Going West: True Crime - Jessica Dishon // 58

Episode Date: February 19, 2020

In September 1999, a 17-year-old in Kentucky didn't show up to school. When her parents returned home from work, they saw her car was still in the driveway. As they took a closer look, they noticed a suspicious scene and immediately reported their daughter missing. Her body is eventually found but the investigation was horribly botched. But when the real killer is caught, no one can believe it. This is the murder of Jessica Dishon. _________ BetterHelp is an online counseling service that connects you with professional counselors in a private online environment at an affordable cost. Going West listeners get 10% off their first month of BetterHelp using code GOINGWEST. Visit betterhelp.com/goingwest and simply fill out the questionnaire to help them assess your need and match you with your perfect counselor. Try BetterHelp today! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on through Crime fans, I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. We would like to start off today's show as per usual by giving thanks to everybody who wrote us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts week. So thank you so much to Danielle from Richborough, Pennsylvania and Rob from Bristol, New Hampshire. And a big thanks to Anne from Hanson, Massachusetts and Amanda from Phoenix, Arizona.

Big thanks to Erin from Agawal, Massachusetts. Hope I said that right. And Jen from Monroe, Washington. And a big shout out to Kiki from Treasure Coast, Florida, and Joe from Still Unknown Podcast. If you guys haven't checked that out, you should go do that. Thank you so much to Kathy from Mechanics, Melver, Virginia, and Lori from Spokane, Washington.

And a big thanks to Reed and Abigail and Lubbock, Texas, and Lydia from Melbourne, Australia. Big thanks to Donovan from Massachusetts and to Caitlin from my favorite city ever, New Orleans. And then we have a big thanks to Tracy from Aurora, Colorado and Julia also from Colorado. Thank you to Bo from the Lockseeing Mississippi. I hope I said that one right too. And James from Waverly Nebraska. And last but not least, we have Kevin from West Harrison, Indiana, Sherry from Conroe,

Texas, Will Kunkel, Big Dog Will Kunkel up in Portland, Oregon, Love you Will, and Amber and Queensland, Australia. And a big thanks to our newest patrons, Whitley, Kia, Anna, Mariah, Paris, Jamie, Heather, James, Ashley, Shaila, and Mikkozon Miyamor. Thank you so much to everybody who joined our Patreon and who has joined in general. It means a lot to us, it really helps keep the show going. If you guys want bonus episodes, bonus content vlogs,, you name it head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast.

And if you guys want to shout out in the show, make sure you head over to Apple Podcast, leave us a 5 star view, but make sure to leave your name and your location. Alright guys, this is episode 58 of Going West, so let's get into it. Jessica's body was found beaten and strangled miles away from her home more than two weeks after she disappeared in September of 1999. I don't think the police has done their job. That's why it was doing their job, they would be here. Somebody who was going to kill anybody, put them in the woods, and they put them in the riverbite. Somebody was going to kill anybody, put them anywhere, was a day put them in the riverbank.

It was kind of hard to come back home when Jessica was still missing. Fourteen years after Jessica's decision was found murdered, prosecutors revealed new evidence. According to Bullet County Sheriff's Office, a detective discovered the evidence inside a barn on Greenwell Ford Road last month. Investigators say a statement from Jessica's mom could prove the findings match betting from her road. Jessica Dishon was born on May 2, 1982 in Shepherd'sville, Kentucky, two parents, Edna Jet and Mike Dishon.

Her parents were pretty young when they had her. Her mom was just 17 when she gave birth to Jessica and when she married Mike, but they were really happy to have a beautiful baby girl. Shepard'sville is located just south of Louisville and had a population of around 6,000 people in the late 1990s. So it was definitely the kind of town where everyone knew everyone's business. I'm actually surprised that's somewhat slightly smaller than the hometown that I grew up in. Well, you're just had, well, right now has a population like 10,000, right?

