Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 2 Beautiful Girls VANISH

Episode Date: August 19, 2022

Today on Crime Stories, Nancy Grace delves into the disappearances of two  women - one in California, one in Illinois.   22-year-old Jolissa Fuentes was last seen at August 7. Surveillance video from a Selma, California convenience store shows Fuentes making a purchase inside the store, then getting into her car. Fuentes can be seen pulling on the highway, but her family says Fuentes should have turned right  to head home. Fuentes turned left, and hasn't been seen again.  Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Detective Richard Figueroa at [phone], or Detective Matthew Hughes at [phone]. In Illinois, Jerrica Laws disappears after leaving home for a walk. Laws has dinner with a friend, goes home and tells her mother she is going for a walk.   Laws doesn't return home.  There are no suspects  or persons of interest named in this case.  If you have information regarding Jerrica Laws’ case, please contact the Park Forest Police Department at 708.748.1309. Joining Nancy Grace today: Sarah Ford - Legal Director, South Carolina Victim Assistance Network, SCvanLegal.org, Former Prosecutor focusing on Crimes Against Women and Children, Facebook: "SCVAN Legal Services Program", Adjunct Professor, Claflin University & South Carolina State University Dr. Jeff Gardere - Board Certified Clinical Psychologist, Prof of Behavioral Medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine DrJeffGardere.com, Author: 'The Causes of Autism” and Co-Author: "Practical Parenting" @drjeffgardere  Justin Boardman - Former Special Victim's Unit Detective, West Valley City (Utah), Author: "I Was Wrong: An Investigator's Battle-cry for Change Within the Special Victims Unit", JustinBoardman.com, Twitter: @boardman_train Dave Mack - Crime Online Investigative Reporter Sydney Summer - Crime Online Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful, young, 22-year-old girl missing. Her family now telling us she was taken against her will. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to our friends at KMPH Fox. This is the flyer. They are posted all over town. Her family and friends have also been sharing them online. I stopped by the convenience store where she was last seen and I was trying to get surveillance video.

Wasn't able to, but a woman there overheard me asking and said she had just been handed one of these. So we know they're getting around and they are people out there keeping an eye out. But the Selma Police Department also emailed a notice out this evening. Despite all of that effort, still no sign of Julissa Fuentes. New this morning, the Selma Police Department is asking for the public's help. Finding a missing woman, 22-year-old Julissa Fuentes, was last seen on Sunday around 4 a.m. in Selma. Police say she drives this car here, a silver Hyundai with tinted rear windows. Now, you see the car in this picture on your screen. Now, if you have seen Fuentes or have

any information about her, whereabouts you are asked to call the Selma Police Department. And also hearing our friends at KFSN in the search for this young woman, Jalisa, with me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first of all, let me go out to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Dave Mack. Dave, I understand that there is a convenience store involved, but no surveillance video? Or is there surveillance video or is there surveillance video? Nancy, there is surveillance video from the AMPM convenience store that shows Jaleesa in the, you know, shows her in the parking lot out front where she parks her car, shows her inside the store and shows her leaving. That's why we have a really

good timeline of her around 4.06 a.m. Well, you're absolutely correct. Take a listen to our But then she drives off and makes a left on Nebraska Avenue. Her parents say she lives with grandma and she should have made a right turn to go back home. We don't know why she turned left. Yeah, I was convinced through a surveillance video, Dave Mack, but the first reporter said she couldn't see it, which I found really interesting. You know what, Dave Mack?

We have had so many cases where surveillance video at a convenience store has really started a timeline. It's incredible how often that happens. And that's exactly what we have here, Nancy. Without this, we wouldn't have a firm understanding of what was happening with Jalisa at that time. The actual video shows her pulling in. It shows if there are any cars around her. It shows if there's anybody watching, following her inside the store, and it shows her leaving. That's why we know that when Jalisa Fuentes left the AM, PM convenience store,

she actually went to the left, which meant to her family that she was not going back home to grandma's house because she would have turned right to go to her grandmother's that's why that left turn is so significant you know dave mack i'm specifically speaking of a case that you and i worked on chase masner remember chase had Chase had come home from either Iraq or Afghanistan, had PTSD big time, and he had been working at a, it was a quick trip, wasn't it, Jackie? It was, yes. And it's like a little subculture there.

