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[Music] [Applause] details [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:48
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a guy that grew up wanting to be a jukebox Hero but instead
00:01:55
he's stuck here in the garage with me he is the captain and now I'm just a douche
00:02:00
boox hero it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
00:02:07
[Music] friend today we are drinking Mo guava By the Fantastic people at PE oise Brewing
00:02:18
Company in Clearwater Florida garage grade very happy to report 4 and A2 bottle caps out of five you know summer
00:02:26
is the perfect season for beer and we really are just working our way through beers that are perfect for summer and
00:02:31
this my friends is most certainly one of them mo guaba IPA by Paradise brewing and this week's beer was brought to us
00:02:39
by some of our favorite True Crime garage Army en listies first up a big big thank you to Michelle down in
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Florida and I'm going to grab my mavas and jump over the pond to thank Louise from London next we send a high five to
00:02:53
Lindsay AKA Lulu and where else Captain but Parts Unknown and also in Parts Unknown we have Chelsea who says cheers
00:03:00
to mina Chelsea obviously referencing the boys on the tracks episode and probably being quite sarcastic there
00:03:07
Captain I prefer hand hugs these days over high fives next up today's case takes place in Chicago so we have silus
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from Chicago who bought us around for this week's show and last but not least a big thank you to Judith and desler
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Nebraska so thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge for this week if you want to buy us around for next
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week's show go to True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button a couple announcements from Parts Unknown the
00:03:33
mowing schedule has changed this week so instead on Wednesday it'll be Thursday and also we had some some things with
00:03:40
the drinking fountains I think little Timmy peed on one of the drinking foundings so we're cleaning that and
00:03:46
they'll be up and running by next week well there's always something exciting going on at parts unknown there's always
00:03:51
something exciting going on at True Crime garage.com so check out the website all right let's grab a chair and
00:03:57
grab a beer let's talk some true crime this is true crime garage and this is the case of Jesse
00:04:07
[Music] [Music] Ross each year hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing in the
00:04:34
United States many of them are adults almost all of the cases are quickly cleared the person is located
00:04:43
everything is fine they are safe and all of the prayers have been answered sometimes this is not the
00:04:52
case and sometimes we are left looking the family members and the loved ones don't stop
00:05:01
looking they don't stop asking where why and how this is one of those stories November 2006 19-year-old
00:05:15
University of Missouri Kansas City student Jesse Ross is participating in a university field
00:05:22
trip he along with 13 other University students and a faculty sponsor drove over 500 miles to Chicago Illinois for a
00:05:31
Model United Nations conference this event Drew more than 1,000 college students from all over the
00:05:40
country on Monday November 20th Jesse phoned his mother just to let her know that he was having a blast and really
00:05:49
enjoying his time at the model un conference he promised to call again the next day when he and the other students
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and their sponsor loaded up the vans for their return drive home November 20th was to be the final
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day of the conference and it was going to be a busy one the fourpoint Sheron hotel located in downtown Chicago hosted
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the event to celebrate the final day there were parties throughout the hotel and a dance for the students after the
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dance there was a mock emergency meeting called about 1:00 a.m. by now it's very
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early Tuesday morning November 21st around 2:30 a.m. this is about 12 hours after Jesse last called his mother he
00:06:36
got up from his chair and walked out of the meeting room for a 30-minute break a
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surveillance camera in the hotel lobby caught the image of the redhaired Jesse clad in a white T-shirt jeans and a
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green warm-up jacket walking toward the hotel's main doors this was the last Trace ever of
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19-year-old Jesse Ross the 10-minute walk back to the Sheron Chicago hotel and Towers where Jesse and the group was
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staying was well lit heavily traveled and covered by outdoor security cameras none of them recorded Jesse Chicago
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Police have found no evidence that he was a victim of Foul Play there has been no activity on
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Jesse's credit cards or his cell phone since he disappeared into the Chicago night with no explanations with no EV
00:07:29
idence is it possible 19-year-old Jesse Ross banished Into Thin Air Jesse Ross is a Caucasian man he
00:07:39
would have turned 30 years old earlier this year he is 5' 10 in tall and weighs approximately 140 lb he has red or
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Alburn hair color which he kept cut short Jesse has blue eyes and wore glasses he has freckles Jesse was last
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seen wearing a white T-shirt green warm-up jacket blue jeans and black tennis shoes if you have any information
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or if you have seen Jesse Ross please call the Chicago Police Department this is true crime
00:08:13
garage and this is the case of Jesse [Music] Ross Jesse Warren Ross nicknamed Opie because
00:08:33
of his as his mother says fire engine red hair uh like the Ron Howard character Opie from the TV show the uh
00:08:42
Andy Griffin show famous Andy Griffin show yes uh Jesse was born on February 18th
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1987 he grew up in your typical household you know Mom Dad and a brother as a young dude Jesse loved to play all
