Serialously with Annie Elise
Serialously with Annie Elise

379: The Ultimate Sicko Predator | Jeffrey Willis & His “Toolbox of Torture”

20h ago1:15:0313,834 words
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Just minutes before closing, 25-year-old Jessica Heeringa vanished from a quiet Michigan gas station, leaving her purse, wallet, and cigarettes behind. A witness saw a silver minivan acting strangely,...

Transcript

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Dekabunisierung for Anbringen, Stärke Ergebnisse von Spie im Jahr 2025,

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die digitale Transformation und den industrialen Wandel ein. Die Finanzegetnisse von Spie für das Jahr 2025, entdecken sie auf Spie.com. In the 25-year-old mother was working here at this Exxon gas station when Felise, she was abducted last Friday night. "We don't have that one person that knows what we need to know to suffer.

Detectors are working off the thought, just a hearing that you were abducted. Search for Jessica Heranga is now in its tenth day." "They asked if I took her somewhere, to anybody that might know where she is, and let her come home to her family." "Hate recruitment besties, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialisley."

"Hello, hello, hello, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialisley. The true crime podcast with me, your host, Annie Elise. Today we have an all-new case that we are doing a deep dive into, and let me just tell you this, okay? First of all, you're going to be with me for a little bit.

Because it's kind of airing on the side of like a little bit longer. So whether you're commuting, maybe you're cleaning, maybe you're working out. You're going to be with me just for a little bit here. And also, I want to mention that this particular case is one that was requested from one of you listeners.

You can always submit requests via the website, AnnieElease.com.

You can also submit them on Patreon. You can DM me, all the different things. But yeah, this one came from one of you listeners. And so, thank you for submitting it. It is a very, very twisted one, but interesting.

And I kind of want to just jump right in. And let me start by saying this too, actually. I don't know if you were like me, but anytime I hear about something that's happened to post the year 2000, it feels recent to me.

I don't know if that's just because I'm a little lanyl. And I feel like even though it's 26 years ago, it feels recent. But for some reason, it's like a number thing that I'm stuck within my head. So like seeing too on my notes here that this case took place in 2013. I'm like, oh, that's not that long ago.

When it's like, uh, no, you dumb idiot. It actually is 13 years ago. But for some reason, I'm just like one of those people,

I think anything after the year 2000 sounds recent.

I don't know. Don't don't come for me. But anyway, so on the night of April 26, 2013, law enforcement officials in North Insurance, Michigan were called to the scene of an exon gas station.

Now, this was for what the 911 caller had described as, quote, suspicious circumstances. Now it was pretty late. It was around 11.07 pm when they got this call. So I mean, suspicious circumstances at a gas station late at night.

It could mean a number of things, right? But the 911 caller reported that apparently the gas station was still open. All the lights were on. There was music playing. They was, is their usual open hours as well.

Yet nobody seemed to be inside of this gas station working. It was like, it was just empty, but business was still being conducted as usual somehow, right?

Now, I'm sure when the person called, they may be second guessed it a little bit.

Like, hey, is it even worth calling in right now? Maybe the cashier is just taking a smoke break out back, or is in the bathroom room more since it's late at night. Maybe they don't want to be caught on camera texting. So they're texting in the back room.

Like, who really knows?

However, the truth is that circumstances made this caller feel like,

maybe that wasn't the case. Maybe there was more going on. And I think part of the reason why it's because this wasn't one of those 24 hour gas stations. It wasn't one that stayed open all night. It actually closed at 11 30 p.m.

Which at this point was literally just moments away. And even if it was about to close and this person just wandered off or quit midshift or wanted to close up early, wouldn't they have closed the building up as well? Wouldn't they have shut down the music, turned off the lights, something?

So my point is something just gave this caller a very weird gut feeling. So they knew that it was better for the police to just come out, check it out, maybe say false alarm and ignore it all together. But like, at least, you know, like we all say, when you see something, say something, and see hopefully you are airing on the side of caution,

and it's nothing, but what if it is something?

That's exactly what happened, the police coming to the scene, I mean.

But the investigator is upon arriving new immediately from the jump,

that this was not some weird false alarm. The person who was clocked in and supposed to be working at the gas station on shift was Jessica Lynn Herringa. And Jessica was a 25 year old mother to a three year old son. But just like this 911 caller said, Jessica was nowhere to be found.

And the investigators knew pretty quickly that this was something much darker and much more nefarious than somebody just slacking on their job. Because there were a lot of signs that Jessica had not just left on her own. For example, her pack of cigarettes was still behind the counter, right next to the cash register.

Her purse was also still inside along with her wallet,

and everything else that's important to her as a matter of fact.

So this detail about her purse still being there is very important for two different reasons. Number one, I mean, there would have been no reason for her to leave it behind if she had just quit or if she had left early of her own volition. But number two, it shows that there probably was some sort of foul play involved. This wasn't a robbery gone wrong because if they had robbed her,

the purse would have been gone. So we gave the investigators enough to realize, okay, this scene does not look great. It doesn't look like she just left. We need to start investigating and see what the hell really happened here.

Now for whatever reason, Jessica also had about $400 in her wallet. And every single dollar bill was still there. Not to mention, the cash register also had been completely untouched. The shelves throughout the gas station also didn't look ransacked or like somebody was looking for anything.

Not like somebody who did a smashing grab and or robbery or anything like that. Everything was very tidy and might, you know, an accounted for. But that wasn't the only weird thing that the investigators found at the scene. The gas station also had a back door, which was only supposed to be used by employees of the store. And the investigators noticed that this back door was unlocked.

And right outside of this door were two things that immediately caught their attention. One, there were blood stains and two, there were gun accessories. And they later determined that these gun accessories belonged to a Walther P22. So I mean, with those last details, the investigators were able to determine that foul play was involved here. I mean, there was just no evidence that Jessica could have left on her own or that she did leave on her own.

And of course, I mean, a person's character doesn't always make a huge difference in true crime cases. But I do think that it is worth mentioning a couple of things about Jessica. Jess was described as being very funny, very outgoing. Somebody who could just talk to anyone and was just so personable. Her friends and family even called her a quote, little pixie girl, because she was just really tiny.

She had this big, bold energy about herself. She was always wearing tight eye clothing, throwing up a peace sign, just like a very happy person with a happy energy and spirit.

Now, more importantly, Jessica's family said that she would never, ever in a million years leave her son behind willingly.

The only way that she would never come back to him at home at the end of the night is if somebody was keeping her from coming home.

