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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brit. And the story I have for you today is one that has been
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keeping me up at night because it shows you just how quickly a case can be closed when on paper it looks open and
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shut. Even when nothing about the details add up. Because when a mom of two is found dead in the Puet Sound in
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Washington at the start of the pandemic, investigators were quick to rule her death a suicide. But that didn't make
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sense to her loved ones or to me. So we started asking questions about how a devoted mom could vanish in the dead of
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night, about the witness who never told the same story twice, and about the husband whose answers only raised more
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questions. But once we started pulling at those threads, we realized that nothing about this story is simple. And
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it unraveled into something far more chilling than we expected. This is the story of Gwen Hasselquist.
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All right, let me take you back to a time that we all wish we could forget. It is March 20th, 2020. The global COVID
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pandemic had finally gripped the US and we couldn't just drink bleach to make it
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go away despite previous advice from a president. >> Now, where our story takes place in none
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other than Washington state, >> schools are closed, grocery shelves are empty, and stay-at-home orders are just
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about to take hold. But while most people are hunkered down inside, Washington State Trooper Daniel Knox is
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out on his regular patrol in Pierce County. The streets are quieter than normal, but not yet completely free of
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traffic or traffic calls. And just after midnight, dispatch radios him about a minivan stopped on the shoulder of the
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Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is like this mile long suspension bridge that crosses over the Puet Sound from Gig
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Harbor to Tacoma. Now, Trooper Knox drives over and he spots it right away. A Chrysler minivan pulled over against
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the guard rail with all four doors wide open. And it's not just stopped. It's clearly been in an accident. Like the
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passenger side is wrecked, like scraped and dented all the way down. And all three windows on that side have been
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broken. The glass is shattered and scattered all over the road. When Trooper Knox gets close, he also notices
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a guy reaching into the van through the driver's side door. And the guy is holding an open beer, kind of talking to
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himself, and just like not making a ton of sense. >> So, Trooper Knox is probably thinking
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that this is a pretty straightforward drunk driving accident. >> But the second that this man with the
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beer starts talking, he realizes that nothing about this is going to be straightforward. Now, he learns that
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this guy's name is Demetrius Jackson, [music] and Demetrius tells him a truly wild story. It turns out the van isn't
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his and he wasn't driving it either. Demetrius claims that he was walking to his mom's house in Tacoma from his
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girlfriend's place. And if we found the right girlfriend, her house would have been on the gig harbor side of the
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bridge about a mile from the on-ramp. And so he says he is walking and all of a sudden this woman pulls over in the
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van and offers him a ride. Now Demetrius says that he could see someone else in the back of the van, but he didn't get a
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really good look at who. didn't matter. He was happy for the ride. So, he got into the van and the woman started
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driving down the bridge. But then out of nowhere, she just stopped midway, gets out of the van, and started wandering
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off toward the safety railing. Now, it doesn't explicitly say in the police reports that Demetrius followed her. But
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he must have because he says when they got back to the van, like together, he saw that the side of the van was
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damaged. >> He's just noticing it now. >> Yeah. So, super weird to me. I don't know if he's claiming he maybe got in on
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the driver's side of the van before and therefore didn't notice it. But it's not
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like the car could have been sideswiped while they were out of it because all the damage is on the side closest to the
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guard rail. And actually to Trooper Knox, it kind of looks like it hit the guard rail. But Demetrius also isn't
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saying anything about there being a crash while he was in the car. He says he has no idea how the damage happened,
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but he says the woman had been acting weird. Like the only thing she said to him was something like it's nice to meet
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you or it's nice to talk to you. But they didn't actually do any talking according to him. At least not more than
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her offering him the ride. Demetrius said that all of it was just like too weird. So he decided to just leave. And
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he starts walking back down the bridge on foot to get to his mom's house. But as he was walking, he said he got this
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weird feeling and decided to turn around. And as he got closer to the van, he swears that he saw what he describes
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as a dark figure standing by the railing. One minute that dark figure is there and then the next it's just gone.
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And by the time he got back to the van, there was no sign of the woman or whoever was in the van with her. Where
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did the beer he was holding come into all of this? And like why was he reaching back into the car when the
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trooper pulled up? It sounds like he like just stole the van and now he's trying to cover his tracks. I know there
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is no mention of the beer in the first report, but as for why he's reaching back into the van, well, there is a
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story about that. So, he says that now that no one was near the vehicle, I guess he just decided the van was his at
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that point because he tells Trooper Knox that he thought the woman gave it to him.
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>> Not sure that's how that works. >> I know. He says he was trying to like him reaching in was him trying to like
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push it down the road because he didn't have the keys >> which doesn't exactly track with her
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giving him the van would need to come with it. >> And no surprise like of course he
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doesn't have any papers proving that she gave it to him either since he just showed up and decided she did.
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>> Yeah. >> But Demetrius tells Trooper Knox he just assumed that she wanted him to have it.
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>> Okay. >> His story is all over the place. And unfortunately, at this time of night, at
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this time of the pandemic, there are no other witnesses to back him up or even to refute his story. But either way,
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Trooper Knox isn't buying it. So, he runs the registration on the minivan, and it comes back to a man named Eric
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Hasselquist, who lives about 20 minutes away. But the van hasn't been reported stolen or anything, so they can't
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actually arrest Demetrius. [music] So to figure out what's what, another officer who had made it to the scene by
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that point leaves trooper knocks with Demetrius. And then this officer heads over to the address on file to check if
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Eric knows what's going on with his van. Now, by the time the officer knocks on Eric's door, it's around 1:00 in the
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morning. So, it's not surprising when no one answers right away, except through a
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window, he sees that two kids are inside, a young boy and a young girl, like both elementary school age. So
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through the window he's like, "Hey, are your parents home?" The little girl just
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like shrugs, but then the kids do go and open the door to tell him that their parents are sleeping. And eventually
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their dad, Eric, hears them talking to the officer, and he doesn't like come out, which I think is a little bit
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strange. He just kind of yells from another room asking what's going on. Obviously, the officer tells him.
