Jesse Ross /// Part 1 /// 128 | Forensic Files

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let's talk some true crime this is true crime garage and this is the case of Jesse Ross
[Music] [Music] each year hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing in the
United States many of them are adults almost all of the cases are quickly cleared
the person is located everything is fine they are safe and all of the prayers have been answered
sometimes this is not the case and sometimes we are left looking the family members and the loved ones
don't stop looking they don't stop asking where why and how this is one of those stories
November 2006 19 year old University of Missouri Kansas City student Jesse Ross is participating in a university field
trip along with 13 other University students and a faculty sponsor drove over 500
miles to Chicago Illinois for a Model United Nations conference this event Drew more than one thousand
college students from all over the country on Monday November 20th Jesse phoned his
mother just to let her know that he was having a blast and really enjoying his time at the model un conference
he promised to call again the next day when he and the other students and their sponsor loaded up the Vans for their
return drive home November 20th was to be the final day of the conference and it was going to be a
busy one Four Points Sheraton Hotel located in downtown Chicago hosted the event
to celebrate the final day there were parties throughout the hotel and a dance for the students after the dance there
was a mock emergency meeting called about 1am by now it's very early Tuesday morning
November 21st around 2 30 a.m this is about 12 hours after Jesse last called his mother he
got up from his chair and walked out of the meeting room for a 30-minute break a surveillance camera in the hotel lobby
caught the image of the red-haired Jesse clad in a white T-shirt jeans and a green warm-up jacket walking toward the
hotel's main doors this was the last Trace ever of 19 year old Jesse Ross the 10-minute walk back to the Sheraton
Chicago hotel and Towers where Jesse and the group was staying was well lit heavily traveled and covered by outdoor
security cameras none of them recorded Jesse Chicago Police have found no evidence
that he was a victim of Foul Play there has been no activity on Jesse's credit cards or his cell phone since he
disappeared into the Chicago night with no explanations with no evidence is it possible 19 year old Jesse Ross
banished Into Thin Air Jesse Ross is a Caucasian man he would have turned 30 years old
earlier this year he is 5 foot 10 inches tall and weighs approximately 140 pounds
he has red or auburn hair color which he kept cut short Jesse has blue eyes and wore glasses he
has freckles Jesse was last seen wearing a white T-shirt green warm-up jacket blue jeans and black tennis shoes if you
have any information or if you have seen Jessie Ross please call the Chicago Police Department
this is true crime garage and this is the case of Jesse Ross [Music] Jesse Warren Ross nicknamed Opie because
of his as his mother says fire engine red hair like the Ron Howard character Opie from the TV show the uh Andy
Griffin show famous Andy Griffin show yes uh Jesse was born on February 18 1987. he grew up in your typical
household you know Mom Dad and a brother as a young dude Jesse loved to play all
kinds of sports he was a big big Kansas City Chiefs fan a big k.u basketball fan
in high school Jesse worked at a movie theater and I thought this was pretty cool I always wanted to work at a movie
theater but Jesse worked with his uh Brother Andy at the movie theater as well Jesse became involved with a local band
called Dead Giveaway he would help the band with many different things some of these things were organizing concerts
and booking gigs for them so more of a manager type thing not a street team member yeah so you and I are used to
this and and you more than than I am but uh you know back in the day you'd have people that would help out your band
they were friends of the band you know they might they might offer to be like a crew member and help carry things and
load Vans or pass out flyers and go to area places and pass out flyers to advertise your concerts but he was
actually involved to the point where he was booking concerts arranging events which you and I know is not an easy
thing to do it can be very time consuming it can be quite chaotic uh to say the least anyway he graduated high
school in 2005 and received an academic scholarship based off of his ACT score After High School Jesse attended UMKC
the University of Missouri Kansas City majoring in Communications with a minor in politics
he skipped that computer course that's so famous here on our show uh you got to make sure you sign up early
couldn't get he probably couldn't get signed up early enough to get a seat in the computer class in 2005 he went to
Chicago uh to the mock U.N convention afterward Jesse became an intern at 95.7 The Vibe a popular Kansas City
radio station they I love the names of these radio stations yeah the vibe does that sound
to you like a top 40 station yeah sounds a little top 40. yeah or maybe uh it's it's geared to the urban community Vibe
the uh they created an on-air personality for Jesse as part of the morning show uh they called him Opie
Cunningham and oddly enough this is going to seem very strange because we all know about The Disappearance but
oddly enough they did a segment called where's Opie and they would send him to different locations to do like a remote
broadcast right and then listeners people would call in and try to guess where he was uh this was a bit of a
regular segment on the show very strange just a short time before his disappearance he did receive a promotion
at the radio station and he was going to become a paid employee or a paid on-air
personality right and we're not very clear on this and I don't know if it matters much but you know there's kind
of a different thing as far as like radio shows go I mean you can get paid hourly or you could get paid per show so
