Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / No Justice, No Peace: The Murder of Travoski Johnson

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No Justice, No Peace: The Murder of Travoski Johnson · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In the piny woods of East Texas,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the roads are quiet, so quiet you can hear yourself breathe.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: These are roads where the only sound is the crunch
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of gravel under your tires and the occasional whisper of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: wind through the trees. It was on one of these roads,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: in the chill of a February morning, that a Rusk
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: County constable noticed a car sitting off to the side.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Nothing about it screamed trouble. The windows were up, it
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: was cold to the touch. It looked like it had
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: simply been left there, temporarily abandoned, perhaps as the result
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of engine trouble. But two days later that car would
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: no longer be just a car. It would be a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: crime scene. Inside its trunk was the body of a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: young man twenty years old. The questions how he ended
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: up in that trunk and how he ended up dead
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: have never been answered. This is the story of a
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: life stolen, a family that felt ignored by the system,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and a case that's still waiting for justice. You're listening
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: to Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. I'm vincent and this
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: is no justice, no peace. The murder of Travosky Johnson.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Travosky La Tres Johnson was born on September thirteenth, nineteen
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: eighty in Rusk County, Texas. By the year two thousand
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and one, he was twenty years old and enrolled at
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Kilgore College. He'd recently been living with his mother's boyfriend
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: in Longview, but his license still listed Mount Enterprise, his
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: mother's home, as his permanent address. Travosky was soft spoken,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: deeply trusting, and kept close to family. According to his mother,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Sharon Bratton, he had a good heart, maybe too good,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: she would later say. He trusted people he shouldn't have
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: people who might not have deserved that kind of trust.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The last confirmed sighting of Trevowsky alive was on Friday,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: February twenty third, two thousand and one. No one knew
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: it at the time, but that would be the last
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: day his family and friends would ever speak to him.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: The next day, Saturday, February twenty fourth, a Rusk County
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: precinct for constable came across a car parked off County
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  Speaker 1: Road thirty one sixty two, about eight miles west of
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  Speaker 1: Mount Enterprise near LANEVU. It was Travowsky's nineteen eighty three
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Monte Carlow. The constable gave it a quick glance. Nothing
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: seemed out of place. He didn't see a reason to
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: investigate further. Later that same day, Travosky's girlfriend also went
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: out to check on the car. She'd heard it was
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: sitting abandoned, and knowing the car had a tendency to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: break down, she assumed Travasky had just run into more
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: car trouble. She rolled up the windows, locked the doors,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and left. At that point, nobody knew he was already dead.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning came and Travosky still hadn't checked in with anyone.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Calls when unanswered, his phone had gone dark. Sharon Bratton
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and Marian Johnson, his mother and father, started to panic.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Their son had gone missing, and they knew it wasn't
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: like him. Relatives went out to check the car themselves.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: They noticed the trunk had been tampered with pride opened
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: just about an inch, and through that inch they could
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: see what looked like a body. They immediately called the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Rusk County Sheriff's office. A deputy was dispatched to the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: scene and At around mid day on February twenty fifth,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: investigators opened the trunk. There was no mistake. Travowsky Johnson
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: was inside dead. No one could say how long he'd
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: been there, but officials estimated his time of death was
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: somewhere after midnight on Saturday and before six or seven
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: am on Sunday. Rusk County Sheriff James Stroud called in
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the FBI's evidence team out of Dallas. They arrived that
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: night and worked into the early hours of Monday morning.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: They photographed the scene, looked for fingerprints, bagged evidence, and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: removed Trevowsky's body from the trunk. There were no bullet wounds,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: no stab wound, no rope marks, no signs of strangulation,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: nothing at first glance to suggest how Trevowsky had died,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: but Justice of the Piece seth Stein wasn't convinced it
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: was natural, and neither was Sheriff Stroud. They ordered the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: body sent to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Dallas for a full autopsy and toxicology screening, but it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: would be some time before those results came back. While
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: authorities waited, so did Trevowsky's family. Only they weren't waiting quietly,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Sharon Bratton began voicing her concerns loudly and publicly. She
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: felt law enforcement wasn't doing enough. They weren't sharing information,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: she said, and weren't treating her son's death with the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: seriousness it deserved. They're acting like it's just another black
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: man dead. She said. She wasn't alone in her concern.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Trevowsky's father, Marian Johnson, contacted the NAACP. They didn't make
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a public statement, but behind the scenes, the gears were turning.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: The parents claimed that potential witnesses were being ignored. One
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: relative said they saw a man with scratches on his
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: face and neck shortly after Travasky went missing. That man
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: claimed his girlfriend had scratched him, but the family didn't
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: buy it, and they didn't think investigators followed up on
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the lead. Another person reportedly approached Sharon Bratton at the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: scene and asked, is that a body in the car?
