In 2001, a young man vanished without a trace and more than 20 years later the only thing law enforcement is sure of is that someone in Skidmore, Missouri knows something.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Branson Perry, please contact the Community United Effort Center 24-hour tip line at 910-232-1687, the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office at 660-582-7451, or the Missouri State Highway Patrol Hotline at 1-800-525-5555.
Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-branson-perry/
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I'm your host, Ashley flowers and I'm bread in the story I have for you today is about a young man who vanished without a trace back in two thousand one from one of America's most notorious small towns, a town whose
and share an unspoken vow of silence, one that has felt an unruly pressure to bury their deepest darkest secrets. This is the story of Branson Parry
Ebay.
Twelve two thousand one is a windy Thursday afternoon in the rural town of Skidmore, Missouri and Joanne stand. It is
her way home from the grocery store. When she decides to stop by her son Bob's house,
It's on the way and she wants to check on her twenty year old grants on Branson who she hasn't heard from in a couple of days. You see brands and lives with him,
dad and pretty much always has do that
and always the plan after high school brigantine was determined.
to join the army, but because of a heart condition that he had been diagnosed with at birth. He was ineligible, so instead he worked
a roof or for a while and then kind of like bounced around doing some odd jobs like working with a traveling, petting zoo. Oh, yes, that is correct,
our job right now he was pretty much piecing together
work. While he looked for something more permanent anyway, Branson
in so low and holding down before the house for the last, like three or four days while Bob was in the hospital- and I know exactly why
in the hospital most of the source material on this case, just talks about Bob having like several existing health conditions, but no one
be very like specifically further than that so Amy
according to an article by seek a hustle for rare. U S, joy
wants to just like make sure. Branson is good likes you
not fully worry that something is wrong like they go a bit without talking, sometimes, but this
has been long enough to make Joanne decide to stop by the house and to see what's up brightly concern
and grammar style. Exactly
as Joanne turns on to West Oak Street, where Branson and Bob live she pulls up in front of the house and sees Brandons Van parked in the driveway, and chicken here
the radio in the house is on, like LAO
on, because she can hear playing all the way from the street
Julia notices that there doesn't seem to be any one around outside, so she climbed out of her car and makes her way up the driveway to the front door. Thinking that someone has to be inside the doors unlocked, so she opens it and calls,
Branson as she makes her way through the home. When she reaches the back door,
in the kitchen? She notices that that too is unlocked, so is
that pretty normal, like where I grab my family, hardly ever locked the door. So for me this wouldn't be
We heard it actually is normal in Skidmore
according to the many doc you series called no one saw a thing. There is less than three hundred
people in this whole town. So oh wow! Yet this is tiny. Literally everybody knows everybody in hacked like leaving
or wide open. If you want so unlocked doors alone, didn't strike, Joanna's, weird or out of the ordinary, but that wasn't. The only
then she noticed join sees that most of the windows are open and the furnace is
on and lasting and brains, while it in
He's all right they're so altogether
seems like someone would be home, like should be home
but the house is just straight up deserted know. Joe
Doesn't panic that, based on this
state the house. She just kind of figures that Branson had either left in a hurry or he's literally gonna, be back any minute. So she took
turn off the radio, she turns off all the lights like a handful grandma? She turns off the furnace lock the door except for the front door, and she starts to make her way back home
note the wave of the next few days. Unfolded is reported differently by different sources, but for consistency
Emanistic, with the version of events that Brandons mom Becky wrote unopposed on the Bring Branson Home website and then vote.
because you reiterated an interview, she didn't two thousand seven with Todd Matthews, where she further elaborates on these events. As June
sits at home on Thursday night. Her concern continues to grow as the hours passed and she still hasn't heard anything from Branson Budget
I didn't want to give it just another date. Only been twenty four hours. Branson is a grown man. He can come and go as he pleases, but the next day passes with no word from
and by Saturday morning, Julian gets back in her car and drives by the Perry House once again, and the house was completely untouched from when she had come by two days earlier on Thursday.
again, she drives home this time with a pit in her stomach and she decides she's not going to wait around anymore. She to do something so the neck
Day, which is Sunday Joanne, decides to call Britain's dad Bob at the hospital Bob tells her that Branson hasn't called him.
