258\. The Killer Cadets - The Murder of Adrienne Jessica Jones
39:24 Share

- Growing up, Melissa had what looked like the perfect life, loving family, great friends, until the day it all came crashing down when she discovered her father's dark secret. He was the notorious Happy Face Killer. On March 20th, Paramount+ presents the thrilling new original series, "Happy Face," inspired by a true life story.

After years without contact, Melissa's father reaches out to confess another murder. But there's a twist. Another man is already on death row for the same crime.

Now, Melissa must choose between keeping her secret and protecting her perfect life or unraveling an unsolved mystery to save an innocent man and decide how far she'll go to uncover the truth. Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid star in Happy Face. New series streaming March 20th, exclusively on Paramount+.

Weight loss. It needs to be fast and sustainable. Noom GLP-1 starts at just $149 and ships to your door in seven days. Take it from Marcos, who's loving his journey with Noom GLP-1. ♪

I'm getting to where I want to be. I'm in such a good place right now. And I'm very confident that I'm going to be able to continue this weight loss, this journey and really make a true lifestyle change. Don't believe it. Take it from cam. Who's gaining more confidence with new GLP one. I really am starting to feel better. Like,

Like I feel a lot lighter. I feel a lot happier. I feel a lot more confident. I just feel a lot more like myself. I don't feel so bogged down every day. $149 GLP-1s? Now that's Noom Smart. Noom, the smart way to lose weight. Get started with Noom GLP-1 at Noom.com. That's N-O-O-M-G-L-P-1.

Real new users compensated to provide their story. Individual results may vary. Not all customers will medically qualify for prescription medications. Compounded medications are not reviewed by the FDA for safety, efficacy, or quality.

And

And I know we did have a lot of requests for another Strangie Danger Drop, so that will be coming in the future. So just get ready for that. We heard you. It is coming again. All right, Garrett, do you have your 10 seconds? Our? Dang, you're trying to take my 10 seconds away? Your 10 seconds. You guys are probably so sick of me always saying the same things for 10 seconds, but I'm currently going to the gym.

Playing pickleball a few times a week. What else I got going on, babe? Pickleball. Garrett's been like weighing his food. Yeah, I am currently. I have some goals that I want to hit before summer. So I'm currently weighing my food, counting all my calories. I just will say it's horrible. Like if you want happiness in your life, don't do it. Do not do it.

don't do it but i will say it does work but i will also say it's absolutely horrible but it works that 100% works that's about it that's kind of oh i have a sty on my eye currently i don't know why i have a sty i'm not trying to rhyme i sound like dr seuss i don't know why i have a sty but i might die but i might die anyways i have a style you said i don't know why i have a sty on my eye

But I might die. But I might die. So I have a sty. It's not too bad. It should go away in a couple of days. That's kind of all I got for you guys. I will say though, since I've been a lot more consistent at the gym and with pickleball and with my food, my energy levels have been through the roof. Like, what do you want me to do? I'll do it. Name it. Name it and I'll do it. I want you to clean off our porch. I won't do that. There's a couple of things. I'm just kidding. I do need to do that. I need to clean off our porch.

That's all I got for you guys. So I hope everyone has a great week and don't weigh your food. All right. Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, dailymail.co.uk, denverpost.com, murderpedia.org, NBCnews.com, sportskita.com, people.com, investigationdiscovery.com, texasmonthly.com, and dallasobserver.com. Honor, courage, commitment. Those are the core values, essentially the motto for the United States Navy.

So when you think about the people that are willing to dedicate their lives to service, you might imagine people who intrinsically have these values and are able to uphold them with no problem. People who are stand-up citizens willing to go above and beyond for their communities and do whatever it takes to protect the American people.

Which may be why it's the perfect cover-up for someone who's done the complete opposite.