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kinds of sports he was a big big Kansas City Chiefs fan a big uh KU basketball fan uh in high school Jesse worked at a
00:09:05
movie theater and I thought this was pretty cool I always wanted to work at a movie theater but Jesse worked with his
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uh Brother Andy at the movie theater as well Jesse became involved with a local band called Dead Giveaway he would help
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the band with many different things some of these things were organizing concerts
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and booking gigs for them so more of a manager type thing not a is a street team member yeah so you and I are used
00:09:32
to this and and you more than than I am but uh you know back in the day you'd have people that would help out your
00:09:38
band they were friends of the band you know they might they might offer to be like a crew member and help carry things
00:09:43
and load Vans or pass out flyers and go to area places and and pass out flyers to advertise your concerts but he was
00:09:51
actually involved to the point where he was booking concerts arranging events which you and I know is not an easy
00:09:59
thing to do it can be very time consuming it can be quite chaotic uh to say the least anyway he graduated high
00:10:05
school in 2005 and received an academic scholarship based off of his ACT score After High School Jesse attended UMKC
00:10:15
University of Missouri Kansas City majoring in Communications with a minor in politics uh he skipped that computer
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course that's so famous here on our show uh and you gotta gotta make sure you sign up early
00:10:30
he probably couldn't get he probably couldn't get signed up early enough to get a seat in the computer class in 2005
00:10:37
he went to Chicago uh to the mock un convention MH afterward uh Jesse became an intern at
00:10:46
95.7 The Vibe a popular Kansas City radio station they I love the names of these radio stations yeah Vibe does that
00:10:56
sound to you like a top 40 station yeah sounds a little top 40 yeah or maybe uh it's it's geared to the urban community
00:11:04
Vibe the uh they created an onair personality for Jesse as part of the morning show uh they called him Opie
00:11:12
Cunningham and oddly enough this is going to seem very strange because we all know about The Disappearance but
00:11:20
oddly enough they did a segment called where's Opie and they would send him to different locations to do like a remote
00:11:27
broadcast right and then listeners people would call in and try to guess where he was uh this was a bit of a
00:11:35
regular segment on the show very strange mhm just a short time before his disappearance he did receive a promotion
00:11:43
at the radio station and he was going to become a paid employee or a paid onair personality right and we're not very
00:11:51
clear on this and I don't know if it matters much but you know there's kind of a different thing as far as like
00:11:56
radio shows go I mean you can get paid hourly or you could get paid per show mhm so but either way it's a really big
00:12:03
deal for them to want you to sit in a room and pay you pretty good money to sit in a room and have fun and most of
00:12:10
us not having worked in that area wouldn't know that but what what they call what the captain's referring to is
00:12:16
you could get paid for like let's say we're going to pay you 50 bucks if you're on today's show and then tomorrow
00:12:21
you're not on the show so you don't get paid anything and what they call that is
00:12:25
you know show Money uh for the most part and and that can be you know they his parents and his his
00:12:33
loved ones and I can't I'm not going to go against the grain here and say that they're wrong but there they state that
00:12:39
this is a dream job for for Opie or for Jesse and I and I believe that it was um
00:12:45
but I mean that's what he's majoring in college but when when when we read about
00:12:49
this case and look into this case I don't want anybody to get confused when they hear the loved on stating dream job
00:12:55
and think that that Jesse's making $100,000 a year right and he has no plans of doing anything else this this
00:13:03
is certainly a step in the right direction as far as where he wants his career to go and I tell you what Captain
00:13:09
you got to take your hat off to Jesse here because that's a pretty young age to achieve that accomplishment well yeah
00:13:16
and a lot of people said a lot of people that worked with him said he's very uh quick witted and um you know that's
00:13:23
something that that's something that you can't just train you know it seemed like
00:13:27
he just had it I mean he was pretty young when he gets this position and I don't want to you know after I pumped
00:13:33
everything up I don't want to piss anybody's Cheerios here but unfortunately you know he received this
00:13:38
this promotion and unfortunately the promotion was pegged to start in January of 2007 um well in November of 2006 is
00:13:47
when he would take that trip once again to Chicago for this un conference well backing up just a little bit just so we
00:13:54
get a good background before we go into the actual events of that evening m he was pledging of fraternity right correct
00:14:01
yeah just kind of pointing out that he uh did have a play side to him yeah he's not all work and no play and just a
00:14:08
little background as far as his personality goes according to his parents and brother uh Jesse was was
00:14:15
very close with his father and his mother and brother very close with his family uh and they all describe him to
00:14:22
be somebody that was a bit Fearless uh the kind of kid that would try anything that could walk into any room room and
00:14:29
wasn't afraid of anything or to talk to anybody uh they also pegged him as a bit
00:14:33
of a practical joker you know he liked to play little pranks on on his uh friends and and loved ones uh these were
00:14:41
harmless pranks of course but uh you know just just fun in nature and they think that that's why he excelled so
00:14:47
well at his job with the shorty and the boys you said that was the name of the radio show Morning Show shorty and the
00:14:54
boys Morning Show I'm guessing welcome to shorty and the boys I'm guessing that shorty is the host and he's surrounded
00:15:00
by this cast of characters boys of boys uh and you know they said that's why with a z why Jesse or as his onair
00:15:09
personality Opie Cunningham excelled at that gig because that's kind of a bit of
00:15:14
a prank in itself or a little bit of Hy Jinks you know you're you're out hiding somewhere or you're broadcasting from
