00:00:00
One sweet melty bite of a Hershey's bar and suddenly I'm right back sitting on the front porch with my grandmother on a
00:00:06
slow summer afternoon. She doesn't say much, just breaks the bar in half and hands me a piece. I open my mouth to say
00:00:14
whatever a 9-year-old wants to say and she replies with a low listen. So we sat there
00:00:23
listening. That was the first time I learned that quiet can feel full. Hershey's, it's your happy place.
00:00:30
Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub listening to your favorite true crime
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a wet blanket. Looks like another spell of itchy swollen red or skin-colored hives.
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00:01:35
>> [music] [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
00:01:51
for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who of course he is not cheering for busted [music]
00:01:58
brackets and broken dreams. He is the captain. >> Busted brackets was my nickname in high
00:02:04
school. It's good to [music] be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
00:02:12
Today we are cheerfully drinking Knockout which is an IPA from Fat Bottom Brewing Company in beautiful [music]
00:02:21
Nashville, Tennessee. Brewed with Bravo Cascade and Pacific Jade hops then dry hopped with Bravo, Pacific Jade and
00:02:30
Comet hops. This IPA definitely packs a one-two punch. The grapefruit and citrus
00:02:37
aroma softens the blow ever so slightly. ABV 6.2% garage grade four out of five bottle
00:02:47
caps. And here's some good garage friends that pack a punch. First up a cheers to Mike Shafer from Atlanta.
00:02:55
>> And a big we like to give goes out to Jennifer G in [music] Houston, Texas. Here's a chilly cheers to Liz from
00:03:02
Duluth, Minnesota. And a big talk hands in the air goes out to Karen in Minneapolis. And also a shout-out to the
00:03:10
Bad Plus. And here's a triple cheers, captain, to Ginger Dancey, Market Research Dan and Bertha in Lina.
00:03:21
Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com [music] and contributed to this week's beer fund
00:03:28
which filled up the old garage [music] fridge and for that we thank you. Yeah, be the weeder and
00:03:34
beer >> [music] >> and beer run. For everything true crime, check out truecrimegarage.com.
00:03:39
While you're there, sign up on the mailing list and [music] colonel, that's enough of the beers nails.
00:03:43
>> All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
00:03:48
true crime. >> [music] [music] >> This week's true crime story is about a cold case
00:04:26
and a family that refuses to quit. I filed this one in the garage under the title of the Wix girls.
00:04:35
But this case is about a woman and her little girl. A missing mother and daughter.
00:04:42
A duo lost to violence and time. Jennifer and Adriana Wix have been missing for over 20 years and their case
00:04:54
remains open, a mystery. One of the more haunting details of this case is a phone call prior to the two
00:05:03
going missing. On the call, Kathy, Jennifer's mother and Adriana's grandmother, listens to her daughter's voice and
00:05:13
tries to hold on to every syllable, every breath between words. In the background, a baby cries.
00:05:21
Loud, urgent, alive. Filling [snorts] the space behind the conversation like a warning no one yet understands.
00:05:32
The daughter speaks with the casual certainty of someone who believes she will be home soon.
00:05:39
That this moment is ordinary. That the future is guaranteed. She ends the call the way families often
00:05:49
do, with love as punctuation. Those are the last words that Kathy hears from Jennifer.
00:05:59
The last words to a mother from her daughter with her baby crying in the background.
00:06:07
This is the case of Jennifer and Adriana Wix and this is True Crime Garage. >> [music]
00:06:37
>> Jennifer Wix was born on August 16th, 1982. People who knew her best describe
00:06:44
her as quiet and strong-willed. The kind of person who wasn't loud in a room but still somehow anchored it. She
00:06:53
was artsy, drawn to nature and carried herself with a steady maternal seriousness that didn't match how young
00:07:01
she still was. That seriousness had a name. Adriana. Jennifer's daughter who was
00:07:08
born on January 14th, 2002. Now from the start, Adriana was not simply part of Jennifer's life, she was
00:07:18
the center of it. Jennifer arranged her world around her child doing the ordinary devoted things that build a
00:07:26
childhood. Taking her daughter places, keeping her close, making sure she was cared for even when Jennifer herself had
00:07:35
very little. Jennifer didn't have much materially. She had no car, no phone, no bank account of her own for much of this
00:07:45
period. But to her family, none of that defined her. What defined her was the way that she
00:07:52
poured herself into being Adriana's mother. We're going to go to 2003 here, captain. We have Jennifer Wix.
