Jesse Ross /// Part 2 /// 129 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] thank you [Applause] foreign [Applause] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
likes his reuben sandwich just like Matthew McConaughey on Ryan here is the captain thank you thank you
thank you it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
this evening we are drinking Mo guava By the Fantastic people at Paradise Brewing
Company in Clearwater Florida garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of five and how could it not get four and a
half bottle caps I love ipas I love guava so a win-win Mo guava is an IPA perfect for summertime brewed with
mosaic hops it's hoppy it's tropical it's sweet you know what they say captain Mo Money moguana
I don't think that's what they say ammo guava is brought To Us by Yvonne from Fort Atkinson Wisconsin that's Badger
country oh and here's another Badger we have Cynthia from jansville Wisconsin do
you feel that Captain that's the Wisconsin love well I guess they're big tens so uh Go Big Ten and go Bucks next
up we have a shout out from Mark and Aberdeen UK and a big shout out from Lance from Texas I wonder if that's
Lance Harbor the old Coyote football team next up we have a note here that says keep up the drinking and
storytelling from Heather in sunny California and last but not least we give a shout out to Justin down in
Marietta Georgia so thanks to everybody for buying us around for this week's show and if you want to pitch in for
next week's show go to True Crime garage.com and click on the Donate button and everybody please be patient
we're a little behind on the beer fun shout outs but if you'd like to support this show go to iTunes and read us a
five-star review it really does help the show alright that's enough of the business everybody gather round grab a
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime thank you [Music] in November of 2006 19 year old
University of Missouri Kansas City student Jesse Ross was participating in a university field trip he along with 13
other University students in a faculty sponsor drove over 500 miles to Chicago Illinois this is for a Model United
Nations conference this event Drew over a thousand college students from all over the country now around 2 30 a.m
this would be early Tuesday morning on November 21st this is about 12 hours after Jesse last called his mother he
got up from his chair he was at this emergency meeting that they were doing for this un conference and he got up
from his chair and he walked out of the meeting room for about a 30 minute break
the surveillance camera in the hotel lobby caught His image of of Jesse in the area of the exits of the building
and this was the last Trace ever of 19 year old Jesse Ross last part we talked about did he commit suicide or possibly
did he try to walk away from his life and start a new life yeah and we both agreed we didn't like
either of these as being high probability uh for what could have happened to Jesse so continuing on the
path here let's get into what others have considered more likely scenarios the first one we want to get into is the
possibility that Jesse could have fallen into the river well this would have been
the Chicago River um and this as the captain had said yesterday the river empties into Lake
Michigan and this is this is late November it's icy it's cold you know the police say that this is what they find
to be the most likely scenario we have his parents saying we disagree with that we think he would have head
back to his own hotel which would have actually taken him in the opposite direction of this River well there's a
scenic route but behind the hotel where this U.N conference was taking place they're scheduled for this 30-minute
break he's seen heading towards the exits what do you what are your feelings here Captain regarding falling into the
river well I think we have to take a look at this surveillance footage and I can't find
it online as as far as that goes I mean I can I have a picture and then we have the description now there's two
description and and I think this is coming from fine uh help find jessie.com uh do you know what that website is off
the top of your head um it's the one that parents uh is it fine that's what it is so what they claim is
that the surveillance picked up the fact that he had a white T-shirt on jeans had
a green warm-up jacket uh and he was walking towards the main door the thing that I thought was interesting here was
that he they also claimed that he had a gatorade bottle now so gatorade bottle not so weird
right and you're going to a meeting but this is also after we know that we have eyewitnesses that saw him drinking so my
question would be what is in that gatorade bottle and if that was let's say a mixed drink
I mean especially when you're 18 19 years old uh you drink some kind of silly stuff
here I'm gonna laugh captain and I don't mean to get you off track we'll go right
back to you here drinking some silly stuff you know one drink that I like this is going to be considered one of
those 18 19 year old drinks I like to I get some vodka you turned me onto the Tito's vodka yeah Tito's is good very
good vodka I get some of that and I do about a half and half job with that very light the diet Gatorade you know I like
the purple the purple kind I drink some of that it's very funny looking people usually make fun of me when they see me
having a little glass of that but I like drinking it because I get I get that vodka feeling that I love without the
hangover in the morning because I'm hydrating with the Gatorade at the same time but what you're saying here he
likes to call that drink purple drink he could have come up with he could have made some kind of concoction and put it
in this Gatorade bottle and carried it around with him for the remainder of the evening like you said he's in these
parties but this quote unquote emergency meeting was actually a scheduled emergency meeting
um so he knew he was going to be attending this did he did he create some kind of drink for himself some purple
drink like the Nick likes and and bring it to the emergency meeting with him to to sip on uh as the night grew longer
and longer yeah and I'd I would also claim that I probably puked more from a 16 to 20 then I have 20 to 30.
