Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Disappearance of Branson Perry

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Disappearance of Branson Perry · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: All right, so get ready for a deep dive into
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  a case that's equal parts fascinating and kind of heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this one's a tough one.
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  Speaker 1: We're heading to Skidmore, Missouri, small town America, you'd think,
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  right exactly, to try and unravel the story of Branson
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  Kane Perry.
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  Speaker 2: What missing back in two thousand and.
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  Speaker 1: One, twenty years old vanished just.
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  Speaker 2: Like that, And we're diving into excerpts from pasted text
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  to try to make sense of it.
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  Speaker 1: All the details in there are really intriguing and like
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  you said, heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 2: It really gets to you. You know, what always gets
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  me about cases like this one, like Branson's, is how
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  they I don't know how they were. They kind of
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  expose what's really going on beneath the surface of these
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  small towns.
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  Speaker 1: Right. You picture this quiet, close knit community, everyone knows everyone.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, but then something like this happens, and suddenly.
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  Speaker 1: And suddenly it's like all these secrets and hidden connections
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  come bubbling up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you start to see the rumors and the
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  whispers for what they really are, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, like lifting a rock and finding a whole other
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  world underneath. Yeah, understand what happened to Branson. We need
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  to figure out who he was before all this.
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  Speaker 2: Right before that day, what was his life like? Exactly
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  well paced to text paints a picture of a young
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  guy just figuring things out, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, starting out finding his way.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he graduated high school a couple of years before,
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  had some.
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  Speaker 1: Different jobs, trying to make it work.
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  Speaker 2: Living with his dad, Bob after his parents split.
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  Speaker 1: Up, and he was into martial arts, right, that's.
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  Speaker 2: Right, a black belt in hapketo, which.
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  Speaker 1: Just adds another layer to all this, doesn't It makes
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  you wonder if that played a role somehow.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good question. Did it help him, did it
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  make things worse? We just don't know.
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  Speaker 1: So many unknowns. And speaking of unknowns, let's talk about
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  that day, April eleventh, two thousand and one, the day
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  Branson disappeared.
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  Speaker 2: The details, man, it's baffling.
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  Speaker 1: You've got this young man. He's getting his house ready
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  for his dad to come home from the hospital.
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  Speaker 2: Just trying to do a good thing for his family.
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  Speaker 1: It's such an ordinary, everyday act of kindness. But in
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  cases like this, those little details become so significant.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely because within hours he's just gone.
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  Speaker 1: So let's break down the timeline a bit pasted text mentions.
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  Branson's friend Jenna was there that day helping him clean.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and there were these two guys outside working on
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  Bob's car.
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  Speaker 1: Needed a new alternator of all things.
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  Speaker 2: It's like such a normal thing to be doing, you know,
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  but it's those little ordinary details into being so important exactly.
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  And it's sometime around three pm that things take this
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  strange turn. Branson tells Jenna He's going to get some
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  jumper cables from the shed. Okay, walks out the door
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  and that's it, gone, vanished like a ghost. And those
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  jumper cables, those become a pretty big deal, right.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely yeah, because initially they can't find them anywhere.
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  Speaker 2: No, were they ever even in the shed? Did someone
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  take them?
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  Speaker 1: That's the million dollar question, isn't it? These little details
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  they can be the key to the whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: So for days, nothing no Branson until his grandmother Joe Anne,
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  goes to check on him and she finds his empty house.
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  Speaker 1: No sign of a struggle, no forest entry, nothing, just
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  silence where there should be, you know, signs of life.
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  Speaker 2: It's chilling to think about walking into that and realizing
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  something is terribly terribly wrong. It sends shivers down my spine,
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  i'll tell you. And that's when the real search for
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  Branson begins.
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  Speaker 1: The missing person report filed on April seventeenth.
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  Speaker 2: The start of a nightmare for Branson's family and a
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  massive search effort.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine the feeling, the frantic energy, the hope mixed with
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  dread as people combed through fields, farms, anything and everything.
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  Speaker 2: They were looking for anything, a sign, a clue, anything.
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  Speaker 1: At all within a fifteen mile radius, hoping for some
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  sign of him.
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  Speaker 2: And what did they find?
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  Speaker 1: Nothing?
