Hey listeners Jessica here. Be sure to check out new episodes of Undetermined every Tuesday for free wherever you get your podcasts. For early and ad free listening, check out Tenderfoot plus on Apple Podcasts. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals interviewed and participating in the show, and do not represent those
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I feel like.
If somebody has disappeared and they don't have a vehicle, they don't have have a cell phone to communicate, they don't have any means of paying for anything.
At that point you have to treat it like it's a missing child. That means going door to door, going and looking under bushes and cars. So don't make excuses to me about manpower, because that just means you don't want to. That's what I feel all of this boils down to, is they just don't want to.
But when they get a call that there's a body found two and a half, everybody.
Everybody shows up.
People in suits, don't even talk to you, people in uniforms coming up and asking questions.
And the one detective.
That wasn't there an hour and a half before, there's all of a sudden there and hey man, how are.
You guys doing. We just did your job and we found our relative. How are you doing?
You know, all of a sudden you have more than enough people to come out.
That's kind of embarrassing. And I was probably about.
Where you see those uh those little like concrete things over there, when I heard her yelling from over here, and then they ended up calling me and I rushed back, but there was a stop training over here, so I had to hop over and walk.
And and just just kind of look down. That goes pretty deep. It's way down there, so it's it's crazy.
And you guys see about where she lived, just down the road, not very far at all, so it was extremely close.
Yeah, gives me chills being back here.
This is on Thursday, August twenty second, twenty nineteen, about a week after Jessica's disappearance. Sisters Audrey and Amanda, along with their cousin Doug, made the long trek from Mississippi to New Orleans. First stop in OPD District three, they wanted to speak to Detective One, but when they arrive, he's not there, so they make the best of their time and start looking around Jessica's Lakeview neighborhood, the last
place she was seeing. Scouring a map of the area, they decide to look just on the outskirts of the residential part of the neighborhood. Something drew them to an overgrown area just passed an interstate overpass. There's a pumping station and a hillside that leads up to some train tracks dividing Lakeview and its adjacent neighborhood.
I'm gonna led al drug kind of walk you guys over there.
It was greways down there.
So me, Doug, and Amanda got here by the pumping station number seven and was scouting out places to look at. Amanda stayed in the car to talk to Maria to tell her what was going on, what our next plan was, And me and Doug got out the car and.
We went over the railroad tracks.
We crossed the train and he told me go look over that way by the woods, and that's what I did. I went over there, and I was walking alongside of the train and I seen like a white tarp down there's like a leg a hill with rocks on it, and I've seen a white tarp, and I thought, oh my god, I hope my sister's not underneath there. So to walk down there, but I slid all the way down and my foot hit the tarp, and I just remember thinking, please, don't let my sister be underneath there.
And I pulled up the tarp and she wasn't there, and I was so relieved.
Though Audrey felt a sense of relief in this moment, her search continued. She had a strong feeling about this area and felt something calling to her, urging her to keep looking.
And then literally maybe five ten feet I just stayed down there, and I jumped on a railroad tie and then I turned around, and then as clear as day, I heard a voice that said, no, look again. And I looked again. And that's whenever. So when I seen her legs, when I seen her back, and I started screaming.
No one heard me. I was just sitting here screaming.
I walked back up the hime, and then I walked back down and I looked again because I thought, maybe that's not what I'm seeing. And I fell to the grand and just started screaming, and and then I called my sister on the phone and I said, I found Jessica.
She was just laying there, and I knew it was my sister, Like I knew it was her.
And it was her.
Knee that was black, and she had black shorts, she had on a black shirt. Her feet were covered by some bushes, and then like her head was kind of covered by some bushes.
Too, but I could see her.
She was just laying there like someone set her down or something like a pizza trush. She was only two enough foughts from her house. She was a person, no matter what what she was into or anything, she didn't deserve to die like that.
We were all kind of shocked, you know, we were all kind of kind of scared. Obviously, reality kind of kicks in.
