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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Brooke Allensworth · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans. On July twelfth, twenty eighteen, somewhere around
0:17
Speaker 1: the tiny town of Oltrough, Arkansas, a thirty seven year
0:20
Speaker 1: old mother of three named Brook Allensworth disappeared. Oil Trough
0:25
Speaker 1: is in eastern Arkansas, in the flats. As soon as
0:28
Speaker 1: you drive out of the Ozark Mountains and cross over
0:31
Speaker 1: the White River, you can see for miles nothing but flat,
0:35
Speaker 1: delta and farmland. French hunters were in the area in
0:39
Speaker 1: the early eighteen hundreds. They extracted oil from the Bears
0:43
Speaker 1: who lived in limestone caves around there. So, according to
0:47
Speaker 1: my dad and a local legend, the name of the
0:50
Speaker 1: town Oltrough came from the wooden troughs that these hunters
0:53
Speaker 1: would store their barre oil in. These days, it's a
0:56
Speaker 1: quiet town, not the kind of place where a young
0:59
Speaker 1: mother could vanish in the middle of the afternoon, But
1:02
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happened to Brook Allensworth. Sheared without a trace,
1:07
Speaker 1: and her family, including her three children and a father
1:10
Speaker 1: and sister, who were still searching for answers, never saw
1:15
Speaker 1: her alive again. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone
1:21
Speaker 1: Murder line. Over the past five years of making my
1:25
Speaker 1: true crime podcast, Helen Gone. I've learned that there is
1:29
Speaker 1: no such thing as a small town where murdered never happens.
1:33
Speaker 1: I have received hundreds of messages from people all around
1:36
Speaker 1: the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's
1:39
Speaker 1: affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have
1:43
Speaker 1: a case you'd like me and my team to look into,
1:45
Speaker 1: you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
1:47
Speaker 1: Murder line at six seven eight seven four four six
1:51
Speaker 1: one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four
1:56
Speaker 1: six one four or five. I first heard about Brook's
2:46
Speaker 1: case back in twenty eighteen. Back then, she had only
2:49
Speaker 1: been missing for a few months, but her family already
2:52
Speaker 1: had questions about how the case was being handled and
2:55
Speaker 1: why there was so little information made public about the
2:58
Speaker 1: search for her. The last known sighting of Brooke Allensworth
3:02
Speaker 1: was on July twelfth, twenty eighteen. Just over two weeks later,
3:07
Speaker 1: on July twenty seventh, the police found Brook's car, a
3:11
Speaker 1: black two thousand and seven Toyota Camry. The car had
3:14
Speaker 1: been abandoned just off Arkansas Highway one twenty two at
3:17
Speaker 1: the White River access point in Ultrough. The bottom of
3:21
Speaker 1: the car was muddy, like Brook might have been driving
3:25
Speaker 1: through some rough road which is not by the way,
3:27
Speaker 1: uncommon for that area. The front right tire of the
3:31
Speaker 1: car was completely flat. The car looked like it had
3:34
Speaker 1: been left there for days or possibly weeks. It was
3:38
Speaker 1: parked near a boat ramp. Brook's family said that Brooke
3:44
Speaker 1: had been having multiple unexplained flat tires and the days
3:48
Speaker 1: and weeks before she went missing. The doors of the
3:51
Speaker 1: car were locked, the keys were missing. The sheriff at
3:55
Speaker 1: the time, Sean Stevens, told reporters quote, someone called in
3:59
Speaker 1: about a vehicle sitting under a bridge. It was like
4:01
Speaker 1: it was just parked there and walked away from The
4:04
Speaker 1: keys were not in the car. Have no information on
4:06
Speaker 1: who put it there. Inside the car, police found Brook's
4:11
Speaker 1: personal effects, her wallet with money still inside, her cell phone,
4:16
Speaker 1: a can of fix a flat, and a pack of cigarettes,
4:19
Speaker 1: but there was no sign of Brook now from what
4:23
Speaker 1: they've said, although police haven't revealed much information, they seemed
4:27
Speaker 1: to believe that Brooke was planning to meet someone at
4:30
Speaker 1: that location and that after she got out of her car,
4:33
Speaker 1: she took her keys, locked it and went with that person.
4:37
Speaker 1: And again, although this is technically an open case, which
4:40
Speaker 1: means that the information in the case file has not
4:42
Speaker 1: been made public, so I have no access to it.
4:45
Speaker 1: From what I know of Brooke, I find it very
4:48
Speaker 1: hard to believe that she would have just locked up
4:50
Speaker 1: and left all of her personal items behind. At the
4:54
Speaker 1: time when she went missing, Brooke had a lot to
4:56
Speaker 1: look forward to. In twenty twelve, she graduated from the
5:00
Speaker 1: University of Arkansas Community College with an Associate of Applied
5:03
Speaker 1: Science degree in nursing. She worked as an LPN or
5:07
Speaker 1: a licensed practical nurse. Brooke was divorced from her ex husband, Dustin.
5:13
Speaker 1: She had three children, two from her first marriage and
5:17
Speaker 1: one with her current partner, Brad. At the time of
5:21
Speaker 1: her disappearance, her two older children were in their teens.
5:25
Speaker 1: She and Brad had a son who was four years old.
