July 6, 2026

Jocelyn and Wesley Earnest

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When Jocelyn Earnest was found dead on the floor of her Forest, Virginia home on December 20th, 2007, investigators saw what appeared to be a suicide — a typed note, a gun, a woman in the middle of a painful divorce. But the people who knew Jocelyn best refused to accept that explanation. She had just been offered a promotion at work. She was looking forward to the holidays. She was almost through the divorce. She was making plans.

What followed was a years-long legal battle featuring a staged crime scene, forged documents, a critical error in the jury room, and a moment on the witness stand that stopped the courtroom cold — all centered on a single question: did Jocelyn Earnest take her own life, or did someone who knew her well go to great lengths to make it look that way?

Today's snack: Baklava from St. John's Bakery (thanks Jan!)

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Sources:

WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Tina.

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If there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years

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of marriage.

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It's some days you'll feel like killing your husband, and some.

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Days you'll feel like killing your wife.

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Welcome to love, Mary kill.

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Hey Tina, Hey Rich. How are you today?

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I am good? How are you?

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I am doing well.

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You're a little hot.

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You beat me too. I was going to say, is

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it hot enough for you?

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A good one. I know it is hot enough for me.

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It's more than hot enough for me.

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But I think it's nice when it's hot everywhere, so

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everyone knows what we're talking about, except like our listeners

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in Australia where it's winter.

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But I was talking to one of my colleagues in

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Los Angeles today and he said, it's actually really really

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not hot at all there.

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Yeah. I was talking to your sister and she said

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that too. But you know, in the Midwest, yeah, it's

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very hot.

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Europe it's like really really hot.

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Yeah, that's such a bummer. And they don't have air

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conditioning like you. It would be unusual for you to

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go into a store or a business and it not

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be air conditioned. In the United States, right, and most

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people's homes are air conditioned.

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Yeah. I was talking to another person at work today.

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One of our agencies is in Poland, and they were

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saying how people are buying like those portable air conditioners

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and you can't find them anywhere. They're like sold out everywhere.

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It's dangerously hot. Before we get into your case, I

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want to say thank you to everyone for all your

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nice comments on the Hannah Clark case. I know that

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was a really hard case to listen to, so we

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appreciate your support and it is so important to remember

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Hannah's story. I am working on a case now that

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hopefully is going to be a little bit of uplifting.

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Not uplifting, but you know, most of.

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The cases, most of the cases we do, are very

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sad that that Hannah Clark one was probably right up

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there with the top two.

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I know when I go to bed at night, when

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I'm still thinking about the victims and I can't get

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to sleep, but it's an especially tough one.

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Every once in a while we like to mention that

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we have another edition of our podcast, so if you're

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not into banter on your true crime podcasts, we get it.

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Acts.

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Yeah, a lot of people feel that way, and that's

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why we publish a different version of Love Mary Kill

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called Love Mary Kill Just the Facts, So there's no snacks,

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no banter at the beginning or the end of the episode.

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We do still give our opinions about the case, usually

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at the end, so technically it's not just the facts,

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but calling it mostly the facts or almost only the

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facts just didn't have the same ring to it the

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search for Love Mary Kill Just the Facts wherever you listen.

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And coming soon Love Mary Kill Just rich Really yeah,

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I think you should do it a version that's just you.

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I hadn't heard this news beforeway sometimes never never. I'm

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very excited about our snack today because a listener sent

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this in. So Jan was kind enough to send us

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some Boklova from Saint John's Bakery in Goldendale, Washington.

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I'm very excited to try it.

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I still choose it does. It looks amazing, Thank you

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so much. Jam.

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It looks really fresh too. Yeah, it didn't sit in

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our mailbox for months like things had before, because you

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checked it.

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I did check it and picked it up, So yeah,

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let's give it a try. What did you think of

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the Boklova?

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It was really good. It was just like the loveliest

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texture and the best flavors, and I thought it was

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really good, really interesting.

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Excellent, probably the best baklava I've ever had.

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It.

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Looked at the website for Saint John's Bakery and it's

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Saint john Monastery dot org. They have all sorts of stuff, chocolate, jams, jellies,

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all kinds of pasta.

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Oh, that sounds great. That sounds like a really good

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gift idea.

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Yeah, check it out and thanks again, Jan for sending that.

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That was so thoughtful.

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The other day, I was looking around our house and

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I was noticing all the sweet things that listeners have

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sent to us, And it's really it still touches me

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that so many people take the time and effort and

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the expense of sending us little gifts or snacks. It

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means so much.

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Yeah, it really does.

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We really appreciate you guys.

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Today we're going to tell the story of Joscelyn and

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Wesley Earnest. Thanks to Bianca for recommending this case. By

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December two thousand and seven, Joscelyn Earnest was in a

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good place, or at least a better place than she'd

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been in years. The holidays were coming, and she loved

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this time of year. She had taken time off work,

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as she always did around Christmas, to shop, see friends,

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and make cookies. She had family visits to look forward to,

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and she had recently been offered a new role at work,

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a promotion that she was genuinely excited about. She had

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been through a lot, a marriage that had slowly fallen apart.

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Years of tension, mistrust, and heartbreak that she hadn't fully

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shared with most of the people in her life, but

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the divorce was nearly final. She was almost through it,

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and she was looking forward to the future. So when

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her good friend Marcy Shepherd couldn't reach her, not by phone, text,

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or email, she got worried. That wasn't like Joscelyn. On

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the morning of December twentieth, after Joscelyn failed to show

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up for work, Marcy drove out to her house in Forest, Virginia,

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found a spare key in the shed by the pool,

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and let herself in through the back door. A wave

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of heat rolled out at her, as if the thermostat

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had been turned all the way up. As Marci's fogged

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up glasses cleared, she saw Joscelyn on the floor, blood

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pooling around her head. Investigators found what looked on the

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surface like a suicide, a note, a gun, a woman

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in the middle of a difficult divorce, but almost nothing

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about the scene held up on closer inspection, and the

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people who knew Joscelyn best had a very different idea

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as to what happened.

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So the thermist at was turned all the way up.

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Correct.

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I guess you're going to tell us why later.

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Yes, we will definitely get into that later. Joscelyn Denise

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Branham was born on October thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine, in Morgantown,

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West Virginia. Her parents, Bill and Joyce had met in

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high school and married the year before Joscelyn arrived. Four

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and a half years later, a second daughter, Laura, was born,

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and from the beginning the two sisters were very close.

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The family was living in Little Rock when Bill and

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Joyce divorced in nineteen seventy six. Joyce packed up the

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girls and moved back to Martinsburg, West Virginia, where Joscelyn

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would spend her childhood summers. They would go stay with

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their dad. With Joscelyn being only six at the time

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of the divorce and Laura only two, the sisters drew

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even closer together, with Laura looking up to her big

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sister as a source of stability. From an early age.

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Joscelyn was an exceptional athlete. She played softball and basketball

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through high school, and by her junior year she was

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averaging twenty four points per game in basketball, a number

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that climbed to twenty nine by her senior year.

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Wow.

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Impressive, I know, that's really impressive, especially for high school.

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She was team captain, earned an All State honorable mention,

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and wore number twenty one, a number she would keep

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through college. On top of that, she earned a black

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belt in karate. Her athletic ability was good enough to

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earn her a full scholarship to West Virginia University, where

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she played basketball for the Mountaineers from nineteen eighty nine

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to nineteen ninety two. Despite being of average height, she

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became one of the program's best three point shooters. She

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was talented enough that she tried out for the nineteen

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ninety two US women's Olympic basketball team. In nineteen ninety one,

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after stepping out of calculus class one day, a tall,

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athletic looking young man approached her, he introduced himself as

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Wesley Earnest and said, let's go play some basketball. Wesley

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Brian Ernest was born on May nineteenth, nineteen seventy, in

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a small town outside of Los Angeles. His father, Roger,

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was a California Highway Patrol officer, and the family moved

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to West Virginia when Wesley was five. When he was twelve,

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his parents' marriage fell apart. Wesley stayed with his mother, Patricia,

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while his younger brother, Tyler went to live with their dad.

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Growing up, Wesley threw himself into sports, pretty much any

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sport he could find. He started at WVU in nineteen

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eighty eight, initially as a civil engineering major, but by

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his junior year he had changed course, switching to mathematics

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with a desire to teach and coach basketball. That was

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the year he met Joscelyn outside of their calculus class.

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Was Joscelyn famous around campus? Because you said that Wesley

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knew who she was?

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Yeah, I think she was pretty well known. Like even

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if you look at the WVU sports website now, she's

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still listed on there all of her statistics and everything.

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So I think she was probably fairly well known. Once

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Joscelyn and Wesley started dating, they were inseparable, but it

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didn't take long for cracks to show. Joscelyn was a

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confident young woman in many ways, but she also did

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whatever she could to avoid confrontation. By nature, she was

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a helper, a problem solver, and a peacemaker, the kind

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of person who would try to diffuse the tension in

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any situation. In a relationship with someone easy going, that

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might not have mattered much, but Wesley wasn't that person.

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Early on, Joscelyn grew concerned about his controlling and manipulative tendencies.

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His anger issues were serious enough that she broke up

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with him while they were still in college. Wesley's response

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was to tell her, I don't know what I'll do

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without you. Maybe next time I go skydiving, I won't

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pull the cord. Joscelyn felt guilty and concerned. She backed

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down and they got back together. Joscelyn's sister Laura thought

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the two of them were polar opposites and couldn't picture

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them ever sharing a life without constant friction. She wasn't wrong,

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but Joscelyn's instinct was always to keep the peace and

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over time. That meant going along with things that she

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resented rather than fighting about them. Wesley finished his mathematics

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degree before Jocelyn was done with her degree. He moved

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to Bedford, Virginia, where he took a job teaching math

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and coaching basketball at Jefferson Forest High School. Joscelyn stayed

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in West Virginia, finishing up her double major in economics

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and marketing. Despite living five hours apart, their relationship continued

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and deepened. When Wesley proposed he did it with a

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metal detector. He filled a box with coins, added a

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note that said marry me, buried it in the ground,

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and had Joscelyn find it herself.

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She said, yes, that's pretty clever.

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She graduated from WVU in nineteen ninety three and joined

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Wesley in Virginia. They married on August nineteenth, nineteen ninety five.

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Joscelyn would later tell those close to her that on

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her wedding day she had been genuinely worried that she

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was about to make a serious mistake, but friends and

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family had traveled from far way to celebrate with them,

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and she didn't want to let anyone down, so she

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set her vows and hoped for the best.

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Joscelyn and Wesley settled into life in the Lynchburg area

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of Virginia. Wesley joined a co ed city volleyball team,

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where his teammates quickly picked up on something he was

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not someone you criticized after a bad play. Most players

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would talk openly with each other about what went wrong,

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but nobody said a word to Wesley, as he was

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likely to blow up in anger. Also on that volleyball

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team was Jennifer Landis, a former basketball player at Virginia

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Commonwealth University. Jennifer's boyfriend and future husband, Bob Kerns, came

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along with her, and before long, the four of them, Wesley, Joscelyn, Jennifer,

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and Bob had formed a tight social circle. They played sports,

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went out to dinner, and even took vacations together. Jocelyn

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also grew close to Emily, Jennifer's seven year old daughter

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from a previous relationship. Meanwhile, both Wesley and Joscelyn enrolled

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in night classes to pursue master's degrees. Joscelyn earned her

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MBA from Virginia Tech and landed a job with First

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Colony Life, which was absorbed into ge Capital Corporation. A

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year later, Wesley earned a master's in education, then kept going,

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enrolling in night classes at the University of Virginia to

237
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pursue a doctorate. In the year two thousand, Wesley took

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a teaching position at Heritage High School in the Lynchburg

239
00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:34.759
City School District. That same year, he finished his coursework

240
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.240
and was awarded a PhD in administration and supervision with

241
00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:41.519
minors in finance and technology.

242
00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:44.919
Where Jocelyn and Wesley were really go getters in terms

243
00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:48.600
of education, I mean both Jocelyn had two double major

244
00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.960
her undergrad got her masters, and then Wesley went on

245
00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:53.240
to get his doctorate as well.

246
00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:56.559
Very impressive, making me feel like a slouch. At some

247
00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:59.799
point after they settled in Virginia, Wesley caught Joscelyn off

248
00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:04.000
with an announcement he was converting to the Jehovah's Witnesses.

249
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Neither of them had grown up in a religious household,

250
00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:10.960
so it came out of nowhere. Wesley's explanation was straightforward.

251
00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:14.080
He told Joscelyn that faith was helping him get his

252
00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:18.840
anger under control. While Joscelyn supported the goal, his conversion

253
00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:22.559
created more friction in their marriage. Wesley developed a new

254
00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:27.919
social circle through his congregation. Joscelyn didn't attend services, though

255
00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:31.240
she would occasionally join him for church functions like picnics.

256
00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:37.000
The religious divide showed up most sharply around holidays. Jehovah's

257
00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:41.480
witnesses don't celebrate most holidays, including Christmas, Easter, New Year's

258
00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:44.799
and even birthdays, because they believe these days have non

259
00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:49.960
Christian origins, promote nationalism, or focus on humans rather than God.

260
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Wesley took those prohibitions seriously. For Joscelyn, who had always

261
00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:59.960
loved holiday traditions, this was a big problem. After his conversion,

262
00:14:00.279 --> 00:14:02.759
Wesley agreed to go with her to her family's home

263
00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:06.159
in West Virginia for Thanksgiving, but when they arrived, he

264
00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:09.000
stayed in the car while she sat down for dinner

265
00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:13.080
with her relatives. After that, she stopped asking and made

266
00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.799
the trip to West Virginia by herself every year.

267
00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:18.559
Can you imagine how awkward that must have been?

268
00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:19.600
So horrible?

269
00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:22.480
Why did he even agree to go so he could.

270
00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:24.759
Control her and make sure that she wasn't having a

271
00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:25.120
good time?

272
00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:25.879
Yeah, exactly.

273
00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.600
The conversion also pushed Joscelyn to a decision that she'd

274
00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:33.240
been grappling with for a while. She had always wanted children,

275
00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:36.919
but Wesley's temper and his need for control had already

276
00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.639
given her pause. Now, knowing that he would want to

277
00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:43.919
raise any children in his faith, something she was firmly against,

278
00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:46.919
she made up her mind. From that point on, she

279
00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.440
insisted Wesley use a condom every time they had sex.

280
00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:54.039
This makes me really sad that Joscelyn gave up a

281
00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.840
lot of what she wanted out of life for Wesley.

282
00:14:56.919 --> 00:14:59.159
Like she really wanted kids and she gave that up.

283
00:14:59.399 --> 00:15:01.879
She loved how and she gave up you know, having

284
00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:04.879
a close family celebration at the holiday season.

285
00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:09.000
Yeah, very sad. Wesley had loved Smith Mountain Lake, about

286
00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.559
forty five minutes southwest of their home, since he was

287
00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.200
a boy, and at some point the couple decided to

288
00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.480
build a home there. In two thousand and one, they

289
00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:19.639
bought a piece of land, but they had different visions

290
00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:23.120
of what to build on that land. Jocelyn wanted something

291
00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:26.879
rustic and RESTful, a cabin that fit the surroundings, but

292
00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.399
Wesley had something completely different in mind. He wanted a

293
00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:34.080
home bigger and more impressive than everything around it. Was

294
00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:37.000
this a vacation home or more like their forever home.

295
00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:39.159
I think he had plans to make it more their

296
00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:39.799
forever home.

297
00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:44.080
Okay, As usual, Wesley got his way. The plans called

298
00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:47.639
for seven bedrooms, each with a sunset view of the lake,

299
00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.120
six and a half bathrooms, a spacious deck, and a

300
00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.759
three boat dock. So that would be kind of an

301
00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:57.600
engineering feat to have seven bedrooms each with a sunset view, right.

302
00:15:57.840 --> 00:15:58.399
Yeah.

303
00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:02.039
Wesley obtained his contractor's license and served as his own

304
00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:07.000
general contractor on the build, coordinating more than eighty subcontractors.

305
00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.679
Whenever Joscelyn offered an opinion on a design decision, he

306
00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:14.159
overruled her. This was his project and he was in

307
00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:18.039
complete control. In fact, Wesley was in full control of

308
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:22.159
the couple's finances. He put Joscelyn on a strict shopping budget,

309
00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.759
which didn't bother her much. She had modest tastes. She

310
00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:30.000
was perfectly happy shopping at goodwill, thrift stores, and yard sales.

311
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:34.120
That summer, Wesley was too busy to join Joscelyn and

312
00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:37.399
their friends Jennifer and Bob Kerns on their annual vocasion

313
00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:40.519
to the current's cabin in Canada. He didn't want Joscelyn

314
00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:44.240
going without him, but she went anyway. During that trip,

315
00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:48.639
Joscelyn opened up to Jennifer about Wesley's controlling, overbearing, and

316
00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:53.879
manipulative ways. Jennifer, a former college athlete who didn't intimidate easily,

317
00:16:54.279 --> 00:16:57.360
started to see herself as something of a protective older

318
00:16:57.399 --> 00:17:01.559
sister to Joscelyn. T thousand and three. Something started to

319
00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:04.880
shift in Joscelyn. Instead of always deferring to Wesley to

320
00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:08.759
keep the peace, she started pushing back. Wesley convinced himself

321
00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.559
that Jennifer's influence was behind his wife's new backbone, and

322
00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:17.039
even accused Jennifer of having romantic feelings for Joscelyn. The

323
00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:19.559
tension came to a head that summer during the annual

324
00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:22.400
trip to Jennifer and Bob's cabin in Canada. It was

325
00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:26.640
over something small, a soda can or a pop can or.

326
00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:28.480
A coke can, depending on where you are.

327
00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:32.599
One afternoon, Jennifer's teenage daughter Emily and Wesley were both

328
00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:35.799
out in the dock drinking diet doctor pepper. Emily came

329
00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:38.599
inside and Jennifer sent her back out to grab her can.

330
00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:42.000
A bit later, Jennifer glanced out the window and spotted

331
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.920
something floating in the lake a crushed diet doctor pepper can.

332
00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:49.880
When she pointed it out, Wesley lit into Emily, saying

333
00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:53.440
that she was irresponsible, But Jennifer knew Emily had brought

334
00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:55.759
her can in, so the one floating in the lake

335
00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:59.400
must have been Wesley's. When Jennifer told Wesley that he

336
00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:02.880
should own his mistake, he didn't take it. Well, no

337
00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:05.279
one's going to speak to me like this, he said,

338
00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:07.519
I'm not going to stay here and listen to this.

339
00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.720
He stormed out of the cabin, called for Joscelyn, and

340
00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:14.400
sent her inside to pack their things. They drove thirteen

341
00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:17.799
hours home that night without stopping. It must have been

342
00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:18.720
a really fun drive.

343
00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:19.279
Oh, I know.

344
00:18:19.720 --> 00:18:23.440
After that, Wesley's hostility towards Jennifer was out in the open.

345
00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.480
He complained when Jocelyn spent time with her and tried

346
00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:30.279
to forbid Joscelyn from seeing her at all, but Joscelyn

347
00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:34.519
ignored him. If anything, she became more candid with Jennifer

348
00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.680
about her struggles with the marriage.

349
00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:39.759
I think this story just paints such a picture of

350
00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:44.319
Wesley like just blowing up over something so right. Yeah,

351
00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:46.039
it just really is crazy.

352
00:18:46.599 --> 00:18:49.640
So becoming a Jehovah's witness really had no impact on

353
00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:52.480
his temper. Like no they had hoped it would, didn't

354
00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:55.039
seem to We'll be back after a break.

355
00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:06.319
As construction continued, Wesley started pushing Joscelyn to move out

356
00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:09.359
to the lake House with him. The project wasn't finished,

357
00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:12.119
but his idea was that if they lived there, they

358
00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:16.160
could spend every available hour working on it together. Joscelyn

359
00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:18.799
had no interest in adding an hour long commute each

360
00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:22.240
way to her already long workday or spending her evenings

361
00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:25.400
doing construction after already putting in a full day at

362
00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:28.519
the office, but Wesley didn't make it easy for Jocelyn

363
00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:31.279
to stay at their home on Pine Bluff Drive in Lynchburg.

364
00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:34.160
A house two doors down had gone up for sale,

365
00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:37.359
and Wesley borrowed one hundred thousand dollars from his father

366
00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.920
to buy it as a rental property. He initially offered

367
00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.799
it to his younger brother, Tyler, then rented it to

368
00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:47.279
someone else, leaving Tyler with nowhere to go but Wesley

369
00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:51.960
and Joscelyn's couch. Joscelyn didn't like Tyler, and she suspected

370
00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:55.319
the whole situation had been engineered by Wesley to make

371
00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:58.319
things uncomfortable enough that she would agree to move to

372
00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:01.960
the lake House just to get away from Tyler. Instead,

373
00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:04.559
she started spending more and more time at Jennifer and

374
00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:07.279
Bob's place, to the point where she was only coming

375
00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:10.400
home to shower and sleep. I'm not sure how long

376
00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.920
Wesley's brother, Tyler lived there, but he did eventually move

377
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.319
on and at Joscelyn ended up spending more time at

378
00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:21.279
her home. On the occasions when Jocelyn did see Wesley,

379
00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:26.920
he seemed different, more evasive, angrier, and increasingly fixated on money.

380
00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:29.519
Part of the change in Wesley may have been the

381
00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.799
mounting financial stress of the lake House project, but it

382
00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:35.799
was also because he was spending time with someone new.

383
00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:40.160
Wesley met Shamika Wright, a former police officer at the

384
00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:42.960
local Big Lots store where she was working as a clerk.

385
00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:47.079
Shamika's departure from the Lynchburg Police Department had not been

386
00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:51.319
on good terms. She had reportedly been dismissed after initiating

387
00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:55.079
a threatening confrontation while in uniform with a woman that

388
00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:58.759
she believed was seeing her ex boyfriend. Shamika was a

389
00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:02.160
few years younger than Wesley. By mid July, two thousand

390
00:21:02.200 --> 00:21:05.079
and four, the relationship was serious enough that they were

391
00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:08.359
taking trips together. Early two thousand and five brought a

392
00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:12.720
getaway to Florida and that summer the Smoky Mountains. Around

393
00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:15.880
the same time, Wesley took a job as assistant principal

394
00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:19.599
at a middle school in Chesapeake, Virginia, nearly four hours

395
00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:24.079
from Lynchburg. Shamika, meanwhile, had moved into the hr department

396
00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:27.519
of Campbell County's government and had begun working on her

397
00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:31.279
own doctorate. Despite the distance between them, they still saw

398
00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:35.440
each other nearly every weekend. In many ways, Joscelyn and

399
00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:38.640
Wesley were now living separate lives. She was at the

400
00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.880
house in Lynchburg, he was staying almost four hours away

401
00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:45.480
in Chesapeake during the work week and spending weekends finishing

402
00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.400
up the lake House. But they were still married and

403
00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:51.440
as far as Joscelyn knew, still faithful to each other.

404
00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:55.319
But one weekend at the lake house, Joscelyn became suspicious

405
00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:58.480
when she saw unfamiliar hairs in the bed and bathroom.

406
00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:02.000
She confronted West, who told her that the hairs belonged

407
00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:06.000
to his cleaning lady, a woman named Shamika Wright. He

408
00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.000
told Joscelyn that he had met Shamika through a suicide

409
00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:12.000
support group. He felt bad for her because she was

410
00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:15.119
struggling to find work and needed money, so he offered

411
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:17.920
her a job cleaning the lake house. He made a

412
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:22.200
point of describing Shamika as overweight and unattractive in an

413
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:27.279
apparent attempt to head off any possible suspicions. Joscelyn was skeptical,

414
00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:29.839
but she didn't push it any further for the moment.

415
00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:33.799
So they allegedly met through a suicide support group.

416
00:22:34.279 --> 00:22:35.480
That's what Wesley said.

417
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.599
Had he been having mental health issues.

418
00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:40.400
I don't know. The only thing I know is that

419
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:44.920
he threatened suicide earlier when Jocelyn tried to break up

420
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:47.480
with him. But I don't know if he was having

421
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.559
suicidal ideation or not.

422
00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:52.000
And you would think that Jocelyn is living so far

423
00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:54.880
away from him that she would be concerned by this, right.

424
00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:57.559
I'm not sure if she really believed that was how

425
00:22:57.599 --> 00:22:59.880
they met, or if she even believed that Wesley was,

426
00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.680
you know, in a suicide support group. After that incident,

427
00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:07.480
Joscelyn and Jennifer started doing some digging. A Google search

428
00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:11.200
turned up Shamika's parents address in Lynchburg, and that summer

429
00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:13.240
the two of them would drive out at night and

430
00:23:13.319 --> 00:23:18.480
regularly find Wesley's car parked outside. Joscelyn pushed for marriage counseling,

431
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:22.160
but Wesley refused. He said, I'm not sitting and paying

432
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:24.319
some stupid asshole to tell me what I should and

433
00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:28.240
shouldn't do. In two thousand and five, Joscelyn's sister Laura

434
00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:30.960
came to visit over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

435
00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:34.079
Joscelyn took her sister for a drive out to Smith

436
00:23:34.119 --> 00:23:37.000
Mountain Lake to show her the house. They pulled over

437
00:23:37.079 --> 00:23:39.680
on the opposite shore first to take in the view

438
00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:42.839
of the house from a distance. Looking across the lake,

439
00:23:43.039 --> 00:23:46.440
they could see Wesley and Shamika dancing together on the deck.

440
00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:50.960
Joscelyn still wasn't ready to end things. She told Laura

441
00:23:51.160 --> 00:23:54.240
she was seventy percent sure she wanted a divorce, but

442
00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:56.799
that she could still forgive him if he came back

443
00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:00.319
to her and was willing to make an effort. Joscelyn

444
00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:03.880
she started seeing a counselor and taking medication to treat

445
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:08.240
her growing depression and anxiety. Wesley meanwhile kept a line

446
00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:13.880
of communication open. He would send Joscelyn occasional emails, flirtatious, warm,

447
00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:17.119
sometimes hinting that he wanted to get back together. The

448
00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:20.079
emails would give Joscelyn hope, but then she would be

449
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:24.440
left disappointed when he didn't follow through. Jennifer saw through

450
00:24:24.519 --> 00:24:28.000
Wesley's outreach, telling Joscelyn that he was just keeping in

451
00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:31.440
contact with her because he was a control freak. She said,

452
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:33.839
he wants to keep the wool over your eyes while

453
00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:37.279
he's hiding his assets and establishing his financial future.

454
00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:40.519
I'm a little confused. Are they separated?

455
00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:43.960
I mean, I think they were living in separate places, right.

456
00:24:44.039 --> 00:24:46.480
He moved out, he took a job three and a

457
00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:49.480
half hours away. He was spending time at the lake House.

458
00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:51.240
So it wasn't like they ever had a moment where

459
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:53.319
they were like, let's separate and you go your way

460
00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:55.240
and I go mine. I think it's just that they

461
00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:57.960
gradually started living separate lives.

462
00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:01.359
And so they weren't seeing each other, not very often.

463
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:04.880
So Wesley would come to Lynchburg on the weekends and

464
00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:08.079
he would see Shamika, but he wouldn't see Joscelyn.

465
00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:10.960
I think that's true, or maybe Shamika would come out

466
00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:13.240
to see him, and maybe just to clarify for everybody

467
00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:16.640
the living situation at this point in time. So, Jocelyn

468
00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:19.279
was still living in their original house, which was near Lynchburg,

469
00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:22.440
was actually forest but near Lynchburg. The Lake House was

470
00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:26.079
like an hour away from that location. And then Wesley's

471
00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.559
job was in Chesapeake, which was like three and a

472
00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:31.519
half hours in the other direction, So he was renting

473
00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:34.480
an apartment there at the time. And Shamika I think

474
00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:36.599
she was living in Lynchburg, but you know, I'm sure

475
00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:39.559
they were. She was probably traveling out to Chesapeake sometimes.

476
00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:42.720
They were seeing each other regularly. I'm sure Joscelyn and

477
00:25:42.759 --> 00:25:46.160
Wesley still saw each other occasionally, but probably not very

478
00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:46.759
often at this.

479
00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:49.079
Point, Okay, so it wasn't like every weekend he would

480
00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:51.359
come back to their house and see her.

481
00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:55.400
At some point, Joscelyn hired a private investigator to keep

482
00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:58.920
tabs on Wesley. The reports came back confirming what she

483
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:02.799
already suspected. He and Shamika were still very much together.

484
00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:07.000
Reading the reports only deepened her depression. She knew the

485
00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:10.319
marriage was effectively over, but she still couldn't bring herself

486
00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:13.680
to officially end it. Then, one night in March two

487
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.799
thousand and six, Joscelyn and Jennifer took a drive out

488
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.799
to the lake house. Through a bedroom window, they could

489
00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:23.680
see Wesley and Shamika inside getting ready for bed. They

490
00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:27.519
watched them climb in together and begin having sex. Something

491
00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:30.720
snapped in Joscelyn. She walked up to the window and

492
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:34.000
pounded on the glass, shouting, I see you, Wesley. Ernest.

493
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:38.240
Wesley and Shamika bolted upright. Jocelyn gave them a moment

494
00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:42.279
to register what was happening, and then added having fun, enjoy.

495
00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:45.160
Then she and Jennifer ran back to the car and

496
00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:49.599
drove away. Jennifer later said that this was what Joscelyn

497
00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:53.160
needed to finally make her move. She filed for divorce

498
00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:57.799
in June two thousand and six, citing adultery, cruelty, desertion,

499
00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:01.880
and separation in excess of one year. Wesley told his

500
00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:05.319
lawyer the complaint had blindsided him and that the allegations

501
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.519
were ludicrous. His counterclaim denied everything. It was Joscelyn, he said,

502
00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:14.720
who had been distant and uncommunicative. He acknowledged that Shamikhah

503
00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:17.759
was a friend, but denied having an affair. At the

504
00:27:17.799 --> 00:27:21.119
same time, He claimed that Joscelyn had actually encouraged him

505
00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:23.720
to be intimate with other women because she had no

506
00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:26.559
interest in a physical relationship.

507
00:27:25.880 --> 00:27:28.920
With him, So when Joscelyn had caught them in bed together,

508
00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:30.279
she didn't think to take a picture.

509
00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:34.079
I don't think so. No. Joscelyn refused to engage with

510
00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:37.480
him directly about any of it. From that point, all

511
00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:41.039
communication went through their lawyers. She changed the locks on

512
00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:45.119
the house and installed the security system. Her sister Laura

513
00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:48.440
visited as often as she could that year. Joscelyn had

514
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:52.000
never been the most meticulous housekeeper, so Laura would pitch

515
00:27:52.039 --> 00:27:55.599
in with cleaning, laundry and dishes. One thing she noticed

516
00:27:55.640 --> 00:27:59.640
that was different, Joscelyn was now diligent about locking her doors.

