The bathroom door was locked, and Jessica’s mother knew something was deeply wrong. She had been calling and texting her daughter for nearly a week with no answer. When Matthew answered the door and claimed Jessica was at a friend’s house, a cold feeling settled in her chest. She asked the landlord, Gary, to help.
Gary lived next door and saw the fear in her eyes. The next morning, Gary used his keys to get inside. The bathroom door was still locked from the inside. He removed the doorknob mechanism and pushed the door open.
A putrid, overwhelming smell hit him. He pulled back the shower curtain and saw Jessica’s partial remains in the bathtub, badly decomposed and dismembered. He stumbled out, gasping for air, and called the police. Jessica Ray Sako was born on August 28, 1990, in Santa Clara, California.
Her parents separated when she was young, and she spent parts of her childhood with her father’s family. She was close to her grandparents and had at least one half-sister. As a teenager, she moved to Urbana, Ohio, where she attended Graham High School and briefly enrolled at Urbana University. Friends described her as sweet, quirky, and a bit of an oddball with a goofy sense of humor.
She loved making people laugh and acted as the class clown among her friends. Despite being bullied occasionally, she didn’t let it bother her. But Jessica also struggled. She was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder and was prescribed medication.
In her late teens, her relationship with her mother, Sue Tainer, became strained. Jessica sought connection online, especially in the juggalo subculture, fans of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse. In early 2011, Jessica moved to Florida to live with a boyfriend. The relationship soured within a year, and she felt lost.
Her mother urged her to come back to Ohio for a fresh start. Jessica returned in mid-2011, and with her mother’s help, secured a small duplex apartment at 625 West Light Street in Urbana. Mother and daughter were rebuilding their bond. Jessica seemed hopeful.
She was on the right medication, looking for work, and searching for friends and love online. That’s where she found Matthew Puchio. Matthew’s upbringing was unstable. He claimed he was raised by his grandparents in California and attended private Christian schools.
He hinted that violence touched his life early. At age 15, he tried living with his biological father, but it ended in a physical fight. He spent his late teens drifting through state-run group homes, getting into fights and scrapes with the law. By adulthood, he had no official criminal record, but he carried a propensity for violence and anger.
He wandered the US, never staying in one place for long. By 2011, he was in Fort Worth, Texas, unemployed, dealing with a failed engagement and a custody battle. Feeling lonely and frustrated, Matthew went online to meet new people. That’s how he connected with Jessica.
They bonded over shared interests and mutual loneliness. They chatted daily for months. Then he traveled from Texas to Ohio to meet her in person. They hit it off and quickly began a romantic relationship.
By the fall of 2011, he had moved into her small duplex. Her mother sensed red flags immediately. “I knew there was something I didn’t like. He always averted his eyes.
When people do that, then I know they are not who they say they are. ”
Matthew wasn’t the only danger entering Jessica’s life. In early 2012, he invited friends to stay with them. His old friend Andrew Forny, 26, and Andrew’s wife, Candace, 25, moved in from Michigan.
They had no jobs and effectively squatted in Jessica’s apartment. Then two more acquaintances moved in: 37-year-old Christopher Wright and 25-year-old Sharon Cook, both from Urbana. Five extra adults were crammed into Jessica’s small duplex, creating a tense and hostile environment. In February 2012, a month before the murder, a teenage girl from Texas ran away and stayed with Matthew in the apartment for about a week.
Police found her and returned her home. Matthew was charged with interfering with custody for harboring a minor. It wasn’t until much later that the girl disclosed Matthew had sexually assaulted her during that stay. Jessica likely had no idea.
By March 2012, things were coming to a head. Jessica and Matthew’s relationship had been deteriorating for weeks. They argued often. Jessica’s friends noticed her posting distressing things on Facebook, and they worried she had stopped taking her medication.
As it turned out, Matthew had persuaded her to quit. He basically told her mother, “She will not be taking her medication because I don’t believe in medication and she doesn’t need medication. ”
Jessica felt increasingly unwelcome in her own home. Matthew’s friends openly disrespected her, even sitting in the same room texting him nasty messages about her.
She confided to her mother and friends that the situation was unbearable. A friend advised her, “You need to get him out of there. ” By mid-March, Jessica was telling friends she might ask Matthew to leave. On March 22, 2012, Matthew claimed he discovered text messages on Jessica’s phone that upset him.
He alleged she had texted someone saying she wanted him dead. Friends doubt this, suspecting it was a misinterpretation or an excuse he made up. Matthew flew into a rage. Investigators believe Jessica was brutally attacked inside her apartment.
The violent sequence spanned several hours. It likely began with the argument over the texts and Jessica’s desire to throw him out. During that fight, Matthew stabbed her once in the abdomen. She was gravely wounded but not immediately killed.
Matthew later claimed that after being stabbed, she begged him to finish her off, saying she pulled his knife hand into her stomach. But this account comes solely from Matthew and is viewed with skepticism. What is certain is that Jessica did not die immediately. Crime scene evidence indicates hours passed between the initial stab wound and her death.
During that time, all four of Matthew’s friends were present in the apartment, allegedly in the living room while she bled in another room. Matthew texted his friends to inform them she’d been stabbed rather than calling for help. None of them intervened or called 911. After some hours, Matthew decided to finish the job.
He retrieved plastic bags and attempted to suffocate her. She clawed off the first bag. He wrapped a second bag tightly around her face, finally causing her to asphyxiate. According to Matthew, Jessica’s last words were, “I still love you and I forgive you.