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They're trying to figure out who has their minivan. And that's when Eric finally comes to the door. He tells the
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officer, "No one is supposed to have the van. the whole family is home. So, he and the officer go and take a look
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outside where the van is usually parked. And of course, it's not there. >> But the family's other car is there
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parked in the driveway with the lights on and the door open. Now, there's nothing in the officer's report about
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the other car looking broken into or damaged. Just lights on, doors open. So, maybe whoever stole the van, if it was
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stolen, did that too. Maybe. But Eric tells the officer that he last saw the van at around 1000 p.m. Now, weirdly,
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there's no mention about whether they asked him if there was any damage to the van before this. I'm assuming if it was
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already wrecked that like that would have come up somehow >> as like a description of like my van was
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this color. Also, there's a scrape all the way down the passenger side. >> Windows are blown out, but again,
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remember that glass was like on the thing. So, I think they're really focusing on the accident happening there
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at the time. So, whoever took the van had likely gotten into an accident and made it onto the bridge all within a
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couple of hours. Now, as the officer is talking to Eric, he notices that they have a Ring camera, which like glorious,
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maybe they'll have the thief on tape, and this can all be wrapped up before shift change. So, he asks if he can take
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a look at the footage. And Eric shows him a screenshot from the ring cam that shows his wife Gwen leaving the house at
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around 10:19 p.m. >> Wait, like he just whipped out the screenshot all ready to go or he had to
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like go through the footage and then took the screenshot with the time code? >> Unclear. I know if you have a Ring
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camera, you can see the full recording history in the app, but it only shows what looks like a screenshot unless you
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like click in to play the full video. So >> I assume that first screenshot is what
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Eric is showing the officer. >> Okay. Now, he doesn't push Eric for more, though. He's just like, "Okay,
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great. Well, if she left at 10:19, did she come back?" >> Right? Like, did she have the van? Maybe
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she was the woman Demetrius said he met on the bridge, right? >> Or are we looking for someone else who
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stole your van? >> Right. So, Eric says, "Yes, she came back. She's inside right now resting
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because she just got tested for CO and he was pretty sure that it was going to come back positive." Does he show him a
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video or screenshot of that? >> No. The report just says that there is no video of anything else. Not of Gwen
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coming home, not of anyone in the driveway, at least that he sees. And Eric tells the officer that's because
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the Ring camera sensors don't like always trip. And look, I don't know about you if you have one of these, but
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like my camera at home catches like a squirrel crossing my falling. Yeah. >> So, I'm like a little bit side eyeing
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this. >> Yeah. I mean, I think you can adjust sensors on your cameras to make them
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like less sensitive or whatever. like I don't know in this situation just go talk to Gwen. Wake her up. Ask her what
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happened when she got home. All of it. She's right there. >> Well, this is where the complexities of
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the time come in. Because of social distancing protocols, the officer doesn't go inside to talk to her about
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where she went and what time she got back or anything. [music] And listen, like what makes this all even stranger
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to me is that Eric doesn't seem that concerned about the van. I mean, it's about to be towed away after sitting
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wrecked on a bridge in the middle of the night. But according to the report, he's
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like whatever. Like no big deal. >> Which like I'm also thinking it's a minivan. They have two kids. Like this
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is probably like the primary family vehicle and it's just like gone and he doesn't care.
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>> Yeah. And even though police like note his reaction and it's a little bit odd,
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they seem far more interested in and suspicious of Demetrius, the man they found with the wrecked van. So the
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officer writes a stolen vehicle report and just kind of goes on his way. He notifies Trooper Knox back at the bridge
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that he should arrest Demetrius for possession of a stolen vehicle. And that's that. Case closed for about an
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hour. Then around 2:00 a.m., Eric calls 911 to report his wife, Gwen, missing. The same wife that he had just told the
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officer was home in bed sleeping. She's now gone. The world is full of mysteries that make
00:11:36
us question everything we've ever known to be true. These events leave us with a
00:11:41
sense of wonder and yearning for understanding. I'm Evette Gentile. And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecarero. And each
00:11:47
week on our podcast, So Supernatural, we take a deep dive into the world's most bizarre and puzzling mysteries. Ready to
00:11:55
dive into the unknown? Join us every Friday for a new episode of So Supernatural, available wherever you
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listen to podcasts. Eric tells police that after the officer left his house, he went to go check on
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Gwen. And that's when he says he realized she was actually not home. >> Why did he say she came back then?
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>> Well, he doesn't actually mention why he says that. But if Gwen was selfisolating, maybe he thought that she
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just kind of slipped back in at some point to like keep away from him and the kids.
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>> Okay. But if my van was gone and found in a wreck and I had found footage of my
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husband Justin leaving but not coming back, even if I had a glitchy camera, I think I'd be worried enough to check
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right away when the officer was like there looking for [music] him. Unless I was absolutely sure had laid eyes on
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him, knew he was home. Yeah, I hear you. Maybe he didn't want to wake her up because she was sick or I don't know. I
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I don't know. But she went out at 1000 p.m. Like [laughter] I'm kind of questioning how sick can she
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be? Also, where is she even going at that time of night if she's sick? And I think she has co Eric doesn't know. He
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doesn't know where she would have been going. All he knows is that he says she didn't take her phone or her wallet with
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her. Like that's back at the house. But he did notice something else, something unsettling when he was looking around
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the house for her. He says that her bottle of Clinazipam, which she takes for anxiety, was gone. Eric found three
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loose pills on the floor, but the bottle itself, which he thinks would have had like 60 pills in it, was nowhere to be
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found. So, he thinks she was suicidal. I I guess what is he saying with this? I mean, he's not saying that outright, but
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he does tell police that before she went missing, Gwen was convinced that she had
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COVID. She had been tested for it earlier the day before and she was like beside herself upset about it. Now Gwen
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is immuno compromised and some of the autoimmune disorder she had like Shoggrren's disease and interstitial
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lung disease can affect the lungs which would make her more vulnerable to COVID specifically.
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>> And even though Eric says that her test hadn't come back yet, Gwen was scared
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and overwhelmed by like just the possibility that she had it. So, he doesn't say that she had a history of
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suicidal ideiation or anything like that, but I think when police put all these pieces that he's been giving them
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together, they begin to worry that maybe Gwen [music] is out there and maybe in danger of hurting herself. So, right
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after police finish talking to Eric, like still in the early morning hours of March 20th, same day they found the van,
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they go back to Demetrius, who is in jail now. They show him Gwen's license photo and he's like, "Yeah, that's the
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woman who was with the van. That's the woman from his story." Which, by the way, just before seeing this picture,
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that story changed a bit. So, when he was in the back of Trooper Knox's patrol car, he gave a slightly different
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version of what happened on the bridge. This time, Demetrius says that he's walking across the bridge when the van
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pulled over. And when he tried to tell the woman inside, you know, now that we know it was Gwen, when he tries to tell
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Gwen, that she couldn't park there, he's like, she just didn't respond. Now, he says there is still a mystery person in
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the back of the van. And that whole thing just like weirded him out. So, in this version, he never even got in. He
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just walked away to like go have a beer. But curiosity got the best of him. So, he went back to the van. And this is
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where the story stayed consistent. On the way back, he says he sees this dark figure on the bridge by the safety
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railing [music] on the side closest to the water. And as he got closer, he realized that the figure was just gone.