yeah yeah I mean so oh well maybe maybe not 20 to 30. but definitely from uh 30 to where I'm at now but so that would be
my question was he continuing drinking and if he was you know why would he leave now I've heard some speculation
you know some people uh smoke when they drink I I don't think there was any evidence of him being a smoker so I'm
just going to kind of rule that out so then why would you want to go outside uh that that's the big question here why is
he leaving this area now was it to go back to his room or was he looking for a bathroom or
because look that's a big thing with guys more so than with females is I mean we we pee anywhere
no so sometimes you know you're at a party and you're going man there's people in the bathroom and then you just
take off and go around the side of the house right write your name uh I normally like to write Nick's name
because then if I'm if they if they see the P you know it's plus it's a lot easier to write than than the captain
but uh was he going out to pee you know to take a pee or was he gonna get sick and sometimes when you go to get sick
you're looking for a bathroom but if you can't find one if you can get outside that's better than puking in the hotel
lobby and you touched upon something that we have talked about before on the show because we covered some other
disappearance drinking we've yeah we've covered the Joey Le Butte disappearance uh he was ultimately found in the river
we cut we covered Brian Shaffer and that always brings up the thought of this uh
what is it the happy face or smiley face killer that's going all over the country
and and killing these young college men and their bodies are are ultimately found in the river eventually and and we
mentioned on those shows when we've brought when we brought that up that we find it more likely that the person that
had fallen into the river was probably an intoxicated young male that had hit his limit way earlier in the night and
decided to urinate alongside the river or in the river and inadvertently fell in and met their demise that way well
but yeah the tough thing about the smiley face killer theory is I'm probably one of the only uh True Crime
dorks out there that is you know kind of likes this Theory not in this case but the the theory overall and what I've
I've stated and the funny thing was I brought up at crime con when I was talking to Devin from uh thinking
sideways you know I brought it up and she said smiley face killer and she started laughing because a lot of people
find this Theory to be laughable now I I feel like they they made stake in their
Theory these and for people that don't know the theory it's this simple these retire these retired detectives were
studying some cases they found that there was some graffiti by the bridges or alongside the riversides that these
bodies were found and it was a smiley face now smiley face is probably the most common graffiti and all of mankind
right along with some words that you say right but you're a prune on the show so but
the thing is is uh so if you if you ixnay the graffiti right from the smiley face killer I don't think it's it's that
far-fetched to think that there is a killer or possible a ring of killers that are that are rounding up these
individuals and not necessarily to just be found in in a body of water there's a
lot um you know Jesse Ross is one of them uh College age student that went missing
and has never been seen again and has been seen you know last seen drinking or partying with people now now Jesse
wasn't last seen drinking with people he was at an emergency meeting but if there
was an emergency meeting Jesse would have been last seen drinking with people right and the thing is this is the
Chicago police's Theory and that what they say is that you know it's you know people don't fall into this River every
day but they're stating that it does it's more common than one would think yeah and but if you want to Google it uh
the what was interesting to me is a lot of times when one person fall Falls in that multiple people that they're with
Fallen because they're trying to save them or yeah I mean there's this case where I I believe one individual died
but three people fell into the river and they were trying to retrieve a cell phone so one of the beliefs that the
police you know the thing is is why he's going down to that River one maybe maybe
drink too much he's gonna get sick maybe he needs to empty out his bladder right
maybe he wanted to take a picture right well who knows so maybe his cell phone drops in or maybe he's peeing and and
falls in um maybe he just goes out to catch a breath of fresh air decides to stand by
the scenic side of of this hotel and take a look at the river something catches his eye and draws him near he
starts walking close to the river the thing here is it's extremely it would be cold out that night and I think you had
some of those numbers for us uh but but there's a potential of ice of an ice situation maybe he didn't simply fall
maybe he slipped and fell into the river yeah so the the police this is their Theory it seems
I hate to say this Captain it seems likely to me um but it's also yeah it's it's the A to
B Theory just because this is the nearest point that would present a danger to this
person that has gone missing you know we see him what has been reported as moving
in the direction of the exits referring to What was seen on the surveillance and
just like the captain said I was unable to find the actual footage of him walking in the direction of the exits
but there is a there is a still photo of him in that area now I'll try to find that and put that on Instagram they did
state in those reports though that they never actually see him exit the building
but they they anticipate that that's what he was intending to do um so yeah this is the nearest point
that creates a danger for Jesse and maybe a good a good explanation for what happened to him you had mentioned that
the Chicago River empties into Lake Michigan right but the the problem with this Theory there too is it's also the
lazy Theory and I really question you know we're talking about an area you know um you know as far as tourists go we
really need to have a good reputation or Chicago needs a really good reputation of this area being safe and so whether
