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
of Tenderfoot TV and Resonate recordings. All individuals described or mentioned in the podcast should be considered innocent until found guilty in a court of law. This podcast contains subject matter such as violence and graphic descriptions, which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Through all the twists and turns in the three years since losing Jessica, the one thing her family has always managed to cling.
To is hope.
For Audrey, all she needs is a small token from Mother Nature to remind her she's not alone in all of this. Dragonflies are often revered as a symbol of transformation and rebirth. In some cultures, they're even believed to symbolize a link between this world and the next. Audrey tells me that the day she found her sister's body. She remembers seeing a dragonfly right there in that overgrown patch of land near the train tracks.
If I'm standing right here, my sister was right there where that blue cover was.
That's how close I was to her.
And I've just seen the most beautifulest blue dragonfly. I've never seen a ballooon like that before.
Ever. Audrey didn't make much of it at the time. It wasn't until one night after returning home to Mississippi that it sank in. As she sat on her porch that evening thinking about her sister, she heard a buzzing sound. It was another dragonfly, and it didn't just pop in for a visit. It stuck around for some time. It was as if that little blue insect was trying to
communicate with her. Audrey felt it had to mean something, and looking back on it now, she's even more convinced because these run ins have become a regular occurrence.
One time I woke up and I was crying and there was literally twenty or thirty dragonflies in my ard. They were nowhere else, they were just in my art. And I don't know if that's just me holding on to hope or whatever, but I mean, I believe that that was my sister.
For Audrey, the dragonflies are a reminder that her sister, Jessica is always with her, she always has been. That gives her hope and strength to keep fighting. Momentum had now shifted in the family's favor. Jessica was finally laid to rest, and her case had moved into the hands of the Die's office, who were investigating it as a homicide. Things were looking up.
Now it was.
Time to try and put Jessica's case to rest once and for all. We don't know how long he saw her before twelve thirty. They talked about bills, They talked about this, They talked about that. Our time in New Orleans has been quite the roller coaster. Days of phone calls, interviews, and debriefs. We've learned a lot about Jessica's case its own roller coaster of sorts, and at this point we feel we've discovered most everything we can. Now it's time we take a step back and examine all the pieces.
Sitting inside our fringe Quarter hotel room, Todd and I start creating a timeline board on Jessica's case, starting from January twenty nineteen, when that first message was sent to Maria from Jessica saying she was scared. We grab the biggest bulletin board we can find and prop it up on an easel against the white brick wall with a slew of brightly colored index cards and post its in hand and a old black sharpeat. We get to work about up pinning cards to the board for each and
every notable event, along with the corresponding date and time. Visually, the timeline board helps Todd and I organize and connect the dots, allowing us to really zero in on some key points along the way based on the timeline. Here's what we know, so let's start laying it out. So we're going to start with January sixteenth, twenty nineteen, and
this is eight months before Jessica goes missing. That's the day at three o'clock in the afternoon she texts her friend Maria, and Maria is supposed to come and visit and stay with her and Justin, and she texts her and apologizes that she can't stay with her because they're fighting, and she's.
Come hiding in the bathroom right now, So Justin doesn't hear me. We've been fighting like fighting for the past three days about everything. He's threatening to kick me out, put me in jail. He's hit me.
It's bad.
He told me you guys can't come, or it's going to be worse for me.
Lo.
I'm so sorry. I know it's last minute and I feel awful. I don't know what to do. I can recommend somewhere that's reasonable and nice, the Beyond Canal. We stay there a lot, or we used to. Lo I'm scared.
And Lo is the nickname she uses for Maria. Right, So then fast forward to August twelfth, twenty nineteen. This day starts with an eleven oh seven am call from Jessica to Maria, and she calls her and Maria misses the call, and she does this through Facebook messenger. She calls the second time, there's a three minute and eleven
second conversation. She calls a third time and there's a fifty two second conversation, and then at two forty three pm that same day, August twelfth, twenty nineteen, a Facebook message from Jessica's Facebook messenger is sent to Maria. We have no way of verifying who is sending any of
these messages. I want to make that clear, and she essentially in that message on Facebook to Maria is asking her to come and get her in that very moment, and Maria can't come right then, so they actually make plans for Maria to come the next morning and get Jessica. And the last thing that Jessica says in those Facebook messengers.
