Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Mom danced while toddler starved to death; Twins go missing, but police don't search

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Mom danced while toddler starved to death; Twins go missing, but police don't search · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:04
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius x M Triumph.
0:09
Speaker 1: A young mom lets her two year old little girl
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Speaker 1: starved to death? How how can that happen? I mean,
0:19
Speaker 1: I see, Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
0:21
Speaker 1: being with us. Devin Moon's little girl, Reagan weighed just
0:26
Speaker 1: four pounds when she was found. A two year old
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Speaker 1: little girl just fourteen pounds. I mean, I'm trying to
0:38
Speaker 1: take that in because, of course, my daughter Lucy was
0:42
Speaker 1: two pounds when she was born, but John David was
0:44
Speaker 1: five pounds at birth. Over five pounds. This girl is
0:49
Speaker 1: two years old and she only weighs fourteen pounds. Joining
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Speaker 1: me right now. Dr Brian Russell, lawyer, psychologist, host of
0:59
Speaker 1: Investigate Asian Discoveries hit series Fatal Vows, which kicks off
1:03
Speaker 1: a new season August eleven, Saturday Night Investigation Discovery, Tempium
1:07
Speaker 1: Eastern Vincent Hill cop turned private investigator, Karen Smith, forensics
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Speaker 1: expert Ashley Willcott, judge lawyer found her child crime watch
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Speaker 1: dot Com and joining me right now. Investigative journalists with
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Speaker 1: crime online dot Com John Lemley, John, Let's just start
1:26
Speaker 1: at the beginning. What nobody noticed that a two year
1:30
Speaker 1: old child only weighed fourteen pounds. Oh, somebody did notice.
1:35
Speaker 1: In fact, about a year before the child's death, the grandmother,
1:38
Speaker 1: Deborah Walton Moon, had been spending some time with little Reagan,
1:42
Speaker 1: who was then around two years old, and she just
1:46
Speaker 1: noticed that she was skin and bones, and she thought
1:50
Speaker 1: maybe there was something wrong with the child. So she
1:52
Speaker 1: decided to take the child in to see a doctor.
1:56
Speaker 1: The doctor said that for her age, and at this
2:01
Speaker 1: time she actually weighed twenty pounds, this is before the
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Speaker 1: final weight loss. And he said she really, for her age,
2:08
Speaker 1: should weigh a lot more than this. And then about
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Speaker 1: six months later she took the child back again and
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Speaker 1: he said, ma'am, this child weighs the very same twenty
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Speaker 1: pounds that she weighed when you brought her back in April.
2:23
Speaker 1: I asked you a quick question. You know how much
2:25
Speaker 1: I hate to interrupt, John Limley, But so he the
2:29
Speaker 1: doctor sees the child is I know this is not
2:34
Speaker 1: a correct verb. Everybody go ahead and laugh. And he
2:37
Speaker 1: sees a child as malnutrians. What does he do about it?
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Speaker 1: John Lmley, We really don't know that the doctor did anything,
2:45
Speaker 1: to be perfectly honest, No, in oh wait a minute,
2:51
Speaker 1: right there, I'm not saying the doctor did this. Obviously
2:55
Speaker 1: the mother did it, all right, Ashley Wilcott, child Crime,
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Speaker 1: Why dot Com are you watching? You see this? What's
3:03
Speaker 1: with the doctor. Isn't it the law that doctors, school teachers,
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Speaker 1: child caregivers must report child abuse and doesn't that includes
3:14
Speaker 1: starving your baby? Yeah, something's really amiss. So, yes, he
3:19
Speaker 1: was a mandatory reporter in Georgia. He should have reported it,
3:22
Speaker 1: but taken a second step, Nancy, and the law was
3:25
Speaker 1: changed to provide in Georgia that a doctor can actually
3:29
Speaker 1: request or remove a child from a parent's custody if
3:34
Speaker 1: they believe that that child is being abused and neglected.
3:37
Speaker 1: So he could have even gone a step further and
3:39
Speaker 1: refused to allow the mother to pick up the child.
3:41
Speaker 1: I would have snatched that child Ryan out of that home.
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Speaker 1: I mean, tell me again, John Limley, Crime Online dot
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Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter. What now? So the baby goes Reagan
3:52
Speaker 1: goes to the doctor. She's taken by her grandmother, not mommy,
3:55
Speaker 1: and the doctor sees that she's underweight. Then she is
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Speaker 1: back and the child has not gained any weight whatsoever,
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Speaker 1: or had the child lost weight at this point, she
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Speaker 1: was the exact same twenty pounds she had been six
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Speaker 1: months earlier. This this is before the final weight loss
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Speaker 1: that led to her her passing. Okay, take a listen
4:17
Speaker 1: to what the grandmother, Deborah Walton Moon tells us. Now
4:20
Speaker 1: keep in mind as you're listening, this child, this little
4:24
Speaker 1: baby is dead. Mommy would leave the baby alone for
4:28
Speaker 1: ten to twelve hours a night, ten to twelve hours alone. Listen,
4:34
Speaker 1: and not just so heartbroken because it didn't have to
4:38
Speaker 1: happen this way. We took her to Edgleston because she
4:43
Speaker 1: was she was just skin and bone, and the doctor
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Speaker 1: the hospital said, yeah, she weighs the same twenty pounds
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Speaker 1: that she weighed when you brought here, brought her here
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Speaker 1: in April. I'm just listening to that that dead say
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Speaker 1: ound and this and the grandmother's voice to Dr Brian Russell, lawyer, psychologist,
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Speaker 1: host of I D S Fatal vows, Brian, do you
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Speaker 1: hear that the the voice is just like just deceeed,
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Speaker 1: like she's gotten kicked in the stomach. Absolutely, And it's
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Speaker 1: heartbreaking to think about the what I think is the
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Speaker 1: likely reality that this baby could have been saved had
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Speaker 1: the doctor recognized and reported the malnutrition as child abuse
5:29
Speaker 1: at the time. I think one thing that is important
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Speaker 1: for people to understand though, is that, uh, when when
5:36
Speaker 1: people bring children to us as health care professionals, even
5:41
Speaker 1: if in this case, as in this case, grandmother brings
5:44
Speaker 1: a child because they have concerns about what's going on
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Speaker 1: in the child's house, they don't necessarily always present it
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Speaker 1: to us that way. And so before I say, you know,
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Speaker 1: the doctor should have reported this as a case of
5:58
Speaker 1: child abuse, I would like to know on that initial visit,
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Speaker 1: how did the grandmother presented to the doctor. Did she
6:05
Speaker 1: presented as I think my daughter is neglecting this child,
6:08
Speaker 1: or did she presented as I think there's something wrong
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Speaker 1: with the child and we're doing everything we can, but
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Speaker 1: the child's not gaining any weight, in other words, leading
6:17
Speaker 1: the doctor to believe that maybe there's some kind of
6:19
Speaker 1: an illness or something. Uh. That's something I would just
6:23
Speaker 1: want to know. How was it presented to the doctor? Well,
6:26
Speaker 1: I think it would make sense to me to you,
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Speaker 1: Karen Smith, forensics expert, we would be able to determine
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Speaker 1: that based on the doctor's prognosis, What does he say,
6:37
Speaker 1: what are his or her directions? Did he send the
6:40
Speaker 1: child for testing. Did he suspect some other ailment or
6:46
Speaker 1: did he come right out and say the child is
6:49
Speaker 1: not being fed enough? And if so, why was the
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Speaker 1: baby put back in the home? I mean, Karen Smith
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Speaker 1: forensically to look at the home, I would look to
6:58
Speaker 1: see if there was baby food there, if there was
7:00
Speaker 1: formula of there was diapers, if the child's being taken
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Speaker 1: care of. What sort of things would you look for?
7:06
Speaker 1: That is the first thing, Nancy. We go through. The
7:08
Speaker 1: kitchen was the first place that I would go. I
7:10
Speaker 1: would open every cabinet, I would open the refrigerator, and
7:13
Speaker 1: inevitably I would find one box of cereal, maybe some
7:17
Speaker 1: old milk, some old juice, and you know, maybe some
7:20
Speaker 1: canned goods. And from the sound of it, there probably
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Speaker 1: wouldn't even be that in this household. And I'm wondering,
7:28
Speaker 1: you know, the family members obviously had concerned for this child.
7:32
Speaker 1: Did they ever visit this woman's home or apartment where
7:36
Speaker 1: she lived? Did they ever look? And I'm not blaming
7:38
Speaker 1: them by any stretch of the imagination. This was the
7:41
Speaker 1: mother's fault, um, But you know, to me, as as
7:44
Speaker 1: concerned family members, I would want to know that information
7:48
Speaker 1: and certainly it would go to the abuse and now
7:50
Speaker 1: the murder charges. Let's take you from the top again,
7:53
Speaker 1: John Limley, I don't understand how weeks pass and the
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Speaker 1: baby stars because I have these two photos that I
8:02
Speaker 1: carry with me in my backpack every time I travel,
8:05
Speaker 1: and there little photos they gave me in the hospital
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Speaker 1: of Lucy and John David, and they're attached to these
8:13
Speaker 1: little buttons. And John David looks thin, but Lucy, as
8:21
Speaker 1: they're saying, she looks like she's skin and bones when
8:24
Speaker 1: she's first born at two pounds. And when you look
8:28
Speaker 1: at it, you know, I don't have to be an
8:31
Speaker 1: m D for once. I can just get buy his
8:33
Speaker 1: j D. You know instinctively that something is very, very wrong.
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Speaker 1: You can tell that this child is near death. Ashley.
8:45
Speaker 1: It's like when you see a snake slithering toward you,
8:49
Speaker 1: you know instinctively it's bad, or a tiger or a
8:54
Speaker 1: lion sneaking up on you. Or when somebody has a
8:58
Speaker 1: funny color to their face like they're sick, you know
9:01
Speaker 1: instinctively something is very wrong. You could not possibly and
9:07
Speaker 1: I'm basing this on seeing Lucy, my child so thin.
9:13
Speaker 1: Nobody had to tell me that I had to devote
9:16
Speaker 1: my life to making her live, keeping her alive. Nobody
9:22
Speaker 1: had to tell me that I knew that just by
9:24
Speaker 1: looking at her, so of course the doctor knew. And
9:27
Speaker 1: man say, this is why so many instance as a
9:29
Speaker 1: child abuse and death are preventable, because not only would
9:33
Speaker 1: the doctor have known, I believe that there are other
9:36
Speaker 1: people who saw this child who would have known by
9:38
Speaker 1: looking at the child. And unfortunately, I see this as
9:41
Speaker 1: a judge over and over again in juvenile court. People
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Speaker 1: do not report or take action for various and different reasons.
9:47
Speaker 1: They may be afraid, they may not want to get involved.
9:50
Speaker 1: But here's what I'm here to say. People have got
9:52
Speaker 1: to start getting involved, not be afraid and say something
9:55
Speaker 1: or do something, because you do know when you see
9:58
Speaker 1: a child like that, that something is a miss. I'm
10:00
Speaker 1: looking at this mom and a photo. I want to
10:03
Speaker 1: snatch that wig right off of her head. I am
10:06
Speaker 1: looking at Devin Moon, the mom who would leave for
10:10
Speaker 1: a child, allegedly for ten to twelve hours a day
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Speaker 1: and night alone. Take a listen to what else The grandmother,
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Speaker 1: Deborah Walton Moon, tells us she said to me, you
10:24
Speaker 1: called defects on me, didn't you I said, I did.
10:28
Speaker 1: I said, only because I care cared about you, cared
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Speaker 1: about the baby. That's the only reason she said you.
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Speaker 1: I hate you. I hate you. She said, you've lost
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Speaker 1: a daughter and a granddaughter, and the hell she hell
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Speaker 1: she didn't. That's just killing me. You know, I'm not
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Speaker 1: so worried about losing the mom. I'm worried about the
10:55
Speaker 1: baby that never had a chance, you know. To Vincent
10:58
Speaker 1: Hill cop turned p I there you hear that de
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Speaker 1: facts was called. I mean, what else can the grandmother
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Speaker 1: do beside kidnapped the baby and make a run for it. Nancy,
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Speaker 1: I think the grandmother did exactly what she was supposed
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Speaker 1: to do. Unfortunately, I think she waited just a little
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Speaker 1: too late because she had been around that baby since
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Speaker 1: the baby's birth. So I think if she would have
11:19
Speaker 1: done that a little faster, I think we could have
11:21
Speaker 1: saved that girl. But I'm not faulty the grandmother here.
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Speaker 1: It's the mother's fault. But I just think that calls
11:26
Speaker 1: should have come just a little faster. Actually, and see
11:30
Speaker 1: the fourth call to de Facts from the grandmother was
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Speaker 1: the one that finally began the investigation. As mentioned, though
11:38
Speaker 1: it was too late. What did you just say the
11:40
Speaker 1: fourth call to D facts. You know what I feel like,
11:44
Speaker 1: taking a fire hydrant and just opening it up and
11:48
Speaker 1: letting it run through D facts like your flushing rats
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Speaker 1: out of the bottom of the basement. At the fourth
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Speaker 1: call to D facts, the baby laid there and star
12:00
Speaker 1: and defects sat on their thumb yet again till the
12:03
Speaker 1: baby dies. As she Wilcot, I mean, you're in the system,
12:08
Speaker 1: you're the juvenile judge. How many times do we have
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Speaker 1: to scream out defects before they all get fired and
12:13
Speaker 1: put in jail? Listen, you know what system fails? System fails.
12:17
Speaker 1: System fail. I say this in cases like this, where
12:20
Speaker 1: where someone does act appropriately, it does make the report
12:23
Speaker 1: and you hear there are four reports. I don't know
12:25
Speaker 1: the circumstances around this particular case and how defects did
12:28
Speaker 1: or didn't respond, but I am going to say it's
12:30
Speaker 1: a prime example of where this system has failed a
12:33
Speaker 1: child yet again. Right now we know a mother has
12:35
Speaker 1: been charged when her taught girl dies weighing just fourteen pounds.
12:42
Speaker 1: I'm getting conflicting reports as to whether she was three
12:46
Speaker 1: or four. Back to you, John Linley, tell me the
12:48
Speaker 1: rest of the story. She was actually just one month
12:51
Speaker 1: shy of her third birthday, and at the time of
12:55
Speaker 1: her death, her weight was only fourteen pounds. So what
12:59
Speaker 1: happens then the cops get there? What tell me how
13:02
Speaker 1: the whole thing unfolds? Well, investigators say that Devin Moon
13:05
Speaker 1: tells them that her daughter had a medical condition that
13:10
Speaker 1: didn't allow her to gain weight, and Deborah Moon says
13:14
Speaker 1: that Devon came to her the night of her daughter's
13:16
Speaker 1: death after she talked with police for the first time.
13:21
Speaker 1: And autopsy, of course, as we now know, later determined
13:24
Speaker 1: that Reagan's death was due to neglect and malnutrition. And
13:28
Speaker 1: that's when it began to emerge that this child was
13:31
Speaker 1: completely alone at home for hours on end while the
13:37
Speaker 1: mother was at work. Okay, joining me also in addition
13:40
Speaker 1: to John Lemley, Ashley Willcott, Karen Smith, Vincent he Old,
13:44
Speaker 1: Dr Brian Russell from Fatal Vows joining me from l
13:48
Speaker 1: a is Alan Duke, Alan Duke. What more do we
13:52
Speaker 1: know about the mom and their living conditions? Well, the
13:55
Speaker 1: mother was leaving this child overnight. It wasn't during the day,
13:59
Speaker 1: it was at nighttime. I guess she thought that maybe
14:01
Speaker 1: we'll just sleep and and be fine or cry alone
14:05
Speaker 1: and not be heard. And she was going off allegedly
14:08
Speaker 1: to dance in one of the local Atlanta clubs. By
14:13
Speaker 1: the way, this tears me up, this this grandmother. I'm
14:17
Speaker 1: going to pick up my grandkids this morning and hug them.
