Latest / NO FILTER / A Killer Among Us_ the case of Thomas Brown [True Crime documentary]

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A Killer Among Us_ the case of Thomas Brown [True Crime documentary] · NO FILTER

0:00
Speaker 1: And our belief is based upon the physical evidence. He
0:05
Speaker 1: went like this and the blood pooled.
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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, I'm Kevin and this is just thought Lounge.
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Speaker 2: This is the true crime channel that delivers serious, well
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Speaker 2: balanced coverage of the cases that really make you think.
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Speaker 2: You may have heard of the case we're about to
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Speaker 2: look at today, but you may not have heard the
0:27
Speaker 2: whole story. This case is as confusing as it is tragic.
0:31
Speaker 2: The small town of Canadian, Texas found itself forever changed
0:35
Speaker 2: on Thanksgiving Day twenty sixteen. That was the day that
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Speaker 2: local teenager Thomas Brown's Dodge Durango was found abandoned, parked
0:43
Speaker 2: along a rarely used road, doors unlocked but keys missing.
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Speaker 2: Tom had not come home the night before, and no
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Speaker 2: one had heard from him. Over the next several years,
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Speaker 2: right up to today, the efforts of law enforcement and
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Speaker 2: a private investigator have uncovered more and more evidence relating
0:58
Speaker 2: to Tom's disappearance, But instead of each discovery leading closer
1:03
Speaker 2: to the truth, it seemed that the more that was found,
1:06
Speaker 2: the more confounding Tom's disappearance became, and the more unlikely
1:10
Speaker 2: the suspects that could be involved. Theories of what could
1:13
Speaker 2: have happened have been proposed by the multiple agencies involved
1:17
Speaker 2: and others close to the investigation. Most of them have
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Speaker 2: been plausible, but many seemed extremely unlikely. The only thing
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Speaker 2: that is certain about this case is that someone is lying.
1:28
Speaker 2: This is the mysterious case of Thomas Brown. Let's take
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Speaker 2: a look. In the autumn of twenty sixteen, Thomas Brown
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Speaker 2: was a senior in high school and had been named
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Speaker 2: class president for two years. Running at six foot one
1:50
Speaker 2: in about one hundred and eighty pounds, Tom was an
1:52
Speaker 2: offensive lineman on the football team and was named a
1:55
Speaker 2: starter for the season. He had also recently taken up
1:58
Speaker 2: public speaking with four H Club, winning a top ten
2:01
Speaker 2: spot in a state competition. Tom Brown had an eclectic
2:04
Speaker 2: range of interests. He was an avid reader who also
2:07
Speaker 2: loved video games in wrestling, and along with his wide
2:10
Speaker 2: ranging interests, was a diverse group of friends. Tom was
2:14
Speaker 2: the kind of kid in high school that was a
2:15
Speaker 2: friend to everyone. No one had a bad word to
2:18
Speaker 2: say about him. A super funny guy, he just loved
2:21
Speaker 2: to make other people laugh. At home, Tom's mother, Penny
2:25
Speaker 2: and stepfather Chris Meek, made a happy home based on
2:27
Speaker 2: Christian principles. His older brother, Tucker had already left for college.
2:33
Speaker 2: November twenty third, twenty sixteen, was Thanksgiving Eve in the US.
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Speaker 2: In smalltown Canadian, Tom Brown headed out to meet up
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Speaker 2: with friends, leaving at just after six pm in the
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Speaker 2: family's red Dodge Durango. Recent high school graduates who had
2:47
Speaker 2: left for college had returned to the town for the
2:49
Speaker 2: holiday weekend, including Tom's older brother Tucker, as well as
2:53
Speaker 2: his good friend Christian Webb. Christian had graduated valedictorian of
2:57
Speaker 2: her class the year prior and had moved to his study
3:00
Speaker 2: at Oklahoma State University. That night, Tom met with Christian
3:04
Speaker 2: and two other school friends whose families also have deep
3:07
Speaker 2: roots in the community, Michael Castletyne and Caleb King. Canadian
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Speaker 2: did not have much to offer for teenagers out for
3:15
Speaker 2: a night on the town. The plan was to cruise
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Speaker 2: around in the Durango, taking the standard route that Tom
3:20
Speaker 2: liked to drive. The group convened at the parking lot
3:23
Speaker 2: of the middle school, where they parked their respective vehicles.
3:26
Speaker 2: Then they all piled into Tom's truck. It was not
3:31
Speaker 2: common for Tom to miss his midnight curfew, even by
3:34
Speaker 2: a few minutes. At only ten minutes past the hour,
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Speaker 2: Tom's mother Penny was already concerned that something was wrong,
3:41
Speaker 2: so she texted him, but there was no response. Tucker
3:44
Speaker 2: messaged also with the same result. There was no reply
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Speaker 2: from Tom. Their first text showed that they were read,
3:50
Speaker 2: but there was no response. The second text scent came
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Speaker 2: up as undelivered. After a call went unanswered. Penny thought
3:56
Speaker 2: he might be in a wreck, so both she and
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Speaker 2: Tucker set out in separate vehicles, Tucker with a friend
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Speaker 2: of his to drive Tom's regular route and check for him.
4:05
Speaker 2: After seventy five minutes, Penny returned home while Tucker continued
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Speaker 2: to look. The group had parted ways at roughly eleven
4:14
Speaker 2: PM that night from the middle school parking lot, after
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Speaker 2: making plans to meet up again the next day. Christian, Michael,
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Speaker 2: and Caleb had each made it home safely, but Tom
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Speaker 2: could not be located. Penny made the call to the
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Speaker 2: sheriff's office at two thirty am, while Tucker drove around
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Speaker 2: with a sheriff's deputy, scouting all of Tom's regular spots.
4:33
Speaker 2: Christian Webb's father, Trey, a helicopter pilot, took to the sky.
