Episode 7: Cornered

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now. Thank you. Last November, on a cool and clear night, a couple dozen people crowded into the St. Helen Senior Center for last-minute meeting. News about the sexual abuse scandal at the local high school that we told you about

an episode five was coming to light. Kids had walked out in protest. People had talked for generations about the culture of abuse at the school.

And finally, people had enough.

At the front of the room, Jennifer Massey stepped up to the microphone. I understand, and we understand, there are so many strong emotions and high intensity surrounding

“why we're here today, the reasons that it brought me.”

Jennifer put together this meeting with her friends from her group. Fuck around, find out, doing detective shit, or "fafods." They were the same people who ran the justice for Sarah's Uber page. Sarah's death and the St. Helen's high school abuse scandal weren't related. But the scandal does show how culture of secrecy has become normal in Columbia County.

And now, Jennifer Massey had put herself at the center of both situations. Jennifer wanted to offer a forum for people to vent their frustrations and fears. She invited some people to speak, including one person who got a huge round of applause. Thank you. Again, my name is Doug, I guess I've ever lost that now.

The TikTok influencer, Doug Weaver.

“He'd flown back home to Columbia County from Missouri, and people were treating him like”

a celebrity.

I've never seen any communities so unified and focused on making sure that what happened

in the past and what is happening now is not going to happen again. But not all of the speakers, Jennifer, introduced that night, were so well received. And audience members were quick to shout their criticisms. I'm proud to stay calm, I'm glad I'm here to make any judgments, I'm trying to tell you what it is.

Over night, Jennifer had gone from one of those people who shouts from the audience during a town meeting to someone trying to keep things calm. She was in a position of power. Just days before this town hall, Jennifer had won the election to become St. Helens Mayor.

She'd run on a platform of transparency and put the Sarah Zuber case at the center of her campaign. She wasn't even sworn in yet by the time of the town hall. One by one, as parents stepped to the microphone to share their stories, it became clear that

Jennifer wanted to offer her help, but it wasn't always received the way she thought it would

be. I'm angry because this didn't happen to my kid. This didn't happen to like decades of children, and that to me is saying to the community into the kids that they can tell us what to do and we're still not going to do it. That's all I just want my kid to be the last.

Don't have the answers, I don't but I promise you. She's gone from the leader of Columbia County's Greek chorus to the target of that Greek chorus. Back when she found in Fafauds, she put the "doing detective" shit, part of that name, the chorus in center, but now as mayor, the finding out part seemed to be creeping in on

her. She was the focus of a community who had a lot of questions about what exactly Jennifer meant when she talked about transparency. From Oregon Public Broadcasting, this is Hush, I'm Leah Sittilly. This is episode 7, Cornered.

On the morning of January 2nd, 2025, Jennifer Massey wore a black pant suit and her blonde hair pulled back in the tight bun.

Hey, big day for you.

“Yeah, I'm just super excited about this.”

Yeah.

And I brought, so we're back in Randy at the election party, we're back abroad this

picture down because I'm going to ask for it to be on the diocese when it's to the council immediately. So that's she's here to face it. In her hands, she held a photograph of Sarah Zuber in Wooden frame. In the picture, she's smiling in her red cap and gown.

Slowly, the room filled in. There was Jennifer's husband, Terry Massey, fresh off an all-night shift with the St. Helens police, several other police officers filed in. There were the folks from FAFODs, too. And Randy and Rebecca Zuber, Randy wore a sport coat with his usual logging supply company

had. Rebecca wore a long polka dot dress.

We're going to call this special session to border.

The day is Thursday, January 2nd and the time is 9.30 a.m. We're going to start off introducing. Do you have Judge Clark here? Do you want to just go ahead and begin?

“I think it looks like we have Mayor Electron from Massey.”

First. Good morning folks. I'm Judge Clarke. I've asked me to step in and wear some folks in, so I'm happy to do that. All right.

