Altered Population is an investigation into filicide in South Carolina hosted by Jennifer Wells. In today’s episode, Jennifer receives the public documents she had requested at the courthouse and visits the Julie Valentine Center for a tour. She also discusses her own struggle with putting herself out into the public eye as a part of this podcast, and how her embarrassment led to her procrastinating on its release. After returning home, old troubles begin to surface and Jennifer’s friends tell her she has PTSD.

Jennifer continues her week in Lexington by first going to get the money order for the courthouse in order to pay for the copies of the public documents she requested. The most important things in the paperwork were that there would be a motion filed when it came time to set the court date and there were no restrictions placed on the media.

Jennifer also shares her personal internal struggle with recording and releasing this podcast. She was scared to tell her side of the story, and to let the listeners in on who she is, because she doesn’t have any formal degree or certification. Jennifer is proud of her work in the world and would gladly go up against any seasoned investigator, but for some reason putting herself out there on the podcast was a challenge and she was procrastinating.

With the podcast, she would be inviting people to take a closer look at her, and she harbored a little embarrassment about some of the things that shaped her as a person. First, the house that Jennifer grew up in was a source of shame for her, as her mom had to work more than one job to support her children. Second, Jennifer feels the same about when she was going through a divorce with young children. After hearing Cahill’s words about telling someone else’s story in the last episode, Jennifer decided that she wouldn’t leave herself out of this podcast. Jennifer realized that her thoughts, opinions and ideas on the subject mattered, with or without a degree.

Jennifer sets up a meeting with Shawna Galloway Williams, Executive Director of the Julie Valentine Center. After being on call at court, Shawna assures Jennifer that Casey, the Executive Operations Coordinator, would take care of her instead. After a tour of the facility, Jennifer felt truly at home. But upon returning to her real home the following week, previous issues began to bubble to the surface around leaving Child Protect so soon after joining. To come up for air and relieve a little pressure, Jennifer shelved the Jones case for the time being and shifted gears. She emailed one of the original investigators, Mr. Bush Banton, who immediately agreed to speak with her about the case.

Jennifer relives an experience on Halloween in 2018, where she thought she lost Helen, but the bus just hadn’t yet arrived from school. After the event, Jennifer speaks with her friends who confirm that she has PTSD, or survivor’s guilt.

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Key Takeaways in Today’s Episode:

1:47 Feeling unusually nervous in the court house

3:50 Jennifer feels like she was pranked

5:39 Reviewing the paperwork

6:47 Jennifer’s fear about sharing who she was on this podcast

8:21 The value of a CV

9:37 Misconceptions about Jennifer

10:13 Why Jennifer was procrastinating

11:08 The two main blocks of time that shaped Jennifer

12:20 How Jennifer found strength on her own to move forward

14:57 The words of Cahill that Jennifer connected with

16:07 News reports on the DSS that caught Jennifer’s attention

19:12 The visit to the Julie Valentine Center

21:15 Casey reminds Jennifer about her daughter’s preschool teacher

24:20 Jennifer’s troubles bubbled to the surface at home

26:00 The video on Child Protect’s website

27:30 Jennifer comes up for air

28:20 Getting ready for the trip to Greenville, Jennifer looks back

30:40 Where was Helen?

35:00 PTSD

 

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