they do they have a bunch of surveillance and to to claim that you don't find him on any other tape is just
so unlikely to me even you know if he heads back if he heads back to his hotel room that we're talking about a path
that is heavily lit heavily traveled and also heavily surveillance and if he goes
to the left there's still some surveillance why isn't he caught on any of these other tapes right and you would
think that if he fell into the river that he was either a chose to go that route for some reason uh what his
destination would be I don't know or B what I think would be more likely is that if he were over by the river that
he was just simply Milling about just kind of hanging out waiting out this break catching some fresh air maybe
having a smoke I like you said no evidence um but maybe out there just Milling about having some fresh air and waiting
to go back in after the 30 minute break my thought is if he if he did um fall in as to me it'd be more likely
that he would be you know vomiting and the reason why is because this whole theory that you know guys go and they
pee off a bridge and then they just fall in I look I've peed pretty drunk before
right where you know uh you're just kind of swaying but to fall in uh to a river
that would be you know I don't know less likely but if you're heathen uh I could totally see that being more
likely of a scenario oh yeah because your whole body is convulsing your whole body is out of control and so sometimes
your sight is blurred your you know your vision is definitely impaired when you're in that situation now you and I
talked about um talked about the the situation of he didn't appear to be intoxicated nobody
in that that group of 30 people in that meeting thought that he was intoxicated his friend that Ralph Parker didn't
believe that that he was that Jesse was drunk um but we're talking about first of all
we're talking about 2 30 a.m right who knows how long he was drinking who knows what was in that can that gatorade
bottle well first of all how many of those people were drinking because you know I was just at this
alumni event for my town um and I had like maybe two beers so everybody else around me is super wasted
right right I can tell this because I only had two two beers um how many of these people you know
because I'm sure some of the people if I said oh so and so was wasted they'd say
oh they weren't that bad but that's all you know normally depending on how bad off you are right
so I I wonder how many of these people in this emergency meeting were drinking themselves and yes so yeah maybe not
intoxicated during the meeting but he he was also for all we know as far as eyewitnesses go he was sitting down
during this meeting well yeah and you had it you were telling me an interesting story on the phone the other
day about a bar we used to play yeah so there's this story has a bit of a double
whammy effect on it okay it might have some insight to the state of Jesse Ross I had this situation many many years ago
I probably was a year or two older than Jesse but as you had mentioned earlier your your tolerance is a lot lower at
that age for most people I would believe uh as far as how much alcohol you consume and how much you can handle over
the course of an evening or an entire night and we I was at this bar that we had played at our band had played at
several times but I don't believe we were playing that night I think I went there to see some a friend's band and I
belly up to the bar as soon as I get there this is like January it's very cold out that night and it's late at
night it's already have you know it's probably 10 o'clock at night by the time I got to the bar when I decided to leave
there it's around midnight I sat there there I drank draft beer all night no shots nothing crazy you know had had a
decent time but I get up to leave I felt fine I felt like a million bucks as a matter of fact I walked out I walked out
onto that felt like a million bucks but I looked like a 10. I walked out onto that downtown Street
captain that cold air hit me and I don't know if it was the combination of walking you know sometimes when you when
you were sitting and you're drinking you don't realize how drunk you are until you get up to go and I got up to go and
I walked outside and the combination of that and the cold air hitting me I went from sober as a judge to to drunk as
hell and he had scarecrow legs that's that's right it was like a ton of bricks that hit me and I had to boot man I had
to run to the to the nearest trash can and I I booted and then I went back inside he raft and I sat at the bar and
I drank a whole bunch of water because I was in no shape to drive home it made me
that experience made me curious about Jesse you know why would he go outside if he's not a smoker and he's not going
out with any other people you know he obviously he went out by himself uh what what is his purpose of going
outside it's either to just hang out wait out the break or he has a destination he I think what
more so points to is that he was probably attempting to leave the meeting and leave that hotel because he didn't
go outside with anybody with him you know if if I were just taking a break I would mention to somebody in the group
hey what are you going to do for the 30-minute break oh you're gonna go sit over there oh is there still a hotel
party going on or or you want to come outside and hang out with me for a few minutes
um I think him going by himself points to a situation where he may had a destination in mind and for whatever
reason if he did not appear to be intoxicated he could have been very intoxicated like my situation right so
that he got outside right and the eyewitnesses at the emergency meeting claimed that he was no sign of him being
intoxicated then Chicago PD comes out and they say well there's no sign of him being intoxicated as far as their
surveillance either but we're talking about a very small room that they would have footage of him in and for him to
walk a straight line or to not look intoxicated I mean look also if he was a man on the on a mission again
you know when you're getting to the point where you might get sick sometimes you start getting the
sweats right you know and so you're going I'm going to get outside get some cool air you know and then if I do get