Either or even come by the hospital to visit him since Tuesday April, tenth so now
even more concerned Julian hangs up with
and she immediately dials brand since MOM Becky and does Bucky Livin Skidmore to know so vacuum Bob had
divorced a year earlier in two thousand and Bob, and
and sustain the family, home or branghtons younger brother, Philip, who was seventeen of the time, ended up moving with his mom to this tiny town called or again just like not far to twenty minutes away from Skidmore
so I'm guessing based on the fact that Joanne is calling Becky that she's still pretty
old and prancing life, definitely and Becky, and Bob State friends to actually
The entire family has always been closed and it seems like this was still
true, even after the divorce, when she gets Becky on the phone back intelligible
and that she hasn't heard a peep from France and in several days, and that that is it for Joanna
between Joanna Mbeki, based our calling all a brand since friends and acquaintances, anyone that might have talked Branson or seen him, but everyone tells than this
the thing that they haven't seen or heard from him. Well, that is except one person
said it's a really close friend of Branson named Gina. She says that the last time she saw bring insane was Wednesday April eleven when she'd been at his house.
Jeanne says that she had got a call from Branson on Wednesday morning asking if she could come over and help him get the house cleaned up before Bob came home from the hospital which was supposed to happen on Friday, the thirteenth
so she agreed and got to brand since play some time before lunch that day
I feel I should mention that a lot of sources call Gina Jenna how
ever Skidmore Residence and statements made by the Perry family call her Gina. So I'm with that. Stick with that got, it
anyone genus says that as soon as she arrived, they just got right to it brings in turn.
the volume on the radio all the way up and the pair got to work like deep cleaning and vacuuming downstairs around too
FUCK Gina noticed Branson grab something out of one of the cabinet in the kitchen and walk out the back door into the back yard. When he came back inside just a cup.
Of moments later she asked him what he was doing, but Branson didn't really give her like a straight response. He kind just brush off had acted like nothing even happened to. We know
he grabbed. She says she didn't see what it was
and she said that when she asked him, he basically Agus eddies
Stop it don't worry about it. Clean telling
to worry about it in like a sketchy way or was it just like whatever it's nothing. I don't just feels like a pretty speech
The thing for gender dimension, like it was stuck in her head for some reason will mean it couldn't have been.
Really sketchy like in the moment, because genus just said that at a time times even shrugged off and the two of them just went back to cleaning and honestly she's,
that she wondered even thought twice about this, but is actually something that happened leader that made her wonder about this because genus.
That shortly after this, she decided to take a shower like she was going.
home to take a shower and then come back. The knows it.
You actually taking a shower at Branson Play so, like I said earlier, gene and Brands Erlich really close and from,
I gather that Perry House has always been this kind of house that, like the neighbourhood, kids in town hung out and felt comfortable at, and this is the
the Paris wanted, for there are places basically second home for everyone, so
Jeanne showering at the house didn't really strike brands and family as abnormal. What does strike everyone as weird, though, is what happened after she got out of the shower. This episode was made possible by grow healthy plant based nontoxic cleaning products, work and the good ones are actually more enjoyable to use. But where do you start and who do you trust, Grove Collaborative is an online marketplace that delivers natural home beauty and personal care products directly to your door? I use their trash bags, their detergent pause in their glass containers for my cleaning products and they are every thing making the switch to natural products has never been easier for a limited time. When my listeners go to grove dot C, o slash, crying junkie, you will get to choose a free gift with your first order of thirty dollars or more, but you have to use our special code go to
Rove DOT, seo slash crime junkie to get your exclusive offer. That's grove, dot C, o slash, crying junkie. Gina says that after she got out of the shower at Branson, how she handed back down to the kitchen and was surprised to find a me on looking through the kitchen cabinets like a total stranger,
well, it was someone that she had seen before that day at Branghtons House actually is either of these two
eyes at the house that afternoon, while she and Branson were cleaning and they were actually outside replacing the alternator on Bob's car, which was parked in the drive
in front of the family stored shed and like just for references
She is right next to the house until it was what
These guys, who was now inside looking through this cabinet and before
You even ask. As I know, I had all the questions about these guys like we don't know
about them at all. We don't know their names. I dont know who even asked them to come to the house to fix the car in the first place, but based on
the sources I found for this case, I'm pretty sure they won't like family friends or anything like that, like just local mechanics but again, knowing how teeny tiny this town is.
