Murder With My Husband - 263. The Eyedrop Killer - The Death of Lynn Hernan

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

On this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the mysterious case of Lynn Hernan. A woman found dead in her home under suspicious and confusing circumstances. Was it an accident or something far more sinister? NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lynn-hernan-jessy-kurczewski-intentional-homicide-wisconsin-eye-drops-48-hours/ Fox6Now.com - https://www.fox6now.com/news/wisconsin-eye-drops-homicide-jessy-kurczewski-sentence Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/jessy-kurczewski-guilty-of-killing-lynn-hernan-with-eye-drops BasementFortProductions.com - https://www.basementfortproductions.com/crimelines-episodes/lynnhernan WBay.com - https://www.wbay.com/2023/10/31/eye-drop-murder-trial-focus-shifts-victims-will-estate-bank-account/ APNews.com - https://apnews.com/article/eyedrops-jury-conviction-homicide-wisconsin-poison-bc90ddda1cc98a59b11fa6d7b2dea249 Legacy.com - https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jsonline/name/lynn-hernan-obituary?id=3330666 Mamamia.com - https://www.mamamia.com.au/true-crime-murder-with-eye-drops/ CourtTV.com - https://www.courttv.com/news/wi-v-jessy-kurczewski-eye-drop-murder-trial/ WISN.com - https://www.wisn.com/article/wisconsin-woman-killed-friend-eye-drops-sentence/60412825 NYPost.com - https://nypost.com/2024/04/06/us-news/wisconsin-murderer-jessy-kurczewski-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-fatally-poisoning-lynn-hernan-with-eye-drops/ JSOnline.com - https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/south/2024/04/05/eye-drops-trial-jessy-kurczewski-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/73198165007/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Another Monday, another episode. And we hope everyone is having a great Monday. I am jumping into my 10 seconds here. Honestly, I don't have much.

Sorry. I know that sounds kind of sad. I don't have much for my 10 seconds. We are adding some new trees to our backyard. So I guess I'm, I don't know. I don't know how excited, I guess I'm excited about that. Peyton wanted to add them. They're like these Japanese pink trees

that I don't really know how else to explain them. We need some happiness around here. So we're adding those to our backyard. Other than that, honestly, I've been hanging out. So I'm sorry, I don't have anything amazing for you guys. But I promise next week I will have something amazing. Maybe I'll go skydiving or something this week so that I can have a good story. Payne is a woman who goes skydiving though. So either she's going gonna have to go with me

or when I'm 90 years old and she dies first, then I can go. I think that would be a liability. I don't think they'd let 90 year olds skydive. You don't think so? They probably wouldn't. It's like what if you had heart failure? No, there's probably a 99% chance

you would have a heart attack and you were 90 years old skydiving. Just that adrenaline. Not good for you. Anyways, this has kind of gotten way off topic. Hope everyone's doing great. We're jumping into today's episode. Once again, if you're new to the podcast,

I have no idea what Piggin is going to be saying. I have no idea what this case is and I'm hearing it for the first time. So let's get into it. Our sources for this episode are cbsnews.com, fox6now.com, oxygen.com, basementfortproductions.com, wbay.com, apnews.com, legacy.com, mamma mia.com, courttv.com, wisn.com, newyorkpost.com, and jsonline.com. So I think it's safe to say that family is something we talk about a lot on this show,

but I also understand that not all of us have parents or children or a partner that we can rely on in times of need. In those situations, many of us turn to the chosen family we've found throughout our lives to help us through the hard times. Whether that's colleagues or friends or our friends as kids, there should always be at least one person out there you can trust, who you can turn to when you're feeling depressed or lonely or sick. And just because they don't have the same blood coursing through their veins doesn't

mean they're any less deserving of your love or your trust, but it doesn't mean that their betrayal hurts any less deserving of your love or your trust, but it doesn't mean that their betrayal hurts any less either. So while we expect that chosen family to always return the sentiment, to always have our best interest in heart, just like real family, things can slip through the cracks. And today's story is proof that letting your guard down to the wrong person, regardless of how close they are to you, could be a matter of life or death. So the year is 2018 and we are in Pawaukee, Wisconsin.

