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Married Missouri Police Officer Kills College Student He Was Having Affair with, Who Threatened To "Out" Him
Jesse Valencia was found dead, partially clothed, lying in the grass between two houses just off the Columbia, Missouri campus of the University of Missouri on June 5, 2004.
Jesse Valencia of Kentucky made a grim prediction to his mother when he was just seven years old.
“He said, ‘Mom, I’m not gonna live to be — very old.’ He said, ‘I’m gonna die at a very young age,’” his mom, Linda Valencia, told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Sixteen years later, that premonition would come true.
Jesse was discovered dead, partially clothed, lying in the grass between two houses just off the Columbia, Missouri campus of the University of Missouri on June 5, 2004.
The 23-year-old, who was a student at the university, had been fatally stabbed, leaving a gaping wound to his neck.
“I never dreamed that he was gonna die that way,” Linda said in the episode, titled "Before Daylight."
Jesse’s shocking death shattered those closest to him. The investigation that followed would lead detectives through Jesse’s long list of lovers and reveal a surprising suspect within their own ranks — one who’d helped secure the murder scene.
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Who was Jesse Valencia?
Jesse and his mom, Linda, had always shared a close bond. Linda was just 21 years old when she gave birth to her oldest child and, in some ways, they grew up together.
“From the time he was born, I took him everywhere with me. I wouldn’t even go out on dates unless I took him with me and everybody accepted it,” Linda recalled.
By the time he went off to college, Jesse — who grew up in Perryville, Kentucky, and was a bright, talkative free-spirit who enjoyed life to the fullest — regularly confided in his mother about everything from his collegiate goals to his latest romantic endeavors.
“He was really outgoing and outspoken,” Linda said of her openly gay son. “He was the type of boy that would tell you exactly what he thought, and if you didn’t like hearing it, he would try to sugarcoat it a little bit for you — but he would always tell you exactly how he felt about something.”
The first in his family to go to college, Jesse had been doing well in school and was well-liked.
“He had a lot of friends,” Columbia Police Detective John Short told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. “He liked to party, like almost every other college student.”
What happened to Jesse Valencia?
During the early morning hours of June 5, 2004, Jesse’s life came to an abrupt end. After his body was found lying in the grass, police discovered that the door was open to Jesse’s apartment, which was just a block away — as if he tried to flee his attacker.
Police believe someone chased him down and slashed his throat. His body was also covered with bruises on his back, chest and jaw.
“He was my whole life and I just couldn’t believe that he was gone,” him mom Linda told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Police try to narrow down who could have killed Jesse Valencia
Detectives got to work trying to piece together what happened. Just a few days before his death, Jesse had met a new love interest at a local club. The man, named Ed, was a chef.
Ed admitted to police that he had sex with Jesse the day before Jesse's body was found, and friends said they had seen the pair together at a party the night he died, but Ed insisted he had nothing to do with the killing.
Ed’s roommate Eric, when questioned by police, didn’t hide his dislike of Jesse, which made him a potential person of interest.
“[Eric] said something to the effect of, 'I wouldn’t care if he was dead' ... talking about Jesse,” Short said.
Then there was Zev, the 19-year-old son of a rabbi. Jesse's friends said Jesse often referred to the teen as his “boy toy,” but Zev — who had tried to call Jesse several times the night he died — insisted to police that they were just friends, saying there was nothing romantic about their relationship.
To add to the mystery, the night Jesse died, a witness reported seeing a young man walking barefoot a block or two from the crime scene, crying. But it was unclear whether that had anything to do with Jesse’s death.
Jesse Valencia's affair with a married cop
The case took an unexpected turn when detectives learned that Jesse had also been carrying on a romantic relationship with a married Columbia police officer.
Jesse told his mom he met the officer after getting arrested when a party was broken up for being too loud. The ever-vocal Jesse talked back to the officer, was arrested and received a ticket, but just a few hours later, the officer showed up at Jesse’s apartment to begin a clandestine relationship.
Jesse told his friend Patrick Rogers about the trysts.
“In all of the time he spoke with me, he wouldn’t say his name, he only referred to him as 'Columbia’s finest.' He was excited about it,” Rogers said of what Jesse told him during their online chats. “I mean the guy was coming by on-duty.”
When Jesse discovered the officer was married and had a new baby at home, he told his mom he knew the relationship was “wrong," according to Linda.
“He said, ‘I’m not going to see him anymore. I just want him to stay away,’” Linda told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Detectives were able to identify Jesse’s secret lover as Steven Rios, a young, talented officer with an exemplary record in the Columbia Police Department. Rios was married to his college sweetheart, Libby Sullivan, and the couple had welcomed a baby boy together just four months earlier.
Steven Rios volunteered to guard Jesse Valencia's body
Short was unnerved to learn that Rios had volunteered to guard Jesse’s body and the crime scene after the murder, during his next shift.
After hearing rumors that a police officer was a suspect in Jesse’s death, Rios came to Short on his own. While he admitted to arresting Jesse months earlier, he denied having a sexual relationship with the college student.
But by then, there was a witness who had positively identified Rios as the man having an affair with Jesse. When Short confronted him about this, Rios began to cry and admitted to being intimate with Jesse.
He insisted that on the night Jesse was killed, he worked his usual shift, had a beer with other officers on the roof of the police station after his shift, and then headed home around 5 a.m.
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The secret relationship came out in the news and Rios was forced to admit to his wife that he’d had an affair.
“I don’t think I said much, um, I think I was just pretty quiet and in shock about it,” Sullivan, Rios' wife at the time of the murder, told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered of the heartbreaking betrayal.
Steven Rios threatens to take his life
Four days after the murder, Rios told police and his wife that he was going to visit his father in Virginia. Instead, he went to a Walmart near Kansas City, bought a shotgun and threatened to kill himself.
Police were able to talk him out of it, but he made another attempt to take his life back in Columbia on the top of a parking garage as he stood dangerously close to the ledge. Once again, Rios was talked out of going ahead with it.
“I just thought his behavior reeked of guilt to be honest with you,” Short said.
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The case against Rios got even stronger after the officers on duty the night that Jess was killed told detectives that Rios left the station earlier than he'd claimed he did. His DNA was found under Jesse’s fingernails and several of Rios’ arm hairs were found on Jesse’s chest.
Prosecutors argued that the hairs likely got on Jesse while Rios used a common police choke hold to render him unconscious before slitting his throat.
Rogers, Jesse's friend, told police that before Jesse was killed, he'd planned to reveal the affair, which gave investigators a potential motive for the officer to want to silence Jesse. "He said distinctly, 'I'm going to out him to the police chief," Rogers told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Who killed Jesse Valencia?
Rios was charged with first-degree murder and convicted in 2005. The former police officer was sentenced to life without parole, but in 2008, he was granted a new trial after an appellate court ruled that jurors shouldn't have been able to hear some of the witness testimony that they considered hearsay. However, a second jury found Rios guilty of second-degree murder. He’ll be eligible for parole in 2049.
Rios’ now-ex-wife, who testified for the defense on his behalf, continues to believe he in innocent.
“There are a lot of people who cheat everyday, unfortunately, but it doesn’t make him a murderer,” she said.
Rios also continues to maintain his innocence from behind bars.
“Some people think I’m a killer, some people think I’m not. You know, I know I’m not,” he told Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison.
As for Jesse’s family, they continue to grieve for him.
“I miss him, still. I mean, I think about him everyday,” Linda said. “Every heartbeat.”