I have to assume that may be the Perry family like new of them or, like you
as a queen censorship, but you know I mean right like know someone who knew them, etc, etc. The anyway
Venus says that she asked the guy what he was looking for and he got lake noticeably fluster and like oh, oh, nothing and pretty much like bolted back out.
I'd journey there. Any chances was the same cabinet that Branson got something out of earlier so
that I don't know nothing says for sure, but the fact that it was in the cap,
That is why that whole cabinet incident with Branson like stuck out and Jean his head to begin with, and it stuck out and not to mention it to Becky, and that makes sense like to kind of way
instances around the cabinets.
the same one are not right right so did she asked
France, and about the skylight assume he still like round
and in the house with her at this point right. Well, as far as I can tell she doesn't
ask him about it. It seems kind like at this point,
Branson Aegina were like in their own.
Broad areas of the house may be working on different things, because the next time she even sees Branson is about three o clock. She says that she was up,
Air is hanging out in Branson Room window,
heard the screen door on the front, porch likes weak, open and then quickly slammed shut. She said that she,
look out the second story window towards the side yard and she saw Branson walking towards the storage shed. She,
out the window to ask where he was headed, and he s back that he's taking some jumper cables out to the shed.
then it needs to run out real, quick, but he's gonna be right back and then a few men.
After that, she actually here's the mechanics pack up their truck and leave as well. Gene
as that, she waited a while for Branson to combat even like taking a quick look around the yard for him, but when he doesn't return, she
bigger that he got tied up or whatever, and she just headed home. So all of them
Even the Volga, GINO Gina was the last person till it be around him. This all happened four days ago
that is the last time that they can find an
wine that laid eyes on Branson.
so when Julian and back you realize this, they begin to get really worry. This is not.
Normal at this, is not like Branson
he tells jovian that she's gonna come to Skidmore the very next morning, because it's time for them to go to the police, oh yeah, for sure
soon as brains dad is discharged from the hospital on Monday morning. The sixteen this is actually a three days later than expected. Becky meat
in July on at the local sheriff station to officially report brilliance and missing, and actually this case is different from a lot of the missing person cases that we ve covered because, as the police are taking this report, they are actually
ass, the family, why it took them so long to report Branson missing a well I've lived
never heard of that happening, not in the cases we ve covered, but Becky explains that Bob had been
Hospital. Joanne wasn't really sure anything was wrong and Becky hadn't, even no net Branson, was missing until the day before they came in. So it was Bob super worried up till this point like I guess it seems like they were pretty clothes like it would be worth.
That Branson wouldn't have been in close contact with him when he was at the hospital, maybe but like
He wasn't at the time because up until now,
he said that he kind of thought that there was a chance Brion said
just wanted to get away for a while to clear his head just
countries or was something up well Bob
Instead, brand Branson might be trying to get away for a bit because of a pre horrible experience that he had had the weekend before. He met Miss
This would happen on the evening of April. Seven Bob tells police that
hence and had gone over to this like thirty's.
Thing, you're old, neighbour's house disguising Jason and he just went over there to hang out and Bob tells police that shortly after Branson arrived at Jason's house that night Branson said he started feeling light headed and dizzy and just like completely out of it. Out of it
not to start undressing end like dancing around the house, and then he shaved off his own pubic hair before the two of them had sacks of. What's in France,
had been drugged by the sky? Is the short answer? Is yes now it's possible that Branson willingly took whatever Jason?
to him, but either
he thought it was something else or he didn't react. The way he expected Oregon,
He had no idea that he took something but either way he the way, brands
held it his dad. He was like super messed up:
once the drugs started to wear off, Branson kind of was like coming
when he rushed home feeling what he said
ashamed and confused, and he locked himself in his room until the next morning and that's when he told Bob what happened, but actually what you just described is clear. Sexual assault
question about it, whether he knew he was taken. Something you're, not one hundred percent,
is not in a position to consent to any kind.
his actual encounter. Will that's exactly what Bob towels Branson that what happened to him at Jason's was right
Brandon had nothing to be ashamed about, so did they report does to the police or the time or or
the first time law enforcement hearing of it. Now that he's been reporting missing here, it was not reported to police until now and base
statements made by Bob, it seems like Branson didn't want to report it right away so up until
Now? Bob had been thinking that you know the reason brains and has made back with a hospital. The reason that he hadn't been calling him was that Branson was handling the trauma in here
own way by just getting out of town for a bit, but now that it's been fine
five days in any one has seen or heard from him, even Bob
who initially wasn't worried, is now starting to wonder if his son might have met with foul play, but from the first day of the
masturbation police already have kind of a different theory about what happened. That's
related to this incident with branches neighbour at all. In the early
Two thousand the methane Femmina seen in Skidmore had just exploded a lot of people ins,
more and the neighbouring towns were not just using met, but me
king and selling it.
