Search Captions & Ask AI

Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532

November 05, 2021 / 47:41

This episode covers the unsolved murder of 14-year-old Jennifer Metternach, the investigation's history, and potential suspects including Richard Ivanitz and two local men.

The hosts discuss the initial investigation into Jennifer's death, which began 20 years ago when her body was found in Long Branch Creek. They mention efforts to revive the case, including a 2006 playing card campaign featuring her case and a 2013 search of a home near where her body was discovered.

Key evidence discussed includes a knife handle found at the scene and a possible engagement ring. The hosts speculate on whether the killer was someone familiar to Jennifer, possibly from the trailer park where she was last seen.

Richard Ivanitz, a suspected serial killer, is examined as a potential suspect due to his history of violence against young girls. The hosts detail his criminal background and the similarities between his known victims and Jennifer.

Finally, the episode emphasizes the need for public assistance in solving the case, urging anyone with information to come forward to law enforcement.

TLDR

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Jennifer Metternach and potential suspects, including Richard Ivanitz and local men from her neighborhood.

Episode

47:41
00:00:11
so [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:00:43
listening i'm your host nick and with me as always is a man that would like to remind you that toby flenderson is
00:00:50
everything that is wrong with the paper industry here is the captain toby flenderson to the principal's office
00:00:56
your mother called seems like you wet the bed again it's good to be seen and good to see you
00:01:01
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] today we are still in love with hazy
00:01:12
jane new england style ipa from the master brewers over at brew doggy this bad boy is a full tilt fruit ipa machine
00:01:21
and 7.2 abv because we're men and alcoholics best part it's low in bitterness high on haze and heavy on
00:01:30
hops garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of five and here's a cheers to some of our garage friends
00:01:36
that are high on hays first up we like the cut of your jib goes out to lennifer in peterborough ontario canada and a big
00:01:44
shout out to santos and plano texas a big cheers to j robb in los angeles i'm big we like your jib tool robin and
00:01:52
maddie in nashville georgia next here's the cheers to girl spit in tacoma and last but certainly not least we have a
00:01:59
cheers to longtime listener laura moonstruck from hidden valley lake is that where they make the ranch dressing
00:02:06
so a big ron swanson please and thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the beer fund or bought a shirt or
00:02:13
any of our other fabulous items from our garage sale at truecrimegarage.com and we're restocking
00:02:19
the store so check out truechromegarage.com go to the store page and get you some
00:02:24
that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
00:02:36
[Music] [Applause] [Music] when we left off yesterday captain we were talking about the initial
00:03:01
investigation and how it started to stall out now that was 20 years ago almost to the day that jennifer
00:03:09
metternach was found dead in the long branch creek over the years there has been
00:03:16
several efforts to reinvigorate the investigation and kind of kick start this thing one more time
00:03:24
in 2006 we have playing cards that were released in 2006 a deck of playing cards featuring cold
00:03:33
cases was released the two of diamonds was jennifer's card her photo general case information and where to report any
00:03:44
information that you may have were all on jennifer's card tips did come in but sadly the tips generated from this
00:03:52
tactic so far in the jennifer menoneck case led nowhere in 2013 the case got a little movement
00:04:03
this was in may of 2013 when the clay county deputies and the fdle the florida department of law
00:04:11
enforcement searched a home at 200 mcleland road for possible evidence relating to jennifer's murder
00:04:20
it's not clear whether this was pursuant to a tip that they received or what in fact led
00:04:27
the investigators to this property but we do know that it was searched the home was about two miles away from
00:04:35
where jennifer's body was eventually found from my understanding captain the short version of the result of this
00:04:43
search was that nothing was located in the home related to the case well what's interesting in this case is when
00:04:50
jennifer went missing from her home we have a lot of eyewitnesses around the park that saw her
00:04:57
so we have this knife handle that is a piece of evidence that the police can go around and say does
00:05:04
anybody in this tight-knit community they're all like really close together has anybody ever seen
00:05:11
this knife before yeah because they have the handle for it they are referring to
00:05:16
it as a unique item it doesn't look to me to be particularly expensive but that doesn't mean that it's particularly
00:05:23
common so you're right this is a um like a gold color brass color metal looking handle
00:05:32
that they could at least go around with a picture of asking is this something that you've seen before this is not a
