S3 Ep290: Jennifer & Adrianna Wix: Lies Exposed (Part 2)

On March 27, 2004, 21-year-old Jennifer Wix and her 2-year-old daughter, Adrianna, were reported missing. They hadn’t been seen or heard from since March 25, when Jennifer told multiple family members she was scared and unhappy living with her boyfriend, Joey Benton, and his parents in their rural Robertson County, Tennessee home. When asked where Jennifer and Adrianna were, Joey gave multiple conflicting stories before settling on one—claiming he had dropped them off at a gas station on the night of the 25th, where they got into a white four-door car with two people he didn’t know. But nothing about this story, or the others, made sense. As Jennifer’s family searched for answers, they uncovered contradictions, missing details, and a troubling history of control and isolation, all of which left them questioning…what really happened to Jennifer and Adrianna Wix? We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets!https://www.crimecon.com/CC25Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPodADS:1. https://www. FastGrowingTrees.com - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for an additional 15% off!2. https://www. ZipRecruiter.com/CrimeWeekly - Try ZipRecruiter for FREE!

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 0:15Derrick Levasseur?

  And I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 0:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  So today, we are talking about the disappearance of 21-year-old Jennifer Wicks and her two-year-old daughter Adrianna. A very sad case. We kind of dug into the preamble, everything leading up to it. We even talked about the actual, what we believe is the date of the disappearance. And I'll give everybody a quick little update. March 25, 2004 was the last day anyone outside of the Benton family heard from 21-year-old Jennifer Wicks and her two-year-old daughter Adrianna. Over the next two days, Jennifer's boyfriend Joey Benton gave multiple conflicting accounts

• 0:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  of where they had gone. First saying Jennifer was with a friend, then claiming he dropped Jennifer and Adrianna off at the gas station where they were picked up by someone in a white four-door car, but nothing about his ever-evolving stories ever made sense. By March 27, Jennifer's mother, Kathy, knew something was terribly wrong. And desperate for answers, she reported Jennifer and Adrianna missing and begged the Robertson County Sheriff's Office to conduct a welfare check at the Benton home. A deputy agreed and headed over to the property, hoping to find the young mother and daughter, but what he found only deepened the mystery.

• 1:35Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. And I had ended last episode talking about one of the things that stood out to me. There's two scenarios. Something happened to Jennifer and Adrianna while they were with the Bentons, or Joey's telling a partial truth that he did drop them off with someone. But I ended the episode by saying, why would she leave without the 500 bucks? If she really just wanted to start a new life and wasn't going to tell her mom, her sisters, her friends, was just going to get in the car and take off. Why wouldn't she at least wait for the money? That would give her a good jump start. So her not taking that money is extremely concerning. And then I always talk about criminals from the perspective of the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. That also applies to victims as well.

• 2:19Derrick Levasseur?

  In the past, even though their, their relationship had its peaks and valleys, Jennifer did always follow up with her mom. She always talked to her mom and she, she even talked to her father at some points, although they weren't as close. So she was someone in the past who would reach out to family members and friends if she wanted to discuss what was going on in her life, including Adrianna getting sick and going to the hospital. Who did she call?

• 2:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Her mother and her grandmother. And even when things were going wrong with her and Joey, she called her mom.

• 2:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Called her mom. So we talked about that incident where she has this knockdown fallout with her mom and Heather and Casey and Joey kicks down the door. But even after all that, when Adrianna got sick, she called her mom. So we know that even though they weren't on the best of terms, when shit hit the fan, Jennifer still reached out to her loved ones. So to think that she wouldn't have here, especially when she had on the previous two days, doesn't make a lot of sense.

• 3:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, she wouldn't just vanish without the money or without telling anybody anything, even if she waited to get to her destination and then called and was like, hey, just so you know, I just, I need some time, you know, me and Adrianna are trying to do stuff our own way. I wanted to let you know I was alive and okay. She would have done that.

• 3:32Derrick Levasseur?

  And we can all use common sense. We've been working with you guys now for over four and a half years, five years. I think we're coming up on, I think we've done over 300 episodes. You guys got the message by now. Common sense has to play a factor here. Where's she gonna go? She's been living in an effing shed for the last however much time. She doesn't have a lot of resources. She has enough common sense to realize, I got a two-year-old daughter that's sick. There's nowhere for her to go.

• 3:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I also have family that are willing to help.

• 4:01Derrick Levasseur?

  They're willing to help. So where's she going? She doesn't have anywhere that she can actually go and escape everything. She's gonna go home, even if she doesn't want to. Even if it makes her look bad because she's gonna get the I told you so. She has no other options. Like I just said, she's sleeping out in a friggin shed with her two-year-old sick daughter. Not because she wants to. So when you take that into consideration as well, the options are limited and yet we haven't heard from Jennifer in 20 years. So it's not good.

• 4:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  It does not look good at all. It does not look good at all. But you know, let's talk a little bit about it. I don't believe at all that this 21-year-old girl and her two-year-old daughter just vanished and started a new life. She doesn't have the know-how for that. She had to get a fake ID. It's not possible. So what did happen? Now, some might say, maybe she met somebody. Maybe she met someone else. And she went and lived with this person and that person did something to her and Adrianna. Fair enough. But how did she meet them? When she didn't have a phone, when she was living at the Benton Home 24/7, when she basically had no recourse to leave or to do anything. And she had somebody controlling who was kind of monitoring everything that she did.

• 5:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  So that's the question there. Let's get into what happened when the sheriff's deputy arrived at the Benton Home on the evening of March 27. So Joey was there and Joey told the cops that his parents weren't home and that they couldn't search the home or property without a warrant. Now, the deputy did, however, take a statement from Joey. And this time Joey had yet another story to tell. He claimed he hadn't seen Jennifer and Adrianna since she left with a friend on March 25. When asked who the friend was, he said he didn't know. Then he changed his story again. He now said that he had actually taken Jennifer and Adrianna to an Exxon station and dropped them off around 9:30 PM on the 25th. But he couldn't remember which Exxon station.

• 6:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  And this was strange considering there was only one in the area. Not to mention that in his previous statements to Jennifer's mom Kathy and her aunt Lisa, Joey specifically said it was the Exxon off the interstate. Joey then claimed he saw them get picked up by a white four-door Mustang. But almost immediately, he corrected himself again, saying, no, it wasn't a Mustang. It was actually a white four-door Camaro. Okay, so neither of these statements could possibly be true.

• 6:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, maybe you're about to say it, so I'll shut up.

• 6:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, so neither of these statements could possibly be true. As Mustangs and Camaros don't have four doors. He picked another, he picked another non-four door car.

• 6:42Derrick Levasseur?

  So Joey's not a rocket scientist is the conclusion, or a car expert.

• 6:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not a car guy.

• 6:47Derrick Levasseur?

  It appears that he's not telling the truth. Could you mix up the, the models of the car? Of course you could, but if you don't know, don't say it. Cause it only makes you look bad.

• 6:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or just ask someone, man. What's a car that could have four doors?

• 7:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 7:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then most of them will.

• 7:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, he actually, and he even discredited my other potential out for him where I remember last episode.

• 7:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, you said maybe he.

• 7:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe he knew the make, but just got the model wrong. Well, Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, not even the same make. So even if you saw the emblem, you would be able to tell the difference. So he doesn't even get the make right.

• 7:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  I also feel like Mustangs and Camaros don't look like each other.

• 7:25Derrick Levasseur?

  To a layman, I think I could see some people like, like I know people in my family who wouldn't know the difference between a Mustang and a Camaro. Specifically, when you start considering the older models, not the newer models, they look very different. The Camaro now looks like a Lamborghini almost. But in 2004, yes, to most people, they're very different. The backs are different on them. It's very distinguishable which one's a Mustang, which one's a Camaro. You would think Joey would know the difference.

• 7:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  He could have just said sports car. I mean, that's the way it feels like it's, it's going, you know, but most sports cars of that caliber are just two door cars.

• 8:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. Yeah, no, it just Occam's razor, right? The simple explanation is usually the right one. More than likely, he's telling, he's just not telling the truth.

• 8:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  And Joey also then claimed that he never saw the occupants of the vehicle. This is what he tells the police, which was different from what he told Jennifer's aunt Lisa just days earlier. And in that conversation, he said that there were people inside the car, a white female, and then a white male with a reddish complexion. So the deputy conducting the welfare check put out a BOLO, and then he went to Kathy's house. Kathy is Jennifer's mother. And he told Kathy, something's definitely wrong here. He tried to get in touch with detectives, but they told him that they would deal with it on Monday, which was two days later. So we've got the deputy here conducting the welfare check. The deputy's like, something doesn't sit right about this.

• 8:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  He tries to get a hold of the detectives and he's like, we gotta look at this like ASAP, you know, missing, missing people, first 48, most important. And they're like, oh, we'll deal with it on Monday, like after the weekend. So even law enforcement sometimes can't get other law enforcement to do what they want to do and to take things seriously. But the deputy who went and checked in on this, which he's got instincts, he's got law enforcement know-how, he's saying, something's wrong here. And the detectives are like, huh, it's the weekend, man. So, yeah, it seemed like the detectives believed Jennifer and Joey had gotten into an argument and she'd taken off for a while, but she would eventually come back, as we know. That never happened. So the next day, March 28th, the deputy went back to the Benton home and asked if he could do a walk-through.

• 9:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  The Bentons agreed, but only under strict conditions. He could look around, but he wasn't allowed to open any doors or enter any bedrooms. And I actually have to give this deputy a shout out because he could have gone to the Benton home, felt something was wrong, contacted the detectives. The detectives are like, alright, it's on our to-do list, we'll handle it Monday. This deputy could have gone and enjoyed his weekend.

• 9:53Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right.

• 9:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  And not thought twice about it. But something's nagging at him. Maybe he's got a two-year-old daughter, or maybe he has a young daughter in her twenties and he knows.

• 10:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Or maybe he's just doing his job.

• 10:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Maybe he's just doing his job, maybe.

• 10:05Derrick Levasseur?

  I know it's a crazy concept these days.

