48 Hours - Live to Tell: Murder on Prom Night

Episode Date: July 4, 2021

A survivor deals with the trauma after her stepbrother is convicted of killing her family in order to go to the prom. CBS News chief investigative and senior national correspondent Jim Axelrod reports for "48 Hours."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca Here we are. So we're at Olive Branch, the church that I grew up in for three years. This is the house that I lived in. This is probably not a door I want to open. I just, I don't... I don't know if I could handle being in there. Knowing what happened. My name is Jessie. My hair is pink. I decided to change my hair. I also changed my name to Jessie. Jessica, I no longer wanted that name because she was

a very sad, lonely, angry little girl and I just didn't want that anymore. When I was a young child, I lived with my mom and my dad. And then there was me, the oldest, my middle sister, Janelle. And then there was my little sister, Jolene. My dad died when I was five years old. After my dad had died, my mom married Bob Pelley, and Bob had become a minister.

Because my stepdad was the minister of the church, we lived in the parsonage. Bob's kids were older than me and my sisters. My first impression of Jeff was he was very tall, skinny, crazy big hair. And Jackie, she was a little more quiet, reserved. My sister Janelle and I had a best friend, Stephanie Fagan. She was like one of the family. We played in the backyard. We ran through the cornfields.

It was typical country girl stuff. The Pelly family, through my eyes, seemed normal, for the most part. In April 1989, I was nine years old. My whole world was shattered. Jeff was planning to go to the prom that weekend. Jackie was at a church camp. I had planned to go to a friend's house. So I ended up going to the sleepover by myself

for the whole weekend. I ended up going to the sleepover by myself for the whole weekend. My Sunday routine was we would usually arrive at church between nine and 9.15. I would go over to the Pellys because Dawn usually had breakfast made, eggs, bacon, whatever we wanted. So I ran over there.

When the door was locked, I was confused. The doors were never locked. And I went running back to the church, and I said, I don't know, they must all be sleeping. At this point in time, I think the whole congregation was there. They had a master key. They went and scoped it out themselves.

And they came back and said, everybody needs to run to the altar and pray. I was super confused. I was super confused. We drove up, and I saw lots of people in the parking lot. And there were cop cars everywhere. There was yellow crime tape. A police officer came up to the van and asked my friend's mom to get out.

And I could see them talking, and I could see the tears just start streaming down her face. Gone is an alien who shot and killed the Pelly family. So she came around and told me that my whole family was gone. The brutal murder of the Pelly high powered shotgun wasn't home. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert, to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved.

From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. The brutal murder of the Pelley family. Caught to death in their home Sunday morning. It thrust a small town into the national spotlight. I had just found out that my whole family was gone. I had just lost everything. I pretty much became an orphan in a day. Lakeville, Indiana was never the same for me,

and it was never the same for anybody, to be honest with you, that lived there. It was hard on the whole community. This happy picture of the Pelley family is how most people who knew the Pelley's probably want to remember them. Because that family was loved dearly and nobody could understand it. Nobody could understand it. Jessie and I, we were three years apart in age. It wasn't too hard for me to try to put myself into her shoes and to know what it must be like to lose everyone. The funeral was on May 3rd, 1989,

in the church where Bob Pelley preached every Sunday, next to the house where they were murdered. It was standing room only. There was media everywhere, news anchors running around with cameras pointed at us as we walked in. Also at the funeral were Jesse's stepsister Jackie and stepbrother Jeff. Both had not been home the weekend of the murders. I remember seeing Jackie visibly emotionally upset and shaken.

Jeff, he was just flat and distant. It's like he was there, but he wasn't there. The only thing I remember about my family's funeral was the caskets. I don't remember who all was there. The only thing I remember about my family's funeral was the caskets. I don't remember who all was there. I couldn't tell you what I was doing. I just remember the four caskets. We were toward the front of the church in a pew. And all at once the chords to a piano began to play the song Amazing Grace. And I just remember being so devastated

to realize the reason that the caskets were closed is because of the horrific way that he had died. No one should have seen what we saw that morning. We walked in through the garage door and upstairs Robert Pelley was in the hallway, his glasses next to him. And he had two gunshots on his body. And then we went downstairs and saw

Don, Janelle, and Jolene, and that was what really put a face to this crime. To see the young girls in that position, the way they were with their mothers, trying to protect them was just something that was etched in my mind forever. They were all shot in the head. It was devastating. It stuck with me my whole life. I mean, 30 years later, I can still see if I close my eyes, the three people in the basement. As a detective, I saw the worst of the worst that morning, but we had a job to do.