00:15:19
some location other than the radio station and people have to call in and guess where you are yeah the boys Z we
00:15:27
want to go through the appearance um a little more in depth than before um but before we start uh to consider the
00:15:36
possibilities let's make sure we go through that as as best we can so we can figure out what happened to Jesse here
00:15:43
right so what you're saying is we're going to go through the actual events we're not really going to you know bring
00:15:48
up the theories as we're bringing up these events correct but we're all we're going to point out some things that we
00:15:54
find odd with the different events so this is day four of his trip and remember they had gone he had gone the
00:16:02
previous year so he's not strange to the city of Chicago this trip is not strange
00:16:07
to him but at this time Jesse is was it in Chicago the year before yes it was uh
00:16:12
Jesse at this time is a sophomore at the University he is among 1,200 college students from around the country who
00:16:20
attended this conference at the Sheron Hotel on North Water Street in downtown Chicago M he disappeared on the final
00:16:29
day of the conference and by the time the police were alerted most of the students were on their way back home now
00:16:35
Donald Ross this is Jesse's father he recalls dropping off his son at school before Dawn the day before the day that
00:16:43
he left for the conference he recalls Jesse talking with friends in the parking lot as he drove away and of
00:16:49
course now he wishes he would have stopped for one last goodbye with his son so 4 days later the day their son
00:16:57
was to return home Don Ross got a call from his son's Professor saying that he couldn't find Jesse now Derek Morhead
00:17:06
was the professor who had called Jesse's father he was in his first year as a political science professor at
00:17:14
UMKC and it was his first time chaperoning the conference Jesse Ross was one of 14 UMKC students on the trip
00:17:23
and Morehead recalls that during the drive they listened to Jesse's CDs on the way there Jesse had told his
00:17:30
Professor that he wanted to deliver some of these CDs to Chicago radio stations hoping it might lead to some kind of
00:17:37
career breakthrough on their last night in Chicago Morehead said that Jesse and a
00:17:43
friend from school Ralph Parker attended a dance hosted by the conference organizers and a party in a hotel room
00:17:51
where alcohol was served they got called to a late night meeting at the model un's Security Council Parker later told
00:17:59
Morehead and police according to reports that Jesse had left the meeting room after 2 a.m. probably closer to 230 a.m.
00:18:07
Parker confirmed that Ross had been drinking but said that he did not appear to be
00:18:12
intoxicated now no hotel security footage showed Ross leaving the hotel though a security camera had caught him
00:18:21
entering the building earlier that evening other students told Morehead that Jesse could have left through a
00:18:27
staff door the conference goers had used but out of range of these security cameras well they had the surveillance
00:18:34
of him coming into the conference or or to this emergency meeting but they also have footage of him leaving as well
00:18:42
there's footage of him in that Corridor yeah that not actually leaving the hotel
00:18:47
building itself but standing or moving in the direction of the exits right uh Morehead said that Parker told him that
00:18:55
he had assumed that Ross had returned to the hotel remember we said that Ross left this meeting now Parker's a part of
00:19:02
this meeting as well he says that Jesse gets up at around 2:30 and leaves the meeting Assuming he's going back to
00:19:08
their hotel room Parker shares the room with him Parker didn't realize that Ross
00:19:13
wasn't in bed until the following morning yeah I believe he his claim was that there was some stuff on the bed mhm
00:19:21
so he kind of assumes that that was Jesse and he just went to bed now at First Sight Captain this seems a little
00:19:29
strange right um because you're like how does how does this guy go to Chicago with this other guy share a room hotel
00:19:37
room with him and not notice that the guy's not in his bed when he gets back at the place M well I mean again it
00:19:45
depends on if he turns on the light or not I think you're exactly right because the thing here is you you got a couple
00:19:50
different kinds of people in this world there's the there's one kind of person that will share a room with somebody and
00:19:56
no matter how late it is how dark it is outside even if the person is in a dead sleep the person will open up the hotel
00:20:04
room door turn on all the lights turn on the TV use the restroom and then go to bed 10 minutes later disturbing the
00:20:12
other person then you have other people that are very you know cat-like they're and considerate of the person that
00:20:17
they're sharing the room with and they'll come in cats are not considerate of anybody well I meant cat like as
00:20:23
being quiet you know we're going to tiptoe around and we're going to go in and we're going to make sure we don't
00:20:27
wake up our friend because he's sleeping he's per you know he came back here for
00:20:30
a reason and that was to sleep we have to get up and leave in the morning tomorrow I want to make sure that you
00:20:35
know I don't disturb him you know treat him the way I would want to be treated so I don't find this to be you know
00:20:42
crazy uh that that he didn't notice that his friend was not in the bed or in the
00:20:48
hotel room that night well and I wonder what his level of intoxication was intoxication was so or or how dogged
00:20:56
tired was he by this point by the time he came back from from this emergency meeting well a couple things one um so
00:21:04
I'm guessing that the dance was a sponsored event yes then my other question would be the were the hotel
00:21:10
parties a sponsored event as well or were they just student-based uh parties I can't say for 100% either way but
00:21:19
here's my gut feeling everything that I read sounds like the dance was a planned
00:21:24
sponsored event MH as far as the hotel room parties that sounds to me like something that the the kids and the
00:21:31
college kids created and came up with on their own it only seems natural you get
00:21:36
1,200 college kids from all over the country going to Chicago a big big city there's going to be Hotel parties
00:21:44
whether there's a sponsored dance or or anything at all and there's 1,200 kids but how many of these kids are 18 and 19
00:21:50
years old MH and I'm not saying that underage drinking doesn't happen but you have to have somebody that you know
00:21:56
supplies uh the booze or the liquor mhm um the thing here is Captain let's talk do you want to talk about this meeting a
00:22:04
little a little bit because at first glance when you scratch the surface here you're like what are these I understand
00:22:11
he's an adult he's 19 years old but what are these kids doing having a meeting uh
00:22:17
who who who organizes this thing where they decided that we're going to have some kind of meeting at 2 in the morning
00:22:22
yeah well back in the 40s and 50s and 60s maybe you'd say a night 18 19 year-old was adult but let's not say
00:22:29
that now I mean it's just a different time I mean this is these are still kids um and they're putting them at a in a
00:22:37
meeting so late at night and again where the conferences are where the meetings are are not actually connected to their
00:22:43
hotel room right so we got to walk about 10 minutes mhm and then this is Chicago murder capital of the world
00:22:51
right yeah uh I don't know if the world but uh certainly in the it's in the conversation
00:22:58
um so the meeting itself was as it has as it was described to me was technically they say it's an emergency
00:23:07
meeting that was called this was actually a planned event this was something that the the students that
00:23:13
were asked to go this to this thing were aware of it in advance um most reports will tell you that the meeting started
00:23:21
at 2 a.m. and then they took a 30 minute break around 2:30 a.m. I don't find that
00:23:26
to be accurate um according to Jesse's mother the meeting started around 1:00 a.m. which would make a little more
00:23:34
sense you you shouldn't have a half hour into a meeting need a half hour break um
00:23:40
so around 1:00 a.m. this this meeting well that's how I run things this meeting that was 30 minutes work 30
00:23:45
minute coffee break 30 minute work 30 minute coffee break this meeting that was planned uh they're going to they're
00:23:52
going to work on whatever project this a me emergency meeting emergency meeting for a fake un meeting for an hour and a
00:23:59
half and then they're going to have a half hour break and one conversation they're yeah but it's weird here too
00:24:04
because they keep on talking about this 30 minute break but it seems like everybody left once they had the break
00:24:10
anyways uh there's 30 people 30 students in this meeting now you know you and I wondered well what time was this meeting
00:24:18
going to be over with what time were you going to send these kids home and back to their hotel rooms um it could have
00:24:24
been we we really have no idea but the the the only thing I could come up with because it seems like if you're going to
00:24:30
take a 30 minute break that you have an an additional hour and a half of stuff to do once you get back from this break
00:24:37
right and so this is on the Monday and there's a bunch of questions here and there's going to be a bunch of blurry
00:24:43
stuff here and one of the reasons for that is this meeting was this emergency meeting was taking place basically on
00:24:50
that Tuesday right the day that they're going to leave well they didn't really notice that Opie was missing
00:24:58
until uh like 3:00 p.m. 5 5:00 p.m. something like that and and so by then we got 1,200 students most of them have
00:25:08
already left and on their way um back home back to the their University so the amount of people that the uh Chicago PD
00:25:17
could actually question wasn't all that great well let's go through that real fast okay so what the way that this goes
00:25:24
down here is that Parker returns to the hotel room we don't have a time for that
00:25:29
but whatever time he returns to the hotel room he doesn't he assumes that Jesse Ross is in the bed next to his bed
00:25:37
in the hotel room uh he realizes in the morning that Jesse was not in that bed it it was a pile of clothes that must
00:25:44
have confused him um he does report this to Morehead who is the sponsor he's The
00:25:51
Chaperone and at first Morehead tells Parker you know maybe Jesse had slept in another students room room hey hey hey
00:25:59
hey so the students sharing a room with Jesse didn't notice he was missing until
00:26:03
the following day the roommate had come back to the hotel there was a pile of clothes on the bed Jesse was sleeping
00:26:09
and the roommate simply mistook the pile of clothes to be Jesse in the room as it
00:26:13
was dark when the roommate woke up in the morning in the light of day he you know he knows well here's the other
00:26:21
thing too about college campuses and like most of a lot of college students have spent time in forms and you and
00:26:29
it's a whole different environment the way you have to deal with your roommate you're so close and and you kind of have
00:26:35
to like not really pay attention to what they're doing all the time mhm I mean like they could have a girlfriend over
00:26:41
and you just kind of have to act like you don't notice anything well you got to give each other a little space you
00:26:46
know everybody's trying to live I'm just saying as far as the college mindset if
00:26:50
if if these guys have shared dorm rooms before this wouldn't be out of the spectrum that this guy didn't really
00:26:57
noticed that he wasn't there the night before so we so we have Morehead thinking that Jesse may have crashed at
00:27:04
another student's room uh we have his roommate Parker he actually believes that there's a possibility that Jesse
00:27:11
got up early that morning and left and went somewhere else um he has no evidence of this other than again he
00:27:17
thinks he saw Jesse sleeping in the bed the night before one thing that is widely reported is that when Jesse
00:27:24
failed to return to the room that day you this is the day that they're leaving to go home that his roommate this guy
00:27:31
Parker he packs up Jesse's suitcase so in most cases according to the roommate it's reported that that he Jesse doesn't
00:27:41
come home the night before he doesn't mention that Jesse's missing and then all of a sudden when it comes time to
00:27:47
leave with the rest of the group he decides that it's in everybody's best interest to just willy-nilly pack up
00:27:53
Jesse Ross's luggage and bring it down to the van and then he informed forms The Chaperone that Jesse's missing but
00:28:00
Captain we know that that's not the case right I mean yeah the case is that the chaperon helped him pack it up yeah and
00:28:07
it was the chapon's decision to pack up Jesse's items uh when it was when it came time to leave I think it's just a
00:28:14
little irresponsible on the reporting angle on it because to me that makes Parker seem like a shady character it
00:28:21
seems it it would make him Prime Suspect for me yeah well I think I think a lot of times when somebody goes missing they
00:28:29
don't a lot of people don't want it to just to be an accident they they actually want some
00:28:35
kind of weird NE you know nefarious thing to be happening MH so what actually happened was at at the request
00:28:42
of the chaperon with the assistance of the chaperon the two guys together packed up Jesse's belongings it was then
00:28:50
that Morhead The Chaperone he alerted the conference organizers that the student was missing uh and he asked them
00:28:58
to ask around to see if any of the students had seen Jesse when they still couldn't find him they called the hotel
00:29:07
security and that's when that's when he knew that things weren't going well the chaperon said at 400 p.m. he walked to
00:29:15
the nearest police station and he filed a report then he called Donald Ross and he said to him sir I cannot find your
00:29:24
son Let's get right back into this after this quick beer [Music] break this show is sponsored by better
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00:31:48
cheers Captain so we have the chaperon who has reported Jesse Ross as missing to the police by that time more head has
00:31:57
sent the rest of the students home but he decided to stay behind to assist the police he's getting increasingly worried
00:32:05
by this time and he remembers walking the streets around the hotel checking the dumpsters and the alleys looking for
00:32:13
Jesse now he's already notified the parents uh but bad weather they they received some bad weather it was cold I
00:32:21
mean it's November it's Chicago um they received some bad weather that delayed the Ross's arrival into Chicago but
00:32:28
eventually they came to meet with the police and they spent the first of several visits hanging posters in
00:32:34
circulating Flyers looking for their son I want to get to a couple of of of things a little bit down the road to
00:32:42
give you a bigger picture of everything before we get into some of the possibilities of what could have
00:32:48
happened to Jesse or where Jesse could be mhm um sadly enough uh the roommate the the the man the college student that
00:32:57
shared a room with Jesse Ross on that trip in 2006 uh Ralph Parker he died a few years afterwards uh this would be in
00:33:06
a car accident um several years after Jesse's disappearance uh The Chaperone um the the sponsor Morehead he took a
00:33:16
job teaching at another Missouri University um he reluctantly agreed to help with the school's model un club uh
00:33:25
he did not want to attend any of the conferences it was my understanding that his agreement that he had made uh with
00:33:33
with this other university was that he would participate in this un Club but he would not go or attend or chaperone the
00:33:42
conferences um there was a situation that at a last minute situation where a chaperon had a family emergency and
00:33:51
Morhead had to step in against his best wishes on the second day day on the second day of this trip where Morhead
00:33:59
had to step in he got a phone call that one of his students was missing and he states that all he could do once he
00:34:07
received this phone call all he could do was go to the bathroom and and throw up
00:34:11
I mean he was he was that distraught over what had happened with the Jesse situation I mean this guy he's being put
00:34:18
through the ringer here um the student was later found that morning um the rest of the conference went on without an
00:34:25
incident uh but more had decided that he could never ever do that again and he would eventually leave college level
00:34:33
teaching all together uh Morehead also said that he is extremely uneasy uh with his own children and anytime that his
00:34:42
children are somewhere without him and he struggles to let his daughter go away uh on trips and she is scheduled to be
00:34:51
going away uh I'm sorry when she was getting ready to go to college herself this was something that he had a lot of
00:34:59
issues and a lot of things to work through right it was a traumatic experience for him at first Captain the
00:35:05
police speculated that Jesse who had been reportedly drinking uh might had fallen into the Chicago River near the
00:35:14
hotel now the Rosses aren't convinced of this their theory is that Jesse left the
00:35:21
meeting and he might have wanted to walk back to the other hotel where he was staying this would have taken him in the
00:35:28
opposite direction of the river they believe that on his way back to his hotel that he could have met with foul
00:35:35
play on the way now the timing and the circumstances of this of Jesse ross' disappearance proved to be challenging
00:35:45
from the start for the for sergeant Rizzo who was the person responding to the call and the detectives who worked
00:35:53
for him r i z Zoo that's right uh the report came in two days before Thanksgiving um and potential Witnesses
00:36:02
at the hotel had already gone home uh there was no crime scene to work with is what Rizzo States so let's touch on that
00:36:10
for a little bit here Captain you had touched on this earlier where you stated you know the police show up on this
00:36:16
situation you have a, to 1200 kids coming in from all over the country and now you have you have police showing up
00:36:24
to take statements to take reports to look over the scene and all these people have gone home by this time right in
00:36:32
very far parts of the country yeah it's not like they're just they're down the street or in a neighboring suburb these
00:36:40
are people that I mean Jesse and his group traveled over 500 miles to get there we have students coming in from
00:36:46
all over the country how is he supposed to to meet with these people how are they supposed to interview these people
00:36:54
well there's this thing called a phone you could start with that well obviously he would get a manifest from both from
00:37:01
all the hotels in the area and start to talk to these people but the thing that I've often wondered about Jesse's case
00:37:09
when you have people coming in from all over the country it there's probably a decent possibility that there were
00:37:16
people on that trip and it was a significant amount of time that would pass before they would even know that
00:37:23
somebody that had attended the same conference as they had had disappeared right because they a lot of them left
00:37:30
before it was even announced mhm so I mean the fact that they're not even you know calling the police till you know
00:37:37
the PM most of these students are leaving in the AM yeah well and the other thing too like rzo says there's no
00:37:43
crime scene really to work with you know they don't know yeah it's not like they
00:37:48