4:38
Speaker 2: By early morning, he was flying over Canadian and the
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Speaker 2: surrounding area with Christian scanning for a sighting of Tom's
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Speaker 2: red SUV from the air. At about eight forty am
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Speaker 2: Thanksgiving morning, it had been spotted parked under a tree
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Speaker 2: off of a gated side road not far from the
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Speaker 2: community recreation center. The gate to the road had been
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Speaker 2: left open, the vehicle was parked on its own, and
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Speaker 2: there was no sign of Tom Brown. The Durango was
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Speaker 2: in a notably odd location. Indeed, Tom's family and friends
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Speaker 2: were surprised to find that the area even existed, and
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Speaker 2: everyone doubted that Tom knew of that road or had
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Speaker 2: ever accessed it before. Footprints were clearly visible on the
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Speaker 2: dirt ground near the driver's side door. Within feet of
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Speaker 2: these prints on the ground was a fresh urine mark,
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Speaker 2: indicating that someone had relieved themselves very recently. Directly next
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Speaker 2: to the truck, the doors were unlocked. Michael's debit card
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Speaker 2: was retrieved from where it had fallen between the seats,
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Speaker 2: but none of Tom's possessions were inside. His keys, wallet,
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Speaker 2: and phone were absent. Tom's backpack, which he often kept
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Speaker 2: in the back of the truck and would have typically
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Speaker 2: held his school laptop, was also missing. The clues inside
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Speaker 2: and around the truck to this point could have indicated
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Speaker 2: that Tom had collected his things and abandoned the vehicle,
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Speaker 2: likely leaving on foot, if that is, it were not
6:00
Speaker 2: for two additional and crucial pieces of evidence that pointed
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Speaker 2: to foul play. A twenty five caliber shell casing was
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Speaker 2: found on the floorboard, and a small but clear blood
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Speaker 2: stain was visible on the door handle of the driver's side.
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Speaker 2: There was a second blood stain, also very small, reported
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Speaker 2: in the vehicle, but its location was not disclosed. Hemphill
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Speaker 2: County Sheriff Nathan Lewis, thirty two years old, had been
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Speaker 2: elected to his post two months previous. Known primarily for
6:27
Speaker 2: his work tracking down illegal drug activity, Sheriff Lewis had
6:31
Speaker 2: yet to take on a missing person's case. Not surprisingly,
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Speaker 2: these cases do not arise in Canadian very often. The
6:39
Speaker 2: Sheriff's office processed Tom's vehicle to the extent they believed
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Speaker 2: was possible. The amount of dust and dirt in the
6:45
Speaker 2: interior of the suv meant that lifting fingerprints was reportedly impossible.
6:50
Speaker 2: The streak of blood near to the door handle was Tom's. However,
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Speaker 2: it had dried considerably, leading investigators to believe that the
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Speaker 2: stain was quite old, perhaps the result of a minor
7:00
Speaker 2: cut on a finger for weeks earlier. No gunpowder residue,
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Speaker 2: and no further blood spatter was identified by the sheriff's team.
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Speaker 2: They concluded that there was nothing to indicate that a
7:09
Speaker 2: gun had gone off within the car, except for the casing,
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Speaker 2: of course, on which they found no fingerprints. It was
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Speaker 2: reported that the urine found next to the truck was
7:18
Speaker 2: never tested. Twenty four hours after the discovery of Tom's
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Speaker 2: Dodge Durango, it was towed back to the family home
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Speaker 2: and left in Penny's possession. Sheriff Lewis said that they
7:27
Speaker 2: no longer needed it, a decision that did not sit
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Speaker 2: well with Penny and the family. The sheriff changed his
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Speaker 2: mind only a day later, collected the truck again, re
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Speaker 2: ran for Prince, came up with nothing on the second
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Speaker 2: round of processing, and then again returned the vehicle. Canadian
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Speaker 2: is not a town watched over by many CCTV cameras. However,
7:52
Speaker 2: there were a few that managed to capture the movement
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Speaker 2: of Tom's truck that night. The timeline outlined by Christian,
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Speaker 2: Michael and Caleb played out as discore. They drove a
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Speaker 2: common loop around town with Tom stopping at an old
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Speaker 2: bridge for a walk, and ending the night at the
8:06
Speaker 2: school parking lot at roughly eleven to eleven fifteen pm.
8:09
Speaker 2: The school camera showed Tom exiting the lot at eleven
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Speaker 2: twenty six after chatting with Christian for a while. The
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Speaker 2: other two boys had already left. There were no cameras
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Speaker 2: at the local gas station, Francs Oil and Gas that
8:21
Speaker 2: would have captured Tom stopping to fill his tank. At
8:24
Speaker 2: least the Sheriff's office did not find such a camera.
8:27
Speaker 2: A school friend told Penny days later that he drove
8:30
Speaker 2: past Francs at about eleven thirty that night and viewed
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Speaker 2: Tom getting gas. Tom used his mother's debit card for
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Speaker 2: the purchase. It was an hour and a half later,
8:38
Speaker 2: but only a half a mile away from that same
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Speaker 2: gas station, now well past Tom's curfew, that a Dodge
8:44
Speaker 2: Durango was captured by a security camera from the Abraham
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Speaker 2: Trading Company on the corner of Second Street in Maine,
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Speaker 2: driving in the direction of his house. It is impossible
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Speaker 2: to see who the driver of the Durango is from
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Speaker 2: the footage. One minute after the initial capture at one
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Speaker 2: at eleven am, the Durango is seen again on the
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Speaker 2: same camera, now driving in the opposite direction. Already out searching,
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Speaker 2: Tucker's vehicle was captured on the same camera heading in
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Speaker 2: the same direction less than ten minutes later. Two more
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Speaker 2: unexplained sightings were recorded in the early morning hours. At
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Speaker 2: five twenty eight am, the truck was again headed back
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Speaker 2: towards Tom's house, only to reverse course two minutes later
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Speaker 2: and captured a driving in the opposite direction towards town.
