Jessica

Summary

Bone Valley, Season 3: Graves County, Episode “Jessica”

Release Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Maggie Freleng (Lava for Good Podcasts)

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Overview

In this powerful season premiere of Bone Valley Season 3, titled "Jessica," host Maggie Freleng introduces listeners to the 2000 murder of 18-year-old Jessica Curran in Graves County, Kentucky. The episode carefully reconstructs the days leading up to Jessica’s death, her family’s heartbreak, the small-town investigation riddled with errors and missteps, and the grassroots efforts of a determined private citizen and journalists to bring her case back to public attention. This season uncovers a story threaded with community pain, institutional failure, and a determined search for truth and justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Discovery and Immediate Aftermath

• Scene Setting: On August 1, 2000, a teacher discovers Jessica’s body behind Mayfield Middle School; the first murder in the town for over a year and a half ([01:46]–[04:01]).
  • Crime Scene Details: Jessica had been beaten, strangled, stabbed, and burned, with jewelry still on her body and a black braided belt fragment found near her neck ([04:16]–[04:35]).
  • Emotional Impact: "It's the loneliest crime scene I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot." – Dara Wolman ([03:24])
• Community Shock: Mayfield, a majority-white small town with a history of racial tension, is deeply shaken.

2. Jessica Curran’s Life and Family

• Background: Jessica, 18, had a 7-month-old son, Zion, and had recently moved to her own apartment, seeking independence ([07:44]–[08:05]).
• Family Portrait: Joe Curran, Jessica’s father, is portrayed as a respected community member and devoted dad. Jessica was remembered as “sweet and loving, but also feisty and brave,” someone who stood up for herself and others ([21:21]–[22:33]).
• Pain of Loss: Joe’s recollections are haunted by pain and regret: “...my wife, she’s still pretty shook up. They were close friends. Almost like two sisters. It really, really hurt her...” ([21:01])

3. The Last Night

• Final Movements:
  • Jessica spent the evening at a small gathering with girlfriends, leaving near 1–2AM to walk home alone when no ride was available ([08:52]–[11:12]).
  • The Walk: A 40-minute trek through a desolate part of town, described as dangerous and lonely at that hour ([11:31]–[11:54]).

4. Parallel Party: The Quincy Cross Connection

• Chris Drive Party: At a different gathering, Quincy Cross, an out-of-town visitor with a reputation for rowdiness and strange behavior, becomes a focal point.
  • Behavior Noted: "He was swinging [his black braided belt] around...making noise with it. At some point, Ashley and I both looked at each other and thought, you know, that's annoying." ([10:09]–[10:27])
• Mysterious Motives: Conflicting accounts about Quincy’s motives that night—claimed to be seeking food, but others recall his consistent statements about “finding girls” ([12:06]–[13:03]; [46:22]–[47:02]).
• Strange Circumstances: Quincy ends up stranded in a borrowed car out of gas; when found by police had no belt and "stunk of gasoline" ([14:02]–[15:22]).
• Evidence and Inconsistencies:
  • A fragment of a black braided belt is found by Jessica’s body ([17:08])
  • Quincy’s belt is missing; unclear accounts if police ever possessed it

5. Investigation Fumbles and Community Frustration

• Police Failures: The initial scene was poorly managed: delayed taping off, mishandled evidence (discarded maggots, mixing up rape swabs), and basic forensic errors, admitted even by the lead detective ([26:13]–[26:49]; [28:24]).
  • "I didn't have a clue what to do next...Frankly, I was scared stiff." – Tim Fortner ([28:24])
• Police Department Turmoil: Leadership exposed for corruption during the investigation, further undermining public trust ([29:09]).
• Family’s Advocacy: Joe Curran’s tireless activism—protests, press, and political appeals—to demand real investigation ([30:10]–[30:40]).

6. Citizen Sleuthing: Susan Galbraith’s Investigation

• Susan Steps In: Frustrated by police inaction, Susan, with no formal training, takes up the case—at times aiding, at times irritating state police ([33:10]–[34:39]).
  • "No, just a lot of Court TV." – Susan Galbraith, on her experience ([34:36])
• Media Attention: British journalist Tom Mangold leverages Susan’s theories; they center on Quincy Cross, with circumstantial connections: the belt, gas, missing bat ([36:04]–[37:16]).
  • "Here was a man, shortly after the murder of Jessica Curran. His black braided belt is missing because it’s round the throat of the dead girl. And he stinks of gas." – Tom Mangold ([36:04])
• Parallel Investigation Tactics:
  • Susan records conversations with suspects and witnesses, wearing a wire ([35:02]); works social media angles (MySpace) to make contact with potential witnesses ([43:30]).
  • Tracy Caldwell, a key witness, is located through these efforts and shares her fear and willingness to help ([44:10]).