If I can have you raise your right hand. Okay. I, Jennifer Massey. I, Jennifer Massey.

We'll honestly and faithfully.

We'll honestly and faithfully perform the duties of Mayor. We'll perform the duties of Mayor. To the best of my ability and understanding. Best of my ability and understanding. During my term of office.

During my term of office. So help me, God. So help me, God. Thank you. And then I'll have you sign right here.

All right. Jennifer walked up to her seat in the middle of the council. And for a few seconds, she held the photo of Sarah Zuber up in front of her. So everyone could see. In the audience, Randy Zuber started to cry.

When her meeting was over, she posed for photos with the Zubers. Rebecca Smild, Randy looked pain from the field saying this happened to me. Amazing. Actually, you're saying any help we can get. And things seem to, the wheels of ball, this move so slow.

But now, maybe this is Massey says she has just in the back of her mind that maybe when things come up, we're just not going to bring this up or something forward. It will help. We're just, we're just, um, anything we're going to see big things with her. Yeah, definitely.

Anything that she is so highly intelligent and so motivated and, um, I'm just, yeah, I'm just, yeah, I'm just, this is the beginning, this is just the beginning, I know it. The Zubers told us they felt like Jennifer's election signaled a new day in Columbia County that something was bound to change in Sarah's case. But what exactly, they weren't sure.

Maybe it was just that the old guard was changing. The Zubers felt like Jennifer had done more for them than the sheriff or the detectives or the district attorney had. She'd forced all those people to look at what happened to Sarah again, to not let her be forgotten.

And now, she was mayor of the county's biggest city. That day when Jennifer was sworn in, the longtime mayor of St. Helens, Rick Scholl was out. But Rick Scholl isn't a quiet man, and he was about to get very, very loud about Jennifer Massey. And from an unknown studio in an unknown town in a radio station with no listeners, it's

“Brady and Tammy on odd Friday this morning, hi guys, what's going on?”

We got a big show today, one morning last winter after Jennifer became mayor, we arrived at the non-descript studio of K.O.H.I.A.M. to listen in on that week's episode of odd Friday. It's a bland looking building. Looks like it could be a dentist's office. The hosts of the show, Tammy Megra and Brady Preheim, are two of the most vocal members

of the Columbia County Greek chorus on just about every issue imaginable. We were there because that week's odd Friday guest was Rick Scholl, the longtime mayor of St. Helens. He'd lost the election to Jennifer Massey, though, not by a lot.

108 pages, 108 pages report on the place.

The report Scholl had in his hands was about law enforcement in Columbia County and he started reading sections of it on the air.

“Remember, Sheriff Brian Pixley told us that law enforcement agencies in the county are all so”

small and underfunded that kind of depend on collaboration to get anything done. We saw that in the initial investigation into Sarah Zuber's death, how officers from the Sheriff's office, Rainier, Skeppus, and St. Helens came to help. Let me sum up this report quickly. It's heavily redacted 100 and 8-page document that had to do with the chief of the St. Helens

Police Department, a man named Brian Greenway. Greenway had just resigned as chief of police in January. The city hired an outside investigator to look into Greenway after officers complained about him, and the report generated by the investigator was wild. It detailed many, many things.

Greenway, berating his officers, faking their physical fitness test results, and sending porn to employees. But he also did something that caught our attention. Something that made us wonder if Greenway's behavior affected the Zuber investigation. In the report, the investigator wrote that Greenway prevented his officers

from helping the Columbia County Sheriff's office, because he didn't like Sheriff Brian Pixley. It also seems that Greenway is willing to do this at the cost of public safety. I've just that right there that sets me the most. There's more. Greenway also seemed to be taking advantage of the idea that 24-hour police service would be ending in St. Helens. That story ran on the front page of the very last

Chronicle in Chief before it went out of business, and the issue came up in the final weeks

of the mayor's race. But this report was saying that was never certain. 24-hour police service

wasn't on the chopping block, but people thought it was, and it made Rick Scholl looked terrible.

