Jade Janks murdered her stepfather Tom Merriman in December 2020 after she allegedly stumbled upon a huge collection of her nude photos he'd kept since she was 16.
48 Hours Jade Janks, the woman who murdered her stepfather.
On Jan. 1, 2021, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department received a chilling call: a man claimed that his ex-girlfriend, Jade Janks, had murdered her stepfather, Tom Merriman — and asked for his help in moving the body.
Janks, an interior designer, had been close to Merriman since childhood and had even moved next door to him during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, after authorities found Merriman’s body under a pile of trash in his driveway, they learned that Janks may have had a reason to murder him.
Jade Janks claimed that, while cleaning Merriman’s home a week earlier, she had discovered hundreds of explicit photos of herself saved on his computer. This shocking discovery, combined with Janks’ text messages and suspicious purchases, began to paint a sinister picture of what had truly happened between Jade Janks and Tom Merriman.
The Seemingly Close Relationship Between Stepfather And Stepdaughter
Instagram Jade Janks was an interior designer before the murder.
Jade Janks was born on Oct. 14, 1983, in Texas. She came from a well-off family and had a seemingly normal childhood. When Janks was a teenager, her mother married Thomas Merriman. The couple had an on-again, off-again relationship, and court records show the couple filed for divorce three different times in 2002, 2006, and 2008.
That said, Janks maintained a close relationship with Merriman, whom she considered her father.
“He would call me his daughter and I would call him my dad,” Janks said, according to CBS.
Janks and Merriman remained close, even when she became an adult. As the COVID-19 pandemic intensified in April 2020, Janks even moved next door to Merriman in order to be closer to him. She spent a great deal of time with him, and even cooked him dinner most nights.
Then, on Dec. 15, 2020, Merriman suffered a dangerous fall at his home and had to be admitted to Scripps Hospital in Encinitas, California. During his stay, Janks went over to his house to neaten things up. But on Dec. 23, Janks made a horrifying discovery.
While tidying up his room, Janks bumped into Merriman’s home computer and awakened the screen saver. The image of a woman’s breasts caught Janks off guard — but then she realized who they belonged to.
“I look and I’m like, those are my breasts,” she would later explain.
San Diego Superior CourtTom Merriman’s home computer, where Jade Janks claims to have found the nude photos of herself.
Stunned, Janks logged into the computer and discovered hundreds of files containing nude images — of herself. All of the images were taken consensually with Janks’ former boyfriends, starting when Janks was 16, but Janks had no idea how Merriman had gotten his hands on them.
“It was the most violating, just awful, gut-wrenching feeling ever. I remember I felt sick. I felt I couldn’t even touch my own skin,” Janks explained. She suddenly felt scared to be alone and wanted “somebody to look out for me and make sure that I was safe.”
Just over a week later, Thomas Merriman would be found dead.
The Discovery Of Thomas Merriman’s Body
Facebook Jade Janks’ stepfather, Tom Merriman.
On New Year’s Day 2021, the San Diego Police Department received a call from a man named Adam Siplyak. The man told authorities that his ex-girlfriend, Jade Janks, may have killed her stepfather. He claimed that, on December 31, Janks texted him asking for help moving Tom Merriman’s body.
Authorities got in touch with Merriman’s family, but none of them had heard from Merriman, prompting authorities to pay him a visit at his home. While pulling up the driveway, authorities found Janks driving away from her home. Janks came to the station with officers and claimed she last saw Merriman after picking him up from the hospital and dropping him off at his house.
Back at Merriman’s home, authorities searched the property but found no sign of Merriman. Then, early in the morning on January 2, one officer noticed a pile of trash in the home’s driveway. Upon investigation, they found the body of Tom Merriman, wrapped in a blanket and covered in trash.
San Diego Superior CourtThe pile of trash in Merriman’s driveway where he was discovered.
Later that morning, the police arrested Jade Janks. She was charged with the murder of Thomas Merriman, but the full extent of what happened between them would not come out until she stood trial two years later.
Jade Janks’ Story Of How Tom Merriman Died
Jane Janks stood trial in December 2022. She plead not guilty, and, indeed, an autopsy of Merriman’s body found that he had high levels of Ambien in his system. Merriman had struggled with prescription drug abuse and alcoholism for years, and Janks claimed that his death was caused by his substance abuse and overall poor health.
At her highly publicized trial, Jade Janks stated that Tom Merriman called her early on Dec. 31, 2020, to confirm that she would be picking him up. She agreed, collecting him from the hospital that morning. With her stepfather still in the car, Janks stopped at CVS and the hardware store.
When she got back to her vehicle, she said that Merriman had become virtually incoherent from prescription medications he’d taken, including Ambien. She claimed that she tried to drop Merriman back off at the hospital, but ended up driving him back to his home. She couldn’t get him inside, so she reached out for help. No one she called would come, so she called Adam Siplyak, a former boyfriend.
CBS 8Janks reacts to her sentence in court.
Siplyak arrived to help but, according to Janks, left because of how sick Merriman looked (In Siplyak’s telling, however, Janks confessed to killing her stepfather). Janks claimed that she decided to leave Merriman in the car with a blanket overnight, but when she checked on him the next morning, he was dead. Panicked, Jade moved his body under the pile of trash.
As for the nude photos Jade Janks claims to have found, her defense team decided not to use the story as evidence because Janks reportedly destroyed the computer’s hard drive the day she found the images — making her the only person alive to have seen them.
However, the prosecution argued that Janks had murdered Tom Merriman — and they had a “gold mine” of her text messages to back them up.
Jade Janks Is Found Guilty Of Murder
As the prosecution discovered, Jade Janks had reached out to Alan Roach, a local security guard who she had met through a mutual friend, after discovering the photos of herself on Merriman’s computer.
“If you have a problem, I could fix it for you,” Roach told Janks.
Then, on December 31, Janks sent a number of messages to Roach shortly after picking Merriman up from the hospital:
“I just dosed the hell out of him.”
“He’s waking up. I really don’t want to be the one to do this.”
“I can’t carry him alone and I can’t keep a kicking body in my trunk.”
“I am about to club him on the head as he is waking up.”
“I’m not strong enough. He is very aware now and I am on my own.”
Additionally, security footage taken at a CVS and hardware store after she picked up Merriman on December 31 show Janks purchasing red rope, gloves, towels, and other items. Janks claimed that these items were for a painting project; the prosecution alleged that they were a “murder kit.”
San Diego Superior Court North County Division This red rope was one of the things Jade Janks purchased before Tom Merriman’s death.
What’s more, authorities had found Jade Janks’ DNA on Tom Merriman’s Ambien prescription — and a plastic bag containing Merriman’s DNA inside of it, pointing to attempted asphyxiation.
With this evidence, the prosecution argued that Janks had attempted to asphyxiate Merriman, and when that didn’t work, she administered a fatal dose of Ambien. The text messages she sent Roach, detailing how Merriman was gaining consciousness and seemingly trying to fight back before being given Ambien, were the final nails in the coffin for Jade Janks.
On December 21, 2022, Jade Janks was found guilty of the first degree murder of her stepfather and received a sentence of 25 years to life. She will be eligible for parole when she is 64 years old — the same age Tom Merriman was at the time of his brutal murder.
After reading about Jade Janks, dive into the story of Alissa Turney, the young girl who went missing from Arizona in 2001, and why many suspect her stepfather is to blame. Then, read about Dylan Redwine, the 13-year-old who was killed after he discovered compromising photos of his father.