00:08:03
She's living in Robertson County, Tennessee, sharing a home with her aunt and her cousin, Jeffrey. Jennifer is the
00:08:12
oldest of three girls in her immediate household. But she was also a part of a larger blended family. So there's six
00:08:21
sisters as I understand it in total across both sides. She stayed close to family in a way that
00:08:28
was practical and emotional. They helped one another. They stayed in touch often.
00:08:35
Jennifer rarely went long periods of time without speaking to someone in the family. In fact, it was said she
00:08:43
wouldn't speak with her parents each and every day. She wouldn't speak with her sisters each and every day or her aunt
00:08:50
or cousin, but she would always speak to somebody in the family with what seemed
00:08:55
like each and every day. That same year, 2003, brought a major shift for the family. So we have Jennifer's
00:09:06
mother, Kathy Nail, and Jennifer's sister, some of the sisters moved to Henderson, Nevada. This is just outside
00:09:15
of Las Vegas. Jennifer was living with her aunt and her cousin, Jeffrey, as we said. It was during the fall of 2003
00:09:22
that Jeffrey, her cousin, introduced Jennifer to a very close friend of his and this friend is named Joey Benton.
00:09:33
Joseph William Benton, I believe, is the full name here. But for the purpose of our true crime story today, captain,
00:09:40
Joey Benton. Now Jennifer and Joey began dating and in the early days of this courtship, the
00:09:48
relationship appeared promising. Jennifer and Adriana soon started spending a lot of time
00:09:55
at Joey's family's property which is described as a large compound in the Owens Chapel community of Cross Plains,
00:10:05
also located in Robertson County, Tennessee. Is this like a big barn or is it just like a one of those multi-family
00:10:13
compounds? I think both are right. Uh the structure that they would live in at some point is described somewhat like a
00:10:21
barn. So, the Benton family property is a place described more as a spread-out family, air quotes, compound,
00:10:30
rather than a single-family home. So, we have multiple relatives of this Benton family living on nearby acreage. Now, I
00:10:38
did have a hard time, Captain, nailing down exactly just how large this property is. The biggest number that I
00:10:46
did come across, though, however, was 81 acres. Now, it gets complicated. That's a lot
00:10:54
of land. A lot of lot of land. It gets complicated here. >> Long time mowing. The complication comes
00:11:01
in when we have multiple families. Lots of Benton family occupying this land. So, each of
00:11:10
them have portions of it with their own houses and yards and such, but it was difficult to sort out if it was 81 acres
00:11:18
plus the additional properties or if it was 81 acres that is all encompassing of all of the family's properties.
00:11:27
Either way, it's a [ __ ] ton of land. There you go. That We'll We'll put that in the, uh,
00:11:34
realtor write-up for the sale. Yeah. Seeking [ __ ] ton of land? Here you go. Here you go. To an outsider, it may have
00:11:43
looked like Jennifer was settling into a new chapter of her life, right? One where she and Adriana were increasingly
00:11:52
absorbed into Joey's world. She's spending more time there than she is with her own family. We have the family
00:12:01
that split, right? We have her dad on one side with some sisters there. We have Jennifer's mother and some of the
00:12:08
family now living in Nevada at this time. It's during this time that Jennifer's life back in Tennessee
00:12:16
is tilted toward something very dangerous. So, this is roughly just like 2 months
00:12:24
into this relationship. Right. When [clears throat] Jennifer experienced an incident that
00:12:30
deeply frightened her, and it should. Jennifer's family, now in Henderson, Nevada, said that Jennifer called her
00:12:37
mother in an emotional state that can only be described as hysterical. The reason for her call was not vague at
00:12:46
all. It was specific, and it was terrifying. Jennifer reported an argument that took place in which Joey
00:12:54
pulled a firearm, pulled a gun out and threatened to shoot Jennifer, threatened to shoot Adriana,
00:13:02
and threatened to shoot himself. Oh, great. So, he's a giant piece of [ __ ] Jennifer did not stay
00:13:11
to see if this threat is going to become a reality. She fled with her daughter, and the relationship ended.
