Someone She Trusted: The Unsolved Murder of Jessie Marie Twilight Song Crooks

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's late August of two thousand and one, and a
bubbly teenager from a tiny town just outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky,
answers a phone call on her family's landline. Everything that
happens after that call becomes a mystery. No one knows
who was on the other end, but it's believed she

(00:30):
slipped out of her house that night to meet the
caller and never came back. Weeks later. Her body was
found the day before a national tragedy, and her case
faded from the headlines almost instantly. The lack of media
attention is just one of the many barriers that the
investigation has faced, with law enforcement keeping even basic details

(00:54):
like her cause of death under wraps. There's only so
much the public knows, but today is to walk you
through what we do know and maybe spark the conscience
of someone who holds the missing pieces. Because small towns
can't keep secrets forever. I'm your host, Megan, and each
week on a Simpler Time True Crime, I cover older

(01:17):
unsolved cases and challenge the idea that a simpler time
means a safer time. This week, I'm bringing to you
the unsolved murder of Jesse Marie Twilight Song Crooks. This

(01:55):
case was introduced to me by my podcasting friend Lauren,
who hosts the show True Crime BFF. If you haven't
checked it out, go do so, because she does an
amazing job. She first covered this case in twenty twenty three,
and when her and I connected early in my podcasting journey,
she told me I had to add it to my
list of cases to cover. She's from Kentucky herself, and

(02:18):
the cases just stuck with her. She told me that
in doing her research, she could just pick up on
her whole personality and how fun she was, and most
of all, that her death seems like an open secret
that a whole town is protecting something so solvable but
it just hasn't been. And once I got into it,
I could see everything she was saying. So with all

(02:40):
of that in mind, here we go. Jesse. Marie Twilight
Song Crooks was known to those closest to her as Twilight,
so that is the name I'll refer to her by
for the remainder of this episode. She was born October
twenty second, nineteen eighty five. Twilight was proud of her
her unique indigenous heritage. She was half a rapa Hoe

(03:04):
through her mother and part Cherokee through her father. We
don't know exactly when she moved to Kentucky, but Twilight
was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At some point
she did move to Kentucky, and at this point she
lived with her father, Bobby Crooks, and her stepmother Linda,
as well as her brother Isaac. She also had some

(03:26):
step siblings, but I got the sense that they were
older and lived outside of the house. Twilight's biological mother
lived in Tennessee, and she enjoyed and valued spending time
with her mother. When she would visit, she learned beadwork
and all about her family history, something she cherished and
brought back to her friends and family in Kentucky. According

(03:49):
to her father, Twilight loved to swim and play soccer.
She was a straight A student at Greenwood High School
in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and she had dreams of attend Harvard.
Twilight attended Hillview Heights Church, a large non denominational church
in Bowling Green, where she was actively involved in their

(04:11):
youth group. The Crooks family resided in the community of Plaino, Kentucky.
It's tiny, only about a thousand people. And it's ten
miles south of Bowling Green. It's quiet, it's rural, and
it's surrounded by farmland and narrow country roads. The community
is close knit, with a handful of local churches, a

(04:33):
volunteer fire department, and a small batch of family runed businesses.
Most people commute to Bowling Green for employment and other
daily needs. Twilight was a really good kid, but like
many teens, she had a bit of a rebellious streak too.
She had a large friendship circle, and she would want
to socialize with them all the time, even when it

(04:55):
was outside of her allowable time to do so, like
late at night. Bobby and Linda were teenagers once themselves,
and they were aware of Twilight sneaking out of the
house on occasion. They had caught her a couple of
times over the summer, but they didn't get the sense
that it carried over into the school year. Now. I

(05:16):
know different parts of the country go back to school
at different times of the year, and in this part
of Kentucky in late August of two thousand and one,
students were already back at school. August twenty eighth, two
thousand and one, was the Friday of Labor Day weekend.
According to reporting from the Park City Daily News, which

(05:37):
I rely on heavily throughout this episode and is linked
in the show notes. On that evening, fifteen year old
Twilight had a regular night. She was very artsy and
she had drawn a picture of a twilight sky with
purple stars and a smiling moon. She sat on her
stepmother Linda's lap, told her she loved her, and handed

(05:57):
her the picture. Juryne was telling me about this case,
I mentioned how she felt connection to the victim, and
I do too. I think fourteen and fifteen can be
such an interesting age and this story about giving her
stepmother the drawing is such a perfect example of it.
I think back, and for me personally, I would spend