I think it's around 8,000 actually. Yeah, it's funny because while I was researching this case, I was thinking of your hometown and the smallness of it. Yeah, I just trying to put things into perspective. Jessica grew up with her younger brothers, Christopher and Michael, who went by Chris and Bubby, and her parents always noticed that she had a naturally motherly quality towards them, and they were about four

and five years younger than her. In fall 1996, Jessica began attending bullet-central high school. After school, she worked at a fast food chain called Hardies, where she saved up to eventually by herself a red Pontiac. She was also a member of her high school's Reserve Officers Training Corps, also known as ROTC, which is a military-regulated program that helps young students learn leadership skills, and it motivates them to become good citizens. Jessica was known to be very considerate and caring. She would stop whatever she was doing to help someone in need. And she was very good to her brothers.

She took them around in her car and they always had fun together. In September of 1999, Jessica was just beginning her senior year of high school and she was dating a guy that she really liked. On Friday, September 10th, 1999, the day started out like any other. Jessica's mom, Edna, was up at 5.30am to go

to work and she noticed Jessica was still sleeping. And that was pretty normal since Jessica didn't usually leave for the 8 mile drive to school until about 7.15pm. So Edna let her sleep in. Mike Dishon popped into his truck just after Edna left to go to his job too, leaving Chris, Bubby, and Jessica to get to school themselves. The boys always left before Jessica too. They took the bus to the local middle school while Jessica drove herself to high school in her new car. Around 1 or 130 pm that day, Edna returned home after work and picking up groceries to see that Jessica's red Pontiac was still in the driveway.

This was highly unusual because she was supposed to be in class. So Edna ran inside thinking that maybe Jessica hadn't heard her alarm and she slept in. But when Edna entered the house, Jessica was nowhere in sight. Her bed was unmade and nothing else seemed unusual. So Edna started thinking that something was wrong with Jessica's car, she had asked Mike her dad to take her to school. But when she called her husband, he said he did not take her nor did he even talk to her at all that day. She then asked Mike if Jessica's car was working and Mike said that he didn't know but to check it with the spare key that she had. So when Edna went over to Jessica's car, she immediately got a terrible feeling.

On Jessica's front seat was her cell phone, there was a single shoe on the driver's side floor, along with the car keys, and in the back seat were Jessica's textbooks, school bag, work clothes, water bottle, and her purse. So these are all things that Jessica kept on her and would need to go about her day, meaning something bad had to have happened for her to leave it all behind. Edna noticed that Jessica's cash and checkbook were still present at the scene, so this wasn't a robbery or anything like that. The Dition family definitely lived out in the country as their homes sat on a large piece of land where other homes were nearby, but

not in a suburban way. The area was very spread out in quiet, so there wasn't anyone to witness what happened to Jessica. On top of that, Edna and Mike never received a call from Jessica's school to report that Jessica hadn't made it to school, and they actually found this out by calling the school themselves. A couple hours later, Jessica also failed to shop to work. Her best friend, whose name is Sarah Bailey, was scheduled to work with Jessica at the

Shepherdsville Hardies, but she said Jessica didn't come in that day, which was incredibly unusual for her. And although Jessica was just 17 years old, she was very respectful and responsible. And since all of her belongings were left in the car in such an odd way, her parents knew that she hadn't run away. And that wasn't something that she would do anyway. Mike came home and took a look at Jessica's car with Edna.

And that's when they noticed that her cell phone had dialed 911. I think that that is one of the spookiest parts about this story in general. The fact that there was just a nine and a one dialed on the cell phone leads us to believe that she was trying to dial 911. Especially because she couldn't even hit that second one to press call. That something must have happened so abruptly to take her away from her cell phone.

