Eight Times: The Murder of Tyrita Julius

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast. Or I tell stories of real crimes with real victims whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey y'all, kJ you're back with an episode of Unspeakable? Are you good?

1:02 Are you okay? Because I know we had to go four episodes in the last series, I'm gonna do you a solid today, and while I really wanted this one to be two episodes because there was so much going on, I get you a solid and we're just gonna have a longer episode today so that I don't break it up into two, and I trimmed it down a little bit to where you don't you can have the whole thing in one sitting. You earned that. You earned that after a following with me on the last series. So before I get started, I do have some shout outs that I want to do, and we are going to go to Crawford, Texas, where Amy Derek is. Hey, Amy, how are you doing over there? I hope you're having a wonderful week, and I hope that you can see me waving on the camera. You're watching me podcast right now, and I'm just glad to have you. I'm thankful for you, and I appreciate your support of my show. It means everything as as always, so thank you so much. And then we're gonna go to Saint John, Indiana, where Mitzi Berdanici lives. Well, hello, Mitzi, how are you? Why went over there? What a precious name. By the way, Mitzi is so precious. I love that. And I am just over the moon again that you think enough of me to support the show and to join. So I'm waving at you on camera. I'm so thankful for you. And let's jump into this week's episode. So we are going to go to New Jersey for this one, and I've actually been there, believe it or not. I love taking in the sights. I know that there's lots of claim to fame for New Jersey, but the strangest one that I would have to say is that New Jersey is the only state if you didn't know this with an

2:34 official monster. Yeah, you heard me right. Most states have a state bird or a state flower, but New Jersey said, holding my bear, and they got them a whole last monster. So the description of this was the creature had a head of a horse, the torso of a man, the feet of a goat, leathery bat like wings, and a long serpentine tail. And that's of course according to the legend. What is the name of the New Jersey's monster, Well, it's the Jersey Devil. So hey, the more you know, and to this day, sightings of the beast are still reported online if you look that up. So according to the story, you know it goes back two hundred and fifty years. The Jersey Devil was the thirteenth child of Jane Leeds who lived at the edge of a swamp along the Mullica River, and she wished for a devil, according to the story, and she got one. So you can ponder that whole thing while I get on to a more credible chain of events that will have you believing that monsters really might be real. So I was twenty fifteen when a large group of motorcycle enthusiasts were having a get together and this would bring about a first encounter between two people. There's nothing better than sparks flying with someone who shares your love of a hobby.

3:51 What more do you want? You know, someone who's doing the same things that you love, and not to mention, you think they're pretty dad gumb attractive. Well, this motorcycle group you may have heard of, and I'm gonna ask you, does rough Riders sound familiar? Because admittedly my knowledge of Roughriders goes as deep as DMX is roughrider's anthem where I learned at a very young age to stop, drop, shut them down, and open up shop. Okay, I kid, obviously, but for real. The music video even opens up with some motorcycle stunts, if you remember that video from Back in the Gap. But I'm not a motorcycle gal, so I had to look up some stuff about these Rough Riders to get a feel for the vibe of the club, and what I found was that there are different chapters of these New Jersey clubs. Although this club is global, so whether you're remember from Jersey City, Burlington, Middlesex County, they all seem to function the same way county to county, and so this group is rooted in what they say is unity, hip hop culture and a community of service.

4:57 So those lyrics of the rough Rider anthem differ quite I'll say slightly, but it's quite a big difference from that professional, goal oriented statement I just gave you. But you get the point, okay. Well. Tyrita Julius was a woman who loved being in that mix. Back in twenty fifteen and the Middle Sex chapter of the rough Riders was a really small one. It only had about ten members in this group. But the thing was when they would go have their meetups. Not everyone who went to their bike nights for the group were actually rids. Tyreta had ridden a bike briefly, but that was no longer her thing. I did look at some pictures and it was like crotch rockets, you know. These weren't big Harley's or anything like that. But even though she wasn't riding anymore, she bonded with other women from the group as they got to know one another at these bike nights and everyone knew that TGI Fridays in London was the spot to be at for a good time, and one of the best friends from the group was a woman named Jennifer.

6:02 So Jennifer saw in Tyrito what I guess everyone else did for sure, a fun, outgoing, joyful, and compassionate woman who just made people feel at home and cared for from the jump, and the two women after they met, would remain best friends for years. They were always together and they attended events and family functions with one another, always having fun, enjoying each other's company, and just really being what you would want from a best friend. So a little more about Tyrita real quick. She wasn't married, but she was the proud mother of two children. Years prior, she had met a man his name was Jamar, who she instantly had become very smitten with. Something about his chill and relaxed demeanor was very attractive to her, and Jamar really acted as a calm present in her busy, busy life, and he kept her grounded. So it wasn't long before they moved in, and although they never spoke of marriage, it was clear that they were devoted to one another and that they were going to build a life together, and that life they were building together would soon be more like growing together because a year into their relationship they were expecting a baby boy, and Dante would make his little appearance to this world nine months later, and was such a handsome little fella. That bond between

7:33 mother and son was instantaneous. His perfect eyes and his little nose and those tee tiny little toes. What a perfect little gentleman she had just delivered into this world. She was in love. They were absolutely in love. And just a short time later, those two pink lines would show up again, but this time a little more heavy on the pink, because Tyrita was getting her little girl. Ah, you know, the excitement of having one of each. Just how exciting is that I have my boy and now I'm gonna get my girl? And when little miss Mayham made her entrance into the world, she was just as beautiful as Tyreta imagined she would be, and she would be named Chanelle for that very reason. Beautiful but also really expensive. Right, So this was literal heaven on earth, and Tyrita couldn't have loved her babies anymore than she did.

8:30 I mean, it wasn't possible. And while Tyrita was head over heels for her children, Jamar was showing himself to be less than enthused about it, and the truth be told, maybe that's why he never popped the question, because he really was not built for this fatherhood gig. And while wildly heartbreaking, Tyreta realized that this wasn't what she wanted for her children and that they deserved better in life. And so did she. You know, she did a partner, not someone who just sat at the house with her and went to work and didn't want to be a part of things. The reality was that Tyreta's own father had been an absentee in her life and she did not want that for her children. Lucky for Tyreta, her own grandmother and her aunts and her uncles. They were there to fill the void when Tyrita was little, so she never went without. So with that in mind, Tyreta made the decision to end things with Jamar. She wasn't going to beg a man to love and care for her or her children. So her mentality was more of like, look, I'd rather do it my day, I'm self than to just have somebody be here who doesn't want to be here.

9:44 And so that's just what she did for the next years to come. Her precious baby boy, Dante was now already attending college in twenty fifteen. His pesky little sister, Chanelle, she was fifteen now and she was in high school. So time had gone by and Tyreta was just handling business. She was being the mama that she knew she had to be. Time was flying, but they remained this tight, little knit family, all three of them living together as a small but happy family. So Tyreta decided to make her home close to her mama's. And by the way, her mama's name was Queen, so I'm gonna call her Miss Queen. So she made the house close to Miss Queen as well as other family members that lived close by, and it made being with family easy, which was something that Tyreta loved and wanted for her kids. Now more mature and certainly more confident in her ability to take care of herself and her kids alone, Tyreta was able to relax and she was enjoying her life. She was a very hard worker and she had made her career over the years as an administrative assistant at Rutgers University Hospital.

10:53 Because of her consistency and her stability in life, she was financially independent. She was now having these bigger dreams of buying a large home where her mama could move in with her, and she could take care of her mama as she got older. Just family oriented. There's nothing stronger than the examples that Tyrita was giving us here. But until that dream was realized, Tyreta was buckled down and she was just doing her thing. She did casually date throughout the years after Jamar Okay, but nothing really stuck. She wanted someone who was in it for real, not just a good time, and her main focus was her children.

11:36 They would always come first no matter what. But that's when something changed. In August of twenty fifteen, at a motorcycle event, Tyreta met a man by the name of Hassan Nicely. He was a member of another motorcycle club, but he was at this event and so they had that in common. As they talked throughout the evening, they just had a lot of interest in one another. The sparks were flying and they exchanged numbers, and very quickly thereafter they were pretty much a couple. A few months would pass and things were just going really, really well. They did things not only as a couple but also as a family, really very wholesome things, like they would go to basketball games together, they would go out to dinner.

12:25 They really enjoyed being together. It was November twenty fourth when Dante had a college basketball game that he had been preparing hard for and he was stoked that all of his people were going to be at his game to see him shine. Mom, of course, little sister, and mister Hassan. Hopefully, he was going to have the best game of his life. He was going to make his mama and his sister proud, but also he was going to show mister Hassan exactly what he was made of on that court. So the plan was to leave around seven pm. They were going to ride together to get to the game. By they, I mean Tyrita and her mother were gonna ride and they would go meet up at the game. So Tyta was ready first, and she was gonna be the one driving. So she gathered her purse and grabbed her things, took one last look in the mirror to make sure she was looking good, and she walked out of the door to go get into the car. And so she was gonna get into the driver's seat, and so she yells out, come on Chanelle, we gotta go, and Chanelle yells back, just another second, Mama, I'm almost ready. So Chanelle was finishing up hopefully. Mama was like, cool, whatever, I'm gonna go out to the car.

13:35 I'll cool it down and i'll wait for you there. So she walks outside, she gets in the car, and she's thinking to herself that girl better hurry up. We are gonna be late. And right as she thought those thoughts, little miss Chanelle came walking right out the house. Perfect. They were going to be on time. So Chanelle be bopped to the passenger side of the car, got in, shut the door, and just as Tyrita put the car in drive, ear piercing explosions, one after the other started going off in the car. The sound was so loud that it defied all common noise that they were used to hearing. It was ear shattering, and both women instinctively ducked and they tried to cover their ears to try to stop the sound from just exploding. But that's when a burning pain started shooting through both of their bodies.

14:23 And as the explosions continued and the glass shattered everywhere, Tyreta realized they were under attack and She punched the gas pedal to the floor, trying to speed away from whatever was happening, and as the car peeled out, the car tore on down the road. The explosions started to make a distance from the vehicle and they just stopped. At that point. They stopped as quickly as they had started, and the car was still barreling down the road when Tyreta looked down to see blood pouring from her body and realizing that she had been shot numerous times. She was losing consciousness, but she knew she had to save her baby girl and continue to create distance between whatever was happening in that car and her child. It was like slow motion, now slow silent motion, as Tyrita looked at herself bleeding, and then she turned and she looked over at Chanel, who was also wounded and covered in shattered glass. The wind was blowing in through that open window, just slow motion, confusing chaos. And then Tyreta felt her body becoming weaker, just slowly, really just weakening. Things got dark and her body gave out. The car continued forward.

15:49 It ran over a stop sign before it crashed into a tree boom. Before it crashed into a pole After the shock and the impact and the smoke began to settle, Chanelle was able to get her bearings. Was someone following them? What was going on? Oh my god, she's looking around, mom, mom, And all she saw was her Mama slumped over the driver's seat, and Chanelle realized how serious of a problem they were both in. She struggled. She looked around to get her cell phone, but she was able to get it and then immediately place a call to nine one one, begging for help. And when that dispatcher picked up, she told her, please please send help. My mom and I we've been shot. Help us. Within seconds, well really it felt like hours, but it was truly minutes, police and medical rushed to the scene and they found forty one year old Tyreta and fifteen year old Chanel in really really bad shape. Bullets had been flying into the car at rapid pace. Just how many times they had been shot was scary, I mean, the sheer number of bullets.

17:08 But a miracle would come out of this. As Chanelle was assessed, she was found to have only have been grazed on the chin by the bullets that had barely missed her skull, as well as being only grazed on the wrist, What easily could have been an execution was found to have been near misses of epic proportion. If you don't believe in miracles, this one has to at least be close in your mind. The instinctual movements that child made in seconds as the explosions happened were the difference between execution and scratches. As for her mama, though she wasn't so lucky. Tyrita was rushed into surgery, and when surgery was completed, she had survived for the moment, but she was now in ICU and she was on a ventilator. By this point, family and friends were now swarming the hospital to try and make sense of this tragedy.

