125: 3 Year Old Elijah Vue Missing After "Toddler Boot Camp" Punishment & 22 Year Old Laken Riley Found Dead on Campus After Jog
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Alright, for all my podcast listeners out there who ever have a hard time sleeping, whether it's you have a tough time sleeping or if you have a tough time staying asleep. I know for me, anytime I wake up in the middle of the night, it's like I never can fall back asleep. I'm up for hours and it's just chaotic. I'm going to share with you my secret sauce. And it's not so secret because I have shared it before, but it's something I literally legit use every single night and it is Beam Deodorant.

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Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise.

I hope you guys are all having a good day. I feel like I'm about to come in and just like dump all over it, but I hope you're having a good day right now whenever you're turning this on. For those of you who are new and have never listened to an episode or you're still an early listener and you haven't caught a Thursday episode before, I'm just going to give you a quick breakdown of how Thursday episodes are a little bit different than our normal Monday deep dive episodes. So on Thursdays, what we like to do

is go through a lot of the true crime cases that are in the headlines, cases that are breaking right now this week that are new on the scene. We also will visit previous cases that we've talked about if there's case updates that are happening this week. And usually we kind of do like the top level overview of these cases with a little bit of a

I guess you could call it, I don't know, mini deep dive on some of the cases where there's a lot more information or where there's one that we want to hyper focus on. So that's why these episodes might sound different than what you're listening to on Mondays because on Mondays we focus on a singular case. We do, you know, a crazy, crazy, super big deep dive. And then we come back here later in the week and kind of tell you what's been going on in the true crime world.

metaverse, universe, whatever you want to call it. But in any event, thank you so much for being here and listening today with me. So today we're going to talk about a new case that's going on. We will be talking about a update in a very high-profile murder case that's happening. We're going to also talk about Laken Riley. She's that 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered on the UGA campus last week. It's a really, really

horrific story and more details, more vicious barbaric details have come to light with that. So we're going to talk about quite a bit today. So get comfy wherever you are, whatever you're doing.

Let's start with this disturbing case that's unfolding in Sydney, Australia. On February 19th, Jesse Bayard, a 26-year-old Australian TV host and his 29-year-old flight attendant boyfriend named Luke Davies, they were reported missing after Luke's family couldn't get in touch with him and he didn't show up to work.

Australian police began to investigate their disappearances, and with that, they obtained CCTV surveillance footage that showed both Jesse and Luke outside of Jesse's home in Paddington, which is a suburb of Sydney, and they were outside of Jesse's home around 9 a.m. They were seen walking toward the back of the terrace, and then after that, they were never seen again. So when investigators spoke to neighbors, some of them said that they might have heard some sort of argument happening. Some of them said that they were not sure what was going on.

Some sources also reported that some neighbors heard gunshots, but they didn't report it to the police until days later for whatever reason.

Then, two days after they were reported missing, a groundskeeper found blood-stained clothing. They also found an $8,000 watch. They found credit cards that belonged to Jesse and also credit cards that belonged to Luke. And all of this stuff had been thrown in a dumpster in Cronulla, which is about 18 miles away from Paddington.

So after this, police went back to Jesse's house to investigate further, right? But unfortunately, when they got there, they found more blood evidence that was on the terrace, and they also found a bullet that ballistically matched a police-issued gun. They also went back to that CCTV footage for later on in the day, and they saw a very suspicious white van in the footage.

Now, because of the blood and the bullet that was found, Luke and Jesse were presumed dead. Jesse Baird has lived here for 12 months with two female roommates. He recently finished up at Channel 10 and was moving out this week.

with plans to fly to Perth yesterday. Now, it wasn't known to the public at the time, but the police were able to quickly connect exactly which police officer's gun was used because of that bullet that was recovered. And it pointed back to a man named Beau Lamar.

They also found out that that white van, which they thought was connected to the crime, had been rented by Bo. Then, about a week after they were reported as missing, Jesse and Luke's bodies were found in two surf bags, and they were covered in debris. They were found in Begonia, which is about 115 miles away from Jesse's house.

In a press conference, officials announced that the person that they believed committed this crime, Bo, told them where to find the bodies, and he was arrested and then charged for Luke and Jesse's murders. Authorities believe that Jesse and Luke were killed sometime on Monday the 19th, and

Then after that, the gun used was actually found back at the police station, meaning that Bo checked it back in after the murder. And not only that, but it's believed that he used that white van that was in that CCTV footage to transport and dispose of Luke and Jesse's bodies.

In a press conference, police confirmed that Bo and Jesse were previously in some type of relationship that ended a couple of months ago. So we don't know the details of the relationship. We don't know if it was serious or exactly how long it was, but I'm sure more information will come out in time. But it appears on the surface level that this was some sort of jealousy thing that...

He was mad that Jesse moved on, so he killed Jesse and Luke. But again, I could completely be wrong. That's just what it looks on the surface level.

Now let's talk a little bit about Karen Reed. This is a case that we've talked about before. Karen Reed, Karen Reed, Karen Reed. Now if you haven't heard about this case, guys, we did like an ultra mega deep dive podcast episode on this case, and I'm going to link it in the show notes, but it is a freaking doozy. There is a lot of divide out there on this case, guys.

So Karen is charged with second-degree murder. She's accused of killing her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, and she's accused of killing him by hitting him with her Lexus SUV and then leaving him to die in a snowstorm. This was after a night out drinking with friends who coincidentally happened to be fellow police officers, and also they were drinking with the wives of these officers. I mean, kind of like a house party with all these cops, all their wives, and then it ends in catastrophe.

So all of this is alleged to have happened outside one of the officers' houses that they were with earlier that night. Inside the house, everybody from the bar was continuing to party when apparently Karen pulled up to drop John off so that he could go inside and party with everybody else.

They're saying that once she dropped him off, she like reversed her car. She was drunk. She backed into him, ran him over. He fell in the snow and basically died. I think of like hypothermia they're saying. I forget exactly what the cause of death is. I need to go back and remind myself. But anyway...

Karen and her attorneys have a completely different story. They say that Karen dropped John off, drove off, and that John was actually attacked and killed inside that house, inside that house party. And then they say that his body was moved outside to the street after. Her attorneys are saying that Karen is actually being framed as part of a massive Massachusetts state police cover-up. And a lot of people believe this is true.

So Karen Reed's trial, which was supposed to start on March 12th, has now been pushed back to April 16th. This was after the U.S. Attorney's Office sent over 3,000 pages of documents about their investigation into the case. The defense said that the new information appears to be exculpatory, while the prosecution said that it was about 90% consistent with what was already known. But nevertheless, the trial was postponed. Life is full of adventures.

Do you take this man to be your husband? I do. Welcome home. We did it. He has your eyes. He's perfect. Make the most of them all with PenFed checking and savings accounts. Learn more at PenFed.org. Federally insured by NCOA. To receive any advertised product, you must become a member of PenFed Credit Union. PenFed's got great rates for everyone.

Before this happened, the defense tried to get the indictment thrown out, which was denied. However, what some people say is damning evidence was included in the prosecution's response to the defense's motion. However, I do want to say that some of what was included isn't new information, and it's also in that podcast episode that I talked about earlier, which will be in the show notes.

So the prosecution highlighted the text messages that Karen sent John and also the voicemail that she left the night that he died. In the voicemail, she was allegedly screaming and saying, "'John, I fucking hate you.'"

She had also called him a pervert and accused him of cheating while he was on a trip to Aruba. And when John's niece and nephew, who lived with him at the time, were interviewed, they said that John and Karen bickered constantly. His niece talked about one argument specifically where John was trying to break up with Karen, and she mentioned other times where John asked Karen to leave, but she didn't.

Now remember, John and Karen essentially lived together at his house, but she still had her home that she could have gone to.

So now, the new information coming out of their filing is that apparently two weeks before John died, Karen allegedly kissed another man. That man in question is Brian Higgins, who police say was friends with Karen and John and was with both of them at the bar where they had been drinking the night that John died. And also, Brian Higgins was apparently inside that house that Karen allegedly dropped John off to.

feels really nutty right because you've got motive on both sides if you're having karen

leaving these I hate you voicemails to John clearly she could be a you know not this but like a Betty Broderick situation like wanting to retaliate wanting to hurt him but then also if she kissed this guy Brian Higgins who is friends with all the police officers who was at that house that night if she did drop John off and he went inside could they have attacked him because Brian wanted to be with her I mean you could literally cut this up a million different ways right and that's what's happening that's why there's so much divide out

there so prosecutors are saying that Karen was involved in what they're calling a romantic entanglement with Brian romantic entanglement it just reminds me of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett because didn't they say that like oh no I didn't have an affair I had an entanglement or whatever she said anyways they're saying that two weeks before John's death Brian went to John's house to watch a football game and Karen walked him out afterward and then allegedly kissed him

They also revealed that the text messages between Brian and Karen acknowledged the kiss, and the messages were romantic in nature apparently, but I guess Brian declined an invitation to visit Karen at her house. So basically, the prosecution believes that this all played into her motive to kill John after a night of heavy drinking.

Now that the trial is delayed until April 16th, the defense has already said that they will need more time than that. Whether the judge is going to grant them another extension, I mean, we don't know. She previously denied one of their requests to delay the trial, but that was, of course, way before this 3,000-page document dump, which, again, I know the prosecution says 90% of it is already known.

However, when a high-profile murder trial takes place, typically you see judges use a lot of caution in regards to how much time the defense is given to go through the evidence because it can be a major problem later on in the appeals process if there is a conviction that ends up happening. But you also never know what a judge is going to decide, so I don't know. I could be wrong. So will we see the trial start on April 16th? I don't know, but I will keep you updated on all of the things in this case because I'm definitely keeping an eye on this one.

Now I also want to talk with you guys about a huge case. I updated it over on my YouTube channel yesterday. This is the three-year-old little boy who went missing back on February 20th. On February 20th, 2024, an Amber Alert was activated in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. This Amber Alert was for three-year-old Elijah Vu. Photos of him show his dark blonde hair and his brown eyes.

He's approximately three feet tall. He has a birthmark on his left knee, and he was last seen wearing gray pants, a long-sleeved dark shirt, and red and green dinosaur shoes. He is also possibly carrying a red and white plaid blanket.

