Snapped: Women Who Murder - Julene Simko

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

When the owner of an Ohio landscaping company is found shot to death in his bed, the ensuing investigation exposes an elaborate web of sex, obsession, and power.Season 24 Episode 04Originally aired: September 16, 2018Watch 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.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. They were a loving couple, living an idyllic country life. They enjoyed working on their property, working on their house, their barn, their animals. They knew everything about each other. They were always together.

That is, until an unsinkable act of violence ripped their romance apart at the seams. Somebody's having a good day. The callers stated that the shooter might still be in the scenes. Somebody shot me in the air, dude! The collage stated that the shooter might still be in the house. We were worried that whoever did was still out there. As the investigation heats up, a series of unexplained events sends police scrambling for answers. When I hear on account for time,

I spidey sends his team over. Had someone from their past marked this couple for murder? He could definitely make an enemy. Or was there a darker secret behind closed doors? There were photographs of her. She was nude and chained up. This has been referred to by investigators as a master slave of the day. I'm going to have to sleep agreement. In the early morning hours of November 18, 2009, dispatchers in the sleepy town of Vermilion, Ohio, are jolted to life by a frantic call.

They're all at the police fire, everyone. They need help. They need help. They need help. The caller is 31-year-old Juline Simcoe. The alleged victim is her husband, local businessman, Jeremy Simcoe. I'm going to shut your head, then. Hurry! She's hysterical, she's crying, so the communication was quite difficult. The operator instructs Juline on how to administer CPR to Jeremy.

That's when Juline reveals another terrifying detail. The mob is just in that shot. Your husband's doing it. It's still moving in all the way. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Police and EMTs are immediately dispatched to the scene. As armed officers approach the SIMCO residents, they find the front door locked.

Unable to breach it, officers move to the rear of the home. They observed that the door itself was open, and that's when they entered the house. They clear the first floor. The officers make their way through the upper floors of the residence. The only light that they saw was light coming from the bottom of a doorway that was closed. They're announcing themselves as they're approaching Mrs. Simco that opens the door to the bedroom. She was basically unclothed.

She had a, like, wrapped in a towel or blanket of some type. And she had a lot of blood on her. Mr. Simko's lying on the floor. He is not clothed. He has an obvious injury hand. He's lying on his back. Julien pleads with officers to help her husband. Unfortunately, there's nothing they can do.

He was shot in the back of the ad. He had expired. He was deceased. There's two people in the house, one person's dead. This lays hysterical. You have a lot of things running through your mind. It was just very, a very disorienting, very shocking situation for her to be in. Born and raised in Northern Ohio, Julene Nick seems to enjoy a typical Midwestern upbringing. Julene is doing an honor society in school. She was in the more advanced classes.

She was smart. She was a pleasant person to be around. She was always nice. If you were to meet her, you'd say, wow, she's a great person. It seemed to be always happy. On the outside, Julien's life seemed picture-perfect, but that was not always the case.

As a child, Julien was a victim of a sexual assault and was perpetrated on her by her father. Mr. Nick spent time in prison over this incident. Eventually, Julien's mother divorced her father and the two of them settled in Lorraine County, Ohio. Julien's mother married again, giving Julien a stepfather, a step brother, and a semblance of a steady normal life. She really talked about her stepdad

as if he were her father. Though her home life was more stable, Julien's childhood scars made her wary of getting too close to people. Even her high school sweetheart, Jack Heider, Jr. I would say she keeps stuff bottled up. She never really talked to me about her biological father.

Shortly after graduating high school in 1997, Julien met one of her boyfriend, Jack's childhood friends, 23-year-old Jeremy Simco. Five years older than Juline, Jeremy also had attended the same high school years earlier, though Jeremy hadn't been an honor society type like Juline. He was an aggressive person, he was a dominant person, and if you crossed him, there'd be a fight. Jeremy loved the outdoors, hunting, nature.

Thankfully, after high school, Jeremy found an outlet that married his passion for the outdoors with his macho, hard-charging personality. He was a tree trimmer. I was. A man's man. He was a hard-working guy. He was very good in the tree. The work paid well, and pretty soon, this one-time bad boy had turned a corner, and even gotten engaged.

He sort of crawled out of where he came from. But when Jeremy ran into shy 18-year-old Julien in the summer of 1997, the chemistry between them was undeniable. It was a total surprise. I would say she was more of a goody-to-shoes. He was a rowdy and hot.