This is where 61 year old Lynn Hernan has spent a lot of her adult life. After graduating high school in Madison, this is about an hour's drive away from where she lives, Lynn became a hairstylist who eventually went on to open her own salon. So it's safe to say that there were a lot of people in the Pawaukee area who knew Lynn, or at least knew of her.

And from what everyone said about her, she was just the kindest, most warm-hearted person they had come across in their lives. But she also loved her quaint and modest life. Her greatest joys were being at the beach and caring for her animals. She had several of her own and was involved with local shelters. In the evenings, she loved cooking herself a meal and unwinding to old black and white movies. But things at home were mostly quiet for Lynn over the years. She never had any kids. She never got married. And that didn't seem to bother her. She still dated quite a few people over the years, including Jim Kelleher, who she'd met at a music festival back in 1983 when she was

just 27. Remember, now she's 61. Now Lynn and Jim were together for close to 10 years, but things tapered off before they ever walked down the aisle. But even after they broke up, Lynn and Jim remained really good friends, friends who saw each other often and were always there for one another in a time of need. Even when Jim met someone, he and his new partner stayed close with Lynn, his ex-girlfriend from a long time ago, up

until 2018, which I think says a lot of great things about someone if you can be friends with your ex and their new partner for that long. Yeah, it's impossible. However, that year Jim noticed that Lynn was starting to kind of drift away a bit. Lynn had been suffering from several health issues for at least the last two years, things like high blood pressure, lung disease,

really bad gastrointestinal issues. And despite being in and out of the hospital a lot and seeing a bunch of different doctors and specialists, none of them were able to get to the root cause or issue, even to diagnose her condition. According to some friends, Lynn even started to get a bit self-conscious about how her health was taking a toll on her body.

And the once social butterfly stopped wanting to do as much or have as many visitors as she did before. So her life has been pretty consistent, been pretty stable, and now she's starting to act a little different. And though Lynn's health was definitely on the decline, no one expected what was about to happen to her on the night of October 3rd, 2018. So that evening, a 911 call was made from Lynn Hernan's home in Wisconsin. The person on the line said they had found their friend Lynn unresponsive in her recliner in her living room. That she had pill bottles scattered around her and there was crushed medication covering her chest plus a white substance on a plate next to her.

Now when first responders arrive at Lynn's house though, they find it's too late to try and resuscitate her. Unfortunately, the 61 year old Lynn is pronounced dead in her home at the scene. And the investigator's first instinct after learning that she had been battling with several health issues is that Lynne may have died by an accidental overdose or perhaps even a suicide. A suspicion that's supported by the person who made that 911 call, Lynn's caretaker and basically adopted daughter, Jessie Krzyszewski. Now 32 year old Jessie was the biological daughter of one of Lynn's oldest and closest

friends, a woman named Jennifer. So Lynn had known Jessie since she was a little girl. And while it seems Lynn and Jennifer might have kind of drifted apart, their friendship wasn't as close by the end of her life. Jessie and Lynn, her friend's daughter, were thick as thieves. Jessie had been going to Lynn's house regularly for the last two years, ever since her health started to decline. And when things really took a turn for the worse, Jessie was practically living there with Lynn on a day-to-day basis, kind of like a built-in caretaker. Jessie was also the one who supposedly did all

of Lynn's grocery shopping, ran her errands, even helped her pay bills towards the end. Anything Lynn couldn't do, Jessie said she helped her take care of. And again, this is Lynn's old friend's daughter. When investigators speak to Jessie, she says she's really not totally surprised that this is how things ended for Lynn.

Interesting. She says, I've been with her for the last two years. She was in so much pain by the end with no cure or treatment in sight. According to Jessie, Lynn often spoke to her about dying by suicide as a way to end this suffering that had been happening for two years. And police take Jesse's word for a lot of this, mainly because it does kind of add up for what they found at the scene, but it doesn't add up to a lot of Lynn's other friends when they hear the news.

