She Murdered Her Stepdad After Finding Revealing Photos Of Herself On His Computer
After a California woman found photos on her stepfather’s computer of herself without clothes on, she murdered him in 2020. She’s now serving a prison sentence of 25 years to life.
Jade Janks, now 41 years old, had visited her 64-year-old stepfather Thomas Merriman’s apartment in December 2020.
Thomas, who suffered a bad fall at the tail end of 2020, was admitted to Scripps Hospital in Encinitas, California, on December 15, and she decided to clean his apartment as he recovered in a rehab center.
While at his home on December 23, 2020, Jade was near Thomas’ computer monitor, which was in sleep mode. It suddenly came awake as she was cleaning, and she came face-to-face with an unclothed screensaver of herself.
Jade proceeded to log into her stepfather’s computer and came across hundreds of more images. She never shared them directly with Thomas; instead, Jade had taken the photos consensually with past partners.
Thomas somehow had the pictures, some of which were sorted into folders; meanwhile, others were in a carousel. Certain photos were even from when Jade was a teenager. She later testified at trial and described the shock she felt.
“It was the most violating, awful, gut-wrenching feeling ever. I felt sick; I felt I couldn’t… even touch my own skin. I don’t know if there [are] words; not even in a movie have I seen something so sick,” Jade said.
She first met Thomas, the co-founder of a butterfly conservation non-profit known as Butterfly Farms, when she was 14 years old after he married her mother. The pair later divorced, but Jade maintained a close relationship with Thomas. He’d refer to Jade as his daughter, and she would call him “dad.”
Upon finding the pictures, though, Jade claimed she was frightened to be by herself, let alone change her clothing or use the bathroom. She wanted someone to look out for her, which is why she contacted a man named Alan Roach on Facebook that same day.
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Alan, who worked in security, reportedly told Jade, “If you have a problem, I can fix it for you.” He and Jade continued speaking, and their conversations would later serve as key evidence in the murder case.
The police first learned something had happened to Thomas when the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department dispatch received a call from Adam Siplyak, a friend of Jade’s, on January 1, 2021.
Adam detailed how he’d been at Jade’s home the night prior, and she revealed she’d killed her stepfather before asking Adam for help with moving the body. Adam stated he had left Jade’s residence, and he wasn’t sure if Thomas was actually dead.
Investigators began searching for Thomas, and later that afternoon, they visited his home. Jade happened to be driving away, so the police stopped her and asked her to answer some questions.
She said that she’d brought her stepfather home from the rehab center and wasn’t sure where he was at the time. Soon afterward, Jade asked for a lawyer.
It wasn’t until the next day, January 2, 2021, that Thomas was found dead in his driveway. He’d been wrapped in a blanket and covered by tools, trash, and empty cardboard boxes. Jade was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
She pleaded not guilty, and when her trial began in December 2022, prosecutors stated Jade had killed Thomas with a combination of strangulation, suffocation, and fatal doses of prescription medications.
Jade’s defense attorney, Marc Carlos, attributed Thomas’ death to poor health and a history of substance abuse. Since Thomas’ official cause of death was determined to be a prescription pill overdose, he also alleged there was insufficient physical evidence to indicate Thomas had been suffocated or strangled.
While on the stand, Jade claimed she’d picked Thomas up from rehab, and because he’d taken pills, he was unable to walk into his house. She said she wasn’t able to help him and left him in the car to sleep off the effects.
The following morning, Jade stated she’d found Thomas dead and didn’t want to be blamed for his death. In a panic, she wrapped up his body and attempted to hide it under empty boxes and trash.
The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that Jade devised a plan to commit murder upon finding the images of herself on her stepfather’s computer. Prosecutors pointed to Jade’s messages with Alan Roach, the man from Facebook, who they dubbed “The Fixer” when speaking to the jury.
Not long after picking Thomas up from rehab, Jade reportedly texted Alan at 11:30 a.m., saying, “I just dosed the [redacted] out of him.” Just over an hour later, at 12:39 p.m., she messaged Alan again, writing, “I can’t carry him either back to my car or to his house. I’m not strong enough. Can you come, like, right now?!”
Alan didn’t show up, and Jade continued texting him. “He is waking up. I am not sure how much longer I can control my temper,” she messaged at 2:59 p.m. By 4:28 p.m., she called Thomas “super medicated,” saying, “I can’t keep a kicking body in my truck. I’m about ready to club him.”
The final text Jade sent Alan was on January 1, 2021, at 5:33 p.m., the day before she was arrested. It read, “Lose my number. I’m getting pulled over.” Alan never went to help Jade, and he wasn’t charged in connection with Thomas’ death.
Instead, the prosecution alleged that Alan sent a friend. Jade allegedly told the friend, “I want you to strangle him and then bring him into the house. I’ll take care of the rest.” The friend reportedly left, and later, Jade reached out to her own friend, Adam Siplyak, to ask for help with moving Thomas’ dead body.
According to Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo, Jade used a pillowcase or a grocery bag to suffocate Thomas after he’d been drugged. Then she strangled him with her bare hands.
Jade, a former Solana Beach interior designer, was ultimately convicted of her stepfather’s murder in 2023, receiving a prison sentence of 25 years to life. She attempted to appeal her conviction, claiming there wasn’t enough evidence to prove her guilt.
A three-justice panel upheld her conviction in October 2024. They wrote that her text statements, as well as the physical evidence, supported her conviction. Thomas reportedly had “toxic levels of zolpidem in his system.” Jade’s DNA was also found on a pack of pills, as well as on a bag, a rope, and disposable gloves.
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