14:20
Speaker 1: You know, hold on a minute, Alan Duke, we've got
14:22
Speaker 1: a dead baby and all you want to talk about.
14:26
Speaker 1: I think I didn't say we don't know what she
14:29
Speaker 1: will what? We all know that that means she's a stripper, Alan,
14:32
Speaker 1: I never got I have no idea what goes behind
14:37
Speaker 1: behind those doors. But you know another thing, let me
14:39
Speaker 1: just point this out as she willcott. Uh. Typically I
14:42
Speaker 1: applaud working moms, but whenever I would, you know, need
14:47
Speaker 1: a witness, and I couldn't find a witness, and I
14:49
Speaker 1: couldn't find anybody that knew anything. First I go to
14:52
Speaker 1: the jail and start interviewing people. Then I go the
14:55
Speaker 1: strip clubs. Between the two of those, somebody would know something.
15:00
Speaker 1: Very often. My problem at the strip clubs is, you know,
15:03
Speaker 1: so many of the strippers were so high on coke
15:07
Speaker 1: that I never kneed if I was getting the true story,
15:10
Speaker 1: and I never knew what would happen if I put
15:12
Speaker 1: him on the stand. You know, it was just a
15:14
Speaker 1: wild card. All I can think about. I don't care
15:18
Speaker 1: where she worked, I don't care what she did. I
15:21
Speaker 1: just keep thinking about the baby because this didn't happen overnight.
15:25
Speaker 1: It takes weeks for somebody to starve to death. You
15:29
Speaker 1: can only go minutes without oxygen, hours, a couple of
15:32
Speaker 1: days without water. It takes weeks to starve to death,
15:37
Speaker 1: and that baby suffered. Ashley, this is a horrible case.
15:41
Speaker 1: So a of course, somebody at the strip club or
15:43
Speaker 1: wherever she was working and dancing absolutely new. So Alan
15:47
Speaker 1: is the only one that seems to know go ahead
15:49
Speaker 1: and then be um. This is the issue I have.
15:52
Speaker 1: I don't care where mother's work, need to work, have
15:56
Speaker 1: to work, choose to work. There's no correlation between doing
15:59
Speaker 1: that and then starving your two year old to death. See,
16:03
Speaker 1: there's no way that the only thing this mother did
16:06
Speaker 1: to this child was starved the child to death. I
16:09
Speaker 1: promised there are other things she did and didn't do
16:12
Speaker 1: to ne to neglect and abuse this child, and it's
16:15
Speaker 1: a horrific way to die. If you talk to doctors
16:18
Speaker 1: about how it feels, or they don't know how it feels.
16:21
Speaker 1: But all the consequences of being starved to death. That's
16:24
Speaker 1: a horrific, horrific type of murder. You know what, Ashley,
16:28
Speaker 1: I just want you to go about your business today
16:30
Speaker 1: with a thought in your head that all those trippers
16:34
Speaker 1: are stripping to put themselves through college. Because you know,
16:39
Speaker 1: this is why I can tell you I agree with
16:41
Speaker 1: you to the point that I don't care where she
16:43
Speaker 1: went or what she did, but leaving your child alone,
16:47
Speaker 1: this is a gruesome and horrible death. What the baby
16:49
Speaker 1: went through horrible. When you shoot some money, they bleed
16:53
Speaker 1: out and typically die quickly. You know, a car crash,
16:58
Speaker 1: bam that child, This little baby was allowed to lay
17:01
Speaker 1: there and suffer alone alone, and you know what, Mommy
17:07
Speaker 1: needs to be put in jail for life. Listen. The
17:10
Speaker 1: investigator said that they had made arrangements that a nutritionalist
17:18
Speaker 1: would go by once a week and that Defects would
17:23
Speaker 1: make sure Devon was doing what she's supposed to do
17:26
Speaker 1: for Rake not to let I begged them, please just
17:35
Speaker 1: let her go with me, Please let her go with me.
17:38
Speaker 1: What happened to two beautiful young twin girls, Janette and
17:45
Speaker 1: Jeanette Millbrook. It was a Sunday the twins left where
17:50
Speaker 1: they lived to just walk up the street to their
17:53
Speaker 1: godfather's home on for A Street. The sisters make the
17:56
Speaker 1: walk to for A Street so their godfather could give
17:59
Speaker 1: them twenty dollars to ride the city bus to and
18:02
Speaker 1: from Lucy C. Laney High School. That's what we know.
18:06
Speaker 1: Where are they now? With Me Laura Norton, fall Line
18:11
Speaker 1: podcast investigator and host, Brooke Hargrove, fall Line Podcast investigator
18:16
Speaker 1: and host, Michael Wheeland, Unresolved podcast host and with Me
18:23
Speaker 1: special guest Shanty Sturgis. Shanty is the sister of the
18:29
Speaker 1: twin girls, Danette and Jeanette Millbrook. You know their case
18:34
Speaker 1: was largely ignored at the time they go missing and
18:39
Speaker 1: has since become a closed file, unsolved cold. I don't
18:45
Speaker 1: see it that way. First to you, Shante Sturgis, ma'am,
18:50
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with us. Do you
18:53
Speaker 1: remember the day your twin sisters disappeared? What happened? We
18:59
Speaker 1: went to church that morning and I think we leved church.
19:03
Speaker 1: I stay around by maybe twelve thirty and we made
19:07
Speaker 1: a home before believing the church. The pastor at the
19:10
Speaker 1: church gave my mom money because she didn't have any
19:13
Speaker 1: money to feed us for that day, so he gave
19:16
Speaker 1: her money and she sent them to church's chicken I
19:19
Speaker 1: stay around about one o'clock. They came home and they told, well,
19:22
Speaker 1: jean told my mom a guy was following them in
19:26
Speaker 1: a white van. We don't know for sure if he
19:28
Speaker 1: was actually following them or not, but that's what they
19:31
Speaker 1: was thinking. He was following them, So that's what they
19:33
Speaker 1: told my mom. They were fifteen at the time. I
19:36
Speaker 1: was twelve when they went missing. Let me interject right here,
19:39
Speaker 1: ms jas at fifteen years old, I may not have
19:42
Speaker 1: noticed a white van driving by, but I think I
19:46
Speaker 1: would have noticed if every time I looked up, it
19:48
Speaker 1: was right there with me, as Shante Sturgis, the sister
19:51
Speaker 1: of missing Jeanette and Jeanette. So they tell the mom
19:55
Speaker 1: they've noticed a white then following them all the way
19:58
Speaker 1: home from church, just checking. Then what happened, and nothing
20:02
Speaker 1: really happened. After they talked about it, you know, everybody
20:05
Speaker 1: just sat down and ate. And later on in the afternoon,
20:09
Speaker 1: I think it was light around back, maybe two and third,
20:12
Speaker 1: and they was talking to my mom about getting to
20:15
Speaker 1: school that next day, which would have been that Monday,
20:18
Speaker 1: and she was like she didn't have any money for
20:21
Speaker 1: them to catch the bus, and she didn't want them
20:23
Speaker 1: to walk, you know, to school from where we lived.
20:26
Speaker 1: That because the school that they lived that it was probably,
20:29
Speaker 1: like I said, about six miles or so from where
20:32
Speaker 1: we moved to, because we just had moved from the
20:35
Speaker 1: area they went missing from. She asked them to call
20:39
Speaker 1: my god dad on the phone and asked him because
20:41
Speaker 1: he give them some money for them to be able
20:43
Speaker 1: to catch the bus back and forth for that week.
