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everyone. What is up? Welcome back to another

0:43

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0:45

so much for joining me here today. If

0:47

you're new here, hi, my name is Savannah

0:49

and I am your host of Killer Instinct.

0:51

Before we get started, make sure you go

0:53

ahead and hit that subscribe button. That way

0:55

you never miss an episode. We post weekly

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here on the podcast, every single Wednesday and

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you're not going to want to miss it.

1:01

We also upload the video version onto YouTube

1:03

every Wednesday as well. So

1:06

make sure you are subscribed there too. Now,

1:09

as you guys can tell by the title of

1:11

today's episode, today we are talking about a

1:13

true case of betrayal. This

1:16

is the case of Nina Whitney. This

1:19

is one of those cases that is going to

1:21

make you extremely frustrated. It's

1:23

going to make you also wonder who you can

1:25

really trust. So with that being said, let's jump

1:27

right on into it today. Nina

1:30

Whitney was born on March 5th,

1:32

1935 in South Dakota to her

1:35

parents, Richard and Eleanor. However, her

1:37

family moved to Kansas City, Missouri

1:39

a little over 10 years later,

1:41

where Nina stayed all throughout her life. Now,

1:44

Nina did not have the easiest upbringing by

1:46

any means. Her mother left the family when

1:49

she was a child, which left her to

1:51

take care of her five siblings. Nina

1:53

had two marriages as well. The first marriage that

1:55

she had was to a man named Cortez Waters,

1:58

and the two had a daughter named Elizabeth. who

2:00

they named Nina, so Nina Jr.

2:02

however she went by the name Jodi.

2:05

Now Nina and Cortez

2:07

divorced in 1955 and Jodi went

2:09

on to live with her paternal

2:11

grandparents, so Cortez's parents, and it

2:13

wasn't really clear there wasn't a

2:15

lot of information about why exactly

2:17

that was the case, however that

2:19

is the way it panned out.

2:22

Now Nina then went on to marry her

2:24

second husband, a man named Robert Gesser, and

2:27

the two had another daughter together

2:29

named Paige. Now

2:31

Robert and Nina divorced when Paige was

2:33

around nine years old and from then

2:36

on it was Nina as a single

2:38

mom raising Paige. Now after

2:40

years of struggling financially, Nina finally got

2:42

a stable and steady job working on

2:44

the assembly line of a General Motors

2:46

in Kansas City, and after saving up

2:49

enough money she was finally able to

2:51

buy a house for her and her

2:53

daughter. She bought a home

2:55

in Kansas City where she raised Paige

2:57

who ultimately went off to go to

2:59

college at Central Missouri University where

3:02

Paige got her degree in criminal

3:04

justice and spent 25 years working

3:06

as a parole and probation officer.

3:09

As Paige got older and older

3:11

the relationship with her mom Nina

3:13

got stronger and the two became

3:15

very close, they spent lots of

3:17

time together, and they were really

3:20

able to create a very tight-knit

3:22

mother-daughter relationship. Now something to know

3:24

about Nina is that she was

3:26

an incredibly resilient woman. She was

3:28

motivated and determined and very strong-willed.

3:30

She always wanted the best for her

3:32

and her daughter more importantly. She wanted

3:35

to give her daughter a

3:37

great life and Nina was well

3:39

loved by everyone who knew her

3:41

and she had a very fun

3:43

nickname by everyone who knew her

3:46

as well and that was the

3:48

Frog Lady and this was because

3:50

Nina's favorite animal without a doubt

3:52

hands down was frogs undeniably. She

3:54

absolutely loved frogs and she collected

3:56

them and not the actual animal.

3:59

She didn't collect the animal. She

4:01

collected any little tincture or any

4:03

little frog stuffed animal, anything that

4:05

had to do with frogs, Nina

4:08

had it. You would walk into

4:10

her home and there were frogs

4:12

everywhere, frogs on the dishes or

4:15

frog stuffed animals, like I

4:17

said, or little tinctures, ceramic frogs, stuffed

4:19

frogs, any different decor that had a

4:21

frog on it, Nina owned it, clothing

4:24

with frogs on it. They were everywhere.

4:26

They just made her happy and it

4:28

was something that she surrounded herself

4:30

with. Now this case begins and

4:32

takes place on October 29th of 2010. Now on

4:35

the night of October 29th, there was a 911

4:37

call that was

4:42

made by Nina's daughter Paige.

4:44

Paige had called 911 and told

4:46

them that she found her mom

4:49

Nina laying unresponsive in her basement.

4:51

Now initially when Paige found her

4:53

mom laying at the bottom of

4:55

the stairs in the basement, she

4:57

initially thought that Nina could have

4:59

suffered from a heart attack or

5:01

possibly that she had fallen down the

5:04

stairs. Nina was getting older and so

5:06

these weren't out of the realm of

5:08

possibility. However, when police got there, Paige

5:11

learned that this was not the case.