but either way it's a really big deal for them to want you to sit in a room and pay you pretty good money to sit in
a room and have fun and most of us not having worked in that area wouldn't know that but what what they call what the
captain's referring to is you could get paid for like let's say we're gonna pay you 50 bucks if you're on today's show
and then tomorrow you're not on the show so you don't get paid anything and what
they call that is you know show money for the most part and and that can be you know they his parents and his his
loved ones and I can't I'm not going to go against the grain here and say that they're wrong but there's they state
that this is a dream job for for Opie or for Jesse and I and I believe that it was
um but I mean that's what he's majoring in college but when when when we read about this case and look into this case
I don't want anybody to get confused when they hear the loved ones stating dream job and think that that Jesse's
making a hundred thousand dollars a year right and he has no plans of doing anything else this this is certainly a
step in the right direction as far as where he wants his career to go and I tell you what Captain you gotta take
your hat off to Jesse here because that's a pretty young age to achieve that accomplishment well yeah and a lot
of people said a lot of people that work with them said he's very uh quick-witted
and um you know that's something that that's something that you can't just train you know it seemed like he just
had it I mean he was pretty young when he gets his position and I don't want to you know after I
pumped everything up I don't want to piss in anybody's Cheerios here but unfortunately you know he received this
this promotion and unfortunately the promotion was pegged to start in January of 2007.
um well in November of 2006 is when he would take that trip once again to Chicago for this un conference while
backing up just a little bit just so we get a good background before we go into the actual events of that evening he was
pledging a fraternity right yeah just kind of pointing out that he did have a play side to him yeah he's not all
working no play and just a little background as far as his personality goes according to his parents and
brother uh Jesse was was very close with his father and his mother and brother very close with his family uh and they
all describe him to be somebody that was a bit Fearless uh the kind of kid that would try anything that could walk into
any room and wasn't afraid of anything or to talk talk to anybody they also pegged them as a bit of a practical
joker you know he liked to play little pranks on on his uh friends and and loved ones uh these were harmless pranks
of course but uh you know just just fun in nature and they think that that's why
he excelled so well at his job with uh shorty and the boys you said that was the name of the radio show this morning
shorty and the boys Morning Show I'm guessing it comes to shorty and the boys I'm guessing that shorty is the host and
he's surrounded by this cast of characters boys uh and you know they said that's why
with a z why Jesse or as his on-air personality Opie Cunningham excelled at that gig because that's kind of a bit of
a prank in itself or a little bit of hijinks you know you're you're out hiding somewhere or you're broadcasting
from some location other than the radio station and people have to call in and guess where you are yeah the boys so
easy we want to go through The Disappearance um a little more in in depth than before
but before we start to consider the possibilities let's make sure we go through that as best we can so we can
figure out what happened to Jesse here right so what you're saying is we're going to go through the actual events
we're not really going to you know bring up the theories as we're bringing up these events correct but we're all we're
going to point out some things that we find odd with the different events so this is day four of his trip and
remember they had gone he had gone the previous year so he's not strange to the city of Chicago this trip is not strange
to him but at this time Jesse wasn't in Chicago the year before yes it was uh Jesse at this time is a sophomore at the
University he is among 1200 college students from around the country who attended this conference at the Sheraton
Hotel on North Water Street in downtown Chicago he disappeared on the final day of the conference and and by the time
the police were alerted most of the students were on their way back home now Donald Ross this is Jesse's father he
recalls dropping off his son at school before Dawn the day before the day that he left for the conference he recalls
Jesse talking with friends in the parking lot as he drove away and of course now he wishes he would have
stopped for one last goodbye with his son so four days later the day their son was to return home Don Ross got a call
from his son's Professor saying that he couldn't find Jesse now Derek Moorhead was the professor who had called Jesse's
father he was in his first year as a political science professor at UMKC and it was his first time chaperoning the
conference Jesse Ross was one of 14 UMKC students on the trip and Morehead recalls that
during the drive they listened to Jesse's CDs on the way there Jesse had told his Professor that he wanted to
deliver some of these CDs to Chicago radio stations hoping it might lead to some kind of career breakthrough
on their last night in Chicago Moorhead said that Jesse and a friend from school
Ralph Parker attended a dance hosted by the conference organizers and a party in
a hotel room where alcohol was served they got called to a late night meeting at the model un's Security Council
Parker later told Moorhead and police according to reports that Jesse had left the meeting room after 2 A.M probably
closer to 2 30 A.M Parker confirmed that Ross had been drinking but said that he
did not appear to be intoxicated now no hotel security footage showed Ross leaving the hotel though a security
