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Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532

November 02, 2022 / 46:35

This episode of True Crime Garage covers the case of 14-year-old Jennifer Metternick, who went missing in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2001. The episode discusses her troubled relationship with her mother, her disappearance, and the discovery of her body in Long Branch Creek.

Jennifer was reported missing after leaving home to visit a friend but did not return. Her mother, Angie Metternick, expressed concern after Jennifer failed to come home for two nights. Witnesses reported seeing Jennifer in the mobile home park where she lived, but she ultimately vanished.

On November 8, 2001, two teenage boys discovered Jennifer's body while fishing. The Clay County Sheriff's Office determined her death was a homicide, with evidence suggesting she had been killed elsewhere and dumped in the creek.

Investigators found a knife handle beneath her body, believed to be the murder weapon. The episode discusses the challenges law enforcement faced in identifying suspects and the investigation's slow progress.

Listeners are encouraged to engage with the episode and share their thoughts on this tragic case.

TLDR

Jennifer Metternick, 14, goes missing and is found dead; investigation reveals troubling circumstances surrounding her death.

Episode

46:35
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[Music] this week on True Crime garage a 14 year old girl goes missing her parents call police police often
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write missing teens off as Runaways but in this case she pretty much was a runaway
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but then she turned up dead a victim of a very violent homicide this teen girl was gone for days and
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then thrown over a bridge detectives say her body was dumped there but she was not killed there
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under her body investigators found what they believe was the murder weapon this was just one of several pieces of
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evidence collected from the body recovery scene evidence the Clay County Sheriff's
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Office still has and is resubmitting for DNA testing some evil monster simply discarded her
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like trash and no one is talking but why was she the victim of a serial killer did she become just another young girl
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in a string of victims or did she fall prey to someone closer to home this is true crime garage
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this is the case of Jennifer medernick [Music] in 2001 14 year old Jennifer metternack
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was living in Woodland Estates Mobile Home Park this was a large mobile home park situated on 103rd Street in
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Jacksonville Florida which is in Duval County Florida it's not one of those parks where people bring their campers
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this is a development with a nice sign at the entrance establish smaller homes and really a community type of feel as
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of earlier this year 2021 the park had 293 residents so it is quite large now Jennifer lived at 9359 103rd Street on
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lot 28 with her mother Angie metternak it's not clear where her Father James was living at this time he may have been
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living with them or how much of a role he played in her life as he's simply absent from all of the stories and the
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news articles that I could find Jennifer was a student at Joseph Stillwell middle
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school but at 14 years old she was starting to behave a little like an older Teenager her mom later said that
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Jennifer used to be a good girl but that changed in the spring of 2001. this would be right around the time the
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Jennifer turned 14 years old she says Jennifer started to act out she began cutting school and so on Angie said as
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quoted in the Florida Times Union quote she started going downhill last year at the end of the school year she had to go
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to summer school she started getting into a little trouble now three weeks before everything happened everything
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being what we're leading up to here Captain Jennifer got a ticket because she was caught smoking at school
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so as you can imagine Jennifer and her mom started butting heads as often happens with teen girls and their
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mothers and over the weekend of November 3rd and 4th 2001 Jennifer and her mom had a big argument now according to Mom
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according to Angie the two had words over the state of Jennifer's room it was such a mess that her things were
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spilling out into the hallway now Angie later told the Florida Times Union that on that Sunday November 4th the two
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worked together to clean up the room and afterward Jennifer was allowed to go out
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to hang with some friends and at that time Jennifer left with a girlfriend someone her mother did not know as she
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was told Jennifer and her friend were going to walk to the safari food store this is a convenience store located on
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103rd Street in West Jacksonville this is very near the Woodland Estates where Jennifer lived so this is a rather short
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walk it would have taken the two just a few minutes to get there on foot Angie said Jennifer kissed her goodbye and
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told her that she loved her now that's the nice version of the story and if that's what Mom says happened well
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unless you're Casey Anthony or a few other moms that we've discussed here on the show then we will go with that we
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will go with what you're saying but I do want to take this quick moment here to present a slightly different and maybe
