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S1E4: A Family's Hunt for the Truth · Blood Trails

0:12
Speaker 1: Rifle shots aren't unusual during deer season in Borough, Minnesota,
0:16
Speaker 1: but in twenty sixteen, one of those shots wasn't aimed
0:19
Speaker 1: at a white tail. It was aimed at a husband
0:22
Speaker 1: and father of four, shot with his own rifle by
0:24
Speaker 1: a perpetrator who might be a stranger or someone much
0:29
Speaker 1: closer to home. Now, nearly ten years later, a gun,
0:36
Speaker 1: a van, and whispers in a small Midwestern town, point
0:39
Speaker 1: in every direction and nowhere at all. That's next on
0:46
Speaker 1: blood Trails. When fifteen year old Jonathan Briske got home
1:18
Speaker 1: from school on November seventh, twenty sixteen, he only had
1:21
Speaker 1: one thing on his mind, deer hunting. His dad, Terry,
1:26
Speaker 1: had taken off work that day, and so the older
1:28
Speaker 1: brisk was already chasing white tails on the families one
1:31
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two acre property in central Minnesota.
1:34
Speaker 2: I remember getting off of the bus and slave getting
1:38
Speaker 2: ready for deer hunting. Ran up the house, got all
1:41
Speaker 2: my clothes, got ready. I had my mom drop me
1:45
Speaker 2: off close to a blind that I was sitting at
1:48
Speaker 2: earlier that weekend. I was just going up for some dolls.
1:53
Speaker 1: He wasn't exactly sure where his dad was hunting, but
1:56
Speaker 1: he knew he was out there. Pam John's mother and
1:58
Speaker 1: Terry's wife had shot a deer the night before on
2:01
Speaker 1: a Sunday, and the couple have been up late tracking it.
2:04
Speaker 1: They'd eventually found it, but Terry decided to take the
2:07
Speaker 1: next day off work. That was unusual for him. Everyone
2:11
Speaker 1: I spoke to mentioned Terry's uncompromising work ethic, but deer
2:14
Speaker 1: season was only three days old, and he figured he'd
2:17
Speaker 1: check his stands and if he got lucky, run into
2:20
Speaker 1: a buck in the woods.
2:22
Speaker 3: I know he was out in the area. I just
2:23
Speaker 3: didn't know exactly where he was at.
2:25
Speaker 4: So I proceeded to keep texting him and texting him.
2:30
Speaker 3: And just no response.
2:34
Speaker 4: Well, then stuff started quieting down, and kept texting him,
2:39
Speaker 4: and also I could hear a ding ding, like okay,
2:43
Speaker 4: he's he's close by, Like I can hear his phone
2:45
Speaker 4: is on.
2:46
Speaker 3: So I was, you know, waiting, Okay, maybe he's coming
2:49
Speaker 3: this way.
2:50
Speaker 1: But Terry didn't get any closer. He also didn't silence
2:54
Speaker 1: his phone, which for a deer hunter is strange.
2:58
Speaker 3: I'm just like, okay, what's going on. So then that
3:01
Speaker 3: at that point I had gotten out of my blind
3:04
Speaker 3: and I just started walking away from my blind to see, okay,
3:09
Speaker 3: is he down in this ravine here somewhere.
3:12
Speaker 1: That's when John saw his father. But he wasn't walking
3:16
Speaker 1: through the forest and leaning against a tree or climbing
3:18
Speaker 1: into a blind. He was lying on the ground, motionless,
3:23
Speaker 1: his blood soaking the fall leaves. John knew right away
3:28
Speaker 1: his father was dead.
3:30
Speaker 5: I just instantly started freaking out, yelling to the world, like,
3:36
Speaker 5: what's going on? I yelled, help.
3:39
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm out in the middle of nowhere.
3:41
Speaker 7: And then also I'm like, I have to make a
3:43
Speaker 7: phone call.
3:44
Speaker 8: I have to call and tell somebody, because I just
3:48
Speaker 8: it was no shape at all to make phone calls
3:50
Speaker 8: other than to my mom.
3:52
Speaker 7: I felt like, I just that was the first person
3:54
Speaker 7: that came in my mind to call. I just I
3:58
Speaker 7: had no idea what was going on.
4:01
Speaker 1: Pamercalls, dropping John off in the woods, returning to the
4:04
Speaker 1: house to take care of her other children, and receiving
4:07
Speaker 1: the call that would change her life.
4:09
Speaker 6: They're not my house?
4:10
Speaker 9: Could that Jordanan call me?
4:13
Speaker 10: And so that there was something wrong?
4:14
Speaker 9: And so I went run it over there and calling
4:19
Speaker 9: everyone one in the nipe of it all because he
4:20
Speaker 9: was trying to find me. Scatche me and he had
4:23
Speaker 9: phone phon Terry oaks in the woods.
4:27
Speaker 1: John doesn't remember much about those minutes alone in the
4:29
Speaker 1: woods with the body of his father lying on the ground,
4:33
Speaker 1: but at some point he also called his aunt, Holly,
4:35
Speaker 1: Terry's younger sister. When Holly saw John's name on the
4:38
Speaker 1: caller ID, she assumed he was calling to tell her
4:41
Speaker 1: about a deer.
4:42
Speaker 11: I'm like, Johnny, he goes Holly, Holly, and I'm like, John,
4:48
Speaker 11: what's wrong? And he's just crying. I'm like, what happened.
4:50
Speaker 11: He's like, Dad's dead. Dad's dead. I'm like, what, who's dead?
4:55
Speaker 3: Dad?
4:55
Speaker 8: My dad?
4:56
Speaker 11: My dad is dead. And I'm like, what happened?
4:59
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know.
5:00
Speaker 11: Come home, Just come home.
5:02
Speaker 1: Holly and her other brother, Randy, drove the forty five
5:04
Speaker 1: minutes up to Little Falls, Minnesota. At first, Holly assumed
5:08
Speaker 1: it was some kind of hunting accident, but the truth
5:11
Speaker 1: was even worse and even more disturbing than she imagined.
5:15
Speaker 1: A priest had arrived at the scene to give Terry
5:17
Speaker 1: his last rites, but when Holly tried to go with
5:20
Speaker 1: him to see her brother's body, the sheriff's deputies wouldn't.
5:23
Speaker 11: Let her and they're like, uh, no, you can't go now.
5:27
Speaker 11: I'm like, what do you mean, I can't go? You
5:30
Speaker 11: can't go there, So we're kind of puzzled about that. Well,
5:33
Speaker 11: at that time, they already determined that it was a homicide,
5:35
Speaker 11: but we didn't know that because we still thought, you know,
5:38
Speaker 11: he shot himself or whatever.
5:41
Speaker 12: We determined that this was definitely close proximity just because
5:46
Speaker 12: of the evidence that was located at the scene, and
5:49
Speaker 12: we believe that there was probably some communication going back
5:51
Speaker 12: and forth before the saving occurred.
5:53
Speaker 1: That's Morrison County Sheriff Sean Larson, who's been in charge
5:56
Speaker 1: of the investigation since Terry was killed in twenty sixteen.
6:00
Speaker 1: The investigators determined that Terry was shot at close range
6:03
Speaker 1: by someone who saw him and likely talked to him,
6:07
Speaker 1: but there was something strange about the crime scene, something
6:10
Speaker 1: that didn't add up.
6:12
Speaker 12: But that was one of the things that was a
6:14
Speaker 12: little weird right away because his weapon was nowhere to
6:16
Speaker 12: be found.
