Going West: True Crime - Jessica Johnson // 312

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

In June of 2017, a mail carrier in Mississippi came upon a shocking and disturbing scene when they found a 37-year-old woman hanging from a mailbox. Although her manner of death seemed obvious at first, further digging made everyone in her life question the police’s ruling. This is the story of Jessica Johnson. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181129268/jessica-renee-johnson 2. Jessica's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/only1jessyj/photos 3. Action News 5: https://www.actionnews5.com/story/35958382/tuesday-10-how-did-jessica-really-die/ 4. What Happened to Jessica Johnson? Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064391603951 5. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/i4mxgk/jessica_johnson_suicide_by_mailbox_found_in_horn/ 6. True Crime Daily: https://truecrimedaily.com/2017/10/18/suicide-or-murder-what-happened-to-jessica-johnson/ 7. Heavy: https://heavy.com/news/2017/07/jessica-johnson-dead-mississippi-murder-suicide-mom-age/ 8. Jessica's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-johnson-39984397/ 9. Medium: https://thewickedtruthblog.com/she-was-found-tied-to-a-mailbox-by-the-neck-but-her-death-was-ruled-a-suicide-367ccf666fda 10. Still A Mystery: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15493746/ 11. Memphis Most Wanted: http://www.memphismostwanted.org/2018/08/august-17-2018/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to going west. Hello everybody. Big thank you to Mary for recommending today's case. Heath and I have just been talking about it non-stop over the last few days because we are just baffled by it and would love to know what you guys think afterwards, but I do want to mention just a little trigger warning. We will be discussing potential suicide by hanging in this episode. So whether or not we or anyone else believes that that is what occurred is a big theme in this episode that we just wanted to warn everybody about. Yes absolutely but again thank you all for being here today and remember that we are going to post photos of this episode on our socials. If you want to go see those on

Instagram at Going West Podcast, Twitter at Going West Pod and then we will be discussing it over on Facebook. Yes, this is definitely the kind of episode where you're going to want to look at photos if you're able to, just to be able to have reference points because we are going to be referring to some pictures here and we'll direct you to those at the time as well. Alright guys, without further ado, this is episode 312 of Going West, so let's get into it. In June of 2017, a male carrier in Mississippi came upon a shocking and disturbing scene when they found a 37-year-old woman hanging from a mailbox. Although her manner of death seemed obvious at first, further digging made everyone in her life question the police's ruling. This is the story of Jessica Johnson.

Jessica Renee Johnson was born on August 30, 1979 to parents Linda and David, and she had a sister named Kayla. The family settled in Horn Lake, Mississippi, which is a small city just minutes from the border of Mississippi and Tennessee, and about 20 minutes south of the big city of Memphis. Jessica's parents and sister describe her as a girly girl who loved to get dressed up. As a kid, she wanted to compete in pageants one day and adored being in the spotlight. According to her sister, Kayla, quote, she was always dressed up and really pretty and she knew it.

The sisters were inseparable and they did everything together. Kayla called Jessica Grogarius and popular and said she wanted to be just like her when they were young. A friend of Jessica's name Summer joked, quote, she's a fancy, glammed up diva. But aside from her persona in the spotlight, her mom Linda fondly remembers her gift of connecting with people, saying that she was quote, energetic, outgoing, and loved people, not judgmental at all. She was just fun to be around.

She loved everybody. Jessica also had a knack for making everybody laugh and she was called the life of the party no matter the occasion. After graduating from Horn Lake High School, Jessica entered the workforce and had a myriad of different jobs. She started as an office assistant at an OB-GYN office, and then she moved to a leasing manager position at a rental company.

Linda claims that her daughter Jessica was fiercely creative and loved entertainment. So she moved on to a radio station where she was a liaison between the station and the clients and advertisers. And most recently, she was working in the finance department for a steel company. Jessica's personal life was just as unique as her professional life. Those close to her remember that she romanticized every aspect of her life, but especially her relationships with men. With her big heart and bubbly spirit, Jessica approached every romantic interaction with an open mind. Sadly, that also meant that she sometimes picked the

wrong men. In 1998, 19-year-old Jessica had her first baby, a son that she named McLean, and then 11 years later in 2009, she welcomed a daughter named Eden. She was overjoyed at the prospect of becoming a mom, and Linda says that it came naturally to her, her nurturing personality lending itself well to parenting. Linda said proudly, quote, anything that had to do with her kids, Jessica was always there for them. But Linda also had to be honest about the struggles that her daughter was facing, saying quote, Jessica never got child support from any of

her baby's fathers. Everything she did on her own, through her work, and things like that. Taking care of the bills herself, she was a very responsible person. Thankfully Jessica had the support of her parents in raising her children, and she, McClean, and Eden even lived at home with them. Her dad, David, added quote, �They've been a part of our lives just like she has. She was a good mom when she was doing good. Of course, she had her problems.

