The Slaughter Photographer – Jessica Edens

In today’s episode, we’re talking about a case of marriage motherhood. And divorce that took a far, far left turn. You’ll never imagine how this case ends. It’s the case of Jessica Edens. Right now on love and murder. Welcome everyone, and welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder, the Weekly True Crime Podcast discussing Relationships Gone terribly wrong. I am your host, Kai, and our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery and suspense.

Be sure to subscribe to love and murder on whatever platform you’re on. As well as give us a 5 star review right now so you don’t forget. If you’re new here, then listen to this episode first obviously, and then please rate us also welcome. In today’s episode we’re talking about a case of a wife unhinged and a mother unplugged. But first I want to remind you to head on over to our patreon.com/loveandmurder.

Our last bonus episode over there was a crazy story you’ll hear. While getting to know Rick, who by the way will be back in season three this week, the second part of this story will go live and you don’t want to miss this www. patreon.com/ loveandmurder. Now on to the show. Jessica Edens was born January twenty second nineteen eighty, one in poughkeepsie new york She was born to Mike and Leslie Mitchell, and she also had a sister named Diane Knighton’s two step brothers, Nathan Mitchell and Adam Mitchell. She also had a son, Hayden, who was born on November nineteenth two thousand seven.

Now, not much is known about her younger days except about her son, but it was said that she wanted to become a photographer. They said she always had a camera on her. She was always trying to take pictures, whether it was of people of nature, but she always had a camera on her. She did want to become a photographer as she got older and actually that would come to fruition later on. Now, in 2008 she met a man named Benjamin Edens and they actually started dating. They hit it off. They hit it off so well that they ended up getting married in 2010 and move into Easley, south carolina.

Two years later they had a daughter named Harper. She was born July nineteenth, 2012 At the time of this story, in 2017 Hayden was in fourth grade at Forest Acres Elementary School and Harper wasn’t yet in school, but she was supposed to be starting school in the fall. So she’s 4 going on five. Everyone said hating was. A great kid and they actually called him a rise in fourth grade student. Now like I said, Jessica did like photography and after she had her children and got married, she decided she was going to be a stay at home working mom with her photography business.

So she went ahead and purchased a website jessica eden ‘s photography dot com where she described herself as quote, a Greenville, south carolina based photographer, a mother of two precious children and a wife to the most. Wonderful man. I was always that friend who had a camera on her twenty four seven. It didn’t hit me until I became a mom for the second time that I wanted to turn my passion for photography into a career. It was then that I’ve rediscovered my love for everything photography related. Becoming a photographer is something I’ve dreamed of, really. I always just envisioned it, but never did think I would be where I am today.

I can’t tell you how incredibly lucky I feel to be doing something I absolutely love. It’s such an incredible feeling. I hope to have the opportunity to capture photos with your family. It would truly be an honor to give you the gift that lasts a lifetime and will be passed on for generations to come. So that was a quote from her photography website and that actually came from heavy.com Now, as time passed by, like I said, they got married in 2010 and this is 2017 So as time passed by, there started to be problems in the marriage, like happens in some marriages, you know? Some people decide to fix it and some people don’t.

So part of the problem was that Jessica started thinking that Ben was cheating on her. So I don’t know if you ever felt like somebody was cheating on you just, you know. Why are you taking a shower right now? You’ve just got home from work. You didn’t even say hi to me or anything. You’re jumping into shower already or why did you stay over at work? You got off at 5. It’s 9:00 at. Night or why did you just start, you know, working out? You’ve never worked out before.

Why are you eating healthy? You always love steak and eggs. At 3:00 in the morning. You know, just different things that just look weird. It just makes you think that something’s going on and the person is cheating. So she was suspicious of him cheating, and the person she was suspicious of him cheating with was Meredith Leigh Rami. Meredith was born October twenty ninth nineteen eighty, eight in collierville tennessee. She was born to Sherry Chambers and Joe M Ray Junior.