7. The Role of Rumor, Memory, and Inconsistency

• Changing Stories: Discrepancies around Quincy’s actions and the timeline: food versus seeking girls, the belt’s whereabouts, source of gasoline ([46:22]–[48:09]).
• Narrative Construction: How incomplete police work, biases, and press coverage combine to shape public understanding—often before real evidence emerges.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s the loneliest crime scene I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot.” — Dara Wolman ([03:24])
• “He said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’ That’s his words.” — Joe Curran, on detective Fortner ([29:03])
• “No, just a lot of Court TV.” — Susan Galbraith, on being inexperienced ([34:36])
• “Here was a man...his black braided belt is missing...and he stinks of gas.” — Tom Mangold, BBC ([36:04])
• “Do you think Quincy Cross killed Jessica Curran?” – Producer Rebecca
  “No. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” — Maggie Freeling ([48:09]–[48:18])

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------|---------------| | Graphic warning & discovery of body | 01:46–04:16 | | Joe Curran’s background & Mayfield context | 04:35–07:44 | | Jessica’s final hours | 07:44–11:12 | | Quincy & Chris Drive party | 09:29–14:19 | | Jessica’s disappearance & discovery | 15:22–17:08 | | Police investigation & failures | 26:13–29:57 | | Joe’s activism & protests | 30:10–30:40 | | Susan Galbraith’s investigation | 33:10–36:04 | | Tom Mangold and case theory | 36:04–37:53 | | Susan’s tactics (recordings, MySpace) | 43:30–44:30 | | Maggie’s uncertainties, belt and gas | 46:22–48:18 | | Teaser for next episode | 48:31–49:18 |

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Tone and Style Notes

Bone Valley maintains a deeply human, investigative tone—sensitive but unsparing in confronting trauma, grief, and the messiness of small-town justice. The narrative interleaves reporters’ skepticism and compassion, survivors’ raw pain, and citizen investigators’ zeal—sometimes bordering on obsession. Maggie’s honest uncertainty invites listeners to remain open-minded, questioning conclusions and empathy as new evidence emerges.

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Summary Takeaways

• Jessica Curran’s murder and the botched initial investigation devastated a close-knit Kentucky community, dividing public trust.
• Joe Curran’s sorrow and persistence symbolize a family’s struggle for justice in the face of institutional failure.
• Amateur sleuthing and media intervention pushed the story forward, but also introduced rumor, bias, and new complications.
• Key suspects and witnesses remained at the fringe, with alibis, motives, and narratives marred by contradiction.
• The episode ends not with certainty but with questions—about evidence, memory, and justice—teasing a deeper dive in upcoming episodes.

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For listener reference:

• [Official character guide and show notes at Lava for Good / Bone Valley podcast page.]

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Transcript

[Maggie Freeling]

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[Maggie Freeling]

Heads up. This series contains graphic descriptions of violence. On the morning of August 1, 2000, a teacher preparing for the first day of classes noticed something on the ground near the flower beds behind the Mayfield Middle School.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I saw this sandal laying right by the door. There's a little concrete pad there and I saw the sandal laying there and I just thought, you know, I wonder what that sandal's doing there.

[Maggie Freeling]

As her sight shifted away from the sandalwood, scanning the school grounds, the teacher saw something else.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And when I looked over to the left is when I saw the body.

[Maggie Freeling]

There's not a lot of bodies found in Mayfield, Kentucky.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

No.

[Maggie Freeling]

When you heard there was one, what were you?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

What were you thinking, oh, our man was racing. But you know, when you've never had nothing like this happen before, it kind of gives you a little, you know, a little thought that, no, it's not happening to me.

[Maggie Freeling]

This is Joe Curran. For two days before Jessica's body was found, he and his wife Jean had been searching for their 18 year old daughter. The next day, police identified the body. The with the help of dental records. And Joe and Jean. It was Jessyca. They recognized the jewelry on their daughter's hands.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

It's the loneliest crime scene I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot.

[Maggie Freeling]

You met Dara Wolman on the last episode. Like me, Dara has pored over pictures and video of the crime scene.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She just looked as if she had been tossed out the back. The way her shoe was, you know, all the jewelry still on her. And it was like everything that she had that she felt that was a value she had on her still. But she was all by herself. It was just lonely.

[Maggie Freeling]

According to police, Jessica's murder was the first in Mayfield in over a year and a half. They told the press that the school grounds appeared to be the scene of the crime. That there were signs of a struggle and then a homicide.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

We're getting the information that she was beaten, strangled, stabbed and burned. I don't know how it could get much worse. And then her body was dumped behind the middle school.

[Maggie Freeling]

I first met Joe Curran in 2023. He was born in Graves county in 1957, just a year after Mayfield started to desegreg its public schools.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I'm kind of a country boy and I went to some few schools out in the county and they didn't have any, you know, black students at all.

[Maggie Freeling]

You were the only black kid?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yes.

[Maggie Freeling]

What was that like?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Well, I mean, it's kind of like most of my life.

[Maggie Freeling]

Joe was among that first generation of black children to study in what had been white only schools in a county that has always been majority white, 90% as of the last census. This is the world Joe grew up in.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

You know, I ride horses and go to rodeos and stuff. And a lot of places that I go to basketball games and football games, and it's a whole stadium full of people. And a lot of times I'm the only black person there. I go to a lot of farmers meetings, 300 people. I may be the only black person in the room. So I mean, it don't mean anything to me.

