Going West: True Crime - Monica Moynan // 305

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

In April of 2019, a 22-year-old mom went missing from North Carolina without any of her family or friends realizing, because they continued to receive messages from her as if nothing was wrong. When her mom finally got suspicious and started digging, she found that no one had actually seen her daughter in three months. This is the story of Monica Moynan. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/killer-pretended-victim-twisted-text-27234746 2. CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk-bNX70Bjs 3. People: https://people.com/crime/ex-convicted-of-murdering-missing-mom-faking-texts-to-her-parents-to-hide-killing/ 4. Monica's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moni.day.5473 5. Monica's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceformoni?sharetype=teams&member=3182768&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=p_na%20share-sheet&pc_code=fb_co_postupdate_a&rcid=d88f9dee401248119ca0d855b50b6f39&fbclid=IwAR3nfVaXJPJfCzlgVxHyqGh4ynAr-HbMp94_RFsUTiDbID0Q-qajLcXXAj4 6. ABC: https://abc11.com/brian-sluss-murder-trial-monica-moynan-holly-springs/11741908/ 7. The Herald-Sun: https://www.newspapers.com/image/646052158/?terms=%22monica%20moynan%22&match=1 8. Oxygen: https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/brian-sluss-convicted-murder-monica-moynan-north-carolina#:~:text=Moynan's%20two%20daughter%2C%20now%20ages,been%20adopted%20by%20the%20Tuckers. 9. CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuZnE7C05pE 10. ABC: https://abc11.com/jarlyn-lisbeth-sluss-holly-springs-murder-arrest/6176354/ 11. WRAL: https://www.wral.com/monica-moynan-s-family-reacts-to-guilty-verdict-of-brian-sluss/20256633/ 12. Winston-Salem Journal: https://journalnow.com/police-find-blood-search-woods-in-virginia-for-missing-nc-woman/article_d22fd6f9-2d2b-5e6e-b60e-43227ba04caa.html 13. Brian's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011630854989 14. ABC: https://abc11.com/brian-sluss-trial-monica-moynan-holly-springs-murder/11792035/ 15. ABC: https://abc11.com/jarlyn-sluss-monica-moynan-brian-holly-springs-missing-mom/6179660/?fbclid=IwAR3Siemwgs_eGBwzyAdi9grnAIRAH6C7J9AigxzRH2MZow1pUYod3qafwU0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to going West. Hello everybody. Big thank you to Kim for recommending today's case. This is a fairly new case that happened a few years ago, but there was resolution just last year. So thanks again for tuning in. Yeah, and if you guys want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered thus far, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram at GoingWest podcast, Twitter at GoingWestPod, and we're also on Facebook. We have a regular page and then we also have a discussion group that has about 10K members at this point, which is crazy. Yeah, so awesome.

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wouldn't usually be telling and it's a way for you guys to help support the show. All right guys, so with that, this is episode 305 of Going West. So let's get into it! In April of 2019, a 22-year-old woman went missing from North Carolina without any of her family or friends realizing because they continue to receive text messages from her as if nothing was wrong. But when her mom finally got suspicious and started digging, she found out that no one had actually seen her daughter in three months. And someone else was posing as her. This is the story of Monica Moynen. Monica Day Moinin was born on June 5, 1996 in Garner, North Carolina, which is just about 15 minutes outside the capital of Raleigh, and she joined a sister four years her senior named Sammy.

When Monica was young, her mom Melanie married her stepdad, whose name is Brandon Tucker, and Monica was eventually joined by a younger brother named Trey. Brandon described Monica as, quote, the wild child, full of joy and energy. From a young age, Monica was a free spirit and a very gifted creative, like her art was even featured in the newspaper when she was just 11 years old. Her mom said of her quote, God, she was a neat human. So free, so bold, so silly, passionate and outspoken. Angry when challenged, feisty with a lot of fight.

She was money. She was magnificent, not perfect. Perfection is incredibly boring and boring she was not. Lovely, crazy, affectionate, protective, interesting, adorable, tough, determined, and so much fun. Against the grain, strong, but tender. Monica loved to change her hair color and at different times she had a green hair or purple hair or blue hair and usually in a pixie cut. She was also an honor role student and a very diligent worker. Her aunt Tara called her Sassy Spunky and So Damn Smart.