5:13

When police arrived on the scene, Nina

5:15

had a shelf laying on top of

5:18

her and police assumed that Nina had

5:20

grabbed onto the shelf for balance and

5:22

it had also fallen with her. However,

5:25

once police removed the shelf

5:27

and turned Nina's body over,

5:29

they realized very quickly that this

5:31

was no natural death at all

5:34

and that Nina had actually been

5:36

brutally murdered. Nina had suffered from

5:38

several stab wounds and there were

5:40

also defensive wounds on her indicating

5:42

that Nina did try to fight

5:44

for her life. Now along

5:47

with that, police also noticed several

5:49

buttons of Nina's shirt were missing

5:51

and there was saliva on her

5:53

chest. Now this indicated to police

5:55

that Nina's murder could have been

5:58

sexually motivated and the autopsy revealed

6:00

that Nina had been stabbed a total of

6:02

24 times

6:05

and that the stab wound that

6:07

killed her was directly through her

6:09

throat. Now as you can

6:11

imagine this was very shocking for everyone

6:13

in Nina's life to comprehend, especially her

6:16

daughter Paige, because again when Paige arrived

6:18

to Nina's house that night she thought

6:20

that her mom had passed away of

6:22

natural causes or had a terrible accident

6:25

like falling down the stairs but now

6:27

she's learned that her mom has been

6:29

brutally attacked and killed and not just

6:31

killed but over killed. To

6:33

go to the point of stabbing someone

6:36

24 times does fall in the definition

6:38

of overkill. This was someone who was

6:40

very angry and was very passionate about

6:42

murdering her mom so this is a

6:45

very big shock to her and police

6:47

wanted to sit down with Paige and

6:49

figure out what exactly was going on

6:52

here. So when police sit down with

6:54

Paige they ask her to recount this

6:56

night, to recount the night of October

6:58

29th. Now according

7:01

to Paige she claimed that the day

7:03

before on October 28th Nina and Paige

7:06

had made plans to go shopping together

7:08

the following day October 29th. Now Paige

7:12

claimed that she called her mom at about 6.45 p.m.

7:15

on the 29th to see when she wanted

7:18

to go shopping however she

7:20

didn't get a response. Now

7:23

according to Paige she said that Nina

7:25

always answered the phone so for her

7:27

to not answer the phone for any

7:29

reason was incredibly unusual. She typically was

7:31

always at her house always

7:34

there to answer the phone and so

7:36

when Paige called and Nina didn't pick

7:38

up the house phone Paige then decided

7:40

to call Nina's cell phone which also

7:43

went to voicemail and again this was

7:45

extremely unusual and based off of these

7:47

two missed phone calls Paige began to

7:50

panic and decided that she was going

7:52

to go over to her mom's house

7:54

herself to make sure that everything was

7:57

okay. Now according to Paige when

7:59

she pulled up later that night it

8:01

was dark outside and the front porch

8:03

light was not on which was also

8:05

unusual. Nina always had the front porch

8:08

light on and so according to Paige

8:10

she knew that something was not right.

8:13

Now according to Paige when she walks

8:15

inside the home she calls out for

8:17

her mom however isn't getting an answer.

8:20

Another thing that Paige notices when she walks

8:22

in is that all of the lights in

8:24

the house are off. So now not only

8:26

is the front porch light off the inside

8:28

lights are off, Nina's not answering

8:31

her phones, Paige knew that

8:33

something was very wrong. So she walks

8:35

in and starts turning all of the

8:37

lights on. She's calling out for her

8:40

mom, she's walking into the different bedrooms

8:42

and this is when Paige notices that

8:44

the door that led to the basement

8:46

was open and when she turned the

8:48

corner and looked down the stairs into

8:50

the basement that is when she saw

8:53

her mom Nina laying unconscious at the

8:55

bottom of the stairs. Now

8:57

immediately Paige pulls out her phone and calls

8:59

911. However in the midst

9:01

in the chaos of doing so

9:04

she notices some strange noises that

9:06

are coming throughout the house and

9:08

she begins following these noises and

9:10

this is when she notices a

9:12

noise coming from the guest bathroom.

9:14

When Paige walks into this guest

9:16

bathroom she sees that the bath

9:18

is running. The bath faucet is

9:21

running and what made it even more

9:23

odd is the fact that the bathroom

9:26

with the bath faucet running was

9:28

in the guest bathroom. This was not

9:30

Nina's primary bathroom and actually it was

9:32

the bathroom that she used the least

9:34

in the house. So she thought that

9:36

it was odd that the bath faucet

9:38

would be running in this particular bathroom

9:41

because it never got used before. Now

9:43

when police were canvassing Nina's home they

9:46

went into her bedroom and it appeared

9:48

that someone had laid on top of

9:50

the bed. There seemed to be an

9:52

imprint on the top of the bed.