00:13:18
>> Yeah, but the problem is when you're threatened like that with a gun to your head, and the person
00:13:23
saying, "Hey, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill your daughter. I'm going to kill myself."
00:13:28
Even when you leave the situation, and you leave immediate contact with that individual, the threat is then ongoing.
00:13:37
Well, oh, absolutely. And And this is going to be one of the This is a huge marker on our timeline for many reasons,
00:13:43
but one that, as we are looking back, as we are checking out the rearview mirror
00:13:49
here, when looking back on this, this is the kind of threat, the kind of incident
00:13:54
that changes a family's internal calendar, if you will, right? Everything for the family will become before and
00:14:05
after this event. Right. Oh, that took place before the gun incident. Oh, that took place after
00:14:13
the the death threat. So, Kathy, Jennifer's mother, and the family moved back to Tennessee with the
00:14:22
quickness. It was like within 1 or 2 weeks of this phone call. So, as quickly as they could get back, they made their
00:14:28
way back to Tennessee to protect Jennifer and Adriana. This threat is going to scare you to death,
00:14:36
but you want to protect your child, but also your grandchild. >> back happened after they had been away
00:14:42
for roughly just like 8 to 9 months. There was a little bit It kind of came at a convenient time.
00:14:51
Forgive me for using that word, considering the the event we just discussed. But
00:14:55
>> think about it. If you're going to If you had to choose between Las Vegas and Tennessee, I'm picking
00:15:01
Tennessee. >> Well, and it What I mean by that is it worked out with for the family that they were able
00:15:08
to return so quickly, because they were able to return and have a place to live.
00:15:14
So, Kathy's mother, this would be Jennifer's grandmother, it sounds like she had a larger home, and
00:15:22
she was like, "Yes, come and stay here. I understand you guys got to move back very quickly. Come and stay here, and
00:15:27
oh, we can have Jennifer and Adriana come and live at the home, as well." So, Jennifer and Adriana, they settle
00:15:35
into a space that almost functioned like a separate apartment. It was a walk-out
00:15:41
basement. I love a walk-out basement. It was a walk-out basement that had two bedrooms
00:15:47
down there, a bathroom, and a living area. So, very much like its own little apartment. You could come and go without
00:15:55
having to enter the the main level of the home. >> Yeah. So, the living arrangement created
00:16:02
a measure of safety. And of course, then you get that closeness with the family being back.
00:16:08
And the family could pull Jennifer and Adriana back toward something steadier, something safer, living together with
00:16:16
family. Now, for a moment, the family felt the relief of having Jennifer and Adriana
00:16:22
back in this safe place, under their roof, with a boundary between Jennifer and Joey, a
00:16:32
a wall, a barrier between the two. Sometimes these pieces of [ __ ] will be threatening towards their partner, but
00:16:40
won't be threatening towards their partner in a public atmosphere. Jennifer and Joey broke up, but unfortunately, my
00:16:48
friends, that breakup didn't hold. And over time, Joey drew her back in. Jennifer and Joey started talking again.