00:05:37
small item right this is not the kind of knife that you're putting in your pocket and
00:05:42
walking around with this is kind of picture rambo right survival knife type situation
00:05:48
where this is going to be i don't want to say a foot in length from from the butt to the the point but it's
00:05:55
going to be a rather decent sized item here in december of 2013 the clay county dive teams decided that
00:06:05
they were going to combine a training exercise with an additional search effort for
00:06:12
more evidence in the stream where jennifer was found so they ended up using sophisticated
00:06:18
underwater metal detectors that could penetrate the two feet of silt that lay at the bottom of the water they
00:06:27
were looking for the knife blade of course and any other potential evidence in jennifer's case they did not find the
00:06:37
knife blade they did recover some items these items were a padlock and a pocket knife
00:06:44
but law enforcement say that these items are not believed to be related in any way to
00:06:50
their investigation or the murder well that answers my question because initially when they find the handle
00:06:56
under her body my my question was maybe the blade broke off and i hate to be graphic but maybe the blade broke off
00:07:06
inside of jennifer that's very possible and with no autopsy report we can't confirm that but but with this extra
00:07:14
dive and what they're looking for we can confirm it wasn't found inside jennifer
00:07:19
in case you haven't figured it out so far a little spoiler alert here jennifer's
00:07:25
case is unsolved 20 years ago this week in jacksonville florida someone killed this 14 year old
00:07:31
girl and now as we approach this 20-year marker we can only hope that this case does not continue
00:07:39
to remain unsolved and unresolved yeah maybe we can turn up the heat a little bit on someone yeah get hot in
00:07:47
the hot tub because i hope that the person responsible knows that there are plenty of people
00:07:53
on this case that are not going to give up law enforcement has told us that this case is solvable and will be
00:08:02
solved so let's take a quick look-see at some suspects who are either being considered or were considered at one
00:08:10
time in this case now my thoughts are captain that basically we have what i believe would be our two highest
00:08:19
of probabilities here right basically two choices for who killed jennifer or where we're going to find this
00:08:26
individual or individuals either someone in the trailer park attacked and killed
00:08:31
this still naive and vulnerable teen possibly even grooming her or after grooming her
00:08:38
or someone outside of the trailer park maybe even a stranger was responsible here
00:08:44
so we have to consider the possibility however remote it may be that jennifer fell victim to an opportunistic killer
00:08:53
if she left woodland estates and walked off on her own yeah we have the report of her being seen leaving woodland
00:09:01
estates then anyone could have killed her i mean perhaps she accepted a ride from
00:09:07
a stranger wanting to head to downtown jacksonville or got talked into going somewhere or
00:09:14
getting into the vehicle well a piece of evidence that we have that i'd like to know more about and i
00:09:20
think is really kind of the crux of this case is this possible engagement ring because to me
00:09:29
if it is a a possible engagement ring or even a promise ring or just a gift in a
00:09:35
romantic gesture or someone trying to woo her to me that that leans more towards the idea that jennifer knew
00:09:43
her her murderer intimately yes knew her murderer and i mean even if how brief we cannot say
00:09:52
right but again it could be so simple that she found this on the ground or that she when she was couch surfing that
00:10:00
she maybe stole some items and that's something that law enforcement can figure out pretty easy
00:10:06
figure out who she was staying with but again we have that problem because some people aren't stating that oh well yeah
00:10:13
she slept on my couch because i'm an adult man and i don't even want to admit to that but they
00:10:20
could go around and say who did she stay with is there any items missing and again this is just like the knife handle
00:10:27
this is an item that you can now go around to the community and say have you seen this before so two things i
00:10:34
couldn't find a definitive statement of anyone saying anywhere that this ring is something that appeared on
00:10:41
her after she left her mom's house but i have to believe that it is with the way that it's worded and stated in
00:10:49
some of these reports but what is not also readily available and if anyone can find this out there
00:10:56
and can confirm that it is from jennifer's case this is a call to action for sending this to us or or
00:11:04
posting a link of the picture on our blog at truecrimegarage.com exactly what the captain just said we
00:11:11
have a nice visual a picture of the knife handle that was found the murder weapon handle that was found we don't
00:11:19
have a nice visual or picture of this quote-unquote engagement ring and you're exactly right captain this is something
00:11:26
that you could be taking around what we don't have you know we we talk about maybe she
00:11:32