Generally, you know, where you work turns into a little society in itself. And he had been back and forth there. And the video surveillance of him there the evening he disappeared really was an integral part in piecing together a timeline. And we've seen it over and over and over. I know you remember Shasta Groney. Shasta and her little brother Dylan were kidnapped from their home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where there is no ring camera, there's no toll booth, there's no red light cam. But months later, we had been airing it almost every night about Shasta Grening and Dylan, a woman, a cashier, recognized Shasta, and we've seen the video a million times, walking subserviently behind her kidnapper, who also murdered her brother right in front of her, and that's

how she was found. So, I can't stress enough how important this surveillance video is in this case, Dave Mack. Nancy, it's interesting that I saw the same thing you did. When I was watching the video, I was looking to see, was there somebody in the parking lot at the a.m., p.m.? Was there somebody in the store? Well, there is somebody inside the store that is also walking around. Again, we're talking about 4 o'clock in the morning here um the thing is is the person that is seen inside the store isn't seen like tracing her tracking or rather when it's when jaleesa leaves the am pm that that's where our last uh video visual contact

with her ends she actually makes that left-hand turn. So the family is concerned because of the direction she goes in. That means a lot to them. And if she turns back right to go back towards grandma's house, that gives us a better idea of what could have happened. But this case, she goes left and we have no idea why. You know, to a special guest joining us, Dr. Jeff Gardere, longtime colleague and friend. Dr. Gardere, board certified psychologist, professor of behavioral medicine at Truro, and author of, oh my goodness, so many great books, including Practical Parenting, which I love, Dr. Gardere. I hate to single it out of all your books you've written. But Jeff Gardere, I want to talk to you for a moment about why we're so concerned

that this young girl turns left. Okay, let me give you an example. The other day, I had gone out jogging, and I had been gone 40 minutes, and not only did it start raining, which was no problem, but then it started lightning really badly. And I mean like cracking lightning. So I called David and said a voicemail, of course, why does nobody pick up when you're in trouble? I left a message, come get me. I'm out in lightning and I need to get home. I would have been gone almost an hour at that point. Anyway, Jeff, he went my normal route because normally I turn left

to go walking or jogging. That day I turned right. It took him 20 more minutes to even find me because I went against my regular routine, right? See? And that's why when Julissa turns left, everybody goes, what? That's not correct. She never does that. It's actually very significant. Absolutely. We are creatures of habit.

We adapt and almost become habitual to the regular routes that we take. It becomes ingrained almost in our DNA. We do it in our sleep. That's one thing. But the second thing that's just as important is, and the point you bring up with David is, we take these routes. We do the things that we normally do because it's a clear signal to our loved ones that everything is okay. And so if we go astray or if we take a route that is somewhat different, we may not think twice about it, but certainly for our loved ones, it alerts us as to wait a minute. This is not what this person has been doing for the past five years, 10 years, whatever the case may be.

And even if nothing is wrong, it just rings every alarm bell possible. It really does. Jeff Gardier, you and I have talked about it in so many cases where we rely on routine evidence. I don't mean typical evidence, evidence of routine. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We're talking about this precious young woman, just 22 years old, just the apple of her family's eye, and she's missing, and they're desperate. We want to help. The tip line for Jalissa Fuentes is 559-891-2243. Repeat, 559-891-2243. Repeat, 559-891-2243. What more do we know?