5:28
Speaker 1: Brooke was living in Sarce and working as a nurse
5:31
Speaker 1: at Newark Medical Clinic, so that route from Circe to Oltrough,
5:36
Speaker 1: which Brooke drove right before she disappeared, was one that
5:39
Speaker 1: she knew very well. I've been in contact with Brooke's sister,
5:44
Speaker 1: Kelly Avensalindsworth for a couple of years now, and I
5:47
Speaker 1: followed everything that Kelly has done. She has never stopped
5:51
Speaker 1: fighting to get answers about what really happened to Brooke. Now,
5:56
Speaker 1: some people have suggested that Brooke, like a lot of
5:59
Speaker 1: people in the region, had used some drugs in the past,
6:02
Speaker 1: including methamphetamines. But as I've sad said many times in
6:06
Speaker 1: this podcast, drug use or actually anything in a person's
6:09
Speaker 1: life does not define them and it should never affect
6:13
Speaker 1: how diligently someone's case is pursued. Everyone deserves justice. In
6:18
Speaker 1: my opinion, from what the police said when Brook first
6:22
Speaker 1: went missing, it appeared that they did not treat this
6:25
Speaker 1: incident as possibly involving foul play. Some of that is understandable.
6:30
Speaker 1: Police pointed out there was no sign of foul play
6:34
Speaker 1: in or around Brook's car, no sign of a struggle,
6:36
Speaker 1: and it's not illegal for someone over eighteen to voluntarily
6:41
Speaker 1: go missing. However, Brook's family was adamant she never would
6:47
Speaker 1: have dropped out of sight and left her children for
6:49
Speaker 1: this long. Leaving all of her personal belongings behind, including
6:52
Speaker 1: her cell phone and her money, does not make sense.
6:56
Speaker 1: Brook's family insists it was completely out of character for
6:59
Speaker 1: her to go off somewhere without contacting her father or
7:02
Speaker 1: staying in touch with her children. W Brook's father, Aubrey Allensworth,
7:08
Speaker 1: said she always stayed in touch with him and with
7:10
Speaker 1: her kids. He said, quote, She's a kind, gentle, wonderful,
7:16
Speaker 1: loving person. She's the type of person who, if she
7:19
Speaker 1: saw a straight dog running by the highway, would stop
7:22
Speaker 1: and pick it up and take care of it. End quote.
7:26
Speaker 1: Though Brooke had faced demons in the past, she adored
7:29
Speaker 1: her children. At the time of Brook's disappearance, things were
7:34
Speaker 1: complicated for her at home. Friends and family say she
7:37
Speaker 1: was worried about arguments she had been having lately with
7:40
Speaker 1: the father of her four year old son, Brad. Brooke
7:43
Speaker 1: was worried about getting custody of her young son. Before
7:47
Speaker 1: she disappeared, Brooke also had other suspicions. She believed that
7:52
Speaker 1: she was being followed. Now, some people seemed to have
7:56
Speaker 1: written this off as possibly being paranoid, but from what
8:00
Speaker 1: I have learned about Brook's life from her family and
8:03
Speaker 1: people who knew her, she had value reasons to be worried.
8:08
Speaker 1: I've put together a timeline of Brook's last movements. There
8:12
Speaker 1: are a lot of things I'm going to mention here
8:14
Speaker 1: that you will not see on the news. I did
8:16
Speaker 1: this with help from Brook's sister Kelly, who has never
8:19
Speaker 1: given up on trying to get answers and justice for
8:21
Speaker 1: her sister and to find out what really happened to Brook.
8:25
Speaker 1: I keep looking back at Brook's Facebook page, the one
8:28
Speaker 1: whose cover quote reads, speak the truth even if your
8:31
Speaker 1: voice shakes, all of Brook's photos or Brooke smiling with
8:36
Speaker 1: her children. I also notice we have two mutual friends,
8:40
Speaker 1: which confirms my long held belief that in many ways,
8:44
Speaker 1: the state of Arkansas is one big small town. As
8:48
Speaker 1: you know, in this podcast, we try to focus on victimology,
8:51
Speaker 1: what Brooke was doing, what her state of mind was
8:54
Speaker 1: at the time of her disappearance, and what was going
8:56
Speaker 1: on in her life. So let's go back to July tenth,
9:00
Speaker 1: two days before Brook disappeared. That day, she sent her
9:04
Speaker 1: sister Kelly a message saying, hey girl, what's up. Kelly
9:08
Speaker 1: said it was a while before she responded because it
9:11
Speaker 1: seemed like a completely normal message. When she did get
9:15
Speaker 1: back to Brook, Brooke wrote back saying don't worry, I've
9:17
Speaker 1: got it taken care of. Much later, when she reflected
9:20
Speaker 1: back on that message, Kelly thought maybe her sister needed something,
9:24
Speaker 1: maybe she was trying to tell her something. But again,
9:27
Speaker 1: at the time, it didn't seem like a big deal.
9:30
Speaker 1: On that day, on July tenth, Kelly said that Brooke
9:33
Speaker 1: was with Brad, her partner and the father of her
9:35
Speaker 1: four year old child. They were together at Brad's home
9:38
Speaker 1: in Sarcy, Arkansas, which again is about forty four miles away.
9:42
Speaker 1: It takes a little less than an hour to make
9:44
Speaker 1: that trip by carr. Brooke and Brad went to Newport
9:47
Speaker 1: for the day, then back to his place in Sarce
9:50
Speaker 1: that night. Kelly said she believes on that day Brooke
9:54
Speaker 1: and Brad did have some kind of argument. Now I
9:57
Speaker 1: want to make absolutely clear here I am not in
9:59
Speaker 1: any way suggesting that Brad or anyone else had any
10:03
Speaker 1: part in Brook's disappearance. I don't know what happen, but
10:07
Speaker 1: because there is no information out there and it's been
10:09
Speaker 1: so many years, I want to go through all the
10:12
Speaker 1: known facts and hopefully, working together, we can close any
10:16
Speaker 1: of these gaps in time. I have reached out both
10:20
Speaker 1: to Brad and to Dustin in the past, I have
10:22
Speaker 1: not heard back. I would love to talk to both
10:25
Speaker 1: of them. As we all know, the tiniest detail can
10:29
Speaker 1: sometimes be the missing piece that helps break a case. Now,
10:33
Speaker 1: apparently while Brad was in the shower, Brooke left the
10:36
Speaker 1: residence with the couple's son. After Brooke made the decision
10:39
Speaker 1: to leave home, she went to stay with a female friend,
10:42
Speaker 1: a person who lived in Newport, and then she stayed
10:45
Speaker 1: with that female friend overnight. Again. All of this information
10:49
Speaker 1: is according to Brook's sister, Kelly. Just to clarify some
10:53
Speaker 1: geography here, we talk about Newark, Newport, and Oltrough. Those
10:58
Speaker 1: three towns are all very close together. Newark is right
11:02
Speaker 1: across the bridge from Oltrough across the White River. Newport
11:06
Speaker 1: is about ten miles from Oltrough up Arkansas Highway fourteen.
