Desiree Gibbon
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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

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My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today I am discussing the case of 26-year-old Desiree Gibbon. Desiree was murdered in 2017 over Thanksgiving weekend, about 20 minutes away from her grandmother's hotel in Jamaica. Desiree spent almost every summer growing up at this very hotel. So when she was found murdered, not only were her parents devastated, but they were also completely shocked.

After taking a closer look at the circumstances, her mother is certain that the perpetrator is someone that knew her and lured her away.

There isn't a ton of media coverage on this case. In fact, I'd never heard of it before I was contacted by Desiree's best friend Valerie. She sent me an email with the subject line in all caps, MURDER. Her email was only a few sentences long, and basically said that Desiree was brutally murdered almost four years ago, that they have no answers, and that no one would help them.

She also attached a picture of Desiree, who is stunning by the way. And when I googled her name, I was even more shocked, because Desiree was actually a model and an actress. She'd worked for MTV, she'd traveled the country with the Truth Anti-Smoking Initiative, she worked with the rapper A$AP Rocky at one point...

and she was even on the Nickelodeon show Blue's Clues. People flew in from all over the world for her funeral, yet no one is talking about her case or the insane and frustrating circumstances around it.

To be honest, I wasn't able to gather much from the little media that is out there on the case. Most of the coverage stops just a few months after she was murdered, and what is available has a lot of conflicting information. So I connected with Valerie as well as Desiree's mother, Andrea, to help finally tell her story in the most complete way that I can.

This is going to be one of those interview-heavy episodes, but with so little information available to the public, I can't think of anyone better to help explain this extremely tragic case. This is the case of Desiree Gibbon.

Desiree was born on October 13th, 1991 in Queens in New York to her parents, Andrea and Gary Gibbon. For Andrea and Gary, love came fast after meeting in a mall in New York. Just a year later, Desiree was born. Here is Andrea talking a bit more about Desiree's upbringing and the amazing life that she led. Yeah, sure. So I met Desiree's father about 31 years ago. And, um,

We got together very quickly and we lived together for about a year. And then we had Desiree and she was our only child for eight years until we had our second daughter, which was a very difficult adjustment for Desiree because she'd been the only child for eight years. And then four years later, we had our third daughter. So now you have eight years between Desiree and Mariah. And then there were 12 years between Desiree and Chloe. Yeah.

So it was difficult adjusting with, you know, so many years in between. I, you know, when Desiree was graduating high school, Chloe was graduating kindergarten. So I look back to my, you know, I look back now, what was I thinking? Should I have my kids closer together? But nevertheless, you know, that was our family dynamic and it just, it worked for us.

Yeah, Desiree was extremely early hitting all her milestones. By two months, two and a half months, I think she was sitting up on her own.

She walked, completely walked by herself at seven months. You know, everything was video recorded back in that day. And it was incredible to see what she was doing. You know, she was potty trained just after, I think, 13 or 14 months, very early. You know, she was just a, she was a happy baby, very, very happy. And she made people happy.

And, you know, as she grew up, she just had developed this personality with the best sense of humor. And she had tremendous amount of accents that she would just, you know, whether she picked them up on TV or in the movies, she would just speak in all these accents. I'm like, who is this kid? Like, she was really amazing. Very outgoing, bubbly personality. She loved life. And, you know, from a very young age, she

And she knew that at some point, you know, she had previous lives and she would, you know, talk about her future and what she wanted to do. And she grew up always wanting to be an actress. There was one year she went to school and when they had, I think it was Halloween or something. And she dressed up in this very fancy dress as a Oscar winning actress.

And it was so funny when she went to school and she had on this big, long purple gown and she gave her acceptance speech and everything. And she just, she knew what her path in life was. And, you know, there were other conversations with her that she always said to me, you know, mom, I'm going to die when I'm young. So I used to always tell her, Des, why do you say that? You don't say that to me. You know, parent doesn't bury the child. The child buries the parent. She says, no.

I'm telling you, mom, I'm going to die when I'm young because only the good die young. So then, of course, we laugh it off. And I'm like, this kid is crazy. And she would tell me all the time, got to be ready, mom. And she even told me it was going to be tragic. She said, I don't know what, maybe a car accident, but I don't really think so. But I'm telling you, mom, it's going to be tragic. Well, who could prepare for the tragedy that we faced with her death?

being brutally murdered in a whole other country. And it's just, I'm just beside myself, even to this day. I'm sure. Yeah, my goodness. I mean, and I'm sure you you didn't put much weight into it, then you're like, okay, whatever, like she's having this

you know, Marilyn Monroe type of aspiration to be this, you know, actress that never gets old type of thing. That's kind of how I would take it. Yeah. That's exactly what it was. And you don't take it, you know, that it's what's really going to happen. So I don't know what she was able to foresee or she just, I mean, but that was just her personality and she just knew fame and fortune was on her horizon and she wanted to make a difference in the world. But as she aged, she,

As she got a little bit older, she realized there were bigger issues in the world. And she kind of shifted from wanting to be in front of the camera to wanting to be behind the camera to tell people's story. You know, she would compare herself to wanting to be like Anthony Bourdain.

And she wanted to do that. She wanted to travel. She wanted to visit as many cultures as she could. And but she didn't want to go to the touristy areas. She wanted to really be out in the country and really see how people live. And, you know, she was all about equal rights. She hated the racial disparities there.

Um, Desiree did identify as being black because, uh, you know, I am white and her father is black of Jamaican descent. And, you know, even with her being a light skin girl, um, she says, you know, I know I have more opportunity than somebody with a darker skin color and it's not fair. So she would fight for equality. Yeah. So she really had her own platform of kind of what she wanted to do in life. Yeah.