Within days of meeting Julien, Jeremy broke off his engagement. A week later, Julien's boyfriend, Jeremy's buddy Jack Heider, was served a sobering dose of reality. I went to her friend's house, and I ended up finding her and Jeremy together. Once that happened, we just never talked again. Despite their rocky start, from that moment on, Julien and Jeremy were inseparable.

Julien and Jeremy made each other better. He helped bring her out of her shell. She was very shy, teenager. And he had a very angry temperament. Juline helped him dial that back a little bit. She talked how much she loved Jeremy. I mean, there was a story that didn't have Jeremy. They appeared to be best friends.

A few months later, Jeremy started his own business, Simcoe Tree Service. Juline was his first employee. She was on the ground. She fed the chipper all the time and just kept everybody working. I thought she was a hard-working woman, for sure.

They worked together and played together. They were normal, happy, coupled, always together. they worked together and played together. They were normally happy couple always together. It worked for them. On September 4, 1999, the couple tied the knot. Soon after, the Simcoes saved up enough money to buy a farmhouse and barn on two acres in the Quaint Lakeside community of Vermilion. The house was completely restored to like its original form,

all redone in the original woodwork, very meticulously done. They took good care of their property. You can tell they cared a lot. They had a parcel of woods behind them that they often used, even though it wasn't theirs. But they spent a lot of time back there hunting.

The property behind the Simco's house eventually went on the market. Unfortunately, the asking price on the 42-acre lot was more than Jeremy and Juline could afford. So, the couple started saving their pennies in hopes of buying the land. They also began to focus their attention on starting a family. They love kids, want a kid. They wanted to be parents so bad. They tried for many years. They were, you know, having some sort of fertility issues.

They routinely went to the clinic to figure out what was wrong. I do know that she was pregnant at one point. It was three months in, and she suffered a miscarriage. Then, in 2009, the Simcoes received some good news of a different sort. Their 42-acre dream property was suddenly attainable. They originally were trying to buy years ago,

but the owner wanted too much money for it. And over the years, he, I think, kind of came down to a price that was affordable for them. This property was a dream of theirs. However, before Jeremy and Juline could formally purchase the property, the unthinkable happened. The call came in, somebody shot my husband. They have to look for somebody that shot her husband. Having cleared all three floors of the farmhouse, police believe the intruder has fled the scene.

They dispatch patrolmen to canvas the area and then escort Julien into the hallway away from her husband's body. I'm trying to find out what happened. Can you tell me what happened, honey? I'm trying to find out what happened. I'm trying to find out what happened. I'm trying to find out what happened. I want to see what she is going to do.

I want to see what she is going to do. She's a couple of workload. She's a sterical. She's a sterical. She's a sterical. She's a sterical. She's. So it kind of felt the best thing to do at the time was to get her to a hospital. At 7.48 AM, Julien is transported to nearby Mercy Hospital

to be treated for any possible injuries. Meanwhile, news of the shooting begins to make its way through the tiny town of Vermilion. For something like this to have happened there, I think it kind of rocked the little community. We don't normally deal with homicides. I believe our last homicide prior to this was around 1995.

With tensions rising and an active shooter presumably on the loose, everyone in Vermilion is on edge. We were worried that whoever did it was still out there. Coming up, Juline recounts her harrowing brush with death. I know somebody was coming. And investigators hope to get their first real glimpse at Jeremy's killer. The security cameras were on the night of the murder,

and they did capture what was surrounding the house at the time. MUSIC November 18, 2009. 36-year-old Jeremy Simcoe has been shot dead in his home, and his 31-year-old wife, Juline, is at the hospital in a state of shock. Police in Vermilion, Ohio are scrambling to find Jeremy's killer before they possibly strike again.

This isn't like when you're watching a movie or you're watching a television show where somebody else is handling it. Now it's on us to do the right thing and to look into the matter. So it's definitely a bit overwhelming. With patrol officers searching the area for the alleged shooter, detectives cordoned off the Simcoe's house

and begins surveying the property. Jeremy Simcoe was a very security conscious person. They had a number of signs indicating that trespassers were not welcome. There were several alarms set up throughout the house. There were door alarms, there was alarms on the outside of the garage, there were window alarms. Dogs were strategically located in four different places in the outside of the house. If I was just a stranger walking down the street and I looked at the

front of their house, those signs would indicate to me that my presence would not be welcome there. As I walked around the house towards the back, I noticed a pair of black cotton gloves that were lying on the ground. They were entered in evidence. Inside the home, police find a massive gunsafe underneath the stairs.