6:17
Speaker 1: The family told investigators that Terry usually carried a thirty
6:21
Speaker 1: thirty Winchester Lever gun when he went hunting, but that
6:24
Speaker 1: gun wasn't beside the body, and so they assumed the
6:27
Speaker 1: perpetrator had taken it. The reason didn't become clear until
6:31
Speaker 1: a year later, when Terry's gun was found hidden beneath
6:35
Speaker 1: a layer of leaves, nowhere close to the crime scene.
6:40
Speaker 1: It's likely, though not certain, that Terry was carrying this
6:43
Speaker 1: rifle as he walked through the woods. Whoever he'd met
6:46
Speaker 1: had managed to get their hands on it, shoot him,
6:50
Speaker 1: and run away. Their actions have echoed through the small
6:53
Speaker 1: Minnesota community in the nearly ten years since Terry's death.
6:57
Speaker 1: The incident has turned family and friends against one another.
7:00
Speaker 1: It's made neighbors feel unsafe, and most tragically of all,
7:05
Speaker 1: it's left four kids without a father they loved. I'm
7:09
Speaker 1: Jordan Sillers and this is Blood Trails, A family's Hunt
7:13
Speaker 1: for the truth, Part one. Terry Terrence Virgil Brisk was
7:25
Speaker 1: born in nineteen seventy five in Little Falls, Minnesota. He
7:29
Speaker 1: graduated from Little Falls High School in nineteen ninety three, and,
7:32
Speaker 1: after a brief stint in the military, earned his diesel
7:35
Speaker 1: mechanic diploma from Alexandria Vocational Technical School. Almost no one
7:40
Speaker 1: I spoke to about Terry had anything bad to say.
7:43
Speaker 1: He was a hard working guy who loved his kids.
7:46
Speaker 1: The outdoors and heavy machinery.
7:49
Speaker 6: As a person, he was a wonderful man. He was
7:51
Speaker 6: a wonderful father. He was a great friend.
7:54
Speaker 13: That's Terry's wife, Pam.
7:56
Speaker 1: The pair went to high school together, but didn't really
7:58
Speaker 1: get to know each other until after they graduated.
8:02
Speaker 9: When we first met, it was that in wedding we
8:05
Speaker 9: weren't even you know, we were friends and stuff like that.
8:07
Speaker 9: We didn't really know each other a whole lot. We
8:10
Speaker 9: hung out a few times here and there. But how
8:13
Speaker 9: we were at a wedding and I remember real dampsing
8:16
Speaker 9: and I went and sat on his lap, and that
8:17
Speaker 9: was the first time I really met him.
8:19
Speaker 1: Terry traveled quite a bit for work, but John recalls
8:22
Speaker 1: that he always tried to make time for his kids.
8:25
Speaker 2: His great dad, awesome dad.
8:26
Speaker 4: I mean, he took us kids out fishing, hunting, always
8:31
Speaker 4: took us along and being as a kid he worked
8:34
Speaker 4: construction for my grandpa, So us kids grew up riding
8:38
Speaker 4: around in the dumb truck with him and just being
8:40
Speaker 4: out working with them all summer. Just went and read
8:43
Speaker 4: his home. He was hard working. He was on the
8:45
Speaker 4: road a lot, but when he was home, he was
8:48
Speaker 4: home and we were always doing something.
8:52
Speaker 1: Terry worked for many years for his father's company, King's
8:54
Speaker 1: Way Construction. Kingsway specializes in hauling rock material for landscaping
8:59
Speaker 1: and construction, and their gravel pit is located on the
9:02
Speaker 1: same property where Terry was killed. That gravel pit is
9:06
Speaker 1: an important part of the story, but we'll get to
9:08
Speaker 1: that in a minute. When Terry died, he was working
9:11
Speaker 1: as a diesel mechanic at a local cat dealership, a
9:14
Speaker 1: job he got in part to spend more time with
9:16
Speaker 1: his kids, but he still did odd jobs around the
9:19
Speaker 1: family property.
9:21
Speaker 6: Oh. He was a hard working, hard work and fool.
9:25
Speaker 1: That's Scott Jelinski, Terry's childhood friend. Scott still lives in
9:28
Speaker 1: the area, and he explained that Terry embodied the lessons
9:32
Speaker 1: and the culture of the small Midwestern community.
9:35
Speaker 6: We grew up that way. You were taught at a
9:38
Speaker 6: young age.
9:39
Speaker 14: You work, you pull your weight, you put in a
9:42
Speaker 14: hard day's work, and that if you want to go
9:45
Speaker 14: and enjoy yourself, you have to work hard in that.
9:49
Speaker 14: So he definitely was a hard worker and that and
9:53
Speaker 14: then a great father for his kids. He tried to
9:56
Speaker 14: provide them with everything he possibly could, but.
10:00
Speaker 1: He wasn't all work and no play. Becky Julenski, Scott's wife,
10:03
Speaker 1: told me Terry was the best man in their wedding
10:05
Speaker 1: and the godfather of their son. She remembers that Terry
10:09
Speaker 1: was always quick with a laugh and a joke.
10:12
Speaker 10: He liked the joke a lot. He always made the
10:15
Speaker 10: joke that our fun was his and not Scott's. And yeah,
10:21
Speaker 10: he was just a funny guy. He I don't know.
10:25
Speaker 10: He was just somebody that you would want to all.
10:30
Speaker 1: Scott says they didn't do much bow hunting, but they
10:32
Speaker 1: made time every year to go out during the States
10:34
Speaker 1: General Rifle season. They hunted that one hundred and twenty
10:37
Speaker 1: two acre property from portable elevated tree stands. If Terry
10:41
Speaker 1: was hunting in the woods, he'd take his thirty thirty.
10:43
Speaker 1: If he was set up on the field on the
10:45
Speaker 1: southeast corner of the property, he brought a different rifle,
10:48
Speaker 1: chambered in a calber more suitable for a long range shot.
10:52
Speaker 1: No matter what he was doing, whether driving a dump
10:54
Speaker 1: truck for his father's company, fixing a back hoe for cat,
10:57
Speaker 1: or zipping around in the snow machine, Terry prioritiz his family.
11:01
Speaker 9: He would all been over backwards for his kids. He
11:04
Speaker 9: did a lot for them.
11:06
Speaker 14: He was he was.
11:06
Speaker 9: Always there for them.
11:08
Speaker 1: He was also close with his parents, Virgil and Francis,
11:11
Speaker 1: and he was in constant contact with his three siblings,
11:14
Speaker 1: who all lived in the area.
11:16
Speaker 13: Here's Holly, We're.
11:17
Speaker 11: All still a close family. I mean, like everybody is
11:20
Speaker 11: in everybody's business. So I mean, I'll be working or something,
11:25
Speaker 11: and then all of a sudden, like Terry would call
11:26
Speaker 11: me at work just to like check in. And when
11:29
Speaker 11: he started having the kids, I mean I was there
11:31
Speaker 11: because it's like, oh sweet, you know, niece's nephews to spoil.
11:35
Speaker 11: Throughout our whole years, we've all been close and we
11:37
Speaker 11: still are.
11:38
Speaker 1: When Terry died, his family and community were devastated. The
11:42
Speaker 1: strange circumstances surrounding his death made it even more difficult,
11:46
Speaker 1: but they still tried to honor his life and work
11:50
Speaker 1: in the best way they knew how So we.
11:52
Speaker 11: Did a procession from Peers. We went over by the
11:56
Speaker 11: gravel pit and everybody kind of stopped, and then we
12:01
Speaker 11: stopped one last time at Terry's place. And I've never seen.
12:06
Speaker 15: So many cars in my life lined up, and then
12:10
Speaker 15: my brother and my nephew they had the equipment lined
12:13
Speaker 15: out to like, you know, to honor him. And then
12:19
Speaker 15: we had our neighbor boy he used to work for
12:22
Speaker 15: res and he drove the dump chuck and that was
12:26
Speaker 15: like the lead that was Terry's truck and he brought
12:30
Speaker 15: it just an honor for him.
12:38
Speaker 13: Part two.
12:39
Speaker 1: Guns and vans. Homicides are always difficult to investigate, but
12:46
Speaker 1: this one presented special challenges. The outdoor nature of the
12:50
Speaker 1: crime meant evidence could be destroyed or hidden by the elements,
12:53
Speaker 1: and witnesses were few and far between. The crime scene
12:56
Speaker 1: was also challenging to contain. John said that his mother
13:00
Speaker 1: arrived at the scene before law enforcement got there, but
13:02
Speaker 1: it's possible others had walked up to Terry's body in
13:05
Speaker 1: the hours between when he was killed and when sheriff's
13:07
Speaker 1: deputies arrived. Still, Morrison County deputies did their best. Sheriff
13:13
Speaker 1: Larson told me they secured the scene as quickly as
13:15
Speaker 1: they could, and they reached out to the Minnesota Bureau
13:17
Speaker 1: of Criminal Apprehension for help with the investigation. But Morrison
13:21
Speaker 1: County has a population of just under thirty five thousand,
13:25
Speaker 1: so it's unusual for them to investigate this kind of murder.
13:29
Speaker 12: Yeah, we get our share of homicides, but a lot
13:31
Speaker 12: of it might be criminal vehicular homicide. So this case
13:34
Speaker 12: was a little different for us. So right away we
13:37
Speaker 12: have our own investigators that have investigated crimes like this,
13:41
Speaker 12: it's just not that we get a big share of them.
13:43
Speaker 1: One of the first things investigators tried to do is
13:45
Speaker 1: establish a timeline. John found his dad around four to
13:49
Speaker 1: twenty pm on Monday, November seventh, twenty sixteen. Terry, as
13:54
Speaker 1: you heard, had taken the day off work and had
13:56
Speaker 1: been out in the forest much of the day, which
13:58
Speaker 1: gave investigators an opportunity to find people who may have
14:01
Speaker 1: seen or spoken to him.
14:02
Speaker 12: And you just got to remember, this is a remote
14:05
Speaker 12: rule area. It's not like it's heavily traveled upon. But yet,
14:11
Speaker 12: you know, we checked with people, you know, like bus
14:15
Speaker 12: driver's mill route, things of that nature, people that would
14:19
Speaker 12: be traveling this and try to lock everything down and
14:21
Speaker 12: get statements immediately from surrounding neighbors. And then we just
14:26
Speaker 12: kind of zoned it out and went miles and miles
14:28
Speaker 12: and miles. Because the biggest thing is during hunting season,
14:32
Speaker 12: it seems like everybody hears a shot and then they
14:35
Speaker 12: always think amongst themselves, like, well, who was that? Which
14:38
Speaker 12: property owner wasn't that shot? So that's where we kind
14:42
Speaker 12: of get a lot of our information too.
14:43
Speaker 1: Initially, as they were speaking to those neighbors, they found
14:47
Speaker 1: one who not only heard a shot, but had spoken
14:49
Speaker 1: to Terry as he was walking the property earlier that day.
14:53
Speaker 12: We did talk to a neighbor who was actually hunting
14:58
Speaker 12: that same day. Terry, he did talk to this neighbor
15:01
Speaker 12: and she gave us a statement and she said, yep,
15:03
Speaker 12: I talked to him. He said he was all going
15:05
Speaker 12: to be cleaning stands. It was a little weird. She
15:08
Speaker 12: didn't see a rifle with them at that point. But again,
15:12
Speaker 12: we're trying to recall memory, and you know, sometimes you
15:16
Speaker 12: don't see and will remember certain things.
15:19
Speaker 1: This neighbor said that around two o'clock that afternoon, she
15:22
Speaker 1: was rolling some garbage bins to the end of her
15:24
Speaker 1: driveway when she heard a gunshot. Of course, if you've
15:28
Speaker 1: ever been pretty much anywhere in the Midwest on the
15:31
Speaker 1: third day of deer season, it's not uncommon to hear
15:33
Speaker 1: rifle shots, but most deer are betted down by two pm,
15:37
Speaker 1: especially on a balmy sixty two degree November afternoon, Any shot,
15:41
Speaker 1: especially one just across the property line, would have been noteworthy.
15:45
Speaker 1: If this was in fact the shot that killed Terry,
15:48
Speaker 1: he could have been lying in the forest for more
15:50
Speaker 1: than two hours before he was found. This presented a
15:53
Speaker 1: real challenge for investigators, but it was especially heartbreaking for
15:57
Speaker 1: Terry's mother, who was driving the nearby roads that afternoon.
16:02
Speaker 11: I mean, I my mom just feels guilty enough that
16:07
Speaker 11: that day they were in the pit driving around. She's like,
16:11
Speaker 11: my son laying in the woods dead and I didn't
16:15
Speaker 11: do anything about it. And it's like, Mom, you couldn't
16:18
Speaker 11: have done anything about it, but she It kills her
16:22
Speaker 11: inside and it's taken a toll on the family big time.
16:27
Speaker 1: That gap between when Terry died and when he was
16:29
Speaker 1: found gave the perpetrator plenty of time to cover up
16:33
Speaker 1: his or her crimes. The first thing they did was
16:35
Speaker 1: hide the murder weapon. In this case, that was a
16:37
Speaker 1: Winchester Model ninety four, a lever gun chambered in thirty
16:41
Speaker 1: thirty Winchester. The AE stands for angle eject and it
16:46
Speaker 1: was introduced by the gun company in nineteen eighty two.
16:49
Speaker 1: As you heard the sheriff mentioned, there is some question
16:52
Speaker 1: about whether Terry had his gun with him as he
16:55
Speaker 1: walked through the woods. The neighbor didn't remember seeing it,
16:58
Speaker 1: but it's possible she forgot or he just didn't have
17:01
Speaker 1: it at that moment. The sheriff and his deputies thought
17:04
Speaker 1: it was unlikely that a deer hunter would walk his
17:06
Speaker 1: own property during the season without his rifle, so they
17:09
Speaker 1: scoured the woods in search of that weapon.
17:12
Speaker 12: They thought it was very odd, you know, that it
17:14
Speaker 12: wasn't on his person or nearby. So when we locked
17:18
Speaker 12: the scene down, we did a article search with a
17:21
Speaker 12: canine looking for that rifle. It wasn't located. The next morning,
17:27
Speaker 12: I contacted local fire departments to come out and they
17:30
Speaker 12: did a shoulder to shoulder search pushing that property. Rifle
17:35
Speaker 12: still was unlocated.
17:36
Speaker 1: They continued to search for the rifle, but Sheriff Larsen
17:39
Speaker 1: told me that the fall leaves were knee high in
17:41
Speaker 1: some areas. They knew that even if the gun was
17:44
Speaker 1: somewhere in those woods and not in the nearby Mississippi
17:48
Speaker 1: River or one of a thousand lakes and ponds, it
17:51
Speaker 1: would be difficult to find until those leaves began to decompose.
17:56
Speaker 13: And they were right.
17:58
Speaker 12: It was till the next spring. All these leaves and
18:01
Speaker 12: everything's kind of matted down now. So we went back
18:04
Speaker 12: out and we pushed that scene, and one of our investigators,
18:10
Speaker 12: along with a BCA investigator, were able to locate the rifle.
