True Crime Campfire - Where the Heart Is: The Murder of Jessica Sacco

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

You know that old saying—I think it was Ben Franklin again—that guests, like fish, begin to stank after three days? I feel like that’s being pretty generous, actually, I’ve thought about buying one of those party banners that says PLEASE LEAVE BY 9 PM. And that’s if the guests are INVITED. What happens when they’re not? Imagine having your home taken over by people who just decide they live there now, and they’re not going anywhere. That this is THEIR home now, no matter what they have to do to keep it. Join us for the story of Jess Sacco, a young woman who met her dream guy online--or so she thought. When he moved into her place, she thought their fairy tale life together was just beginning. Instead, Dream Guy moved a posse of his friends into her house without asking her, and as the weeks passed, the atmosphere got more and more hostile...and more and more dangerous. Sources:Investigation Discovery, "Web of Lies," S2, E4Columbus Dispatch: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2012/04/04/urbana-landlord-found-woman-s/24039438007/Columbus Dispatch: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2012/04/01/woman-killed-five-are-charged/23828326007/CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jessica-rae-saccos-last-words-were-i-forgive-you-says-boyfriend-accused-of-her-murder/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. You know that old saying? I think it was Ben Franklin again, that guests like fish begin to stank after three days. I feel like that's being pretty generous, actually. I've thought about buying one of those party banners, it says please leave by 9 p.m. And that's if the guests are invited. What happens when they're not? Imagine having your home taken over by people who just decide they live there now

and they're not going anywhere. That this is their home, no matter what they have to do to keep it. This is where the heart is, the murder of Jessica Sacco. So, campers, for this one, we're in Urbana, Ohio, February 2010. It's the middle of the night, and Brittany Ferreira wakes up to the incessant buzzing of her cell phone. It's her step-sister, Jessica Sacco, upset and crying. Jess, as her family called her, had moved to Florida just a few months earlier to live with a guy she met online. His name was Chris, and to Jess, he seemed like her. her dream man at first. He was charming and generous and fun. Well, sometimes. Other times, he was

drunk and violent, and now Jess was calling Brittany in the dead of night desperate for help. Chris had punched her in the face, and that was it. She needed an exit plan. Now. Sue Tainer, Brittany and Jess's mom, told Jess she always had a place with her back in Ohio, and the next day, Jess was out of the apartment. But it would be a whole other year before she felt like she could face her mom. Sue and Jess's relationship was complicated, as mom and daughter relationships tend to be. The last time Jess lived at home, she was 16 and angry. Her parents had just gotten a divorce, and Jess fought with her mom 24-7. Their relationship deteriorated, and Sue just didn't know what to do. And then when she was 17, Jess was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which explained

the depression and mood swings she'd been having. For a while there, Jess just felt like she needed to get out of the house, put some distance between her and her mom. But in 2011, Jess finally made her way back home to her mom's house in Ohio. And Sue worked hard to get Jess back on track. She made sure her daughter was taking her meds and taking care of herself. She really thought they'd reached a turning point. Jess seemed like she wanted to get better. So after about a month of Jess living back home, Sue decided she felt okay about Jess moving out on her own. So they started looking for a house for her to rent. They found a cute little duplex not far from Sue's place. It was tiny, a one bedroom with barely enough room for one person, but Jess loved it. It was so small that

Jess and her mom called the bathroom a one butt bathroom because only one butt was going to fit in there. In every case, there's always one detail that hits me like a train, and for me, this is it. Like, growing up, my family called our kitchen, the one butt kitchen, because it was so small you couldn't have more than one person in there at a time. Thinking about Jess and her her mom giggling about that little bathroom makes me just so sad. Yeah, that's such a heartbreaking little detail. So Sue told Jess that she would pay for her rent on the house, but there was one condition. No guys could stay over.

Now, granted, Jess was 21, but she also had a tendency to get really involved, really fast, when she met a guy she liked. So Sue felt like this was a valid concern. She's not saying, you know, you can't date. She's saying, don't move some dude, you just met into the house that I'm paying for, right? Jess was doing so well and her mom didn't want her to be distracted from her progress by like asshole Chris 2.0. Now, Jess had been working hard to get her feet back under her. Her only self-imposed obstacle was her love life. According to her family, Jess desperately wanted to find her one true love.

