Dark Side of the Desert
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What happened to Jennifer and Abby Blagg?
I tried calling her several times throughout the day, and always got through to the answering machine.
Hey, where are you? I'm just calling to see how you're doing. And I guess I'll just keep trying to get on with it.
come home, go inside, pick up the normal packages on the way in, and open the door, and I can see down the hallway into my master bedroom, and there's stuff on the floor. Papers and her purse is on the floor, and I can't really see everything that's in there, but I know that that's not right, and the bed's not made. On top of that, my daughter's not running out to me, Daddy, Daddy! And by the time I get most of the way down the hallway, I can see there's a large blood spot where Jennifer should be. 911, where's your emergency?
I just got home from work, and there's blood all over the bed, and there's stuff all over the floor. My family's gone. My daughter and my wife are here. Okay, calm down.
Anyone who knows anything about my wife and my daughter, I pray that you'll come forward.
How did the crime scene raise suspicion?
I hung up the phone and I knew Jennifer was dead and I knew that probably Abby was too. And I knew that this pornography had something to do with it.
Dark Side of the Mesa.
What was found at the local landfill?
In the high desert on the Rockies' western slope, the mesas tower over the town of Grand Junction, Colorado, almost as if to protect it from the outside world. But late on the afternoon of June 4, 2002, Grand Junction saw the unearthing of its own shocking secret here at the local landfill.
It was surreal. I mean, you couldn't script it in a movie like that.
The movie plays over and over in the mind of Sheriff's investigator Steve King.
The scoop is, this bucket is coming out of the ground. This tent rips, and this leg drops out of this tent, as everyone is standing there watching.
The decomposed body of 34-year-old Jennifer Blagg, wrapped in a red and black plastic tent.
There was a gunshot wound as a cause of death, a matter of death homicide.
Jennifer and her six-year-old daughter Abby had been missing for seven months. Abby has not been found to this day, not in the landfill, nor in the desolate mesas nearby. Until one day in November 2001, the Black family lived here in this comfortable house in a quiet cul-de-sac. The mystery of what really happened inside those four walls still haunts this town. The Blacks, after all, seemed so happy, so normal, so very nice.
I had everything. I was on top of the world. I had a great job, wonderful family, incredible wife and daughter. Everything was going perfect for me.
They're kind of a poster child sort of a family. A photographic studio would probably have their picture up on the wall somewhere.
How did the community react to the disappearance?
The Reverend Art and Rhonda Blankenship got to know the Blags in 2000 through their small evangelical church.
They just looked like an ideal couple. You know, friendly and open, talked. Everybody seemed to like them a lot.
Both Michael and Jennifer were enthusiastic born-again Christians. Extremely spiritual, they organized personal prayer groups for the congregation.
It was definitely an integral part of their lives.
So if you had had to pick a couple to whom, you know, this would be the most unlikely thing to happen?
This would probably be it. Kind of the most unlikely would be us.
How did you meet Jennifer?
It was a wonderful love story. I was in the Navy.
The Blags had met 10 years before in California. She was in college.
I recognized that there was something special about her.
He was a decorated Persian Gulf War veteran, a helicopter pilot.
I liked Mike from the beginning. He was a very personal young man.
Jennifer stayed close to her mother, Marilyn, even after she married Michael in 1993. They seemed happy.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened to Jennifer and Abby Blagg?
0:43–2:03
2
How did the crime scene raise suspicion?
2:03–2:29
3
What was found at the local landfill?
2:29–4:27
4
How did the community react to the disappearance?
4:27–5:35
5
Why was Michael Blagg considered a suspect?
5:35–7:28
6
What role did Michael's addiction play in the investigation?
7:28–10:43
7
How did the investigation proceed after the disappearance?
10:43–13:58
8
What was the outcome of the search for Jennifer and Abby?
13:58–43:13
Speakers
20 identified
Susan Spencer 14 min
Michael Blagg 4 min
Steve King 4 min
Unidentified Speaker 2 2 min
David Eisner 2 min
Claire Rochester 2 min
Marilyn Conway 1 min
Defense Attorney Linda Parisi 1 min
Jocelyn's Family Member 1 min
911 Operator 1 min
Judge 1 min
David Lohman 1 min
Pastor Art Blankenship 1 min
Interviewer 1 min
Betsy Blagg 1 min
Local Resident
Local Radio Host
Court Official
Medical Examiner
Supporter