18:11 Poor Dante, he's over at a basketball game, trying to get ready, and now he gets the news. And his grandmother, Grandma Queen, she gets the news. They all rush over and they're in the waiting room, not knowing even what to think. What do you mean? What do you mean? My mom and my sister were shot. They were attacked by somebody? How and why? All of these questions running through their minds, with absolutely no concept of what could have possibly occurred, and Grandma Queen is sitting back in this chair and all she could think was the fact that someone had wanted to shoot her child, not only that they wanted to shoot her grandbaby. What kind of monster would do that? Someone want her child dead? This had to be a random act of violence or mistaken identity, because no one could fathom who would want to do this.

19:11 Thank God, Miss Queen and the family they weren't alone because family and friends continued to show up. They rallied around Tyreta's family and they wanted to be extremely supportive in the process. But all they could do now was thank God that Chanelle was alive and well, and then wait and pray to see if Tyreta would pull through or not. Back at the crime scene, detectives assess the site and what they found was that someone had absolutely, without question, tried to kill both Chanel and Tyreta. In total, they found eight bullet casings on the ground around where the car's original position had been, and they were determined to be from a nine million handgun. So when detectives arrived at the hospital, they realized, thankfully that Chanelle was going to be okay and that she was okay to speak with them and could maybe give them more insight as to what had happened in that moment. So young Chanelle was brave and when when they got there, She's like, yes, I can talk to you. I'd like to talk to you.

20:23 And she explained to them that when she got into the car, they were just heading to the game. As she shut the door, she said she looked up and a man that she described as husky approached the car window, but before she could do anything, she saw the gun. He pointed it at her and just began rapidly firing. She also said with confidence that he was a black male. So police go back to the scene and they start canvassing the area around the home to see if anyone had seen anything, heard anything, could they say anything to police that might help, And to their surprise, witnesses were everywhere. They describe seeing the exact same thing as far as description of a blackmail walking right past where the shooting had taken place. So this seemed to be a solid lead as far as description of what the shooter might look like. So cameras would obviously be the best next thing if they could locate any in the area. So they went on the hunt looking for them, and sure enough, detectives were able to locate some cameras which showed a man fitting again that exact same description running from the scene. Well, okay, let's be real, running might be a bit of a stretch, but he was getting away from the scene quickly, quickly, but he was a big guy. With that, it was pretty much the only evidence that would be found. So detectives wanted to learn more about this bike club that

21:53 Tyrita was a part of. Once they gathered more information about Tyrita, the truth be told. Detectives really were like, okay, this is a biker gang. Okay, this must not be a club, right, So they go and they meet with some of the members and when they do this, the lyrics of DMX's song that we all know too well. They found no way, in no way encompassed what this group was about. Sure, it was a group of people who had each other's backs and they liked to be edgy and you know, cultural and moral on a hip hop vibe, but the group was one that was very much tied to doing good in the community. This was absolutely a social club, is what they found. They did things like book bag drives and handing out toiletries to people that were in need. That was really their thing.

22:47 So to think that this was possibly a biker gang was really laughable very quickly, and it wiped that theory that maybe this was a gang related shooting just right off the theory list. It was done the people in the club all so wanted to help in any way that they could to help figure out who had shot their friend. This included her very good friend, Jennifer, Jennifer Sweeney, and that's who Tyreta had become very tight with very on in the group. Jennifer just a little bit about her, because I hadn't said much. She came from a very good family, a long line of educators. Historically, both her mother and her grandmother were teachers, and so that need to care and nurture was something that Jennifer was very used to in her life. She however, did not want to be a teacher. That was not her thing. She was much more mechanical and so she had a really good job working as a technician for an electrical company.

23:44 So Jennifer had been on her way to a rough rider's event whenever she got the call from another writer that Tyrita had been shot. As we all would imagine, she was horrified, She was shocked, and she was then also beside herself to know that not only had her best friend been shot but also her teenage daughter. My god, you know, she didn't realize at that moment. She was just grazed, but to think, who shoulds a mother and a daughter? So she immediately whipped her car around, sped to the hospital and running through the doors, she looked for the family, where she immediately wrapped them up in hugs. No words were even necessary. Everyone knew how dire this situation was, so that's really where things were. And then ten days would pass after the attack took place, when prayers were answered. Very rarely do I get to do a podcast or I get to say that, but prayers were answered here. Tyreta woke up. Not only did she wake up, but she was able to be removed from the ventilator. I mean, incredibly, she was alive. How many people have you ever heard of being shot eight times other than fifty cent or you know Baron Lee that I mentioned in a previous episode. How many people do you know that get shot that many times and survive it?

25:06 This is a miracle amongst miracles. So that's two now in one story. Not only that, but she was able to speak and true to character. The very first thing that she said when she woke up was where are my kids? How is Chanel? Is she okay? Knowing that her baby girl was okay and learning that she was going to be just fine was relief unlike any other that she could experience. And I know I'm the one telling the story, but I have goosebumps right now. If you're watching me podcast, what a beautiful moment. Everyone's okay, Everybody's alive. And the fact of the matter was that whenever Tyreta tore off in that car and gassed that gas pedal down to the floor, she saved both of their lives, and within seconds her daughter had completed that task of survival. Whenever she called nine to one one together as a team, they survived, They saved each other, and they made it through the unthinkable and the unimaginable.

