A Deadly Path - Part 1 (Justis Marie Garrett)

Summary

Anatomy of Murder: A Deadly Path - Part 1 (Justis Marie Garrett) Summary

Released on September 17, 2024
Hosted by Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and Scott Weinberger

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Introduction

In the gripping first part of the "A Deadly Path" series, hosts Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and Scott Weinberger delve into the tragic disappearance and subsequent murder of 16-year-old Justice Marie Garrett. This episode meticulously dissects the layers of the case—from the victim and the circumstances of her disappearance to the intricate investigation that unfolded.

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Background on Justice Marie Garrett

Justice Garrett was a vibrant 16-year-old high school student from Mount Dora, Florida. Known for her academic dedication and strong family values, she lived with her mother, Danielle, and her younger sister. Justyce, as she was affectionately known, was responsible and self-sufficient, often taking care of her sister while her mother worked.

Quote:
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi [03:33]:
“Homicide cases affect people for different reasons. The brutality of the crime, the age of the victim. A scenario that maybe hits too close to home.”

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The Disappearance

On the morning of April 13, 2018, Justice's routine took a dark turn. After missing her school bus, she caught a ride to school under the supervision of Danielle's boyfriend, Bobby Kern. Justice was supposed to attend Mount Dora High School before meeting friends for a sleepover. However, she never arrived.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [03:59]:
“Justice Marie Garrett was 16 years old on April 13th of that year. It started out like any typical Friday for the teen... Justice caught a ride to school after missing the bus and was never heard from again.”

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Initiation of the Investigation

Concern grew when Justice failed to board her usual bus. Danielle, growing increasingly worried, reached out to Justice’s friends and then filed a missing persons report the next morning. The Mount Dora Police Department, alongside the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), spearheaded the investigation, scrutinizing Justice’s last known movements and digital footprints.

Quote:
Police Chief [02:24]:
“There are more unanswered questions than there are answered questions. We ask for patience as we work to identify this person and to understand the circumstances surrounding her death.”

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Phone Data and Investigative Tactics

A pivotal moment in the investigation came with the analysis of Justice's cell phone data. Contrary to initial reports from Danielle and Bobby, the data revealed that Justice never proceeded towards her high school. Instead, her phone traced a path back towards her former hometown in Volusia County before veering back towards Mount Dora.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [19:22]:
“Justice's phone data showed that after leaving her home, she traveled in the direction of her former hometown in Volusia county, not to her high school.”

Detectives decided to interview Danielle and Bobby separately to uncover discrepancies in their accounts. During these interviews, it emerged that Danielle had falsely claimed to have driven Justice to school to protect Bobby, whose driver's license was suspended.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [31:58]:
“They interview Danielle and they confront her with cell site data that shows that Justice's phone never went toward Mount Dora High School and she comes clean immediately. 'I did lie, but I only lied about this and I did it because Bobby didn't have a license and I was trying to help him and protect him.'”

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Discovery of the Body

Five days after Justice’s disappearance, a body was discovered in a nearby forest by a hiker and his dog. The condition of the body indicated severe decomposition, making identification challenging. Initial assessments suggested possible signs of trauma and sexual assault, though the exact cause of death remained undetermined.

Quote:
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi [22:22]:
“They're pulled down around the legs... The top half was mostly skeletal, and the bottom half of the body was not. The question of why it would be that way was a mystery that we had to figure out during the investigation.”

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Autopsy and Findings

The autopsy revealed distressing details. The manner in which Justice’s clothes were disheveled suggested possible sexual assault. Additionally, unusual bleach patterns on her pants raised questions about attempts to conceal evidence.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [38:35]:
“The way it was tied was unusual and suggested possible strangulation.”

Due to the advanced state of decomposition, certain injuries and the exact cause of death couldn't be conclusively determined. However, the presence of a jeweled navel ring and a painted fingernail provided crucial, albeit limited, identifying features.

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Suspects and Investigation Progression

As the investigation progressed, attention turned toward Bobby Kern. His admission that he had driven Justice that morning, coupled with the discovery that he had reset his phone before interviews, intensified suspicions. Police obtained a search warrant to seize his vehicle for further analysis.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [42:33]:
“But this is where our timelines become so important, because we do know that he knew at that moment he was under the microscope and was being questioned by investigators.”

