Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Woman Goes Missing, Body Found, Revealing Photos Surface?

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Woman Goes Missing, Body Found, Revealing Photos Surface? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, just before COVID hit,
0:14
Speaker 1: I took my twins to New Orleans where were there
0:18
Speaker 1: for crime con. We had the best time. We flew
0:23
Speaker 1: in and we ate our way out. Okay, we ate everything.
0:28
Speaker 1: We saw everything, We did everything. We listened to the music,
0:34
Speaker 1: we looked at the people, we went in the shots,
0:38
Speaker 1: the big easy right. Not for Jessica Easterly. This beautiful woman,
0:49
Speaker 1: beautiful on the inside and out, is dead and I
0:56
Speaker 1: want answers Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Nancy Grace.
1:12
Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
1:14
Speaker 1: here at Fox Nation and Serious Exam one eleven with
1:19
Speaker 1: me an all star Palelm. But first I want to
1:22
Speaker 1: introduce to you someone that cannot speak for herself today,
1:26
Speaker 1: Jessica Easterly. Who is she? Take a listen to our
1:31
Speaker 1: friend Tyler Hunt at crime online dot com. The thing
1:34
Speaker 1: about siblings is that usually you get along or you don't.
1:37
Speaker 1: Jessica Easterly Durning and her sister, Audrey Gutierrez got along.
1:41
Speaker 1: The pair grew up in Mississippi, but now as adults,
1:43
Speaker 1: live in different states, so they spent hours on the
1:46
Speaker 1: phone or sharing long encouraging messages on Facebook. But it
1:49
Speaker 1: was those phone calls that raised an alarm. Those phone
1:52
Speaker 1: calls raised an alarm, you know. And I look at Jessica,
1:58
Speaker 1: she just looks like everybody's best friend, the best sister
2:01
Speaker 1: you could ever imagine. I do not want her death
2:07
Speaker 1: to be lost in the sauce, lost in the shuffle
2:11
Speaker 1: this file to that department, to this department, to that department,
2:14
Speaker 1: and never any answers. Oh no, that is not gonna happen.
2:20
Speaker 1: With me an all star panel to make sense of it.
2:23
Speaker 1: Crimeline dot com investigative reporter. You know her well, Lee Egan,
2:28
Speaker 1: Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My
2:32
Speaker 1: Feet on Amazon, Death Investigator and start of a brand
2:36
Speaker 1: new hit on the True crime network, Poisonous Liaisons. Joseph
2:40
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan. He's been on literally thousands of death scenes.
2:46
Speaker 1: Renowned psychoanalyst, joining us from Beverly Hills Featured and Netflix
2:51
Speaker 1: as brand new hit Bleeding Empire. You can find her
2:55
Speaker 1: at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Renowned a turn a
3:00
Speaker 1: trial veteran, former prosecutor turned defense attorney. Daryl Cohen the
3:06
Speaker 1: name of his law firm is Cohen, Cooper, Estep and Alan.
3:12
Speaker 1: He's joining us today, but special guests joining us. Audrey Schmidt,
3:18
Speaker 1: Jessica's sister. She is leading the battle at the forefront.
3:24
Speaker 1: You can find all her information at Justice for Jessica
3:28
Speaker 1: dot org. Also with me Jessica's best friend, Maria Creole.
3:37
Speaker 1: You know, I've studied a lot about Jessica, Maria a lot, Audrey.
3:44
Speaker 1: I know, she was a voracious reader. She would read
3:49
Speaker 1: all kind of books, everything from cooking to design to
3:52
Speaker 1: Fifty Shades trilogy, you name it. She loved to laugh,
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Speaker 1: and when she married, she devoted her life to her
4:05
Speaker 1: brand new, built in family, including a little girl named Gracie.
4:11
Speaker 1: Am I right about at least that much, Audrey, Yes,
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Speaker 1: ma'am you are and know. And the pictures of her,
4:19
Speaker 1: it's like happiness. My grandmother just used to say when
4:23
Speaker 1: she would look at my picture, my grandmother Lucy that
4:26
Speaker 1: I named my daughter after, She says she could just
4:29
Speaker 1: see the devilment coming out even though I'd be smiling
4:33
Speaker 1: in the picture. There's just this aura coming out of her.
4:38
Speaker 1: She's just so alive. What about it? Yes, yes, she was,
4:43
Speaker 1: she was very happy, super happy. That's why I don't
4:46
Speaker 1: understand what exactly has gone wrong. First of all, take
4:50
Speaker 1: a listen to this. Last time the friends communicated was
4:53
Speaker 1: by text. Two days go by with no contact from Jessica.
4:56
Speaker 1: Really is worried. Then comes a Facebook message from Easter
4:59
Speaker 1: Leasa count. It was Jessica's husband, justin Darning, asking if
5:03
Speaker 1: his wife was with her best friend. Creel tells NBC's
5:06
Speaker 1: day Line that she knew then that something terrible had happened.
5:09
Speaker 1: Straight out to Maria Creole, you state that that's when
5:13
Speaker 1: you knew something was very, very wrong, when you got
5:16
Speaker 1: a call want to know, Hey, is Jessica with you?
5:19
Speaker 1: What happened? Yes, ma'am, I was. I was very alarmed,
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Speaker 1: like I felt all of the blood in my body
5:27
Speaker 1: her and cold. I don't I don't know how else
5:29
Speaker 1: to express that, but I literally felt a whole chill
5:35
Speaker 1: come over my body when I saw a text from her,
5:40
Speaker 1: But it wasn't from her saying where is she? And
5:44
Speaker 1: my boyfriend had just asked me if I had heard
5:48
Speaker 1: back from her since Monday, because we had discussed what
5:53
Speaker 1: was going on with her, because she seemed very panicked
5:57
Speaker 1: when she contacted me on Monday. So to get a
5:59
Speaker 1: meage things she was missing. I just felt frozen. You
6:04
Speaker 1: said you got a text from her, but it wasn't
6:07
Speaker 1: from her. Explain, Um, it was from her Facebook account,
6:12
Speaker 1: but it was from her husband saying, where okay man
6:19
Speaker 1: Joseph's got Morgan death investigator. What is that sensation? Because
6:26
Speaker 1: my dad was hated heights, and I don't hate them.
