Going West: True Crime - Jody LeCornu // 24

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

One snowy night in 1996, a 23-year-old women was enjoying drinks at a bar with friends after a long day at work and a fight with her boyfriend. At 3:40am, she sat in her car in a deserted parking lot since her boyfriend had told her not to come home that night. Suddenly, she was approached by a male in a white BMW and witnesses saw him shoot her before he reached into her car and taking something. The case went cold and the victim's twin sister Jenny did everything she could do to keep the light on in her siblings case- she even put up billboards across Baltimore to gain attention from the public. But what happened that fateful night in Maryland? This is the case of Jody LeCornu. **GOING WEST DOES NOT OWN ANY OF THE NEWS CLIPS PRESENTED except interview** CBS This Morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6oRdWLdl7w&t=14s Crime Watch Daily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fufd4q82fOM  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 Heath, and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Today we've got a very frustrating and sad case from the 90s and I was actually lucky enough to interview the victim's sister Jenny. She is so amazing and I absolutely love talking to her and she's so passionate about finding out what happened to her sister. But before we get into that we want to give some shout outs to some people who left us awesome reviews this week. So a big shout out to Scott from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much to Caitlin from Utah and another big shout out to Alex from Louisville, Kentucky. Thank you so much for listening. And thank you to all of our new

patrons. So for those of you who don't know about Patreon, it's just $5 a month to subscribe and you get bonus episodes and special content. So for those of you who signed up this week like Linda, thank you so much. And also a big thanks to Sarah. Heather, thank you. And then we have Holly. Thank you so much. And Karen, you're awesome. Thank you for the donation. And a big shout out to Justin. Justin from Obscura True Crime Podcast. He's an awesome guy. He's kind of been a mentor of mine. Do this whole process. So thank you so much Justin. And by the way, if you haven't listened to his podcast, make sure you do It's really amazing Obscura True Crime. And if you guys want to shout out on the show whether it be from Patreon or other You can go leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts and then with Patreon

It's just patreon.com slash going west podcast. And like I said, it's just 5 bucks a month and it really helps out the show. And make sure if you go over and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts that you leave your name and your location so we can give you a shout out. This is episode 24 of Going West, so let's get into it. A Maryland woman is taking inspiration from an Oscar-winning movie to try to solve the decades-old murder mystery of her twin sister, 23-year-old college student, Jodie Lacorn and her shot outside Baltimore in 1996, and her sister, Hope's billboard adds will help

find the killer. On a snowy march in 1996, Lacorn went to a ball with some friends after a fight with her boyfriend. Around 4am she gave someone a ride home, put more alcohol and made phone calls from a store-parking bar. That whole night was very neat, out of character for her. She never would have done it, on the sit in a dark parking lot. Did your sister have any enemies? Not that I know of, but I know she was afraid.

According to police, the witness at the gas station saw a man in a white BMW approached the Corners car. The two spoke, but as the Corners began to drive away, the suspect shot her through a car's rear passenger window, severing a spine. As long as I'm living and breathing, I will be searching for justice for Jodie and looking for her killer. Jody L'Cornue was born in Annapolis, Maryland on October 28, 1972. Her father was stationed at the Naval Academy there, so it's where she grew up with her identical twin sister Jenny and their two sisters who were nine and seven years older than them. Naturally, there was that disconnect and the four didn't spend all that much time together.

There was that very common sort of resentment upon Jody and Jenny because they were getting more attention from their parents than the older sisters were because they were younger. So Jody and Jenny because they were getting more attention from their parents than the older sisters were because they were younger So Jody and Jenny were extremely close as twins are I'm actually a twin So me and Jenny really connected over this when we spoke on the phone shout out to Daphne's twin Chizzy love you Yes, my sister Charlotte. We are very close So I definitely understand that bond between twins and it's very, very strong. It's like you could be in the worst fight ever and then 10 seconds later, we're like, want to go to dinner?