So now you have this young woman who was missing potentially kidnapped and time was of the essence. So the investigator started working as hard as they could to start putting together a timeline. They also knew that they needed to interview potential witnesses. They needed to talk to people they needed to get any sort of surveillance footage that they could find. I mean, they needed anything that would help.

And here's the timeline that they were able to come up with. At 1055 p.m. Jessica checked someone out on the register and this was the last recorded transaction at the store before she went missing. This transaction was also specifically for a cigarette lighter. Then five minutes later, at around 11 p.m., a witness drove by. And this witnesses account would actually be one of the biggest clues in the entire case revolving around Jessica.

Because the witness was actually one of the managers at this ex-son gas station store, her name's Susan. See, Susan and her husband were driving past the store on a motorcycle. And I think you know how it is whenever you're driving past where you work, kind of like look out the window.

You see, oh, who's working? Who's still in there? What's going on?

I mean, not like you're trying to be like intentionally nosy as if somebody's doing something wrong, but like, you know, you're curious. Even if you drive by a house that you know who lives there, you're like some men's look at it, right? Well, that's just me, but the thing here is this manager didn't just take a peek and then leave. She actually saw a silver van drive into the service driveway behind the gas station. And once they pulled in, they turned off their lights.

So she was immediately weirded out for a few different reasons. For one, she knew that Jessica was working alone that night. And anyone being weird late at night when a young woman is the sole worker inside a place of business.

I mean, unfortunately, in the day and age that we live in, that is automatica...

And it is something to be concerned about.

However, the behavior got even weirder.

By the time that Susan and her husband had turned around and went back toward the gas station, this minivan had moved toward the front of the gas station.

And at this point, the driver was out of the car and the tailgate to the minivan was open. Now, Susan saw this man slam the tailgate shut, then open it back up, adjust something that she couldn't see, but that was inside and then slam it down shut again. Before then hopping back quickly into the van and driving off.

So Susan tells the police that she described him as being a white male, anywhere from 510 to 6ft tall, and she described him as "heavy set."

But that was unfortunately all that she could really recall about this guy. And I mean, when you hear it described, it might sound like it possibly unfolded over several minutes. But the reality was, it probably was a matter of seconds that Susan saw this and was able to actually witness what was going on.

So then between 11.02 pm and 11.05 pm, surveillance cameras in the general vicinity of the gas station caught that exact same minivan that Susan had described.

The minivan was driving past at least three other businesses.

However, whoever was driving the minivan was driving incredibly fast, almost like they were speeding away from something.

Now, there are some good news and some bad news about these surveillance cameras and what they caught. Thanks to those cameras, they were able to identify that the van was likely a Chrysler or a Dodge. But the bad news is it's not like a Chrysler or a Dodge minivan is something that very few people own. I mean, a ton of people own those kinds of ads. The amount of people who owned minivan similar to what was seen on camera. In fact, was such a large number that the investigators immediately knew that they weren't going to be able to narrow down a suspect based on that information alone.

And the truth was the video footage itself was way too far away and way too grainy to really be able to tell anything other than the fact that it was a van. They couldn't see who was driving, they couldn't see the license plates, and one of the investigators pretty much said as much when they did an interview with the local news. I wish I had the technology like you see on TV where you could blow it up and I could see the driver inside, but that doesn't exist for me. So going back to the timeline, a couple of minutes after that, once that van was seen speeding on this footage, that's when the customer arrived at the gas station founded empty and called 911.

Everything that we already touched on. So all that being said, it seems like it's possible that Susan, the manager, who happened to drive by and saw this creep with the minivan acting all weird, that she may have also unknowingly seen Jessica in what could have been her final moments. And I say final moments, because just as quickly as this case surfaced, it also went completely cold. There were no security cameras at Xon, so all they knew was what the manager was able to recall, which really wasn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, and it had been at night.

It was dark out, and even though there were lights at the gas station, it was difficult to, for anybody to see anything really at all.

And the manager, remember, had been on the back of a motorcycle, so again, it's not like she sat stationary and watched this guy for five minutes.

It was a fleeting moment, a quick movement, so she did the best that she could, but in a case like this, it just wasn't enough. Now even though there was a pretty solid timeline of when Jessica was possibly taken, and also the general direction of where this minivan went, that was pretty much all that the investigators had to work with. However, there were some leads at different points throughout the investigation, for example, another witness came forward. She was a regular customer at Xon, and they were regular enough to actually know Jessica as an employee, not on a personal level, but, you know, as an employee, and when you get regular is in your constantly going in, you start to recognize each other, right?

And this person noted that on the evening, the Jessica went missing, while they were inside the gas station, they saw a man flirting with Jessica. And they could tell that Jessica was just being nice, she wasn't necessarily into it, but she was just, you know, customer service, trying to appease him, trying to be polite, but they described this man as being about six feet tall, and in his 30s. So now there was this little shred of hope, because this witness account of the man was very similar to the manager as a count.

Height, age, all of that. Unfortunately, the tip didn't really lead anywhere, like I said, there weren't cameras in the store, so it's not like they could take a clip from around that time, and then identify him, it was just another eyewitness lead. And the truth was, too, that these two witnesses recollection of this man was almost like the van situation. There were plenty of white men around six feet tall and in their 30s in the area, so it didn't really make it easier to narrow it in on one person.

You couldn't just go door to door all throughout nor in chores until they ran, you threw every single person with that description who also happened to own a van.

However, despite that, not all hope was lost.

We have that one person that knows what we need to know to support. Now that we have all those analysts in one room, they can work together and crunch that a faster and give us some additional leads, if you will.

The info is coming from the phones of possible persons of interest.

Norton's choice police has this machine from a homeland security grant. The machine copies the phone's information, call history, texts, pictures and emails, those visible, and even those the phone's owner thought they deleted. And given us more data, more places to look, more people to talk. Now they felt confident enough about this little machine that they were even talking about it on the local news like in the clip I just played for you. So understandably, a lot of people felt really optimistic and positive about Jessica's case. But for whatever reason, it turned out to not be as helpful as they thought that it would be.

So, they continued combing through the leads that they got from the public hoping that there would be just one that would come in and really change things, but unfortunately, that lead never came.

Jessica's friends and family came together as best as they could to get her name out there, her story out there, they made a Facebook account that really did start to gain some traction too. They also handed out flyers all throughout the area. Someone even offered up a $500 reward for any information.

Other people from the community also started to add to it to try to stack it even higher, hoping, you know, maybe this will entice somebody to come forward with something useful.

