Unfortunately, Jenna didn’t believe him. On October 6, 2002, just one day before the car was found, Michael Simons called Jenna in the evening. He supposedly wished to meet to discuss their impending divorce. This is what she told her relatives when she left home that night. According to many articles, and reenactments of this case, Simons was painted as a charming, manipulative young man-- monster-- who was able to convince women to do his bidding. According to an article on patch.com written by Susan Young, a neighbor in Livermore, this was far from accurate.
Her own memories, as well as those of people she’d spoken with about Simons lean more towards him being an outcast than someone charming. Many described him as the (direct quote here) “sneaky kid who never quite fit in, and took pleasure in trying to make others look bad.” Despite his off-putting personality, no one would have ever suspected him of being capable of murder. --Of course, I think literally anyone is capable of doing something absolutely horrible if the circumstances are right. And I think it’s weird when people say they would have never seen it coming. But then, I do have a true crime podcast, and enough nightmares to last three lifetimes because of it. So, who knows.
Many speculate that had Simons not met Belflower, Jenna Nannetti may have been alive today. According to an article in SFGate, Belflower was a friend of the couple, and Hamilton was a friend of Belflower and Simons. The three of them together created what would turn out to be a terrifying trio.
Upon his separation from Jenna, Simons moved in with Belflower and immediately began a sexual and romantic relationship. Whether or not this began prior to their split was a little muddled from what I read, and to me, it seems a lot like a case of putting one foot in another boat before abandoning ship. Regardless, not the kind of person you want hanging around your relationship. It never ends well. Take it from my mom, she got to learn that lesson the hard way. It’s always the family friend. Or the nanny. Or in my mom’s case, both. From here, everything began to go downhill fast.
Despite him moving in with another woman, Jenna continued to call the home, insisting on reconciliation. This didn’t sit well with either Belflower or Simons. In September of 2002, Simons stated that he wanted to kill Jenna. This topic of conversation came up more and more frequently, and soon it was no longer just a passing fancy, but something he was planning.
Now, a one-sided desire for divorce is likely infuriating, I’m sure. But is it really enough of a reason for not only one person, but three people to commit a murder? In this case, not quite. Prior to Jenna’s marriage, her grandmother Linda had taken out either a $50,000 or $100,000 life insurance policy on Jenna. There were mixed accounts on the total. I understand nothing of life insurance other than that it’s a great motive for murder, but according to my research this was done as a way to ensure that Linda could provide a college education for Jenna. I honestly don’t know how that works. No one ever taught me how to adult. I was educated in America, okay?
Simons somehow found out about this life insurance policy. It’s possible Jenna mentioned it in passing, after all, she clearly couldn’t have imagined what he ended up planning. Foolishly, Simons assumed he would be the sole beneficiary of the life insurance policy. Why would he make that assumption after only one month of marriage? No one can be too sure. Teens are dumb. This is why we typically don’t let them get married.
And that’s no shade on her grandparents. They were genuinely just trying to do what was best for their grandkid, and knew that if they didn’t sign off on it, she’d find another way around them. It’s kind of like the whole “you can drink under my roof since I know you’re going to do it anyways, and I’d rather you be safe,” situation… just a little more extreme.
So, now we have a serious motive. This idiot thinks that he’s the beneficiary of a potentially $100,000 life insurance policy. As it turns out, Simons planned to use this money to buy a new home for him and Belflower. I wanted to make fun of them for thinking they could purchase a home for that price, but according to Zillow, I guess back in 2002 you could have. It likely would’ve been a severely outdated manufactured home, but… still a home. So, I guess parts of California used to be maybe somewhat affordable.
Anyways… so that explains why those two would commit murder… but what’s Hamilton’s story? From that explanation, it’s confusing to see what he might have to gain from it. Well, as it would turn out, Hamilton was requested to, essentially, play chauffeur to their murder, as neither of the two had a car. Not that this makes him any less guilty in this crime, let’s be clear on that right now. At literally any point, he could have turned these two monsters in, and Jenna would be alive today. But no, this janky freshwater bitch fish didn’t do that, did he? Instead, he decided that free rent in the home of these two psychopaths was worth assisting in the murder of a teenage girl. It all turned out to be for nothing though, because Simon’s name wasn’t ever on the life insurance policy to begin with.
Nope. The sole beneficiary of the life insurance policy was Jenna Nannetti’s grandmother, Linda.