Take a listen to our friends at KMPH Fox. Where's my granddaughter? Jalissa Fuentes went to a friend's house in Selma Saturday night and left around 3 a.m. She stopped by home but went out again to grab a snack from a nearby a.m. p.m. The store owner told me he gave police surveillance video showing Jalissa Thayer at 4.06 in the morning. She headed west down Nebraska Avenue when she left and that was the last time anyone saw her. If you're listening, we love you, mommy, and we're praying for you. She tried calling her sister just before she went to the a.m. and again twice around 5 30 but her sister was asleep

so let me understand dave mac she went to a friend girl's house and it looked like she was probably going to spend the night that night but instead she gets up and decides to go home apparently but first she stops at this am p.m is.m. Is that correct? Not exactly, Nancy. What she did was she left her friend's house around 3 a.m. She went to her grandma's house and she was at grandma's house. She picked up her bag and her purse and some other stuff, apparently. And it was then that she went from grandma's house to the a.m. p.m. convenience store at around 4 a.m. You're right, because I was thinking, Dave Mack, what is she doing out so early in the morning?

Not that that's a felony, but that's not her normal practice. But it was, as you correctly said, Dave Mack, she decides not to spend the entire night, goes home to grandma's, and then goes by the AM PM, grabs her pocketbook, and goes to AM PM. And I notice, again, they're talking about why she went in another direction. Tell me what you can, Dave Mack, about Selma, California and the area where they live. Selma, California is a rural area. When we tend to think of California, we don't think of, you know, orchards and things like that.

We tend to think of cities and Southern California. Hold on just a moment. I thought that too until I went to go live in Redwood City for the Scott Peterson trial. And if you go to Covina, where Lacey and Connor and Peterson lived, you go to the end of the street and there is like a fence,

and on the other side of the fence are hundreds and hundreds of acres of what I think to be olive orchards. I mean, right in the middle, just beautiful, beautiful farmland. But I think you're right. I think typically people think of San Francisco or L.A. And unless you've been there, it's hard to take in that it's really like one of the cradles of farming for our entire country. So this is one of those spots in Selma, California.

Correct. And that means something here, Nancy. Actually, if you look at a map, you're going to see Selma is in the eastern part of the, like in the middle of the state in the east. Okay. Funny, I'm from Orange County, California, which is southern. And so I understand when I talk to people and they always have a misconception about the area. But here's the deal. There were plenty of orchards out here, like I said, a fairly rural area. And she actually, Jalisa would go and be in an orchard area to find what her family referred to as peace of mind. There was a very

calm area for her and it was in an orchard in the middle of this area they lived and so that was one of the things the family went to look for first where because she is known to do that to go and repair by herself and just chill and so that was a what they were looking at to justin boardman joining us the former special victimsims Unit detective in West Valley City, author of I Was Wrong, An Investigator's Battle Cry for Change Within the Special Victims Unit. You can find him at JustinBorman.com. Justin, thanks for being with us. One reason I like to establish the topography where we're talking about is it helps me come up with a suspect pool. If you're in New York City, basically danger is lurking at every corner.

And I lived there over 12 years and you got to really be careful. In a rural area, you don't really think of danger lurking in every red light. This should narrow down the search for suspects. But on the other hand, it also widens the possibility of where the victim could be. It absolutely does. And I think that, you know, one of the places

where I would start looking, certainly we have less suspects in the rural area, right? Unless it's somebody that's wandering through that may have taken her. But this whole turning left thing, to me, signals, you know,

what was, you know, maybe what was the purchase? Is she going to go share stuff, beverages with somebody or something like that? And maybe she met somebody at her friend's house that way. It just seems like she was going to go see someone. The friend has been questioned and does not mention anything about her leaving with another person

or a later meetup. But you're right. Those are the first people you want to talk to after grandma. What more do we know? Take a listen to our friends at KNPH Fox. The family knew by that morning something was wrong. As soon as I got out of church, I texted her and I said, Dolisa, where are you?

