As Day Two of the trial unfolds, the prosecution begins methodically connecting the evidence that led to Jason Chen’s arrest. Investigator Zack Crawford’s testimony reveals the blood-soaked truth hidden beneath the surface of Chen’s apartment, while forensic limitations and the defense’s strategy come into play. We follow the digital breadcrumbs left on Chen’s phone, chilling surveillance footage of him wheeling a suitcase through Chattanooga, and the discovery of Jasmine Pace’s SIM card hidden among his belongings. With each new revelation, the picture becomes clearer, darker, and more damning. Then, I returned to the crime scene—standing where Jasmine was found, seeing what I had only heard about in court. The weight of the trial, the evidence, and the reality of what happened here settles in like never before. If you want to see photos and read the blog for this episode, click here! Please rate, subscribe, and follow! You can email us at sequesteredpod(at)gmail.com On our website, you can see more photos, videos, and blogs about each day of the trial, organized by episode. Go to SequesteredPod.com Website: sequesteredpod.com Instagram: @sequesteredpod TikTok: @sequesteredpod Thank you for listening. SEQUESTERED is a BP Production.
Chapter 1: What happens during the daily routine of the jurors?
Before we begin please be advised that this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence as presented during the trial. Please take care while listening. It's Tuesday morning, January 14th, 2025, day two of the trial. The morning unfolds just as it did yesterday. In fact, the daily structure is quickly settling into a predictable rhythm.
Early mornings, strict schedules, and constant supervision. For all of us, the predictability of the process was both grounding and, at times, a little suffocating. I had a chance to catch up with a couple of the jurors after the trial, and I'm eager to share some of their thoughts with you throughout the podcast. Here's juror number one sharing his breakdown of our morning routine.
Every day we would wake up at around 6 a.m. The sheriffs would come knock on our door because they had to take the alarm clocks out of our rooms since they have radios, which could have exposed us to details of the case. We'd have 30 minutes before we went down to the hotel lobby to have breakfast.
All the TVs in the lobby had to be turned to the Weather Channel so that we wouldn't see any news coverage of the case. I'd never really eat much, but I enjoyed having coffee with everybody in the morning. After breakfast, they would give us an hour of time to get ready for the day, and then we'd be shuttled to the courthouse.
When we got to the courthouse, we would go to our place that was basically home base, was a conference room where deliberation happened. We would chill out there for like 30 minutes sometimes. I think one day it was actually like almost three hours before they brought us into the courtroom.
As juror number one explains, once we're at the courthouse, we settle into our jury room where we spend time getting to know each other. Remember, we're not allowed to discuss the case until deliberations, which honestly is harder than it sounds. And with no cell phones or laptops to retreat into, we have nothing to do but talk.
So, what do a group of random strangers tasked with deciding a man's fate but unable to talk about it actually talk about? Well, we get to know each other the old-fashioned way. We share about our jobs, families, where we grew up, and swap favorite restaurant names.
Among us were people with professions like doctor and social worker, clinician and accountant, engineer and architect, homemaker and tour manager. We all came from different backgrounds, worlds that probably would never intersect in our daily lives. I've said this before, but it felt like an unexpected social experiment.
The bailiff and officers joked with us back in Nashville, saying that we'd be bonded by the end of this. And they weren't wrong. What the 16 of us experienced over these 10 days created a connection that will stay with us forever. It's not unlike how investigators had to piece together all the fragments of evidence, each piece seemingly unrelated at first, but forming a complete picture over time.
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Chapter 2: How did the investigation into Jasmine Pace's disappearance begin?
In major criminal investigations, law enforcement can submit only 10 pieces of evidence at a time for forensic testing. Compounding the challenge, most forensic labs face month-long backlogs. In this case, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or TBI, conducted forensic analysis through its crime lab, performing DNA testing, toxicology, and fingerprint analysis to support law enforcement.
Given the urgency, Crawford prioritized the most critical evidence, items most likely to connect Jason Chen to the crime. Although investigators collected the items from the dumpster, they were not included in the 10 items submitted to TBI for testing. District Attorney Cody Wamp presented these details strategically, anticipating the defense's argument.
If the dumpster evidence wasn't tested, they could claim it couldn't be definitively linked to the murder. Despite this, forensic testing yielded a critical breakthrough. The blood found inside Jason Chen's apartment was a DNA match to Jasmine Pace. What began as a missing person case had now shifted dramatically, and Jason Chen was the main suspect.
If you've been following the podcast, we've got something new for you. Now you can dive even deeper into each episode on our website, sequesteredpod.com. We've added exclusive blogs for every episode, packed with extra details, behind the scenes insights, and key moments from the trial. Plus, we've organized all the trial and news coverage by each day of the trial.
so you can follow along just like we did in the jury room. Head over to sequesteredpod.com now to explore the case in a whole new way. At this point in the case, Jason Chen is officially identified as a suspect. Despite multiple attempts to contact him, Jason remains elusive. Investigators gather information about his family, personal life and his movements.
They confirmed Chen's identity not only from his residence at 110 Tremont Street, but also by his cell phone number, his enrollment at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and finally, by learning that he drove a 2018 gray Toyota Camry. Next, Crawford would obtain a search warrant for Chen's cell phone data, revealing ping locations with coordinates that led to Nolensville, Tennessee.
I need to pause here because, hold on... Did they just say Nolensville? I live about four miles from Nolensville, Tennessee. This case just got a whole lot closer to home. In the early hours of November 29th at 2 a.m., a search warrant was executed at Chen's parents' house in Nolensville, Tennessee.
Four homicide detectives and crime scene investigators from the Chattanooga Police Department responded, along with officers from the Nolensville Police Department. Upon arrival, the first contact made was with Jason's parents. Investigator Crawford informed them of the search warrant and asked if Jason Chen was inside.
Jason's father called for him, and moments later, Jason appeared from a room on the second floor. Crawford testified that when Jason came to the door, his demeanor was defensive yet calm.
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Chapter 3: What critical evidence was found in Jason Chen's apartment?
And from the way the notes were worded, it felt like he was trying to get his story straight before calling Crawford back. In another room of the parents' house, investigators located Jason Chen's backpack. Among the items found inside, an eyeglasses case was collected. Inside of the case was Jasmine Pace's SIM card. This obviously raised some serious questions. Why did he have it?
Had he removed it to prevent tracking? Where was her cell phone? This discovery would become a critical piece of the investigation, suggesting a deliberate effort to conceal evidence. Finally, Investigator Crawford revealed that Jason's car was found parked inside of his parents' garage, while both of his parents' vehicles sat outside in the driveway.
In photos shown during the trial, the two-car garage, each side with its own retracting door, appeared to serve as a storage space for the family. The side closest to the house was packed with items, leaving no clear pathway. On the other side, a gray Toyota Camry was wedged tightly among the stored items, as if space had been cleared just enough to fit the vehicle.
The placement of Chen's car, tucked away while the family's vehicles remained outside, raised an unsettling question. Had he been deliberately hiding his car from view? Jason was placed under an investigative hold at Nolensville PD while investigators searched his parents' home.
Once the search had concluded, he was formally arrested for criminal homicide and transported back to Chattanooga, where he was booked and fingerprinted. His Toyota Camry was transported shortly behind. The very next day, on December 1st, 2022, investigators made a grim discovery. A suitcase wedged into the brush off of Suck Creek Road. Inside, the body of Jasmine Pace.
DA Womp turned to Investigator Crawford, asking him to connect the dots between Chen's arrest and the chilling discovery that followed just 24 hours later.
Mr. Chen was only placed under NCIC hold, Investigator's hold at that point, but we came back and applied for an arrest warrant through the Hamilton County Magistrate's Office, at which point he was signed off for a breadth of time for criminal homicide.
And at this point in time, did anybody know where Jasmine was?
No.
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Chapter 4: What discoveries did investigators make outside of the apartment?
Did you report to that area where the suitcase had been found?
Yes, that's correct.
And then subsequently, did the medical examiner also arrive at that scene off of Sufferig Road?
Yes, that's correct.
And was it after that that you also went to the medical examiner's office for the autopsy?
That's correct.
Next, DA Womp focused on Chen's phone records, revealing call logs between Jasmine Pace and Jason Chen, along with text messages Chen sent to her phone after she was last seen. Investigators forensically accessed his phone data, uncovering multiple deleted text messages to Jasmine and a 71-minute phone call that took place at 11.56 a.m. on November 22nd.
Crawford explained to the jury the key difference between data extracted from a physical phone versus call records from cell phone service providers. Data extracted from a phone will reveal deleted text, photos, app data, and metadata, which can expose altered timestamps or hidden messages.
In contrast, cell service records log calls, texts, and tower pings, but it doesn't store message content, making them a permanent, unchangeable record that a user cannot delete or manipulate. DA Womp then shows screenshots of text messages on Chen's phone that didn't appear in his text records, suggesting that they had been deleted.
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Chapter 5: How did DNA evidence shift the focus onto Jason Chen?
Next, the prosecution introduced a critical update from Jason Chen's former apartment complex. During renovations of Chen's apartment, the complex manager contacted Chattanooga PD, reporting the possible discovery of new evidence.
Investigator Crawford and crime scene investigators returned to Chen's former apartment, where ongoing renovations revealed new evidence that had previously gone unnoticed. With the bed and furniture now removed, a dark discoloration in the carpet became visible in the exact spot where Chen's bed had been during their initial search, suggesting a stain that had seeped deep into the flooring.
Additionally, Crawford observed an oil stain on the wall, positioned at a height consistent with where someone might have sat up in bed and rested their head, further confirming the original placement of the bed in his room and thus reinforcing the significance of this newly uncovered evidence.
Once the carpet was pulled back, a large dark stain was revealed, seeping through to the carpet insulation and onto the floorboard. With his experience in homicide cases, Investigator Crawford stated that it unmistakably looked like blood. The entire section of blood-soaked carpet, along with the insulation beneath it, was collected as evidence.
On day three of the trial, this very piece, the stained carpet, the blue insulation, and the unmistakable presence of Jasmine's dried blood would be laid out on a tarp in front of the jury box, remaining there for the entire day. It was an inescapable, haunting reminder of the crime we were there to judge.
What do we have here?
This is going to be the carpet section. from the bedroom. This is going to be the bathroom area leading into the bedroom. This would be the left-hand side. In earlier photographs of the original execution of the search warrant, the bed would actually have been located in this area right here.
So is this evidence that you did not find when you were in the apartment on the 28th of November?
That's correct.
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Chapter 7: What insights did jurors gain from their experiences during the trial?
Another fluorescent post-it note had two sets of 11-digit numbers written on it, There was also a white note card with a thin black border, listing finger sizes for rings and different handwriting. It wasn't brought up in trial testimony, so it may not be relevant to the case, but it still caught my attention. There's another dark purple post-it note that caught my eye.
It's difficult to make out in the photos, but Investigator Crawford read it aloud, revealing what it had said.
If law enforcement contacts other family members, what do they do?
Other yellow post-it notes read, Saturday, November 19th.
Last time I saw her. She would call me once a day. Scratch that. She would call me every day. Last time was on November 22nd on the phone.
Then investigators found a notebook containing organized notes about Jasmine. Here's what the spiral notebook read.
Friday, November 18th, last time I saw her. Tuesday, November 22nd, last time we talked. She has a huge history of running away from home in her teenage years. Mom was an alcoholic, ran away to Canada for several years and was homeless. Has restraining order against X. Scratch that out. Her dad left when she was a kid. Has restraining order against X. Says she was recently online on Facebook.
Next to Ken.
You can see all of these notes on our website, sequesteredpod.com. We have a lot of thoughts about them, especially since they weren't really brought up again in the trial. But I can see why the prosecution wanted them included in this testimony. Also, it seemed like with Chen writing down Investigator Crawford's number, he had clearly listened to his voicemail.
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