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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.
Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice. Today I'm discussing the case of Jesse Wilson. In July 2016, 10-year-old Jesse was reported missing from his Buckeye, Arizona home by his mother, Crystal Wilson.
She called the non-emergency line to report that her son seemed to have left out of his bedroom window in the middle of the night, like he had several times before, but this time he hadn't returned home. Months of searching the Arizona desert in the middle of summer produced few results. But as the spotlight turned to Crystal Wilson, it appeared that answers about what may have happened to Jesse might be closer to home than investigators originally anticipated.
This is the case of Jesse Wilson. Jesse Wilson was born on March 16th, 2006. There's not a lot of information out there about Jesse's early life. His biological father says he was a good baby, very happy and always smiling. But Jesse didn't stay with his biological parents for very long. He and his two siblings were placed into the Arizona foster care system shortly before Jesse's first birthday.
From there, they were adopted by a woman named Crystal Wilson. The family lived in Avondale, Arizona for a while, but eventually settled in Buckeye. Jesse and his sister still attended the same school after the move, Bradley Academy of Excellence, taking the bus 16 miles each way. According to many adults in his life, Jesse really loved being at school.
Jesse went missing at the end of summer in 2016, at the age of 10, right before he was supposed to start the fourth grade. He seemed like a bright and friendly kid. Crystal has stated that Jesse loved to read and was energetic, affectionate, and loving. She also mentioned that he could be mischievous and was a quote, snack grabber.
On the night of Sunday, July 17th, Crystal Wilson says she put Jesse to bed at his normal bedtime of 9pm. Around 1.30 in the morning, when she checks his bed, Jesse is gone. Crystal then calls the Buckeye Police Department's non-emergency number to report Jesse missing, saying, "...my son has either climbed out the window, which he's done before, or he has gone out the back door."
Authorities and volunteers begin searching for Jesse immediately. Now, we know Jesse has left home without telling his mother in the past. Some of these incidents were documented by the police. We'll talk about that in a minute. But it becomes really clear that this time was different when Jesse wasn't located before dawn.
It doesn't look like police were able to obtain any surveillance video from neighbors or local businesses, because there was really no specific search area. And they never announced if they believed Jesse was headed in a specific direction. So the Buckeye Police Department established a more broad search area for Jesse, focusing on the 5-10 mile radius around his home. Basically, anywhere they thought he could walk to. Let's talk about the area.
Buckeye, Arizona is about 45 minutes away from Phoenix. It's a decent-sized city. When Jesse lived there, it was also growing really fast. Between the years 2010 and 2020, the population nearly doubled to over 90,000 residents. But as it was rapidly growing, there were a lot of vacant lots and construction. There's also just a lot of open land and farmland in Buckeye.
so it's pretty different than a city like Phoenix. There's just a lot more desert and open land. On top of that, this is the middle of summer in Arizona. Temperatures were in the triple digits, and they had to deal with the threat of monsoon season. Now, I'm just going off my personal experience living in Arizona for my entire life, but monsoon season can be very unpredictable.
While we can usually know if there's going to be rain, sometimes you can just get an alert on your phone about flash flooding in your area or a haboob coming your way. If you don't know what a haboob is, it's basically this huge wall of dust that sweeps past the area. These can be really dangerous because it limits your visibility a lot. So if you're driving, you basically can't see the road or the car in front of you. It can be really terrifying.
In addition to all of that, we also get microbursts, which are basically these intense downpours of rain that happen really fast but don't last long. Like a haboob, you can quickly lose visibility. I've actually been caught in both while driving, and it can be really scary. So not only is this a rough area to search, but it's also basically the worst time of year to search.
Several days of the search were ended early to prevent heat exhaustion, but the search effort was large. They brought in several teams of dogs, including Border Patrol tracking dogs. They had teams on ATVs and drones, and they searched Buckeye Lake and several canals in the area. The Arizona Extreme Terrain Search and Rescue also came out to help in the search, but they did have to stop early at a certain point due to lack of funding.
Faculty from Jesse's school was also extremely involved in the search for Jesse, as well as raising awareness for him. I have to say, this school did more for Jesse and his family than I have ever seen in a case before.
They were involved in the searches, handed out flyers. They held several events to help raise awareness for him, including placing yellow ribbons along Jesse's path to school. The hope was that by the time he was due back in class in a few weeks, he'd find his way home and take his place in the fourth grade. The school even allowed Jesse's mother, Crystal, to apparently live in a conference room at the school for a few weeks. And they bought her clothing and food.
Crystal told the Arizona Republic, quote, Crystal has done a few interviews with the media. About a week after Jesse went missing, she told the Arizona Republic that she was beside herself with Jesse being gone. So much so that she couldn't bear to look at Jesse's dog any longer. So she gave it away.
She added that it was Jesse's chore to feed the dog, and that Jesse himself was very similar to a dog, because he is also affectionate and loving. By the end of July, a tip line was set up for Jesse, and they were getting a good number of leads, but none were panning out.
Jesse's principal joked with the media that Jesse better be back for the new school year because he's still enrolled. But Jesse didn't show up for the first day of fourth grade on August 8th, and the searches for him were now being labeled recovery missions. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost? With
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By mid-August, authorities were running out of ideas for where to search for Jesse. So, they began going back over the same areas again, still focusing on the 5-10 mile radius around his home. Police Chief Larry Hall told the Arizona Republic, "...it's been a long time. We have to look sometimes at the worst-case scenario. We can't be naive."
At this point, Chief Hall and the Buckeye police make it clear that although of course they're concerned about the elements and the possibility that Jesse may have run away and gotten into some terrible accident, they are not ruling out foul play, but currently they don't have any persons of interest or suspects.
Now, let's talk about Jesse's history of leaving home without telling his mom. There are multiple police reports and witness statements from neighbors confirming Jesse's history of sneaking out. Some neighbors just report seeing Jesse wandering the neighborhood into the early hours of the morning. But in April 2016, just a few months prior to him going missing, the Buckeye Police Department was called to a neighbor's house after they called to report that they found a young boy in their neighborhood.
Jesse was dressed for school, and he had his backpack with him when he was found. There is footage of this, and it's kind of hard to hear Jesse. But he basically refuses to tell police where he lives or who his mother is. But this is what he told police about why he was out in the middle of the night. I used to go to school in the middle of the night. You used to go what? To school in the middle of the night. You used to go to school in the middle of the night? Do you still?
Okay. I know that wasn't the clearest audio, but I also wanted you to hear just how young Jesse is. He's just a baby. But he says that he used to go to school in the middle of the night. Now, eventually Jesse is brought back home to Crystal. Ultimately, it seems like he didn't go far. He was just a few houses down.
Pure speculation, but it seems to me Jesse wanted to get away from the house and count down the hours until school started, because this is where we get the first little clue that maybe Jesse's home life before he went missing wasn't so great.
It was discovered that Crystal had been investigated for allegations of child abuse. In 2011, the Avondale Police Department responded to a call that the children were malnourished. When officers entered the home, they found two boys they described as being about four years old. They were wearing harnesses that were attached to the beds. This is an excerpt from the police report obtained by ABC 15 News. Quote,
I was escorted to the boy bedroom which is located on the second floor of the residence. I observed two boys of about four years of age, sleeping in separate beds with the lights off. I requested for Crystal to turn on the lights in the bedroom, which she did, and the boys awoke from their sleep.
I observed the boys each had a harness strapped to their backs, similar to a backpack with shoulder straps. There was a three feet in length string attachment to the shoulder harness, which was then connected to the post of the bed. This attachment allowed sufficient movement on the bed, but prevented the boys from leaving the room.
Upon my observation, I inquired for Crystal to advise why it was necessary for her to have the boys attached to the bed in such a manner. Crystal related that on one occurrence, while she and the other children were asleep within the residence, at about 2.30 one morning, both boys got out of their beds and unlocked the front door to the residence, exited the residence, and went to play in the mud outside. The boy later came into the residence and went back to sleep.
Crystal related that because she was asleep, she was unaware the boys left the safety of the residence. She found out the following morning, by following the mud trail from the boys' persons to the front door, then to the exterior of the residence. End quote. The officer then observed Crystal remove the harness and feed the kids breakfast. The report notes that the kids were watching something educational, and there was enough food in the fridge.
Ultimately, the report of the children being malnourished was closed, and no action was taken. Unfortunately, Jesse's case really stalls at this point. By October, the investigation continues, but the searches stop. The holidays come and go without him, and the media seems to move on from his story without any updates from the police. By the one-year anniversary of Jesse's disappearance, the police say they have thoroughly searched everywhere they think Jesse may have gone.
They even search some areas multiple times, and there's just no trace of him. The articles observing the year passing go over most of the same details you've heard thus far in the episode, but we do get some small bits of new information.
First, we learn that Jesse's siblings have been removed from their mother's care. We also learn that the police have still not ruled out foul play. They have not administered any polygraph tests, and there are no suspects in the case, specifically stating that Jesse's mother is not a suspect. Now, of course, we can't glaze over Jesse's siblings being removed from their mother's care.