At some point in time her parents divorced and her mother remarried, so she had a stepfather named Carlton Chambers. She also had a sister named Brittany Rowell. Now, Meredith worked for the International Paper in Tennessee in 2009 and she graduated from the University of Memphis with a bachelor’s degree. In international business, she then moved to Greenville in 2015 and became a member of the Aerial Arts community. She then started working at the same job as Ben Edens. Wow, and I don’t know exactly when they she started working there, but they crossed paths in 2012 So remember when I said that Jessica had a suspicion of infidelity? Well yeah, Ben and Meredith were actually having an ongoing affair.

And by the time of this story in 2017 Benjamin decided that he did want to be with Meredith full time. So they’ve known each other for five years, but I can’t really say if the affair was going on for that long of a time. However, by the time 2017 year old around, like I said, Ben decided that he wanted to be with Meredith full time and. Not with Jessica anymore. So on April eleventh, 2017 Ben moved out of their home and started his and Jessica’s separation process.

And guess what he did right after he moved out of the home? Yeah, right. He moved in with Meredith. Him and Meredith started living together. Oh, my God. Has that ever happened to you? Do you know somebody that that’s happened to? I actually, of course, I’m not going to name names, but I know somebody that happened to. They moved out. And literally the next day, the other person had somebody in the house. Can you imagine that? So maybe Jessica kept hope alive like she.

Just wanted her family back. She wanted her husband because she still loved Ben, she didn’t want to be away from Ben, and she probably still had hope that they were going to be a family. And she actually started harassing Meredith, like calling her a home wrecker, just slandering her all over social media. But instead of her family get getting back together, Ben decided to file for divorce and not only file for divorce, but a horrible. Custody battle started because Jessica then wanted full and sole custody of their daughter. But of course, you know, Ben being a father, he didn’t want just her to have sole custody, he wanted to have joint custody.

So they started fighting over this. Also on July eleventh when Benjamin filed for divorce and joint custody, he also filed an affidavit that said Jessica was using the children as a weapon against him. And that she’s the one who forced him to file for custody of Harper because she refused to let him see or speak to his own daughter. I don’t like when people do that. Just because you’re angry with the person you used to be with doesn’t mean that you have to take it out on the child. I really don’t like when people do that. What do you all think? In the meantime, while all of this is happening, Jessica is still slandering Meredith all over social media to the point where actually there was a photo of Meredith.

On this website calledhomerecord.com and the caption for the photo said this little girl has no self respect and no morals and another photo on home wrecker said Remember Home Wrecker that Karma is a BI just like you will get what you deserve. So on July eleventh when Benjamin filed for joint custody he was actually granted visitation rights. Which is Jessica’s off, of course. Not only does she want her family together, back together, but she doesn’t want Meredith. You know, the person she hates to be around her children. Now, because of this and a couple other reasons, both Benjamin and Meredith continuously called the police.

Meredith would complain that, you know, Jessica was leaving these messages all over social media. About her, she was doing it on Facebook, she was doing it on various sites, like I said, the whole record.com And she was just saying all kind of stuff about her online. And Ben was complaining to the officers that his soon to be ex-wife wouldn’t leave his current girlfriend who he initially was cheating on her with.

But you know, right now they’re together and his almost ex-wife wouldn’t leave her alone. She kept harassing her in turn it’s harassing. Both of them. Ben was also worried about, you know, his child well, let’s say his children, because the first child, that’s the only father that first child knew. So he was worried about both of them. And he would ask officers to check on the children, check on Jessica, just make sure everything was OK on July twelfth, Benjamin again called the police to go out and check on his children, he said, because he was getting disturbing texts from Jessica.

And he was kind of worried about everything because, you know, that day they had actually been to court to try and get custody of his daughter. So they were in court that day fighting over that. And apparently he received a disturbing text message. So he wanted police to go and check on his daughter. So the officer went over to Jessica’s house to see if everything was OK and he said that, you know, what he put down in his report was everything was fine. The family appeared normal. And Jessica actually said she was sitting down to watch movies with the children.

And actually at the time he got there, one of the children was speaking with Benjamin at the time. So the quote in the officers report was quote, the family was planning to eat popcorn and watch a movie. One of the children was speaking to Jonathan and quote, while the officer was there, he asked Jessica if there was any chance that she would be willing to get back with her husband or he was willing to get back with her and she instead told him that no, my husband’s been cheating on me and I’m going to expose his year long affair in court.

I’m going to take this to court because he wants partial custody with my child and I refuse to let that happen and I’m going to show that he was cheating on me this whole time. So that’s basically what she tell, she told the police officer. So of course to the officer, everything was fine, wrote down his report, wrote down his notes, whatever. And he left Jessica. On the other hand, kind of felt this was going overboard, and she felt that she in turn was being harassed by Benjamin and Meredith.

So she decided she was going to file a restraining order. So she actually asked the officer who had come to her house that night, how can she go about filing it, filing a restraining order? Can she file it with him? Does she have to go down to the station, or how can she go about filing a restraining order against him? So all I’m seeing right now is tit for tat, just tit for tat.

Did for tat, like she’s harassed and Meredith, she’s harassed. And Benjamin he in turn. I mean, I wanted to say he’s harassing her, but he’s just worried about the children, really. But she sees it as him harassing her. So it’s just back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and yeah, let me get a restraining order hold. Let me get a restraining order. Like, just craziness while the children are in the middle of it. And again, I’m not saying Benjamin’s at fault, because Benjamin is really just trying to make sure that the children are OK however he is in the wrong also because he started an affair.

Like if you don’t want to be with someone then break up with them. Don’t start cheating on them now. One day while Jessica’s family was out of town, she went to their house, she went to the mom and dad’s house and got a 40 caliber handgun. She said, you know, because she has no man around or whatever and she does have two children there and it would be for protection now between July eleventh and july thirteenth jessica had started.

Email and text in meredith ‘s friends and family about her affair with Benjamin. She’d actually contacted nearly 35 of Meredith’s friends and family, 35 people. She went through looking up phone numbers, sending them a text message. I don’t know, did she do a copy and paste? Like, how crazy is that to text? Or email or reach out in any kind of way, 35 people you don’t know. So she basically told them. The gist of it was that, you know, she was with her husband, so Meredith was with Jessica’s husband. And yes, Jess and yes, Ben is still married, but they’re together. They’re meaning Meredith and him are together and living together, but he’s still married to me.

So she went on and sent this to 35 people. You know, the anger, you have to have that motivation. That you have to have this message 35 strangers. Then at eleven fourteen AM on July 13, Ben received a text message from Jessica’s quote. You will have exactly what you won’t know. Wife, no kids. All you had to do was end things with Meredith, tried to work things out with me. But no, you made the decision to not have a family. Now you’re going to have to live with that decision.

So Ben was like, what the? So he texts back, what do you mean no kids? Are you planning to harm them or take them and run? So, you know, if that was you and somebody saying that about your children, you’re about to start texting like crazy. And that’s exactly what he started doing. He started texting and texting and texting. Like, what are you talking about? What are you saying? And he was just basically, you know, telling her to explain, to explain yourself, what are you talking about? Quote, Answer the question or I’m going to ask for an emergency hearing to have the kids. Removed from our custody.

I am dead serious, Jessica. End Quote I don’t know if he meant removed from our custody or removed to our custody, but the text said removed from our custody. So you know he’s basically asking her, what are you talking about explain yourself and instead she texts back quote your life will be better soon. So Ben is like. What the? And he said, quote, I don’t know what you meant by that, but I don’t like how it sounds. You need to ask for help. So then she writes back. This is the hardest thing for me to do. But you have destroyed me.