After a gruesome murder of a high school student in Mansfield, Texas, the last place police thought to look was at the Naval Academy 1,400 miles away in Maryland. 1,400 miles, wow. But as it turns out, not everyone is who they represent themselves to be. And sometimes those who hide behind the banner of honor, courage, and commitment are

are really masking their shame, cowardness, and cold-blooded nature. Also, if you're watching on YouTube currently, Peyton's looking pretty hot. So if you're not watching on YouTube, you can go check her out.

and subscribe while you're there so let's head back in time to 1995 as we travel to mansfield texas a farming community with an old indoor rodeo and a cute little main street lined with antique stores mansfield was a little slice of that all-american life in texas and that's why bill jones and his wife linda chose to raise their three children there

And while they settled into a modest little neighborhood, a bubble of safety and comfort, Bill always went the extra mile to protect his kids, especially when they became teenagers. There were curfews, rules, checks and balances to keep them safe, even though they were in a safe area. If they went somewhere, they would have to prove it later on with a ticket stub or a receipt.

particularly their teenage daughter, Adrian, or as her friends called her, AJ, who had been experimenting with her rebellious teenage side lately. See,

See, Adrienne was the textbook definition of the popular girl. She was a sophomore at Mansfield High School. She was a track star with a pretty face that definitely caught the eye of most boys. She had tons of school spirit, was practically a cheerleader without the uniform and pom-poms, but she also stayed on top of her academics and got excellent grades, even in her honors courses.

Even her manager at her part-time job at a fried chicken restaurant said Adrienne was an exemplary employee. And on top of it all, she was nice.

Kids said Adrienne would say hello to them in the hallway even if she didn't know them. She was friendly, warm. She never acted snooty or above anyone else, which probably only added to her list of admirers. And while Adrienne was definitely looking towards the future, hoping to get accepted to Texas A&M University and eventually get her veterinarian degree, Adrienne was also enjoying just being a teenager.

And she did what most teenagers girls do. She flirted with a lot of boys and good for her, but her parents were not fond of it. Mostly because Adrian was sick of all the rules that her parents had put in place. It prevented her from having a good time living her teenage years to the fullest. I'm scared to raise a teenager. I'm going to be honest. But you really just, you have no idea. You just think the world is so fun. Can't do it. Can't do it.

I can't do it. Can't raise a teenager. I'm sorry. So with a strict 10 p.m. curfew, she found ways to sneak out through her bedroom window. That was until they caught her and decided to bolt her window shut. Still, as teenagers always do, Adrienne found creative ways to skirt the rules. Little did she realize those rules were meant to protect her from the very thing that would happen next.

It was Sunday, December 3rd, 1995. Winter break was fast approaching and Adrienne was probably excited about some time off from school and her responsibilities. She just spent her Sunday afternoon working a half day shift at the Golden Fried Chicken restaurant. She was also a ball of energy. When she got home that day, she asked her mom, Linda, if she wanted to go down to the 24-hour fitness center with her. It was just a few miles away.

So Linda took her down there, always enjoying that quality time between the two of them, and said she even remembered the conversation that they had at the gym that night. Adrienne was thinking about her new career path. She said she was interested in learning why people act the way they do. So her mother was like, hey, you might be interested in becoming a behavioral analyst. But she didn't seem to ask why Adrienne had this sudden change in interest or if something or someone in particular had sparked it.

So after their workout, they returned home to settle in for the night. By then, it was around 10.45 p.m., so after Adrian's curfew. You know, everything I've ever done that, how do I say this? Anything that I've ever done that didn't make sense when I was a teenager was definitely because of a girl. You know what I'm saying? Like where randomly you'd be like, oh, I'm going to do this. And your parents are like, what? They're like, oh, yeah, I just feel like it. No. No, it was a girl. It was always because of a girl or something going on. It's kind of funny.

It's after her curfew, but the phone rings when they walk in the door. Adrian answers. Adrian took the portable phone to her bedroom. Remember, we're in the 90s. And then walked around the house chatting while puttering around with laundry and a few other things. Eventually, Linda, her mom, told Adrian, hey, go to bed before Linda went to bed. But Adrian wasn't planning to go to sleep anytime soon. Instead, she waited until everything was quiet.