The autopsy results later confirmed Justice as the body found, though this information was withheld initially to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [35:50]:
“But with the investigation at a critical juncture and police not yet knowing who and what to believe, this identification would be temporarily kept quiet, even from her own mother, who was, as we know, desperate for information.”

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Conclusion and Cliffhanger

As Part 1 concludes, the investigation faces a complex web of lies and missing data. With Bobby Kern's suspicious actions and the grim evidence at hand, the case against him deepens. However, questions about Danielle’s involvement and the true circumstances surrounding Justice’s death remain unanswered, setting the stage for a riveting continuation in Part 2.

Quote:
Scott Weinberger [46:55]:
“There was another piece of data from Kern's phone that investigators zeroed in on. It wasn't from the day Justice disappeared. It was from three days later.”

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Final Thoughts

"A Deadly Path - Part 1" masterfully sets the stage for a deep exploration into a heartbreaking murder case. Through meticulous analysis and compelling storytelling, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and Scott Weinberger invite listeners to unravel the complexities and uncover the truth behind Justice Marie Garrett's untimely death.

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Tune in next week for Part 2 of "A Deadly Path" as the investigation continues to unfold.

Transcript

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[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

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[Scott Weinberger]

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[Police Chief]

There are more unanswered questions than there are answered questions. We ask for patients as we work to identify this person and to understand the circumstances surrounding her death.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

You want to do justice for the victim. You want to give it your best for the family. You want the community to be safe. But when you think of the gravity of a 16 year old girl who won't ever get to go to college, who won't ever get to see her little sister grow up. It hits you in a different way.

[Scott Weinberger]

I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

I'm Anna Sega Nicolasi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discoveries True Conviction.

[Scott Weinberger]

And this is Anatomy of Murder.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Homicide cases affect people for different reasons. The brutality of the crime, the age of the victim. A scenario that maybe hits too close to home.

[Scott Weinberger]

Sometimes it's because we can't really wrap our heads around the awful things that some people are capable of doing. It's also the idea of the loss of life and resulting pain felt by so many. This case is all those and much more.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

We'll give you the warning that this is a particularly tough one. It was for us, but it's a story we think is important to tell in 2018.

[Scott Weinberger]

Justice Marie Garrett was 16 years old on April 13th of that year. It started out like any typical Friday for the teen. She woke up late for school, posted a selfie to Snapchat, and played around a phone Scrabble with a friend from her old hometown in New Smyrna, Florida.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Justice caught a ride to school after missing the bus and was never heard from again. No one would have predicted how a sunny day full of potential for the weekend ahead could have quickly turned dark. Very, very dark.

[Scott Weinberger]

One person who knows Justice's story well is prosecutor Megan Upchurch, an assistant state attorney in Florida's 7th Judicial Circuit. Megan comes from a family of lawy, but she always thought that she would go a different route. However, once a friend of hers got involved, that all changed.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Believe it or not, my friend said you should become a lawyer and she came to visit me and signed me up for law school.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

The rest, as they say, is history. Megan started working as a prosecutor right at a law school and the work turned out to be a great fit.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

There is some element of, I guess, competition, for lack of a better word, when you have trial. Although as a prosecutor, of course, we wear the white hat and we seek the truth above all else. But it gave me some of that while also giving me a purpose to seek justice.

[Scott Weinberger]

Now, I obviously know the story, but if you're new to aom, perhaps you're wondering what may have driven my co host into a life of law enforcement. So an acega. Do tell.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

I think it starts differently for all of us. I knew I was either going to be a teacher or a lawyer. Well, I went to law school and the first semester of law school it was criminal law and I think that was it for Me, I just knew that it was going to be as a prosecutor and once I got into that office, it was going to be a trial lawyer. And that's exactly how it began. And to this day, I may not be in the courtroom, but it's still the thing that I consider myself as my career.

[Scott Weinberger]

So For Megan, by 2018, she was in the office's career Criminal unit.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

We handle career criminals that might fall under enhanced sentencing schemes such as prison releasee, reoffender, violent career criminals, habitual violent felony offenders, three time violent felony offenders and those types of enhancements. We handle child sex crimes as well as adult sex crimes. More recently within the last few years, we now also handle homicide cases.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

So it was April of that year that the district Attorney's office got involved when they became aware that a 16 year old high school student had disappeared from the area.

