The Murder of Jennifer Servo
Imagine having your whole life ahead of you - twenty-two, young, beautiful, hard-working, and hitting the ground running in your dream career - only to have it ripped away from you with no answers as to what happened.
Jennifer Servo was a news anchor for KRBC-TV in Abileen, TX, at the start of her career and eager to climb the ladder and put in the work to get to the top. Having recently graduated college, she had moved to Texas from Columbia Falls, Montana only two months prior to taking this job. She was incredibly ambitious and wouldn’t let anything get in the way of her dream of being a household name with the news, which is why it was no surprise that when she had found that the supposed love-of-her-life, Ralph Sepulveda, was hiding a huge secret when he moved to TX with her, she cut ties with him. His secret? He had a child and a fiancé See, Jennifer and Ralph had been dating a very short time. I believe it was only for a few months that they had been seeing each other. Ralph was twelve years older than Jennifer - at 34-years-old and active-duty Army - Jennifer had met him when she joined the Army Reserves to help pay for college. After being asked to move out, Ralph didn’t go far. He stayed in Texas, fairly close to where he had been living with her. Kinda weird, right?
Despite this breakup, Jennifer was determined to keep going forward with her life - which was going so well otherwise. She had made friends quickly - as she usually did. One of her friends, in particular, Brian Travers - the weatherman for KRBC-TV had taken an interest in Jennifer. She had confessed to a close friend of hers that she had in fact made out with Brian, but was only interested in being friends with him. She even felt bad about it, because it seemed as if he were definitely interested in more than friendship. After having that conversation, he and Jennifer continued to be friends and co-workers. The last evening that she was seen alive, she was actually out grocery shopping with Brian and went back to his place with him to help him unload the groceries before heading back to her own apartment.
According to Brian, while they were driving that evening, she felt as if someone were following them, making all of the same turns they were making.
Evidently, Brian thought nothing of it at the time, as when Jennifer was found dead in her apartment on September 18, 2002, Brian hadn’t told the police about her feeling as if she were being followed until nearly a week later.
Jennifer had been off of work for a few days and was only found on the 18th because her boss was trying to reach her to come in and help out because they were short-handed that day. It was incredibly unlike her to not answer her phone, and even more unlikely to not return a phone call. Her mom had been trying without success to reach her as well, and before the police could arrive to perform a well-check on Jennifer, she was found by an apartment complex employee checking on her.
The scene left little to question as to whether it was an accidental death or a murder. When I tapped into her name and this case prior to doing any research, what I first saw was a flash of army boots - or possibly work boots - light brown/tan combat boot style. The next thing that I saw was blonde hair matted down to the side of a woman’s head, and blood dried to and around her ear, as well as the side of her head. I also saw her eyes as someone tried to strangle her and she grabs at their wrists. I can see his hands and they look larger. I also see the side of his face very clearly, and these types of images are definitely stronger than the visual that I usually get. I can without a doubt tell you who I think did it -allegedly of course - for entertainment purposes only. *Cough*
Jennifer was also sexually assaulted. It appears that her attack began in the bedroom and ended in the bathroom - where she was dragged to. What I see when I connect to this is:
First, I saw the boots and then the hair matted down with blood. However, when I step back and ask to see more of what happened (this doesn’t always work, but it most certainly showed me more than I could have hoped for). I then see the night as it unfolded as I see it. I see her walking up to her apartment and unlocking the door, getting inside, and settling in. I see her still shaken by the sense that someone was following her, but trying to shrug it off in the way that Brian did. If he didn’t think it was serious, then maybe she was paranoid. I don’t think she was though. She then unpacks a few things and settles in for the night - calls her ex-boyfriend still living in Montana, Dave Warren, and chats with him for a bit. According to police, Dave Warren never mentions that Jennifer brought up being followed. Some find this peculiar because had she said it to Brian, why wouldn’t she bring it up to Dave? I believe when Brian brushed it off, she was convincing herself that she was being “silly,” and everything was fine - which is why she wouldn’t have brought it up to Dave.
I see her hanging up with Dave and a knock at the door, “Jen, Jennifer…” is what I hear. I see her looking to see who it is, recognizing Ralph’s voice and sighing heavily. She doesn’t want him to make a scene, as it’s late, so she begrudgingly lets him in. He wants to talk about how “it wasn’t working with his fiancé and she had to trust him, that he would have told her... “ yada yada yada. She goes on about her business tidying up her apartment and taking care of whatever because she can’t be bothered with this and I feel she is sort of letting him have his 15 minutes before she’ll ask him to leave. I can see her moving around her apartment and passively arguing back with him, but essentially sticking to her decision that it just isn’t going to work, because she just can’t trust him anymore. I see him grab her wrist and try to get her to be intimate with him and she pulls away. I can hear him say, “please, Jen, Jennifer,” and getting more frustrated with her because his tantrum isn’t working the way that he thought it would. When he met her, she seemed like a naive and pretty young girl who felt perfect for him to manipulate and work his narcissistic drama on, but he didn’t realize she was someone who wouldn’t take his shit. So when she resists him, I see him pick something up off of her dresser, and smash her in the head kind of behind her ear, toward the back of her head. I can’t tell what the object is, but I feel as if it had been either on her dresser, or he set it down there while arguing and picked it back up. I believe she was stunned so-to-speak and tried to climb away from him toward the bathroom, which I feel was on the way toward the exit, or toward a phone, maybe both, and he dragged her into the bathroom where he assaulted her and strangled her in the process.
The thing is with this case, is that detectives know who her killer is. They can’t make an arrest because they don’t have sufficient DNA evidence (this was contaminated by her cat’s hair/DNA mixing in with hers and her attackers) and if they made an arrest, they would risk not being able to go to trial, or losing the case altogether. The cat isn’t the only problem though. His DNA would have already been in the apartment anyway because just weeks prior, he was still living there with her. Even if I thought for a second it was Travers, his DNA was there as well, but he had been there hanging out, and that was known that they hung out. Travers was incredibly cooperative with police, mourned with her family, and was blown to pieces when he learned of her murder. Ralph, on the other hand, didn’t even ask how she died or what had happened. Now, some say Travers must be guilty because his parents got a lawyer for him as soon as he was questioned. I think this was smart, not suspicious at all. The case was clearly going to blow up in the media, a young pretty news reporter was brutally slain in her apartment - it would have been stupid to not have lawyered up when questioned. What’s Sepluveda’s alibi? He was at his apartment - alone when Jennifer was murdered - and no way of verifying his alibi. Travers was also with Jennifer the night of her murder, and police have not been able to rule him out either - but here, I feel it’s almost as if they publicly keep Travers as a listed suspect so that they can keep Sepulveda from thinking he’s the only suspect they have - though I feel he’s truly the only one they’re focused on.
Do I feel that Sepulveda will be caught? Or whoever it was that killed her? I honestly do not think that they will ever pin her murder on one person, and it feels largely because of contaminated evidence, and lack of eyewitnesses. I hope that I’m wrong and that Jennifer’s friends and family get the closure that they so need, that Brian can finally 100% clear his name, and that Ralph gets the punishment that he so deserves. That would make my soul scream with joy. However, for now, it’s up to us - the armchair detectives and true crime obsessed, to keep her name in the media so that we get her story and the stories of others into the right ears. You never know who could hear something and jog their memory.
And with that, I’ll catch you next time my friends. Stay safe.
Sources:
Hub Pages - Jennifer Servo
Still a Mystery - Season 02 Episode 01
ABC Prime Time
The Unresolved Murder of Jennifer Servo
(I usually wouldn’t use this as a source, but the author also had their sources listed and could be referenced).