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Before anyone knew for sure, she said this woman had
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: information for the police. The family said, investigators dismissed it.
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  Speaker 1: According to Chief Deputy Don Morrison, that wasn't true. We've
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: followed every lead we were geting, he said. I don't
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: know what more we could do. But for the family
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: those assurances weren't enough. They wanted to know what was
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: going on in the investigation. To add to the mystery,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Trevowsky's keys, class ring, and cell phone were gone. It's
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: unclear if there were any searches for these items around
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the scene. Someone had removed a speaker box from the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: trunk in order to fit the young man's body inside.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: It was also unaccounted for. By March two thousand and one,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the family's frustration had turned into action. A community group
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  Speaker 1: called Concerned Henderson Slash Rusk County Citizens, led by executive
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: director Frank Diddo, joined the Johnson family to publicly criticize
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the investigation. Together, they planned press conferences and protest demonstrations.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: On March twenty ninth, Sharon Bratton stood before reporters holding
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a copy of her son's embalming report, which she obtained
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: from the funeral home. It detailed bruises to the left
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and right sides of Trevowsky's torso, a bruise on his forehead,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and visible hemorrhaging in his face. None of that was
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: ever disclosed by law enforcement. In another suspicious turn of events,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the family discovered that the last few numbers dialed on
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Trevowsky's phone had been disconnected. We do not want this
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to be another black homicide swept under the carpet. We
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: want answers, We want justice, Sharon said. Frank Diddo drew
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: comparisons between this case and the killing of James Bird
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Junior in nearby Jasper, a brutal hate crime. That reference
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: echoed deeply across East and Southeast Texas. The Sheriff's office
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: insisted they had good reason not to publicly release information
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about the bruising. Yes, the victim had bruises, Sheriff Stroud
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: later admitted, but we don't make that information public. That
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: would be something only a suspect would know. Even so,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that didn't slow the protests. In early April, the Johnson
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: family and their supporters took their message to the streets
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of Henderson, the Rusk County seat. They marched in front
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: of the Sheriff's office, the courthouse, and the Henderson Chamber
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of Commerce. Protesters carried signs reading justice for Trevasky, equal
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: rights for all citizens, We deserve justice, No justice, no peace.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Roughly fifteen demonstrators took part chanting and marching inside the
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's office. Chief Deputy Morrison was asked about the protest.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: He said he understood the family's grief, but emphasized that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the cause of death was still unknown and without that
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: they could do nothing. Obviously, we know the basic facts,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Morrison said, but until weekend determine the cause of death,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: we are actually with our hands tied. Still, the protests continued,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and so did the silence from investigators. Travosky Johnson's family
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: continued to wait for justice, or even a sign that
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: justice was near. April became May, more than two months
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: after the twenty year old's body was found. The autopsy
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: results had still not been released, and the longer the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: silence stretched, the louder the family's protests became. On April
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: twenty seventh, two on INAACP officials held a private meeting
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: with Trovowsky's parents. It had been two full months since
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: he was found, and they still had no explanation for
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: what had happened to him. A few months later, in
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: November two thousand and one, the Tyler Courier Times published
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a public letter penned by Sharon Bratton. She wanted the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: community to know the case hadn't been solved despite what
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: some people might believe. I want to let them know
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  Speaker 1: there will be justice and there will be peace, Sharon wrote.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: If it takes the rest of my life, I will
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  Speaker 1: find out what happened the early morning hours of February
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: twenty fifth. In that letter, she stated that she had
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: hired private investigators out of Dallas to work alongside law enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: She also announced a four thousand dollars reward for information
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  Speaker 1: leading to the arrest and indictment of those responsible. And
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Sharon made it clear her son's death was not natural,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: not accidental, not random. It took more than one person
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  Speaker 1: to put him in that trunk, she said. It doesn't
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: matter if he was alive or not when he was
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: placed inside. It's still murder. For over two years, the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: case dragged on. There were no arrests, no charges, no
