Jenna, she really wanted
to get into film.
Her trajectory was probably
going to do great things.
She just wanted
to give people a voice.
- She was able to go
right over to Temple,
and she was excited
about that.
- Temple University is,
in my opinion, a safe place.
The surrounding neighborhoods,
you have a different story.
- Temple University Police
need your help
to track down
a missing student.
I remember having
a conversation with my friends
like, "Whoa, we just got here.
This is happening already?"
- The entire purpose of going
inside of this apartment
was to find out what happened.
- I just wanted to know,
you know, how a human being
could do that to somebody.
This is Jenna's room.
She had recently
redone her room
because she knew
she'd be living here
through her time at Temple.
Yeah.
Um, I definitely do
sleep in here.
I find it comforting to just
spend time here with Jenna.
I just love remembering
her laughter,
um, when she'd be watching
something funny.
She had a great laugh.
♪♪ No, you never did come back ♪♪
♪♪ Lost beyond the veil ♪♪
♪♪ No, you never did come back ♪♪
♪♪ Just like the crows you
gathered and feathered away ♪♪
♪♪ Just like
the crows you gathered ♪♪
♪♪ And feathered away ♪♪
We met
at Villanova University.
My mother said,
"You should go to Villanova,
and you'll meet
somebody with money."
But I met Ed.
And before our first
anniversary,
we had our first child.
- We had Janelle,
and then two years later,
we were blessed with Jenna.
When Jenna was young,
she said
she was gonna be famous.
"I'm gonna do something
in this world."
Jenna and I met
on the very first day
of kindergarten.
I had an accident,
and I got to go to the nurse
and get new clothes.
Jenna didn't like the outfit
she was wearing that day,
so she also had an accident
so she could change her outfit.
Jenna's personality
was very large.
Immediately,
when she entered a room,
you could tell, you know,
that she was going to be
a very large light
in that room.
Above anything else,
she really loved
her friends and her family.
She always let you know
how much she loved you,
whenever she was around you,
which, to me,
was always something
that was really wonderful.
Jenna's fashion was
very sparkly, very loud,
in a, you know, outfit
type of a way.
A lot of bright colors, a lot
of sparkles, a lot of glitter.
- She used to joke that my
parents never knew who she was,
because her hair was always
a different color.
- She just was someone
that was, like, so, like, open
and free
and unapologetically herself.
- Jenna was in Red Alert, um,
which was their production
studio at high school.
And she just totally
embraced it.
- Each kid took a turn
being the host,
or they would create
documentary segments
or fun little skits.
I always knew it was
gonna be a good episode
when something of Jenna's
was gonna be on it.
She really wanted
to get into film.
She's very creative.
I think she would have been
very, very good at it.
- This is what
she wanted to do,
and this is where
her passion was.
- Her trajectory was probably
going to do great things.
She just wanted
to give people a voice.
Anything she touched
was something beautiful
and something
really thoughtful.
She was passionate.
She was ready to pursue film.
She was really excited
to finally
get started on her career path.
When Jenna was
a senior in high school,
we looked at many colleges,
and she ended up choosing
University of Tampa for film.
We had gone.
She was excited.
She loved the school.
She had met so many new people.
And she was doing really well.
In her freshman year
of college,
she was home for the holidays,
around Christmas,
and she slid on an ice patch
and shattered her ankle.
It was a really bad injury,
with--she had
a plate in her ankle
and screws.
- There was, like,
a 0.1% chance that
she could get an infection
from the surgery,
and then, of course,
she got that infection.
She was on IVs
for a number of weeks,
and we thought it was best
if she came home, um,
you know, to--
so we could take care of her.
As mature as she is at 19,
to be able to care
for an infection,
it would have
just been too much.
Especially when she had the IV,
'cause she couldn't go
anywhere.
She couldn't do anything.
That was gonna be for months.
Once Jenna healed,
I guess we realized
or she realized that
she wasn't going back to Tampa.
She did get into, like,
a dark place.
The year after the accident,
she came to me
the day after Christmas
and said, "Mom, I need help."
She said,
"I--I'm not good mentally,
and I need you to--
I need to go someplace."
And I was so proud of her
for doing that,
'cause so many--
so many kids wouldn't do that.
And we found some place
for her to go temporarily,
and she got some help.
It was not something we hid.
Her friends came
and visited her
when they could.
And she came out
on the other side
a much more secure person.
And that's when,
you know, we said,
"You started school.
"You really--these are
things you want to do.
"Don't change things
just because
things changed for you."
- She enrolled in our
local community college.
They actually do have
a very good media program,
television studio--
that type of thing.
Once she got there,
she really enjoyed it,
and she flourished
in community college.
Most of her friends
went to school in the area.
They all lived at school,
but they stayed in the area.
It really was
a small blessing in disguise
for both of us,
because she did come home,
and I did get
to have her around
for so much
of my college career.
- I think that's really
when she became enlightened,
if you will, and said,
"I need to do something."
- And she put a notice
on Facebook
that she wanted
to do something
for the less fortunate.
And she asked her friends
to gather some clothes,
toiletries, food that could be
placed in a backpack.
And she called them
"blessing bags."
She was able to receive
enough donations
to fill about 30 backpacks.
She would go on her own
to Philadelphia
and hand it out
to the homeless.
Her first post about it
was like,
"Just want to give out
a blessing."
- And that's what she really
wanted to make sure,
is that everybody felt
that, you know--
that they were also loved.
She had graduated
from Montgomery County
Community College
and was transferring.
She was able to go
right over to Temple,
and she was excited about that.
♪♪ I don't wanna be
on my own tonight ♪♪
♪♪ I don't wanna be left alone ♪♪
Temple is really just, like,
a couple blocks
of college campus,
and then it is
North Philadelphia.
It was kind of like literally
the city was your campus.
You could do anything.
It makes it
a really cool space
for, you know, the arts
and social justice.
Temple is also
really well-known
for its communications
and journalism school.
Students who go to Temple
have to be really independent.
They have to be very
on top of their things.
They know that there's
opportunities in the city
that they can go and look for.
Most of the things
we did outside of class
were off-campus.
Jenna was really,
really excited to start.
I remember post--her posting
that she was so excited
to start her first semester
at Temple.
♪♪Throw some money
then I make it avalanche ♪♪
♪♪ Yeah, I be flexin', baby,
I don't need no Instagram ♪♪
♪♪ And put about a gram
and they're watching ♪♪
♪♪ Handle it,
had to get my money right ♪♪
♪♪ Had to be a man with it,
all about a dollar ♪♪
♪♪ I don't mean
to be scandalous ♪♪
♪♪ But look at
where I come from ♪♪
♪♪ Los Angeles ♪♪
♪♪ Everybody flossin',
everybody say they got it ♪♪
♪♪ Everybody tryin'
to impress somebody ♪♪
♪♪ That don't even want 'em,
everybody think they hot ♪♪
♪♪ But we the hottest hot boys ♪♪
- It was a good choice
at the time.
- Jenna decided to commute
from here, from Harleysville,
to start, and it's about a--
probably an hour drive
in traffic.
But it was not unusual
for her to stay with friends
that lived near the campus.
I remember very clearly
the first week of school.
Ed had gone with Jenna.
They were gonna have dinner.
I met her down
at Temple University.
We did have a chance
to go out to dinner, talk.
We were going to leave,
and she said,
"I think I'm gonna stay at one
of my friends' houses tonight,
'cause I have
an early class tomorrow."
I do remember giving her
a hug and a kiss,
and I--I said goodbye.
I said,
"I'll see you tomorrow."
And then she was meeting her--
her friends at a local bar,
and I saw her round a corner,
and that was
the last I saw of her.
We went to bed.
Went to work the next day.
And I got a call on the 31st,
and I looked at the phone,
and here I thought
it was Jenna.
It was her friend's phone,
um, but I thought,
"Oh, I bet you that's Jenna.
You know, her phone
probably isn't working."
And so I answered,
and it was not.
It was her friend.
I felt a little strange
that he called me,
but it was even worse
when he said,
"Jenna is with you, right?"
My heart just dropped.
Temple University Police
need your help to track down
a missing student.
Jenna Burleigh
was reported
missing after a night out.
- The story of Jenna Burleigh,
a Temple University student,
who went out
for the evening...
Near Temple's campus
on Thursday.
Case continues to unfold,
and there are still
lingering questions.
♪♪ Nevermind how many times ♪♪
♪♪ We said goodbye ♪♪
I was at work,
and I received a call
from my wife, Jackie.
One of Jenna's friends
had sent Jackie
a message that they didn't
know where Jenna was.
They--they couldn't find her.
I'd gotten a call
from my sister
at around 8:00 in the morning,
letting me know that
Jenna had not ended up
with her at the end
of last night,
and that she was not able
to get ahold of her just yet.
- I remember it got
weirder and weirder
that we hadn't heard from her.
So then you just start
to be like, what's going on?
Are they okay?
Why isn't she answering?
But you never think
of what happened.
The best place for me to be
that day in that morning
when I got those phone calls
was to be on Temple's campus,
you know,
looking for her directly.
So we just start
looking around campus,
really anywhere that
she could have gone,
or talking to anyone that
she could have, like,
reached out to
to crash at their place too.