It's locked, but in the kitchen, they find a 357 Magnum revolver. There's five live cartridges, and one spent cartridge in the chamber. It appears he has one gunshot wound, so it doesn't take a genius to figure out that very well might be the weapon that was used to shoot him. However, the CSI team also finds three more bullet holes

on the second floor. In the master bedroom, police find another handgun, a nine-millimeter Smith and Wesson. Could this be the firearm that fired the other three bullets? Before investigators can answer that question, they make another more salacious discovery. We located several marital aids. There was a vaginal pump that would appear to be used

in a sexual act. In the sink adjacent to the room, there was a large black dildo that was actually just lying in the sink. Investigators tag the sex toys along with the firearms and shell casings and bag them as evidence. With Jeremy's body and route to the morgue, investigators reach out to doctors at Mercy Hospital,

who informed them that Juline is still shaken, but is well enough to give a statement. The doctors determined that she did not suffer any injury. So basically, my encounter with her was in the emergency room. She's calmed down quite a bit at this point. Juline, I'm still trying to figure out what had that. You should any light on what was going on for me.

I asked Mrs. Simco what they had done the day prior to the homicide. She indicated that they had done some things outdoors. They had been candy pumpkins. They just had a peaceful day. And Jeremy then blocked the dogs into their dog house for the night and then came in, locked the door, and then they went to bed. You went to bed with Jeremy?

Okay. Do you know what time you went to bed? I don't know. Okay. Well, come on, baby. Julien says that Jeremy immediately fell asleep. He was snoring and it was keeping her awake. She talked about how she had gone upstairs. She eventually fell asleep in the third floor.

So you fell asleep and what wakes you up? I don't know. I don't know what it's all about. I don't know what it's all about. So you fall asleep and what wakes you up? I'm going to go back to sleep. I thought my husband was shooting like something. OK. Now, what noise did you hear? Oh. Oh.

From? It sounded like a gunshot to you. She said it was very common for Jeremy to shoot coyotes out their window, just because they did have the dogs in the yard. She chucked it up to that and was going to go back to sleep. But I think decided to go downstairs and just double check. You come back downstairs.

You go into the bedroom. You see Jeremy laying on the bed. And you go over to check on her, correct? OK. As she's checking on him, she feels something wet. She then turns on a light, discovers him injured. He has blood on him, and he is not responsive to her. Did you see anybody else?

No, I'm so funny. I'm sorry, what? I'm pretty funny. Okay, what happened that honey? I didn't want to talk to you. She went on to say that Jeremy had always told her OK, what happened then, honey? I need it. You have to kill it. I need it. She went on to say that Jeremy had always told her, if you ever hear something, just shoot at the noise

and it will make the person go away. So she retrieved a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol that's a Smith & Wesson from the nightstand, aims it at the hall, fires two shots. James it, Cat the Hall, fires two shots. MUSIC Investigators then broached a sensitive topic with Julien. There were several marital aids throughout the house open. Did you guys have sexual relations?

Not really. Okay. Well, if there was apparently a dildo in the sink, how long has that been there? A couple days. Had you been in any argument? OK. No discussions, no disputes, anything at all. When I asked Mrs. Simko why somebody might do this,

she did mention that there was money in the house. Have you guys ever had anybody break into your house before? No, no, no. It's not. They were in the water. Have you guys ever had anybody break into your house before? We've never got a house. They were in the barn. The Simcoes had a problem with a couple separate incidents where individuals had entered their property and stole pieces of equipment from the barn. Jeremy was extremely upset.

He really wanted to amp up their security around to make sure no one came into their barn, no one came into their house. Julene's story dovetails with the evidence collected and helps explain the abundance of security in and around the Simco residents. But who would want to shoot and kill Jeremy Simco? And why? That evening, Julene is released from the hospital

and heads to her mother's house to spend the night. Meanwhile, investigators pulled a surveillance footage from the Simco's home security system. They had a DVR-style recording system. There were two cameras on the home. The security cameras were on the night of the murder and they did capture what was surrounding the house at the time. The difficulty is, it wasn't all encompassing

there were blind spots. So if somebody actually knew where the video was, in theory, they could have approached from a different angle. With the cameras offering no tangible evidence of the shooter, investigators expand the perimeter of their search. of the shooter, investigators expand the perimeter of their search. It's this broader canvassing effort that uners the next possible clue. The murder took place. There was an abandoned school within a two-minute walk between the school and the house, and there's this car park there.

