When interior designer Jade Janks discovered hundreds of explicit photos of herself hidden on her stepfather’s computer — some dating back to when she was just 16 — her world shattered.
Days later, Tom Merriman, co-founder of a beloved butterfly sanctuary in Encinitas, California, was dead.
What happened in the hours between that horrific discovery and Tom’s final breath? Was it premeditated murder... or a panicked act of vigilante justice?
In this episode, I'm diving deep into one of the most disturbing and controversial cases in recent memory. From shocking screenshots and deleted hard drives to text messages like, “I just dosed the hell out of him,” this case is layered in betrayal, trauma, and moral gray areas that’ll leave you questioning everything.
Was Jade seeking justice, or hiding a crime? Hit play — and then you be the judge.
Sources:
https://www.courttv.com/news/ca-v-jade-janks-racy-photos-murder-trial/
https://www.newsweek.com/jade-janks-murder-case-update-tom-merriman-1916645
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[00:00:00] Three men, three murders, one killer, who simply vanished. Thirty years later, Crime Adjacent host Chase Patrick returns to Ridgewood to uncover how the nation's most prolific serial killer went undiscovered and why he started killing again in 2023. Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. Listen to Crime Adjacent wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:00:30] The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised. All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty, and all opinions are my own.
[00:01:04] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young, and this is Serial Napper, the true crime podcast for naps. I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep, or perhaps to give you nightmares. They say that family is everything, but tonight's case might make you question that idea entirely. Because when the skeletons in the closet come spilling out, especially the kind you wish you'd never laid eyes on, loyalty can turn deadly.
[00:01:34] We're heading to the California coast, Salona Beach. It's the kind of place where life feels like an endless vacation. Think yoga studios, million-dollar views, and crime rates so low they're almost boring. That is, until one shocking night in December of 2020 that changed everything. That night, 39-year-old interior designer Jade Jenks, polished, accomplished, and seemingly put together,
[00:02:03] was arrested for the murder of her 64-year-old stepfather, Tom Merriman. But this wasn't some spontaneous blow-up or heat-of-the-moment tragedy. As the investigation unfolded, the story took a dark, winding turn, one filled with long, buried secrets, deep emotional wounds, and what some might describe as calculated vengeance. Because Jade didn't just snap out of nowhere.
[00:02:31] According to her, she made a horrifying discovery on her stepfather's computer. Something so traumatic, it flipped her entire world upside down. And depending on which side you believe, it either broke her or revealed who she truly was. So, dim the lights, put your phone down, and listen to the case of Jade Jenks, a woman whose life looked perfect on the outside,
[00:02:58] until a single discovery dragged it all into the light. And at the center of it all, a computer that held more than just files. So, let's jump right in. Before everything unraveled, Jade Jenks was a Texas girl with a seemingly normal life. She was born on October 14, 1983, to Jenny and Steve Jenks. The family was financially comfortable, and by all accounts, Jade had a stable, loving childhood.
[00:03:28] But things took a turn when she was 10, her parents divorced, and life as she knew it started to shift. Two years later, in 1995, her mother remarried, this time to a man named Thomas Merriman. And while Jade and her new stepdad weren't exactly an instant match made in heaven, over time, something surprising happened. They actually grew close. Tom doted on her, supported her,
[00:03:56] And eventually, Jade began to see him not just as her mother's husband, but as a true father figure. She called him dad. He called her his daughter. And it wasn't just words. Their bond seemed genuine. In 1997, the family expanded again with the birth of Jade's half-brother, Cash. Though they had different fathers, Jade and Cash were thick as thieves growing up.
[00:04:23] To outsiders, it probably looked like the Jenks Merriman household had blended into one happy, modern family. And for a while, it really did seem picture perfect. But again, behind closed doors, things weren't always so smooth. Jade's mother and father had what you might call a rollercoaster relationship. Volatile, passionate, and messy.
[00:04:47] Court records show that they filed for divorce not once, not twice, but three separate times. In 2002, 2006, and again in 2008. It was an emotional tug of war, the kind that left lasting marks on everyone involved. Still, Jade stayed close to Tom. Even after the final split, their bond held strong. She considered him family, full stop. As she once said herself,
[00:05:16] He would call me his daughter, and I would call him my dad. Which makes what happened later, and what she claimed to have discovered, that much harder to process. Because sometimes the people we trust the most are hiding things we could never imagine. As Jade Jenks moved into adulthood, she blossomed into the kind of person who seemed to have it all together. By her late teens and early 20s, Jade was the whole package.