(06:20):
the day shopping and having lunch and having this really
low key day with my mom, and I would feel
this pull to just stay in that comfort and in
that shell and kick my soccer ball around the backyard
and be a kid. And at the same time, I'd
also feel this desire to build connection and belonging with
friends my age and do things outside of my comfort zone,

(06:40):
to experiment and take risks and feel a part of something.
So by night I'd push my curfew, or I'd sneak
drinks with my friends and things like that, and all
the while I'd wrap up the night just wishing that
I had that closeness and connection to my mom and
the simple kid stuff again that I was doing earlier
in the day, and that juxtaposition I feel like a

(07:02):
lot of teenagers do all the time. And while we
can't speak for Twilight, I like tying together lived experiences
and how teens operate in the world because I think
it can do good to soften up our preconceived notions
of rebellious teens. Because I bet if I did a
poll of how many of my listeners knuck out of

(07:23):
their parents' house when they were younger, you'd be surprised
at the percentage and by a stroke of luck and happenstance.
Nothing happened to you or to me, But that just
goes to show you we can't create that otherness. It
really could be any of us that something could have
happened to. So stepping off my soapbox. After this, Twilight

(07:43):
took a shower and wound down for the evening. She
said good night to her parents at around ten pm.
They typically would go to bed before her, and they
would turn the ringer down on the phone. Twilight, true
to her name, was a bit of a night owl
and would sometimes get phone calls and answer the phone
late at night. I imagine that Bobby and Linda picked

(08:05):
their battles when they had caught her sneaking out over
the summer. They had placed boundaries on her and she
faced consequences. And teens are going to be teens. So
if she's going to be on the phone late at night, mm, well,
at least she's home safe. But that wouldn't be the case.
This night, at around ten fifty pm, Bobby and Linda
hear the phone ring quietly, but they don't think much

(08:27):
of it as this wasn't outside of the ordinary, so
they just drift back to sleep. But the following morning,
they were concerned their front door was left unlocked and
Twilight had not slept in her bed, so at six
am that morning they called police to report Twilight missing.
It took a few days for news of her disappearance

(08:48):
to hit the papers, but police did begin an investigation
into her disappearance behind the scenes. Within a couple of days,
police were able to confirm that Twilight had received a
phone call that night at approximately ten to fifty pm.
It's believed that soon after that, Twilight left her residence
without her parents knowing, and went to go meet the caller.

(09:12):
The call was traced to a payphone at the Plano
Country Store, which is just a quarter of a mile
down the road from Twilight's Larman Hill Road home. Her
home location has a subdivision feel to it, and then
as you exit the neighborhood, the street turns into a
farm road surrounded by fields and a few houses. As

(09:33):
you make your way towards the intersection where the Country
Store is located, it has a gas station attached and
a few other things. And I'll have pictures of all
of this on our Instagram at simpler time crime pod
And so with that. Initially, police believed that since she
left the residence on her own accord that night, she
was likely still missing by choice. In different articles, you

(09:56):
can tell Twilight's father certainly entertained that idea, but he
she had reservations. He told the Park City Daily News quote,
she didn't take her purse or her wallet, she didn't
take any clothes. As far as we can tell, she
left the front door unlocked, she had no intention of
leaving end quote. Bobby Crooks told those looking that Twilight

(10:18):
had a birthmark under her chin and at least three
piercings in each ear. She was about five feet five
inches tall and one hundred pounds. Police looked into a
sighting of Twilight at a nearby Shell gas station on
Scottsville Road, a major four lane thoroughfare in the Bowling
Green area, but that came up empty. Another angle that

(10:40):
police looked into early on with her Internet activity two
thousand and one was different in a technology sense, of course,
than it is now. Twilight didn't own a cell phone
or have twenty four to seven access to the world
around her, but she did have access to a home
computer with Internet and the possibility of instant messaging in

(11:01):
chat rooms. Police had the team confiscate the computer to
review any possible chat logs or similar evidence, and if
they found anything, they haven't released that information to the public.
On Thursday, September sixth, two thousand and one, Warren County
Sheriff's Detective Roger Castle spoke to the media and said

(11:22):
that they were fairly certain they were dealing with a
runaway and not an abduction or anything like that. He
shared that they were following up on tips and that
a couple of the tips had led them to believe
that she had gone to Cincinnati or Lexington for the
Labor Day weekend. Police said that they were able to
locate people in Cincinnati given to them by the tipster,

(11:43):
and that the people in Cincinnati said that they knew Twilight,
but that she was not with them. Twilight's father, Bobby,
sent a message to his daughter through the papers, saying, quote,
if there's a message that I could send to her,
I want her to know I'm not angry with her.
I'm not disappointed in her. I just want her to
come home. This is just a bump in the road

