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Teen Slaughtered with Sword After Meeting Up with Girl From School · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine like just scrolling through your phone on a random
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon. Right.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Just doing normal everyday stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You're bouncing between group chats, maybe checking social media,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: adding a few things to your Amazon cart.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Like a tactical red and black sword set.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Like a tactical sword set. And then you casually text
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: your girlfriend to ask, you know, what color nail polish
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: she thinks would best hide the bloodstains of the classmate
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you're actively planning to murder.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's really hard to even process that level
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: of detachment.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It is. Now, imagine doing all of this, pulling off
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a brutal, coordinated assassination over a high school rumor, and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: then going to a bonfire and complaining that nobody brought marshmallows.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We are talking about a level of cognitive disconnect
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that feels like a glitch in the matrix. So, welcome
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to the Deep Dive. We have a massive stack of
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: sources to go through with you today.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: We really do.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: We've got police body cam transcripts, some incredibly chilling interrogation
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: room recording.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: The digital forensic reports, too, which are just, they're staggering.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sweeping digital forensics and intense court testimonies.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: And, you know, the sheer volume of primary source material
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: we have in this stack, it gives us like a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: forensic MRI of a tragedy.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: We are looking at this 2021 true crime case from Miramar, Florida.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: But our goal here isn't just to reconstruct a timeline
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: We're really looking at the mechanics of adolescent violence in
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the smartphone era.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Our mission today is to take all of these
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: sources and explore how a petty high school rumor. I mean,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the exact kind of thing you've probably heard a million
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: times in the cafeteria.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: How that escalated into a meticulously premeditated murder. We're going
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to unpack the anatomy of a teenage conspiracy, explore this
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: terrifying digital detachment from reality, and just look at the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: devastating ripple effects on an entire community.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: It really shattered that community.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: It did. Okay, let's unpack this by starting with the setting.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Because where this happens is just crucial to understanding the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: shockwave it caused. Right.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So if you look at a map of South Florida,
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  Speaker 2: Miramar is nestled in Broward County. It sits quietly right
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: between the vast, dense expanse of the Everglades to the
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: west and the Atlantic coast to the east.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: And when you say South Florida, I feel like everyone's
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: mind immediately jumps to, you know, the neon lights of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: South Beach.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, South Beach or all the heavy tourism up in
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Fort Lauderdale.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: But Miramar is decidedly not that. It is a quiet,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: sleepy suburb. Fundamentally, it's an immigrant community, heavily populated by
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: families from the Caribbean and Latin America.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And reading through the community profiles in our sources,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: it's painted as like this quintessential working class realization of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the American dream.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: It really is. Families move there to put their heads down,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: work incredibly hard and raise their kids in a safe environment.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Right. And the ultimate overarching goal for almost everyone in
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: these neighborhoods is singular, right?
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Get your kids into the local high school.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yep. Miramar High.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Make sure they get good grades and send them
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: off to college to secure a better life. It is
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: a community built on a foundation of upward mobility and
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: just intense parental sacrifice. Yeah. And that idyllic picture, that
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: collective pursuit of a better life, that's the backdrop against
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: which this entire narrative unfolds.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: It's so tragic. It is.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And it's within this very protective, hopeful environment that we
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: meet our victim, Dwight Grant. Though everyone in the community
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: knew him simply as D.J.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and DJ's profile in these sources, it just shatters you.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, he had just turned 18 years old in
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: September of 2021.
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  Speaker 2: Literally just crossed the threshold into adulthood.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Right, and he's universally described by teachers, neighbors, friends. Everybody
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: calls him a gentle giant and an old soul.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: A gentle giant is the exact phrase that comes up
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: over and over again.
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  Speaker 1: We are talking about an 18-year-old high school senior who
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: was big in stature but possessed this incredibly soft, sweet demeanor. Like,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: he didn't drink, he didn't smoke.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: He wasn't running the streets at all. His interests were
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: entirely wholesome and largely digital, but in a very innocent way.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Right. He was a gamer. Yeah.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: He was obsessed with computers and loved playing video games,
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  Speaker 2: specifically Roblox.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Which is, I mean, Roblox is a platform heavily favored
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: by younger kids.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. It speaks to his innocence.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: He was known for being the kind of kid who
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: left a remarkably positive mark on everyone. And his living
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: situation was also very stable.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He split his time living between his mom... Mageline
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Amil and his dad, Dwight Grant Sr., who lived nearby.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: But there is a detail in the source material that
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I just keep coming back to. His friends and family
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: noted that he was constantly checking in.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: The check-ins, yeah. That's so important.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: If he went out, he had a plan. And he
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: actually called people to say, you know, hey, what's up?
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  Speaker 1: How are you? Make sure you're okay tonight.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: He was the caretaker for his social circle. I think
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: back to when I was 18, and I definitely wasn't
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: checking in on my friend's emotional well-being on a Friday night.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Well, none of us were.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: But that behavioral baseline is a crucial piece of forensic data.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Because in investigations, establishing a victim's normal is step one.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Because DJ was a homebody who constantly texted his mother
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  Speaker 2: and friends, any deviation from that pattern isn't just a quirk.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: It's an immediate red flag.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: A glaring red flag.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Which plunges us right into October 18th, 2021. DJ goes silent.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: He disappears.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Just vanishes.
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  Speaker 1: And his mother, Mageline, is frantic. She tries to report
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: him missing and she immediately slams into this massive, terrifying
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: bureaucratic wall.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the missing adult protocol.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Because DJ had just turned 18 a month prior,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: he was officially a missing adult.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And this is a critical juncture in the timeline that
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: dictates everything that follows.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: We have to look at the legal and structural reality
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: of the missing person system.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Because it's completely different for kids.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. When a 17-year-old goes missing, the system defaults
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: to the assumption of immediate endangerment. You see Amber Alerts,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: which were established in 1996 precisely to mobilize public and
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: law enforcement resources instantly.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Right, like helicopters go up, canine units are deployed.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Regional bulletins hit every phone in the area.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: But you cross that arbitrary threshold of your 18th birthday
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  Speaker 1: and the entire machinery just shuts down.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: It grinds to a halt. The police, following their standard
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: protocol for an 18-year-old male, initially operate on the assumption
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: that he's just out with friends, maybe blowing off steam.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Even though his mom is saying that's not him.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Right. But the law enforcement perspective is essentially adults are
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: allowed to disappear. The Constitution protects your right. To simply
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: walk away from your life if you choose to.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: That's so frustrating.
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  Speaker 2: You can pack a bag, move to another state, and
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: ignore your mother's phone calls. Law enforcement has to respect
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: that legal right. Therefore, the burden of proof fundamentally shifts.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: So the family has to do the work.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The family has to prove to the police that
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: the absence is not voluntary, but perilous. And proving that
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: requires evidence, which takes time.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Time that DJ's family absolutely did not have. We're talking
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: about the critical 24 to 48 hours where survival rates
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and foul play cases just plummet.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Every second is agonizing.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Let me throw a scenario at you because I was
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: thinking about this. You are a mother. You know in
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: your bones your son is in danger. And the system
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: tells you to just go home and wait.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: You don't just wait.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: You don't. You become an investigator. And Mageline Emile's proactive
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: approach is the single reason this case broke open as
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: quickly as it did.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: She was incredible. She bypasses the waiting period entirely.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: She starts calling every single friend and DJ's contacts. She
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: physically drives to local hospitals.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Literally walking into emergency rooms to see if a John
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Doe matching DJ's description has been admitted.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. She prints out missing person flyers. and plasters them
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  Speaker 1: all over the Miramar community, and she doesn't stop there.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: No, she goes to the property management staff at her
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: own apartment community.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: She demands to see the surveillance footage that covers the
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  Speaker 1: exterior area just to the east of her apartment, specifically
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  Speaker 1: focusing on a nearby stairwell.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: She is essentially doing the detective work that the police
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: don't yet have the legal justification to do.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: It's amazing, but the psychological weight of what she is
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  Speaker 1: about to do is, it's staggering.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: She's sitting in a property manager's office, staring at a monitor,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: just scanning hours of mundane footage.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Right. Think about this like a modern horror movie. But
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the monster isn't supernatural, and it isn't hiding in some dark,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: abandoned forest on the edge of town.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: No, it's right there.
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  Speaker 1: It's captured on a grainy security camera, just steps from
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  Speaker 1: your own front door. Mageline watches this footage, and she
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: sees two people physically attacking her son.
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  Speaker 2: I can't imagine. She visually bears witness to the assault
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: of her own child on a screen. The trauma of
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: that moment is unimaginable.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: God, yeah.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: However, in the cold calculus of a criminal investigation, that
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: horrific moment gives her the one thing she desperately needed
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: to force the system's hand.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Actionable evidence.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Actionable evidence of a violent crime.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So she takes this description straight to the Miramar Police Department.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And armed with this information, the missing person case officially transforms.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: It becomes a crime scene investigation. Officer Damaso Espirito Santo
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: is dispatched to do a physical foot search of that
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: specific stairwell in the apartment complex.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: And the body cam footage from Officer Espirito Santo's arrival,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it paints a very grim picture. He enters
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  Speaker 1: the stairwell and the signs of violence are just glaring.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: They are.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I read the scene description and it wasn't just a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: few drops of blood. There was blood everywhere, but it
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: looked like someone had tried to clean it up.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Right. It was a very poor attempt at remediation.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: In forensic terms, cleaning a crime scene often highlights it.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Really? How so?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: When someone uses water or a basic cleaner to wipe
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: away blood they often just smear it creating what we
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: call a white pattern oh wow yeah the officers also
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: find broken bushes indicating a severe physical struggle and crucially
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: they discover a bloody.