26:12 Thinking about all of this made me reflect when a sign I saw that said strong women, may we be them and may we raise them. And when I think about that, I'd say Tyrito was now living proof of that concept that dynamic duo saved each other. So detectives, upon learning that Tyrito was now not only alive but awake and talking, they went up there to try to gather information from her if she could, But the process was very slow because this isn't the movies, this is real life. She was alive and awake, but very much injured and struggling to speak at times struggling to breathe while she was answering questions that they had, so detectives knew they had to be brief, They had to be straight to the point because of how bad she was struggling in talking with them. But there was something that they felt compelled to ask, even if it wasn't something that was widely known. See whenever they were talking to the rough rider's crew, that crew said something that detectives had not heard from anyone, including family or a majority of the friends. Outside of the rough Riders. Detectives had gotten wind that Tyreta and Jennifer might have been dating, not just best friends. Yes, so this wasn't an openly

27:45 discussed thing, but there were whispers amongst the writers that their relationship had been more than just friends. So they wanted to ask her basically, was this true, not as a judgment but just as a understanding of everybody in her inner circle. Well, Tyreta was like, yeah, absolutely this. She was open and honest with detectives. She said, we used to be together. We did recently break up and the breakup was tense, but Jennifer did not do this shooting. She would not have done this shooting. And they're like, Tyreta, are you sure, and she said yes. We had been in a relationship. It was really on the low for about three years. So although they had broken up, the other thing was that Jennifer had remained by her side at the hospital this entire time too, and Tyreta had allowed it. And you got to recognize that Jennifer was caring and she brought comfort even though they weren't still together.

28:51 So Tyta wanted her there. She allowed it. It was a comfort zone for her, and Jennifer was even calling. And the one that was up a dating the rough Rider's crew on Tyreta's progress was extremely helpful through all of this, and that's kind of where she stood on their relationship at this point. So in a trust yet yet verify and I know, I say that a lot, but that's what you should do. Detectives followed up and they called Jennifer in to talk to her about what she may know now. Jennifer's demeanor, she was calm, she was upset, but very concerned and overall very helpful for the police. She was honest. She said, look, you know, wasn't out in the open, but I am the only woman that Tyreta has ever been in a relationship with.

29:42 This wasn't the norm for her. We broke up, she said, we hadn't spoken in a few days prior to the shooting. Was It wasn't a huge blow up or a huge fight. It really was more of a natural ending to a relationship that had just run its course. The shooting, however, rattled Jennifer, and she said, you know, to hell with the breakup. I mean, I'm gonna be there for her. We were in this relationship for three years. I still care about her, and this is horrifying. All right, Well, where were you when this went down? Well, the night of the shooting, she said that she was shopping at the Woodbridge Mall. That was at seven o'clock. Before she had gotten in her car to head towards that rough rider's meeting which was also that night, and detectives look into this and it was confirmed, Okay, that's what was going on. Also, looking at Jennifer, she was tiny, okay, the shooter was huge, So there was no physical way that that was her at the scene. It was somebody else.

30:45 So moving forward, an additional thirty nine days after damn near being assassinated by a shooter, Tyreeda walked out of the hospital, very slow and obviously with some assistance. She made it out of that hospital. Her right arm was in very poor working condition. She was very weak. But when they say don't give up. Walk if you have to, crawl if you must, but don't quit, Tyrita was a woman that got that message loud and clear. You can just I'm telling y'all. Can you not imagine her children and her family have just been overwhelmed with joy that the day had come. She won the battle that she had been thrust into. She was far too weak and disabled for the moment to be able to take care of herself, and she definitely couldn't take care of her children, so she elected to stay with her mama as queen as she recovered, and no matter how old you get, y'all, Mama always knows what to do, and mama can always ease your mind, and that's just what Grandma and Queen intended to do for her baby girl. So for now, the attempted murderer was unknown, out there and still on the loose. The motive was unclear, and there were no further leads other than the male scene leaving the scene, and this was just pretty much a head scratcher for sure.

32:14 So two full months would pass without any real progress in the case. But although Tyreta and Chanelle had survived the unimaginable, the fear that just rippled from that day was far from gone. And not having any clue of who would want you or your child dead makes every interaction feel like a possible death trap, and this was not something that Tyrita was even willing to risk nor entertain. Someone may get her, but they will not get her child. Not going to happen, So, opting for a selfless course of action, she made the difficult decision to send Chanel to New York to stay with her aunt. And while this was heartbreaking to be apart from her daughter, ensuring Chanelle's safety was way more important than the sadness that she was feeling being apart from her Also, although traveling was extremely difficult for her, Tyrita would still make plans to visit her daughter physically, though she couldn't travel alone easily.

33:26 Her wounds were healing and she was continuing to have trouble with her right arm, which meant driving was not an option. But there was a train that she could travel on, so Grandma Queen made plans to have a train attendant helped Tirita whenever she would go, and she would travel to see her daughter. Was this a lot, yes, but is that what a mother does. Absolutely nothing was going to stop her, not pain, not difficulty, not distance, Nothing was going to stop Tyrita from going and seeing her child. So she made her way slowly and with assistance from that train attendant, and she went and she enjoyed her visit with Chanelle on March the sixth. It was a great time. So two days later, on March the ninth, Jennifer agreed to help Tyrita run some errands.

34:26 Thank god. I guess we can all say here that she had good family and good exes, you know, But then again, I don't know that I should say exes because Jennifer and Tyreta were back together. I guess the trauma of almost dying had bonded them while she was in the hospital. But regardless, without help, Tyreta would have been struggling far beyond what she was already struggling physically. Her arm again was very injured, and so she needed help with cooking and eating. Eating even bathing was difficult. So all of this was just such a blessing that people were rallying around her. So that morning, Tyrita was up early and getting ready. She hugged Grandma Queen goodbye as miss Queen was leaving for work, and before shutting the door, Grandma Queen told Tyreta, baby, make sure you work out your arm. Make sure you're moving it, don't you know, don't get all stoved up. Make sure you're doing your thing, because Mama's never quit mothering no matter how old their babies get, do they And Tyreta said, I will, Mama, I will, I'll do it I'm supposed to do. Grandma Queen said, I will see you when I get off of work. Baby, I love you, and with that, Grandma Queen was out the door. A bit later, Jennifer showed up as expected, and they went and they ran their errands, and when they were done, Tyreta was to be dropped back off at home. But that evening, when Grandma Queen got back from work, she went inside.

