Criminology - Monique Daniels and Jhessye Shockley

Episode Date: July 31, 2022

In this episode, we're discussing two different cases, the disappearances of Monique Daniels and Jhessye Shockley. Both are very similar cases but with very different outcomes. Monique Daniels, a 15-year-old from Moore, Oklahoma, disappeared in 1992. In 2011 5-year-old Jhessye Shockley disappeared from Arizona. The parents of both victims were charged and convicted on child abuse charges. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss these two cases. In both, suspicion was cast on a parent and/or stepparent, and siblings told the authorities very damaging information. But, only in the case of Jhessye Shockley was a murder conviction obtained. Even though many people believe that the mother and stepfather of Monique Daniels were involved somehow in her disappearance, to date, neither has been charged with murder. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and Coverage Match Limited by State Law, not available in all states.

Women in Crime Podcast is where true crime meets criminology. I'm Amy Slashberg. And I'm Megan Sacks. My co-host and I are both criminologists and have spent our entire career studying and teaching about crime. We both have firsthand experience working with offenders and professionals in the criminal justice system. Each episode, you'll hear a new female-focused case or topic deconstructed by experts. We'll cover cases involving females as offenders and as victims, but more often than

not, these two are one and the same. We also highlight the heroines of our criminal justice system, such as Kathleen Zellner, Sheila Wasaki, and Barbara Ray Vendor. And interview subjects of famous cases including Denise Huskins and Lorena Bobbitt. You'll hear the stories of these women paired with the science that tells you where it all began. Crime is different for women. Listen and learn why on Women in Crime. You can listen to Women and Crime Now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's Women, A-N-D, crime.

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 217 of the Criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mike Morford, man. What is going on with you? A little bit under the weather today, feeling sick.

And, you know, the kids, I think, get sick and pass along to me real easy. I'm like a magnet for it. But I'm going to grind through this and get this episode out. What's new with you? You know, I'm doing my thing. What I will say is, you know, kids are great. They're great. But they do pass on a lot of stuff.

They're around a lot of other kids. They're kind of, uh, They're kind of germy a little bit sometimes. Yeah, my son goes to summer camp, and I'm sure he's getting who knows what there. And then school starts for us down here in the next week and a half. So it should be interesting to see what starts going around. Wow, you guys start school very early. Yeah, but I guess the benefit is they get out earlier, too.

So depending on how you look at it. Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Monica Vega, Philippaq, Elise Leardom, Gads. jumped down to our highest level, Colby Smith and Emily Hooper. So, you know, some great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much.

That support goes a long way. It means a lot to us. And for anyone out there that would like to help support criminology on Patreon, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. So, Morph, before we jump into this episode, I think we have to talk real quick about some recent, you know, true crime news and that's the, uh, around the Somerton man. You know, I'm getting emails from a lot of people. I've done a little bit of research. I've read a few articles, not a ton, but, you know, it's, it's interesting stuff. Obviously, that's a, that's a very old case. It's been unsolved for many,

many years. And it's one that's fascinated people around the world because there are a lot of fascinating aspects to that case, a lot of, a lot of, um, of, you know, possible theories, you know, including the guy being a spy and this and that and just all kinds of different things. But what I found really interesting is Colleen Fitzpatrick's role. She was involved in the use of genetic genealogy. Yeah, Colleen does awesome work. And, you know, these cases getting solved is really cool. I haven't had a chance to really read about it too much because I've been sick the last couple of days. But I did see the headlines. And I thought, how cool is that to see one of these cases that a lot of people have spent time on online trying to sluuth to be solved?

Like so many other cases that we're saying, it's a great job by these people and companies that are helping to get these cases solved. Yeah, it's just very cool. And I'm sure more details will come out in the near future. I don't believe that the authorities have conclusively approved of their solution. but I can't imagine they're wrong because based on what I saw, it seems pretty clear cut. But we'll see. Yeah. And I also saw some headlines, too, that John Bonae Ramsey's family is sort of renewing interest in that case after C.C.

Moore, who works for Parabon, made comments that their case could be solved. I think there's going to be renewed a push for that. How great would it be to see her case be solved after so many years? Yeah. I mean, that would be, you know, tremendous. But I think it goes along with what you and I have been saying for a long time. I mean, heck, we did a whole season on these types of cases and genetic genealogy and all that. You know, there are people out there that have to be shaking in their boots who have gotten away with something terrible for a very long time and now have to be feeling very vulnerable.

