Jonathan Luna /// Part 2 /// 573 | Forensic Files

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man who describes food and stuff as a discount food outlet
equidistant from his home and his work. Here is the captain. And I like to ride my bike to both of
them. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
Today we are still sipping on this fantastic totally crushable Highland Brewing beer that they are calling this
a fruit beer. I think it's very much an ale with really great peach flavor added
perfect for spring and of course we love the great folks at Highland Brewing Company one of the very best in the beer
biz. Garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five and let's give some cheers to some of our
friends who are the very best in their biz. First up a cheers to Brandy in Fort Worth, Texas.
A big shout out to Megan in Alexandria, Virginia. And here's a cheers to Tyler in San Marcos, California.
And a big we like your jib to Shelby T in parts unknown. Next up, here's a we like your jib to Melissa in Mount Airy,
Maryland and last but certainly not least we have Pamela in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Everyone we just mentioned
they went to our website truecrimegarage.com and they clicked on the beer fund and helped us out with
this week's beer run and for that we are very grateful. Yeah, b w e r u n beer run.
Make sure you're following us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or the Tik Tok. It's It's
just Nick doing Tik Tok dances all the time. But it's a good way to get more information about what we are doing some
behind the scenes stuff and also when we're posting photos about what we're talking about on the cases, that's where
we post them social media so make sure you follow us on one of those @truecrimegarage.
And Colonel, that is enough of the BS. All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
true crime. Welcome to our little garage show. Where we left off yesterday, Captain, we
started to get into some dicey business here of some missing money and how it might be tied to our victim Jonathan
Luna. It's $36,000. That's a lot of rolling papers. That was the amount that had been produced in
court as evidence in connection with a bank robbery trial that Jonathan prosecuted in September of 2002.
At the trial's conclusion we have Jonathan. We know he's very successful. He won a conviction against
the defendant for a series of violent bank robberies in Baltimore County. But at the end of this trial this money
disappeared. Right? So what we have is $36,000 in cash, three shrink wrapped stacks of
tens and $20 bills that disappeared somewhere between the courtroom and the government storage area used to hold
sensitive evidence during trials. Per The Sun newspaper, Jonathan had signed an agreement with other lawyers in the
case that all exhibits had been properly returned. As the lead prosecutor though, Jonathan
was reportedly one of the people that would have had access to that money. This sounds very suspicious, right?
$36,000 missing and it sounds like it's on his watch. Yeah. A lot of cheddar. But I
want to point out some some things here before we go too far into this missing money situation. We have many other
people that were involved in this situation that were suspect suspected as well.
And not for any real good reason. I don't know that Jonathan Luna's suspected for any good reason other than
he had access to the money just like these other people. So these other people are saying, "Look, it was on a
handcart in a federal building. Anyone could have taken that money." In fact, The Post reported, "Jonathan was
troubled because it happened on his watch." said Joseph Evans, Jonathan's supervisor at the time, but goes on to
say, quote, "But personally I have a hard time thinking he stole the money." Evans pointed out that the money was
left unattended at times leaving, quote, "So many opportunities for so many people to snag it." end quote. Well,
basically they're saying you're becoming a suspect because you had access and therefore there's
a ton of suspects. Correct. And I For me personally, it's hard for me to believe that Jonathan
Luna took this money or or was involved with others that may have taken this money. I do want to point out some some
issues here though, too. When we covered the Sean Suiter case, we pointed out a lot
of the corruption that was going on suspected or otherwise in the Baltimore PD. And look, I'm a
blue blood. I have the backs of the police and I applaud them when they're good and
I also smear them when they're bad. There are some people that are just bad at their jobs. Well Right. we've seen
some problems in the Baltimore Police Department and if you don't want to believe me, that's fine. You can watch
the show We Own This City on HBO that's coming out April 25th. That's all about the Sean Suiter case and other things
going on in Baltimore PD at the time. You have to point out what's wrong with these bad cops because those bad
cops are giving a bad name to all the good cops. Correct. Now there's one aspect of this
part of the story that does look bad for Jonathan. At least five government employees took polygraph test about this
theft. Now per The Sun before his death, Luna had postponed an appointment to take a polygraph test but about the
missing money. But we do have a colleague who says, "Look, I took the polygraph test. I spoke to him and he
didn't have any concerns about or didn't voice them to me about taking the polygraph test." saying that I know he
was willing to take the test. Yeah, so so something might have came up in his schedule and now we're going to
throw him under the bus and say, "Well, he must be guilty cuz he he post postponed the the polygraph test." He
may have just been busy with his job with with trials and such. I do think that the rescheduled polygraph exam was
to be shortly after his death. So I don't like the timeline there. Um some more circumstantial evidence that maybe
he had an interest in taking this money or did. In the course of the investigation of his murder,
investigators discovered that Jonathan had filled out an online loan application for $30,000
around September of 2002 and according to The Sun the loan application was canceled not long after this money went
missing. Hmm. That's a little suspicious. That doesn't look good. A little fishy. One source also said
that investigators discovered after Jonathan Luna's death that more than $10,000 came into his possession shortly
after the evidence from the robbery case disappeared. They don't seem to know where this money came from or can't
conclusively determine how Jonathan Luna and his family obtained this money. Right. And we also want to be clear that
there's no evidence of a friend or family members coming forward and saying "Hey, we're the ones that were
responsible for them getting those $10,000." Correct. We do have plenty of friends
and family members and colleagues coming forward saying, "We don't think he would
have taken the money. It doesn't make any sense." Then there was the sexy stuff. The
Baltimore Sun's unnamed law enforcement official source told the paper that the federal agents reviewing Luna's
case and his Justice Department computers had found a trove of adult porn that did not
appear to be related to any of the cases that he had ever worked on. And there was more. According to the
FBI, they found messages on some internet dating site posted by someone using the name Jonathan Luna. According
to The Sun newspaper, it says the author of the messages from April 1997, so this
is six and a half years earlier, described him as a discreet 31-year-old married black man seeking a white female
sexual partner. Now it's it gets really difficult to believe that a man as smart as him would use his real
name on these dating sites and be married. However however, we have to point out that the
age almost matches up exactly. So no one's ever saying that these profiles were his or that Jonathan Luna
used them. They're simply pointing out that we found this from 6 and 1/2 years before his death of
someone using that name on these dating sites. Could be a catfish. It could be something that he's
wasn't even aware of. I just saw the other day one of my friends posted in her stories
multiple Instagram accounts that are using her pictures and and and information from her profile.