But as the answers
kept coming up as,
"No, we're--we haven't
seen her," then it gets worse.
I had such
a, you know, feeling
of something bad
that had just happened
that I knew
I had to make the call.
And you know, I called Jackie,
and it was a--
a very quick phone call.
"Hey, you know, I haven't
been able to find Jenna.
"She's--you know,
we're not sure where she is.
You know, I think you and Ed
should come down here."
I was in a panic mode.
And I called Ed,
and Ed said, "Stay there.
"I'll be right there
to get you.
Do not take your car."
I mean, thank God I had
somebody who could take me,
'cause I don't really think
I could have driven safely.
We immediately went down
to the Temple University
Police Office.
At that time,
the officers, detectives,
they weren't really concerned.
They said it happens
all the time.
Kids decide to go
take a day off,
go somewhere--
down to the beach.
But we knew that wasn't Jenna.
She always responded.
She always answered her phone.
She always told us
where she was.
Although the police officers
were not concerned,
they didn't know her,
and we--we knew her.
We knew she would respond
if she could.
The first 24 to 48 hours
are critical in
a missing person's case.
There's a couple reasons
for that.
If somebody is hurt or injured
and that's the case,
you have to find them
within that period of time
so that you can
administer medical care.
The other reason
why it's critical
is the more time that ticks on,
in the modern era,
there are too many ways
for a human being
to reach out
to a family member
to let them know
that they're okay.
Her dad and her family
were looking for her
and trying to text her
and see where she was,
and she wasn't responding.
That starts to at least
indicate to investigators
that foul play may be
the situation.
After Jenna's parents
had reported her missing,
Temple Police has a ton
of things at their fingertips
to figure out
where their students are.
Temple Police pulled
Jenna's swipe card
to see if she had swiped
into any buildings
on Temple's campus.
She hadn't.
Jenna was supposed to go
to class that day,
so one of the detectives
went over
and waited
outside her classroom
with a picture of her.
- We were just hoping,
by some miracle,
she would appear in her class,
but it never happened.
After she's not
reported for her classes,
the Temple Police
talk to the family,
they talk to the friends,
and when they do that,
they get an idea
of where Jenna was
the night before.
We start talking
to the officer that was there,
and he said,
"See where she was last."
She was going to a bar
with friends
for a 21st birthday party.
We knew that
that was happening.
- Many of our friends met us
when we were
at the police station
at Temple.
- I was involved
with the police,
giving statements a lot.
The Wednesday night
before classes start
is a popular hangout night
with all the students,
and that's where Jenna found
herself, was out in the city
with some of her friends
from Temple.
I did see her
that Wednesday on August 30th.
We went out with two
different friend groups,
but ended up at the same place.
Jenna was with four or five
of her friends at various times
throughout the night.
- I was not with Jenna.
They were at Pub Webb
that evening.
Pub Webb is a local bar.
College students work there.
A lot of college students
go there.
It was familiar to everyone
that was there.
And one by one,
you know,
the friends started leaving.
There was a little mix-up
of who Jenna was with,
and she ended up being alone.
Temple University is,
in my opinion, a safe place.
The normal kind of crime
you're talking about there
from a prosecutor's
perspective are,
for the most part,
petty crimes.
The surrounding neighborhoods,
you have a different story.
Crime in Philadelphia
is obviously a problem.
The m*rder rate is very high.
It's one of the highest
in the country.
Temple University is
kind of surrounded
by more high-crime
neighborhoods,
so there was a little bit
of a concern
just for the nature of where
this was and where it happened.
Crime around campus.
Safety has become
the leading conversation.
Crimes increase exponentially
outside campus boundaries.
- It's just natural
to be concerned.
You hear about the crime.
It's just really bad.
I knew in my heart
it was not gonna turn out good.
Temple University Police
need your help to track down
a missing student.
They say 22-year-old
Jenna Burleigh
was last seen near
the bar Pub Webb.
I remember getting an email
from the president saying,
"This Temple student
is missing.
"Here are her details.
Keep your eye out."
We had just started classes,
and I remember having
a conversation with my friends,
like, "Whoa, we just got here.
This is happening already?"
After that, we kind of changed
the way that we went out
and we operated at Temple.
Like if we go out,
we're all going home together,
or like, at least make sure
that we're in pairs.
Like, we just made sure that we
were extra safe at that point.
So at that point,
what investigators do
is try to see if they can find
Jenna Burleigh's phone.
The last time
any activity happens
on Jenna Burleigh's phone
is August 31, 2017.
She did reach out
to two of her friends
early in the morning,
and both of her friends
slept through the message.
After that, her phone
doesn't have
any more activity.
And the last general area
that they can put the phone in
is in the general area
of Pub Webb.