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still possible series of events because we've seen this too many times maybe Mom and Jennifer have some type of
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blow up argument and in typical teen girl fashion Jennifer storms off to meet up with her friend and because she left
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in a tizzy Jennifer took nothing with her she left the trailer on Sunday and then
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she did not come home that Sunday night now even though she didn't come home that night we still believe that she was
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alive and well and just staying at a friend's house yes Captain so I took that time to do a little aside and add
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in my two cents here because later it was reported that it was not uncommon for Jennifer to spend the night out at a
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friend's house this especially after mom and daughter argued so when she didn't return that Sunday night her mom
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probably wasn't too worked up about it she probably decided to let Jennifer cool off for a bit but Jennifer didn't
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come home on Monday night either so this is not what you think right as you pointed out Captain Jennifer was
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still okay even after two nights not at home she was choosing not to go home she
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was being a stubborn little teenager is what she was yeah she was still at the Woodland Estates just not at her own
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house where she stayed Sunday night we don't know for certain and her mother didn't know either
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Jennifer did not have a cell phone so her mom could not reach her or track her movements Jennifer apparently hung
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around the neighborhood on Sunday night and Monday and this will come from other
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Witnesses statements as we said her mom had been struggling with Jennifer cutting school and sure enough Jennifer
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failed to show up at school on Monday but she was still in the area several residents in the mobile home park later
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told police that Jennifer told them on Monday that she had a fight with her mother and that she had left home she
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did not say where she was staying or whether she planned on leaving Woodland Estates or not meanwhile Jennifer's
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mother apparently decided that enough is enough although Jennifer had never run away from home before she had
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temporarily left in the past but Jennifer never stayed away for what was turning out to be this long it seems
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that her mom knew that Jennifer was defiantly staying away from home and wanted to call in some Rand enforcements
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to help her Corral her rebellious teenager she reported Jennifer missing to the Duval County Sheriff's Office on
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Monday night clearly she felt that Jennifer needed you know a talking to and perhaps maybe
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even a a little scare from someone in a position of authority because after she filed the missing persons report on
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Monday evening at 6 PM it's reported that Angie Jennifer's mom caught a glimpse of Jennifer walking in the
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distance still with inside the park and we know that another neighbor saw Jennifer at this time as well walking
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away from her home but even though Angie could briefly see her daughter she could
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not go after her now Angie from my understanding was in poor health at this time and she was not able to get around
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very easily so this prevented her from going after her daughter one also probably one of the reasons she called
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for help correct but it is interesting to note that this sighting of Jennifer did not prompt Angie to cancel
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that missing persons report that she had previously filed Angie either wanted or likely felt that
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she needed interveners right AKA police or sheriff's deputies to force the 14 year old to return home and probably you
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know tell her to go easy on her mom my friend Jessica submitted a request for the missing persons report and the
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request was granted so here is what that report said on November 5th 2001 at 807
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PM I was dispatched not me your friendly Colonel but the officer writing the report obviously was dispatched to a
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missing person runaway call at 93.59 103rd Street upon my arrival I met with the complainant who is the victim's
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mother she stated that the victim wanted to go to the store with one of her friends on
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November 4th at 3 30 in the afternoon she told the victim that she could go when the victim did not return she
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started checking with some of her neighbors to find out if they had seen the victim on November 5th at 6 PM she
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saw the victim in their trailer park she said the victim ran from her and she is in poor health and was unable to go
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after the victim the complainant stated that this is not the first time that the
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victim has not returned home when she was supposed to she said this is the first time that she has ever stayed gone
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this long and that is why she called the police to report the victim missing the