It's like nothing else. They definitely love to have fun, but they both suffered from anxiety and started to abuse alcohol in their teens, which Jenny says runs in her family. Jody and Jenny were sent to rehab around the age of 17 for drinking, and that's when they were split up. Jenny was sent to a ranch on the west coast where she met a man on an airplane who was living in California, so she ended up moving there with him while Jody stayed in Maryland. After rehab around the age of 18, Jody moved to Baltimore with some friends, which is just about

30 miles north of her hometown, and that's where she met her boyfriend Steve. The two eventually moved into a house together and got a dog. Jody's twin Jenny had met Steve a few times because she would go to visit Maryland from California when she could. While Jody was living in Baltimore, she started taking classes at Townsend State University, where she was studying gerontology, which for those of you who don't know, is the scientific study of the aging process, whether social, psychological, cognitive, or cultural. So a lot of people with a degree in gerontology go on to become social workers, nursing

aides, social scientists, stuff like that. Jody was working as a server at Alonzo's restaurant, which is an American style bar and grill, before beginning her job in the office at a large bank called Eastern Savings Bank in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Her co-workers described her as being a sweetheart and one to always keep them laughing. And interestingly enough, they also described her as being extremely cautious about her co-workers and friends' safety as well as her own. They say she always wanted to either be walked to her car or for someone to watch her get into her car after work. And this is something that Jenny also described to me as that her sister was just extremely

anxious about everything. work. And this is something that Jenny also described to me as that her sister was just extremely anxious about everything. And you also have to consider that Baltimore, Maryland, is not the safest city to live in. There is a lot of crime and no way am I trying to hate on Baltimore. I'm sure it's a beautiful city, but just being in any big city would be scary like that. I think you look this up today. It's like the number, what most dangerous city in the US do you remember? Oh god, I can't remember. I think you look this up today. It's like the number what most dangerous city in the US do you remember? Oh god I can't remember I think it might have been like I think like 11 or 12 on the list. So it's up there. So like we mentioned Jody was living with her boyfriend Steve in early 1996. They both struggled with drinking and often fought over this Especially when Jody would go out to the bars because that wasn't Steve's thing.

He mostly liked to hang out and drink at home. On the night of Thursday, February 29th, 1996, Jody went out to a bar and ended up getting into an argument with Steve over at the next morning. It was Friday, March 1st, and Steve was mad at Jody for her drinking. So at the end of the fight, right as they were leaving to go their separate ways to work, he told her not to come home that night. So by the way, at this point, Jody is 23 years old, and that morning she went to her job at the bank and spent the day there, but it's unclear what she did afterwards.

Did she go home or stay out? We don't know at this point. What we do know is that she eventually ended up at the Mount Washington Tavern in Baltimore, which was one of her favorite bars that was only a couple miles away from her house. She was friends with a lot of the employees there, so she enjoyed going there for drinks and spending time with them, and the bar closed at 2 a.m., so at that point the bar manager, who she was also friends with, asked her if she could drive one of his employees home because he couldn't drive.

The employee couldn't drive. The employee was mentally handicapped in some way and it's believed that he was the janitor. Jody said yes and got in her car alone with the employee. Many say that this is pretty uncharacteristic of Jody. Although Jody was incredibly kind and caring and she would do just about anything for anyone, it was very late at night and she didn't know this male employee. But she did end up dropping him off at his house. So it's unclear, but many say that Jody went to an ATM to withdraw cash before picking

up a six pack of beer. After this, she drove to a parking lot that was only about two minutes away from her house, and she sat in the parking lot. At this point, it's probably a little bit after 3am. Jody made at least two calls from her car phone, one Tim out Washington bar where she asked to speak with a manager, but an employee said he was busy. The second call was made to her former roommate's boyfriend. They talked for about two and a half minutes. It's unknown what time these calls were made. At 3.41 AM, Jody still sat in the empty parking lot

