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[Applause] [Music] welcome to true crammed garage where if you are whatever you are doing thanks
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grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] [Music] Horn Lake Mississippi June 2017 it's a
00:04:07
hot morning and early summer and a town of about 26,000 located just about five minutes from the Mississippi border and
00:04:15
fewer than 15 miles south of Memphis a US Postal Service mail carrier is delivering the mail on Angel Drive she
00:04:26
nears a black metal mailbox mounted on a sturdy wooden post but as she was about
00:04:32
to reach in to drop the mail the mail carrier draws back in horror sitting on the ground below the mailbox tied to the
00:04:42
post with what appears to be shoestrings is a woman she is clearly dead her head
00:04:51
is tilted upwards at an angle her mouth is open authorities are alerted and told
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that they would find a young woman tied by the neck and jaw to a rural mailbox post how long had she been there
00:05:07
how many cars pass by the mailbox and never noticed a sight that none of us would forget
00:05:15
if it weren't for all the tall weeds up by the road and surrounding the mailbox someone would have spotted her hours
00:05:23
before who could have done this how did this happen and why this week we discussed the case of Jessica Renee
00:05:34
Johnson [Music] Jessica Johnson was 37 years old when her body was discovered on June 2nd 2017
00:05:56
Jessica was a brunette and she was 5 foot 3 inches tall 115 pounds with greenish hazel eyes even though Jessica
00:06:06
was in her mid 30s she lived at home in Horn Lake with her parents Linda and David Johnson this was largely because
00:06:14
Jessica was a single mom with two children a daughter who was just 8 years old when Jessica died and a son who was
00:06:22
19 until a few months before her death Jessica worked at a logistics service in Memphis but lately she was unemployed
00:06:31
her parents helped out with child care her son lived with Jessica's grandparents whose home was just yards
00:06:38
away when we talked about who Jessica was as a person there's a lot to talk about but one thing that is very often
00:06:47
said is that Jessica was very pretty yeah and you often see this in cases where they talk about the victims looks
00:06:55
or whatever but in this case it's it's like a 100% consensus yeah she's described by all as exceptionally
00:07:03
beautiful according to her family and friends she knew it and she worked it she was always dressed up and really
00:07:12
pretty and she knew it said her sister Kayla her friends Sommer said Jessica loved to quote glam herself up and wear
00:07:20
pretty clothes and go out yeah just like the colonel and in fact she would not generally go out without being done up
00:07:29
according to friends and family now Jessica tended to change her facebook profile picture constantly updating it
00:07:36
with a new filtered selfie or lighted head shot her public posts were largely peppy inspiring quotes from glamorous
00:07:45
women like Coco Chanel or Audrey Hepburn Jessica was very social and had lots of
00:07:51
friends her page shows that she was quote Facebook friends with over 1900 people she loved to go to clubs
00:08:01
and hang out with friends and friends described her as the life of the party unfortunately in the few years before
00:08:08
her death Jessica's parents say that Jessica started to fall in with the wrong crowd while she was a good mom as
00:08:16
long as she was in a good place she had her problems her father David said right but you often see this with
00:08:24
people that stay in the town that they went to high school in mm-hmm where they start going out and partying and yeah
00:08:31
it's like mid-20s great late 20s not so bad get into your 30s and now the only people that are showing up to these
00:08:40
bars are people in their 20s mm-hmm you say I mean it's like you know it's fun for a while but those scenes always have
00:08:50
some shady characters as far as I can tell this all seems to have started about five years earlier when Jessica
00:08:56
began dating Lesley Taylor this guy was bad news and used Jessica's car as his drug-dealing hub finally he was busted
00:09:06
Jessica's car was confiscated and the drug-dealing boyfriend went to prison but the damage was done and around this
00:09:15
time Jessica started being involved in the drug scene in fact we know that Jessica was arrested on October 10th
00:09:23
2013 by Horn Lake PD the charges listed in the arrest record are one felony possession of a controlled substance and
00:09:32
a possession of paraphernalia did she post her mugshot as her Facebook profile I don't know I don't think so the
00:09:41
charges ended up being dropped Jessica was caught with some male friends from high school in possession
00:09:47
of a bag of meth but the cops could never prove who it belonged to so it seems that Jessica liked to party
00:09:55
and some of that involved drugs she would have had periods where she had her act together and other times where she
00:10:05
wasn't as reliable and was using illicit substances that had a negative effect on
00:10:11
her life right even worse she was dissipating in drug deals working as a middleman between her friends and the
00:10:20
dealers going on drug runs and scoring some for herself to use as well as making a little cash right at the time
00:10:28
of her death quote I was disappointed in her in the choices she was making and what she was doing
00:10:35
said her father David David and Linda did not agree with their daughter's choices of late but they did all they
00:10:43
could do to support her and help her when she needed it well I'm sure they loved her and I'm sure they love their
00:10:49
grandkids and that's why they allowed her to live there but that also allows her to go out because she constantly has
00:10:56
like a live-in babysitter well let's get to the timeframe in question this is May
00:11:01
31st to June 2nd so starting on the afternoon of Wednesday May 31st 2017 Jessica left her parents home with her
00:11:11
on-again off-again boyfriend his name is garland Hart Jessica told her mom the two were going shopping at a thrift
00:11:19
store to get Garland some clothes we know that on that Wednesday night the two went to a club called canvass where
00:11:27
there was some something of a drug scene going on on Thursday the 1st of June Jessica facetimed with her daughter
00:11:34
Linda Jessica's mother participated in the call as well Jessica was calling from the front yard
00:11:40
of a house she was at in this call Jessica said she was coming home but she didn't at 3:29 a.m. on the morning of
00:11:50
June 2nd so this is now late Thursday night turned into early Friday morning you know Jessica's teenaged son received
00:11:58
a text to his phone from Jessica's phone it said that Jessica would be spending the day with G and that G and I will see
00:12:07
you later this afternoon according to Linda the G refers to Garland yeah which if you look up this garland heart
00:12:16
guy he looks like he smells like garlic farts I get it kind of a shady vibe just
00:12:22
from his picture around 11:00 a.m. on the morning of Friday June and a US postal worker was making her
00:12:29
rounds and Horn Lake she approached the post bounded mailbox at number seven five to zero
00:12:36
angel drive the mailbox was one of those cheap black metal ones you can get at any hardware store with the stick-on
00:12:44
numbers and it was mounted on an unfinished grayish 38 inch wooden post that was sunk into the ground do we know
00:12:53
if the mailbox post was encased with concrete or not I I don't know that it that it did but from witness accounts it
00:13:03
was sunk into the ground but it still wiggled a little if you were to pull on it right this mailbox belonged to a
00:13:10
house that was set back a few hundred yards from the road this is down a dirt or gravel driveway the box itself was
00:13:20
partially enveloped in weeds and tall grasses that had grown up around it this wasn't a home that someone was carefully
00:13:30
landscaping right when the mail carrier neared the box to her horror she saw someone sitting at the base of the post
00:13:38
but this was not someone sitting there taking a break or waiting for a ride what she saw was the death stricken face
00:13:46
of a young woman her head and neck tied to the mailbox post and when we say sitting there she wasn't sitting on her
00:13:55
honor but she was on her legs it's like a squatting position yeah the mail carrier panicked and backed away from
00:14:04
the mailbox she parked her truck and called a colleague who was delivering mail nearby saying she didn't know what
00:14:11
to do before the horn lake PD arrived on the scene this second mail carrier arrived
00:14:17
and snapped a photo of the grisly scene which is the photo that all we have to go off of here regarding the the scene
00:14:26
itself we're gonna talk a lot about this photo so it might be something that you
00:14:30
want to google image we are not going to post this on our social media page or on
00:14:37
our website no but but it's easily found right you googled the victims name Jessica
00:14:42
Johnson yeah cuz I don't want anybody to go to our website looking to buy a t-shirt or something this and see this
00:14:48
and be disturbed so it's not a it's not a pretty sight it's it's look at it at your own risk yeah it's tough too it's
00:14:56
one of those things you can't unsee it and well here's what the the photo depicts Jessica Johnson is sitting at
00:15:03
the base of the mailbox post away from the street side on her knees her feet tucked under her and out of view she is
00:15:12
sitting in three foot tall weeds crushing them down beneath her she is wearing jeans and a grey camo t-shirt a
00:15:21
grey leather purse is propped between her knees it is open and a pink phone charging cord is visible
00:15:29
Jessica's right arm is dangling down between her legs and it appears her right hand is touching or even holding a
00:15:38
black leather pouch that that may be a wallet a small black cord from this wallet like item seems to be draped over
00:15:47
her right thumb Jessica's other arm her left arm is tucked behind the mailbox post with her left shoulder leaning on
00:15:56
the post the left side of Jessica's face basically her cheekbone is against the corner of the mailbox post and
00:16:05
horrifyingly around her neck and tangled in her hair is a cord or string that later would turn out to be two white
00:16:13
shoelaces tied together Jessica's head is facing upwards at an angle the shoelace whines around her neck once
00:16:22
disappears into her hair and then another part of the shoelace is visible coming out of her hair at her jawline
00:16:30
and stretching tightly across her face running up between her nose and mouth so that it pulls her upper lip aside her
00:16:40
upper teeth and gums are visible the shoelace stretches up from her face around the post and is embedded in the
00:16:48
crack where the parts of the wooden post are joined the scene is horrible and the
00:16:54
faux that we we have from the mail carrier although partially blurred out is equally horrible and it raises so many
00:17:01
questions how did Jessica end up tied to a mailbox post on a quiet street in Horn
00:17:08
Lake who did this to her or how long has she been there and in whose house was it the Horn Lake PD was
00:17:16
dispatched to the scene at 11:29 a.m. after the second mail carrier called the police upon observing the cord around
00:17:24
Jessica's neck the cops and the DeSoto County Coroner arrived according to Jessica's family and
00:17:32
friends they initiated a complete sham of an investigation according to Linda Johnson police made up their mind about
00:17:40
this case before they even looked at the evidence the police report which was filed on June 3rd states right up front
00:17:49