You continue to destroy me. You will not be able to hurt me or my kids any more. It won’t matter after today. No more pain after today. I’m sorry, Can you imagine somebody has your child and that’s the kind of text you get. I will. Run every red light. I will do 110 in a 35 to go pick up my kid. If you get a text message on from me, it’s while I’m on the way. There’s no way. So then at ten forty nine PM, Jessica basically sent Benjamin a text trying to get him to meet with her. She just wanted him to answer some questions and she just felt like she needed closure, so she wanted him to meet with her.

However, Ben just thought that was weird. And he basically was like, no, I’m not coming to meet you. If you have anything to say, you’re texting me literally right now, just tell me what you have to say. So then because he didn’t go and meet her, she sent this text quote. I guess I shouldn’t expect anything from you. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I never meant anything to you. I’m just so tired of being in pain. And that text came in at four forty one, also around the same time 4.

41 Ben text Jessica Jessica’s mom, saying that he was worried about her and. As worried as he is about Jessica, she has the two kids right now. And then he probably showed her all the text messages. Like, oh, look at this. I’m telling you, I think something’s wrong with Jessica. Now while he’s talking to her mom, she was actually driving to his apartment. She got to his apartment at five PM and she parked her car and she was getting out to go to the, you know, his actual door.

And that’s when she saw Meredith in her car and she walked up to Meredith and shot. Point blank in the face. Just shot her in the head, like point blank. She was just sitting in her car minding her business, probably going through the mail for the day. You know, I’m saying like going through your phone and seeing who text you because you shouldn’t be texting and driving. So after you park, you’re going through your phone to see what emails you missed or who text you or anything like that.

And you hear somebody approaching. You’re not going to pay it, pay attention. Then next thing you know, you look up and you see a gun pointing at you like. Ah, I can’t even imagine. Obviously I can’t even imagine. So she did this in front of some neighbors. Because you know, when you commit a crime, you want as much evidence and as many people watching as you can.

So they called 9-1-1 obviously. And now police know that not only is Jessica running around with a gun, but she also has a children with her. Can you imagine? She just walked up to somebody’s car, shot them in the face and the children were there. Probably holding her hand. I mean, that’s allegedly, obviously, I don’t think she was holding the child’s hand, but the child, the children was still there. They were in the car.

So with the witnesses description of what the car looked like and what Jessica looked like, the license plate on the car and now the extra motivation of knowing that 2 little babies are with her, police start this frantic. Just crazy investigation looking for her and the children, mainly the children, you know, and they actually found her two hours later. She had actually driven 7 miles to easily back to easily. Now while they’re searching for Jessica and the kids and the car, she called Ben one more time.

And what she said to him this time was that quote everyone you love is gone. I’m about to be gone too. And then she hung up. Can you imagine that? I can’t even. So in looking for the Jeep it took two hours again like I said before and a witness said that they did see the Jeep and investigators came to check it out. And according to the report quote the Jeep was backed up against a chain link fence. The doors were locked and the engine was running when deputies arrived and saw three unresponsive people inside. Each had been shot once near the head or neck area, End Quote. So basically what happened was Jessica started texting Ben at 11 something.

I guess with everything that was going on and his answers to her texts, she kind of snapped. So she went to his apartment and she was trying to get him to come, too. She went to his apartment. She shot Meredith. She was probably trying to get him to come to shoot him. And then she drove away and backed her car against a chain link fence, locked the doors. And proceeding to shoot the two kids and herself. She shot A5 year old and I think what a nine ten year old and herself quote.

Miss Eden’s developed a plan in the next couple of days that she felt would cause everlasting consequences for her husband Benjamin evidence end Quote by the way, the gunshot wounds they found were all. In the head. So she shot. Everybody in their head, including herself. So during the investigation, the police investigation, it turned out that not only was Jessica trying to file a restraining order against Ben, but Ben was actually trying to file a restraining order against Jessica because, you know, nobody asked how did he, she know where he was so she can go there and kill Meredith.

But apparently she just kept popping up at his place, just kept popping up, so. He was trying to file a restraining order against her. Maybe she was doing it to him and in retaliation. Not that he was actually, you know, I don’t believe, I didn’t believe anyway that he was the one who was bothering her. But I think he started filing a restraining order. And then she decided that if you’re going to file a restraining order, then I’ll file a restraining order against you first.

That’s probably what happened. So remember I said back on July eleventh she took her parents handgun? Yeah, that’s what she used. She used their handgun to commit this and she also left. Suicide notes. One for her mom and dad, one for her first child, and one for her husband. So let’s read what these suicide notes said. So the first suicide note. Was to her mom and her family. She said quote to my parents and my sister. I am so sorry for the pain I’m causing all of you.

You’ve all always been there for me and I love you all very much. I know what I have done is selfish, but I cannot live with this pain any longer. I just cannot handle it is too much. It hurts too much. I will no longer be in pain and my children will no longer hurt either. I am so sorry. I love y’all. Endquote then. Police found a suicide note for i think I said her first child but it was her first child’s father.

Quote to Nate, I don’t know what to say. You gave me my first child. I will forever be grateful because of you. I never meant to cause you as much pain as this. I am sorry. End Quote. And then so you hear how everything sounds so. Remorseful and sad, and I’m sorry. So then this is her note for Ben quote. 2 Ben you have caused me more pain than I’ve ever been in my life. You have caused my children pain. I hate you. I hope you rot one day for what you have done to me and my kids. You can no longer hurt us. We are at peace. I hope you live with pain and shame and guilt for the rest of your life.

End Quote. So during the investigation they just wanted to make sure that this was what it appeared to be, which was a murder, suicide. And during that investigation, the police chief. Said that, yeah, there was some indication that Jessica had some quote, some sense of inflicted violence either on the children or on herself or both. And that wasn’t discovered until after she was discovered. And when we say discovered, we mean that after she was discovered dead, one of the police chiefs who investigated this case said quote this particular case stems from domestic related separation. And subsequent conflict in that separation. It’s important to remember here that there are families and fathers who have lost young children to this senseless violence.

End Quote which is true. Now, some interesting information is that Jessica is the third mother to kill her children in Pickens County in the past six years. So in 2011 someone named Susan Hendricks killed her two adult sons, her ex-husband and her stepmom, and she’s serving life in prison for that. Then someone named Susanna Simpson. Killed her seven-year old daughter and her five year old son while they slept and she shot her husband in the head and she is serving a life in prison for that.

Her husband though, did survive. And then there’s Jessica. Eden, in this Pickens County wow what do you all think about that? That interest, in fact, that’s so bizarre. Let me know in the comments below what y’all think about that one. So the sheriff of the county, Rick Clark, urged anyone who felt that they were being. Stressed out. Who felt that, you know, they couldn’t handle this or something was going wrong in their marriage or, you know, any number of things that could lead to something like this, to reach out to law enforcement and to not harm others.

And this is what we would urge on any of our cases, really. You know, if you feeling stressed out by your kids, if you’re feeling stressed out by your husband, if you just want to get away from your spouse, then there are other avenues to go. Then murder, he said quote as we struggle to understand how a parent could possibly come to decisions such as this, we have to focus on tomorrow and the opportunity to provide services and solutions to those that feel that their life and the lives of their loved ones must end in order to find peace.

Hayden’s principle also came out and said something about him. His principal was Darien Bird and he said, quote, he was one of those kids who made other students want to come to school. He was going to be nice to them and smile and be friendly. He was the kid you wished everyone was like. He was a sweet child who had a bright smile that lit up the room. He was a hardworking and inquisitive student who always wanted to do his best. He gave 100 % every day. He will be deeply missed.

And that is the case of Jessica Edens. Her two children are killed. She killed herself and she killed Meredith and unfortunately her husband is alive and is dealing with this unfortunate aftermath. What do y’all think about this insane? Episode with just the craziest twist in it. Let us know in the comments below. Now, if you like this episode, then head on over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and rate US five stars over there.

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