Jocelyn Peters and the Notebook

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0:57This victim resided in an apartment inside the building. Uniformed officers had already been there. The first thing we do is we're going to go in and we're going to see where our victim is. My name is Mark Biondelino. I'm a retired homicide detective from the city of St. Louis, and I investigated the murder of Jocelyn Peters from March 24, 2016. This isn't someone who would accidentally leave a door open. She was responsible, one of the most responsible people. I knew it just didn't make sense. She was a strong force, fierce advocate for children, loved them dearly, and everyone was going to succeed in her classroom.

1:39She always wanted to do the next best thing. In her free time, she was always checking out what she could do differently to meet the kids' needs, what programs there were out there. There are only three to four full-time arts teachers at the middle school level. She'd bust into my office, hey, I need you to come to my classroom today. I've got some magic going on and you need to come and see it. The kids were learning and she cared about each one of them and whatever they needed, she gave that to them. The first person that we're going to speak to is the person that discovered her. And this is Cornelius Green.

2:13Correct. She truly, truly fell in love with him, honestly, and we all did. He was a principal. He was kind. He was generous. I mean, he was very attentive to our needs. He voluntarily goes down to the police headquarters. You were in Chicago since Tuesday? Yes, sir. And then you come back today at 2.57 p.m. This might have to Amtrak at 2.57. How did you get to the train station? My brother drove me over there. You're Phillip? Yeah. He identified Philip Cutler as brother, was the person who was transporting Mr. Green to the Amtrak station, picking him up when he arrived back in town. Other investigators from the homicide unit were able to go out and pick up Mr.

3:10Cutler to conduct an interview. Detective Herzberg advised him, we're going to speak to you regarding this homicide that occurred today. After hearing the word homicide, he stands up, he lets out a big sigh, and then he reaches into his back pocket and retrieves a notebook. He thumbs through several pages, tears out a piece of paper, and then he immediately puts it into his mouth and begins chewing it.

3:44Whatever was on those two sheets of paper, he immediately wanted to get rid of. There's another sort of loose end in this case too. Yes. We identified immediately organic materials splattered about in the headboard and around her pillow and then along the floor. What did that turn out to be? We identified that as being fragments from a potato, like what you think, like a baked potato. This case is baffling. My name is Tiffany Becker. I'm a retired assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. I couldn't believe the depravity of the crime itself. Hey, do you ever been involved in a case like this before?

4:30Nothing like this.

4:39Anne-Marie Greene reports. Jocelyn Peters in the Notebook.

4:51lead homicide detective mark beyondolino began the investigation into jocelyn peters murder on march 24th 2016 since then he has remained connected to the case even though he's now retired from thest louis missouri police department i think you have a responsibility to do that he wanted to see it to the end you got to see it to the end. If you're working in homicide, you're not just going to let it fall by the wayside. We took a drive to the city's central West End neighborhood. Nestled among the historic homes is Jocelyn Peters' apartment building. Her apartment's right up there. Yeah, it's the second floor balcony you see that's directly in front of us.

5:36Is it easy to access that apartment? From the outside, absolutely not. I mean, It's a tremendous distance from the ground up to that balcony. Jocelyn Peters lived in apartment 201. A 30-year-old third-grade teacher had been murdered in the middle of the night while she was sleeping in her bed. Authorities believe she was killed between 3 a.m. and 3.40 a.m. How do you get inside the building? So this is the front foyer entryway to the apartment complex. You'd have to use your key to get in through that front foyer and then go up the stairs directly at the top of the banister, the staircase. Jocelyn's boyfriend, Cornelius Green, had been in Chicago for three days.

6:22When he returned to St. Louis on Thursday, March 24th, he told investigators he drove his car, a white Kia Optima, straight to her place. Jocelyn's mother, Lacey Peters, says she received an alarming call from Cornelius soon after. When he called me, he told me that he went to go check on her, and she was on the floor. Deidre Peters, Jocelyn's aunt, says she had heard something was wrong with her niece. She immediately began driving towards her apartment, but before she could get there. Lacey had called, and she said, Deidre, pull over. And I don't remember anything that happened at that point because I lost it.

7:08Police had given Lacey news no mother wants to hear. Jocelyn, her eldest daughter, was dead. I just remember just crying and just screaming. This couldn't be true. Authorities say there were no signs of forced entry at Jocelyn's apartment. The wood door at the main entrance appeared secure and sturdy. The landlord was hyper-secure over who had keys and what type of keys are used to get into that building. The keys were non-duplicatable. They're unable to be duplicated. If you took it to a locksmith, they're not allowed to make a copy for you, or they could lose their certification. It was no surprise to investigators that Cornelius had keys to Jocelyn's place.

7:55While they didn't live together, they had been in an intimate relationship for five years. Jocelyn was seven months pregnant, and Cornelius was the father. Jocelyn felt that he'd make a wonderful father. In Jocelyn's home, investigators discovered a guest list, as well as invitations inspired by Alice in Wonderland for her upcoming baby shower. Beyond Delino and his team had a lot of questions about the crime scene. Had the apartment been ransacked, had it looked like there'd been a struggle? Do you see any of that? Absolutely not. It didn't even remotely look disturbed. Jocelyn's cell phone was missing.

8:36A single shell casing from a.380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was discovered on the floor near the nightstand. From my investigative standpoint, we saw that she was laying on her side, head facing the headboard. She had an apparent wound to her eye. And there was something investigators had never seen before. Potato fragments splattered in the bedroom. Splattered about in the headboard, pieces of it on the victim, around her head and around her pillow and around behind where her head was. They soon had a theory. We believe the potato was used as a makeshift suppression silencer to silence the sound of the firearm being fired.

9:24Beyond Alino showed us how authorities believe the killer used it. I would imagine that the shooter would have the gun. I'm right-handed, so he'd be holding the gun in his right hand, and he'd have to put that potato out over the barrel of the gun. What's the risk? How dangerous is that? I mean, I think I'm no gun expert by any means, but I think that falls in that category of extremely dangerous. and extremely risky. Can a potato work as a silencer? I believe it did in this scenario, and I say that because when we did our canvas, when we, you know, looked for calls for service in the area around the time of this murder, nobody ever indicated or made a call that they'd heard a gunshot.

10:07Whoever killed Jocelyn Peters may have silenced the gunshot in her apartment, but outside, surveillance cameras on the street were recording. Shortly after 3 a.m. on the day of the murder, one of the cameras captured an image of a white sedan. The vehicle was eerily similar to Cornelius Green's car, a white Kia Optima.

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11:35When Jocelyn Peters graduated from college, she knew she wanted to be a teacher. We were going to be both teaching third grade, and so there were things that we had to figure out. Tiaras Tucker first met Jocelyn when they started teaching at Mann Elementary. Why do you think teaching was so important to her? Jocelyn, I think that she felt this sense of urgency to make sure that she was giving back to students. Jocelyn knew a quality education would be a game changer for kids, and she wasn't afraid to tackle thorny issues facing St. Louis public schools. 80 % of elementary schools do not employ full-time art, music, or physical education teachers.

12:22She was always checking out what she could do differently to meet the kids' needs. Nicole Conaway, the former principal at Mann Elementary School, had met Cornelius Green, a middle school principal, at a work retreat. She had been looking to hire a third-grade teacher, and Cornelius recommended Jocelyn. He called me and said, I have a candidate for you. She's great. At the time, she had no idea Cornelius was in a relationship with Jocelyn. I brought her in and interviewed her. And about 15, 20 minutes in, I said, could you please step in the hallway while we talk about you? So I brought her back in and I offered her the job in that moment.

13:03Fifteen minutes in. She was a bright light. She always has been. She talked about how she wanted to be invested in care for children and she wanted to teach them. In 2014, Jocelyn Peters received one of the most prestigious honors for educators in St. Louis. She was awarded the Pettus Excellence Award for the district. What is that recognizing? It's recognizing excellence in the classroom. We were very proud of her. By the spring of 2016, she was also fulfilling some personal dreams. She surprised her mother, Lacey, with the news. to be your grandmother. Jocelyn was expecting a baby girl and had named her Micah Lee.

13:51We were all very excited for her. And the father-to-be, Cornelius Green, appeared to be a good match for Jocelyn. Cornelius was in a fraternity and she was active in her sorority. And like Jocelyn, he was an award-winning educator. According to her family, he seemed smitten from the start. He actively pursued her. He started giving her flowers and gifts and was very persistent. Jocelyn's friend, Tiaris, also noticed how attentive he was. Jocelyn and I, we ran a 5K a couple of times and he was at the 5K. So he seemed really supportive in that way.

14:36How did she talk about the relationship? What were her hopes and dreams for it? I know that Jocelyn wanted to be married and that she wanted a family. And I recall her and him, like, going to go look at houses. But Jocelyn, she says, had grown frustrated with Cornelius during the process. He didn't like any of the houses. No. Deidre picked up on Jocelyn's annoyance as well. How come he's not actively looking like I'm looking? how come he's not wanting this as much as I'm wanting this. Jocelyn was ready to be a homeowner. After all, her career was thriving, she was expecting a baby, and in January, she had turned 30 years old.

15:22She booked a belated birthday cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate during spring break and invited her family and Cornelius. I think when we started to see little changes is when we were on our vacation. Jocelyn's mother, Lacey, and her aunt, Deidre, say Cornelius, who was usually the life of the party, seemed different. He was just distant. I mean, he was not attentive to her needs. I mean, she's pregnant. She's just looking very uncomfortable. He's not trying to ensure that she's eating. He's not trying to help her walking. even to look him in his face, he looked empty. The whole time on the cruise, we're saying, what in the world is going on with them?

16:12A week after the cruise, Jocelyn Peters was dead.

16:20Investigators knew the crime scene held some intriguing clues. In addition to the potato fragments discovered in her bedroom, authorities found a bag of potatoes on the dining room table. She's seven months pregnant. She has a menu, you know, like a chalk menu, a weekly menu. Yeah, she was being very careful with her diet. Very careful with her diet in her refrigerator. Fruits, vegetables, it wasn't junk food. It was wholesome. Yeah. All of the menus, lunch, breakfast, dinner that she had lined up, there wasn't potato listed in there, you know, ever. So it was just, it just was odd. They would soon learn that Jocelyn had planned to go to the supermarket two days before Cornelius traveled to Chicago.

17:08She's telling him she's going grocery shopping. He's adamant, wait for me, I'll meet you there at the grocery store.

17:30Cornelius Green told investigators at the crime scene that he had been in Chicago when Jocelyn was murdered and that he could prove it to investigators. He goes, I wasn't here. I just came here straight from the Amtrak station. Shows him an Amtrak ticket almost immediately. Lead investigator Mark Biondelino. And then he was very oddly specific on what time he got off the Amtrak. In fact, this security footage from the St. Louis train station shows Cornelius Green, with luggage in tow, returning on Thursday, March 24, 2016, approximately 12 hours after Jocelyn was murdered. Cornelius told authorities his train had arrived at 2.57 p.m.

18:16and he had driven to her apartment. He called 911 at like 3.19 p.m. He had it down to the minute. To the minute, yeah. It was inherently obvious that he wanted detectives to know, I wasn't anywhere around here when this happened. Detectives drove him from the crime scene to headquarters to answer more questions. So before you walk into that interview room with Cornelius Green, what is your plan? There's no smoking gun piece of information. We want to lay out a timeline for him. Where he was at prior to discovering Ms. Peters. We want to get into the weeds with him.

19:11Beyondolino says Cornelius was respectful but standoffish in the interview room. And when Cornelius was questioned about his car, a 2013 white Kia Optima, he appeared agitated. Would you like to give us consent to look in your car so we can just rule out that there's anything in there or do we need to get a search warrant? I just don't understand why. Put yourself in our shoes. You know, I mean, if you don't have anything to hide. You know, I respect that, but my problem is that I don't like to feel like I'm a criminal. Like, why would you get a search warrant? He was adamant that he didn't want us to have anything to do with seeing whatever was in his car or having access to that car.

19:51Cornelius explained to investigators that he had loaned his car while he was away to a man named Philip Cutler, who had been visiting from Oklahoma. He identifies Philip Cutler as an individual who came into town. First he says it's his brother, later identifies him as a close childhood friend. Cutler was originally from St. Louis. There was an obvious amount of trust going on between those two individuals. Cutler was identified as the person who was transporting Mr. Green to the Amtrak station, picking him up from the Amtrak station when he arrived back in town. Investigators say once Cutler dropped the car off with Cornelius, the two went their separate ways.

20:35Cornelius was questioned for two hours. Before he left the police station, he made a call to Philip Cutler. Hello? Hey. It seems Cornelius didn't realize the camera was still rolling and the microphone was hot. I'm down at the police department. Go get my car from the address I'm about to text you to. I need that to happen, like, right now. Thank you. Then Cornelius called a woman named Stephanie about his car keys. Hey, are you at home? And what does he say to her? He indicates to her that he needs her to go meet Phil, Mr. Cutler. He's going to meet up with you. He doesn't go into details as to why.

21:18He identifies a place where she can go to meet Philip Cutler. There's a huge Amoco sign by a gas station that's a well-known marker. Uniformed police officers stopped Stephanie and Philip Cutler near the Amoco station and took them to police headquarters for questioning. As it turns out, Stephanie had known Cutler for years. He was a groomsman in her wedding to Cornelius Green. When did you all find out that he indeed had a wife? Jocelyn told me. Early on? She did, but they were divorced. Well, not divorced, but they were separated. Legally separated, that's what I was told. Stephanie and Cornelius had a young daughter, but had not been living together for several years.

22:08Stephanie was questioned briefly and released, but investigators wanted to know more from Philip Cutler. Minutes before his interview started, Cutler, alone in the interview room, had done something completely bizarre.

22:28Authorities had not witnessed Cutler's odd behavior in real time. So, beyond Lino and his partner, unaware of what had just happened, began questioning Cutler, who claimed he'd never met Cornelius' girlfriend, Jocelyn. Did you know where his girlfriend resided? Mm-hmm. Had no idea. Mm-mm. And you've never met her. I've never been together with him or never been over anywhere where she lived or anything like that. There's a whole slew of things that we can move forward with after interviewing Philip Cutler. Investigators didn't have enough evidence to arrest Cutler. He was free to leave. But before he left the interview room, Cutler gave investigators an important piece of information.

23:18He gives us his phone number. What's your phone number? Cutler allowed investigators to glance at some of his text messages, but he didn't give them consent to examine his phone. Five days after Jocelyn's murder, Cornelius went to police headquarters and gave investigators access to his phone. He also provided them with a written statement. He basically started from, he went over to Jocelyn's house on the 20th, They went grocery shopping, and he specifically mentions that they had baked potato for dinner. It was very vague, but it was very specific to mention potatoes. It raised the hairs on my neck when I read it.

24:11Investigators had learned Jocelyn and Cornelius went to an Aldi supermarket on Sunday, March 20th, four days before her murder. And we go to that Aldi's and we obtain the surveillance video. The camera had captured video of a couple with a grocery cart. Perched prominently on top of it was a big bag of potatoes. Authorities say that couple is Jocelyn and Cornelius. And we see Cornelius and Jocelyn pushing out a cart of groceries with a 10-pound bag of russet potatoes on it. days before she's murdered, it stands out. The potato shopping was curious, but not strong evidence. That would come soon.

24:57Examination of the data on Green and Cutler's phones would expose a text conversation between them almost a month before Jocelyn's murder. When you coming here? When do you want me to come there? Week of March 20th.

25:17Thank you.

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