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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
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with me as always is a man who describes food and stuff as a discount Food Outlet
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equally distant from his home and his work here is the captain and I like to ride my bike to both of them them it's
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good to be seing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a [Music]
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friend today we are still sipping on this fantastic totally crushable Highland Brewing Beer that they are
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course we love the great Folks at Highland Brewing Company one of the very best in the beer biz garage grade three
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doing Tik Tock Dances all the time but it's a good way to get more information about what we are doing some behindth
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Colonel that is enough of the beer this all right everybody gather around grab a
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] Welcome to our little garage show where
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we left off yesterday Captain we started to get into some dicey business here of
00:04:13
some missing money and how it might be tied to our victim Jonathan Luna it's $36,000 that's a lot of rolling papers
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that was the amount that had been produced in cour as evidence in connection with a bank robbery trial
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that Jonathan prosecuted in September of 2002 at the trial's conclusion we have Jonathan we know he's very successful he
00:04:43
won a conviction against the defendant for a series of violent bank robberies in Baltimore County but at the end of
00:04:50
this trial this money disappeared right so what we have is $36,000 in cash three shrink wrapped
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stack acts of tens and $20 bills that disappeared somewhere between the courtroom and the government storage
00:05:06
area used to hold sensitive evidence during trials per the Sun newspaper Jonathan had signed an agreement with
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other lawyers in the case that all exhibits had been properly returned as the lead prosecutor though Jonathan was
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reportedly one of the people that would have had access to that money this sounds very suspicious right
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$36,000 missing and it sounds like it's on his watch yeah L of cheddar but I want to point out some some things here
00:05:36
before we go too far into this missing money situation we have many other people that were involved in this
00:05:43
situation that were suspect suspected as well and not for any real good reason I
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don't know that Jonathan Luna's suspected for any good reason other than he had access to the money just like
00:05:55
these other people so these other people were saying look it was on a hand cart and a federal building anyone could have
00:06:01
taken that money in fact the post reported Jonathan was troubled because it happened on his watch said Joseph
00:06:08
Evans Jonathan's supervisor at the time but goes on to say quote but personally I have a hard time thinking he stole the
00:06:15
money Evans pointed out that the money was left unattended at times leaving quote so many opportunities for so many
00:06:23
people to snag it end quote well basically they're saying you're becoming a suspect because you had access and
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therefore there's a ton of suspects correct and I for me personally it's hard for me to believe that Jonathan
00:06:38
Luna took this money or was involved with others that may have taken this money I do want to point out some some
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issues here though too when we covered the Shan suor case we pointed out a lot of the corruption that was going on
00:06:55
suspected or otherwise in the Baltimore PD and look I'm a blue blood I have the backs of the police and I applaud them
00:07:05
when they're good and I also smear them when they're bad there are some people that are just bad at their jobs well
00:07:11
right we've seen some problems in the Baltimore Police Department and if you don't want to believe me that's fine you
00:07:18
can watch the show we own this city on HBO that's coming out April 25th that's all about the Shan Suter case and other
00:07:26
things going on in Baltimore PD at the time you have to point out what's wrong with these bad cops because those bad
00:07:34
cops are giving a bad name to all the good cops correct now there's one aspect of this part of the story that does look
00:07:41
bad for Jonathan at least five government employees took polygraph test about this theft now per the son before
00:07:49
his death Luna had postponed an appointment to take a polygraph test but about the missing money but we do have a
00:07:57
colleague who says look I took the poly test I spoke to him and he didn't have any concerns about or didn't voice them
00:08:05
to me about taking the polygraph test saying that I know he was willing to take the test yeah so so something might
00:08:14
have came up in a schedule and now we're going to throw him under the bus and say
00:08:19
well he must be guilty cuz he post postponed the the polygraph test he may have just been busy with his job with
00:08:26
with trials and such I do think that the scheduled polygraph exam was to be shortly after his death so I don't like
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the timeline there um some more circumstantial evidence that maybe he had an interest in taking this money or
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did in the course of the investigation of his murder investigators discovered that Jonathan had filled out an online
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loan application for $30,000 around September of 2002 and according to the Sun the loan
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application was cancelled not long after this money went missing that's a little suspicious that
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doesn't look good A little fishy One Source also said that investigators discovered after Jonathan Luna's death
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that more than $10,000 came into his possession shortly after the evidence from the robbery case disappeared they
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don't seem to know where this money came from or can't conclusively determine how
00:09:25
Jonathan Luna and his family obtained this money right right and we also want to be clear that there's no evidence of
00:09:33
a friend or family members coming forward and saying hey we're the ones that were responsible for them getting
00:09:39
those $10,000 correct we do have plenty of friends and family members and colleagues coming forward saying we
00:09:46
don't think he would have taken the money it doesn't make any sense then there was the sexy stuff the Baltimore
00:09:52
Sons unnamed law enforcement official source told the paper that the federal agents reviewing Luna's case and his
00:10:01
justice department computers had found a trove of adult porn that did not appear
00:10:05
to be related to any of the cases that he had ever worked on and there was more according to the FBI they found messages
00:10:13
on some internet dating site posted by someone using the name Jonathan Luna according to the Sun newspaper it says
00:10:21
the author of the messages from April 1997 so this is 6 and 1/2 years earlier describ him as a discreet 31-year-old
00:10:31
married black man seeking a white female sexual partner now it's it gets really difficult to believe that a man as smart
00:10:41
as him would use his real name on these dating sites and be married however however we have to point out
00:10:49
