July 5, 2024 • 32 mins
This was an odd choice to bring this story to the channel, because I was somewhat convinced the Jennifer Servo homicide would be solved quickly. But as I moved through the research it dawned on me that a killer could easily hide in plain sight. Sometimes if something or someone seems too obvious you may need to consider. Am I getting tunnel vision in this case or are there other possibilities. Believe it or not, I did find other possibilities that muddied the obvious choice here in Abilene
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is one of those stories where there seems to be lots of smoke and mirrors, but in the end, Jennifer Servo's death is a tale of betrayal, passion, and lies.
(00:10):
Warning you will need to pay close attention to this story. At first, you'll think you know exactly who did it, and will wonder why justice hasn't happened.
But then the light will shift, the picture will change just a little bit, and if you're anything like me, you won't be so sure by the time you get to the end of this one.
There's an old saying that goes like this. There are three sides to every story, your side, my side, and the truth.
(00:37):
Jennifer Servo cared about the truth. So it's even more tragic that the truth of her murder on September 16, 2002 is shrouded in lies, misunderstandings, and misdirection.
The truth is so murky, in fact, that even major news outlets struggled to keep the facts straight this many years later.
(01:01):
Presenting us with a contradictory kaleidoscope of what happened, why and even maybe here and there. Come along with me for a ride through odd, strange, and mysterious, here at Odd Mysteries Stories.
At 22 years old, Jennifer Servo was already well on her chosen career path.
(01:23):
She was a well-liked and accomplished student at her high school in Columbia Falls, Montana, and she knew exactly where she wanted to go in life.
Jennifer was no shrinking violet. To make sure she could pay for college, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves at 17, while she was still in high school.
She spent six years as a specialist in the 347th quartermaster unit. She took infantry training.
(01:49):
Her natural leadership qualities soon earned her the position of Barrick's squad leader.
Upon graduating high school, she attended the University of Montana, pursuing a journalism degree.
While juggling her schoolwork and her Army Reserves responsibilities, she held down part-time jobs at not just one, but two Montana TV stations.
(02:12):
There was her work at KP-AXTV, the local CBS station, and then there was KEC-ITV, the local NBC station.
She dreamed of being the next Katie Cork, and when she landed her first job as a full-time news reporter at KRBC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Abilene, Texas,
(02:38):
she showed no hesitation. She immediately packed up, moved, and took the first major step of her career path without looking back.
While her family worried about the move, she laughed, spoke optimistically, and generally let them know this is what she sought all along.
The first two months went great. She found a nice apartment. She was doing well at her job. Her coworkers liked her.
(03:02):
Every one of her coworkers and supervisors knew she had the exact mix of drive, beauty, reporters' instincts, and talent to go every bit as far as she wanted to go.
Jennifer had to navigate one more challenge to make her life perfect. Her love life at the time was a terrible mess.
Jennifer was the tip of a triangle she didn't seem to want to be a part of.
(03:31):
The men at the other ends of the triangle were almost stereotypical, cut straight out of some movie.
Where the heroine's choice between the dark-haired, broody, dangerous one and the blonde, cheerful, clean-cut guy stands out as a major polar opposites.
In the end, Jennifer's decision was a strong no to both of the men in her life at the time.
(03:56):
The reaction each man had to learning that Jennifer didn't want to be with them is one of the many shadowy facts in this story.
The boyfriend she came to town with was Ralph Sipulveda, our dark-haired bad boy.
At 34, in some sources say, was 35. Ralph Sipulveda was arguably too old for her.
(04:18):
He was in the US Army and they'd met while she was in training with the reserves.
He was covered in tattoos and this alone gave Jennifer's parents reason to pause, but he could also be charming and easy to talk to.
The pair had what was described as instant chemistry. Jennifer's parents were alarmed when she announced he was moving down to Texas with her.
(04:42):
But the decision had already been made when they learned of the move.
However, the relationship soon soured. Ralph had a dangerous kink.
He liked to choke Jennifer while they had sex together.
It's not clear whether she consented to the behavior and didn't like it or tolerated the behavior and was angry about it.
(05:06):
Or ultimately that she accepted the behavior but was truly fearful of it.
If you had to guess how Jennifer felt, what would you think?
For my part, despite the reporting from some sources suggesting Jennifer was afraid of Ralph and his habits,
I suspect the answer may have been angry tolerance or grudging consent.
(05:28):
She wasn't the type to frighten easily and some friends describe her reaction as more annoyed than afraid.
She may have wanted some adjustments to her sex life.
But Ralph's bedroom behavior wasn't what ultimately inspired her to break up with him and kick him out of her apartment.
No, no, no, no, get this.
It was the discovery that Ralph had a fiancé and child from another woman back in Missoula.
(05:58):
His lies were the deal breaker.
Ralph moved out and into his own apartment.
News coverage made a great deal of the fact that his apartment was close to Jennifer's.
But I'm not so convinced this is a relevant detail.
Let me explain why.
Abilene as a town is relatively small.
(06:20):
You can drive it north to south in 23 minutes and east to west in just 21 minutes.
Any location he chose would have technically been close to Jennifer's.
A 1500 mile cross country move is exhausting even for someone who must move often.
And most of us would need time to recover before contemplating a second move of this distance in the span of a couple of weeks.
(06:47):
How badly did Ralph react to the breakup?
Some sources say he cried in return to beg her to take him back a week or so later.
Others say he shrugged, accepted her decision without much fanfare and walked away.
Does the reaction matter?
Is it important?
It could mean nothing.
It could also be a pivotal fact in her case.
(07:10):
As this drama continued to unfold, the final member of the Love Triangle entered the picture.
Brian Travers, the KRBC TV weatherman and Golden Haired Station sweetheart was carrying a torch for Jennifer.
To hear him tell it, they had started to get close almost right away.
And so when she broke up with Ralph, they had the opportunity to explore a relationship.
(07:34):
However, Jennifer wasn't so sure Brian was the one.
She had a fling with him but wanted to go back to being friends almost right away.