9:30
Speaker 2: The next key sighting was at five point fifty six
9:32
Speaker 2: am outside of the recreation center, near to where Tom's
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Speaker 2: vehicle would be found hours later. It showed the truck
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Speaker 2: turning onto the obscure road that seemed unknown to anyone
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Speaker 2: but select locals. It is not seen returning. There were
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Speaker 2: no other vehicles shown going in or out of the area.
9:50
Speaker 2: Searches began around the broader terrain surrounding where the suv
9:53
Speaker 2: was found, as well as around the recreation center along
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Speaker 2: the Canadian River, scanning Lake Marvin and the wildlife reserve
10:00
Speaker 2: in the days, weeks and months that followed. At one point,
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Speaker 2: dogs managed to catch a scent that led out towards
10:06
Speaker 2: the edge of the tree line, but seemed to lose
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Speaker 2: the path at that point. In January twenty seventeen, Tom's backpack,
10:14
Speaker 2: containing his school laptop and various other personal items, was
10:17
Speaker 2: located along Lake Marvin Road, sitting just behind a fence,
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Speaker 2: propped upright as though it had been intentionally placed or
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Speaker 2: left there.
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Speaker 1: In the backpack, there's the computer. The big question is
10:29
Speaker 1: is why was the backpack out on Lake Marvin Road?
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Speaker 1: And that's a huge question. Was it thrown there? Was
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Speaker 1: it placed there? What was the deal?
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Speaker 2: The bag had slightly sunken into the ground and was
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Speaker 2: moldy and wet from months of rain. The information on
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Speaker 2: the laptop was analyzed for anything relevant, but nothing was found.
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Speaker 2: Frustrated with the lack of progress and growing tensions between
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Speaker 2: Tom's family and the county Sheriff's office, and he hired
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Speaker 2: a private investigations team to take on the case and
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Speaker 2: called for the sheriff to hand over the investigation to
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Speaker 2: another agency. The growing animosity between Penny and Sheriff Lewis
11:05
Speaker 2: had a long history stretching years previous, when Lewis, as
11:09
Speaker 2: a deputy in a neighboring county, had independently taken the
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Speaker 2: initiative one night to scold Tom and some of his
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Speaker 2: friends for hanging out around a movie theater after hours.
11:19
Speaker 2: Tom had accused Deputy Lewis of singling him out during
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Speaker 2: this episode, cursing at him and unnecessarily placing him in
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Speaker 2: the back of his squad car in an act of intimidation.
11:29
Speaker 2: The teenagers were out late, but they had done nothing wrong.
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Speaker 2: Penny filed a formal complaint against Lewis and also took
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Speaker 2: active steps to vocalize her negative opinion of him around
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Speaker 2: Canadian when he stood for election as sheriff. Her efforts failed,
11:43
Speaker 2: of course, when he was awarded the position. Louis's subsequent
11:47
Speaker 2: role leading the investigation into Tom's disappearance was not ideal.
11:51
Speaker 2: Penny did not trust the county sheriff and relied instead
11:54
Speaker 2: on the work of her private investigator. Philip Kleine, a
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Speaker 2: well known missing person's investigator in Texas with a reputation
12:02
Speaker 2: of taking on the trickiest cases and a track record
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Speaker 2: of finding people that do not want to be found,
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Speaker 2: was hired by Penny Meek and descended on Canadian to
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Speaker 2: commence his investigation. He started by making contact with the
12:14
Speaker 2: sheriff and others involved. A no nonsense and somewhat arrogant
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Speaker 2: but mostly successful. Investigator Klein's approach was immediately met with
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Speaker 2: backlash from law enforcement as he started to point fingers
12:26
Speaker 2: in unexpected directions and asked questions about some unlikely suspects.
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Speaker 2: The Private Investigations Team were not impressed with the efforts
12:34
Speaker 2: made to date by the Sheriff's office. Nathan Lewis was
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Speaker 2: refusing requests made by the PI team for access to
12:40
Speaker 2: evidence or basic information that would assist their efforts, and
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Speaker 2: Klein found their initial theories of what had happened to
12:46
Speaker 2: Tom to be laughable if the situation was not so tragic.
12:52
Speaker 2: Proposals that Tom had simply walked off to start a
12:55
Speaker 2: new life, for instance, were illogical given the circumstances. He
12:58
Speaker 2: had no money, he had not yet used his Social
13:00
Speaker 2: Security number to get a job, and appeared to have
13:03
Speaker 2: no motivation to take such steps. The shellcasing alone should
13:07
Speaker 2: have been sufficient to indicate that foul play had occurred.
13:09
Speaker 2: In Cline's view, a conclusion that the sheriff had not
13:12
Speaker 2: yet reached, or simply would not admit they were entertaining
13:18
Speaker 2: the idea, however, that Tom may have committed suicide his
13:22
Speaker 2: former girlfriend at Sage Pennington, a college student from out
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Speaker 2: of town reportedly told Lewis that Tom had recently begun
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Speaker 2: to wear adult diapers, a fetish that he reportedly had
13:32
Speaker 2: for years. Tom was fearful that students at his high
13:35
Speaker 2: school would find out. Petty was insistent that these rumors
13:39
Speaker 2: were fabrications and that her son did not wear diapers.
13:43
Speaker 2: Klein went so far as to assert that this rumor
13:45
Speaker 2: was created by Sheriff Lewis himself as part of a
13:47
Speaker 2: campaign of distractions to divert attention away from the sheriff's
13:51
Speaker 2: own incompetence in dealing with the investigation. What was clear, however,
13:56
Speaker 2: was that Tom was going through a few negative changes
13:58
Speaker 2: in his life. Only a few months prior, Tom and
14:02
Speaker 2: Sage had broken up. This was a decision that he
14:05
Speaker 2: outwardly appeared happy with. The relationship had turned a long
14:08
Speaker 2: distance after Sage left for college, so the split was
14:11
Speaker 2: a logical choice. He had said, no hard feelings. They
14:14
Speaker 2: remained close friends. The breakup coincided with Tom's exit from
14:18
Speaker 2: the football team after a decision had been made to
14:21
Speaker 2: make him second string. He quit the Wildcats entirely, not
14:25
Speaker 2: wishing to spend the entire season watching the games from
14:28
Speaker 2: the bench, and so when Petty sat down with Sheriff
14:33
Speaker 2: Lewis for the first time in the days immediately following
14:35
Speaker 2: Tom's disappearance, she stated that her first thought was that
14:39
Speaker 2: Tom had killed himself, perhaps he was distraught about his breakup.