sick I'm at least outside I'm not puking in the hotel till Lobby like I said before well your adrenaline can take
over and can carry you a certain amount of distance um the thing here is that the river was
as we said it was it empties into Lake Michigan which can be hundreds of miles long you know it's a great lake it's
huge it's not like some Lake that you go visit somewhere it's it's a huge body of
water it is a lake that you go visit somewhere no it's not a man-made lake is probably what you're trying to get at
divers they didn't find divers and search groups did search the river itself on several occasions and despite
several searches they did not find uh any of Jesse's remains or evidence that would lead you to think that he had
fallen into the river right but there's several bodies that end up you know watching this Shore or are coming to the
surface once they get to Lake Michigan and over the years these bodies have appeared and unfortunately you know
every time this happens we have Jesse's parents who are there wondering if that's Jesse that has surfaced well and
I think initially when the first part of the investigation came out that his parents didn't want to believe it was
something as simple as an accident right so then it became or or possibly that he
was also somewhat responsible for that Ox uh accident if he was very intoxicated so you know
um I don't think they wanted to believe it at first but now that we're 11 years out
every time a body comes up and or is found in Lake Michigan they're somewhat hopeful that they at least will find his
remains so therefore they would get some closure yeah and that sounds crazy to say that they're somewhat hopeful but
you're exactly right Captain they've already reserved themselves to the thought that so much time has passed
that he he must have passed on himself yeah and this idea too A lot of people talk about that oh well he probably went
downtown right uh there was a speculation that he wanted to pass out these records to
different record companies um and that he would do this at 2 30 in the morning it doesn't make a lot of
logical sense to me yeah yeah there's two stories and these were presented by people in the group within the group
that he traveled with uh one being that he wanted to get these CDs to different radio stations of course the radio
stations can be you know most of them are open 24 7. you know they're operating 24 7.
um I don't know that anybody's going to answer the door if you come knocking at 2 33 in the morning it seems like an odd
time to be dropping them off um you would think he he may have some connections that he may have he knows
the business a little bit he may know the appropriate time and people to drop these things off to without doing it at
three in the morning um the other thing uh the thought was that the band remember we mentioned the
band he was still at this time in his life he was still promoting a band now I don't know if it's the same band that we
mentioned the dead giveaway um but he he had brought Flyers with him that he wanted to pass out at a bar if
there was an opportunity now this was just something that he mentioned to somebody that he was traveling with
there's nobody has any proof that that he ever did this at any point on this trip right it seems again seems strange
to me that he would choose 2 30 or 3 o'clock in the morning to do this this was his last night there so maybe he
felt this was his last opportunity I heard that some of the bars in Chicago will stay open till about 4 a.m right um
so this there was an opportunity to to do this but again I think the timing seems unlikely 30 eyewitnesses that
never said that he had anything a flyer or anything you'd think if he had a stack of flyer that 30 eyewitnesses
would at least one of them would said hey we saw him with this stack of flyers and from the still photo that we saw
from the surveillance camera the only thing that appears to be in his hands is that gatorade bottle let's get
back to this and more theories right after this quick purple Drink Break [Music]
all right we're back all right Captain I'll tell you what I think the the fall in the river scenario
I think we gotta put that more towards the higher possibility end of the spectrum would you agree yeah I mean I
think it's most logical that leads us right next to right into the next Theory um that he was attempting to return to
the hotel or as you had stated and I had stated was that he was attempting to go
to a bar or someplace downtown and he was met with foul play along the way right
so I mean again where's the evidence right um and and the thing here is we have you
know we have Jesse's mother um you know his father's name is Donald and her name is Donna
um so we have Donna and Dawn uh Ross but Donna says you know the police cannot prove to us that he even left that hotel
building right you know so and then like you said with with the river thing possibly being a lazy Theory
um by the police my my argument if I'm the parents and maybe they've done this would be okay if you can't prove to me
that that he even left the hotel room prove to me that or the hotel building proved to me that he did not leave the
hotel building because hey no what I'm what are you saying what I'm saying is when they say to when they say to us we
don't know what happened to your son because we can't prove that he even left that hotel building I'm saying back will
prove to me that he did not leave that Hotel building meaning their surveillance cameras yeah start there
along along his route back to his hotel I think it's easy for all of us to agree
that that would be that seems like the most likely destination at 2 30 in the morning for a guy that has a 10 minute
walk to get back to where his bed is and his belongings are where he needs to be
in the morning time for when they leave I think this seems like the most likely scenario that he might have attempted to
leave but if I'm the parents I want proof that he was not on that route you know and if you tell me that you've seen
surveillance and he's not on any of those pictures let me see it with my eyes let me look at the at the time
that'll last from 2 30 until about 3 30 or 4 in the morning so that I can say you know what that person right there is
not my son that person you see walking is not my son that person is not my son well that's my big question in this