Right, and so this threw up so many red flags because this basically proved that something had happened, and she had tried to phone the police, but was unable to. So at around 5pm that evening, Mike and Edna Dition went down to the local sheriff's office to report her missing and explain what they had found in her car, along with stating that she hadn't shown up for work or school that day. The sheriff's immediate response was that it seemed like Jessica was probably just a runaway and that she would turn up eventually. This pissed her parents off so bad because they just knew in their gut that that was not

the case. And then they explained why they didn't think so. She had left one shoe in her car with all of her money, her cell phone, and her car was still there. So how would she have even run away at this point? And the 911 found on her cell phone was really suspicious to them, but the sheriff told them to go home and to come back the next day. We've covered a lot of cases regarding kids who are underage and police usually act very quickly in situations like this. She wasn't an adult who could come and go as she pleased, and especially with all these

weird pieces to the puzzle that her parents had discovered, what kind of sheriff or officer wouldn't act right away. The fact that the Ditions had explained all of these details and the Sheriff's Department just really had nothing to say about it. It makes me wonder why they wouldn't just even go over there to check out the car and see this evidence for themselves. And I know it's a small town, they're a small sheriff's office, but in the off chance that something bad did happen because you think about all of the kids who did run away

or they were just at a friend's house. A lot of police feel hesitant to act because they don't want to waste their time when it's really nothing. I mean, majority of the time, it's nothing. But for the off chance, that it is something. Do you really want to take that risk by not checking it out, by not just driving over to the house and taking a look. Right, and the biggest and most unfortunate thing about this is that you lose a lot of valuable time. There's a certain window of time that's very important in

investigations, and by putting this off, that just, it prolongs the whole situation. And that's a good point, is that usually with missing kids, isn't it a 72 hour window? Is your really? I've heard 48, I've heard 72, I'm not really sure. Regardless, it's soon. Yeah, exactly. So basically getting a jump on it

would be the best thing that this sheriff's office could do and the fact that they could claim that she would be a runaway is just kind of ridiculous because I mean, she's 17 years old, she doesn't have a lot of money. Also I think when you just look at the facts like her car usually if you run away you take your car you take your purse you take your phone you need to run away with something you don't just run away bear you don't run away with literally nothing in your pockets or to your name. So this automatically just by looking at what was in her car points away in every direction but run away. It's just so obvious. And Edna and Mike felt really defeated

after being at the Sheriff's Office, of course. So they called their friends, their relatives, other people in Jessica's life, and no one had seen or heard from her at all. As the night went on, Jessica still hadn't come home, and her parents had a or heard from her at all. As the night went on, Jessica still hadn't come home and her parents had a very hard time getting to bed, knowing that their daughter was out there somewhere and that's something that happened. On the following morning, which was Saturday, September 11, 1999, Mike and Edna headed straight over to the police department. They explained that Jessica still hadn't come home and that they needed to investigate this whole situation immediately. So, the police sent over a car to the house with just two officers inside.

They searched the car without wearing gloves, touching all of Jessica's belongings and sifting through what should have been considered evidence. They didn't take anything away from the scene. The Ditions did everything that they could to get the news out to the rest of Shepherd's ville so everyone would be on high alert and come forward with any information they may have. When the media arrived at the Ditions' home that weekend to cover the story, Mike pleaded on local television to help find his daughter because the police weren't. Meanwhile, the police weren't present at the house or even searching for Jessica. And this is two days into her disappearance. The

public was being asked to help search for Jessica, who at the time of her disappearance was five feet, four inches tall, and 112 pounds, with short strawberry blonde hair, and she had just recently died at that color from her natural brown hair, so there were no photos. Jessica's friends and family started going around posting flyers all around town, and their loved ones spent as much time as they could out there looking for her, as well as comforting Mike and Edna at home with baked goods and hopeful prayers. Mike and his brother Stanley were talking about where Jessica would be dead or alive, and

Stan Lee mentioned that if someone was going to kill someone, they'd probably put them in the river bottoms. The river bottoms on River Bottom Road between Shepherd'sville and Mount Washington, Kentucky is a very secluded area next to the Salt River that's known to be a very creepy place, and people don't really go down there because it's not very safe, it's where a lot of bad stuff happens, and it's known as a dumping ground. So Mike, his brother Stanley, and some other family and friends went on down there to look for her. During this particular search, they knew that they would be looking for Jessica's dead body, which was very hard for them because

it was basically like accepting defeat, accepting that she was dead, but they knew that they had to look everywhere and just see what they could find. They ended up searching for a bit until Stanley got sick and started throwing up, so they took him home. Mike and some others continued to search the area, but didn't find anything, so they went home as well. The next day, Mike and Edna were cleaning up the house and

their son Chris was outside feeding the dogs. When he quickly ran inside to tell his dad that he could have sworn he heard someone yell, help me and that it sounded like Jessica. So Mike grabbed his shotgun and ran outside to see if he could hear anything, fully ready to use his weapon to protect his daughter at any cost. At that moment, Stanley, who remember his Mike's brother, pulled up to the house and asked Mike what was going on since he was holding a shotgun. Mike explained that Chris had thought he heard Jessica screaming help me. So Stanley joined in and they all went running up the hills to try and find the source of the noise. As they got up towards the hilltop near the Dishon Home, they saw someone burning what looked like clothes in a big fire pit. According to Mike Dishon, it was his next door neighbor, Bucky Brooks. So before that quick break, we were talking about how Mike and Stanley came across David

called Bucky, Brooks, burning clothes in a fire pit. The Brooks family had lived next door to the additions for many years, and they always had a fairly good relationship, but after Jessica went missing, Bucky Brooks apparently started harassing the additions. He would call them and just breathe on the phone, and he would act very strange and inappropriate towards a family who was just looking for their missing loved one. Bucky was around 40 years old at this time and he had a wife named Irene and three children of his own. So it didn't make sense why he was involving himself in a negative way.

The Night Mike Dishon had seen Bucky burning items in a bonfire on his property, which again was the property adjacent to the Ditions, he had asked Bucky if they could search his property. And I mean this made sense because they lived right next door to each other, so maybe someone in the family at the very least had seen something. Bucky said no, which made Mike feel really off about the whole situation. The Brooks' were the only people who denied search of their farm during this whole investigation. So either they were just exercising their right to their own privacy and they had nothing

to do with Jessica's disappearance or they were hiding something. Mike eventually ended up calling the police, explaining his suspicions against the Brooks' family and farm particularly Bucky, so the sheriff had a couple officers come over to the Dition home to look into it. They had a cadaver dog with them as they walked across the Brooks property and peaked around their barn. The sheriff stated that Bucky was acting very strange as they looked around, especially when they got to Bucky's fire pit where the dog picked up a cent, which was being compared to a pair of Jessica's shorts. In the fire pit, police found a pair of black

jersey gloves which the dog reacted to, indicating the presence of a cadaver. But since police didn't find any evidence specifically leading to Jessica, they had to leave. Mike Dishon was upset after this because he really felt that the Brooks were hiding something. And on top of that, police weren't doing their job. They weren't out there searching for Jessica or doing anything about her disappearance. And this is days later when it was even more apparent that something had happened because she hadn't turned up. So Mike called the FBI and asked for their help.

And this is when the investigation really started, because the FBI came in there and did everything that the Bullet County Sheriff's Office should have done from the moment the additions walked into their department on the day Jessica disappeared. They started taking fingerprints from her room and her car, and even told the additions they needed to take her car for a processing, which made them overjoyed because they wanted that done ever since the local police officers had inspected it, days prior without using gloves. The FBI brought helicopters in and did a wide search of the area to search for her potential body. They also went into a local pond and walked the entire thing

just to make sure that she wasn't in it. They then did a proper search of the Brooks farm and weirdly enough, they found a photo of Jessica and the Brooks barn. So at this point, Bucky Brooks becomes a serious suspect. But they still didn't have a body, so they proceeded with caution. On September 27, 1999, so 17 days after Jessica went missing, a woman named Karen Hobbs was driving back to Shepherd's ville after spending time in Mount Washington. Like we mentioned, the river bottoms was located between Mount Washington and Shepherd'sville, so Karen decided to cut through the river bottoms on her way home. As she was

driving, she glanced into the field and noticed that something was leaning up against a tree. As she took a closer look, she thought it looked like a body. So she immediately phoned the police and told them to hurry over. When the FBI arrived, they found a decomposed body and weren't able to determine who it could be as this person was completely unrecognizable.