[Scott Weinberger]

It was Justice Garrett and she had disappeared after catching a ride to school one Friday morning. Justyce wasn't the type of teenager that usually skipped school or disappeared for long periods of time. In fact, she was just the opposite.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

She was motivated academically and did well in school, wanted to be in school, had goals for herself. From all of the communications from anyone in her life, she was just a very loved girl.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Justyce and her younger sister were being raised solo by their mom, Danielle. Justyce often helped around the house and with caretaking duties.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Justyce was a very responsible teenager from all accounts. She was often responsible for babysitting her little sister when her mother was working. She was fairly independent and self sufficient. She was self motivated.

[Scott Weinberger]

Danielle and the girls had been living in New Smyrna Beach, Florida which is just south of Daytona and sits in Volusia County.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

They had recently moved about an hour west to live with Danielle's parents in the community of Mount Dora, Florida. Despite the distance, justice kept close ties with her old friends and former community.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And so her connection to Volusia was that she still had all her friends here and she was going to a new high school and trying to make new friends and still enjoyed seeing and keeping up with her friends in Volusia County. And that's where the connection was.

[Scott Weinberger]

Danielle still worked in Volusia, so Justyce was able to visit often. That was the plan for Friday, April 13th. After school, Justyce and her sister would drive to meet Danielle and then justice would have a sleepover at a friend's house.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Justyce was going to see her friends and I think they were going to catch up with Danielle who was working at a restaurant in that area.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Danielle's Boyfriend Robert or Bobby Kern, had planned to pick them up after school and drive them to meet her. So once that afternoon rolled around, Bobby texted Danielle to let her know that her younger daughter had gotten home from school.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Bobby is updating Danielle that he has Justice's younger sister picked up from the bus stop and that he's waiting for Justyce to be dropped off at the bus stop because he was then going to take the girls to New Smyrna.

[Scott Weinberger]

But when Justyce's school bus arrived, she wasn't on it, and Danielle's boyfriend let her know.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

So I think Danielle probably assumed initially that she had gone to be with her friends and hadn't checked in or communicated that in the way that Danielle would have wanted her to.

[Scott Weinberger]

While not the norm for justice, she was still a teen, so her mom assumed she'd hear from her soon.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

So this was unusual behavior, but not overly concerning because she would often make plans to see her friends elsewhere.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

It also wasn't lost on anyone that Justyce hadn't exactly been thrilled about this move to a new high school. Being uprooted from the town she'd called home had been tough for her. So it was also possible that her no show was a not so subtle message that her old hometown was where.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

She'D rather be, because Justyce had very close friends in Volusia county who now were living far from where she was living or farther from where she was living. And so it became where there was that tension with justice, missed her friends and missed her life in Volusia County.

[Scott Weinberger]

In my days in uniform, I responded to a number of calls where parents had become concerned that their child or their teen had not returned home. And in my experience, most were staying out just past their curfew. And the parents just wanted us to head out and search. And of course, depending on the age, we would. That's just standard protocol. But we've always said, even on this show, that parents know their children best. And here's where Justyce, even though she really did miss her friends, it's not something her mom would expect from her, what she would ever do. They were close, and they openly discussed things like skipping school in the past.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

And, you know, Scott, this is one of those scenarios that most of us, whether it's with our law enforcement hats or even in personal life, like, we do, have some experience at some point along the way with things just like this.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Quite frankly, if Justyce had wanted to skip school and go see her friends or had something that needed to be done, from what we knew about the family dynamic. Danielle would have allowed it or might have even asked Justyce to help babysit during school hours. So it didn't make a whole lot of sense that Justyce would be hiding, you know, skipping school from her mom.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Danielle told her boyfriend to go ahead and bring her younger daughter to Volusia as planned.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And then Danielle went about trying to message and call justice to figure out where she was and why she didn't get off the bus.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

But none of Danielle's calls and texts were answered. She was starting to get more concerned and soon reached out to Justyce's friends.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Danielle Pratt and her family, along with Bobby, were going to these friends houses to say, has she been here? Where is she? To talk directly to the friends in case they're covering for justice and to try to figure out where she is.

