Shaer: Its astonishing when you look at a case in this way, the power that every decision has over the rest of the investigation and the trial, the power that individuals have, prosecutors, police, jurors especially. One of the more intriguing aspects of Suspect, a new nine-part investigative true-crime podcast, is the extent to which many of the people interviewed seem to express outward awareness about the fact theyre on a true-crime podcast and what that can mean. He later told investigators that he was sexually attracted to Arpana, and was hoping to "hook up" with her that evening (his words, not mine). The only other murder that took place in Redmond that year (2008) involved a jealous spouse who murdered his estranged wife and then himself (Joseph and Melissa Batten). The following Monday, her body would be discovered inside of her apartment, the victim of an apparent homicide. Hes dangerous, hes terrifying, hes an extra in, How to Watch the 2023 Oscars Celebrate All 23 Categories Live Again. Because of the scene left behind at the apartment complex, it was obvious that whoever had killed Arpana Jinaga had broken in and specifically targeted her, subjecting her to a violent assault and a rape (which would later be confirmed during her autopsy). Arpana Jinaga was not the first young professional from India to be killed in 2008. This entire process has become known as probabilistic genotyping, and it's become a pretty integral facet of forensic testing over the last decade or so. By the age of 24, Arpana Jinaga had already lived a full and rewarding life and seemed poised to leave a positive impact on the rest of the world. However, this case would prove to be much harder to solve for investigators; many of whom had not worked on a murder case in quite some time (if at all). Months later, members of the Pacific Northwest Riders, the motorcycle club that Arpana had joined, would organize memorial rides in her honor (which took them out to Snoqualmie Falls, one of Arpana's favorite places to visit in Washington). Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. In addition to having at least one brief encounter with Arpana at the party, police were able to determine that Fair had spent time at the party with "C.J." Thats depressing. It is unknown if Galarza and Solis are still employed by the county, and it is also unknown if they have hired attorneys to represent them. Sign up for Vultures new recommendation newsletter 1.5x Speed here. was their ultimate undoing, and it had been a problem of their own making (as they had hoped to try C.J. Prosecutors made it clear that they were seeking more than the recommended sentence - 45 years - which they were allowed to pursue because of the aggravated circumstances of her death. In that case, police learned everything they needed to know from the crime scene itself. Suspect Season 1 Episode 1. While Cybergenetics would later win the appeals to keep the TrueAllele source code a secret, several years would pass during the drawn-out legal battle during which time, Emanuel Fair continued to sit in jail, awaiting trial for charges that were nearly a decade old. "There have been multiple reports between 2012 and 2020 of Carrizales guards provoking inmates in order to get reaction from the inmate and then beat the inmate," the lawsuit stated. Shaer and Benson previously collaborated on another true-crime podcast calledOver My Dead Body.. He lost 9 years of his life simply waiting for a chance to prove his innocence. While O'Leary was ultimately arrested for crimes he committed in Colorado, he had committed earlier crimes in Washington; in particular, in the area where Arpana lived - where he lived, as well. During that time, he had been couch-surfing with a friend at Arpana's apartment complex: a young woman named Leslie, who would actually lie to police about Emanuel staying there (claiming that she was home alone when questioned). According to the 15-year-old victim, Fair had raped her numerous times, but this culminated in a final incident in the city of Burien that saw Fair escalate in violence, choking the teenage girl at gunpoint. Fair would begin serving out his four-year sentence in 2004 but was released by the end of 2006, serving less than three years and being labeled a "level one" offender (the ones that were least likely to re-offend). O'Leary is currently serving out his sentence at the Sterling Correctional Facility and remains a possible suspect in this case. This sort of thing doesn't happen in Redmond. She was 24-years-old when she was killed on November 1st, 2008, and would now be 35. Who knows what kind of things she might have accomplished by now? Typically, when police recommend filing charges against someone, they don't follow that up with any investigation of their own