But that's about all we know. The police and DCS will not comment on why the children were removed, or if reunification with Crystal is the goal. So we don't really know what happened there. Just that obviously for some reason, the Department of Child Safety here in Arizona didn't feel it was in the best interest of the children to be in Crystal's care. Then again, we get a lot of silence from police and the media, as it seems like there just wasn't any movement.
And then, it happened. On March 8th, 2018, a city employee driving a street sweeper pulled over to take a break off State Route 85 and Broadway Road. This is about six miles from Jesse's home. While he was walking along the road, he saw a school in the nearby field and called the police. On March 27th, not long after Jesse's 12th birthday, the Buckeye Police Department announced that his remains had been found.
They were able to obtain a DNA sample from his biological father to make the match. The Buckeye Police Department tells the public that this is a very new development, and they don't have any theories right now. They don't know how long Jesse has been out there, but the case is now being investigated as a homicide. Now, the area where Jesse was found is an area that was marked as searched by the police.
Twice in the press conference, they address how this could have happened, saying it seems that due to the heavy rains that summer, the area was underwater at the time of the search. So that must be why the dogs didn't hit in that area. Some other things we learned in this press conference are that Jesse's siblings are still out of Crystal's care. Crystal moved out of state, and the police will likely interview Crystal again.
And now, in the first time that I could find, the police aren't saying they don't have any suspects. Now they say, no one has been ruled out as a suspect. We also learn that the FBI is assisting in the investigation. Now, this is when the media really begins picking up Jesse's story again.
There's a new development. The police announced it's a homicide investigation. And on March 31st, Chief Hall is quoted in the Arizona Republic about his belief that the case will be solved. Just a few weeks after this, around mid-May 2018, a ton of news articles begin coming out from various local news outlets in Arizona. On May 12th, 12 News publishes an article about records they obtained while researching another story.
Apparently, they were requesting records for an investigation into Assistant Police Chief Mark Mann's alleged, quote, wrongdoing and hostility within the department. But they came across communications between the Buckeye Police Department and the county attorney's office about Jesse's case. This is the office that would ultimately decide whether or not Jesse's case could be prosecuted as a homicide. Now, I'm about to throw you guys some quotes within quotes, so stay with me.
I haven't seen this communication for myself, so I don't want to misinterpret anything. These types of possible allegations can't be made lightly. In the article, reporter Jason Pohl states, "...Buckeye Police Department investigators were inching their way toward a no-body homicide case against Jesse Wilson's mother, five weeks after the boy went missing in 2016, according to a department email."
Police and the FBI began drafting a, quote, to-do list in the weeks after Crystal Wilson reported her 10-year-old son missing from their Buckeye home. At the same time, Mark Mann, the then-assistant police chief, said he was planning to use, quote, contacts and influence with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to, quote, "...ensure we have the best prosecutor for the case against Crystal Wilson." End quote.
When Chief Hall was asked about the plans to charge Crystal Wilson, he confirmed and told the Arizona Republic, quote, We as an agency determined we would like to move forward to at least attempting charging if this was possible without a body, end quote. Now, this is obviously huge. People really started getting riled up about Jesse's case at this point.
The community was still mourning him. Jesse's school kept a desk in the front office for years to remember his memory. His biological parents showed up at vigils to express their love for him. It was just one of those stories the entire state was talking about. And everyone wanted justice for Jesse.
Now, Jesse's adoptive mother, Crystal Wilson, actually moved out of state prior to finding Jesse's remains. So she isn't really involved in any of the local events for Jesse, or the aftermath of this announcement. But like I said, Jesse's case was getting a lot more attention, and people were demanding answers. And I have to say, several of the local news stations here did some incredible work digging up records about Jesse.
Journalists for the Arizona Republic, Jason Pohl and Megan Cassidy, start doing some digging about the claim that the area Jesse was found in was underwater during the searches.
They get records from the Western Regional Climate Center, and they spoke with the Roosevelt Irrigation District, the company that provides irrigation for the field where he was found. And all of this information determined it was extremely unlikely that the area was underwater during the searches. There just wasn't enough rain, and there was no documentation of the field having water supplied to it.
Apparently, the idea of the area being underwater just came from a border patrol agent. He said he thought it was underwater during one of the searches. So, police took the information and ran with it. The police now believe it's most likely that Jesse's body was moved to that location after he was killed. Unfortunately, this is probably the least shocking revelation journalists uncovered in Jesse's case.
Now, of course, all of these cases are upsetting. But I want to warn you guys that things are about to get really dark. At the end of 2018, after a months-long battle, local Arizona news station 12 News obtains 400 pages of reports from the Department of Child Safety's interactions with Jesse and Crystal. Here's what they found.
Neighbors reported that Jesse and his siblings often looked underfed and would go door-to-door asking for food. Quote, Jesse states they do not get dinner at home. They eat breakfast and lunch at school. They take extra snacks. They eat everything on their plate, even things that children do not generally like. They wipe the plate clean. End quote. When Crystal was asked if she withheld food as a punishment, she said, quote,
End quote.
In one report investigating claims of abuse, it was noted that despite Crystal stating she didn't really drink and just kept alcohol to cook with around the house, when they entered the home, they found that the fridge was mostly filled with liquor and wine, and she had a dozen empty alcohol bottles on display on a dresser in her bedroom. They also found methadone in the home, a drug used to treat heroin addiction, though it is unclear if the prescription was in her name.
At some point, Crystal also alleged that Jesse had ADHD and suffered from bipolar disorder, but these diagnoses were not noted in the DCS records. It's also revealed that several of the bedrooms in the home had the doorknobs installed backward, allowing those inside the rooms to be locked in from the outside, with no other way out than perhaps a window.
Crystal defended herself, saying the police told her to do it. That way, Jesse couldn't sneak out of the house.
There was also a more detailed description of Jesse's room in the reports. It seems that the only items in Jesse's room were a bed and a small dresser. Quote, End quote.
According to these reports, in 2013, Crystal admitted to hitting Jesse in the face with a belt, giving him a one-inch welt across his cheek, though she would later deny having ever physically abused her children.
They also found that Crystal fostered other children in California before moving to Arizona. At least six children were taken from her custody before adopting Jesse and his siblings. It appears the Department of Child Safety in Arizona was unaware of this until after Jesse went missing. When 12 News asked DCS how Crystal was allowed to adopt three children after six were removed from her care, they declined to comment.
Crystal asserts that while she can't remember the names of the children she fostered, she does know that they were eventually reunited with family members. These are obviously major bombshells in Jesse's case. What began as a report of a runaway child with a history of leaving home turned into something else entirely.
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Now, as much as I wish I could end this episode with Jesse getting justice, that's basically where his case is today. The media reported on these major developments, and then it again faded out of the spotlight as new information dried up. Crystal Wilson has never been charged with any crime related to Jesse's case. So what happened to Jesse?
Ultimately, nearly 30 of his bones were found, including his skull. It was apparent they were sun-bleached. The toxicology report shows that he did have multiple antihistamines in his system, hydroxyzine and nor-chlorocyclozine.
Forensic pathologist Rebecca Hsu told 12 News, "...it might just be that that person had some allergies, but antihistamine sometimes, especially in children, can actually be used for a sedative. Neither of them, as far as I know, is commonly prescribed for a child." Jesse did have multiple broken bones and fractures, but experts couldn't tell if these occurred before or after he died.
No cause or manner of death has ever been determined, or at least that information hasn't been released to the public. Crystal Wilson was notified about Jesse's remains being found, but contrary to what police said about likely re-interviewing Crystal, as of May 2018, the Buckeye police say they feel no need to conduct a follow-up interview with her. Also as of 2018, it appears Crystal Wilson's license to foster children was still valid.
Obviously, there are a lot of loose ends in this case. I couldn't find any information about a formal search of Jesse's home. I also just can't believe not a single person in that neighborhood or local business had some type of security camera that captured something. We also don't have any information about witnesses that may have seen Jesse. He was seen plenty of times prior to this in the middle of the night. Why did this time go unnoticed?
And of course, the question that is burning in my brain with Jesse's case is will these agencies ever be held accountable for things like this? How did those kids get adopted after Crystal had six children removed from her care? 12 News obtained 400 pages of records related to Jesse. How did these children remain in her care? We saw something similar in the case of Harmony Montgomery.
She slipped through the cracks because these case files just can't seem to travel across state lines. Like I said in Harmony's episode, I don't know the perfect solution for this. But I just don't understand how many times this has to happen before major reform is made. How can we ensure that information is properly communicated to every agency involved with a specific child or caregiver?
Obviously, another huge piece of this puzzle lies with Crystal's other children, but they were minors at the time. And in my opinion, unless they come forward with their own testimony, I'm going to respect their privacy and not dig into that any further. I also have to assume and hope that the police have spoken with them and have the information they need. So, how can we help Jesse?