She believed a relationship would cure her loneliness, which, look, I know this is easy for me to say because I've been married for 20 years, so I get it. Easier for me to say than it is to do, but I promise you that is not how this works. happiness, joy, contentment, whatever you want to call it, that has really got to come from the inside out. And I'm not saying finding love won't help. I mean, of course it will if you're in a healthy relationship, but it's not a magic pill. But Jess, you know, she was young. She wanted a boyfriend more than anything else. So she turned to dating apps and quickly met a guy from Texas who seemed to tick all the boxes. His name was Matthew Puccio. Matthew's profile listed him as an retired Marine who was interested in computers, collecting swords, martial arts, and

Insane Clown Posse. Ooh, juggalo's, baby. We got juggaloes. This is not a drill. So, in case you're not familiar, you lucky, lucky innocence, fans of the horror rap duo Insane Clown Posse call themselves juggalo's after a 1999 song from the band called The Juggalo. I actually didn't know that part. You just educated me on that, the juggola.

And female juggaloes are called juggolettes. Just thought I'd sneak that in there. There is sexually dimorphous species. It's fascinating. Now, I know y'all might remember us talking about ICP before in our episode about the murder of Matthew Silliman. Usually jugglers are just like weirdos, not violent criminals, but when they go bad, they go very, very bad. Let's recap for the new campers around the fire. The band, made up of Violent J and Shaggy Too Dope,

have been around since the 80s, where in black and white clown makeup and performing over-the-top violent, we're going to call it music, to scores of adoring fans. A lot of their songs are hyper-violent fantasies and extended metaphors. Oh, and they like to yell, whoop, whoop, at inopportune times. Really deep stuff. Yeah, my favorite is their song, Miracles, which I know I've talked about before. Swear to God, I can't love it enough.

There's a line that goes, fucking magnets, how do they work? If you have not heard that song, seriously, fix it today because your life's not complete. It's literally, honestly, it'll change your life. It's phenomenal. I'm saying that is goofy as hell. Unironically. Like, it's very. I'm saying it extremely ironically, but okay.

Sometimes you've got to lean into the cringe, you know? Sometimes you're going to lean into like the weird shit that you find. Other lyrics include. my axe is my buddy. I bring him when I walk. Me and my axe will leave your head outlined in chalk. My axe is my buddy. He always makes me laugh. Me and my axe cut bigot spinal cords in half. That is beautiful.

Don't forget the one about necrophilia. That's another classic. Oh, the one where the narrator's dead girlfriend commands him to kill the family next door so they can continue their midnight, like, ghost sex, I guess. Yeah, the one that says that she tastes like bacon when they're making out. Of course, yeah. I swear to God it does. Look at the lyrics. Yeah, the lyrics, the lyrics go, cut the screen, went in and found the kid, blew a bowl of spaghetti in the side of his head. The daddy was next running down the hall. I shredded his throat and he was quick to fall. Toss the Mossberg and gripped the knife, started stabbing the shit out of his wife.

Went home a bloody mess with a job well done, wash up and wait for my baby to come. So, yeah, it's not a surprise that there's a lot of pearl clutching when it comes to ICP. And I get it. I personally don't like them at all. I don't get it. But for the most part, jugglers are just a bunch of edgy gotts that have committed to the bit a little too hard. Like, ICP mentioned the Detroit area soda fago. Like, it's like a Michigander fanta in a couple of songs.

And suddenly, jugglers are keeping the company afloat because they drink so much of the stuff. It's literally just soda, y'all. Calm down. Although I will say that the Bonapete test kitchen did a test, and they did say that Fago root beer is the best root beer of any brand. So maybe jugglers do have good taste. Maybe I'm wrong. Well, whoop. I don't have to try that.

ICP created a community around what they call the Dark Carnival, which is like clown heaven, I think. Hell? I'm not 100% sure. They're anti-petophilia, racism, bigotry, abuse. greed. And Shaggy, Too Dope, and Violent J are both Christians. So it's not like they ban themselves are trying to start a cult or anything. I mean, they kind of did anyway, but they don't seem like bad guys. They just inadvertently created a community of misfits and oddballs with a deep sense of fantasy built into their daily lives. It's fine. That never

goes bad. Oh, and in case you've forgotten, jugglers were classified by the FBI as a gang because of the sheer amount of criminal activity that fans of this ban get involved in. Yeah, I actually found an FBI dossier, like a PDF file online. I forget where I stumbled on it. I was deep, deep diving, so I don't know if I could find it again, but it was hundreds of pages, and all it was was juggalo crimes. I was just floored, like it was hundreds and hundreds of pages. Wild.

