Detective Jess Bethel

She is currently a stay at home mother. She previously worked for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and was last assigned to the investigations division. The total time she served at EPSO was 14 years.

• Regarding her education & training: She went through a POST academy to become a sworn police officer for the state of Colorado, on the job training, advanced her career into the investigations division and she is still a post certified peace officer in CO.
• In January 2020 she was working at EPSO.
• Her specific job was the majors investigation team. Detectives investigate homicide, robberies, and assaults.
• She had been involved in more than 100 homicide investigations.
• In Gannon’s investigation she was the lead detective. She coordinated the investigation, received the leads and information being collected by other detectives and analyzed that info and disseminated further leads.
• A lead detective eventually arrests a person or looks at potentially a different suspect.
• This was not a typical homicide investigation.
• It was initially receiving a lot of social media attention and the case quickly grew to a multiagency case; close to 10 if not more including CO state and federal and other state agencies from SC and FL.
• The scope of the investigation changed the role of the lead detective; so much info was coming in she assumed more of an investigative role as opposed to sitting back and collecting all the leads at once
• It was almost an all hands on deck effort
• Direction of a case can be influenced by witnesses and whether they will give statements, video, suspect interviews, potential absence of physical evidence, misleading statements
• In Gannon’s investigation, they did not have a standard homicide scene where there would be evidence of the homicide and a body; the suspect provided alternate leads and multiple stories - this all influenced how the proceeded
• They always chase leads down; it’s just as important to prove someone did something as to prove they didn’t do something; they need to act without bias and take info as it’s credible and vet it before determining it’s not a good lead
• Bethel became involved in the investigation on January 28th 2020
• His age, the weather, and his medical conditions made it very important to find him sooner than later even if he had run away.
• Fields, reservoirs, and many areas were searched. No clues were found in the immediate area surrounding the home.
• They reached out to Letecia to see if she had any information about behavior changes in Gannon or any clues, whether he had left anything behind like a note
• Letecia was hesitant at best to talk to them; she wrote “apprehensive” in her report.
• Letecia did not allow Bethel to come to the house.
• She said there were several young children in the home and she didn’t want them to overhear their conversation.
• Bethel offered to ask her at a place of her choice - she ultimately chose Starbucks on Fountain Mesa.
• Al and Letecia, Bethel, and multiple other officers were there during the interview at Starbucks.