517
00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.000
As the two thousand six two thousand seven school year

518
00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:06.519
got under way, Wesley landed a new job at Great

519
00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:10.440
Bridge High School in Chesapeake as assistant principal. He and

520
00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:13.880
Shamika were still together. Around the same time, he sent

521
00:28:13.960 --> 00:28:18.480
Joscelyn a letter as a last ditch effort to manipulate her, quote,

522
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:21.039
I am so very sorry for the turmoil in our

523
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:24.279
lives over the last few years. I want to grow

524
00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:27.200
old with you. I am a broken man, ready to

525
00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:30.920
get my life back, and I need you, but Joscelyn

526
00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:34.960
was not having it. In November eighth, two thousand six,

527
00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:38.079
Joscelyn came home from work to find her house had

528
00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:41.559
been broken into. The thermis dad had been switched off,

529
00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:45.240
leaving the place cold. The pipe to the gas fireplace

530
00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:48.119
had been cut, along with the water pipes to the

531
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:52.039
pool heater. A long list of items was missing, a bike,

532
00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:56.599
a camera, a shotgun, financial paperwork, a safe, a computer,

533
00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:00.799
fishing gear, and some of her clothing. Also gone were

534
00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:05.160
things that couldn't be replaced, family photos, furniture, gifts from

535
00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:09.039
her grandmother, her diplomas, and some of her personal journals.

536
00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:13.039
The journals worried her most. They contained her private thoughts,

537
00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:16.200
things she'd shared with her therapist, and her plans for

538
00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:20.079
ending the marriage. In Wesley's hands, that information could make

539
00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:24.599
him more dangerous. Through their lawyers, Wesley claimed he hadn't

540
00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:28.680
been there himself, but had hired movers to retrieve his belongings,

541
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:31.640
but it was hard to imagine a professional moving company

542
00:29:31.640 --> 00:29:34.960
would have done this sort of damage. Joscelyn tried every

543
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.200
avenue to get her possessions back but nothing worked. After that,

544
00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:42.680
she became even more cautious. She started doing drive bys

545
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:45.599
for her house before pulling in at night, scanning for

546
00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:49.039
anything that looked off. She assembled go bags a change

547
00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:53.640
of clothes, copies of important documents, cash, and stashed them

548
00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:58.319
in four different locations, her car, her office, Jennifer's house,

549
00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:01.599
and her mother's house. She also decided that if the

550
00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:05.000
legal process wasn't going to get her belongings back, she'd

551
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:08.400
do it herself. A hearing was scheduled for December fifth,

552
00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:12.759
and Joscelyn anticipated the judge would issue orders restricting both

553
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:16.759
her and Wesley from entering the other's property. She wanted

554
00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:20.240
to make her move before that happened. On December fourth,

555
00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:22.319
she and Jennifer rented a truck and drove out to

556
00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:25.480
the lake House, hoping Wesley wouldn't be there, and he wasn't.

557
00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:28.319
They went through the house thoroughly, but the garage and

558
00:30:28.359 --> 00:30:31.960
an outbuilding were locked. They found none of Joscelyn's missing

559
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.920
items anywhere they could access, so Joscelyn and Jennifer loaded

560
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.799
up a bunch of Wesley's belongings instead, a large screen TV,

561
00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:44.000
a DVD player, a wooden trunk, a sofa, a love seat,

562
00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:48.279
a recliner, a mattress, tools, a toolbox, a tool belt,

563
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:52.640
a coffee table, a rug, documents, and more. The plan

564
00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:54.759
was to use them as bargaining chips.

565
00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:58.480
This is a horrible it's really not a good plan.

566
00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:01.640
The next day, the judge she issued his ruling. He

567
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:05.880
restricted them from entering each other's properties. He also left

568
00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:08.559
Wesley with a financial burden of paying most of the

569
00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:12.319
six thousand dollars a month lake house mortgage payment himself,

570
00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:16.720
increasing the financial stress on him even more. Six thousand

571
00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:19.279
dollars a month, and that's just for the lake house,

572
00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:21.319
not his apartment. Yeah, holy moly.

573
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:24.680
And their income. Their combined income between Joscelyn and Wesley

574
00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:28.440
was around two hundred thousand dollars, which is not nearly

575
00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:31.200
enough to pay a mortgage night much but yeah, plus

576
00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:34.839
rand plus another house. Yeah, he was in over his head.

577
00:31:35.319 --> 00:31:38.319
One evening in February two thousand and seven, Jocelyn called

578
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:42.000
Jennifer in a panic. Wesley was outside her house. She

579
00:31:42.119 --> 00:31:45.640
had seen the doorknob turning, then spotted him through a window.

580
00:31:46.039 --> 00:31:49.559
She was terrified. Jennifer jumped in her car and headed over.

581
00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:53.480
When she arrived, the house was dark. Joscelyn had turned

582
00:31:53.480 --> 00:31:56.920
off every light. There was no sign of Wesley outside.

583
00:31:57.039 --> 00:32:00.680
Jennifer steeled herself and approached the front door, key in hand.

584
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:03.680
She was reaching for the lock when Wesley stepped out

585
00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:06.880
of the shadows less than two feet away, dressed entirely

586
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:10.640
in black clothing, a hoodie pulled tight around his face.

587
00:32:11.079 --> 00:32:14.319
Jennifer tried to keep her voice steady. Oh there you are.

588
00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:16.920
Joss called me and said you were out here. That's

589
00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:21.039
why I'm here. It figures she would call you, Wesley replied.

590
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:24.279
Jennifer told him that Joscelyn didn't want to see or

591
00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:27.279
speak with him, and that everything should go through their lawyers.

592
00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:31.759
Wesley pushed back, saying they were wasting money, the divorce

593
00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:35.440
proceedings were going to destroy both of their finances and credit,

594
00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:38.119
and that he was just there to talk some sense

595
00:32:38.119 --> 00:32:42.599
into her. Jennifer held firm Joscelyn wasn't going to come out,

596
00:32:42.680 --> 00:32:46.079
and she didn't want him there. Wesley eventually asked if

597
00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:49.240
Jennifer would at least relay a few things to Joscelyn

598
00:32:49.240 --> 00:32:52.160
on his behalf, and she agreed. They walked to her

599
00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:54.480
car so she could write down what he wanted to say,

600
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:57.279
and that's when she noticed that Wesley had some kind

601
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:00.880
of satchel hanging behind his back. As they talked, he

602
00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:03.960
kept moving his hand toward it. She worried that it

603
00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:07.759
contained a gun. She wrote down his lengthy message, keeping

604
00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:10.960
one eye on the bag. Wesley talked to Jennifer for

605
00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:15.319
nearly three hours before finally leaving. Jennifer went inside to

606
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:18.559
check on Joscelyn, still uneasy about whether he might have

607
00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:22.160
gotten in somehow, He hadn't. Joscelyn was safe.

608
00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:26.240
Really strange and terrifying behavior from Wesley.

609
00:33:26.079 --> 00:33:29.680
To Joscelyn must have been horrified for those three hours,

610
00:33:29.720 --> 00:33:31.880
thinking that her friend was going to be heard.

611
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:34.599
Yeah, well, I think Jennifer was terrified too, because she

612
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:37.000
really probably thought he had a gun there, and he

613
00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:40.640
was acting strangely, been talking for three hours, you know,

614
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:43.839
giving her this message to write down for Joscelyn. It's

615
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:46.119
just really scary behavior.

616
00:33:46.759 --> 00:33:50.000
A look at Wesley's finances painted a grim picture. His

617
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:53.400
mortgage payment alone ran six thousand dollars a month. He

618
00:33:53.559 --> 00:33:56.720
was carrying over one hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt,

619
00:33:56.839 --> 00:34:00.000
and calls from bill collectors had become a regular occurrence.

620
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:04.519
All told, he was more than a million dollars in debt,

621
00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:08.960
an unsustainable position for someone whose combined household income with

622
00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:12.320
Joscelyn had been about two hundred thousand dollars a year.

623
00:34:12.880 --> 00:34:14.880
Wesley put the lake House on the market in two

624
00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:17.880
thousand seven, hoping a sale would help him get back

625
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:21.000
on solid ground. By the time, he couldn't have been worse.

626
00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:24.280
The housing bubble had started a burst, and the only

627
00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:26.920
offers that came in would have left him taking a loss.

628
00:34:27.480 --> 00:34:29.880
In June, he met with a realtor and signed a

629
00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:33.599
six month listing agreement, pricing the home at two point

630
00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:38.039
one million dollars. WOW. In Chesapeake, Wesley had been renting

631
00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:41.199
a room from a man named Neil Phillips. The arrangement

632
00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:45.559
ended badly. Wesley exploded at Philip's wife during a disagreement,

633
00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:49.039
threatening to break her hand in a door. He reportedly

634
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:52.239
told his landlord bitches like my wife and your wife

635
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:53.119
should be dead.

636
00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:54.000
Ugh.

637
00:34:54.840 --> 00:34:57.320
When he finally moved out, he left the room trashed

638
00:34:57.400 --> 00:34:59.880
and carved his initials into his windows.

639
00:35:00.360 --> 00:35:03.039
That's a real, real mature behavior. Ah.

640
00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:07.159
The weekend before Jocelyn died, she was in good spirits.

641
00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:09.760
She had always loved the holidays, and this year was

642
00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:13.239
no different. On Friday the fourteenth, she and her friend

643
00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:15.719
Maza Monthsey drove three and a half hours to West

644
00:35:15.800 --> 00:35:20.039
Virginia to deliver a Christmas gift to Joscelyn's mom new

645
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:26.119
bedroom furniture that's very generous. Sunday, December sixteenth, Joscelyn went

646
00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:29.079
shopping with her close friend and co worker Marcy Shephard,

647
00:35:29.239 --> 00:35:31.960
picking up gifts for her team at Chenworth and for

648
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:35.239
Jennifer's kids. She and Marcy made plans to get together

649
00:35:35.320 --> 00:35:40.119
again on Wednesday evening. On Monday the seventeenth, Joscelyn called

650
00:35:40.119 --> 00:35:44.039
her mother, who later described her demeanor as bubbly and laughing,

651
00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:47.599
looking forward to the time off work. After hanging up,

652
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:50.679
Joscelyn called Jennifer to talk about getting together to bake

653
00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:54.760
Christmas cookies before Joscelyn headed to West Virginia for the break.

654
00:35:55.360 --> 00:35:59.360
That same Monday, Wesley esta colleague at Great Bridge High School,

655
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:02.960
a teacher and wrestling coach named David Hall, if he

656
00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:06.239
could borrow his maroon Chevy Silverado for a couple of

657
00:36:06.360 --> 00:36:10.280
days to move some furniture. David agreed, taking Wesley's silver

658
00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:14.960
Honda Accord in exchange. Tuesday night, Jocelyn took her entire

659
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:17.880
team out to Logan's Roadhouse for a Christmas dinner and

660
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:22.079
picked up the tab for everyone. Wesley, meanwhile, stayed laid

661
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:26.559
at school to supervise a basketball game. Wednesday, the nineteenth

662
00:36:26.599 --> 00:36:29.199
was a full day for Joscelyn. She was at work

663
00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:32.400
by seven thirty am. That morning, she drove her colleague

664
00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:36.519
and friend, Masa to the Amherst County Sheriff's office to

665
00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:40.559
help her resolve a misdemeanor identity theft and fraud charge.

666
00:36:40.599 --> 00:36:43.639
That charge stemmed from an incident where Mesa used the

667
00:36:43.719 --> 00:36:46.480
social Security number of a co worker to have that

668
00:36:46.519 --> 00:36:49.599
woman's utilities turned off while she was out of town.

669
00:36:50.079 --> 00:36:54.280
The coworker whose identity she stole was dating Masa's ex husband.

670
00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:57.079
I'd go into detail on this story only because it

671
00:36:57.119 --> 00:37:00.760
will become a little more important later. As maysa it

672
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:02.960
was a little bit shady, like it sounds like she

673
00:37:03.800 --> 00:37:07.360
got this woman's social Security number through through work, like

674
00:37:07.400 --> 00:37:10.199
through their job, and was out for revenge on her

675
00:37:10.280 --> 00:37:12.719
for some reason. Well yeah, because she was seeing her

676
00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:13.280
ex husband.

677
00:37:13.480 --> 00:37:16.719
Yeah. Not cool. After their trip to the Sheriff's office.

678
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:20.000
Joscelyn and Masa were back at Jenworth by ten thirty.

679
00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:23.400
Joscelyn had back to back meetings through the afternoon, then

680
00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:26.559
left the office for a six pm appointment with her counselor,

681
00:37:26.920 --> 00:37:31.599
Susan row Rich. Susan noted that Joscelyn seemed genuinely happy,

682
00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:34.039
more so than she'd seen her in a long time.

683
00:37:34.599 --> 00:37:37.119
She was believed that the divorce was almost wrapped up.

684
00:37:37.320 --> 00:37:40.280
She was excited about a new position she'd accepted in

685
00:37:40.360 --> 00:37:45.079
Jenworth's corporate fraud's division, which came with a six figure salary.

686
00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:49.159
Marcy had been exchanging texts with Joscelyn throughout the day,

687
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:52.880
confirming their plans for that evening. Just before seven thirty,

688
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.880
Joscelyn texted to ask if Marcy was around. Marcy replied yes,

689
00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:01.280
but no response came back. After a time, Marcy followed

690
00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:04.519
up again, but there was still no response. Marcy put

691
00:38:04.519 --> 00:38:06.400
her eight year old son to bed at eight thirty,

692
00:38:06.679 --> 00:38:09.920
then sent Joscelyn an email, thinking maybe the text weren't

693
00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:14.239
going through for some reason. Still nothing, She drove to CBS,

694
00:38:14.360 --> 00:38:17.280
sent another message from the parking lot, and left the

695
00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:20.880
store at nine oh eight, she had Joscelyn's Christmas gift

696
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:23.559
in her car, Thinking their plans may have fallen through.

697
00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:26.119
She swung by the Jenworth office to leave it on

698
00:38:26.239 --> 00:38:29.079
Joscelyn's desk so it would she would get it before

699
00:38:29.079 --> 00:38:32.239
the holiday break. When she still hadn't heard anything. By

700
00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:36.119
nine forty five, Marcy drove out to Joscelyn's house for

701
00:38:36.280 --> 00:38:38.920
green Honda was in the driveway, but the house was

702
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:42.400
completely dark. Marcy knocked on the front door, there was

703
00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:46.320
no answer and no sound from inside. She drove home

704
00:38:46.440 --> 00:38:49.920
and sent another text. She was worried, and she asked

705
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:53.760
Joscelyn to please call her, but Marcy didn't hear from

706
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.960
her friend that night. We'll be back after a break.

707
00:39:03.880 --> 00:39:08.159
Thursday morning, Marcy was up around seven and texted Joscelyn again.

708
00:39:08.679 --> 00:39:10.960
When she still hadn't heard back, she set up an

709
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:14.440
alert on her phone to notifire when Joscelyn logged into

710
00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:18.119
Jenworth's instant messaging system, an easy way to confirm that

711
00:39:18.159 --> 00:39:21.360
her friend had made it safely to work. By ten o'clock,

712
00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:24.679
the alarm still hadn't been triggered. She called someone on

713
00:39:24.760 --> 00:39:27.760
Joscelyn's team and was told that they were expecting her,

714
00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:31.239
but she still hadn't come in. Joscelyn was never late,

715
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:34.639
she was usually the first one through the door. At

716
00:39:34.639 --> 00:39:38.559
eleven thirty, Marcy drove back to Joscelyn's house. The green

717
00:39:38.599 --> 00:39:41.239
Honda was exactly where it had been the night before.