So I just took a picture of it. One of the night time officer said, you know, he goes, I think I ran a plate of a very similar vehicle. After we did an audit of the MDT, we realized that the vehicle that had been seen at night several days prior and the vehicle that I saw that Saturday morning were indeed the same vehicle. Is it a mere coincidence that this same suspicious vehicle has been seen multiple times

within walking distance of the crime scene? Had someone been staking out the Simcoe's residence? Maybe that person either didn't see something or he was possibly involved. That was kind of a flag that went up. She involved. That was kind of a flag that went up. Coming up, a potential suspect emerges, one who's hiding some pretty sorted secrets. She was apparently in an extra marital affair.

Hey, listener. It is Jason Bateman. We've been fortunate to attract so many a list guests to our SmartList podcast, but we've never put together a lineup quite like this. I'm talking about Will Ferrell, Conan O'Brien, Kevin Hart, Mark Cuban, Jimmy Kimmel, Matt Damon, and more available four weeks early and ad free on Wondery Plus. If you've seen our docu series, SmartList on the road, you know we had an incredible time on our tour where we recorded 10 amazing interviews, Sean. This is Sean Heiss. Not only are these some of the best episodes that we've ever recorded,

but the atmosphere with the live crowd is unlike anything we've released before. It was incredible to engage with an audience of thousands of our biggest fans as we traveled all over the country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free with 1-3 plus, find 1-3 plus in the Wendry app or on Apple Podcasts.

And this is Will Arnett, I'm telling you, you really should listen. Do it, do it, do it. On November 21st, 2009, three days after 31-year-old Julien Simco reported that an unknown intruder had shot her 36-year-old husband, Jeremy, investigators in Vermilion, Ohio are working to track down the owner of a mysterious white SUV, a vehicle seen within blocks of the Simco's home, both before and after Jeremy Simco's murder. We got the license plate, so we're thinking, okay, maybe this has something to do with this.

What do you run the license plate? The registration comes back to a local man. Could he be responsible for Jeremy's death? local man, could he be responsible for Jeremy's death? I went to the home of the registered owner, knocked on the door. I explained exactly why I was there. And the gentleman basically stated something to the effect, well, that explains some things. Initially, I'm like, what?

And he said, well, my wife has some unaccounted for time. So certainly, when I hear unaccounted for time, I spitey sense his tingled. Could the man's wife have been parked there during the time frame Jeremy was killed? Is she somehow connected to Jeremy's murder? His wife didn't happen to be home. So I said, well, when your wife comes home

with you, please ever give me a call. So later in the day, I was called by his wife. The vehicle happened to be right across from a homicide. Basically, she said that, yes, I was the one to park the vehicle there. You know, I explained why we were looking into the vehicle being there. Do you know about how many times you parked your vehicle back there?

It was played a few, probably 10 times. She said that she was involved in a relationship that she was trying to keep secret. She was apparently in an extra marital affair. She was parked in there, and then she was meeting the gentleman that she was having a affair with. I mean, we were kind of sneaking around

because it might have weren't hadn't gone very yet. And so we didn't want to be out in public a whole lot. Given the woman's admission, detectives consider the idea that the man she's involved with may very well be Jeremy Simcoe. However, she claims it's not Jeremy she's sleeping with, but another local man. Do you know if he knew the Simcoes by any chance? I don't think so. She was very upright and forthright with me.

Investigators call the woman's lover and confirm her story. With no connection to Jeremy, the two of them are cleared of any wrongdoing. It was just pure coincidence that it happened to be there. Neither of them actually knew the simpcos. It seems the case has reached a dead end. But the following morning, Vermelian police

received a call from Julien Simco, who just returned to her house for the first time since the murder. She'd contacted us to report that the house had been broken into. I went directly to the scene and I interviewed Juline briefly about what was going on. The purpose of the return, if I recall, was they wanted to get a suit for Jeremy. When they arrive at the home, they discover the very front of the house is kicked in or forcefully entered. You know, like somebody is breaking into this house, somebody does want to get in here.

