Jessica Johnson /// Part 1 /// 282 | Forensic Files

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

Source: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-uat2q-a92266

Jessica Johnson /// Part 1 /// 282 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com June 2017, Mississippi - A mail carrier out on her route discovers the unimaginable. As she made her rounds on a rural road she sees the lifeless body of a woman tied to the post of a black metal mailbox. How long had she been there? How many cars passed by the mailbox and never saw her? How did this happen and why? Beer of the Week - Paradise Lost by Southern Prohibition Brewing Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps Stuff for you to check out and save with our promo codes! www.ZipRecruiter.com/Garage - try it for FREE - it’s the smart way to hire www.ThirdLove.com/Garage - for 15% off your first order Don’t miss the series premiere of Gone, Wednesday February 27th at 9/8 central on WGN America Watch Lorena, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video

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Brief Summary

Jessica Johnson's suspicious death raises questions of murder versus suicide in Horn Lake, Mississippi.

Key points

Jessica's Troubled Life. Jessica Johnson struggled with personal issues and a tumultuous lifestyle before her death.
The Discovery of Jessica Johnson. A mail carrier discovers the body of Jessica Johnson tied to a mailbox.
Police Investigation Controversy. Jessica's family claims the police mishandled the investigation from the start.
Mysterious Injuries Found. Jessica's family discovers alarming injuries on her body during viewing.
Conflicting Death Rulings. Coroner declares Jessica's death a suicide despite family claims of foul play.
The Fight Before Her Death. Jessica had a heated argument with Garland before her disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How long had she been there?

Reflecting on the discovery of Jessica's body.

5:07WatchFeb 27, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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