True Crime with Kimbyr - High School Student Found Dead Inside Cemetery in Rural Ohio | Jessica Keen

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

📣 WANT MORE TRUE CRIME? Check out my other podcast, DARKLIVITY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE This case is heartbreaking. Whenever a young person has their life cut short, it's not easy to talk about. Jessica was a sophomore in high school; she was JUST starting her life. She was a gifted singer, played several musical instruments, loved cheerleading, and had just started dating her first boyfriend. Many of us can relate to Jessica in a lot of ways. That's why this one is hard to hear. She had no idea what was about to happen. What investigators pieced together about Jessica's final moments is as heartbreaking as it is chilling. The evidence told a story of a young girl who fought with everything she had who ran, who hid, who came agonizingly close to reaching safety. But for all the clues left behind in that cemetery, one answer stayed out of reach. The prime suspect was cleared. The leads dried up. And Jessica's case went cold for years, leaving a devastated family waiting for a truth that seemed like it might never come.🔎 COME FIND ME: Personal IG https://www.instagram.com/kimbyrleigha/🚧 True Crime IG: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimewithkimbyr🔗 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KimbyrleighaYouTube/📥 Sponsorship Inquiries: [e-mail]🚨 This video is for educational purposes & documentary purposes ONLY. All info is gathered ONLINE from multiple sources, and though each case is thoroughly researched, not all info is always 100% valid. Please do your own research. 👩🏻‍🎓 ABOUT ME: I'm Kimbyrleigha; thanks in advance for reading this. I think it's important to know someone's background and education because it helps explain how they view situations and why they may hold a particular point of view. I hold a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Sociology. I graduated from law school in 2010 and have a Juris Doctor (law degree). I'm also currently in school studying Medicolegal Investigation. COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: I do my best to ensure that everything in these videos complies with the legal Fair Use Standards. I never intend to violate anyone’s copyright. If you own the rights to something that was unintentionally used in this video and would like it removed, addressed, or licensed for a fee, please reach out to me first, and I will get back to you ASAP. [e-mail]

Jessica Keene was a sophomore in high school in Columbus, Ohio. She loved cheerleading. She was a talented singer and played several musical instruments. She had just started dating her first boyfriend. Her life was just starting, but she found out she crossed paths with a monster, but it was already too late. Hi, everyone, welcome back to my channel. And if you've never been here before, I'm Kimberlea. Nice to finally meet you.

And if you have been here before, if this is your second time, or you have watched a number of my videos, thank you for that. For today's case, I would like to introduce you to Jessica Lynn Keane. She was born to Rebecca and James Keane on September 24, 1975 in Columbus, Ohio. She had an older sister named Heather that was born in 1971, and Rebecca and James were doing all they could to give their daughters the very best life possible. James, who went by Jim, was only 21 when they had Heather, and Rebecca, was only 20. But Jim was ambitious. He was an entrepreneur from a very young age. It started with him having his own newspaper route when he was just a kid. And then he created his own miniature golf course in an empty lot near his home and he cleverly sold the kids in the neighborhood memberships

so they could use it. When he was older, he was hired as a stock boy at Warehouse Paint Center. And in those days, many employees were very loyal to their jobs. So he worked his way up. And he was working there when he and Rebecca had their girls. He ended up staying there for 20 years and eventually he became the president of the company. Rebecca was in school at Austin Dwarf Art Academy studying fine arts and commercial art. And Jim was also very artistic himself. He enjoyed drawing and painting so they had that in common. Rebecca was also working as a long-distance operator at Ohio Bell Telephone Company. At the time the family was living in Dayton, Ohio. And Rebecca also believed in being loyal to her employer and she stayed with the company for nearly a decade. Then she began

working for Time Warner cable company as a utility coordinator. Rebecca and Jim were both working parents doing their best to make ends meet while raising two young girls and having fun. Jim enjoyed watching documentaries and playing golf. He loved watching Kentucky basketball, fishing, spending time kayaking with his family and hanging with good friends. The family also enjoyed traveling together. Heather and Jessica were very close being only a few years apart, and they did everything together. It was like having a built-in best friend growing up. They both attended Oakview Elementary School, where Jessica was an outstanding student. She was put into the gifted students program in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. Tim Tudor was the gifted program coordinator at the time, and he said that Jessica had an IQ

in the mid-130s. And she was in the upper 3% of kids in her same grade in their district. But the average IQ in the United States is 98, and people generally have IQs between 85 and 115 to give you an example. 98% of people have an IQ below 130. So we're talking about adults here. So that's saying a lot about Jessica when she was in just elementary school level. And according to Sykes Central when I looked into this, your IQ score isn't simply about bragging, about how smart you are. Knowing your IQ can help guide a child into beneficial learning programs, pinpoint developmental challenges, and provide insight into global wellness patterns.

And IQ was also broken down by state. I found a list. So for Ohio, it's 100, and in California where I am, it's 97. The global IQ is around 89. The principal of Oakview described Jessica as just a sweetheart of a kid. She was pretty, intelligent, very cheerful, witty, and just a neat kid. And she stood out, not just because of her intelligence, but she was also very talented when it came to music.

She played the violin, the piano, and the clarinet. They do say that playing instruments positively influences your IQ. And research does show it can be raised by an average of seven points. And Jessica could also sing. Her maternal grandfather, George Smitly, her paternal grandpa was also named George, he was amazed by how talented Jessica was. He said ever since she was a little girl, she would sit around and talk with adults. She was more advanced for her age.

And when Jessica wasn't excelling in math or studying hard to maintain her gifted status at school, she was just an ordinary kid. She enjoyed dancing, acting, and doing gymnastics. The family lived in an apartment complex at this time, and it was filled with other children her age. She became best friends with a little girl named Radaba Azadi, who immigrated to the U.S. from Iran. Jessica was the first to befriend her. They met an apartment community, and they loved dancing together to routines they made to Madonna's music, and they would spend summers playing together all day long.

Rudebé's parents adore Jessica. She was very respectful and sweet to their daughter. Very accepting, and not to mention smart and witty. She was a good role model for Rodebe. They would invite her over to enjoy Persian meals all the time, and Jessica took genuine interest in their culture. She loved Persian food and was curious about their traditions. She would actually sit fascinated when Rodaba was doing her Persian homework.

She was really into it because it was different and exotic to her. After elementary school, she attended Kittering Junior High School, but only until the seventh grade. Because unfortunately, Jessica's mom and dad decided to get a divorce. It was a tough decision, but it was the right one for them at the time. Now, Rebecca's family lived back in Columbus, Ohio, which was about an hour away. It's still not too far for Jessica to go back and visit Jim and Heather. Yes, Heather was staying back with her dad. Heather was already in the middle of high school, so it seemed like a better plan to have her stay with Jim to finish up where she was. She had dreams of working in the medical field, so academic stability was important to her

and her parents. Rebecca and Jessica moved from Kettering to Columbus in 1988 when Jessica was 13 years old. They would now be closer to Rebecca's parents, George and Ruth. At first, Rebecca was concerned with Jessica switching schools, but she had done so well academically in the past, she thought it would be just fine and she was right. Jessica adapted very well when she went into the eighth grade in Columbus, Ohio. She made friends very easily because of her loving, outgoing personality. She liked hanging out and having fun with her friends, but she was also very dedicated to her studies. She was the type of student that could skim over the lesson and still be able to get an A, whereas many of the other students had to study really hard even for little pop quizzes. Her IQ

and her gifted classes in the past probably helped. By the time ninth grade, came around and she was a freshman at Columbus Westland High School, Jessica already knew that she wanted to become a zoologist. And this was because of the love she had for animals. She was going to work hard to get into college and study veterinary medicine. That meant dedicating even more time to her school work because she wanted to earn a scholarship. She worked hard to maintain a 4.0 average and was always on the honor roll. While all the serious work was going on, another passion was in Jessica. Because of her bubbly and fun personality, she was drawn to cheerleading. She had been a gymnast as a child and she loved acting and dancing, so this came naturally to her and she made it

on the high school football cheerleading squad. This definitely helped her make a lot more friends with all the girls that were on her team and they had practices together in events and then, of course, the football games that they would have to attend. Her life became a lot more social, not just with girls, but also with the boys. By the summer, going into her social, she was. By the summer, sophomore year of high school, she spent time back home in Dayton with her dad and her sister and her old friends and she could not stop talking about all the fun she was having with her new friends. Jerry Somm, one of her friends from back in Kettering, she felt a little uncomfortable with some of the things that Jessica was telling her. After all, they were only 14 years old.