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  Speaker 2: Dead ends. Every passing day made it less and less
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  likely that they would find him safe.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got this massive search going on, but it's
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  like trying to find I.
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  Speaker 2: Don't know, a needle in a haystack.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, And with every hour that passes, the needil gets
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  smaller and the haystack keeps growing.
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  Speaker 2: It's like the hope starts to dwindle with each passing moment.
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  Speaker 1: And pasted text mentions all these rumors floating around town,
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  whispers of drug debts, even a mysterious bottle of valume.
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  It makes you wonder.
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  Speaker 2: If Branson got caught up in something dangerous exactly. Investigators
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  were looking into all that They interviewed over one hundred.
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  Speaker 1: People, friend's family.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone, acquaintances, people connected to you know, the wrong side
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  of the tracks, trying to.
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  Speaker 1: Get a sense of what Branson might.
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  Speaker 2: Have been involved in, right, trying to piece together his
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  life see if there's anything that stands out. They even
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  brought in polygraphs.
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  Speaker 1: The pressure was on to find something, anything.
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  Speaker 2: But every time they thought they had something.
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  Speaker 1: Poof gone, like chasing ghosts.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, the drug angle, the idea that maybe Branson hitchhiked
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  to Kansas City. He didn't have a working car at
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  the time, so it's not impossible.
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  Speaker 1: It all seemed plausible at first.
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  Speaker 2: But then leading to absolutely nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Dead end after dead end.
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  Speaker 2: And for two years silence, two years.
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  Speaker 1: With no answers, and then things take a dark turn.
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  Speaker 2: The new chapter opens, and it's not a good one.
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  Speaker 1: A new name enters the picture, Jack Wayne Rogers.
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  Speaker 2: And Jack Wayne Rogers is bad news.
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  Speaker 1: The more you learn about this guy, the more disturbing
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  it gets.
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  Speaker 2: Believe me, Okay, so who is this Rogers guy? Paste
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  to text doesn't hold back assault, illegal surgery, even child pornography.
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  It's terrifying. What's the link to Branson?
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  Speaker 1: Though?
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  Speaker 2: So in two thousand and three, Rogers gets arrested, right, okay,
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  But none of those charges, not a single one, had
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  anything to do with Branson's disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: So what happened? How does he become connected to the case.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the investigators they start digging into Rogers life and
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  they find a lot. We're talking about a whole bunch
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  of unsettling stuff, disturbing fantasies.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote about fantasies. What kind of fantasies are we
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  talking about here?
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  Speaker 2: Dark stuff, graphic descriptions of violence, torture, the works. But
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  there's one particular thing they find on his computer, one
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  online post that sends chills down their spines.
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  Speaker 1: What was in the post?
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  Speaker 2: It described this murder, the murder of a blonde hitchhiker.
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  And the thing is the details. They were eerily similar
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  to Branson's case. Some more how, the way the victim
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  was described, even the method of the killing, it all
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  lined up a little too perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: It had them wondering, you know, I bet here they
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  are looking at this post thinking about Branson and it's like,
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  could this be it? Could this be the break they've
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  been waiting for?
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  Speaker 2: You got it? And then to make things even creepier.
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  They find a necklace on rogers property. Well kind of necklace,
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  a turtle claw necklace, sound familiar.
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  Speaker 1: Like the one Branson had Bingo.
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  Speaker 2: Suddenly it's like all these pieces start clicking into place,
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  but in the worst way possible.
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  Speaker 1: They have to be thinking they finally found their answer. Right,
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  that Rogers is responsible for Branson's disappearance.
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  Speaker 2: It would seem that way, wouldn't it. But well, Rogers
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  had something else to say about that. He denied everything.
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  Speaker 1: So they've got Rogers, this guy who just screams bad
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  news with these online posts that are like a twisted
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  mirror to Branson's case.
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  Speaker 2: And he's singing like a canary, right, not a chance,
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  denying everything, saying.
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  Speaker 1: It's all just you know, just stories in his.
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  Speaker 2: Head exactly, just fantasies, nothing more.
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  Speaker 1: But they can't just let that go, can't they. I mean,
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  they have to at least try to get something more
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  out of it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, they tried. Ultimately Rogers was convicted, but for those
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  other charges.