After graduating from Garner High School in 2014, Monica started working as a nanny but really yearned to own her own business. And she wanted to put her interest in natural pathic healing and herbal remedies to good use. So she opened her own online shop called Monty's Magic and she sold elderberry syrup and gummies for immune support on Facebook, Instagram and Etsy. But while she was getting her business up and running, she, you know, still had to make money. So she was working as a server at a restaurant on the side, and that's what she was doing when she went missing. In early 2019, Monica set her sights on a new career path, though, and that was becoming a doula, which I think most of us know, doulas are the

trained professionals who guide and support women during labor, and that was just something that really interested her. Now as Daphne said, Monica was very independent and she was a free spirit, but she was also remembered as an incredibly responsible teenager because she became a mother at a very young age. When Monica was just 17 and working at an office max, she met 37 year old coworker Brian Sluss and the two began dating, which I just gotta say, first of all, before we get into anything else, this guy is a total creep, I mean, he was 37 and Monica was 17, but as we're gonna get into, this was not

his first rodeo with dating underage girls. So anyway, about two years later, at the age of 19, Monica became pregnant with her oldest daughter, Kaylee. About two years after that, the couple welcomed their second daughter, whose name is Nova. But she and Brian were remembered as having, you know, an on and off again relationship, and in between Stins with Brian, she even posted about a new boyfriend that she was dating named Jonathan. But for some reason, she seemed to keep coming back to Brian. Now the family eventually settled in Holly Springs, which is about a 30 minute drive away

from where Monica grew up, and about an hour from where her family lived. Monica's family remembered that she and Brian had more than their fair share of conflict, both emotional and physical, and that two different times the police had to be called to the couple's home responding to domestic violence complaints. Monica explained that she had been punched, shoved to the ground, and choked by Brian. And her best friend, Alex, remembers quote, she saw the lights go out, and that's just all she can remember. She said that she almost died.

Alex also claimed that Monica had talked about actively needing to get away from Brian. Melanie who again is Monica's mom remembers that her daughter sometimes struggled with self-esteem issues that left her vulnerable to being easily manipulated by Brian. They broke up and got back together multiple times and back in 2017, Monica even took a restraining order out on him because things were that bad. She felt that unsafe in his presence. A couple years later, in early 2019, with a three-year-old and a newborn, Monica had finally had enough, and to keep herself and her daughter safe, she

filed a protective order against Brian. Her mom Melanie remembered, quote, she was scared, she thought he was going to choke her. And judging by his Facebook, it appears that Brian already had two sons that he was not close with, so he had four kids total, and at that point, he wasn't seeing any of them. At the end of 2018, just months before Monica would go missing, Brian wrote this to Facebook, quote, I don't know how I've become the exact thing I never wanted to be. I had a family.

I had two wonderful boys and now two wonderful girls, but have lost each because of my ego and my own selfish thoughts and actions. Please give me the strength to be the man and the father to each of these." So once the couple had split up and the worse seemed to be behind them, Melanie says that things were looking up for her daughter, because they kept in touch on a daily basis and they saw each other very frequently, and it just seemed like things were going well for Monica. Exactly, and in the spring of 2019, Monica was working, taking care of her daughters,

and she also started to pursue training in her dual certification. Melanie remembers that Monica was busy and she seemed fulfilled, and that she was looking forward to the next chapter of her life without Brian in it. and that she was looking forward to the next chapter of her life without Brian in it. One weekend in early April of 2019, Melanie tried to make plans to see her daughter, as they did almost every weekend, but this time, Monica claimed that she was too busy, and she continued to do so for the next two months. But aside from that, everything seems somewhat normal. Right, so she's just thinking, okay, she has a lot going on, she's raising two kids, she's working, she's also trying, you know, she's working at the restaurant, she's also trying

to get her dualist certification, even though like I said, they saw each other a lot, right now, they weren't. Yeah, exactly. And you know, Monica was checking in with her family and friends, and she was sending updates about the girls as well She even texted her sister Sammy about her duly certification saying it's going great It's the best thing I've ever done. I love it so much but strangely Three months passed without Monica seeing her beloved family which was incredibly out of character for her She seemed to be pretty evasive and made excuses about why she was too busy to come see her family or let her family come see her.

And remember her family lived about an hour away. Right, so she continued to tell them that she was busy with work, she was overwhelmed with caring for her daughters as a single mother and laser focused on training for her new career path. But here's one of the more strange things. There was also a very dramatic and drastic dip in her social media usage. And this is weird because Monica was very outspoken and active online about social justice causes that she believed in and also conducting business for Monty's magic online. So radio silence was very rare from her.