718
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:45.360
Marcy knocked, then pounded on the front door. She walked

719
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:47.960
the perimeter of the house, knocking on every window she

720
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:51.559
could reach, but curtains and blinds covered them all. She

721
00:39:51.679 --> 00:39:56.000
called work again, Still no word from Joscelyn. Then Marcy

722
00:39:56.159 --> 00:39:58.960
remembered that Joscelyn kept a spare key in a shed

723
00:39:59.079 --> 00:40:01.800
near the pool. Marcy was on the phone with their

724
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:06.000
mutual colleague, Mesa Muncy when she retrieved it. She tried

725
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:08.119
it on the front door first, but it didn't fit.

726
00:40:08.719 --> 00:40:11.119
She went around to the back door and it opened.

727
00:40:11.800 --> 00:40:14.559
A wave of heat rolled out at Marcy, heavy enough

728
00:40:14.559 --> 00:40:18.559
to fog her glasses. She called Joscelyn's name. As her

729
00:40:18.639 --> 00:40:22.639
lenses cleared, she saw Joscelyn lying motionless on the living

730
00:40:22.719 --> 00:40:26.000
room floor. She hung up with Mesa and dialed nine

731
00:40:26.039 --> 00:40:30.159
one one. Soon Masa arrived at the house, followed by

732
00:40:30.199 --> 00:40:33.639
two Bedford County deputies who entered the house, while Marcy

733
00:40:33.719 --> 00:40:38.119
and Masa waited anxious and upset in the driveway. Joscelyn

734
00:40:38.199 --> 00:40:41.239
was dressed as if she had just walked through the door, jeans,

735
00:40:41.360 --> 00:40:44.559
brown shoes, a sweater and her winter coat. She was

736
00:40:44.639 --> 00:40:47.039
lying on her back on the floor, a dark red

737
00:40:47.079 --> 00:40:50.719
pool surrounding her head, a revolver lying by her side.

738
00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:54.000
Joscelyn was cold to the touch, her lips and finger

739
00:40:54.039 --> 00:40:57.519
nails blue. She was long past the point where CPR

740
00:40:57.519 --> 00:41:01.719
would help. Gary Babb, the sarge in charge of investigations

741
00:41:01.760 --> 00:41:05.119
for the Bedford County Sheriff's Department, noticed a sheet of

742
00:41:05.159 --> 00:41:08.360
paper between the body and the front door. He put

743
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:12.280
on gloves and turned it over. It read, Mom, I

744
00:41:12.440 --> 00:41:15.079
just can't take it anymore. I have tried so hard

745
00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:17.760
to be strong, but it's too hard to continue. The

746
00:41:17.880 --> 00:41:20.239
ups and downs are too much to deal with. I

747
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.599
keep trying to appear as though I am doing fine,

748
00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:26.159
but the bad days are so overwhelming and lonely. My

749
00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:29.559
new love will never leave the family. Wes has buried

750
00:41:29.639 --> 00:41:32.480
us in debt and starting over is too much. I

751
00:41:32.519 --> 00:41:36.039
am so sorry, Mom, I am so sorry everyone, Joscelyn.

752
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:39.960
The note was typed and it wasn't signed. The name

753
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:43.800
at the bottom was just more typed text that was unusual,

754
00:41:44.039 --> 00:41:47.400
maybe the first indication that this was a scene stage

755
00:41:47.519 --> 00:41:48.880
to look like a suicide.

756
00:41:49.320 --> 00:41:51.320
A couple of things jump out at me, for she

757
00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:55.280
has her winter coat on m and the note mentions

758
00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:58.320
a new love, my new love will never leave the family.

759
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:01.199
Yeah, this is pretty cryptic, isn't it? And also the

760
00:42:01.320 --> 00:42:05.639
use of will never leave the family without pronouns That

761
00:42:05.719 --> 00:42:09.079
will become more relevant later. But it's kind of odd

762
00:42:09.159 --> 00:42:10.840
that it would be worded that way, wouldn't it?

763
00:42:11.360 --> 00:42:14.360
Oh? Is it because whoever wrote the note wanted to

764
00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:17.920
imply that she was having a relationship, possibly with a woman.

765
00:42:18.119 --> 00:42:20.960
I think they wanted to leave it open to either

766
00:42:21.360 --> 00:42:25.400
Oh jeez. Walking through the house, Sergeant Bab found the

767
00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:28.199
thermostat was pushed all the way to its highest setting

768
00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:33.159
ninety degrees down the hall, Joscelyn's beloved black lab Rufus

769
00:42:33.239 --> 00:42:35.880
was in its crate, panting heavily from the heat and

770
00:42:35.960 --> 00:42:38.800
a lack of water. Her two cats were nowhere to

771
00:42:38.840 --> 00:42:42.199
be found. In the primary bedroom, a cabinet drawer was

772
00:42:42.280 --> 00:42:45.960
opened three or four inches and an unopened condom package

773
00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:49.199
was lying on the floor beside it. In the bathroom trash,

774
00:42:49.320 --> 00:42:52.400
there was an empty wrapper for a second condom. The

775
00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:56.280
house showed no signs of forced entry. Outside, some of

776
00:42:56.400 --> 00:42:59.400
Jocelyn's friends had gathered in the driveway after Marci and

777
00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:03.440
Maza started making calls. Bab spoke with Jennifer Kerns, who

778
00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:07.400
immediately asked, so he finally killed her? Bab asked who

779
00:43:07.519 --> 00:43:12.039
she meant. She explained that Joscelyn's estranged husband, Wesley Ernest,

780
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:15.679
a PhD and assistant principal at a high school in Chesapeake,

781
00:43:16.039 --> 00:43:19.000
had been separated from Joscelyn for two to three years,

782
00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:21.480
and that they were in the middle of an ugly divorce.

783
00:43:22.199 --> 00:43:26.920
When investigators reached Joscelyn's sister, Laura, she immediately mentioned Wesley

784
00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:31.000
as well. Through her tears, she warned the investigator, you

785
00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:33.639
will not break him. He is narcissistic and has a

786
00:43:33.679 --> 00:43:38.239
borderline personality. Back inside, investigators took a closer look at

787
00:43:38.239 --> 00:43:42.440
the scene. Joscelyn's body didn't look posed exactly, but it

788
00:43:42.480 --> 00:43:45.880
didn't look natural either. It appeared to have been straightened.

789
00:43:46.400 --> 00:43:50.320
The assistant medical examiner noted that blood had dried, flowing

790
00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:55.639
uphill across Joscelyn's left cheek, defying gravity. The only explanation

791
00:43:55.880 --> 00:43:58.840
was that Jocelyn's head had been resting in a different

792
00:43:58.880 --> 00:44:02.360
position immediate meely after she was shot, and then someone

793
00:44:02.440 --> 00:44:06.280
moved her. More telling were her strands of hair. They

794
00:44:06.320 --> 00:44:08.960
were spread out and pinned beneath her head in a

795
00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:11.960
way that suggested she had been dragged, and a streak

796
00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:15.360
of blood across the floor also indicated that her body

797
00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:18.679
had been moved by a foot or two. It appeared

798
00:44:18.719 --> 00:44:21.679
that the bullet had entered Joscelyn's head from above and

799
00:44:21.760 --> 00:44:25.519
slightly behind her right ear, exiting through her left temple

800
00:44:25.840 --> 00:44:28.519
near the corner of her eye. A search of the

801
00:44:28.519 --> 00:44:32.480
primary bedroom closet turned up a large box of assortied ammunition,

802
00:44:33.079 --> 00:44:37.719
forty caliber shells, twelve twenty and twenty two gage shotgun shells,

803
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:41.360
and forty caliber bullets. None of it matched the three

804
00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:44.480
point fifty seven revolver found lying next to her body.

805
00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:49.320
Also found in the house were several handwritten spiral bound journals,

806
00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:53.320
pages and pages of Joscelyn's writing in her own hand,

807
00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:56.800
which raised an obvious question. If she had written that

808
00:44:56.920 --> 00:45:00.519
much by hand, why would her final suicide note be typed.

809
00:45:01.159 --> 00:45:05.199
Investigators began piecing together what they believed had actually happened.

810
00:45:05.840 --> 00:45:09.239
Joscelyn had likely arrived home around seven point thirty, dropped

811
00:45:09.239 --> 00:45:12.519
her bag near a chair, and disarmed the security system.

812
00:45:13.119 --> 00:45:15.679
She was running away from her killer when the trigger

813
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:20.400
was pulled. Death was virtually instant. She fell on her side,

814
00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:23.360
but the killer turned her onto her back, dragged her

815
00:45:23.360 --> 00:45:26.800
body roughly two feet across the floor, wiped down the

816
00:45:26.880 --> 00:45:30.079
murder weapon and placed it next to her body. Then

817
00:45:30.159 --> 00:45:33.039
he dropped the typed note on the floor and cranked

818
00:45:33.079 --> 00:45:36.400
the thermostat to ninety degrees, hoping the heat would make

819
00:45:36.440 --> 00:45:40.119
it harder to determine the time of death. Then he left,

820
00:45:40.280 --> 00:45:44.320
locking the door behind him. The scene was clearly staged.

821
00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:47.360
The condoms suggested an attempt to make it look like

822
00:45:47.360 --> 00:45:51.599
a sexual encounter gone wrong. The note referencing my new

823
00:45:51.719 --> 00:45:56.440
love was meant to further throw investigators off track. Investigators

824
00:45:56.480 --> 00:46:00.599
examined both printers in Jocelyn's home. Neither was i operational

825
00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:02.960
at the time of her death. A search of her

826
00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:06.039
computer turned up no document containing the text of the

827
00:46:06.079 --> 00:46:09.639
suicide note. Wherever it had been typed, it wasn't there.

828
00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:13.360
No usable fingerprints were found on either the gun or

829
00:46:13.400 --> 00:46:16.920
the shell casing. The note appeared clean to the naked eye,

830
00:46:16.960 --> 00:46:21.239
but investigators treated it with ninhydrin, a chemical that reacts

831
00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:25.239
to the amino acids left behind by human skin. Two

832
00:46:25.400 --> 00:46:29.159
latent prints emerged, both from the same finger They didn't

833
00:46:29.199 --> 00:46:33.880
match Joscelyn when compared to Wesley's prints. One showed ten

834
00:46:33.920 --> 00:46:37.719
points of similarity and the other showed fifteen. While there

835
00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:42.199
is no universal minimum standard for fingerprint identification, ten to

836
00:46:42.280 --> 00:46:46.920
sixteen points of similarity are generally considered by forensic investigators

837
00:46:47.119 --> 00:46:50.840
to be sufficient for a match. The next day's autopsy

838
00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:54.400
reinforced that this was not a suicide. There was no

839
00:46:54.519 --> 00:46:57.840
blood spatter on Joscelyn's hands, which you would expect if

840
00:46:57.880 --> 00:47:01.360
she had shot herself at close range. There was stipling

841
00:47:01.400 --> 00:47:04.559
around the entrance wound, but it was not a contact wound.

842
00:47:04.960 --> 00:47:07.880
The medical examiner determined that the weapon had been held

843
00:47:07.960 --> 00:47:12.320
somewhere between two inches and two feet away when it discharged.

844
00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:16.719
The medical examiner concluded that death would have been instantaneous.

845
00:47:17.119 --> 00:47:20.000
There was no possibility that Joscelyn had moved her own

846
00:47:20.039 --> 00:47:21.400
body after falling.

847
00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:24.239
Were her hands checked for gunshot residue.

848
00:47:24.599 --> 00:47:27.079
That is a great question. I did not read anywhere

849
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:29.519
whether she was checked for gunshot residue or not.

850
00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:34.159
Sergeant Bab tried several times on December twentieth to reach Wesley,

851
00:47:34.280 --> 00:47:38.039
finally succeeding at seven that evening. He told Wesley that

852
00:47:38.119 --> 00:47:40.840
Joscelyn was dead, that he'd like him to come in

853
00:47:40.880 --> 00:47:44.639
for an interview. Wesley pushed back, saying he was tired

854
00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:47.119
and hadn't been feeling well. Could he come in around

855
00:47:47.199 --> 00:47:50.840
nine the next morning. Bab pushed him, but Wesley wouldn't budge.

856
00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:54.880
They made arrangements to meet the next morning. Wesley never

857
00:47:54.960 --> 00:47:58.679
asked how Joscelyn died. In fact, he didn't ask anything

858
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:02.559
at all. This morning, Bab waited. Nine o'clock, came and went.

859
00:48:02.800 --> 00:48:05.800
An hour later, his phone rang. It was an attorney

860
00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:10.519
named Joey Sanzone, who informed Bab that he was representing

861
00:48:10.559 --> 00:48:13.880
Wesley and that he would arrive at five pm that afternoon.

862
00:48:14.679 --> 00:48:18.800
When they finally showed up, it was after six. Wesley

863
00:48:18.920 --> 00:48:22.679
walked them through his Wednesday. It was pretty uneventful, he said.

864
00:48:23.039 --> 00:48:25.159
He went to work that morning, there had been a

865
00:48:25.199 --> 00:48:28.440
fight at the school, and afterward he felt tired. And unwell.

866
00:48:28.840 --> 00:48:31.800
He left school around four PM, went home and went

867
00:48:31.840 --> 00:48:34.760
to bed. He didn't go anywhere that evening, and he

868
00:48:34.840 --> 00:48:38.719
didn't talk to anyone. Remember that Wesley worked and lived

869
00:48:38.760 --> 00:48:42.760
in Chesapeake, about three and a half hours from Joscelyn's house.

870
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:46.199
A timeline was tight, but if she was killed around

871
00:48:46.199 --> 00:48:50.119
seven thirty five, the time that her security system was disarmed,

872
00:48:50.440 --> 00:48:53.199
he could have made it back. When asked what Joscelyn

873
00:48:53.360 --> 00:48:56.760
was like, Wesley said she was the greatest woman, a

874
00:48:56.800 --> 00:49:00.519
great person, a great athlete. I broke her heart. I

875
00:49:00.639 --> 00:49:03.760
heard her. When asked about their marriage and the claims

876
00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:07.199
of Wesley's infidelity, he said that Joscelyn had been fine

877
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:10.559
with him seeing other women. In fact, she had encouraged

878
00:49:10.639 --> 00:49:14.960
him to do so. Sure Wesley he acknowledged having purchased

879
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:18.039
a three fifty seven Magnum at some point, but said

880
00:49:18.039 --> 00:49:21.199
that it had been a gift for Joscelyn for her protection.

881
00:49:21.880 --> 00:49:24.800
When investigators asked what type of vehicle he drove, Wesley

882
00:49:24.840 --> 00:49:28.119
appeared to become rattled. The truck that he'd arrived in,

883
00:49:28.280 --> 00:49:30.920
he said, wasn't his. He had borrowed it from her

884
00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:32.400
friend to move some furniture.

885
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:35.679
If your call. He borrowed a truck from his coworker

886
00:49:35.840 --> 00:49:38.639
on Wednesday, and he still had it at this point.

887
00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:42.000
He agreed to provide a DNA sample and fingerprints, but

888
00:49:42.039 --> 00:49:47.079
refused to take a polygraph. Police questioned Marcy Shepherd on Saturday,

889
00:49:47.079 --> 00:49:50.679
December twenty second. They had some questions about her movements.

