Talking Dateline: Bringing Jay Home

Summary

Dateline NBC: Talking Dateline – Bringing Jay Home

Host: Andrea Canning
Guest: Blaine Alexander (Dateline Reporter)
Date: February 4, 2026

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Overview

In this episode of “Talking Dateline,” Andrea Canning sits down with Blaine Alexander to discuss her recent Dateline special “Bringing Jay Home.” Blaine’s reporting delves into the life and tragic death of Jay Lee, a vibrant young man from Jackson, Mississippi, whose disappearance and murder deeply affected his community, family, and friends. The hosts reflect on the profound themes of authenticity, love, identity, and community, as well as the investigative process and the impact Jay’s story continues to have.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap of Jay Lee’s Story

(02:01) Blaine Alexander:

• Jay Lee was a dynamic, openly gay young man from Jackson, MS, deeply connected to the LGBTQ community and known for his vivacious spirit and desire to give back.
• The day he went missing, he had organized a baby formula drive—something he never would have missed.
• When Jay didn’t contact his mother on her birthday, she and his father immediately sensed something was wrong and took action.
• Investigation quickly revealed Jay was last seen meeting another man, Tim Harrington, who was not openly gay. Tim ultimately killed Jay, fearing he would be outed.
• First trial ended in a mistrial due to no body being found; after Jay’s remains were discovered, Tim Harrington took a plea deal (04:08), receiving 40 years in prison.

2. Family and Acceptance

(06:04) Andrea Canning & Blaine Alexander:

• Jay’s father was a pastor, and the family’s complete acceptance of Jay’s sexuality is highlighted as remarkable—defying common stereotypes about Southern, religious, African-American families.
• His sister, Tayla, credited their family, especially their mother, for instilling confidence and self-acceptance in Jay (06:22).
• Quote: “Be who you are or nothing at all.” – Jay’s Father (06:19, per Andrea’s recollection)

3. Jay’s Life and Legacy

(07:51 - 08:58) Blaine Alexander:

• Jay was vibrant, with a distinctive style, and even his dog Lexi was an “icon” in the community.
• Jay performed drag and motivated friends, like Jose, to embrace their own identities.

4. Initial Fears and the Police Response

(10:30 - 11:38) Andrea & Blaine:

• Early on, Jay’s friends feared his disappearance was a hate crime—the third attack against a member of the LGBTQ community within a short period.
• There were concerns about how seriously police would take the case given Jay’s identity; instead, police were deeply compassionate and invested in the investigation.
• Chief McCutcheon, having actually met Jay at a community meeting, led the investigation with emotional commitment, connecting with Jay’s father through their shared faith.

Quote:
“When we interview police chiefs, prosecutors...it’s not often you get to see just true emotion...but that happened several times in this case.” – Blaine Alexander (11:33)

5. Investigation and the Role of Technology

(13:40 - 16:11) Andrea & Blaine:

• Key clues included video of Jay leaving his apartment, notably holding his phone “like he was on speaker.”
• Blaine and Andrea discuss the difficulty law enforcement faced accessing Jay's Snapchat and other social media due to privacy laws—highlighting the need for the “Jay Lee Bill,” legislation pushed by Jay’s parents to enable access to under-21 missing persons’ accounts.
• Quote:
  “If a person goes missing and they are underage...and we’re talking about a missing person case where days count...then let us in.” – Blaine Alexander (15:50)

6. Authenticity and Danger of Living a Double Life

(16:11 - 18:39) Andrea & Blaine:

• The episode explores the risk and mental toll faced by those hiding their true selves, touching on the contrast between Jay, who lived authentically, and Tim, who did not.
• Both men were similar—Mississippians, Ole Miss students, sons of ministers—but diverged in living authentically or not.

Quote:
“There’s so much to be said about yes, being your authentic self...the fear that message that, you know, he confessed set him off. I want to be able to say that I had you on the down low.” – Blaine Alexander (17:37)

7. Heartbreaking Discovery and Parental Love

(19:05 - 20:52) Clip: Interview with Jay’s Parents; Commentary:

• Jay’s father, Mr. Jimmy, shares movingly about identifying Jay by his skeleton and intentionally saying a goodbye—touching his son’s remains and expressing continued love.