35:57 She kicked off her shoes, she dropped her keys and her purse on the counter, and then she called out for Tyreta, but there was no answer. She walked around the house and opened doors and checked the bathrooms, and she realized Tyreta wasn't there. But where could she be Because she couldn't drive anywhere. It wasn't like she could have taken herself somewhere. So then again, Tyta was popular, She had lots of friends who loved her, and so maybe she was out with one of them. So Grandma Queen started texting and she called a few times, but by that evening the alarm was growing. By dark, something wasn't right, and so Grandma Queen called the police department and she wanted to report her missing. Now, considering what all she had been through already, this was raising some red flags for police. Yes, she was an adult, she could do what she wanted, but she wasn't in complete health.

36:54 Tyreta's mind, though, was sound, so this was a very interesting situation that the police department was now put in. The fact that other friends had tried to call her as well and she wasn't answering their calls was also alarming. Now, the last time that Grandma Queen actually made contact with Tyreta was at four forty four pm that day, and now it was dark and no one could get in touch with her. How in the hell was this happening just three and a half months after someone had tried to assassinate her. This was like the nightmare that wouldn't end.

37:35 Surely though, there had to be a reasonable explanation here, So Grandma decided to call Jennifer and get specifics about what they did. So Jennifer said, I picked her up around five pm or so, we ran errands together, and then I dropped her back off at the train station around seven or o'clock so that she could head back home. She said that Tyreta's plan was she was going to catch the seven seventeen train and that was the last that time, you know that she had really seen her. So Grandma Queen at this point not playing around. She was learning everything she could, but she was not going to sit at home idle and just go, Okay, maybe my daughter will pop up. She had almost lost her daughter once, She's sure as hell was not going to let anything happen to her again. So instead of just worrying, Grandma Queen took action and she called her nephew, who happened to work for the New Jersey Transit. When she got on the phone with him, she said, look, can you check the security tapes and see if Tyreta ever made it on the train today around seven. So, looking at the train schedule, he said, sure, no problem. There were actually two trains around seven o'clock. There was one at six fifty five and then the next one was at seven seventeen. So this narrowed down the timeline at least to watch the tapes, which the nephew agreed to do.

38:55 So he watched these tapes, but he never was able to find Tyreta on the tape. But the thing was, other trains were going, you know, the other directions at the same time. So while everyone was trying to figure out exactly where she went, Jennifer wondered, well, what if she's behind one of those trains that's obscuring the view, like, you know, how are we going to be able to see exactly where she was. They weren't able to find her on the tape. Making it even worse was that no attendance on the trains were able to confirm or deny whether they had seen Tyreta or not while they were working that evening. It was very unclear what happened.

39:43 So detectives are just finding the whole thing extremely odd. Tyta shoot her is still out there and now she's missing from a train station and we can't locate or pinpoint her on the tape. So the nephew calls Jennifer. He's trying to hammer down the e exact time that she dropped off Tyreta, and Jennifer checks things out, looks at her phone and all that, and she said it was seven oh nine. That was the time. So this meant okay, she didn't catch the six fifty five, it had to be the seven seventeen train. But again reviewing the tape, they just couldn't see her anywhere. So the night would pass, it would turn into the morning of the ninth, and still silence from Tyreta, no calls, no texts, no answering the phone. The situation was critical. She couldn't care for herself. She would not have just run off.

40:40 So Jennifer continued calling Tyreta into the next day. She couldn't get her to answer, and Jennifer's like, my god, I'm the last person to have ever seen her alive. And so she felt that responsible, you know, I have to help solve this. So some days would pass, and late in the evening of March the eleventh, which was you know, a few days later, detectives knocked on Jennifer's door. Now this was around almost eleven o'clock at night. Jennifer, I'm saying Jennifer's door, But Jennifer lived with her mom. Okay, so her Jennifer and her mom's door, and they said, look, we're struggling here. We need some help. Will you come down to the station and give us a formal statement on the record so that we can, you know, have specifics.

41:25 Jennifer said, sure, no problems. So she and her mother agreed. They both went down to the station right then, and they did so. So Jennifer again, she explained, I picked up Tyreta, we went to lunch and then to the DMV. Afterwards, she said, we went back to my house for a little bit. She said, we stayed at my house until around six forty pm. That's whenever I drove her to the train station and I dropped Tyreta off around seven. She said, Tyreta had already missed the six fifty five, so the seven seventeen would have had to have been the train that she caught. Once I dropped off Tyreta, she said, I went over to my friend Donna's house and hung out for a little while. The text us are like, all right, so did you ever talk to Tyrita anymore after you dropped her off? And she said, well, I texted her around eight, but she didn't answer me.

42:17 And you know, I was hanging out at my friend Donna's house for about an hour, and then I went and I met up with my other friend for dinner. She said. I did text Tyrita again that night, she said, it was more around like ten thirty, still no answer. The next morning I tried to call her again, that was around eight am, but no answer back. And she said that's when Tyreta's son called her and said Mom's missing. And she realized that something was very very serious, seriously wrong. So police were like, all right, cool, we're going to follow up on this. We want you to know that, and Jennifer said, yeah, do it please, you know that's fine, And so they did, and this is what they found.

43:01 Surveillance video at the lunch revenue or the restaurant that she said that they went to, as well as video from the DMV confirmed what Jennifer said that they did all day. They also got surveillance footage from their restaurant that same night where Jennifer said she had dinner with another friend, again confirmed that was true. So Jennifer then also gave them access to her cell phone, which did not show any immediate red flags, as well as she allowed them to search her home and her car. They found nothing. So days continued to pass with no breaks in the case and still no contact with Tyreta. So where was she? People do not just disappear. We know this guy's something happens to them. Crime stoppers would even get involved with her disappearance. They created missing person flyers.

43:56 These posters were offering a reward up to ten thousand dollars and this was distributed throughout the community. It was even making the news, but no real leads came in. Two children were there again without their mother, and no one had answers for them. Miss Queen was desperate to find her wounded daughter, but nothing. And when you hear people say that they just felt helpless, you know, maybe that's hard to understand or hard to describe it. Have you ever felt helpless before? Feeling like you you need to go somewhere, you need to be doing something, but you don't know what direction to go in, and you have no knowledge of what you're supposed to be doing.

