Shraman Mitra
When New Orleans, Louisiana, resident Jessica Easterly Durning went missing from her home in August 2019, her loved ones were left worried and anxious. However, the spotlight soon focused on Jessica’s husband, Justin Durning, as people believed he behaved in a suspicious manner, especially after Jessica’s body was located by authorities.
Tenderfoot TV and Resonate Recordings’ podcast ‘Undetermined,’ chronicles Jessica Easterly Durning’s mysterious death and follows the police investigation that looked into Justin’s life. If you are intrigued about the details surrounding the case and want to find out where Justin is at present, we have you covered.
Who Is Justin Durning?
Readers would be intrigued to know that Justin and Jessica fell in love at first sight when they came across each other during a boat trip in 2010. Although circumstances forced them to drift apart soon after, they reconciled in 2011, and Jessica even moved to New Orleans to move in with the love of her life. At that time, Justin was living with his daughter, Gracie, and Jessica fit right into the family, even going so far as to develop a close relationship with Gracie.
Eventually, in 2015, the couple tied the knot and began earning a living by selling amateur pornographic clips on the internet. However, things soon turned sour, and at the time of Jessica’s disappearance, she and her husband rarely saw eye to eye. In fact, Jessica’s friend, Maria Creel, mentioned that the victim had asked to be taken away on August 12, 2019, just two days before Justin noted that she was missing.
Although Maria was certain that something had happened to Jessica, the victim’s family took notice once she failed to turn up for her birthday celebration on August 17. By this time, Justin had already reported his wife missing, and Maria had requested a welfare check at the Durning house. However, reports state that the police did not put much importance to the investigation into Jessica’s disappearance and only turned up to gather the victim’s body once a search party consisting of local volunteers found her inside a wooded area in New Orleans’ City Park.
Surprisingly, Jessica’s body was left in the morgue for a total of 530 days, during which Justin allegedly called her parents and mentioned that his wife had died by suicide. He also refused to reveal her death online and still used her profile to go online in order to sell old pornographic clips and clothing.
Justin Durning Stays out of the Limelight Today
Once the police managed to identify Jessica’s body, Justin started two GoFundMe campaigns in the victim’s name, claiming that he was gathering money for her memorial and funeral. Moreover, reports mention that he even approached a woman at a bar and attempted to give her most of his late wife’s clothes, which made the police put Justin under supervision. Additionally, a couple also found a blanket as well as Jessica’s ID near where her body was discovered, which proved Justin’s statement of his wife leaving her ID behind at the time of the disappearance to be false.
However, with no evidence to connect the husband to the crime, authorities were finally forced to let Justin go. From the very beginning, Justin has maintained that Jessica died by suicide and has insisted that he had nothing to do with her disappearance or death. Besides, such claims were not investigated further as Jessica’s death was not classified as a homicide during the initial investigation. Eventually, when it was time to release the victim’s body, the morgue and law enforcement officials found it difficult to get in touch with Justin Durning.
Consequently, they released Jessica’s body to her family, who subsequently held a memorial service. However, much to everyone’s surprise, Justin failed to turn up at the service and has not been heard from since then. Although Jessica’s death is now considered a homicide and an active investigation, readers should note that Justin has never been suspected of or charged with the same. However, we are sorry to report that Justin Durning’s current whereabouts remain a mystery to this very day.
Read More: Jessica Easterly Durning Death: How Did She Die? Was She Murdered?
