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

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[Music] [Applause] details [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime this is true crime garage and this is the case of Jesse
[Music] [Music] Ross 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 he 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 1,000 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 the fourpoint Sheron 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 1:00 a.m. 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 redhaired 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 Sheron 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 EV
idence 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' 10 in tall and weighs approximately 140 lb he has red or
Alburn 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 Jesse Ross please call the Chicago Police Department this is true crime
garage and this is the case of Jesse [Music] Ross Jesse Warren Ross nicknamed Opie because
of his as his mother says fire engine red hair uh 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 18th
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 uh KU basketball fan uh 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 is 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 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
University of Missouri Kansas City majoring in Communications with a minor in politics uh he skipped that computer
course that's so famous here on our show uh and you gotta gotta make sure you sign up early
he probably 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 un convention MH afterward uh 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 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 onair 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 mhm 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 onair 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 mhm 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 going to 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 uh 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 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 on stating dream job
and think that that Jesse's making $100,000 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 got to 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 worked with him 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 this position and I don't want to you know after I pumped
everything up I don't want to piss 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 well backing up just a little bit just so we
get a good background before we go into the actual events of that evening m he was pledging of fraternity right correct
yeah just kind of pointing out that he uh did have a play side to him yeah he's not all work and 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 room and
wasn't afraid of anything or to talk to anybody uh they also pegged him 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 the shorty and the boys you said that was the name of the radio show Morning Show shorty and the
boys Morning Show I'm guessing welcome to shorty and the boys I'm guessing that shorty is the host and he's surrounded
by this cast of characters boys of boys uh and you know they said that's why with a z why Jesse or as his onair
personality Opie Cunningham excelled at that gig because that's kind of a bit of
a prank in itself or a little bit of Hy Jinks 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 Z we
want to go through the appearance um a little more in depth than before um but before we start uh to consider the
possibilities let's make sure we go through that as 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 is was it in Chicago the year before yes it was uh
Jesse at this time is a sophomore at the University he is among 1,200 college students from around the country who
attended this conference at the Sheron Hotel on North Water Street in downtown Chicago M he disappeared on the final
day of the conference 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 4 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 Morhead
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 Morehead 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
Morehead and police according to reports that Jesse had left the meeting room after 2 a.m. probably closer to 230 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 Morehead that Jesse could have left through a
staff door the conference goers had used but out of range of these security cameras well they had the surveillance
of him coming into the conference or or to this emergency meeting but they also have footage of him leaving as well
there's footage of him in that Corridor yeah that not actually leaving the hotel
building itself but standing or moving in the direction of the exits right uh Morehead 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 he his claim was that there was some stuff on the bed mhm
so he kind of assumes 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 M 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 people that are very you know cat-like they're 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 as
being quiet you know we're going to tiptoe around and we're going to go in and we're going to make sure we don't
wake up our friend because he's sleeping he's per 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 that he didn't notice that his friend was not in the bed or in the
hotel room that night well and I wonder what his level of intoxication was intoxication was so or 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 uh parties I can't say for 100% either way but
here's my gut feeling everything that I read sounds like the dance was a planned
sponsored event MH 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
1,200 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 dance or or anything at all and there's 1,200 kids but how many of these kids are 18 and 19
years old MH 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 mhm um 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 2 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 got to walk about 10 minutes mhm and then this is Chicago murder capital of the world
right yeah uh 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 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 1:00 a.m. which would make a little more
sense you you shouldn't have a half hour into a meeting need a half hour break um
so around 1:00 a.m. this this meeting well 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 going to they're
going to work on whatever project this a me emergency meeting emergency meeting for a fake un meeting for an hour and a
half and then they're going to have a half hour break and one conversation they're 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 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 were you going to send these kids home and back to their hotel rooms um it could have
been we we really have no idea but the 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 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 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 uh like 3:00 p.m. 5 5:00 p.m. something like that and and so by then we got 1,200 students most of them have
already left and on their way um back home back to the their University so the amount of people that the uh 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 next to his bed
in the hotel room uh he realizes in the morning that Jesse was not in that bed it it was a pile of clothes that must
have confused him um he does report this to Morehead who is the sponsor he's The
Chaperone and at first Morehead tells Parker you know maybe Jesse had slept in another students room 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 the other
thing too about college campuses and like most of a lot of college students have spent time in forms 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 mhm 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 if these guys have shared dorm rooms before this wouldn't be out of the spectrum that this guy didn't really
noticed 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 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 informed forms 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 chaperon helped him pack it up yeah and
it was the chapon'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 they actually want some
kind of weird NE you know nefarious thing to be happening MH so what actually happened was at at the request
of the chaperon with the assistance of the chaperon the two guys together packed up Jesse's belongings it was then
that Morhead 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 Jesse 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 chaperon said at 400 p.m. 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 [Music] break this show is sponsored by better
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cheers Captain so we have the chaperon who has reported Jesse Ross as missing to the police by that time more head 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 they received 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 in
circulating Flyers looking for their son I want to get to a couple of 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 mhm um sadly enough uh 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 um several years after Jesse's disappearance uh The Chaperone um the the sponsor Morehead he took a