So by that summer, Melanie was just totally perplexed. She had gone three months without seeing her daughter and granddaughters, which was obviously very, very unusual. And in one text that she received, Melanie noticed that Monica had referred to her daughters as the ladies, which is something that Brian often called them. So yeah, so she's like, this is totally weird that you're calling them the ladies, which is something that Brian often called them. So yeah, so she's like, this is totally weird that you're calling them the ladies.

Yeah, like she could have definitely adopted that term, but with everything else that was going on, it was just like, why is, like, am I talking to Brian? That's what she was thinking. So in July of 2019, Melanie was just growing very suspicious of the text that she was receiving. So she called the manager of Monica's apartment complex, which were the timber springs apartments in Holly Springs, and asked if Monica had actually been spotted on the property recently.

And you have to imagine what it would feel like to get to the point where you are calling the manager of your daughter's apartment to ask if she's even been seen lately. Like, that's how suspicious and worried she was. Yeah, and I know that she, Melanie did live about an hour away, and I'm sure that her next step was to just get in the car and drive down to the apartment complex, but, you know, unfortunately, she didn't get that opportunity to do that. Yeah, and it does make sense.

Like, oh, let me call somebody who's nearby. And if something's weird from there, I'm going to go down there. But up until this point, she was receiving texts, supposedly from Monica. So it's like, I'm talking to her. We're not talking on the phone. We're not seeing each other, but she is texting me.

And everything seems fine. So for a while, the flags were not being raised high enough for her to really really start to look into this until the whole ladies comment and then she's like, wait, this is really actually quite strange. Exactly. And you know, she did get confirmation from management who said that they hadn't seen Monica since March, so about four months prior.

But they had seen Brian on the property multiple times. Suspicious. Yeah. So this was alarming enough for Melanie to call into the Holly Springs Police Department for a wellness check, because she just knew that something wasn't right with all of this. And when police arrived, there was no sign of Monica

at her apartment, which prompted police to continue their search and what they found was even more alarming monica hadn't shown up for work at the restaurant since april six and remember it's july when they're discovering this yet so she has not been at work for many many months and this is just crazy to me because nobody said anything.

Yeah, I mean, that's a question that because, you know, because they were not informed of this earlier, it makes it so much harder, they have to backtracking, try to pin down her movements for the previous months. But then I wonder, did they even have her family's contact information if they did? It probably would have been maybe Brian's, or like who would they even have her family's contact information if they did it probably would have been maybe bryans or right right like who would they even have and how close are they with monica

to even worry about her and not assume that she just quit without notice right and we also mentioned earlier that monica was very responsible and that you know and we she's working to take care of her daughters at this point because she is now a single mother so there's just no way but we have covered other cases where actually the on a Walsh case, speaking of Brian's, we've covered so many Brian Laundry, Brian Cobrager, Brian Walsh. We love all you good Brian's out there.

Yeah, all the good Brian's, but not these bad Brian's. So, but yeah, I mean, in that case, her boss had just said, oh, she hasn't come into work, that's weird, I'm gonna report her missing. Right. So I do wonder what happened with Monica's work and why they didn't do that, what would have led them to not make that decision.

So, but they didn't, and it wasn't for at least a couple of months that, or three months, pretty much, that her family is learning that she has not been at work. But Brian, so now they're wondering, what does Brian know about all of this? Does he know she's missing? Has he seen her? And he had this explanation of his own.

So he claimed that Monica, unbeknownst to everybody in her life became addicted to heroin and had fled her responsibilities, including parenting her two young daughters. And Brian's attorney later stated, quote, he said Monica walked out on him and his girls. He wasn't running away. He was running toward a safe haven and he took his two girls with him. So obviously Monica's family are now seeing the huge red flags. Like they're thinking how had Monica become addicted to heroin without anybody in her life including her friends, her family and her co-workers knowing and also been texting all of them about how busy she was and how excited she was to be embarking on this new path, and then on top of that, her texts were not in her normal tone or verbiage.

Like, none of this is making sense. Yeah, it's not lining up at all. So luckily, police did dig deeper, because they were incredibly set off by all of this too. So with the text messages that Monica had supposedly sent updating her family on the last three months of her life, police took a look at her spending habits and social media usage and attempted to nail down the last time she had been seen in public. Monica's bank accounts were still in use, but not as frequently as they had been before.