(12:06):
for us. We've dealt with tough times before. I just
want her to know she has loved end quote. Just
a few days later, on September tenth, two thousand and one,
the Crooks family would get devastating news the body of
a young girl had been found nearby. On September tenth,

(12:31):
two thousand and one, a man was out walking his
dog along Matlock Old Union Road, a remote paved in
gravel roadway. He said his dog suddenly picked up on
a scent near the tree line and started tugging on
his leash. According to the Park City Daily News, the
owner followed the dog about one hundred feet into the

(12:52):
tree line, and then he came upon a clearing and
noticed and odor and saw what appeared to be a
human body on Ana. On September eleventh, two thousand and one,
the Crooks family received horrible news, and not from their
TV like the rest of us in America. That day,
they received notification from police that Twilight was the victim

(13:16):
found in the field and that she had been murdered.
I can't imagine processing that information while there was a
twenty four to seven news cycle of terrorist attacks and
the whole country is just on a different page than you,
and that September eleventh date would prove to be a hindrance.
Twilight's case was buried in the news cycle, barely a

(13:38):
blip in Twilight already had a media disadvantage. According to
a study on missing and murdered Indigenous women in Wyoming
and reported on by NBC News, only thirty percent of
Indigenous homicide victims receive any media coverage, whereas that statistic
is fifty one percent for their white counterparts. In my opinion,

(14:01):
both of those statistics are too low, But there's so
much that goes into that, and I don't have all
the answers. It's just something I think about often and
I want to get better. Nevertheless, the investigation did carry on,
however imperfect. The focus was the Bowling Green Police Department

(14:22):
Warren County Sheriff's Department in Kentucky. State Police created a
joint task force to investigate. In the first two weeks,
they interviewed about fifty people surrounding her case. Twilight's father, Bobby,
was polygraphed and he passed. I couldn't find Linda's official
polygraph information, just that at the time that Bobby was polygraphed,

(14:45):
they had wanted to also polygraph Linda, and that she
was extremely willing and cooperative. So my assumption is that
she took the polygraph and that she passed, but I
just wanted to clarify that I can't verify it with certainty.
Law enforcement has not release Twilight's cause of death or
very many details about the crime scene at all. They

(15:05):
want to keep certain details close to be able to
weed out who actually is involved in the case. But
they are clear that they are investigating a homicide. This
is important because with the lack of information. One of
the rumors out there was that Twilight had an accidental
overdose of sorts that night and that people with her
panicked and dumped her body out there, but police wanted

(15:28):
to be clear that no, this was no accident. Detective
Castle said that he believed that Twilight had been driven
or walked to the remote site that her body was
found in, which was located at the end of a
twisting dirt farm road, immediately behind fields where tobacco had
recently been cut. This was about five miles from Twilight's home.

(15:52):
The location led detectives to believe that whoever took Twilight
there knew their way around the area and wasn't just
passing through, and that they were familiar with possibly even
that property specifically. Twilight was found fully clothed, though barefoot
and with no shoes nearby. Her body was covered in

(16:13):
some weeds and plants that had been pulled from the
ground down to its roots, and they'd just been tossed
all over her. Whoever left her there was hastily trying
to cover up and obscure her body. Detectives shared that
they believed she was killed the same night she left
her home, and that it was not a pre planned crime,
but an impulsive one. Because of how long she had

(16:35):
been out in the elements, her body was badly decomposed.
This made it very difficult to collect physical evidence, but
they collected what they could and basically told the public
at the time that they didn't have any major anything
of major DNA value, so to speak. They sort of
tap danced around it, and my impression was, as I

(16:56):
was reviewing this case chronologically at that time, it appeared
they had nothing. Investigators talking to Twilight's friends found out
that she had been sneaking out a bit more than
her parents were aware of. Her friends also said that
it was not uncommon for Twilight to leave her house barefoot.
She was a bit of a free spirit, but she

(17:19):
only did so when she knew she was going to
just be gone for a bit or be nearby. This
is interesting because initially authorities believed that maybe her shoes
were still in the killer's car or possession, and obviously
the implication is that she did not think she would
be gone long. Another noteworthy piece of information I read

(17:40):
was that Twilight always wore her purple fossil watch, and
this was not found on her body or left behind
in her room. Beyond the chatter and tips coming in
and other small town gossip, the case sort of lost
its steam. In February of two thousand and two, a
colleague of Bobby Crow at Western Kentucky University collected funds

(18:03):
from fellow staff at the college to have a reward
for information in Twilight's case. He just felt so badly
that Bobby was living without any answers and that the
media focus on nine to eleven had overshadowed progress in
her case. Within just a week, ten thousand dollars was raised.
Money talks right, but in this case, it didn't seem to.

(18:25):
Nothing substantial was found out about Twilight and what happened
to her that night. Her family continued to be extremely
patient for context. They did not get to even bury
Twilight and hold an official funeral until October of two
thousand and three, two years after her body was found.

(18:46):
Her body had been with the State Medical Examiner's office
for two years. Her father shared that he was okay
with not knowing how she died until the killer was caught.
He preferred to live with the good memories he had
of his little social butterfly of a daughter, Memories of
kids and her friends always in and out of their house,
and her always talking to someone on the phone. At

(19:08):
the time of Twilight's death, they held a memorial service
at her church, but this was more official, and her
father said it fell as close to closure as he
could get at the time, but he still hoped that
those keeping secrets in the community would come forward. Periodically,
for a few years, her name would come up in
cold case articles across the area. In fact, some of

(19:32):
the articles she's mentioned in are the same ones I
saw when doing my research for the case of Walter
Greg Fowler, an episode from the Bowling Green area I
did earlier this year. He was a man who supposedly
went fishing his boat was found out in the water
by his wife. And you know what, that's a whole
rabbit hole. I can't get into right now because it's

(19:53):
just that a rabbit hole. So if you haven't listened
to that case yet, please go do so, as it
could use some attention as well. A cold case Task
Force was formed in two thousand and three to look
at some of these cases. One heartbreaking detail from around
this time was that her parents attended her high school
graduation in June of two thousand and three. They said

(20:15):
they wanted to honor her classmates and keep a bit
of Twilight alive. Her father said, quote, it was really nice.
I guess in many ways we are carrying on for her,
whether it be a graduation or any other event that
she would have participated in. I felt like it was
our way of having her here and to never let

(20:35):
her die. That's probably what we'll keep doing for the
rest of our lives. You don't just lose a child
and pretend like it never happened. End quote. Police kept
most information close, but in two thousand and six they
put out a fresh appeal and released new information. In

(21:03):
two thousand and six, police released new information in hopes
for fresh tips. They believed this piece of evidence could
be the key to solving the case. They shared that
when Twilight was found, she was wearing a baseball jersey
from another school that she didn't attend. The jersey was
from Edmonston County High School in Brownsville, Kentucky, nearly thirty

(21:26):
miles north of Plano, where Twilight was from. None of
Twilight's friends or family had seen it before. The jersey
was number ten. If your brain is already putting together
the way you would track down the student who wore
that jersey. Police were on the same track as you
by this point. In two thousand and six, they revealed

(21:46):
that early on they had gone back found out which
student wore the jersey at the school and when it
was from. At the time of Twilight's death, the jersey
was about three years old. There are conflicting reports that
the jersey. The first article in two thousand and six
says that, according to what police found out, the student
who wore the jersey returned it to school like you

(22:09):
do after a season wraps up, and that inexplicably it
had made its way outside of the school into the community.
Later reporting would share that the student donated it to
a Goodwill collection box in Brownsville, So if that's the case,
then it could have been thrifted by anybody. Police even
shared that it's possible that Twilight could have purchased it

(22:31):
from Goodwill. Either way. Detectives stated that the boy who
had worn the jersey last for the baseball team had
nothing to do with the case. They were hoping that
someone knew someone who owned this jersey, or who had
any information on anyone who ever had possession of it,
to try to piece together a clue of how Twilight

(22:52):
ended up dead in wearing it. This is just my opinion,
but the jersey piece isn't adding up for me, and
it could be that law enforcement has information about it
that I don't have. But for example, my mom knew
all of my clothes, she saw what came through the laundry.
I feel like Twilight's parents would have recognized something like

(23:12):
that or purchased it for her. Likewise, if this belonged
to her killer, and the killer was a juvenile as well,
I feel like their parents would have some sense of
them owning this jersey. Though in that regard, they may
be covering something up back around that time. Because I
was in school around the same time, I recall how
girls would wear jerseys of the boy they were dating,

(23:36):
and they might wear the away jersey while cheering at
the home game. So was there any chance of a
romantic flaing or something romantic from a boy at a
nearby school? The goodwill donation purchase thing is weird too,
Why would you go to goodwill and buy a jersey
for a school you didn't attend. If the killer possibly

(23:58):
dressed twilight in this is something to throw detectives off track, well,
that would hold a lot more premeditation than detectives feel
are involved in this case. So how relevant is the
jersey TBD could be a red herring or could also
be a major piece to solving the puzzle. Over the years,

(24:20):
detectives said they have followed up on leads from callers,
but that the color has never had the exact information
they're looking for that lets them know they truly have
information about the case. They said that many of the
potential people who have come on their radar have moved
and some have even passed away, though throughout the early investigation,

(24:42):
they emphasized that they felt the suspect or suspects we're
still very much living in the local community. Investigators believe
that whoever did this has told at least one person
about it, and if you go on message boards and
read it in other places about the case, you'll see
just how much small town chatter there is. Some people

(25:05):
refer to it as an open secret and that various
groups of people are well aware of who's involved. I'm
careful on this show with speculation and gossip, but I
did still go down the old message board rabbit holes
some I had to use the way back Machine website
to access. I was torn because I don't like to
talk on here about anything I can't verify or engage

(25:27):
in conjecture. However, in some of these small town cases,
in particular, they have been cases where people have messaged
me after the episode and I've been able to connect
them with authorities to share information on the crime. And
I think that there could be some truth in some
of these scenarios. So I do want to be clear

(25:48):
that the next part of this episode, where I run
through a couple of these little scenarios and names, that
these are just rumors and I'm not using anybody's real names.
And this decision was made so that those who may
spark something for that they find it in their hearts
to come forward. So there is some speculation about a
man we will call Sam. He was a couple of

(26:08):
years older than Twilight, and so he would have already
graduated high school at this time. He came on the
radar as someone who struggled with addiction to meth who
had a nasty temper and too apparently bragged to others
at a party in the months following her death that
he had something to do with it. There were a
couple of variations, and in some instances his story was

(26:30):
more so that she overdosed and he panicked. But like
I said, law enforcement ruled out the overdose theory pretty quickly.
According to what people have said, he was interviewed by
law enforcement, he quickly stopped cooperating and basically said, I
never said that, and I have nothing to do with it.

(26:50):
People who are in support of him say that. People
who are in support of this man say that he
was only ever really looked at because he lived nearby
and had ties to that proper that was in support
of him if said that. In fact, possibly someone who
knew him set him up by putting the body there,
because it would have been a dumb move for him
to do so. This particular person whose name comes up

(27:13):
the most, he died a couple of years ago, so
it would take someone close to him who he confessed
to to come forward with more definitive information. At this point.
Another name that comes up is someone i'll call Ron.
He was a person who hosted a lot of parties
all the time. It was alleged that sometimes Twilight attended
these parties, and people state that he really clammed up

(27:36):
after her murder. It was also said that it was
at his party that Sam confessed to others that he
had something to do with Twilight's murder. Some gossip says
that Ron moved out of the area shortly after the murder,
but others say, nah, he's totally still local, so I
don't know. There are a couple of other names thrown around.

(27:56):
Some felt she may have met someone through her job
at a local grocery restore, and others thought maybe it
was someone from her church group. I will say overall,
there are three main names that I saw thrown around
the most, but nothing seems to stick no matter what,
there is one theme that is said between Twilight's family

(28:17):
friends in law enforcement. Twilight left her home that night
to meet somebody she trusted, and that person killed her.
Police continue to work new evidence, and in twenty twenty one,

(28:39):
there was conversation of greater forensic testing able to be
done now. Most of the articles plead for the public
to come forward to better help corroborate the physical evidence
they do have so they can have a strong enough case.
So I'll end with this quote from Warren County Sheriff
Brett high Tower. He told the Park City Daily News

(29:00):
that they had pulled in the FBI and quote, with
the recent assistance of the FBI's forensic team and newer technology,
we are hopeful that we will be able to identify
the DNA of anyone associated with Twilight Crooks's death or
the disposal of her body. As we prepare this case
for prosecution. Any additional help will further help substantiate the

(29:23):
physical evidence obtained. If you have any knowledge of this case,
now is the time to come forward. Your knowledge of
those involved in the homicide or disposal of the body
of Twilight Crooks can bring those responsible to justice. If
you have any information on the murder of Twilight Crooks,

(29:47):
please contact the Sheriff's office at two seven zero eight
four to two sixteen thirty three. This has been another
episode of a Simpler time true crime. If you a
pre sheiate the work I'm doing, please leave a five
star review on your favorite listening platform and tell a
friend I love chatting with listeners, so please feel free

(30:09):
to comment or dm me. I'm primarily on Instagram, but
also have Facebook and TikTok for the podcast. Case suggestions
and general inquiries can be made to Simpler timecrimepod at
gmail dot com, and I'm always more than willing to
assist families with covering their loved ones cases, so feel
free to reach out. As always, thank you so much
for listening, and join me next Monday,

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Someone She Trusted: The Unsolved Murder of Jessie Marie Twilight Song Crooks

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