camera had caught him entering the building earlier that evening other students told Moorhead that Jesse could
have left through a staff door that the conference goers had used but out of range of these security cameras while
they had the surveillance of him coming into the conference or to this emergency
meeting but they also have footage of him leaving as well there's a footage of him in that Corridor yeah not actually
leaving the hotel building itself but standing or moving in the direction of the exits right Moorhead said that
Parker told him that he had assumed that Ross had returned to the hotel remember
we said that Ross left this meeting now Parker's a part of this meeting as well he says that Jesse gets up at around 2
30 and leaves the meeting Assuming he's going back to their hotel room Parker shares the room with him Parker didn't
realize that Ross wasn't in bed until the following morning yeah I believe his claim was that there was some stuff on
the bed so he kind of assumed that that was Jesse and he just went to bed now at
First Sight Captain this seems a little strange right um because you're like how does how does
this guy go to Chicago with this other guy share a room hotel room with him and not notice that the guy's not in his bed
when he gets back at the place well I mean again it depends on if he turns on the light or not I think you're
exactly right because the thing here is you you got a couple different kinds of people in this world there's the there's
one kind of person that will share a room with somebody and no matter how late it is how dark it is outside even
if the person is in a dead sleep the person will open up the hotel room door turn on all the lights turn on the TV
use the restroom and then go to bed 10 minutes later disturbing the other person then you have other other people
that are very you know cat-like there and considerate of the person that they're sharing the room with and
they'll come in cats are not considerate of anybody well I meant cat like it as being quiet right you know we're going
to tiptoe around and we're going to go in and we're gonna make sure we don't wake up our friend because he's sleeping
he's perp you know he came back here for a reason and that was to sleep we have to get up and leave in the morning
tomorrow I want to make sure that you know I don't disturb him you know treat him the way I would want to be treated
so I don't find this to be you know crazy uh that he didn't notice that his friend was not in the bed or in the
hotel room that night one I wonder what his level of toxication was intoxication
was so or how dogged tired was he by this point by the time he came back from from this emergency meeting well a
couple things one um so I'm guessing that the dance was a sponsored event yes then my other question would be the were
the hotel parties a sponsored event as well or were they just student based parties I can't say for 100 percent
either way but here's my gut feeling everything that I read sounds like the dance was a planned sponsored event as
far as the hotel room parties that sounds to me like something that the the kids and the college kids created and
came up with on their own it only seems natural you get 1200 college kids from all over the country going to Chicago a
big big city there's going to be Hotel parties whether there's a sponsored dancer or anything at all there's 1200
kids but how many of these kids are 18 and 19 years old and I'm not saying that underage drinking doesn't happen but you
have to have somebody that you know supplies uh the booze or the liquor the thing here is Captain let's talk do
you want to talk about this meeting a little a little bit because at first glance when you scratch the surface here
you're like what are these I understand he's an adult he's 19 years old but what
are these kids doing having a meeting uh who who who organizes this thing where they decided that we're going to have
some kind of meeting at two in the morning yeah well back in the 40s and 50s and 60s maybe you'd say a night 18
19 year old was adult but let's not say that now I mean it's just a different time I mean this is these are still kids
um and they're putting them at a in a meeting so late at night and again where the conferences are where the meetings
are are not actually connected to their hotel room right so we gotta walk about 10 minutes and then this is Chicago
murder capital of the world right yeah I don't know if the world but uh certainly
in the it's in the conversation um so the meeting itself was as it has as it was described to me was
technically they say it's an immediate emergency meeting that was called this was actually a planned event this
was something that the the students that were asked to go this to this thing were
aware of it in advance um most reports will tell you that the meeting started at 2 A.M and then they
took a 30-minute break around 2 30 a.m I don't find that to be accurate um according to Jesse's mother the
meeting started around 1am which would make a little more sense you you shouldn't have a half hour into a
meeting need a half hour break so around 1am this this meeting that's how I run things this meeting that was 30 minutes
work 30 minute coffee break 30 minute work 30 minute coffee break this meeting that was planned uh they're gonna
they're gonna work on whatever project this immediate emergency meeting emergency meeting for a fake U.N meeting
for an hour and a half and then they're gonna have a half hour break and one conversation
yeah but it's weird here too because they keep on talking about this 30 minute break but it seems like everybody
left once they had the break anyways hmm uh there's 30 people 30 students in this
meeting now you know you and I wondered well what time was this meeting going to
be over with what time are you going to send these kids home and back to their hotel rooms
um it could have been we really have no idea but the the only thing I could come
up with because it seems like if you're going to take a 30-minute break that you
have an additional hour and a half of stuff to do once you get back from this break right and so this is on the Monday
