Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess [Texas] Jessika Kalaher

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A Little Less Mess [Texas] Jessika Kalaher · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

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Hey, everyone, welcome to bless This Mess on the True Crme podcast.
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I'm Kara, Jess Kara. Welcome to a little less Mess. It's our
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regular episodes, but without the banter or the jokes or the cussinger anything that
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I think are fun, which is the inappropriateness. But if you would like
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to listen to our regular episodes, just check our it's in our regular list
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that comes out on wherever you get your podcast, and they're numbered and they
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come out on Thursdays. And yeah, but if you want just a just
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the facts podcast, here you go. Here's our stories without all of that
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do all sorts of things on Instagram, recipes just general life Southern things like
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another way to supports podcast is to subscribe and rate and review on iTunes or
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wherever you get your podcast. That's a really big help for us. So,
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without further ado, let's get into today's episode. Jessica kelais Her out
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of Texas. Jessica Lynn kellais Her was born May eight, nineteen eighty two,
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to Richard and Linda Klayer. She had two brothers, Richard and Cody.
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Jessica grew up in South Austin, but her family would later moved to
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Flugerville, where she would attend Flugerville High School, graduating in two thousand.
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Her parents would go on to divorce, with her dad remarry and giving her
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three new step siblings. Jessica was described as fun and bubbly, with an
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outgoing but caring personality. She had the unique ability to brighten up any room
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that she entered. She made friends very quickly. People were just drawn to
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her, which led her to having many friends throughout her life. Now.
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After high school, she would go on to attend Texas State University and graduate
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with a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies in two thousand and seven. After
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college, she worked at h g B, becoming a manager, but her
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real dream was teaching. She would also work as a substitute teacher at Union
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Hill Elementary while waiting on a permanent teaching position to open it. Now.
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During this time, she was saving to get her master's degree. She was
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described as being very hard a very hard worker who was either at school or
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at work. She was enjoying living her life in Cedar Park, Texas,
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with her two dogs, Tacoma and Duke, and her cousin John, a
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police officer with the Austin PD. Now on September six, two thousand and
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nine, the day before Labor Day, twenty seven year old Jessica spent the
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day with her cousin Melanie, whom she was best friends with, and some
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other friends. They went swimming and barbecued at a friend's house. Jessica was
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wearing a bathing suit and a white terrycloth cover up as she tied in the
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back of her neck with a bow. And After swimming, they headed to
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a local restaurant where Melanie bought Jessica a drink because Jessica was low in cash.
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After the restaurant, Jessica and the group headed to a bar where they
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played pool. Jessica only had one drink at the bar as she told everyone
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that she had to work early in the morning. Now, just after midnight,
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Jessica drove Melanie home. It was late around one thirty am, so
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Melanie asked Jessica just to sleep over, but Jessica told her she had to
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get going. Her dogs were waiting for her and she had to be up
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early for work. Jessica also told Melanie that she was stopping to get dog
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food on the way home. They said their goodbyes, and Jessica drove off.
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On the morning of September seventh, two thousand and nine, Melanie receives
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a call from a co worker of Jessica's from h GB saying that she did
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not show up for her shift, and Melanie is worried immediately, Jessica never
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misses work. She's very niple. She calls her brother, John, who
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lives with Jessica. He left her work around five third am and he thought
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Jessica was just asleep in her room. He heads home to check on her,
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but Jessica is not there. He immediately calls the Cedar Park police and
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ask him if they can run a trace on her cell phone. Says,
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this is just so unlike Jessica. Meanwhile, Melanie and her boyfriend go out
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searching for Jessica, retracing her steps. The police come back with a location
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of her cell phone. It's around one four three one and one and three
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highway area. Melanie heads straight there and sees Jessica's white Kia. She knew
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something was wrong right away. Her gas tank cap was off and she could
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see Jessica's figure in the car. She approaches the vehicle and knocks on the
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window, but Jessica does not respond. She opens the car door and immediately
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is immediately met with a very pungent odor. She touches Jessica's head and there
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is no response. Melanie's boyfriend calls nine one one, where you can hear
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Melanie screaming in the background. Police arrived one scene to find Jessica dead in
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the front seat of her car in a little Caesar's parking lot. The officers
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noticed the strong odor coming from the car. Jessica was partially undressed and wearing
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only her swimsuit coverup around her midsection. The tie string on the cover up
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was missing. There were feces on her legs in the front seat, on
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the rear passenger door, on a sunshade in the back seat, on the
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center console, on the back seats floorboards, and on items on the back
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seats floor. The inside of the car looked generally messy and in disarray and
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they could not find the keys to the car. The front seat was pushed
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all the way back, where Jessica would not have been able to reach the
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pedals. They immediately noticed bruising all over Jessica's body and ligage remarks around the
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front of her throat. Please begin interviewing eyewitnesses at the pizza store, and
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they had some strange stories to tell of what they saw that morning. An
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employee who arrived around nine am took special note of the Kia because it was
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parked in his usual spot. He then parked nearby and saw a woman crawl
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from the back seat to the front and accidentally hit the horn in the process.