The safe had been kind of mutilated. The locky mechanism had been damaged You know, like, somebody is breaking into this house, somebody does want to get in here. The safe had been kind of mutilated. The locking mechanism had been damaged, and it appeared like somebody tried to break into the safe. There's a fire poker lying on top of the safe and the tip is broken off, and the speculation was that this fire poker damaged the safe. Though the thieves were apparently unable to break into the safe,

Julien says that $2,000 is missing from the upstairs office. Was this a random robber taking advantage of an empty house? Or had Jeremy's killer returned to destroy any evidence linking them to the crime? The surveillance system was taken. We have no surveillance of the burglaries. I photographed the scene and then processed the safe

for latent prints to see if we could get any prints off. But no fingerprints were obtained. Basically, whoever went over and damaged that house after we released the house back to the family, we have no idea who they are. Investigators reach out to Jeremy's friends and co-workers. Turns out, there's plenty of people in Northern Ohio who might have reason to go after Jeremy and his money. Jeremy wasn't shy on how he felt. I mean, he... he... tell ya, and that was him.

Jeremy had a lot of fights with contractors. I don't think anyone could actually do anything to his level of satisfaction. So some of them didn't get paid all the way. When we interviewed people regarding Jeremy and his behavior, overwhelmingly, we learned that Jeremy was quick to temper, that he was a very demanding boss. Had a former contractor,

or perhaps a disgruntled former employee, killed Jeremy in an effort to recoup some of the money he owed them? We kind of checked out to see if people did work for him, they had filed agent hour complaints. There was never any evidence that anybody murdered him over a business deal. Who else could it be? I mean, that would be it for me.

With every dead end, the case grows colder and colder. Then, on the afternoon of November 25, Julien throws an informal gathering for Jeremy's friends and family to celebrate his life. One of the guests in attendance is Vermilion Police Officer Corey Sporz. Patrolman Sporz in the past had done tree service work for the Simco, so he actually knew them. Corey went to the wake, and while he was there,

he stated that Julian Simco was talking to some people, and she mentioned to them, I'd like to tell you what really happened, but I can't. It could be in anything. She could be saying, you know, I want to tell you everything that happened, but I can't remember. I want to tell you everything that happened, but I was in shock. So there are other variations that it could have been.

I immediately thought that she was saying, I did it. When investigators reach out to Juline for an explanation, it's her attorney that returns their call. She'd retain counsel by this time, and we were not allowed to interview her. The fact that Juline has now loyered up does raise suspicions for police. I'm assuming her attorney said,

don't talk to the police, I get that. So we weren't able to follow up, I couldn't get any more information from her. Thankfully, by that time, the warrant to search the Simco's business records and personal finances has come through. And after sorting through a mere fraction of the documents, detectives know one thing for certain. The Simco's were in some pretty deep financial trouble.

Here's some things that were not quite proper in the way they were conducting their finances. We believe that they were actually using two sets of books, one that was reported to the IRS and one that they kept, which was probably more accurate. They were behind in bills, house payments, credit card payments. Most shocking of all was a letter from a loan officer at one local bank. They were attempting to purchase a 42-acre piece of land

that was behind their property. But one of the difficulties they had was they had terrible credit rate. When they ran their credit, the loan was tonight. The rejection for the loan came down the day before he was killed. Could the rejection from the bank be connected to Jeremy's murder? Coming up, the coroner's report sheds new light on the relationship between Jeremy and his killer.

Most intruders are not going to get that close to you when they're going to shoot you in the back of the head. And investigators discover another dark secret about Jeremy and Julien's sex life. The contract was actually a master's slave agreement. It was really disturbing. I think where I'll just speech to us. Stunt for the most part.

At one point, we didn't want to hear it. The most important thing is to get the news. Detectives in Vermilion, Ohio are one week into their investigation of the homicide of Jeremy Simcoe who was shot in the back of the head in his own home. And they've now discovered that just one day before his murder, Jeremy and his wife, Juline, were denied the loan they needed to purchase their dream property. I spoke with the loan officer. Their loan request purchased as 42 acres of land

has been denied. For investigators, the timing of this bad news seems suspicious, but it's not a lot to go on. So they looked to the coroner's report for additional insights about the murder. The coroner determined that Jeremy Simco died from the gunshot wound. The end of the barrel of the gun

was approximately two to three inches from the back of his head. Whoever shot him had to be with an inches of him. And basically, almost either crawling better or laying the bed. Most intruders are not going to get that close to you when they're going to shoot you in the back of the head. Most intruders are not going to get that close to you when they're going to shoot you in the back of the head. But who else would be in bed with Jeremy except Julien? We became suspicious of her.