6:31
Speaker 1: I love to go hiking and up mountain trails. But
6:34
Speaker 1: when I'm really high up and I'll look down, sometimes
6:38
Speaker 1: I can feel a tingle run down my legs. Or
6:41
Speaker 1: there's times when I get a chill, like Maria was
6:45
Speaker 1: just describing. Or sometimes you know, when you hear a
6:50
Speaker 1: certain thing, the hare will stand up, You'll get a
6:52
Speaker 1: chill on your arm. What is that? Something mental is happening,
6:56
Speaker 1: but you have a physical reaction. She said. Her blood
7:00
Speaker 1: went cold, yeah, probably flush face. She could feel herself
7:04
Speaker 1: getting warm all over her body. It's a lot yeah,
7:08
Speaker 1: well cold, uh and hot too. I mean, I've had
7:12
Speaker 1: these sensations. You. It's a physiological response to something that's
7:16
Speaker 1: buried deep within your brain. Something that I don't know
7:20
Speaker 1: how to explain it other than the fact that we
7:22
Speaker 1: have an ability as humans to sense trouble. We have
7:26
Speaker 1: an ability to sense things that are I don't know,
7:30
Speaker 1: kind of pointing to maybe bad news or maybe something
7:34
Speaker 1: kind of ominous or dangerous. Yeah, and its voting. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
7:40
Speaker 1: What is that doctor Bethany with me from Beverly Hills.
7:44
Speaker 1: Is doctor Bethany Marshall. There's a mind body connection, but
7:47
Speaker 1: that doesn't explain. It's almost like um, esp you know,
7:53
Speaker 1: you immediately sense something is wrong. And I've discussed this
7:56
Speaker 1: with Darryl Cohen trial lawyer many times that you have
8:00
Speaker 1: the victims say I knew you right then something was
8:02
Speaker 1: wrong before they could possibly know anything was wrong, but
8:06
Speaker 1: they do. And to think that she got the Facebook
8:08
Speaker 1: message from the husband but it was through her sister's Facebook.
8:14
Speaker 1: I mean, right there, you have a clue that something
8:17
Speaker 1: is not right, that the normal communication exactly. Lie Agan
8:24
Speaker 1: joining me from Crime online dot Com investigative reporter. Just
8:28
Speaker 1: give me the dates in the locations. Let me get
8:30
Speaker 1: the nuts and bolts down first so I can start
8:32
Speaker 1: a timeline. Okay. Nancy said the last time that Jessica
8:36
Speaker 1: spoke with her best friend Maria and with her sister
8:40
Speaker 1: was August twelfth, twenty nineteen. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
8:59
Speaker 1: where is Jessica At this point, her sister, her family,
9:02
Speaker 1: her friends have no idea. Take a listen to this.
9:07
Speaker 1: She had left everything behind, her cell phone, car key's money,
9:10
Speaker 1: and her id all still in the home. Creole calls
9:13
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Police Department to perform a welfare check
9:16
Speaker 1: at the Durning home. That evening, Jessica's husband files a
9:19
Speaker 1: missing person's report. So the husband finds missing person's report.
9:23
Speaker 1: The husband Justin Joseph Durning Junior. Now, let me understand
9:27
Speaker 1: this correctly. The timeline, Maria Creole, this is Jessica's best
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Speaker 1: friend along with all Jie sch met her sister. August twelve,
9:36
Speaker 1: you hear from Jessica. Then August forteen, you hear from
9:42
Speaker 1: the husband through her Facebook saying, hey, is she with you?
9:46
Speaker 1: Do I have that timing correct? Yes, ma'am Lee Agan.
9:49
Speaker 1: When was the missing person's report made? It was made
9:52
Speaker 1: on August fourteenth, after they spoke with after Maria message
9:57
Speaker 1: with Justin. Okay, so you two are messaging back and forth.
10:02
Speaker 1: Audrey Schmidt, when did you get in the mix trying
10:04
Speaker 1: to find your sister? I didn't find out until around
10:09
Speaker 1: the seventeenth or eighteen, Maria had tried contacting me, but
10:15
Speaker 1: we weren't friends on Facebook, so I didn't you know,
10:18
Speaker 1: I didn't see her message, right, gotcha? Gotcha. I'm trying
10:23
Speaker 1: to make sense of everything that we are hearing, you know,
10:25
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, former prosecutor, felony prosecutor turned defense attorney. So
10:31
Speaker 1: often we see something almost exactly like this at the
10:37
Speaker 1: beginning of a missing person scenario, where everyone's attention is
10:42
Speaker 1: raised because they simply don't hear from someone they miss
10:47
Speaker 1: a day August twelve, she hears from her at August
10:51
Speaker 1: thirteen and nothing, and then suddenly she realizes something is wrong.
10:56
Speaker 1: You know, to a lot of people, you think, wow,
10:58
Speaker 1: you didn't hear from her one day, why are you worried?
11:01
Speaker 1: But it's called quote behave routine evidence. I don't mean
11:07
Speaker 1: it's SOPs to interoperating procedure like ordinary evidence. I mean
11:11
Speaker 1: it's evidence of someone's routine. If Jessica Easterly Derning had
11:17
Speaker 1: spoken with her best friend practically every day, Maria, and
11:20
Speaker 1: then she misses, and then sullenly Maria gets a Facebook
11:24
Speaker 1: from the husband, then she knows immediately something's wrong. You
11:29
Speaker 1: cannot discount that kind of evidence. Darryll Cohen, Well, something
11:33
Speaker 1: is obviously wrong. And when you also take into account
11:36
Speaker 1: that all of her items of personal with her driver's license, etc.