[Scott Weinberger]

But her friends said they hadn't made plans to meet up with Justyce until later on. They also said none of them had spoken to her. Danielle began to panic. Her boyfriend Bobby, tried to keep her calm.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

He was telling Danielle that this is normal teenage behavior. She just probably wanted to be with her friends. And she will turn up. And Danielle is responding, this is not okay. She's going to be in big trouble when she gets home. This is not okay. Robert Kern is essentially telling Danielle, she'll turn up, she's fine.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

When no one had heard from justice by the next morning, Danielle went to the Mount Dora Police Department and filed a missing persons report.

[Scott Weinberger]

They took down the information, including the last time justice had been seen or heard from, which was the previous morning. One of the places they began to connect the dots was on Justyce's social media.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

So that morning, she wakes up, she gets ready to go to school. She has some normal communication with her friends through the phone. She gets dressed and makes the last social media post that we see, that's at 6:48am that morning. She's in her bedroom. We can see her from about the shoulder down, and she's taking a picture of herself in the mirror so you can see what she's wearing, that she has her phone.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Justyce got a late start and ended up missing her school bus. Her mom had told police that she and her boyfriend Bobby had driven justice to school. She hadn't seen from her since. So police got to work trying to locate the missing teen, checking cameras at her high school and speaking with her friends. They subpoenaed data from Justyce's phone and also put out an alert because it.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Was known that she had these ties to Volusia. County, Mount Dora would have contacted and did contact New Smyrna Beach Police Department to say, do you have any signs that justice has come to your area? Can you be on the lookout for her because she's missing from over here in Mount Dora?

[Scott Weinberger]

Justyce's family kept looking for her, too.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Danielle's also calling and texting her nonstop with no response because Justyce has her own cell phone that she just got for her 16th birthday. The families conducting their own search and their own social media announcements, trying to.

[Scott Weinberger]

Get information, leads began to pour in.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And of course, there are lots of people responding with what they think could be signs of justice. And that became something that the police had to wade through to determine what was legitimate and what wasn't.

[Scott Weinberger]

But none of the tips were leading to Justice's location. Ours turned to days.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

At this point, it's mainly a Mount Dora Police Department juvenile missing persons investigation and the family legitimately becoming more and more concerned as they're unable to get ahold of Justyce, which is very unlike her.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

But then justice, his phone records came in.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And because she was reported as a missing person, Mount Dora and FDLE were able to get quite a bit of information from the phone company because it was requested very quickly based on the missing persons investigation. So they had a lot of information regarding the movement of her phone from that morning on.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

And it took the investigation in a very different direction. And it was something very different than what Justice's mom had told police.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And they do realize after a number of days that her phone never goes in the direction of Mount Dora High School.

[Scott Weinberger]

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[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And then the phone leaves that location and goes back in a westerly direction toward Mount Dora, a different route than it took to get there, and then went near Mount Dora High School. This is hours later at this point where we don't have any data after that point. So the phone was likely either powered off and thrown outside and left there.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Police tried to locate Justice's phone, which might have revealed more clues about what had happened.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

They did send electronic detection dogs out there to try to find it. But at that point, the point that we were able to put all that information together, we weren't able to actually locate the phone, but we were able to see the location of where the data ended.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Police had also been reviewing security footage from her high school.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

They go to school, they check the cameras or whatever cameras they can find, and they don't see that she was ever at school.

[Scott Weinberger]

Between the footage and the phone data, it was undeniably clear that justice never made it to school that morning. Police prepared to confront her mom and her mom's boyfriend, the pair who supposedly drove her to school with this new information.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

But before they did, there was breaking news in a County about 30 minutes away. This was five days after justice had disappeared. As part of a local sporting event, a group of people had gathered in nearby forest.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

The group meets, they begin their process. They go into the woods, and one of the individuals has a dog with him that goes and does the hiking and does the game with him. And the dog ends up going off of the trail into a grouping of birds, vultures.

[Scott Weinberger]

When the owner followed his dog, he found more than birds, and it was a sight he will never forget.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

The person that was doing the hiking in the woods that found the body really saw what the dog had found and then backed off almost immediately because he could tell from what he saw and then the smell that was associated with it that it was a body.

