A Person Close to Her Did the Unthinkable… the Tragic Case of AJ Hadsell
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much, as always, for joining me this week. And if you are new, then welcome. Well, guys, I just got to say right off the bat that today's case has left me with a heart full of rage. Like, the more I researched this case, the more I learned, the more pissed off I became. I actually found this case through one of you guys, through my members-only request form, and...

I was surprised I had never heard of it, but I was just completely shocked as I was going through the details of this one. Today we're going to be going over the case of AJ Hadsell, and this episode is going to go up quite close to the date that she disappeared, actually. So I thought it would be a good time to tell you about her story. And if you haven't already heard this case, I promise you, as you start hearing these details, you're going to feel just as angry as I am. I mean, every case makes me angry.

I've been kind of in a mood lately, so maybe that's why I'm even more angry than normal. But this one just really sent me over the edge. I was completely blown away. So I want to get into it. Before I do, though, I did want to mention that our Higher Hope Impact Report is now available on our website, higherhope.org. And that's for 2024, which we did launch the foundation in September. So it was only four months worth, but I'm really proud of everything that we did.

And we're being super transparent about where every donation is going, how every dollar is being spent and who it's supporting. So you can see all of that at our website. And I would love for you to take a look. And if you are interested, we would really appreciate any support that you can give us. There's a way to donate on the website.

And, you know, whatever amount is helpful to us. I know that a lot of people aren't in a place to donate and that's totally fine. Just by supporting my content, you are enabling me to put more and more into the foundation and essentially help more people. But if you are able and interested in supporting our foundation, there is a way to donate and we will be

Very, very grateful as we have some big plans for 2025, already some great grants in the works and projects, and I'm excited to see what we do this year. So once again, thank you guys. This would not be possible without you. But anyway, let's go ahead and dive into this case, guys, because I've got a lot to say. So Angelica Marie, or AJ as everyone called her,

was born on August 9th, 1996 in Chesapeake, Virginia to her mother, Jennifer, and she would go on to have three younger half-sisters and one younger half-brother. Her biological father was never in the picture, and the first part of her young life, it was just her and her mom. However, when AJ was two years old, her mom ended up meeting the man who would eventually become her stepfather, Zach Hoffer. And the story of how her mother met Zach is actually really interesting because

Her and AJ were driving through Wyoming when suddenly their car blew a tire,

skidded to the side of the road and then did a flip luckily the car landed right side up but zach happened to be just driving by and witnessed the whole thing so he pulled over and rushed over to help them luckily nobody was hurt besides a small cut on aj's wrist and yeah that is how they met that is their origin story i thought that was kind of cool like pretty serendipitous but anyway he and jennifer hit it off and eventually they got married and had two daughters of their own

And despite the fact that he wasn't, you know, AJ's biological father, he was the only father figure she ever had. He called his three girls his cubs, and for a while, AJ didn't even know that he wasn't her biological father. And ultimately, it didn't really matter because he loved her all the same. He says that she had this little tiger stuffed animal and that she always carried that around with her.

If she wasn't carrying him, she was carrying her bear, Smokey. And he also says that AJ was just wise beyond her years. And on top of that, AJ was gentle. She was kind. She loved animals. And when it came to being a big sister, she really adjusted quickly to that role and thrived as a big sister. I mean, even as a little kid,

She knew how to be delicate with her younger siblings and also had no problem playing independently when one of them was needing attention from their parents. Oh, and I loved this, and I feel like so many of us did this as kids, but when they got a little bit older, AJ would coordinate these little concerts with the two of them

and they would put on shows for their parents. And like I said, I'm sure that's a core memory that so many of us have, you know, doing these little shows or plays with our siblings or cousins. And AJ was just very creative like that. She was also incredibly fearless. Zach started taking her climbing when she was only four years old, and he'd help her as she climbed up the rocks, but the older she got, the less help she needed. Eventually, she would just be zooming up these rocks and jumping off and didn't seem to think that

Really anything was scary. Another thing that she would do, and I love this because I had a friend who always did this, but she would climb up

the side of the door frames and have one foot on either side to hold her there. And she would just casually be up at the top of the frame chilling like it was no big deal. AJ just seemed to have this very adventurous, brave spirit about her. And there was very little that she couldn't do. I mean, she was really willing to try anything that she wanted to put her mind to. And this was really true for most areas in her life. I mean, AJ really excelled in most things she did and

And school was definitely one of them. In fourth and fifth grade, she broke reading records at her school. And she was also a very active kid. She played a bunch of different sports, including softball, basketball, golf, field hockey, and tennis. And for many years, things in her young life were going really well. At one point, Zach even got in contact with AJ's biological father and asked him if he could formally adopt her.

And he said yes. And people had always known AJ as AJ Hoffer, but it wasn't official. So when she turned eight, he wanted to make it official. But right around the time that this process started, unfortunately, Zach and Jennifer's relationship was coming to an end. And so the process of Zach formally adopting AJ...

just never ended up happening. In the separation, Zach and Jennifer ended up splitting the custody 50-50 when it came to the girls, but eventually Jennifer gained full custody and the relationship between him and AJ was just never really the same, which was something that understandably to this day is incredibly difficult and upsetting to Zach.

And they did see each other a few more times after he lost custody. But after 2014, that was it. And then less than a year later, AJ went missing and Zach never saw AJ again. ♪

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Obviously, I'm jumping ahead a little bit. So to give you more context, Jennifer ended up meeting somebody else, a guy named Wesley Hadsell, and they got married and also went on to have kids of their own. And if you're familiar with this case, you've probably heard AJ referred to as AJ Hadsell. And that's because Wesley, or as a lot of people called him, Wes Hadsell.

ended up formally adopting her. And according to him, AJ was over the moon. He said that the two of them were incredibly close and that she was so excited to take his last name. And like Zach, he was a big part of her life. He watched her excel in athletics in school. She was definitely on the more reserved side as a teenager, but

As soon as she was in her element, they say that she was, quote, hell on wheels. Then, in the fall of 2014, AJ started college at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, and she was double majoring in information technology and computer programming. So clearly, AJ is very smart, and she was actually determined to graduate in just three years. And many people close to her say that if she was given that chance...

she would have. She also played softball and field hockey and was every bit as active as she had been her whole life. But any dream that AJ may have wanted for herself

was stolen on March 2nd, 2015. Now, a few days before that, her mom and her sisters had driven up to her campus to pick her up and take her home for spring break. And by this point, their family was living in Norfolk, Virginia. Now, I just have to say, because I know people are going to point it out, that it seems from my research that people who live in Norfolk say it

pretty differently. There are people who say Norfolk or some people say Norfolk, which that's how I, you know, immediately wanted to say it just by how it's spelled. But I think for the most part, most of the coverage that I've seen, people are saying Norfolk.

So I'm going to go with Norfolk, and I'm sorry if that is wrong in your mind. So anyway, they were living in Norfolk, but Wes, actually, on the other hand, was no longer living with them. Jennifer learned that he had started using drugs, and she didn't want that around the children, so she kicked him out of the house, and he ended up staying in a hotel nearby, which means that AJ was actually home alone for most of March 2nd. She saw her mother and her siblings earlier that morning.

And they left around 7 a.m. for work and school. Wes did stop by briefly that morning right around 7 a.m. to switch out his personal truck with his work van. But after that, she was all alone. And at first, everything seemed to be okay that day. That is until mid-afternoon when Jennifer ends up reaching out to Wes over text and asked if he had heard from AJ because apparently AJ had been sending her mother texts that didn't sound like her. They...

we're coming across as very cryptic. She was saying that she was out with friends and, quote, just needed space, but wasn't willing to tell her mom where she actually was. And so Wes started texting AJ too, and he started getting similar responses. Just none of them sounded like AJ. But the alarm bells really started going off for her mom when she returns home from work and she looks at the kitchen counter and she finds a note saying,

that was in AJ's handwriting, and it reads, "'Dear Madre, with everything that's going on, "'it's a lot to deal with.'"

And that's it. Now, we do know that there were some family things with Wes going on, and her freshman year of college was also a bit challenging, as it is for most freshmen. She and her boyfriend recently had broken up, and that was definitely really hard on her. But even with all of these things going on in her life, AJ was just not a leave-a-note type of person. She would have called or texted,

And she wouldn't have been so cryptic about it. And what's also strange is when her parents started reaching out to her friends to see if maybe any of them had heard from her or seen her, most of them had not heard from her either. They only got those strange messages here and there, and then eventually they just stopped coming in.

And so on March 3rd, Jennifer went ahead and reported AJ missing. So the following day, officers with the NPD went to their home to interview her family and just get a general understanding of when the last time AJ was seen, which for her mom was around 7 a.m. on the 2nd when she left with the girls. And for Wes, it was the same day, of course, but he had seen her earlier.

at around 12.30. He said that he and AJ had met up at a gas station near his work where he gave her $100, but he said that he didn't know what she needed the money for. And I also just want to note for people who are familiar with this case that there is a lot of reporting, a lot of sources that say that it was $200 he gave her

But the official court documents say 100, so I'm just going to be going with that. But really, in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that important of a detail. So anyway, he described the last thing that she was wearing, which included her blue softball jacket that had her name embroidered on the front. Now, this jacket is going to become important in this case. But anyway, after Wes gives her this money, which he said he didn't know what she needed it for, she didn't explain what she needed it for, that

He saw her head in the direction of their home, and that's where he assumed that she went. Then, one of AJ's little sisters ended up speaking to the police, and she shared that when she came home from school on the 2nd, the front door was unlocked and there was half-folded laundry in the living room. And upon further inspection, they realized that her wallet, with money still inside of it, had been left on the couch, which obviously gave them immediate cause for concern.