- When the investigators
got to Pub Webb,
they showed Jenna's picture.
The bartenders recognized her.
There was also video recovered.
Pub Webb has a lot of cameras.
- So the detectives were able
to not only
talk to the people
that worked there,
but review the footage
themselves.
They saw her
at the bar the night before.
Jenna stood out.
She had her hair parted right
in the middle in pigtails.
So she was easy to identify.
Closer to the 2:00 hour,
Pub Webb's gonna close.
A young man approaches her
at the bar where she's sitting
and starts buying her drinks.
There's beer on the table.
There's definitely
conversation being had.
That's the only person
that's left with her.
All her other friends are gone.
- What the bartenders did
notice is she was trying
to text and call people
and was getting frustrated.
Jenna and this guy
just sat there,
next to each other, talking,
but the bartenders didn't
suspect anything weird or off.
Maybe she looked
a little uncomfortable.
No red flag.
The bar was closed.
The lights turned on.
So it was time for them to go.
After investigators
see this footage,
it became very clear
that Jenna,
at the end of the night,
had left with the young man
that she was
having drinks with.
The detectives were able
to ask the people
that worked at Pub Webb
whether or not
they knew
that individual at all,
if he had been there before.
They did know him.
He was a regular.
His name was Joshua Hupperterz.
Who is Josh?
Can we get ahold of him?
Let's try to find out
what he remembers.
Let's see if he knows
where Jenna is.
Well, at this point,
this is critical,
because the police now at least
have a confirmed place where
they were last and a confirmed
person that they were with.
We did know that
they had footage of her
leaving the bar with someone.
We didn't know all
the details at that moment.
They--you know, they were
doing their investigation.
But we did--we did know that.
They did share that with us.
It was, um, very hard
to, um, understand.
The people at Pub Webb
were able to give detectives
Josh's cell phone number.
The captain of the Temple
Police Department called him.
Josh didn't answer.
It wasn't until 11:00
that Josh did reach back out
to the Temple Police.
He said he was wasted
the night before.
He did $200 worth of shots.
He has no memory.
His recollection
is that he did not know
where she went
and had no other information
for investigators.
They're certainly not done
with Joshua Hupperterz.
They want to bring him down.
They want to talk to him.
They want to potentially see
where he went after that.
But at that point,
they don't have
any other reason to believe
that he's not
telling the truth.
The second day
that she was missing,
we did go back down
to the police station
at Temple, because we didn't
know what else to do.
Um, what do you do
in that situation?
We just started
putting posters up.
We went down to Temple.
I remember passing out
the flyers.
Do I remember the drive
getting there?
No.
I still had, like, hope
she was, like,
a Jane Doe at a hospital.
And we did find
a few Jane Does,
but you know,
they weren't Jenna.
- The police still had some
hope that they would find her.
It was the morning
of September 1st of 2017.
Jenna still hadn't turned up.
Nobody had contact with her.
Nobody could find her.
So the detectives started
again with their investigation.
When the investigators spoke
to Josh the night before,
Josh gave his address.
Investigators were interested
in going to meeting
with him in person,
and also going
to his apartment.
They call him again.
Josh doesn't answer.
At this point, Jenna has been
missing for about 36 hours.
Once Hupperterz
doesn't meet them
at the apartment building,
they look outside,
and there's a sign.
They call the number
on the sign,
and it happens to go
to the landlord.
Somebody who works
for the landlord's company
comes out, and he's got a key.
Now, at this point,
the investigators
are concerned
about Jenna Burleigh.
They don't have a warrant
to go inside the house.
They're looking
for Joshua Hupperterz,
but he's not answering.
So you are creeping up now on
since her disappearance.
At that point,
they asked the person
to open up the apartment
so that they could go in
to look for her, to make sure
that she is not in there,
hurt, injured, or otherwise.
So at this point,
we're not talking about
a criminal search warrant.
We're talking about a search
for a missing girl.
They're not going
to toss the apartment.
They're not searching inside
the sock drawers, et cetera.
They're not
collecting evidence.
They're not even
photographing anything.
The entire purpose of going
inside of this apartment
was just to make sure Jenna
was either there and okay
or to find out what happened.
And they didn't get
any other answers
by looking through
the apartment
the way they did.
And while
they were walking around,
there were two things
that the captain noticed.
There was a little bit of
blood on a toilet paper roll,
and there was a smear
of blood on some sandals.
And so they became
more concerned about Jenna.
It was hard, because
that was almost two days
where we didn't know
what was happening.
Everyone knew
we had to find Josh.
And hopefully, finding Josh
would lead us to Jenna.
And hopefully,
she might still be alive.
- At some point
in this investigation,
they learn that Joshua
Hupperterz had a roommate.