That's some weird and that's some weird stuff right there. Now, we mentioned a February 2004 news
conference. At this event, the FBI's assistant director denied a report by CBS News that there was a main suspect
in the case. A female agent in the FBI's Baltimore field office. Okay, so they're denying that we have a
suspect and we're denying that hey, the rumor that the suspect is an FBI agent, a female FBI agent,
they're denying that direct rumor. But, the FBI went on to conduct an internal investigation according to the
Washington Post that stemmed from a complaint by a female agent that investigators were overly aggressive
when they questioned her about possible romantic involvement with Jonathan. This
was a woman who had worked closely with Jonathan on numerous cases. It's unclear whether she was
romantically involved with him, but clearly the FBI thought she was or there was enough information there for them to
really look into it. And she files a complaint against her own saying that they aggressively pursued her and they
searched her computers and such without consent. I believe that the FBI did admit some wrongdoing in
regard to questioning this woman. It seems like this information would be pointing towards the idea that Jonathan
was having an affair or maybe multiple affairs. So, the reports that he had at least two
entanglements have never been refuted. I don't think they've ever been fully proven though, either. But, what's key
here to me, Captain, is it appears at this point in the investigation that the FBI investigators seem fixated
at least by this point on the murder being rooted in a personal matter. That this was some type of
private dispute or something going on in his life and had nothing to do with the
FBI. Right. Had nothing to do with his line of work directly. But, we have these
weird unexplained trips to Pennsylvania or explained trips to Pennsylvania depending on who you believe and how you
want to look at it. As part of the probe, investigators were looking into at least
two trips that Jonathan made to Pennsylvania in the weeks before his death. And they were trying to figure out
whether he went there to actually meet somebody. They stopped at motels along the route and looked at guest registers
and surveillance video, inquired at gas stations, and canvassed businesses along this
route. But, it gets it gets weirder. As the investigation unfolded, additional trips to Pennsylvania were
uncovered. So, on the first anniversary of Jonathan's death, this was reported in the paper that a gas station employee
on the Pennsylvania Turnpike said that she saw Jonathan Luna at the gas station late at night about once a month
over a 6-month period. This was a Sunoco station attendant who worked the midnight shift. She told the post that
Jonathan always used a credit card if he bought gas and always paid cash if he bought coffee.
She said that she remembers him specifically because he was always sharp dressed and he made small talk with her.
She said that he was a very courteous and polite individual. This sharp dressed really goes along with everything we've
been told about Jonathan Luna. So, it it would appear to me that she is talking about him. On his profession, he's
supposed to dress a certain way. Correct. And even before he went into that line of work, he was always said to
have, you know, wear dress shirts and ties and such. Correct. Investigators really
couldn't figure out any work-related reason or at least publicly said they couldn't find any work-related reason
that Jonathan went to Pennsylvania. We don't know who he visited, what he did, or really anything else. It's hard
to believe that the FBI doesn't know. But, at least in the week after his death, one official said, "We don't have
any indication what the purpose was of the drive." But, if he had actually been going to Pennsylvania
on the regular, that would obviously be quite important to the case and maybe what happened to
him. That's where he dies. That's where his body is ultimately found 100 miles away from Baltimore.
Investigators looked closely to see if Jonathan had gone to meet up with anybody on the night he died. But,
again, his cell phone was left at the office. So, if he was meeting somebody, he didn't
have the ability to talk to anybody or communicate with anybody via phone after leaving his office that night,
again, leaving the office for really unexplained reasons. But, also, it's a way for people not to be able to track your
actions through your GPS on your phone. Right. There has been some speculation. People wonder, "Well, maybe he had some
type of burner phone and made sure he had the burner phone and that's why he kind of forgot his
his regular cell phone." Right, but we don't have any evidence that he had a phone on his person when
he was found. Correct. Yeah, nobody's saying that he had one. It's just simple speculation really at this point.