So you immediately started talking about suspects. It did not look like a burglary. It did not look like a home invasion. The police spoke to all of the surviving members of the Pelley family, including Jeff Pelley. So do you know who killed your mother and father? Or your father and... No, I really don't.

I don't know who would want to. I didn't know who had done it or who they thought had done it. It was like a hush-hush thing with me. In my own mind, I had to come up with something, so I thought my stepdad had killed my mom and my two sisters and then killed himself. He was not very nice to me, spanked me a lot, so I thought, you know, at nine,

that he could have been capable of that. But police had dismissed that possibility almost immediately. After seeing the extent of injuries of Bob Pelley and no murder weapon or no weapon laying around him, I rode the suicide part out in my mind. A month after the funeral, relatives sent Jessie away to camp with her friend Stephanie in an effort to restore some normalcy to her life. Ended up to not be normal. Jessica was a very changed person after that. When I say the million-mile stare, like, she had it a lot.

It was almost as if she was there, but she wasn't there. When I look at those pictures, it's just so weird and strange to me because we both have smiles on our faces, but those little girls weren't right. Those little girls were hurting. After camp, Jessie says her relatives thought it was best for her to start over. They didn't want her to communicate with the people that she had shared this tragedy with. After the murders, we really didn't have a close relationship.

My stepbrother and my stepsister and I, they went with family members on their dad's side, and I went with a family member on my mom's side. I ended up in Michigan because I went and stayed with my grandfather. They just wanted me to forget and move on. It's like they wanted me to be in this bubble to protect me, but it wasn't really protecting me. It was isolating me and hurting me.

I had sent letters, and I was told not to send any more letters. I just would sit at night and think to myself, I can't imagine what she's going through. I ended up running away, and then they placed me in a foster home. I didn't really have a place to call my own. I felt like a drifter. I didn't know where I was going to stay.

I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. As time passed and Jessie tried to regain her footing, the investigation dragged on without any arrests. At the age of 13, I did try and take control of my life, and I actually pushed down all the feelings that I was feeling. I was happy and outgoing and had friends and didn't think about the past. But five years after the murder of her family, someone from her past life came calling.

My stepbrother Jeff, he did call me when I was 15 and asked me to come down to Florida to visit him. When I went to visit him, he did have a really good job with the computer business. He had a wife, Kim, and had his own house. When I went to visit him, he did have a really good job with the computer business. He had a wife, Kim, and had his own house. So he was doing pretty good. And the first thing that he asked me was, who do you think did it? So I looked at him and said, I think your dad did it.

And then it was dropped. Unbeknownst to Jesse, police had been focusing on someone else from the very beginning Looking back on that time visiting Jeff, it could have gone way worse than it did In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of us.

I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with.

In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. After the Pellies were gone and after they were buried. Here I am at the cemetery. There was no more laughing.

There was no more running. There was no more playing. I'm just going to grab my stuff out of the trunk. There was no more laughing. There was no more running. There was no more playing. I'm just gonna grab my stuff out of the trunk. There was just no more of anything. They're right over here. When I was 16 I got my driver's license and the first place I went was to the cemetery. I would just sit and talk to them. It was a huge way to cope with the loss. And then I started kind of tending their graves, just making sure that they were clean and scrubbed and that there wasn't any moss and stuff on them. My mind just wonders why.

I mean, they were so young. For years, Stephanie Fagan grieved the loss of the murdered Pelley family, but also the loss of Jesse. She was gone. I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't just let me, you know, keep in contact with her. When I was a teenager, I did start doing research about the murders. And that's when it became kind of an obsession for me to find her. Every time I came out, I was always thinking, I'll run into her someday.

If I just come out here enough, she'll be here. I did not realize anybody was out there looking for me. I pretty much thought everybody forgot about me and had moved on with their lives because it wasn't their family that they lost. In 1998, when she was 18, Jessie tried to move on as well. The first chance that I got to purchase my own home, I did. I used some of the inheritance to purchase it. I had not had a home since I was nine. It was an amazing feeling.