But they strongly believed that it was that of Jessica Dition. The body had missing limbs and some fingers had been cut off, so whoever this was had clearly been brutally murdered. As they continued to examine the body, they felt more and more confident that it was indeed Jessica Dition. They sent some officers over to the Dition's home and Mike answered the door. They then explained to him that they believed they found Jessica and that she was dead. Although the Ditions had felt it was possible Jessica was dead at that point anyway since

she had been missing for over two weeks, they just felt really angry with the news. Because they had told police time and time again to hurry up and look for her before she gets killed, and they didn't listen. They just kept assuming that she had run away. Edna agreed to go down to the crime scene to confirm that the body they found was that of her daughters, but might didn't go because if it was Jessica, he didn't want to see her in that state. Edna said that she couldn't tell if it was her daughter from her face, so she checked the side of her body for a butterfly tattoo that Jessica

had, and lo and behold, it was there. Although she had been beaten badly and even had her job broken before her death, Jessica's cause of death was strangulation, and the FBI also determined that her limbs and fingers had been removed post-mortem. To make things more frustrating for the family, it was discovered that Jessica had been alive for about three days after she disappeared. So when her parents had gone to the police and pleaded on TV and searched the whole community, she was still alive. Investigators knew that whoever had killed her had wanted her to be found, or they wouldn't have placed her body out there in the open like that.

Now that the FBI had a body, they went back to the Brooks house so they could interview Bucky and see if they could get any information out of him. During their initial interview with Bucky, he stated that he had seen Jessica outside of her house on the morning that she went missing because he spent the early hours of the day helping his dad haul water for the family business, and they had driven past their home and seen her in the driveway. But when they interviewed him again on the day Jessica's body was found, he said that he hadn't seen her that morning because he was having sex with his wife. but in a separate interview with his wife Irene She told FBI that they did not have sex that morning. So the FBI were finding many lies within the second interview

The FBI had also asked Bucky What he would do if they told him that they'd found his fingerprints on Jessica's body Which they hadn't and Bucky, if you find my fingerprints, then I'll have to admit it. Then they give him a polygraph test, and he failed it. A grand jury indictment was then brought onto Bucky Brooks.

So now he had to face a courtroom for Jessica's murder. And during this trial, which didn't begin until January 2003, so just more than two years after the murder occurred, all of the flaws of this investigation were brought to the surface. None of Jessica's limbs had been preserved, even though they were kept in boxes that were very clearly labeled, keep frozen. The police just did not do so.

And this really made it hard for the trial because they couldn't test evidence properly when it wasn't handled with care. The defense wanted to try and point to a local drug dealer as Jessica's killer to take some heat off Bucky Brooks. He was a young man named James Coulter, who had apparently seen Jessica the day before she was abducted outside her home. On the stand, he stated that he was her drug dealer, but it's unclear what kind of drugs and they had supposedly met only two or three times.

But when he was looked into as a suspect, he stated that he had been at a motel with a woman and they spent the whole day there as well as the following day when Jessica had disappeared. And this did check out with motel employees, so he was then out. Regardless, the sheriff's office was confident that Bucky Brooks was behind the murder anyways. But in Detective Charlie Mann of the Bullock County Sheriff's Office testimony, he stated that Bucky had failed his polygraph. But the information regarding a polygraph is completely admissible in court, so you're

not even allowed to bring it up because it can actually sway the jury. And since it's not an exact science, it's really only supposed to be used to help get a confession. So now that this detective from the Sheriff's Office blurted this out, there was a mistrial and the jury was dismissed. And because of this, Bucky Brooks could only be tried again if they discovered more evidence against him. This was very tough on the Ditions, who were now completely hopeless about the whole case. Because of this, Mike and Edna split up, and Chris and Bubby, Jessica's brothers, took the whole thing really hard. They all thoroughly believed that Bucky Brooks was guilty of her murder, and he was now

walking free. So they just felt like this case was never going to get the justice that it deserved. Because of the lack of care this case was given and the severe absence of attention by police, this became the biggest unsolved murder case in the state. And that's so sad that just that one word from that detective just saying polygraph ruined this this whole trial, and it was completely thrown out the window. I'm just gonna say, I mean, I know that there are a lot of very hardworking police officers out there and detectives, but man, it's just, it's just really does not look good for these guys. And I completely agree with you, there are a lot of hardworking people out there, but these people were not doing their job and even more detectives that came on the case after this who we're going to talk about felt the exact same way.