There's no evidence to suggest that he did. His father did say that hey, on at least
one occasion they had a conversation about trips to Pennsylvania when Jonathan Luna told his father that he
was working on a case and for that reason he had to go to Pennsylvania. Now, the father did say, "Look, Jonathan
wasn't commonly telling us information about the cases that he was working, which he's not
supposed to, and said that, you know, that's really he'd like to offer up more information,
but that was the vagueness of the information that Jonathan related to him. So, according to the father and
according to what he's saying his son told him, these trips were or at least one of the
trips was related to his work. But, then we have some other information that's interesting in regard to those trips.
So, the informant in the case that he was working on at the time of his death was being held in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. So, maybe these trips are directly related to that trial that he was working on at
the time. Right. Now, do you want to get into this timeline here, Captain, because one we cannot overlook it. It's
very important people want to know the details of the timeline of that night. But, I got to warn everybody, there's
gaps. There's blanks that need to be filled in and I really believe in this case and like many other cases out
there, if you could complete this timeline, well, then we would know what exactly
happened to Jonathan Luna that night. Right. So, be prepared to take notes, my friends.
If you're driving, just pull over and join us for the next 45 minutes. A piece of paper and some pens and All
right, so let's start on the the day that he was killed on December 3rd at 8:48 p.m. We know
that Jonathan went to the office to work on that plea agreements. At 9:06 p.m., Jonathan calls one of the attorneys
for the guys that he's going to trial against and tells him, "Hey, I had to leave the office and go home."
He said he would return to his office in the federal courthouse later that evening and finish the documents and fax
them to the attorney's office. That call lasted 10 minutes. At 9:30 p.m., Jonathan left a voicemail for the other
attorney in the case saying he would be faxing the plea agreement later that evening.
At 10:30 p.m., Jonathan spoke to one of the attorneys again promising him the plea agreement
before midnight. At 11:00 p.m., Jonathan was at home at this time. He received that call. We don't know who from.
He receives a call on his cell phone and told his wife that he had had to go back to the office.
You got to believe, right, in 2003 that they would know what number called his cell phone?
Yeah. I mean, that doesn't necessarily tell us who called him or what the call was about, but at least
the FBI's involved in this thing. Unless they blocked the number or they called 2003,
chances of there being a pay phone, not great, but did somebody go into a gas station and say, "Hey, can I use your
phone real quick?" But, nobody seems to be disputing that this call happened, right? We don't have and I know that his
family has shut down and not been talking to the press for the longest time, but we don't seem
to have anybody saying that this call didn't happen. So, I'm led to believe that it did and I believe that the FBI
probably has some further information on this call, but again, they're not releasing it. Now, according to his
father, Jonathan didn't did not say who was on the phone that night, but told his wife, quote, "Honey, I'm sorry. I
have to go back to the office." Offering up no more no further information. At 11:38 p.m., Jonathan drove away from
the US District Court building in Baltimore. I I should correct that statement. He He left. He left the
courthouse sometime that night. We don't have anything to say that he was the one
physically driving or anybody to dispute that he was driving. Right. At 11:49 p.m., he passed through
the Fort McHenry Tunnel Toll Plaza in Baltimore northbound on Interstate 95. Now, this is going to lead us past
midnight. So, now technically we are December 4th. At 12:28 a.m., his car passed through
the Perryville Toll Plaza and continued northbound. At 12:46 a.m., his car passed through the Delaware Line Toll
Plaza. Again, we have this information because of his Easy Pass transponder that is in his vehicle. And
thankfully we had that or we may not know the route that he took or these other stops that seem to have been
involved on his weird trip that night. Right. At 12:57 a.m., Jonathan's debit card was used to withdraw $200 from a
bank ATM at the JFK Travel Plaza in Newark, Delaware. This is at I-95 exit 3. Some reports are that the recording
is not good and it's not clear whether this is Jonathan using the card. Okay, so
they would have surveillance footage of the person using the ATM. And the story has always been that
something's wrong or screwy with that footage or with the camera and so we don't have video confirmation
that it is Jonathan Luna using the ATM card. Make sense? Yeah, it makes sense, but
it's hard to wrap my head around this idea of why would you leave the cell phone behind?
Did he forget about this Easy Pass being able to track him or did he not care if the vehicle was being
tracked? It's That's why I wonder if leaving the phone behind was not his choice. Yeah. It was either an accident
that he forgot the phone in some kind of hurry to get out of the building or it's also a possibility that he was
abducted from his office. Yeah, but wouldn't they have wouldn't we have some kind of
like I said, technology or or or something showing that he actually met somebody there? So, what we do have,
Captain, is we have surveillance footage of his vehicle leaving the courthouse parking garage,
but you cannot see who's driving the vehicle Right. based off of off of the angle. Now, so we got a lot of movements
here and this to me is where things start to get really weird and part of this just may be my
not fully understanding this Easy Pass and how they work, especially back in 2003, you know,
uh 19 years ago. So, name in high school, Easy Pass. Right. At 2:47 a.m., his car entered the Pennsylvania
Turnpike exit 359, the Delaware Bridge, going over the Delaware Bridge, but he did not use the
Easy Pass on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes. I don't know if these things have like a
a proximity limit. You know, like I I don't know that an Easy Pass will just work everywhere that they're required.