As a baby, she did a lot of print work, modeling clothes. And I can remember one photo shoot we went to and we drove from New York City. We live in the city and we drove to Connecticut to this huge mansion that like these places rent out just to do photo shoots. And she was doing this catalog and it happened to be of Mexican attire, clothing,

And when she put on that little dress and the little sandals and she was just standing in front of the camera and she was doing this dance, I was shocked. And it was so funny. I could not contain myself that they actually put me out. They said, you're too distracting.

But she was so cute. And I had never seen her like behave like this in front of the camera, but she, she knew this was exactly what she wanted to do. So she did a lot of print work. She did a lot of modeling. She was, she did blues clues, um, that Nickelodeon show when she was little, um,

And then growing up, she did a lot of work for MTV. She was on Hip Hop Stars where she won that episode. And I think she won like $4,200. She met all the stars. She was very lucky in life. She was very, very lucky.

Yeah, I mean, and it seems like she was very talented, too. I mean, if she just knew how to open up like that to the camera, that's certainly a gift. She really was talented. And, you know, she was she was hungry. She was just very hungry for experiences and culture. And, you know, just after high school, she had decided to go volunteer in Brazil.

So she hooked up with this agency, this volunteer agency, and she ended up going to Brazil and she went by herself. She planned it. She paid for it. She took care of everything. So she went down there and she spent about, I want to think it was three months. And she taught English. She taught soccer. She even taught herself how to speak Portuguese. So Desiree was actually trilingual. She spoke English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

And, you know, she loved being in Brazil so much that she'd go back every summer after that for a couple of summers. All her friends went with her down there, like Valerie went with her, you know, her other friends went with her. So I think did Valerie go? I don't remember if she went there, but she did travel with Valerie to other places, but

She traveled all over. She was really a world traveler. She'd been to Brazil. She'd been to Greece. She'd been to Colombia. She went to all 50 continental U.S. states because she worked for the smoking, the No Smoking Initiative Truth.

And so she went on tour with them for a summer and basically they just traveled to continental U S and they went to different concerts and different events and they'd set up and they do, you know, games and raffles and give away t-shirts and no smoking stuff. And she'd be on the microphone a lot and, you know, they would set up stage and break down stage and,

And she did that for an entire summer. And then after that, she would do other gigs for them throughout the year, like travel to colleges. She went to the black colleges and they would speak there and they would talk about not smoking or smoking cessation. And, you know, she, she just loved it. She just loved it.

Yeah. I mean, it just seems like she had such a full, I mean, a very short life and obviously very tragic that it was cut short, but a very full life. She did. She probably lived three times more than most people. She's done more than most people do in one lifetime. She probably did in three lifetimes. That was her, you know, she wanted to be out there and she just, she really wanted to make a difference in the world. And, you know, sometimes I sit and sit and think, and I'm like, wow, I'm

You know, it's to me, you know, she was searching for her fame and fortune, but little did she know she already had it. Right. We can't sometimes see what's in front of our own eyes. But her fame and fortune was already there just by the person who she was. And it saddens me now to think that her her murder is going to be the object that changes the world.

And somehow, some way, I have to think that even in the tragedy, she would be happy that we're still fighting. And, you know, with the hopes of finding her murderers and changing some laws, that her life did make a difference. Desiree's best friend Valerie was also able to give me a bit of insight into their friendship and their life in New York together.

Okay, so I've known Desiree my entire life. I'm 30 years old. Me and Desiree met when we were five years old. We went to the same kind of school, like elementary school. So we've literally known each other from like age five.

We could be together all day, but it just wasn't enough. Even if we spent the whole day together, it's always like we wanted more of each other. She was just like, I don't, there's like no word I can even think of. Like she was just amazing. She was just so nice. So funny. Very, very funny.

We definitely always had a good time. Desiree was very, very popular. So she had friends from literally all walks of life. So I'm just her best friend. Like I've been her best friend her entire life. But she has friends from literally punk rock bands, friends from college, friends from here. She has friends from all over. So like right before she went to Jamaica, yeah, she was just doing really good. She just definitely wanted some change.

So that's why like she planned that trip. She just wanted like something different. And I'm sure her mom told you like they had like a bed and breakfast down there and like family down there. So that was like one of the main reasons she wanted to go down there as well.

As Valerie mentioned, Desiree's paternal grandmother owns the Gibbs Chateau Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. This hotel is three stories and has about 15 rooms. So it's not terribly large, but they were able to accommodate Desiree and give her a room for the month that she planned on staying in the country. It was an area that she was extremely familiar with, and she had some family that would be able to keep her company.

so it seemed like a great place for her to get away. So many media outlets reported that Desiree went to Jamaica to look for work or to actually do work for her friend's record label, but that wasn't the case at all, according to Andrea.

Yeah. So Desiree went to Jamaica because I think she was really trying to figure out what to do with her life. She's realized that she wants to be on the other side of the camera. She wanted to go to film school in Europe. So she had already researched it. She found the school. She knew the cost. You know, one of her best friends from college had just gotten married. Some of her friends were starting to have children and she kind of felt stuck.

Like I'm 27, she's married. This one has a kid. What am I doing with my life? So she had been to Jamaica many summers in the past. And again, a lot of the times her friends went with her to Jamaica because her grandmother did have a hotel down in Montego Bay. So she would go down there and stay. So she said to me after she returned from this wedding that her friend just having gotten married, uh,

She said to me that, mom, I need a break. I want to take a break from my boyfriend. I want to take a break from the family. I want to take a break from my friends. And I just want to get my head straight. And I want to figure out what to do in life.