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complainant believes that the victim is staying with someone in the trailer park
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possibly another unknown girl that she saw the victim with today the complainant said this is the first time
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she has called the police to report the victim as missing so this report specifies that Jennifer was last seen
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wearing brown sandals green and black shorts and a white T-shirt with red lips some kind of drawing or decal of red
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lips on this white T-shirt she has some facial scars some small facial scars some to the upper lip and
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left eye her mental state on the report is listed as good her status is listed as runaway and it's noted that her
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probable destination was 93 59 103rd Street Woodland Estates trailer park so she's missing she's reported missing by
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mom mom catches a brief glimpse of her at some point but she's hearing from Neighbors as well that her daughter
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still within the confines of this trailer park right there's so eyewitnesses that see her alive she's
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just not going to school and just not coming home well it's tough we've all been 14 before and I know for me I
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thought I knew everything and I thought I was smarter than my parents and I thought that I was Street wise and and
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all those things back when I was 14. you quickly find out that you know little to
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nothing that is so true that is absolutely true now as noted in the missing persons
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report Angie believed Jennifer was still somewhere in the mobile home park and was just refusing to come home but later
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on Monday evening Witnesses said that they saw Jennifer walking out of Woodland Estates on the access road to
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the park this is a core according to Clay County Sheriff Scott Lancaster yet detectives found Witnesses who told them
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that Jennifer was still hanging around the park staying with who knows and staying who knows where
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until November 7th and it seems like this is the time that we really need to start calling everything into question
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because right this is where she seems to have totally dropped off of the radar but here's one of the problems though
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right you have this 14 year old girl roaming this park some of these Parks people will live there because the
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background checks might be different I don't know if this park is similar to that or not
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but you also have a situation where you have a condensed population and she's roaming this park not going to school
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and she's basically advertising to any of the scumbags over there hey I'm not being supervised and I'm an easy target
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I'm not going home my mother my parents don't know my exact whereabouts I'm not going to school so probably up to no
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good during what's supposed to be school hours for her again this is really when
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we start to call a lot of things into question this November 7th date and it seems like she drops off the radar
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vanishes really at this point because this is where we lose track of Jennifer now this is going to take us
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to November 8 2001. this is the Thursday after Jennifer was seen exiting the mobile
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home park remember that was on Monday so three days earlier is when she was seen
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but on this Thursday the 8th we have two teenage boys who decided that they were
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going to go fishing this would be under a bridge now the Long Branch Creek runs through these kids Maxville neighborhood
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in Clay County remember Jennifer was reported missing in Duval County right this area where these boys were
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going to go fishing this is a remote area described as desolate in one article about 13 miles away from the
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Woodland Estates and about two miles across the Clay County Duval County Line the boys slowly
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worked their way down the creek embankment and got ready to bait their hooks when something in the water
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stopped them in their tracks here's a quote from the Florida Times Union that reads quote they saw what they thought
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was a body lying face down in the water sort of on her side with her hip up said
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Mary Justino a spokeswoman for the Clay County Sheriff's Office they weren't sure if it was something left over from
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a Halloween prank or a real body and as all of our garage regulars know we don't
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cover Halloween pranks here on this show so unfortunately someday that's our new series we aspire
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to cover Halloween pranks yeah and run again like we've learned in the last five years it's it's never a mannequin
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so unfortunately a prank or a fake it was not on closer inspection the boys realized
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that they had just discovered a body lying in the creek it was a naked female one of them ran to his nearby house and
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told his father who then called The Clay County Sheriff's Office who responded to
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the scene immediately the responding officers report was time stamped at 2100 hours this reports a body found at 609
