He Sexted Other Women With Her Body in His Trunk?! The Murder of Jessie Bardwell

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of True Crime of Kendall Rae. Thank you so much for joining me today and if you're new to this show, then welcome. I have covered plenty of cases where prosecutors don't necessarily have a straightforward motive. I've also covered cases where because of certain factors, they also don't know where the murder took place, you know, where the physical crime scene was. And I've also covered plenty of cases where the medical examiners just could not determine a cause of death, but normally with the majority of the cases that I cover and just cases in general, they have at least two out of the three of those things, the where, the how, or the why. In today's case, we actually don't know any of these, which makes it really frustrating, but it's a case that definitely should be talked about. In this episode, I'm going to be telling you about the murder of the beautiful Jesse Bardwell. And now let's go ahead and jump in. So Jesse Merle Garner Bardwell was born on September 10th, 1988 in Pascagula, Mississippi to her father, Gary and her mother, Carla, and she also had one older brother named Brandon now, according to Gary, the minute that Jesse entered this world, he just burst into tears because of the love he already felt for her and that love only got stronger every day. And that is something that I absolutely believe you can just feel the love that Gary has for his daughter through his interviews and, you know, pictures of them together. They were just such a beautiful duo, and it's really just inspiring to see that type of father daughter love because Jesse, of course, loved both of her parents dearly, but she was definitely just a daddy's girl at heart, and Gary said that he still has a backache from how often she wanted him to hold her. Now her parents did end up getting divorced when she was 14, and Jesse spent her high school years living with her dad, Gary ended up remarrying this woman named Gina, and the same way that Jesse loved her mom, she also grew to love her stepmom. And just as much as Jesse loved her family, she also loved her friends. She is described as someone who could meet friends anywhere she went, and it's also just universally agreed upon from the people in her life that Jesse was a beautiful silly and incredibly independent person, and it sounds like Jesse was that type of person who just marched to the beat of her own drum, and that she also surrounded herself with good salt of the earth people who loved her. And through life's natural twists and turns, Jesse ended up eventually leaving Mississippi, and she moved to Orange Beach, Alabama, which I've heard is really beautiful and Jesse loved the beach. She loved the water. She loved that whole beach lifestyle. So I don't think this move is much of a surprise to anyone in her life. And while she was living there, she got a job at a beach side restaurant called Cobalt. And I loved this. Jesse's dad, Gary, is a musician. So the restaurant that she worked at hired him to come and play music there occasionally. And Pascagula is only an hour and a halfish away from Orange Beach, so he would just drive up for the evening, play, and even on the nights that Jesse wasn't working, she would come in and listen to her dad's music. Jesse's friend Kimberly, who happened to be the manager at Cobalt, said that it seemed like she and Gary were not just father and daughter. They were also friends. And that is definitely the vibe that I have gotten from them as well. They seem so, so close. They texted every single day and that's actually why he was one of the first people to notice when Jesse began to change. It all started around Christmas time of 2015. Jesse had previously been living with her long-term boyfriend. For what I believe was a decent amount of time, but then kind of out of the blue, it seemed like she broke up with him and she started dating someone else. The guy that she started dating is named Jason Lowe. I guess the two of them had been friends previously, so it wasn't like someone completely random. But he seemed like a nice enough guy to people around them, and he was outgoing, he had a good job in the tech industry, so there was that. But the fact that the two of them started dating sort of suddenly wasn't the biggest shock of it all. And it also wasn't the fact that Jesse told her friends she was moving to Texas with him, although that was pretty shocking, but the biggest surprise in all of this was that Jesse didn't tell her family that she was going. She spent Christmas with them that year fully knowing that she was leaving for Texas with Jason shortly after and she never mentioned it. She told her friend Kimberly that she was going for a few weeks just to clear her head and that she was going to take this time to pursue her dream of getting into cosmetology, but she didn't tell her family who she was as I've mentioned, incredibly close with. And this was obviously so unlike her. And it seemed like there had been this major shift, this change, and this absolutely broke my heart, but Gary said that he would have done anything he could to try and talk her out of going. And that's got to be something that's really hard to grapple with in