Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - DEAD ON VACATION: Aspiring filmmaker attacked, murdered on Jamaican getaway

Episode Date: June 24, 2021

Desiree Gibbon, 26, works as a model but has plans to attend film school in Europe to be a director. Not wanting to rely on her family to pay for it, Gibbon looks for work in Montego Bay, Jamaica, while staying at her grandmother’s hotel. After a Thanksgiving dinner with her relatives, she walks outside at  11:27 p.m., telling the security guard she will be right back. She walks to the left and out of view of the resort and was never seen again. About 20 minutes away from the hotel, residents find Desiree Gibbon’s body around 9:15 a.m., two days after she disappeared. She was lying in the heavy brush beside an overgrown roadway with her throat slashed, Nearly decapitated, her spine was severed.Andrea Cali-Gibbon - Victim's Mother Gary Davidson - Partner, Diaz Reus [ROYCE] international Law Firm & Alliance, www.diazreus.com, Twitter: @DRT_Alliance, Instagram: diazreustarg Dr. Jorey Krawczyn [KRAW-ZIN] - Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide” (July 2021) bw-institute.com  Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime Network Mary Murphy - Investigative Reporter, PIX11 News, New York City (WPIX TV), Recipient of 30 New York Emmy awards, Facebook: Mary Murphy Mystery, Instagram: @marymurphypix, Twitter: @MurphyPIX  https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-for-dsire-gibbon-murdered Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. As you get ready to go on vacation on your own with your friend, your partner, your loved one, or your family, think twice. Does the name Desiree Gibbon ring a bell? It does to me. Because when I first read about Desiree, I was so moved. I ended up writing an entire chapter about travel safety because of Desiree Gibbon in the book Don't Be a Victim. Gorgeous, beautiful. In fact, she was a model headed to film school just 26 years old when she goes on a fated vacation to Jamaica. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Take a listen to our friend Jim Dolan at ABC7.

Desiree Gibbon was 26 years old, and all that was holding her back was that she had so many options in life. She could do so much. She wanted to go to film school. She wanted to learn producing and directing. So she wanted to make money to go. She didn't want us to have to pay for it. She wanted to go and make it on her own. Desiree went to Jamaica where her father lives and where her grandmother owns a hotel to earn that money for college. She was close to landing a job at a tourist bar there. Desiree had already created a social life in her short time in Jamaica. She's got family down there. She has cousins. She met a lot of new people that she had been hanging out with for the last three weeks or so. So she was comfortable with these people she met.

Her mom says Desiree knew to be careful. She never traveled by herself. She didn't leave the hotel by herself. She always left with somebody and they would take a car service that was provided by the hotel and the same driver would take them and drop them and bring them back. You know, it seems as if Desiree was following all the rules to stay safe. She was doing everything right. Joining me, an all-star panel, Gary Davidson, partner with Diaz-Royce International Law Firm at Diaz-Royce.com. His specialty is international law cases just like this. Dr. Jory Croson, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University, consultant and author of Stop Officer Suicide, Operation SOS, Practical Recommendations, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,

and star of Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network, Joseph Scott Morgan, Mary Murphy, investigative reporter with Pixie Lovin' News, and the recipient of 30 New York Emmy Awards on Facebook, Mary Murphy Mystery. Special guest joining us and how I have wanted to speak to her, Miss Andrea Gibbon. This is Desiree Gibbon's mother. Ms. Gibbon, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for having me. Ms. Gibbon, I'm just overwhelmed at Desiree's life force. She was beautiful on the inside, in the outside, and she had so many dreams. And, you know, there are a lot of dreamers, but there's a difference in a dreamer and a dreamer that's willing to work hard to make their dream come true. And that was Desiree. She went to Jamaica and actually stayed at her grandmother's hotel that she owned, correct?