whole case itself is the collection of these different surveillance tapes and and was he actually seen in the hotel
lobby or somewhere else in that hotel again that's what makes it so confusing one like I said from the beginning I
think it's irresponsible yeah they're 18 19 maybe even 20 year old students but to have a emergency meeting so late at
night it doesn't matter if it was 2 A.M or if it was 1am that's still too late especially when the when the two um
buildings are not connected and when we're at crime con for example a lot of the podcasters let's say uh Bob Ruff
from truth and Justice and then Generation Y uh crawl space guys a bunch of people white wine
we're all just looking for a place to meet up and drinking sideways and everybody all the names that we just
mentioned all those famous you know Wonderful podcasts out there of names we just dropped you owe us around for next
year's crime Cod okay yeah you guys know what how about two rounds they are two rounds no but one of the things that we
talked about when I was like how well let's meet up for a drink and let's have a meet up with uh listeners and and
friends and at first the the kind of conversation was okay well what's good in Indianapolis
well my question then was well how are these individuals going to get there and if it's in walking distance then are we
putting people at risk by getting drunk and then having to walk you know even if
it's 10 minutes away I love the captain thinking like a man that's talked about too many horrible crimes and accidents
that have happened to people yeah well I think some of these people were just looking for uh you know more
um content for their show I I wasn't really I actually really didn't give a [ __ ] about anybody's um safety it was
more my safety like if I'm going to drink uh I want to get hammered I want to get it to the point where you know I
become this small you know a little Alice in Wonderland and I'm and all I have to do is crawl my way back up to my
room so again I like I said with this case I think it's irresponsible um that that they had this uh emergency
meeting so late 10 minutes walking away and and you know it's dark in a city that people these students are not
familiar with and that you know that there's a dance but you probably knew that there was drinking going on as well
well and you know that on the flip side people were going to argue with you and they're going to say you know what
Captain well these are adults and they are they're kids you know we're having this emergency meeting so we want to
give them the feel and the taste of a real emergency meeting so we're going to hold it at An Inconvenient time I'm with
you I'm with you I think it's irresponsible on behalf of the people in charge of organizing the event to hold
something so late at night kind of a fictitious emergency meeting for a fictitious U.N you know right you could
hold an emergency meeting at any time right right but the thing is they hold all these fictitious uh you know
horseshit when when the but the uh but the threat is still real right you know the danger is still real so I just think
it's irresponsible yeah I mean if you want to hold it at An Inconvenient time you can interrupt their breakfast you
can interrupt their lunch or another scheduled event um so I get it that you're trying to
create an atmosphere amongst that group I just think it's irresponsible like you
said it's 2 30 in the morning some of these people are staying at a hotel that's a 10 minute walk and we all know
you know you don't have to be in an Einstein or a Sherlock Holmes to understand that the Chicago crime rate
and murder rate are significantly higher than many other cities and the rest of this country well again like I said okay
so I have an issue with was there enough um work put in to get the surveillance tapes
um because I think look I think again like we said this is a couple days before Thanksgiving I think some of
these cops thought you know what this guy's a kid seems like a smart kid seems like a good kid he's going to turn up
I don't think initially they're just like well he fell into the river and that's what happened no but it's like
they I don't think they did their work and then with the eyewitness accounts you can't tell me what if the meeting
started at 1am or 2 A.M right it's like there's so many contradictory stories there and then it then it becomes well
how much surveillance footage do you need do you need the time where he walked in and then the time that he
walked out and maybe there's another time or how did you put here here's my other question for the Chicago PD do
they have the video footage of him walking from his hotel to this emergency meeting because I'd like to see that and
then from that point to the until 3 A.M 4 a.m I want to see all that footage and
I don't think they pulled that and I think they got lazy and like I said I think you know
I think they just assumed that this kid is going to come up it's you know it's this big trip 1200 students he's just
gonna show up and I think this was the frustration that the Ross family had from the get-go you know and then once
they didn't collect this evidence and once they didn't talk to all the people that they should have talked to
yeah I think it haunts this guy but I think it haunts them because they they know they didn't try hard enough and so
then we would go okay well what is the logical thing well the logical thing is he fell into the river
yeah yeah and you're right that wasn't their initial thought that was not like they they showed up to the hotel they
took a quick look around and they were like oh guy fell into the river seen it a hundred thousand times no it was like
you said it was after a couple days that they kind of come to that conclusion um I think they were looking for leads
obviously I think they were trying to track down some leads but I'm with you it's like my understanding was that they
that he would have been in this specific Hotel building for a decent amount of time you know that this was there was
the scheduled dance there was some events there there were people hosting hotel room parties and then there's this
emergency meeting he would have been there for a considerable amount of time before he left or fell into the river at
