Deborah Rudibaugh

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The sudden disappearance of a young rancher leaves a small Colorado town grasping for answers.

He was not a, hey, let's go do this in the middle of the night kind of person.

It It was just very out of character.

He had been gone way too long.

You know, a mother wants to know where her child is.

Investigators must determine whether his departure was a spontaneous adventure or the result of a deadly scheme rooted in a twisted family tree.

They were continually arguing about things on the ranch.

He had come into her room and had threatened her.

I'm scared for my son, my wife, mine, and everybody else's future.

We knew that we would need to involve a cadaver search.

If she did it, she did not do it alone.

It's not just me.

Everybody believed you were involved.

It's unfortunate for them.

No, it's unfortunate for you.

She made some implications that he had a pretty dark side.

It was all about property, all about the ranch.

Oh my god, I wish I would have said something.

On Wednesday, May 20th, 2015, in the remote town of Gunnison, Colorado, Randy Martinez and Nate Lopez realize they haven't heard from their friend, 29-year-old rancher Jake Millison, in nearly five days.

On May 15th, he had gone out with some friends and they had made plans for the next day.

And Jacob never called, never reached out to them.

Jake's mother, Deborah Rudabaugh, and his sister, Stephanie Jackson, meet Jake's friends in the corral on the sprawling ranch where Jake and his family live.

They approached Deborah and Stephanie asking

if they had seen Jake or knew where Jake was, and that's when Deborah told them that he had gone to Reno, Nevada.

Deb Rudabaugh told them that he had left to participate in MMA training or a tournament.

She did not know exactly when he would be returning.

Jacob is very involved in MMA, mixed martial arts.

He was involved with a gym.

here in Gunnison and a group of individuals that enjoyed that activity and pursued it diligently.

The friends are not understanding why Jacob would just pick up and leave without at least telling them.

He shared a lot with his friends.

If he had been planning especially a big trip, he would have let people know.

With Deborah's information limited, Nate and Randy decide to check in at Jake's martial arts gym to see when their friend might be back.

The sparring partners explained that there was was no tournament or training that they knew of in Reno, Nevada.

They further found out a little bit more information that he was injured that week than was on crutches because he had hurt his ankle and so he wouldn't have traveled to participate in that.

As friends, they heard from him every day.

So when they stopped hearing from him, it definitely bothered them.

For Jake to miss a gathering with friends, if he said he was going to be there, he would be there.

And if something had come up, he would make sure to contact people and say, like, hey, you know, I can't make it.

I think everyone early on was pretty nervous that something had happened.

Jacob Millison was born on January 11th, 1986, in Colorado, just a year or so after his older sister, Stephanie.

Jacob's parents, Deborah and Ray Millison, had left Ohio for adventure out west in Gunnison County, Colorado.

Gunnison is an extremely remote mountain community.

We're about three and a half hours from a major airport.

A lot of our community makes a living through ranching or farming.

For Deborah, the home in Gunnison was a lifelong dream come true.

My sister, from the first time that we made a trip to Colorado with my parents when we were young, she fell in love with Colorado and ranches.

And seeing horses run free, she was drawn to the Old West ideas.

Once the family moved to Gunnison, Deborah started work at the nearby 7-Eleven Ranch, a 700-acre operation owned by Marion Rudy Rudabaugh, a widower nearly 20 years Deborah's senior.

Rudy was one of the most interesting men that I've ever been around.

You meet him, he's not very tall, but he was tough as nails.

They did a dude ranch operation and then, you know, outfitting, which is taking hunters into the backcountry to hunt.

At that time, it was very profitable.

Rudy had a fairly large lodge built on the property in addition to several cabins.

As Rudy approached his 70s, Deborah stepped in to help her boss manage the ranch.

In 1993, she divorced Ray and made a surprise announcement to her family.

When Jake and Stephanie's mom and dad split, Deborah moved to marry Rudy.

Stephanie and Jake moved up here to Rudy's ranch.

They were both young.

I would say Jake was probably six.

It surprised the whole family in the fact that,

you know,

Rudy was so much older than Deb, but Debbie seemed happy.

Deborah, Jake, and Stephanie all joined in to help Rudy manage the ranch.

Deborah even homeschooled the kids to give them more time to pitch in.

Growing up on a ranch, Jake definitely had a strong work ethic.

He was being responsible for his chores and his jobs.