could have stolen it from someone or someone gave it to her for reasons that are not
00:11:39
evil deeds at all but we don't have anybody coming forward saying yes i gave that to her or oh i
00:11:46
i did see her briefly and i was i'm missing some jewelry and that's a piece that i'm missing right and look it could
00:11:52
it could also be just one of our friends going oh she ran away from home she's going through a hard time
00:11:58
i'm going to steal this from my parents and and maybe they those people have nothing to do
00:12:04
with her murder but you could see why they wouldn't want to come forward especially
00:12:10
i guess but i don't know why you wouldn't want to help in a situation where you're not guilty
00:12:15
of anything no i understand that by and a 14 year old was murdered no i understand that but i also think that if
00:12:22
maybe some time passed i could see an individual with maybe has a bad history just going
00:12:29
i i don't want to look we've seen a lot of cold cases where a couple years go by and nothing
00:12:37
is moving and and the law enforcement gets a little string and they keep pulling and pulling even
00:12:45
if they're going in the wrong direction they just keep because they feel on some
00:12:50
level we have to blame this on somebody so i i could see somebody you know maybe
00:12:55
realizing a couple years after the fact all that that ring is somehow related to
00:13:00
us uh and i don't want to come forward because i don't want to be possibly thrown under the bus and
00:13:06
where my mind goes is when you have this ring that that's on her person found on
00:13:12
her person mind you she's not clothed when found so there's not a lot of items found with her or on her
00:13:19
at the time when you find her murdered and this item on her and this is something she didn't have in her
00:13:24
possession to anyone's knowledge before she quote went missing then this is important to her murder this
00:13:35
item is part of the murder investigation until you can explain it away and rule it out
00:13:42
as not being anything to do with the murder now what we have here when we review the possibilities of
00:13:48
a killer known to the victim or a killer unknown to the victim we do have to consider the fact that she
00:13:55
was 14 years old and could be called a runaway if you want to and sometimes you know 14 year old runaways get ideas that
00:14:04
are not founded in rational thinking and there was one suspected serial killer who was looked at in jennifer's case
00:14:13
and so we do have to at least explore the idea and we know that law enforcement explored the idea that there was a
00:14:19
possibility that maybe she did leave the mobile home park and got into somebody's vehicle so the
00:14:27
suspect that i'm talking about has never been entirely ruled out in this case so
00:14:33
news 4 jacksonville reported one year after jennifer's murder the following that the clay county sheriff's office
00:14:41
has confirmed to channel four at that time that they were looking at richard of vonnets
00:14:47
as a possible suspect in the murder of fourteen-year-old jennifer metternach earlier this year so who is this richard
00:14:55
avonnets he is an individual that abducted a 15 year old girl in south carolina in june
00:15:02
of 2002. he raped her and physically abused her in other ways but she managed to escape and then she goes to police
00:15:12
so the way that i this works this this portion of what he's guilty of works is he pulls up
00:15:22
he sees this 15 year old girl in her front yard pulls up street side says that he's selling magazines
00:15:32
she approaches the vehicle and once she's close enough to maybe view these magazines if they even existed at all he
00:15:40
pulls a gun and at gunpoint he orders her into his vehicle from there he takes her back to his
00:15:47
apartment where she's restrained and assaulted this is like the twisted psychological torture stuff
00:15:57
that some of these guys really get off on right he made her or or sat with her and watched
00:16:03
the that night's news to see if there were if they were going to report her missing or if there was
00:16:10
any reports of her missing she says that he he goes into the other room she's handcuffed but at some point he falls
00:16:17
asleep and she can hear him snoring so she knows that he's asleep this is when she manages to
00:16:24
get out of the handcuffs flee the apartment and go off and get some help well she's able to tell
00:16:32
the police the apartment where she was kept even though just briefly for you know some
00:16:38
hours so they know who this dude is and he must have got up discovered rather quickly that she's
00:16:45
gone he decides he takes off so police are out on the lookout for this dude they put an
00:16:52
apb out for avonnets he's then spotted sometime later in sarasota florida where police tracked him down
00:17:02
there was an armed standoff that ensued which ended when ivanitz shot himself in the head the navy times wrote a great
00:17:12
piece about this incident one portion of it reads as follows quote trapped by a half dozen cops with
00:17:20
guns drawn on a dark florida highway as a police dog's teeth sank into his ankle
00:17:26
richard mark avonnets put the muzzle of a 45 caliber handgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger and
00:17:35
