20/20 - Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 1: Jenna Burleigh

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Temple University's film studies program junior Jenna Burleigh disappears after a night out with friends. Originally Aired: 02/22/24 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a FIZ member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month, every month. At FIZ, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply. Details at fiz.ca. This is Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of 2020. This week, we'll be starting season two of Death in the Dorms. It's a true crime series from ABC Studios that tells the stories of young people whose lives were cut tragically short during their time on campus and the subsequent investigations into their untimely deaths. In our first episode, we'll hear the story of Jenna Burley, a passionate social justice advocate at Temple University, who vanished after spending a night out with her friends, leaving only questions in her wake.

Take a listen. Jenna, she really wanted to get into film. Her trajectory was probably going to do great things. She just wanted to give people a voice. She was able to get right over to Temple, and she was excited about that. Temple University is, in my opinion, a safe place. The surrounding neighborhoods, you have a different story.

Temple University police need your help to track down a missing student. I remember having a conversation with my friends, like, whoa, we just got here. This is happening already. The entire purpose of going inside of this apartment was to find out what happened. I just wanted to know how a human being could do that to somebody. This is Jenny's room. She had recently redone her room because she knew she'd be living here through her time at Temple.

I definitely do sleep in here. I find it comforting to just spend time here with Jenna. I just love remembering her laughter when she'd be watching something funny. She had a great laugh. No you never did come back Just like the crows you gathered and feathered away Just like the crows you gathered and feathered away Just like the crows you gathered and feathered away. We met at Villanova University. My mother said, you should go to Villanova and you'll meet somebody with money.

But I met Ed. And before our first anniversary, we had our first child. We had Janelle, and then two years later, we were blessed with Jenna. When Jenna was young, she said she was going to be famous. I'm going to do something in this world. Jenna and I met on the very first day of kindergarten. I had an accident, and I got to go to the nurse and get new clothes. Jenna didn't like the outfit she was wearing that day, so she also had an accident, so she could change her outfit.

Jenna's personality was very large. Immediately when she entered a room, you could tell that she was going to be a very large light in that room. Above anything else, she really loved her friends and her family. She always let you know how much she loved you whenever she was around you, which to me was always something that was really wonderful. Jenna's fashion was very sparkly, very loud in a, you know, outfit type of a way.

A lot of bright colors, a lot of sparkles, a lot of glitter. She used to joke that my parents never knew who she was because her hair was always a different color. She just was someone that was like so like open and free and unapologetically herself. Jenna was in Red Alert, which was their production studio at high school, and she just totally embraced it. Each kid took a turn being the host, or they would create documentary segments or fun little skits. I always knew it was going to be a good episode when something of Jenna's was going to be on it. She really wanted to get into film.

She's very creative. I think she would have been very, very good at it. This is what she wanted to do, and this is where her passion was. Her trajectory was probably going to do great things. She just wanted to give people a voice. Anything she touched was something beautiful and something really thoughtful. She was passionate. She was ready to pursue film. She was really excited to finally get started on her career path.

When Jenna was a senior in high school, we looked at many colleges. And she ended up choosing University of Tampa for film. We had gone, she was excited, she loved the school, she had met so many new people. And she was excited, she loved the school, she had met so many new people, and she was doing really well.

In her freshman year of college, she was home for the holidays around Christmas, and she slid on an ice patch and shattered her ankle. It was a really bad injury with, she had a plate in her ankle and screws. There was like a 0.1% chance that she could get an infection from the surgery, and then of course she got that infection. She was on IVs for a number of weeks, and we thought it was best if she came home, you know, so we could take care of her. As mature as she is at 19,

to be able to care for an infection, it would have just been too much. Especially when she had the IV, because she couldn't go anywhere, she couldn't do anything. That was gonna be for months. Once Jenna healed, I guess we realized, or she realized, that she wasn't going back to Tampa.

She did get into like a dark place. The year after the accident, she came to me the day after Christmas and said, Mom, I need help. She said, I'm not good mentally, and I need to go someplace. And I was so proud of her for doing that, because so many kids wouldn't do that. And we found someplace for her to go temporarily. And she got some help. It was not something we hid. Her friends came and visited her when they could. And she came out on the other side, a much more secure person.