This is grandma. Give me a call and nothing. And I texted her again and nothing. It's not like her. She always texts me back and says, grandma, I'm okay. I'm fine. Don't worry. I'll come home. She never came.

When the family calls now, the phone goes straight to voicemail. The Selma Police Department considers this a missing persons case, explaining to me today this is irregular behavior for Jalissa. But so far, the department hasn't said anything about foul play. You know what I'm hearing right there, Sarah Ford? Sarah Ford is the legal director of South Carolina Victims Assistance Network, a former prosecutor focusing on crimes against women. Sarah, I'm listening to what the grandma is saying, and it reminds me, we have to take into account this was a Saturday night going into Sunday morning. So when the grandma gets up to go to church, she starts

texting and calling and already, I believe, it was going straight to voicemail. Absolutely, Nancy. That's very unusual, especially because Jalissa made several calls to her sister after she left the convenience store. So we know that her phone was working for at least an hour and a half or so after she was last seen. And then of course, that morning, several hours later, it's going straight to voicemail. And obviously, at that point, her grandmother knew something, something wasn't quite right. What do we know, if anything right now, Dave Mack, about potential pings on her phone? Where was it last pinged? We don't have that information yet, Nancy.

You know it takes time sometimes for them to figure out what has gone on. But something that is interesting to point out is that Delisa tried to call her sister, Jackie, three different times. One was right around 4 a.m. when she got to the A.M. P.M. convenience store. The other two calls were back-to-back at 5.24 a.m. and 5.25 a.m. Those were Face two calls were back to back at 5 24 a.m and 5 25 a.m those were facetime calls she tried to make and her sister was asleep so there was no contact there now we don't know what happened after that we just know that there were those two calls at 5 24 and 5 25 a.m hopefully we'll get the data from law enforcement sometime in the next couple of days. You know, you're talking about those last calls to the sister, 525, 526 AM. Sister in L.A. did not pick it up.

I'm very, very curious as to why law enforcement is not releasing the location of the last ping. So let's look at the timeline to you, Dave Mack. We've got her on video at the a.m. p.m. and that's around 4.06 a.m. She's caught on video. We know she is alive and calling her sister at 5.25 a.m. Is that the last thing we know of her? Now, this is after leaving a party at her friend's home. What do we, is that the last time we know of her? That is. Now, we don't know it was her dialing that phone at 524 and 525 a.m. We know that her phone was used to try to make a FaceTime connection with her sister at that time, but we don't know it was her. The time we see her is 4 0 6 a.m uh in her car turning left on in nebraska and then the two phone calls or facetime calls at 5 24 5 25 you know sarah ford

i would like to argue with dave mack about we don't know that was her calling her sister because who else would be calling her the sister's number at five o'clock 5 30 in the morning but we learned in the Gabby Petito case that her killer fiance Brian Laundrie was actually using Gabby Petito's phone after he murdered her to throw off family and potentially police from the trail to, you know, present that she was still alive when he knew he had left her body to decompose in dispersed camping. So Dave Mecca is right. You can't assume that this was her. But I mean, come on, if you're going to FaceTime the victim's sister, that means your face

is going to show up. What idiot would do that after wrongdoing? Right, absolutely. And I think this is where we can go back to the routine of the individual that's missing to Delisa's routine. Did she often FaceTime her sister? There are some people who hate FaceTime. So if she did that, that would be unusual. So kind of looking at her phone habits there I think is important as well.

Did she often talk to her sister early in the morning? Those are certainly things that I'm questioning that could potentially help expand this timeline a little bit. Now, it's my understanding, Dave Mack, that the car she was driving, a 2011 gray Hyundai, has not been recovered. I find that really interesting. I believe it was an accent. It was a 2011 silver Hyundai accent and it hasn't been found. Not at all. And no sightings either. Okay. That's crazy. Guys, take a listen to our friend Marie Ettinger at Fox 26. We know Jalissa's character, you know? We know Jalissa's character so good. There was no question with none of us.