Well, I think a little more media attention might result in more resources being allocated to his case, and maybe lead to more tips and hopefully the right lead to figure out what happened to him, and get him justice. So I know I say it all the time, you guys, but please share. Almost no one in podcasting or YouTube has covered his case.
So if you do feel so inclined, I think reaching out to your favorite creator to ask them to cover Jesse's case could be very helpful. We don't know exactly when Jesse lost his life, but he was only 10 when he went missing. We know media pressure can move mountains, and Jesse Wilson needs our help. As a reminder...
10-year-old Jesse Wilson went missing from Buckeye, Arizona on July 17th, 2016, sometime between 9:30pm and 1:30am the next morning. Jesse was black. He had black hair and brown eyes. At that time, he was about 4 feet tall and weighed 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red shirt, black socks, and black shoes. The color of his shorts is unknown.
His remains were recovered in March 2018 near Broadway Road and State Route 85 in Buckeye, Arizona. If you have any information about Jesse Wilson, please call the Buckeye Police Department at 623-386-4421. 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, and is a Voices for Justice media original. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show in your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. And for even more content, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify.
Welcome to the secret after show. Um, my goodness, this case. This is a case that I followed pretty much from the beginning. Um, when Jesse went missing, I was working with the kids in foster care and you hear the stories and you see them on TV and it just sticks with you. Jesse stuck with me
I'll never forget seeing his desk and all. I mean, the school was so involved. We will talk about the school, but the school was so involved. And I remember seeing his desk, the desk that they had in the front office, and they had, I believe, a yellow ribbon on it somewhere.
And it just haunted me. I don't know how to describe it. Of course, all these cases stick with me in one way or another, but for the longest time, Jesse's has stuck with me. And so I'm really glad that I was able to take some time and research it and bring it to you guys here because I, there are some of those cases out there, and this is one of them where I just cannot understand why people don't pick it up.
Now you guys know me, I'm not out there looking for the most salacious story, but this story has some pretty wild elements. I mean...
Those DCS reports are heartbreaking about Jesse and his siblings. So, um, thank you for listening. And again, please share. I would really love that. Um, I would love to see Jesse get some more media attention. I know there hasn't been an update in a long time, but that doesn't mean there won't be movement in the case. That doesn't mean there aren't things behind the scenes that we don't know about. That doesn't mean that if you don't share it, um,
It doesn't mean that somebody's not going to come forward. So you never know. After all these years, somebody could see something. They could remember something. They could review a video they might have stored away somewhere. These cases get solved in the strangest ways all the time.
Other than that, I did have one thing I found about the school that I wanted to tell you guys about. It's it like wasn't related to the case in any way, and I couldn't fit it into the episode in a way that made sense or, you know, everything about this case is so important. There was so much crucial information in there that I didn't want to muddy it up with this, but I also thought it was kind of interesting, um,
especially given the school's relationship with Crystal, which I think is a very kind thing to do. I've just never seen a school let a parent live in the school before. Um, so anyway, I found something odd in my research I wanted to share. So it looks like in January, 2018, Jesse's school, the Bradley Academy of Excellence unexpectedly shut down. Now, um,
Long story short, the principal and the registrar, I think I'm saying that right, registrar, I didn't look it up, come for me, they allegedly conspired to falsely inflate enrollment numbers, and they obtained $2.2 million fraudulently. So in November 2018, the chairman and director of the academy pleaded guilty to conspiracy and theft.
I also just want to say that it seems like they did this in like the worst way possible. It's not like they were doing this because the school was underfunded and they were trying to get more resources for the students or the faculty. They actually decreased their budget for teachers' salaries and performance and the school declined during that time. One person even came forward and said that people didn't even have school books.
The people involved were also apparently having the school janitors clean their personal homes, and the cooks for the school were used for personal parties, including a first birthday party.
Now, my heart goes out to the faculty who didn't know, because it seems like there are so many people that are really kind there and really took an interest in Jesse's case. So I don't think it's probably their fault. So no hate to those people. Don't go out and hate on anybody, but...
Yeah, when I went to look up Jesse's school, because I always like to look up things on maps, you guys know how I am, I saw that it appears to have been closed permanently due to this scandal. So yeah, I looked it up and found this and...
Here we are. Like I said, it just didn't fit into the episode, but I did think it was interesting. So again, you guys know I try to save most of my banter for this after show so you can opt into it. If you just want case facts, you listen to the episode. If you want more of my commentary over here or like odd things that happen that take us out of the crucial facts of the story, that's what this secret after show moment is for.
But yeah, that's all I got for you guys today. But as always, thank you for tolerating me here in this secret after show moment. I love you and I'll talk to you next time.