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Speaker 1: All of these places were locations where Brook frequented. So
11:15
Speaker 1: now we go to the next day, July eleventh. Brooke
11:19
Speaker 1: called her two older children, who I believe were in
11:22
Speaker 1: their teens. At least one of them must have been
11:24
Speaker 1: old enough to drive. She arranged for them to come
11:27
Speaker 1: pick up her little son, her youngest son, in Oltrop.
11:30
Speaker 1: She told her kids she had a hair appointment in Newport,
11:33
Speaker 1: so they did. They took brook Son with them. She
11:36
Speaker 1: went on to her hair appointment. Brooke went into the
11:39
Speaker 1: Allure beauty salon. When she went in, she was a brunette.
11:43
Speaker 1: She came out of Platinum Blonde on that same day.
11:47
Speaker 1: I believe she also had her nails done at a different,
11:50
Speaker 1: separate appointment. That night, Brook stayed with the same female
11:54
Speaker 1: friend she'd stayed with the previous night, And this was
11:57
Speaker 1: around the time when Brooke had been telling people she
12:00
Speaker 1: was having these car issues. She said she had been
12:03
Speaker 1: getting a lot of unexplained flat time. On the morning
12:07
Speaker 1: of July twelfth, Brooke left her friend's residence pretty early
12:10
Speaker 1: in the morning. Her sister, Kelly, said that Brook's plan
12:15
Speaker 1: was to go back to Sircy and talk to Brad
12:17
Speaker 1: to see if they could work things out. She told
12:20
Speaker 1: friend she was going to face the music to work
12:23
Speaker 1: out her issues with him. Kelly said Brooke did seem
12:26
Speaker 1: to be worried about the arguing with Brad, but Brooke
12:29
Speaker 1: appeared to have other things on her mind, things that
12:32
Speaker 1: were bothering her even more. Kelly said, quote, she was scared.
12:37
Speaker 1: She said that a brown truck was following her. End quote. Now,
12:42
Speaker 1: at some point it seems like Brooke got another flat.
12:45
Speaker 1: They're a report she was seen on the side of
12:47
Speaker 1: the road and that she was using fix a flat,
12:49
Speaker 1: which if any of you've never seen fix a flat.
12:52
Speaker 1: It's basically compressed air in a can. She was using
12:56
Speaker 1: it to put air into her tires. But fix a
12:58
Speaker 1: flat is really just a quick fix. If you've got
13:01
Speaker 1: a leak, you still have to go get it fixed somewhere,
13:04
Speaker 1: which Brooke apparently just do. At eight thirty am, after
13:08
Speaker 1: leaving her friend's house, Brook stopped in at Grady's Auto
13:11
Speaker 1: Repair in Newport. The mechanic there, a local guy named
13:15
Speaker 1: Grady Henson, put oil in her car. I'm not exactly
13:18
Speaker 1: sure what else he did to her car. He may
13:21
Speaker 1: or may not have done something about the flat tire.
13:23
Speaker 1: It's unclear. In all the reports I've seen, it has
13:27
Speaker 1: been reported police did ping Brook's cell phone. They figured
13:30
Speaker 1: out that at some point during her drive to Circe,
13:33
Speaker 1: she made a fateful decision. She chose to turn around
13:37
Speaker 1: and drive back toward Olstrough. We do know once she
13:40
Speaker 1: got there, she went to the residence of her first husband,
13:43
Speaker 1: Dustin and his wife. Brook's family has said they don't
13:47
Speaker 1: really know why Brooks stopped there. They have a theory
13:51
Speaker 1: that Brooke may have gone there in order to get
13:54
Speaker 1: Dustin and his wife to help her with a potential
13:59
Speaker 1: custody issue with her four year old son, maybe even
14:02
Speaker 1: to ask Dustin and his wife if they could take
14:05
Speaker 1: cut of her son. Now, this is all pure speculation.