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County Road 217 Middleburg Florida it reflects the finding of a white female name and age
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unknown incident type homicide suspect and weapon are both listed as UK for unknown the responding officer was
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Sergeant CJ Jett who wrote the following statement on November 8 2001 at 15 30 hours so 3 30 hours I was notified via
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departmently pager to respond to the area of 609 County Road 217 in reference to a death investigation the body of an
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unidentified naked white female was found floating in the water next to a bridge I arrived at the scene at 1605
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hours and observed the naked body of an unidentified white female with dark colored hair floating face down in the
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water on the west side of County maintain two lane cement Bridge the victim's body was retrieved from the
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water at 1805 hours the victim's body was later transported to the medical examiner's office in Jacksonville
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Florida case pending one he got a fill for these two teenage boys that just were going fishing and find this body
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and and at this point we don't know exactly what condition her body is in but we've seen some really terrible
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cases where the bloating of the body and and water can make it a very horrific site and so this would be a pretty
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traumatic experience for these teenage boys now you'll note that the incident report was found at 9 00 PM just a
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handful of hours after the body was found this indicates that the body was the victim of a homicide so what we have
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here is just by the officers arriving on scene they're visually able to determine
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before even an autopsy takes place right that this we're talking about a homicide
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here so how did Sergeant jet know this prior to an autopsy being performed the answer is simple it was obvious to
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anyone who got a good look at the body I'm guessing puncture wounds well the the young female's body was riddled with
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stab wounds her death had been extremely violent that's awful one article we found said her body was quote Savaged
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detective Rob schoonover of the Clay County Sheriff's Office Cold Case division said to First Coast News quote
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with the wounds that you could see during the autopsy it was very gruesome the way she died it was a horrible and
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tragic death for her to have to go through [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right you filthy animals if you're
00:22:32
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00:22:43
cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain cheers to all the people about the good seats up front the
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officer responding to the creek where Jennifer's body was found was Sergeant jet who noted that the body was removed
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and then sent to the Jacksonville medical examiner's office for the autopsy now we tried to get a copy of
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this autopsy report but could not get our hands on it I have some speculation to offer up here in this regard though
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just like most murder case investigations the physical evidence found at the scene along with the
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details in that autopsy report might be the making or breaking point for your case but I believe here in Jennifer's
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case it's even more important and that may become more clear as we continue on because as we get through some of these
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details and specifics here Captain we are going to get into some rather interesting Suspects
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in this case well a couple issues if you're dealing with this investigation is that the body is found in water so
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water is known to get rid of certain parts of evidence also we don't know if her body was placed in the water and
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then moved at some point the autopsy might be able to show us that but also being outdoors
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it makes the the scene of the crime a lot larger and harder to search so that's a perfect setup for some of the
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information that we are going to get into right here right now so I've been practicing that's right one statement we
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were able to get our hands on does offer up some more info at least in regards to
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the possible time of death Now that statement was officials said the unidentified woman died one to three
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days before she was found plus Sheriff Lancaster told the media at the time that the body was mildly deteriorated
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when it was found indicating that she had been dead for more than just a couple of hours now more recently
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detective schoonover told us that Jennifer was seen alive the night before she was found so we know based off of
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this information that she was dead for not more than about 24 hours right so we have a timeline and normally in these
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investigations the more information we find the smaller that timeline becomes that's smaller
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window of when the crime could have taken place now do they believe that she was murdered at sight or is this a
00:25:32
Dumping Ground because to me this seems like she was placed there after the murder so we also learned that she was