That's correct. When did you last speak to her? I actually last spoke to her on Thanksgiving in 2017. I'm thinking back about the last time I ever saw my fiancé before he was murdered. It was an early morning on a Monday morning. He was heading out of town for work. And the last thing I saw was his left arm come up over the car waving goodbye. And I remember it like it was yesterday. What do you remember about that conversation? She was so happy on that day. She was so full of life. She had spoken to everybody

that she ever knew on that day, friends, family, co-workers, everybody, whether it was a text message, a phone call, a FaceTime. She was in such good spirit. She was in a really good place. She was extremely happy. She couldn't wait to have dinner with her family that evening. Just in a very good place, other than, of course, missing home and, you know, her sisters and myself. Just happy, happy girl. Guys, take a listen to our friends at crimeonline.com. Desiree Gibbon had plans to stay at her grandmother's small resort, the Gib Chateau, for three weeks. After a Thanksgiving dinner with relatives, she walked outside at 11.27 p.m. telling the security guard she would be right back. She walked to the left and out of view of the resort and was never seen again. She was wearing shorts and hot pink flip-flops, carrying only her iPhone and room key.

She did not come back to the hotel, to the resort. They did not. Three days passed. Mary Murphy, investigative reporter with PIX, PIX 11. Mary, how was she first reported missing? And tell me about the search that ensued for Desiree. Well, she had no identification on her at all. As you mentioned, she just had the key in her pocket.

She was wearing shorts and her T-shirt. And when she was found in the brush, it was on the side of a road in St. James Parish in Jamaica. And so what I understand is that a photo of her was taken around to all the different hotels in the nearby area in Montego Bay. And finally, someone at the family hotel, the Gibbs Chateau, recognized Desiree. And that's how she was first identified. And she was beaten so badly. And her throat was slit from ear to ear. I know it's so hard for her mom to hear this again, but her mother and I have spoken many times.

She's appeared on my show in New York, and she wants the truth to come out. I mean, she was almost decapitated. That's how bad the injury was. Take a listen to this. About 20 minutes away from the hotel, residents find Desiree Gibbons' body around 9.15 a.m., two days after she disappeared. She was lying in the heavy brush beside an overgrown roadway with her throat cut. Since then, surveillance video from nearby homes have revealed few clues. The pathology report reveals that when Gibbon's throat was slashed, she was nearly decapitated. Her spine was severed.

DNA was found on the body from both a man and a woman, but no matches have been made so far. To Ms. Gibbon, Ms. Andrea Gibbon, this is Desiree's mother. When did you realize that she was even missing, much less had been murdered? You know, I had not heard from her on Friday or Saturday. And sometimes I, you know, at that moment, I talked it up to, well, the Wi-Fi is very poor down there. So it wasn't uncommon. It's some time passed and I didn't hear from her. And then I recall on the Sunday morning, I was sitting in my car getting ready to go to work. And I just got this overwhelming feeling just go through my entire body. The initial sensation was like, oh my gosh, it's finally happening for Desiree. Her dreams are coming true. She's where

she needs to be. And I started to call her. There was no answer. I text her. There was no answer. So again, I said, well, maybe poor Wi-Fi. Monday, I didn't hear from her. I kept calling. And then I was at work on Tuesday morning, actually in a board meeting when I got a phone call from Jamaica. The number popped up. I assumed it was Desiree because she bought a burner phone in Jamaica. So I answered the phone and there's a delay on that phone. So I'm going, hey, Des, I'm in a meeting, but how are you? What's going on? I've been trying to reach you. So the voice on the other end turned out to be her uncle. And the uncle was saying to me, yes, something has happened.

Go home and call me back on this number. And I said to him, I'm at work. I'm not going home. Where's Desiree? What is going on? And he just kept saying, go home, call me back on this number. So I hung up with him and I proceeded to text my husband. And I said, your brother just called me.

