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Murder & Mediumship is true crime meets intuition hosted by Kathryn Ostrowski. Murder & Mediumship is a podcast that pours into cases primarily from marginalized communities that often do not receive the national press coverage that they deserve. Fun fact - many who listen to true crime regularly struggle with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Therefore, Murder & Mediumship also focuses on taking better care of mental health, hosting special guests from all walks of spiritual practitioners as well as mental health advocates.
Angelina Resendiz Update as of 06/29/2025 - Military Honors & Named Suspect
Since the last update on Angelina Resendiz I released roughly two weeks ago, new information has come out. It’s not a lot, but absolutely worth an update. If you are just stopping in here, check out the last two episodes about Angelina Resendiz, a young Navy Sailor who went missing and was found deceased ten days later after pleas for help from her friends and family were ignored by her command, the USS James E. Williams.
As per Angelina’s mother, Esmerelda Castle, Angelina was not found during a search for her being conducted by law enforcement in cooperation with NCIS. No, in fact, her body was found by children roughly ten miles from her barracks in the woods near an elementary school in Norfolk, VA.
I have multiple posts about this on my TikTok account, but I’m going to say it here as well. The general public is asking for answers and clarity pertaining to a lot right now. The thing is that generally speaking, the military is highly unlikely to release any information that you would be likely to see if this were a civilian on civilian offense. There are so many reasons for this, but because they operate under a different code of law - the United Code of Military Justice or the UCMJ, they are within their rights to be quieter about it, as frustrating as it is. People are angry because this is a story as old as time - a female sailor is endangered by a male sailor (or truly any branch) and the male sailor has a violent past and has assaulted or injured others and is transferred from one command to the next. The amount of comments and the outrage I have seen of people expressing that similar things happened to them while they served, or to someone they were close to, is appalling. This is common practice. I have also seen others defending protocol here and asking what about false accusations against men. While I’m sure that happens, false accusations of assault or sexual assault are made far less often than you may think. Further, we’re not here to discuss how “unfair” that would have been to have removed Jeremiah Copeland from duty after accusations were made, because the Navy already had proof of his violent transgressions toward other females at another command and he was shuffled to the James E. Williams instead. Jeremiah Copeland is being held in pretrial confinement for the death of Angelina Resendiz.
Copeland was a culinary specialist with her on board their ship. He had just finished his culinary school in December of 2023 and in a matter of a year and a half, had amassed multiple allegations from multiple victims of sexual assault.
For anyone defending the protocol, the protocol needs to change. Women are signing up to defend their country and fall victim to sexual assault or murder by the men who are supposed to be standing in ranks having their back. How can you trust someone with your life when you are targeted by them as if you were the enemy?
According to Senator Mark Warner, the Ashanti Alert should have been utilized when Angelina was reported missing, and it was, but it took far too long for it to be utilized. The Ashanti alert is the critically missing adult alert that was put out on June 3, 2025 after her friends and co-workers had begged the command to do something about her being missing to no avail. They then filed a report with the Norfolk PD and days later a critically missing adult alert was put out. The timing was absolute trash and the fact that children found her makes this even more tragic. Interestingly enough, the Ashanti Alert was named after a 19-year-old student who went missing from JEB Little Creek also in Norfolk in 2019. She was kidnapped and killed and fell through the cracks when there was no missing alert for adults, as the silver alert covers senior citizens and the Amber alert covers 17 and younger.
Senator Warner has been in contact with the family and with the Navy. I’m telling you guys that we won't hear a lot of what’s going on, as UCMJ does not allow for the same transparency that the civilian judicial system does.
Angelina’s remains were flown home to Harlingen, Texas, just north of the U.S.- Mexico border on June 20th. She was returned with full military honors. I encourage you to watch the news coverage of her return to see her family receive her flag-draped casket, but also to hear her mother cry out for her. The more we stay aware of the pain this has caused, the more we will want to continue to fight for her and for every woman who has endangered her life by serving with dangerous men.
**Fast forward about 30 seconds if you don’t want to hear this, as it’s about the state of Angelina’s body when she was returned home.** Upon her arrival in Texas, her mother viewed her body, not knowing what to expect. No one preserved the body and so her mother had the unfortunate experience of seeing her daughter’s decaying body covered in bugs and maggots. Now a lot of people are saying this should be obvious, as her body was found outside after days, while others are saying that she should have been cleaned up. Someone on my TikTok said that having worked for the morgue in Norfolk that would have received her body, it should not have been sent back home the way that it was. The attorney representing the Resendiz family reached out to the Navy to educate himself on protocol for receiving remains like that and has stated that he has been met with a lack of cooperation and professionalism.
A Navy spokesperson told local station, 13News Now that while they could not comment on an active investigation, in general every case is different as to how remains are handled after a service member dies. They said, “the Navy as well as local authorities could have been involved in handling Resendiz’s body.” Now I have read that the Navy should have ensured she was prepped for transport differently and then also that it would have fallen on the funeral home receiving her body in Texas. I don’t understand how she could be flown home draped in the flag while in that condition though. The VA Office of the Medical Examiner refused to discuss any details about the case, but let 13News Now know what their protocol was for caring for a body and none of it includes cleaning the body. They hold it in a cooler for preservation, then medical examiners and autopsy support staff examine the body to determine the cause and manner of death while “minimizing further injury to the body,” and then once the exam is complete, the body is placed in a bag and returned to the cooler until they are released to a funeral home. The VA ME’s office indicated that they do not play any additional role in prepping the body for transport, would fall on the funeral home for transport and/or viewing. I don’t understand this, because she was being flown halfway across the country, wouldn’t an effort to keep her cool be made or something like that? It doesn’t make sense to me, but I’m not pretending to have any knowledge on this process or protocol. Hopefully we will find out more as time goes on.
Regarding the state of her body, Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine both expressed their disappointment with the way that Angelina was sent home and advocate that the Navy be held accountable for that as well.
What I do know, is that we need to stay loud about this and not just on social media. Change takes place when we get in the ears of our law makers.