And that's when we said, you started school. These are things you want to do. Don't change things just because things changed for you. She enrolled in our local community college. They actually do have a very good media program, television studio, that type of thing. Once she got there, she really enjoyed it, and she flourished in community college.

Most of her friends went to school in the area. They all lived at school, but they stayed in the area. It really was a small blessing in disguise for both of us because she did come home and I did get to have her around for so much of my college career. I think that's really when she became enlightened, if you will, and said, I need to do something. And she put a notice on Facebook that she, toiletries, food that could be placed in a backpack and she called them blessing bags.

She was able to receive enough donations, fill about 30 backpacks. She would go on her own to Philadelphia and hand it out to the homeless. Her first post about it was like, just want to give out a blessing. And that's what she really wanted to make sure is that everybody felt that, you know, that they were also loved.

you know, that they were also loved. She had graduated from Montgomery County Community College and was transferring. She was able to go right over to Temple and she was excited about that. Temple is really just like a couple blocks of college campus and then it is North Philadelphia. and then it is North Philadelphia. It was kind of like literally the city was your campus. You could do anything. It makes it a really cool space for, you know, the arts and social justice. Temple is also really well known

for its communications and journalism school. Students who go to Temple have to be really independent. They have to be very on top of their things. They know that there's opportunities in the city that they can go and look for. Most of the things we did outside of class were off campus. Jenna was really, really excited to start. I remember her posting that she was so excited to start her first semester at Temple. Yeah, I be flexin', baby, I don't need no Instagram Put up all the gram and they watch it, handle it Had to get my money right, had to be a man with it All about a dollar, I don't mean to be scandalous

But look at where I come from, Los Angeles Everybody flossin', everybody said it, got it Everybody tryna impress somebody that don't even want them Everybody think they hot, but we the hottest since hot, boy It was a good choice at the time. Jenna decided to commute from here, from Harleysville, to start. And it's about a, probably an hour drive in traffic. But it was not unusual for her to stay with friends that lived near the campus.

I remember very clearly the first week of school. Ed had gone with Jenna. They were going to have dinner. I met her down at Temple University. We did have a chance to go out to dinner, talk. We were going to leave and she said, I think I'm going to stay at one of my friend's houses tonight because I have an early class tomorrow. I do remember giving her a hug and a kiss, and I said goodbye. I said, I'll see you tomorrow. And then she was meeting her friends at a local bar,

and I saw her around the corner, and that was the last I saw of her. We went to bed. Went to work the next day. And I got a call on the 31st. And I looked at the phone, and here I thought it was Jenna. It was her friend's phone. But I thought, oh, I bet you that's Jenna. Her phone probably isn't working.

And so I answered, and it was not. It was her friend. I felt a little strange that he called me, but it was even worse when he said, Jenna is with you, right? My heart just dropped. Temple University police need your help to track down a missing student. Jenna Burley was reported missing after a night out. The story of Jenna Burley, a Temple University student who went out for the evening near Temple's campus on Thursday. Just released in the new mystery thriller cod code name Blackjack, decades old documents

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Three strips of naturally smoked bacon and a side of toast. Only $6 at A&W's in Ontario. Experience A&W's classic breakfast on now. Dine-in only until 11 a.m. I was at work and I received a call from my wife, Jackie. One of Jenna's friends had sent Jackie a message that they didn't know where Jenna was. They couldn't find her. that they didn't know where Jenna was. They couldn't find her. I had gotten a call from my sister

at around 8 o'clock in the morning, letting me know that Jenna had not ended up with her at the end of last night, and that she was not able to get a hold of her just yet. I remember it got weirder and weirder that we hadn't heard from her. So then you just start to be like, what's going on?

Are they okay? Why isn't she answering? But you never think of what happened. The best place for me to be that day and that morning when I got those phone calls was to be on Temple's campus, you know, looking for her directly. So we just start looking around campus, really anywhere that she could have gone or talking to anyone that she could have reached out to, to crash at their place too.

But as the answers kept coming up as no, or we haven't seen her, then it gets worse. I had such a feeling of something bad that had just happened that I knew I had to make the call. And I called Jackie, and it was a very quick phone call. Hey, I haven't been able to find Jenna. We're not sure where she is. I think you and Ed should come down here.