So she says, I think I'm going to go to grandma's and I'm going to stay for like a month if that's okay. So I said, you know what, Des, do whatever you want to do. You're grown. If this is the thing that you think is going to help you, I'll support you. So she booked her ticket for one month time and she went down there just with that. And then when she got there, she said, yeah,

you know, mom, I hate that you keep sending me money. And I said, Desiree, you're in a foreign land. I'm going to make sure you have money to buy whatever you need at any time. Don't worry about that. And she says, yeah, but I don't like taking your money. I said, you're not taking my money.

So she's, you know, living in New York, she had been a waitress. She'd been a bartender. So when she was down there, she says, you know what? They have all these touristy clubs here. She says, maybe I'm going to get a job. She says, I'm just, I'm here for a month. I'm not doing much other than hanging out. I can hang out, make money. I'll save whatever money I'll take, you know, buy whatever I need. And if I make any money, I'll save it towards film school.

And there was one international club down there called Margaritaville. She says, I want to try to work at Margaritaville because I can always transfer from here back to New York and keep a job. So she was kind of thinking forward, like what she would do. So I said, well, I would prefer you not to, but I'm not going to stop you because you're going to do what you want to do because that's how strong willed she is. But she was just adamant about having her own money instead of taking money from us.

And it didn't pan out. I mean, she went on some interviews, but it never really panned out that she would take a job because I guess it was a little rough down there. So she did not go to Jamaica looking for work. That's the misconception. She had decided after about a week and a half of being there that maybe she would look for work.

Um, and again, it wasn't so easy because, you know, it's a foreign country and there's a lot of red tape and, you know, you need, like we have social security cards here in the States. They have a work ID number, tax ID number, something that she would have to apply for, which she was in the process of doing. Um, but the, she didn't go down there to look for work. She went down there really to figure out life. And that's where she decided it was going to be film school for her starting in September. Yeah.

Desiree lands in Jamaica near the end of October in 2017, planning on staying for about a month before returning home to Queens. During this time, Andrea was in contact with Desiree almost daily, not only because they were extremely close, but because Jamaica isn't the safest place to travel. In fact, in 2017, the same year that Desiree was murdered, Forbes named Jamaica the third most dangerous place in the world for women to travel to.

But Desiree understood the dangers and the precautions that needed to be taken. Not only had she traveled to Jamaica several times, but she also traveled all over the world. So it's not as if this was her first time out of the country and she was blissfully unaware of these things. Here is Andrea expanding on this.

Right. And, you know, she had and she did she did travel a lot. You know, she went to Greece and she wasn't in the touristy area. But one of her best friends from high school, somebody was getting married there. Her one of her best friends is Greek. So, you know, she traveled with them to Greece and it was, you know, out in the country. It wasn't in the tourist spot. And, you know, she had a great time and she learned a lot about the culture there.

Um, she went to Columbia with Valerie. They jumped on a plane and they said, okay, let's go to Columbia. Um, and you know, Columbia can be a very dangerous, uh, area as well.

But Desiree was, she was so highly intelligent. She was well-read. She was book smart, but she was street smart too. She's very street smart. She had a lot of common sense and she really was all about safety. So she knew how to keep herself safe. And, you know, her dad used to tell her every day, Desiree, don't be roaming around Jamaica. You know, it's dangerous. Desiree,

you know, watch your back, stay with people. And she says, dad, I've been to Rio how many times? And Rio is much more dangerous than, than Jamaica. She's like, I've been to Jamaica. I know Jamaica. And you know what? She never left the hotel by herself. She didn't travel alone. She went out always with somebody else. And if they left the hotel, they took a taxi from the hotel and the same taxi would pick them up. So she wasn't stupid.

Another thing I couldn't find in any of the media reports was really what Desiree filled her time with in Jamaica. According to Andrea, Desiree was really just living her best mid-20s life. She was enjoying her time with family at the hotel, she was going to clubs, and she was meeting new people. She had met a lot of people down there this time. And the people that she met were actually, they were known as the elites, right?

Meaning that they came from very wealthy families. They had good backgrounds. But just, you know, it's looking at it now, although they may be elite because they have money, they could be paying off everybody for anything that they do. And she hung around these people probably three plus weeks and on a daily basis, you know, whether it's in the club or walking around or whatever. So she got to know them very quickly.

And I just, you know what, I just don't know. I think she just trusted this group of people and they just, I don't know. I wish I knew. I wish I knew.

One publication that did cover this case quite a bit when it first happened was the New York Daily News. According to a 2017 article from them, Desiree's boyfriend at the time, Phil Rodriguez, told the publication that she complained to him about having problems with some of these new friends, stating, quote,

Some friends were responsible, law-abiding citizens with jobs, but she also made friends with what she called poor girls from the other side of town. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she made what she thought was friends, but they were actually plotting against her. End quote. But when I brought this up to Andrea, she said that Phil never told her about this, and that Desiree never brought it up to her either.

You know, that was the only time that I ever heard that. I didn't hear it from anybody else. So I'm not sure because I always say like, but who was she having an issue with? Because Desiree didn't keep secrets. So I don't know the conversation between her and Phil at that time that she was having an issue. And, you know, it might have been something like so trivial, you know, that kind of stood out in his mind, but

She had never said anything to me about it. And she wasn't somebody to hold back, not even if she thought like I would be scared. She'd be like, oh, mom, this girl did this and that. And, you know, I would give her advice or, you know, kind of tell her what to do and how to avoid situations. So that never came up. That was actually the first time I ever heard that is when he said that.

Phil appears to be the only person that Desiree reported having issues with someone in Jamaica too, and I wasn't able to find any further clarification about this. I mean, I can absolutely see things coming up with really anyone. Someone says something you don't like, maybe they act kind of funny towards you, and you talk it out with your boyfriend. But were these possible issues really enough to make someone want to kill Desiree? I don't know.