2 30 in the morning um so regarding the surveillance footage of him arriving to the hotel
could be difficult depending on the group The the amount of people walking in and out but but I'm with you I where
is all this footage I again I go back to the parents right so you're going to tell me that these 30 students walked
hand in hand together uh and so it makes it hard to have the footage going in but
then this one Lone Wolf just walked out by himself again this also kind of you know hints to me a little bit like of
Lisa lamb right we have all this video footage but then all of a sudden we have nothing like you know the big thing
about her and the and um the elevator is that we don't have the lobby footage and if we had the
lobby footage that would change some things but remember there was some you know technical difficulties with them
and so that's why we don't have them so was there technical difficulties with these these trail cams or other
surveillance footage from that area you know well and the thought here too is regarding the hotel that Jessie's
staying at um Ralph Parker went back there at some point he went went back there after he
thought Jesse had returned to that hotel now can you show me law enforcement can
you show me that you were able to decipher who Ralph Parker was according to the surveillance footage at that
hotel when he walked into the building because we've seen these security cameras we've seen some of the footage
that they that they record sometimes you can't decipher you can tell it's a person you can you might be
able to you might be able to just it's a person right you might be able to judge
if they're three foot tall or six foot tall you might be able to judge if they're light-skinned or dark-skinned
but you might not be able to know anything other than the guy had on a a purple ball cap or he had on a uh green
ball cap you know you might not be able to to tell me that that's not Jesse Ross
walking there you might not be able to tell me that it's Ralph Parker walking into the hotel unless you have written
down from his account of that evening exactly what time that he walked into that hotel yeah I'd like to know where
his whereabouts were I mean I don't I don't find his story to be that fishy though man it's it's very logical to
think that somebody opens up their hotel room uh it's dark you see a pile on the
bed you know you you just assume that it's Jesse and then you fall asleep some people are not going to turn on that
light he might have been intoxicated himself and just again like like I said earlier uh just pulling this you know I
gotta crawl to my bed you know that's all maybe that's all he was worried about this is you know that's the thing
when you're drinking you get you become a survivalist I just need to get to my bed at some point
um especially when I'm drinking some liquor but um so I think his story is logical then he
wakes up in the morning and Jesse's not there well is it that far-fetched to think oh this guy got up and got going
maybe he had something to do maybe he was hungry you know so I I don't find his story illogical but at the same
point show me him on surveillance footage right show him walking back to his hotel
show him walking into the lobby of his hotel well right and I've seen Parks and Rec so I'm no dummy right I've seen
Parks and Rec and what do you what do you what is the line of dummy people that people that have not seen Parks and
Rec you're you're a dummy people that literally you are literally no but I've seen it in the and
the funny thing is you know I you know I don't want to make a big joke about this
but the idea that there are these heated debates and these even though it's a fictitious you know it's this Mock You
in thing um there are some heated debates and some people take this stuff very seriously
so again that would um some crazy loon student uh I think uh Jesse was in charge of uh Zaire
so did was Zaire stepping on somebody's toes and was some nefarious act taking place because of a debate
um so we have video footage of him Jesse possibly leaving I want the video footage of all the other students right
words their whereabouts because those 30 students in that in that room they're suspects High suspects
you know because they would have more contact with them than the other 1200 and they would have been you know
um we can assume some of the last people to see Jesse live right and and why aren't these people questioned more and
did all of them return to the meeting after the break or remain seated during the break right or who went back to the
hotel who left who went for a smoke break you know who went to get some more booze
and that's what I keep going back to Captain if if he did in fact leave the hotel building to me it points more that
he had a destination in mind because he left by himself uh right but to me that to me look if you're at a party you
normally don't make an announcement or want somebody to come hold your hand while you go Yak right so to me that
would be the motivation there now the thing here is you've walked us well into the other theories
um and I think that you can kind of lump these together in a way so I'll kind of
just mention them both and we'll talk about them as they pertain to his story and maybe possibly one another but so
the other thought is um and this was presented you know by other people but I heard his mother
State this in an interview Donna said you know how do we know that the he didn't go back to a hotel room within
that hotel building that he never left that hotel building during the break that he went to a hotel room either to
continue to party to talk to somebody that he had spoken to earlier that night or simply just to go somewhere to hang
out for the 30-minute break you know she says you can't prove to me that he left
that building and she says how do we know there wasn't some kind of accident in one of these hotel rooms and somebody
decided to cover it up this would be pointing toward that situation but also pointing towards somebody in the group
in that group of 1200 students well I've always thought the idea of a student or
a person oding and then people dumping the body somewhere or covering up was complete just Malarkey
until I've been reading about it non-stop like it's been happening a lot I think there was three girl or four
girls charged from Ohio State because they they literally dump the body at the hospital they just the girl OD'd
wait so they pull up in a car and just roll the body out of the car and dump it at the footstep of the of the uh
Hospital yeah and they're going to be charged and there's multiple cases if you're gonna do that why not just call
the ambulance I don't because for whatever reason again you know they're not adults you know it's not the 40s 50s
60s maybe even 70s anymore I would argue that those people might not have been adults back then as well but yeah but
you're right different time though and I think people expected people to be more
mature at a younger age and I think people expected people to grow up a lot faster than we do today and I think we
kind of coddle people and put people into these little safe spaces so it's not out of the realm of possibility that
he was partying with some people and and something bad happened again like the mother says prove to me that he left you
know and I think it's a real possibility but again it's questioning those 30-some
people so I'm interested to see because supposedly there's a documentary coming out about this uh the the little trailer
I saw of it was absolutely horrible uh as far as a a film standpoint but I'm interested on what they were able to
uncover because the other problem too about this is there's a lot of podcasts that then go in and investigate just one
case spend their whole time on that you know I think we met uh paying from up and vanish and very cool thing this is a
case that would be almost impossible to do because you got 1200 students at this
event I mean you can start with the 30 but this this would be a a monster undertaking yeah yeah there is a
documentary coming out at some point um and it's done by a guy that's from his hometown or from his area from Jessie
Ross's area I don't know the date of when that's to be released other than the article I read was stating that it
was due to be outlay later this year Captain says it looks terrible i've not seen just the trailer looks terrible but
what I'm hoping is that this individual was able to um uncover some things that that we
can't find I've not seen the trailer myself um Captain the thing here is though you
know fall in the river I put that at a high probability um a hotel accident a hotel room
accident the only thing that there there's one thing that points me to that and again that's they cannot prove that
he actually walked outside the four walls of that hotel right um the other problem with that though is
you you again you know it's like with the suicide thing well where's Jesse where's the body where's
um you'd think that you might see depending on what type of accident it could have been you would think there
would have been some kind of evidence of such that took place in some kind of hotel room and obviously he would have
had to have been his body would have had to been removed from that hotel at some
point um but again you're up against this situation like the police said where you
get to an area you get to you there's a a report filed we go out to investigate there's no crime scene there's no crime
scene for us to go something happened here and furthermore you you're hearing about something who knows he could have
actually disappeared at 2 30 in the morning there could there could have been nobody that seen him after 2 30 in
the morning until it's reported at approximately 4 P.M the next day and many people have left this hotel rooms
have been cleaned people you know people have been in and out of these rooms yeah
and I know I I sound like I'm throwing the police on under the bus and saying that they didn't do their due diligence
and one first of all they're understaffed down under man they're they're underfunded uh under resources
this is also weirdly happening it's it's an adult so I think it becomes less of a
urgent situation um and again it's a bunch of people at this you know he seems like a good kid
he's probably going to show up and then you got Thanksgiving a couple days beforehand I think that factors into
things a little bit um so I I don't want to make it seem like I'm completely faulting them like if
they would have done everything they're supposed to do we would have we'd have a
closure for his family I I don't believe that I think you know I think they ran into some brick walls
here yeah there are certainly incidences when we have seen plenty of times before
where there just appears to be no answers there there doesn't there's no arrows pointing the police and
investigators in any type of direction to come to any conclusions at all um now one thing the the parents have as
you said you know they don't they're they seem to be unhappy with the police they unhappy with the investigative
efforts as far as when it comes to Jesse now he you it's understandable I mean they're not getting the results that
they want so you're going to be you're going to be upset you're going to be unhappy that doesn't mean that they
didn't do everything they could do now one thing that uh don Ross has brought up there was a strange incident uh
regarding the Chicago Police Department where his so Jesse Ross is on the National Database for missing persons
this is on the ncic and for whatever reason I don't know if it was a glitch in the system but he his name was
removed and his father was discovered this I don't know if somebody told him about it or whatever but he called
the Chicago Police Department and he told the investigators involved he said look my son's name is no longer on this
database for missing persons did you find him of course is the first thing he wants to know and then second of all he
wants to know well why would his name be removed I don't know the specifics of why it was taken off but the problem
that Don Ross has with the investigation and that I would have with this investigation as well is that he alerted
them of this and they seem to drag their feet about putting him back onto that database so the way the database works
is that information has to be uploaded uploaded and inputted by somebody by one of the investigators involved in the
case so that database didn't do anything wrong they sit around waiting for somebody to give them the information
unless it was a glitch right um regardless though Captain yeah but here's how it works you file a missing