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So now with this new story, I mean, which is kind of the same as the old story, like at least the part that
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matters. And with everything that Eric told them about Gwen's state of mind, police asked Demetrius directly like,
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"Did you see anyone jump off the bridge?" And he says he assumed that she did. So he figured maybe giving him the
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van was the woman's quote dying wish. >> Dude really wants that van. >> We're still back to this. I know.
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>> But if he thinks Gwen jumped, there's still another person. Like who was that mystery person in the car,
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>> right? >> And where are they now? Like where did they go? >> Eric told the officer that no one else
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was supposed to have access to the [music] van. So I assume in an effort to make sure Eric wasn't that mystery man
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in the van. They show they do show Demetrius Eric's photo, but Demetrius says no. Like, I've never seen Eric
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before. Seems like they take him at his word because they don't even end up charging
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Demetrius with anything. [music] Not even trying to steal the van after he found it, which is a little odd to me.
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But they just let him go. And Gwen is entered into the system as a missing person that night. If everyone's stories
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are true, and she did jump, police are racing against the clock to try and find her before it's too late. So, they call
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the Coast Guard out to help them search the Puget Sound below the bridge. The search goes on for hours without any
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sign of her, and Eric does his own form of searching for his wife as well. Just before 6:00 a.m., police see that Eric
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has posted the full ring cam footage of Gwen leaving the house on Facebook, not just the screenshot this time. And he's
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asking people to help find her. Now, we actually got that video from police. And
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here is the entire clip that he posted online. Okay, so you can see like it's super
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dark out. You can just see like the stoop of their house. Gwen leaves. It looks like she's like about to lock up.
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She's getting her keys ready, but she's like like stop like like she's in like the
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the the bolt lock and she can't quite get the key in or like isn't finding the keyhole and now she's down at the handle
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with the same key. She's missing the handle. Like she's not even But it's not even like full
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fumbling. It's like she's like staggering a little. >> Yeah. And she's almost when she's not getting it, she's not
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correcting herself right away. She's like >> pausing >> pausing like wait, let me focus like
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>> Yeah. >> really hard to try to do this. She's finally like leaning into the door. I
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can't She's blocking her hands. I assume she's like trying to lock it some more.
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>> She's not in pajamas or anything. She's in like it looks like workout clothes
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and that's pretty much it. >> Then it just cuts off. Yeah. Police's interpretation of that video is that she
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looks really out of it. >> Like maybe the clinazipam that was missing. She took it and it was already
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kicking in when she left, which is just adding to the suicide [music] theory. And I mean, watching that footage, you
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can't help but wonder what happened after Gwen walked out that door. Now, the footage doesn't show her getting
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into the van or driving away. It just like cuts off while she's at the door. >> Yeah. And did they ever request the full
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video? Not that I can tell. If they did, if they got it, they have not shared that with us, but they might not have
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thought to because of what happened next. At 2:19 p.m., a kayaker paddling in the Puet Sound about 7 mi from the
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bridge where the van was found, finds Gwen's lifeless body. When authorities pull her out, they can tell that it's
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her because she's wearing the same clothes that she had on in that Ring camera video. They can also tell that
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her arm is broken. And one detective on the scene noted that there was a 1 to2 in tear on the back of Gwen's left hand
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and cuts on her left wrist that weren't consistent with self harm. I wasn't looking for that when I was watching the
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video, but did she have that on her hand in the ring video? >> I don't see anything big that stands
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out, but I also don't know what it is they're looking at when they say that. Like they didn't share the autopsy
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pictures. Now, they say that she had tiny shards of broken safety glass stuck to her clothes and even inside her bra.
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The same kind of glass that was scattered around the bridge by the van and the guardrail. And in her pockets
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are the van's keys. None of the police reports come right out and say this yet, but when you look at the conversations
00:20:17
with Eric and Demetrius and the details police document here, everything points to them treating this like Gwen crashed
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the van and then jumped into the water. But a medical examiner will make the final call. When the autopsy report
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comes back, the Emmy does note those cuts and the broken arm that they saw at the scene, and X-rays show multiple rib
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fractures. She has faint bruising on her neck, deeper bruises on her leg, and her
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chest had been flattened. Now, she's missing a front tooth. There's a small scratch-like mark inside her mouth from
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her upper to lower lip from what seems like blunt force trauma. And the Emmy thinks that all of these injuries are
00:20:59
consistent with a jump from the bridge into the water 195 ft below. When toxicology reports come back, they show
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that clinazipam is in [music] her system about 25 nanogs per milliliter plus a high level of its metabolite, which is
00:21:15
enough to indicate a possible overdose. And if she overdosed, even given how she
00:21:22
was in that video, would she have would she have even been able to drive? Not well. I mean, the drive is still a
00:21:30
question for the ME's office, too. In an investigative report, it's noted that how Gwen made it to the Puet Sound isn't
00:21:36
clear. But maybe that explains the accident. But if she already overdosed, why would she drive out to a bridge and
00:21:45
jump? Well, overdose doesn't mean that it's fatal. I guess like Clinazipam, even in large doses, actually usually
00:21:52
isn't fatal. Maybe she didn't know that and she realized it wasn't doing what she intended. Maybe she didn't want to
00:21:59
be in the house where her kids might find her. Listen, the autopsy will tell you what, not [music] why,
00:22:05
>> right? >> And the what is enough for the Emmy to rule Gwen's death a suicide from
00:22:10
multiple traumatic injuries consistent [music] with jumping from a height. When police send a chaplain to notify Eric
00:22:16
that Gwen's [music] body has been found, they expect shock, grief, anything. >> But the chaplain says he shows almost no
00:22:26
emotion. He's just like unfazed. And though earlier he claimed that she had no previous suicidal ideiation, he is
00:22:34
just like really quick to accept Gwen's death for what it is. Like on social media he posts that Gwen was depressed
00:22:40
about having CO and that she just lost her will to live. But Gwen's loved ones don't believe that for a second. They
00:22:48
tell police that she was doing well leading up to her death. I mean, she was in therapy and she had just started
00:22:54
reconnecting with her family, but she was making plans for the future. I >> mean, anything there that would play
00:22:59
into this, >> the the therapy? >> Yeah. >> So, she was in therapy for this childhood trauma, and she had distanced
00:23:05
herself from some family members. And I did get a little more from her family on
00:23:09
what exactly it was and and how serious it was. I could see it being a factor, but a her family told us that she was
00:23:18
never suicidal over the issue. B, [music] Eric never once brings this up as a reason that he thinks she would
00:23:25
have taken her own life. He only ever points to CO. And C, her family says that she never ever would abandon her
00:23:33
kids. I mean, she loved them more than anything. And they claim ever since her death, Eric had been isolating the kids
00:23:40
from them. So over the next few months, they beg police to just take a closer look at Eric. And they point out an old
00:23:48
domestic violence allegation made by Gwen against him from when he was stationed at a nearby military base
00:23:55
between 2011 and 2014, which police do find a record of. The record says that he allegedly assaulted Gwen after
00:24:02
threatening to take his own life. And her loved ones also show police some of the strange things that Eric had been
00:24:09
posting online since Gwen died. Like just days after her death, Eric posted that the family's dog died of COVID,
00:24:17
too. But the timing felt super off to Gwen's friends and family. Like almost too quick.
