Crime Of Rage : Justice for Julianne

The daughter of Julianne Stallman speaks about her experience reaching every aveune she can to help find the killer of her mother. Follow up to Crime of Rage.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
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Montana Advocates dot com. I feellike they maybe did the best that they
could at the time, but eventhen their best wasn't good enough. I
don't feel like this case should havebeen unsolved for twenty eight years. A
daughter working with detectives for almost threedecades to find her mother's killer, And

(00:45):
if I'm the only one fighting toput it out there, that's a fight
that I'll continue to do. SoI'll continue to speak her name and pray
and hope that this case gets solved. This is crime of rage, justice
for Julianne. Welcome. I'm yourhost, Mattie Olson. I'm joining the

(01:11):
team this season to continue the goalof this podcast, sharing these cold cases
in the hopes of generating new informationin crimes and giving the victims and their
Families Justice. We have the sameteam working behind the scenes, so Montana
Murder Mystery should still sound the same, just a different host bring you the
case. So subscribe and come withus as we start our season eight premiere

(01:33):
of Montana Murder Mysteries. Today's caseis one that we have visited multiple times
on this podcast in the past.You may remember it as our fifth episode
ever published, Crime of Rage.We revisited it back in twenty twenty one
when we wanted to combine the originalepisode with our interview with Paul Holes and

(01:55):
the coverage that he did for Julianne'scase on his show The DNA of Murder.
For those of you unfamiliar with thiscase, Julianne was a woman living
in Butte in the nineteen nineties.She was a mother of two, and
in November of nineteen ninety four,she had her son living with her in
her home. Julianne was divorced fromher children's father and would occasionally go on

(02:19):
dates with various men. She workedat a local diner as a waitress and
also helped balance the financial records whereher son worked. On November twenty ninth,
nineteen ninety four, her son Johnreturned home from work to find the
lights were off, but the televisionwas on with the volume blasting, something
very abnormal for his mother. Whenhe stepped further into the house, he

(02:43):
found his mother murdered in the kitchen. To remind you of some of the
details of the case, here's aclip from the original episode. So John
showed up and she had been stabbedin the neck and chest repeatedly, and
the house was very bloody, whichwe'll talk about in a minute. So
he called nine one one and toldpolice that his mother was injured and probably

(03:07):
dead. When police arrived at thehouse, John was standing on the sidewalk
out in front of the house andthey asked him where his mom was.
The police asked him where his momwas, and he said, just go
in there and you'll see her.So the incident report that I looked over
pains a pretty grizzly scene. Whenpolice came inside the house, they found

(03:30):
blood on the carpeted dining room floor, there was blood smeared on the walls,
and then when they got into thekitchen they found Julianne's body. She
was laying on her back in themiddle of the kitchen floor. Her clothes
were completely saturated with blood. Therewere pools of blood throughout the kitchen,

(03:53):
and something that police noticed is thatthere were two cab knit doors that were
open, which her family told Ibelieve it was the Missouleian back when they
originally covered the case, that thiswas very unusual and that Julianne was very

(04:14):
neat and that she didn't leave thingsopen even when she was like cooking.
We highly recommend listening to Crimes ofRage to remember the full details of the
case, as we won't be diggingdeep into those details today. When we
originally covered this case on the podcast, we spoke to Misty Yeager, who
was the best friend of Julianne's daughterJennifer, asking her how the case has

(04:35):
impacted Julianne's family. Before Angela leftlast December, she passed a message from
Jennifer along to our editor Sidney Hansen. Jennifer wasn't able to talk during our
original episode since her mom's case wasstill being covered on the Oxygen Channel true
crime show The DNA of Murder withPaul Holes. She wanted to sit down

(04:57):
with us now, hoping to dowhat she could keep this case in the
public's mind. Why do you thinkit's so important, you know, for
you know, twenty eight years laterto still be talking about your mom's case
and still like trying to find peoplethat will get it out to the public
in the community, because she deservesit, My family deserves that. And

(05:21):
if I'm the only one fighting toput it out there, that's a fight
that I'll continue to do. SoI'll continue to speak her name and pray
and hope that this case gets solved. It's a solvable case. I mean,
we just played in the dirt andfloated down the river and went fishing