Now, the Amber Alert went into effect after a 911 call was placed at 10:59 a.m. by a man named Jesse Vang. Jesse told the police that he was babysitting Elijah, that he had fallen asleep, and when he woke up, Elijah was gone. When police got to the apartment where Jesse lived, Elijah was obviously nowhere to be found, and this is what prompted the Amber Alert, which went out an hour and a half later.

Now, while the community was jumping into action to help find Elijah, police were trying to figure out what exactly was going on and how this three-year-old little boy just basically vanished. Now, Jesse initially told police that he was in a relationship with Elijah's mom, Katrina, and that Elijah had been staying with him on and off over the past month or so while he tried to help correct Elijah's behavior.

And I say correct because that is their direct quote, but it is nothing like correcting. So he told them that earlier in the morning, he had gotten his own son who has autism. He got him up and ready for school and then got him on the bus at 7.30 a.m. before then waking up Elijah at around 8 a.m. and bringing him into his bedroom and closing the door behind him. Then he says when he woke up around three hours later, he realized Elijah was gone and that's when he called 911.

Now, we'll get into more of this later on, but Jesse said that any time that he was asleep, he locked the apartment doorknob, locked the deadbolt, and connected the security chain that's at the top of the door. So there was no way that Elijah could just walk out of this apartment. After speaking with Jesse and starting the search for Elijah, a detective spoke with Elijah's mom Katrina, who lives in Wisconsin Dells, which is about three hours away from Two Rivers.

She said that she had dropped Elijah off with Jesse eight days prior in Fond du Lac, which is basically the halfway point between the two of them, and she said that she was planning to get Elijah back on the 23rd. She also said that she had not even been in the Two Rivers area at all during that eight-day window.

Now, her reasoning for sending Elijah to Jesse was because apparently Jesse was what they call the enforcer of the rules. He was like the alpha of the relationship, the enforcer of the relationship. And apparently, she wanted him to teach Elijah how to be a man. Remember, Elijah is three years old.

Now this whole thing apparently had started around Thanksgiving, when she was having a conversation with Jesse about Elijah's behavior. And Jesse told her that she needed to try harder to stop it, to stop this three-year-old's behavior. Oh my gosh, this crazy out-of-control three-year-old. So in January, that was when she first sent Elijah to Jesse's house to help correct these behaviors.

She admitted to basically giving Jesse free reign on how to discipline Elijah, besides just informing him of the discipline measures that she did not want used. So her examples of discipline that were used were praying, saying he was sorry, and apparently going over the four rules that he was supposed to memorize. Now, it's quite the contrast from what Jesse gave as discipline examples, but we're going to get there.

Also, in that same conversation, Katrina went on to say that she actually had been in two rivers in that area, which is the complete opposite of what she had been saying prior. She went from saying that she hadn't been there at all to saying she actually had driven there on the night of the 16th, where she apparently saw Elijah on the couch.

She said she left early the next morning, though. But by that point, the detectives seemed to have already pulled her phone records and had confronted her about her whereabouts, and that's when she had admitted to being there on the 14th before going back home. Police also found text messages between Katrina and Jesse from February 17th. The first one was at 6.39 p.m., and then another was 10 minutes later at 6.49 p.m. The messages were from Jesse to Katrina.

Jesse said that he was angry that Elijah had overfilled his diaper with poop and pee, and he said that he gave Elijah a cold shower because of this.

He followed it up by saying Elijah was clean, but scared. Jesse was formally interviewed the day that Elijah went missing, and during it, he said that Elijah was, quote, afraid of him. But then he started to correct himself, and then he changed it to saying, quote, he respects me. He went on to describe how Elijah was with him as a form of, quote, punishment for his bad behavior. Again, a three-year-old.

Now, the overall goal with this punishment was so that he could be taught that he needed to be good at Jesse's house and also be good at home. Jesse's exact verbiage was that he was trying to make Elijah understand that, quote, going home is a privilege for him.

Can you believe that? Going home is a privilege for this three-year-old boy. Now you might be wondering, not only is that not crazy enough, but how on earth was Jesse trying to quote teach this three-year-old or make this three-year-old little boy Elijah understand that going home is a privilege? Well, Elijah was often disciplined using timeouts. However, this was not your normal go sit down for five minutes type of timeout or anything like that.

Instead, these timeouts were where Jesse had Elijah standing anywhere from between one to three hours. During the timeouts, Elijah was forced to either pray or repeat, I'm sorry, Mommy.

Now, Jesse said that the majority of the time that Elijah was with him, not only was he in time out, but Jesse saw this as a form of, quote, boot camp for Elijah. When Jesse was asked what kind of bad behaviors Elijah had that warranted this type of punishment at three years old, no less, Jesse couldn't name anything specific. Nothing other than, quote, getting into things.

So let's break that down for a second here guys because it is crazy. Jesse was forcing Elijah to stand for hours on end where he either had to pray or say I'm sorry mommy because he was getting into things. Now this really goes without saying but getting into things is literally what three-year-olds do and going home is not a privilege for a toddler. It is the standard. It is the norm. It is where they are supposed to feel safe.