00:24:23
>> Wait, were pets dying from CO, too. >> Thank you. I did a double take on that,
00:24:29
too. I had to do some Googling. It's possible. Per the Mayo Clinic, it's more likely to spread from person to animal
00:24:37
than like animal to person. and you would need to have close contact with the pet while infected.
00:24:43
>> Okay, >> so if Gwen had COVID, she could have spread it to her dog. But the weird part
00:24:49
to me is that the Mayo Clinic website says, quote, "If your pet gets sick, try not to worry. Of the small number of
00:24:56
dogs and cats that have been infected by the CO 19 virus, some had no symptoms. Most of the pets that got ill had mild
00:25:03
symptoms. They could be cared for at home. pets have rarely become seriously ill with CO 19. End quote.
00:25:12
>> Okay, that's great information, but I also have to think like when this is happening, we don't know a lot about CO.
00:25:18
You're reading this today in 2025 where there's been a lot more research, how would he in 2020 have known that on the
00:25:26
other hand, rarely is not never. So, like like the Mayo Clinic said, it's possible, but like Yeah, it still seems
00:25:36
wildly unlikely to me. Yeah, I I don't know. So, make of the dog what you will. The thing that really pushed her family
00:25:44
over the edge and made them suspicious was a Facebook post that Eric made on May 30th, barely 2 months after Gwen's
00:25:51
death. That's when he posted that his kids were pushing him to meet someone new and that he was ready to date again.
00:26:00
>> His kids that are like elementary school age, just to be clear. >> Mhm. And like in the middle of a
00:26:05
pandemic, just to be clear. So, not even 2 weeks later after that post on June 12th, he uploaded a video
00:26:13
to YouTube of his wedding to a woman from Kenya that he had just met a couple of weeks earlier. What? But even though
00:26:25
Eric's behavior definitely raises some eyebrows, >> my eyebrows are raised. >> I can see none of it directly proves
00:26:32
that he had anything to do with Gwen's death. So, police are sticking to their thought process. This was a suicide.
00:26:40
Case closed. Not case closed. It feels like there are so many open questions here. Like, I get
00:26:48
this is the easy answer, maybe even like the likely answer based on what they have, but I don't feel like they have
00:26:56
>> everything. Like, how can you just write it off as her taking her own life without making sure? Like, Ashley, the
00:27:05
video footage, I need to see the rest of it. And like, how did she drive 20 minutes away to this bridge with this
00:27:14
toxic dose of Clinazipam in her system? I know they ruled out Demetrius. I still
00:27:20
have questions about his story, too. >> I know. >> Also, did we even confirm that she did
00:27:24
in fact have CO? Like that's the whole premise of her being in this state, right?
00:27:30
>> So that's one of the things that is so odd to me. >> Okay, so hospital records confirmed that
00:27:35
Gwen was tested on March 19th, like Eric said she was, >> but the ME's office didn't test for it
00:27:43
during the autopsy. And listen, I don't know what the situation was with tests at that point in Washington. I mean,
00:27:49
again, it's like early days. >> We didn't have like rapid tests. There was like a lot of like scarcity,
00:27:55
>> right? So there there's no telling if she actually had CO, >> which to your point I think is like a
00:28:02
critical piece of information. And so for all the reasons above, all the ones that you just mentioned, Gwen's loved
00:28:08
ones have not been able to accept her death as a suicide. >> So that's when we came in and we started
00:28:15
digging ourselves, requesting records, talking to everyone we could, including Eric. And what we found just left us
00:28:24
with a lot more questions. So earlier this year, 5 years after Gwen's death, we picked up where police
00:28:35
left off with the case closed as a suicide. And we started from the beginning by trying to retrace Gwen's
00:28:41
last known steps on the night that she died. But as soon as we did, the cracks in the official ruling started to show.
00:28:50
Because when we talked to Gwen's best friend, she did not buy that Gwen could even have made that drive to the bridge
00:28:57
alone. And not necessarily just because of the clinazipam though, which like just quick side tangent [music] here,
00:29:04
even how much she took is like hard to pin down. So >> what do you mean? >> Well, we actually asked a toxicologist,
00:29:11
Dr. Heather Clintworth, to review this one, and she told us the clinazipam in Gwen's blood was within therapeutic
00:29:18
range. like a normal dose, >> but the metabolite, which is like the byproduct of the drug breaking down,
00:29:27
that was at a level edging into toxic in her system. According to Dr. Clintworth,
00:29:32
that means Gwen likely took a heavy dose before leaving the house. But she also told us that the science is kind of
00:29:39
messy here. Postmortem changes can affect those levels, and the report doesn't include stomach content
00:29:45
analysis, so it's hard to pin down. Yeah. which would show you maybe how many pills are actually
00:29:50
>> the residual of the pills. >> So, we really don't know. But even though Dr. Clint said that Gwen likely
00:29:55
took a large dose, she doesn't think that the tox test showed high enough levels for her to have taken 60 pills.