(05:45):
and went swimming in ponds and downcreeks, and you know just I mean,
my childhood was good. I can'tthink of a bad time. Jennifer
was born in Beauty and grew upabout thirty miles southwest wise River, Montana.
Literally my family, you know,my family out there was very close

(06:05):
to each other, and we justdid you camping and rendezvous all summer long,
and in the winter we went skiingand stummobiling. My mom was a
great mom. She was very present, were very active in our lives.
Growing up in rural Montana, Jenniferbecame very close with her family. She

(06:28):
has memories of her mother passing downher love for crafts to her, although
Jennifer didn't retain it as well asshe had hoped, and spending time at
her grandparents house. Since Julienne wasan active caretaker of her parents up until
her death in nineteen ninety four,her mother loved the holiday season. I
say it was a big deal fortheir family. Julienne could always be found

(06:49):
decorating the house, getting everything readyto have as much of their family over
to celebrate as they could. Wehad things, see me at my mom's
house that year. There was abunch of us there and we had a
great time. Holidays for my familywere always big and full of laughter and
fighting. I mean, he doesn'tfight a Thanksgiving. And you know,

(07:12):
we had a great day. Andwith her mother dying five days later,
no one knew at the time justhow special that day would be. And
I remember when I left that dayI was I said, dang it,
I didn't I didn't take a singlepicture today because I left my camera at
home. And I remember specifically mymom saying Christmas is just around the corner.

(07:33):
Sunday she put up all of herChristmas stuff. She decorated her entire
house, Her Christmas tree was up, all of her decorations. She went
crazy with Christmas. Sunday, Iwent down to her house because my Christmas
stuff was stored at her house,and so I went down and picked up
my Christmas stuff from her and sheand she was decorating, and I,

(07:57):
you know, I said what Ialways said when I left her, that
I left her and she loved me, and it was just a quick visit.
That's one of those things that Ithink everybody that loses somebody suddenly thinks
about is the last time, becauseit's one of those things, what you
you know, what would you havesaid, how long would you have helped
them? Things like that. Ithink about that a lot, but we

(08:18):
can't change that. You know,she loved me and I left her,
and I know that. In thetwenty eight years since her mother's murder,
Jennifer has done everything she can toensure that this case is solved. She
has worked closely with investigators, talkedto the press, appeared on podcasts,

(08:39):
and her mother's case was featured inthe DNA of Murder with Paul Holes.
Episode four featured this case and itwas due to Jennifer's efforts that the production
picked up her mother's story. Imean, I know, going into that,
I was very excited. I wasvery pumped. This was going to
be huge. This is the OxygenNetwork. I watched that network religiously.
Every single kind of crime show ison there, So I knew when we

(09:03):
got to go ahead in May oftwenty nineteen that thinks we're going to get
crazy. One of the biggest positivesthat came from the show is that the
investigation was able to find DNA onJulianne's clothing, shoes, and body that
match previous to the unknown male DNAfound, confirming that this was the connection

(09:24):
to her murderer. I was neverone hundred percent and certain that that necessarily
was the DNA of the killer.So and there were so many things that
had never been tested before. Evenat the Montana State Crime Lamp they found
that same unknown male DNA profile.So now we can pretty much say,
okay, that most likely is theoffender's profile. But as much as the

(09:46):
show helped, Jennifer also felt thatthe show might have hurt the investigation as
well. I mean, the showis great, it got the case out
there and that's what I wanted.I feel like they followed their own sort
of narrative. It's for entertainment purposes. She spoke about how she didn't like
the direction the producers went when portrayingher mother or the other people involved with

(10:09):
the investigation. But more than that, she worries that viewers won't reach out
because they will have already made uptheir minds on who committed the crimes.
I don't know that there was ahuge amount of tips that came from the
airing of that show. And Ithink that's because Paul Hows's interview with Brian
Skinner kind of didn't put him inthe best light. It put him in