18:15
Speaker 1: The sheriff hasn't said publicly where the rifle was found, but.
18:19
Speaker 12: I can tell you it was nowhere near where Terry's
18:21
Speaker 12: body was.
18:22
Speaker 1: The location of the murder weapon is obviously significant, but
18:26
Speaker 1: we don't know exactly how. If it was found on
18:29
Speaker 1: a neighboring property, that might implicate whoever owned or lived
18:33
Speaker 1: on that property, but that's not necessarily true. The murderer
18:37
Speaker 1: may have simply thrown it away while fleeing the scene,
18:39
Speaker 1: not hidden it somewhere. In particular, the crime lab at
18:42
Speaker 1: the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension wasn't able to garner any
18:45
Speaker 1: clues from the rifle besides what you already heard that
18:48
Speaker 1: it was Terry's gun and it.
18:50
Speaker 13: Was used to kill him.
18:53
Speaker 1: That evidence was enough to dispel other rumors that John
18:56
Speaker 1: had shot him accidentally, or that he'd been hit with
18:58
Speaker 1: a stray bullet, or there was a sniper hiding in
19:01
Speaker 1: one of the property's tree stands, which Sheriff Larson says,
19:04
Speaker 1: was an actual theory that spread around town. None of
19:07
Speaker 1: those things happened. Terry was shot at close range with
19:11
Speaker 1: that rifle. This knowledge allowed investigators to formulate a few
19:15
Speaker 1: possible scenarios. If Terry had his gun with him, the
19:19
Speaker 1: murderer either wrestled the gun away from him, grabbed it
19:22
Speaker 1: without Terry's consent, or somehow convinced the hunter to hand
19:25
Speaker 1: over the weapon. But if Terry wasn't carrying that rifle
19:29
Speaker 1: that day in the woods, it suggested a much darker explanation,
19:33
Speaker 1: one that will dive into later in the episode. But
19:37
Speaker 1: finding the murder weapon wasn't enough to prove who killed Terry.
19:40
Speaker 1: The case teetered on the brink of obscurity until twenty
19:43
Speaker 1: twenty two, when Sheriff Larsen announced the second major development
19:47
Speaker 1: in this case.
19:49
Speaker 12: I can tell you there was a blue van that
19:50
Speaker 12: was spotted in the area for sure. Three maybe up
19:54
Speaker 12: to five people saw this blue van in this area
19:59
Speaker 12: during that time time frame, and when we were able
20:01
Speaker 12: to come up with that better timeline, we could prove
20:05
Speaker 12: that that van was in the area during this incident.
20:10
Speaker 12: When Terry's phone shows that all activities ceased. That's the
20:14
Speaker 12: same timeframe that we're seeing this blue van by witnesses,
20:18
Speaker 12: so it's very concerning to us. We pushed that out
20:21
Speaker 12: on a few releases and we're looking for more information
20:25
Speaker 12: regarding that.
20:26
Speaker 1: Holly told me investigators had heard about this blue van
20:29
Speaker 1: in the week's following Terry's death, but for whatever reason,
20:32
Speaker 1: they waited until twenty twenty two to ask for the
20:34
Speaker 1: public's help identifying its whereabouts. The sheriff said it was
20:38
Speaker 1: spotted at the gate that leads into the property and
20:41
Speaker 1: then traveling away from the property.
20:43
Speaker 12: Sometime later, one person said it was at the approach
20:47
Speaker 12: off Hawthorne Road. They didn't see anybody, but they saw
20:51
Speaker 12: the van, and it would be right in our time
20:54
Speaker 12: frame as to when Terry would have been killed. Another
20:58
Speaker 12: witness came forward and said they saw a blue van
21:01
Speaker 12: and they said it was traveling kind of away from
21:04
Speaker 12: the scene on Hawthorne Road, going towards Jewel Road and
21:08
Speaker 12: then heading back Northboune.
21:10
Speaker 1: The Sheriff's office received additional tips about this van after
21:13
Speaker 1: they put out their press release, and there's one important
21:16
Speaker 1: detail that has never been publicly confirmed before now, but
21:19
Speaker 1: we'll get to in a minute, but as far as
21:21
Speaker 1: most people were concerned, this investigation appeared to have stalled.
21:25
Speaker 1: That was the last major update in the case, and
21:28
Speaker 1: the sheriff has been forced to appeal to the Little
21:30
Speaker 1: Falls community for help.
21:32
Speaker 12: This is an attack on his way of life, on
21:35
Speaker 12: our way of life, So this is an attack to everybody.
21:37
Speaker 12: So we just want answers, We want accountability, We want
21:40
Speaker 12: this person brought to justice, and we want to move on,
21:44
Speaker 12: but we can't do that until the community gives us
21:47
Speaker 12: a little help.
21:53
Speaker 1: After the break, we dive into some of the theories
21:56
Speaker 1: about what happened in those woods. Was Terry killed by
21:59
Speaker 1: a stranger, a trespasser, a neighbor, or is it possible
22:03
Speaker 1: he was killed by a member of his own family.
22:07
Speaker 13: That's next on Blood Trails, Part three.
22:17
Speaker 1: Rumors and Theories. If you've ever been part of a
22:22
Speaker 1: small town, a small church, or a small school, you
22:25
Speaker 1: can predict what happened in the years following Terry's murder.
22:28
Speaker 1: The vacuum left by the unsolved case was filled by rumors, gossip,
22:33
Speaker 1: and hearsay. Some of these theories were more plausible than others,
22:38
Speaker 1: but they were all incredibly painful to the brisk family.
22:41
Speaker 13: Especially the kids.
22:43
Speaker 11: The kids aren't dumb. I mean they hear stuff. I
22:46
Speaker 11: feel terrible for the stuff they had to go through.
22:49
Speaker 11: Like at school, everybody looking at him like, oh, even
22:53
Speaker 11: my one nephew. He went to Little Fallows versus peers
22:56
Speaker 11: and kids were asking him like what did your uncles
22:59
Speaker 11: shoot him himself? Why do you kill himself? And I
23:02
Speaker 11: mean Pat's sitting there defending himself that he didn't shoot himself.
23:05
Speaker 11: He was killed.
23:06
Speaker 1: The kids had to face these rumors at school, and
23:09
Speaker 1: Terry's parents had to face them everywhere else, and it
23:12
Speaker 1: hasn't stopped in the nearly ten years since their son died.
23:15
Speaker 11: It seems like everybody in Morrison, Conye Little Falls area,
23:20
Speaker 11: they all know what happened, but we don't. Sometimes it
23:23
Speaker 11: feels like they're blaming us that we did it. And
23:27
Speaker 11: that's how we like feel sometimes like we feel guilty
23:31
Speaker 11: when we do stuff because Terry's not with us. He's
23:36
Speaker 11: you know, six feet under even to this day, like
23:39
Speaker 11: you know, you go to the store or whatever, like
23:41
Speaker 11: especially my mom and dad, like I mean they're you know,
23:44
Speaker 11: no one in the community and stuff, and he go
23:48
Speaker 11: there and it's just like people just stare and it's
23:52
Speaker 11: just like, just tell us what you think, because you're
23:54
Speaker 11: probably thinking the same thing as us.
23:56
Speaker 1: What Holly is referencing is one of the most common
23:58
Speaker 1: and persistent rooms about this case, that Pam Terry's wife
24:03
Speaker 1: had something to do with his death.