[Maggie Freeling]

And Joe learned to thrive in this world. He played defense for the high school football team, the beloved Mayfield Cardinals, worked as a bailiff and ran his own business.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I'm a fish farmer, so I ate fish ponds there.

[Maggie Freeling]

What kind of fish?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Catfish. Catfish.

[Maggie Freeling]

He became a lieutenant in the fire department and went to church every Sunday. Joe Curran did right by Mayfield. So when his daughter was brutally killed, Joe thought Mayfield would do right by him. Instead, local police bungled the case and it went unsolved for years. This is Graves County Chapter 2. Jessica depending on who you ask, there are dozens of versions of what happened to Jessica between the time she was reportedly last seen and the time her body was found. You already heard one version last episode, but that's different from the story about the final days of Jessica Curran's life that were first put on the record. This is according to my team's own reporting, court testimony, police interviews, and private investigator interviews, which you'll be hearing throughout this episode, all of which have been edited for length and clarity. In July of 2000, Jessica had a seven month old baby named Zion. She was close with her family, shared a room at home with Zion and her baby sister. But she wanted her independence. So Jessyca got her own apartment at an affordable housing complex in the southeast part of town. Though she was slow to fully move out.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Jo says the first whole week she stayed at home and the second week she moved out on Thursday. She went to her house on Thursday and she was there on Friday. And then Saturday.

[Maggie Freeling]

That Saturday morning, Jessyca dropped off Zion with her parents and she went to hang out with some girlfriends, including her boyfriend's cousin, Venetia Stubblefield. You heard her name last episode. Venetia and Jessyca had become friends. Earlier that year, me and Jessica had.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Just started really actually hanging out. In 2000. She was going to adult learning center to get her GED from when she dropped out of high school. When she was pregnant, she went to the GED school.

[Maggie Freeling]

They crossed paths after class, when she.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Was coming from GED school and I was coming from summer school.

[Maggie Freeling]

Venetia, a wiry girl with giant eyes, was among the very first people interviewed by police. She was 16 at the time. According to Venetia, she, Jessica and a few other girls hung out at a friend's house, playing cards and having drinks. That night we all sit there, play.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Chorus, listen to music. We had a few drinks. We did.

[Maggie Freeling]

Meanwhile, in another part of town, there was a party on a street called Chris Drive. It's about a 10 minute drive south from where Jessica was hanging and a little more rural, surrounded by fields Hanging out were a handful of locals and 24 year old Quincy Cross. Quincy lived in Tennessee, but a friend had convinced him to go to Mayfield and hang. He could even sell some drugs there.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

He was like, come on man, if you go, we'll bring you back later on.

[Maggie Freeling]

Some partygoers say Quincy stood out that night, not just because he was an out of towner, but because he was rowdy. He kept wanting to play drinking games and was fidgeting with his braided belt.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

He had a black braided belt on and he was swinging it around the night because while he was talking to us in the living room, he was flick in the end of it, kind of flickering around while he was talking. It stuck out in my mind because.

[Maggie Freeling]

He had taken the belt off and.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Was like swinging it around and wrapping it around his hands and making noise with it. And I think at some point Ashley and I both kind of looked at each other and thought, you know, that's annoying.

[Maggie Freeling]

Meanwhile, back at the other gathering, the low key one with the girls playing cards, Jessica decided to call it a night. Around 1 or 2am her friends tried to get her a ride home, but no one was available. So Jessica had to go back to her apartment on foot. Venetia walked Jessyca outside to say goodbye.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

We stood there, we talked for a brief minute. Then after that she left the shoe all by herself.

[Maggie Freeling]

Venetia says she told Jessica to take care and watched her disappear into the night. So this was the night that we think everything happened. She leaves there and it starts walking.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yeah, she's walking somewhere along here.

[Maggie Freeling]

I charted that walk with Joe Curran and a private investigator. It would have been at least a 40 minute journey alone in the dark.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

But that'd be a long walk for her at that time of day. Not that she wasn't capable of doing it, but I don't know how smart that would be.

[Maggie Freeling]

The middle school is halfway to Jessica's place and it would have been desolate.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

This town pretty much dies dark.

[Maggie Freeling]

Back at the party on Chris Drive, Quincy asked to borrow someone's car around daybreak. He says he wanted to go find food.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I'm like, man, I'm hungry now. So I'm like, man, how do you get to town? So he pointed in his direction. I asked him let me use his car.

[Maggie Freeling]

But some of the other partygoers remember it differently.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

He was on the phone quite frequently that night and was calling back to unicity in different places saying that, you know, he found some women at a hotel or something or another he recalls.

[Maggie Freeling]

Quincy saying he wanted to get some bitches.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I'm sorry, get some bitches.

[Maggie Freeling]

So he borrowed the car and drove off. But remember, it's 2000. He'd been partying. We didn't have Google Maps or anything like that back then. So Quincy says he got lost on those rural roads.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I can end up making a big loop, a whole big old circle. So when I do that, the car runs out of gas.