This is Jessica's cousin, Doug Schmidt, who accompanied Audrey and Amanda in their search for Jessica. Doug works in the funeral home industry and sees the deceased on a daily basis. Still the scene was jarring to him.
She wasn't facing us, she was facing another direction, and she was kind of more or less sitting in a fetal position, and the surroundings didn't really seem really natural as far as Okay, well, I don't know what's going on. I'm not a police officer, not a detective. But I told him, I said, look, if this is her or if it's not, this is still a dead body, and we need to get away from this right now and.
Call the police.
And they did just that. As they waited, Amanda call Jessica's friend Maria to let her know what had happened.
She was like, we found a body. Police are on the way, like just that quick, so fast, We're going to look around. We found her, and I remember like just howling like a bansheet and like walking around my living room in circles and being like, oh my god, I'm so sorry, just like I knew it was her.
Back at the scene, it wasn't long before the area was flooded with emergency personnel and police, including Detective lun When.
They showed up, it was a few detectives and we walked them to where we found her and of course, they doing their thing. They're asking questions about what's the story here, and we kind of filled them in a little bit about what we knew up to that point that look, she was missing. We came down because it had been ten days and we were worried about our relative and went over everything with them, and of course they took pictures. Corners Office showed up and removed her
and all. And I remember my cousin Mandy really wanted to see because at the point, you know, you couldn't really see anything, and the level of decomp ten days and the heat in that area, I mean, it kind of was rapid.
We asked them, said, look, these are her sisters.
Man to hear wants to see her because she wants to know if this is her or not, because they had this gut.
Feeling that look, no, that's that's my sister. I remember him saying, the level of d comp's bad.
Soft tissues are removed, it's you don't want to see.
The family was certain it was Jessica, but sadly, due to the level of decomposition from the New Orleans heat, they wouldn't get a positive identification that day. In fact, they didn't feel like they got much of anything out of the NPD that day. According to Doug, the scene was cleared within an hour.
Looking back, I kind of expect a little bit more.
They interviewed us, of course, they took some pictures of the immediate area, and then that was it. They didn't really expand past just that one little section, And that always seemed kind of to me.
It really did, really really odd.
It didn't seem like it wasn't as big a deal as it should have been to them. This was a missing person's case that was reported missing. This wasn't like, oh she was missing and no one reported its Like.
No, they knew.
They knew our level of interest, our level of involvement. They knew it. The detective that we were going to see that day showed up on the scene and talked to us. You know, of course we're kind of looking at them, like, I mean, the house is a straight shot from here. This seems awfully closed for so many miss in ten days, and three amateurs who don't even live in the area, have never been to this area can put two and two together and just start looking around.
Even looking back, it just still feels odd to me because I expected more. I expect a lot more, and it just never happened.
It just never happened.
And when the NOPD wrapped up at the scene, what was left was a police report, a fairly brief one at that the incident is listed as an unclassified death and specifically states that is not a result of a hate crime or domestic violence. The narrative says, in part.
At approximately twelve thirty six pm, police officer Everett Briscoe was dispatched to the intersection of Orleans Avenue in Kenilworth Street to investigate a report of a miscellaneous incident, Whereas the reporting person, Amanda Barnes, stated, while searching for her sister, who was reported missing, she located the deceased body of an unknown white female.
Officers reported her as wearing a gray shirt and blue shorts, and also noted that she was in an advanced stage of decomposition. It, in essence, that's the police report. As Doug Audrey and Amanda drove away from the scene that afternoon, they were at a loss. The only thing they knew for sure in that moment was that Jessica was no longer missing. She was gone forever, you know.
There was a lot of emotions going on.
There was a lot of anger, there was a lot of confusion, a lot of sadness, and it just felt like it was just like a roller coaster. I know, we all had hoped that she was still alive somewhere, and you kind of hang on to that, and then you start hoping that maybe this wasn't her.
Because me not being.
Near as close to Jessica as my two cousins were, I felt the degree of sadness because I mean, I I can't even imagine I couldn't you know, I have three sisters of my own, and even trying to look at it from their perspective just makes me just want to shut down.