and this was no secret. Either everybody in town knew what was going on, including police. In fact, the Mets Siena's Skidmore got so big, so
that a special law enforcement task force was created with the sole purpose of busting. These math rings and police were thinking that Branson disappearance is probably drug related to France and have a history of this kind of thing
will, apparently, a few months earlier, Branson had had a run in with an officer from this special met, busting task force, but he wasn't around
did or charged with anything like that. So I guess officer just questioned him.
Little bit and like that was that, but it was enough to put Branson on polices rate,
like they knew. He was involved in the drug, seen some how they just want a hundred percent sure on exactly what it was.
and, like you said, this is a tiny town and a drug seen. That's exploding like, of course
We know someone involved right and listen. Different people
a different things about whether or not brands and actually use drugs, like some people, say, there's no way he wasn't using math other say he did some times, but what police suspect is that likely? Branson is one of the people like collecting supplies for the people who are
clean making the map. So knowing all of this, the sheriff Ben SB, who, with the lead, investing Rembrandt's case from the start, suspects foul play immediately, and he puts together a team and starts and extensive search of the Paris property and what stands out isn't what police found it's? What they didn't find so
Remember how Gina said that the last time she saw brilliance and he was carrying those jumper cables back to the shed yeah, we'll police don't find those jumper cables anywhere,
not in the shed, not in the house, not in the yard, so they're just gone.
yes, that's kind of suspicious right
Are you thinking he didn't even make it as the shattered all or wherever
Branson when he took him along with him? I don't know. I honestly have no idea, but I agree with you like whatever
the case is its super strangeness stands out to us. I think so.
to police as well. So is there any way
believe that Gina, maybe it's just miss remembering this factor or maybe even hiding something. So that's an interesting question in Becky,
post that I mentioned earlier, she dies say quote. The events of the day are fairly sketchy to me and often make no sense
I dont have a timeline of when they occurred only sporadic com
Hence that were made. End quote
I mean the obvious. Each has nothing else to go on genus account of that Wednesday was all Becky authorities had, so they don't find
jumper cables. But what else stuck out to the police during the search
will. The thing was that law enforcement notices that all of Britain's belongings were still at the house, so remember like when Julian, when, unlike his wallet his van his key
like biblically here just run out for quick, like trips,
convenience stores something yeah. All of that still there and it really did look like he had just stepped out for a minute and is intending to come right back in the house was like, is completely undisturbed. Do it
we didn't provide police with any less or information at all. So what about those mechanics that had been at the house?
likely had to have seen something while in separate
interviews. Both men tell the officers that they hadn't seen anything which, if true means that they must have been done
wrapped in working on the car, because, just like put in perspective like the car they working on would have been
right outside the house in the shed, so they hadn't seen anything little have to be like heads down or under the
are because they would at least seen Branson come out of the house. Even if I didn't see any details, what would happen with jumper cables, so the police continue to bring other people in for interviews talking to
any one and every one that was close to Branson, but no one has any information. So I know you said the police are pretty sat on their theory that this is drug related, but I keep
come back to that Jason Guy, like avoiding going to jail for sexual assault, seems like a pretty good motive to make someone disappear. Well, according to the peace written by, seek a hassle
that I mentioned earlier police try to talk to Jason bite
he's totally. Am I ate what yeah it's not until two weeks after Branson DIS,
parents that Jason finally shows up again in Skidmore
Colombia, Missouri and Daily reported that police did question him. But ultimately, it said that he was ruled out very quickly, though no source pro
the details as to how or why, and by this time two weeks have gone by with no credible leads and the police are desperate for answers, so they decide to do another.
Search of the Perry Property. What were they looking for the second time round, honestly, nothing specific like
truly, they just didn't know what else to do, and so they even
span the search this time to a fifteen mile radius around the home in their searching fields and forms and well
Ponds ditches how everything when they didn't want,
anything new in the house officers make their way to the shed
and as soon as they opened the door, they notice something. The jumper cable lake be jumper cables that brass and had been
the ones that he had been taking out the shed the last Heine Gina saw him. They were right there like her
right inside the door of the shed literally hanging
front and centre on the wall.