I felt like I belonged there, that I had a place. Jesse finally had a home, and a family would soon follow. When I first met Tyson, it was love at first sight for him. Me, it was not. I was with someone else. So when we reconnected a couple years later, we just started hanging out, and ever since then, we've been together. I have two children. When my children were younger, they did know that I had a family and that they were gone.

I did not go into detail. I did not really give them any explanation on what had happened. They just knew they were gone. But in 2002, 13 years after the murders, keeping her past buried would become more difficult. There was a knock on my door and there were two detectives standing there. They told her the case was being reopened. They said, well, we're here to talk about, you know, your family's murder case, and we just want to know who you think did it.

When I told them it was my stepfather, they looked at each other, and then, you know, looked at me and said, well, there's no way it could have been him. And then that's when they asked me, well, who do you think could have done it? And in that moment, Jeff came to my mind. My older stepbrother, Jeff, liked to do things that just scared me. He was so quick to getting angry, and he would use his fists, he would fight,

and they said, yep, that's exactly who we think did it. I got a pit in my stomach, and then they started telling me a little bit about the case. Reverend Robert Pelley, his wife and their two youngest children were found shot to death in their home Sunday morning. I know there was a lot of angst in that family between him and his dad. I know a situation where Bob punched him one time. I think the neighbors saw a lot of that same thing as well.

Just weeks before the murders, Center had handled a case in which Jeff Pelley had burglarized a home. Bob Pelley grounded Jeff for the burglary case. He could not go to the prom without his dad taking him. He couldn't go to dinner before the prom. He couldn't go to the after prom. The embarrassment of his dad driving him, not having to do any of the other activities,

was crushing to Jeff Pelley. Inducting an interview with Robert Jeffrey Pelley. I interviewed Jeff with his grandparents May the 1st, 1989. Did you have anything to do with it? No, I didn't. Me and my father didn't get along sometimes. Sometimes I'd be really upset with him. But we always worked things out.

But investigators didn't believe him. When you're talking about the death of your family, you think, you know, every once in a while he'd tear up or he'd cry. He never did any of that. The main evidence against Jeff was the timeline. The Pellys were last seen alive shortly before police believe Jeff left for prom. Who else could have done it? Who else would have done it? Who else had the motive? I believe he killed his family and then was able to go to the prom. Yet back in 1989, the case against Jeff was thin. We didn't have any forensic evidence. We didn't

find a murder weapon, no eyewitnesses. We had circumstantial evidence and the timeline. Very tough case to prove, very tough case to prosecute. The prosecutor's office chose not to file charges on Jeff Pelley. At the time, the prosecutor did not think we had enough. To my mind, I thought we had enough. At the time, the prosecutor did not think we had enough. To my mind, I thought we had enough.

But 13 years after the slaughter of the Pelley family, a new prosecutor thought there was enough evidence. Jeff Pelley was arrested and charged with four counts of murder. When I heard Jeff was arrested, I was just waiting until the trial to see what was going to happen. I was scared that he was going to get out, come after me. When he's angry, he's not a nice person. Do you think a lack of emotion is a telling sign? Watch more of Jeff Pelley's interrogation on Facebook at 48 Hours.

Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. When I came back to Indiana for the trial, it was like coming back a stranger. 17 years after the murder of her family, Jessie returned to the place she once called home. I felt like it had never been my home. I couldn't remember a lot about it. I couldn't remember a lot about the past. On Monday, a jury got its first good look at a man most people in St. Joe County haven't seen for a long time, Jeff Pelley.

And when I went to trial, people were asking who I was. And that's when it hit me that, wow, I really was lost. A jury of seven men and five women will hear the case against Jeff Pelley. I was scared to see him. I was scared to have all these memories come back up. I did hope to have a reunion with Jessica at the trial. My anxiety was very high because I thought, okay, here's my chance. I'm going to be able to see her because we're all going to be in the same courtroom. And that never happened.