14:43
Speaker 2: She said that she had not noted any outward signs
14:46
Speaker 2: of depression in her son, but this ran in the family.
14:49
Speaker 2: Her father had taken his own life at a campsite
14:51
Speaker 2: a few miles from Lake Marvin Road years earlier. He
14:55
Speaker 2: died of a gunshot wound. Tom had learned of this
14:57
Speaker 2: only months earlier. As a child, he had believed that
15:00
Speaker 2: his grandfather died of a heart attack. Even if it
15:05
Speaker 2: could be accepted that Tom had chosen suicide by gunshot,
15:08
Speaker 2: he should have been found with the shell casing, which
15:11
Speaker 2: he obviously was not. Also, all guns in the household
15:14
Speaker 2: that he may have had access to had been accounted for.
15:17
Speaker 2: They did not own a twenty five caliber pistol, and
15:20
Speaker 2: Tom did not like guns.
15:23
Speaker 1: You didn't check my son's call, Huh.
15:27
Speaker 2: We don't need to.
15:28
Speaker 1: Why he's a runaway and I'm sorry I have to
15:34
Speaker 1: say it like this. He is a runaway that wears
15:38
Speaker 1: diapers that peas and diapers that is queer, and that
15:42
Speaker 1: is probably in North or South Carolina or California.
15:46
Speaker 3: That's what we think. Why do we say that?
15:49
Speaker 4: Is that a theory? Is it?
15:51
Speaker 1: No, That's what the.
15:52
Speaker 5: Sheriff told him.
15:56
Speaker 2: One of the first steps undertaken by Klein was to
15:58
Speaker 2: re examine the physical evidence. Luminol testing conducted inside of
16:02
Speaker 2: the Dodge Durango aimed to illuminate any bloodstains in the
16:05
Speaker 2: interior that were invisible to the naked eye. When Klein
16:09
Speaker 2: conducted the test, he said, it lit up like a
16:11
Speaker 2: Christmas tree, revealing stains around the console, the driver's seat,
16:15
Speaker 2: and the inside of the door. What Klein seemed to
16:18
Speaker 2: have uncovered was evidence of a murder and explanation for
16:21
Speaker 2: the existence of the twenty five caliber casing. In addition,
16:25
Speaker 2: a well trained cadaver dog, Chance was brought in to assist.
16:29
Speaker 2: Chance unambiguously and rapidly indicated at the interior of the
16:33
Speaker 2: Dodge Durango. Klein now believed that a dead body had
16:36
Speaker 2: been inside the truck at some point in time.
16:39
Speaker 6: Two things. Number One, we put up a photo showing
16:44
Speaker 6: a Chance the cadaver dog and how the dog hit
16:47
Speaker 6: on the automobile. Cadaver dogs are especially trained to only
16:51
Speaker 6: hit on cadaver sent so he hit on the cadaver
16:55
Speaker 6: scent inside the car. Second after that happened, wear the
17:00
Speaker 6: car and we put it in a warehouse, and bit
17:03
Speaker 6: by bit we lluminol the car, which is, we sprayed
17:07
Speaker 6: luminol in the car and then we turned the special
17:11
Speaker 6: light on. When that happened, we were shot. We found
17:14
Speaker 6: which was an enormous amount of glow inside the car.
17:20
Speaker 6: And then we begin the luminol down towards the floor
17:23
Speaker 6: and we found a pooling area of blood. So our
17:28
Speaker 6: theory has been and has always been, that that somebody
17:35
Speaker 6: must have come up behind Tom while he was sitting
17:38
Speaker 6: in the car and shot him in the head.
17:41
Speaker 2: There were some potential issues with the luminol testing. Presumably,
17:45
Speaker 2: if the stains revealed by the luminol were from the
17:47
Speaker 2: night of Tom's disappearance, someone would have needed to thoroughly
17:50
Speaker 2: clean up the vehicle itself, But no one, including the
17:54
Speaker 2: family who received the truck back the next day, noted
17:57
Speaker 2: any signs that the cab had been cleaned. It did
17:59
Speaker 2: not smell of cleaning products. In fact, it was notably
18:03
Speaker 2: very dusty and dirty throughout, so what explains the illuminated portions?
18:07
Speaker 2: The Attorney General's Office assessed the photos released by Klein
18:10
Speaker 2: and claimed that he performed the testing inaccurately. They said
18:14
Speaker 2: that he failed to follow the instructions for the luminal
18:16
Speaker 2: testing properly by including an additional light source in the process,
18:20
Speaker 2: which would ruin the results. The use of this extra
18:24
Speaker 2: source caused areas to falsely appear lit with blood stains
18:27
Speaker 2: where there were none. They pointed specifically to one photo,
18:31
Speaker 2: unfortunately low quality, in which Philip Klein's own shirt appears
18:35
Speaker 2: to be illuminated during the testing, but presumably his shirt
18:39
Speaker 2: had not been covered with blood. Klein began organizing searches
18:44
Speaker 2: surrounding Lake Marvin Road, stemming out from the location where
18:48
Speaker 2: Tom's backpack had been failed. In October twenty seventeen, he
18:51
Speaker 2: arranged for a group of volunteers to head out to
18:54
Speaker 2: a yet undisclosed area, notifying the Sheriff's Department forty eight
18:58
Speaker 2: hours in advance of the exact resins that they planned
19:00
Speaker 2: to comb through. Items of potential interest were located almost immediately.
19:06
Speaker 2: An iPhone the same model as Tom's, was found in
19:09
Speaker 2: the grass along the side of the road a few
19:11
Speaker 2: miles from the backpack's location. They also found a black
19:15
Speaker 2: leather gun holster, about the same size as one that
19:17
Speaker 2: would hold a twenty five caliber handgun. No gun was found,
19:21
Speaker 2: and there was nothing more than speculation linking the holster
19:24
Speaker 2: to Tom's case. But when test came back on the iPhone,
19:27
Speaker 2: the PI team was shocked, as were law enforcements. They
19:30
Speaker 2: had found Tom's iPhone. The phone had been found in
19:33
Speaker 2: near perfect condition. It appeared to the naked eye to
19:36
Speaker 2: have been left outside no more than a few hours
19:39
Speaker 2: at most, certainly not an entire year. The grass in
19:43
Speaker 2: which the phone sat had been mowed several times in
19:45
Speaker 2: the weeks prior, though not a scratch was seen on
19:48
Speaker 2: the device. Since the time of Tom's disappearance, Hemphill County
19:52
Speaker 2: had experienced twenty six inches of rain and one major
19:55
Speaker 2: ice storm over the winter, but the moisture indicators on
19:58
Speaker 2: the phone had not been activated. It cannot be stated
20:02
Speaker 2: with one certainty, but law enforcement and the private investigators
20:06
Speaker 2: agreed on one central fact. The phone had not been
20:08
Speaker 2: in that location for very long. It had most likely
20:11
Speaker 2: been planted that morning to be found by the search team.
20:17
Speaker 2: Philip Klein accused the Sheriff's office of planting the iPhone,
20:20
Speaker 2: while the sheriff pointed the finger at client.
20:24
Speaker 5: But it's just strange that Field calls this big search
20:29
Speaker 5: and lay more rude and then just to go and
20:32
Speaker 5: feed off the road in the bargage.
20:34
Speaker 4: We had a so phone. Now, how is that.
20:42
Speaker 5: Nowhere? The phone is in our staying the phone has
20:47
Speaker 5: been case and I'm just having a problem with and
20:53
Speaker 5: it could be somebody had to sell phone through it after.
20:57
Speaker 1: Knowing that there was a search.
20:58
Speaker 5: But on the other hand, Phil coming in here with
21:01
Speaker 5: this big show place the cell phone in here, we
21:05
Speaker 5: don't know if we don't have the end of that.
21:07
Speaker 5: And I'm not going to accuse Phil that by no means,
21:11
Speaker 5: but you have to we have to think about every
21:13
Speaker 5: possibility and every angle that the cell phone got caught. Understand,
21:17
Speaker 5: we're just saying that we got a cell phone.
21:18
Speaker 6: A specicis if we had twenty year Okay, okay.
21:21
Speaker 3: So filled calls the calls.
21:24
Speaker 5: Them for the search, and he definitely says that we
21:27
Speaker 5: will find stuff on this search. We're looking for a
21:30
Speaker 5: twenty five auto pistol, we're looking for cell phone. If
21:33
Speaker 5: I'm if I stand correct, is those are two things
21:36
Speaker 5: that he knows that they're probably gonna find on the search. Okay,
21:39
Speaker 5: He tells the media that what two things we find
21:43
Speaker 5: on the road during this search. We found a phone
21:47
Speaker 5: and we find a twenty five ottle case that he
21:50
Speaker 5: said the twenty five d.
21:51
Speaker 7: The case.
21:54
Speaker 2: Incline's working theory based partially on evidence and partially on
21:58
Speaker 2: seemingly pure conjecture, Tom had been shot accidentally inside his
22:02
Speaker 2: truck by a school friend who was goofing around with
22:04
Speaker 2: a gun. After finding evidence that Tom's phone had at
22:07
Speaker 2: last pinged off of a tower near to the football
22:09
Speaker 2: stadium late that night, where teenagers regularly hung out, Klein
22:14
Speaker 2: came to believe that Tom had decided to stretch his
22:16
Speaker 2: night right up to curfew by stopping at the football field.
22:20
Speaker 2: He believed that there were likely two other boys present,
22:23
Speaker 2: one of which had a parent in a prominent and
22:25
Speaker 2: powerful position. After the horrible accident, the boys had called
22:29
Speaker 2: for the assistance of this parent, who had in turn
22:32
Speaker 2: contacted the sheriff and pressured him into helping them to
22:35
Speaker 2: cover up what had happened. Klein posited this theory publicly,
22:40
Speaker 2: but stopped short of naming names. He pointed to the
22:43
Speaker 2: fact that search volunteers on the morning the phone was
22:45
Speaker 2: discovered had been unaware of the location they would be
22:48
Speaker 2: looking until the time they set out. Only members of
22:52
Speaker 2: the Sheriff's department had the time and opportunity to plant
22:55
Speaker 2: Tom's iPhone. They did so, perhaps in an attempt to
22:59
Speaker 2: divert the direction of the search. Text messages sent by
23:06
Speaker 2: Penny suggested a different and troubling version of events. Perhaps
23:11
Speaker 2: it was Tom's mother and not the sheriff, that had
23:13
Speaker 2: possession of Tom's iPhone the entire time. Messages from Penny
23:17
Speaker 2: to a friend of Tom's, sent earlier in the year
23:20
Speaker 2: request helped determining the passcode to access Tom's phone. Sheriff
23:24
Speaker 2: Lewis was presented these texts from the person who received
23:27
Speaker 2: them from Penny. Why would Penny require the passcode to
23:30
Speaker 2: a phone that she did not have. Was it possible
23:33
Speaker 2: that she was hiding her son's phone all this time
23:36
Speaker 2: and later planted it for searchers to find, and if so, why.