SK at Miss the first time around. I haven't
No idea so I mean some
would have had to put them they're after the first search right. Maybe
but like no one can seem to explain like who or how or when or why. We use that
This Skidmore locals Bay see these jumper cables as a sign as proof that whoever was risk
Principle for Branson disappearance, lived
their among them right there in Skidmore.
Agreed. There's no way that the police miss those hang on the wall during their first search. But guess my biggest question is,
Why even bother returning I
I'm thinking about that like it has to be
you're worried that the police are gonna, start going door to door again, three hundred people town. They could do that and if it
that they're looking for these jumper cables. Maybe you do it to cover your tracks payment, but why not?
furthermore dumpster or a fire pit or something
turning them seems even risky.
through today's like test the jumper
calls for dna or fingerprints are anything. Will Becky says that she pushed police to do fingerprint testing on the cables, but apparently they told her that because of the material, but the cables were made out
and because they had been handled by so many people are gonna who those people are that they probably wouldn't be able to do anything useful from them. So, as far as I can tell, they never did any testing on the cables and, in fact, from every source I found on this
case. There was never any dna or fingerprint analysis done like on anything. In this case
shared in the house anywhere or if it was done. Like
they ve never said a word about it, to the press or to the public. Accordingly Andrew gods reporting for news press now,
by the end of may two thousand. One police have interviewed over one hundred people in Skidmore, literally a third of the town and tips worse still coming
but they all pointed in the same direction towards skid, moors, math seem so over
next. Several months, police were rounding up all of branghtons. Nome quote drug acquaintances, as the sheriff calls them questioning every one and even polygraph, in that there were some failed polygraph in the mix according to the bridge,
brains and home website, but police, which has never able to quite get any traction, so the case kind of stalls and their stock, and they stay stuck until almost exactly two years after Branson went missing. That's when on April third
in two thousand three federal agents in Fulton Missouri, which is about two hundred fifty miles away, make an arrest. This episode was made possible by
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The guy who's arrested is named Jack Wayne Rogers and he's actually arrested for his
the in a massive child sex abuse investigation, known as
operation, candy man, computer records, lead
the FBI agents straight to his front door. Now this guy's a fifty eight year old Presbyterian.
Minister Bible, school teacher and boyscout troop leader
of course, he is during their investigation into Rogers authorities. Do a forensic analysis of all his electronic devices and based
The sources in this case, including court documents,
among the literally thousands of explicit images of children. They find evidence that this Jack Rogers Guy isn't just
Presbyterian Minister and a boy scout leader. She also fancies himself a bit of a surgeon
So I have a lot of Hobbes. I've been a pretty good home shove. I fancy myself a seamstress, a surgeon,
is not something you can just fancy yourself as yet so
this guy- has been marketing himself online as a licensed surgeon. Providing quote, cost efficient,
gender reassignment surgeries end quote: oh my god, and get this. He actually had clients heap
performing these surgeries in hotel rooms not far from where he lived
but this isn't even the most shocking part. Bread. The most shocking part is that, after these procedures took place, he kept the genitals whites yet as part of his whole thing,
Before he would perform his surgery, the person would have
to sign an agreement stating
after the body parts were removed, Jack had complete ownership over them and what he had a collection of them. Now he wasn't collecting that according to a federal court affidavit,
He was cooking, then dicing them into small pieces and eating them and
do you know how we know that, because he took pictures, tons and tons of pictures. Ok,
one that was actually the most shocking part of the story, not the fact that he kept them.
You lied to me there too, I feel, like you just
the telling a completely different story. What does this have anything to do with grants in right? Ok, so, hang with me here, because I'm not saying that heap.
Form surgery on him or cannibalized him, but I like I needed
to understand like who we were dealing with before. I tell you the part that connects him to brand set
and among the materials on Jacqueline Rogers Computer police, fine, hundreds of chat logs from a
of online chat rooms and its in one of those chat, room conversations that jack right
extremely graphic detail about the time he tortured, raped and killed,
a young blonde male hitchhiker from Skidmore Missouri, oh my god, and he says that he
buried his body somewhere in a remote location of the Ozarks anything basins.
as of town we're talking about there, can't be
any other young blonde missing people from Skidmore right there are
which is why authorities book it where Rogers being held because they want to talk to this guy right away,
and when they sit down with Jack riders to question him about it, he tells the officers that
We use these online chat rooms merely to live out his fantasies, but he didn't actually do
thing he said he did in fact
says he's never even met Branson
parry, let alone did any of the things he wrote about in that chat room, but he's all
literally describing Branson,
during interrogations Rogers explained to authorities that he had read an article in the newspaper about Branson, missing person case and that basically his chat log post was just like
a story inspired by his own fantasies that he dreamed up.
he read that newspaper article knelt police are about to take this, do just at his word, so they pull together a team which,
now includes officers from the Missouri Highway Department and federal agents who are all supporting sheriff SB and his team, and together they all start searching these search. Rogers home, they dig up his yard. These sweep every single one of his electronic devices. Looking for something anything concrete,
would tie him to Branson and for a minute it looks hopeful when police find this leather turtle. Claw necklace that looks like one Branson used to own Bob tells him. It looks like the one Branson used to have, but Becky says it for sure.
Is it ultimately police send the necklace off to the lab to get tested for dna, but they were never able to link the necklace to Branson.
all the while Jack Rogers continues to say he has never met and knows nothing about Branson. Now the Good NEWS in that part of
story is Rogers, is tried and convicted for possessing and distributing child sex abuse material and on several other charges
later to the so called surgeries he performed on multiple patients and he
eventually sentence to thirty years in prison. So by the time you
tends to prison on these other charges is the prancing connection. Just
only ruled out- or is this guy stones aspect- will heed
technically stay on the list of suspects for several years and even though authorities really no longer believe that Rogers was still involved, this lead did help move Branson case forward. You see before law enforcement had search Rogers property, they acquire dna samples from Becky, Bob and Branches brother, Philip
enter into their database and though nothing found on Rogers property could be connected to Branson. It does put police in a position to be able to match DNA to Branson if and when they do ever find some
thing, but the sheriff- and I think everyone in law enforcement knows that the person responsible for Branson disappearance isn't from another town too
hundred fifty miles away. I go back to those
tables in the shed some once someone from right there in Skidmore knows what happened to brand
in sooner or later, authorities are convinced that they're going to shake the right tree because here's the thing I
The sense from the sheriffs comments in particular that
they know and not just in general, but like specifically,
They know who is involved. The problem is it
doesn't seem like they have enough to prove it and said
more has a long history of keeping secrets like
This is an example back in nineteen, eighty one, the town Bali, was basically surrounded by like sixty people and killed, and sixty people like litter
a fit of their population, kept them
the sharp enough about it. That authorities could never make a case against any one of them, yet
Member. That case, I think there is even a documentary out there on it together- is without any
operation, nothing really happens and in two thousand and six is
a family to renew the search,
They raise money to offer a reward and for information, and they put up bright, yellow billboards with Britons
sure along the local highways, even higher private invest.
Together in a media but not think Homs of their efforts. Nothing happens in branghtons case four year.
but according to RON Johnson who covered this case for cake you to news three years later in
two thousand and nine police get not just one. But a string of Tibbs that all point to a very specific place is episode of my possible with modern fertility. What, if I told you, you could get important fertility inside without going to the doctor or even leaving your house. Modern fertility makes that possible with easy at home fertility hormone testing, with a symbol that your break, you can unlock information about you and your body like how many eggs you have hormone levels and other fertility factors once you send in your sample
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All the tabs point to a town called quit: men Missouri these tapes caused sheriff S b to re interview, a lot of those drug acquaintances of brands.
That they had interviewed years back in two thousand one during these new interviews
Several of the people claim that Branson had been shot and buried in this field. In commitment like these people here
even able to identify the approximate area that Britain's body was buried on a map of the feel allow. So on July, eight two thousand nine authorities head out to equipment and do a two day excavation of the field. With the help of ten cadaver dogs. They begin carefully com
being a two mile radius around the field and none
Of the ten dogs signal on this same spot and police can tell that.
Dirt in this area is different from the other parts of this fields.
