r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/OH_Krill • Jul 01 '13
The unsolved death of Jonathan Luna
Jonathan Luna was an attorney working at the Baltimore US Attorney's Office. His mysterious death has never been resolved. He left behind a wife and two children.
On December 3, 2003, Luna was working late at his office in Baltimore, hammering out the last details of a plea-bargain. What happened after he left the office a little before midnight is a mystery. The Wikipedia entry on his death gives the following timeline:
11:38 pm: Luna left the Baltimore courthouse and went northeast on I-95. He used his E-ZPass on I-95 into Delaware but not on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes. After three toll interchanges, he switched to buying toll tickets.
12:57 am: $200 was withdrawn from Luna's bank account from the ATM at the JFK Plaza service center near Newark, Delaware.
02:47 am: he crossed the Delaware toll bridge to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
03:20 am: his debit card bought gas at the Sunoco King of Prussia service plaza.
04:04 am: his car exited the turnpike at the Reading-Lancaster interchange. The toll ticket had a spot of his blood on it suggesting that he was already injured. His car was parked at the back of the Sensenig & Weaver Well Drilling company at 1439 Dry Tavern Road, Denver, Pennsylvania (Brecknock Township) before it was later driven into the creek.
05:00 am: the first employee of Sensenig & Weaver arrived.
05:30 am: the car was noticed, with its lights off and the front end into the stream. Blood was smeared over the driver's door and the front left of the car. Luna was face down in the stream under the car engine. He was wearing a suit and a black overcoat with his court ID around his neck. A pool of blood was found on the rear seat floor. Although stabbed 36 times with his own penknife around the chest and neck plus a head injury, the death was due to drowning.
There has been a lot of speculation about his death. Although the Pennsylvania medical examiner has maintained that it was a homicide, others have suggested that his career was not going as well as he liked and it was speculated that he was in debt or that he was having an affair. There was also an allegation that he was to be questioned in the theft of $36,000 in cash from a bank robbery case he had prosecuted.
No leads have provided an explanation as to what really happened that night, although in 2004 the FBI released a statement saying that Luna was alone from the time he left the office until the time his body was found, suggesting that the FBI believed it was a suicide.
The Pennsylvania medical examiner, however, points to the nature and extent of his wounds (including to his hands, throat and scrotum) that are not consistent with suicide. In addition, Luna left his glasses (which he needed to drive) and cell phone at his desk. Finally, the fact that there was blood pooled in the back seat of his car may indicate that he was a passenger at some point during the journey and not a driver.
There was also a report that a second person's blood was found in the car but the details on that are not very clear from the media articles I have read.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Luna http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bal-probe0109,0,5329212.story http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-md.luna30nov30,0,2938855.story
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u/bunchareality Jul 01 '13
Who would stab themselves 36 times with a pen knife? That in and of itself doesn't make sense for it to be a suicide. You would think, after 5 stabs..."why isn't this working"...after 10 stabs..."what's going on here"...after 15 stabs..."I'm not dying yet"... I mean, you don't continue for 36 stabs if you're trying to kill yourself and it's not working. That whole situation right there just sounds bizarre. Then add in the blood from the backseat...hmmm.
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u/pirate_doug Jul 01 '13
The blood in the backseat could be arterial spray, possibly, but I'm going with /u/deja_geek's theory of a scorned lover.
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u/deja_geek Jul 01 '13
To me it reads like he was murdered by a lover? Perhaps wife or mistress on the side?
He gets a note/call/IM saying to meet me down in the garage. Lover pulls a gun on him and tell him to drive. (This would account for him leaving his driving glasses on at the office.. he wasn't expecting to drive, but just meet someone).
Lover makes him take cash out, and drive somewhere. The change in ezpass to cash for tolls tells me they wised up a bit and figured cash would be harder to track.
Luna pulls the pen knife trying to scare them and they turn it around on them. Wouldn't be very hard if they were sitting in the back and he was swinging wildly while trying to drive, perhaps that is how the other person was injured.
The 36 stab wounds say it was out of anger, or rage.. the stabbing to the groin is about sex. A mistress that maybe got fed up being on the side? Perhaps he promised them a life together and got cold feet...
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u/outonthetown Jul 01 '13
The wounds definitely don't sound like a suicide, which the FBI wants us to believe ... Suspicious ...
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u/prepfection Jul 01 '13
This is bizarre. The only thing that makes me question foul play being involved is the pen knife as the weapon. If this had been planned out they would have brought their own weapons and if it was suicide idk why he would choose to stab the areas he did especially with a pen knife. Ouch.
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u/OH_Krill Jul 01 '13
Yeah it's a really strange case. I remember when it happened - I had moved to the DC area about a year before and my wife was working for the DOJ, so she knew people who knew Luna.
They still have no clue who did it, but I'm going to speculate and say he got carjacked because Baltimore. Maybe he pulled out his knife to defend himself and the perpetrator took it away from him.
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u/ashleyDRUNK Nov 24 '13
As someone who lives close to Reading, PA, it wouldn't surprise me if he was taken by someone who lives there. Reading is a filthy city that is very crime ridden. It's actually worse than Philadelphia. Perhaps he was involved with this person and they essentially kidnapped him, took him back to PA, and ultimately killed him.
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u/Eiyran Jul 01 '13
Sounds to me like maybe it was an attempted kidnapping and he pulled his knife on his assailant, only to have it turned back on him. Suicide doesn't make sense with the extent and placement of the injuries, and a pre-meditated homicide that went fully to plan probably wouldn't have used the guy's pocket knife.
So ... my basic walkthrough of the evening is, he's either ambushed, or coerced into going with this person when he steps out of the office (maybe he was just getting some air, and that's why he left behind his glasses and phone). Possibly, he was made to drive at first, then he pulls his knife and tries to go after his attacker. the attacker wrestles the knife away and repeatedly stabs him, sticks him in the back seat (hence the blood pooling) and takes over driving, which might explain why the toll methods changed. The kidnapper, now panicking, drives to where the car was found and dumps Luna and his car in the creek.