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[Music] 911 emergency i can't find my daughter nine-year-old valerie jackson vanished
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from her spokane washington home without a trace the search for her whereabouts included
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almost every neighborhood and the area's mountain and forest regions but the key
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to solving the mystery was an investigative tool 10 000 miles away in space [Music]
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spokane washington is a vibrant city the center of an area known as the inland northwest
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many residents looking to raise a family settle several miles east of the city in
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the spokane valley where the schools are good crime is low and families feel safe
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brad jackson a truck driver and his daughter valerie lived here in a home they shared with brad's parents
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brad had sole custody of valerie because the child's mother roseanne pleasant
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mysteriously disappeared seven years ago she had a drug problem in october of 1999
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valerie had just turned nine years old she was a very bright fourth grader at the mcdonald elementary school just a
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few blocks from her home just saw a vibrant little girl if somebody was in an argument she'd try
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and mend it and fix it and she was she was a great little girl never got in trouble
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monday morning october 18th started out just like any other school day until something went terribly wrong
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i can't explain my daughter okay how old is she nice okay she didn't go to school
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today nowhere just getting ready to go and she went outside to play for a while because she
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was done early anger she's a white female yes little redhead brad said valerie had been
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playing in the backyard with her dog while he was in the basement doing laundry later he heard valerie leave for school
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through the garage door and then he heard her go out into the front yard he was very exact he said exactly 8 32
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he walked out the front door and found her missing found her backpack laying on the front doorstep
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brad jackson frantically searched the neighborhood knocking on doors searching for his daughter before calling police
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okay what is she wearing she's got blue jeans with a dark blue down the side purple socks
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coats bright pink with uh i think like little blue flowers on it that call mobilized not just police but
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also a tightly knit neighborhood i got home at 9 00 a.m and my mother-in-law called me about
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five after and said there's a little redhead girl missing on blasi and i knew right away it was
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valerie so i raced over there brad was in the front yard and i went over there and hugged him and
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i said let's find her normally when we get missing kids i mean they're found either in the house or at
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a friend's house plane you know and they're they're cleared within 45 minutes at the most to an hour
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but the little girl was nowhere to be found valerie's grandmother made a televised
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plea for her safe return please whoever took her were asking for her safe return
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valerie you know how we always hug and kiss every night honey well we're still
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giving them to you as the search continued neighbors began calling police with leads
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so i'm right down the street from her that little girl was kidnapped i know you have something that that might be
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able to help you okay what do you got in the last couple weeks there's been a
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blue blazer and a man about six feet too light colored hair unfortunately none of these tips checked out
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parents feared something sinister had invaded their quiet neighborhood we were all terrified we wouldn't let
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our kids walk to school and we didn't want ours to be the next days went by with no sign of
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nine-year-old valerie jackson flyers were posted in stores in car windows and on the internet
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newspapers and television stations asked the community to report anything suspicious
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as a parent you're concerned because i have a child the same age that here there's potentially a person who's loose
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in the community preying on school children an abduction by a stranger was one possibility
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but problems in the jackson family suggested another the fact that her mother had been
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reported missing was listed as a missing person in 1992 and that either her mother or someone for her mother could
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have taken valerie but the last time anyone saw roseanne pleasant valerie's mother was seven
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years earlier in 1992. roseanne's brother didn't believe his sister had anything to do with valerie's
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disappearance he pointed the fingers squarely at brad we believed that he had sold her into a pornography
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ring to get money he was raising money for a reward so we felt that once the money got high
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enough that he would pay someone off or he had he had drug problems we didn't
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know detectives searched the jackson home for clues in valerie's room were some blood stains
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on her pillow brad jackson told police that valerie had a nosebleed the night before she
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disappeared police also found a prescription for valerie for the antidepressant paxil
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they learned that the normally cheerful little girl was in counseling because of
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a stressful relationship with danette schroeder one of her father's girlfriends
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danette and valerie argued frequently and fought danette suggested to brad that valerie
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should receive therapy that was when she was given the antidepressant medication
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and forensic scientists found something else in valerie's bed two red hairs they were identified as pubic hair and
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appeared to be similar to brad jackson's but pubic hair can be transferred from
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room to room on socks the evidence could be meaningless or an indication of sexual abuse
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police also thought it was odd that brad jackson was able to recall much more about valerie's clothing on the day she
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disappeared than most parents would usually remember he knew exactly every article clothing
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that valerie jackson was wearing he was able to describe it to the police down to her purple socks and while valerie
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did have a history of bloody noses there was no other evidence inside the home to
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corroborate brad's story i didn't find any evidence in the house other than on the pillowcases of her
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having a bloody nose no evidence of her stopping the bloody nose such as toilet paper towels or
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anything laying around with a search warrant jackson's pickup truck and automobile
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were searched for evidence but police found nothing in either vehicle a grandparent a brother or sister two
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weeks after valerie disappeared residents of the spokane valley held a candlelight vigil
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praying for her safe return [Music] few knew at this point that the girl's father was a suspect
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he'd made statements to me he knew he was being followed by the news media there was neighbors following him all
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the time he was always having to lose tales he was very paranoid about it but surprisingly police weren't
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following brad jackson at all why because they didn't have to when police searched jackson's car and
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truck for evidence they left something inside of each vehicle it was a device called
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a global positioning system or gps 10 000 miles above the earth 28 global positioning satellites circled
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the globe each one beams back the precise time as kept by an atomic clock since the signals have different
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distances to travel and therefore reach the earth at different times a computerized receiver can translate that
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information into an exact position to within 30 feet the gps receiver will record that
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location if we move to another location it will know the difference in time and how long we have spent at a time exactly
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to within milliseconds the location of the vehicle can then be monitored by the police
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after the gps transmitters were hidden in jackson's vehicles detective madsen took a calculated risk
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he confronted jackson with his suspicion that he had murdered his own daughter i didn't know if he buried her i just
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took a gamble the fact that we hadn't found her this had been over a week and
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the fact that she hadn't been found in that period of time would indicate to me
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that she probably was underground he was kind of told by detective matson that look
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we know you killed her we know you buried her somewhere you probably didn't bury her deep enough
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animals are going to find her they're going to dip her bones we're going to
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find it and then yeah look over your shoulder i'll be looking for you because
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you'll never know when the time is that i'm going to throw you in jail the satellites would be looking too
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and it didn't take long for jackson to take the bait the gps system revealed that jackson had
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driven 60 miles away to a remote logging site and spent the next 44 minutes there
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four days later jackson drove five minutes away from his home to another deserted location on
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vicari road he arrives at that site at 2 28 28 and the next movement is 244 10 which is approximately 15 minutes
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from there the gps tracking system reveals jackson drove 60 miles away stopping once again
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at the logging site there's some open fields farmland and a lot of woods when police went to the vaquari road
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site cadaver dogs went straight to a shallow grave empty except for two plastic shopping bags and
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some duct tape which had several red hairs attached next police made the 60-mile drive to
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the logging site once there the cadaver dogs found an area that had recently been excavated
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it was a grave deeper than the one on vicari road and in that grave was the body of nine-year-old valerie
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jackson lying face down the police gamble had paid off they had frightened jackson into moving
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valerie's body into a deeper grave i uh watched sheriff sterk as he walked towards me
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he looked at me and he told me that they had found what they believed to be the body of valerie
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and i just crashed to the ground i went down i couldn't feel anything i couldn't feel my legs my arms nothing
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i was gone i was gone i was mentally at that point in my life i died i died it hurt so much
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[Music] investigators now had an avalanche of forensic evidence the plastic bags were the same brand as
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dozens found in jackson's kitchen and traces of valerie's blood were found
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inside [Music] the duct tape in the grave matched a roll in jackson's basement
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jackson's tire and footwear impressions were found at the gravesites all of this evidence tied jackson to the
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burial but police still needed proof that jackson was the one who committed the murder
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police sent the plastic bags from the grave to the united states secret service for analysis
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they were using an extraordinary technique called vacuum metal deposition which can find