11:40
Speaker 1: Were found in the house, you don't just leave without that.
11:44
Speaker 1: If you're going to leave on your own, you have
11:46
Speaker 1: to take something to make sure that people know that
11:50
Speaker 1: you're somebody, not necessarily who you are, but they if
11:53
Speaker 1: you're checking into a hotel, checking into a motel, going somewhere,
11:57
Speaker 1: they need id so. And you're right, Nancy, what I
12:02
Speaker 1: do every day. If suddenly then tomorrow I don't do it,
12:06
Speaker 1: that's unusual. If I don't do it two days in
12:09
Speaker 1: a row, something is wrong. So the Facebook post it
12:14
Speaker 1: makes no sense. It tells me we've got a problem,
12:18
Speaker 1: and it's a major problem. Where is she? Why is
12:22
Speaker 1: she gone? Did somebody take her? Is there any evidence
12:25
Speaker 1: of breaking or entering into that house where they may
12:28
Speaker 1: have kidnapped her? Obviously if there was, we would know that,
12:31
Speaker 1: But why would many everything? If I could jump in quick.
12:36
Speaker 1: It's not what we get from people. It's sometimes what
12:39
Speaker 1: we don't get. It's the absences. It's not the call
12:42
Speaker 1: that raises the alarm. It's the lack of a call.
12:45
Speaker 1: You can feel the emptiness and the hollowness when somebody
12:48
Speaker 1: is not there. And I think that's what you're talking about.
12:51
Speaker 1: I've had couples come to therapy and the wife says,
12:53
Speaker 1: I think I think my husband's having an affair. And
12:56
Speaker 1: I say why, and she says, well, he came home
12:58
Speaker 1: ten minutes late yesterday. And I never underestimate the level
13:03
Speaker 1: of anxiety the wife might have when the pattern breaks.
13:07
Speaker 1: Patterning is so important, and that's what Jessica's sister and
13:11
Speaker 1: best friend are talking about. The pattern of all that
13:13
Speaker 1: daily contact broke. It might seem slight to the viewers,
13:18
Speaker 1: to the listeners, to people who say that you don't
13:20
Speaker 1: hear from your family for a day, but we know
13:23
Speaker 1: the patterns of our loved ones, and when those patterns
13:27
Speaker 1: shift even slightly, we know something is off. I'm just
13:32
Speaker 1: taking in what you're saying. And Maria, I've told Bethany
13:37
Speaker 1: this story before. But my husband travels a lot for
13:40
Speaker 1: his business, and he calls him the airport, then he
13:44
Speaker 1: calls him, he touches down, then he calls when he
13:46
Speaker 1: gets from the rental card or whatever hotel or mating
13:50
Speaker 1: he's at that he made it there right, So he
13:54
Speaker 1: was somewhere in Florida on a deal, and he called
13:59
Speaker 1: when he touchdown. But then I didn't hear from him again.
14:02
Speaker 1: Do you know. I analysted my friends. We were on
14:05
Speaker 1: the phone until three or four o'clock in the morning.
14:08
Speaker 1: I just imagine somebody hitting him in the head in
14:10
Speaker 1: a parking lot, or carjacking him, or you know, killing over,
14:16
Speaker 1: having a heart attack, or choking in his hotel room. Finally,
14:21
Speaker 1: d my friend found the hotel room. I call the manager.
14:26
Speaker 1: Of course, they did not want to disturb him, but
14:29
Speaker 1: after I threatened them, they did go knock on his door.
14:34
Speaker 1: He was sound asleep. He had gotten up that morning
14:37
Speaker 1: at four o'clock to catch the flight and sound asleep
14:41
Speaker 1: with the cell phone right there. And I was so happy.
14:46
Speaker 1: I didn't even fuss at him. But that one text missing,
14:50
Speaker 1: that one text, I knew that was totally out of
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Speaker 1: the ordinary. So when she doesn't care brought you back
14:58
Speaker 1: or call you, Maria, what went through your mind? I
15:03
Speaker 1: wasn't sure what to make of her not calling me
15:07
Speaker 1: back on the thirteenth. After speaking to her on the twelfth,
15:12
Speaker 1: I was a little concerned, But you know as adults
15:17
Speaker 1: with active lives. I thought I would hear her from
15:21
Speaker 1: her soon enough. But then when the fourteenth also proceeded
15:26
Speaker 1: to go by, and I didn't hear from her, And
15:28
Speaker 1: then I think I got a message from her, and
15:32
Speaker 1: I opened the message and it's it's her husband instead.
15:37
Speaker 1: I immediately was very very concerned. All of the hair
15:43
Speaker 1: on my head stood up, my blood went cold. I
15:46
Speaker 1: just knew something was very very wrong. And another thing
15:51
Speaker 1: that I believe Daryl or Joe Scott brought out, Lee
15:55
Speaker 1: Agan Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, is this correct
16:00
Speaker 1: act that her cell phone, car keys, money, and I
16:03
Speaker 1: d are all still in her home. Nancy, her cell
16:07
Speaker 1: phone and keys were in the home, but her id
16:09
Speaker 1: was not. You know, that's curious. The just sp Why
16:15
Speaker 1: would you leave without your cell phone or your car keys?
16:19
Speaker 1: And let me understand something. Audrey Schmidt, you are Jessica's sister.
16:23
Speaker 1: Where was her car? It was there at the house.