And then Linda added quote, �In some ways, I guess you could say that she was irresponsible. So as Sunny as Jessica's exterior remained, she was struggling to maintain the delicate balance in her life. So when Jessica turned 30, Linda remembered her beginning to fall in with kind of the wrong crowd. Like, she started going out a lot and drinking more and even experimenting with drugs. And this was a little bit after her daughter, Eden, was born.

So while her Facebook is like a scrapbook of beautiful curated pictures of Jessica, happy and smiling along with a bunch of inspirational quotes, her good friend Lee Ann Moreno commented, quote, Facebook impressions and real life are just two totally different things. But it was through these new connections that she was making that Jessica met Garland Heart. Garland was also a single parent and had a daughter about McLean's age, so they kind of bonded over that. But Garland's online persona paints a pretty unique picture.

He has about a dozen different profiles on Facebook for whatever reason, but the one that's most active has posts of quotes like, My Heart doesn't have room for you, but the trunk of my car definitely does. And, you know, post joking about what he used to eat when he was locked up. The people that he surrounds himself with have similar things to say, with one friend writing to him, quote, Call Me Homey, Texting Is Best, I don't want to let the wife know who I'm talking to. She goes through my calls online, insecure, and you don't want her calling.

Thanks, Pimp. And obviously, you could just like chalk these up to jokes, but this behavior definitely matched what Jessica's family believed was worrisome about Garland when the two started spending time together. you can, but yeah, I will say that it definitely seems like the crowd he's running with are not great people. But Linda remembers Jessica being really excited about Garland when they started dating, coming to Linda to tell her that she probably wouldn't like him, but to please just give him a chance. He just didn't look like the men that Jessica usually went after, as Garland was heavily tattooed and

pierced. But Linda said what bothered her the most were the people with which he surrounded himself and the illegal activities that he seemed to be engaging in. Like he fit the cliche bad boy trope to a tee. Linda explained the family shock at Jessica's new boyfriend saying quote, I don't know, I can't explain what she was attracted to. I mean, the crazy thing is, Jessica's never been attracted to men that were tattooed up. Neither one of my girls have ever had any tattoos, piercings, or anything like that.

And obviously, it shouldn't be about appearance if somebody has tattoos or piercings in their good person. Like, I know some people have more traditional views on on like body or if you will. But so we wanted to include this part just to give you a general idea of what her family's initial thoughts of him were, but it's not his physical appearance that really worried them. It's what was underneath the skin, which is what we're going to get into. Yeah, and like she mentioned, you know, she was worried about the crowd that he was kind of hanging out with.

Right. And even worse, as we'll touch on. So despite this, Linda thought that he was actually handsome and said, quote, I tried to like him, but ultimately, Linda concluded, quote, I think that there were times in their relationship where they enjoyed each other and had a little bit of fun, but the bad outweighed the good in their relationship. Jessica's sister and friends were similarly confused by the seemingly rebellious choice in a partner.

Kayla remembered being puzzled because, quote, she was normally really picky on guys, so I was surprised her last two boyfriends that she had were pretty mean and controlling and kind of narcissistic. One friend theorized, quote, I think some women just think that they can save certain men. Jessica's friend Leanne echoed this by saying quote, I think Jessica was just trying to save him. So I think she just got deeper and deeper involved in that life, in that circle trying to save Garland.