Jalissa's family and friends spent the day out looking for her. They divided up, some driving, others walking, hoping for any sign. We're out there searching the country, trying to see if we see anything, if we see her car. But it hurts because I feel helpless. So helpless, like I've never felt like this. Come home, baby. We need you. We want you over here.

And if somebody has her, please let her go. Please let her come home. Also, take a listen to Natalie Vera at KSEE 24. Her loved ones don't think Jalisa would disappear on her own though. Her phone's been off. We've been sending text messages, calling it, but it's been off since Sunday.

The Fuentes say Jalisa's sister had two missed FaceTime calls from Jalisa's number at 5.24 and 5.25 a.m. That's about an hour and a half after she left the gas station. You know, Dr. Jeff Gardier, a psychologist joining us, professor of behavioral medicine at Turo, the fact that the family is saying she's never done this before, this is not like her, that would be as if everybody was ready to start crime stories and I just disappear.

That has never happened in all my years. Never. Or didn't show up for court for Pete's sake. Never happened. A lot of times police discount that kind of evidence, but I find it very powerful. Jeff Gardier. You can hear the confidence in her family that are adamant that she is a person of habit. She's a good girl. She is not veering off into any situations that might put her in danger.

And that's why they were concerned right from the very beginning. Look, this is a young person. And sometimes we see with young people, you know, that they may go to a friend's home, power runs out of their phone at some point, or they fall asleep. And then, you know, they can be irresponsible and not say anything or not show up until the next day. I deal with that all the time with parents and their kids. But this family is saying, this is not this young girl. That's not what she does. What do we know about her, Dave Mack? Where does she work or go to school?

She doesn't go to school. She does have a job. And I was looking at earlier, they were talking about like a packing plant, just your regular, you know, punching in, punching out kind of a job. No children that we know of. And the closest, and this is something that I also want to point out, Nancy, a couple of years ago, a friend of hers, a very close friend of hers passed away. And this friend was somebody that Jalisa would go and out to the orchard together. It was their little place of peace and where they would just go and hang out. That's why the orchard

has been such an important part of what they're trying to figure out. That she has really been missing this friend that passed away. Guys, there is a reward. Take a listen to our friend Liz Gonzalez at Fox 26. And I was always the type that would take care of business. And I was always the type that would take care of business. Yeah, I'm lost. I can't do nothing. A Selma family has been desperately searching for a 22-year-old woman who's been missing now for nearly three days. That family now offering a $1,000 reward for anyone who can help them find the missing woman, Jalissa Fuentes.

She was last seen Sunday around 4 in the morning. That reward has now climbed to $10,000. And on Facebook, you can find the search at Find Jalissa Fuentes. Take a listen now to our Cut 13, our friends Marie Ettinger and others at Fox 26. The family mentioned Jalissa would often go to the orchard in the countryside just to hang out and think. They said that she had a friend who passed away last month and she would go there from time to time with him. They think that may have been where she was headed. So they've spent a lot of time over the past couple of days looking out in those orchards, looking in the countryside, and of course, no luck so far.

And again, we want to emphasize that police are saying this is completely out of character. She does not just take off like this for days at a time. It's interesting. We know, Sarah Ford, that when she went home after the party at the friend's house, it was in the early morning hours, she got her purse and some money and left. So we know she was in her car

with her purse and money. None of that has been found. But if a young girl is sitting out where she and her friend would sit before the friend passed away at six o'clock in the morning, I'm bringing it back to the area where it's a lot of farmland and orchards and there are migrant workers that work those orchards. If she's sitting out there in her car or outside of her car in the early, early morning hours when they're just showing up to work, that's a problem. It's so important to think about, you know, people do see things and they often think that what they're seeing is insignificant. But when coupled with, you know, evidence pieces on top of, you know, the timeline, it's very important that if someone just thought they saw someone sitting out there or saw a car leaving at a certain time, that they come forward with that information.

