Jade Benning | The Secret Pregnancy, The Missing Cup & A Deadly Date Night (Part 1)

On the night of February 25th, 2023, 24-year-old Jade Benning called one of her oldest and closest friends. She wasn't calling to catch up. In fact, for much of the call, it seemed as if Jade wasn't even speaking to her friend, and instead, this friend listened as Jade confronted the man standing inside her apartment with her: Blaise Taylor, a man who jade had recently reconnected with. A man who's child she was carrying. A man who would later call himself her boyfriend. Jade sounded confused, her speech was becoming rapidly impaired; she said she couldn't feel her legs. And then she asked Blaise a question that would eventually become the center of a murder investigation: What did you put in my drink?

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

• 0:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  On the night of February 25th, 2023, 24-year-old Jade Benning called one of her oldest and closest friends. She wasn't calling to catch up. In fact, for much of the call, it seemed as if Jade wasn't even speaking to her friend, and instead, this friend listened as Jade confronted the man standing inside her apartment with her, Blaze Taylor, a man who Jade had recently reconnected with, a man whose child she was carrying, a man who would later call himself her boyfriend. Jade sounded confused, her speech was becoming rapidly impaired. She said she couldn't feel her legs.

• 0:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then she asked Blaze a question that would eventually become the center of a murder investigation. What did you put in my drink? Within minutes, Jade was unresponsive. Two days later, her unborn daughter Ivy passed away. And several days after that, on her 25th birthday, Jade would also pass away. But at first, no one was investigating a murder.

• 1:29Stephanie Harlowe?

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

• 1:34Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 1:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  So today, we are diving into a new series, a series that I have been looking into for a while. And I'm very excited to kind of present it to you because there's a lot of differing opinions on this. And there's a lot of ways that people feel.

• 1:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Aren't there always?

• 1:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Always. But yeah, I have actually gotten very connected to this case. I found myself becoming very connected to Jade, the victim in this case. And there's a lot of stuff that we have to talk about as far as forensics and evidence and what does everything mean. But we are going to do all of that over these next few episodes. So before we dive in, Derek, I know we have a very important, important fall announcement.

• 2:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Very important announcement. It's that time of year, pumpkin spice.

• 2:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes.

• 2:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Back in stock.

• 2:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  It is the time of the season. It is fall.

• 2:27Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 2:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  And that is when we love to have coffee.

• 2:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 2:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  And we love pumpkin spice coffee.

• 2:32Derrick Levasseur?

  I may or may not have been drinking this before it was put on sale.

• 2:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Mm-hmm. That's okay.

• 2:36Derrick Levasseur?

  It's delicious.

• 2:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's the benefits of owning the company.

• 2:38Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes. I'm testing it. I'm testing it for you guys.

• 2:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  Quality control.

• 2:42Derrick Levasseur?

  I want to make sure that it's good. I can confirm that it is.

• 2:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  He's like the old timey guy who would stand beside the king and like taste his food before he ate it to make sure.

• 2:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Someone's got to do it.

• 2:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, somebody that's.

• 2:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Someone's got to do it. So we have it in ground. We have it in whole bean. It's available now. We're going to have it for this month, maybe next month. But I will tell you, we ran out of bags and they're going to take a while to come in, probably after the pumpkin season's over. So we have a good amount. I wouldn't say a ton. So if you want to try pumpkin spice, or if you're just someone who's tried it before and really liked it, now would be the time to pick it up.

• 3:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  I know a lot of people have been asking, when's it coming back?

• 3:18Derrick Levasseur?

  It's here.

• 3:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Asked and answered. We're very excited.

• 3:20Derrick Levasseur?

  You know, it's only September, but hey, it's fall, baby. Let's do it.

• 3:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Starbucks has their pumpkin spice out. Dunkin' has their pumpkin spice out. You know, there's a new thing called August ween or something, where it's like you start transitioning into the Halloween season in August, which I've done forever, so I'm glad the rest of the world is catching up.

• 3:39Derrick Levasseur?

  I just bought a ton of Halloween decorations and my kids wanted to put them up this weekend. And I'm like, we gotta, we gotta wait a couple more weeks.

• 3:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, they do not. My, my Halloween decorations have been up for two weeks.

• 3:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Outside, too?

• 3:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  I do have a few things outside. I have to be. And my mom was like, my mom came to my house. She was like, this is, she was like, this is diabolical. You have Halloween stuff outside? She's like, inside where nobody can see is one thing.

• 3:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, yeah, the girls have stuff. They've had inside stuff up for a couple of weeks now. But the outside, they wanted to put like the blowups all up.

• 4:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes. I love them.

• 4:07Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm like, let's wait a couple of weeks, guys.

• 4:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Tell them Aunt Stephanie is going to take a trip to Rhode Island and help them set up.

• 4:12Derrick Levasseur?

  People are going to be, the neighbors are going to be talking.

• 4:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't care. The neighbors always talk. But listen, I'm going to put on Patreon. I made my whole Four Seasons room, just like this Halloween, like, dream environment, this cozy fall. I'm going to put it up there for you guys because I'm very impressed. I'm, I am accomplished with myself. So let's dive into this week's case. I can't wait to get your take on it, Derek. And I really want to start off with talking about who Jade was because it's very important, not just because she was a human and it's very important, but who Jade was and what kind of things she did and basically like her character, I feel, was assassinated during this trial by the defense. Because I think that's all they had.

• 4:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm really offended by it. And I'm offended by the way that when somebody dies and then the person who's accused of their murder goes on trial, even though that person's gone, it's like sometimes now we're killing them all over again, their reputation, who they are, going through things. And then they're not there to explain, oh, I meant it like this, or I meant it like that. And like I said, I've become very attached to Jade because I had to go through a lot of her social media through the past decades and kind of figure out who she was and what she was into. And yeah, it's, it's difficult. So let's talk about Jade. Jade Tristan Benning was born on March 6th, 1998 in Little Rock, Arkansas. And for most of her life, Little Rock was home.

• 5:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  She grew up primarily with her mother Bridgette and her stepfather Lynn. Jade was Bridgette's only child and the two of them were extremely close. Even later, when Jade eventually moved hundreds of miles away to Nashville, Tennessee, she and her mom stayed in almost constant communication, usually talking or messaging every single day.

• 6:02Speaker 02

  Can you describe your relationship with your daughter, especially as she's growing up in high school and college?

• 6:11Speaker 03

  She was my life.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Everything I did was for her.

• 6:18Speaker 03

  From cheer competitions, high school cheer, supporting her through her culinary,

• 6:27Speaker 03

  and even supporting her move to Nashville.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  Did you want her to move to Nashville?

• 6:32Speaker 03

  No.

• 6:34Speaker 02

  And can you describe your relationship with Jade? Obviously, every mother-daughter relationship is very different. Did she tell you things and confide in you about what was going on in her life?

• 6:49Speaker 03

  There's things. There's always things that a child's not going to.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  Was she fairly forthcoming? And kind of included you in details about friends and if she was dating someone and things like that?

• 7:02Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 7:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  But Nashville wasn't completely unfamiliar territory for Jade. Her biological father, Dennis Browning, and her stepmother, Andrea Browning, and her younger half-sister, Ava, lived in the Nashville area. Now Andrea, the stepmother, had been a part of Jade's life since she was about 11 years old after marrying Dennis in 2009. And by all accounts, Jade was very close with both sides of her family. They all got along with each other. There was no weird like tension or dynamics or anything like that, which we sometimes see in blended families. Jade also had friendships that went back almost her entire life. She met her best friend, Najah Jackson, when the two girls were only about six years old. Now, this wasn't one of those childhood friendships where you grow up, drift apart, and occasionally like each other's Instagram posts.

• 7:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Jade and Najah remained extremely close. And later, when Najah moved to Nashville for school in August of 2022, she and Jade would once again be living in the same city, talking constantly and telling each other everything.

• 8:02Speaker 02

  When you lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, at some point in your life, did you meet Miss Jade Benning?

• 8:07Speaker 04

  I did.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  And how old were you when you met Jade Benning?

• 8:10Speaker 04

  I was about six years old.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  Can you describe your friendship with Jade Benning?

• 8:17Speaker 04

  My friendship with Jade Benning was a friendship that I pray everyone gets to experience. Jade was my sister. She was a very loyal person, a very dependable person, and a friend that I never imagined to not have anymore.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  How long did you, I mean, you knew her since she was six, but did you guys go to school together?

• 8:45Speaker 04

  Yes, we went to middle school, high school, and a little bit of college.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  And during that time, did you stay very close best friends?

• 8:57Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 8:59Speaker 02

  At some point, did you all not live in the same place in Arkansas?

• 9:03Speaker 04

  Yes, we did not. There was a point when I lived in Fayetteville and she lived in Conway, Arkansas.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Did you maintain that close friendship even when you didn't live in the same town?

• 9:14Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  And can you describe Jade kind of growing up? What type of person was she?

• 9:22Speaker 04

  Jade was a very outgoing, charismatic, go with the flow type of girl, a girl that like never met a stranger. She didn't care your socioeconomic background. She didn't care your gender, your race. She would meet anyone and become their friend same day.

• 9:44Speaker 02

  And growing up with her, did you guys have that type of friendship where you shared even kind of like secrets, stuff that you would tell other people?

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 9:56Speaker 02

  And in college, or I guess high school, did she play any sports?

• 10:01Speaker 04

  She was a cheerleader.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  Did you play any sports?

• 10:04Speaker 04

  I was a cheerleader.

• 10:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Jade and Najah were so close and such an integral part of each other's lives from such a young age that Jade's mother Bridgette called Najah her second daughter, her adopted daughter. And that relationship is going to become incredibly important later because Najah isn't just someone who knew Jade well enough to understand her personality or what was happening in her private life. She would ultimately become one of the last people to hear Jade's voice before Jade lost consciousness and died. Another of Jade's oldest friends was Lindsay Wallace, and they'd actually met in dance class when they were four years old. So outside of dancing, Jade was a competitive, very talented athlete

• 10:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  who would become captain of both the JV and varsity cheerleading squads at Little Rock Central High School. Here is Lindsay's mother, Stephanie, describing exactly how significant an achievement this was.

• 11:00Speaker 05

  Did they both, to your knowledge, stay and dance all the way up through elementary school, middle school?

• 11:09Speaker 03

  Yes, sir.

• 11:10Speaker 05

  High school?

• 11:11Speaker 03

  My daughter cheered the whole time. Jade cheered the whole time. Jade was actually captain at Central High School of the cheer squad.

• 11:20Speaker 05

  And don't want to get too cheap in the, in the weeds about this, but Little Rock High School, how big a school is that?

• 11:30Speaker 06

  Three to 4,000 student population. It changes throughout the years, probably more when she was there than today.

• 11:37Speaker 05

  Jade being captain of the cheer squad.

• 11:40Speaker 06

  Oh, it was a huge thing, a huge responsibility. Their squad had, first it was leadership position, but was held in high regard for anyone who was selected. And it speaks to her light and how she was able to bring people together.

• 12:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  So what Stephanie is saying here is it wasn't just that Jade was this incredible athlete. You know, in some high schools, sports are more important than in other high schools. You've got schools where sports are, you know, really like, like she said, held in high esteem. And Jade was at a high school like that, a high school where there was a lot of students and a lot of people who did cheerleading, including her friend Niaja. And Jade was chosen for many years, JV and varsity, to be the captain of the cheerleading team, which was a huge achievement and something where it was like, yeah, we're not only acknowledging that you're great at what you do, you're a great cheerleader, but you're a great leader. And a lot of people respect you and your peers respect you.

• 12:43Derrick Levasseur?

  And that's important, right? Doesn't, it's not always the best player. It's the person who can create a sense of cohesiveness and has the respect of, of her teammates.

• 12:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, but Jade was also very talented. Competitive dancer had been dancing since she's, you know, four years old, doing cheerleading.

• 12:59Derrick Levasseur?

  She backed it up with her actions, but also had an ability to bring everyone together.

• 13:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  And was never like, yeah, was never snobby about it or like looked at herself as better. Like just still very welcoming, open, friendly, just a very nice, sweet girl. So let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.