You know, we're talking about he's going to other states and in accessing their turnpikes by this point. Maybe they
don't work there. I I would like a better clearer understanding of that because it seems to me if he's driving
and he's the one making the decisions on where they're going or where he's going
that he would just use that pass if he's able to to use it. Yeah, anybody out there that has access or uses one of
these Easy Passes that doesn't just stay within their city, but travel with the Easy Pass, please leave
that information on our blog at True Crime Garage. And specify if your information is
coming from current day or 2003 cuz that could have changed over the years. The other thing that I call into question,
too, and this is something that uh somebody may know better, is there a chance that his Easy Pass was
issued to him by his work and therefore only work in certain areas because they don't want to pay for everything,
right? They want to pay for his travels for work purposes, but they don't need him using his Easy Pass two or three
states away if that's even a thing. Right. So, what I'm getting at, Captain, is one
of two situations is going on. Either he can't use that pass. I guess I should say three. Either he can't use
that pass in those locations or he's choosing not to use that pass in those locations because he doesn't want
to be tracked. Again, going back to the idea maybe he left his cell phone on purpose.
Or three, somebody else is calling the shots and is not aware that he has this Easy Pass
or somebody else is driving the vehicle. Remember we did say that the reports stated that Jonathan Luna's blood was
found in the backseat of that vehicle. Is there a chance at some point somebody intercepted him or he met with somebody,
they abducted him and he's in the backseat while the killer or killers are in control of the
vehicle's movements. This leads us to 3:20 a.m. when Jonathan's debit credit card was
used at a Sunoco gas station at the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania Service Plaza to buy gas. According to the attendant,
it became clear from sales records, this is one of the most bizarre things in the
whole thing. It became clear from sales records that Jonathan used his credit card to pay at the pump for his car,
but also a second vehicle. And of course, as you all guessed, there was no camera
at the gas station. Investigators later seemed to downplay the second gas purchase.
All right, let me circle back around to something. Yeah, downplay that? Are they downplaying that because
they're trying to keep something to their chest and and they know information that could lead to solving
this? I'm not trying to point out some big conspiracy theory here, but where this becomes an issue is and
you'll see this as we get further into these details. The FBI seems to believe something ha-
you know, they seem to have a theory that they've locked onto. However, the case is still open.
It looks to me like we have a situation where something else may have gone on. Some other people may be
up to no good here, that their dirty deeds may be dragged into the light and become public knowledge, but
we're hiding behind this curtain of mystery by saying, "Look, this case is still
open. We cannot tell the public what was going on. We cannot tell you what our findings were here." So,
when we get to all of these little pieces of information that you go, "Is this something here? Who buys two tanks
of gas?" That would imply that that he is traveling with somebody or somebody's following him or or what have you,
right? It could imply a whole different set of theories, but yet we don't have law enforcement
that will tell us, "Yes, that's exactly what happened." It's like we said, they seem to just
kind of forget about it or not mention it or downplay this second gas purchase. So,
does that mean that they found out that it wasn't true or that it is true and they just don't
want us to know about it for some reason? Welcome back. It's always great when it
gets heated here in the garage. Hold on to your AC. Crank up the AC. Oh, it's snowing in
April. I don't know if you want me to say this or not, but I'm going to anyway. Today is the Captain's birthday, so hit
him up on Twitter with well wishes. Everybody wish the Captain a very happy happy birthday.
on Twitter, not on Instagram or Tik Tok. That's right. He's only celebrating on Twitter. Captain, I wish you a very
happy birthday and many more and and a hopefully a celebration is lined up for this weekend.
Well, the thing is is that Nick is mean and is making me work on my birthday. I quit.
Here at the garage, we do not take birthdays off. In fact, we work extra long days.
Well, happy birthday to everybody out there and uh cheers, mates. Cheers. We're not done with the movements here
that night, Captain. Because at 3:30 a.m. we have Jonathan stopping at the Peter J. Camille, I hope I got that
right, service plaza to buy bottled water. This sighting is not 100% certain. And to be honest with you, I think that
this is just a situation of somebody trying to help out. Hey, I think I saw him that night. We don't have his credit
card or debit card to confirm that he was there. And the other thing, too, is based off of what we know. And again,
there are some missing things here in his timeline, but this place seems to be too far from the previous stop for the
timing to be correct for him to be there at 3:30. It just doesn't line up. But I wanted to include it.
Then we have at 4:04 a.m. his car left the Pennsylvania Turnpike at exit 286. This is the Reading-Lancaster
Interchange. A paper toll ticket was turned in to the toll collector even though, again, Jonathan's car has
that easy pass. What's really interesting here though, Captain, is there's blood on this paper toll ticket
that's turned in. We run some tests, and guess what? It's Jonathan's blood on that toll ticket.
So, we know we don't know what's going on that night, but we do know one thing for
certain. By 4:04 a.m. he's been injured at this point. He's bleeding at this point. But possibly makes sense with the
easy pass that it doesn't work in that location, so he would have to use a ticket. Yeah, so per one study on the
case the exit drops drivers into a small, like well-lit strip of all-night gas stations and motels. Investigators
visited all of them and found no leads. They couldn't find anybody to say, "Hey,
we saw Jonathan here or we spoke with him." The lights quickly disappear as the road winds into
that Amish country area. This is a Brecknock Township where later his lifeless body will be found. They
believe that at 4:05 a.m. Jonathan was alive when his car entered the parking lot and then pulled up to that creek,
right? So, he goes he goes up near this business, then off the road, and then down to that creek. Again, we don't know
who's driving, but his body is found at 5:30 a.m. So, there's not a whole lot of time between
4:04 a.m. when his blood is turned in on a toll to a toll collector on a toll ticket, and then an hour in
less than a half later his body his lifeless body is discovered face down in that shallow creek.