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About thirty minutes later, another employee arrives and sees a woman in the
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key naked, crawling from the backs to the front seat, appearing to try
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to get dressed. He said her movements were not smoothed. She seemed uncoordinated
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and jerky. Around mid morning, the same employee saw the woman standing outside
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of the driver's side door, bent over looking for something in the car.
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He later saw her walk across the parking lot holding her hands up to her
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ears. He thought she was talking on the phone. Another employee witnessed the
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woman messing with her hair and it looked as if she was trying to put
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herself together. She says, she seemed to be acting skittish and like everything
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was scaring her. The employee just assumed the woman was on something and left
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her bee still. Later, the same employee took a smoke break and witnessed
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the woman talking to herself. Around noon, the same employee saw the woman
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sitting in the driver's seat, holding her right pointer finger almost touching the steering
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wheel and making figure eight motions. She was singing to herself and swaying like
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she was trying to soothe herself. An autopsy would later reveal that Jessica died
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from strangulation and other injuries that occurred during the attack. The medical examiner said
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it appeared she had been strangled in more than one manner, most likely from
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someone's hands squeezing and pushing up causing bruising, as well as soft ligature from
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something like cloth. Due to the small abrasions coming off the ligature mark,
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she had several defensive wounds, as if she was pulling at something to get
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it off of her neck. She had bruising across her shoulder, where the
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seat belt was most likely holding her down. She had a bruise on the
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tip of her tongue, consisting with someone strangling her with their hands and pushing
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her chin up, which caused her tongue to go between her teeth. She
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had also been raped. She had signs of severe brain damage from the attack.
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This explained her odd behavior that the Pete's employees witnessed. The medical examiner
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said the brain damage from lack of oxygen to the brain, combined with heat
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stroke and shock from the assault, would have made her act disoriented, please
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her in shock of what they're hearing. It was obviously Jessica, but no
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one called police or anything in all the hour she was wandering around her car
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in the Little Caesar's parking lot. They need more answers as to how Jessica
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got into that Little Caesar's parking lot, so they start looking around to see
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if any cameras caught any of the activity. The Little Caesar's had no cameras,
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but the Walmart near by did. Based on the information from the cousin
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and the large bag of dog food in the back of Jessica's car, it
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was most likely that she had purchased the food from Walmart, as it was
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the only place open to do so that late at night. They pull the
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footage and were able to see Jessica into the Walmart alone. At one forty
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four am. They watch her as she leaves and heads to a car.
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They see a man leave shortly after her, walking in the same direction.
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They follow the cameras to the parking lot, where you can see Jessica walking
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in a white cover up and a man with the hat following closely behind.
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Jessica does not seemed to notice the man as she's carrying this large bag of
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dog food and probably focusing on that, so Jessica goes out of the frame
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as her car was parked behind a large tree in the parking lot. You
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see the man go towards Jessica's car. Neither Jessica nor the man are seen
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exiting the frame. At one forty seven am, Jessica's car is seen leaving
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the parking lot, but anything happening inside the car is obscured by that tree.
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Now around two fifty three AM, about an hour after leaving the Walmart
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parking lot, another camera picks up Jessica's car. It was headed towards the
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Little Caesar's parking lot. A figure is seen exiting the driver's side and walking
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towards a red or maroon truck that was left in the Walmart parking lot.
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The man gets in the vehicle and drives off just a minute after Jessica's car
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was dropped off in the Little Caesar's parking lot. They go through the footage
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of the Walmart and they are able to get a view of the man that
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followed Jessica, but the picture is not very clear. Now. While they
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are searching the video footage, they subpoena for Jessica's debit and credit card activity.
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They find that Jessica was overdrawn by one hundred and fifty eight dollars.
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But the more surprising charge they find is one around three oh four am on
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the night of the murder. This was after Jessica's car had been dropped off
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at the pizza shop. The car was run at an Exon gas station.
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They head over to review the video footage, hoping it is decent quality.
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When the manager pulls up the time frame, they see a man wearing a
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similar outfit to the man in the Walmart footage, a shirt with a long
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horn symbol and a maroon hat with the long horn symbol. They continue watching
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the footage and see that the man drives off in the same vehicle that he
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had in the Walmart parking lot, an older maroon Chevrolet with large silver Chevrolet
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plate on the tailgate and a shiny chrome bumper. They knew they had their
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guy. Now to find out who he was, they blow up the picture
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and plaster it all over the news. They soon began getting tips leading to
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a twenty nine year old man named Crispin Harmel. They run Harmel's name through
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the system and get a hit. He had actually been stopped just three weeks
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prior to the murder for a routine traffic stop. They pull up the dash
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camp video and see that it is the same truck in person from all of
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the other videos. They know this is their guy. They head over to
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Harmel's parents home where he was staying. They see the truck in the driveway,
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but it has been altered. The chrome bumper had been painted black,
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and the chrome plate on the tellgate had been removed. At a subsequent search
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of Harmel's vehicle, they found a can of black spray paint in the truck,
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indicating he had altered his vehicle. When interviewing Carmel, he stated that
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Jessica and him had met on a sex website called Lonely Wives Hookup dot Com
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and planned to meet at Walmart the night she had been killed. He said
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they left in her vehicle and headed to a park. On the way,
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they stopped at the ATM so Jessico could withdraw twenty dollars to give him.