Like, they're going to get caught. Yeah, that genealogy stuff is really cool the way it works. and it's not just the bad guys, it's the unidentified Jane Doe's and John Doe's that are out there too, who finally will have a name and their families will find out what happened to them, hopefully. So it's good work all the way around. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, let's go ahead and jump into this episode. You know, a lot of times when we discuss a case on this show, it involves family members of missing or murdered victims seeking justice and waiting for answers,

their loved ones case has gone unsolved. and these family members are perhaps waiting to put a face and name to the person that took their loved one away from them so that they can get justice. A lot of time we hear about anguished parents, desperate for answers. But it seems as though in some of these cases it's a parent of the victim and not some nameless, faceless stranger that's preventing that truth and justice. So we're covering two different cases in this episode. both are very similar, but with very different outcomes. We're talking about the 1992 disappearance of Monique Daniels, a 15-year-old from Moore, Oklahoma,

and the 2011 disappearance of five-year-old Jesse Shockley from Arizona. Monique Daniels was the oldest of six children. She had three full biological siblings, two brothers and a sister, who all had the same mother, Candice. She also had two half-brothers who were twins. The twins were the children of Candace and her new husband, Charles Daniels, who would become stepfather to Monique and her siblings. Monique's biological father, the father of the four oldest children, had abused her when she was younger, and ultimately ended up in prison for sex offense charges. The children welcomed their new stepfather, excited for a new life with a happy family.

Charles, known as Chuck, and Candice were both active members of the U.S. military. Chuck was an Air Force sergeant. They were living in Moore, Oklahoma, in 1992. Instead of a new and fresh family life that promised a bright future, Monique struggled. In fact, she got into trouble a lot and Chuck was very strict. That May, Candace took Angelique and Brian on a week-long trip with their church choir. Monique, who was weeks away from turning 16, stayed behind. When they returned home, Monique was gone. The conversation that took place between Candace and Chuck seemed odd to Angelique, who witnessed it.

She later told Crime Watch Daily. All Chuck Daniels told them when they returned home was she's gone again. And her mom, Candace, reportedly asked, really? In response, and that seemed to be it. There's no real further questions, no follow-up, no real emotions. Angelique also remembers coming home from the trip to a disorderly house, something that was not the norm. Any kind of mess was out of character.

for their military parents. Angelique detailed for true crime daily, how organized and clean things usually were, saying something was off, something was wrong, the house was in a disarray. We're talking about a spotless environment all the time. What Angelique saw were multiple beer cans,

spread around, cigarette butts inside the house. They had actually been put out right on the mantle of the fireplace not even in an ashtray. And on the bathroom counter, there was a box for a pregnancy test and it was empty. I don't know about you, Mike, but if I came home from being away and found one of my kids missing in this situation that was not the norm, I think I'd have more to say than, oh, she is missing and that's it.

I'd be asking questions. I'd be making phone calls. I'd be worried. and I think Angelique sense that this wasn't the case with her mom when she came home, that there wasn't this urgency about Monique being gone. So I think to a lot of people, the fact that her mom and Chuck really didn't take it serious, didn't seem to have any urgency, it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And Angelique certainly thought it was strange.

Well, I don't come from a military family. But growing up, I had some friends who did. and, you know, I can remember their parents, at least the parent that was in the military, being very strict, much stricter than most of my other friends' parents, you know, and the house being a little more spotless than maybe some of the other homes I visited. So it does make sense that, you know, you come home to this disarray and it's so out of the norm from what you're used to. In your head, you have to be thinking, what is going on? There was one witness, a neighbor who believed they saw Monique get into a man's truck,

taking some clothes with her the last day she was seen. Chuck and Candice were clearly under the impression that Monique had run away voluntarily, or at least that's how things seemed. Things had been rough at home recently because Monique had told her parents that she was pregnant, and they forced her to terminate her pregnancy, even though she didn't want to. Because of this, she had run away for several days. Angelique said that when she went missing, her parents were really concerned. She told Crime Watch Daily, my parents looked for her every single day. She added that while Monique was missing, the phone would ring,

and somebody would say that they may have seen Monique, and they would jump in their vehicle and go to try and chase her down. One of Monique's friends finally convinced her to go back home after a few days to try and work things out with her parents. According to Chuck and Candace, because of this recent incident, they chose not to file a missing persons report for Monique. They said that they figured she would come home again, but she never did. Days turned into weeks.

Still, no one ever contacted authorities about her disappearance. In fact, the Daniels family took new portraits to gather and replaced the old ones that had included Monique. Angelique recounted for Crime Watch Daily, how Chuck would say that. that he found the house was now tranquil since Monique had left and talked about how everything was just so much better with her gone. Angelique was confused at how things seemed to just go on normally while there was no sign of Monique. No one really looked.

She overheard Chuck tell Candace. If Monique wanted to be here, she would be. It wasn't long before Chuck and Candice began telling the other children not to talk about Monique, not to even mention her. It was like they wanted the children to forget that she had ever existed. But Angelique knew something was wrong. She would later tell Oklahoma News 4, I do not believe that Monique left the house. During the trip with the church choir, Angelique recalled that Candace was really quiet, almost like she had known something was wrong. Even when children do run away, their families usually don't tend to get rid of all signs of their existence. Many families hesitate

to move or change their phone numbers, just in case your child tries to call, write, or come back home. While life does go on, a new family portraits can be taken to replace all photos that included your missing child, seems unusual to many people.

Yeah, I mean, that really jumped out at me. You know, I could understand thinking, okay, she left, she's done it before, she left, but she'll come back. But as time goes on, doesn't the worry increase, increase, increase, increase, But this replacing of the photos, that just really hit me.