And Jessica was talking about all these stories about how she was hanging out with older teenage boys, even boys that were 18 years old. It sounded like troubled. Sherry, especially when Jessica sort of bragged about staying out late with these boys that she hardly knew. Jessica even told her that she and a friend went hitchhiking. And this concerned Sherry, she knew that Jessica had always been a good girl. But you know what? Sometimes teens go through a rebellious stage. It just seemed to Sherry with the way that Jessica was describing some of the things that her new friends were doing, that they didn't have many morals. And Sherry wondered what Jessica saw in them. It wasn't just Sherry that felt that way.

The same thing happened with another old friend that summer in Kettering, Mindy Sidlow. She and Jessica were hanging out like old times, but something was different. When Jessica was telling Mindy all about her new friends, it seemed like she was getting mixed up with the wrong kind of crowd. The type that liked to stir up trouble, and she worried about Jessica. But she also knew how smart Jessica was, so she figured, you know what, it's just a phase, or she at least hope so. Maybe her old friends just didn't understand her, but there were ones in her new home in Columbus that definitely did. And one of those friends was Nikki Mabry. Jessica and Nikki had become close over the time that she spent there.

It seemed like Nikki understood Jessica, and she liked to have fun. She wasn't so uptight, and they were the typical high school girls, having crushes on boys, hanging out by their lockers and gossiping, and just being girls. Nikki knew how many boys were into Jessica. but Jessica was either super picky or just very focused on school and cheerleading and boys just weren't a priority to her. By her sophomore year, Nikki, Jessica, and their other friends liked to go to the mall and hang out there on the weekends. And I remember those days. The Galleria Mall in Columbus, Ohio was the place to be dropped up by your parents for a couple hours while you walked around, socialized, had fun with your friends, either window shopping or actually spending some of your allowance. Many times they would just eat at the food court and hang out.

And a lot of teens from the surrounding areas would go there. Since there wasn't that much for them to do being under 21 and not really able to go partying at clubs or drink, they were kind of in between that age. They're not really kids, but they're not yet adults. Nikki and Jessica were at the mall one weekend when a guy friend of Nikki's saw them hanging out and he came over to say hello. Nikki's friend had another guy friend with him. His name was Sean Thompson.

then. So both of them were introduced to Jessica that day. Sean was a senior at the time. He was a football player and he and Jessica hit it off pretty quickly. He had seen her a few times before at football games and homecoming was right around the corner so the teens made conversation about all the fun and excitement they would have. Sean was cute. He was popular. He was charming and he thought Jessica was very attractive and he wanted to get to know her better. He definitely didn't hide that fact. He was very flirtatious. And soon they were seeing each other more. and more. Nikki could tell that Sean boosted Jessica's confidence. She felt good around him. He would make her laugh and smile and he loved to cater to her anytime they hung out. He was just sweet

and they got along so well that they became inseparable. It didn't take long before the two of them were more than friends. Sean was Jessica's first boyfriend. She probably didn't know that she could like something or someone more than the dreams that she'd been chasing all of those years working hard in class. But now, she was chasing after Sean. He was all she thought about. She would be daydreaming about him in class, just doodling on her notebook, writing, you know, Jessica loves Sean with hearts, the typical high school crush. Puppy love, as some people like to call it, right? But it's real for those who feel it. And many of us can relate. Soon, Sean took priority over everything else Jessica had going on in her life. School was definitely not on the top of her list of things to do.

It's a time when hormones are changing and at times they're out of control. Jessica had a hard time concentrating and her grades began to slip as a result. Soon, Sean was all Jessica would talk about with her friends. And as happy as Nikki was for her, she also kind of felt like their friendship took a backseat. It was all about writing love letters talking about how cute Sean was and making plans staying out with them. And Jessica's mind with this being her first love, she thought that she was going to marry him one day. Like she was going to be future Mrs. Thompson. Rebecca was busy working for Time Warner Cable at the time,

but when she would come home from work and spend time around Jessica, a child that she never used to have to worry about, she started to see things that caught her attention. Like a notebook with the name Sean written over it a hundred times. But she just thought, you know what? It's a crush. And at her age, surely Jessica wasn't really taking this that seriously. It would probably be another boy's name on a notebook. book next month. But Jessica was also private about the way she felt and she didn't share too much

with her mom. Probably because she knew she wouldn't agree with the things she was doing. It's true. Rebecca's about to find out one thing that infuriated her. Just weeks after they met it was a parent, Jessica was serious about her relationship with Sean. It's where all of her effort was placed now. It was so exciting for her. But that excitement led her to make compromises. Once her friends and later her mother would not approve of. It started with skipping cheerleading practice. Sean wanted to go to a movie one night, but she had to stay after school, so they wouldn't be able to go until later. But instead, Sean kind of convinced Jessica to skip out on cheerleading. At first, Jessica was really concerned. She wasn't the type to do something like that, but Sean and his friends, they were older.

They had a car, and he kind of had that bad boy persona, and he was trying to keep that up. Definitely know the type. the cool guy image and Jessica didn't want to miss an opportunity to hang out with him. So she gave in. Sean didn't take school seriously at all. He didn't care about getting good grades. He was more interested in getting out of high school and being able to do whatever he wanted to do as an adult. But with Jessica being only 15 and him being 18, she had a few years ahead of her before that would be the path she was walking down. But it seemed like Sean wanted to rush that. It's a lot. It's a started with cheerleading. Then with skipping last period and then skipping more than one class a day to skipping the entire day of school to hang out with Sean and his friends. Nikki saw Jessica change

and over the next few months she was like a different person, but Jessica didn't think anyone would take notice. She thought she could handle it, but people were taking note. This was really unlike her. One night, she even stayed out after her curfew. Rebecca waited up all night for her to come home. She was so worried about her. And when she walked through the door, Rebecca told her it was time they had a talk. She wasn't happy. She confronted Jessica about the fact that she didn't seem to care about anything anymore.

She didn't care about cheerleading or school. Nothing seemed to matter these days. And those were the things she used to love and enjoy doing. So it made Rebecca sad. It seemed like her daughter turned her back on all of the things that shaped her into who she had been working so hard to become. So as Jessica's mom and raising her all on her own, Rebecca just wanted to voice her concerns and to let Jessica know how worried she was. But it seemed like Rebecca's concerns were just another thing to add to the list of things that Jessica really didn't seem to care

about. She actually just blew her mom off. She acted like Rebecca was overreacting. It was a school night and Jessica wasn't studying. So Rebecca asked her, how are you going to maintain your grades? How are you going to get a scholarship for college? It's a scary time for a parent when it seems like their child is becoming more independent, and they can't even recognize them anymore. It reminds me so much of Bodie from the Bunker Murders. I will link that case below and at the end. It's sad.

It's an uncertain time in this in-between phase in children's lives where they're becoming an adult, especially when dating is involved. Jessica got snappy with her mom, and this was one of many. of these confrontations that didn't help their relationship. Jessica pretty much told her mom to mind her own business, that she knew best and thought her mom was just standing in the way of her happiness. Rebecca wasn't sure what to do.

She didn't want to push her too hard because she was scared that she might lose her daughter completely. So she just tried to trust Jessica and see what would happen. Maybe it was just a phase, but Jessica would confide in Nikki and other friends and complain about her mother all the time. Nikki, being a concerned friend, tried to make Jessica see her mom's point. She even said, I kind of understand where your mom's coming from and tried to make her see that not everyone had a caring mother like that, and she should be grateful that someone cares about her that much.