Because family also had told the press that they would never stop fighting for Jessica, and that one day they would bring her home. They truly had hope that they would find her. But the days turned into months and then the months turned into a year. Join this morning by Diane Homrich this morning. She's Jessica's grandmother. So, thank you for joining us. What's very welcome very latest on the case is anything new.

Just as you spoke, there's nothing new as far as we know, they don't know anymore now than when it happened, which is almost 10 months ago.

So that midi van is still really something that's out there that they're looking for. Yes, okay. What's been the biggest obstacle for you guys and getting new information? I understand the weather has been a problem this year as far as getting people together. Tell us about that. A brutal weather. Yes.

My daughter lives down by Nashville, Michigan. I live in Grand Rapids, one sister is in Pearson. Samantha was in Florida when this happened and she has since moved back to mosquito. Okay. So she is there, but just the distance and the brutal weather is unbelievable. Just even to get together to make it a plan for any searches or any fundraisers or anything.

Yes.

As the anniversary approaches, will there be any any searches or fundraisers that we can look out for or help with?

I don't think we're going to be doing any fundraisers. I'm thinking maybe a candlelight vigil out there because we have to keep her face in front of people. Yes. We ask that they be vigilant. If they have seen anything to call the North and sure as police department or asylum observer.

And when we talk about anything, there will be, you know, so many times in missing people's cases. People think, oh, I saw something, but it doesn't mean anything. It might mean something to the police and their investigation. Yes. So that's really, you want to get that word out there.

In April 2014, after almost a full year after Jessica first went missing, they're ended up finally being some pretty major updates in her case after months of silence.

Because the investigators revealed that they finally had a list of confirmed persons of interests. Now, this list ranged from a man who was the owner of the gas station to Jessica's fiance and father of her child. All the way to another man who was a former boyfriend of Jessica's. But, allegedly, somebody that Jessica was still secretly seeing on the side. If you've been wanting to refresh your space, heading into spring, I cannot recommend enough going to wafer because wafer makes it so easy to actually bring your vision to life without feeling overwhelmed by all of the choices.

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That's O-p-o-s-i-t-i-v.com/a-e. Okay, so let's go over all of those people that I mentioned before, starting with the gas station owner. Now when I was looking up why the owner was looked into, I couldn't find any official sources that documented the reasons. The only thing I was able to actually find was a blog post claiming that he did some pretty sketchy things, but you know, take all of this with a grain of salt. But apparently this guy was very well known for being extremely flirty with all of the women who worked at the gas station.

And according to this blog post, he also put up a job listing for just because position within just 24 hours of her disappearing. And after Jessica went missing, her family had requested to hold a vigil for her at the gas station, but apparently this guy ran everyone off and he made them stop the vigil completely. Now again, those are all things that I found on this blog post, so not exactly credible sources or court documents, but if those things are true, I mean that is pretty shitty.

It kind of just streams like asshole boss and like she, I get it, work must go on, the company has to continue, but feels a little insensitive to just like do a job posting 24 hours later, right?

I mean, it makes him feel a little scummy, but not necessarily a kidnapper or potential murderer. I mean, maybe there's more to it that I just couldn't find, but I get it, they were trying to find anyone who they possibly could look to as a possible suspect. Now surprisingly, this guy was pretty quick to do any interviews with the press, and he talked about how the investigators made him take a light detector test, how he wasn't worried about it at all because he knew he didn't do anything wrong, and he seemed very open.

You know, one of the things the detective asked me is, you know, she seemed like the kind of person that would just walk away, but she talked so much about her son and about her fiancé had no way. That was probably when I was at the station that night that I figured out why I was there. They asked if I took her somewhere, they asked if I knew who did. Now the next person of interest was Jessica's fiance, and from what I can tell, there wasn't one thing that necessarily stuck out other than the fact that, of course, you know, he was her fiance,

and the father of her child, and you always want to look to who the victims have close relationships with, right?

I'm always going to be kind of the center of retention just that's the nature of the beast, but I cooperate with everything they asked. I jumped to every hoop they asked. Now the last person of interest is honestly a little bit confusing. I had mentioned he was an ex-boyfriend of the Jessica was still in contact with, all the way up leading up to that night, and not just, you know, in contact with a little bit, but it does sound more like they were in a full-blown relationship

with one another, from what's out there. Apparently this guy had just recently rented a new apartment, and he also was planning on getting Jessica to leave her fiance and move in with him.

That isn't even the confusing part when I really got into all of it.

The more confusing part is that this person of interest was the brother of one of Jessica's co-workers, a co-worker who, by the way, was described as being the main witness. One who even helped provide a sketch of the suspect.

So my thought when I first read that was like, "Oh, okay, this main witness, that was Susan, the manager, right?"

But none of the sources that I found straight up called this witness by name. So in other words, I'm not sure if this person that we're talking about was Susan's brother, or the brother of another co-worker who came forward saying that they witnessed something.

It's difficult to nail down exactly what the truth is.

But regardless, we do have a co-worker of Jessica's who came forward with a description that did end up matching very closely to their own brother, who coincidentally was also Jessica's ex. And apparently investigators were looking into him for multiple reasons. I mean, number one, his relationship with Jessica. But then there was also the fact that his family owned a hunting cabin not too far from the ex on station. I mean, what a perfect place to hide, right?

A cabin in the woods hunting cabin at that. But even more than that, the family also owned a silver minivan. Now this ex of Jessica's refused to talk to any media. However, for whatever reason, his dad was more than willing to talk. So here's his take on Jessica's disappearance and whether or not his son was involved.

Take a listen. Becoming quite a mystery as, and you're kind of family with stuck right in the middle of it. No, they just kept calling him in, calling him in. No. Yeah, one dime, I guess he was another one suspect, really.

Well, that's a little creepy. Yeah, that's stupid. He told, "Where do I ask for me?" "If you're going to charge me, charge me?" Or, "If you keep harassing me."

You let he talk to my lawyer from now on.

They said, "Well, that's what we wanted to hear, so they never bothered him again."

Now, when I first turned that information, I was kind of like, "Okay, case closed. It has to be him." But then, you hear that the investigator did do a pretty thorough search into him, and it seems like it might not be that cut and drive an answer. Because it turns out he did have an alibi and a good one at that.

His phone records confirmed that he was actually out fishing during the time that Jessica disappeared. They also searched that hunting cabin, and they saw no signs of Jessica, or any signs that she was ever even there.

Now, I will say, fishing, I've never gone fishing.