And sometime between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., she slipped past her parents' bedroom and out the front door of the house completely unnoticed. Around 6 a.m. the following morning, Linda woke up to the sound of Adrian's alarm clock ringing in her room. After realizing Adrian wasn't doing anything to turn the alarm off, Linda got up groggily and wandered into her daughter's room, only to find that Adrian wasn't there and her bed was neatly made.

Now, Linda's first instinct is Adrian just went out for an early morning run, something she would do. But by 8 a.m., when Adrian still wasn't back, Linda started to panic. She immediately called the Mansfield police, who sent an officer to the house to help them file a missing persons report. Meanwhile...

20 miles away, an officer in Grand Prairie, Texas is responding to a different 911 call. It's from a local who noticed something that morning on his drive to work. He saw what he thought

Okay. Oh my gosh. Okay.

So while the girl had no identification on her, she did have a t-shirt on that read cross country regionals 1995. We know who that is. Plus there were a few telling clues about what might have happened. Like the girl appeared to be clutching the grass, which told detectives this was where she died than rather where she had been moved and left after she was killed.

And it only took a few hours for them to realize the Jane Doe matched a missing persons case that had just been reported over in Mansfield. The deceased body was 16 year old Adrian Jessica Jones. So young, man. So young. So one of the first things detectives need to rely on after making the connection is, is this an abduction?

There's no indication of a struggle in Adrian's home. Plus, the autopsy doesn't show any signs that Adrian was restrained or bound. She also didn't really have any defensive wounds of any kind. So they quickly realized that Adrian must have willingly left her house, whether that was with the attacker or not.

But this also told them that she probably knew her attacker. So they start compiling a list of friends, coworkers, and fellow students to speak with. But because Adrienne was so popular, it kind of turned out to be a pretty long list. They began asking around, was there anyone that Adrienne didn't get along with? Maybe someone was angry with her, was a girl jealous of her. And that's when the wild theories and rumors started to emerge. And you have to imagine in this small town in Texas in the 90s, a popular girl turns up dead.

They're talking to people at the school and people just start talking. Someone said they heard Adrian talk about attending all night raves that happened about an hour away from Mansfield. There were whispers that maybe Adrian had met someone there that had killed her. Oh, others said, no, no, no. Adrian knew drug dealers, which turned out to be completely baseless. It,

Kids are weird. A few even... Kids are just funny, you know what I'm saying? The problem with in a town like this, it probably wasn't just the kids. That's probably too. Probably, yeah, you're probably right. Okay. A few even mentioned a former friend of Adrienne's who had been angry with her ever since Adrienne told the girl's mom that she was drinking at a party, like she tattled on her. So there was a ton of speculation, but not much evidence, which only made things even harder for police. But there seemed to be one thing a lot of kids at Mansfield High could agree on.

The killer was likely in their halls. They had a locker beside them probably. They were sitting across from them in the cafeteria. They were sharing a school project with them. How scary is that? Another high school kid killing another high school kid?

And then going to school being like someone in here kills somebody. And the reason this is the theory is because police believe she snuck out to hang out with someone and that person killed her, which she was most likely sneaking out to hang out with someone for her own age from school. So there's 2,500 students at their school. So narrowing it down wouldn't be easy.

but no one knows a daughter better than her own mother luckily that seemed to be the case for linda jones because she had some insight that she thought could help the police she thinks she knows who adrian was talking to on the night she died remember she was talking on the phone

Problem was, it wasn't just one person. All right, you guys, we're getting into an ad and it is Quince. If you've been listening to this podcast long enough, you know I love Quince and Quince is my go-to for luxury essentials at affordable prices. I think that Quince has solid things that you all need in your wardrobe. Also, it is all-encompassing.

high, high quality. I've told you before, but the reason they're able to do that is they cut out the cost of the middleman and then pass the savings on to you so you can get high quality items at an affordable price. They are known for their cashmere at a lower price than almost anywhere else.