00:25:39
not bound or restrained in any way when she was found the Clay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Mary Justino told the
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media that investigators believed that the woman found in the creek likely was killed at another location before her
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body was dumped under a bridge on County Road 217 this road is just south of the Duval
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County Line the bridge was a two-lane Highway over the creek now detective schoonover told True Crime
00:26:10
garage that investigators believe that the evidence at the scene showed that the woman had been thrown
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off of the bridge and was already dead when she was discarded likely transported by vehicle so she was killed
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somewhere else likely transported via motor vehicle and then thrown from the bridge rather than carried down the side
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of the embankment and of course we know who the homicide victim was but at this time in our timeline for this story
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who this young murder victim was was still unknown to investigators and the public on November 9th
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the Clay County Sheriff's Office released some information about the woman found in Long Branch Creek
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they were trying to gather information from the public about who she possibly was wanted to to your point like you
00:27:03
said she's found in a different County so one of the things that law enforcement is going to do is to reach
00:27:10
out to neighboring counties and go do you have a missing female yeah comparisons of her physical description
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to that of missing persons reports from the area turned up nothing which is difficult because we know she
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was reported missing but as you said this is a different County so again this is kind of surprising given the fact
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that the person the missing persons report was filed in the adjacent County of Duval County
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four days earlier but anyway they didn't put this together at the time so the Clay County officials issued a statement
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and a facial reconstruction sketch of the unidentified victim the statement said that the body found was per the
00:27:55
Florida Times Union a white female in her early 20s who stands five foot two inches tall and weighs 115 pounds with
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brown eyes and dark brown hair falling below her shoulders and she had a one and a half inch scar near her right eye
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two scars on her right upper lip near her nose and a single piercing in both ears she was wearing a heart-shaped ring
00:28:23
and the weird thing here Captain is they they mentioned they kind of go out of their way when I you know trying to
00:28:31
describe this heart-shaped ring the interesting thing here Captain is when they describe that she's wearing this
00:28:39
heart-shaped ring they also say that she is wearing an engagement ring now obviously we've not seen photos from the
00:28:46
autopsy so we don't know if this is one and you know one in the same that the heart-shaped ring is an engagement ring
00:28:54
or that she was wearing two rings so I want to be clear about that before we move on it was then three days later on
00:29:01
November 12th that the Clay County Sheriff's Office was able to determine the identity of the homicide victim now
00:29:08
what happened was the Sheriff's Office officials ran the description of the victim we read earlier they ran this in
00:29:16
the Times Union newspaper on November 10th asking for the public to call in tips if they thought they knew who she
00:29:24
could be they also ran the sketch of the victim's face along with the article three days later
00:29:32
the Clay County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Mary Justino told the newspaper quote we got about 25 phone
00:29:39
calls based on the picture that had been put out of the 25 callers a few were people who thought it was this girl the
00:29:48
girl from the creek unfortunately was Jennifer menternack and after Jennifer's body was found we have a statement
00:29:56
issued by the family yes Jennifer's family had to be notified that their beloved daughters
00:30:02
was brutally killed Jennifer's mother must have felt a dis Jennifer's mother must have felt a
00:30:09
devastating combination of both guilt and effort my guess right over her argument with Jennifer that caused
00:30:19
Jennifer to leave but then the knowledge that she had gone above and beyond to trying to get Jennifer to come home
00:30:26
right by calling in a missing persons report before her daughter was even really missing missing now in an
00:30:34
impromptu news conference described by the Florida Times Union this took place on the mobile home park access road
00:30:44
Angie the mother declined to comment personally instead Jennifer's Uncle Matt Jackson read the family statement which
00:30:54
was basically asking anyone with any information about Jennifer slaying to come forward
00:31:01
now this was incredibly tragic for Angie because Angie had already lost a child at age one this before Jennifer was born
00:31:09
and then after that tragedy she then bravely decided to try to get pregnant again and did and the new baby was
00:31:17
Jennifer now Angie later told the Times Union in an interview about Jennifer quote I think children today are growing
00:31:25
up too fast I think she was too end quote Captain Ronnie Gann of the Clay County Sheriff's Office said to the
00:31:34
media quote this was a 14 year old girl who was brutally murdered and dumped in the creek like a piece of trash
00:31:42
now detectives were fully vested in this case from everything that I could find Captain all the articles that I was able
00:31:49
to review from 2001 my gut tells me these detectives were fully vested in this case and right from
00:31:56
Jump Street they were determined to get to the bottom of this thing and figure out who killed 14 year old Jennifer
00:32:03
medernick once the body was removed from the muddy water and hauled away to the medical examiner's office investigators
00:32:12
from the Clay County Sheriff's Office major case unit began combing the scene for Clues as to who the victim was and
00:32:21
who had killed her they scoured the creek Banks and Bridge area including nearby Woods until late on that Thursday
