Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised .
iowa, january 2024 the police in dubuque received this chilling 911 call…
48 years old woman jennifer dazey had been found dead in her bedroom.
her friend kristy had walked through the whole house looking for her,calling her name , concerned that something had happened to jennifer not because she thought she was in danger of a crime.but because she wasn’t a wellwoman.
jennifer had a brain tumor and had been undergoing treatment including surgery.when kristy found that her friend’s bedroom door was still shut she feared the worst.
and the wort was true, jennifer was dead.
but she hadn’t died of her brain tumor ,instead her body was covered in blood, she had been murdered.
who had killed this ordinary ill woman?
what did it have to do with her son who is found standing naked in the other room.
and how did his sister figure into all this.
competency hearings a twisted family dynamic and a dog.
this is the tragic story of jennifer dasey.
this case to the frigid morning of january 18th 2024 in dubuQue iowa.
it was a brisky cold day with temperatures below freezeing
and a women named kristy follman drove over to her friend jennifer dazey’s house to meet her for coffe.
they’d arranged this coffee hangout the night before .
kristy had recently had a hysterctomy and had only just been cleared to go out again and she was desperate to get out of the house.
little did kristy know that that day january 18 th would bring them nothing good.
that morning kristy was running late , she dropped her 8 year old daughter off at school and then headed over to jennifer’s house after picking up a coffe.
she parked in a neighbor’s driveway and walked over in the thick snow .
in jennifer’s driveway she saw two wehicles, a car and a truck beloning to jennifer’s sons tyler and nick respectively jennifer’s car wasn’t there .
kristy thought nothing of it and walked right up to jennifer’s house entering via front porch.it was as she was opening the interior door to the rest of the house that she saw something shocking.
jennifer’s 28 year old son tyler was just standing in the middle of the room with no clothes on.
keisty in shock backed onto the porch and texted jennifer to come meet her by the front door.
then she heard a door close and assumed it meant that tyler had gone into his bedroom,she guessed that jennifer had gone to get her own coffee which was why her car was gone.
so she re-ented the house and went to sit down on the couch to wait…
kristy imagined that maybe jennifer had gone out to get help for her dog she decided to check around the house anyway just in case jennifer was still there, the unresponsive dog was a worrying sign.
and the house appeared empty other than tyler whose strange behavior was also a concern.
kristy tried calling jennifer again but she didn’t puck up.
she spotted jennifer’s purse in a corner and noticed that the curtains were shut, when jennifer was up and awake the curtains were always open.
she kocked on jennifer’s bedroom door.
with still no response kristy decided enough was enoug and she opened the bedroom door.
at first she couldn’t make out anything was wrong only seeing jennifer’s shape on the bed,then she stepped closer and froze.
jennifer was lying dead in her bed in a pool of her own blood.
at first kristy didn’t suspect murder.
jennifer had a history of seizures and kristy thought that maybe the blood had come from her ears as she had a fit.
it was difficult to see what exactly had happened because the lights weren’t on in the room and jennifer had blackout curtains.
kristy in shock and horror called her boyfriend ron and then called 911.
though kristy initially suspected a seizure or some other medical emergency she was still scared for her life,she dropped to the floor and braced the door shut with her feet as she talked on the phone until someone arrived to help her.
but it was too late for jennifer
jennifer had come home at about 10 p.m. the night before seen here on her motion activated ring security camera.
so at some point in the night or early morning she had been killed by multiple sharp force injuries to the head ,the neck and the left hand.
in particular she had 13 wounds to her head each caused by the blade of a knife or hatchet.
her dog had also been killed by a blow to the head.
jennifer was a kind friendly women the mother of three struggling with health issues.
what could have provoced an attack of such awful rage.
to understand the story we’ll have to dive into who jennifer dazey was and her family.
jennifer ws born on august 245th 1977 in hawaii but she had lived in dubuQue iowa for most of her life.
she had five siblings who each went on to have their own children meaning she came from a large and vibrant family.
not much is known about her relationships but she had three children of her own.
kylie 18 ,nick 26 and tyler 28.
she viewed her kids as her greatest accomplishment,she tried to support them in all their endeavors.
jennifer had previously been sentenced to brobation for an unauthorized credit card use at the business where she worked.
but since then she’d been putting her life back together and now worked at a management position at a disaster services company.
she was known as a carefree spirit with an infectious laugh who didn’t care what other people thought.
she was learning to garden and had a passion for travel making it her ambition to see all 50 states .
by january 18th,2024 she was only about 10 states short
her zest for life was only increased by her recent health issues.
a few years earlier she had gotten into a car accident ,shortly after that tumors were discovered in her brain.
in september 2023 she had brain surgery.
jennifer’s sister and kristy were jennifer’s primary caregivers during this time,it was kristy who took jennifer to her preop appointments and to the surgery itself and kristy who was there when jennifer woke up afterwards.
the two women met through their daughters who were the same age and attended girl scouts together.
when their daughters moved to middle school,kristy and jennifer drifted apart but they reconnected over their health issues.
kristy had an autoimmune condition and they were sometimes in the hospital at the same time.
