February 7, 2023 • 46 mins
How does Jessica's case go from Undetermined to solved? We review everything we've learned up to this point and reach out to both the District Attorney and the NOPD to share our recommendations, and seek answers about the status of Jessica's case.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, listeners, Jessica here. Be sure to check out new
episodes of Undetermined every Tuesday for free wherever you get
your podcasts. For early and ad free listening, check out
Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts. The views and opinions expressed
in this podcast are solely those of the individuals interviewed
(00:24):
and participating in the show, and do not represent those
of Tenderfoot TV and Resonate recordings. All individuals described or
mentioned in the podcast should be considered innocent until found
guilty in a court of law. This podcast contains subject
matter such as violence and graphic descriptions, which may not
(00:45):
be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Through
all the twists and turns in the three years since
losing Jessica, the one thing her family has always managed
to cling.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
To is hope.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
For Audrey, all she needs is a small token from
Mother Nature to remind her she's not alone in all
of this. Dragonflies are often revered as a symbol of
transformation and rebirth. In some cultures, they're even believed to
symbolize a link between this world and the next. Audrey
(01:26):
tells me that the day she found her sister's body.
She remembers seeing a dragonfly right there in that overgrown
patch of land near the train tracks.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
If I'm standing right here, my sister was right there
where that blue cover was.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's how close I was to her.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
And I've just seen the most beautifulest blue dragonfly. I've
never seen a ballooon like that before.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Ever. Audrey didn't make much of it at the time.
It wasn't until one night after returning home to Mississippi
that it sank in. As she sat on her porch
that evening thinking about her sister, she heard a buzzing sound.
It was another dragonfly, and it didn't just pop in
(02:10):
for a visit. It stuck around for some time. It
was as if that little blue insect was trying to
communicate with her. Audrey felt it had to mean something,
and looking back on it now, she's even more convinced
because these run ins have become a regular occurrence.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
One time I woke up and I was crying and
there was literally twenty or thirty dragonflies in my ard.
They were nowhere else, they were just in my art.
And I don't know if that's just me holding on
to hope or whatever, but I mean, I believe that
that was my sister.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
For Audrey, the dragonflies are a reminder that her sister,
Jessica is always with her, she always has been. That
gives her hope and strength to keep fighting. Momentum had
now shifted in the family's favor. Jessica was finally laid
to rest, and her case had moved into the hands
(03:11):
of the Die's office, who were investigating it as a homicide.
Things were looking up.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Now it was.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Time to try and put Jessica's case to rest once
and for all. We don't know how long he saw
(03:58):
her before twelve thirty. They talked about bills, They talked
about this, They talked about that. Our time in New
Orleans has been quite the roller coaster. Days of phone calls, interviews,
and debriefs. We've learned a lot about Jessica's case its
own roller coaster of sorts, and at this point we
(04:18):
feel we've discovered most everything we can. Now it's time
we take a step back and examine all the pieces.
Sitting inside our fringe Quarter hotel room, Todd and I
start creating a timeline board on Jessica's case, starting from
January twenty nineteen, when that first message was sent to
(04:39):
Maria from Jessica saying she was scared. We grab the
biggest bulletin board we can find and prop it up
on an easel against the white brick wall with a
slew of brightly colored index cards and post its in
hand and a old black sharpeat. We get to work
(05:00):
about up pinning cards to the board for each and
every notable event, along with the corresponding date and time. Visually,
the timeline board helps Todd and I organize and connect
the dots, allowing us to really zero in on some
key points along the way based on the timeline. Here's
(05:21):
what we know, so let's start laying it out. So
we're going to start with January sixteenth, twenty nineteen, and
this is eight months before Jessica goes missing. That's the
day at three o'clock in the afternoon she texts her
(05:43):
friend Maria, and Maria is supposed to come and visit
and stay with her and Justin, and she texts her
and apologizes that she can't stay with her because they're fighting,
and she's.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Come hiding in the bathroom right now, So Justin doesn't
hear me. We've been fighting like fighting for the past
three days about everything. He's threatening to kick me out,
put me in jail. He's hit me.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
It's bad.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
He told me you guys can't come, or it's going
to be worse for me.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Lo.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I'm so sorry. I know it's last minute and I
feel awful. I don't know what to do. I can
recommend somewhere that's reasonable and nice, the Beyond Canal. We
stay there a lot, or we used to. Lo I'm scared.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And Lo is the nickname she uses for Maria. Right,
So then fast forward to August twelfth, twenty nineteen. This
day starts with an eleven oh seven am call from
Jessica to Maria, and she calls her and Maria misses
the call, and she does this through Facebook messenger. She
(06:54):
calls the second time, there's a three minute and eleven
second conversation. She calls a third time and there's a
fifty two second conversation, and then at two forty three
pm that same day, August twelfth, twenty nineteen, a Facebook
message from Jessica's Facebook messenger is sent to Maria. We
(07:15):
have no way of verifying who is sending any of
these messages. I want to make that clear, and she
essentially in that message on Facebook to Maria is asking
her to come and get her in that very moment,
and Maria can't come right then, so they actually make
(07:36):
plans for Maria to come the next morning and get Jessica.
And the last thing that Jessica says in those Facebook messengers.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Okay, just hang on. I don't know what's going to
happen when I get home.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And that is the last time that Maria ever heard
from Jessica. So moving into August thirteenth, the next day
to TWI I was in nineteen. That's the morning that
Maria had planned with Jessica to come and get her,
but Maria never hears from Jessica. The following day, August fourteenth,
(08:14):
twenty nineteen, Jessica's family and her friend Maria start calling
local shelters, hospitals, anywhere they think Jessica could be, but
have no luck finding her. It's not until nine pm
that night that Justin gets on Jessica's Facebook messenger and
(08:38):
sends a message to Maria asking if she knows where
Jessica is.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Is jess with you, Grace and I are worried. If so,
that's fine, We just don't know where she is and
Grace can't handle stress like this right now.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
No, she's not.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
When was the last time you spoke to her?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
About noon today? And she left everything here? Keys, car, money,
what about her phone here too? Fucking weird, worried She's
never done this. I have no idea, checked everything and
everyone I know.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Okay, Well, I'm sending the police over there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Maria does in fact call in a wellness check at
this time, and police confirm they'll be heading to the
Dernings residence. So sometime after ten pm, the first unit
of the District three Police Department show up for a
wellness check based off of Maria's call to them out
(09:39):
of concern that something has happened to her friend. Now,
when they show up, they don't seem armed with that information.
They think it could be an elderly person living alone
or a sick person, and they meet with Justin at
this time. Some notable information from that initial conversation with
(09:59):
Justin with the two officers are that he tells them
that we know that Grace likely came home from school
at three pm. Grace is there when he gets up,
she tells him she hasn't seen Jessica.
Speaker 7 (10:13):
That's his statement. Yeah, right, when you walk up at four,
she's not there. He noticed that there was a pizza
maid and that she was wearing jeans and.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
A T shirt sometime prior to noon that day, before
he goes and takes a nap. He tells police that
he and Jessica sit down, they're having a conversation. They
talk over their bills, what they're going to have for dinner,
things like that, and then he goes and takes his nap.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, and lists.
Speaker 7 (10:38):
That's where we first find out that all these articles
a person would normally leave the house with were left behind.
Her ID, her phone, all her medications, her wallet, and
the car and car keys all there right.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
The officer admitted that the circumstances seemed suspicious, but it's
important to note that police never entered the home during
this first visit. The visit lasted about fifteen minutes, and
as the officers were leaving, they told Justin to expect
a call as they'd be sending out another unit to
do a missing person's report. That second unit arrived just
(11:19):
a couple hours later. It's past midnight, so we're in.
We're still in the same timeframe, but it is now
the next day before the next officers come to the
house and meet with Justin. It's about one am when
Officer Gatner and Officer Griffin arrive at Justin's house to
(11:40):
do the missing person report. He again meets them outside
and they go to the driveway side of the house
and they go inside this time, Yeah, they walk.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
Through the house as far as the open area when
you meet idiately entered from that side of the house.