Anyway, this has been True Crime Adjacent Weird Culture Corner with Katie. I'm deeply sorry you know these things now. Onwards and upwards, campers. Yeah, y'all just got a little taste of what it's like being friends with this chick. It's, you know, never boring. All right, so Jess liked the insane clown posse too, so she and

Matthew Puccio got on like a house on fire. Matthew nicknamed her Jess Rabbit, and soon they were texting all day every day. Jess was thriving on her own. She had her own space, her mental health was better than ever, and she was making new friends. Well, mostly Matthew.

And before long, Jess told Matthew she had her own place, and Matthew kind of finagled his way into an invite. He didn't exactly invite himself, but it was one of those like, oh, I should totally come visit you. And Jess, despite the deal she had with her mom, jumped on it. Now, y'all know how online relationships are, right? I'm sure some of you do. You shit can get really intense, really fast. There's this incredible sense of intimacy that can come of not like actually being up in each other's face where all the awkward social stuff kicks in. it can create this false sense of safety.

And Jess was so eager for a relationship, so it went long before things got serious. And within just a few weeks of Matthew's first visit to Jess's place, he'd moved in. Sue, of course, had no idea. I get the impression it was all good for a little while, but then in December 2011, Jess answered the door to find two of Matthew's friends on her doorstep. Without bothering to ask Jess about it first, Matthew had told Andrew and Camden, Candace Forney that they could crash at her house. Oh, boy. It's like that book, if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk, except it's if you give a jugglo a place to crash, they're going to

want to bring their jugglo friends along too. Yes, that's why they call it a posse. It's not a single insane clown. It's a posse. So just be prepared for that. Matthew had known Andrew Forney since they were kids and he and his wife Candace had driven all the way from Michigan. Jess wasn't happy about this development because who the hell would be, but she was scared to push Matthew away. So she didn't say, what the hell is wrong with you? How dare you invite people to stay at my house without asking me? They can get the hell out and you can go with them. Instead, she told Matthew that they could stay for the weekend. So a compromise. Juggaloes have to look out for each other after all. What she didn't know was that Candace and Andrew were unemployed, flat-bred.

broke with nowhere to stay and had no intention of leaving. Jess's family pointed out that she was a natural people-pleaser, which I can actually really relate to, and this made it way too easy for tapeworms like Matthew to take advantage of her kindness. She was such a sweetheart, so generous with what little she had, and so non-confrontational, that to somebody like Captain Clown shoes and the Whoop-Woop Troop, she was just a way to get what they wanted. And by February 2012, the Fourneys had been sleeping and living in Jess's living room for two months. And this is like a 700 square foot space.

There are four adults living there. Can you imagine the juggalo stank that must have permeated that place? Yeah, that fago and cigarettes would, no joke. Plus, like, skanky-ass, mallweed, and face paint and beo. I bet you could smell it from space. And for some inexplicable reason, Candace was insatiably jealous over her husband to the point where she was convinced that Jess, this lovely young girl who was head over heels with her own boyfriend, was gunning for him. Like, yeah, Candice, Jess won't be able to sleep till she figures out a way to take your grotty-ass boyfriend to Sad Clown Pound Town.

Girl, please. Yeah, we don't usually talk about looks on this show, but come on, Candace. Andrew is no oil painting. Actually, both Forni's look like they're carriers of a new infectious fungal disease. Jess had her own grimy boyfriend to deal with. She didn't need yours. And look, it's not even their looks. Like, I'm sure they'd both clean up just fine.

It's more like the general filth. Yes, a miasma. There's just kind of this, like, pig pen-like measma. Yeah, exactly. You can just tell, you know. Anyway, Candace hated Jess so much that she'd message the others on Facebook while Jess was, like, right there in the room. Like, that weirdo is staring.