Well, the more I read about this case this week, the more research I did, the more I couldn't believe that this isn't
one of the biggest cases on the internet. It's beyond bizarre. It's beyond fascinating. And let me read
this. This comes from the post newspaper because they they wrote it much better than I could. And I think it it really
sums up the driving and the movements from that night. It says investigators took
special note of the gaps in the timeline when Jonathan's location and activities
are unknown. Of particular interest, they said, are two gaps. The timeline shows that Luna used his debit card at a
toll plaza in Newark, Delaware at 12:57 a.m. And then turned into the New Jersey
Turnpike at exit 6A at 2:37 a.m. Driving that distance would take about 40 minutes.
Which leaves an hour unaccounted for, they said. In addition, they are interested in the period from when he
left the Turnpike at 4:04 a.m. and when his body was discovered at 5:30 a.m. So,
some big gaps, and I like that they're pointing out to us, "These are the times that we are very concerned about. These
are the times that we know we need to know more about what was going on that night or who may have been with Jonathan
Luna." The gaps are interesting because Jonathan could have met up with someone.
Or maybe he stopped somewhere that wasn't recorded and he didn't use his credit card.
Something that's very interesting to me in this case is his location because we know that he's far away from his city,
but but the route doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not Like if I was going to go to Cleveland, I just take 71 all the
way up there, but if I took different roads than 71, you'd question why. Yeah, and this, per their words, is
referred to as far from the most direct route from Baltimore to Lancaster County. So,
that's why they're interested in his movements and in particular that route. Captain, this is going to take us
to December 2nd, 2004. So, we're a year out from Jonathan's death. Yeah. This is when the
FBI the Baltimore FBI office released a statement concluding because keep in mind the the
one of the items that has been highly debated in this case over the years is was he alone
or was he traveling with someone or was he already abducted during the course of
this this crazy drive that seems to make no sense to anybody. But at the year mark, we have the FBI
that are announcing that from the time he left the courthouse office to the time his body
was found that he was alone. That their findings are that he was alone. Now, it's not real clear how they can be so
certain of this given the gaps in the timeline and the lack of eyewitnesses and surveillance footage, but this would
be the FBI story for the duration of the investigation. So, for the rest of the days, they're
going to say, "We figured out at some point he was alone for that entire trip from the time he left the courthouse to
the time that his body was found, and that's our story and we're sticking to it." In fact, on the 10th year
anniversary, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, April Brooks, told newspapers, "We're certain that there
was no evidence to show he was with anybody after he left the courthouse." Okay, I get that.
But to me, it's there's a very big difference between saying there's no evidence to show that he was
with anybody after he left the courthouse to saying he was alone that entire time.
Those are two very different statements to me. Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, they're so different that
in one of them could be true and the other one could be completely false. Right.
There you have no evidence that anybody was with him. Well, let's not go out of our way to say
he was absolutely alone from the time he left the courthouse to the time his body
was found. Then how is he then how is he getting these marks on his hands? What What they are implying
is that they are implying that their investigation concluded with him having committed suicide.
And that it was ultimately ruled a homicide to begin with, but they didn't have all the information.
FBI decides he was alone, so it must have been a suicide. And they they're they're not going out of their way to
say that it was a suicide. They're just saying, "Hey, he was alone." They're implying that look, we don't need to be
looking for his killer because he killed himself. But then again, here's where we
have a big problem. They've never closed the case. Right. And then you have to wonder, well, is it
convenient for them that the case remains open so that they don't have to disclose any of this information? Well,
why would they not want to disclose any information? Well, maybe they were up to
no good. So, it's one of those things where it's it's it's like a dog chasing its tail. It
just keeps going around and around and around and around. Every question brings up another question. Every question
brings up another question, and so on and so forth. And here we're sitting all these years later with what I believe to
be a murder, and it's unsolved. And let's not forget, ultimately in the beginning this was
ruled a homicide, and the coroners have stuck with that ruling. Yeah, and the frustrating thing for me is if you're so
sure, if law enforcement is so sure that this is a suicide, then close the case and let that case file be open to the
public. Yeah. And let the public look into it, but they don't want to do that because
maybe there's some errors there. Maybe there's maybe people didn't cross the T's and dot their I's. So, the first
thing that people are going to say, "Well, if this man was stabbed or had these many puncture wounds, well, where is the
weapon? If if he killed himself, you would have found the weapon at the scene." Well, they didn't, and we know
that. However, in February of 2004, they did a they did a recanvassing of that area of where Luna's body was found.