And I know we're already saying quote, quote, quote, and we're talking about a lot of quotes, but this- Lots of quotes. This case has a lot of them just because her family and her friends have a lot of opinions about just the the situation and the circumstances so we're going to be using a lot of quotes hope you guys are cool that and then I like it because it's it's directly from the source you know so Jessica's parents sister and friends all remember Garland being a bad influence on Jessica, who

was already in a bit of a fragile place when they met, having struggled on and off with drug dependency and juggling two young kids. At the same time, Garland was in a similar place, having recently relapsed on heroin. When he and Jessica met, Garland was living just across the border of Mississippi in Tennessee, staying at his sister's house and working on getting clean. For nearly three years, the couple were on and off, constantly breaking up and then attempting to work on things together. Jessica's niece, so Kayla's daughter, remembered that they were constantly fighting and bickering

on the phone. Jessica would often come home or go to Kayla's house, crying or in the middle of a fight. Kayla, who was someone that Jessica told everything to, agreed with this, claiming that Garland was emotionally manipulative and would act deliberately to make her mad, jealous, or to further control her. He often talked about other women he had been with during their breaks or taunted her about the women he was currently talking to. It was just this toxic cycle that Jessica kept getting sucked back into. So on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, Jessica and Garland were back together for the time being.

And at the time, things seemed fairly peaceful. That day, Jessica and Garland, along with Jessica's daughter Eden, were going out shopping at their local thrift store, picking out clothes for Garland. Afterward, the couple drove Eden over to Jessica's parents' house, and dropped her off to spend the rest of the day with them. Jessica was vague on her plans, but promised that she would be back the following day. Well the next day, which was Thursday June 1, 2017, Linda and Jessica FaceTime, and Jessica said that she would be home later. But that afternoon, she stopped answering her phone. Both of her parents tried calling her multiple times, but each time, the call

went to voicemail. It was really unlike Jessica to disappear, especially without checking on the kids. So knowing McLean and Eden were safe, Lynda and David just went about their evening as usual, assuming that she'd just eventually return. But Lynda said later that she had a really bad feeling. On Friday, June 2, 2017, Linda saw a man in a white button down in black slacks accompanied by police officers approaching her front door. So very confused, she greeted them. The man in the white button down was the local medical examiner, and he told Linda that her daughter had killed herself earlier that morning.

Jessica had been discovered at 10-15am by a local postal worker, hanging from a 38-inch tall mailbox by the shoelaces from her converse tennis shoes. Startled and terrified, the postal worker ran to grab help and found a coworker. So the second postal worker took photos documenting the scene just in case and called it into the police who arrived shortly after. Jessica's limp body was propped up against the wooden post of the mailbox, with her left side against the wood. She faced the house and away from the actual mailbox, which was facing the street.

She was barefoot and her purse was situated between her legs and laid open. And if you can picture it, she was basically sitting on her feet, propped up on her knees, with her purse in her lap, like in that way. Her legs were kind of open, her thighs were kind of open, if you can picture that her purse was her lap, like in that way, like her legs were kind of open, her thighs were kind of open, if you can picture that, her purse was sitting beneath it and she was sitting on her feet, like her purse was partially in the grass and partially on her lap. And then while she was in

this position, she was also leaning against the wooden mailbox post. Despite it being a warm late spring day and morning, her body was damp, which left some to suspect that she had drowned first and was then tied up. There were small bruises and lacerations on her left arm that looked like maybe they were from the gravel nearby as if her skin had been punctured from laying on the left side on the ground, which really, to me, is exactly what it looks like. And we'll post a photo of her arm on our social so you guys can see.

But I don't know, don't you agree? Like, it's really where all the marks are red as if, you know, it had punctured the skin. And there's a bunch of like dots all around. Some of them bigger that are the size of pebbles probably? Yeah, and I'm curious because we are going to talk about drug use in this scenario. And I know that that is a side effect of using heavy drugs is that sometimes you get pig marks and stuff. So I wonder if she had those before being found

or possibly after, but it does kind of look like it may have been from some gravel, like I don't know. When you guys go look at the picture, you can determine what you think it is, but... I know a lot of people do talk about pick marks too, but it's weird because these marks go from her, it's like all up her forearm, and then her hand and her actual fingers, and then the beds of all of her fingernails are bloody. So it's just weird that it's like there's blood and marks all over just that arm. It's not the other arm apparently didn't have that nowhere else on her body did, which

is why it's weird because the coroner claimed that these were from insects. So but again, if these were from insects, it would be weird that it was all up her arm, her hand, her fingers, her fingernails, but nowhere else on her body. And also the severity of those marks, they, I mean, they don't really look like bug bites. No, they're all like red.