And I think it will hit a lot of people to kind of want to wash one of your children out of existence. That just doesn't seem right. Yeah, it definitely seems the opposite of what we see in many of these cases where people sometimes make these shrines to their kids. It's all they think about. They won't change anything in their room. It's just like it was when they left and they're hoping that they come home. I've heard cases where the people leave Christmas presents for them and birthday presents, things like that to be open when they come back home.

So this seems almost the opposite of a lot of that stuff that we hear. Yeah, it's definitely out of the norm. There's no doubt about that. In January 1993, Candice's sister Leslie, Monique's aunt, called asking for the case number so that she could contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. when Candice couldn't produce one, Leslie called the Moore Police Department asking for an update on Monique's case. This is how she first learned that her niece had never been reported missing. Monique's aunt Leslie asked Candice why there was no report and apparently Candice had

no real answer. Just two days later, Angelique received a phone call from Monique. Their younger brothers stood listening to Angelique's side of the conversation as she was. She said, she asked Monique, whom she called Nikki, how she was doing. One week later, the Daniels got a letter from Monique. It was postmarked from Dallas, Texas, almost 200 miles away from their more Oklahoma home. In that letter, Monique discussed her life briefly. She said that she and her new husband lived in Alaska, but had been traveling the United States for his work. So while they were in Dallas, she decided to write a letter home. She claimed that she and her husband had a baby. a daughter named Chelsea.

It seemed like Monique was fine, somewhere living her life without her family. It seemed like it was very convenient timing for Candace since her sister, Leslie, was looking for Monique. But Leslie didn't buy any of it, especially since the call and letter came just days after she started asking her sister, Candice, about her missing niece. Leslie felt that something was off and she was concerned. So to me, more if there's a couple of things in this letter that, or in the letter or the timing of the letter that seem a little off. I mean, obviously it is strange that the call

and the letter occur right after Leslie starts really trying to push Candace about, you know, what's going on? Why is there no missing persons report? And then the mention of Monique, having a daughter, you know, this letter comes in January of 1990. just a little bit over six months after she went missing. We mentioned it. You know, and all the reporting, it talks about how her family forced her to terminate a pregnancy.

So how does she have a daughter six months later? The timing seems sort of like a red flag, unless, you know, we don't know how far back it was. Could she have been a few months pregnant when she disappeared and then given birth right before this letter came in? it seems feasible, but we just don't have all the details and the timing is definitely

tight if it's possible at all. Another letter apparently from Monique came to the home in September 1993, but Leslie was still suspicious and she contacted the more police department again, this time hoping for a handwriting analysis because she thought it was her sister Candace. And not Monique, who had written the letters. Candice agreed to turn the letters over for a handwriting sample analysis, but the day before she was set to hand them over, someone burglarized the Daniels home. There were a few things out of place inside the house. Furniture was knocked over, but really nothing of value was missing.

Some CDs, a boom box or two. But the big thing was that the letters that were scheduled to be turned. over to police were gone. So at that point, Leslie was more confident than ever, that something bad had happened to her niece and that her own sister Candace may have had something to do with it. I think it had to be a real wake-up call for Leslie to get to this point where she says to herself, I think my own sister had something to do with her daughter's disappearance. To get to that point, we hear all the time about families, how supportive they are and they say,

I don't think they could ever do something like this. It's not in their character. But here, Leslie seemed confident that something bad had happened and Candace was somehow involved. Yeah, I think it's a great point that you're bringing up. You know, how does someone get to that point? Most people I don't believe start out there. You know, it's hard to think that a blood relative, you know, a sister, a brother, a mom, a dad, a son, a daughter would do something horrible. But obviously at some point Leslie got there because she started believing that it was possible.

And I want to talk about coincidences. You know, those happen. But, you know, in some of these cases more, at what point do you stop believing that something or, you know, a series of events are just random coincidences when they seem to come out of nowhere and be very, very convenient? Yeah, we're not talking about one thing. If some single thing happened, that would be one thing. Like, when Leslie started asking questions, there's this call and this letter that comes in right away. So that's one coincidence. But then later, when this letter is supposed to be turned over to police, there's a burglary supposedly. And these letters that are supposed to be turned over to police mysteriously are taken. And what value would they have to as someone burglarizing the home? so I think it starts to become clear why Leslie had these suspicions. It wasn't until January of 1994 that some of the truth was revealed. Angelique, like Monique, was thought to have run away. She took a bus from Oklahoma to her aunt's house in Michigan.