quote no crime says that the scene involved a young white woman hanging from a mailbox and she was already stiff
00:17:57
the report notes that Jessica's purse was located between her knees like it been sat there and Jessica's hand was
00:18:05
resting on it officers collected Jessica's driver's license from the mail carrier who had already rifled through
00:18:12
Jessica's bag and pulled it out compromising any evidence compromising the scene Linda tells us that police
00:18:20
cornered off the property but neglected to protect the mailbox area another retired Memphis police officer who
00:18:28
worked with the family on this case has said that photos from the scene show police cars parked too close to the body
00:18:35
potentially destroying evidence one like you said this is a very small town so you would assume that there's not too
00:18:42
many crimes like this happening or scenes like this happening yeah yeah I mean this is a very unusual scene and I
00:18:51
forget about small town this is unusual scene for you and I who've already looked at over a hundred cases since
00:18:58
we've been doing this garage thing yeah it's one thing for somebody to commit suicide maybe in their house but the
00:19:06
fact that they're trying to say that there's no crime in that they believe that she
00:19:10
committed suicide by hanging herself from somebody else's mailbox uh-huh very strange well and continuing down the
00:19:19
road of evidence or lack thereof or failing to collect certain pieces of evidence because that's just kind of the
00:19:29
tip of the iceberg what we're getting at one major thing and I think this is a huge thing here Jessica's phone was
00:19:35
found inside her purse that had been propped between her knees but the phone was locked and nobody knew the code
00:19:43
Linda her mother says that the code had been changed and she believes that whoever killed her daughter if someone
00:19:51
did kill her daughter had changed the code possibly after sending the 329 a.m. text to her son Jessica's fingerprint
00:20:02
would have unlocked the phone but the police department declined to use this method to this very day the family
00:20:12
Jessica's family does not have access to the contents of her phone that is absolutely ridiculous mm-hmm that is
00:20:21
that is beyond irresponsible yes it is because they can get phone records obviously if they lived with her there
00:20:30
it's a possibility that they even paid for the phone records or if they're going to pay the remaining bill they
00:20:36
might be able to get a phone log as far as you know who's she called but who calls people now you have to be a
00:20:46
complete psychopath to pick up the phone and actually to call somebody everybody
00:20:50
texts now you called me last Thursday I call you every Thursday because I'm a complete psychopath but this text
00:20:59
message this is the stuff that's the most important now I'd also wonder if if it was an iPhone or something like that
00:21:06
was it hooked up to another device and you know like all my text messages go to my computer so if something happened in
00:21:13
you and you found me dead and you couldn't get it into my phone well you can get into my computers
00:21:21
and see my text messages through that way so I wonder if the family has looked into those angles but like you said
00:21:27
there's no information that they have from though that cell phone well and the short answer is they have they've
00:21:34
they've attempted to figure out what could be on this phone using every avenue they could think of even with the
00:21:41
help of a retired law enforcement member right the other thing too is it was determined as we said earlier that the
00:21:50
cord will hold on a second hence won't throw this out because I'm assuming that they're the ones that were responsible
00:21:57
for the funeral and if they were did they have the context did they have the phone at that point where they could
00:22:07
have used her fingerprint to get into the phone during that time I believe this is on I don't have that answer you
00:22:15
see what I'm saying right my guess is I do know some of the items that were found with Jessica were returned to the
00:22:24
family but we don't know when but right I don't think that was right away you know this would these things would have
00:22:32
been collected and after this scene if they would have if they had properly secured the scene catalogued everything
00:22:40
once that was done at some point they could have used her finger to open up that that phone and it's not so morbid
00:22:51
and I understand that you know there are other ways of getting that information if you're law enforcement but that
00:22:58
would've gave it to you right away you know we we we hear so many times about the first 48 hours of an
00:23:05
investigation we know that current day well that's when there is an investigation right but when somebody's
00:23:13
showing up and going ahead no crime here nothing to see well in when we talk about the first 48 hours we know the in
00:23:22
current day investigation the first thing that they're looking for on on somebody is a phone yeah you know where
00:23:29
where's that phone who were they communicating with what was said what was supposed to be
00:23:35
going on before this happened this crime happened and that's going to get more and more important as we turn more and
00:23:42
more into zombies just staring at our phones all day but back to the cord that was determined to be two white shoelaces
00:23:50
tied together the immediate question is did these laces come from Jessica shoes would there have been any touch DNA on
00:23:59
them you know if someone had tied her up right or used that to strangle her you'd think there might be some touch
00:24:06
DNA there was a DNA on the the shoelaces is we don't know if there was any DNA on
00:24:12
him because at some point the shoelaces have disappeared right right because there's no need to investigate because
00:24:19
if you show up to a scene and it looks like a suicide and you have these shoelaces test the shoelaces if it comes