• 13:23Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 13:28Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 13:36Derrick Levasseur?

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• 14:05Derrick Levasseur?

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• 14:24Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 14:42Derrick Levasseur?

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• 14:44Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 14:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, that's, that's too organized for a craving.

• 14:53Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 15:35Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 15:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, so Jade graduated from Little Rock Central in 2016. And looking through the pieces of her life that exist online, two things immediately stand out to me. Jade was tirelessly positive, like in every way. She could find the silver lining in every situation, always trying to put a spin on everything. And she seemed to really enjoy her life and she tried to get the most out of every single day. She traveled a lot. She went to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Arizona. In December of 2019, she traveled through Europe. She visited Florence and Venice in Italy, Paris in France and Barcelona in Spain. It also seemed like traveling around her birthday and planning special trips and getaways

• 16:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  for that time of year became something of a tradition for her. Jade was into fitness and taking care of herself, but she also loved food, the kind of delicious pastas and buttered sauteed dishes she got to try while in Europe. And she must have been into fashion in some way because every single one of her looks was on point, the hair, the makeup, the clothes. And most importantly, what pulled all of that together was Jade herself. Cause in almost every single picture, you can see it, this bright energy, this huge smile, a young lady who seemed incredibly comfortable in her own skin. But underneath the outfits that she was serving on a regular basis, Jade was very focused on what she wanted out of her life and her dream was to become a chef.

• 17:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  In August of 2018, Jade posted a photo of herself in a chef's coat. The caption reading, quote, "After changing my major about four times, I finally found what I'm truly passionate about. I never thought culinary school would be the route I'd take, but after my first day, I know this is it. No more awkward conversations when people ask me what I want to be. No more rolling my eyes and getting annoyed when people bring up school to me. Never been more confident or excited about something. Chef JTB is officially in the making." End quote. And then in May of 2020, Jade graduated from Brightwater Culinary Arts. And several months before that, she had started a new job working as the head pastry chef

• 17:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  at Mirabella's Table, but she was also growing her own catering business, JTB Eatery. And this is a person who's very young at this point, right? She's like 20 years old. Yeah, she's doing a lot of things. And then in the last week of December 2021, Jade moved to Nashville, Tennessee to start her new job as a chef at Ernest Bar and Hideaway. This is Ernest, by the way, not like Ernest, what, remember those movies, Ernest Goes to School? Do you remember those movies?

• 18:24Derrick Levasseur?

  No, I do not. You totally lost me.

• 18:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  You really don't? Okay. So not like the name Ernest, but like somebody who's earnest and sincere.

• 18:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay.

• 18:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay. So this was actually a restaurant co-owned by Jay and Jay is the brother of Jade's stepmother, Andrea. So Jade's uncle, basically. And Jade immediately took to her new job and her new coworkers and her new city. She's got stuff on Facebook and Instagram where she's like, I love Nashville. Nashville's a great city. We've been there.

• 18:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Nashville's awesome.

• 18:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  We love it as well. There's nothing to not really, there's nothing to not love about Nashville.

• 19:00Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, they gotta lock down the bars a little bit more. Had a couple incidents there where accountability as far as patrons and what's going on inside, outside those bars can always get a little better, but overall I would agree with you. Nashville, very safe, good place.

• 19:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So she's going out, making new friends, she's dressing up, she's going on adventures, she's having a great time, making great dishes that she's putting on her social media. And there were already several connections that made Nashville feel like home very quickly. Like I said, her father, her stepmother and half sister already lived there. She was working for a man who'd been her uncle since she was 11 and Jade made some very close friends. One of the people Jade became particularly close to was a woman named Lauren Weber, whose brother co-owned the restaurant with Jade's uncle Jay. Lauren and Jade saw each other multiple times inside and outside work throughout the week. They obviously would work their shifts together, but they ate meals together, they went out together, they even traveled together for their birthdays.

• 19:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  Their birthdays were only three days apart. So they would travel together and they were planning a trip for their birthdays like together. So within a fairly short amount of time, Jade had created another tight social circle for herself in Nashville. And when we meet Jade in this story, right now in Nashville, she's only 24 years old, but she's already gone to culinary school. She's already worked as a head pastry chef. She's started her own company. She's moved to a new city. She's established herself in a new restaurant and she was trying to build something of her own. This was somebody who very clearly had plans because at 23, 24, I'm not doing nothing. I'm not doing any of this, right? I'm like trying not to drop out of all my college courses.

• 20:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  And Jade is working as head chef, she's got her own business, relentlessly positive she was. That was something, once again, that, that really stayed with me when I saw her posts and the way she talked to people. So by the summer of 2022, life was really good for Jade Benning in Nashville. She had her family nearby. She had a job she cared about, new friends. And then in August of that year, her childhood best friend from Little Rock, Niaja, she moved to Nashville for college. So suddenly, one of the people who knew Jade better than almost anyone was living close by again. And it wasn't as if Jade and Niaja weren't talking all the time. They were, but now it was like they were together again, right? They could go out again and spend time with each other in person.

• 21:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  And because Jade and Niaja told each other almost everything, it wasn't long before Niaja began hearing about a new man in Jade's life who she had met on Hinge. His name was Blaze Taylor. And according to Niaja, Jade was initially optimistic about where this relationship might go.

• 21:47Speaker 06

  She told me she kind of met him a couple of months prior too. And it was kind of just, you know, small little conversations. And then when I moved here, she was telling me about this guy she had been seeing.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  And if she saw him.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  For a date or went over to his house, would she tell you about it?

• 22:07Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 22:08Speaker 02

  Um, and did she tell you about it often?

• 22:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:11Speaker 02

  In the beginning?

• 22:12Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 22:13Speaker 02

  Can you describe, what was her attitude and outlook towards him?

• 22:19Speaker 04

  Um, she described him as somebody that was like kinda different from her usual type. She was very like optimistic as to like where this could go. She was really enjoying their hangouts and their conversations. So I was like, all right, well, let's see, see where this goes.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  Did she express to you that she wanted to be in a relationship?

• 22:42Speaker 04

  At a point in time, yes.

• 22:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, so what you need to understand is Nijay is saying, uh, yeah, a few months before she moved to Nashville, Nijay moved to Nashville, she had already heard that Jade had met someone on Hinge and they were talking and it's optimistic. But at this point, what we also need to understand is it's a very casual relationship, right? The guy Blaze, he's busy, he's got stuff going on. We know that Jade, very busy, she's got stuff going on, so they would go to dinner. They'd have sleepovers, they would talk a lot.

• 23:16Derrick Levasseur?

  Describe that sleepover.

• 23:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Sleepovers, they would talk a lot over the phone.

• 23:20Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, all right.

• 23:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Uh, they'd talk a lot over the phone.

• 23:24Derrick Levasseur?

  They should make a dating app called that, Sleepover.

• 23:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Sleepover, oh.

• 23:28Derrick Levasseur?

  It's kinda good, right?

• 23:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, except I feel like most people you meet on Hinge probably don't want you to sleep over, you know?

• 23:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Also true.

• 23:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Also true, so this wasn't like, oh, I'm introducing her to my mother or even we're hanging out together with our friends kind of thing, right? It was very casual, just see where it's going. And on paper, you could understand why someone like Jade Benning would be interested in forming a relationship with someone like Blaze Taylor. He looked like a pretty good pick, someone who matched Jade's go-getter energy and her focus on building things into the future. Blaze Taylor was by all accounts, a perfect person, okay? Now, we all know that can't be true, so there's things hidden. We found that out with Chandler Halderson.

• 24:15Derrick Levasseur?

  But sure, I got you, I get what you're saying, most of the time.

• 24:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, but we can't all be Derek.

• 24:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I mean, listen, you can strive for it though.

• 24:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  We found out with Chandler Halderson, right? Like you can have everybody have nothing but nice things to say about you, have the best family unit, have all of that, and still something goes wrong. So Blaze Taylor grew up in a family where football was not just something you watched on Sunday. It was the family business and a way of life. His father is Trooper Taylor. Trooper Taylor had played defensive back at Baylor where he met his wife Evelyn, who was also a star athlete, running track at Baylor, and later she earned her PhD in psychology and became Dr. Evelyn Taylor. So Trooper and Evy got married in 1993 on the football field at Baylor's Floyd Casey Stadium,

• 25:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  which kinda gives you an indication of how deeply football would become woven into the Taylor family identity. After college, Trooper Taylor became a college football coach for Baylor, then Tulane, then Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Auburn, Arkansas, Duke, and eventually Texas A&M. Now, I don't know a lot about college football, I'm a basketball girl, I like college basketball, but I do know from the movie Drumline that Texas A&M is big when it comes to football.

• 25:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, just Texas in general when it comes to football.

• 25:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 25:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Massive, and, and the schools that you're mentioning are, are big time schools.

• 25:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, big time.

• 25:41Derrick Levasseur?

  These aren't like, you know, D3, you know, barely made it out of high school schools. These are like the best college athletes in the country.

• 25:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 25:48Derrick Levasseur?

  And real quickly, cause I may have been the only person out of the hundreds of thousands of people who are gonna listen to this, but when you say Trooper Taylor, your, his first name is Trooper.

• 26:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  Um, I, I don't think that's his real first name, it's just the name.

• 26:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Whatever, he's not a state trooper?

• 26:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  No.

• 26:08Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, cause I, I, when you first said it, I was like, oh, Trooper Taylor, that's kinda, she didn't say his first name yet, but then you said Trooper and Evy, and I'm like, oh, wait, Trooper is actually his first name.

• 26:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, no, his, his first name, I think.

• 26:19Derrick Levasseur?

  The only person, but.

• 26:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  His first name, I think, is like Carl or something like that, but in the business, in the public eye.

• 26:26Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 26:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  He's, he's Trooper Taylor.

• 26:27Derrick Levasseur?

  He's an athlete, he's someone who played, you know, high level football, but he's not a police officer, not a state trooper.

• 26:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not a police officer in any way, shape, or form. He played college football and then he went on to coach college football. Okay, so Blaze also has a younger sister, Starr. She'd become a Division One basketball player. Uh, this was clearly a family full of athletes and extremely high achievers, right? And Blaze appears to have absorbed and reflected that mentality very early on. According to his mother, who you can just tell is Blaze's biggest fan, by the way, but according to his mother, Evy, all throughout school, Blaze was an A student and the teacher's pet, and he was so smart and schoolwork came so easily to him. Because it was so easy to him, he'd often help other kids with their work, which made him even more of a teacher's pet.

• 27:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Blaze also got into sports early on, he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, and not only was he a naturally gifted athlete, but he was always team captain, which also spoke to his incredible leadership ability, according to his mother. Blaze's mother said that all the other parents and coaches were always coming up to her, telling her how much respect they had for Blaze. She said he was the type of boy that adults wanted their children to be around. Even though they moved often because they had to switch locations every time Trooper switched college football programs, Blaze easily made tons of friends everywhere he went. Now Blaze started playing football when he was five years old. He played throughout middle school and high school where he was, of course, the team captain.

• 27:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then because he was so intelligent, Blaze graduated from high school a semester early so that he could go to college sooner. Blaze went to Arkansas State University where his father was coaching defensive backs, and Blaze joined the Red Wolves as a defensive back and return specialist from 2014 until 2017, where he would go on to become one of the most decorated players in the program's history. Now, this is something that's documented, so listening to Blaze's mother, she's like, he was just absolutely, uh, the return of Jesus, you know, and, and people, people would always come up to me and be like, can your son please be my son's friend? Because your son's the type of boy I really want my kid to hang around, you know?

• 28:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's maybe anecdotal, okay? We know Blaze did well in high school. Uh, the graduated a semester early thing is questionable, but we know that when he went to college, and when he's playing football, he was very good.

• 28:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, we'll, we'll probably throw some shots up here, but you can see images and videos from his football days.

• 29:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Just absolutely.

• 29:06Derrick Levasseur?

  Really good.