at me. She'd text that to Matthew while Jess was sitting right there. You know, middle school, mean girl shit. Which like, okay, first of all, it's a tiny ass space, Candace. There's only so many places you can look. Second of all, you dumb clown bitch, this is Jess's house. She can stare wherever she wants. And even if she was staring, it was probably because you fucking freaks won't leave her living room where she lives. Get out of her house and you won't have to worry about it. right amen meanwhile jess's family noticed a sharp increase in concerning posts from her facebook page it seemed like she was getting depressed again she'd been doing so well and now she seemed to be falling back into the old destructive patterns sue decided to check on her at the

house and as soon as jess opened the door sue could tell something was wrong jess seemed flighty she tried blocking her mom's view of the front room but eventually sue forced her way in the fournies presumably driven by a thirst for fago and nicotine were out for the day but matthew was there slinging it up on the couch sue about hit the roof she was furious she had given her daughter one singular rule to follow and jess had thrown it back in her face then when sue asked about her meds jess told her she wasn't taking those anymore matthew it had explained to her that she didn't need them his friend had taken those same meds and the side effects were terrible Oh, boy. Yeah. So on top of being the ringleader of the Fago side show, he was also a clinical psychiatrist. He definitely knew what was best for Jess's specific case.

Yeah, evidently he had his BS degree from insane clown medical school or something. Y'all, take your meds. Okay, if you're having bad side effects, fine. But please don't go off meds without consulting your doctor first. It's going to be all kinds of unpleasant. And don't listen to anybody who tells you that without the meds, can be the real you. Yeah, a guy told me that once. Like, okay, Joshua, the real me doesn't care if I live or die and can barely leave the house. But sure, continue to romanticize my debilitating

mental illness. Thanks, buddy. So this fight between Sue and Jess was a knockdown, dragout battle. And of course, White Knight Matthew kept interjecting with his super helpful nattering bullshit, which must have made Sue want to tear her eyeballs out. Sue finally asked, is this what you want, and Jess said yes. That was it for Sue. She wished her daughter luck and walked out. Jess posted Facebook status after Facebook status about how much she hated her mom. Sue was heartbroken, but she felt like she couldn't keep enabling her daughter. Even as Jess became more isolated by Matthew, she continued to push back on their impromptu roommates. Matthew responded by inviting more. Oh, good compromise, Matthew. Good. That's great.

Great. February and took up residence in Jess's living room with the others. There, the Claude Squad squad spent their time scrolling on Facebook, smoking weed, and browsing ICP forums online. Special Agent Michael Trout of the Ohio Bureau of Investigation later told Investigation Discovery that these idiots were about as chronically online as anybody could be. He called them extreme users. It was amusing to me and said that instead of having an actual conversation with people

they were in the room with, they'd all just sit there in silence and message each other from their phones. He said it was completely bizarre. And remember, these people were friends. Like, I get having social anxiety, but these were buds. Like, these weren't strangers. These people were friends with each other sitting next to each other on the couch, texting. I guess whatever floats your boat, but dang. Jess was having a really hard time coping with this massive herd of losers squatting in her house. And because, Matthew had talked her into stopping her meds, she was struggling with her bipolar disorder, too. Her mom said, I can only imagine what she suffered in her head, the demons and what they would tell her.

You can tell Sue is just absolutely haunted by it. It's so sad. And meanwhile, roommate slash professional moocher Chris Wright had another less empathetic perspective. I mean, she's disturbed. She was a little not all there. It was like a fuse was going off. which wow man you think maybe she had good reason to be disturbed because her useless boyfriend kept bringing his dipship friends to her house they were posted up in there like cockroaches i wouldn't be surprised if they skittered around when the lights slipped on yeah and there were like a lot of cockroaches too because they never cleaned anything and poor jess couldn't keep up with it because there's a million people in her living room and there's no doubt that jess needed to be on her meds but asking these people to you know get the hell out of her house was completely reasonable. Nobody had even asked her opinion on it before they showed up on the doorstep and just moved right in. They kept the place filthy. None of them lifted a finger to do anything or bring in groceries or help with the bills, God forbid. And Candice, who obviously hated Jess's guts, kept driving a bigger and bigger wedge between her and the rest of the group. She would text Matthew about how much better off

they'd all be if Jess was out of the picture or even dead. Which is weird to me. It's like, how do you figure that? You parked your asses on her couch. You're eating. her food. You're living rent-free on her dime. And if she dies, what, like, you don't just get the house. Your lifestyle is going to take a hit. Yeah, these aren't like finders-keepers elementary school rules. Like, you know, these freaks are a few screws short of a hardware store. So I don't think they thought that far ahead. Or maybe Candace had the hots for Matthew and couldn't stand him being with somebody else. Yeah, that's it. That's actually a valid theory. And it would explain her claim of Jess hitting on Andrew, you know, hello projection, right? And Jess, of course, felt that