She told friends she regretted having sex with him.
Jennifer might not have been in love with Brian, but Brian was in love with her.
Brian was also the last person to see Jennifer alive.
(07:57):
On the evening of September 16th, Brian and Jennifer left work at 11.30pm.
They may have stopped by a friend's house to pick up a coffee table and then went to Walmart for some late night shopping.
Here's where the timeline gets fuzzy, both because of reporting mishaps and because Brian altered his story slightly a few days after the incident.
(08:18):
I'll tell you more about the timeline.
The most common version is that the two of them were both in their own cars that night.
Brian walked Jennifer to her car in the Walmart parking lot and then they went their own separate ways.
He says he kissed her good night.
At 1.29am, they were both in their own car.
(08:40):
They were both in their own car.
They both went their own separate ways. He says he kissed her good night.
At 1.29am, Jennifer was on the phone with her ex-boyfriend Dave Warren.
He was a weatherman too, someone she dated in college before meeting Ralph.
(09:01):
They discussed meeting in Dallas in December.
It was her last phone conversation.
Dave might have ended up a suspect too.
If he wasn't verifiably over 1500 miles away that night, they talked for about an hour.
Around 2.30am, Jennifer's neighbor said she heard Jennifer engaged in a loud verbal argument for some time.
(09:24):
The argument ended with her murder, which was most likely unplanned.
An act of rage and passion that spiraled out of control.
It took two days for anyone to find Jennifer.
When she stopped showing up to work, her supervisor Tony Dagenhart called her landlord.
The landlord entered the apartment with the spare key.
(09:45):
He immediately saw blood on the floor and drag marks on the carpet, prompting him to call the police.
There were no signs of forced entry and the door was locked.
So police immediately surmised the killer was someone Jennifer had known well enough to let inside of the apartment,
or the killer was someone who had a copy of her key.
(10:08):
Jennifer was a careful soul.
She probably would not have let just anyone into her apartment, especially not in the middle of the night.
She'd even recently moved her bedroom into her front room so she could be sure and hear anyone attempting to enter the apartment.
These were the actions of a woman who was either more uneasy than she let on, being so far from the home she'd known.
(10:30):
Additionally, the actions of someone who is routinely cautious or the actions of someone who had begun to feel like she was in danger,
long before the events of September 16.
Her diary, one of the few sources of information anyone has about Jennifer,
either gives no clues about these details or the police have withheld them.
(10:55):
Friends mentioned the front room bedroom moved too, but didn't say why she'd taken this extra safety step.
Jennifer was found face down in her bathtub, fully closed and dry.
She died of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation.
Police believe she died this way.
(11:16):
First, the culprit punched her hard enough to daze her and knock her down.
He then pinned her in a classic hold, one which requires the assailant to press his forearm into the victim's neck while planting his knee between her legs
and using his body weight to push the victim's neck down.
The victim tried to hit back or grab at his arm, but even if the victim were the same size and strength as the assailant,
(11:42):
wouldn't have the positioning to do anything but hit non-vital areas or have much ability to shake the assailant off.
The assailant can then slam the victim's head into the victim's neck and then hit the victim's neck.
The victim tried to hit back or grab at his arm, but even if the victim were the same size and strength as the assailant,
the assailant can then slam the victim's head into the floor as many times as he wants to.
(12:07):
Jennifer had bruising in her crotch area which was consistent with the knee between her legs,
which is different than the bruising of a sexual assault, supporting the theory that the killer pinned her in this supposed strangle position.
Once she was dead, the killer lowered the blinds and dragged Jennifer back into the bathroom and dumped her in the bathtub.
(12:28):
Some believe he did this out of paranoia that someone could peer through the slats on the blinds and see the body,
or spot the body through the front door as he left.
The killer then stole several very strange items, two DVDs, saving Private Ryan and Sex in the City.
I guess, brand purse, apparently containing Jennifer's library card from back home in Montana,
(12:52):
the killer also took her cell phone and her keys.
Perhaps the killer was trying to make the entire thing look like a robbery and just grabbed whatever random items made sense to him.
Jennifer was making $7.50 an hour, just $2.35 over minimum wage at the time, so she didn't have much.
(13:14):
Forensic pathologist Catherine Pinnery opined that this was the kind of crime scene that gets left when a killer is panicking
and trying to figure out what to do when a situation has spiraled out of control.
Crime scene investigators arrived to a scene that was already hopelessly contaminated.
Jennifer's cat had been all over the apartment, mixing cat hair with blood, hair, and other trace evidence.
(13:43):
Investigators collected some DNA, but it was only the DNA they expected to find.
The DNA of the two men who had legitimately been inside of Jennifer's apartment.
Ralph Sepulveda and Brian Travers.
One year later, someone may have used the library card in Jennifer's purse to check out some books from the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana.
(14:13):
The librarians aren't sure the supposed check out was anything other than a clerical error, but it's an eerie event that raises questions.
If it wasn't a clerical error, why would the killer take such a risk?
Did he dump the purse only for someone else to dig out the library card and use it?
(14:35):
Did he want to taunt the police?
If he used it, that means he went to Montana at some point to do just that.
Unfortunately, this event and this lead went nowhere.
It was, in fact, the last active clue to Jennifer Servo's case.
Ralph Sepulveda is a hard suspect to like.
(14:59):
He'd even had two criminal charges of child molestation filed against him in Phoenix.
Though Phoenix wasn't able to convict him of either crime, he's the obvious suspect, so obvious, in fact, that I almost considered not sharing this case with you.
It seemed open and shut, at least until I dug a little deeper.
(15:22):
Police in Abilene are chomping at the bit to arrest him, but they haven't, not yet.
And the main reason is the evidence against him is circumstantial, maybe even considered biased.
It's not that there isn't evidence to support Ralph as the killer.
The fact that the method of death strangulation is consistent with his bedroom fetish is certainly suggestive, though he didn't rape her.
(15:49):
Which you might expect, given his history, his alibi is terrible.
