Investigator tells Nancy Grace about finding Lucas' body; second podcast airs today

A podcast promises to play recordings of Emily Glass talking to a private investigator as she's leading him to the body of her 5-year-old stepson, Lucas Hernandez.

Wednesday's "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" included an audio teaser for the next episode of the show in which a woman says, "I did Lucas so wrong. I did him wrong."

David Marshburn, the private investigator, told Grace during an interview that aired on a 54-minute podcast Wednesday that the voice belongs to Glass. She made the statement, he told Grace, after he disclosed that he'd found Lucas' body lying under branches beneath a culvert bridge in southeast rural Harvey County.

The recordings Marshburn made of Glass will air on Thursday's episode, according to the website Grace's podcast is posted on, www.crimeonline.com.

Marshburn's interview with Grace gives the most detailed account so far of how he convinced Glass to take him to Lucas' remains on May 24 and how exactly his body was found. The family of Lucas' father, Jonathan Hernandez, hired him.

Glass, 27, reported Lucas missing from their South Edgemoor rental home on Feb. 17. Police and volunteers spent the next three months searching for the pre-kindergartner, without any luck.

In the interview, Marshburn describes Glass as "cold and callous" during their talks. He says he met Glass at her aunt's house after he arrived in Wichita from North Carolina, and when he went to shake her hand, she reached out to hug him without smiling.

"I felt like that was to say, 'Thank you. You're going to help me get out of trouble,'" Marshburn told Grace. He said seeing Glass' body language was key.

While they talked over the next few hours, Glass wore sunglasses, kept her arms crossed, didn't cry and was silent except for giving short answers to his questions. The only time she showed emotion, he said, was when he told Glass that a death certificate could be issued for Lucas in seven months "and they're coming for you."

Marshburn told Grace the approach he took with Glass was to accuse her. He said he "basically went at her as, 'I know you did it. I'm here. I can help you. What can I do for you?'" He also told Grace that Glass admitted to using methamphetamine while Lucas and her 1-year-old daughter were at home and that she let a homeless man spend the night at her house just before she reported Lucas missing to police.

Marshburn told Grace he thought Glass brought the homeless man to her house so she could frame him. The homeless man was later killed in a hit-and-run, according to Grace's podcast.

Marshburn told Grace that when he and Glass set out to find where Lucas' body was hidden, Glass "gave us little clues here and there." He said they drove around for about four hours before he told Glass they were going to stop at every bridge to look for him.

"The very first bridge I get to, I lay down on the ground and peek my head underneath, and there I see the top of Lucas' head. And then I see all these branches on top," Marshburn told Grace, adding that elements of the crime scene had washed away in the months since Lucas was reported missing. "There's nothing there except for him and what's near him, on top of him and all," Marshburn told Grace.

He was "laying there exactly as she described."

Marshburn told Grace that he sent his partner down to look at the body and he went to tell Glass what he'd found. She was still in the car.

At first, Marshburn told Grace, Glass denied that the body was Lucas'.

"Emily says, 'I don't think this is his. That's not him.' And finally I told her, 'Emily, it's him,'" he said in the interview.

Moments later she put a tissue up to her face "to get her nose clean, not to wipe away tears. Because there was none," Marshburn told Grace.

Wichita police said last week that Marshburn called to report that he'd found the body. He and Glass were still at the bridge when officers arrived.

Glass was arrested on suspicion of interfering with a law enforcement investigation that same day. She was released from jail on Wednesday after Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett announced that his office was not filing charges at this time and the investigation into Lucas' death was ongoing.

Neither she nor a defense attorney who escorted her out of jail Wednesday answered reporters' questions.

Exactly how Lucas died remains a mystery. The results of his autopsy haven't yet been released.

A toxicology screen, which looks for drugs and other chemicals in someone's body, is in progress.

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Investigator tells Nancy Grace about finding Lucas' body; second podcast airs today."