[00:05:45] Popular, attractive, ambitious. The type of girl who could turn heads at a party, then get up the next morning and hustle towards her goals. She was beautiful, fun, loving, focused on friends and flirting, but she also had a clear vision for her future. Jade had always loved design. The way colors, textures, and space could make people feel something. And she wasn't just dabbling. She was building towards something real.
[00:06:15] She dreamed of launching her own interior decorating business. And spoiler alert, she actually did. She became known in Southern California for her bold, vibrant style. The kind that screamed coastal chic, but also felt totally authentic. Her look was California cool with a twist. She could be in ripped jeans tossing bags of concrete into her pickup truck one day, and the next she'd be dolled up in heels headed to a fancy dinner.
[00:06:44] The girl had range. People who knew her described her as warm, magnetic, and nurturing. Someone who brought the energy of a big sister or even a second mom. She was the kind of person you wanted to be around. The vibe was always safe, supportive, and effortlessly cool. Meanwhile, across the fence, literally, her stepfather, Tom, was living a very different life. Tom was a complicated man.
[00:07:13] He struggled privately with addiction to alcohol and sleeping pills. But publicly? Well, he was kind of a local legend. Back in 2013, Tom had co-founded a non-profit called Butterfly Farms in Encinitas, California, alongside his friend and business partner, Pat Flanagan. The two met while they were leasing nursing space back in 2011. What started as a palm tree business eventually blossomed into something far more meaningful.
[00:07:42] An entire sanctuary for butterflies. Yeah, literally, butterflies. They bought an enclosed space for raising butterflies and plants and opened butterfly farms in the spring of 2013. It quickly became a beloved spot in the community, known for its beauty, science outreach, and environmental focus. Tom was the brains behind a lot of it. As the director, he was respected for his hands-on knowledge,
[00:08:11] his big heart, and his passion for nature. Pat Flanagan, his partner, would later say, Tom was just an all-around good guy. He loved being outdoors. He was very handy. He cared, and he really gave a lot to the community. He was known as the butterfly guy. Charismatic. Someone who made an impact. But like a lot of people, Tom had layers. While the public saw a kind, community-focused conservationist,
[00:08:40] those closest to him also saw a man battling demons behind closed doors. As his substance use worsened, especially during the isolation of the pandemic, Jade made the choice to move into the house next door to him. She said it was to support him, to help him stay on track. After all, this was the man who had raised her, who had called her his daughter, who she still called dad. But what Jade didn't know was that inside that very house,
[00:09:10] she was about to make a discovery that would unravel everything. On December 15, 2020, Tom Merriman took a nasty fall at his home in Salona Beach. He was rushed to Scripps Hospital in Encinitas, where he remained for several days to recover. Jade, being the ever-dutiful daughter, decided to pop over his place to tidy up a little bit. You know, make sure everything was clean and cozy for when he got out.
[00:09:39] After all, this was what she did. She showed up. She helped. Even now, even with his health declining, she was still looking out for him. But on December 23, just a few days before Christmas, everything changed. She was in his room, probably folding clothes or dusting shelves, when she accidentally bumped his computer mouse. The screen flickered awake, and that's when her stomach dropped.
[00:10:07] There, on the screen front and center, as the actual screensaver, was a photo of a woman's breasts. At first, Jade was just kind of startled. Weird? Yes. Yes. Inappropriate? Sure. But nothing too far out of left field for a 64-year-old single man with no filter. Except, these weren't just any breasts. They were hers. She would say, quote, I look, and I'm like,
[00:10:36] those are my breasts. She was stunned, confused, probably a little bit nauseous. And Jade did what any of us would do. She started clicking. She logged into his computer, hoping that maybe it was some kind of sick misunderstanding. But what she found only made things worse. There were hundreds, literally hundreds, of explicit photos of herself, hidden in folders with graphic names.
[00:11:04] Some were sorted by body type. Others displayed in a photo carousel, like a twisted highlight reel of her most private moments. She recognized some of the photos as ones that she had taken years earlier with former boyfriends. But some of them, they were taken from different angles. Angles that she hadn't captured. And others, they were dated back to when she was just 16 years old. 16.