They look like they're open, like wounds. So, I mean, I don't really know the process of decomposition and how quickly insects would be attracted to something like that, but we do know that she was deceased for about eight hours before she was found. So I don't know how quickly insects are going to go after that, but it doesn't end just the one arm. Yeah, exactly, just the one arm, so it doesn't really look like that. Also, just talking about the blood beneath the fingernails, to me, that really look like that. Also, just talking about the blood beneath the fingernails, to me, that more so indicates that possibly there was a struggle,

and she could have been trying to grip on to something possibly the ground, or had been dragged. Yeah, I agree. Like, these marks are really suspicious to me, and she also, like I said, had a bunch of little bruises on her wrist, and then she had a bigger purple bruise on her arm, and she had this mark on her arm, like this imprint, that some people believe looks like

a large-sized boot print, like maybe somebody stepped on her arm, but to me, it kind of looks like more the waves of wood, like as if she, you know, because that arm was the one that was leaning against the mailbox. Right, right one that was leaning against the mailbox. Right, right. It was leading against the post.

So that could have just been like the grooves of the wood that were imprinted into her arm because she had been, you know, like, as we mentioned, she had been in that position for about eight hours. Right. And another thing I want to mention about the corner saying that these could have been insect bites is that this was not a full autopsy that

this person performed. This was just like a cursory examination so that wasn't even concretely determined that these were from insects. This is just what the coroner believed. Right. So allegedly there was both methamphetamine and zannex found in her system. Jessica shoelaces had been wrapped around her neck, her mouth, like her chin area, and on top of her hair, like her hair was sitting underneath this, you know, noose, if you will. And then she was secured to the mailbox via the shoelace, and she was floating only slightly off the ground with her legs bent beneath her, but fully in a position where she could stand if needed.

But her official cause of death was listed as asphyxiation due to ligature hanging. So for anybody who would say that she overdosed, she did not overdose. The preliminary finding was suicide, and although the Horn Lake Police Department notified her family that they would be opening an investigation, her family observed that that didn't appear to be true. In fact, the area surrounding the mailbox

was never even cordoned off. So immediately, as words spread through Jessica's circle, friends cast doubt on the story that police were reporting. Leanne said frankly, quote, Jessica was very dramatic. Most Southern women are very dramatic. But she would never have herself put on display like that for the entire world to see. Linda agreed saying quote, if she would have been suicidal, Jessica would have never done it that way.

If they would have told me that she had overdosed on Xanax, I think I might have believed that. Her drug of choice was Xanax. She would have went to sleep and believed me, Jessica would have fixed herself up. She would have looked like sleeping beauty. Jessica's sister Kayla added quote, there's no way that she's going to have herself displayed out for the world to see her like that. She had no makeup on.

That's just not her. And obviously these are the opinions of her family who arguably are the people that know her the best. Of course, as we always kind of say in cases like this, it's really hard to speculate on suicide, especially because in the moment that somebody does take their life, there's a lot going on that most of us don't understand. So it's really hard to concretely say whether she would have done it in this manner or at all.

Sure. So I just wanted to put that out there because I'm sure a lot of you guys are thinking that as well. But this is just her family's opinion and they deserve to have these opinions. Absolutely. So putting aside any perceived mistakes in Jessica's past, her family maintains that even if she had been in dire straits that night,

there was no way that she would have done this to herself, and especially not in this manner. Unfortunately, her family sites Jessica's past drug use and the people that she surrounded herself with as the main reason why police didn't seem to prioritize investigating her mysterious death. As her parents reeled from the discovery and were forced to advocate for a police investigation that they felt should have been implicit, they were also forced to make the difficult and unanticipated end-of-life decisions for their 37-year-old daughter. Jessica's death certificate reads that she died via suicide by a fixation, though only a cursory examination as Daphne mentioned, and not a full autopsy was performed.

Heartbroken Linda said quote, I just want to know what happened her, because I know in my heart that she didn't do what they say she did. After Jessica's brief examination, her body was prepared for a viewing at her funeral. Now according to the family, the police encouraged them to have Jessica cremated. They had been struggling to find the funds for a costly cemetery plot and burial after shouldering the costs of the funeral, so under pressure from the police and the funeral home, and with little time to make an informed decision about what to do, Jessica's parents agreed

to having her cremated. Because at the time, they seemed to be out of options. And the police had given them all the information that they were going to be able to glean from the scene of the discovery. Or at least that's what it seemed like at the time to her family, that, oh, they didn't investigation. It is what it is like at the time to her family that oh they didn't investigation It is what it is what it is now it's done, right?