I was in a panic mode. And I called Ed. And Ed said, stay there. I'll be right there to get you. Do not take your car. I mean, thank God I had somebody who could take me, because I don't really think I could have driven safely. We immediately went down

to the Temple University police office. At that time, the officers, detectives, they weren't really concerned. They said it happens all the time. Kids decide to go take a day off, go somewhere down to the beach. But we knew that wasn't Jenna. She always responded.

She always answered our phone. She always told us where she was. Although the police officers were not concerned, they didn't know her and we knew her. We knew she would respond if she could. The first 24 to 48 hours are critical on a missing persons case. There's a couple of reasons for that. If somebody is hurt or injured and that's the case, you have to find them within that

period of time so that you can administer medical care. The other reason why it's critical is the more time that ticks on, in the modern era there are too many ways for a human being to reach out to a family member to let them know that they're okay. Her dad and her family were looking for her and trying to text her and see where she was. And she wasn't responding. That starts to at least indicate to investigators

that foul play may be the situation. After Jen's parents had reported her missing, Temple Police has a ton of things at their fingertips to figure out where their students are. Temple Police pulled Jenna's swipe card to see if she had swiped into any buildings on Temple's campus. She hadn't.

Jenna was supposed to go to class that day, so one of the detectives went over and waited outside her classroom with a picture of her. We were just hoping by some miracle she would appear in her class. But it never happened. After she's not reported for her classes, the Temple Police talk to the family, they talk to the friends. And when they do that, they get an idea of where Jenna was the night before. We start talking to the officer that was there,

and he said, see where she was, Leaz. She was going to a bar with friends for her 21st birthday party. We knew that that was happening. Many of her friends met us when we were at the police station at Temple. I was involved with the police giving statements a lot. The Wednesday night before classes start is a popular hangout night with all the students. And that's where Jenna found herself,

was out in the city with some of her friends from Temple. I did see her that Wednesday on August 30th. We went out with two different friend groups but ended up at the same place. Jenna was with four or five of her friends at various times throughout the night. I was not with Jenna. They were at PubWeb that evening.

PubWeb is a local bar. College students work there. AWeb is a local bar. College students work there. A lot of college students go there. It was familiar to everyone that was there. And one by one, you know, the friends started leaving. There was a little mix up of who Jenna was with, and she ended up being alone.

Temple University is, in my opinion, a safe place. The normal kind of crime you're talking about there from a prosecutor's perspective are, for the most part, petty crimes. The surrounding neighborhoods, you have a different story. Crime in Philadelphia is obviously a problem. The murder rate is very high. It's one of the highest in the country. Temple University is kind of surrounded by more high crime neighborhoods. So there was a little bit of a concern just for the nature of where this was and where it happened.

Crime around campus. Safety has become the leading conversation. Crimes increase exponentially outside campus boundaries. It's just natural to be concerned. You hear about the crime, it's just really bad. I knew in my heart it was not gonna turn out good. out good. Temple University police need your help to track down a missing student. They say 22-year-old Jenna Burley was last seen near the bar

PubWeb. I remember getting an email from the president saying this Temple student is missing, here are her details, keep your eye out. We had just started classes, and I remember having a conversation with my friends, like, whoa, we just got here, this is happening already. After that, we kind of changed the way that we went out and we operated at Temple. Like, if we go out, we kind of changed the way that we went out

and we operated at Temple. Like, if we go out, we're all going home together, or like at least make sure that we're in pairs. Like, we just made sure that we were extra safe at that point. So at that point, what investigators do is try to see if they could find Jenna Burley's phone. The last time any activity happens on Jenna Burley's phone is August 31, 2017.

She did reach out to two of her friends early in the morning, and both of her friends slept through the message. After that, her phone doesn't have any more activity. And the last general area that they could put the phone in is in the general area of PubWeb. When the investigators got to PubWeb, they showed Jenna's picture. The bartenders recognized her. There was also video recovered.

Pubs web has a lot of cameras. So the detectives were able to not only talk to the people that worked there, but review the footage themselves. They saw her at the bar the night before. Jenna stood out. She had her hair parted right in the middle and pigtails. So she was easy to identify. Closer to the two o'clock hour, Pub Web is going to close.