the aftermath of what happened, and as soon as her relationship with Jason began, it just seemed like something in Jesse just changed. She really went from being this full of life, happy personality, always talking to her friends and family, just very social kind of person to someone who was a lot more withdrawn. In fact, once she moved to Texas, her phone was disconnected and the only way people could reach her was through Jason on their home phone. And when people did get in contact with her, Jason was monitoring all her conversations. It's very sad to look at now, but I think we can all see that this was not just a bad relationship, but a very, very toxic one. Jason was clearly trying to separate her from her friends and family, create that distance that we've seen in other cases that I'm sure a lot of you have seen in your own lives with people you know or maybe have experienced yourself, and that's why I think cases like this are so important to talk about. But yeah, it eventually just got to the point where Gary could hardly reach Jesse at all, which is such a stark difference from how they used to communicate, talking pretty much every day. He would call Jason and demand to speak with her, but Jason would give him some bullshit excuse that she didn't want to speak with him or that she would call him later. There was one time where Jesse and Jason went to go visit Gary and he was able to see her in person and he could tell at that point that something was definitely off. Jesse was hugging him more than usual. She just seemed different. And there was something about the way that she was acting that sort of set off his father's intuition that there was a problem here and he even tried to convince her not to go back to Texas, but she said that she wanted to go. She also told him that she wanted him to be proud of her and I know that he was, but I also know that he was deeply worried for her even though she wouldn't admit that there was something going on. He just knew that there was right after she left Gary sat down and wrote this song about her called Taken Away, which if you weren't planning on crying today, I am certain you will after listening to it, I cannot even talk about it for too long because it is so emotional and I am such an emotional wreck these days. It is just a beautiful song, but very heavy. I'm going to play a small portion of it for you here, but I encourage you to listen to the full version if you want to, I'll link it in the description or show notes of this episode. See, even thinking about this song makes me tear up because it is just, uh, it's heartbreaking. I'm sorry, she heard me so tired. She said that it don't worry, it's going to be all right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Generally, if there's one thing that I want you guys to remember from Jesse's story and from this case in this episode, is that I hope it makes an impression on you how much Gary loved Jesse. It is just so beautiful to see a father love his daughter the way that he did. He says that he still calls her his beautiful daughter and just hearing the way that he speaks about her breaks my heart knowing that she's gone. Just cannot imagine being in his shoes and believe it or not, he actually had a nightmare that she was killed just before it happened. God, if that's not father's intuition, I don't know what is. A few months after Jesse left his house for the last time, Gary woke up from that nightmare feeling like his daughter was no longer on earth and sadly that gut feeling did turn into a reality. So in May of 2016, Gary was still dealing with the fact that Jason Lowe was clearly manipulating his daughter and that same phone call charade went on and on and on where Jason wouldn't let him speak to Jesse. Well, eventually Gary reached his breaking point and he decided that if nobody had heard from Jesse on Mother's Day or by Mother's Day, then he was going to take action and that is exactly what happened Mother's Day rolls around and she didn't reach out to her mom or her stepmom. Gary called Jason trying to get some type of explanation he knew that this was absolutely not like his daughter and Jason gave him some bullshit lie about not knowing where she was because the two of them were not co-dependent okay bro. And that was enough for him to be like okay whatever I am going to just go there myself so he gets in this truck and he drives 11 hours to Dallas to find his daughter himself. And he actually told Jason that he was on his way and said that if Jesse wasn't there, when he arrived he would be in huge trouble and he wasn't joking. And when he got there, he went right to the Richardson Police Department and reported Jesse missing which kicked off an investigation right away. Now as soon as authorities were aware that there was concern over Jesse's whereabouts, a welfare check was performed at the apartment that she and Jason shared. And that's when Jason told them that he last saw her that day on May 8th around 8 in the morning. He said that she had left in her gray accurate but that he couldn't reach her because she didn't have a cell phone. And since there didn't appear to be any signs of a struggle or anything, the officers left. Then on May 9th an officer returned to the apartment and he did notice something