20:46
Speaker 1: They left the house, I said, they round about maybe three,
20:50
Speaker 1: so they made it to his house. From his house,
20:53
Speaker 1: they went to a cousin of ours house. They asked
20:56
Speaker 1: her to walk home, you know, with them. I'm not
20:59
Speaker 1: sure why her mom told her to know, I guess,
21:03
Speaker 1: you know, they left, and that's when they made it
21:05
Speaker 1: to my older sister house. When they got her house,
21:08
Speaker 1: they asked her could she walked on home with them?
21:11
Speaker 1: And at this point we're not sure why they asked her.
21:14
Speaker 1: We're not sure why they asked my cousin, but we
21:17
Speaker 1: just found out reacently my sister just now telling us
21:21
Speaker 1: is the reason why she think they asked her. She said,
21:24
Speaker 1: because she think they probably scared to walk back home
21:27
Speaker 1: by themselves for some odd reason. I'm not sure why,
21:30
Speaker 1: because they're not here to tell the side of the store.
21:33
Speaker 1: So after they left my sister house, my mom had
21:37
Speaker 1: called her and asked her had she seen them, because
21:40
Speaker 1: you know, it was already I said, about four thirty
21:43
Speaker 1: or five o'clock, and they still hadn't made it back home.
21:45
Speaker 1: You know, it don't take that long to get to
21:47
Speaker 1: where they had to go and to get back. I mean,
21:51
Speaker 1: they wasn't supposed to go to my sister house that day.
21:54
Speaker 1: They were supposed to go to my guard their house
21:56
Speaker 1: and come back, but for some reason, they went to
21:59
Speaker 1: her house in the way. She told my mom when
22:01
Speaker 1: they left there that they went walking towards the pumping
22:04
Speaker 1: shop store. Once they went walking towards the pump the
22:07
Speaker 1: shop store, you know, that's the reason why my mom
22:10
Speaker 1: stopped at that store, because after they hadn't got home,
22:13
Speaker 1: you know, at the Pacific time, and then she don't
22:15
Speaker 1: calling around asked the people had they've seen them heard
22:18
Speaker 1: from them. She got worried, so me and her went
22:21
Speaker 1: walking to go try to see if we could meet
22:24
Speaker 1: them or meet up with them somewhere or see them
22:27
Speaker 1: somewhere you know. And by that time we made it
22:30
Speaker 1: down to the pumper shop store and it's elated by
22:32
Speaker 1: the name of Gloria, who she knew us. And my
22:35
Speaker 1: mom asked her had she seen them coming the store,
22:38
Speaker 1: and she told them, yeah, they came in there. They
22:40
Speaker 1: brought cannon stolder and something to drink, you know, some chills,
22:45
Speaker 1: And she said she looked away, you know, to ring
22:47
Speaker 1: up another customer. By the time she looked up, they
22:50
Speaker 1: was gone. So she says, she don't know if they
22:52
Speaker 1: got in the car with somebody. She don't know. What
22:54
Speaker 1: we do know that they made it that far. Hold
22:58
Speaker 1: on with me. It's a sister of the missing twins,
23:01
Speaker 1: Danette and Jeanette. And now the Richmond County Sheriff, the
23:06
Speaker 1: elected Sheriff, Richard Rowntree, says this is a quote terrible
23:11
Speaker 1: injustice and he has actually reopened the case of the
23:15
Speaker 1: missing twin girls, Danette and Jeanette mill brooks Now the
23:20
Speaker 1: very mysterious disappearance of Danette and Jeannette now reopened, sapped
23:26
Speaker 1: unresolved for so long. These two just walking home from
23:31
Speaker 1: a convenience store in Augusta, Georgia. But unbeknownst to the
23:35
Speaker 1: family investigators had not even looked at the case for
23:38
Speaker 1: over two decades. Why, According to the elected chair of
23:43
Speaker 1: Richard Rowntree, the original case files are missing, and not
23:48
Speaker 1: long after the two girls disappear, the girls were taken
23:52
Speaker 1: off the national database for missing children? Why why did
23:57
Speaker 1: that happen? To Laura Norton Fall podcast, Thank you for
24:01
Speaker 1: being with us, Laura, But what happened? It took us
24:04
Speaker 1: quite a while to kind of unpack that. But what
24:06
Speaker 1: we have figured out is the case was closed on hearsay,
24:10
Speaker 1: and that here stay changes based on who is describing it.
24:13
Speaker 1: The original investing, I don't know what you're saying, hold
24:15
Speaker 1: on the case was closed on hearsay. It was allegedly
24:20
Speaker 1: closed on hearsay. According to the original means well a
24:23
Speaker 1: case closed on hearsay? What does that even makes? What
24:26
Speaker 1: the original investigator said, we actually did speak to him
24:29
Speaker 1: on the phone once, so we got some information there.
24:32
Speaker 1: According to him, he says that the twins were found
24:36
Speaker 1: and he based that judgment on He alleges that a
24:40
Speaker 1: juvenile investigator or a juvenile probation officer rather saw the twins. Now,
24:45
Speaker 1: that is not anywhere in the case file. There's no
24:48
Speaker 1: support for that. He told the family the case was
24:50
Speaker 1: closed because the twins that turned seventeen and they could
24:53
Speaker 1: no longer be made to go home. As we know,
24:55
Speaker 1: that's not the case. He closed it in April, seven
24:59
Speaker 1: days after their seventeenth birthday. Then two years I completely
25:02
Speaker 1: smell a rat. You don't close a missing person, much
25:06
Speaker 1: less a double missing person of young girls just because
25:09
Speaker 1: they reached majority. That's not even true, Laura, Yep, that's exactly.
25:13
Speaker 1: That's why we were so shocked to hear Shanta tell
25:16
Speaker 1: us that. Then when we finally got some information from
25:19
Speaker 1: Nick Mack when we spoke with them, he then called
25:22
Speaker 1: in and closed the case there in why well, we
25:25
Speaker 1: don't know and we can't find out, but our guest
25:29
Speaker 1: is that because that is the year he changed jobs,
25:31
Speaker 1: and he may have been going through his files and
25:33
Speaker 1: closing things out here and there. But that of course
25:35
Speaker 1: was a major blow to the case because for you know,
25:38
Speaker 1: twenty odd years, nothing was checked against them, no DNA
25:41
Speaker 1: on file, nothing. I cannot even imagine. Back to Shante Sturgis,
25:46
Speaker 1: the sister of the missing girls, I can't imagine the
25:50
Speaker 1: suffering your mom went through finding out the case was
25:53
Speaker 1: closed because somebody claimed they saw the twins? Is that true?
25:57
Speaker 1: Did somebody see them? Chante no, no about us has
26:00
Speaker 1: never seen them. Um, we actually don't even know if
26:04
Speaker 1: that is true about the probation officer being in contact
26:08
Speaker 1: with them the whole time, because the same probation officer
26:12
Speaker 1: also told my mom that he didn't understand why I
26:16
Speaker 1: reached mccounty but and go ouhead to look for them,
26:19
Speaker 1: and he was gonna try to help us because he
26:21
Speaker 1: didn't understand how two girls go missing and nobody does
26:25
Speaker 1: anything well. He was also joining me in addition to
26:27
Speaker 1: Laura Norton from Fall Line, is Brooke Hardgrowth from Fall
26:31
Speaker 1: Lines highly popular podcast and Michael Wheeling from Unresolved highly
26:36
Speaker 1: popular podcast. Brooke, who is this person? Says he saw
26:41
Speaker 1: the twins? What we found out Nancy about this individual?
