Snapped: Women Who Murder - BONUS: Nadya Swartz and Justin Hooker (Snapped: Killer Couples)

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

A young man is found shot to death on the banks of a Georgia river.Season 17, Episode 5Originally aired: Jul 9, 2023Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with I Gaming, Ontario. Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business and how they shape our world, from boardroom blowups to strategies gone wrong. These are the stories behind the

headlines. Listen to Business Wars on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Snap listeners. We are bringing you a special bonus episode today from Oxygen's hit series, Killer Couples. You can also watch full episodes live or on demand on the free free oxygen app or on Peacock by clicking the link in our description. Enjoy. A serene community in northern Georgia is rattled by a horrible tragedy. I think we've run up on a dead body. There's blood.

He's like really bad. Here's four shots. Three in the head, one of the body. This was an execution, just an ambush. With no clear lead. Investigators must examine the lives of several individuals on the fringe of society. A lot of people just thought, oh, well, this guy's just a drug addict, but it wasn't like that. He didn't like people of judging. He couldn't stand it.

He was an outsider. Nobody really gave him a chance. The search for the truth will unravel a twisted romance and expose the lengths two desperate people would go to fulfill their darkest desires. She wanted to find somebody that would do anything for her. Basically, they would need how to do it, make sure I didn't die. They're romanticizing what they've done and that are their outlaws together. She didn't care which one of them died. She just wanted someone to kill for her.

That's pure evil, I think. In the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains, Murray County, Georgia is an idyllic place to get away from it all. There's just a lot of places that you can just get by yourself and enjoy nature. But on March 16th, 2020, a disturbing 9-1-1 call sends ripples across the county. Marry, no-one? Yes.

I think we've run up on a dead body. Do you think you've run up on a dead body? Yeah, you're on the cell. It's the body laying in. He's not responding. I mean, what did I do? Do you see his chest moving at all? No, there's blood.

There's no pulse. He's, like, ruined head. All right, so just stay right there, okay? I got EMS, fire department, and law enforcement on the way. Investigators with both Murray County and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation race to the scene. Some of our investigators had already arrived, and there is a walkway down the shoulder of the road

to just a common fishing area near the bridge. And that's where we'd seen the dead body. I received a phone call from the Murray County Sheriff's Office. I said, Adam, we need you. We've got a white male, unidentified, deceased. He was found by fishermen. I made my way down the trail. I come across this mail laying on the ground.

All black, black boots, black pants, black shirt, black hair, fingernail polish. Not to be stereotypical, but maybe like a goth type person, which in Murray County, It's not normal. Murray County is more, you know, country boys. It's going to be a lot of denim, outdoor wear, that type of things, especially if you're at the river. He did have some distinguishing tattoos. I believe on the right arm, it was a skull tattoo with an emblem in the skull. We noticed that there's blood pulling around the head. It was apparent that there was some type of injury to the head and there was a hope.

There was a wound on the torso. It was apparent that the body hadn't been thrown off the bridge. It was too far away. There were no drag marks, anything like that around the body. So it was kind of like, how did you get here? There's no wallet. There's no identification. There's no cell phone.

There's nothing else around him that would suggest who this person is. So I'm at a disadvantage at this point. Investigators immediately shift their focus to the men who discovered the victim. We don't know who done it. And whoever was on scene was a suspect. You know, it's not uncommon for people who have killed people to call the police and say, oh, look what I found. My mind is thinking, who are they? What are they? Why are they here? They were in their late teens, early 20s.

Three of them had went down this trail beside the bridge. One had separated to go to a better fishing area, and this is where he finds this body. And his friends hear him scream for help, and they run to him and call 911. Their story was adding up for where they were at, what they were doing, and why they were there. So they were pretty quickly removed from suspicion

for having anything to do with this death. So that question of who is my victim, that's just ringing in our heads at this point. Like, we got to figure out who you are to see what happened to you. We're checking local counties for missing person, even Tennessee, like, hey, you have anybody meeting this description that's been missing for a couple of days? We're just striking out every turn we're trying to identify who this individual is. We've just ran everything that we can, and we all go home. About five to six hours later, you know, I'm trying to run. get settled in for the evening and I get an interesting phone call.

