NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans’ coroner’s office that performed an autopsy on Jessica Easterly, the performer known as "Viv" in the camming couple "Viv and Lance," has released an official statement revealing "it is not able to determine the cause or manner of death."
Easterly’s disappearance was reported by friends and relatives on August 14, 2019. A week later, on August 22, a body was found four blocks away from her home, on the edge of a local park. The body remained unidentified for months, until November 12, when the coroner’s office gave the local police information that allowed them to match the unidentified body to Easterly’s missing person report.
Nola.com reports that “Coroner’s spokesman Jason Melancon said the office performed both an autopsy and toxicology tests” on the 43-year-old Easterly. The pathologist who performed the autopsy found evidence that Easterly “suffered a nose injury as well as ‘a small linear fracture’ in her jaw around the time she died,” but the brief January 8 autopsy report, released today, “didn’t address how those wounds may have been caused.”
“Additionally,” Nola.com continues, “a toxicology examination revealed the presence of various substances, including medications. But records outlining those results don’t single out any as being a driving factor in [her] death.”
The cause and manner of Easterly’s death — whether it was natural, or a homicide, suicide or accident — have now been classified as “undetermined.”
The New Orleans press and several Citizen Detective/Missing Person websites and internet groups first looked into Easterly’s disappearance, and her death, after the body was found. But it wasn’t until earlier this month when the camming community realized that Easterly had been one of their own, frequently camming with her husband under the collective name Viv and Lance.
A Body Clad in Black Shoes
On August 20, one of Easterly’s close friends posted on Facebook that she had spoken with Jessica on August 12 and that a series of confusing events ensued over the next 48 hours, before her husband reported the disappearance to the authorities on August 14.
Also on August 20, the local Fox affiliate reported that the NOPD was ”seeking to locate an adult female reported to be missing” by her husband.
Two days later, according to police, "a body clad in black shoes, black shorts and a black tank top was found at the corner of Orleans Avenue and Kenilworth Street."
After the November body ID, the family posted an update on Facebook: “We have been waiting for 100 percent confirmation before we said anything but, due to the overwhelming amount of calls and texts, we feel we have to acknowledge that a body has been found that we believe to be Jessica. We are stuck in a horrible place between wondering and grieving and ask that everyone respect our privacy during this extremely difficult time. We cannot comment on the investigation.”
On January 8, XBIZ received several tips from the camming community that Easterly was a cam performer known as Viv. That same day, the Viv and Lance Twitter account was suddenly deleted.
Other members of the camming community who knew the couple had unresolved questions about the cause and manner of death. Today’s announcement about both being deemed “undetermined” by the coroner’s office does not seem to offer much closure to friends, family, colleagues and fans.