That's because Stephanie was a witness and only in court the one day she testified. I was not allowed to see her. I was not allowed to contact her. Tuesday, lawyers laid out their cases to the jury in opening statements. This was a totally circumstantial evidence case. It was a very, very small window when the family could have been murdered. And it was very clear the only person who could have done this was Jeff. The prosecution's theory was that Jeff killed his father in an argument over prom and then had to get rid of the surviving witnesses.

The prosecutor took the jury through the timeline. On Saturday, April 29th, the Pelley house was definitely buzzing. Many of the individuals going to the prom wanted to come by and show Bob their prom dress, their prom tux. His home was always open. He wanted to be someone the community could depend on, someone who could be trusted by his parishioners. So up until roughly 5 o'clock, there was a lot of traffic in and out of the home. But the prosecution says by 5.30, no other visitors could get into the house. The house was locked up as tight as a drum.

It became very clear that the murders had to happen between, say, 5 and 5.20. The biggest thing was Jeff said he wasn't there. Jeff told investigators he left before five o'clock, but witnesses testified they saw Jeff's car parked outside the Pelley home after that. The witnesses who saw when the car was at the house and when the car left the home, he was clearly at the house. Jeff's prom date also testified. She said when Jeff showed up at a nearby friend's house at 5.30, he wasn't wearing his tux. The idea that he had to take the prom off it down to his girlfriends, and there was no pictures taken with his parents, said a lot about what

he had done in the house. He had to get out of there. Jeff's prom date also recalled something Jeff told her at an amusement park the day after prom, shortly before news broke of the murders. Jeff had seemed troubled when she asked him what was the matter. Jeff had told her he thought something bad had happened at home. It seemed to come out of nowhere for this whole situation unless he knew something had happened back in Lakeville, Indiana. Even though Jesse had not been home the weekend of the murders, she was also called to testify. The day comes to where I have to testify, and I was very nervous because I knew I was going to see Jeff. And at this point, I did want to say something to him that he took my whole family

from me. He destroyed my life in one split second. As I sat on the stand and looked at him, he didn't even look at me. I did not get what I wanted. It's like he just pretended like I wasn't there. I was always concerned that she would break down on the stand just because of the emotion involved in this. She did not. She stayed very, very solid the whole way. Jessie testified she saw something important before leaving for that sleepover. I let them know that when I said goodbye to my mom that the gun rack was on the wall and there was a bow and a shotgun on it. was on the wall, and there was a bow and a shotgun on it. The bow was in the rack when officers came that Sunday morning

because we had photographs of it, but the firearm was not there. Police never found that gun, believed to be the murder weapon, but they were convinced they didn't need it. They testified Jeff made a seemingly damning statement in an untaped interview. If I tell you what happened, would I get the death penalty? Who would say something about that unless they'd done something wrong? There was no motive. There was no opportunity. There was no murder weapon. There was no case.

From the very beginning, the police basically assumed that Jeff had committed this crime without any evidence. What they didn't investigate in the case was any possibility that someone else, and for other reasons, had committed these murders. After calling more than 50 witnesses, prosecutors say all the facts point to Jeff P. It's preposterous to think that in the short amount of time that Jeff's presence was unaccounted for, somewhere around 20 to 30 minutes, he could have killed his family, disposed of the murder weapon, driven over to his date's house. There's no possible way that he could have done all of those things in the amount of time he had. As the trial drew to a close, Jeff's fate and Jesse's sense of security

were hanging in the balance. There's no doubt in my mind that Jeff is innocent. He did not commit these murders. He's not a killer. Do I think the evidence points to Jeff? Yes, I do. Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty.

Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defence attorney,

I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. The prosecutor started his closing argument, letting the jury know it was his burden to prove the case. The prosecution had no murder weapon. Did you have anything to do with it?

No, I didn't. No confession and no forensic evidence. The case the jury had to consider rested mainly on the timeline and Jeff Pelley's motive, his anger over prom. Waiting for a verdict was very nerve-wracking. But now the burden of deciding Jeff Pelley's fate is theirs. I didn't know what was going to come out of this. I hoped he was going to be put in prison,

but there was always that chance that that might not happen. One of Pelley's lawyers says his client is under a lot of stress now that the jury has the case. Jeff was facing life in prison, so everything was at stake. The jury deliberated on this case. They went out, I believe it was a Wednesday afternoon, about 2 or 3 o'clock. Came back with a verdict. I believe it was after 8 o'clock on Friday night.