[Maggie Freeling]

It stalled about two miles from Chris Drive. That's when a local jailer saw Quincy, pulled over and asked if he needed help.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I popped his trunk in his gas can. You know what I'm saying? It's in this trunk.

[Maggie Freeling]

So the jailer watched him put gas in the car and spill some on himself.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

This guy, he's standing right beside me. So he see me drop a couple drops of gas on my pants leg. He see me do it.

[Maggie Freeling]

There's no disputing that the jailer found Quincy putting gas in a car. But there doesn't seem to be a consensus as to where exactly the gas can came from. Here's the car's owner at trial.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Was that your gas can? No, sir. I didn't have a gas can. My car. Did Mr. Cross tell you where he got that gas? He said he stole it from a building or something somewhere around the road. He got put gas in my car to try to get the gas station. Supposedly.

[Maggie Freeling]

Either way, around 7:50am A state trooper driving by noticed Quincy right away.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

He had no shirt on, could see multiple tattoos. He had a pair of dark pants on with no belt.

[Maggie Freeling]

Quincy quibbles with some of those details.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I had a T shirt on. He kept saying, I didn't have no T shirt on. I did have a T shirt on.

[Maggie Freeling]

But the trooper says he specifically noticed Quincy didn't have a belt on.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

The pants were drooping. I could see his boxer shorts. He kept having to pull them up. While we were having conversations, the state.

[Maggie Freeling]

Trooper gave Quincy a ride back to Chris Drive. And when the trooper went to retrieve the stalled car, he says he found marijuana seeds on the front seat and a handgun in the glove box. That gave him enough to go back to Chris Drive and search all the partygoers for more drugs or weapons. And Quincy, along with a few others at the party, ended up getting arrested early Sunday for drug possession. One of the guys booked with Quincy remembers the smell.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And he stunk of gasoline. I mean, it was just ricking on him. He smelled like gas.

[Maggie Freeling]

Later that Sunday morning, Jessica's parents, Joe and Jean, went to pick up Jessica so they could all go to church with Zion. But they didn't find her. At first Joe thought she's probably still out with friends. When did you realize something was really wrong?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Well, being working at the fire department and the sheriff's department, I knew that once a person is a grownup at 18, you have you can't really do nothing with a missing person until so many hours. So I mean, but we already feeling like, you know, something wasn't right because she hadn't been calling.

[Maggie Freeling]

Sunday went by, then Monday and still no sign of their daughter until the teacher found the body on Tuesday. She'd been burned, part of her dress charred onto her body. Her sandals were strewn as if she'd been dragged or had run. Her underwear was found ripped in two next to her on the ground. According to the medical examiner, Jessica appeared to have been hit in the head. Her nose was broken, she had some cuts around her face and what appeared to be stab wounds in her back. He determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma plus strangulation based on another piece of evidence found near Jessyca's body, the fragment of a black braided belt laying near her neck. More after the break. How to have fun anytime, anywhere step.

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[Maggie Freeling]

For a brief moment in time, Joe Curran had everything he wanted. He and his wife Jean got married young and their plan was to have two boys and two girls.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And I wanted boy first and girl second. And that's the way we had them. We had a boy and a girl and then another boy and a girl.

[Maggie Freeling]

All their names start with J. Is Jessica the youngest?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

No, she's the second oldest. Okay.

[Maggie Freeling]

Joe Curran is the kind of man who looks like he carries the weight of the world. He stands tall and proud with the build of a football player. But his eyes are sunken and tired, revealing decades of pain.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And that's a picture I heard of her older brother.

[Maggie Freeling]

I'm sitting with Joe, going through old family photographs.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

This is a picture of my wife. And she's holding her there, a tiny.

[Maggie Freeling]

Jessica in a frilly white dress and white bonnet, probably going to church. Jessyca was pretty, with big brown almond shaped eyes and a wide, perfectly white smile. She looks like Joe, a spitting image of her dad. She usually wore her hair in a cute short bob. And she was tall.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yeah, she was about 5, 9, 5 10.

[Maggie Freeling]

Yeah, she's like a little string bean here. Tall and skinny.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Maggie Freeling]

And athletic. She ran track and she was a solid 90s teen who liked Tupac and the X Files.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She was the only one that would watch the X Files with me. I mean, she could kind of keep up with it. My wife gets lost on it and she can't. She can't keep. She don't have the patience.

[Maggie Freeling]

So Joe's wife Jean isn't sitting with us.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I have to apologize for my wife. She. She's still pretty shook up.

[Maggie Freeling]

Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. So what?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

You know why.

[Maggie Freeling]

While she's talked to press in the past, Jean just isn't up for it today. I can't say I blame her. After years of telling strangers about your dead child, what else is there to say except I'm in pain and I miss her?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I mean, she still goes to the down to the grave site at least once or twice a week sometimes. I mean, they were close. They were close friends. I mean, about as close as you could be for a mother and a daughter, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Almost like, you know, two sisters. And it really, really hurt her and.