00:30:02
>> So, maybe she did take them with her, but only took some TBD. Either way, clinazipam aside, Gwen's best friend
00:30:13
told us that Gwen needed glasses to drive. like she could barely see without them. And we know from the ring footage
00:30:21
she wasn't wearing those glasses, right? I mean, maybe one explains the other in
00:30:26
the situation. Maybe she's in an altered state. Doesn't even think about taking her glasses with her. Or I mean, I don't
00:30:33
know, like the terrain or the roads. Like maybe it was a straight shot drive. Oh, it definitely isn't that. Gwen's
00:30:40
stepsister actually did the hard part for us. She retraced the whole route from Gwen's house and filmed it to like
00:30:46
where the van was on the bridge. And when I watched it, I agree with her. Like there is no way Gwen got all the
00:30:53
way to the bridge. >> Or at least it doesn't feel likely to me because this drive is about 15 miles of
00:31:00
curving treeline road to the bridge. Not a ton of street lights that I could see
00:31:05
and it would have been really dark when Gwen left the house. But I do kind of wonder if there's a third option.
00:31:12
doesn't necessarily address the clinazipam. But what if she kept a pair of glasses in the van
00:31:19
>> or even in the car? Maybe that explains why the other car door was open. >> Open. The light was on. She was looking
00:31:25
for them. >> We know she isn't wearing her glasses in the ring footage, but that doesn't
00:31:28
completely rule out any idea of her putting them on at some point. But as far as I can tell from the police
00:31:35
reports, police don't really run this down. I would have loved if police would have asked Demetrius about this or even
00:31:42
if like someone could have like drilled in on Eric about where she kept glasses because from what I pieced together, I
00:31:48
think she had two pairs. But here's the really frustrating thing. There might even have been an image of her or
00:31:58
whoever was driving in the van that night. You see, to get onto the bridge, you have to pass through a toll booth.
00:32:07
So, we were thinking like if Gwen drove through, there should be a record. >> Yeah.
00:32:12
>> The thing is when we filed foyers for the traffic and bridge cam footage, we were told that the traffic cam was just
00:32:18
a live feed. So, nothing was saved. The toll booth footage is not considered public record. So, we couldn't get it.
00:32:25
And I don't think police ever requested that because it wasn't mentioned or listed anywhere in the documents that we
00:32:30
foyed. But why not? Yeah, >> I mean it could prove whether or not she was the one driving the van to the
00:32:36
bridge that night. >> At the very least, it could give you a timestamp so you would have like another
00:32:41
like known sighting of her confirmed. Like even the simplest things, >> this is why I think it's so important
00:32:46
because there is something about the crash that doesn't add up to me. Why is Gwen covered in glass?
00:32:52
>> What do you mean? >> I mean, when they find her, right, she's got glass stuck to her jacket, even in
00:32:57
her bra, >> right? They took that as proof that she was in the car when the accident happened and
00:33:02
therefore must have drove there, crashed, and jumped. That doesn't line up for me. Yes, she had to have been in
00:33:09
the car for the accident. All the windows that were shattered were on the passenger side of the van, which
00:33:17
feels like to me that she would have been in >> in the passenger side when the accident
00:33:21
happened, aka not driving. >> Right. But question number two, did the accident even happen on the bridge?
00:33:29
>> Wait, is there a question about that? I thought we knew that like as fact. >> So, hear me out. I had heard that there
00:33:37
was wood chips found in the van. And with all the other weirdness, I'm like, "Okay, what if the crash happened before
00:33:44
the bridge? What proof do we have that it actually hit the guardrail? Surely they had proof because that's what we're
00:33:51
going with. It hit the guardrail. That's why it scraped all the way down the side. the windows are blown out, etc.,
00:33:54
etc. >> So, I'm looking through the pictures that we got of the van through our foyer
00:33:58
request, and we only have a few, and the few that we have are just of the van. What I keep looking for is the
00:34:05
guardrail. There should be paint transfer where she hid it. There should be some sign of wood anywhere.
00:34:12
>> Yeah. >> Why is everyone sure that it happened on the bridge? >> I mean, you said they found glass there
00:34:18
on the bridge, right? >> Well, yeah, but how much glass? None of the pictures I saw were of the glass on
00:34:23
the ground. So, did all the glass shatter right there? Or did the glass shatter somewhere else and then just
00:34:29
come out as the doors were open and like when people got out of the van? And listen, we actually got to talk to
00:34:35
Trooper Knox about all of this. And guess what? He [snorts] told us that the damage on the van looked like more than
00:34:43
what you would expect from a single scrape against a guardrail. And there was wood debris stuck in it, which he
00:34:50
thinks could have come from the van hitting a sign or something at some point. And some of the damage to the van
00:34:56
was even higher than the guardrail itself. >> So it couldn't have been the guardrail.
00:35:00
>> Yeah. So Trooper Knox thinks that whatever happened to the van happened before the van ever made it onto the
00:35:05
bridge. >> So is he saying someone tried to make it look like Gwen hit the guardrail?
00:35:12
>> No. I mean, he said the accident didn't look staged. and he thinks that the glass was blown out on the passenger
00:35:18
side, which would be consistent with hitting a guardrail or part of the bridge. The thing is, he's like, "No, I
00:35:26
never found the exact spot or the exact point of impact." >> Which is weird, right?
00:35:32
>> To me, yeah. I mean, it's not like the van had time to move a ton. He said that
00:35:37
Gwen's van would have caught attention. I guess suicide was common on this bridge. And when those occur, he usually
00:35:44
gets calls after the fact about people who were seen walking the pedestrian path or a car spotted. And with the fact
00:35:50
that all the doors on this van were open, he doesn't think that it would have been very long between when the van
00:35:55
stopped and when he arrived on the scene. And here's where the video footage from the toll booth could have
00:36:01
confirmed this because that's something else that doesn't line up. Because if the screenshot that Eric showed the
00:36:08
police is correct and she left the house at 10:19 and it's a 20 minute drive to the bridge,
00:36:15
>> that doesn't totally line up for me. Trooper Knox doesn't find her or get called out there until 12:20.
00:36:21
Where was she for the like hour and 20 minutes in between? I mean, maybe the missing time helps explain how
00:36:30
she got there without her glasses and with the clasopam in her system. like she could have been driving really
00:36:37
really slowly. She gets into an accident somewhere else and then >> that's the only thing that makes sense
00:36:44
to me. But where? And does that tell us anything else about what happened? But maybe finding out what happened in the
00:36:51
missing 2 hours isn't even the right question because we're basing all of that off of a screenshot on Eric's phone
00:36:58
and I don't think it was even the video that was timestamped. So, I think Eric's
00:37:03
screenshot might have just shown his whole screen, >> which has like the time that it actually
00:37:10
is. >> Yeah. In our foy, we didn't actually get to see the screenshot. So, if if we're
00:37:14
just seeing like a screen, like if we're just getting it from him, we're just getting the screenshot at the top of his
00:37:18
phone. >> Mhm. >> Because the actual like video, the one that we all just watched, like that one
00:37:23
that we got from Pierce County Sheriff's Office, that doesn't have a timestamp anywhere on it. I couldn't even pull one
00:37:29
from the metadata. So, all we have to go off of about when Gwen was last seen are
00:37:35
police records where they mentioned the time, but not a timestamp specifically. And the only thing I see where they're
00:37:42
getting the time is from Eric, >> which means we can't even be sure if honestly if the footage is from that
00:37:48
night, >> right? I mean, the thing I will say is Gwen's clothes that she's found in do
00:37:54
match what she's wearing in that footage, but I mean, like, I know I wore the same outfit for like a week straight
00:38:00
more often than I like to admit during the pandemic. >> Oh, for sure. >> So, that's not enough for me. And I
00:38:05
wanted to know if the footage could have been cropped or manipulated somehow. So,
00:38:10
we actually reached out to Ring and they told us that downloaded footage doesn't
00:38:14
always show a timestamp like the video we got, although the file name does. So, we asked Eric if we could just get the
00:38:22
original file cuz even the one that police got, they like downloaded from Facebook, right? And more than anything,
00:38:28
I just wanted to see the rest of the footage. Like, how and when does the other car door get open? If she left and
00:38:34
this was a suicide, did she do that? Why was she in the driver's seat when she left? Did anyone
00:38:42
in the family come in and out of the house in all of that time? Cuz I don't know about you, but the fact that the
00:38:48
kids were awake when police showed up at 1:00 a.m. is wild to me. Yeah. I mean, I
00:38:54
know schools were closed, whatever. It was a wild time. We were all trying to figure out our new normal, a new
00:38:59
routine, but like these kids, when I say they were elementary age, they were eight and 10. And like eight and 10
00:39:04
awake by themselves. was like their dad wasn't even out like the dad was even out there with them. Like it wasn't even
00:39:11
like they were trying to get them back to bed or anything. It seems It does seem completely bizarre. But I have to
00:39:16
ask, did the police interview the kids? I don't think so. There is nothing in the police reports about that. Like
00:39:22
their investigation pretty much ends after Gwen's death is ruled a suicide, which is bonkers to me because they were
00:39:30
awake when the officer showed up to notify Eric, >> which again alone is a huge standout to
00:39:36
me. >> So the ring footage is everything here. But we reached out to Eric and he says
00:39:43
he thinks he deleted it. >> Thinks? I mean, can he check? We asked him, but he said that he couldn't find
00:39:50
it. Here's what's even weirder to me. The image, the footage that he put on Facebook. It looks cropped compared to
00:40:00
my doorbell cam. >> Okay, >> not trying to make assumptions like maybe we have different kinds of
00:40:04
cameras, models, whatever. So, when our reporter talked to Eric, we specifically
00:40:09
asked him what his camera covered. What could you what all you could see? Yeah, >> I'm going to play that clip for you.
00:40:16
>> Yeah, it covers the whole front of the house. So really anybody coming up or down the driveway you can see. And that
00:40:23
house is nice cuz it's uh it's totally surrounded by really thick woods. So the only way you can get up can get to that
00:40:30
house really is on the driveway and it's totally covered by the camera. So I always like that. Felt really secure in
00:40:36
that house. Like if anybody comes in to the house or you know comes down to the house or gets out of the house, it's all
00:40:43
captured on that one camera. Ashley, I watched the video. We watched the video. I saw the front door
00:40:52
again, like the stoop, not really the whole front of the house. >> Yeah. And listen, police have never said
00:40:59
that the footage was manipulated or cropped. And everything that we've gotten from them seems to indicate that
00:41:05
they believe the 10:19 time that Eric gave or showed them on the screenshot. This all feels like something they could
00:41:14
have pretty easily verified if they had gotten like a warrant for the ring footage or just asked Eric for the whole
00:41:23
thing, right? Cuz like I'm not trying to make the guy look extra shady. Police don't even seem to ever ask him for it.
00:41:30
>> So, did she actually drive away alone? Even if she did, was she alone the whole
00:41:38
time? Did she stop somewhere in the missing two hours? Did she at any point end up in the passenger seat before the
00:41:46
crash? The only person who would know what happened on the bridge for sure, at least to me, is Demetrius. Now, we
00:41:55
couldn't talk to him ourselves. He died in 2024, but we looked into him and found a few criminal convictions like
00:42:02
some DWI, shoplifting, assaults, and so we requested his full records, and found
00:42:08
some concerning details. In 2017, he was charged with fourthderee assault. And then in May of 2020, this is weeks after
00:42:16
Gwen's death, he was arrested [music] again for fourthderee assault and for violating a domestic violence no contact
00:42:21
order. Now, the victim in those cases was his ex-girlfriend, likely the woman whose house he was walking home from the
00:42:28
night that Gwen died. And the records show that that woman filed a restraining order against Demetrius before the
00:42:36
assault and filed another after, but Demetrius broke them. And eventually, the charges were dismissed, not because
00:42:42
the evidence wasn't there, but because a judge ruled him incompetent to stand trial.
00:42:48
Now, as far as we know, he had no connections to Gwen. But I also don't know if police even checked any of this
00:42:55
out because to me, I'm like, why did we just take this guy's word about what happened, right? Like, who's to say she
00:43:02
didn't leave Solo and then came in contact with Demetrius like somewhere else along the way. Maybe she was even
00:43:09
passed out in her car and he took the van from her with her in it. Maybe he tried to steal the van and things like
00:43:16
took a turn. >> This is why I'm saying it would be real nice to have that toll booth footage
00:43:21
right about now. >> Yeah. I mean, did we ask Eric if police told him anything about Demetrius?
00:43:27
>> Dude, this is the other thing. Eric told our reporters he didn't even know Demetrius existed cuz police police
00:43:34
never mentioned him. And Eric has never tried to look at Gwen's case file. I mean, sorry. What do you mean? They
00:43:41
never even mention Demetrius. >> Just never came up according to Eric. >> Okay, back up. [laughter]
00:43:49
>> How do we know he had no connection to Gwen or even to Eric for that matter? Like,
00:43:57
>> Trooper Knox told us that he never found a connection. >> Well, it's real easy to not find a
00:44:01
connection if you don't ask a question. >> Of course, we cannot know for sure >> without talking to Demetrius. The thing
00:44:08
Trooper Knox will say is he's like, "Listen, Demetrius was very cooperative." So, he just didn't think
00:44:13
he had anything to do with Gwen's disappearance or her death. >> Okay, follow-up question.
00:44:20
What happened to the mystery person in the back seat that Demetrius mentioned in like every version of his story,
00:44:25
right? That just never gets brought up again. And maybe he made this third person up to take the heat off himself.
00:44:33
I don't know. Listen, Trooper Knox obviously didn't work the investigation part of this, but even he says it's
00:44:39
weird. Like he's like, "Listen, one minute it's this stolen van and then within an hour this case is something
00:44:45
else entirely." And he says he still has a lot of questions about it. But Eric doesn't. He still believes that Gwen was
00:44:53
distraught over possibly having CO and died by suicide. Okay, so if Gwen did jump,
00:45:02
I guess I'm still not getting the why. Like having CO is scary and definitely incredibly scarier March 20th.
00:45:10
>> Yeah. And like for Gwen especially, but this still feels like a really big reaction to that.
00:45:17
>> Especially in my mind because she didn't even know for sure if she had it yet.
00:45:21
Mhm. >> But again, I like I I try to keep reminding myself beginning of the pandemic co we knew nothing, you guys.
00:45:29
Like everyone was scared. Everyone was confused. So, however unbelievable that sounds to
00:45:36
us now, it might have felt possible to police and to Eric and to people back then, but it never felt possible to
00:45:44
Gwen's loved ones. They just don't believe she would have spiraled the way that Eric claimed she did if she even
00:45:49
had CO. And I don't know if I mentioned this, but Gwen was actually a nurse. So,
00:45:53
I mean, she'd seen illness up close her whole career. And her stepsister shared texts that Gwen sent her where she never
00:46:01
once seemed terrified or even like super anxious about having CO. She just said that she was going to take it easy while
00:46:07
she waits for her results to come back. >> So, she wasn't even like spiraling in
00:46:11
those conversations. >> Yeah. Not in those text messages, but I know those are just texts. They don't
00:46:16
prove her state of mind one way or another. So, I was like, "Oh, I have an idea. Let's, you know, I know the me
00:46:23
didn't see if she had CO, but she took that test." So, we went and asked Eric, "Can you clear this up for us? Did Gwen
00:46:30
have CO or not? Like, did the results come back?" And he told us that it was confirmed. She did have CO, but of
00:46:38
course, we can't verify that without her medical records, which we can't get without his permission. And when we
00:46:43
asked Eric if he'd be willing to share her test results with us to put this question to bed once and for all, he
00:46:49
said no. Now, a source also sent us screenshots of Eric's Facebook posts from the time that Gwen [music] was
00:46:58
missing. The night that the van was reported stolen, he posted that a nice officer told him his van was found on
00:47:05
the bridge and Gwen was missing. He was hoping for answers in the morning, but he didn't ask in the post if anyone had
00:47:12
heard from her or knew where she was that day. He also posted, "All I can think about is how cold the water is.
00:47:19
God, I miss her." And Brett, that's before Gwen was even found in the water. >> And Gwen's stepsister was actually with
00:47:27
Eric at the house all day, March 20th, while Gwen was missing. and she told us that instead of going out to search for
00:47:33
Gwen with the search teams, he stayed home, which for her raised red flags. Again, I don't know, pandemic things,
00:47:40
whatever, or how they were isolating. >> But she says at the time, she kept asking him why he wasn't doing more to
00:47:46
help find Gwen. Like, in her mind, >> she's with the kids. Like, they're safe. He had the space to focus on the search.
00:47:52
But then Eric got a call. Search and rescue that had been combing the water looking for Gwen all day was ending the
00:47:59
search. They even sent a PowerPoint showing where they looked and what resources they used. And after that
00:48:05
call, Gwen's stepsister said Eric offered her a shot. She took a sip, he finished his, and then she watched him
00:48:12
pass out multiple times at the table and then again on the couch. And that made her wonder whether he struggled with
00:48:19
alcoholism. And in our reporting, we found that Eric had actually been described as an alcoholic to police. And
00:48:27
that could explain all the weirdness >> maybe, which like I can see the lack of response when he's first notified about
00:48:35
Gwen's death maybe being attributed to him being like drunk or numb or whatever. And like again, maybe like
00:48:41
even some of like his weird reactions or the things he said. I don't know. And Gwen's stepsister actually remembers the
00:48:48
moment that the chaplain told Eric that Gwen was gone, the one we talked about earlier. And she said his reaction just
00:48:55
stuck with her. She claims that he went into the house afterwards and did something strange. He like kissed his
00:49:01
fingers and then touched them to Gwen's photo like one by one and whispered why and then turned each picture face down
00:49:10
until eventually he just laid on the floor repeating why why. And to Gwen's stepsister it felt just
00:49:20
very performative. >> Mhm. Oh, and before this, a former c-orker of Eric's showed us texts that
00:49:27
Eric sent her after the search was called off, but hours before Gwen was officially confirmed dead, where he
00:49:35
said, quote, "Gwen's gone. I'm a single dad now." Again, before they found her, right then they said that within about a
00:49:44
week, Eric burned Gwen's clothes and photos in the backyard fire with his kids there.