and there's a bunch of questions here and there's going to be a bunch of blurry stuff here and one of the reasons
for that is this meeting was to this emergency meeting was taking place basically on that Tuesday right the day
that they're going to leave well they didn't really notice that Opie was missing until
um like 3 P.M 5 p.m something like that and and so by then we got 1200 students most of them
have already left and on their way uh back home back to the year their University so the amount of people that
the Chicago PD could actually question wasn't all that great well let's go through that real fast okay so what the
way that this goes down here is that Parker returns to the hotel room we don't have a time for that but whatever
time he returns to the hotel room he doesn't he assumes that Jesse Ross is in the bed it next to his bed in the hotel
room uh he realizes in the morning that Jesse was not in that bed it was a pile of clothes that must have confused him
um he does report this to Moorhead who is the sponsor he's The Chaperone and at first Moorhead tells Parker you know
maybe Jesse had slept in another student's room hey hey hey hey so the students sharing a room with Jesse
didn't notice he was missing until the following day the roommate had come back to the hotel there was a pile of clothes
on the bed Jesse was sleeping and the roommate simply mistook the pile of clothes to be Jesse in the room as it
was dark when the roommate woke up in the morning in the light of day he you know he knows well here's another thing
too about college campuses and like most of a lot of college students have spent
time in dorms and you and it's a whole different environment the way you have to deal with your roommate you're so
close and and you kind of have to like not really pay attention to what they're doing all the time I mean like they
could have a girlfriend over and you just kind of have to act like you don't notice anything well you got to give
each other a little space you know everybody's trying to live I'm just saying as far as the college mindset if
if these guys have shared dorm rooms before this wouldn't be out of the spectrum that this guy didn't really
notice that he wasn't there the night before so we so we have Morehead thinking that
Jesse may have crashed at another student's room uh we have his roommate Parker he actually believes that there's
a possibility that Jesse got up early that morning and left and went somewhere else
um he has no evidence of this other than again he thinks he saw Jesse sleeping in
the bed the night before one thing that is widely reported is that when Jesse failed to return to the
room that day mind you this is the day that they're leaving to go home that his roommate this guy Parker he packs up
Jesse's suitcase so in most cases according to the roommate it's reported that that he Jesse doesn't
come home the night before he doesn't mention that Jesse's missing and then all of a sudden when it comes time to
leave with the rest of the group he decides that it's in everybody's best interest to just willy-nilly pack up
Jesse Ross's luggage and bring it down to the van and then he informs The Chaperone that Jesse's missing but
Captain we know that that's not the case right I mean yeah the case is that The Chaperone helped him pack it up yeah and
it was the chaperone's decision to pack up Jesse's items uh when it was when it came time to leave I think it's just a
little irresponsible on the reporting angle on it because to me that makes Parker seem like a shady character it
seems it it would make him Prime Suspect for me yeah well I think I think a lot of times when somebody goes missing they
don't a lot of people don't want it to just to be an accident they actually want some kind of weird
you know nefarious thing to be happening so what actually happened was at the request of The Chaperone with the
assistance of The Chaperone the two guys together packed up Jesse's belongings it
was then that Moorhead The Chaperone he alerted the conference organizers that the student was missing uh and he asked
them to ask around to see if any of the students had seen Jessie when they still couldn't find him they
called the hotel security and that's when that's when he knew that things weren't going well The Chaperone said at
4 pm he walked to the nearest police station and he filed a report then he called Donald Ross and he said to him
sir I cannot find your son Let's get right back into this after this quick beer break
foreign [Music] we're back cheers mates cheers Captain so we have The Chaperone who has
reported Jesse Ross as missing to the police by that time Moorhead has sent the rest of the students home but he
decided to stay behind to assist the police he's getting increasingly worried by this time and he remembers walking
the streets around the hotel checking the dumpsters and the alleys looking for Jesse
now he's already notified the parents uh but bad weather they receive some bad weather it was cold I mean it's November
it's Chicago um they received some bad weather that delayed the Ross's arrival into Chicago
but eventually they came to meet with the police and they spent the first of several visits hanging posters and
circulating Flyers looking for their son I want to get to a couple of of things a
little bit down the road to give you a bigger picture of everything before we get into some of the possibilities of
what could have happened to Jesse or where Jesse could be um sadly enough the roommate the the the
man the college student that shared a room with Jesse Ross on that trip in 2006 uh Ralph Parker he died a few years
afterwards uh this would be in a car accident several years after Jesse's disappearance uh The Chaperone
um the the sponsor Moorhead he took a job teaching at another Missouri University
he reluctantly agreed to help with the school's model U.N Club he did not want to attend any of the conferences it was
my understanding that his agreement that he had made uh with with this other university was that he would participate