00:32:29
night and then reconvened for more of the same the next day on Friday divers were brought in to plumb the
00:32:37
depths of the Long Branch Creek to see what might have sunk to the bottom and although this was not revealed at the
00:32:45
time they did find something that is considered a crucial important piece of evidence remember we said that the
00:32:53
investigators believed that the body was thrown from the bridge Jennifer was already deceased at that time and that
00:33:01
she had been killed elsewhere well that's interesting considering what was found at the body recovery scene
00:33:08
recall that the police report from the responding Officer says that the body was floating in the water
00:33:17
the creek was about Waist Deep at its deepest parts but it was narrow and had Muddy Banks right it seems that Jennifer
00:33:26
was floating in a very shallow area of the creek and when medical examiner Personnel removed the body they found
00:33:36
something underneath of it none of this was released at the time detective schoonover revealed all of
00:33:42
this via a piece on First Coast News that ran back in 2018. it said underneath her body
00:33:51
investigators found the handle of a knife with strands of Jennifer's hair wrapped
00:33:58
around it they believe it was the murder weapon but the blade portion of the knife was never found
00:34:05
and as stated earlier the knife handle was just one of several pieces of evidence collected from the scene vom
00:34:14
law enforcement I'm bringing out a scent dog I know that the thought is that she
00:34:21
disappeared from one County she's found in this County but maybe a scent dog will
00:34:26
lead us in some direction of where this vehicle or this person would have went after they dumped Jennifer's Body
00:34:34
the other thing I'm doing is I'm going back to the park and having cadaver dogs walk around
00:34:42
every trailer because again they believe that the murder scene was somewhere else
00:34:49
and not at the creek yeah and we know that she was seen at different points in that trailer park so that seems to me
00:34:57
like probably the most likely place if something did go down that led to her death it may have occurred there
00:35:04
now investigators believe that the brass screw top knife handle that was found which as the news piece said has
00:35:12
Jennifer's Hair entwined in it was a part of the murder weapon the thinking is that at some point the blade broke
00:35:21
off the blade portion of the knife Captain has never been found it was not found in
00:35:27
Jennifer's Body and the creek was searched thoroughly more than once detective schoonover believes that the
00:35:36
knife which was a unique Style with a very large blade broke during the commission of the murder during the
00:35:45
stabbing of Jennifer for some reason her killer threw the handle into the water where it lay on
00:35:52
the muddy creek bottom under her body again the blade however is never accounted for this is a weird portion of
00:36:01
the case to me right it seems to me like I get it you got to get rid of this body
00:36:08
and you probably want to get rid of the murder weapon as well but you've only managed to get rid of a portion of the
00:36:15
murder weapon so I kind of kept going around and playing around with this in my head over
00:36:21
and over again is this something that's just happenstance that uh something that
00:36:25
was unlucky to the killer that the the knife handle ended up in the creek with Jennifer or was this something that
00:36:35
was done on purpose the knife itself as described as the detective as unique the best way for me
00:36:44
to describe it and there are some pictures of this knife handle that are available online this is one of those
00:36:51
cases though captain that you're not going to find a whole lot of information about online it's one of the
00:36:58
it's kind of a lesser-known Florida case but the knife handle itself to kind of give a little perspective on
00:37:07
why we have the handle but not the blade what it looks like to me is that the blade portion probably screwed on top of
00:37:18
the handle or the guard to the handle you'll see these knives a lot they're like survival type knives where the
00:37:27
handle itself is Hollow because in the hollow handle they usually you can screw off the bottom and
00:37:34
place things inside of the handle right A lot of people for survival type knives
00:37:40
will place things like matches or what have you inside of the handle cocaine what this makes is for a
00:37:50
a situation where the the blade or the there's a technical term for it and I'm probably going to get 12 emails about it
00:37:58
but the the blade itself does not go fully down into the handle so it makes it more easily to break off right
00:38:09
and what you see here in the pictures is you can see hair around the top of the the handle
00:38:18
as well as what looks to be well I'm sorry not just looks to be but it's labeled as victim's Blood on the handle
00:38:26
itself but where she was roaming when she left her mother's trailer in the trailer park
00:38:34
there was some shady stuff going on in this park yeah so let's talk about these Woodland Estates for a bit because it
00:38:41
seems to be that once she as you said Captain left her mom's home she's then known to have been moving around staying
00:38:51
God knows where right but we have a lot of statements eyewitness statements of people who saw her people who talked
00:38:59
with her in the days leading up to her death and they're all saying hey she was still
00:39:06
here in the Woodland Estate so as it turns out more like hoodlum Estates the police were all too familiar with the
00:39:14
mobile home park where the metternacks lived here's a quote from a resident named Cindy Bose who lived near the
00:39:21
meternix she did not know them personally but her daughter was one of the witnesses who
00:39:27
said that they saw Jennifer walking away from the direction of her home on Monday
00:39:32
afternoon Cindy told the Times Union quote this place is messed up there's a lot of
00:39:38
fighting and drugs the police are here all of the time of course investigators conducted interviews with residents of
00:39:47
the mobile home park they could not talk to everyone based on the sheer size of the place but they
00:39:54
canvassed the neighborhood and spoke with teens loitering in the area and anyone who answered the door when they
00:40:02
knocked to ask questions they were hoping that the teens in the neighborhood might know Jennifer right
00:40:12
might have known her personally or maybe help them fill out their timeline a little bit leading up to her murder now
00:40:19
several of them did know Jennifer and per the Times Union said that several teens said that they had known the teen
00:40:27