24:06
Speaker 16: You know, everybody pretty much figured right away that it
24:08
Speaker 16: was her. I mean, it was no doubt in anybody's
24:11
Speaker 16: mind in the family that it was her. He wanted
24:14
Speaker 16: to divorce her, and there was no way that she
24:17
Speaker 16: was gonna let that happen because she had a sweet life.
24:21
Speaker 1: That's Michelle Mannick, a cousin of the Brisks on their
24:23
Speaker 1: mom's side. She's convinced that Pam was involved, and she
24:27
Speaker 1: claims the rumor is common in the area. She lives
24:30
Speaker 1: in a different part of Minnesota, but she says she
24:32
Speaker 1: once ran into a stranger from Little Falls who repeated
24:35
Speaker 1: the rumor back to her.
24:36
Speaker 17: I said, well, that's where my cousins are from. And
24:39
Speaker 17: then I said, you know how that was my cousin
24:41
Speaker 17: that had got murdered And he said, oh, you mean
24:43
Speaker 17: the one that his wife shot him? And I was like,
24:47
Speaker 17: how does everybody know this? But like nobody seems to
24:51
Speaker 17: be And he said, oh, that's just common. I mean,
24:53
Speaker 17: anybody in the airying does pretty much go anywhere, go
24:57
Speaker 17: anywhere in the area and ask anybody, And that's what
25:00
Speaker 17: anybody who's been to tell you.
25:02
Speaker 1: I'm not going to repeat everything Michelle told me, but
25:04
Speaker 1: the gist of her argument is that Pam and Terry
25:07
Speaker 1: were having marital issues and Terry wanted to get a divorce,
25:10
Speaker 1: but they just built a new house and Pam wasn't
25:13
Speaker 1: about to let that happen. So, whether it was premeditated
25:17
Speaker 1: or the result of a heated argument, Pam either killed
25:20
Speaker 1: her husband or had someone else do it. That's the
25:23
Speaker 1: theory anyway. And I want to reiterate that no one,
25:26
Speaker 1: not Pam or anyone else, has ever been charged with
25:29
Speaker 1: this crime or named as a suspect. Not everyone agrees
25:33
Speaker 1: with Michelle, and there are other equally plausible theories that
25:36
Speaker 1: we'll get to in a minute, but the spouse is
25:39
Speaker 1: often the first person of interest in a murder investigation,
25:42
Speaker 1: and Michelle isn't the only family member who has this theory.
25:45
Speaker 11: I don't know if she pulled the trigger. Yes, my
25:49
Speaker 11: family feels that she's somehow tied to it. Because only
25:54
Speaker 11: a few people knew Terry was off that day.
25:57
Speaker 1: The Brisks didn't always get along with our daughter in
25:59
Speaker 1: law even before Terry was killed, so the family's accusation
26:02
Speaker 1: should be taken with a grain of salt. But without
26:05
Speaker 1: any answer from law enforcement, Holly can't help but look
26:08
Speaker 1: back on what happened with suspicion. For instance, Jay, Terry's
26:12
Speaker 1: older brother, spoke to Terry on the phone the day
26:14
Speaker 1: he was killed.
26:16
Speaker 11: Jay kind of said Terry's voice was like kind of
26:18
Speaker 11: horse and stuff, and I know, I mean, Terry and
26:22
Speaker 11: Pam were having issues, but we didn't realize how bad
26:26
Speaker 11: of issues, you know, they thought and stuff and families
26:29
Speaker 11: see that. But Jay's like, yeah, his voice was hoarse,
26:32
Speaker 11: and I didn't really talk to him that much longer,
26:33
Speaker 11: so I'm like, okay, you must have been, you know,
26:35
Speaker 11: yelling and something.
26:37
Speaker 1: Becky Jelinski, the wife of Terry's childhood friend, told me
26:40
Speaker 1: that Terry seemed out of sorts at an anniversary party
26:43
Speaker 1: a few weeks prior. Both she and Holly believed Terry
26:46
Speaker 1: was struggling with something, and Holly believes that something may
26:50
Speaker 1: have been Pam. Terry was upset in the hours before
26:53
Speaker 1: he died, but Holly claims that in the hours after
26:56
Speaker 1: Pam acted oddly nonchalant, one moment sticks out in her mind.
27:01
Speaker 1: Terry's four kids were all upstairs in her room with Holly.
27:05
Speaker 1: Some were crying, some were still in shock, So Holly
27:08
Speaker 1: asked Pam to come up and comfort them.
27:10
Speaker 11: So I went downstairs and I told Pam. I'm like, hey,
27:14
Speaker 11: he come up. I said, the kids are really kind
27:16
Speaker 11: of upset and stuff. And to this day, after she
27:20
Speaker 11: hugged them, it's still in my brain. She's like, you
27:22
Speaker 11: guys were gonna be okay, we can do this, you know,
27:26
Speaker 11: kind of like we miss dad. But she's like, okay,
27:28
Speaker 11: let's go back downstairs. Now there's people here for us.
27:30
Speaker 11: And I'm like, what, don't make these kids go talk
27:34
Speaker 11: to people.
27:35
Speaker 1: Of course, none of this is evidence of wrongdoing. Terry's
27:38
Speaker 1: voice could have been hoarse for a million other reasons,
27:41
Speaker 1: and it's impossible to draw any firm conclusions about how
27:44
Speaker 1: a person responds to that level of tragedy. But there
27:49
Speaker 1: is one piece of evidence that, according to Holly and Michelle,
27:52
Speaker 1: links Pam to the crime scene. Both women told me
27:56
Speaker 1: that Terry's mother was driving the roads around where her
27:58
Speaker 1: son was hunting the day of the end incident, and
28:01
Speaker 1: she noticed something strange.
28:03
Speaker 17: And as she was coming home, she said it was
28:07
Speaker 17: very weird to her because she was wondering, like, why
28:10
Speaker 17: was Pam's van parked where Terry hunt?
28:14
Speaker 1: Remember the blue van Sheriff Larsen is so interested in.
28:18
Speaker 1: Turns out Pam and Terry had a blue van at
28:21
Speaker 1: the time Terry was killed. Jerff Larsen didn't mention this
28:24
Speaker 1: in our first interview, but he confirmed it to me
28:27
Speaker 1: in an email when I asked him about it later.
28:30
Speaker 11: Terry's van was distinctive. It was an otter blue and
28:33
Speaker 11: it always had like a decal thing like on the side.
28:36
Speaker 11: And as they were coming up towards the pit, they're like, well,
28:39
Speaker 11: where the hell is she going? And as they approached
28:43
Speaker 11: it more and Laura looked like Terry's van and they're like, well, whatever,
28:47
Speaker 11: you know, must maybe drop, you know, one of the
28:49
Speaker 11: kids off or something hunting, you don't know.
28:52
Speaker 1: Terry's father was also in the car, and the couple
28:54
Speaker 1: watched the van drive north towards Terry and Pam's house
28:57
Speaker 1: about a half mile away. They had planned to visit
29:00
Speaker 1: their grandchildren that day, but they passed the school bus
29:03
Speaker 1: and decided to say hi as the kids got home
29:05
Speaker 1: from school.
29:06
Speaker 11: But when they pulled in, the van was parked in
29:09
Speaker 11: a different spot than normal. It wasn't in its normal
29:13
Speaker 11: spot because I mean two, everybody has like a designated
29:17
Speaker 11: spot when you go.
29:19
Speaker 1: This suggested to the Brisks that it had been Pam's
29:22
Speaker 1: van that they saw near the hunting property, and she
29:24
Speaker 1: was the one driving it. What's more, according to the sheriff,
29:28
Speaker 1: they weren't the only ones to report spying a blue
29:31
Speaker 1: van in the area on the afternoon Terry was killed.