14:08
Speaker 1: This is something that Brook's family, knowing the situation she
14:12
Speaker 1: was in, believes might have happened, but we don't know
14:14
Speaker 1: for sure. And again it's unclear exactly what the relationship
14:19
Speaker 1: between Brook and Dustin was because it's all second and
14:22
Speaker 1: third hand. Some people say there had been friction in
14:25
Speaker 1: the past between Brooke and Dustin and that they had
14:28
Speaker 1: argued over child support payments. Then again, for whatever reason,
14:32
Speaker 1: on that day, she felt comfortable enough to stop at
14:34
Speaker 1: his house. Dustin told police that Brooke did stop by,
14:39
Speaker 1: they spoke for a while, and then she left his
14:41
Speaker 1: house that morning. He said that after Brooke left the house,
14:45
Speaker 1: he never saw her again. Brook's father said that apparently
14:50
Speaker 1: Dustin had a step son who was in the house
14:53
Speaker 1: who saw a digital clock right when Brooke left, and
14:56
Speaker 1: apparently that clock read ten thirty eight am. It's my understanding,
15:01
Speaker 1: from Brook's family and the limited information I've read so far,
15:05
Speaker 1: that Dustin and the people in his home were the
15:08
Speaker 1: last known people to have seen Brooke after Brook disappeared,
15:14
Speaker 1: her family began to get seriously worried for her. At first,
15:18
Speaker 1: they might have thought maybe she was just with a friend,
15:21
Speaker 1: but as the days went on with zero contact, they
15:24
Speaker 1: knew that something must be seriously wrong. On July twenty sixth,
15:30
Speaker 1: her dad, Aubrey, filed a missing persons report in White
15:32
Speaker 1: County because that was where Brook lived. They gave police
15:36
Speaker 1: photos and went through her identifying characteristics. She was five
15:41
Speaker 1: foot eight, weighing one hundred and eight pounds. She had
15:44
Speaker 1: brown hair that had recently been dyed blonde, and Brook
15:47
Speaker 1: also had a very distinctive tattoo on the left side
15:51
Speaker 1: of her stomach. She has a tattoo that has GPS
15:53
Speaker 1: coordinates for a specific location in Newport Now. Brook's father
15:59
Speaker 1: apparently felt that the police were kind of giving him
16:01
Speaker 1: the run around. At this point, White County put out
16:04
Speaker 1: a bolo or be on the lookout, but then apparently
16:07
Speaker 1: they told him he had to talk to police in
16:09
Speaker 1: Independence County, where she was last seen, So there was
16:11
Speaker 1: a little bit of a delay before the boo actually
16:14
Speaker 1: went to Independence County. Then on July twenty seventh, the
16:18
Speaker 1: day after Brook's dad reported her missing, police found her
16:21
Speaker 1: car As we mentioned before, the black two thousand and
16:25
Speaker 1: seven Toyota Camery was under that bridge in Altrop. Again,
16:29
Speaker 1: the tire was flat, and actually looking at the pictures,
16:32
Speaker 1: it looks like more than one of the tires was
16:34
Speaker 1: pretty low. But it's very obvious that the front right
16:38
Speaker 1: tire was completely flat. All the doors of the car
16:41
Speaker 1: were locked, all of brooks stuff was inside it, but
16:43
Speaker 1: there was no sign of brook So here's something else
16:47
Speaker 1: about the car that is a little bit strange. Remember,
16:51
Speaker 1: Dustin's young step son said the clock read ten thirty
16:54
Speaker 1: eight am when Brooke left the house on July twelfth.
16:57
Speaker 1: Now I have multiple media reports that say someone saw
17:01
Speaker 1: brooks abandoned car that same day, around forty five minutes
17:04
Speaker 1: later un to the bridge. Brooks's dad said there was
17:08
Speaker 1: a guy on his lunch break who saw the car. Unfortunately,
17:12
Speaker 1: though that person didn't immediately report it to police. Someone
17:16
Speaker 1: described as a family friend of the Allensworth family told
17:20
Speaker 1: the news channel Fox sixteen quote it sat out here
17:23
Speaker 1: for about three weeks with a flat tire before it
17:25
Speaker 1: was picked up. End quote. I got more details on
17:29
Speaker 1: the timeline when the Independence County Sheriff Sheriff Stevens did
17:33
Speaker 1: a Monday Night mystery program. Now this was in twenty
17:37
Speaker 1: twenty one, but in an interview, he said one of
17:40
Speaker 1: his deputies had noticed the car under the bridge and
17:42
Speaker 1: logged it, but since there was no sign of foul play,
17:47
Speaker 1: the deputy didn't connect that car to a missing person
17:50
Speaker 1: because the missing person's report, remember, wasn't filed until the
17:52
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, so for a couple of weeks. The sheriff
17:56
Speaker 1: actually said roughly two weeks, they just kept an eye
18:00
Speaker 1: on it. The exact timing here would seem to me
18:03
Speaker 1: to be really crucial because if it's true that Brook's
18:06
Speaker 1: car was definitely seen by someone on that same day
18:09
Speaker 1: when she went missing on July twelfth, and it never
18:12
Speaker 1: moved after that, that would mean the window of time
18:15
Speaker 1: when Brooke could have disappeared would be considerably shorter. I
18:20
Speaker 1: made a freedom of information request for any information pertaining
18:23
Speaker 1: to Brooks car from both the Independence County Sheriff's Department
18:26
Speaker 1: and the Arkansas State Police. The Independence County Sheriff's Department
18:31
Speaker 1: did get back to me. Sheriff Sean Stevens was helpful
18:35
Speaker 1: and released the information that they were allowed to release.
18:39
Speaker 1: So I have the incident report pertaining to Brook's car.
18:43
Speaker 1: There was some information there. Unfortunately, the report did not
18:48
Speaker 1: confirm which day the car was first seen. It said
18:52
Speaker 1: that on Friday, July twenty seventh, the Sheriff's office was
18:55
Speaker 1: notified of a vehicle that had been sitting under the
18:57
Speaker 1: bridge for a couple of weeks, But it wasn't any
19:00
Speaker 1: more specific than that. It didn't say July twelfth, So
19:05
Speaker 1: I'm still looking for a way to narrow down that
19:08
Speaker 1: timeline to know for sure what happened to Brook on
19:11
Speaker 1: July twelfth, what happened when she was finished at Duston's house.
19:16
Speaker 1: As you may remember from Ebbie Steppek's case, often when
19:20
Speaker 1: there's an open case like this, the police will write
19:23
Speaker 1: back and normally they'll say no information is available. But
19:26
Speaker 1: sometimes in a case where something occurred, like an abandoned
19:30
Speaker 1: car being logged before it officially became a missing person's case,
19:35
Speaker 1: sometimes we can get more information, which is what I'm
19:37
Speaker 1: trying to do. After the car was found and linked
19:42
Speaker 1: to Brook, several police agencies got involved, including the Arkansas
19:47
Speaker 1: State Police. According to Brooks family, the Arkansas State Police
19:51
Speaker 1: investigators have conducted dozens of interviews and they have searched
19:54
Speaker 1: a large area. They dragged the White River and did
19:58
Speaker 1: a comprehensive search that covered eleven miles. Police did a
20:02
Speaker 1: ground search, They had a dive team out there, they
20:04
Speaker 1: used boat and they used cadaver dogs to search the
20:07
Speaker 1: banks around the White River, but never found any sign
20:10
Speaker 1: of Brook. Of course, police did consider the theory because
20:15
Speaker 1: of where Brook's car was, that brooks remains could have
20:18
Speaker 1: been in the White River, either because perhaps she was
20:21
Speaker 1: in a depressed state of mind and decided to wander
20:24
Speaker 1: in herself somehow, or because someone who she met at
20:28
Speaker 1: that scene did something to her and then put her
20:31
Speaker 1: in the water. I do want to back up and
20:34
Speaker 1: say that there's absolutely no indication of Brook being suicidal
20:37
Speaker 1: at all. In fact, she was making plans for the future,
20:40
Speaker 1: So I think that theory should have been eliminated pretty
20:43
Speaker 1: quickly if I were an investigator. However, they do have
20:46
Speaker 1: to consider that possibility. According to Brooks family, Arkansas State
20:51
Speaker 1: Police investigators explored the idea that maybe Brook left the
20:55
Speaker 1: area with a friend, or that maybe her tire was
20:58
Speaker 1: running flat so she drove down the ramp to that
21:01
Speaker 1: access point and parked there and again over the years,
21:05
Speaker 1: the police have shared very little information except what the
21:08
Speaker 1: sheriff told reporters back in twenty eighteen, which again was
21:12
Speaker 1: quote it looks like she broke down, had a flat
21:16
Speaker 1: left the car, and someone came through and she left
21:18
Speaker 1: end quote. Sheriff Smith did clarify on that Monday Night
21:22
Speaker 1: Mystery program that the police have taken other steps. He
21:26
Speaker 1: said they had swabbed the car for DNA and that
21:29
Speaker 1: they had sent the evidence from the car to the
21:32
Speaker 1: state crime lab. And this was pretty shocking to me. Actually,
21:37
Speaker 1: I know the Arkansas State Crime Lab has some pretty
21:40
Speaker 1: long delays, but in twenty twenty one, when this interview
21:44
Speaker 1: was done, the samples that were taken from the car
21:47
Speaker 1: still had not come back from the crime lab. And
21:49
Speaker 1: I find that pretty shocking. Actually, Brook's family had hoped
21:53
Speaker 1: that law enforcement would find answers and that they would
21:56
Speaker 1: be able to bring her home, but it's been years
21:59
Speaker 1: and there's still nothing. In twenty twenty, Brook's case did
22:04
Speaker 1: make headlines again after another young woman was viciously murdered
22:09
Speaker 1: in Arkansas. In August of twenty twenty, twenty five year
22:14
Speaker 1: old Sidney Sutherland was out for a jog near her
22:16
Speaker 1: home in Grubbs which is right outside of Newport l
22:19
Speaker 1: Like Brook, she vanished without a trace. This was in
22:22
Speaker 1: an area that Brooke regularly passed through. It was very
22:26
Speaker 1: close to Brook's father's house. Like Brook, Sidney disappeared in
22:30
Speaker 1: broad daylight. But unlike Brook, law enforcement found out what
22:33
Speaker 1: happened to Sidney Sutherland very quickly. I'm sure that many
22:37
Speaker 1: of you are familiar with this story because at the
22:39
Speaker 1: time it was everywhere. It turned out that a twenty
22:43
Speaker 1: nine year old named Quake Llewellyn, who worked on his
22:46
Speaker 1: family's farm nearby and who actually was one of Sidney's
22:48
Speaker 1: acquaintances from high school, saw Sidney while driving down the
22:52
Speaker 1: road one afternoon, and, as he would later tell investigators,
22:56
Speaker 1: he had what he called a sick urge, so he
22:59
Speaker 1: turned around and hit Sidney with his truck. Then he
23:03
Speaker 1: loaded her into the back, drove her to a secluded area,
23:06
Speaker 1: and viciously sexually assaulted her. Then he dumped her body
23:11
Speaker 1: in a shallow grave. Unlike in Brooks case, Sydney had
23:16
Speaker 1: a more regular routine, so when she didn't get home
23:19
Speaker 1: that afternoon from her run, her boyfriend reported her missing.
23:23
Speaker 1: Police immediately went out and scoured the area for her.
23:27
Speaker 1: And they did something here that has been a huge
23:30
Speaker 1: help to law enforcement, but it's rarely discussed and it's
23:33
Speaker 1: a really controversial subject. They used a technology called fog
23:37
Speaker 1: Reveal to run Sydney's cell phone number. Fog Reveal was
23:41
Speaker 1: created by a company called fog Data Science. What fog
23:45
Speaker 1: Data Science and other companies like it do is aggregate
23:49
Speaker 1: location data for mobile apps, the apps that so many
23:52
Speaker 1: of us use every single day. You know that moment
23:55
Speaker 1: when you're using an app, maybe you're waiting for a
23:58
Speaker 1: ride share to show up. That moment when it says
24:01
Speaker 1: on your phone, do you want to share location? And
24:03
Speaker 1: you click yes. Well, programs like fog reveal aggregate that data.
24:09
Speaker 1: They collect the location data and they give it to
24:11
Speaker 1: law enforcement and sometimes sell it to other entities. Normally,
24:16
Speaker 1: in a case, if law enforcement want to get access
24:20
Speaker 1: to someone's cell phone, they have to file a search warrant.
24:23
Speaker 1: Then they have to wait to get the court order,
24:27
Speaker 1: and often there is a delay of at least a
24:29
Speaker 1: couple of days, sometimes weeks before it's granted by Google
24:34
Speaker 1: or Apple or whichever company they're asking from. The data
24:37
Speaker 1: from This is different. This doesn't allow police to read
24:40
Speaker 1: text messages or view phone records. What it does, though,
24:45
Speaker 1: is each device has an ID number that is linked
24:49
Speaker 1: to it. So what these services do is they can
24:53
Speaker 1: track the movements of these specific devices. Law enforcement can
24:57
Speaker 1: also draw an area on a map and they'll specify
25:01
Speaker 1: a time range. The service shows a list of all
25:05
Speaker 1: so phone location signals, including the device ID within that area,
25:10
Speaker 1: so they don't provide the same thing as a search warrant.
25:12
Speaker 1: You can't read someone's text or get names or phone records,
25:16
Speaker 1: but you can follow people's movements, you can track their
25:19
Speaker 1: patterns of life. These searches are legal for now because
25:23
Speaker 1: police claim they don't actually track the person. Instead they
25:26
Speaker 1: tracked the device. But as we all know, so many
25:29
Speaker 1: of us are basically surgically attached to our cell phones,
25:32
Speaker 1: so in a sense, following your smartphone is following you.
25:36
Speaker 1: But this technology is actually how they caught Sydney's killer,
25:40
Speaker 1: because after they issued search warrants, police knew they didn't
25:43
Speaker 1: have any time to lose they used this technology and
25:47
Speaker 1: when they did, when they were able to find Sydney's
25:50
Speaker 1: cell phone and then to specify a list of other
25:53
Speaker 1: phones that were in that area at the time, it
25:56
Speaker 1: took them to Quake Llewellen. Meanwhile, Quake's family members were
25:59
Speaker 1: getting suspicious because he had dents in his truck and
26:02
Speaker 1: he was acting weird. So long story short, it was
26:05
Speaker 1: not long before they pulled him in for questioning and
26:07
Speaker 1: he confessed to raping and murdering Sidney. He was charged
26:11
Speaker 1: with Sydney's rape and murder, in addition to kidnapping and
26:14
Speaker 1: abuse of a corpse. In the end, before his trial
26:17
Speaker 1: was due to start, his attorneys made a deal. The
26:20
Speaker 1: death penalty was taken off the table and he was
26:23
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parroll.
26:29
Speaker 1: After Quake's arrest, Brooks family started to wonder about the
26:32
Speaker 1: things she said about being followed by someone in a truck.
26:36
Speaker 1: Especially after some of Quake's acquaintances started to come forward
26:40
Speaker 1: and talk about his creepy behavior. People started to wonder
26:44
Speaker 1: if he could be a serial killer. Today in Fort
26:48
Speaker 1: Smith also said they had reached out to someone who
26:51
Speaker 1: said quote he meaning Quake used to follow my friend,
26:55
Speaker 1: stalk her and try to get her to acknowledge him.
26:58
Speaker 1: She was very uncomfortable around him. End quote. Today in
27:01
Speaker 1: Fort Smith didn't name the person he made those allegations.
27:04
Speaker 1: But it did make me wonder if Quake Llewellen could
27:07
Speaker 1: have about anything to do with Brooks disappearance. During that time,
27:11
Speaker 1: Quake became a member of a Facebook group dedicated to
27:14
Speaker 1: finding Sidney. He inserted himself into the investigation several times.
27:19
Speaker 1: He even helped the volunteer searchers. Quake showed up at
27:22
Speaker 1: Sidney's funeral and he hugged her mother, Maggie Sutherland, which
27:26
Speaker 1: I find horrifying. Maggie, who said she was her daughter,
27:30
Speaker 1: Sidney's best friend and the last person to see her
27:33
Speaker 1: daughter alive, confronted Quake at his sentencing hearing as she
27:37
Speaker 1: made a victim impact statement for Sydney. Maggie said, quote,
27:41
Speaker 1: the hands you hugged me with are the same hands
27:43
Speaker 1: you killed her with. End quote. Since Brook's timeline is
27:51
Speaker 1: still vague, it's hard to rule anyone out, and we
27:54
Speaker 1: have no idea what Quake Lewellin was doing the day
27:57
Speaker 1: that Brook went missing. It's been recorded that police did
28:00
Speaker 1: question Quake about Brook's disappearance. They said they would continue
28:04
Speaker 1: to question him until they were sure they could rule
28:06
Speaker 1: them out. But again, since police understandably keep things close
28:10
Speaker 1: to the vest, it's hard to see if and when
28:14
Speaker 1: that happened, if they did ever completely rule Quake out
28:18
Speaker 1: as Brooks killer, and if they did, how they did it.
28:22
Speaker 1: Now I should say that this FOG revealed technology is
28:25
Speaker 1: not a magic bullet. I talked to a representative from
28:28
Speaker 1: the company Fog Data Science. They said that this technology
28:33
Speaker 1: is not perfect. And I know from hard personal experience
28:37
Speaker 1: if there is an area of the country that's going
28:39
Speaker 1: to be prone to patche cell service and to technology
28:41
Speaker 1: not working, it is rural Arkansas. But I have asked
28:45
Speaker 1: myself many times if this same technology that helped find
28:49
Speaker 1: answers in Sydney Sutherland's case could have been used in
28:51
Speaker 1: Brooks case. A while back, I asked one of my colleagues, Mike,
28:56
Speaker 1: who I've worked with on former cases, and you may
28:59
Speaker 1: remember from season four of Hell Gone when we went
29:01
Speaker 1: to Little Rock to work on Ebbie Steppeck's case, is
29:05
Speaker 1: an expert in cell phone data and he's trained in
29:08
Speaker 1: this type of technology. What he told me was that,
29:12
Speaker 1: unfortunately Brooks data was too far in the past to track.