When they recanvassed the area months later, now investigators are saying, "Well, we found a pen knife
that we believe caused the wounds that killed Jonathan Luna." They also said that investigators believe the pocket
knife is the one that Jonathan Luna regularly carried with him. So, they're just assuming that this guy is driving
and then stabbing himself in the hands and and and other parts of his body. Right. So,
this is where things get really This is where things get really dicey. So, obviously, we have
the murder/suicide {question mark} argument, but then we have a different version of
that that kind of falls somewhere in between, right? So, it's not murder, it wasn't suicide. These may be
self-inflicted wounds, and he didn't ultimately plan to kill himself, but did too much damage and accidentally killed
himself. And we're going to get into that in a minute, but before we do, I do want to make sure that we bring up,
while we're on the timeline here, in March of 2004, we have This is a case is now 3 months
old. This is after they find the penknife. It's no closer to being solved. Obviously, there's some kind of
schism amongst the investigators of what actually happened here, murder or suicide.
That's not helping the investigation. But the Washington Post summed it up very nicely saying authorities announced
a $100,000 reward in the unsolved death of a federal prosecutor, this Jonathan P.
Luna, admitting publicly for the first time that 13 weeks of investigation had not determined whether it was a homicide
or a suicide. Seems like a lot of money to be offered if you're if it's if the FBI's really leaning
toward the suicide angle here. Yeah. Investigators were seeking information from anyone who may have had contact
with Mr. Luna, anyone who may have seen Mr. Luna or his vehicle. So, we've already kind of debated this murder or
suicide thing. And it's it's the FBI's stance that he killed himself. It's the coroner's stance that it was a
homicide. Yeah, and even though that these autopsy reports haven't been released to the public, both of these
doctors have been vocal in in public's eyes and and given their opinions and thoughts on this matter. So, let's get
into the suicide gone wrong theory. This is an interesting angle because this is
a theory that doesn't appear in most of the cases that we discuss here in the garage. So, others
weren't taking a side on suicide or murder, more a little more down the middle, so to speak. They're
formulating a theory that Jonathan, under financial pressure or stressed out about his job and facing possible
accusations about the missing money and a polygraph and all the stress that comes with that, tried to stage a scene
in which he would appear to have been kidnapped and attacked. This getting him out of court the next
morning, maybe getting out of the future polygraph test, and getting him sympathy
from his colleagues and, you know, others involved in the missing money investigation. At the very least, this
would buy him some time to deal with some of this if people fell for it, and it wouldn't be the first time in the
garage that somebody staged a crime that we would later figure out, "Hey, this isn't what they said it was. It wasn't
what it appeared to be." We had the Sherri Papini case, which, I mean, forget about that one. So, the idea
here, Captain, is that he tried to stage an attack and a kidnapping and wanted it
to be severe enough, or at least his wounds, to appear to be severe enough that everybody would buy it, buy the
story, and that in the process of harming himself, that he accidentally nicked that artery,
which caused which would cause his death, but before it did, before he bled out, he fell into
the shallow water, went unconscious, and died. This doesn't seem like it's all adding up correctly.
It doesn't seem super plausible, but I'm going to throw this in here. This was from a web sleuther. The username is
Falcon500. Old Falcon. And this person Falcon500 is claiming or or is verified to be a law
enforcement detective. I'm I'm a little uncertain, unclear how that that was verified, but that's what it says. So,
let's go with that. This individual, this web sleuther, believes that Jonathan likely did steal
the $36,000, that he wanted to deflect suspicion away from himself, so he thought up this
scheme where he would be found in his car and then claim that he'd been kidnapped from his office. He made sure
that he visited several spots where the presence of his car would be documented.
His wounds were superficial, and it's likely that he became confused, got out of his car, and then fell into the creek
and drowned. So, that's how one person puts it that this might have worked out. 36 puncture wounds is a lot. Yeah.
Again, it doesn't make a lot of sense, and it it's the the two cans of gas. Yeah, the two
tanks of gas. Two tanks of gas. And then you also wonder, well, well, did he fill up his
tank? And then did he have a spare gas can in the back that he filled up? Or was somebody traveling with him? Yeah. I
mean, that's what That's where my mind goes, that somebody's traveling with him. And if he's filling up gas for the
other person, it almost implies to me, well, he's not been abducted unless he has been abducted, somebody's holding
him in his car, and they have another car tailing them. It's It's all very confusing, and then
again, we keep have to come back to the idea of this information is not an open book. It's not released to the public.
And when you ask specific questions in this case, you're shot down by the old, "Oh, we're going
to hide behind the idea of it's an open investigation." But everything in your investigation, as far as you're telling
us or implying to us, is that you have decided this was a suicide, and so we're not technically actively investigating
anything. Well, suicide to me seems like it makes zero sense. My only caveat with
that is what the coroner, you know, what the coroners are saying. They're saying
there was a artery that was hit. So, if you're trying to stage a scene to look like possibly you were abducted or
possibly you were attacked or tortured, and then you you end up stabbing yourself in the wrong location,
I could see that as a possibility. Right. Because we have evidence of of a puncture in a main artery.
But what we know of Jonathan Luna, and again, maybe he had some kind of break, we don't know, but
what we do know about him leading up to that point, this kind of idea of, "Oh, I'm going to
stage an abduction and an attack to the point where I I'm unconscious when they find me, or I have my wounds are so
severe that I can claim I don't remember anything or I don't know who my attacker
was, or make make it up who attacked him." It seems incredibly sloppy and dumb based off of what we know of this guy.
It seems too sloppy for for it to be his plan. It seems too dumb to me for it to
be his plan. But again, we can't rule anything out because we're not given Yeah, but it'd be dumb to steal money.