by herself, which her friends and family also say is incredibly unlike her. She was terrified of Baltimore and mentioned to her sister Jenny that she was afraid of getting shot there. It's very strange to her loved ones that she would be sitting in this dark lot alone, especially because it was cold and snowy that night. Suddenly, a white BMW pulled up to her white Honda Civic. He started talking to Jody through her rolled-down window. He was a stocky black male wearing a green camouflage jacket and looked to be around 20 to 30 years

old and weighing about 200 pounds. Apparently after a short exchange, the man started walking back to his car before turning around again and firing a single shot into Jody's car, breaking her rear window, going through her driver's seat and hitting her in the back. Jody was then able to drive across the street and into the parking lot of a grocery store where she circled before hitting a curb. The shooter watched this entire thing happen before getting into his car and driving across the street and up to Jody's car. The man got out of his car, reached through

the window, possibly put her car in park, and then took something out of her car. He then got back into his car and drove away. A delivery crew saw this horrific incident unfold and ran to her car to see if they could save her life. They explained the entire scene to police and so did some of the witnesses from a 24-hour gas station. And when police checked Jody's car, they noticed her phone and purse were missing. Jody's funeral was held at the Naval Academy Chapel on March 6, 1996, which is where her

parents had been married. Her eulogy was given by Jody's dad's best man and naval academy classmate, and Jody's twin sister Jenny also spoke, saying, Jody was my twin sister and best friend. When she died, I feel like half of me died too. At this point, many believed it was a robbery gone wrong, but no one could quite fit the puzzle pieces together. Jenny ended up moving back to Maryland with her parents and split up with her fiance in California at the time. There were always friends and neighbors and family around the house after Jody passed, which Jenny said was very comforting, but Jody's death was absolutely unbearable for the whole family.

Jenny actually told me that when she did end up meeting her now husband, that when they got married, they ended up aloping because she couldn't imagine having a wedding without her twin sister there. So this really affected Jenny's whole life even up to today. And of course it affected her parents' lives too and it completely destroyed them as well. I mean they lost their daughter but Jenny has been such an advocate to put Jody's killer away because this really was her other half. You know, being a twin is such a strong bond from the moment you're born, you're together your entire life. So this really, really destroyed her. Yeah, that goes to show you just how close they really were, you know.

She's put in a place where she can't even imagine having a wedding ceremony without her twin being there. That's just so heartbreaking to hear about. A $20,000 reward was set up by the La Cornus, and police began investigating people close to Jodi, but they weren't able to find any hard leads on her case. Eventually, it went cold, and after many years, Jenny got married and started a family of her own, but still felt that emptiness without her sister and would always try to come up with different ways to share Jody's case with the public. In October of 2018, Jenny decided to do something bold.

She put up a billboard and it was located on the closest billboard to where Jody was murdered and it read, find my killer. It had a big photo of Jody, including her name, time and place of death, the number for a tip line and the promise of a $32,000 reward. Jenny got the idea for the billboard after seeing the Academy Award winning film, three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, which is about a mother trying

to seek justice for her murder daughter. Jenny has been incredibly persistent with the leading detectives on the case as well as the local law enforcement, but she's been having a tough time breaking through. Since the case is still open, there's a lot of information that isn't being shared with Jenny or her family, so she actually decided to file a lawsuit. She's determined to find her sister's killer and doesn't feel as though the detectives are doing all they can to help, so she's trying to take things into her own hands. And Jenny's situation is pretty similar to three billboards outside of