” That statement is uncorroborated and likely self-serving. With Jessica dead, Matthew enlisted his four friends to help dispose of the body. They moved her into the bathroom and placed her in the bathtub. Using knives, a hacksaw, and pliers, Matthew and at least one of the other men cut up her body over an extended period.
Andrew admitted he actively helped Matthew mutilate her remains. Christopher was also charged with gross abuse of a corpse. The two women stood by watching and later helped clean up. At one point, the five perpetrators paused their work to go eat at McDonald’s.
After eating, they returned and finished cutting her body into pieces. They placed portions into garbage bags and plastic storage bins. The group decided to dump her body parts in various remote locations. They used the Fornys’ green minivan as transport.
In the early morning hours of March 23rd, they loaded the remains and drove south toward Butler County, Ohio. They discarded some limbs in rural locations in southern Ohio and across the river in northern Kentucky. But in their haste, they left parts of her behind, submerged in the bathtub under a pile of clothes and towels. They locked the bathroom door before fleeing.
By late March, the five suspects were staying in Hamilton, Ohio. According to court reports, Andrew and Candace slept in the van with the dismembered body parts still inside. Back in Urbana, Jessica’s disappearance had not gone unnoticed. On March 29th, her mother went to the duplex to check in person.
Matthew and his friends were gone. The only odd thing was that the bathroom door was locked. The next morning, Gary let himself in and found the horror. Police arrived and confirmed a murder.
They alerted authorities in Hamilton after tracing Matthew’s phone. Officers spotted the green minivan, and through social media and background checks, they identified the house where the group was hiding. On the early morning of March 31st, a multi-agency team descended on the house and arrested all five suspects without incident. The community was reeling.
The story made national headlines. All five were formally charged. Matthew was charged with aggravated murder and other felonies. At his initial hearing, he told the judge he was receiving disability payments because “I am clinically insane.
” This foreshadowed his intended defense. A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation later found him competent to stand trial. Facing overwhelming evidence, Matthew changed his plea. On July 11, 2012, Matthew and all four co-defendants pleaded guilty.
Matthew pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and a slew of accompanying charges. In exchange, prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty. The four accomplices took plea deals as well. Andrew Forny pleaded guilty to nine counts.
Candace pleaded guilty to three. Christopher Wright pleaded guilty to five. Sharon Cook pleaded guilty to five. On August 20, 2012, Judge Roger Wilson sentenced them.
Matthew, having pleaded to aggravated murder, faced a mandatory life sentence. Judge Wilson ordered he serve at least 42 years before becoming eligible for parole. In court, Matthew addressed the judge and Jessica’s family. He professed that he did love Jessica.
Judge Wilson asked how he could kill and butcher someone he claimed to love. Matthew replied, “That’s what I’m still trying to figure out. ”
Jessica’s mom sat in the front row, clutching a red velvet bag containing her daughter’s ashes. After sentencing, she told reporters she believed Matthew was an expert at manipulating people.
“He looked for the weakness and he takes it from you. He controls you. He looked and found Jessica, a young girl with very low self-esteem, bipolar, on medicine. He knew he could control her mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically.
”
The four accomplices were also sentenced. Andrew Forny received 10 years in prison, the harshest term of the accomplices, for helping dismember and dispose of the body. Candace received six years. Christopher Wright received four years and a $500 fine.
Sharon Cook received three years and a $500 fine. In October 2013, while in prison, Matthew was convicted on sexual assault charges related to the February 2012 incident with the teenage girl. He pleaded guilty and received an additional 5 years, to be served consecutively to his murder sentence. At the hearing, Matthew reportedly said he deserved to die for what he did to Jessica.
Andrew Forny appealed his 10-year sentence, arguing it was excessive for someone who didn’t actually kill Jessica. In July 2013, the appellate court upheld the sentence, noting the disturbing details of his involvement, including sleeping in the van with Jessica’s corpse. The 10-year term stood. By the end of 2012, all five perpetrators were serving time in Ohio prisons.
Matthew was sent to the London Correctional Institution. As of 2025, the other four perpetrators are reportedly walking free. Jessica’s murder had a profound impact on her family and the Urbana community. The day after her body was found, about 50 people gathered outside her home for a candlelight vigil.
They left stuffed animals, wreaths, and crosses on the doorstep. A large poster was signed by attendees and later given to Jessica’s family. On June 2, 2012, the family hosted a public memorial service and garden dedication, planting lavender and daylilies, her favorite flowers. That became her final resting place.
Her story was featured on the Investigation Discovery show “Web of Lies” in an episode titled “Crowded House. ” It has been used in internet safety programs as a cautionary tale about the dangers of meeting people online. The landlord, Gary Zurkl, had the bathroom gutted and nearly everything in the apartment removed and destroyed due to biohazard contamination. He saved only two items: Jessica’s birth certificate and her baby photo album, which he returned to her mother.
Jessica’s Find a Grave memorial has dozens of notes from strangers expressing sorrow and prayers. It simply states, “Jessica, 21 years old, was found dead in the small Ohio town of Urbana, about 50 miles northwest of Columbus. Rest in peace, Jessica.
”
In the end, Jessica Ray Sako is remembered not just as a victim of a terrible crime, but as a vibrant 21-year-old with an infectious laugh, a kind heart, and a goofy sense of humor who always saw the good in people.