Yes, that is true. And you know, it's it's dumb to get that far behind in debt. I See, with his debt, I actually
don't see an issue with that. It is a lot of money, but having a young family and you're taking care of mom and dad, I
mean, basically, his salary and his wife's salary is providing for three generations. Yeah, I don't see it as
being, again, that that much of debt, but to the point where that Or or what what else was he involved in
that we just don't know? There could be debts that aren't on books. Let's spin this missing money thing a different
way, right? We already have people pointing out the misinformation or the spin factor on the information
that's coming out in this case. So, let's do a little spinning of our own here, shall we?
With the missing money, so many people point out that if he did steal the money, then suicide makes
sense. Or if he did commit suicide, well, it was probably because he was guilty of stealing the money. Those two
things seem to be kind of walking together arm in arm. But let's spin it a different way.
What if he didn't steal the money? What if he didn't commit suicide? What if his apprehension, if he had any, and it
doesn't seem like he had any, about taking the polygraph or doing the interview about the missing money, if
you want to suspect that, well, you should suspect it two ways. Either he didn't want to talk with people because
he stole the money, or what about this? What if he's being accused or believes that he's being accused of stealing
money or doing something that he did not do, and he had suspicions of his own or
information of his own that might lead you to the person responsible for stealing that money. There might be
somebody that would wanted to shut him up in that regard. Like I said, it becomes very confusing because this
guy's whole career, he was surrounded by people that would be capable of doing this. Yes, and I just wonder
I cannot make any sense of his movements that night, and I've tried for the past
10 days, and I'm I'm here to tell you, I can't do it. I've I've tried to figure out do do the movements that night point
more towards an abduction or to him not being in control of his movements. Do they point more toward
somebody's traveling with him that he thought was, you know, a friend or on his side?
Do the movements point to him trying to cover something up or meet with somebody?
I can't make heads or tails of his movements that night enough to decide on where I fall
as far as the theories go about what he was up to that night or if he was even in control of his own movements.
inquest request. Yes, so the way that this works here, Captain, is in January of 2007
Jonathan Luna's parents formally requested that the Lancaster County Coroner conduct an inquest into
Jonathan's death. So, the coroner declined to do so. And then we have private investigator Ed
Martino who was hired by Jonathan's friend. In fact, it was the best man at Jonathan's wedding. Private Eye Martino
dug into the case for months and then believed firmly that Jonathan was murdered because of his work,
specifically his work with the FBI. He believed that the agency had very suspiciously shut down
the death investigation. He said his investigation had not linked Jonathan to any risky or suspicious behavior and he
believed that the FBI was trying to change the narrative. He said, "Quote, they used to call it
disinformation. They call it spin today." In 2009 there was reason to believe that there
was an active grand jury investigation into the unsolved Luna case. Again, this is interesting to me because I keep
pointing out that they could be hiding behind this idea of we can't give you any information because it's an active
investigation. But then at the same time, everything that the FBI is telling us and everything that the FBI seems to
be doing behind the scenes indicates that they've ended their investigation. They've decided that it was suicide, so
much so that they tried to get the coroners to change their ruling, retroactively change their ruling to
suicide. The coroners say, "No, we're not going to." And now the FBI doesn't seem to
actually have an active investigation because they've determined it to be suicide, can't get the coroners to
change their minds. And so, we don't have an active investigation. However, here when you start sniffing around, it
looks like there might be an active investigation because in 2009, and this is evidence of such, there was
a possible existence of a federal grand jury investigation. And look, these are supposed to be secret, right? But at
that time the Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Susan Moyer wrote a letter to
an author. So, there's this author, William Keisling, who has come up with this big
kind of conspiracy theory that involves the informant and the FBI being involved
in Jonathan Luna's murder. And he doesn't specifically name anybody as far as I'm aware. I've not read his book.
But in 2009, this author is trying to get his hands on the autopsy to write his book.
Well, the district attorney, the assistant district attorney, writes him a formal
letter saying, "I can't give you the autopsy because we have an open federal grand
jury investigation." So, what is it? Is Is this case active and we can't tell you anything because
it's an active case or is it not active and nobody's actually investigating it? Somebody's decided it's a suicide and
the coroners will not change their ruling. It's a very murky situation and unfortunately, I don't feel like we are
getting any clear answers from these these bigger agencies that we are to trust with our safety.
Well, one of the issues with a case like this is it's where do you lean? Do you lean towards
suicide or murder? My problem with suicide is the evidence that he was in the backseat of his car at some point,
meaning was somebody driving? This really becomes a red light case for me and and one that I'll be thinking
about constantly and probably one that I'll randomly Google for more information because
it's uh it's beyond bizarre. Right, and this case really is a mess of leaked information, misinformation,
backtracking, walking things back, botched crime scenes, internal investigations. I mean, it's a very
complicated case. It's a very complicated story and we know that all of that does
does not help. It certainly muddies the waters big time in this case and in any other case that we've looked into. In
fact, when you have this much going on and this much confusion, rarely do you see an answer, a result, uh
an arrest, somebody being convicted. Personally, I lean toward the side of murder. I I
believe that somebody killed him. I don't I I I still believe that it it has something to do
either directly tied to or loosely tied to his work. Something he was involved in, something
that he was aware of, that that knew about. I can say this, it was on purpose that we bring up
Detective Sean Suiter's death in the trailer. Because that case is just as confusing
as this one and they both took place in Baltimore. Ray Rivera's case is a little
bit different. It seems like all the confusion is really on on his end and what what was going on in his his world.