• Quote:
  “I just let them touch his forehead. And, you know that I love him...” – Mr. Jimmy (Jay’s Father) (19:23)

• Blaine reflects on the depth of this parental love, noting it “rocked me to my core.” (21:24)

8. Community Reactions and Viewer Comments

(24:18 - 28:38) Social Media Q&A:

• Listeners highlight the recurring danger presented by “down low” relationships, noting an earlier Dateline case with similar dynamics.
• Blaine’s watch party noted a collective sense of foreboding when the down-low element arose.
• Discussion of reasonable doubt in the first trial due to lack of DNA and a body (26:05).
• Lexi, Jay’s beloved dog, was cared for by his sister after his death and passed away at 23 years old (27:04).
• Detective Lisa J. Miller, a frequent Dateline contributor, praised the police work and compassion on display.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “Be who you are or nothing at all.” – Jay’s Father (recounted at 06:04)
• “Jay had no fear in being who he was. It did not impact his relationship with his mom or his dad or sister or anybody in the family.” – Blaine Alexander (06:22)
• “It was our family. I mean, we knew that we were loved. There was not a moment that we walked outside of that house that we had any question as to whether we were loved, whether we were supported.” – Jay Lee’s sister, Tayla (06:28)
• “He kissed the skeletal remains of his son right in this...‘I want him to know that he’s loved. I want him to feel that he’s loved.’...gave me chills and kind of just rocked me to my core.” – Blaine Alexander on Mr. Jimmy’s actions (20:52)
• “If a person goes missing and they are underage...and we’re talking about a missing person case where days count, where moments count, hours count, then let us in.” – Blaine Alexander (15:50)
• “There’s so much to be said about yes, being your authentic self...Very big difference in that Jay was living authentically and Tim Harrington was not. And that really made all the difference.” – Blaine Alexander (17:37)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Episode Introduction & Set-up: 01:05
• Jay Lee’s Background & Disappearance Recap: 02:01 – 04:08
• Family Acceptance & Jay’s Upbringing: 06:04 – 07:51
• Jay’s Life and Impact: 07:51 – 08:58
• Hate Crime Fears & Police Response: 10:30 – 13:40
• Investigation Challenges & Social Media Access: 13:40 – 16:11
• Authenticity vs. Living a Lie: 16:11 – 18:39
• Interview with Jay’s Parents (Mr. Jimmy): 19:05 – 20:52
• Reflections on Love, Loss, and Family: 20:52 – 22:12
• Social Media Q&A (Community, Evidence, Lexi): 24:18 – 28:16

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Tone and Reflections

The conversation is compassionate and candid, balancing detailed case discussion with heartfelt, personal moments. Both Andrea and Blaine bring warmth and empathy, and Blaine, in particular, draws out the humanity of Jay’s family and the investigators. The tone alternates between analytical (as they discuss investigative details and societal implications) and deeply emotional, especially when reflecting on Jay’s family and the impact of his loss.

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Conclusion

“Bringing Jay Home” deconstructs more than a crime: it sheds light on the courage needed to live authentically, the loving power of family, and the continuing challenge of justice for marginalized communities. Blaine Alexander and Andrea Canning’s sensitive and thorough discussion, along with input from social media and Jay’s parents, offer a multi-dimensional look at a tragedy that continues to inspire and mobilize change.

Transcript

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[Andrea Canning]

Hey everyone, I'm Andrea Canning and we are talking DATELINE today. I'm here with Blaine Alexander, who will be talking about her episode Bringing J Home. If you haven't seen it, you can find it in the Dateline podcast feed. So go there and listen to it or stream it on Peacock and then come back here. For this talking Dateline, we have a a podcast exclusive clip from Blaine's interview with Jay's parents. Then we'll answer some of your questions that you had and comments from social media. And there were a lot. Blaine, thank you for sharing Jay's story with the world.

[Blaine Alexander]

Yeah, of course, of course. I really, really enjoyed telling the story and getting to know him while reporting on this.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, I feel like we all really got to know Jay from your story and then some. I mean, that was one of the best datelines I've seen, getting a glimpse into that person's life. You know, it was very rich. Could you just recap the story for us?