Okay, I'm not a fisherman or a fisherman. No shade anybody who is. But I also, from what I've seen on TV or in movies, I don't know people who fish at 11.30 at night. I don't know if that's the thing.

I guess maybe if you're like fishing sushi, or like food that you're then delivering to a restaurant the following morning.

But like, it was a good alibi, but for me gave me a little pause like, "Uh, who's really fishing at midnight?" You know, but anyway, even further than that, the minivan that connected him to the case wasn't even his. It was his parents. But the parents told the investigators that they were out of town on a gambling trip, and they had taken the minivan with them. And it turns out that the casino that they said they were at had security cameras.

And these cameras actually verified that this van was in fact there, out of town. During the window where it was seen on the other surveillance cameras in town. So I mean, while it was good to hear that there were persons of interest, three different ones. None of them really stood out as being all that likely from the information that had been gathered. And Jessica still hadn't been found at this point, not even her remains.

Her case became very well known throughout the community, and just was known as this very sad tragedy. And since nobody really knew what had happened, it was a scary reminder of what could happen again. Because the truth was, whoever had taken Jessica hadn't been caught. They were still out there.

And now it was as if it was only a matter of time until there was another Jessica.

And like I said, over a year had passed at this point since she had first disappeared.

And it was now June 2014. Jessica's case was still actively being looked into. But everyone had started to finally cope with the fact that she might be gone. And right as everybody was coming to that sort of conclusion, a 911 call came in. I don't know why I was hearing emergency.

The corner of Riley Thompson and automobile, it's on automobile road. We go up to this lady, she laying in the road.

I think she would hit my car.

Okay, I'm going to get some help right out there for you.

Did you see what happened to her? She has a pulse. I just came up on her. Is she on the phone with me? Is she breathing?

She has a pulse. Okay. Did you see who hit her? Does she have obvious injuries? She has a head injury.

Okay. She's got a head injury and her. She's laying face down. Okay. It's all over around.

Okay. We're not moving around. Okay. Did she buy herself? You need to hurry.

She's all by herself. Okay. It's really irregular. My wife is nervous. Okay.

I've got to help. I've got to help. Okay. Okay. She's got a really bad head injury.

Is that okay? She's bleeding. Yes. She's bleeding. It's quite a bit from her head.

Is she breathing? She's not. Okay. Is she breathing? She's not.

She's not. Okay. It's going to open her early. I'm going to die across. Okay.

You're doing a great job, Michelle. Okay. I want you to start with CPR. Okay. You remember how to do it?

I remember how to do it. I remember how to do it. Okay. I got her. Okay.

You guys are doing great. This is great for her behind here. Right. All right. All right.

She's full of little signs. And she'll get irritable. And her head is dead. I'm here for you. If you need anything on me.

All right. She's here, Charlie. Michelle, make sure you get good deep breaths in her. Yep. Okay.

I can't. She's dead. Yeah. All right. Okay.

I don't have anything to do. Okay. You can just do test compressions. You don't have to put your arm up. Just go with the test compressions.

Now what you just heard was a 911 call from a couple named Mark and Wendy.

The couple were driving by when they saw a woman on the side of the road all alone and in critical condition.

And at first, just from listening to the call, it does sound like some kind of freak accident. Maybe this woman had a bad fall, maybe there was a hit and run, something like that. But either way, she had a very bad head wound. She was also unconscious and her breathing pattern was faint. So whatever it was and whatever the cause, it certainly was something pretty serious.

The woman on the call mentioned that she was a nurse. So she was used to sing some pretty bad things. She was no stranger to blood or doing CPR or any of those sorts of things.

And she even said on the phone call, quote, "Who could do this?

Who could hit a woman and just leave her?" Oh my gosh. You can do this. You're doing great, Michelle. I know.

Who could hit a woman and get to leave her? Okay. Okay. Okay. We're starting that journey here tomorrow.

Yeah, that's up for you. Oh. I know this is hard. You're doing great. She was convinced that this was a deadly hit and run. The first responders arrived and Mark and Wendy then got off the call and they just sat and watched

as these responders tried to help this woman. But unfortunately, her injuries were just too bad. She passed away right there on the scene. Now this woman was 36 year old Rebecca Blech. That day, Rebecca had been out for a jog, a totally normal innocent thing.

This was something that she did all the time. She lived nearby only about a mile away from the scene where she ultimately passed away

and she would always run along the same route that she always took.

Now Rebecca had lived in the area for about 18 years. She worked at a local nursing home as an occupational therapist and she also coached girls basketball at the local middle school. And she was described as kind of thing like the life of the party and he where she went. She was a role model for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general. But a lot of young people, of course, and she worked at the middle school.

She was also a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister. And here's what's really shocking. When Mark and Wendy had called 911 for help, they thought that this was just some random woman that they had just stumbled across this. She was so covered in blood and she was injured so badly that they had no idea that this woman,

that they were trying to help, was actually their daughter's basketball coach. And one of their neighbors, they didn't even learn that information until later, which can you even imagine? And even more heartbreaking is the fact that their daughter was in the car with them when they pulled over to help. I'm sure she stayed in the car behind and she didn't see as much as her parents, but I mean still.

That is extremely traumatic.

Now, like I said, Wendy thought that this was a hit and run, and that's what she told the 911 operator.

And that's also what the first responders were expecting when they arrived at the scene. But pretty much as soon as they got to Rebecca's body, they knew that this wasn't not a hit and run. It was something much, much worse. The first thing that tip them off was how Rebecca's clothing looked.

Her top was scrunched up, her pants were folded down, folded down so much so that part of her rear end was actually showing.

I have never personally heard of a hit and run victims' pants being folded do...

Sure, sometimes clothing rips and moves, but this felt more intentional, more like it had been pulled down and folded down.

And that was just one of the things.

The major thing that the first responders noticed as they got closer to her body was when they were trying to figure out where all of this blood was coming from.

They realized that the head injury was not from the blunt force trauma of being hit by a car, but it was actually from gunshot wounds. Now, these exact details weren't discovered until a later autopsy, but Rebecca had suffered four different gunshot wounds to her head from three different bullets. Now, aside from the gunshot wounds, there were also injuries on her body, which told the investigators that she had likely put up a fight.

She had a lot of defensive wounds. They were bruises on the left side of her rib cage. They were bruises on her wrists. I mean, she fought like hell. The creepiest clue that was left at the scene were her belongings.

Given that she had been out on a run, she had the typical things with her that you would take when you go for a jog.