A young man approaches her at the bar where she's sitting and starts buying her drinks. There's beer on the table. There's definitely conversation being had. That's the only person that's left with her. All of her friends are gone. What the bartenders did notice is she was trying to text and call people and was getting frustrated.

Jenna and this guy just sat there next to each other talking. But the bartenders didn't suspect anything weird or off. Maybe she looked a little uncomfortable. No red flag. Maybe she looked a little uncomfortable. No red flag. The bar was closed. The lights turned on, so it was time for them to go. After investigators see this footage, it became very clear that Jenna, at the end of the night,

had left with the young man that she was having drinks with. The detectives were able to ask the people that worked at Pub Web whether or not they knew that individual at all, if he had been there before. They did know him. He was a regular. His name was Joshua Hupdertz. Who is Josh? Can we get a hold of him?

Let's try to find out what he remembers. Let's see if he knows where Jenna is. Well, at this point, this is critical because the police now at least have a confirmed place where they were last and a confirmed person that they were with. We did know that they had footage of her leaving the bar with someone.

We didn't know all the details at that moment. They were doing their investigation, but we did know that. They did share that with us. It was very hard to understand. The people at PubWeb were able to give detectives Josh's cell phone number. The captain of the Temple Police Department called him. Josh didn't answer. It wasn't until 11 o'clock that Josh did reach back out to the Temple Police.

He said he was wasted the night before, he did $200 worth of shots, he has no memory. His recollection is that he did not know where she went, had no other information for investigators. They're certainly not done with Joshua Hupertrout. They want to bring him down, they want to talk to him, they want to potentially see where he went after that. But at that point, they don't have any other reason to believe that he's not telling the truth. The second day that she was missing, we did go back down to the police station at Temple

because we didn't know what else to do. What do you do in that situation? We just started putting posters up. We went down to Temple. I remember passing out the flyers. Do I remember the drive getting there? No. I still had like hope. She was like a Jane Doe at a hospital.

And we did find a few Jane Does, but you know, they weren't Jenna. The police still had some hope that they would find her. It was the morning of September 1st of 2017. Janice still hadn't turned up. Nobody had contact with her. Nobody could find her. So the detectives started again with their investigation. When the investigators spoke to Josh the night before,

Josh gave his address. Investigators were interested in going to meeting with him in person and also going to his apartment. They call him again. Josh doesn't answer. At this point, Jenna has been missing for about 36 hours. Hey, Josh, this is that Captain Walter Mayne again from Temple Police. We spoke last night.

Could you call me back as soon as you get this? We're basically down in your block. We'd like to talk with you. So please, please call me back. I'm going to keep calling you. Thank you. Once Hubbard doesn't meet them at the apartment building, they look outside and there's a sign.

They call the number on the sign and it happens to go to the landlord. Somebody who works for the landlord's company comes out and he's got a key. Now, at this point, the investigators are concerned about Jenna Burley. They don't have a warrant to go inside the house. They're looking for Joshua Hupertors, but he's not answering. So you are creeping up now on 24, 36 hours since her disappearance. At that point, they asked the person

to open up the apartment so that they could go in to look for her, to make sure that she's not in there hurt, injured, or otherwise. So at this point, we're not talking about a criminal search warrant. We're talking about a search for a missing girl. They're not going to toss the apartment. They're not searching inside the sock drawers, etc.

They're not collecting evidence. They're not even photographing anything. The entire purpose of going inside of this apartment was just to make sure Jenna was either there and okay or to find out what happened. And they didn't get any other answers by looking through the apartment the way they did. And while they were walking around, there were two things that the captain noticed. There was a little bit of blood on a toilet paper roll, and there was a smear of blood on some sandals. And so they became more concerned about Jenna. This episode is brought to you by Dyson On Track. Dyson On Track headphones offer best-in-class noise cancellation and an enhanced sound range,

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Everyone knew we had to find Josh, and hopefully finding Josh would lead us to Jenna. And hopefully, she might still be alive. At some point in this investigation, they learned that Joshua Huperterturs had a roommate. If Jenna Burley had gone back to that apartment, it also became important to talk to the roommate. The roommate talked to the Temple Police. He told him that he didn't know who this woman was, that he had gone home from the

bar that night alone, and he had also been drinking pretty heavily. They asked whether or not he could get in touch with Joshua Hupperturz. So somewhere in the afternoon, it was actually the roommate who put a call into Mr. Hupperturz saying, the police are looking for you. You need to call them back. They have some questions about a girl that went missing.