Nikki was actually confused about why Jessica would get so angry with her mom, but Nikki couldn't get through to her either. She wanted what she wanted, and that was a life with Sean. while Sean's life was about to change, and Jessica would have to decide to come along for the ride or to stop in her tracks and decide to take a different path. Sean's grades had dropped. He was skipping school all the time, and eventually this led to him getting expelled. There were a lot of things going on in his personal life that he had to deal with, and Jessica was being dragged into that by choice.

She just wanted to stand by her man no matter what. And although Jessica had always been intelligent and level-headed, Her relationship with Sean changed that. Her feelings took precedence over logic. And then Jessica was getting in her own kind of trouble at school. The principal of the high school reached out to Rebecca to notify her that Jessica was skipping school, that her grades had dropped. And she quit cheerleading. Rebecca was shocked.

She had no idea that this was happening. She was furious. This time, Rebecca wasn't so nice about it. They got into a full-blown yelling match and Rebecca had enough. She knew that all of this started with Sean. Jessica was no longer the well-behaved, sensible teenager she had once been. Jessica had become daring and less inhibited to a fault. The relationship with Sean significantly affected Jessica's personality and her mom was worried

that this newfound recklessness would lead to even more trouble if she didn't do something about it. She had to stop it. So she forbid her to see Sean. She said, you can't see him until your grades come up. So Jessica threatened her by saying, I'm going to leave. She told her mom that she didn't want to live with her anymore. Rebecca did not know what to do. She felt like she failed as a parent because she didn't see the signs earlier.

She thought maybe she could have done something months ago to stop this. But Jessica just threw a fit, telling her mom she hated her to get out of her life. She really couldn't see the damage that she was doing not only to her future, but to her mom who cared about her so much. Like many teens, Jessica found it difficult to reconcile her mother's behavior with the image of a mom who was only trying to protect her daughter. This entire plan to keep her from Sean ended up backfiring. Of course it did. Call it forbidden love or star-crossed lovers. But this only made Jessica run faster into Sean's arms. She told her mom, she was going to be with him no matter what.

and she couldn't stop her. Rebecca felt helpless. And I feel for her, my daughter's 11. I have not experienced this yet. Have you, if so, leave it in the comments. I'm scared to read it. And I feel so bad for parents that are going through this because it's almost like they can't recognize

their own children anymore. And I feel bad because I did it to my parents. Rebecca was also in fear for her daughter's safety. And I can also understand that. She's a sophomore in high school at the time. She had so much to learn. She's not an adult. and legally she can't decide anything on her own yet.

So it was actually Rebecca's responsibility to do something, but she needed help. She tried what she could for the next few months. She tried reasoning with Jessica, taking things away, not letting her have privileges, but nothing worked. And after she exhausted all of her resources, Rebecca reached out to a guidance counselor at the Westland High School for assistance. She told the counselor that she and Jessica were at odds all the time. Their arguments were escalating and she was losing control. The counselor was more than happy to help and provided very useful advice that Rebecca was able to put into action right then and there. They offered counseling sessions for mother and daughter at a place called Huckleberry House.

This is a teen crisis center. It's located in the inner city of Columbus. The center provided a variety of resources depending on what a child needed. From just doing counseling sessions to in-house. programs where a teen can stay overnight for a specific period of time. It was a safe haven for teens like Jessica who needed someone to talk to and guide them through these difficult times. I looked and they're still in operation today. They offer a 24-hour teen crisis hotline for youth and their families. The website says they help central Ohio youth who are struggling with homelessness,

family conflict, poverty, and violence. It says that it's just a safe place where you can stay for a night or two. You can expect to find a no judgment zone where the goal is to keep you safe and start sorting out the issues in a way that respects your needs and your unique situation. It's a temporary place for teens to stay. They get hot meals, a warm bed, and access to necessities like clothing and hygiene products. And the best part is they have professionals who are ready and willing to listen and help. I watched a video outlining what they do there, and there's a lot of activities for teens. They're sports. They have a very welcoming staff. and like-minded people and teens that room together and bond. They even do things like chores and

help out and then of course get professional assistance that they need. In Jessica's case, after she was evaluated and they understood the situation, it was concluded she would benefit from 24-hour crisis shelter program where she would stay at the huck house temporarily and learn skills necessary to resolve the conflicts that she was having at home, including individual counseling and sessions with her mom and a therapist. This was the last resort for Jessica and her mom. Yet after a long discussion, they concluded that taking time apart and having a cooling off period was the best thing to do. So Rebecca enrolled Jessica in an intensive two-week program on March 4th, 1991. And even though Jessica was not pleased with this arrangement, she eventually understood how important it was

and the positive impact it would have on her life. She was finally seeing the bigger picture, and she was still allowed to have phone calls with friends and of course with Sean. So she felt like it would be okay. And she was determined to make the most of her time there. Maybe her mom would even end up seeing her point of view. After just a few sessions together, it was already becoming very beneficial for both of them. They had a safe place where they could express their concerns in a healthy way. Get emotional.

They could show how much they cared about one another when they weren't at each other's throats and having these screaming matches. While there, Jessica was working to bring up her grades, and she was also getting back into activities that she used to love. It seemed like this was going very well. Her stay was set to end on Friday, March 15th. So the very next day on Saturday, she would be released and could go back home. She was excited, she wanted to be free, and of course hang out with Sean again. Two weeks may not seem that long, but when you're young, it can seem like a lifetime. And she was doing the best while counting down the days.

and Rebecca, she was so happy that Jessica would be back home. She was so proud of her. Jessica had shown a lot of maturity by being open to the whole idea of having counseling sessions together and their final one was Friday afternoon. It was just one day until Jessica was back. Rebecca had calmed down. She wasn't angry anymore and she was looking forward to their future together. She could have never imagined what would happen next. Definitely not Jessica herself. There was one thing that wasn't going well while. she was stuck at the Huckhouse. That two weeks made her and Sean drift apart. They were used to seeing a lot more of one another. And now that Sean wasn't in school, he wasn't doing high school stuff anymore. He was even more independent. And without being around Jessica, he started to realize how good that freedom felt. It created tension in the relationship. Sean was going out and he was having phone with his friends while Jessica was stuck in a teen center. She may have been there for him no matter what, but when the tables were turned, it didn't seem like Sean had put his life on pause for her. She called him that Friday afternoon. She was excited to let him know, I'm coming home, I'm getting out the

next day. But Sean didn't know what that meant for them anymore. And Jessica was confused. Sean told her that things just felt different between them. It was like he moved on. He moved on. And this made Jessica really anxious. It seemed like Sean was sick of being blamed for Jessica's issues. And as much as he loved her, he thought it would be best if they broke up. Can you imagine what must have been going on in this 15-year-old's mind? This is her first boyfriend. This is her life. Jessica still had two more years of high school. And it was clear her mother didn't like Sean. But Jessica begged him, please don't break up with me. She was really scared and upset, especially when he told her that he was going with some friends to the mall and then to a party. She did not want him

to go without her. She was so desperate to see him, so she told him, you know what, I'll meet you at the mall in like 20 minutes. It was close to 6 p.m. at the time. But the mall wasn't that far from the huck house. It was actually only a five-minute drive, a 20-minute bus ride, but it was a 47-minute walk, so she'd definitely take the bus, which she was used to doing all the time. And it was only a one-minute walk to the bus stop located on East 8th Avenue and Summit Street, you can see it right here on the map. It's actually right around the corner. It was her last evening there, but she couldn't let Sean slip away. She wanted to get to the mall as soon as possible. All the while, Rebecca is preparing for Jessica to come home the next day. She has no idea that she just skipped out of Huck House to

go hang out with the boy who started all this drama to begin with. It was getting later, and some nights, while Jessica was at Huck House, she would call her mom to say good night and sometimes her mom would call her, but that night, neither one of them did. And Rebecca just felt like, you know what? There's so much to do. I'm getting the house ready. I'm going to see her in the morning so they could both get a good night's sleep and not bother one another. As it got later and Rebecca was getting into bed, she assumed Jessica had been asleep for a while already, safe at the Huckhouse. But she was about to find out that wasn't the case. Not at all. The Huckleberry house had an 11 p.m. headcount and when the RAs were making their rounds, they couldn't locate Jessica. It was close to

midnight when Rebecca was woken up by the phone ringing. It was someone from Huckleberry House informing her that Jessica was not accounted for and Rebecca was furious. All the hard work that they had both put in and she runs off, most likely to go see shot. She can't believe it. She tells the Huck house she thinks she knows where she is. Rebecca figures this is just another one of Jessica's little games. Rebecca's thinking that in Jessica's mind, she thinks I'm coming home the next day so hell with this whole plan. I made nice long enough and now it's time to do what I want. And that's C-Shahn. So now it's Rebecca's mission to find her daughter. She's calling all of Jessica's friends asking if they'd heard or seen from her that day and they said they hadn't. And it was late. So Rebecca wasn't

going to call that many people. She just figured at some point she would get a call from Jessica asking to be picked up and apologizing. Rebecca, when back to bed, anticipating Jessica's call, but it never came. The next morning, Rebecca expected to hear from her daughter, but she didn't. So she really started to worry. She thought maybe Jessica had finally followed through on the threat she used to say, that she was going to run away from home. Rebecca decided to call some of her friends over, and they agreed to go around the town, all different places where they knew Jessica might be and try to locate her, but none of them could. So they banned together at Rebecca's house to offer her support.