[Blaine Alexander]

First, Jay Lee was a young man from Jackson, Mississippi. He went to Ole Miss. He graduated in three years and he was preparing to enter grad school and he was just, I don't even know if vibrant can capture who he was, but he's somebody who lived life to the fullest. He was a out and proud gay man. I mean, he was very, very well known in the LGBTQ community. He was just very vibrant, vivacious, but also had this desire to give back to communities. I mean, I think one of the details that really struck me was that on the day that he disappeared, he was set to hold a baby formula drive. It was something that he had organized and Then he went missing. And that was one of the big clues that let his friends know, okay, something's going on, because he would never miss this. So he goes missing. It was his mom's birthday, and he didn't call her. And so immediately his mom knew, okay, something's wrong. They reach out to Ole Miss police, and police go look at his apartment. They come across security video that shows that he left his apartment, came back, and then left again early in the morning. And they noticed that he's holding his cell phone like this. Right? The same way that we would all hold our cell phone if we're talking to someone on speaker. And they come to find out that he's going to have a sexual encounter with another man. And through Snapchat, through kind of, you know, tracking things down, they come to find out that it's a young man named Tim Harrington, who there was no indication that he, you know, was gay at all. And police put together this case that Tim Harrington ultimately killed Jay Lee, strangled him to death in his apartment, wrapped his body in moving blankets and duct tape, and dumped him about an hour and a half outside of Ole Miss because he was concerned that he was going to out him as. As being gay.

[Andrea Canning]

Wow.

[Blaine Alexander]

And in the first trial. The first trial ended in a mistrial because one juror just couldn't get over the fact that there was no body. Investigators still hadn't found Jaylee's body. Not too long after that, though, Andrea, they found Jaylee's body, and they were headed for a second trial, and he took a plea deal and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

[Andrea Canning]

I mean, thank goodness he put the family out of their misery. From that perspective, you know, from having to sit through a trial again, from having to go through all of that.

[Blaine Alexander]

And it spared Jaylee's mom from having to testify again. Ms. Stephanie, she would have had to take the stand again.

[Andrea Canning]

Um, Blaine, you know, all these missing persons cases, you know, they start with, you know, a text that doesn't go answered, a phone call that doesn't get returned, and, you know, everyone feels the same. I think, in the beginning, like, oh, they're busy. You know, they'll. They'll get back to me. And then in this case, and, you know, eventually, sadly, in a lot of these cases, they don't. In this case, it was interesting because right off the bat, this hit me, because, you know, Ms. Stephanie's birthday is July 8th, which is my dad's birthday. And, you know, so I thought right away, I was like, you know, the first thing on my mind on July 8th when I wake up is I have to call my dad. You know, this is a special day. You don't ever forget your parents birthday, of course. And so, you know, it was just so understandable that a mom with a son like Jay would expect that phone call very quickly. That's exactly it.

[Blaine Alexander]

So it's funny you say that my birthday's July 9th. And so I felt like, like, okay, like, as a mom, like that just hit me too, right? From like a mother's perspective. Yes. This was an incredibly close family. I mean, talking, texting every day throughout the day, which again, college kids, you don't typically see that with their parents. Right. And so for on her birthday of all days, he's like radio silent. She immediately said, oh, no, no, no, no, this isn't right. In fact, she and her husband, Mr. Jimmy, they were driving down to Biloxi to kind of just go on a little vacation. And she said, no, turn the car around. We need to go to Oxford to go check on him because something is wrong. When she kept calling him and, you know, and when his location was off, she just knew immediately.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, mother's intuition.

[Blaine Alexander]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

And, you know, I, I. What I love the most is Jay being gay, his father being a pastor, you know, that he was so accepted by his family. And I love what the dad said, be who you are or nothing at all.

[Blaine Alexander]

I mean, I think that this, there were so many aspects of this that you could look at this story and just have a bunch of stereotypes, right? Like, this is the South. These are very, I mean, very, you know, God fearing religious family, Dad's a minister, all of these many things. And again, like, you know, being African American, like a lot of times like this, you know, when you're looking at, especially when it comes to religion in the black community, like, not typically and historically very accepting of the LGBTQ community. And so all of these things, though, that was not the case with the Lee family. I mean, Jay had no fear in being who he was. It did not impact his relationship with his mom or his dad or sister or anybody in the family. And they were just as beautiful and as loving. And I asked Taylor during that, during our interview, we talked for like three plus hours. And I said, where did that confidence come from? And she said, it was our family. I mean, we knew that we were loved. There was not a moment that we walked outside of that house that we had any question as to whether we were loved, whether we were supported. And she said, and especially their mom really Instilled this confidence and just kind of like, no, no, no, this is. Whoever you are, whatever you do, do it confidently. And it was so beautiful to see that really, really come to play. As I got to know Jay throughout the course of the story, he was very clearly a fun person. Right. His style was amazing. I mean, his sister and I talked about it. Like, he would dress. He was just out there and his dog alone.

[Andrea Canning]

His dog Lexi with the pink goggles.

[Blaine Alexander]

Lexi would come to class. Lexi was, I mean, Lexi was just an icon, right? But yes, he performed in, in, in drag shows. We actually went to one of the shows where he would have performed in the course of shooting this, which was a, a fun and amazing experience. You have all these, like, young college students and then we walked in with our cameras and we're decidedly older than college. And so, I mean, they were. Yeah, but they were.

[Andrea Canning]

You look like, you look like you're in college. So you blended right in.

[Blaine Alexander]

I'm jealous. Funny, it was hilarious to be in the midst of it, but it was cool to just see, see his world and see his, you know, his community and everybody being there was really special.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. If we all could have that much confidence, you know, that's true. I'm sure people saw him and thought, you know, I can, I can do this.

[Blaine Alexander]

You know, his friend Jose actually told me, Jose, who we met in the story, told me that it was Jay Lee who inspired him to go perform in drag shows. Inspired him to be open, you know, kind of about who he was and that. So he really was a beacon for a lot of people right there in Oxford.

[Andrea Canning]

When we come back, we've got an extra clip from Blaine's interview with Jay's parents.

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[Blaine Alexander]

It's, you know, it's interesting. And I thought about this too. When I spoke with Jose and Braylon, they talked about the fact that before Jay Lee went missing, there were two murders of transgender people there in the state of Mississippi. And so they were thinking, okay, like, what is happening? Like, could this be an attack on the community? And so it Dickens kind of put a lot of people in this kind of place of just fear and, like, trying to watch out while at the same time wondering if police were going to do anything about this.

[Andrea Canning]

I know that that was a big concern for friends and family as to how the police would handle this because, you know, Jay is a person of color, Jay is gay. But it was the opposite reaction from the police. The Oxford police chief, he was Mr. Emotional and Mr. I'm not quitting until I solve this case. And I'm like, he was amazing when.

[Blaine Alexander]

It comes to emotion. Andrea, you know this. I mean, when we interview, like, police chiefs, prosecutors, like, all these folks, it's not often that you get to see, like, just true emotion tears from them. Right? But, like, that happened several times when I was Speaking with Chief McCutcheon. Certainly happened when I was talking with Ben Creekmore, the D.A. i mean, they were tearing up thinking about the moment that they found Jaylee's body, the. The pain that the family went through. And, you know, several things. One, Oxford is a college town, right? Like, everything revolves around Ole Miss. And so think about, okay, like, either I have college age kids or my kids will one day be in college, or you can kind of just put yourself in this feeling of, oh, my God, I don't know where my child is when they've gone off to college. And I think any parent can kind of identify with that. And that's a terrifying thought. I also think that for Chief McCutchen and. And Mr. Jimmy, Jay's dad, Faith really bonded them. I mean, they both talked about Times that they would pray together. They both talked about times when. I mean, the police really put a lot into this. The chief told me at one point, okay, it's like, we're gonna take an ibuprofen, get some rest, and then we're gonna get right back at it. Like, they were going around the cough, drink some coffee, you know, and then we're going at it. And so they were putting their heart and soul into this, and it gets hard for them. They weren't able to find Jay. Right. Or bring his remains home. And so we saw this kind of back and forth where they were really leaning on each other through the course of this. And I have to say one thing that's interesting that didn't make it into our story. Chief McCutcheon had actually met Jay Lee at one point, about six months before he disappeared. Yes, me. That there was this kind of round table that they had for community leaders, and Jay was doing an internship at Child Protective Services there in Oxford. So Jay was part of this meeting, and he comes in, he sits down, and the chief said immediately his personality was just on display. He was like, I'm Jay Lee. Who are you? Okay, great. I mean, just talking to people like, this is what we're going to do for the kids. And he said that left a mark on him. And so then when the missing person's case came in, he said, oh, my God, Like, I know this kid. I remember him. Right? And so you put all these things together, and yes, it was certainly something that was emotional.

[Andrea Canning]

I was, like, cheering him on as you took us through this investigation. He's an amazing man. And also some really good. There was really good detective work in this case as well. Good observations. I wouldn't have noticed the phone, you know, when I watched it, I didn't think about the phone being, you know, flat like that, that he was on the phone with somebody. And then. And then we get into, you know, the technology of it all, and we hear this over and over and over again. These police departments, families trying to get messages, information from social media platforms like Snapchat, and they get shut down again and again and again. And I. I just did a dateline where they had to hire. They hired some professor who was essentially like a. A hacker, you know, professor slash hacker, who, like, got into it or whatever. And so I was so impressed with Jay's parents and this Jay Lee bill that they're working on. I mean, I can't think of a better way to honor his life. If they can get this Passed that, you know, that law enforcement can get access to, you know, to people under 21 into their social media accounts and beyond. I mean, that is so smart.

[Blaine Alexander]

It is, it is. And I would say it seems like a common sense type of thing, because if you want to find where some. A young person is. Not to sound old, if you're trying to find a young person, but social media is the way, I mean, right. Like he was communicating through Snapchat, the way that most of us would communicate via text. Right. And so that is easily the quickest digital footprint, the quickest way to figure out where they are, who they've been talking to, what they've been doing. And you know, in talking with Mr. Jimmy, he was just like, this was a constant, just source of torture for them because they knew something had happened. It wasn't this question of, oh, gosh, maybe he's. No, they were like some. Something's happened to our child. They're waiting day after day after day after day. They want to bring him home. And they're fighting this kind of battle of, we know our son is always online. We know he's always out here posting. Let us get access and we can tell you exactly what happened. And that was just so hard for them. It's not like anybody's asking for, hey, we need to just be able to get into everybody's social media at all times. No, if a person goes missing and they are underage. Right. And we're talking about a missing person case where days count, where moments count, hours count, then let us in. So we'll certainly be following it, though.

[Andrea Canning]

I look forward to a follow up on that. So, you know, it was Khaled said something that was quite the foreshadow when he told Jay that stay away from the dls, you know, the down lows, because they're trouble. He said. And you know, you can see that. Right on. On one hand, because you're not. One of the things about Jay is that he was his authentic self and that's why he was happy.

[Blaine Alexander]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

When I always, I've long, you know, I believe. How can you be happy if you can't be your true self?

[Blaine Alexander]

Yeah. Not only that, you're living in a constant state of fear that somebody is going to discover who your true self is. And so what does that do to your. What does that do to your nervous system? What does that do to the way that you walk through life? If you're always waiting on a domino to fall for your secret to be exposed for kind of carefully created facade that you've put up to just completely be shattered. I was struck, Andrea, by the incredible parallels between Jay Lee and Tim Harrington. Both of them from Mississippi, both of them go to Ole Miss, both of them headed to grad school. Both of them had bright futures. Like, let's be very, very clear, Jaylee did. And Tim Harrington, I mean, Tim Harrington, too, yes. Started a moving company. He's got a profitable little business. He's on podcast, he's in interviews. He's in the Black Student Union. He's kind of that kid that, you know, when you get to college, you're like, ooh, who's the up upperclassmen that I look up to? Oh, he was one of those people, right? I mean, absolutely. Spent time in his church. Influential father, influential grandfather, this whole package. And again, very similar to Jay Lee. Families rooted in faith. Both fathers were ministers. Right. Like all of this going on, Very, very similar. Very big difference in that Jay was living authentically and Tim Harrington was not. And that made all of the. That really made all the difference. And the fact that their lives intersected in the way that they did was. Was just unbelievable. I think that, you know, there's so much to be said about yes. Being your authentic self. And I think that in this fear that that message that, you know, he confessed set him off. I want to be able to say that I had you on the down low. It's the question of, gosh, what are people gonna think of me? What are my family's gonna think of me? And of course, I'm not inside Tim Harrington's mind. I didn't speak with him, of course. We. We tried to his parents. His mom actually sent me a brief email and just said, we're gonna let. Let the attorney speak for our family and certainly understand what they're going through.

[Capital One Announcer]

Right.

[Blaine Alexander]

Like, this is a very difficult situation for them as well.

[Andrea Canning]

So the biggest problem, as you mentioned, Blaine, off the top, was that they had not found a body. Right. They had not found Jay's body in.

[Blaine Alexander]

The beginning, of course.

[Andrea Canning]

Then they make that horrible discovery. And we have some extra sound from Jay's parents, Their interview with you about finding Jay's body, their son, and what happened after that.