So go check it out. Give yourself the luxury you deserve with Quince. Go to quince.com slash husband for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Can you guys go get the black silk skirt that I love so much? That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash husband to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash husband. Work management platforms, endless onboarding, IT bottlenecks, admin requests,

But what if things were different? Monday.com is different. No lengthy onboarding. Beautiful reports in minutes. Custom workflows you can build on your own. Easy to use, prompt-free AI. Huh. Turns out you can love a work management platform. Monday.com, the first work platform you'll love to use.

Linda said when the phone rang at around 1045, Linda asked who Adrian was speaking to. And Adrian told her it was an 18 year old senior. Remember, Adrian's a sophomore named David Graham, who was on Adrian's cross country team. Linda was about to tell Adrian, hang up the phone that it was past her bedtime. But Adrian had a concerned look on her face and she whispered to her mother. He's upset about something.

So Linda let her keep chatting, thinking, okay, she's just being a good friend. But sometime during that conversation, Linda heard Adrian switch callers. She was now talking to her new boyfriend, a 19-year-old boy named Tracy Smith.

okay but when tracy her boyfriend asked her who she was just speaking to on the phone before him adrian doesn't say david graham the 18 year old like her like she had told her mom

She said she was on the line with a third boy. So she either lied to her mom or actually did talk to all three boys. It was a kid named Brian McMillan who had dropped out of her high school after suffering from depression, but he still had a big crush on her. So if she did lie, why?

well some of her friends think it's because tracy knew brian and didn't feel threatened by him but if she said she had been speaking with someone else a senior on her track team then tracy her new boyfriend might have felt jealous okay so they think that she's lying to her boyfriend is what the consensus is still it's not tracy that linda the mother is worried about

It's this David name that actually sticks with her because she had never really heard Adrian mentioned this guy before. And then Adrian lies to her boyfriend about it. So she checks in with the track coach, says, what do you know about David? And the track coach is like, David Graham, I didn't even know your daughter and David were friends.

Which may be a tad bit strange, but by most people's accounts, David is said to be a pretty stand-up guy. As some of the other girls at Mansfield High described him, David was sort of the cool guy around campus. By no means as popular as Adrian, but still attracted the attention of some girls.

He was said to be a gentleman, very goal-driven and family-oriented, but his biggest identifier was that he was the battalion commander of the school's junior ROTC program.

now if you don't know rotc stands for the reserve officers training corps it's basically like a college prep program for anyone who wants to go into the u.s military yeah on top of that people said david was an excellent student always very polite which is interesting because and i might be under the wrong impression i'm just telling you guys what i see on social media i don't know why it happens i feel like i always see people

making jokes about people that are on ROTC in high school and college. I don't know why, but it's just what I see on social media. So I'm saying that because I guess we are in a different, we're in the nineties, in the nineties. But I used to like, he's the cool guy because of it, but maybe that's just changed. I don't know. Guys had an ROTC. Mine. Mine didn't have one either, but, um, our college did both of our college or went to some college, but our college did.

but i didn't i don't know much about it i never really paid attention to that we had other programs for like other career paths like potato farming yeah and then also like um nursing if you want to become a nurse you could like take this thing that would get you a certification before you went to college like helped you i don't know actually i wasn't smart enough to be in the nursing thing though peyton was smart peyton did really good on her act only because i studied not because i was actually really smart i was just a hard worker

Yeah, still pretty smart. So people said David was like the yes, ma'am, yes, sir type of guy. Okay. But when it came to his connection to Adrian, things were still a bit unclear. Yeah, they both ran cross country together, but David actually had a very serious girlfriend. Her name was Diane Zamora. The two had met four years back through a local civil air patrol group, an air force program that teaches sort of the 101s of military life.