She had tried a number of times to contact Sean, but he never answered or returned her calls. Rebecca was trying hard to understand what may have been happening. Why would Jessica not come home? It wasn't like her to stay out overnight. It would be one thing for her to come home late, but this had never happened. So she figured, you know what? Maybe she's scared to come home. Maybe she thinks she's going to get in trouble.

Maybe she fell asleep when she was out with Sean. She didn't get a chance to come home, and now she was fearful to go back to Huckhouse because she left the way that she did. So finally, Rebecca called the police. But to them, it was looking like Jessica was a runaway. They see it all too often. A teen gets in arguments with their parents. They're sent to Huckleberry House. They get some independence, and they choose to run away instead of coming home.

They needed Rebecca to calm down and wait. Well, you don't have to. Demand to report your minor child missing. There's no 48-hour rule. But back then, Rebecca didn't know any better. She thought that the cops knew best. Meanwhile, she decided to do only things she could right now, and that was write a letter to God.

She said, even if Jessica doesn't come home for yet another night, just please let me know she's okay. But Jessica wasn't okay. The next day was Sunday, March 17th. A little afternoon, a young photography student was exploring a place called Foster Chapel Cemetery and taking photographs when she saw something in the distance. It didn't look right.

She kept snapping pictures, and she was getting closer and closer trying to figure out what it was that she was looking at through her viewfinder. She thought, it might be a person sleeping in the grass, so she called out to them, but they didn't answer. She took a few more steps towards them in their direction, and it was clear that the person was not clothed. And then she realized they were covered in blood.

She had just stumbled upon a deceased person in a cemetery. That must have been terrifying and confusing. So many thoughts were probably running through her mind. Is this a person who was dug up by someone? What is going on? Frantic, the college student fled. She went to go find a phone. She calls 911 and she tells them everything she just saw.

Sheriff Jim Sabin from Madison County Sheriff's Office, along with prosecutor Steve Pronay, respond to that call. They were told the approximate location. of the body. It was in the southeast corner of the cemetery, so they make their way over to that area. Officer Sabin locates a nude female lying about 20 feet from a grave and close to a wire fence. Her body was partially hidden by a gravestone. Prosecutor Prone took a look and was mortified by what he saw. He said it could only be described as sickening. There was blood everywhere, and it was actually the condition of her face and her head that was the most horrific. Her face had been beaten until it

wasn't even a face anymore. It was obvious how violent this attack was. Her upper body was covered in slashes, abrasions, and bruises. She had nothing on but a tangled and twisted bra that was kind of hanging off her chest and one single muddy white sock on one of her feet. That's it. As they scanned the immediate area, they didn't see her clothing nearby. No pants, no shirt or underwear were present in the area and as they looked around preliminarily, they could see footprints in the soft, muddy ground. Footprints that they know were probably made by their victim. She didn't have a wallet or a purse, so there was no way to identify her. But by the look of the body, from what they could tell, she appeared to be in her early 20s,

possibly younger, they couldn't be sure. Homicide and crime scene investigators were called in. They decided to work backward to figure out how she got to this. this resting place. They want to attempt to retrace her path through the cemetery. This was a very rural area, not a place where just anyone would usually find themselves. It was about 20 miles from Columbus out in the middle of nowhere. All that was around was farmland. The homes were very sparse. They were scattered across acres and acres of land with the closest one being about a quarter of a mile away. They wondered who she was and how she got there. This area is actually called

plain city and that is fitting. It's one of the most rural areas I think I've seen in a case that I've covered so far, just as far as how empty it is, how there's just farmland as far as the eye can see. Just look at it. So for someone to be found in a place like this so far from the city, it was challenging to figure up. So they begin at the scene, where had she come from? And where did the altercation begin? As they work backward following her footprints, they see impressions in the soft soil behind a tombstone, and it looks like they were made with knees or elbows, as though she was in a crouching position hiding behind these graves. And they find these impressions by several other tombstones. They believe that she was using them to take cover from an attacker. Each one is closer and closer

to the front of the cemetery, and as they get closer to the entrance, they see yet another white sock laying in the grass next to a cement driveway that comes through the cemetery. The sock is dirty and it matches the one that the victim has on her other foot. They also notice that it contains little rocks and yellow paint chips, which indicate to investigators that this woman have been running from the roadway. They're standing even closer now to the front of the cemetery when they see something. It's a piece of gray duct tape stuck to the top of one of the gravestones and there are long strands of hair still sticking to it. They keep making their way following each clue until they see another one on a wooden fence in the front of the cemetery.

It actually looked like muddy handprints. The ones that would be left if someone climbed over the fence to get inside. They think that this is where the victim made entry. But where did she come from? The footprints went through a ditch beside the roadway. And clearly, she wasn't familiar with the cemetery because if she were, she would know you don't need to climb over a fence to get inside. There was an entrance big enough to drive right through it, and it wasn't that far away.

But then again, it was apparent she was running from an attacker or attackers, making quick-in-the-moment decisions. The trail pretty much goes cold once they've reached the roadway. It's called George'sville Road. This led the investigators to believe that she came here by car, either by force, or she ran or escaped out of a vehicle on this roadway. They don't really have that much to go on. They doubt anyone would have been anywhere nearby and would have heard anything or seen anything. Their theory is that she was running from her assailant and jumped over the fence in the dark, not even realizing it was a cemetery and she attempted to flee but ended up being attacked

before she could get away. There was no question. This poor girl was running for her life. It was probably very confusing for her to navigate these surroundings in the dark, ancient tombstones, derelict mausoleums, it added to the sense of terror. Even to the investigators who were used to very violent scenes, they felt to chill as they were looking through the grounds of the cemetery for clues. There was just nothing out there. At night, it would be pitch black. There's no lamppost or street signals, and there's almost nowhere to run and hide. No one would hear you scream. And scarier yet, she was running among the dead. Any screams would have been in vain. They were still scouring the entire cemetery for clues, and that's when they spot something else.

At the back, near where the victim's body was found. In the far corner of the cemetery, they see two bloody pieces of large tombstone. It was about 20 inches wide and 30 inches high and 70 pounds, and it's broken in half. They realize they just found the murder weapon. The attacker had actually grabbed this tombstone and pulled it from the soil. and used it to beat the victim. That to me is just more than terrifying. It's like something you would hear in a horror movie,

but this is someone's real life. And some of these graves had been there since the 1700s, so it wouldn't have been difficult to remove a headstone like this. But to think of someone repeatedly bashing it into someone's head and their neck, their face, that's just unbelievable. What kind of monster would do such a thing and why? Just the thought of what you must have gone through was heartbreaking for me and, of course, the investigators. They couldn't help but feel sad, but they had to continue the investigation and use that as fuel.