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He said, they made it to the park, had sex, then headed
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back. He switched his story a few times about where he was sitting when
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they returned to the pizza shop. At first he was in the passenger seat,
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then he was in the back seat, but police knew based on the
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footage he was in the driver's seat. To police that when he left Jessica,
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he saw the headlights of the key to come on as if she was
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leaving, but video evidence contradicts that statement. They asked him why he had
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her debit card. He says that she gave it to him because he needed
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gas money, and she wrote her pen number on his hand. He was
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to return it to her the next day around noon. To the h B,
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he says he drove around the HGB parking lot for about fifteen minutes but
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did not see her car. Detectives asked which h g B he went to,
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and he named a different location than where Jessica actually worked. He says
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he threw the card away since he had quote some dead girl's cart. Police
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let him go as they gather the evidence against him. He was scheduled to
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come in for another interview, but he had to play a softball game.
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Finally he comes in and they questioned him about Jessica's driver's seat being pushed back.
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He tells police, quote, I don't even want to think about it.
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It's gross. This statement strikes law enforcement as odd, as they had
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never released any details about the state of the vehicle being covered in feces.
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He also gives contradicting statements about his actions after he left Jessica. In his
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first interview, he says he went to a friend's house and waited for her
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in her fiance, but they never arrived. In this interview, he states
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he went to his friend's house, showered, watched the TV, even leaving
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clothes at their home. A later interview with the friend would reveal that he
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was lying about going over there after his meetup with Jessica. They get warns
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to search his computer and phone records. They searched the computer for any mention
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of Jessica, but the only instance of her name is the day after the
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murder from a were Austin dot com article, which is a news site talking
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about the murder. They found no connection between Jessica and Harmel through email,
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the website, phone records nothing. Jessica's laptop showed no record of her ever
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having been on any hookup site. Harmel did give them a username for Jessica,
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and they did find that on the website. However, that username had
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actually been activated six months after the murder. They began questioning his story,
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asking him why, if he was meeting Jessica, would they not even have
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acknowledged each other in the walmart. He says he can't remember if they actually
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did acknowledge each other, and they say that we know you didn't, and
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Crispin proceeds to ask how. They say, we have surveillance video, and
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at that point he shuts down and asked for an attorney. Despite all of
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this information, the d'a does not feel like they have enough to charge him
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for murder. Harmel's DNA was not found on Jessica or in her car.
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They believed the evidence was damaged due to the extreme temperatures in the vehicle.
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They do, however, have enough to charge him with tampering with evidence,
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and this was because he altered his vehicle which was a potential crime scene,
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and disposed of Jessica's debit card. In twenty ten, he pleads guilty and
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receives a ten year prison sentence. Please are determined to find additional evidence and
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put him away for Jessica's rape and murder. It takes three years, but
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Walmart discovers additional camera footage from a vending machine. They were unaware that these
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machines were equipped with video cameras. Police review the footage and it is a
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clear shot of Jessica's car. You see Jessica walk to it and then Harmel
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turn and go straight to her car. What the tree obscured from the other
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video? This one caught in twenty thirteen, The Day felt comfortable charging him
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with Jessica's murder. In twenty fourteen, Harmel went on trial for capital murder.
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However, this would end in a mistrial. The defense accused the prosecution
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of withholding evidence during the trial. It was revealed while the prosecution was arguing
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that the video actually had time stamps. Now, the defense was unaware of
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this and it contradicted their timeline that they were arguing. The judge did role
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in the defense's favor and they threw the prosecutor in jail for ten days over
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this. Now would be another four years before Harmel went on trial again for
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capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. The prosecution brought forth the
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video evidence, as well as multiple friends and families dating that Jessica had never
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mentioned Harmel and she would never go on a sex website. The defense argued
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that the vehicle did not have Harmel's prints in it or DNA. They also
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argued that Harmel had no intention of killing Jessica. Now On May twenty second,
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twenty eighteen, the jury went into deliberations around three pm. At eight
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forty five pm, the jury finds him guilty and he has sentenced to life
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in prison without the possibility of pearl. He is currently serving on his term
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in McConnell State Prison in Bville, Texas. Jessica's family started a memorial fund
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in her honor. They honor her memory with a final quote from Jessica,
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Someday everything will make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion,
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smile through the tears, and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a
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reason. Everything happens for a reason, and that's our case for today.
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If you enjoyed this or would like a little bit more of our opinions,
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because we do have them on this quite a few. I had to restrain
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myself, especially the name Crispin Um. Anyways, check out our regular weekly
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episode and I guess that's all, so we will see you next time.
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Bye. Everyone. Don't you know it's Byel to be superstanicious, by nothing
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else. It's working. It's pretty learning, Adam sick. It's working by Camp