Going West: True Crime - Jenna Burleigh // 235

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

In August of 2017, a 22-year-old film student in Philadelphia was murdered after a night out. What started as a missing persons case quickly evolved into a murder investigation after her remains were found in a storage shed. And it was soon discovered that her killer had transported her body over 100 miles in a Lyft before disposing of her. This is the story of Jenna Burleigh. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Temple Update: https://templeupdate.com/burleigh-murder-trial-hupperterz-roommate-testifies/ 2. Oxygen: https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/Joshua-Hupperterz-sentenced-killing-Jenna-Burleigh-stuffing-her-body-in-a-plastic-bin 3. The Tab: https://thetab.com/us/temple/2017/09/04/jenna-burleigh-12579 4. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/196136771/jenna-nicole-burleigh 5. Police Press Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtE9pHEl3f8 6. Jenna's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenna.burleigh 7. Heavy: https://heavy.com/news/2017/09/josh-hupperterz-jenna-burleigh-found-temple-university-suspect-huppertz-joshua-photos-facebook/ 8. The Philadelphia Inquirer: https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/337055319/?terms=joshua%20hupperterz&match=1 9. Temple News: https://temple-news.com/behind-jenna-burleighs-death/ 10. The Philadelphia Inquirer: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13918455/the-philadelphia-inquirer/ 11. Dan Doyle Law: https://www.dandoylelaw.com/blog/dram-shop-and-liquor-liability/alleging-bar-violated-dram-shop-rule.shtml 12. Justia: https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/2020/1544-eda-2019.html 13. Jenna's Blessing Bags: https://jennasblessingbags.org/ 14. Jenna's Blog: http://jennaburleigh.blogspot.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Howdy everybody. How are you doing? Thank you for joining us today at Going West. Forget another episode. And big thank you to Amelia and Ava for joining us today at Going West. Howdy everybody how are you doing thank you for joining us today at Going West for get another episode and big thank you to Amelia and Ava for recommending today's case. I wouldn't have heard about it without you guys so thank you very much. Yes thank you guys so much but also I wanted to say thank you to everybody who has left us reviews. Everybody who's been joining our Patreon and of Patreon, we just released a new episode on Melanie Etier. Yes, she disappeared in 1996 in Ontario, Canada. That story is crazy because there are so many theories as to what could have happened to

her, and her family is still looking for answers. So if you want to listen to her case, and over 70 other bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. And the link for that is in the description of this episode and all of our others, if you guys wanna check it out later or whatever, but there it is. Also, since we're getting so close to that spooky season, I gotta remind you guys that the dark parts

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that we started a couple years ago and sadly had to stop because of timing issues. But we are coming back, Heath has been researching some crazy, crazy stuff. It's gonna be spooky and fun. So get ready, go subscribe now. The dark parts coming out October 6th. Alright guys, without further delay,

this is episode 235 of Going West. So let's get into it. In August of 2017, a 22-year-old film student in Philadelphia was murdered after a night out. What started as a missing person's case quickly evolved into a murder investigation after her remains were found in a storage shed. And it was soon discovered that her killer had transported her body over 100 miles in a lift before disposing of her. is the story of Jenna Burley. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jenna Nicole Burley was born on November 4th, 1994 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The capital of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, is a city of 50,000 people around a two-hour drive west of the most populous city, Philadelphia. And Jenna was born to parents Jacqui. I don't know if she is French and she says Jacqui or if she says Jackie, but either or, and Ed Burley is her dad. And she was joined by her sister, Janelle and two brothers named Jeb and Jacob.

The family eventually moved to Harley'sville, Pennsylvania, which is a suburb of Philadelphia, with about 10,000 residents, and Jenna attended and graduated from Souterton area high school in 2013. In her mom's words, Jenna was unapologetically herself. She continued with quote, Jenna was a loving, caring, compassionate, sassy, passionate person.

All she wanted was peace in this world. Jenna was really known for her kindness, open-mindedness, and devotion to social justice causes that she cared deeply about. She was very outspoken about her beliefs and the equal rights of the LGBTQIA plus community and devoted much of her time to marching, protesting, and volunteering for causes combating sexism, racism, and homelessness. She even had a blog where she shared the causes about which she was most impassioned, and according to her obituary, she was also an avid animal lover, especially of her two family dogs, Jay and Coda.

A childhood friend of Jenna's, Davis Trin, with whom she also attended college, told a university publication, quote, you. Jenna was always there for me. When I had relationship problems she was there. When I needed help with a film or photography project, she would be the first one to volunteer. She was an extremely helpful person. I think people will miss her personality the most. She made you feel welcome, and she learned that from her family. Her family has a very welcoming home. And speaking of, Jenna had a big, close extended family of almost 30 aunts, uncles, and cousins, and loved visiting and spending time with them every summer on the Jersey Shore. She was also an avid music lover and relished

in attending the Philadelphia Folk Festival, which is an outdoor folk music festival at a farm just minutes away from her family's home in Harley'sville. So after graduating high school, Jenna obtained her associate degree in Liberal Arts from Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, which is about 20 minutes away from her hometown. So very close by, you know, definitely a smart move. And then she went on to transfer as a junior to Temple University in Philadelphia, majoring in film and media art, because she loved film and just being creative.

Founded in 1884, Temple University is a public research university in the sprawling urban neighborhood of North Philadelphia. The university is known for having an inordinate number of celebrity graduates such as the late Bob Sagitt, Darryl Hall and John Oates of the Pop Duo, Hall and Oates, Diplo and many others. God love Hall and Oates. Of course. In August of 2017, 22-year-old Jenna had just started her junior year as a new student at Temple University. On the evening of Wednesday, August 30, 2017, Jenna's dad had dinner with her before dropping

her off with her friend Davis near Temple's campus in North Philadelphia to just go out for the night. And this would be the last time he would ever see his daughter. Jenna and her friends wound up at Pubweb, which is known as like a lively college bar just blocks from Temple University on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Google's description of this place is, quote, hopping university hangout offering burgers, cheese steaks and more, plus live music and games on TV. It was there that Jenna met 29-year-old temple student Joshua Hooperters, who was from

Lanzdale, Pennsylvania, about an hour from Philadelphia. Although Joshua was 7 years older than Jenna, he was also a junior having transferred from Lakawana College in 2014 after studying marketing and finance. According to his LinkedIn, he was working as a promotions assistant at a local restaurant and was studying advertising and risk management with a minor in economics and marketing. However, although he told Jenna that he was a student, he wasn't actually enrolled in classes for the fall.

29-year-old Joshua and his roommate, 24-year-old Jack Miley, had been friends for a few years, but had only lived together for about a month. The two went out that night in Jack's words for, quote, a typical night of drinking and trying to pick up some girls. Joshua and Jack started at Maxi's Pizza on campus, then tried to get into another neighborhood bar and they were denied entry, although Jack didn't really specify why. Then the two wound up at Pub Webb with Jenna and her friends. At 2am after closing down the bar, Joshua and Jenna were seen by witnesses and on surveillance cameras

in the neighborhood, walking to Joshua's apartment near the intersection of 16th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, just down the block from PubWeb. So with this information, we can imagine that the two hit it off enough to, you know, want to continue hanging out at Joshua and Jack's place by themselves. Now Jack recalls leaving before Joshua and Jenna around 1am, but remember Joshua and Jenna stayed it till after the bar closed. And he said that he went straight to bed, jacked at the roommate.

He also remembered having drank between 12 and 15 beers and taken six shots and a Xanax. Jesus. Yeah. So he would have been like probably very much passed out of sleep when Josh and Jenna arrived. Do you think? I mean, yeah. I mean, I couldn't even drink 12 beers, let alone, you know, another six shots and then taking Xanax. Yeah. I don't know how this man lived. Really. It's a lot. But, um, you know, I don and then taking xanax yeah i i don't know how this man lived really it's a lot but um you know i don't know i just he's a college student mostly because he's only twenty four so but apparently he was fine and this would explain why he allegedly did not hear what came next so two hours after joshua and jena left the bar and arrived to his apartment, so at 4am, a female

neighbor of Joshua and Jacks reported hearing screaming. Joshua's new roommate Jack claims that he didn't see or speak to Joshua until much later the next day, which was Thursday, August 31st, again 2017. So later that day, at around 1pm, Jack finally awoke to find Joshua cleaning what looked like blood off of the floor. He noticed scratches on Joshua's neck as well and cuts so deep that Jack said, quote, his hand looked like he got stabbed. When Jack asked his roommate what happened, Joshua claimed that he had been so drunk the previous night that he had woken up in a prick or bush and that he planned to go to urgent

care that day to get his cuts checked out. And Jack didn't think twice about his roommate's excuse and even told some of his friends as if it was, you know, a funny party story, which it would have been if it were true. But two days later, while visiting family on Long Island, New York, Jack awoke to a call from a detective asking about his roommate, Josh, was whereabouts. And what a quick story he had prepared, but to have a cut so deep, it looks like it was caused by a knife, and then to explain that away by blaming it on a bush, like, that's a bit

of a stretch. Yeah, I mean, was this bush filled with knives? Yeah. Something like that. But obviously, Jack would have never imagined that anything other than that would have happened, because that's why he's being told why would he second-guess that. Sure. And they did have a crazy night out out so you can see how something wild

could have happened uh... but yeah i mean it's it's kind of strange considering how deep everything is and of course he claims not to have heard the screams like the female neighborhood so there weren't any other red flags that were raised anyway so it does make sense why he's not really questioning this but for josh be cleaning blood off the floor, like that doesn't connect to, I fell into a bush,

and woke up in a bush this morning and then came home. But I'm also sure in Jack's mind, it probably doesn't connect to anything else like we're about to talk about. So true. So meanwhile, over the past couple days, Jenna's family had been panicked. After not hearing from her all day on Thursday, the day after she went to pub web and met

Joshua, and then learning that she hadn't attended her classes that day, her dad reported her missing to the Temple University Police, as well as their local police station, Lower Selfard Police, which encompassed their suburb of Harley'sville and the surrounding areas. In for reference, Temple University is about an hour away from where her parents lived in Harley'sville. On top of her not showing up for her classes and not answering her phone, her friends also hadn't seen her since they'd all been together at PubWeb early that morning at 2am. And they knew that she left with this guy, so that's worrisome in itself. Right, so the Burley family mobilized immediately, trying to

spread the word on Jenna's disappearance and get information as quickly as they could. Jenna's sister Jenelle posted a picture of Jenna to Facebook along with her cell phone number and the message, hi everyone, my sister Jenna Burley has been missing since Thursday morning. She was last seen leaving pub web in Philadelphia by Temple University at 2 a.m. on Thursday morning. If anyone has seen or heard from Jenna, please let me or my dad know. Please share this post if you're in the area.

Thank you. And this post was actually shared over 20,000 times Which is amazing and this is such a hard time in an investigation and just general Search and we see this all the time like people posting that they're siblings or friends or children who've been missing for just about a day And luckily a lot of them are found safe within just a couple days of posting But you have to do this because time is of the essence. If that's one of the biggest things I've learned, you know, doing this podcast is that time is really, really valuable, and you have to jump on these things like as soon as possible.

So true, but unfortunately a lot of the times as well, even no matter when you jump on them, it's too late. So sadly, that is the case here, but her family really tried. And on top of Genesister posting to social media, Temple University Police sent out an email to all student email addresses asking for information about Genes' disappearance, and her brother paid bird the campus with homemade missing posters,

which is really cool of the university police to do this, especially with her having gone missing in the campus area when other students could have been out as well, super smart. Absolutely, and you know, this just helps other students kind of recognize, or maybe possibly remember something from that night. Yeah, and maybe save other students if somebody suspicious is out there.

Sure. So as this news was coming out about her disappearance, this concerned roommate Jack. Since he remembered her from the bar and also recalled his roommate cleaning up blood. Oh, I can't imagine what Jack was thinking. Right. Knowing, you know, obviously the blood threw him off at first,

but then to know that this college student is missing, yeah, and making that connection. Yeah, putting the pieces of the puzzle together, that must have just been horrifying. And he felt like there could be a connection. So Jack reported that he had seen his roommate cleaning up blood to the police, who obtained a search warrant for the apartment

almost immediately. Because by the end of the day after she had last been seen on, at evening of Friday, September 1st, 2017, police searched the home of Joshua Hooper Terrors and Jack Miley. And not only did they find droplets of blood on the kitchen sink, rear door, and the trash can lid. But unrelated to Jenna's disappearance, found Joshua to be in possession of $20,000 in cash, and as many as 15 pillowcase-sized bags of marijuana.

That's a lot of weed. That is a ton of cush. And recreational marijuana use is still illegal in Pennsylvania, so he was probably, you know, selling weed. Yeah, not looking good for him. So while Joshua had no history of violent crime or crimes against women, he did have a bit of assorted past. And let's talk about that.

So in 2011, six years earlier when he was about 18, Joshua pled guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia, and 2 years later in 2013, he stole a car as well as broke into a home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, stealing electronics, credit cards, laundry detergent, and a half-cake of beer. So he did have some charges against him from the past. But back to the present. The day after police searched the apartment on Saturday, September 2, 2017, authorities had compiled enough evidence from the search to bring him in for questioning. But they were, of course, unable to locate him.

That's when Detective Edward Waltimate of the Temple University Police contacted his roommate, Jack Miley by phone, informing him that via eyewitness testimony from pub web that night and surveillance footage from around the neighborhood, Joshua had been the last person to be seen with Jenna Burley before she disappeared. Detective Waltimate urged Jack to call Joshua and encourage him to come forward to be interviewed.

And this must have been insane for Jack, considering they had been living together for just a month, even though they had known each other for a few years. But still, it's not like he had a ton of leverage here, sorry, just being his kind of more casual friend, but he did everything he could to help. But yeah, exactly, and I'm sure he's like, what the fuck dude, like we are roommates, we live together, and now you're putting me in the middle of a police investigation? Like come on. And it did take a few tries, but Joshua did eventually answer Jack's phone call.

He told Jack that he was in North Carolina, so two to three states away, and over 400 miles away, or 650 kilometers. Sorry, 650 kilometers. And that he had a simple explanation for the blood and his injuries. He had cut his hand on a broken cereal bowl. Story change. Oh yeah, that thing I said about the bush, no, that was cereal. Yeah, that ain't what you told Jack to begin with, my guy. Like, why would you, I just can't deal with the story changes. Nope. And this would make things tougher knowing that he was out of state and knowing that the

police were looking for him, because he could run at this point. While police searched for Joshua to question him further, they inspected the residents of his mother in Jinkentown, Pennsylvania, which is a suburb of Philadelphia, about a 40-minute drive from campus, and seemed particularly interested in the garage at the back of the house. And it's definitely not a stretch to think his parents or family could have answers. Sure. Could have knowingly or unknowingly helped him, even though he's 29.

So worth a check. Definitely. Now when police were finally able to make contact with Joshua by phone, he claimed that he had been so drunk that night that he couldn't possibly remember who he had been with, meaning he didn't even claim to have been with Jenna that night even though police had surveillance video to prove that he was. Within just a day of Joshua fleeing, police then located Joshua, but he wasn't in North Carolina, or at least not anymore.

On Saturday evening, police found him more than 100 miles or 160 kilometers from temples north Philadelphia campus in rural Wayne County, Pennsylvania. Wayne County is nestled in the northwestern corner of the state, bordering the state line of New York, so about a three hour drive away by car. Joshua's grandmother lived in Wayne County, which seemed like a very convenient excuse for him to be visiting, but a search of her property that evening revealed Jenna's body.

Folded into a blue plastic storage bin, stowed away in the storage shed of his grandma's lakefront home. On Sunday, September 3rd, 2017, so three days after Jenna was last seen, 29-year-old Joshua Hooper Terz was officially charged with the murder of Jenna Burley, along with tampering of evidence, abuse of a corpse, and drug-related charges due to all that marijuana that police found in his apartment. And with all of this, he was held without bail. Jenna's loyal family, friends, and peers were devastated by this discovery, and many took to social media to share their grief.

One friend wrote, quote, Jenna had loved for everyone, no matter who they were. She fought so hard for the rights of everyone and loved harder than anyone I have ever known. Her dad posted on Facebook updating the massive amount of supporters garnered by his and his family's pleas for information. He said, quote, our beautiful angel Jenna is in heaven.

Now I know for sure that you can have a broken heart. Outcry echoed around the campus as well, and Jenna was honored with multiple vigils and memorials put on by friends, family, and student groups both on and off campus. Student government issued the statement, quote, We are devastated and heartbroken to hear that her life has been cut short. It was then that character testimonies started coming in regarding Joshua's sketchy behavior

and off-putting personality. A fellow junior, Sharmeela Shoudry, claimed that she had known him for the whole time that he had been at Temple, and that he had always been friendly to her, but also made her feel uncomfortable. She stated, quote, I'm not surprised that he did this because he made me feel sick to my stomach when I was in his presence. Wow. That's like a strong statement.

That is a strong statement. You literally make me physically sick, you piece of shit. But I feel like there are people that do that and you don't know what it is, but something about them is just off. And even if they're nice, you're like something, you're actually really good at picking up on that. I'm very intuitive. Do you remember that one guy from a few years ago?

No, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. We'll talk about it later. Okay. I don't want him to listen to this. I don't think you would. Anyway, okay, so, um, Sharmeela also remembered him offering her drugs on numerous occasions and knew him to sell them as well,

which we know that he did. Aside from sexualizing and objectifying women, Sharmeela called him, quote, arrogant and narcissistic, adding, quote, I just feel so awful that Jenna had to be the victim of all of this. It breaks my heart because this beautiful girl who just transferred to Temple University a week ago,

bright, ambitious, motivated, passionate, and he had to ruin that for her. She had her whole life ahead of her. Jack and Joshua's neighbor, Natalie, the one who recalls hearing screaming the night of Jen's death, also added that she had caught Joshua and lies multiple times. So according to his LinkedIn, he was a member of the TKE fraternity on his campus, but a former member of that fraternity told an online publication, quote, regardless of his LinkedIn profile, this person was never a part of the TKE fraternity at Temple.

They're like, bro, no you fucking weren't. What a weird thing to like put on your LinkedIn profile. Like, it's not like, oh, you just told somebody you were in a fraternity which would be weird to do anyway if you weren't but you literally put it like on your stuff. Yeah well we know that he's narcissistic we know that he's arrogant so he's probably thinking that this is somehow gonna get him points. Right. But just the fact that the fraternity came out and said like not dude. It's. And it's just embarrassing. That's just embarrassing.

So he also told Natalie that he was on the Temple Men's soccer team, which was also not true. And that his dad had been a professional soccer player, which is also not true. So this guy is just a big liar. In fact, in 1993, when Joshua had been just four years old, his father, Octavio Hooper Terz, that's such a hard name to say, Octavio Hooper Terz, was found murdered on Queen Street in Philadelphia. His hands had been tied, he had been shot in the back of the head, and then wrapped in a trash bag and discarded. As far as we could find, no one was ever charged with his father's

murder. But ironically, the family lived just minutes away from where Joshua would eventually kill Jenna. Yeah, so this guy is just like a pathological liar, and also to lie to Jenna that he was a student, like was that some creepy ruse to get a younger woman into his bed? And it's always shocking to me too when someone who has experienced a murder or something crime related like this does that onto someone else. Yeah, because they kind of know that pain. But it's weird that you'd want to give that pain to somebody else.