What's going on? Where's Desiree? Why is he telling me to go home my husband tried to call me and of course I declined the call because I was in a meeting and I said please text me the next thing he texted me was my mother just told me they killed my daughter after that I don't know what happened. I had somehow ended up at my mother-in-law's house speaking to the detectives on the phone, and they were very, like, nonchalant. Like, what have you been told? And I said, if you're asking me if somebody told me she was killed,

yes, what happened? So when he proceeded to tell me, we found her in the bushes and her throat was slit. I just kind of blacked out at that point and can't recall for the next several hours after that what happened. So it was, yeah, it was very devastating and quite the shock,

something I never thought I'd ever hear. crime stories with nancy grace guys we are telling you about a beautiful young girl just 26 years old already a model but beautiful on the inside and out trying to work her way to film school. That was her dream. And such a loving family. She goes on vacation down to Jamaica. Actually stays at her grandmother's, the grandmother owns a resort. How this happened still remains a mystery to this day. Well, Nancy, I just wanted to add in that the Daily News, that was the cover

the day that the death was announced, model murder mystery. And, you know, there's been speculation that this was done out of jealousy, that she may have met someone in a nightclub that she politely turned down when he showed interest. You know, there was male DNA, but also the female DNA found on her body. So that's the real mystery here. Who are these people? You know, did she have some kind of dispute with people that she had met on the trip? Or was it something regarding events around the hotel that's unclear? What, if anything, can we learn from what Desiree's mother is telling us now?

Take a listen to our friend Maggie Hickey, PIX11. These are the final images Gibbon has of her daughter before her death. 26-year-old Desiree Gibbon last seen on surveillance camera. She's casually dressed in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops. At 11 27 on November 23rd she leaves her room at the Gibb Chateau in Jamaica, a hotel owned by her family. She goes downstairs, is buzzed out by security and walks down the driveway she knew them and she knew them well she had not been around them once or twice she'd been around these people multiple times probably the three weeks plus that she was there just four days before she was to return home to New York Desiree's

brutalized body was found about 20 minutes away along the roadside her throat slashed bruises found throughout her body and wrists. Those are their words. Chopping wound to neck. You're hearing the voice of Desiree's mother there at the end. Meeting people while on vacation. Of course, that's going to happen. But to you, Gary Davidson, partner with Diaz-Royce International Law Firm. You hear these accounts every day. You don't know these people.

You don't know where they're from, what they do, what they have done, what they are capable of. Yeah, a lot of people can be friendly at a restaurant or a bar or out playing shuffleboard or walking on the beach. But you don't know who they are, Gary Davidson. No, you don't. And, you know, people forget when they travel. And, Nancy, I'm sure you talk about this in many of your shows. They forget when they go on vacation that the rules that apply in your neighborhood, for example, or where you live in the United States don't necessarily apply in a place

like Jamaica. Jamaica is known for its high crime rate. Jamaica is known as a beautiful place to vacation as well. But there has to be a balance. And when you start getting involved with locals in the community in any country, you need to know who you're talking to. You need to know what type of person you're talking to. And, you know, when you're young and carefree, as she certainly does, certainly sounds like she was, you sometimes skip making those important judgments in favor of just, you know, having a great time.

And that here turned out to be a mistake. Dr. Jory Crawson, psychologist, adjunct professor, St. Leo University and author, the case of the so-called missing groom, George Allen Smith IV, who disappeared on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Brilliance of the Seas. He was there on a dream honeymoon and met people in the bar and the casino on board. And he ends up dead. I'm pretty sure his fiancee just married. His wife had nothing to do with it. And that only leaves the people on board.