that the age almost matches up exactly so no one's ever saying that these profiles were his or that Jonathan Luna
00:11:02
used them they're simply pointing out that we found this from 6 and A2 years before his death of someone using that
00:11:11
name on these dating sites could be a catfish he it could be something that he's wasn't even aware of I just saw the
00:11:21
other day uh one of my friends posted in her stories multiple Instagram accounts that
00:11:28
are using her pictures and and and information from her profile that's some weird and that's some weird stuff right
00:11:37
there now we mentioned a February 2004 news conference at this event the FBI's assistant director denied a report by
00:11:46
CBS news that there was a main suspect in the case a female agent in the FBI's Baltimore Field office okay so they're
00:11:56
denying that we have a suspect and we're denying that hey hey the rumor that the
00:12:00
suspect is an FBI agent a female FBI agent they're denying that direct rumor but the FBI went on to conduct an
00:12:11
internal investigation according to the Washington Post that stemmed from a complaint by a female agent that
00:12:17
investigators were overly aggressive when they questioned her about possible romantic involvement with Jonathan this
00:12:25
was a woman who had worked closely with Jonathan on numer cases it's unclear whether she was romantically involved
00:12:34
with him but clearly the FBI thought she was or there was enough information there for them to really look into it
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and she files a complaint against her own saying that they aggressively pursued her and they searched her
00:12:49
computers and such without consent I believe that the FBI did admit some wrongdoing in regard to questioning this
00:13:00
woman it seems like this information would be pointing towards the idea that Jonathan was having an affair or maybe
00:13:07
multiple Affairs so the reports that he had at least two entanglements have never been
00:13:13
refuted I don't think they've ever been fully proven though either but what's key here to me Captain is it appears at
00:13:21
this point in the investigation that the FBI investigators seem fixated at least by this point on the
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murder being rooted in a personal matter that this was some type of private dispute or something going on in his
00:13:38
life and had nothing to do with the FBI right had nothing to do with his line of
00:13:42
work directly but we have these weird unexplained trips to Pennsylvania or explained trips to Pennsylvania
00:13:52
depending on who you believe and how you want to look at it as part of the probe
00:13:59
investigators were looking into at least two trips that Jonathan made to Pennsylvania in the weeks before his
00:14:05
death and they were trying to figure out whether he went there to actually meet somebody they stopped at motels along
00:14:12
the Route and looked at Guest registers and surveillance video inquired at gas stations and canvas businesses along
00:14:20
this route but it gets it gets weirder as the investigation unfolded additional trips to
00:14:27
Pennsylvania were were uncovered so on the first anniversary of Jonathan's death this was reported in the paper
00:14:35
that a gas station employee on the Pennsylvania Turnpike said that she saw Jonathan Luna at the gas station late at
00:14:43
night about once a month over a six-month period this was a sonoko station attendant who worked the
00:14:50
midnight shift she told the post that Jonathan always used a credit card if he bought gas and always paid cash
00:14:59
if he bought coffee she said that she remembers him specifically because he was always sharp dressed and he made
00:15:06
small talk with her she said that he was a very courteous and polite individual this Sharp
00:15:13
Dressed really goes along with everything we've been told about Jonathan Luna so it it would appear to
00:15:19
me that she is talking about him on his profession he's supposed to dress a certain way correct and even before he
00:15:27
went into that line of work he was always said to have you know wear dress shirts and ties and such correct
00:15:34
investigators really couldn't figure out any work related reason or at least publicly said they couldn't find any
00:15:39
work related reason that Jonathan went to Pennsylvania we don't know who he visited what he did or really anything
00:15:47
else it's hard to believe that the FBI doesn't know but at least in the week after his death one official said we
00:15:55
don't have any indication what the purpose was of the the drive but if he had actually been going to Pennsylvania
00:16:03
on the regular that would obviously be quite important to the case and maybe what
00:16:09
happened to him that's where he dies that's where his body is ultimately found a 100 miles away from Baltimore
00:16:17
investigators looked closely to see if Jonathan had gone to meet up with anybody on the night he died but again
00:16:23
his cell phone was left at the office so if he was meeting somebody he didn't have the ability to talk to anybody or
00:16:30
communicate with anybody via phone after leaving his office that night again leaving the office for really
00:16:37
unexplained reasons but also it's a way for people not to be able to track your actions through your GPS on your
00:16:46
phone right there has been some speculation people wonder well maybe he had some type of burner phone and made
00:16:53
sure he had the burner phone and that's why he kind of forgot his his regular cell phone right but we don't have any
00:17:00
evidence that he had a phone on his person he was found correct yeah nobody saying that he had one it's just simple
00:17:08
speculation really at this point there's no evidence to suggest that he did his father did say that hey on at least one
00:17:16
occasion they had a conversation about trips to Pennsylvania when uh Jonathan Luna told his father that he was working
00:17:24
on a case and for that reason he had to go to Pennsylvania now the father did say look Jonathan
00:17:31
wasn't commonly telling us information about the cases that he was working which he's
00:17:37
not supposed to and said that you know that's really he'd like to offer up more information but that was the vagueness
00:17:45
of the information that Jonathan related to him so according to the father and according to what he's saying his son
00:17:53
told him the these trips were or at least one of the trips was related to his work but then we have some other
00:18:01
information that's interesting in regard to those trips so the informant in the case that he was working on at the time
00:18:08
of his death was being held in Philadelphia Pennsylvania so maybe these trips are
00:18:18
directly related to that trial that he was working on at the time right now do you want to get into this timeline here
00:18:26
Captain because one we cannot over look it it's very important and people want to know the details of the timeline of
00:18:32
that night but I got to warn everybody there's gaps there's blanks that need to be filled in and I really believe in
00:18:40
this case and like many other cases out there if you could complete this timeline well then we would know what
00:18:47
exactly happened to Jonathan Luna that night right so be prepared to take notes my friends if you're driving just pull
00:18:54
over and join us for the next 45 minutes pull out a piece of paper and some pens
00:18:59
all right so let's start on the the day that he was killed on December 3rd at 8:48 p.m. we
00:19:07
know that Jonathan went to the office to work on that plea agreements at 906 p.m. Jonathan calls
00:19:17
one of the attorneys for the guys that he's going to trial against and tells him hey I had
00:19:25
to leave the office and go home he said he would return to his office in the federal courthouse later that evening
00:19:32
and finish the documents and fax them to the attorney's office that call lasted 10 minutes at 9:30 p.m. Jonathan left
00:19:41
the voicemail for the other attorney in the case saying he would be faxing the plea agreement later that evening at
00:19:49
10:30 p.m. Jonathan spoke to one of the attorneys again promising him the plea agreement before midnight at 11:00 p.m.