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: suspects named publicly. Then in August two thousand and three,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: something changed. Sheriff James Stroud announced that an arrest had
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: been made. The suspect was Carbon D Logan, a thirty
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: eight year old man from DeBerry, Texas. According to the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: arrest Affidaephitt, filed by investigator Joseph heard. The breakthrough came
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: from a tipster, someone close to Logan. The tipster claimed
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: that Logan had confessed to killing Travowsky Johnson and placing
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: him in the trunk of the Monte Carlo. Not only that,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: but also that Logan had taken him to the scene,
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  Speaker 1: showed him the car, and even tossed Trevowsky's belongings out
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  Speaker 1: of the vehicle as they drove down the road. Why
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: had the tipster waited so long to come forward? He
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: told investigators that Logan had threatened to kill him, his girlfriend,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and her child if he ever spoke about it. Sharon
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Bratton was at home the morning of the arrest when
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the phone rang. It was around eight thirty. She recalled.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: He said, we made an arrest, and I started crying.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: It was a cry of joy. After two and a
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  Speaker 1: half years, the moment she'd fought so hard for had
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: finally come. She gave credit where she believed it was due.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I misjudged them, she said, of the Rusk County Sheriff's Office.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I know there were times they couldn't tell me anything,
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  Speaker 1: but I want the African American community to know you
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: can trust the Rusk County Sheriff's department. She remarked that
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the arrest had given her hope, not just for her
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: own family, but for her entire community. They now knew
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: they could trust the justice system, but Sharon also acknowledged
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: that she didn't have closure. I have a little justice,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: but I don't have closure, not right now. For six months,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the Johnson family believed they were on the road to justice.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Carbon D. Logan sat in the Rusk County jail on
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: a one million dollar bond, charged with first degree murder.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: The Sheriff's office told the press they had solid leads.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Investigators commented time had worked in their favor, witnesses were
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: finally talking, people were no longer afraid. But then, on
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: February twenty fourth, two thousand and four, one day before
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the third anniversary of Trevowsky Johnson's death, the case fell apart.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Logan was released. The murder charge was dropped not because
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: of exonerating evidence, not because new information cleared him. It
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: was dropped because of a technical, though necessary deadline in
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Texas law. Under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, prosecutors
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: have one hundred and eighty days to indict someone once
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: they've been arrested. If they failed to do so, the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: case must be dismissed automatically. In Logan's case, the grand
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: jury didn't hear the case against him in time. According
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to Justice of the Piece Bob Richardson, the murder of
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Travowsky Johnson had been sent to the grand jury three
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: times in September, November, and January. Each time it was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: either delayed or passed over, and by February time had
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: run out. Richardson had no choice. He dismissed the charge
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled if new evidence emerged,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: but the damage had been done. Sharon Bratton didn't hear
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the news from the District attorney's office. She learned it
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: in a phone call from a reporter. I'm not only surprised,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: she said, but I am deeply devastated. She said. She
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't given any notice, no warning that the case was
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: in jeopardy. After years of fighting, marching, and pleading with
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: law enforcement, her Son's case had slipped through a legal loophole.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: She wasn't the only one speaking out. Investigator Joseph Hurd,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: who filed the original affidaephit, told the press that the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: investigation was still very much alive. I think the case
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: is going to be solved, he said. I'm a firm
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: believer that everything's going to come out. Even Sheriff Strap
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: said that Logan remained the prime suspect. The case was
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: never cold, the department insisted, just stalled. Investigators had hoped
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to gather more evidence quickly after Logan's arrest, but that
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: evidence didn't materialize in time, or apparently in the two
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: decades since. Of course, with no statute of limitations on murder,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the charge can be refiled at any time, but no
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: one would say when or if that might happen. Carbon Logan,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: for his part, denied everything. He told reporters that he
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: had been singled out because of a past conflict with