Everything that we learned just kept pointing back to her. When the fingerprint and DNA analysis comes back, it casts an even larger cloud of suspicion over Jolene. The 357 did have DNA on it, the Simco's DNA. It did not have an unknown DNA and it appeared to have been wiped. There was really no evidence open and true to being in it. There was no strange DNA, no prints. To make an arrest, we have to have something called probable cause.

But we didn't have it. In the months that follow, detectives continue to analyze the evidence and search for other prospective leads. It's a process that takes time and manpower, which in the case of the Vermilion PD are two things in relatively short supply. The size of the agency was a problem when you have a small town. Is you have this case and this case is going on, but every day there's more cases. Even with suspicions rising around Julien Simco, years pass without any new breaks in the case. Then, investigators receive a call from two of Jeremy's friends, Al Hopp and Jean-Marie Becker. According to Jean-Marie and Al, after Jeremy died, Juline was quick to get rid of everything

that reminded her of Jeremy, including the farmhouse. She did not go back into the house. They sold it, and she had gone back to school. She was working in the medical field. I think that Jolene was able to just branch out after the murder. I knew she was dating some boy. The whole thing is, you know, it's your husband. You love him so much.

You want to know who did that, but she never did. Her opinion was Jolene didn't seem to be upset about the homicide. She wasn't worried about her husband's murder being found. She'd never expressed any anger that somebody had murdered her husband. Al and Jean-Marie also tell police that before the murder, there was always something

a little off about the way Jeremy and Juline interacted with each other. She didn't really talk much, and would look to Jeremy whenever she would answer. Jeremy was a leader. He was like an alpha male type, dominant personality. Juline was submissive. She was pretty much doing what she was told to do.

Is it possible Juline lived in fear of her domineering husband and believed killing him was her only way out? Investigators decide to revisit the mountains of personal documents seized from the Simco residence at the time of the crime. We began to uncover photo albums, which would depict Mrs. Simco in forms of bondage.

There were photographs of her nude and chained up somewhere in their basement with a golf ball in her mouth, acting as a ball gag. There was several pornographic videos. Not all of the footage in the Simco's home videos looks consensual. Mrs. Simco appears to be crying in some photos. She appears to be in pain. It's hard to decide if she was genuinely enjoying the situation.

Investigators become even more concerned when they uncover a 14-page document that appears to be a handwritten marriage contract between Juline and Jeremy. The marital contract was actually a master's slave agreement, and in it, it depicted Mr. Simko would be her father, and Mrs. Simko would be his dog. And they were very specific in their rituals and how each was to be a.

Knowing that she had been a victim when she was a child. We were concerned that maybe she was being forced to do things as she didn't want to do. There's good suspicion that he was abusing her because of all the pictures we discovered and this contract. Was Juline again being victimized as she had been as a child?

The evidence becomes even more compelling when investigators conduct a forensic analysis of the Simco's home computer. When we searched the computer, we discovered a site that had been visited the day before the homicide. There was evidence on their computer's nart history that indicated that somebody had looked up her father's obituary the night before Jeremy was killed.

The police found that to be very strange. We thought that maybe that might have stirred up a memory of a very unpleasant time in her life. Their sexual activity might have caused her to snap and do something. Coming up, Julene comes clean about the salacious material found in the Simco farmhouse. It was really participant and everything that went on. Oh, okay, John.

And a new witness gives detectives a crucial clue. A nurse was kind of start all in said, what did you say? Detectives in Vermilion, Ohio have uncovered racing new evidence in Jeremy's Simcoe's murder investigation. A secret contract between Jeremy and his wife, Juline, that sheds new light on the case. To best describe it as a dominating, submissive contract between two parties. A November 14, 2013, nearly four years after Jeremy's death,

Vermilion investigators contact Juline's lawyer and request another interview. Surprisingly, Julien agrees. At the Vermilion Police Station, investigators confront Julien with the photos and the master slave marriage contract. It was willing to participate in everything that went on. Okay.

All right, there was none of that that you were ever forced to do. No. She never indicated she was being sexually abused or in an abusive relationship. She said, state it was normal. Or your information, just so you know, it wasn't like in a daily relationship that was like this. This was just real crime. Juleen also denies ever searching online for her father's obituary. Investigators aren't convinced,

but they still don't have enough concrete evidence to justify charging Juleen with murder. The Remain Police Department felt comfortable that Mrs. Simcoe is the individual shot her husband, but they were concerned that there wasn't enough to convict her. We have no admission from her. Nobody ever said she told me he shot her.