animosity from Matthew's friends. She'd text her stepsister, Brittany, pretty much every day, saying she didn't feel safe in her own house anymore, and she couldn't keep living like this. And imagine going through bipolar disorder, untreated, and this at the same time. Like, it just sounds like unmitigated hell to me. So, finally, seeing no other way out of this mess, just called her mom and asked if she could stay at her house for a few days. Jess was acting weird on the phone, but her mom couldn't really pick up what she was putting down. She never, like, explicitly told her mom

that she didn't feel safe or that she felt like she was in danger or anything like that. Maybe she was just too embarrassed about the fight that they had had, but she didn't say that. She just said, can I stay at your house for a few days? Sue, totally unaware of the pressure cooker that her daughter was living in, told her that she didn't really have time to spend with Jess right then, but they could talk about it for the next week. Jess said, okay, and then asked if Sue could give her a ride to a friend's house on Thursday

the 22nd instead. Sue was like, I have to work all day Thursday, but I can pick you up on Friday. You can tell that this conversation haunts Sue. And I think it would be easy to place some guilt on her. So I want to be clear. I think Sue was the best mom to Jess that she could possibly be. What happened in this case was not her fault whatsoever. There was no. way, no way she could have predicted what would happen to her daughter. And I'm sure she lives with guilt over that every day. Oh, you know. On Friday, March 23rd, 2012, Sue called her daughter early in the day to see when she needed to pick her up. Jess didn't answer, and Sue was immediately worried. It was very out of character for Jess to not answer. As Sue put it later,

she lived on that phone. It was her God. When Sue couldn't get a hold of her, she asked Brittany to try. And when the call went straight to voicemail, everybody's stomach dropped. Jess had never, not once, blown off a call from her sister. Usually she'd barely let it ring before she picked up. Brittany tried messaging her on Facebook and texted her too, but got no reply. Finally, Sue had had enough and showed up at Jess's house. The house was quiet, but Sue could tell someone was moving around inside. She knocked on the door and after a long few moments, Matthew answered. Where's my daughter? Sue asked him. She's at a friend's house, Matthew said. She left her phone charger here. Something about the story seemed off to Sue, but she tamped down on the

instinct. Jess was an adult. She didn't need her mom every second of every day. Sue went home. Eight days after Jess had asked her mom for a ride, Jess Sacco was still incommunicado. Sue couldn't shake the sick feeling in her gut, so she went back to the duplex. This time the house was empty, and Sue let herself in with a copy of Jess's key. Right away, the smell hit her. She couldn't quite identify it, but it was horrific. The living room was buried under a pile of empty bottles and half-eaten food. The sink was so full of filthy dishes that there were maggots and flies in there.

Oh, God. Sue made her way through the house and noticed that the one-but bathroom door was closed. When she tried the knob, it had been locked from the door. the inside. Sue got down on the floor and looked to the gap under the door. The room was so small, she was sure she'd be able to see if her daughter was in trouble in there. There was nothing. Again, Sue thought she was being ridiculous. Jess had stopped talking to her before. So she convinced herself she was just being dramatic, that she'd watched too much true crime on TV, and she was just projecting that fear on this situation. Her daughter was fine, she was safe,

off somewhere with her terrible boyfriend, but soon she'd leave him and this would all be an awful memory. Sue shook off her turning stomach and left her daughter's house. Prior to going to the house for a second time, Sue had run into Jess's landlord, a guy named Gary Zirkle. He lived in the adjoining apartment to Jess's and had seen how worried Sue looked when she left, so Gary, who felt some empathy for Sue,

took it upon himself to go into the duplex and see for himself what was going on. He walked into the same juggalo's nest as suited and felt that same sense of impending doom as he approached the locked bathroom door. He took a screwdriver and took off the doorknob to get a better look inside, and at first he didn't see anything, just the drawn shower curtain. But eventually he got the door open and pulled the shower curtain aside. When he saw what was in the tub, he sprinted out the front door and called the police. In the tub of the one-butt bathroom, under a pile of filthy blankets, was the partially dismembered body of Jessica Ray Sacco. There are a few moments of reprieve in a case like this, but I am so glad that Jess's mama didn't find her body like that. Oh, me too. Yeah.

The investigation took off running immediately, led by the Ohio Bureau of Investigation and Special Agent Michael Trout. They quickly discovered that Jessica had been strangled. Her left arm was gone from the scene entirely. Both of her legs had been severed at the knee, and her right arm was partially severed too. Brutal, senseless murder of a sweet young girl with her whole life still ahead of her. They needed to figure out who had been living at the house,

so they took fingerprints from the living room and found piles of mail everywhere, addressed to several different people. He found a vehicle registration belonging to Candace and Andrew Forney, as well as bills addressed to Matthew Puccio. The feds quickly got a trace on the phones belonging to Matthew and the Fornys and found that the phones were not only still being used, they were together, in Hamilton, Ohio, little over an hour away from Urbana.

Y'all hear that circus music, off in the distance. You can barely hear it? Well, that's because a group of clowns is about to get the old habeas gravis dropped on him. Candice, Andrew, and Matthew were apprehended and brought in by clown car, obviously, for interviews. Matthew, by the way, was shirtless for his interrogation. For some reason, I'm not sure why. It's never a dress. They'd never offer to give him a shirt. Super weird. And really kind of gross. Anyway, so the single brain cell that they all shared must have been working overtime that night because all three of these sweaty ball sacks denied any involvement or knowledge about what happened to Jess.

Matthew said that he and Jess had broken up and wasn't even living in the apartment during the time the detectives told him she died. Look, Jess dumped me and started dating Chris Wright. Chris kicked us all out of the house on Wednesday, which, of course, was the day before the murder, so very convenient, right? Now, the urban cops knew Chris Wright. Homeboy had a record, so they hauled him in for a chat. And here's the thing about Chris. He doesn't seem like a naive guy. So as soon as the cops started telling him about Matthew's story, he saw the writing on the wall. He was getting thrown under the bus.

Chris was not having it. He was like, yo, I am a scumbag, but I am not a murderer. The forensic texts were able to get quite a bit from the crime scene. For example, there were footprints in the bathroom from around the time of the murder that matched the shoes of everyone who'd been in that house except for Jess. As far as the cops were concerned, they had convincing evidence that everyone was involved. And when confronted with this evidence, the flaw patrol pretty much folded immediately, like a piece of wet cardboard. On the day of the murder, Jess kept insisting that Matthew kick his friends out of her house.

Naturally, Matthew didn't take that well. And while the bogus roomies listened from the living room, he and Jess got into a screaming fight. And then it escalated. The roommates all heard Jessica say, Matthew, what the fuck? A few seconds later, Andrew got a text from Matthew. It said, I stabbed her. Again, a text. A text.

You're in the next room. It's just bonkers to me. Andrew and Chris ran into the bedroom to see what the hell was happening and found Jessica lying on the bed with a knife wound to the diaphragm. Now, the wound itself was pretty minor. It wasn't really even bleeding anymore. Jessica told them that she wasn't being cool and seemed apologetic and calm. Not out of control at all. God, that poor kid.

I know. Matthew asked for a second to talk to Jess alone. Chris told ID that in that moment he saw an evil look on his friend's face. He left the room anyway, left Jessica alone with the guy. Once they were alone again, Matthew turned to Jess. Well, I've stabbed you. Now I have to kill you. So she knew.

She knew what was coming. This poor girl just wanted to be loved, and this fuck-faced loser decided to take her life. Eventually, Matthew called down to Chris for a cigarette. Chris rolled a few and brought them back to the room. And when he opened the door, he found Matthew on top of Jess with a bag over her head strangling her. Matthew screamed for Chris to come back later.

Chris is a weird guy. He speaks very openly about his involvement in this case, and how it haunts him, but he shies away from talking about why he didn't stop Matthew at this moment. He could have stopped this murder from happening. He didn't. He walked back downstairs and sat down next to Sharon Cook. He said, I wish I would have called 911 then, but I was afraid kind of, kind of, because if he can do this to her, what's he going to do to us? What do we think, campers? Valid? Some people might say yes. I don't think so. I mean, there were how many of these people four, five, if you count Jess, and there's one Matthew.

I think at best, Chris is a coward, and at worst, he's a fucking monster. A thousand percent of great. Yeah, I don't get that. And if you, by the way, if like, I know that, like, you know, spindly little guys can fuck somebody up, but Chris is a big guy and Matthew is not. So, like, if you wanted to stop him, he could have. And certainly they all four could have. I mean, that's the thing.

They could have just bum rush. a few moments later Matthew came out of the bedroom and told his friends it's done they all went to go look at Jess's body at first they thought it was a joke like a prank they were playing and Chris helpfully poked at it oh god almighty once the reality set in Andrew suggested that they dismember her to make it easier to dispose everyone including including Chris, agreed. They brought Jess's body to the bathroom and started dismembering her using knives and swords that Matthew kept around the house. Chris said in an interview, I still have visions of it. I still have nightmares from that night because what we did was horrendous, which maybe he does have nightmares. Who am I to contradict him?

And there is one thing, though, that sticks with me. Butchering a human body is really hard work. I mean, It's a really physical labor. And all five of these losers needed a break from cutting up their friend to run to the convenience store and grab a bite to eat at McDonald's. Now, I can't say for sure, but I would think that if you were really struggling with your moral fiber over the murder that you just witnessed and the body that you're in the process of cutting up, maybe a Big Mac and some Nuggies wouldn't really be your top priority in that moment. But, I mean, what do I know? At this point, they'd been at this for hours with their shitty little flipping catalog knock-off swords and knives, and they were starting to freak out. Jessica's mom had already been by the house once, which is just chilling beyond words that when she came by they were in the middle of all that. God, that's horrifying.

And they still hadn't made a whole lot of progress on dismembering the body. In their panic, they decided to just abandon their work. They put the body parts that they were able to remove, the legs and one of the arms, into trash bags and loaded them into the Forney's van, which of course they had a van. Of course they did. One of those ones where the carpet is like 99% weed stems, I'm sure. Matthew drove to Kentucky and dumped the limbs there as the rest of that poor sweet kid's body just lay in the bathtub abandoned. Now, it's interesting to note Matthews is the only story that ever changed.

He told the police about five different versions of events, including that he killed Jess because she put a hit out on him, which is obvious horseshit and proves that the guys listen to way too many ICP songs, obviously. He told the cops he had witnesses, and when asked, two young women said that Matthew did tell them that story right before showing them just his limbs in plastic bags, but, you know, that's not evidence. That's just a couple of gullible dorks. At trial, Andrew Forney, Christopher Wright, and Sharon Cook were charged with abuse of a corpse

and evidence tampering. Candice Forney was charged with complicity to tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, and failure to report a crime, which just none of that seems like nearly enough to me. All defendants except Chris, interestingly enough, given what he says now, said they didn't report the crime during or after the fact because they were scared of Matthew. So Chris was the one who didn't say he was scared of Matthew.

That's interesting to me. Andrew Forney was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Christopher Wright to 4. Sharon Cook to three and Candace to six. Matthew Puccio, the one who actually committed the murder, was charged with aggravated murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. He initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity,

but the court wasn't buying it. They found him competent to stand trial. And then Matthew changed his plea to guilty. On the stand, the prosecutor asked if he'd ever loved Jess. Matthew said yes. When asked how he could do this, that to someone he loved, Matthew replied, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Yeah, well, fucking magnets, how do they work? For the murder, he was sentenced to life in prison with the

possibility of parole after 30 years, as well as two consecutive 12-year sentences for the other charges. It's going to be quite a while before he sees daylight again. The others are all out by now, which is kind of horrifying, and we hope to God they're keeping their noses clean. And I want to leave you with this detail. While she was being suffocated, Jessica fought like hell to survive. She ripped through the bag, forcing Matthew to go get another one and scratched a shit out of the asshole's face. And the last words she ever spoke, according to her murderer, were, I forgive you. Jessica was a good person. She wanted to be loved so badly. And she deserved to be. She deserved exactly the kind of love she dreamed about. But one of the big tragedies of this case is that she did have love.

For the entire trial, Sue Tainer sat in the gallery, clutching a red velvet bag containing Jessica's ashes. And when Matthew was sentenced, she smiled with relief and cheered. Jessica's 22nd birthday was a week after that sentencing hearing. Her family got her a cake and remembered her. They loved her with all their hearts. And I hope that wherever Jess is today, she feels it. So that was a wild one, right, campers?

You know, we'll have another one for you next week. for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe, until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Melissa, Dixie, not one but two, count them two Jessica's, Nate, Allison, Kim, and Tiffany. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back. And if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out. Patrons of our show get every episode ad-free, at least a day early, sometimes even two, plus all kinds of extra content. And once you hit the $5 and up categories, you get even more cool stuff. A free sticker at $5, a red enamel pin

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