890
00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:53.760
She had been to the house the night Joscelyn disappeared,

891
00:49:54.039 --> 00:49:57.400
then returned the next day to find her body. Marcy

892
00:49:57.480 --> 00:50:00.199
told them what she knew about Joscelyn's state of mind

893
00:50:00.199 --> 00:50:02.599
in the weeks before her death, Anne about her fear

894
00:50:02.639 --> 00:50:07.559
of Wesley. Then investigators asked about the suicide note, specifically

895
00:50:07.679 --> 00:50:10.679
the reference to a new love. Did she have any

896
00:50:10.719 --> 00:50:14.400
idea who that might be referring to? Marcy looked down

897
00:50:14.400 --> 00:50:17.079
at her feet. She was quiet for a moment. Then

898
00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:23.159
she said that was me. I loved Joscelyn Earnest Oh wow.

899
00:50:24.280 --> 00:50:27.679
Marcy explained that she and Joscelyn had begun working together

900
00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:30.239
in August two thousand and five and developed a close

901
00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:34.199
friendship over time. Marcy realized her feelings had grown into

902
00:50:34.199 --> 00:50:37.079
something more, and she asked Joscelyn if she felt the

903
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:41.039
same way. Joscelyn said no, and Marcy accepted that they

904
00:50:41.039 --> 00:50:44.480
would just be friends, but eventually it did grow into

905
00:50:44.519 --> 00:50:48.079
something more. After a company Christmas party, Marcy had gone

906
00:50:48.119 --> 00:50:51.199
home with Joscelyn and they kissed on the couch. Both

907
00:50:51.199 --> 00:50:53.519
were still married at the time, and they didn't pursue

908
00:50:53.519 --> 00:50:56.000
it any further. There were a couple of other times

909
00:50:56.000 --> 00:50:59.400
they kissed, Marcy said, but nothing beyond that. She said

910
00:50:59.400 --> 00:51:03.679
that they had a deep emotional attachment. When investigators asked

911
00:51:03.719 --> 00:51:06.119
if they could take her BlackBerry to review the text

912
00:51:06.159 --> 00:51:11.039
messages that she and Joscelyn had exchanged, Marcy refused, explaining

913
00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:13.360
that she was afraid of Wesley and didn't want to

914
00:51:13.400 --> 00:51:16.639
be without her phone. When she did finally give them

915
00:51:16.639 --> 00:51:20.159
her phone two weeks later, some text messages between Marcy

916
00:51:20.199 --> 00:51:23.440
and Joscelyn from the night of the murder had been deleted.

917
00:51:23.920 --> 00:51:27.199
Marcy claimed that if anything was deleted, it had been

918
00:51:27.400 --> 00:51:32.280
unintentional on her part. Among the most important items recovered

919
00:51:32.280 --> 00:51:36.480
from Joscelyn's home were seventeen spiral bound notebooks filled with

920
00:51:36.519 --> 00:51:41.800
her journal entries. Detectives worked through all seventeen notebooks, One entry,

921
00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:45.400
written in August two thousand and five stood out Joscelyn

922
00:51:45.440 --> 00:51:48.599
wrote about her growing fear of Wesley. She addressed her

923
00:51:48.599 --> 00:51:52.079
family directly, saying that if she were ever found dead,

924
00:51:52.599 --> 00:51:55.920
know that he killed me, because I would never kill myself.

925
00:51:56.239 --> 00:51:59.239
My guess is that he shot me and then killed himself.

926
00:51:59.800 --> 00:52:03.159
Another entry, she was even more direct if I die,

927
00:52:03.480 --> 00:52:07.159
Wesley killed me, and he probably shot me. This was

928
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:09.159
over two years before her death.

929
00:52:09.800 --> 00:52:11.920
Just so tragic when we hear this all the time

930
00:52:12.039 --> 00:52:15.039
in these cases where somebody just they just know that

931
00:52:15.400 --> 00:52:18.280
if something happens to them, it was the husband.

932
00:52:18.519 --> 00:52:22.079
No. I remember you saying earlier when they had broken

933
00:52:22.119 --> 00:52:26.320
into each other's houses, that some of her diaries were stolen. Yeah,

934
00:52:26.400 --> 00:52:27.920
So do you think that he had these and then

935
00:52:27.960 --> 00:52:29.320
he brought them back or he hadn't.

936
00:52:29.440 --> 00:52:32.079
I think she probably had others as well, so I

937
00:52:32.119 --> 00:52:33.079
don't think it was the same.

938
00:52:33.719 --> 00:52:36.679
On January tenth, two thousand and eight, Wesley borrowed David

939
00:52:36.679 --> 00:52:39.800
Hall's truck again. David told him that he needed it

940
00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:43.000
back by six and Wesley said, no problem. He took

941
00:52:43.039 --> 00:52:45.920
the truck and had it back to David on time

942
00:52:46.119 --> 00:52:49.400
later that day. But over the next few days, David

943
00:52:49.480 --> 00:52:53.320
realized something about the truck had changed. The right felt

944
00:52:53.360 --> 00:52:56.239
different to him. He checked the tires and found they

945
00:52:56.280 --> 00:52:59.079
weren't his top of the line b F Goodrich All

946
00:52:59.159 --> 00:53:02.320
Terrain Radiant, which he'd put on the truck just over

947
00:53:02.360 --> 00:53:06.840
a year before. They'd been replaced with lower quality Dunlops.

948
00:53:07.119 --> 00:53:07.960
Not a Dunlop.

949
00:53:10.119 --> 00:53:12.880
But how rude, I know, really rude.

950
00:53:13.280 --> 00:53:15.960
He called Wesley, who explained that he had run over

951
00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:18.239
a board with nails in it, and he felt so

952
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:20.920
bad that he bought new tires to make it right.

953
00:53:21.920 --> 00:53:24.880
If you steal your friend's truck, you put better tires

954
00:53:24.880 --> 00:53:26.159
on it, not cheaper tires.

955
00:53:26.280 --> 00:53:28.239
Yeah, that would make sense. But at the same time,

956
00:53:28.519 --> 00:53:31.400
I don't think I would notice if someone swapped my

957
00:53:31.440 --> 00:53:32.920
tires on it. I think I could drive on it

958
00:53:32.920 --> 00:53:35.320
forever and I would never realize that, oh, there are

959
00:53:35.360 --> 00:53:36.679
different tires on this car.

960
00:53:37.239 --> 00:53:39.800
Well the dummy. If he would have replaced it with

961
00:53:39.840 --> 00:53:42.000
the same tires, he might not have noticed. But I

962
00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:44.800
would guess, you know, if you're changing the type of

963
00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:47.079
tire that it would be more noticeable.

964
00:53:47.239 --> 00:53:47.760
Yeah.

965
00:53:48.199 --> 00:53:50.679
Later, David Hall came forward to let the police know

966
00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:53.880
about the incident. They tracked the tire purchase to a

967
00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:57.639
Cramer tire shop, in Virginia Beach. The tire store manager

968
00:53:57.679 --> 00:54:01.679
remembered Wesley coming into the showroom saying he needed new tires.

969
00:54:01.719 --> 00:54:06.119
Although he used the name Tom Dunbar, the incident stood

970
00:54:06.159 --> 00:54:08.760
out because when technicians put the truck on the lift,

971
00:54:09.039 --> 00:54:11.719
they could see that the tires were all in great shape.

972
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:14.440
They asked him, are you sure you want new tires?

973
00:54:14.559 --> 00:54:17.679
These tires are in perfect condition and they're much better

974
00:54:17.719 --> 00:54:22.320
than the dunlops. Wesley insisted they replaced the tires. He

975
00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:25.599
paid six hundred eighty eight dollars in cash and drove

976
00:54:25.639 --> 00:54:28.960
off with the new tires, apparently never expecting that David

977
00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:34.280
would notice. Investigators interviewed current and former colleagues of Wesley's

978
00:54:34.280 --> 00:54:37.440
to get to know him better. At Oscar Smith Middle School,

979
00:54:37.480 --> 00:54:41.280
where Wesley had previously worked, principal Linda Scott described him

980
00:54:41.320 --> 00:54:46.719
as arrogant and demanding, particularly toward women. She told investigators

981
00:54:46.760 --> 00:54:50.039
that he had hit on her young adult daughter. Teachers

982
00:54:50.079 --> 00:54:52.559
there said Wesley had given everyone the impression that he

983
00:54:52.599 --> 00:54:56.599
was independently wealthy and had never been married, that he

984
00:54:56.719 --> 00:54:59.599
was worth around five million dollars and didn't need to work,

985
00:54:59.679 --> 00:55:03.960
but because he loved education, a guy at great Bridge

986
00:55:04.039 --> 00:55:06.920
High School, where he'd been an assistant principle for about

987
00:55:06.920 --> 00:55:09.280
a year and a half. The story was much the same.

988
00:55:09.719 --> 00:55:13.840
Wesley had told colleagues he was single and wealthy. Two teachers,

989
00:55:13.880 --> 00:55:18.880
Molly Sullivan and Sonia Stevens, both reported offering condolences after

990
00:55:18.960 --> 00:55:22.280
hearing his wife had died. In both cases, his response

991
00:55:22.360 --> 00:55:25.079
took them aback. What the fuck are you talking about?

992
00:55:25.159 --> 00:55:27.159
He shouted, How many times do I have to tell

993
00:55:27.199 --> 00:55:28.800
you I'm not married?

994
00:55:29.119 --> 00:55:30.280
It's just bizarre, isn't it.

995
00:55:30.400 --> 00:55:33.639
Yeah. Meanwhile, the search of Wesley's home turned up a

996
00:55:33.639 --> 00:55:38.280
collection of notes that caught investigator's attention. One referenced borrowing

997
00:55:38.360 --> 00:55:43.119
Dave's truck. Another read weather twelve, nineteen o seven, question

998
00:55:43.239 --> 00:55:45.000
mark gas up over the drive.

999
00:55:45.239 --> 00:55:48.360
Question mark the nineteenth was the date the night that

1000
00:55:48.440 --> 00:55:49.400
Jocelyn was killed.

1001
00:55:49.760 --> 00:55:54.039
There were additional notes that suggested Wesley was already calculating

1002
00:55:54.079 --> 00:55:58.119
what Joscelyn's death would free up financially. One said when

1003
00:55:58.159 --> 00:56:02.519
can house be freed up? When can I access my account?

1004
00:56:03.199 --> 00:56:06.760
By the end of February two thousand eight, investigators decided

1005
00:56:06.760 --> 00:56:09.800
that they had enough evidence to make an arrest. They

1006
00:56:09.800 --> 00:56:12.639
went to Shamika Wright's home where Wesley had been staying,

1007
00:56:12.840 --> 00:56:16.079
and took him into custody. The following day, Wesley was

1008
00:56:16.119 --> 00:56:18.960
suspended from his job without pay, pending the outcome of

1009
00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:22.960
his trial. On April twenty first, two thousand eight, Wesley

1010
00:56:22.960 --> 00:56:27.239
appeared at his preliminary hearing. Prosecutors laid out the primary

1011
00:56:27.280 --> 00:56:31.119
pillars of their case. The fingerprints on the note matched Wesley,

1012
00:56:31.320 --> 00:56:35.639
not Joscelyn. The note wasn't printed from her house. Joscelyn's

1013
00:56:35.679 --> 00:56:40.320
journals documented her fear of Wesley. The medical examiner testified

1014
00:56:40.360 --> 00:56:43.440
that the gun had been too far from Joscelyn's head

1015
00:56:43.480 --> 00:56:47.559
to be a suicide, and Joscelyn's therapists tested that she

1016
00:56:47.599 --> 00:56:51.119
had been positive and upbeat just hours before she was killed.

1017
00:56:51.639 --> 00:56:55.519
The judge found a probable cause. In May, Wesley's bond

1018
00:56:55.599 --> 00:56:58.960
was set at two hundred thousand dollars cash or four

1019
00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:02.559
hundred thousand dollars in real estate. He was released on

1020
00:57:02.639 --> 00:57:07.119
June fifth to await his trial. Had the lake house sold, No,

1021
00:57:07.199 --> 00:57:09.360
he was not able to sell us. How he was

1022
00:57:09.400 --> 00:57:13.039
able to put up the real estate exactly. We'll be

1023
00:57:13.159 --> 00:57:14.320
back after a break.

1024
00:57:21.920 --> 00:57:25.199
Nearly a year later, on the evening of Friday, March twentieth,

1025
00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:28.239
two thousand and nine, with Wesley's trial still months away,

1026
00:57:28.760 --> 00:57:31.599
one of the residents living on Smith Mountain Lake looked

1027
00:57:31.599 --> 00:57:35.639
out to see Wesley's dream house engulfed in flames. Sixty

1028
00:57:35.719 --> 00:57:39.360
firefighters responded, but it was too late to salvage the house.

1029
00:57:39.960 --> 00:57:42.519
Nobody could locate Wesley until the next day, when he

1030
00:57:42.599 --> 00:57:46.079
answered a call from his lawyer. He was driving near Washington,

1031
00:57:46.159 --> 00:57:50.159
d C. Nearly four hours away, he said. Fire investigators

1032
00:57:50.199 --> 00:57:53.840
pieced together what they believed had happened. It appeared Wesley

1033
00:57:53.840 --> 00:57:56.920
had been refinishing furniture, not in the garage, where you

1034
00:57:56.920 --> 00:57:59.159
would expect that kind of work, but in the great

1035
00:57:59.239 --> 00:58:02.760
room of the home. Rags soaked in wood stain appeared

1036
00:58:02.800 --> 00:58:05.199
to have been left to smolder like a slow fuse.

1037
00:58:05.880 --> 00:58:10.880
The circumstances pointed toward arson. Wesley had gotten a foreclosure notice,

1038
00:58:10.920 --> 00:58:13.719
he still owed nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars on

1039
00:58:13.760 --> 00:58:17.679
the mortgage, and his homeowner's insurance was set to expire soon.

1040
00:58:18.480 --> 00:58:22.559
Despite the suspicious circumstances, the insurance company paid out over

1041
00:58:22.599 --> 00:58:26.840
a million dollars after settling the remaining loan. Wesley walked

1042
00:58:26.840 --> 00:58:30.239
away with roughly one hundred thousand dollars, and he still

1043
00:58:30.280 --> 00:58:33.920
owned the land, which had significant value as a lakefront property.

1044
00:58:34.360 --> 00:58:36.199
I looked up on Zillo. The one and a half

1045
00:58:36.239 --> 00:58:39.480
acre property, which still hasn't been built on, is currently

1046
00:58:39.599 --> 00:58:43.039
estimated by Zillo to be worth over seven hundred thousand dollars.

1047
00:58:43.599 --> 00:58:45.480
I think maybe one of the most shocking parts of

1048
00:58:45.519 --> 00:58:48.039
this case is that the insurance company paid out a

1049
00:58:48.119 --> 00:58:53.079
million dollars on this what looked like a really suspicious claim.

1050
00:58:53.239 --> 00:58:55.440
Yeah, so they never asked for the money back.

1051
00:58:55.639 --> 00:58:58.199
No, and no one was ever charged in connection with

1052
00:58:58.239 --> 00:59:01.400
the fire. The trial date was pushed back several times

1053
00:59:01.440 --> 00:59:04.760
before it finally got underway in March twenty ten. The

1054
00:59:04.840 --> 00:59:08.280
judge delivered two key pre trial rulings that shaped what

1055
00:59:08.400 --> 00:59:13.239
the jury would hear. First, Joscelyn's journals the seventeen notebooks,

1056
00:59:13.280 --> 00:59:16.000
including the entries where she had written that if she

1057
00:59:16.119 --> 00:59:20.920
turned up dead, Wesley killed her, were ruled inadmissible because

1058
00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:24.840
Joscelyn couldn't be cross examined. The judge determined that admitting

1059
00:59:24.920 --> 00:59:29.360
them would violate Wesley's constitutional right to confront his accuser.