Okay, just hang on. I don't know what's going to happen when I get home.
And that is the last time that Maria ever heard from Jessica. So moving into August thirteenth, the next day to TWI I was in nineteen. That's the morning that Maria had planned with Jessica to come and get her, but Maria never hears from Jessica. The following day, August fourteenth, twenty nineteen, Jessica's family and her friend Maria start calling local shelters, hospitals, anywhere they think Jessica could be, but
have no luck finding her. It's not until nine pm that night that Justin gets on Jessica's Facebook messenger and sends a message to Maria asking if she knows where Jessica is.
Is jess with you, Grace and I are worried. If so, that's fine, We just don't know where she is and Grace can't handle stress like this right now.
No, she's not.
When was the last time you spoke to her?
About noon today? And she left everything here? Keys, car, money, what about her phone here too? Fucking weird, worried She's never done this. I have no idea, checked everything and everyone I know.
Okay, Well, I'm sending the police over there.
Maria does in fact call in a wellness check at this time, and police confirm they'll be heading to the Dernings residence. So sometime after ten pm, the first unit of the District three Police Department show up for a wellness check based off of Maria's call to them out of concern that something has happened to her friend. Now, when they show up, they don't seem armed with that information. They think it could be an elderly person living alone or a sick person, and they meet with Justin at
this time. Some notable information from that initial conversation with Justin with the two officers are that he tells them that we know that Grace likely came home from school at three pm. Grace is there when he gets up, she tells him she hasn't seen Jessica.
That's his statement. Yeah, right, when you walk up at four, she's not there. He noticed that there was a pizza maid and that she was wearing jeans and.
A T shirt sometime prior to noon that day, before he goes and takes a nap. He tells police that he and Jessica sit down, they're having a conversation. They talk over their bills, what they're going to have for dinner, things like that, and then he goes and takes his nap.
Yeah, and lists.
That's where we first find out that all these articles a person would normally leave the house with were left behind. Her ID, her phone, all her medications, her wallet, and the car and car keys all there right.
The officer admitted that the circumstances seemed suspicious, but it's important to note that police never entered the home during this first visit. The visit lasted about fifteen minutes, and as the officers were leaving, they told Justin to expect a call as they'd be sending out another unit to do a missing person's report. That second unit arrived just a couple hours later. It's past midnight, so we're in.
We're still in the same timeframe, but it is now the next day before the next officers come to the house and meet with Justin. It's about one am when Officer Gatner and Officer Griffin arrive at Justin's house to do the missing person report. He again meets them outside and they go to the driveway side of the house and they go inside this time, Yeah, they walk.
Through the house as far as the open area when you meet idiately entered from that side of the house. They're seeing the living room in the kitchen at that point.
And also at this point he lets them know that his daughter Grace and father, Justin Sr. Are sleeping. He offers to wake Grace up to talk to officers about Jessica, but they tell him that's okay, she's got to sleep. Justin gives his phone number to police. It is the same phone number he gives at the first stop with police.
He reiterates all the things that she's left behind, which is ID, phone, medication, wallet, car keys, and they ask to see her ID that she has left behind, and at that time he goes to the side of the bed that is opposite of the officers at the far end of the bedroom that they're standing in and seemingly picks up Jessica's wallet from the floor. He brings it over, pulls out her ID and we can see clearly in the bodycam footage we obtained, you can clearly see that
it is a Louisiana State ID. The card is vertical, unlike their driver's licenses, which are horizontal. We can't make out all the details on it, but the officer does comment that their last names are different, implying the card reads Jessica Easterly rather than Darning. Then he starts telling them the same information of timeline to these officers that they had a conversation that he took a nap around
noon twelve thirty, woke up at four. However, he says when he woke up around four, she was missing, but he did notice that there was and he couldn't remember what they're called.