There was a couple times I helped him on the ranch with haying and stuff and it's absolutely hard work, but Jake never complained about it.

Stephanie helped pack hunters in and out.

She did that with Rudy.

She is very good with animals and especially horses.

She's right at home in the saddle.

When Stephanie was just 18 years old, she met 19-year-old David Jackson, who worked on a traveling carnival that had made a stop in Gunnison.

When the carnival left just three days later, David stayed behind.

My impression of Dave when we first met him was that he was an odd guy.

To make such a drastic change in life, i.e., you know, staying in a town with a girl that you just met three days ago, was a little odd.

After a few months of dating, the young couple married in 2003.

To help start her new life, Stephanie's stepdad, Rudy, allowed her to access her inheritance.

Rudy and Deb gave Stephanie $80,000 so they could buy a home.

They didn't stay in Gunnison.

They did take part of their inheritance and use that money to buy a residence in Denver.

With his sister gone, Jake was expected to take on more responsibility at the ranch.

In 2009, Rudy's health fell into a quick decline.

And on November 16th of that year, the 85-year-old rancher passed away, leaving the 7-Eleven property to Deborah.

When Rudy passed away, I know it was hard for

everyone.

It was hard for Jake.

It was hard for Deb.

My sister went into a pretty deep depression.

She withdrew from everybody.

That was her life, the ranch.

And no matter what, she didn't want to let go of it.

Managing the massive ranch with just two people wasn't easy.

The hunting guiding stopped, but seemed like things were always kind of going downhill from that point on.

It was a lot of trying to keep their head above water.

By 2012, there were other big changes happening at the 7-Eleven ranch when Stephanie announced that she, David, and their young son would would be returning to town after being away for eight years.

She wanted to move back to Gunnison because she didn't want her to raise her child in Denver.

Stephanie and David moved into an apartment in town.

David began working mechanic shops.

Stephanie, Jackson began giving rides and helping Debrudaba run the guest ranch.

With another set of hands to help out at the ranch, it seemed like Deborah and Jake finally had a chance to return 7-Eleven to its former glory.

Jake had talked that he would probably end up staying on the ranch and he'd probably end up working it.

He wasn't always fond of that idea, but it's what he knew and it's what he did well.

I think he always felt just strong ties to the ranch.

Which is why Jake's friends are worried when Jake vanishes from the 7-Eleven ranch in May of 2015.

He was not a, certainly not a spontaneous kind of person.

It was just very out of character for Jake.

All of these things raised more suspicion in their mind that something sinister had happened to Jake.

On May 20th, Five days since Jake's friends have heard from him, Randy Martinez and Nate Lopez meet with a Gunnison County detective to file a missing persons report for their friend.

This case started with his friends filing reports before the family had even acknowledged that he might have been missing.

And that is odd for an investigation.

It was a huge red flag for a lot of people.

Coming up.

A mother reveals details of her son's dark side.

She had found a marijuana grow on the ranch.

She feared that he had fallen into a group of bad people.

He's probably gotten in above his head.

On May 20th, 2015, Randy Martinez and Nate Lopez have just filed a missing persons report for their friend and local rancher, 29-year-old Jake Millison.

They reported to the sheriff's office that Jake had not been seen for about a week and they were concerned about where he was at.

Detectives agreed to go speak with Jake's mother, Deborah Rudabaugh, owner of the nearby 7-Eleven ranch.

She didn't remember the last time that she'd seen Jake.

She didn't remember what day it was.

She informed law enforcement that Jacob had gone to Reno to participate in a training of some sort for MMA.

She had a good reason why his friends couldn't get a hold of him.

She said he dropped his phone in an irrigation ditch and on the way out of the house.

And so that's why he wasn't able to answer his phone.

Deborah showed them his phone.

She had that in a plastic bag with rice to draw out the moisture in the phone.

They are reassured by Deborah that Jake is fine.

It's not unusual for Jake to take trips and be gone for a while.

So at that point, that kind of puts law enforcement at ease that nothing unusual has happened to Jake.

But with no trace of Jake over the next few weeks, concern spreads, and two other groups of Jake's friends file their own missing persons reports.

It was a very unusual situation, but the family was like, no, no, no, he's fine.

He'll come back someday.

He frequently leaves and comes back.

That simply wasn't true.

And the friends knew it.

It was really his friends that were very concerned.

And they're the ones that really pushed for more investigation.

By August of 2015, now three months since Jake's disappearance, even Deborah Rudabaugh is beginning to express concern over her 29-year-old son's whereabouts.