Because it says little things that really can help crack a case open when you've really appeared to run into a dead end here? For one thing I think we could be doing, Justin Boardman, is if her car has not been found, looking at every toll booth, at every red light cam, leading out of that area, wherever they start, and that became a significant issue. If you recall the case of Alex the Murdoch, his wife, Maggie, and son Paul found shot dead at their hunting lodge. A lot of money floating around there to have a home and a hunting lodge. But into the investigation, Alex Murdoch claims someone shot him in the head on a rural road. Made no sense. And while we were discussing and analyzing, we came up with the idea that cops should go all the way down that rural road where there is a Baptist church that has a camera to see who, if anyone, turned at that stop sign.

And that is exactly what they ended up doing. And it was determined that Alex Murdoch had not been ambushed. He planned the whole thing so there may not be ring cameras there may not be a lot of red lights but the in and out the entrance and the exit to those areas need to be canvassed for video surveillance yeah absolutely i think that's that's a great um thought there's another one that I think that we haven't chatted about yet either. Although Selma is going to be a smaller police department and not have a lot of resources, they can bring in the state.

The state also, like Utah where I policed, we had plate scanners. And if you had officers with plate scanners in their cars driving around in areas, you might locate the vehicle a whole lot faster than how we're just seeming like we're waiting right now for it to show up in an orchard. Also, another thought is I keep going back to um her turning left and yeah possibly meeting up with somebody do we know anything about dating apps good question what do we know dave mack about her dating anyone they haven't released information about that they haven't released information about dating apps the usage of them they even checked the computers or her cloud you know i hate to say i assume they have but you know you kind of assume that they would have done that we do know they reached out to the community for uh asking people to help with getting drones to

fly drones over the area which indicated to me we've got a law enforcement agency that might be underfunded a little bit and they're seeking the help from the community. And when they did, the drone community came out, and they had so many drones up in the air. If that car was somewhere on the ground that could be seen by a drone, they would have had it. The parents, the family, begging for help. Take a listen to our friends at KSEE 24. And I pray for strength.

The Fuentes are praying for good news. We've been here for the past five days searching. On Saturday, Julissa Fuentes' loved ones carried out another search for the 22-year-old missing woman. Trying to find anything, anything that, any belongings of my daughter, whether it was her purse, any of her clothing, her car, and I hate to say it, even my daughter herself. The family begging for help. If you know or think you know anything about this missing girl, Jalisa Fuentes, please dial 559-891-2243. Repeat, 559-891-2243.

There is a $10,000 reward. And remember, she is driving a gray Hyundai Accent, tag number 8MP, as in Philadelphia, U766. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. And now we head all the way across the country from Selma, California to Illinois in the case of another young missing woman. Listen. It just hurts so bad. It really does. Jerrica Laws went missing August 16th, 2015. It's just heartbreaking. Jerrica has been missing now for over six years. She says Jerrica, who was 20 years old at the time, went out for a walk, which she did daily, but this time she didn't return home and hasn't since. The more time that goes by, the more I feel like I'm not going to

find her and I really don't know where to begin to start over, you know, to look for her. You are hearing Jerrica's family. To CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Sydney Sumner, what can you tell me about Jerrica's disappearance? Jerrica went for a walk Sunday evening, which was in the ordinary for her. This was something she did every day. Her neighbors knew her well because she used to walk the neighborhood so often. She said bye to her mom before she left, and she never came home. Take a listen to our friend Jackie Howard at CrimeOnline.com. As you just heard, Jerrica Laws liked to walk.

It was a regular occurrence for her, as her mother, Chantanelle, tells me. Jerrica was 140 pounds, and she thought she was overweight, so she used to walk for exercise. So it wasn't uncommon that she went for a walk, you know. And my neighborhood, I really thought it was a pretty safe neighborhood. So I had no concerns about her going for a walk, you know. Goes on a walk and never comes back. You know, that's really odd. And you know what it's reminding me of, Justin Boardman?

It's reminding me of justin boardman it's reminding me of stacy peterson you remember her married to drew peterson the former cop not far i do from here uh nearly the same area he says that his wife the mother of his children just leaves the home what on foot leaving behind all of her clothes all of her stuff and her car so i'm supposed to believe that this young woman jericho laws just leaves on foot and with the intent of never coming back right that's just that's just whacked out um if you're not going to come back you're going to take a few more things with you. Take a listen now to our friends at Case File Chicago. Next day, I went to work that morning and I never really check her room because she always comes in. And if she's going somewhere and it's going to be out late,

Jerrica will let me know. But dishes were in the sink. And I should have known that something was wrong because she never, she washed the dishes at night. Never leave a dish in the sink. Yeah, that's another attribute of behavioral evidence. Because, you know, I don't know about you, Sarah Ford. But if my family came in and our sink was piled high with dirty dishes, they would know something was really wrong. Absolutely. We have to look at the patterns of behavior of the individual, and they can really, really tell what's normal, what's not. And it definitely sounds like she went out for a walk and was expecting to come back but didn't

and and to think that this family is still suffering you know years later with no knowledge of what happened none whatsoever what can you tell me sydney summers joining us from crime online.com about the area where she went missing yeah so this is park is Park Forest, Illinois. It's south of Chicago. It's a little suburb. They actually call it a village. It has that few people. Population is about 20,000, and it's actually less than five square miles of land. So it's a pretty tight-knit, small community, very residential neighborhoods, homes. a the defining feature of this area is called old plank trail it used to be a railroad but they converted it into a nature walk and a bike trail which is where they think jerica may have been walking okay you're bringing to mind abby and

liberty who went missing on a very similar trail the tre Trestle Bridge in Delphi. So do you think, Sydney, that this was a place that she normally would go? Yes, yes, definitely. Her mother, her sisters, even investigative cops said that all of her neighbors knew who Jerrica was. She regularly walked around the neighborhood almost every single day, but they actually spent lots of time canvassing this area and came up empty-handed every time. It breaks my heart to hear the mother speaking, but I want you to hear what she tells Case File Chicago. You know, her being 24, he said if she doesn't want to come home, she doesn't have to, and I just kept telling him, you don't understand. She would want to come home.

And then, of course, they asked the standard questions. Was there any history of domestic violence? Does she have a boyfriend? He just told me he'll take the report and put her in a database. Put a report in a file? That's what they did? Justin Boardman, what is wrong with law enforcement when a young woman goes missing this drives me crazy they're like oh did she have a

boyfriend she's probably taken off with a boyfriend or a lover she just wanted time to think me time bs justin oh i absolutely agree with you and And we seem to fall into these ruts as law enforcement and into some of these sort of false ideas of what happens out there. You know, we sometimes get jaded because we've investigated a lot of similar sort of cases. But every case is different. And every new case needs to have a fresh look and a fresh start and not just jumping to conclusions that you like. It's just so commonplace to suggest the woman has just taken up with a man and left town. That is not what happened with this young girl to you, Sydney Summer.

What time of the day or night do we have her leaving the home? So that was at six o'clock is the last six o'clock p.m. Guys, take a listen to our friend Jackie Howard at CrimeOnline.com. When Jerrica Laws left for her walk, the only thing she took with her was her cell phone. Her mother says that should have been their first clue. Laws' large purse was still on her bed. That was strange, too, because Jerrica always had a big purse. Everywhere we went, she had her life in a bag, okay?