• 10:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  It is. But he went back and he asked if he could look around and they said, alright, you can't open any bedrooms, you can't open any doors, and he followed their rules. He checked for any signs of a struggle, but he didn't see anything unusual. However, in an exclusive interview with the Missing in Hushtown podcast, he revealed that while walking through, he did notice something ominous. Adrianna's car seat sitting behind the front door. The deputy also asked if he could search the shed where Jennifer and Adrianna had once lived, and the Bentons said yes, but when he got there, the shed was locked. So, on Monday, March 29th, detectives arrived in the office and started conducting interviews with Jennifer's family.

• 10:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  They confirmed with Aunt Lisa that Joey had described the people in the car to her, and she handed over the answering machine tape, which contained a recorded message from Joey's father, Joseph, saying he was looking for Jennifer to give her her tax refund on March 26th, one day after Jennifer's family last heard from her. And remember, Joseph, Joey Benton's father, told Aunt Lisa, hey, she was here looking for it. So that means he has seen Jennifer since she's last been seen or heard from by her family. So after meeting with Jennifer's family, the detectives did go to the Benton home to speak with Joey again. He repeated that he and Jennifer had broken up on the 25th and that he had dropped her and Adrianna off at the Exxon around 9:30 PM. He then said he drove

• 11:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  away and parked across the street. Five to 10 minutes later, Jennifer and Adrianna got into a white four-door car, but he did not say a model this time.

• 11:44Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, that's better.

• 11:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, at this point, did he ask somebody, you know, or is he just trying not to?

• 11:50Derrick Levasseur?

  Probably did a little research and was like, shit, those cars don't have four doors.

• 11:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Can we not skip over the Adrianna's car seat, though, before we continue?

• 11:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, yeah. Or maybe he told his parents, like, his parents came home after the deputy was there and he was like, I told them about the Camaro.

• 12:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, they were like, dummy.

• 12:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  And they're like, idiots.

• 12:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 12:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Again, you gave a two-door a car? Again? Yeah, let's talk about Adrianna's car seat, because it's important.

• 12:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Let's talk about the car seat quickly, right? We talk about cars. If Jennifer was planning on taking off for the time being to go somewhere to restart her life, whatever the case may be, what's one thing she might need to travel around?

• 12:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  A car seat?

• 12:26Derrick Levasseur?

  Right, car seat. That's, that's a problem that she didn't take that either. So she just really just had to get out of there in a hurry? What was she running from? Why wouldn't she tell anybody that could actually help her about it? It doesn't line up. It just doesn't make sense. And then the fact that the shed was locked, that's a little concerning. I mean, that's not as concerning as the car seat, but why lock the shed? I'm assuming they hadn't been locking it prior to that, when Jennifer and Joey were living in it. All of a sudden, now they have stuff they need to protect inside there? It's interesting.

• 12:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I mean, I would say that the deputy came on Friday. They were aware that within a few days, somebody was going to be coming back to check in on it.

• 13:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Somebody's going to be snooping around.

• 13:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  The deputy comes back the next day. They said, yep, you can go and look around, because we're not suspicious. We have nothing to hide. You just can't open any doors?

• 13:15Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 13:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  And you can't open any closets? So now he says, can I go see the shed? They're like, yeah, sure, have at it, because they already done locked it, because they knew he was somebody or he was going to come back and that they knew they were going to tell him, you can't open any doors. So he would go to the shed. They're cooperating. But he can't open it.

• 13:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. And when you do think about the worst case scenario, if you're gonna do something, you probably don't want to do it inside your house. You want to do it in a location that's off from the residence.

• 13:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  If it was planned, if it was planned, yeah.

• 13:44Derrick Levasseur?

  If it was planned, something also could have happened in the shed that wasn't planned, where they were out there for that night, for whatever reason. We talk about what we do know. There was a pretty bad argument going on that night, the last time we heard from Jennifer. And is it reasonable to think that if Jennifer was arguing with Cindy, she may have said, "I'm gonna spend the night in the shed tonight with my daughter. I don't want to be in this house," even though up to that point, she was staying in the home? I think that's reasonable as well.

• 14:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, yeah, because according to Joey, remember, he said that she didn't even want to go inside the house, that they had pulled up to the house the day that he dropped her off at the gas station. And she was like, "Yeah, you go in. I'm not even going in." So how did she get her stuff? Did she pack up beforehand? Did she have luggage with her? He doesn't say. Is her stuff still at the Benton home? If so, why would she leave all her belongings and all of Adrianna's belongings behind?

• 14:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, not lining up.

• 14:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  All right, so Joey actually goes on to share some new information, which is going to, I think, be very suspicious. So on the morning of the 26th, this is the day after Jennifer's family have heard from her or seen her. This would also be the same day that Joey's father called and said, "Oh, Jennifer's looking for a tax return. We saw her," right? Joey said he'd gone to work that morning, but since his friend Jeffrey, who was also Jennifer's cousin, wasn't working that day, Joey rode with a male coworker and the coworker's girlfriend. He said the job finished early, so he got back home in the late morning or early afternoon. And that's when, according to Joey, Jennifer showed up, driving the same white four-door Camaro.

• 15:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  The same white four-door car that had supposedly picked her up the night before, but this time she was alone. Her two-year-old daughter Adrianna wasn't with her.

• 15:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  So Joey was obviously unable to describe the car in any detail beyond it being a white four-door car, and he claimed he didn't ask where Jennifer had been. He said she only came by to ask for her $500 tax refund, and Joey told her his father wasn't home, so she said she'd come back the following morning to get it. He also claimed that Jennifer told him she was mad at her mom Kathy. She wasn't mad at him. She was mad at Kathy, and that Kathy had threatened to take Adrianna away. But Kathy later denied this, saying that while she had talked to Jennifer about being in a bad situation, she had never threatened to take her daughter from her. Joey said that after their conversation, Jennifer went inside the house. She grabbed a few things,

• 16:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  including Adrianna's car seat, diaper bag, and clothes, and then she left. But there's at least one major problem with this story. We already know he was lying about the car seat as the deputy had seen it sitting behind the front door when he did his walkthrough on the 28th, two days after Joey claimed Jennifer allegedly took it with her. So, this is very suspicious. It keeps getting worse. Next, detectives spoke to Joey's friend Jeffrey, who's also Jennifer's cousin, and what he had to say was very interesting. He told investigators that on the afternoon of March 25th, he and Joey were working on a construction site in Kentucky, which is what Joey said. And then Joey received a call from someone at his house.

• 16:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  He didn't say who. However, we know that detectives later confirmed through phone records that Joey did receive a call from the Benton home on the 25th. Since it came from their landline, they couldn't be sure who made the call, but the timing was notable. It came in after Jennifer got off the phone with her dad around 1:00 PM and before she called her Aunt Lisa. So someone else was in that house with her, or she called him herself. We don't know which.

• 17:23Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep. I was just gonna say that as well. It could have been Jennifer.

• 17:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now Jeffrey told the detectives that after receiving the call from someone at his home, Joey walked up to him and said, "We gotta go right now." Jeffrey allegedly didn't remember asking why and didn't recall Joey explaining why they had to leave. Joey then told his foreman that he had to go home immediately for a family matter, and detectives were able to confirm with the foreman that Joey did receive the call and left early. Now, this is interesting because it doesn't sound like Jennifer would be calling and saying like anything that would make Joey leave work and run right over there. So was it somebody else at the house and something happened and they called him and they're like, we need help with this. Get over here.

• 18:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I mean, it also could have still been Jennifer saying, hey, your mom's yelling at me. Your dad's threatening me.

• 18:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, the mom was allegedly at work.

• 18:14Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't necessarily believe that. We need to confirm that. I need to know something definitive before I say on this podcast, yeah, she was home. We were able to confirm it.

• 18:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cause remember Jennifer's dad said he heard the voice of a female.

• 18:28Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 18:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  In, in the, while he was talking to her.

• 18:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 18:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 18:31Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I don't know who else that could be, but who else would have been allowed in their home? And if somebody else was in their home, then Joey, Cindy and Joseph, Joey's father, would know who that person was and they would gladly tell law enforcement, hey, so and so was over visiting Jennifer, but they didn't. They've never said someone else was in that residence. So it leads me to believe that it was Cindy, but to continue on, it could have been Jennifer who called who said there was a bad fight going on or which I know a lot of people are thinking, Joseph or Cindy calls Joey and says, something happened. Things got out of hand. You need to come home right now. But you know what's interesting about that scenario? Joey's not directly involved.

• 19:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  With that scenario, yeah.

• 19:14Derrick Levasseur?

  With that scenario, Joey's not directly involved. Now, one more scenario, just to add another wrinkle. Jennifer or Cindy calls Joey and says, your mom's driving me nuts or Jennifer's driving me nuts. Get home right now. Joey gets home, things escalate further and Joey is involved.

• 19:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  So that's what I was thinking that if, if it wasn't someone else besides Jennifer, Jennifer called him. She's like, I'm leaving you. I'm packing the stuff up. Like if you want to talk one last time or whatever, because you know, it's their kids, they're young.

• 19:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Could happen. Yep.

• 19:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  If you want to talk one last time or say goodbye to Adrianna, say goodbye to me. I'm, I'm leaving. I'm taking off. And then he drives home because he's like, that can't happen. They get into a fight. He realizes she's serious. Something happens to Adrianna. And they realize like Jennifer is never going to let this go. She'll never be okay with this. We will be destroyed. Like it didn't happen to both Jennifer and Adrianna. Something happened to one or the other. And I have to believe that it was Adrianna that possibly Joey used Adrianna as a, an almost like way of getting Jennifer to do what he wanted. And in the process, because

• 20:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  remember he pulled a gun on Jennifer and Adrianna before. So maybe he does it again. And this time, because he's so upset or whatever, he accidentally shoots. And now he knows I've got to kill Jennifer too. Obviously, I can't do this and have her ever cover for me. Because I don't see something happening to Jennifer and then the family-

• 20:47Derrick Levasseur?

  You mean kill Adrianna too?

• 20:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I mean, I think something initially happened to Adrianna because she was being-

• 20:53Derrick Levasseur?

