Previously in “Final Moments,” we witnessed the case of Willard Grandstaff, who was murdered by a thief in his store, where he was working hard. He had dreams of going to college; however, he was ruthlessly murdered, and his life was cut short. In this episode of “Final Moments,” we will be looking at the case of Alyssiah Wiley, a college student who was bright and independent. What is her story? Let’s find out.
Alyssiah Wiley was a 20-year-old college student who gained a scholarship at Eastern Connecticut State University. She was also known as Lee Lee to some. In the spring of 2013, she was preparing for her finals in Connecticut. She led a simple life at the college and was known to be someone who was very friendly. On April 20, Saturday, she texted a friend of hers named Sade Burke that she was coming to her dorm for some drinks. However, she never showed up. Sade said she didn’t think much about it since Alyssiah was going to come to class on Monday. To Sade’s surprise, Alyssiah did not show up for her classes on Monday. This raised some concerns because she was a student who would never miss a class. One of her teachers asked Sade if this was usual behavior for Alyssiah, and Sade said it wasn’t. Her teacher checked to see if Alyssiah had attended her other classes; however, she wasn’t on campus. Campus security then contacted the police, and it was reported that no one had heard from Alyssiah since Saturday. The investigators went to Alyssiah’s house and questioned her mother, who said she hadn’t heard from her daughter either.
The investigators started questioning friends, professors, and classmates, but nobody had any idea where Alyssiah could have been. They further obtained campus security footage, which they tracked when Alyssiah was last seen on the campus. They saw that Alyssiah had left the campus in a black car. She willingly sat in the car, so it was obvious that she knew the person who was driving. Investigators learned that she had been in contact with her high school boyfriend, Jermaine Richards. They brought him in for questioning, and he told the police that he had taken Alyssiah to his mother’s place in Bridgeport, where they spent the evening together. He further informed the police that he dropped Alyssiah off at Dairy Queen, which is two blocks from her campus, at around 11 p.m. His mother confirmed the story and said she had seen the two together, and there were no signs of a fight between them. The police searched his car but found no evidence inside.
Further, into the investigation, the police obtained Jermaine’s phone records, and the data confirmed his whereabouts. The police interviewed around 300 people on campus for leads; however, to their dismay, nobody had any clue. The detectives then obtained Alyssiah’s phone records and found out that she was going to break up with Jermaine that evening. According to her friend Sade, she knew about the breakup; however, she didn’t know that it was going to happen so soon. The police also found out that she had been texting a former boyfriend, and they had planned on meeting up. When the police questioned the former boyfriend, they found out that he hadn’t even heard from Alyssiah since Saturday, and he was working at a restaurant in New Haven when Alyssiah went missing. His alibi checked out, and he was ruled out as a suspect. So, the authorities decided to dig deeper into Alyssiah’s relationship with Jermaine. They were surprised to find out that his friends didn’t know much about him. However, Alyssiah’s elder sister, Chaharrez, shared an alarming incident that happened a month before Alyssiah’s disappearance. She informed the authorities that Alyssiah had called her to ask for help during the night after Jermaine Richards became aggressive and attempted to strangle her. This was a huge red flag for the police. They called Jermaine Richards for further questioning, but he denied speaking with the police. Everyone was surprised because it was his girlfriend who was missing, and anyone who had a loved one missing would be willing to cooperate.
The police went back and traced the route Jermaine Richards took on April 20 and found a decomposing arm and leg in the woods. The question was: where was the rest of the body? The medical examiner informed the police that the body had been dismembered by a knife. The police knew that Jermaine Richards was a nurse and had knowledge about human anatomy. Also, the body parts were found a mile away from Jermaine’s house. In May, the police arrested Jermaine Richards; however, they had a challenge building a case since there was a lack of physical evidence. They decided to focus on the issue of domestic violence to make their case stronger. Jermaine Richards was found guilty of murdering Alyssiah and was sentenced to 60 years in prison.