00:16:58
The family didn't want it, of course, especially not after the gun threat, not after what it took to bring Jennifer
00:17:05
and Adriana back home, but part of the issue becomes Jennifer was 21. She's an adult. She's making her own
00:17:14
decisions. Not good decisions, but she's making her own decisions. >> Yeah, for For me here, look, and
00:17:23
I'm not trying to come at Jennifer. Her situation was complicated, but for me, peace out. Smell you later. Like, it's
00:17:30
over. It is over. >> But the problem is when you're young, and [clears throat] somebody's probably
00:17:36
apologetic for the shitty actions, but also, she's in a situation where she's the
00:17:44
sole provider for her child, and we don't teach enough in school systems or even in the family
00:17:52
dynamics to self-worth and self-care. We We just don't talk about that enough, especially
00:17:58
in the teenage years and the early 20s. Well, not only is Jennifer young at this point in our timeline, 21,
00:18:09
she is. And I can speak from personal experience, dudes in their 18 to like 20 years of age,
00:18:18
most of us, idiots. Um, and I I don't think Joey was any exception to that statement
00:18:26
there, and Jennifer's making her own decisions, and eventually, unfortunately, she chose to go back. So,
00:18:33
this relationship resumed. Yeah. Now, there was a day in late 2003 that will stay burned into the family's
00:18:43
memory, because what once was like this threat that they heard about, this is now becomes more
00:18:52
physical, more tangible. So, this is in December of 2003, when an alarming event erupted at
00:18:59
Kathy's home, where Jennifer was staying with her daughter. So, Joey reportedly kicked in a door there.
00:19:09
And Jennifer's sister, Casey, called the police as a result. So, this is how I pretty much how this went down, or at
00:19:17
least the short of it here, Captain. So, Jennifer and Joey came to the family home
00:19:23
to pack Jennifer and Adriana's things, to pack up some of their things. Now, at that time,
00:19:30
Jennifer's plan was to return to Joey's living setup and start staying there, okay? With her daughter. And we
00:19:39
already know what took place when she was staying there a lot prior, but also, on top of that, what Jennifer's family
00:19:47
will say is that this living setup wasn't a conventional home. So, they were going to be staying
00:19:54
in a partially finished shed or barn-like structure, like you had referenced earlier.
00:20:00
Described as a storage building type of structure that had been roughly remodeled. Like it was in the
00:20:07
in the process of outfitting this barn or storage building into being like a living quarters. It had electricity
00:20:17
and carpet, but it didn't have any running water. It had no air conditioning and it was
00:20:23
not winterized. And of course, Doesn't seem like a place I'd want to stay. Right. December
00:20:31
2003, cold weather is a-coming, my friend. Yeah. So, the family, they're trying to
00:20:38
advise her not to go there for many reasons. Don't live there. They're And then at some point it it changes from
00:20:44
trying to advise her, talk her into it to, you know what? Let's just stop. Let's just stop her from leaving.
00:20:51
And at that point, Joey steps outside. The family, somebody in the family shut or slammed the door
00:20:59
behind him and he responded by kicking the door down, like knocking it straight off the hinges.
00:21:07
Inside the home, we got the little kid, Adriana, the little baby, she crying. Now, in this chaos, police are called.
00:21:16
By the time officers arrived at the scene, Jennifer and Joey were gone. They left without Adriana at first. They
00:21:24
later returned for her. And the way that I understand this here, Captain, legally or as far as the law is
00:21:33
concerned, because Joey had left the property, Jennifer was gone as well. I don't think
00:21:40
anything was pursued beyond that of other than a police report being filed regarding the incident.
00:21:48
>> Yeah, this is a situation where you'd love to light the guy on fire and put him out with a shovel just to teach him
00:21:55
a little bit of a lesson. Of course, after this incident, Joey was no longer permitted to be at Cathy's home, no
00:22:03
longer allowed to step foot into the home or onto the property. And Jennifer took Adriana and moved away
00:22:10
from her mother once again, this time into a large uh that partially finished barn-like structure that we described,
00:22:19
located on the Benton family property. Okay, so let me just get this correct. The family is trying to stop her from
00:22:26
moving, so that pisses Joey off. He causes a scene, but she still goes and moves in with him.
00:22:34
>> Yes. Well, she I mean, she was her intent was to start staying at his place more, maybe even move in there. And it
00:22:43
was her family trying to prevent her from doing this that that upset Joey. You know, hey, you're getting in the way
00:22:50
of our relationship here. Right. >> So, she I think she had already planned to leave,
00:22:55
but him kicking down the door and getting violent in front of her family didn't change that. Yeah, cuz she probably
00:23:04
viewed it as, well, if my family would have just minded their own business, then he never would have acted this way.
00:23:11
And again, it's you got to have some self-love and self-care and self-worth to see that that's not actions or
00:23:20
behaviors that you want to be around, let alone to have your child be around. And guess what, honey? You are my
00:23:27
business. So, Jennifer, in reaction to this situation, clearly upset with her family, she
00:23:37
stopped speaking with her immediate household. And and because her family's kind of spread out, she's
00:23:44
still in contact with some family, but but not in contact. She breaks contact with the family member she was living
00:23:52
with, right? Her >> Right. her mother um and sisters. So, this this break in communication or her stop
00:24:04
speaking with the immediate household, this took place for roughly a month and a half. And during that time, she still
00:24:12
had contact with other relatives, an aunt, uh one of her grandparents or grandparents that live nearby, and her
00:24:19
father's side of the family. And through those conversations, But this is what these abusive types do, whether it's
00:24:28
physical abuse, mental abuse, verbal abuse, they like to separate basically their victim, their continuous
00:24:37
victim, from family members, especially family members that don't approve of the
00:24:43
relationship. The family members they're not able to to pull the wool over their
00:24:48
eyes, to pull the con job on them. >> Through those conversations that she's having with the family she's staying in
00:24:55
contact with, the family learned details that really intensified their concerns. The barn
00:25:04
where they were living, as they were told, functioned as kind of a party spot for Joey and his friends, with drinking
00:25:12
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quince.com/garage. >> [music] >> All right, we are back to the windows to the walls, cheers,
00:32:10
tall cans in the air. Cheers, cheers to everyone out there in listener land. Thank you
00:32:17
for joining us in the garage once again. So, we get to about early 2004 here, Captain, in our timeline. All
00:32:28
right. This is when contact resumes between Jennifer and some of her family members. So, she began speaking with her
00:32:36
mother and siblings again around February 22nd. And that date stands out and is memorable, easily
00:32:47
remembered by family because that date mattered because it was Jennifer's little sister's birthday. Her name is
00:32:55
Casey and her mother Kathy's birthday. They shared this day as their birthday and it became a marker of
00:33:03
Jennifer quote coming back around. There was pain threaded through even that reconnection,
00:33:11
though. Adriana's birthday is in January. And during that period of estrangement, the family wasn't invited
00:33:20
to the birthday party. Later, seeing pictures of Adriana celebrating at Joey's family home with Joey's family,
00:33:30
this, of course, very much hurt Jennifer's family. Yeah, that'd be upsetting. Now, as contact
00:33:37
resumed, Jennifer would bring Adriana to visit Jennifer's sisters at work. Both were working at a McDonald's in a
00:33:46
nearby town. So, Jennifer brought Adriana to the play place. Remember the McDonald's would have the
00:33:52
the the big play places some of the locations. And she would bring the little girl to play there and also a
00:33:58
nice excuse to visit with her aunts. And on the surface, at this time, things look like
00:34:06
ordinary family moments are returning. But the control, like you pointed out, the control was still there. Joey was
00:34:15
always kind of present. Like Jennifer just didn't arrive alone. Like he he would either be with her or
00:34:24
like when she called her family, Joey could be heard in the background almost policing the call, accusing Jennifer of
00:34:33
using up his minutes and telling her, "Hey, you got to get off the phone. You got to get off the phone. You're using
00:34:38
up my minutes." Now, keep in mind, 2004, there we're going to have some young listeners out there that don't know what
00:34:44
we're talking about with minutes, but there was a many years ago, before unlimited plans
00:34:50
existed, there was a real struggle going on with keeping your minutes low. Yeah.
00:34:56
The cost of texting. I I remember having friends that would have to take on a second job because they got some crazy
00:35:02
cell phone bill cuz they would they would just text all night long or use up all their minutes and get hit with fines
00:35:09
and $250, $350 cell phone bills for 1 month's time. I had to sell bunch of pictures of my feet online one time cuz
00:35:19
I racked up so many text message bills. Well, in part of this control, too, or Joey
00:35:26
always being there, it's sort of easy, too, to maintain that control because Jennifer didn't have her own vehicle.
00:35:34
She didn't have her own vehicle when she met Joey and this matters. This mattered. If she wanted to leave, she
00:35:39
required someone else to drive her. Yeah, and question, did she have her license? Because obviously, if he had a
00:35:47
vehicle, then he could lend her the vehicle, but if she doesn't have her license, then
00:35:51
he's kind of forced to be there. But, like you said, I think the monitoring of the calls and and him always being there
00:35:59
is also to monitor, what are they saying to you? And what are you saying to them?
00:36:03
Because this abuse probably did not stop. Right? So, now that he has her living in
00:36:10
this house and she's dependent on him, the abuse, physical, mental, verbal abuse probably continues, but now you
00:36:18
get to monitor if she's telling her family good things about you or bad things about you. So, Joey would bring
00:36:26
Jennifer to Kathy's home, to her mom's home, and drop her off. Remember, he's still not allowed
00:36:33
at the house. Jennifer's family remained uneasy about the Joey situation. Jennifer reportedly told them about the
00:36:41
barn parties, the presence of weapons in the Benton home, and of course, Joey's temper. Right, but
00:36:48
at some point, if you're the family and you're like, "We told you not to go live
00:36:53
with him. We told you to not be with him after he threatened you." At some point,
00:36:58
everybody has somebody in their life with whether it's a family member or friend
00:37:03
that gets into a situation that you warned them about. And then as they're complaining about
00:37:10
the situation, it's like you don't even know what to say at that point. Because she didn't listen to me on the last 20
00:37:17
things I told you to do. So, at some point, you just kind of go, "Okay, well, that's that's the situation." Cold
00:37:24
weather came and cold weather pushed Jennifer and Joey out of that barn-like structure. Again, the structure wasn't
00:37:31
winterized. So, at some point in February of 2004, Jennifer, Joey and little Adriana were
00:37:40
living in Joey's parents' small three-bedroom brick ranch house with his parents, Cindy and Joe Benton.
00:37:49
We're all under one roof with limited space. Tensions escalated. According to Jennifer's family, the
00:37:58
conflict between Jennifer and Joey's mother, there was conflict between Jennifer and
00:38:03
Joey's mother. It was especially volatile. They say fueled by a closeness between
00:38:11
Joey and his mother that others perceived as intense. Whatever the exact emotional label,
00:38:18
you know, jealousy, hostility, control, Right. >> the outcome, the result is the same
00:38:24
here. The house felt unstable to folks on the outside. And then in March of 2004,
00:38:33
Adriana, the little 2-year-old girl caught in the middle of all of this BS and nonsense, she became sick.
00:38:41
Jennifer called her mother late at night around 10:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. or so. This would be either on March 20th or
00:38:53
March 21st, 2004. And so, the call comes in. Adriana is in pain when urinating and she's crying
00:39:04
each and every time that she's trying to use the restroom. So, something's wrong
00:39:08
with the little girl. Jennifer says that she had asked Joey and his family to take them to the emergency room, but
00:39:14
they There's conflicting reports here. Some reports say that the family refused.
00:39:20
Other reports say that the family convinced her that it was not necessary. So, the way I understand it here, Captain,
00:39:28
is Joey's mother worked in the medical field in some capacity. Some reports say that she was a nurse.
00:39:36
So, her family his family is saying the ER visit isn't necessary. And dismissed the need for the ER visit.
00:39:46
Jennifer called her aunt who's living less than 5 minutes away at this time, and the aunt shows up driving
00:39:54
Jennifer and Adriana to the ER. Now, this is going to be a full-on overnight visit to the
00:40:01
emergency room, and they're going to be test conducted, tests that are run, results that they're waiting on.