Eventually reality would set in, but it would take some time. It wasn't until nearly three months later, in November of twenty eighteen, that the body would officially be matched to Jessica through DNA. According to the family, the delay was a result of the NPD misplacing the original DNA sample submitted by Jessica's mother. Nonetheless, they got their answer, a rather unwanted one, and there would be more to follow. Two months later, January of twenty twenty would turn out
to be a quite eventful month for the case. The corner listed both the cause and manner of death as undetermined or a coroner's examination. They typically include the cause and manner of death. Manner of death can be natural, accidental suicide, homicide, or if it's unknown but is not considered natural causes, they can classify it as undetermined. In Jessica's case, her injuries, which we'll get to in a minute, did not indicate exactly how she died. Therefore, they also
ruled her cause of death as undetermined. This obviously didn't sit well with the family. It seemed they were even further from closure than they thought. Everything was up in the air. To make matters worse, that same day, Audrey and Amanda learned that they wouldn't even be able to lay their sister to rest. Her remains were released to her husband justin This came as a surprise to them
and they were crushed. And as if that wasn't enough bad news for one month, the most shocking revelation would come the last day of the month, January thirty first, twenty twenty, when the coroner released the autopsy report to the family. They hoped it would provide some answers. Instead, it would only raise more questions. We were given access to the report by Jessica's family. Here's what it says.
Jessica's time of death was listed as August twenty second, twenty nineteen, one h five pm, which is when she was found and officially pronounced deceased at the scene. The autopsy indicates several injuries to Jessica's body, including a broken nose and jaw. She also sustained post mortem injuries, meaning they happened after she was deceased. Those include a broken rib and C four vertebrae, which is located in the neck.
At the time of her autopsy, Doctor O'Sullivan, a forensic pathologist with the Orleans Parish Corner's Office, collected evidence samples from Jessica's body, including two envelopes of fingernail clippings, a heart charmed necklace from her neck, and her clothing black tank top, black shorts, pink underwear, and a pair of black shoes, which contradicted what the nopedie reported her wearing
gray shirt and blue shorts. The doctor also notates a sun and moon tattoo on her lower right abdomen following the autopsy, a toxicology screening was conducted by forensic toxicologist doctor Sherry Katinko with NMS Labs. Testing shows levels of memph amphetamine, amphetamine, alcohol, and prescription drugs including buproprian and
hydroxyu approprian. The report raises a lot of questions, and I wanted to better understand what everything meant to do that I sought on an expert, a woman I had connected with a few years back, ironically in New Orleans during Crime con an annual true crime convention, where she was speaking as a forensics expert.
My name is doctor Kimberly Massik.
I am an assistant professor of criminology and Victimology at Indian River State College, as well as the founder and director of.
The Institute for Cold Case Investigations, which works directly with law enforcement agencies going through cold cases that are in our local area.
While doctor Masnik hasn't conducted an official investigation into this case, we asked her to look over the documents we have and share her thoughts.
And the Jessica Easterly case.
Jessica was found ten days after she actually went missing.
She's in New Orleans.
She's in a fairly good state of decomposition from the trunk up so the body is Jessica's body is removed and she is taken to the examiner's office and when they receive her, she is received in the bag upside down, and the process for her very little is actually done because of the level of decomposition. And you have to think it's New Orleans is very much like where I live in Florida. It's extremely hot, it's extremely humid, which is going to make the person their level of decomposition
happen much quicker. So she's not in the most pristine condition she can be in to run all of the tests that would normally be run. You go ahead and do toxicology on her, but unfortunately they can't take it.
We can't get blood samples.
She's been out there for ten days, so either her blood has dried up or because of the decomposition, the blood has flowed into her body cavity, so therefore it's compromised. So the one thing that they're really able to do is to send off and have a piece of her liver examined. Again, you have to remember that Jessica's liver has now been out and in the public sun that and everything else for ten days, so it is also going through changes both chemically and physically.
