7:46Speaker 1: 10. And according to Jesse, Lynn was getting erratic. She
- 7:49Speaker 1: said Lynn was throwing out her bills so the hospital
- 7:51Speaker 1: wouldn't get her money. She was refusing rehabilitation, pushing back
- 7:55Speaker 1: home health care visits.
- 7:57Speaker 2: So you have to think of this like a psychological
- 7:58Speaker 2: sensory deprivation chamber.
- 8:00Speaker 1: Oh, I like that. Explain that.
- 8:02Speaker 2: Well, to completely control someone, you have to cut off
- 8:04Speaker 2: their access to external data.
- 8:06Speaker 1: So no outside voices. Right.
- 8:08Speaker 2: If Jessie is the one checking the mail, interpreting the
- 8:11Speaker 2: medical bills, and managing the calendar, she completely controls the narrative.
- 8:15Speaker 1: She can say whatever she wants.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Yes. She can tell Lynn that the doctors are incompetent
- 8:19Speaker 2: or greedy. And conversely, she can tell the doctors that
- 8:22Speaker 2: Lynn is uncooperative and paranoid. The isolation is both physical
- 8:27Speaker 2: and informational.
- 8:28Speaker 1: It's just this terrifying ecosystem. I was thinking about it earlier.
- 8:31Speaker 1: And it's not like the cuckoo bird, right?
- 8:33Speaker 2: The cuckoo bird?
- 8:34Speaker 1: Yeah. You know how a cuckoo bird lays its egg
- 8:36Speaker 1: in another bird's nest? Right.
- 8:37Speaker 2: And then the baby bird takes over.
- 8:39Speaker 1: Exactly. Jessie completely takes over Lynn's ecosystem. She pushes out
- 8:44Speaker 1: all the other influences and becomes the only voice Lynn hears.
- 8:47Speaker 2: That's actually a really accurate analogy.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Is this level of control common in financial fraud cases
- 8:53Speaker 1: involving the elderly or the sick?
- 8:55Speaker 2: Very common. The physical deterioration of the victim isn't just
- 8:59Speaker 2: a side effect in these cases. It's the very mechanism
- 9:02Speaker 2: of control. The sicker they are, the more they need
- 9:05Speaker 2: you and the less they can double check your actions.
- 9:08Speaker 1: That is bleak. But, you know, the illusion of this devoted,
- 9:11Speaker 1: exhausted caretaker completely shatters on October 3rd, 2018.
- 9:15Speaker 2: The day of the murder.
- 9:17Speaker 1: Yeah. Lynn had just been released from the hospital days prior.
- 9:21Speaker 1: A neighbor, who the court identified as Witness A, actually
- 9:24Speaker 1: helped Jesse pick Lynn up off the floor after a fall.
- 9:27Speaker 2: And that neighbor noted something important, didn't they?
- 9:29Speaker 1: Yes. The neighbor noted that Lynn did not seem suicidal
- 9:32Speaker 1: at all. But then, on October 3rd, Jesse calls 911.
- 9:37Speaker 2: She tells the dispatcher she found Lynn unconscious.
- 9:40Speaker 1: Right, in her recliner. EMS arrives, and the Pewaukee Fire
- 9:44Speaker 1: personnel pronounce Lynn dead at the scene. And like we
- 9:47Speaker 1: talked about at the beginning, the scene is incredible. Incredibly dramatic.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Almost too dramatic.
- 9:52Speaker 1: Way too dramatic. There is this large amount of crushed
- 9:55Speaker 1: pills resting directly on Lynn's chest, a plate with crushed
- 9:59Speaker 1: medication to her left, and prescription bottles everywhere.
- 10:02Speaker 2: To a first responder, it presents a very specific, very
- 10:05Speaker 2: aggressive narrative of a drug overdose.
- 10:08Speaker 1: It screams suicide.
- 10:09Speaker 2: Exactly. And when you layer that visual with Jesse's immediate
- 10:13Speaker 2: statement to the deputies that Lynn was sick, she was frustrated,
- 10:16Speaker 2: she was throwing out bills, she was terrified of a
- 10:17Speaker 2: nursing home, The scene seems to align perfectly with the
- 10:20Speaker 2: psychological profile Jesse is providing on the spot.
- 10:23Speaker 1: It's as like she handed them a script. But the
- 10:26Speaker 1: physical reality of the scene immediately set off alarm bells
- 10:29Speaker 1: for the detectives.
- 10:31Speaker 2: The physical evidence always speaks for itself.
- 10:33Speaker 1: It really does. Waukesha County Detective Timothy Loberg noted this
- 10:37Speaker 1: glaring inconsistency. He said that in all his years working
- 10:41Speaker 1: death scenes, presumed suicides do not have crushed powder resting
- 10:46Speaker 1: perfectly on their chest.
- 10:47Speaker 2: And this brings us to the crucial difference between staging
- 10:50Speaker 2: a scene and posing a scene.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Oh, there's a difference. I thought those were the same thing.
- 10:55Speaker 2: Not in forensics. Posing is usually done for psychological reasons
- 10:58Speaker 2: by the killer. You know, leaving the body in a
- 11:00Speaker 2: specific way for shock value or as part of some
- 11:04Speaker 2: dark ritual.