This time, Chuck and Candice filed a missing persons report with the police almost immediately. From Michigan, Angelique contacted authorities, and she alleged that both Chuck and Candice had physically and mentally abused their children. children. Angelique admitted to the police that Monique had never called her on the phone, and she had never written any letters home. She told them that Chuck had forced her to write the letters, and even went as far as to drive Angelique to Dallas in order to get them postmarked in Texas. Angelique hadn't said anything to anyone or tried to stop him from pretending Monique was safe, because Chuck told her that Candice was feeling suicidal due to Monique running away,

and making up this elaborate plan would help her feel better about the situation. once they had gone through with it, Angelique couldn't tell anyone because Chuck told her that they would go to jail if she did. Once Angelique was in Michigan, she told her Aunt Leslie everything, the truth about the letters, the truth about the fake call. And it finally dawned on Angelique that something was terribly wrong. She told Crime Watch Daily, I thought he sent her away because he threatened us so often, saying that he had places for girls. like us, places like a strict military school. Angelique added, it kind of dawned on me that he might have done something really bad to her. Angelique also now regrets going along with Chuck.

She told Oklahoma News 4. It has brought so much sadness to me on a daily basis and guilt for participating in the cover up, even though I was a kid and I didn't know. So more if there were suspicions by Leslie. And I'm sure other people involved may have been suspicious as well. But then when all of this comes out, obviously it makes those suspicions pretty well founded. But I want to talk about Angeloic being a child. And again, we don't know exactly how old she was when this went on.

But being coerced into doing something by an adult, by a parent, a step parent. and the regret that she feels now and felt later on and still does, that's got to be really tough. Yeah, and I think a lot of times when an adult tells a child, we have to keep this a secret. That's usually not because something good is going on. That's usually a lot of times that's something bad. We're not talking about don't tell your brother about this Christmas present at Bottom or his birthday present or something. We're talking about some kind of big secret. and the adult wants the child to keep quiet so they don't get in trouble.

That's a whole different issue. But going based on what Angelique said, you know, if Chuck said to her, which I have no reason to doubt her at all, but if he said to her, you know, we need to keep this a secret or we're doing it because mommy feels bad and she feels suicidal. She might hurt herself. Man, that has a ton to put on a kid. Yeah. And then to turn it around and say, okay, well, now.

Now we can't talk about it because if you do, we're both going to jail. So that seems to hint at something illegal going on. Anytime you're involving a child in something illegal where they could wind up being arrested, then you know something shady has to be going on. Well, we know it. But what does Angelique think as a child? At first, she thinks, okay, this is a good thing. I got to do this because I'm doing it for my mom. And then now I'm scared because I'm basically being threatened.

If I tell anyone, something bad is going to happen to me. Chuck and Candace first wanted Angelique to be extradited back to Oklahoma from Michigan, but a judge looked at the complaint or refused to send her home fearing for her safety. Investigators interviewed Chuck Daniels, who admitted to everything that Angelique had claimed, and Candice finally called the police to report Monique missing. They both refused to take a polygraph test regarding Monique's disappearance, but they did both plead no contest to the charges of abuse filed by Angelique. Soon after, Chuck and Candace moved to Germany when the military transferred Chuck's assignment.

Andrew Daniels, Monique and Angelique's younger brother, almost stayed behind. He tried to run away to live with Angelique, but he was ultimately sent back home, and he moved to Germany with the rest of the family where they lived for a decade. Though Angelique and Brian were on a trip with Candace, when Monique went missing, all of their other siblings were still back at home. Andrew Daniels backed up Angelique's allegations of abuse in the home, and he remembered the day Monique went missing. He believed it was June 2nd, 1992. He claimed that Monique and Chuck argued a lot that day. He said Chuck decided to take a spur of the moment fishing trip, and he was going to take the boys with him. And this wasn't unusual.

He had done this before. But this time, he told his sons to say goodbye to Monique. according to Andrew through a barely cracked bedroom door. Charles, who was younger than Andrew, remembers hugging Monique when he said goodbye and recalls that she apologized for staying home during the trip. Charlie recounted for True Crime Daily that Monique told him, have a good day. I'm sorry, I'm sick. I can't go with you.

Andrew, though, remembers peering through the crack of her bedroom door and seeing her sitting on the floor, her legs crossed, not moving. at all. It was raining when Chuck, Charles, Andrew, and their two younger twin brothers all left for their fishing trip. What was odd was that their fishing poles stayed behind at the house. They drove for about two hours and stopped at a McDonald's for some food, only to drive straight back home. Charles pulled into the garage and went inside, leaving the boys in the car alone. Andrew believes it was at least an hour before Chuck let them inside the house. When he did, Andrew quickly headed to the bathroom. It had been a long drive and he had to go to the

bathroom really bad. While in the bathroom, he felt like someone was in the bathroom with him. As he told Crime Watch Daily, I hadn't seen Monique. The shower was closed. There's things that leave me to believe that she was in that bathtub. Andrew didn't have time to investigate, though, because Chuck put the boys in his bedroom and locked them in, telling them that he was going out to search for Monique. He was gone for two days. When he came back, he took one of the twin boys and left the house with him. All that he remembered about that ride was Chuck had a large oil barrel in the bed of his truck when they went on a drive. So I think a lot of these details are coming from these children, again, various ages, but when you have younger children, their memories are not

always that solid. So these kids are recollecting the best they can what happened during that time when Monique went missing. Yeah, I don't know that a lot of people's memories are that great. when you try to go back years. And, you know, you mentioned children especially, but I struggle to think back, you know, about a certain time. And I don't know if my memories are that great or vivid or, you know, my recollections or all that solid. I think that could be said of a lot of people. Our minds aren't great with that type of detail. It's not like a video camera that you can replay and perfect clarity. Our minds just don't work that way. Yeah. I think what's disturbing, though, is that all the kids remember some kind of strange activity and was out of the norm going on

around the time she went missing. And in the scenario with Chuck having this large oil barrel in the bed of his truck, that seems really disturbing. So the possible scenarios here could be horrible that Monique perhaps died and her death was covered up and her body hidden. Obviously, as Monique's siblings got older and began, you know, looking back on things that they had seen or heard with suspicion, it caused major upheaval as they came to realize what may have happened. Angelique told Crime Watch Daily, I believe that Charles Daniels killed my sister Monique. And then I believe he put her in an old drum and he drove her out to where he took her to and he buried her there. Chuck and Candace have denied these claims publicly. They were very dismissive

of the claim stating that Angelique and Andrew both struggle with substance abuse and that Angelique is not mentally stable. Referring to her on Crime Watch Daily as a really messed up young lady. So obviously more if this is a family that is in shambles, you've got some of the kids, if not all of them, we don't have information on all of them. but at least some of them are under the assumption that Chuck and Candice had something to do with Monique's death. And then you have Chuck and Candice coming out and bad-mouthing some of their kids or stepkids because they're vehemently denying any of their claims. We can't forget that they did admit to the things that Angelique had accused them of, so they're not squeaking clean. And I still come back to the fact that Monique wasn't reported missing for a long time.

And that was only after Leslie started asking questions that these fake phone calls and fake letters came in. And ultimately, it was found that this stuff was all fake. So you have to wonder if someone's faking all this stuff, what's the reason behind it? So I think a lot of people take the side with the kids here that the parent, certainly look guilty in a lot of people's minds. Well, they're guilty of some things for sure. We know that. But obviously, the big one is, are they guilty of, you know, doing something to Monique

and or covering it up? When the assignment in Germany was up, Chuck and Candace moved to Florida. After their move, police dug in the yard where they had lived in Oklahoma, but they didn't find any evidence that Monique had been buried on the property. The Daniels have never been officially named suspects in Monique's disappearance. Despite the odds being against her, Angelique hasn't given up hope on finding out what happened to her sister. She never forgot Monique, even when she wasn't allowed to talk about her. She told Crime Watch Daily, I have to let people know that there was a Monique Daniels.

Today, Monique's case seems to be in limbo. Without a body or a witness coming forward with more information, we may never find out the truth about what happened to her. And I think there are quite a few cases like this one, maybe not with the exact same particulars, but, you know, cases that are technically unsolved, but where the majority of people who look into it think that so-and-so, you know, either had a hand in it or know something about it and they don't look good. Now, we do have some unsolved cases where police have no idea. They have nobody on their radar.

There's really no details suggesting that it's this person or that person. I think this one, though, you know, obviously there was a lot of things going on in that house that were not good. Some that turned out to be criminal. And like you said, more with the faking of the call and the letters and not filing the missing persons report at the very least. it just does not make Chuck and Candace look good. I think you'd have to say that. You can't say they're guilty. You can't say they did anything, but they don't look good in this story at all.

Yeah, and they're not officially suspects in the case, but I think in the court of public opinion, a lot of people have already concluded that they're covering something up or no more than they're saying here. And that's even the kids seem to agree with that. So it's pretty compelling what the case, the circumstantial case against them. But again, we need more than that to have anything solid that comes out of this, unfortunately. Yeah, I mean, you can say somebody's not an official suspect, but when the police go and dig up your yard, okay, that might say a little something. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find obvious.

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pay overtime pay pay pay time off and benefits help at home is actively recruiting caregivers who are caring for a family member or a friend call us today at 215 7703 or go to help at home dot com our second case this week the disappearance of jesse shockley is considered solved that is someone has been held accountable but sadly jesse has never been found five-year-old Jesse Shockley and her three other siblings were living in Glendale, Arizona, with their mother, Jerees Hunter. They had a rough and neglectful upbringing, even before Jesse was born. In October of 2005, while living in Vallejo, California, Jerees Hunter was charged with one count of torture and four counts of corporal injury to a chop. The charges were due to allegations that she had punched her son, who was

14 years old and would regularly whip him with sticks, as well as claims that she had whipped her younger children with items like a belt and an extension court. They were just seven and three years old at the time she was arrested. Jeree's Hunter was pregnant with Jesse when the arrest happened. Jesse's father, George Edward Shockley, was a convicted sex offender, and he was charged with child abuse alongside Jorese Hunter, as he would also whip and beat the children. He was also charged with failure to register as a sex offender. Jerees Hunter gave birth to Jesse and pleaded no contest to the four corporal injured to a child charges in early 2006 as part of a plea agreement.

