Dateline: Before Daylight - Who was Jesse Valencia, and what happened to him? Disturbing details of the 2004 murder, revealed 

The Dateline episode titled Before Daylight recounts the disturbing case of twenty-three-year-old University of Missouri student Jesse Valencia. As revealed on the Dateline episode, Jesse Valencia was found dead, lying on the grass near his university apartment at the Columbia, Missouri campus on June 5, 2004. Dateline further mentioned that Jesse's corpse had a large gash on his neck, which was likely the cause of his death.

It seemed as if he had stormed out of his apartment while trying to flee his assailant. The case took an unexpected turn when a married Columbia police officer was implicated as the murderer. Here's everything that we know.

Dateline: What happened to Jesse Valencia?

The Dateline episode detailed the case of Jesse Valencia, introducing him as a twenty-three-year-old student who was the first in his family to go to college. Ever since his childhood, Valencia had been very close to his mother, Linda Valencia, and confided all his secrets in her, including the fact that he was gay and his romantic interests. Linda had said the following on the show about her relationship with her son:

"From the time he was born, I took him everywhere with me. I wouldn’t even go out on dates unless I took him with me and everybody accepted it. He was really outgoing and outspoken. He was the type of boy that would tell you exactly what he thought, and if you didn’t like hearing it, he would try to sugarcoat it a little bit for you — but he would always tell you exactly how he felt about something."

It is needless to say that Linda was devastated to learn about her son's tragic death. The police found bruises on Jesse's chest, back, and jaw, suggesting that he had tried to put up a fight before succumbing to his slit throat.

Dateline: The police apprehend one of their own!

Immediately after the discovery of Jesse's corpse, Columbia Police Detective John Short set forth upon the investigation to unmask the murderer. After questioning a few of Jesse's romantic partners, Short was given the tip that someone saw a man walking barefoot a few blocks from the scene of the crime on the night of the murder, crying to himself.

Trending

A breakthrough was reached when Short came to know about Jesse's affair with a Columbia police officer, about which he had told his mother and his friend Patrick Rogers. The young officer in question was Steven Rios, who was married to his wife, Libby Sullivan, and the two even had a baby boy.

The investigation further revealed that Steven had first met Jesse after the police were alerted to shut down a party in which Jesse was present. After the formalities were over, Rios returned to have a discreet relationship with Jesse. The latter was threatening to reveal details of the affair to the police chief, and this was the primary motivation why Rios ended up killing him.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback