SPEAKER_01 0:00

In Tragedy, a true crime podcast, we discuss missing persons cases, violent crime, and other sensitive topics that may be difficult for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com for early access to new episodes. And join our Facebook community, Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast, for updates, discussions, and ways to support the families we feature. Welcome to Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And this evening we're joined by someone who not only knew Latanya on a deeply personal level, but who has also become a voice for her, her cousin, Vicki Jenkins. Vicki isn't just here as family, she's here as an advocate, someone who has been committed to making sure Latanya's name is spoken, remembered, and not lost over time. In the face of unimaginable loss, she has continued to push for awareness, for answers, and for people to truly see Latanya as more than just a case. Through her voice, through her efforts, and through her love for her cousin, Vicky is helping keep Latanya's story alive. Vicky, thank you for being here and for everything you're doing to make sure Latanya is never forgotten and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Thank you for having me on your show. I appreciate you guys taking the time out to invite me to your show.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Oh, we're happy you're here.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

And so we'd like to give our listeners an opportunity to learn a little bit about you. So tell us about you, Vicky.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Okay. I am a lifelong um resident of Walcola County. I've been here all my life. I have been raised in Chope, Florida. I recently moved to Crockettville, Florida. I'm married. I have two children. I have four grandchildren and four other grandchildren on my husband's side. So a total of eight grandchildren. I am a people person. I love family. I am a loving, kind, and respected person here in the county. Um, I have been on my job for 30 plus years, and I love helping others. And today I want to reach out to the community to help my aunt receive justice for her daughter.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

That's a great way to start.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

That's very well said. So tell us about your relationship with Latanya.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Latanya is my cousin. Um, she is my aunt's daughter, so that will make us first cousins.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And what are some of your fondest memories of the time that you spent with Latanya?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

My fondest memories were she was always a happy-go person, smiling all the time, uh, a family person. She was always um um with her mom all the time. Every time you seen her mom, which is my aunt, you saw her. They was always together. She would always um call and talk with my mother, which is her aunt. Um, if things was, you know, she has any issues or whatever, she would let um my mom know. She would call my mom. She was a fun, just a fun, outgoing person. She was kind of quiet. She was on the quiet side. She really didn't um socialize with too many people. She had a few friends, but she wasn't the type like to be like out in the open where too, you know, too many people would know her. You would have to get to know her for her to, you know, c communicate with you. But she was a real quiet, easy-gone type person. And she just was very loving, um, family person, family type person. But like I said, when you saw her mom, you always saw her. When she was living at home, you always saw her and her mom together all the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

What do you want people who are listening today to know about what happened to Latanya?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

I want the people that's listening to if they know something, if they seen something, if they heard something, to speak up because we would like to have closure for what happened to my cousin. She did not deserve what happened to her. She was trying her best to be the best that she can be, but she got trapped in with the wrong people, and so it just made things worse. I'm I'm I'm I want people to speak up. If you know something, if you've seen something, speak up. Don't be afraid, don't worry about if someone gets mad, don't worry about if it's somebody related. Speak up and let your voice be heard because it was if it was one of your family members, you would want justice also. It's been going on 10 years now, and we have not received justice. It's like the ball has been dropped, and we want to reopen it and get justice for our family so that we can have closure and my cousins can be at peace. Because whatever happened to her, well, we already know what happened to her, but whoever did this to her, I want this person held accountable because they shouldn't have, they should have gone another route instead of doing this to her. And from how she was in the hospital when certain people walk in the room and this certain person walked in the room, her numbers went up high. Like her numbers went up so high as like she was trying to fight back, trying to talk to tell us what happened. So somebody seen something, somebody heard something, and we would like for them to talk so that we can reopen this case, which I am working on reopening this case. I want to know why it was dropped in the first place because it should have never been dropped. And I want justice for my cousin.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

So talk more um about what did happen to her because we know unfortunately there is not a lot out there about the circumstances surrounding her death. So tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Um, she was strangled, strangled to death, and she had a stroke. Her she was strangled, strangulation, and that caused a vessel to burst in her neck. Someone grabbed her by the neck, choked her out, and strangled her. She lost conscience and was left for dead. They got her to the hospital in time to try to save her, but her her brain had gone dead, and there was nothing that you know much that they can do because she had had a stroke at the same time when all this occurred. The strangulation occurred days before it really hit because she got a blood clot in her neck. And so it came from the strangulation where she was strangled by the neck. She had a blood clot, it won a blood clot in her neck, and that blood clot traveled, and I'm assuming that's how she had a stroke. And from then, you know, there was no hope. They was trying their best at the hospital to try to save her, but there was no hope. So someone knows and saw who strangled her. Why nothing was done? I don't know. But something needs to be done because she was strangled. Someone saw her being strangled, and the ball got dropped.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Talk to us about her living situation around that time. Where was she living? Who was she living with?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Okay. At that time, she was living with her boyfriend in South Choppy in a trailer park. There was no running water in the home. It just was I considered a bad environment where she was living. She was trying to leave and come home. Um, he would not allow her to come home. So she was stuck there. And then from there, that's when everything went the wrong way. The day she wanted to leave and come home, that's the day that things went the other way. He did not want her to leave.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Do you recall Latanya specifically saying to you or other people that you know that she was trying to find a different place to live?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yes. Um, she had spoken with her friend, Crystal. She wanted to um leave and go with Crystal because he there was arguing, and so she wanted to leave and go home with Crystal that day. And then from there, she was gonna move back home. She had planned to move back home with my aunt. And he wouldn't allow it. He told Crystal to leave, and he got her, got uh Tanya in the um house, threw her in the house by her neck, and from there we don't know what happened.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yes, we did have an opportunity to speak with Crystal, and so our listeners will hear Crystal's recollection because she was there and did see everything that you're talking about. So that does make a lot of sense there. Can you talk about I believe it was, was it three days in the hospital from when she was brought into the hospital until um she was pronounced dead? Is that right? Yes. Do you recall I'm trying to sort of get a timeline of when this event happened at the at the trailer park and when your aunt showed up and found her unconscious. Do you do you know if that was a day or a certain number of hours just to help our listeners with the timeline?

SPEAKER_00 10:13

So um that was during the day, okay. She was supposed to have gone to work that morning where my aunt, when my aunt worked, they were supposed to meet her at work. She told my aunt that she would see her later on. My aunt had spoken with her that day. She didn't show up for work. And so that afternoon, same afternoon, my aunt and some other co-workers and her son went to the home. And that's and then so the lady that uh my aunt worked with, Ann Sanders, she opened the door and they went in and looked for Latin. She was laying on the floor with a um rec um um not a recliner, but a um love seat over her so that she couldn't get up. So someone had put that love seat over her to prevent her from getting up, but she was unconscious. Her brother grabbed her and tried to put, you know, bring her back to conscience and everything. She did a little motion, but it wasn't much. And they dressed her because she didn't have on any clothes. They dressed her and called 911. That's when she went to the hospital. So it was hours. It was hours because she had she was supposed to show up for work like three or something that morning, and she never did show up for work. So during it it got daytime in the afternoon when they finally went to the home to look for her.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

You said something real quick, I want to clarify, because um I know we talked about with you know when we talked to Crystal and when we seen the information in the FOIA that she was up under a love seat. So you're telling me that it wasn't the love seat was out of place, so it was definitely not where it was supposed to be. It was placed on top of her, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Right. The love seat was placed on top of her or top of her legs. So it was out of position.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

The point is it was it was it was you know, it was put on there on purpose. It wasn't that it was she was shoved under something, it was actually placed on her.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Right, so that she couldn't get up.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Though so then the timeline is the event that Crystal saw and that she was a witness to when she was trying to get Latanya is the night before, and then she's supposed to show up at work fairly early, 3 a.m. And so it's several hours after that, but it is the next day after the altercation that your aunt and her son and then Anne went to the house and found her. Correct. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you for that. How do you feel about the media coverage, or let's just say the lack of media coverage um surrounding her death? This was in 2014, and as a general rule, I'm able to go back and find some sort of article or something, and I didn't find anything. So talk to us about that lack of media coverage.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

There was no media coverage, very disappointed, no media coverage, no articles in the paper, no posters up, no door to door, knocking on door, none, nothing, nothing was done to try to find out who killed my cousin. Newspaper, no news, nothing.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yeah, we what we found interesting as well is not only was there not any news coverage, but also that, you know, the case was dropped. You know, that you know, there was a there was a filing with the state attorney's office. Um, it was determined, you know, for whatever reason, we don't have the information on that, but for whatever reason they did not proceed, and then the case was actually closed. So it's actually just recently, I think through us, you know, asking questions to you guys and you know talking about law enforcement, you guys are actually making active, you know, processes. You're putting you're trying to get the case reopened. It's my understanding. They're saying they're gonna reopen it, but we haven't heard anything yet from a detective assigned. That's the update that I have.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Correct. I have made calls to the to the sheriff's department to speak with the lead detective, left messages after messages, no return calls, nothing. Have they given you a name of the detective yet? They said um Eddie Wester is the person I need to speak with. I have left a message for him and I have not received a call.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, so he's over criminal investigations, um, and then he would be the one who would be assigning the detective to the case. So I mean that that is, to our knowledge, the right person to start with.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

He's a hundred percent right person. And you know, now that now that we know that that he's been contacted by you, um, you can take a guess on who we're contacting.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Right. Yes. We are part of of Team Latanya now.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, we wonder sometimes whether they they hear our voice and they're like, oh crap, not the podcasters again. Um, because this will be the third case that we've gone in and knocked on their door and just basically said, You gotta talk to us, man, because we're not gonna go away.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Talk to the family. Right. Speak to someone. I do know that um you, as I mentioned in in my our introduction, have been really, really integral in making sure that Latanya's name is said. And so we are fortunate to have you and to be able to partner with you. Um so I'm wondering if there have been or where you are with any efforts to get more information from the state's attorney, because as Michael noted, and as you and I have been discussing, um, there were charges taken up and those chart they declined to pursue charges. And according to what I have, some sort of letter was sent with some more information about that to your aunt. Um, and you know, it's been what 12 years now. So I'm wondering where you guys are with seeing if maybe you can get a copy of that letter from the state's attorney's office or if that's something that maybe we can help you with.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Um, I haven't had a chance to call the state. I don't even know who the state attorney's name was for the case. If I did, I will make a phone call. I can do it tomorrow. Um, but I don't know who the state attorney is.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Um I believe, starting to interrupt, um, I think we have that name.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

The name of the person in 2014. Correct. Yes, I think you know that's an elected office, so there's maybe somebody different, but I certainly can look at it.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

It's a starting point.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Yes. We can look at that document together because it is at the very end of um the information that I was able to receive from the sheriff's office, which of course I shared with you. Um and they did actually add the um phone call that was made when they sent out the deputy to reopen the case. So there's even a date on that so that we know when you guys made that call and how long it's been since they've gone back to you.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Well, and I haven't heard anything. So I will work on that tomorrow because I'm feeling a little better now. So I will get back full gear because my aunt says she didn't receive the letter. So I'm not sure. I don't know if she's gotten it or not. I don't know. I haven't seen it, but she says she hadn't received it. But I will find out.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Yeah, I mean, that's definitely possible. Things get lost in the mail all the time. Um, and it would seem to me that there would that would be something that they would have a copy of because they have to file it for themselves as well. So that is correct. It should be accessible by family, um, a copy of it. That would be I'm just wondering if there's something in there that says more than what we already know. Um what does justice look like to you?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Justice for me is getting the person behind bars where they belong for the crime that they committed.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

And how do you keep Latanya's memory alive in your daily life?

SPEAKER_00 17:52

I always look up and say, Well, we call her toot. Her nickname is toot. T-O-O-T Toot. And I always look up to the sky and I say, one day at a time, toot, we're gonna get justice. And yesterday, just yesterday, her legacy page with her obituary came across my phone. And I'm like, okay, that's a sign. We're gonna get justice for you too.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Tell us about that nickname. How did she get that one?

SPEAKER_00 18:21

I'm not sure. I think her mom named her dad. I'm not sure. We just call her Toot. Her nickname is Toot, and I think her mom named her dad. I'm not sure how she got it.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Next time we talk to her, I'd love to know that.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

That's like something a parent would do. My my dad had a nickname for me, too. That's that's just like it's a term of endearment, right? Well, some nicknames like have an origin story, like it's a sports-related thing or something silly that somebody did once, and then it just, you know, it stuck. Yes, exactly. It sticks. Is there anything that you would like to share that we did not give you an opportunity to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Well, I just want the sheriff's department, the state attorney's office, to get on their job and reopen this case, go around, go to the trauma park, ask questions, even if you if you have to put them through a lie detector test, ask questions and get this this case solved, you know, so that her mom and the family, we often receive justice. I mean, I feel like it just was a hit and miss drop case and nope nothing was done about it. I will I would like to see something done about it.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

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