00:19:58
Jonathan was at home at this time he received that call we don't know who from he receives the call on his cell
00:20:05
phone and told his wife that he had had to go back to the office you got to believe right in 2003 that they would
00:20:14
know what number called his cell phone yeah I mean that doesn't necessarily tell us who called him or
00:20:21
what the call was about but at least the FBI is involved in this thing unless they block the number or they called
00:20:31
2003 chances of there being a pay phone not great but did somebody go into a gas
00:20:37
station and say hey can I use your phone real quick but nobody's seems to be disputing that this call happened right
00:20:43
we don't have and I know that his family has shut down and not been talking to the press for the longest time but we
00:20:50
don't seem to have anybody saying that this call didn't happen so I'm led to believe that it did and I believe that
00:20:56
the FBI probably has some further information on this call but again they're not releasing it now according
00:21:04
to his father Jonathan did did not say who was on the phone that night but told his wife quote honey I'm sorry I have to
00:21:14
go back to the office offering up no more no further information at 11:38 p.m. Jonathan drove away from the US
00:21:23
District Court building in Baltimore I I should correct that statement he he left
00:21:28
he left the courthouse sometime that night we don't have anything to say that he was the one physically driving or
00:21:34
anybody to dispute that he was driving right at 11:49 p.m. he passed through the fort McKenry Tunnel toll plaza in
00:21:43
Baltimore Northbound on Interstate 95 now this is going to lead us past midnight so now technically we are
00:21:51
December 4th at 12:28 a.m. his car passed through the Perryville toll plot PLA and continued Northbound at 12:46
00:22:00
a.m. his car passed through the Delaware line toll plaza again we have this information because of his easy pass
00:22:08
corresponder that is in his vehicle and thankfully we had that or we may not know the route that he took or these
00:22:18
other stops that seem to have been involved on his weird trip that night right at 12:57 a.m. Jonathan's debit
00:22:26
card was used to withdraw $200 from a bank ATM at the JFK Travel Plaza in Newark Delaware this is at I95 Exit 3
00:22:39
some reports are that the recording is not good and it's not clear whether this is Jonathan using the card okay so they
00:22:47
would have surveillance footage of the person using the ATM and the story has always been that
00:22:54
something's wrong or screwy with that footage or with the camera and so we don't have video confirmation
00:23:02
that it is Jonathan Luna using the ATM card makes sense yeah it makes sense but it's hard to wrap my head around this
00:23:10
idea of why would you leave the cell phone behind did he forget about this Easy Pass being able to track him or did he
00:23:18
not care if the vehicle was being tracked it that's why I wonder if leaving the phone behind was not his
00:23:25
choice yeah it was either an accident that he forgot the phone in some kind of hurry to get out of the building or it's
00:23:34
also a possibility that he was abducted from his office yeah but why don't they have why don't we have some kind of like
00:23:42
I said technology or or or something showing that he actually met somebody there so what we do have Captain is we
00:23:50
have surveillance footage of his vehicle leaving the Courthouse parking garage but you can't cannot see who's driving
00:24:00
the vehicle right based off of off of the angle now so we got a lot of movements here and this to me is where
00:24:08
things start to get really weird and part of this just may be my not fully understanding this easy pass and how
00:24:17
they work especially back in 2003 you know 19 years ago that was my nickname in high school Easy Pass right at 2:47
00:24:27
a.m. his car entered the Pennsylvania Turnpike exit 359 the Delaware bridge going over the
00:24:37
Delaware bridge but he did not use the easy pass on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania
00:24:44
turnpikes I don't know if these things have like a a proximity limit you know like I I don't know that an Easy Pass
00:24:53
will just work everywhere that they're required you know we're talking about he's going to other States and in
00:24:59
accessing their turnpikes by this point maybe they don't work there I I would like a better clear understanding of
00:25:05
that because it seems to me if he's driving and he's the one making the decisions on where they're going or
00:25:13
where he's going that he would just use that pass if he's able to to use it yeah anybody
00:25:19
out there that has access or uses one of these easy passes that doesn't just stay
00:25:26
within their city but travel with the Easy Pass please leave that information on our blog at True Crime garage and
00:25:33
specify if your information is coming from current day or 2003 because that could have changed over the years the
00:25:40
other thing that I call into question too and this is something that uh somebody may know
00:25:45
better is there a chance that his Easy Pass was issued to him by his work and therefore only worked in certain areas
00:25:54
because they don't want to pay for everything right they want to pay for his travels for work purposes but they
00:26:01
don't need him using his Easy Pass two or three states away if that's even a thing right so what I'm getting at
00:26:08
Captain is one of two situations is going on either he can't use that pass I guess I should say three either he can't
00:26:16
use that pass in those locations or he's choosing not to use that pass in those locations because he
00:26:22
doesn't want to be tracked again going back to the idea maybe he left his cell phone on purpose
00:26:28
or three somebody else is calling the shots and is not aware that he has this easy pass or somebody else is driving
00:26:37
the vehicle remember we did say that the reports stated that Jonathan Luna's blood was found in the back seat of that
00:26:46
vehicle is there a chance at some point somebody intercepted him or he met with somebody they abducted him and he's in
00:26:53
the back seat while the killer or killers are are in control of the vehicle's movements this leads us to