16:27
Speaker 1: So the cars there? What kind of car does she drive?
16:29
Speaker 1: Audrey range Over? So driving a range owner And where
16:34
Speaker 1: was it park? Typically in the driveway, So the range
16:39
Speaker 1: Rover sitting there, big as ike in the driveway, her
16:42
Speaker 1: cell phone is there, her car keys are there, her
16:48
Speaker 1: range rover is there, But no Jessica. I mean, what's
16:52
Speaker 1: the theory here that she set out on foot? So
16:57
Speaker 1: what do we know about her? How can we make
16:59
Speaker 1: sid of it? If everybody came home and I wasn't here,
17:03
Speaker 1: they would probably look to see if my favorite tennis sheees,
17:05
Speaker 1: or hear my running shoes because maybe I'm out jogging
17:08
Speaker 1: or walking. Is the dog here? Have I taken him out?
17:11
Speaker 1: Because if your cars here and all your stuff's here,
17:13
Speaker 1: the only thing missing is you were talking about a
17:17
Speaker 1: beautiful a beautiful young woman on the inside and out
17:21
Speaker 1: suddenly seemingly vanishes off the face of the earth. Jessica Easterly.
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Speaker 1: But who is she? Will it give us a clue
17:28
Speaker 1: as to where she is? Take a listen to our
17:30
Speaker 1: friends at w D SUTV. By all accounts, Jessica Easterly
17:35
Speaker 1: Durning was a kind and fun loving person. One thing
17:41
Speaker 1: she did good, one thing she did so well, or
17:44
Speaker 1: she made friends. That's why her family believes something went
17:48
Speaker 1: terribly wrong just about three months ago, when Jessica was
17:51
Speaker 1: reported missing from her home in lake View. Guys, you're
17:54
Speaker 1: hearing our friends at w DSUTV. But you're also hearing
17:58
Speaker 1: her dad Rick speaking, and you could just hear his
18:03
Speaker 1: voice cracking, and it makes me think of my dad
18:06
Speaker 1: so much, hearing the pain in his voice when he
18:11
Speaker 1: realizes Jessica is gone. Then the case takes a horrible
18:16
Speaker 1: and unexpected turn. Take a listen to Tyler Hunt Crime online.
18:22
Speaker 1: A week after Easterly was last seen, two of her sisters,
18:25
Speaker 1: Audrey and Amanda, and a cousin traveled to New Orleans.
18:29
Speaker 1: The plan is to speak with detectives, but they made
18:31
Speaker 1: us stop first in Jessica's neighborhood. Driving through, they smelled
18:34
Speaker 1: a foul odor and stopped to search on foot. About
18:37
Speaker 1: two blocks from Easterly's home. That's when Audrey found a
18:39
Speaker 1: body dressed in a black tank top, black shorts, and
18:43
Speaker 1: black shoots Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Her sisters, Audrey
19:00
Speaker 1: and Amanda decide to take it upon themselves to find
19:04
Speaker 1: their sister. Audrey, I am so sorry for what you've
19:10
Speaker 1: been through. I cannot even imagine finding her body. First
19:18
Speaker 1: of all, you decide you're going on a road trip,
19:23
Speaker 1: and you drive with your sister Amanda all the way
19:26
Speaker 1: to New Orleans to look for Jessica, what led you
19:30
Speaker 1: to go look for her yourself? Well, we we decided
19:37
Speaker 1: to kind of scout out places for a future search party.
19:43
Speaker 1: And when we drove down the road on Countworth and Orleans,
19:50
Speaker 1: my cousin Doug, he kind of smelt something, but he
19:55
Speaker 1: didn't tell us, you know what he was smelling, and
19:58
Speaker 1: he got out the car. So you were going very
20:01
Speaker 1: slowly because if I passed something driving quickly, I may
20:05
Speaker 1: not smell it. Well, actually I don't smell nothing. Because
20:08
Speaker 1: I had COVID, I can't smell anything. But before COVID,
20:11
Speaker 1: I may not have even noticed it unless I was
20:13
Speaker 1: driving very slowly. So what are you very carefully going
20:16
Speaker 1: through the neighborhood at a slow mph? Yes, ma'am, yes
20:21
Speaker 1: we were. But why did you decide to set out
20:24
Speaker 1: on your own with your sister? Did you feel that
20:26
Speaker 1: no one was searching for her? Yes, ma'am, I did.
20:29
Speaker 1: Why Well, because no one was searching for her. The
20:34
Speaker 1: NPD didn't search for her. Why, I don't know. I
20:38
Speaker 1: don't know what's wrong with them. I find that very odd.
20:44
Speaker 1: I don't disbelieve you, But why wouldn't they be out
20:46
Speaker 1: searching for her? I mean, all the time, we cover
20:49
Speaker 1: cases where you've got searches by air, my land, by horseback,
20:52
Speaker 1: by ATV cadet's walking shoulder to shoulders searching bodies of water.
20:57
Speaker 1: But why weren't they searching for her? They told us
21:02
Speaker 1: that that the reason why there was never a search
21:06
Speaker 1: conducted was because manpower and the resources can. I will
21:11
Speaker 1: leave that for later on in our program. So you
21:14
Speaker 1: take it upon yourself. What was the husband doing. I
21:18
Speaker 1: don't know, he hasn't contacted me. Well, I don't like
21:22
Speaker 1: that right there, but that's a whole nother can of worms.
21:25
Speaker 1: So you and your sister, and I think you said
21:28
Speaker 1: your cousin, a male cousin was in the car, Yes, ma'am.