9:54

The bed itself was made however again

9:56

it appeared that someone had a laid on

9:59

top of that comfort. And

10:01

along with that police also discovered

10:03

buttons and they appeared to be

10:05

the same buttons that match the shirt

10:07

that Nina was wearing when her

10:09

body was discovered. Now along with that

10:11

one of Nina's hair rollers was found

10:14

on the bed as well and

10:16

so with all of this information it

10:18

led police to believe that Nina was

10:20

possibly assaulted on that bed. Now

10:23

police also looked into Nina's kitchen and

10:25

when they did that they opened her

10:27

knife drawer and they noticed a small

10:29

cutting knife and it appeared that

10:31

this cutting knife had what seemed to

10:33

be blood at the base of the

10:36

knife. Now at this point police

10:38

decided to process the entire house with a

10:40

luminal to see if there was presence of

10:42

blood throughout the home. Now if you're unaware,

10:44

luminal is used to detect the presence of

10:47

blood within the house and even if the

10:49

blood has been wiped away, luminal would be

10:51

able to detect that as well. Now

10:54

the luminal did detect that there was

10:56

blood in Nina's bedroom, her bathroom, the

10:58

hallway, the living room and the kitchen.

11:01

Along with that police noticed that there was

11:03

no sign of forced entry in the home

11:05

and the one thing that was missing from

11:08

Nina's house was her cell phone. Nothing else

11:10

in the house was taken, it didn't appear

11:12

that there was any ransacking, this did not

11:15

appear to be a robbery whatsoever, it definitely

11:17

appeared to be a targeted attack. Now

11:19

when learning about the fact that Nina's cell

11:22

phone was missing, Paige told police that Nina

11:24

typically always kept her cell phone on a

11:26

shelf next to the front door, that way

11:28

she had easy access to it whenever she needed

11:30

it. However, it was not

11:32

there. Again police could not find this

11:35

cell phone anywhere. Now police

11:37

did try and track the cell phone down

11:39

through pinging the cell phone to try and

11:41

find its location and it was when doing

11:43

that that they learned that the cell phone

11:45

was actually still on, which they were surprised

11:47

about. And not only was it

11:49

still on, this cell phone was actively being

11:52

used by someone in South Kansas City. Now

11:55

with that piece of information being

11:57

held, police also began asking around

12:00

to neighbors in the area to see

12:02

if anyone saw anything suspicious leading up

12:04

to Nina's death. And that is when

12:07

police were told by neighbors that several

12:09

witnesses did see a man walking around

12:11

the neighborhood on the day of the

12:14

29th. And according to this neighbor, this

12:16

was a white male who was walking

12:18

with a limp. He had a very

12:21

specific and noticeable walk. And

12:23

along with that, this man appeared to

12:25

be looking over his shoulder. He seemed

12:27

to be looking around to see if

12:29

anyone was looking at him, but also

12:31

it appeared that he did not know

12:33

his way around the area. It was

12:35

apparent that he did not live there.

12:38

So with all of this information, police

12:40

now decide that they want to track

12:42

down the cell phone to see who

12:44

is in possession of it. And this

12:46

is what led them to South Kansas

12:48

City, where they kicked down the door

12:50

of a home of the person who

12:52

had the phone. Now when doing this,

12:55

police learned that a man who went

12:57

by the nickname Lil Mickey had possession

12:59

of Nina's cell phone. Now as you

13:01

can imagine, when police learned that Lil Mickey

13:03

has Nina's cell phone and they are able

13:05

to track down Lil Mickey, it makes sense

13:07

that they would arrest him and bring him

13:10

down to the police station for questioning. Now

13:12

upon questioning this man, Lil Mickey told them

13:14

that he had nothing to do with Nina's

13:16

murder at all. He had no idea who

13:18

Nina was. He claimed that he was walking

13:21

along the street one day after the murder

13:23

and found the phone on the ground. He

13:25

claimed that when he picked the phone up

13:27

and saw that it was still a working

13:30

phone, he had no reason in his

13:32

mind not to take the phone. He

13:34

said that at the time he was

13:36

tied on money, he was having some

13:38

financial issues, so he didn't question when

13:40

he found a working cell phone on

13:42

the ground, but again adamantly denied having

13:44

any involvement in Nina's murder. Now

13:47

he also provided an alibi. Lil

13:49

Mickey did. He provided an alibi

13:51

to police which did check out

13:53

and he did provide police with

13:55

a voluntary sample of his DNA.