That included dropping the charges of torture. She was sentenced to eight years in prison, but granted parole in 2010 after serving only four. When Jerees was released from prison, she was able to regain custody of her children, which seems pretty surprising to many. At the time, her family who had been raising the four children, including Jesse, supported the decision. It seemed to them like she had been rehabilitated in prison. And more of you said it seemed surprising, you know,

that she was able to regain custody of her children. I think to many it was, but she did her time. I mean, she did four years, but that's what they said she was supposed to do. You know, can a person be rehabilitated or can they change and turn their life around in prison? Well, absolutely they can't. Does everybody?

No, we know that. Well, and I think that's what you hope for when people go to prison, that they pay for what they've done, they learn from it, and they come out and be productive citizens. That's the hoop, I think, in these situations. So it seems like her family was giving her the benefit of the doubt and felt that she was rehabilitated. On September 22nd, 2011, Jesse Shockley, who, was in kindergarten, went to school for the last time. Though there was no doctor's note provided, Jesse stayed home after that day with her mom, Jerees, explaining to the school that Jesse had both

ringworm and pink eye. On October 11, 2011, Jeree Hunter, who was eight months pregnant, went to Cashachette. She laughed her four children home alone. When she returned home to their apartment. She claimed that she found the front door open. The three oldest children were still there, but five-year-old Jesse was gone. The children had been sweeping up leaves on the apartment's back patio, which was their assigned chore while Jerees was gone, but Jesse hadn't joined them. Jureyce claims that she searched the apartment complex before calling the police around 5 p.m. I go back to coming home and finding one of your children missing. That's got to be pretty shocking. But backing up a little bit, I think a lot of people have called up the fact that Jerees left her young children home by themselves.

And now that she comes home and the youngest one is missing, that certainly doesn't look good. And whatever the reason, whether there's the child's wandered out of the house or someone's taken her, I think there's some responsibility there for leaving the kids home unattended in the first place. Yeah, I think people are always going to look at a situation like this and say, well, you shouldn't have done that. And then I think in a lot of these cases, we've talked about it, at what point do you call the police? You know, does a parent, you know, do their own search first or do you immediately call the police? I think that's up in the air, you know, as far as individually what each person would do, I don't think everybody just naturally picks up the phone. and calls the police right away.

Yeah, and having a six-year-old right now, I could see him hiding or, you know, playing a joke on me and me calling him and him not answering right away and me just racing and call the police and all of a sudden he says, oh, I'm right here. That, you know, I think a lot of parents

would look around the house at least, call out, maybe go out and look in the yard. But just me personally, I wouldn't wait too long. As soon as I didn't think he was in the house or in the yard, I'd be calling the police as well pretty early on. Yeah, you might make some calls to maybe neighbors or family members if they live close by or something like that as well. But it is an interesting topic of discussion.

In these cases, you know, how long do people wait? And I think generally you can kind of see that obviously if it's days or whatever, that's too long. Something's not right there is hours, four or five hours. Is that too long? And a lot of people would say, yeah, it is. And I think it also comes down to the age of the child. Are we talking a three or four-year-old that wander out of the door? We're talking of 13 or 14-year-old that wasn't there because you could make the case that they're being, they ran off with their friends, they're doing whatever.

But a young child, three, four, five years old that can't really fend for themselves, you seem like you would be calling the police faster in that situation. Police came to the apartment and took a report, and they fanned out asking neighbors if they had seen the missing little girl. There was a possible sighting Jesse being put into a car parked at Glendale in 45th Avenue. Jesse's apartment was near Glendown 43rd Avenue. A witness claimed to have seen a black woman between 25 and 35, putting a child into a black Chevy Malibu. The witness thought that the child looked like Jesse and didn't remember seeing any sort of struggle. The witness said that the woman had her hair up in a bun.

The next day, the day after Jesse disappeared, child protective services took custody of Jesse's three older siblings. Jeree's Hunter didn't cooperate at all with the investigation, and she wouldn't take a polygraph exam. Jesse's young siblings did cooperate with authorities, though. Jesse's oldest sister, who was 13, admitted that her mom had been keeping Jesse in a closet and not giving her food for weeks before she disappeared. she described how she would sneak Jesse water and food without her mom noticing. She and the other siblings all described bruises and cuts they had seen on Jesse around that time. Two days before Jesse was reported missing, Jeree's Hunter was spotted buying bleach at the store, and the children remember her deep cleaning, the apartment, and burning a lot of incense.

This was because, as reported in the Phoenix New Times, the club. closet that Jesse had been kept in smelled like dead people. Toward the end of October, one of Jesse's cousins spoke to the media. Mahogany High Tower stated that Jesse and the other children had been abused by Jeree Hunter. However, other family members were vocal about their belief that Jesse being missing had nothing to do with the claims of abuse. On November 1, 2011, Jeree Hunter gave birth and her newborn babies. taken to the custody of child protective services.

The same day, homicide detectives joined the investigation into Jesse's disappearance. Throughout the month, Hunter's family, like Jesse's grandmother, Shirley Johnson, continued to claim that the Glendale Police Department wasn't looking for Jesse. Shirley Johnson claimed that the department had only searched for two days before giving up and deciding to focus on Jerese Hunter. On November 21, 2011, Jerez was arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse. Her father was vocal about her innocence, but Sergeant Brett Combs of the Glendale police announced that Hunter's arrest was due to information that they had uncovered during their investigation.

Jeree's Hunter pleaded not guilty, but the statements made by her children were pretty damning. They admitted that not only had Jeree severely abused Jesse, she had told the other children to lie about it, to act like it never happened. During a search of the home, police found. blood in the primary bedroom closet. It could not be conclusively determined to be jesse's because investigators did not have her DNA. After just one week, Jeree's Hunter was released from jail with no charges being filed.

This wasn't because authorities believed she was innocent, but because if they didn't present a case strong enough to a jury and she was acquitted, they could never charge her again. Two days after her release, Scott Mason, a criminal defense attorney in Scottsdale, Arizona, was hired to represent juries. Her family had secured her representation, believing that she was being targeted unfairly by the Glendale Police Department. Police combed through a landfill in early December 2011. On the 21st of that month, authorities announced their theory. They believe that Jesse's body had been taken from a trash can somewhere in Tempe, Arizona, to the landfill. but nothing was found there.

It was also officially a homicide investigation, not just a missing person's case. Downtown Tempe is only about a 25 to 30-minute drive from Deree's apartment, where Jesse was last known to be. This seems too far for Jesse to have walked with no sightings of her. So if the authorities theory is correct, where was Jesse put into a car to be transported to the landfill? And when did that happen?

In early February 2012, authorities were still searching for Jesse. This time, they were searching. a different landfill, Butterfield Station landfill, south of Phoenix, Arizona, Jeree Hunter's apartment was even closer to Phoenix than it was to Tempe. On June 27th, after five months of searching, the Glendale Police Department announced that they hadn't found any evidence related to the disappearance of Jesse Shockley and the search of the Butterfield Station landfill was ended. Though Jesse had not been found, her mom, Jurease, was arrested. in charge with first-degree murder and felony child abuse on September 6, 2012.

Jesse had been missing for almost a year at this point. On September 17th, Jerees once again pleaded not guilty. But there was a new witness this time. Days before Jesse was reported missing, a woman who wished to stay anonymous, said that she had given Jerez a ride to an apartment complex in Tempe, where she had gotten rid of what KTAR News reported to be a large, heavy, and foul-smelling suitcase. Hunter had asked for the ride, claiming she was going to sell some shoes. Instead, at least according to this woman, she seemed to have discarded this large suitcase.

Now, this witness statement is reminiscent of what we talked about in Monique's case earlier of someone seeing a barrel, someone remembering a barrel that was in the pickup truck. and possibly containing Monique's body. So I think that's the belief here was that perhaps Jesse was inside of this suitcase. But again, it's coming out, you know, quite a bit, you know, a year after it was reported to have occurred. In March 2013, some of Jesse's family banded together

and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Glendale Police Department, child protective services, and the state of Arizona. the $10 million lawsuit claimed gross negligence. It was clear to them that the children should never have been placed back into Jerese Hunter's custody after she was released from prison. And according to the family, neither the Glendale Police nor the CPS took reports of Jerse Hunter's abuse of her children seriously. Shirley Johnson, Jesse's grandmother, also petitioned for custody of Jesse's siblings. So this, to me, morph seems to be a pretty big change. You know, the family was initially, you know, behind Jerees after she got out of prison,

saying that they supported her getting her kids back. Shirley Johnson was backing her. And now it seems as though at this point in the story, not so much. In April 2015, Jeree Hunter's trial began. Prosecutors knew they had an uphill battle with Jesse's case being a nobody case. Jerees continued to maintain her innocence and also put forth the idea that Jesse had not been murdered. She was out there somewhere, still alive. She believed that Jesse had wandered out the front door of the apartment while she was out cashing her check.

She also stated that she felt that Jesse was that little girl that a witness reported seeing being put into a car just blocks away from her apartment. Arizona Central News reported that Jesse's kindergarten teacher Deborah Hynde testified that she saw no outward signs of abuse. Still, a jury found Jury's Hunter guilty and she was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for the murder of her daughter, Jesse. And she was given an additional 20 years for child abuse. So some people felt that justice was done. Others not so much.

Others felt that there couldn't be, you know, true justice until Jesse's remains were found and she was laid to rest. Now, more if we don't have a lot of information about the trial, what evidence they had, you know, it can often be very tough to get a conviction in a murder case without a body. You know, years ago, it was thought to be virtually impossible. But more recently, we've seen cases where people have been convicted, where there have been no body. So while we don't know all of the evidence that was introduced and we can't really go into depth about the trial, obviously the jury heard enough to find Jeree's Hunter guilty and not just of the child abuse, but of the murder. And you have to wonder if that her history, her, what she had done in the past, if that place, a role and that sort of, you know, cemented in the jury's minds that how realistic is it that this little girl wandered out the door when you have this history of violence against

her children. You have the other children saying that she told us to lie. You have this other witness that said she dropped this fell smelling suitcase off someplace, which many believe that contained Jesse's body. So I think as a whole, maybe that stuff just sort of all fell in the place for this jury and they felt it was just too much to overlook and that she was actually guilty despite there being nobody. Yeah, I mean, obviously it doesn't look good. But, you know, these cases are always tough for me because where's that proof? You know, I get it. There's a lot of things that really make her look bad. There's really nothing conclusive. And those are always a struggle. And I'm sure those are very tough for a jury. I have to believe that,

You know, the things told by the children had to have been pretty powerful, though. The circumstances are similar in both Monique Daniels and Jesse Shockley's cases, a disappearance with siblings who remember suspicious circumstances, but no body found. While there are similarities, there are key differences between the cases. The fact that no one has been held accountable for Monique Daniels' disappearance. Another difference is that Jesse's investigation had the benefit of starting almost immediately, where Monique's family had only pretended to report her missing for over a year before she actually was reported missing. And we talked about it, Morf, but to me it was very telling that Monique's parents filed a missing person's report immediately when her sister Angelique ran away.

I think for a lot of people, that's incredibly suspicious. And they look at it as though it makes it pretty clear that Monique was never really missing. So there was no concern for her the way there was when Angelique. left home. But the Daniels didn't have any record for child abuse or anything like that. Whereas Jerees Hunter had a history of violence against her children. So perhaps police were quicker to suspect her than police were of suspecting Monique's family in her disappearance. Another possibility is that the passage of time and advances in technology could account for the differences in the outcome of these two cases. Could law enforcement and prosecution standards

have just come far enough between 1992 when Monique went missing and 2011 when Jesse vanished. We mentioned that nobody cases are hard for prosecutors. But with the two cases being almost 20 years apart, investigators may have had a lot more to rely on, as far as phone records, social media, surveillance cameras, and the like. Now, we don't know how much of that was relied on Jesse's case, but there certainly would have been a lot more of those tools available to help make a case against someone than there would have been available back when Monique vanished two decades earlier. Again, as similar as these cases are, there are differences.

The Daniels were never named as suspects, let alone arrested in Monique's case, unlike Juree's Hunter, who was arrested pretty early on in connection with Jesse's case, even with blood found in the closet in her apartment. Jeree's Hunter was released from jail because the case was just not strong enough. because Monique was thought of as a runaway for so long, the last place she was seen wasn't searched. So could they have found blood? Could they have found other evidence in the home

if they were alerted to Monique being missing immediately? Investigators in more Oklahoma within 18 month delay in the report of Monique's disappearance never really got or took the chance to search the home like they did in Glendale. also there was a witness claiming that they had seen Monique get into a truck with a man and leave willingly. But there was a witness in Jesse's disappearance too, claiming that they saw her being placed into a car with no struggle. In both cases, it's unknown if the girls seen by witnesses getting into vehicles were actually in fact either Monique or Jesse.

What is known, however, is that both of these girls have never been found. So more as we wrap up this case, you know, the other similarity to me between these two cases is that they're sad and infuriating at the same time. You know, sometimes I get really upset. I get mad about the details, whether, you know, it's the police not doing enough or, you know, in these cases, it appears as though, you know, the parents had involvement or at least in one case is. suspected of having involvement. You know, these types of things really upset me. Yeah, I think as parents, we all want to protect our children. And that's like a basic instinct.

And here we're talking about not some strangers that possibly abducted these girls, but someone close to home, someone that they should have been able to count on for protection and support. And that's who seems to be at fault here. And it's frustrating that neither of these girls. has been found. And I think one important takeaway in both cases is that we wouldn't know what we know now if it hadn't been for the siblings of these two missing girls because they helped connect some of the dots and provide details that perhaps the police wouldn't have been able to put together if they hadn't

shared that information. Yeah, I think it was crucial in both of these cases. Now, at the very beginning of this episode, we talked about the Somerton man case being solved. So, you know, if that can be solved after so many years, again, I think it just shows us that none of these cases, none of these individuals should be given up on. And in large part, I don't believe that they are. There's always something coming out, something new. And, you know, we could get more information down the road. So I hope the authorities don't give up on trying to find either one of these girls. I think we all have seen that these cases can change on a dime. And all it takes is for someone coming forward that wouldn't talk before or perhaps someone's belongings being found,

their remains. And then all of a sudden, there's answers and movement in these cases. So hopefully police don't give up on them. If you have any information about the disappearance of Monique, Christine Daniels, who would be. be 46 years old now. You can call the Moore Police Department at 405-7993-5-151 or the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation at 405-848-6724. If you have information about Jesse Shockley's case, you can contact the Glendale Police Department at 623-930-300-000. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for help with research and writing in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating and review.

Keep telling your friends about the criminology podcast. All of that goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. Some more if that is it for our episode on Monique Daniels and Jesse Shockley. but we'll be back next Saturday night

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