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  Speaker 1: Footprint So the officers are in this stairwell trying to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: establish a primary crime scene. They're assuming DJ was attacked
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: here and then taken somewhere else.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Right. That's the initial thought.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: They start stringing up the yellow tape to preserve the area.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And then as they are canvassing the immediate perimeter, they
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: stumble across the horrifying reality. DJ wasn't taken away at all.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: His body had been dumped and hidden behind some bushes,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: literally just steps away from his mother's front door.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: It's what investigators refer to as a classic dumping scenario.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: but executed with devastating, almost taunting proximity to the victim's home.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: It's so sick.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: The body cam audio captures a truly chaotic and heartbreaking
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: sequence of events next. The police presence, the sirens, the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: yellow tape, it draws the attention of the residents.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Including DJ's family members who start coming out of their apartment.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: And the officers are yelling, ordering the family back inside.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: It sounds almost cruel if you don't understand the context.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: You hear the police being very brusque, like, please just
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: give us a few minutes. Go back inside. You cannot
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: be out here.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: As a listener, you feel the torture of that moment.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Mageline is mere feet away. The police haven't officially identified
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the body yet, but she has to know deep in
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: her soul what that police tape means.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: She knows. But from a procedural standpoint, law enforcement is
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: managing an undermanned scene in those initial minutes.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: They have to protect the evidence.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Their primary allegiance, legally and ethically, in that exact
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: moment is to the deceased. They have to preserve the
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: integrity of the evidence to ensure eventual justice.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Right. They can't let anyone near it.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: They have to lock the scene down, start a crime
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: scene log, and prevent any contamination, even from a grieving
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: mother whose DNA or footprints could muddy the forensic water.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, that makes sense.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Furthermore, they are bound by strict protocols. They absolutely cannot
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: make a formal notification of death until they are 100%
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: certain of the victim's identity.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Which they accomplish by having the medical examiner take a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: photograph of the victim's face at the scene, right?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Yes. They take that photograph to DJ's father, Dwight Grant Sr.,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: who makes the positive, devastating identification.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: And then the deep dive sources transition into the autopsy details,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: which It just shifts our understanding of this crime from
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: a tragic death into a picture of absolute savagery.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: The medical examiner's report is highly detailed. The cause of
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: death is listed as multiple sharp force and blunt force injuries.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: To be specific, there were three primary fatal stab wounds.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: One to the back, right of the neck, one to
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: the torso, and one to the abdomen.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And the sharp force trauma is horrific on its own, obviously.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: But the presence of blunt force injuries really tells a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: specific story about the nature of this attack.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It indicates that DJ didn't just walk into an ambush
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and die instantly from a single blow. He fought back.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: He fought for his life.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Analyzing blunt force trauma alongside sharp force injuries in a
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: homicide provides a behavioral map of the event.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: What does that map show here?
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Well, blunt force beating someone, striking them repeatedly. It requires
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: intense flesh-on-flesh contact. It implies a chaotic, prolonged struggle.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Wielding an edged weapon requires the attacker to physically close
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: the distance and drive a blade into another human being,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: often feeling the resistance of bone and tissue. It's incredibly
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: intimate and incredibly violent.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a sterile, distanced attack like a shooting?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Not at all. The immediate question for the homicide detectives
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: becomes who in this sweet, gentle, Roblox-playing kid's life harbors
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: this level of intense personal hatred?
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Who hates the caretaker of the friend group enough to
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: do this? To answer that, investigators have to pivot from
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the physical blood in the stairwell back to the digital
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: pixels on the surveillance tape that Mageline found.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: They have to bridge the physical evidence with digital sleuthing.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Exactly, to identify their first suspect.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: So the detectives take the surveillance video and break it
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: down frame by frame.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And what do they see?
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: When they analyze the footage from the apartment complex on
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the day of the murder... A very clear, chilling narrative emerges.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: It begins with a female subject walking with DJ.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And she's not wearing a mask, right?
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: No, she makes absolutely no attempt to disguise her identity
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: from the cameras. She has a very distinct physical feature, though.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: A prominent blonde streak in her otherwise dark hair.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: And the footage shows DJ interacting with her in a
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: way that is so heartbreaking in retrospect. He's actually giving
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: her a piggyback ride as they head toward the stairwell.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that detail.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Let's pause on the psychology of that for a second.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: A piggyback ride is playful. It implies a significant level
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of comfort, of trust, of intimacy. He felt completely safe
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: with her.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate disarming gesture. But the video reveals
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: that this intimacy was a calculated trap.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: While she's being carried toward the stairwell, the camera picks
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: up two other individuals. They are dressed entirely in black
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: and are masked from head to toe. They are lying
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: in wait, concealed inside that very stairwell.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: As soon as DJ gets close enough, the trap is sprung.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: The video shows DJ realizing something is wrong. He drops
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the girl and he tries to run away.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: But he can't.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: No, the masked individuals lunge out of the shadows and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: physically drag him back into the confined hidden space of
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the stairwell.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: And we have to look at what the female with
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: the blonde streak is doing during this ambush.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Does she try to help him?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: She doesn't run for help. She doesn't pull out her
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: phone to call 911. She doesn't try to intervene. The
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: footage shows her taking up a position and acting as
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: a lookout. For the next 20 to 30 minutes, the
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: camera catches glimpses of the two masked individuals coming in
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: and out of the stairwell, constantly checking their surroundings.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. 30 minutes.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Finally, the video captures DJ's body being carried out, dumped
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: over the railing and dragged out of the camera's view
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: into the bushes where he was later found.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: So it's a coordinated multi-person ambush. The police now have
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a concrete timeline. They have a location. And they have
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: three suspects, two of whom are completely unidentifiable in masks.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: But they have the girl.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Right. The obvious glaring first threat to pull is the
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: girl with the blonde streak. But how do you identify
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a random teenager from grainy footage?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: This is where DJ's mother steps up, yet again. It
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: showcases incredible presence of mind amidst her grief.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: What does she do?
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: DJ's physical phone is missing. It was likely taken by
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the killers to hide evidence. So Magdalene Emile logs into
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: her cellular carrier account. She pulls down DJ's phone records,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the call detail records. She meticulously goes through the logs,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: looking for the very last person who communicated with him
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: before his phone went dark.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure I understand the technical side
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: of this. She isn't looking at the text messages themselves, right?
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Because carrier records don't show the content of the texts,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: just the metadata.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: That is correct. A call detail record, or CDR, generated
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: by a cellular provider like AT & T or Verizon...
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: does not store the content of your text messages or
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the audio of your phone calls.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: So what does it show?
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: It's essentially an itemized billing statement. It shows the date,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: the time, the duration of the call, which cell tower
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: the phone pinged, and crucially, the incoming and outgoing phone numbers.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Mageline traces that final digital breadcrumb to a specific number.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And when police run that number, it belongs to a
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: 17-year-old girl who attends Miramar High School. Her name is
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Christy Parisian.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Suddenly, the girl with the blonde streak has a name
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: and an address.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Right. Law enforcement immediately mobilizes. They need to secure Christy
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: to find out what she knows, who those two masked
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: individuals were, and what her exact role was.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: They utilize a dual-pronged approach. While one team of detectives
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: prepares an interview room at the police station, a tactical
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: team goes directly to her family's apartment to secure their premises.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: The body cam footage of the police arriving at Christy's
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: home is jarring to watch. They knock on the door,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: and Christy is there. She is just casually trying to
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: leave the house to go to the police station for questioning.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Right, like it's an errand.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The police have to explain to her mother that
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: they need everyone out of the apartment immediately because they
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: are freezing the scene to apply for a search warrant.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Pay very close attention to Christy's demeanor in this footage.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: It is a masterclass in chilling nonchalance.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Heavily armed police officers are securing her home in connection
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: with a brutal local homicide, and she treats the entire
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: interaction personally. like a minor scheduling inconvenience.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: The police allow her to make a quick phone call
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to her mother to explain where she's going before they
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: transport her. She leaves this voicemail, and her tone is
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: just completely flat.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Completely devoid of emotion.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: She says she's going to the police station with the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: same energy you'd use to leave a message about staying
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: late for a fashion club meeting. I keep trying to
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: put myself in the shoes of a 17-year-old.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: You'd be terrified.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: The presence of homicide detectives in your living room should
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: be a world-shattering, terrifying event. She barely blinks.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: That profound lack of effect is highly indicative of someone
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: who has deeply compartmentalized their actions. In adolescent psychology, when
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: faced with an overwhelming trauma, especially when they are complicit
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: in the brain, can sometimes build a firewall.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: So she just blocked it out.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: It suggests she had emotionally prepared for this exact scenario
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: and convinced herself that she could simply act her way
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: through it. But compartmentalization is a fragile defense mechanism.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure it is.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: It only works until you are sitting in a sterile
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: room across from seasoned homicide detectives trained to dismantle lies.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Which takes us right into the interrogation room. This is...
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: where Christy's narrative really begins to fracture. And the larger,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: much darker conspiracy starts to bleed through her fabricated story.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: The detectives sit down with Christy. Keep in mind, throughout
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the interview, she refers to DJ by a nickname, Dante.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: They start with a standard information gathering technique. They don't
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: accuse her immediately. They just ask her to walk them
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: through her day.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Get her talking. Right.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: And she offers up an alibi that is incredibly revealing.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Not because it's true, but because of the specific motive
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: she attempts to establish to explain why she was at
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: DJ's apartment complex.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: She claims she went over to DJ's house specifically to
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: cheat on her current boyfriend.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: She tells the detectives that she found out her boyfriend
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was cheating on her with someone else from school. She
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: says she snooped through his messages and saw the proof,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and she was furious.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: That's her story.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: So her grand plan was to be a, quote, poopy
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: girlfriend and use DJ as a pawn to get revenge
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: on her boyfriend.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: And this is the moment a pivotal name enters the
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: official record for the first time. The detectives, following the
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: thread of this alleged jealousy, ask her for the boyfriend's name.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: She says, Andre. Andre Clements.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: OK, let's pause here and introduce Andre Clemens, because you
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: cannot understand this case without understanding his status.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: He was a big deal.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Andre is not some fringe outcast or invisible kid at school.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: He is the popular drum major in the Miramar High
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: School marching band.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: He plays the trombone.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Right. He's described in the sources as a gifted musician,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: incredibly popular, surrounded by friends and known for dating multiple girls.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: He occupies a very prominent position in the high school's
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: social hierarchy.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: The introduction of Andre is a massive red flag for
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: the investigators.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Why? Just because he's popular?
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: No, because police immediately recognize the psychological dynamics at play.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: If Christy's entire stated motive for being at the crime
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: scene revolves around making Andre jealous, Andre instantly becomes a
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: primary person of interest.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: But the detectives don't tip their hand. They let Christy
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: continue spinning her fabricated story of the attack.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: And this is where her lie crosses the line from
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: plausible teenage drama into absolute absurdity.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: It really falls apart here.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: She tells the detectives that while she was walking with DJ,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: giving him the piggyback ride, these two random tall guys,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: maybe 18 or 19 years old, dressed in black hoodies
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and masks, just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Just random street violence.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Right. She claims they approached DJ and said, you, my girl,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: implying some kind of random territorial dispute over her. And
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: then they just started beating DJ up.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: She is desperately attempting to construct a narrative where she
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: is a passive, helpless bystander to random street violence. It's
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: a classic deflection tactic.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: She claims that when the fighting started, she was so
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: scared she just turned her back because she didn't want
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: to see anything. She says she only heard the sounds
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: of the struggle, describing the impacts phonetically as pow, pow, pow,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: but adamantly refused to look at the attackers.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I have to stop and express absolute disbelief at her
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: next admission because it breaks my brain.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this part is wild.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: The detectives are pressing her on the details of the fight,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and suddenly she reveals this detail that she clearly thinks
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: makes her look cooperative and innocent, but it is deeply,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: legally incriminating.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: She really thought this would help her.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: She claims that after these random attackers beat DJ and
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: threw him over the railing, they handed her a knife.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And she says she took the knife and then handed
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: it back to them so they could finish whatever they
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: were doing.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Just handed it right back.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Why on earth would anyone, even a teenager, think admitting
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: to handing a killer a weapon makes them look innocent?
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: It's a fascinating and tragic look at juvenile logic breaking
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: down under pressure.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: You have to look at what she's trying to accomplish here.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, what is she trying to do?
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: She knows the police have a crime scene. She likely
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: suspects they might find her fingerprints or DNA on a
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: weapon if they recover one. In her panicked teenage mind,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: she is trying to explain away physical evidence she knows
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: might exist without admitting to being part of the murder plan.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: So she's preemptively covering for DNA.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She thinks that acting as a reluctant, terrified courier
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: for a weapon, she was suddenly handed it. distances her
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: from the actual act of stabbing.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: But to an adult detective, handing a weapon back to
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: an active assailant doesn't make you a victim. It makes
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: you an active participant. It makes you an accomplice to murder.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The detectives know she's lying. They know from the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: surveillance video that she didn't just randomly run into these guys.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: She actively led DJing to them and acted as a lookout.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Right, they have the tape.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: But instead of just calling her a liar, they set
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: a trap. It is one of the most brilliant, understated
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: moments of the interrogation.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: The detective's trap. I love this part. How does he
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: do it?
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is how effortlessly the detective uses her
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: own fabricated details against her. Christy is desperately trying to
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: give these phantom attackers an origin story to make them
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: seem real. Right.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: She has to explain where they came from.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: She tells the detectives that she thinks these two masked
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: guys must live in Building B of her apartment complex.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And she has absolutely no idea who she's talking to.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Precisely. Detective Interian, who is conducting this interview, happens to
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: be a participant in a local Officer Next Door community program.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Wait, let me make sure I understand this. What exactly
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: is that program? Why would a homicide detective be living
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: in a random apartment complex?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: The Officer Next Door program is a community policing initiative
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: supported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: goal is to revitalize communities and build trust by offering
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: law enforcement officers Significant discounts on housing in specific neighborhoods.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's really cool.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: The theory is that having police officers actually living in
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: the community deters crime and builds organic relationships with residents.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: So by pure, unbelievable coincidence, at the time of the murder,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Detective Interion actually lives in Building B.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: He does. He knows his neighbors. He knows the foot traffic.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: He knows instantly, with absolute, unshakable certainty, that there are
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: no 18 to 19-year-old kids fitting her description living in
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: that building. Wow. With one sentence, he catches her in
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: a geographical lie that completely collapses the foundation of her story.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: And you can see the panic set in as her
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: story crumbles. She starts slipping up. She mentions meeting up
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: with Andre and another friend named Justine right after the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: murder occurred.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: And that's all they needed.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: The police realize they have enough to pull the plug
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: on the interview. But before she leaves, they ask for
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: her phone. And surprisingly, she doesn't fight it. She just
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: hands it over and gives them the passcode.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: This is another massive miscalculation rooted in a lack of
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: technical understanding. She likely believed that deleting a few specific
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: text messages before the police arrived would be enough to
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: hide her tracks.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: She vastly underestimated the capabilities of a forensic data extraction.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Let's dive into that because there is a huge difference
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: between scrolling through a phone and what the police actually do, right?
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: A monumental difference. When law enforcement takes a phone, They
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: don't just look at the screen. They plug it into
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: a forensic extraction device, often a system like Celebrate.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Right, Celebrate.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: This software bypasses the user interface and downloads the entire
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: physical file system of the device. It recovers deleted messages,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: hidden photos, location data, search history, and timestamps.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: It pulls everything.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: It pulls the digital ghost of everything you've ever done
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: on that device. And that digital footprint takes this case
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: from a tragic, spontaneous fight to a calculated, first-degree premeditated murder.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: The digital evidence they pull from Christy's phone is staggering.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: They find over 5,000 text messages between Christy and Andre
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: from just October 1st to October 19th.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Over 5,000?
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: It's just processed that volume. That is hundreds of texts
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a day. That is manic, obsessive communication. And hidden in
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: those thousands of messages... is a chilling, step-by-step blueprint for murder.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: The content of these messages is deeply disturbing. The source
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: material refers to them as the Bonnie and Clyde texts.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: They aren't just gossiping about school or complaining about parents.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: They are actively, gleefully fantasizing about violence. They discuss stabbing
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: people to death weeks before the actual homicide takes place.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: The disconnect between their daily teenage lives and these violent
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: fantasies is jarring. In one exchange, Christy is casually joking
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: about getting a red pedicure Specifically so it will match
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the blood when they stab someone to death.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Just coordinating her beauty routine with a homicide.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: It's sick. And then Andre sends a text that leaves
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: absolute zero room for interpretation or defense. He explicitly writes,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: murder is going to happen soon.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture of the
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: criminal justice system, these text messages are the absolute linchpin
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: of the prosecution's case.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Why are they so vital? I mean, they have a
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: body and they have video. Isn't that enough?
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: It's enough to prove someone died. But in the eyes
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: of the law, the degree of murder requires proving a
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: state of mind.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Specifically, first-degree murder requires proving malice aforethought, the conscious intent
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: to kill formed before the act. Without the texts, a
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: defense attorney could argue this was a spontaneous fight that
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: went too far.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Like a tragedy born of sudden passion.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Right, which is manslaughter or second-degree murder. But you cannot
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: argue spontaneity when there is a text message saying murder
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: is going to happen soon. followed by weeks of logistical planning.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Right. It's undeniable.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: It is the undeniable, timestamped digital signature of first-degree premeditated murder.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: And the craziest part is they weren't even keeping this
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: a secret. While the police are downloading this forensic data,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: they get a tip from a concerned citizen.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: The rumor mill at the school.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. it turns out the rumor mill at Miramar High
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: School is running at full speed. Kids are circulating text
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: messages and gossiping about the murder, while the police are
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: still trying to officially identify DJ's body.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: An anonymous teacher also steps forward during this time and
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: provides a crucial piece of digital evidence to the investigators.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: What did they have?
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: They hand over a photograph that Andre had sent to
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: another student at the school. It's a screenshot of an
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: order confirmation. It's an image of a snake eye tactical
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: weapon set that Andre purchased on Amazon.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: That is just.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: It features a large red and black sword like knife
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: and three smaller throwing daggers.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: They ordered a tactical sword on Amazon to commit a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: murder with two day prime shipping. It's just it's unfathomable.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: It's the consumerization of tactical gear mixed with teenage angst.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: So let's reset the board. The police have Christy in custody.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: They have the digital trail leading straight to Andre, the mastermind.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: And through Christy's slip up in the interrogation room, they
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: have the name of the third person who was with
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: them that night.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: 16-year-old Jacene Smith. Right. This transitions the investigation to the
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: final piece of the trio. If Andre is the mastermind
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: orchestrating the event and Christy is the bait luring the victim,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Jacene is the follower.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: She's the youngest, right.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: She's a year younger than the others. She's also a
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: member of the high school marching band, and she looks
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: up to Andre immensely. She views him as a mentor,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: almost like an older brother figure.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Police go to Jacene's apartment to interview her. Her father
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: is bedridden inside, so the detectives speak to Jacene out
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: on the front porch with her mother present. And the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: interaction between Jacene and her mother during this interview is
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: loaded with this really dark, painful irony.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: It really is. As Jacene starts to tentatively admit to
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: the police that she was present at the apartment complex
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: that night, Her mother interrupts her to offer what she
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: thinks is protective, worldly advice.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: What does she say?
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: She literally looks at her daughter and says, do you
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: know how much true crime I watch? You can't get
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: away with nothing. There's cameras everywhere.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: It's darkly humorous because it sounds like a meme, but
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: it's also incredibly tragic because the mother is absolutely right,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: but she's far too late.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: The camera's already caught her daughter.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Justine's confession, which she gives calmly and methodically on that porch,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: finally gives investigators the exact play by play of what
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: happened to DJ in that stairwell.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Justine explains the setup for the ambush. She says Andre
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: told her to dress in all black or dark blue
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: to avoid standing out in the dark and asked her
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: to come with him to the stairwell simply to intimidate
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: someone who was bothering him.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: And here is where the true, incredibly petty motive is
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: finally revealed to the police. It wasn't about Christy cheating
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: on Andre at all.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Andre was furious because a rumor was circulating around the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: high school that his ex-girlfriend had hooked up with DJ. Wait,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: let's make absolutely sure we have this straight. Andre orchestrated
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: a complex murder using his current girlfriend Christy as the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: bait because of a rumor about his ex-girlfriend.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: That is exactly what the evidence indicates. It is a
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: terrifying manifestation of teenage ego and toxic possessiveness.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: It's just so senseless.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: In the adolescent brain, social standing and reputation are paramount.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Andre felt that a slight to his reputation, even involving
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: someone he was no longer dating, was an intolerable insult
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: that required a lethal response to restore his ego.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: So, Justine explains that Andre told her to hide in
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the shadows of the stairwell and just look intimidating. Andre
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: had the weapons from Amazon. Right. When DJ is lured
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: into the stairwell by Christy on the piggyback ride, Andre
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: takes off his mask. He wants DJ to know exactly
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: who is confronting him. They tackle DJ, and Jasine admits
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: she held him down.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: And then comes what I think is the most heartbreaking,
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: chilling detail in his entire case.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this part is really hard to hear.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: It is the pause. Jasine describes a moment where the
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: physical struggle briefly stops. DJ is cornered on the concrete,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: he is injured, and he is pleading for his life.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: He looks up at Andre and tells him, You don't
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: have to do this. I won't bother you. I won't
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: say nothing. I haven't seen you guys.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: DJ offers him an out. He gives Andre every single
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: opportunity to just walk away, to let it be a
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: fistfight and nothing more. The threat to Andre's ego is neutralized.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Completely neutralized.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: And Andre pauses. He holds DJ down and instead of
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: walking away, he delivers a speech. He goes on a
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: rant explaining to this terrified 18-year-old boy exactly why he
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: is mad about the rumor. and explaining in detail that
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: he's going to kill him.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: The psychology of that moment is pure sadism. It is
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: highly theatrical. Andre is acting out a power fantasy. He's
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: reveling in his absolute control over DJ's life.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: It's disgusting.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: This pause is crucial for investigators because it removes any
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: shred of doubt about impulsive action. This was a deliberate,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: sadistic choice executed with absolute chilling awareness.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: And what breaks the pause? What pushes the execution forward, Christy?
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: The girl who claims she turned her back.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: The girl who claimed to the police that she turned
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: her back because she couldn't bear to watch. According to
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Jayceen's confession, Christy tells Andre to hurry it up because
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: there are cars pulling up to the apartment complex and
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: kids playing outside.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Christy acts as the timekeeper for an assassination. Prompted by
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Christy's urgency, the violence escalates to its fatal conclusion.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: That's so fast.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Jayceen states that Andre first used a smaller knife from
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: the set to stab DJ in the neck. DJ was
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: in agonizing pain. And Jasine recounts that he actually begged
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Andre to just choke me out or end it.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: He begged them to end his suffering. So Andre takes
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: the large Amazon tactical sword. And while Jasine holds down
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: DJ's arm and leg to prevent him from moving, Andre
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: drives that sword directly into DJ's chest. And then, as
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: if the stabbing wasn't enough, he holds DJ's mouth and
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: nose shut until he suffocates and dies.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: That's awful.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? We are looking at
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: a complete systemic empathy deficit.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: You have a popular high school band member. Surrounded by
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: friends and possessing a bright future who orchestrates a tactical
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: assassination over a high school rumor.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: It makes no sense.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: The disconnect between the triviality of the motive and the
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: extreme visceral brutality of the violence is staggering.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: It's terrifying. You read this and you think you are
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: looking at hardened, experienced cartel members. But what's almost as
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: terrifying is how they behaved afterward.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: The aftermath is bizarre.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: We move from the absolute brutality of the murder to
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the clumsy, almost farcical cover-up. It's this bizarre juxtaposition of
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: adult crimes committed by adolescent minds.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Following the murder, the trio realized they needed to dispose
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: of their bloody clothes. Christy had told police earlier in
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: her interrogation that she met up with Andre and Jason
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: by a lake where they had a bonfire.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Her initial lie to the police about this bonfire was
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: absurdly juvenile.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Right. She claimed they were burning baby clothes.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Baby clothes.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: She told detectives that she was feeling depressed. So Andre
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: and Justine decided to throw her a bonfire to cheer
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: her up. And she even complained to the detectives that
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the bonfire sucked because they didn't have any marshmallows.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: They had just brutally murdered a classmate, dragged his body
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: into the bushes, and she's incorporating the lack of marshmallows
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: into her alibi.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: It's insane. But the physical evidence left at that bonfire
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: site and in their respective homes quickly mounts, completely validating
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Jason's confession.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: At the burn site behind Jason's apartment, police sift through
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: the ashes and find a matching gold heart necklace charm.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: It perfectly matches a necklace worn by Christy, proving Andre
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: was at the fire.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: What else did they find?
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: They also find a discarded latex glove nearby with Jason's
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: DNA on the inside.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: When the police execute their search warrants, the forensic hits
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: just keep coming. At Christy's house, they find the boots
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: she was wearing during the murder. They test positive for
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: DJ's blood. They also find a very distinct bright orange
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and pink purse. Why is the purse important? Because Christy
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: used it to carry cleaning supplies to the crime scene.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: They literally packed cleaning supplies in a brightly colored purse
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: and brought them to a murder.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: On October 23rd, just five days after the murder, Christy
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: and Jacene are officially arrested. And the audio recorded by
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: the dash cam in the back of the squad car
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: during their transport to the police station provides incredible, unfiltered
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: insight into their psychological state.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: If you or I were arrested for murder, we would
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: be in shock, crying, throwing up, realizing our lives are over.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Begging for a lawyer.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: But instead, they are complaining. They're complaining about having to
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: wear uniforms in the juvenile detention center. They are worrying
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: aloud to each other about whether this arrest is going
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: to affect their chances of going to college together.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: They are exhibiting profound psychological whiplash. They possessed the cognitive
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: ability to plot a horrific tactical murder using Amazon weaponry
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: and complex digital alibis.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: But emotionally, they're children.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Yet, in the aftermath, their post-crime concerns revert entirely to
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: juvenile trivialities. They're fretting about uniforms, college applications, and teenage paranoia.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: about whether Andre has been arrested yet or if someone
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: in their friend group is snitching.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: They don't get it.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: They do not grasp the permanence of death or the
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: gravity of a first-degree murder charge.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Let me throw a theory at you. It's almost like
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: they thought they were playing a video game, like they
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: got a wanted star, and now they just have to
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: wait out the timer in uniform for a little bit
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: before they respawn back into their normal lives.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what it feels like. It's a complete terrifying
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: detachment from reality.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: But reality catches up very quickly in the legal system.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: It does. Law enforcement initially couldn't locate Andre to arrest
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: him the same night as the girls. However, the very
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: next day, the reality of the situation seems to penetrate.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Andre Clemens walks into the Miramar Police Department and turns
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: himself in.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: And his demeanor is noticeably different from the girls. He
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't complain about uniforms or college. No. He immediately invokes
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: his rights, asks for an attorney, and crucially, he immediately
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: requests a psychiatric evaluation.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: That request is incredibly telling. It suggests an immediate, calculated
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: pivot toward building a legal defense, attempting to lay the
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: groundwork for an insanity or diminished capacity plea.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: He knows he's in deep trouble.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: He is keenly aware of the trouble he is in,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: unlike his accomplices.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: As the legal process grinds forward, the reality of adult