quote well this guy was a giant piece of [ __ ] but if you look up richard he looks like the dad next door we see
00:17:44
this from time to time where we bring up a serial killer and you google search them and you go that guy looks like a
00:17:51
monster that guy is nothing behind those eyes now what's interesting about a lot of richard's pictures
00:17:59
is it remember when we talked about uh we talked to that one private investigator and she talked about just
00:18:05
the black eyes it's like everything about him looks normal but it's almost like he has these really
00:18:12
like dark dead nothing eyes people often say when they encounter one of these individuals
00:18:18
that there seems to be nothing behind the eyes yeah isn't that kind of a trait of like
00:18:24
a psychopath where you feel like they're constantly looking through you and not at you well his death
00:18:32
did not conclude the investigation into him personally right since now it was evident that he was a predator and a
00:18:41
child rapist the navy times goes on to say the single gunshot brought a quick death
00:18:47
to the 38 year old navy veteran but only started the questions of what he did in his life
00:18:55
so the fbi requested that anyone who knew ivanitz during his time in the navy to please
00:19:03
contact the fbi a per the jacksonville 4 news station that we quoted earlier clay and duval
00:19:11
counties were two of they were just two of 20 police agencies that were examining unsolved crimes
00:19:21
from the times that vonnets was in or known to be in their areas in the 80s and early 1990s ivanitz was a
00:19:30
navy sonar technician he was stationed aboard the ss kolch from 1985 to 1989 out of naval station
00:19:41
mayport in jacksonville florida so he's familiar with this area in 1987 in what is now
00:19:49
known to be his first offense let's right underline that first known offense right it's believed that we do not know
00:19:56
the full extent of this man's crimes or possibly even his murders so in this 1987 offense he drove up to a
00:20:04
young girl and started this man this is disgusting he drove up to a young girl and started masturbating
00:20:12
near her she ran off crying and a neighbor wrote down the license plate number before avonnets drove away
00:20:21
after he was caught he pled no contest to a felony of lewd and lascivious conduct in front of a minor
00:20:29
per the navy times according to a police report from the 1987 arrest avonets told
00:20:35
investigators that he hadn't he had a habit of driving around spotting a young girl
00:20:41
preferably a brunette catching her attention and then masturbating for this incredibly disgusting hobby avonnets got
00:20:49
three years probation at this same time he was separately undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol addiction
00:20:57
now none of this was apparently enough to get him kicked out of the navy which navy officials later admitted it should
00:21:04
have in fact he went on to receive some good conduct medals for before leaving the navy in 1992. you whip it out we
00:21:14
lock you up you know what they say click it or ticket right zip it or take it i don't care what
00:21:22
anybody says you know how disturbing it would be for these females to come up walking wherever and you see a guy just
00:21:32
you know beating it as if it owes them money that person there should be no probation there should be at least some
00:21:40
minimal minimum jail time after his time in the navy avonnets worked a series of jobs in
00:21:47
virginia and south carolina including a job at a machine shop where he was an employee in virginia
00:21:54
from 1995 to 1999. then his home was foreclosed and he moved to south carolina where he was originally from
00:22:02
and here's where it gets i guess i guess interesting is what we're going to say when the police raided avonnet's home
00:22:11
after that 2002 rape of the south carolina girl and then his suicide when they cornered him
00:22:20
they found some interesting stuff it was evidence possibly linking him to the kidnapping and murder of three girls
00:22:29
in virginia where he was living at the time of their murders so this would be the
00:22:37
1996-1997 time frame these were sisters kristen and katie liske and a girl named sophia silva
00:22:47
the clues found included newspaper articles about the murders and handwritten notes
00:22:53
mapping out the areas where the victims lived we're not going to get into the weeds on these murders here
00:23:01
because we're talking about jennifer's case but these murders of course were unsolved at the time at 2002 when they
00:23:08
found these items in his apartment but the fbi called avonnets a strong suspect in the lisk and silva
00:23:17
cases and boy were they right because after his death analysis showed that hair from
00:23:24
richard of vonnets matched hairs found on the bodies of all three girls and blue acrylic
00:23:31
fibers from a pair of furry handcuffs right he owned were gathered from the three victims perhaps the most damning
00:23:40
evidence was a palm print and fingerprints matching kristen lisk found from the inside
00:23:48
of the trunk of a vonnet's car these were found five years after the abduction the local sheriff ronald knight
00:23:58
cried as he announced the incredible break in the case and the end of the exhaustive search for
00:24:05
the man who committed these horrible crimes [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we are back
00:24:38
cheers everybody make sure you're following us on social media facebook twitter instagram you can find us at true crime
00:24:45
garage cheers to you the crispiest of the colonels extra crispy colonel here cheers to you captain and you know
00:24:52
what else we like a little five-star review with a nice little write-up makes my day i was going
00:24:59
to say drugs and old richard ivanitz i'd love to break his legs off shove him up his ass
00:25:06
and then [ __ ] down his throat well good news you won't have to do any of that because as said the police surrounded
00:25:12
him the dogs are biting into his legs and he's he decided to end it for us now that can
00:25:18
be good that can be bad it's bad for some of these investigations it seems to me pretty cut
00:25:24
and dried right that this guy is guilty of these three murders but what else is he guilty of he's also
00:25:31
guilty of the abduction of cara robinson but she got free and then once it's brought to light what this creep was up
00:25:41
to you know neighbors were called avonnets as someone who had an unhealthy interest in young girls and
00:25:48
believe you me this seems like an understatement so what is it that connects richard of vonnets to
00:25:57
jennifer metternach not a whole heck of a lot but there is enough to be intriguing
00:26:04
first avonnets lived in clay county where jennifer's body was eventually found he lived there in the late 80s
00:26:12
and then after his death in 2002 from the jacksonville sheriff's office lieutenant rick graham said quote we do
00:26:20
have a connection of him being in this city in the late 80s we will be going back to that time period and looking to
00:26:27
see if there's possibilities that mr ivanitz could be connected to any unsolved murders back in that era now
00:26:37
it's worth noting that they do not have specific information or did not at that time that ivanitz was in the
00:26:44
jacksonville area in the year of 2001 when jennifer was killed the last time he was known to be in that
00:26:53
city was more than a decade beforehand but ivanitz traveled around a lot as we've already pointed out neighbors
00:27:00
reported that he had an unhealthy interest in prepubescent girls and by his own admission avonnets was
00:27:08
into young brunette girls further the murders of sophia silva and sisters katie and kristen lisk bear a
00:27:17
similarity to jennifer's case here's some information from the navy times see if you can discern
00:27:25
why we've included these cases and why these cases would be of interest to jennifer metternach's investigators
00:27:33
silva 16 years old disappeared from her front porch on september 16 1997. her body was
00:27:41
found days later wrapped in a blanket near an area creek katie 12 and kristen 15 were abducted
00:27:49
from the front yard of their home on may first 1997. their bodies were found in a
00:27:56
nearby river just days later so pretty obvious right here captain where we have our victim jennifer matanic that was
00:28:05
known to be or believed to be still in the area in her general neighborhood and then later found in a creek
00:28:14
similar situation with all three of these girls that ranged in age from 12 to 16 and of course jennifer fits right
00:28:22
in the middle of those ages vonnets who was intimately familiar with the area where jennifer was found liked to
00:28:32
murder brunette teen girls and then dumped them in or near waterways now that's not enough of course to
00:28:39
connect him to jennifer's case right and at least two of his other victims were strangled not stabbed
00:28:49
but we do know from the abduction that he was also known to use a gun so he's he's not
00:28:56
wedded to the use of just one type of weapon right and because he also these could be crimes of opportunity so it
00:29:04
could just be whatever he has on him at the time both of these crimes the three murders together they do appear to me to
00:29:11
be crimes of opportunity and we have his own admission to police saying that he would drive around looking for
00:29:18
girls well let me throw out one thing that might just seem very obvious but in this case
00:29:25
like we know when she leaves her mother's house we have multiple eyewitnesses to say where she went afterwards or that
00:29:33
they saw her and we believe them because the story checks out so to me the idea that she left the park
00:29:44
because we have eyewitness accounts of this to me this is information that we should
00:29:50
believe because the other eyewitness accounts were correct she was seen leaving the park the interesting thing
00:29:57
to me here captain is we don't know the the details of this but we do have the statement from police
00:30:04
that she was at a party right and so several of these eyewitnesses could have been at the same party
00:30:12
and i want to know exactly when this party took place because is she there at this party
00:30:19
talking to her peers and kind of filling them in on her whereabouts or what she's been up to
00:30:25
since she's left mommy's house right so these would be statements that they're later able to pass along to
00:30:33
the sheriff's department and as you pointed out they're probably backed up by other witnesses statements right if
00:30:39