She had her headphones, her sunglasses, she had an arm band that held her phone. And these items weren't just, you know, strung out near her body, the way that they would be if she had gotten hit and somebody drove off, but they were neatly lined up on the side of the road. Almost as if whoever had done this to her wanted to leave their mark,

almost taunting the investigators that they had been there. So Rebecca's case had very quickly gone from this tragic hit and run to a very sinister homicide. Now, here's where it all ties together. Rebecca and Jessica both lived in Michigan. Rebecca lived in a rural county, but guess what else was part of that county?

Nor in shores, where Jessica went missing a year prior. Now, I don't know the exact crime rates and the statistics of this exact county, but even the investigators started to wonder.

Is there any world in which these two women were victims of the same person?

I mean, the area was similar. The fact that Rebecca was shot and that there was blood and gun accessories found at the ex-son station when Jessica had been abducted, or whatever happened to her. I mean, that was a similarity. These women themselves weren't really all that alike though. I mean, if you're assuming maybe that the perpetrator had a specific type of victim,

they were different ages, different hair color, different physical attributes, that sort of thing. One had gone missing from work, laid at night. The other was shot while out on a jog, so not entirely similar. But it definitely was something that the investigators were going to look into. There wasn't enough at this point to do a full on press conference,

saying that somebody was out there kidnapping or murdering women in the county in Michigan, but they certainly were going to start looking into everything. So the investigators started by looking more into Rebecca's case, and they hoped that maybe somewhere along the way something could potentially connect the two cases. The only real clue that was left behind were empty shell casings that were left near her body.

And when I say that that was the only clue, I really do mean it, truly. There were no witnesses like there were in Jessica's case. Nobody noticed anything suspicious prior to Rebecca being found on the side of the road, so all they really had was the crime scene itself. Right away, a random robbery was crossed off the list of possibilities.

The investigators believed that because of Rebecca's personal items that were lying nearby, it didn't really make any sense to consider somebody jumping her and trying to rob her

and then ultimately shooting her, killing her and leaving her belongings behind.

They also had to consider though that maybe this was personal. So with that, they knew that they had to check out her husband and see if there was any possible way that he could be involved. But he ended up having a perfect Taliban. He actually was out of town with their 11-year-old daughter at the time of Rebecca's murder. So he was quickly crossed off the list of potential suspects.

Now it might sound like all of this happened in the week following her murder, but it was a month's long investigation. They were looking into all possible options, but they were still somehow just landing nowhere. And then just like with Jessica's case, Rebecca's case went cold.

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Just head to livemomentus.com and use code Annie. That's livemomentus.com code Annie. The exact date was April 16, 2016, almost three years to the date from Jessica's disappearance. On this particular morning, 16 year old Madison Nygard was walking home by herself from a party. The party had started the night before.

It had gone well into the early morning hours on the 16th and at around 5.15am, Madison had started walking home thinking, "You know, I'm not too far away. I'll just walk home. It'll be fine." However, she very quickly realized she wasn't as close as she had thought she was. And she didn't even really know where she was at that point. She was mixed up and turned around. Madison ended up walking around town, not sure if she was walking in circles or going in the same or different direction.

And was walking around for about two hours. She also wasn't able to use her phone. And I'm not sure if that's because she wasn't within range of service or if it was dead at this point. But for whatever reason, she couldn't use her phone. Then, at around 7.30am, a van pulled over. The person driving the van was a man.

But Madison said he didn't seem weird and he didn't seem scary.

Honestly, he was acting more like he was worried about her. Seeing this young girl walking by herself alone, seemingly confused or returned around.

So Madison explained her situation to him. And he very calmly just told her, "You know, you can get into the van. I'll help you out by letting you use my phone and we can figure all of this out." Now, Madison said that at this point after a very long night of partying and now walking for two hours with no end in sight, she didn't necessarily think that it was a bad idea. She was kind of out of options in her opinion. And really, she thought that it would end up saving her time since this guy probably knew where he was at least.

So, she very clearly didn't. He would at least be able to say, "Oh, where the cross streets of X and Y, like where do you live? How far away are we?" And not to mention, he said he had a phone. So he could probably pull up the map. She could use his phone to call someone, maybe she could call her mom. So she wasn't super reluctant or worried.

However, Madison said that as soon as she got into the van and shut the door,

the alarm bells inside of her immediately started going off.

The guy that she had felt safe with just a few moments earlier had now rolled up the windows and locked the doors.

So she started to get a really weird feeling that maybe she should not have gotten into this van after all. However, she was hoping in her gut that she was just being overly dramatic that she was just being paranoid. But then things started to get even scarier. Madison now trying to distract her very worried mind, asked this guy if she could use his phone. However, he told her that she couldn't use his phone because his phone was also dead.

Now, he had already offered up the phone, so it was at this moment that Madison knew she knew that this guy had not pulled over with good intentions.

So she started to panic. She started yelling at him, telling him over and over again to pull over,

let her out now screaming, but the guy acted as if he couldn't even hear her. He wasn't trying to calm her down, he wasn't telling her that she was safe, he wasn't trying to reassure her. And say, you know, I'm not trying to scare you. It's okay. I'm just trying to help you. He just sat there. Totally silent, staring at the road ahead.

I cannot even imagine how terrifying that would be in those moments to have reality setting in of the kind of danger that you're in. You're screaming, trying to plead with this person to get out, let me out, get me the fuck out of your car. And he's just acting as though he doesn't hear anything, just driving straight ahead. Oh, it's the worst. So then, during all of this, the man reached over to his side and he pulled out a gun, pointing it right at Madison.

He also started to drive faster, like he was in a hurry to get wherever he was going. Now, at this point, Madison said that her fight or flight mode really kicked in. The adrenaline was ramped up, and she knew that she had to make a very quick decision. So, she unlocked the van door, and she literally rolled out of the van onto the pavement. Now, this guy was driving very, very fast, but Madison didn't care.

She knew she needed to get the hell out of that van.

And the truth is, I mean, she have gotten hurt, jumping out of a vehicle that was moving so fast, of course, absolutely.

But she also knew that if she stayed in the van, she probably was not going to live. Whether this man was driving her somewhere to ultimately kill her, or if he was going to shoot her right then in there, she knew that there was no way to talk him into letting her go. And I want to just pause for a moment and say this to you. I've said this in some of my other case episodes where we have talked about abductions while people are out for a jog or running or really anything.

The number one thing that I want all of you to please remember, never get in the car.