Why is it? Why do people lower their guard on vacation and befriend what in back home would be a complete stranger? You know, as humans, we're very trusting people. I mean, you know, just through an introduction, we trust people to give us correct directions when we ask for it. And, you know, being very trusting, we drop our guard and we do allow people to get close to us. One thing that I noticed here with the brutality of this attack, and I've trained and I've worked with Jamaican police, and I know the culture and I know the violence and the aggressiveness of that culture. And this is a very interesting behavioral pattern that this suspect left. The left hand,

the violence. I think there is somebody that knows what really happened down there. There's going to be a group of people because this level of violence just doesn't go unnoticed. Somebody knows something down there. Well, yes. And I guess the big question, and let me pose this to Desiree's mother, Andrea Gibbon. Ms. Gibbon, tell me about the resort and why you believe your daughter would have left the resort. Well, it was a, you know, a small hotel that they have there in Montego Bay. And, you know, from what we could view on the surveillance camera is that it appeared that she had gotten a phone call from somebody. And she had come downstairs on two different occasions. She came downstairs once at about 1130 p.m., holding a phone, speaking to security, looking out the door, nobody appearing,

and she went back upstairs, and about three or four minutes later, she came back down the stairs, so we tracked her on surveillance. The only difference when she came down, the added article of clothing that she had, is she put a pair of clear sunglasses on top of her head like as an accessory. She had a bandana on her head, the little midriff T-shirt, the shorts, and her flip-flops. She came back down. She went to security again. She's looking out the door, and she says, okay, I'll be right back. I'll be right back. She told security she was leaving.

There's video surveillance at the resort. It's a small resort. She knew the security guard. She's caught on video. It's very clear to me she was waiting for to meet somebody. She wasn't a very brief meeting, because, again, she didn't have a dollar in her pocket. She didn't have an ID. She didn't have a bank card. Her hair was not done as if she was going out anywhere. She had no makeup on. She had flip flops on. She was not going out of that hotel with the intentions to anywhere it seemed to me like she was just going downstairs to meet somebody maybe maybe say hello and whatever transpired from there we just we don't know the cod cause of death a manner of death is especially upsetting take a listen to our friends at cbs2 new york daughter has been murdered. They found her body on Saturday and they slit her throat. She was found in the bushes up in the country. Desiree's

grandparents own a hotel near Montego Bay called Gibbs Chateau. Police were able to identify her body by taking her photo to all the nearby hotels and one of them turned out to be her families. The coroner's office is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death. She had to have been lured from that hotel because she had nothing on her. She didn't have a purse. Jamaica is a beautiful country. There was a lot of people yearly. However, women, I advise them do not travel there alone. It can be very dangerous. The men will lure you.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I can't tell you how many cases I've examined where women were lured by people that complimented them, that took them to dinner, that showed them attention at the poolside bar, and the next thing you know, they're either robbed, raped, or murdered. It happens on vacation. We're talking about the case of a beautiful young 26-year-old with the world ahead of her, just excited to be alive and happy, working her way toward film school, and absolutely stunning on the outside and the inside, Desiree Gibbon. I have in my hands right here, Joseph Scott Morgan, the autopsy report, the postmortem examination report. And I'm struck by the veracity used to slash her neck.

I haven't seen anything like it, really, since we examined the case of Nicole Brown, who practically had her head severed by O.J. Simpson. Yeah, yeah, it is. It is rather ferocious. And not only does this poor woman have injury, this specific injury that's a little over five inches in length to the left side of her neck. She's also got other injuries that are indicated by the forensic pathologist that she may very well have grabbed the blade. So that tells me as an investigator that she has an awareness that she's being attacked, Nancy. Another interesting part to this is that we keep hearing terms like slit and slash and all this sort of thing. That's not what the cause of death is. This is a chopping injury, Nancy. And one of

the first things that comes to mind for me is because the ME actually states that this is a sharp, strong blade. So one of the things that comes to me is a machete. And it is used to chop with. It's used very commonly in Jamaica. It's been used for years and years to do things like harvest sugar cane. So I'm thinking that more than likely it's a big blade, like a machete. It's a chopping motion that the ME even states that the individual may have been right-handed that utilized this blade to bring about her death. And so as he is cutting downward, and we know downward because the ME is saying this poor woman was in a kneeling position. This is a position what we refer to as asymmetrical, where you've got the perpetrators standing above, the victims down below, going from above and downward

in a chopping motion. And that's where you get this force that goes all the way down to the spinal column here. But she had an awareness she was being attacked, Nancy. And the fact that there are two unknown DNA samples found from her body, I'm thinking that these two individuals that facilitated this may very well have been injured themselves. We've got male and female. So where does the female DNA come from? Especially because there's evidence that she took the weapon from the aggressor because of a slice on her own hand.