Like this makes me somewhat a weird way to think of the Stainer Brothers. Oh, absolutely. We covered the Stainer Brothers in episode 17 of Going West. So it is an old one. And totally different cases, but with Steven Stainer being kidnapped as a kid, and then have the family go through so much with that. And then his brother, Carrie, put other families through that years later when he murdered multiple people. So I don't know if it's some weird psychological connection but it's still really

shocking it is absolutely according to prosecutors after joshua and jena had arrived at his apartment in the early morning hours after leaving the bar they initially were engaged in consensual sex, again, according to Joshua. But at some point, it had turned non-consensual, and when Jenna had told him to stop, he had not only kept going, but became angry with her. And remember, people, if at any point,

it's not consensual anymore, and the other person keeps going, that's rape. And people are allowed to change their mind. So that's apparently what happened here, and that's rape. And you know, people are allowed to change their mind. So that's apparently what happened here, and that is rape. Now, Jenna's autopsy revealed that she had died from a combination of strangulation and blunt force trauma. According to prosecutor Jason Grinnell, she was killed because she quote, had the audacity to say no. After bludgeoning and strangling Jenna, Joshua slobbily cleaned up the murder scene and loaded her body into a blue plastic storage tub in which she was eventually found, remember

at his grandmother's house. Later that day, after telling his roommate Jack a fake story, Joshua went to his mother's house in Jankin Town and stowed the bin in her garage briefly. So it was kind of a good thing that police did check his mother's house because obviously he moved the bin, but it had been it as mother's house at one point. Yes, it was. And so the following day, Joshua called a lift. As most of us know, the car service, that's like Uber. Yeah.

And he called this back at his apartment. The lift driver took the stand and testified that Joshua had asked him to turn the lift app, or oh my god, sorry, turn the lift app off and drive him to a different destination other than the one that he had entered in exchange for $200 cash. That is suspicious.

Yeah, and if I was an Uber driver or a lift driver, I would be immediately like hell no. Yeah, because. I'm not doing that for you. Right. Why don't you just put the address in the app? Because not only is it putting your job in jeopardy, but it's also putting your life in jeopardy by doing safety. You're safety. Yeah, because now they can't track where you're at. Right. So, but he agreed. He probably just wanted the extra cash and he gets cash

instead of having to get, you know, a percentage or a fraction of whatever comes through the app. So, I know this is appealing to a lot of those ride share drivers. So when they arrived in Jankin town, Joshua went into his mother's garage and emerged carrying the blue storage bin along with an elderly man. They placed the bin in the back of the lift driver's car. So somebody else helped him do this. Somebody in his family helped him do this. And then Joshua directed him to his grandmother's house in Lakeville, again, not using the app, which is a 2 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1- grandmother's property, where it remained until police arrived and uncovered it.

Surprised at the weight of it, the lift driver claimed that he asked jokingly, what do you have in here, bricks? And Josh will reply by saying that it was full of books. This makes me sick. Just knowing that the lift driver found out later that he was helping carrying a wonderful deceased young woman and had no idea the person that he was helping was a murderer and then the fact that he jokingly questioned what was inside, like that's just crazy tonight.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine being that driver and knowing that literally there was a body in my car. Yeah, for a first hour. Insane, for hours. Insane, for hours. For hours, yeah. So during the trial, Joshua admitted to factors of the crime, including how he disposed of her body,

explaining that he had simply panicked, but that he hadn't actually been the one to kill her. Yeah, likely story, buddy. And he and his defense team tried to pin Jenna's death on his roommate, Jack. Insanity. I mean, the audacity of that. This guy. He dealt with so much in this whole situation. And just to try to pin it on him, like, are you kidding? And he was trying to help police the entire time. And now you're now. No, no, no,

wild prosecutors, however, poked holes in this theory, claiming the DNA evidence found throughout the apartment, as well as Josh was a radic behavior in the days following Jenna's disappearance, clearly placed the blame on him. And who was the one who had cuts and gashes on them? Who was the last person to see her? Not Jack, you man. There's no doubt about that. And in the end, the jury sided with the prosecution.

And on Thursday, January 10, 2019, after less than two hours of deliberation, 30-year-old Joshua Hooperters was found guilty of the first-degree murder of 22-year-old Jenna Burley. And as far as it goes with the screams and hiding her body, like did Joshua just hope for the best and hope that Jack wouldn't just wake up and walk into the room or think anyone else in his apartment building with many other tenants would hear this going on. I mean, I think that he probably and his stupid stupid drunken stupor, probably was just enraged at the fact that he was being rejected, and I don't think he actually had a plan for what he was going to do.

I think maybe it was just one of those enraged moments, and then he just tried to cover it up. Right, but I mean, to become that enraged that you murder somebody like this had to have just been inside him i know absolutely it's not like an okay thing to happen no and i'm not trying to take away from the crime by saying that but i do feel like that is when his was like a key to the moment it was yeah that's where rage came out yeah i totally see that so in two thousand nineteen genna's parents filed a civil lawsuit against Pubweb alleging that

their daughter and Joshua had been over served. The lawsuit detailed that the two had been given, quote, excessive and unlawful amounts of alcohol for hours, and that Joshua had shown, quote, obvious signs of visible intoxication. A toxicology report on Jenna's body revealed that her blood alcohol content was 0.283, almost three times the limit to be considered legally impaired. The lawsuit alleges that pubweb broke the Dram Shop Rule, which is a law that holds businesses selling alcohol accountable when a third party commits harm to another person while under the influence after being negligently over-served. According to the lawsuit, this violation was a quote, substantial factor in causing

geninocle burlies fatal injuries. Gena's mom explained, quote, we don't want to see this happening to any other family. We really want to protect our children and our children aren't being protected right now as these bars continue to serve them and not be mindful of the fact that we as people need to take care of each other. The lawsuit poses the possibility

that employees of PubWeb kind of like turn to blind eye to Joshua's behavior because he supplied them with weed. The family is also suing Joshua for assault, battery, negligence, and wrongful death. That same year, Joshua attempted to appeal his conviction, but it was upheld. And good on the family, not only did he take Jenna's life, but there's so much more that they can do, and I'm glad that they are. I'm glad that they're suing him for all of these different things. Right, because he is a piece of shit. And he, by the way, was sentenced to life in prison. Jenna's passion for her causes remains, even after she's gone.

In her memory, her family started the Jenna's Blessing Bags Foundation, which provides homeless people with backpacks full of toiletries, food, and other necessities. They regularly host volunteer events and fundraisers that the whole family helps out with. If you'd like to find out more about her organization or donate to it, you can visit jennasblessingbags.org. On the homepage, it reads a quote from Jenna. Quote. I truly believe in the good and people and the magic that can be found in all of us.

I will always fight for equality for all. In the About Me section of her blog, jennaburly.blogspot.com, it says quote, one day you will see my name in the paper, not because I wrote the story, but because I changed the world. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. What a horrific story. I mean, Jenna just genuinely seemed like such a wonderful person who cared so much about

other people, and it's so unfair that this happened to her by just some yucky, yucky man who had nothing but bad intentions. Yeah, and I'm really glad that fake Fratboy was eventually caught and that he went down for this crime. Because honestly, sometimes these cases like this don't see justice, and I'm just really glad that Jenna's family did get that. Agreed, but overall, just such a sad case, so thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode

and all of our episodes in general. We really appreciate it. If you want to see photos of Jenna or any of the other cases that we cover, head over to our socials. Our Instagram is at going West Podcast, Twitter at going West Pod, and Facebook, we are there. And we are on that thing, we're all in the face.

Because it's not like an ad, I'm like, what do I say? We have a really fun discussion group called Going West Discussion Group, and we also have just like a general Facebook page, so. Yeah, there's thousands of you guys in that discussion group, and you guys are posting all the time, whether, you know, it's related to an episode that we cover, or sorry, a case that we cover, or anything else, you guys are always posting stuff in there, whether it's related to an episode that we cover, or sorry a case that we cover, or anything else, you guys are always posting stuff in there and it's really great to see.

But also don't forget about Patreon if you want extra episodes of Going West, they're full length. 70 plus. Yes, 70 plus. They're full length and ad-free, so you don't have to deal with the ads on that, which is great. We cover international cases as well as US cases. And yeah, we just released one, and there's gonna be another one that we're gonna release later this month. Yes, so go check it out, that is p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com slash going west podcast. Also, please go subscribe to our show The Dark Parts.

It's out right now. We do have 17 episodes that you can binge, so you can kind of get an idea of what the show is like, it's kind of about urban legends and myths and spooky stories, so definitely go check that out. Dropping October 6th. Alright guys, for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. danger. Thank you. you