13:57

Now the questioning between Lil Mickey

13:59

and police went on for several

14:01

hours. However, because Lil Mickey's story never

14:03

changed, because of the rock solid alibi,

14:05

and because of the DNA not being

14:07

a match, police needed to move on

14:09

at this point because there was nothing

14:11

that they could hold him with. And

14:13

it really didn't seem like Lil Mickey

14:15

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14:17

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Are you not sure whether you want to leave

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15:00

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listen to podcasts. So

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at this point, police decide to bring in

15:52

the witness who claimed to see a suspicious

15:54

man walking throughout the neighborhood on the 29th.

15:57

Now they did this because they wanted the neighbor to talk

15:59

to... a sketch artist to come up with

16:02

a composite sketch. That way authorities could release

16:04

it to the public in hopes to get

16:06

more pips. Now at this point

16:08

police had no way of knowing whether

16:10

or not this man who was seen

16:12

by this neighbor was in fact Nina's

16:14

killer. However again, they had nothing else

16:16

to go off of at this point,

16:19

so they needed to make this sketch.

16:21

And when they did, the man that

16:23

was drawn up in this sketch was

16:25

very, very average looking. This

16:27

was an average looking male, he had

16:29

glasses, he didn't have a lot of

16:31

hair, he had some forehead lines, and

16:33

that was really it. Those were really

16:36

the only distinctive features of this man.

16:38

However, police still put the composite sketch

16:40

out into the public just hoping that

16:42

they would get some sort of a

16:44

tip. And they did get multiple tips

16:46

of people calling in saying that they

16:48

think that they know who this man

16:50

is. This man looked like someone that

16:52

they knew. But the bottom line was

16:54

that the sketch itself was so vague

16:56

that obviously many people were going to

16:58

assume that they knew who this was

17:00

based off of this average looking sketch.

17:02

Now police did show this sketch to

17:04

Paige herself, however she had no recollection

17:06

of who this man was. She claimed

17:08

that she did not know him, nothing was

17:11

really clicking here. But again, regardless police still

17:13

put that out into the public. Now

17:15

along with releasing the composite sketch, police

17:18

also spoke with several different workers that

17:20

had done housework on Nina's house within

17:22

the past year and tried to get

17:24

their DNA as well. So they spoke

17:26

to those people and got their DNA

17:28

as well and tried to see if

17:31

it was a match to the DNA

17:33

found in Nina's home, specifically the saliva

17:35

that was found on her chest. Now

17:38

when police ran these forensics and ran the

17:40

forensic of that saliva, they were

17:42

absolutely shocked because that saliva's DNA

17:44

did not come back as a

17:46

positive match to any of the

17:48

people that authorities had spoken to.