There are many challenges experts face when dealing with a highly decomposed body, as was the case here. Doctor Masnik puts it simply, if you don't test for it, you're not going to find it. But in Jasica's case, they were able to find some things.
So there were only about five or six drugs that were tested for that we know of.
Most of them come back to either.
Illicit drugs that she was on potentially for depression, or she was being given by somebody for depression, or they are items that could have shown up in her liver in her system just simply due to this. The ethanol is absolutely an alcohol, a drug that shows up in the system due to decomp When I look at the things that are said about Jessica in the report, the report.
Say she's either a very low.
Level user of myth because it doesn't say anything about, you know, major blemishes to her skin, her teeth, or in fair condition. There's nothing that we see when we look at people that are major meth addicts.
However, she says it's important to understand how meth metabolizes in the body.
Meth breaks down very quickly based on when you take it and how much you take and how you take it. So it's more than likely that if they're finding meth in her body, that it was very recently taken and it would not have been ingested because the stomach would have dissolved it. That would lower the level very quickly. Meth isn't going to increase because of decomposition.
Or anything else. If meth is there, then meth is there.
We asked doctor Masnak. If there's a potential overdose here.
You have to remember they were not able to run tests as extensively as they would have if it had been a fresh or an interior past. You have to realize they used her liver to do most of the testing, so the liver itself was also going through changes.
So yes, it is very likely that it did go down.
But then again, I still have to I'm speculating, and it's based on just my knowledge of what the average meth addicts looks like. One, if she's not a consistent user, and two, even a heavy dose ten hours later, only half of it's going to be in her system. And then After that, you've got the ten days until we even pick her up, and then you've got extra time before the autopsy even happens.
So there's no way.
Of knowing exactly how much meth was in her system at the time of her death.
You have to go back and look. There's nothing.
Nobody mentions anything about her. The husband is saying, you know, they were taking a nap, so it's not like they were at a party. There's nothing there that jumps out to me and says that she took a heavy dose of myth at that point in time, even though there's also nothing that tells me that she didn't.
And while Jessica had traces of methamphetamine in her system at the time of her toxicology examination, her family doesn't believe she was habitually using meth. It's also unclear what exactly Jessica had prescriptions for and whether or not the drugs found in her system at the time of her death or prescription. But apart from the drugs, I also wanted to know if there was any way to determine what Jessica's cause of death could have been based off her injuries she.
Was found with Basically her nose is broken and her jaw is broken, and they do not state, so I can only assume or presume that that was either.
Pre mortem or anti mortem.
They don't ever mention whether or not there's any blood in or around those areas, so I can't tell exactly at what point she received those. But they do state that her C four vertebrate as well as her rib or broken, and those are post mortem. I am feeling, based on what very little information we have, that this is Jessica's.
A dumb sight. Because we have such little information.
That's why the coroner up there turns around and gives us a manner and cause of death of being undetermined. As much as I don't like it, undetermined is actually probably the best thing to leave it at at this point in time.
Although doctor Masnik is of the belief that Jessica's body was dumped at the site, implicating some degree of foul play, she says ultimately there's just not enough information to know for sure, and adds that a classification of homicide would be an overreach without definitive evidence on her body to support it. But before we move on, I want you to know there was something else found on her body.
That further supports the theory of it being moved, something my partner Todd and I discussed at length.
We do know from a source that was at the scene when her body was discovered, who makes their living working with dead bodies, she had liver mortis on the outside of her knee that was the opposite knee of the knee that was touching the ground.
Let's break that down for someone who may not know what post mortem liver mortis is, because I had to have you explain it to me. And so let's begin with Jessica's found laying on her side.
Right.