44:38 It goes against everything you feel that your mom is missing and you need to go do something, but I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. So police would have to hit the streets. They would have to just start canvassing, doing some like old fashioned boots on the ground. They wanted to talk to people, had anybody seen anything? And so police by this time had sent all for cell phone records for Tyrita because they wanted to see if they could track her phone or the last usage. But what they found was that it was not pinging off of a tower. Okay, we all know cell phone's ping off of towers real Briefly, I don't want to get too technical here, but everything is relative when we say pinging off of a tower, because her last known ping would be very, very valuable.

45:27 So when I say everything's relative, I mean the type of device, the age of the technology, the terrain, everything. Okay, But cell phone towers there's basically two things you can think of here. Some of them have a three hundred and sixty degree antenna picking up signal, and some of them have just like faces with panels on them. I'll say panel just for your understanding, but where it'll pick up a ping, which will show direction, and then if they can figure out what direction the ping came from, then it's going to shoot out a cone of probability of where the phone was when it connected to the tower. So it's very helpful to know this, and it gives directional value for the police to go look for the phone.

46:08 So whenever they got this information from the phone company, they also are going to be given what's called a confidence factor, and basically it'll say how confident is the data that the phone would be within you know, one hundred feet, fifteen hundred feet, whatever that might be. The higher the confidence factor, the better chance you are finding the phone. So if it's a ninety percent confidence factor that the phone is to the south southwest within thirty meters, that's pretty damn good and it really gives police a direction to hone in one. So police got that information. They had a pretty good confidence factor on this one, and so they were canvassing an area directionally that was roughly one mile from the cell tower where Tyreta's phone was last used. The last use of that phone was seven o two pm, or at least the last contact with the tower was at seven oh two pm, and it was in the area of Joline and Myrtle Avenue, or it could have been with a cross street of what they found to be McClellan Street based on that phone company data. So they're out canvassing that area and talking to people in the homes whenever. They spoke to a gentleman by the name of Andre Harris who lived on Jolene And I mentioned this because when they're speaking with him, he mentioned that he did know Jennifer when they were asking some questions about him. But they're like, oh you do, well, how do you know Jennifer? And

47:38 he says well, it's because we went to high school together. And then he kind of continued answering questions. He made no mention of knowing Tyrita or anything like that, and so, I mean, people know people, So it wasn't necessarily a huge thing, but it was interesting to note and speaking of the fact that people know people. Detectives also, while they went on in Canvas the area, wanted to speak with this friend Donna, who Jennifer said she spent time with after dropping Tyreta off at the train station. So they go get Donna and they're talking to her, and Donna confirmed Jennifer did stop by absolutely, Okay, everything was checking out, she said, yeah, and she called me sometime after seven, and then that's whenever she came to the house.

48:24 But that conversation, although it was confirming what Jennifer had said, it kind of went sideways a bit whenever Donna mentioned that. She said, yeah, I'm not home, Donna, my husband is, though I'll be home in a little bit, and she said, so, Jennifer showed up at the house, hung out with her husband for about an hour before she left. Okay, well cool, But the thing was Jennifer and Donna's husband hated each other, so this was weird. They everyone knew they did not like each other. She sat and hung out with him for an hour. So they wanted to talk to Donna's husband and he confirmed, yep, we hung out for an hour.

49:09 Awkward as hell. We chatted and then she left after about an hour, and so they're like, Okay, what'd y'all talk about? And he said, just small talk, really, I mean, we don't really have much to talk about. She just told me she had just dropped Tyreta off at the train station. And he was like, oh, you know how she doing whatever? She said, you know, things were good. I gave her some cookies. We just bought this cool T shirt. They talked about that she'd given her some cash whatever. But he was able to answer another question in the minds of not only investigators, but also Grandma Queen. Why was Tyreta dropped off at the train station to begin with? Because if Jennifer picked her up from the house, why didn't she just go drop her back off at the house. Well, Donna's husband actually was able to explain it because whenever they were chit chatting, Jennifer said, yeah, Tyreta asked her to drop her off at the plane at the train stay because she didn't want to inconvenience Jennifer making her drive all the way back to the house and then have to turn around and drive all the way back to you know, jennifer'side of town or whatever.

50:11 So after Jennifer left the house, Donna said she had spoken to her again because she had called her to see, you know, if she was still going to be there whenever she got back home. But jen said, no, Look, I mean I waited an hour and you didn't show up, so I left. So while they were talking about that, Jennifer was really really excited because she was saying not only was she you know, sending pictures of the engagement rings that she had picked out, but she was just really excited about proposing. But she mentioned that she was kind of frustrated because she's like, you know, I'm excited in all this, but she's like, but Tyrena won't pick up the phone, like, I can't get in touch with her. Well, the day after whenever Tyreta had gone missing. The day after Tyreta went missing, Donna and Jennifer had hung out together.

50:59 They were driving around, they were talking about where could where could Tyreta be? Jennifer was really worried because, you know, the rough Rider crew. She's like, I hope they're not going to blame me for this, because I mean I was the last one with her. I feel so guilty, you know, I'm just freaking out where could she be? She was also freaked out that the police kept questioning her, and she's like, what if the rough Riders retaliate against me? Not to mention where is Tyrita? You know, like this is a lot for someone to handle. And she's you know, what if a person what if the person who tried to kill her the first time actually like got a hold of her. So both women were just swirling and talking about just how bizarre it was, and Jennifer's like talking, you know, about what might could have happened, and Tyreta says, if she's actually dead, I mean, do you think how long will it be before she starts to smell? Donna is like, I don't know, but you know, hopefully she'll be found. Okay, let's go, let's not go down that road.

51:59 Let's stay positive. More time would pass, y'all. Tyreta was still not found summer would come. Still no word from her. So while her family was completely in shambles, the world continued to turn. People went about their lives, you know, people moved forward. The rough riders continued to have their get togethers, and I mean they're still talking about Tyreta, wondering what happened, but nobody knew anything. Even Jennifer had moved on, you know, she was convinced Tyreta was gone. She's not answering the call where did she go? She had already started dating somebody else by this point. I mean, it was just like nobody knew what happened. But police were still committed to working the case, and part of that was they decided they wanted to study Jennifer's phone records.