[Blaine Alexander]

Sure. You talked about once Jay was found, even just by his skeleton, you could tell that was your son, and you were very intentional about wanting to say your own goodbye to him, touching his remains. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

[Mr. Jimmy (Jay Lee's father)]

Well, you know, we oftentimes, I know probably, you know, in most religious Baptist Pentecost. You know, oftentimes, you know, they touch on the forehead, prayer, they just let them touch his forehead. And, you know that I love him and, you know, want to make sure, you know, I see you. You know, he knew, you know, he knew that mom and dad loved him and the rest of the family loved him. I, you know, sometimes we can't always get what we want. I would love to have seen him grow up and, you know, the more and do things in, you know, within this country or abroad, you know, just, just. I felt like I had confidence that he would be extremely successful. I mean, maybe, you know, just a dad just got a lot of company or whatever, but I just believe he was, he was going to be definitely somebody out there. But I think he was just what God wanted him to be. And he touched people's lives. He made a difference. And I think through you guys, he's going to continue to make a difference.

[Andrea Canning]

And he will, I do feel he will make a difference with this possible bill that will help other young people who go.

[Blaine Alexander]

Wasn't that just the most heart wrenching thing though, to hear him say? I mean, basically he's saying that he kissed the skeletal remains of his son right in this. Like, I want him to know that he's loved. I want him to feel that he's loved. And so again, this through line of just like this deep love that these parents have for their kids that was right there until the end. And I think that one was one where I've done now a good number of just these, these interviews. That one just really touched me when he said that, like, gave me chills and kind of just rocked me to my core. Because I can't imagine just a father having like, this is all that's physically left of your child and wanting to still show that love and that embrace.

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely.

[Blaine Alexander]

I think that them telling Jaylee's story, I know, was something that was difficult for them, but I'm so grateful that they did because they really were able to bring him to life in such a way.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing. I'm so glad they did.

[Blaine Alexander]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

That put me back to my first job, which was in Mississippi. It was fun to hear again, Ms. Stephanie. Cause I remember when I moved to Mississippi, everything was Ms. Andrea, Ms. Andrea. And I was like, not used to that. I had never heard anyone in my life call me Ms. Andrea, but that's how people would address me, which was hilarious. It's like a Southern thing.

[Blaine Alexander]

And the funny thing is Mind you, I don't do that in every interview. But it was just something about sitting down with them. They just gave them. I just like, you can't just be Stephanie. You're Ms. Stephanie. You're Mr. Jimmy. It's just, I love that that's just how it's gonna be.

[Andrea Canning]

I also said. I also love how you said it was something. I wrote it down. It was like, oh, full boil in the.

[Blaine Alexander]

With.

[Andrea Canning]

With Tim right in the interview room. Because usually I say it's getting hot in the kitchen. And, and you came up with full boil. So I'm like, okay, good. We've, we've both got our, like our.

[Blaine Alexander]

Our ways that, that we want to.

[Andrea Canning]

Say when things are getting hot.

[Blaine Alexander]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Andrea Canning]

We're gonna take a short break back to talk about your questions and comments from social media.

[Blaine Alexander]

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[Andrea Canning]

Nope. I'm making dinner tonight. You don't have time.

[Blaine Alexander]

Josh has practice.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, that's right.

[Blaine Alexander]

I'll just get a salad and fries. No, just the salad. But salad cancels fries.

[Andrea Canning]

Salad only.

[Blaine Alexander]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Blaine Alexander]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Blaine Alexander]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Blaine Alexander]

Would love to.

[Andrea Canning]

You know we got so many comments from people on this when people saying they're moved to tears about the story. What a great job you all did. So let's start with Barbara Teed she says there was another Dateline episode about an officer on the DL, married with a baby, had an affair with a gay resident. He stopped on patrol and murdered him when they. He threatened to expose him.

[Blaine Alexander]

Oh, gosh.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. This was Keith's episode before daylight.

[Blaine Alexander]

Okay.

[Andrea Canning]

And this was a Missouri college student named Jesse James Valencia murdered in 2004 by the police officer he was secretly seeing. So this again goes back to the dangers of DL, what Khalid, you know, talked about, I've got to say, too.

[Blaine Alexander]

Real quick, along those lines. So this was an episode. I actually had a. A watch party, if you will, of a bunch of maybe like 30, 35 friends came together, and we all watched it because I really wanted to get people's reaction. I. I wanted to see how people received it. And I have to say, when the down low thing, when Khalid mentioned that, everybody was like, oh, like, people were kind of like, oh, we know where this is going. It's going to be somebody who's, you know, who's closeted, who's not trying to. Like, people just saw that coming. Right.

[Andrea Canning]

And also, we just want to say not everyone who's in the closet is. Is bad or has rage issues or, you know, we're not. We're not trying to say that this is like, all people who are not be their authentic self.

[Blaine Alexander]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

But we just are saying it happens.

[Blaine Alexander]

I'm very glad you made that point, because that's very. That's very important. Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. Winston at peewee. Winston said what I was thinking. No body, no DNA. You know, definitely, like there was. There was some reasonable doubt there. I mean, there. There were a lot of things, you know, that they. They didn't have before the. Before the body was found.

[Blaine Alexander]

I think that, you know, even if there's no body, sometimes you can look and say, okay, there were traces of blood. There was something. There was nothing. There was no physical evidence. And, you know, I mean, they summed it up perfectly. How do you convince a jury of murder when you can't even prove that someone is dead conclusively? Like, a judge had declared Jay Lee dead at that point, had legally declared him dead. But again, nobody. No traces of DNA, anything like that. I should point out, too, there was a significant amount of time, almost two weeks, about 10 days or so between when he went missing and when police ultimately questioned Tim Harrington. And so police have said that was a lot of time for him to be able to disinfect his truck, clean things out, like, clean away any traces of whatever may have been there. And so that's what they pointed to. But at the end of the day, yes, a tremendous amount of reasonable doubt, for sure.

[Andrea Canning]

Nesty Smith said, I knew the duct tape would nail him. Leah Jarrett Hedgepath on Facebook asks what happened to his doggy, Lexi.

[Blaine Alexander]

Lexi went to live with Tayla, Jay's sister, and lived. Actually. This is unbelievable, but she brought Lexi to Oxford for our interview. And we were supposed to meet Lexi, but things went over. And then we said, okay, we'll meet her next week when we come back to Jackson. She died. Lexi died three days after our interview, completely unexpected. And we were gonna meet her. It was. But she lived a long life. She was 23 years old. That is a long forever in doggies.

[Andrea Canning]

For a little dog like that. And also, given the family's feeling about feelings about God and religion. Jaylee and Lexi are together again.

[Blaine Alexander]

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

[Andrea Canning]

That's the silver lining there, right? Okay. And we have a comment from Lisa J. Miller at Lisa J. Miller co as in Colorado. She's a detective out of Colorado who has been featured multiple, multiple times on dateline, including in Keith's episode while she was sleeping and on our podcast after the Verdict. And she says, I'm grateful the DATELINE community gets to see these officers caring, good humans doing the right things and the, and the right way for the right reasons. Most that wear the badge are good humans. Grateful these particular humans were on this case.

[Blaine Alexander]

Thank you, Lisa. I'm glad to hear that. Lisa, thank you for writing that because you're, you're right. I, I mean, like we said earlier, I'm so glad that we were able to just really shine a light on their heart through this process. Of course, their investigative prowess, their work, all of that, but just show their heart in who they were and the type of emotion and genuine caring that they brought to this case.

[Andrea Canning]

And on a different note, DATELINE will be off for the next few weeks for the Winter Olympics. And Amy Gatch on Facebook asked, with the Olympics airing for the next few weeks, what will you do during this time? Will you take time off or work on other stories? Time off.

[Blaine Alexander]

Time off. What is this you speak of? What? No, we will be working. We will be. Gosh, shooting. I know I've got shoots. I'm sure you have shot coming up. I mean, it's what we do, right?

[Andrea Canning]

Just keep working. And then as soon as the Olympics are over, we'll be back at you with new episodes.

[Blaine Alexander]

That's what we're doing. We're working in the off time to make sure that we've got all the new episodes ready to go. Just fire em out the gate.

[Andrea Canning]

Exactly. Blaine, thank you for this. I wanna say very special Dateline because it really was a lot of ground was covered in a lot of different societal issues with this one. So thank you.

[Blaine Alexander]

That means a lot to me, Andrea. It really does. So that's what we hoped to do. So I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you.

[Andrea Canning]

That's it for Talking DATELINE this week. Remember, if you have a question about Dateline, DM us a video on social media ainenbc for a chance to be featured in a future episode of Talking Dateline. Or you can leave your question in a voicemail at 212-413-5252.