00:24:25
back then it's just her DNA on the shoelaces and nobody else's well look then we go hey it looks like a suicide
00:24:33
there's evidence that it's just a suicide but if it comes back with multiple forms of DNA and multiple
00:24:41
people of DNA not meaning that they actually tied it but that gives us probable cause to say hey there was a
00:24:48
crime here and now we need to investigate it but at least gives you somebody else to talk to and you know
00:24:55
the the shoelaces they were in the possession of the police department at some point but but day before they
00:25:02
vanished now the same thing goes for the clothes that Jessica was wearing that day it's believed that they were burned
00:25:09
by the funeral director who handled Jessica's body well we'll get more into the inadequate investigation is that a
00:25:19
common thing for them to do whatever clothes they're gonna be put in if they know that they're not gonna be buried in
00:25:27
those clothes that they burn the clothes that they came in yeah I would think that that's fairly common yes some more
00:25:34
evidence came to light that makes this whole situation even more confusing when Jessica's family went to view her body
00:25:42
in the funeral home they were horrified to observe Jessica's left arm number this is the arm that was hidden
00:25:50
from view in the picture that we have the one that was sort of smushed behind the mailbox post right this arm is in
00:25:58
rough shape to put it plain and simple for one thing there's a visible indentation or print of some kind
00:26:07
running across Jessica's forearm that looks to have been made possibly after death there are dark bruises on her
00:26:16
wrists some people believe that there is indication that she may have been bound
00:26:22
at some point or at least restrained right and there are mysterious scabby holes peppering her lower arm all
00:26:30
over the back of her hand they look almost like she was burned or spattered with acid there is blood visible in her
00:26:39
finger nail beds particularly her pinkie now the photo of the arm taken by family
00:26:45
members is visible online released by the family because they believe it shows that something very bad happened to
00:26:52
Jessica yeah but I think the whole jumping to the conclusion that her hand was burned with acid I mean her hand
00:26:59
could have been burned by grilling something or cooking other things but this idea that it was just burnt with
00:27:07
acid well that's not an idea that's just me describing what it looks like okay nope nobody has suggested what these
00:27:15
unusual marks have come from that's just my easiest way to describe it to people have not seen this photo
00:27:23
despite all these strange circumstances and the bizarre unexplained injuries to the body an autopsy on Jessica Johnson
00:27:31
was never conducted in fact the DeSoto County coroner's office issued its report on July 12 2017 stating that the
00:27:41
cause of death was asphyxiation by ligature hanging and the manner of death was suicide DeSoto County Coroner Jeff
00:27:49
pounders said that Jessica's was one of the strangest cases he had seen and he had been a coroner for 35 years but
00:27:57
based on evidence and the toxicology results he gave the official explanation of
00:28:03
death by asphyxiation when Jessica was found around 11 a.m. on June 2nd rigor mortis had set in and it appeared she
00:28:12
had been there since the early morning hours Ponder's said he acknowledged quote I don't know how many people drove
00:28:20
by the mailbox and not seen her the weeds were so tall a toxicology test was done and according to the death report
00:28:28
revealed meth and xanax intoxication despite this coroner pounders told the media that Jessica had not od'd Horn
00:28:38
Lake police have investigated this death in great detail said pounders quote I've
00:28:43
talked to the crime lab and she died from asphyxiation Horn Lake police have not been able to find anything other
00:28:50
than she hanged herself end quote Amazon Prime video and executive producer Jordan Peele bring
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mates cheers to you captain let's get back to the case that they didn't want to investigate
00:32:49
well Johnson's family the Johnson family and Jessica's friends were shocked at this determination according to
00:32:58
Jessica's family the Horn Lake PD basically looked the other way when it came to investigating this case they
00:33:05
were familiar with Jessica's past and the people she associated with and chalked her death up to just another
00:33:12
junkie dying and fairness they did do the toxicology report so they did investigate that part but I think it led
00:33:20
them to a conclusion of a lot look a lot of these small towns are dealing with a
00:33:25
lot of deaths by drug addicts and so in record numbers it's particularly heroin right and so you do the toxicology
00:33:38
report and this is happening all over the country and he go okay but we have a piece of evidence like I said with the
00:33:46
shoelace that you could have just tested and that would have got us further down
00:33:51
one of the rabbit holes suicide or foul play well Lee Ann Marie know this was Jessica's good friend she became a
00:34:00
spokesperson for the family she told the web site heavy that Horn Lake PD were quote grossly negligent and
00:34:08
clearly had no intention of investigating Jessica's death as a possible crime once they got wind of who
00:34:15
was dead they believe coroner pounders declared it was a suicide the cops were relieved of further work
00:34:22
and the case was closed but Jessica's family and friends state flat-out that she would never ever have committed
00:34:30
suicide for one thing she was a good mom and lived for her kids she never would have left them alone she told her mom
00:34:40
via Facebook then she was coming home and texted her son that she would see him the next day
00:34:47