“Live on the air, Scholl reacted to the report. That's why I asked for an unredactored report,”

and I still don't see why it's not unredacted. It shouldn't be. A ton of St. Helens police officers were interviewed for the Greenway report. All of their names were redacted, so no one knew for sure who had been interviewed. But Columbia County is small, and it was pretty obvious reading it that even without names, some of the people seemed very familiar. Like the one St. Helens officer who said he owned several

car care centers, and there was discussion about his wife, who posted on social media a lot. Rick Scholl said this was almost certainly Terry and Jennifer Massie. Police officers interviewed for the report said these two people, probably the Massies, seemingly colluded with Chief Greenway to make Scholl and Sheriff Pixley look bad. Terry Massie had run against Sheriff Pixley in 2022, and now Jennifer Massie was mayor. The

person who ran on a platform of transparency, who told us the first time we met, that if something is redacted, it means someone is hiding something. Now her name seemed like it was blacked out

in a city report. The bottom line is this. She tells people what I've watched online is to

not believe their eyes, what they read. That's not true. I had no part in this. I do nothing about this. That was complete. That's ludicrous. Yeah. We have tried all kinds of things to get an unredacted version of this report. Filed public records requests asked Jennifer to just give it to us, appealed to the district attorney. So far, the city the Jennifer now runs has been able to keep parts of it secret. The Greek chorus, which Scholl was now a part of, was fine with filling in the

blanks. So, when you're reading this, just remember, there's a lot more to these people that are behind here, but you don't know who they are because it's unredacted. Yeah, I mean, redacted. Yes,

“because the council decided that was the way to go, which I'm still just, yeah, I think it should be”

in. As the interview went on, the conversation turned back to the Sarah's Uber case. I look at, you know, the Sarah's Uber case, which, you know, I feel for that family and everything

I'm the same way with this girl. Yes, she announced her mayoral candidacy first on that site.

“Yeah, wasn't that that was pretty good. The sawed is crass and cynical. The Jennifer announced her”

run for mayor on the justice for Sarah's Uber page. My heart goes out to the Uber family. This is not, don't, don't, don't take this as I'm coming after you. No, there's just, there's just too much involvement. There's just too much air. You know, the fascinating thing, but, but if you happen to listen to this, don't believe your ears. No, because she'll tell you otherwise. After the show was over, Rick Shull sat down in the break room with us for an interview. On the table, the

reboxes of donuts. I asked you a why he ran for reelection when being mayor seemed to frustrate him so much. We were watching some meetings, you know, when you were still mayor, and it looked like, you know, sometimes you got pretty hot up there on the desk. I'm going to be mysterious, you know, what was behind that? Was there a moment when the job became, well, I mean, since we've been here today, we've been talking about scandal after scandal after drama. After drama, was there a moment

where things just turned for you and became less about the rewarding part and more about like the

“public pressure? Yes, yes. Definitely, well, I think it's just knowing and suspecting that there's”

a bunch of people that are undermining you, right? And he suspected it. He was referring to Jennifer and her friends. Shull said, when they started showing up at meetings, he knew something was up. So, that right there rubbed me the wrong way and how dare these people and what is your motive? Well, you know, at that time it didn't even make sense. What is your motive? Does it make more sense to you now? Oh, come, we have had an excellent sense now because there were wanting power.

Why would one family want to be a sheriff and then switch to being a mayor? The 108-page Greenway report answered his question. One supervisor said chief Greenway, quote, "hated pixly with a burning passion," and, quote, "and hand tapped Terry Massey to run for sheriff." Even crazier, that supervisor said Greenway specifically wanted Terry to have Jennifer send anonymous emails to the city council that would make sure look bad. He said asking her to do such a thing

would be, quote, "disgustingly unethical." One officer said Greenway pulled St. Helen's out of helping on any major crimes because he hated pixly. Greenway allegedly said he wasn't going to send any officers out to help people who didn't pay city taxes. And if that's true, that would have included the zubers.