1060
00:59:29.880 --> 00:59:33.719
The journals were considered hearsay. The lake house fire was

1061
00:59:33.760 --> 00:59:37.760
also ruled off limits. Its cause had been deemed inconclusive,

1062
00:59:38.119 --> 00:59:41.360
and the judge found no sufficient link between the fire

1063
00:59:41.480 --> 00:59:45.000
and Joscelyn's death to justify including it. I am not

1064
00:59:45.039 --> 00:59:47.519
a legal scholar, but both of those rulings bother me.

1065
00:59:48.280 --> 00:59:51.440
I understand you can't confront your accuser if they're no

1066
00:59:51.519 --> 00:59:56.559
longer alive, but still like it's Jocelyn's frame in mind exactly.

1067
00:59:57.440 --> 01:00:01.199
And the fire also, while it may not been directly connected,

1068
01:00:01.599 --> 01:00:05.719
would definitely go to motive where his financial struggles, the

1069
01:00:05.719 --> 01:00:08.159
position he was in that led him to do that.

1070
01:00:08.679 --> 01:00:11.800
It was all part of why he killed Joscelyn.

1071
01:00:11.920 --> 01:00:13.719
I can see the fire more than the journal.

1072
01:00:13.840 --> 01:00:19.239
Yes, agreed, the defense strategy was straightforward, The evidence was circumstantial,

1073
01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:22.320
and investigators had been too quick to focus on Wesley

1074
01:00:22.559 --> 01:00:28.039
while overlooking people closer to Joscelyn. They pointed particularly at Mesa, muncie,

1075
01:00:28.119 --> 01:00:31.679
who knew the code to Joscelyn's security system, had stayed

1076
01:00:31.679 --> 01:00:34.800
overnight at her house frequently and had spent the night

1077
01:00:34.880 --> 01:00:38.679
the weekend before Joscelyn died. Masa had hoped to get

1078
01:00:38.679 --> 01:00:42.440
together with Joscelyn on December nineteenth to wrap gifts before

1079
01:00:42.519 --> 01:00:46.000
learning she had plans with Marci. The defense floated the

1080
01:00:46.000 --> 01:00:49.800
theory that Joscelyn had learned details about Mesa's identity theft

1081
01:00:49.880 --> 01:00:53.360
charge that could have put Masa's job at risk enough

1082
01:00:53.400 --> 01:00:56.679
they suggested to give her a motive. There was one

1083
01:00:56.679 --> 01:01:00.719
piece of evidence that complicated things for the prosecution. Dried

1084
01:01:00.800 --> 01:01:04.360
blood drops found in Joscelyn's guest bathroom came from a

1085
01:01:04.440 --> 01:01:08.239
mail but not Wesley. The sample didn't match any of

1086
01:01:08.239 --> 01:01:11.320
the twenty five people connected to the case. It was

1087
01:01:11.360 --> 01:01:16.400
never explained. Wesley's defense team also hammered on the fingerprint evidence,

1088
01:01:16.800 --> 01:01:20.119
arguing that it was unreliable and even if those were

1089
01:01:20.159 --> 01:01:22.960
Wesley's fingerprints on the note, he had lived in the

1090
01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:26.159
house with Joscelyn for years and she had taken a

1091
01:01:26.159 --> 01:01:29.800
bunch of things from his lake house. Shamika Wright testified

1092
01:01:29.840 --> 01:01:32.480
that she and Wesley had been in a relationship since

1093
01:01:32.519 --> 01:01:36.119
two thousand and four and were still together. She said

1094
01:01:36.119 --> 01:01:38.760
she had spoken to him the morning of December nineteenth,

1095
01:01:38.800 --> 01:01:42.039
but couldn't reach him that evening. She attributed it to

1096
01:01:42.199 --> 01:01:46.000
the spotty cell reception at his apartment. Wesley made an

1097
01:01:46.079 --> 01:01:49.840
unexpected decision, taking the stand in his own defense. He

1098
01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:52.079
told the jury he had been at his apartment in

1099
01:01:52.159 --> 01:01:56.559
Chesapeake on the night of December nineteenth, suffering from seasonal allergies.

1100
01:01:56.880 --> 01:02:00.920
He hadn't gone anywhere. The jury began deliberate raiding on Monday,

1101
01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:04.519
April fifth. Less than six hours later, they returned a

1102
01:02:04.599 --> 01:02:09.360
verdict guilty a first degree murder and a felony firearms charge.

1103
01:02:09.760 --> 01:02:12.679
The jury set the sentence life in prison, a one

1104
01:02:12.760 --> 01:02:16.400
hundred thousand dollars fine, and an additional three years for

1105
01:02:16.480 --> 01:02:17.639
the firearms conviction.

1106
01:02:18.360 --> 01:02:21.920
In April twenty ten, Joscelyn's mother, father, and sister filed

1107
01:02:22.000 --> 01:02:25.639
a civil suit against Wesley Shamikha and his lawyers over

1108
01:02:25.679 --> 01:02:29.480
the insurance proceeds from the Lake House fire under Virginia's

1109
01:02:29.559 --> 01:02:32.239
slayer statute. They argued that Wesley had no right to

1110
01:02:32.320 --> 01:02:36.840
profit directly or indirectly from Joscelyn's death. He had used

1111
01:02:36.840 --> 01:02:40.719
the insurance payments to fund his legal defense. Then, on

1112
01:02:40.760 --> 01:02:44.599
April eleventh, someone posted an anonymous comment on a local

1113
01:02:44.639 --> 01:02:48.039
online news article about the case. Person claimed to have

1114
01:02:48.079 --> 01:02:51.360
served on the jury and was pushing back against accusations

1115
01:02:51.559 --> 01:02:55.119
from other commenters that they had convicted an innocent man.

1116
01:02:55.519 --> 01:02:59.119
The anonymous commenter mentioned reviewing a great deal of evidence

1117
01:02:59.199 --> 01:03:05.199
during delivery, including Joscelyn's journals. Joscelyn's sister read the comment

1118
01:03:05.320 --> 01:03:09.159
and immediately understood what it meant. The journals had been

1119
01:03:09.239 --> 01:03:12.760
ruled inadmissible. They should never have been in the jury room.

1120
01:03:13.400 --> 01:03:17.119
That's crazy that they got in there. When Wes's attorneys

1121
01:03:17.159 --> 01:03:19.239
found out, they brought it to the judge, who ordered

1122
01:03:19.239 --> 01:03:23.599
the Lynchburg News in advance to identify the anonymous commenter.

1123
01:03:24.239 --> 01:03:27.840
The paper consulted with its lawyers and eventually complied. It

1124
01:03:27.920 --> 01:03:31.880
turned out that the commenter actually was a jury member.

1125
01:03:32.559 --> 01:03:35.599
The juror explained what had happened to the judge. The

1126
01:03:35.679 --> 01:03:38.039
journals had been left in the deliberation room on a

1127
01:03:38.079 --> 01:03:41.440
table with other evidence. Jurors picked them up and leafed

1128
01:03:41.480 --> 01:03:44.480
through them. When they found something that caught their attention,

1129
01:03:44.760 --> 01:03:47.400
they read it aloud to the group. The jurors said

1130
01:03:47.400 --> 01:03:49.880
that before they looked at the journals, a couple of

1131
01:03:49.960 --> 01:03:53.239
members had been on the fence about finding him guilty.

1132
01:03:53.960 --> 01:03:57.880
Further investigation confirmed that the journals had been mistakenly placed

1133
01:03:57.920 --> 01:04:00.360
in the wrong box and taken to the jury room

1134
01:04:00.440 --> 01:04:04.400
along with the admitted evidence. A special hearing was convened,

1135
01:04:04.559 --> 01:04:08.159
where jurors acknowledged that they had read from the journals

1136
01:04:08.440 --> 01:04:12.440
and that the contents had influenced their deliberations. Having no

1137
01:04:12.559 --> 01:04:16.440
other choice, the judge threw out the guilty verdict in

1138
01:04:16.559 --> 01:04:20.840
July twenty ten and set a new trial date for November.

1139
01:04:21.079 --> 01:04:23.039
Isn't that crazy? Like just that it's crazy?

1140
01:04:23.079 --> 01:04:24.840
But don't you think the jury should have known?

1141
01:04:25.239 --> 01:04:27.880
I mean, if I'm a juror, it would have been weird, like, oh,

1142
01:04:27.920 --> 01:04:30.639
I never remember hearing anything about these journals, but of

1143
01:04:30.679 --> 01:04:32.719
course you're going to look they're there. They can only

1144
01:04:32.719 --> 01:04:33.719
assume that they're.

1145
01:04:33.960 --> 01:04:36.360
Supposed to be there. Well, I guess if I was

1146
01:04:36.360 --> 01:04:38.719
on a jury, Yeah, no, that can't.

1147
01:04:38.480 --> 01:04:41.440
Be You and I might have a little different experience.

1148
01:04:41.480 --> 01:04:44.679
But it's just crazy that that mistake was even made.

1149
01:04:44.400 --> 01:04:47.119
And I think from everything I read, it was just

1150
01:04:47.159 --> 01:04:49.639
an honest mistake. It wasn't like somebody was trying to

1151
01:04:50.079 --> 01:04:51.000
try to get them in there.

1152
01:04:51.119 --> 01:04:51.760
Huge mistake.

1153
01:04:51.920 --> 01:04:52.239
Huge.

1154
01:04:52.840 --> 01:04:56.800
The second trial gave the defense another opportunity to redirect

1155
01:04:56.840 --> 01:05:01.400
suspicion towards Mercy, Shepherd or Mays. A month they zeroed

1156
01:05:01.440 --> 01:05:05.840
in on inconsistencies in Marcy's account. On the day Joscelyn's

1157
01:05:05.840 --> 01:05:09.039
body was discovered, Marcy had told police that she'd gone

1158
01:05:09.079 --> 01:05:12.960
to the house the previous evening around eight forty Later,

1159
01:05:13.159 --> 01:05:16.679
she said it had been after nine thirty. Wesley's attorney

1160
01:05:16.760 --> 01:05:20.639
hammered on the discrepancy. There was also text messages sent

1161
01:05:20.679 --> 01:05:24.079
from Joscelyn the evening of December nineteenth that had been

1162
01:05:24.119 --> 01:05:28.760
deleted from Marcy's phone. Marcy testified that if she deleted them,

1163
01:05:28.920 --> 01:05:33.400
it was unintentional. After considerable debate, the judge allowed Marcy

1164
01:05:33.519 --> 01:05:36.519
to tell the jury about her fear of Wesley. She

1165
01:05:36.639 --> 01:05:40.599
testified that Joscelyn had warned her directly if Wesley ever

1166
01:05:40.639 --> 01:05:43.159
found out about the two of them, he would kill

1167
01:05:43.199 --> 01:05:46.440
them both. Marcy said that she had stopped walking her

1168
01:05:46.480 --> 01:05:49.679
dog for an entire year after Joscelyn told her that.

1169
01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:52.559
It was also why she had refused to hand over

1170
01:05:52.599 --> 01:05:55.719
her phone to police. The day Joscelyn's body was found,

1171
01:05:56.320 --> 01:06:00.119
a criminal profiler and forensic linguist took the stand to

1172
01:06:00.239 --> 01:06:04.119
testify that he had analyzed seventy seven pieces of Wesley's

1173
01:06:04.119 --> 01:06:07.920
writing two hundred and fifty three pieces of Joscelyn's, then

1174
01:06:08.079 --> 01:06:12.480
compared both against the suicide note His conclusion was that

1175
01:06:12.559 --> 01:06:15.800
the writing style of the note was much more consistent

1176
01:06:15.840 --> 01:06:21.519
with Wesley's writing style than with Joscelyns. The unidentified male

1177
01:06:21.599 --> 01:06:25.119
blood found in the guest bathroom sync, along with stray hairs,

1178
01:06:25.159 --> 01:06:29.519
remained an effective argument for the defense. A DNA analyst

1179
01:06:29.559 --> 01:06:32.480
from the State Forensic Lab confirmed the blood came from

1180
01:06:32.519 --> 01:06:35.920
a male who was not Wesley. It had been tested

1181
01:06:35.920 --> 01:06:39.360
against twenty five people connected to the case entered into

1182
01:06:39.480 --> 01:06:43.119
the CODIS federal and state databases, and still no match

1183
01:06:43.239 --> 01:06:47.280
was found. Wesley's attorney leaned hard on this, arguing it

1184
01:06:47.360 --> 01:06:51.079
pointed to a third party, a real killer the investigation

1185
01:06:51.559 --> 01:06:57.119
had never seriously pursued. I mean, this is very compelling evidence, right, Yeah.

1186
01:06:57.159 --> 01:07:00.239
I don't know how big the blood droplets were. There's

1187
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:02.480
no sense of you know, they could have been there

1188
01:07:02.519 --> 01:07:05.400
for who knows how long. But yeah, if I was

1189
01:07:05.599 --> 01:07:08.480
Leslie's defense attorney, I would have loved hearing this and

1190
01:07:08.559 --> 01:07:10.360
would have done everything I could to get it out there.

1191
01:07:10.840 --> 01:07:13.639
The defense also called a new witness who hadn't testified

1192
01:07:13.679 --> 01:07:17.079
in the first trial, Wayne Stewart, a Taco Bell employee

1193
01:07:17.119 --> 01:07:20.360
who worked at a location in Chesapeake near Great Bridge

1194
01:07:20.400 --> 01:07:24.119
High School. He testified that on the evening of December nineteenth,

1195
01:07:24.199 --> 01:07:27.000
two thousand and seven, Wesley had come through the drive

1196
01:07:27.079 --> 01:07:31.119
through around six o'clock and ordered a grande meal, ten

1197
01:07:31.320 --> 01:07:36.519
hard tacos and ten soft tacos. He remembered, he said,

1198
01:07:36.559 --> 01:07:39.360
because the order had been something of a hassle. If

1199
01:07:39.360 --> 01:07:41.880
this was true, there's no way that Wesley could have

1200
01:07:41.920 --> 01:07:44.320
made it to Joscelyn's house, three and a half hours

1201
01:07:44.360 --> 01:07:47.480
away by the time she was killed, likely between seven

1202
01:07:47.639 --> 01:07:48.880
thirty and eight pm.

1203
01:07:49.159 --> 01:07:52.440
This little detail is just too funny not to take

1204
01:07:52.480 --> 01:07:53.679
a short pause.

1205
01:07:54.000 --> 01:07:56.719
You know. I'll admit, like I had to do this

1206
01:07:57.039 --> 01:07:59.360
a couple of takes because it made me laugh so hard.

1207
01:07:59.480 --> 01:08:01.880
Well, first, I it's funny that so his claim is

1208
01:08:01.920 --> 01:08:04.039
that he didn't feel well and he just went home

1209
01:08:04.079 --> 01:08:04.719
by himself.

1210
01:08:05.719 --> 01:08:08.480
The energies he didn't have, right, you know, right.

1211
01:08:08.360 --> 01:08:10.880
But you know you're going home by yourself to not

1212
01:08:10.960 --> 01:08:16.560
be with anyone else, and you're ordering ken hard. Yeah,

1213
01:08:16.640 --> 01:08:17.720
it seems a little.

1214
01:08:17.520 --> 01:08:20.600
Extreme, right, And then everyone knows what taco bell does

1215
01:08:20.680 --> 01:08:24.239
to you. So that's what made me laugh. But now

1216
01:08:24.279 --> 01:08:26.960
I'm gonna want Taco Bell later, Yes, me too. On

1217
01:08:27.039 --> 01:08:30.920
cross examination, though, the prosecutor poked holes in Wayne's story.

1218
01:08:31.239 --> 01:08:34.319
It was revealed that Wesley came back to the Taco

1219
01:08:34.359 --> 01:08:37.640
Bell about a week later after Joscelyn's death and asked

1220
01:08:37.640 --> 01:08:40.920
Wayne to write a statement about his visit. Wayne did so,

1221
01:08:41.039 --> 01:08:44.880
despite being fuzzy on the details. Here's a short exchange

1222
01:08:44.880 --> 01:08:47.279
between the prosecutor and Wayne Stewart.

1223
01:08:47.760 --> 01:08:50.560
You remember mister Ernest coming through and ordering that.

1224
01:08:50.439 --> 01:08:51.399
Meal, Yes, sir.

1225
01:08:51.760 --> 01:08:53.960
You don't know whether or not it's on the nineteenth, though,

1226
01:08:54.079 --> 01:08:54.640
do you, sir?

1227
01:08:55.039 --> 01:08:55.960
Not really, sir.

1228
01:08:56.279 --> 01:08:59.520
Do you remember being interviewed by the Bedford County Sheriff's.

1229
01:08:59.119 --> 01:08:59.920
Department, Yes, sir.

1230
01:09:00.359 --> 01:09:03.399
In fact, you told them that you probably shouldn't have

1231
01:09:03.439 --> 01:09:05.920
signed that statement, isn't that correct?

1232
01:09:06.119 --> 01:09:08.439
Yes, sir. I thought it was helping him out because

1233
01:09:08.479 --> 01:09:11.439
I thought he was losing his job or something like that.

1234
01:09:11.800 --> 01:09:13.800
If I would have known it was anything like.

1235
01:09:13.720 --> 01:09:16.039
This, you wouldn't have signed it, would you.

1236
01:09:15.800 --> 01:09:19.239
No, sir. Wesley took the stand again in the second trial.

1237
01:09:19.680 --> 01:09:22.319
Just like in the first trial, he held up well under

1238
01:09:22.319 --> 01:09:27.039
cross examination, keeping his composure through the hours of tough questioning.

1239
01:09:27.359 --> 01:09:30.840
He repeated his claim that Joscelyn had encouraged him during

1240
01:09:30.880 --> 01:09:33.479
their marriage to sleep with other women, that it was

1241
01:09:33.560 --> 01:09:37.600
her idea, not his, and that he had resisted. He

1242
01:09:37.720 --> 01:09:40.960
testified that he hadn't spoken to Joscelyn face to face

1243
01:09:41.039 --> 01:09:44.640
without attorneys being present since June two thousand and five,

1244
01:09:44.920 --> 01:09:46.880
that he no longer had a key to her house,

1245
01:09:47.199 --> 01:09:49.239
and that he hadn't even known that she had a

1246
01:09:49.279 --> 01:09:52.920
security system, much less the code. After the first day

1247
01:09:52.960 --> 01:09:56.680
of questioning, Wesley, the lead prosecutor, went home feeling defeated.

1248
01:09:57.119 --> 01:10:01.520
Wesley had come across as relaxed com that and sincere

1249
01:10:01.920 --> 01:10:05.439
Then during the night, something came to him. Joscelyn had

1250
01:10:05.479 --> 01:10:08.720
been keeping a detailed personal timeline of her life on

1251
01:10:08.920 --> 01:10:13.199
large butcher block paper and exercise her therapist had assigned

1252
01:10:13.239 --> 01:10:16.000
to her. In late August two thousand and seven, she

1253
01:10:16.039 --> 01:10:18.720
had brought the timeline to a therapy session in a

1254
01:10:18.720 --> 01:10:22.079
state of fear and anger. Someone had broken into her

1255
01:10:22.119 --> 01:10:25.760
home and added new entries to it. She felt violated.

1256
01:10:26.319 --> 01:10:29.399
The added entries appear to have been written by Wesley.

1257
01:10:29.880 --> 01:10:33.800
He had written them in the first person, assuming Joscelyn's voice.

1258
01:10:34.319 --> 01:10:38.720
The fabricated entries were all very complimentary toward Wesley and

1259
01:10:38.760 --> 01:10:42.319
supported his story that Joscelyn had told him to sleep

1260
01:10:42.359 --> 01:10:46.279
with other women. Here are a few examples. In nineteen

1261
01:10:46.319 --> 01:10:50.000
ninety five to ninety six. Kept telling Wesley to sleep

1262
01:10:50.039 --> 01:10:53.439
with someone else and come home to me. Nineteen ninety seven,

1263
01:10:53.800 --> 01:10:56.920
kept telling Wes, I don't want to be with you sexually.

1264
01:10:57.439 --> 01:11:00.800
Nineteen ninety eight, it's okay too. Care of me as

1265
01:11:00.840 --> 01:11:05.399
always two thousand and one. Very understanding husband with me,

1266
01:11:05.479 --> 01:11:09.439
spending late hours at work. Two thousand and five. West

1267
01:11:09.560 --> 01:11:12.000
kept trying to talk to me, but I just shut

1268
01:11:12.079 --> 01:11:14.680
him out. So are these in his handwriting?

1269
01:11:15.119 --> 01:11:18.600
I think they were in different handwriting than Joscelyn's writing.

1270
01:11:18.720 --> 01:11:20.760
I don't know if they ever analyzed the writing or not,

1271
01:11:20.840 --> 01:11:23.760
but yeah, I think it was pretty clearly hit his writing.

1272
01:11:24.239 --> 01:11:28.359
The prosecutor decided to confront Wesley about the timeline. Wesley

1273
01:11:28.399 --> 01:11:31.239
would either have to deny writing the entries or admit

1274
01:11:31.319 --> 01:11:34.319
that he had broken into Joscelyn's home four months before

1275
01:11:34.359 --> 01:11:37.439
her murder and forged the entries in her own voice,

1276
01:11:37.840 --> 01:11:41.039
exactly what the killer had done with the suicide note.

1277
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:44.479
When the prosecutor asked about the timeline and how he'd

1278
01:11:44.520 --> 01:11:47.800
managed to get inside Joscelyn's home to write those entries.

1279
01:11:48.199 --> 01:11:51.840
Wesley didn't deny it. Instead, he turned to the jury

1280
01:11:51.880 --> 01:11:55.079
and smiled, or more of an arrogant smirk, as some

1281
01:11:55.199 --> 01:11:57.840
described it. He explained that one of the windows in

1282
01:11:57.920 --> 01:12:01.640
Joscelyn's house had been replaced when he had still lived there,

1283
01:12:01.880 --> 01:12:04.760
but the locks had never been put back on, which

1284
01:12:04.800 --> 01:12:09.760
allowed him to slip through the window without Joscelyn's knowledge. Surprised,

1285
01:12:09.800 --> 01:12:13.359
he admitted that it's shocking. The courtroom went quiet. The

1286
01:12:13.359 --> 01:12:17.239
prosecutor was stunned. Wesley had just admitted in front of

1287
01:12:17.279 --> 01:12:20.600
the jury to breaking into Joscelyn's house and forging her

1288
01:12:20.640 --> 01:12:23.680
personal writing, and he'd done it with a smirk on

1289
01:12:23.720 --> 01:12:24.520
his face.

1290
01:12:24.520 --> 01:12:27.880
Which is so shocking to me. Someone who was obviously

1291
01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:32.000
very arrogant, very confident in his abilities to win over

1292
01:12:32.119 --> 01:12:35.800
this jury, would make a blunder blunder like that. The

1293
01:12:35.880 --> 01:12:38.960
case went to the jury on the afternoon of November nineteenth,

1294
01:12:39.079 --> 01:12:43.119
twenty ten. Four hours later, they came back guilty of

1295
01:12:43.239 --> 01:12:46.279
first degree murder and guilty of using a firearm in

1296
01:12:46.319 --> 01:12:49.840
the commission of first degree murder. Wesley showed no reaction

1297
01:12:50.600 --> 01:12:54.720
at sentencing. Joscelyn's mother, father, and sister each spoke about

1298
01:12:54.760 --> 01:12:58.399
what losing her had cost them. Wesley's mother testified on

1299
01:12:58.439 --> 01:13:02.520
his behalf. The jury then reconvened to consider the sentence.

1300
01:13:03.039 --> 01:13:05.960
After an hour of deliberation, they returned with the same

1301
01:13:06.000 --> 01:13:08.920
answer that the first jury had arrived at life in

1302
01:13:08.960 --> 01:13:12.560
prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional three

1303
01:13:12.640 --> 01:13:17.039
years for the firearms conviction. Wesley's attorneys filed an appeal.

1304
01:13:17.439 --> 01:13:20.239
A hearing was held in September twenty twelve, and the

1305
01:13:20.359 --> 01:13:24.560
verdict was affirmed. In August twenty thirteen, the Virginia Supreme

1306
01:13:24.600 --> 01:13:29.000
Court declined to hear the case. Wesley Ernest, now fifty six,

1307
01:13:29.399 --> 01:13:33.880
is housed at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dilwyn, Virginia. Wesley

1308
01:13:33.960 --> 01:13:38.319
and Shamika ended their relationship after the second trial. From

1309
01:13:38.319 --> 01:13:41.880
his cell, Wesley has continued to assert his innocence and

1310
01:13:42.000 --> 01:13:44.760
has offered his own account of what he believes happened

1311
01:13:44.760 --> 01:13:48.000
to him in a pro say petition, meaning he filed

1312
01:13:48.039 --> 01:13:51.520
it himself without an attorney, to the U. S. Supreme Court.

1313
01:13:51.560 --> 01:13:54.279
In twenty twenty one, he laid out a series of

1314
01:13:54.359 --> 01:13:59.079
wild allegations against the investigators and officials involved in his case.

1315
01:13:59.600 --> 01:14:03.119
He claimed that detectives colluded with a jail nurse to

1316
01:14:03.239 --> 01:14:05.960
send a man in a white lab coat and stethoscope

1317
01:14:05.960 --> 01:14:09.159
into his cell, posing as a doctor to tell him

1318
01:14:09.199 --> 01:14:12.600
that he was dying, in hopes of extracting a deathbed confession.

1319
01:14:13.119 --> 01:14:15.960
He alleged that while he was out on bond, detectives

1320
01:14:15.960 --> 01:14:19.680
deliberately cut the gas line on his impounded car, intending

1321
01:14:19.720 --> 01:14:22.319
for it to break down so police could arrest him

1322
01:14:22.319 --> 01:14:26.319
for driving with an expired registration and revoke his bond.

1323
01:14:26.960 --> 01:14:29.840
He claimed the lead detective got drunk and bragged about

1324
01:14:29.840 --> 01:14:33.439
planting the fingerprint on the suicide note. And he alleged

1325
01:14:33.479 --> 01:14:36.960
that in the spring of twenty fifteen, a professional assassination

1326
01:14:37.079 --> 01:14:41.159
attempt was carried out against his defense attorney, Joey Sanzon,

1327
01:14:41.560 --> 01:14:44.800
leaving him hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head.

1328
01:14:45.439 --> 01:14:49.560
None of these allegations have been substantiated. It almost sounds

1329
01:14:49.600 --> 01:14:52.760
like Wesley is sort of losing it a little bit

1330
01:14:52.800 --> 01:14:57.439
here because these allegations are obviously just crazy, there's no

1331
01:14:57.520 --> 01:14:59.800
basis in reality, and they're easily disproved.

1332
01:15:00.279 --> 01:15:01.960
He has nothing to lose, though, right.

1333
01:15:01.880 --> 01:15:05.520
I guess yeah. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

1334
01:15:06.399 --> 01:15:09.319
Joscelyn Denise Ernest was thirty eight years old when she

1335
01:15:09.479 --> 01:15:12.279
was killed. She was a gifted athlete who had spent

1336
01:15:12.319 --> 01:15:15.960
her life chasing excellence on the basketball court, in the dojo,

1337
01:15:16.359 --> 01:15:19.640
in the classroom, and in her career. She was loyal

1338
01:15:19.680 --> 01:15:22.600
to the people she loved, devoted to her family, and,

1339
01:15:22.680 --> 01:15:25.039
by every account of those who knew her, one of

1340
01:15:25.039 --> 01:15:27.439
the first people you would want in your corner when

1341
01:15:27.479 --> 01:15:31.159
things got tough. She had survived a difficult marriage, found

1342
01:15:31.159 --> 01:15:34.159
her footing, and was looking forward to what was next.

1343
01:15:34.600 --> 01:15:37.319
She was excited about a new role at work, planning

1344
01:15:37.319 --> 01:15:40.119
a holiday with her family, and making cookies with her

1345
01:15:40.119 --> 01:15:43.359
best friend. She saw it coming, and she wrote it down,

1346
01:15:43.840 --> 01:15:47.319
but sadly she couldn't stop Leslie Ernest from ending her life.

1347
01:15:47.880 --> 01:15:51.319
Rest in peace, Joscelyn, just a couple of things I

1348
01:15:51.359 --> 01:15:54.560
wanted to discuss before we wrap up. First of all,

1349
01:15:54.720 --> 01:15:56.000
do you agree with the verdict?

1350
01:15:56.359 --> 01:15:56.640
Yes?

1351
01:15:56.840 --> 01:15:58.960
I figured I probably knew the answer to that. Do

1352
01:15:59.039 --> 01:16:01.720
you think there's any possible though that someone else could

1353
01:16:01.800 --> 01:16:03.560
have done it? I do think like.

1354
01:16:03.560 --> 01:16:06.479
Marcie, I was going to ask when we were talking

1355
01:16:06.520 --> 01:16:09.800
about the trial, what would Marcy's motive have been?

1356
01:16:09.920 --> 01:16:12.199
I think the only motive for Marcie would have been

1357
01:16:12.880 --> 01:16:16.800
unrequited love, Like she said that she loved Jocelyn and maybe,

1358
01:16:17.199 --> 01:16:19.760
you know, Jocelyn didn't return that, and maybe that may

1359
01:16:19.840 --> 01:16:23.000
are angry. She did do a couple of suspicious things,

1360
01:16:23.039 --> 01:16:26.159
like I think you know, there were deleted text messages,

1361
01:16:26.199 --> 01:16:29.119
which seems like that would be strange to do that

1362
01:16:29.239 --> 01:16:29.920
by accident.

1363
01:16:30.039 --> 01:16:31.399
So those messages were never.

1364
01:16:31.279 --> 01:16:33.399
Recovered now as far as I know, they were never.

1365
01:16:33.760 --> 01:16:35.199
They were just embarrassing to her.

1366
01:16:35.479 --> 01:16:38.279
Yeah, that could be too. And also we talked about

1367
01:16:38.279 --> 01:16:40.880
it a little bit, but there were some blood drops

1368
01:16:40.880 --> 01:16:43.399
from an unidentified male.

1369
01:16:43.399 --> 01:16:44.479
And you said hairs.

1370
01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:47.720
A couple of stray hairs I think were found as well.

1371
01:16:48.199 --> 01:16:50.800
Yeah, I mean, I have no doubt that it was Wesling,

1372
01:16:51.000 --> 01:16:53.239
but it does give me a little bit of pause.

1373
01:16:53.399 --> 01:16:55.439
Yeah, it makes me wonder like if you looked in

1374
01:16:55.479 --> 01:16:59.520
any random person's bathroom, would you find, like, you know,

1375
01:16:59.760 --> 01:17:02.239
the from somebody that was not identified.

1376
01:17:02.439 --> 01:17:04.560
Well, they weren't pat hairs, right, because she had a

1377
01:17:04.560 --> 01:17:06.760
couple of cats and a dog and those were the

1378
01:17:06.760 --> 01:17:09.119
only those would be the only lives that she would find,

1379
01:17:09.159 --> 01:17:10.439
like in our primary bathroom.