While Diane went to another high school 15 miles away in Crowley, Texas, she and David grew very close over the years, and the summer before their senior years of high school, they both had started dating. Now, Diane was almost the complete opposite of Adrian. She was reserved, quiet, she kept to herself. She was very religious, the kind of girl who was not going to lose her virginity until marriage. The only thing she had in common with Adrian was that she was also an excellent student on the Honor Society.

But Adrian shouldn't have been a concern for Diane. Diane and David were madly in love by the summer of 1995. In fact, only a few weeks after they started dating, they actually got engaged in high school with plans to marry after each one of them finished their respective military training. Diane was planning to go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, while David was going to be attending the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

They even set a date for their wedding, five years out, August 13th, 2000. But shortly after announcing their engagement, Diane said something that would sort of change the dynamic between her and David.

would make her even more attached. She actually lost her virginity to him after they got engaged. And after that, things definitely got more intense between the couple. Some said that David and Diane both got more possessive over one another. David always had his arm around Diane when they were together, but he also acted differently. He got more quiet and tense when he was with her. And those who knew them said it was hard to tell who was controlling who in the relationship, but

It was definitely turning a little toxic. Interesting. Okay. So could that have been what David was calling Adrian about that night? Was there some sort of lover's quarrel between David and Diane that he was confiding in Adrian about? Well, once police hear that Adrian spoke to him in the hours before her death, they called David in for questioning, but they just aren't convinced that this guy is involved. Okay.

Maybe it was his polite nature, maybe the fact that he was going to go serve his country, or maybe it was the fact that not a single one of Adrian's friends mentioned him as suspicious and that he was actually seen crying in the hallways after her death.

Either way, they didn't even bother giving David a polygraph test, so they began looking elsewhere. Like to another local Mansfield teenager whose name was never formally released, probably because she was a minor at the time. So for the sake of the story, we're going to just call her Tammy.

Now, Tammy already had a really ugly rap sheet for a 14-year-old girl. A year before Adrian's death, she actually attacked one of Adrian's good friends with a baseball bat after she heard that this friend had been messing around with Tammy's boyfriend. Then Tammy went to her boyfriend's house and shot him. Oh, okay.

While his wounds weren't fatal, charges were definitely pressed against Tammy. She had a trial and guess who testified against her? Adrian Jessica Jones. Tammy only got two years probation for delinquency, but many thought that was enough for her to seek revenge against Adrian. So the police pulled her down to the station, give her a polygraph, she passes, plus she has a really strong alibi. So she's off the list.

which brings them to their next suspect, another name that Adrian's boyfriend Tracy brought up. Remember how she supposedly lied to Tracy on the phone that night and told him she was speaking to an old classmate named Brian McMillan, the one who had a crush on her and had dropped out of school? Well, Tracy tells police, hey, you gotta look into him too.

And I guess even though Brian had dropped out of school, he and Adrian still saw each other since they worked right near each other. But when they start looking into him, it seems like Brian didn't just have a crush on Adrian. It was a little bit more of like an obsession. He began visiting her at work constantly to the point where she had to hide and lie when he came around. Hearing this, police decided 17-year-old Brian was a suspect. And to be fair, his story was a bit sketchy. At first, he was a little bit of a

He denies knowing Adrian altogether when he talks to police. Then he admits, okay, fine, I do know her. So not off to a great start. But when they ask him what he was doing the night Adrian disappeared, he was like, I got drunk by myself. Oh, gosh. I'm just trying to figure out what the motive is because we're saying some of these suspects, but I guess there's not always a good motive for... I mean, there's never a good motive for killing someone, but... But I also feel like... Like what she would...

He was jailed? Like what? Right. What's the motive going to be for him? This is insane. When teenagers kill other teenagers, it's either jealousy or sociopathic. That's so young just to kill someone. It's wild. He told police he was upset that night because he realized all of his friends had girlfriends and he didn't. So this is raising all types of red flags for police. They even get a search warrant for Brian's house. They impound his truck. But

But Brian's friends all say, look, there's no way he hurt Adrian. He's a gentle soul. He would never hurt a fly. His dad also says, my son was home all night. There's no way. Still, Brian sits in a jail cell from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve. Eventually, he's given a polygraph test. He passes with flying colors. So with zero evidence, police release Brian, which means they're back to square one. And that's where the case sits for months.