We could see in the investigative files that in the first days after Sarah died,

a St. Helen's officer did interview Rebecca Zuber, but then was off the case. This drama was all going on as Sarah Zuber's death was being investigated. Jennifer's main beef with the investigation into Sarah's death was that she thought the sheriff's office, led by pixly, could have done a better job. But this report made it look like Jennifer was in cohoots with a chief who might have been fine with actively inhibiting investigations

like Sarah's. Greenway was looped in with the major crimes team when Sarah died. What might have happened in the investigation if St. Helen's PD, the most well-resourced department in the county, had been helping the sheriff's office since day one.

We might never know the extent the Greenway hampered policing in the county. He quit as chief,

while we were working on this series and didn't respond to a request for comment. But Rick Schull said he thinks Greenway had a big influence. He said as mayor, he should have been the first person to hear St. Helen's might not have 24/7 police service. Instead, you heard about an on Facebook from Jennifer Massey.

“So she announced it on this transparency page, and all of a sudden I'm like, what the heck is this?”

So what does it say? It says St. Helen's will no longer have 24/7. Yeah, get ready. St. Helen citizens, no 24 hour service coming soon. And you as the mayor of St. Helen's did not do that. Did not know that the entire council didn't know. I was very upset. This investigative report made the 24/7 policing scandal.

And Schull believes Jennifer was involved.

I'm not going to go out of my way to try to cook up this heat generative, but I know it doesn't read right. It doesn't sound right. It's not right. If it looks like a duck, wax like a duck, it's a duck. She's right. Tanya. When we sat down with Sheriff Brian Pixley, we talked to him about the Greenway report. So there was a essentially conflict arose between the Chief of Police for St. Helen at the time and myself. They launched a policy that says they

wouldn't have no longer going to assist outside agencies. And that spurred the conflict. And Chief Greenway has since left. But that policy affected during this case. I believe it was like 2021 when the policy was enacted.

“And this is like unprecedented, right? Because what you're telling me is that like the only way”

everybody survives out here is by helping each other. And so Greenway just said we're not helping it. Yeah, we're out. Why? I don't know. So after he launched the policy, I tried to get a hold of him, but I couldn't. So I actually went to the then mayor, who's Mayor Rick Shoal. And I said, look, Rick, I don't expect you to change anything, but I can't get hold of Brian, Greenway. And this policy will kill someone or will get someone hurt. And we need to figure out

how to move past this. And Greenway saw that as me kind of going quote, I'm quote going over his head. And we didn't talk literally from then until probably mid last year. So do you think that bad blood at all led to confusion in this investigation or or maybe a subpar investigation? No, absolutely not.

“An officer from St. Helens PD did help the day Sarah died, but then was off the case.”

And Pixley claims the Greenway thing didn't get in the way of the investigation. Most officers we have spoken to said they didn't believe the dysfunction among the two largest police agencies in the county affected what happened. But given the findings of the 108-page

report, it was hard to believe. When we first met Jennifer, she seemed like someone who wanted

to use the tools of a true crime investigation to help the zubers. She drummed up pressure on the police and gave leads that her group found to the detectives. She became mayor by taking on what she called the good old boys club. But maybe in this game of power in Columbia County, Jennifer had been holding more of the cards than we realized this entire time. Federal funding for Public Media has been eliminated. That means KMHD is entirely community-funded

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member with your ongoing monthly contribution now. Thank you. Parsing what was real and what wasn't in the Sarah Zuber case was really difficult. And Parsing what was real and what wasn't about Jennifer was also difficult.