found the giant puddle of blood on the way back to the hotel MH and as far as tracking down surveillance footage of
00:37:55
this guy he's last seen in the hotel as we said moving in the direction of the hotel exits yet they don't even know
00:38:03
they can't confirm that that's the last sighting of him you know they can't confirm where he went from from that
00:38:10
time well and the statements made is that if he was returning from the conference or this emergency meeting to
00:38:17
his hotel room that it was well lit it would have been about a 10-minute walk and that there was surveillance cameras
00:38:23
all along this path now there would also be surveillance cameras in his hotel room and I don't see any evidence that
00:38:30
they collected either one of those yeah they state that there was no trace of him along the way back to his hotel or
00:38:36
arriving at his hotel right but that's that's something that you can also make a claim that uh yeah we didn't see him
00:38:42
on any of this stuff that we didn't collect to my recollection there is no surveillance footage out there of of
00:38:49
this night after 2:30 so you know collect collect it and have it be played so people can see it but I I don't think
00:38:57
they collected it that's a good question there Captain the other thing here the other hurdle that you have to work with
00:39:04
is Jesse's technically an adult you know and we all know that this can be a problem for the investigation because an
00:39:11
adult can willingly want to go missing can want to pick up routes and elere and start elsewhere um Rizzo did State
00:39:21
Sergeant Rizzo did state that even though Jesse was technically an adult uh the case was being treated as a high
00:39:29
priority case because the young man was from out of town and possibly because he's from a university and it's this big
00:39:36
um conference the UN conference which you claimed that they had it the year before in Chicago uh but you also claim
00:39:43
that Jesse would have been familiar with Chicago just because he was at the UN conference before I'd claim that he was
00:39:49
only familiar with you know whatever conference room he was in well it wasn't like he was you know hey let's go to
00:39:58
Chicago and and we're here for the UN meeting this fake un meeting and then you know that they do a ton of shopping
00:40:05
or whatever I'm sure they allow them a little bit of time to experience Chicago but uh you know not when you're having
00:40:13
emergency meetings at you know 1:00 a.m. I didn't mean to imply that he was a man
00:40:18
of the town you know that he knew the ins and outs of Chicago he knew the good areas and the bad areas I just wanted to
00:40:24
point out that it was not a strange trip to him he had attended the same event the year before it's a 4-day trip four
00:40:31
night trip what can you learn about a city in four nights and as you stated very busy it's they probably keep them
00:40:37
pretty occupied while they're there I actually question their judgment on having an emergency meeting so late
00:40:43
especially when the conference rooms aren't connected to the hotel rooms one thing that I questioned here Captain was
00:40:49
was Sergeant rizo's statements now I do want to point out that Rizzo has been he's since retired and he's he stated
00:40:56
that this is one of the cases that he can't let go of this one bothers him this really bothers him that a college
00:41:02
student came to his City and was unable to return home to his family yeah but does it bother him or is that just what
00:41:10
he's telling the public um know this one's this one bothers me guys well I can't I can't polygraph the guy all I
00:41:16
can do is go off of what he is telling the public um but one thing that that you know I I'm I'm a blue blood guy and
00:41:23
I back up his statement about it's very difficult to walk into a situation where
00:41:27
you have no witnesses that you can you can speak with immediately you can't even speak to Parker who shared a room
00:41:35
with him when you arrive at the scene all you have is this chaperone and whoever happens to be still hanging
00:41:41
around after this un con conference breaks up um so I have his back on that statement I find it a little strange
00:41:49
though that he says that you know the report came in two days before Thanksgiving well deal with it you know
00:41:56
like I'm sorry that you know these crimes and people bad things happen to good people regardless of what's on the
00:42:04
calendar um I don't I would like to know what he meant by that does that mean that there's a lot of people coming into
00:42:11
the city or a lot of people leaving the city maybe it had nothing to do with the
00:42:15
holiday maybe it was more about the travel that that circulates around the holiday um maybe I would have liked him
00:42:22
to elaborate on that because it sounds like a bit of a a lazy answer um the police did receive hundreds of tips um
00:42:31
but everything turned up empty according to Sergeant rzo the Kansas City Police they did help track down and interview
00:42:39
some of Ross's fellow students uh Rizzo says investigators gave it their all and
00:42:46
there is just nothing there there's nothing to go on not a surveillance camera image nor Witnesses who might
00:42:53
have seen Ross so with no surveillance camera image of him or no eyewitnesses seeing him I guess it's up to us Captain
00:43:01
to prove you know is this something that's useful to the case to determine what happened to Jesse Ross or is it
00:43:07
something that is you know just leading to more questions the case itself it has
00:43:13
received some national attention over the years it was featured on both the Nancy Grace show and America's Most
00:43:19
Wanted um both top mom yeah both shortly after Jesse Ro had disappeared well there's not a lot of information about
00:43:29
this case so you have to kind of dig deep and then the rest becomes speculation so again if you don't like
00:43:35
speculation probably at this point you might want to turn off the show you run from the garage run for your lives I'm
00:43:42
I'm I got a whole can of gasoline and speculation I'm lighting this [ __ ] on fire all right all right
00:43:49
so um as we said the case has received some national attention and that has brought along with it a lot lot of
00:43:56
people looking into this case and a lot of people coming up with their own theories about what has happened to
00:44:03
Jesse Ross and why we can't find him Captain should we list out those theories before we dive into each one of
00:44:09
them sure so the theories are this um these are the possibilities are suicide or that Jesse simply walked away to
00:44:19
start a new life somewhere um the police theory that we had talked about was that
00:44:24