26:45
Speaker 1: There were several cases that he was in charge of
26:48
Speaker 1: investigating over the years of missing missing persons, but specifically
26:53
Speaker 1: missing children. He seemed to tire of these cases because
26:58
Speaker 1: he said that they would often find these children that
27:01
Speaker 1: were runaways, returned them to their family, only to have
27:04
Speaker 1: them run away again. So in his mind, these children
27:08
Speaker 1: were in that category. He actually referred to them as
27:11
Speaker 1: just two runaways. In our call with him, he reported
27:15
Speaker 1: that they had been found, when that was not true.
27:17
Speaker 1: We believe he was trying to clear the case out
27:19
Speaker 1: because he didn't want to investigate them. He seemed to
27:22
Speaker 1: just look at them as two kids from the project,
27:25
Speaker 1: you know, just got into trouble and we're runaways. Okay.
27:28
Speaker 1: That is breaking my heart because these girls, two sisters,
27:32
Speaker 1: didn't run away and stay away from their mother and
27:36
Speaker 1: their sister and their family all these years. That's not true.
27:40
Speaker 1: That is not true. If you have any information regarding
27:44
Speaker 1: Janette and Jeanette, please call the Richmond County Sheriff seven
27:48
Speaker 1: zero six eight to one one zero six zero repeat,
27:53
Speaker 1: seven zero six eight to one zero six zero. Michael
27:57
Speaker 1: Wheeling Unresolved pod cast host, And this is just one
28:02
Speaker 1: of those stories that I first discovered it, there wasn't
28:05
Speaker 1: really any like major news coverage of the case. But
28:08
Speaker 1: I moved to Augusta about a year and a half ago,
28:10
Speaker 1: and I remember when I discovered the story was a
28:14
Speaker 1: kind of like an article that was covering Augusta's missing
28:18
Speaker 1: unsolved cases, basically everything dating back to the nineteen seventies,
28:22
Speaker 1: and hidden right in the middle of it, is a
28:24
Speaker 1: story of two twins that disappeared on the exact same day.
28:27
Speaker 1: In to me, that just always stood out as something that,
28:31
Speaker 1: you know, sets this case apart from everything else I've researched.
28:35
Speaker 1: When you talk about missing people, it's normally a big deal,
28:38
Speaker 1: people make a big stink about it. And when two
28:41
Speaker 1: or more people go missing, it's you know, like the
28:44
Speaker 1: Springfield three is one of the biggest mysteries in America,
28:47
Speaker 1: and that's gotten tons of press conforage, it's gotten news articles,
28:51
Speaker 1: it's gotten news clippings, and this just had nothing. It's
28:54
Speaker 1: just heartbreaking nothing. As the mother sat by with her
28:57
Speaker 1: heartbreaking every single day and I want my girls, my family,
29:04
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping that we do get justice what it
29:08
Speaker 1: would know him at all. For those of you just
29:11
Speaker 1: joining us, we are investigating the sudden and mysterious disappearance
29:17
Speaker 1: of two young girls from Augusta, Georgia, Danette and Jeanette Millbrook.
29:22
Speaker 1: For some reason within the police department, the case was closed.
29:27
Speaker 1: The file disappeared shortly after their disappearance. That it wasn't
29:31
Speaker 1: just lost. The two girls were then actively removed from
29:36
Speaker 1: the National Database of Missing Children, So that's not just
29:41
Speaker 1: accidentally losing the file, Laura Norton. It's not just saying okay,
29:46
Speaker 1: it's it's a cold case. This is actively going to
29:50
Speaker 1: the national database and removing them that it's no longer
29:53
Speaker 1: an act of omission. It's said a decision to remove
29:58
Speaker 1: them from the databank. Laura, I don't understand it. It
30:01
Speaker 1: was a purposeful choice, and it was very strange because
30:04
Speaker 1: we have mentioned a probation officer, but I want to
30:06
Speaker 1: be clear, the twins were not on probation. They were
30:09
Speaker 1: not in trouble. The probation officer lived in their neighborhood
30:12
Speaker 1: and that's why their mother went to him for some help.
30:14
Speaker 1: And this is the man that was blamed after he
30:16
Speaker 1: had already died for this problem by the original investigator.
30:20
Speaker 1: The twins where homebodies. They were sweet girls, and Danette
30:23
Speaker 1: actually was on seizure medication for Grandma's seizures. Certainly not
30:27
Speaker 1: the kind of runaway that you might imagine. Back to
30:29
Speaker 1: Santa Sturgis, the sister of Jeanette and Danette, the missing
30:33
Speaker 1: twin girls, we left off with the story. You guys
30:37
Speaker 1: went to church that morning, your mom was broke. The
30:40
Speaker 1: pastor gave her money for everybody to go out for
30:43
Speaker 1: fried chicken lunch. They go to Church's Chicken, They make
30:47
Speaker 1: it to a convenience store that has been verified, and
30:50
Speaker 1: then at that point, shante what happens at the point
30:55
Speaker 1: my mom went we went back home. My mom called
30:57
Speaker 1: reached my county and they told her in order for
31:00
Speaker 1: her to report them missing, that she had to wait
31:02
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. So she waited the twenty four hours.
31:05
Speaker 1: They still he came back. She Steve was calling around
31:08
Speaker 1: asking people they've seen nobody. Nobody still had seen them
31:12
Speaker 1: at that point. The next week after is when they
31:15
Speaker 1: sent to investigat out. The investigator came out and wait
31:19
Speaker 1: a minute, Wait a minute. A whole week passes, yes, ma'am.
31:24
Speaker 1: Oh Brooke Hargrove, Oh man, that's bad. A whole week passes, yes, ma'am.
31:32
Speaker 1: This is one in a spring of outrageous actions against
31:36
Speaker 1: this family, frankly by the local law enforcement. To Michael Wheeling,
31:42
Speaker 1: host of Unresolved podcast, Why a Week, I honestly wish
31:47
Speaker 1: I could tell you that that is what I've covered
31:50
Speaker 1: my fast share of missing persons cases, But this is
31:54
Speaker 1: the first time where there's been the twenty four hour
31:56
Speaker 1: waiting period to report two children missing, and then days,
32:00
Speaker 1: if not a week, to come out and take statements
32:02
Speaker 1: from the family members. This is so unlike anything even
32:05
Speaker 1: for you know, at some point when you you start
32:08
Speaker 1: looking at it and hearing all this, it almost seems
32:12
Speaker 1: as if the investigators no more than they're saying, because
32:18
Speaker 1: you've got them first saying, oh, you can't report them
32:21
Speaker 1: for twenty four hours. Then the detective assigned to it goes,
32:25
Speaker 1: they're just runaways. Then he claims a witness spots them
32:31
Speaker 1: and actively closes the file. The file gets quote lost,
32:36
Speaker 1: then someone goes to the next level of having them
32:40
Speaker 1: removed from the national database of missing people. Now we
32:43
Speaker 1: learn an investigator wasn't even sent out for a week. Michael,
32:47
Speaker 1: I mean, is there any explanation for that? I wish
32:50
Speaker 1: I could tell you. Unfortunately, all the like you said,
32:53
Speaker 1: the original case documents are gone, so we can't even
32:55
Speaker 1: you know, other than what the family has said since then,
32:58
Speaker 1: there's no record of you know, when they and out
33:00
Speaker 1: and when they started to actually investigate anything, or even
33:03
Speaker 1: what they investigated. If I could clarify ahead, dear Nancy,
33:06
Speaker 1: this is Brooke. I'd like to clarify after the twenty
33:09
Speaker 1: four hour waiting period, they did send a beat cop.
33:13
Speaker 1: He took down a few preliminary notes. Almost all of
33:16
Speaker 1: them were incorrect. Heating correctly spelled their name, He took
33:19
Speaker 1: down their birthday, wrong, the wrong street, they were last
33:22
Speaker 1: seen on, etcetera. After that, the family didn't hear anything
33:26
Speaker 1: from the police department for a week. And after that
33:28
Speaker 1: week is when they sent out an investigator who came
33:31
Speaker 1: out and said he would be in charge of the case.
