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You wanna, let's just maybe walk up to the tracks and look and see like that vandage point, and then we'll walk down to where she was bound.
This investigation has taken us many places and led us all around the city of New Orleans. Well. One place we've spent a lot of time in is the area where Jessica's body was found back in August of twenty nineteen. As you walk down Kenilworth Street and look over at the rows of houses, it makes you wonder could one of Jessica's two thousand plus neighbors have seen something? Could they know something? Could there still be evidence hidden somewhere
in the small field where her body laid. There's a lot to take in here and a lot of things to consider. All right, let's walk this way. But on this day, what has our attention is the street sign at the intersection of Orleans Avenue in Kenilworth Street, just a short walk from the field where Jessica's body laid, A roadside memorial inside a rather upscale neighborhood, it seems out of place. Sticking out from the ground is a large wooden cross bearing Jessica's name. A neighbor actually made
it and placed it there. Tied to the bottom of the cross are a teddy bear and a bundle of pink and purple silk flowers. Just above the memorial, Attached to the pole is a custom flyer, giving a little more context to any unknowing passers by. It's faded from the unrelenting New Orleans sun.
The plastic sign is now bent and just kind of waving in the breeze. It's almost somber out here by itself.
It's very sad it's got the crime stoppers number. What happened to Jessica Easterly And contrary to.
The memorial, the flyer was actually Audrey's doing. She figured if anyone had any information, there was a good chance they'd be a resident of Lakeview. Her hope was that posting signs around the neighborhood would maybe open some doors or at the very least bring awareness to her sister's case. You can definitely say they got people's attention.
I remember the missing posters going around, and I was like, nobody goes missing in Lakeview. That's something that happens on like dateline. I never would have thought it would have happened like in my little niche family neighborhood.
We're still like, how did this happen here? Like? What did we miss?
I just feel very strongly because it's my neighborhood, and because I have become friends with Audrey, that I feel like I'm not going to stop until something is done.
When Audrey came up with the idea of posting signs around the Lakeview neighborhood, with similar posts made across social media platforms, she didn't know if anything would ever come of it. All. She knew is she was in a position where she felt she needed help from anyone willing. The old adage it takes a village right true in many cases, and certainly true in this one. Because those signs Audrey posted did have an effect on some locals.
How could it not. This type of thing doesn't happen in a neighborhood like lake.
Lakeview is one of the safest neighborhoods in New Orleans. That's one of the reasons why I moved here.
This is Laura, a Lakeview resident.
I grew up Uptown, and then when I got married and decided to have kids, we moved to Lakeview because, as you can see right now in the afternoon, people are out walking their dogs, kids ride their bikes. It's a very family friendly neighborhood. Like completely, you can feel safe here. You can walk everywhere. That's why I like living here.
We're seated under the shade of a carefully groomed tree, just outside a favorite neighborhood spot, Nola Bean coffee shop. Across the street, bells ring at each new hour, drowning out the traffic, just in front of a large stone church. It's an idyllic setting. Again, not the kind of place where something like this would happen.
I remember the missing posters going around. I think it was like August eleventh. They're twelve when they're out. And then like I saw a Facebook post and next door posts, and so I started like reaching out to people that were posting stuff, just like asking him to know her, let's, you know, do a search thing. And then before you
can get anything together, her sister found her body. And then I was like, been involved with that ever since, because I have friends that are like, Laura, why are you involved you, Harley, You didn't even know her, you never even met Her'm like, I know it didn't, but I was like there's something in me that I'm like I have to be her voice. So like I just feel like I was have to do something like if that was my sister or my mom or a friend, like I would hope people would do the same for me.
When the preschool teacher first learned that Jessica was missing, she remembers having an immediate visceral reaction. I, in my gut said that she's not missing.
I was like, she's she's dead. Wherever she is, she's dead.
Of course it wouldn't take long for that notion to be confirmed. Like Laura said, just about a week later, the neighborhood learned that Jessica's body had been found again. Laura had an instant reaction to the news.
She was murdered when she went missing.
I was like, she was murdered, Like people don't go missing here, Like this is not just a missing person. Like if there was a missing person, like it would have been on the news, it'd been all over place.
It was really nowhere.