[Scott Weinberger]

The man immediately dialed 911, and on his way out, he marked the trail he had taken.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

It is starting to get dark at this point. And so luckily, the person that found the body, because there are so many trails and walkways back there, and it's so heavily wooded, left a marker at the beginning of one of the trails where you would go off to where this body was. And thank goodness he did that because it would have been very difficult for law enforcement to find that body.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

When detectives arrived, they followed the marked trail.

[Scott Weinberger]

Here is body cam audio from the responding deputy as he arrived on scene, directed to that very spot by the 911 caller and now confirmed that it was a body.

[Police Chief]

All right, we're 1097.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

It's confirmed.

[Scott Weinberger]

It appears to be a female.

[Carl's Jr. Representative]

The top half is decomposed.

[Scott Weinberger]

The bottom half has pants on or shorts.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

They're pulled down around the legs.

[Police Chief]

It's about 10ft off the trails.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

It was unclear what the age of the person was, whether there were any apparent injuries. That wasn't possible because of all of the missing tissue. And there really was not a whole lot that was able to be determined.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

What stood out immediately was how the top part of the body was, and we'll try to say this gently, in a vastly different state than the lower half, likely caused by animal activity, and we'll leave it at that.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

The top half of the body was mostly skeletal, and the bottom half of the body was not. The question of why it would be that way was a mystery that we had to figure out during the investigation. But there was not much tissue at all from the bottom half up of the body, even though there was much more tissue from sort of the waist down.

[Scott Weinberger]

While there were not many identifying features left, there were some. A jeweled navel ring, a painted fingernail. And several items of clothing. There were also signs of terrible trauma.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

And we'll give you this warning right here. In addition to the physical state of the body, there were also signs suggesting a sexual assault, which will be generally described. So if that's triggering for any of you, please skip ahead.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

There were clothes. There was a pair of pants, but it was pulled down to the ankles. There were shoes on the body. There was a top like a long sleeve shirt with a hood that was pulled up toward the neck and a bra.

[Scott Weinberger]

The body was removed from the scene and sent for autopsy while the local police chief gave a press conference about the discovery. Here is audio from that announcement.

[Police Chief]

A preliminary investigation revealed that these were the human remains of a female. The identity and the race of the female could not be determined at this time, nor was it apparent to any of our investigators what caused her death. The female was partially clothed and appeared to have been in the area for some time due to the stage of the body's decomposition.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

The police chief emphasized that there were more unknowns than knowns.

[Police Chief]

We ask for patients as we work to identify this person and to understand the circumstances surrounding her death. I want to stress to the public at this time that we have no evidence to definitively suggest that her death was the result of foul play. Alternatively, we have no definitive evidence to refute that she may have died of natural causes or some medical episode. We simply do not know at this time.

[Scott Weinberger]

The announcement ended with a plea for leads and any information that might help lead to an id.

[Police Chief]

Maybe there's somebody out there that, you know, hasn't seen somebody for a while and they're concerned or whatever. We'd like to hear from you if that's the case.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

While police looked to the public, their various departments were also communicating amongst themselves, including Volusia county, who had been looking for justice. It was looking likely that Justice's disappearance and the body found in the woods were, were connected in the very worst of ways.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Things were starting to align. That made it more likely that it was going to be her. But there was nothing overtly visual where you could say for sure it was this particular person.

[Scott Weinberger]

Now, at this point, there were two different counties looking for justice, and now a third county investigating the unidentified body. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but also known as fdle, has statewide jurisdiction, so they took over to lead the two cases.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

They've got jurisdiction over the whole state and they're going to be able to process this investigation more easily than either Deland Police Department or Mount Dora Police Department. And it's clear that there was involvement in both locations.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

One of the FDLE detectives assigned to the case decided to return to where the body had been found.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

So he went out there and the scene had already been processed by Deland Police Department that night by their crime scene unit. Almost on a whim, he collected botany evidence, he collected leaves and different things that he then packaged and tagged into evidence. Being unsure whether anything would ever come.

[Scott Weinberger]

Of it, police had turned their efforts to speaking with Justice's mom, Danielle and her boyfriend Bobby.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

About 10 days after the body had been discovered, the pair were brought in for an interview. They first spoke with Danielle.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

At that point, she sticks to the same statement she gave Mount Dora Police Department, that she went with Bobby to drop justice off at Mount Dora High School and that she was the one driving.