and that's sadly what happened here. Emanuel Fair's defense attorneys, on the other hand, didn't see it that way. In the year since Emanuel Fair's second trial came to an end, the story has received close to no attention from the world-at-large. A new true-crime podcast delves into the complicated murder case of a rising 24-year-old software programmer in Redmond, Wash. The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times. Suspect: a true crime podcast about the murder of Arpana Jinaga - Stylist He was arrested for this crime and ended up pleading guilty to avoid a decade-plus prison sentence (pleading down from 2nd degree to 3rd-degree rape). Prosecutors implied that Fair had been lying about where he was during these vital hours, which remained unexplained nearly two years later. The Seattle Timesrecently spoke with Shaer and Benson over Zoom about the impetus for this podcast, what surprised them in their reporting and what their take-aways are from investigating this story. After attending a prestigious university in India, she decided to broaden her horizons for post-graduate life. It was just gruesome. This one is not going away. Gregory Hobbs, another member of the club, said in the same article: "She would strive to succeed in everything and she did just that. Redmond Police spokesman Jim Bove would tell reporters later that day (Monday, November 3rd): "There were signs of trauma in the apartment We have booked it as a case of suspicious death.". Benson: We didnt know that the Redmond [Police Department] was going to be willing to participate in the show. On Thursday, June 6th, 2019, the 12 members of the jury began deliberating, and originally found themselves deadlocked yet again (split into groups of 4: innocent, guilty, and undecided). A curious thing about Suspect, though, is that as much as some of its interviewees display awareness about the format theyre engaging with, the show itself largely resists doing the same. So I just finished the Suspect podcast on Wondery +, and am finding myself feeling mislead by the hosts after doing some additional research after the fact. Here was a case where a woman was murdered and there were years of investigation, years of pursuing various suspects, two trials. as an uncharged accomplice). The linchpin of their case was forensic evidence: according to prosecutors, DNA from Emanuel Fair had been recovered at the crime scene, on several pieces of evidence that they believe the killer had touched. Because this individual has never been charged with any crime, I'll continue to refer to him as C.J., but there is a lot of evidence pointing towards him either having some kind of involvement in this case or, at the very least, knowing much more than he has publicly admitted. Missing from the scene entirely was Arpana's motorcycle, a Suzuki GS 500, which quickly became a highly-sought-after item for Redmond Police. C.J. Friends recall that she spoke of opening an animal sanctuary for endangered species in the future. Oh, you like podcasts? In addition to joining a motorcycle club, Arpana also volunteered at the Redmond Fire Department, riding along to fires in the area; as well as animal shelters in Bellevue, where she helped care for and attend to unwanted pets. Jay arrived at the apartment complex at around 9:00 AM and made his way to Arpana's apartment, which one of her neighbors - who I'll nickname "C.J." At points, C.J. The podcast currently has over 1,000 followers on Instagram and has over . After Dax Shepard asked her about her musical chairs relationship situation. The two disgraced men have both been sentenced for sex crimes. Her younger sister, Pavitra, would begin to follow in these footsteps as well, and later pursue a career in computer engineering after Arpana. Still, I dont mean for this discussion of aesthetics to take us too far away from Suspects merits in and of itself. and Nirmala Jinaga, a professor of computer engineering and a housewife, respectively. So I was really primed to be interested in that anyway. I hope people think about that, but I also hope that they think about the way that justice is carried out or not, in cities across the country and in a really liberal place like Seattle. He said that he met her briefly that night, and seemed to get along well with her; she briefly showed him photos from her bedroom computer, but that was about the extent of their interaction. While Emanuel Fair was acquitted of the charges levied against him, the jurors that decided his fate claim that it had little to do with his innocence; but, rather, the level of reasonable doubt that his attorneys were able to raise. TrueAllele was utilized heavily by this investigation and was able to come up with results that were far more definitive than anything the crime lab itself