strange this time. He watched as Jason pulled into his garage and he saw that the front grill on his outie was missing plus his car was super muddy. When he was asked about it though, Jason said that he had taken his car mudding two weeks prior now. I don't know who the hell would take their luxury SUV mudding. Maybe some people out there but I don't know that's not adding up a lot to me. That was his excuse though. Now as for why he himself, his person was muddy, he had an explanation for that of course. He said that he decided to try and look for Jesse himself by walking some of the trails that he knew she liked going on and that he got dirty from chasing after his dog after she got loose. Now mind you the dog was clean so this immediately isn't adding up and then the officer observed that he had some cuts on his hand and once again Jason tried to blame the dog for this. That poor dog was just catching strays left and right and the saga of concerning discoveries didn't end there. On May 10th another detective was assigned to the case who reached out to Jason via phone and his story changed wow before he said that he had lasting Jesse on May 8th around 8am but now he was saying it was actually closer to 10am and then when the detective went to his apartment the vibes were still off. Jason just didn't seem worried about her being missing at all and he gave that same ridiculous explanation about them not being codependent and it was one of those situations where they could obviously tell he was lying but the proof wasn't there it wasn't obvious. That isn't until they learned that the accurate that Jason claimed Jesse left in had been sold three weeks earlier yeah Jason sold that car can you believe that I mean this idiot really thought that they weren't going to look into the car that he would be able to just sell it off and it was gone poof hands are clean of the car okay dude so yeah at that point they know that he is 1000% full of shit so on May 12th they returned to the apartment and that's when they busted his ass when they got there they saw that there was a plate on the counter with a line of cocaine on it so yeah that was enough to bring him in before doing that though they asked Jason's permission to search the apartment and interestingly enough he actually agreed he said that was fine probably just trying to look less guilty right but the one thing he said is that they couldn't go into the garage because it was a quote shared space whatever that means well long story short he ends up letting them go in there anyway and that's when they realized that Jesse wasn't just missing she had definitely been murdered as soon as they walked into the garage investigators were hit with what they called the smell of death the smell of decaying flesh was just undeniable and no amount of for breeze was going to cover it up and I say that because yes he did have a bottle of for breeze in there that he was using to try and cover the smell so there was that they also once again saw how muddy his car is but now it wasn't just the outside they were seeing it was in the inside as well his outy was caked in mud and that missing real was sitting in the back seat Jason tried to say that it fell off his car and got stuck in the mud while he was looking for her but of course by this point no one is buying his shed anymore especially after blue star testing lit up his trunk indicating the presence of blood not to mention the fact that there was a leak coming from under the car and that tested presumptive positive for blood as well the car was also a mess to say the least and what's interesting is a neighbor reported seeing Jason trying to clean it on the night of May 7th but of course his messiness all of his mistakes were investigators gain because of the drugs the plate of cocaine that he was having for his meal they were initially able to bring him into the station and charge him with possession and one day later despite not having Jesse's body they used evidence from his garage to charge him with her murder and when they questioned him on the day of his arrest Jason could not have seemed any less interested in helping them but surprisingly one week later he pointed investigators to where they could find her body before that there was a genuine fear that they would never find her given the limitless number of places where her body could have been dumped but he did give that information up but what seconds me about what he told them was that when he described where her body was he referred to her as an it he said it can be found 250 yards up the fence line is not just fucking horrible the whole thing is just so sickening I mean this guy does not have a heart whatsoever and what's even more disturbing is the condition that she was founded going off of Jason's word they found Jesse's body on May 19th on a remote ranch in farmersville Texas her body had been wrapped in a blue fitted sheet with a flat red strap tied around her torso she was partially bubble wrapped and a black truck liner and a flat piece of tin were laid over her body in an effort to conceal her investigators also found two towels plastic gloves and a packet of ratchet straps parts of Jason's car could also be found still stuck in the mud and her condition was so severe that it took a week for a