[Scott Weinberger]

When they spoke with Bobby, he confirmed what Daniel said. Police could have confronted them with the phone data then and there, but they decided to hold back, wanting this interview to be a bit more free flowing, more conversational, with the purpose of getting a full version from both.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

You know, Scott, I know we've talked about this before, but I think it's worth mentioning again that while we've already said that it's free flowing, there was a specific purpose right in going about it this way.

[Scott Weinberger]

A confrontational interview normally brings just short responses, meaning it may come down to, like, yes or no answers, and sometimes it may end the interview altogether. So as an investigator, if you believe your evidence is strong and somewhat corroborated, the key is then to find the right balance, a path where the evidence may be leading. And in most cases, that is a path anestiga to some version of the truth.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

And again, they didn't care what they said at this point. They just wanted to get this first version, if you will, on the books, be it truth or not truth. So they just let them talk. And then the following day, they asked him to come back again. And this time, detectives took a different tact.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

They want to talk with them one more time to see if whether when they confront them with some of this information, that they're willing to give any additional information, information about what happened that morning.

[Scott Weinberger]

Initially, Justice Garrett's mother, Danielle stuck to her story about dropping her daughter off at school. But then detectives told her that justice had never made it to school, a fact they could prove. And what Danielle said next took everyone by surprise.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

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[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

They interview Danielle and they confront her with cell site data that shows that Justice's phone never went toward Mount Dora High School and she comes clean immediately. I did lie, but I only lied about this and I did it because Bobby didn't have a license and I was trying to help him and protect him.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

So Justice's mom hadn't been on that drive. The reason for her lie? To protect her boyfriend. It turned out that Bobby Kern's license had been suspended, which means that driving equaled a crime. So not wanting her boyfriend to get into trouble, Danielle had added herself into.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

The car and at that point she has believed Bobby wholeheartedly she doesn't think there's any reason to question him. And so that was part of the investigative technique, is that fdely is now providing more information.

[Scott Weinberger]

Danielle then admitted to police that Bobby Kern alone had actually driven justice to school. And anestiga, you know, this revelation is a pretty big step in this investigation. We don't know what was in Danielle's heart or her mind at that moment, but we're talking about her daughter who's missing. And while she may not have had suspected her boyfriend, it certainly complicates things in a big way.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Oh, my gosh. I mean, she has been missing. It's not like for a few hours. It's like days upon days upon days at this point. And like you said, like, we don't have any idea where this lands. Is this going to be something innocent? Is it going to be something sinister? Is it something that the two of them are still not being forthcoming, but she's given a little piece once she knows that that much will be found out. I mean, this really changes the course of how investigators need to be approaching the case at this point.

[Scott Weinberger]

And while they're learning all of this from Danielle directly, they still have Kern in a separate room. So while they confronted him with the same phone data that had been shown to Danielle, his story also changed. He admitted to driving her, but he said it wasn't to school.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And at that point, he admits that he didn't take her to school, but he took her and dropped her off nearby the house because she. She wanted to skip school and he was just going to cover for her.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

He claimed that justice had wanted to go see old friends and that he'd agreed to help her miss the day. He told police that he now realized this was an error in judgment, but investigators saw it as something much more serious.

[Scott Weinberger]

Even if what he was saying was true, he held onto the story for weeks at this point, while investigators, family and friends searched tirelessly for justice. Investigators said Danielle appeared to be shocked when she heard about her boyfriend's admission.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

This is Danielle learning my daughter has been missing for weeks because these interviews happened around April 30th or so. And, you know, justice has been missing since the 13th. She confronts him, essentially, my daughter's been missing for weeks, and you're lying. And that was the last time Danielle spoke to Bobby.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

For police, they had to consider the various possibilities. Had Kern really dropped justice off nearby and then she'd either A, disappeared voluntarily or B, something worse had happened? Or was Kern giving false information to cover for Another lie, perhaps even something worse than all the above.

[Scott Weinberger]

Kern's admission was suspect enough that police secured a warrant to seize his car for an analysis.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

They were executing a search warrant to seize his vehicle because at that point they'd developed enough to believe that it had been involved in the crime and a judge had signed a search warrant for them to be able to seize the car and process it.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Before long, autopsy results came back for the body that had been found in.