Loser like it had been recently disturbed so immediate
the police start digging. But in a common theme, with this case, police don't find anything away back up for a second letter was
different, like disturb, like someone had recently dog or yes
did something in that area. Yeah! That's what this
material like that, so they say I mean to me- it doesn't mean
nothing was ever there. I mean either
that several people pointed to this place
me, someone new. The police were coming and moved something, so that's actually kind of that here there s be had he told producers for
one saw a thing that he believes that when
Branson told Gina that he had to run out for a minute that day, back in April, two thousand one that he had gone to meet some
people at a madhouse as people leaves that whoever
was in charge of this drug ring in Skidmore was worried that Branson would talk to police, especially
after that, one running he had with an officer that I mentioned earlier in so heavings, because if this he would basically like taken out. So
could be silenced and Branson was shot and killed. You mean the sheriff thinks that he was shot.
Right there in the Mattel sick in Skidmore. Yes, so was that house
search for evidence. I don't remember you even mentioning it. I didn't because here's the thing a couple of days after brilliance and went missing that met house burned to the ground
honestly burned to the ground is even the right way to say it is more like exploded, so there was nothing left to collect right
more than anything when officers responded to that explosion, adapt
when they had no idea. Brigantine was even missing, but he hadn't been repealed.
It missing at his family had put it together right so at the time
everyone thought that this was just an explosion caused by a bunch of amateurs. Trying in failing to make met except SB thinks it might have been a bit more into.
It's not like a way to help ensure that no trace of Branson would ever be found. Former sheriff s
He says there is evidence to support Branson being buried by a group of nine people out in that commitment field, but he believes that because the equipment connection,
was announced by the media a few weeks prior to the dig it gave the people who buried grandsons body tying to dig it up and get rid of.
Some people in Skidmore believed that his body had been cut into multiple pieces and scattered into a body of water, never to be found
there really is an enough. Amid all of this, even the circumstantial evidence to get em
when the trial well so yours,
thing, Espy says that he is sure that the investigation has turned over more than enough information and circumstantial evidence bore the prosecutor to filed charges, but that's never happened not yet anyway, no SB retired, as the county share of in two thousand eight, would Jessica Edson reported for new
press now that the current share of this guy named Randy Strong, is still actively investigating Branson case, although
the investigation has moved more towards
homicide investigation than a missing persons investigation, primarily due to the Tipps that former sheriff SB had received back in two thousand and nine
and just like SB share strong is sure that they know who did it and they are actively trying to
find more evidence and witnesses to solidify the case and, hopefully, finally,
led to an arrest in July
Two thousand ten a year after the equipment dig turned up nothing rinsing case
featured on America's most wanted Becky and brains in
higher family were hoping that this would finally bring in some kind of new information that could help solve the case, but it didn't rinsing disappearance. Wasn't it
Harry Families, only tragedy and it wouldn't
either last after brand
went missing in two thousand for his cousin Bobby Jos, Dennett was murdered during a feeble abduction and we actually covered her case in our fan. Club
in episode on Amanda, Howard, right right and then
Branson mom Becky, tragically passed away in two thousand fourteen after losing her battle with melanoma at age. Fifty two at that point she'd been actively searching for answers about her sons case for over thirteen
years earlier. I mentioned Becky's, Post, a mother's plea and there's one part. Then I'm gonna, have you read bread Becky wrote quote
parents of missing children never have a feeling of ease it never becomes bearable. Only easier to hide
one minute: you're, ok and functioning the next minute, something triggers inside a new planet to the deepest ravine. You could ever imagine and can't find any way out.
It can be something as simple as a smell, a taste, a sound, a touch and all the horror is there again. It never ends and put it in
we're ends. The pain, though avoid than not knowing that was
he's reality for thirteen years and she died
believing that the only way Branson case would be solved. If someone
information comes forward, both of branghtons parents are now gone, but his
family is still in Skidmore and they still want to bring this case to a close. They want to bring Branson home
Skidmore might be known for its ability to see nothing here, nothing and say nothing, but even the best kept secrets come out of it.
surely, if you have any information about the disappearance of Branson Perry, please contact
community United Effort Centre. Twenty four hour Tipp line at night
one thousand and twenty three to one thousand six hundred and eighty seven, you can also contact the Nodaway County, Sheriff's office or the Missouri State Highway patrol will have all of that posted in our show notes and on our web,
You see pictures
or source material. For this episode you can find all of that on our website, climbed, junkie, podcast, dotcom and be sure to follow
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Transcript generated on 2021-07-17.