He told police that he was at home watching football and went to sleep around 10, 30 p.m.
It's the type of alibi that nobody can confirm, though it's also a very normal alibi to have.
Lots of people go home alone, watch some TV, and go to sleep.
(16:13):
He also didn't alter his routine at all.
He was at work when the police found Jennifer's body.
He certainly would have had the strength to punch Jennifer hard enough to knock her down.
And the skill to employ the stranglehold that ended her life?
Jennifer's diary painted a grim picture of Ralph's decision to move down to Texas with her.
(16:37):
She wrote that he bullied her into it, and that he was mooching off her financially and emotionally.
It's hard to say when that entry was written, though.
It seems like the type of diary entry that might have resulted after she learned about the fiancé and child back home.
Ralph had some money, or he wouldn't have been able to secure a new apartment after Jennifer kicked him out.
(17:00):
Aveline police favor Ralph most of all for the way he reacted after Jennifer's death, or rather for his lack of reaction.
He didn't ask any questions other than, quote, is Jennifer dead, end quote, and he only asked them after the cops took him to the station for questioning.
Also, after he overheard a medical examiner mention her death, he didn't ask any follow-up questions.
(17:23):
He didn't go to the funeral.
Instead, he re-enlisted in the Army and got out of town.
Aveline PD also makes much of his refusal to take a polygraph.
But most defense lawyers will tell you not to.
I've covered this before, but polygraphs are junk science.
Passing a polygraph won't exonerate you, and police often use them to trick people into giving details that can be used against them later.
(17:53):
Refusing a polygraph is smart, whether you're guilty or innocent.
So, I don't give this detail much weight in this case.
Forensic psychologist Michael Wellner tried to caution both the public and the police that there is no such thing as normal behavior when someone close to you has been murdered, or when you are a murder suspect, and not to read too much into Ralph's reaction.
(18:20):
Ralph could have re-enlisted for any number of reasons, including the fact that he was coincidentally up for re-enlistment at that time.
Or even because he didn't want to stick around in a small town where a huge portion of the public would have been predisposed to believe the big, brown-skinned, tattooed man was the culprit.
(18:44):
In addition, a soldier might well shut down emotionally in such circumstances.
Training might take over. Acting callous is not a crime.
He didn't lawyer up until he was back with the military, though. Police kept pursuing him, asking him questions, almost as if they were hoping to shake out the reaction they expected to see.
(19:08):
Quite reasonably, he got tired of it and eventually handed the detectives the name and number of his Jagged attorney, directing them to speak to him, which is his right.
Ralph also wrote a letter to the fiance in Montana after Jennifer died, claiming he still loved her. The fiance thought the letter was bogus.
(19:29):
But Ralph was a philanderer. He might have been, honestly, trying to get back together with the fiance at that moment, regardless of what was happening with the murder investigation.
From the details I could find about him, he's a liar, he's egotistical, and he's a womanizer. But that doesn't make him a murderer.
There are also some problems with the Ralph Sepulveda theory.
(19:53):
First, Ralph was organized. When detectives searched his home, they called it organized to the point of being compulsive.
Second, while some newspapers reported that he cried when Jennifer broke up with him and begged her to take her back, others say he just said OK,
and moved out. The latter story is more consistent with his later behavior. The behavior he showed when police came to question him.
(20:18):
Trained by the military means Ralph would have been trained to plan. Would someone so organized, well trained, and unemotional really have been the man behind a sudden crime of passion and a disorganized cleanup?
Would he have panicked?
Wouldn't he at least have tried to make sure he had a better alibi than being at home watching football and sleeping?
(20:41):
Second, Ralph's story has never changed, not even once, and he's been asked multiple times.
Third, Jennifer's friend Dana Riordan mentioned that Jennifer had neither heard from Ralph in three weeks nor seen him.
Dana also mentioned she never thought Jennifer felt threatened by Ralph's fetish, even mentioning that there's a big difference between rough sex and murder.
(21:03):
Her words, not mine, but I suppose there could be a big difference.
Why would Ralph suddenly decide to go kill Jennifer, three weeks after their breakup, long after the emotions had time to cool?
Does that seem plausible? That Ralph is the real killer? Or is he just simply the easiest person to blame?
(21:28):
At first glance, Golden Boy Brian Travers is easy to like. His co-workers like him.
The police like him. They can't rule him out as a suspect, but it appears they don't want to rule him in either.
It would be easy to believe he's innocent. Though he lawyered up, immediately he also volunteered his DNA against his lawyer's advice.
(21:52):
He walked the police through Jennifer's apartment. He attended Jennifer's funeral and made it a point to console her family.
And Brian was the one who was in love with a woman who did not love him back. Does this gentleman protest too much?
There are some problems with Brian's story. Unlike Ralph, he's changed his story more than once.
(22:16):
This in and of itself doesn't mean much. People can remember details later.
And witnesses are notorious for remembering things poorly. Nevertheless, it took him a few days to mention certain details that seemed like they would have been important.
Brian told police about a suspicious car that seemed to be following him and Jennifer around as they made their shopping trip on the evening of September 16.
(22:44):
He also mentioned that Jennifer had told him at Walmart that she was afraid because she was being followed.
I couldn't find any information around what Brian thought of learning this information from Jennifer.
The media was quick to wonder if Ralph had been behind the wheel of that car.
Yet at least some of what Brian said seemed to indicate he'd met Ralph at least once.
(23:07):
Wouldn't he have recognized Ralph if he was the person following Jennifer? Certainly.
Jennifer should have known if it was Ralph. If Ralph was driving his own car, Jennifer would have recognized that as well.
But Brian never implicated Ralph directly. And if Jennifer and Brian had really seen someone following, would she really have just driven off,
(23:31):
leaving Brian at Walmart and heading up to her empty apartment without taking additional precautions?
Would she, at that point, open the door to someone at 2.30 in the morning?
Unless she felt very safe with that person, would she, at that point, have felt very safe with Ralph?