Around 4 o'clock, Josh called the captain back. He said he was in South Philadelphia, which is about 25 minutes from Temple University's campus. Josh agreed to come to Temple University to the police department. The captain waited for about an hour. Josh never came. The next thing that investigators started to do is because Joshua Huperturz has not met with them and refuses to basically be questioned at this point,

they started asking people at the address whether or not they knew who Joshua Huperturz was. Investigators learned that Joshua Hupertur has had gone to Temple University. He is a 29-year-old living a couple steps away from Temple University's campus. And he told people on campus that he was going to Temple and that he played soccer or was on the soccer team at points. There's just different stories that he tells to different people on campus. But at this point in his life, he was not enrolled in Temple University. They start to get up on his phone

to see where he might be physically. Police are tracking his phone, and they're pinging it up in the Poconos. So once investigators realize that Joshua Huperterturz is nowhere near Philadelphia, they decided they're going to involve other law enforcement agencies. Specifically, they called up to the state police. So they end up calling state police and saying, hey, we have a phone pinging up here in the Poconos.

Do you guys mind going to basically check it out? And they find out that it's Joshua Hubbitertz's grandmother who lives very nearby where that phone is pinging from. So they drove out, got to the house, knocked on the door, no response. But while they were standing there, a car pulled up. And out of that car walks Josh and one of his family members. Josh explains that he was visiting his grandmother because he had a very, very busy semester coming up at Temple,

and he wanted to see her before the school year started. Remember, he wasn't enrolled at Temple at the time. And there they start to have a conversation. The state troopers let Mr. Hupertrutz know that they're looking for Jenna Burley, and he's the last person that was seen with her. He tells them that he's already talked to people at Temple University,

and that he's given all the information that he has. They see that he has some markings on him. There were some scratches that were on his neck area, but then he also has a really large cut on his hand. So as trained investigators, they start asking some questions. Josh explained, oh, those scratches. I had a sexual encounter earlier in the week

with a girl named Vicky from New Jersey. My hand, I was drunk last night and while I was eating cereal, I broke a bowl. So they ask him whether or not he's willing to continue the conversations, to which he says yes. The investigators got there from Philadelphia, and they took Josh back here to Philly. At that point, investigators know that it's crucial Investigators got there from Philadelphia, and they took Josh back here to Philly.

At that point, investigators know that it's crucial to document the condition of Mr. Huperturz at that time. So he's photographed. His hands are photographed, his chest is photographed, his neck's photographed. So the observations that are made by the state police at the Halle Pia are now preserved so law enforcement can see exactly how

Joshua Hupertz looked on September 1st, 2017. What investigators know at this point is that Jen is still missing. They also now have surveillance footage that is putting her with Joshua Hupertz. They know where Joshua Hupertz lives, and the best of the surveillance footage they could put together at the time

suggests that she went home with him. When the police looked for Jenna in Hupertutze's apartment earlier that day, they did not collect any evidence. But now, they had enough to obtain a search warrant. They entered the apartment, they collected evidence, and they documented the scene. The apartment itself was messy,

so it looked like a typical college kid's messy apartment. But there were certain things that looked a little suspicious to the trained eye. There was a knife in the kitchen that looked like it maybe had a little blood on it. There was some blood on those sandals. Pieces of a broken bowl. On that bowl, there clearly appeared to be what was human blood.

And so they wanted to preserve all that. They took photographs. They swapped them for DNA. There was no obvious crime scene. There was no big pool of blood. There was no murder weapon. Nothing. But something was off. On September 2, 2017, there was basically a break in the case. Josh's grandfather called the police.

He'd been doing yard work out back up at that same house that the state troopers had found Josh at. When he opened up this little storage shed, he saw a blue plastic container that he didn't recognize. This was the sort of bin that college students routinely used to put in their stuff, their books, a lot of their worldly possessions as they were moving around. And then he opened it up. He opens up the bin. He finds a young woman, obviously deceased. The state troopers once again respond. This time they have a search warrant.