• 29:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  One of the most decorated players in the program's history, four-time All-Sun Belt player. He ended his college career as the Sun Belt Conference Career Leader in passes defended. Blaze was one of the country's best punt returners and was named a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, along with a bunch of other awards that I don't need to name, because you get the point, but award after award after award. Um, in fact, there was one article I read, I think it was in Sports Illustrated, where they were like, he's the fastest player out there, like professional and college, we can't find anyone faster. Now, on top of excelling on the field, Blaze was also an exceptional academic person. He completed his bachelor's degree in business administration in 2016,

• 29:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  and then he finished his MBA in August of 2017 with a 3.82 GPA. So it was widely known that Blaze Taylor was the only active FBS player at the time to have both a bachelor and master's degree before the start of his senior football season. And Sports Illustrated actually profiled him in 2017 specifically because of how unusual that achievement was. Now, I'm not trying to say that football players are dumb. That's a, what is it called, the stereotype?

• 30:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 30:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  But usually, if somebody gets like a scholarship to college because they're a good football player, that is their focus, right? And maybe they let their academic slide a little bit and they needed extra tutoring or something to get their grades to a point where this was possible, but Blaze is over here creating a trailblazing college football reputation and career, while also getting his bachelor's and his master's within three years. And, and with a high GPA as well, so.

• 30:49Derrick Levasseur?

  You say 3.8, 3.82?

• 30:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  3.82, yeah.

• 30:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, that's really good. I mean, listen, although it's not the norm, and I will also say that some, uh, college athletes, especially the really good ones, professors and teachers can kind of look the other way and maybe some of their good play on the field carries over to the classroom and those grades could be slightly inflated, but it sounds like.

• 31:17Derrick Levasseur?

  Either Blaze was very lucky with all of his teachers and professors, or to give credit where his credit's due, he was a naturally gifted athlete and a really intelligent person. He just, he was just one of those people who got lucky and got it all.

• 31:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  I think you're right there. I think it comes from family expectations. I think it comes from a natural giftedness with sports and kind of growing up with athletes and athletics.

• 31:44Derrick Levasseur?

  The genes were there.

• 31:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Important thing. Yeah.

• 31:45Derrick Levasseur?

  His mother's extremely intelligent. His dad was an incredible athlete.

• 31:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 31:50Derrick Levasseur?

  So he had, he had the genetics working for him, for sure.

• 31:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  When Sports Illustrated profiled him in 2017, he was the only FBS player to have gotten both his bachelor's and master's before his senior year.

• 32:01Derrick Levasseur?

  It's impressive.

• 32:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, because that's the highest level of college football in the United States, top tier. So it's, it's, it's a lot, you know? He's, he's doing great, which is why it's so surprising sometimes how things go this way.

• 32:16Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 32:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now, you can also get an indication of what maybe Blaze's secret was, because we've been to high school, we've been to college. There's a lot of distractions in college when you kind of, you, you leave your parents' home, you're going to a campus. But also keep in mind, his father was here. His father was actually his football coach during college.

• 32:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, you were saying he was coaching defensive backs?

• 32:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So it's not like you're, you're away from your family. You got a watchful eye on you, right? And Trooper Taylor expects a lot from his kids.

• 32:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep. He's got his ear to the ground. He's able to follow up with probably professors and...

• 32:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  Maybe if he hears something, he can go Blaze and be like, hey, I heard you're on the wrong path. You better get your ass in gear. So Sports Illustrated talks to Blaze in 2017, and during this interview, he spoke about intentionally avoiding the distractions of college, because although this was the first time in most people's lives where they had some autonomy and freedom, he viewed the college years as the opportunity to set up the rest of his life. Quote, "I knew growing up as a kid, watching some players not take advantage of their opportunities off the field, that I wasn't going to be that athlete that didn't take advantage of the resources provided to me and have very little to show for it. I was going to make sure I maximized my benefits," end quote. So this seems to be

• 33:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  somebody who knows, I come from a good family, my father's in the game and knows people, I'm able to have opportunities that a lot of people probably don't have, even people who might be smart or gifted athletes, and I'm not going to waste the opportunities I have. I've seen that happen too many times. Blaze was also heavily involved in community service, and Arkansas State credited him with working with the Special Olympics, schools, churches, health and wellness programs, alcohol and drug awareness efforts. And in 2017, the university gave him its distinguished service award. Blaze's mother said that after college, Blaze was offered the opportunity to play for the New Orleans Saints, but he

• 34:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  turned that down, deciding instead to move into coaching and football operations, rather than pursue a significant NFL playing career, which at first I was like, really? Were you like gonna be? But then I said, yeah, he was good enough. He probably did get some pro teams coming to him, but also he's smart. And I keep seeing all this new stuff coming out about CTE, and we know what happened with Aaron Hernandez. And maybe Blaze was like, yeah, I'm too smart to kind of like get my, my brain scrambled around in my head kind of thing.

• 34:43Derrick Levasseur?

  So I will also say, and this is no knock on him, because he blew my college stats out of the water, but there are levels to this. And he was playing for Arkansas State, which is a great college, but it's not LSU, Alabama, Florida State, Miami, like not some of the, the top programs, Texas. So he was on a good team, not a great team, and he wasn't even the best player on his team. He was more, he was more on special teams, which is usually really gifted athletes, but just not good enough to be on the offense or the, or the defense. So he was good. He would have gotten some looks, but more than likely, he realized based on his talent level that he had kind of, he had plateaued. He'd

• 35:26Derrick Levasseur?

  reached the top level he was going to get to and wanted to focus on areas where he could excel. That's no knock on him, by the way.

• 35:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Followed in his father's footsteps, Trooper also played college ball and then went into coaching. So it was also kind of what he knew and what he knew he could be successful in.

• 35:41Derrick Levasseur?

  It's really hard to get into the NFL. 50, it's, they have a large roster, 53-man roster, but there's 32 teams and a lot of college athletes.

• 35:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's hard. And I think you have to really be playing a lot during the game in order to be in that upper echelon of people that are getting paid the, the money that you want for the risk you're taking.

• 35:59Derrick Levasseur?

  He probably got a couple of tryouts while, you know, but I'm assuming he wasn't drafted, right? So that's why he got the call from New Orleans to try out, but he didn't get drafted out of college. So right there, you're automatically going into it as a free agent, which the likelihood of getting on the team, unless you're just, you know, just blow the doors off the hinges when you go to the tryout, not likely.

• 36:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Mm-hmm. So he goes into like, I'm gonna coach, okay? I'm gonna coach, and I'm gonna go into more, not even just coaching, but football operations, like the administrative side.

• 36:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, a lot of money in that.

• 36:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So he worked as a defensive graduate assistant at Duke, where his father was on the staff as well. And then in 2019, he took the job as a pro scout with the Tennessee Titans. And this put both Blaze Taylor and Jade Benning in Nashville, Tennessee at the same time.

• 36:49Derrick Levasseur?

  There's how we got there.

• 36:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yep, this is where their paths will cross. So let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

• 36:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  This episode is brought to you by Smalls. And today, Derek, we're talking about cats.

• 37:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Tiny carnivores with excellent boundaries, right?

• 37:06Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 37:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. And cats are already dramatic enough without giving them food that's not actually built for what they need.

• 37:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's where Smalls comes in. Smalls makes fresh, human-grade cat food with protein-packed recipes, preservative-free ingredients, and delivery right to your door. Their fresh recipes are over 80% animal protein with zero fillers.

• 37:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Which I love, because if your cat is going to act like royalty, they might as well eat like they have their own personal chef.

• 37:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, they eat better than us at this point. And the benefits make real sense. More digestible nutrients can mean less junk coming out of the other end, which can help with the litter box situation. Plus, cats use protein as their main energy source, so more protein means more fuel and sustained energy.

• 38:08Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. And the litter box improvement alone, to me, is worth people's attention. Anyone who's lived with a cat before knows this one bad litter moment can clear a room like a fire drill. It's not good, people. It's not good. Take my word for it.

• 38:21Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 38:44Derrick Levasseur?

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• 38:50Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 39:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, we're back. So we know that Blaze and Jade met on Hinge. We know they exchanged messages and went out to dinner. We know that they began what has been described as a casual sexual relationship, right? An early dating stage. Like I said, we're not introducing each other to parents. We're not even hanging out in the same group of friends.

• 39:44Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, let's just call it what it is, right? They met on a dating app, and they're, at this point, they're... Friends with benefits, essentially.

• 39:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, and I mean, I think it was more of like, we're keeping this private. Like, if, if you were friends with, with Blaze Taylor at the time, you probably wouldn't have known that, that Jade even existed. And he was probably seeing other people and she was seeing other people.

• 40:06Derrick Levasseur?

  Correct, correct. Which perfectly fine, but that's kind of what that dating app is, to go out there and find people and see if you develop a stronger connection.

• 40:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, so we also heard Jade's best friend, Nia Jaya Jackson, mentioned that at first Jade had wanted to pursue a more serious relationship with Blaze, but then something happened. And when she tried to talk about what happened in court, the defense objected quickly and loudly, which they do all the time, by the way. We're gonna come back to this. And so it wasn't that Jade was like, oh, I don't want to see him anymore. It was just like, maybe she was reevaluating how seriously they would sort of come together. And so it was just like a fun thing. They kept it going. By the middle of September, we know that they were at least seeing each other at night for sleepovers, but understand this was never the type of relationship

• 41:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  that seemed to be out in the public munch. Now, there was no pictures of Jade and Blaze together on social media, and Jade would introduce Blaze to her friend Lauren Weber, but it was only once, out at a bar one night. The interaction only lasted an hour, and Lauren said there wasn't much conversation between herself and Blaze. So it was probably like a loud bar, maybe they were seeing live music, it's Nashville, and they were just kind of hanging out and, and not really like a get to know you kind of thing. Now Jade's best friend, Nia Jaya Jackson, wouldn't even meet Blaze in person until the night that Jade was rushed to the emergency room in February of 2023. So you can imagine the difficult position Jade Benning found herself in when she discovered in early November of 2022 that she was pregnant.

• 41:44Speaker 04

  She FaceTimed, well, she texted me and told me that she needed to talk to me. And I, she didn't FaceTime me and she was showing me the, maybe like four pregnancy tests that were positive.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  And was that something that she had planned?

• 42:01Speaker 04

  No. Well, I was telling her, because these were at-home pregnancy tests, yes, they are positive, but I think that we should probably go to a clinic to verify. So I was looking at clinics in the surrounding area to see where we could get her in to get an ultrasound. And I went to the back with her and the nurse was asking her if she wanted to, well, I asked her if she wanted to hear the heartbeat. And the nurse kind of verified with her decision. And we heard the heartbeat. And they were measuring like the baby's size and confirming like how many weeks she was.

• 42:42Speaker 02

  And Ms. Jackson, were they able to tell Ms. Benning how many weeks pregnant she was?

• 42:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  And was that something where you and her discussed kind of dates when it would have happened?

• 42:58Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  And when they gave you that information, did you know who would have been the father of that baby?

• 43:07Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 43:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  So Jade took the home pregnancy tests on November 2nd. She and Nia Jaya went to the clinic to confirm the pregnancy with an ultrasound on November 3rd. And based on the estimated date of conception, Jade knew that the father of her baby was Blaze Taylor. The approximate conception date was September 26, 2022. And we have messages between Blaze and Jade during that same week that showed she stayed the night with him more than once. Okay, so on November 6th, Jade and Nia Jaya exchanged texts, which suggested that Jade had brought this information about her being pregnant to Blaze within the last day or so, and he had not reacted well.

• 43:47Speaker 04

  She sent me screenshots of his response. She called me to kind of tell me that they were gonna have a conversation. So I was pretty much in the loop from day one as to what was going on in her pregnancy.

• 44:03Speaker 02

  After she met with Mr. Taylor, what was her attitude after speaking with him?

• 44:10Speaker 04

  She was very upset, very disappointed. Obviously, it wasn't planned, but I think the response that he gave her was not what she was not necessarily looking for, but hoping for, just in terms of a conversation. It seemed more so like he was just not really interested.

• 44:33Speaker 03

  Objection going into a hearsay response.