Now, I want to tell you the items that were found and sent to the crime lab for analysis. One muddy sock was found near the driveway, as I said, and that contained microfibers and debris. Hair from a wire fence that was just a few feet east of the body. vegetation from the fence that they wanted to test for blood, a section of a wood fence post that appeared to have blood on it, one gold earring and a white bead collected from the victim's hair, a soil sample that was collected right next to her left foot, miscellaneous trash that was in the ditch line in front of the cemetery

that they wanted to test for prints just in case, as well as a cowboy boot and broken car parts from the west side of a small bridge in the area, as well as two rolls of coat of color gold 100 film. And lastly, they had a piece of gray duct tape with a clump of hair on it that was found on the headstone belonging to Anthony Lee Taylor. They were going to test that for latent prints, hairs, and fibers. They had also bagged both of the victim's hands. Her left hand had microfibers, hair, and debris on it.

They also collected the slabs of sandstone tombstone to see if they could pull any fingerprints off of them. Now Sheriff Sabin is focused on finding out who the victim is. At the same time, news has traveled and word got out about the body of a young female being found dead in a cemetery out in Madison County. Rebecca is stunned. She's praying it's not Jessica, but she calls the police to let them know she called a couple days ago and her daughter was still missing. Sheriff Sabin, along with other officers, go over to Rebecca's residence. She gives them a description of her daughter, white, golden brown hair, green eyes, 15 years old, and that was hard for investigators too here.

They knew their victim was young, but 15? That was heartbreaking. They too, of course, were hoping this wasn't her. But the only way they could figure that out was unfortunately for Rebecca to look at pictures of the deceased victim. But by that time, the body had been taken to Franklin County Coroner's Office for autopsy. So the body had been cleaned. that way it was more identifiable. So Rebecca agrees and she's handed the photographs and as she's slipping through, she is shocked. She's never seen anyone in such a horrific state.

This victim had black eyes, busted lip, a huge cut across her chest. And Rebecca says, no, no, that is not my daughter. She kept looking, but she just didn't recognize the girl in the pictures. It wasn't Jessica. She just kept shaking her and saying, no, no, no, this isn't my daughter. But the thing is, Sheriff Saban had caught a glimpse of a photograph of Jessica as he entered the home. He knew right away the body he found in the cemetery was hers. But sadly, he knew, like many other parents in these moments, Rebecca was in shock and she was in denial.

They needed an alternative person to identify the body as Jessica's, so a family friend went down to the morgue and confirmed it was her. Finally, it had been determined that the murder victim found at the Foster Chapel Cemetery was 15-year-old Jessica Lynn Keane. And eventually, this was confirmed through autopsy. Actually, let's go right into that as well, the autopsy report from the Franklin County Coroner's Office. It was performed by Dr. Patrick Fardale. First of all, it was clear that Jessica had been murdered. The type of injuries she sustained could not have been self-inflicted, so the manner of death was ruled a homicide. The cause of death was blunt force impact to the head and neck, specifically a fractured mandible,

which is the bottom jaw, a brain bleed from force impacting her head, an injury to the neck, an aspiration of blood, choking on her own blood. It was truly sad. Any of those things could have caused her death. It was truly sad. This was a very painful and possibly slow death. It could have been agonizing. It could have gone on for hours.

and she most likely suffered all alone until she took her final breath. It's just particularly heinous and there's more. There was sperm present from a vaginal swab. And something else that I found interesting is that apparently by looking at the semen sample under a microscope, they can get a general window of time when the assault occurred. This is due to the lifespan of sperm, which can live to about seven days. They can estimate how long the sperm have been active and look at their mobility. at the point they're collected, and I'm not a scientist. I don't know how all this actually works,

but later when they're building a timeline of events, this is one of the ways they do it by looking at the sperm sample. We'll get back to that in a moment, but now they know what the motive could have been. Or was this just something else the perpetrator did because he could to violate her? But more importantly, they have DNA. This meant they most likely had the killer's DNA. But in 1991, DNA was brand new. It was nothing like it is today at all. The test that they used to perform was called an RFLP. This stands for restriction fragment length polymorphism.

This was actually the first DNA profiling technique that was inexpensive enough to be able to be used on a widespread scale to solve crimes with forensic science. I learned so much when I'm researching these videos and I hope that you do too because I feel like I learn something every time. So they use these ends up. items to break apart the DNA into pieces and they compare the resulting fragment lengths. That's where it gets its name, but it's very limited. This technique would result in what they call an auto radiogram.

And I know you have seen one of these before. It looks like this. It almost looks like a scantron when you fill it out when you're taking a test. And they have the DNA sequences on them from the suspects so that they can be compared to the sample collected at the crime scene. See this right here? You've probably seen this before. Well, this is how it used to be done.

And a scientist would sit there and compare them. I'll show you a better example instead. Look at this one. See, the first strip is the sample collected of the crime scene. And then the three on the right are swabs that they took from suspects. Now look. See how theoretically suspect number two matches the sample from the crime scene because they match up? That's how this science used to work to match criminals to the DNA left behind.

So that is what they did in this case. They took that semen sample. They got a DNA sequence from it, and they made an audio radiogram. And now they could use it to compare it to anyone they thought may have killed Jessica. But that's the thing. This DNA is only good if you have another DNA to compare it to. So they need to get their boots on the ground and talk to people close to Jessica and find out if there was anyone that would have wanted to hurt her.

First, they speak with Rebecca who is absolutely devastated. She's beside herself with sadness. She said that this was exactly what she was trying so hard to prevent. And now it actually happened. The first person that she tells the investigators that they should look into is Sean Thompson. She gives them all of his information. She tells them he is a blackmail. He's 18 years old.

This is where he lives. This is his phone number. His approximate height, wait. And the last time she knows that he had seen or spoken to Jessica, but she doesn't know much. However, she tells them, I am certain that Jessica was with Sean the night she disappeared. from Huckleberry House. Jessica's sister Heather received the news about her little sister and she was in complete shock. She said she stood there just moaning and sadness and disbelief. She couldn't even cry. It was just this gut-wrenching feeling and she couldn't believe this was really happening

that it could actually be true that her little sister was not only dead, but she had been murdered. How and why? Those were the questions that kept being repeated by everyone, even the investigators, of course. Jessica had barely lived in Columbus two years. So mostly, of our closest friends were back in her old town where she grew up. And when they were given the news of the murder, they were all heartbroken, but not all of them were shocked. There were some that told investigators they knew something like this was going to happen. Remember the friends that she saw during the summer? One of them was Sherry. She mentioned to police that she had been worried about Jessica ever since she told her about her new friend group and the hitchhiking

and the recklessness. It all concerned Sherry. And she felt like nothing good was going to come out of it. And now her childhood friend is dead. And she points investigators toward Jessica's new friend group. Then Mindy comes forward and she repeats the same concerns that Jessica was mixed up with the wrong crowd. And now look what happened. Remember Rau-debe, whom Jessica befriended at the apartment complex as a child? Well, she and her mother were stunned. her mother maisie said that jessica was smart and intelligent and beautiful and that this was a disaster and rhoda bed said that when they were young your parents tell you that bad things can happen but you don't believe them when this happens to someone you love it teaches you to be fearful and that

was the current that was running through this whole case fear and it seemed many people close to jesska were fearful of her new friend group specifically her boyfriend shan so that's who authorities want to talk to. But conveniently, Sean is nowhere to be found. The next stop was Huckleberry House, where investigators were informed that the last time the staff had seen Jessica was 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon. All the teens were interviewed, and many of them echoed the same sequence of events, that Jessica came there in early March. She stayed for about two weeks, and over the course of her time there, she spoke with the other teens about her boyfriend, Sean, who she was also on the phone with every day and the day she disappeared. However, they said that Sean and Jessica had been

arguing a lot lately, mainly over her not being able to see him. They wanted to get together so they could discuss things and see if they could work them out. On her last day there, she was on the phone with Sean towards the evening. All of a sudden, they heard her start to argue with him. She was visibly upset, and eventually she began to cry and to beg Sean not to break up with her. When she got off the phone, she told one of the other teens that was present that her and Sean had broken up, but that she was going to meet him at the mall, and then she left. As the investigators canvass the surrounding area, a witness who also stayed at the Huckleberry House said that they saw Jessica at the bus stop around 6 p.m. Friday evening. It's the one I showed you earlier on the corner of Summit

Street and East 8th Avenue. This was all the information they had to build out a timeline of events prior to her murder. She was never seen by anyone after 6 p.m. that night, and she was on her way to meet up with Sean, who they now know had been arguing with her, and apparently there were whispers about a gold necklace with the word taken on it that Sean had given, Jessica. She always wore it, and the word was spreading about how it was never found at the crime scene, which was true. It hadn't been found. New articles were coming out every day, with interviews from different teens that Jessica had been friends with, which ended up leading to even more new articles that spun the narrative in the direction of accusing

Jessica's mom of not liking Sean because he was black and Jessica was white. However, not only did Rebecca clear the air on this, but so did many of Jessica's friends, including Nikki. They said Jessica never mentioned that as a reason her mom was upset. They said Rebecca's dislike for Sean had to do with the way that Jessica behaved, after the two started dating his age and the fact that he left school. It had nothing to do with his race. Carissa Hill was a 14-year-old friend of Jessica's in Columbia and she said, yeah, Sean was the issue. But her mom disapproved because Sean was a bad influence on Jessica. Of course, we can never get inside

Rebecca's mind, but this was the first guy Jessica had ever dated. So I think no matter what, it was the fact she was dating a guy and that he took presidents over everything at least. Rebecca had told Jessica that if she could get her grades up, she could see Sean. But Jessica just kept acting more and more irresponsible. It was hard in this moment when her daughter was murdered not to hate Sean, who she blamed for tearing her daughter away from her and probably ending her life. She definitely did not have positive things to say about him. He was still nowhere to be found.

And a girl named Daniel Gillenwater, a 15-year-old friend of Jessica's told the investigators, Sean had actually left town with a friend. He was in Florida. And then she added, quote, he doesn't even know Jessica's dead. End quote. Well, that was debatable. But now they had a bulletin out from Ohio down to Florida. Officers would now be on the lookout for a car matching the description of the one that Sean and his friend left in. Apparently, Sean decided to skip town right before Jessica's body had been found and after 6 p.m. on Friday night when she was on her way to meet him. Clearly, this was seen as a blatant attempt to evade authorities. Florida is a prime location to get out of the country as well, so they were still looking for him

by the 28th of March, almost two weeks after Jessica's body had been found. And finally, he and his buddy get pulled over in Georgia. They detained both of them and they start questioning them. And ultimately, they bring them back to Ohio for a more in-depth interrogation, as well as DNA swabs. This is when Sean was informed that Jessica had been killed and he was in total shock. It truly did not seem like he had a clue about what happened. But he had almost two weeks to practice this response. They asked him why he fled Ohio and he explained there were a few reasons. First of all, him and his friends decided it was time to take a spring break vacation of Florida,

which was a very common location for many teens and college students at the time. It still is today, but back in the 90s, it was very, the place for Spring Break. It was the Spring Break Capitol. But he also said he wanted to leave Ohio because he had been arrested for burglary and he was trying to avoid a court date that he had. That did not look good for him. But he promises that he wasn't trying to flee because of anything related to Jessica. But he told them he had been trying to distance himself from her because he didn't want to be the cause of all the friction between her and her mom. He felt that they would be better off breaking up, and they had broken up on Friday evening. He did wait around at the mall for a while,

but she never showed up, so he just figured she couldn't leave the Huck House. His ride was finally leaving, and he left with his friends, but he insisted that he had nothing to do with her murder, and he gives a sample of his DNA, and so does his friend. That friend was 19-year-old George Cole. He had caught the eye of detectives. Despite the fact that he was pretty young, George had an extensive criminal record. He had been arrested multiple times and charged with various offenses ranging from petty theft, vandalism, to other crimes. His record was a sign of trouble, and it peaked the detective's interests. During their interviews, the detectives learned there had been arguments between George and Jessica in the past, but they would have to wait another two weeks to get those DNA results back.

Meanwhile, results from other pieces of evidence were finally back from the crime scene. Unfortunately, no fingerprints were able to be taken off of that bloody slab of tombstone that had been used to bludgeon Jessica. The sandstone that was used to make these tombstones back then was very rough and porous and it was too difficult to test for prints. There were also no fingerprints on the duct tape and no evidence from the socks that they found. But then a tip comes in about Sean's friend George, that allegedly he had been walking around town bragging about killing Jessica. One person claimed he threatened to do the same thing that he did to the girl in the graveyard. After the detectives received these tips, they called George back in. But during his interview, yes, he admits,

I made those disturbing remarks. But I said it because I wanted to impress my friends and enhance my image. Let me ask, what kind of person thinks that that's impressive? Before they could even dive in any further, something big happens. A clue comes in from a local resident of Madison County. He had been driving down that same road in front of the cemetery late on Friday night, actually in the middle of the night. Past midnight. He said he saw a car in the middle of the road with its headlights on, but it wasn't moving. So he decides to park behind it, get out of his truck, and walk over to see if someone was in need of assistance. As he gets closer, he realizes the driver's door is wide open and the keys are still inside.

and the car's running, but no one's in there. He looked in the back seat, nothing. It was just really unusual. Now, this wasn't in front of the cemetery, though. It was before you come up on the cemetery, several hundred yards from it. This meant, if Jessica had been screaming from the cemetery at this point, this man who was standing at the roadside,

most likely wouldn't have been able to hear her. It was just too far away. However, investigators now believe that this was the car that Jessica was in prior to her. death and the person driving was probably the killer. The resident that observed the car didn't stay that much longer because there wasn't much for him to do as weird as it was. Something to note is that this area would have been the perfect place to hurt someone and hide their body. Not in the cemetery, but actually right here, Prairie Oaks Hiking Trail. Yes indeed. Look at this place. There is a road

that leads right to the trail from George'sville Road. And once you're on that trail, there are so many very dense wooded areas and a number of bodies of water. It would be very hard to find a person's remains in this location and it could have been where the killer intended to take Jessica before she was able to escape and run into that cemetery. We don't know where they were coming from but the residents said the car was parked several hundred feet north of the cemetery and the hiking trail would have been on that road right past the cemetery. The hiking trail is only a quarter of a mile from the southeast portion of that cemetery where Jessica's body was found. Not to mention, the killer could

have planned to pull over anywhere along this road and cause her death and then dispose of her in this field or driven to the trail after she was deceased. That actually could have been what was happening when he pulled the car over before it reached the cemetery. A struggle. That Jessica was somehow able to break free from long enough to run as fast as she could. We know she had duct tape on her somewhere because a piece of it ended up on a gravestone. And because there was hair on it, the investigators believed that that specific piece of duct tape found at the scene had been over Jessica's mouth to keep her from screaming. But she could have had it on her wrists and she was able to break free from it and left it

in the car. She probably realized that this man had a plan and it wouldn't end with her being able to walk away and talk about it. It's so frightening for me to think about this poor 15-year-old girl and what she had to go through. We will never know exactly what happened in those moments. But what detectives do know now is that Sean Thompson's DNA results came back and they were shocking. They did not match the swab taken from Jessica at the crime scene. And his friend's DNA didn't match either. They both had alibis and they checked out as well. Wow. All along, Jessica's mom kept saying she was certain that Jessica's with Sean that night. Well, you can't be certain of anything unless you truly have proof. The proof the investigators had was scientific evidence. It had ruled Sean out. And that semen sample was able to give them a timeline of when the first attack on Jessica took place. Judging by the degradation of the oldest sperm, they placed the assailant and Jessica together in having forced intercourse around 7.30 or 8 p.m. when Sean was at the mall and left to go to a party with friends.

This was only about 30 minutes to an hour after she was last seen at the bus stop, with no proof that she even stepped foot on a bus. When news of Jessica's murder spread throughout Columbus, tips started coming in. One caller reported finding a pair of sneakers north of the cemetery on the road. This information was taken very seriously, and the police department assigned officers to investigate these tips. detectives received a call from someone else who had discovered a pair of jeans near the

entrants of the ramp to I-70 traveling eastbound. Upon investigation, the detectives concluded that the jeans and the sneakers were Jessica's. But they didn't understand why Jessica's belongings were found so far from the crime scene at the cemetery. The clothing was nowhere near the mall or the Huck House either. And as they're looking through all this clothing, the detectives find two bus tickets and two transfer stickers in the back pocket of Jessica's jeans. This led them to believe that she never boarded the bus. She traveled frequently by bus, and she would have previously purchased a book of paper bus passes that she could use to get from one place to another, like Huck House, back home to school, and they believe she had brought

enough to get to and from the mall and Huckleberry House but never used them. Investigators conclude that Jessica had been abducted from the bus. bus stop. Now they needed to find out who took her. Nikki told them that they never got into a car with someone unless they knew them. She said there could be a chance that maybe it was somebody Jessica knew or kind of knew. Maybe it wasn't a really good friend, but someone she was familiar enough with that she trusted them to get in their car, not knowing what would ultimately happen. But she was so desperate to see Sean that night. She wanted to get to him as soon as she could because he had broken up with her

and he was about to go out and have fun without her. So investigators think that someone drove up and offered Jessica a ride to the mall. And unfortunately, the urgency to see Sean made Jessica compromise her safety. Amon Costello was the assistant prosecutor at the time and he said, quote, imagine being picked up,

thinking that this kind good Samaritan is doing you a favor and taking you to the shopping mall, but instead you're taken 30 minutes away and attacked repeatedly. Then after dark and you've been held captive for hours, you're driven out to rural Madison County, knowing this man is not going to leave you out there alive. He went on to say, quote,

she had no way to protect herself. All she could do was try to punch, hit, and kick this man. End quote. Jessica was athletic and feisty. Her family called her a fighter, so there was no doubt in people's minds that she put up quite a fight. we know that she was somehow able to break free and get out of that car.

But this was before we had cell phones and in this area, there were no street lights, let alone a pay phone. The only thing you could do was find a house and knock on their door, praying they're going to answer and let you use the phone to call 911. Now that the detectives have a theory, they go back to the evidence and the crime scene trying to put together what they think happened after Jessica jumped out of that car. From what they gathered, they think that she managed to get out of their restraints, open the passenger's door, and run.

She probably had no idea she was running into that cemetery, but she had no choice. She was desperately trying to find a place to hide, and she used the gravestones to conceal her from her attacker. The investigators go back at night, and they look at what Jessica would have seen, and they notice they can see a farmhouse in the distance. Jessica probably saw that house too. It wasn't that close by, but it was the only one of the first. around and it could have had a light on. So she did the smart thing and made a run for it.

The thing is, she didn't realize in the dark that the cemetery had a fence around the sides. It wasn't as visible as the one she jumped over in the front. It was a wire fence with wooden posts. She probably waited and rested behind one of the gravestones. She saw her attacker was far enough away that she could gain some distance from him and she made a run for it towards that farmhouse. she ran with all of her might only to be stopped dead in her tracks by slamming into one of the wooden posts at full speed. They believe this is what happened because her hair was actually tangled up in the wires and the fence right in front of where they found her body. She could have been knocked unconscious by the force, only to have her attacker catch up with her and callously end her life. It's truly sad. She had nowhere to go.

Everyone wanted answers. Meanwhile, they have to prepare for Jessica's funeral. Heather lived 70 miles away, but as soon as she heard that news, she raced home to be with her mother. When Heather eventually arrived, she found Rebecca shaking and crying. There were just so many unanswered questions. Heather and Rebecca needed to focus on preparing for Jessica's funeral, so that's what they did. It wasn't really Rebecca, though, because nobody could console her. The thought of her daughter being gone forever was too much. She couldn't help but feel responsible for Jessica's death in some way. So Jessica's sister Heather, only being a teenager herself at the time, had to take on this task of planning her baby sister's funeral.

Heather had to make all the arrangements herself, including picking out Jessica's casket, which was a heartbreaking experience for such a young person. Hundreds of people had gathered to pay their respects to Jessica and her family on the day of her funeral. Jessica was laid to rest. in the peaceful grounds of Sunset Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. And Jessica may have finally been able to rest, but her family and detectives were not. Jessica's family knew that the longer the investigation went on without an arrest,

the smaller the chance was that they'll ever solve her murder. The experience was so traumatic for her entire family. Rebecca said she became obsessed with finding her daughter's killer. She checked in with the detectives all the time to see if any progress had been made. She was also paranoid. Whenever she saw a strange guy, she couldn't help but wonder, was that the man who killed Jessica? Her mind was consumed with getting justice for her daughter, and I don't blame her. But for years, Jessica's murder had been an ongoing mystery that eluded detectives. Her case had become so perplexing that it eventually appeared on the popular TV show Unsolved Mysteries.

On the show, Rebecca was actually interviewed, and I watched this, and she talked. about how she could almost imagine the way Jessica would have felt, being so scared that night and her heart pounding, hiding behind those gravestones praying to Jesus to save her. Rebecca also said that she doesn't seek revenge. She believes only God has the right to take a life. However, if someone did this and got away with it, Rebecca did fear that they would do it again. She said that Unsolved Mysteries was their last chance to find out who killed Jessica. Unfortunately, it never brought any tips that led them to the killer. Five years went by, and in May of 1996, they still hadn't arrested anyone, and the case went cold.

Sheriff Sabin enlisted the help of Special Agent Greg Costas of the BCI, and he took on the case, but he got very emotionally involved, even though he was a veteran detective. And that was because Jessica was so young. But he started from the beginning, as though he had been put on the case from day one. He went back through all the information and he re-interviewed everyone, including Mr. Sean Thompson and his friend George Cole. And that's when he finds out. They weren't alone on that Florida trip. They went with four other guys. So we had to track them down and interview them.

They had never even been spoken to all of those years. So that's a start right there. And he gets DNA from all four of them. He polygraphed all six of them because none of them had ever even taken a polygraph. And guess what? Nothing matched. None of their DNA matched and they all passed their polygraphs. It was another dead end. Over the years, the Dayton Daily News had been running crime stopper ads. They were asking for tips and offering a $100,000 reward, but the detectives received no credible leads. Again, time ticks by. It's March of 2001, the 10th anniversary of Jessica's murderer, and still they have no answers.

One big change, though, was that CODIS had been formed since the murder. It's the combined DNA index system, and that's exactly what it is. It's a system that combines all the DNA samples of all the criminals so they can track them nationwide and see if their DNA links to any other cases. Well, during the time that Special Agent Costas took over the case, he wanted to submit that semen sample into CODIS. Now, they knew there wasn't a guarantee that the killer's DNA would be in their system because for that to have happened, he would have had to commit another

violent crime and then been caught since 1991 when Jessica's murder had occurred. But many times when someone commits one crime like this, they're bound to be a repeat offender. So it was worth a try. However, they got some devastating news. Remember that old way I told you about the RFLP? Well, it wouldn't be able to be read by their new system. That was so disappointing. It was actually devastating. They had an entirely new technique for DNA profiling. It was called STR, short tandem repeat. It's more accurate.

So even though they had this full DNA profile, it would be like having something in a different language that couldn't be interpreted. It was obsolete, and therefore it was worthless to them. And not only that, the worst part was the old DNA testing method had used up the swab. That swab had been used to get the DNA from inside Jessica's body. It's like a long Q-tip that has a cotton part at the end. Well, it was used up and it was thrown away. So now they really didn't even have the killer's DNA.

Several more years go by. It had been 15 years since Jessica's murder. An agent cost us literally resubmitted every piece of evidence, just crossing his fingers and hoping that something had usable DNA on it. Still nothing. However, forensic scientist Max Larenjani was assigned to do whatever he could. There was a lot of pressure put on this man. He was told that this was the oldest unsolved case in their backlog and it had no suspects. He really wished that the previous team

hadn't used up that swab of semen. But then he finds something. When the original DNA vaginal swab was taken, it was stored in a vial. And even though the swab was completely gone, the bottle, the vial, it was still in their possession. I got really excited when I was reading this. Scientists Larenjani thought that this was a long shot, but perhaps some of the sperm had rubbed off on the sides or the bottom of this vial. So he took another sterile swab,

and he swabbed the inside all over. He knew that most likely it wouldn't yield anything, but he only needed a minuscule amount. He knew that in his hands he had the vial that the original item was in contact with. with. But he was holding his breath. He was just hoping something would come up, but he wasn't expecting it to. Especially since this had been sitting in storage for 17 years by this time. He put what he swabbed onto a glass slide and he looked at it under a microscope and he said he

actually gasped because there was a single sperm cell there. And that's all he needed. That is amazing. It is unbelievable. I love science. And now he has a DNA profile of the killer that they can actually enter into codis. Can you even imagine how that must have felt? But now they have to wait. At 10.11 a.m. on March 17th, 2008, 17 years to the exact day that Jessica Keen's body was found in that cemetery. Sheriff Sabin got a phone call saying that they got a hit on the DNA sample that they submitted and I got the chills. Sometimes it's almost as though there's some kind of unseen powerful force, besides science, for this timing to be so perfect. But they have a name. Marvin Lee Smith Jr. It's a name of a person that has never been on their radar. They do a background check.

And they find out Marvin had a history of violence, especially towards women. He had been convicted of the R word forced sexual intercourse and many other criminal offenses in the past. And not only that, there was one crime that stood out to them. One of the offenses that Marvin had been convicted of was against a young woman that he picked up at a bus stop. Marvin fit the profile of the type of person that would have done this to Jessica. And guess what? On August 1991, just five months after Jessica's murder, Marvin had been sentenced to three years in the Ohio Correctional System at the London Ohio facility. This was only a mile and a half away from the Madison County Sheriff's office and right next to the BCI building. So all that time when they were looking for the killer,

he was essentially right there in such close proximity. But that was all before CODIS, and the states at the time didn't require DNA samples from inmates. He was incarcerated until 1995 and then he moved to North Carolina. He probably thought that he got away with it. But in April of 2000, he decided to violate his parole because he didn't want to attend counseling for sexual predators. So he was sent back to Ohio for 30 days. And at that time, they collected a DNA sample when he was incarcerated. So essentially, detectives could have gotten a hit years ago, had the DNA sample in Jessica's case been retested back then.

But they might not have had the same technology they did in 2008. By the time they get this hit, Marvin had definitely moved on in his life. He was married. He had an infant son. He was working at Walmart in North Carolina. he definitely thought he got away with murder. It was easy to track him down. They found him outside his workplace on a smoke break,

and they had a warrant for his arrest. They bring him back to Ohio for an interrogation, but knowing that Marvin Smith Jr. could easily claim that he had consensual sex with Jessica and that someone else killed her afterward, the detectives were very cautious about how they approached him. It's basically Agent Costa showing him a picture of Jessica. Of course, he denies no ringer,

But Costas is like, okay, well, then how does your semen get inside a woman that you say you've never met? What's the explanation? And Marvin says, I don't know. Costas says, well, we know based on scientific evidence that you had physical contact with this girl. And all Marvin could say was, I can't explain it. Costas was like, right. Well, the odds are literally one in one quintrillion that someone else, other than you, had sexual relations with her and left this. in there. So to illustrate this, Costas takes a piece of paper and a pen and he wrote a one with

18 zeros after it. He held it up and said, Marvin, do you know what this is? He says, that's a lot of zeros. That's when Costas told him, that's the odds that someone other than you left that seam in there. It's better than a fingerprint. It's scientific. And Marvin had nothing else to say. So on May 14th, 2008, a Madison County grand jury indicted him for aggravated murder, kidnapping, and the R word. Investigators believe on the evening of March 15th, Marvin asked Jessica if she needed a ride to the mall when she was sitting at that bus stop. And once she was inside his car, they'd think he went somewhere secluded, jumped in the back and assaulted her numerous times, over and over again the next few hours. Then at some point, he headed out to that rural and. area in Madison County and threw Jessica's clothing out the window on the way so that he could

dispose of evidence. Jessica was probably aware that he was going to kill her. He may have even told her so, but Jessica managed to get away. She jumped out and she ran. She was in an unfamiliar place in the middle of nowhere. It was dark and would have been hard for her to see anything. She ultimately jumped that fence in the cemetery thinking it could have led to a home or a building, maybe a daughter, maybe a door that she could have gone through or a business. But she found herself in a cemetery, and she had to resort to hiding behind gravestones. And by the way, the one piece of duct tape that was hanging on Anthony Lee Taylor's grave,

I looked him up, and he had died just a year before at the age of 17. To think that she was using another teen's grave as protection was really chilling and sad. If only she hadn't hit that post on that. wire fence. Maybe she could have gotten to that farmhouse in the distance, that beacon that called out to her in the darkness, that safe haven, but instead she fell to her final resting place. Her mother hopes that that fall did render her unconscious so that she didn't have to be aware of what Marvin the monster was doing to her. Another innocent girl killed for a man's pleasure. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can

skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned and today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. It sickens me. As the prosecution prepared for trial, they asked for the maximum sentence for Marvin. a death sentence. But Marvin Smith pleaded guilty to all charges just one month before trial was said to begin, taking a plea deal, sparing Jessica's family from going through the trial, believing them with so many questions. Jessica's family had to accept that Marvin Smith Jr.

would not ever have to explain why he killed Jessica. When they saw him in court for the very first time, they described him as non-emotional, scary, and it being an infuriating experience. They hoped to gain some closure understanding about what happened, but instead they were just left with questions and a sense of loss. Before the judge sentenced Marvin Smith, Heather and Rebecca spoke on Jessica's behalf. Heather later said, it was the most difficult thing she had ever done, but she felt compelled to do it because she wanted to be able to speak on Jessica's behalf because she couldn't speak for herself. And even though Heather was scared and nervous, she was determined to do what she felt like was the right thing to be her sister's voice

in that courtroom. Rebecca was also overcome with emotion as she spoke to the judge pleading for justice for her daughter. It was a difficult and emotional day for everyone, but Heather and Rebecca had to remain strong and speak for Jessica. Marvin Smith was sentenced to life in prison with the the possibility of parole after 30 years. I'm surprised that he has parole at all. Granted, I know he'll be in his 80s, but he shouldn't get one minute to enjoy life outside of a cell again. And while Jessica's family feels that justice has been served, the pain and sadness of their loss still lingers with them. Even in her dreams, Rebecca can still smell Jessica's hair and knows that Jessica will always be with her in her heart and in her memories.

And she'll never forget her. And in the end, Jessica's sister Heather said that she hoped that this case would give hope to other families that were waiting for justice in finding their loved ones killers. It's possible even years later with modern technology. Sheriff Jim Sabin said that closing this case meant that when he decides to retire, he could retire in peace. When Marvin was sentenced, Jessica's family ripped off bracelets that they had been wearing for years in her memory. Heather wanted this moment to be symbolic, a symbol of the future for her traumatized family, especially her mom, because Heather was a mom of three herself and a pediatric oncology nurse now. Heather said, I'm a mother now, and I know how painful it was for Rebecca not to be there to protect Jessica and not to know what happened.

she hoped this closure would bring peace to her mom and that she could move on, and that it would help Heather to let go of the tragedy and the crime part of all this and remember Jessica how she was. Heather also thanked Special Agent Costa saying, ever since he took over the case and never let it go, she felt secure and confident that everything would be done and needed to be done. And Jessica's old friend wrote about, wrote Costas a thank you note. It said in part, quote,

Marvin Smith taught me how to fear and you taught me justice is always possible." I was checking and Marvin's next parole hearing for review is March of 2038. And I'll echo the message that Jessica's old friend said. When you're young and your parents tell you that bad things can happen, you don't believe them. When it happens to someone you love, it teaches you to be fearful. So be on alert, be on guard. If you're a woman, do it even more because we're still hunted for our bodies. If that makes you uncomfortable, it's the truth.

It's still happening. Even now, with the ability for men to have access to sex at their fingertips by willing participants with the development of dating apps, there is still some thrill of the hunt. It's one I will never understand when a life is traded for a few minutes. of pleasure. Thank you so much for being here today. Like always, I appreciate you giving your time to Jessica and her family and her story. Thank you so very much for watching. I will see you in my next video. Bye.