00:27:01
3:20 a.m. when Jonathan's debit credit card was used at a Sonoco Gas Station at the King of Prussia Pennsylvania service
00:27:10
plaza to buy gas according to the attendant it became clear from sales records this is one of the most bizarre
00:27:19
things in the whole thing it became clear from sales records that Jonathan used his credit card to pay at the pump
00:27:26
for his car but also a second vehicle and of course as you all guessed there was no
00:27:35
camera at the gas station investigators later seem to downplay the second gas purchase all right let me Circle back
00:27:42
around to something downplay that are they downplaying that because they're trying to keep something to their chest
00:27:49
and and they know information that could lead to solving this I'm not trying to point out some big conspiracy theory
00:27:56
here but where this becomes an issue is and you'll see this as we get further into
00:28:04
these details the FBI seems to believe something H you know they seem to have a theory that they've locked on
00:28:12
to however the case is still open it looks to me like we have a situation where something else may have gone on
00:28:21
some other people may be up to no good here that their Dirty Deeds may be dragged into the light and become public
00:28:29
knowledge but we're hiding behind this curtain of Mystery by saying look this case is still open we cannot tell the
00:28:40
public what was going on we cannot tell you what our findings were here so when we get to all of these little pieces of
00:28:48
information that you go is this something here who buys two tanks of gas that would imply that that he is
00:28:56
traveling with somebody or somebody's following him or or what have you right it could imply a whole different set of
00:29:03
theories but yet we don't have law enforcement that will tell us yes that's exactly what happened it's like we said
00:29:10
they seem to just kind of forget about it or not mention it or downplay this second gas purchase so does that mean
00:29:19
that they found out that it wasn't true or that it is true and they just don't want us to know about it for some reason
00:29:28
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50% [Music] welcome back it's always great when it gets heated here in the garage hold on to crank up the AC crank
00:31:43
up to AC oh it's snowing in April I don't know if you want me to say this or not but I'm going to anyway today is the
00:31:51
captain's birthday so hit him up on Twitter with well wishes everybody wish the captain a very happy happy birthday
00:31:59
but only on Twitter not on Instagram or Tik Tok that's right he's only celebrating on Twitter Captain I wish
00:32:05
you a very happy birthday and many more and and a hopefully a celebration is lined up for this weekend well the thing
00:32:13
is is that Nick is mean and is making me work on my birthday I quit here at the garage we do
00:32:21
not take birthdays off in fact we work extra long days well Happy Birthday to everybody out there and uh cheers mates
00:32:29
cheers we're not done with the movements here that night Captain because at 3:30
00:32:34
a.m. we have Jonathan stopping at the Peter J Camille I hope I got that right service plaza to buy bottled water this
00:32:44
sighting is not 100% certain and to be honest with you I think that this is just a situation of somebody trying to
00:32:52
help out hey I think I saw him that night we don't have his credit card or debit card to confirm that he was there
00:32:59
and the other thing too is based off of what we know and again there are some missing things here in his timeline but
00:33:06
this place seems to be too far from the previous stop for the timing to be correct for him to be there at 3:30 it
00:33:13
just doesn't line up but I wanted to include it then we have at 4:04 a.m. his car left the Pennsylvania turnpike at
00:33:21
Exit 286 this is the reading Lancaster interchange a paper toll ticket was turned into the toll collector even
00:33:33
though again Jonathan's car has that easy pass what's really interesting here though Captain is there's blood on this
00:33:41
paper toll ticket that's turned in we run some test and guess what it's Jonathan's blood on that toll ticket so
00:33:50
we know we don't know what's going on that night but we do know one thing for certain by by 4:04 a.m. he's been
00:33:59
injured at this point he's bleeding at this point but possibly makes sense with the easy pass that it doesn't work in
00:34:06
that location so he would have to use a ticket yeah so per one study on the case
00:34:11
the exit drops drivers into a small like well-lit strip of allight gas stations and motels investigators visited all of
00:34:22
them and found no leads they couldn't find anybody to say hey we saw Jonathan here we spoke with him the lights
00:34:30
quickly disappear as the road winds into that Amish country area this is a brecknock Township where later his
00:34:39
lifeless body will be found they believe that at 4:05 a.m. Jonathan was alive when his car entered the parking lot and
00:34:49
then pulled up to that Creek right so he goes he goes up near this business then
00:34:55
off the road and then then down to that Creek again we don't know who's driving but his body is found at 5:30 a.m. so
00:35:05
there's not a whole lot of time between 4:04 a.m. when his blood is turned in on
00:35:12
a to to a toll collector on a toll ticket and then an hour and less than a half later his body
00:35:20
his lifeless body is discovered face down in that shallow Creek well the more I read about this case this week the
00:35:26
more research I did the more I couldn't believe that this isn't one of the biggest cases on the Internet it's
00:35:34
beyond bizar it's beyond fascinating and let me read this this comes from the Post newspaper because they they wrote
00:35:42
it much better than I could and I think it it really sums up the driving and the
00:35:48
movements from that night it says investigators took special note of the gaps in the timeline when Jonathan's
00:35:55
location and activity are unknown of particular interest they said are two gaps the timeline shows that Luna used
00:36:04
his debit card at a toll plaza in Newark Delaware at 12:57 a.m. and then turned into the New Jersey turnpike at Exit 6A