[00:11:32] She had never sent these photos to Tom. She had never shared anything like that with him. So, how did he get them? Had he hacked her phone? Had he secretly recorded her in the house where she grew up? Or worse, from the home she now lived in just steps away. It was a horror that Jade couldn't even begin to process. Later, she would say, It was the most violating, just awful, gut-wrenching feeling ever.
[00:12:01] I remember I felt sick. I felt I couldn't even touch my own skin. She suddenly felt unsafe in her own body. Unsafe in her own home. She didn't want to shower. She didn't want to change her clothes. She said she felt terrified to be alone. That she just wanted someone to look out for her. To make sure that she was safe. The man she had called dad for most of her life, the man she trusted, cared for, and supported,
[00:12:29] had betrayed her in the most devastating, dehumanizing way possible. And from that moment on, something inside her broke. Jade wouldn't call the police. She wouldn't report it. Instead, she kept the discovery to herself, at least for now. After that shocking discovery on December 23rd, the folders, the photos, the betrayal, Jade Jenks was shattered. And then, something shifted.
[00:12:57] Because instead of calling the police or confronting Tom directly, Jade made a different kind of move. She reached out to a man named Alan Roach, a guy who worked in security. Not a cop. Not a therapist. Security. They connected via Facebook that very same day, December 23rd. The very day that she found the images. Now, in their first exchange, Alan Roach sent her a message that would later come back to haunt both of them. He said, quote,
[00:13:26] If you have a problem, I can fix it for you. We don't know exactly what Jade said in response, but we do know that they quickly took the conversation off of Facebook. And the text messages that followed, let's just say, they didn't look good for her later. Fast forward to New Year's Day 2021. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department gets a phone call from a man named Adam Ziplak, a friend and, by some accounts, an ex-boyfriend of Jade Jenks.
[00:13:56] And what he tells the dispatcher is chilling. He says that on New Year's Eve, the night before, Jade had confessed to killing her stepfather, Tom Merriman. And not just that, she asked him to help move the body. Let me say that again. She allegedly told him that she had killed her stepdad and now needed help getting rid of the evidence. Adam was quick to clarify that he hadn't seen a body dead or alive. He didn't know for sure what had happened,
[00:14:26] but the conversation rattled him enough to call the police and say, hey, I think something seriously bad just went down. So now detectives are on high alert. They start reaching out to Tom's friends and family, but no one's heard from him. Not since he was discharged from the hospital where he had been staying after his fall. By the afternoon of January 1st, officers head over to Tom's home to check things out in person. They knock on the door, no answer. They walk around the property.
[00:14:56] They pass a large pile of trash in the driveway, which, remember that. And then they see a car pulling out of the neighbor's driveway, and it's Jade. Officers pull her over, and she doesn't resist. She agrees to come in for questioning. Back at the station, they ask the obvious, where's Tom? Jade tells them that she picked him up from the hospital the day before, December 31st, but claims that she dropped him off at home and then hasn't seen him since.
[00:15:25] Then, just as quickly, she shuts down. She asks for a lawyer, and she stops talking. Now, investigators know two things for certain. One, no one's heard from Tom Merriman in days, and two, Jade Jenks was the last known person to see him alive. But where was Tom? And what exactly had happened between the time Jade picked Tom up at the hospital and now? After questioning Jade, the officers eventually let her go.
[00:15:55] They didn't have anything concrete to keep her, only suspicions. But Tom Merriman, he was nowhere to be found. Detectives and officers spent that entire night combing through his apartment, searching for any sign, any clue that could tell them what had happened. And then, just after the first light of dawn, something chilling happened. One of the officers was walking down the driveway towards Tom's apartment when she noticed that pile of trash.
[00:16:24] You remember the pile, right? The one in the driveway that they had passed just the day before. Among wheelbarrows, boxes, boxes, and bags, she pulled aside a trash bag. And there, unmistakably, was a silhouette, a human shape. And beneath the trash, they found Tom Merriman. Laid out, cold, wrapped in a blanket, buried beneath garbage. He was still wearing a hospital bracelet from his recent release,
[00:16:53] as well as the same t-shirt and pajamas that he was discharged in. Whatever had happened to him happened very shortly after he was released from the hospital. The man who'd once been a butterfly sanctuary founder, a pillar of the community, was dead. And worse, his death was no accident. It's time for a quick break and a word from tonight's sponsors. Hang on, I'll be back before you know it.
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[00:19:21] Within hours, police arrested Jade Jenks. She was charged with the murder of Tom Merriman. But the full, tangled story, what really happened in those final days, the years of secrets, lies, and betrayal, would remain buried, at least for now. Once Jade Jenks asked for a lawyer and clammed up, investigators had to pivot. She wasn't talking, so now the pressure was on them to figure out what had actually happened to Tom.
[00:19:50] So, they circled back to where it all started. That phone call. That one phone call that first set this whole thing in motion. It came from Adam Siplak, Jade's friend or ex or some kind of situationship, we're not totally sure. But Adam told police something big. He said Jade called him over to her place on New Year's Eve, and when he showed up, she asked him for a favor, and not the kind you asked someone to help you move a couch or feed
[00:20:20] your cat. She allegedly asked him to help move a body, Tom's body. Adam said he didn't see a body, and he didn't help, he bailed. But he had more to say. He told police that Jade had confessed to killing Tom, that she'd given him a fatal dose of medicine, then strangled him. It was a pretty dramatic claim, and law enforcement thought, alright, this should be easy to confirm, at the autopsy. But then,
[00:20:50] surprise, the autopsy showed no signs of strangulation, none, no bruising on the neck, no petechia, nothing. What they did find, well, Tom died of acute ambient intoxication, a sleeping pill. He had so much of it in his system, the coroner ruled it the official cause of death. Now, just because the autopsy didn't show strangulation didn't mean that the case was closed. Investigators were still piecing
[00:21:20] together something they believed to be far more complex, and far more calculated. And for that, they turned to Jade's cell phone, which, as it turns out, was a digital goldmine. Her phone was loaded with text messages, and they painted a portrait of a woman spiraling after discovering those photos. In one message, Jade told a friend that she was, quote, beyond freaked out, that she couldn't even shower without throwing up, that just seeing a
[00:21:49] shower made her sick, that she was sleeping with a knife on her nightstand in case Tom came home early from the hospital. She felt unsafe, unhinged, violated in every possible way. But according to prosecutors, those texts, they also pointed to something else, a plan, because shortly after that discovery, one of Jade's friends allegedly connected her with a man known only as The Fixer. And who was The Fixer, you ask?
[00:22:19] Enter Alan Roach. Now, in his first Facebook message to Jade, Alan Roach wrote, quote, if you have a problem, I can fix it for you. Not exactly subtle. So, let's talk about Alan Roach for just a second. Was he a hitman? Nope, not even close. He was a security guard, not some underground enforcer with a shady past and a silencer in his glove box. But prosecutors didn't care so much about who Alan really was. What mattered
[00:22:49] was who Jade thought he could be. They argued that Jade believed she'd found her fixer, someone who could help her solve a deeply personal problem that had turned into a dark, spiraling obsession, her stepfather, Tom. And that's what the whole case hinged on. Jade Jenks went on trial in December of 2022 for first degree murder. She pleaded not guilty, and she had the full support of much of her family, including her biological father and
[00:23:19] her friends. Her defense team didn't deny that Tom died from a massive dose of Ambien, and the autopsy confirmed that, but they argued that Tom's death was self-inflicted. He had a long history of substance abuse, especially prescription pills, and alcohol. According to Jade and her lawyers, this was just a tragic end to an already broken pattern. They painted Jade as the dutiful, compassionate daughter figure who helped care
[00:23:48] for Tom even long after her mother had divorced him. She loved him, she said. He was the only dad she'd ever really known. She would have never hurt him. At trial, Jade testified that Tom called her around 6.45 a.m. on December 31, 2020, the morning of the incident, and he was asking her to come pick him up from the hospital. She said he was agitated and hyper-focused on getting medication, specifically
[00:24:18] codeine, which puzzled her. He claimed he hadn't slept and he needed something to help him rest. She picked him up from the hospital just after 11 a.m., and when he climbed into her car, he had a bag full of prescription medications, including Ambien, the same drug later listed as the cause of death in his autopsy report. Jade also claimed that almost immediately after getting in the car, Tom rummaged through her things and
[00:24:47] started helping himself to her prescription meds too, making him groggier and harder to manage as the day went on. Despite the deep unease she felt after discovering those horrific images just days earlier, Jade said she was still trying to do the right thing, taking him where he needed to go, trying to get help, and reaching out for support. She stopped at a shopping plaza and texted Alan Roach asking him to meet her. She told the court
[00:25:17] that she wanted to bring in Roach as a backup, not to kill Tom, but to help her confront him about the photos that she had found. In her words, quote, I just wanted someone there in case things got out of control. She said that she was terrified of what Tom might do or how he might react when he learned that Jade had discovered all of those explicit photos of herself on his computer. She didn't feel safe, which is why she wanted Alan Roach to be there, for protection.
[00:25:46] While waiting to hear back from Alan, she ran a few errands, purchasing gloves, towels, red nylon cord, and spray paint at the hardware store. Jade told the court that she bought the items for a painting project she was starting at home, but the prosecution, they saw those purchases much differently. To them, this was a murder kit in disguise. Jade testified that when she got home, Tom was too out of it to walk,
[00:26:16] and she couldn't get him out of the car. She drove him to a drug rehab facility, hoping that they would take him in, but due to COVID restrictions and without a doctor's referral, they turned her away. Back home again, she said she kept trying to get help. She called Alan Roach once again, but he said he couldn't make it, and he sent a friend, Brian Salomon, instead. According to Jade, Brian arrived, took one look at Tom slumped in the vehicle,
[00:26:46] and immediately left. However, according to Brian, she told him, Still desperate after Alan stopped talking to her, Brian left, she decided to call Adam Siplak, an old boyfriend. He came over that evening, according to Jade, and this is where things got messy, because Adam would later become the one to call the police and say Jade told him she had killed
[00:27:16] her stepdad. Jade denied ever making that confession. She said she was crying, overwhelmed, and just needed help getting Tom into the house. She says Adam was disturbed by Tom's condition because he was so pale and kind of slumped over, and Adam stormed out. With no other options, she said she left Tom in the car overnight, bundled up in blankets and pillows, hoping that he would just sleep it off. But the next morning, New Year's
[00:27:45] Day, Jade checked on Tom and realized the worst had happened. He was cold to the touch, and he appeared to be dead. She believed from an accidental overdose. Still, prosecutors weren't buying her version of events because they had text messages that told a very different story. There weren't vague messages or panicked rumblings. These were disturbingly specific. Quote,
[00:28:36] The prosecution revealed that security footage showed Jade purchasing all of those questionable items at the CVS and hardware store. And there was more physical evidence. There was Jade's DNA on Tom's Ambien bottle, a plastic bag with Tom's DNA on the inside, suggesting a possible attempt at suffocation. And then, of course, all of those frantic, violent-sounding text messages. Even though
[00:29:06] Alan Roach never came to Jade's house that day and never faced any charges, his absence didn't erase the digital paper trail. Prosecutors argued that Jade had planned to kill Tom, had possibly tried to asphyxiate him, and when that didn't work, she gave him a lethal dose of Ambien. The final text message that Jade ever sent to Alan Roach came at 5.33pm on January 1st, right as police pulled her over and it read,
[00:29:36] Lose my number, I'm getting pulled over. After all of the shocking testimony, the digital breadcrumbs, and courtroom drama, the big question still loomed. What exactly happened to Tom Merriman? Jade Jenks took the stand and told her version of events. But even her own attorney had to press her with the hard stuff, like, why didn't she just call 911 when she found Tom dead in her car? Jade's answer? She said she panicked. She was
[00:30:05] terrified that she'd be blamed. After all, she was the one who picked him up. She was the last person seen with him, and in her words, she didn't know what else to do. So instead of calling for help, Jade admitted to dragging Tom's lifeless body out of the car, still determined somehow to get him into the house. She said, quote, I continue to pull him out. I still wanted to get him into his house. I mean, I didn't, I didn't know what else to do. I panicked. I put the
[00:30:35] blanket over him, and I got empty boxes, and just kind of stacked it, made it look like a pile of debris. Jade left Tom's body in the driveway, disguised under a pile of trash. She insisted she never meant to hurt him. She never strangled him. She never drugged him. She never meant for any of this to happen. But the evidence painted a much darker picture. Her DNA was found on Tom's Ambien bottle. There was that plastic bag in her
[00:31:05] car with her DNA on the outside and Tom's DNA on the inside. And the text messages? Well, those were screaming something else entirely. I just dosed the hell out of him. I'm about to club him on the head. He's waking up. I really don't want to be the one to do this. The prosecution said Jade's plan was simple and chilling. Drug him until he was out cold, then suffocate him. And if that wasn't working fast enough, strangle him.
[00:31:35] Now, here's where the forensic part gets a little tricky, because the autopsy never said Tom was strangled. There were no marks on his neck, no broken cartilage, no bruising to scream asphyxiation. But prosecutors had an explanation for that too. If Tom had already been heavily sedated, basically unconscious, it wouldn't have taken much pressure to kill him. In fact, it could leave no visible injuries at all,
[00:32:04] especially if his breathing was already depressed from all of that ambient. After Tom was dead, the prosecution said Jade left him in the car overnight, maybe still scrambling for what to do next. Then came one more bizarre turns in the case, the wheelchair. The prosecution said that Jade drove to Scripps Hospital, where her stepdad had just been discharged from, with his body still in her car slumped over and dead,
[00:32:34] and she picked up a wheelchair. Because no one would help her to move his body from her car into the house, where she could make it look like an accidental overdose, she needed this wheelchair to push him into it and then transport his body into the home. Even weirder, while she was at the hospital, she didn't say a word to anyone. Despite the fact that she claimed the whole thing was an accidental overdose, she never told anyone in that hospital that Tom might be in trouble.
[00:33:04] She'd never asked for help. It was all a part of the plan, prosecutors argued, but they knew they had one big obstacle, Tom himself. They were worried that jurors might find Tom Merriman so unlikable or even predatory that they'd sympathize with Jade, that they'd see her as a traumatized woman who just snapped after discovering the ultimate betrayal. But as the deputy district attorney reminded them in his
[00:33:33] closing arguments, quote, Tom wasn't on trial. This wasn't his trial. He didn't get a trial. She was his judge, jury, and executioner. And so, it all comes back to Jade. Her trial lasted 10 days, and the jury deliberated for a little over a day before reaching a verdict. On December 21st, 2022, Jade Janks was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her stepfather, Tom Merriman.
[00:34:03] But many felt that justice was not truly served. In the end, no matter how dark this case got, and let's be honest, it got really dark, there were some truths that even the prosecution believed. While Tom Merriman's hard drive mysteriously vanished and was never recovered, investigators were able to retrieve a damning piece of evidence, a photo, that photo, the one Jade had described of her own breasts, used as Tom's
[00:34:32] screensaver. It had been saved on his laptop since August of 2019. The prosecution even felt that there was no doubt that these photos likely existed. No doubt that Jade had seen them, and no doubt that it was devastating, life-altering betrayal. But not a reason to kill someone. Three months after the guilty verdict, in March of 2023, Jade Janks returned to court for her sentencing. And this time, she wasn't
[00:35:02] just facing the judge, she was facing her past. A local pastor stepped forward to speak about Tom's legacy, his beloved butterfly sanctuary, and the man that he remembered. Jade sobbed quietly in her seat. Then, her biological father, Stephen Janks, stood up. A man who had remained silent throughout her arrest and trial, but now, he had something to say. He said, quote, I can only imagine what she went through when she found out that Tom,
[00:35:31] her stepfather, a person she trusted, called Dad, was a sick, perverted individual. All I can say is this, this fight is not over. I truly believe that an injustice has taken place. And finally, Jade herself spoke. This wasn't a tearful apology. It wasn't a denial either. It was something more complex. A woman trying to explain the damage done to her as a child, and the moment her world imploded. She said,
[00:36:01] quote, Tom came into my life when I was just a little girl and exerted influence during that early stage of development when I was still figuring things out. Unfortunately, that influence manifested itself into inappropriate touch, coercion, reckless behavior, and complete violation of what I now realize was years of psychological manipulation. All of this came crashing down on me when I found hundreds of naked photos of myself on his computer.
[00:36:31] I felt shattered. Now, this was the first time she had mentioned inappropriate touch by Tom. She was adamant in the past that he had never done anything to physically abuse her, so it's difficult to say what the truth is. Either way, it's incredibly sad that she was pushed to a point where she felt that vigilante justice was the only way. Jade Jenks was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. She will be eligible for parole
[00:37:01] when she is 64 years old, the exact same age that Tom Merriman was at the time of his death. And so, here we are. Was this a calculated murder disguised as moral outrage? Or was it the desperate act of a woman pushed to her psychological breaking point? Let me know what you think. That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out, you can find me on Facebook at Serial Napper. You can find my audio on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to
[00:37:31] podcasts. I'd love if you can give me a thumbs up and subscribe. Every little bit helps. I'm also on Patreon if you'd like to get your episodes early and ad free. Check out all the details at patreon.com slash Serial Napper. Until next time, sweet dreams, stay kind, especially in the comments. Bye. Bye.