• 44:36Speaker 02

  Ms. Benning, after she talked to him, you were describing that she was disappointed with his response.

• 44:41Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  What was her outlook and attitude, even after speaking with him and getting his response?

• 44:51Speaker 04

  I feel like Jade was still very hopeful. She was still like, you know what? Like, if this is what he's, if this is how he's gonna act, then I'm just gonna kind of move forward with my life. Like, she definitely had a positive outlook on the situation, although his response was very underwhelming.

• 45:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  So I do want to say something. This is November. Jade and Blaze met in August, had, had a very casual relationship, right? There was already something on both ends that maybe made them realize this wasn't going to be a more serious relationship. So if there's nothing wrong with Blaze being unhappy about Jade being pregnant, right? We can both acknowledge that.

• 45:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Let's call it what it is, right? They were, they were hooking up. It, it wasn't that serious. I don't know if it was serious for Jade. It clearly wasn't serious for, for Blaze. And so, again, I'm going out on a limb here, but he was probably hoping that this relationship was gonna consist of sex and nothing more than that. So getting this news, that now you're gonna have a baby with this person, that clearly you're not treating with a level of respect, that you're, you're not even introducing her to your friends or family. That was probably something that was, like, like Jade described. His response was underwhelming, like, oh, crap, this isn't what I was looking for.

• 46:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, but it, it makes it seem kind of more like underwhelming, not excited.

• 46:17Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 46:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  And remember, I said Jade is eternally positive, right? So I don't think she was looking at Blaze as a serious dating option either at that point, not for like a life partner.

• 46:26Derrick Levasseur?

  That's fair.

• 46:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  But at the same time, she's like, I'm pregnant, you know?

• 46:29Derrick Levasseur?

  It happens.

• 46:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  A baby, it happens. We can still raise a child together, not be together. She's trying to look at all the ways that it can be made to work. And he's just like, full stop. I don't want this. I don't want this. Maybe let's explore other options. In fact, it seemed like he was trying to talk her into other options. And she was like, well, I have to think about this. Let me, let me think about this for a few days. So on November 6th, at 12:50 PM, Jade texted her best friend, Nia Jaya Jackson, and said, quote, "I'm going to tell him today I'm not having the abortion, so he can just get it out of his head," end quote. And then Nia Jaya responded, quote, "Like, he had the opportunity to talk yesterday and he didn't," end quote. Jade then texted, quote, "Literally."

• 47:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  And he was being awkward, trying to have other conversations to avoid," end quote. This was followed by another text, which said, quote, "He's gonna be like, why? It just makes no sense for us, like, fucking shut it down," end quote. Jade also sent a text to Nia Jaya at 1:10 PM. And she said she told her father about the pregnancy the day before, and her father had cried, but, quote, "He told me basically same as my mom that he would support me either way," end quote. Jade then told Nia Jaya that she was about to talk to Blaze, and then she sent Nia Jaya a message that she was considering sending to Blaze. And a version of this same message was found in the Notes app of Jade's phone. And Nia Jaya Jackson testified, saying she'd helped Jade modify the message.

• 47:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  She said she helped her edit it to be more assertive and say what she knew Jade had actually wanted to say. So this message went to Blaze Taylor at 4:38 PM on November 6th and said, quote, "After multiple conversations, I think it may be best that we go ahead and cut the ties slash communication between us. We can't keep opening and closing this door when I've made the decision I have. We will continue to run in circles of communication about the situation when we know we are not in agreement with the situation. You said how you felt and stated that moving forward, you want no parts, so I will let it be just that. I will not involve you at any point. I will love this child unconditionally, with or without you. I informed you that my appointment is on the 16th,

• 48:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  so if your mind changes between now and then, the choice is yours to show up or not. So with that being said, there's nothing left for me to say. Have a great rest of your day, Blaze," end quote. Okay, so Jade is saying, I'm gonna have this baby. I've thought about it. I don't want to do, you know, to, to terminate the pregnancy, for whatever reason. And I know you're not gonna be happy about it. And according to Jade's mother, Blaze had told her, I don't want to have anything to do with this child. I don't want it to have my name. I don't want to be on that birth certificate. I don't want you to ever tell this child that I am its father. I don't want it to try to contact me later in life. I want nothing to do with it." And she's like, okay, I respect that. I have the support of my friends, my family.

• 49:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  I will do this on my own, no big deal. Okay, now after that, there's no further communication that we could really see between Jade Benning and Blaze Taylor. And on November 16th, Jade went to her doctor's appointment alone. However, she wasn't actually alone in the situation because she had the support of her best friend, the support of her family. And so Jade went forward, planning to go through her pregnancy without Blaze, and then raise her child with the help of her loved ones.

• 49:57Speaker 02

  When she told you that Mr. Taylor didn't want to be involved, what was your outlook? And what were you doing kind of with your relationship with Ms. Benning?

• 50:07Speaker 04

  I told her that we're sisters at the age of the day.

• 50:14Speaker 04

  So if I have to meet the baby's daddy.

• 50:22Speaker 04

  I was like, we, we will get through this together. I always reassure her that she's never alone. Um, we were both living alone at that time and her lease was coming to an end. And I was telling her, you know, if we need to live together, I need to help you, then I will. I went to appointment.

• 50:43Derrick Levasseur?

  Wow. What an amazing friend Nijay is, huh?

• 50:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, they've known each other since they were six, right? Yeah.

• 50:49Derrick Levasseur?

  I need one of those friends in my life. Just, just down for the cause.

• 50:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Actually, you do, because when everything went down, Nijaya was right there at the hospital, waiting for police to show up. And she was like, here's what's going on.

• 51:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, no, I mean, incredible. And I mean, I'm sure there's some feelings for her, like, again, I don't know the whole story yet, but I'm sure she's got some guilt and probably not warranted. But, you know, I can't help, but she feels like that's her best friend. She should be there to protect her. And you can see it. You can see it in her face. You can hear it in her voice.

• 51:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, yeah. I mean, this was a very rough time for everybody who knew Jade, because you don't think something like this is going to happen. It's kind of like a regular thing. You see it on TV and shows and movies and Jerry Springer. It's like, ah, a guy doesn't want you to have the baby, but you have the baby and then maybe he comes around one day and maybe he doesn't. But you have the baby and, and maybe it's difficult. You're a single mother. You don't think it's going to go to where it goes.

• 51:47Derrick Levasseur?

  This whole situation happens a lot more than we know, right? Happens all the time. People are hooking up left and right, not using protection. And then you have a situation where, where people are now forced to make a difficult decision as to whether or not they're going to raise a child together, even when they really don't even have anything substantive as far as a relationship. They're just, it's more about the sex than anything else. So,

• 52:15Derrick Levasseur?

  listen, it happens every day and I'm sure some people make the, the decision to terminate. And, and sometimes people make the decision that, hey, we made this baby together. We're going to raise it together. And then sometimes there's a disagreement. That's not the part I have the issue with. The way he handled it, the way that Blaze handled it, from what you're telling me, not the right way to do it. But when we're talking about this case in the context of a potential murder, you can't help but look at this as a potential motive. And that, that's kind of the lens that I'm looking through it right now.

• 52:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I agree with you, like mistakes happen, but what we're going to come to find out about Blaze is this mistake happens with him a lot.

• 52:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, listen, I didn't want to go there. This is a college athlete, smart, has the world by the balls, essentially. And I'm sure he was hooking up with a lot of women at this time. And that's, it was just my first thought initially, when you started describing this guy, I'm like, hey, he's a stud. So, you know, the fact that he's not willing to commit to anyone indicates to me that there, there's more than one woman in his life.

• 53:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  There's more than one woman. And, and like I said, this is something where you're like, oh, you're, you know, having sleepovers.

• 53:20Derrick Levasseur?

  I love the sleepovers. I love, I love that you're going there. Sleepovers.

• 53:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Having sleepovers, not using protection. I mean, but when you're dealing-

• 53:28Derrick Levasseur?

  No sleeping bags?

• 53:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  No sleeping bags at the sleepovers, just completely bare backed. And then you, and then you keep getting a call or a text from, from a young woman who's like, oh, by the way, this happened. And then your only recourse is to try to talk them into doing something.

• 53:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 53:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  You know?

• 53:47Derrick Levasseur?

  But he just wants it to go away.

• 53:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Maybe use a sleeping bag at your sleepovers.

• 53:51Derrick Levasseur?

  And then also the, the conversation where he's saying, I don't want anything to do with the child. I don't want it to know that it's mine. I don't want it to come find me later. I don't want my name on the birth certificate. That's a way of trying to coerce her into doing something she doesn't want to do.

• 54:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, I agree.

• 54:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Like he's, he's overselling the fact that like, listen, I'm not going to change my mind on this. You having this baby is not going to bring us closer. In fact, I don't want anything to do with you or this kid.

• 54:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  In fact, the fact that you want to have this kid makes me want to have less to do with you.

• 54:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Right, right.

• 54:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  So like, you'll lose me if this is what you choose. And, and there's more evidence of this. But what I found during my research, and this is so weird, because you always, you know, people talk about like, oh, these women are trying to trap these men and get pregnant. There are actually a lot of instances of men who go out there and have sleepovers with multiple women, okay? And intentionally forget their sleeping bags at home because they almost want to see if they can get them pregnant. Like it's a, a sign of their virility, you know? And it's like a, a point of pride for them.

• 55:00Derrick Levasseur?

  That's a weird way to prove it.

• 55:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  And that, yeah.

• 55:02Derrick Levasseur?

  There's tests for that, Stephanie.

• 55:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then if it happens, they can be like, yeah, pat themselves on the back. And then they just talk the, the woman into getting or terminating the pregnancy by, yes, using tactics like this. Like this exists. That's crazy to me. So I'm not saying it's the man's responsibility to make sure he's wearing a sleeping bag. I'm saying that both the man and the woman should be taking equal responsibility for making sure that that's happening.

• 55:29Derrick Levasseur?

  And if they decide not to, you have to understand the risk.

• 55:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  And if they decide not to, you have to understand the risks. But we're also talking about sex here. Okay. So we, we know that-

• 55:38Derrick Levasseur?

  You're not usually thinking with, uh-

• 55:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  People don't use all their brain cells. Yeah. They don't, they, they kind of just, that goes out the window. So let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

• 55:52Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 56:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Which is important because a lot of protein bars, they do make you choose. Either it tastes good and the label is terrifying, or the label looks great, but the bar tastes like construction materials. So it doesn't really sound like much of a choice to me.

• 56:19Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 56:38Derrick Levasseur?

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• 56:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. It tastes like an actual snack, not like someone described dessert to a protein bar from across the room. You know, like it ran through the AI and then it came out with something that does not taste like peanut butter chip at all. Plus with over 20,000 five star reviews and counting, more people are starting their days with IQ Bars Brain and Body Boosting Bars, hydration mixes and mushroom coffees. And honestly, it's just nice to have a snack that feels easy. No prep, no sugar crash situation, no label that requires a chemistry degree. Just grab it and keep it moving.

• 57:22Derrick Levasseur?

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• 57:26Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 57:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  This episode is brought to you by the Ladder app. And Derek, this one feels very you because you are much more disciplined about workouts and everything else in general than I am.

• 57:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I try to be, but I'll be honest, there are definitely times where I go to the gym and I just kind of make it up. And, and that's not good. I'll just do whatever I feel like doing that day. And maybe even repeat some of the same exercises. And then I wonder why I'm not seeing progress. Well, that's the reason.

• 58:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  But that's why the Ladder app makes so much sense. It gives you real strength training and it gives you a plan from expert coaches, not random exercises or influencer style challenges. It's progressive programming, right? So your workouts actually build on each other through these structured training blocks, which is the difference between exercising and actually training.

• 58:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. And every week you get a new plan that connects to the last one. So you're not just guessing what to do next. You open the app, there's the plan and you just follow it. And I have actually started incorporating more weights because I have a, a new weight set at my house. And my coach, Brian, he's right on me. We had our max energy Monday today. 39 minute workout, complete full body workout, got it in, got it done. And I'm here with you.

• 58:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  39 minutes is perfect.

• 58:57Derrick Levasseur?

  39 minutes. You have no excuse that you can't get away for 40 minutes of doing work.

• 59:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, exactly. Cause that, that's what I need. The second I have to decide too many things, suddenly I'm reorganizing my water bottle, checking a text, wandering away, and somehow the workout has ended. So Ladder takes away that problem. It feels like having a personal trainer in your headphones. The in-ear coaching guides you through every set with cues, form reminders and motivation. So you know what you're doing and why you're doing it.

• 59:23Derrick Levasseur?

  Exactly. And there are plans for different strength training styles as well. You have bodybuilding, Pilates, dumbbell only at home, hybrid strength, glute focused programs, kettlebells. So whether you're training at home or at the gym, there is a plan that fits.

• 59:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  So it's not a one size fits all, which is good because everyone's goals are different. And I like progress. I can see the ladder app is honestly awesome. You can see it very clearly. It tracks your progress automatically. So you don't have to do a lot, weights, reps, sets. You can actually see yourself getting stronger over time, which is awesome. That's motivation right there. Plus there's a real community behind it with a team group chat where your coach can answer questions and members motivate each other. And I like that, right? Accountability, but not someone hovering over you in person while you're trying to remember how to breathe normally, because that's embarrassing.

• 1:00:08Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, exactly. And it's less than $1 a day, which is a fraction of what you would pay for a single in-person training session. So the price is there as well.

• 1:00:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Less guess, less wandering, fewer saved workouts, collecting dust in an actual plan.

• 1:00:21Derrick Levasseur?

  That's the point, right? Open the ladder app, follow the plan and train with intention.

• 1:00:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  So remove the guesswork with ladder, get a real coach in your ear, telling you exactly what to do for every workout. No thinking, everything planned for you. So if you have an iPhone, head to ladder.fit/crimeweekly and take a quick quiz to find your perfect ladder plan. Use our link and get a free seven day trial with no credit card and $10 off your first month if you join.

• 1:00:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, so from the evidence available, Jade was incredibly serious about doing everything the right way. And she was very happy and excited to become a mother. Like I said, not planned, not the right person, but she's like, whatever. This is my kid. I'm gonna love it. I'm gonna have a great time and I'm gonna do the best I can. So before her pregnancy, she'd gone out at night after work with her coworkers. She had drinks, you know, the restaurant industry is you work a shift all day and then you're like, let's go to the bar. But as soon as she found out she was pregnant on November 2nd, all of that stopped. Jade's friend Lauren Weber testified that Jade would go right home after work. She would send her friends pictures of mocktails she was creating, which is a cocktail without alcohol, in case anybody didn't know. And she made efforts to take care of herself, eat right and work out.

• 1:01:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  She would like send her friends pictures of, we made it to the gym today, you know, meaning her and the baby, like at the gym, working out. She sent her family and friends pictures of her ultrasounds and her growing belly. She created Pinterest boards centered around pregnancy and baby stuff. She subscribed to email lists about pregnancy and baby stuff. She started putting things in her Amazon cart that she knew she would need once her child was born. And Jade also began making more serious and short-term actions, such as moving out of her one-bedroom apartment and renting a two-bedroom apartment close to a good school so that her child could have its own room. Jade was still working, planning to become a mother, staying in touch with family and friends, planning two baby showers, one in Nashville and one in Little Rock, and doing very well.

• 1:02:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  When suddenly, on December 31st, 2022, New Year's Eve, she randomly gets a call from Blaze Taylor, somebody she hasn't heard from in, you know, about a month and a half at all. No contact. Now Jade didn't answer the call. She was at work. But she did send two messages. She sent a text to Blaze at 4:26 PM telling him that she would be off in about 30 or 45 minutes and then she would call him when she left. And she sent a screenshot of the missed call from Blaze to her friend Nigella Jackson, who expressed surprise since it had been so long since Blaze had contacted Jade.

• 1:02:57Speaker 04

  She got word from Blaze and he reached out to her, wanting to talk to her. And she was very like optimistic about what was going to be said.

• 1:03:12Speaker 02

  You said she was hopeful. Do you know if she met with him and saw him?

• 1:03:17Speaker 04

  She did.

• 1:03:18Speaker 02

  And did she see him every day? Or can you kind of describe, what information did you have about the contact that they had with each other?

• 1:03:28Speaker 04

  From my understanding and from what I was told, like it wasn't every single day, but they were definitely back in communication. Not normal as it was before she found out she was pregnant, but it appeared to be kind of heading in a direction of which, okay, like where are we going with this? And she was very like optimistic of the fact that maybe he might actually be coming back around.

• 1:03:56Speaker 02

  And did you try to support her?

• 1:03:58Speaker 04

  I did.

• 1:03:58Speaker 02

  But were you a little apprehensive?

• 1:04:04Speaker 04

  A little, but I feel like because it made her happy that ultimately like that made me happy for her.

• 1:04:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, so apparently Blaze and Jade met at a park on January 1st, so the day after he calls her. And they talked for several hours about how they could try to get to know each other better so they could act as potential co-parents. Now, you heard Nigella say that she was a bit apprehensive about Blaze popping back up. And she also mentioned that it didn't feel like there was a lot of what she described as collaborative conversations happening between Blaze and Jade. So basically Blaze came back into Jade's life. And he's like, all right, if this is what you're doing, let's figure out a way that, you know, we can maybe get to know each other better because we haven't known each other for a long time. And how might this work in the future?

• 1:04:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not even necessarily as a relationship maybe, but as two people who will raise this child together. Yeah. But then, even though Blaze is the one who made the decision to come back into Jade's life, he still didn't seem to be excited about the prospect of becoming a father or having a child with Jade. In fact, in my opinion, it almost seemed like Blaze was still trying to talk Jade out of continuing on with the pregnancy, even if he wasn't maybe being as blatant or direct as he had been before when he'd suggested that Jade terminate her pregnancy in November. Now, when I say he wasn't being as direct, I feel like he's being manipulative. I'm just gonna come right out and say it.

• 1:05:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  So looking through texts that happened throughout January and February of 2023, I know exactly what Nigella meant when she said the conversations were not collaborative. And as a person looking in from the outside, you almost have to wonder why Blaze decided to come back into Jade's life. And at this time, I also want to tell you what was going on with Blaze because in early 2023, it seemed that Blaze was uncertain about his future with the Tennessee Titans. And we do know that the following July, Blaze would leave Nashville and take a job with Utah State. So on January 8th, 2023, Blaze and Jade were talking about a potential work trip he had coming up. And Jade messaged Blaze about tagging along on the trip. She called it an adventure.

• 1:06:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  She's like, hey, maybe, you know, I can go out with you on a trip. Maybe not this one, but one coming up. You know, we can have an adventure. It'll be fun. And, you know, she said, I'll only do that if you want me to, of course, right? Because she's still kind of hesitant. She doesn't know how much he wants to have to do with her. Now Blaze replied, quote, "Got to still have a job first," end quote. This is gonna make sense if you know that in January of 2023, Blaze had been with the Titans for four years, but his multi-year scouting contract was expiring and he did not have a guaranteed renewal. And January is notoriously volatile for NFL front office staff because the teams are transitioning into their offseason.

• 1:07:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  And this would have put Blaze in a sort of limbo, not knowing if his contract with the Titans was going to be extended. And his business trips that he was going on may have been interviews with different teams or colleges. And this may have been him searching for a potential new position. So when he's saying like, well, I gotta make sure I have a job first to have these adventures and these trips, I believe that's what he's referring to.

• 1:07:28Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, probably to pay for him as well.

• 1:07:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. Yeah, true.

• 1:07:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Getting everybody out there. You're gonna need to have money to do it.

• 1:07:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, so but Blaze didn't end his message there. He continued saying, quote, "Second, you probably ain't doing much traveling for a while anymore. When next season rolls around, I don't think you'll be able to make impromptu trips on the weekends, considering you'll have other responsibilities. Not trying to be negative or nothing, but just realistic. I mean, it would be great if you could, but it's unlikely," end quote.

• 1:07:57Derrick Levasseur?

  I mean, that's completely, he's definitely trying to be manipulative here. He's definitely trying to be negative about it. He's like, man, yeah, I would love those trips too. Those would be a lot of fun. However, that little thing, you know, that little baby is gonna put a monkey wrench in everything.

• 1:08:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  That little thing you insist on keeping, right?

• 1:08:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Not trying to be negative though. So because, you know what? Because he said, I'm not trying to be negative, I believe him.

• 1:08:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, it's like saying no offense and then saying something offensive.

• 1:08:26Derrick Levasseur?

  Offense meant completely, you know? It's like, yeah, no, he's definitely, and not doing a very good job, mind you, of trying to say like, yeah, I would love to go on these trips too. It'd be a lot of fun. However, that one little nuisance that you have that you're refusing to get rid of is kind of putting a damper on all of this.

• 1:08:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, we can't have adventures. Can't have adventures when you have a baby. And notice, he's saying your life's gonna change. You're gonna have responsibilities, not us. Our lives are gonna change.

• 1:08:54Derrick Levasseur?

  You're gonna be busy. Sorry.

• 1:08:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, you're going to be busy. Yep, exactly, Derek, exactly. This is what you wanted, right? You could have this life with me, but this is the life you've chosen. So Jade, once again, unrelentingly positive. She responded back and she said, you know, I know responsibilities are gonna be different, but we can still live our lives, but just in a different way. This is part of our lives having what she called "the big change." And she's saying us, okay? Blaze's response to that was, quote, "Yeah, especially for you," end quote.

• 1:09:30Derrick Levasseur?

  You'd be an asshole. I mean, this is called what it is.

• 1:09:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  And honestly, if it's me at this point, I'm like... Well, I don't even want to have anything to do with this guy, but.

• 1:09:39Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm still trying to understand and obviously, you know, context matters and we don't have access to their in-person conversations. But as a, as someone from the outside looking in, I'm sitting here wondering, why did you reach out to this woman if this is how you were going to treat her?

• 1:09:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Exactly.

• 1:09:54Derrick Levasseur?

  What is the intention?

• 1:09:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Maybe this is how you're going to treat her, being the intention, so that you hope you can have a last ditch effort of.

• 1:10:01Derrick Levasseur?

  This is your last attempt to try and make it seem like you tried the approach of, I want nothing to do with you or the baby if you have it to, man, I want to be with you. I see a future. We could have some great times if only you got rid of the baby. So at first, maybe the motive was, I want to reach back out to her. I got one more shot at this. I'm going to try to convince her that if the baby wasn't there, maybe we could be together.

• 1:10:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cause he's looking at the calendar, right? And he's like, all right.

• 1:10:28Derrick Levasseur?

  Time's running out.

• 1:10:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Time's running out for this to even be medically possible.

• 1:10:31Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 1:10:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 1:10:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  So obviously Jade's a little bit defeated and I think she keeps trying, because like I said, at this point, I would have been like, screw you. Don't ever call me again. You suck. But she came from a good family. She comes from a family where in her life, she's not only got a great biological father who supports her and is there for her and she's in contact with, but she has a great stepfather who has been around since she was little, supports her, is there for her. And so in her head, family's very important, even if it's a family that looks different. And I think she's thinking, not necessarily, oh, this is the man I want to be with, but I want my child to have their father in their life. And I think, like the men I know, once he sees that baby.

• 1:11:16Derrick Levasseur?

  He'll come around.

• 1:11:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  He'll come around and he'll be in love with that child and there's not a way in this world that he won't want to be as big of a part of this child's life as possible.

• 1:11:25Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I completely agree. I don't know if she was planning it or intending on this happening, but I'm sure there was part of her that was hoping that if she went through with this, eventually he would, he would have a change of heart.

• 1:11:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:37Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm sure that was, I'm sure at night, that was some things that crossed her mind because obviously she, she doesn't want to raise the kid alone.

• 1:11:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  But I genuinely don't think that having him change his mind was a part of the reason why she was going through with it.

• 1:11:48Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't either. She was just, she was just hoping it would happen.

• 1:11:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  So she's trying to appease him, you know? And, and she's clearly a bit defeated when he says, yeah, especially for you, because she's, she's made a bid for connection. She had the door slammed in her face and she told Blaze, she was like, well, listen, I didn't mean for this conversation to have turned into such a serious talk. And she apologized and Blaze replied back, quote, but we don't gotta be super serious. I just don't want to sell false dreams because yeah, it would be great if you could come with me on my work trips, but I just feel like it's not realistic from a financial or just a feasible ability to randomly catch a flight and get away on the weekend. End quote. Jade replied to Blaze patiently, telling him that she understood things couldn't just happen on the fly, but they could plan these sorts of trips so that they could still happen.

• 1:12:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  She was like, listen, our lives aren't just going to stop because we have a baby. We're going to still live and have a life. They're just going to look differently. So like I can bring the baby and we can plan for these things. Blaze said, quote, I hear you, but you can't minimize how much things are going to change for you. You got to be realistic that things are about to be hella different for you and will change drastically. Your day-to-day life is not going to be the same. Yeah, life goes on, but it's forever altered and changed in a drastic way. I'm not saying it's over or anything, but it worries me sometimes when you downplay it and act like it's no big deal. And I know you always want to be super optimistic and stuff, but I feel like you need to be honest with yourself about the situation and know what's down the road for you. I just want to make sure you understand the gravity of the situation and you're preparing

• 1:13:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  for these realities. That's all. End quote. So once again, she's saying our lives will still go on. They'll just look different. And he's like, things are going to change for you.

• 1:13:28Derrick Levasseur?

  For you. And yeah, and he, it's still passive. He's trying to disguise his true intention with like care or concern for her.

• 1:13:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Or just being logical. Yeah.

• 1:13:36Derrick Levasseur?

  When it's, it's completely, it's completely selfish.

• 1:13:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's manipulative.

• 1:13:40Derrick Levasseur?

  That's all. He's trying to accomplish what he wants by packaging it in a way where he's looking out for her best interests.

• 1:13:47Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. I'm going to be going on all these work trips and having this like, you know, life where things are still happening for me because I'm not going to be the one burdened.

• 1:13:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep.

• 1:13:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  But you, on the other hand.

• 1:13:57Derrick Levasseur?

  You on the other hand.

• 1:13:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  Mm-hmm. I mean, I'm not saying your life's over, but it's going to suck, right? That's kind of what it sounds like. So on February 2nd, Jade had a doctor's appointment where it would be revealed whether her baby was a boy or a girl. On January 26th, she texted Blaze telling him that the appointment was the following Thursday at 9:45 a.m. She said, it shouldn't take more than an hour. I really hope you can make it because I would love for you to be there when we find out the gender of our child. She told him, quote, you coming to appointments is very important. End quote. Now Blaze did not go to the appointment on February 2nd, when Jade got the happy news that she was having a little girl, a little girl she planned to name Ivy.

• 1:14:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  In fact, Blaze did not attend any of Jade's doctor's appointments and she had many throughout January and February. So right there, once again, I feel like that's a sign. Why did you come back into this person's life?

• 1:14:52Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm speculating that there were, there were conversations that didn't happen via text message where he gave some mixed signals. Like at first he wanted to make it seem like, hey, I'll be around for you and the baby if you need me. And he's not going to put any of that in writing. Because I don't think Jade would have just come out there and said, after she basically cut ties with him, hey, listen, I don't need you. I don't, I don't want you part of something you don't want to be part of. We should cut ties. I'm moving forward. And he reached out to her. So when they met up, I, I would imagine it was a conversation where he didn't double down on what he had already said because she shut the door on that. So he had to, he had to present it in a way as if, hey, I've had a change of heart. Maybe I'm not going to be around all the time, but if you need me for something

• 1:15:36Derrick Levasseur?

  or if you want me at doctor's, I'll be there for you. And so I don't think she's just saying this out of the blue. I think this is a conversation that happened in person where she was given a false impression.

• 1:15:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  I agree. And there, there are conversations obviously that are happening on the phone and different messaging apps.

• 1:15:53Derrick Levasseur?

  He's being careful what he, what he writes.

• 1:15:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  And, and I think that it was probably a hot and cold thing, you know, because it's like gambling, right? If you're losing all the time, you're not going to keep pulling that lever. But if you, if you, every once in a while get a positive, uh, sort of response, like if she's like, oh, I imagine what we're going to do. And he's like, yeah, we'll have great times with the baby. If he's doing that once every 10 negative interactions, that's going to be breadcrumbing her to continue hoping that there's some sort of person inside of Blaze that wants to be a father. And maybe she thinks like, oh, he's just, you know, being a guy and he doesn't want to get my hopes up, but I know he really probably wants this. Otherwise, why would he have reached back out to me?

• 1:16:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. That's the important thing here to remember. He reached out to her and I'm assuming.

• 1:16:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  She wasn't contacting him. She wasn't bothering him. Yeah.

• 1:16:42Derrick Levasseur?

  To get her back on course, he had to lay it on thick, at least initially. Hey, listen, I handled this wrong. Shouldn't have talked to you like that. Shouldn't have reacted that way. I want to be there for you and the baby if you need me. Maybe he didn't say, we're going to be together, but we can do this together. I want to be part of it if you need me for something because I don't see her just saying this for no reason. There, there must've been something prior to this where he gave an indication or at least the impression that he would be open to attending these doctor's appointments.

• 1:17:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:16Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't think she would push, because she's smart. If she, if she knew for certain that he wasn't going to come, I don't think she would be inviting him.

• 1:17:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. She's independent. So she's already gone to doctor's appointments by herself.

• 1:17:27Derrick Levasseur?

  By herself, no problem. She was doing it.

• 1:17:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. She's already gotten into the mentality, I can do this on my own, but now you're popping back up.

• 1:17:33Derrick Levasseur?

  She has Naijay there as well. She has a foundation. She has, she has resources she can go to. She has people that she can rely on.

• 1:17:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  She has a community. So, uh, let's take our last break and we'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Chime. And I feel like a lot of us opened our first bank account when we were basically children, right? We got handed a debit card. We felt very mature and then just never questioned it again and proceeded to make a lot of bad financial decisions.

• 1:18:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Which is wild because traditional banks can pile on fees unless you meet certain requirements. Monthly fees, overdraft fees, minimum balance fees. Chime is changing that with fee-free banking.

• 1:18:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  Exactly. At some point you're going to look at your statement and think, why am I being charged for the honor of accessing my own money? And that, that does happen. It's ridiculous. It sounds ludicrous, but it happens. But with Chime, there's no overdraft fees, no monthly fees and no minimum balance fees. And you can also get 5% cash back on your Chime card in a category you choose, like gas or groceries. Those are usually the categories I'm choosing.

• 1:18:38Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Which are the two categories that have personally attacked all of us in the last few years.

• 1:18:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's why I'm choosing those because that feels to be where I'm spending a lot of money. So if I'm going to get 5% cash back, I'm going to get 5% cash back on a, a bigger purchase. And while you're using it for regular everyday spending, you can also build credit with no credit check, which is great. Plus their savings rate is nine times the national average.

• 1:19:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:19:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  And that's the kind of adulting I can get behind. Using money the way you already do, but making it work harder for you.

• 1:19:08Derrick Levasseur?

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• 1:19:46Speaker 07

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• 1:20:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  All right. So on February 5th, Jade texted Blaze, quote, "Hey babes, hope you're having a good day so far. I just want to apologize again for my mom's doings last night. I've talked to her again and let it be known not to bring you or my situation up to anyone. I want you to know that I've got your back and defend your side to situations," end quote. Okay, so Blaze said, "It's all good," to Jade, "as long as we're on the same page moving forward." And Jade told him that they 100% would be. Now, it seems like this conversation is in regards to Blaze not only wanting to keep their relationship a secret, but him not wanting Jade to talk to anyone about being pregnant, or post her ultrasounds or pregnancy journey on social media. So Jade

• 1:20:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  was obviously documenting her pregnancy. She's happy about it, right? She's taking videos of herself leaving after she finds out she's having a girl. She's happy. She was taking the kinds of pictures you would post on social media when announcing a pregnancy or updating your friends and family about your pregnancy journey, but she wasn't posting them on social media. These were pictures of her holding her ultrasound and a pint of Ben and Jerry's, pictures of her stomach growing as the baby grew with labels of how far along she was. These were posed and intentionally staged photos of like, the ultrasound pictures next to her cooking utensils. But she was only sending these in private messages to her friends and family, or using them as her cellphone wallpaper. And Jade's mother said that this was because Blaze had told Jade not to post anything on social media.

• 1:21:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  He didn't want anyone to know that Jade was pregnant. He did not want anyone to know that he was involved or attached in any way. And he was afraid that if she posted on social media, somebody that they knew mutually would see and put two and two together. And by this time, Jade's mother, Bridget, when this messaging is happening at the beginning of February, she had never even met Blaze in person. But the conversation between Blaze and Jade may have been in reference to a call or a FaceTime Jade had with her mother, where Bridget may have pushed back on this and started grilling Blaze about why her daughter wasn't allowed to share that this, you know, this news that she was so happy about with the world. Bridget did testify that although she had not met Blaze in person,

• 1:22:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  she had talked to him over FaceTime. And I think that they were probably on FaceTime, maybe Blaze was with Jade and Bridget was, you know, like a mother, like, "What's going on? Why can't my daughter like, tell people that she's pregnant? Like, this is crazy. We're planning baby showers, right?" Bridget said Jade had been planning a baby shower in Little Rock and in Nashville. And it was like, "How the hell are we gonna plan a baby shower and invite people to baby showers when nobody even knows she's pregnant? Like, this is crazy. What, are you ashamed of my daughter? Like, what's your problem?" And Blaze probably got like, a little defensive about it. And so now Jade has to apologize to him. And then Bridget also testified that Jade had been planning to go public with

• 1:23:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  her pregnancy on her birthday, March 6th. So this is very important, because as we know, Jade would end up dying on her 25th birthday, March 6th. And she died because something had happened to her at her apartment days before that, where she'd become sick and become unconscious. And then days later, she dies on March 6th, her birthday. And this was the exact day that, according to her mother, Jade was planning to announce to the world that she was pregnant.

• 1:23:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Just to clarify, if I'm the only one that's confused, I apologize. But when you were mentioning earlier that she was showing the growing photos of her belly and posting that she, we had made it to the gym, when you were referencing that, you were talking about her and her small group. This wasn't something she was posting on social media publicly?

• 1:23:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  No. So she wasn't posting, so she was sending it to like, her group chats with like, her friends, her mom, her dad.

• 1:24:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Got it. So nothing posted anywhere publicly to tell people, "Hey, I'm pregnant."

• 1:24:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Nothing. But these are clearly pictures that you would post, right? If you were talking about your pregnancy journey on social media, which she badly wanted to.

• 1:24:14Derrick Levasseur?

  It sounds like, just optically looking at it, it sounds like clearly Blaze doesn't want anybody knowing. But then you have to ask the question, why? Is there someone else out there that could see her social media that he also has a relationship with, that he doesn't want her knowing? I wonder what the motive is here, because it doesn't make a lot of sense. What Bridget is saying is absolutely right. Like, you keep saying that you want to help her, you want to support her, but then you're essentially blocking her from sharing this with anybody outside of her close circle, which seems, seems odd.

• 1:24:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So it's like, you know, you're not happy about it. You weren't happy about it when you found out in November. You guys didn't talk for like, a month and a half. Then you came back and you were like, "Okay, I'm in this with you." But she can't talk about this to anyone? Like, you know, and he didn't want Bridget, Jade's mom, to tell her own friends in like, Little Rock. Okay, so he, I think he was getting mad if like, Bridget told someone and then that person like, texted Jade and was like, "Oh, congratulations." And Blaze is getting stressed. Okay, getting stressed. Like, the more people who know...

• 1:25:18Derrick Levasseur?

  How many people know about this?

• 1:25:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. What is this? How many friends do people have? So he doesn't like it. Now, either way, Blaze makes it clear throughout these messages that he's not interested in Jade's pregnancy. And he's not really all that interested in Jade either, in my opinion. She texted him on February 5th. She's like, "Are you free in an hour? I have a lunch break. I want to see you." And Blaze was like, "I can't be free at that time." She texted him the following week and she's like, "It's Valentine's Day." And, and he was, he was like, "LOL, I honestly don't celebrate it. I just don't get that far, for real. LOL." He's like, "I don't get that far with people usually, you know, to celebrate Valentine's Day." And, and she's like, Jade responded, quote, "I mean, it's honestly just another

• 1:26:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  day to show extra love," end quote. And Blaze was like, "Exactly. I never really understood why anyone makes a big deal out of it." And Jade responded back, quote, "Well, you're still gonna be my Valentine," end quote. Jade also sent Blaze a picture telling him, quote, "Our second little date spot," end quote. And Blaze replied with a bunch of laughing emojis. And then there's a conversation back and forth where Jade says that they went to this place on their second date, and that's when Blaze actually liked her. And he wrote back, "No, that's when you actually liked me, because, quote, 'You always forget you was the one who chose to end it,'" end quote. Jade reassured Blaze that she does really actually like him. And Blaze told her, quote, "The power was in your hands and you made the choice, LMAO," end quote. Jade said it wasn't really her choice to

• 1:26:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  leave. Blaze just hadn't liked what she'd said, but she shows him that she still likes him every day. And Blaze said, quote, "Nah, I gave you two options and you made your choice. Don't try to rewrite the past. You ain't slick, LOL," end quote. He's saying like, mean things, but then writing LOL at the end, like, "I'm just teasing."

• 1:27:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Nah, he's an asshole. I mean, just call it bluntly what it is. He's an asshole. And, and he's definitely sending her mixed signals. I don't think, but it's also a one-sided relationship. You can tell. I mean, we had talked about it earlier. Jade did not keep the baby with the intentions that it would bring Blaze back. But I think there was a real deep hope that it would bring them together. She clearly liked him, especially after knowing she was pregnant with this child. And so him reaching out to her, I think it really brought her right back in, where she's like, "Oh my God, it's kind of working out. Now I just got to show him love and maybe he'll come around."

• 1:27:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. "I'm gonna show him what our life could be like, how good of a partner I can be, how loving I can be."

• 1:27:43Derrick Levasseur?

  She's reaching out. She's doing all these things. And he's kind of keeping her close enough where he can still talk to her. But every chance he has, it's an opportunity to remind her that she's doing this to them. She made this choice.

• 1:27:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. And he's, he's nagging her all the time, you know, like, yeah. I think, because in her head, she's like, "He came back, so he must want to be here." But in his head, he's like, "I'm gonna go back, hopefully last ditch attempt to convince her to not, to not go through with this. And then if that doesn't work, well, at least I'll be close enough to do what I have to do."

• 1:28:15Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, he tried giving her the silent treatment, right? She ended things with the text message, so he didn't talk to her for a while, hoping that she was gonna come back to him. And when she didn't come crawling back, he's like, "Oh shit, course correction. I gotta go to her. But then even once I go to her, it's just gonna be enough to keep her on a yo-yo string. I want her close, but I'm not gonna let her get too close, because I don't want her to interpret what we're doing right now as a positive, which incentivizes her even more to keep the baby. I want it to be a constant balancing act where we're together, but only so she could see what it could be if she got rid of the baby."

• 1:28:47Stephanie Harlowe?

  Exactly. Thank you. I'm so glad you said that. I want her to see what, but I also want her to see what life will be like with me if she doesn't. I'm gonna keep her at an arm's length. I want her to see that I will not be like, this happy, affectionate, like, involved person. I want her to see how lonely it'll be to raise this baby and have somebody there who should be supporting her. Because if he's not there, then she could be like, "Screw this guy. I don't even think about him. I have my friends. I have my family. I don't need him." But if he's there, and not doing what he needs to be doing, and not stepping up the way... He should be. Now it's this constant reminder of I'm so alone.

• 1:29:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  Like the person who should be the happiest with me and for me and for us is not. So it's almost like this reminder, if he wasn't there, she could forget about him altogether. No contact, but the fact that he's there and still kind of like trailing along.

• 1:29:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, reiterating every day.

• 1:29:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:44Derrick Levasseur?

  But I think that's also a strategy because.

• 1:29:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  To make her feel negative about this pregnancy.

• 1:29:49Derrick Levasseur?

  She had people around her who were positive influences, who were making this experience enjoyable, who were reminding her that she was making the right choice and this was a good thing for her and the baby. And she was empowered by that. So he had to, he had to get himself back in there and create a divide, a boundary between her.

• 1:30:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't want you talking about this with them. Yeah.

• 1:30:09Derrick Levasseur?

  Exactly. Which is like, no, no, no, no, we can't have all this positive talk. This is a bad thing. This is your choice.

• 1:30:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Supportive. I want you to feel alone. I don't want you to feel supported. So.

• 1:30:19Derrick Levasseur?

  And listen, we're not like, this isn't like some deep psychological warfare. It's pretty blatantly obvious what he's doing.

• 1:30:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I agree. Thank you. And I think that to him, he is actually thinking, I'll get back in there. I'll be close. But he never even, when he said in November, I don't want to have anything to do with this. He never intentionally thought that she was gonna go off and he was never gonna let her go off. Because in his head, it's gonna come back to bite him, right? In 15 years, some kid might come looking for you.

• 1:30:47Derrick Levasseur?

  Or even after the, after the baby's born, she comes around looking for money. He seems like he's concerned about money.

• 1:30:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Probably.

• 1:30:53Derrick Levasseur?

  You know, she's gonna come back to me and say, hey, you don't want to be with the baby. That's fine, but you need to financially support me.

• 1:30:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Of course.

• 1:30:58Derrick Levasseur?

  He's struggling with jobs, so not gonna be good for him.

• 1:31:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  This is my theory, or he's not, he's not gonna struggle with jobs. He's got his father, okay? His father's always gonna make sure he lands somewhere. But he's thinking, one day I'm gonna make a lot of money.

• 1:31:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Maybe.

• 1:31:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I don't, I don't want this.

• 1:31:12Derrick Levasseur?

  He's not going in that direction, going from Tennessee Titans to back to college. Not, not looking great.

• 1:31:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, but he's going to end up at, I believe it's Texas A&M. But either way, in his job currently, he would have been making about $60,000 to $90,000. But he's thinking.

• 1:31:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Scouts make decent money, not incredible. He's not like the head coach of LSU.

• 1:31:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  But he's thinking, I'm gonna follow in my father's footsteps. I'm gonna be making some good money one day and I don't want the opportunity for someone to come in and take any of it. And she could, even if she says when, when she's pregnant, I don't, I don't. Doesn't matter. And he knows that. So I don't think, and it's my theory. He never intended to let her go off and have that baby and live happily. He never believed or trusted that she was not going to expect anything from him.

• 1:31:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, I can tell you right now, from these conversations, it wasn't for lack of effort. He was definitely trying to deter her from having that baby.

• 1:32:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  But as you said, that first no contact was the silence, the silent treatment, trying to manipulate her. That didn't work. Now he's back. This is just another effort to manipulate her.

• 1:32:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep. Let me create a divide between you and the people that are supporting you. I'm gonna be in your ear every day telling you why you made this decision and you did this to us.

• 1:32:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Because if he's not around her, he can't control her. And he can't control what she's doing. So yeah, Jade, you know, she responds to him. She's like, listen, I don't want to get into this again because we're gonna go back and forth. So clearly this is a conversation they've had many times, by the way. And Blaze, Blaze told her, no, you don't want to get into it because you don't want to admit what you did. But it's cool. It's cool though. And Jade said, quote, you gave me a crazy ultimatum and weren't really wanting to go my route either. We're here though, and trying to build our relationship. End quote. Blaze replied back, quote, lol, I wanted to try our relationship because I thought you wanted that and liked me like I like you. End quote. So he's basically saying like, keeping this baby shows me you don't like me. Yeah, it's preventing us from being in the relationship that we both want.

• 1:33:06Derrick Levasseur?

  I hate that he writes lol after every single like.

• 1:33:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Every single one. But he doesn't want it. He's, oh, I'm just kidding. See? So if anybody looks at this from the outside, I'm just joshing with you. It's playful. On February 6th, Jade texted Blaze telling him she was patiently waiting for their next date. And he's like, yeah, why don't you sleep over and make me breakfast? Basically is what he said. Yeah. But we also have something from February 6th that's important, okay? Pictures from Jade's newest ultrasound that Jade sent her mother and some of her friends. And in these pictures, Jade is in the kitchen of her apartment. And you can see something. You can see the presence and the location of a Blink camera. And this camera is set up to the left of Jade's stove. It's facing out towards the kitchen and Jade's mother Bridget says she'd bought it for her

• 1:33:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  so that they, she could kind of see her and stuff and, and keep her safe. And the camera apparently pointed towards the door of the apartment. So like if Jade was in the kitchen cooking with her back to the door, if somebody came in, you know, that would pick up, pick up the person coming in. Now remember this Blink camera and where it was set up because Jade's mother would testify that she, Bridget, had the Blink app on her phone so that she could pop in and check on Jade from time to time. And Bridget also said that the camera was only set up for live view. And that means you can only see what's happening in real time. It doesn't have the ability to like store older footage.

• 1:34:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, it does, but it was only set up with a plan that gave you live viewing. You have to buy storage plans for that.

• 1:34:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  You can't do that after is what I'm saying. So.

• 1:34:41Derrick Levasseur?

  You can. You can upgrade your plan afterwards. And that's what I was just about to say, guys.

• 1:34:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  But it's not gonna recapture the footage from the past, right?

• 1:34:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes, correct. There's, if it's not being stored in a data facility, you can't go back retroactively and see previous footage. However, what I was going to say, we always look about ways to improve. Number one, you definitely want cameras in your house. Maybe not inside, you know, private areas of your home, but the main entrances and definitely on the exterior. And absolutely, you need to have the ability to have, even if it's only 30 days. There's different plans. I'll tell you right now, I only have a 30 day plan. There's really no need for 90 to a year. Some people have it. If you can afford it, go for it. 30 days is more than enough for something just like this because the live viewing option, yeah, it's fine.

• 1:35:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  It really doesn't do anything. The live view, it tells you when somebody's at your door about camera, basically.

• 1:35:35Derrick Levasseur?

  That's it. You need, if you need to go back and check something, it could be as simple as like a package, somebody.

• 1:35:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  I just used it, a package.

• 1:35:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Delivery driver says I dropped it off and then you proved to them that they didn't.

• 1:35:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, there was already a package on my front stoop and then it said it had been delivered. I'm like, no, it's not there. There are different packages. They took a picture of the package that was already there and said they dropped my package off. And I had to go back in the video and like show that he didn't drop a package off. Why would you do that? You say I have a doorbell camera.

• 1:36:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Your word against theirs and you have lost.

• 1:36:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  Mm-hmm. I was so mad.

• 1:36:06Derrick Levasseur?

  I know this right now, we're 2026, everyone knows this by now. I'm basically just speaking something that's pretty much common sense at this point. But have the camera, get the like, you know, $5 to $10 plan per month. 30 days, more than enough, even 20 days, more than enough.

• 1:36:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, that's, this would have been helpful.

• 1:36:24Derrick Levasseur?

  I have a, a few different companies in my home for different reasons. I have one for my garage, one for my dog, because it has different features for the dog on, on his camera. But that, that is a Blink camera that I have in his room. Shout out to Vinnie.

• 1:36:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, shout out to Vinnie. We like watching Vinnie. So Jade obviously did not have the plan to store the video files so that you could look back on different days. Now, according to the police, this Blink camera went offline on February 22nd, 2023 at 8:37 a.m. They say they don't know why it was turned off. They say they don't know who turned it off. But this was just three days before Jade collapsed in her apartment, when she's in her apartment with only one other person, Blaze Taylor, and she had to be rushed to the hospital. And so that brings us to the week leading up to February 25th, 2023. And then, oh, by the way, the Blink camera was moved from the area of the kitchen

• 1:37:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  to her bedroom where it was set up facing the window looking out. Okay? But days before February 25th, when we believe it was moved, because I think it was moved on the 25th, days before that, it goes offline. All right? So that's important.

• 1:37:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Let's dive into that though, because I know there's gonna be a lot of speculation around it.

• 1:37:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, we will dive into it a little bit more. There's a little bit more we know about it, but.

• 1:37:44Derrick Levasseur?

  Are you gonna say it in this episode?

• 1:37:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not in this episode, no.

• 1:37:46Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, well, let me just, let me keep it surface level then.

• 1:37:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay.

• 1:37:49Derrick Levasseur?

  If this camera, right, let's just talk from a commonsensical approach. This is a young woman who's sexually active, right? At least we believe that her and Blaze are having sex. The camera in the kitchen for the live view makes sense. Even if Blaze is over there and they're having a cup of coffee or whatever, you know, they may, she may hear, Bridget may hear some conversations that she's not supposed to hear, but no big deal. However, the camera being in the bedroom is not something I think Jade would do for the obvious reasons. Even if it's facing the window, at least my Blink camera at home, it has a speaker. Where am I going with this, Stephanie?

• 1:38:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, you could hear things. Why would it be in the bedroom?

• 1:38:30Derrick Levasseur?

  If Bridget, if your mom happens to tune in, because she's sitting on her couch at night.

• 1:38:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Why you have it in your bedroom? That's weird.

• 1:38:35Derrick Levasseur?

  So the fact that it was put in the bedroom seems odd to me, especially if the person who had access to that footage was your mom.

• 1:38:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, her mom bought it for her. Yeah.

• 1:38:45Derrick Levasseur?

  So.

• 1:38:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  The only person who's got access to the footage besides you is your mom.

• 1:38:49Derrick Levasseur?

  So why would it be in there?

• 1:38:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense. Was it plugged? You know, when did it come back online? Did you say that? Did you say when it came back on?

• 1:38:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not yet, but.

• 1:38:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, I'll wait. I won't get too in the weeds, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Sometimes you have a power outage or you may decide to move it. Or there may have even been a reason where because Blaze has kind of been manipulating her, he convinced her that, listen, I don't want your mom hearing our conversations. She just kind of bitched me out for all this other stuff. I don't want her looking in on me. And maybe Jade reluctantly unplugged it because she was like, okay, I hear you. I get it. We're adults.

• 1:39:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:24Derrick Levasseur?

  I'll unplug it.

• 1:39:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, maybe he was like, maybe he was like, when I'm at your apartment, like I'd appreciate if this camera's not live. Yeah.

• 1:39:29Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm trying to be impartial here. I don't, if that was the approach, even though his intentions might have been different, I don't necessarily disagree with that.

• 1:39:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  I, I'm with you. Yeah.

• 1:39:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Right? Like, I mean, I don't need your parents coming into a live camera while we're discussing or being intimate with each other. I'm good on that.

• 1:39:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  And not only that, we already know that Jade was very, she was very much willing to show Blaze that she was with him and understood him and she was trying to make things easier for him. So if he's, and he's already said, I don't like it. Your mom knows the stuff she's telling people.

• 1:40:00Derrick Levasseur?

  That might have been the reason that kind of went over the edge.

• 1:40:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  Mm-hmm. So now.

• 1:40:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Again, if you had storage, you would have access to that conversation. And most importantly, you would have the seconds before the camera went offline.

• 1:40:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, you would know who was in there, who was around, if somebody, you know, because the defense is going to put up this absolutely insane argument that.

• 1:40:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  What happened to Jade, she did to herself.

• 1:40:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Ah.

• 1:40:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Which, but you'd be able to have an indication of what was happening in, in the apartments.

• 1:40:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Before it went off, you know, so.

• 1:40:32Derrick Levasseur?

  But I think it's important that you brought this up because the camera thing is odd. It could be something that was innocent at first, but the fact that it was re-plugged in or put into the bedroom.

• 1:40:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  And moved, yeah.

• 1:40:42Derrick Levasseur?

  That seems like odd, odd placement.

• 1:40:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  I agree. So apparently Blaze was out of town for a work trip for roughly a week. And he returned to Nashville early on the morning of Thursday, February 23rd. Now Jade did see Blaze that morning briefly before he went to work and she asked if they could see each other again that night. That did not end up happening. The next day, February 24th, Jade and Blaze shared a meal together at The Waffle House. And once again Jade asked Blaze if they could see each other again that night. She texted him at 8:43 PM and at 10:26 PM, but he did not respond to her messages. Blaze wasn't too busy to reply to Jade's request to spend time together. It wasn't like he was away from his phone.

• 1:41:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Because between 10:31 and 10:50 PM, Blaze was having a very intense conversation with another woman on his phone. Now at 12:39 AM on February 25th, Blaze asked Jade if she was still up. And she had obviously fallen asleep by that point. She didn't respond until the next morning at 10:25 AM. She explained to him she'd been asleep. So he, he texted her, I think, when he knew she was already asleep. But that's neither here nor there because he didn't want her to come over that night. But Blaze told Jade, "Yeah, I fell asleep too last night watching Outer Banks." And Jade asked Blaze if he would be free that night around 7:00 PM, to which he responded that he should be.

• 1:42:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Jade wrote, quote, "Okay, I'll have plans for us. You can come dressed comfy to my house," end quote. Now, the plans that Jade had for that evening were for Blaze to come over for dinner. She was going to cook chicken Alfredo and because she wanted a cute little date night, which she'd been convincing him or trying to convince him for weeks that they should have. Jade had planned to get some canvases and paints so they could do a fun little project. She wanted them to each paint their own canvas and create something they could hang on the walls of Baby Ivy's nursery. So Jade was so proud of her setup for her dinner and her sip and paint event that she had planned for that night.

• 1:42:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  She took pictures of the kitchen island. She took pictures of a lot that night. She took pictures of her Alfredo that she was making. She took pictures of the island set up with the canvases and these blank canvases, untouched paints, clean paint brushes and a pan of delicious looking chicken Alfredo with two clear drinking glasses that looked like they had water in them. So it's like Blaze's spot, Jade's spot, a glass of water at each spot, a canvas at each spot, and then paints that they would share. Now Jade would take another photo of that same setup later that evening at around 8:29 PM. So she takes a picture before Blaze gets there. And then at 8:29, after he's already been there for about an hour and a half, she takes another picture.

• 1:43:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  And at 8:29 PM, the canvases were no longer blank, the brushes were no longer clean, the food had been cleared off the counter and the liquid had clearly been consumed from the two drinking glasses. Not the whole thing, but some water had been drained from the drinking glasses. But this picture showed another cup. This cup was kind of a pink cup with a lid and a straw sitting on the corner of the island near what would have been Blaze's side of the island, because it's next to the picture he's painting. And a later picture of that same counter taken around 11:30 that night. This picture was not taken by Jade, by someone else, but a picture taken at 11:30 that night

• 1:44:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  no longer showed that cup with the straw and the lid on the counter island. However, crime scene photos taken by the police, which I believe was the next day, those photos did capture that cup. This time, the cup was tucked away by the sink. And at the time, the police didn't collect the cup because they didn't think it was relevant to the case that they were working. They said they looked as if that cup had been recently washed and put to the side of the sink to dry. Now that cup and its potential contents would become central to the case that followed. And that is where we're going to leave off today and pick up next week.

• 1:44:47Derrick Levasseur?

  That's a cliffhanger.

• 1:44:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. This is a great case.

• 1:44:50Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm a little upset about that. I kind of want to keep going. You sure you don't want to do a couple more pages?

• 1:44:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Damn, really? That's where you're leaving us?

• 1:44:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's a crazy case. It's a crazy case because it seems cut and dry. There's a lot here that we need to dig into.

• 1:45:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, and I, I will stay in the middle here and say that very, it's very clear to me, in my opinion, that Blaze did not handle this the right way. Uh, listen, if he didn't want to have the baby, he could voice those opinions. He could push toward what he wanted. But once Jade makes up her mind, it's her body, it's her choice, you have to accept it. And to lead her on the way he did, at minimum, it was to try and a different approach to get her to abort the baby, to terminate the baby. But if we're looking at the more sinister side of things, it was to get close to her so that when he finally did what he wanted to do, it wouldn't look as, as nefarious. It wouldn't look as suspicious.

• 1:45:47Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I think it was a plan A, plan B thing.

• 1:45:49Derrick Levasseur?

  So I am going to reserve judgment until I hear the rest. At minimum, doesn't sound like a very good guy here. And I want to get more of the information, more of the facts regarding the actual incident and the case uh, before deciding whether or not I think Blaze is responsible for this. Because clearly, as you've been telling us, this isn't clear cut and there is a, a line in the sand as far as what people think. I'm sure there are people who believe Blaze is wrong place, wrong time type situation. And then there are people that feel this was some type of premeditated murder. So I'm not going to look it up.

• 1:46:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Remember that in the, in the intro, we talked about how that night Jade called her friend, Nijaya. And Nijaya was like, "Are you even talking to me?" And she could hear Jade saying to someone, "What did you put in my drink?"

• 1:46:38Derrick Levasseur?

  Uh, no, no doubt. I mean, I remember the teaser and so I'm trying not to get ahead of the story. I know there's more to this and you're going to hit us with some, some more things in the next episode that may swing you one way or the other. Um, but as we're leaving off in this episode, my takeaway is Blaze, not a good guy. Not a good guy in the sense that he, he handled this completely wrong. Uh, as far as her being pregnant and how to approach the situation. And as a father of two daughters myself, he simply put, he was just an asshole.

• 1:47:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Uh, we, we can accept and acknowledge, if you're a man and you don't want to have a baby and you get someone pregnant, yeah, that, that could be inconvenient.

• 1:47:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay. I, I can say that as a woman.

• 1:47:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Especially if you're sleeping with multiple women.

• 1:47:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:47:23Derrick Levasseur?

  And it sounds like Blaze might have been.

• 1:47:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  And he was. It's not exactly what you want, okay? But once that happens, it's.

• 1:47:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Not good for the dating profile.

• 1:47:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's what we call, uh, responsibilities and accountability. Okay, you made the adult decision to do what you did. And now, even though it's not ideal, it's not what you wanted, you have to figure out a way that doesn't involve gaslighting the shit out of someone to get them to do something you know they don't want to do and killing them if they don't do what you want them to do. All right? That's all I'm going to say.

• 1:47:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Completely agree. Waiting for next week. And I'm also looking forward to seeing your setup on Patreon now. You're saying that you're going to put up your Halloween stuff. So I'm looking forward to seeing that. Maybe I'll throw something up there too. I actually have a really cool, I'm going to save it for Patreon. I have something really cool that I just installed at my house. And I haven't really shared it with anyone. So maybe I'll post it there, but it's, it's pretty damn cool. Not gonna lie.

• 1:48:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Is it Halloween related? Because if it's not, I don't care.

• 1:48:19Derrick Levasseur?

  It's got a little bit of a mystery to it.

• 1:48:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay. All right. I can go, I can.

• 1:48:22Derrick Levasseur?

  People will like it. People will like it. So you put up your fall decorations and I'll put up this, this, uh, new addition to my home, which is pretty damn cool. At least I think it is. We'll see what you guys think. And that's over on our Patreon. You can go check it out. There's different tiers, different memberships. You can go anywhere from having access to the group chats and getting the episodes early and ad free, all the way up to being, uh, being part of our lives, our monthly lives, having access to our giveaways, getting bonus episodes that we do every month and getting birthday shoutouts on Crown Weekly News. So there's a lot there, a lot of different options. We have a great time over there. We're always in the discussions talking about both the current cases and, uh, past cases that we've discussed and really cool stuff going on down in the, uh,

• 1:49:07Derrick Levasseur?

  the Patreon chat. So go check it out. Guys, that's going to do it for us. Thank you for being here. Everyone stay safe out there and we'll see you next week.

• 1:49:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.