Instead of being used to buy groceries for herself and her daughters, the charges, which dated back to April 7, 2019, were used on porn websites and dating apps. Right. And like you said, April 7, this is the day after she was last seen at work. She announced she's not shown up to work after that. And now these are the charges showing up on her card. Yeah. And these were things that her family claimed Monica would never have spent money on herself. Her past grocery store visits were frequent though, at least two times a week.

In addition to food, she usually purchased the same items on every visit. She would get cat food, diapers, baby food, and baby wipes. She frequently shopped at Lowe's Foods in Holly Springs and she would often use her debit card and conjunction with her Lowe's loyalty card. But soon after her disappearance, Monica's debit card started being used in conjunction with Brian's ex-wife's Lowe's loyalty card, so this obviously does not look good. Monica's phone was also still in service, and it was pretty much only being used to respond to questions from people who were asking her

like where she was and what she was doing. Yeah, she's not using it for any other things to talk to her friends to. Post on social media. Exactly, it's just really strictly to respond to what people are saying to her. Right, and her car was also spotted being driven, but it was discovered after the search of Monica's apartment

that Brian had actually been driving it himself. Her search history, which was once flooded with questions and research about becoming a doula, was now barren, other than a few pornography websites that were visited. So after these discoveries, even more disturbing details began to spill out. Police discovered that Brian had even been selling furniture and items from Monica's home on Facebook Marketplace to profit further off of her disappearance.

He's such a piece of shit. And both Monica's boss and some of her friends came forward and revealed that some of the messages that they had supposedly received from Monica in the months leading up to the investigation were explicit and extremely uncharacteristic of Monica. And some included asking Monica's own friends for three sums. So I mean by explicit it's like this or not things that she would usually say and this part reminds me actually

i meant say earlier when we were kind of talking about oh why didn't uh... her work report her missing well she's texting people back right so she must have then responded to them you know if they're like oh why aren't you coming into work maybe Maybe she had an excuse or said, I'm quitting and that's why they didn't contact the police or her family because she's responding to them. That's somebody using her phone is.

Right, that's a good point. Yeah. And, you know, she goes from buying her kids, you know, diapers and food and all these other things to, you know, paying for porn sites, you know, asking her friends for three sums like, come on. Yeah, it's... Like, we, at this point, we know who's sending these texts. Exactly.

And also, we know how she felt about Brian. And she did have a journal as well, which they found after and read through it to really get her feelings on what was going on, and especially with things with Brian. And in one journal entry, Monica wrote, Eval, You entered my life and fed me nothing but lies from the start. So secretive and so manipulative. You portrayed yourself as someone great, someone who loved and cared and was funny.

I hope you're surprised by my strength and amazed by my vulnerability because I'm not afraid to share the truth But wow suspicious. This was all Circumstantial evidence so the next step was actually finding Monica But Brian began to sense that police were closing in on him. So he Changed his story which we hate over here at Going West. We do. He indicated that despite her outward appearance and demeanor, Monica had actually been hopelessly depressed,

and he suggested that she had taken her own life. And shockingly, he even admitted that he himself had been the one texting Monica's loved ones posing as her. So he's not even trying to deny that part. He's just saying, oh yeah, I was doing that. Well, this is his new excuse saying, actually, it wasn't the heroine she was really depressed. She took her own life and, well,

and then I was the one texting because now I'm claiming that she took her own life. So, okay, here's my reasoning for this. Yeah, and I wanted to spare her family of having hurt feelings well yeah that was his reasoning it which please were not expecting him to say and it's so annoying that he did this because he's coming off as oh i'm this caring guy

and i knew that her family would be devastated if they knew that she had taken her own life so i wanted to soften the blow of her disappearance. Now, that, no, no, no, no. Oh, Brian, you're such a good guy. So Brian's family called both of his excuses absolutely ridiculous. I mean, she had no known prior drug use

and no known suicidal ideation, which obviously those things can sometimes be done in secret, but her family just knew that she would never leave her kids. Her whole life revolved around them, and also around bettering herself for the sake of them. Like, she really wanted to provide them with stability despite how things were going between her and their father, Brian. According to a later warrant,

Brian changed the explanation that he gave for Monica's absence for times. And he explained that this was because he didn't want to hurt Monica's family and was simply trying to shield them from the truth. Before that quick break, Daphne explained that Brian had changed his story four times, but settled on telling the police that Monica had probably taken her own life, and that he had been using her phone to soften the blow of her disappearance and possible death that he was definitely not involved in. But Monica's family knew Brian's history of violence, and they were certain of his involvement

from the start. She had been setting boundaries with him, and he no longer had the control over her that he so desperately sought. But Monica's family were forced to wait out the excruciating process of obtaining enough direct evidence to prove that Brian did in fact have something to do with Monica's sudden disappearance, and the mysterious text messages that followed. In the meantime, Brian hit out at his parents' house in Virginia. As the Brian's tend to do.

As they do. And while Brian was there, Melanie spoke about how his parents would send gifts and cards to Monica's daughters. So to their granddaughters. Now according to Brian's phone records, he called his parents early on the morning of April 7th, but they chose to conceal what they knew about the situation to protect their son. But Monica's family felt confident that this phone call was to explain to his parents that Brian had killed Monica and that he needed help.

So with this belief, obviously Melanie called it disgusting that they were knowingly harboring the murderer of their granddaughter's mother and said, quote, listen to me, murderer's parents. Send nothing to this house unless it's a signed confession with the location of our daughter's body. And while you're at it, drop him off somewhere over the North Carolina state line and then give me a call. And she also had the family's attorney draft in no contact letter.

Police obtained a search warrant to search Monica's home finally, because all they could do before this was go to the apartment, kind of see that she wasn't there and start digging on their own. So finally, they have a warrant they're going inside. And while inside, they found that hanging pictures were out of place which to them indicated a struggle had taken place. But the most disturbing detail was that remnants of Monica's blood was found in the grout of tiles situated underneath a playmat of her daughters in their home, and Luminol revealed that someone had

tried to scrub it clean with bleach. So, floor tiles were removed for testing to conclude exactly what this substance was, of course, before they knew it was Monica's blood. But after they got the sample, and they sent it off to be tested, the DNA from within the grout was confirmed to be a match to DNA samples from Monica's mom and daughter meaning this was her blood in the house not yet cleaned and it was you know they someone attempted to clean it but they failed and they just left it there so when police question Monica's neighbors one reported reported seeing Brian removing three, quote, big black trash bags between 2 and 3 AM on April 7th. So this is a lot of damning evidence and information. And finally, over a year after Monica was last seen on May 5, 2020, Brian Sluss was arrested

from his parents' home in Virginia. And in a shocking twist a week later, Brian's ex-wife, Jarlin, was arrested as well but on a complex charges. And side note, Brian confirmed that his ex-wife, Jarlin, like Monicaica was only seventeen years old when they met and that brine had been thirty one at the time that's why when i said earlier that you know he's a predator and he's done this before he's done this before yet he to truly has yeah so when he was thirty one jarlin was seventeen and then when he was thirty thirty seven thirty seven right thirty seven monica was seventeen

so they uh... jarlin and brine were together for less than six years and then he's going after another seventeen year old creepy bastard yeah so arrest warrants for brion and jarlin confirm that in addition to calling his parents brion had also placed a call to jarlin in the early morning hours of april seven two thousand nineteen Ryan had also placed a call to Jarlene in the early morning hours of April 7, 2019. And the two hadn't spoken for a month, but suddenly after that phone call, they were talking every day.

Jarlene also admitted to calling the manager of Monica's apartment complex, which again is the Timber Springs apartment, and that she posed as Monica. Around this time, the apartment manager also started receiving emails from a new email address though the author claimed to be Monica, though it was really Jarlyn. And in Jarlyn's possession, investigators found a copy of Monica's driver's license

as well as copies of photos of Monica's that were found on a laptop computer given to Jarlene by Brian. If that ain't damning evidence, I don't know what is. I mean, she's literally pretending to be Monica. So creepy. So another curious detail in this case was that of a positive pregnancy test that was found in the trash can inside Monica's home. Because her body has never been recovered, we may never know if she was actually pregnant, but it's possible that Brian came over to Monica's home to discover that she was moving

on and expanding her family with someone new, and obviously Brian just could not handle this, and he lost it. Now Monica's stepdad Brandon wrote in a statement on Facebook that he and Melanie had debated about having more children after they had Monica's little brother, Trey, but that they had decided against it. And now because of Brian, they had been thrust back into the throes of caring for two young children and their own daughter was gone. In a written statement, Monica's mom explained quote, I loved being a grandma. We loved being grandparents.

Someone has stolen that from me, from us. I miss that easy joy. We must be parents to them now. That never ends. A 24-7 job. The good, the bad, the ugly. Fun sleepovers belong to others now. People say, you must take time to grieve, take care of yourself, but they don't understand,

they really don't understand. There's breakfast to make, a diaper to be changed, it's bath time, let's go outside, let's read a book or take a walk. Every cry from me must be explained. Little eyes are watching and little ears are listening. Never mind to break down, I hold back as much as possible. You say that's bad. If you felt what's inside me, you'd push that away too. The fear of not being able to dig myself out is real. I do not have that choice now. The choice to let it go, to feel what I feel, to fall into that hole.

I don't want to attend events. I'm not looking forward to our first Thanksgiving or Christmas without money. People cannot understand. They say, you must do it for the kids. I say, I'm living life for these kids. You have no idea. I keep going for these kids. You have no idea.

I'm caring for them every day, doing all they need. Never mind events for now. I'm getting out of bed. I'm not just a grieving parent, I'm a grieving parent who's suddenly raising her granddaughters. Can you even imagine? I sure couldn't have. I think God that I'm not alone,

but hate this pain as well. We miss our daughter deeply. We love our granddaughters. We miss being grandparents. In April of 2022, so three years since 22-year-old Monica Moynin had last been seen, Brian finally went to trial for the murder of the mother of his children, Monica. Just as he did in his original line of questioning,

Brian waffled on the answers, pertaining to anything regarding what had happened to Monica, claiming he was, quote, bad with dates and timelines. And many times, he called the prosecution's depiction of events incorrect or so that he didn't know the answer to the question. So frustrated, the state attorney fired back at him, quote, literally, the mother of your kids is missing and you can't even check a calendar. Oh my god, good on them.

But regardless of what was posed in the courtroom or what he was asked, Brian maintained that he had, quote, no clue where Monica is. When asked about the last night she was seen, he explained that they had gotten into a fight, of course, and it was about Brian talking to certain women on Instagram allegedly. And then he said, quote, we got into an altercation and I did hit her. And she did pack up her stuff and she did go to her parents. Which we obviously know never happened.

Yeah, and we see this all the time where just like in the on a wall case, for example, when Brian Walsh had said that he and Anna had gotten into an argument and then she had left, right? That's so typical. Oh, we got in a fight and then she left, but I don't know where she went. And it's like, it's so overused. And sure, maybe that did happen, but that is not what happened here.

And I think for the majority of the time, it's not what happened. So Brian claimed that this altercation and argument happened on the evening of April 6th Which is the last time that Monica was seen in public and the last time that she reported to work But according to Brian he continued to see her after this and said that their you know little family of four Had even spent father's day together which was on June 16th 2019 so that was Two months later, right which makes no sense 16th, 2019. So that was two months later. Right. Which makes no sense.

Yeah, especially because he had already claimed to have been posing as Monica and texting for her for months. And now he's saying, oh, well, I saw her on Father's Day, which is true. You know, he's going, he's lying and he's being caught in more lies. Yeah, each one is a lie, but figure out which one is the actual lie. Yeah, it's just like how Mark Twain said, if you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything,

but that's the issue with this is he keeps lying and then he's forgetting what he's already said. Yeah, and this moron is really not good at it. Yeah, for real, but back to the trial. So the prosecution actually felt that Monica had been deceased since April 6th or 7th. And because that was when she was last seen, and that's when things kind of started to shift.

But when Brian was asked why he didn't report Monica missing, he claimed that he didn't think that she would leave without returning, saying, quote, 10 days in and I'd been freaking out. She would just show up and I was an idiot who got worried. I never thought she would not come back. However, a search of his phone revealed that he had spoken to his sister about how to talk to his daughters about their mother's death. And then, another horrifying piece of evidence

was brought forth. And that was of a video from the Nanny cam inside Monica's home of Brian punching his oldest daughter, Kaylee, and telling her, quote, I'm going to beat your ass, which is so sick. I mean, he's just an abusive, manipulating tyrant. Well, and the fact that this was caught on a nanny cam, and this is video footage of him doing this,

like really just shows the inside of things. Yeah, exactly. And rightfully so, this obviously drew audible gasps from the courtroom. Oh yeah. And Monica's prosecution stated, quote, it was about power and control, violence and deceit. She was making every effort to become a self-sufficient

single mother of two beautiful girls so that she would no longer have to rely on the defendant. She was making efforts to leave this relationship and the state maintains that that was another reason for her death. And thus, on April 28, 2022, over three years after she was last seen, 46-year-old Brian Sluss was convicted of the murder of 22-year-old Monica Moinin, an incredibly difficult feat to accomplish without a body, but thankfully in his case, the evidence

of his actions was enough. And at his trial, he just sat unfazed by the ruling his face did not change. Jarlyn's sluss was also sentenced, and she pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact, and she testified against Brian at his trial. But sadly, Monica's body has yet to be found, and Brian remains quiet on the details of what really happened to her. Prosecutors remain convinced that Brian murdered Monica in her home sometime between the evening of April 6, 2019 and April 7, 2019, while her daughters slept in her apartment. He then used Jarlyn to assist him in moving the body to a different location and a sposing of it.

Monica's mom Melanie addressed the court and Brian saying, quote, �A piece of our family puzzle is gone forever. I will never get to listen to her because he with her or talked to her about all the things, literally all the things. Slus ended the life of a beautiful, strong willed, independent, super fun, funny, and intelligent, yet vulnerable, special young mom. Her stepfather Brandon added quote, There is a mental agony in knowing what you did to Monty.

An agony that causes sleepless nights and leaves in eternal hole in our hearts. Her family still has to contend with the fact that Monika's body has not been found. After the trial, the assistant district attorney stated, quote, �The one thing I had always wanted was to be able to bring her body home, and I couldn't do that for the family. That is a regret that I will always have. But to get this justice today means everything.

Monica's family is still hoping to find her remains and to find peace and closure for Monica once and for all. Her parents also stated in an interview quote, �We will never stop hoping for her to be brought home so we can lay her to rest properly and be near to her. Until then, her legacy will live on in her daughters. Melanie and Brandon adopted them happily, knowing they will never wonder why their mom left and instead rest assured that she did everything she could to fight to stay with them. They said, quote, we have and will continue to make sure that they know how fantastic their mommy was and how they were her world.

Her love for them was larger than life and they know this. After the guilty verdict, Monica's aunt Tara penned a beautiful tribute to her that red quote, everyone loved Monica. It didn't matter how you knew her or how long. Strangers loved Monica. I have friends who kept up with this journey and they fell in love with Monica without ever meeting. We just love her.

Young and fun yet full of wisdom beyond her years. She would research the shit out of something if you brought it up. Your opinion and what you were told would get debunked every time. She had facts, data and research to back her up with so much grace too. She wouldn't try to prove you wrong or offend anyone, she just cared. Monty led the way in motherhood for me. She saved me. She spoke up about things we're told to shut up about, and she most definitely had my

back when I started to speak out. She was born to be a mom and one of the best. Even though we're grateful for this piece of closure, her babies still don't have her physically. My family will always have an emptiness, but please believe they will make sure that K-Bug and Supernova know exactly how amazing their mama is, that she lived for them. Justice for Monty is fulfilled, and maybe one day of God allows to give us the pain and relief of where she is, then it will come.

But maybe we're being protected by not knowing. Monica Moynans stood at 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighed about 115 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. If you have any information about her whereabouts, please contact the Holly Springs Police Department at 919-577-3111. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Remember if you want to see photos from this case, of course this case is solved but like

we have said and like I said in the end there her remains have not been found. So still tips are super helpful. So if you want to see a photo of her, if you live in the area or you think somebody around you might be able to help, make sure that you go to our socials and you repost these photos and this information about her story and her case.

I mean, it could really change things. So thank you guys so much in advance and thanks for listening today. Also, if you guys are looking for more episodes of going west, we have real crime for you guys. We've got like 90 cases in our backlog right now. You can find those over on Apple Podcast subscriptions or over on Patreon, so check them out.

And real crime is the name of our bonus series. So if anybody is- Yeah, not to confuse you guys. Yeah, when you see real crime, I know a bunch of people are probably like, what is that? Real crime by going west, that is just what we call our bonus series,

just to give it a name, you know. And actually a fun little fact here is that when we started real crime, it was originally our EEL crime, and we did cases about movies that were based on true crime cases. So the first couple episodes in this series of real crime are gonna be those.

Yeah, like we did the Game'sville Ripper, which is the case that helped inspire the movie scream. I think we only did like 10 of those because then we're like, oh man, there's not that many. We also did Natalie Wood. Yes. So go check those out and all the rest of the backlog.

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ you