(sorrowful music)
- I'm Nev from Catfish.
The series that investigates
social media mysteries.
Tonight the new series, True Life Crime,
investigates the most
harrowing true crime mysteries
rocking headlines and social themes.
These victims were young,
the crimes against them were shocking,
and haunting questions remain.
True Life Crime is here
to expose the truth.
In tonight's case,
24-year-old Jerika Binks
went for a jog in a Utah canyon
and no one heard from her again.
As a recovering addict, did
she relapse and run away?
Was she targeted because she
was a woman running alone?
And the biggest question of
all, where is Jerika Binks?
MTV News Reporter, Dometi
Pongo, examines the case
and in the middle of the investigation,
a surprising discovery changes everything.
(upbeat music)
(loud banging)
- [Dometi] No one thing of
jogging as a dangerous sport.
- Jerika Binks went for a
run and seemingly vanished.
- But an alarming number of
women have been harassed,
assaulted and even murdered while running.
- Is there somebody that's
targeting these women
when they're out running?
- The case of Jerika Binks is
the most mystifying of all.
(helicopter whirring)
- What's the likelihood
of someone dumping a body in this area.
Yet, it's a story that national
media has all but ignored.
- It's really frustrating
that Jerika's case
hasn't created a national wave
of social media attention.
- [Dometi] Investigations
reveal a troubled past.
- She'd come to our house
and have black eyes.
- It leads to more questions than answers.
- Foul play's the only
reason Jerika did not return.
We heard a couple gun shots
right through that canyon.
(gunshots blasting)
- It's hard to know, it's okay
for us to mourn and move on,
or continue to hold out hope
for her walking through the door.
- Will we ever find out what
happened to Jerika Binks?
- [Operator] 9-1-1,
what is your emergency?
- You guys see this?
(buildup mysterious music)
(helicopter whirring)
- The morning of February 18th,
2018, long distance runner,
Jerika Binks, heads out for
a run in American Fork, Utah.
She never returns home.
When somebody goes missing like that,
where do you even start?
- We've been using helicopters,
drones, and special dogs.
So, it's a lot of area we've
covered but the more time
that passes, the more of a chance
that she won't be found alive.
- Wow.
(slow music)
As a guy, I never thought about
the potential dangers female joggers face.
But hearing reports about
women being targeted
while out running, is deeply disturbing.
Within a nine day period,
in the summer of 2016,
three women were brutally
murdered in broad daylight
while running alone.
Fear and outrage was further
intensified by the deaths
of Mollie Tibbets and
Wendy Martinez in 2018.
(brooding music)
The killing of these women
incited a social media frenzy.
So, why hasn't Jerika's story gone viral?
It was only in the small
community of American Fork
that people were asking questions.
It's been over a year
and no one's any closer
to uncovering the truth.
(hip-hop music)
I grew up in Chicago where
sometimes it feels like violence
is a part of the city's good name.
But here in the close-knit
community of American Fork,
violent crime is 82% lower
than the national average
and feels welcoming and safe.
There's a lot about this case
that just doesn't add up.
As a Journalist, I feel a
deep sense of duty to find out
what happened to Jerika,
and be a voice for the voices.
(intrepid music)
Also looking for answers
is Journalist Kiera Carter.
She wrote an article about Jerika
that was published in Cosmo Magazine
and that's what sparked
my interest in this case.
Kiera is one of the only
people outside the community
to investigate Jerika's disappearance.
One of the safest states in the country,
somebody like Jerika can
go missing without a trace.
Like, how does that even happen?
- That's a really frustrating case
because it's been over a year
and we don't know what happened
to Jerika, we don't know if
she hurt herself and fell
or we don't know if it was
something a lot more violent.
When Jerika first went missing
a few people did mention
her ex-boyfriend as a potential attacker
but it could be a stranger
on the street who snapped,
that does happen and
we've seen that happen.
- In your Cosmo piece
too, you talked about
a few different cases that
you cover very closely,
have really gotten national attention
and took off on social media.
- It's really frustrating
that Jerika's case hasn't
because you see someone
like Mollie Tibbets,
her disappearance created
a wave of social media.
They received over 2,000 tips,
Jerika has not received
anything close to that
in terms of tips.
- 20-year-old Mollie Tibbets went missing
while running in Brooklyn, Iowa.
After a month-long search,
her body was found buried
in a corn field.
What's the difference
between her situation
and some of these other cases?
- Jerika has a history with drug abuse.
And I think that made it easy for people
to brush off her case and say, you know,
well, she probably ran
away, she was troubled.
- Truth is, a lot of us are
guilty of passing judgment
when drugs are involved.
Jerika was staying at a
sober living facility,
so investigators
questioned whether she went
for a run at all.
Maybe she just relapsed and ran away.
I think the family deserves answers
and you have a strong
relationship with the family.
I'd love an opportunity
to link up with them
and see if we can--
- Totally.
- Learn more about Jerika and figure out
what questions they have.
- Yeah, I think they would
be happy to talk to you.
(upbeat music)
- [Dometi] Kiera reached out to the family
and arranged for us to meet.
What do you expect from meetin'
up with the family today?
- I think it's gonna be pretty intense,
a lot of emotion, obviously,
but they want people to
see her as a real person
and not just as a missing person.
You know?
- [Dometi] Some people
jump to the conclusion
that Jerika relapsed and ran away.
(doors banging)
If anyone can give us some
insight into what was going on
in Jerika's life at the time,
it's the ones who love her the most.
- [Suzanne] Come on in.
- Thanks for having us.
- Yes.
- [Suzanne] This is my family.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hi, everybody.
- Great to meet everyone.
Hey. (chuckles)
- Would you like to come
in here where it's more
comfortable and we have more room?
- Jerika is the second oldest of four
and her mom had second
siblings who all had kids
that Jerika grew up with.
This is a big beautiful family, man.
Let's start with this,
everybody just share some, like,
your fondest memories about Jerika.
- She could light up a room
any time she walked into it
with smiles and hugs, she
always gave great big hugs.
- She's quick witted and just everything.
She was just a big laugh
and just fun to be around.
- Ta-da!
- She was hilarious.
(laughing)
- She really was.
- Prankster.
- Yes.
- Prankster.
- A prankster.
- (laughs) I can't.
- Stop (mumbles).
- What did you say her
personality reminded you of?
- Oh, Pauly D.
(laughing)
She loved him.
Me and my mom and Jerika, we
would watch Jersey Shore--
- She would run around the
house saying, yeah, buddy!
- Yeah, buddy.
Yeah, buddy.
- Yeah, buddy.
(laughing)
The cab's here.
Yeah. (chuckles)
- She was one of a kind.
(sorrowful music)
- She was always there for me.
Oh, man.
It's hard.
She would.
Just, my worst days that I
would ever have, she was there.
- I love you!
- We heard that, sometimes,
she would run 30 miles at a time.
- Yeah, she wanted to run
the 100 mile marathons.
- Running was part of her
therapy, it was her natural high.
- Go into as much details
as you feel comfortable
about what some of her
challenges were with drug abuse.
- Jerika was in a car accident
when she was 16 or 17 years old.
With the pain medication
that she was put on,
that's where an addiction perhaps began,
and then it turned to heroin.
- And her personality
definitely changed after that accident.
Just the way she would
react towards things,
just super negatively.
- Get angry quicker.
- Get angry really fast.
- Are opioids something that
a lot of people struggle with
in this region?
- Yeah.
- Utah, it's one of the
number one leading cause
of death in Utah, is prescription drugs.
- It's not just Utah.
Nationwide, more than 130 Americans die
from an opioid overdose every day.
- She had been sober
for about seven months
before she went missing,
she was doing really well.
- Did you see her change the
way she related to people
that she used to hang out with?
- Oh, yes.
She cut all of those people
completely out of her life.
- Let's get to the day, February 18th,
when did you first know
something was wrong?
- The manager over at the
sober living facility called me
and that's when she said she
never returned from that run.
And I called American Fork
City Police Department,
I had a heated conversation with him,
it got a little heated.
He kept saying, relapse, to me.
And I remember saying to him,
you say relapse to me one more time,
'cause that's not what the case is here.
- Why you're so confident
that she didn't run away?
- She left all of her
belongings except for her phone
and if she was planning to run
away or relapse and whatever,
she would have packed her things,
she would have taken her money.
- And how hard she worked
to build back our trust
and everything, and
rebuild our relationship,
she wouldn't just give it away.
(sorrowful music)
- Would you describe Utah
as somewhere that's generally safe?
- I would have said so
before Jerika went missing.
You just don't know anymore.
It makes you wonder and think about,
is there somebody that's
targeting these women
when they're out running or alone?
- [Lynda] Or is it someone she knew?
- [Suzanne] Or is it someone she knew?
