Episode 71 – Originally Released January 2019
Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions about missing persons, sexual assault, and murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
In September 2017, I shared a story on Patreon about Temple University student Jenna Burleigh. Jenna was a transfer student from suburban Philadelphia. She’d just started her junior year at temple in North Philadelphia, majoring in film and media arts studies, commuting from her home in Harleysville, Pennsylvania. The semester had barely begun when Jenna was reported missing by her father on Thursday, August 31, 2017.
Temple University campus police, Philadelphia police and the Pennsylvania state police worked quickly and within days they’d found Jenna Burleigh in north east Pennsylvania. She’d been murdered. Police identified a person of interest who was quickly arrested and charged with Jenna’s murder: a man named Joshua Hupperterz, a former Temple University Student with a criminal record that went back to his teenage years, although nothing in that record came close to murder.
In January 2019, Joshua Hupperterz was tried for Jenna’s murder and within less than two hours after the case was handed over to a jury, he was found guilty of murdering 22 year old Jenna Burleigh on the morning of August 31, 2017. This episode includes background about Jenna’s life and her murder from the 2017 Patreon episode, plus case updates about the trial of Joshua Hupperterz in 2019.
Research sources for this episode include:
- Temple News
- The Tab
- The Philadelphia Daily News
- Philadelphia Inquirer
- Philadelphia NBC 10
- Philadelphia ABC 6
- Philadelphia CBS 3
- Public Records – Court Transcripts
- Public Records – Criminal Records Search
TwistedPhilly is researched, hosted, and produced by me, Deana Marie, and available biweekly wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow me on Tiktok and Instagram at twistedphilly to see many of the locations and histories I discuss in the show.
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