So I mean, from everything that I've gathered, it doesn't sound like the, quote, bad behaviors of Elijah, that these bad behaviors that he was displaying, aren't developmentally normal for a three-year-old. Three-year-olds should be testing boundaries. They should be throwing tantrums. That's part of them figuring out life, figuring out who's in control. What can I get away with? If I push back hard enough, will I get what I want? That is

It's part of learning. They don't call it the toddler tantrums and the hellish years for nothing. So in Jesse's interview, he also said that Elijah isn't potty trained and that he usually changed his diaper at least once a day, which let me back that up for a second. It's relatively normal for not all three-year-olds to be potty trained and still be in diapers or pull-ups or something like that.

What is not normal is to only change that diaper or pull up once a day. So Jesse said that the last time that he changed his diaper was before going to sleep on the 19th, which was the night before Elijah was reported as missing. Jesse said that around 8 or 9 p.m., he changed Elijah's diaper before then going to bed and watching the movie Ready Player One. Apparently that night, Jesse had three Budweiser's and he also took one muscle relaxer to help him sleep.

Elijah wasn't allowed to watch this movie though because, and these are in Jesse's words, "I put him in punishment." So instead of watching the movie, Elijah was standing either in the corner or by the bed next to Jesse. Jesse then said, and I quote, "He gets pretty tired from, I guess, standing there." He went on to explain that he wasn't trying to be mean to Elijah, but he was simply trying to make him be more respectful.

When asked how long Elijah was punished that night, Jesse said, for probably two to three hours. Investigators then asked Jesse what happens if Elijah gets tired or tries to sit down, to which Jesse said, I'll say, do you want the cold water?

Now, I'm not sure what kind of reaction the investigators had when Jesse said that because the affidavit doesn't say, but apparently right after Jesse said that about cold water, he started to backtrack a little bit. And he said he's fine, it's not like his knees are shaking or he's about to fall over or anything like that, as if that makes it less severe. The interview went on and Jesse recounted the morning of the 20th.

He said he got up, got his son ready for school, saw Elijah asleep on the futon sofa in the living room, and then he took his son to the bus stop. He says that when he came back, he woke Elijah up to eat breakfast. Jesse said that Elijah ate some cereal without milk. Then after that, they went into Jesse's bedroom.

Jesse told Elijah to stand at the corner or the foot of the bed and start to pray. Jesse said that Elijah wasn't allowed to do any fun things that morning because he was in timeout. And Jesse said that he didn't change Elijah's diaper that morning either because he was too tired.

Not because Elijah was too tired, not that that would be an excuse anyway, but because Jesse was too tired to change his diaper. So investigators asked Jesse if Elijah had any toys at his apartment, and Jesse said yes, there was one. There was one that Elijah got around Christmas time.

The toy was similar to a toolbox, but again, Elijah wasn't allowed to play with it. He wasn't allowed to play with this toy from February 12th to February 20th because he was in timeout, because he was in punishment, which that is the longest time form of a punishment for a toddler that I think I've ever heard of.

I'm just saying this kind of as a sidebar too. I've done a lot of research of timeouts because I have a toddler who is four years old and sometimes needs to be reeled in a little bit and everybody has their own belief in timeouts, what the length should be, if timeout should be a thing or not. But I remember recently reading that a timeout shouldn't be longer for than however old that kid is. And I think the exact math was it was like it's one minute for each year of age because

they're so young and their brain is so little that they're unable to comprehend time longer than that and like what that punishment goes to sorry I'm conveying this really poorly but basically that if you put a four-year-old in timeout for 20 minutes the effectiveness is going to lose after four minutes because their brain can't adapt to that so anything after a four-minute time period is

it's just kind of like cruel and unusual punishment because they're not understanding, and at that point they're even forgetting why they're in timeout to begin with, and it's just not as effective. But here, little three-year-old Elijah wasn't in timeout for three minutes. He wasn't in timeout for five minutes. He wasn't even in timeout for three hours. He was in timeout for eight days. So they asked Jesse what happened if these timeouts weren't working.

To which Jesse replied that he would usually give Elijah an ultimatum. And usually that ultimatum was saying, do you want cold water? Jesse said that Elijah didn't like cold water, although Jesse wasn't sure why. But he would use that as like whatever method he would use to taunt him. Like, well, you're not going to do this. What, you want me to get the cold water? You want cold water? And like, what a horrible thing to do. A fear tactic for a three-year-old little boy.

I understand like little ultimatums or negotiating with toddlers here and there, which maybe you won't agree, but like being like, eat all your dinner or you're not going to get dessert or clean your room or brush your teeth or you're not going to be able to like sleep in bed with mommy because he sleeps in bed with me every night. But like, you get what I mean? Not like a fear tactic, right?

So additionally, investigators asked Jesse what kind of things Elijah usually ate whenever he was with him. Jesse responded, he said pizza, noodles, cereal, and other similar items. That's a direct quote.

But then, apparently he went on to say that Elijah was still bottle-fed, and that Jesse was trying to get him to eat regular food, but he was unable to provide any other details about food. So clearly something shady was going on here, but we don't exactly know what.

you have Jesse and Katrina clearly taking extreme measures in trying to get a three-year-old to basically not act like a three-year-old, which apparently they couldn't handle, and they felt the need to take drastic measures, which ultimately led to both of their arrests within the first 24 hours of Elijah's disappearance.

Now, it's also important to note that the only person who can verify any of the things that Jesse said regarding the timeline of the night before and the morning of Elijah's disappearance is Jesse's son. Jesse was charged with child neglect, and Katrina was charged with party to child neglect.

Katrina's charge was a little bit different since technically she wasn't the one disciplining him, but she did know that Elijah wasn't being cared for properly, and she did know about the discipline methods that Jesse was using. She was also charged with two counts of obstructing an officer. Katrina was given a $15,000 cash bail, and Jesse was given a $20,000 cash bail, and they were told that if they do make bail, they cannot have any contact with each other or any minor under the age of 18.

This includes Elijah's sister, who has since been removed from Katrina's care and allegedly has been placed with family, although I haven't been able to confirm that.

So they're still in jail, but there's still a bigger issue here because where is Elijah? Wednesday night, Two Rivers police going before the cameras for the first time in the search for three-year-old Elijah Vu. I'm going to assure them and the public that we are doing everything in our power to bring Elijah home safely. Investigators pleading for help from the public. Anyone with any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem...

Please come forward and share that. Now the search for Elijah has been massive. Immediately upon finding out that he was missing, the local police department made use of every possible resource that they could. This includes the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigations, the FBI,

a child missing, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, all the county agencies, fire departments, social media posts, drones, canines, helicopters, boats, dogs, I mean, even teams of officers and agents out on foot speaking with people door to door. Law enforcement also encouraged neighbors or anybody in the area to look at their home surveillance cameras or search their personal property, hoping that some sort of tip will be generated, there will be some sort of lead.

On the night of the 20th, reporters outside Jesse's apartment complex saw investigators collect a small slip-on shoe and put it into an evidence bag.

12 news cameras capturing law enforcement focus on a multi-unit apartment building, collecting evidence from the dumpster and collecting a small slip-on shoe into an evidence bag. It's the same kind of shoe officials say Elijah had on the last time anyone reported seeing him. On Thursday, February 22nd, police announced that although they hadn't found Elijah yet, they were still looking.

They also said that they understand the public frustration, but that they could only release information that wouldn't jeopardize the investigation. This came after there was just so much confusion and talk about what was going on. Earlier that day, many people had seen a search happening at a landfill about 40 miles away, and there was a blue tent, which led them to begin questioning what was happening.

Within their statement, police said that they were leaving no stone left unturned in the search for Elijah, and that they would continue to do searches like they had been doing in landfills and rivers. So the search for little Elijah is still ongoing. Just this past Sunday, the 25th, there were a total of 16 search parties that were out, covering a total of 57 miles in the area.

Elijah's uncle Orson Vu spoke to the media and said that the family was mentally and emotionally drained. But they've been uplifted by seeing strangers organize their own searches and seeing the encouraging messages that they have received from all around the U.S. and even beyond that. Mentally, emotionally, both me and my family, we're all drained. I think I speak for myself and my family when I say we're drained.

WE ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR ALL OF YOU AND THE AUTHORITIES THAT ARE WORKING ON THIS INVESTIGATION." VU SAYS HE FOLLOWED ALONG FRIDAY WHEN ELIJAH'S MOTHER, KATRINA BAUER, HAD A BAIL HEARING ON CHILD NEGLECT CHARGES. HE SAYS THE VU FAMILY HASN'T SEEN ELIJAH SINCE HE WAS ABOUT SIX MONTHS OLD.

Like this, you know, again, for the first time in how many years? It's gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, you know, all those bad emotions. Now, I just have to say, in my opinion, poor little Elijah was let down by his own mom, who left him with a man that had a previous child abuse charge among his lengthy criminal record.

See, his past charges, Jesse's past charges included criminal damage, battery by prisoner, manufacturing cocaine, two possession of cocaine charges, fleeing an officer, resisting, obstructing an officer, and bail jumping. Now let's talk about Katrina, Elijah's mom, a little more.

Elijah's older sister was born in May of 2017. Elijah was born in 2020. Their father is a man named Jimmy, and Katrina was with Jimmy until February of 2021. She posted a video on her TikTok showing pictures of bruises and other injuries that her abuser, aka Jimmy, had inflicted on her, and that was until she left.

The video was posted in March of 2023 and was basically showing how much she has healed and how far she has come. And honestly, it is a touching video. Now around this same time in February of 2021, Jimmy was arrested on a slew of charges. He

He went to trial in October of 2022, and he was convicted of physically harming a child, high probability of great harm, possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, battery, disorderly conduct, possession of THC with intent and possession of methamphetamine. I mean, just not the person you would necessarily want around your children. He is currently serving several years in prison, however, has recently filed an appeal just this month.

According to Katrina's own posts, after leaving Jimmy, she didn't have a home. She also lost custody of both children just two months later in April of 2021.

Katrina posted a TikTok in March of 2022 saying her kids come home from foster care on April 14, 2022. So since then, she has had custody of both children. There's not much known about what was going on between then and when she started hanging out with Jesse in November of 2023. We don't know if any abuse was going on before or what. However, Elijah's older sister is on the spectrum.

Katrina has been known to reach out to others on social media for help in handling some of the challenges that she was having with her daughter, and I want to be clear that I'm not bringing these up to bash her for asking for help in Facebook groups or anything like that, because I do think that most of us who are moms have reached out to at least someone at one point or another asking for advice on how to handle a certain situation or how to problem solve or something like that. So I'm just trying to give you a little bit more insight into what may have been happening in their home.

In one Facebook group, she wrote about how she was basically at her wit's end and didn't know what to do with her daughter's violent outbursts, and she was asking for advice. She said she's physically and emotionally drained and barely has the energy to do anything else other than deal with her meltdowns and with her violence.

At the end of the post, she says it's gotten to the point that all she does is yell at her. Right now, breaking news, the FBI is now offering a reward up to $15,000 in the search for a missing boy in Manitowoc County. Three-year-old Elijah Vu was reported missing one week ago today. His disappearance sparked an Amber Alert. Do police believe Elijah left that residence on his own?

Again, I can't speculate. I will say that again when we're talking about the Amber Alert that we put out, people wanted me to speculate on an abduction versus endangered. At this point, what I do know is a child was missing in cold temperatures, you know, winter temperatures, in relatively little clothing and possibly a blanket. That's what we're searching for and we'll continue to search for until I get some answers. To anyone who may have information about Elijah's whereabouts,

We plead with you to please come forward. Your courage, your compassion, your willingness to speak up may hold the key to Elijah's safe return.

Elijah was being punished for being a three-year-old. He was given cold showers for overfilling his diaper, which they weren't changing. And yet in Jesse's own statement, he said that on one occasion he was too tired to change Elijah's diaper. So what's going on here? It seems to me like he was punished for simply existing because he was an inconvenience to these people.

How can you punish a three-year-old for things that are quite literally out of their control if you're just being lazy, you don't want to change their diaper, and you don't want to deal with the responsibility of being a parent or being an adult figure in their life? Kids have tantrums. Kids soil their diapers. Kids want to eat. Kids want to be kids. That's nothing to punish them for.

It is just absolutely heartbreaking and it just illustrates that not everybody is meant to be a parent. And I hate this case so much because it is so eerily similar to Quentin Simon. I am hopeful that there will be a rescue for little Elijah. Do I think there will be? I don't know. I think it will probably be a recovery and not a rescue, but I certainly hope that I'm wrong.

Now let's talk about Lake and Riley. So if you follow me on TikTok, which if you don't, you definitely should, the link will be in the show notes, but the handle is at underscore Annie Elise, just like my Instagram. But you might have seen that I posted some case updates and breaking information this last weekend as the Lake and Riley case was unfolding. This was last Thursday and Friday.

So, Laken Riley is a 22-year-old nursing student who was found dead in a wooded area by a popular walking and running trail on the University of Georgia Athens campus, which because that's a mouthful, I'm just going to refer to it as UGA going forward, but I felt like I needed to tell you where this is all going down. So,

So Lakin attended UGA for undergrad, and she was a member in the sorority before going on to Augusta Nursing School, which is in partnership with UGA, and their campuses are like extremely close. So on Thursday, February 22nd, Lakin went out for a jog on the UGA campus. But when she didn't come back, a friend became worried, and they reached out to campus police around noon.

Campus police responded and they went out to the trail and they found her around 12.38 p.m. Officers said that she had visible injuries and Lakin was unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene.

But this case quickly made national headlines as police were investigating. And during a press conference, campus police said that they didn't have a suspect, but they believed that there wasn't a threat to the community at the time, which honestly really confused a lot of people, including myself. It kind of felt like deja vu from the Idaho murder case when police said the same thing. They said, there's no threat to the community, there's no suspect, which it's like, how is there not a threat to the community if you haven't arrested anybody?

If you don't even have a suspect, if you don't even know if this was targeted, personal, random, how are you telling us and reassuring us that there is not a threat to the community? I mean, make it make sense, right?

So the next day, reporters from all over the country quickly came to UGA because they all wanted to cover this story as it was unfolding. And I think one of the main reasons why this case took the media by storm is because not only was it this young college girl who was murdered and found on campus, but it happened in broad daylight.

She went running. She was doing all of the right things. She let her friend know that she was going out for a run. She had her phone on her. And they found her at 12.38 p.m. It's like...

it's just getting scarier and scarier to be a female out there I mean all genders yes but like a female especially it's like you can't even go for a fucking jog anymore in the middle of the afternoon without the risk of being attacked and murdered it's horrible it's horrible I mean we've known that this happens to runners and people who are just out and about all the time but like I feel like

Way more often, way more recent, it happens literally in broad daylight. And that is just a really terrifying thought. So during a press conference, after everybody was picking up all of this and all of the reporters came to UGA, all day there was news footage. There was footage of police searching dumpsters, bushes, an apartment complex that was nearby, and there were rumors that there had actually been multiple people taken into custody at this point.

Later on, police made a statement that they did take one person in for questioning, but that's all they said in this statement. Then, a few hours later, there was a major press conference, and this is when UGA campus police chief announced that they did make an arrest. Jose Antonio Rivera, 26 years of age. He lives here in Athens, but is not a U.S. citizen. Malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery,

aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. He will be transported to the Clark County Jail. We have also served a search warrant on his apartment and continue to collect evidence. Now I want to repeat what the charges were because if you're like me, you probably need to hear that again. I kind of thought that I blacked out when I first heard it, if I'm going to be honest. It was a lot.

So, Jose Ibarra was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and hindering a 911 call.

Also, he is not a student at UGA, but he is 26 years old. And as you heard in the press conference, he is not a U.S. citizen. Now really quickly guys, I am going to address the elephant in the room here because I've seen it all over social media. I've seen it on TikTok. I've seen it on my TikToks. I've just kind of seen everybody arguing and fighting about this.

We don't normally discuss politics on here, and that's not what you come here for. It's not what I'm on here to do. I'm not here to be on the mic to discuss politics. It's way above my pay grade, and frankly, it's just not what any of us come here for. However, because it's been reported that Jose illegally came into the United States through El Paso, Texas back in 2022, and that he had previously been arrested and released in New York before coming to Georgia—

This case has turned political.

And that is putting it mildly. You can only imagine the comments out there. You can only imagine everything going on right now. Now all of that to say, I did want to address the elephant in the room, but over here on this podcast, we're going to keep the focus on Lakin. We're going to keep the focus on the victim. And right now, Lakin Riley, a beautiful, intelligent, caring 22-year-old girl, was brutally murdered.

Her entire life and future was just viciously snuffed out while going for a jog on a trail that she often jogged on. The accused murderer, Jose, is charged with committing egregiously heinous crimes, I mean, the details of which now have been released, and it truly paints a horrifying and heartbreaking picture of what poor Lakin went through.

The UGA police chief said, and I quote, Now we're going to get into all of those details in a second here, but I want to give you some context first.

So Jose was in court briefly, and he's being held without bail. The conversation around campus safety in general and on the UGA campus has also been brought to the forefront of everybody's minds because of Lakin's tragic murder and what happened to her.

Well now, the full arrest warrant has been released, and it's detailing exactly how investigators were able to connect him to Lakin. And we're going to go through it together, guys. Police believe that Lakin was killed sometime between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Lakin's cause of death was ruled as blunt force trauma to the head. Before we get into the details of the cause of death and what that exactly means with that blunt force trauma, let's go through the charges.

According to the arrest warrant, and this is all alleged at this point, Jose committed aggravated assault by using an object to cause great bodily harm or death, although there was not a description of an object.

It continues by saying, It also says,

It continues, All of these facts led to the charge of malice murder and felony murder. Now, as far as motive, we know that this was a crime of opportunity, but so far, no details have been released other than that. However, some former homicide detectives have started weighing in and have started sharing their opinions. Take a listen.

I want to bring in Phil Waters. He's a retired homicide detective at the Houston Police Department, has investigated more than 400 homicide cases. The list is extensive, Phil, and you know it can always grow, right? They have the right to add charges later. I do not see rape on this charge. I wanted to get your take seeing that list and what story that list tells us. Well, good evening, Ashley. I will tell you what it tells me is that the

They had asked the chief what was the motivation here, and he said there was no known motivation. Now, there has to be motivation. There's three reasons why people murder people, sex, drugs, or money. Obviously, I don't think there's a drug component here. I don't think that he was there hijacking her, so that leaves the sexual assault part of this as a component. It's my speculation.

based on what we know, that this assembly of charges here is to ensure that he's going to be tried for a capital crime. And yes, the death penalty will apply. So it'll be up to the prosecutors to see if they're going to pursue that. But the reason you don't see sexual assault here is because it didn't happen. And I think that

what this suspect's motivation was. She may have been a random target and the chief used an opportunist, a crime of opportunity, which it was, but I gotta believe that this guy has been scoping this area out. It's next to the intramural fields. He knows that these college students are running across this area all the time. And he was there looking for this opportunity.

And unfortunately, here comes Lakin. And it was the time for him to strike. And I think that the reason you have sexual assault is because she fought him with such ferocity. He wasn't able to accomplish what he was seeking to do. God, I hope so. And I hope that.

You know, they've got DNA under her fingernails that will tell an even clearer story. Just quickly, I only have 30 seconds left, but there's a charge of kidnapping and false imprisonment. Now, we know from the O.J. Simpson trial, kidnapping can be, I moved you a few feet against your will. I get that. False imprisonment, though, does that tell you that they discovered her tied up?

I don't know that they discovered her tied up, but he's keeping her in an area and not allowing her to leave. So that may be the elements of false imprisonment in Georgia. That may be the component there for that charge. But like I said, they've got a whole host of charges here to ensure that he's going to be tried, if he is tried, for a capital offense.

Then the next thing is, is that there's concealment. Does that mean he tried to cover up the body, tried to obscure the body, maybe put the body in a drainage culvert, some way to obscure, again, concealing the death of another? Well, it's my understanding that the—I read the incident report that was—

that was put out by the officer that found her, and he finds her in the woods. So I would imagine that there's a haphazard effort to try to conceal her body as he's making his escape. So you've got the elements of several different crimes here all in one crime scene. So I think the prosecutors are covering all the bases here in terms of what they're going to prosecute this suspect for. You're right.

And if they go after death penalty, they've got all sorts of aggravators that they can throw on that list as well. A News Nation reporter spoke to one of Jose's neighbor. Now, this neighbor told him that his security camera caught Jose taking bloody clothes and evidence and then ditching all of that in various dumpsters throughout the apartment complex. The neighbor also gave that footage over to the police.

When the reporter talked to other neighbors, they said that Jose was the quiet type who just sat outside his studio apartment where he lived with four others apparently, and he would just stand outside of that apartment all day for all hours of the day. A different neighbor said that she had seen Lakin use the apartment complex as a frequent shortcut to get to that running trail that she always ran on, and this neighbor believes that it's likely that Jose had seen her in the past and possibly even knew her schedule.

He's been doing some reporting on this, and you actually have found out some new information about the suspect, right, and talking to neighbors. Tell us what you've come up with today. Yeah, new details, Connell, that we had never heard before. This is what's so interesting when you actually go and visit a place. You speak to the people who actually know that person best, and certainly we learned a lot from the neighbors. First, let me just tell you, this is the running trail where 22-year-old Lakin Riley was brutally murdered. We know from police documents that they believe Jose Ibarra

was the one who actually tracked her down, brutally beat her over the head, and then dished her body somewhere here. But really what I want to show you is this apartment complex because this is where Ibarra lived for the past few months. The neighbors tell me he was kind of a loner, kept to himself, very quiet, often would just sit outside of his studio apartment where he lived with four or five others all day long and just watch. And they say that Lake and Riley actually cut through this apartment complex

to get to this trail. Now the reason that I'm actually standing right here in front of these dumpsters is because I learned some really critical details. These neighbors tell me that they have security camera footage that shows Jose Ibarra with bloody clothes, with evidence, and actually taking them to this dumpster and ditching it. I spoke to a number of neighbors here, all of them very fearful because of what happened, wanting to remain anonymous, but they shared some of that information. Take a look.

He took all of the evidence. He's on camera with his bloody clothes in a bag. He didn't go to that bus stop right there in the trash can. That dumpster. There's two dumpsters back there and then he put them in the woods. I don't know where it was, but they were back there yesterday. He was on the spot.

And so these neighbors doing the right thing, turning over all of that footage to the police. Obviously, that's going to be used to build the best case possible if Jose Ibarra is prosecuted at some point for these crimes that he's accused of committing. As for Jose himself, I shared a little bit about it. It sounds like he really just kept to himself, really in a very spooky way, these neighbors say. He would just sit outside of his apartment

and sit quietly and watch the world go by. Their thought is that he saw Lake and Riley run by his apartment so many times that he actually was able to gather intel about her normal schedule, her running path, and that's the reason why he was able to commit this crime, as police say.

So when this case broke, a lot of people were comparing Jose to the suspect who has not yet still been identified by law enforcement in the Rachel Morin case. And honestly, I did also, at least at first. However, it's been confirmed that this guy is unrelated and he's not the suspect that police are looking for in Rachel's case. It unfortunately just had very similar circumstances because she too was murdered on a trail. It was daylight. I mean,

I mean, this case is just beyond tragic, and it's disturbing for so many reasons. At first, a lot of people quickly pointed out to the fact that it's just not safe for women to run alone, like I mentioned. But now, as more details come out, there's also so much that we don't know.

For example, she was dragged to the wooded area by the trail, which makes me wonder, did she ever even make it far into the trail to go running? Was she targeted and attacked simply because she cut through that apartment complex and was seen? I mean, did he be murdered in broad daylight by a stranger who acted alone? Did he just want to kill somebody? Was it maybe something that he fantasized about? I mean, honestly, we don't know.

I have seen reports that Jose is actually married, and one news outlet spoke to the wife, who said that her brother called her and told her when Jose was arrested, and that she knew Jose as somebody calm and not physically violent. However, she did say that if he did what he's accused of, then clearly she didn't know him at all, and he deserves whatever punishment he gets because of how horrifying the crimes are.

Which at least that's kind of a silver lining. I feel like so often or more times than not we hear of these wives or girlfriends sticking by the accused murderers and having some sort of excuse for what they did or being like oh this is so unlike him are we sure we know everything or whatever it is. So at least she's saying like hey if he's guilty of what he's accused of then he deserves to rot. He deserves whatever punishment which amen good.

So that's what we've got today guys. I know it was a lot. It was a longer episode than usual, but unfortunately there's no shortage in the true crime world and there's no shortage of like asshole murderers, rapists, dirtbags, all of the things. So again, let me know if you find these Thursday episodes helpful and beneficial to kind of just keep you on the pulse of what's going on with all of these cases. But as always, Mondays are more of our like deep dives on a singular case.

If you're not following the podcast yet, I highly, highly recommend doing so because I'm going to have some very exciting announcements and future episodes coming up. So you won't want to miss those. So take a second and whatever podcast app you're using, just make sure that you're following so that you get notified of those episode drops because we're going to have some really exciting announcements, some giveaway stuff. I mean, a lot of things happening. But also make sure you're following all socials. It's Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, all the things. And it's at underscore Annie Elise.

And yeah, I hope you guys are enjoying this podcast. As always, if you're listening on Apple, please take 30 seconds to leave a rating and a review. Let me know what you like about the podcast, what you want more of. If you have constructive criticism, feel free to leave it there too. A lot of you apparently hate my voice, but let me know what you think. And that's the best way for me to see it so that I can cater this podcast to what it is you guys want.

All right. Thanks again for tuning in. It was great talking with you guys today. And until the next one, be nice and don't kill people. All right. I'll be back on the mic with you first thing Monday morning or Friday for the ad free bonus episode if you need a true crime fix going into the weekend. All right, guys. Take care. Bye.