They're seeing the living room in the kitchen at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And also at this point he lets them know that
his daughter Grace and father, Justin Sr. Are sleeping. He
offers to wake Grace up to talk to officers about Jessica,
but they tell him that's okay, she's got to sleep.
Justin gives his phone number to police. It is the
(12:27):
same phone number he gives at the first stop with police.
He reiterates all the things that she's left behind, which
is ID, phone, medication, wallet, car keys, and they ask
to see her ID that she has left behind, and
at that time he goes to the side of the
(12:49):
bed that is opposite of the officers at the far
end of the bedroom that they're standing in and seemingly
picks up Jessica's wallet from the floor. He brings it over,
pulls out her ID and we can see clearly in
the bodycam footage we obtained, you can clearly see that
it is a Louisiana State ID. The card is vertical,
(13:12):
unlike their driver's licenses, which are horizontal. We can't make
out all the details on it, but the officer does
comment that their last names are different, implying the card
reads Jessica Easterly rather than Darning. Then he starts telling
them the same information of timeline to these officers that
(13:35):
they had a conversation that he took a nap around
noon twelve thirty, woke up at four. However, he says
when he woke up around four, she was missing, but
he did notice that there was and he couldn't remember
what they're called.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
He was doing.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
He was showing with his hands, you know the pizza
things that they're frozen, you cook them, and they say
the pizza roles, and he said, yeah, there were pizza
roles when I woke up. So they continue speaking to him.
He shows them the Facebook messenger messages that he and
Maria shared on Jessica's Facebook page. He pulls out the
(14:14):
tablet shows the officer that conversation. He had told them
the last thing he saw her wearing was jeans and
a T shirt. She asks him, do you remember the
color of her T shirt? He tells her, I don't
remember the color of her T shirt because we were
laying in bed together. After the officers finished gathering information
(14:36):
and filling out their report, they returned to their cruiser.
Officer Gantner calls her superior, Detective Anthony Lunn, to voice
her concerns over Jessica's disappearance, and this essentially gets the
ball rolling on a missing person's investigation. So at about
one fifty three am, the second unit of officers, who've
(14:58):
now taken his missing person's rep for Jessica, leave his house.
Two days later, August seventeenth, twenty nineteen, is Jessica's forty
third birthday. Still no one has heard from her at
this point, eight days later from the time that she
went missing. August twenty second, twenty nineteen, her family is
(15:21):
in town and they're mapping out a search area within
the Lakeview neighborhood, which they hope to be able to
give to police. At twelve thirty four pm, her family,
her two sisters and her cousin discover Jessica's body in
an overgrown area about two and a half blocks from
her home. It's about a two minute drive from her residence.
(15:45):
She's found wearing a black tank top, black shorts, and
black shoes at thirteen hundred five hours or one oh
five pm. She's pronounced dead on the scene. So when
the family found Jessica, she was laying on her side
(16:06):
in an overgrown area just on the other side of
this overpass.
Speaker 7 (16:10):
And we also know from a source that was at
the scene who makes their living dealing with dead bodies,
she had liver mortis on the outside of her knee
that was the opposite knee of the knee that was
touching the ground.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
This would imply that Jessica died laying on one side
of her body, but was found on the opposite side,
which brings up an important question. Could she have been
moved to the spot sometime after her death? Just days later,
on August twenty fourth, twenty nineteen, the corner's autopsy report
would reveal other suspicious findings. In that corner's report, they
(16:52):
documented she had a broken nose, a broken jaw, a
post mortem broken sea four vertebrae, and a broken rib
post mortem.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
We also know from the toxicology report that was included
in the Corners report that they did tissue samples from
her liver and found measurable levels of methemphetamine, m fetamine,
while bututrin which is antidepressant, and ethanol or drinking alcohol.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And the reason they could only at this point test
her liver was because when her body was recovered, she
was in advanced decomposition stage. Then, on January fifteenth, twenty twenty,
the corner gave their ruling on the cause and manner
of Jessica's death undetermined, and then things go quiet for
(17:42):
a stretch. During this time, Audrey remains steadfast hounding the NPD,
hoping for any new information, when out of nowhere, she
gets a call from a couple in Jessica's Lakeview neighborhood.
March fifteenth, twenty twenty, nearly six months after Jessica's body
(18:03):
is recovered, a couple named Chuck and Margaret find Jessica's
ID in the area where her body was discovered. The
ID is also a Louisiana State identification card that is vertical,
(18:23):
not horizontal as a driver's license would be. It also
states her name as Jessica Easterly, her maiden name, and
this identification expires in twenty twenty three. The ID, when
they find it, appears to have been run over by
a lawnmower, so when they find it, it's crumpled and
(18:46):
a little torn, but completely legible. After police obtain the ID,
the family is left wondering its significance and how this
wasn't found until some seven months after Jessica's body was discovered.
But after some time, the family starts to feel like
(19:06):
this could be yet another dead end. That is until
they hear from another Lakeview neighbor, Jay Royce. October fifteenth,
twenty twenty. More than a year later, a man named
Jay Royce notices that Justin Derning on a neighborhood app
(19:29):
or someone using Justin's account and photo is posting about
neighborhood stuff. But in those posts that he's putting into
this neighborhood app, he's also posting his phone number. It
is the same phone number that over a year earlier,
(19:51):
the night he reported Jessica missing to police. It's the
same phone number that he gave to them. This brings
us to that text exchange between Jay Royce and an
unknown individual who he believed to be Justin. As you
heard in a previous episode, the text conversation got pretty
(20:12):
volatile and near the end of it, Jay makes some
strong accusations and this pretty much summarizes the timeline. But
after stitching together this immense timeline board, we look at
one of the final pinned index cards, Jay Royce text
October fifteenth, twenty twenty. There's been a lot of question
(20:35):
about who may have sent those texts to Jay Royce
and whether they are a critical piece of evidence that
could help solve Jessica's case or merely a random coincidence.
To this point, there's not been any clear answers provided
that we know of. These are important questions and their
answers have an expiration date. Todd remembers that the service
(20:59):
provides for the number in question only keep phone records
with historical location for two years. After that they are purged,
meaning authorities only have until October of twenty twenty two
to preserve the records before this evidence is gone forever,
along with any chance of ever identifying who sent those messages. So,
(21:23):
knowing Jessica's case had moved into the hands of the
DA's office, we decide it's time to reach out to
Jason Williams with an urgent recommendation. While we did not
record our conversation with the DA per his request, I
can share with you the context of it in very
general terms. Most of our conversation was, of course, centered
(21:45):
around those text messages from October of twenty twenty. Obviously,
these text messages are very concerning in nature, but they're
even more concerning when compared to Jessica's case and more specifically,
her death. Here's why. We know from the coroner's report
that Jessica received a broken nose and fractured jaw while
(22:08):
still alive. This could be indicative of injuries that would
occur from a fall in the bathroom, which is exactly
what the individual described in their text message. She had
liver mortis on the outside of her leg facing the sky,
indicating she died elsewhere and was later dumped in the
spot she was found. And in those text messages, when
(22:31):
the individual was asked how she ended up there, they
said they panicked and drove her there. Both of these
statements are consistent with crime scene and autopsy findings that
were not released to the public. Now, again, no matter
who sent these texts, this is considered circumstantial evidence, which
is fine, but in this case it also has potential
(22:54):
to lead to physical or direct evidence. If Jessica really
did fall in the bathroom, breaking her nose as a result,
and then laid their dead for an extended time, there
could still be blood present in whatever bathroom the incident
occurred in. There could also be blood in the individual's vehicle,
as they admitted to moving her body. But police would
(23:17):
need probable cause to obtain a search warrant, which means
they need to determine who sent those text messages through
historical records for that phone number. But for now, their
priority should be to simply preserve these records before they
are purged. That's why we refer the DA to an
expert who Todd knows personally in their area. Dealing with
(23:41):
service providers can be tricky. You have to know what
you're doing in this line of expertise, so it was
important that we referred someone we knew was properly qualified.
