Father Saw Daughter Die in His Dreams As She Was Being Murdered

Jessie Bardwell’s killer testified despite being caught lying multiple times to the authority.

In the murder trial of Jessie Bardwell, the prosecutor said,

“And you tossed her out to the back of your Audi.”

The accused murderer, who claimed that he was deeply in love with Jessie, corrected him, “Placed her.”

The prosecutor then said with a hint of mockery,

“Affectionately. I’m sure.”

27-year old Jessie Bardwell was free-spirited, independent, and well-loved by people around her. Her parents divorced when she was 14, but she remained very close to both sides of her family, and she was dubbed as “daddy’s little girl.”

She worked as a server at a local hotspot in Orange County and was dating a fellow colleague server. Even then, she remained in close contact with her father, Gary Bardwell, by calling and texting him every day.

All of a sudden, in 2016, she ended her long-time relationship with her boyfriend, uprooted her life, and moved all the way from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Richardson, Texas, with a man named Jason Lowe.

28-year old Jason was a handsome, charming man with a double degree. When he was offered a six-figure job in a tech company in Dallas, Jessie followed him to pursue her own dreams in cosmetology. While Jason worked from home, Jessie searched for jobs there. She became more and more distant, with fewer calls and texts to her friends and family. Eventually, the only way her friends and family could reach her was through Jason.

Only a month later, Jessie called Gary, in tears, alone and freezing, saying that Jason kicked her out from the apartment. Allegedly, Jason claimed that Jessie had an affair on Christmas eve, and she was pregnant with another man’s child, where later in February 2016, she got an abortion. A far distant friend offered to shelter her for the night, and Gary immediately bought a ticket for Jessie to fly to Alabama. Her friend waited for her at the airport for hours, but she never appeared.

Jessie revealed that Jason felt bad about it, and they mended the relationship.

2 months later, Gary finally had the chance to meet Jason face to face. From the get-go, Gary found Jason to be not trustworthy, and he tried to convince his daughter to return home, but she gave him a long, lingering hug,

“I definitely want to go to Texas. But, I just want you to be proud of me.”

After that visit, Gary wrote a song titled “Taken Away,” describing the sadness of his daughter leaving. A few months later, Jessie was no longer reachable. Gary woke up from a nightmare that his daughter was murdered. He said,

“Something was terribly wrong. Jessie was … was killed. …And when I woke up, it was just a dream. And I felt it — she was not on this earth anymore.”

Jason told Gary that he had no clue where Jessie was as their relationship was described as “independent” and she can come and go as she please.

When she did not call back on Mother’s day, May 8th, Gary knew something was not right as Jessie was very close to her mother and stepmother, and she was not the kind of person who would skip out on special days like this.

Gary requested the Richardson Police Department (RPD) to conduct a welfare check on his daughter as Jason could not tell his daughter’s location. Around 2 PM that day, an officer spoke to Jason, and he said Jessie just stepped out for some shopping. 5 hours later, the officer returned. Jessie was still not home, and Jason was “kind of scattered, nervous, talkative.”

The next day, the officer returned again, but Jason did not answer the door. Around 7 PM, Jason returned to his apartment in his bumper-less Audi. It was as if something ripped the bumper off. His car and his clothing were muddy, and he had minor scratches on his arms. He claimed it was because he just went mudding, and his dog got loose. Oddly, the dog was clean, free from mud.

In the same conversation, Jason’s story started to change. He went mudding two weeks ago, and he got the scratches when he was removing the bumper of his car.

Based on how fishy everything was, the missing person’s report for Jessie Bardwell was filed that very evening.

On May 12th, the detectives decided to interview Jason again, this time at his apartment. There was a line of coke on the kitchen counter. Jason, for the 3rd time, changed his story. Now, his car was muddy because of a fishing trip at Lake Lewisville on May 8th.

The only thing consistent was the last time Jason saw Jessie, her driving away on May 8th in her Acura. But, that very same car was sold 3 weeks before that by both Jason and Jessie. When the detectives reminded him of it, he acted surprise and then said they leased it, and the couple still had access to the car.

Jason was also seemed dodgy about his garage space, very reluctantly allowed the detectives to search it. The detectives immediately noticed the unforgettable stench of death from Jason’s car, but Jessie was not there. The stagnant liquid found in the car was later tested positive for blood.

For the 4th time, Jason contradicted himself again by saying that he had not driven his Audi for almost 2 weeks when he was supposedly fishing just 4 days ago.

It was clear at that point, the detectives were looking at a homicide case.

On May 19th, the police found Jessie’s body at a secluded farm ranch with the help of a tip. She was heartlessly thrown under debris of metal, and her naked body was only wrapped with a blue fitted sheet and a red tow strap. By that point, her body was decomposed so badly that it took 7 days to identify it was indeed Jessie, but they could not find the cause of death.

As Gary waited for the trial, he often printed out pictures of Jason and just beat them up with a sledgehammer.

The Trial

The Defense

Jason testified in his own trial. A very risky decision that most would choose not to. It was understandable why Jason’s attorney was so confident that Jason would walk as the case was only built on circumstantial evidence. Noone had any idea where, why, or how Jessie was murdered. There was no eyewitness nor murder weapon found. Nothing solid could possibly pinpoint Jason as the killer. Jason was also able to convince the jurors in his mock trial uncontested that he was innocent.

Jason testified that on May 1st, they were housesitting for their neighbors, Thomas and Regina Jordan, that were out of town for a few days. He and Jessie got high on drugs known as GHB (A common rape drug) and were having sex in the bathroom, but he slipped, causing Jessie to slip. She hit her head at the faucet and the edge of the bathtub. She was able to get up, but she complained that she was getting hot and dizzy. They decided to sleep it off. And when Jason woke up, Jessie was already dead.

At that same moment, Jason’s drug dealer, Robert Quinn, came knocking. Jason was scared because of “drugs and everything” and just let Guinn took charge of the situation. Jason claimed that Guinn wrapped Jessie up with the sheet, and together, they put Jessie into Jason’s car, where Jason just left her there for days before finally, on May 9th, he disposed of the body.

In a nutshell, Jason’s defense was it was an accident. He was so deeply in love with Jessie, and they were planning to buy a house and get married. He panicked and made all the wrong decisions, including lying to the police on multiple occasions because he wanted to somehow keep Jessie alive in his mind.

The Prosecution

During a prison visit by Thomas, Jason admitted that he was guilty of criminal negligence. That recording was played out in court.

Jason was a pathological liar, often lying that he was part of the Navy Seal even though he never was. On May 8th, at 9:40 PM, Jason sent an email to Jessie, telling her to call her father, and the police dropped by twice for her, but in his testimony, he already knew that Jessie was dead by then. Jason also admitted that he sent out multiple messages to Jessie’s family and his own phone from May 2nd to May 10th, pretending to be her on her phone.

The prosecutors were able to dig out Jason’s history of abusing women. His two ex-girlfriends attested to this, saying that Jason would first distant them from their families and then accuse them of being unfaithful, trapping them in the relationship. He was arrested for aggravated assault in 2015.

But, the prosecutor never had to call his ex-girlfriends or Robert Quinn to the stand.

The primary defense that Jason kept repeating in tears was Jessie was the love of his life, but his actions were just the opposite of affection.

As Jessie’s body decayed in Jason’s car for days, Jason was sexting multiple other women. His explicit texts were read out loud in the courtroom. Despite the many times that Jason could have told the police the truth, he failed to. Instead of a proper burial, he chose to heartlessly hide Jessie under debris that was likely from his own car.

Justice

Jason Lowe was found guilty, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison instead of 99 years, a result of the deal he made in exchange for the location of Jessie’s body. He will be eligible for parole in May 2041.

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