00:36:17
at 237 a.m. driving that distance would take about 40 minutes which leaves an hour unaccounted for they said in
00:36:28
addition they are interested in the period from when he left the turnpike at 404 a.m. and when his body was
00:36:36
discovered at 5:30 a.m. so some big gaps and I like that they're pointing out to
00:36:43
us these are the times that we are very concerned about these are the times that
00:36:47
we know we need to know more about what was going on that night or who may have been with Jonathan Luna the gaps are
00:36:55
interesting because Jonathan could have met up with someone or maybe he stopped somewhere that wasn't recorded and he
00:37:03
didn't use his credit card something that's very interesting to me in this case is his location because we know
00:37:10
that he's far away from his City but but the route doesn't make a lot of sense it's not like if I was going to go to
00:37:17
Cleveland I just take 71 all the way up there but if I took different roads than
00:37:23
71 you'd question why yeah and this per their words is referred to as far from the most direct route from Baltimore to
00:37:34
Lancaster County so that's why they're interested in his movements and in particular that route Captain this is
00:37:42
going to take us to December 2nd 2004 so we're a year out from Jonathan's death yeah this is when
00:37:51
the FBI the Baltimore FBI office released a statement concluding because keep in mind the the
00:37:59
one of the items that has been highly debated in this case over the years is was he
00:38:05
alone or was he traveling with someone or was he already abducted during the course of this this crazy drive that
00:38:13
seems to make no sense to anybody but at the year mark we have the FBI that are announcing that from the time he left
00:38:24
the courthouse office to the time his body was found that he was alone that their findings are that he was alone now
00:38:31
it's not real clear how they can be so certain of this given the gaps in the timeline and the lack of eyewitnesses
00:38:39
and surveillance footage but this would be the FBI story for the duration of the
00:38:47
investigation so for the rest of the days they're going to say we figured out at some point he was alone for that
00:38:54
entire trip from the time he left the the courthouse to the time that his body was found and that's our story and we're
00:39:01
sticking to it in fact on the 10th year anniversary the FBI agent in charge of the investigation April Brooks told
00:39:08
newspapers we're certain that there was no evidence to show he was with anybody after he left the courthouse okay I get
00:39:17
that but to me it there's a very big difference between saying there's no evidence to show that he was with any
00:39:26
body after he left the courthouse to saying he was alone that entire time those are two very different
00:39:34
statements to me yeah absolutely and in fact they're so different that in one of
00:39:39
them could be true and the other one could be completely false right there you have no evidence that anybody was
00:39:47
with him well let's not go out of our way to say he was absolutely alone from the time he left the courthouse to the
00:39:53
time his body was found then how is he then how how is he getting these marks on his hands what what they are implying
00:40:01
is that they are implying that their investigation concluded with him having committed
00:40:07
suicide and that it was ultimately ruled a homicide to begin with but they didn't
00:40:14
have all the information FBI decides he was alone so it must have been a suicide and they they're they're not
00:40:23
going out of their way to say that it was a suicide they're just saying hey he was alone they're implying that look we
00:40:31
don't need to be looking for his killer because he killed himself but then again
00:40:35
here's where we have a big problem they've never closed the case right and then you have to wonder well
00:40:43
is it convenient for them that the case remains open so that they don't have to disclose any of this information well
00:40:50
why would they not want to disclose any information well maybe they were up to no good so it's one of those things
00:40:55
where it's it's it's like a dog chasing its tail it just keeps going around and around and around and around every
00:41:02
question brings up another question every question brings up another question and so on and so forth and here
00:41:07
we're sitting all these years later with what I believe to be a murder and it's unsolved and let's not forget ultimately
00:41:16
in the beginning this was ruled a homicide and the coroners have stuck with that ruling yeah and the
00:41:21
frustrating thing for me is if you're so sure if law enforcement is so sure that
00:41:25
this is a suicide then close the case and let that case File be open to the public yeah and let the public look into
00:41:33
it but they don't want to do that because maybe there's some errors there maybe there's maybe people didn't cross
00:41:39
the teas and D their eyes so the first thing that people were going to say well if this man was stabbed or had these
00:41:46
many puncture wounds well where is the weapon if if he killed himself you would have found the weapon at the scene well
00:41:51
they didn't and we know that however in February of 2004 they did a re they did a recanvassing of that area of where
00:42:00
Luna's body was found when they Rec canvased the area months later now investigators are saying well we found a
00:42:07
pen knife that we believe caused the wounds that killed Jonathan Luna they also said that investigators believe the
00:42:15
pocket knife is the one that Jonathan Luna regularly carried with him so they're just assuming that this guy is
00:42:21
driving and then stabbing himself in the hands and and and other parts of his body right so th this is where things
00:42:31
get really this is where things get really dicey so obviously we have the murder/suicide question mark argument
00:42:41
but then we have a different version of that that kind of Falls somewhere in between right so it's not murder it
00:42:48
wasn't suicide these may be self-inflicted wounds and he didn't ultimately plan to kill himself but did
00:42:57
too much damage and accidentally killed himself and we're going to get into that