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: court sets in. This isn't detention. This is the Florida
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: state prison system. In August of 2024, nearly three years
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: after the murder... Both Christy Parisian and Jason Smith make
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: a deal with the prosecutors.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: They plead guilty to the lesser included offense of second
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: degree murder.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: The legal strategy here is common in multi-defendant cases. For
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: their roles as the bait and the physical accomplice, both
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: girls are sentenced to 25 years in Florida State Prison.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: 25 years.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: It's a substantial sentence that acknowledges their vital participation in
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: the conspiracy, but recognizes they did not orchestrate the event
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: or deliver the fatal blows.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Andre, however, decides he wants to roll the dice. He
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: wants to take his chances with a jury. I cannot
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: fathom the arrogance required to look at this mountain of
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: evidence and think you can beat it.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: It's pure hubris.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: But as the trial date approaches, the prosecution meticulously lines
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: up their case. They have the cell carrier data. They
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: have the physical DNA evidence from the boots and the glove.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: They have the surveillance video.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: They have everything.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: They have the 5,000 text messages showing explicit premeditation. And
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: they have the sworn depositions of both Christy and Jacene,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: who have agreed to testify against him in open court.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: The evidence is insurmountable. Faced with the overwhelming certainty of
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: a conviction at trial, which in Florida carries a mandatory
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: for first-degree murder, Andre's defense team blinks.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: On the very eve of the trial, right before jury
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: selection is about to begin, they approach the prosecution to
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: make a plea deal.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: The prosecution consults with DJ's family, his mother, Mageline, and
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: his father, Dwight Sr.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: And remarkably, despite their unimaginable, all-consuming grief, the family extends
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: a level of grace that I can barely comprehend. They
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: agree to allow the plea deal to spare everyone the
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: trauma of a trial. Andre pleads guilty to first-degree murder.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: The sentencing hearing that follows is deeply emotional. The impact
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: on the community, the true cost of this violence, is
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: laid bare in the courtroom. Magdalena Meal delivers a victim
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: impact statement that is utterly heartbreaking.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: She stands before the judge looking at the kid who
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: murdered her son and she says of DJ, he's arrested
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: in power.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Such a powerful phrase.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: It's such a powerful, poignant phrase. Her grief is so palpable,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: so raw that it affects every single person in the room.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Even the presiding judge, Judge Ernest Colra, is visibly shaken.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: He was brought to tears on the bench.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he admits on the official record that he
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: couldn't sleep the night before just thinking about the sheer
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: senseless tragedy of this case.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Judge Culra articulated the sociological tragedy of it perfectly. He
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: noted that a petty high school indiscretion, a rumor about
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: an ex-girlfriend that would have been forgotten in a week,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: resulted in the death penalty for an innocent teenager.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: It's just beyond belief.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: And in the process of seeking this warped vengeance, Andre
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: destroyed four separate families. DJ's family lost their son forever.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: But the mothers of Andre, Christy, and Jacene also effectively
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: lost their children to the bleak reality of the prison system.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Andre Clemens receives a sentence of 40 years in Florida
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: State Prison to be followed by lifetime probation. It is
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: a massive sentence. He will be an old man when
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: he gets out.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: But as the prosecutors noted during the hearing, true justice
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: would be bringing DJ back. And the court system simply
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: doesn't have the power to do that.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: This case forces a very difficult, uncomfortable sociological examination. We
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: are looking at a generation raised with constant digital connection
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: where words, threats, and violent fantasies are often typed lightly
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: and forgotten quickly in a barrage of notifications.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: But when that digital bravado is paired with real-world, easily
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: accessible weaponry and a peer echo chamber that validates violent
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: impulses rather than checking them, the results are catastrophic.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Which brings us right back to you listening to this.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Think about your own high school experience. We all remember
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: the intensity of those years. We remember the rumors, the jealousies,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: the feeling that social slights are quite literally the end
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: of the world.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Your adolescent brain is wired to amplify social standing above
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: almost everything else. You feel things with a volume that
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: has turned up to 11.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: But traditionally, historically, those intense feelings resulted in a fistfight
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: behind the bleachers. Or a screaming match in the cafeteria.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: The structural boundaries of reality, the lack of weapons, the
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: presence of adults, the physical effort required to do harm
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: kept the violence somewhat contained.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: But this case forces us to look at what happens
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: when that teenage impulsivity is armed with lethal intent. When
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: a kid can order a tactical sword online as easily
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: as ordering a textbook.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: It's terrifyingly easy.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: When they can casually text about the logistics of murder
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: as if they are discussing the plot of a Netflix show,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: complete with coordinating pedicure colors.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: This raises an important question. At what point does the
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: digital detachment from reality become the ultimate accomplice to violence?
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: When the screen makes everything feel like a game with
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: no permanent consequences, how do we force reality back into
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: the room before it's too late?
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: It's a chilling question, and it's one that is lingering
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: in the muddy waters of this case. In a world
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: where motives used to be clean lines, we now have
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: to navigate the terrifying logic of an algorithmically fueled teenage conspiracy.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: We really do.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: We want to thank you for joining us on this
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: deep dive into these sources today. It was a heavy one,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: but an incredibly important one to understand. Stay curious, stay vigilant,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: and most importantly, stay safe.