But about six months later Todd ran into that very
expert whom he had recommended to the D at a
conference he was attending. Unfortunately, when Todd asked him how
(24:06):
this case was going, he discovered that the DA never
contacted him. So in January of twenty twenty two, more
than a year since we spoke to the DA on
the phone, and five months after his press conference announcing
his cold case unit, we reached back out to him
to find out if there's been any movement on Jessica's case.
Speaker 8 (24:28):
You've reached Curtis Almo, the third Communications director of the
District Attorney's Office of New Orleans. Unfortunately, I'm away from that.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Since leaving a voicemail, we've yet to receive a callback.
Aware of the clock, we're up against what the text messages,
we reach out to the NPD to relay the same
information regarding phone records, now with even more urgency, hoping
maybe they will heed Todd's advice, just in case the
(24:57):
DA hadn't. We make a call to Lute Ernest Luster,
whom you may remember from a previous episode. This call
was on January twenty fifth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
Hi, Lieutenant Lester, this is Todd mccombus. Call on you back, Yes, yes, Hey, thanks.
First of all, thanks so much for taking time to
talk to me. So basically, we found something that we
feel like we have to pass on to you that
could be important to your case. So if you got
a second, maybe the ability to take some notes, I'll
pass it on to you real quick. Okay, So there
(25:33):
was a neighbor of Justin Deernes.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
He goes by Jay Royd.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
We go on to share the same recommendation with Lieutenant
Luster that we shared with DA Jason Williams regarding the
potential importance of the text messages and the urgent need
to preserve the records.
Speaker 9 (25:52):
Just to let you know, we've turned this active investigation
over to the DA's office, so they're looking into it
as well.
Speaker 7 (25:59):
Okay, well, this is information we did pass on to
the DA as well. Whenever we had to have our
meeting with them. I tried to get it to you first,
and I think you were on vacation or something. I
wasn't able to connect with you, so I had to
provide this to them during that meeting.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
Yeah, send it to me, because what I'll do is
I'll send it up to the digital forensics unit because
we do have one and see where because they have
the technology that I can track cell phone data and
locations and what towers. I'll ford this information to Digital
Forensic can see if they can help us out.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Lieutenant you're a good man. I appreciate you for your time.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
Thank you, and I listen. Send me your email addresses. Well,
I'll keep in the loop as to where we are
with it.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Hey, you're the man.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
For a long time, we waited patiently, checking in every
so often for any sort of update, hoping to get
confirmation the records from the phone that sent and received
those text messages had been analyzed properly, or at the
very least had been preserved. And then on January twenty fifth,
(27:02):
twenty twenty three, exactly one year to the date since
our last conversation with Lieutenant Luster, and just weeks before
this episode's release, Todd received a call from the NPD.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
So they said you had information on the case.
Speaker 10 (27:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (27:21):
What'd you say?
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Your name was detective one?
Speaker 8 (27:23):
Yeah, how you went in?
Speaker 10 (27:25):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So the call is from Detective Anthony Lunn. You might
remember us mentioning him earlier in the podcast. He was
the missing person's investigator who was initially assigned Jessica's case
back in twenty nineteen. We were surprised to learn that
he had some relevant information to share about her case.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
Was that about a neighbor receiving texts?
Speaker 10 (27:50):
It was, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I used to be
for the state police here, I was before I retired.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
I was in.
Speaker 10 (27:57):
The left surveillance units. I was like, oh, yeah, this
is a case like I would work all the time.
Speaker 8 (28:03):
But yeah, so we actually looked into that actually before
he sent us the info. Okay, it actually we didn't
get anything out of it. The phone's actually not to him, so.
Speaker 10 (28:14):
And so at that time, even it was subscribed to
you by someone else.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
Yeah, okay, yeah, we thought we had something and then
turns out it was something else. We did the phone
records request and there was everything came back.
Speaker 10 (28:32):
So you could tell by the people that phone was
communicating with that these weren't people in justin Dirty's life. Yeah,
like the whole profile, life analysis and all that.
Speaker 8 (28:42):
Yeah, so we we looked into We followed up with that.
I mean, I can't really give you much because I
mean it's an ongoing investigate.
Speaker 10 (28:50):
So okay, all right, so Babby, you can't say that
number that the neighbor tested, that that was given on
the Justin Durty mean profile and then next door app
that number was not in the possession of Justin Darning
on that day.
Speaker 8 (29:07):
I mean I can just say we did a follow
up on it, and I mean the case is still
open and we're still investigating.
Speaker 10 (29:14):
So okay, do you guys have it now or does the.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
DIA's office have I Can I ask you that.
Speaker 8 (29:21):
Right now? We both have it.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
I guess oh, you're just both kind of sharing duties
on it. Yeah, okay, well he's better than one, I
reckon that's the case. Okay, Well, I appreciate your time,
appreciate you calling me back. Are you still with missing
persons or are you in homicide now?
Speaker 8 (29:41):
No, I'm not. I just deal with the person crimes.
Speaker 10 (29:45):
Okay, And so does this Can I ask you if
this sets within missing persons now or yehu?
Speaker 8 (29:51):
Or I mean it's still it's still listen as an
unclassified death right, that's how it's being enough to me?
Speaker 10 (29:59):
Can I ask you what unit that means that it's
left with?
Speaker 8 (30:03):
I mean it's still with me and I guess DA's
office now, Okay, But if you get anything else, Just
give me a call and look into it, all.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Right, We'll take appreciate your call.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
To be honest, Todd was caught off guard by LUN's
call as well as what we learned from it. That's
because Lieutenant Luster told us the n OPD was no
longer officially investigating Jessica's case and had handed it over
to the DA. But now Detective Lun tells us that
both the n OPD and the DA's office are actively
(30:36):
working it, and that the NOPD did follow through and
look into the phone records, and we're able to confirm
that Justin was not the user of that phone number
at the time when those texts were sent. At the
end of the day, this call from one provided some
major updates in Jessica's case. The LUN's response is helpful
(30:57):
in trying to understand the origin of the messages. The
vague nature of it does leave a lot unanswered on
the technical side. Saying we looked into that does not
answer other important questions such as what type of records
they obtained, who analyzed them, and what type of analysis
(31:18):
was conducted. In other words, it doesn't tell us how
they reached their conclusion. And furthermore, who sent those text messages.
In discussing this with Todd and piggybacking off of his
original recommendation to the DA and Lieutenant Lester, we made
several attempts to follow up with Detective lun over the phone,
(31:41):
but we have yet to receive a call back. With that,
we shifted our focus back to the other agency we've
been told is working Jessica's case, the DA's office. Maybe
they can shed some more light on everything if they
are working the case. One of my questions to them
would be if they did their own analysis of those
(32:03):
phone records, as Todd recommended, among other things. The problem
is we don't know who at the DA's office is
working this case. That's something we've been trying to determine
for over a year now. Todd asked Detective Lawn via
text if he knew who the investigator was at the
DA's office, but he never received a reply, so we're
(32:26):
left to try and figure this out ourselves. We start
by visiting the DA's website. We see that he is
a page dedicated to the cold case unit supposedly overseeing
(32:47):
Jessica's case, with a phone number and the following promise.
The Cold Case Unit of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's
Office is charged with getting murderers off the streets and
bringing healing to families. So we call that number.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
Good afternoon, I'm going to help you.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Hi, May I speak to the District Attorney's Cold Case Unit.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
Okay, what do you call in regards to them?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'm calling about the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
Speaker 8 (33:18):
Okay, so they have your information.
Speaker 11 (33:21):
I remember speaking with you.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Just to clarify, I had called the DA before. This
was just the first time i'd called the front desk
asking specifically for the cold case unit.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
Is it justice for Jessica?
Speaker 10 (33:35):
Do you know that website?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I do know that website, but that is not I'm
the Audrey. She seems to think I'm Jessica's sister. Audrey.
I try to clarify, Well, I'm not fafiliated with that website.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I just know of it.
Speaker 10 (33:50):
Okay, Well, what's your relation to Jessica.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I am an investigative journalist. I'm working on a podcast
about her case, and I attended the press conference and
spoke to the District Attorney Jason Williams last year about
the cold Case Unit and her case, and I just
wanted to do a follow up to see where thinks.
Speaker 11 (34:10):
Okay, okay, so you're not a family member, no, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
All right, Well, let me give.