23:43
Speaker 2: In August twenty eighteen, following a petition launched by Penny
23:47
Speaker 2: Meek to have the Sheriff's office removed from the case,
23:50
Speaker 2: the investigation was handed over to the state Attorney General's office,
23:53
Speaker 2: and the FBI, as well as the Texas Rangers, became involved.
23:57
Speaker 2: The Attorney General's office inherited a fused investigation. After assessing
24:02
Speaker 2: the evidence before them, the lead investigator, Sergeant Rachel Catting,
24:06
Speaker 2: concluded that someone must be lying, so she started polygraphing
24:10
Speaker 2: those involved. Philip Quine took a test and passed after
24:14
Speaker 2: accusations from Sheriff Lewis that he had in fact planted
24:18
Speaker 2: the iPhone in an attempt to make his investigation appear successful.
24:22
Speaker 2: The sheriff was not spared. Nathan Lewis claimed that his
24:26
Speaker 2: long term anxiety issues would interfere with his results and
24:29
Speaker 2: that the questioning was unfairly conducted. When asked whether he
24:33
Speaker 2: was involved with the disappearance of Tom Brown, he answered
24:36
Speaker 2: negative and tested as deceptive. Penny and her husband, Chris Meek,
24:41
Speaker 2: also undertook voluntary lie detector tests. Tucker, Tom's brother, was
24:46
Speaker 2: said to be too distraught to take the test and
24:48
Speaker 2: not confident in the accuracy of the results. He was
24:51
Speaker 2: not pressured to take one. When asked whether they were
24:54
Speaker 2: aware of the location of Tom's body, both Penny and
24:57
Speaker 2: Chris responded in the negative, and both of them registered
25:00
Speaker 2: as deceptive. These results sent red flags to investigators, who
25:05
Speaker 2: then began pressuring Penny. Penny was directly accused of covering
25:09
Speaker 2: up the death of her son. The theory was that
25:11
Speaker 2: she had found Tom after he had committed suicide. According
25:15
Speaker 2: to this accusation, as Penny recounted, she was told that
25:18
Speaker 2: after coming upon Tom in his truck, she moved her
25:21
Speaker 2: son's body and hid evidence of the incident because she
25:24
Speaker 2: was ashamed of what he had done. Penny found the
25:27
Speaker 2: accusations ludicrous and of course, insulting, and she offered a
25:32
Speaker 2: far simpler explanation for why she was searching for the
25:35
Speaker 2: PASCO to her son's phone. She did not have the
25:38
Speaker 2: phone in her possession, but rather a deputy from the
25:41
Speaker 2: Sheriff's office had requested the passcode from her. Confused as
25:45
Speaker 2: to why since the phone was missing, she nonetheless was
25:48
Speaker 2: simply attempting to provide them with the information they had
25:51
Speaker 2: requested of her. There was one final piece of evidence
25:57
Speaker 2: found on the iPhone that would weigh in on the
25:59
Speaker 2: balance of probability of these varying theories. At nine to
26:02
Speaker 2: eleven PM that night, Tom's browser history showed searches for
26:06
Speaker 2: suicide prevention helplines, but none of these numbers were ever
26:10
Speaker 2: dialed on the phone. Friends with Tom that night said
26:13
Speaker 2: that he was in good spirits, showed no signs of
26:15
Speaker 2: anything being off, and aside from listening to one or
26:18
Speaker 2: two melancholy songs, it was a light and fun evening.
26:28
Speaker 2: Sheriff Deputy Gregory found the skull of Tom Brown at
26:31
Speaker 2: about nine thirty am on January ninth, twenty nineteen, on
26:35
Speaker 2: Lake Marvin Road and roughly fourteen miles from where Tom's
26:38
Speaker 2: truck had been found just two years before. Reports that
26:42
Speaker 2: the deputy discovered the skull randomly at two am have
26:45
Speaker 2: been disputed by the Attorney General's Office.
26:49
Speaker 6: The very very, very big concern we have that at
26:54
Speaker 6: two o'clock in the morning that a sheriff's Dippy's walking
26:59
Speaker 6: around in the same area where Tom's body is found
27:02
Speaker 6: approximately a year and a half two years later, and
27:06
Speaker 6: he is supposedly at two o'clock in the morning looking
27:09
Speaker 6: for deer antlers or deer scat and he comes across
27:13
Speaker 6: the body. I mean, that makes no sense to any
27:16
Speaker 6: of us. We're not saying that mister Gregory, who was
27:21
Speaker 6: a sheriff's deputy at the time whose terminate subsequently terminated.
27:25
Speaker 6: We're not saying that he's a suspect, but we have
27:29
Speaker 6: extreme concerns of why this man could find a body
27:32
Speaker 6: out there. This is the same sheriff's deputy that when
27:36
Speaker 6: we did the twelve mile search from the beginning of
27:38
Speaker 6: Lake Marvin Road to the end of Lake Marvin Road,
27:41
Speaker 6: kind of pushed us away from the area because they
27:44
Speaker 6: said they had another investigation going on with some drug activity.
27:50
Speaker 2: Only partial remains were retrieved from the site. Assessments conducted
27:54
Speaker 2: at the University of North Texas found injuries consistent with
27:58
Speaker 2: blunt force trauma impact on the face and other areas,
28:01
Speaker 2: but they could not determine conclusively if this had occurred
28:05
Speaker 2: while Tom was alive or early post mortem. In addition,
28:09
Speaker 2: it was not concluded that these injuries alone would have
28:12
Speaker 2: been fatal. Investigators inquired as to whether there could have
28:15
Speaker 2: been a gunshot wound to the head without leaving any
28:18
Speaker 2: evidence on the skull. They were told by the unt
28:22
Speaker 2: experts that this could not have happened without indicators. Despite
28:26
Speaker 2: having finally found Tom, it remained entirely unclear what had
28:30
Speaker 2: caused his death.
28:32
Speaker 3: It's a full flash homicide investigation. No matter how you
28:35
Speaker 3: look at it, it's a homicide investigation. What will happen
28:38
Speaker 3: now is that the OAG and the Texas Rangers will
28:44
Speaker 3: continue their investigation and continue to interview people and build evidence.