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So Desiree spends a few weeks in Jamaica hanging out, meeting new friends, and deciding what she really wants from life. And then it's Thanksgiving Day. Desiree actually spoke to a ton of people on this day, just calling them to say that she loved them, happy Thanksgiving, all of that. But this would also be the last day that anyone saw her alive.

Here is Andrea outlining the last conversation she had with her daughter. I spoke to her on Thanksgiving a number of times throughout the day. We had texted, we had talked, we'd done some emails and, you know, she asked me to send a picture of the turkey. And so I did. And she's like, oh, it looks so good. I want to eat it. I'm like, but you're a vegetarian. Why are you going to eat my turkey? She's like, no, I would eat it this year.

Um, because, you know, Desiree, she tried everything. She tried vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian. Um, but for a long time, she'd been a pescatarian. Um, so we talked about the food and they were having also a Thanksgiving dinner down there with, with her family. Um, and you know, I have to tell you, she was so happy on this day. She had spoken to everybody she probably ever knew in life. Um, all of her friends, um,

her family. She spoke to her dad. She spoke to me. She spoke to so many people. So whether it was a text, a FaceTime call, a phone call itself, she spoke to everybody. So I spoke to her last at about 930 that night. And I asked her how was dinner? And she said, Oh, it was good. Um, it was nice.

And I asked her, you know, did you do your hair? Did you get dressed up? She's like, no, but I, you know, I didn't do my hair and I didn't put makeup on, but my skin looks really good. So I'm okay. And I said, okay, as long as you look presentable because you can't attend a dinner and not look presentable. So, cause she knew how, she knew how I felt about that. You don't just go looking crazy. So, but she had not done anything like that.

So we talked and, you know, she told me she was really happy and she finally found, you know, another reason to be down there. She had spoken to a friend here in New York and, um, her friend had just started a, um, record label. Now, prior to Desiree going to Jamaica, she had gone into the recording studio with one of these, uh, rap stars, ASAP Rocky. And, um,

She knew a lot of celebrities and she was always kind of around them. So she went to the recording studio with him, this other girl who had just starting her own record label. And, you know, Desiree called her on Thanksgiving to wish her, you know, a happy Thanksgiving. And she says, oh, my God, it's like, you know, it's my birthday today.

Um, and you're just calling me out of the blue. And so Desiree's like, oh my God. So they spoke for a while and she told her, you know, I'm really serious about my record label. I'm starting to do work. And Desiree said, oh, I'm in Jamaica right now. So the girl was telling her, well, listen, if you scout talent there, we'll sign them and it'll be your act. So Desiree's like, oh, that's really exciting because again, Desiree had a lot of talent and she could spot talent with one eye. She was that good.

So she's like, oh, mom, maybe I'm going to do this. I'm going to start looking, you know, when these guys are playing in the clubs, you know, I'm going to see if anybody is good enough. She was just so happy that day. She was people watching. She said, I'm watching the neighbors across the street. She's like, I think they're Puerto Rican and they're doing bird calls right now. And she's like, I really want to be their friend. They're like amazing to just watch. So she was very big on people watching too.

And, um, she was just happy, just happy. And we hung up about nine 30, you know, I told her to talk to her later. I loved her. And we just kind of, that was the end of the night for us. I did not know she had plans to go out because I don't think when I spoke to her at nine 30, she had any plans to go out. I don't think that was on the agenda because again, hair's not done. No makeup is on. She's not dressed. She's got on shorts and a t-shirt.

But Desiree does go out, at least out of her room. We know this because the hotel had security cameras that captured Desiree peeking her head out of her room several times. She then talks to the guard and eventually leaves her room altogether. Luckily, because this was Desiree's grandmother's property, Andrea and Gary were able to view the footage for themselves.

And I do want to talk about the surveillance that caught her because I have also seen conflicting reports about that. I understand that she left her room with basically her American cell phone, which would have no, you know, it operated off of Wi-Fi and she just left with her cell phone and her room key. Is that correct? That is correct. She didn't have a dollar. She didn't have a bank card. She didn't have a credit card. She had nothing. She didn't have a purse. No ID whatsoever.

So she wasn't going anywhere, right? She was just going downstairs to meet somebody for a quick minute or drive to the store or something. So it just didn't make sense. When we looked at the surveillance video, you know, we saw her come downstairs at, I think, 1127 p.m. She had on, you know, shorts. She had on flip flops. She had on a midriff T-shirt and a white bandana on her head.

And her cell phone in her hand. And you could see her cell phone was lighting up and she'd been talking to somebody or texting or something. And she had said to the security guard, oh, actually at that point, she was just speaking to him. And then she went back upstairs because she keeps looking out the door and there's nobody there. She went back upstairs and then she came down at, I think, like three minutes later. The only difference in her attire is that she had put on a pair of clear sunglasses on top of her head as an accessory.

Everything else was exactly the same. Still no purse, you know, still the bandana, same shorts and T-shirt. And she walked down, you could see her with her cell phone in her hand again. And you could see her look at the guard and say something. And from what the guard reported was that she said she'd be right back. And then she looked out the door and then she walked out the door to the end of the driveway. And then she made a left. And after she made that left, she was never seen again.

Okay, so the surveillance, when I read something, it said there was surveillance of her on a road. Is that just the driveway to leave the inn? It's not even a driveway. It's more like a very small parking lot. Okay. So she was not observed on any road walking anywhere because none of the street cameras, according to the police in Jamaica, were working. Oh, not a single street camera. No. Interestingly. Mm-hmm.

It's, yeah, unfortunately, usually convenient like that. But yeah, I mean, if she's sticking her head out every so often and her phone's lighting up, it definitely seems like she's meeting someone. Yeah.

I've looked at some things online. I was trying to get a better idea of this inn. I've seen it called a bed and breakfast. I've seen it called a hotel. Would this be the type of place where you could just take your room key and walk down to a bar and charge things to your room so she wouldn't need her wallet? Not in this particular hotel where she was staying because...

You know, I, it's, you know, it's called the Gibbs Chateau, right? So it's really like a three-story hotel building. They do have a restaurant in there and, you know, the bar is there, but it's not where people coming, hang out in this particular hotel and, you know, having drinks. It's really just the people that are staying there. It's not, it's not on the strip of like the touristy strip. That's just kind of like down the block around the way a little bit.

So that that's not the place people would go and hang out where she was staying.

Okay. Okay. So it's possible that she was just leaving to meet up with someone with no plans to buy anything. Because me, I'm like, how do you leave the house without anything to buy anything with if there's an emergency, whatever? Right. She really, I don't think she had any intention to go anywhere. I think she was just going downstairs, maybe to the car to say hi. I really don't believe she was going anywhere. I think that she was kind of coaxed from the hotel.

Went downstairs and again, the girl had no makeup on. Her hair wasn't done. She had a bandana. She had flip flops. She wasn't going anywhere. She was not going anywhere. And so then I didn't hear from her on the Friday. And it was like, you know, the Wi-Fi there is really bad. So it didn't surprise me. I wasn't worried. I'm like, OK, she'll call me. I didn't hear from her on Saturday. And I said, OK.

Something's wrong. Um, but you know what? I'm sure it's the wifi. She didn't get good reception. It was always in and out. And so I didn't bother her again that day. Um, and then Sunday I had gone out to my car, I was getting ready to go to work and I sat in my car and I got this really strange feeling that went through my entire body.

And honestly, it was this feeling like, oh my God, it's finally happening for Desiree. She's in the right place at the right time. Oh my God, let me call her. So I called her and it went to voicemail. No, I'm lying. I text her. I'm like, oh my God, I just got this feeling. It's finally happening for you. Please call me. Um, and she didn't answer. And I text her again and she didn't answer. And I said, okay, wifi is still no good. Um,

And that was on Sunday. Monday, I didn't hear from her. I'm getting a little like freaked out. But again, in my head, I'm still chalking it up to bad Wi-Fi. And then on Tuesday morning, I got a call from her uncle who was staying in the hotel the same time she was there. And he wasn't very nice to her. Yeah.

No, he'll tell you he was just trying to, you know, protect her, keep her safe. But he just he wasn't nice. You know, he didn't want her going into certain areas of the hotel. You can't get linens. You can't go in the kitchen. You can't do this. You can't hang out. You can't go out. And, you know, her father told him, listen, she's a grown woman. You can't do that to her.

you know, let Desiree be Desiree. Um, so he called me on a Tuesday morning and the phone number that came up on my phone just said Jamaica. So I assumed it was Desiree because she bought a burner phone down in Jamaica. And, um,

I was just getting ready to start an executive meeting. So I'm in the boardroom and I'm sitting there, but I see it pop up and the meeting didn't start yet. So I answered it. And there's always this delay from Jamaica, you know, initially I'm like, Des, oh my God, Des, hey. And I don't hear anything. I said, Desiree. So then I heard the uncle's voice and he says, yeah, are you at work?

I said, yes. Where's Desiree? He's like, um, something's happened. Uh, can you go home and call me back on this number? I said, no, I'm not going home. What happened to Desiree? He says, um, just go home and call me. So I hung up on him. So then I text my husband and I'm like, your brother just called me. Where is Desiree? What is going on? Uh, about a minute later, my husband calls me and I just sent it to voicemail because I'm in this meeting at this point.

And then he texts me and he says, my mother told me, wait, let me think how to phrase says my mother just told me they killed my daughter and I'm sitting in this meeting and I don't know what to do. I'm looking up and all I'm hearing at this point is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I remember looking at my boss and I said to her, can I see you outside for a minute? And she's like, yeah, sure. Because I'm looking at my phone from under the table. So nobody knows I have the phone.

And I remember walking out in the corridor with her telling her, I have to leave. I have to leave right now. I have to go home right now. I have to go. And she's like, what's the matter? I said, I just have to leave. I have to go. I have to get out of here. I'm leaving. She's like, what is the matter with you? So I showed her my phone and she about fell out herself and she ushered me into my office. And she says, call your husband. So I call him. And I knew as soon as I heard his voice, he's screaming and crying.

And I told him this better not be true. And I guess I went crazy because I said, if this is true, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill your mother. I'm going to kill your father. I'm going to kill everybody in Jamaica. Where's my daughter? And my boss ended up slapping me. She's like, stop it. I'm like, oh, wait. Okay, sorry. What is going on? He's like, they killed her. They killed her. They fucking killed her. So I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. So I still...

don't know what to do at this point. Right. And I'm like, where are you at? He's like, I'm on my way to my mother's. I said, okay, I'll meet you there. So I remember going to his mother's, the detective called me, um, from the house there. And I remember looking at his mother was there. His father was there and the maid was there. And, um, they put me on the phone with this detective and he's, you know, nonchalant. I'm like, hello.

He's like, how are you? I said, don't ask me how I am. What is the matter with my daughter? He says, well, um, what have you been told? I said, they told me she was murdered. What happened to her? He says, yes, we found her on the side of the road in a bush with her throat slit. Sarah, I almost died. I just like from there blacked out. Um, yeah.

I don't know. Next thing I know, I was sitting in my car, like screaming and calling my dad and calling my sisters. And I don't know. And since then, you know, it was crazy and there was nothing in the news about it. And it was actually a reporter in Jamaica who called the Daily News in New York.

To say to them that an American was murdered down here. Why is nobody reporting on this? So they gave the details. And then before I could even get home, every news station was outside of my house wanting to do interviews. And I mean, when I say every news station, there's about 10 of them all waiting in line. And it was overwhelming for sure. And her friends started showing up one by one. And then we had a crowd here and it was just still, it's still very unreal to me.

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Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CRIME. That's I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play Store or App Store, and use code CRIME. Desiree Gibbons' body was found on Sunday, November 26th at approximately 7.30 in the morning.

She was found by a groundskeeper about 20 minutes away from the hotel, in some bushes along a desolate patch of road. This area basically has this road and a few abandoned apartment buildings. She was found fully clothed, but was missing her sunglasses, cell phone, and one flip-flop.

Unfortunately, it seems that Desiree's death was pretty brutal. Her throat had been cut so deep that it nearly decapitated her. She also had bruises on almost every area of her body, as well as defensive wounds from the blade on her hands and arms.

However, there wasn't a large amount of blood at the scene, so this leads investigators to believe that Desiree was most likely killed somewhere else and then transported to this area. Due to the nature of her injuries, Andrea believes that her daughter's murder wasn't random, but extremely personal. You know, if they had called me from Jamaica, and if they had told me, you know, your daughter was just killed, she was hit in a crossfire with a bullet.

you know what? I can understand that it doesn't make it easier, but I have a reason, right? She was wrong place, wrong time. This, I don't have a reason. Somebody like virtually, you know, they just cut her head off, right? They cut her from ear to ear and severed her spinal cord. They decapitated her.

What was the reason? Like, that's a brutal crime. And usually, and what they say is that when they usually cut your throat is to shut you up. So did she learn something? Did they ask her to do something and she refused to do something? Um, I don't know. I don't know, but it was personal. Whoever killed her, it was a personal issue and she was not, um, sexually attacked.

Um, the autopsy showed that, you know, there was no sexual, uh, anything on her. Uh, when they did find her, she had her clothes on, they were intact. Her shorts were buttoned and zipped up. Her underwear were on, her bra was on. So I don't know, you know, what did she either learn? What did she hear? What was she asked to do that she refused? Or was it really just somebody so jealous that they killed her?

The Jamaican authorities were able to obtain two DNA samples from Desiree's body, one male and one female. They say that they have tested this DNA against six potential suspects, but it seems that the initial investigation didn't go much further than that.

I do want to ask you about the investigation because I've heard you that you're not satisfied with it. And I don't blame you for a second from what I've heard. But I'd like to know more about that, specifically the two phones and the mix up there, them not giving you access to records. What can you tell me about all of that?

So Desiree did have two phones in Jamaica. One was her iPhone from home and the other one was a burner phone that she bought in Jamaica just because it was cheaper to use a burner phone down there and buy the minutes. When I went down there to recover her body, the iPhone, of course, was never found. And to my understanding, when I initially met with the detectives, they had not found her Jamaican phone either. And so I was like,

Uh, prior to us getting to Jamaica, they had gone to the hotel and I had gone through her hotel room, search her stuff, went through everything, I guess, looking for clues or something. I don't know. Um, I didn't go back into her room until the day we were actually leaving Jamaica, which was like, I think a Sunday morning and which is when I went in to go start packing up her room. So while I was in her room, I found her Jamaican phone, um,

And before calling the police, I'd gone through the phone. I took pictures of everything, all the phone numbers, any names. And she didn't have a tremendous stuff in there because it was such an old fashioned outdated phone. It was a flip phone and it didn't really, it didn't take pictures, but I could see any like text messages that came through anybody she called. So I took pictures of everything in the phone. And then we called the detective to say, we found her Jamaican phone here. Um,

What do you want us to do with it? So they said, we'll come out to there. We'll pick it up and we'll take your statements. And it was ironic because virtually the detective blamed me for planting her phone in this room. He's like, we went through this room. We didn't see this phone. I said, well, it was in a black duffel bag. Nobody's been in the room. And so then when he went to the room again, he says, but where did that bed come from?

because in her room had a king-size bed and then a twin bed. And we said, what are you talking about? He said, that bed wasn't here before. I said, detective, how many of you came in here and ransacked this room? Did you guys even take pictures? His response was, no, why would I take pictures? I said, why would you not? It's an investigation. He said, but if I went to a hotel, a restaurant that she visited, would I take a picture of the restaurant?

I said, I don't know, but this is her room. And you went through her stuff. Three of you guys came into her room. Why would you not take pictures? So then only later do we find out that they did find her Jamaican cell phone in that room. The uncle told us, and because they asked him, is this her phone? He said, yeah, I guess. And they just threw it back in the bag. They never took it. So then we turned over the phone and then, you know, for it to be analyzed in Kingston and

So it was on the one year anniversary of her murder that my husband and I went back down there and we said, what about her Jamaican phone? Are there any leads? I think they said, what phone are you talking about? You never gave us a phone. I said, what do you mean? Of course I gave you the phone. Go back and read your statement.

Um, so they said, oh, we'll step out a minute and we'll call Kingston. So he comes back. He says there was nothing in there. There was no numbers. Everything was blank. I said, that's not true because I took pictures of everything in there. So now they're getting nervous. Right. And now I'm aggressive because they're saying you're too aggressive. Miss given you're too aggressive. I said, aggressive. My daughter is killed here and you're not doing anything. How do you expect me to be? Where's your children? They're home. Nice. Um,

So then with her iPhone, we said, did you get the phone numbers? Did you get her records from the iPhone? The detective says, yes, we got it, but it didn't prove fruitful in the investigation. So I deleted them. I said, you did what?

Yes, I deleted them. I got them in the email, but there's no lead. So we deleted them. I said, no, you can't delete those numbers. You didn't show them to us. You didn't have a conversation with us. Maybe I can tell you something about those phone numbers that you don't know. Well, I saw your cell phone number. I said, really? So now they're scrambling to try and get these records again, right? To pull them from his deleted file. So I asked him, I said,

what late the period did you request the phone numbers one day? I said, why wouldn't you get a whole month? The month she was here, why didn't you get the entire month records? Why would you do one day and delete it? So they're not interested in solving this crime. They want me to go away. They want it to go away. You know, back then the tourism was really high. They didn't want it to be hurt by this American being murdered down there. There's just no help. There's no help. And they're not interested in solving this case.

You'd think that if they actually solved it, they could say, hey, yeah, we do have an issue here with crime, but we're working on it. You know, that's my thinking. But the way that the Jamaican people think is that if they solve it, people are going to stop visiting Jamaica because they have to admit that they have a problem.

To be honest, I'm like, I'm just so confused at how they're picking and choosing things to investigate. Like, you know, they swabbed for DNA and found these two DNA samples, which is certainly much more expensive to do than something like finding phone records. So it's just it's very puzzling to me why they're kind of picking and choosing what they want to look at in this case. It's crazy. When they found her body, her sunglasses were missing.

And one flip-flop was missing. They did find one flip-flop, and they actually took that flip-flop back to the hotel when they were going hotel to hotel to try and identify her, know somebody who could identify her. And when they had been led to the hotel she was staying in, they carried that flip-flop. And they asked the uncle, is this her shoe? And he says, yeah, I think so. He said, okay. And they just threw it on the floor.

Don't you think they'd take the flip-flop for evidence? Swab it, something, nothing. Absolutely not. I picked up the flip-flop in a plastic bag. I have it here. And I'm like, you guys, and I asked them, don't you want to swab it? Things are done very different in New York than they're done here. I said, okay, did you swab the flip-flop, sir? I said, because I have it at home in New York. You didn't turn it in as evidence. Why would you bring it here and drop it on the floor? Like, there's just no rhyme or reason. They don't want to solve this crime. They don't.

And, you know, the year she was killed in Jamaica, it's a very small island. Sixteen hundred and four people were murdered. And shortly after she was murdered, they they went on to lockdown in the area where she was murdered. And they have the National Guard there standing on every corner with rifles and they had curfews in place.

And that lasted for a few months, longer than a few months, maybe six months. I don't recollect exactly how long. And then they kind of stopped it. And all the people said, no, we want this back in place. We don't feel safe. So they put the National Guard's back into place again, because I know even at our one year anniversary, we went the National Guard was still in place. Wow. Yeah, I did read something about that that weekend.

Um, which I know it kind of goes into the week too, but, um, that she was one of like, I think either 11 or 13 murders just that weekend. Yeah, she was. And you can't get the FBI involved because until the Jamaican authorities admit that they have a problem solving a crime, um, they're the only ones who can invite the FBI into the country to help them solve this crime and they won't do it.

That was my next question. It was, you know, why isn't the U.S. intervening in any type of way? I've certainly seen it in other international cases like that. I just covered the Amy Bradley case, you know, over in Curacao. And yeah, so I mean, it's just I feel so terrible. And they won't release any records to you. Val, when she emailed me, said that you guys had trouble getting records. Yeah, they won't give me anything. Nothing. Nothing.

They won't even give me updates. I don't answer emails. I don't answer text messages. They just want me to go away. So is that where the case is at now? Basically, I know that they've done, sorry to go back for a second. They've done DNA swabs and comparisons to six people. Is that my understanding? That's what they're telling me. But again, they can't produce records for me. They don't show me anything. I said, I'd like to see the results. Show me something because I don't think you tested anybody.

And they won't. They just refused. And again, I don't know who to turn to. You know, they're telling me here right to the, you know, the senator of New York. Well, I did that. We spoke to everybody here and we couldn't get any help here either from the New York side. So I'm like, you know, there's no handbook that if your daughter is murdered abroad, what to do, who to call. There is no handbook. So you just feel like you're fighting this fight alone. And, you know,

People tend to go on and live their life and I get it, but you know what? I'm still stagnant. I haven't passed that day. Yes, I get up. Yes, I go through the motions, but I'm still very much on that day back in 2017. Like I want my kid home.

The only real break in Desiree's case would come a few months later in January of 2018. This is when Desiree's Aunt Peggy received two phone calls from Desiree's American cell phone. The first call came in at 5.25pm, but there was only silence on the other end of the phone. The second call came in at 11.43pm, but by that time, Peggy had unfortunately fallen asleep. When she tried calling back the next day, the number didn't work.

The Jamaican authorities told Andrea that they tried looking into it but couldn't find anything.

This could be the key to finding out who killed her. If they could just track down where this phone went, how it got from Desiree's body to whoever was calling her Aunt Peggy, they could potentially find the person or people who killed her. Whether they sold the phone or gave it to a friend, this could be the key to solving this murder. At this point, Andrea is convinced that the authorities know exactly who killed her daughter.

You know, I'm still in some degree of denial. And then I certainly have a lot of guilt because I feel like I'm not doing enough at this time. And then it's like COVID and how do I work around COVID? And, you know, you can't work with the police in Jamaica because they can't be trusted either, because I do believe they know who killed her and they won't give it up. So it's just there's no help for somebody like me. There is no help. I don't know who to turn to.

After feeling blown off by the Jamaican authorities, Andrea turned to private investigator T.J. Ward for help. T.J. Ward is a pretty well-renowned P.I., most notably having worked on the Natalie Holloway case.

