Willey wanted to help Jessica because she was scared of Matthew, too. You want to start recording me, and started quoting me, you'd better let me know ahead of time, or we're gonna have a problem. The officers found a police-issued .40-caliber Glock belonging to Matthew under Jessica's body. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. It was almost like her personality got squished out of her.. Police investigate further and find a gun underneath Jessicas limp body. We have an individual that is a parent that attempted to take her own life, his lawyer, Lance Owen, told the judge. Matthew was called in for questioning. Mathew, a then police officer raced home only to hear 2 consecutive gunshots. You find plenty of reasons to leave nowI know that, Jacob teased her. Lowry wanted to put witnesses on the stand who would testify that Matthew had been psychologically abusive. A few days later, Kathy noticed Jessica crying. provided images. Can a new approach curb domestic homicide? Especially because of my children. She started crying. At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. All rights reserved. In the past thirty years, the criminal-justice system has become more responsive to domestic violence, but family courts have been largely insulated from this cultural change. Only eight were fired. Henderson, the surgeon, had written Lowry a letter stating that whatever investigation there was done into this event in no way reflected our observations in the emergency room.. Although the hospital had placed her under constant observation after she was admitted, the precautions were removed after she regained consciousness. Leigh Goodmark, the director of the Gender Violence Clinic, at the University of Marylands Carey School of Law, speculates that one reason for the dearth of research is a reluctance to fund a study that will bring attention to an uncomfortable dilemma: that, as Goodmark says, those policing the crime and those committing it are often the same person.. In late 2014, Whitehouse, one of the youngest deputies in the sheriffs office, scheduled a meeting with Beam to say that Gibsons treatment of female cops was demeaning. In December, 2016, Jessica filed a report with the Griffin Police Department, saying that Matthew hadnt returned her belongings. In April 2016, hours after an argument with his wife Jessica, Griffin, Georgia police officer Matthew Boynton radios for assistance and reports hearing two gunshots coming from inside his home. One woman said that he would drive to her house and shine the lights of his patrol car into her windows. In July, he was charged with two felonies: making false statements and violating his oath of office. He didnt find any, and dismissed the protective order. Dusty approached a group of Griffin police officers and asked whether Matthew had shot her sister. The next day, Yates texted the D.A. At the Griffin Police Department, concerns about domestic violence have apparently been so slight that in 2018 the department hired an officer whose personnel record showed that he had recently been accused by his childs mother of threatening her with a gun. This activity on his cell phone had to have taken place inside the kitchen inside his apartment," Mathews said to DeMarco in a recorded phone conversation. The judges are very swayed by their own reactions to each person, Meier said. We believe he is a danger to her, she told the judge, Tommy Hankinson. They had even taken notebooks off shelves and shredded the documents., Dix was one of the Griffin police officers present the night that Jessica was shot. It was retrieved from the kitchen counter in front of the microwave oven," she probed further. Jessica Boynton was married to Matthew Boynton, a local police officer and grandson of the county sheriff. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. They say she tried to commit suicide but, there is more to the story. She silently surveyed the walls, where her family had taped pictures of her sons. After getting home around 10:45 PM, a neighbor heard a gunshot from the Boynton home. Credit: GBI/Griffin Police Dept. It was like she needed permission for everything, she said. But the sheriff still loomed large in their relationship. Twice, she later testified, Gibson choked her. After Jessica had been in the hospital for a month, her doctors tried to transfer her to a rehabilitation program, but she didnt have insurance, so she was discharged to the care of her grandparents. 9,226 people follow this. At the recommendation of the captain, and with Beams approval, an outside agency investigated Gibson and concluded that he was a predator. In the spring of 2015, Beam allowed Gibson to retire, keeping his pension. Mike Yates, the chief of the Griffin police, told me in an e-mail that Matthews case had nothing to do with domestic violence. No it wasn't. He would flash his lights and pull her over, and force her to have sex with him. She had both of the boys packed and ready to go, Dusty said. Will Sanders, the truck driver, reached a similar conclusion. That piece of evidence was a photo showing Matthew's cell phone next to the microwave inside the apartment. Because if you go to the photographs that are part of your investigative case file, there's a photograph after the evidence report for his cell phone" she said. Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us. Is Jessica Boynton still alive? The following year, Gibson put a female colleague in a headlock and held a Taser against her temple. There are a lot of questions that I would love to have answered. Sheriff Beam can carry a weapon, he said. Her voice was hoarse from the breathing tubes, and she seemed childlike and dazed, as if her only goal was to accommodate the agents as quickly as she could. They wanted me to come back Friday for orientation for the job, she said. Willey contacted Jessica on Facebook and warned her that Matthew was not taking good care of the children; they were subsisting, she said, on cheese puffs, Fudge Rounds, corn dogs, and Mountain Dew, and sleeping at odd hours. But, he said, there are a lot of questions out thereboth in favor of Jessica and in favor of Matthewthat could be answered, but I just dont think the G.B.I. Have you ever had any thoughts about hurting yourself? Coleman asked. When the roles were reversed, fathers lost custody in only twelve per cent of cases. Even Gibsons lawyer, Phil Friduss, seemed at a loss to explain whether Gibson had controlled the county, as so many people believed. Jessica Boynton was found in a closet bleeding out. DeMarco told Matthew that his clothes might need to be collected as evidence. FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE FOR YOURSELF, CLICK HERE. Jessica would not touch a gun, she said. Of course, it was through my efforts that we landed that account, but did I get any credit? He's meeting his buddy at the local Waffle House. Jessica, then-19, had just put her two young sons to bed and was getting her clothes ready in the closet for the next day. The police were notified of said "shooting" by Jessica's then husband Matthew Boynton. Sanders was forty-three years old and the son of a former Republican state representative; he considered himself a happy beneficiary of the good-old-boys system, he told me, and did not do his work in pursuit of political reform. But asking those questions resulted in a threat. She agreed, and in May, 2017, Sanders dropped off the bag at the Griffin Police Department. Its always more exaggerated every time. She felt uncomfortable that Matthew told Beam every detail of his life, but that the conversations were all confidential.. Chris DeMarco, GBIs assistant special agent in charge, arrives on the scene and meets with Griffin Police Chief Michael Yates for a briefing. Haha I'm sorry I didn't think about that lol he sends to her after receiving a text from her--moments following his text from his wife. Dr. Vernon Henderson, chief of Trauma and Critical Care at Atlanta Medical Center was on-call the morning Jessica came in and treated her for the next month while she was in the hospital. Jessica had to wean her baby before starting the job, so on Thursday night she and Matthew drove to Walmart, to buy formula. The nurse didnt answer. But Matthew said that hed raise the child as his own. About the podcast. Her shoulder-length, blonde hair was saturated in crimson. While sifting through pages and pages of the report, a GBI evidence photo caught her attention. The next door neighbor interview was conducted after Matthew returned to full duty. Thats the game here, he said. Community. Yates had lost his previous job, in 2014, as chief of the police department in Jonesboro, Arkansas, after he called a local reporter smelly and said that dealing with her was like trying to pick up a dog turd by the clean end. She resigned, citing the level of stress and anxiety created by a public official who commands a small army., Within two hours of Sanderss Facebook comment, Yates informed Sanders that his private Facebook messages would be made accessible to any persons interested in the entire scope of your actions, activities, motives and history. He added, This material will be released in the interest of transparency and context. The department had obtained the messages a year earlier, as part of the investigation into Jessicas gym bag. After you got on the radio and you were outside communicating on the radio, you never went back in to actually check, check on the kids, the agent questioned Matthew about once he removed himself from the apartment. I didnt know if I was dealing with a possible active active scenario where she still had the gun and she had shot Tyler, he replied. And in both instances, he was cleared of wrongdoing.), That Matthew had found himself in a troubled relationship did not surprise Dix. I hugged her and said, Its going to be O.K. And she said, No, and looked at her husband. (Amy did not want to comment for this article, explaining in an e-mail, I have tried to remain neutral in this very serious situation.). Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. But according to Mathews, that was not the last number dialed, so it could not have just been a redial accidently called through the evidence bag. Jessica could see her children for only four hours on Sunday afternoons. Owen proposed that Beam supervise the visits. Matthew is challenging the ruling in court. She said that all she could remember about that night was that shed gone to Walmart. Matthew was now dating Shelby Willey, a young mother who had recently separated from her husband. Two shots had been fired. Recent signers. Did he cause his estranged spouses injury? I love you and the boys., A minute later, Matthew responded to a joke from Callaway. "How did his phone get in there? When Matthew drove his patrol car, he would often take the keys to his truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, so that Jessica couldnt use it. Like, how hours after the shooting, the phone was put into an evidence bag, sealed and logged into GBI evidence, it was still calling Matthew's girlfriend. Im only concerned with the G.B.I. Yes, for an article, just to make sure I get quotes proper.". Whitehouse didnt understand why she was being directed to basically a hiding spot. She recorded the conversation on her phone, so that investigators could look for clues if she disappeared.