  You do think so?

• 20:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, she was being used as kind of like this way to keep Jennifer in line in that fight. Something happened to her and they had to kill Jennifer because of what happened to Adrianna. Because if something had just happened to Jennifer, why would they have done anything to that two-year-old, right?

• 21:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, that's what keeps running through my mind.

• 21:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  They would have just said, oh, Adrianna took off and left her daughter. She left it without her. So, you know, here she is. Because it's a baby. What, you know, I think something happened to the two-year-old and Jennifer as a result had to have been taken care of because she would never have defended them, protected them. He couldn't manipulate her to that level. Not if he hurt her child in front of her.

• 21:29Derrick Levasseur?

  It's a good theory. Yeah, can't leave a witness behind. Not one that you can't control.

• 21:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  But a two-year-old, you could, right? If something happened to Jennifer, especially if Adrianna wasn't present for it, you could just say, yeah, Jennifer, what a scumbag. She left her kid. And here's Adrianna. Obviously, we didn't do anything to Jennifer. Here's the, here's the child. We protected her.

• 21:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, either scenario sucks, but there is also a scenario where if something did happen to Jennifer first- They want Adrianna to be found with Jennifer so they can say she left with someone with her daughter and whatever happened to Jennifer happened to Adrianna.

• 22:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  It takes a certain level of evilness.

• 22:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Sick motherfucker, you know what?

• 22:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, it takes a certain level of evilness that I even find hard.

• 22:10Derrick Levasseur?

  I just don't like any of the scenarios because they all result in the same thing, but all in play, all in play. But I do think your theory of even though they're bad people, right? If they're involved, they're bad people, but it's a different level of bad to kill an innocent baby when you don't have to. So I get your rationale and I think that's why your scenario holds a lot of weight. If, if the Bentons are involved.

• 22:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or even Joey alone.

• 22:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Even Joey alone, no matter who it is, if this family is somehow involved with the disappearance and possible deaths of Jennifer and Adrianna, that, that's, those are the things that you have to consider. I'm not ruling out the other scenario. Joey could just be a moron and make, be making his situation a lot worse by not telling the whole truth, but there was something there with Joseph saying, oh, Jennifer came by. Now that could have easily just been done by Joey and Joseph talking to each other and comparing notes, but there was at least some corroboration there where Jennifer came by looking for the check, Joey doesn't have it, Joseph has it. So Joseph calls back later saying, hey, Jennifer came by earlier today.

• 23:20Derrick Levasseur?

  Joey told me about it. I have her check. If they're telling the truth.

• 23:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I think we both sort of have already agreed based on how long Jennifer and her daughter have been gone, they are not alive out there somewhere.

• 23:34Derrick Levasseur?

  It is highly unlikely that they're still with us, unfortunately.

• 23:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Unfortunately. All right, let's take a quick break on that note, which I think I need a quick reprieve. So let's take a quick break and we will be right back.

• 23:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  We know that Joey left work early on the 25th. We know that he left work early because he got an urgent phone call from his house and he had to go. He said he had a family matter he had to take care of. However, it's unclear who exactly gave Joey a ride home from the construction site as multiple people have provided contradictory statements. All we know for sure is that someone drove him back and if I had to guess, that person was Jeffrey. But again, we just don't know because multiple people were elusive during their interviews. Jeffrey also told detectives that on March 26th, he didn't work, meaning if Joey needed a ride that day, it was not from Jeffrey. But what he shared next was even more unsettling.

• 24:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  That night, just one day after Jennifer and Adrianna were last heard from, Joey held a bonfire on his family's property. Now, I know what you're thinking, that this bonfire had actually been planned before Jennifer and Adrianna vanished. It was supposed to be a couples bonfire with Joey and Jennifer hosting two other couples, including Jeffrey and his girlfriend. But when the two couples arrived, Jennifer wasn't there. Jeffrey asked where she was and Joey said he had driven her to the home of Jerry and Helga Jackson. And if we remember, Helga Jackson was a previous coworker of Jennifer's. The Helga Jackson already came forward to talk to Jennifer's mom and was like, no, me and my husband were on vacation.

• 25:16Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, order that one out.

• 25:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, we didn't see her. And if Joey says that she was with us, something's wrong here.

• 25:23Derrick Levasseur?

  That's the problem, right? Is he's telling so many different versions to different people. That's what takes away all credibility and highly suggests that he's involved.

• 25:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  And here's the thing, this would have been probably the first story he would have told, right? Because it's on March 26th and Jennifer's family doesn't start asking him for answers until, I believe, the following day. And that's when he gives his first story has to do with Jerry and Helga Jackson as well. And then his story kind of changes from there. So it seems this was the first thing he settled on.

• 25:57Derrick Levasseur?

  That was probably what he is originally. only decided to do.

• 25:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 25:59Derrick Levasseur?

  I think we can all agree Joey's not the sharpest tool in the shed. So that right there, he's thinking, oh, it's going to be simple. I'm just going to say that I dropped her off at Helga's house, not considering the fact that maybe law enforcement would go ask Helga.

• 26:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Maybe they might follow up. Yeah.

• 26:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe, maybe Jennifer's family might drop a line to Helga and say, hey, did Jennifer come by there? So when his mom and dad get a hold of him and slap him upside the head and say idiot, they're gonna go talk to her. So then he quickly switches up his story to this Camaro slash Mustang.

• 26:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Grocery store and then the Exxon Mobil and the Mustang, the Camaro. Yeah.

• 26:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Again, not considering surveillance footage, cameras, anything that could discredit his story. He's just kind of in quicksand at this point.

• 26:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not, not considering car logistics that would quickly discredit his story either.

• 26:47Derrick Levasseur?

  And listen, I don't know if he's responsible, but if he is an innocent man, he's doing a lot of guilty shit.

• 26:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Definitely has a weird relationship with the truth.

• 26:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, he's allergic to it.

• 26:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  A strained one. Yeah. I think there are no contact. So obviously this story is similar to what he told Heather, Jennifer's sister, but it's not even close to what he told the police. So detectives then went to speak with the Jacksons, Helga and her husband Jerry. They confirmed that they hadn't seen Jennifer since November of 2003. So weird that Joey would pick these people of all people. And this, this obviously means Joey had been caught now by law enforcement in a major lie. So detectives decided to check out Joey's other claim that he had taken Jennifer and Adrianna to the food value so Jennifer could use the phone inside. They spoke to the cashier who had been working around the time Joey claimed Jennifer went in to use the phone and she said she had not seen Jennifer

• 27:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  or Adrianna that evening. Unfortunately, there was no surveillance footage for detectives to pull to confirm this, but the cashier was certain. She would have noticed someone coming in that late, especially so close to closing time, especially with like a two-year-old kid, right?

• 27:57Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, so food value, as I'm writing that down, luckily no surveillance, but you have a cashier, reasonable amount of time. They probably showed her a picture and she's saying, nope, didn't see anybody here and I was working that day. So that's strike number one as far as this alibi.

• 28:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  So detectives then moved on to the Exxon gas station. But by the time they got there, the clerk who had been working the night of the 25th wasn't available. Now Jennifer's family did eventually speak with her and she told them that she and Jennifer had gone to school together. So if Jennifer and Adrianna had shown up at the gas station that night, she absolutely would have noticed and remembered. Now, listen to this. This pisses me off. There were cameras at the Exxon, but by the time detectives requested the footage, it had already been recorded over. And I wonder if they'd listened to that deputy on Friday and gone there on Friday, it probably would have still been there. So once again, detectives weren't able to corroborate Joey's statements,

• 28:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  but they weren't able to disprove them with hard evidence either.

• 28:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, they're not looking good, though. As far as the Exxon, it's possible if Jennifer did show up there, she didn't go inside, maybe it's a quick, you know, one car to the other. Easily.

• 29:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, because remember, he said he pulled across the street, waited five to 10 minutes, and then Jennifer and Adrianna got into that car.

• 29:16Derrick Levasseur?

  But what if they were waiting outside? I'm just playing devil's advocate.

• 29:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 29:20Derrick Levasseur?

  I would think that the cashier would have seen them. I don't know the layout of this, this gas station either.

• 29:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, like is there a big glass window?

• 29:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 29:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  That looks outside, like some gas stations have. So you, as the clerk, you would have seen this girl you went to high school with and her daughter.

• 29:35Derrick Levasseur?

  I mean, it's March, it's Tennessee, so it's, I don't know how cold it is. Would she have stood outside with the, with her daughter? I don't know. But back to your camera footage thing. Well, first off, it's 2004. Now, footage and the duration that you can store is a lot more abundant. You can't even buy a DVR without one gig, which is at least 20 days, 30 days of footage. I agree with you completely. If they had acted immediately, maybe they get the footage. Maybe we're not sitting here right now covering this case. It's an unfortunate decision. There's not too much I can harp on. If they had acted sooner, they might have had the footage they needed. But I'm glad to see now with technology, the amount of footage that these, because the security cameras, they're expensive.

• 30:18Derrick Levasseur?

  And so Exxon might have said, what's the minimum we can get? Might have only stored it for 10, uh, seven days, 10 days, maybe. I don't know.

• 30:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, honestly, it could be a moot point. At that time, they could have just been rewriting every 24 hours.

• 30:29Derrick Levasseur?

  And honestly, that's what a lot of them do. If there's not a bank robbery, they're not doing those cameras for law enforcement to investigate a case 30 days later.

• 30:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're doing it for that, for their loss prevention.

• 30:39Derrick Levasseur?

  They're doing it for the robbery or, or the, or the theft that happens in the store, and they immediately report it.

• 30:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, honestly, I think with stores like that, with, for their insurance, they have to have certain loss prevention measures in place. But at that time, they were probably doing the bare minimum.

• 30:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Minimum, absolute minimum, because again, it's expensive. But now, I mean, even my home surveillance, I mean, I think it records for like 30 days before it overwrites it. So if you haven't figured out what you need to find then, and you know, and now it's even cloud-based, where you can get stuff from a year ago. So it's unfortunate, and we don't even know if these cameras would have been facing the direction where, because that would have been the next thing, right? I thought you were going to tell me they did have a camera, but it was facing the opposite direction towards the cashier, so you couldn't see outside.

• 31:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or it was, it was facing outside, but then Joey's like, yeah, I didn't pull up front. Didn't I tell you I pulled in the back?

• 31:31Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, something would have been in the way.

• 31:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Something would have still caused reasonable doubt, exactly.

• 31:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Moral of the story, I don't know if Jennifer was actually there.

• 31:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't think she was, but moral of the story, even if they had that footage, it wouldn't have made or break, broke this to the point where Joey would be in prison right now. There could still be reasonable doubt.

• 31:49Derrick Levasseur?

  That's fair. It wouldn't be enough to, yeah, you need no body either. That, that poses some problems.

• 31:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  You need more than that. So the investigation continued, but unfortunately, Jennifer didn't have a car. She didn't have a cell phone. She didn't have a bank account. All these things where you would usually track somebody, see their movements. Nothing. So detectives didn't have those leads to follow, which made the investigation even more difficult. At some point, Joey did take a polygraph. Some reports state that he passed. But when detectives asked him to take a specialized voice analysis polygraph, he agreed, only to walk out as soon as questioning began. According to the Wick's family, Joey's parents, Joseph and Cindy Benton, were never asked to take a polygraph. And on top of that, detectives never ran any data on phone pings.

• 32:38Derrick Levasseur?

  Stupid.

• 32:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Stupid. This is frustrating. I mean, I, listen, I don't put a lot of weight in polygraphs anyways. We know this. We've talked about this.

• 32:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, you don't love them. I think it's just a tool.

• 32:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Like, you know, investigation, interrogation, we're gonna intimidate you, et cetera, et cetera. But I wouldn't, if you said Joey passed or failed, they'd be like, that doesn't tell me anything. Phone pings, though, would have told us. Was Cindy at the house that day? When she said she was supposed to be at work? That would have told us that.

• 33:06Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 33:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Could have also told us, well, if Cindy wasn't, who was? Regardless, that's what happened. It frustrates me when they don't do the cellphone ping thing. But on April 14th, a local newspaper reported that authorities had used cadaver dogs to search parts of the Benton property. But this actually wasn't accurate. The only search that took place was a private effort conducted by Jennifer's family in areas granted by Joey's grandfather. So if you remember from part one, Joey and his parents lived on a six acre lot surrounded by 50 additional acres, all owned by the Benton family. Nothing of note was found during the search. So I guarantee you that the Bentons didn't let the Jennifer's family with any

• 33:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  dogs or anything get anywhere close to their actual property. But the grandfather was probably like, yeah, you can go through the 50 acres and, you know, see if you can find anything. But apparently, they didn't. So Joey and his parents never participated in any searches or spoke much to the media. In fact, they continued living as if Jennifer and Adrianna had never gone missing. They installed a new septic tank, built a cabin on the property, and even moved the shed where Jennifer, Adrianna, and Joey had once lived. As part of these projects, they also hand poured a concrete slab that was three feet deep, far deeper than was necessary. And this raised many an eyebrow in the area. We've also heard of these concrete slabs before. That's always suspicious.

• 34:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, there's a lot going on here that's... Convenient considering what we're covering. Whenever you have these rural areas and small departments and a lot of acreage and a lot of handy people. I will say it's extremely difficult to catch someone, especially if they want to dispose of a body. There's so many places, bodies of water, woods, burial sites, concrete slabs. I mean.

• 34:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  What about the septic tank?

• 34:58Derrick Levasseur?

  If you told me they replaced the septic tank, but the old septic tank has never been found.

• 35:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, where's the old septic tank at?

• 35:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Where's the old one? If they return that, or if they had a construction company or someone remove that and dispose of it. That would make me feel a little better about it not being, more of it being just a coincidence. But there's just, saying a needle in a haystack doesn't do it justice. It would be extremely difficult for cops to find a body if the people responsible like this know the land, know the topography. They're just, they have such an advantage.

• 35:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  So there's actually, because of what a septic tank holds, there's a certain procedure that you have to go through when you're decommissioning an old septic tank. And usually you're going to have to contact a professional. It requires specialized equipment and knowledge. So you should hire somebody who's licensed to dispose of liquid waste. The contractor will then use specialized vacuum trucks or pumping equipment to extract the contents of the septic tank, including sludge and liquid. And the contractor will carefully remove the sludge, ensuring thorough waste removal. And then, basically it either gets crushed.

• 36:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  So steel tanks are often crushed in place and filled with sand, gravel, or rubble. Concrete tanks may be broken apart to allow water to drain. And they're often, the soil above the tank is then often compacted to prevent shifting or sinking. So if this was a steel tank. And it was disposed of in a way, you would never really get inside of it. You would just pump stuff out and then crush it and fill it with sand or gravel. So I would like to know what happened to that septic tank because that would be a great way to hide a body or two bodies and then act like it never happened.

• 36:45Derrick Levasseur?

  And maybe I'm thinking too high level here for these people, but I personally wouldn't want to put my freedom at risk by placing myself in a situation where if someone went above and beyond their job, it could expose what I did. So to me, it'd be much more likely to have the body on your land, which you have a expectation of privacy over and either bury it, put it in a concrete slab, body of water, whatever it might be, but something I can control. When you involve other people, other companies, you run the risk of, of being found out. So

• 37:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Unless they did it themselves.

• 37:23Derrick Levasseur?

  If you told me, yep, they ripped it out, disposed of it themselves, broke it down themselves, I would say, yeah, that's, that's odd.

• 37:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  So I found a Reddit post that says, if you have to bury a body, don't instead drop it in a septic tank. I learned this from my friend who works for CSI. Apparently septic tanks eat away the body really fast.

• 37:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 37:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  And they wouldn't check there or have any way to find their way there. Even if they did find the body, there would be almost nothing left and DNA would be contaminated with others.

• 37:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Cause isn't there like a, a chemical that breaks down whatever's in there as well? I don't know how, how it works. I don't have a septic tank, but no, like I said, there's so many angles here. When you talk about how vast of an area they're covering and all the options available, that's why I'm saying it'd be very difficult for law enforcement. The only way they're going to find Adrianna and Jennifer is if someone from the inside exposes them, if they're involved.

• 38:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. It's crazy. I just, uh, you know, I would like to know more about the septic tank for sure.

• 38:23Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 38:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  So around two or three weeks after Jennifer and Adrianna disappeared, Joey brought their belongings to Kathy and handed them over in six black trash bags. So six trash bags full of belongings, clothings. Personal items that Jennifer took off with her daughter with no money and nothing and left everything behind, right?

• 38:44Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, because she has so much money to buy new stuff.

• 38:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, she can just start over with it. Yeah, exactly. And now inside one of the bags was Adrianna's purple winter coat and her beloved stuffed Almo, which she called Melmo. Now, these two items alone proved to Kathy that Jennifer never planned on leaving. March nights in Tennessee can be cold. Adrianna would have needed her coat and there was no way Jennifer would have left behind Melmo because that was the one thing besides Jennifer herself that Adrianna could not sleep without. Now, by this point Kathy was beyond desperate to find her daughter and granddaughter and she tried to get people to help search, but she didn't get much support and in some cases she faced roadblocks. Like how one day she attempted to hang a flyer at a gas station only to be told it was against policy.

• 39:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  The media wasn't much help either and a search through digital newspaper archives show that in 2004, fewer than 10 articles were written about Jennifer and Adrianna. Just a mere handful of articles about a 21-year-old mother and her two-year-old daughter who vanished without a trace, without car, without money, without a phone. So Kathy believes these issues stem from the fact that the investigation was never handled properly and from the beginning, law enforcement treated Jennifer's disappearance as if she'd simply run away and taken Adrianna with her. For years, they didn't truly consider her a missing person and Kathy later said, quote, "Everyone thought she was a scorned lover and just mad. They all thought that she would be back." End quote.

• 40:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  And that mindset severely hindered the investigation in ways that can never be repaired. Now, here's my question to you as a former law enforcement officer. You are on this case, 21-year-old mother, two-year-old daughter, missing. And you know that she was living with her boyfriend and his parents. And then you find out from the family of Jennifer, oh, hey, they actually broke up once because he pulled a gun on her and her two-year-old daughter and the mom had to drive them away because he just couldn't help himself. He was so angry and emotionally unregulated. Are you thinking like, yeah, she probably just was a scorned lover who took off? Or are you going to actually take that context in and, and maybe think he did something to her?

• 40:51Derrick Levasseur?

  You answered your own question.

• 40:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  So why didn't these cops do that?

• 40:55Derrick Levasseur?

  I know I always sound like a cop apologist and I, I think everyone here at this point understands my perspective, you know, I, I know there's more to the story than what we usually convey here on a podcast. Right? I'm not, that, that's not lost on me. I don't have the, as I sit here right now, I don't have those answers because just like you, it doesn't make much sense to me. The only thing I can offer is there have been times where as the detective, I think most people who watch our podcast think that I was probably a pretty thorough detective, especially if I'm out here being critical of others. But I can tell you, there have been many times when I was working a case where outside entities, the media, et cetera,

• 41:37Derrick Levasseur?

  were questioning our practices and our approach to a case. And it would frustrate me because I wasn't able to come out there and be like, hey, morons. This is what you don't know. This is why we're doing it this way. So I don't know if that's the case here. The simple answer is they just didn't do their job. But I, in my heart and in my, my mind, I'd like to think there's more that we just don't know, which would explain why they did things the way they did. And if they were here sitting next to us, they could explain that. But unfortunately, that's not always the case. And in some instances, we get proof that it's as simple as just not doing your job.

• 42:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, but I wouldn't like, if I was like the cops here, I wouldn't be like, yeah, is she really a missing person? You know, I'd still think.

• 42:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, they didn't take the case seriously. We, we know that already. They, they thought, you know, she's an adult. She's probably, she's.

• 42:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  But Adrianna's not an adult.