Jesse had fallen into the river um the parents theory was that possibly he had attempted to return to his hotel
00:44:33
uh and was met with Foul Play there's also some talk that he may have wanted to go elsewhere um that maybe he wanted
00:44:40
to go downtown Chicago for some reason but this would have resulted in Foul Play as well um there's the possibility
00:44:48
that there was a hotel room incident or accident and this would be at the hotel room that the hotel that was hosting the
00:44:56
conference itself not where he was staying um and then there's always the question and always the thought of
00:45:03
possible Foul Play from someone in the group that he was traveling with or someone in this model un group
00:45:10
conference uh someone attending from another city or state all right so the first theory that you brought up was
00:45:17
suicide so maybe we should start there mhm well with this Theory so that he would have gone on this trip with with a
00:45:26
group of friends or college you know people that and decided to commit suicide while on the
00:45:34
trip it just feels wrong right Captain it feels wrong we have the parents stating that a lot of suicides are not
00:45:41
planned so we have it's not like you have to plan it out 3 days in advance so it's it's still a possibility of course
00:45:49
it's a possibility everything's a possibility at this point we have no idea what happened to the poor young man
00:45:54
uh his parents stating that you know he had just received a promotion something that they believed he was eager about
00:46:00
something that he was working hard toward um this seems to be a a good thing right Captain it also seems to be
00:46:09
a good thing that he was on this trip he's attending for the second time um probably something that he enjoyed doing
00:46:16
he's a young man in college he's got his whole life ahead of him and I know in the grand scheme of things that doesn't
00:46:21
mean anything right I mean because yeah I mean that this is a tough sit situation anyways because I mean look at
00:46:28
like the singer of Lincoln Park I mean one of the things that they keep bringing up is the fact that he bought
00:46:32
the house that he you know he he hung himself in his house and he bought his house that he hung himself in two months
00:46:39
earlier MH and it's supposed to be this family home and it's away from everything and so this is some kind of
00:46:45
evidence of somebody making plans for his life and making plans for the future um but this is not how normal suicides
00:46:53
work anyways I mean again like I said there's not a lot of planning so I think you have to look at what was happening
00:47:01
uh before with Jesse if there was any signs I mean one of the things that I thought was really interesting when I
00:47:07
was actually talking to a cop about this he said that you know one of the weirdest things he finds is a lot of the
00:47:13
suicides that like they you know have to um investigate they find out that the the male victims um will have their
00:47:22
haircut that day so you know kind of showing a sign that some of this is just a split-second decision um so but in
00:47:32
this case I don't think Jesse whether or not he's getting a promotion whether or
00:47:36
not he's doing good in school I don't think he had much of a sign of of any depression or at least talking about
00:47:43
this with his family or friends and I know a lot of people with depression that never bring this up to their family
00:47:49
members at all but again there's no evidence of this beforehand well on the flip side of that coin uh uh you know
00:47:56
it's it's often been stated with people that commit suicide that it's not uncommon to see women do their hair in a
00:48:04
special way put on a a nice outfit do their makeup um and maybe with the men thing getting their haircut that day
00:48:12
that it is on the flip side could be a sign of some form of planning because you know they say that that that ladies
00:48:20
tend to want to make sure that they are looked that they look a certain way after they pass that that when they're
00:48:28
discovered that they're remembered uh with a certain image right um the thing with the the suicide though Captain here
00:48:35
is where is he you would you would think that that and you know you would think that you would find him you would find
00:48:43
his body you know if we knew where he's at have these two episodes but no it's it's the weirdest thing as far as like
00:48:50
missing person reports you know anytime people want to speculate you have to bring up the possibility of suicide but
00:48:58
um it it never makes any sense to me because like you said you'd find the body yeah I mean somebody doesn't die
00:49:06
and then go bury themselves you know you unless he jumped off a bridge into the river right right which and and that's
00:49:14
and that is a real possibility it's it's a possibility it's a because I mean cuz
00:49:18
we're talking about this this river which goes uh through the city and then shoots back out into Lake Michigan I
00:49:24
mean this would have been cold I mean the temperature that night was anywhere from like 29° to 44° roughly 7 to 13 M
00:49:34
uh miles an hour um wind so this guy jumping into water that's but again his his his family look a lot
00:49:45
of times too I mean you know family and friends will say well I didn't see this coming but uh
00:49:51
again I don't know if something snapped I wonder how much he was drinking but again it doesn't seem like there's a
00:49:58
bunch of evidence to point that he had much in the way of of any type of depression it seems like he had a more
00:50:06
of a positive demeanor but he was also funny and sometimes you find with comedians that they're masking that
00:50:11
they're masking their depression um hiding that from people by using their you know comedy chops and as you've said
00:50:19
and pointed out many many times depression is not something that's easily spotted um my gut tells me no and
00:50:27
and and you know you said you mentioned the river so I will say outside of the possibility of of jumping in the river
00:50:34
then I think with the suicide my biggest question would be where is he we would have found him I Believe by this point
00:50:41
if that is what in fact happened Yeah so basically on that the I think both of our guts are saying hey this is uh
00:50:48
probably most not most likely yeah if you were to create a scale of likely to most unlikely I would put that more more
00:50:55
towards the unlikely side probably on the very far end of the unlikely side mhm uh so Captain we also have the
00:51:03
possibility that Jesse Ross walked away that he maybe wanted to start a new life
00:51:08