(23:52):
Many of Jennifer's colleagues and friends did not think so.
But she'd feel safe with Brian, the person she was just shopping with.
Perhaps they didn't part ways at Walmart. Perhaps he came with her to continue an argument.
The media isn't even clear on whether they were in different cars, so it's tough to say.
(24:14):
Brian didn't have the same training as Ralph, but he was still physically fit, still bigger than she was,
and still capable of delivering a punch that might stun her enough to give him the upper hand.
Especially if he caught her by surprise. Jennifer was a fighter, but that doesn't make elements like weight, height,
and the element of surprise meaningless.
(24:37):
It's not that hard to believe jealous, unrequited love hears newsroom gossip about Ralph choking Jennifer in bed,
gets broken up with, and then, in a fit of wild rage, chooses to strangle her.
Perhaps the intent wasn't even to kill her. Perhaps it was something he was doing while he yelled at her.
(24:58):
Perhaps flinging Ralph's tastes into her face.
It's not hard to imagine him suddenly realizing she's dead, that this has escalated way beyond what he ever intended.
It's not hard to imagine that in the aftermath he might panic.
It's not even hard to imagine that, in a fit of remorse, he might attend her funeral,
and make a conscious effort to look supportive and retain his golden boy persona.
(25:23):
Additionally, he might help the police by providing details and information he already knew
couldn't be used to implicate him. Providing a DNA sample is pretty useless.
When you know the DNA at the apartment already has a legitimate explanation.
Of course, all this conjecture is every bit as circumstantial as the speculation implicating Ralph.
(25:47):
Police don't have a good case against Brian either.
Nevertheless, doesn't all of this make you wonder, is Brian's shifting and not consistent story somewhat problematic?
Does the scenario involving Brian seem like it could be the right one?
Can you believe that his cooperation was truly genuine?
(26:08):
Or was it meant to ensure police never took him seriously as a suspect?
There was another dangerous man in Jennifer's orbit.
Though police didn't know about him right away.
As the investigation continued, they received a phone call from the stepfather of a man named Edward Semper of Derrida, Louisiana.
(26:30):
Jennifer and Edward had been exchanging messages over the internet.
He had made plans to make the 450 mile trip from Derrida to Abilene.
But before he could, Edward was tracked down and arrested on probation violation warrants from Illinois.
Edward denied he'd ever been to Abilene, even as he became a suspect in a series of murders sweeping across Louisiana at the time.
(26:55):
Edward worked in construction.
He was in and out of Jasper, Texas quite often.
But Jasper is still 406 miles from Abilene and police were never able to link him directly to the scene of the crime.
If someone was following Jennifer that night, could it have been Edward Semper?
Or is Edward just the sort of red herring that can complicate this case?
(27:22):
Jennifer Servo was a public figure and young pretty public figures are often targets for the unhinged.
There is always the chance that the person who killed Jennifer Servo wasn't known to her at all.
A stalker could have found a way to steal a spare key or have one maid or could have come up with a pretense that might have gotten Jennifer to let him in despite her misgivings.
(27:45):
The argument could have been an argument that occurred after Jennifer attempted to throw the unknown party back out of her apartment that night.
There's some evidence that Jennifer did have trouble with an unknown person.
One of Jennifer's colleagues told the police that Jennifer had shown her an article about newscasters being stalked just a week before her death.
(28:07):
A stalker would have a car that neither Brian nor Jennifer would have recognized.
Unfortunately, if there is an unknown stalker, police are unlikely to find him unless someone knows something and comes forward.
There's no video evidence. The police have never released details about the make and model of the mystery car, either because they don't know them or because they're holding them back from the public.
(28:35):
With all the DNA contaminated within the crime scene, there is nothing that links some stranger to the crime scene.
What if everyone in Jennifer's orbit is innocent? What if Jennifer's death was just a random act of violence?
These are heartbreaking possibilities, but they are possibilities nonetheless.
(29:00):
In 2021, investigators hoped that more modern, more sensitive DNA testing might help them uncover new evidence.
Nothing came of their attempts to isolate more DNA or tease out more detailed evidence.
Police remain fixated on Ralph Sepulveda. They tracked him down to Hawaii, but they've declined to make an arrest, which could mean they don't have enough evidence to pin Jennifer's murder on him.
(29:28):
Meanwhile, Jennifer's family grieves.
(29:59):
I'm sorry.
Something like this, you think always happens to somebody else and what happens to you or your family, you're just devastated.
Someone murdered her just a week before her 23rd birthday, silencing her humor, talent, and drive forever. And it remains difficult not to wonder what she might have accomplished, where she's still alive and well today.
(30:27):
Hopefully, one day, the full story and truth will be revealed, giving her surviving family and friends the closure they so deserve to receive following her death.
Before you leave, I wanted to share with you my listeners that we now have merchandise specifically for odd mysteries stories fans.
(30:53):
You'll be able to find the link to my store in the description. Please consider helping to support the channel by purchasing a t-shirt from my T-Public store.
Again, I've placed a link in the description.
As you come to the end of this story, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying tuned in. Wasn't this a truly strange and odd murder mystery?
(31:19):
If you had to make a strong guess, who do you think killed Jennifer? I honestly thought that either of the two guys could have done it.
Both had reason enough to be angry with her, but to kill her was beyond what a normal person does when they are angry.
Either way, her family and friends are still awaiting closure and I do hope one day they get what they are seeking.
(31:44):
Thank you for listening to my show. Up to the end. If you have questions about the details I've covered in the show or would like to follow my other projects, please find odd mysteries stories on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
I answer all messages, so don't hesitate to reach out.
In the next episode, I'll share the story of a young girl who gets taken advantage of by someone whose intent is sick in my opinion.
(32:11):
This story of Amy Mahalovic is so sad and frustrating, especially for those of us that know how hard parenting can be in the first place.
But to know that someone would know us well enough to use weaknesses they can exploit to hurt our children is maddening.