00:40:08
A nurse, after getting the results, led them to believe that Adriana had some type of vaginal infection,
00:40:17
noting that it was not common for a 2-year-old. Jennifer and Adriana were sent home
00:40:25
without medication, but they were told that they needed to go to their regular doctor, right? To go follow up
00:40:35
with Adriana's pediatrician. Right. So, on the following day, Adriana's grandmother took her to the
00:40:43
pediatrician. The pediatrician confirmed the infection, and again noted that it wasn't common at that age, though said
00:40:53
that it could have been caused by something as simple as being left in a diaper for too long. Yeah, neglect. Then
00:41:01
we go to March 23rd, the last time Kathy sees Jennifer and Adriana. On March 23rd, 2004, Kathy saw Jennifer
00:41:16
and Adriana in person. They had been to the doctor for that infection. It should have been a forgettable
00:41:24
errand, right? Like an ordinary day, other than the doctor's visit, but it became the last confirmed time Jennifer
00:41:32
and Adriana were physically seen by her family. On March 24th, Jennifer called Kathy, her mother, from
00:41:43
Joey's parents' house. This is a tough call. She's distressed. Jennifer is distressed. She
00:41:52
was arguing with Joey. She wasn't getting along with Joey's mom. Right. Kathy said she could hear yelling
00:42:02
in the background. She could hear Adriana, the little girl, crying in the background. The sound of the call was
00:42:09
the sound of a home in turmoil. Kathy tried to give practical advice in the middle of all of this chaos, saying,
00:42:18
"Go get Adriana, bring her into the room, get her away from the noise, from the yelling."
00:42:25
Jennifer did that. Kathy offered to come and pick them up. Jennifer refuses. She told Kathy not to
00:42:33
do not come over here. She said, "We're going to stick it out." I believe is her exact words, quote,
00:42:39
"Stick it out." And she promised that they would talk the next day. Well, the next day is March 25th, 2004.
00:42:49
This is the last confirmed conversations. Confirmed being the very important word
00:42:56
here, Captain. So, Jennifer spoke with her father, Michael, at approximately 11:00 a.m. that day.
00:43:03
Michael says that they spoke for about 2 hours, which just about everybody in Jennifer's family describes as unusual.
00:43:13
Right. >> Saying Jennifer did not typically stay on the phone with her father for that
00:43:18
long. 2 hours a long call. Jennifer told her father that she was upset. She said she wasn't getting along
00:43:24
with Joey's mother, and that Joey's mother scared her. Jennifer said Joey was at work in Franklin, Kentucky, which
00:43:33
we know where our story takes place in Tennessee, but Franklin, Kentucky, is not terribly far away. She says Joey's
00:43:40
at work in Franklin, Kentucky, but he's on his way home, and Jennifer told her father that they were going to go on a
00:43:46
picnic to talk about the situation and see if they could work it out. Right. The problem here is we have evidence.
00:43:54
You're threatening your partner with a gun. You're threatening to kill her or her her daughter. You're physically
00:44:00
abusive. You're mentally abusive. You're verbally abusive. So, there's tons of evidence that you're a piece of [ __ ]
00:44:07
Well, the piece of [ __ ] doesn't fall too far from that piece of [ __ ] tree. And that would be his mother.
00:44:16
And so, then you're this is just a bad situation overall. Jennifer also said something that
00:44:25
would later haunt the family. She said she was looking forward to seeing her dad in
00:44:31
Manchester the coming Sunday. Now, I've seen that statement several times. I don't I'm
00:44:37
I'm a little uncertain. I mean, we know what's about to take place. We know what
00:44:41
does take place in our timeline here. I I I'm not seeing the writing on the wall of exactly why this was so
00:44:50
haunting, other than maybe it it might have been the last thing that she said to somebody that she was very close
00:44:56
with. There was also an additional family claim that Jennifer spoke with an aunt on March 25th, 2004, so the same
00:45:06
day. I'm guessing this would have been later in the day. The aunt says that she agreed to leave a
00:45:12
key out. I'm going to hide a key somewhere, leave a key, store a key somewhere, so that if you needed to come
00:45:19
by, Jennifer, if you and Adriana want to come here and maybe stay here or drop by, you can let yourself
00:45:26
in. We need to be absolutely clear here that that call has never been verified. It
00:45:34
it's the aunt says that the call took place, but Jennifer's immediate family Mhm. later stated that they could not
00:45:41
confirm this call ever took place, and they're saying that they're basing their question mark of this call
00:45:51
through law enforcement records that they've reviewed. Right. Bizarre. So, after Thursday, March 25th,
00:45:59
2004, Jennifer and Adriana vanished. Poof, gone. Now, before we get into further details
00:46:08
here, let's start off by stating both the obvious and maybe some of the not-so-obvious here, right?