none of this added up to someone who would kill herself but even more convincingly Linda Johnson said that no
00:34:55
way would her daughter kill herself this way saying quote my daughter was too vain Jessica's sister Kaylee said
00:35:04
there's no way she's going to have herself displayed out for the world to see her like that she had no makeup on
00:35:11
that's not her if she were going to kill herself Linda said Jessica would have glammed herself up and taken pills she
00:35:20
would have went to sleep and believe me Jessica would have had herself fixed up she would have looked like sleeping
00:35:28
beauty Linda said if I'm the head detective or I'm a part of this law enforcement team I'm taking into account
00:35:35
what they're saying I'm not saying that I'm gonna believe it look there's plenty
00:35:40
of times where somebody takes their life and then somebody says hey they never would have done this and all the
00:35:46
evidence points that they did so but I'm not gonna dismiss that and so we could have the toxicology report but we got
00:35:55
this weird hanging on the mailbox now you got the family coming forward saying look if she if she was gonna kill
00:36:02
herself we don't think it would be this way right right and at some point they even site a something that took place
00:36:10
when when friends and Jessica were watching a movie called 13 reasons why the group discussed that they would
00:36:20
never inflict violence on themselves they all agreed that if they were to take their own lives pills would be the
00:36:28
way to go so the problem with this whole scenario to me is I agree I agree with what you said I agree that you take
00:36:39
those statements of she would have never killed herself and if she would have she
00:36:44
wouldn't have done it this way you take that you take that into account and and you have to play that and apply that to
00:36:51
everything that you're seeing and the information that you're collecting right now well you could push back on
00:36:58
the family too well did you ever think that she was gonna be taking drugs as as hardcore as methamphetamines well yeah
00:37:08
but what I was getting at is that I I understand that we have a whole bunch of people saying well she would have never
00:37:13
have done this I don't know what state of mind we can say she would have been in regarding what we now know with the
00:37:22
toxicology results right so we do have some more information about what happened or may have happened that day
00:37:30
although partially from sources who might have less than honest motives the house that Jessica was found out the
00:37:38
mailbox that she was tied to was owned by a very good friend of her boyfriend Garland's named Jesse Isaacs in fact
00:37:47
Garland had occasionally lived at this house which was less than five miles from Jessica's home and Jessica stayed
00:37:55
with him for periods of time Jessica was very familiar with the house and with the homeowner Jesse
00:38:01
she seemed comfortable being there although her friends her girlfriends say they were not and this was a known party
00:38:10
house Jessica and Garland ended up over there we believe sometime Wednesday night May
00:38:16
31st right Jesse said that he had not seen Jessica and Garland together in some time until then and also that
00:38:25
Jessica seemed off he said she was being even more dramatic than usual at some point on Wednesday night or Thursday
00:38:33
June first Garland and Jessica had a big fight Jessica locked herself in the bathroom and called a friend to come and
00:38:41
get her this is backed up by Jessica's friend Leanne Marino who says that Jessica hid in the
00:38:49
bathroom because she was afraid of Garland but when this girlfriend arrived jessica was nowhere to be seen and after
00:38:56
waiting for 45 minutes the friend then left we know that sometime before 4:30 on
00:39:02
Thursday Jessica facetimed her daughter and mother from the yard also a girl who served as Jessica's driver for her
00:39:13
drug deals as well as the girl's mom showed up at the house and witnessed a big fight between Jessica and Garland or
00:39:22
the aftermath of a fight this was around 4:30 jessica was distraught and left the
00:39:30
house this is because she was supposed to pick up her friend Katie Jackson from work at 5 o'clock but Jessica did not
00:39:37
arrive there until 5:15 Katie says that when Jessica arrived it Katie's work she was almost hysterical
00:39:45
saying that someone had told her that Garland was in the house in the back room with two women Katie gave Jessica
00:39:53
two xanax and drove back to angel drive back to that house lamo confused so the when she shows up to pick up her friend
00:40:02
she's telling her friend whoa I'm pissed off because Garland was in the back with
00:40:09
two women she's telling her friend that someone told her that at some point that
00:40:14
was in the back room kay with two women so garlic fart is getting it on with two
00:40:20
women in the back or that's the rumor once back at the angel drive house Katie told Jessica to stay in the car while
00:40:27
she was going to go inside and collect Jessica's things Katie went inside and confronted garland who was just emerging
00:40:34
from the bedroom with two girls garland told her that Jessica was irrational and he couldn't handle her
00:40:42
and Katie should take her home or take her elsewhere Katie returned to the car and told Jessica that they were leaving
00:40:50
but then Jessica jumps out of the car and she's running around she said she that she had to talk to Garland Katie
00:40:59
later said that Jessica was not only running around but behaving irrationally right Katie left and never heard from
00:41:07
Jessica after that now no one knows what happened at this point Garland's friend Jesse told the media
00:41:16
that Jessica left the house around 6:00 the next time anyone that we know of Saul
00:41:23
she was dead this is confusing though too because Jessica went to pick up her friend then they drive back to this
00:41:32
house that they're partying at right this is the house that they also found her hanging from the mailbox mm-hmm same
00:41:41
house mm-hmm so garland is in the back doing something with two woman's and that's the rumor
00:41:50
that's why she's pissed off that's why there's a fight but then at some point our friend leaves
00:41:56
well how does her friend leave is there a car there for her friend to leave or just Jessica have to get in the car and
00:42:02
drive her somewhere because she was her friend's ride right so that's kind of confusing yeah yeah that's that that is
00:42:12
interesting um but of course Jessica's acting a little strange because we know from the toxicology
00:42:19
report that she's on some kind of drug that night and also her on-again off-again boyfriend is rumored to be
00:42:28
cheating on her so yes she's gonna act a little emotional mm-hmm well and regarding the vehicle I don't have
00:42:35
confirmation of this but I believe that the vehicle in question that Katie left in may have been Katie's car
00:42:43
all right so Katie goes to work it says Jessica you can you borrow my car that is why shots a ride from from work and
00:42:49
also that makes more sense to because if if it wasn't your car and somebody was 15 minutes late picking you up you want
00:42:56
to really care so much but if they're borrowing your car you're like you should be back here right at five
00:43:01
o'clock well one thing about this house though it's equipped with a video camera
00:43:07
which does face the mailbox but any footage that may have been taken by the camera has never been released and we
00:43:15
don't know whether if it was ever even viewed by the police Jess why would it be viewed there's no crime well Jesse
00:43:24
Jesse the homeowner was evasive as to the footage he told true-crime daily that he's never looked for the video
00:43:32
then that he didn't know the passcode then that the camera may not have been on or that it may have been recorded
00:43:43
over already so he's been asked directly by someone regarding this footage right but this is
00:43:50
again a huge misstep if you know that there's a camera again you can assume all you want that this is a somebody
00:43:59
committed suicide or that this is some kind of you know accidental drug death that they're gonna call suicide but now
00:44:07
you have somebody saying that there is a video camera recording the scene of the
00:44:16
suicide or foul play and and you're not gonna take one or two steps to get that information so you can review it
00:44:25
I mean how lazy are these people okay right well let's let's discuss the two major theories at work here right
00:44:32
because law enforcement has determined that Jessica committed suicide and the family is convinced that she was
00:44:39
murdered so let's try to break down the evidence for each theory first could Jessica have
00:44:47
committed suicide her family says there's no chance her friends say no Jessica was full of fun and life but we
00:44:56
know from some of the celebrity suicides lately their family members are sometimes the last to know that their
00:45:04
loved one was suffering right and we can never really know who is likely to self-harm often it is those you would
00:45:14
least expect so I know as I'm saying this some of you are thinking of someone out there statistically drug addicts are
00:45:24
more likely to kill themselves than non drug addicts are and there is some indication that Jessica was a tortured
00:45:32
soul her facebook page is full of quotes that are a little dark some examples she
00:45:40
posted in the 18 months before her death are quote this shade of black really brings out the color of my soul and
00:45:47
quote we're not broken just bent on the other hand some of her quotes are more upbeat quote positive mind positive
00:45:57
vibes positive life but it seems that those are in the minority and may have been her way of trying to lift her
00:46:06
spirits someone who knew her commenting on an online forum after her death said that Jessica was so kind talented funny
00:46:17
but she was a very very sad person she hid it well but she had a troubled life of course she had trouble life for all
00:46:27
indications she's a meth user yeah and and I would venture to say very likely addicted to xanax a meth user and
00:46:40
addicted to xanax gonna be Mike my guess here and you have one kid that's living
00:46:45
with your grandparents and then you have an 8 year old and but but he's 19 though
00:46:49
that's a little different it's not like he's five well my question would be how long has he lived there because if he's
00:46:57
lived there since he's five then something's been going on I don't get that vibe I get the vibe that he
00:47:02
probably he's an adult and that's he's choosing to live there and if that's the case that's fine but again my point
00:47:09
being is here's somebody that was you know a beautiful person everybody says so and she's seems to be full of life she
00:47:20
has one kid that she raises then she has another kid and she has a lot to live for but you know once you get addicted
00:47:29
to these things a lot of people can't shake that and that even puts you more into a spiral of depression so a lot of
00:47:37
times family members would say the Jessica I know wouldn't kill herself well the Jessica you also really know
00:47:45
and love she wouldn't be using methamphetamines well yeah I mean from the outside looking in here's what you
00:47:51
have the most convincing argument for Jessica possibly committing suicide is it's a whole bunch of things that are
00:48:00
going on in her life that we can see from the outside looking in right she's a struggling unemployed single mother
00:48:07
she's an addict and with a meth habit as we said she has mood swings we know this
00:48:15
from the witness eyewitness reports regarding the timeline of those three days and she's possibly in a an abusive
00:48:23
relationship at this time well on the other thing too about them saying she's too vain well if she was really that
00:48:30
vain she wouldn't be using methamphetamines hmm we've seen the before-and-after pictures of that
00:48:37
doesn't go so well well and according to her friends and family that in the recent years leading up to this Jessica
00:48:45
made some bad choices especially when it came to her love life she started dating
00:48:50
men that were less than desirable in her family family's mind yeah note to all the women out there again there are nice
00:48:58
guys out there it's possible to find one well regarding this relationship so this
00:49:03
is what we do know in what has been said Jessica and Garland were dating on and off for over two years and Linda Johnson
00:49:11
describes the relationship as toxic Jessica's friends say that Garland was emotionally and physically abusive
00:49:19
stringing her along and going back and forth between Jessica and other women Garland was known to do heroin and deal
00:49:27
heroin but it said that Jessica was unquestionably in love with Garland but the dramatic swings of the relationship
00:49:35
these are obvious even to us looking at this because you have things like a Facebook post that say the heart gets
00:49:45
confused when it's constantly told I love you by the same person who destroys it this was from April of 2017 then
00:49:53
there's a post December of 2016 that says I don't hate you I love you but loving you is killing me so this is
00:50:00
goodbye even if I don't want it to be which clearly that wasn't goodbye since we know in June of 2017 Jessica was
00:50:09
still or again you know with Garland now Garland's friend Jessie the homeowner says that after Jessica left the house
00:50:20
on June 1st which keep in mind where we aren't even sure as factual right that Jessica sent him a text saying
00:50:28
essentially that she didn't want to feel the pain anymore now Jessica's friend summer Ledbetter saw the text and says
00:50:39
that to her that it just meant that Jessica was frustrated and that she not you know not that she wanted to leave
00:50:47
this world but she didn't want to be with her boyfriend anymore right that's a possibility the other
00:50:53
possibility is is it a text of I don't want to feel the pain anymore of this relationship or is it I don't want to
00:51:01
feel the pain anymore of being addicted to these drugs or is it a combination of
00:51:07
all that well so Jessie did give some more information that may point to suicide as being likely okay if this
00:51:15
information is to be believed he did tell a local news station that quote one of my roommates told me Jessica was out
00:51:23
in the driveway and pulled the shoestrings out of her shoes and was threatening suicide and he basically
00:51:30
kind of just shrugged it off and told her you know get out of here with that I don't want to hear it and he shut the
00:51:39
door on her that's what he's saying he was told by somebody else right he says that this would have went down around 6
00:51:47
p.m. according to Jesse now after this he said he didn't see Jessica again until she was found 16 hours later dead
00:51:57
at the mailbox well again he's pointing all these things towards suicide but he had a
00:52:03
piece of equipment in his house recording that mailbox and when we could have had those answers if Jesse would
00:52:10
have turned those over well he was not that's the tricky thing though according to his answers we don't know if anything
00:52:20
was recorded on that right you know what I mean we don't know if it was working you know he gives multiple answers so
00:52:27
only one of them can be correct now but if jesse is telling the truth about that statement about what he said a
00:52:35
friend of his witnessed in the his front yard essentially and we only have his word for this because we have no
00:52:43
indication that the police backed this story up with any other witnesses right but if if he is telling the truth and
00:52:50
that means that Jessica pulled the laces out of her converse sneakers and killed
00:52:54
herself now to do that she would have had to carefully tie the laces together to make a large circle the small knots
00:53:02
are very close to the ends of the laces so then she would have had to loop the knotted lace around her throat twist it
00:53:12
into a figure eight and loop the other end over the top of the mailbox post and then lower herself down on to the ground
00:53:20
the mailbox is only 38 inches tall at its highest point it is doable but seems very strange it's in and seems like a
00:53:31
very strange specific plan for a distraught woman that is high on meth to see a mailbox and figure out how to hang
00:53:40
herself from it rather than a tree it's also a shoelace so you question the strength of the shoestring itself could
00:53:48
is this even possible to kill myself using this right you do have to question the the strength of it now it wouldn't
00:53:54
be required to support her weight just a portion of it right so there is one major argument against suicide in this
00:54:04
case and that people believe that no woman would commit suicide in such a public place in such a public way by
00:54:13
hanging herself from a roadside mailbox for the whole world to see generally women commit suicide in a private
00:54:21
setting by using pills and alcohol now this is would be just what Jessica's mom said would be more likely for her to if
00:54:31
she chose to commit suicide and even if Jessica were hysterical high and determined to kill herself the property
00:54:38
she was on had lots of trees on it with with accessible branches yeah well you needed a tree
00:54:45
than you normally need rope so maybe shouldn't have access to the rope yeah well unfortunately there is a very
00:54:54
public trend right now of people killing themselves using low-hanging you know tying themselves to doorknobs and things
00:55:02
like that so it's not completely out of the question so if Jessica didn't kill herself then
00:55:09
someone else did the Johnson family is convinced that Jessica was murdered and the Horn Lake authorities are not
00:55:16