They were so disappointed in how this case was handled and I think that everyone can agree it was handled very poorly. It's just facts. So this whole case was just taking a turn for the worst. That was until Lynn Hunt came aboard the investigation in June 2012. Up until that point for the last almost 13 years, Jessica's case had been cold, and since it had gained so much attention and the Bullock County Sheriff's Office only had two detectives, they couldn't handle the workload, so the higher detective Lin Hunt to sift through some old cases, and Jessica's was the first one that she took on.

When she started looking through the files, she was completely shocked. Nothing was filed properly or labeled. They didn't have any information regarding people that had been interviewed at the time, and there was almost nothing of value. So she had to basically start from scratch. She first went to visit Mike and Bubby, and at this time, Bubby was around 25 years old. She sat down with them and explained that she was reopening Jessica's case in hopes of bringing them the answers that they've been wanting for as long as the case started, and that anything that they could do to help her understand what

happened better would be appreciated. Bubby went and grabbed a hat box out of the closet that included everything that had been left in Jessica's car the day she went missing. All the stuff that police never collected for evidence. So Lin Hunt took it all with her and entered it into evidence, which she also believes should have been done the day it was discovered. Yeah, why would you not put all of those items into evidence that were in Jessica's car? That makes no sense to me. And she is obviously very good at her job, and you'll see even more so that she is very good at her job, and she actually gives a shit, and she tries, and she uncovers all of these things, like they didn't take everything that was in her car

where there was likely a perpetrator right there who touched these things, they didn't take any of it. And so this is the first thing that she's looking into and is now like, oh my God, they didn't label all this shit right, they didn't collect the evidence. Okay, this is what we're dealing with. So she continued to sift through the dozens of boxes from the Bucky Brooks trial,

along with whatever else was at the Sheriff's Office. And that's when she found some interesting information about Bucky's mental state. After reading a report on an evaluation made on Bucky, Detective Lin Hunt discovered that he had an IQ of just 61, and anything below 69 is considered extremely low or intellectually poor. And because of this low IQ, giving him a polygraph test was irresponsible. Because at this point, it's not even really valid considering he cannot fully comprehend the questions he's being asked, let alone appropriately respond. Now Detective Lynn wasn't completely sure that Bucky Brooks was behind the murder at all,

and she was thinking that he was potentially just taken advantage of by the police. She wasn't sure since there was still a thing about him burning clothes on the hillside and having a photo of Jessica lying around his barn, but she felt less confident that he was the culprit after reviewing the mental evaluation. So she put Bucky Brooks on the back burner and really tried to think of who else could have committed this crime and why. And then in September 2013, so 14 years after Jessica's murder

and about 15 months into her own investigation, she got a phone call from a detective she used to work with. He stated that a prison informant at the Kentucky State Reformatory told him that he'd heard someone talking about who really killed Jessica Dishon. The thing about prison informants or police informants in general is that they can't always be trusted. By giving a person of authority information that they heard while in prison can benefit their own case and affect their sentencing, meaning they have a lot to gain from being

an informant. So, falsifying information can be common, but you also don't have anything to lose really by looking into what the informant is saying because it absolutely could be factual since they're on the inside. Detective Lin Hunt decided to just sit down with the guy and hear him out. And he started telling the story about how he was sharing a cell with a man who was in prison for having sexually assaulted children and minors. The prison informant was in for the same reasons, and his cellmate apparently told him that

he had committed the murder of Jessica Dishon. And of course, the cellmate wasn't aware that he was telling this to an informant. Now a lot of people brag about this kind of thing and it's not true, they just like the attention they'll get, but when Detective Lynn heard the name of the Selmaid, everything changed. The Selmaid explained to the informant that he had been holding Jessica for a couple days before he killed her, which we know would be true because the medical examiner was able to determine when she died, and it wasn't until around three days after her disappearance. The cellmate also explained the mutilation that was done to her body, the missing fingers,