[Maggie Freeling]

She told me, after two years of reporting on this case, I can say that from all I've gathered, Jessica was sweet and loving, but she was also feisty and brave.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Jessica cut a boy one time for calling her the N word. She pulled out a blade and cut him.

[Maggie Freeling]

This is an old police interview of Jessica's best friend, saying Jessica once pulled a knife on a boy for calling her the N word.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

If she had a problem, I mean, she would. I mean, hit you or whatever she felt necessary to defend herself.

[Maggie Freeling]

Jessica Lindsey met Jessica Curran at Graves County High.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I consider her one of my best friends. She was a very outgoing person, very down to earth. What caught my attention about her in school was that she stood up for people, like when they would get picked on. And she didn't allow that. If she seen it going on, she would put a stop to it. So, I mean, she was just a very, you know, very kind girl. Very, very kind girl. She would pretty much do anything for anybody.

[Maggie Freeling]

And she was also a teenager who, in the summer of 2000, was getting over heartache. She had her baby in December 1999, a little boy named Zion. And Jessica thought that baby's dad was a boy named Marcus.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She used to sneak out her bedroom window to go see him.

[Maggie Freeling]

But after Zion was born, Jessica got the news.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She was trying to get child support ordered for Marcus or whatever.

[Maggie Freeling]

And they done a DNA test and.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

It came back negative. Or however they come back, it wasn't his.

[Maggie Freeling]

It hit her hard, especially when she realized that if Marcus wasn't the dad, then it had to be a local drug dealer named Jeremy Adams, a guy she barely knew and didn't even like. According to her friend, they had just hung out once and smoked some weed.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

We all went back to my house and we smoked a blunt and hung out marijuana, and we hung out or whatever. And that night, he kind of forcibly took her around the building and had said they had sex. It was like two seconds they were around there and came back and he walked off. And that was that.

[Maggie Freeling]

That was that. A baby came nine months later.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She was very upset when she found out it wasn't Marcus. She was very upset. This was after Zion was born. She stopped messing with Marcus and she.

[Maggie Freeling]

Started messing with Lolo Carlos, Lolo Saxton Venetia Stubblefield's cousin, and another local drug dealer, a dreamy one at that, a year older with sad, puppy eyes. They started seeing each other in the spring of 2000.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I mean, she liked him. She really liked him.

[Maggie Freeling]

It was panning out to Be a good summer for young Jessica, meeting a boy she liked, moving out on her own. So much to look forward to. In the months that followed his daughter's killing, Joe walked around in a daze, in a nightmare. He remembers sitting at a restaurant.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I was sitting at the table by myself, and this waitress come over and said to me, you look like you lost the last person in the world. You look like you lost your best friend.

[Maggie Freeling]

She didn't know.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She had no clue. She apologized later because she found out what happened, and she knew who I was, and she apologized later. She said, I had no clue that, you know, that was your daughter. Cause it just showed on my face, me sitting there by myself. It just showed.

[Maggie Freeling]

One of the few comforts the Curran family had was believing that soon, eventually, they'd find whoever did this to Jessica, and they'd be able to ask how and why and hopefully get some sense of justice. The man put in charge of Jessica Kern's murder investigation was Tim Fortner, a patrolman who had just been promoted to detective. This was his very first murder investigation. And according to interviews, press reports and court filings, Fortner and his small town police department were out of their depths. The problem seemed to have started from the get go. Here's Dara again.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Okay, so it took forever for them to rope off the crime scene, right?

[Maggie Freeling]

They didn't log who came and went or properly canvassed the neighborhood.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

No statements were taken at the scene.

[Maggie Freeling]

They also threw away the maggots they found on Jessica's body. Maggots could have helped determine how long her body had been decomposing. Without them, it was hard for the medical examiner to determine an exact time of death.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

In supplemental reports that I've read by the police, they're like, do we keep her underwear? What about the 7Up bottle?

[Maggie Freeling]

They threw away part of Jessica's dress. And a couple rape swabs from other crime scenes were mixed in with the evidence boxes for Jessica's case.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

So no one is in charge. It's the blind leading the blind.

[Maggie Freeling]

I found Fortner's number and called him to ask about the investigation.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Hello.

[Maggie Freeling]

Hi. I'm looking for Mr. Tim Fortner. I interrupted his evening at home.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Hey, Stan.

[Maggie Freeling]

Hi, Mr. Fortner, my name is Maggie Freeling. How are you?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I'm well. How are you?

[Maggie Freeling]

He still lives in Kentucky. As far as I can tell, his last gig in law enforcement was as a school resource officer in another county, and he hosts a show on the side for wkms, the local public radio station. I am a journalist And I am reporting on the Jessica Curran case and going through the documents, you were the first responding officer, so I was hoping you'd want to talk.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yeah, I was, but I'm in the middle of dinner, and I don't have any. You know, there's nothing to comment on. Okay. Appreciate it.

[Maggie Freeling]

Yeah, I'm actually in town. Could I meet you tomorrow, perhaps?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Well, probably not.

[Maggie Freeling]

Probably not as in no.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And so it's, you know, you could contact the state police. Okay. And I sure do appreciate you calling me.

