THE USUAL EUPHORIA THAT CAMEwith arresting a murder suspect was missing when we processed Jessica Hansen back at the police station. We didn’t walk through the station with our chests puffed out collecting high-fives as we went. There was nothing thrilling about arresting a woman who felt she had no other recourse but to take the law into her hands after the system failed her. In a turn of events, Jessica was the one who walked tall and proud through the precinct in Bowling Green, Kentucky, while Adrian and I looked like whipped puppies.
I didn’t expect her to basically surrender and confess to us when we showed up at her office. I figured she would make us show hard evidence that she committed the crime, but maybe she knew it would just delay the inevitable. There was a high probability that her fingerprints were somewhere in Renzo’s car or in the house. We also had the hotel clerk in Goodville who could identify her from a photo. If he identified her, he’d do the same for her sister, which we knew she didn’t want. She couldn’t protect Kayla from Thom Renzo, but she could save her from going to prison. I knew damned well that she saved Maegan from a similar fate—or worse—as Kayla.
We couldn’t just put her in the back of Adrian’s car and drive her back across state lines without going through official channels. The first of which was to take her official statement on camera where she waived her rights to have an attorney present. Jessica kept her eyes locked on mine as she detailed everything that happened from her sister’s attack to the moment she bashed Thom’s head in with a marble statue she found nearby. She denied her sister rode along with her and had a reasonable explanation for how she pulled it off by herself. She said anger and outrage made it possible for her to walk for miles in the frigid temperatures to retrieve her car that she’d hidden.
She didn’t show any emotion until she circled back to her sister. “One day my sister is a vibrant, happy young woman and the next she’s a ghost walking through life. Do you know she tried taking her own life, Detectives? She couldn’t live with what that animal did to her. My little sister was on suicide watch for a month at a hospital. Do you know what it’s like looking into the eyes of someone you love so much and not seeing them? Do you? How would you like seeing your sister’s orgirlfriend’swrists restrained to the bedrail so she couldn’t end her misery? Where was her justice? Why wouldn’t that cop listen to her?”
“Do you remember his name, Jessica?” I asked softly.
“Like you care.”
“Oh, I do care,” I countered. “I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to make sure he never treats another victim in the same way.” I wanted to assure her that he’d lose his job, but that was a promise that I couldn’t make. It was her word against his. He had a union to back him, she had no one. Well, she had me, but my power was pretty limited. Her best bet would be to find a hungry journalist who wouldn’t let up on the story until something was done.
Jessica relented and told us his name after a few minutes. Patrolman Dennis immediately left the room and I figured he was going to seek out the cop’s supervisor. Jessica continued with her story, explaining that she didn’t really plan on killing Thom. She said she started following the man to prevent him from hurting anyone else and hopefully catch him in the act that would open an investigation into his activity.
“There was no way a sick fuck like him didn’t have a computer full of incriminating material,” she said. “I knew that stealing his computer wasn’t enough because you guys wouldn’t be able to use it. I didn’t have a concrete plan in place; I just needed to do something. Then I saw the look on his face when he tossed a black duffel bag in the trunk of his car.” She closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face. “I knew he was going to hurt someone else and this sense of calm washed over me. I knew what I had to do. I don’t regret it either.” She scrubbed the tears off her face with her hands. “I only regret upsetting your girlfriend. I never intended for her to think she was the target of my anger. I just wanted to help.”
There was so much I wanted to say to her but couldn’t with the video rolling. We sailed through processing and interviewing her, but hit a snag when she refused extradition.
“I’m not making that easy on you, Detectives,” she said with a wry smile. “I understand that I’m going to serve hard time, but I’d rather do it here so that my parents and sister don’t have to travel so far to see me on visiting day. I’d like to call my parents so they can arrange for a good attorney.”
I didn’t think she’d have much luck avoiding extradition, but then I realized that maybe we could help her after all. We could talk to our county prosecutor and see if she was willing to allow her sentencing trial to occur in Kentucky. The crime may have occurred in our county, but both Thom and Jessica were Kentucky residents.
“Your parents and sister are already here,” Patrolman Dennis said when he returned to the room. “I told them that we were about to wrap things up in here and they’d have a chance to speak with her before…” His words trailed off.
“It’s okay, Patrolman Dennis. I didn’t expect to get away with killing someone.”
“I think we’re done here,” I said to Patrolman Young so that he could end the video. He nodded when it was off. “Listen, we’ll talk to our prosecutor when we get back to see if she will waive extradition and allow you to stand trial here. You’ve admitted to the crime, but you can either retract your statement and insist on a jury hearing, or you can waive the right to a trial and go straight to a sentencing hearing where you’ll be able to call witnesses to speak on your behalf in front of a judge. You have options.”
“I will never ask my sister to testify to what that monster did to her. I’ll spend the rest of my life behind bars if it comes down to that,” Jessica said, raising her chin in pride.
“We’ll see what kind of charges our prosecutor will want to file against you once he’s had a chance to review the evidence we collected from Renzo’s apartment,” Patrolman Young said. “You’re going to be our guest until you have a bail hearing though.”
“That’s fine,” she replied. “Can I please see my family now?” Her chin wobbled slightly and I figured she was probably more scared than she wanted us to believe.
“Sure,” Patrolman Dennis said.
The four of us rose to our feet and headed to the door. I looked over my shoulder before I left the room. Jessica lifted her head and met my gaze. “Best of luck to you.”
“Thank you, Detective.”
Making eye contact with her family was difficult, but I had to remind myself that I wasn’t the one who committed a crime. I slowed down as I approached her mother and mumbled three words that I thought might help her daughter.
The four-hour drive back to Blissville was quiet as Adrian and I were both lost in our own thoughts. As sworn officers of the law, we could never encourage what Jessica Hansen did, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t understand her motivation.
“I doubt Prosecutor Buxton meets with us today, but we can try.”
It turned out that she was eager to meet with us, thinking we carried good news. That changed when we told her that Jessica was fighting extradition. “What were her reasons? Did she just want to delay the inevitable?” she asked us.
“Ma’am, she wants to go to a prison closer to her family to make it easier for them to visit her.”
Prosecutor Buxton snorted. “Seriously? She thinks that I’ll agree to that?”
“I think you will when you find out the circumstances and hear about the evidence we found at Renzo’s apartment. This guy wasn’t some innocent victim cut down in the prime of his life. I’m sorry that his parents died, but not sorry they didn’t have to see the animal their son had become.”
The prosecutor sat back in her seat, looking less confident about her previous statement. “I’m listening, Detectives.”
Adrian told her about the evidence he found on the laptop, and I shared details about the movies we suspected to be homemade. She looked as sick as we felt.