00:43:01
in a minute but before we do I do want to make sure that we bring up while we're on the timeline here in March of
00:43:09
2004 we have this is the case is now 3 months old this is after they find the pen knife it's no closer to being solved
00:43:17
obviously there's some kind of schism amongst the investigators of what actually happened here murder or
00:43:24
suicide that's not helping the investigation but the Washington Post summed it up very nicely saying
00:43:30
authorities announced a $100,000 reward in the unsolved death of a federal prosecutor this Jonathan P
00:43:37
Luna admitting publicly for the first time that 13 weeks of Investigation had not determined whether it was a homicide
00:43:45
or a suicide seems like a lot of money to be offered if you're if it's if the FBI is really leaning toward the suicide
00:43:53
angle here yeah investigators were seeking information from anyone who may have had contact with Mr Luna anyone who
00:44:00
may have seen Mr Luna or his vehicle so we've already kind of debated this murder or suicide thing and it's it's
00:44:11
the FBI's stance that he killed himself it's the coroner's stance that it was a homicide yeah and even though that these
00:44:19
autopsy reports haven't been released to the public both of these doctors have been vocal in in the Public's eyes and
00:44:28
and given their opinions and thoughts on this matter so let's get into this suicide gone wrong Theory this is an
00:44:35
interesting angle because this is a theory that doesn't appear in most the cases that we discuss here in the garage
00:44:41
so others weren't taking a side on suicide or murder more a little more down the middle so to speak they're
00:44:50
formulating a theory that Jonathan under Financial pressure or stressed out about
00:44:55
his job and Fa facing possible accusations about the missing money and a polygraph and all the stress that
00:45:01
comes with that tried to Stage a scene in which he would appear to have been kidnapped and
00:45:08
attacked this getting him out of court the next morning maybe getting out of the future polygraph test and getting
00:45:17
him sympathy from his colleagues and you know others involved in the missing money investigation at the the very
00:45:26
least this would buy him some time to deal with some of this if people fell for it and it wouldn't be the first time
00:45:35
in the garage that somebody staged a crime that we would later figure out hey this isn't what they said it was it
00:45:42
wasn't what it appeared to be we had the Sher papini case which I mean forget about that one so the idea here Captain
00:45:51
is that he tried to Stage an attack and a kidnap napping and wanted it to be severe enough or at least his wounds to
00:46:00
appear to be severe enough that everybody would buy it by the story and that in the process of harming himself
00:46:08
that he accidentally nicked that artery which caused which would cause his death but before it did before he
00:46:19
bled out he fell into the shallow water went unconscious and died this doesn't seem like it's all adding up correctly
00:46:28
it doesn't seem super plausible but I'm going to throw this in here this was from a web sluther the user name is
00:46:35
Falcon 500 old Falcon and this person Falcon 500 is claiming or or is verified to be a law enforcement detective I'm
00:46:44
I'm a little uncertain unclear how that that was verified but that's what it says so let's go with that this
00:46:51
individual this web sluther believes that Jonathan likely did steal the $36,000 that he wanted to deflect
00:47:00
suspicion away from himself so he thought up this scheme where he would be found in his car and then claim that he
00:47:08
had been kidnapped from his office he made sure that he visited several spots where the presence of his car would be
00:47:16
documented his wounds were superficial and it's likely that he became confused got out of his car and then fell into
00:47:23
the creek and drowned so that's how one person puts it that this might have worked out 36 punch wounds is a lot yeah
00:47:32
again it doesn't make a lot of sense and it it's um the the two cans of gas yeah
00:47:38
the two tanks of gas two tanks of gas and then you also wonder well well did he fill up his tank and then did he have
00:47:46
a a spare gas can in the back that he filled up or was somebody traveling with him yeah I mean that's what that's where
00:47:54
my mind goes that somebody's traveling with him and if he's filling up gas for the other person it almost implies to me
00:48:00
well he's not been abducted unless he has been abducted somebody's holding him in his car and they have another car
00:48:08
tailing them it's it's all very confusing and then again we keep have to come back to
00:48:13
the idea of this information is not an open book it's not released to the public and when you ask specific
00:48:22
questions in this case you're shot down by the old oh we're going to hide behind
00:48:27
the idea of it's an open investigation but everything in your investigation as far as you're telling us or implying to
00:48:34
us is that you have decided this was a suicide and so we're not technically actively investigating anything well
00:48:42
suicide to me seems like it makes zero sense my only caveat with that is what the coroner you know what the coordinat
00:48:50
are saying they're saying there was an artery that was hit so if you're trying to stages scene to look like possibly
00:48:57
you were abducted or possibly you were attacked or tortured and then you you end up stabbing yourself in the wrong
00:49:06
location I could see that as a possibility because we have evidence of of a puncture and a main artery but what
00:49:15
we know of Jonathan Luna and again maybe he had some kind of break we don't know
00:49:20
but what we do know about him leading up to that point this kind of idea of oh I'm going to
00:49:29
Stage an abduction and an attack to the point where I'm unconscious when they find me or I have my wounds are so
00:49:35
severe that I can claim I don't remember anything or I don't know who my attacker
00:49:39
was or make make it up who attacked him it seems incredibly sloppy and dumb based off of what we know of this
00:49:49