Speaker 11 (34:15):
You kindreds email address and you can email Jason's assistant
and they take it from here.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So, without any further information about the cold Case Unit
or Jessica's case, we take the woman's recommendation and reach
out via email to Kendrick, the DA's executive assistant. Well,
he's unable to set up a meeting for us with
the DA, stating that Jason Williams is in the middle
of prosecuting two murder trials. He does offer us two
(34:46):
investigators within the cold case Unit to call.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Hello, Hi, Naomi Jones.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
Yeah, Hi Naomi, this is Todd McComas and I'm calling
you about a specific case you may or may not
be assigned to. And that's the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
The what Jessica Easterly Darning case?
Speaker 11 (35:11):
I am not assigned to that?
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Okay?
Speaker 7 (35:14):
Are you currently assigned to the Cold Case Unit at
the DA's office.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yes, I'm in the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Unit, okay,
which just cold cases.
Speaker 7 (35:25):
Okay, but you are not assigned or working in any
way on Jessica Easterly Darning's death investigation.
Speaker 8 (35:32):
No, no, I am not.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Would you by chance know who is?
Speaker 8 (35:37):
I do not.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
Okay, you're just not familiar with the case at all.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I mean I've seen it in the news, but other
than that, No, no luck with the first detective. So
we try the other detective, he recommended.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Hi, can I speak with Mary Glass please?
Speaker 8 (35:55):
Gees actually not in yet, can't take a message.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Uh yeah, it'll be full.
Speaker 7 (36:00):
My name is Todd Macomas, and I had some questions
about your unit. Do you work within the same unit
I do? Okay?
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Is this I believe the DNA unit.
Speaker 8 (36:15):
No, we worked specifically on cold case sexual assaults.
Speaker 7 (36:19):
Okay, do you have a cold case homicide unit there
within the DA's office.
Speaker 11 (36:24):
I work in my little corner and I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
But let me give you so Kendrick's contacts for the
cold case unit weren't exactly helpful. But then we remember
that we do know of one other detective within the
DA's office, the one who was initially assigned Jessica's case
and who I met briefly at the DA's press conference
Detective Joe Lorenzo. Looking him up online, it appears as
(36:50):
though he may have left his position at the DA's
office and moved into real estate. Nonetheless, we're hopeful he
can provide some information as to where the case stood
when he left.
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Hi is this Joe? Yes, Hey Joe. My name is
Todd Macombus.
Speaker 7 (37:08):
I'm a retired detective with the Indiana State Police and
currently I work with Resonate Recordings that's doing the Jessica
Easterly Dirning case.
Speaker 8 (37:19):
I don't have anything to say, brother, thank you?
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Okay? Are you retired?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
So no help from the former investigator either. In a
moment of pure frustration, Todd tries the cold case phone
number listed on the District Attorney's website one more time,
and this time we seem to be getting somewhere. The
woman at the desk gives us contact information for the
DA's first assistant, Ned McGowan. We promptly make a call.
Speaker 11 (37:50):
Ned McGowan is not available at the moment. At the
tone record your message. To end your recording, press number
sign to reat operator PRIs zero. Hi.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Ed.
Speaker 7 (38:04):
My name is Todd Mcomas. I am currently working with
Resonate Recordings that is doing the podcast on the Jessica
Easterly Darning case. For months now, I've been trying to
just get a simple answer from someone at the DA's
office to answer the question, does the DA's office have
(38:25):
a cold case homicide unit? Is your office actually investigating
cold case homicides? Are members of your cold case homicide
unit actively working in the Jessica Easterly Durning case.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
It a'll need specifics.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
As of this episode's release, we have not been able
to confirm who at the DA's office is investigating Jessica's case,
or if there is even a detective assigned to investigating
homicides in their cold case unit. I also want to
point out that the family has not heard from anyone
in the DA's office since the press conference a year
(39:03):
and a half ago, despite numerous calls and in person
visits from Audrey. I find myself in familiar territory yet again,
with many questions and very few answers, the same place
that Jessica's family has become all too familiar with over
the years. As you know, DA Williams called that press
(39:26):
conference to address the thousands of unsolved homicides in New
Orleans and announced his intentions of establishing a dedicated cold
case unit, with Jessica as a proverbial poster child for
that endeavor. He also publicly announced for the first time
that her death would be investigated as a homicide, but
(39:51):
for now, the status of the investigation remains unknown. Despite
any recommendations we've given to the DA directly for Todd
and I, finding out who, if anyone, is investigating Jessica's
death has felt more challenging than discovering what happened to
her in the first place, And simply put, that's not okay.
(40:16):
Jessica's not just a case number. She's not just a
poster child for cold case unit initiatives. She was a
human being and she was loved. Jessica, like so many
of us, was a woman who was finding her way.
She wanted a family and a happily ever after, and
(40:37):
with so much of her life hidden away, it's hard
to say exactly what was happening behind the curtain. Jessica's
family entrusted Todd and I to tell her story with respect, empathy,
and compassion. Our goal was to do just that and
hopefully bring more awareness to her case, uncover truth about
(41:00):
her suspicious death and shed light on her investigation. But
along the way, we uncovered a systemic issue in the
city of New Orleans. Jessica's case is just one of
countless others that have gone unsolved by a system whose
main players don't seem to be on the same page.
(41:21):
On one hand, we have a coroner who has ruled
both her cause and manner of death as undetermined and
told us that their work is done until the INNOPDE
gives them more evidence to rule her manner of death
as anything else. On the other hand, we have the
person who supervises NOPD detectives tell us that they're not
(41:46):
allowed to investigate an undetermined death. And in addition to
all of this, we now have a detective telling us
that despite that classification, he is still actively working her
case until someone in authority reevaluates this process and takes
some sort of action. Questions surrounding Jessica's suspicious death remain
(42:09):
unanswered and her case remains undetermined. So where do we
go from here? Well, even if there is someone assigned
to investigate Jessica's case, as detective Law told us, why
not seek additional resources? We know there are other agencies who,
(42:31):
if invited in, could assist in the investigation. One such
agency is the Louisiana State Police's Bureau of Investigations, but
they can only join existing investigations upon request by local
law enforcement, an invitation if you will. And the person
who holds the reins of the New Orleans Police Department
(42:54):
is the superintendent and her superior is the Mayor of
New Orleans, who appoints the superintendent. So with that said,
here's what can be done. Mayor LaToya Cantrell can encourage
NPD's superintendent, Michelle Woodfork, to extend an invitation to the
(43:16):
Louisiana State Police to help investigate Jessica's case. We worked
with Jessica's sister Audrey to create a new petition on
change dot org asking the Mayor of New Orleans to
do just that. You can sign the petition at change
dot org slash justice the number four jess Or on
(43:39):
our website undeterminedpod dot com. I encourage you to read
the petition and consider signing it in hopes that Jessica's
case can get the help it needs so her family
can get a step closer to answers. Thank you to
all who participate, Thank you for listening. Undetermined is a
(44:30):
production of Resonate Recordings and Tenderfoot TV in conjunction with
Cadence thirteen, Written and hosted by me Jessica Nole and
produced by Dennis Cooper and Todd McComas, with additional production
by Whitney Bozart. Executive producers are Dennis Cooper, Mark Minnery,
(44:51):
Jacob Bozart, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Our senior producer
is John Street. Editing, mixing, mastering and sound design by
Caleb Melcher, Dayton Cole and Pat Kicklider of the Resonate
Recordings team. If you have a podcast or are looking
to start one, check us out at Resonate Recordings dot com.