It was forwarded from Whitfield County 911. Pat Colvert's calling advising that her 27-year-old grandson, Kenny Bunn, hasn't been seen and she had heard that their body had been found on Carlton Penny Road, which is not far from where Kenny's mother, Trina Wilson, lives. So we immediately follow this leave down. We go to Miss Pat's house. They sent detectives up there to talk to us.

They just introduced herself and everything, and, I mean, I was in shock. That was kind of a huge aha when we got to talk to Pat, because she describes Kinney to pretty much a T. He had a pair of black pants on. He had a black shirt on. He had black rim glasses on. He had a little tattoo on his shoulder. picture of him. His most recent picture that he had taken of himself. I could tell it was him by the look on the detective's face. We were able to establish that Kenny lived with Pat. And you could tell a great deal of concern was there in love. After speaking with Pat and Trina,

I'm very confident that our John Doe at the bridge is going to be Keeney. Kenny Bunn. It was like a nightmare. It just didn't seem right. It still don't seem right, you know. Born in 1992 in Dalton, Georgia, Kenneth Bunn was a shining light to his large and loving family. He was a handful of one as well.

I mean, he was always curious and very He'd do anything I'd done, I mean, he just, he's right on my heel all the time, following me everywhere as I went. You couldn't never get him to settle down. He'd always want to do something. And he was just like a little rail light. He was always there to protect me.

No matter what, you didn't talk about his mama. And I always took up for him, no matter what. Kenny spent a lot of time at my mom's normal way it was working. I felt like he was my son, you know, because he stayed there so much. We always called him little Kenny. He was a sweetheart. As close as Kenny was with his family, he didn't always feel like he fit in with his peers.

He started doing the piercings and stuff and everything. I think about seventh and eighth grade. They say that a lot of Gothic, that's how they feel like they're loners or isolators or whatever. They're just different. I think he was trying just to express how he's feeling in the inside. To people around here, somebody who looks like Kenny looked would be very scary, but they would have no idea that on the inside he is the sweetest person that you could ever meet. After struggling to find himself,

Kenny had gotten his life on track by his mid-20s. He's doing so well, he has a car. You know, he's got his blue Mustang that he was obsessed with. He loved his Mustang. He got a really good job in construction. He was making a ton of money. He really liked his job. But something was missing.

Kenny was obsessed with love. He wanted to find somebody that could love him as much as he could love them. He was struggling with broken heart because his two girlfriends cheated on him. He was looking for a soulmate, and he wanted even a little family and stuff. He had a lot ahead of him that he wanted, and he was a lot. And he was out to seek it. But Kenny's life is tragically cut short. When investigators find his body near the banks of the Conno Saga River.

I didn't want to believe it, you know. I couldn't believe anybody to do that. You're numb. You don't know what to do. You're just sitting there thinking that's not, it's not, It's not him. Detectives request an autopsy immediately. The medical examiner confirms that Kenny has been dead for nearly 12 hours

and died from multiple gunshot wounds. There was four shots. Three in the head, one of the chest, I believe, torso area. They were able to confirm that it was a small caliber. He didn't have any defensive. marks on him. You can just kind of tell he just crumpled up and fell.

I don't think he ever really knew what was happening. I'm not a medical examiner, but I would say a execution. Since Kenny's personal belongings were missing from the crime scene, investigators couldn't rule out if he had been ambushed for robbery or it was something more personal.

Coming up, a witness exposes skeletons in Kenny's closet. There's a bunch of people that I wanted to beat him up and then wanted him dead. He was going to go buy weed from a drug dealer. It caused a fight between them. And a suspicious couple elicits concern from investigators. We know y'all are camping out around the bridge

and you know something happened down there. Investigators in Murray County, Georgia, have identified the body found on the banks of the Conasaga River as 27-year-old Kenny Bunn. Now, authorities need to determine how Kenny ended up there. As an investigator, my next thing is, who did this person hang out with? Who was an integral part of their life? Who did they spend a lot of time with? Was there anyone that didn't like them? Kenny's family had no idea who would want to hurt him.