Her keyboard worrying on Facebook was how I first heard about the Zuber case. She'd been

forthcoming with us in our interviews, eager, and ready to answer just about any question we had. She sent us thousands of records she found and she seemed to feel very deeply for the zubers. There was little doubt she was trying to help. But she'd also come up with this theory around a hidden run. She was suspicious of Nick that he'd been driving drunk down Sarah's road that night and hit her. But that theory didn't seem to hold up. And now there was this green

way report which seemed to suggest that Jennifer was cozy enough with the former police chief that some people considered her part of the good old boy's club of Columbia County. We had arranged to sit down with Terry and Jennifer Massey in the afternoon after we visited the radio station. We wanted to ask Jennifer specifically which she had to say in response to the claims that she'd used the zubers for her own political benefit. And we wanted to ask Terry if Greenway

had explicitly asked him to run for Sheriff against Brian Pixley. Jennifer sent us an address for our meeting. It was a marina on the Columbia River and when she arrived we followed her

See her? Oh, our flag, the windstorm. Oh, yep. Yeah, so this is one and then we have another one

down there. But we did the deck and the stuff is kind of fun. But we have parties down there. I can imagine that would be good to see. See parties? The houseboat was decorated up with American Flag themed decor. There were metal cutouts of AR-15's hanging on the walls. Jennifer showed us the kegerator, the full bar, the view looking out over the river were kayakers paddled by. I actually had a hungry or more people in here just listening to that side. Oh, she pointed

to the big door off in the corner. That's the gunsafe that almost took out the dunk.

“Yeah. How many guns did you fit in that? Oh, like 80. I think we have six of them.”

I'm work-electers also. 80. They only have six. You've got a long line of room different.

Yeah. No, no. We have six of those. Oh, six. That are completely full. Got you. Got you. Investment. Yeah, I'm not a math person, but what's the math thing? Two in a row. No. Well, that's like four in a row. It's not even close to what we have, but we actually collect them. We just we collect them like older like Tommy guns or like something that I like and just like history, like when Terry arrived, we all settled down on a couch. Did Greenway

directly tap? I have to run against Pixley. No. Okay. No. He was, it was officers. They, no. Greenway had no idea till I asked. I, I didn't want to just put my name in a hat without talking to him as the chief of police. So I talked to him and I talked to Hogue. I talked to all those guys. I talked to my sergeants. I talked to the whole management team before I ran. It seemed like he had

“problems with Pixley. Like he didn't lift that issues. Yeah. Did you get along with Greenway?”

I didn't work with him on a day-to-day basis, but I didn't really, I mean, I don't have any major problems with the guy. Yeah. Terry said he decided to run for Sheriff because other officers asked him to that it had nothing to do with Greenway. I mean, do you think either of you received any political benefit from making it? I think I could of. I, we specific ly didn't involve the super case in my campaign. And Randy and Rebecca, they both said they said we

don't want a campaign one or, you know, on our daughter's name. And so we specifically said like, I didn't, I didn't do anything with that during my campaign. Yeah. So, and I think honestly, I could have really drove that home and used it to my advantage, but I, as well, I wanted, I didn't want people to vote for me because of a case. I wanted people to vote for me because the overall direction of county and law enforcement at the time.

Terry Massey did not mention Sarah as a part of his political campaign. That is true. He said that would have been against the Zubers wishes, even if it could have helped him.

“Jennifer, how did different answer? My answer is yes. I think it helped me politically.”

I do. I think that the people I had already, we had 2400 peopleish on Sarah's page. I think my name got out there and they already knew me from the work that I was doing on Sarah's case. So, I think I became more known because I wasn't really like, you know, I didn't have social media in dealing with his campaign, but I think that I made my own way on that. And as I sit today, I'm extremely proud of it and I talk about it again because I think that other people

should step up when things are uncomfortable and hard to talk about and defend other people in our community. Jennifer isn't shy about the ways she believes she helped the Zubers, even if her critics in the Greek chorus now blaster for it. But why put the Zuber case at the center of the campaign when it, you know, didn't actually have to do with the St. Helen's Mayor position? It came up the fact that I think for me it was demonstrating my commitment and my follow-through,

even though I was up against challenges, I was being attacked, I was having to deal with a sheriff

in a DA and that I can look at community needs and I can be selfless and put them first.

So, I'm extremely proud of the work that I've done with Sarah's case. We're not done, but I think that that's a testament to my civic engagement and my dedication on follow-through. So you, you know, ran on a platform of transparency, we've talked to you about that. So why vote to redact your own name from the online language? So if you go back and if you find that I am saying this in air, please correct me.

I said the officer's names. If you go back to that council meeting when we decided that and I'm talking

officer's name. Think give a shit about my name. I don't care about my name. In fact, I would have

preferred mine, but that was not part of any reduction that I thought was going to be there. I thought it was strictly going to be for just the officers. Jennifer was saying she didn't vote to redact her name from the report, but in the end, it's still blanked out just out of the public's view.

“Why did the lawyers find a redact? I mean, these are all public employees. Why are we saving their names?”

So I think that there was a part of it on her chat just trying to protect them as much as possible the people that were stepping out there. We asked Jennifer about how well she knew Chief Greenway

and she told us she could only recall texting him once about 24-hour coverage and whether it was

going away. And as for the allegation that she was sending anonymous emails on his behalf, she said that was ridiculous and her nonprofit had even hired someone to try to trace the sender, but came up with nothing. I have to say in the time that we've known you, you know, your role here has really changed. You've gone from being like you say this person who's like blunt and factual and puts things up front and confronts people. And now, you know, you're in the position where you have

“to think about the reputation of your officers and the their, you know, employment. So I think so”

this kind of goes into the kind of love is conversation. It goes into that clarifying confusion,

memo so we can get the facts out there. This I think was a very for me an awkward situation because I didn't request this investigation. The whole time that this investigation was going on, the mayor made it very clear that this was supposed to be some a massy collusion with the chief of police for 24-hour coverage. And so I really felt like coming into it and not knowing what was going on also learning what was in that report. I felt really uncomfortable with the whole thing

and I really wanted to try to like minimize really my, I felt like that happened way before me and I just felt like I didn't want to say anything because I felt like it should take its course because I didn't want to interject really much of anything into it because I felt like that would be worse on what the accusations were. I didn't want to steer it. I didn't ask about the investigation. Jennifer Massey's role in Sarah's Uber's case is complicated to put it mildly.

It's undeniable she created the pressure that has kept her name on people's lips in Columbia County. She's the reason you're listening to this podcast. But she's also very invested in a hidden run theory that isn't supported by Sarah's physical injuries. So that body cam footage and then the audio from the grandmother that was in there. And so that put us on the rabbit trail of him looking at then looking at baby mama looking at him, where he's at, where he was living, plus he also had

“I believe a couple of hidden runs. Okay. How close do you think you are here to? I'm very close.”

I'm hoping that the detectives dealing with it are. I feel like we've got to be, feel like we're closer than we ever have then. Still, she doesn't deny all this pressure on the local police politically benefited her. At the same time after she became mayor, she donated thousands of dollars to a scholarship fund the Zubers set up in Sarah's name. How much the politics of it all matters depends on who you talk to. It seemed to us that the people whose

opinions should matter the most are the Zubers. The Zubers are ever going to have an answer for what happened to Sarah. I think that the Zubers are going to at some point have a better understanding of what happened, whether it is found out that she was, unfortunately, something like a hit run, or that somebody can discuss with them and provide them logical and rational explanations from a most scientific and medical expectation as possible of how this possibly could happen if it's

not it. Somebody that can actually explain how she could die of ethanol and hypothermia in the current conditions. Nobody has ever afforded them the opportunity and as a mother, I can't imagine sitting there saying these puzzle pieces don't fit and this doesn't make sense and I'm just supposed to accept it, but nobody will give me the time of day to tell me how you would render that opinion.

trying to find answers and it's very hard and I feel like you've done the same thing and how

does it make you feel if you can't provide those answers? So it makes me motivated and I really