But then later they're like wait a second more could have been done Exactly because as days passed and more and more questions arose they came to deeply regret the decision to have her remains cremated. After Jessica's memorial service, the Johnson family decided to obtain the services of a nationally renowned forensic scientist. Dr. Maurice Godwin has consulted on multiple famous murder cases, including Kaylee Anthony's case and Brittany Drexel's disappearance, and we actually covered Brittany's case in episode 202 of Going West. Dr. Godwin publicly announced that he does not believe

that Jessica's death was a suicide. In his findings, he wrote, quote, based on the way the string is around her Adam's apple, she would never have passed out anyway because I don't think there was enough pressure to cut off the air. The majority of the force, pressure pressure was on her cheekbone. She's alive, supposedly, when she sits down there.

So she has to put up with that pressure on her jaw from the edge of that 4x4 post until she dies. It is so precisely tied really close to the end. In my opinion, she didn't tie this. And I actually had the same thought looking at the photo of her. And we will post a blurred version of it so you can see just the way that she's sitting.

Obviously, we're not going to post the whole thing, which I don't even think is online. But I did have the same thought. Like, everything else aside, can having a shoelace around your neck like that while sitting in that position actually kill you because it just doesn't look like it could from the photo. But I did read online that it doesn't take too much effort to cut off your blood to your

brain. So, it's just hard to say by looking at the photo and the problem with what Dr. Godwin is saying is he's just looking at the photo too. He's looking at the unblurred version where he can see more of the string than we can, but he wasn't there. He didn't examine her body. He's just examining the photos that we're taking at the scene. And again, he probably has more photos to go off of than the one that we have that's also

blurred. And that's, you know, the unfortunate thing about this case is, and the unfortunate thing about the cremation is the fact that they can't go back, they can't exume any remains, they weren't able to do a full autopsy later on. It's just at this point, all you really have are photos. Exactly. And luckily, the second poster worker did take photos because I'm not sure if police

did, maybe they did, but I'm pretty sure the photos that we're looking at are from that poster worker. Yeah. So another strange part of the story is that the house in front of which Jessica supposedly took her life belongs to Garland Hart's best friend who has never been publicly named, like this wasn't even outside her own house. Or her parents' house, rather, because that is where she lived, which is still her house. But situated on Edwin Road and Angel Drive in Horn Lake, Jessica and Garland spent a decent

amount of time hanging out with their mutual friends, and Garland would often spend the night there as well. According to locals, the house is notorious for its drug activity, and the residents have been known to distribute heroin and meth. On this lush front lawn, which is overgrown with grass and weeds, the front-facing mailbox is perched on the side of the road. Jessica and Garland arrived there on Wednesday, again two days before Jessica was found, to hang out with Garland's best friend who lived there with his roommates. So multiple people lived at this house.

The homeowner, again who remains nameless, recalled that he hadn't seen the couple together for months prior to that evening. The two were also apparently acting strangely, like something just seemed off between them, particularly Jessica. The homeowner remembers quote, from the time they showed up Wednesday the Thursday, she seemed out of her normal self. Jessica was last seen at that house by friends and locals on Thursday June 1st, the day before she was found dead in the front yard. At least six people came and went from the house between when Jessica and Garland arrived

and when Jessica was found deceased. The homeowner claimed that Garland and Jessica had been there on June 1st, so the day before she was found and that around 4.30 pm, they were embroiled in a heated argument, though the friend was unsure what they were fighting about. This friend has been mostly cooperative with authorities and news outlets, but his accounts have also varied over time. There was apparently a security camera on the front porch that would have had the mailbox

in its view, but when asked in an interview if he could access the security footage, he claimed that there was a mandatory passcode needed to be able to view it and that he didn't have it. Okay, so find out how to get it. Like, right through the homeowner, whose camera is the, if it's not yours, if it's one of, you know, the other people that live there, then get the passcode. Like, are you hiding something? Well, get this. Later on, he claimed that police had never asked him for the footage.

He had never tried to obtain the footage anyway. And then said that the camera hadn't been turned on, but that if it had, the footage had already been recorded over, which just feels very convenient here. Yeah, you're saying, oh yeah, there's the camera, but I don't have the passcode. And oh yeah, I was never asked about this. And oh, the camera wasn't turned on, but if it had been turned on, by the way, like it already would have been recorded over anyway. It's like you're covering every possible... Excuse.