person report right then you go looking for the person if the police find the person they have
no legal responsibility to tell the family that we found this person and that he is okay to have no legal
responsibility to do so right and and that's that's on them now they might let's say Jesse went missing on his own
uh chord and they go Jesse do you want us to tell your family no they don't have any responsibility to
tell the family oh we found him he's okay they have a responsibility to the city and the taxpayers to close the case
so I wonder if on some level it was one of these things where they closed the case
and then they said uh somebody found out about it and then they end up putting them back on the thing so they don't
have to have the odd conversation with the family that all we found him he just doesn't want anything to do with you
that's certainly a possible which would lead to the odd speculation of you know if there's something you know look look
for all we know his family was super religious and he had some different way of life he wanted to live and that was
not kosher to them so I don't know yeah we don't know the Dynamics of of his family one thing I
will say though that kind of to to keep their son's case alive um and to keep it in the minds of the
Chicago Police Department and their investigators um they have asked friends and loved
ones and anybody that visits find Jesse ross.com to on Jesse's birthday send a birthday card to the Chicago Police
Department um well I commend them and I I feel sorry for them but also they you know
they haven't really uncovered much else I mean that's the problem with this case
and probably at this point you know we gotta start moving on from this case because there is so many holes there's
so many what-ifs you know but I mean we could speculate on it for 10 hours if we
wanted to well and the other thing though I do want to throw this in because some people find it extremely
defiant that the Ross family would would send birthday card regards to the Chicago Police Department I I think
they're just trying to keep their son's case alive and well um and and keep hope that they will get
some answers at some point so I I don't think that it's defiant and I also do want to include that according to Donald
Ross's bio I don't know how long he this was a career choice for him but according to his bio he did work as a
police officer at one time he did hold many jobs over the course of his his years so um it could have just been a
short-lived career but so he does have some ties and some knowledge of police work yeah I I think with all these cases
when there's a missing child we all tend to judge their their families and their
parents on what they're doing but at the end of the day none of us know how we would react to this situation if you
want to dive more into this case check out that website that we've mentioned the other thing too is one thing that
was glaring to me as I watched interviews with his parents I do believe the parents when they state that you
know he was close to us that he was close to he he called us he checked in with us we always had a close
relationship and the other thing that I saw too you know it's it's it's quite common that you see a son you know his
hero may be his father that that's a common thing to see now I see this situation the way that Don Ross speaks
about Jesse Ross his son it almost comes off to me that that his son was his hero
you know he talks about Jesse being very outgoing being Fearless being somebody that liked to play jokes on people that
he loved and cared about and it seemed that he admired his son for these traits so uh truly a heartbreaking story we're
not going to give up on you Jesse uh we think that there's some hope out there and hopefully one day the parents and
his brother will get the answers that they need and deserve I have a handful of cases that I have on the list and
I'll just random do a random Google search and this is one that I'll head back to and hopefully there's more
information that comes out soon [Music] this week's recommended reading is where's Opie vanished in Chicago by
Donald Ross Jesse's father where's Opie allows the reader to ride along with the
family of Jesse Opie Ross and learn details of his disappearance in Chicago learn what it's like day to day living
with the reality of a missing son and brother and finding the courage to go on learn how such an event affects a family
friends and law enforcement remember this could happen to any of us Donald Ross has two books on the subject the
first to come out was published in 2011 so please check out where's Opie and you
can do that by going to our website truecrime garage.com check out the recommended page and use our Amazon
Banner for all of your purchases alright thank you Colonel thank you Captain and
we'll see everybody back here next week same garage Time same garage Channel until then be good be kind and don't
live foreign [Music] [Applause]

Jesse Ross /// Part 2 /// 129

Part 2 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.

Beer of the Week - Mo Guava by Pair-O-dice brewing company Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out to of 5

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the mysterious disappearance of Jesse Ross and explores various theories regarding his fate.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jesse Ross. In November 2006, Jesse Ross vanished during a university trip. His last known sighting was captured on surveillance.
Theories on Jesse's Fate. Various theories emerge about what happened to Jesse, including the possibility of falling into the river.
Mysterious Circumstances. Jesse's disappearance raises questions about his intentions as he left an emergency meeting.
The Search for Jesse. Jesse's parents grapple with the hope of finding their son as bodies surface in Lake Michigan.
Demanding Proof. Jesse's parents insist on evidence regarding their son's whereabouts after he vanished.
Irresponsible Timing. Criticism arises over the late-night emergency meeting for students.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think we have to take a look at this surveillance footage.

Discussing the importance of surveillance footage in Jesse's case.

15:33WatchDec 4, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.