(10:31):
an awful light, and so alot of people were like, yeah,
he didn't and that interview was justawful for him, and so a lot
of people, I think, we'relike, Okay, yeah, that's the
guy. That's the guy. Whatare you waiting for it? But Brian
Skinner, her mother's boyfriend at thetime of her death, had been tested
against the DNA profile that was foundand he wasn't a match. Twenty eight

(10:56):
people have been tested against that DNA, including Jennifer and her brother. In
addition, to Skinner, and despiteher issues with the production of the show,
the value of being able to confidentlycross people off the list based on
that DNA profile is invaluable to Jennifer. I really I felt really relieved because

(11:18):
for so long I had questioned thosetwo areas, and so I thought,
Okay, now we got it,this is it. I felt the most
hope that I had in a verylong time, thinking that finally will have
an answer. My brother called meand had told me that my mother had

(11:39):
died, and I didn't believe himat the time, and so I had
thought that she had maybe a thoughtof a car accident because it had snow
the day before, so it wassnowy and butte and he said, no,
I think she killed herself. AndI remember thinking that that was just
not possible. The days and weeksafter her mother's passing were a blur for

(12:01):
Jennifer to find out her mother hadbeen murdered in her own home, and
with no answers on who or why, left Jennifer feeling unsafe and scared.
She has now turned that uncertainty intothe passion in the fuel needed to continue
driving her and the investigators towards theidentity of her mother's killer. For the

(12:22):
last twenty eight years, I feellike it that I've been treated well for
the most part. I feel thatas the daughter of a woman that was
murdered, they've allowed me to bepart of the investigation. I cannot imagine

(12:43):
not being I guess as close asI am with the police department in a
sense, because there are some familiesthat don't get that. And although she
is grateful, Jennifer looks back atthe beginning of the investigation wondering if things
could have been handled differently, whatcould we have known? But it also
has come with great heartache and greatfrustration. And that is just because I

(13:09):
feel like they maybe did the bestthat they could at the time, but
even back then, their best wasn'tgood enough. I don't feel like this
case should have been unsolved for twentyeight years. I think that their lack
of how they handled the interviews withthe people that they spoke to very early
on was just fumbled. They fumbledthe ball on many many interviews. Those

(13:35):
interviews were very quick and short,with an answer from the person being interviewed,
with no follow up questions. Becauseyou're going to go ask people twenty
eight years later about what they didthat day. I don't know what I
did some days last week, letalone twenty eight years ago. I know
what I did that day, Butfor the average person, that's probably not

(13:58):
going to be the case. Workingon the case, Jennifer has exhausted every
avenue she's been able to dig up. She had a local investigator look at
the case when she moved, andeven brought her mom's case to the Montana
Department of Justice. Yet none ofthese solutions have brought any answers to the

(14:18):
case. And as for the Montanadij it only brought Jennifer issues and more
headaches. They gave my mom's casea Department of Justice case number, and
they didn't do a freaking thing withit. For three days, I sat
with somebody from the Department of Justice, and I assumed that by taking the
case on, they would have readthe case file before I even got there,

(14:41):
because I'm a thousand miles away andI had planned this trip to go
there. He didn't even read thecase. He knew nothing about the case
other than she was murdered and itwas a cold case and they were going
to figure it out or work itand around ten years later, Jennifer has
still not received updates from the MontanaDepartment of Justice. Despite still having a
case file. No one has reachedout with any form of update on what

(15:05):
is being done from their side ofthe investigation, and the DJ isn't the
only roadblock Jennifer has run into.Up until January of twenty twenty three,
Jennifer was told she was not allowedto have a critical piece of information regarding
the investigation. After looking into it, she found that missing piece on her

(15:26):
own, her mother's autopsy report.I did receive a copy of the oddop
scene in January. It was somethingthat I'd always been told no, that
I couldn't see that because it wasan unsolved case and it was an open
investigation, and I believed that thepolice department when they told me I couldn't
have that, and I went anddid some digging. I didn't have to
dig far, which was shocking tome. It was shocking to me that