job teaching at another Missouri University um he reluctantly agreed to help with the school's model un club uh
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 go or attend or chaperone the
conferences um there was a situation that at a last minute situation where a chaperon had a family emergency and
Morhead had to step in against his best wishes on the second day day on the second day of this trip where Morhead
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 um the student was later found that morning um the rest of the conference went on without an
incident uh but more had decided that he could never ever do that again and he would eventually leave college level
teaching all together uh Morehead also said that he is extremely uneasy uh with his own children and anytime that his
children are somewhere without him and he struggles to let his daughter go away uh 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 uh might had fallen into the Chicago River near the
hotel now 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 believe 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 Jesse ross' 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 Zoo that's right uh the report came in two days before Thanksgiving um and potential Witnesses
at the hotel had already gone home uh 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 had touched on this earlier where you stated you know the police show up on this
situation you have a, to 1200 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 in
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 you could start with that 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 it 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 mhm 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 rzo 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 MH 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 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 Jesse'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 routes and elere 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
um conference the UN conference which you claimed that they had it the year before in Chicago uh 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 un meeting and then you know that they do a ton of shopping
or whatever I'm sure they allow them a little bit of time to experience Chicago but uh you know not when you're having
emergency meetings at you know 1:00 a.m. 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 4-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 question 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 rizo'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 it bother him or is that just what
he's telling the public um know 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 um 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 un con 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 in two days before Thanksgiving well deal with it you know
like I'm sorry that 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 um
but everything turned up empty according to Sergeant rzo the Kansas City Police they did help track down and interview
some of Ross's fellow students uh 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 top mom yeah both shortly after Jesse Ro 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 becomes speculation so again if you don't like
speculation probably at this point you might want to turn off the show you 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 along with it a lot 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 um the police theory that we had talked about was that
Jesse had fallen into the river um the parents theory was that possibly he had attempted to return to his hotel
uh and was met with Foul Play there's also some talk that he may have wanted to go elsewhere um 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 um 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 un 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 mhm well with this Theory so that he would have gone on this trip with with a
group of friends or college you know people that and decided to commit suicide while on the
trip it 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 3 days in advance so it's 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 yeah I mean that this is a tough sit situation anyways because I mean look at
like the singer of Lincoln 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 MH 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 um investigate they find out that the the male victims um will have their
haircut 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 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 a nice outfit do their makeup um and maybe with the men thing getting their haircut 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 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 that that and you know you would think that you would find him you would find
his body you know if we knew where he's at have 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 it never makes any sense to me because like you said you'd find the body yeah I mean somebody doesn't die
and then go bury themselves you know you unless he jumped off a bridge into the river right right which and and that's
and that is a real possibility it's it's a possibility it's a because I mean cuz
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° to 44° roughly 7 to 13 M
uh miles an hour um wind so this guy jumping into water that's but again his his 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 it doesn't seem like there's a
bunch of evidence to 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 um 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 the 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 likely to most unlikely I would put that more more
towards the unlikely side probably on the very far end of the unlikely side mhm uh so Captain we also have the
possibility that Jesse Ross walked away that he maybe wanted to start a new life
for himself uh 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 them 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 going 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 going to walk away mhm he does seem pretty career oriented with long-term goals and setting things up in
the right steps and putting everything into its 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 and this sounds like
something giving his personality a very outgoing person a person that was described as Fearless uh somebody a bit
of a prankster um he social yeah it seems Seems like something he would really be uh looking forward to um there
was a couple things that that I did find a little strange that that I wanted to dive into regarding uh 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 that
there would be something that would take him out of Kansas City that that something that would you know some big
reason for him to move at some point uh right but you go to the UN 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 chaperon 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 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 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 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 that's going a little too far no but
just checking in saying hey Mom this trip is awesome um and maybe he's checking in more for them than than
himself you know what I mean one of those things where it's like ah she's going to be a little worried um so cuz
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 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 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 and live out some kind of different life um we're totally on
board with that you know we whatever you want to 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 uh 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 uh lost
with no answers they're you start grasping at straws as 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 [Music] episode so until then check us out on Instagram Facebook or Twitter @ 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 [Music] [Applause] litter [Music]
hey Brad you know a nationwide is more than an insurance company yeah they're one of America's largest financial
services companies we get that in a song like business life retirement or Nationwide there to protect I'm kind of
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Ohio

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 19-year-old student, disappeared in Chicago during a conference in 2006, with no evidence of foul play or his whereabouts found.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jesse Ross. 19-year-old Jesse Ross vanished after a Model UN conference in Chicago.
Jesse's Last Night. Jesse attended a dance and left a meeting at 2:30 a.m., never to return.
A Family's Heartbreak. Jesse's father recalls their last moments together before his disappearance.
Late Night Meeting. A planned meeting at 2 a.m. raises eyebrows about the students' safety.
Jesse's Roommate Confusion. Jesse's roommate mistakes a pile of clothes for him, leading to a delay in reporting his absence.
Chaperone's Distress. The chaperone, Morehead, is distraught after learning about Jesse's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Sometimes we are left looking.

Reflection on missing persons cases.

4:56WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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