Inside the purse, all of Laws' identification. I still have her wallet. It still has the money she has in it. Inside the purse, all of Law's identification. So she's supposed to leave Vamoose without any of her ID or money. Now, we do have one more clue that centers around a Chipotle Mexican restaurant. Take a listen to Hour Cut 22, our friends from Crime Online. The last person to see Jerrica Laws was a male friend. He told police that the two went to dinner at a Chipotle Mexican restaurant. I was at my high school reunion. When I got in, Jerrica wasn't here yet from Malcolm,

but she came in to say, and I was downstairs, so she just, when the door opened, I asked, who was that? She said, it's me, Mother. I'm bringing my purse in, and I'm going for my walk. He says he dropped Laws back home because she said she was going to meet someone, but didn't say who. So Malcolm dropped her off at home. And later what I learned was that Malcolm

stated in an interview that she told him that she was going to meet someone. But he never said that to my family. And he said she didn't say who she was going to meet. Okay, right there. Sydney Summers, where does the Chipotle restaurant fit into the timeline before or after she went on the 6 p.m. walk? Jericho returned home from Chipotle with that male friend, said goodbye to her mother, and that she was going to go on a walk and meet someone else. But nobody knows who, where, only that she left dishes in the sink and told no one where she was going and left without any identification. Exactly.

To Sarah Ford and Justin Boardman, let me start with you, Justin. What should local police be doing right now? Certainly, local police should be checking cell phone sort of stuff. They should be checking and getting a good history of her as if like friends, people she hung out with, you know, talking about dating apps, that sort of thing. We want to go back and retrace some steps as well. When was the last time maybe she went to work? When was the last time she was seen? And then recreating with surveillance cameras, if possible.

Well, I know there's something at Chipotle, but she was spotted by her family after Chipotle. But I agree with you, Sarah Ford, we're hearing nothing about pinging the phone, looking in her iCloud. Maybe her phone text would give us an idea who she was supposed to be, if anyone. Our phones give so much information about who we are, where we're going, who we're spending our time with. So certainly law enforcement should have already done a deep dive on her phone to find out, you know, what apps was she using? You know, her location, did she have tracking on her phone?

But also, you know, kind of getting back to the basics on this, you know, talking to the neighbors who saw her every day. Did they notice anything different about her walk? You know, her coworkers, have you talked with them? You know, so often, you know, just in conversation, she may have mentioned something that could have something to do with who she met up with later that night. Take a listen to this. We have a whole new detective on the case and a whole new police chief all over again. And this is the third one. But when they gave me conflicting places for where her phone pinged. At first, they said it pinged on

Lincoln Highway on August 16th, near where she would have turned to come home. And that would have been with Malcolm, right? And then I got that it pinged near, um, Valma road and Western. So I don't know by the golf course. So I don't know where her phone last ping. And I asked the new detect and the new police chief and they said they would certainly check. Cause I need to know if it was actually the 16th or if it was, if it was by the metro station, like they said, where she would have turned with Malcolm in a car coming home

or was it on Western Avenue in Baltimore, you know, because I got two different reports. You know, I need to know where. The mystery surrounding this girl, Jerrica Laws, has plagued the mother ever since she goes for a walk and never comes home. work and she'd be like hello mother and with all this energy and I'm just tired as ever she was very funny had a sense of humor used to have us cracking up she's just a boatload of energy a positive young lady who loves God and the Bible and just such a happy person all the time literally never a bad day now I have bad days not Jerika. She's just always positive and full of energy. After Jerika went missing, I couldn't do anything for like nine months. My kids actually took care of me. I have depression, of course, and I was taking a pill to sleep because I couldn't sleep for anxiety, depression, concentration. I was off work for about nine or ten months and just laying in the bed.

I lost a lot of weight then. I'm heavier now. It's been seven years but and now I'm very what can I say depressed if you will but I try to keep going for my children because I consider suicide and I'm a God-fearing woman but it hurts so bad to keep living and going when you had something such as this happen. And my therapist knew I was, I think she knew because she asked me to bring my children in who are adults, of course. And just hearing them talk about it, they lost me as well, made me decide to live.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. I really wouldn't if it wasn't for them. The tip line, 708-748-4701. And repeat, 708-748-4701. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.