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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/spawn3887 on 2024-01-18 15:22:36+00:00.
I posted this one about 3 years ago, and haven't seen it come up again since, so I wanted to repost it, add some other stuff I found, and just keep it active.
Background
Jennifer Servo, born in 1979 in Montana, was a news reporter who worked for KRBC-TV in Abilene, Texas. After graduating from the University of Montana, her goal was to be the next Katie Couric. She had only been working with the company a few short months before her tragic death.
On September 15th 2002, Jennifer and Brian Travers, a weatherman for KRBC who Jennifer had a newer, brief relationship with, picked up a coffee table from a friend. They had gone to Wal-Mart later that night, and along the way Jennifer made a comment to Travers that she thought they were being followed. She claimed the same car had been following them for awhile. Jennifer dropped him off at his house before returning home, but articles seem to differ as to this. Travers claims he walked her to her car upon returning and kissed her goodnight and that was the last time he claims he saw her.
When she got home, phone records indicate she called a former boyfriend in Montana, Dave Warren. Warren said Jennifer never mentioned anyone following her that evening. Sometime after that phone call, she was murdered.
The Murder & Investigation
On September 18, 2002 at about 1:30 pm, Jennifer's body was discovered in her bathtub by a worker at the Hunter's Ridge apartment complex in Abilene. A co-worker, Toby Dagenhart, had asked someone to check in on her after she had not been heard from for a couple of days.
Investigators believe the body, which lay on the floor of her bathroom, had been there two days before it was discovered. The assault, according to the investigation, began in the bedroom and subsequently she was dragged to her bathroom.
Her death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head as well as strangulation. There was also evidence of a sexual assault (bruising to her private area), but she was found fully clothed - t-shirt, shorts, and underwear were all on - and there were no signs of a struggle. Investigators gathered a substantial amount of trace evidence from the scene, but unfortunately much of it was contaminated by Jennifer's pet cat. Once it was separated, the evidence didn't reveal anything specific to help the investigation. Police claim that both DNA of her ex-boyfriend Ralph Sepulveda (more on him below) and Travers was found in the apartment. Sepulveda did briefly live with Jennifer there.
There were a couple of items missing from her apartment - her purse, keys (but her car was in the parking lot), phone, and two DVDs - Saving Private Ryan and Sex and the City. Her flute was also reported missing.
Theories and Suspects
It's believed that Jennifer knew her assailant. The door was not forced open, similar to the Jill-Lyn Euto case (in my profile). Police have had two main suspects in the case - her ex-boyfriend Ralph Sepulveda and Brian Travers.
Travers was a suspect as well because he was one of the last known people to be with Jennifer before her death, as well as investigators being unable to rule him out.
Sepulveda, then 34 at the time to Jennifer's 22 and a former Army Ranger and Reserve training instructor, moved to Texas with Jennifer when she got the job (and having not known each other very long), but not long after moving there, Jennifer discovered that Sepulveda had a fiancée and child he left behind in Montana - something he never told Jennifer about. Jennifer ended the relationship thereafter.
Sepulveda moved into an apartment near by. I haven't been able to find a secondary source on this either, but one source said Sepulveda had two criminal charges of child molestation filed against him in Phoenix, one of them alleged that he was having sex with his 15-year-old niece.
Sepulveda claimed to investigators that he was at his apartment the night of the murder. Police have not been able to verify his alibi. In the eyes of Jennifer's family and friends, Sepulveda murdered her when he could not handle her moving on with her life. Jennifer Loren, a colleague of Servo's at KRBC, said Jennifer confided in her that Sepulveda liked to choke her during sex - something she was not into. Dara Riordan, Jennifer's best friend, backs this claim as well. Riordan also says that she talked to Jennifer the day before she died and said that Servo had not heard from Sepulveda for three weeks.
“She did tell me one time that she did not like the way that he treated her when they were together intimately, that he wanted to strangle her while they were having sex and she did not like that,” said Servo’s friend and former KRBC anchorwoman, Jennifer Loren.
According to detectives, the two men's reactions to the news could not have been more different. Sepulveda was very controlled and never asked how she was killed. Travers was extremely distraught.
In 2014, detectives released a statement to the media stating that they were working new leads in the investigation, but they neither elaborated on what those leads were nor has there been much of any follow up to that release. Detectives working the case believe they know who the murderer is, but have not been able to make an arrest due to lack of evidence.
- has a 40 minute podcast to listen to.