(45:15):
Our theme song and original score is by Dirt Poor Robbins,
with additional scoring by Dayton Cole. Voice acting by Sabrina Sewert,
Whitney Bozart and Paul Frields. You can follow Undetermined Podcast
on Facebook and on Twitter at Undetermined Pod. Show notes
(45:35):
as well as bonus content can be found on our website,
undetermined pod dot com. If you enjoyed this episode, please
take time to subscribe, rate and review your feedback. Is
greatly appreciated and finally, if you have any information about
this case, call crime Stoppers at one eight seven seven
(45:58):
nine zero three seven eight sixty seven. The tone and
inflection used by voice actors is not contextually accurate and
is a matter of creative interpretation
Hey, listeners, Jessica here. Be sure to check out new
episodes of Undetermined every Tuesday for free wherever you get
your podcasts. For early and ad free listening, check out
Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts. The views and opinions expressed
in this podcast are solely those of the individuals interviewed
(00:24):
and participating in the show, and do not represent those
of Tenderfoot TV and Resonate recordings. All individuals described or
mentioned in the podcast should be considered innocent until found
guilty in a court of law. This podcast contains subject
matter such as violence and graphic descriptions, which may not
(00:45):
be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Through
all the twists and turns in the three years since
losing Jessica, the one thing her family has always managed
to cling.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
To is hope.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
For Audrey, all she needs is a small token from
Mother Nature to remind her she's not alone in all
of this. Dragonflies are often revered as a symbol of
transformation and rebirth. In some cultures, they're even believed to
symbolize a link between this world and the next. Audrey
(01:26):
tells me that the day she found her sister's body.
She remembers seeing a dragonfly right there in that overgrown
patch of land near the train tracks.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
If I'm standing right here, my sister was right there
where that blue cover was.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's how close I was to her.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
And I've just seen the most beautifulest blue dragonfly. I've
never seen a ballooon like that before.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Ever. Audrey didn't make much of it at the time.
It wasn't until one night after returning home to Mississippi
that it sank in. As she sat on her porch
that evening thinking about her sister, she heard a buzzing sound.
It was another dragonfly, and it didn't just pop in
(02:10):
for a visit. It stuck around for some time. It
was as if that little blue insect was trying to
communicate with her. Audrey felt it had to mean something,
and looking back on it now, she's even more convinced
because these run ins have become a regular occurrence.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
One time I woke up and I was crying and
there was literally twenty or thirty dragonflies in my ard.
They were nowhere else, they were just in my art.
And I don't know if that's just me holding on
to hope or whatever, but I mean, I believe that
that was my sister.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
For Audrey, the dragonflies are a reminder that her sister,
Jessica is always with her, she always has been. That
gives her hope and strength to keep fighting. Momentum had
now shifted in the family's favor. Jessica was finally laid
to rest, and her case had moved into the hands
(03:11):
of the Die's office, who were investigating it as a homicide.
Things were looking up.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Now it was.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Time to try and put Jessica's case to rest once
and for all. We don't know how long he saw
(03:58):
her before twelve thirty. They talked about bills, They talked
about this, They talked about that. Our time in New
Orleans has been quite the roller coaster. Days of phone calls, interviews,
and debriefs. We've learned a lot about Jessica's case its
own roller coaster of sorts, and at this point we
(04:18):
feel we've discovered most everything we can. Now it's time
we take a step back and examine all the pieces.
Sitting inside our fringe Quarter hotel room, Todd and I
start creating a timeline board on Jessica's case, starting from
January twenty nineteen, when that first message was sent to
(04:39):
Maria from Jessica saying she was scared. We grab the
biggest bulletin board we can find and prop it up
on an easel against the white brick wall with a
slew of brightly colored index cards and post its in
hand and a old black sharpeat. We get to work
(05:00):
about up pinning cards to the board for each and
every notable event, along with the corresponding date and time. Visually,
the timeline board helps Todd and I organize and connect
the dots, allowing us to really zero in on some
key points along the way based on the timeline. Here's
(05:21):
what we know, so let's start laying it out. So
we're going to start with January sixteenth, twenty nineteen, and
this is eight months before Jessica goes missing. That's the
day at three o'clock in the afternoon she texts her
(05:43):
friend Maria, and Maria is supposed to come and visit
and stay with her and Justin, and she texts her
and apologizes that she can't stay with her because they're fighting,
and she's.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Come hiding in the bathroom right now, So Justin doesn't
hear me. We've been fighting like fighting for the past
three days about everything. He's threatening to kick me out,
put me in jail. He's hit me.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
It's bad.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
He told me you guys can't come, or it's going
to be worse for me.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Lo.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I'm so sorry. I know it's last minute and I
feel awful. I don't know what to do. I can
recommend somewhere that's reasonable and nice, the Beyond Canal. We
stay there a lot, or we used to. Lo I'm scared.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And Lo is the nickname she uses for Maria. Right,
So then fast forward to August twelfth, twenty nineteen. This
day starts with an eleven oh seven am call from
Jessica to Maria, and she calls her and Maria misses
the call, and she does this through Facebook messenger. She
(06:54):
calls the second time, there's a three minute and eleven
second conversation. She calls a third time and there's a
fifty two second conversation, and then at two forty three
pm that same day, August twelfth, twenty nineteen, a Facebook
message from Jessica's Facebook messenger is sent to Maria. We
(07:15):
have no way of verifying who is sending any of
these messages. I want to make that clear, and she
essentially in that message on Facebook to Maria is asking
her to come and get her in that very moment,
and Maria can't come right then, so they actually make
(07:36):
plans for Maria to come the next morning and get Jessica.
And the last thing that Jessica says in those Facebook messengers.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Okay, just hang on. I don't know what's going to
happen when I get home.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And that is the last time that Maria ever heard
from Jessica. So moving into August thirteenth, the next day
to TWI I was in nineteen. That's the morning that
Maria had planned with Jessica to come and get her,
but Maria never hears from Jessica. The following day, August fourteenth,
(08:14):
twenty nineteen, Jessica's family and her friend Maria start calling
local shelters, hospitals, anywhere they think Jessica could be, but
have no luck finding her. It's not until nine pm
that night that Justin gets on Jessica's Facebook messenger and
(08:38):
sends a message to Maria asking if she knows where
Jessica is.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Is jess with you, Grace and I are worried. If so,
that's fine, We just don't know where she is and
Grace can't handle stress like this right now.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
No, she's not.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
When was the last time you spoke to her?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
About noon today? And she left everything here? Keys, car, money,
what about her phone here too? Fucking weird, worried She's
never done this. I have no idea, checked everything and
everyone I know.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Okay, Well, I'm sending the police over there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Maria does in fact call in a wellness check at
this time, and police confirm they'll be heading to the
Dernings residence. So sometime after ten pm, the first unit
of the District three Police Department show up for a
wellness check based off of Maria's call to them out
(09:39):
of concern that something has happened to her friend. Now,
when they show up, they don't seem armed with that information.
They think it could be an elderly person living alone
or a sick person, and they meet with Justin at
this time. Some notable information from that initial conversation with
(09:59):
Justin with the two officers are that he tells them
that we know that Grace likely came home from school
at three pm. Grace is there when he gets up,
she tells him she hasn't seen Jessica.
Speaker 7 (10:13):
That's his statement. Yeah, right, when you walk up at four,
she's not there. He noticed that there was a pizza
maid and that she was wearing jeans and.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
A T shirt sometime prior to noon that day, before
he goes and takes a nap. He tells police that
he and Jessica sit down, they're having a conversation. They
talk over their bills, what they're going to have for dinner,
things like that, and then he goes and takes his nap.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, and lists.
Speaker 7 (10:38):
That's where we first find out that all these articles
a person would normally leave the house with were left behind.
Her ID, her phone, all her medications, her wallet, and
the car and car keys all there right.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
The officer admitted that the circumstances seemed suspicious, but it's
important to note that police never entered the home during
this first visit. The visit lasted about fifteen minutes, and
as the officers were leaving, they told Justin to expect
a call as they'd be sending out another unit to
do a missing person's report. That second unit arrived just
(11:19):
a couple hours later. It's past midnight, so we're in.
We're still in the same timeframe, but it is now
the next day before the next officers come to the
house and meet with Justin. It's about one am when
Officer Gatner and Officer Griffin arrive at Justin's house to
(11:40):
do the missing person report. He again meets them outside
and they go to the driveway side of the house
and they go inside this time, Yeah, they walk.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
Through the house as far as the open area when
you meet idiately entered from that side of the house.
They're seeing the living room in the kitchen at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And also at this point he lets them know that
his daughter Grace and father, Justin Sr. Are sleeping. He
offers to wake Grace up to talk to officers about Jessica,
but they tell him that's okay, she's got to sleep.