Kenny's grandmother had last seen Kenny leaving her house about 7.45 the previous evening. Pat gives us information that apparently Kenny had left to walk to a store that's not far from Pat's house. He said, my mom, he said, I'll be bang. He need come back. Kenny's family informs detectives that shortly after he left, Kenny's ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old Nadia Swartz, had shown up at the house looking for Kenny. Kenny and Nadia got together around in October of 2019. He met her on social media, browsing after he had split up from his last girlfriend.

According to Kenny's family, the couple got serious, fast. He felt strongly about Nadia. I think Kenny just really, really wanted to be in a loving, committed relationship. They lived with me three to four months, and she broke up with him. They were split up through four months, and she kept coming up. I reckon giving him hope. He'd tell me anything I'd say. I love her.

So asking Pat where she believed Kenny had went when he had left the house, Kenny liked to go to Harry's convenience store. It's about three quarters of a mile away from Pat's house. Harry's has surveillance cameras, and we go in the clerk allows us to review the video. And sure enough, we see Kenny wearing the clothes that he had on at the bridge, on foot by himself, walk into the store. And a couple of minutes later, you see a blue Honda pull up.

And you see Nadia Swartz. She parked at the gas pump, and she walked in, and there's no audio recording, but you can see that they're talking. And at the end of the transaction, Kenny goes and gets in Nadia's car, and you see them drive out of the parking lot. Nottia being the last person with Kenny,

I know that I need to find Nottia Swartz. We need to have a talk. So I re-approached Trina, Kenny's mom. She gives us a brief description of where Nadia's mother lives in Murdo County. When investigators arrive at Nadia's mother's house, they learn Nadia lives nearby with her new boyfriend, 20-year-old Justin Hooker. We're able to establish that Nadia and Justin have their own apartment. We just tell Nadia's mother, hey, you know, we really need to talk to them about something serious, the murder of Ginny Bun.

Nadia's mother called Nadia, and she and Justin came over to speak to investigators. They appeared to be almost like a gothic type. Just black clothing, a hair in the eyes, kind of made me one eye showing, so to speak. So we just go in and interview Nadia and Justin. How long have y'all have you been together? We've been together.

two months, but we've known each other for about five years or more. Did y'all go to school together? Yeah. I kind of eased into the whole relationship with Kenny, and eventually what I end up asking Nadia is if she had had contact with Kenny. Nadia does say that she went and she met up with Kenny. Well, when I asked that, you see Justin, like, that tension.

You can see the veins in his arm. So at this point, I'm thinking, okay, is he upset? He upset that Nadia has went and visited an ex-boyfriend, and he's just now finding out about it. But Nadia explains that her visit with Kenny was anything but romantic. She tells investigators that he had asked her for a ride to a friend's place on the night of March 15th. She met up with Kenny because she still considered him a friend, and when he told her he was going to go buy weed from a drug dealer, it caused a fight between them. I didn't take him there. He got mad at me.

He's like, well, stop here and I'm going to get out. I'm like, no, you're not going to go there either. He's like, I don't care what you say. Just drop me off here and just leave me. So that's what I did. I pulled over. He got out of the car and started walking. He would be like so mad at me if I don't get his next fix, so I just drove off.

Nadia claims she has no idea where Kenny went because she returned to the home she shared with Justin. According to Justin, he had stayed home most of the day and went to visit his brother and his girlfriend around seven or eight that evening. Justin claimed he stayed at his brother's house most of the evening and then returned home around midnight. Justin and Nottie, they maintained that they were together just hanging out at their apartment that night. Do you know anybody that used to talking about him hanging out with drug debtors? Do you know anybody that will not hurt him? Can you tell me there's a bunch of people that I want to be?

him up and then he would never give me names it's just a lot of people did you know any of them or you ever seen any of them i really don't know still Nadia insists that Kenny's death could be connected to a drug deal gone bad I appreciate y'all's time you y'all have any questions sure I don't think so okay very good without evidence to connect Nadia or Justin to Kenny's death, investigators reach out to Kenny's closest friends. They confirm that Kenny had dealt with conflict in the small community because of his lifestyle. When me and Kenny met, it was kind of like we were just going into middle school. So what people thought of us is that we were just really weird. We dressed different. We acted different. I think Kenny acted like

He didn't care, but I'm sure, deep down, a lot of the bullying and stuff got to him. He didn't like people of judging. He couldn't stand it. I think he tried to show people that you don't judge people by their looks. You need to get to know them first. Kinney gets out of high school and immediately

gets in a long-term relationship with the girl he was dating before, not yet. And they are, like, not good for each other. They were doing drugs together. Kenny was, like, really big into weed. I think a lot of people just, like, thought, oh, well, this guy's just a drug addict. But it wasn't like that.

