Jessica didnt have her own credit card or car, so if she needed something from the supermarket she texted Matthew, who either took her to the store himself or asked Beam or his wife to deliver the item. She did not want to have anything to do with it.. When I asked about her mother, who lived nearby, she said, mildly, that she had tried to reconnect with her several times over the years, but her mother didnt seem interested. Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. A message to Matthews phone is received and marked as read, from his girlfriend--from inside the evidence bag. My understanding of the laws of physics is that one person cannot be in two places at the same time," Mathews said in an interview with 11Alive. He assigns another officer to standby at the door until the rest of the apartment is cleared. With their guns drawn, the officers checked every room in the house. Only the pillow under her head was bloody. Mathews, the publisher of The Grip and its only reporter, submitted an Open Records Act request to the magistrates court, where judges swear in new officers. Yes, for an article, just to make sure I get quotes proper.". This activity on his cell phone had to have taken place inside the kitchen inside his apartment," Mathews said to DeMarco in a recorded phone conversation. Is that what you're saying?" The subsequent investigation was short-lived, with it having been deemed a "civil matter.". It felt like he was just a ticking time bomb, she told the police. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . And its inside that closet, where police found her seemingly shot in the head, laying on top of her husbands service weapon. DeMarco pressed Mathews. Take care of the children. Sanders was forty-three years old and the son of a former Republican state representative; he considered himself a happy beneficiary of the good-old-boys system, he told me, and did not do his work in pursuit of political reform. It was like she needed permission for everything, she said. To obtain the search warrant, a lieutenant submitted a sworn statement explaining that there was probable cause that Sanders had been involved in two commercial burglaries; later, the lieutenant said that this was the result of a cut-and-paste error.). I already know it wont.. Who shot Jessica Boynton? A new podcast investigates | kiiitv.com Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. I made sure that I had another party with me, to insure the accusations wouldnt be made, Matthew said later. She was wearing fluffy slippers. In response to The GRIP's objection, the city of Griffin produced four records - a photograph of Matthew Boynton identified as Boynton.png, a photograph of Sanders identified as sanders.png, a screen shot of a private Facebook message identified as chat.png and a Word document composed of those three elements identified as will.docx. Like, how hours after the shooting, the phone was put into an evidence bag, sealed and logged into GBI evidence, it was still calling Matthew's girlfriend. Police Interrogation and Confession of Matthew Boynton, Wife - YouTube She notified a local truck driver named Will Sanders, who had a reputation as a freelance investigator. He drove to a nearby Waffle House to have a late dinner with a fellow Griffin police officer. Willey contacted Jessica on Facebook and warned her that Matthew was not taking good care of the children; they were subsisting, she said, on cheese puffs, Fudge Rounds, corn dogs, and Mountain Dew, and sleeping at odd hours. Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . Hahaha you about have me a heart attack freak!! Jessica and Matthew left their wedding reception, which her family hosted, after less than an hour. Jessica Boynton was found shot in th. Officer Robert Brian Jones shouts, as he travels deeper inside the two-bedroom apartmenthis weapon drawn. The following year, Gibson put a female colleague in a headlock and held a Taser against her temple. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. But he granted full custody to Matthew. Community. FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE FOR YOURSELF, CLICK HERE. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. A G.B.I. I guess she felt like Matthew could have picked anybody, and for some reason he picked me, her sister, Dusty, said. I can't even get it out of its case, she replied. To text back long story I'll tell you later.. The older boy was asleep in his bedroom, and the baby was in his own room, crying in his crib. For a while, he put clear tape on the doors of his house and car, so he would know if anyone had sneaked inside. Because if you go to the photographs that are part of your investigative case file, there's a photograph after the evidence report for his cell phone" she said. Behind the closet door: Crime Watch Daily investigates the Jessica Custody (full? So were going to try to expedite this as fast as possible, and, when I say expedite, I mean the next few weeks. DeMarco assured Matthew that his phone, which had been seized during the investigation, would be returned. summary of an interview with King, the neurosurgeon, noted that he called the circumstances of her injury suspicious, but the agent who conducted the interview failed to record the conversation; he hadnt charged his audio recorder. But, he said, there are a lot of questions out thereboth in favor of Jessica and in favor of Matthewthat could be answered, but I just dont think the G.B.I. I know that we got into an argument, but that's about all," she said, not remembering much of what had happened on April 15. Sanders said, I think the city thought this would be business as usual, until a local reporter and a loser truck driver got involved.. Here lately I have not been able to recognize the person I see in the mirror. How did his phone get in there and how was there activity on his phone if he was not in the kitchen with his phone?" Shes just a piece of shit, Jacob clarified. Matthew claims this was around 1 a.m, but the neighbors . Marc, we hope to see you at Reunion. You want to start recording me, and started quoting me, you'd better let me know ahead of time, or we're gonna have a problem. Running across the parking lot and up the stairs, responding officers head toward the apartment. You are your own person. Leigh Goodmark, the director of the Gender Violence Clinic, at the University of Marylands Carey School of Law, speculates that one reason for the dearth of research is a reluctance to fund a study that will bring attention to an uncomfortable dilemma: that, as Goodmark says, those policing the crime and those committing it are often the same person.. After high school, he worked as a jailer at the Pike County sheriffs office before being hired as a patrol officer in Griffin, the largest city in Spalding County. Hardheaded. She wasnt sure how to unlock the safety lever on the holster. Although the hospital had placed her under constant observation after she was admitted, the precautions were removed after she regained consciousness. That is where her memory ends. As it became clear that Gibsons activities could be criminal, the G.B.I. His flashlights beam reveals a smiling family of four. He asked me to go get it out before, and I told him, Youre going to have to.. Who shot Jessica Boynton? A new podcast investigates | king5.com But DeMarco insisted to Mathews during their phone conversation, that the timeline was not relevant. | Examine the evidence yourself. Boynton, who was . 9,226 people follow this. That phone never got back into the officer's hand. She finished her high-school coursework online, and almost never saw her friends or family. My mama told me stories about going to lunch with my father and his friends in the sixties, he said to me. Had she attempted suicide, it would have been standard for the hospital to provide psychiatric care. John Padget, MS '59, writes from Key West, FL, reporting, "My Cornell roommate, Bruce Whilton, of Gloucester, MA, and Punta Gorda, FL, passed away peacefully in June 2022 in Punta Gorda after a long and well-lived life. Jessica reported what he said to child-protective services, who helped arrange for the boys to see a child psychologist. Somebody that shoots themself in the head means business. Her shoulder-length, blonde hair was saturated in crimson. Jones eyes a small child sleeping on a bottom bunk bed in the back bedroom. A half hour or so later, Browning was lying in bed when she heard a gunshot. Shortly after Jessica was hospitalized, her aunt Kathy took a photograph of a C-shaped bruise on the back of Jessicas head, and she shared it with the G.B.I. It breaks my heart! she wrote. After he serves a three-year sentence and finishes his probation, his record will be wiped clean. Matthew was now dating Shelby Willey, a young mother who had recently separated from her husband. The officers found a police-issued .40-caliber Glock belonging to Matthew under Jessica's body. Jessica could never quite explain whythere was no proposal, just an understanding that there was too much momentum to break up. However, with the later discovery of previously-unknown evidence, it evolved into an . He would flash his lights and pull her over, and force her to have sex with him. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . Although its possible that Jessicas head hit the wall after she shot herself, there was no blood on the wall or on the clothes in the closet. Anybody that went against him would be eliminated. Whitehouse said that Beam seemed concerned, but he said that shed have to write down her complaint. Yates had lost his previous job, in 2014, as chief of the police department in Jonesboro, Arkansas, after he called a local reporter smelly and said that dealing with her was like trying to pick up a dog turd by the clean end. She resigned, citing the level of stress and anxiety created by a public official who commands a small army., Within two hours of Sanderss Facebook comment, Yates informed Sanders that his private Facebook messages would be made accessible to any persons interested in the entire scope of your actions, activities, motives and history. He added, This material will be released in the interest of transparency and context. The department had obtained the messages a year earlier, as part of the investigation into Jessicas gym bag. I was scared to death, because I couldnt find [Tyler]that she would shoot me, I mean shoot him, shoot me, and then kill herself.. For the next three and a half weeks, Jessica remains in a coma with a traumatic brain injurytubes protruding from her brain to alleviate pressure and fluid. They had even taken notebooks off shelves and shredded the documents., Dix was one of the Griffin police officers present the night that Jessica was shot. Especially because of my children. Its one of their owna police-issued .40-caliber Glock. In an analysis of more than two thousand family-court opinions from the past decade, Joan S.Meier, a professor at George Washington University Law School, found that, in sixty-four per cent of cases, courts did not accept the story of a mother who said she or her children had been abused by her husband, even when evidence corroborated the claim. The Link Between Domestic Violence and Mass Shootings, The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders. He's meeting his buddy at the local Waffle House. By June 6, Matthew returned to full duty with a new service weapon in his holster. I figured she was going to retract her statement, he said later. Her aunt Denise, a public-school teacher, said that, at the wedding, there was just this sadness in her eyes, like, Im done. She had the demeanor of a child who had promised herself not to cause trouble or draw attention to her own feelings. They say she tried to commit suicide but, there is more to the story. GRIFFIN, Ga. - Matthew Boynton was arrested by his fellow Griffin Police officers and taken to the Spalding County Jail on felony charges. But the sheriff still loomed large in their relationship. He enters, checking the master bedroom. Matthew has never been charged in this case, nor has anyone else, and it was labelled as closed. Sheriff Beam can carry a weapon, he said. A few days later, Kathy noticed Jessica crying. Jessica could see her children for only four hours on Sunday afternoons. Jessicas grandparents, who are Baptist, were willing to help her bring up the child, but Jessica decided to settle down with Matthew, her first boyfriend. Wouldnt listen to anybody.. At the time, I was well known in my field by people who had some cloutshe worked in hospital risk management and had friends in law enforcementand what we should have done is pulled some strings, she said. Matthew signed a sworn statement promising that he no longer had anything of Jessicas. The agents who wrote the report seemed indifferent to the dynamics of Jessica and Matthews marriage, as if the subject were a private matter that didnt merit discussion in an official investigation. On a shelf by her head was the notebook documenting Matthews infidelity. If the phone was found by the GBI in the kitchenif the phone is on police body camera footage sitting on the counter by the microwave, and he was outside never returning insidehow is it possible for Matthew to text his girlfriend, while he's calling in shots fired while outside of the apartment? That's the bottom line for me. A Griffin Police Officer's wife herself, the reporter called DeMarco, on Sept. 28, the investigator who was in charge of the investigation for the GBI, to question him about the case and the photo that nagged her, and that for her, called into question how anything they investigated was trustworthy. provided images. This is not the first time I have had suicide thoughts. He calls out for Jessica, but no answer. Dont make me laugh.. Is Jessica Boynton still alive? The "Sex and the City" alum, 56, took . However, the GBIs own photographs, search warrant and evidence log all corroborate that the officers phone was on the kitchen counter after Matthew had already left the apartment. Matthew and the boys temporarily moved in with Courtney Callaway, the dispatcher he was dating. In all my years in law enforcement, when someone shoots himself in the head its one and done, Jessica Whitehouse, a deputy there at the time, told me. agents asked if she had ever handled Matthews gun. Jessica Boynton | GBI changes information about evidence | 11alive.com underwear and dental retainer belonging to his now-former wife, Jessica Lester, . In the spring of 2016, less than six months after the wedding, Jessica discovered that Matthew was having an affair with Courtney Callaway, a dispatcher at the Spalding County sheriffs office, a mile away from the Griffin Police Department. Im not well connected with anyone. She decided to resign instead. agent who lived near Spalding County and had worked with Beam on several cases over the years. Occasionally, Jessica still reflexively asked Jacob for permission to do things like visit her grandparents or go to the store. Jessica would not touch a gun, she said. Eleanor Attwood, a lawyer representing six women who filed civil suits against Gibson, warned me to do all my reporting when the sun was out. This blows my mind.. Justice for Jessica - Facebook Shes a grown lady, the lieutenant told him. In a composition notebook, Jessica documented the times she assumed Matthew had been with his girlfriend, and she jotted down notes for the lawyer. Her neurosurgeon, Paul King, told me, It seemed most likely that someone else shot her., Jessica had an intracranial-pressure monitor inserted into her brain, to measure swelling, and she was put in a medically induced coma. The notification was made following an April 15, 2016, shooting incident - ruled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to be a suicide attempt - at the home of Jessica Boynton and her now-estranged husband, Griffin Police Department Officer Matthew Boynton. The officers found Jessica in her bedroom closet, unconscious and lying on her side, her head on a bloody pillow. The judges are very swayed by their own reactions to each person, Meier said. Her head wound soaked into the green and white pillow, where her head rested. Jessica, then-19, had just put her two young sons to bed and was getting her clothes ready in the closet for the next day. Then-Griffin Police officer Matthew Boynton was arrested on July 28, . ). She and the boys planned to move into her sister Dustys house on Friday, April 15th, and the next week she would begin working at a chiropractors office. A second psychiatrist thought she had appropriate mood and affect; appropriate judgment and insight. Her surgeon, Henderson, wrote that she was a very positive person who is embracing the opportunities that a new lease on life afforded her by her recent recovery. He went on, She has a sense of humor and has a gentle and calm personality. Her voice was hoarse from the breathing tubes, and she seemed childlike and dazed, as if her only goal was to accommodate the agents as quickly as she could. Shortly after the movie started, Matthew said that it was time to go. Furthermore, she said, there were too many errors and discrepancies for her to have sent a text like that. (The purposes of such a sweeping request were never clear. Contact Justice for Jessica on Messenger. Three days after she left the hospital, a deputy from the Pike County sheriffs office delivered a Family Violence Protective Order. Matthews childhood dream was to work in law enforcementa career inspired by his grandfather, who had helped bring him up following his parents divorce. They're saying it was self-inflicted, she said. King told me, Youd think it would have been simple enough to put bags on her hands and test them for gunshot residue. She said, Do me a favor. He had looked in the master bedroom, and when he didnt see the baby, who typically slept there, he ran outside. Right, she said, nearly whispering. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . I didnt know if it was an active scenario, he later told investigators. In nearly a third of cases, the officers already had a domestic-violence incidentand, in one case, eightin their records. Denise said that Amy confided that Matthew had once hit her and that their relationship was strained. Its always different. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. Not now. Its just a hobby, he said. "How did his phone get in there? It's possible, but I mean it's very doubtful, because he's never hurt me before. Hankinson briefly paused during the hearing to see if any statutes said that attempted suicide was a form of child endangerment. I dont think the text was quite that literal, Jacob said. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . They moved in together in January, 2017, and as they were packing Willey discovered that Matthew had a large gym bag full of womens clothes, along with a retainer with Jessica printed on its case. One of about 70 messages they exchange throughout the night. The county sheriff ruled her dead at the scene. "Well, how do you come to that conclusion?" He didnt find any, and dismissed the protective order. Matthew Boynton is the grandson of Sheriff Beam. Statements from Jessica Boynton and Matthew Boynton are logged into evidence," said a statement written by Yancy March 13. According to the order, which Matthew had petitioned the court to issue, probable cause exists that Family Violence has occurred in the past and may occur in the future. Jessica was ordered to have a psychological evaluation. ), After several months, a male officer told a captain in Internal Affairs that he didnt understand why Whitehouses complaint had been ignored. We believe he is a danger to her, she told the judge, Tommy Hankinson. His phone was given to someone else at Griffin PD, they put the phone in the thing because they knew GBI wanted it, and that's where we're gonna be while he was taken to the police department. Jessica is placid and effortlessly polite, warm without being intimate. (Matthews lawyer said, in an e-mail, The ultimate aim of both the GBIs investigation and the grand jurys inquiry was to find the truth. Spalding County Sheriff Wendell Beam behind false death notification in . After Gibson left, citizens came forward to say that they, too, were terrified of him. She agreed, and in May, 2017, Sanders dropped off the bag at the Griffin Police Department. Jessica Boynton was initially . In his personnel file there, a supervisor described him as fiercely loyal but stiff and unwilling to bend. Another officer described him as the type who wants to make ten arrests a day if he could. A senior officer privately advised Matthew, Lighten up a little bit, man.. It doesn't sound like anything I would say. Can a new approach curb domestic homicide? They had wiped stuff off the computers, Dix said. She said that Matthew told her she wasnt related to them by blood. It was the first time anyone had spoken with her at length about the night of her injury. Two shots had been fired. My dream is that, one day, the Feds show up and say, We want the notebook, he said. I dont doubt the findings of the G.B.I., he told me. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. It was retrieved from the kitchen counter in front of the microwave oven," she probed further. When the men wanted tea, they just shook their glasses.. A lot, she said, doesnt add up, especially since, she said, she had reason to live. She now lives two hours north of Griffin, with her fianc, Jacob Boyack, a high-school classmate, in a small yellow house with black shutters and an American flag hanging from the front porch. But it was used after Matthew had said he left the apartment in fear of his life, and did not return. He had once assumed that if he dug deeply enough he would understand not only Jessicas shooting but the reasons that David Gibson had been protected for so long. "I left the location, I'm back en route, I'm on Carver Road right now. DeMarco told Matthew that his clothes might need to be collected as evidence. Neither Matthew nor Jessica had been given a gunpowder-residue test. I would fight you tooth and nail defending it. But, after receiving thousands of documents from Sanders, Martha stopped driving through Griffin, because she was afraid. Less than a month after her hospital-bed interview, Matthew was verbally cleared by the GBI, according to his chief. But did something else happen that spring night in 2016? I know that hes a police officer, and Im not really anybody, she said. And in both instances, he was cleared of wrongdoing.), That Matthew had found himself in a troubled relationship did not surprise Dix. No. Theres no second shot. What Happened to Jessica Boynton? Grisly Truth Could Have Been Covered In the police body-cam videos, the dog is still wearing his leash. We put it on the counter to take a picture of it," he confirmed to Mathews. matthew jessica boynton now - Weird Things She was told that, to prove that a crime had been committed, the district attorney needed to establish that the oath of office had been administered to Matthew. Why is he getting so much protection and coverage? the agent said. 2023 Cond Nast. She had a job interview and it was going to be her first step to freedom. Thats what I told yourThats what I told the sheriff today, he said. The new sheriff, Darrell Dix, the former lieutenant in the Griffin Police Department, told me that when he unlocked the doors to the sheriffs office on his first day on the job, January 1, 2017, he found nine industrial-sized trash bags full of shredded papers. She said we needed to know what kind of kid he was. Was the investigation a mess up or a cover up? Hi, we're Brendan Keefe and Jessica Noll, the host and - Reddit In December, 2014, Jessica had a brief affair and got pregnant again. Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. Jessica, who still has no memory of what happened that day, states that Matthew is the only one who knows the truth. GRIFFIN, Ga. Who shot the officers wife? About the podcast. Matthew makes it home, jumps out of his truck, races through the breezeway of his apartment building and bolts up the stairs. The Officer's Wife | True Crime Network Jessicas only diagnosis was acute stress disorder, which, the evaluator wrote, occurs when an individual is exposed to actual or threatened death. The evaluator added that her symptoms are normal and to be expected through circumstances such as hers.. They rented an apartment in Griffin, in a complex of beige two-story buildings surrounding a swimming pool. The July 29 arrest of former Griffin Police Department Officer Matthew Boynton stemmed from a theft report filed Dec. 19, 2016, by his former wife, Jessica Lester. GBI/Griffin Police Dept. When female officers told him that they were afraid of the patrol-division captain, David Gibson, whom Beam had promoted, he did nothing. At a family-court hearing that June, Matthew asked that the protective order be extended for a year. nd police notify Jessicas family that she has died. So I'm trying to hurry and get back home just to make sure that nothing's going to happen to them.. 11alive.com. She told me that, for female officers in many parts of the South, theres no in-betweenyou cant just be a human in uniform. They were made to feel that their presence contaminated the ethos of the department. All rights reserved. One, investigators said penetrated Jessica's head and the other the wall. A deputy named Misty Piper said that, after Gibson repeatedly pressured her to have sex with him, she acquiesced, because she felt that, if she defied Gibson, she would meet a similar fate. Denise was on a science-curriculum committee with Matthews stepmother, Amy, a teacher in the same district. It could have been simply that um, all his, he left his stuff there. Beam dropped the matter. Matthew Boynton arrested | 11alive.com