[Scott Weinberger]

The woods as suspected DNA confirmed it was justice. News that everyone had been dreading. But with the investigation at a critical juncture and police not yet knowing who and what to believe, this identification would be temporarily kept quiet, even from her own mother, who was, as we know, desperate for information.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

She would contact law enforcement and say, just tell me, just tell me, is this justice? Just tell me.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

So Scott, you know, even just hearing that this news is kept from her family, your first reaction? My first reaction is like, what her family doesn't know. But then you have to put on investigators hat and how this case has been unfolding to this point.

[Scott Weinberger]

Every situation obviously is different and we don't know what was exactly in the investigators minds at that moment. But it's not unusual, as you know, Anestika, to hold back some information to further the investigation and not potentially taint any of the evidence, any statements. And I'd say this, they would have to move swiftly, no matter what the disagreements the family may have had with investigators. Her family and her mother really needed to know and she deserved to know. So I think it was a really delicate balance they were involved in.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

I actually do think it's unusual to hold back an identification from the family. But here we're not just talking about a normal course of a general investigation. Right. It's one that her own mom has admitted to a lie. So they don't really know what is what. So the purpose, while as you said, and you're right, like it's this really delicate balance that they need to figure out which way this is moving quickly just for that reason. But they need to figure that out first so it doesn't impede an investigation. If this is going somewhere that is going to involve one or both of these family members.

[Scott Weinberger]

And really the next important step in the investigation would be the autopsy, which also had revealed several things about the end of Justyce's young life. But due to how badly decomposed she was when she was found, those clues would not come from just the examination of her body, but the clothing that remained on and around her body.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Her state of undress suggested sexual assault. Her pants had been pulled down, her top and bra pushed up. Her face had been covered with a hoodie that had been tied completely closed.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

The string would go through the front part of the hood, and then when you squeeze it, it makes that really, really tight, but it almost creates a garrote is how our investigator described it. And that is what it appeared to be like, as though that was used as a piece of string to pull very tightly around the neck area.

[Scott Weinberger]

The way it was tied was unusual and suggested possible strangulation. The Emmy also noticed something else when examining the pants Justus was wearing. Wearing it was a design that seemed bleach into the pant.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

So they had to go about finding out whether that was manufacturer based the bleach pattern or whether that was something that was part of the crime. So they had to try to determine when justice left the house wearing these pants, what did they look like? Did they have bleach marks or not?

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

So was this the intentional style of the pants, or was it an indication that bleach had actually been poured on at least the lower half of Justice's body? And if so, why?

[Scott Weinberger]

If it was bleach, it could have been an attempt to cover up the crime. In particular, an attempt to cover up any evidence of a sexual assault. And we'll just leave it at that.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Despite these findings, because of the advanced state of decomposition, the medical examiner was unable to conclude a specific cause of.

[Scott Weinberger]

Death, and investigators would take several additional steps to figure out the cause of her death.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Remember, we were missing a large portion of the tissue of the body. So if there had been a stab wound to the upper part of the body, we wouldn't have been able to determine that based on the state of the body. If there had been a gunshot wound to the body, we wouldn't have been able to determine that based on the state of the body. There was just enough matter left in the skull to be able to test toxicology. But even that became something that was uncertain based on the state of the body and not knowing a whole lot about the specific acts that led up to her death.

[Scott Weinberger]

Following the autopsy, Justice's body was sent to a special lab at the University of Florida, which examines every piece of skeleton, looking for abnormalities or signs of violence.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Meanwhile, investigators continued to focus on their case, gathering evidence and trying to help figure out what had happened to Justice.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

The initial thing that law enforcement did was go to get the historical cell site data with search warrants. They had a lot of information regarding Justice's movements that was able to be put into a physical map based on location data so that we knew exactly where her phone went that entire morning until it was powered off, we believe to be powered off and ditched, as.

[Scott Weinberger]

They had with Justice's cell phone. Investigators secured warrants to get data off of both Danielle and Bobby Kern's phones. The new data set would show if Danielle or Kern had been at the locations where justice had been the morning she went missing.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

There was just one problem. All the data had been deleted from Kern's phone. His phone had been recently reset.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Bobby's phone was collected during his second interview at FDLE toward the end of April. And it was learned that he had factory reset his phone prior to arriving at the FDLE location for the interview. So we didn't have substantive content from.