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the tiniest traces of a fingerprint on non-porous surfaces like plastic we're here to assist any law enforcement
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agency state local or other federal agency you have a case of a child abduction or child homicide although
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we're extremely busy this the kind of case that goes to the front of the line
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the evidence is placed in a chamber along with tiny specks of gold and zinc the pressure in the chamber is reduced
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to a near perfect vacuum the metals are heated vaporized and within the vacuum of the chamber adhere
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to any finger oils which may be present the analysis was successful the secret service found fingerprints on
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the inside of the plastic bag and on the duct tape the fingerprints were those of brad
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jackson at valerie jackson's autopsy the medical examiner found no evidence of sexual
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abuse but discovered bruising around her face and nose which solved the mystery of how she was
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murdered the pillow that was found in her room had two blood spots on it which were consistent with a pillow being
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pressed over someone's face and the blood draining from the nose there the question of motive
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was one that still haunted prosecutors the key issue in all this was why and convincing a jury
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that a parent could actually kill their their own child in a fascinating turn of events
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it was the global positioning satellite system which revealed the elusive motive
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[Music] almost a year after valerie jackson disappeared her father went on trial for
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murder led to valerie's grave by a gps tracking system prosecutors were now able to piece
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together the events of valerie's murder [Music] prosecutors believe the jackson smothered valerie with the
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pillow leaving behind the bloodstains found by police [Music] then jackson got the plastic bags and
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duct tape to cover her head and prevent blood from dripping onto the floor finally
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jackson dressed the little girl which is how he remembered what valerie was wearing
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even the color of her socks jackson drove valerie's body to the vicari roadside just five minutes away
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an area he knew from hunting it's unclear whether he dug the grave then or sometime earlier
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after he returned he called police to report his daughter missing a few weeks later while under the
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surveillance of the gps system jackson drove an hour away to a deserted logging site where he spent the next 44 minutes
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presumably digging a deeper grave four days later jackson went to the vaquari road
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gravesite removed valerie's body and made the one-hour journey back to the logging site where he placed her in a
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deeper grave but why did jackson kill his own daughter astonishingly the global positioning system revealed
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the answer [Music] jackson repeatedly drove by the home of his former girlfriend danette schroeder
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as he went to and from the gravesites even though they had broken up brad continued to pursue her
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so he was really obsessed with this woman and the obsession got to the degree that
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his relationship with her was more important in his daughter's life i firmly believe that
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it got to the point where he saw that valerie wasn't going to come around to
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the net he wanted danette and valerie became disposable the first thing brad jackson did after
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his arrest was to call dinette from his jail cell and propose marriage the first thing she did
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was change the locks on her doors prosecutor jack driscoll took the case personally
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here's a parent who is supposed to protect their child who's supposed to be
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the guardian for them and he ends up killing him he buries him face down in the dirt like he doesn't even care
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and you know that offended me such a vast degree i had to do this case i mean i had to
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mr jackson have you received a copy of the information charging you with one count of murder in the first degree and
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mr jackson how do you plead to those two charges not guilty at the trial jackson didn't deny digging the graves
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or burying valerie but jackson claimed valerie's death was an accident that he found her dead of an
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overdose of paxil he feared that he would be blamed he panicked and buried the body
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but forensic scientists testified that the paxil levels in valerie's system were nowhere near lethal
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brad jackson was found guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to 56 years in prison
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i believe he should have faced the death penalty but he didn't i think anyone that murders a child
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anyone that murders a child should face the death penalty and their life should end
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i hope he never gets out of jail and i wish he'd tell us where roseanne is many people believe
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jackson also killed valerie's mother roseanne pleasant years earlier but police have no proof
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she would scare the death of brad in my last conversation with my sister she said she feared for her life she
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said that brad had some lie around and what is lie used for at that time brad worked on cement
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and building foundations and so to this day i believe that my sister's buried somewhere in those one of those
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foundations he was working on the children of mcdonald elementary school planted a tree in valerie's
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memory it lives and grows there healthy and strong the way valerie should have [Music]
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[Music] you