17:50

However, it did come

17:53

back as a match to

17:55

another murder in Harrisonville, Missouri

17:57

that occurred exactly almost two

17:59

years. prior to Nina's

18:01

death. Now Harrisonville is

18:03

about an hour south of Kansas City

18:05

and that is where a woman named

18:08

Kara Jo Roberts was found murdered in

18:10

her home and left to die in

18:12

her bathtub. Now even though the main

18:14

difference here is that Kara was found

18:16

shot while Nina was found to be

18:18

stabbed, there were some similarities in this

18:21

case. Now both of these cases involved

18:23

sexual assault and police also paid attention

18:25

to the fact that Kara was found

18:27

in a bathtub and Nina's crime scene

18:29

also involved a bathtub as well. Now

18:31

granted Nina was found at the bottom of

18:34

the stairs in the basement, however remember how

18:36

I mentioned that Paige had discovered the bath

18:38

was running in Nina's guest room. Now police

18:40

did speak with some of the detectives who

18:43

worked on Kara's case and that is when

18:45

they learned that Kara and her husband lived

18:47

in a small town, they had one child,

18:49

they seemed to have a very loving relationship,

18:51

and they learned that Kara's murder occurred on

18:54

November 5th, 2008,

18:56

which again was eerily close to Nina's

18:59

murder on October 29th, 2010. Now Kara's husband

19:03

was the one who discovered her body

19:05

and when he did he found her

19:08

in the bathtub with the tub water

19:10

running, again very similar to Nina's. Now

19:12

with Kara there were also zip ties

19:15

found at the scene as well as

19:17

a roll of duct tape. And similarly

19:19

to Nina's case with Kara there was

19:22

no sign of forced entry in her

19:24

home either, indicating to police that whoever

19:26

did this to both Nina and Kara

19:28

definitely did not seem to be

19:31

a threat. They didn't appear to be

19:33

a threat, they either knew their victims

19:35

or this is someone who the victims

19:37

weren't threatened by. Now when it came

19:40

to Kara's case police definitely thought initially

19:42

that it wasn't out of the realm

19:44

of possibilities for Kara's husband to be

19:47

somehow involved. They thought it was very

19:49

possible that he was responsible for this

19:51

because not only do police always look

19:54

at the spouse in any murder

19:56

investigation or kidnapping investigation, really

19:58

any true crime investigation. to

20:00

begin with, they always look at the

20:02

husband, the wife, the boyfriend, the girlfriend,

20:04

whoever it is. Those are always the

20:07

first people that are looked at here,

20:09

but not only that, the husband was

20:11

the one who discovered Cara's body, so

20:13

they did look at him at first,

20:15

however, very quickly ruled him out. Now

20:18

there was also a potential witness

20:20

for Cara's murder, similarly to Nina's,

20:22

because there was a neighbor who

20:24

lived down the street from Cara

20:27

who claimed to have seen a

20:29

man walking in the neighborhood that

20:31

day, and similarly that man also

20:33

walked with a very distinct limp,

20:36

and that was the same description of

20:38

how the man was walking in Nina's

20:40

neighborhood on October 29th. Police also learned

20:43

that whoever this man was was driving

20:45

a jeep, and when learning more about

20:47

Cara's case, they learned that whoever murdered

20:49

Cara did so very quickly, because from

20:52

the last time she was seen to

20:54

the time that her body was discovered

20:56

was only about 45 minutes. Now

21:00

with all of this information, police wanted

21:02

to start looking into Cara's life and

21:04

Nina's life, and see if there were

21:06

any common factors that would tie the

21:08

two of them together, see if they

21:10

knew any of the same people, because

21:12

clearly whoever did this had some tie

21:14

to both of them, because there was

21:16

matching DNA found at both crime scenes,

21:18

but even with all of the

21:20

consistencies that police had in both

21:23

cases, they could not find anyone

21:25

that knew both Cara and Nina.

21:27

They could not find anyone that

21:29

connected the both of them together,

21:31

and at this point Paige, Nina's

21:33

daughter, had not been informed about

21:35

the tie between her mother's murder

21:37

and Cara's, and this is because

21:39

police were very very tight-lipped on

21:41

this case. They did not want

21:43

to take any chance of this

21:45

being leaked out into the media

21:47

or to the press, however

21:49

at this time police knew that

21:51

they needed to enlist Paige's help

21:54

to see if she could possibly

21:56

make a connection between Nina and

21:59

Cara. So they

22:01

end up telling Paige because

22:03

also Paige was in law enforcement

22:05

because like I mentioned in the beginning

22:07

she had worked as a parole and

22:09

probation officer so she did have some

22:12

background knowledge when it came to law

22:14

enforcement knowledge. Now when police brought this

22:16

information to Paige and tell her the

22:18

news about the connection between Cara and

22:20

Nina's murder, Paige still said that there

22:22

was nothing that came to mind in

22:25

terms of a connection between the two

22:27

of them. So now police are back

22:29

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code killer. Now

26:20

at this point months are passing in the

26:23

investigation and there are no new leads that

26:25

are coming in and Paige is growing very

26:27

frustrated. She feels like her mother's case is

26:29

going cold. She feels like her mom is

26:32

never going to get justice for what happened

26:34

to her and she really starts to take

26:36

matters into her own hands. She starts going

26:38

around to her mother's favorite places. She went

26:41

to the stores that her mom would go

26:43

to, any flea markets in the area, her

26:45

favorite shops, anywhere that Nina

26:47

was known to go, Paige would also

26:49

go there and she would go out

26:51

and she would look for any man who

26:53

was driving a Jeep who also was limping.

26:56

Anyone who matched those descriptions and while she

26:58

did find a lot of Jeeps out there

27:00

and a lot of men driving those Jeeps,

27:02

there was no one that had that distinct

27:05

walk and no one that really matched the

27:07

composite sketch description that had been made in

27:09

the beginning in the investigation. Now at this

27:11

point seven months had gone by after Nina's

27:14

murder and now we are looking at May

27:16

26th, 2011. Now

27:20

on this particular day Paige was

27:22

driving down the highway and while

27:24

she's driving down the highway she

27:26

looks up and she sees the

27:28

billboard of the composite sketch. Now

27:31

this was nothing new. She had

27:33

seen this billboard before, she had

27:35

seen the composite sketch hundreds and

27:37

hundreds of times. Obviously it's the

27:40

composite sketch for her mother's killer

27:42

and so she's driving down the

27:44

highway, she looks up at this

27:46

billboard, sees the composite sketch, however

27:49

this time something is different. This

27:51

time something clicks and

27:53

Paige claimed that when she looked

27:55

at the sketch this time she

27:57

knew exactly who murdered.

28:00

her mother, and when she looked

28:02

out the sketch, she knew that

28:04

that man was a man named

28:06

Jeff Moreland. Jeff Moreland was

28:08

Page's ex-boyfriend, and the two of them met

28:10

in 1983 and dated for three

28:13

years while they were in college. The two

28:15

met in their criminal justice class, and according

28:17

to Page, Jeff was charming and funny, and

28:19

she fell completely head over heels for him

28:22

in no time. When they graduated,

28:24

Page went on to be a social worker

28:26

while Jeff went on to work as a

28:28

police officer, which was his dream job. Now,

28:30

according to Page, Nina absolutely loved

28:32

Jeff. Even after they broke up,

28:35

Nina would always tell Page that

28:37

she wished that Page and Jeff

28:39

could work things out and get

28:41

back together. She wished that Page

28:43

would have married Jeff. Jeff was

28:45

the one that Nina always

28:48

asked Page about. She was the one that

28:50

she always went back to in conversation when

28:52

talking about her daughter's dating life. She compared

28:54

everyone that her daughter dated to Jeff.

28:57

That is how much she loved Jeff. Now,

28:59

with this new epiphany that Page now

29:02

has, she decides that she's going to

29:04

run Jeff's name through the system, and

29:06

again, she's able to do that because

29:08

she's a parole officer. She has access

29:10

to that type of technology, and when

29:12

she did so, she sees that Jeff

29:14

is the owner of a black Jeep

29:16

Wrangler that is registered in his

29:19

name. She also learned that Jeff

29:21

had retired from the police department

29:23

about five years prior to Nina's

29:25

murder, and it's explained that the

29:28

reason for his retirement was because

29:30

he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Now,

29:33

Page at this point has all

29:35

this information compiled, and she brings

29:37

it straight to the police, and

29:40

she explains everything to them from

29:42

start to finish, and when this

29:44

happened, police start looking into Jeff

29:46

and looking into who Jeff really

29:49

is, and when they did so,

29:51

they learned that Jeff lived in

29:53

the same small town that Kara

29:56

lived in, which was Harrisonville, Missouri.

29:58

Now, police knew that that this coincidence

30:01

of living in Harrisonville, Missouri was too

30:03

much of a coincidence to simply be

30:05

a coincidence. And so because of Jeff's

30:07

connection in law enforcement, police were worried

30:10

that if they spent too much time

30:12

gathering evidence and trying to get everything

30:14

together for a warrant, that word would

30:17

get back to Jeff. They were worried

30:19

that someone would tell him. So instead,

30:21

police decided to drive over to Jeff's

30:23

house directly and knock on his door

30:26

and just show up. Now, when Jeff

30:28

answered the door to the police, the

30:30

police told him that his name had

30:32

come up in a homicide investigation and

30:34

that they needed to collect his DNA

30:36

in order to rule him out. Now,

30:39

Jeff had a very interesting response

30:41

to this. When Jeff was

30:44

told this by police, he simply said,

30:46

quote, "'I need to take

30:48

my cat to the vet before

30:50

closing the door.'" Now,

30:53

this is obviously very strange to police for

30:56

a multitude of reasons. The first being that

30:58

you would think if you were told that

31:00

you are being looked into in a homicide

31:03

investigation, you would think that would spark some

31:05

sort of question, if you

31:07

were innocent, why am I involved in a

31:09

homicide investigation? What are you talking about? I

31:11

didn't do anything. There are many questions that

31:14

come after you are being looked into in

31:16

a homicide investigation. However, for Jeff, it was

31:18

simply, "'I need to take my cat to

31:21

the vet.'" Now, the following day, police follow

31:23

up with Jeff with a phone call this

31:25

time, telling him again, they need his DNA.

31:28

However, Jeff claims he's too busy

31:30

and he just doesn't have the

31:32

time. Now, it wasn't until about

31:34

a week later that police end

31:36

up receiving a phone call from

31:38

the station that Jeff had originally

31:40

retired from. Now, when

31:42

the station called detectives, they told

31:44

them that Jeff had informed the

31:46

station about what was going on.

31:48

He informed them that this was

31:50

all occurring, gave them the

31:53

whole lowdown, and voluntarily gave

31:55

this police station his DNA.

32:00

they'll send it over to detectives.

32:02

So they have Jeff's DNA and

32:04

detectives need to just go and

32:06

pick it up. Now when the

32:08

detectives arrived to the station to

32:10

retrieve the sample, they start having

32:12

a conversation with Jeff's police station,

32:14

with the officers at the police

32:16

station, about how this interaction all

32:18

went down, about what Jeff told

32:20

them. Now, according to Jeff's police

32:22

station, Jeff had called them and

32:24

gave them the lowdown saying that

32:26

he's being investigated for a murder

32:28

and that he wanted to meet

32:30

an officer from his station along

32:33

the 71 highway, which an officer

32:35

agreed to do. Now it is

32:37

important to know that Jeff is

32:39

a very respected retired police officer.

32:41

This is someone who his colleagues

32:43

respected and trusted. So they really

32:45

had no problem meeting Jeff alongside

32:47

of a highway to go through

32:49

with this interaction. Now, when

32:51

the officer meets Jeff at the highway,

32:53

he is further explaining what is going

32:55

on, saying he's being looked into for

32:57

a homicide investigation. And that is when

33:00

he pulled out a swab, swabbed

33:02

his mouth and placed the swab

33:04

in an orange pill bottle and

33:06

gave the bottle to his department,

33:08

while also giving him the card

33:10

with the information from the detective

33:12

that was working Nina's case. Now

33:14

there were a couple of things

33:17

wrong with this. Actually,

33:19

there were many things wrong with this. When

33:21

looking at this from a protocol standpoint, this

33:23

is not typically how DNA is received or

33:25

retrieved ever. That's just not really how

33:27

it happens. You don't go to the side of a

33:29

highway to pick up someone's DNA. And

33:31

also they are not typically

33:34

allowed to provide their own DNA sample.

33:36

It needs to be a legitimate DNA

33:38

sample. Not just Jeff pulling out a

33:40

cotton swab and swabbing his own mouth,

33:42

that is not protocol. So when the

33:45

Kansas City police learn about this, they're

33:47

telling the Harrisonville Police Department that this

33:49

is not protocol. This is not how

33:51

this is supposed to go and that

33:53

this is not right. And the Harrisonville

33:56

Police offer to throw away the

33:58

DNA sample. They say, OK, we can

34:00

get rid of it. However, the Kansas

34:02

City police decide to still go through

34:04

with it and still send the DNA

34:07

off for forensics just for Examination purposes

34:09

and they did test the DNA and

34:11

it came back as being not a

34:13

match to Nina's Murder now

34:16

the fact that the DNA was not a match

34:18

to Nina's murder The fact that Jeff's DNA if

34:21

you're listening to me on audio I'm putting that

34:24

in quotes was not a match to Nina's murder

34:26

It is not a surprise to police the Kansas

34:28

City police whatsoever Because both

34:30

the detectives and Jeff himself who again

34:32

had been in law enforcement Knew

34:35

that civilians because again at this point

34:38

Jeff is a civilian. He's a retired

34:40

police officer They cannot provide

34:42

their own sample Jeff knew that this

34:44

was against protocol and honestly

34:46

Jeff's actions were making police believe

34:49

more and more That

34:51

he was the one responsible the fact that he was

34:53

trying to jump through hoops To

34:55

provide his own sample was just

34:57

not right and he knew that

34:59

so again That's just raising the

35:01

suspicion around death now a few

35:04

days after this is when police

35:06

received the phone call that they

35:08

were dreading To get there

35:10

was another rape that was reported

35:12

in Harrisonville, Missouri However, luckily the

35:15

victim was able to get away

35:18

Now police immediately rush over and

35:20

they speak to this victim and

35:22

they ask if the victim could take them

35:24

back To the

35:26

place where the rape had occurred

35:29

and when doing so she drove

35:31

authorities Directly to Jeff Moreland's

35:33

home But at this point Jeff

35:35

was nowhere to be found and

35:38

he was on the run Now

35:40

police were trying to figure out

35:42

where Jeff could have possibly gone

35:44

and that has been Paige Informed

35:46

them that Jeff had family that

35:48

lived in Iowa So they traced

35:50

Jeff's cell phone and that's when they

35:53

traced him to a motel in Iowa

35:56

now when police tracked down this

35:58

motel and tracked down the room

36:00

that Jeff had reserved, they walk

36:02

in and see Jeff laying on

36:04

the bed and an empty bottle

36:06

of sleeping pills right next to

36:09

him. However, fortunately, Jeff

36:11

was still alive. Jeff had been

36:13

taken to the hospital to get

36:15

checked out after his suicide attempt

36:17

before being taken into custody by

36:19

police. Now the detectives

36:21

in Mina's case, the Kansas City

36:23

police, drove up to Iowa to

36:26

personally get the DNA sample from

36:28

Jeff and this time he

36:30

had nowhere to hide. Police

36:32

took the sample and drove

36:34

all the way back down

36:36

to Kansas City and sent

36:38

the sample off to forensics

36:40

where they received their results

36:42

the very next morning and

36:44

those results were that Jeff's

36:46

DNA was a positive match

36:48

to both crime scenes for

36:50

Kara and Nita's murders. Jeff

36:53

Moreland was responsible for the murders

36:55

of both Kara Jo Roberts and

36:57

Nina Whitney and was officially charged

36:59

with both murders as well as

37:01

sexual assault for that third victim. So

37:03

you might be wondering what happened to

37:06

that first false DNA sample that Jeff

37:08

provided and it was after Jeff's arrest

37:10

that police learned more about that and

37:13

where that really came from. It was

37:16

after Jeff's arrest that police learned

37:18

that Jeff had called his son-in-law,

37:20

his daughter's fiancee, and asked for

37:22

a sample of the fiance's DNA

37:25

and blamed it on needing

37:27

it for a paternity test.

37:30

He went into further detail about how someone was

37:32

blaming him for being the father of a child

37:34

and he needed to prove that he wasn't so

37:36

he wanted the fiance to give

37:38

the sample. That way it would be a

37:40

definite no because obviously it wasn't the fiance's

37:43

child. It was a whole runaround. He just

37:45

gave a whole runaround. It was a lot

37:47

of lies. However, the fiance agreed to do

37:49

it. He agreed to help Jeff out with

37:51

this and he gave the DNA. Now

37:54

that is where the fake DNA

37:56

came from but regardless Jeff was

37:58

sent to trial for his trial.

38:00

charges and he was officially convicted and

38:02

sentenced to 50 years for

38:04

Cara's murder and 30 years

38:06

for Nina's murder. So consecutively

38:08

that is 80 years in

38:10

total. Now as far as the

38:13

why goes in this case because again now we have

38:15

the who and now we're looking at

38:17

the why. What was the motive in this case?

38:19

And police really don't believe that there was one

38:21

which is very, very frustrating. They

38:23

believe that when it comes to Cara's murder

38:25

that Jeff was driving by her house and

38:28

saw that she was home and made the

38:30

decision that he was going to take her

38:32

life in a blitz ambushed attack. Police

38:35

believe that after Cara's murder that that

38:37

urge to kill struck Jeff once again

38:39

and that is why he went through

38:41

with killing Nina knowing that she would

38:43

be an easy target because first off

38:45

she was an elderly woman. However, second

38:47

off he knew how much Nina loved

38:49

and adored him and used that to

38:52

his advantage to manipulate Nina into getting

38:54

him into her house. And that I

38:56

just think is one of the most

38:58

cruel parts about all of this is

39:00

that he used that to his advantage. I think

39:02

the fact that he knew that he would be

39:04

able to prey on someone like Nina when it

39:06

came to looking for his victims. And it really

39:09

just goes to show you know there

39:11

wasn't a particular MO when it came to

39:13

Jeff. He wasn't looking for a specific type

39:15

of victim. He was more so looking to

39:17

kill just for the sake of killing. You

39:20

know when looking at both Cara and Nina

39:22

there was the obvious age differences. You know

39:24

their appearance is different as well and so

39:26

there are just major differences when

39:28

looking at his victimology. And it just

39:30

goes to show that he was just

39:32

after killing more than anything else. And

39:35

it also leads us to the question of were these

39:37

the only two murders that Jeff had committed? And the

39:39

truth is that we might not ever know the answer

39:41

to that. Now the big thing

39:44

in this case that police believe

39:46

really brought this all together was

39:48

the DNA that was left

39:50

on Nina. And police theorize

39:53

that Jeff left the bathtub running in

39:55

Nina's house with the purpose of putting

39:57

her into the bathtub similarly to Cara's

39:59

house. how Kara's body was found

40:01

in the bathtub. They believe Jeff was going

40:04

to do the same thing with Nina. However,

40:06

because her body was at the bottom of

40:08

the stairs, he would have to carry her

40:10

body up the stairs to place her

40:12

in the bathtub. Because he had Parkinson's and

40:15

wasn't going to be able to do that,

40:17

they figured that he just left her

40:19

body there instead, which ultimately left the DNA

40:21

on her as well. Now

40:23

that you guys is today's case. It

40:25

is a case of Nina Whitney. And

40:28

sadly, it is also the case of

40:30

Kara Jo Roberts. And this is

40:32

just, again, one of those very much cases of betrayal.

40:34

It's one of those that really make you feel like

40:36

you don't know who you can trust. So I'm very

40:38

interested to hear what you guys have to say about

40:40

this one. But with that being said, you guys, that

40:43

is all for me today. Thank you guys so much

40:45

for tuning in to another episode of Killer Instinct. Again,

40:47

if you're new here, hi, my name is Savannah, and

40:49

I'm your host of Killer Instinct. Make sure you go

40:51

ahead and hit that subscribe button. That way you never

40:53

miss an episode. We post weekly here on the podcast

40:55

every single Wednesday, and you're not gonna wanna miss it.

40:57

I'll be back next week, the brand new one for

40:59

you guys. And until then, stay safe.

41:01

Bye guys. Bye.

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