avonets did kill jennifer long story short he took that secret with him to his grave
00:30:47
but i think what we should do here is circle back to our other idea that someone closer to home someone that
00:30:54
likely knew jennifer even no matter how brief and the killer could have been someone that she
00:31:00
possibly trusted so let's look at what evidence we have that the killer was someone who resided
00:31:07
or spent time in woodland estates the original investigator on the case remember this is a 20 year old case here
00:31:17
was lieutenant jim redman who was a seasoned dedicated law enforcement officer he said publicly after the murder that
00:31:26
he believed that jennifer's killer was quote from the area he told the times union and went on to
00:31:32
say quote the fact of the matter is she didn't run away from her community it was more of an issue of frequent
00:31:41
curfew violations we believe she was still right in the community where she lived
00:31:48
this case will get solved right in that area where she lived and quote so clearly police were looking at someone
00:31:57
close to home but like you said almost to the day this is a 20 year old case and when you have a case that's gone
00:32:07
on that long you have peaks and valleys when you get new information maybe you then reach out to the public try to get
00:32:14
people talking and then you have lulls we're just nothing new information's not coming in you're not getting tips
00:32:22
it's hard to work the case in those scenarios but through the whole time we believe law enforcement
00:32:28
had some suspects that they were always working on yeah and it looks to me captain like
00:32:33
clay county has about five unsolved homicides in this time span so they have a good success rate when it
00:32:45
comes to solving similar types of crimes and similar types of cases and what you're going to see here is
00:32:52
even though they're not announcing everything publicly there seems to have been a lot that was going on behind the
00:32:59
scenes in this particular case and we catch a little wind of that from a statement from 2015 this was lieutenant
00:33:07
wayne mckinney of clay county sheriff's office who supervised its robbery slash homicide
00:33:14
special victims division he said we actually had some suspects over the years that we have talked to
00:33:20
we've had some persons of interest that we've definitely been interested in who was he talking about well detectives
00:33:28
believe and still believe that jennifer was killed by someone from woodland estates cold case detective rob
00:33:35
schunover kind of backs up a lot of this thought here who he told us as intriguing as the richard avonnet's lead
00:33:43
seems we got to go back to the very beginning and that investigators were convinced
00:33:49
very early on that jennifer was killed by someone from her neighborhood and he said that they were able to gather
00:33:57
credible information regarding specific individuals at the mobile home park so here's what i was able to piece together
00:34:05
here captain in in this regard we know that jennifer was hanging around the woodland estates well she was very
00:34:13
unwisely hanging around with the wrong crowd and this is her her mother's statements per law enforcement's
00:34:21
statements as well now we figured out that there was a large party scene in woodland estates
00:34:28
and as we stated earlier it was pretty shady there was one home in particular where impressionable young people this
00:34:36
is both boys and girls teenagers this includes underage kids who were jennifer's peers
00:34:44
where they went to hang out and this was to drink possibly do drugs and maybe even have
00:34:52
all sorts of sexual liaisons the home was toward the front of the park and was occupied by two guys in their early 20s
00:35:02
either they had a liking for young girls or couldn't manage to pick up women of their own age and they're
00:35:10
housing these underage parties frequently in their trailer a little birdie has told us that jennifer was
00:35:17
involved with one of them and the relationship did involve drugs and sex it's possible that she was groomed by
00:35:26
these guys or one of the guys in particular giving her drugs or tempting her with drugs
00:35:34
maybe one of these guys gave her that ring that was found later maybe even promised
00:35:42
that he loved her in some way through police interviews with people in the trailer park they learned that
00:35:48
several other guys may have had some type of romantic exchange with jennifer now mind
00:35:54
you we shouldn't have to point this out but this is a 14 year old girl so these guys
00:35:59
are all essentially pedophiles anyway investigators gathered that jennifer had been hanging out at this
00:36:07
sketchy party home in the time that she was quote missing now through second-hand statements we learned that
00:36:14
witnesses said that they saw jennifer and she was last seen getting into a pickup truck
00:36:21
owned by one of these guys this on wednesday remember her body was found on thursday right
00:36:28
so witnesses seen jennifer getting into a pickup truck owned by one of these guys on wednesday
00:36:35
and leaving woodland estates in the company of the two party guys from the mobile home
00:36:41
on thursday her body was found these two predators the last people known to have
00:36:46