No new leads, no confessions or evidence, just dead end after dead end. Meanwhile, life in Mansfield goes on, for some people at least. Linda and Bill Jones still find themselves driving to the street where Adrian was found, thinking maybe this time they'll find something that police had missed. Some students continue to seek grief counseling, others paint a portrait of Adrian on the art room door, but many students, like David Graham and Diane Zamora, are preparing for the rest of their lives.

As the two temporarily parted ways, the summer of 1996 was spent in intensive boot camps for both of them. Diane was at the Naval Academy in Maryland and David at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. And while David was excelling in his training, Diane was having a much harder time with the physical training and with the distance from her fiance, David. Other cadets said she talked about him constantly.

But things seem to be falling apart between the two of them now that they weren't communicating and seeing each other every day. Diane was getting increasingly jealous and paranoid, constantly worrying what David was up to. She was going on intense crying fits, as her friends called it, when David wouldn't respond to her emails right away.

Eventually, she convinced herself that David had to be cheating on her with a female cadet. Yeah, I know where this is going now. So she thought, why not get him back? So Diane began cozying up to her squad leader, a guy named Jay Guild. And she opened up to Jay about her relationship. And when Jay asked her why she didn't trust David, Diane told her it was because he had cheated on her in the past.

And when Jay asked, okay, well, what did you do about it back then? Diane looked this man dead in the eyes and said, I made him kill the girl.

Now Jay sort of laughs it off. I mean, she can't possibly be serious. What a weirdo. But that's not the only time Diane says something like this. One night, Diane's having a late night conversation with her two roommates, telling them how deeply in love she and David are. And when one of them says to Diane, I bet you guys would do absolutely anything for each other, probably even kill for each other. You know what Diane says? Oh, we already have. Oh, she's weird. Get her out of here.

Now there's an honor code in the Navy. It's called the Brigade of Midshipmen Honor Concept. And it basically requires anyone who hears of wrongdoing from a fellow officer to report it. Yep, no questions asked. Because if you don't, it could be grounds for dismissal from the academy. That's why in movies, a lot of you that are listening or watching, like when someone has an affair and someone else finds out about it that's in the military, you're supposed to report it.

Like you're supposed to hear like you're just any bad behavior. You're supposed to report it.

I mean, we talked about earlier that there is an honor code when you're part of the military, even in the academy. So her roommates go and tell the people in charge and the people in charge don't just sit on this information. Officials call the police stations in and around Diane's hometown. They're like, hey, she's saying that her and her boyfriend killed a girl. And sure enough, they learned that there's an unsolved case from last year, that of Adrian Jessica Jones. That's so insane. That both...

her and her boyfriend were questioned in do you i guess you know the answer it's gonna be crazy if they both did it together so that's so so sad all right you guys i just wanted to take a moment to talk about something that has become an essential part of my daily peace of mind

You've heard us talk about it before. It is SimpliSafe. You know, it's kind of like a comforting ritual now. Every night as I get ready for bed, I engage my SimpliSafe home security system and feel that instant reassurance wash over me and there's nothing like it. And why do we trust SimpliSafe? Unlike traditional security systems that only react after a break-in has occurred, SimpliSafe's innovative active guard outdoor protection helps prevent intrusions before they even happen.

I mean how cool is that? With their AI-powered cameras backed by real-time professional monitoring agents, they detect and react to suspicious activity right away. So if someone's sneaking up and coming in, normally you have to wait for them to break in before the alarm sounds, but with SimpliSafe they can do it while they're at the window.