[Scott Weinberger]

His current phone, you know, anesthetic. It's obviously no secret, as so many true crime shows talk about the fact that data is derived from your suspect's cell phone, and it can bring crucial evidence to light. So it's not surprising that someone is able to hide something from law enforcement or would even think to do so. But let me offer this. It's the fact that the material was deleted from his cell phone. Is what's that suspicious? An overt act that becomes part of your circumstantial evidence in what is a growing and strengthening case against Kern.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

And again, I'm just going to take the other side for a moment because we need to do that as well. Right. We don't really know where this lands, and I am one who is not technologically that savvy. And when I have problems with my phone and you know this, Scott, more than once, I have had to just kind of redo the whole thing because I can't figure out. So I have had to do these resets, and I think others have as well, at least once in a while. But I think, as you pointed out, it is that all of this information is deleted. And the timing, I mean, just right before he's going in to speak with them, on top of the lies that we already know have been told, that is just continuing to lead investigators down this. Something's not right here on that path.

[Scott Weinberger]

And I don't disagree with you. And I know looking at this, it's something that people may do all the time, like you mentioned, I don't think you're wrong about that. But this is where our timelines become so important, because we do know that he knew at that moment he was under the Microscope and was being questioned by investigators. So he knew at that moment also that the phone data may be requested. So if you're looking to hide something, if that was his intention, that was the right time.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

And the timing of this for investigators didn't help either, because by this point, remember, we're talking many weeks out. That data they'd been hoping to get from the phone companies had also been deleted by the passage of time.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

Well, at some point, the phone companies, by virtue of how much data it is, they only keep what I started referring to throughout the case as super data. That's not the correct term, but that's what I referred to it as. They only keep that super data for a short period of time.

[Scott Weinberger]

The records were limited to location while the phone was in use, which meant they could see where the phone was, but as I mentioned, only when that phone was being used. Despite the setback, there was one person willing to help police in any way she could, and that was Justice's mom, Danielle.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

She consented to everything. Looking at her phone, searching her house, doing anything they needed to do to help find information about her daughter and what happened to her daughter.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Police obviously had initially been concerned about Danielle's lies, but her phone helped confirm for them that she wasn't with her daughter the morning she disappeared. And once that was confirmed, trust was slowly built between law enforcement and Danielle. They both had one goal. Find out what happened to justice and who had committed this brutal, most tragic of crimes.

[Scott Weinberger]

Danielle's phone provided a thorough timeline of what messages were sent between Kern and Danielle. One of those messages was sent just 20 minutes after Kern had left the house with Justice.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

He texted her that morning that he took justice to school or was supposed to take Justice. He texted her about 20 to 30 minutes later because that's how long it would have taken him to take justice to school. He texted her, she's dropped off.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Police now knew that this text, she's dropped off was likely a lie, at least as far as where she'd been dropped off, even maybe if she'd been dropped off at all. The rest of the timeline showed where Kern was that morning. The answer was with Justice.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

So once we started collecting that information, where we had historical cell site data showing her phone traveling east toward Volusia county and then his phone in Volusia County. Later on that morning, around the same time frame, we started to know that there was something going on that needed to be looked at more closely.

[Scott Weinberger]

Both. Both his phone and Justice's phone pinged the same cell towers multiple times. Including the area where justice was ultimately found. His phone remained there for over an hour.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

We know that there was a phone call that came in that was unanswered in downtown DeLand that did match up with one of her data points.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

There was another piece of data from Kern's phone that investigators zeroed in on. It wasn't from the day justice disappeared. It was from three days later.

[Scott Weinberger]

On the next Anatomy of Murder.

[Norwegian Cruise Line Representative]

And when you put it all together and you see all the messages over those several weeks, and when you find out what he knew and what Danielle must have been feeling knowing her daughter's missing, it adds an entire layer of depravity that I've never seen in any other case.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder.

[Scott Weinberger]

Anatomy of Murder is an audio Chuck.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

Original, produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frisetti Media.

[Scott Weinberger]

Ashley Flowers is executive producer.

[Anna Sega Nicolasi]

This episode was written and produced by Tracy Levy, researched by Kate Cooper, edited by Ali Sirwa, Megan Hayward and Phil John Grande so what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

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