(15:50):
I didn't have to dig far tofind what I've been searching for all these
years. And I was mad atmyself for trusting the police department own when
they told me no all those yearsthat I couldn't have it. Cause of
death multiple stab wounds to the chestand insize stab wounds of the neck.
Manner of death homicide. Julian diedwith six stab wounds and twenty seven slash

(16:12):
wounds across her body. The slashwounds were across the entire front of her
body, arms, and hands.The coroner found blunt forced trauma across the
top portion of her skull and bruisingalong her arms and knees. In the
autopsy, the coroner described the pathof one of the stab wounds as passing

(16:34):
through the skin. The instrument perforatedthe musculature of the floor of the mouth.
Two stab wounds hit her heart andanother her right lung. Jennifer hasn't
been able to bring herself to readthe full set of documents. She has
gotten through the first few pages,but cannot bring herself to read the full

(16:57):
report. It's simply two painful,But despite it bringing back the grief,
it also brought a new sense ofdetermination. I'll read it when I'm ready.
I don't know when that'll be.I read a little bit and that
was enough for me. It mademe angry, and it made me want
to fight a whole lot harder thanI've ever fought before, I think,
because how can a person slaughter anotherhuman being the way that my tiny,

(17:25):
hundred and twenty five pound mother wasslaughtered. Jennifer has worked closely with the
Butte silver Bow Sheriff's Office over thelast two decades. She has seen sheriff's
come and go, and her mother'scase passed off from replacement to replacement.
And I think that as the casegets turned over to a new investigator and
a new investigator, I always keephope because I'm like, Okay, this

(17:48):
is fresh eyes, this is neweyes, and a lot of times it
seems like those eyes don't make adifference and haven't made a difference. I
have been very involved in the investigationsince pretty early on. I wouldn't stay
the very early days, definitely not. Maybe. During our talk with Jennifer,
she explained the last few decades ofher working with the Yellowstone Sheriff's Office,

(18:14):
she always had her ups and downs, but it was the last update
that saw Jennifer have major issues withthe department. You know, I had
a conversation with the detect with AnthonyJuranic last year October. I think it
was, and it wasn't a greatphone call, you know. Detective Journick
had told Jennifer that he needed tocontact a third party by email in order

(18:34):
for the investigation to follow a leadthat they were going after at the time.
During the phone call in October,he admitted to Jennifer that he hadn't
sent the email yet, and Iwas frustrated, and I let him know
that I was frustrated, and thenhe became very, very frustrated with me.
And I think that that was thevery first time that I ever felt

(18:56):
like that I had been completely andutterly disrespected district guarded. There. There
was absolutely no respect or compassion forme and for my mom. That phone
call ended with both Jennifer and Detectivejourney heated, both having exchanged words.

(19:17):
Feeling that his actions were inappropriate.Jennifer attempted to contact the Sheriff of Silverbow
County. You know, I meanI left nine voicemails with Sheriff ed Lester
between eleven nine of last year inJanuary ninth of this year and not a
single callback. But he never calledback at all that once, like call

(19:37):
me back and tell me to gofly a kite, you know, just
call me back. That's all I'masking. That's all I've ever asked,
Like, don't ignore me, becauseI will never go away. Also in
January, there was hope for Jenniferand her family. A tip was received
on her mother's Facebook page. EarlyJanuary, I had a you know,

(20:00):
a very courageous person reach out tome with a name that had never been
brought up, and I was prettyhopeful. I was pretty excited about that
one, because again it was aname we never heard of, the reasons
why he possibly could have committed thecrime were there. I mean, it

(20:21):
felt good, it felt like maybethis is the one. But once the
DNA was tested against the sample ofthe killer, Detective Journey called. The
news was not what Jennifer had beenhoping for. His name came across my
phone, and I knew in myheart what he was going to tell me
because it was too soon for itto have been a match, and so,
you know, I just kind ofcalmed myself for a second, kind

(20:44):
of took my breath and answered thephone, and I knew right as soon
as I heard his voice that itwas an ounce. Although that tip didn't
lead to her mother's killer, Jenniferhas yet to give up trying to find
closure, a determination that has changedthe core of her life. This affects
everything that I have touched in thelast twenty eight years. This has changed