Yeah, exactly. Which just seems really weird. Well, let's talk about another piece of potential evidence here. So Jessica's cell phone is another piece of the puzzle that doesn't quite fit. Earlier on the morning of Friday June 2, the day that Jessica's body was discovered, Jessica or someone posing as Jessica sent a text to her son McLean saying that she would be home soon. Based on Dr. Godwin's findings, Jessica's believed to have been dead for about 8 hours when

she was discovered around 10-15am. Now this would mean that the text was either sent right around the time that she died, or perhaps that it was even sent by someone else. According to Dr. Godwin, quote, either somebody had her phone somewhere else and sent that message, or they were standing at the mailbox around 3.30 a.m. sent the message to try to throw off everything and then just put it in her purse and walked away. Yeah, that is a really weird piece of this. Like, to text your son and say that you're going to be home soon and then take your life

seems like weird back-to-back events. Obviously, it's not impossible. But I think the thing here is that they're able to kind of determine a time of death. So they put it in like a time frame, a range of when she possibly died. So they're thinking this is very strange that this text is coming through when she was possibly already deceased. Exactly. Because if she had died eight hours prior to her being found, she would have died around

two a.m. and this text was sent around 3.30 a.m. Right. So obviously the time of death could be off, but that would then mean that she sent that text and then took her life like right after because it would have to happen very close, especially because their window is larger than that, not smaller anyway. Right. It is just really strange. Like everything else in this case.

So both Garland and his best friend alleged that Jessica had been acting weird the evening before she died and that around 6pm, she ran from the house to the driveway, pulling her shoelaces from her converse and threatening to take her own life. Garland and his friend didn't take her threat seriously or her supposed threat seriously, and according to their statement, simply shut the door on her and continued on with their night. I mean, that seems pretty fucked up anyway. The fact that she's, if she was in a manic episode and she was, you know, threatening this, the fact that they just shut the door on her

and then just went about their business and just left her, like, let her be is kind of, yeah. Just shows how much care there really is in that relationship. But it's just, it's also just hard because this is just what they're saying. So does it feel like, oh, she's going to threaten to do this? And then she's actually going to do it, which is at the type of threat where she's kind of asking

for help in that situation. You know what I mean? Or is this threat even real? I mean, we're literally going off the accounts of these two guys, one of which we know is kind of a shitty dude. Well, this is what the homeowner said about it. He said, quote, one of my roommates told me that she was out in the driveway and pulled the shoe strings out of her shoes and was threatening it. And he basically kind of

just shrugged it off and told her, you know, get out of here with that. I don't want to hear it. And he shut the door on her. So this is the homeowner is saying, I heard this from my roommate, which again, do we believe that roommate? Do we believe Garland? But one of Jessica's friends came to the police with another valuable piece of information. Jessica had apparently called this friend to be picked up from the house after locking herself in the bathroom, telling her friend that she was afraid of Garland. According to this friend upon arrival, Garland claimed that Jessica was acting irrationally

and that he wanted her to get out of there, but when Jessica's friend tried to get her to leave, Jessica apparently refused to go with her, and after 45 minutes of coaxing, her friend gave up and went home. And then remember, we don't know exactly what time this was at, but then we do know that after six o'clock, after she was apparently had the door slammed in her face, we don't know what happened between then and when she died, which is like many hours.

Met like a, hold on, like 10 hours. Like 10 hours. 10 hours, calculations, yeah, like nine or 10 hours. So what happened between that? She was just outside by herself the whole night. Or is that when things took a turn and you're then just wanting to claim that after that time you had nothing to do with her?

Yeah, how do you explain that unaccounted for time? Especially because it is so much time. So this friend that I was just talking about, she can't understand why Jessica didn't go with her at this point, but sometime that evening, Jessica did send Garland a text saying something along the lines of, I want to free myself from this pain. But Jessica's friend, Summer argued, quote,

to me, it was just, she was just frustrated, not that she wanted to leave this world, meaning she didn't want to be with her ex-boyfriend. But then there's another issue with the credibility of this text anyway, because basically Garland had changed the passcode on Jessica's phone so that he would be the only other person that would be able to use it and so that he could go into her phone. So regarding this text message and the one that was sent to her son, the only other person really other than Jessica that could have unlocked her phone unless they had used her finger when she was already deceased, of course, would have been Garland because he knew her passcode.