33:33
Speaker 1: So beat cop comes, gets the wrong information, but still
33:36
Speaker 1: an investigator did not come for a solid week. I've
33:40
Speaker 1: been investigating the twins and this is what I've learned.
33:43
Speaker 1: They were well known and loved and their small community
33:47
Speaker 1: there in Augusta. They loved music, they loved TV. They
33:50
Speaker 1: were happy, they loved school. They got great grades. They
33:54
Speaker 1: were never known to be troublemakers. They didn't. They had
33:58
Speaker 1: no history of ever running away. There was no motive
34:02
Speaker 1: at the time for them to run away. It was
34:04
Speaker 1: a normal Sunday. They had no history of misbehavior. There
34:08
Speaker 1: was one instance, because one of them was being bullied
34:10
Speaker 1: at a bus stop, that they got into an argument
34:13
Speaker 1: one time, and that is consistent with what Shanta the
34:16
Speaker 1: sister has told us no trouble, good grades, the works.
34:21
Speaker 1: The mother, Mary Louise Sturgis, has been very involved trying
34:27
Speaker 1: to find her twins. Now understand this, Danette and Jeanette
34:31
Speaker 1: had eight siblings, and the mom has her hands full
34:36
Speaker 1: as she's trying to find two teen missing girls, apparently
34:40
Speaker 1: getting very little help from the local police. And then
34:44
Speaker 1: the file gets lost and investigators dropped the case without
34:47
Speaker 1: the mom knowing. It just seems to get worse and
34:50
Speaker 1: worse and worse. Shante Sturgis, their sister, is with us now. Shanta,
34:57
Speaker 1: tell me about how they're disappearing. It's affected your mother,
35:02
Speaker 1: has affected her tremendously because, I mean, you know how
35:05
Speaker 1: some people get around and they're like her age. She
35:09
Speaker 1: ceased to three now they went missing when they was
35:12
Speaker 1: she was in her thirties, so she don't get around
35:16
Speaker 1: like most people do. It has took a toll on
35:19
Speaker 1: her pretty much. It did something to her, so sometimes
35:22
Speaker 1: she was giving up hope. You know. She kept trying
35:25
Speaker 1: to call down in to the police department to get
35:28
Speaker 1: somebody to help, and they would always tell her no.
35:32
Speaker 1: It was just before their birthday the twins headed out
35:34
Speaker 1: to visit their family friend. Their little sister, then twelve,
35:39
Speaker 1: Chante begged to go with them, but being the older sisters,
35:43
Speaker 1: they said no, just like my sister and brother would
35:46
Speaker 1: tell me. We we've pieced together the fact that they
35:49
Speaker 1: go to a local pumpings shop gas station. It's also
35:52
Speaker 1: a convenient store, and it's there the intersection of twelfth
35:56
Speaker 1: Street and m Okay Boulevard in Augusta. They go inside,
35:59
Speaker 1: they get chips and drinks. The store clerk positively identifies
36:04
Speaker 1: them being there and that they were fine. It was
36:07
Speaker 1: about four or thirty in the afternoon on a Sunday.
36:10
Speaker 1: The clerk got busy at the cash register. She saw
36:12
Speaker 1: the girls leave. She caught a glimpse of a vehicle outside,
36:16
Speaker 1: not enough to give a description or to say whether
36:19
Speaker 1: the twins got into the vehicle, but we know this.
36:23
Speaker 1: They disappeared. They disappeared and have never been seen again.
36:28
Speaker 1: To Laura Norton, fall Line podcast host, since the case
36:32
Speaker 1: has been reopened, what kind of searches are going on? None?
36:36
Speaker 1: So what's the point of reopening it? There wasn't Well,
36:39
Speaker 1: That's what I wondered when I found stumbled across the case.
36:43
Speaker 1: I truly believe this is not the only case that
36:45
Speaker 1: had this sort of treatment in Augusta. I want to
36:47
Speaker 1: be clear about that many missing persons cases of miners
36:50
Speaker 1: were mishandled during that period and close prematurely Parsay was involved.
36:55
Speaker 1: Nothing has happened. An investigator was assigned in two thousand
36:58
Speaker 1: and thirteen, briefly took in a from Shanty and her
37:02
Speaker 1: mother and their sister who was fully related to the
37:04
Speaker 1: twins in terms of them having both the same mother
37:06
Speaker 1: and father, bestI and a sample, and began some preliminary research.
37:10
Speaker 1: But then she left the department, and at the time
37:12
Speaker 1: that we began looking into the case, no one was
37:14
Speaker 1: assigned to it and no further action had been taken.
37:17
Speaker 1: Are you suggesting that it was only reopened because of
37:21
Speaker 1: pressure from your podcast? Fall line? That it was reopened
37:24
Speaker 1: in two thousand and thirteen, and that was when the
37:26
Speaker 1: new sheriff was elected. Richard Rowntree and Shanta directly contacted
37:30
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's office at that point and asked them to
37:32
Speaker 1: do so. He was reaching out to the community asking
37:35
Speaker 1: what he could do. But between two thousand and thirteen
37:37
Speaker 1: and June of two thousand and seventeen, when we began
37:40
Speaker 1: our podcast, nothing further had happened. Agree or disagree Michael
37:43
Speaker 1: with unresolved. Yeah, Richmond County so far has really done
37:48
Speaker 1: nothing to inspire any confidence that the investigation is going somewhere.
37:51
Speaker 1: In my opinion, I've tried reaching out to them. I've called,
37:54
Speaker 1: I've sent emails. I've even tried filing a Freedom of
37:58
Speaker 1: Information Act not too long ago, and I haven't even
37:59
Speaker 1: heard back on that. So as far as I know,
38:02
Speaker 1: there is no movement on the case, and I'm not
38:04
Speaker 1: even sure if anyone is openly investigating the case as
38:06
Speaker 1: of this moment. They're not. There was someone assigned, but
38:10
Speaker 1: they've recently been moved to another department. We know because
38:12
Speaker 1: we do regularly contact them with leads and information that
38:15
Speaker 1: we developed, and there's no one currently assigned to the case.
38:17
Speaker 1: But Deshaunte started us. The sister of Danette and Jeanette,
38:22
Speaker 1: Shaunte that day that you realized your sisters were gone.
38:27
Speaker 1: What do you remember about that day and that night
38:30
Speaker 1: as the hours began to pass and they didn't come home,
38:34
Speaker 1: My mom pacing up and down, and we just kept
38:37
Speaker 1: as I kept, you know, I was up with her.
38:40
Speaker 1: My other sister was up with them. She just kept
38:43
Speaker 1: talking about it, you know, And finally everybody went to
38:46
Speaker 1: sleep and we got up to go to school that
38:48
Speaker 1: next morning. When we got home from school, we asked
38:50
Speaker 1: the head they came back home and she was like no,
38:53
Speaker 1: she hadn't heard from I said, what have you heard
38:56
Speaker 1: from the police? Did they say anything? She was like no,
38:59
Speaker 1: that nick sweet. When they did send the cop out
39:02
Speaker 1: that they got the information about they clothes they had
39:05
Speaker 1: on that day, on where they were going, and whoever
39:08
Speaker 1: they had contact with that day, did they had boyfriends
39:12
Speaker 1: and things of that nature. He would ask her questions
39:15
Speaker 1: like that, but we didn't really get no investigation out
39:19
Speaker 1: of anything, even when the investigator did come out on
39:22
Speaker 1: the thing he did was go to the school and
39:24
Speaker 1: talk to the people at the school that they attended,
39:26
Speaker 1: which was Lucilline in High School. He talked to some
39:29
Speaker 1: of the kids there, I think they said he talked
39:31
Speaker 1: to the principal there, and the principal postman told him
39:34
Speaker 1: that he's seen the girls standing on the corner and
39:37
Speaker 1: when he called their name, they just took off runting.