It looked as if AJ was at home doing laundry and then something or someone interrupted her. And the reality is AJ was just not the type of person to run away. I mean, at least not according to her friends and family. Really, she was just a very well-behaved teenager. She didn't drink. She didn't do drugs or anything like that. And if she was ever struggling with something, she was the type...

to open up to someone and try and seek help or support from someone in her life. And so ultimately, between these strange texts and the note and the condition of the living room, these officers off the bat just sensed that there was something seriously wrong. So of course, they began building a list of suspects and

No surprise here, but one of the first suspects on their list was Josh, her ex-boyfriend. However, despite police noting that he was acting a little bit strange about the whole thing...

They said that he just didn't seem like he had much of a motive. And plus, he, I mean, from his point of view, explained to police that their breakup was mutual. And even if that isn't true, he did have a very strong alibi. Now, they didn't completely write him off at this point. They just sort of moved him to the side, especially because someone else had caught their attention, which...

requires a bit of a backstory. So AJ was the kind of person who had more guy friends than girlfriends and one of her really close friends growing up was this guy named Corey French. The two of them actually dated pretty briefly and then it just ended up being one of those situations where they both realized were better off as friends

So, you know, no term oil there. And when she first went missing, he was one of many people who jumped right into action to help try and locate her. He helped make flyers, searched through fields, and overall seemed genuinely concerned about finding her. And then on March 5th, while he was walking home from work, he just so happened to stumble across the first big piece of evidence in this case, and that was a piece of

of AJ's credit card. But when he called police to tell them about this, they were, of course, a little suspicious. They were skeptical. And I totally understand why they felt that way. I mean, ex-boyfriend finds a little piece of missing girl's credit card, the first big piece of evidence. It seems like a crazy coincidence. But

That's how he said it happened. And when he spoke to law enforcement, he explained that he and AJ were still friends, but it had actually been months since the two of them had seen each other in person. I guess he had reached out to her when she was home from break and they had talked about, you know, seeing one another, but they just never ended up hanging out. And even though investigators didn't have much to go off at this time in the investigation, they really started to turn their attention to him.

And not just because he found a piece of the credit card, but also because of things that her stepfather, Wes, was telling them.

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According to Wes, Corey was obsessed with AJ and had been ever since they broke up. And he straight up told investigators that they needed to look into him. And by the next day, investigators started to believe him. I mean, he is her stepfather and what he's telling them sounds concerning. And that wasn't the only reason that they were becoming more and more sus of Wes because the next day on March 6th, another one of AJ's guy friends, a guy named Andre Barr, called

contacted police after he discovered AJ's jacket hidden behind a couch cushion at Corey's house. And it wasn't just any jacket of hers. It was the jacket I just talked about, the jacket that she was last seen wearing. And this jacket literally has her name embroidered into it. And when Andre was there, he didn't tell Corey that he saw it.

He just came up with an excuse to leave and then called the police. And so at this point, alarm bells are going off like crazy for investigators. I mean, here this guy has just...

found her credit card the day before, and now her jacket that is embroidered with her name, the one that she is last seen wearing, is found behind his couch, although he had told them that the two of them hadn't seen each other for quite some time, for months. Why did he have her jacket, and more importantly, why was it stashed behind his couch?

OK, so this is not looking good. Investigators are starting to think maybe this is some type of trophy, like he had hung on to a piece of the day in a way, which is something that criminals will do to kind of memorialize in their minds or like have a what's the word like a trophy is really the best way to describe it to criminals.

remember what happened when they committed their crime. So, of course, they end up bringing him into the station. And during that time, a team of officers executed a search of his home. And the jacket was exactly where Andre said it was. And so that led to a very heated and intense interrogation. I mean, at one point, they even outright accused him of killing her. They even brought the jacket into the interrogation room.

And he had a very physical reaction to it. He was obviously just shocked. He jumped back and became incredibly upset very quickly seeing that and seemed confused. He fully denied any involvement and he just kept saying that...

He didn't have anything to do with it, and he had no idea how the jacket got there. And because it wasn't technically proof of anything, they ended up having to let him go. And Wes was very unhappy about that. It turned into a big ordeal. And that's the whole part of this that I need to explain. Right after AJ went missing, her friends, family, and community did everything that they could to try and find her.

Flyers were made, volunteer search efforts were conducted, news outlets were being reached out to, they even held a balloon release. And the one person that was really...

seemingly leading it all, was really the public face of it all, was her stepfather, Wes. He was doing a lot of the search organizing, raised $3,000 for the reward money, and just overall was very, very active in looking for her. And to be very clear, her mom was also active in the search and also spoke with the media, but Wes was definitely a lot more vocal when it came to speaking publicly, and he was also the most vocal when it came to law enforcement. Wes was quick to tell them that he didn't think they were doing enough to find AJ.

and he even told them early on that he was conducting his own investigation. And by that, he meant organizing search parties and acting on tips that he said he was receiving. There was actually a number of times where he would organize a group of volunteers to help him search,

based off of these tips that he was getting, but none of them ever panned out. There was a time early on when a neighbor reported seeing AJ driving with purpose, was their quote, towards her house on the 2nd, and then they saw a white four-door car following a minute behind her. And according to Wes, another neighbor saw that same car in their family's driveway. And Wes proposed that this was someone that AJ was having problems with,

and that she had been texting her friends and her cousin saying that there was this guy who wouldn't leave her alone. And Wes even went as far as saying that she was scared of this person. Now, we don't know who this person was and really nothing about whoever this was came up when I was doing research. So...

That's really all I have on that. But it definitely seemed to pique Wes's interest, though, as part of his investigation. Oh, and part of his investigation also happened to include intimidating possible suspects, which brings me back to Corey French. After investigators released him from questioning, Wes was pissed, and so he decided to take matters into his own hands. And he wanted people to know that he thought Corey was guilty of AJ's disappearance,

And of course, he wanted Corey to know that as well. So after they let him go, Wes drove over there. He parked outside of his house and he just blared an air horn throughout the entire night. And not only that, he ends up ordering a pizza in AJ's name and he writes on the box, I know you did it. And then he had it delivered to Corey's house, which at the time, a lot of people felt like it crossed a line, but sometimes.

Some didn't feel that way. To a lot of these people, I think they saw a man who was so desperate, so distraught, so grief-stricken that he was willing to do whatever he had to do

to get answers and to get AJ back. And even if that meant harassing somebody, he was going to do it. He would tell anyone that would listen that Corey was responsible for AJ going missing. And he even accused law enforcement of not being as dedicated to finding her as he was, which wasn't actually the case. State and federal authorities were called in to assist in the search and everyone was doing their best to try and locate her. Even the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was brought in to help. But here's the thing.

For as suspicious as Corey was to investigators, they didn't zero in on him entirely. It didn't matter how vocal Wes was being, they were going to conduct a thorough investigation before making any kind of arrest. And of course, that meant looking into other suspects, including

including AJ's first stepdad, Zach, who we've already talked about. And they learned that the relationship between Zach and Jennifer was strained after all the custody stuff, so they ended up bringing him in for questioning. And they knew it was a bit of a stretch, but they wanted to make sure that he didn't do something to AJ as some kind of retaliation. But just like Josh, he was nowhere near the house when it's believed that AJ went missing. They also said that he seemed truly devastated over AJ's disappearance, like just beyond distraught.

And he even offered up his own DNA. And at one point, they even noted that he seemed a little too upset. So they sort of kept their eye on him. But ultimately, they didn't think that he was their guy. And so that brings me to suspect number four, Andre Barr, which if you remember, he is the friend that had first found AJ's jacket.

at Corey's house stashed behind the couch. Well, he ended up becoming a suspect in the third week of their investigation after he made another big discovery. A discovery that was made by him and Wes, to clarify. On March 20th, they come across items of AJ's clothing on the side of the road

about 25 miles from where she lived. Wes was actually the one who called the police, but he told them that Andre was with him. And this was obviously a huge discovery, but investigators immediately felt like something about it was off. Because how did this one friend end up coming across two major pieces of evidence? And just to clarify, he was not the one who found the credit card, but he was the one who found the jacket, of course, and then now these clothing items. It's

Seems pretty weird. So, of course, they ended up bringing him in for questioning that night. And they also brought in Wes as well, but I'll get to that in a second. And boy, did they end up getting some very useful information from Andre. I mean, just like Corey, investigators applied a lot of pressure on him and he ended up cracking. And he explained that neither of the pieces of evidence that he had found were

were a coincidence. He found them because of Wesley. And this is where it gets crazy, so just buckle up. This is where this case started to just blow my mind and piss me off.

But according to Andre, Wes was the one who told him to go to Corey's house specifically to look for AJ's jacket. He even told him exactly where he could find it. And I'm sure you're wondering, how the hell did he know it was there? Well, according to Andre, Wes had broke into Corey's house. He told him that he went in there looking for AJ, but the jacket was all he found. But since he has a felony record, which I have not yet mentioned...

He didn't want to report it out of fear of being arrested for breaking and entering. So basically, he asked Andre to make up an excuse to go over to the house and uncover it himself. And when it came to the clothing on the side of the road, that was also Wes's doing. He told Andre that he got an anonymous call about the clothing, and since he had helped Wes during the other searches, he went this time too. Andre also shared with investigators that Wes was driving super erratically.

and then suddenly claimed to see the clothes on the side of the road. So now investigators are seeing that it wasn't like Andre had just stumbled across either of these things, that both instances had a connection to Wes. And so after hearing this, the dots really started to connect. ♪

From the beginning, Wes had been inserting himself into the investigation and he was doing whatever he could to steer them in the direction of Corey. But was he only doing that to take the heat off of himself? Investigators wanted to find out, so they started looking deeper into him and that's when they discovered his criminal record. To just name a few, he has several burglary and forgery charges as well as charges for strangulation, murder, and murder.

rape and kidnapping his estranged wife. Now, obviously, that is terrifying, highly disturbing, but it, of course, didn't prove that he did anything to AJ. It proves that he's a giant piece of shit, but not that he's a killer. But when they looked more into his story, though...

The proof that they needed just started to come to light. Now, if you remember, he said that he last saw AJ around lunchtime at that gas station to give her cash on March 2nd. But when investigators pulled security footage from that gas station, neither Wes or AJ could be seen on the tapes. And so when they brought him in for more questioning on the 20th, they were hoping to find out more about that.

But despite a 15-hour interrogation, he continuously denied having anything to do with her disappearance, which didn't seem all that believable considering at one point when investigators left the room, the camera recording Wesley captured him saying, I'm screwed. And screwed he was. It became clear quickly that his story made absolutely no sense and he didn't have any evidence to back it up, even the part about

finding her clothes. He told investigators that he'd received an anonymous tip about AJ's clothes the night before from a blocked caller. But when they asked if they could see his call history...

Wes told them that he deleted it to, quote, free up the phone memory. And it was later revealed that this call didn't even exist. The only thing that he somewhat gave into was the part about AJ's jacket. Investigators had told him that Andre had spilled the beans about what he had him do. And so he eventually did admit to breaking and entering. But he said that he only did it because he was so sure that...

Corey was the one who was responsible. He adamantly denied being involved, and he also denied being the one to plant the evidence there. Yet, the evidence so far proved that he lied about when he last saw her. And so, of course, they're thinking, like we all are, if he's lying about that, what else is he lying about? Now, like I said, this interrogation went on for a whopping 15 hours, and we would be here all day if we went over all of it.

But basically, the big picture is they weren't able to arrest him in connection with AJ's disappearance, but they could arrest him for breaking and entering. And in doing so, they had probable cause to execute a search warrant in the hotel room where he had been staying. And it was there that law enforcement found more than 100 rounds

of ammunition hidden in the air vent, something that, as a felon, he's not legally allowed to have. They also found a scale and white powder, which was later identified as heroin. Again, things that he's not legally allowed to have. And investigators now also had a search warrant for his work van, and that is what ended up being the final nail in his coffin. And it wasn't just the gloves, duct tape, shovel, hairband,

And photo of AJ that caught their attention all within his work van, it was the Garmin GPS tracker sitting on his dash. However, that kind of data does take a while to process. In the meantime, though, Wesley did have more charges coming his way. Sort of a...

you know, get him on what we can until we can get him for what we think he did type of situation. And those charges included breaking and entering, of course, also obstruction of justice and possession of ammunition as a convicted felon. And just wait until you hear this next part, okay?

This is going to really piss you off, or at least it should. And in my opinion, people who do things like this are the worst among us walking this fucking planet. He was also charged with maiming an animal because he admitted that when he broke into Corey's house, he punched their dog. I think that really tells you much of what you need to know about a person is if they are willing to punch an innocent animal. I mean, who the fuck does stuff like that? I'll never understand. But anyway...

Wesley ended up being denied bond on March 27th, and in interviews at the jailhouse, he would only refer to AJ in the past tense, which was something they had noticed he had been doing since she first went missing, which is very odd for...

a parent, a step-parent technically, to do, right? Like, we almost never see that. People get to a point where they sometimes have come to terms with the fact that their loved one probably is no longer with them, you know, the longer it's gone on. But so early on, you very rarely see a parent or a step-parent, of course, start seeing...

their name in the past tense or speaking about them in the past tense and of course that struck people as odd considering nobody knew if she was alive or not and it was pretty early on and because of that the search efforts continued day after day in many areas across Virginia with the hope that she was still somehow alive however on April 9th it was ultimately confirmed that she wasn't after they reviewed data from his GPS device they found one location that didn't

seemed to match the rest, and it was from March 4th. The device had been turned off on the 2nd, and there was very little data from the 3rd,

But the next day, it showed that West drove to an abandoned house more than 45 miles southwest of where AJ lived. Investigators described that day as super misty and gray with just kind of an eerie feeling. And when they arrived at the house, the lead detective on the case ended up being the one to find her. He had spotted this drainage ditch just behind the house and someone had placed a piece of plywood on top of it. And so he...

just barely stuck his foot underneath and sort of lifted up with his toe...

And right there, he found AJ's body lying face down in the mud. She was wearing the same outfit Wes had described. And this is very upsetting to say, but her pants had been pulled down, which does suggest a sexual assault took place. And it took a day, but on April 10th, her remains were officially identified. Now, despite the decomposition, they could see that she had severe bruising to her chest.

But given how long it had been, they were unfortunately unable to determine if a sexual assault took place. And in the end, it was determined that her cause of death was acute heroin poisoning. They say it was three times the lethal limit, which that alone, right off the bat, was an indication that AJ did not do this to herself. Which I think already is pretty obvious. I mean, AJ had no history of drug use whatsoever, and there was no evidence pointing to her being

being responsible. On the other hand, there was plenty of evidence pointing to Wesley, but they still couldn't arrest him yet. They needed more evidence, which eventually they did get. And based on a hunch, they just decided to go ahead and pull surveillance footage from a 7-Eleven that was close to AJ's house. And the thought there was that maybe they could see Wes's work truck coming through the area on the day that AJ went missing. And surprise, surprise,

They sure did. Around 12.16 p.m., his white Chevy Astra van could be seen driving in the direction towards the family's home, which, as a reminder, he no longer lived at, which doesn't match up with his story about him meeting her at a gas station, which, of course, we already knew was bullshit because they pulled the security footage from the gas station and neither of them were ever there. Then, at 1.27 p.m., his van is seen again driving in the opposite direction away from the house, and investigators believe

that AJ was inside. Their theory at that point was that Wes had some type of sick sexual interest in his stepdaughter and that when he went over to the house to act on it, she denied him. Not only that, they think she tried to fight him off, which is when he abducted her and drove off in his van. And they don't know when or where he killed her, but they believe that he was the one to poison her with the drug.

After all, he was a known user and his dealer actually ended up telling police that he had bought $800 worth of heroin and cocaine from him in the early morning hours of March 3rd, which was only hours after she went missing. And not only that, and I'm sure you all have put the pieces together here as well, but investigators also think that he was the one texting from her phone because he

Data from that phone placed itself in his hotel room on the afternoon of March 2nd into the morning of March 3rd. And then, to add to it all, his co-workers said that he was acting super strange that day. He told them that he was going to lunch and then he was gone for two hours and after he came back he seemed super agitated and

and asked to just go home for the rest of the day. Now, considering the GPS device placed Wes at that abandoned house on the 4th, it's likely that he was actually storing her somewhere else because we know that she went missing on the 2nd and in a separate search of that hotel room, a cadaver dog hit inside the room. Now, I can't say for certain if he kept her there, but I'm sure a lot of you agree with me that it's certainly in the realm of possibility. ♪

And while I'm sharing evidence against him, let me add a couple of other things. And I hope this doesn't get too confusing for you guys. Try your best to follow along because I know there's a lot of names here, but we obviously know that Wes broke into Corey's house, right? Well, apparently he had AJ's ex-boyfriend, Josh, kind of give him the insults

inside scoop as to the setup, the layout of Corey's house. It's also confusing because the details of why Josh went to Corey's house are unclear, but apparently he did. And afterwards, Wes called him and asked him to, you know, explain the house, how it's laid out and stuff. But he also wanted to know if there was an alarm system. And remember, March 6th is when Andre went to Corey's house and

found the jacket. So if I were to guess, Wes probably convinced Josh that he needed to look for evidence in the house and told him to sneak in, but used that as a cover to figure out how to plant that evidence himself. And I truly don't think Josh knew what was happening. I don't think he was trying to frame Corey

I think he just trusted the wrong person. And from interviews I've seen, a lot of people really trusted Wes. I mean, he was totally leading the charge. To everyone that was concerned about AJ and wanted to get answers, he seemed like the best person to listen to, that he was the most passionate and...

Seemed to be doing his own investigation. You know, he's saying that the police aren't doing enough. And so people wanted to help him. So that was one crazy detail I wanted to share. But another is that Wes alluded to Andre that he was going to kill Chris.

On March 8th, Andre and one of AJ's cousins went to Wes's hotel room, and I'm not entirely clear on why. But when they were there, Wes pulled out a bag with two guns inside, and he explained that he had a plan to, quote, get rid of Corey French. He even specifically mentioned that he would dump him in a body of water because water would get rid of all of the evidence.

And thankfully, that didn't end up happening, but very scary thinking about what could have happened. And going back to Wes sort of leading the charge when it came to searching for AJ, apparently when he would organize these search parties, he would himself always call the media to make sure that they were there, which, you know, doesn't seem strange.

strange in the moment. Of course, they want as much exposure on her disappearance and the search efforts as possible, hoping to get more people involved and just raise awareness for AJ. But one thing that's very interesting to note is there was a specific instance where Wes was seen crying while the cameras were rolling, but as soon as they stopped,

he was seen laughing. Basically, it seemed like the entire thing was a show to him. And there were other examples of weird behavior like this. This was just the one that stuck out to me most. And it certainly stuck out to investigators who were now trying to do everything that they possibly could to keep him

And that leads us to September of 2015, when he was indicted on the possession of ammunition charge. And then in October, he was officially charged with possession of heroin. And his bond was repeatedly denied because a letter that he wrote to his mom revealed that he was planning to go away for sure if he was granted it. And in that same letter, he talked about how he was being set up for AJ's murder.

murder, which is something that to this day he continues to say. And that's why I hate him so much. He cannot just admit the truth. This is possibly the biggest development to come out of Wesley Hadsall's arrest. He's been locked up now for six months.

He was taken into federal custody last week and denied bond Monday. Today, we found new court paperwork, a 10-page handwritten note from Wesley Hadsall in jail, a letter that sheds new light into why a judge has repeatedly denied him bond.

"Innocent until proven guilty is a joke. Wonder why I always ran when charged, Mom?" Those words in a newly obtained letter that Wesley Hadsall sent to his mom from jail. "Wish I had Bond. I'd go away for sure," Hadsall said. Federal prosecutors say those words are evidence that Hadsall presents a flight risk, a reason to keep him behind bars.

So he shows up to court. Since being locked up six months ago, Hadsall has maintained his innocence despite some questioning his involvement in AJ's death. He did end up pleading guilty to the ammunition charge, which landed him 10 years in prison. But even still, at that point, he denied killing AJ. And not just at that point, he still does as of today. And back in June of 2015, he actually spoke out despite his lawyer telling him not to.

And he just spewed a bunch of the expected, the I'm innocent, I'm being framed bullshit. But there was one part of it that really pissed me off. He said that in his last conversation with AJ that she admitted to him that she had been using heroin. He did say that he believed someone else was texting him that from her phone. I don't understand what he was trying to do with all of this.

And it's just a load of shit either way you slice it because at the end of the day, we know that her phone was in his possession. He was clearly trying so desperately to shift blame here and it did take some time, but eventually he was charged. Thankfully.

in connection with her death. In November of 2018, 40-year-old piece of shit Wesley Hadsell was indicted on one count of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree felony murder, and one count of felony concealment of a dead body. And at one point, a fellow prisoner informed on him, telling authorities that Wesley confessed to him that he was involved in AJ's death. And I honestly don't think this is what led to his charges. I mean, informants are often looking for something in exchange for their testimony and

It sounds like this guy wanted immunity for some very serious charges. Either way, though, the charges for Wesley finally came, and it was a big step forward in the case. However, justice didn't come as quickly as anyone would have hoped. In February of 2020, Wesley's murder trial began. However, on day two, the judge declared a mistrial, and it was actually at the request of the prosecution. And what happened was, basically, the prosecution and the defense had

come to an agreement before trial about certain information that, you know, could and could not be used in the trial. And two days in, Wesley changed his mind about this agreement, which would have changed part of the prosecution's approach to the trial. So they asked the judge to declare a mistrial in order to have some time to prepare. So a new trial was set for May, but this is 2020 we're talking about, and by May, things got...

pretty bad and COVID pushed the trial even further. Finally, though, in January of 2022, the trial began and for as strong of a case as the prosecution had,

There were still some concerns, and the main concern was really that they didn't have any physical evidence of him poisoning her. Obviously, they were able to show that he had purchased an insane amount of drugs right after she went missing, but they couldn't directly connect it to the drugs in her system. They also didn't have proof of their theory that Wesley was sexually attracted to her.

Like I said, they believe he killed her after she denied his advances. Or maybe it was a situation where she had threatened to go to the police or report him. You know, something had to have happened like that. And yes, of course, I can't say with certainty that, you know, that's how things unfolded or that he was sexually attracted to her, that he sexually assaulted her. But in my opinion, I truly think he did. And I've seen interviews with him

I don't know, just the way he speaks about her, like when he talks about her, about legally adopting her, the way he says it, it just creeped me out. It was almost like he was talking about like the day he married someone.

I don't know. I don't know. But that's just my opinion. I have to obviously say that. But that being said, they did have a lot of circumstantial evidence tying him to this. The biggest thing, of course, being that Garmin GPS device that placed his work van at the location that her body was found. The defense tried to argue that AJ was depressed from her breakup and took her own life.

But thankfully, the jury did not buy that shit at all. And after almost three weeks of testimony, the jury came back with their verdict very quickly. It only took them 45 minutes. And their verdict was that Wesley Hadsell was guilty of murdering his 18-year-old stepdaughter.

Right off the top at six, breaking news. Just minutes ago, a jury found Wesley Hansel guilty in the death of his stepdaughter, AJ. And it took the jury less than one hour to come to this decision. It's been seven years since AJ Hansel went missing and her body was found here in South Hampton County in this trial. This is take two, the second time, the first time ended in a mistrial. This

This trial lasted two and a half, almost three weeks. And then after all of that, it took the jury just 45 minutes to find Wesley Hatzell guilty on both charges against him. That's first degree murder and concealment of a body. He's facing those charges for the death of his 18-year-old stepdaughter, A.J. Hatzell, who died back in 2015. This is video of the courtroom today. You can see Hatzell's

Hadsall there as the verdict is being read to him. Now, I was sitting right next to AJ's family, her sisters, her mother, her stepfather.

And when the verdict was read, they were extremely emotional. They started crying. They started hugging each other. They said it felt like justice of sorts. We caught up briefly with some of her family afterwards and talked to them off camera. They said they're thankful to law enforcement. They're thankful to the prosecutors. And this does feel like a justice of sorts. ♪

Then on April 4th, he appeared for his sentencing hearing, where he received life in prison plus 15 years. AJ's family was too heartbroken to go, which I completely understand, but Zach, her first stepfather, who I spoke about earlier in this episode,

However, he ended up being escorted out of the courtroom after he lunged at Wesley when the defense objected to him reading a victim impact statement. And even though I obviously know there's a reason for those rules and that you cannot act that way in a courtroom, I completely understand why.

him doing this. I mean, it would be so hard to hold back. Zach has always felt that the court system failed A.J. He believes that if Wesley had been convicted in 2005 of the multiple rapes, assaults, and kidnappings that he was accused of, this would have never happened to A.J.,

the girl that he had always considered his daughter and loved so much. And I could not agree with him more. The court system did fail AJ. I mean, there's just no ifs, ands, or buts. That is what happened. If Wesley was already behind bars before any of this happened, she would still be alive today. Now, like I said, despite it all, Wesley continues to maintain his innocence and has attempted to appeal his conviction. I,

I do know that I am innocent and that I will work very hard to prove the fact. Wesley Hadsall sits in a yellow jumpsuit at the Tidewater Regional Jail staring down the very real possibility this is how he'll spend the rest of his days. Did you kill AJ? No, ma'am. The jury says he did. What went through your mind? What did that moment feel like? Give us some insight. I wasn't going to break down.

I wasn't, I wasn't, I'm not going to accept that verdict. After sitting through 11 days of testimony, it only took the jury 41 minutes to convict. Guilty, Ms. Chavez, in the indictment. Unusually quick for a case this complex. Were you surprised by the verdict at all? When it came back so fast, not really. It didn't make sense to come back that quick.

This wasn't like some kind of clear-cut case. This was highly circumstantial. There was no smoking gun in this case. The prosecution never even proved how Hadsell gave A.J. the heroin that killed her. The most damning evidence against him is that police found A.J.'s body by following the GPS history from his work van to an abandoned home in Southampton County. How did A.J.'s body get behind that house? I don't know.

I tell you this, I was never behind that house. Hadsell says this GPS is removable. So are you saying you didn't have your GPS that day? I didn't use GPS to go to and from that location. That's not what I asked. I asked if you had your GPS that day. There was a GPS in my vein. I did have two GPSs. So are you saying you're set up?

I mean, bottom line is there's other things at play here that I can't speak on because I don't know. I would not have put my daughter out there like trash in someone's backyard and left her there like that. Now, I'm pretty confident I know how all of you are going to feel. I don't think there will be much, if any, of you out there who believe that Wes is innocent. I mean...

I'd like to hear why if you do, but I definitely want to hear your opinions on the verdict and if the jury got it right. I mean, personally, I clearly think they did, and I'm very thankful that they did. And I also think that even though AJ was by far the biggest victim in this case, she wasn't the only one. Corey French, I mean, above all else, was nearly framed for her murder and totally traumatized by his experience.

And Andre Barr was very, I mean, extremely manipulated by Wes. Andre actually lost his job throughout this because he was so focused on helping AJ, only for Wesley to try and use him to try and frame someone else. And I was watching an interview with Corey where the interviewer asked him, if you could say anything to Wesley, what would you say to him? And he just said, dude, fuck you. And I...

Could not agree with that more. Fuck you, Wesley. You are one of the biggest pieces of garbage to ever grace this planet. How dare you take advantage of this young woman with such a bright future ahead of her and then murder her? I mean, what kind of sick individual does that to someone who they loved enough to adopt as their own and then to roam around playing this act of this grieving father who's desperate for answers, leading the searches, playing it up on the camera?

And then, even worse, to go and frame another young man and almost let him take the fall for murder, ruining his life. I mean, I cannot say enough bad things about this guy. Just, this is why I was so enraged looking into this case. I mean, he is just one of the worst I think I've ever covered, and that's saying a lot. And I think what pisses me off about him and so many of the other garbage trucks that I have covered on this show is...

When people cannot just admit to what they have done, what they have so clearly done,

I don't even know how to put that rage into words. It's just, I mean, the worst thing that you can possibly do. There is no hope for you. You are charged. It is over. You are going to spend the rest of your life in prison. Why not at that point just give the family the answers that they're looking for? Explain exactly what happened and just own up to what the fuck you did. Then, of course, I'm heartbroken for the other victims in this case.

her mother and her sisters and also Zach as well and everyone else who loved AJ, who, you know, her friends. So many young people have been traumatized by this entire situation and they're

It is just horrific. I know that AJ's memory will continue to live on through her friends and her family, but I wish it didn't have to. I wish she was still here, and she's not, because of this sick, twisted person who still can't even own up to what he did. I'm just so thankful that he is behind bars and will remain there for the rest of his miserable life, and I hope he spends every day of his pathetic life

picturing AJ in the way that she was when he left her there. Just sick. And I think that's all I have to say about that. But I definitely want to hear from you guys. So let me know. God, AJ just seemed like such a great, great young person. And it's just, it's beyond tragic.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.