If Jenna Burleigh had gone
back to that apartment,
it also became important
to talk to the roommate.
The roommate talked
to the Temple Police.
He told them that he didn't
know who this woman was,
that he had gone home
from the bar that night alone,
and he had also been
drinking pretty heavily.
They asked whether or not
he could get in touch
with Joshua Hupperterz.
So somewhere in the afternoon,
it was actually
the roommate who put a call in
to Mr. Hupperterz saying,
"The police are
looking for you.
"You need to call them back.
They have some questions about
a girl that went missing."
- Around 4:00,
Josh called the captain back.
He said he was in
South Philadelphia,
which is about 25 minutes from
Temple University's campus.
Josh agreed to come
to Temple University
to the police department.
The captain waited
for about an hour.
Josh never came.
The next thing that
investigators start to do
is because Joshua Hupperterz
has not met with them
and refuses to basically be
questioned at this point,
they started asking people
at the address
whether or not they knew
who Joshua Hupperterz was.
- Investigators learned
that Joshua Hupperterz
had gone to Temple University.
He is a 29-year-old
living a couple steps away
from Temple University's
campus,
and he told people on campus
that he was going to Temple
and that he played soccer
or was on the soccer team
at points.
There's just different
stories that he tells
to different people on campus.
But at this point in his life,
he was not enrolled
in Temple University.
- They start to get up
on his phone
to see where
he might be physically.
- Police are tracking
his phone,
and they're pinging it
up in the Poconos.
So once investigators realize
that Joshua Hupperterz is
nowhere near Philadelphia,
they decide
they're gonna involve
other law enforcement
agencies.
Specifically, they called
up to the state police.
So they end up
calling state police
and saying,
"Hey, we have a phone pinging
"up here in the Poconos.
You guys mind going
to basically check it out?"
And they find out that it's
Joshua Hupperterz's grandmother
who lives very nearby where
that phone is pinging from.
So they drove out,
got to the house,
knocked on the door.
No response.
But while they were standing
there, a car pulled up,
and out of that car walks Josh
and one of his family members.
Josh explains that he was
visiting his grandmother
because he had a very,
very busy semester
coming up at Temple,
and he wanted to see her
before the school year
started.
Remember, he wasn't enrolled
at Temple at the time.
There, they start
to have a conversation.
The state troopers let
Mr. Hupperterz know that
they're looking
for Jenna Burleigh,
and he's the last person
that was seen with her.
He tells them that
he's already talked to people
at Temple University
and that he's given
all the information
that he has.
- They see that he has
some markings on him.
There were some scratches
that were on his neck area,
but then he also has
a really large cut on his hand.
So as trained investigators,
they start asking
some questions.
Josh explained,
"Oh, those scratches,
"I had a sexual encounter
earlier in the week
"with a girl named Vicky
from New Jersey.
"My hand?
"I was drunk last night
while I was eating cereal.
I broke a bowl."
So they ask him whether or not
he's willing to continue
the conversations,
to which he says yes.
The investigators
got there from Philadelphia,
and they took Josh
back here to Philly.
At that point,
investigators know that
it's crucial to document
the condition of Mr. Hupperterz
at that time.
So he's photographed.
His hands are photographed.
His chest is photographed.
His neck's photographed.
So the observations
that are made
by the state police
in Hawley, PA,
are now preserved,
so law enforcement can see
exactly how
Joshua Hupperterz looked
on September 1, 2017.
What investigators know
at this point
is that Jenna
is still missing.
They also now have
surveillance footage
that is putting her
with Joshua Hupperterz.
They know where
Joshua Hupperterz lives,
and the best of
the surveillance footage
they can put together
at the time
suggests that
she went home with him.
When the police
looked for Jenna
in Hupperterz's apartment
earlier that day,
they did not collect
any evidence,
but now they had enough
to obtain a search warrant.
They entered the apartment,
they collected evidence,
and they documented the scene.
- The apartment itself
was messy.
So it looked like a typical
college kid's messy apartment.
But there were
certain things that looked
a little suspicious
to the trained eye.
There was a knife
in the kitchen that looked
like it maybe had
a little blood on it.
There was some blood
on those sandals.
Pieces of a broken bowl.
- On that bowl,
there clearly appeared to be
what was human blood.
And so they wanted
to preserve all that.
They took photographs.
They swabbed them for DNA.
There was no
obvious crime scene.
There was no big pool of blood.
There was no m*rder weapon.
Nothing.
But something was off.
On September 2, 2017,
there's basically
a break in the case.
Josh's grandfather
called the police.
He'd been doing
yard work out back
up at that same house
that the state troopers
had found Josh at.
When he opened up
this little storage shed,
he saw a blue plastic container
that he didn't recognize.
This was the sort
of bin that college students
routinely use to put in
their stuff, their books,
a lot of their
worldly possessions
they were moving around.
And then he opened it up.
He opens up the bin.
He finds a young woman,
obviously deceased.
The state troopers
once again respond.
This time, they have
a search warrant,
and they search
the whole property.
And it's obvious
to investigators
almost immediately
that they've found
Jenna Burleigh's body.
- This wasn't
a missing person anymore.
We found Jenna.
It's now a homicide.
Investigators from
the Dunmore Barracks
as well as the Philadelphia
Police Crime Scene Unit
searched the property.
They took photographs.
They did DNA swabs.
- They searched the house.
And they found a bag.
And inside that bag,
they found
basic clothing items--
a few pairs of underwear,
some socks, t-shirts,
and $3,000 in cash.
Joshua Hupperterz was not
sticking around.
He was gonna dump
that body in a lake,
and we were never gonna
see him again.
On Saturday, September 2nd,
we had a full house
of visitors,
and received a call
for Jackie and I
to go to Philadelphia
Police Department.
There's no easy way
for a police officer
to tell you that your
daughter has been m*rder*d.
So we were in shock.
We just couldn't believe it.
I just wanted to know
everything that
happened to her.
I wanted to know,
you know, how a human being
could do that to somebody.
When we drive home,
the whole family was here.
But I just went
right to my room.
Ed had to come
and tell everybody and...
Telling your children
they lost a sibling
is devastating.
A mother should never have
to go through losing a child.
And you never get over it.
My children came up
to be with me.
I just really didn't want
to see anybody,
talk to anybody,
besides my children and Ed.
Her father had texted me
that they had found
Jenna's body.
You still don't realize
how much hope you have,
even though it's deteriorated,
until you get that text.
And all of it is
ripped out of you.
And you're kind of left
very empty.
I just remember
screaming, like,
and that was it.
When I got to my parents,
I just fell into their arms.
- Like, no, like,
she's not dead.
Like, I don't know
what you're talking about.
And I have to tell
this whole group of friends
that love Jenna
that, like, she's dead.
So that was, like, really hard.
Here at Founders Garden,
in the heart
of Temple's campus,
students have left
index cards with thoughts
about the m*rder of
a Temple junior.
Having the whole world
have that information
before we got to digest it
was really difficult,
especially when
it's about a friend
that's so close to you.
- We don't want it
to let us, like--
stop us from living our lives,
but we're definitely
gonna remember it
every time we go out
to look out for each other
and, like, be aware
of our surroundings
and not get involved
with people who can hurt us.
- This was something I couldn't
look at as just a story.
You know, it had happened
in the neighborhood
I was living in.
I was a Temple student.
That could have been me.
It could have been
one of my friends.
The grandfather
of the suspect,
Josh Hupperterz,
found the body in a bin.
- Joshua Hupperterz was
arrested and formally charged.
Philadelphia
District Attorney's Office
charged him with m*rder,
abuse of a corpse,
possession of an
instrument of crime,
and tampering with evidence.
So at this point, while Joshua
Hupperterz has been charged,
this investigation
is far from over.
What did Josh do
from the time he walked
out of the bar with Jenna
to the time they found him
in Northeastern Pennsylvania?
The investigators obtained
surveillance footage
not just of Pub Webb,
but from different cameras
around the city.
There's cameras
that capture them walking
away from the bar together
towards Josh's house.
There was also
a video recovered
that showed the front door
of Josh's apartment building,
and that video showed
Josh and Jenna
walking in
a little after 2:00 a.m.
on August 31st of 2017,
but it never showed
Jenna walking out.
What they did find
from that same video camera
was Josh and a person
carrying a large blue
storage container
that looked heavy
down the front steps
of that apartment
and towards a car.
The investigation
continues tonight
after a Temple University
student
was found dead at a home
in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Tonight, police are still
trying to piece together
why and if
the suspect had help.
- After investigators see
this footage,
investigators are able
to determine that
it's Joshua Hupperterz's
cousin caught on camera,
carrying the bin
that later contained
or found to contain
Jenna Burleigh's body.
Obviously they need
to talk to the cousin
about what happened.
Investigators are able
to speak to the cousin,
and they ask him
about what happened.
He tells them that he got
a call and also a text
from Hupperterz saying,
"I need your help."
When he arrived
in the apartment,
the only person that was
there was Joshua Hupperterz,
and he saw the large blue bin
sitting in the living room.
He didn't think much of it,
he said.
He grabbed the bin, and he
helped his cousin move it out.
He did note that
it was very heavy.
He was surprised by the weight.
That cousin thought
it was just
a big container of books,
and Josh had asked
his help to take it up
to his mother's house,
which is in
suburbs of Philadelphia.
So Josh's cousin helped.
Had no idea
that it wasn't books.
He drove Josh
to Josh's mom's house
in the suburbs,
helped him move the storage
container into a garage,
and that was it.
So investigators were
trying to figure out
how it was exactly
that Joshua Hupperterz
eventually got the body
up to Hawley, PA.
They discover that
he'd used a Lyft.
Through the help of Lyft,
they're actually able
to find who the driver was,
and they interview him.
When the investigators spoke
to the Lyft driver,
they were able
to find out that Josh
put a blue container
into his car.
From there, Hupperterz says,
"I'll pay you $200 cash.
"We need to go to Hawley, PA.
"Don't put it in your Lyft.
Don't put it in your GPS.
I'll tell you where to go
and how to do it."
He tells the Lyft driver
to drop him off
at his grandmother's house.
They both take the bin
out of the trunk
and leave it in the driveway.
- The only people that know
what happened in that apartment
that night are Josh and Jenna.
Jenna was gone,
and Josh wasn't talking,
so we had to figure out
with circumstantial evidence
what happened.
An autopsy was performed.
There were some
significant injuries
that sort of began
to tell the story
of what actually happened
that night.
Jason and I sifted
through the evidence,
all the crime scene photos,
the lab reports.
And our theory was that
Josh and Jenna were
involved in some kind
of sexual encounter together,
and it took a turn.
What happened?
Who knows?
But whatever it was,
it caused a struggle.
- What was significant
was the cause of death,
and that was strangulation.
The medical examiner
was able to determine
that the blood flow
had been blocked to her brain,
and that's how she died.
She had what they call
defensive injuries
all over her hands
and all over her arms.
They took pieces of her nails
to try to determine
whether or not
there was any DNA
underneath of them,
and that DNA came back to Josh.
Trial is expected to begin
for Joshua Hupperterz,
who's the accused m*rder*r
of a 22-year-old
Temple University student,
Jenna Burleigh.
This is a circumstantial case.
Nobody ever saw anybody
k*ll Jenna Burleigh.
There was going to be
no eyewitness testimony.
There was no recording.
There's nothing of that nature.
So you have to prove your case
through circumstantial
evidence.
So myself and Jason Grenell
were tasked with preparing
the case for trial.
And as part of that,
we met the Burleighs.
- We became really close
with Jason and Danielle.
We found out very,
early even before the trial,
that Danielle and Jason
were wonderful.
It's a lot of pressure,
because at the end of the day,
you have a family
sitting behind you
that has lost a child.
And you want justice for them.
But you never know
what a jury is gonna do.
The Philadelphia jury pool
is known for acquitting people
that are seemingly guilty,
so you do worry about that.
- But we did have a lot
of support through that time.
The entire courtroom
was packed with people
who loved Jenna
and wanted justice for her.
The trial was one
of the hardest things
I ever did,
but it was one
of the easiest decisions
that I ever had to make.
There was no question about it.
- And once one of us made
the decision to go,
we kind of--
all the friend group decided
that we were all gonna go
together.
When I got to
the courthouse the first day,
it was definitely like
a, "Oh, this is real."
You saw Jenna's mom,
you saw her dad,
and it became really clear
that this was a story
that was hitting
very close to home.
I've never been
at a case before
that felt like
that could have been me.
One of the first things
that happened at trial
was that Joshua Hupperterz
actually did
plead guilty
to abuse of a corpse
and tampering with evidence.
So that's the first day
that this happens.
He says, "Yes, I did.
"I moved the body,
and I tampered with evidence.
But I did not k*ll this girl."
The defense attorney said
in his opening statement
that Josh and Jenna
were involved
in some sexual encounter
that got out of hand,
and Jenna started to scream.
And at that point,
Josh's roommate
came upstairs
from his bedroom,
struck Jenna,
pushed her down the steps,
and then stomped on her
at the bottom of the steps.
We had to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt
that Joshua Hupperterz
committed this crime,
but we also had to make sure
we let the jury know.
There wasn't a shred of truth
that the roommate
was involved whatsoever.
The roommate
testified at trial.
So the jury could hear
what he had to say.
I questioned him,
the defense attorney
cross-examined him,
and it was extensive.
The prosecutors,
the attorneys,
they talked Ed and I through
kind of what
things would look like.
If there was anything
that they were gonna show
or that they were gonna talk
about that they might think
I might not want
to hear or see,
they would let me know
so I could gracefully
leave the courtroom.
The only thing
the family left for--
and not all of the family,
just I think Jackie--
was the pictures of
Jenna's body in the container.
The photograph of her
when they first discovered her
out in the shed was horrific,
and it's something
I'm never gonna forget.
- But her father sat
through all of it.
I wanted
to be there for Jenna,
but I also wanted
to let her m*rder*r know
that I was there
and I wasn't leaving,
and I was watching him.
- It was harder
than I imagined,
but with the countless people
on our side,
we somehow all made it through.
You know, you see it on TV,
but to be in it for real
is just a whole nother
experience
that is not a good one.
Not one that I would want
anybody to have to go through.
In my personal opinion,
the most compelling
piece of evidence
in this entire case
was the fact
that they found
Joshua Hupperterz's DNA
underneath
Jenna Burleigh's fingernails.
It was as if Jenna Burleigh
was the person that actually
got to testify in the end
to who her k*ller was,
because when that
was analyzed,
the entire narrative
about the roommate
being involved whatsoever
was obviously
immediately extinguished,
and there was only two people
that were part of that
DNA sample.
Hupperterz was the source,
or Jenna Burleigh
was the source,
of all the other
biological material
that was collected as part
of that crime scene.
On January 17, 2019,
it was time
for closing arguments.
Defense went first,
I went second,
and then the judge charged.
The charge is when he tells
the jury the law,
that they have to apply
to the facts
coming to their verdict.
Then the jury went out,
and they were back within
two hours with a verdict.
You know,
you're going through that too.
Like, the jury leaves,
and what's
the verdict gonna be?
And then if it's fast,
if it's slow, like,
what does that mean?
The verdict is in.
The man who stood accused
of murdering Temple University
student Jenna Burleigh
in August of 2017
has been found guilty
on all counts.
In sentencing Hupperterz
to life in prison
without parole,
Judge Glen Brunson told him,
"You deserve every single day.
This was just an outrageous,
depraved crime."
The worst he's seen
in a long time.
"You just extinguished
the life
"of a very special person
who had a lot to give."
When you hear the--
a guilty verdict,
your whole body just relaxes.
Um, you're so tense.
You realize it's never gonna
bring your daughter back,
but you're grateful
that person that m*rder*d her
will never see
the light of day again.
We had done our job.
The jury got it right.
I remember being shocked,
because at the sentencing,
I looked over
at one of the reporters,
and a tear was rolling
down her face.
Like, this was a case
that was really
emotionally charged.
I think it hit everyone hard,
but especially Temple students.
When I thanked one of
the Temple Police officers,
he said,
"We're not here
as police officers.
We're here as fathers."
And that--that struck me.
- After seeing everything
that happened,
I would just hope that
college students everywhere,
you know, will be a little bit
more cognizant of their safety,
to stick together.
And you really have to lean
on your friends.
- I just think it's important,
like, especially--
you're in college.
You think you know it all.
You think you're invincible.
It's a scary world
we live in, unfortunately.
Just protect yourself,
and protect people around you.
It might seem strange,
but you go through all this,
and then you wait for a year
and a half for this trial.
And then the trial is over,
and then what happens now?
Ed said,
"We have to do something."
He said,
"We have to do something
to keep Jenna--
Jenna's spirit alive."
- The day that Jenna was found,
it just came to me.
Our foundation,
Jenna's Blessing Bags.
I said,
"We have to do something
to support her--her passion."
Jenna created the blueprint
for the foundation.
She was very, very passionate
about the homeless community
and helping them.
It was just her natural
way of living,
is just being
a good person and kind
and spreading as much love
as she could.
In 2016, Jenna had decided
to do things for the homeless.
Ed and I had gone out with her
a few times to give bags.
So we're really happy
that we did that.
Within a day or two,
he was able to get
Jenna's Blessing Bags
up and running.
- She wanted everyone to feel,
like, loved and included,
and she just wanted to shine.
And she did shine,
and she will continue to shine
through her foundation.
Sometimes when I'm driving
in the city,
I'll see one of our bags.
It has her tag on it,
and it just makes me feel good.
To this day, we are still
delivering blessing bags.
I know Jenna would be
very proud
of what we've done
with the foundation.
She would have been
I would hope that she would be
doing whatever made her happy.
She'd probably be traveling
and doing documentaries,
'cause that's
what she wanted to do.
- I'd just like to keep
talking about her.
I never want to stop
talking about her.
♪♪ Yeah, right ♪♪
♪♪ You said you did it
for the light inside me ♪♪
♪♪ Well, stand up
and fight beside me ♪♪
♪♪ Bright eyes ♪♪
♪♪ Last night ♪♪
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02x01 - Jenna Burleigh
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Follow the true story of six college students whose lives ended in a tragic m*rder.
Follow the true story of six college students whose lives ended in a tragic m*rder.