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the Northeast Texas Drug Task Force and members of the
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's office. According to Logan, he and his brother had
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: been pressured to cooperate with the task Force or face retaliation.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: He claimed his brother's girlfriend had even been threatened with
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: losing heild if they didn't comply. I've done a lot
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of things in my life I'm not proud of, Logan said,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: but murder isn't one of them. I didn't kill this
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: man or anyone else. He also claimed he knew who
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the tipster was. I know my brother was their informant,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: he said. But think about all I've said. I have
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: never killed anyone. Whether carbon Logan was investigated for elimination
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: is unclear. As of today, no one has ever been
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: convicted in connection with Trovowsky Johnson's death. His mother, Sharon Bratton,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: has continued to speak out for years. She has never
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: stopped advocating for answers, and while her public tone towards
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the Sheriff's office has shifted over time from anger to
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: cautious respect to painful disappointment, her core message has never changed.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: He didn't get into that trunk by himself. She still
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: believes her son's death was a pre planned act, that
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: more than one person was involved, that fingerprints, cell phone records,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and physical evidence were overlooked or ignored. She still believes
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Travosky deserves justice, and she still believes someone in Rusk
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: County knows the truth. If these individuals continue to walk free,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: she once said, then who will be their next victim.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: It's been over two decades since Trevasky La Tres Johnson
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: was found dead in the trunk of his car on
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: a remote stretch of County Road thirty one sixty two,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Two decades since his mother rolled down a dusty East
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Texas road and looked inside that trunk. More than two
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: decades of grief, of frustration, of phone calls and press conferences,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: of marching and waiting, of promises and silence. Twenty four years.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: That's how long this case has gone unsolved. Almost two
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and a half decades of birthdays missed, of holidays without him,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: of empty chairs at the table. Trevosky's name has been
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: adorned on an ornament that hung from a Christmas tree
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: at the Rusk County Courthouse, whispered in prayers, shouted at rallies,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: but it has not been spoken in a courtroom. No arrest,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: no trial, no justice. Travasky was just twenty years old,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a student, a son, nephew, cousin, friend, and someone, maybe
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: more than one person, took his life quietly, brutally, and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: then they disappeared. The bruises, the missing belongings, the cut wires,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the phone numbers that no longer worked, the cause of death,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: although not released, All of it points to something more
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: than a tragic accident and yet to this day, no
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: one has been held accountable. For many families of murder victims,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: closure if it ever comes, doesn't come with a funeral.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: It doesn't come with a news article or even a
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: suspect in custody. It comes with answers, with facts, with
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the truth. For Sharon Bratton, that closure never came. In
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the years that followed the dismissal of charges against carbon Logan,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: she remained a relentless voice in Rusk County. She never
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: stopped calling out what she saw as indifference. She didn't
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: soften her words when it came to the justice system,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and she refused to let her son's memory be buried
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: along with the unanswered questions surrounding his death. I just
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: want to know what happened, she once told her order,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: just tell me how my baby died. The autopsy report
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: was eventually completed and handed over to the District Attorney's office,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: but it was never released publicly. Sharon said she saw it.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: She didn't want to talk about the details, but said
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: it proved her son didn't die by accident, and yet
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: no one was ever charged again, no new suspects were named.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: As for carbon Logan, his name had come up early
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: in the investigation, suspected of taking part in the abhorrent
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: crime since almost the beginning, Mount Enterprise, Laneville, Henderson. These
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: are small towns in East Texas, places where almost everyone
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: knows everyone else and history runs deep. Some perhaps blamed fear.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Others probably didn't want to believe that someone among them
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: was capable of such a crime. Others blamed racism. Racial
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: divisions in the community, though often unspoken, still cut sharp lines.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Sharon Bratton and Frank Diddo repeatedly pointed out what they
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: saw as unequal treatment. They compared the delays in Trevowsky's
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: case with other high profile investigations involving white victims, and