had been able to determine. Shaer: It might be different from other types of true-crime shows that people are used to where theres an agenda as to who ultimately committed the crime or who didnt. had gone down to a car so that they could listen to some music, and C.J. Those pleas would continue to amplify months after Arpana's murder, when it became evident that answers were not readily available. The apartment was discovered in a state of disrepair different from how it had looked days beforehand (during the Halloween party), which made it clear that the struggle had ultimately led to Arpana's bedroom. It was around 3:00 AM on November 1st (Saturday) when the apartment's Halloween party began to die down; at which point, Arpana began returning to her apartment to catch some sleep. Inside the apartment, it became clear to investigators that a struggle had taken place. Writing the Atlantic story was a bit of a wake [up] call in all the different ways that DNA can be misused. More than a decade later, no one has been held accountable for her murder. After all, not everything has to be about something bigger than itself, and theres something to be said about delivering the most polished version of a standard. At the time of this announcement - in October of 2010 - he was incarcerated at the McNeil Island Correction Center in Steilacoom for failing to update his sex offender registration and was not expected to be released until 2012. Through clever investigating, O'Leary was later captured and ultimately linked to at least five violent rapes between Washington and Colorado: all of which he had photographed and documented, keeping mementos of the victims (such as their cell phones and cameras). Two, that there was a noxious smell emanating throughout the apartment, which indicated the widespread use of chemical cleaning agents, which now proliferated the small living quarters. Breaking down the contenders in the seasons most unpredictable Oscar race. One, that someone had broken into the third-floor apartment of the decedent by kicking in the front door, leaving behind the broken frame to be discovered by the 911 caller. Travis Barkers Finger Is Now the Enema of Blink-182 Fans. That the murder took place around the time of a Halloween party lends a slightly surreal quality to the way law-enforcement types discuss the case on tape: Was it the gangster? And there is nobody in prison or even charged with this murder right now. Suspicious deaths, such as homicide, very rarely happen in Redmond: one of the wealthier suburbs on the outskirts of Seattle, which is known internationally for housing the U.S. headquarters for both Microsoft and Nintendo. Things you buy through our links may earnVox Mediaa commission. A handful of years before the murder of Arpana Jinaga, Emanuel Fair had been arrested and charged with raping a minor. Now inside, Jay and C.J. Marc Patrick O'Leary, an Army veteran, is a convicted rapist and home invader who you might know from the well-known book "A False Report: An Unbelievable Story of Rape" (which was later adapted into the Netflix series "Unbelievable"). Cameron County officials did not respond to The Brownsville Herald for comment by press time. By this point, Arpana had already started to make plans to accomplish all of these goals. Sarah Neilson is a freelance writer and book critic based in Seattle. TikToks Favorite Celebrity Couple Is Kim Kardashian and Michael Cera. One of the women that Fair called, whom he phoned three times at around 4:45 AM, said that his calls had gone straight to voicemail. In any case, Suspects overarching narrative builds up to Fairs victory against wrongful imprisonment. Editors note: A previous version of this story stated Emanuel Fair was convicted for the murder of Arpana Jinaga. In the weeks after Arpana's murder, Emanuel Fair was identified through photographs and eventually questioned. When officers and investigators had first arrived at Arpana's apartment, they made note of the smell of chemical agents throughout it. Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix have broken up after he allegedly cheated on her with Raquel Leviss. Emanuel Fair's innocence would be asserted by his defense attorneys in the months and years to come, who insisted that he receive proper treatment under the law; which, they alleged, prosecutors were refusing to give to him, as had the investigators from the very beginning of this case. Rather than an 'other suspect,' [C.J.] He is also seeking a jury trial. This would ultimately lead to a long and drawn-out dispute through the court system, as Cybergenetics CEO Dr. Mark Perlin refused to divulge the source code of his program, believing that doing so would bring risk to his company's trade secrets. Police had already determined that Arpana's body had been covered in that type of motor oil, so whoever had handled it had likely been involved in her death. The prosecution would paint a portrait of Fair as a repeat offender, who met Arpana at the Halloween party and then became infatuated with her. In 2019, he ultimately walked free after being acquitted of the murder charges. Sure, it grapples with several important ideas discriminatory policing based on race, the limitations of DNA evidence, the thorny relationship between the judicial system and actual justice but it doesnt end up being particularly about any of those things, nor does it substantially advance the conversation on any front. I hope I never have to investigate a case like this again.". Strangers come together. There were really intense, long jury deliberations for the first trial and hearing about that from people who were truly going in cold to this case and this story, I thought it was really fascinating and not a place I really imagined that wed be going at the beginning. That day, Arpana showed up for work as if it were any other workday, but told some of her coworkers about a party being held that evening at her apartment complex. Meanwhile, the shift in the podcasts emphasis does mean that Jinagas own story ends up fading into the background a little bit. A witness that was returning home from work that evening at around 3:00 AM - who had not attended the Halloween party, but lived nearby - later told police that they saw a non-black individual standing in the doorway of Arpana's apartment at around 3:00 AM. Most of this reasonable doubt revolves around C.J., Arpana's neighbor, who also remains a very valid suspect (hence me not wanting to say his name throughout this podcast). As you can imagine, this analysis was seen as invaluable to the prosecution, who saw this as being ironclad proof of Fair's guilt. Six years after charges were filed, Fair, now 33, spends his days shuffling between the King County Superior Court and the county jail while his two defense attorneys . This included the tape used to gag Arpana, DNA recovered from her neck (where she had been strangled), and a bloody robe found in the apartment complex's dumpster, which contained traces of Fair's DNA. Washington needs more than 1 million homes in the next 20 years They do unearth some new information and context, but this remains a story whose outcome can be easily Googled, even as Suspect underlines the details and the stakes with a more prominent shade. Mar. This eventually led to her moving to the United States to attend Rutger's University in New Jersey. After all, he was the only one facing charges, and him facing charges for two people was - at its core - unconstitutional. The autopsy revealed that Arpana had been strangled and asphyxiated to death, roughly two days before her body was discovered. By the time she was reaching adulthood, Arpana had already become incredibly proficient in embedded systems (utilizing both hardware and software for specific functions) and gained international notoriety for her skills in 2005 when she participated in a design contest for Microchip. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, of course. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, This password will be used to sign into all, Shania Twain Gives Rare Update on Her Ex-Husband and Ex-BFF, Journey Should Probably Go Their Separate Ways, 6 Stand-ups Analyze ChatGPTs Attempts to Steal Their Jobs, Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Kind of Right About Novak Djokovic, Rick Scott Is Unfortunately Right About Novak Djokovic, The 7 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Weekend, Ke Huy Quan Continues His Winning Streak at the Independent Spirit Awards. For the next two years, investigators would struggle to make sense of this case. Roughly two months after the trial began, after weeks of gridlock, the trial would end with a hung jury. Again. lived right next-door to Arpana Jinaga, and by his own admission, had a pretty close relationship with her. Prior to that, she had attended Rutgers University on the east coast, but had grown up in the Indian city of Hyderabad as the oldest of two daughters. It was important for us to take the case as a whole and consider all the directions that it mightve gone, yes, but not to draw any conclusions. Since its release on Aug. 31,Suspecthas vaulted to the top spot on Chartables U.S. rankings of most listened to Apple podcasts. Listen to Suspect at https://wondery.fm/SuspectEpisode Description: The residents of the Valley View apartments organize a big costume party. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan, Producers: Maggyjames, Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Peggy Belarde, Quil Carter, Victoria Reid, Laura Hannan, Gabriella Bromley, Amy Hampton, Steven Wilson, Scott Meesey, Damion Moore, Astrid Kneier, Marie Vanglund, Scott Patzold, Lori Rodriguez, Aimee McGregor, Sue Kirk, Sydney Scotton, Sara Moscaritolo, Thomas Ahearn, Seth Morgan, Alyssa Lawton, Marion Welsh, Jared Midwood, Patrick Laakso, Kelly Jo Hapgood, Meadow Landry, Rebecca Miller, Tatum Bautista, Travis Scsepko, Teunia Elzinga, Erin Pyles, Jo Wong, Jacinda B., Ryan Green, Consuelo Moreno, Kelly Harris, and Emi Coates, Music throughout the episode was composed by Jake Mooshian. How did that happen? This is perhaps another way Suspect embodies a core quality of the contemporary true-crime podcast experience: You might get a little more truth and even a little more justice, but youre still far from closure. She would begin working there in March of 2008, and a company spokesman would later say that during her brief six-month tenure at the company, she had cemented herself as a hardworking and bright employee, who was considered a "rising star" among the higher-ups at EMC. Was there anything that surprised you in your reporting of this story? Let's talk about Jeff (Suspect, Episode 7) There are, sadly, myriad reasons why the average American should live in fear of ever having to deal with the criminal justice system, be they guilty of a crime or not. Lt. Brian Coats would later tell reporters about the crime scene: "It was a scene where the suspect or suspects spent a considerable amount of time covering the evidence of crime. During his career, the prolific actor inhabited an array of troubled characters. Fair was unable to recall these phone calls, stating that he had likely dialed this young woman's number on accident. The jailers are further accused in the lawsuit of fabricating their statements. But it does leave me with a strong sense of want, and a feeling that the genre is long overdue for a quantum leap forward in its language. I think one surprise for me was, we talked to three jurors. There, she would receive her master's degree in electrical and computer engineering in December of 2007. In a new Wondery podcast series called "Suspect," career journalists Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson investigate the story of Jinaga's murder, Fair's conviction and the spiderweb of details . C.J. Meanwhile, Fair's attorneys would argue that this was not a valid argument: the state couldn't have their cake and eat it, too. However, investigators could not establish a specific time of death; instead speculating that she had died at some point early on Saturday morning, sometime between 3:00 and 8:00 AM. They argue and fight. Terms of Service apply. "Defendants Galarza and Solis acted unprofessionally and in a manner they knew would cause additional stress to Alanis' situation for no legitimate reason other than to bully Alanis because defendants Galarza and Solis were in a position of authority, power and control to do so," the lawsuit stated. What were the things that made that possible? All rights reserved. Strangers come . In the weeks to come, it would be reported that several items had been sent to the Washington state crime lab, but it was estimated that it could take weeks - if not months - for items to be tested for any possible forensic evidence. Of course, for [Arpanas] family, its crushing. C.J. We didnt want to make a promise up front that we will reveal who did this or who didnt. Police had publicly speculated that Arpana's killer - who had stolen her cell phone and digital camera - might have attempted to distribute the stolen items through pawn shops, so this seems to be more than pure coincidence. Over the next few hours, police would begin arriving at the crime scene, closing it off to outsiders and attempting to gather statements from anyone they deemed pertinent. It's an extra special, two-part, more than two-hour, Valentine's event. [In the 1980s], you really needed a lot of body fluid, so there was no ambiguity about whose DNA it was. Her body was then flown back to India, to be properly buried by her family, who struggled to move on after her sudden loss. Alanis-Mejia was booked into Carrizales on Sept. 10, 2020, on an outstanding warrant, that alleges he was unaware of, according to the lawsuit. After being held in custody for nine years, he was found not guilty of Jinagas murder and released in 2019. Police would arrive at the apartment complex a short time later, and immediately noticed two things that stood out about this crime. The jailers "violently slammed Alanis into a wall and then tackled him to the ground with both officers leaping on top of him," the lawsuit stated. Specifically, it is a software that uses thousands of algorithms to read DNA and translate it, essentially, into evidence that investigators and prosecutors can then use. DNA evidence was linked to three men and ultimately used to charge Emanuel Fair, a Black man from Seattle. Episode 1: The Halloween Party | Suspect | Full Episode As the Seattle Weekly would point out, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab found that Fair was 1,000 times more likely to have committed the crime than an unrelated African American, but TrueAllele found him to be 56.8 million times more likely. According to one of the jurors, who later spoke to the Seattle Times, the state's inability to reconcile the charges against Emanuel Fair with the evidence implicating C.J. Instead, her life was brought to a violent and sudden end the morning after a Halloween party, and no one has been held to task for that. But instead of returning home to India, she decided to take another huge leap and accepted a job as a software quality assurance engineer with the tech giant EMC (now known as Dell EMC). She moved into the Valley View Apartments just north of Marymoor Park, along the 8900 block of Redmond-Woodinville Road. 6 episodes totalling 4 hours, 18 minutes. Season 2: Vanished in the Snow chronicles the disappearance of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews. Paul Vernon, one of Emanuel Fair's defense attorneys, countered the state's claims; stating that if they were factoring in DNA evidence for the crime, then this neighbor of Arpana's would be just as guilty as Emanuel Fair (if not more so). Benson: DNA was kind of the selling point in terms of why this was going to be something that was current and hadnt been talked about a lot, because the DNA science has evolved very quickly. At times the party veers out of control. Suspect premieres Aug. 17 on Wondery+ and Aug. 31 wherever podcasts are streamed. In that sense, the end of Suspect could very well be the start of the rest of the story. Mar. Suspect is an investigative series about mislaid justice and the kinds of weighty decisions that detectives, lawyers, and jurors make every day - decisions that, once made, are almost impossible to reverse. We didnt want to make that kind of show. New true-crime podcast reexamines the unsolved murder of a Redmond The crime scene itself was a maelstrom of forensic evidence because more than a dozen people had been inside of Arpana Jinaga's apartment just hours before her death, attending the Halloween party. The damage left behind made it evident that the killer had entered through brute force, and from there, had proceeded to struggle with Arpana. Posting comments is now limited to subscribers only. A pre-trial conference has been scheduled for May 30 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald G. Morgan. The jury was unable to come to a consensus regarding Fair's guilt, resulting in a mistrial. The last episode is called Haunted because thats how everyone feels by what happened there. However, the results obtained through TrueAllele pointed to Fair, in particular, as the killer; with the software saying that he was thousands of times more likely to have been Arpana's killer than other available suspects. The autopsy of Arpana Jinaga was performed by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, and the results would be released roughly one week after Arpana's death (November 6th, 2008). And the energy with which many of the people pursued this case it is tragic, what happened. After nine years of awaiting his fate, 35-year-old Emanuel Fair was released from custody just hours after being acquitted in the death of Arpana Jinaga. Id written anarticle about DNA forensic science for The Atlantic, and I was like everybody else I thought that DNA worked like it did on Law & Order, where its a green light. as a suspect which is why they ultimately presented a case that didn't do so. This is a series whose internal universe pretty much stops at the very edges of its specific case. (Arpana's neighbor, who would co-discover her body days later). Keyes later committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial, but police believe he may have committed as many as 11 murders (if not more, including out-of-country victims). We didnt know if anyone from the Valley View apartments or if the people in Arpanas life or the other people who at one point or another seem to have been at least persons of interest, if they were going to want to talk. Emanuel Demelvin Fair - who was also known as Anthony P. Parker - was 27 years old when charges were filed against him in October of 2010. The big issue the show pursues is that Cameron was a viable suspect and the cops seemed to want to find ways to let him off the hook and make him a witness against Emmanuel. "In 2004, a correctional officer, Lt. Hilda Trevino, blew the whistle on fellow guards' mistreatment of inmates.
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