in december 2022 ,3 ,months after jennifers surgery,
kristy had to have her own surgery a hysterctomy while she was recovering at home she didn’t see jennifer all that ofthen .
other than one time when tyler brought jennifer over for dinner.
he didn’t stay but kristy had met him on other occassions and knew about his dynamic with his mom .
tyler was the only one of the three kids living at home with jennifer.
having moved back in with her about 6 months ago and they had a complicated relationship.
sometimes they would laugh and joke other times he would name call and she would just smile and act like it didn’t hurt her feelings.
still when kristy was finally given the all clear after her surgery and wnet to jennifer’s house eager to catch up with the friend she barely seen all month ,she had no idea what she was walking into and how tyler was involved in it.
the police arrived at jennifer’s house at 8:51 a.m
in response to kristy’s 911 call.
the front door was unlocked so the officer went inside,he found jennifer lying dead in her bedroom,kristy distraught.
she told him that tyler was likely still inside the house and had probably been the only person in the house when jennifer was killed.
there were no signs of disturbance in the snow outside the house and no signs of forced entry
this was enough for the police to detain tyler for questioning but based on his behavor which was strangely blank and flat they decided to take him to the hospital instead.
in the hospital tyler acted obstinate with the investigators and the medical professionals doddging their requests for a urine sample.
but the investigators felt he was lucid and competent.
when they managed to test him he was found to have THC in his system but in a regular user these levels could remain high for several days after last use.
he tested negative for other drugs present in his system.
despite tyler’s apparent luicidity he betrayed some very strange ideas.
tyler said that his most recent conversation with jennifer had taken place in her bedroom just before the police came and that she’d been practicing witchcraft at the time.
when the investigators tried to pin him down on his movements that morning he either claimed he didn’t remember or evaded the question.
when the investigators asked how jennifer had attained the awful knife wounds, he just kept saying “witchcraft”.
this was all they could get from him in the interview,however when he was told he was being arrested for the murder of his mother .
he said;
it’s hard to argue witchcraft in court ,isn’t it .”
tyler didn’t once deny killing his mother or her dog.
on a search of the house,the police found a knife holster on the dining room table, they also found a backpack in tyler’s room that contained two knives and they found a tactical tomahawk or hatchet on a shelf in the bathroom as if left there by someone showering.
tyler had already admitted to showering right before the police arrived, which was why he was naked in the house.
they took this hatchet in for forensic testing,it’s handle had prints matching those of tyler dazey.
the evidence was mounting and was seemingly solid.
28 year old tyler dazey had killed his mother ,his family didn’t deny this including his sister kylie.
who made TikTok videos about the case asserthing that hre brother couldn’t be found responsible for his actions about the accusations of witchcraft he leveled at their mom she said :
she emphasizedher brother’s psychiatric history which involved multiple commitments to psychiatric hospitals.
both of his own will and involuntarily tyler had a troubled history.
having been arrested in december 2015 for assaulting his brother nick when tyler was 20 and nick was 18.
kylie said tyler was on disability for schizophrenia.
this in kylie’s opinion was the reason for tyler’s attack on their moom.
this would be one strategy used by tyler’s defense team.
could he be held responsible for his actions?
was he competent enough to stand trial?
he underwent an evaluation in february that returned the answer ” no”.he was not competent because of several untreated mental health conditions.
but on may 27th,2024 a second evaluation found him competent to stand trial and the third in july returned the same result.
this weakened the defens’s strategy and meant that in july his case was in court,tyler refused to appear however.
in a letter dated july 12th he wrote.; to be subect to slavery through usery of the law be it constitution nor amendment i will not participate, i seek honor to become of worth ,i seek god,my mother would be ashamed otherwise as if of my ancestors to seek god in death to become that of life.”
scrambling for a defense his lawyers tried to question the validity of the DNA evidence and also raised questions about kylie herself.
they pointed to body cam footage of kylie directly after she found out about jennifer’s murder,laughing and in seemingly good spirits.
she also had her own troubled relationship with her mom.
kylie lived with her brother nick and had received the news about her mom’s death while at at work as a waitress.
as a result , kylie had stayed at work instead of coming to her mom’s house immediately, she explained her possibly callous attitude as her own resilience.
everyone reacts to death in different ways and the defense couldn’t prove anything.
they suggested that footprints in the snow around the house implied that someone else had come home that night.
but these couldhave been produced by animal activity.
the back door to the house was also dead bolted froom the inside.
the evidence of the motion activated ring camera on the front door also ruled out other suspects.
at 8:00 p.m. the night before nick had come to drop of his truck and take jennifer’s car since there was something wrong with his truck.
and at about 10 p.m . jennifer let the dog out ,there was no futher atctivity until the next morning when kristy arrived for that fateful coffee and learned what tyler had done to her friend.
it was undeniable that tyler had murdered his mom and the jury agreed. tyler declined to appear for the verdict,claiming he wasn’t interested.
the jury fouynd him guilty of first degree murder and also animal abuse for the killing of echo,jennifer’s dog.
a sentencing date has not yet been set.
kylie continues to post on TikTok about the trial and her brother advocating for better mental health services and refuting any claims that she had something to do with her mother’s death.
a go fundme has been set up to support her and nick.