Justin gives his phone number to police. It is the
(12:27):
same phone number he gives at the first stop with police.
He reiterates all the things that she's left behind, which
is ID, phone, medication, wallet, car keys, and they ask
to see her ID that she has left behind, and
at that time he goes to the side of the
(12:49):
bed that is opposite of the officers at the far
end of the bedroom that they're standing in and seemingly
picks up Jessica's wallet from the floor. He brings it over,
pulls out her ID and we can see clearly in
the bodycam footage we obtained, you can clearly see that
it is a Louisiana State ID. The card is vertical,
(13:12):
unlike their driver's licenses, which are horizontal. We can't make
out all the details on it, but the officer does
comment that their last names are different, implying the card
reads Jessica Easterly rather than Darning. Then he starts telling
them the same information of timeline to these officers that
(13:35):
they had a conversation that he took a nap around
noon twelve thirty, woke up at four. However, he says
when he woke up around four, she was missing, but
he did notice that there was and he couldn't remember
what they're called.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
He was doing.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
He was showing with his hands, you know the pizza
things that they're frozen, you cook them, and they say
the pizza roles, and he said, yeah, there were pizza
roles when I woke up. So they continue speaking to him.
He shows them the Facebook messenger messages that he and
Maria shared on Jessica's Facebook page. He pulls out the
(14:14):
tablet shows the officer that conversation. He had told them
the last thing he saw her wearing was jeans and
a T shirt. She asks him, do you remember the
color of her T shirt? He tells her, I don't
remember the color of her T shirt because we were
laying in bed together. After the officers finished gathering information
(14:36):
and filling out their report, they returned to their cruiser.
Officer Gantner calls her superior, Detective Anthony Lunn, to voice
her concerns over Jessica's disappearance, and this essentially gets the
ball rolling on a missing person's investigation. So at about
one fifty three am, the second unit of officers, who've
(14:58):
now taken his missing person's rep for Jessica, leave his house.
Two days later, August seventeenth, twenty nineteen, is Jessica's forty
third birthday. Still no one has heard from her at
this point, eight days later from the time that she
went missing. August twenty second, twenty nineteen, her family is
(15:21):
in town and they're mapping out a search area within
the Lakeview neighborhood, which they hope to be able to
give to police. At twelve thirty four pm, her family,
her two sisters and her cousin discover Jessica's body in
an overgrown area about two and a half blocks from
her home. It's about a two minute drive from her residence.
(15:45):
She's found wearing a black tank top, black shorts, and
black shoes at thirteen hundred five hours or one oh
five pm. She's pronounced dead on the scene. So when
the family found Jessica, she was laying on her side
(16:06):
in an overgrown area just on the other side of
this overpass.
Speaker 7 (16:10):
And we also know from a source that was at
the scene who makes their living dealing with dead bodies,
she had liver mortis on the outside of her knee
that was the opposite knee of the knee that was
touching the ground.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
This would imply that Jessica died laying on one side
of her body, but was found on the opposite side,
which brings up an important question. Could she have been
moved to the spot sometime after her death? Just days later,
on August twenty fourth, twenty nineteen, the corner's autopsy report
would reveal other suspicious findings. In that corner's report, they
(16:52):
documented she had a broken nose, a broken jaw, a
post mortem broken sea four vertebrae, and a broken rib
post mortem.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
We also know from the toxicology report that was included
in the Corners report that they did tissue samples from
her liver and found measurable levels of methemphetamine, m fetamine,
while bututrin which is antidepressant, and ethanol or drinking alcohol.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And the reason they could only at this point test
her liver was because when her body was recovered, she
was in advanced decomposition stage. Then, on January fifteenth, twenty twenty,
the corner gave their ruling on the cause and manner
of Jessica's death undetermined, and then things go quiet for
(17:42):
a stretch. During this time, Audrey remains steadfast hounding the NPD,
hoping for any new information, when out of nowhere, she
gets a call from a couple in Jessica's Lakeview neighborhood.
March fifteenth, twenty twenty, nearly six months after Jessica's body
(18:03):
is recovered, a couple named Chuck and Margaret find Jessica's
ID in the area where her body was discovered. The
ID is also a Louisiana State identification card that is vertical,
(18:23):
not horizontal as a driver's license would be. It also
states her name as Jessica Easterly, her maiden name, and
this identification expires in twenty twenty three. The ID, when
they find it, appears to have been run over by
a lawnmower, so when they find it, it's crumpled and
(18:46):
a little torn, but completely legible. After police obtain the ID,
the family is left wondering its significance and how this
wasn't found until some seven months after Jessica's body was discovered.
But after some time, the family starts to feel like
(19:06):
this could be yet another dead end. That is until
they hear from another Lakeview neighbor, Jay Royce. October fifteenth,
twenty twenty. More than a year later, a man named
Jay Royce notices that Justin Derning on a neighborhood app
(19:29):
or someone using Justin's account and photo is posting about
neighborhood stuff. But in those posts that he's putting into
this neighborhood app, he's also posting his phone number. It
is the same phone number that over a year earlier,
(19:51):
the night he reported Jessica missing to police. It's the
same phone number that he gave to them. This brings
us to that text exchange between Jay Royce and an
unknown individual who he believed to be Justin. As you
heard in a previous episode, the text conversation got pretty
(20:12):
volatile and near the end of it, Jay makes some
strong accusations and this pretty much summarizes the timeline. But
after stitching together this immense timeline board, we look at
one of the final pinned index cards, Jay Royce text
October fifteenth, twenty twenty. There's been a lot of question
(20:35):
about who may have sent those texts to Jay Royce
and whether they are a critical piece of evidence that
could help solve Jessica's case or merely a random coincidence.
To this point, there's not been any clear answers provided
that we know of. These are important questions and their
answers have an expiration date. Todd remembers that the service
(20:59):
provides for the number in question only keep phone records
with historical location for two years. After that they are purged,
meaning authorities only have until October of twenty twenty two
to preserve the records before this evidence is gone forever,
along with any chance of ever identifying who sent those messages. So,
(21:23):
knowing Jessica's case had moved into the hands of the
DA's office, we decide it's time to reach out to
Jason Williams with an urgent recommendation. While we did not
record our conversation with the DA per his request, I
can share with you the context of it in very
general terms. Most of our conversation was, of course, centered
(21:45):
around those text messages from October of twenty twenty. Obviously,
these text messages are very concerning in nature, but they're
even more concerning when compared to Jessica's case and more specifically,
her death. Here's why. We know from the coroner's report
that Jessica received a broken nose and fractured jaw while
(22:08):
still alive. This could be indicative of injuries that would
occur from a fall in the bathroom, which is exactly
what the individual described in their text message. She had
liver mortis on the outside of her leg facing the sky,
indicating she died elsewhere and was later dumped in the
spot she was found. And in those text messages, when
(22:31):
the individual was asked how she ended up there, they
said they panicked and drove her there. Both of these
statements are consistent with crime scene and autopsy findings that
were not released to the public. Now, again, no matter
who sent these texts, this is considered circumstantial evidence, which
is fine, but in this case it also has potential
(22:54):
to lead to physical or direct evidence. If Jessica really
did fall in the bathroom, breaking her nose as a result,
and then laid their dead for an extended time, there
could still be blood present in whatever bathroom the incident
occurred in. There could also be blood in the individual's vehicle,
as they admitted to moving her body. But police would
(23:17):
need probable cause to obtain a search warrant, which means
they need to determine who sent those text messages through
historical records for that phone number. But for now, their
priority should be to simply preserve these records before they
are purged. That's why we refer the DA to an
expert who Todd knows personally in their area. Dealing with
(23:41):
service providers can be tricky. You have to know what
you're doing in this line of expertise, so it was
important that we referred someone we knew was properly qualified.
But about six months later Todd ran into that very
expert whom he had recommended to the D at a
conference he was attending. Unfortunately, when Todd asked him how
(24:06):
this case was going, he discovered that the DA never
contacted him. So in January of twenty twenty two, more
than a year since we spoke to the DA on
the phone, and five months after his press conference announcing
his cold case unit, we reached back out to him
to find out if there's been any movement on Jessica's case.