- 11:04Speaker 1: Like serial killer stuff.
- 11:06Speaker 2: Right. Staging, however, is a calculated redirection. The perpetrator is
- 11:11Speaker 2: actively tricked to engineer a scene... to communicate a false
- 11:14Speaker 2: narrative to the investigators.
- 11:16Speaker 1: Okay, so Jesse was staging. Yes.
- 11:18Speaker 2: The problem for her is, perpetrators usually aren't forensic pathologists.
- 11:22Speaker 2: They tend to overstage.
- 11:24Speaker 1: Because, frankly, biology and physics just don't cooperate with an
- 11:27Speaker 1: engineered narrative.
- 11:28Speaker 2: Precisely. If a person ingests a lethal amount of crushed medication,
- 11:34Speaker 2: the body does not simply power down like a computer
- 11:36Speaker 2: closing a laptop.
- 11:37Speaker 1: It's messy.
- 11:38Speaker 2: It is incredibly chaotic.
- 11:40Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 11:40Speaker 2: There is often agonal breathing. involuntary muscle spasms, diaphoresis, which
- 11:45Speaker 2: is heavy sweating, and convulsions.
- 11:47Speaker 1: So they wouldn't just be sitting still.
- 11:49Speaker 2: Exactly. A person slumps, they shift violently in the chair.
- 11:53Speaker 2: The idea that a massive pile of crushed powder would
- 11:56Speaker 2: remain perfectly undisturbed on the chest of someone undergoing a
- 11:59Speaker 2: fatal physiological event, it just defies the basic mechanics of
- 12:03Speaker 2: human death.
- 12:04Speaker 1: It's cartoonish, almost. And the medical examiner, Dr. Linda Biedzycki...
- 12:09Speaker 1: finds an even more undeniable anomaly during the autopsy.
- 12:12Speaker 2: The smoking gun, medically speaking.
- 12:14Speaker 1: Right. She looks at the powder in and around Lynn's mouth,
- 12:17Speaker 1: and the powder isn't discolored. It hasn't bubbled. It hasn't
- 12:20Speaker 1: been vomited up.
- 12:21Speaker 2: It's pristine.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Yes. It is completely untouched by biological processes. It hasn't
- 12:26Speaker 1: even interacted with saliva.
- 12:27Speaker 2: And biologically, that's impossible if she took it while alive.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Saliva is a highly active enzyme solution.
- 12:33Speaker 1: Right. It breaks things down immediately.
- 12:35Speaker 2: Exactly. Any dry powder placed in a living person's mouth
- 12:39Speaker 2: or even a recently deceased person's mouth, if they were
- 12:42Speaker 2: breathing through it at the time, would show signs of
- 12:44Speaker 2: moisture interaction, clumping, degradation, something.
- 12:49Speaker 1: But there was nothing.
- 12:50Speaker 2: The pristine nature of the powder indicates it was placed
- 12:53Speaker 2: there after biological functions had entirely ceased.
- 12:56Speaker 1: Literally just a prop on a stage.
- 12:58Speaker 2: Yes, a prop to sell a lie.
- 13:00Speaker 1: And while that stage scene is a massive red flag...
- 13:03Speaker 1: The definitive proof doesn't arrive until three months later, in
- 13:06Speaker 1: January 2019. That's when the full toxicology report comes back.
- 13:10Speaker 2: And that's when everything shifts.
- 13:12Speaker 1: Completely shifts. Lynn's system is totally clean of the pills
- 13:16Speaker 1: scattered on her chest. Instead, her blood contains a fatal
- 13:19Speaker 1: dose of a chemical called tetrahydrozoline.
- 13:21Speaker 2: Often abbreviated as THC.
- 13:23Speaker 1: THC, which is the active ingredient in common over-the-counter eye drops.
- 13:27Speaker 2: Like Vazine. Which, from a criminal standpoint, is an incredibly sophisticated...
- 13:32Speaker 2: If improvised, murder weapon.
- 13:34Speaker 1: Because nobody would look twice at it.
- 13:36Speaker 2: Exactly. THC is virtually invisible in a normal medical context.
- 13:41Speaker 2: Think about it. A bottle of eye drops on the
- 13:44Speaker 2: nightstand of an elderly or chronically ill woman. It doesn't
- 13:48Speaker 2: trigger any suspicion.
- 13:50Speaker 1: It just belongs there.
- 13:51Speaker 2: It belongs there. It blends right into the background noise
- 13:53Speaker 2: of her illness.
- 13:54Speaker 1: But here's what gets me, and I'm sure you, the listener,
- 13:57Speaker 1: are wondering this, too. How does Vizine actually kill someone?
- 14:01Speaker 2: That's a fair question.
- 14:02Speaker 1: Right, because we all put it in our eyes to
- 14:05Speaker 1: get rid of redness. I've used it a million times.
- 14:08Speaker 1: How does a drop for your eye become a lethal poison?
- 14:12Speaker 2: It comes down to the mechanism of action. THC is
- 14:15Speaker 2: what's known medically as an alpha-adrenergic agonist.
- 14:18Speaker 1: Whoa, okay, break that down for me.