Kenny's friends explained that he struggled with depression. So in 2019, he decided to make a change. Kenny finally gets out of this relationship, finally gets off of these drugs. And he's doing so well. He was finally, like, a little less depressed. He was sending me videos and, you know, pictures of him smiling and dancing and having a good time. Kenny's friends and family tell police there's no way Kenny had relapsed,

ostensibly ruling out the theory that Kenny may have been involved in a drug deal gone wrong. I don't believe that because my son, he was sober. He was getting his life back together. So why would Nadia make that allegation? She knew that he had a problem with drugs in the past. Given Kenny's prior history, investigators couldn't rule out the theory. But there wasn't any drug dealer, and there wasn't any connection to the drug world investigators could find at that time.

With few leads to go on, investigators head back to the crime scene the next day. We did just a quick neighborhood campus, stopping cars that were traveling the road. Hey, did you, have you seen anything between this time and that time? I'm trying to get anything and everything. We'd actually talked to the farmer who owned the property, and he was like, hey, at one point, there was a guy with a shopping buggy with an orange chainsaw in it.

There was a white female with him. I'd been seeing them in the bridge area a lot. This guy had been acting erratic, and he carried what could be considered an extremely dangerous weapon. This area of Georgia is just off US 411, which is a highway that runs from Tennessee, through Georgia and into Alabama.

More than 300 miles of often rural highway for vagrants and drifters can almost go undetected by law enforcement. Sometimes these drifters turn out to be dangerous fugitives and seek these rural mountain communities to escape capture. I'm thinking maybe we got a witness

or maybe the person who killed Kenney. Investigators immediately begin the task of searching for the man. The following day, they make a crucial discovery when they drive past a small gas station. We see a shopping cart with an orange chainsaw in it. We go inside and ask the clerk, who does that cart belong to? The clerk directs us to an individual that's outside attempting to wash a vehicle for money. What are the odds of finding this guy in this rural area at this gas station when we just have to.

happened to be driving by. We approached this individual right off the bat. He's nervous. He was very elusive in his answering our questions. What's your name? Sir. What's your name? Jesse.

What's your last name? I don't get up my name, sir. As an officer, it's automatically like, this guy's hiding something from him. There was a dead body found down there. We're just trying to see if somebody saw it. Very seriously, you're trying around. He's just going to be here a woman.

That was a man. I mean, I was definitely told you, because I'd been like, oh God, they're going to think I killed this on the bitch. The town of Agda in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex. But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn. The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption. His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant. Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting. I am the Archangel Michael.

The whole town has been thrown into chaos. As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all. Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson and journalist Leo Schick, for the Mystic and the Mayor, as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic. Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively

and ad-free right now on Wondry Plus. Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondry app. It's your man, Nick Cannon, and I'm here to bring you my new podcast, Nick Cannon at night. I've heard y'all been needing some advice in the love department. So who better to help than yours truly? Now, I'm serious. Every week I'm bringing out some of my celebrity friends and the best expert. in the business to answer your most intimate relationship questions.

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situationships, and everything in between. It's gonna be sexy, freaky, messy, and you know what? You'll just have to watch this show. So don't be shy. Join the conversation and head, and head over to YouTube to watch Nick Cannon at night or subscribe on the Wondery app

or wherever you get your podcast. Want to watch episodes early and ad-free? Join Wondery Plus right now. Less than 48 hours after 27-year-old Kenny Bunn was found shot to death. Investigators are speaking with a suspicious person who was seen near the crime scene in the days leading up to the murder. Do you live around here? How do you get down here?