“honestly believe that I have Sarah's presence with me a lot. Like I just gotten a priest to be”

a car accident where my car was totaled on Gabriel Road and I was banged up and I walked out of it and I just feel like a lot of times when things get right contentious. I just feel like I have this blanket. I don't know this girl. I have her picture up on the diocese to remind me of good make good decisions and I would hope that when if there was ever a time that there's an unfortunate situation that I felt like I no longer had strength to fight because I'd been so weakened and

despair that there would be somebody who'd come alongside me and said, "gatch it and we're going to continue to go into to see if we can make you whole or as whole as possible." But I think that's what is difficult for me personally is Randy and Rebecca extremely understanding and kind people and you want to help them and yeah I mean I'm not, I mean maybe I don't have as much faith as you that we're going to, but it's the thing we've wondered is like what is it's so clear to me that

everyone we've looked at in this case believes that they were helping in some way, you know even oxyrs like we got to get these people in the answer and you know the counting sheriff's office thinks that they're doing a good job and you know every single person who waved a sign and you know was showing the zippers like we want to help you and it's you know on one regard it's so heartwarming to know that there's a community that like truly cares for this family and yet I'm not sure

“the needle has moved and and I wonder so what then does justice look like for Sarah?”

That's a heavy question. I do feel like the needle has moved. I do. I feel like that it has moved because I think it brings more awareness and I think that we've had other incidents that have happened within the county that I think were handled differently there was another hit so in summary Jennifer Massey says Sarah's case scored her political points on her way to becoming mayor

but that her motivations and tactics were basically above board. She says she didn't send anonymous

emails to the city council about losing 24/7 policing and her husband Terry says that he wasn't handpicked by Greenway to challenge Brian Pixley and run for sheriff but then months after this conversation with Jennifer the city of St. Helen's finally agreed to send us a partially

“unredacted version of the Greenway report showing Terry and Jennifer Massey's names and it”

contradicted a lot of what Jennifer told us. The report said Greenway did tap Terry to run for sheriff. It said Jennifer had reached out to Greenway warning him that officers in the union were becoming concerned with his behavior and officers in the report said Jennifer might have been the person sending anonymous emails on Greenway's behalf. We also learned there was an entire supplemental report all about Jennifer and what role she might have played in this drama but

the city denied all of our requests to see it. The Oregon Department of Justice took a preliminary look at Jennifer's connection to Greenway after one of her political rivals filed a complaint. Attorneys for Oregon decided there was circumstantial evidence Jennifer and Greenway

had talked about the 24/7 policing issue but ultimately they're likely wasn't a crime.

So who do you believe? The Massey say the report can't be trusted. Should all these officers who spoke candidly about Greenway they tell a story where the Massey's are pulling more strings in Columbia County than they claim. But when it comes to the Zubers, Jennifer promised Randy and Rebecca that she cared. She was donating her stipend as a mayor about $1,500 a month to a scholarship fund in Sarah's name. She had promised the Zubers

that come hell or high water she'd get everyone in this county to care and she thinks she made good on that promise. After we talked to Jennifer we sat down with Randy and Rebecca Zuber again and we asked them about criticisms we had heard about Jennifer. The Zubers aren't on Facebook so they don't see the

is having a full and thorough investigation you know that's their job okay and so then Jennifer Massey

“that's what she did I think is that she brought to light the idea that these victims deserve a”

full and thorough investigation that's whoever the investigators job to do that and so I think that's what she did was she brought that to light and so I don't have a problem if she benefited. I'm pretty

sure that she never thought of running for mayor until all of this happened with Sarah. I mean I

understand people will be like oh she did it just for that she doesn't care about you but I don't believe that we don't give a crap about politics we don't care because that is so freaking wrong and that's so rude. The Zubers are happy with what Jennifer Massey has done for them no matter what anyone says she made people pay attention she made us pay attention and maybe that's the job of the Greek chorus to be the beating heart of a place and keep the story focused on what the community thinks is

important. At the same time Jennifer said she wanted to get facts but no matter how much attention she drummed up about Sarah's Uber it seems no one is any closer to knowing what really happened.

