Dateline: Mystery On Jordan River — Who was Annie Kasprzak and what happened to her? Disturbing details of a 2012 murder, revealed

Dateline Season 24, Episode 43, titled Mystery on the Jordan River, follows the case of Annie Kasprzak, a teenager, who was brutally murdered by her boyfriend Darwin Christopher Bagshaw.

The official synopsis of the episode reads,

“A hairdresser-turned-detective uncovers the truth behind the murder of a teenage girl at a scenic spot on a Utah river.”

Let us now explore in detail who Annie Kasprzak was and what happened to her as shown in Dateline.

Annie Kasprzak was a teenager who survived an abusive childhood

Born in January 1997, Annie Kasprzak was adopted by a loving family at the age of 9. She had undergone an abusive childhood before that. Her life turned better after being adopted, but there was tragedy in store.

Before she went missing, Annie was studying at the Summit Academy in Draper, Utah, as a Freshman. As a 15-year-old she was like any other teenager and loved animals and music. She also had a bunch of friends with whom she loved to hang out.

Things were going fine till March 10, 2012, when Annie’s parents reported her missing as she did not come back home, and they could not find her anywhere. According to Dateline, it was only on the next morning that Annie’s body was discovered in the Jordan River. She appeared to have been murdered — she was repeatedly hit with a blunt object.

Annie Kasprzak was murdered by her boyfriend Darwin Christopher Bagshaw as shown in Dateline

As investigation began regarding Annie’s murder it was initially misdirected, as the police were given some wrong information by a witness who claimed to have seen the murder happen. However, after pursuing the lead, the police soon realized that they were chasing the wrong people, and from there the investigation got back on track.

Annie’s autopsy showed that her skull was fractured as a result of blunt force trauma. It then came to light that on the night Annie went missing, she and her boyfriend of one and a half years, 14-year-old Darwin Christopher Bagshaw, had talked over the phone several times and this led to police to look into Darwin’s whereabouts that night.

Darwin’s shoes were also found to be covered in blood, which he claimed to have come from Annie’s nose bleed. A friend initially backed up his story, but later admitted that he was lying as Darwin had asked him to. He also told the police that Darwin did talk about being by the Jordan river the night Annie disappeared. Darwin’s cell phone tower also confirmed his location that night.

It was ultimately revealed that Darwin did kill Annie as he was mad at her because of a lie she told everyone. Annie had reportedly told their friends that Darwin had gotten her pregnant, and that is why they had to run away. The lie angered Darwin to the point that he decided to kill her, according to the Dateline episode.

The police arrested Darwin in October 2014 and he pleaded guilty of first degree murder in February 2016. He was given a prison sentence of 15 years to life, and he will be up for parole in October 2034.

Dateline can be streamed on Peacock.

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