Why? Did you say that we could look big or buggy for me? Go ahead, come free, Daddy. Jesse was, in fact, wanted out of Tennessee, and that's why he did not want to give us his full name, date of birth, things of that nature. As investigators continue questioning Jesse, his girlfriend arrives.

What's your name? I'm Adam Jones with the gentleman. The FBI, State Police, is my partner, Agent Wilson. Did he do something? We know y'all are camping out around the bridge, and you know something happened down there? Did there? Mm-hmm.

And we were just wondering if you had seen anything, anybody down there. The woman is quick to offer an alibi for the Sunday night Kenny was killed. His girlfriend explained to us that they had been staying under the bridge, but on this Saturday and Sunday, they had been in Tennessee conducting some illegal activities. They were still in copper from an abandoned house, which did give them a good alibi. That allowed us to eliminate who he was, why he would have been out there at the bridge. We did let local law enforcement for Tennessee know who we were dealing with,

and they were glad to have Jesse come stay at their facility in Tennessee. We're probably three days into it at this point. We had already done, like, the best you could do in neighborhood canvas on a stretch of highway with, you know, with a handful of houses and just talking to people. I remember going back to the office, we're trying to figure out what to do at this point, what direction. I remember Adams on a whiteboard, you know, we kind of, we jot down everything, and I remember receiving a phone call from one of our local attorneys. And the local attorney said, hey, I have a client that I've just been talking to, and he knows something about the case that you're working on. That's when things really started moving.

We hightel it straight to this law office and speak to this client. He wanted to provide information on a possible murder weapon for Kenny's death. So you sold a gun. It may have been used in the commission of a crime we're looking at. Yeah. It was a 22 LR hedge. I got an academy like five, six months ago. What's the guy's name?

Justin. Justin Hooker. Yeah. So let me ask you, when did you sell it for it? I swam to Saturday, man. This is last Saturday. Yeah, the day before it happened. We know that Keeney was shot with a small caliber weapon,

which is what the 22 was and so this was huge this was paramount to our investigation this person tells us Justin said it was for home defense where him and Nadia were staying in their apartment they've been having some issues and he just wanted to have this gun

for self-protection but as news spread about Kenny Bunn's murder the informant tells investigators that he became suspicious about Justin's motives so I had to call Justin And I asked him, I said, so did you do it?

Was it with my fucking gun, dude? And he said, don't worry. And I said, was it with my goddamn gun? And he said, yeah. And I said, why the fuck would you do that? He didn't know that's what he was going to do, but he is terrified that he's going to get drug into this. He thought he was going to be in trouble for providing a murder weapon to Justin.

I mean, I can't be all, I don't want any trouble with you, I'm saying. Investigators theorize that Justin may have acted out of jealousy due to the fact that Nadia and Kenny kept in touch. It appeared to be maybe a lover's triangle, so to speak. Detectives are beginning to believe that Nadia may have initially lied to them, so they pressed the informant for more details. Did he say that his girlfriend was with him what he did? Yeah.

What we want to know is the elements around who killed who is why. I have no idea. What did you do with a gun after? I had no further clue, man. After the interview was over, I said, hey, it's, the son ain't going to say it today before we catch them. It really took off at that point. Coming up, the hunt for Justin Hooker and Nadia Swartz intensifies,

leading investigators to face conflicting stories. Y'all got their own people who didn't do anything. Well, I can't mind anymore because it was just giving me up. Three days into the morning, murder investigation of Kenny Bunn, authorities have zeroed in on Justin Hooker as their primary suspect. We're able to determine that Justin works for Whitco Produce in Dalton, Georgia. And this company is actually owned by Justin's family. We went there to try to find him. He went there. We start accelerating at this point. I've got all these agents and detectives and

And investigators from Dalton Police Department, Murray County Sheriff's Office, special agents with the GBI, we're all out working. Units went to where Justin lives and then kind of set up surveillance on my house. We had other units looking for Ms. Nadia. When investigators reach out to Justin's friends and family, they say they haven't seen him. But authorities do learn more about the troubled young man. Like Kenny Bunn, Justin had always been an outsider. Justin, when he was in high school, he would get picked on a lot. Just because of how he was dressed, just because of how he talked.