(21:06):
me, but this has had aprofound effect on the person that I have
become as a mother, as awife, as a friend, as everything.
You know, this has truly changedme as a human. She doesn't
feel that this is something that justaffects herself and her family. She knows
that the killer is still out there, potentially among the Beaute community. But

(21:30):
don't forget about the people in thecases that are unsolved, because this person
could very well be shopping next toyou in the grocery store and you don't
even know it. I mean,somebody's could be married to this person and
never even know that they did this. This person might have children and they
might not know that their parent isa murderer. You know, I can't

(21:51):
be the only one that still caresthat this case isn't solved. They live
in that community, it's their community. This murder happened in Montana in the
middle of the day. I don'tsee myself ever losing hope because, especially
with the way that the new investigatorytechnologies are being developed every single day.

(22:15):
I have no idea what Penny Gaskept me going except for a simple fact
that whoever did this needs to bepunished. You know, I'm kind of
praying, I guess, for adying declaration from somebody at some point,
and I'll be okay with that.I'll be okay if I get that.
Jennifer knows that discovering the killer's identitywon't answer every question, but she's okay

(22:37):
with that. The case will soonbe hitting three decades without definitive answers,
something she's aware can mean the guiltyparty may no longer even be alive,
but she also hopes that time ison her side. I cannot even imagine
that that somebody doesn't know what happenedand who did this besides the person that

(23:02):
did it, And so I justI feel like I just have always hung
on to the hope that over theyear's relationships change, people change, loyalties
change, and somebody is going tospill the beans. I feel like every
cold case deserves justice, and I'msure a lot of people feel like that,

(23:22):
and I think a lot of peoplebecome tired and they don't push as
hard as they originally did because itis hard and it's time consuming, and
it's bringing everything back up can justbreak a person. I think a lot
of people give up because they haveno other choice but to give up because
their doors are closed in their facesand they don't know where to turn and

(23:45):
they don't know what to do,and they don't have the support. I
feel like, if you don't havethe support, it's really hard to do
this alone. That is why Jenniferis thankful for her family, her daughters
and sons, even her grandchildren,for keeping her fighting for answers for her
mother. I am thankful for mychildren and my grandchildren and my friends and

(24:10):
family who have stayed by my side. I've not been very lovable at many
times in my life, and they'restill here. I've been getting on with
my life. I wake up everyday and I greet the son with gratitude.
I have a beautiful family, Ihave beautiful life. I do get
on with my life, and Ihave gotten on with my life. This
is part of my life, andthis will never not be part of my

(24:33):
life ever. And if I'm theonly one fighting to put it out there,
that's a fight that I'll continue todo so. I'll continue to speak
her name and pray and hope thatthis case gets solved. If you know
anything about the unsolved murder of JulianneStallman, contact Anthony Journick at the Butte
Silver Bow Sheriff's Department at four ohsix four nine seven one one four three.

(25:00):
You can also submit tips anonymously throughthe Facebook page Jennifer runs called Justice
for Julianne Stallman, Victim of Homicide. Jennifer also posts updates and thoughts regarding
the case regularly. Thank you forlistening to Montana Murder Mysteries. If there

(25:26):
is a case you would like meto cover, you can send me a
tip by emailing me at Mattie dotOlson at Nonstoplocal dot com, m Atti
dot O L s O N atNonstoplocal dot com, or our editor,
Sidney Hanson at Sydney dot Hanson atNonstoplocal dot com, syd N E Y

(25:52):
dot h A N s O Nat Nonstoplocal dot com. You can go
to them Montana Murder Mysteries webpage onour website Nonstoplocal dot Com or mobile app
NonStop Local. Just head to theMissoula tab, then select News and lastly
Montana Murder Mysteries. From there you'llfind a button to submit tips. You

(26:17):
can also find links to each podcast, as well as pictures, maps,
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(26:37):
it. Thank you to the Advocatesfor being the exclusive sponsor for Montana Murder
Mysteries. Montana Murder Mysteries is hostedby me Mattie Olsen and research written and
edited by Sidney Hansen. See youin few weeks.