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Party-boy-made-his-FINAL-CALLS-at-3am · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One day in two thousand and four, a young man
0:02
Speaker 1: was watching the news when a story about the Savage
0:06
Speaker 1: murder case came on the TV. And at first, the
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Speaker 1: young man really wasn't paying that much attention, but then
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Speaker 1: a picture of the victim in this murder case flashed
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Speaker 1: across the screen, and at first the young man just
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Speaker 1: stood there, frozen in shock. But then he got up,
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Speaker 1: ran to his computer and began frantically searching through the
0:25
Speaker 1: chat logs of this old conversation he had had, and
0:27
Speaker 1: after a few minutes of searching, he found what he
0:30
Speaker 1: was looking for. He printed it out, and he called
0:32
Speaker 1: the police. But before we get into today's story, if
0:36
Speaker 1: you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered
0:38
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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's
1:01
Speaker 1: get into today's story. On the evening of June third,
1:25
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, a twenty three year old college
1:28
Speaker 1: junior named Jesse Valencia walked into a restaurant in Columbia, Missouri.
1:32
Speaker 1: His friends were already there. They were sitting at a
1:34
Speaker 1: table in the back of the restaurant, and as soon
1:36
Speaker 1: as they saw him, they waved him over, and so
1:38
Speaker 1: Jesse made his way over to sit with them. Jesse
1:41
Speaker 1: was a student at the University of Missouri, and he
1:43
Speaker 1: was majoring in journalism and pre law. The spring semester
1:46
Speaker 1: had just ended a few weeks ago, and as much
1:49
Speaker 1: as Jesse had loved the semester and he really had
1:51
Speaker 1: enjoyed what he was studying, he was looking forward to
1:54
Speaker 1: some time off. He wanted to see his friends and
1:57
Speaker 1: go to some good parties. Jesse had always been a
1:59
Speaker 1: very outgoing person with a very active social life, but
2:02
Speaker 1: sometimes that characteristic sort of got him in trouble. In fact,
2:06
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks ago, he'd had to go
2:08
Speaker 1: to court over a charge of obstructing a government operation,
2:13
Speaker 1: which he'd picked up two months earlier when he refused
2:15
Speaker 1: to leave a house party that the cops were breaking up.
2:17
Speaker 1: And as soon as he sat down at the table
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Speaker 1: with his friends. One of them immediately asked him, like, hey,
2:22
Speaker 1: how'd that court hearing go, and Jesse had said, you know,
2:25
Speaker 1: it didn't go too well. He thought the whole thing
2:27
Speaker 1: was kind of ridiculous, and he had hoped the charge
2:30
Speaker 1: would have been dropped already, But when he had gone
2:32
Speaker 1: to the court room, he found out the charge had
2:34
Speaker 1: actually been upgraded. The prosecutor had changed it to obstructing
2:38
Speaker 1: a government operation by physical interference, which was worse. But
2:42
Speaker 1: Jesse said, you know, he still wasn't that worried about it.
2:45
Speaker 1: He said he had pleaded not guilty, and his plan
2:48
Speaker 1: was to fight this thing to the very end, even
2:50
Speaker 1: if it took all summer. However, the reality was this
2:53
Speaker 1: charge was actually the least of Jesse's problems. He had
2:57
Speaker 1: much bigger things weighing on his mind that summer. His
2:59
Speaker 1: long time boyfriend Jack Barry, had broken up with him recently,
3:03
Speaker 1: and he was having a very hard time coping with that.
3:05
Speaker 1: Jack had wanted to stay friends, but the reality was,
3:08
Speaker 1: even though you know, the intention was good, it just
3:11
Speaker 1: made things harder for Jesse because it meant that Jesse
3:14
Speaker 1: and Jack were still spending quite a bit of time
3:15
Speaker 1: together and still talking and socializing, and while Jack felt
3:20
Speaker 1: like things were over romantically, Jesse didn't feel that way.
3:23
Speaker 1: It just sort of felt like they were perpetually on
3:25
Speaker 1: the verge of getting back together even though they weren't.
3:29
Speaker 1: And then whenever Jesse would try to talk to Jack about,
3:32
Speaker 1: you know, maybe trying to make things work again, Jack
3:35
Speaker 1: would immediately just turn him down. And so the whole
3:37
Speaker 1: situation was just really difficult. And so without Jack anymore,
3:40
Speaker 1: Jesse had become very lonely, and he had been trying
3:43
Speaker 1: to fill that void with random hookups, you know, meeting
3:45
Speaker 1: guys online and inviting them to the hotel where he
3:48
Speaker 1: worked as a night clerk, but for the most part
3:50
Speaker 1: it was sort of shallow and didn't mean anything. At
3:53
Speaker 1: one point, Jesse had been having this secret affair with
3:55
Speaker 1: an older man, which had been exciting, but deep down,
3:59
Speaker 1: what Jesse really wanted was just a real relationship like
4:02
Speaker 1: he had had with Jack, and these random hookups were
4:04
Speaker 1: not that. And so at this point, basically every time
4:07
Speaker 1: Jesse went out socially, you know, no matter what he
4:10
Speaker 1: was doing, he was always kind of on the hunt
4:12
Speaker 1: for somebody who could potentially have you know, long term
4:16
Speaker 1: relationship potential, and this night was no exception. And so
4:20
Speaker 1: that night, Jesse and his friends had a nice dinner
4:22
Speaker 1: together and then when they were done, they left the
4:24
Speaker 1: restaurant and walked a few blocks to a gay dance
4:27
Speaker 1: club called Soco Club. It was dark and the music
4:30
Speaker 1: was loud and thumping, and as soon as they walked inside,
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Speaker 1: Jesse immediately weaved his way through the crowd on the
4:35
Speaker 1: dance floor over to the DJ booth. He asked the
4:38
Speaker 1: DJ to play his favorite song, which was Billy Jean
4:40
Speaker 1: by Michael Jackson, and the DJ just sort of rolled
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Speaker 1: their eyes. Jesse knew the DJ was very likely annoyed
4:46
Speaker 1: with him, because Jesse requested that song every single time
4:49
Speaker 1: he came to this club, But Jesse never had let
4:52
Speaker 1: other people's opinions stop him from doing what he wanted,
4:55
Speaker 1: and so he didn't care. He just wanted this song played,
4:57
Speaker 1: and so after he had made his request, Jesse went
5:00
Speaker 1: over to the bar and ordered a drink, and while
5:02
Speaker 1: he waited, he saw a young man standing alone at
5:05
Speaker 1: the other end of the bar. Once the bartender passed
5:07
Speaker 1: Jesse's drink, Jesse went over and asked the man if
5:11
Speaker 1: he wanted to dance. The man smiled and said sure,
5:14
Speaker 1: and then one dance turned into two, turned into three,
5:18
Speaker 1: and pretty soon the two had spent the whole night together.