Justin loved wearing black and growing his hair out long, you know. He enjoyed chains and stuff. Just really wanted to shock people with how he was dressed. He wanted people to look at him, but not look at him. At one point, Justin was homeless in his late teens. He was living out of a vehicle. He'd gotten a few run-ins with law enforcement for theft. And he was just kind of generally having a hard time, making good decisions.

Despite the hardships, Justin never had a problem with romance. I found Justin to be just, like, very empathetic. you know, he was very sweet with it. I had very, very deep emotions for Justin. And when we broke up and I found out he was dating Nadia within a month and a half of us breaking up, you hurt. Friends tell detectives that Justin's infatuation with Nadia

had developed quickly and intensely. At this point, you're getting, leads about this relationship with Nadia and Justin and Kenny, and we're able to learn there was an altercation between Justin and Kenny. The altercation had taken place a few months earlier, not long after Kenny and Nadia had broken up. Words were exchanged and allegedly Justin had threatened to blow Kenny's head off if he didn't leave Nadia alone.

I really don't know exactly why Kenny and Justin didn't get along other than Nadia. So that was the common factor they two had together is in between Nadia. Despite the threats, Kenny wasn't willing to give up on Nadia. I remember him telling me about her, and I think that Kenny knew that she's a toxic person and that it was a toxic environment and relationship, but he was also just in love with the idea of being in love. So, you know, he would do anything to try to keep that connection and that relationship together. As investigators widened their search for Justin, they uncover one more important detail. Investigators spoke to Justin's brother and his brother's living girlfriend.

They told authorities that Justin did not come by their home the night of the murder. In fact, they hadn't seen Justin in weeks, which totally undermined his alibi. On March 19th, three days after Kenny's murder, the GBI's surveillance pays off when agents finally apprehend Justin Hooker as he tries to sneak back into his apartment. Law enforcement goes and takes Justin in custody, transports him to Murray County Sheriff's Office for us.

When Nadia learns that Justin has been arrested, she turns herself in. I wanted to interview them apart from me, other because you could kind of tell that together they were stronger so I wanted to divide and conquer it is Thursday March the 19th 2020 time is 5.05 to him special agent Adam Jones conduct an interview with Justin Hooker at the Murray County Sheriff's Office interview room Justin he looked apprehensive scared thinking I wonder what he's gonna say I be able to see my girlfriend knows you

okay why do you want to see her. Just because if they picked me up, I'm sure they picked her up, and I'm sure she's scared. She got anxiety. All right. Do you have any idea why we're here? I'm guessing this is what I'm about what y'all talked today. Y'all got the wrong people that were. Why's that why you said that? Because we didn't do anything. Okay. You didn't buy a pistol, or you did buy one a while back, right? Yeah. What kind of pistol war? It was a 20, or 20, the, the, He starts to say 22, but catches himself and says 20, and stops. Listen, what you got to realize is we're not here just by chance.

We just did pick you up by random, right? We know. And the best thing to do is just come clean with it. I confront him with that, and I kind of see Justin's posture. his shoulders sink in, and it's kind of like a defeat posture. And I'm kind of at the edge of my chair waiting for him to say the next thing. And he's like, I want an attorney. It's just like, I'm deflated.

In another interrogation room, investigators hope Nadia Swartz is more willing to speak. All right, so tell me about what happened on Sunday. Okay. Well, I can't lie anymore because of guilt just eating me up. I was talking to Justin about what Kenny was basically did me in the past. How much he put me into depression because he was threatened to kill me ever since I got with him. I've constantly threatened to kill me. I've been telling him how Kenny basically had a knife to my leg right here. And he's like, if you try to leave, I'm going to cut your leg off.

I like to just let people tell their version of facts. But then, while we're interviewing Nadia, some of the things were not having enough. Kenny wasn't an abuser. That's not who he was. Nadia claims that on the night of Kenny's murder, she and Justin decided to confront Kenny together. That night, I was just wanting to know why he did that.

I just want to know what I did It was still wrong for me to go through All that with him For four months Nadia claimed that when she picked Kenny up From the gas station Justin was in the car

Justin was in the backseat He's like remember I'm here with you So when you guys go to this To the river did Justin stay in the backseat Justin stayed in the car Okay And, um, me and Kenny got out and, um, Kenny said, he wanted me back. He was begging and pleading for me back.