medical examiner to officially even identify the remains as hers and as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode they were also unable to determine an exact cause of death for Jesse that was due to the level of decomposition she had suffered they were only able to list it as homicidal violence and I don't think anything could have prepared her loved ones for this level of devastation and this is another heartbreaking part but Gary felt like it was his duty to read the autopsy report and I totally see where he's coming from and I respect him for that but that must have just been unbelievably hard and listening to him talk about that report and how impacted he was by what he read was just so horrific the whole thing makes me sick Gary is a retired firefighter and I guess some of his old buddies were able to be there to help retrieve her remains and I'm not sure if that made it any better but I bet that support didn't mean the world to him and the support from their community was also not lacking at all prior to her remains being found there was a candlelight vigil held in an effort for people to pray for her safe return, but after that discovery was made, prayers of healing were given instead. And I learned that she and her brother Brandon had this promise to one another that whichever sibling died first, the other sibling would throw them a festival. And they both loved live music and sort of joked that they wouldn't want their funerals to be sad. So in June of that year, he threw a loving light festival for her, which included art and music, and it ended with over 900 people attending a service that celebrated her 27 years of life. And all anyone wanted, as the weeks and months went on, was for Jesse's killer to be brought to justice. Gary especially, I don't think rage is even a big enough word to describe how he feels towards Jason. He says that while this was all going on, he would print out photos of Jason and put them on a stump and then just beat the shit out of his face with a sludge hammer. And I think that is so fucking awesome. I think that is so therapeutic. And I don't blame him one bit. I would do the same thing. And I think everyone was feeling very on edge and anxious about the trial. And if justice was going to come because, you know, as I explained earlier, the case was very circumstantial. There was no definitive crime scene. There was no cause of death. And there was no clear motive. Just her body. That's all they had. So that was obviously going to make it harder for the prosecution, but the defense had an issue as well because Jason had ended up making a confession of sorts. It turns out that when he was first charged with murder, a friend of his named Tommy visited him in jail because quite frankly, he didn't want to believe it was true and get this. So from May 1st to May 4th, Jason and Jesse were house sitting for Tommy and his wife. And when they returned from their trip, they noticed a few things felt off. For example, several things were missing, including towels and a blue fitted sheet plus Tommy's tools were freshly cleaned and laid out neatly in his garage. And I'm sure you can already see where this is going. But when news of the arrest came out, Tommy wanted to ask Jason himself, if anything had happened at his house, like, you know, did he kill Jesse there because it certainly looked like that was a possibility. And you want to know what Jason said to him in a recorded jailhouse call? He said, I can't make that promise. Now he also said that nothing of substance happened there, so you don't have to worry about that. It's very minimal. That was his quote. And then he told him that the only thing he is guilty of is quote criminal negligence. So he straight up admitted that he was with Jesse when she died. And I'm sure this call is what led to Jason's confession about where he left her body. I mean, if he's on tape saying that he was with her, obviously he damn well knew where she was buried. And I'll get into the story of what he says happened here in a minute. But first with the discovery of this call, the defense had a big decision to make. And that decision was whether or not Jason should testify at his own trial. And, you know, at the end of the day, that call was pretty damning. And they had to weigh if it would help their case to have him speak or if it would hurt his case. They even conducted a full on mock trial to see what the mock jury would say. And when they had Jason testify in that, the jury found him not guilty. So they end up deciding to go ahead and put him on the stand in his own trial. Now his trial officially began in September of 2017 and Jesse's family were there to hopefully witness her killer being brought to justice. The trial spanned several days with many witnesses taking the stand and among those testifying was Gary. And him even going to the trial was a big deal. It was his first time going on a plane in 30 years. But of course, he was going to do anything he needed to do to be there for his daughter. And he was so nervous for the trial in general, he said that his hands were shaking so much on the stand that he was worried that people were going to be able to see it. But it was so crucial that he was there. His testimony was so important and it helped to paint a picture of what was going on in Jesse's life at the time of her murder. And the picture that the prosecution was painting was that Jason was a pathological liar with a drug problem who had a history of abusing women. He didn't end up taking the stand, but the state did track down two of his ex-girlfriends who have publicly stated that Jason was an abusive partner. And he not only did the same thing he did to Jesse and pulled them away from their families, but one of them says that Jason also tried to kill her. There was an incident where he pushed her down, he sat on her, and then he covered her nose and mouth and literally told her, "I'm killing you." And I think that would have been very impactful for the jury to hear, but the state decided that their testimony likely wouldn't have been admissible. But the prosecution was still feeling confident about their case, especially considering the fact that Jason admitted he was there when Jesse died. And when you look at the evidence, it just tells a horrifying story. I mean, even though they couldn't say where she was killed or how she was killed, the evidence pointed to the fact that Jason not only murdered her, but that he left her body to rot in the back of his outie for days before finally dumping her in that field. The smell of decay that was coming from his car could have only happened if her body had been in there for an extended amount of time. And to add insult to it all, prosecution said that while her body was just laying inside his car in the garage, Jason was texting from her phone to make it seem like she was still alive. Not only that, you guys, but this sick fucking freak was also sexting at least five other women during this time. That's right, after he murdered Jesse, a woman who he claims he loved, he was getting his rocks off to these other random girls. And yeah, I'd say that the prosecution did a really good job of painting a pretty clear picture of Jason and the defense on the other hand, of course, was quick to try and spin the story and their story was that it was all a horrible accident. And when Jason took the stand, he described his version of events, which was that wall house sitting for their friends, he and Jesse decided to take GHB, also known as roofies as an effordygiac, and while attempting to have sex in the shower, Jesse slipped and hit her head. And he said that she started feeling hot and dizzy afterwards, but rather than go see a doctor, they decided to go to sleep. But when he woke up the following morning, she was laying on his chest on responsive. And instead of immediately calling 911 like any normal human being, he says that he panicked and tried to cover it up. He even testified that his drug dealer knocked on the door as this was all happening, and that he helped him roll her up in a bedsheet and put her in the trunk. And he did admit to leaving her in his truck for four days, and he also admitted to the sexting. His attorneys tried to say that he had an addiction to sexting the same way that they say he had been addicted to drugs from the time that he was a teenager. Obviously they're trying to humanize Jason and get some sympathy from the jury as best as they could, and he really tried to sell the idea that he and Jesse were madly in love. He even tried to say that they were planning to buy a house together and get married, which is just a bunch of bullshit if you ask me. I honestly could have guessed it before I researched this case and found that out for myself. It's, you know, a tale is old as time. We've definitely seen something like this many times before. But yeah, that's a story that he panicked and didn't intentionally kill her. And they were hopeful that since there wasn't any direct evidence that point into homicide that maybe the jury just wouldn't find him guilty in the end. They also threw him a Hail Mary by telling the jury that Jason was the one that led them to her remains. They said that he did it for the sake of her family, which is wildly offensive that they would even say that for the sake of their family. Fuck out of here. And that's not even the truth either. Obviously he didn't lead them to her remains, but he only did so to cut himself a deal. And that deal was that if he was convicted, he would only have to serve 50 years in prison instead of the 99 he was facing, which is absolutely infuriating. And this was actually the first time that Jesse's family was hearing of this too. Originally, they weren't told who exactly led them to her remains, only that it was a reliable source. Now me personally, and I know the majority of you are going to agree with me, I think that 50 years is a slap in the face to this family, especially after what he did and how he disrespected her after he did what he did. It's extremely frustrating, I understand that they have to cut these deals to get what they need. I mean, they didn't have much to work with and they needed out. least her body, so I get that it deals a deal, but it doesn't change how infuriating that is, and I cannot imagine how her loved ones feel about that. But yeah, after several hours of deliberation, a jury found Jason Lowe guilty of murder, and he was ultimately sentenced to 50 years in prison. It makes me sick to say only 50 years it's so wrong, but Gary was able to give a victim an impact statement, and he had both of Jason's exes standing next to him in solidarity. And ultimately, he said that there is no forgiving evil, and that's exactly what Jason is. Jesse was one of the most special people on the planet, to me, I mean, I was a dad. Gary Vardwell was one of the key witnesses in the trial of Jason Lowe, the man now convicted of murdering his daughter. Maybe the jury found the defendant guilty of murder, and they finally announced the verdict, and my heart was just beating out of my chest. It was a year and four months ago, Vardwell reported his daughter, Jesse, missing. Police questioned Lowe, her boyfriend, and found evidence of decaying flesh in his car. He later led them to find her body in a field in Farmersville. There's a deafening silence in my life. I don't know if you can understand what I mean by that. Since Jesse's been gone, it seems like the world has turned off. She kept my heart beating. She kept me smiling. At the end of trial, today Vardwell gave a statement, deliberately staring into Lowe's eyes as he read it. "When you look in his eyes, there is nothing there." Vardwell says he's seen no sign of remorse. One reason, he has no intention to forgive. People say, "Forgive this person. You're not going to get better until you forgive this person." I don't look at him like a person. He's the devil, and I want to know how in the hell you forgive the devil. Now from all of the interviews that I've seen of Gary, it sounds like Gary feels that he's not necessarily responsible for what happened, because obviously he is not, but it seems like he feels he wished he had done more to get Jesse out of that situation, and I know that he, as we discussed earlier, had a really hard time with the fact that he didn't know that he was even going to Texas, and he wishes he could have talked her out of it before she even went. I just feel so bad for him that he carries that because I don't think anyone can ever really anticipate how horrible something is going to turn out. You have no idea what's going to happen, and he was so isolated from her that he had no idea what was even going on. I know that there is nothing I can say to Gary to help that pain that he feels. Those are his feelings, and I think as a parent, I'd probably feel the same way. I just wanted to say that from an outsider's point of view that Gary, you are not responsible for what happened at all. The only person who is responsible for any of this is that monster Jason, and I completely agree with you that you cannot forgive evil, and that really is what he is. I genuinely believe that Gary did everything he could, and he is a wonderful, wonderful father. He even bought her a plane ticket to come back to Alabama only a month after she moved to Texas to be with Jason, and I guess Jesse and Jason had this big fight about her having an affair and getting pregnant by someone else before moving it. I don't know if any of that's true, but according to him, she had an abortion, and Jason blew up at her and kicked her out of the house, and she had to go spend a night with a friend, and well, Gary said that Jesse called him and told him that he was right about Jason, and that she should never have moved to Texas, and so he booked her a flight so that she could get away, but I guess she never showed up for the flight, and she ended up telling her dad that Jason apologized and that she was going to go stay with him. So all of that is just really difficult to work through in hindsight. This whole case is so horrific. I mean, it never ceases to disturb me how inhumane some people can be, and I know we don't know the motive here, but it's just like, for what, why take another life? Jason seemed to have nothing to gain from this. He's just a very sick, sick person, a monster, Jesse deserved so much more. And I'd say if there's anything to take away from her story above all else, and there is many things, it's important to remember what abuse looks like. I think more and more people are starting to recognize the signs to recognize isolation as a form of abuse, but it definitely needs to be talked about more because it just doesn't happen the same, and it doesn't happen all at once. It can be very slow, it can be very fast, it can be methodical, it can happen in an instant. I'm going to put some links to resources in the description of this episode for anyone out there who is in a position where they feel that they may need help, that they may be in an abusive relationship, or for those who fear someone in their life is, and you don't know where to go, what to do. There are people out there who can help you work through that and form a plan and just recognize the signs. And if any of you guys have words of wisdom or resources that you have found helpful, please feel free to link those as well or share them. I don't know if you can link them, but on episodes like this, there are so many amazing people in the comments that come forward to tell their stories or to encourage others. And it's really cool the community that we have here on this show. That is going to be it for me today guys, thank you for joining me for another episode, and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, it really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. [Music]