(32:32):
Tune in to my next episode to hear the full story of Amy Mahalovic. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. If you did, please leave me a review, download and share this story with your friends.
If you enjoyed this podcast and want to help it grow, head over to my Patreon page, buy me a cup of coffee and donate to the show in exchange for future premium content.
This is one of those stories where there seems to be lots of smoke and mirrors, but in the end, Jennifer Servo's death is a tale of betrayal, passion, and lies.
(00:10):
Warning you will need to pay close attention to this story. At first, you'll think you know exactly who did it, and will wonder why justice hasn't happened.
But then the light will shift, the picture will change just a little bit, and if you're anything like me, you won't be so sure by the time you get to the end of this one.
There's an old saying that goes like this. There are three sides to every story, your side, my side, and the truth.
(00:37):
Jennifer Servo cared about the truth. So it's even more tragic that the truth of her murder on September 16, 2002 is shrouded in lies, misunderstandings, and misdirection.
The truth is so murky, in fact, that even major news outlets struggled to keep the facts straight this many years later.
(01:01):
Presenting us with a contradictory kaleidoscope of what happened, why and even maybe here and there. Come along with me for a ride through odd, strange, and mysterious, here at Odd Mysteries Stories.
At 22 years old, Jennifer Servo was already well on her chosen career path.
(01:23):
She was a well-liked and accomplished student at her high school in Columbia Falls, Montana, and she knew exactly where she wanted to go in life.
Jennifer was no shrinking violet. To make sure she could pay for college, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves at 17, while she was still in high school.
She spent six years as a specialist in the 347th quartermaster unit. She took infantry training.
(01:49):
Her natural leadership qualities soon earned her the position of Barrick's squad leader.
Upon graduating high school, she attended the University of Montana, pursuing a journalism degree.
While juggling her schoolwork and her Army Reserves responsibilities, she held down part-time jobs at not just one, but two Montana TV stations.
(02:12):
There was her work at KP-AXTV, the local CBS station, and then there was KEC-ITV, the local NBC station.
She dreamed of being the next Katie Cork, and when she landed her first job as a full-time news reporter at KRBC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Abilene, Texas,
(02:38):
she showed no hesitation. She immediately packed up, moved, and took the first major step of her career path without looking back.
While her family worried about the move, she laughed, spoke optimistically, and generally let them know this is what she sought all along.
The first two months went great. She found a nice apartment. She was doing well at her job. Her coworkers liked her.
(03:02):
Every one of her coworkers and supervisors knew she had the exact mix of drive, beauty, reporters' instincts, and talent to go every bit as far as she wanted to go.
Jennifer had to navigate one more challenge to make her life perfect. Her love life at the time was a terrible mess.
Jennifer was the tip of a triangle she didn't seem to want to be a part of.
(03:31):
The men at the other ends of the triangle were almost stereotypical, cut straight out of some movie.
Where the heroine's choice between the dark-haired, broody, dangerous one and the blonde, cheerful, clean-cut guy stands out as a major polar opposites.
In the end, Jennifer's decision was a strong no to both of the men in her life at the time.
(03:56):
The reaction each man had to learning that Jennifer didn't want to be with them is one of the many shadowy facts in this story.
The boyfriend she came to town with was Ralph Sipulveda, our dark-haired bad boy.
At 34, in some sources say, was 35. Ralph Sipulveda was arguably too old for her.
(04:18):
He was in the US Army and they'd met while she was in training with the reserves.
He was covered in tattoos and this alone gave Jennifer's parents reason to pause, but he could also be charming and easy to talk to.
The pair had what was described as instant chemistry. Jennifer's parents were alarmed when she announced he was moving down to Texas with her.
(04:42):
But the decision had already been made when they learned of the move.
However, the relationship soon soured. Ralph had a dangerous kink.
He liked to choke Jennifer while they had sex together.
It's not clear whether she consented to the behavior and didn't like it or tolerated the behavior and was angry about it.
(05:06):
Or ultimately that she accepted the behavior but was truly fearful of it.
If you had to guess how Jennifer felt, what would you think?
For my part, despite the reporting from some sources suggesting Jennifer was afraid of Ralph and his habits,
I suspect the answer may have been angry tolerance or grudging consent.
(05:28):
She wasn't the type to frighten easily and some friends describe her reaction as more annoyed than afraid.
She may have wanted some adjustments to her sex life.
But Ralph's bedroom behavior wasn't what ultimately inspired her to break up with him and kick him out of her apartment.
No, no, no, no, get this.
It was the discovery that Ralph had a fiancé and child from another woman back in Missoula.
(05:58):
His lies were the deal breaker.
Ralph moved out and into his own apartment.
News coverage made a great deal of the fact that his apartment was close to Jennifer's.
But I'm not so convinced this is a relevant detail.
Let me explain why.
Abilene as a town is relatively small.
(06:20):
You can drive it north to south in 23 minutes and east to west in just 21 minutes.
Any location he chose would have technically been close to Jennifer's.
A 1500 mile cross country move is exhausting even for someone who must move often.
And most of us would need time to recover before contemplating a second move of this distance in the span of a couple of weeks.
(06:47):
How badly did Ralph react to the breakup?
Some sources say he cried in return to beg her to take him back a week or so later.
Others say he shrugged, accepted her decision without much fanfare and walked away.
Does the reaction matter?
Is it important?
It could mean nothing.
It could also be a pivotal fact in her case.
(07:10):
As this drama continued to unfold, the final member of the Love Triangle entered the picture.
Brian Travers, the KRBC TV weatherman and Golden Haired Station sweetheart was carrying a torch for Jennifer.
To hear him tell it, they had started to get close almost right away.
And so when she broke up with Ralph, they had the opportunity to explore a relationship.
(07:34):
However, Jennifer wasn't so sure Brian was the one.
She had a fling with him but wanted to go back to being friends almost right away.
She told friends she regretted having sex with him.
Jennifer might not have been in love with Brian, but Brian was in love with her.
Brian was also the last person to see Jennifer alive.