Yeah, for this argument's sake, we're not saying which side she was discovered on right, but if she was discovered on her left side, then we would be talking about the right knee, and the liver mortis had set in on the outside of that right knee, which is facing the sky, pointed to straight up at the sky. From a layman or detective's understanding of what liver mortis is and what it occurs, it's post mortem lividity, which means
it happens after death. So about twenty minutes after you die, the red blood cells start to separate themselves from the plasma because your heart's not beating anymore and it's not circulating the blood, so it works its way out of vessels and whatnot into tissue and then it pulls and
it's falling because of gravity, tore the ground. So they're able to determine how you were positioned at the time you died, and it would mean that you laid there in that position for a minimum probably of two hours, probably closer to six the way this was described.
So what this proves is she died laying on one side. She was found laying on the opposite side. Right between this revelation and everything we discussed with doctor Masnik, there's plenty of process here, and still something that gnaws at me is just how close her body was to her house. So now with all of this in mind, Todd and I decided to go back to the spot where Jessica was found. This time at night, it's eerie. Visibility is lacking. I'm on edge with every little noise I hear. It's
a little unsettling out here this late at night. It's almost ten o'clock, it's dark, it's desolate this time of night. Quite the contrast from the bustling neighborhood we first visited in the daytime. Now no one is around, and one lonely street light illuminates a small patch of street and grass. Now, in August of twenty nineteen, this grassy area was overgrown, very weedy. You know, it didn't look like it does now.
Now it's pretty manicured. I mean, it could probably use a mo but it looks like it's been mowed recently, within a week or so. I'd say.
There's a little pool in area, a little cutout in the curb so that vehicles can pull into the slot and it splits the lot in the middle. So if it was this light wasn't here, then it was really dark. You could pull in there, and if it were overgrown, you could pull anything out of your car and just slide it.
We find out after leaving New Orleans the light was in fact newly installed this year. If they pull in to this, I'm gonna say, now you were you were mentioning this. This pull in kind of divides this this area, so you got half the lot over here. The other half on the other side is not far at all from another house.
No from Oh, I'm standing now, I could throw a baseball and hit that house, So it's it's risky. It's a risky spot, even though it's dark and it is visually and esthetically separated from this very nice edition they lived in.
It's perplexing how she ends up this close to her house if you're wanting to conceal her. Right, there are many, many, many places we've seen driving around within minutes of driving a couple of minutes that would seemingly be easier to conceal long term, possibly forever.
This is so close, and not only that, you have way more privacy in these other areas, you're way less likely to be spotted being parked there or doing something wrong there. I mean, granted we're talking about you know, this is kind of creepy. It's dark, it looks different than the other side of the overpass. All that, yet we are very very close to houses and people, and that's never a great strategy for dumping a dead body.
Yeah, And as we have discussed, the location could have been the opportunity that presented itself to do something quickly and with haste, as opposed to planning and thinking of a location that would be better suited to conceal.
It's hard to believe that this was anyone's master plan. If any time at all was invested in what should I do with this woman's body?
Now?
Where should I put it? Then I doubt this was plan A.
We didn't stay long, but seeing this place at night did add some perspective. It's not the best place to hide a body by any stretch of the imagination, but at night it is a very easy place to get away with it, albeit if only temporarily, which is why Todd believes this was not some thought out plan, rather a rush decision made on the fly. So at this point we have at least some clarity as to how her body got to where it was found. But what
about the cause and manner of death. That's something that's still seemed difficult to draw any conclusions, not to mention who's responsible. Theories were beginning to swirl, especially between those closest to her. But what I really wanted to know is what Justin thought. After all, he was Jessica's husband, they lived together. He was the last person to see her. Jessica's family had virtually no contact with Justin during this time, but he was talking one of the people he was
talking to was Jessica's friend, Erica. He may remember from episode one she attended their wedding, and while she got to know Justin a little, they certainly weren't close. But shortly after Jessica went missing, Erica received a text from Justin which would ultimately turn into an extended conversation spanning from August fifteenth, twenty nineteen, to February twenty sixth, twenty twenty.
Erica sent me screenshots of their text conversation. Let's begin where their conversation started on August fifteenth, twenty nineteen, one day after Jessica was reported missing and one week before she was found. The text messages will be voiced by actors.
Hey, it's Justin.
Hey, what happened to Jessica. I just saw the post on Facebook.