[Maggie Freeling]

A very polite no, thank you.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Have a great day.

[Maggie Freeling]

All right, you too.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Bye.

[Maggie Freeling]

But Fortner has spoken to the press before, and he's admitted that he wasn't the man for the job. In 2004, he told Tom Mangold, the BBC reporter, that, quote, I didn't have a clue what to do next. He said, I didn't know how to organize a crime scene or look for forensic evidence. Frankly, I was scared stiff. He even admitted this to the Currans.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Told us, me and my wife, that he had no clue what he was doing. He didn't know what he was doing.

[Maggie Freeling]

He tells this to you. The lead detective on your daughter's homicide case says to you, I don't know what I'm doing.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

He said, I don't know what I'm doing. That's his words.

[Maggie Freeling]

On top of that, the Mayfield Police Department was dealing with a flurry of internal investigations and allegations of malfeasance. The chief and assistant chief were ousted and eventually pled guilty to felony charges for misusing public funds, including money that police had confiscated from drug arrests. Mayfield Police Department was a mess. Fortner and his team had chased some leads, interviewed many people, and pinpointed a few suspects. But it all fell apart. The rookie detectives. First big case, a failure. In 2003, Fortner quit, and the Kentucky State Police had to step in to take over the case.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Case.

[Maggie Freeling]

The State Police pursued some lines of investigation, but didn't seem to get far either. And as the years went by, Joe had to fight to keep his daughter's case. Top of mind.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

We've had protests at the courthouse several times. We've had one at Mitch McConnell's office, the leading senator from Kentucky in Paducah.

[Maggie Freeling]

Even Reverend Al Sharpton's national Action Network got involved.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

We went to Frankfurt, to the Attorney General's office. We went to the FBI office, the U.S. attorney's office. We didn't done all of that stuff.

[Maggie Freeling]

But what Joe didn't know at first was that another person was also growing increasingly frustrated. By law enforcement failures and decided to stop watching from the sidelines. Susan Galbraith, the citizen sleuth who you met last episode, embarked on a whole investigation of her own. And as she started digging into the files, a name stood out.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Quincy. Quincy, Quincy, Quincy, Quincy. I don't know what's left. Yeah, I cross.

[Maggie Freeling]

After the break.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

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[Maggie Freeling]

Susan said she'd felt a connection to Jessica Curran since the day her body was found and she went to look at the crime scene. That she was called by a divine power to help find her killer. But as far as I can tell, she didn't actually act on that calling until four years after the murder when Susan began talking to the Kentucky State Police and getting updates on the case.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Hello Susan. Yes, David. For saying.

[Maggie Freeling]

And started both prying on and cooperating with the investigation.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Hi, how are you? I'm fine. I'm surprised I hadn't heard from you. Well, I've been off. I hadn't. Hadn't been working any this week.

[Maggie Freeling]

I've been off, since in reviewing her correspondence, tape recordings and court testimony, I found that at times the detectives kept Susan at arm's length, but they often entertained her ideas and followed up on her tips.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

But Lieutenant Ken called and said he spoke with you and said that you had some new information or something that you wanted to. No, it was the same information. I mean, as far as where Venetia was.

[Maggie Freeling]

And this emboldened Susan to start conducting a parallel investigation, even though, as she testified in court, she had no experience other than that. Have you had any law enforcement training or education in the area of law enforcement?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

No, just a lot of Court tv.

[Maggie Freeling]

It was also around this time that Susan started working with British journalist Tom Mangold, who flew to Mayfield in the spring of 2004.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

So he was in Mayfield for 10 days. When he left, I continued to dig.

[Maggie Freeling]

Susan kept digging through police records that Tom helped get and interviewing people. She even started wearing a wire.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I kept a recorder pinned to my body or duct taped at all times.

[Maggie Freeling]

All with a main suspect in mind.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Quincy became the top of the list.

[Maggie Freeling]

Susan had seen Jessica's autopsy pictures from the scene of the crime and the police reports from the weekend she was last seen alive. And there she noticed that a man named Quincy Cross had come to town. Witnesses heard him asking about finding girls, and he had been arrested smelling of gas, with his belt missing. So she connected the dots.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I just know he killed her.

[Maggie Freeling]

In an email to Tom, Susan wrote that from the beginning, she knew who the suspects were and her job was proving it. And Tom helped her publicize her main suspect's name, starting with his first article in the summer of 2004 and in subsequent reports through the years. Here's Tom and Susan in a BBC broadcast.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

So here was a man shortly after the murder of Jessica Caran. His black braided belt is missing because it's round the throat of the dead girl. Correct. And he stinks of gas. Yes. Everything just started coming together. It was like a deck of cards just falling. I really, really got emotional because I finally started feeling that there's going to be an end to this.