Speaker 8 (24:28):
You've reached Curtis Almo, the third Communications director of the
District Attorney's Office of New Orleans. Unfortunately, I'm away from that.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Since leaving a voicemail, we've yet to receive a callback.
Aware of the clock, we're up against what the text messages,
we reach out to the NPD to relay the same
information regarding phone records, now with even more urgency, hoping
maybe they will heed Todd's advice, just in case the
(24:57):
DA hadn't. We make a call to Lute Ernest Luster,
whom you may remember from a previous episode. This call
was on January twenty fifth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
Hi, Lieutenant Lester, this is Todd mccombus. Call on you back, Yes, yes, Hey, thanks.
First of all, thanks so much for taking time to
talk to me. So basically, we found something that we
feel like we have to pass on to you that
could be important to your case. So if you got
a second, maybe the ability to take some notes, I'll
pass it on to you real quick. Okay, So there
(25:33):
was a neighbor of Justin Deernes.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
He goes by Jay Royd.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
We go on to share the same recommendation with Lieutenant
Luster that we shared with DA Jason Williams regarding the
potential importance of the text messages and the urgent need
to preserve the records.
Speaker 9 (25:52):
Just to let you know, we've turned this active investigation
over to the DA's office, so they're looking into it
as well.
Speaker 7 (25:59):
Okay, well, this is information we did pass on to
the DA as well. Whenever we had to have our
meeting with them. I tried to get it to you first,
and I think you were on vacation or something. I
wasn't able to connect with you, so I had to
provide this to them during that meeting.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
Yeah, send it to me, because what I'll do is
I'll send it up to the digital forensics unit because
we do have one and see where because they have
the technology that I can track cell phone data and
locations and what towers. I'll ford this information to Digital
Forensic can see if they can help us out.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Lieutenant you're a good man. I appreciate you for your time.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
Thank you, and I listen. Send me your email addresses. Well,
I'll keep in the loop as to where we are
with it.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Hey, you're the man.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
For a long time, we waited patiently, checking in every
so often for any sort of update, hoping to get
confirmation the records from the phone that sent and received
those text messages had been analyzed properly, or at the
very least had been preserved. And then on January twenty fifth,
(27:02):
twenty twenty three, exactly one year to the date since
our last conversation with Lieutenant Luster, and just weeks before
this episode's release, Todd received a call from the NPD.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
So they said you had information on the case.
Speaker 10 (27:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (27:21):
What'd you say?
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Your name was detective one?
Speaker 8 (27:23):
Yeah, how you went in?
Speaker 10 (27:25):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So the call is from Detective Anthony Lunn. You might
remember us mentioning him earlier in the podcast. He was
the missing person's investigator who was initially assigned Jessica's case
back in twenty nineteen. We were surprised to learn that
he had some relevant information to share about her case.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
Was that about a neighbor receiving texts?
Speaker 10 (27:50):
It was, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I used to be
for the state police here, I was before I retired.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
I was in.
Speaker 10 (27:57):
The left surveillance units. I was like, oh, yeah, this
is a case like I would work all the time.
Speaker 8 (28:03):
But yeah, so we actually looked into that actually before
he sent us the info. Okay, it actually we didn't
get anything out of it. The phone's actually not to him, so.
Speaker 10 (28:14):
And so at that time, even it was subscribed to
you by someone else.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
Yeah, okay, yeah, we thought we had something and then
turns out it was something else. We did the phone
records request and there was everything came back.
Speaker 10 (28:32):
So you could tell by the people that phone was
communicating with that these weren't people in justin Dirty's life. Yeah,
like the whole profile, life analysis and all that.
Speaker 8 (28:42):
Yeah, so we we looked into We followed up with that.
I mean, I can't really give you much because I
mean it's an ongoing investigate.
Speaker 10 (28:50):
So okay, all right, so Babby, you can't say that
number that the neighbor tested, that that was given on
the Justin Durty mean profile and then next door app
that number was not in the possession of Justin Darning
on that day.
Speaker 8 (29:07):
I mean I can just say we did a follow
up on it, and I mean the case is still
open and we're still investigating.
Speaker 10 (29:14):
So okay, do you guys have it now or does the.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
DIA's office have I Can I ask you that.
Speaker 8 (29:21):
Right now? We both have it.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
I guess oh, you're just both kind of sharing duties
on it. Yeah, okay, well he's better than one, I
reckon that's the case. Okay, Well, I appreciate your time,
appreciate you calling me back. Are you still with missing
persons or are you in homicide now?
Speaker 8 (29:41):
No, I'm not. I just deal with the person crimes.
Speaker 10 (29:45):
Okay, And so does this Can I ask you if
this sets within missing persons now or yehu?
Speaker 8 (29:51):
Or I mean it's still it's still listen as an
unclassified death right, that's how it's being enough to me?
Speaker 10 (29:59):
Can I ask you what unit that means that it's
left with?
Speaker 8 (30:03):
I mean it's still with me and I guess DA's
office now, Okay, But if you get anything else, Just
give me a call and look into it, all.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Right, We'll take appreciate your call.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
To be honest, Todd was caught off guard by LUN's
call as well as what we learned from it. That's
because Lieutenant Luster told us the n OPD was no
longer officially investigating Jessica's case and had handed it over
to the DA. But now Detective Lun tells us that
both the n OPD and the DA's office are actively
(30:36):
working it, and that the NOPD did follow through and
look into the phone records, and we're able to confirm
that Justin was not the user of that phone number
at the time when those texts were sent. At the
end of the day, this call from one provided some
major updates in Jessica's case. The LUN's response is helpful
(30:57):
in trying to understand the origin of the messages. The
vague nature of it does leave a lot unanswered on
the technical side. Saying we looked into that does not
answer other important questions such as what type of records
they obtained, who analyzed them, and what type of analysis
(31:18):
was conducted. In other words, it doesn't tell us how
they reached their conclusion. And furthermore, who sent those text messages.
In discussing this with Todd and piggybacking off of his
original recommendation to the DA and Lieutenant Lester, we made
several attempts to follow up with Detective lun over the phone,
(31:41):
but we have yet to receive a call back. With that,
we shifted our focus back to the other agency we've
been told is working Jessica's case, the DA's office. Maybe
they can shed some more light on everything if they
are working the case. One of my questions to them
would be if they did their own analysis of those
(32:03):
phone records, as Todd recommended, among other things. The problem
is we don't know who at the DA's office is
working this case. That's something we've been trying to determine
for over a year now. Todd asked Detective Lawn via
text if he knew who the investigator was at the
DA's office, but he never received a reply, so we're
(32:26):
left to try and figure this out ourselves. We start
by visiting the DA's website. We see that he is
a page dedicated to the cold case unit supposedly overseeing
(32:47):
Jessica's case, with a phone number and the following promise.
The Cold Case Unit of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's
Office is charged with getting murderers off the streets and
bringing healing to families. So we call that number.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
Good afternoon, I'm going to help you.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Hi, May I speak to the District Attorney's Cold Case Unit.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
Okay, what do you call in regards to them?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'm calling about the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
Speaker 8 (33:18):
Okay, so they have your information.
Speaker 11 (33:21):
I remember speaking with you.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Just to clarify, I had called the DA before. This
was just the first time i'd called the front desk
asking specifically for the cold case unit.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
Is it justice for Jessica?
Speaker 10 (33:35):
Do you know that website?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I do know that website, but that is not I'm
the Audrey. She seems to think I'm Jessica's sister. Audrey.
I try to clarify, Well, I'm not fafiliated with that website.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I just know of it.
Speaker 10 (33:50):
Okay, Well, what's your relation to Jessica.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I am an investigative journalist. I'm working on a podcast
about her case, and I attended the press conference and
spoke to the District Attorney Jason Williams last year about
the cold Case Unit and her case, and I just
wanted to do a follow up to see where thinks.
Speaker 11 (34:10):
Okay, okay, so you're not a family member, no, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
All right, Well, let me give.