The jury came back with guilty on all four counts against Jeff Pelley. Guilty. For the murders of Dawn, Bob, Janelle, and Jolene Pelley. I felt a sense of justice when I heard the verdict was guilty. My family's killer was put away. Jeff does have a wife and a child, so I did feel for his son because he was losing a dad, and I know how that feels. But I remember to this day, the image of Jeff being handcuffed burned in my mind.

Jurors were quoted as saying, well, if he didn't do it, who did? That is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Jeff was sentenced to 160 years in prison for the four murders in this matter. The case, however, was far from over. So after the conviction, we of course filed an appeal and we were successful. The convictions were set aside on a number of procedural grounds.

I actually had someone call me and tell me that. And I remember being at Save-A-Lot, actually, and I was sitting in my car. And I just started crying because I was afraid it was all going to start again. And I didn't want to have to look over my shoulder. But Jeff remained in custody. And in February 2009, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld Jeff Pelley's conviction. The sentence stood.

upheld Jeff Pelley's conviction. The sentence stood. With the case seemingly behind her, Jessie decided her children were old enough to hear how she lost her family. When I was first told about my mom's past, we were actually in Indiana. She took me to her sister's and mom and stepdad's graves. She told me that they had been killed when she was nine.

It made me sad because I was like, well, that's your family. That's my family. I had never actually witnessed her cry like that. So I would Google Pelly, Pelly murders, Jessica Pelly. You know, any two words that I could put together to figure out where she was. Well, I had found one clipping of one article that said, Jessie Taranjo. So I went on the search bar, typed in her name.

Boom, this eye came up. It was just this part of her eye. I knew it was her. I knew. Part of me was scared because I thought maybe she didn't want me in her life. But I said to myself, you know what? I've come this far.

There's no stopping now. I don't know if you remember me or not. My name is Stephanie. We were close when we were younger. I'm just going to write her a letter. I'm going to tell her how I feel. I'm going to tell her who I am. And if she wants me to be in her life, fine.

If she doesn't, I will leave it to you to write me back. I will probably be biting my nails until you do. So one day I log into Facebook and there's a message from a Stephanie Fagan. Well, I don't recognize the name, but I click on it and I read it. I have huge tears in my eyes right now just knowing that you were actually going to get my letter this time. I just told her I've been looking for you my whole life. And I told her I took care of your parents' graves. And I've thought about you. And I've talked to you in my sleep. I've talked to you when I wake up. I've gone through my life and never lost sight of finding you. I never in a

million years thought I'd ever see you again. And I'm bawling as I'm reading it. I'm just crying hysterically. And the feeling I got was someone reached out to me and has been looking for me this whole time and wants to get to know me again and wants to be around me and remembers everything. And at first she didn't remember me, but then I started kind of telling her stories about camp, and it clicked immediately. I have missed you for many years. Much love, Stephanie. And the rest is kind of history. There we go. Stephanie and I call each other sisters. From the moment that we reconnected, we bonded in such a way that I've never had a bond like that. Jesse's cousin, Jamie Collins, also came back into her life. Reuniting with Jesse, she was this fierce, vibrant, kind of bold, free-spirited

person with this hot pink hair. She had told me a lot of her deepest, darkest secrets about her past and her thoughts and her fears and her dreams. And we talked about so many things that in a lot of ways, I felt like I knew her better than maybe I've ever known anyone. So Jamie said to me, you know, you should write a book about your life. And I told her, I said, well, everybody tells me that, but I definitely could never do that. And I probably couldn't talk to a stranger about everything. And she said, well, what about me? Could you tell me? And I told her, yeah, I could probably do that. Though she came across as outgoing and positive, the trauma of Jesse's childhood was never far below the surface. We were actually writing the book at the time that

Jessica kind of had a downward spiral, and it was a very scary time for both of us. She lost a close family friend to cystic fibrosis, and for her it had triggered these elements from her past. Once the triggers hit her, that was it. I hadn't lost anybody since my family, and I never realized that it would hit me like that. So I have a whole week where I don't remember a whole lot. I trashed my living room. I was angry. It was like I wasn't even there.