Jennifer became powerful within our community by telling a story that Columbia County is a place

filled with corruption and that she was the person to fix it and she kept telling us that she believed Nick the guy in prison for beating his kid with a record of driving drunk hits Sarah with his car and drove way. So many decades of true crime has pulled a kind of trick on all of us it's convinced us that a messy truth isn't enough we want to know who did it how and why everything else just

“feels like a distraction that's why Truman Capote tucked away in convenient details and made up quotes”

when he wrote "In Cold Blood" he was papering over the parts of the case that didn't serve as

story. Maybe the main thing true crime prioritizes over the truth is an ending.

One day we pulled over in a parking lot in Columbia County we were frustrated because if we couldn't solve what happened to Sarah what were we really doing here. I think us peeling back how unreliable this information is naturally raises the question of like about Jennifer right it's like Jennifer is hot to try out on this guy we've like done the like work on this hit run theory and it's thinner than ever yeah and so it's like okay well who is she then why is she like so insistent

that this is the case do you think do you have any worries that there is a effort on her part to serve up a very own desirable person beats beats up kids beats up toddlers drum drives like crazy you know is terrible driver dangerous person by all means do you do you know any fears that it's so much let me just serve up this person that is a danger in our community maybe but I she's not presumably forcing

informants to say his name you know what I mean like I think she's just like Caesar convenient person and it's like bam we did it everybody you know mission accomplished George Bush banner as opposed to like us being like show me the proof this is like there is no circle like it's like you either have it or you don't

“happen and we don't have so so actually true crime is the truth is the truth about solving”

crimes is you either have actual information or you do not have actual information and the rest is all just storytelling right love I mean yeah I think to what you were saying before like I am afraid you and I have bought into this because we know how great a good true crime show could be you solve a case a family is given a solution and justice is served that feels good but like

with uh like retired guy not okay not doors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so one satisfying

what can the ending be though it doesn't have to okay so we can't solve the case so what's the ending that works one thing we've come down on is that the job of a journalist is sense-making it's organizing facts in a way so people can understand them it isn't theorizing or speculating it's keeping a sharp eye on the

“truth and the truth is never clean in fact I think it's the antithesis of truth to think that it”

can be clean that there's always one person at fault or one group of people or one perpetrator

I think people who tell you those kinds of stories are often opponents of truth it isn't our job to tie this up in a bow our job is to show the world as it is and the world is complex and messy and here's one thing we can tell you with real certainty Columbia County for a place of its size is a messy complex place the sex abuse case of high school the mayor's race

“the greenway report the lack of journalism that isn't Facebook none of these things directly”

impacted Sarah's Uber and yet these are the forces that have shaped the people who are supposed to

be getting to the bottom of what happened to her it's the undercurrent the gravitational pull that makes this story seem like a true crime mystery next time on the final episode of hush we look at what's left when the mystery is demystified you don't know me mr. Pixley but I know you a little bit because I see your

“writings and your bullshit and and how you put me off and you lie about us you don't know the first”

thing about us that's next time hush is reported written and produced by me lia satilly and Ryan has music by Joe Preston our editors were sage van wing and anagrefen Steven Cray mixed this episode and the leans silva was our audio engineer our show art is by Dana Ryerson photography by Christina Wensgraff additional art and marketing guidance from van kooley and Jennifer McCormick

Tony shick fact check this episode legal review was by Rebecca Morris we had public records assistance from John Bial website production for this series by suk jote saw thanks to Joni Audinland Peter Frick Wright Jen Chavez and Tony shick for helping shape this series thanks to all the members who make podcasts at opb possible visit the hush home page on opb's website at opb.org/hush you can also email us with tips for future reporting at [email protected] and if you're enjoying this podcast please

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