in this un Club but he would not not go or attend or chaperone the conferences there was a situation that at a last
minute situation where chaperone had a family emergency and Morehead had to step in against his best wishes
on the second day on the second day of this trip where Moorhead had to step in he got a phone call that one of his
students was missing and he states that all he could do once he received this phone call all he could
do was go to the bathroom and and throw up I mean he was he was that distraught over what had happened with the Jesse
situation I mean this guy he's being put through the ringer here the student was
later found that morning the rest of the conference went on without an incident but Moore had decided that he could
never ever do that again and he would eventually leave college level teaching altogether Moorhead also said that he is
extremely uneasy uh with his own children and any time that his children are somewhere without him and he
struggles to let his daughter go away on trips and she is scheduled to be going away uh I'm sorry when she was getting
ready to go to college herself this was something that he had a lot of issues and a lot of things to work through
right it was a traumatic experience for him at first Captain the police speculated
that Jesse who had been reportedly drinking um might had fallen into the Chicago
River near the hotel now at the Rosses aren't convinced of this their theory is that Jesse left the
meeting and he might have wanted to walk back to the other hotel where he was staying this would have taken him in the
opposite direction of the river they believed that on his way back to his hotel that he could have met with foul
play on the way now the timing and the circumstances of this of Jessie Ross's disappearance proved to be challenging
from the start for the for sergeant Rizzo who was the person responding to the call and the detectives who worked
for him r-i-z-z-o that's right the report came in two days before Thanksgiving and
potential Witnesses at the hotel had already gone home there was no crime scene to work with is what Rizzo States
so let's touch on that for a little bit here Captain you would touch on this earlier where you stated you know the
the police show up on this situation you have a thousand to twelve hundred kids coming in from all over the country
and now you have you have police showing up to take statements to take reports to
look over the scene and all these people have gone home by this time right and very far parts of the country yeah it's
not like they're just they're down the street or in a neighboring suburb these are people that I mean Jesse and his
group traveled over 500 miles to get there we have students coming in from all over the country
how is he supposed to to meet with these people how are they supposed to interview these people well
there's this thing called a phone and start with well obviously he would get a manifest from both from all the hotels
in the area and start to talk to these people but the thing that I've often wondered about Jesse's case when you
have people coming in from all over the country is there's probably a decent possibility that there were people on
that trip and it was a significant amount of time that would pass before they would even know that somebody that
had attended the same conference as they had had disappeared right because they a
lot of them left before it was even announced so I mean the fact that they're not even you know calling the
police till you know the PM most of these students are leaving in the AM yeah well and the other thing too like
Rizzo says there's no crime scene really to work with you know they don't know yeah it's not like they found the giant
puddle of blood on the way back to the hotel and as far as tracking down surveillance footage of this guy he's
last seen in the hotel as we said moving in the direction of the hotel exits yet
they don't even know they can't confirm that that's the last sighting of him you
know they can't confirm where he went from from that time well and the statements made is that if
he was returning from the conference or this emergency meeting to his hotel room
that it was well lit it would have been about a 10 minute walk and that there was surveillance cameras all along this
path now there would also be surveillance cameras in his hotel room and I don't see any evidence that they
collected either one of those yeah they state that there was no trace of him along the way back to his hotel or
arriving at his hotel right but that's that's something that you can also make a claim that uh yeah we didn't see him
on any of this stuff that we didn't collect to my recollection there is no surveillance footage out there of of
this night after 2 30. so you know collect collect it and have it be played so people can see it but I don't think
they collected it that's a good question there Captain the other thing here the other hurdle that
you have to work with is Jessie's technically an adult you know and we all know that this can be a problem for the
investigation because an adult can willingly want to go missing can want to pick up roots and not move elsewhere and
start elsewhere um Rizzo did State Sergeant Rizzo did state that even though Jesse was
technically an adult uh the case was being treated as a high priority case because the young man was from out of
town and possibly because he's from a university and it's this big conference the UN conference which you claimed that
they had it the year before in Chicago but you also claim that Jesse would have been familiar with Chicago just because
he was at the UN conference before I'd claim that he was only familiar with you know whatever conference room he was
in well it wasn't like he was you know hey let's go to Chicago and and we're here for the UN meeting this fake U.N
meeting and then you know that they do a ton of shopping or whatever I'm sure they allow him a little bit of time to
experience Chicago but uh you know not when you're having emergency meetings at you know 1am I didn't mean to imply that
