Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jennifer Judd

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both originally from to Baxter Springs, Kansas. They moved into their duplex at two nineteen North Park Avenue. Though they had been dating for years, this was the first time they had ever lived together. Justin left for work that morning. As usual. He worked as a guard at a nearby chemical plant, and his shift started at six thirty am. At the time, Jennifer also had a job at a convenience store, but she wasn't working that day. That morning

she left the house. According to media reports, she ran some marins. Apparently Jennifer had an appointment at the tanning bed that day, among other things. Justin had called her in the morning, asking Jennifer to pack a lunch and drop it off for him at work, but Jennifer never showed up. When Justin came home from work at around two thirty pm, he walked into their apartment and found Jennifer on the kitchen floor, lying in a pool of blood.

This had been a frenzied attack. Jennifer had been stabbed multiple times, and both of the weapons the two knives she had been stabbed with had come from her own kitchen, including the eight inch knife that was still sticking in Jennifer's back. The killer or killers had attacked Jennifer with so much force that one of the knives her wedding gift, broke off inside her body. Jennifer's friend's family, and the whole community, because this was a small town, were stunned

at the violence of this crime. Everyone was scared, but all of them hoped that Jennifer's murder would be solved very soon. But it wasn't, and thirty four years later, Jennifer's killer is still out there. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past eight years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as

a small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five, or you can send us a message on Instagram at

Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. From the beginning. Once police arrived at the crime scene, they did not think that Jennifer's killing was just a random robbery gone wrong. First of all, no money had been stolen. Jennifer's purse was still at the house and she had money inside it. She was still wearing her wedding rings, and nothing appeared to be missing from inside the home. Also, the knives that were used to kill Jennifer came from inside her house.

We had a chance to speak with Justin for this podcast. He talked to us about the horror he experienced that day and the shock of losing the woman he had married nine days earlier, someone who he had loved since he was sixteen years old. Justin, who is now in his fifties, told us about how he met Jennifer, in their relationship, and the timeline of exactly what happened on the day she was killed. Justin and Jennifer met at a high school party when Justin was sixteen. Jennifer was

petene with brown hair and brown eyes. She was pretty and popular in high school. Jennifer was homecoming queen. The way that Justin described meeting Jennifer, it sounded like from his end it was pretty much love at first sight.

said neither of them were serious. He said leading up to the wedding, the conflicts they were having, in his opinion, could mostly be chalked up to immaturity. Justin did admit their relationship had its ups and downs, like any young couple about to take a big step, but he said they were very happy together. He described Jennifer as not only his wife, but his best friend.

teens together. And she wasn't, you know, just my girlfriend. She was pretty much so like my best friend. You know, you go through them stages where you know, jealousy stages, and you know, we went through all that. You know, we made we made it through all that stuff. So we figured, you might as well just get married now, so we did.

by Justin's work that day. This was something Justin said he thought was odd because Chuck had never come to his work before Chuck told Justin he had gone to Justin and Jennifer's house. He said he knocked on the front door, but that Jennifer didn't answer. Chuck was unemployed at the time and later told police he had spent the morning driving around going to job interviews. Chuck told Justin when he got to the chemical plant that he was concerned about Jennifer. To this day, this statement by

There's Justin. After his shift finished at two thirty pm, Justin and Chuck rode separately back to Jennifer and Justin's home. When they got to the apartment, Justin said Jennifer's car was in the driveway. He looked inside it and saw his packed lunch. Later, when police searched Jennifer's nineteen eighty four black Mercury Cougar, they would bag up the sandwich and banana that was presumably meant to be Justin's lunch

and label it as evidence. When Justin and Chuck got to the front door, Justin noticed the door was unlocked, which he says was very unusual.

went to the bedroom. I guess I just you know, since all the lights off, I assumed that she was laying down. So I go in the bedroom and I noticed that it looked like the bed was made, but it looked like somebody had laid down on the side of the bed, you know, just laid back down on it, because it was kind of ruffled. And I turned around and walked over walked into the kitchen. And I walked

into the kitchen. I've seen her laying on the floor, and my first thought was was she was which you know, I didn't know a whole lot about medicine and stuff back then, but I knew she was a knemi shed uh kind of a blood disorder, and I thought, well, she passed out, you know, and I reached over, I put the light on and and I seen that, you know, her eyes were outed and she was passed. I reached down and felt her neck and it was cold and hard. But the weird thing is is I I never seen

any blood. And according to the KBI, there was a lot of blood everywhere and said that people will will block that out as a defense mechanism. Yeah, I didn't see any blood.