28:49
Speaker 3: I can't talk about the evidence out there, so please
28:52
Speaker 3: don't ask. I mean, I'm just telling it down. We
28:57
Speaker 3: on our side, if we were re engaged, we will
29:00
Speaker 3: start a homicide investigation on this side, where the first
29:03
Speaker 3: thing that we do that we know they are doing
29:06
Speaker 3: is going back over all the old information.
29:09
Speaker 2: The Attorney General's lead investigator, Rachel Katting, was offering a
29:13
Speaker 2: little information or clarification at that point, but did state
29:17
Speaker 2: blatantly that it remained unclear if Tom's death was accidental
29:21
Speaker 2: or an act of suicide or homicide.
29:25
Speaker 4: You have a car at least ten miles as the
29:29
Speaker 4: crow flies from where the remains are found, twenty one
29:34
Speaker 4: miles if you're going to walk along the road. You
29:39
Speaker 4: have a phone that was found in excellent condition eleven
29:43
Speaker 4: months after Thomas went missing, along with a backpack that
29:49
Speaker 4: was found several more miles down the road. And so
29:53
Speaker 4: to me, that does not add up to no foul play.
29:58
Speaker 2: In November of the same year, Nathan lewe resigned his
30:00
Speaker 2: position as sheriff of hemp Hill County. Amongst allegations that
30:04
Speaker 2: he had falsified documents and lied and exaggerated about training
30:08
Speaker 2: hours undertaken by him and his deputies. On the back
30:11
Speaker 2: of this fraud were allegations that he had also forged
30:14
Speaker 2: documentation in the Tom Brown case by submitting fake documents
30:18
Speaker 2: about security camera footage over a year and a half
30:21
Speaker 2: later to cover incompetent investigative work. There's what former Deputy
30:26
Speaker 2: Clapp had to say when TICEL investigators asked why Sheriff
30:30
Speaker 2: Lewis might fabricate the training records.
30:33
Speaker 7: Because we've been through the whole Tom Brown mess and riot,
30:38
Speaker 7: you know all the Yeah, well, hail on that deal.
30:43
Speaker 7: He manufactured a supplement a year and a half after
30:45
Speaker 7: the fact, so saying deal, So doing something like this
30:50
Speaker 7: same deal a stretch.
30:51
Speaker 2: No.
30:52
Speaker 7: Yeah, Now when you write reports a year and a
30:54
Speaker 7: half after because why because we're getting ready to turn
30:57
Speaker 7: it all over to the Attorney General. Yeah, and I
31:00
Speaker 7: go to him and say, you've got two pages in
31:03
Speaker 7: this thing. I've got twenty six. You need to catch
31:08
Speaker 7: up some supplements. You need to do something. What where's
31:12
Speaker 7: your documentation?
31:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:16
Speaker 2: In early twenty twenty one, the Attorney General's Office established
31:20
Speaker 2: a cold Case in Missing Persons unit that was tasked
31:23
Speaker 2: with reviewing the evidence of Tom Brown's questionable death case
31:26
Speaker 2: with independent experts in an attempt to discover new evidence.
31:31
Speaker 2: It had been thought that convening a grand jury and
31:33
Speaker 2: subpoena ing all witnesses to testify under oath would be
31:37
Speaker 2: a means to weed out any and all individuals who
31:39
Speaker 2: are lying, because without a doubt someone was. The idea
31:44
Speaker 2: was scrapped, however, when it was concluded that a grand
31:46
Speaker 2: jury would be very likely to hand out indictments for
31:50
Speaker 2: various related charges in the case to multiple individuals, but
31:54
Speaker 2: by investigator Catting's own admission, there was nowhere near enough
31:58
Speaker 2: evidence to actually convict anyone of a crime in this case.
32:02
Speaker 2: They believed that indictments would be easily acquired despite not
32:05
Speaker 2: having enough evidence to prove guilt, so it was determined
32:08
Speaker 2: that proceeding with a grand jury was unethical. The individuals
32:12
Speaker 2: of interest were never named, nor were the specific charges
32:16
Speaker 2: they had considered pursuing. Philip Klein, however, had no such
32:19
Speaker 2: issues pointing the finger publicly at those he felt were
32:22
Speaker 2: responsible for Tom's death. Following the release of a two
32:26
Speaker 2: hundred and forty nine page document from the Attorney General's
32:29
Speaker 2: Office outlining their investigation, Klein held a town hall meeting
32:33
Speaker 2: in Canadian where he proclaimed he would finally reveal all
32:36
Speaker 2: the facts. There, two hundred residents attended to hear the
32:40
Speaker 2: investigator reveal what he had discovered.
32:44
Speaker 1: THEAG released a report last night which I don't know
32:52
Speaker 1: how to say that other than his most unprofessional report
32:56
Speaker 1: I've ever read. I'm very surprised by it. I think
32:59
Speaker 1: they were paid as they knew we were going to
33:01
Speaker 1: release some information that's never been released about the Tom
33:04
Speaker 1: Brown pace today, including a possible manner of them.
33:08
Speaker 2: Gon was Klein's confidence in the theory of the two boys,
33:11
Speaker 2: the accidental shooting, and a conspiratorial cover up by a
33:14
Speaker 2: powerful parent and the county sheriff. Though he was not
33:18
Speaker 2: letting Nathan Lewis off the hook. Klein now pointed to
33:21
Speaker 2: five audio recorded interviews with an incarcerated man named Chris Jones.
33:26
Speaker 2: Jones claimed that he witnessed Tom Brown being held at
33:29
Speaker 2: gunpoint by a sheriff's deputy on the night of his
33:32
Speaker 2: disappearance and at the direction of then Sheriff Lewis.
33:36
Speaker 1: I want you to hear but this boy says, and
33:39
Speaker 1: then compare it to what I just told you, which
33:41
Speaker 1: is stopped.