And not only that, the autopsy states that it's not possible to rule out participation of more than one person. So it took more than one person to murder Desiree. Nancy, can I just say one more quick thing there? Per the pathologist examination, there is per their examination. What I'm reading is there's no evidence of a sexual assault here. So we have to surmise that this DNA deposit did not come from seminal sample from the male. This has to be something else. And I got to tell you, in 2017, when this occurred, the Jamaican police down there,

I don't think they were sophisticated enough to be looking for touch DNA. This is going to be blood, I think. Well, hold on, Joe Scott, because I think you're absolutely correct. Take a listen to our friend Lanagate Franklin, TVJ News, Jamaica. The police say no suspect has been identified in her daughter's murder, even though interviews are being conducted. It's understood that several CCTV footage of areas Ms. Gibbon visited are being examined. She was summoned from her hotel room on Thursday night after Thanksgiving by text or phone call. Her cell phones are missing. She had both an iPhone from back home,

and she had purchased herself a small local area Jamaican phone. She left the hotel and she told the security guard, I'll be right back. And she walked out of the gate and to the right and down just a short way because the streets are extremely narrow for people to double park or pull over. And she walked to the car and she was never heard or seen from again. Straight back out to Desiree's mother, Ms. Andrea Gibbon. Ms. Gibbon, am I understanding correctly that her cell phone was taken, one of her cell phones? That's correct. Her iPhone from New York was missing. As a matter of fact, isn't it true that months later, calls were made to your family from her missing cell phone. That's correct. My sister got

two phone calls from Desiree's phone number. The first call was about, I guess, 530 in the evening or so. And nobody talked. They just left the line open and then ultimately disconnected. And there was a second call that same day, about 1130 p.m., that was a missed call. And when you tried to call the number back, it didn't go through. So it was just extremely bizarre. You know, to Dr. Jory Crawson, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University and author, Dr. Jory, who would do that? What person would call the murder victim's family and then hang up repeatedly. If that were the individual responsible, that is a form of, like, terror.

That's a way of getting further excitement. It's part of the fantasy that, you know, murderers like this live in. So, you know, to be able to revoke the fear from the attack by contacting the family and just leaving it open like that, I mean, that's a tremendous lead if they can locate, you know, the cell towers and things like that. That's the type of individual that would make such behavior patterns. To Mary Murphy, investigative reporter of PIX PIX 11 in New York, were the calls ever traced to a location? I don't believe the calls were ever traced. And, you know, I'm really stumped as to how far this investigation has even gone, because I have tried the inspector, Dwayne Dixon, from the major investigations division. Very recently, I spoke to him and he's claiming it's

not being considered a cold case it's still considered very much active but we don't have new leads however you know when i kept pressing him he said we have no active suspects thus far and every lead led to dead ends you know and i know miss Gibbons has expressed concern that because of worries over how this might impact Jamaica tourism, that perhaps, you know, maybe some investigators hope this will go away. In 2017, the Jamaica Tourist Board was boasting that it had a record 4.3 million visitors to the island. So, you know, you have to wonder, do they want this case to be solved? Do they want the case solved? What do you make of that, Ms. Gibbon? It's a very hard pill to swallow. I believe they actually have no interest in solving her case at all. You know, from the very beginning, it was swept under the rug and I'll tell you actually how we learned about

Desiree's murder is that it happened to be a journalist down in Jamaica who called the Daily News and said hey there's an American girl here that was killed how come none of you are reporting on this yet and that's how it started to unfold and And, you know, by the time that I had gotten home from my mother-in-law's house after learning this, you know, every news station was outside my home. So she was the one calling to say they're sweeping it under the rug. They're not doing anything. You need to get down here. You guys need to investigate. There's something very strange with this case.