• 42:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Adrianna's not an adult, but she's with her mother. And, and so they're thinking, hey, if she wants to get away, and we also don't know the dynamics. This is a small community. They probably know Joey's a moron. I'm gonna go out on a limb and I hope everyone takes this with as much respect as I can give. Jennifer wasn't making all the right decisions either. I feel like law enforcement was aware of these families and their dynamics for a while. This probably wasn't the first call they received. And it would may have been of like boy who cried wolf type thing where they're constantly getting called to mediate these situations and they get this call and think, yeah, this, she probably just ran away because everyone in, in this whole story is a moron. Now, I'm not saying that to be disrespectful to anyone.

• 43:13Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm saying it to be as honest as I can. It doesn't mean that's what I'm

• 43:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  So they kind of made snap judgments here.

• 43:18Derrick Levasseur?

  They made snap judgments and they shouldn't have, but it happens a lot even with young children who run away seven times. And on the eighth time, something actually happened, but law enforcement doesn't look into it for four days. So I only say it to, to show you that side of it, not condoning it. But just pointing out the reality of the situation.

• 43:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, it's still, it's hard, you know, knowing how young Adrianna was and just knowing that, you know, they kind of, kind of wrote it off as just she took off and without having any money, like not considering all of these little things that we've already talked about how it does, it just doesn't make any sense that she would do that, not using like logic and critical thinking.

• 43:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Nope.

• 43:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  So in 2005, on the first year mark of Jennifer and Adrianna's disappearances, the Robertson County Sheriff's Office said they had received 104 reported sightings due to alerts sent out by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They stated, quote, "In the process of running down those leads, thousands of man-hours have been spent on this case. These types of leads give us hope," end quote. But as time passed, the investigation slowed to a near standstill. In 2005, there were no major updates and very little media coverage. The Wicks family did everything they could to keep Jennifer and Adrianna's case in the public eye. They organized motorcycle rides, held balloon releases and kept a billboard up on the interstate.

• 44:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  During that time, there was no activity on Jennifer or Adrianna's social security numbers. No bank accounts were open in their names and there was no credible sightings of them anywhere. So I want to take our last break and then we will come back and finish up the episode. We still have about halfway to go. So there's still more to talk about.

• 45:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  So the next big update came in 2007 when the sheriff's office publicly announced for the first time that they were now leaning towards Jennifer and Adrianna's case being a homicide.

• 45:20Derrick Levasseur?

  There we go, progress.

• 45:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Three years later.

• 45:22Derrick Levasseur?

  Progress.

• 45:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  A lieutenant explained their reasoning to the media stating that detectives had worked nearly 1,000 different leads, including multiple reported sightings, but had found nothing concrete and because of that, they had to presume that Jennifer and Adrianna were dead. After hearing this announcement, Jennifer's grandmother Peggy said that the last three years had been devastating. She told reporters, quote, "This has destroyed our family. Our life is kind of on hold. We never know what we'll hear tomorrow," end quote. Kathy added that keeping Jennifer and Adrianna's case in the public eye was her top priority and one of her biggest fears was that people would forget about them. The investigation continued over the next few years, but there were few media updates

• 46:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  and at some point detectives searched the concrete pillars that had been poured on the Benton property shortly after Jennifer and Adrianna went missing. Nothing significant was found. Detectives seemed to be focusing their attention on the Benton family, which made sense since they were the last people to see Jennifer and Adrianna alive. But for years, no one directly addressed what many had quietly suspected, that it was possible the Bentons were somehow involved in Jennifer and her daughter's suspected deaths. Then, in 2009, Jennifer's mother Kathy publicly stated what many had been thinking. She told the Knoxville New Sentinel that she strongly believed Joey and possibly his father knew something about what had happened.

• 46:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  She didn't elaborate further, but it was the first time someone had openly said what had long been whispered. Kathy made it clear that she wanted whoever was responsible to be held accountable, but that wasn't her focus. She said, quote, "At this point in my life, I really couldn't care less if anyone ever goes to prison. What I most want is to just find my daughter and granddaughter so I can bury them properly and respectfully in the Christian way and there can be a place where I can take them flowers at Christmas." And on Mother's Day, end quote. By that point, it was clear that Kathy was in complete despair. And Jennifer and Adrianna's disappearance had changed everything about her life. She described how in the early days, she couldn't even bring herself to go to the store.

• 47:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  And instead, she slept on the sofa with the porch light on, just in case Jennifer came back, running scared from something in the night, banging on the door, trying to get in. She followed leads across multiple states, often living in her car as she searched. At one point, a psychic told her that Jennifer and Adrianna were in Missouri, a town with two words, one of which was white. Desperate for answers, Kathy bought a map of Missouri, circled every two-word city with the word "white" in the name, and drove to each one herself. But Jennifer and Adrianna were nowhere to be found. Kathy didn't stop her frantic searching until one day, when her two teenage daughters, Casey and Heather, confronted her and said,

• 48:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  "Mom, we've lost our sisters, and we've lost our niece. And we miss them so much, but now we've lost you too." And that's when she finally slowed down, but she never actually stopped searching for answers. It's very sad, because you know that Kathy did everything she could. You know, she saw that there was danger with Joey, and the Bentons even. She saw that Jennifer wasn't being treated properly, and that there was some sort of, almost like, brainwashing going on, and that Jennifer was acting out of character because of this relationship with this person. And she tried everything, and she always offered Jennifer a safe place to return to, but it just wasn't enough. And now, even in the aftermath, and I think you and I can attest to this as parents,

• 48:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  you say all the time, and you said in the last part, like, "You're not looking forward to these teenage and, you know, young adult years with your daughters, because there's only so much you can do to protect them." And even if you do everything you possibly can, and run the entire gambit of things that you can do to keep them safe, and keep them educated on how to keep themselves safe, something could still happen. And whether or not you had anything to do with it, you'd feel guilty your entire life, because that was your job, to protect them, even if you did everything you could to do just that. And this is the ripple effect that we always talk about, the butterfly effect that these horrendous crimes have, not just on the victims, but on everybody they love, everybody

• 49:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  who loved them, their friends, their family, their community. It changes people, not just one person, but everyone around them. So it's very sad.

• 49:47Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I also think there's some regret. I think it's it's simple to say, they didn't always have the best relationship, and they probably said some things that they regretted afterwards. And you think you're gonna have time down the road to apologize or mend things, and eventually it'll get to a point where you're good, and you'll laugh at the, you know, the things that happened before, and how they could have been handled differently. But when you don't get that opportunity, and you're left with that lack of resolution to be able to tell your daughter, "I'm sorry," or "I wish I would have handled this part differently," it can drive you insane. And then for a while there, it seems like it did, where she just was fixated on finding her daughter and her granddaughter, and it took her other daughters coming forward to say, "Hey, listen, we don't want to lose

• 50:31Derrick Levasseur?

  our mom too." And she probably realized at that point, I need to take care of my other children as well. They deserve my attention.

• 50:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, because then you feel guilty about that, you know?

• 50:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Of course. You made one mistake, let's not compound that. But I can only imagine, as a father, the position you're in at that point, not wanting to do anything other than look for your daughter. And I do have some things I want to say about the possibility of Jennifer still being out there somewhere, but I'll wait till we're at the end.

• 50:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  All right. Well, in 2011, Kathy shared more details about her theories with the media. She stated, quote, "I think they were deceased from the very beginning, probably as soon as I reported them missing." She added, quote, "Even though I know in my heart they are dead, in my heart, they are still alive. A lot of people say you need closure." I hate that word. There is no such thing as closure in a case like this. With missing children, you are not likely to ever have closure." End quote. In 2013, nearly 10 years after Jennifer and Adrianna disappeared, Robertson County Sheriff Bill Holt, who had campaigned on the promise to solve the Wicks case, held a press conference to announce that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or the T

• 51:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  was joining the investigation and it was officially being reclassified as a homicide. During the press conference, Holt said they had developed new information in the past several weeks that led them to conclude foul play was involved, but he wouldn't reveal what that new evidence was and he made it clear that no one, including Joey Benton, had been eliminated as a suspect. Holt went on to share that the authorities had searched the Benton property four different times, but they still hadn't found Jennifer or her daughter. He also stated that authorities believed someone in the community knew what happened and he announced a $27,000 reward which might entice them to finally come forward. At the press conference, Kathy spoke about the toll the last decade had taken on her

• 52:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  and her family. She said, quote, "We get up every morning and it's the first thing on our mind. We go to bed every night and it's the last thing on our mind. We've been constantly searching, always talking to people, just looking and trying to find resources all the time and it just never stops." End quote. She then made a direct plea, saying, quote, "There is someone out there who does know exactly what happened to Jennifer and Adrianna and I am pleading and begging as a mom and a grandmom for whoever that person is to please search your conscience and do the right thing. Help me find my girls and lay them to rest with respect and dignity." End quote. Following this press conference, Joey's grandmother, Carol Benton, spoke to The Tennessean and made it clear that she believed her grandson was innocent.

• 53:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  She said, quote, "I don't think they ever had another suspect other than Joey. I'm sorry she went missing. Don't get me wrong, we loved that little girl. She would come up to the house and eat supper with us. So when they asked us, we let them search. We never refused. But she's not on our property. We don't know nothing about it." End quote. However, in that same interview, Carol contradicted herself, saying that the last time police asked to search the property was several years ago and the family had said no. So the search for Jennifer and Adrianna continued, but there were a few updates. By 2020, 16 years had passed since they went missing and Kathy reflected on the years, saying, quote, "It's messed with my mind as far as the passage of time. It seems like it was yesterday in a lot of ways.

• 53:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  When you actually do the math or something kind of forces you to realize how long it's been, it's kind of shocking," end quote. That's a sign, by the way, that somebody's nervous system is wrecked.

• 54:03Derrick Levasseur?

  You're just fried.

• 54:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  You're fried, you're overloaded, you're burnt out, you're in fight or flight, basically. A freeze, most likely she's in freeze, but the passage of time is such a weird thing. When you're struggling with PTSD or CPST or you have this huge trauma, that just completely shuts your nervous system down. And that's why I'm saying it clearly did severely affect Kathy.

• 54:27Derrick Levasseur?

  Just as a parent, losing a child, I think I've said it before, even just the unknown is almost worse than losing a child.

• 54:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hundred percent worse, yeah.

• 54:36Derrick Levasseur?

  If they're still out there somewhere, the only solace I would find in that would be if they're still out there, they haven't contacted me, maybe there's a reason. Maybe they found peace. But it's hard to get there when you know all the circumstances and you know the facts of the case and you're, like she said, she said it best, you know, her mind is telling her one thing while her heart is telling her another.

• 54:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  So for me, it's like even if you know all the details, like you know your daughter and granddaughter are dead and you know every single detail about what happened to them, even if it's horrible, even if it's the worst thing you could possibly imagine.

• 55:12Derrick Levasseur?

  You know.

• 55:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  At least it's there, you know, and now you can process through it. And it will take a lot of time and it will be hard, but you'll be able to process through it because you know, and it could take years, but this, this, not knowing all the scenarios running through your head as you lay down to sleep at night, that is torture.

• 55:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I mean, on Detective Perspective, that's all we cover, and all the parents say the same thing. I just want to know. I just want to bring my son or my daughter home. I know they're no longer with me. I just want to bring them home. I just want to know that they're back with me in some capacity. And that's the point you get to after many years. Most of the cases we do are 20, 30 years old. That's the point they're at.

• 55:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  And, uh, and I don't, I don't wish that on anybody.

• 55:58Derrick Levasseur?

  No, god, no.

• 55:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  Uh-uh. That's, that's awful. So Kathy did point out that, you know, in 2020, when she's giving this interview, her two-year-old granddaughter would have been graduating from high school and her daughter Jennifer would have been turning 38 years old. And that has to be so weird because in Kathy's head, Adrianna's two forever, you know? And yeah, like the, the passage of time and she would have been a teenager, but Kathy never knew Adrianna as a teenager, only as a two-year-old. So it would be so very hard to, to marry these two things in your head. Like if my granddaughter is alive or was alive, she'd be going to her high school graduation right now. Very difficult. So in 2021, Jennifer's sister Casey, who had

• 56:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  just been 16 when Jennifer disappeared, she kept pushing for detectives to stay active on the case. For years, she faced challenges in getting any real progress, but that began to change when she reconnected with some of Joey's relatives, people the family hadn't been in contact with for years. Those conversations ultimately led authorities to search the property where Jennifer was last seen yet again. And while it was a significant step forward, it was also bittersweet. Casey shared her family's painful reality with the media, saying, quote, "It's not top of mind for a lot of people anymore, but it's top of mind for us. I can't stop thinking about it because they're gone. Someone took them. Someone did something

• 57:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  to them. After 17 years, these types of cases, they seem to get forgotten. And I understand that there are more time-sensitive cases right now. I understand. But what I'm asking is that you don't forget them because something did happen to them in that town, at that home, with that family. It has ruined that family's life. I mean, I wish I had it in my heart to feel bad about it, but I don't. That's what happens to people that are guilty." End quote. Damn, Casey over here saying it with her chest.

• 57:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, and I, I love what she's saying here. And I would say to her, That there's truth in what she's saying, but also I wouldn't necessarily say law enforcement is giving up, but the case does get to a point where in order to move forward, you need someone to come out of the woodwork. There's nothing else to do. There's no other lead to follow.

• 58:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or you could have investigated the case properly initially.

• 58:18Derrick Levasseur?

  That's, that's, but that's not even relevant.

• 58:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  And probably the same cops who were on it initially aren't even.

• 58:23Derrick Levasseur?

  They're not even on it. So yeah, that's what I'm saying. So when she's addressing the department that's currently working the case, trust me, I've been there. I've come out and spoke publicly about it. There have been cases that should have been solved in the 1980s that now are on our desks or in our case file that there's nothing else we can do. We've followed up on every lead. We've redigitized all the paperwork. We've talked to all the living witnesses. We need someone to come forward with new information so that we can unpack it.

• 58:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  And probably those cops are, if the, the family's still alive, they're getting the pressure.

• 58:58Derrick Levasseur?

  That, that's exactly what's happening.

• 58:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  Being the ones to solve it when they didn't screw it up to begin with.

• 59:03Derrick Levasseur?

  It's like giving them a Lego puzzle and saying, hey, here's a box with half the pieces. Put it together. So you need someone to come forward and fill in those blanks. That's just where it's at.

• 59:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, absolutely. Well, and, and I like how she's kind of saying like even she believes the Benton family, that their lives have been ruined because of it, because people are, you know, side eyeing them. And it's kind of like, hey, something happened here. We all know something happened here. And she's like, I don't, I can't even feel bad. I can't feel bad for them. I would normally feel bad if this was anyone else, but I don't feel bad. This is what happens to people that are guilty. So unfortunately Jennifer and Adrianna were not found in the 2021 search and before the end of the year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created an age enhanced image of Adrianna. While Casey firmly believes that Jennifer and Adrianna were murdered, she said, quote, "If Adrianna happens to see this and recognizes herself

• 59:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  or if her friends recognize her, it would be a Christmas miracle. We are not giving up on finding answers," end quote. And I think that's important because even if something had happened to Jennifer, let's say. That Adrianna was left alive and maybe whoever did what they did to Jennifer gave her to a family. This has actually happened where this child will be raised since childhood to not know that they were kidnapped or abducted from their biological parents until you know, technology catches up and the parents are able to find the child. Is there a possibility that Adrianna is out there someplace still alive? And yes, that is more possible than Jennifer being alive at this point.

• 1:00:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, and that's kind of different from what you said, which I thought was plausible, which is that Adrianna, whatever happened, happened to her first and then they took out Jennifer because of it because she wouldn't have kept her mouth shut. This is a more, I guess I would say silver lining scenario.

• 1:00:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  A rosier picture.

• 1:00:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, where Adrianna is still alive, where they did take out Jennifer first, something happens with Jennifer, whether it's between her and Cindy, her and Joseph, her and Joey, a combination of all three. Something happens to Jennifer and they say, wow, we can't leave Adrianna here because nobody's going to believe that Jennifer would have left Adrianna behind. So Adrianna's got to go too. And maybe they're not to the extreme that we were discussing as far as killing a baby as well. And they sent her off to some, somewhere else with someone else. And I would love for that to be the case. And you know what? It would be great if it was because two minutes ago, we were just talking about new leads. Imagine someone finally comes forward and says, hey, many years ago,

• 1:01:33Derrick Levasseur?

  this was brought to me, there was a child, I knew something was up. I love the child, I raised it as my own, she's fine. But here, let's do a DNA test. Now they can reverse engineer it from there. Hey, so and so, who gave you the baby? It was John Doe. Who does John Doe know? Oh, they know the Benton's. Now they go to John Doe and John Doe rats out the Benton's. Now you can build a case.

• 1:01:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or like Casey said, Adrianna at this time would be 18, 19, 20 years old, a young adult, the perfect age for a true crime fan. She's watching a crime weekly episode. She sees a picture, the age progress picture and she's like, that kind of looks like me.

• 1:02:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe she's had some questions.

• 1:02:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  And in fact, I don't look anything like my parents. And there's so many differences and maybe I have a different blood type and I've always thought that was weird and now I have questions. Yeah. Anything could happen.

• 1:02:21Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm going to say something else that I was going to talk to you about bringing up in a future episode, but now is honestly the perfect time. We're working on a case right now for Criminal Coffee. There's going to be updates soon. I know I keep saying it, but let's just say it's out of our control. It's in law enforcement's hands now. But this is a great segue to bring up the fact, and we've talked about it briefly before. I know some people have some concerns. But if you trust the system and I would upload my data, I would have no issue with it. Consider uploading your data to Jedmatch. Jedmatch is a great organization. It may help you, or it may help someone in a case like this. Because if you upload your data, maybe Adrianna is out there somewhere and doesn't even know who she is.

• 1:03:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or someone like her.

• 1:03:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Someone like her, a relative uploads their data. They could be matched because of this. That's how simple it could be. If everyone was uploaded, it would be very difficult not to find a person. Now, I understand there's complications and there's risks with that because that's your personal identity marker. It's almost more secure than than your social security number these days. But more times than not, it could really help solve a case. You may be a relative of a criminal from three, four generations ago. And because of your DNA match, it helps solve a case. We're currently working that case that I just mentioned for Criminal Coffee. And I can tell you that if we are on the right path, it's because of DNA. That's all I'll say.

• 1:03:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I agree. I mean, like you said, it's like anything, anything technology. I always feel like humans are handed these amazing things that can make their life better. And then they utilize them and abuse them to a point that makes their life worse, like social media. But with with DNA, as far as a, you know, crime fighting tool and a crime solving tool. Obviously, people are scared of the implications. Technology has increased and advanced to a place where, you know, you don't want to just hand your DNA out willy nilly. But in this capacity, I do agree. I think it is a positive thing that can help a lot of people.

• 1:04:27Derrick Levasseur?

  Would you, as someone who is a skeptic and very cautious about that stuff? Would you put your personal stamp on that? Would you upload your data to Jedmatch?

• 1:04:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, I would.

• 1:04:38Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, I I'm gonna.

• 1:04:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  Even though I feel very weird about it. And there's always good because I'm very, you know.

• 1:04:45Derrick Levasseur?

  They may find out that you those bodies you buried.

• 1:04:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  They I don't think they'll find out about that. I was very careful. But I'm anxiously geared in my head. And so every decision I make, there's always a million thoughts about, you know, my brain's an apocalypse machine. What could go wrong with this? They could set me up. They could put my DNA at a crime scene. They could AI me to look like I was there and put my voice. You know, it's just crazy when you see these stories like what technology has done and you just kind of want to separate yourself from it and not put yourself in any position. However, I will say my brain does things that are out of the realm of possibility a lot of times.

• 1:05:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, I mean, it's not a bad thing to be cautious, but I do think that you and I should do it to show people how simple the process is at some point, because I do think if we do it, a lot more people would follow.

• 1:05:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, man, you're putting me on the spot then.

• 1:05:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Can we do that at Crime Con this year?

• 1:05:35Derrick Levasseur?

  Can I prick your finger myself?

• 1:05:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, absolutely. I would only actually let you do that.

• 1:05:40Derrick Levasseur?

  There we go.

• 1:05:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  You know, I don't know if you know, I'm terrified of needles, so.

• 1:05:43Derrick Levasseur?

  Oops, sorry, went a little too deep.

• 1:05:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, now, no. Now, no. It's a no now.

• 1:05:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I was gonna say like.

• 1:05:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Time you said something on the episode?

• 1:05:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, no, see that I'm already traumatized by needles. You can't do that.

• 1:05:56Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm gonna let you prick me too.

• 1:05:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Have you ever noticed I have no tattoos, nothing like I'm terrified? So can we do it at Crime Con? They have a booth, don't they?

• 1:06:04Derrick Levasseur?

  They do. I don't know if they're there this year, but Jedmatch, I work with them all the time with Break Investigative Group. Jeremy and Ryan are both investigators that work for me, work for Jedmatch as well. It's all kind of one community, so I'm sure we could set something up. But at minimum, you can go online and go to their website. They can send you a secure packet. Takes about 15 minutes. It may help solve a case that you're not even aware of. That's what I would say. And and just like a case like this with a with a service like Jedmatch, if Adrianna or someone related to her uploaded their data, it could potentially match and find her without her even knowing who she is. Look at the Bear Brook murders.

• 1:06:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I think people are also scared of like, oh, I didn't do anything wrong, but now my dad's being walked away.

• 1:06:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, I mean, if he's a serial killer.

• 1:06:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  I know, I know.

• 1:06:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe he deserves to be like if your dad was Joseph D'Angelo. Would you feel bad about it?

• 1:06:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  It depends, you know, what was my relationship with him growing up? You know, I think these things matter psychologically when deciding to do this. Like, there might be a thing at the back of your head like, hey, my dad's kind of sketchy.

• 1:07:03Derrick Levasseur?

  We could bring Carrie Rossin on for that one.

• 1:07:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

• 1:07:07Derrick Levasseur?

  So I think she would, she's pretty confident in her actions going forward and how she's handled things. So, like I said, it's something we can talk about more down the road. But these are one of those cases where if somehow Adrianna's still out there, this would be one of the ways where a new lead could pop in and drum up not only finding Adrianna, but also finding out what happened to Jennifer and who's responsible.

• 1:07:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:07:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Just from a DNA upload.

• 1:07:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now, listen, there's something interesting, okay? Something interesting we're about to talk about in relation to this case, very directly related to this case. Because we're talking about Jennifer's family going into 2020, 2022. They're trying to keep her name alive. They're trying to keep her daughter's name alive. There's been search warrants executed. Nothing's been found. But there was a pretty major update on March 27th, 2024. 20 years to the day since Jennifer and her daughter Adrianna were reported missing. On that day, the TBI arrived at the Benton home with a warrant to search the property again. And when the news broke, many wondered if the authorities were finally going to find Jennifer and her daughter.

• 1:08:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  But unfortunately, that's not even why they were there. As it turns out, Joey's mother Cindy filed a police report stating that her husband, Joseph, had attacked her on their property. And since Joseph was out on probation for an aggravated assault charge from years earlier, he was arrested and a search warrant was issued. During the search, authorities located numerous weapons, which as a convicted felon, Joseph was not allowed to own. Based on what they found, Joseph was now facing 40 unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon charges and one prohibited weapons charge. But it was about to get even worse because someone in the Benton family provided law enforcement

• 1:09:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  with a computer that had been owned by Joseph Benton. And what was found on the computer led to Joseph being charged with sexual exploitation of a minor. All of the details have not been released. However, we know that investigators found at least one explicit photo of a minor taken 20 years prior. 20 years prior.

• 1:09:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep.

• 1:09:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, that's, that's crazy timing. Now, the victim in the photo-

• 1:09:28Derrick Levasseur?

  His mind was back then.

• 1:09:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yep, exactly. Right around the time that two-year-old Adrianna goes missing. Now, we know that the victim in the photo was not Adrianna. And obviously, that victim's name has not been released. They were a minor at the time. But we do know that the child was a family member. So clearly, Joseph Benton is one sick motherfucker. And this led to many people to now look back at Jennifer's concerns over her daughter's vaginitis diagnosis and the fact that it could possibly have stemmed from sexual abuse. And they wondered if Jennifer was on to something there. Right?

• 1:10:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Totally plausible.

• 1:10:06Derrick Levasseur?

  Clearly, and you had said it earlier, she was in the home. She knew the conversations that were happening in the house. She had a direct line of communication with Joseph Senior.

• 1:10:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Just her instincts as a, as a, as a mother.

• 1:10:17Derrick Levasseur?

  And her instincts might have said, something's up with this dude. Like, something that you and I can't articulate from a script without being there. There might have been some comments that he made about women. We don't know.

• 1:10:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  She, and she could have even felt something was off. And then, like, because I've done this, where I've been like, oh, there's something off about this person. And I'm like, oh, you're being judgmental. Like, they, they've opened their home to you. Don't be like that. Like, ignore your instincts. Ignoring your instincts never leads anywhere good, by the way.

• 1:10:42Derrick Levasseur?

  No, it's, it's true. You gotta trust your gut.

• 1:10:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  So the next big update in the case came in August of 2024, when the missing and hushed- Podcast was released. Casey had worked on the podcast for 18 months with producer Jules Thorpe. And the long form series featured exclusive interviews with family and friends. Also, the deputy who conducted the welfare check and the walkthrough of the Benton home, the only guy that did his job, honestly. And the last person anyone expected, Joey Benton himself. So after 20 years of lies told straight to the Wicks family, Joey finally told the truth. Or at least part of the truth for the first time to this podcast during a call with Casey.

• 1:11:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  And later in an interview with police, he admitted that he, Jennifer and Adrianna never went on a drive on the evening of March 25th, 2004. He never took Jennifer and Adrianna to any friend's house. He didn't drive them to food value and he didn't drop them off at the Exxon. Joey, we already knew that. We already knew that, my friend.

• 1:11:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Wait, so you're saying that he was lying about the Mustang slash Camaro?

• 1:11:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, he was lying.

• 1:11:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Wow.

• 1:11:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. We didn't need surveillance footage.

• 1:11:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Cashier saying you wasn't there.

• 1:11:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  All of it.

• 1:11:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Exxon cashier not recognizing, not seeing Adrianna. Makes sense.

• 1:11:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now, what is the truth? Well, according to Joey, the truth was that Jennifer and Adrianna were not alive when he returned home from work on March 25th. He didn't explain what happened to them, but this information confirmed what the Wicks family had believed since the beginning. Obviously Jennifer didn't leave willingly with her daughter and never contact anybody from her family again. Now, despite these shocking revelations, which like I said, Joey shared directly with the police. No arrests have been made, no charges have been filed. And as of the time of this recording, Jennifer and Adrianna have not been located. Their family remains desperate to bring them home and give them a proper burial.

• 1:12:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  So let's look at the timing of this. Okay. It's August of 2024 is when this kind of all comes out. And Joey's like, hey, actually I didn't do all the things that I said I did with Jennifer and her daughter on that March 25th. It's all a lie. When I got home, because remember he received a call on March 25th and he was like, I gotta go home. He's like, when I got home, they were dead.

• 1:12:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Do you see how like when you tell the truth, it starts to line up or when you find the truth? For example, him being at work, which was, which was confirmed. And then having outside parties say, yeah, he did leave work early. He was in a rush. There was a sense of urgency. He said it was a family matter. Now, hearing him tell this version makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

• 1:13:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, it's not really a version because there's nothing here, really. He's saying, I lied about everything.

• 1:13:25Derrick Levasseur?

  I lied about everything, but here's what actually happened.

• 1:13:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  But we don't know what, what actually happened.

• 1:13:29Derrick Levasseur?

  I, I'll tell you what, I'll let you finish, but this version seems a lot more accurate to me.

• 1:13:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, it's definitely a lot more accurate, but where's the details, right? Cause we're going to look at this and we're going to say, August 2024, Joey's talking to the police and saying, they were dead when I got there. He's saying they were dead, right?

• 1:13:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep.

• 1:13:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  And no arrests have been made yet. Well, it's still technically, could be that the police are now trying to build a case against the true perpetrators, who I would say are Joey's parents.

• 1:13:57Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes, I'm with you 100%. I don't know who's responsible, but relatively speaking, I know it's been way too long, but you're right. It's still, if he came in, in August, they gotta go through, this guy has been proven to be a liar for the last 20 years. So you can't put him on the stand and have him be your key witness.

• 1:14:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  And it's been 20 years.

• 1:14:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 1:14:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  So now piecing everything together.

• 1:14:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Correct.

• 1:14:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  And trying to get alibis for these people that Joey may now be pointing a finger at, it's going to be very difficult.

• 1:14:25Derrick Levasseur?

  It's going to be difficult and we don't know how cooperative he's being, but he's the guy, he's your main lead now. Remember I said you need someone to come forward? Don't forget about him. Unfortunately, the person who came forward is now a proven liar at the same time. So a defense team is going to hit, eat him alive.

• 1:14:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  A defense team's going to eat him alive and a defense team's going to say, hey, maybe you did it.

• 1:14:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 1:14:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  But then all this shit happened with your dad, making him look suspicious. And you were like, this is the perfect time to shift the blame and get all eyes off of me.

• 1:14:54Derrick Levasseur?

  And I wonder how old they are or if they're even still alive, his parents.

• 1:14:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, they're still alive because remember it was 2024 that Cindy called the police and was like, hey, my husband, Joseph, is like attacking me. So I mean, a year. ago they were alive?

• 1:15:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, one they could have passed since then, but yeah, you're right. More than likely they're they're old. But they're still alive. Uh, but yeah, no, it's it's definitely something that there's a lot of work to do. Once someone like this comes forward and it's not going to be easy. So I wouldn't jump. If you told me that was three years ago and it was still not an arrest, I would. I'd be more perplexed, but we're talking less than less than a year. Since this new revelation has come forward.

• 1:15:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, they're definitely alive because think about it. I think Joey was 23 when. Um, Jennifer was 21. So if Jennifer's parents are still alive, the Benton's are probably around the same age.

• 1:15:50Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, you don't know how you don't know that for sure. But yeah, that you the better thing is you said 2024, they were still alive. As of 2024. They're still, you know, kicking and moving. They're out there and you know, so they're still around somewhere. Are they? Older than I'd like them to be if they're responsible for this? Of course, of course, but better late than never. So I'm interested to see where this one goes. Because now we have a whole new dimension to this case.

• 1:16:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, it completely changes everything.

• 1:16:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Changes everything, although it confirms what a lot of people have probably speculated. And what we've even speculated over these last two episodes. So now we're getting somewhere, but it does align more with what? We had alluded to earlier in this episode and in the previous episode. He's at work. There's dissension in the house. He knows the dissension in the house. It's over a lot of things, including the fact that Cindy really doesn't want Jennifer at the house anymore. Adrianna is not her son's child. They're a nuisance. They don't need to be there. She wants him to go. She's treating them like dogs. Something happens while he's gone. They call him and say, hey, you got to get home. That's definitely one scenario.

• 1:17:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Or another, as I also said earlier, he comes home. It's in the middle of the fight.

• 1:17:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, he said they were dead. He said they were dead when when he got there.

• 1:17:13Derrick Levasseur?

  That's his version.

• 1:17:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:15Derrick Levasseur?

  That's his version. Again, there could be some truth because he knows his alibi is bullshit. But he comes home. Things escalate. We already know that he has an inability to control his emotions. He's already threatened people with guns before. Something could have happened. I'm just saying, I'm not believing Joey with 100% certainty now. Do I believe that he went home and something could have happened? Yeah, I think it's more likely than the first scenario he gave. But it's also possible that he is responsible and he's trying to put the blame on someone else. Bottom line, I don't think Jennifer ever left that house again alive.

• 1:17:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  I agree. And according to Casey, who's Jennifer's sister and worked with Jules Thorpe on the Missing in Hushtown podcast, she said that they do have more details, but they don't want to release them, obviously fearing it could compromise the investigation.

• 1:18:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, they're working on it.

• 1:18:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  She said information was about what happened the day Jennifer and Adrianna went missing. And she said other information was also given. Casey said, quote, "That their remains could be somewhere local." That was the first time in 20 years that Jennifer and Adrianna were referred to by the Benton family as remains, end quote. And Casey said her family, along with investigators, have dug in multiple wooded areas in Robertson County over the past month. Nothing has surfaced yet, but Casey thinks that they're getting close. And she said while they're doing the podcast, she and Jules Thorpe began re-interviewing everyone possible in the case. And this has opened up new information. And Casey said they're coming forward because they know how close we are.

• 1:18:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, the heads are gonna roll. But it's what we said earlier, the needle in the haystack. Law enforcement is starting to narrow down what happened here. But then now they gotta go find them. The unfortunate thing is what you said there, which is that, and this is what Joey said,

• 1:19:05Derrick Levasseur?

  when he came home, Jennifer and Adrianna were already gone. Jennifer and Adrianna. So as much as we wanted it to be a scenario where Adrianna could still be out there from Joey's own mouth, that's not the case, which goes back to what you said. That if something had happened to Adrianna, they took out Jennifer because they knew she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

• 1:19:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hmm.

• 1:19:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Or we're really dealing with some sadistic motherfuckers here. And Jennifer was taken out first and they didn't want them to be separated. And they looked at Adrianna as a piece of evidence that could trace back to them. So they got rid of her as well.

• 1:19:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's very difficult to wrap your head around that. Anybody could do that to a two-year-old.

• 1:19:52Derrick Levasseur?

  It's amazing what people will do to save their own ass.

• 1:19:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  To save themselves, yeah.

• 1:19:54Derrick Levasseur?

  But I'm glad what you just brought up as far as they're out there searching now. There's definitely somebody working this case right now. I'd bet my life on it. They're working it now because it's a cold case. There's really not a rush. They got a lot of time to figure this one out. They're gonna make sure they dot their I's, cross their T's because it's probably gonna be an arrest and they're only gonna get one shot at it because if they charge him and they and they come off, they get acquitted, they're never gonna get charged again.

• 1:20:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  There might not ever be an arrest, but you know, the public and and Casey and the family could see and know what's happening, but like I said, 20 years, it's gonna be very difficult to get an alibi for Joseph and Cindy. They'd be like, I was at work. Well, it's been 20 years. You know, you have no DNA evidence. You have no physical forensic evidence left at this point. At this point, it is Joey's word against his parents and Joey, violent himself, pulled the gun on his girlfriend and her daughter, drug addict, lied about everything. Who's gonna believe him? He's not the best witness if that's all you got.

• 1:20:57Derrick Levasseur?

  But if you can start to discredit alibis, and it wouldn't be easy, but if you can go back and find the people, let's say Cindy was working at this location.

• 1:21:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  She's a nurse, apparently, yeah.

• 1:21:09Derrick Levasseur?

  There's a supervisor working that day. They tracked down that supervisor. Hey, everyone was talking about this in the community. Was Cindy in work that day? Did she come up to work? Did she show up? Or was this something that nobody ever came and asked you about? Or maybe they had already discredited her alibi. I don't know. But there's stuff that they're aware of that we're not. And I think they're so quiet about it right now is because based on what Joey told them, their bodies were buried somewhere in that area. They weren't dropped in a septic tank. They were left somewhere that law enforcement is hoping they can find because obviously to charge someone with homicide, it's a much stronger case with a body than without. You can still do it, but it's a it's a harder crime to

• 1:21:54Derrick Levasseur?

  have go all the way through and get a conviction.

• 1:21:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, I think at this point, even with bodies, there's not, it would be a heavily circumstantial case.

• 1:22:03Derrick Levasseur?

  It would. It would. But at this point, what do you have to lose?

• 1:22:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  I know. No, I completely agree. It's just.

• 1:22:09Derrick Levasseur?

  Put it together. Don't waste too much time.

• 1:22:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  You wish that Joey. Maybe would have had a crisis of conscience 20 years ago, not, you know, in his 40s, like, yeah, but whatever.

• 1:22:19Derrick Levasseur?

  It would make sense why he was kind of caught off guard and gave this bullshit story because I'm not trying to paint Joey as a victim here. I don't necessarily think Joey's a good person.

• 1:22:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  No.

• 1:22:28Derrick Levasseur?

  There could be some truth to what he's saying, but on the other hand, let's not just, you know, give him an award yet for being this guy who finally comes forward because even if he is telling the truth, it's too late. There's also a version where he's giving us enough to show us what happened without disclosing that he's the person responsible.

• 1:22:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  There's also a version where if his mother Cindy was not fully implicated in what happened that day, now that her husband has, you know, been physically attacking her and now that she knows what he was up to 20 years ago.

• 1:23:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, he's like, fuck that guy.

• 1:23:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, Cindy needs to be protected at all costs at that point because now the police can talk to her and be like, you know, what do you got? She can turn witness against him. That's possible.

• 1:23:11Derrick Levasseur?

  That also happens with these cases too, and unfortunately it takes a while, but when you have a family dynamic like this, father, son, mother, they're all in cahoots together, but then as time progresses and they go back to being who they are, which is scumbags, their relationships fall apart and then all of a sudden they're, they're diming each other out.

• 1:23:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Especially if pressure is being put, like I'm sure a lot of pressure was put on Joey Jr.

• 1:23:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:23:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  For a long time.

• 1:23:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Everyone thinks he's a killer.

• 1:23:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Everyone thinks it's him and he's over here like, what the hell? It's gonna make him resentful of his parents or his father for making him keep this secret and hold this in and look like this suspicious scumbag forever, you know? So he might, you know.

• 1:23:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Very possible Cindy and Jennifer were fighting that day and Joseph Senior comes into the picture and shoots Adrianna.

• 1:23:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or Joey, Joey Jr.'s at work, Joseph comes, is home and, you know, Jennifer's just talking to him because she thinks he's the nice one and she's like, yeah, I am really concerned. I brought my daughter to the doctor and there's signs of like, maybe, you know, sexual assault on her and he's like, oh no. Well, now I've got to do something about this.

• 1:24:11Derrick Levasseur?

  I got to take you out.

• 1:24:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, both of you.

• 1:24:13Derrick Levasseur?

  There's one final note here. The Wicks family would love for people to follow their road to justice on Facebook at Justice for Jennifer and Adrianna Wicks and you can share. Their story everywhere. They would greatly appreciate it if you go check that out and make sure you do.

• 1:24:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. Join the Facebook. They put updates and stuff there so that you can be apprised as things happen.

• 1:24:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Go let them know that we sent you. We we'd greatly appreciate that as well. We want to show their support. They're going to need it more now than ever because if we're lucky enough, the truth will come out and we will finally hear what happened to Jennifer and Adrianna. But we have to remember the family because as much as we want answers, it's probably going to be very difficult for Jennifer and Adrianna's family to hear the truth, even though they've been waiting for it all these years. So we want to be there to support them whether there's an arrest or not. And that's one way you can do it. Any final words, Stephanie Harlow?

• 1:25:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, but I do have hope that, you know, at least if this doesn't legally get handled, we'll know pretty much what happened, even if this doesn't go to a legal arena, even if nobody serves time, we will get answers to what happened here. And that's at least hopeful for for Jennifer's family because her mother said that, I really don't care if anybody serves a day in prison at this point. I just want to know. And I think we all want to know. And I think in our in a way, we all kind of do have an idea of what happened here.

• 1:25:37Derrick Levasseur?

  So those are great final words. You know what I love that you always do? I'll always go, any final words, Stephanie Harlow? And you'll go, no. And then you'll give a bunch of final words.

• 1:25:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:46Derrick Levasseur?

  No, it's great. It's great. Guys, we appreciate you being here. Please let us know in the comments down below. What do you think about this case? And definitely go show your support on the Justice for Jennifer and Adrianna Wicks Facebook page. We will be back next week with a new case. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon.

• 1:26:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.