33:46
Speaker 7: I see suming you.
33:47
Speaker 1: Out there shaking the hits. Now listen to this.
33:54
Speaker 8: What he said was number one, he was getting paid
34:00
Speaker 8: to Michael bumper Kyan number one. Number two he was
34:06
Speaker 8: told what games to forbit and in what games to
34:10
Speaker 8: throw or lose or however you want to work it,
34:13
Speaker 8: and what games to win, and that there's a group
34:17
Speaker 8: of people in Canadian that damble came and he excuse
34:24
Speaker 8: my language, pissed off the wrong people that hasn't been
34:27
Speaker 8: They would take him to the locking ridge, down the
34:30
Speaker 8: ladder and Dreda Gillan.
34:34
Speaker 5: So I'm just a bit confused.
34:35
Speaker 1: You're on the record with Texas Monthly saying that Thomas
34:38
Speaker 1: was killed because of a possible crime.
34:41
Speaker 8: Involving a dun and being shot in the back of
34:43
Speaker 8: the head. And now you've played the audio from Chris
34:46
Speaker 8: Jones basically.
34:47
Speaker 3: That he was held hostage by law enforcement.
34:50
Speaker 5: So what really happened.
34:52
Speaker 8: With Thomas for doing that?
34:54
Speaker 3: Great question?
34:55
Speaker 1: Let me tell it to you this way. Like I said,
34:58
Speaker 1: it's theory. We gave you a two hour long presentation
35:04
Speaker 1: on the facts of the case. The theory is something
35:09
Speaker 1: happened out at the football field based upon the facts
35:12
Speaker 1: that we have, including Chris Jones. We didn't say he
35:16
Speaker 1: died out there. We said he was hurt out there.
35:19
Speaker 1: We know now right here on the side of his
35:21
Speaker 1: face was crushed in. We didn't release that. We didn't
35:24
Speaker 1: tell anybody. We didn't want anybody to know.
35:28
Speaker 6: We know that.
35:29
Speaker 1: We have an ipost with a pool of blood that
35:32
Speaker 1: was washed up. Now some in law enforcement say, ay,
35:37
Speaker 1: you did that. You did the test wrong. You didn't
35:40
Speaker 1: go We didn't do it in the dark, Well, yes
35:43
Speaker 1: we did. It was pitch black in there. I don't
35:45
Speaker 1: know what did you see it if you were there
35:47
Speaker 1: watching your whole family. We had ten people from her
35:49
Speaker 1: family watching us index that car. But what we got, eh,
35:56
Speaker 1: it wasn't blood we was. That's a theory again, as
36:01
Speaker 1: I said, our belief is something happened to Tom while
36:05
Speaker 1: he was sitting in that car, based upon the pings
36:11
Speaker 1: where his last ping came from. Right, something happened, and
36:17
Speaker 1: our belief is based upon the physical evidence he went
36:22
Speaker 1: like this in the blood Pool.
36:29
Speaker 2: When the investigative report was released, it summarized a few
36:33
Speaker 2: additional factors under a section entitled the Unexplained and Contradictory Evidence.
36:38
Speaker 2: Tom's Dodge Durango drove in one direction at one ten am,
36:41
Speaker 2: only to turn around to another at one eleven, then
36:44
Speaker 2: disappeared for hours in which he was presumably driving around town,
36:48
Speaker 2: only to re emerge on camera at five twenty eight am.
36:52
Speaker 2: During this time, Tom's phone battery died and he chose
36:55
Speaker 2: not to charge it, despite a charging cord found plunked
36:58
Speaker 2: in inside the truck. There was also no evidence, either
37:02
Speaker 2: inside the truck or with Tom's remains, that would point
37:05
Speaker 2: to a method of suicide. If this was in fact
37:07
Speaker 2: the cause of death, then there are questions about Tucker.
37:12
Speaker 2: Tucker drove with Deputy Gregory searching for Tom that night
37:15
Speaker 2: from four am to six am. Tucker claimed this was
37:18
Speaker 2: by request of the deputy, so that he could point
37:21
Speaker 2: out the addresses of people close to Tom to check
37:23
Speaker 2: it out. The report says this claim is false. In
37:28
Speaker 2: the deputies report, he notes that Tucker actively sought to
37:32
Speaker 2: keep him from driving into the area where Tom's truck
37:35
Speaker 2: was ultimately found. All of this is according to the
37:38
Speaker 2: Attorney General's official statements, which Klein rejects outright. He has
37:43
Speaker 2: stated that the report is nonsense and riddled with lies
37:46
Speaker 2: and false information. Much like everything in this case, it
37:50
Speaker 2: is hard to know what information to trust.
37:54
Speaker 4: I just think that we have to we have to
37:58
Speaker 4: know what happened, because I don't think when you don't
38:01
Speaker 4: know what happened, it's hard to move forward. He was
38:04
Speaker 4: a good person, and he was a person that you
38:07
Speaker 4: want in your society because he was kind, He was
38:10
Speaker 4: kind hearted. He was an encourager for some people. He
38:22
Speaker 4: was their biggest cheerleader. And I know we miss him.
38:30
Speaker 2: Thomas Brown's questionable death case remains an open investigation. Penny
38:34
Speaker 2: Meek still lives in Canadian despite being ostracized in many
38:37
Speaker 2: ways by her community. Most recently, in the spring of
38:40
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, one of the many signs up around
38:44
Speaker 2: town reminding residents of Tom and his case was vandalized.
38:47
Speaker 2: Someone spray painted a single name across the text, there
38:51
Speaker 2: is a killer among us, and that name was Penny.
38:55
Speaker 2: As for the grieving mother, she does not want to
38:57
Speaker 2: leave Canadian until she has some answers and that was
39:02
Speaker 2: the tragic and mysterious case of Thomas Brown. Thanks for watching.
39:06
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin. This is just thought lounge. I'll see him
39:09
Speaker 2: the next one.