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: they weren't quiet about it. At one protest, a sign
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: read equal rights for all citizens, another we deserve justice.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Frank Ditto said it plainly, we are not isolationists. We
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: represent a large portion of feeling and thinking in the community.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: The implication was clear to many folks. This wasn't just
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: about one unsolved murder. It was about a pattern, a long,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: painful pattern of black families being told to wait, of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: being ignored, of being left behind, and Travosky's case became
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: a symbol of that no justice, no peace. Travosky Johnson's
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: case drew only moderate media attention, from the Tyler Morning
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Telegraph to the Longview News Journal. Headlines did follow most developments,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: from the days after Travosky's body was found to the
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: protests and the setbacks. When logan was released in two
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: thousand and four, the case made the front page, and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: so did Sharon Bratton's reaction. I'm devastated, she told reporters.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I thought they were going to get justice for my son.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: The media also highlighted the failures of the grand jury process.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: The case was sent to the panel three times, and
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: each time it was either delayed or dismissed, presumably for
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: the lack of evidence. And that's not the grand jury's problem.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors apparently didn't have the evidence to bring it to them.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: They never said why. It wasn't heard, but Bob Richardson,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: the Justice of the Peace who signed the dismissal, said
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: his hands were tied, a common saying in Rusk County.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: If something else comes up, they could refile, he said,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: But nothing else ever came up. It was the last
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: time Trevowsky's murder saw print. There were no anniversary stories,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: certainly no updates in the case. Ultimately, the media failed him.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Even now, the mystery lingers. Why was Travowsky in the trunk,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Why did someone take his cell phone, his credit card,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: his class ring, Why were the phone numbers he dialed
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: last all disconnected? And why after an arrest and confession,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: at least according to the tipster, did no one ever
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: face a jury. There were still whispers in the community,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: people who claimed to know more than they let on.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Some said Trevowsky was involved in something he shouldn't have been.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Perhaps they whispered about a girl, a fight, a drug
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: deal gone bad, whatever the case. There were names passed around,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: stories swapped, but no one apparently would say anything on
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the record, and of course, no one stepped forward to
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: claim responsibility. One thing seemed clear. Someone always knows something.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Sharon Bratton believed three people were involved, that it was planned,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: that it was personal. But belief isn't proof, and in
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the justice system that's what matters most. Travosky Johnson's death
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: didn't just shake a family, It stirred a county. In
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the fight for justice, Trevowsky's mother became more than a
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: grieving parent. She became a symbol of a community that
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: refused to let a case go cold. Her persistence earned
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: her respect from both allies and skeptics. Her determination never wavered.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: She promised her son that she would find out what
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: happened to him, and she meant it. There's a kind
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: of pain that comes from not knowing, from not knowing
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: how your child died, from not knowing who was responsible,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: from not knowing whether anyone will ever pay for what
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: was done. That pain has lived inside Sharon Bratton for
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: over twenty four years now. Someone took her son's life.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: They took it quietly, efficiently, without apparently leaving behind a
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: single obvious clue. The bruises, the missing items, the broken trunk,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the disconnected numbers are all parts of a story, a
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: story in which the final chapter remains unwritten. Justice is
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: supposed to be blind, but it's not supposed to be silent.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: For Trevowsky's family, the silence is the heart part. They
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: still wait, and maybe someday they'll stop waiting. Maybe someday
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: someone will finally talk. If you have any information about
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the murder of Trevowsky La Tree's Johnson, please contact the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Rusk County Sheriff's office at nine oh three six five
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: seven three five eight one. If you'd like to join
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: gon Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved homicides
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and missing persons cases, get the show at free and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: have access to bonus content. You can at Patreon dot
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: com slash Gone Cold podcast. You can also support the
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: show by leaving a five star rating and written review
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen. However you
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all,