Exactly. If she did mean that in her text, was she the one to send it? Like, that's what's so tough about this case is there's a lot of doubt. Totally. Well, the owner of the home actually stands by his original assessment of what happened in the early morning hours of June 2nd, and maintains that he has no idea what transpired early the next morning. He told a local news station quote,

whatever happened to her, it didn't happen here, which is like, yeah, it fucking did, because on your property, where you live, so yeah, it did happen there. So while he agreed that the manor in which Jessica died is disturbing, he also claims that he was sure that Garland Hart had nothing to do with it, saying, quote, The way she was tied to, that was kind of unsettling, you know what I mean?

That kind of gave you the feeling that she didn't do it to herself. I wouldn't let anything happen to her, you know, anybody do anything to her if I could help it. Linda however stands by her original assessment of Garland, that he was a toxic person, not a good influence on her daughter, and that she didn't understand what Jessica saw in him. Jessica's friend Michelle remembers Jessica telling many of her friends that she was afraid of him, saying, quote, he was mentally abusive. He was physically abusive. There were times where I would have to go pick

her up because they had gotten into an argument or altercation. She'd be so hysterical and she'd be like, this guy is going to kill me. Yet every time that they would break things off, they would find their way back to each other again. Linda referred to her daughter as merely one of Garland's quote possessions. But Michelle added quote, with Jess, you could give her advice, but she was going to do what she wanted to do. Leanne also remembered Jessica telling her quote, if anything happens to me, it was Garland. The belongings with Jessica that day were sent to the police, but police claimed that they were passed on to the funeral home in a biohazard bag, but the family claims that they were told by

the representatives at the funeral home that it was thrown away. The funeral home later disputed this claim, stated they never received any item, so did they? Did the police keep them? What's going on? But either way, the family had now lost almost everything that Jessica had with her on the day that she died. Jessica's family was able to recover just a few key pieces,

including her shoes, which oddly appeared to be splattered with blood, and these were never forensically processed. Leanne Moreno's husband, Roe, is a former police officer and he offered to help the family in their pursuit of answers, becoming their spokesperson. Among the many inconsistencies in the story, Roe has a particular problem with the knot that secured Jessica to the post of the mailbox.

So the knot was strong and intricate and he claims that if Jessica had been in duress as Garland would have us believe, it would have been exceedingly difficult for her to accomplish such a feat. Both Roe and Jessica's family have come to the conclusion that the scene was staged, and seeing the pictures of the crime scene only cemented the fears and suspicions of Jessica's family and Roe, again a former police officer. Linda and David agreed that Jessica appeared to be posed. Michelle agreed, saying, quote, the way that they put her out there, only people that are not in their right mind would do something like that and say, this is

going to look normal. Row concluded quote, I don't think that Jessica would be capable of doing that. Someone that's coming and erratically trying to hang themselves in the cover of dark and you look here and this is a rural area, it was very dark, no street lights, anything. It's not going to be precise to the knot. To me and to anyone with some common sense would know this is not a suicide by hanging. She was placed there." Dr. Godwin agreed with this hypothesis, saying, quote,

In my opinion, she didn't tie this. It is so precisely tied really close to the end, so to me, that would be difficult to tie this without proper lighting, too. Linda reported on the family's Facebook page for Jessica that the police sent news crews away from the home for bidding them to bring attention to the incident in the neighborhood. Roe believes that the police entered the scene with their minds already made up that it had been a suicide, and confirmation bias allowed the theory to become reality. He reported, quote, it was easy for them just to double it as a suicide because that's what they saw.

That's what they saw, and that's what they were going to report. Well, if you're wondering, Garland was questioned by police regarding his involvement in the incident, and even admitted that their relationship was volatile. But he denies having anything to do with Jessica's death or even knowing what really happened to her. He said quote, �They have to have somebody to blame. I understand that.

I'll be that dude, but I'll never apologize for something I didn't do, especially to somebody that I loved.� The following year in 2018, Garland Hart was arrested on domestic violence charges unrelated to Jessica's death. Oddly enough, these charges stemmed from the woman that Garland began dating after Jessica, although they remained together despite the legal action being carried out against him. In an interview, she even came to Garland's defense, saying that he had been with her on the last evening of Jessica's life.

She said, quote, there's no way that he could have hurt that girl. They loved each other. I know that he arrived here before the sun went down, and he was here for days after that. And then Garland echoed that, saying, I loved Jessica. Anybody that knows me would know that I could never do that to her. Anybody that's accused me of that, when they see that it had nothing to do with me, as I've already been cleared, I willingly went down there myself because that was my best friend, so I don't expect an apology, because it would anger me.