He was doing.
He was showing with his hands, you know the pizza things that they're frozen, you cook them, and they say the pizza roles, and he said, yeah, there were pizza roles when I woke up. So they continue speaking to him. He shows them the Facebook messenger messages that he and Maria shared on Jessica's Facebook page. He pulls out the tablet shows the officer that conversation. He had told them the last thing he saw her wearing was jeans and a T shirt. She asks him, do you remember the
color of her T shirt? He tells her, I don't remember the color of her T shirt because we were laying in bed together. After the officers finished gathering information and filling out their report, they returned to their cruiser. Officer Gantner calls her superior, Detective Anthony Lunn, to voice her concerns over Jessica's disappearance, and this essentially gets the
ball rolling on a missing person's investigation. So at about one fifty three am, the second unit of officers, who've now taken his missing person's rep for Jessica, leave his house. Two days later, August seventeenth, twenty nineteen, is Jessica's forty third birthday. Still no one has heard from her at this point, eight days later from the time that she
went missing. August twenty second, twenty nineteen, her family is in town and they're mapping out a search area within the Lakeview neighborhood, which they hope to be able to give to police. At twelve thirty four pm, her family, her two sisters and her cousin discover Jessica's body in an overgrown area about two and a half blocks from her home. It's about a two minute drive from her residence.
She's found wearing a black tank top, black shorts, and black shoes at thirteen hundred five hours or one oh five pm. She's pronounced dead on the scene. So when the family found Jessica, she was laying on her side in an overgrown area just on the other side of this overpass.
And we also know from a source that was at the scene who makes their living dealing 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.
This would imply that Jessica died laying on one side of her body, but was found on the opposite side, which brings up an important question. Could she have been moved to the spot sometime after her death? Just days later, on August twenty fourth, twenty nineteen, the corner's autopsy report would reveal other suspicious findings. In that corner's report, they documented she had a broken nose, a broken jaw, a post mortem broken sea four vertebrae, and a broken rib post mortem.
We also know from the toxicology report that was included in the Corners report that they did tissue samples from her liver and found measurable levels of methemphetamine, m fetamine, while bututrin which is antidepressant, and ethanol or drinking alcohol.
And the reason they could only at this point test her liver was because when her body was recovered, she was in advanced decomposition stage. Then, on January fifteenth, twenty twenty, the corner gave their ruling on the cause and manner of Jessica's death undetermined, and then things go quiet for a stretch. During this time, Audrey remains steadfast hounding the NPD, hoping for any new information, when out of nowhere, she gets a call from a couple in Jessica's Lakeview neighborhood.
March fifteenth, twenty twenty, nearly six months after Jessica's body is recovered, a couple named Chuck and Margaret find Jessica's ID in the area where her body was discovered. The ID is also a Louisiana State identification card that is vertical, not horizontal as a driver's license would be. It also states her name as Jessica Easterly, her maiden name, and
this identification expires in twenty twenty three. The ID, when they find it, appears to have been run over by a lawnmower, so when they find it, it's crumpled and a little torn, but completely legible. After police obtain the ID, the family is left wondering its significance and how this wasn't found until some seven months after Jessica's body was discovered. But after some time, the family starts to feel like this could be yet another dead end. That is until
they hear from another Lakeview neighbor, Jay Royce. October fifteenth, twenty twenty. More than a year later, a man named Jay Royce notices that Justin Derning on a neighborhood app or someone using Justin's account and photo is posting about neighborhood stuff. But in those posts that he's putting into this neighborhood app, he's also posting his phone number. It is the same phone number that over a year earlier, the night he reported Jessica missing to police. It's the
same phone number that he gave to them. This brings us to that text exchange between Jay Royce and an unknown individual who he believed to be Justin. As you heard in a previous episode, the text conversation got pretty volatile and near the end of it, Jay makes some strong accusations and this pretty much summarizes the timeline. But after stitching together this immense timeline board, we look at one of the final pinned index cards, Jay Royce text
October fifteenth, twenty twenty. There's been a lot of question about who may have sent those texts to Jay Royce and whether they are a critical piece of evidence that could help solve Jessica's case or merely a random coincidence. To this point, there's not been any clear answers provided that we know of. These are important questions and their answers have an expiration date. Todd remembers that the service provides for the number in question only keep phone records
with historical location for two years. After that they are purged, meaning authorities only have until October of twenty twenty two to preserve the records before this evidence is gone forever, along with any chance of ever identifying who sent those messages. So, knowing Jessica's case had moved into the hands of the DA's office, we decide it's time to reach out to
Jason Williams with an urgent recommendation. While we did not record our conversation with the DA per his request, I can share with you the context of it in very general terms. Most of our conversation was, of course, centered around those text messages from October of twenty twenty. Obviously, these text messages are very concerning in nature, but they're even more concerning when compared to Jessica's case and more specifically,
her death. Here's why. We know from the coroner's report that Jessica received a broken nose and fractured jaw while still alive. This could be indicative of injuries that would occur from a fall in the bathroom, which is exactly what the individual described in their text message. She had liver mortis on the outside of her leg facing the sky, indicating she died elsewhere and was later dumped in the
spot she was found. And in those text messages, when the individual was asked how she ended up there, they said they panicked and drove her there. Both of these statements are consistent with crime scene and autopsy findings that were not released to the public. Now, again, no matter who sent these texts, this is considered circumstantial evidence, which is fine, but in this case it also has potential
to lead to physical or direct evidence. If Jessica really did fall in the bathroom, breaking her nose as a result, and then laid their dead for an extended time, there could still be blood present in whatever bathroom the incident occurred in. There could also be blood in the individual's vehicle, as they admitted to moving her body. But police would need probable cause to obtain a search warrant, which means they need to determine who sent those text messages through
historical records for that phone number. But for now, their priority should be to simply preserve these records before they are purged. That's why we refer the DA to an expert who Todd knows personally in their area. Dealing with service providers can be tricky. You have to know what you're doing in this line of expertise, so it was important that we referred someone we knew was properly qualified. But about six months later Todd ran into that very expert whom he had recommended to the D at a
conference he was attending. Unfortunately, when Todd asked him how this case was going, he discovered that the DA never contacted him. So in January of twenty twenty two, more than a year since we spoke to the DA on the phone, and five months after his press conference announcing his cold case unit, we reached back out to him to find out if there's been any movement on Jessica's case.
You've reached Curtis Almo, the third Communications director of the District Attorney's Office of New Orleans. Unfortunately, I'm away from that.
Since leaving a voicemail, we've yet to receive a callback. Aware of the clock, we're up against what the text messages, we reach out to the NPD to relay the same information regarding phone records, now with even more urgency, hoping maybe they will heed Todd's advice, just in case the DA hadn't. We make a call to Lute Ernest Luster, whom you may remember from a previous episode. This call was on January twenty fifth, twenty twenty two.
Hi, Lieutenant Lester, this is Todd mccombus. Call on you back, Yes, yes, Hey, thanks. First of all, thanks so much for taking time to talk to me. So basically, we found something that we feel like we have to pass on to you that could be important to your case. So if you got a second, maybe the ability to take some notes, I'll pass it on to you real quick. Okay, So there was a neighbor of Justin Deernes.
He goes by Jay Royd.
We go on to share the same recommendation with Lieutenant Luster that we shared with DA Jason Williams regarding the potential importance of the text messages and the urgent need to preserve the records.
Just to let you know, we've turned this active investigation over to the DA's office, so they're looking into it as well.
Okay, well, this is information we did pass on to the DA as well. Whenever we had to have our meeting with them. I tried to get it to you first, and I think you were on vacation or something. I wasn't able to connect with you, so I had to provide this to them during that meeting.