been seen with jennifer our victim are gregory allen giffin and david michael goetz these names have never
00:36:54
been released publicly before that we know of now even though investigators knew that getz and giffin were their
00:37:01
guys when they brought them in for questioning they ran into some trouble here what we have is that
00:37:09
giffin gives a sworn statement that he was present when jennifer was murdered by his friend david michael goetz
00:37:18
but then he retracted this statement and then kept flip-flopping on his story and the state's attorney
00:37:27
decided that given the unreliability of this discredited statement against getz even though authorities believe giffen
00:37:35
and getz are in fact responsible for jennifer's murder there was not enough to proceed with charges at that time
00:37:44
so one piece of [ __ ] says hey this other piece of [ __ ] he's responsible and then
00:37:49
when they come back he says oh no no no no i changed my mind the old waffling the old flip-flopping
00:37:56
yes but we've also seen people be interrogated and throw somebody under the bus that is
00:38:02
innocent well investigators talking with people at the woodland estates in the days after jennifer's murder found out
00:38:09
that goetz was seen cleaning out his truck the day after jennifer was killed he washed it down
00:38:16
and cleaned out the inside potentially eradicating possible evidence and jennifer's clothes her clothing was
00:38:23
never found and neither was the knife blade so other than the witness statements
00:38:29
that jennifer was involved with one of the guys or one of these guys that she had been hanging out in their
00:38:36
trailer when her mom was looking for her and that she had been seen in getz's truck
00:38:43
with the both of them and then had turned up dead the next day there was nothing concrete beyond that
00:38:50
to go on apparently our boy giffen is in prison in oklahoma and has been visited
00:38:56
by the investigating agency trying to persuade him to talk but the inmate would not cooperate
00:39:04
giffen and goetz have never been charged with jennifer's murder well maybe somebody from
00:39:11
this park knows that one of these turd bags owned the knife or possibly owned this
00:39:19
ring that they gave to jennifer jennifer's mom died of a heart attack in 2011 but luckily clay county's cold case
00:39:28
investigator david schunover is still seeking justice in her case there has been some good news in the
00:39:37
case the state's attorney's office has decided to take another look at jennifer's case representatives from
00:39:43
that office collected all of the files from clay county homicide and are reviewing the file detective shoenover
00:39:51
tells us that they believe giffen and getz are guilty and he is hopeful that they will decide to press charges for
00:39:59
jennifer's murder old giffen and getz sounds like a record company from the 20s one of them
00:40:06
confessed before maybe one of them would confess again but it's been 20 years and let me remind you of this
00:40:16
statement this statement by law enforcement this was a 14 year old girl who was brutally murdered and dumped
00:40:24
into the creek like a piece of trash and she was murdered by pieces of trash and
00:40:30
people saw her walking around talking with people hanging out with people and possibly being at a party
00:40:38
somebody has seen more or heard more or maybe one of these scumbags giffen or getz has told somebody something and
00:40:48
somebody out there has information and they've been holding on to this information for quite a long time
00:40:54
justice needs to be served and you if you know something you need to say something and you need
00:41:00
to contact law enforcement well and maybe you're an eyewitness or an ear witness to something
00:41:07
during that time period when she was away from home leading up to her death or maybe you've
00:41:14
heard something or been told something since then in the last 20 years and it was
00:41:20
something that was a little confusing to you but now hearing the names knowing the names gregory allen giffin and david
00:41:27
michael getz maybe that picture becomes a little clearer to you and maybe you now have a better
00:41:35
understanding of what it was that you heard or something that you may have seen all those years ago it's not too
00:41:41
late to inform law enforcement about what you know they still if you don't have direct
00:41:49
information regarding the murder itself or the moving of the body or the disposal of her body
00:41:56
they still want to fill in the blanks on that timeline from the time that she left her mother angie's home to the time
00:42:04
that she ended up in long branch creek in one of the more recent articles about jennifer's homicide and the ongoing
00:42:13
investigation this was titled unsolved the murder of jennifer metternach by katherine jeffries
00:42:21
in the article detective schunover says i know some people are out there with knowledge
00:42:26
and for whatever reason are not coming forward but you have to look at this 14 year old girl she didn't deserve to die
00:42:33
like this the wounds that you could see during the autopsy it was very gruesome but the way she died it was a horrible
00:42:41
and tragic death for her to have to go through again jennifer metternich's life was brutally ended in november of 2001.