So you don't have to worry about long-term commitments either. SimpliSafe offers affordable monitoring plans starting at just around $1 a day. Plus, they have this incredible 60-day satisfaction guarantee. So it's pretty much a win-win situation. Peyton and I love SimpliSafe. We've been using it for years. We have family and friends that use it. We promise you will not regret it. Check it out. Everything is super user-friendly, high quality, and we love it.

Get 50% off your new SimpliSafe system with the professional monitoring and your first month free at simplisafe.com slash husband. That's 50% off of a new SimpliSafe system with professional monitoring and your first month free by visiting simplisafe.com slash husband. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.

You guys, feeling like my best self means that I am feeling clear-headed and have energy to tackle the day. And that is why I use LiveGood's Organic Super Greens and their multivitamins.

Every single day. And since I've started taking them, I have noticed that I just have a little bit more motivation. I feel a little bit better. With LiveGood, I always feel like I'm at my best. And what's better than that? LiveGood believes that everyone deserves access to high-quality supplements without the insane markups. They offer premium products formulated by an industry-leading team of natural health experts and experts.

They cut out the middleman to sell them at the lowest prices anywhere. Payton really does use Live Good. They actually have some amazing stuff. I was reading the bottles yesterday. It's in like our supplements medicine drawer. You should go check them out. No wonder they're the fastest growing supplement brand on the planet with over 1.5 million customers and counting.

Ready to make the switch and start saving? We'll make it even easier for you. Use our link and you can save an additional 10% off your first order on top of the already lowest prices. Just go to livegood.com slash husband to save 10% off your first order. That's livegood.com slash husband. Don't miss out on this opportunity to invest in your health without overspending. On August 30th, 1996, officers pulled her out of a pep rally and brought her in for questioning.

Now, once Diane's confronted by these detectives and Navy officials, she says, I made the whole thing up for attention. I just want to look tough, which the police think, OK, that could be possible. I mean, they have absolutely zero evidence on her besides other people. Perhaps she heard the news on Adrian and is making a false confession. Wouldn't be the first time someone's done this, but she doesn't get to just resume classes the next day. She's given a one way ticket home to Texas while police rule her out for sure.

Only Diane doesn't go home to Texas. When she gets to Atlanta on her layover, she goes to the ticketing agent and says, hey, can you actually put me on a flight to Colorado? Next thing you know, she's showing up on David's doorstep. What? Which is a very stupid mistake because that happens to be the detective's next stop, obviously.

gonna be a visit to colorado springs to talk to david on september 4th 1996 less than a week later david's getting hooked up to a polygraph machine and while he's also insisting diane must have made this whole thing up police have a new witness statement that discounts that a friend of david's told police he and diane came by his house after the night of the murder to change their bloody clothes so you're telling me that if

She didn't go around saying that she killed someone. They probably would have gotten away with this. Yeah.

So this friend is like, yeah, no, they showed up on my doorstep to change their clothing. They tell police that. And then when police are talking to David and tell him, well, your friend said you showed up in bloody clothing. He breaks from there. He goes on to write a four page confession letter detailing every little thing that happened that December night back in 1995 and what happened leading up to it. And here's what he says.

It all started at a track meet in November. This would be a month before Adrian's death. Adrian and David were away with the rest of the team for a cross-country event, and during that weekend, they got pretty close chatting during their free time. And when the buses finally dropped them off back at Mansfield High, Adrian asked David, hey, can you give me a ride home? But instead of going directly there, he said they pulled into the elementary school parking lot and hooked up.

Now in the car. And now David writes that he was so ridden with guilt afterwards that he actually went right to Diane and told her everything. Diane, having lost her virginity to David when she never planned to, who's also her fiance at the time, she's so betrayed that she says the only way that they can stay together and that David can earn her trust back is if he kills Adrian. He did it? What? And if he doesn't, what?