During trial, the details of Nannetti’s murder came to light. When Nannetti arrived at Belflower’s home hoping to reconcile with Simons, Belflower and Hamilton spent time together in the living room while Simons and Nannetti cozied up on the porch. The two were play-wrestling like old times, which then led to making out when, as planned, Belflower came out quietly from the home and hit Jenna over the head with a baseball bat. This was meant to knock her out, but instead it left her confused, and angry. The trio recovered from this hitch in their plan though, and Hamilton and Belflower left to the secondary location.
Meanwhile, Jenna tried to talk Simons into taking her to the hospital, but he had other plans. He convinced the injured and bleeding Jenna to go with him to part of the Delta that locals refer to as Whiskey Slough. He assured her that Belflower would be there, and they could get their revenge. It took some persuading, but Jenna eventually agreed to go there instead of the hospital. Vengeance was far more important than her busted open skull.
On the way, she called her father, and got his answering machine. On the message, Jenna could be heard saying “Dad, give me a call. Dad, call me now. I got hit upside the head with a fucking baseball bat. I need your help now.” I just have to pause for a second to talk about how DEVASTATING that must have been for him to hear after they realized she was missing. I couldn’t imagine if one of my sisters called me with that and I missed their call. I don’t advocate for suicide, but I might have drank myself to death, honestly. My heart just breaks for him. And her entire family.
Shortly after the phone call was made, the couple arrived at their destination, which was essentially a levee road. It was there that Nannetti was shot by Simons with a Remington shotgun that had been stolen from a neighbors car by Belflower two whole months prior to the shooting. I’m not going to do direct quotes here because I’ll cry, but the trio said Jenna went down begging Michael to spare her life, and that even then she still loved him. Hamilton was probably the most shaken by her murder, and when she let out her final breath, he jumped in shock. The other two laughed at him. And this isn’t me making Hamilton out to be a good guy. He’s absolute garbage through and through. This is simply me making it very obvious how cold, and absolutely vile Simons and Belflower are.
From there, they scoured the area for shotgun shells, dropped Nannetti’s body where it was eventually found, ditched the gun, then dropped the car in the parking lot of the Mountain House Bar. They chose this location because Nannetti had been to it many times prior, and was actually well known there. It would do well at throwing police off of their trail. It was then set on fire to destroy any evidence of Simons having been present, then Hamilton drove Belflower and Simons back to livermore. As they drove off, Hamilton realized that his car had a flat tire, and actually borrowed a jack from a homeowner nearby.
This coincidence hadn’t been mentioned by the homeowner to the police. If it had been, maybe Aspen would have been spared some trauma. It just goes to show you that sometimes the coincidences you don’t think mean anything, can mean absolutely everything.
A week or two after the murder, Simons and Belflower borrowed Hamilton’s car under the guise of going off to “make out.” Hamilton later discovered that the couple had actually had very different intentions that day. Instead of finding a secluded spot to get intimate, they actually had gone to retrieve the shotgun. They then took the shotgun to a pier in Oakland, tied it to a bag of rocks, and threw it in the water.
Upon Simon’s interview, he stated that it was Hamilton who shot Jenna, and that he was sitting in her car at the time of the shooting. I personally find that super unlikely, but that’s me. Simons did not end up testifying at the trial.
Had Belflower and Hamilton not been caught attempting to murder Aspen Lum, it’s very likely that the case would still be unsolved to this day. So why did they go after Aspen? There obviously wouldn’t have been a life insurance policy in this situation, so it’s understandable if you’re struggling to understand the motive here. Unsurprisingly, there’s another piece to this very obnoxious puzzle.
If you’ll recall, the attack on Aspen took place on February 28th, 2003. That’s just 4 short months after the murder of Jenna. During this murder plot, Belflower and Simons were in a relationship. Belflower had actually become pregnant with Simons’ child. Now, Simons did what Simons did best, and moved on.
He began a relationship with Aspen Lum that February. Now the pieces are starting to click together, aren’t they? Belflower had already killed, or helped kill, once before. A second time should be no problem, right? She would do absolutely anything to have her forever after with Michael Simons, and no one would get in her way. As Hamilton strangled her, she could hear Belflower say something along the lines of “I killed Jenna, and now I’m going to kill you.”
Which, can we just point out how ridiculous that is? Let’s be honest here KATHERINE, you couldn’t even successfully knock her out. Your actual involvement in the plan was probably the LEAST successful, and you want to get all big for your britches about how YOU’RE killing her even as Hamilton does the leg work?