I was saying, if you don't come back with me, and I'm going to kill you. And that's when he ran up to me and he scared me. So I punched him in the stomach. And Kenny was like, you're going to fucking regret them. And he had the death stare at his eyes, like everything was blank. He came out of me like that, like he was one strangling. Justin freaked out and basically defended me. How did he defend you?

That's when I noticed he had the gun. And Justin basically did what he had to do to make sure I didn't die. What did Justin do? Shot him. It was so defense. But investigators aren't buying Nadia's claims. We were able to disprove that Kenny got physically violent with Nadia by doing a search warrant to photograph Nadia's body. She had no injuries on her that would suggest that she was being strangled or had been gripped violently anyway.

So I knew Nadia was lying to me. Nadia Swartz and Justin Hooker have been arrested for the shooting of Nadia's ex-boyfriend, 27-year-old Kenny Bunn. While Nadia has implicated her new boyfriend, Justin, as the killer, she claims that the murder was committed in self-defense. Well, there's a lot of force that comes with strangulation. There should be some marks on her body. She didn't have any injuries. Kenny's friends and family are also adamant that Nadia's allegations of abuse are fabricated.

I think it's important for everybody to know who Kenny really was. Kenny was not violent her or anyone. She is a manipulator. She was, I think she controlled the relationships. I think she actually was the abuser in the relationships. Justin Hooker had very strong feelings for Nadia and seemed devoted to her. If he believed her accusations,

he would have had a very strong motive to commit this crime. Investigators charged Nadia Swartz and Justin Hooker with murder. Facing a mountain of evidence, they both decide to take plea deals. If they were going to accept this plea, they were going to have to provide the court with information that the investigators needed,

mainly where was this firearm? And they also have to tell what they did that caused Kenny to be murdered. Nadia and Justin agree to the terms. Based on their subsequent statements, authorities believe Kenny's murder was premeditated. My opinion with Nadia is that she weighs on the jealousy of Justin to hop him up to say, hey,

If we're going to have a good relationship and love each other forever, Keeney can't be in the picture. And I think she came up with this plan to ambush and execute Kenny. I think Nadia had a very weird, dark, romantic fantasy about murder. And it seemed to me like she was just playing a game

of who would kill for me. What we believed is, Nadia took Justin to the bridge with his gun and left him there. Nadia then goes and picks Kenny up. She was able to lure Kenny back to the bridge with the understanding that they were going to try and get back together. Using this ruse, gets Kenny down the path to the bridge,

and then that's where Justin comes out. Due to the lack of defensive wounds, investigators do not believe there was any sort of confrontation between Kenny and his killers. This was an execution, just an ambush. Kenny didn't know that it was coming. We're able to learn later that Justin sold the gun, but we were never able to establish where that firearm went.

In March 2021, Nadia Swartz and Justin Hooker receive their fates. The 21-year-olds are each sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. I hope to God they don't ever get out. In less than a year, the Justin that I knew went from being a loving and sweet guy to a killer. Within six months, it's shocking. I believe we all have the potential to kill somebody, but I believe that Nadia is the one that brought it out of him. Gave him that whole, I can do this.

You know, I can go and shoot a guy. And so he did. Nadia was very insecure, and so she wanted to find somebody that would do anything for her. for her, including killing someone. She didn't care which one of them died. She just wanted someone to kill for her. She was a puppet master with the strings, so to speak.

I don't think Nadia's remorseful for Kenny's death at all. I just, I think she's evil. They left him in that, like he was garbage. My son wasn't garbage. Lord mercy, I wish Kenny Hatton went off with him that night. I lost my everything. I want him to be remembered by his good heart and his helplessness the way he made people smile. He was more than a murder. He was a person.

Justin Hooker and Nadia Swartz will be eligible for parole consideration in 2050. How hard is it to kill a planet? Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere. When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene. Are we really safe? Is our water safe?

You destroyed our time. And crimes like that, they don't just happen. We call things accidents. There is no accident. This was 100% preventable. They're the result of choices by people. Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime. These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us. And the things we're doing to either protect the Earth, or destroy it. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app,

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