I could feel myself being sucked into the darkness, and I just couldn't bring myself out. That week, I knew something was going on. I got a call, and she was crying. All I could hear was, you know, I need you. I was like, okay, you need to calm down. There was no calming her down. I was like, maybe you just need to take an anxiety pill.

You know, maybe you just need to calm down. She's like, I took all of them. I said, oh, this is not good. And the phone went silent and I couldn't hear her anymore. And I thought, that's it. This whole time I waited for her and I looked for her and now this is it. This is it. She's gone. See what mystery was solved when Jesse and Stephanie finally reunited at 48hours.com. That week when she was spiraling, the last thing I remember was an ambulance at our house and I was watching them take my mom out on a stretcher. I ended up waking up in a hospital, and I didn't know how I got there. I didn't know what had

happened, but the doctor asked me if I tried to kill myself, and I was floored. I guess I had taken a bottle of pills and tried to kill myself. I later found in a notebook a goodbye note. At that point in time that was rock bottom for her. She called me. I was one of the only people that knew. She said, I'm done. I gotta get help. I was scared for my life that I wasn't going to make it. And I did not come this far not to make it. So I ended up admitting myself in the hospital and started getting some help. I've learned that I do have DID, which is dissociative identity disorder. which is dissociative identity disorder, and I am part Jessica and part Jesse.

So when I pushed Jessica down, inside me, way down, and didn't want to feel sad, lonely, I think I lost a lot of the memories that I had in doing that. And now that I'm trying to get them back, you know, it's difficult to because I'm just now letting Jessica come back. you know, it's difficult to because I'm just now letting Jessica come back. A survivor's path is very messy. There is no clean line. There is no straight path. You have your ups and downs, but when you get help, it's a little bit easier.

I do not consider myself fully healed, but I am definitely on the way to recovery. When I think of Jessica, I don't think of just a lonely scared little girl anymore. I realize she is me and together we can overcome anything. Anything including a recent development in her stepbrother's case. It's still winding its way through the courts. Jeff Pelley's new legal team has filed a motion for post-conviction relief. 30 years later, there's still a legal process going on. It really is a form of slow torture, but I fully believe that he's not getting out. Jesse is trying not to dwell on it and instead focusing on helping others.

Jessie is trying not to dwell on it and instead focusing on helping others. I Am Jessica, the book she wrote with her cousin Jamie, was published on April 29th, 2019, the 30-year anniversary of the murders. We've had a few book signing events and it's been amazing just to see kind of the outpouring of support from the community. I just appreciate everybody that's been supportive and has hung in there with me. It's been really an overwhelmingly positive experience for both of us. When I read the book, it made me realize how strong I am, and it made me realize that I have a purpose, and it is to help people, and this book is one way that I'm going to do that. There's a lot I admire about Jessie. I admire Jessie for her

strong will. I admire her for her strength. I admire her for everything that she went through. And I feel like she came out just this beautiful flower in a field full of weeds. That's how I feel about her. What am I doing with this lemon? I saw her in this downward spiral, and then in just the past year or so, I've seen her crawl back up. She survived it. Seeing my mom go through this has taught me to value family and to never give up and to always keep fighting no matter what's going on in my life. Better eat your salad. Having my family today is a blessing. I look at them and I just realize how lucky I am to be alive.

Thirty years later, Jessie regained the sense of family she lost so suddenly. But she still thinks of what life would be like had things turned out differently. Now that I'm starting to feel again, I do think about my sisters and what they would have been like and if I would have had any nieces and nephews from them. And my mom, you know, how would she be with my kids? Would they have called her Grandma? Would they have called her Nana? I think today my mom is looking down, and she's proud of me. I know they're not here, but I know they're with me,

and I still think of them. I remember singing with my sisters right up there on that stage. We would sing Amazing Grace. 30 years ago, I did not know Amazing Grace would apply to me. I know now that I survived for a reason. I once was lost, now I'm found. I really was lost for a long time, and now I'm not anymore.

The Indiana University McKinney Wrongful Conviction Clinic now represents Jeff Pelley and has filed a motion for post-conviction relief. A young woman disappears. Jennifer has vanished. A shadowy figure had her car. Who is he and where's Jennifer? Someone out there knows something. 48 hours, Saturday at 10 9 central on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.

Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. I'm Jack Havli. to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear,

but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked.

And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app.