Jesse had been a popular and outgoing student (Image: Handout)
On his way to a weekend getaway, a university student walked out of his flat only to spot the motionless body of a young man on the grass outside.
Initially assuming it was simply a fellow student who had overindulged the previous evening, they approached to check whether the person, dressed only in running shorts, was alright. But as they drew nearer they noticed flies swarming around the body, and quickly realised something was very wrong.
Detective John Short arrived shortly after the official medical examiner, who highlighted some disturbing details about the murder victim. The corpse displayed visible signs of strangulation but, said Boone County Special Prosecutor Morley Swingle: « The cut to his neck was … so deep the blade of the knife had also nicked the spine. »
As Short and the medical examiner were theorising that the victim had been strangled to the point of unconsciousness before the killer had then pulled back their head and slashed their throat, another police car arrived. Sergeant Kenneth Smith and Officer Steven Rios were local beat officers and Rios was immediately able to identify the deceased man.
In a new podcast about the killing, podcaster Mr Ballen explains: « He said it was a college kid that he’d actually arrested at a house party just a couple of months ago. He said his name was Jesse Valencia. »
This was a positive development for Detective Short, who less than an hour into his investigation, now had a name for his victim and some fairly solid hypotheses about how his victim was murdered. The only task left was to identify the murderer.
Patrolman Steven Rios had arrested Jesse not long before the murder (Image: Police Handout)
Jesse, raised in Kentucky and the first in his family to attend university, made a bleak prediction to his mother when he was just seven years old. Linda Valencia told NBC’s Dateline: « He said, ‘Mom, I’m not gonna live to be – very old.’ He said, ‘I’m gonna die at a very young age’.
« I never dreamed that he was gonna die that way, » Linda added.
Jesse, who was 23 at the time of his death, was a popular, outgoing student at the University of Missouri, and was openly gay. After a recent serious relationship ended, he had been comforting himself with several casual encounters, and on the night prior to the murder, he had reportedly been heading home alone from a party after another man he’d just started dating chose to retire early rather than accompany Jesse home.
Detective Short had interrogated numerous of Jesse’s friends and acquaintances but was unable to pinpoint a credible suspect.
However, another significant detail about Jesse’s life that Short discovered was that a couple of months before his death, he’d been arrested for refusing to co-operate with police when they arrived to break up a house party. The grave-sounding charge was « obstructing a government operation, » and the arresting officer was Steven Rios.
That information aligned with something Jesse had disclosed to his mother – that he had been involved in a romantic liaison with a married police officer. Within hours of receiving a citation, Jesse revealed, the officer had appeared unannounced at his flat.
A friend of Jesse’s told investigators the 23-year-old had been having an affair with a Columbia police officer (Image: Handout)
Jesse’s friend Patrick Rogers stated he had never divulged the policeman’s identity. « In all of the time he spoke with me, he wouldn’t say his name, he only referred to him as ‘Columbia’s finest.’ He was excited about it, » Patrick explained.
« I mean the guy was coming by on-duty. »
Yet Linda claimed that once Jesse learnt his clandestine partner was married with a child expected, he had resolved to end the affair. « He said, ‘I’m not going to see him anymore. I just want him to stay away,' » Linda recalled.
Officer Rios, then aged 27, had offered to guard Jesse’s body and the crime scene following the killing, during his subsequent shift, but within days he had admitted to his wife that he had been having relations with another man.
Around the same period, Mr Ballen recounted, the crucial evidence that Detective Short required arrived through an unexpected witness. A « very nervous » young man named Andy Schermerhorn entered his office and relayed an extraordinary account.
Mr Ballen declared: « Andy sat down and told Short that just a few weeks earlier he and Jesse had gone out together and then gone back to Jesse’s apartment.
« But around 3:00 a.m. they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Jesse went to answer it and a uniformed police officer walked in shining a flashlight.
« Then to Andy’s surprise, Jesse led this officer right into the bedroom and he joined them for a threesome. And then after they were done, the cop told Andy, ‘You better keep this a secret.’ Detective Short couldn’t believe it. I mean, the final piece of evidence he needed had just fallen into his lap. And went on to identify Officer Rios as the man in question. »
Evidence surfaced suggesting Jesse had been making threats to expose the secret relationship he shared with Rios.
Four days following Jesse’s murder, Rios requested leave from his duties, informing his superior that he and his wife needed to visit relatives in Virginia. In reality, however, Rios had travelled to a Walmart branch near Kansas City, purchased a shotgun and threatened to take his own life.
Rios abandoned the suicide attempt, but was subsequently spotted perilously close to the edge at the top of a multi-storey car park.
Rios had attempted suicide shortly before his arrest (Image: Police Handout)
Short stated that the officer’s conduct « reeked of guilt. »
A DNA sample from skin discovered beneath Jesse’s fingernails provided the conclusive piece of evidence Short required, and Rios – who had by this point been admitted to an emergency psychiatric facility for his own protection – was arrested. Despite being found guilty of first-degree murder in 2005, Rios continued to assert his innocence.
Following an appeal, the charge was downgraded to second-degree murder. His wife, who gave evidence in his defence during the trial, told journalists: « There are a lot of people who cheat everyday, unfortunately, but it doesn’t make him a murderer. »
The pair subsequently divorced.
Rios, who will be up for parole in 2049, maintained to Dateline that he did not murder Jesse: « Some people think I’m a killer, some people think I’m not… I know I’m not, » he stated.
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