39:39
Speaker 1: But that was never confirmed. This is what the investigator said,
39:43
Speaker 1: but he never went to the convenience or to talk
39:45
Speaker 1: to Miss Gloria. He never went and talked to my sister.
39:48
Speaker 1: He never talked to my cousin them that day. Everybody
39:51
Speaker 1: they had had contact with them that day they went missing.
39:55
Speaker 1: He never talked to on the people he talked to us,
39:57
Speaker 1: the people at the school that claimed that they saw
40:01
Speaker 1: them standing on the corner or they claimed he said
40:04
Speaker 1: they've seen them in the bottom which is project that's
40:07
Speaker 1: called Underwood Homes. They were supposed to be down there.
40:10
Speaker 1: And then they said that they were supposed to being
40:12
Speaker 1: at somebody house project called delth to Manor where my
40:15
Speaker 1: mom she stays there. Now, um, they had a couple
40:18
Speaker 1: of friends that did stay down there, but they really
40:20
Speaker 1: didn't go to many place, you know, and whenever we
40:24
Speaker 1: did go into where all of us went together, it's
40:26
Speaker 1: just that particular day, everybody just had came home from church.
40:30
Speaker 1: You know, my mom was getting there. Everybody rid of
40:32
Speaker 1: for school the next day. She wanted to feed everybody
40:35
Speaker 1: before they went to bed, and she sent them out
40:38
Speaker 1: and and they't like you know, people might say, okay,
40:41
Speaker 1: everybody needed that to fifteen year old was walk But
40:44
Speaker 1: I used to walk and I was twelve years old,
40:47
Speaker 1: and we used to walk going to the friend's house
40:49
Speaker 1: of whatever. Back then. Also, we didn't think that nothing
40:52
Speaker 1: was gonna happen all over the neighborhood out in the
40:55
Speaker 1: middle really of of of nowhere. Here's the question to
40:59
Speaker 1: Brook our Grove Brooke. Apparently it's believed that the girls
41:03
Speaker 1: got enough money to take a bus to a high school.
41:07
Speaker 1: Do we know if they got on the bus. Did
41:10
Speaker 1: that happen? No, ma'am. So they were collecting some money
41:14
Speaker 1: from their godfather to use to take the bus to
41:18
Speaker 1: the high school each day the following week. Uh, the
41:22
Speaker 1: last time they were seen was at the convenience store,
41:25
Speaker 1: which would have been around four or five pm. They
41:28
Speaker 1: were never seen again. Any reports that they were seen
41:32
Speaker 1: came directly from the original investigator, who it has been
41:37
Speaker 1: shown that he has um fabricated some details in the
41:41
Speaker 1: past in order to be able to close the case.
41:43
Speaker 1: We don't believe they made it very far past the
41:46
Speaker 1: convenience store, and they certainly never got on a bus
41:50
Speaker 1: and went to school again. My question is how do
41:53
Speaker 1: two teen girls just disappear at the same time. I mean,
41:58
Speaker 1: it would be very diff the cult to control two
42:01
Speaker 1: teen girls that don't want to get in your vehicle
42:04
Speaker 1: or don't want to go with you from the convenience
42:07
Speaker 1: store to their home, to my understanding, is less than
42:11
Speaker 1: a mile. And at that time it would have still
42:14
Speaker 1: been daylight outside. So how in broad daylight did two
42:19
Speaker 1: girls on a very busy street get dragged into a
42:24
Speaker 1: car by a random kidnapper? It says to me, it
42:29
Speaker 1: had to bait somebody that they knew. What about that,
42:32
Speaker 1: Laura Norton, I think that's the most likely scenario. The
42:36
Speaker 1: only other and less likely option. There was a serial
42:39
Speaker 1: rapist operating in the neighborhood at the time. Who was Washington, Yes, ma'am,
42:43
Speaker 1: and take George sorry, Joseph Patrick Washington, and he was
42:47
Speaker 1: taking people off the street busy times a day with
42:50
Speaker 1: a gun. But once again, as you say to people,
42:53
Speaker 1: so the most likely scenario is it would be someone
42:55
Speaker 1: that they knew. Um, they did not take rides from strangers,
42:58
Speaker 1: They were not hitchhikers. Now with Washington, would this have
43:02
Speaker 1: been his emo? Compared to victims? Time of day a Sunday,
43:07
Speaker 1: And weren't the victims found with Washington as opposed to
43:11
Speaker 1: Dinette Janette never found. Well, it kind of was across
43:15
Speaker 1: the board. They would have been in the victim pool
43:18
Speaker 1: in a large and broadway. They were a little younger.
43:21
Speaker 1: Um the time of day was a little later. But
43:23
Speaker 1: some of Washington's victims were found where he left them.
43:27
Speaker 1: But a few people were found fairly far away. But
43:29
Speaker 1: you're right, as far as we know, they were found
43:31
Speaker 1: questioned back to Shaunte Star just as sister of the
43:33
Speaker 1: missing girls, Dannette and Jeanette mill Brooks. I know that
43:38
Speaker 1: you finally took it over from your mother because she
43:41
Speaker 1: was just exhausted with trying to get the police to
43:46
Speaker 1: act in this case, and that you call them, call them,
43:51
Speaker 1: call them incessantly until a sheriff finally agrees to look
43:56
Speaker 1: into it. Only discovered the case has been closed for years.
44:00
Speaker 1: When you would call them, Shunte, when you would call place,
44:03
Speaker 1: what would they say to you? Crazy stuff that wasn't true.
44:07
Speaker 1: My call down there a couple of times. They told
44:09
Speaker 1: me my mom kids head got taken away from them.
44:12
Speaker 1: I needed to call defects office to find out information
44:15
Speaker 1: from Well, that wasn't true because you were there with
44:18
Speaker 1: your mother and the other all the eight brothers and sisters.
44:21
Speaker 1: They were not taken away and there have been no
44:23
Speaker 1: claims of child protective services in that home. I can't
44:27
Speaker 1: believe one of them even said that. Okay, what else?
44:30
Speaker 1: After called? I did what they said? I called Defects.
44:33
Speaker 1: Defects told me to call Falster Home um they probably
44:37
Speaker 1: was adopted out of something they gave me on phone them,
44:39
Speaker 1: and to call some adoption agency that was in Atlanta, Georgia.
44:43
Speaker 1: I called that adopted ation. They told me, well, I
44:45
Speaker 1: don't know what they would Why would they tell you
44:47
Speaker 1: to call us because we wouldn't be able to give
44:49
Speaker 1: you any information in the way if they did. But
44:51
Speaker 1: they told me because I was the sister or the
44:55
Speaker 1: only way they would give me information is that I
44:57
Speaker 1: felt that paperwork and they was gonna mad the paperwork
44:59
Speaker 1: to of me, which they did, but I never filled
45:02
Speaker 1: it out and sent it back because I really know
45:04
Speaker 1: what was the stated wasn't true. Wait, let me understand
45:07
Speaker 1: what you're saying. Are you telling me Chante police told
45:11
Speaker 1: you to call an adoption agency like your teen sisters
45:15
Speaker 1: were adopted that day? The police told me to call Defects,
45:19
Speaker 1: they said, because they're from their recollection. But they're saying
45:22
Speaker 1: the case file was closed. Now they they have them
45:25
Speaker 1: in the foul But from whatever he was seeing, the
45:28
Speaker 1: guy that I talked to, I don't know his name,
45:31
Speaker 1: but he told me from what he was seeing that
45:34
Speaker 1: my mom kids had got taken away. Maybe, um, they
45:38
Speaker 1: you called the defects office because they probably by now
45:40
Speaker 1: they're probably been adopted out because they had been so
45:43
Speaker 1: many years, from nineteen nine to the time that I
45:46
Speaker 1: started looking for them. Oh oh oh, that's killing me.