Eving, Missouri. If you think about it, you know, police really aren't doing all they can. It's getting really frustrating for her. So what does she do? She decides to put up a billboard, same as the mother does in the movie, pressing law enforcement to step up to the plate and get things done. Yeah, and it was the billboard that really actually brought a lot of media attention to Jody's case. And so I really applaud Jenny for doing that because she has had so many different interviews with different podcasts and different new stations and just, you know, different TV channels. Like a lot of people are noticing this case and how horrific the details are and how disgusting it is,

that nothing is really being done. And so I'm just really proud of her for getting this out there. Yeah, she's really working her ass off. I mean, it's like another full-time job for her. She spends most of her time searching for her sister's killer. Jenny was telling me that there was this person in government or something I think and she was sending them letters and trying to get them to help her with the case and they were ignoring her and

they weren't sending her letters back and I think they had posted something on Facebook or something and she replied to him and was like, do you want a bill board? Like because he was ignoring her and I just thought it was so funny. She just has this amazing sense of humor and I told it to Heath and he was like, you get a billboard, you get a billboard. Straight up. She's a savage and I love it. I mean, she's aggressive. She, and this is important. This is important because when things aren't getting done, like, you have to be aggressive. And we, and we, uh, we see this in other cases too, like,

if you're talking about the Alyssa Turnikaze, Sarah Turnik works her ass off as well, and you know, it's like nothing was being done in that case either. So really, I mean, you have to push law enforcement to get things done. I know, I told her on the phone that I wanted to give her a high-fives, because like I said, I'm just so proud of her for going above and beyond to try to get shit done. So, DNA and Jody's car wasn't originally tested and the license plate on the BMW was never discovered.

There was however video surveillance of the parking lot, but since it was 1996 and it was snowing that night, the quality was very low and the snowflakes made it incredibly hard to determine what was going on in the clip, even with the new video enhancement technology. Police still have Jody's clothes and there's newer DNA testing called im-back, and it can take that DNA off of the clothes and it's incredibly expensive. But the president of im-back offered to test Jody's clothes in the best private lab in America, and the police won't do it. Their reasoning is because they know that people other than just the killer's DNA will be on it, so they don't want to question innocent people. And that's so

frustrating because who cares if you're questioning innocent people, it doesn't matter, this is about solving a case. And if they have the technology to do it, I just don't see why not. And if you question the innocent people and they have alibis and they weren't actually a part of it, then they're going to be let go because guarantee there's more people's DNA on her clothes than just the killers because imagine someone hugging her or someone touching her shoulder or whatever just being around her, their DNA is going to be on her clothes. But the whole point is to solve this case, so the fact that they won't do it because of that, even though the freaking president is saying, we will test these in the best lab

in America, is like the most insane thing. So Daphne actually interviewed Jenny Lachorno-Karriri to get some insight on what happened to Jody that a refortnight to discuss Ireland and the UK's most heinous crimes, and the court cases that followed. Do you want to know more about a kink killing in Dublin in 2012, or serial killers in Scotland? Whatever your guilty pleasure, you'll find it, and all the details with me. Find mensraya wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Aaron from Devil We Know, a single host narrative, true crime podcast that gives you stories about the devils in your communities.

I will give you insight on the criminals and the victims all while telling you a detailed story. All you need to do is search for Devil We Know podcast on all platforms and hit subscribe. We do have a little fun on the show. We will listen to some bands and musicians. And I'll even give shout-outs to all my loyal heathens out there, like charity from South Dakota. Thank you for listening to Devil We Know. Here's Daphne's interview with Jody's sister Jenny.

So who was Jody? What were her goals? Favorite things to do and what was she like? Oh my gosh. I love it. You know, we weren't one ones that were like, yeah, we're gonna be like a doctor. You know what I mean? Like we didn't have we were just like, let's have fun with you. Well, like what was her dreams? I was like, oh, she just kind of lived in the moment. I mean, she was really nice, sweetest, just hard of gold. She really cared about people, and she's going to school at Towson State Peking classes. She was studying at gerontology.

So I'm not sure what she thought she was going to do with that. And I could definitely have seen her working with older people. And I mean, she was so kind, you know. I always remember this story about when she worked at this restaurant. And one of the waiters was like, I really like your shirt. And so he's like, you want it? Like, I mean, she just was so nice and fun and outgoing. So how did you find out that she had passed?