5:20
Speaker 1: Now it was hard to hear each other over the
5:22
Speaker 1: loud music, but over the course of several dances, Jesse
5:26
Speaker 1: had learned that this man's name was Ed mcdebbitt and
5:28
Speaker 1: he was training to be a chef. Jesse felt like
5:31
Speaker 1: Ed was a really nice, cool guy, and it seemed
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Speaker 1: like they had an immediate connection, and so when the
5:36
Speaker 1: club closed, Jesse asked if Ed wanted to come home
5:39
Speaker 1: with him. Ed said yes, and after that Jesse asked
5:42
Speaker 1: his friend Jennifer if she wouldn't mind giving them a
5:44
Speaker 1: ride back to Jesse's apartment. She said, of course, and
5:47
Speaker 1: so shortly after that the trio left the club. They
5:49
Speaker 1: got in Jennifer's car and they drove back to Jesse's apartment,
5:53
Speaker 1: and when Jesse and Ed got out, Jennifer said, Hey,
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Speaker 1: you know, tomorrow night, I'm having a party at my place.
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Speaker 1: You two should come by, and Jesse he turned to
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Speaker 1: Ed and kind of winked at him and said, yeah,
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Speaker 1: hopefully we'll both be there, and then Jennifer drove off.
6:06
Speaker 1: After Jennifer had driven off, Jesse walked Ed down the
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Speaker 1: stairs to his very run down basement apartment, and as
6:13
Speaker 1: soon as they went inside, Ed saw the sea of
6:16
Speaker 1: all these history books stacked all over the living room.
6:18
Speaker 1: It would turn out Jesse was really into ancient Greek history,
6:21
Speaker 1: and so Ed began walking around opening up all these
6:23
Speaker 1: old history books, and as Ed did, you know, Jesse
6:27
Speaker 1: began regaling him with, you know, tales of the Battle
6:29
Speaker 1: of Thermopylae, you know, how the Spartans were outnumbered and
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Speaker 1: how they prevailed, and talking about Zeus and the ancient
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Speaker 1: Greek gods and just kind of going off all the
6:38
Speaker 1: stuff that Jesse really enjoyed about, you know, ancient Greek history,
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Speaker 1: you know. And Ed, as he listened to it, just said,
6:43
Speaker 1: you know, I really don't know much about history, but
6:46
Speaker 1: it's really fascinating that you're so into it. And so
6:48
Speaker 1: from there the rest of the night went great for
6:51
Speaker 1: the two of them. They would spend the night together,
6:53
Speaker 1: and then at ten am the next morning, as Ed
6:56
Speaker 1: was getting ready to leave, they made plans to meet
6:58
Speaker 1: up again at Jennifer's party. Night. Before Ed left, he
7:01
Speaker 1: wrote his phone number down on a scrap piece of
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Speaker 1: paper and gave it to Jesse, and Jesse took the
7:06
Speaker 1: paper and then walked dead to the door and gave
7:08
Speaker 1: him a hug and a kiss before he left. And
7:10
Speaker 1: then once he was gone, Jesse just hoped that, you know,
7:13
Speaker 1: maybe this wasn't just a meaningless hookup. Maybe this had
7:17
Speaker 1: the basis of a strong, long term relationship, the one
7:21
Speaker 1: thing Jesse really wanted. Around noon that day, Jesse was
7:26
Speaker 1: eating a quick lunch before heading out for work when
7:28
Speaker 1: he heard a knock on his door. He walked over
7:30
Speaker 1: and opened it up, and he saw his landlord standing
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Speaker 1: in the hallway, and his landlord looked pretty mad. He
7:36
Speaker 1: told Jesse that, hey, it's the fourth of the month
7:39
Speaker 1: and you still haven't paid rent. Jesse apologized profusely and
7:42
Speaker 1: just said, you know, it totally slipped his mind, and
7:45
Speaker 1: he promised he would get it to the landlord that afternoon.
7:47
Speaker 1: But after the landlord accepted his answer, and you know,
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Speaker 1: Jesse shut the door. He couldn't help but have this
7:53
Speaker 1: sort of sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach
7:55
Speaker 1: because the truth was he didn't have the money. Jesse
7:58
Speaker 1: had grown up in a very family in a small
8:01
Speaker 1: town in Kentucky. He was actually the first person in
8:04
Speaker 1: his whole family to go to college, and he had
8:06
Speaker 1: paid his bills by working as a hotel clerk, the
8:09
Speaker 1: same job as mother had had back home. Now, Jesse
8:12
Speaker 1: loved his family, and he spoke to them basically every
8:14
Speaker 1: single day. He would call them all the time, But
8:16
Speaker 1: at the same time, he had always felt so trapped
8:19
Speaker 1: in his conservative, ultra religious hometown. So he had left
8:24
Speaker 1: and tried to sort of reinvent himself as someone knew,
8:27
Speaker 1: the kind of person who can do anything and go anywhere.
8:29
Speaker 1: And so even though he had done that, it would
8:31
Speaker 1: turn out that making real money was something that he
8:35
Speaker 1: just hadn't quite figured out yet. Before Jesse left for
8:37
Speaker 1: work that afternoon, he scrounged up all the cash he
8:40
Speaker 1: could find, but still wasn't enough to make rent. He
8:43
Speaker 1: dropped the cash in the landlord's mailbox anyway, with a
8:46
Speaker 1: note promising he would get the rest of it together
8:48
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. Then he walked to his
8:50
Speaker 1: job at the campus inn and spent an uneventful evening
8:53
Speaker 1: behind the front desk, counting down the hours until the
8:56
Speaker 1: end of his shift, and as soon as the end
8:58
Speaker 1: of his shift came. When the clock struck eleven, he
9:01
Speaker 1: bolted home and immediately changed clothes before heading out to
9:04
Speaker 1: Jennifer's party, where he was supposed to meet his new
9:07
Speaker 1: love interest Ed McDevitt. However, when Jesse walked into that party,
9:12
Speaker 1: he didn't see Ed. He did a lap around the apartment,
9:15
Speaker 1: checking every room, but he wasn't there, and so Jesse
9:18
Speaker 1: just grabbed a beer out of the fridge and began
9:20
Speaker 1: chatting with Jennifer while he waited. But after a while,
9:24
Speaker 1: he checked his watch and realized that either Ed was
9:26
Speaker 1: running really late or he just was not coming. So,
9:30
Speaker 1: trying to tell himself that it was not quite time
9:32
Speaker 1: to be disappointed, you know, maybe there was an explanation here,
9:36
Speaker 1: Jesse went outside and called the phone number that Ed
9:38
Speaker 1: had written down on that piece of paper that morning. Now,
9:41
Speaker 1: this phone number was for a landline phone, and so,
9:44
Speaker 1: you know, Jesse, he punched it in and he listened,
9:46
Speaker 1: and it rang for a few beats, and then somebody
9:49
Speaker 1: picked up, and it was a guy, but it was
9:51
Speaker 1: not Ed. It was somebody whose name was Mark Butler.
9:54
Speaker 1: And you know, Jesse had never heard of this guy,
9:56
Speaker 1: and he asked you know, where's Ed? And Mark explained
9:58
Speaker 1: that he was Ed's roommate and that actually Ed was
10:02
Speaker 1: asleep right now. He had to work in the morning,
10:04
Speaker 1: and so he had decided actually not to go to
10:06
Speaker 1: the party, to Jennifer's party, you know, he just wanted
10:08
Speaker 1: to sleep. Now. As Mark was telling him this, Jesse
10:11
Speaker 1: was trying to make sense of like, Okay, is Mark
10:14
Speaker 1: like Ed's boyfriend or something? Are they together or are
10:16
Speaker 1: they just roommates? And also Jesse couldn't help it feel
10:20
Speaker 1: like Mark clearly did not want to be talking to
10:22
Speaker 1: Jesse right now. It was pretty clear in his tone
10:24
Speaker 1: that he was trying to just get off the phone.
