Katharina Buczek
During questioning, though, Brian maintained his story. He and Jennifer had traveled to the grocery store in her car, and she later dropped him off at home before going back to her own apartment.
And since Brian and Jennifer were friends, his DNA being in her apartment was not out of the ordinary. So, without any other evidence, investigators had no grounds to persecute.
The second suspect, Ralph, was another one of Jennifer’s ex-boyfriends. They had met prior to college when she was in the army reserves and remained in contact until shortly before her death.
In fact, Ralph had even moved to Abilene, Texas, with Jennifer once she landed her KRBC job.
They both shared her new apartment for a few weeks until she found out some heartbreaking news. Ralph had a fiancé and a child that Jennifer had known nothing about.
Once learning the truth, she kicked Ralph out and assumed he would go back to his family in Montana.
However, investigators learned that Ralph had never moved out of the state. Instead, he remained close by in a new apartment that was not far from Jennifer’s.
And even though the pair had no record of contact leading up to her death, investigators still found other facts about Ralph to be alarming.
For example, Jennifer’s family reportedly never liked Ralph. They believed he acted jealous and obsessive.
Moreover, Jennifer had also shared with friends that he was rough while intimate and had a preference for choking– something that made her extremely uncomfortable.
So, all of this put Ralph high up on the authorities’ list of suspects. But, investigators did not have enough non-circumstantial evidence to move forward with this lead.