You know, I am listening to what you said earlier. You said, I'm angry at the circumstances. I'm angry at your government. Compared to New York, it's definitely different. I can't understand, being such a tourist area, how you have so many murders here. Do you remember saying that, Andrea? I do. In fact, that year that Desiree was killed, there were 1,604 murders on that small island.

You know, Mary Murphy, I don't think tourists know that. I didn't know there were that many murders on the island. I'm very surprised to hear that. And, you know, we should also mention that at one point, Desiree's family was trying to raise money to hire a private investigator who was involved with the Natalie Holloway case. I know you've done work on that, Nancy. That was the high school senior who went to Aruba before graduation. Right, T.J. Ward, yes. Desiree's family has been trying to raise money in the past to get him to come on board. I think she needed $25,000 to go to Jamaica and try to work on this case.

Do you guys have a GoFundMe for that? We do have a GoFundMe for that? We do have one. We do have a GoFundMe that we started a new one because the old one had expired because not a lot was happening with the case. And, you know, after a while, people kind of move on. But we've been working very hard on my side to get Desiree's story back out there, to keep it alive.

How do I find your GoFundMe, Andrea? It's actually Justice for Desiree's story back out there, to keep it alive. How do I find your GoFundMe, Andrea? It's actually justicefordesireegibbon-murdered. justicefordesireegibbon-murdered, forward slash murdered. It's a dash, it's not a slash, it's a dash. Excuse me, dash, justicefordesireeg Gibbon dash murdered. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. I'm trying to understand what the takeaway is in the death of Desiree, still unsolved. The tip line is 876-702-6450 or 876-702-6000. When I'm looking at what happened, Mary Murphy, i think that the public is woefully uninformed

here is this beautiful 26 year old girl heading to film school she's staying at her grandmother's resort she is captured on video leaving the lobby she tells tells security guards, I'll be right back. Then about two to three days pass before she's reported missing. It's only when her body is found that anyone realizes anything is amiss. What can we learn from it, Mary Murphy? Well, what we can learn is you really can't trust anyone, especially when you're not in your own country, in your own city. I mean, she probably just wanted to run out to pick something up. That is the guess that I'm making on this. Another thing I'd like to bring up is that the authorities from our country, the FBI, they're not permitted to go in and assist in these investigation because they're an outside entity.

It would have to involve a request from the Jamaican government for help to bring in U.S. authorities. So even though this young woman is an American citizen, none of our people from this country can go to Jamaica and try to help with the investigation. And I know that her mother was trying to change that. Gary Davidson, what can you tell us? Well, I read the, I would like to see Senator Schumer's office notified of this situation and a request made to his office to engage with the State Department to sort of turn around on the Jamaican government and have the United States, through its diplomatic channels, through the ambassador at the ambassador level, request permission to have the FBI assist down in Jamaica. You need a very, very sophisticated

investigation at this point, particularly given the amount of time that has that has passed. And the FBI is there's nobody better. And it's a long shot. It's it's unlikely that the the Jamaican government will agree to this. But given that the given that this incident occurred in 2017 and has somewhat cooled off, it may be more politically acceptable at this point for the government to agree to some further form of investigation. Well, speaking of the FBI being involved, here is our friend Mary Murphy. PIX11, listen. The autopsy indicated that your daughter had bled to death and she had a wound to her carotid artery. Correct. I mean, that's just a devastating wound.

Correct. Now, it's almost a year later. Thanksgiving is when your daughter disappeared. Correct. And a couple of days later, her body was found on the side of the road. Do you know anything more today? We know nothing more today other than they allegedly did get her iPhone records from the States. And what the detective told me is that it did not prove to be fruitful in the investigation.

However, they didn't discuss any numbers with me. They didn't share any numbers with me, so I'm not really sure how they know if anything is relevant or not in those phone numbers. They have said to me the FBI is involved. I have contacted them, and FBI, of course, just says we can neither confirm nor deny that we're involved mary murphy pixie 11 i find it really hard to believe if the fbi was involved they haven't contacted the victim's mother it sounds odd to me i would think if the fbi was involved that miss andrea gibbon the mother of desiree would certainly know she would have been interviewed at the very least and miss gibbon has already gone to j at least once, if not twice.

She went right after her daughter was killed, and she was there on the one-year anniversary. So the authorities would definitely have to interview Ms. Gibbon from the FBI if they weren't involved. So, yeah, let's follow up with that. Andrea Gibbon, who told you the FBI was involved? It was the detectives on the case. In Jamaica? In Jamaica. told you the FBI was involved? It was the detectives on the case. It was in Jamaica,

in Jamaica. We actually, yes, we flew down there to recoup her body and bring her home. I went down, my husband and I went down for the one year anniversary of her death. We interviewed with the news stations down there. We met with the detectives and there was no new information. There were no new leads. They were quite annoyed that they had to sit and meet with me. We went down on the second year anniversary and the same thing. And finally, he just told us, he says, Miss Gibbon, you're too aggressive. You're just too aggressive. We don't want to talk to you. Why are you here? So I said to him, what do you mean? Why am I here? So my husband said, sir, you have to understand her daughter was murdered on your island.

How could you expect her not to be upset, not to be aggressive when she's not getting any answers? So, you know, I had been in touch with the embassy multiple times, too. It's just, you know, there's not a book. There's not a hand. So a lot of red tape. And that's exactly what Natalie Holloway's parents told me they went through when Natalie went missing on Aruba. And potentially the biggest lead other than DNA, I hope, taken from Desiree's body. Take a listen to Peggy Bruner speaking to our friend Mary Murphy. Listen.

It was a Sunday, Sunday evening. I was cooking dinner and my cell phone rang. I was in the kitchen and I looked at it and it said Desi across. That was Desi. Desiree's nickname was Desi. So I was kind of like shocked and I just kind of froze for a minute. Then I answered it and I was like, hello. And it was just dead silent on the on the end of the phone. And I didn't hang up for at least two minutes.

I was just like, hello, hello, hello. Nobody said anything and then it disconnected. And then I got another call that same day around 11.46 or 11.43 p.m. I was sleeping and when I woke up to go and answer it, it had already stopped ringing. I called the number back and it says this phone is no longer in service. Very freaky. I mean, do you think someone was trying to taunt you? Honestly, I don't know. I don't know. You know, there's some thoughts that go through that maybe it was somebody who

knows something who was trying to reach out to a family member to say, you know, I know what happened, but they were scared to say something. To you, Jessica Morgan, is there a chance that even now that phone usage could be triangulated to at least an area where her phone taken at the time of her murder was being used? Yeah, you know, I got to tell you, with everything else that happens in Jamaica, or let me rephrase that, doesn't happen in Jamaica, I have as many questions about the reliability of being able to triangulate something from this case from back then relative to what they have held on to and what they've collected. I just I don't see how this thing can be married up with this, given the slipshod way that they investigate cases in the Caribbean. And, you know, you're saying slipshod. That's really putting perfume on the pig. When you travel out of the U.S., you don't have 9-1-1. You don't have an ambulance show up

immediately. You don't have the hospital services, the police investigative services. None of that. And Ms. Gibbon has learned that in such a heartbreaking manner. If you have information, 876-702-6450. FBI, where are you? People at the embassy, where are you? People at the embassy, where are you? Ms. Gibbon needs you now. We wait as justice

unfolds. And it's not going to unfold via the Jamaican PD. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.