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  Speaker 1: The assault, the illegal surgery, the child pornography, and that
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  must have come as a relief to some extent, knowing
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  he was being held accountable for those.
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  Speaker 2: Crimes, right, But it didn't bring Branson back.
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  Speaker 1: Did those answers ever come about Branson?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing with cases like this, sometimes
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  the answers never really come, or at least not all
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  of them.
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  Speaker 1: And for Branson's family, it's like.
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  Speaker 2: Just this agonizing, wait, this endless not knowing.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned his mother, Rebecca. She actually went to Roger's sentencing,
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  didn't she.
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  Speaker 2: She did pleaded with him to tell her anything, anything
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  at all that could lead her to her son.
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine to stand there, face to face with
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  the man you believe might know what happened to your
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  child and to beg for answers.
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  Speaker 2: It breaks your heart just thinking about it.
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  Speaker 1: And Rogers did he say anything, anything at all?
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  Speaker 2: He stuck to his story, maintained his innocence, said he
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  knew nothing about Branson's disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: It's just it's beyond frustrating, you know, for everyone involved,
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  but especially for his family.
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  Speaker 2: And tragically Rebecca, she passed away from cancer a few
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  years later, never knowing what happened to her son.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost too much to bear thinking about the pain
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  of that and not.
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  Speaker 2: Knowing it just compounds the tragedy, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 1: And Branson's father. We talked about how Branson was cleaning
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  the house, getting things ready for his dad to come
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  home from the hospital. Did he ever find out about
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  his son?
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately not, Branson's dad passed away as well, never knowing
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  what became of his son.
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  Speaker 1: It's just heartbreaking. It really makes you think about the
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  ripple effects of a case like this, the people left behind,
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  the life forever changed.
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  Speaker 2: It's a reminder that these stories, they don't just end
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  when the headlines fade away.
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  Speaker 1: Reading about Rebecca's final resting place, how she was buried
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  next to an empty plot designated for Branson, it just
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  it gets to you.
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  Speaker 2: And his date of death listed as the day he vanished.
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  Speaker 1: It's a stark reminder of the unanswered questions, the loose
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  ends that remain.
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  Speaker 2: But even though the case went cold for a while,
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  the search for Branson never really stopped.
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  Speaker 1: There were still leads being followed, people out there determined
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  to find some answers.
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  Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, there was that excavation in Quipment, Missouri, right.
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  Speaker 1: Based on a tip if I remember correctly.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. They were hoping for a breakthrough, some concrete.
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  Speaker 1: Evidence, but it turned out to be another dead end.
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  Speaker 2: Sadly yes.
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  Speaker 1: And through it all, Brance's mother, Rebecca, she never gave
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  up hope, even offered a twenty thousand dollars reward for information.
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  Speaker 2: That's how much she loved her son, how desperate she
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  was for answers.
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  Speaker 1: It speaks volumes about the strength of her love, her
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  unwavering belief that someone somewhere might hold the key to
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  solving this.
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  Speaker 2: And then, just when it seemed like the trail had gone.
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  Speaker 1: Ice cold, there was a new development.
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  Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, the Notaway Tawny Sheriff announced that
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  they had a new suspect in Branson's disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: After all this time, do we know anything more about
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  this new lead?
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, details are pretty scarce.
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  Speaker 1: They're keeping things under wraps for now.
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  Speaker 2: Probably to protect the investigation, which makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: Still, after two decades, it has to give some glimmer.
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  Speaker 2: Of hope, right absolutely, It tells us that people haven't
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  forgotten about Branson, that they're still searching for answers. It
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  makes you wonder what kind of information, after all these years,
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  could finally break this case wide open. What memory resurface,
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  what detail long forgotten suddenly came.
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  Speaker 1: To light, and what does it say about the power
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  of time, about the way a case like this can
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  stay with people, can continue to haunt a community for decades.
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  We may never have all the answers, but the search
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  for truth, the desire for justice, it doesn't have an
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  expiration date, that's for sure. Well, this deep dive into
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  the disappearance of Branson, Kine Perry has been as fascinating
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  as it has been a heartbreaking. It really makes you think,
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  it does and it leaves us with more questions than answers. Okay,
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  but maybe, just maybe someday those answers will come. Until then,
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  we keep asking questions, We keep searching for the truth.