29:34
Speaker 1: Whether this is the same van is unclear, but taken
29:37
Speaker 1: in total, it paints what seems like a bleak picture. Pam,
29:41
Speaker 1: according to the family, had a motive for wanting Terry gone,
29:44
Speaker 1: was behaving strangely before and after the incident, and her
29:48
Speaker 1: blue van was seen in the area. The same blue van,
29:51
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's office has said, is important to this case.
29:56
Speaker 1: Only the killer knows exactly what happened in those woods.
29:59
Speaker 1: But holly thing, it's possible that Terry and Pam got
30:02
Speaker 1: into something heated.
30:04
Speaker 11: I think he got approached by somebody and I don't know.
30:08
Speaker 11: I think they had some arguments and the way Terry
30:12
Speaker 11: is and how we are is Yeah, to a point,
30:14
Speaker 11: you just you get so pissed off, you just, you know,
30:17
Speaker 11: probably screaming and yelling. And I don't know if they
30:21
Speaker 11: somehow got the gun from Terry or he's like here,
30:25
Speaker 11: do me in here, take my gun, just do me,
30:28
Speaker 11: you know that type of stuff, because that's kind of
30:30
Speaker 11: like how we blow up and then whatever happened after that,
30:36
Speaker 11: no clue.
30:38
Speaker 1: When you hear everything laid out like that, it sounds
30:40
Speaker 1: pretty convincing, But there are always always two sides to
30:45
Speaker 1: every story and more than one way to explain inexplicable circumstances.
30:50
Speaker 1: For example, while John and Pam admitted that the family
30:53
Speaker 1: had a blue van at the time Terry was killed,
30:56
Speaker 1: John offered an alternative explanation of his father's death, and
30:59
Speaker 1: one that I think is pretty convincing.
31:02
Speaker 7: I think somebody was on the property that wasn't supposed
31:05
Speaker 7: to be on the property, and they were confronted and
31:10
Speaker 7: they didn't like how things were going. And I don't
31:14
Speaker 7: know if there's an altercation out there where they had
31:17
Speaker 7: gotten the gun from him or what, or if it
31:20
Speaker 7: was somebody ambushed him while he was walking through the woods.
31:23
Speaker 7: But the highly doubt that. It's just I believe he
31:27
Speaker 7: confronted somebody that was out there that was not supposed to.
31:30
Speaker 6: Be out there.
31:30
Speaker 1: This theory isn't as far fetched as it might sound.
31:33
Speaker 1: As you've heard several times, there was a gravel pit
31:35
Speaker 1: on the property Terry was hunting. I was told by
31:38
Speaker 1: the sheriff, as well as Terry's family and friends that
31:41
Speaker 1: trespassors would frequently come into the pit to look for agates,
31:45
Speaker 1: which are a kind of colorful banded courts. Scotchlinski. Terry's
31:49
Speaker 1: childhood friend, told me they caught trespassers on the property
31:52
Speaker 1: all the time, So.
31:53
Speaker 18: It wasn't uncommon to pull in there and there's a
31:56
Speaker 18: car sitting at the gate, or there would be some
32:00
Speaker 18: body walking way up on the top of the next
32:02
Speaker 18: still over as you were rolling in, and I just
32:05
Speaker 18: think he come upon somebody sneaking through the woods there
32:10
Speaker 18: on detected to go do whatever they did back there,
32:14
Speaker 18: and he just happened to be walking to a stand
32:16
Speaker 18: and caught him and it turned into a scuffle, and yeah,
32:21
Speaker 18: unfortunately he had to lose his life over the deal.
32:24
Speaker 1: John told me he's reported trespassers to the Sheriff's Department
32:27
Speaker 1: on multiple occasions. Some of the trespassers are repeat offenders,
32:31
Speaker 1: but he's never recognized anyone from the community. He assumes
32:34
Speaker 1: they see the gravel pit on Google Maps and think
32:37
Speaker 1: it might be a good place to look for agates
32:39
Speaker 1: and then take a stroll through the woods. One time,
32:42
Speaker 1: someone even stole their deer stands. I asked Scott whether
32:46
Speaker 1: Terry would ever get angry with trespassers, and he said
32:49
Speaker 1: the situations could sometimes escalate.
32:52
Speaker 18: You would get very, very pissed off at people because
32:55
Speaker 18: it's like they have no reason to be there, and
32:58
Speaker 18: they're like, well, I'm just all for a nature walk
33:01
Speaker 18: or I'm just I'm looking for agates. So they would
33:04
Speaker 18: try and tell you all the excuses of why, well,
33:07
Speaker 18: I'm just looking around, and it's like, no, get the
33:10
Speaker 18: heck out of here.
33:11
Speaker 6: This is private property.
33:13
Speaker 18: You're not supposed to be here, and they would get
33:15
Speaker 18: hostile with you, and so you would definitely have to
33:19
Speaker 18: try and use some force to get him out of
33:21
Speaker 18: there without actually getting physical. But I could foresee it,
33:26
Speaker 18: you know, well, the person obviously decided.
33:29
Speaker 6: Nope, I'm gonna confront this and we're going to fight this.
33:32
Speaker 14: And well, it happened, a gun went off, and you know,
33:39
Speaker 14: he ended up dying.
33:41
Speaker 1: Holly confirmed that they would frequently find trespassers at the
33:44
Speaker 1: gravel pit, but she isn't sure why someone would be
33:47
Speaker 1: walking through the woods where.
33:48
Speaker 13: Terry was found.
33:49
Speaker 1: She also wonders if there was some kind of fight,
33:52
Speaker 1: why she's never heard about Terry having defensive wounds on
33:54
Speaker 1: his body.
33:55
Speaker 11: Because I mean, if they really got into it, they
33:59
Speaker 11: should have shown some kind of struggle or something with
34:01
Speaker 11: Terry on his body. But I don't think there was
34:03
Speaker 11: like bloody knuckles or like that type of stuff. So
34:06
Speaker 11: I mean, I don't think he got where he could
34:09
Speaker 11: get in a fight, and he's not going to hand.
34:10
Speaker 11: Somebody is gone.
34:12
Speaker 1: I asked Sarah Flarsen whether Terry's body showed any signs
34:14
Speaker 1: of a struggle, but he declined to comment to protect
34:17
Speaker 1: the integrity of the investigation. We also don't know whether
34:20
Speaker 1: Terry was shot from the front or behind, or which
34:23
Speaker 1: part of his body the bullet hit. For his part,
34:27
Speaker 1: John doesn't know exactly what happened to his father, but
34:30
Speaker 1: he is adamant that his mother wasn't involved.
34:33
Speaker 7: I don't think my mother had a single thing to
34:35
Speaker 7: do with it.
34:36
Speaker 5: The thing is is it's a rumor.
34:39
Speaker 19: And to be honest with you, my grandparents on my
34:43
Speaker 19: dad's side and my mom.
34:45
Speaker 5: They haven't always gotten along.
34:48
Speaker 8: I've heard my grandmother say it before, she's thought it,
34:52
Speaker 8: and it's just I don't believe it one bit.
34:57
Speaker 5: It's just it's ridiculous.
35:00
Speaker 7: My mother loved my father. Yes, they didn't see eyed
35:03
Speaker 7: eye on everything.
35:04
Speaker 8: They would occasionally have their fights, but my mother's not
35:09
Speaker 8: capable of anything like this.
35:11
Speaker 1: Pam herself denies having had anything to do with her
35:14
Speaker 1: husband's death. She admits that they had marital troubles on
35:16
Speaker 1: and off throughout their relationship, but she denies that they
35:19
Speaker 1: were on the road to divorce.
35:21
Speaker 9: Yes, for years we were having issues. We were working
35:26
Speaker 9: things out. I think for the sake of the kids.
35:28
Speaker 9: We were trying to better both of ourselves to you know,
35:33
Speaker 9: we didn't want to fall apart, you know. I mean, yeah,
35:36
Speaker 9: we had talked about it, but I know neither one
35:39
Speaker 9: of us. We would have never been able to break
35:43
Speaker 9: the bond between the two of us, if that makes sense.
35:46
Speaker 1: Pam believes the brisks long standing dislike of her made
35:49
Speaker 1: her a natural scapegoat. For their son's death.
35:52
Speaker 9: I know they've suspected me for a long time. I
35:54
Speaker 9: know they hate me. The nasty things that they've done
35:57
Speaker 9: to me prove it that they don't want me around,
36:00
Speaker 9: and so I think sometimes they just blame me and
36:02
Speaker 9: want me to be the culprit of it. Also that
36:05
Speaker 9: they can have everything that I have and have everything
36:08
Speaker 9: of Terry's, but they can blame me all they want.
36:12
Speaker 9: I wasn't there. There's nothing I could have done.
36:15
Speaker 1: She does blame herself for one thing. She told me
36:18
Speaker 1: she was babysitting a neighbor's child the day Terry was killed,
36:21
Speaker 1: so she wasn't able to go hunting with him that day.
36:24
Speaker 9: My part was the fact that, you know, we I
36:26
Speaker 9: wanted to go and sit with him for a while,
36:28
Speaker 9: but with the baby here, I the con't in. So yeah,
36:31
Speaker 9: there's a bunch of times where I wish I would
36:34
Speaker 9: have been able to go out there, and maybe things
36:36
Speaker 9: would have been a lot different.
36:40
Speaker 1: As for the blue minivan, Pam admits to having a
36:42
Speaker 1: blue van at the time her husband was killed, but
36:44
Speaker 1: she denies being in the area around the time he died,
36:47
Speaker 1: and she questions the truthfulness of the witnesses.
36:50
Speaker 9: Well, I, yes, I did have a blue minivan at
36:53
Speaker 9: the time. Yes, we live what is it two miles
36:56
Speaker 9: not even two miles down the road. Yes, I was
36:58
Speaker 9: there at one moment when I drive to Jonathan off.
37:01
Speaker 9: But that was about the only time I've heard of
37:04
Speaker 9: people that have heard who have seen it, and I
37:07
Speaker 9: know his parents were one of them, so that I
37:09
Speaker 9: do not take an account.
37:10
Speaker 6: I do not believe them.
37:12
Speaker 1: Of course, the elder Brisks weren't the only ones to
37:14
Speaker 1: have reported seeing a blue Minivanjriff F. Larson told me
37:18
Speaker 1: that at least three people reported the same thing, but
37:21
Speaker 1: those witnesses have never been publicly named, and some of
37:24
Speaker 1: them came forward years after the incident occurred. John also
37:28
Speaker 1: pointed out that since Pam lived just down the road,
37:31
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have been unusual for her to be driving
37:33
Speaker 1: around the area, even though she told me she never
37:36
Speaker 1: left the house that afternoon because she was babysitting her
37:39
Speaker 1: neighbor's child. Sheriff Larsen thinks he knows who killed Terry.
37:44
Speaker 1: He's keeping that suspicion close to his vest, but he
37:47
Speaker 1: is willing to speculate in more general terms.
37:50
Speaker 12: They've had problems with trespassers in the past. You've got
37:54
Speaker 12: to remember, this is a gravel pit. People like to
37:56
Speaker 12: pick agots. And I was told that Terry would be
37:59
Speaker 12: strng or and if he needed to kick people off
38:02
Speaker 12: the property, which he should, you know, So that's one scenario.
38:06
Speaker 12: Did he come across a trespasser and you know, was
38:10
Speaker 12: there like an argument that ensued, and did the suspect
38:14
Speaker 12: somehow get his weapon and shoot him and flee that happened.
38:19
Speaker 12: The other thing we talked about is could this be
38:21
Speaker 12: a very close family member, Could it be a friend.
38:27
Speaker 12: Could it be someone very close that he trusted this
38:30
Speaker 12: person to get within reach of his rifle. And if
38:34
Speaker 12: that's the case, it's kind of easy to figure out
38:37
Speaker 12: what could have happened from there. So those are kind
38:40
Speaker 12: of our theories. Doesn't mean they're the only theories, but
38:43
Speaker 12: those are the two that kind of stand out for us.
38:49
Speaker 13: Part four tragedy.
38:54
Speaker 1: In a case like this, it's easy to get so
38:56
Speaker 1: caught up in the who done it that you forget
38:58
Speaker 1: about the real human being involved. But the truth is
39:02
Speaker 1: a murder is often just the first step in a
39:05
Speaker 1: much larger tragedy.
39:07
Speaker 12: He loved his family, you know, He's got a wife
39:10
Speaker 12: and four kids, and he loved taking them on adventures.
39:14
Speaker 12: There's some pictures that I saw circulating where he was
39:17
Speaker 12: taking his kids out hunting and just kind of introducing
39:20
Speaker 12: him to the land. So this is what he loved
39:23
Speaker 12: to do, and for someone to take that away from him,
39:27
Speaker 12: it's not right.
39:28
Speaker 1: The hours after Terry was killed are a blur for John,
39:31
Speaker 1: But the one thing that sticks out in his mind
39:33
Speaker 1: is his little brother, who was only five or six
39:36
Speaker 1: years old at the time.
39:37
Speaker 5: But I just remembered my little brother, who I mean,
39:41
Speaker 5: I kind of feel bad for him because he didn't
39:44
Speaker 5: really help with that much time with my dad, but
39:47
Speaker 5: he really didn't understand what was going on. He just
39:51
Speaker 5: was crying because he's seating. Everybody else kind of in
39:56
Speaker 5: enough shape, and he hadn't like, yeah, what was actually
40:00
Speaker 5: going on.
40:02
Speaker 1: The impact of Terry's death on his children reverberated out
40:05
Speaker 1: from that moment, and Holly says none of them have
40:08
Speaker 1: really had a chance to grieve, and certainly not as
40:11
Speaker 1: a united family. The kids saw less of their grandparents
40:14
Speaker 1: Terry's parents in the years after his death. Holly blames
40:18
Speaker 1: Pam and believes it speaks to her guilty conscience. But
40:21
Speaker 1: if your in laws accuse you of murder, it makes
40:23
Speaker 1: sense that you'd want to give them a wide berth.
40:26
Speaker 1: Pam claims that her in laws would take the kids
40:28
Speaker 1: for visits without telling her, and she characterizes their actions
40:32
Speaker 1: as unnecessarily vindictive. But here's the thing about family infighting,
40:37
Speaker 1: whether it's justified or not, no matter who is in
40:40
Speaker 1: the right, it has the biggest impact on the kids.
40:44
Speaker 7: I mean, I thought, you know, something like this happening.
40:48
Speaker 8: It would kind of bring our family together more, But
40:52
Speaker 8: it turns out it just pushed us away even further.
40:55
Speaker 7: You know, us kids are sitting.
40:57
Speaker 8: Here and we're constantly being torn and from one side
41:01
Speaker 8: of the family to the other.
41:02
Speaker 6: Side of the family.