00:46:15
With the two gone, I want I want to right away, can we squash the idea right away that Jennifer chose
00:46:24
to leave on her own accord? I mean, that's always >> a lot of sense. Yeah, it it's a possibility in a lot of
00:46:31
these stories, and it look, it we can't say 1,000% that that's the case here, but it would seem like very close to
00:46:38
that. I mean, taking her 2-year-old daughter, Adriana, little toddler, with her and
00:46:45
hitting the road to start a new life somewhere else just doesn't doesn't ring true here, right? No car,
00:46:53
no money, and then maybe the less >> No resources, no provisions, and maybe the less obvious here is
00:47:04
it's a little sick kid. The sickness mattered. It matters for more than one reason, for
00:47:10
medical reasons. It makes the idea of Jennifer voluntarily traveling or disappearing
00:47:18
even less believable. Because to the people that knew Jennifer best, they have said now for 20-plus years,
00:47:29
Jennifer was not the type of mother to casually leave town with a sick kid with no supplies. Yeah, but she makes some
00:47:38
bad decisions. So, >> Agreed. that becomes difficult. But, like you said, unless we have
00:47:47
evidence of her communicating with somebody that's going to help her or drive her away,
00:47:52
uh it doesn't make a lot of sense, because every time there's conflict, she is still reaching out to family members.
00:47:57
Like you said, the 2-hour-long phone call with her father, that kind of seems important to me.
00:48:04
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the family says exactly the same thing. And then, to circle back
00:48:10
to what you said, she makes poor decisions, true. I won't I won't fight you on that.
00:48:16
She does. The person she's closest with, Joey, he makes bad actions. He makes terrible, horrible,
00:48:26
frightening actions. And like you said, piece of [ __ ] acorn doesn't fall too far
00:48:32
from that POS tree. Right. >> I I'm very curious about what actions went on with some of Joey's family
00:48:43
members. Well, yeah, and we do know that Joey was again, like you said, he wasn't like a
00:48:51
million miles away or anything, but he's gone for a time period, and there's still conflict. So, there's a there's
00:48:58
possibility that uh she's missing, but that could be because of Joey, or it could be because of his mother,
00:49:07
or it could be a combination of both of them. And to be clear, while again, while this is another city, he's not
00:49:14
staying there to work. This, from my understanding, this is a a typical work shift of a place that they would drive
00:49:22
to to uh work. I I don't I believe I found it when I was reviewing all the information, but I
00:49:29
don't seem to have it here in my notes what the name of the employer was, but it was located in Franklin, Kentucky,
00:49:37
And right at with that that phone call, that very lengthy phone call with her father,
00:49:43
she does mention that Joey's at work in Franklin, Kentucky. He's on his way home, and
00:49:50
we're going to go on a picnic, and we're going to talk this through. We're going
00:49:54
to We're going to We're going to talk about it. And see what happens. And that kind of leaves
00:50:01
for Jennifer's dad, anyway, that's going to leave a big lots of ball out there, because I don't think that Jennifer's
00:50:07
telling him that we're going to be able to work it out. I don't think she's telling him that oh, it's it's over
00:50:12
between us. The statement is we're we're going on a picnic, and we're going to talk about
00:50:18
it. >> [music] [music] >> Want to thank everybody so much for joining us here in the garage each and
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