- 14:20Speaker 2: Right, so basically when you apply a tiny drop to
- 14:22Speaker 2: your eye, it works locally. It stimulates the alpha receptors
- 14:26Speaker 2: in the blood vessels of just your eye. causing them
- 14:28Speaker 2: to constrict, which squeezes the blood out and removes the redness.
- 14:32Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense. It shrinks the blood vessels.
- 14:34Speaker 2: Exactly. But when a large quantity is ingested orally, it
- 14:38Speaker 2: completely bypasses that localized application and hits the systemic circulation.
- 14:43Speaker 1: Oh, so it goes everywhere.
- 14:44Speaker 2: Everywhere. It enters the bloodstream, and crucially, it crosses the
- 14:48Speaker 2: blood-brain barrier.
- 14:49Speaker 1: That sounds bad.
- 14:50Speaker 2: It is very bad. It heavily stimulates the alpha-2 receptors
- 14:54Speaker 2: in the central nervous system, It essentially hijacks the brain's
- 14:57Speaker 2: regulatory system, tricking it into rapidly decreasing sympathetic tone.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Meaning the body just starts shutting down.
- 15:04Speaker 2: The body responds by plummeting the blood pressure, drastically dropping
- 15:08Speaker 2: the heart rate, and causing severe central nervous system depression.
- 15:12Speaker 1: Wow.
- 15:12Speaker 2: The victim goes into a deep lethargy, which is followed
- 15:15Speaker 2: by respiratory failure, coma, and eventually death.
- 15:18Speaker 1: And the craziest part is those symptoms, the low blood pressure,
- 15:21Speaker 1: the lethargy, they just mimic a natural decline. Right.
- 15:25Speaker 2: If the patient is already chronically ill, a sudden drop
- 15:28Speaker 2: in blood pressure just looks like their body finally giving out.
- 15:32Speaker 2: It is incredibly difficult to detect without specialized toxicological testing.
- 15:36Speaker 1: That is just, it's pure evil. And because the physical
- 15:39Speaker 1: evidence on Lynn's chest directly contradicts the chemical evidence in
- 15:42Speaker 1: her blood, investigators finally know they are dealing with a homicide.
- 15:46Speaker 2: The pills were a decoy.
- 15:47Speaker 1: The pills were a decoy and the eye drops were
- 15:49Speaker 1: the bullet. And this forces them to look at the
- 15:52Speaker 1: only person managing her care, which is Jesse.
- 15:55Speaker 2: The only logical suspect.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Exactly. And this transitions us right into the interrogation room.
- 16:00Speaker 1: It's now July 2019. Investigators bring Jesse in for multiple interviews.
- 16:06Speaker 1: We're talking six separate sessions within a 10-day span.
- 16:11Speaker 2: It was an intense period of questioning.
- 16:13Speaker 1: And what happens in that room is an absolute masterclass
- 16:16Speaker 1: in shifting narratives.
- 16:18Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is the strategy that detectives used. The
- 16:21Speaker 2: Waukesha County detectives employed a highly strategic approach.
- 16:25Speaker 1: Yeah, because they didn't just walk in and slap cuffs
- 16:27Speaker 1: on her for murder, did they?
- 16:29Speaker 2: No, they didn't. They didn't bring her in and immediately
- 16:32Speaker 2: charge her with first-degree intentional homicide. Instead, they brought her
- 16:36Speaker 2: in on a probation hold related to her past financial crimes.
- 16:39Speaker 1: Why do that? Why not just confront her with the
- 16:41Speaker 1: murder immediately and shock her?
- 16:43Speaker 2: Because an immediate murder charge spikes the suspect's defensiveness to
- 16:47Speaker 2: the absolute maximum level.
- 16:49Speaker 1: Oh, they clam up.
- 16:50Speaker 2: Right. It usually results in them invoking their right to
- 16:53Speaker 2: an attorney immediately. Which shuts down the interview completely. Game over. Exactly.
- 16:58Speaker 2: But a probation hold lowers the psychological stakes. She's sitting
- 17:02Speaker 2: there thinking, OK, I'm just in trouble for some money
- 17:04Speaker 2: issues again. I've talked my way out of this before.
- 17:06Speaker 2: I can do it again.
- 17:07Speaker 1: It gives her false confidence.
- 17:08Speaker 2: It keeps the dialogue open. It allows the investigators to
- 17:11Speaker 2: lay out a breadcrumb trail of evidence and just watch
- 17:14Speaker 2: her attempt to incorporate it into her fiction.
- 17:17Speaker 1: OK, let's trace the evolution of these lies because it's
- 17:20Speaker 1: wild to watch her spin this. Lie number one is
- 17:23Speaker 1: complete ignorance.
- 17:25Speaker 2: She plays dumb.
- 17:26Speaker 1: Completely. When detectives first casually bring up the THZ, the
- 17:30Speaker 1: eye drops, Jessie acts like it's just a quirky habit
- 17:33Speaker 1: of Lynn's.
- 17:34Speaker 2: A quirky habit?
- 17:35Speaker 1: Yeah. She says Lynn had extremely dry eyes and would
- 17:38Speaker 1: go through, quote, four bottles of Vazine at a time,
- 17:42Speaker 1: just constantly squirting them in.
- 17:44Speaker 2: Medically speaking, that is absurd.
- 17:45Speaker 1: I mean, four bottles.
- 17:47Speaker 2: Continuous heavy application of THZ to the eye causes severe
- 17:51Speaker 2: rebound hyperendemia, meaning the eyes would become permanently violently red
- 17:55Speaker 2: and irritated.
- 17:56Speaker 1: So the opposite of what you want.
- 17:58Speaker 2: Exactly. It could lead to severe corneal toxicity. No patient
- 18:03Speaker 2: organically uses four bottles of Vizine consecutively for dry eyes.
- 18:08Speaker 1: It's just a ridiculous lie.
- 18:09Speaker 2: But Jesse is testing the waters. She is trying to
- 18:12Speaker 2: offer a benign explanation for the chemical's presence, banking on
- 18:16Speaker 2: the police being ignorant of the required lethal dosage.
- 18:19Speaker 1: She thinks she's smarter than them. But the police inform
- 18:22Speaker 1: her that the medical examiner knows the THZ was ingested.
- 18:25Speaker 1: They tell her, look, she drank it.
- 18:28Speaker 2: So she has to adapt.
- 18:29Speaker 1: She pivots in real time. And this leads to lie
- 18:31Speaker 1: number two, the accidental or reckless suicide.
- 18:35Speaker 2: She shifts the blame to the victim.
- 18:36Speaker 1: Yeah. She claims Lynn was just so frustrated with her doctor,
- 18:40Speaker 1: she wanted an easy way out, and that Lynn had
- 18:42Speaker 1: actually researched Vazine online.
- 18:44Speaker 2: Notice the psychological shift there.
- 18:46Speaker 1: What do you mean?
- 18:46Speaker 2: She moves from complete ignorance to being a helpless bystander.
- 18:51Speaker 2: She accepts the new reality, okay, the THC was ingested,
- 18:54Speaker 2: but she constructs a narrative that absolves her of any
- 18:57Speaker 2: legal culpability.
- 18:59Speaker 1: Right, like I was just sitting there, she did it
- 19:01Speaker 1: to herself. And she says she watched Lynn dump multiple
- 19:04Speaker 1: bottles of Azine into a large glass of vodka and
- 19:07Speaker 1: drink it.
- 19:08Speaker 2: The inclusion of vodka is also a highly specific tactical detail.
- 19:12Speaker 1: Why vodka specifically?
- 19:14Speaker 2: She likely introduced the alcohol to explain away how Lynn
- 19:18Speaker 2: could have consumed such a large quantity of a harsh
- 19:21Speaker 2: chemical without reacting to the bitter taste.
- 19:24Speaker 1: Oh, like it masked the flavor.
- 19:26Speaker 2: Right. It makes the story more believable on a practical level.
- 19:28Speaker 1: That's so manipulative. But the detectives, they just keep applying pressure.
- 19:33Speaker 1: They point out the inconsistencies. They tell her she failed
- 19:36Speaker 1: a polygraph test.
- 19:38Speaker 2: Which is a heavy blow in an interrogation.
- 19:40Speaker 1: Yeah. And this brings us to lie number three, which
- 19:42Speaker 1: is definitely the most complex.
- 19:44Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 19:44Speaker 1: The assisted suicide narrative.
- 19:46Speaker 2: This is where the interrogation strategy really pays off.
- 19:48Speaker 1: Right. Because the detectives are... offer her a psychological out.
- 19:51Speaker 1: They suggest, hey, maybe you didn't kill her maliciously. Maybe
- 19:54Speaker 1: she was sick and you just wanted to help her
- 19:55Speaker 1: end her pain.
- 19:56Speaker 2: This is a classic interrogation tactic. It's often associated with
- 20:00Speaker 2: the read technique.
- 20:01Speaker 1: How does that work?
- 20:02Speaker 2: You offer the suspect a theme that minimizes the moral,
- 20:06Speaker 2: though not the legal, culpability of the act. You give
- 20:08Speaker 2: them a sympathetic reason for the crime.
- 20:10Speaker 1: So they feel less like a monster.
- 20:12Speaker 2: Exactly. Confessing to being an unwilling participant in a tragic
- 20:16Speaker 2: mercy killing is far easier on the ego than confessing
- 20:20Speaker 2: to cold-blooded murder for profit.
- 20:22Speaker 1: And she takes the bait completely. Jesse admits she bought
- 20:26Speaker 1: the six bottles of Azine and gave them to Lynn
- 20:29Speaker 1: knowing Lynn wanted to die.
- 20:31Speaker 2: She finally admits to providing the weapon. Yes.
- 20:34Speaker 1: She claims she felt sick to her stomach about it,
- 20:36Speaker 1: but did it because Lynn was in so much misery.
- 20:39Speaker 1: And here's the wild part. She wasn't just telling this
- 20:41Speaker 1: to the police.
- 20:42Speaker 2: She was test driving the story on others.
- 20:44Speaker 1: Exactly. Her ex-boyfriend, Scott Craig, he told investigators that Jesse
- 20:48Speaker 1: used this exact same narrative on him, claiming she was
- 20:51Speaker 1: doing some, quote, Dr. Kevorkian stuff.
- 20:54Speaker 2: The Dr. Kevorkian framing is so revealing. It's an attempt
- 20:57Speaker 2: to recast herself, not as a murderer. but as a savior.
- 21:00Speaker 1: Right, a martyr almost.
- 21:02Speaker 2: She is desperately trying to assert control over her legacy
- 21:05Speaker 2: and how she's perceived.
- 21:06Speaker 1: Even her jailhouse roommate, who was identified as Witness G
- 21:10Speaker 1: at the Tashida Correctional Institution, she reported hearing this same
- 21:14Speaker 1: assisted suicide confession.
- 21:16Speaker 2: But her reaction to the failed polygraph is what truly
- 21:19Speaker 2: highlights her mindset.
- 21:20Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes. When told she failed the polygraph,
- 21:24Speaker 1: she just flat out says, I didn't fail it, I
- 21:26Speaker 1: couldn't have, I'm not lying about it. Like, is she
- 21:28Speaker 1: delusional at this point?
- 21:30Speaker 2: It's a profound example of pathological preservation fueled by cognitive dissonance.
- 21:35Speaker 1: Pathological preservation?
- 21:37Speaker 2: Yes. Individuals who commit systematic, long-term fraud often possess an
- 21:43Speaker 2: extraordinary ability to compartmentalize.
- 21:45Speaker 1: They just box up the lies.
- 21:47Speaker 2: They literally construct alternate realities to justify their actions. If
- 21:51Speaker 2: she admits the polygraph caught her lying, her entire psychological
- 21:54Speaker 2: scaffolding collapses.
- 21:55Speaker 1: She can't handle the truth of what she is.
- 21:57Speaker 2: No, she must maintain the fiction, even to herself, that
- 22:00Speaker 2: she is the victim of a flawed machine or a misunderstanding.
- 22:03Speaker 1: But the physical evidence completely destroys the assisted suicide narrative anyway.
- 22:08Speaker 1: I mean, think about it. If Jessie genuinely just wanted
- 22:11Speaker 1: to help her sick friend out of pain, why stage
- 22:14Speaker 1: the scene?
- 22:14Speaker 2: Exactly. The staging betrays the real motive.
- 22:16Speaker 1: Right. Why meticulously crush up a bunch of unrelated prescription pills,
- 22:21Speaker 1: carry them over, and arrange them perfectly on her chest?
- 22:25Speaker 1: If it was a mercy killing with Vizine, why not
- 22:28Speaker 1: just leave the empty Vizine bottles on the nightstand next
- 22:31Speaker 1: to the vodka glass?
- 22:32Speaker 2: Because a genuine mercy killing, regardless of its legality, typically
- 22:36Speaker 2: lacks deceptive theater.
- 22:38Speaker 1: Deceptive theater, I like that.
- 22:39Speaker 2: The crushed pills were designed exclusively to mislead investigators and
- 22:43Speaker 2: hide the true cause of death. You only hide the
- 22:46Speaker 2: weapon if you know the act was an unjustified murder.
- 22:49Speaker 1: Boom. Which brings us to the actual motive. Because while
- 22:52Speaker 1: the medical examiner was taking months to meticulously confirm the
- 22:55Speaker 1: toxicology and officially rule it a homicide, financial investigators were
- 22:59Speaker 1: quietly dissecting Lynn's estate.
- 23:01Speaker 2: Following the money.
- 23:02Speaker 1: Always follow the money. And what they uncovered was just staggering.
- 23:06Speaker 1: We're looking at nearly $ 290, 000 in total fraud.
- 23:10Speaker 2: It's a massive amount of money to disappear.
- 23:12Speaker 1: Let's dig into how one even hides that kind of money.
- 23:15Speaker 1: Over $ 130, 000 was fraudulently transferred just by checks alone.
- 23:19Speaker 2: Paper checks.
- 23:20Speaker 1: Yes. Between October 2014 and November 2018, 21 checks were
- 23:26Speaker 1: written from Lynn's money market account, and 20 of those
- 23:29Speaker 1: went directly to Jesse.
- 23:30Speaker 2: 20 out of 21.
- 23:31Speaker 1: Lynn's account went from a balance of $ 250, 000 down to
- 23:35Speaker 1: exactly $ 87. I mean, how does a bank not flag
- 23:40Speaker 1: 20 checks completely draining a senior's account?
- 23:43Speaker 2: Well, elder financial exploitation operates precisely because it mimics authorized
- 23:47Speaker 2: activity for a long time before the well finally runs dry.
- 23:50Speaker 1: So it looks normal until it's too late.
- 23:53Speaker 2: Exactly. If the manipulator controls the mail, intercepts the bank statements,
- 23:57Speaker 2: and isolates the victim from their financial advisor, the victim
- 24:00Speaker 2: never raises the alarm.
- 24:01Speaker 1: Because they have no idea it's happening.
- 24:03Speaker 2: Right. And from the bank's perspective, if the signature looks passable,
- 24:07Speaker 2: and remember, Jesse had a documented history of forgery, and
- 24:10Speaker 2: the checks are under certain automatic reporting thresholds, The system
- 24:13Speaker 2: simply processes them.
- 24:15Speaker 1: That is a huge flaw in the system. But the
- 24:17Speaker 1: post-death spending is where the real audacity shows.
- 24:20Speaker 2: The lack of a conscience is astounding.
- 24:22Speaker 1: After Lynn dies, investigators track ATM withdrawals and card usage
- 24:27Speaker 1: at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino, Scotty's Pub, and Stollis Palace.
- 24:31Speaker 2: Not exactly places Lynn would frequent.
- 24:33Speaker 1: No. These are places Lynn Hernan, an impeccably dressed, chronically
- 24:37Speaker 1: ill woman who practically never left her condo, would never,
- 24:41Speaker 1: ever set foot in.
- 24:43Speaker 2: This introduces the concept of financial homicide.
- 24:45Speaker 1: Okay, financial homicide. Tell me about that.
- 24:48Speaker 2: In many of these cases, murder is not the initial goal.
- 24:51Speaker 2: It is the inevitable, violent conclusion of the financial crime.
- 24:55Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
- 24:55Speaker 2: The perpetrator steals until there is nothing left. But the
- 24:59Speaker 2: victim is still alive, and eventually a bounce check, a
- 25:02Speaker 2: tax document, or a relative is going to expose the
- 25:04Speaker 2: missing funds.
- 25:05Speaker 1: So they run out of time.
- 25:06Speaker 2: Exactly. The murder becomes a mechanism to silence the only
- 25:09Speaker 2: witness and prevent the discovery of the fraud.
- 25:12Speaker 1: That makes total sense. And there is one detail in
- 25:14Speaker 1: this financial bleed that is just so profoundly bizarre I
- 25:17Speaker 1: can barely wrap my head around it.
- 25:19Speaker 2: The spa certificate?
- 25:20Speaker 1: Yes. Jessie was using the stolen money to buy lavish gifts.
- 25:25Speaker 1: She bought things for her ex-boyfriend, Scott Craig. She bought
- 25:28Speaker 1: gifts for his children. And she even bought a $ 100
- 25:32Speaker 1: spa certificate for Scott Craig's ex-wife.
- 25:34Speaker 2: Using stolen money?
- 25:35Speaker 1: Using Lynn's stolen money. She gave it to the ex-wife
- 25:38Speaker 1: at Christmas and said it was, quote, from the kids.
- 25:41Speaker 2: That detail is a deep dive into the psychology of
- 25:44Speaker 2: the offender.
- 25:45Speaker 1: It's just unhinged.
- 25:46Speaker 2: Well, purchasing a spa day for your ex-boyfriend's ex-wife, using
- 25:51Speaker 2: the drained life savings of a dying woman, isn't just
- 25:53Speaker 2: about money. It is about the acquisition of social power.
- 25:56Speaker 1: Social power? Yes.
- 25:57Speaker 2: She is using stolen funds to construct an identity for
- 26:00Speaker 2: herself as a benevolent, wealthy, magnanimous figure in her social circle.
- 26:05Speaker 1: Wow. So she's playing rich.
- 26:06Speaker 2: It is entirely counterfeit generosity funded by blood.
- 26:10Speaker 1: That gives me chills. I mean, you, the listener, just
- 26:12Speaker 1: picture this. Picture Lynn, exhausted, in pain, relying on Jesse
- 26:16Speaker 1: just to stand up or walk to the bathroom. And
- 26:18Speaker 1: in the very next room, Jesse is on her phone,
- 26:21Speaker 1: forging signatures, draining Lynn's life savings to buy a spa
- 26:24Speaker 1: day for a stranger.
- 26:25Speaker 2: It's a terrifying violation of trust.
- 26:27Speaker 1: It really is. Jesse wasn't just stealing money. She was
- 26:31Speaker 1: stealing Lynn's safety net, her security, and ultimately her life.
- 26:35Speaker 2: Because once the money was gone, Lynn's life had no
- 26:38Speaker 2: value to her anymore.
- 26:39Speaker 1: Right. And with the forensic evidence of the THZ, the
- 26:42Speaker 1: physical physics of the staged scene, and the massive financial devastation,
- 26:47Speaker 1: the case finally moves to a courtroom showdown.
- 26:49Speaker 2: Though it took a long time to get there.
- 26:51Speaker 1: It did. The wheels of justice turn incredibly slowly. It
- 26:55Speaker 1: isn't until October 2023, five full years after Lynn's death,
- 27:00Speaker 1: that the trial actually begins.
- 27:02Speaker 2: And the courtroom strategy on both sides is fascinating.
- 27:05Speaker 1: Let's break it down. Legally, the prosecution is required to
- 27:08Speaker 1: prove intent, not motive, right.
- 27:10Speaker 2: Correct. Under the law, they just have to prove Jesse
- 27:12Speaker 2: intended to kill Lynn. But juries are human. They need
- 27:16Speaker 2: the why. They need the narrative.
- 27:18Speaker 1: So the prosecution gave it to them. Their narrative was
- 27:20Speaker 1: brutally simple. Lynn Hunnan became worth more dead than alive
- 27:24Speaker 1: to Jesse Kerchowski.
- 27:25Speaker 2: It's a very compelling, easy to understand motive.
- 27:28Speaker 1: They methodically walked the jury through the drained bank accounts,
- 27:31Speaker 1: the casino trips, the shifting confessions. But the defense, you know,
- 27:36Speaker 1: they fought back hard.
- 27:37Speaker 2: They had to introduce reasonable doubt.
- 27:39Speaker 1: Right. They argued Lynn was a generous spender who willingly
- 27:42Speaker 1: gave Jesse the money because she loved her like a daughter.
- 27:45Speaker 2: Which is a tough sell given the account balance was $ 87. Yeah,
- 27:49Speaker 2: 87 bucks.
- 27:50Speaker 1: And they stuck to the suicide narrative, claiming Lynn was
- 27:53Speaker 1: miserable and took her own life. To support this, they
- 27:56Speaker 1: brought in an expert toxicologist, Henry Spiller.
- 27:59Speaker 2: Spiller's testimony was interesting.
- 28:01Speaker 1: Yeah, his testimony was designed to cast scientific doubt on
- 28:04Speaker 1: the medical examiner's homicide ruling. Spiller pointed out a critical
- 28:09Speaker 1: gap in the medical literature. He noted that there is
- 28:11Speaker 1: virtually no FDA data on the oral ingestion of tetrahydrozoline.
- 28:16Speaker 2: Which is entirely logical if you actually think about it.
- 28:19Speaker 1: Right, because it's meant for your eyes.
- 28:21Speaker 2: Exactly.
- 28:22Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 28:22Speaker 2: The FDA requires clinical trials to establish pharmacokinetics, metabolization rates,
- 28:27Speaker 2: and lethal thresholds for intended uses.
- 28:30Speaker 1: Right, like how much Tylenol is safe. Yes.
- 28:33Speaker 2: It is highly unethical. and frankly unnecessary under normal circumstances,
- 28:38Speaker 2: to conduct clinical trials on what happens when humans drink
- 28:42Speaker 2: massive quantities of eye drops.
- 28:44Speaker 1: Because nobody in their right mind does that.
- 28:46Speaker 2: Exactly. So, of course, there's a lack of clinical FDA data.
- 28:49Speaker 1: So Spiller used math based on the stomach contents instead.
- 28:53Speaker 1: He calculated that there was about 4.1 milliliters of Vazine
- 28:57Speaker 1: left in Lynn's stomach, which is just under a standard teaspoon.
- 29:00Speaker 2: A very small amount.
- 29:01Speaker 1: Right. And he argued that without definitive FDA clinical studies,
- 29:05Speaker 1: the medical examiner was overstepping by calling it a definitive
- 29:09Speaker 1: homicide based on the chemical alone.
- 29:12Speaker 2: It is a classic defense strategy.
- 29:13Speaker 1: Really?
- 29:14Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. You leverage hyper-focused technical doubt against broader contextual truth.
- 29:19Speaker 1: Oh, I get it. So you zoom way in so
- 29:21Speaker 1: they can't see the big picture.
- 29:22Speaker 2: Precisely. The defense wants the jury to look only at
- 29:25Speaker 2: the gap in the FDA data and conclude there is
- 29:27Speaker 2: reasonable doubt. They want them staring at that 4.1 milliliters.
- 29:31Speaker 1: Well, the prosecution wants the jury to look at the
- 29:33Speaker 1: macro environment. Right.
- 29:35Speaker 2: The missing $ 290, 000, the physically impossible staged pills on the chest.
- 29:40Speaker 2: and the suspect's own mutating confessions.
- 29:43Speaker 1: So put yourself in that jury box. How do you
- 29:45Speaker 1: weigh a lack of clinical FDA data regarding a bizarre
- 29:49Speaker 1: poison against the overwhelming, blinding, circumstantial reality of a staged
- 29:54Speaker 1: crime scene and a drained bank account?
- 29:56Speaker 2: Juries usually lean towards common sense.
- 29:58Speaker 1: And they did. The jury didn't struggle for long at all.
- 30:01Speaker 1: After three weeks of testimony and nearly 40 witnesses, they
- 30:05Speaker 1: deliberated for just two days.
- 30:07Speaker 2: That's very fast for a trial that long.
- 30:08Speaker 1: On November 14, 2023, they returned their verdict. Guilty of
- 30:13Speaker 1: first-degree intentional homicide and guilty on two counts of theft
- 30:16Speaker 1: of movable property.
- 30:17Speaker 2: Justice for Lynn, finally.
- 30:19Speaker 1: Yes, finally. But there is a really heartbreaking postscript to
- 30:22Speaker 1: this verdict involving Lynn's best friend, Jennifer Flower.
- 30:25Speaker 2: Jesse's mother.
- 30:26Speaker 1: Jesse's mother. Despite the mountain of financial records, the forensic
- 30:29Speaker 1: breakdown of the stage scene, the toxicology reports, Jennifer Flower
- 30:34Speaker 1: publicly stated that she still believes Lynn, her best friend,
- 30:36Speaker 1: took her own life.
- 30:37Speaker 2: She refuses to accept that her daughter is a murderer.
- 30:40Speaker 1: I mean, how does a parent sit through a trial
- 30:42Speaker 1: like that, see all that evidence, and still deny the reality?
- 30:46Speaker 2: It's a profound manifestation of cognitive dissonance.
- 30:49Speaker 1: It has to be.
- 30:50Speaker 2: The psychological immune system is incredibly powerful. For Jennifer to
- 30:53Speaker 2: accept the jury's verdict, She has to simultaneously process two
- 30:58Speaker 2: world-shattering truths.
- 30:59Speaker 1: Right.
- 31:00Speaker 2: First, that her beloved best friend was brutally murdered. And second,
- 31:04Speaker 2: that her own daughter, the child she raised, is the
- 31:06Speaker 2: predator who orchestrated it.
- 31:08Speaker 1: That's just too much.
- 31:09Speaker 2: For some, the psyche simply cannot bear that weight. It
- 31:12Speaker 2: is easier to cling to the impossible narrative of a
- 31:15Speaker 2: chemically complex, elaborately staged suicide. than to confront the monstrous
- 31:20Speaker 2: reality of one's own child.
- 31:22Speaker 1: That's tragic on a whole other level. Which brings us
- 31:24Speaker 1: to the sentencing on April 5, 2024. Judge Jennifer Dorough
- 31:29Speaker 1: looked at the totality of this case, the betrayal, the money,
- 31:32Speaker 1: the stage scene, and she delivered a highly calculated sentence.
- 31:36Speaker 2: Judge Dorough was very intentional here. In Wisconsin, a life
- 31:40Speaker 2: sentence comes with the possibility of extended supervision after 30 years.
- 31:43Speaker 1: Oh, so she could have gotten out. Right.
- 31:46Speaker 2: If Judge Dorough had simply given her life for the murder...
- 31:49Speaker 2: Jessie would be eligible for release in her late 60s.
- 31:52Speaker 1: But the judge mathematically structured the sentence using the theft charges,
- 31:56Speaker 1: didn't she?
- 31:56Speaker 2: She did.
- 31:57Speaker 1: She gave Jessie maximum consecutive sentences for the financial crimes,
- 32:01Speaker 1: stacking them right on top of the murder charge. The
- 32:04Speaker 1: judge explicitly stated her goal was to ensure Jessie would
- 32:07Speaker 1: not be eligible for release until she is around 80
- 32:10Speaker 1: years old.
- 32:11Speaker 2: It's judicial symmetry.
- 32:12Speaker 1: Judicial symmetry. I like that.
- 32:14Speaker 2: The judge quantified the years Jessie stole from Lynn Hernan's
- 32:17Speaker 2: life and her retirement. and ensured that Jesse would spend
- 32:20Speaker 2: those exact years locked in a cell at the Tichita
- 32:23Speaker 2: Correctional Institution.
- 32:25Speaker 1: It is the ultimate closure to a case built entirely
- 32:27Speaker 1: on taking advantage of time and trust.
- 32:29Speaker 2: It really is.
- 32:30Speaker 1: As we step back from the courtroom, you know, the
- 32:32Speaker 1: tragedy of Lynn Hernon is the tragedy of a woman
- 32:35Speaker 1: who loved fiercely and trusted deeply, only to be betrayed
- 32:38Speaker 1: by the person she viewed as family.
- 32:40Speaker 2: And this case serves as a glaring warning sign.
- 32:43Speaker 1: It does. Financial abuse of the vulnerable is rarely an
- 32:46Speaker 1: isolated incident. It is often the quiet, invisible predecessor to
- 32:50Speaker 1: physical harm. We all need to stay vigilant about the
- 32:53Speaker 1: safety of the isolated, the elderly, or the chronically ill
- 32:56Speaker 1: people in our own lives.
- 32:58Speaker 2: We need to watch out for them.
- 32:59Speaker 1: Because this deep dive into the toxicology, the forensic physics
- 33:02Speaker 1: of those staged pills, and the mechanics of the drained
- 33:05Speaker 1: bank accounts prove that this wasn't a tragic woman seeking
- 33:08Speaker 1: an end to her pain. This was a calculated cold-blooded murder.
- 33:12Speaker 2: And it leaves us with a final, deeply unsettling concept
- 33:16Speaker 2: to consider.
- 33:17Speaker 1: What's that?
- 33:18Speaker 2: Petrahydroxylene is an untraceable anomaly unless a medical examiner has
- 33:23Speaker 2: a specific reason to look for it.
- 33:25Speaker 1: Oh, man.
- 33:25Speaker 2: It forces you to wonder how many other sudden, seemingly
- 33:29Speaker 2: natural deaths of sick or isolated individuals were actually perfect crimes.
- 33:34Speaker 1: Crimes executed quietly with something as mundane as a bottle
- 33:37Speaker 1: of eye drops sitting completely unnoticed on a nightstand.
- 33:40Speaker 2: It's a terrifying thought.
- 33:42Speaker 1: It really is. When the weapon is something you buy
- 33:44Speaker 1: for five bucks at a pharmacy... and the killer is
- 33:47Speaker 1: the person holding your hand, the truth is incredibly hard
- 33:50Speaker 1: to find. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive, everyone.
- 33:54Speaker 1: Keep your eyes open, and we'll see you next time.