It was like from Jessica's friend Maria posting on her social media I think it was Facebook. When she first posted it, it went like viral onto the lake View next Door app and like I put it on there, another girl neighbor put it on there, and so it kind of just blew it.
From that, Laura quickly noticed that Jessica's friend Maria was making quite a splash on social media, spreading word about Jessica's case, so eventually she reached out.
I privately messaged her friend Maria and was like, I know you don't live here.
I know you don't know me. I did not know Jessica.
If there's anything I can do on the grounds here, like I can be your eyes here, and I kind of have been that for them.
Over the years, Laura has formed quite a bond with Jessica's loved ones. After some back and forth with Maria, Laura would get in touch with Audrey and she hasn't looked back since.
I feel like I've become like part of friends with Audrey, like even though I've never met her in person, like I've been talking to her since twenty nineteen. People say that my husband says it too, like, Waur, why is it matter?
You don't even know?
Her voice is gone, She's dead, like that cross that is in her moral Me and the other neighbor as Sam, we're the ones that put it there. And I emailed Audrey and I asked her, do you want us to put her name on it? Do you want it to leave it blank? What would you like? Like, I am not looking for a reward, I'm not looking for anything. I'm looking for literally justice for her. Like I believe the NOPD has not done their job. Doesn't take rocket
science to figure this out, you know. And I understand you can't just arrest somebody you don't have enough evidence, But I feel like they didn't even do enough to get evidence. It's like they didn't want to find evidence to prove this.
Laura feels strongly that ineptitude within the n OPD has hindered the investigation. Because of that, she never passes at an opportunity to remind the police that they have a job to do here.
I would call NPD third District Lebrono. He does not like me, but guess what, that's fine. I don't care. Every Wednesday of the month, it's the first Wednesday every month we have neighborhood meeting. Because the third district is for Lakeview and you get on it every day. I would say every meeting, I know you're not going to tell me anything about the case, but is there anything you can update us on Jessica Easterly, like anything. I know it's still under investigation, so you're not allowed to
say anything, but you need to tell us something. And he would just get annoyed because he wanted to just talk about like the car hand pulling and the doors getting smashed whatever, the windows being smashed all the time. He did not want to hear Sam and I when we would get on there, he would try to ignore us and change the subject every single month. He hates those meetings. Literally, when he sees my name on the zoom thing, He's like, great, Laura's here again.
Laura has sort of become a chain of communication with n OPD locally, whether they like it or not. She jokes she's driving or walking through the neighborhood and sees anything she thinks could be of importance. She shares it as an investigative journalist covering crime. One thing police have always told me when it comes to tips, send them in no matter how insignificant you think they are. Let
them be the judge of that. Of course, Living just a few blocks away, Laura often drives past Justin and Jessica's house.
So I'll drive by and I always see cars parked with the license plates always to the house in the front of the car, like most people just pull in their driveway. So I always thought that was weird. And there was always always a range drover there. Right when Jessica went missing, it was just a range drover and a motorcycle. The motorcycle disappeared shortly after her body was found,
and then the range river disappeared. Because after the range disappeared, all of a sudden like a Mercedes and a BMW showed up on the driveway, and I was like, okay, this is sketchy like because the BMW will sometimes be there by itself, then it disappears for a while, then the Mercedes. Same thing, and then there's another guy that lives there, which is weird. That appeared after Jessica was found dead.
She thinks it was about six months after Jessica's death that the man moved in with Justin, his father and his daughter. Laura admits she rarely sees Justin or anyone living in the home for that matter, yet there's always enough activity to keep her thinking. For example, not too long ago, that range Rover that had gone missing for some time, all of a sudden reappeared.
It's still weird to me out I'm like her car was gone right after she died, and then now it's back, like where was it?
Where was it?
For the past year, and more recently, in October of twenty twenty, something very out of the ordinary caught her attention.
So I drove by and it was a futon and a headboard to a bed and they're putting it out like almost when dusk was coming.
It was like nighttime.
I called Audrey and she was like, will you drive by and take pictures?
I need like evidence.
So I did one of the side street took pictures of it, and then all of a sudden, I was like, oh my god, Audio, I drove by again and there was a NOPD like forensics truck or something. I was like, oh my god, the forensics truck is there now, and she was like, are they taking it? I was like, it doesn't look like they're taking this stuff. I said, it looks like they're like taking swabs off it or
like testing it. I was like, I never took the stuff, and it sat out there for like a week or two, and then I was gone.
According to Laura, it appeared as though the NOPD took swabs at the furniture for testing, but if they did, no one in the family knows of any results, nor does Laura. She doesn't necessarily expect the police to tell her, but as a Lakeview resident, she'd certainly like to know what it was about. I mean, it's not every day
you see authorities swabbing your neighbor's belongings. Laura admits she's thankful to see that investigators are working the case, at least they appear to be, though for her in no way makes up for the past.
I mean, there's so many things I feel like they messed up in the beginning, Like how can I fix it now to get answers for the family? You know, I thought the police are here to help us, you know, I'm here to back them if they back us. You know, it makes me nervous that I did call in the beginning and when harass in OPD and say, hey, I'm calling about the dusk Easter the case, and sometimes the third District would say, I don't even know who you're
talking about, and I'm like, excuse me. We shouldn't be fighting to get this, like the police and the authority should be wanting to help. No one should have to fight, you know, for a family member or anything like this. Like I couldn't imagine if I was Audrey, how they're feeling having to deal with the sadness of the whole situation and then still having to fight, you know, and keep strong, you know, be very strong.
I feel that.
I'm her voice here in the neighborhood, and maybe me being annoying to all the police here, our da our council member, anyone that they'll maybe do something, because if we don't stop harassing them and stop fighting for her, no one will, and then it will get just dusted under the rug and the another cold case that just
sits there. And I just feel very strongly because it's my neighborhood and because I have become friends with Audrey, that I feel like I'm not going to stop until something is done.
It's not just Laura who feels this way. Many neighbors have become invested in this case, and while some like Laura, have taken a very direct and intentional approach, others got involved sort of by accident, like this couple we met named Chuck and Margaret, who shared a rather interesting story of how they got involved. March fifteenth, twenty twenty, felt like an ordinary day for Chuck and Margaret. They were out on their typical leisurely stroll near the area where
Jessica was found some seven months earlier. Surprisingly, the couple was hardly even aware of the incident involving their neighbor Jessica, so it's not like they were out there looking for anything or trying to take part in the investigation. But they would end up finding something on their track that would make them a part of this story indefinitely.
We were walking the dog, were heading towards City Park, and we were going between the railroad and that security building that they built for pump operators when pumping station operators when there's a hurricane. So we're between there, and I think Margaret spotted a woodpecker and this tree, and she went off this way, and I'm walking the way we were going toward the pumping station, and I spot that ID on the ground.
An id peculiar, yes, but also not the strangest thing to stumble upon. After all, many people passed through this area on any given day. Therefore, anyone could reach in their pocket or purse and drop their idea in the process. But Chuck was about to learn that this wasn't just any random person's ID.
And it appeared from looking at it, it was kind of wow. It looked like it had been hit by the more So, we've walked there quite a few times and I never saw it before, but so I picked it up, and I walk over to her and I show it to her, and she says, oh, that's a woman who was.
Killed at the time Chuck had no idea what Margaret was talking about, but it turns out she knew a little bit about Jessica's case and therefore understood the potential importance of the ID they just found.
I had heard about it because I had surgery in the summer, and so I spent a lot of time resting and looking at my phone. And I don't think I read about it in the newspaper. I think I read about it on this neighborhood Facebook group.
And.
We had her name from the ID, so I guess I sort of searched the old posts and found the name of her friend that had posted it. So I sent her a message say, and we found it.
That same day, an officer with the NPD came out to Chuck and Margaret's house to collect the evidence. Things stay quiet for a while after that, until about five months later, when the lead detective at the time, Anthony Lunn, finally gave them a call. They gave their story and answered any questions he had. But to this day, nothing more has come of that discovered ID, nothing that we know of, since the NOPD isn't relaying any information to
us from the investigation. Really all it's done, is added to the mystery surrounding this case.
It seems kind of weird that, you know, you find out that she supposedly didn't have any ID, which you would assume that was because, oh, well, maybe your purse was still at the house. But then why would she take that unusual ID with her, just that one unusual ID.
Initially it was difficult to make sense of this. One can obviously speculate, but Chuck and Margaret aren't going to do that. They just hope that the small part they played and what they found can help lead to some resolution At the end of all this, though the idea has only added more questions to the mix. There was one thing about it that we were able to determine.
When Todd and I visually compared the ID that the neighbors found with the idea that Justin should police the night Jessica was reported missing, we could confirm that both were Louisiana state ideas. Neither were a driver's license, and both had her name listed as Jessica Easterly her maiden name. Both had issue dates of twenty nineteen, and both had expiration dates of twenty twenty three. What we could determine visually was that they were not the same ID. They
were both vertical IDs. However, the one left at the house had a completely different layout. At the top of the ID there was text above her photo, and the one found by neighbors in the field had her photo at the top of the ID without text. Could it have been placed there after Jessica was found and if so, why or was it simply overlooked at the scene. Remember, according to Justin's original statement to the NPD, it was reported that Jessica's keys, phone, medications, purse, wallet, and her
ID were left at home. So how does a second ID end up right where her body was found seven months after the fact. And why an ID in the first place? Why not a credit card too, or a wallet to carry? Why not any of the other items that were left behind. The only thing we do know for certain, as Todd reminded me, is that a piece of new evidence like this has great investigative value in
this new era of touch DNA. It took detective Lawn about five months to reach out to Margaret and Chuck about the ID, and that was way too long in Audrey's mind. So during that waiting period in April of twenty twenty. She actually decided to file a formal complaint nine months since she found her sister's body in the same area the couple found her ID.
So when I found out that the couple in Lakeview who found Justica's ID had not heard from the detective, I decided to file a formal complaint with the Public Integrity Bureau and we listed all the things that NPD had failed to do to properly investigate.
Four months pass and Audrey receives no reply regarding the complaint, but she persists.
So we had to email E Creighton. His name was E. Creighton our formal complaint. Then, I'm gonna say it was probably May June or so I called him to find out what was going on with it, and he said that he couldn't find it in his email, that I'd have to do it all over.
Again, send it to him all over again.
And so I sent it all over to him again, sent him everything, and then I kept calling and calling and finally got a hold of someone and he gave me a control number, and I gave him the control number, and they're like, yeah, well, you're just gonna have to talk to him so I would leave messages. I literally called every day for weeks on end, never heard back from him.
And then finally on August sixth, I talked to mister Creighton and he informed that they were going.
To be investigating.
This was a small win for Audrey and the rest of Jessica's family, a step in the right direction. As a reminder, Audrey wasn't the only person out there working the authorities. Laura, the Eyes and Ears of Lakeview had also been busy.
I feel like my constant pushing got somewhere because he got so annoyed that you know, it went to other places. And Joe, our council member, he would email the corner because I was like the Corners, according to Lobrono, the corners who is holding this up because he classified her death as undetermined. I would get friends and post it on Facebook and on next door to call the number, email and just say her family deserves her body.
Harass the coroner.
I mean, which is so sad that you have to harass somebody to get the body of your loved one like that should not have to happen to anybody, you know, And I mean I don't know if it happens in other cities, but I'm embarrassed that it's happening here in New Orleans.
Just as a reminder, at this point, when the Public Integrity Bureau got involved in Jessica's case, her body had been at the coroner's office for a year.
I mean it's almost been two years, and there literally has been zero answers for her family, literally nothing. I mean, they don't know how she died, they don't know how she ended up there. Maybe a set of new eyes, a set of new ears, everything would maybe find something that NPDS not.
I don't know.
I feel like NPD messed up so much in the beginning that it scares me that they lost a lot of evidence that they could have found.
Like, it's still weird.
Laura believes someone out there holds the answer, and she hopes this new interest in the case will get Jessica one step closer to justice. But it turns out there's one other neighbor in Lakeview who believes he may have found some answers.
When I realized that he thought I was somebody else, I decided to press him a little bit, and I said, well, why don't you come clean and give the family, some peace. It just became more and more obvious to me. What would happen. I'll never believe anything else happened.
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 mccolma's with additional production by Whitney Bozarth. 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 Kick Kleider
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. 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 undeterminedpod 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