they described Jennifer as a quiet girl without particular friends or vices saying quote she didn't mess with nobody
00:40:35
she just kept to herself said Steven Smalls he goes on to say that she was the kind of person that trusted anybody
00:40:44
through their canvas police found that this trusting naive nature might have made Jennifer vulnerable
00:40:54
and as you pointed out earlier Captain if she's out telling people I'm Outdoors I'm not staying at my mom's
00:41:03
house that too makes her vulnerable as well detective Rob schoonover of the Clay
00:41:10
County Sheriff's Office who reopened this case in 2018 and who spoke with us told the First Coast News that Jennifer
00:41:19
had gotten involved in the adult party scene at Woodland Estates per the news report quote in the days leading up to
00:41:29
her death detective schoonover says some of the adult men in the mobile home park
00:41:34
were seen hanging around her and she was spotted at a party he goes on to say that there were parties going on where
00:41:42
she was present with illegal drugs again this from detective schoonover the other issue too is if she's staying with
00:41:51
a friend one night if her friend's parents say Hey you know you need to go back home you can't stay
00:41:58
here so now you have this 14 year old kid with not that many options so even if somebody that you don't know too well
00:42:07
and adult says hey well you can stay here with me you might take that option because it's
00:42:13
your only option I agree I I think what we're looking at here Captain is a situation where Jennifer was
00:42:20
couch surfing and she may have been staying with people that are not so readily willing to admit that she crashed at
00:42:28
their place right for a night or two yeah because they just don't want to be even looked at as a suspect yeah or
00:42:36
they're adult men right right you don't want to be no creepos yeah you don't want law
00:42:42
enforcement knowing that you're hanging out with a juvenile and that she's seen at locations that contain illegal drugs
00:42:51
the other thing that needs to happen in this case is like you said she's a 14 year old girl
00:42:57
we need to do the old pervert Roundup well that was something that was absolutely conducted now what we do know
00:43:07
per law enforcement is that Jennifer was hanging out with adult men and we have to factor in
00:43:16
the fact that based off of the information we have from the body recovery scene was that Jennifer was wearing what some
00:43:25
have said look to be like an engagement ring so the other thing that I want to know is who gave her
00:43:33
that ring who gave that ring to her right was this someone who wanted her to feel
00:43:41
emotionally invested in trusting was this the you know made to look like some type of
00:43:49
relationship between unknown person and 14 year old Jennifer yeah or she's couch surfing as a item
00:43:59
that she stole from somebody could be but until you have an explanation for why that item is found on her body you
00:44:06
have to seek out that explanation a few days after Jennifer was identified Clay County Sheriff Scott Lancaster asked the
00:44:15
public to call police if they had any idea where Jennifer was during that time frame and who she had been with in the
00:44:25
time period of November 5th to November 8th when she was eventually found he said that the investigation was a
00:44:33
joint effort between clay and Duval County authorities and somewhat disheartingly Sheriff
00:44:39
Lancaster said that there were no suspects in Jennifer's murder but this is not or was not
00:44:48
really true or if it was true it would not be for long yeah but sometimes law enforcement Miss speaks and maybe it was
00:44:56
just we have no suspects at this time that we're willing to tell the public about correct and it looks to me that at
00:45:04
some point detectives made up their minds pretty much about who had killed Jennifer
00:45:12
and we've seen this in several other cases the problem was proving it so no arrests were made immediately
00:45:20
after finding her body or having her identified no arrests were made in their initial efforts in the investigation so
00:45:27
the case stalled [Music] [Applause] [Music] for everything True Crime Check out true
00:45:44
crime garage.com and join us back here tomorrow for part two that's right don't do anything don't go anywhere stay right
00:45:52
there part two is coming at you tomorrow here in the garage until then be good be
00:45:57
kind and don't live foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 75
    Most intense
  • 70
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of Jennifer Medernack
    A 14-year-old girl goes missing, leading to a tragic discovery days later.
    “Some evil monster simply discarded her like trash.”
    @ 04m 15s
    November 02, 2022
  • Teenage Rebellion
    Jennifer's behavior changed dramatically as she entered her teenage years.
    “She started going downhill last year.”
    @ 06m 29s
    November 02, 2022
  • The Discovery of a Body
    Two boys fishing discover a body in a creek, leading to a homicide investigation.
    “They saw what they thought was a body lying face down in the water.”
    @ 18m 10s
    November 02, 2022
  • The Discovery of Jennifer's Body
    Jennifer's body was found under a bridge, leading to a complex investigation.
    “Investigators believe the woman had been thrown off of the bridge and was already dead.”
    @ 26m 12s
    November 02, 2022
  • Identifying the Victim
    After days of searching, the identity of the victim was confirmed as Jennifer Metternack.
    “We got about 25 phone calls based on the picture that had been put out.”
    @ 29m 39s
    November 02, 2022
  • The Investigation Stalls
    Despite initial efforts, no arrests were made immediately after finding Jennifer's body.
    “At some point detectives made up their minds pretty much about who had killed Jennifer.”
    @ 45m 10s
    November 02, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • Some evil monster simply discarded her like trash.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532
  • This is not what you think right?
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532
  • Her death had been extremely violent.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532
  • I think children today are growing up too fast.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532
  • This was a 14 year old girl who was brutally murdered and dumped like trash.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532
  • The knife handle was found with strands of Jennifer's hair wrapped around it.
    Jennifer Medernach /// Part 1 /// 532

Key Moments

  • Last Seen07:39
  • Body Found18:10
  • Violent Death21:37
  • Murder Timeline25:14
  • Body Discovery25:54
  • Victim Identified29:01
  • Community Response30:59
  • Investigation Challenges44:45

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown