Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 1: Jenna Burleigh

Summary

Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 1 – Jenna Burleigh

Introduction

In the gripping premiere of Season 2 of Death in the Dorms, ABC News' 20/20 delves into the tragic and mysterious disappearance of Jenna Burleigh, a vibrant social justice advocate at Temple University. Released on December 24, 2024, this episode meticulously unpacks the events leading up to Jenna's untimely death, the ensuing investigation, and the eventual pursuit of justice.

Background: Jenna Burleigh's Early Life

Jenna Burleigh was a passionate and creative individual from an early age. Raised in a supportive family, Jenna's aspirations were clear. “Jenna was in Red Alert, which was their production studio at high school, and she just totally embraced it” ([02:47] Jenna Burleigh's Mother). Her innate talent for film and storytelling was evident as she expressed her desire to give people a voice through her work.

College Life and Activities

Jenna's commitment to social justice and the arts flourished during her time at Montgomery County Community College, where she actively engaged in community service by creating “blessing bags” for the homeless—backpacks filled with clothes, toiletries, and food ([10:07] Jenna Burleigh's Father). Her dedication led her to transfer to Temple University, where she continued to excel academically and socially. “She was really excited to start. I remember post her posting that she was so excited to start her first semester at Temple” ([12:25] Friend 1).

The Night of Disappearance

On the evening of August 30, 2017, Jenna attended a 21st birthday party at PubWeb, a local bar frequented by Temple students. She was seen with several friends, but as the night progressed, her companions gradually left, leaving her alone with a young man named Joshua Huppertz ([21:01] Friend 1). Jenna attempted to reach out to her family, but her friends couldn’t locate her when she didn’t return home.

The Investigation Unfolds

Jenna's disappearance triggered a frantic search by both her family and Temple University police. “We knew that wasn't Jenna. She always responded. She always answered our phone” ([07:16] Jenna Burleigh's Father). Investigators reviewed surveillance footage from PubWeb, identifying Jenna with Joshua around 2 AM ([24:27] Deborah Roberts). Joshua's erratic behavior and subsequent disappearance added layers of complexity to the case.

Discovery and Arrest

A breakthrough occurred when Joshua's grandfather discovered Jenna's body in a blue plastic container in his storage shed ([38:22] Deborah Roberts). Further investigation revealed Joshua's involvement, including surveillance footage of him manipulating the scene and attempting to dispose of the evidence using a Lyft ride ([44:21] Friend 2). DNA evidence tied Joshua directly to Jenna's assault ([49:26] Friend 2).

The Trial

The trial was emotionally charged, with Jenna's family seeking justice. Joshua Huppertz pled guilty to abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence but denied murdering Jenna ([52:15] Friend 2). The prosecution presented compelling circumstantial evidence, including DNA found under Jenna's fingernails, which exonerated Joshua's roommate, contrary to the defense's claims ([54:38] Friend 2).

Verdict and Sentencing

On January 17, 2019, the jury found Joshua Huppertz guilty on all counts. Judge Glenn Bronson sentenced him to life in prison without parole, emphasizing the heinous nature of the crime: “You deserve every single day. This was just an outrageous, depraved crime” ([56:28] Friend 2). The Burleigh family felt a sense of closure, knowing that justice had been served: “When you hear the guilty verdict, your whole body just relaxes” ([56:46] Jenna Burleigh's Father).

Aftermath and Foundation

In the wake of Jenna's death, her family established the Jenna Burleigh Foundation to honor her legacy. The foundation continues Jenna’s mission of aiding the homeless through the distribution of blessing bags, ensuring her spirit of kindness and generosity lives on. “Within a day or two, he was able to get Jenna's blessing bags up and running” ([59:22] Jenna Burleigh's Mother).

Conclusion

Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 1 offers a poignant exploration of Jenna Burleigh's life, her tragic disappearance, and the relentless pursuit of justice by her family and the authorities. Through detailed storytelling and impactful interviews, the episode not only recounts a harrowing true crime case but also underscores the enduring impact of Jenna's legacy.

Notable Quotes

• “Jenna was really excited to start. I remember post her posting that she was so excited to start her first semester at Temple.” – Friend 1 ([12:25])

• “We knew that wasn't Jenna. She always responded. She always answered our phone.” – Jenna Burleigh's Father ([07:16])

• “You deserve every single day. This was just an outrageous, depraved crime.” – Judge Glenn Bronson ([56:28])

• “Within a day or two, he was able to get Jenna's blessing bags up and running.” – Jenna Burleigh's Mother ([59:22])

Key Takeaways

• Jenna Burleigh was a dedicated and creative individual committed to social justice and community service.
• Her disappearance led to a thorough investigation, highlighting challenges in missing person cases within a university setting.
• The case against Joshua Huppertz was built on substantial circumstantial evidence, including DNA analysis.
• The trial resulted in a guilty verdict, providing closure for Jenna's family and friends.
• The establishment of the Jenna Burleigh Foundation ensures that her legacy of kindness and support for the homeless continues.

Impact and Reflection

This episode serves as a sobering reminder of the vulnerabilities faced by young adults in college environments. It emphasizes the importance of community vigilance and the enduring strength of families seeking justice. Jenna's story resonates deeply, inspiring ongoing efforts to support those in need and to honor her memory through purposeful action.

Transcript

[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

This is Deborah Roberts, co anchor of 20 20. This week we'll be starting season two of Death in the Dorms. It's a true crime series from ABC Studios that tells the stories of young people whose lives were cut tragically short during their time on campus and the subsequent investigations into their untimely deaths. In our first episode, we'll hear the story of Jenna Burley, a passionate social justice advocate at Temple University who vanished after spending a night out with her friends, leaving only questions in her wake. Take a listen.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Jenna. She really wanted to get into film.

[Friend 1]

Her trajectory was probably going to do great things. She just wanted to give people a voice.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

She was able to go right over to Temple and she was excited about that.

[Friend 2]

Temple University is, in my opinion, a safe place. The surrounding neighborhoods, you have a different story.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Temple University police need your help to.

[Deborah Roberts]

Track down a missing student.

[Friend 3]

I remember having a conversation with my friends like, whoa, we just got here. This is happening already.

[Friend 2]

The entire purpose of going inside of this apartment was to find out what happened.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

I just wanted to know how a human being could do that to somebody.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

This is Jenna's room. She had recently redone her room because she knew she'd be living here through her time at Temple. Yeah, I definitely do sleep in here. I find it comforting to just spend time here with Jenna. I just love remembering her laughter when she'd be watching something funny. She had a great laugh.

[Friend 2]

No, you never did come back.

[Friend 4]

No, you never did.

[Friend 2]

You come back Just like the crows you gathered and gathered around Just like the crows you gathered a feathered away.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We met at Villanova University. My mother said, you should go to Villanova and you'll meet somebo with money. But I met Ed. And before our first anniversary, we had our first child.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

We had Janelle. And then two years later, we were blessed with Jenna.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

When Jenna was young, she said she was going to be famous. I'm gonna do something in this world.

[Deborah Roberts]

Jenna and I met on the very first day of kindergarten. I had an accident and I got to go to the nurse and get new clothes. Jenna didn't like the outfit she was wearing that day. So she also had an accident, so she could change her outfit.

[Friend 5]

Jenna's personality was very large. Immediately when she entered a room, you could tell, you know, that she was going to be a very large light in that room above anything else. She really loved her friends and her family. She always let you know how much she loved you whenever she was around you, which to me was always something that was really wonderful. Jenna's fashion was very sparkly, very loud in a, you know, outfit type of a way. A lot of bright colors, a lot of sparkles, a lot of glitter.

[Deborah Roberts]

She used to joke that my parents.

[Friend 1]

Never knew who she was because her hair was always a different color.

[Deborah Roberts]

She just was someone that was, like, so, like, open and free and unapologetically herself.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Jenna was in Red Alert, which was their production studio at high school, and she just totally embraced it.

[Deborah Roberts]

Each kid took a turn being the host, or they would create documentary segments or fun little skits. I always knew it was gonna be a good episode when something of Jenna's was gonna be on it.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

She really wanted to get into film. She's very creative. I think she would have been very, very good at it.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

This is what she wanted to do, and this is where her passion was.

[Friend 1]

Her trajectory was probably going to do great things. She just wanted to give people a voice. Anything she touched was something beautiful and something really thoughtful.

[Deborah Roberts]

She was passionate. She was ready to pursue film. She was really excited to finally get started on her career path.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

When Jenna was a senior in high school, we looked at many colleges, and she ended up choosing University of Tampa for film.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We had gone. She was excited. She loved the school. She had met so many new people, and she was doing really well.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

In her freshman year of college, she was home for the holidays around Christmas, and she slid on an ice patch and shattered her ankle. It was really bad injury with. She had a plate in her ankle and screws.

[Deborah Roberts]

There was, like, a 0.1% chance that she could get an infection from the surgery.

[Friend 1]

And then, of course, she got that infection.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

She was on IVs for a number of weeks, and we thought it was best if she came home, you know, so we could take care of her.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

As mature as she is at 19, to be able to care for an infection, it would have just been too much, especially when she had the iv, because she couldn't go anywhere. She couldn't do anything that was going to be for months. Once Jenna healed, I guess we realized or she realized that she wasn't going Back to Tampa. She did get into, like, a dark place the year after the accident. She came to me the day after Christmas and said, mom, I need help. She said, I'm not good mentally, and I need you to. I need to go someplace. And I was so proud of her for doing that because so many kids wouldn't do that. And we found someplace for her to go temporarily, and she got some help. It was not something we hid. Her friends came and visited her when they could, and she came out on the other side a much more secure person. And that's when, you know, we said, you started school, you really. These are things you want to do. Don't change things just because things changed for you.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

She enrolled in our local community college. They actually do have a very good media program, television studio, that type of thing. Once she got there, she really enjoyed it, and she flourished in community college.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Most of her friends went to school in the area. They all lived at school, but they stayed in the area.

[Deborah Roberts]

It really was a small blessing in disguise for both of us because she did come home, and I did get to have her around for so much of my college career.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

I think that's really when she became enlightened, if you will, and said, I need to do something.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

And she put a notice on Facebook that she wanted to do something for the less fortunate. And she asked her friends to gather some clothes, toiletries, food that could be placed in a backpack, and she called them blessing bags. She was able to receive enough donations, fill about 30 backpacks.

[Deborah Roberts]

She would go on her own to Philadelphia and hand it out to the homeless. Her first post about it was like, just want to give out a blessing.

[Friend 5]

And that's what she really wanted to make sure is that everybody felt that, you know, that they were also loved.

[Friend 1]

She had graduated from Montgomery County Community College and was transferring.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

She was able to go right over to Temple, and she was excited about that.

[Friend 2]

I don't wanna be on my own tonight. I don't wanna.

[Friend 3]

Temple is really just like, a couple blocks of college campus, and then it is North Philadelphia. It was kind of like, literally, the city was your campus. You could do anything. It makes it a really cool space for, you know, the arts and social justice. Temple is also really well known for its communications and journalism school. Students who go to Temple have to be really independent. They have to be very on top of their things. They know that there's opportunities in the city that they can go and look for. Most of the things we did outside of class were off campus.

[Friend 1]

Jenna was really really excited to start. I remember post her posting that she was so excited to start her first semester at Temple.

[Friend 2]

Throw some money better make it avalanche yeah I be flexing baby I don't need no Instagram put up by the gram and they watch it handle it had to get my money right had to be a man with it all about a dollar. I don't mean to be scandalous, but look at where I come from, Los Angeles. Everybody flossing, everybody sending. Got it. Everybody trying somebody that don't even want them. Everybody think they hot but we the hottest since hot.

[Friend 1]

Boy it was a good choice at the time.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Jenna decided to commute from here from Harleysville to start. And it's about a probably an hour drive in traffic. But it was not unusual for her to stay with friends that lived near the campus.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

I remember very clearly the first week of school. Ed had gone with Jenna. They were going to have dinner.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

I met her down at Temple University. We did have a chance to, to go out to dinner, talk. We were going to leave and she said, I think I'm going to stay at one of my friend's houses tonight because I have an early class tomorrow. I do remember giving her a hug and a kiss and I said goodbye, said I'll see you tomorrow. And then she was meeting her friends at a local and I saw her around the corner and that was the last I saw of her.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We went to bed, went to work the next day and I got a call on the 31st and I looked at the phone and here I thought it was Jenna. It was her. But I thought, oh, I bet you that's Jenna. You know, her phone probably isn't working. And so I answered and it was not. It was her friend. I felt a little strange that he called me, but it was even worse when he said, jenna is with you, right? My heart just dropped. Temple University police need your help to.

[Deborah Roberts]

Track down a missing student.

[Friend 2]

Jenna Burleigh was reported missing after a night out.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Story of Jenna Burleigh, a Temple University student who went out for the evening.

[Deborah Roberts]

Near Temple's campus on Thursday.

[Friend 2]

Case continues to unfold and there are still lingering questions. Never mind how many times we said goodbye.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

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[Friend 2]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Friend 2]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

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[Friend 2]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

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[Friend 2]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Your results may vary. I was at work and I received a call from my wife, Jackie. One of Jenna's friends had sent Jackie a message that they didn't know where Jenna was. They couldn't find her.

[Friend 5]

I had gotten a call from my sister at around 8 o'clock in the morning letting me know that Jenna had not ended up with her at the end of last night and that she was not able to get ahold of her just yet.

[Friend 1]

I remember it got weirder and weirder that we hadn't heard from her. So then you just start to be like, what's going on? Are they okay? Why isn't she answering? But you never think of what happened.

[Friend 5]

The best place for me to be that day and that morning when I got those phone calls was to be on Temple's campus, you know, looking for her directly.

[Friend 1]

So we just start looking around campus, really anywhere that she could have gone or talking to anyone that she could have, like, reached out to to crash at their place too. But as the answers kept coming up as no or we haven't seen her, then it gets worse.

[Friend 5]

I had such a, you know, feeling of something bad that had just happened that I knew I had to make the call. And, you know, I called Jackie and it was a very quick phone call. Hey, you know, I haven't been able to find Jenna. She's, you know, we're not sure where, where she is. You know, I think you and Ed should come down here.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

I was in a panic mode and I called Ed and Ed said, stay there. I'll be right there to get you. Do not take your car. I mean, thank God I had somebody who could take me because I don't really think I could have driven safely.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

We immediately went down to the Temple University police office. At that time, the officers, detectives weren't really concerned. They said it happens all the time. Kids decide to go, take a day off, go somewhere down to the beach. But we knew that wasn't Janet. She always responded. She always answered our phone. She always told us where she was. Although the police officers were not concerned, they didn't know her and we knew her. We knew she would Respond if she could.

[Friend 2]

The first 24 to 48 hours are critical in a missing person's case. There's a couple reasons for that. If somebody is hurt or injured and that's the case, you have to find them within that period of time so that you can administer medical care. The other reason why it's critical is the more time that ticks on in the modern era. There are too many ways for a human being to reach out to a family member to let them know that they're okay. Her dad and her family were looking for her and trying to text her and see where she was, and she wasn't responding. That starts to at least indicate to investigators that foul play may be the situation.

[Deborah Roberts]

After Jenna's parents had reported her missing, Temple police has a ton of things at their fingertips to figure out where their students are. Temple police pulled Jenna's swipe card to see if she had swiped into any buildings on temple's campus. She hadn't. Jenna was supposed to go to class that day, so one of the detectives went over and waited outside her classroom with a picture of her.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

We were just hoping by some miracle she would appear in her class, but it never happened.

[Friend 2]

After she's not reported for her classes, the temple police talk to the family. They talk to the friends, and when they do that, they get an idea of where Jenna was the night before.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We start talking to the officer that was there, and he said, see where she was last? She was going to a bar with friends for a 21st birthday party. We knew that that was happening.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Many of her friends met us when we were at the police station at temple.

[Friend 1]

I was involved with the police, giving statements a lot.

[Deborah Roberts]

The Wednesday night before classes start is a popular hangout night with all the students. And that's where Jenna found herself, Was out in the city with some of her friends from temple.

[Friend 1]

I did see her that Wednesday on August 30th. We went out with two different friend groups, but ended up at the same place.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Jenna was with four or five of her friends at various times throughout the night.

[Friend 5]

I was not with Jenna. They were at pubweb that evening. Pubweb is a local bar. College students work there. A lot of college students go there. It was familiar to everyone that was there.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

And one by one, you know, the friends started leaving. There was a little mix up of who Jenna was with, and she ended up being alone.

[Friend 2]

Temple university is, in my opinion, a safe place. The normal kind of crime you're talking about there, from a prosecutor's perspective, are for the most part petty crimes. The surrounding neighborhoods, you have a different story. Crime in philadelphia is obviously a problem. The murder rate is very high. It's one of the highest in the country.

[Friend 4]

Temple university is kind of surrounded by more high crime neighborhoods. So there was a little bit of a concern just for the nature of where this was and where it happened.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Crime around campus safety has become the leading conversation. Crimes increase exponentially outside campus boundaries.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

It's just natural to be concerned. You hear about the crime, it's just really bad. I knew in my heart it was not gonna turn out.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Temple university police need your help to.

[Friend 2]

Track down a missing student.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

They say 22 year old Jenna burley was last seen near the bar pubweb.

[Friend 3]

I remember getting an email from the president saying, this temple student is missing. Here are her details. Keep your eye out. We had just started classes and I remember having a conversation with my friends, like, whoa, we just got here. This is happening already. After that, we kind of changed the way that we went out and we operated at temple. Like if we go out, we're all going home together. Or like, at least make sure that we're in pairs. Like, we just made sure that we were extra safe at that point.

[Friend 2]

So at that point, what investigators do is try to see if they can find Jenna burley's phone. The last time any activity happens on Jenna Burleigh's phone is August 31, 2017.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

She did reach out to two of her friends early in the morning, and both of her friends slept through the message after that.

[Friend 2]

Her phone doesn't have any more activity in the last general area that's they could put the phone in is in the general area of pub web.

[Deborah Roberts]

When the investigators got to pubweb, they showed Jenna's picture. The bartenders recognized her. There was also video recovered. Pubweb has a lot of cameras.

[Friend 2]

So the detectives were able to not only talk to the people that worked there, but review the footage themselves.

[Deborah Roberts]

They saw her at the bar the night before. Jenna stood out. She had her hair parted right in the middle in pigtails, so she was easy to identify.

[Friend 2]

Closer to the 2 o'clock hour, Pubweb's gonna close. A young man approaches her at the bar where she's sitting and starts buying her drinks. There's beer on the table. There's definitely conversation being had. That's the only person that's left with her. All of her friends are gone.

[Deborah Roberts]

What the bartenders did notice is she was trying to text and call people and was getting frustrated. Jenna and this guy Just sat there next to each other, talking. But the bartenders didn't suspect anything weird or off. Maybe she looked a little uncomfortable. No red flag. The bar was closed, the lights turned on, so it was time for them to go.

[Friend 2]

After investigators see this footage, it became very clear that Jenna, at the end of the night, had left with the young man that she was having drinks with. The detectives were able to ask the people that worked at PubWeb whether or not they knew that individual at all. Every had been there before. They did know him. He was a regular. His name was Joshua Hubters.

[Deborah Roberts]

Who is Josh? Can we get a hold of him? Let's try to find out what he remembers. Let's see if he knows where Jenna is.

[Friend 2]

Well, at this point, this is critical because the police now at least have a confirmed place where they were last and a confirmed person that they were with.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

We did know that they had footage of her leaving the bar with someone. We didn't know all the details at that moment. They, you know, they were doing their investigation, but we did. We did know that they did share that with us. It was very hard to understand.

[Deborah Roberts]

The people at PubWeb were able to give detectives Josh's cell phone number. The captain of the temple police department called him. Josh didn't answer. It wasn't until 11 o'clock that Josh did reach back out to the temple police. He said he was wasted the night before. He did $200 worth of shots. He has no memory.

[Friend 2]

His recollection is that he did not know where she went, had no other information. For investigators, they're certainly not done with Joshua Hupperturtz. They want to bring him down. They want to talk to him. They want to potentially see where he went after that. But at that point, they don't have any other reason to believe that he's not telling the truth.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

The second day that she was missing, we did go back down to the police station at temple because we didn't know what else to do. What do you do in that situation?

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We just started putting posters up.

[Deborah Roberts]

We went down to temple. I remember passing out the flyers. Do I remember the drive getting there? No.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

I still had, like, hope. She was like a Jane Doe at a hospital. And we did find a few Jane does, but, you know, they weren't Jenna.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

The police still had some hope that they would find her.

[Deborah Roberts]

It was the morning of September 1st of 2017. Jenna still hadn't turned up. Nobody had contact with her. Nobody could find her. So the detectives started again with their investigation. When the investigators Spoke to Josh the night before. Josh gave his address.

[Friend 2]

Investigators were interested in going to, meeting with him in person and also going to a apartment.

[Deborah Roberts]

They call him again. Josh doesn't answer. At this point, Jenna has been missing for about 36 hours.

[Friend 2]

Hey, Josh, this is that Captain Walter made again from Temple Police.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

We spoke last night.

[Deborah Roberts]

Could you call me back as soon.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

As you get this? We're basically down in your block. We'd like to talk with you, so please, please call me back.

[Friend 2]

I'm going to keep calling you. Thank you. Once Hupperts doesn't meet them at the apartment building. They look outside and there's a sign. They call the number on the sign and it happens to go to the landlord. Somebody who works for the landlord's company comes out and he's got a key. Now, at this point, the investigators are concerned about Jenna Burley. They don't have a warrant to go inside the house. They're looking for Joshua Huerthurst, but he's not answering. So you are creeping up now on 24:36 hours since her disappearance. At that point, they asked the person to open up the apartments that they could go in to look for her to make sure that she's not in there hurt, injured or otherwise. So at this point, we're not talking about a criminal search warrant. We're talking about a search for a missing girl. They're not going to toss the apartment. They're not searching insides of sock drawers, etc. They're not collecting evidence. They're not even photographing anything. The entire purpose of going inside of this apartment was just to make sure Jenna was either there and okay or to find out what happened. And they didn't get any other answers by looking through the apartment the way they did.

[Deborah Roberts]

And while they were walking around, there were two things that the captain noticed. There was a little bit of blood on a toilet paper roll, and there was a smear of blood on some sandals. And so they became more concerned about Jenna.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

It was hard because that was almost two days where we didn't know what was was happening.

[Deborah Roberts]

Everyone knew we had to find Josh, and hopefully finding Josh would lead us to Jenna, and hopefully she might still be alive.

[Friend 2]

At some point in this investigation, they learned that Joshua Huppertus had a roommate. If Jenna Burley had gone back to that apartment, it also became important to talk to the roommate. The roommate talked to the Temple police. He told them that he didn't know who this woman was, that he had gone home from the bar that night alone, and he had also been drinking pretty heavily. They asked whether or not he could get in touch with Joshua Huppertz. So somewhere in the afternoon, it was actually the roommate who put a call into Mr. Huppertz saying, the police are looking for you. You need to call them back. They have some questions about a girl that went missing.

[Deborah Roberts]

Around 4:00, Josh called the captain back. He said he was in South Philadelphia, which is about 25 minutes from temple University's campus. Josh agreed to come to Temple University, to the police department. The captain waited for about an hour. Josh never came.

[Friend 2]

The next thing that investigators start to do is because Joshua Huppertz has not met with them and refuses to basically be questioned at this point, they started asking people at the address whether or not they knew who Joshua Huppertz was.

[Friend 4]

Investigators learned that Joshua Huppertz had gone to Temple University. He is a 29, living a couple steps away from Temple University's campus. And he told people on campus that he was going to Temple and that he played soccer or was on the soccer team. At points, there's just different stories that he tells to different people on campus. But at this point in his life, he was not enrolled in Temple University.

[Friend 2]

They start to get up on his phone to see where he might be, be physically.

[Friend 4]

Police are tracking his phone and they're pinging it up in the Poconos.

[Friend 2]

So once investigators realize that Joshua Hupperts is nowhere near Philadelphia, they decide they're going to involve other law enforcement agencies. Specifically, they call it up to the state police.

[Friend 4]

So they end up calling state police and saying, hey, we have a phone pinging up here in the Poconos. Do you guys mind going to basically check it out? And they find out that it's Joshua Huppertz's grandmother, who lives very nearby, where that phone is pinging from.

[Deborah Roberts]

So they drove out, got to the house, knocked on the door, no response. But while they were standing there, a car pulled up. And out of that car walks Josh and one of his family members. Josh explains that he was visiting his grandmother because he had a very, very busy semester coming up at Temple, and he wanted to see her before the school year started. Remember, he wasn't enrolled at Temple at the time there.

[Friend 2]

They start to have a conversation. The state troopers let Mr. Hupperts know that they're looking for Jenna Burley, and he's the last person that was seen with her. He tells them that he's already talked to people at Temple University and that he's given all the information that he has.

[Friend 4]

They see that he has some markings on him. There were some scratches that were on his neck area. But then he also has a really large cut on his hand.

[Friend 2]

So as trained investigators, they start asking some questions.

[Deborah Roberts]

Josh explained, oh, those scratches. I had a sexual encounter earlier in the week with a girl named Vicky from New Jersey. My hand. I was drunk last night, and while I was eating cereal, I broke a bowl.

[Friend 2]

So they ask him whether or not he's willing to continue the conversations, to which he says, yes.

[Deborah Roberts]

The investigators got there from Philadelphia, and they took Josh back here to Philly.

[Friend 2]

At that point, investigators know that it's crucial to document the condition of Mr. Huppertz at that time. So he's photographed. His hands are photographed, his chest is photographed. His neck's photographed. So the observations that are made by the state police at Hawaii, Pennsylvania are now preserved so law enforcement can see exactly how Joshua Huftritz looked on September 1, 2017. What investigators know at this point is that Jen is still missing. You also now have surveillance footage that is putting her with Joshua Huppertz. They know where Joshua Hubbard lives, and the best of the surveillance footage they could put together at the time suggest she went home with him. When the police looked for Jenna and Hubbard's apartment earlier that day, they did not collect any evidence. But now they had enough to obtain a search warrant. They entered the apartment, they collected evidence, and they documented the scene.

[Deborah Roberts]

The apartment itself was messy, so it looked like a typical college kid's messy apartment. But there were certain things that looked a little suspicious to the trained eye. There was a knife in the kitchen that looked like it maybe had a little blood on it. There was some blood on those sandals, pieces of a broken bowl.

[Friend 2]

On that bowl, there clearly appeared to be what was human blood.

[Deborah Roberts]

And so they wanted to preserve all that. They took photographs. They swapped them for DNA. There was no obvious crime scene. There was no big pool of blood. There was no murder weapon, Nothing. But something was off.

[Friend 2]

On September 2, 2017, there's basically a break in the case.

[Deborah Roberts]

Josh's grandfather called the police. He'd been doing yard work out back up at that same house that the state troopers had found Josh at. When he opened up this little storage shed, he saw a blue plastic container that he didn't recognize.

[Friend 2]

This was the sort of bin that college students routinely use to put in their stuff, Their books, a lot of their worldly possessions as they were moving around. And then he opened it up. He opens up the bin. He finds a young woman, obviously deceased. The state troopers once again respond. This time, they have a search warrant. They search the whole property, and it's obvious to investigators almost immediately that they found Jen and Burley's body.

[Deborah Roberts]

This wasn't a missing person anymore. We found Jenna. It's now a homicide. Investigators from the Dunmore barracks as well as the Philadelphia police crime scene unit searched the property. They took photographs. They did DNA swabs.

[Friend 2]

They searched the house, and they found a bag. And inside that bag, they found basic clothing items. A few pairs of underwear, some socks, t shirts, and $3,000 of cash. Josh hub was not sticking around. He was going to dump that body in the lake, and we were never going to see him.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

On Saturday, September 2, we had a full house of visitors and received a call for Jackie and I to go to Philadelphia police department. There's no easy way for a police officer to tell you that your daughter has been murdered. So we were in shock. We just couldn't believe it. I just wanted to know everything that happened to her. I wanted to know, you know, how a human being could do that to somebody.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We drive home, the whole family was here, But I just went right to my room. Ed had to come and tell everybody. And.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Telling your children they lost a sibling is devastating. A mother should never have to go through losing a child, and you never get over it.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

My children came up to be with me. I just really didn't want to see anybody, talk to anybody besides my children. And Ed.

[Friend 5]

Her father had texted me that they had found Jenna's body. You still don't realize how much hope you have, Even though it's deteriorated until you get that text and all of it is ripped out of you and you're kind of left very empty.

[Deborah Roberts]

I just remember screaming, like, and that was it. When I got to my parents, I just fell into their arms like, no.

[Friend 2]

Like, she's not dead.

[Friend 3]

Like, I don't know what you're talking about. And I have to tell this whole.

[Friend 2]

Group of friends that love Jenna that, like, she's dead.

[Friend 1]

So that was, like, really hard.

[Deborah Roberts]

Here at Founders Garden in the heart of Temple's campus, students have left index cards with thoughts about the murder of 22 year old Jenna Burleigh at Temple Junior.

[Friend 1]

Having the whole world have that information before we got to digest it was really difficult, especially when it's about a friend that's so close to you.

[Friend 3]

We don't want it to let us, like, stop us from living our life. But we're definitely going to remember it every time we go out to look out for each other and, like, be.

[Friend 2]

Aware of our surroundings and not get.

[Friend 1]

Involved with people who can hurt us.

[Friend 3]

This was something I couldn't look at as just a story. You know, it happened in the neighborhood I was living in. I was a Temple student. That could have been me. It could have been one of my friends.

[Deborah Roberts]

The grandfather of the suspect, Josh Huberturs.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Found the body in a bin.

[Deborah Roberts]

Joshua Hupperturtz was arrested and formally charged.

[Friend 2]

Philadelphia district attorney's office charged him with murder, abuse of a corpse, possession of an instrument of crime, and tampering with evidence. So at this point, while Joshua Huppertz has been charged, this investigation is far from over.

[Deborah Roberts]

What did Josh do from the time he walked out of the bar with Jenna to the time they found him In Northeastern Pennsylvania.

[Friend 2]

Investigators obtained surveillance footage not just from PubWeb but from different cameras around the city.

[Deborah Roberts]

There was cameras that captured them walking away from the bar together towards Josh's house. There was also video recovered that showed the front door of Josh's apartment building. And that video showed Josh and Jenna walking in a little after 2am on August 31st of 2017. But it never showed Jenna walking out. What they did find from that same video camera was Josh and a person carrying a large blue storage container that looked heavy down the front steps of that apartment and towards a car. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust or is it a real pos? You need Shopify for retail. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify POS has everything you need to sell in person. Go to shopify.comsystem all lowercase to take your retail business to the next level. Today that's shopify.com system hablas espanol spries.

[Friend 2]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

Heard that sound from Babbel before, I bet you do. Babbel is the science backed language learning app that actually works with quick 10 minute lessons. Handcrafted by over 200 language experts. Babbel gets you on your way to speaking a new language in just a few weeks with over 16 million subscriptions sold and a 20 day money back guarantee. Just start speaking another language with Babbel right now. Up to 55 off your Babel subscription at babbel.com Spotify podcast spelled B A B E L.com Spotify podcast rules and restrictions may apply.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Investigation continues tonight after a Temple University student was found dead.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

At a home in northeast Pennsylvania.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Tonight, police are still trying to piece together why and if the suspect had help.

[Friend 2]

After investigators see this footage, investigators are able to determine that it's Joshua Hubcher's cousin caught on camera carrying the bin that later contained or found to contain Jenna Burley's body. Obviously they need to talk to the cousin about what happened. Investigators are able to speak to the cousin and they ask him about what happened. He tells them that he had got a call and also a text from Hubbard saying I need your help. When he arrived in the apartment, the only person that was there was Joshua Huppertritz and he saw the large blue bin sitting in the living room. He didn't think much of it. He said he grabbed the bin and he helped his cousin move it out. He did know that it was very heavy. He was surprised by the weight.

[Deborah Roberts]

That cousin thought it was just a big container of books and Josh had asked his help to take it up to his mother's house, which is in suburbs of Philadelphia. So Josh's cousin helped, had no idea that it wasn't books. He drove Josh to Josh's mom's house in the suburbs, helped him move the storage container into a garage, and that was it.

[Friend 2]

So investigators were trying to figure out how it was exactly that Joshua Hub eventually got the body up to Holly, Pa. They discovered that he'd used a lift. Through the help of lift they're actually able to find who the driver was and they interview him.

[Deborah Roberts]

When the investigator spoke to the Lyft driver, they were able to find out that Josh put a blue container into his car.

[Friend 2]

From there, Hubbard says, I'll pay you $200 cash. We need to go to Holly, Pennsylvania. Don't put it in your lift, don't put it in your gps. I'll tell you where to go and how to do it. He tells the Lyft driver to drop him off at his grandmother's house. They both take the bin out of the trunk and leave it in the drive.

[Deborah Roberts]

The only people that know what happened in that apartment that night are Josh and Jenna. Jenna was gone and Josh wasn't talking. So we had to figure out with circumstantial evidence what happened. An autopsy was performed.

[Friend 2]

There were some significant injuries at certain. It began to tell the story of what actually happened that night.

[Deborah Roberts]

Jason and I sifted through the evidence, all the crime scene photos, the lab reports, and our theory was that Josh and Jenna were involved in some kind of sexual encounter together. And it took a turn. What happened, who knows? But whatever it was, it caused a struggle.

[Friend 2]

What was significant was the cause of death, and that was strangulation. The medical examiner was able to determine that the blood flow had been blocked to her brain, and that's how she died. She had what they call defensive injuries all over her hands and all over her arms.

[Deborah Roberts]

They took pieces of her nails to try to determine whether or not there was any DNA underneath of them. And that DNA came back to Josh.

[Friend 2]

Trial is expected to begin for Joshua Hooper Terz, who's the accused murderer of a 22 year old temple University student, Jenna Burley. This is a circumstantial case. Nobody ever saw anybody kill Jenna Burley. There was going to be no eyewitness testimony, there's no recording, there's nothing of that nature. And so you have to prove your case through circumstantial evidence.

[Deborah Roberts]

So myself and Jason Grinnell were tasked with preparing the case for trial. And as part of that, we met the Burleys.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

We became really close with Jason and Danielle.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

We found out very early, even before the trial, that Danielle and Jason were wonderful.

[Deborah Roberts]

It's a lot of pressure because at the end of the day, you have a family sitting behind you that has lost a child and you want justice for them. But you never know what a jury's going to do.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

The Philadelphia jury pool is known for acquitting people that are seemingly guilty. So you do worry about that.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

But we did have a lot of support through that time.

[Deborah Roberts]

The entire courtroom was packed with people who loved Jenna and wanted justice for her. The trial was one of the hardest things I ever did, but it was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make. There was no question about it.

[Friend 1]

And once one of us made the decision to go, we kind of all the friend group decided that we were all going to go together.

[Friend 3]

When I got to the courthouse the first day, it was definitely like a, oh, this is real. You saw Jenna's mom, you saw her dad. And it became really clear that this was a story that was hitting very close to home. I've never been at a case before that felt like that could have been me.

[Friend 4]

One of the first things that happened at trial was that Joshua Hobbiturs actually did plead guilty to abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence. So that's the first day that this happens. He says, yes, I did. I moved the body and I tampered with evidence, but I did not kill this girl.

[Deborah Roberts]

The defense attorney said in his opening statement that Josh and Jenna were involved in some sexual encounter that got out of hand and Jenna started to scream. And at that point, Josh's roommate came upstairs from his bedroom, struck Jenna, pushed her down the steps, and then stomped on her at the bottom of the steps.

[Friend 2]

We had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Joshua Hufford has committed this crime. But we also had to make sure we let the jury know there wasn't a shred of truth that the roommate was involved whatsoever.

[Deborah Roberts]

The roommate testified at trial so the jury could hear what he had to say. I questioned the defense attorney cross examined him, and it was extensive.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

The prosecutors, the attorneys, they talked Ed and I through kind of what things would look like. If there was anything that they were going to show or that they were going to talk about that they might think I might not want to hear or see, they would let me know so I could gracefully leave the courtroom.

[Deborah Roberts]

The only thing the family left for, and not all of the family, just, I think Jackie, was the pictures of Jenna's body in the container.

[Friend 2]

The photograph of her when they first discovered her out in the shed was horrific. And it's something I'm never going to forget.

[Deborah Roberts]

But her father sat through all of it.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

I wanted to be there for Jenna, but I also wanted to let her murderer know that I was there and I wasn't leaving and I was watching them.

[Deborah Roberts]

It was harder than I imagined. But with the countless people on our side, we somehow all made it through.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

You know, you see it on tv, but to be in it for real is just a whole nother experience that is not a good one, not one that I would want anybody to have to go through.

[Friend 2]

In my personal opinion, the most compelling piece of evidence in this entire case was the fact that they found Joshua Huppertz's DNA underneath Jenna Burley's fingernails. It was as if Jenna Burley was. Was the person that actually got to testify in the end to who her killer was. Because when that was analyzed, the entire narrative about the roommate being involved whatsoever was obviously immediately extinguished. And there was only two people that were part of that DNA sample. Hupperturtz was the source, or Jenna Burleigh was the source of all the other biological material that was collected as part of that crime scene. On January 17, 2019, it was time for closing arguments. Defense went first. I went second. And then the judge charged. The charge is when he tells the jury the law that they have to apply to the facts and coming to their verdict. Then the jury went out, and they were back within two hours with a verdict.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

You know, you're going through that, too. Like, the jury leaves, and what's the verdict going to be? And then if it's fast, if it's slow, like, what does that mean?

[Deborah Roberts]

The verdict is in.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

The man who stood accused of murdering.

[Deborah Roberts]

Temple University student Jenna Burleigh in August of 2017 has been found dead, guilty on all counts.

[Friend 2]

In sentencing Hupperturst to life in prison without parole, Judge Glenn Bronson told him, you deserve every single day. This was just an outrageous, depraved crime, the worst he's seen in a long time. You just distinguished the life of a very special person who had a lot to give.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

When you hear the guilty verdict, your whole body just relaxes. You're so tense. You realize it's never going to bring your daughter back, but you're grateful. That person that murdered her will never see the light of day again.

[Deborah Roberts]

We had done our job. The jury got it right.

[Friend 3]

I remember being shocked because at the sentencing, I looked over at one of the reporters, and a tear was rolling down her face. Like, this was a case that was really emotionally charged. I think it hit everyone hard, but especially Temple students.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

When I thanked one of the Temple police officers, he said, we're not here as police officers. We're here as fathers. And that struck me.

[Friend 3]

After seeing everything that happened. I would just hope that college students everywhere, you know, will be a little bit more cognizant of their safety to stick together. And you really have to lean on your friends.

[Deborah Roberts]

I just think it's important, like, especially you're in college. You think you know it all. You think you're invincible. It's a scary world we live in, unfortunately. Just protect yourself and protect people around you.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

It might seem strange, but you Go through all this and then you wait for a year and a half for this trial and then the trial's over and then what happens now? Ed said, we have to do something. He said, we have to do something to keep Jenna, Jenna's spirit alive.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

The day that Jenna was found, it just came to me, our foundation, Jenna's blessing bags. So we have to do something. To support her passion.

[Friend 1]

Jenna created the blueprint for the foundation. She was very, very passionate about the homeless community and helping them. It was just her natural way of living is just being a good person and kind and spreading as much love as she could.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

In 2016, Jenna had decided to do things for the homeless. Ed and I had gone out with her a few times to give bags. So we're really happy that we did that. Within a day or two, he was able to get Jana's blessing bags up and running.

[Deborah Roberts]

She wanted everyone to feel like loved and included and she just wanted to shine. And she did shine. And she will continue to shine through her foundation.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Sometimes when I'm driving the city, I'll see one of our bags. It has her tag on it and just makes me feel good. To this day, we are still delivering blessing bags. I know Jenna would be very proud of what we've done with the foundation.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

She would have been 28 right now. I would hope that she would be doing whatever made her happy. She'd probably be traveling and doing documentaries because that's what she wanted to do.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

Just like to keep talking about her. I never want to stop talking about her.

[Friend 3]

Yeah, right.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

You said you did it for the light.

[Jenna Burleigh's Mother]

This is Deborah Roberts. Tune in next week for the story of a nursing student from Binghamton University whose murder sent shock waves throughout her community, igniting an international manhunt. Death in the Dorms was produced by ABC News Studios with the Intellectual Property Corporation. And yes, like a river for Hulu originals. You can find the whole series streaming on Hulu and be sure to catch us on Friday nights at 9 for all new broadcast episodes of 20 20. Thanks for listening.

[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

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[Friend 2]

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[Jenna Burleigh's Father]

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[Friend 2]

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