Speaker 11 (34:15):
You kindreds email address and you can email Jason's assistant
and they take it from here.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So, without any further information about the cold Case Unit
or Jessica's case, we take the woman's recommendation and reach
out via email to Kendrick, the DA's executive assistant. Well,
he's unable to set up a meeting for us with
the DA, stating that Jason Williams is in the middle
of prosecuting two murder trials. He does offer us two
(34:46):
investigators within the cold case Unit to call.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Hello, Hi, Naomi Jones.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
Yeah, Hi Naomi, this is Todd McComas and I'm calling
you about a specific case you may or may not
be assigned to. And that's the Jessica Easterly Darning case.
The what Jessica Easterly Darning case?
Speaker 11 (35:11):
I am not assigned to that?
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Okay?
Speaker 7 (35:14):
Are you currently assigned to the Cold Case Unit at
the DA's office.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yes, I'm in the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Unit, okay,
which just cold cases.
Speaker 7 (35:25):
Okay, but you are not assigned or working in any
way on Jessica Easterly Darning's death investigation.
Speaker 8 (35:32):
No, no, I am not.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Would you by chance know who is?
Speaker 8 (35:37):
I do not.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
Okay, you're just not familiar with the case at all.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I mean I've seen it in the news, but other
than that, No, no luck with the first detective. So
we try the other detective, he recommended.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Hi, can I speak with Mary Glass please?
Speaker 8 (35:55):
Gees actually not in yet, can't take a message.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Uh yeah, it'll be full.
Speaker 7 (36:00):
My name is Todd Macomas, and I had some questions
about your unit. Do you work within the same unit
I do? Okay?
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Is this I believe the DNA unit.
Speaker 8 (36:15):
No, we worked specifically on cold case sexual assaults.
Speaker 7 (36:19):
Okay, do you have a cold case homicide unit there
within the DA's office.
Speaker 11 (36:24):
I work in my little corner and I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
But let me give you so Kendrick's contacts for the
cold case unit weren't exactly helpful. But then we remember
that we do know of one other detective within the
DA's office, the one who was initially assigned Jessica's case
and who I met briefly at the DA's press conference
Detective Joe Lorenzo. Looking him up online, it appears as
(36:50):
though he may have left his position at the DA's
office and moved into real estate. Nonetheless, we're hopeful he
can provide some information as to where the case stood
when he left.
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Hi is this Joe? Yes, Hey Joe. My name is
Todd Macombus.
Speaker 7 (37:08):
I'm a retired detective with the Indiana State Police and
currently I work with Resonate Recordings that's doing the Jessica
Easterly Dirning case.
Speaker 8 (37:19):
I don't have anything to say, brother, thank you?
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Okay? Are you retired?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
So no help from the former investigator either. In a
moment of pure frustration, Todd tries the cold case phone
number listed on the District Attorney's website one more time,
and this time we seem to be getting somewhere. The
woman at the desk gives us contact information for the
DA's first assistant, Ned McGowan. We promptly make a call.
Speaker 11 (37:50):
Ned McGowan is not available at the moment. At the
tone record your message. To end your recording, press number
sign to reat operator PRIs zero. Hi.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Ed.
Speaker 7 (38:04):
My name is Todd Mcomas. I am currently working with
Resonate Recordings that is doing the podcast on the Jessica
Easterly Darning case. For months now, I've been trying to
just get a simple answer from someone at the DA's
office to answer the question, does the DA's office have
(38:25):
a cold case homicide unit? Is your office actually investigating
cold case homicides? Are members of your cold case homicide
unit actively working in the Jessica Easterly Durning case.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
It a'll need specifics.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
As of this episode's release, we have not been able
to confirm who at the DA's office is investigating Jessica's case,
or if there is even a detective assigned to investigating
homicides in their cold case unit. I also want to
point out that the family has not heard from anyone
in the DA's office since the press conference a year
(39:03):
and a half ago, despite numerous calls and in person
visits from Audrey. I find myself in familiar territory yet again,
with many questions and very few answers, the same place
that Jessica's family has become all too familiar with over
the years. As you know, DA Williams called that press
(39:26):
conference to address the thousands of unsolved homicides in New
Orleans and announced his intentions of establishing a dedicated cold
case unit, with Jessica as a proverbial poster child for
that endeavor. He also publicly announced for the first time
that her death would be investigated as a homicide, but
(39:51):
for now, the status of the investigation remains unknown. Despite
any recommendations we've given to the DA directly for Todd
and I, finding out who, if anyone, is investigating Jessica's
death has felt more challenging than discovering what happened to
her in the first place, And simply put, that's not okay.
(40:16):
Jessica's not just a case number. She's not just a
poster child for cold case unit initiatives. She was a
human being and she was loved. Jessica, like so many
of us, was a woman who was finding her way.
She wanted a family and a happily ever after, and
(40:37):
with so much of her life hidden away, it's hard
to say exactly what was happening behind the curtain. Jessica's
family entrusted Todd and I to tell her story with respect, empathy,
and compassion. Our goal was to do just that and
hopefully bring more awareness to her case, uncover truth about
(41:00):
her suspicious death and shed light on her investigation. But
along the way, we uncovered a systemic issue in the
city of New Orleans. Jessica's case is just one of
countless others that have gone unsolved by a system whose
main players don't seem to be on the same page.
(41:21):
On one hand, we have a coroner who has ruled
both her cause and manner of death as undetermined and
told us that their work is done until the INNOPDE
gives them more evidence to rule her manner of death
as anything else. On the other hand, we have the
person who supervises NOPD detectives tell us that they're not
(41:46):
allowed to investigate an undetermined death. And in addition to
all of this, we now have a detective telling us
that despite that classification, he is still actively working her
case until someone in authority reevaluates this process and takes
some sort of action. Questions surrounding Jessica's suspicious death remain
(42:09):
unanswered and her case remains undetermined. So where do we
go from here? Well, even if there is someone assigned
to investigate Jessica's case, as detective Law told us, why
not seek additional resources? We know there are other agencies who,
(42:31):
if invited in, could assist in the investigation. One such
agency is the Louisiana State Police's Bureau of Investigations, but
they can only join existing investigations upon request by local
law enforcement, an invitation if you will. And the person
who holds the reins of the New Orleans Police Department
(42:54):
is the superintendent and her superior is the Mayor of
New Orleans, who appoints the superintendent. So with that said,
here's what can be done. Mayor LaToya Cantrell can encourage
NPD's superintendent, Michelle Woodfork, to extend an invitation to the
(43:16):
Louisiana State Police to help investigate Jessica's case. We worked
with Jessica's sister Audrey to create a new petition on
change dot org asking the Mayor of New Orleans to
do just that. You can sign the petition at change
dot org slash justice the number four jess Or on
(43:39):
our website undeterminedpod dot com. I encourage you to read
the petition and consider signing it in hopes that Jessica's
case can get the help it needs so her family
can get a step closer to answers. Thank you to
all who participate, Thank you for listening. Undetermined is a
(44:30):
production of Resonate Recordings and Tenderfoot TV in conjunction with
Cadence thirteen, Written and hosted by me Jessica Nole and
produced by Dennis Cooper and Todd McComas, with additional production
by Whitney Bozart. Executive producers are Dennis Cooper, Mark Minnery,
(44:51):
Jacob Bozart, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Our senior producer
is John Street. Editing, mixing, mastering and sound design by
Caleb Melcher, Dayton Cole and Pat Kicklider of the Resonate
Recordings team. If you have a podcast or are looking
to start one, check us out at Resonate Recordings dot com.
(45:15):
Our theme song and original score is by Dirt Poor Robbins,
with additional scoring by Dayton Cole. Voice acting by Sabrina Sewert,
Whitney Bozart and Paul Frields. You can follow Undetermined Podcast
on Facebook and on Twitter at Undetermined Pod. Show notes
(45:35):
as well as bonus content can be found on our website,
undetermined pod dot com. If you enjoyed this episode, please
take time to subscribe, rate and review your feedback. Is
greatly appreciated and finally, if you have any information about
this case, call crime Stoppers at one eight seven seven
(45:58):
nine zero three seven eight sixty seven. The tone and
inflection used by voice actors is not contextually accurate and
is a matter of creative interpretation
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