00:49:51
>> Oh my god. And then pretty soon we know he met his second wife, this woman from
00:49:56
Kenya, married her less than 3 months later >> and met online, I'm assuming. >> Mhm. Eric was clear that they met after
00:50:04
Gwen's death. And when our reporter asked him about moving on and marrying again so quickly, he quoted what he
00:50:11
claims Gwen always told him. Life is for the living. But it's like the way he went about living is what I think people
00:50:18
had problems with because a source close to Gwen told us that Eric >> made the kids call his new wife mom and
00:50:24
told them to start calling Gwen their own mother who had just passed away by her first name. Like just Gwen or
00:50:31
Gwendalyn. And speaking of weirdness, Gwen's loved ones think that Eric isn't being upfront about the dog's death,
00:50:39
which a source told us happened when he took it for a walk, by the way. So, the dog is so sick from COVID that it just
00:50:47
drops dead, but in the middle of a walk that it was healthy enough to go on. >> Well, when we talked to Eric, he said
00:50:55
the dog was never diagnosed with CO. >> Okay. He said, quote, "Something ran through the house and the day after
00:51:03
Gwen's death, the dog got sick and then by the end of the day, the dog was just gone." Now, our source claims that Eric
00:51:09
told them he threw the dog's body in the woods after it died. What? This is something we haven't been able to
00:51:16
independently confirm. I can't confirm what happened to the dog and what Eric did with the dog after cuz we didn't get
00:51:22
another chance. Like, by the time we learn this, we didn't get another chance to talk to Eric.
00:51:26
>> But to me, it just feels like this dog's death just it adds another layer. I mean, you got Gwen's clothes, her
00:51:33
photos, now even her dog all gone. And from there, Eric appeared to be trying just to move forward. You know, life is
00:51:42
for the living and all, >> right? >> And Eric may have needed some distance to heal because he also told us starting
00:51:50
in March of 2021, so a year later, he and his new wife spent long stretches in Kenya where she was from, like 3 to 6
00:51:58
months at a time, and then they would come like for a month or two back to the States while the kid stayed with his
00:52:04
parents. And at some point while he was living in Kenya, he texted that former coworker that I mentioned and let them
00:52:12
know that his wife gave him the go-ahad to take another wife, which he claims is
00:52:16
common there. And yes, polygamy is legal in Kenya. But that might have been a point of contention for Eric and his
00:52:24
parents because in June of 2024, while he was back in the US, Eric got arrested at his parents' home after a drunken
00:52:32
fight with his dad. According to a criminal complaint, Eric's parents learned about an affair that he had in
00:52:38
Kenya that resulted in a pregnancy and they asked him to leave the house. Apparently, he agreed, but by the end of
00:52:45
the day, Eric hadn't left. So, his dad checked on him, found him drunk. And when his dad told him he had to go, Eric
00:52:51
got angry and attacked him. Police were called. They gave Eric a breathalyzer. He blew a.244,
00:52:57
[snorts] three times the legal limit. >> He gets charged with disorderly conduct
00:53:01
and domestic abuse. That case is still open and Eric plead not guilty. But this behavior from Eric doesn't seem new
00:53:09
based on what we heard from loved ones. And her best friend told us that they'd had conversations, her and Gwen, about
00:53:15
Eric drinking again, about him threatening suicide and having been violent in the past, including that
00:53:20
incident in the military when he was living on the base, which she says Gwen claimed led to him being discharged.
00:53:27
>> Now, we asked Eric if he'd be willing to share his military records with us. He
00:53:30
said no. We tried to foyer them, but we were denied. Still, Gwen's friend claimed that her relationship with Eric
00:53:37
had gotten so bad by the end that she even worried it would end in a murder suicide.
00:53:44
>> But Eric didn't paint that same picture in an email to our reporter. He insisted
00:53:49
that he didn't hurt Gwen. Now, when we tried to talk to him, like I said a second time about these allegations, he
00:53:56
declined our request for a follow-up conversation. He told our reporter that he wanted to stop talking about Gwen's
00:54:02
death so he can focus on healing. But I do want to leave you with one last piece
00:54:06
of information straight from Eric. >> I want to be open with you, Rachel. I'm not trying to hide anything. And I just
00:54:12
the only thing I ask is as you're, you know, making your the podcast or whatever you're putting together, I just
00:54:20
really ask that you be respectful for Gwen and for her memory. I mean, I think maybe the reason this turned into a
00:54:27
story is cuz I tried to hide the fact that she had committed suicide. >> Oh, really? Did you cuz you feel like
00:54:32
you tried to hide that? What do you mean? >> I did. Oh, I absolutely did. I didn't
00:54:37
want people to know that. >> Is that why you said the COVID stuff or what do you mean you tried to hide it?
00:54:42
>> If you look at the uh the obit that I wrote >> Mhm. >> you know, it doesn't mention suicide.
00:54:48
>> Yeah. >> And and I didn't want that for her. I mean, he posted about her taking her
00:54:54
own life on socials. It does feel contradictory. We gave Eric the opportunity to respond to all of
00:55:03
these allegations against him and he told us he already said everything there is to say, that this was the worst day
00:55:10
of his life and he wants the opportunity to move on. And I mean, maybe this whole
00:55:17
case is exactly what Eric says. It is a tragic death, but not a suspicious [music] one.
00:55:24
The problem is like every path we went down, nothing feels like it adds up. We tried reaching out to Eric's parents,
00:55:31
too, but they didn't respond to us. I was really hoping for the opportunity to understand what their kids are going
00:55:37
through. I mean, what do they believe? What do they remember? But those kids deserve to move on and heal more than
00:55:42
anyone. So, I'm not going to push there. >> And maybe one day they'll have some of
00:55:47
the same questions we do. The unfortunate thing is that I don't think they'll be able to go to law enforcement
00:55:53
for answers because more wasn't done on the front end of this investigation. I think that we'll forever leave this case
00:56:00
open to questions even if police were right in their conclusion. I think I've said this a lot and I mean it cannot be
00:56:08
stressed enough. I know a lot of current and prospective law enforcement people listen to this show.
00:56:13
>> So I want to hammer it home. I've always been told by good investigators that
00:56:17
each case should be treated as a homicide investigation until you can prove it's not. So, if you're listening
00:56:24
and you have any information about Gwen Hasselquist or her death or her movement
00:56:29
the night of March 19th or the early morning hours of March 20th, 2020, we want to hear from you. Law enforcement
00:56:36
considers this case closed, but you can email me [email protected]. And if you or a loved one is struggling
00:56:44
with thoughts of suicide or self harm, you can call or text the Crisis and Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or
00:56:51
visit 988life.org. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website,
00:56:56
crimejunkie.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunk [music] podcast. We'll be back next week with a
00:57:01
brand new episode.