Even if somebody is attacking you on the side of the road and they're like, just getting the car and you think, okay, I'll fight once I get in there. You know, I'll beg and plead or I'll fight them off. Once you are in the vehicle, the likelihood of ever getting out of that situation alive decreases tremendously. I forget what the exact statistic is, but I have talked to so many law enforcement people about this and they say, fight like hell. Even because at that point if you're fighting like hell before the hand even get you in the car, you'll at least hopefully collect some sort of DNA, maybe you'll injure them.

Maybe you'll leave something on the side of the road because you'll spook them, but you have to fight like hell to never get in.

And don't think that you can just rationalize with them later because you can't. And so although she was already in the van at this point, I'm so thankful that those instincts kept, you know, kicked in for her. And if that she knew hell, I'd rather have road rash all over my body and maybe a couple broken limbs than whatever this creep is going to do to me. So thankfully, when she jumped out of the van, she wasn't too badly hurt. And I'm sure her adrenaline was also probably just going into overdrive, making her not even feel the jump as much as it should have.

But luckily after falling, she was able to get up and started running as fast as she possibly could to a nearby house. Now, what's even more terrifying in this is that the guy in the van actually pulled over when she jumped out and shot his gun in her direction. Luckily, he didn't hit her though, and Madison was able to get help from somebody who lived nearby. They immediately called 911 for help. This situation was no doubt traumatizing for Madison, but what she didn't realize was that in almost being abducted, she also would open up a year's long mystery.

You see, the investigators were able to pinpoint the specific location that Madison had been kidnapped. And it turns out that Madison had jumped from the van near West River Road and Green Creek Road. So for days, the investigators just canvas the area, searching for any properties or any houses along that stretch of road that had cameras that might be of use and may give them some sort of insight into this man and his van.

Then, about a half a mile from where Madison had jumped from the van.

The investigators noticed that there was a blueberry farm that seemed to have cameras.

So they went to the owner and they asked if they could look and see if his cameras had caught anything.

And sure enough, the camera caught a silver minivan driving near the farm with its windows down. Now, the pictures that are out there aren't that great, but apparently the clips that the investigators looked at showed a pretty decent, view of the driver's face. And I say, decent view because they weren't able to identify this man right away. They actually gathered up a few different men and then they let Madison look at all of them in a photo line up.

But as scary as it was, Madison was up for the challenge.

She claimed that growing up, she always had a photographic memory.

So for her, this wasn't exactly a challenge. Not to mention, it wasn't like she had just seen this guy briefly as he drove by. She had stood outside of the van, talked with him, got into his vehicle, watched him as he pointed a gun directly at her. His face was forever ingrained into her memory. And she was going to put those terrifying moments to go to use at this point.

The man that she ultimately identified was 46 year old Jeffrey Thomas Willis. The morning of May 17th, 2016, Jeffrey was arrested and charged with kidnapping Madison.

And it was very nice to see that for once, a terrible crime was actually getting justice.

But the story doesn't end here. Jeffrey's name wasn't one that was totally unfamiliar to the police. They just didn't even realize it yet.

As it turns out, Jeffrey was actually someone who the police had interviewed years before,

back when they were looking into justice because disappearance. Now, this is what they knew about Jeffrey. He was a furniture factory worker at the time of Jessica's disappearance, and he was a regular customer at the gas station, which think back to Jessica's case.

Her co-workers described her as being someone who was very friendly to her regularers. So even though they were customers, she saw many of the regularers almost, you know, as friends. They were also able to discover that Jeffrey owned a silver minivan. Just like the one that witnesses had described as being suspicious at the gas station around the time of her disappearance.

So during that initial investigation, they had interviewed him.

He claimed that yes, he was a regular at the gas station, and yes, he knew who Jessica was. He even admitted that on the night that Jessica went missing, he was at the gas station. But he said that he just knew of her. He didn't actually know her on a personal level.

Only in a way where you come to recognize the workers at a place that you go to often. So the investigators asked if they could take a look at his van and apparently he let them. But the van was clean, and not in a suspiciously clean and overly smells like bleach kind of way. It was just a regular van that looked well taken care of.

They were able to find that he had just recently bought the van about a month prior. So when I do also say that it looked as good as new, it really wasn't an exaggeration. Which the investigators felt was kind of the opposite of what would have been expected if Jeffrey had been the one to take Jessica. I mean, there was blood outside of the gas station near that back door,

so clearly she was bleeding, and likely she would have blood in the van. But it was totally clean. And really, you could go back and forth all day long asking, "Well, what if he put a tarp down? What if he got rid of that tarp?

What if this? What if that?" But at the end of the day, those are just a bunch of what it is. I mean, the point was, there wasn't anything suspicious about the van. And apparently, Jeffrey also had an alibi, though I wasn't able to find out exactly what his alibi was. Now, interestingly enough, this whole connection with Jeffrey being someone the investigators had initially looked into with Jessica's disappearance.

It wasn't even brought up by the investigators. It was Jeffrey himself who brought it up when they were interviewing him about Madison's case, which, by the way, he denied having any involvement in. But the investigators decided, "All right, let's pivot. I want to talk about Jessica's case. Let's talk about Jessica's case."

So they asked him a bunch of questions and keep in mind. It had been three years since Jessica's disappearance at this point. It wasn't an insanely long amount of time to recall events if you're telling the truth, but it was definitely long enough to forget your lies. So right away, the investigators noted a lot of inconsistencies with Jeffrey's story.

The new 2016 version was not matching up with the 2013 version. And then Jeffrey started getting really upset and really defensive, like overly defensive, especially when they told him that he wasn't being consistent and that they were going to get warrants for his van and his house. And that wasn't just a threat. They really were getting the warrants drafted up and they very quickly were approved.

So the first thing that they searched was his van.

And it painted a very scary picture. Inside of the van, he had this little secret compartment that was supposed to be well hidden,

They found it.

And inside of the compartment was a padded lock box.

Never a good sign, right?

And inside of this lock box, there was bondage equipment.

Also syringes, multiple vials of insulin, and a laminated diagram of the human body. It was almost like he had made a literal how-to guide of where to inject someone, with obvious malicious intent, right? Because too much insulin, to a non-diabetic, it can absolutely be deadly.

But that's not all. He also had another lock box under his driver's seat. And inside that lock box was a gun. Now right away, you might be thinking, "Okay, perfect. That's probably the gun that he tried to use on Madison,

and they're going to track it, all of that." But the gun holds even more significance. Because that gun was very quickly identified as also being the same one, with the exact same ammunition that was tied to Jessica, and Rebecca's crime scenes.

