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

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
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Colonel that is enough of the beer this all right everybody gather around grab a
chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] 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 cour 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
stack acts 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 L 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 were saying look it was on a hand cart and 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 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 Shan suor 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 Shan Suter 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 son 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 poly 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 a schedule and now we're going to throw him under the bus and say
well he must be guilty cuz 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 scheduled 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 cancelled not long after this money went missing 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 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
Sons 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 6 and 1/2 years earlier describ 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 A2 years before his death of someone using that
name on these dating sites could be a catfish he it could be something that he's wasn't even aware of I just saw the
other day uh 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 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 numer 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 canvas businesses along
this route but it gets it gets weirder as the investigation unfolded additional trips to
Pennsylvania were 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 six-month period this was a sonoko 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 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 a 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 he was found correct yeah nobody 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 uh 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 the 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 over look it it's very important and 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 pull out a piece of paper and some pens
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 906 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
the 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 the 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 is involved in this thing unless they block 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's 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 did 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 McKenry 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 plot PLA 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
corresponder 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 I95 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 makes 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 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 why don't they have why don'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 can't 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 19 years ago that was my nickname 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 clear 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 because 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 worked 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 back seat 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 back seat while the killer or killers are 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 Sonoco 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 seem to downplay the second gas purchase all right let me Circle back
around to something 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 H you know they seem to have a theory that they've locked on
to 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
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50% [Music] welcome back it's always great when it gets heated here in the garage hold on to crank up the AC crank
up to 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
but only 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 into 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 test 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 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 allight 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 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 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 to to a toll collector on a toll ticket and then an hour and 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 bizar 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 activity 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 237 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 404 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 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 there's a very big difference between saying there's no evidence to show that he was with any
body 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 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 teas and D their eyes so the first thing that people were 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 re they did a recanvassing of that area of where
Luna's body was found when they Rec canvased 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 th 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 the case is now 3 months old this is after they find the pen knife 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 is 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 the Public's eyes and
and given their opinions and thoughts on this matter so let's get into this suicide gone wrong Theory this is an
interesting angle because this is a theory that doesn't appear in most 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 Fa 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 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 Sher papini case which I mean forget about that one so the idea here Captain
is that he tried to Stage an attack and a kidnap napping and wanted it to be severe enough or at least his wounds to
appear to be severe enough that everybody would buy it by 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 sluther the user name is
Falcon 500 old Falcon and this person Falcon 500 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 sluther 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
had 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 punch wounds is a lot yeah
again it doesn't make a lot of sense and it it's um 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 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 coordinat
are saying they're saying there was an artery that was hit so if you're trying to stages 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 because we have evidence of of a puncture and 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'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 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 against that that
much of debt but maybe that was for him 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 have 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 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' I've tried to
figure out do do the movements at night Point more towards an abduction or to him not being in control of his movement
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 taals 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 there was a 2007 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 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 here's this author William keyling who has come up with this big kind of conspiracy theory
that involves the informant in 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 in 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 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 back seat 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
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 of result U 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 Shan suter'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'm
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 am 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 Greer 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 Greer there
seemed to 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 Rey 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
[Music] here [Music] 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 artist 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 sansky 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 show this is when Dan interviewed Lonna Humphrey who is an
expert on the still unsolved Melissa wit murder case we had Lonna on our show to
discuss Missy wit's case as well but it really made my day Captain when I was listening to Lonna who told Dan that
after coming on our show the Melissa wit Facebook page blew up and Dan referred to us as his friends over at True Crime
garage so thank you both true murder and Lonna Humphrey for the shout out and the
kind words that's true murder podcast Tuesday April 12th the girl I never knew with Lonna Humphrey and until next week
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Jonathan Luna /// Part 2 /// 573

Part 2 of 2

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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.

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Brief Summary

The episode investigates Jonathan Luna's mysterious death, focusing on missing money, suspicious activities, and conflicting theories of murder or suicide.

Key points

The Missing Money Mystery. $36,000 in cash disappears after a bank robbery trial that Jonathan Luna prosecuted.
Suspicion on Jonathan Luna. Jonathan Luna becomes a suspect in the missing money case due to access and circumstances.
Unexplained Trips to Pennsylvania. Investigators uncover multiple trips Jonathan made to Pennsylvania before his death, raising questions.
The Mysterious Phone Call. Questions arise about why the phone was left behind. Was it an accident or intentional?
Blood on the Toll Ticket. Jonathan's blood is found on a toll ticket, raising questions about his last movements.
The FBI's Stance. The FBI concludes Jonathan was alone during his last trip, despite timeline gaps.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

$36,000 that's a lot of rolling papers.

Discussing the amount of missing money tied to Jonathan Luna's case

4:23WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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