10:27
Speaker 1: But Jesse was not ready to just you know, mail
10:29
Speaker 1: it in here. He wanted to see Ed, and so
10:31
Speaker 1: he told Mark, well, hold on a minute, can you
10:33
Speaker 1: please go wake him up? I need to talk to him.
10:35
Speaker 1: And at first Mark was like, no, he's asleep, he
10:38
Speaker 1: has work in the morning, Like he does not want
10:40
Speaker 1: me waking him up. But Jesse was relentless and just
10:43
Speaker 1: begged Mark to please just for a second put him
10:46
Speaker 1: on the phone, and eventually Mark relented. About a minute later,
10:50
Speaker 1: a very groggy sounding Ed hopped on the phone, and
10:53
Speaker 1: as soon as Jesse heard his voice, he was so
10:55
Speaker 1: excited and he basically pitched Ed hard on why he
10:59
Speaker 1: should not go to bed and come out to this party,
11:01
Speaker 1: and that he really wanted to see him, and also, hey,
11:03
Speaker 1: bring your friend Mark too. That was fine. Now it's
11:06
Speaker 1: not really clear if Ed was excited about this idea,
11:09
Speaker 1: but he would eventually say, fine, I'll come out and
11:11
Speaker 1: mitcha and I will bring Mark. When they got there.
11:14
Speaker 1: Mark would only stay at Jennifer's party for a little
11:16
Speaker 1: while before he headed out on his own. But Ed
11:19
Speaker 1: and Jesse they would stick around until about two am,
11:22
Speaker 1: and then at that point they would leave Jennifer's house
11:24
Speaker 1: and go to another party across the street. At around
11:27
Speaker 1: three am, though Ed said he really did have to
11:30
Speaker 1: get going. It was so late he had to get
11:32
Speaker 1: up in the morning like he had to go, and
11:33
Speaker 1: so at this point Jesse understood that this was reasonable,
11:37
Speaker 1: and so he walked him out to the sidewalk and
11:39
Speaker 1: then asked him, if you know, Hey, do you want
11:40
Speaker 1: to come over to my place? But Ed said no, really,
11:43
Speaker 1: I have to get home. I have to go to bed. However,
11:46
Speaker 1: before Ed did finally leave, the two of them would
11:48
Speaker 1: make plans to see each other in just a couple
11:50
Speaker 1: of days. After Ed had taken off, Jesse wandered across
11:53
Speaker 1: the street to say goodbye to Jennifer, and then after
11:56
Speaker 1: that he began making the walk to his own apartment.
11:59
Speaker 1: And as he was making this short walk to his
12:01
Speaker 1: own place, he began to think that he didn't want
12:03
Speaker 1: to go home alone. You know, if Ed didn't want
12:06
Speaker 1: to come over, well, he was going to find somebody
12:08
Speaker 1: else who would. And so his first thought was to
12:11
Speaker 1: call his ex, Jack, And so Jesse called Jack a
12:14
Speaker 1: few times. And when Jack did not pick up. After all,
12:17
Speaker 1: it's three in the morning and they are no longer
12:20
Speaker 1: in a relationship, it's sort of reasonable that he wouldn't,
12:23
Speaker 1: you know. But at that point Jesse still wanted to
12:25
Speaker 1: see him, and so he walked a few blocks out
12:28
Speaker 1: of his way to make an actual stop at Jack's apartment.
12:32
Speaker 1: Jesse went right up to the door and banged on it,
12:35
Speaker 1: but nobody came to the door. Jack didn't answer. At
12:38
Speaker 1: this point, Jesse began to wonder if, well, maybe Jack's
12:41
Speaker 1: out with somebody else right now, and he suddenly felt
12:43
Speaker 1: so jealous or worse, maybe Jack is here and he
12:47
Speaker 1: knows I'm here, but he doesn't want to see me,
12:50
Speaker 1: and he's ignoring me. After a couple of minutes of
12:52
Speaker 1: standing there and knocking a few more times and still
12:54
Speaker 1: not hearing anything from Jack, Jesse finally gave up and
12:58
Speaker 1: stumbled back to his own apartment. Drunk and lonely and
13:01
Speaker 1: a bit heartbroken, Jesse finally stepped foot inside his apartment
13:05
Speaker 1: and shut the door behind him at about three forty
13:08
Speaker 1: five am. However, right after he'd gotten undressed and flopped
13:12
Speaker 1: down on his bed, he heard a knock at the
13:15
Speaker 1: front door. At two pm the following day, so Saturday,
13:19
Speaker 1: June fifth, two thousand and four, a college student walked
13:22
Speaker 1: out of an apartment just down the street from Jesse's building,
13:25
Speaker 1: and they were carrying a backpack and a cooler. His
13:27
Speaker 1: friends had just pulled into the parking lot and they
13:29
Speaker 1: were about to head out for a weekend trip to
13:30
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. But while he was loading his stuff into
13:33
Speaker 1: the trunk, he noticed somebody lying in the grass nearby,
13:37
Speaker 1: wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts. Now, at
13:40
Speaker 1: first he assumed, you know, this was just somebody passed
13:42
Speaker 1: out drunk from a crazy Friday night party, which sort
13:45
Speaker 1: of happened all the time in a college town like Columbia.
13:49
Speaker 1: But when he took a few steps closer to be
13:51
Speaker 1: sure this person was okay, he saw flies buzzing around
13:55
Speaker 1: their body. About thirty minutes later, Columbia police detective John
14:08
Speaker 1: Short felt his pager go off. He unclipped it from
14:11
Speaker 1: his belt loop and he saw there was a message
14:13
Speaker 1: from his boss's phone number that just read nine one one.
14:17
Speaker 1: Detective Short called his boss right away and he was
14:19
Speaker 1: given the address for a crime scene just off the
14:22
Speaker 1: University of Missouri campus. Short drove there, parked his car
14:26
Speaker 1: on the curb, and then walked over to the yellow
14:28
Speaker 1: tape that was keeping crowds of worried neighbors away from
14:31
Speaker 1: this crime scene. Another detective, Tim Geiger, waved to Short
14:35
Speaker 1: and led him over to the patch of grass where
14:37
Speaker 1: the victim was lying. It was a young man sprawled
14:40
Speaker 1: out on his back, and he was wearing a pair
14:42
Speaker 1: of light blue running shorts with no shoes, no socks,
14:45
Speaker 1: and no shirt, and across his throat was this very
14:48
Speaker 1: deep gash. The medical examiner was already there and she
14:52
Speaker 1: was crouched down next to the body, and she told
14:54
Speaker 1: detective Short that a few things were already standing out
14:57
Speaker 1: to her. She pointed to the bruises that were all
14:59
Speaker 1: over the victim's face, their arms, and their torso, but
15:03
Speaker 1: when she lifted the victim's hands, there were no defensive
15:06
Speaker 1: wounds on them. She told Short that that was pretty
15:08
Speaker 1: unusual for a knife attack, where the victims usually got
15:11
Speaker 1: their hands up, you know, trying to defend themselves, and
15:14
Speaker 1: as a result, they got their hands cut up. She
15:16
Speaker 1: also pointed out that the blood had run down both
15:19
Speaker 1: sides of the victim's neck and pulled under his body,
15:23
Speaker 1: but there was no blood at all on the front
15:25
Speaker 1: of his body, which meant he was probably lying down
15:29
Speaker 1: right there in the grass when his throat actually got cut. Finally,
15:33
Speaker 1: the medical examiner pulled back the victim's eyelids and showed
15:37
Speaker 1: Short the hemorrhaging in his eyes, which they both knew
15:40
Speaker 1: was typically a sign of strangulation, and so putting it
15:43
Speaker 1: all together, Short theorized that, you know, the victim's killer
15:46
Speaker 1: had likely choked him out and then laid him on
15:49
Speaker 1: the grass and then slit his throat while he was
15:52
Speaker 1: laying there unconscious, unable to defend himself. The detective looked
15:55
Speaker 1: down at his victim's bare feet and noticed they were
15:58
Speaker 1: covered in dirt, like he had been running at some
16:00
Speaker 1: point outside. Short doubted that the encounter between his victim
16:05
Speaker 1: and the killer began on the lawn where the body
16:08
Speaker 1: was found, and now he just wondered if maybe there
16:10
Speaker 1: had been some sort of a chase here and that
16:12
Speaker 1: this was just where the killer had finally caught up
16:15
Speaker 1: to the victim. But since there was no id on
16:17
Speaker 1: the victim, Short had no idea who he was or
16:20
Speaker 1: where he'd been running from. And so Short stood up
16:22
Speaker 1: and stepped away from the body so crime scene Text
16:25
Speaker 1: could load it into a body bag. Just then, another
16:27
Speaker 1: squad car pulled up and two more officers got out,
16:30
Speaker 1: Sergeant Kenneth Smith and Officer Stephen Rios. Rios was the
16:34
Speaker 1: beat cop who typically patrolled this neighborhood, so another sergeant
16:38
Speaker 1: on scene had radioed for him to come over and
16:40
Speaker 1: see if maybe he could help identify the victim, and
16:43
Speaker 1: so at this point Short told the crime scene text
16:45
Speaker 1: to go ahead and unzip the body bag and let
16:47
Speaker 1: officer Rios take a look. And Rios came over and
16:51
Speaker 1: he looked inside, and after a second he said that
16:54
Speaker 1: he did recognize this young man. He said it was
16:56
Speaker 1: a college kid that he'd actually arrested at a house
16:59
Speaker 1: party just a couple of months ago. He said his
17:02
Speaker 1: name was Jesse Valencia, and so less than an hour
17:06
Speaker 1: into his investigation, Detective Short now had a name for
17:09
Speaker 1: his victim and some pretty good guesses about how his
17:12
Speaker 1: victim was killed. His next task was figuring out who
17:16
Speaker 1: might have wanted Jesse Valencia dead. So Short looked up
17:20
Speaker 1: Jesse's address, and he found his apartment building was only
17:23
Speaker 1: a block away, so he walked over there, and while
17:26
Speaker 1: the forensics team went inside the apartment to look for evidence,
17:29
Speaker 1: an officer was posted outside the building to make sure
17:32
Speaker 1: no one came or went until the crime scene was
17:34
Speaker 1: officially cleared. Short walked into the building and headed down
17:37
Speaker 1: the stairs to Jesse's unit, and there the crime scene tech,
17:41
Speaker 1: who was dusting the doorway for Prince, told him that
17:44
Speaker 1: when they'd arrived, the door was actually already open, and
17:47
Speaker 1: so Short went inside the actual unit and began looking around.
17:51
Speaker 1: There was no blood anywhere, and nothing was broken or overturned,
17:54
Speaker 1: so there was no clear sign of a struggle, but
17:56
Speaker 1: the door being left open suggested that Jesse must have
17:59
Speaker 1: left any hurry, and this certainly matched Short's theory about
18:03
Speaker 1: the fight between Jesse and his killer starting in one
18:05
Speaker 1: location and ending on the lawn. Short figured that, you know,
18:09
Speaker 1: Jesse must have run out of his apartment in a
18:11
Speaker 1: panic and made it a block away to that grass
18:14
Speaker 1: before his killer finally overtook him. And so as Short
18:17
Speaker 1: began to consider this, he also started to think, Okay, well,
18:20
Speaker 1: you know Jesse, who appeared to be in reasonably good
18:23
Speaker 1: shape for his age. You know, if he was chased
18:26
Speaker 1: down and tackled and killed only a block away from
18:28
Speaker 1: his apartment, it sort of suggested that his killer likely
18:32
Speaker 1: was pretty strong and pretty fast. So we're talking about
18:35
Speaker 1: somebody who is in relatively good shape. That's the killer,
18:38
Speaker 1: at least that's the profile he's developed in his mind.
18:41
Speaker 1: And also, you know, the way that Jesse was actually killed,
18:45
Speaker 1: having his throat cut open so violently, it just seemed
18:48
Speaker 1: kind of personal, which suggested that whoever killed Jesse likely
18:53
Speaker 1: was somebody Jesse actually knew. And so with that in mind,
18:56
Speaker 1: Short finished a sweep of Jesse's apartment and then asked
18:59
Speaker 1: a crime se to prioritize getting access to the cell
19:02
Speaker 1: phone and computer that he saw on Jesse's desk. Then
19:06
Speaker 1: he walked out of the apartment and across the hall
19:08
Speaker 1: to the door of Jesse's closest neighbor, and he knocked.
19:11
Speaker 1: A moment later, a very confused looking young man poked
19:14
Speaker 1: his head out and asked Short what was going on.
19:18
Speaker 1: Short told him that he was investigating a murder and
19:20
Speaker 1: wanted to ask him a few questions. The young man
19:23
Speaker 1: at first just seemed totally shocked and appalled to be
19:26
Speaker 1: hearing this, but then it was like this look of
19:28
Speaker 1: realization washed over his face. He told Short that the
19:31
Speaker 1: previous night he had actually woken up to the sound
19:34
Speaker 1: of very clearly two grown men fighting in Jesse's apartment,
19:39
Speaker 1: and one of those men was clearly Jesse, because this
19:42
Speaker 1: neighbor heard Jesse clearly saying over and over again, know
19:46
Speaker 1: and stop it to this other man. Now, the neighbor
19:49
Speaker 1: kind of sheepishly said, you know, they didn't actually do
19:52
Speaker 1: anything about this. They actually just kind of banged on
19:54
Speaker 1: their own wall and said, hey, stop it over there.
19:58
Speaker 1: And then shortly after that the noise had stopp and
20:00
Speaker 1: the neighbor had kind of forgotten about it and gone
20:03
Speaker 1: to sleep, not realizing what he was likely hearing was
20:06
Speaker 1: the beginning of Jesse's murder. The neighbor told Short that
20:09
Speaker 1: when they had woken up that afternoon, he'd actually gone
20:12
Speaker 1: across the hall to apologize to Jesse for being so
20:14
Speaker 1: rude the night before. But the neighbor said he found
20:18
Speaker 1: Jesse's door was open and he didn't look inside. He
20:20
Speaker 1: felt like that was kind of rude. But what he
20:23
Speaker 1: thought was, you know, okay, maybe Jesse was so drunk
20:25
Speaker 1: the night before. You know, that was part of the
20:27
Speaker 1: reason that he must have been having this fight, and
20:29
Speaker 1: so perhaps he was so drunk, you know, he just
20:32
Speaker 1: forgot to close the door. The neighbor said he did
20:34
Speaker 1: try knocking on the opened door a couple of times,
20:37
Speaker 1: but Jesse never came to the door, and so the
20:39
Speaker 1: neighbor just kind of left it at that and went
20:41
Speaker 1: about their business. And so after hearing this, Detective Short
20:44
Speaker 1: asked this neighbor if he had any idea who the
20:47
Speaker 1: other man was that Jesse was fighting with, but the
20:50
Speaker 1: neighbor said he didn't. You know, Jesse for the most
20:53
Speaker 1: part kept to himself, and really the neighbor didn't know
20:55
Speaker 1: Jesse well at all. So he did not know who
20:57
Speaker 1: this other person was. After that, Short thanked the neighbor
21:00
Speaker 1: for the information. Then he turned around and headed back
21:03
Speaker 1: inside of Jesse's apartment. And so at this point Short
21:07
Speaker 1: was convinced that, you know, based on the neighbor's testimony,
21:10
Speaker 1: that whatever fight led to Jesse's death likely did begin
21:14
Speaker 1: in Jesse's apartment. And so now Short just had to
21:17
Speaker 1: figure out who were the people that could have potentially
21:20
Speaker 1: been inside of Jesse's apartment late at night like that?
21:24
Speaker 1: You know, was this somebody who was a friend, a
21:26
Speaker 1: love interest? You know? Was Jesse trying to kick them
21:29
Speaker 1: out and it spurned a fight? Like he didn't know?
21:31
Speaker 1: But who were the people in Jesse's life that could
21:34
Speaker 1: have been there late at night. That's what he had
21:36
Speaker 1: to figure out. And luckily, at that very moment, one
21:39
Speaker 1: of the crime scene techs had Jesse's cell phone and
21:42
Speaker 1: he was holding it in the air like he had
21:43
Speaker 1: found something. Now, they wouldn't be able to do a
21:45
Speaker 1: full phone dump until they got it back to the station,
21:48
Speaker 1: and they hadn't even touched the laptop yet, but they
21:51
Speaker 1: had gotten access to Jesse's call logs, and the tech
21:55
Speaker 1: told Short that there was something in there that he
21:57
Speaker 1: definitely wanted to see, because the last time Jesse used
22:01
Speaker 1: his cell phone, according to this log, it was to
22:03
Speaker 1: call somebody named Jack Berry seven times between three and
22:09
Speaker 1: three eighteen that morning. So right away Detective Short looked
22:18
Speaker 1: up Jack Berry's information and he found his apartment's address
22:22
Speaker 1: and saw it was not far from Jesse's, and so
22:24
Speaker 1: he drove right over there. Short knocked on the door,
22:27
Speaker 1: and just a moment later a young man answered, and
22:30
Speaker 1: he had very red, puffy eyes like he'd clearly been crying.
22:34
Speaker 1: Even though Jesse's body had only been discovered a few
22:36
Speaker 1: hours ago, this young man did not seem surprised at
22:39
Speaker 1: all to see the detective. He told the detective that
22:42
Speaker 1: he had already heard the terrible news a friend had
22:44
Speaker 1: told him. After exchanging niceties and the young man confirming
22:47
Speaker 1: that he was in fact Jack, Short followed Jack into
22:51
Speaker 1: his living room, and as they sat down, Short asked
22:54
Speaker 1: Jack about all those three am phone calls from Jesse.
22:57
Speaker 1: Jack looked like he was really struggling to hold it
22:59
Speaker 1: together as he told the detective that Jesse was his
23:02
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend and Jesse had kept badgering him Jack for
23:06
Speaker 1: them to get back together, and Jack didn't want to,
23:09
Speaker 1: and so those phone calls were very likely a product
23:12
Speaker 1: of more badgering from Jack. Jack said the night before
23:16
Speaker 1: he had been woken up by his phone ringing over
23:18
Speaker 1: and over and over again, and before he could even
23:21
Speaker 1: look at the caller, id he heard a knock at
23:23
Speaker 1: his front door and he saw it was the middle
23:26
Speaker 1: of the night, and then he leaned over and saw
23:28
Speaker 1: the caller was Jesse, and he sort of figured that, Okay,
23:31
Speaker 1: he's calling me. It's very likely him at the front door.
23:35
Speaker 1: I don't want to see him right now, and so
23:37
Speaker 1: Jack just decided he would ignore Jesse and hope he
23:39
Speaker 1: went away. Now. When Jack said this, it seemed very
23:43
Speaker 1: clear he was sort of reliving that moment in his mind, like,
23:46
Speaker 1: you know, maybe if he had let Jesse in or
23:49
Speaker 1: engage with him in some way, you know, maybe Jesse
23:51
Speaker 1: would still be alive. That was sort of the insinuation.
23:55
Speaker 1: But Detective Short was thinking, Okay, well, even though he
23:58
Speaker 1: seems like he's being very earnest telling me this, it
24:01
Speaker 1: does mean that he doesn't really have an alibi. He's
24:03
Speaker 1: basically saying, at the time, you know, Jesse was killed,
24:06
Speaker 1: I was home alone by myself, which was pretty weak. However,
24:10
Speaker 1: before Short could begin to poke holes in the alibi,
24:13
Speaker 1: Jack said that, you know, despite the fact that they
24:15
Speaker 1: had broken up, that he and Jesse were at least
24:18
Speaker 1: in his mind, still on good terms. In fact, they
24:20
Speaker 1: had spoken just the day before on the phone, you know,
24:23
Speaker 1: before getting all those nighttime phone calls. It was during
24:25
Speaker 1: the afternoon, and during that phone call, Jesse had told
24:29
Speaker 1: him about a new guy he'd met at a club
24:32
Speaker 1: the night before, and his name was Ed mcdebitt. That night,
24:38
Speaker 1: Detective Shorts stood outside of an interrogation room at the
24:41
Speaker 1: police station, watching Ed mcdebitt through the two way glass.
24:45
Speaker 1: Short knew his investigation was moving basically at lightning speed here,
24:49
Speaker 1: but there was still quite a bit of pressure on
24:51
Speaker 1: him to get this case solved even faster because Columbia
24:55
Speaker 1: was a college town where kids were used to feeling safe,
24:58
Speaker 1: and the murder of a student just a few blocks
25:00
Speaker 1: off campus had sort of shattered that sense of trust.
25:02
Speaker 1: And so, you know, students and parents and you know,
25:05
Speaker 1: staff of the university really wanted Short to get this
25:09
Speaker 1: thing done. And now, looking at Ed through the glass,
25:13
Speaker 1: Short wondered if maybe this was the killer. Maybe this
25:16
Speaker 1: was the guy. I mean, after all, Ed was shaking
25:19
Speaker 1: and fidgety looking. I mean, he seems sort of like
25:21
Speaker 1: an emotional wreck, which could mean, you know, of course,
25:24
Speaker 1: he was just upset because he was connected to the
25:27
Speaker 1: murder victim. You know, that's traumatic. Or it could mean
25:31
Speaker 1: he's hiding something and now he's about to be interrogated
25:34
Speaker 1: by the police, something that would certainly cause a big
25:37
Speaker 1: emotional reaction. Eventually, Short went inside and sat down across
25:42
Speaker 1: the table, and he asked Ed to explain exactly what
25:45
Speaker 1: he had done the night before, and Ed, in a
25:48
Speaker 1: very nervous, shaky voice, told the detective that he and
25:51
Speaker 1: his roommate, a guy named Mark Butler, had met Jesse
25:55
Speaker 1: at a party a little after eleven pm. He said
25:57
Speaker 1: he ultimately went back home again around three am, leaving
26:01
Speaker 1: Jesse on the sidewalk, still very alive and well. Ed
26:05
Speaker 1: said his roommate Mark had actually seen him return to
26:07
Speaker 1: his apartment at three am, and Ed said when he
26:10
Speaker 1: went inside, he went straight to bed, and then he
26:13
Speaker 1: had gotten up early for work. Ed said he was
26:15
Speaker 1: at work when he got the call from police telling
26:18
Speaker 1: him that Jesse had been found dead. Detective Short listened
26:21
Speaker 1: to Ed's story and asked a few follow up questions
26:24
Speaker 1: and then also took a DNA sample from Ed. And
26:27
Speaker 1: then after that he told Ed that he was also
26:30
Speaker 1: going to get a warrant to search Ed's home. Ed
26:33
Speaker 1: was already such a wreck that, you know, when Short
26:35
Speaker 1: told him about this, you know, search of his home,
26:38
Speaker 1: Ed didn't even really react. However, when Short left the
26:41
Speaker 1: interview room, despite feeling pretty confident that Ed could absolutely
26:45
Speaker 1: be a suspect, he also went and you know, followed
26:48
Speaker 1: procedure and looked up Ed's roommate, Mark Butler, and he
26:52
Speaker 1: discovered in the police department system that there was Mark Butler,
26:56
Speaker 1: and sure enough he had a criminal record. So overnight,
27:01
Speaker 1: while a forensics team was searching Ed and Mark's home,
27:04
Speaker 1: Short actually brought Mark down to the station for an interview.
27:07
Speaker 1: But in reality, Short wasn't expecting Mark to become this
27:11
Speaker 1: primary suspect here. He just wanted to be thorough and
27:14
Speaker 1: rule out anybody who'd seen Jesse that night, and obviously
27:17
Speaker 1: Mark was one of those people. But almost immediately in
27:20
Speaker 1: their interview, Mark started saying some very odd things. He
27:25
Speaker 1: told Short right out the gate that he did not
27:27
Speaker 1: like Jesse, and actually he said point blank that he
27:30
Speaker 1: didn't really care if that Jesse was dead. But he
27:33
Speaker 1: also clarified to Detective Short that he was just Ed's roommate.
27:38
Speaker 1: He was not seeing him romantically, so this had nothing
27:41
Speaker 1: to do with jealousy. He just did not like Jesse.
27:43
Speaker 1: Mark confirmed that he did see Ed when he returned
27:46
Speaker 1: from the party around three am, just like Ed had said,
27:49
Speaker 1: but Mark had actually not stuck around. He said that
27:52
Speaker 1: after Ed had come back to the apartment, Mark had
27:55
Speaker 1: left to go on a date of his own, and
27:57
Speaker 1: he actually didn't know what time he got back. And
27:59
Speaker 1: so as he was saying this, Short realized that that
28:02
Speaker 1: meant Mark was out and about sort of unaccounted for
28:06
Speaker 1: at the same time that Jesse was killed. And so
28:09
Speaker 1: obviously something seemed off about Mark, and so Short took
28:13
Speaker 1: a DNA sample and added Mark to the suspect list.
28:17
Speaker 1: The next morning, Sunday, June sixth, after catching a few
28:20
Speaker 1: hours of sleep, Detective Short gathered as team for a meeting.
28:24
Speaker 1: The mood was tense. Everybody was exhausted and very much
28:27
Speaker 1: on edge from spending nearly twenty four hours straight working
28:30
Speaker 1: on this case. But when they went around the room
28:33
Speaker 1: and talked about the flood of leads they'd all followed
28:36
Speaker 1: up on yesterday. It didn't actually seem like they had
28:39
Speaker 1: much to show for it. There were now several suspects
28:42
Speaker 1: in play, but none of them seemed to have a
28:44
Speaker 1: good reason to want to kill Jesse Valencia. Jesse apparently
28:48
Speaker 1: had been hounding his ex boyfriend Jack about trying to
28:51
Speaker 1: get back together, which Jack did not want, and the
28:54
Speaker 1: multiple late night phone calls and then knocking on the
28:57
Speaker 1: door unannounced, you know, it just seemed like harassment. So
29:00
Speaker 1: it was possible that maybe Jack had gone over to
29:03
Speaker 1: confront Jesse and things got out of hand. But Jack
29:07
Speaker 1: had told detective Short that he and Jesse had remained
29:10
Speaker 1: friends after the breakup, and some of the other detectives
29:13
Speaker 1: said that Jesse's friends had said the same thing. The
29:16
Speaker 1: two had remained friends, so it seemed pretty unlikely that
29:19
Speaker 1: things between them would have escalated so much that, you know,
29:22
Speaker 1: somebody got killed. Then there was Ed mcdebitt, Jesse's new lover,
29:27
Speaker 1: who had seemed pretty nervous during his interrogation. One of
29:29
Speaker 1: the detectives told Short that while searching Ed's house, they'd
29:33
Speaker 1: found a bag full of chef's knives, and some of
29:36
Speaker 1: them were large and sharp enough that they could easily
29:38
Speaker 1: have been the murder weapon. But Ed worked in a
29:41
Speaker 1: restaurant and was training to be a chef, so owning
29:44
Speaker 1: kitchen knives was hardly a smoking gun. And then as
29:47
Speaker 1: for Ed's roommate, Mark Butler, you know, he did have
29:50
Speaker 1: a criminal passed and openly said he did not like Jesse.
29:53
Speaker 1: It didn't care that he died. But they'd only met
29:56
Speaker 1: one time and very likely they would never have seen
29:59
Speaker 1: each other again. So it seemed very unlikely that he
30:02
Speaker 1: would go through the trouble of following Jesse home and
30:05
Speaker 1: killing him like to what end. And so Detective Short
30:08
Speaker 1: was getting really frustrated. He just couldn't make sense of
30:12
Speaker 1: any of these suspects. It was like something was missing here,
30:15
Speaker 1: and so he turned to two of his detectives, Jeff
30:18
Speaker 1: Westbrook and Barbara Cook, and told them to go to
30:21
Speaker 1: some local bars that Jesse frequented and just sort of
30:24
Speaker 1: ask around about Jesse, you know, in case there were
30:27
Speaker 1: other leads that they had not uncovered yet. However, right
30:30
Speaker 1: after Detective Short walked out of that meeting that morning,
30:33
Speaker 1: another detective ran up to him and pulled him into
30:36
Speaker 1: a quiet corner and told him a tip had just
30:38
Speaker 1: come in and it was so sensitive that they were
30:41
Speaker 1: going to have to keep it under wraps even amongst
30:44
Speaker 1: the investigators. The detective told Short that a friend of
30:47
Speaker 1: Jesse's who lived in Saint Louis, had called the tip
30:50
Speaker 1: in through crime Stoppers. He said that he and Jesse
30:53
Speaker 1: chatted online all the time and that Jesse at one
30:56
Speaker 1: point had told him about a secret affair he was
30:59
Speaker 1: having with an older man, and this older man was
31:02
Speaker 1: actually an officer in the Columbia Police Department. Later that day,
31:15
Speaker 1: so this is Sunday, June sixth, two thousand and four,
31:18
Speaker 1: two days after Jesse was killed, Detective Shorts sat at
31:21
Speaker 1: his desk flipping through printouts of all these online chatlogs,
31:25
Speaker 1: and these logs showed conversations between Jesse and the friend
31:29
Speaker 1: of his who had called in the tip that Jesse
31:31
Speaker 1: was having this affair with an officer from Short's own
31:34
Speaker 1: police department. In the chats, Jesse wrote all about this relationship.
31:39
Speaker 1: Jesse had seemed to find it pretty exciting at first,
31:41
Speaker 1: having this police officer come by in uniform and carrying
31:45
Speaker 1: on these secret meetups. In the middle of the night.
31:48
Speaker 1: But recently, Jesse had begun to suspect that this police
31:52
Speaker 1: officer was married, and this made Jesse furious. He had
31:55
Speaker 1: told this friend in the chatlog that he wasn't going
31:58
Speaker 1: to be someone's other woman. However, to Short's frustration, Jesse
32:03
Speaker 1: never actually named the officer that he was having this
32:06
Speaker 1: affair with. He only ever referred to him as Columbia's
32:09
Speaker 1: finest And so, whoever this mystery cop was, Detective Short
32:13
Speaker 1: thought they were the most likely suspect because, unlike Jesse's
32:17
Speaker 1: other lovers, this officer had something to lose if this
32:21
Speaker 1: relationship went south. If Jesse told anybody about this affair, well,
32:25
Speaker 1: the police officer's career could be on the line because
32:28
Speaker 1: they clearly were carrying on this totally illicit affair while
32:32
Speaker 1: on duty. You know, that's not okay. And also they
32:35
Speaker 1: were using their position and power potentially to actually land
32:38
Speaker 1: this relationship. And then also on top of that, the
32:42
Speaker 1: police officer's marriage would likely be destroyed. But Short also
32:45
Speaker 1: knew that he had to move very carefully here because
32:49
Speaker 1: now he was investigating his own department, which meant that
32:53
Speaker 1: the killer could literally be in the room with him
32:55
Speaker 1: at any time, and so as he walked through the
32:57
Speaker 1: office to refill his coffee, Short found himself scanning the
33:01
Speaker 1: face of every officer he passed, and he realized there
33:05
Speaker 1: wasn't a single person here he could actually trust. Short
33:08
Speaker 1: brought all the files on Jesse's case into his office
33:11
Speaker 1: and then he told his secretary to find him a
33:13
Speaker 1: roster of the department's entire staff. Then he locked the door,
33:17
Speaker 1: sat at his desk and pulled out the records on
33:19
Speaker 1: Jesse's friends who had been interviewed already, and he went
33:22
Speaker 1: down the list himself, calling each and every one of
33:25
Speaker 1: them to dig for more information. Quite a few of
33:28
Speaker 1: them said that Jesse had told them about this cop
33:30
Speaker 1: he was sleeping with, and one of them remembered Jesse
33:33
Speaker 1: referring to this officer as just Anderson. And so, when
33:37
Speaker 1: short secretary came back with the staff roster, Short began
33:41
Speaker 1: looking through it and he discovered out of the two
33:44
Speaker 1: hundred plus officers in the entire department, there were only
33:47
Speaker 1: two officers that had the name Anderson, Brad Anderson and
33:52
Speaker 1: Ted Anderson. And so the next step was trying to
33:55
Speaker 1: figure out if either of them had a connection to
33:58
Speaker 1: Jesse Valencia, and so Short pulled out the records from
34:01
Speaker 1: Jesse's arrest at the house party back in April, and
34:04
Speaker 1: as he flipped through it, he realized Brad Anderson was
34:08
Speaker 1: one of the three officers who responded to that party.
34:11
Speaker 1: The pieces fit together perfectly. Jesse and Brad Anderson, the
34:15
Speaker 1: police officer, would have met around the same time that
34:19
Speaker 1: Jesse began messaging his friend in Saint Louis about this
34:22
Speaker 1: secret affair with a cop, and so at this point,
34:24
Speaker 1: Short felt like he had just found the killer. So
34:28
Speaker 1: he grabbed a Manila folder off his desk, stepped out
34:30
Speaker 1: of his office, locking the door behind him. Then he
34:33
Speaker 1: did a lap around the whole station, and eventually he
34:36
Speaker 1: spotted Brad Anderson in the locker room, chatting with a
34:39
Speaker 1: few other officers as he put on his uniform. Now
34:42
Speaker 1: Short wanted to be very careful here because if Brad
34:45
Speaker 1: Anderson was the killer, he certainly didn't want him to
34:48
Speaker 1: realize he was under suspicion right now. So Short waited
34:51
Speaker 1: in the hallway until Brad walked out of the locker room,
34:54
Speaker 1: and then as casually as possible, Short caught up with
34:57
Speaker 1: him and pulled him aside. Short opened up them vanilla
35:00
Speaker 1: folder he had brought with him and showed Brad a
35:02
Speaker 1: photo of Jesse Valencia, asking if he recognized him, and
35:05
Speaker 1: Brad squinted at the photo for a second and then,
35:07
Speaker 1: after thinking, he said, yeah, that's the kid I arrested
35:10
Speaker 1: at a party a few months ago. Short asked Brad
35:12
Speaker 1: if he had seen Jesse at all since the arrest,
35:16
Speaker 1: and Brad nodded and said yeah. He said that about
35:18
Speaker 1: a month ago, Jesse had called in a noise complaint
35:21
Speaker 1: and Brad had been the one sent out to check
35:23
Speaker 1: on it, but by the time Brad got there, the
35:25
Speaker 1: noise had stopped, so he was only there for a
35:27
Speaker 1: couple of minutes before leaving. Man That was it. To Short,
35:31
Speaker 1: Nothing about Brad's demeanor seemed nervous or suspicious. In fact,
35:35
Speaker 1: it really seemed like he didn't have any clue why
35:38
Speaker 1: the detective was asking him about Jesse Valencia, so if
35:41
Speaker 1: he was the killer, it seemed like he was going
35:43
Speaker 1: to be very hard to crack. Short was about to
35:45
Speaker 1: let Brad go and just wait to talk to him
35:47
Speaker 1: once he had more evidence, but just then Brad's partner,
35:51
Speaker 1: Officer Rios, walked by and when he walked by, he
35:55
Speaker 1: looked over and he saw the Manila folder with Jesse
35:57
Speaker 1: Valencia's photo inside of it that Short showing Brad Anderson,
36:01
Speaker 1: and Rios, without even thinking, made this comment under his
36:04
Speaker 1: breath that was clearly directed at his partner. It was
36:07
Speaker 1: like this really in bad taste comment where he was like, oh,
36:11
Speaker 1: looks like your gay lover's dead. When Short heard this,
36:14
Speaker 1: he practically sprinted back to his office. Brad Anderson sort
36:18
Speaker 1: of shrugged off the comment made by Rios about, you know,
36:21
Speaker 1: Jesse being his gay lover. But Short felt like what
36:24
Speaker 1: Rio said was a pretty big deal because even though
36:27
Speaker 1: again it was terrible in bad taste humor, you know,
36:30
Speaker 1: that's a terrible thing to say, but maybe there's truth there.
36:34
Speaker 1: Maybe Rios knows that Brad Anderson was seeing Jesse Valencia.
36:39
Speaker 1: Maybe they really were in a relationship. Now in the moment,
36:42
Speaker 1: Short did not, you know, aggressively follow up on that
36:45
Speaker 1: comment and demand to know if Brad had actually been
36:48
Speaker 1: in a relationship with Jesse before he died. Instead, all
36:51
Speaker 1: three of them just kind of went their separate ways,
36:54
Speaker 1: and Short, you know, hustled back to his office, and
36:56
Speaker 1: when he was in his office. Right as he sat down,
36:59
Speaker 1: there was a knock the door, and when the door opened,
37:01
Speaker 1: it was Short, secretary, and she told him there was
37:04
Speaker 1: someone who had been waiting to see him. And then
37:06
Speaker 1: she led in this very nervous looking young man who
37:09
Speaker 1: introduced himself as Jesse's friend, and he said his name
37:12
Speaker 1: was Andy Shermerhorn. Andy sat down and told Short that
37:16
Speaker 1: just a few weeks earlier, he and Jesse had gone
37:19
Speaker 1: out together and then gone back to Jesse's apartment. But
37:22
Speaker 1: around three am, they were interrupted by a knock on
37:25
Speaker 1: the door. Jesse went to answer it, and a uniform
37:29
Speaker 1: police officer walked in shining a flashlight, and to Andy's surprise,
37:34
Speaker 1: Jesse led this officer right into the bedroom and he
37:38
Speaker 1: joined them for a threesome. And then after they were done,
37:41
Speaker 1: the cop told Andy, you better keep this a secret.
37:45
Speaker 1: Detective Short couldn't believe it. I mean, the final piece
37:48
Speaker 1: of evidence he needed had just fallen into his lap.
37:51
Speaker 1: Andy said he did not know the officer's name, so
37:53
Speaker 1: Detective Short got out a department yearbook and told him
37:57
Speaker 1: to flip through it to see if maybe the guy
37:59
Speaker 1: he saw that night in there. But Andy just held
38:01
Speaker 1: up his hand and said he didn't need to do that,
38:04
Speaker 1: and Detective Short was like, well, what do you mean,
38:06
Speaker 1: why can't you do that? And Andy said, well, because
38:10
Speaker 1: when I came in here the guy I met he
38:13
Speaker 1: was out in the hall. Based on the investigation that
38:19
Speaker 1: would follow this revelation, the following is what happened to
38:23
Speaker 1: Jesse Valencia in the early morning of June fifth, two
38:26
Speaker 1: thousand and four, around three am, right around the time
38:33
Speaker 1: that Jesse was leaving his friend Jennifer's party. Jesse's killer
38:37
Speaker 1: was drinking beers with a few friends after work, and
38:39
Speaker 1: then just before dawn, the killer wrapped up got in
38:43
Speaker 1: their car to drive home, but as they were driving,
38:46
Speaker 1: they decided to make a stop along the way at
38:49
Speaker 1: Jesse's apartment. They were expecting another quick, no strings attached,
38:53
Speaker 1: late night secret hookup, but when they got there, Jesse
38:57
Speaker 1: was very drunk and in a terrible mood. Jesse told
39:00
Speaker 1: the killer that he had figured out they were married
39:03
Speaker 1: and so now he was not interested in them at all.
39:05
Speaker 1: He didn't want to see him anymore. But when he
39:07
Speaker 1: told the killer to leave and the killer refused, Jesse said, fine,
39:12
Speaker 1: I'll go to your police chief and I will tell
39:14
Speaker 1: them about our affair, and that's when the killer snapped.
39:18
Speaker 1: If their secret got out, it would cost them everything,
39:21
Speaker 1: so in their mind, they had to silence Jesse before
39:25
Speaker 1: he could ruin them. Jesse tried to run, but he
39:29
Speaker 1: only made it about a block before the killer caught
39:31
Speaker 1: up with him, wrapped an arm around his neck and
39:33
Speaker 1: put him in a vicious choke hold until his body
39:36
Speaker 1: went limp. And then the killer laid Jesse out on
39:38
Speaker 1: the grass, took out a pocket knife and brutally slashed
39:43
Speaker 1: his throat. And then on the way home, the killer
39:46
Speaker 1: very skillfully disposed of the murder weapon, ensuring nobody would
39:50
Speaker 1: ever find it because they knew the knife was the
39:53
Speaker 1: only piece of heart evidence that could ever link them
39:55
Speaker 1: to the murder. After that, they made their way back home,
39:58
Speaker 1: parked in the driveway, and as they were walking up
40:01
Speaker 1: to the front door, they looked up and saw their
40:03
Speaker 1: wife in the kitchen window preparing a bottle for their
40:06
Speaker 1: baby son. And then, just before going inside, the killer
40:10
Speaker 1: unpinned the name tag on their uniform that said Anderson,
40:13
Speaker 1: and they swapped it for another name tag that they
40:16
Speaker 1: had hidden in their glove box, and this name tag
40:19
Speaker 1: was the killer's real name Officer Stephen Rios. Rios was
40:26
Speaker 1: Brad Anderson's partner. He was the one who identified Jesse's
40:29
Speaker 1: body at the crime scene and made that awful comment
40:32
Speaker 1: about Brad Anderson's gay lover. It's believed that Officer Rios
40:37
Speaker 1: was lying to Jesse about his name, and in fact,
40:39
Speaker 1: he actually stole the name tag, not of Brad Anderson,
40:43
Speaker 1: but of the other Anderson, Ted Anderson. He was using
40:46
Speaker 1: his name tag and parading around like he was him
40:49
Speaker 1: whenever he was with Jesse. Rios was arrested and in
40:52
Speaker 1: May of two thousand and five, almost a year after
40:54
Speaker 1: Jesse's murder, he was found guilty of first degree murder,
40:58
Speaker 1: but after an appeal, he got a new trial and
41:00
Speaker 1: the charge was reduced to second degree murder. However, he
41:04
Speaker 1: was still found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
41:14
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
41:16
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments, and remember,
41:19
Speaker 1: we have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready
41:21
Speaker 1: for you to binge right now, so click here and
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Speaker 1: give them a watch. All right, until next time, see ya,