So remember, Jessie is the one who found her. So this is the first kind of look into Lynn's life they get is from Jessie's point of view. Got it, okay. But just to be sure, they then start talking to the other people in Lynn's life, and this is what they find out. So police learn pretty quickly

that Lynn was still really good friends with Jim, her ex and his new partner. And so as they talked to him, this is what they learned. Jim tells police that he got a strange call from Jesse right after Lynn died. Apparently, Jesse told him in practically the same sentence that number one, Lynn was dead and she was throwing a memorial dinner for her on October 13th and number two, she wanted him to come. Okay, wait, this was before, like before the cops came? After basically right after Jesse found Lynn, she calls Jim because she knows that they're very close, kind of like a chosen family.

It says I'm throwing a memorial, yada yada yada. She's dead and I'm throwing a memorial, you should come. Okay. Now, this phone call rubs Jim the wrong way for a couple of reasons. One, Jesse doesn't sound very upset. Like when she calls and says Lynn's dead, for someone who has basically lived with her

for the last little bit, she has no tears. Number two, he also knows of Jesse, but he's not actually ever met Jesse before. Not in all the years that he was friends with Lynn. I'm not even sure that Jim was aware that Jesse was Lynn's caretaker and was living with her. That's kind of strange. Right, considering how close they are.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense. And three, Jim says in the times he spoke to Lynn before her death, she might not have been feeling well, but she never gave any indication to him of taking her own life. And it's not just Jim who's saying this. So police say, Hey, Jesse, who was really close with her said this and everyone else, Lynn's friend, Anthony Posey hears the news. And he's like, this is shocking. He says he saw Lynn about a month before she passed away. And he said she seemed to be improving,

that her illnesses were subsiding. She was looking better. She was feeling better. She was starting to get out of the house again and resume life. But for now Lynn's friends are being forced to just kind of sort of accept this unknown, even five months later, as they're still waiting for the medical examiner

to rule on Lynn's cause of death. Which may be why around February of 2019, Jessie goes to the police station. So she shows up to the police station, she's like, I am looking for an update on my friend Lynn's case. Basically she says, I'm the one who found her, I was really close to her. I was really

close to her. I want to know once and for all if her cause of death is being ruled a suicide or if it's something medical. Now they tell her we haven't got the final ruling yet, but they also get Jesse to tell them a little bit more about how things were with Lynn before she died. So she, because she comes in, they take the chance to talk to her. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just confused why. I don't say why she cares so much, but why does she need to know?

I don't know, she's just pressing and red flags are raising. Yeah. Basically is what I'm trying to say. I also can't think of, okay, so she does kill her. Why, like what benefit does she get from this? Is she on the will? Does she get all the stuff?

Right. Like what benefit does she get in killing her? I don't know. So when they start talking to Jesse this second time around, Jesse mentions that Lynn had been pushing a lot of people away in the weeks before she died and that Jesse was really the only one that she still kept around.

She said that when people called, Lynn was refusing to answer and was having Jesse take messages for them. She just basically tells police, listen, Lynn was in a really dark place, but when police spoke with Jim, remember he said that wasn't the case. He called the house a few weeks before Lynn died and Jesse did answer, but she was rude and Kurt to Jim. She told him never call the number again and not to worry about Lynn.

Then she practically hung up on him. So now you kind of know why Jim is not so sure about Jesse. Jim then said, Lynn called him from the hospital a few days later and actually made plans to see him once she got discharged. So something's not adding up here, but that wasn't the only thing that the math wasn't mathing on.

Apparently Anthony, Poza, Lynn's other friend who was practically like a nephew to him, was a beneficiary in her will. In fact, he and Jesse were the only two listed there. Again, it's kind of like this is her built-in daughter, her built-in nephew. So it makes sense now, she's on the well basically. She's leaving it to her friends as kids

who she was very close with. But Jessie was named the personal representative, which in the state of Wisconsin pretty much means that she's the executor. So in the months after Lynn died, Anthony checked in with Jessie a few times, seeing if she needed any help in handling Lynn's affairs. And surprisingly, Jessie said yes,

but she sent Anthony a bunch of credit card bills that were unpaid. Um, apparently Lynn was in a lot of debt, which was shocking considering Lynn had lived most of her life paycheck to paycheck. Like she was pretty frugal. But in 2014, four years before she passed, she actually inherited a quarter of a million dollars after her mother died. Oh.