(07:57):
On the evening of September 16th, Brian and Jennifer left work at 11.30pm.
They may have stopped by a friend's house to pick up a coffee table and then went to Walmart for some late night shopping.
Here's where the timeline gets fuzzy, both because of reporting mishaps and because Brian altered his story slightly a few days after the incident.
(08:18):
I'll tell you more about the timeline.
The most common version is that the two of them were both in their own cars that night.
Brian walked Jennifer to her car in the Walmart parking lot and then they went their own separate ways.
He says he kissed her good night.
At 1.29am, they were both in their own car.
(08:40):
They were both in their own car.
They both went their own separate ways. He says he kissed her good night.
At 1.29am, Jennifer was on the phone with her ex-boyfriend Dave Warren.
He was a weatherman too, someone she dated in college before meeting Ralph.
(09:01):
They discussed meeting in Dallas in December.
It was her last phone conversation.
Dave might have ended up a suspect too.
If he wasn't verifiably over 1500 miles away that night, they talked for about an hour.
Around 2.30am, Jennifer's neighbor said she heard Jennifer engaged in a loud verbal argument for some time.
(09:24):
The argument ended with her murder, which was most likely unplanned.
An act of rage and passion that spiraled out of control.
It took two days for anyone to find Jennifer.
When she stopped showing up to work, her supervisor Tony Dagenhart called her landlord.
The landlord entered the apartment with the spare key.
(09:45):
He immediately saw blood on the floor and drag marks on the carpet, prompting him to call the police.
There were no signs of forced entry and the door was locked.
So police immediately surmised the killer was someone Jennifer had known well enough to let inside of the apartment,
or the killer was someone who had a copy of her key.
(10:08):
Jennifer was a careful soul.
She probably would not have let just anyone into her apartment, especially not in the middle of the night.
She'd even recently moved her bedroom into her front room so she could be sure and hear anyone attempting to enter the apartment.
These were the actions of a woman who was either more uneasy than she let on, being so far from the home she'd known.
(10:30):
Additionally, the actions of someone who is routinely cautious or the actions of someone who had begun to feel like she was in danger,
long before the events of September 16.
Her diary, one of the few sources of information anyone has about Jennifer,
either gives no clues about these details or the police have withheld them.
(10:55):
Friends mentioned the front room bedroom moved too, but didn't say why she'd taken this extra safety step.
Jennifer was found face down in her bathtub, fully closed and dry.
She died of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation.
Police believe she died this way.
(11:16):
First, the culprit punched her hard enough to daze her and knock her down.
He then pinned her in a classic hold, one which requires the assailant to press his forearm into the victim's neck while planting his knee between her legs
and using his body weight to push the victim's neck down.
The victim tried to hit back or grab at his arm, but even if the victim were the same size and strength as the assailant,
(11:42):
wouldn't have the positioning to do anything but hit non-vital areas or have much ability to shake the assailant off.
The assailant can then slam the victim's head into the victim's neck and then hit the victim's neck.
The victim tried to hit back or grab at his arm, but even if the victim were the same size and strength as the assailant,
the assailant can then slam the victim's head into the floor as many times as he wants to.
(12:07):
Jennifer had bruising in her crotch area which was consistent with the knee between her legs,
which is different than the bruising of a sexual assault, supporting the theory that the killer pinned her in this supposed strangle position.
Once she was dead, the killer lowered the blinds and dragged Jennifer back into the bathroom and dumped her in the bathtub.
(12:28):
Some believe he did this out of paranoia that someone could peer through the slats on the blinds and see the body,
or spot the body through the front door as he left.
The killer then stole several very strange items, two DVDs, saving Private Ryan and Sex in the City.
I guess, brand purse, apparently containing Jennifer's library card from back home in Montana,
(12:52):
the killer also took her cell phone and her keys.
Perhaps the killer was trying to make the entire thing look like a robbery and just grabbed whatever random items made sense to him.
Jennifer was making $7.50 an hour, just $2.35 over minimum wage at the time, so she didn't have much.
(13:14):
Forensic pathologist Catherine Pinnery opined that this was the kind of crime scene that gets left when a killer is panicking
and trying to figure out what to do when a situation has spiraled out of control.
Crime scene investigators arrived to a scene that was already hopelessly contaminated.
Jennifer's cat had been all over the apartment, mixing cat hair with blood, hair, and other trace evidence.
(13:43):
Investigators collected some DNA, but it was only the DNA they expected to find.
The DNA of the two men who had legitimately been inside of Jennifer's apartment.
Ralph Sepulveda and Brian Travers.
One year later, someone may have used the library card in Jennifer's purse to check out some books from the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana.
(14:13):
The librarians aren't sure the supposed check out was anything other than a clerical error, but it's an eerie event that raises questions.
If it wasn't a clerical error, why would the killer take such a risk?
Did he dump the purse only for someone else to dig out the library card and use it?
(14:35):
Did he want to taunt the police?
If he used it, that means he went to Montana at some point to do just that.
Unfortunately, this event and this lead went nowhere.
It was, in fact, the last active clue to Jennifer Servo's case.
Ralph Sepulveda is a hard suspect to like.
(14:59):
He'd even had two criminal charges of child molestation filed against him in Phoenix.
Though Phoenix wasn't able to convict him of either crime, he's the obvious suspect, so obvious, in fact, that I almost considered not sharing this case with you.
It seemed open and shut, at least until I dug a little deeper.
(15:22):
Police in Abilene are chomping at the bit to arrest him, but they haven't, not yet.
And the main reason is the evidence against him is circumstantial, maybe even considered biased.
It's not that there isn't evidence to support Ralph as the killer.
The fact that the method of death strangulation is consistent with his bedroom fetish is certainly suggestive, though he didn't rape her.
(15:49):
Which you might expect, given his history, his alibi is terrible.
He told police that he was at home watching football and went to sleep around 10, 30 p.m.
It's the type of alibi that nobody can confirm, though it's also a very normal alibi to have.
Lots of people go home alone, watch some TV, and go to sleep.
(16:13):
He also didn't alter his routine at all.
He was at work when the police found Jennifer's body.
He certainly would have had the strength to punch Jennifer hard enough to knock her down.
And the skill to employ the stranglehold that ended her life?
Jennifer's diary painted a grim picture of Ralph's decision to move down to Texas with her.
(16:37):
She wrote that he bullied her into it, and that he was mooching off her financially and emotionally.
It's hard to say when that entry was written, though.
It seems like the type of diary entry that might have resulted after she learned about the fiancé and child back home.
Ralph had some money, or he wouldn't have been able to secure a new apartment after Jennifer kicked him out.
(17:00):
Aveline police favor Ralph most of all for the way he reacted after Jennifer's death, or rather for his lack of reaction.
He didn't ask any questions other than, quote, is Jennifer dead, end quote, and he only asked them after the cops took him to the station for questioning.
Also, after he overheard a medical examiner mention her death, he didn't ask any follow-up questions.
(17:23):
He didn't go to the funeral.
Instead, he re-enlisted in the Army and got out of town.
Aveline PD also makes much of his refusal to take a polygraph.
But most defense lawyers will tell you not to.
I've covered this before, but polygraphs are junk science.
Passing a polygraph won't exonerate you, and police often use them to trick people into giving details that can be used against them later.
(17:53):
Refusing a polygraph is smart, whether you're guilty or innocent.
So, I don't give this detail much weight in this case.
Forensic psychologist Michael Wellner tried to caution both the public and the police that there is no such thing as normal behavior when someone close to you has been murdered, or when you are a murder suspect, and not to read too much into Ralph's reaction.
(18:20):
Ralph could have re-enlisted for any number of reasons, including the fact that he was coincidentally up for re-enlistment at that time.
Or even because he didn't want to stick around in a small town where a huge portion of the public would have been predisposed to believe the big, brown-skinned, tattooed man was the culprit.
(18:44):
In addition, a soldier might well shut down emotionally in such circumstances.
Training might take over. Acting callous is not a crime.
He didn't lawyer up until he was back with the military, though. Police kept pursuing him, asking him questions, almost as if they were hoping to shake out the reaction they expected to see.
(19:08):
Quite reasonably, he got tired of it and eventually handed the detectives the name and number of his Jagged attorney, directing them to speak to him, which is his right.
Ralph also wrote a letter to the fiance in Montana after Jennifer died, claiming he still loved her. The fiance thought the letter was bogus.
(19:29):
But Ralph was a philanderer. He might have been, honestly, trying to get back together with the fiance at that moment, regardless of what was happening with the murder investigation.
From the details I could find about him, he's a liar, he's egotistical, and he's a womanizer. But that doesn't make him a murderer.
There are also some problems with the Ralph Sepulveda theory.
(19:53):
First, Ralph was organized. When detectives searched his home, they called it organized to the point of being compulsive.
Second, while some newspapers reported that he cried when Jennifer broke up with him and begged her to take her back, others say he just said OK,
and moved out. The latter story is more consistent with his later behavior. The behavior he showed when police came to question him.
(20:18):
Trained by the military means Ralph would have been trained to plan. Would someone so organized, well trained, and unemotional really have been the man behind a sudden crime of passion and a disorganized cleanup?
Would he have panicked?
Wouldn't he at least have tried to make sure he had a better alibi than being at home watching football and sleeping?
(20:41):
Second, Ralph's story has never changed, not even once, and he's been asked multiple times.
Third, Jennifer's friend Dana Riordan mentioned that Jennifer had neither heard from Ralph in three weeks nor seen him.
Dana also mentioned she never thought Jennifer felt threatened by Ralph's fetish, even mentioning that there's a big difference between rough sex and murder.
(21:03):
Her words, not mine, but I suppose there could be a big difference.
Why would Ralph suddenly decide to go kill Jennifer, three weeks after their breakup, long after the emotions had time to cool?
Does that seem plausible? That Ralph is the real killer? Or is he just simply the easiest person to blame?
(21:28):
At first glance, Golden Boy Brian Travers is easy to like. His co-workers like him.
The police like him. They can't rule him out as a suspect, but it appears they don't want to rule him in either.
It would be easy to believe he's innocent. Though he lawyered up, immediately he also volunteered his DNA against his lawyer's advice.
(21:52):
He walked the police through Jennifer's apartment. He attended Jennifer's funeral and made it a point to console her family.
And Brian was the one who was in love with a woman who did not love him back. Does this gentleman protest too much?
There are some problems with Brian's story. Unlike Ralph, he's changed his story more than once.
(22:16):
This in and of itself doesn't mean much. People can remember details later.
And witnesses are notorious for remembering things poorly. Nevertheless, it took him a few days to mention certain details that seemed like they would have been important.
Brian told police about a suspicious car that seemed to be following him and Jennifer around as they made their shopping trip on the evening of September 16.
(22:44):
He also mentioned that Jennifer had told him at Walmart that she was afraid because she was being followed.
I couldn't find any information around what Brian thought of learning this information from Jennifer.
The media was quick to wonder if Ralph had been behind the wheel of that car.
Yet at least some of what Brian said seemed to indicate he'd met Ralph at least once.
(23:07):
Wouldn't he have recognized Ralph if he was the person following Jennifer? Certainly.
Jennifer should have known if it was Ralph. If Ralph was driving his own car, Jennifer would have recognized that as well.
But Brian never implicated Ralph directly. And if Jennifer and Brian had really seen someone following, would she really have just driven off,
(23:31):
leaving Brian at Walmart and heading up to her empty apartment without taking additional precautions?
Would she, at that point, open the door to someone at 2.30 in the morning?
Unless she felt very safe with that person, would she, at that point, have felt very safe with Ralph?
(23:52):
Many of Jennifer's colleagues and friends did not think so.
But she'd feel safe with Brian, the person she was just shopping with.
Perhaps they didn't part ways at Walmart. Perhaps he came with her to continue an argument.
