I have yet to hear anything on what the California department of justice found in any investigations it may have launced into the abuses that undoutbtedly occured at Frontera.
May Jesslyn Rich and Teri Lucas never be forgotten...

Well the California Department of Corrections as well as their guards union have a rather long standing history of corruption that continues to this day. This is a problem in many states, but in California the problem is particularly bad because their guard union is arguably the most powerful in the country in terms of prison guard unions and they can usually dictate who gets elected statewide and who doesnt although I do not think they endorsed Arnold and he still won.

I hope they can find who did this to these women but part of the problem is the California Department of Justice probably does not have much motivation to solve this case since their buddies over at the California Department of Corrections probably were involved and know what happened.

man thats really a shame!
the children of jesslyn rich deserve to know who and why.

This story always outraged me; our legal system is a shame when something so obviously a crime is ignored. Disgusting :mad:

what i cannot understand is the account of jesslyns friend...
did they just decide to leave jesslyn there at the bar even though she never came out of the restroom? why not check on her?
according to her account, she saw a man walking right behind jesslyn.
she was never seen again.
it would seem that the information on guards who may have been involved or had knowledge of this crime would be easy to come by.
I have to wonder why Betty Thompson has not done more, to our knowledge, anyway, to bring these people into the light and have them investigated...

I remember Betty talking about testifying or something and UM showed a newspaper clipping of her talking, so I think she's trying to do her part. It's ridiculous that law enforcement hasn't sat up and listened. As for Jesslyn Rich being left in the bathroom, I sure hope that was just UM being vague and not giving the whole story.

Corruption galore! Especially with the LAPD!

on the web there is almost totally ZERO information on this case, except the articles detailing the continued inappropriate behavior on behalf of the guards and other staff there.
evidently more than one of them needs to be replaced with someone who has a little more integrity.
it's also not much of a wonder that the prison officials declined to be interviewed for the segment, wanting to protect their own selfish hides.
meanwhile the families of Rich and Lucas are left to wonder who killed the women, and why.
i guess it's just another one of those instances where people who know and disagree are just either afraid or unwilling to make any revelations about the fate of these two women, and other abuses that have occured.

i just watced this segment again... i cannot imagine what her daughters went through for 8 years not knowing where their mother was...:mad: :livid:

Corruption galore! Especially with the LAPD!
Tell me about it.

(cough) Paris Hilton (cough, cough)

does anybody know any names of the supervisors or whoever the people may have been involved in this case?
surely the names came out during the investigation that was conducted...

This story always outraged me; our legal system is a shame when something so obviously a crime is ignored. Disgusting :mad:
This case pissed me off also. You have to think though. When whisle blowers expose corruption those people exposed retailate. Look at the case of Michael Franke.

I will say it again: dumb....:mad:

just watched this segment again....:mad:

This is another underappreciated case I was always interested in. I'd actually really like to know what the connection was between Jeeslyn and the young inmate who died (Terry Lucas). Not only is it a tragedy she died (probably murdered), but like the segment pointed out, she very likely had information on it.

I can't imagine how corrupt that system must've been, especially considering the intimidation on that woman Betty (forget her last name), and the attempted murder. Does anyone know what happened to her since '92?

you know, it would be very, very nice to be able to know the name of Betty Thompson's supervisor who was forcing Thompson to falsify her report... undoubtedly she knows something.... i have to wonder why some of this information has not come to light after all these years???
again, this is one of the most heartbreaking cases i have ever seen...:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

This link might already have been posted but if not, an Unsolved Mysteries fan did their own recap of this case on DetroitGothic.net and one of Jesslyn's daughter's responded twice...

APRIL 6, 2008 -

Dear Miranda,

My name is Leslie Grace. My maiden name is Rich. Jesslyn Rich is my Mother. I had to respond to your post because the ending is not true. The body parts found in San Bernardino, California were never identified. There were 3 or 4 body parts found. One of them was a forearm with the hand attached and another was the bottom part of someone's leg (cut off from the knee down) My Mother's shoe size was not the same as the size of whoever's foot that was and the fingerprints from the hand were not a match to my Mother's. The remains were never IDed. I have recently given my DNA to the police for an investigation involving these body parts. They are using my DNA to disprove that the parts belong to my Mother. Feel free to write to me if you like.

Sincerely, Leslie Grace

Leslie reponded again later that day...

Hey, this is Leslie Grace. I just wanted to let you know the body parts from San Bernardino have never been identified. A sheriff came to my house a few months ago to collect my DNA to disprove the report that those parts were from my Mother, Jesslyn Rich. I want to thank you for your interest in this case. My Mom was never found, but they have closed the case. It's been 25 years and we just recently had a memorial service for her. I was very blessed to have a group of my church members donate the money for the headstone. An agency affiliated with the sheriff's dept paid for the work to be done. I thank God for the blessings of my life!

http://www.detroitgothic.net/index.php?showtopic=20577&pid=575237&st=0&#entry575237

what i do not understand is how they could have closed the case if she was never found? and how could it be closed if they are still asking for DNA from her daughter to prove whether or not they have found her remains???
at least Jesslyn Rich died defending integrity...

Just finished watching this one.....it seems if you want to work in CA, don't have anything to do with their "justice" system there!

you know, it would be very, very nice to be able to know the name of Betty Thompson's supervisor who was forcing Thompson to falsify her report... undoubtedly she knows something.... i have to wonder why some of this information has not come to light after all these years???
again, this is one of the most heartbreaking cases i have ever seen...:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

That part is easy, her name was Lt. Karmen Juarez. Here's a 1991 article:

http://articles.latimes.com/1991-08-21/news/mn-925_1_prison-trial-stand

The hard part, is finding out what happened. That's the only info I could find.

What I never understood was...why leave the inmates'(Terry I think someone said)body in the jail cell for days after she died (was probably murdered)

Unless...and this sounds gruesome...they were letting the body decompose in the hopes that doing that would hide some of the trama she suffered.

i wonder what the outcome of the trial was?

I just re-watched this recently... and I think they left the body in the cell in part to cloud evidence but also to scare and intimidate Betty Thompson, to try to cow her into silence. She had to walk by that cell for three days and see the body and remember the last conversation she had with her before she died. They did that on purpose, to keep her and anyone else in the infirmary who might have overheard the conversation between Thompson and Teri Lucas from talking. Surely the other inmates/workers in the infirmary that night know who came in and went out.

I also remember reading a 1990 article claiming a person who had worked in the bar was responsible for the killing, but that he had died from a heart attack and relatives had come forward with his "confession" after the fact. They found a dead person to pin the murder/disappearance on so they could "close" the case.

As far as what happened there was heavy investigation in the early to mid 90s. There were about 30 weird deaths at the prison during those years. There were a bunch of articles about the chief medical officer at the prison, who was put on leave, then under investigation. He "retired" with his full benefits. His medical license was suspended. There was another series of articles regarding the relative of a former warden at Frontera, who was brought up on charges of abusing the inmates. The articles mentioned that inmates who testified were intimidated and received threatening phone calls also, and some of them had to be transferred out of Frontera while the investigation was taking place.

Finally I did read that the families of the some of the inmates who died in the prison received six-figure sums from the state. And a law was passed in CA requiring all inmate deaths to be reported within two hours. So some good things did come out of this.

"Finally I did read that the families of the some of the inmates who died in the prison received six-figure sums from the state. And a law was passed in CA requiring all inmate deaths to be reported within two hours. So some good things did come out of this."

Let me start by Saying this, Who give a FLYING F#%* what some criminal inmates families got. Sorry If i sound a little bothered when this last poster suggests some "good" came out of this. Jesslyn was My Aunt and Leslie is my cousin. WE Have never recieved ANYTHING, NOT EVEN JUSTIVE or Dime One! Not that ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY Could make this travesty right.
Furthermore this last poster claims someone from the bar murdered her? YOU LIE!!! I have Never heard that allegation AT ALL. My Dad Who was in this episode of UM had alot more information that UM didn't even air. He had been telling the police All along who kidnapped her and they WOULD NOT pursue It. Many many many years later the same person supposedly "confessed" on their deathbed. He probably didn't even confess, they just did that to attempt to close the case.
All You Lying batstards and criminal cheats, Murderers and drug smugglers Are going to BURN IN HELL! That is the closest to Justice Good People get in this World Sadly enough.

All You Lying batstards and criminal cheats, Murderers and drug smugglers Are going to BURN IN HELL! That is the closest to Justice Good People get in this World Sadly enough.

Ohhhhhhkay....:rolleyes:

"Furthermore this last poster claims someone from the bar murdered her? YOU LIE!!!

I definitely didn't say someone from the bar murdered her. The article didn't say the case was solved, or that a murderer was found. All it said was what the police said: that they "found" someone from the bar who made a deathbed confession, so they closed the case. The article didn't come out and say it, but made it look like the police scrambled to find someone to pin the crime on to get the story out of the press, and then they covered up the rest. Didn't want to get their hands dirty.

The "good" was in reference to the government's attempts to protect inmates so they can speak up without ending up like Terri Lucas. That was my point. I apologize if my choice of words offended you, or if my post implied in some way that criminals' lives were valued more highly than lives of people like your aunt. That was not my intent.

My intent was to pass along information to try to promote interest in some of these older cases so we keep reading and commenting and talking about them and maybe they won't stay closed.

I wonder what Betty Thompson is up to these days? it took a lot of courage for her to stand up and bring all this stuff to light.
Anyway as I have said before, I hope that one day the people who killed Jesslyn Rich and Terri Lucas will be found out and brought to justice.