And yet that money seemed to be gone now in just four years. Anthony learned, according to Jesse, there was only $87 left. Holy crap. And only some of it was used to buy things for Lynn, a new car, a little bit of jewelry. Anthony was actually shocked to find that most of that money

had been wired to Jesse. So as this is starting to unravel, the chief medical examiner is finalizing his report on Lynn and you're never gonna believe what they find in there. They do discover about eight different prescriptions in Lynn's blood at the time. Some had been prescribed by her doctors, but a few of them, her doctors had supposedly taken her off a long time before she died.

Though it's possible Lynn, who was desperate to feel better, wanted to finish out the medication, so it's not totally alarming. It's also not alarming to the medical examiner because they were all at therapeutic levels. There was nothing far over the prescribed dosages. Here's the thing though, the medications that were crushed up on Lynn's side table and found scattered around at the scene of the crime. We're not even in her body.

None of those prescriptions were found in her toxicology report. Put me on CSI, man. if those prescriptions were found in her toxicology report. Yeah, put me on CSI, man. Which means those were most likely planted and someone was trying to make it look like a suicide or an overdose. I just think it's insane to think that they wouldn't figure that out.

Right? Like if you're gonna make someone look like they overdosed, at least have them overdosed. That's so insane to think that they wouldn't figure that out. Especially because the one thing that was in her system was something no one should ingest it's called leech nice tetrahydroxalene is that is that long for bleach it's the main ingredient in eye drops wait, but I want to clarify this.

This is not just like trace amounts in her blood. This wasn't something she got by putting eye drops in her eye. I didn't know that it was poisonous. The toxicology report finds so much that they feel confident. Lynn ingested eye drop medication orally and tetrahydrosaline can be very lethal if you have enough of it. Here's the problem though. They're like, okay, we think this is actually what killed her. It wasn't any of those drugs. But that doesn't totally rule out the idea of suicide. I mean,

a toxicology report can't tell you whether someone drink eye drops willingly or not, only that there was a scary amount in her that caused her death. I mean, I feel like it's pretty obvious at this point when there's crushed up drugs that are not even ingested in her that something fishy is obviously going on. So when this report comes out in twenty nineteen, police have already had some suspicions about the person who found Lynn dead that October day, as you know, mainly because everyone else is kind of pointing the finger at her. And that's Jesse.

And so they start heavily looking into Jesse once they begin to think that this might be a murder, right? And here's what they find. Let's just say after looking into Jesse, they do not think that Lynn took those eye drops on her own. So it turns out Jesse wasn't some selfless friend of Lynn's who was dedicating her life to try and nurse her back those eye drops on her own. So it turns out, Jessie wasn't some selfless friend of Lynn's who was dedicating her life to try and nurse her back

to health to thank her for the years of friendship. Jessie actually had a bit of a criminal background. In fact, up until February, 2016, about two and a half years before Lynn died, Jessie was in prison for forgery and identity theft charges. Shortly after that, when Lynn started to feel ill and perhaps wanting to help Jesse get back on her feet, Lynn asked Jesse if she would be her caretaker

and Lynn would pay her in return. At least that's what Jesse said, right? So she gets out of prison, Lynn who really cares about her says, I haven't been feeling well, you can come take care of me and I'll take care of you. So this is what Jessie said. And in June 2016, just a few months after Jessie was released from prison, large chunks

of cash started leaving Lynn's account. And then Jessie starts taking credit cards out in Lynn's name. She begins writing checks to herself from Lynn's accounts. Now it's very possible Lynn knew about this, maybe even wanted to help Jesse out, especially if she was feeling like she wouldn't get the chance to spend her inheritance herself. And I say this because Lynn seemingly made Jesse, along with her chosen nephew, Anthony, a beneficiary on her will in 2018. But it's also possible that Lynn just trusted Jesse to help her manage her finances. But instead of using that

money to say, I don't know, pay off Lynn's mortgage, Jessie transferred that money directly into her own account. I can tell you for a fact, that's what happened during Lynn's last hospital stay. This was in October of 2018, the month she died. While Lynn was being cared for by doctors, her caretaker, Jessie, was treating it like a little vacation. She was transferring money from Lynn's account and dropping it directly into hers only to withdraw that money from an ATM at a nearby casino. And even shadier on the day Lynn died, a JCPenney credit card was opened in Lynn's name and then a day or so later, $3,000 worth of furniture was charged to another card in Lynn's name, but she's dead. Furniture that was then delivered to Jesse's apartment.

I mean, yeah, duh, obviously. It's just funny to me that, I don't know, like when you're trying to hide things, but you're not hiding them. Yeah, and like also if Lynn is dead, how is her credit cards being used? Yeah, like they didn't I don't know you know what I mean people are stupid Obviously, we know it wasn't Lynn who made that purchase though The biggest transaction actually came a few weeks after that when a fraudulent check made out to Jesse from Lynn's checkbook was cashed for

130 thousand dollars check made out to Jesse from Lynn's checkbook was cashed for $130,000. So between February, 2016, when she was released from prison to October of 2018, when Lynn died, Jesse had $144,000 of Lynn's now in her name. Yeah. So no wonder Anthony was in shock when he followed up on his portion of the inheritance and was like, there's nothing left. And that's because slowly as Lynn was still alive,

Jesse had been draining it to herself. And Lynn had just a bunch of unpaid credit card debt left in her name because Jesse had taken all of it out. And then some, but you're probably wondering why would Jesse want Lynn dead? Especially if she had already stolen everything from her, like she already had the money. Well guess what? If you're a beneficiary on someone's will, there's a lot more you can cash in on. Mortgages, cars, jewelry, other stuff you can

liquidate. And Jesse knew this. Life insurance, everything. So did the police. So once they untangle Jesse's entire scheme, they have more than enough to arrest her on identity theft and wire fraud charges, especially because this is definitely a violation against her parole, considering that Lynn's dead, so she couldn't consent to any of this. Remember, she was initially in prison for these same exact charges. So in July of 2019, Jessie is placed in handcuffs and brought in for questioning. Now police interview Jesse six times over the next few days because they have a sneaking suspicion that Jesse wasn't just stealing

from Lynn. She was probably poisoning her as well and keeping her sick. So as they get deeper into questioning her, the deeper Jesse seems to dig herself into a hole. The first day they admittedly didn't get a whole lot out of her. She mostly tries to convince them Lynn was giving her that money, a gift for taking care of her. She says Lynn had been looking for ways to die by suicide for a while. She'd been taking a bunch of medications, was looking for ways to spend her money before she died, which is why she was giving Jessie control over it. But then the police give her a little something to see if she'll take the bait. They tell Jesse, well,

you know, the medical examiner found something called tetrahydrosaline in her system. They also tell her that's the main ingredient in eye drops. And Jesse's quick to respond. She said, oh, well, Lynn used eye drops all the time. And the police are like, no, she didn't overdose from putting these in her eyes. She drank these eye drops. In fact, we think someone gave her these eye drops via poisoning. Now, Jesse's catching on. She says the police are do you think I killed her? And she's swearing up and down.

I didn't. So the police send her back to herself for the night. But they have some information from Jesse's boyfriend, Scott Scott that indicates she had experience with ingesting eye drops herself. No way. So apparently I drops who would have thought? Did you know this before? I think so. I think I've heard of this before. I didn't know I drops for that poisonous in lethal amount. I think a lot of things. I mean, I guess everything is in a certain amount, but... Yeah.

So apparently Scott shared some text messages they exchanged three months after Lynn died. He turns them over to the police. Jesse went to a bar one night and messaged Scott some hours later saying she was in the hospital. She claimed she hadn't been feeling good and her blood pressure had dropped. The text from Jesse also said that after having some blood work done, doctors found trace amounts of tetrahydrosaline in her system, and that the doctor told her she might have been drugged by someone at the bar and people slip eye drops into drinks all the time.

She also tells Scott she could have died from it. Now, there's a lot about this exchange that's confusing and alarming. Remember, this is three months after Lynn died. So you don't know if Jessie was trying to plant seeds that this could happen to anyone, that there's some mystery poisoner out there trying to kill someone with eye drops. First Lynn, now her.

