Speaker 1: In every small town, behind every closed door, a story
Speaker 1: waits to be uncovered. On our true crime podcast, we
Speaker 1: dive deep into the cases that haunt communities around the world,
Speaker 1: from chilling cold cases to crimes with unexpected twist. No
Speaker 1: detail is too Small.
Speaker 2: Hosted by us Jen and Cam, two lifelong friends who
Speaker 2: love telling a good story. This isn't sensationalized news. It's
Speaker 2: real cases, real people, and the chilling details that keep
Speaker 2: you up at night. Our true crime podcast brings the facts,
Speaker 2: a little perspective, and just enough humor to remind you
Speaker 2: you're not alone in being fascinated by the darker side
Speaker 2: of life.
Speaker 1: Our true crime podcast where bizarre crimes, meticulous research, and
Speaker 1: genuine friendship collide.
Speaker 2: Subscribe today if you dare, because sometimes the scariest stories
Speaker 2: are the true ones.
Speaker 3: Hey, you're listening to dark cast Network, the best of
Speaker 3: any podcast. Find all of the great dark cash shows
Speaker 3: at darkcastnetwork dot com. I'm Jamie and you're listening to
Speaker 3: Rainbow Crimes with hopefully some Unicorn justice.
Speaker 4: Hey guys, it's CJ. I hope you're all doing well
Speaker 4: out there. This is our last minisode for a while.
Speaker 4: Next week we return to full episodes. I keep forgetting
Speaker 4: to welcome and thank one of our newest Patreon members.
Speaker 4: Amy is part of the Elite Patron Club who joins
Speaker 4: us on Patreon for early release, no ad episodes and
Speaker 4: an exclusive episode just for patrons at the end of
Speaker 4: each month. Amy, We are so happy to have you
Speaker 4: a board. Amy will be writing the navy blue hued
Speaker 4: beauty that our staff here at Seabreed Studio's stables named Roxy.
Speaker 4: So Amy, we look forward to having you along on
Speaker 4: our end of the month ride tomorrow. Well, I've been
Speaker 4: pretty much non stop working on T shirts for my
Speaker 4: little city's Pride in the Park this coming weekend. I
Speaker 4: got some new designs and I'm excited to see what sells.
Speaker 4: Although it's virtually impossible to predict sizes and colors of
Speaker 4: shirts that I need. Oh well, I'm just doing my best.
Speaker 4: Fingers crossed I'll be as successful as I was last year.
Speaker 4: And I still haven't gotten a confirmation that I'm an
Speaker 4: approved vendor at IT. They took my money for a spot,
Speaker 4: so I'm hoping that's confirmation enough. But normally, if you
Speaker 4: sign up to do a like a farmer's market or
Speaker 4: something like that, you get a confirmation email, and it
Speaker 4: tells you when to be there, where to set up this.
Speaker 4: Sometimes they'll even give you a map of exactly where
Speaker 4: your spot's supposed to be. I sure wish this place
Speaker 4: did that. Anyway, the kids went back to the sand
Speaker 4: dunes and they tried sandboarding. They thought it was really fun,
Speaker 4: and they hoped to go back soon. I wasn't brave
Speaker 4: enough to give it a go. I didn't think I would. However,
Speaker 4: the other night, I was taking Jack for a quick
Speaker 4: walk in the forest on a paved path before I
Speaker 4: had a zoom meeting. Somehow a shoelace on one of
Speaker 4: my hiking boots it got wrapped into a hook on
Speaker 4: the other boot and it bound my feet. I broke
Speaker 4: my fall with my knee in my face. I was
Speaker 4: sure I was going to have a black eye, but
Speaker 4: it's just a little road rash above and under my
Speaker 4: eye and a nice cutting bruise on the bridge of
Speaker 4: my nose. Two little ladies were walking towards me as
Speaker 4: I did this neat little trick. They got Jack for me,
Speaker 4: and I guess my cellphone fell out of my pocket
Speaker 4: and they got that too and helped me up. I
Speaker 4: called my daughter and her boyfriend to come get me,
Speaker 4: and the little ladies walked me to the park entrance
Speaker 4: where the kids were walking in after parking the car.
Speaker 4: They took care of me and got me eyes, asking
Speaker 4: if they could take me to urgent care. I do
Speaker 4: still have some swelling on my forehead, under my eye,
Speaker 4: and on my left knee, but I'm a tough old bird.
Speaker 4: I told him I'd be fine. I'd like to start
Speaker 4: this Minnesota out with another missing but not forgotten LGBTQ
Speaker 4: plus person. Forty one year old transman Ray Whidden, disappeared
Speaker 4: from the San Francisco area, and he hasn't been seen
Speaker 4: or heard from since the evening of July ninth, twenty
Speaker 4: twenty six. Apparently, Ray kissed his wife Sarah good night
Speaker 4: because she had taken her medication that helps her sleep,
Speaker 4: and he knows forty five minutes after she takes it,
Speaker 4: she doesn't wake up until morning. As he kissed her,
Speaker 4: she promised she'd make him coffee in the morning, but
Speaker 4: when she woke up, he wasn't in their apartment. Now.
