In early September 2017, pregnant 31-year-old school teacher, Laura Wallen went missing. After she failed to turn up for work, her parents and distraught boyfriend made a mass public appeal via television, begging for any information as to her safe return.
Unfortunately, Wallen's body would be discovered days later in a shallow grave in a field in Damascus, Washington County. She had a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Wallen and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Tyler Tessier, had a rocky relationship.
When Wallen fell pregnant, Tessier panicked. Although he played the dutiful boyfriend for the cameras, he was far from it. He had a fiancé and was worried that Laura would ruin his plans for the future.
From the start of the case, police and Laura's parents suspected that Tessier was somehow involved in her disappearance. He was only allowed to participate in the news conference with the permission of Wallen's parents after being persuaded by investigators that it would aid them in the case.
Usually, when given a podium, killers will out themselves and Tessier did just that. The press conference was a brilliant strategy to lure Tessier into believing he was safe from all culpability.