29:16
Speaker 1: And when I talked to the representative from the company,
29:19
Speaker 1: they confirmed that. They said, now, because there is so
29:22
Speaker 1: much data out there, they used to have information that
29:24
Speaker 1: was a few years old, but now it basically stops
29:27
Speaker 1: at three years. But Mike was able to run a
29:31
Speaker 1: search on Quake Llewellen's phone from the time before he
29:34
Speaker 1: was arrested, and he found some interesting data there. He
29:38
Speaker 1: found that Quake llewellens regular route took him near the
29:42
Speaker 1: neighborhood where Brook's father lived at the time. Does this
29:46
Speaker 1: mean anything? Could it be a coincidence? Possibly? It's a
29:49
Speaker 1: small town. But I keep coming back to that because
29:52
Speaker 1: Brooks's sister claimed that she was being followed and Quake
29:56
Speaker 1: did drive a truck, though not a brown truck. I'm
29:59
Speaker 1: still looking for more information on Quake Llewellen's activities during
30:02
Speaker 1: the weeks and months before Brook's disappearance. There is a
30:05
Speaker 1: listener out there who has any of that information. Even
30:09
Speaker 1: if you think it's something totally insignificant, Please reach out
30:14
Speaker 1: back to Brooks case. In December twenty twenty one, there
30:18
Speaker 1: was a new controversy involving a YouTube channel called Adventures
30:22
Speaker 1: with Purpose or AWP. AWP is run by a dive team.
30:27
Speaker 1: It's a really long story and I feel that it's
30:31
Speaker 1: kind of a distraction from the investigation at this point,
30:33
Speaker 1: but I'm just going to give a brief synopsis. The
30:36
Speaker 1: guys from AWP came down and offered to search the
30:40
Speaker 1: area for free to dive into the White River and
30:42
Speaker 1: some other bodies of water. According to Kelly, there had
30:45
Speaker 1: been some rumors that Brook's body had been dumped into
30:48
Speaker 1: a barrel and left in what's called Before Ponds area.
30:52
Speaker 1: Now I don't know where this rumor started. I've tried
30:54
Speaker 1: to verify it and I cannot figure it out. But
30:58
Speaker 1: since it's not totally implausible that Brook's body might be
31:01
Speaker 1: in a body of water, I can see why her
31:03
Speaker 1: family would want to investigate every possibility. Again, I think
31:07
Speaker 1: the idea that she would have wandered in the river
31:09
Speaker 1: herself is ridiculous. This was a woman who was making
31:12
Speaker 1: plans to get custody of her son. She had just
31:14
Speaker 1: seen her children, she was talking about the future, and
31:17
Speaker 1: had literally just gotten her hair and nails done. A
31:21
Speaker 1: family friend of Brooks said that while the Arkansas A
31:25
Speaker 1: Police had searched the White River, they weren't sure if
31:28
Speaker 1: any other bodies of water had been searched. So the
31:32
Speaker 1: divers from AWP came down. They dove the four ponds area,
31:36
Speaker 1: and also another nearby lake called Bergen Lake. They made
31:40
Speaker 1: a video and released it in late twenty twenty one.
31:44
Speaker 1: At the time, the dive team said they had not
31:46
Speaker 1: found anything of significance during their dive, but some people
31:50
Speaker 1: who saw the video and saw the sonar review that
31:53
Speaker 1: they had taken apparently saw what they believed to be
31:56
Speaker 1: a barrel with a skeleton in it. Now, there's some
31:58
Speaker 1: other controversy here. One of the divers, Jared, made a
32:02
Speaker 1: video a follow up video where and this is just
32:06
Speaker 1: from what people have told me, because I've not seen
32:08
Speaker 1: this video. In the end, it seems like Kelly and
32:11
Speaker 1: some other members of Brook's family felt that the whole
32:15
Speaker 1: incident really just distracted from the investigation and started up
32:20
Speaker 1: a lot of rumors but ultimately gave them no answers
32:23
Speaker 1: in terms of what actually happened to Brook. I felt
32:27
Speaker 1: bad for the family because it just seemed like something
32:29
Speaker 1: else that got their hopes up and in the end
32:33
Speaker 1: turned out to provide no answers. Now, I do want
32:38
Speaker 1: to make it clear that Adventures with Purpose has helped
32:41
Speaker 1: on other cases. In fact, in twenty twenty two, the
32:45
Speaker 1: team went down to Marianna, Arkansas to look for Annie Hampton,
32:49
Speaker 1: a sixty six year old woman who'd been missing since
32:52
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and they did find her car in Bear
32:56
Speaker 1: Creek Reservoir, and there were human remains inside the car
33:00
Speaker 1: that turned out to be hers. So it does appear
33:03
Speaker 1: that adventures with purpose has helped in the past, unfortunately
33:08
Speaker 1: just not in Brooks case. I have no idea if
33:11
Speaker 1: what we're doing here will help or provide answers, But
33:15
Speaker 1: I believe that we need to shut out all the
33:19
Speaker 1: rumors and we need to go again back to basics
33:22
Speaker 1: who had contact with Brooke last. We need to talk
33:25
Speaker 1: to them again and we need to find out what
33:27
Speaker 1: happened to her and to people out there. He would say,
33:30
Speaker 1: just let the police do their job. I understand that,
33:34
Speaker 1: and I will be passing everything that I find onto
33:36
Speaker 1: law enforcement if we get tips. But I just want
33:39
Speaker 1: to point out that in twenty twenty one, when journalist
33:44
Speaker 1: Mitch McCoy did the Monday Night Mysteries program and talked
33:47
Speaker 1: to Sheriff Sean Stevens, the sheriff talked about brook cell phone.