But yes, I do feel like something happened to her, because I don't think that she would do that to herself. I don't want my name cleared, because I don't care. I don't care. That doesn't mean anything, because in the end, Jessica is would do that to herself. I don't want my name cleared, because I don't care. I don't care. That doesn't mean anything, because in the end, Jessica is still not going to be here. But if somebody did something to her,

I wanna know who did it, because her son, her daughter, deserved to know. If her mother wanted to know the truth though, why would she spread lies about me that she knows to be lies? So this is really interesting, interesting, that Garland is coming out and saying that he doesn't believe that she did this to herself.

And I feel like it's one of two things. Either he is innocent of harming her or posing her or killing her and staging it as a suicide. And this is what he believes. He doesn't think she would do this for self and he's innocent or this he is saying this to be manipulative which a lot of uh... just his friends claim that he was and he is trying to manipulate people into believing that he is saying this so he must not have done it right as in as in like maybe

because everybody would assume that he would jump right to, oh yeah, she must have totally committed suicide. She totally did that. And now he's saying kind of the opposite of that, which is, in my mind, kind of seems like a manipulation tactic. Yeah, because automatically you're like, oh wait, he's saying that he thinks that she didn't do this either, so he must not have done it.

Right. Automatically, then you're like, wait, he trying to manipulate us? Did't do this either, so he must not have done it. So automatically then you're like, wait, is he trying to manipulate us? Did he do this and this is his way of manipulation? You know, I don't know. The problem is, and observation. Right, and the problem is, is that there's no,

there's really no evidence pointing to him doing this because as we mentioned, police really didn't collect enough evidence. They didn't really do, they're due diligence because as her mentioned police really didn't collect enough evidence they didn't really do uh... their due diligence because as um... her family had mentioned they knew from the get go that they were gonna decide that this was a suicide i mean they already said like we know that this is what happened right

yeah row row had said that how how uh... the police arrived they thought it was a suicide they just went with it right again it doesn't mean that it definitely wasn't a suicide but um... you know it was a suicide and they just went with it. So again, it doesn't mean that it definitely wasn't a suicide, but it was not looked at in any, under any other light. And that is the problem because now we can't, we can't really figure this out at this point. Yeah, it doesn't seem like anything was forensically tested

or. No, not at all. And like we've mentioned twice now, sorry guys, that proper autopsy was not conducted either. So another part of that is it was claimed that she had methamphetamine and Xanax in her system, which both she was known to use, but her mom, again, I don't know how much her mom knows about her drug use or what she did in her free time.

Her mom did know that she did use drugs and has said, I saw a bunch of comments from her on Reddit saying that she knows that her daughter's preferred drug of choice was Xanax. So I think you actually mentioned that earlier. We did, yeah. But yeah, she also said that she knew that her daughter never combined meth and Xanax.

So it doesn't mean she didn't, but a proper autopsy would have really cleared a lot of things up here. Absolutely. So regardless of Garland's involvement, Jessica's parents, family, and friends just want an investigation. Linda said, quote, they say this case is open, but they will not investigate anyone. So I mean, how will this get solved?

Well, Dr. Godwin says, quote, word of mouth, somebody talking. Jessica left behind a son, now married, and in his mid-20s, and now teenage daughter. Jessica's friend Summer remarked, quote, she loved her babies. She would not. They were all she had. If you have any information about the suspicious death of Jessica Johnson, please call the Horn Lake Police Department at 662-393-6174. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening. I know people get really annoyed when I say thank you after you say thank you, but I'm going to say it anyway because I love y'all. And on Tuesday, we'll have an all-new case for y'all to dab into. What is so wrong about showing appreciation? Well, I just, I gotta do it. I love y'all. I love that you do it. Thank you guys so much for listening. I'm sorry. Okay, that was overcome. Thank you. That was too much. Sorry. But yeah, if you are like if you like Heath and I

are really weary about this case and feel like something just isn't right, please make sure that you share this on social media or just again, word of mouth just telling people about Jessica's story whether or not you share our specific podcast episode. But also if you want to see photos from this case just to get a better visual of everything that we talked about, make sure that you head over to our social accounts Instagram at going West podcast Twitter at going West pod and we're also on Facebook. We have a regular group and a discussion group. It's going to be posted all over there. We'd love to hear your guys thoughts and opinions on this.

Yeah, I'm very interested to see the way that you guys are leaning or what you guys are thinking. Yeah, absolutely. So, we will see you next week. Alright, guys. So, for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you