guy it seems too sloppy for for it to be his plan it seems too dumb to me for it
00:49:55
to be his plan but again we can't rule anything out because we're not given yeah but it'd be dumb to steal money yes
00:50:04
that is true you know it's it's dumb to get that far behind in debt I see with his debt I actually don't see an issue
00:50:12
with that it is a lot of money but having a young family and you're taking care of Mom and Dad I mean basically his
00:50:20
salary and his wife's salary is providing for three generations yeah I don't see it as being against that that
00:50:26
much of debt but maybe that was for him to the point where that or or what what else was he involved in that we just
00:50:33
don't know there could be debts that aren't on books let's spin this missing money thing a different way right we
00:50:41
already have people pointing out the misinformation or the spin Factor on the information that's coming out in this
00:50:50
case so let's do a little spinning of our own here shall we with the missing money
00:50:56
so many people point out that if he did steal the money then suicide makes sense
00:51:01
or if he did commit suicide well it was probably because he was guilty of stealing the money those two things seem
00:51:08
to be kind of walking together arm in- arm but let's spin it a different way what if he didn't steal the money what
00:51:15
if he didn't commit suicide what if his apprehension if he had any and it doesn't seem like he had
00:51:22
any about taking the polygraph or doing the interview about the missing money if
00:51:27
you want to suspect that well you should suspect it two ways either he didn't want to talk with people because he
00:51:34
stole the money or what about this what if he's being accused or believes that he's being accused of stealing money or
00:51:40
doing something that he did not do and he had suspicions of his own or information of his own that might lead
00:51:47
you to the person responsible for stealing that money there might be somebody that would have wanted to shut
00:51:54
him up in that regard like I said it becomes very confusing because this guy's whole career he was surrounded by
00:52:03
people that would be capable of doing this yes and I just wonder I I cannot make any sense of his
00:52:12
movements that night and I've tried for the past 10 days and I'm I'm here to tell you I can't do it i' I've tried to
00:52:18
figure out do do the movements at night Point more towards an abduction or to him not being in control of his movement
00:52:25
do they Point more toward somebody's traveling with him that he thought was you know a friend or on his
00:52:33
side do the movements point to him trying to cover something up or meet with somebody I can't make heads or taals of
00:52:42
his movements that night enough to decide on where I fall as far as the theories go about what he was up to that
00:52:50
night or if he was even in control of his own movements there was a 2007 inquest request yes so the way that this
00:52:58
works here Captain is in January of 2007 Jonathan Luna's parents formally requested that the Lancaster County
00:53:07
coroner conduct an inquest into Jonathan's death so the coroner declined to do so and then we have private
00:53:17
investigator Ed Martino who was hired by Jonathan's friend in fact it was the best man at Jonathan's wedding private
00:53:25
eye Martino dug into the case for months and then believed firmly that Jonathan was murdered because of his work
00:53:35
specifically his work with the FBI he believed that the agency had very suspiciously shut down the death
00:53:44
investigation he said his investigation had not linked Jonathan to any risky or suspicious behavior and he believed that
00:53:52
the FBI was trying to change the narrative he said quote they used to call it disinformation they call it spin today
00:54:03
in 2009 there was reason to believe that there was an active grand jury investigation into the unsolved Luna
00:54:12
case again this is interesting to me because I keep pointing out that they could be be hiding behind this idea of
00:54:19
we can't give you any information because it's an active investigation but then at the same time everything that
00:54:25
the FBI is telling us and everything that the FBI seems to be doing behind the scenes indicates that they've ended
00:54:32
their investigation they've decided that it was suicide so much so that they tried to get the coroners to change
00:54:40
their ruling retroactively change their ruling to Suicide the coroners say no we're not going to and now the FBI
00:54:48
doesn't seem to actually have an active investigation because they've determined
00:54:53
it to be suicide can't get the coroners to change their minds and so we don't have an active investigation however
00:55:00
here when you start sniffing around it looks like there might be an active investigation because in 2009 and this
00:55:08
is evidence of such there was a possible existence of a Federal grand jury investigation and look these are
00:55:15
supposed to be secret right but at that time the Lancaster County assistant district attorney Susan Moyer wrote a
00:55:22
letter to an author so here's this author William keyling who has come up with this big kind of conspiracy theory
00:55:32
that involves the informant in the FBI being involved in Jonathan Luna's murder and he doesn't specifically name anybody
00:55:40
as far as I'm aware I've not read his book but in 2009 this author is trying to get his hands on the autopsy to write
00:55:49
his book well the district attorney the assistant district attorney writes him a
00:55:55
formal letter saying I can't give you the autopsy because we have an open Federal
00:56:01
grand jury investigation so what is it is is this case active and we can't tell you
00:56:08
anything because it's an active case or is it not active and nobody's actually investigating it somebody's decided it's
00:56:16
a suicide and the coroners will not change their ruling it's a very murky situation and unfortunately I don't feel
00:56:23
like we are getting in any clear answers from these these bigger agencies that we
00:56:30
are to trust with our safety well one of the issues with a case like this is it it's where do you lean do you lean
00:56:39
towards suicide or murder my problem with suicide is the evidence that he was in the back seat of his car at some