Yeah, send it to me, because what I'll do is I'll send it up to the digital forensics unit because we do have one and see where because they have the technology that I can track cell phone data and locations and what towers. I'll ford this information to Digital Forensic can see if they can help us out.
Lieutenant you're a good man. I appreciate you for your time.
Thank you, and I listen. Send me your email addresses. Well, I'll keep in the loop as to where we are with it.
Hey, you're the man.
For a long time, we waited patiently, checking in every so often for any sort of update, hoping to get confirmation the records from the phone that sent and received those text messages had been analyzed properly, or at the very least had been preserved. And then on January twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, exactly one year to the date since our last conversation with Lieutenant Luster, and just weeks before this episode's release, Todd received a call from the NPD.
So they said you had information on the case.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm sorry.
What'd you say?
Your name was detective one?
Yeah, how you went in?
Okay?
So the call is from Detective Anthony Lunn. You might remember us mentioning him earlier in the podcast. He was the missing person's investigator who was initially assigned Jessica's case back in twenty nineteen. We were surprised to learn that he had some relevant information to share about her case.
Was that about a neighbor receiving texts?
It was, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I used to be for the state police here, I was before I retired.
I was in.
The left surveillance units. I was like, oh, yeah, this is a case like I would work all the time.
But yeah, so we actually looked into that actually before he sent us the info. Okay, it actually we didn't get anything out of it. The phone's actually not to him, so.
And so at that time, even it was subscribed to you by someone else.
Yeah, okay, yeah, we thought we had something and then turns out it was something else. We did the phone records request and there was everything came back.
So you could tell by the people that phone was communicating with that these weren't people in justin Dirty's life. Yeah, like the whole profile, life analysis and all that.
Yeah, so we we looked into We followed up with that. I mean, I can't really give you much because I mean it's an ongoing investigate.
So okay, all right, so Babby, you can't say that number that the neighbor tested, that that was given on the Justin Durty mean profile and then next door app that number was not in the possession of Justin Darning on that day.
I mean I can just say we did a follow up on it, and I mean the case is still open and we're still investigating.
So okay, do you guys have it now or does the.
DIA's office have I Can I ask you that.
Right now? We both have it.
I guess oh, you're just both kind of sharing duties on it. Yeah, okay, well he's better than one, I reckon that's the case. Okay, Well, I appreciate your time, appreciate you calling me back. Are you still with missing persons or are you in homicide now?
No, I'm not. I just deal with the person crimes.
Okay, And so does this Can I ask you if this sets within missing persons now or yehu?
Or I mean it's still it's still listen as an unclassified death right, that's how it's being enough to me?
Can I ask you what unit that means that it's left with?
I mean it's still with me and I guess DA's office now, Okay, But if you get anything else, Just give me a call and look into it, all.
Right, We'll take appreciate your call.
To be honest, Todd was caught off guard by LUN's call as well as what we learned from it. That's because Lieutenant Luster told us the n OPD was no longer officially investigating Jessica's case and had handed it over to the DA. But now Detective Lun tells us that both the n OPD and the DA's office are actively working it, and that the NOPD did follow through and look into the phone records, and we're able to confirm that Justin was not the user of that phone number
at the time when those texts were sent. At the end of the day, this call from one provided some major updates in Jessica's case. The LUN's response is helpful in trying to understand the origin of the messages. The vague nature of it does leave a lot unanswered on the technical side. Saying we looked into that does not answer other important questions such as what type of records they obtained, who analyzed them, and what type of analysis was conducted. In other words, it doesn't tell us how
they reached their conclusion. And furthermore, who sent those text messages. In discussing this with Todd and piggybacking off of his original recommendation to the DA and Lieutenant Lester, we made several attempts to follow up with Detective lun over the phone, but we have yet to receive a call back. With that, we shifted our focus back to the other agency we've been told is working Jessica's case, the DA's office. Maybe they can shed some more light on everything if they
are working the case. One of my questions to them would be if they did their own analysis of those phone records, as Todd recommended, among other things. The problem is we don't know who at the DA's office is working this case. That's something we've been trying to determine for over a year now. Todd asked Detective Lawn via text if he knew who the investigator was at the DA's office, but he never received a reply, so we're left to try and figure this out ourselves. We start
by visiting the DA's website. We see that he is a page dedicated to the cold case unit supposedly overseeing Jessica's case, with a phone number and the following promise. The Cold Case Unit of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office is charged with getting murderers off the streets and bringing healing to families. So we call that number.
Good afternoon, I'm going to help you.
Hi, May I speak to the District Attorney's Cold Case Unit.
Okay, what do you call in regards to them?
I'm calling about the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
Okay, so they have your information.
I remember speaking with you.
Just to clarify, I had called the DA before. This was just the first time i'd called the front desk asking specifically for the cold case unit.
Is it justice for Jessica?
Do you know that website?
I do know that website, but that is not I'm the Audrey. She seems to think I'm Jessica's sister. Audrey. I try to clarify, Well, I'm not fafiliated with that website.
I just know of it.
Okay, Well, what's your relation to Jessica.
I am an investigative journalist. I'm working on a podcast about her case, and I attended the press conference and spoke to the District Attorney Jason Williams last year about the cold Case Unit and her case, and I just wanted to do a follow up to see where thinks.
Okay, okay, so you're not a family member, no, ma'am.
All right, Well, let me give.
You kindreds email address and you can email Jason's assistant and they take it from here.
So, without any further information about the cold Case Unit or Jessica's case, we take the woman's recommendation and reach out via email to Kendrick, the DA's executive assistant. Well, he's unable to set up a meeting for us with the DA, stating that Jason Williams is in the middle of prosecuting two murder trials. He does offer us two investigators within the cold case Unit to call.
Hello, Hi, Naomi Jones.
Yeah, Hi Naomi, this is Todd McComas and I'm calling you about a specific case you may or may not be assigned to. And that's the Jessica Easterly Darning case. The what Jessica Easterly Darning case?
I am not assigned to that?
Okay?
Are you currently assigned to the Cold Case Unit at the DA's office.
Yes, I'm in the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Unit, okay, which just cold cases.
Okay, but you are not assigned or working in any way on Jessica Easterly Darning's death investigation.
No, no, I am not.
Would you by chance know who is?
I do not.
Okay, you're just not familiar with the case at all.
I mean I've seen it in the news, but other than that, No, no luck with the first detective. So we try the other detective, he recommended.
Hi, can I speak with Mary Glass please?
Gees actually not in yet, can't take a message.
Uh yeah, it'll be full.
My name is Todd Macomas, and I had some questions about your unit. Do you work within the same unit I do? Okay?
Is this I believe the DNA unit.
No, we worked specifically on cold case sexual assaults.
Okay, do you have a cold case homicide unit there within the DA's office.
I work in my little corner and I don't know.
But let me give you so Kendrick's contacts for the cold case unit weren't exactly helpful. But then we remember that we do know of one other detective within the DA's office, the one who was initially assigned Jessica's case and who I met briefly at the DA's press conference Detective Joe Lorenzo. Looking him up online, it appears as though he may have left his position at the DA's
office and moved into real estate. Nonetheless, we're hopeful he can provide some information as to where the case stood when he left.
Hello.
Hi is this Joe? Yes, Hey Joe. My name is Todd Macombus.
I'm a retired detective with the Indiana State Police and currently I work with Resonate Recordings that's doing the Jessica Easterly Dirning case.
I don't have anything to say, brother, thank you?
Okay? Are you retired?
So no help from the former investigator either. In a moment of pure frustration, Todd tries the cold case phone number listed on the District Attorney's website one more time, and this time we seem to be getting somewhere. The woman at the desk gives us contact information for the DA's first assistant, Ned McGowan. We promptly make a call.
Ned McGowan is not available at the moment. At the tone record your message. To end your recording, press number sign to reat operator PRIs zero. Hi.
Ed.
My name is Todd Mcomas. I am currently working with Resonate Recordings that is doing the podcast on the Jessica Easterly Darning case. For months now, I've been trying to just get a simple answer from someone at the DA's office to answer the question, does the DA's office have a cold case homicide unit? Is your office actually investigating cold case homicides? Are members of your cold case homicide unit actively working in the Jessica Easterly Durning case.
It a'll need specifics.
As of this episode's release, we have not been able to confirm who at the DA's office is investigating Jessica's case, or if there is even a detective assigned to investigating homicides in their cold case unit. I also want to point out that the family has not heard from anyone in the DA's office since the press conference a year and a half ago, despite numerous calls and in person
visits from Audrey. I find myself in familiar territory yet again, with many questions and very few answers, the same place that Jessica's family has become all too familiar with over the years. As you know, DA Williams called that press conference to address the thousands of unsolved homicides in New Orleans and announced his intentions of establishing a dedicated cold case unit, with Jessica as a proverbial poster child for
that endeavor. He also publicly announced for the first time that her death would be investigated as a homicide, but for now, the status of the investigation remains unknown. Despite any recommendations we've given to the DA directly for Todd and I, finding out who, if anyone, is investigating Jessica's death has felt more challenging than discovering what happened to her in the first place, And simply put, that's not okay. Jessica's not just a case number. She's not just a
poster child for cold case unit initiatives. She was a human being and she was loved. Jessica, like so many of us, was a woman who was finding her way. She wanted a family and a happily ever after, and with so much of her life hidden away, it's hard to say exactly what was happening behind the curtain. Jessica's family entrusted Todd and I to tell her story with respect, empathy, and compassion. Our goal was to do just that and hopefully bring more awareness to her case, uncover truth about
her suspicious death and shed light on her investigation. But along the way, we uncovered a systemic issue in the city of New Orleans. Jessica's case is just one of countless others that have gone unsolved by a system whose main players don't seem to be on the same page. On one hand, we have a coroner who has ruled both her cause and manner of death as undetermined and told us that their work is done until the INNOPDE gives them more evidence to rule her manner of death
as anything else. On the other hand, we have the person who supervises NOPD detectives tell us that they're not allowed to investigate an undetermined death. And in addition to all of this, we now have a detective telling us that despite that classification, he is still actively working her case until someone in authority reevaluates this process and takes some sort of action. Questions surrounding Jessica's suspicious death remain unanswered and her case remains undetermined. So where do we
go from here? Well, even if there is someone assigned to investigate Jessica's case, as detective Law told us, why not seek additional resources? We know there are other agencies who, if invited in, could assist in the investigation. One such agency is the Louisiana State Police's Bureau of Investigations, but they can only join existing investigations upon request by local
law enforcement, an invitation if you will. And the person who holds the reins of the New Orleans Police Department is the superintendent and her superior is the Mayor of New Orleans, who appoints the superintendent. So with that said, here's what can be done. Mayor LaToya Cantrell can encourage NPD's superintendent, Michelle Woodfork, to extend an invitation to the
Louisiana State Police to help investigate Jessica's case. We worked with Jessica's sister Audrey to create a new petition on change dot org asking the Mayor of New Orleans to do just that. You can sign the petition at change dot org slash justice the number four jess Or on our website undeterminedpod dot com. I encourage you to read the petition and consider signing it in hopes that Jessica's case can get the help it needs so her family can get a step closer to answers. Thank you to
all who participate, Thank you for listening. 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 Melcher, Dayton Cole and Pat Kicklider 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. Voice acting by Sabrina Sewert, Whitney Bozart and Paul Frields. You can follow Undetermined Podcast
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 sixty seven. The tone and inflection used by voice actors is not contextually accurate and is a matter of creative interpretation