I was just you knowing shock. And I said call nine one one, and he grabbed the phone and he couldn't call, so I get the phone and I call and I called nine one one, and don't I don't know what it was that I felt. I felt like when the paramedics got there, I felt like everything's gonna be okay. When they walked through, I felt like everything was gonna be okay, you know, And it wasn't. But the paramedics got there, and you know, we went outside and I never went back in.

to hit a dead end early on. One problem could have been the lack of physical evidence and the fact that DNA testing back in nineteen ninety two was not what it is today, so is there evidence that could be retested. They did find hairs at the crime scene on Jennifer's bed, and it has been reported that the hairs did not belong to anyone in the Judd family, but there hasn't been any information released about what happened to those hairs, whether they were tested against other suspects,

and what the status of that evidence is today. There may have been other complications as well. Justin has stated in the past he believed that crime scene was not secured properly. He said that there were multiple people allowed inside his and Jennifer's home that Day's said he knows that because he saw what went down. Still in the beginning, Jennifer's family and friends were hopeful that her killer would be caught quickly. Jennifer was very well known in town.

She was heavily involved in her community and dedicated to her Christian faith. She played softball and basketball, and she was an active member of her church, the First Baptist Church. According to newspaper reports, more than seven hundred and fifty people showed up for Jennifer's funeral at the First Baptist Church. So many people came to her funeral it was standing room only. People were actually spilling out onto the church lawn.

Jennifer's autopsy has not been made public, but details and pages from it have been posted to several online sources. Jennifer was stabbed nine times. She was stabbed six times on the left side of her chest. One of those stab wounds went through her heart. Three more stab wounds were found on Jennifer's back on the left sid The actual cause of death was exanguination, meaning Jennifer blood to death, and the autopsy report estimated the time of death at

approximately ten thirty am. A private investigator named Stephen M. Garrett worked on the case for a long time. He prepared an investigative report that included a lot of original documents. A lot of pieces of this report have been posted and quoted online. At some point, this report stated that Stephen had reached out to the medical examiner, who told him that, in their opinion, that Jennifer's killer hated her, calling the murder overkill. The stab wounds buried in depth.

Two of the stab wounds to Jennifer's chest were one and three quarter inches deep, Another was one in a quarter inch steep. Other stab wounds were between one and one and a half inches deep. Some were even shallower, between five eighths of an inch to one inch deep. According to the autopsy report, Jennifer had other cuts on

her left hand her left eye and her scalp. All of the abrasions, including the five inch abrasion on her scalp, were caused by quote blunt trauma by a heavy instrument, fist or foot end quote, So it appears as though Jennifer's killer hit her and then, judging by the abrasion, which is usually caused by some kind of friction, Jennifer probably hit her head on something, or the abrasion could have happened when Jennifer's head was against the floor. There

was a struggle. The killer grabbed a knife. Once the struggle started, it was a fight to the death, judging by the stab wounds on Jennifer's front and back. The wounds on her back, by the way, were also all entry wounds. Whatever happened was an instant. It took time to kill Jennifer, and her killer had many moments when they could have paused or stopped, but they didn't. But why would someone kill Jennifer? Sexual assault did not appear to be the motive, at least not on the surface.

The autopsy did not find any evidence that Jennifer had been raped or sexually assaulted in any way, and though Jennifer could be as her friend's family and husband described her, feisty, She was also very well loved. No one could think of anyone who would want to hurt her. It is possible that what some people believes the overkill aspect of the crime, the multiple stabbings, may not have been someone who had a hatred for Jennifer personally. It could also

be someone who didn't know her at all. It could indicate a killer who was inexperienced and panicked. In nineteen ninety eight, the Kansas Bureau of Investigations got a cold

case squad. They started looking into Jennifer's case. In two thousand and one, a local newspaper reported that Ray London, a KBI senior special agent and coordinator of the squad, told them the squad had been working on the case for two years straight at that point, and that quote, an arrest might come soon end quote then nothing happened. The KBI did more public outreach on the fifteenth anniversary of Jennifer's murder in two thousand and seven. Over the years,

there have been several people named as possible suspects. One of the biggest questions in the investigation was was Jennifer's killer someone she knew and possibly invited inside. Remember the door was unlocked, but also Jennifer's keys were on the floor. Could someone have surprised her at the door and pushed her inside? Could someone have been stalking Jennifer. Jennifer's father, Dale Bryan, told the Joplin Globe he believed Jennifer might

have had a stalker. He said, five days before her brutal murder, she told a friend someone was pounding on her door hard. She was so freaked out by that. Apparently she hid from this person. Jennifer's father also told the paper he had followed her home because she thought that someone was following her, though this happened several months before the murder. We asked Justin if Jennifer ever mentioned anything about anyone following her. Justin said that, from what

he could remember, she had not. He also does not remember her ever saying anything about someone pounding on the door. Justin said, based on what the Kansas Bureau of Investigations said to him, he believed they were completely focused on his friend, Chuck Chance as the main suspect. Over the years, Chuck has been arrested multiple times and spent time in jail.

For things like public intoxication, grand larceny, obstructing a police officer, escaped from jail, possession of a stolen vehicle, etc. There are court documents pertaining to fights he had with family members, but the court record as of now shows no arrests for other violent crimes. Pllice did talk to Chuck about what he was doing before he went to Justin's work that day. At the time, Chuck was married and had

a one year old daughter. He lived about a ten to fifteen minute drive from where Jennifer and Justin lived. In twenty twenty four, there was a podcast called Who Killed Jennifer Judd, and the host was deputized as part of her research into the case, so she got access to the case files. On the podcast, she read from Chuck Chance's statements. According to what is said on the podcast, Chuck said that he left home that morning at around

seven am and went to a fitness center. Once he was there, he spent about half an hour in a whirlpool, then took a shower and left. Then, he said he went to Jennifer and Justin's house. That's when Chuck told police Jennifer didn't answer the door. Chuck said something else. According to the podcast, he said that he saw a quote a woman who he assumed might be a saleswoman end quote. Chuck went on to say this woman actually came up to his vehicle and asked about Justin and Jennifer.

Chuck claimed he told this person that Justin and Jennifer were his friends and they lived in the apartment complex. Now. Chuck claims that this woman was walking up to Jennifer and Justin's apartment and knocking on their door as he drove off. After that, Chuck said he went to Pittsburgh, Kansas. He claimed he stopped at a convenience store at nine am, and then he named a couple of businesses where he said he stopped in. His last stop was the Hicks Corporation.

After filling out an application there, he said he left for Justin's work at around nine forty two am. He said he and Justin hung out there until Justin got off work at two thirty PM, and then they drove to Justin and Jennifer's home. According to the podcast, on the next day, May twelfth, Chuck called police and changed

his story slightly. He told the authorities he'd actually left Pittsburgh between ten and ten fifteen am, not nine forty two, and he remembered he'd made a couple of stops on his roof, one in Commerce, where he said he stopped at the bank. He claimed he was at the bank in Commerce at exactly eleven thirty, And he claimed he remember that because at that time he was planning on depositing a check, but the teller was going on their

lunch break, so he wasn't able to do it. Instead, he drove on to the chemical plant and got there at eleven forty five. The rest of the story about his getting to Justin's work right before lunchtime at around eleven forty five, was the same. He said he showed up, stayed until two thirty, and then they went back to Justin's place and found the body. According to a search

warrant affidavit which we've seen, police interviewed Chuck. He quote admitted to the touching of certain knives located upon the counter in the kitchen and to being present in the bedroom where certain foreign hairs were discovered end quote. Police were clearly suspicious of Chuck, but that interview, in my opinion, is not a smoking gun. Chuck could have touched the knives and been in the bedroom. He was friends with Jennifer and Justin. That would not have been super out

of the ordinary. In fact, told us Chuck had spent a lot of time in that apartment. He said Chuck actually helped him and Jennifer move into that place. In twenty twenty four, it was reported police had tested DNA hair and fingerprints from the crime scene, and based on this DNA evidence, police ruled Chuck out because his hair and prints were not a match to anything from the crime scene.

know of who it could be. But the DNA has been put in in the database and it didn't come up with the match. He got cleared by DNA, But still, I mean, and it's crazy, but still in my mind the way he acted that day and stuff, And I mean, who goes to somebody who work and sifts there half a shift with them? You know, whether it worked, I mean, it just and he'd never done that before, and he just acted really strange that day. And there's still in my mind there's still something there.

eighteen items were taken as evidence from the house. Those included a bed spread, blue shorts, purple night shorts, a minute made popcan, a knife rack holding eleven knives and a pair of scissors, a drawer with kitchen knives, sheet rock pieces, a red coat hanger, hair samples, and a

piece of carpet from the kitchen area. Next week, in Part two, we're going to take another look at this evidence and try to find out what the test results were, what they mean, and if there is evidence that can be retested, and we'll take a look at some of the other suspects, including a serial killer. Jennifer Judd's case is still unsolved, and there is a five thousand dollars reward still active for any information leading to the arrest

and conviction of Jennifer's killer. If you know anything about Jennifer Judd's murder, no matter how small, authorities asked that you reach out to contact the Baxter Springs Police Department, Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Their number is one eight hundred KS crime. That's one eight hundred five seven into seven four six three.

And because you know, back then, I always heard you don't wake somebody up when they're dreaming, you know, so I just laid there and she just raised up in the bed. I said okay, and she said, somebody's after me.

and LC Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen gonpod. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.