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Chapter 1: What happened when the police arrived at the crime scene?
I just got home, and the door was open, and I walked in, and I think my girlfriend's been shot. Where was she shot at? Looks like her head. Did you see who did it?
I don't know. I can't go in there.
This victim resided at an apartment inside the building. Uniformed officers had already been there. The first thing we do is we're gonna go in and we're going to see where our victim is. My name is Mark Biondolino. I'm a retired homicide detective from the city of St. Louis. And I investigated the murder of Jocelyn Peters from March 24th, 2016.
This isn't someone who would accidentally leave a door open. She was responsible, one of the most responsible people I knew.
It just didn't make sense. She was a strong force, fierce advocate for children, loved them dearly, and everyone was going to succeed in her classroom. She always wanted to do the next best thing. In her free time, she was always checking out what she could do differently to meet the kids' needs, what programs there were out there.
There are only three to four full-time arts teachers at the middle school level.
She'd bust into my office, hey, I need you to come to my classroom today. I've got some magic going on and you need to come and see it. The kids were learning and she cared about each one of them and whatever they needed, she gave that to them.
First person that we're going to speak to is the person that discovered her.
And this is Cornelius Green? Correct. She truly, truly fell in love with him, honestly. And we all did. He was a principle. He was kind. He was generous. I mean, he was very attentive to her needs.
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Chapter 2: Who was Jocelyn Peters and what was her impact on her community?
Jocelyn Peters and The Notebook.
Lead homicide detective Mark Biondalino began the investigation into Jocelyn Peters' murder on March 24th, 2016. Since then, he has remained connected to the case, even though he's now retired from the St. Louis, Missouri Police Department.
I think you have a responsibility to do that.
He wanted to see it to the end.
You got to see it to the end. If you're working in homicide, you're not just going to let it fall by the wayside.
We took a drive to the city's central West End neighborhood. Nestled among the historic homes is Jocelyn Peters' apartment building. Her apartment's right up there.
Yeah, it's the second floor balcony you see that's directly in front of us.
Is it easy to access that apartment?
From the outside, absolutely not. I mean, it's a tremendous distance from the ground up to that balcony.
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Chapter 3: What strange behavior did Cornelius Green exhibit after the murder?
If you took it to a locksmith, they're not allowed to make a copy for you or they could lose their certification.
It was no surprise to investigators that Cornelius had keys to Jocelyn's place. While they didn't live together, they had been in an intimate relationship for five years. Jocelyn was seven months pregnant, and Cornelius was the father. Jocelyn felt that he'd make a wonderful father. In Jocelyn's home, investigators discovered a guest list
as well as invitations inspired by Alice in Wonderland for her upcoming baby shower. Biondolino and his team had a lot of questions about the crime scene.
Had the apartment been ransacked? Had it looked like there'd been a struggle?
Do you see any of that?
Absolutely not. It didn't even remotely look disturbed.
Jocelyn's cell phone was missing. A single shell casing from a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was discovered on the floor near the nightstand.
From my investigative standpoint, we saw that she was laying on her side, head facing the headboard. She had an apparent wound to her eye.
And there was something investigators had never seen before. Potato fragments splattered in the bedroom.
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Chapter 4: How did investigators link Philip Cutler to the crime?
So I brought her back in and I offered her the job in that moment. 15 minutes in? She was a bright light. She always has been. She talked about... how she wanted to be invested in care for children, and she wanted to teach them.
In 2014, Jocelyn Peters received one of the most prestigious honors for educators in St. Louis.
She was awarded the Pettus Excellence Award for the district.
What is that recognizing?
It's recognizing excellence in the classroom. We were very proud of her.
By the spring of 2016, she was also fulfilling some personal dreams. She surprised her mother, Lacey, with the news. Jocelyn was expecting a baby girl and had named her Micah Lee. We were all very excited for her. And the father-to-be, Cornelius Green, appeared to be a good match for Jocelyn. Cornelius was in a fraternity, and she was active in her sorority.
And like Jocelyn, he was an award-winning educator. According to her family, he seemed smitten from the start. He actively pursued her. He started giving her flowers and gifts and was very persistent. Jocelyn's friend, Tieris, also noticed how attentive he was. Jocelyn and I, we ran a 5K a couple of times, and he was at the 5K. So he seemed really supportive in that way.
How did she talk about the relationship? What were her hopes and dreams for it? I know that Jocelyn wanted to be married and that she wanted a family. And I recall her and him going to go look at houses. But Jocelyn, she says, had grown frustrated with Cornelius during the process. He didn't like any of the houses. No. Deidre picked up on Jocelyn's annoyance as well.
How come he's not actively looking like I'm looking? How come he's not wanting this as much as I'm wanting this? Jocelyn was ready to be a homeowner. After all, her career was thriving, she was expecting a baby, and in January, she had turned 30 years old. She booked a belated birthday cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate during spring break and invited her family and Cornelius.
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Chapter 5: What evidence was found on Cornelius Green's phone?
In addition to the potato fragments discovered in her bedroom, authorities found a bag of potatoes on the dining room table.
She's seven months pregnant. She has a menu, you know, like a chalk menu, a weekly menu.
Yeah, she was being very careful with her diet.
Very careful with her diet and her refrigerator. fruits, vegetables, it wasn't junk food. It was wholesome. All of the menus, lunch, breakfast, dinner that she had lined up, there wasn't potato listed in there, you know, ever. So it was just, it just was odd.
They would soon learn that Jocelyn had planned to go to the supermarket two days before Cornelius traveled to Chicago.
She's telling him she's going grocery shopping. He's adamant, wait for me, I'll meet you there at the grocery store.
cornelius green told investigators at the crime scene that he had been in chicago when jocelyn was murdered and that he could prove it to investigators he goes i wasn't here i just came here straight from the amtrak station shows him an amtrak ticket almost immediately lead investigator mark biondolino and then he was very oddly specific on what time he got off the amtrak
In fact, this security footage from the St. Louis train station shows Cornelius Green with luggage in tow returning on Thursday, March 24, 2016, approximately 12 hours after Jocelyn was murdered. Cornelius told authorities his train had arrived at 2.57 p.m. and he had driven to her apartment.
He called 911 at like 319 p.m.
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Chapter 6: What were the circumstances leading to Jocelyn's murder?
He indicates to her that he needs her to go meet Phil, Mr. Cutler.
Where he at? He's gonna meet up with you.
He doesn't go into details as to why. He identifies a place where she can go to meet Philip Cutler. There's a huge Amoco sign by a gas station that's a well-known marker.
Uniformed police officers stopped Stephanie and Philip Cutler near the Amoco station and took them to police headquarters for questioning. As it turns out, Stephanie had known Cutler for years. He was a groomsman in her wedding to Cornelius Green. When did you all find out that he indeed had a wife? Jocelyn told me. Early on? She did, but they were divorced.
Well, not divorced, but they were separated, working. Legally separated, that's what I was told. Stephanie and Cornelius had a young daughter, but had not been living together for several years. Stephanie was questioned briefly and released, but investigators wanted to know more from Philip Cutler.
Minutes before his interview started, Cutler, alone in the interview room, had done something completely bizarre. Authorities had not witnessed Cutler's odd behavior in real time, so, beyond Lino and his partner, unaware of what had just happened, began questioning Cutler, who claimed he'd never met Cornelius' girlfriend, Jocelyn.
Did you know where his girlfriend resided? Mm-mm. Had no idea. Mm-mm. And you've never met her? You never... never... Been together with him or never been over anywhere where she lived or anything like that? Not known. There's a whole slew of things that we can move forward with after interviewing Philip Cutler.
Investigators didn't have enough evidence to arrest Cutler. He was free to leave. But before he left the interview room, Cutler gave investigators an important piece of information.
He gives us his phone number.
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Chapter 7: How did the trial unfold for Cornelius Green and Philip Cutler?
When do you want me to come there? Week of March 20th. It is not hard to destroy a college.
Last season, the podcast Campus Files brought you stories of fraternity drug rings, stolen body parts, campus cults, and more. And now Campus Files is back for another season. There's a guy screaming into his phone. He's like, I just saw Charlie Kirk assassinated right in front of me. Every week is a new episode and a new story. It was so chaotic. It's almost like a university on a siege.
Listen to and follow Campus Files, available now wherever you get your podcasts. Investigators hoped a closer look at Cornelius Green's phone and Philip Cutler's phone number would provide new leads, and they were not disappointed.
We dumped the phone, for lack of a better term.
And tell me what you find out.
There was quite a lot in Cornelius's phone.
An examination of Cornelius Green's digital history had revealed a curious text message chain with Philip Cutler. When you coming here? When do you want me to come there? Spring break, March 18th to the 22nd, week of March 20th. Okay, that'll work. You gonna be sending the package? The conversation was cryptic, but the words spoke volumes to Biondolino.
To us as investigators, we're looking at this after the murder of Jocelyn Peters. That's a quid pro quo to us, an agreement that looks like has been made between Cutler and Green.
That text was written less than a month before Jocelyn was murdered.
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Chapter 8: What was the outcome of the trial and the reactions from Jocelyn's family?
To give money to a hitman to kill his girlfriend.
Correct.
$2,500. $2,500, yeah. I mean, how cheap is a life?
It tells you what he thinks about, you know, a human life's worth. And it's pretty disgusting.
In August 2016, Cornelius Green was arrested for theft.
He was visibly more upset than I think he'd been throughout this entire investigation that he was being arrested for theft.
Green posted bail and was removed from his position as school principal. Jocelyn's former principal, Nicole Conaway.
To hear that somebody I knew, especially a fellow principal, could take advantage of children like that, it's disgusting. That's absolutely disgusting.
Two months later, in October 2016, Cornelius Green was arrested and charged with the murders of his girlfriend Jocelyn Peters and the baby they were expecting. Shortly after that, Green's wife filed for divorce. Investigators say she was not involved in Jocelyn's murder. Do you remember your reaction when you heard he'd been arrested?
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