But if you go to his website, you can find pictures of him with Diane Sawyer, Nancy Grace, Larry King, and more. Desiree's case is listed on his website. But unfortunately, Andrea and her family ran out of money pretty quickly and are currently saving to be able to pay to fly him out to Jamaica for a full-blown investigation. He's actually a renowned investigator. He worked on the Natalie Halloway case, amongst many other cases, and he's currently working cases elsewhere.

um, as well. And, you know, he's come to New York on a few occasions we've met, we've talked, you know, we've done fundraisers, but you know, the fact of the matter is it's a lot of money, you know, before he can even go into Jamaica, he needs $25,000 upfront. Well, I don't know many people who have $25,000 in their account just to say here, I realize you may come back with nothing, but let's take a chance. If I had it, I do it for sure. Because even a chance I would go for it, but

Nobody has that kind of money. So it's a matter of trying to keep the awareness out there and figure out, you know, how do we raise the money to get somebody to go down and be the voice for us? Because my voice is not loud enough. Apparently it's not strong enough. And maybe it's too personal to me, you know, that they feel attacked by me and they just tell me I'm aggressive and, you know, I should relax. And, you know, you don't want to hear those words. Don't tell me to relax because your child is alive and healthy. Mine is dead.

This November marks four years that Desiree has been gone. Her death has left a huge hole in the hearts of her friends and family. Here is Valerie discussing her frustration and the impact it's had on her.

Exactly. It's just so frustrating because now it's going to be this November is going to be the fourth year. We don't know why they killed her. We don't know who killed her. We have no leads. And it was such a brutal like killing. They slit her throat to the point of like she was almost decapitated. Like I just want people to like realize this. And it's just like this is just insane that nobody wants to help or is even attempting to help.

It's, like, it's on, like, year four, and I'm still, like, not over it. I've just got, like, with her death, I've just gotten so much more anxious. Like, I won't walk to a car by myself. Like, things, it's just, like, I'm, like, not even the same person anymore. This has changed me, like, completely.

I don't think her mom, like, even realized, like, how much of an impact, like, she had on some of us, like, as her friends. Like, obviously, like, her immediate family is obviously, like, going to be the most heartbroken. But, like, for us, like, as some of her friends, like, this has really, really affected us, like, so, like, really badly.

As a way to commemorate Desiree's memory, Andrea has petitioned for her street to be renamed Desiree Gibbon Street. So far, every one of her neighbors has signed off on it, and the decision will be made in October. She's also working to create Desi's Law, a law that would help U.S. authorities aid in international cases involving missing and murdered U.S. citizens.

You know, God, there's just there's so much to say about Desiree. But it's really just that, you know, it really was, you know, such a precious life taken way too early. And she really was destined for greatness.

And, you know, as I previously said, you know, it's just to me is sad that her greatness comes as a result of her murder. And although we haven't reached that greatness yet, we will at some point. But, you know, it takes a village. It really does. It takes a village, community, the nation. You know, we have to stop the violence against women. And being murdered abroad makes it so much harder because we have no rights in their country.

And those are the kind of things that I'm kind of looking at. And, you know, my goal in the future is to help people as well. You know, in particular issues like this, like what I'm going through, you know, those that are murdered abroad because it's not easy and you don't know who to turn to and you don't know who to ask what of. And, you know, there's not really support groups out there for somebody like me or for my kids or my family, you

So, I mean, there's a lot of work to be done and, you know, I just miss this girl every single day. And, you know, I feel because I haven't done enough in trying to figure out what happened to her. I have a lot of guilt over that. And I keep telling myself there's no reason to have the guilt, but I do, you know, I do because I don't feel like I'm doing justice for her. So we've kind of been pushing it out there a lot again and, and,

I'm now going to sit down and, you know, print out like hundreds of pictures of her. And we're going to put them all in a box with another letter. We're going to send it directly to the prime minister and let him pick up picture by picture by picture. See, this really was somebody very important to many, many people. Andrea is so passionate and has some great ideas to try to solve her daughter's murder. But she needs help.

Which brings me right to our call to action. For me, I think that if we could get listeners definitely to write to the prime minister, I think is so important. And certainly donations of any amount, you know, every dollar helps. And that's what we really need. We just really need to raise the money to get somebody down there.

be the voice, you know, we're also putting money to the side to offer, you know, like a $10,000 US reward for people that talk and now that COVID hit them and they're very hard up for money. And, you know, what I've learned from, from the culture down there is they really won't do anything without money. And it has to be us money because that's of more value than the Jamaican money. So I've, I've put aside money for that, that in the event that we can,

get some leads, you know, up to, you know, catching these people, we'll give them a $10,000 reward. There are a few ways you can reach out to Prime Minister Andrew Holness and politely ask him to look into Desiree's case. You can call him at 1-876-927-9941.

You can email him at opmnews at opm.gov.jm. You can fill out the form on his website, or you can even send him a tweet at andrewholnessjm. To be honest, I tried to call the number and I didn't get an answer, so I think I'm going to definitely have to tag him in a tweet about Desiree.

And of course, if you are able to donate anything to Andrea's fundraiser to be able to send Private Investigator TJ Ward to Jamaica, that would be amazing. But even if you aren't able to donate, it would still be extremely helpful to share the fundraiser. I will have a link to the GoFundMe and all of these numbers and emails in the show notes.

Desiree seemed like the most amazing person who lost her life way too soon. If you've made it through this entire episode, please just take that extra moment and help her. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney. For more information about the podcast, to suggest a case, to see resources used for this episode, and to find out more about how to help the cases I discuss, visit VoicesForJusticePodcast.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show in your podcast player.

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