33:51
Speaker 1: He talked about what steps law enforcement had taken. He
33:55
Speaker 1: said that the department did not have the technology to
33:58
Speaker 1: dump cell phones, but he said they'd gotten search warrants.
34:01
Speaker 1: He said they were in the process of executing those.
34:04
Speaker 1: Why did they take three years? If I understood the
34:08
Speaker 1: sheriff's statement correctly, that means in twenty twenty one, Brook's
34:11
Speaker 1: cell phone had still not been processed. And there was
34:15
Speaker 1: also no mention of things like fog data services, which
34:19
Speaker 1: we know were around in twenty eighteen, even in twenty twenty,
34:24
Speaker 1: after Sidney Sutherland's case. Because the technology goes back three years,
34:29
Speaker 1: the Independence County Sheriff's office probably could have asked for
34:32
Speaker 1: it at that time. So if that didn't happen, If
34:35
Speaker 1: I were Brook's family, I would be asking why that
34:37
Speaker 1: didn't happen. Why that same technology that was used to
34:40
Speaker 1: find Sidney Sutherland was not used to find Brook. I
34:43
Speaker 1: also want to know what happened to those DNA swabs
34:46
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, they were still being processed, were
34:49
Speaker 1: they ever processed? Where they ever tested? Was it Brooks DNA?
34:53
Speaker 1: Was there foreign DNA? There's so many unanswered questions about
34:57
Speaker 1: this case, including did Brook drive her car to that
35:01
Speaker 1: location herself or was someone else driving it? Could the
35:06
Speaker 1: fresh mud on the car indicate that she had been
35:08
Speaker 1: driving through a different area. And again I keep mentioning
35:13
Speaker 1: if Brooke was meeting someone there, like the police seemed
35:16
Speaker 1: to believe, why would she get out of her car
35:19
Speaker 1: and leave her money, her wallet, all of her credit cards,
35:22
Speaker 1: and her cell phone inside. Kelly has always said this
35:27
Speaker 1: does not make sense to her. She said, quote, I
35:30
Speaker 1: never thought she was in the area, meaning the area
35:33
Speaker 1: where the car was abandoned. Either she was meeting someone
35:36
Speaker 1: there or her car was put there end quote. Brook's
35:41
Speaker 1: family and friends continue to search for answers. They've held
35:44
Speaker 1: candlelight vigils on that same boat ramp several times since
35:47
Speaker 1: she disappeared. Whatever happens, they just want to know what
35:51
Speaker 1: happened to Brook, and they want to be able to
35:53
Speaker 1: bring her home. They posted a statement that was published
35:57
Speaker 1: on White River Now. It reads, in part quote, we
36:00
Speaker 1: continue to search for Brook and search for answers. There
36:04
Speaker 1: are no words that can expel us the sorrow and
36:06
Speaker 1: chaos that clouds our hearts and minds. The day to
36:09
Speaker 1: day routine of our lives will never be the same
36:12
Speaker 1: from this day forward. We are committed to finding this beautiful, vivacious,
36:16
Speaker 1: compassionate mother. We are committed to never allowing Brook's voice
36:20
Speaker 1: and contagious spirit to be lost beneath the weight of
36:23
Speaker 1: time or hidden from view as old news. We ask
36:27
Speaker 1: that you will continue to help us search, continue to
36:29
Speaker 1: help us cling to hope, continue to help us love
36:32
Speaker 1: our daughter, mother's sister, and friend. Above all, our prayer
36:36
Speaker 1: is that wherever Brook finds herself, that she's overwhelmed by
36:39
Speaker 1: the assurance that she is so loved, so completely and
36:42
Speaker 1: deeply loved by so many. If you're out there and
36:47
Speaker 1: you had any contact with Brooke Allensworth, if you have
36:50
Speaker 1: any piece of information, no matter how insignificant, please please
36:55
Speaker 1: reach out. Police have asked anyone with information about Brooks
36:59
Speaker 1: whereabouts to contact the Arkansas State Police at eight seven
37:03
Speaker 1: zero nine three five seven three o two, and you
37:07
Speaker 1: can also contact us anytime at the Helen Gone Murder Line.
37:13
Speaker 1: I know when we hear about these cases in the news,
37:15
Speaker 1: it can be easy to depersonalize them, to think of
37:19
Speaker 1: it as just another mystery. But this is someone's mother, sister, daughter, friend.
37:27
Speaker 1: She was just gone and they have no idea what
37:29
Speaker 1: happened to her. Just imagine if someone in your family disappeared.
37:33
Speaker 1: Imagine how much that would torture you. Please, we are
37:36
Speaker 1: asking anyone with any information to reach out. I'm Catherine Townsend.
37:42
Speaker 1: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
38:00
Speaker 1: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
38:02
Speaker 1: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend, produced by
38:06
Speaker 1: Gabby Watts. Music is by Ben Sale and this episode
38:10
Speaker 1: was scored and mixed by Miranda Hawkins. Executive producers are
38:14
Speaker 1: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Els Crowley. If you have
38:18
Speaker 1: a case you'd like me and my team to look into,
38:21
Speaker 1: you can reach out to us at our Hell Gone
38:22
Speaker 1: Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six
38:26
Speaker 1: one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four
38:30
Speaker 1: six one four five. School of Humans