interested in finding out the truth in fact the police report filed on July 3rd states specifically and clearly quote
00:55:25
the positioning of Jessica and the method use sparked some concern that maybe there was more to this incident
00:55:33
and that detectives advised they would do a more thorough death investigation but nothing came of this and the family
00:55:41
was permitted to view only three pages of the 7 page police report so a few months after Jessica's death the family
00:55:50
started working with dr. Maurice Godwin a forensics expert who has provided his consulting services in several
00:55:58
high-profile cases dr. Godwin analyzed the evidence in this case and came to the conclusion that
00:56:05
Jessica was murdered and the death scene at the mailbox was staged so let's look
00:56:12
at the evidence that points to possible murder right Jessica was found tied up with shoelaces the shoe the shoes that
00:56:20
the laces apparently came from a pair of brownish gray converse all-stars were found either inside or near the police
00:56:30
report is unclear about this or near the house where Jessica was found hanging we
00:56:35
can only assume that they were hers although Linda says it was almost unheard of for Jessica to wear shoes of
00:56:44
this type so they may not have been Jessica's shoes no one thinks it's very likely that Jessica would have pulled
00:56:50
the laces out of the shoes in the driveway or inside the home and then walk barefoot all the way to the run
00:56:59
outside to kill herself remember we said the house in the mailbox are separated by a few hundred yards
00:57:06
dr. Godwin suggests testing the laces for touch DNA but as we know unfortunately the laces have been lost
00:57:15
or they were destroyed so therefore not testable yeah furthermore Jessica's clothing does she
00:57:22
was wearing that night also destroyed earned any evidence on those clothes or potential evidence is lost forever Linda
00:57:31
Johnson does not recognize the clothes that Jessica is wearing in the death photo as belonging to Jessica she says
00:57:39
Jessica always wore spaghetti strap tank tops in summertime not camo t-shirts and
00:57:44
in fact Jessica was wearing such a tank top when she left Linda's house that Wednesday the clothes Jessica was
00:57:52
wearing when she was found by the mailbox where did they come from who did they belong to and where did Jessica's
00:57:59
real clothes go doctor Godwin pointed to a tiny pin size stain or mark on the sole of one of the sneakers that he says
00:58:08
should be tested for blood but since the shoes were returned to the family clearly this was not done by law
00:58:16
enforcement well the family making the statement before saying that she wouldn't kill herself again I don't put
00:58:22
a ton of weight to something like that because we don't know what other people are struggling with what the struggles
00:58:28
are inside and like you said which is a great point as a lot of times the family
00:58:34
is the last to know how bad a family member is struggling but the fact that they don't recognize her clothes at all
00:58:41
and she lives with them yeah is is something strange there now it could be a simple explanation but I don't know if
00:58:50
we're gonna get it from Jesse or Garland right right and and as you said earlier
00:58:55
the shoelaces being a weird thing to to be used in either a suicide or a murder for that matter right and we both agree
00:59:05
that that it's shoelaces are strange thing to to use here well here's what I wonder though
00:59:11
is to me a shoelace is more likely to be a murder weapon than it is a something that somebody use to commit suicide but
00:59:19
see you know what I go back and forth on that because I almost wonder like I don't know I I just I just feel like I
00:59:27
questioned when and where did the shoelaces come out of the shoes is the whole thing for me right it makes it
00:59:34
actually makes more sense to me that the person intending to use them for suicide
00:59:39
might have removed them from their own shoes that's just the way the way that Eileen
00:59:45
some of the items that were found with her so we have Jessica's purse that was found between her legs the the purse was
00:59:54
open and you can see that it contains a pink charging cord a phone charging cord
01:00:00
her black wallet is near her hand with a cord of some sort over her thumb yeah why would she kill herself with her
01:00:09
hands on her belongings like this it's just it looks much more like someone placed those objects there afterwards
01:00:18
now one thing I want to make sure that we point out here because this is very fishy this is very suspicious
01:00:25
Linda Jessica's mother says that as part of the drug deal that Jessica did that day Jessica would have had over $500 in
01:00:38
her possession or should have had over $500 in her possession only $80 was found in Jessica's wallet right and
01:00:47
that's something that they should look into but we don't know her whereabouts we don't have every detail of where she
01:00:54
went so was were there multiple drug deals that took place did she buy more drugs
01:01:01
did she give the money to somebody else there's a lot of details that were missing yes she she I I think the word
01:01:10
should have that money we don't know if she should have that money or not dr. Godwin noted when the family got
01:01:19
Jessica's purse back the clasp on the side the piece of metal attaching the long purse
01:01:27
strap to the bag was broken as if there was some type of struggle you maybe two people were pulling at the bag in some
01:01:36
kind of fight maybe there was some kind of robbery is is what I'm getting at with there she may have had or should
01:01:43
have had five hundred dollars in her possession well that's what's so frustrating with all these little points
01:01:48
of evidence that point to possibly it not being a suicide a lease warrants an investigation an investigation into what
01:01:59
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