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From the creators of palpable and up and vanished,

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the new True Crime Podcast undetermined is

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available now. In two thousand nineteen,

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forty three year old Jessica Easterly Durning

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vanished from her New Orleans home. Days

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later, her body was found just two and a half blocks

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away. Her cause and manner of death

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were classified as undetermined, but

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her family says the evidence points to homicide.

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More than three years later, her case remains

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un salt, hosted by investigative journalist

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Jessica Knowl and retired detective Todd

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McOMas, undetermined will reinvestigate

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this case and try to answer the lingering question,

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what happened to Jessica? Check out this

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clip, and white listen search undetermined

0:38

in your podcast app to follow the story. Episodes

0:40

released every Tuesday for free on Apple Podcasts.

0:43

But if you want early episodes in ad free

0:45

listening, subscribe to Tennefit Plus.

1:01

First of all, let me just say to

1:04

the family of Jessica.

1:07

I wanna thank them for being

1:10

at this place, at

1:13

this site. Know it is not easy.

1:15

I know every time they come anywhere close

1:17

to this area, they are reliving the

1:20

worst moment of their lives.

1:23

As many of you probably do know, two

1:25

years ago, we unfortunately

1:28

lost Jessica After

1:31

going missing, Jessica's sisters

1:34

found her deceased just

1:36

steps away from where

1:38

we're standing right now. And

1:41

since that day, this family has

1:44

had absolutely no closure

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in this case. They've gotten

1:49

no answers in this

1:51

case.

1:55

This is from a press conference I

1:57

attended back on August

1:59

twenty twenty one.

2:02

The

2:02

man speaking is New Orleans

2:04

district attorney Jason Williams.

2:07

The

2:07

woman he just mentioned is

2:09

Jessica Easterly Durning. The

2:12

person at the center of this

2:14

story. Jessica

2:16

wasn't a New

2:17

Orleans native, but it's where

2:19

she spent a good chunk of her life. Right

2:21

here in the neighborhood of Lakeview

2:24

where this press conference was

2:26

held. By

2:27

appearance alone, nothing

2:30

bad could ever happen in

2:32

this charming maybe kiosk setting.

2:35

But on August twenty second,

2:38

twenty nineteen. is

2:40

where Jessica was found.

2:43

Just a stone's throw from her own home.

2:46

And

2:46

who made that grew some discovery,

2:50

not trained investigators,

2:51

leaders

2:52

nor innocent bystanders, but

2:55

her own family.

2:58

The purpose of press

3:00

conference on these railroad tracks, however,

3:03

is to make a very clear and

3:05

a very direct public

3:07

appeal to this community. We

3:10

need you to speak up because

3:11

in order to solve cold

3:14

cases and

3:15

unsolved murders, all

3:17

of the law enforcement community needs

3:20

your help. The city, the

3:22

fine thousand plus unsolved cases

3:25

needs your help. This family

3:28

needs your help I

3:31

need your help. And

3:33

I wanna say to this family just like I said

3:36

to Jessica's mother. This

3:39

is important for the folks behind me, but this

3:41

is important to every single family that

3:43

has lost a loved one and has

3:45

not had the closure. I've

3:47

had having that case solved. You

3:50

have our thoughts and prayers and you know that,

3:52

but this family needs more than

3:54

that. This family needs

3:56

us to work and work together. This

3:59

family needs us to

3:59

be a team. This family

4:02

needs closure and deserve herbs,

4:08

justice. Some

4:17

people

4:17

in this neighborhood didn't even know this case

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existed. Didn't even know that

4:21

Jessica went missing or that she was found dead.

4:23

So it all comes

4:25

back to did the

4:28

police do the it were to

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ask people around here, hey, did you see

4:33

anything? You know, did

4:35

you see this girl? And and if

4:37

they did did, how

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far do they canvas?

4:41

My name is also Jessica.

4:44

Jessica Knoll. I'm

4:45

an investigative journalist and I've

4:47

been covering this story for some time

4:49

now, but I didn't go it alone.

4:51

With me is my partner

4:54

and good friend, Todd Macombas,

4:56

a retired detective who

4:58

brings his own set of skills, ones

5:00

that can hopefully help make a difference

5:03

in this case. Acacia

5:05

sits in limbo with the New Orleans police

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department growing colder

5:09

with each passing day. If

5:12

find one of the detectives called out here,

5:15

I'm immediately gonna just say out

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loud, what a weird place

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to dump a box of you. What

5:22

a weird place to find a bottom?

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Just because I literally can

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go forty yards over

5:29

here and I have a tree line that's

5:31

very still overgrown that

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I could tuck anything in there and

5:36

and no one probably find it for a

5:38

very long time. So it's just it's just

5:40

weird to me. I don't the location of

5:42

where she was found is just it

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it's troublesome. It's troublesome unless it

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was by design.

5:51

When we first visited the site where Jessica

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was found. Admittedly, we knew

5:55

very little about her story.

5:56

Our questions were

5:58

simple and straightforward

5:59

about what you would

6:02

back given the circumstances. I

6:05

just keep going back to what are the

6:07

odds? What are you what are you doing back here? What

6:09

is what is your your life in?

6:11

Why does your walk in? If no one

6:13

brought you here, why this spot?

6:15

Why this side of this

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neighborhood?

6:18

I'm that's the undetermined

6:21

question.

6:23

Jessica's case, it's not just

6:25

a question of who's responsible

6:27

for her death.

6:29

It's also a question of

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how she died. Questions

6:33

that emerge when the corner listed both

6:35

her cause and manner of death

6:37

as undetermined. I'll catch

6:40

all when there's insufficient

6:41

evidence to say it's homicide

6:45

suicide,

6:45

accidental, or natural.

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the The

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word undetermined

6:50

has loomed over this

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case. Sparking

6:54

outrage in Jessica's loved

6:56

ones.

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Leaving investigators,

6:58

stumped.

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That's why we are here.

7:02

Searching for answers.

7:05

Answers about Jessica's life.

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I

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think as part of what helped her in place

7:10

after she was ready to leave, is

7:12

she had this dirty secret? I

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just wish I would have known them

7:17

better before we

7:19

really got involved. With their lives.

7:23

And about her death, her

7:25

c four vertebrae as well

7:27

as her rib were broken.

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And they're they're post mortem. That

7:33

might have some information

7:35

that y'all would find helpful.

7:39

From resonate recordings and tenor

7:41

foot TV. I'm your host,

7:44

Jessica Knoll. This

7:46

is

7:46

undetermined.

7:55

Undetermined is available now.

7:57

Episodes released every Tuesday for free on

7:59

Apple Podcasts. But if you want

8:01

early episodes in ad free listening, subscribe

8:03

to Jennifer Plus.