It’s been nearly 20 years since Jessica O’Grady was last seen or heard from, but authorities say in a new interview with us they’re still determined to keep looking for the aspiring teacher who vanished the night she planned to tell a man that she was pregnant with their child.
“Although this case is solved, we are still searching for the remains of Jessica O’Grady,” Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson confirmed in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “We are hopeful that we will continue to receive tips and leads from the public about information that they may be aware of to give the family closure and recover Jessica’s remains.”
PEOPLE is looking back on the 2006 case as it’s gained newfound attention on social media nearly two decades later. Here’s what happened.
The Night Jessica Went Missing
Jessica O’Grady.
TheDoeNetwork
O’Grady, a 19-year-old restaurant worker, went missing late on the night of May 10, 2006, after driving to see a coworker with whom she’d recently began a romantic relationship. The teenager was on her way to tell her coworker, Christopher Edwards, that she was pregnant with his baby, then-Omaha Police Detective Eric Nordby said in a 2019 interview.
Court records showed that O’Grady sent a text to her longtime friend Keri Peterson moments before she vanished: “No shenanigans for Jessica,” she wrote to Peterson, who told a Nebraska courtroom during Edwards’ 2007 trial it was a coded message which meant she was not planning to have sex that night.
Nordby said in his 2019 interview with the U.S. Army’s website that he interviewed Edwards about O’Grady’s disappearance shortly afterwards, initially believing the missing woman’s boyfriend was being helpful. But then he started to suspiciously deflect questions and provide false statements about their interactions that night.
“He claimed that he and O’Grady decided not to meet on the night of May 10,” Nordby said. “He said she did not come to his home. On May 11th he sent a text to her to find out why she did not come over.”
But phone records showed O’Grady’s last phone call was an outgoing call to Edwards late on May 10, and that Edwards never did text O’Grady the following day as he’d claimed to police. Then Nordby helped lead a search of Edwards home, finding bloodstained towels tucked away in trash bags in the garage and traces of blood all over his bedroom that apparently had been tried to be washed away.
Christopher Edwards.
Nebraska Department of Correctional Services
Edwards Had Been Involved with Another Woman
Investigators would later discover Edwards was involved in another serious relationship at the time, according to records from the Supreme Court of Nebraska. Edwards met Michelle Wilkin in 2005 and got her pregnant in January 2006, roughly four months before O’Grady’s disappearance on the night she planned to tell him she was also pregnant with a child, according to the court.
Once Wilkin asked Edwards why he was under investigation for O’Grady’s disappearance, he admitted to sleeping with O’Grady. At his trial, “Wilkin testified that Edwards had told her ‘at some point that he had heard [O’Grady] was pregnant,’” according to the state Supreme Court records. “But Wilkin said Edwards told her that after Wilkin and Edwards had discussed marriage, he had met with O’Grady at his house to tell O’Grady that he and O’Grady would no longer be involved.”
Local KMTV reported that Edwards was convicted a year later for O’Grady’s murder and sentenced to 100 years in prison. However, Edwards refused to cooperate with investigators, who have still yet to find O’Grady’s remains nearly two decades later.
Jessica O’Grady.
TheDoeNetwork
The Search for O’Grady’s Body Continues
During a recent interview with PEOPLE, Sheriff Hanson said investigators “do have a strong suspicion about where Jessica’s remains are, however based on a multitude of factors in that area, they are virtually inaccessible if they are in the location that we suspect.”
“We are hopeful as time goes on that so will the quality of ground and concrete penetrating radar, that that technology will improve as well so that we can hopefully confirm or deny our suspicions once and for all,” the sheriff added, mentioning that the location where investigators believe O’Grady’s remains are “is physically inaccessible for a multitude of reasons.”
“It would require some very specific and highly technological presence of ground and concrete penetrating radar,” the sheriff added. “Now, we’re hopeful that technology will exist and if it does already exist, we’d love to have any private entities that would be willing to approach the sheriff’s office and offer their services.”
Almost 20 years later, Edwards has exhausted all possible appeals to his prison sentence, the sheriff says. However, according to Hanson, the convicted murder still has shown no interest in cooperating with investigators to tell them where O’Grady’s remains are located.
“Obviously if Christopher Edwards would be willing to help give the family that closure, we would be happy to take his testimony on that so that we could do so,” Hanson said.
The sheriff adds that investigators have reason to believe others besides Edwards know where O’Grady’s remains might be located. “There’s always reason to believe that,” the sheriff said, noting that his office has continued to “receive anonymous or known tips” and are hoping to hear more.
“That would be most helpful,” Hanson added. “So, the public should know that they’re safe if they want to approach the sheriff’s office and help give the O’Grady family closure. They can call our tip line, 402-444-6000 and they could also contact Omaha Crime Stoppers, as well.”