Speaker 4: Ray is almost legally blind and he relies heavily on
Speaker 4: his glasses to see, but his glasses were still in
Speaker 4: the apartment, albeit his glasses were broken. From what I
Speaker 4: can tell, it looks like his glasses were broken before
Speaker 4: he disappeared. There is some video surveillance footage that shows
Speaker 4: Ray leaving their Tenth Street apartment without a shirt on.
Speaker 4: I know I said he went missing July ninth, but
Speaker 4: the time is a little messed up. With the timestamp,
Speaker 4: it could have been in the early morning hours of
Speaker 4: July tenth. His phone and wallet also remained in the apartment,
Speaker 4: along with his broken glasses. And while all that is concerning,
Speaker 4: it's really his glasses that triggers the most alarm, because
Speaker 4: without his glasses, there's really no way Ray could function
Speaker 4: safely without him. His wife, Sarah, reported him missing on
Speaker 4: July eleventh, when he never came back home. His wife
Speaker 4: also claimed Ray broke his glasses while having a mental
Speaker 4: health breakdown. She said she had never seen him do that.
Speaker 4: This is something that has been greatly disputed by Ray's mom.
Speaker 4: Ray's mom said she spoke regularly to her son and
Speaker 4: never noticed any type of psychological issues with him. His
Speaker 4: mom believes something some kind of dispute, possibly if physical
Speaker 4: altercation happened in his apartment that night causing raised glasses
Speaker 4: to be broken and for him to leave without any
Speaker 4: of his belongings, including a shirt in his glasses. Currently,
Speaker 4: the San Francisco Police is handling the case, but Ray's
Speaker 4: family is pushing for a more intensive investigation. Ray's sister
Speaker 4: has traveled to speak in person with the San Francisco Police.
Speaker 4: She's trying to urge them to treat the case as suspicious.
Speaker 4: The family is also asking the police to try and
Speaker 4: track down more surveillance footage to find out where Ray went.
Speaker 4: Ray stands five feet three inches and he's approximately one
Speaker 4: hundred and sixty pounds with short black hair in sky
Speaker 4: blue eyes. He has two dove tattoos on his upper
Speaker 4: right back and he has as of spade tattoos on
Speaker 4: both hips. Should anyone have any information on Ray's whereabouts,
Speaker 4: please call the San Francisco Police Department immediately at area
Speaker 4: code four one five five five three oh one two three.
Speaker 4: Now let's get into our minisode. Born a biological male
Speaker 4: in Princeton, New Jersey, on September twenty second, two thousand
Speaker 4: and seven, Juniper Blessing came from a strong and loving
Speaker 4: family unit. During her formative years, Juniper developed a passion
Speaker 4: for both the study of vocal music and of weather.
Speaker 4: In twenty eighteen, at the age of eleven, Juniper's family
Speaker 4: relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico. A few years later,
Speaker 4: she would attend the New Mexico School for the Arts.
Speaker 4: It was around this time Juniper realized she was different
Speaker 4: from many of her peers. In no time at all,
Speaker 4: she began to embrace her femininity and the euphoria she
Speaker 4: felt in living her truth. Her mother, Monica, was always
Speaker 4: very supportive of her and even taught Juniper how to
Speaker 4: paint her finger and toenails. This delighted Juniper as she
Speaker 4: began to express her true self, wearing dresses, big skirts,
Speaker 4: and jewelry. She chose her new name of Juniper after
Speaker 4: Professor Juniper from the Pokemon video game franchise. Professor Juniper
Speaker 4: was the first female professor in the game. Juniper loved
Speaker 4: to style herself in new outfits. Her brother Luke said
Speaker 4: she was blossoming before their eyes and it was the
Speaker 4: most confident he'd ever seen his sister. She was a
Speaker 4: product of gender ei, Glorea, and trans love. She was
Speaker 4: warm and empathetic. Friends and family described Juniper as a
Speaker 4: uniquely gentle soul who went out of her way to
Speaker 4: make others feel seen and supported. She was known for
Speaker 4: her kindness, her quiet humility, and an infectious sense of
Speaker 4: humor that brought joy to those around her. Juniper graduated
Speaker 4: from the New Mexico School of Arts in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty five, she moved to Seattle to attend
Speaker 4: the University of Washington. With her love of the weather,
Speaker 4: her major would be atmospheric science with miners and music
Speaker 4: and philosophy. Wow, that's so ambitious. Yes, Juniper was coming
Speaker 4: into her own. She was also extremely gifted in her
Speaker 4: two passions of vocal music and atmospheric science, which she
Speaker 4: was able to blend the two subjects together flawlessly. Juniper
Speaker 4: had a rare five octave range and was described as
Speaker 4: having a gorgeous singing voice. She joined the university's choral singers,
Speaker 4: an extracurricular activity that she adored. Juniper was so happy
Speaker 4: living the life she had created. It was late at
Speaker 4: night on May tenth of twenty twenty six at the
Speaker 4: Nordom Court Apartments, which is an off campus student housing complex.
Speaker 4: Juniper was in the complex's laundry room cleaning lint out
Speaker 4: of a dryer that she was about to use or
Speaker 4: she had just used. This is when thirty one year
Speaker 4: old Christopher Michael Leahey at Bellevue, Washington entered the laundry room.
Speaker 4: He was armed with a knife for some other very
Speaker 4: sharp instrument when he attacked Juniper. Christopher stabbed her over
Speaker 4: forty times in her head, her neck, and her upper
Speaker 4: body before he fled the scene. As he was leaving,
Speaker 4: another student was entering the laundry room and held the
Speaker 4: door open for Christopher. This student is the one who
Speaker 4: discovered Juniper. By the time emergency response arrived, Juniper had
Speaker 4: already bled out on the laundry room floor at just
Speaker 4: nineteen years old, with a beautiful, happy, and bright future
Speaker 4: ahead of her. Juniper was dead three days later. Christopher
Speaker 4: turned himself into the Bellevue Police. He was charged with
Speaker 4: first degree premeditated murder because surveillance footage of the laundry
Speaker 4: room showed Christopher inside a couple hours prior checking out
Speaker 4: the place, you know, the cameras and stuff. He was
Speaker 4: held on a ten million dollar bond. Investigators believed this
Speaker 4: was a random attack or opportunity attack, and not a
Speaker 4: hate crime. And here's why. At his first hearing on
Speaker 4: June twenty ninth, twenty twenty six, Christopher was deemed incompetent
Speaker 4: to stand trial after a quick mental evaluation. He is
Speaker 4: currently being held for ninety days at Western State Hospital
Speaker 4: for competency restoration. I'll keep an eye out on this
Speaker 4: case and hopefully Christopher will be declared competent at his
Speaker 4: next trial at the end of September. I really hope
Speaker 4: Juniper and her family can find some Unicorn justice. Juniper
Speaker 4: has already been memorialized in several ways. One, the University
Speaker 4: of Washington is put together a scholarship and her honor
Speaker 4: to support students active in the University's Queue Center programming,
Speaker 4: especially those that are pursuing studies in music. Two, there
Speaker 4: is a Juniper Blessing Foundation. It's been established through the
Speaker 4: Partners and Education Foundation for fe Public Schools. This fund
Speaker 4: provides art education resources and voice lessons to LGBTQ plus
Speaker 4: youth and to underrepresented students in her hometown community. Three,
Speaker 4: there have been musical dedications. Since Juniper was a gifted singer.
Speaker 4: Her peers in the University of Washington Choral Group and
Speaker 4: the New Mexico School for the Arts have held musical
Speaker 4: tributes celebrating her profound impact as a vocalist, and four
Speaker 4: there have been campus visuals throughout the University of Washington's community.
Speaker 4: There were several organized campus wide candlelight visuals shortly after
Speaker 4: her murder took place in order to honor Juniper's memory.
Speaker 4: These functions also were to promote unity and to advocate
Speaker 4: for transgender awareness and safety. All these are beautiful sentiments.
Speaker 4: Rest and power, Juniper. Let's see if we have any
Speaker 4: sunshine on the wake of the tragedy that happened just
Speaker 4: a few days ago at Berlin's Pride celebration. And that's
Speaker 4: probably a case I'll cover in the near future. Pennsylvania
Speaker 4: officially removed outdated and discriminatory criminal penalties tied to HIV status,
Speaker 4: ending laws that forced harsher sentences for people living with
Speaker 4: the virus. Boy Howdy, that is outdated. Local residents and
Speaker 4: advocates in rural Ohio launched positive community campaigns for LGBTQ
Speaker 4: plus families in direct response to outside anti LGBTQ plus
Speaker 4: billboard campaigns. I'm so glad bullies are being stood up to,
Speaker 4: especially in rural areas, because those areas are typically known
Speaker 4: for being anti LGBTQ, and lastly, Grinder for Equality announced
Speaker 4: a major initiative to connect ten million LGBTQ plus people
Speaker 4: globally to HIV prevention resources and prep education by twenty
Speaker 4: twenty eight. Well, what do you know, Grinder is stepping
Speaker 4: up and doing something good. Now if they just make
Speaker 4: their hookups on their site safer? Okay? I will leave
Speaker 4: you with some dirty riddles. I come in a lot
Speaker 4: of different sizes. Sometimes I trip a little. If you
Speaker 4: blow me, it feels really good. What am I your nose?
Speaker 4: What four letter word begins with F and ends with K?
Speaker 4: And if you can't get any you can always just
Speaker 4: use your hands. What am I the fork? When I
Speaker 4: go in, I can cause some pain. I'll fill your
Speaker 4: holes when you ask me to. I also ask that
Speaker 4: you spit and not swallow. What am I? You're dentist?
Speaker 4: Now think about that on your next visit. And finally,
Speaker 4: how do you make five pounds of fat look good?
Speaker 4: Put a nipple on it? I love you guys, You
Speaker 4: matter very much. Remember it is not a crime to
Speaker 4: be gay or to live your truth unless you're a murderer.
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