She had filed a missing person's report because he had been gone way too long.

You know, a mother wants to know where her child is.

It's interesting, though, because he disappeared in May and she didn't file it until August.

During the meeting, Deborah says that since joining the MMA gym in Gunnison, Jake had changed.

Deborah Durad begins to describe Jacob

as lazy on the ranch and not helping her as much.

She makes it clear that the ranch is not doing as well.

He would stay out all night.

She said that she had found a marijuana grow on the ranch.

Deb thought perhaps he was selling drugs.

Deborah says that on May 24th, 2015, she and Jake had fought about his behavior.

She reported that they had had an argument over the direction Jake was taking with his life.

She felt like he was close to 30 years old and he needed to get out and get a real job because the ranch wasn't a moneymaker at that point.

Deborah says that Jake had stormed out, telling her he was going to an MMA match in Reno.

But Deborah hadn't told deputies that Jake had come back on May 31st with a friend.

She classified it as one of Jake's friends, but not a local friend.

She said that friend's name might have been Mike or Matt, but that's all she knew.

She said that Jake gathered up a lot of camping equipment.

Deb Rudemop made it clear that the supplies that Jacob took with him were for an extended period of time, that she was not expecting him back anytime soon, nor did she have any idea where he was at.

But now that he's been gone for three months, Deborah says she fears the worst.

She feared that he had fallen into a group of bad people.

When they were asking her, so what do you think has happened to Jacob?

And she said, well, I don't know.

He's probably gotten in above his head somewhere.

Despite Deborah's suspicions, investigators have no solid leads to uncovering Jake's whereabouts.

They did put out an all attempts to see if any law enforcement agency had come into contact with Jake either in Nevada or nationwide.

No indication of any use of any credit cards, social security numbers, or anything like that.

that.

They just could not find a hit on Jacob throughout the country.

Two more months go by, and there is still no sign of Jake.

Then, on October 15th, the Gunnison County Times runs an article about Jake's case written by journalist Chris Rourke.

I shared with the community the friend's concern about Jake's disappearance, but I also gave Deb's side of the story.

And she claimed claimed he was involved in drugs and had just run off in the middle of the night.

Deb made some implications that that could have led to his disappearances, and that he had a pretty dark side.

Shortly after the article's release, Jake's friends contact the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office.

Jake's friends were pretty upset.

They insisted that what Deb Rudabaugh was telling was not the truth.

The fact that Deb was portraying him as someone that's doing cocaine and drinking all the time, that's just, that's ludicrous.

Anyone that saw him at the bars knew that he just drank a Coke.

Jake's friends also tell investigators that when Jake first went missing, they created a Facebook group dedicated to finding him.

Over the last few months, some disturbing stories about Jake's brother-in-law, David Jackson, have trickled in online.

A couple weeks after Jacob's disappearance, David Jackson posted a picture of

Jacob's Harley on Facebook.

And that was a huge red flag.

That Harley was his pride and joy.

He did not let anyone else write it, touch it, do anything with it.

In this particular case, I think this is something that changed the direction of the investigation.

We have facts like like the motorcycle really make you think the family knows more than they're telling law enforcement.

Coming up, detectives uncover a decade-long rivalry turned violent.

Jake walked away from the altercation, but did file a restraining order.

And a search warrant flushes an unlikely suspect out of the brush.

It was at that point that she confessed.

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Gunnison County Sheriff's investigators have just learned of a potential new suspect in the disappearance of Jake Millison, his brother-in-law, David Jackson, who'd been spotted around town on Jake's cherished motorcycle.

Given the information that had been provided to law enforcement that Jake had simply taken a trip, it made no sense that David would be using Jake's vehicles.

Nobody got to get near the sportster and that was kind of like his baby and his prized possession.

He wouldn't even let me touch that bike so I can't imagine the person that he gets a little, doesn't get along with would be allowed to ride it and take pictures with it.

Friends say that Jake and David's relationship only got worse when Stephanie and David moved back to Gunnison in 2012.

Deb was going to leave that ranch to her grandson, so she wanted to hang on to it at all costs, and that's what drew Stephanie to move back onto the ranch, I believe.

There was always a lot of tension between Dave maybe not doing his share of the work or Dave not feeling it, that Jake was doing his share of the work.

I know they were continually arguing about things on the ranch.

Dave was trying to

just take control and do whatever he wanted, and Jake was supposed to, you know, be in charge of it.

According to friends, the feud finally came to a head in the winter of 2012.

Jacob Millison was plowing the snow on the ranch and had somehow blocked in David's vehicle and an argument between the two of them started.

Jacob describes the incident at that point as it got heated that David Jackson brandished a firearm to him in a threatening manner.

Jake walked away from the altercation, but did file a restraining order on David.

Jake had told his friends, if anything ever happens to me, look at my brother-in-law.

Jake definitely thought he was in danger.

It tells you that he was concerned.

For Jacob to make the statement, if anything happens to me, it was David.

That's a very powerful statement.

But at that point, we had no evidence to point directly at David.

In April of 2016, nearly a year after Jake's disappearance, David's friend Jeremy McDonald moves to the ranch to help out.

I met Dave.

When we were like nine years old, we just ended up being good friends.

Dave sent me a message around the end of 2015.

He started telling me, hey, you should move on out here,

help us take over the ranch and get it going again.

So I drove to Gunnison, Colorado, on the hope that we were going to be able to make something great.

That same year, Deborah Rudabaugh receives a grim diagnosis.

Deb had stage four breast cancer.

The chances of her living a long life were not good

as the 7-Eleven ranch prepares for a future without its matriarch investigators work to ensure that Jake's whereabouts are uncovered in Deb's lifetime

investigations like this take a great deal of time the last time that Jacob Millison was seen alive was on the 7-Eleven ranch.

And when we got to the point that we were ready to search the property and we knew that that's what needed to be done, There was a search warrant that was created and we knew that the chances of finding Jacob alive were just not great at that point.

On July 17th, 2017, over two years since Jake was last seen alive, a team of local and state law enforcement arrives at the 7-Eleven ranch.

I'd say there's probably seven different officers there.

As we're walking up, I see

investigators questioning Deb.

The Sheriff's Office and CBI met with Deborah to advise her that we had a search warrant for the property.

She first denies any knowledge that Jake is on the ranch.

At that point, they explained to her that the cadaver dog teams would be brought in and that a full search would be done.

And it was at that point that she confessed to killing Jacob.

That was devastating.

I just didn't know

what to say, what to think.

It's my nephew, and that's my sister.

It took me out at Denise.

Deborah tells law enforcement that in the months before Jake's death, she and her son had fought about who would inherit the ranch.

Deb had described that Jacob felt that the ranch was supposed to be left to him when Deb passed away.

Jake felt he had more of a claim to the ranch, especially since Rudy had given already a bunch of money to Dave and Stephanie to buy a house and continue to work on the ranch even when Steph was gone.

Deborah says that by mid-May of 2015, their dispute took a turn in a terrifying new direction.

They had gotten into

some argument, and Jacob was upset with her.

He had come into her room and had threatened her, and then Ed turned and left and went to bed.

She had decided that night that it was either her or him.

So she took her Lady Smith 357 Magnum,

walked up the stairs when he was asleep,

shot him in the head, and killed him.

Deborah says that after killing Jake, she started planning how she was going to dispose of her son's body.

She said she went upstairs and that she rolled him onto plastic, wrapped him in plastic, cinched him up in a fetal position with a rope,

used a winch.

to drag his body to the head of the stairs, slid him down the stairs, and then drag him out of the lodge by use of the ATV and a winch and buried the body in the manure pile.

She just points over from the corral fence and says that's where he's at.

They found Jacob's body about six feet deep in the corral.

He was wrapped in plastic and a tarp.

CBI agents and the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office continue their search of the property without arresting Deborah.

Because of the speedy trial rule in Colorado, once a person is arrested, the time starts ticking in terms of discovery issues to defense, etc.

We had more to gain by not arresting her and continuing to investigate than we did by arresting her and then having the speedy trial clock start running.

It was was unclear to us the extent of other people's involvement in both the murder of Jacob, but also the cover-up of evidence.

We were highly suspicious of any and all information coming from Deb Rudema.

Although Deborah claims that she threw the murder weapon into a nearby lake, detectives find a gun under her bed that matches her earlier description.

She talked about how she alone had removed Jacob's body from his bedroom where she had shot him.

Things aren't adding up.

Coming up, with Deborah's story falling short, detectives suspect there's more to be uncovered.

July 17th, 2017.

Deborah Rudabaugh's confession of her son's murder has left investigators with lingering questions over whether or not she acted alone.

He was in an upstairs loft of the lodge, and she was a very petite woman weighing less than 90 pounds.

So it was clear to us there was no way that Deborah could roll a 185, 90 pound body off of the mattress and drag it out if she did it.

She did not do it alone.

While teams continue to search the massive ranch for clues, Detectives separate and interview Deb's daughter, Stephanie Jackson, and her husband, David.

By the time they interviewed David, Deb had already confessed.

He described being shocked.

He couldn't believe that Jacob was on the ranch.

He denied any knowledge of knowing anything about Jake's murder.

David Jackson had described that he was not in town the evening that Jacob went missing, that he was in Denver.

When detectives ask about Jake's restraining order filed in 2012, David insists the incident was a misunderstanding.

He refuted the allegation that he had pulled a gun on Jake, saying only that he was wearing a gun and that Jake had saw the gun.

It is his statement that he never meant to intimidate or threaten Jacob with the gun during that incident.

In a nearby room, detectives break the news of Deborah's confession to Stephanie.

She began to cry and got very upset and was very, very emotional.

Stephanie says that although the siblings disagreed about the ranch, she would never want Jake hurt.

But detectives are taken aback when Stephanie asks an unusual question.

At one point, she responded with confusion or, I guess, bewilderment at how mom got Jacob out of the house.

And at that point in time, no one had told her where Jake had been killed.

So that really stuck out in their mind that she knew a lot more than she was telling at that point, and that we would definitely have to do some further investigation.

Detectives start by issuing subpoenas for David and Stephanie's cell phone and social media records.

Law enforcement did learn fairly early on that David had an alibi.

So we were able to confirm that, yeah, he was in Denver at the time of the disappearance.

Stephanie's phone records aren't so clear-cut.

So, out at the ranch, there is no self-service.

It's one of the few places, I think, left that you cannot do a cell phone ping to figure out where people are.

Detectives turn to Stephanie's social media accounts, and something in in May of 2015 catches their attention.

On the 19th, Stephanie posted, have you ever been woken up with such awesome news that you wanted to run outside screaming?

It was just within hours after Jake went missing, which we later found out was when he died.

It's very suspicious.

In my opinion, it indicates that all of a sudden

life got better for her because Jake was gone.

They do ultimately find a will.

It leaves the ranch solely to Stephanie Jackson, and it was dated late April, just within two weeks of Jacob's murder.

That will was posted by Stephanie at the end of April to some of her social friends.

where she was claiming that she was now the sole heir to the ranch.

In search of hard evidence linking Stephanie to the murder, detectives turn to Jake's autopsy.

The autopsy was consistent with Deb's story that he was shot while he was asleep laying in his bed.

And the bullet did not exit.

It remained in the skull.

After the autopsy, we were able to retrieve the bullet from Jacob's skull and was able to do a ballistic test with the Smithsonian Wesson that was found at the Rudabaugh home.

We determined it was the murder weapon.

In July 2017, detectives asked Stephanie and David to take a polygraph.

Both of them agree.

Did you know anything about it at all?

Not until last night or yesterday.

Okay.

So up until that point, you didn't know anything.

No.

Like his wife, David also denies involvement.

Did you kill him?

No.

Did you help dispose the body, wrap it up, anything whatsoever?

I think I would have huge.

But the couple's united front has no bearing on the results of the polygraph test.

Both David and Stephanie were found to be deceptive.

Detectives confront them with the results.

Why did you so severely not pass the test?

I honestly don't know.

I

don't know.

I should have passed it because

I didn't do anything.

He stayed adamant the entire time, though.

He had no idea that Jacob was going to be killed or exactly what took place.

But he admits that he did know Jake was dead.

In June 2017, he and his farmhand, Jeremy McDonald, had been working in the corral when they made a gruesome discovery.

We were just cleaning out some of the corrals and Dave was out on a skid loader moving some manure and Steph was back there with him and, well, I heard the skid loader shut down

and walked back there and there was

Dave and Steph standing over the pile of manure and I could see

basically the upper torso and ribcage

wrapped in plastic.

Steph turned to instant panic

and

started just kind of screaming, yelling,

just cover it up Dave, cover it up and I'm going to call mom and she took off running into the house and Steph comes back out maybe 10 minutes later.

Just leave it alone, just leave it alone.

Mom said it's illegal wild game that Jake shot like a bear.

Mom just says it's a dead animal.

Dude, just cover it up.

So that's exactly what I did.

I just covered it up.

You knew it was Jake in the manure pile.

We were pretty dang sure of it.

I don't know why I didn't say nothing.

I knew I should have.

I've had that gut feeling.

I should just say something.

I'm scared for my son, my wife, mine, everybody else's future.

I got overshore to set some.

David would not commit to who he thought killed Jacob.

However, he was highly suspicious that Stephanie may have killed Jacob.

It very quickly to me became apparent that Steph knew a lot more than she was letting me or Dave or anybody else know.

Coming up is Deborah taking the fall for her daughter.

It was Stephanie who was in charge.

Stephanie is the one who gave the orders.

She was really the controlling force.

I didn't know what to think.

It was definitely

uncomfortable.

After failing a polygraph, David Jackson has admitted to investigators that he believes his wife, Stephanie Jackson, may have murdered her brother, Jake Millison.

In another room, detectives confront Stephanie.

Stephanie admitted to knowing that Jacob's body was in the manure pile, but she didn't know that she was help covering up until later on.

There's still something that you're not telling us.

It's not just me.

Everybody believes you were involved.

Unfortunate for them.

No, it's unfortunate for you.

Because right now, you failed a polygraph regarding whether you shot him or whether you helped move that body out of the house.

She never said anything to me about it.

And I did not help her drag him out of the house.

So, your DNA should be on the gun that's called the baby.

I don't think I'd shot her.

Therein lies the out.

A person who had nothing to do with the sword is this, I've never shot that gun.

I don't know if a prisoner won't go be on that gun.

I like lawyers since you don't seem to want to talk to me.

With Stephanie stonewalling, detectives turn to the final resident of the ranch they haven't spoken to, farmhand Jeremy McDonald.

During our interview, McDonald was the one that gave us the

dynamic of the family and basically told us that it was Stephanie who was in charge.

Stephanie is the one who gave the orders.

Steph would sit inside and

tell everybody what to do.

She wanted everybody else to do everything for her.

So she was pretty controlling.

Jeremy also confirms David's story about discovering Jake's body in the manure pile.

Law enforcement asked him why he didn't come forward sooner with his belief that that was Jacob.

Staff said, you know, he can't ever leave now, right?

And still,

I mean, I

didn't know what what to think.

It was definitely

unnerving,

uncomfortable.

He was afraid of Stephanie, and so was David.

David was afraid of Stephanie.

In March 2018, with Jeremy's testimony, detectives arrest Stephanie, David, and Deborah, charging them with first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and destruction of evidence.

I think that they probably had this grand plan that with Deb being diagnosed with cancer, that she would be the one that did it and she would just die in prison.

And, you know, Stephanie, they would have the ranch.

Jake's murder happened because of greed and because of who was going to own the ranch.

It was all about property, all about the ranch.

Rather than face a trial, all three defendants agree to plea deals.

David enters an Alford plea and receives 10 years in prison for tampering with a human body.

We just cannot prove that he had much involvement in the actual killing of Jacob, but he was very involved with the cover-up.

Deb Rudabaugh plead guilty to murdering Jacob.

She also, of course, restated that Stephanie didn't have anything to do with the murder.

Deb's sentencing was

very cold.

She never really talked about Jacob and who he was, or that she

was remorseful.

She was sentenced to 40 years.

It's unbearable and unthinkable to

think about someone killing your own child in such a cold and callous way.

Stephanie Jackson pleads guilty to tampering with a body.

As part of her plea agreement, all other charges are dropped, including first-degree murder.

She was sentenced to 24 years.

Stephanie's sentence was a surprise because it was at the maximum level.

As the dust settles in Gunnison, the murder of Jake Millison is not a case the town, and especially Jake's close-knit circle of friends, will ever forget.

The fact that it was family members doing it to family members is just even more heart-wrenching and disgusting.

Jake is always going to be remembered as gentle, soft-spoken,

and caring.

Jake's friends were the reason that the investigation happened.

If it hadn't been for them, who knows?

Who knows how long it would have taken before somebody realized that he was gone?

Jacob's friends,

they couldn't save his life, but they found him some justice.

Deborah died in prison on October 30th, 2019, just days before her daughter's sentencing.

David Jackson became eligible for parole in October 2022.

David and Stephanie's son is being raised by David's family.

The 7-Eleven ranch is currently owned by Deborah's ex-husband, Bray Millicent.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our top.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

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