41:03
Speaker 19: Kind of tough when everybody's turning in their backs on
41:06
Speaker 19: each other and fighting amongst each other instead of we
41:10
Speaker 19: all loved my dad, but we're going to sit here and.
41:14
Speaker 13: Fight about it.
41:17
Speaker 8: Against each other, which I don't understand how that why
41:23
Speaker 8: that way.
41:24
Speaker 1: The unsolved nature of this case has suspended the family
41:27
Speaker 1: in limbo, encased in the rock of their suspicions, unable
41:31
Speaker 1: to move on. Holly still keeps a trace of her
41:34
Speaker 1: mother from that day. Something she's left untouched.
41:38
Speaker 11: I still have that voice message from her. I've never
41:41
Speaker 11: played it, but I just yeah, I never deleted it,
41:46
Speaker 11: and I can know exactly what it was.
41:49
Speaker 1: Terry himself foreshadowed the way his death would harden his
41:52
Speaker 1: family against one another, and how the kids would be
41:55
Speaker 1: at the center of that controversy. A granite company had
41:58
Speaker 1: ordered a piece of rock from the Brisks gravel pit,
42:00
Speaker 1: and the Saturday before he died, Terry went down with
42:03
Speaker 1: his brother and their kids to get it loaded in
42:05
Speaker 1: the truck.
42:06
Speaker 11: Well, the weird thing is is Terry loaded his gravestone rock.
42:12
Speaker 11: The last pictures of Terry are like, is in the equipment,
42:16
Speaker 11: like in his hunting outfit, and then Robin just happened
42:20
Speaker 11: to do a zoom in and Terry is walking with
42:23
Speaker 11: Mike and they're both like in their little you know,
42:26
Speaker 11: orange and and he's holding his hand and they're walking.
42:31
Speaker 11: That's that's what hurts so bad, because those kids, Oh
42:35
Speaker 11: my gosh, it's hard, but we just we just want
42:40
Speaker 11: answers so bad. It's i mean, going on nine years,
42:44
Speaker 11: come on.
42:46
Speaker 1: In February of twenty twenty three, John updated his profile
42:49
Speaker 1: picture on Facebook. He'd killed a buck and dragged it
42:52
Speaker 1: in front of a memorial to Terry the family had
42:54
Speaker 1: built using that gravestone rock. The deer is a nice
42:57
Speaker 1: eight point Minnesota buck, and it nearly matches the illustration
43:01
Speaker 1: of a buck that adorns the stone.
43:04
Speaker 13: To some, bringing a.
43:05
Speaker 1: Dead animal to a place that memorializes your father might
43:08
Speaker 1: seem like an odd tribute. But knowing how much Terry
43:11
Speaker 1: loved hunting, and more importantly, how much he loved as kids,
43:15
Speaker 1: I think he'd be delighted to see his oldest boy's
43:17
Speaker 1: latest success in the woods. Part five, New Leads, Old Trails.
43:28
Speaker 1: I first heard about Terry's case back in twenty twenty
43:31
Speaker 1: three when the Morrison County Sheriff's office made what seemed
43:34
Speaker 1: like an encouraging announcement.
43:36
Speaker 12: The Morrison County Sheriff's Office just announced they've recovered more
43:39
Speaker 12: digital evidence in the case.
43:41
Speaker 16: The sheriff now using new technology to retest evidence in
43:45
Speaker 16: the case, hoping to bring in new leads.
43:47
Speaker 1: Those new investigative techniques haven't solved the case, but they
43:51
Speaker 1: have provided evidence that could one day be critical in court.
43:54
Speaker 1: Terry had his phone with him when he was shot,
43:56
Speaker 1: but investigators have only recently been able to extract more
43:59
Speaker 1: helpful information from that data.
44:01
Speaker 12: What we found out is that it could actually show
44:04
Speaker 12: us a timeline when all activities seem to cease, and
44:08
Speaker 12: it would actually give us a little bit better as
44:10
Speaker 12: far as maybe the route and location and GPS coordinates
44:15
Speaker 12: and stuff like that. So it really paints a picture
44:17
Speaker 12: for us, but we didn't have that right away.
44:20
Speaker 1: New technology has offered a better sense of the timeline
44:22
Speaker 1: and location of the people involved, but investigators have also
44:26
Speaker 1: relied on good old fashioned police work. They've interviewed persons
44:30
Speaker 1: of interest, they've spoken to neighbors and friends, and they
44:33
Speaker 1: continue to follow up on new information. If you think
44:36
Speaker 1: you might know anything about this case, no matter how trivial,
44:39
Speaker 1: Jriff Larsen asks that you give him a call at
44:42
Speaker 1: three two zero six three two nine two three three.
44:47
Speaker 12: Even if they hear something on this podcast that might
44:50
Speaker 12: be secondhand information, or they think they heard a story
44:53
Speaker 12: but it really maybe they think it doesn't apply, we
44:56
Speaker 12: still want to hear it and we still want to
44:59
Speaker 12: be able to kind of look it over and figure
45:01
Speaker 12: out what we can do with that, because we want
45:03
Speaker 12: to follow up on every tip.
45:05
Speaker 1: Again, that number is three two zero six three two
45:09
Speaker 1: nine two three three, and we'll post it to this
45:12
Speaker 1: episode's case file at the meat eater dot com slash
45:16
Speaker 1: blood Trails.
45:19
Speaker 13: Bringing this case to a close.
45:20
Speaker 1: Would mean the world to everyone on both sides of
45:23
Speaker 1: Terry's family.
45:25
Speaker 9: I think it would finally close the gap in my
45:28
Speaker 9: heart on what really happened to Terry.
45:32
Speaker 6: I would just like to know. I would like to
45:34
Speaker 6: know why.
45:36
Speaker 9: It would be a nice peace of mind to finally
45:39
Speaker 9: have somebody caught in, somebody tell us the reasoning, Oh
45:45
Speaker 9: why they did it.
45:47
Speaker 6: I missed him tremendously. I do every day. There isn't
45:51
Speaker 6: a day gole buy that.
45:54
Speaker 9: That I do not think of him.
45:57
Speaker 1: There's currently a thirty thousand dollars reward for anyone who
46:00
Speaker 1: presents information that leads to the arrest and conviction of
46:03
Speaker 1: the person responsible. Whether that person is motivated by money
46:07
Speaker 1: or goodwill, or both. Holly believes it's a long past
46:11
Speaker 1: time for anyone who knows something to come forward. Finding
46:15
Speaker 1: her brother's killer would not only give the family the
46:18
Speaker 1: answers they so desperately want, it could also begin a
46:21
Speaker 1: healing process that's never really begun.
46:25
Speaker 11: Please speak up for the family so we can get
46:28
Speaker 11: the answers. We haven't grieved because we have no answers yet.
46:34
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this episode of Blood Trails. If
46:37
Speaker 1: you'd like to see images from this case, head over
46:39
Speaker 1: to the meeater dot com slash blood Trails and click on.
46:42
Speaker 13: The case file.
46:43
Speaker 1: For this episode, we've posted images of Terry John and
46:46
Speaker 1: his deer, the gravel pit, and some brisk family photos.
46:50
Speaker 1: Thanks to everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this episode.
46:53
Speaker 1: If you have a tip about this case or another
46:56
Speaker 1: case you think we should cover, send us an email
46:58
Speaker 1: at blood Trails at the meeater dot com. That's b
47:01
Speaker 1: l o O D T R A I L S
47:04
Speaker 1: at the meteater dot com. See you next time, and
47:08
Speaker 1: stay safe out there.
47:11
Speaker 6: H