21:32
Speaker 1: His name is Doug. And you're all just driving around
21:35
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. I mean, what else can you do? Just
21:39
Speaker 1: start where she was last seen and start looking. You're
21:42
Speaker 1: driving around the neighborhood, and what happens, Well, there's a
21:49
Speaker 1: canal wall there, and my cousin, Doug, was me and
21:53
Speaker 1: him was walking along the canal wall and he smelt
21:58
Speaker 1: something and so he pointed me in another direction, said
22:01
Speaker 1: why don't you go search over there? I found out
22:04
Speaker 1: later it was because he didn't want me to see Jessica,
22:08
Speaker 1: if you know, if he was going to find her.
22:10
Speaker 1: He thought for sure he was going to find her.
22:13
Speaker 1: And I was just walking along the railroad tracks and
22:18
Speaker 1: I seen a tarp and I slid down the rocks
22:23
Speaker 1: and I hit the tarp with my foot and I
22:26
Speaker 1: was just sitting there praying, please, don't want that be Jessica,
22:28
Speaker 1: and um it wasn't. But then I I walked about
22:33
Speaker 1: five feet and there she would. She was just laying
22:37
Speaker 1: there in the tree line and m perknee was black.
22:44
Speaker 1: And at first I thought it was someone was burning
22:47
Speaker 1: wood or something like. My eyes didn't focus. I didn't
22:50
Speaker 1: know what it was at first, and I thought, well,
22:54
Speaker 1: that's strange. Why would somebody be burning wood in the woods.
23:00
Speaker 1: And so then I looked again and then my eyes
23:05
Speaker 1: spoke as nurse she was, I'm so sorry for crying, Audrey.
23:10
Speaker 1: I want to cry to you know Audrey, what you
23:14
Speaker 1: went through. I want you to speak to doctor Bethany
23:17
Speaker 1: Marshall for a moment. Our psychoanais joining us from Beverly Hills.
23:20
Speaker 1: You know, Bethany, When my fiance Key was buried at
23:26
Speaker 1: his funeral, I did not want to look at his
23:28
Speaker 1: body in a casket, and I remember, at a distance
23:33
Speaker 1: I glanced in and I saw it just part of
23:36
Speaker 1: his face above the coffin, and I passed out. Of course,
23:40
Speaker 1: I was much younger then, and I was not used
23:43
Speaker 1: to seeing dead bodies or crime scenes. And to this day,
23:47
Speaker 1: if I smell carnations, I get nauseous because when I
23:53
Speaker 1: came to you know how those funeral home flowers smell
23:57
Speaker 1: kind of a fake floral smell. And this girl, Audrey,
24:03
Speaker 1: goes out on her own when nobody is looking for
24:07
Speaker 1: her sister. She goes out with her sister and cousin
24:11
Speaker 1: and there they are out there, just wandering around on
24:17
Speaker 1: their own, nobody's helping them, and she says her sister,
24:23
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you get past something like that
24:26
Speaker 1: in your life? Bethany and Anthony, this is the pure
24:32
Speaker 1: definition of trauma. First of all, you know, getting that
24:37
Speaker 1: message through Facebook and knowing something's amiss, having to search
24:42
Speaker 1: on your own without the police coming and helping you,
24:45
Speaker 1: and then seeing your sister on the ground in the
24:48
Speaker 1: tree line. Nothing would prepare her, Jessica's sister to see
24:54
Speaker 1: something like this is a trauma scene. Much like people
24:59
Speaker 1: who watch the World Trade Center go down, or see
25:04
Speaker 1: the aftermath of a plane accident. Part of what trauma
25:07
Speaker 1: is is what we see, not just what we experience.
25:10
Speaker 1: And then she has to think about what happened to
25:13
Speaker 1: her sister, how did the body get there, what trauma
25:15
Speaker 1: did the sister endure before she was killed. I would
25:19
Speaker 1: suggest that you see a trauma specialist, somebody who just
25:25
Speaker 1: specializes in treating people who have seen and witnessed horrific
25:30
Speaker 1: events in their life, because without that, you might find
25:35
Speaker 1: that you're having flashbacks to the scene, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, isolation, numbing.
25:42
Speaker 1: When people are traumatized, anything in the present that reminds
25:47
Speaker 1: them of what happened in the past is seen as
25:50
Speaker 1: being identical. So even maybe seeing trees, looking at Facebook,
25:56
Speaker 1: getting a phone call from out of the blue, driving
25:59
Speaker 1: past a station, all of these triggers are going to
26:03
Speaker 1: put you straight back to that day where you saw
26:05
Speaker 1: Jessica on the ground and you smell those smells. And
26:09
Speaker 1: maybe seeing an MDR therapist or a Thomas specialist, yes,
26:13
Speaker 1: would help unlink the present from the past. Guys, we
26:17
Speaker 1: are trying to get answers in the disappearance and death.
26:22
Speaker 1: This beautiful woman, beautiful on the inside and out. Jessica Easterly,
26:28
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friends at w D SUTV.
26:31
Speaker 1: It's a case that's left at Jessica's neighbors and lake
26:33
Speaker 1: View residence on high alert after the body was recovered
26:37
Speaker 1: near the six ten underpass. Everything seems to be hush hush.
26:41
Speaker 1: The police don't know anything. The neighborhood is very upset
26:44
Speaker 1: about it, and we would really like some answers as
26:46
Speaker 1: to what happened to our neighbor and more from DSU Monday,
26:51
Speaker 1: the partner confirmed that a body found a couple of
26:53
Speaker 1: blocks away belonged to Jessica. The positive idea in this
26:57
Speaker 1: case took more than two months. This thing would not
27:00
Speaker 1: have taken as long as it has. It should not
27:04
Speaker 1: lead in the New Orleans Sun for a week and
27:08
Speaker 1: a half before her body was found. Altia Terres, do
27:12
Speaker 1: we know the cod Could you confirm that for me?
27:15
Speaker 1: Cause of days it's undetermined, undetermined, But I can tell
27:20
Speaker 1: you this, she didn't go out and kill herself out
27:24
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere and just lie down and
27:28
Speaker 1: die of natural causes that did not happen. This is
27:31
Speaker 1: a homicide. Now we have to do is figure out
27:35
Speaker 1: who did it to jeth Investigator Joseph Scott Morgan. I
27:40
Speaker 1: can't believe that we still don't have a c O D.
27:47
Speaker 1: I can't either. Needs We're talking a year or more
27:52
Speaker 1: now down range from when this tragedy occurred, and still
27:57
Speaker 1: we don't have any answers. The only trauma indications that
28:02
Speaker 1: they actually talked about in public that I can find
28:05
Speaker 1: reference to is trauma to her to her head and
28:09
Speaker 1: her face. We're talking about yes and jaw. You're right again.
28:14
Speaker 1: Listen to tylerr Aunt Crime online. It would be three
28:16
Speaker 1: months before the body was identified by the Orleans Parish
28:19
Speaker 1: Corner's Office as Jessica Easterly Durning. Two more months passed
28:22
Speaker 1: before the autopsy report is released to the family. Orleans
28:25
Speaker 1: Parish Corner's Office finds evidence that Jessica sustained a nose
28:29
Speaker 1: injury as well as a small linear fracture to her
28:31
Speaker 1: jaw around the time she died, but there's no indication
28:34
Speaker 1: how those injuries might have been sustained. Both the cause
28:37
Speaker 1: and manner of Jessica's death are undetermined. Ridiculous. She did
28:42
Speaker 1: not go wander out in the sun and just fall
28:45
Speaker 1: over dead and sustain a fracture to her nose and
28:50
Speaker 1: jaw three months before an id Oh and oh absolutely
28:56
Speaker 1: not because when Audrey Schmidt walked up and saw her sister,
29:00
Speaker 1: she knew there that was her sister. Why did it
29:04
Speaker 1: take them three months before they could id the body
29:07
Speaker 1: and two more months and we still don't have a
29:11
Speaker 1: cause of death? Lee Egan Crime Online. What's the problem, Nancy.
29:17
Speaker 1: They are saying it's undetermined. They just cannot figure out
29:21
Speaker 1: whether there was foul play or not. And that's the
29:24
Speaker 1: hold of crime stories with Nancy Grace. I'm trying to
29:41
Speaker 1: figure out what a photo of Jessica's phuton and headboard
29:48
Speaker 1: have to do with this, Audrey with me, Audrey Smidt Schmidt,
29:53
Speaker 1: this is Jessica's sister. Also with me, her very best friend,
29:56
Speaker 1: Maria Krill. Why did you send us a photo of
30:02
Speaker 1: Jessica's phuton and headboard because he was seeing throwing that
30:07
Speaker 1: out after the cops that went to his house to
30:11
Speaker 1: question him, and a couple hours later he threw that
30:15
Speaker 1: out and they came by and took forensics of it.
30:20
Speaker 1: And that was back in October of twenty twenty, and
30:24
Speaker 1: we're still waiting on results for that. What if anything,
30:27
Speaker 1: did you observe about the futon and headboard anything at all?
30:34
Speaker 1: It was shocking to see it looks like blood is
30:38
Speaker 1: on there. I don't know. I'm not an expert, but
30:41
Speaker 1: I mean, why would you get rid of your phuton
30:43
Speaker 1: that was in the bedroom and yeah, headboard, Darryl Cohen,
30:47
Speaker 1: you're the defense lawyer, why would you? And let me
30:50
Speaker 1: just point out that the husband has not been named
30:53
Speaker 1: a POY president of interest. He has not been named
30:56
Speaker 1: a suspect at all. And let me cars something up
31:00
Speaker 1: before Daryl speaks. Maria Krill, when was it the husband
31:04
Speaker 1: throws out the headboard. It was just this past October,
31:08
Speaker 1: so a good fourteen months after she had gone missing.
31:13
Speaker 1: I'm very curious about that. Go ahead, Daryl, Nancy. That
31:16
Speaker 1: doesn't bother me. If he had thrown it out immediately,
31:19
Speaker 1: then it bothers me because it tells me there's forensic
31:21
Speaker 1: evidence on that headboard. But I keep coming back to
31:25
Speaker 1: is no one leaves on their own without their cell phone.
31:29
Speaker 1: Their idea. They may leave, they may leave their car keys,
31:32
Speaker 1: but their cell phone is attached at the hip, at
31:36
Speaker 1: the hand, at the ear. I still have a problem
31:39
Speaker 1: with throwing out the futon. And was it Maria or
31:43
Speaker 1: Audrey that said there was a substance on the futon
31:46
Speaker 1: and it was tested at the crime lab. I mean,
31:48
Speaker 1: for all I know it came back as ketchup. I
31:50
Speaker 1: don't know. It hasn't came back yet. We hadn't gotten
31:53
Speaker 1: results on that yet. And when was it? When did
31:55
Speaker 1: they said it into the crime lab? How long has
31:57
Speaker 1: it been? October twenty two? But we always know it
32:01
Speaker 1: takes over a year for anything to come back from
32:04
Speaker 1: any crime lab. That's ridiculous. On a good day, that's
32:07
Speaker 1: absolutely a resert. What about it? You just got Morgan,
32:10
Speaker 1: you're working at the crime lab and with forensics every day. Yeah,
32:14
Speaker 1: first off, it's it's nothing to test. Let's just take
32:19
Speaker 1: the futon, for instance, this soft malleable fabric. You're just
32:23
Speaker 1: going to test it for fluids and specifically we're gonna
32:27
Speaker 1: be looking for blood or what we think might be blood,
32:30
Speaker 1: and either you're going to get a positive or negative result.