I don't even know if she actually went to the hospital. It's possible she did this whole thing to get attention. But what's more important is Jessie clearly knew that ingesting eye drops could kill someone before police told her about the toxicology report. And yet, she played dumb to the police in the last interview saying, oh, Lynn used eyedrops in her eyes all the time. Jessie knows she messed up in that interview because after spending another night behind

bars, she reaches out to detectives and says, can we talk again? This time she gives them a little bit more. She says, okay, Lynn, she used to mix eye drops with her vodka sometimes. She says she'd actually known of at least three different times when Lynn did this, maybe more. Why? Does it get you hot?

Does it get you? Makes you sleepy. Did I'm finding out way too many things about substances right now. But Jesse tells them, I promise I never gave it to her. This was her decision. I had nothing to do with it. Cut to the next day.

Jesse requests to be back in front of investigators again and this time she's like so Lynn She actually used to drink it because it gave her a buzz made her sleepy She didn't think she was going to die from it. So now jesse's saying maybe Lynn wasn't suicidal Maybe this just helped her sleep better and she hadn't done it just three times Maybe she had been drinking it for at least the last two months of her life so her story is just like Everywhere she also tells them that on the day Lynn died Jesse stopped over there in the morning and learned that Lynn had mixed six bottles of Visine with a bottle of water

And told her she was drinking it. Holy crap. Jesse says she spent 10 minutes that morning trying to talk her out of it But when she realized she couldn't win the argument she left So she went back that night found her friend dead in the recliner. So now police are just completely speechless because the woman has been lying to them for the last several days. Why should they believe her now? And number two, if your friend, someone you care about, like your own mother, someone you've been taking care of, is mixing eye drops with water and chugging it, why would you just leave? Well, when you call the police, call an ambulance. No, instead she went to JCPenney's

and opened up a credit card. And let's say for a second she left because she didn't actually think Lynn was going to drink it, but then shows up and is truly surprised to find her friend dead later. Why wouldn't she tell the medics, hey, like when she called 911, hey, I think this is why. If you knew exactly what killed her and you just didn't mention it,

whole thing's ridiculous. Police know it. But for some reason, the justice system takes a really long time putting these murder charges together. From what I can tell, Jesse still remains behind bars for breaking her parole. But it's not until June of 2021, two years after she's arrested and questioned, that Jesse is finally charged with first degree homicide. Why did it take so long? That's crazy. And it takes another two years for Jesse to finally go to trial. She doesn't get her day in court until October,

2023. This is five years after Lynn's death. But here's the thing. Trial starts. She's claiming she's innocent. Lynn took her own life. She had nothing to do with it. Here's what's wild at her trial, there's someone else who speaks in her defense. A man named Gary Verdon says he had been to Lynn's house twice in his life. The second time was about a year before she passed away. And he claims the day he was there, he saw a bottle of Visine sitting out with Lynn's vodka and her cigarettes. He also said that on another occasion, he was with Jesse's mom, Jennifer, when Jesse called. Jennifer put her on speaker so he could hear the entire conversation and he claimed Jesse

was with Lynn and Lynn was talking about how she was considering suicide that day. Interesting. Okay. So the thing about Gary is not only is his testimony circumstantial, like he's like, oh, I just saw it and heard it. He's also best friends with Jesse. He's Jesse's mom's friend, not Lynn's friend, so he's definitely biased, but he's not the only one suggesting Jesse may be telling the

truth. The defense calls another witness named Sarah Trump, who was treating Lynn for her back pain back in twenty seventeen. Sarah said on the stand that nothing seemed to work for Lynn that that by the time 2018 rolled around, the pain was only getting worse and suggested she might've been looking for other remedies. Even Lynn's former doctor, Lindsay Thomas spoke out for the defense. She pointed to the fact that Lynn had a long list of medical conditions, but also psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, insomnia.

She also said that she thought Lynn's mystery condition was what likely led to her death, not the poisoning. Something that was also mentioned by a forensic pathologist hired to take a second look at the autopsy report from the medical examiner. They claimed that they believed a mix of drugs in Lynn's system along with the tetrahydrosaline and her condition was what caused her death. That, yes the eye drops alone couldn't have done it

I'm a little frustrated because Detectives police they go to the house They find fake crushed up pills all around none of those are in her system and she's dead from Eye drops like what what more do we need? Well, you have to keep in mind all these people that are testifying are hired by the defense. So they came in to testify in support that's basically in support of the defense.

I mean, whether they actually support it or not, they're supposedly telling the truth. Guys, I just, I can't with... I mean, okay, take out all this, like, who could it be? She was stealing money from her. Lots of money. I just don't know what... Opening up credit cards.

I don't know what else. She has a proven track record of doing this. I don't know what else to mean. And a ton of motive. Like to me, put me on the jury, open and shut, life in prison, good night. Like I'll save all of your guys' tax dollars. I won't drag things on. Put me in trial for like a day. That's all I need. I will save so much money.

Well, the prosecution made a slam dunk statement that I think helped in this trial. They stated that if Lynn had died by suicide that day, then the timing of all of it happened perfectly for Jessie because Jessie had just sucked the last drop out of Lynn's bank account. And just when there was nothing else to steal from her, Lynn died leaving her with all of her belongings to sell off and nothing to give the other person in the inheritance, which sounds like a pretty serendipitous and completely unlikely scenario, especially when you're also presented with an overwhelming amount of evidence like financial records, toxicology reports, witness testimony that wasn't in defense of Jesse. Someone even suggested that

Jesse might have poisoned Lynn's pets over the years. I do have to say that's diabolical. This didn't seem like an easy decision for the jury. They left the first day to deliberate and after seven hours hadn't come back. Their conversations poured into the following day where finally after 10 hours, they had a verdict. I swear, I swear. Go ahead. They concluded that Jesse was guilty of all charges, including first degree homicide.

There we go. Jesse was returned to prison to await her sentencing. But meanwhile, some weird stuff happens. So during that time where she's waiting sentencing, a friend of Jesse's came forward to say they had received an envelope with 37 pages worth of documents and letters, and this friend did the right thing by turning it over to police because those letters are from Jesse in prison, asking her friend for help. Help with faking evidence,

including making a fake voice recording, pretending to be Lynn. Basically, she wanted her friend to record herself talking like it was Lynn validating a lot of Jessie's initial claims. There were even directions in Jessie's handwriting instructing the friend on how to talk and sound like Lynn saying she has an older voice, like a raspier sound. This isn't this is insane. She even told her to say like on this

recording is Lynn that she couldn't go on anymore. She was going to drink Visine to end her life. Now I don't know if the friend received this before after the trial. I mean she comes forward during the time period before or after, but it's clear Jessie was hoping that this would be her saving grace. Instead, it just sealed her fate because the friend turned it over to police. Jessie was back in court on April 5th, 2024 for sentencing, and the judge knew all about the little package that she had given her friend. Jessie denied she had made and sent those.

She still denied killing Lynn. In fact, she told the judge the only thing she was guilty of was quote, being a loyal friend. Which I can tell you one thing, the judge did not agree. Jesse was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 10 years for her theft charges. The earliest she'll be available for parole is 40 years. She was also ordered to pay back $386,000 in restitution

with an account that would collect and distribute the money if she ever did any interviews, documentaries, or book deals. So if she tries to profit off it, all that money will go back. Because in the end, Jessie took Lynn's money, her time and her life, but she also stripped her of one thing

Lynn seemed to value above all else. That was a trusting friendship with someone she had invested years in. She had known her since she was a little girl, someone she considered her own adopted daughter. And that is the case of Lynn Hernan. One, it's kind of scary. You don't really know. I guess you never really know somebody. Two, extremely sad that she died because someone killed her.

Obviously three, all this for like $150,000. Extremely sad that she died because someone killed her obviously three all this for like $150,000 I mean I get that I mean look yeah, that's a lot of money, but Like if someone were to say how much do you think your head's worth? I would hope you would say more than 150 I would say at least a million trillion Billion dollars yeah Like I don't know Frustrating it's sad not to say it's sad at least a million, trillion, billion dollars. Yeah. Like, I don't know.

Frustrating. It's sad, honestly it's sad. Especially because, unless Jesse somehow wouldn't, forced the will, Lynn already left her as the beneficiary. Like she was already going to get money from. She was already gonna die too. Who knows if she could die in a couple of years.

Yeah. So it's just like. Doesn't make any sense. She wanted her cake and to eat it too. Yeah. All right you guys, that was our case for this week and we will see you next time with another episode. I love it.

I hate it. Goodbye.