he was a man of the town you know that he knew the ins and outs of Chicago he knew the good areas and the bad areas I
just wanted to point out that it was not a strange trip to him he had attended the same event the year before it's a
four day trip four night trip what can you learn about a city in four nights and as you stated very busy it's they
probably keep them pretty occupied while they're there I actually questioned their judgment on having an emergency
meeting so late especially when the conference rooms aren't connected to the hotel rooms one thing that I questioned
here Captain was was Sergeant Rizzo's statements now I do want to point out that Rizzo has been he's since retired
and he's he stated that this is one of the cases that he can't let go of this one bothers him this really bothers him
that a college student came to his City and was unable to return home to his family yeah but does that bother him or
is that just what he's telling the public um this one's this one bothers me guys
well I can't I can't polygraph the guy all I can do is go off of what he is telling the public but one thing that
that you know I I'm I'm a blue blood guy and I back up his statement about it's very difficult to walk into a situation
where you have no witnesses that you can you can speak with immediately you can't
even speak to Parker who shared a room with him when you arrive at the scene all you have is this chaperone and
whoever happens to be still hanging around after this U.N cons conference breaks up
um so I have his back on that statement I find it a little strange though that he says that you know the report came
into two days before Thanksgiving well deal with it you know like I'm sorry the you know these crimes and people bad
things happen to good people regardless of what's on the calendar um I don't I would like to know what he
meant by that does that mean that there's a lot of people coming into the city or a lot of people leaving the city
maybe it had nothing to do with the holiday maybe it was more about the travel that that circulates around the
holiday um maybe I would have liked him to elaborate on that because it sounds like
a bit of a a lazy answer um the police did receive hundreds of tips but everything turned up empty
according to Sergeant Rizzo the Kansas City Police they did help track down and interview some of Ross's fellow students
Rizzo says investigators gave it their all and there is just nothing there there's nothing to go on not a
surveillance camera image nor Witnesses who might have seen Ross so with no surveillance camera image of him or no
eyewitnesses seeing him I guess it's up to us Captain to prove you know is this something that's useful to the case to
determine what happened to Jesse Ross or is it something that is you know just leading to more questions the case
itself it has received some national attention over the years it was featured on both the Nancy Grace show and
America's Most Wanted um both shop mom yeah both shortly after Jesse Ross had disappeared well there's
not a lot of information about this case so you have to kind of dig deep and then
the rest become speculation so again if you don't like speculation probably at this point you might want to turn off
the show you know run from the garage run for your lives I'm I'm I got a whole can of gasoline and speculation I'm
lighting this [ __ ] on fire all right all right so um as we said the case has received some
national attention and that has brought a along with it a lot of people looking into this case and a lot of people
coming up with their own theories about what has happened to Jesse Ross and why we can't find him Captain should we list
out those theories before we dive into each one of them sure so the theories are this
um these are the possibilities are suicide or that Jesse simply walked away to start a new life somewhere
the police theory that we had talked about was that Jesse had fallen into the river
the parents theory was that possibly he had attempted to return to his hotel and
was met with Foul Play there's also some talk that he may have that wanted to go
elsewhere that maybe he wanted to go downtown Chicago for some reason but this would have resulted in Foul Play as
well um there's the possibility that there was a hotel room incident or accident and this
would be at the hotel room that the hotel that was hosting the conference itself not where he was staying and then
there's always the question and always the thought of possible Foul Play from someone in the group that he was
traveling with or someone in this model U.N group conference uh someone attending from another city or state all
right so the first theory that you brought up was suicide so maybe we should start there well
with this Theory so that he would have gone on this trip with with a group of friends or college you know uh people
that appears and decided to commit suicide while on the trip just feels wrong right Captain it feels
wrong we have the parents stating that a lot of suicides are not planned so we have it's not like you have to plan it
out three days in advance so it's still a possibility of course it's a possibility everything's a possibility
at this point we have no idea what happened to the poor young man uh his parents stating that you know he had
just received a promotion something that they believed he was eager about something that he was working hard
toward um this seems to be a a good thing right Captain it also seems to be a good thing that he was on
this trip he's attending for the second time um probably something that he enjoyed
doing he's a young man in college he's got his whole life ahead of him and I know in the grand scheme of things that
doesn't mean anything right I mean because I mean that this is a tough situation anyways because I mean look at
like the singer of Linkin Park I mean one of the things that they keep bringing up is the fact that he bought
the house that he you know he he hung himself in his house and he bought his house that he hung himself in two months