The media isn't even clear on whether they were in different cars, so it's tough to say.
(24:14):
Brian didn't have the same training as Ralph, but he was still physically fit, still bigger than she was,
and still capable of delivering a punch that might stun her enough to give him the upper hand.
Especially if he caught her by surprise. Jennifer was a fighter, but that doesn't make elements like weight, height,
and the element of surprise meaningless.
(24:37):
It's not that hard to believe jealous, unrequited love hears newsroom gossip about Ralph choking Jennifer in bed,
gets broken up with, and then, in a fit of wild rage, chooses to strangle her.
Perhaps the intent wasn't even to kill her. Perhaps it was something he was doing while he yelled at her.
(24:58):
Perhaps flinging Ralph's tastes into her face.
It's not hard to imagine him suddenly realizing she's dead, that this has escalated way beyond what he ever intended.
It's not hard to imagine that in the aftermath he might panic.
It's not even hard to imagine that, in a fit of remorse, he might attend her funeral,
and make a conscious effort to look supportive and retain his golden boy persona.
(25:23):
Additionally, he might help the police by providing details and information he already knew
couldn't be used to implicate him. Providing a DNA sample is pretty useless.
When you know the DNA at the apartment already has a legitimate explanation.
Of course, all this conjecture is every bit as circumstantial as the speculation implicating Ralph.
(25:47):
Police don't have a good case against Brian either.
Nevertheless, doesn't all of this make you wonder, is Brian's shifting and not consistent story somewhat problematic?
Does the scenario involving Brian seem like it could be the right one?
Can you believe that his cooperation was truly genuine?
(26:08):
Or was it meant to ensure police never took him seriously as a suspect?
There was another dangerous man in Jennifer's orbit.
Though police didn't know about him right away.
As the investigation continued, they received a phone call from the stepfather of a man named Edward Semper of Derrida, Louisiana.
(26:30):
Jennifer and Edward had been exchanging messages over the internet.
He had made plans to make the 450 mile trip from Derrida to Abilene.
But before he could, Edward was tracked down and arrested on probation violation warrants from Illinois.
Edward denied he'd ever been to Abilene, even as he became a suspect in a series of murders sweeping across Louisiana at the time.
(26:55):
Edward worked in construction.
He was in and out of Jasper, Texas quite often.
But Jasper is still 406 miles from Abilene and police were never able to link him directly to the scene of the crime.
If someone was following Jennifer that night, could it have been Edward Semper?
Or is Edward just the sort of red herring that can complicate this case?
(27:22):
Jennifer Servo was a public figure and young pretty public figures are often targets for the unhinged.
There is always the chance that the person who killed Jennifer Servo wasn't known to her at all.
A stalker could have found a way to steal a spare key or have one maid or could have come up with a pretense that might have gotten Jennifer to let him in despite her misgivings.
(27:45):
The argument could have been an argument that occurred after Jennifer attempted to throw the unknown party back out of her apartment that night.
There's some evidence that Jennifer did have trouble with an unknown person.
One of Jennifer's colleagues told the police that Jennifer had shown her an article about newscasters being stalked just a week before her death.
(28:07):
A stalker would have a car that neither Brian nor Jennifer would have recognized.
Unfortunately, if there is an unknown stalker, police are unlikely to find him unless someone knows something and comes forward.
There's no video evidence. The police have never released details about the make and model of the mystery car, either because they don't know them or because they're holding them back from the public.
(28:35):
With all the DNA contaminated within the crime scene, there is nothing that links some stranger to the crime scene.
What if everyone in Jennifer's orbit is innocent? What if Jennifer's death was just a random act of violence?
These are heartbreaking possibilities, but they are possibilities nonetheless.
(29:00):
In 2021, investigators hoped that more modern, more sensitive DNA testing might help them uncover new evidence.
Nothing came of their attempts to isolate more DNA or tease out more detailed evidence.
Police remain fixated on Ralph Sepulveda. They tracked him down to Hawaii, but they've declined to make an arrest, which could mean they don't have enough evidence to pin Jennifer's murder on him.
(29:28):
Meanwhile, Jennifer's family grieves.
(29:59):
I'm sorry.
Something like this, you think always happens to somebody else and what happens to you or your family, you're just devastated.
Someone murdered her just a week before her 23rd birthday, silencing her humor, talent, and drive forever. And it remains difficult not to wonder what she might have accomplished, where she's still alive and well today.
(30:27):
Hopefully, one day, the full story and truth will be revealed, giving her surviving family and friends the closure they so deserve to receive following her death.
Before you leave, I wanted to share with you my listeners that we now have merchandise specifically for odd mysteries stories fans.
(30:53):
You'll be able to find the link to my store in the description. Please consider helping to support the channel by purchasing a t-shirt from my T-Public store.
Again, I've placed a link in the description.
As you come to the end of this story, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying tuned in. Wasn't this a truly strange and odd murder mystery?
(31:19):
If you had to make a strong guess, who do you think killed Jennifer? I honestly thought that either of the two guys could have done it.
Both had reason enough to be angry with her, but to kill her was beyond what a normal person does when they are angry.
Either way, her family and friends are still awaiting closure and I do hope one day they get what they are seeking.
(31:44):
Thank you for listening to my show. Up to the end. If you have questions about the details I've covered in the show or would like to follow my other projects, please find odd mysteries stories on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
I answer all messages, so don't hesitate to reach out.
In the next episode, I'll share the story of a young girl who gets taken advantage of by someone whose intent is sick in my opinion.
(32:11):
This story of Amy Mahalovic is so sad and frustrating, especially for those of us that know how hard parenting can be in the first place.
But to know that someone would know us well enough to use weaknesses they can exploit to hurt our children is maddening.
(32:32):
Tune in to my next episode to hear the full story of Amy Mahalovic. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. If you did, please leave me a review, download and share this story with your friends.
If you enjoyed this podcast and want to help it grow, head over to my Patreon page, buy me a cup of coffee and donate to the show in exchange for future premium content.
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