They search the whole property. And it's obvious to investigators almost immediately that they found Janet Burleigh's body. that they found Jenna Burley's body. This wasn't a missing person anymore. We found Jenna. It's now a homicide. Investigators from the Dunmore Barracks, as well as the Philadelphia Police Crime Scene Unit,

searched the property. They took photographs. They did DNA swabs. They searched the house, and they found a bag. And inside that bag, they found basic clothing items. A few pairs of underwear, some socks, T-shirts, and $3,000 of cash. Josh Hopper just was not sticking around.

He was going to dump that body in the lake, and we were never going to see him again. On Saturday, September 2nd, we had a full house of visitors and received a call for Jackie and I to go to Philadelphia Police Department. There's no easy way for a police officer to tell you that your daughter has been murdered. So we were in shock. We just couldn't believe it. I just wanted to know everything that happened to her. I wanted to know how a human being could do that to somebody. When we drive home, the whole family was here.

But I just went right to my room. I had to come and tell everybody and... Telling your children they lost a sibling is devastating. A mother should never have to go through losing a child and... You never get over it. My children came up to be with me. I just really didn't want to see anybody, talk to anybody besides my children and Ed.

Her father had texted me that they had found Jenna's body. You still don't realize how much hope you have, even though it's deteriorated, until you get that text and all of it is ripped out of you. And you're kind of left very empty. I just remember screaming, like, and that was it. When I got to my parents, I just fell into their arms. When I got to my parents, I just fell into their arms. Like, no, like, she's not dead. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. And I have to tell this whole group of friends that love Jenna that, like, she's dead. So that was, like, really hard.

Here at Founder's Garden in the heart of Temple's campus, students have left index cards with thoughts about the murder of 22-year-old Jenna Burley, a Temple junior. Having the whole world have that information before we got to digest it was really difficult, especially when it's about a friend that's so close to you. We don't want it to let us, like, stop us from living our lives, but we're definitely gonna remember it every time we go out to look out for each other

and, like, be aware of our surroundings and not get involved with people who can hurt us. This was something I couldn't look at as just a story. You know, it had happened in the neighborhood I was living in. I was a Temple student. That could have been me. It could have been one of my friends.

The grandfather of the suspect, Josh Huperturz, found the body in a bin. Joshua Huperturz was arrested and formally charged. Philadelphia District Attorney's Office charged him with murder, abuse of a corpse, possession of an instrument of crime, and tampering with evidence. So at this point, while Joshua Huperturz has been charged, this investigation is far from over. What did Josh do from the time he walked out of the bar with Jenna to the time they found him in northeastern Pennsylvania?

The investigators obtained surveillance footage not just from a pub web, but from different cameras around the city. There was cameras that captured them walking away from the bar together towards Josh's house. There was also video recovered that showed the front door of Josh's apartment building. And that video showed Josh and Jenna walking in a little after 2 a.m. on August 31st of 2017. But it never showed Jenna walking out. What they did find from that same video camera was Josh and a person carrying a large blue storage container

that looked heavy down the front steps of that apartment and towards a car. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Sure, I could tell you winter's coming

or that it brings cold, dry air, but you already knew that. What you might not know is that Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash is made with millions of moisturizing micro-moisture droplets to keep your skin silky soft for 24 hours. Plus it's paraben and sulfate free. No matter how dry your skin feels, Dove has you covered. Buy Dove Body Wash today at your local retailer or visit Dove.ca to learn more and order online. The investigation continues tonight after a Temple University student was found dead at a home in northeast Pennsylvania. Tonight, police are still trying to piece together why and if the suspect had help. After investigators see this footage,

investigators are able to determine that it's Jas Hupertzert's cousin caught on camera carrying the bin that later contained, or found to contain, Jenna Burley's body. Obviously they need to talk to the cousin about what happened. Investigators are able to speak to the cousin and they ask him about what happened. He tells them that he got a call

and also a text from Hupertzert saying, "'I need your help.'" When he arrived in the apartment, the only person that was there was Joshua Hupertz, and he saw the large blue bin sitting in the living room. He didn't think much of it, he said. He grabbed the bin and he helped his cousin move it out. He did know that it was very heavy. He was surprised by the weight.