32:32
Speaker 1: I'm not even talking about typing, Nancy. I'm just gonna say, look,
32:36
Speaker 1: we've got the presence of blood here. Now how do
32:38
Speaker 1: we explain that? I don't know, But just not to
32:41
Speaker 1: simply have a response. And let me tell you one
32:44
Speaker 1: more thing that's very troubling to me as a death investigator.
32:48
Speaker 1: It's this headboard. I can't tell you how many cases
32:52
Speaker 1: I've worked over the years where the headboard has become
32:55
Speaker 1: involved in blood staining. Because when you think about head trauma,
33:00
Speaker 1: there could be cast off, there could be actual radiating
33:04
Speaker 1: spray that comes onto a headboard. So you want to
33:07
Speaker 1: put as much distance between yourself and that headboard as
33:10
Speaker 1: possible and get it out of this environment contextually. Because
33:15
Speaker 1: if we go back in and reconstruct this crime scene
33:18
Speaker 1: and it's the headboard, we think the head is adjacent
33:21
Speaker 1: to that, and we see blood on there, you're damn right,
33:24
Speaker 1: we're gonna be looking at this thing and trying to
33:26
Speaker 1: figure out the dynamics of what actually happened. You know,
33:30
Speaker 1: when I was you know, I was floored again. You know,
33:34
Speaker 1: I covered this initially, but I was floored again when
33:37
Speaker 1: I heard it was I was reminded of this fracture
33:40
Speaker 1: that she had of the jaw. People talk about getting
33:43
Speaker 1: their jaw fractured periodically. You'll sit in the news and whatnot.
33:46
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, Nancy and the jaw itself demandable,
33:52
Speaker 1: is a very robust bone. It is difficult to fracture.
33:57
Speaker 1: You see boxers that sustain tremendous impacts, they don't get
34:01
Speaker 1: their jaws fractured. It takes specific trauma, It takes directed
34:06
Speaker 1: trauma to fracture that bone. It's created that way in
34:12
Speaker 1: the body. Again, let me say the husband, his name
34:16
Speaker 1: Justin Joseph Darning Junior, has not He has not been
34:22
Speaker 1: named a suspect or a person of interest in this case.
34:25
Speaker 1: I want to go back to Maria Krill, the best
34:27
Speaker 1: friend of Jessica Easterly Darning. You also got a text
34:33
Speaker 1: from her something about I don't know what's going to
34:36
Speaker 1: happen when I go home. Yes, ma'am, that's correct. She
34:40
Speaker 1: was um on Monday afternoon. Um she was at a
34:46
Speaker 1: doctor's appointment with her stepdaughter, and UM. She she had
34:54
Speaker 1: called me earlier and UM we had we had made
34:59
Speaker 1: some tentative for the following day and I I was
35:05
Speaker 1: messaging her about those plans and she called me because
35:11
Speaker 1: while while she was away from the home and using
35:14
Speaker 1: her cell phone to contact me through Messenger, her Messenger
35:18
Speaker 1: account was also available there at the house via her
35:24
Speaker 1: tablet or their or their laptop. So she didn't want
35:29
Speaker 1: anything to be in writing that could be read from
35:34
Speaker 1: the house while she was away, because you know what,
35:38
Speaker 1: I would just I couldn't care less he reads my
35:41
Speaker 1: phone or my iPad, the twins read it, my husband
35:44
Speaker 1: if he wants to. Anybody can read it. I don't care.
35:48
Speaker 1: So why did she not want anyone to read what
35:50
Speaker 1: she was writing? You, Nancy? The plans that we had
35:54
Speaker 1: discussed for the morning of the thirteenth were for me
35:59
Speaker 1: to drive to New Orleans and pick her up for um,
36:03
Speaker 1: for her to come and stay with me in Alabama.
36:07
Speaker 1: And um if she were a visit for a vacation, No, ma'am,
36:13
Speaker 1: she was. She was she was hoping and planning to
36:17
Speaker 1: leave the relationship. Why, Um, well there was there was,
36:23
Speaker 1: um a fair amount of chaos and I would even
36:27
Speaker 1: dare say abuse in the relationship, and um a whole
36:33
Speaker 1: lot of control going on. And um, she was just
36:37
Speaker 1: not happy anymore. And she was also very afraid of
36:41
Speaker 1: moving on. Um she felt like that would not be
36:45
Speaker 1: met well, UM, certainly not with enthusiasm. And she was
36:49
Speaker 1: afraid that she would be in danger in attempting to
36:53
Speaker 1: move on with her life and leave the relationship back
36:57
Speaker 1: to Audrey Schmidt. This is Jeff because sister has a
37:02
Speaker 1: husband already started dating again, I believe. So we have
37:06
Speaker 1: heard that he has What about it, Maria? Um, yes,
37:10
Speaker 1: we we've I mean, you know, I hate, I hate
37:14
Speaker 1: to call anything a fact when you've heard it secondhand,
37:17
Speaker 1: But we have. We have been told that he has
37:19
Speaker 1: been seen with other individuals since she passed. How soon
37:25
Speaker 1: did he wait before he started dating? Um? We were
37:28
Speaker 1: made We were made aware of another relationship as soon
37:32
Speaker 1: as January of twenty twenty, if I'm remembering correctly. We
37:38
Speaker 1: were not sure who it was with, but apparently there
37:41
Speaker 1: was a young lady being seen in and out of
37:43
Speaker 1: their How about four months? About one? Four months? Altiga Terres,
37:48
Speaker 1: What can you tell me about photos of Jessica that
37:53
Speaker 1: her husband, Justin Darning Junior released well after my sister
37:58
Speaker 1: went missing. Um, before we had found her. He was
38:02
Speaker 1: releasing videos and pictures of her, you know, naked pictures
38:09
Speaker 1: and saying that if you donate, then I will send
38:15
Speaker 1: you clothes, shoes, underwear, lingerie of hers. Okay, I really
38:21
Speaker 1: can't even respond to that right now. I'm just so
38:25
Speaker 1: taken aback of course, Just Darning Junior Jessica East, Julie
38:32
Speaker 1: Durning's husband is not a person of interest. He is
38:36
Speaker 1: not a suspect. Why in the world, but he released
38:41
Speaker 1: naked photos and videos of his now deceased wife, Jessica.