45:52
Speaker 1: That's killing me, Brook Hargrove. She's trying to find her sisters,
45:57
Speaker 1: and police say called defects. They all know that children
46:00
Speaker 1: are in the home, The other eight children are in
46:03
Speaker 1: the home. They know that children have not been removed
46:06
Speaker 1: from the home, and then they suggest defacts suggests the
46:09
Speaker 1: girls were adopted. That's ridiculous. Absolutely, Even if children have
46:15
Speaker 1: been removed from the home and attempted to be adopted out,
46:19
Speaker 1: the biological mother has to sign paperwork terminating her parental rights,
46:24
Speaker 1: which of course Shaunte's mother never did. It's totally absurd.
46:28
Speaker 1: I don't understand why they would even say that. So, Shaunte,
46:32
Speaker 1: you know, de Facts Department Family Children's Services and we
46:36
Speaker 1: have confirmed this was never called to the home. The
46:40
Speaker 1: children were not put up for adoption, and the fact
46:43
Speaker 1: that they would say this is another black eye to
46:47
Speaker 1: the police. Why would they have said that instead of
46:50
Speaker 1: saying talking to you about the investigation, shanty exactly what
46:55
Speaker 1: I indeed, further my widening, y'all give her a chain
47:00
Speaker 1: to get her keys back. If y'all field that the
47:02
Speaker 1: ending of the keys was in danger, why y'all left
47:05
Speaker 1: the other keys and just took two keys out of
47:07
Speaker 1: the home. I said, that doesn't make any sense, sir, Well,
47:10
Speaker 1: it's all a big lie because we know the current
47:13
Speaker 1: sheriff has reopened a missing person possible homicide case. So
47:17
Speaker 1: that's totally a lie. That brings me to my question,
47:20
Speaker 1: Laura Norton, why the lie? Well, I think that this
47:24
Speaker 1: is a long culture of apathy and incompetence. And when
47:28
Speaker 1: we speak to the adoption case, there was someone in
47:30
Speaker 1: the system with a similar last name. There was not
47:34
Speaker 1: enough effort put into checking that to look at the
47:36
Speaker 1: first name and see, of course it's not the twins
47:40
Speaker 1: um And I really think in this case, although it
47:43
Speaker 1: seems horrible and unbelievable, it has simply been a long
47:46
Speaker 1: string of incompetence, apathy, and not caring about young poor
47:51
Speaker 1: girls of color. In Augusta, Georgia Chantey questioned, do you
47:55
Speaker 1: believe your sisters are alive at this point? I'm as sure.
48:00
Speaker 1: I want to believe they are. I always had hope
48:04
Speaker 1: all these years that they are, but right now I'm
48:07
Speaker 1: not sure. Years and years, like almost thirty years now,
48:11
Speaker 1: and we still haven't founded anything. And I think he
48:14
Speaker 1: had to share the department did something back then in
48:17
Speaker 1: nineteen nine, and we probably won't be where we were,
48:19
Speaker 1: probably know something by now. But I never give up.
48:23
Speaker 1: I said, I keep on going and keep going until
48:26
Speaker 1: we can at least find something out because somebody out
48:29
Speaker 1: there's no they just disappeared. You nobody know anything. And
48:34
Speaker 1: I got contact and then on Facebook by Brooke and Loura,
48:39
Speaker 1: and from that point on they've been doing the investigation.
48:43
Speaker 1: It has been the police department. So I think if
48:47
Speaker 1: had I they contacted me, we're still back to be
48:51
Speaker 1: back in nineteen nine, which I still feel like we
48:53
Speaker 1: are because they still ain't doing anything. Brooke Hargrove, one
48:58
Speaker 1: of the producers of Falling podcast along with Laura Norton,
49:01
Speaker 1: with us Now Michael Wheeland, host of the Unresolved podcast,
49:06
Speaker 1: Brooke Hargrove. I understand an investigator agreed to meet with
49:10
Speaker 1: you after you uncovered new leads, but on the condition
49:14
Speaker 1: they don't you don't discuss the case, and you were
49:17
Speaker 1: not allowed to ask any questions. The family could come,
49:21
Speaker 1: but only if they asked no questions. Is that true?
49:25
Speaker 1: That's true? And unfortunately when we did show up for
49:28
Speaker 1: the meeting, it was myself and Laura and Shanty and
49:32
Speaker 1: her mother, Miss Louise. Once we showed up, we were
49:35
Speaker 1: told there were too many people that only two people
49:39
Speaker 1: would be allowed to attend the meeting, so I had
49:42
Speaker 1: to go in and make the evidence presentation. Shanta went
49:46
Speaker 1: in because she's been heading the case since age nineteen,
49:49
Speaker 1: and Miss Louise, who had never had an in person
49:52
Speaker 1: meeting about her children's case since nineteen ever she's never
49:57
Speaker 1: had one ever, was made to sit in the lobby
50:00
Speaker 1: and wait while this meeting took place. I just don't
50:03
Speaker 1: even know what to say to that, Brook, How horrible
50:07
Speaker 1: it is. Brooke, You on behalf of fall Line podcast
50:12
Speaker 1: have developed new leads? What are they? We have several, Nancy.
50:16
Speaker 1: We started first looking into the Joseph Patrick Washington connection
50:21
Speaker 1: because his victim profile is very similar to Jeanette and Janette.
50:25
Speaker 1: There have also been some Jane Does recovered in the Aiken,
50:29
Speaker 1: South Carolina area, which is very close geographically to Augusta.
50:33
Speaker 1: They're kind of like sister cities. One of them, Shauntey,
50:36
Speaker 1: saw a reconstruction on the news in the I believe
50:40
Speaker 1: late nineties, and she thought to herself, my goodness, that
50:43
Speaker 1: person looks so much like Jeannette. She called Richmond County
50:47
Speaker 1: she said, I just saw Jane Doe reconstruction on the news.
50:50
Speaker 1: Looks like my sister. They said, oh no, that that
50:53
Speaker 1: wasn't the twins, although they could never explain to her
50:55
Speaker 1: how they came to that conclusion because they didn't have
50:58
Speaker 1: any materials for testing until when they reopened the case.
51:03
Speaker 1: We were able to contact the corner in Aiken County,
51:07
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and he is currently running a comparison between
51:12
Speaker 1: that Jane Doe, who is still unclaimed and Jeanette. We're
51:16
Speaker 1: waiting on results. To Michael Wheelan, what do you make
51:19
Speaker 1: of it at the moment, just really hard to overlook,
51:23
Speaker 1: you know, how many leads there were, how many suspects
51:25
Speaker 1: that police should have investigated, but they spent twenty three
51:28
Speaker 1: years not following up on any of them. There were
51:31
Speaker 1: so many different, you know, serial offenders that lived in
51:34
Speaker 1: the surrounding area, and none of them were really investigated.
51:37
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm looking at some cases from around the
51:42
Speaker 1: vicinity of where the twins lived, and it's, like you said,
51:45
Speaker 1: it's just hard not to get frustrated with how much
51:47
Speaker 1: is out there to be investigated and police did none
51:50
Speaker 1: of it. To Laura Norton, what is your fall line? Podcast?
51:54
Speaker 1: Tip line? Our tip line is that four zero four
51:58
Speaker 1: five nine zero two and Michael Wheeling with the Unresolved podcast, Michael,
52:05
Speaker 1: do you have a tipline? What is it? Yes? I do.
52:08
Speaker 1: It is one two zero zero three five zero. I
52:13
Speaker 1: strongly believe that the FBI needs to be involved in
52:18
Speaker 1: this disappearance and the investigation of what went wrong within
52:24
Speaker 1: the Richmond County Sheriff's office Chante Sturgis, I was contented
52:31
Speaker 1: by my mom and they told her they couldn't do
52:34
Speaker 1: anything to help her because the origin to investigator see it,
52:37
Speaker 1: they had been found. Well, you know what, since that's
52:39
Speaker 1: not true, maybe they can reconsider Nancy Grace crime stories.
52:44
Speaker 1: Signing off, goodbye friend,