00:42:50
her body was found dumped under a small bridge in a desolate area along county road to
00:42:57
17. the evidence at the scene indicates the body was probably dumped off of the bridge
00:43:04
this is just one of a handful of unsolved murder cases in clay county detective ron schunover with the clay
00:43:11
county sheriff's office primarily focus is bringing closure to these cold cases so he is reopening
00:43:19
this cold case again if you have any information whether you think it's big or small
00:43:26
it could be a very little detail that could help law enforcement if you know something say something on november 5th
00:43:33
2001 jennifer's mother reported her missing reported her daughter missing we need to fill in the blanks on that
00:43:41
timeline because three days later her body was found in that creek 11 miles away from home
00:43:47
detectives believed that she bled to death after receiving multiple stab wounds underneath her body investigators found
00:43:55
the handle of a knife with strands of jennifer's hair of course they believe this is the
00:44:01
murder weapon so any information about the knife itself is crucial and important also remember her clothing
00:44:09
the items that she was last seen wearing brown sandals green and black shorts and
00:44:13
a white t-shirt with red lips on it have never been found either and the knife handle was just one of several
00:44:21
pieces of evidence collected from the scene evidence the clay county sheriff's office says they are resubmitting for
00:44:28
dna testing and as we know there are people who law enforcement is looking at looking at our location very closely in
00:44:37
fact detective schunover says to this day there are a couple of individuals that are persons of interest and high on
00:44:44
the list and he firmly believes there are people who know more than what they told detectives in 2001
00:44:52
quote i know some people are out there with knowledge and for whatever reason are not coming forward a special thanks
00:44:58
goes out to clay county sheriff's office for their hard work and continued efforts on this now 20 year old case and
00:45:04
kudos to katie jeffries for her great reporting keeping jennifer's case and others in the spotlight in efforts to
00:45:13
spread awareness of these cases and reminding the public that law enforcement needs your help if you know
00:45:19
something say something if anyone listening knows anything at all about the murder of jennifer medernek in 2001
00:45:28
even if you think it's something of no importance or significance please contact the clay county sheriff's office
00:45:34
and let them decide if your tip could help anyone with information should call the clay county sheriff's office at
00:45:41
904-264-6512 [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining us here in
00:45:59
the garage and keeping this little garage show afloat we would be nothing if it weren't for
00:46:06
you colonel do we have a recommended reading for this week this week we are recommending amy my search for her
00:46:14
killer by a long time friend of the show james renner last week 32 years ago was the day that amy maholovic was
00:46:23
abducted from bay village ohio i want to give a shout out and high praise to everybody that participated in the walk
00:46:31
for amy last week check out james renner's book amy my search for her killer you can also find our case
00:46:39
coverage for the amy maholovic case on episodes 22 308 309 345 346 and episode 463 so we've been covering this case for
00:46:53
the past five years check out that recommendation and many others on truecrimegarage.com and until next week
00:47:01
be good be kind and don't litter [Applause] [Music] you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 60
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • Cheers to Our Garage Friends
    A shout out to listeners supporting the show, including Lennifer and Laura Moonstruck.
    “Thanks for listening, thanks for telling a friend.”
    @ 01m 04s
    November 05, 2021
  • The Unsolved Case of Jennifer Metternach
    Exploring the 20-year-old unsolved murder of 14-year-old Jennifer Metternach.
    “20 years ago this week in Jacksonville, Florida, someone killed this 14-year-old girl.”
    @ 07m 29s
    November 05, 2021
  • Richard Avonnets: A Possible Suspect
    Investigating Richard Avonnets, a man with a history of violence against young girls.
    “He looks like the dad next door, but he's a predator.”
    @ 17m 41s
    November 05, 2021
  • The Break in the Case
    Sheriff Ronald Knight announces a significant breakthrough in the investigation.
    “Cried as he announced the incredible break in the case.”
    @ 23m 58s
    November 05, 2021
  • Eyewitness Accounts
    Witnesses reported seeing Jennifer leaving a party with two men shortly before her murder.
    “Witnesses saw Jennifer getting into a pickup truck owned by one of these guys.”
    @ 36m 30s
    November 05, 2021
  • Cold Case Reopened
    Clay County's cold case investigator is revisiting Jennifer's murder after 20 years.
    “Detective Schunover believes Giffen and Goetz are guilty and is hopeful for charges.”
    @ 39m 51s
    November 05, 2021
  • Amy Maholovic Case Coverage
    We've been covering the Amy Maholovic case for the past five years.
    “Check out that recommendation and many others on truecrimegarage.com”
    @ 46m 53s
    November 05, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • This is not a small item.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532
  • This is a call to action for sending this to us.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532
  • He took that secret with him to his grave.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532
  • Justice needs to be served, and you need to say something.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532
  • I want to give a shout out and high praise to everybody!
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532
  • Check out James Renner's book, 'Amy: My Search for Her Killer.'.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 2 /// 532

Key Moments

  • Beer Review01:10
  • Community Call to Action11:01
  • Possible Suspect14:10
  • Cold Case39:51
  • Shout Out46:26
  • Book Recommendation46:34
  • Case Coverage46:50
  • Final Thoughts47:01

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown