Ongoing case · 2019
Also known as Death of Jessica Easterly
Ongoing case: this file carries charge-sheet facts only. Anyone charged is presumed innocent unless convicted.
The short answer
Jessica Easterly Durning was found dead near her New Orleans home in August 2019, and authorities have not determined how she died.
1 piece from 1 creator: ranked, with duplicates removed and short clips set aside.
What happened to Jessica Easterly Durning? | Dateline NBC
Dateline NBCVideo · YouTube · 3 min · 2020Titles and descriptions are the creators’ own and may not reflect current legal status. The sourced facts are in the file below. Players load only when you press play. Suggest coverage we’re missing.
Jessica Renae Easterly Durning was 43 when she disappeared from the Lakeview area of New Orleans in August 2019. An official New Orleans Police Department bulletin said the person who reported her missing last saw her at their General Haig Street residence on August 14. The bulletin, issued August 20, asked the public to contact Third District detectives with information about her whereabouts.
On August 22, a body was found near the intersection of Orleans Avenue and Kenilworth Street, approximately two and a half blocks from Durning's home. WDSU reported that Durning's sister found the body while searching the neighborhood and contacted police. The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition. The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office announced in November that the remains had been identified as Durning. At that time, both the cause and manner of death remained under investigation.
Subsequent reporting did not establish a definitive cause. Forbes, describing the coroner's findings while reporting on an investigative podcast about the case, said the death was classified as undetermined and that injuries were documented to Durning's nose, ribs, jaw, and a neck vertebra. An undetermined classification does not establish whether a death resulted from homicide, accident, suicide, natural causes, or another mechanism. No person is identified here as a suspect because the verified sources do not report a criminal charge.
The investigation continued beyond the initial coroner inquiry. WDSU reported in 2021 that the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office would re-examine the case after Durning's family raised concerns and said they suspected foul play. In February 2024, WVUE reported that her relatives were again seeking government action and answers. Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans continues to list the matter as an open, unclassified death and asks anyone with information to come forward.
They document Durning's disappearance, the recovery and identification of her body, an undetermined medical classification, and continuing requests for information. They do not establish the precise date or cause of death, identify a charged person, or report a final prosecutorial determination. The coordinates are Wikidata's general coordinates for New Orleans and do not mark Durning's home or the location where her remains were recovered.
Jessica Easterly Durning was last reported seen at her residence in the Lakeview area of New Orleans.
The New Orleans Police Department issued a bulletin seeking information about Durning's whereabouts.
A body later identified as Durning was found near Orleans Avenue and Kenilworth Street.
The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office confirmed that the recovered remains were Durning's.
The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office said it would re-examine Durning's death.
Local news reported that Durning's family was continuing to seek action and answers in the case.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
A 43-year-old New Orleans resident whose death was classified as undetermined.[2]
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
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SOLVEDListenJohn McDonogh High School, Mid-City, New Orleans, Louisiana · 2000s
On April 14, 2003, two gunmen entered John McDonogh High School in New Orleans and fatally shot 15-year-old student Jonathan "Caveman" Williams during a gym class, wounding three others, in what investigators described as gang-related retaliation.
Credit: Photographer not creditedPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenParish Prison, New Orleans, Louisiana · 1890s
On March 14, 1891, a mob in New Orleans broke into Parish Prison and killed eleven Italian American men held in connection with the October 1890 killing of police chief David Hennessy, a day after several of the defendants were acquitted at trial. It remains the largest single mass lynching in American history.
Credit: Not creditedPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States · 1910s
An unidentified attacker killed and injured multiple people—mostly Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans—in and around New Orleans between May 1918 and October 1919, typically breaking in through a chiseled back-door panel and attacking victims with an axe or razor. The case remains unsolved.
Credit: Family/Instagram photograph, widely distributed in press coverageEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMoscow, Idaho · 2022
Four University of Idaho students—Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle—were fatally stabbed inside an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. Bryan Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested that December and pleaded guilty in 2025, receiving four consecutive life sentences.
Credit: Mona EshaikerCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenHolmby Hills, Los Angeles, California · 2009
Singer Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, in Los Angeles from acute propofol intoxication administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the death a homicide, and Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011.
Credit: RaptacCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenBardstown, Kentucky · 2015
Crystal Rogers, a 35-year-old Bardstown, Kentucky, mother of five, disappeared in July 2015 and has never been found; in 2025, her former boyfriend, Brooks Houck, was found guilty of her murder, and two other men were convicted of related conspiracy and evidence-tampering charges.