[Maggie Freeling]

Now, not only did Tom introduce Quincy Cross as his main suspect in his articles, but as far as I can tell, he was the first reporter to really hint at the idea that there was a sexual element to the crime against Jessica. Up until then, every time law enforcement talked about Jessica's case to the press, they did not mention rape or sexual assault. But Tom took those descriptions of Quincy at the party as wired and wanting girls and wrote the Quincy's demeanor, quote, suggested a sexual predator on cocaine. End quote. Years later, he would go even further, saying that early on in his reporting, he and Susan knew something more nefarious had occurred.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

We were pretty certain by now that Quincy Cross, together with other accomplices, had murdered Jessica in a sex and drugs frenzy.

[Maggie Freeling]

In his digging, Tom also found that a small souvenir bat had allegedly gone missing from the car Quincy had borrowed. A bat that, according to Tom, could have been used to bludgeon Jessica. Since no other weapon had been found. Tom and Susan shared all their findings and theories with the police. But they were both disappointed to learn it was not enough to make an arrest.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

The Kentucky State Police were no closer to arresting the perpetrators than their hapless predecessors, the Mayfield police.

[Maggie Freeling]

But Susan did not give up. Instead, she continued to pursue another one of the suspects on her list. Venetia Stubblefield, the last known person to see Jessica Curran alive. Susan already knew Venetia from around town. Remember, Mayfield is small.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I want to say, the first time I met her, she was 13 years old.

[Maggie Freeling]

But her interactions with Venetia increased when she started investigating the case.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

After 2004 is when I talked to her a whole lot more.

[Maggie Freeling]

In their first investigation, Mayfield police suspected that Venetia knew something, but they never really got anywhere with her. Then came Susan. She became convinced that Venetia had to know who killed Jessyca. The police let her off too easily. In their recorded conversations, you mostly hear Susan talking, trying to convince Venetia to come clean.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

The reason that no one has pushed you any further on this for these four years is because no one's really listened to you talk. Well, every time I've seen you, I listen to you talk. I listen. No one's done that to this point. That's what I'm saying. I listen to you. And when I listen to you and hear what you're saying to me, probably more than anyone has in these four years.

[Maggie Freeling]

In Susan's mind, if Venetia knew the killer and the killer was Quincy, then she had to get Venetia to rat him out. Susan also tells Venetia that if she confesses, she'll help broker a deal with police.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And honestly, when we were in the car that day, I just felt that you were going to tell me then I really did. And I kept thinking, okay, I can go to Mills and I can say, look, she's willing to talk. You gotta guarantee her safety and guarantee her no jail time.

[Maggie Freeling]

But still, Venetia doesn't deviate from the original story. She told police the one about the small party, playing cards and saying goodbye to Jessica around 1 or 2am.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And.

[Maggie Freeling]

She doesn't even admit to knowing Quincy.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her. We know, we know. But what I don't get is who is this Quincy guy? That's what I'm trying to figure, all right. I don't think that was the Quincy. Got you.

[Maggie Freeling]

So Susan tried another angle. If Venetia wasn't gonna crack, then Susan would have to get the suspected killer to confess. She would have to talk to Quincy Cross herself. And it turns out Susan knew one of Quincy's cousins from around town.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I would go to her house and work on her computer. In the meantime, always talk to her about Quincy. Just try to, you know, get anything I could out of her.

[Maggie Freeling]

And she used her to set up a meeting with Quincy under the pretense that she was a researcher for Tom.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Mangold, which I was. I did help to research for him. So after he went back to London, I just kept up the spiel, anybody.

[Maggie Freeling]

She even told her she could help Quincy.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I told her that I was there to try to clear his name.

[Maggie Freeling]

And Susan told the Kentucky State Police about her planned sting operation.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I called Kentucky State Police and invited them to help me on that.

[Maggie Freeling]

The police did indeed help her. They gave her a cell phone to record and a few officers to wait outside of the house for protection.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

It was all set up very professionally. You know, we had code words I had. If I needed any assistance from them, I had. My code words were, I wish my big brother was here. And they would be come right into the residence.

[Maggie Freeling]

Quincy did not know he was being recorded. I don't have the recording. I asked law enforcement for it and they said they can't find it. But according to Susan's court testimony, a transcript and a police report. These are some of the things Quincy allegedly says that he was wearing a sweatsuit that night.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yes. That he didn't have a belt and that he was wearing a jogging outfit.

[Maggie Freeling]

But then he says they kept his belt at the jail when he was arrested. Then, according to Susan, Quincy says that as soon as they smelled gas on him, he knew police would blame him for what had happened. And Susan perked up at this. Was this a confession? A slip? How did he know that night that a girl had been burned unless he was there? Tom Mangold also thought she'd struck gold.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

She didn't get a full confession, but she got an interview which contained self incriminating remarks she'd made. More progress in a day than the police agencies had made in five years.

[Maggie Freeling]

But still no arrests. Another failed plan in Susan's citizen investigation. And another year with no major inroads by the Kentucky State Police until the Kentucky Attorney General stepped in a year later in 2006, with a new set of agents and brand new set of ears for Susan Galbraith. Around this time, Susan was pursuing what would be her final scheme. With a little help from the Internet, she set up a MySpace account.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

It's titled Murdered Jessica Kern at MySpace.