for himself uh this always comes up in these type of cases when when we have no evidence of somebody or where they are
00:51:14
or what happened to them where they went um you know do you see anything here that that points toward he may have
00:51:21
wanted to walk away or start a new life well no I mean because one he's involved
00:51:26
with the radio station he's going to college the other thing he's on this trip um you know for this Mock You in
00:51:34
thing this is somebody that's making steps in their life to you know he's trying to create a good life and to just
00:51:40
go I'm just going to walk away mhm he does seem pretty career oriented with long-term goals and setting things up in
00:51:49
the right steps and putting everything into its place to get him to to the point where he can reach some of those
00:51:55
goals and as you said earlier there's a short-term goal he was pledging for a fraternity you know and this sounds like
00:52:02
something giving his personality a very outgoing person a person that was described as Fearless uh somebody a bit
00:52:09
of a prankster um he social yeah it seems Seems like something he would really be uh looking forward to um there
00:52:18
was a couple things that that I did find a little strange that that I wanted to dive into regarding uh the possibility
00:52:25
did he walk away well one thing that his mother had talked about about his personality and about some of his hopes
00:52:33
and wishes was he did mention to his mother and to his father from time to time that he was hoping to uh that that
00:52:42
there would be something that would take him out of Kansas City that that something that would you know some big
00:52:49
reason for him to move at some point uh right but you go to the UN trip you fall
00:52:55
in love with Chicago and you come back home and you go hey parents I'm moving to Chicago well and the other thing here
00:53:01
is we have the situation with the CDs you know we have the chaperon saying well he created these mixes and these
00:53:07
CDs for us to listen to on our way to the trip and he was he said that he was hoping if he had enough time during this
00:53:14
trip that he would go to some Chicago radio stations and give them some of uh his work that he had done maybe it could
00:53:22
lead to some kind of breakthrough in his career but like you said that's your motive to go downtown but that's not
00:53:28
your motive to walk away from your life right exactly that you it would be strange for someone to go missing to to
00:53:37
want to start a career in a new life in the city that they went missing from I understand that Chicago is a big city
00:53:44
but however like you said that's when you call Mom and Dad or you go back home and you tie up loose ends and you say
00:53:50
Mom Dad I did it I I got that I got this cool job in Chicago and I'm really looking looking forward to taking it um
00:53:57
so I I think the thing here is you know the the famous thing wanting something to take him from the city he's close to
00:54:04
his parents he's obviously close to his brother this doesn't seem to me like this seems like things that he would
00:54:11
want to share with his family he called his mother on his own yeah that's that's
00:54:17
a sign of something I I couldn't tell you the last time I called my mother well and I think I think he called her
00:54:22
you know daily while the while he was there that's going a little too far no but
00:54:27
just checking in saying hey Mom this trip is awesome um and maybe he's checking in more for them than than
00:54:33
himself you know what I mean one of those things where it's like ah she's going to be a little worried um so cuz
00:54:39
it's not very clear if he lives on campus or not right and I'm assuming that he didn't and the reason why I'm
00:54:47
assuming that is because you would think that um with him going missing that they
00:54:51
would have looked into his dorm room and possibly you know look for Clues there yeah and and I don't know his driving
00:54:59
situation but his father dropped him off so that he could go on this trip I don't
00:55:03
know if he was still living at home yeah but that makes sense because you don't want your car to sit in a parking lot
00:55:08
exactly the weekend but I'm I'm with you Captain I think walked away makes about
00:55:13
as much sense to me as the suicide thing right I think you could put those both at the highly unlikely end of the
00:55:21
spectrum and as far as every report that I've read there's no activity on his cell phone no activity on his credit
00:55:29
cards or or bank cards since his disappearance you're exactly right now one thing I want to throw out there
00:55:35
Captain there is an interview with his father where his father's stating you know you know Jesse he's kind of
00:55:41
speaking to his son and saying Jesse if there was something out there that you wanted to try something you wanted to
00:55:47
pursue that you wanted to go off elsewhere and and and live out some kind of different life um we're totally on
00:55:55
board with that you know we whatever you want to do we just want to make sure that you're safe and you're happy and
00:56:00
you're healthy and we would accept you no matter what uh you wanted to try whatever you wanted to to do with your
00:56:07
life just please let us know that you're okay now I don't think that that should
00:56:12
point to the high probability that he decided to walk away I don't think that points to parents believing that he was
00:56:19
of that type I think it's just desperation on the behalf of the parents after years of having their son uh lost
00:56:27
with no answers they're you start grasping at straws as something yeah I mean basically if it gets brought up
00:56:33
multiple times in conversation you go hey look let's put this out to the universe and if we did do something
00:56:39
wrong that we're not aware of uh let's bring it to you know his attention you know maybe they that's when you start
00:56:45
questioning yourself as a parent you know maybe was I too strict you know were we pushing him too hard was there a
00:56:51
bunch of pressure on him that we we weren't aware of uh so I think they just did it you know you know just in case
00:56:57
yeah I think so all right Captain we are almost at an hour here we're running out
00:57:01
of time today I think that let's talk about the more likely possibilities of what could have happened to Young Jesse
00:57:06
Ross on a part two [Music] episode so until then check us out on Instagram Facebook or Twitter @ True
00:57:22
Crime garage and don't forget you can check us out on untapped as well cheers to you Colonel and to everybody out
00:57:29
there all over the world be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter [Music]
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