1380
01:17:10.600 --> 01:17:12.800
Yeah, well, I'm assuming the blood that they tested they

1381
01:17:13.279 --> 01:17:15.319
identified that that was human at least. I'm not sure

1382
01:17:15.359 --> 01:17:17.680
about the hairs, but but yeah, there were a few

1383
01:17:17.760 --> 01:17:20.359
weird things like that. But I also have no doubt

1384
01:17:20.359 --> 01:17:21.800
that Wesley is guilty.

1385
01:17:21.880 --> 01:17:24.319
One thing I'm wondering about, though, is the printer that

1386
01:17:24.359 --> 01:17:28.520
they were able to deduce that the printers weren't like

1387
01:17:28.560 --> 01:17:31.960
any printers that she had access to. What did they

1388
01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:34.760
test any of the printers that Wesley had access to.

1389
01:17:34.880 --> 01:17:37.079
Not that I know of. I didn't read anything about that.

1390
01:17:37.119 --> 01:17:40.039
I think all I saw was that she had two printers,

1391
01:17:40.119 --> 01:17:42.720
neither of them were even working at that time.

1392
01:17:42.840 --> 01:17:44.359
So it couldn't it bess very relatable?

1393
01:17:44.680 --> 01:17:47.279
Yeah, for sure. I do think it's also interesting that

1394
01:17:47.319 --> 01:17:49.800
they were separated for quite a long time. As we

1395
01:17:49.880 --> 01:17:52.479
kind of talked about their separation, wasn't It wasn't like

1396
01:17:52.520 --> 01:17:54.479
a moment in time where they were like we are,

1397
01:17:54.479 --> 01:17:57.239
our marriage is done. It was more gradual, you know.

1398
01:17:57.279 --> 01:17:59.159
He kind of moved into a different house, he got

1399
01:17:59.159 --> 01:18:03.479
a job further way. But really they were separated for

1400
01:18:03.840 --> 01:18:07.319
two maybe three years before she was killed. And I

1401
01:18:07.479 --> 01:18:10.359
know there's no you know, there's no timeline when you're

1402
01:18:10.399 --> 01:18:14.479
safe from someone like Wesley, but she must have thought like,

1403
01:18:14.520 --> 01:18:16.680
how by this time, it's got to be you know,

1404
01:18:16.720 --> 01:18:19.199
I've got to be safe for at least ten And.

1405
01:18:19.239 --> 01:18:21.600
That's a very good jogame actually, But the divorce wasn't

1406
01:18:21.680 --> 01:18:25.439
finalized exactly, and you know, even oftentimes when the divorce

1407
01:18:25.520 --> 01:18:29.439
is finalized, people you know still Yeah, I.

1408
01:18:29.439 --> 01:18:33.079
Think in this case, his motive was probably more financial,

1409
01:18:33.439 --> 01:18:37.399
but there probably also was that narcissist control factor as well,

1410
01:18:37.439 --> 01:18:40.439
like that rage of you know, she's moved on. But

1411
01:18:40.479 --> 01:18:42.079
it seems like he was the one who kind of

1412
01:18:42.600 --> 01:18:45.239
chose to move on. He found a new relationship before she.

1413
01:18:45.319 --> 01:18:48.199
Did, been in the relationship for literally years.

1414
01:18:48.279 --> 01:18:51.600
Yeah, exactly, So I think it was probably more financial

1415
01:18:51.880 --> 01:18:54.880
financially motivated. But yeah, I have.

1416
01:18:54.800 --> 01:18:56.479
One question for you, and it's a little bit of

1417
01:18:56.520 --> 01:18:59.479
a silly question, but the Taco Bell order, like the

1418
01:18:59.520 --> 01:19:03.279
twenty two tacos. Do you think that he actually ordered

1419
01:19:03.279 --> 01:19:06.239
the twenty tacos? And if he did, did he eat

1420
01:19:06.279 --> 01:19:08.680
them or was it just no? I know, I'm being

1421
01:19:08.680 --> 01:19:12.479
a little funny, but was it so someone would remember him?

1422
01:19:13.159 --> 01:19:13.399
Yeah?

1423
01:19:13.479 --> 01:19:16.800
Yeah, one single guy ordering twenty tacos. That's a little bozire.

1424
01:19:16.880 --> 01:19:19.880
It's a great question. I am sure he ordered twenty tacos,

1425
01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:22.359
not on that day, like probably a day before or

1426
01:19:22.399 --> 01:19:25.000
a day after that. Maybe he was going to see

1427
01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:28.159
Shamikha and her family or something, and so he ordered

1428
01:19:28.159 --> 01:19:31.000
them then. But I don't know. I didn't see any

1429
01:19:31.079 --> 01:19:34.600
other confirmation of what happened there. I suspect it was

1430
01:19:34.640 --> 01:19:37.840
more that than doing it intentionally to try to establish

1431
01:19:37.880 --> 01:19:41.039
an alibi. I think a week later he decided, oh,

1432
01:19:41.119 --> 01:19:42.840
this could be a good alibi for me, So he

1433
01:19:42.880 --> 01:19:44.760
went back to the Taco Bell and said, hey, would

1434
01:19:44.800 --> 01:19:46.159
you sign this statement?

1435
01:19:46.279 --> 01:19:47.840
Maybe yeah, we'll never know.

1436
01:19:48.079 --> 01:19:48.640
We'll never know.

1437
01:19:49.199 --> 01:19:53.920
I love a Taco Bell, Hardshell, Taco Supreme. I'm such

1438
01:19:53.920 --> 01:19:56.520
a lowbrow person as one of my favorites.

1439
01:19:57.199 --> 01:20:07.640
Alright, I'll be right back. Since we launched our new website,

1440
01:20:07.680 --> 01:20:09.600
Lovemarykill dot com, we can I.

1441
01:20:09.600 --> 01:20:12.840
Just tell you how much I love our listeners. You're amazing.

1442
01:20:13.079 --> 01:20:16.319
Well, we've gotten several really nice voice messages. You can

1443
01:20:16.359 --> 01:20:18.520
go to our website and leave us a voice message,

1444
01:20:18.520 --> 01:20:21.560
which is so great to hear your voices as well,

1445
01:20:21.640 --> 01:20:24.000
you know, because here you steering ours. So it's just

1446
01:20:24.000 --> 01:20:26.680
been really nice. We've gotten a lot of great messages

1447
01:20:27.000 --> 01:20:27.239
and a.

1448
01:20:27.239 --> 01:20:30.119
Few drunk dials too, which those are also great.

1449
01:20:30.800 --> 01:20:33.239
Those are great, Well, I wanted to. I was trying

1450
01:20:33.239 --> 01:20:35.880
to think of, like, what could we do that would

1451
01:20:35.880 --> 01:20:39.239
be fun with this new voice message capability. And I

1452
01:20:39.239 --> 01:20:41.039
haven't talked to you about this yet, so you might

1453
01:20:41.520 --> 01:20:44.119
you might shoot it down. But I was thinking we

1454
01:20:44.159 --> 01:20:48.039
should have a little joke contest. You could tell us

1455
01:20:48.039 --> 01:20:51.199
a joke on the voicemail and then we can decide

1456
01:20:51.199 --> 01:20:53.000
which one is the funniest and we can play it

1457
01:20:53.680 --> 01:20:55.760
on the air. Because when you're telling a joke, you know,

1458
01:20:55.800 --> 01:20:58.039
you kind of need your delivery of it as well.

1459
01:20:58.119 --> 01:21:00.199
So I thought that would be fun if people will

1460
01:21:00.239 --> 01:21:02.640
have their favorite joke, a funny joke that they want

1461
01:21:02.640 --> 01:21:03.479
to share with us.

1462
01:21:03.720 --> 01:21:05.560
Okay, I think that's a good idea.

1463
01:21:06.000 --> 01:21:08.359
Yeah, So go to lovemarykill dot com share your.

1464
01:21:08.319 --> 01:21:10.800
Best joke, Okay, try to make us laugh. I am

1465
01:21:11.239 --> 01:21:12.760
a tough crowd, you are.

1466
01:21:12.760 --> 01:21:15.119
And you and I sometimes have different opinions on what's

1467
01:21:15.159 --> 01:21:15.760
funny and what.

1468
01:21:15.800 --> 01:21:17.359
We really do. It's kind of shocked.

1469
01:21:17.479 --> 01:21:19.119
We may have to pick two winners. We may have

1470
01:21:19.119 --> 01:21:20.680
to pick one that I picked and one that.

1471
01:21:20.600 --> 01:21:22.479
You, oh, is just someone get a prize?

1472
01:21:22.680 --> 01:21:23.960
I don't know, should we give a prize.

1473
01:21:23.960 --> 01:21:26.479
We would love giving prizes. I really do.

1474
01:21:26.680 --> 01:21:28.319
All right, well let's give it. Let's give a little

1475
01:21:28.319 --> 01:21:29.439
prize to the like.

1476
01:21:29.399 --> 01:21:31.159
A one time thing, or we'll just do it, just

1477
01:21:31.199 --> 01:21:32.600
do it once and see how it's I'm not sure

1478
01:21:32.640 --> 01:21:33.760
how jokes people will do.

1479
01:21:34.239 --> 01:21:37.359
I don't know either. We'll just see what happens. The

1480
01:21:37.479 --> 01:21:39.479
last thing I wanted to do before we left, you

1481
01:21:39.520 --> 01:21:40.399
gave me this idea.

1482
01:21:40.760 --> 01:21:44.399
So credit to Tina, Well, credit to Anne, our lovely listener.

1483
01:21:44.439 --> 01:21:45.920
And oh did Anne suggest this?

1484
01:21:46.319 --> 01:21:47.880
She did. I had thought about doing it and then

1485
01:21:47.880 --> 01:21:49.199
Anne was like, you guys should do this, and I

1486
01:21:49.239 --> 01:21:51.039
was like, all right, well, well we'll do it.

1487
01:21:51.079 --> 01:21:54.439
Okay. So there is a trend apparently on TikTok right

1488
01:21:54.439 --> 01:21:58.199
now of saying a phrase or different ways.

1489
01:21:58.359 --> 01:21:59.880
It's the same phrase repeated for you.

1490
01:22:00.119 --> 01:22:01.880
Have a phrase and then you you do it with

1491
01:22:01.920 --> 01:22:03.960
your partner. Yeah, and you do it like once. So

1492
01:22:04.479 --> 01:22:06.479
the things that I chose to do it are one

1493
01:22:06.840 --> 01:22:12.720
is a disappointed voice, one angry, one sarcastic, and one flirty. Okay,

1494
01:22:12.960 --> 01:22:14.960
so this is going to help our acting skills because

1495
01:22:14.960 --> 01:22:18.319
sometimes we do true crime biter. I need I definitely

1496
01:22:18.399 --> 01:22:21.479
need help your acting. So I picked a phrase that

1497
01:22:21.560 --> 01:22:25.079
I thought was good for marriage, like one of the

1498
01:22:25.119 --> 01:22:28.239
phrases you probably don't like to hear your spouse say,

1499
01:22:28.640 --> 01:22:30.560
and that is we need to talk.

1500
01:22:31.079 --> 01:22:33.119
Okay, I've actually seen couples do this.

1501
01:22:33.239 --> 01:22:35.079
Oh have you okay? So do you wanna do you

1502
01:22:35.119 --> 01:22:35.800
want to go first?

1503
01:22:36.279 --> 01:22:36.520
Sure?

1504
01:22:36.560 --> 01:22:38.279
Do we need to talk? Disappointed?

1505
01:22:38.520 --> 01:22:39.760
We're gonna like trade off?

1506
01:22:39.920 --> 01:22:42.520
Sure you do disappointed that I'll do disappointed.

1507
01:22:42.960 --> 01:22:44.680
We need to talk.

1508
01:22:45.279 --> 01:22:47.640
That's pretty good. I'm just gonna say right up front,

1509
01:22:47.640 --> 01:22:49.720
I'm gonna be terrible at this, but okay, here we go.

1510
01:22:50.239 --> 01:22:51.039
We need to talk.

1511
01:22:51.680 --> 01:22:52.119
That's good.

1512
01:22:52.199 --> 01:22:53.920
All right, you're gonna do angry. I think I'll be

1513
01:22:54.000 --> 01:22:54.840
good and angry.

1514
01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:57.880
You know you say that, but you're not an angry person.

1515
01:22:57.920 --> 01:22:59.680
And even though I am, it's fun to act.

1516
01:23:00.640 --> 01:23:02.520
I neither was our yellers.

1517
01:23:03.159 --> 01:23:04.800
Allright, just give it our best shot.

1518
01:23:05.520 --> 01:23:06.359
We need to talk.

1519
01:23:06.800 --> 01:23:10.039
Oh that's you convinced me. You sounded very angry there.

1520
01:23:10.520 --> 01:23:11.680
We need to talk.

1521
01:23:12.359 --> 01:23:14.319
That was that was? That was good. I don't like angry.

1522
01:23:15.119 --> 01:23:16.119
Let's too sarcastic.

1523
01:23:16.640 --> 01:23:17.119
I don't know how.

1524
01:23:17.640 --> 01:23:19.560
I don't really know sarcastic either.

1525
01:23:20.640 --> 01:23:22.479
I'm very sarcastic. I just don't know how to say

1526
01:23:22.479 --> 01:23:26.840
that sarcastic. We need to talk. It was stupid.

1527
01:23:29.079 --> 01:23:33.239
Okay, uh, we need to talk. That was terrible. It

1528
01:23:33.319 --> 01:23:36.119
was that was worse than they were both terrible. All right,

1529
01:23:36.199 --> 01:23:38.000
let's do flirty.

1530
01:23:38.319 --> 01:23:39.840
We need to talk.

1531
01:23:43.159 --> 01:23:48.800
That was very good. We need to talk that way,

1532
01:23:50.880 --> 01:23:53.640
all right? All right, Well that was fun. That was fun.

1533
01:23:53.720 --> 01:23:56.279
It was a little embarrassing because I think I'm a

1534
01:23:56.319 --> 01:24:00.520
really bad actor actor. I could just do angry. That's

1535
01:24:00.560 --> 01:24:03.760
the only, the only, uh the only mood I can do, but.

1536
01:24:03.880 --> 01:24:07.039
No one wants to hear angry Rich though, like sweet,

1537
01:24:07.039 --> 01:24:12.119
affable Rich. We are so grateful that you're here. Every listen, follow, review,

1538
01:24:12.359 --> 01:24:15.199
and scher helps us keep this show going and reminds

1539
01:24:15.279 --> 01:24:18.079
us how lucky we are to have such a thoughtful community.

1540
01:24:18.199 --> 01:24:18.720
So lucky.

1541
01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:21.119
If you'd like to reach out, we're on social media,

1542
01:24:21.279 --> 01:24:24.840
or you can email us at Lovemarykill at gmail dot com.

1543
01:24:24.880 --> 01:24:27.439
And if you want even more content and you want

1544
01:24:27.479 --> 01:24:30.119
to support us more than you already do, head to

1545
01:24:30.199 --> 01:24:33.880
patreon dot com slash love Marykill. For just five dollars

1546
01:24:33.960 --> 01:24:36.359
a month, you get early ad free episodes and a

1547
01:24:36.399 --> 01:24:37.560
monthly bonus.

1548
01:24:37.319 --> 01:24:39.119
Episode until next time.

1549
01:24:39.239 --> 01:24:42.000
Don't kill your husband and don't kill kill your husband.

1550
01:25:00.359 --> 01:25:23.439
The topick to