the missing limbs. He had apparently done that after he killed her, so that it would look like she was killed by drug dealers. He wanted to throw the police off. And this information was not available to the public, so it's always interesting when someone can relay secret information like that, because then you start to feel like this person had to have been at the murder. The police informant stated that his cellmate and the man who told him this whole story

was Stanley Dishon, Jessica's uncle. Police informants stated that his cellmate and the man who told him this whole story was Stanley Dishon, Jessica's uncle. Stanley, remember, is Mike Dishon's brother, and he was the one who started vomiting while they were searching the river bottoms for Jessica's body. He also told the informant that they had gotten within less than a mile of Jessica's body while they were searching and that he told Mike to just give it a rest for the day. And he was the one who suggested they go down to the river bottoms in the first place, probably so he would be with them when they found her body to somehow make himself look

innocent, like he was just a part of the search party for his poor niece. And then a couple weeks later, her body was found just near where they were searching in the river bottoms. The informant also told Detective Linhund that Stanley had told him about torturing Jessica for a couple days before he finally killed her, and that he did this in an abandoned barn near where he put the body. Apparently this barn wasn't used much for anything at all, just kids sometimes going there to party or get drunk without anyone knowing. She was also informed that one of Jessica's shoes, the matching shoe to the one left in

her car, had been buried by Stanley under a broken tree by the river bottoms, but he wasn't sure exactly where it was. Detective Lynn knew she had to go search for any kind of evidence that would make this story true So she could nail Stanley for Jessica's murder. She went down to the river bottoms with Jessica's brother Bubby and a few others But she couldn't tell them that Stanley may have been involved It was pouring rain that day and they spent hours digging the area trying to find any evidence But they just couldn't, so they shut

it down for the day. As Bubby and Detective Lynn were driving out of the river bottoms, Bubby pointed out an abandoned farm and stated that that was where the kids partied. Fourteen years after Jessica's murder, there was still evidence in that barn. When they went inside, they found a fitted sheet with roses on it that looked exactly like Jessica's bedding. Detective Lynn grabbed it and they sped right back to the Dition House where Mike and Bubby still lived, because Jessica's room was exactly the same as it was in September 1999. When they arrived back at the house, they pulled the comforter back to discover that Jessica's fitted

sheet was missing from her bed, and it was indeed the exact same pattern as the one they found in the barn. Now Detective Hunt was sure that Stanley was behind it. She just didn't know why. It was soon discovered that Stanley was a child rapist, and we knew this already because he was in prison at the time for charges regarding to sexual assault of children. But what the Dishon family didn't know is that he had also raped Jessica from childhood well into her teenage years. Stanley had told the informant that the reason he killed Jessica was because she started dating someone she really liked. On the morning of her disappearance, Stanley went over to the Dish House, full well knowing that Jessica would be there by herself. And as he approached her while she was getting

into her car, she threatened to tell her new boyfriend and her family about the abuse she suffered at his hands if he didn't back off. Stanley pulled Jessica inside the house, because he was so terrified that she was going to say anything that he felt that he had to kill her. He didn't want his brother finding out or his wife finding out or the rest of the family. Because Jessica wasn't the only kid in the family he was abusing. As Detective Hunt and her team continued to investigate Stanley, they found more victims. Many who had been initially raped at the age of six.

There were three other girls in the Ditions Extended Family who suffered sexual abuse from Stanley. On the morning of Jessica's disappearance, Stanley and Jessica were then fighting in her room and he pushed her onto the bed and broke her jaw. He then knocked her out, wrapped her in that fitted bed sheet, and took her outside, put her in his car, and drove her down to the barn where he tied her up and kept her for days. He raped and tortured her for the weekend before finally deciding that he had to kill her. So in that barn, he strangled her to death.

When Mike Dishon found out, he was out of his mind mad and devastated and hurt. He had cared for his brother for years, let him stay at his house, fed him, just to find out 14 years after the fact that he had murdered his only daughter, and on top of that sexually assaulted her since she was a little girl. Stanley's trial started in early 2015 and Mike was visibly shaking in court, but Stanley pleaded not guilty. He never once admitted that he raped or killed Jessica. During the trial, Detective Lin Hunt and the Dition family had decided to offer a plea deal. They knew that it would be very hard to have multiple young victims take the stand and explain what Stanley had done to them, and many rape cases

in general fall through because of this. Many victims, of course, just don't feel safe or comfortable testifying against their attacker. If Stanley took the plea deal, he would have to plead guilty to four counts of rape and sawdemy and manslaughter for Jessica's death. For this, he would only receive 20 years in prison. Since he was 56 at the time, he would either die in prison or be released at the age of 76, whichever came first.

And because that's not too old, Mike Dishon worried about his brother being a free man one day. Stanley Dishon accepted the plea deal, even though, again, he never actually admitted to these rapes or the murder. He just accepted guilt for the purpose of the plea deal. The dishes don't feel like justice has been served at all and really

don't have any closure because they didn't get the answers they wanted, and Stanley didn't even take full responsibility for his horrific actions that destroyed their lives. As this case came to a close, Detective Lynn Hunt put away all the boxes and decided to take a peek in a defense box she hadn't seen before. In that box, she found a letter. The letter was written on June 26, 2002, and it was from a police informant, a different one than who had told her the story about Stanley. This was another informant who had also shared a cell with Stanley Dition. Apparently, Stanley had also told him that he had killed Jessica and dumped her body in the river bottoms. So Stanley didn't seem to have any issue telling his fellow inmates about what he had done.

But he didn't have it in him to tell the courtroom Norris family. And the saddest thing about this confession was back in summer 2002, so less than two years after Jeska was murdered, he had written this letter to the police. So if they hadn't been so incompetent over at the Sheriff's Office and they had followed up on this tip, they could have avoided the Bucky Brooks trial, which happened seven months after this letter was sent. And Jeska's family could have gotten closure way sooner. And the Sheriff's Office, along with the Commonwealth, had this letter in their possession, and they didn't do anything about it.

To this day, Bucky Brooks and his family are still targeted for Jessica's death. They've had their tires slashed, property destroyed, cable wires cut, household items stolen, you name it. Many people still believe he's involved because of the whole burning closed situation, as well as the police having found a photo of Jessica on the property, which is probably the reason people are still putting blame on him, because we don't really know if we have all the answers. Mike Dishon believes that Bucky Brooks was involved in the murder of his daughter somehow, since he and Stanley knew each other.

So Mike's thinking is that maybe Stanley recruited Bucky, knowing that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. I think that would make sense to say, hey, can you burn these clothes or these items? Because we don't know if those black gloves that they had found in Bucky's fire pit were owned by Jessica because, you know, they're just basic black gloves, but the cadaver dog hit on those gloves. So to me, it wouldn't be that weird if he helped him out because of his low IQ, he probably wouldn't have even really known what he was doing.

That and it's not impossible to think that Stanley had put that photo of Jessica in Bucky's barn to set him up. That's actually a really great point as well. Stan Lee Dishon is currently 61 years old and is expected to be released from prison on August 31st, 2033, but he is eligible for parole on December 31st, 2028. And we hope that he never gets out. And in an interview with Mike Dishon, he actually says that if his brother Stanley doesn't die in prison and he does get released, that he'll be waiting for him. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you so much everyone and next week, like I always say, we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. If you guys want bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. Also if you want to see any photos from this case, head on over to instagram.com slash Going West Podcast. Also, if you want to see any photos from this case, head on over to Instagram.com slash Going West Podcast or check us out on Twitter at Going West Pod. Or you can also catch us over on Facebook at Facebook.com slash Going West True Crime. Also, if you guys are thinking about going to Crime Con this year, we are going to be on podcast row, and you can actually get a discount by using our promo code West20 at checkout.

You guys can get 10% off your standard badge, so make sure you go over to CrimeCon.com and use that code. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. you