Right. But again, I'm a blue blood and I have I have the backs of the women and men that
that choose to go into that line of work and that do that job and do it well and
do a good job of it. Every agency has had its black eyes over the years. But the Baltimore Police Department,
especially during this time frame, there's been so much concern about corruption and things that were going on
behind the scenes and a lot of it involves money and drugs. And here we have a situation that seems
to involve or might involve money that people in that line of work may have had access
to and it disappeared. And now we have people being called into question. And I tell you what, believe
you me, if I was accused of stealing money to the point where I I'm maybe not directly being accused, but to the point
where I have to sit down and have meetings about it and take a polygraph test, if I have an
idea or a suspicion of who I think took it or who I think is responsible, you better believe that I'm going to make
that well known to the people that are interviewing me, my suspicions. You have yours, I got mine and I'm not afraid to
tell you what I think. One case that we didn't bring up that I'm sure our listeners are going, "This
reminds me of that other case." Right. Well, it's the case of Ray Gricar who disappeared in April of 1995.
He was a prosecutor as well. Now, what's funny about the idea of that popping into people's heads when they hear this
story is law enforcement, despite admittedly investigating similarities in the cases,
they have denied any possible link between what happened to Jonathan Luna and the disappearance of Ray Gricar.
There seemed to have been thought there that they could possibly be linked because it was investigated.
Now, I'm not sitting here with a high confidence level of knowing what happened to Ray or ever finding out what
truly happened to Jonathan Luna. I hope and pray that we do. Again, I think that he was murdered. I think that
something happened and I cannot explain why he left his office there that night.
He should have stayed and finished. Can't explain why he left his phone. Can't explain why he left his phone.
There have been people that said that he couldn't drive without his glasses. I purposely did not include
that when we were discussing the items left at his office because that seems highly debatable.
Highly debatable because we we know that the glasses were left behind. However, that car did a lot of moving
that night. So, somebody drove it and somebody didn't have any problem driving it 100 miles away. So, if he was in fact
driving his own car, then we know that that's not the case, that he had no problems driving without those glasses.
This is a case, again, too many questions. Too many things left unsatisfied for us
to come up with a great idea of what really happened here. Can't thank you guys enough for joining
us here in the garage. We love your smell. We love We love your smell. What can we say?
If you're digging any of the music for the shows, you can find it all for free on Apple Music or Spotify. Just search
True Crime Garage, and it'll come up under music artists, and you can follow us there on Spotify. And like I said,
it's all for free. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
We're going to go with some recommended listening this week here, Captain. We are recommending one of our favorite
shows, the True Murder Podcast. Longtime listeners of our show will know that we
have had the host of True Murder, Dan Zupansky, on our show a couple of times. We like to
call Dan the godfather of true crime podcast. Check out his show, True Murder. In particular, you want to check
out last Tuesday's show. This is when Dan interviewed Ladonna Humphrey, who is an expert on the still unsolved Melissa
Witt murder case. We had Ladonna on our show to discuss Missy Witt's case, as well, but it really made my day,
Captain, when I was listening to Ladonna, who told Dan that after coming on our show, the Melissa Witt Facebook
page blew up. And Dan referred to us as his friends over at True Crime Garage. So, thank you both, True Murder and
Ladonna Humphrey, for the shout-out and the kind words. That's True Murder Podcast, Tuesday, April 12th, The Girl I
Never Knew with Ladonna Humphrey. And until next week, be good, and be kind. And don't litter.

Jonathan Luna /// Part 2 /// 573

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Here in the Garage we have featured more than a fair share of strange and confusing crimes and murders. Each one of these stories and cases are unique but this week we have a real tricky True Crime Story. The homicide of 38 year old Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna. Jonathan’s body was found approximately one hundred miles from his home in Baltimore. He had suffered thirty six puncture wounds to his neck and chest area. The debates about this homicide, likely abduction and his movements on the night of his death have puzzled the public since his body was found in December of 2003. Join us in the Garage for a case that is sure to haunt you.

Beer of the Week - Peachful by Highland Brewing

Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

Brief Summary

Jonathan Luna's mysterious death raises questions about missing money, personal affairs, and the investigation's integrity.

Key points

The Missing Money Mystery. $36,000 in cash disappears after a bank robbery trial Jonathan prosecuted. Was he involved?
Suspicious Loan Application. Jonathan filled out a $30,000 loan application shortly before the money went missing.
Unexplained Trips to Pennsylvania. Jonathan made mysterious trips to Pennsylvania before his death. What was he doing?
The Mystery of Jonathan Luna. Jonathan Luna's disappearance raises questions about his last movements and possible abduction.
Conflicting Theories. The FBI concludes Luna was alone, but the coroner rules it a homicide.
The Case Remains Open. Despite the FBI's claims, the case remains unsolved and shrouded in mystery.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

$36,000 missing and it sounds like it's on his watch.

Discussion about the missing money tied to Jonathan Luna.

4:25WatchApr 23, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High 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.