If he doesn't, Diane says, and if you don't do it, I'm going to kill myself. Diane says, if you don't kill Adrian, I'm going to kill myself. I always said,

Go to luck. Choosing to prove his loyalty to Diane, he agrees to her plans. And on the night of December 3rd, David calls Adrian telling her he's having issues with Diane. He wants to meet up. Adrian sneaks out of the house and hops in David's pickup truck. They come to that desolate county road. And as the two began chatting in the car, the hatchback opens and out comes Diane Zamora, who's been hiding in there this entire time. This is so sad. In her hand is a dumbbell. Oh my God.

which she begins hitting Adrian in the head with. - And David just sat there and watched? - Well, Adrian gets out of the car, he runs, and that's when Diane tells David, "Go after her with your gun." So he chases Adrian into that field, up to that barbed wire fence. When he catches up to her, he shoots her twice in the head. Now, like, Adrian has a good weekend with this guy.

They talk. Yeah. She hooks up with him. And he kills her. And then he shoots her in the head. Yeah. They're both. They're both. They're both insane. Like this is just wrong. This is just explicitly evil and wrong. They're both horrible. When David comes back to the car, he tells Diane he loves her.

But he says, we shouldn't have done this. Then we need to get rid of the evidence. So of course, this is enough to get David behind bars. But now the next step is confronting Diane because she was in the back seat. And when police get her back into the station, she admits to essentially the same story. Police also get a search warrant for David Graham's house and find both the dumbbell and the gun used to kill Adrian. So game over. They're charged with capital murder and they are tried separately.

Now, 20-year-old Diane gets to trial. She's like, no, my confession was coerced. The jury isn't buying it. And so after a two-week trial and a six-hour deliberation, they find Diane guilty of capital murder and she receives a life sentence. That's what I'm talking about.

Now, David's trial comes five months later in July of 1998. His plan is similar. He hopes to argue he was trapped in a controlling partnership, but there's one giant twist in the whole story, something David hasn't even seemed to share with Diane. One of the people called to the witness stand is Adrian's friend and fellow track athlete, Wendy Bartlett. And she claims that November day after the track meetup, she drove Adrian home.

Not David, which means they wouldn't have had sex in the car. In fact, David admits at trial, actually, we never had sex ever. It was just a lie that he had conjured up to make Diane jealous. One that just became incredibly out of hand and somehow made the situation worse.

Even more inconceivable because if you're telling me that they didn't even have sex and he lied and then kills her. She has no idea what she's even done. I'm sorry. Those people should not be in our society. So they return with a verdict guilty of capital murder. So it was initially a crime of passion had kind of inevitably driven a fake. Yeah.

So, and I will say by the time they were both sentenced, David and Diane, who were once lovers had now become mortal enemies.

Which is always so ironic to me when people kill for love and then end up hating each other anyways. Diane moved on quickly though, falling in love with another inmate. She married him in 2003 only to divorce him by 2010. And whether they like it or not, Diane Zamora and David Graham will be forever bound anyways. Only instead of marriage, it'll be because of the horrific crime they committed together over some senseless teenage love affair. It's crazy. So they were, oh,

wait were they both adults at that point when they were tried yeah yes okay that makes sense and they got life that's so sad that's horrible i mean what's even crazier is that she really didn't do any i mean she did nothing like she was completely just a citizen like i don't even know how else to say it there's a bystander there's something about when we cover teenagers who kill other teenagers

It's just pure evil. Like I can't explain it, but every time the motive is so dumb. You're so young and like what? Like it really just goes to show that their brains are completely underdeveloped and that they're just bad people. Sorry, we can't have those people in our society. It's so sad, horrible. So awful. Okay, you guys, that was the case of Adrian Jessica Jones and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.

Owning a boat comes with a number of perks, like being able to fling your favorite fishing rod around. And here's another perk. GEICO's boat insurance covers your boat and your belongings, and with specialist support from agents that are as passionate about boating as you are. There's so much value that you'll want to high-five someone, but not while you're holding your fishing rod. That's a prized possession. So hold on tight with both hands and keep it covered through boat insurance. Get more with GEICO.