52:49 Whenever they came in. She was the last person to be seen with Tyreta, and so they still were trying to figure out what happened from the time she was dropped off at the station and all of that. Now, some phone numbers were known in the record, some weren't, but one number was contacted frequently around the time of Tyreta's disappearance. So while this isn't a smoking gun or anything, this timeline and who this person was needed to be addressed. Police wanted to identify who it was, so they're tracing the number, and when they get the results, my brows would raise because that number belonged to none other than Andre Harris, the very nice neighbor that police had spoken to while canvassing for Tyreta's cell phone. Now, what are the chances of that coincidence? Maybe? But y'all know I don't believe in coincidences, and neither do the police. That's too odd for comfort. What had mister Harris been up to in recent times, specifically in connection to Jennifer? So police decided to compare Jennifer's long term phone records with Andre Harris's and lo and behold, if there wasn't another trend that they picked up one. And that trend dated back to November of twenty fifteen, specifically November twenty second through the twenty fifth, and on the twenty fourth, they

54:21 communicated fourteen times between noon and eight pm. And you're like, all right, Kelly, why are you give me all these freaking specifics I can't keep up? Well, let me tell you why. Because it was grabbing police attention. Why because Tyrito was shot on the twenty fourth. That's insane. So based on what police felt like they were seeing, it looked like he may have been involved in the shooting. Not to mention that when they're looking at Andre Harris, he fits the exact race, build and height as described by witnesses and daughter Chanel to boot. He had an easy pass on his vehicle, and when they pulled the records of his easy pass, it showed that he traveled southbound in the direction of Tyreta's home on the Garden State Parkway at seven point fifty five pm on the day that Chanel and Tyreta were shot, and that was just minutes before they were shot. So looking back over the interviews with other people, a huge discrepancy then became very obvious. See when friend Donna said that Jennifer called and stopped by her house. When that call was scrutinized that Jennifer made to Donna because Donna says it was made after seven sometime, Well, when police really scrutinized that call,

55:54 it was after seven, but specifically it was made at seven. Well, if that was the case, then where was Jennifer from seven pm? During the drop off at the train station for the next forty five minutes to an hour because she didn't go straight to Donna's house because it wouldn't have taken that long. There's there's a gap here. So comparing Jennifer's cell phone records to Tyreta's last phone call that was ever made, detectives found that both of their phones, Jennifer and Tyreta's, were bouncing off of this same tower at seven two pm, whenever she went missing. But that tower was the one located near Andre Harris's house, nowhere near the train station. They knew it. They knew it all along. The family knew this, and the police knew this, but had to find a way to confirm it. Tyreta had never been dropped off at that train station. Not possible.

57:01 This wasn't rocket science, this was digital science, and it was showing that a plan most likely had been made not once, but twice between Jennifer Sweeney and Andre Harris to do something to Tyrita. That first attempt was to murder her. Now the race was on to figure out was Tyreta still alive somewhere or had they finished what they had started. So, based on all of the evidence compiled to this point, in a chronological format, a picture of a very devious set of plans lay in front of detective's eyes. What they saw was this, Jennifer contacted Andre and they must have made a plan to kill Tyrita back in November of twenty fifteen. Proof of this found in that both of their cell phones were hitting a tower right near Tyreta's home multiple times right before the shooting, and then both of their phones Andre and Jennifer's they parted ways, and this mattered not only because of their proximity to Tyrita just before the shooting, but it also proved that Jennifer was lying. She had texted another friend that same day at seven twenty seven pm saying she was headed to the mall to buy sneakers, but if you remember, in her original interview, she told police she was at the mall at seven pm. Big difference there. So. The records also showed that one call

58:34 between Andre and Jennifer was made just one minute after Chanelle had dialed nine to oneint one screaming for help after being shot. Was this the confirmation call? It's done? Sure seems like it so. Further interviewing of friends showed that there was some more things that were going on that didn't quite fit at the time, or they didn't realize it mattered till now. And these friends showed that while Tyrita was recovering, Jennifer was telling people that they were back together, showing those pictures of engagement rings to people because she was going to propose to Tyrita. So then what was the motive? Okay, So all right, so everyone's consistent that she's telling everybody she's going to propose, and she's got this ring blah blah blah blah blah. Okay, Well, then what would the motive be here though, We've got to have a motive of why she would want this. Well, it turned out Tyreta was telling people they were just friends, they were just going to remain friends after a long relationship.

59:38 So police then discovered something else that put everything into more perspective in terms of that motive. They realized that Tyreta and Jennifer still shared a phone plan. That meant Jennifer had access to the records live time. So Jennifer was basically stalking Tyrita after the breakup, and she saw in her messaging and calling of other love interests. She specifically saw that Tyrita was talking to Hassan well. In more interviews, they realized that just three days before the shooting, the rough Riders had had a get together where Jennifer was there and she watched Tyrita and Hassan dancing together, and police were like, aha, they believe that that is what threw Jennifer over the edge and into a rage the night before the shooting. They also found that Jennifer was chronic calling Hassan from a blocked number. But those calls were going ignored. You wouldn't pick up the phone.

1:00:49 He's not going to answer this block number. She called over and over and over and over and over. Every time he didn't answer the phone, she got more angry, and that is when Jennifer solicited Andre to shoot Tyrita. Tyrita and Chanelle then miraculously survived. So Jennifer was there in the hospital acting all loving and supportive while Tyrita was recovering. She did this because she was hoping that she could win her back, but it wasn't working. Hence Tyrita telling people were just friends, you know, but we care about one another. Well, the very morning of March the eighth, the day of the disappearance, Jennifer was back.

1:01:30 They found this in the records, in her search records, Jennifer was back stalking Tyreta's phone and then she went missing. So, realizing what they thought was going on here as far as the records and all of that was going, police realized that Andre Harris had an outstanding warrant. So they went and they arrested him during a traffic stop and brought him in for questioning under that warrant. While he's in there, that's whenever they bring up Tyrita being shot and missing. But he denies knowing anything about the shooting. He had no idea what they were talking about. Great, he doesn't know anything. Well, they still cut a warrant to go search his car and his house. So police descended upon that home, praying to find Tyrita there, and it didn't take them long to locate what looked like a freshly dug grave in the backyard. Oh god, no, right, and right near this dug up spot was a shovel.

1:02:39 So investigators locate that site and they decide to start scooping away the dirt little by little until they hit what looked like a trash bag. So they carefully and gently worked to uncover it fully, and what they found was a body wrapped in a tarp stuffed into this primitive burial site. And when they opened that bag, there lay the body of Tyrita. She was dead and she still had an electrical cord tied around her neck. So back at the station, Andre was confronted with this, and when he was confronted, his demeanor completely changed, and almost immediately that's when a confession started rolling. He admitted to being the shooter nine months earlier, but he said that Jennifer was the one who ultimately killed Tyreta. He said Jennifer solicited him on November the twenty third to get rid of Tyreta, and he did agree to kill her, but only because Jennifer threatened him. She threatened that basically, she said, I saw you out with another woman, and if you do not assist me with this, then I'm going to tell your wife that you're catting around behind her back. Now the situation, you're like, you're gonna go

1:04:11 kill somebody over that, well, there's a little bit more to it. So the reality was that they were actually already divorcing but what he said he was worried about was that this was going to complicate his ability to have custody of his children, because if they could prove that he was catting around and cheating on his wife, then he may not get any custody of his kids. So the next morning he went out to his car and when he got in, he found a sticky note basically on the dashboard and there was an arrow drawn on it and it was pointing to his glovebox. He's like, what the hell. He opened up the glovebox and a nine millimeter pistol fell out. So he called Jennifer to be like, what's up. And that's whenever she said, I need you to come meet me here, and gave her directions of where he was to come meet her, and whenever they met up, he said. Jennifer had another man in the car with her and he was holding a gun, and Jennifer showed him a photo of Tyreta and her car.

1:05:17 At that point, Jennifer then did something on her phone and then turned it back around and showed him pictures of his own children, and she said, you will shoot her and kill her or your children will die. Next I was very quick to roll my eyes and not believe this. Okay, but you know I'm going to tell you everything, And what if I told you that. Police did later find that Jennifer had researched not only his children's school, she had gotten directions to their school as well as their school's dismissal prosued and that is whenever he went and he shot Tyrita and Chanel and then ran off. He returned the gun to her a few days later, but he said that Jennifer was pissed because Tyrita and Chanelle were both alive. She allegedly told him too, now I got to go up to the hospital and play the part. So then in March, Jennifer called him while he was coaching his son's basketball team, and he's like, I'm not home. I'm busy. I'll be home later. So when he got home about six pm that night, he was inside and one of his dogs started barking. So he went to go look and see what the dog was barking at, and he found Jennifer standing on his

1:06:48 back porch. She asked him, do you have something I can tie down my trunk with it's broken, and so he went inside he grabbed some twine and he brought the twine out to her. She said, this isn't strong enough. It's not going to keep it closed or whatever, and so he said he went back inside, and that's whenever he found an electrical cord and he gave it to her. He then went back inside. She left. He went about his business, but a little bit later the dog started barking again, so he went back to the door and Jennifer was standing there again saying, hey, I need some help. So he's like, all right. He walks outside, and he goes to her car and realizes that she had somebody with her, sitting in the front seat. So Jennifer, while they're walking, says, hey, do you have a trash can?

1:07:32 And he's like, for what? And then as he got closer, he realized, holy shit, that's Tyreta. And not only that she was dead. She had the cord around her neck, and he said there was blood coming out of her right ear. And as he was realizing Tyreta was dead in the car right there, he said, Jennifer started talking to Tyreta's corpse and said, if I can't have you, no one will. And then she started like freaking out, telling him I got to get to the train. I got to get to the train station. So he's like, I didn't have a trash can to put her in, so I had a tarp. I pulled the tarp over, I laid it on the ground next to the car. We pulled her out, wrapped her up in it, drug it to the backyard, and that's when I buried her in the backyard. He said, Jennifer had a gun in her pocket like the whole time, and was watching overseeing what he was doing, and she was acting crazy. She was crying, then she was watching. She would become distraught and then she would be mad, all at the same time.

1:08:31 And he said she was talking out loud, and she would to the body and was like, all you had to do was say yes. If I can't have you, no one will. If I couldn't have you, no one will. And she kept repeating it. So police were right. They realized with the motive, they believed that Jennifer likely proposed to Tyreta in the car. Tyreta declined it, and so Jennifer decided she was going to kill her this time. She then left to telling Andre not to say a word, but then returned a few days later, threatening him with a gun. If you speak to police, there's going to be a problem. And he asked her, what are we going to do with this body you put? You brought a dead girl to my house, a burieder in the backyard.

1:09:14 What are you going to do with it? Jennifer said, I'm coming back to get it. He's like, all right, whatever. He goes back inside, but Jennifer never came back and he washed his hands of it and didn't want to mess with the body anymore. So with that confession, both Andre and Jennifer were arrested and charged with multiple counts, including Tyreta's murder. Andre Harris testified against Jennifer Sweeney in a plea deal. Andre got sixteen years in the New Jersey State Prison, while Jennifer got ninety five years. At sentencing of Andre, he did ask to address the court as well as Tyrita's family, and he did a apologized to them. Right after he completed this apology, a family member of Tyreta's stood up, a male member and he said, I don't want to hear this shit. You shot a sixteen year old, and then he stormed out of the court room to the right, and I gotta say I wouldn't want to hear it either. You murdered my family member and you shot a child. So when it's all said and done, I think we can all agree that everything about this case has been a total tragedy. And in the end, the biggest lie ever told is that Jennifer killed Tyreta because she loved her too much to let her go. No, she killed because she never understood

1:10:46 love at all, because love doesn't hurt you, but crazy sure as hell will