00:56:47
point meaning was somebody driving this really becomes a red light case for me and and one that I'll be thinking about
00:56:54
about constantly and probably one that I'll randomly Google for more information because it's uh it's beyond
00:57:03
bizarre right and this case really is a mess of leaked information misinformation backtracking walking
00:57:11
things back botched crime scenes internal investigations I mean it's a very complicated case it's a very
00:57:19
complicated story and we know that all of that does does not help it certainly muddies the waters big time in this case
00:57:30
and in any other case that we've looked into in fact when you have this much going on and this much confusion rarely
00:57:37
do you see an answer of result U an arrest somebody being convicted personally I lean toward the side of
00:57:46
murder I I believe that somebody killed him I don't I I I still believe that it it has something to do either directly
00:57:57
tied to or Loosely tied to his work something he was involved in something that he was aware of that that knew
00:58:05
about I can say this it was on purpose that we bring up detective Shan suter's death in the trailer because that case
00:58:16
is just as confusing as this one and they both took place in Baltimore Ray Rivera's case is a little bit different
00:58:23
it seems like all the confusion is really on on his end and what what was going on in his his world right but
00:58:31
again I'm a blue blood and I have I have the backs of the women and men that that
00:58:37
choose to go into that line of work and that do that job and do it well and do a
00:58:41
good job of it every agency has had its black eyes over the years but the Baltimore Police Department especially
00:58:49
during this time frame there's been so much concern about corruption and things that were going on behind the scenes and
00:58:56
a lot of it involves money and drugs and here we have a situation that seems to involve or might involve
00:59:04
money that people in that line of work may have had access to and it disappeared and now we have people being
00:59:12
called into question and I tell you what believe you me if I was accused of stealing money to the point where I'm
00:59:21
I'm maybe not directly being accused but to the point where I have to sit down and have meetings about it and take a
00:59:26
polygraph test if I have an idea or a suspicion of who I think took it or who I think is responsible you better
00:59:33
believe that I am going to make that well known to the people that are interviewing me my suspicions you have
00:59:40
yours I got mine and I'm not afraid to tell you what I think one case that we didn't bring up that I'm sure our
00:59:49
listeners are going this reminds me of that other case right well it's the case of Ray Greer who disappeared in April of
00:59:58
1995 he was a prosecutor as well now what's funny about the idea of that popping into people's heads when they
01:00:06
hear this story is law enforcement despite admittedly investigating similarities in the
01:00:16
cases they have denied any possible link between what happened to Jonathan Luna and The Disappearance of Ray Greer there
01:00:25
seemed to been thought there that they could possibly be linked because it was investigated now I'm not sitting here
01:00:34
with a high confidence level of knowing what happened to Rey or ever finding out
01:00:39
what truly happened to Jonathan Luna I hope and pray that we do again I think that he was murdered I think that
01:00:47
something happened and I cannot explain why he left his office there that night he should have stayed and finished can't
01:00:54
explain why he left his phone can't explain why he left his phone there have been people that said that he couldn't
01:01:00
drive without his glasses I purposely did not include that when we were discussing the
01:01:09
items left at his office because that seems highly debatable highly debatable because we we
01:01:16
know that the glasses were left behind however that car did a lot of moving that night so somebody drove it and
01:01:24
somebody didn't have any problem driving it 100 miles away so if he was in fact driving his own car then we know that
01:01:32
that's not the case that he had no problems driving without those glasses this is a case again too many
01:01:39
questions too many things left unsatisfied for us to come up with a great idea of what really happened
01:01:49
[Music] here [Music] can't thank you guys enough for joining us here in the garage we love your smell
01:02:05
we love we love your smell what can we say if you're digging any of the music for the shows you can find it all for
01:02:13
free on Apple music or Spotify just search True Crime garage and it'll come up under music artist and you can follow
01:02:22
us there on Spotify and like I said it's all for free Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
01:02:29
listeners we're going to go with some recommended listening this week here Captain we are recommending one of our
01:02:35
favorite shows the true murder podcast longtime listeners of our show will know that we have had the host of true murder
01:02:43
Dan sansky on our show a couple of times we like to call Dan The Godfather of True Crime podcast check out his show
01:02:50
True murder in particular you want to check out last Tuesday show this is when Dan interviewed Lonna Humphrey who is an
01:02:58
expert on the still unsolved Melissa wit murder case we had Lonna on our show to
01:03:03
discuss Missy wit's case as well but it really made my day Captain when I was listening to Lonna who told Dan that
01:03:11
after coming on our show the Melissa wit Facebook page blew up and Dan referred to us as his friends over at True Crime
01:03:19
garage so thank you both true murder and Lonna Humphrey for the shout out and the
01:03:23
kind words that's true murder podcast Tuesday April 12th the girl I never knew with Lonna Humphrey and until next week
01:03:32
be good and be kind and don't [Music] litter [Music] is it possible to predict the
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because every day we're doing what's never been done learn more at mayoclinic.org
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soss Mayo Clinic you know where to go