Good morning, that I found out. I got up and called her Saturday morning. I was my parents running in a grocery. I'm sorry I got that. And she didn't answer the phone. And I just got this weird feeling. Nothing that something terrible happened, right? Just like why is she not answering the phone?

It was just a very unusual. So what cast me out in California was that I had that engaged. My parents called him because they didn't want me to be alone, because they're he came running in the door and just real shocking. Jody's dead. He was like, she was shot. I just don't even know how to describe.

You just can't even comprehend. It's like you, what? You know, you think it's something from the movies. Okay, so let's run through this real quick. Jody had been at the Mount Washington bar in Baltimore on March 1, 1996, and then she had dropped an employee off, and after she dropped that employee off, she went to the parking lot, and that's where she made some calls around 3.40 AM, right? Correct, yeah, the owner of the bar bar and she talked to like a bartender. She was friends with the people there and like and one of the managers. I don't know if it was like to

separate calls, but the crazy thing is the manager that she talked to. I learned years later committed suicide. That's so eerie because obviously that could be for a number of reasons, but just the fact that he was involved with Jody in some way, and then that happened. That's just really strange, and I know that the owner of the bar originally refused to speak, which I thought was pretty strange as well. But I guess that could be for many reasons, you know, don't want to be involved with that. So eventually they did interview him, and then did they discover anything strange? Not that they would tell me. So as far as we know, Jody made two calls that night in her car,

one to the owner of the bar, and then who was the other call made to? She had moved this girl that she'd wait for a sweat, this girl in Wethar, for a while. And then the girl moved out, her name was f***ed, and then moved in with her boyfriend, who was an African-American, and was a cook at like Fridays. That was the other one of the other calls during the night. She called their place, talked to the boyfriend for two and a half minutes, okay? Never talked to f***ing, I don't know how else you knew, the boyfriend. So he talked to him, but they ruled him out from day one because they said he didn't drive.

I don't know if it's because you didn't have a car or what they did finally go talk to **** 2, 3 weeks ago. Turns out he had a friend with him. So they didn't find that out 23 years ago. Okay, so that's all that we can say right now since this is an open investigation, but it's definitely an interesting lead. So another question I wanted to ask you, Jenny, is I open investigation, but it's definitely an interesting lead. So another question I wanted to ask you, Jenny, is I'm a little confused about the details surrounding the man approaching Jody's car.

Was her window down when he came up to her or did she roll it down to speak to him? Is that something that you know? I never was told that. All I know is that her window was rolled down. They think there was a conversation and then he's like, shawter from behind. And maybe she was like trying to get away from him. So they likely had an exchange of sorts and then she started driving away and he shot her from outside the car or did he go back into his own car and shoot her from there. Outside. That's what they,

yeah, outside. He would have had to have had the gun in his hand when he approached her car then, right? That's a good point. Why would somebody shoot somebody for no reason? I mean, I guess for drugs or something. So do you think that she had drugs? Well, I mean, like you did a little bit when we were younger, but alcohol was like her drug of choice. And I was talking to her every day. She was full of anxiety. She knew she met you know people like oh cocaine or something I mean I'm not saying that she didn't do it much she was in high school but like she was like such a basket case like anxious like the drinking what she thought was like humming her nerves which you know makes it worse she she would not I don't

think unless she was like at her with him thinking oh this is the end with my boyfriend and I I'm just gonna go do something but what everybody has said that bar is known for drugs. Like she was there all night. If she wanted drugs, she could have gotten them there. She is so terrified, she never would have gone to some random person-in-line spot drugs. But there was no drugs in her system. I mean, it's just so odd. So I want to go back to the owner of the bar. Did she go to this bar a lot and how do you think that she knew the owner? I just thought it was weird that she called around 3.40 am or so because you think that the bar would be long closed by then. Like the time frame, like are they telling, are we getting the whole time frame?

We only go by what they tell us because we never see anything. So we don't know what time she actually made the calls in relation to her death. We just know what time she died. Right. Right. Well, from what they tell us, we never been able to see anything. Sorry, back again to the bar owner. Do we know what his relationship was like with Jody?

I know she had a bit of a crush on him. She liked to go this bar. You know, she felt comfortable. He was close to Jody. I know she had a bit of a crush on him. She liked to go this far. You know, she felt comfortable. He was close to her house. She felt comfortable being there, driving there, like a local bar. What did you think of Jody's boyfriend at the time? Because I know that the night that she was killed,

he told her not to come home. So did you get the sense that he was a good guy? We thought he seemed like a nice guy, but we didn't talk until him for like 17 years. We kind of just separated him, he got married and had kids. Never in my heart did I think he did it. So I reached out to him like a couple of years ago when I did the Crimewatch Daily Show. I hadn't talked to him in years.

He did that show but he covered himself up. He wanted space to be shown like they interviewed him. The police didn't seem to think he was a good enough suspect in the beginning to really look into him, but did you talk to him at all and did you get the sense that he was involved? You know, when we talk to him later on, he would talk about the guilt that he felt like we're telling or not to come home. I mean, he was at a school dance that night and then he was asleep. So he doesn't have an airtight alibi necessarily, which I mean, he was at a school dance that night and then he was asleep. So he doesn't have an airtight alibi necessarily, which I mean makes sense because

most people I would say are sleeping at 340 in the morning, but did they have a pretty good relationship? Because I know that they lived together, so it had to have been at least a little bit serious. I mean, they were pretty serious. They would get on the thing. Unfortunately, they had that issue. You know, they both should not have been drinking. He likes to be home and then you know, have a drink and be home, have a few drinks. And she liked to go to like this bar and be with her friends. I guess she was on the path of not drinking and then she went out to the bar the night before. She they got to that site Friday morning. She was on a path of not drinking and then she went out to the bar the night before she

they got that fight Friday morning. So March 1st. Yeah, so it was that Thursday night. She was at the bar and he was mad. So then that Friday morning, she said, don't come home. Then at that time she was working at Eastern savings bank. So Jody was out Thursday night drinking at a bar and then that's what her and her boyfriend got in a fight about on Friday morning and he told her not to come home. So she went to work that Friday and then she didn't go home after and then she went to the bars all night.

That's a good question. I don't know if she's got home or not. She probably would have gone straight to the bar, but the whole thing that's so odd is like she has so many friends and she has so many fears like for her to not like if he told her not to come home, like we just don't know why she didn't make a plan to go somewhere. So her spine was severed and she kept driving. Did they have any, did you see the autopsy report on this? We've never been able to see an autopsy report, nothing. I mean, and that's why I'm getting so frustrated. We're told she's never to resign, but she was able to drive after she was shot and her spine was severed, and that's why I was like, how is that possible? So even though your family, they won't release the autopsy report to you?

They're saying that, you know know because it's an open investigation, but they tell me that her case was sitting in a closet. If there's video surveillance, the man more than likely put his DNA in the car and there were witnesses, how is this not solved? Six people they say. Six people they saw him reach over her body, put her car in park. I mean, they saw so much. I mean, none of it makes sense. As long as I'm living and breathing, I will be searching for justice for Jodie and looking for her killer.

Thank you, Jenny, for answering all of our questions and being a guest on the show. Now we're going to get into some theories about what we think might have happened to Jody. So the biggest theory is probably the robbery theory. And that would mean that she was just happened to be sitting in this parking lot and this man came up to her car and either tried to make sexual advances at her or just tried to you know pretty much threaten her so that he could take her money or whatever it was that she had. And then she started to drive away and he shot at her because maybe his identity was then compromised or he was very upset with her or whatever and it was totally random. What do you think, Keith? I think it's very possible that this man could have had a very fragile ego and if she had

been drinking she probably had a lot of courage, she probably told him to screw off and when he went back to his car he turned around shot, didn't think anything was going to happen, but then when he saw her car kind of veer off it's possible he went up and reached in and grabbed her purse because her purse and her cell phone because we know that her purse and her phone Were missing, but she had made calls that night so we know she had her phone on her earlier The thing that stands out to me is the fact that he had a BMW and she had a Honda So unless this person stole the car or maybe they had the car when they had more money and now they need money so they're going to rob a random little Honda in the middle of

an empty parking lot. It just seems a little far-fetched only because it's not like she had a flashy car and it's like obviously this girl has money for him to just go up to her window and potentially ask her for her money. He has no idea if she even has any money or anything of any value and so for him to kill her over it just seems crazy. And that's kind of the reason why it leads me to believe that he may have been trying to sexually assault her in the first place, but she may have just driven off too fast. He got a lucky shot in because we know that he only fired one shot and it literally went through the driver's seat, severing her spine, and I think at that point maybe he was thinking,

alright, well I didn't get to sexually assault her. I'm gonna drive up there, grab her person her phone, and then take off. But that's also a really confident or a really stupid person because if you're going to do this where there's witnesses, I mean these people are across the street but obviously they saw this happen. So if you're gonna do something like kill someone, you're gonna make sure no one's around. But since there are people around and this guy watched her drive across the street, drove his car up to her car after a loud gunshot had gone off seconds earlier and then get out of his car reach into a dying girl's car, take something and

drive off is like super balsy. Oh yeah absolutely balsy but we also have to consider that I don't believe that it was a hit because I mean if you watched any movies or any TV shows that have anything to do with Hitman, they're really not willing to take that chance. Usually it's very quick, you know, he could have either driven up beside her car, shot her, and took off. I just don't see him being this kind of smart, savvy, Hitman-type criminal. Well that goes into our next theory that she was involved in drugs and she owed money, so somebody sent this man to kill her. And I completely agree with you on that hit because I was talking to Jenny and she was saying

how a lot of people think it's a hit. And even I at the time thought it was a hit until you're saying that, yeah, a hit man would have just killed her and left. They wouldn't screw around. They would just kill her and left. They wouldn't screw around. They would just kill her and leave. That's their mission is to kill, not to get out and talk to her and then go over and take something from her car,

you know, unless they needed to take her money or her drugs or whatever she had. But they wouldn't have been so out in the open about it. I don't think. Yeah, definitely. And I think that the theory of the drugs thing, I think the reason why a lot of people think this may be plausible is because we know that she made a phone call to her ex-room mate's boyfriend, which we don't really know much about this guy, but

that could have something to do with it. Well, he was a drug dealer, so again, I also think that if she was gonna get drugs, she would have gotten them at the bar because that bar is so known for drugs. And I actually saw something on Reddit that said that the Mount Washington tavern is associated with multiple other deaths. And I just think that's really peculiar. So if she were needing drugs that night, which Jenny said she wasn't a drug, she was an alcoholic. But let's just say that she was looking for drugs, I don't think she would have done it by herself.

I mean, I picked up weed when I was in high school from a stranger's house once, that I had a number that I had gotten from a friend, and I made two of my friends come with me in broad daylight. I, so I don't see her just going in the middle of the night, and meeting a complete stranger for drugs. Drug dealers are dangerous, everybody knows it. Yeah, definitely. And that's, yeah, that's definitely a scary situation

buying drugs at, you know, four o'clock in the morning in a dark parking lot, a little sketchy, and a drug dealer killing his customer. That's kind of a bad drug dealer. Also, the police don't think that drugs were involved in this. I still think that they think that it was a random robbery, but they don't think there was drugs involved. And like Jenny mentioned, there was no drugs in her system,

