Dateline: True Crime Weekly
A mom's desperate search to find her daughter. Tears and fury in an Ohio courtroom. And the latest in the Karen Read case.
Thu, 9 Jan 2025
Did a Tennessee mom's search for her missing daughter imperil the prosecution of the man accused of killing her? In an emotional courtroom, multiple members of an Ohio family are sentenced for their roles in the Pike County massacre. Karen Read's expert witness testifies about dog bites. Plus what to expect when you're expected -- for jury duty.Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com
Chapter 1: What happened in the search for Jasmine Pace?
There were no words, just a pin drop sharing her location. Jasmine never came home after that. Sensing something was wrong, Jasmine's mother Katrina and her family went into investigation mode. They went to the location of the pin drop, a condo complex where the family forced open the door to an apartment.
Katrina took several items she found there, including Jasmine's phone, license, and credit cards, and was left with a bad feeling.
What was your reaction when you found those?
I knew it wasn't good. A few days later, Jasmine's body was found stuffed in a suitcase. She'd been stabbed 60 times. Police had already zeroed in on a suspect, Jasmine's boyfriend, Jason Chen. He was charged with murder and abuse of a corpse. He has pleaded not guilty.
But in the more than two-year run-up to Chen's trial, the unauthorized investigation by Jasmine's desperate mother has come under heavy fire from the defense.
It's normal for you to break into other people's apartments.
How might it all impact the trial set to begin next week? Here to bring us up to speed is Grayson Gordon, a news reporter from our NBC affiliate WRCB Local 3 News. Grayson, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. This is such a sad story. To start, can you just tell us tell us about Jasmine Pace and who was she?
What was she like? What have you learned about her? We know that she was very loved by her family. Whenever you're listening to testimony from her mother, Katrina, you can hear how close they were and how much they talked.
And having that communication with her and her family, how close she was with her mother, was really the way that her mother was able to know that she was not okay as quickly as her mother was able to figure that out. And what do we know about Jason Chen and how they met? So we know that they met on a dating app a few months before she went missing. They were both college students.
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Chapter 2: What were the events leading to Jasmine's tragic discovery?
Absolutely. And you can understand a mother pleading and doing... everything in her power to try to find her child. She gathers her family and she realizes that her daughter had sent her a, dropped her a pin. That pinned location took them to Jason Chin's apartment.
So Jason's not there in the apartment and they gain entry and And that's when they say they found Jasmine's phone, credit cards, and driver's license. So obviously very scary for the family to not know where their daughter is and to walk in and find that.
So they do call the police whenever they find this evidence. We watched body camera video so far at these pre-trial hearings. When the police go in, they spend about three minutes kind of just scanning Chen's apartment. Then they get a search warrant. And once they get the search warrant, they do find traces of blood.
And police also say during the search, they found blood spatter on the bathroom wall, cleaning supplies, a large amount of blood that had been cleaned up in the living room. This is a very disturbing scene. Parents taking matters into their own hands. You understand that. If your child is missing, you will do anything. The defense has made this a big deal.
This is what the defense has been using, the potential tarnish of a crime scene and the way that the evidence was gathered in order to try to exclude evidence from being used in the trial. The defense's worry is that it could have potentially been planted. And that's what those pretrial hearings have been. Right.
And that all makes sense from a defense perspective. Katrina, the mom, was actually cross-examined on the stand. What did she have to say about her actions and gaining entry to the apartment?
It was obviously very emotional. And the defense attorney for Jason Chin, he asked her on the stand, is it normal for you to break into apartments? And Katrina said, no.
And it's not normal for you to conduct a search like this?
It's not normal for my daughter to be missing.
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Chapter 3: How did the unauthorized investigation by Jasmine's mother affect the trial?
Pinned up.
Oh, wow. So with regard to any alleged evidence found by the mom, did the judge rule that that will be admissible in trial? Yes.
All evidence is going to be allowed. We have one more pretrial hearing and one last kind of wrap-up with all of the evidence that's going to be allowed in this case.
And we should just remind our listeners, Jason Chen has pleaded not guilty, and we will learn more about his defense when the trial gets underway next week. This is interesting because the case has had so much media attention. Jurors are actually being brought in from another county. Absolutely.
I really think the reason this has gotten so much attention is because people remember when Jasmine went missing. And we were trying to find this 22-year-old college student who had beautiful potential in life, who was loved by her family, loved by many. And that really has an impact on the community, especially a smaller community like Chattanooga. All right.
Well, we will keep an eye on this one, Grayson. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, there was talk of Satan and Jesus in an Ohio courtroom last week as a mother and son were sentenced for their roles in one of the most gruesome crimes in Ohio history.
For our next story, we're heading to an Ohio courtroom where emotions and rage bubbled over last week at the dramatic sentencing of three family members for their roles in one of the bloodiest crimes in Ohio history.
You are the spawn of Satan.
The horror began on the morning of April 22nd, 2016, when a woman walked into her brother-in-law's home and found him shot to death, along with his cousin. His name? Chris Roden Sr. But they weren't the only members of the Roden family found dead that day.
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Chapter 4: What is the story behind the Pike County massacre?
Here to catch us up on this case that he's been covering for years is Dateline producer Jay Young. Jay, thanks for joining us.
Hi, Andrea. Thanks for having me.
So the scope of this crime spree is really unlike anything a lot of us have ever seen before.
Well, you have that absolutely right, Andrea. We're talking about eight murder victims, four crime scenes. It's just, it boggles the mind.
Jay, police zeroed in on the Wagner family. Who are the Wagners?
The Wagners are a large family that lives not too far away from the rodents. In fact, they were friends, by all counts, of the rodents.