We had the alleged burglaries to deal with. There's no way to completely refute that because we weren't there. So we couldn't say positively, she is our person. In 2014, as the investigation enters its eighth year, detectives finally get the break they've been waiting for. Jeremy's friend, Al Hop, tells them that he may have found someone with new information about Chuleen. I have a friend who has a wife that works at the hospital.

She was one of the initial first responders to Jolyn when she went to the hospital. Investigators pay the nurse a visit on November 18, 2014. She says she remembers her interaction with Juline like it was yesterday. The nurse had no idea why Mrs. Simpko was brought in. All she could see was a little blood on her. So she says something to the effect of,

so what's going on? The nurse said, I thought I heard the female say, I just shot my husband. The nurse was kind of startled and said, what did you say? Because she wasn't expecting that, and that Mrs. Simpko then said, oh, somebody shot my husband.

At the time, the nurse chalked it up to Juline's state of shock. But as the details of the case became public, she came to believe Juline had, in fact, killed her husband. It was kind of like a puzzle. And we'll get little tiny pieces when we're falling in the hole. On December 19, 2014,

Julien Simcoe is indicted for aggravated murder, felonious assault, and tempering with evidence. She turns herself in without a fight. I was extremely relieved. It was a lot of work. The ability to have that resolution to this type of a I was extremely relieved. It was a lot of work. The ability to have that resolution to this type of a case was just fantastic. However, the case against Juline

remains almost entirely circumstantial, and the battle for her conviction is far from over. If you're the defense, you'd want to have some sort of counterattack to what the prosecution is providing. As the trial date approaches, Juline and her defense team worry

that finding an impartial jury in this rural pocket of Northern Ohio will be impossible. So they make a bold move and request what's called a bench trial. In a jury trial, 12 jurors have to unanimously agree to either guilty or not guilty in the bench trial. I'm the only one who makes a decision. You have a much better chance of being

found innocent with 12 different minds, 12 different backgrounds. I think it kind of took everybody's by surprise that that was what she decided on. On Tuesday, September 12, 2017, that that was what she decided on. On Tuesday, September 12th, 2017, Julien's bench trial begins. Prosecutors tell Judge Anthony Betlesky what they believe prompted Julien to murder her husband.

The prosecution believed that because of the stress of not getting the property and the very stressful BDSM relationship that the couple were in, and that she had been abused as a child. She just snapped and lost it. Although they have plenty of circumstantial evidence to support their theory, prosecutors argue that the real evidence

is what investigators didn't find. No evidence of an intruder being in. There was no strange DNA, no prints. If there was a DNA profile obtained, it was always either Julien Simcoes, Jeremy Simcoes, or a combination of both. Julien's defense attorneys counter that the prosecution's case

is built entirely on speculation. The defense argument was, poor investigation by the police departments, because of that, the court can't come to a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that she committed the murder. With Juline choosing not to take the stand, on September 22nd, 2017, her defense team rests its case. Now it's up to Judge Betlesky to decide Julien's fate. This is probably the most stressful case that I had to deal with personally from this standpoint

and having to make the decision myself. On October 20th, 2017, Judge Betlesky hands down his verdict. My decision is she was guilty. I think that the issue came down to there wasn't evidence of somebody else, and there was also, I think, sufficient evidence that if there had been somebody else, there would have been sufficient warning to Mr. Simko. Judge Betlesky sentences Juline to 28 years behind bars.

Upon hearing the verdict, Juline's pent-up emotions finally come pouring out. She obviously had a meltdown. Understandably, you're going to jail for most of the rest of your life, so it's pretty traumatic. Even with Juline behind bars, there are mixed feelings about the verdict. I don't get any satisfaction out of her being in jail after Jeremy's murder. It's sad because we were friends. It's sad to think about one of your friends spending their rest of their life in jail.

I mean, if she did it, that's, I guess, the price you have to pay. But for me personally, I miss both of them. Jeremy wasn't the nicest. But you know what? He was great to me. He was great to Al. And it's not your place to decide

hey, that person should go. Julene appealed her case in 2021, but it was rejected. She will be eligible for parole in 2045. Juline was contacted by production to participate in this show, but she declined. you