She left some time after twelve pm yesterday. I was a sleeper and I have no idea where she is or if she's okay.
At first, I didn't know what to believe. I was like, what is going on? Because I saw the post on Facebook where he said Jessica, where are you? Grace misses you? And I'm like, what do you mean? I texted him I was like, where's Jessica. He said, I don't know. Gray's been throwing up, She's worried, sick, and I was hopeful that he had nothing to do with it.
You can actually see this in Erica's text. She was there for Justin during this time. Sure, she had her questions about Jessica's disappearance, and occasionally she'd throw out an idea of how to maybe find her, But for the most part, she was there to empathize.
You need to be there for Gracie, hang in there and keep in touch, don't be too hard on.
Yourself, And by his responses, Justin seemed to appreciate her kindness.
I'm gonna try and take a nap. If I hear anything, I'll call you immediately. Thanks for being a good friend.
In a way, it seemed like Erica became Justin's sounding board. They texted frequently. Sometimes it was even lighthearted, but for the most part it was serious. They both wanted to find out what happened to Jessica. On August twenty ninth, Erica asked Justin for an update.
Nothing today, do you remember saying anything or doing anything? Are her saying anything the last day? You saw her that would help find her.
Justin responds the following day, August thirtieth, at two twenty six in the morning, giving the full story of what happened the day Jessica went missing. I just want to note that at this point Jessica's body had been found, but neither Erica nor Justin seemed to know that. Here's their exchange.
Gone over that day in my mind with police, even my daughter more than just a few times. The problem with that day is there isn't a lot to it.
Justin explained how exhausted he was that day, between getting great ready to go back to school and Jessica coming out of what he called a depressive cycle after a flare up with her fiber mayalgia. He remembered sleeping in that morning and waking up to find Jessica in the kitchen doing laundry.
She asked if I was hungry, and I said yes. We talked about Grace School for a while, and she said she was going.
To put a pizza in the oven.
She came back in the room when the pizza was ready, and we ate watched TV. After we ate, she said that I looked tired and I was abnormally tired because Grace had just gotten out of the hospital. I was getting her uniform for school, school supplies, all kinds of stuff, and I didn't have any help from Jessica because she was feeling like crap and sleeping a lot. So I said, yes, I am, and she said that she had to move the clothes to the dryer and she'd come lay down too.
She went in the kitchen with the plate, and I remember her coming back in getting in the bed. That's the last thing I remember for Grace woke me up after getting home from school. That's when this all began. I don't know, there's not a lot to it, but that's what happened that morning.
This should all sound pretty familiar to you, as it's the same narrative he gave to the NPD, but there's
one minor inconsistency. If you remember from the previous episode, Justin told the first NPD unit that came to his house for the wellness check that when he woke up, he went into the kitchen and saw the pizza Jessica made later that night and early the next morning, he told the second INNOPD unit, who filed the missing person's report that he and Jessica ate pizza rolls together in bed, and now he tells Erica Jessica made a pizza and they ate it in bed together while watching TV, and
that after taking their dishes to the kitchen and switching out the laundry, Jessica returned to bed and lay down with him. Of course, Erica had no knowledge of this, so as Justin answered whatever questions she had and described the events of that day, Erica took it all at
face value. Her angle at the time was to simply try and figure out what happened to her friend, and ironically, the moment her and Justin's conversation started drifting into theories about what happened, that's when things started to take a turn.
Nothing in my mind pointed to the facts that it could have possibly been him, And so the more he started texting me, and the more I started talking to Maria and she would contradict himself.
Once Erica got in touch with Maria for the first time, she started hearing maria side of things. All the while Justin was throwing out a range of theories about what might have happened to Jessica. A stalker, a creepy neighbor. She admitted herself to the hospital, and the list goes on.
He even tried to feed me the story that she's online. She must have got a new phone, probably somebody she's with. She met up with a new guy because she signed on a messenger. He goes, go, look, you can see it's active. So I would message her through Messenger, and of course I would get a response. I'd be like, is this to you?
Where are you?
I'm worried, sick, and a response would come back. So then I would call for a Facebook messenger because you can call, and then he answers the phone and I'm like.
What the fuck Jessin?
And I was pissed. I was livid. I was at work on the month's break and I'm like, why are you answering the phone? Hees, what do you mean? I said, what do you mean? What do I mean? You said she he was a messenger. I just called her through messenger and you're answering what is going on? And what's just completely come up with some random story again, and it was just it was crazy.
But once news was out that Jessica's body had been found, he settled on one theory suicide.
I'm sure they've all jumped on the Maria bandwagon. I mean, why not everyone else has, and it's a better story than the truth. Let's see, Jessica had mental illness and committed suicide or Justin's a no good piece of shit because Maria says so, he must have had something to do with it. Yeah, I can guess which one's easier for people to deal with.
In fact, he seemed certain that Jessica had taken her own life and that everyone would realize it soon enough.
After all this shit's over, and the information I've come across, along with the truth that I've been saying all along, will be validated by the corner's findings and the police closed the case. You know what will change, nothing, not a damn thing. My image in people's minds will still be the same. Grace is going to be left with the legacy of a mom who committed suicide and a
dad that everyone blamed except the police. And she'll still be gone, and most people will be left with more questions than answers.
Like I laid into them. I was like, what the fact did you do to her? I mean I just went off. I couldn't, couldn't fake being nice anymore.
You say you miss her and claim it was suicide, but you tell me why in the hell should I ever believe you. You haven't done anything but throw and blame the other way. I tried to believe you, I tried to empathize with you, but you have done nothing to make me believe otherwise. You say you're distraught because Grace won't have her mom to bring her to dances, but you tell me who was really at fault. Did you just get too mad at her? Did she try to leave you? Jesus justin what the fuck?
She was one of my best.
Friends, Erica. I could respond to this in a number of ways, most of them would not make either of us feel very good. But I will say this, Jessica meant the world to me, always has, and if you or anyone else wants to blame me, I totally understand, and I'll tell you why. None of you have any idea what the fuck I've been going through, but the links I've gone to see that jess was taken care of in every possible way. I've come to understand why
you all blame you. Through counseling and fighting to keep my own sanity.
By January twenty twenty, Justin sent his final text messages to Erica.
I promise you. I miss Jessica minute to minute and am really struggling with life. I swear my kids I didn't have anything to do with what happened. But what else can I say or do to prove it. So many people have been so busy making me out to be a monster. I really cannot believe it. Still, I understand completely. It's hard to live here in some ways,
and it's a comfort in a few others. Every morning I wake up, I still think she's next to me until I wake up, and it's like going through initial shock every day for about thirty minutes until my brain realizes what's happening. It's fucking torture, Erica. I really don't want to be here.
At all.
Undetermined is a production of Resonate recordings and Tenderfoot TV in conjunction with Cadence thirteen, written and hosted by me Jessica Nole and produced by Dennis Cooper and Todd McComas, with additional production by Whitney Bozart. Executive producers are Dennis Cooper, Mark Minnery, Jacob Bozart, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Our senior producer is John Street. Editing, mixing, mastering and sound design by Caleb Culcher, Dayton Cole and Pat kit Glider
of the Resonate Recordings team. If you have a podcast or are looking to start one, check us out at Resonate Recordings dot com. Our theme song and original score is by Dirt Poor Robbins, with additional scoring by Dayton Cole. Our cover art is by Station sixteen. Voice acting by Whitney, Bozarth and Paul Friels. You can follow Undetermined Podcasts on Facebook and on Twitter at Undetermined Pod. Show notes as well as bonus content can be found on our website,
undetermined pod dot com. If you enjoyed this episode, please take time to subscribe, rate, and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. And finally, if you have any information about this case, call crime Stoppers at one eight seven seven nine zero three seven eight.
The tone and
Inflection used by voice actors is not contextually accurate and is a matter of creative interpretation.