Delia D'Ambra

But of course, when nearly a week passed and Duane had not returned to his house, that's when her curiosity turned to concern.

So with this information in hand, New York State Police decided to get an exigent order to access Dwayne's cell phone records.

At that point, he'd been missing for five days or so, and time was of the essence to figure out where he could be and if he was all right.

The police pushed forward with their cell records request to determine the last known location of his device, as well as who he'd been communicating with.

After connecting with his cell phone provider, they were able to see he'd been texting with Jennifer before he was last seen and around the time his body was found, which I imagine probably wasn't too much of a surprise since his neighbor had already informed investigators that Jennifer was someone known to be in Dwayne's life.

The messages New York police found between him and her prior to him leaving his house on December 5th consisted of Jennifer asking Dwayne if he wanted to drive down south with her.

She indicated that if he did come along, she'd make sure, quote, you can drink and get some sluts, end quote.

And just an aside, that sort of language is not something I condone, but it is a direct quote from the information and text exchanges that authorities found, which is why I'm bringing it up, because I want to make sure you all get the full context of things.

Now, there weren't many texts from Duane's device to Jennifer's phone about this offer, but they had called one another, and shortly after that call, Jennifer sent Duane a text that read, "'Come out with your bags.'"

So investigators' next move was to get in touch with Jennifer.

When they called the 25-year-old, she explained that, yes, Duane had left Dryden with her and Robert to go on a road trip to Tennessee and Georgia in early December, but she said Duane was no longer with them.

According to court records, her story was that she and Robert had dropped Duane off at a restaurant in Ringle, Georgia to meet a sex worker.

After that, they hadn't seen him again.

Just a few days into the investigation, though, authorities decided they had enough probable cause to arrest Jennifer and Robert on a charge of exploitation of an elderly or disabled person.

And on December 18th, New York police made their move.

Authorities had set up surveillance on a few homes the couple were suspected to be associated with, and on the 18th, Robert's vehicle was spotted in the driveway of one of those residences.

At some point, the couple got into that vehicle and left.

A short time later, investigators pulled them over in a traffic stop and took them into custody.

Like I said, though, the only official charge against them at that time was that exploitation of an elder or disabled person.

That specific charge was unique in that investigators had established enough probable cause to prove the defendants had used Dwayne's financial resources without his consent or knowledge for their own use or profit.