earlier and it's supposed to be this family home and it's away from everything and so this is some kind of
evidence of somebody making plans for his life and making plans for the future um but this is not how normal suicides
work anyways I mean again like I said there's not a lot of planning so I think you have to look at what was happening
uh before with Jesse if there was any signs I mean one of the things that I thought was really interesting when I
was actually talking to a cop about this he said that you know one of the weirdest things he finds is a lot of the
suicides that like they you know have to investigate they find out that the the male victims
um will have their hair cut that day so you know kind of showing a sign that some of this is just a split second
decision um so but in this case I don't think Jesse whether or not he's getting a
promotion whether or not he's doing good in school I don't think he had much of a
sign of of any depression or at least talking about this with his family or friends and I know a lot of people with
depression that never bring this up to their family members at all but again there's no evidence of this beforehand
well on the flip side of that coin uh you know it's it's often been stated with people that commit suicide that
it's not uncommon to see women do their hair in a special way put on a nice outfit do their makeup
um and maybe with the men thing getting their hair cut that day that it is on the flip side could be a sign of some
form of planning because you know they say that that ladies tend to want to make sure that they are looked that they
look a certain way after they pass that that when they're discovered that they're remembered uh with a certain
image right um the thing with the the suicide though Captain here is where is he you would you would think
the the and you know you would think that you would find him you would find his body right you know with no worries
hat right I mean these two episodes but no it's it's the weirdest thing as far as like missing person reports you know
anytime people want to speculate you have to bring up the possibility of suicide but
um it never makes any sense to me because you like you said you'd find the body yeah I mean somebody doesn't die
and then go bury themselves you know you unless you jumped off a bridge into the
river right right which and that's and that is a real possibility it's a possibility it's uh because I mean
because we're talking about this this river which goes uh through the city and then shoots back out into Lake Michigan
I mean this would have been cold I mean the temperature that night was anywhere from like 29 degrees to 44 degrees
roughly 7 to 13 Mile uh miles an hour um wind so this guy jumping into water and that's
but again his family look a lot of times too I mean you know family and friends will
say well I didn't see this coming but uh again I don't know if something snapped I
wonder how much he was drinking but again there it doesn't seem like there's a bunch of evidence the point that he
had much in the way of of any type of depression it seems like he had a more of a positive demeanor but he was also
funny and sometimes you find with comedians that they're masking that they're masking their depression hiding
that from people by using their you know comedy chops and as you've said and pointed out many many times depression
is not something that's easily spotted um my gut tells me no and and and you know you said you mentioned the river so
I will say outside of the possibility of of jumping in the river then I think with the suicide my biggest question
would be where is he we would have found him I Believe by this point if that is what in fact happened Yeah so basically
on that there I think both of our guts are saying hey this is uh probably most not most likely yeah if you were to
create a scale of of likely to most unlikely I would put that more towards the unlikely side probably on the very
far end of the unlikely side so Captain we also have the possibility that Jesse Ross walked away that he
maybe wanted to start a new life for himself this always comes up in these type of cases when when we have no
evidence of somebody or where they are or what happened to him where they went um you know do you see anything here
that that points toward he may have wanted to walk away or start a new life well no I mean because one he's involved
with the radio station he's gone to college the other thing he's on this trip um you know for this Mock You in thing
this is somebody that's making steps in their life to you know he's trying to create a good life and to just go I'm
just gonna walk away he does seem pretty career oriented with long-term goals and
setting things up in the right steps and putting everything into it place to get
him to to the point where he can reach some of those goals and as you said earlier there's a short-term goal he was
pledging for a fraternity you know this sounds like something giving his personality a very outgoing person a
person that was described as Fearless somebody a bit of a prankster um is social yeah it seems Seems like
something he would really be uh looking forward to um there was a couple of things that
that I did find a little strange that that I wanted to dive into regarding the possibility did he walk away well one
thing that his mother had talked about about his personality and about some of his hopes and wishes was he did mention
to his mother and to his father from time to time that he was hoping to uh that there would be something that would
take him out of Kansas City that something that would you know some big reason for him to move at some point
um right but you go to the U.N trip you fall in love with Chicago and you come back home and you go hey parents I'm
moving to Chicago well and the other thing here is we have the situation with the CDs you know we have The Chaperone
saying well he created these mixes and these CDs for us to listen to on our way to the trip and he was he said that he
was hoping if he had enough time during this trip that he would go to some Chicago radio stations and give them