That cousin thought it was just a big container of books and Josh had asked his help to take it up to his mother's house which is in suburbs of Philadelphia. So Josh's cousin helped, had no idea that it wasn't books. He drove Josh to Josh's mom's house in the suburbs, helped him move the storage container into a garage. And that was it. So investigators were trying to figure out how it was exactly that Joshua Hupcher's eventually got the body up to Holly P.A.

They discovered that he'd used a lift. Through the help of the lift, they're actually able to find who the driver was, and they interview him. When the investigators spoke to the lift driver, they were able to find out that Josh put a blue container into his car. From there, Hubbard says, I'll pay you $200 cash.

We need to go to Holly P.A. Don't put it in your lift. Don't put it in your GPS. I'll tell you where to go and how to do it." He tells the lift driver to drop him off at his grandmother's house. They both take the bin out of the trunk and leave it in the driveway. The only people that know what happened in that apartment that night are Josh and Jenna.

Jenna was gone and Josh wasn't talking, so we had to figure out with circumstantial evidence what happened. An autopsy was performed. There were some significant injuries that sort of began to tell the story of what actually happened that night. Jason and I sifted through the evidence, all the crime scene photos, the lab reports, and our theory was that Josh and Jenna were involved

in some kind of sexual encounter together. And it took a turn. What happened? Who knows? But whatever it was, it caused a struggle. What was significant was the cause of death, and that was strangulation. The medical examiner was able to determine

that the blood flow had been blocked to her brain and that's how she died. She had what they call a defense of injuries all over her hands and all over her arms. They took pieces of her nails to try to determine whether or not there was any DNA underneath of them. And that DNA came back to Josh. Trial is expected to begin for Joshua Hooper-Turs, who's the accused murderer of a 22-year-old

Temple University student, Jenna Burley. This is a circumstantial case. Nobody ever saw anybody kill Jenna Burley. There was going to be no eyewitness testimony, there's no recording, there's nothing of that nature. It's you have to prove your case through circumstantial evidence. So myself and Jason Grinnell were tasked with preparing the case for trial. And as part of that, we met the Burleys. We became really close with Jason and Danielle.

We found out very early, even before the trial, that Danielle and Jason were wonderful. It's a lot of pressure, because at the end of the day, you have a family sitting behind you that has lost a child, and you want justice for them. But you never know what a jury's gonna do. The Philadelphia jury pool is known for acquitting people that are seemingly guilty, so you do worry about that. But we did have a lot of support through that time.

The entire courtroom was packed with people who loved Jenna and wanted justice for her. The trial was one of the hardest things I ever did, but it was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make. There was no question about it. And once one of us made the decision to go, we kind of, all the friend group, decided that we were all gonna go together. When I got to the courthouse the first day,

it was definitely like a, oh, this is real. You saw Jenna's mom. You saw her dad. And it became really clear that this was a story that was hitting very close to home. I've never been at a case before that felt like that could have been me. One of the first things that happened at trial was that Joshua Hobbiters actually did plead

guilty to abuse of course and tampering with evidence. So that's the first day that this happens. He says, yes, I did. I moved the body and I tampered with evidence, but I did not kill this girl. The defense attorney said in his opening statement that Josh and Jenna were involved in some sexual encounter that got out of hand, and Jenna started to scream. And at that point, Josh's roommate came upstairs from his bedroom, struck Jenna, pushed her down the steps, and then stomped on her at the bottom of the steps.

We had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Joshua Hufford has committed this crime, but we also had to make sure we let the jury know there wasn't a shred of truth that the roommate was involved whatsoever. The roommate testified at trial so the jury could hear what he had to say. so the jury could hear what he had to say. I questioned him.

The defense attorney cross-examined him, and it was extensive. The prosecutors, the attorneys, they talked to Ed and I through kind of what things would look like. If there was anything that they were going to show or that they were going to talk about that they might think I might not want to hear or see, they would let me know so I could gracefully

leave the courtroom. The only thing the family left for her, and not all of the family, just I think Jackie, was the pictures of Jenna's body in the container. The photograph of her when they first discovered her out in the shed was horrific. And it's something I'm never going to forget. But her father sat through all of it. I wanted to be there for Jenna, but I also wanted to let her murderer know that I was there,

and I wasn't leaving, and I was watching them. It was harder than I imagined, but with the countless people on our side, we somehow all made it through. You know, you see it on TV, but to be in it for real is just a whole other experience that is not a good one. Not one that I would want anybody to have to go through. In my personal opinion, the most compelling piece of evidence in this entire case was the fact that they found Joshua Huppertus' DNA underneath Jenna Burleigh's fingernails. It was as if Jenna Burleigh was the person that actually got to testify in the end to

who her killer was. Because when that was analyzed, the entire narrative about the roommate being involved whatsoever was obviously immediately extinguished, and there was only two people that were part of that DNA sample. Huperturz was the source, or Jenna Burley was the source of all the other biological material that was collected as part of that crime scene. On January 17, 2019, it was time for closing arguments. Defense went first, I went second, and then the judge charged. The charge is when he tells the jury the law that they have to apply to the facts and come into their verdict. Then the jury went out.

And they were back within two hours with a verdict. You know you're going through that too, like the jury leaves and what's the verdict going to be and then if it's fast, if it's slow, like what does that mean? The verdict is in. The man who stood accused of murdering Temple University student Jenna Burley in August of 2017 has been found guilty on all count. In sentencing her perters to life in prison without parole, Judge Glenn Bronson told him, You deserve every single day. This was just an outrageous, depraved crime,

the worst he's seen in a long time. You just distinguished the life of a very special person who had a lot to give. When you hear the guilty verdict, your whole body just relaxes. You're so tense. You realize it's never going to bring your daughter back, but you're grateful that the person that murdered her will never see the light of day again.

We had done our job. The jury got it right. I remember being shocked because at the sentencing, I looked over at one of the reporters and a tear was rolling down her face. Like this was a case that was really emotionally charged. I think it hit everyone hard, but especially Temple students. When I thanked one of the Temple police officers, he said, we're not here as police officers, we're here as fathers.

And that struck me. After seeing everything that happened, I would just hope that college students everywhere, you know, will be a little bit more cognizant of their safety to stick together. And you really have to lean on your friends. I just think it's important, like, especially you're in college, you think you know it all.

You think you're invincible. It's a scary world we live in, unfortunately. Just protect yourself and protect people around you. It might seem strange, but you go through all this and then you wait for a year and a half for this trial, and then the trial's over and then what happens now. Ed said we have to do something. He said we have to do something to keep Jenna,

Jenna Spirit alive. The day that Jenna was found, it just came to me. Our foundation, Jenna's Blessing Bags, said we have to do something to support her passion. Jenna created the blueprint for the foundation. She was very, very passionate about the homeless community and helping them. It was just her natural way of living is just being a good person, kind, and spreading as much love as she could. In 2016, Jenna had decided to do things for the homeless.

Ed and I had gone out with her a few times to give bags. So we're really happy that we did that. So we're really happy that we did that. Within a day or two, he was able to get Jenna's blessing bags up and running. She wanted everyone to feel like loved and included, and she just wanted to shine. And she did shine, and she will continue to shine through her foundation. to shine, and she did shine, and she will continue to shine through her foundation. Sometimes when I'm driving to the city,

I'll see one of our bags. It has her tag on it, and it just makes me feel good. To this day, we are still delivering blessing bags. I know Jenna would be very proud of what we've done with the foundation. She would have been 28 right now. I would hope that she would be doing whatever made her happy. She'd probably be traveling and doing documentaries because that's what she wanted to do.

Just like to keep talking about her. I never want to stop talking about her. We'll stand up and fight beside me Bright eyes, last night This is Deborah Roberts. Tune in next week for the story of a nursing student from Binghamton University whose murder sent shockwaves throughout her community, igniting an international manhunt. Death in the Dorms was produced by ABC News Studios with the Intellectual Property Corporation and yes, Like a River for Hulu Originals. You can find the whole series streaming on Hulu. And be sure to catch us on Friday nights at 9 for all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening. Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Matt Matthews, Metallica, Thomas Rhett, Trans-Siberian Orchestra,

Sarah Silverman, and so many more. Share a memory together or give a gift they'll never forget. Find the most exciting gift for every fan at LiveNation.com slash gifts. That's LiveNation.com slash gifts.