so it just doesn't seem as likely to me. There are a few suspects in this case, but so far, they're not holding much weight. While watching Jody's feature on the show Crime Watch Daily, they find a man who used to attend the Mount Washington tavern. He remembers Jody's case and told the host that his friend once overheard a conversation of some guys talking about how Jody owed money to a drug dealer. When they talked to the man who overheard the conversation, he confirmed

this and even gave the name of the man slash drug dealer who he believed she owed money to, if in fact that was true. When they did some research on this drug dealer, they found that he was facing drug charges in prison. When police were informed of this potential lead, they supposedly shrugged it off because he was already behind bars. Which is such BS because don't you want to solve a crime? Don't you want to, you know, put this case away and stop having it open? I mean, it's in your county. Don't you want to close as many cases as you can? And also, they didn't even check to see what kind of car he had. And the guy who gave the name said that he always had a different car.

Yeah, that's kind of a sketchy detail in itself. And like you mentioned, who gives a shit if he's already behind bars? It doesn't matter. People get convicted for murder charges who are behind bars all the time. And he's in prison for drugs, so he's gonna get out someday. Yeah, exactly. And this is about the family finding justice. It's not about, oh, well, he's already in there, so why bother? It's about the family having closure. Steve, who was Jody's boyfriend at the time, says the last time he saw Jody was right before they both left for work on the morning of Friday, March 1, 1996. Later that evening, he attended a school dance fundraiser at Boys Latin School in Baltimore, and he

didn't get back to his house until 12.30 a.m. When he got back to the house, he noticed Jody wasn't there. He knew she usually got off work at 5.30 p.m. so he suspected because of their conversation earlier that she was probably at her parent's house in Annapolis, Maryland. Like Jenny said in the interview, he interviewed on Crime Watch Daily, but he requested that they not show his face or give his name, and I just wanted to let you guys know that I did try to find this video online, but I didn't find anything, so I'm not sure what he said in his interview. Even though him and Jody were in a fight,

we couldn't find a reason that he'd want her to be dead, so it's kind of hard to make any accusations against him either. And I just want to clear something up for you guys. The perpetrator was described as being an African-American male and Steve Jody's boyfriend at the time was Caucasian, so that kind of rules him out right there. It's weird to me that there are supposedly deaths associated with the Mount Washington Bar, and I think it's very suspicious that the owner refused to speak to police early on in the investigation and that the manager committed suicide seven years after Jody's death. So obviously his suicide could have been related to a number of things, and I don't know

why they would want her dead because they seemingly liked her and were friends with her, but maybe they weren't involved but knew who was and were afraid to snitch. But there's just a lot of suspicion to me surrounding that bar. All in all, it's very hard to pin this on anyone because there's just so many questions. Why was Jody sitting in this dark parking lot alone in the middle of the snowy night? Why did she roll down her window to a stranger? What was taken from the car? And why did someone want Jody dead?

In my opinion, I think that Jody's perpetrator was an unknown suspect. I don't think that Jody knew her killer. If anyone has any information, please call the Baltimore County Police Department at 410-887-2222. Or if you'd like to submit any anonymous tip, contact Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7 Lockup. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. This case was really special to do because the moment that I reached out to Jenny, I just felt for her so much and I loved the chance to get to know her and get to know her sister story and I look forward to the day that we put the killer in prison.

And make sure that you share this episode with your friends and your family. And also go follow Jody's sister Jenny. Her Instagram handle is Jenny underscore corrayry. That's Jenny underscore C-A-R-R-I-E-R-I. And you can follow this case from her. And as always, make sure you check us out on Instagram at GoingWestPodcast and check out Heath on Twitter at GoingWestPod. And definitely make sure you go over to our Facebook group, GoingWestTruePrime. It's starting to grow and we're getting some conversation going over there as well, so that's pretty awesome. Yeah, let us know what you guys think about this case.

Comment on our social media. Absolutely. So, for everybody out there in the world, keep it real, stay weird. Cheerio! Thank you. you you