some of uh his work that he had done maybe it could lead to some kind of breakthrough in his career but like you
said Captain that's your motive to go downtown but that's not your motive to walk away from your life right exactly
that you it would be strange for someone to go missing to want to start a career
in a new life in the city that they went missing from I understand that Chicago is a big city but however like you said
that's when you call Mom and Dad or you go back home and you tie up loose ends and you say Mom Dad I did it I I got
that I got this cool job in Chicago and I'm really looking forward to taking it um so I I think the thing here is you
know the the famous thing wanting something to take him from the city he's close to his parents he's obviously
close to his brother this doesn't seem to me like this seems like things that he would want to share with his family
he called his mother on his own yeah that's that's a sign of something I I couldn't tell you the last time I called
my mother well and I think I think he called her you know daily while the while he was there just checked that's
going a little too far no but just checking in saying hey Mom yeah yeah this trip is awesome
um and maybe he's checking in more for them than himself you know I mean one of those things where it's like ah she's
gonna be a little worried um so because it's not very clear if he lives on campus or not right and I'm
assuming that he didn't and the reason why I'm assuming that is because you would think that um with him going
missing that they would have looked into his dorm room and possibly you know look
for Clues there yeah and and I don't know his driving situation but his father dropped him off so that he could
go on this trip I don't know if he was still living at home yeah but that makes sense because you don't want your car to
sit in a parking lot exactly over the weekend but I'm I'm with you Captain I think walked away makes about as much
sense to me as the suicide thing right I think you could put those both at the highly unlikely end of the spectrum and
as far as every report that I've read there's no activity on his cell phone no activity on his credit cards or bank
cards since his disappearance you're exactly right now one thing I want to throw out there Captain there is an
interview with his father where his father's stating you know you know Jesse he's kind of speaking to his son and
saying Jesse if there was something out there that you wanted to try something you wanted to pursue that you wanted to
go off elsewhere and and live out some kind of different life um we're totally on board with that you
know we whatever you want to do do we just want to make sure that you're safe and you're happy and you're healthy and
we would accept you no matter what you wanted to try whatever you wanted to to do with your life just please let us
know that you're okay now I don't think that that should point to the high probability that he decided to walk away
I don't think that points to parents believing that he was of that type I think it's just desperation on the
behalf of the parents after years of having their son lost with no answers they're you start grasping at straws at
something yeah I mean basically if it gets brought up multiple times in conversation you go hey look let's put
this out to the universe and if we did do something wrong that we're not aware of uh let's bring it to you know his
attention you know maybe they that's when you start questioning yourself as a parent you know maybe was I too strict
you know were we pushing him too hard was there a bunch of pressure on him that we we weren't aware of uh so I
think they just did it you know you know just in case yeah I think so all right Captain we are almost at an hour here
we're running out of time today I think that let's talk about the more likely possibilities of what could have
happened to Young Jesse Ross on a part two episode [Music] so until then check us out on Instagram
Facebook or Twitter at True Crime garage and don't forget you can check us out on
untapped as well cheers to you Colonel and to everybody out there all over the world be good be kind and don't litter
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Jesse Ross /// Part 1 /// 128

Part 1 of 2

TrueCrimeGarage.com

Each year hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing. Many of them are adults. Almost all of the cases are quickly cleared. The person is located. Sometimes this is not the case and we are left looking. The family of the missing never stops looking. This is one of those stories. November 2006, 19 year college student Jesse Ross has traveled to Chicago. He went there with fourteen other people from his school. They returned home without him. What happened to him? Where is he? Tonight we discuss the troubling disappearance of Jesse Ross.

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Brief Summary

Jesse Ross, a college student, vanished in Chicago during a conference in 2006, leaving behind unanswered questions and theories about his fate.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jesse Ross. 19-year-old Jesse Ross vanished after a Model UN conference in Chicago, leaving behind no trace.
Jesse's Background. Jesse was a bright student with a passion for radio and sports, known for his humor.
Emergency Meeting Confusion. The timing and nature of the emergency meeting raises questions about Jesse's disappearance.
Roommate's Oversight. Jesse's roommate mistook a pile of clothes for him, leading to confusion about his whereabouts.
Police Theories. Multiple theories emerge regarding Jesse's fate, including foul play and suicide.
Chaperone's Distress. The Chaperone, Moorhead, is deeply affected by Jesse's disappearance, feeling responsible.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Sometimes we are left looking, the family members and the loved ones don't stop looking.

Discussion on missing persons

14:20WatchDec 4, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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