38:46
Speaker 1: I don't get it, Maria Creel Nancy. We were pretty
38:49
Speaker 1: horrified just at the level of disrespect. But it goes
38:57
Speaker 1: further than actually just releasing the photos and videos. He
39:02
Speaker 1: actually went so far as as to pretend that he
39:07
Speaker 1: was her, communicating with individuals on the internet and soliciting,
39:15
Speaker 1: you know, compensation for the videos, as if he were her,
39:21
Speaker 1: when in fact she was. She was just down the road,
39:26
Speaker 1: lying in the sun, dead, decomposing. I mean, you know,
39:31
Speaker 1: you've got this guy, justin Derning Junior, Jessica's husband, and
39:36
Speaker 1: he's offering to give away her clothing and her I
39:41
Speaker 1: guess what would you say, her clothing, her pajamas, her underwear.
39:47
Speaker 1: What's he giving? What's he offering to sell or give away? Audrey,
39:52
Speaker 1: He was wanting for donations to help bury her clothes, shoes, lingerie.
40:02
Speaker 1: You may underwear, underwear and bras, okay, But at the
40:08
Speaker 1: same time, Maria Krill, you're telling me he was I guess,
40:12
Speaker 1: disseminating videos of her, photos of her naked, as if
40:16
Speaker 1: she were still alive before he revealed to before he
40:25
Speaker 1: revealed to their followers, I guess you would say that
40:28
Speaker 1: she was no longer with us. He was still carrying
40:32
Speaker 1: on as if she was alive and well and active
40:37
Speaker 1: on adult sites and selling videos and photos of her,
40:42
Speaker 1: or at least attempting to people as if nothing was wrong. Guys,
40:48
Speaker 1: the disappearance and then discovery of Jessica Easterly Darning has
40:54
Speaker 1: devastated her family. And again, I don't care what the
41:00
Speaker 1: woman did for a living. We're not here to judge
41:04
Speaker 1: her morally. We're here to solve a crime. Help solve
41:08
Speaker 1: a crime. And in that vein, is it true? Audrey
41:11
Speaker 1: Couterrez and sister Maria Krill best friend you guys have
41:17
Speaker 1: gone online at change dot org and raised over sixty
41:21
Speaker 1: eight thousand signatures to get the case another look, Yes, ma'am.
41:26
Speaker 1: Whose idea was that it's brilliant? That would be mine?
41:33
Speaker 1: Is that? Audreya, Maria Audrey Audrey, Well, I gotta tell
41:37
Speaker 1: you something. It's brilliant. It's a it's a sorry day,
41:40
Speaker 1: I might add, when you have to get out there
41:44
Speaker 1: and beat the streets and get people to sign a
41:47
Speaker 1: petition and change dot org to get the district attorney
41:50
Speaker 1: to pay any attention. But the good news is this
41:53
Speaker 1: district attorney, Jason Williams has reached out and spoken to you,
41:57
Speaker 1: has he not, Audrey, Yes, ma'am, he has, and he
42:03
Speaker 1: is investigating it. So what can you tell me about
42:06
Speaker 1: what the district Attorney Jason Williams has said? Audrey and
42:10
Speaker 1: Maria H. Nancy, We actually we've we've had a very
42:17
Speaker 1: productive conversation with him, and we're very optimistic. We don't
42:23
Speaker 1: want to get too far into the details because at
42:26
Speaker 1: this point we're trying to show some faith in the
42:31
Speaker 1: level of interest that we've been thrown. And it was
42:35
Speaker 1: it was somebody on your program, Nancy, when we when
42:38
Speaker 1: we first started this conversation that recommended we reach out
42:42
Speaker 1: to him, and we really appreciate that guidance. Well, it
42:45
Speaker 1: was our friend Joe Scott Morgan death investigator that actually
42:48
Speaker 1: said that, and he and I talked about it a
42:51
Speaker 1: great deal off the air, and I'm glad to hear
42:54
Speaker 1: that the district attorney who says he is the quote
42:57
Speaker 1: people's da is re examining the case, so now let's
43:01
Speaker 1: see if he puts his money where his mouth is.
43:06
Speaker 1: If you have information, please call crime Stoppers at eight
43:10
Speaker 1: seven seven nine zero three seven eight sixty seven. There's
43:14
Speaker 1: also the New Orleans Police Department, Third District five zero
43:18
Speaker 1: four six five eight six zero three zero. Let me
43:23
Speaker 1: give you Crimestoppers again eight seven seven nine zero three
43:27
Speaker 1: seven eight sixty seven, or go on Twitter at Justice
43:32
Speaker 1: for the Number four jess jess Underscore, or Justice for
43:39
Speaker 1: Jessica Easterly on Facebook and again at crime online dot Com.
43:47
Speaker 1: Our crack reporter Lee Egan has reached out to the husband,
43:52
Speaker 1: Justin Derning Junior. Still no response, but oh how I
43:57
Speaker 1: would love to talk to him, but I want to
44:00
Speaker 1: be clear. He's not a suspect, he's not a person
44:03
Speaker 1: of interest. I still want to talk to him. We
44:07
Speaker 1: wait as justice unfolds, so Jessica Easterly may finally rest
44:14
Speaker 1: in peace. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off, goodbye friend,