On top of that, gloves were found inside of the van with DNA blood evidence on them. Later, those gloves and the DNA came back as positive with Rebecca's DNA. So, once weeping search of Jeffrey's van had connected him to one disappearance, one murder, and one attempted kidnapping. And those were just the things that were found in the van.

The search of his house, that is what sealed Jeffrey's fate.

The first really crucial piece of evidence that investigators found in Jeffrey's house was a portable hard drive.

And on this hard drive, they discovered that he was essentially documenting his victims. One of the file folders actually was literally titled "Vix", the ICS, as in "Short for Victims",

which I mean, hello, could you be any more obvious?

And that was just the main folder. The subfolders inside "Vix", they were titled "JH" and "RB". As in, Jessica, Herringa, and Rebecca blushed. In each of these folders, were different pictures of the victims. Even flyers that their family members had been handing out over the years,

almost as if he wanted to keep tabs on the cases. The investigators also found a more than suspicious handwritten list that had been thrown in the trash. And this list was almost like a grocery list. I mean, if you can even call it that, but it had a lot of different items on it. So, I'm just going to read you the list and you can make, you know, discern what it means for yourself.

Vibrators, restraints, her panties, needles, cameras, ball gag, toolbox, handcuffs, hook, rope, condoms, gasoline, and zip ties.

Basically, a murderer and sexual predators grocery item list of things to purchase.

I mean, so gross and so unsettling and just devious. But that wasn't even all of it. Then, there was also the most damning piece of evidence. And it's something that the victim's families have understandably had a very difficult time coping with. On June 17th, 2016, someone came forward to the police station claiming that they had information about Jeffrey that they needed to report.

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Keep in mind, Jeffrey had already been arrested for a month around this time.

It was still a fresh case though, but still a little surprising to have somebody who wanted to talk to the police about somebody who had already been arrested and come in a month later.

But this person who came forward, his name was Kevin Bloom.

Kevin and Jeffrey were first cousins and they had always been very, very close and they had grown up together.

And Kevin admitted that while he was not involved in the abduction of Jessica, he did know about it. Which this was like a major mic drop moment. I mean, Jeffrey being the person who had taken Jessica was already known at this point. But the fact that someone else had known about it for years and just never came forward, it was disheartening to say the least. Kevin claimed that in late April of 2013, he had gone over to Jeffrey's house just to see him and catch up. But instead, Jeffrey told him to stop over by their grandpa's house in noron shores. Their grandpa had already passed away at this point and had left the house to Jeffrey.

So it was technically abandoned and nobody was living there. But Jeffrey was in charge of the upkeep and still spent a lot of time there.

So Kevin claimed that Jeffrey told him that there would be women there.

And that it was going to be this big party that they were going to have a four sum and it was going to be so fun.

And look, I know that four sum isn't the big takeaway in this case, but I am a little bit like kicked out and like grossed out that cousins are involved in a four sum with one another. I mean, gross, but anyway, so Kevin was like, "Hey, yeah, I'll be there. I'm coming over." And Kevin claims that the exact date was April 27th, which if you recall, that was the day after Jessica went missing. So Kevin said that on that night he went over to the house. And when he went down into the basement, he saw a very different scene than what he was promised.

It wasn't some force them with tons of girls and they were going to get their freak on. At the bottom of the basement stairs was a woman lying face down. Her hands were stretched out from her body and she was completely tied up. And the woman wasn't crying or panicking. In fact, her body was still. She was completely naked, but her face was facing the opposite direction of him.

So all that he could see was her nude body and the back of her head.

But then, their jeffry was standing there next to her body, just proudly standing. Almost as if he was waiting for Kevin to come down the stairs and congratulate him to be like, "Look, you know, let me show you what I've done." And he'd be like, "Good work, great work, cousin." Like, it just standing there, bold and proud. And when Kevin asked him what was going on, jeffries only response was, "And this is going to make you sick, it makes me sick." "I got some pussy. It is so fucking disgusting."

Now, Kevin claimed that he knew that at that moment this woman, who you can already guess, was Jessica, wasn't just unconscious. He knew without jeffry even telling him that this woman was dead. He also noted that there was liquid coming from her head and that the color of her skin was very different than someone who was still alive. So this tells me that by the time that Kevin saw her, she had already probably been dead for quite some time. And this is just a guess, but the court documents really made it a huge point to note multiple times that her hands were straight out and away from her body.

So maybe she was already in rigor mortise. I don't know, that's just a guess, it's not a fact. But now seeing what jeffry had done, Kevin said he began to help hide the body. He claimed that they put Jessica's body on top of a sheet and then they wrapped her up, quote, "like a taco." He also noted again that when they were wrapping her up, he saw body fluid as the court documents describe it.

And he saw this fluid coming from both her head and her rear end. Now the court documents only used the terminology liquid and body fluid. So in my head, that could really be up for interpretation, meaning quite a few different things. But you interpret it however you see fit. So they then put her body in the back of jeffries van, which already had a tarplay down to keep any evidence from getting into the back of the vehicle.

Then Kevin says that they drove to an area where it was clear that jeffry had already been planning to bury the body. Kevin said that when they got to the location, a hole had already been dug. There were also two shovels there waiting for them, one for him and one for jeffry.

Now it seems like jeffry always knew that if he needed to hide a body quite literally, his cousin Kevin would be the one to call.

Because he didn't put up a fight, he just went along with it. And he knew that when he told Kevin to come over for a party and for some fun that they would end up burying Jessica's body together. So I mean, that was a lot to process.

As for the actual lead up to Jessica's disappearance and the motive, Kevin cl...

He told him that he had been watching her and following her, but he didn't give an exact time frame. Jeffry also, I guess, told him that he hit her to make her go unconscious so that he could get her out to his van that night.

Now as for why he did this to Jessica, he apparently never told Kevin.

But this was more than enough, so Kevin's confession, it was the final nail in the coffin for jeffry. But like I said, the families had really mixed opinions on it. I mean, was it good that he finally came forward with this information? Yeah, I mean, it could make a world of difference during a trial. But this guy had also helped get rid of Jessica's body and he kept her death a secret for years.

He only came forward after jeffry was arrested.

So was he actually sorry for being an accessory and keeping this huge secret?

Or was he maybe just scared that jeffry was going to rat him out too, and that he would get an even more trouble for not being the one to come forward and confess everything himself? I don't know, I'm kind of leaning more toward the second of those two options, but that's just my thought. Now the most ironic part of Kevin coming forward was that at the end of his interview, he tried to take everything back. Like literally, he told the investigators he made the whole thing up, none of it was true I take it all back.