So what went wrong?
Jake Wagner had a relationship with... one of the children of the rodents, Hannah Mae. And together they had a child, Sophia. Jake and Hannah Mae quickly became estranged after Sophia was born. Hannah Mae moved out and took Sophia with her. Jake wasn't happy about that. Nor were the Wagners happy about that.
In the course of the investigation, investigators learned that the Wagners feared young Sophia was being abused by a member of the Rodin family. Jake testified that the Wagners decided something needed to be done. They wanted Sophia back. They decided that they would not just kill the mother of Sophia, Hannah Mae, but they were going to kill everyone else in the family.
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Chapter 5: Who are the Wagners and what was their involvement?
Just sounds so unbelievable.
It's beyond unbelievable.
So the Wagners alleged that the rodents were abusing Sophia, but investigators found no evidence of that.
Yeah, there was really no evidence of it.
Okay, so it took more than two years for investigators to make arrests in the case. Jake Wagner, along with his parents and older brother, were charged with multiple counts, including aggravated murder. Jay, what evidence did the prosecutors say they had against them?
There were multiple crime scenes, but there was very little physical evidence. But they did find foot impressions in the blood. I hate to say it. They were able to determine that the footprints were from a shoe that was sold at Walmart. and they were able to determine the size.
And lo and behold, after they conducted a search warrant on the Wagners' property, they discovered a receipt for shoes from a Walmart. And they ultimately were also able to seize the Wagners' computers. And one of the interesting things they found was a screenshot of a conversation that Hannah Mae had with someone months before the massacre. She says, the Wagners want to take custody of my child.
If they want custody, they're going to have to kill me first.
So we should say that Jake's dad, Billy Wagner, has consistently denied having anything to do with the murders or any plot. He is still in custody awaiting trial. And Jake's brother also denied being a part of the plot, but he was convicted at trial in 2022. A big twist to this case, Jake and his mom, Angela, did something that surprised everyone.
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Chapter 6: What evidence linked the Wagners to the murders?
Well, ultimately what they were able to get from Jake Wagner is he led investigators to the location of the murder weapons on the Wagner property. That was incredibly incriminating evidence, obviously. And he outlined in great detail how the massacre unfolded.
So take us inside the courtroom last week. Who was being sentenced?
You had Angela Wagner herself and Jake Wagner.
Before they were sentenced, the victims' families got to talk.
Yeah, the mother of one of the victims gave an incredibly impassioned victim impact statement.
You're evil. You are the spawn of saints. My daughter was only 20. Why? ! Greedy Jake Wagner. You. I want you to suffer. I want you to die so your mom feels a heartache. What it's like to bury a child. It's a heartache that never goes away. I hate you. You ruined my life. You ruined innocent children's lives.
Jake Wagner did take the opportunity to speak to the Roden family. He looked at them in the eye.
I'm sorry for what I've done, but I am glad I got caught. I 100% believe that it was Jesus who made me get caught. Answer my prayer.
The victim's families present in the courtroom didn't want to hear any of it. In fact, they walked out as Jake was speaking.
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Chapter 7: What were the outcomes of the Wagner family court proceedings?
Angela was sentenced to 30 years. And for many, it was a shock to hear that Jake Wagner, who everyone anticipated would receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole, suddenly was presented with the opportunity to get parole. So he'll serve 32 years, and then he'll be eligible for parole.
So this all leaves Billy Wagner, the father. He was supposed to go to trial this week. What happened?
Well, the judge has ruled in favor of a change of venue in Billy Wagner's trial. What's happening now is that the prosecution is appealing the judge's decision.
Okay, so this trial is supposed to be sometime this year?
It's difficult to say, and you can just imagine how difficult this is for the victim's family. They have to endure this even longer.
Okay, Jay Young, thank you for breaking down this extremely horrific story and also complicated story.
Thank you.
Next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. We've got the latest from the courtroom as Karen Reid's defense team gears up for her second trial. And more on the new chapter in what's been called the real-life Gone Girl case. Plus, what do you need to know if you get a jury summons? We've got tips from a jury consultant.
Welcome back.
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Chapter 8: How did the courtroom react during the sentencing?
She denies doing that, of course, and a jury deadlocked at her trial last year that you were at, Sue, every day.
I was, and that's right. As you know, she's headed back to trial later this year, but there's a lot of housekeeping before the retrial can even start.
Yeah, so this week, there was the second part of a hearing about something pretty crucial to the case.
Right. Prosecutors want the judge to exclude the testimony of a defense expert who testified at the first trial. She's a retired emergency room doctor. Her name is Dr. Marie Russell. And she said that the injuries on John O'Keefe's arm were consistent with dog bites. That's critical to the defense case.
Yeah, important, obviously, because Karen Reed's defense says that John O'Keefe wasn't run over. He was beat up by people at a house where she says she dropped him off. The people there at the house, they deny that. But at this house, there was a dog. She was a German shepherd named Chloe. So how did this expert do on the stand?
Well, prosecutors gave her a hard time saying that her opinions are subjective, not science.
And she said, Dr. Russell— Mr. Brennan, I'm not somebody that just came in off the street. I have at least 30 years as a physician, and I use that information in helping me form my opinions about wounds. I've seen all types of wounds.
The judge has not ruled yet, but that could be a big deal for both sides, right? Whatever this decision is.
Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, we'll be covering that. But another thing that happened on Tuesday is a judge sent a date for a similar hearing about the forensic expert who testified about that hotly disputed Google search. It was a hoth long to die in the cold, as you remember, Andrea. Yes. Well, that hearing is now scheduled for January 31st.
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