[Maggie Freeling]

This was pre Facebook being widely available, and Susan used the page to track down anyone from Mayfield and add them as a friend. That's how she first made contact with Victoria Caldwell, the state's main witness. You heard from last episode, the one who eventually confessed to being an accomplice to the crime. The first message between them that we have a record of is from January 2007. Here's Victoria reading that message for Tom's piece on the BBC.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

January 24, 2007. I don't want anyone to find me. I am afraid for my life. I'm sorry about what happened. I will help the police as much as I can, but I really don't know who to trust. I am afraid someone might kill me if I testify to things about this.

[Maggie Freeling]

Victoria was living in California at the time, far away from Mayfield, apparently in hiding. And Victoria turned out to be Susan's missing puzzle piece. She would not only point the finger at Quincy, but at many others, including her own family. And her story would find a captive audience in the investigators from the Attorney General's office. Sometime after Tom Mangold published his first piece on Jessica's killing, her father, Joe Curran, told a local TV news station that he thought maybe this was it. Finally, they were getting closer to solving his daughter's murder, thanks in part to a journalist from England.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

This gentleman had come over here and investigated about a week or 10 days on this case. He had found several pieces of information that hadn't been discovered and hadn't been checked out. When the Mayfield police had the case.

[Maggie Freeling]

All the information Tom and Susan uncovered was stuff the original investigators with the Mayfield Police Department had. But according to Susan, the police had missed it, either on purpose or because of ineptitude. Tom and Susan took a few threads, a belt, a gas can, a missing miniature bat, and they used them to weave together a story, one that was incomplete until Victoria showed up. And all I have right now is Quincy's account saying he was just at a party that day, took a drive, got Lost. And then the car ran out of gas, and he got arrested. But the problem with people's stories is they can be inconsistent. So I call my producer Rebecca to discuss a few things that are nagging at me.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Hello, Maggie.

[Maggie Freeling]

Hello. So first, Quincy told me he left the party to go find something to eat, but none of the other partygoers seem to have ever supported that claim. And one of the also only consistent things is that the entire night, Quincy is saying, I'm gonna find girls. I'm gonna find girls. And he took the car to go find one of his girls. That has been consistent from the beginning, which is also kind of sketch because it's like he again told me he went to get food.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

I think either Quincy is misremembering, or he was like, well, I was also hungry.

[Maggie Freeling]

Or he's like, no, that makes me.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Sound creepy and bad.

[Maggie Freeling]

Yeah, I think he thinks it makes him sound bad. And again, that's just really sketchy. The night that a girl goes missing, you're driving around like, I get it. I get why they're onto him. Second, the infamous belt. According to police records, Quincy wasn't arrested wearing a belt. But then he also says the police kept his belt. He also told Dara this, by the way. Dara's like, no, the police kept his belt once he was arrested. And I was like, okay, what belt? What are we even talking about right now? Lastly, the gas. We know Quincy smelled like gas, and the jailer saw Quincy spill gas on himself. But I haven't been able to corroborate where the gas came from or what exactly he was doing in the time he left the party and his car stalled. Like, this is where the breakdown all happens. So this is where I'm like, this is it. This is where Quincy gets pinned because of the belt and the gas. And, like, what is the truth?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Do you think Quincy Cross killed Jessica Curran?

[Maggie Freeling]

No. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. On the next episode.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

And I told Joe Kern that day, I said, if I'm elected, I'll do my best to solve that case. We're here to conduct an interview with Tamra Caldwell. We're presently located in the conference room of the Drury Suites. It brought down the defenses of the people they were interviewing. Because you're in a hotel, you're not in a police station. Everyone felt like, what the fuck's happening? But just to sit there and to see the kangaroo court that they done, they would not even let us sit through picking the jury. They kicked us out of the courtroom.

[Maggie Freeling]

Graves county is a production of Lava for Good in association with Signal Company Number One. This show is written and produced by me, Maggie Freeling and Senior Producer Rebecca Ibarra. Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler and Kevin Werdis are executive producers. Our editor is Martina Abrahams. Ilunga Dania Suleiman is our fact checker. Sound design and mixing by Joe Plord Music created by Wrench. Our theme song is the Gangsta grass version of the One who's Holding the Star by Leo Schofield and Kevin Herrick. Dara Warren Coleman is investigative producer. Our head of Marketing and Operations is Jeff Clyburn. Ismani Guadarrama is our Social Media director and our Social Media Manager is Sarah Gibbons. Andrew Nelson is Art Director with additional production help from Jackie Pauley, Kara Kornhaber and Kathleen Fink. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Threads. Ava for good and follow me at Maggie Freeling and we know there's a lot of names for you to keep up with in this series, so for a detailed list of characters please go to Our Show Notes Every day has a to do list, but adding Enjoy Belvita to yours can help you knock out the rest of it. Belvita Breakfast Biscuits are a tasty and convenient breakfast option when paired with low fat yogurt and fruit that provide steady energy all morning while Belvita Energy Snack bites give you the perfect mid morning refuel. Best part? They both taste great, so make the most out of your morning with a bite of Velveeta. Pick up a pack of Belvita at your local store today.

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