Kevin would later though be held accountable for his involvement, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to police officer during a violent crime investigation. Now given everything that we know, the investigators were able to confidently charge jeffry, not only with Madison's attempted kidnapping, but with Jessica's disappearance and murder, as well as Rebecca's murder. The trial for Rebecca's murder was in November of 2017, where he was found guilty of first-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Hey, I hear people say closure all the time, and then we lost our sister. There's no closure.

The empty spot is always going to be there.

The trial for Jessica's abduction and murder took place in May 2018, and it was a pretty quick trial. The jury only needed an hour and a half of deliberations before they found Jeffrey guilty of both her kidnapping and her murder. In June of 2018, he was again sentenced to life in prison without parole. The other notable charges against Jeffrey were attempted kidnapping for Madison's case, and the production and possession of C-sam material, which is basically explicit, child material, if you don't know that acronym.

Now, even though Jeffrey is spending the rest of his life in prison, investigators are looking into another case that he could possibly be connected to. This case is an unsolved murder of a 15-year-old girl named Angela Thornberg.

Angela was found murdered in 1996. She had been missing for about a month, and in typical true crime fashion,

the police weren't really looking into it, and it just considered her a runaway until then her body was found. Now, even though Jeffrey is considered a suspect, I haven't been able to find recent sources about Angela's case. Maybe they believe that he's involved, and they just can't find enough evidence, or maybe they don't have much evidence that Jeffrey's involved, and it's just a hunch of theirs, I'm not entirely sure. But I do know that in cases like this, there's no happy ending.

Multiple lives were taken, and Madison's life would have undoubtedly been taken if she had not fought back. Rebecca's family was at least able to lay her to rest, but to this day, Jessica's body still has not been found. And the frustrating thing about this case, I mean, there are so many frustrating things, but even after Jeffrey was sentenced to life in prison without parole, he still refused to admit that he killed Jessica. And he claims that he hasn't no idea where her body is, and the reason why is because he's innocent.

And we see this with a lot of offenders who do have the possibility of parole. I mean, as messed up as it is, it at least makes a little bit more sense, not helping families or investigators is strategic for them,

because then they eventually want to land their parole by being cooperative, but with Jeffrey, that's never going to happen.

Yeah, he still does not want to cooperate. It's just evil, it's selfish, and it is just the worst. But I mean, that's also to be expected from a creep like this. I wanted to know what those files are, and what's in them that would prove your innocence. I just want to make sure, because I had an interview last week with the EVA. I can't cooperate, and even though I didn't go well, I almost went up on them.

So I don't want to be battered by if I've stated myself, I don't know multiple times to multiple people that I didn't do it, I'm innocent. And I don't know where the body is, so if you're going to help me about that kind of stuff, I don't even want to try to do it. The reason I has you, the reason I okay this, is because I have things that I would like to talk to you about,

I want somebody to be less specific.

So where do you want to listen to me? Both Jessken Rebecca's families have fought to introduce legislation that they hope would help people like their loved ones. Jessken's law was introduced in 2013 to the Michigan Legislator, and the bill would require, quote, "Gastations and convenience stores operating between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. to schedule at least two workers on that shift, or require gas stations and convenience stores to install and maintain a security camera that would record attacks, robberies,

or other crimes that threaten workers." However, from what I'm able to see, there was apparently a lot of pushback on it because business owners were worried about the extra costs of installing cameras, or having two employees scheduled, which is honestly just insane to me.

I mean, they're basically saying outright that they value their money over the safety of their workers.

I mean, not shocking, I guess, in today's world, but still wild here. Now, I can't even begin to estimate how many cases we have covered that are still unsolved to this day.

And the truth is, I can't even begin to estimate how many cases we've covered that are still unsolved to this day,

because the last place that someone was seen either didn't have cameras or had cameras that weren't operating. Unfortunately, from what I am able to find, I don't think that this ever became an official law. The most updated article I could find on it was from 2016, which obviously is not that recent. And the article noted that the bill was reintroduced, but no actions were taken. Now, as for Rebecca's family, they were very angry after Jeffrey sentencing.

Which if you're not new to my podcast or my YouTube channel, then you've probably seen many clips of victim impact statements that are given during sentencing.

There are always really emotional, the cameras will pan over to the murderer, showing their emotions, their reactions to the victims loved one's sharing their deepest feelings and grief and sorrows.

But what a lot of you may not realize though, is that the person being sentenced can ask the judge for permission to not be present during that part of sentencing. Meaning they wouldn't hear the family's statements. And frustratingly, Jeffrey's request for that was granted. Now, as if that wasn't awful enough, Jeffrey knew what he was doing and he knew what he was about to miss. So when he walked out of the courtroom, he looked directly at Rebecca's family and he blew them a kiss.

One final, fuck you and slap in the face. Like, yeah, I killed your loved one and I don't have to sit here and listen to you whine about it. Now, understandably, her family was furious and they brought up a really good point.

Why should the murderer have more rights than the victim?

Why should they be able to get away with that? One of her family members also told the media, "A part of my grieving process was taken from me in a horrible way. What is the point of an impact statement if I can't speak to the person who has impacted me and destroyed my family?" No other family should have to feel that their words and their heartache don't matter. Victims have a right to be heard and expressed their feelings to the individuals that caused it.

And honestly, I could not have said it any better than myself. Thankfully, in May of 2018, Rebecca's law was passed, making it so that convicted criminals had to listen to impact statements from victims or family members during sentencing hearings.

So her family is at least comforted by the fact that other victims' families will never have to go through what they did.

I know that this case was a lot. I mean, really, these cases. There were three of them. And I'm just so glad that the families of these victims, at least, received a sliver of justice, even if some elements to it are not resolved. I mean, hopefully one day I can come back on here and give you a major update that Jessica's body had been found and that her family can finally lay her to rest.

I'm hopeful that that happens, and I think we can all just collectively pray on that.

But what about this monster and what about his creepy ass cousin? It is just so sick. It breaks my heart that and I hate that people don't come forward when they know something. It's like, you know something you have information. Help these families. Help them. Like, it's just so evil to torment them this way. So it was a lot. I know we stacked a few different cases in this one, but it's because they were all linked together.

So I appreciate you listening to all of their stories. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode. I will be back on the mic with you very soon. Don't forget, follow the podcast if you're not already. Subscribe right now on YouTube if you're watching so that you don't miss another episode and until the next one. Be nice. Don't kill people. Don't get into any vehicles.

And be very careful, late night at gas stations, whether you're working or picking something up. Just be careful. All right. Bye. [Music]

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