Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Girl in the Butchers Box - Brook Weber

Transcript

Girl in the Butchers Box - Brook Weber · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In August of nineteen ninety six, a terrified young woman
0:11
Speaker 1: ran barefoot through the streets of Moss Point, Mississippi, clutching
0:15
Speaker 1: a butcher knife and screaming they shot him. Behind her
0:19
Speaker 1: was a house that looked ordinary from the outside, but
0:23
Speaker 1: inside hit one of the most gruesome crimes the state
0:26
Speaker 1: had ever seen. What police would uncover that day revealed
0:30
Speaker 1: not only a brutal murder, but the twisted mind of
0:33
Speaker 1: a man driven by dark, violent fantasies. This is the story,
0:38
Speaker 1: the survival story of Brooke Weber, the girl in the
0:42
Speaker 1: Butcher's Box.
0:45
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Ingram,
0:49
Speaker 2: a true crime podcast.
0:52
Speaker 1: The following podcast material intended more mature audience. I'm going
1:19
Speaker 1: to have that song stuck in my head all day now,
1:22
Speaker 1: which one the Beatles Come Together?
1:25
Speaker 2: I often am like sitting here, I'm like you ready,
1:28
Speaker 2: are you ready? And like Ben's just over there singing,
1:31
Speaker 2: and it was like I just hit play early.
1:36
Speaker 1: But we just did ap pre show for Patreon and
1:38
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it was that you said. It
1:40
Speaker 1: was like you said come together or something, and then
1:43
Speaker 1: I was like, come to good did I and I
1:44
Speaker 1: just started like singing in my head.
1:46
Speaker 3: I think I said, we enjoy your company.
1:48
Speaker 1: But you said something. I can't remember what exactly what
1:51
Speaker 1: you said, but you said something that set me off
1:53
Speaker 1: in the path of that song, and now it's.
1:55
Speaker 2: In my head. Well you're forgetting something, dude.
1:58
Speaker 1: What am I forgetting?
2:00
Speaker 2: Happy July fourth?
2:01
Speaker 1: I didn't forget that. I hadn't got there yet. Oh okay,
2:04
Speaker 1: Happy July fourth, Yeah, happy day, Happy day. Yeah, happppy day.
2:11
Speaker 1: As we mentioned the other day when it was Canada Day,
2:13
Speaker 1: watch out for those digits and fireworks. Lots of accidents
2:17
Speaker 1: happen on these days when people are setting them off.
2:19
Speaker 2: See is mister safety over there such a.
2:21
Speaker 1: Buzzkill just saying hey, enjoy your day, but accidents happen
2:26
Speaker 1: on days like this, so so be careful they do.
2:28
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure if you look at stats do.
2:32
Speaker 1: Some shit goes up for sure, definitely.
2:34
Speaker 3: Of deaths or something.
2:35
Speaker 2: I don't know.
2:36
Speaker 1: I know people blow up their hands with fireworks July
2:40
Speaker 1: fourth and Canada Day a lot, so.
2:41
Speaker 2: Fireworks are honestly, like, I don't know if I'd ever
2:44
Speaker 2: want to light when I would definitely probably do some
2:46
Speaker 2: damage to myself.
2:48
Speaker 1: Just don't hold on to them when you light them,
2:50
Speaker 1: like put them on the ground, like what you're supposed
2:52
Speaker 1: to do, follow the directions, you know.
2:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hear a lot of stories of shit going
2:57
Speaker 2: wrong there.
2:58
Speaker 1: Well you can even go on like YouTube, Instagram and
3:00
Speaker 1: TikTok and you can find videos of people using Roman
3:03
Speaker 1: candles shooting them at each other. Oh wow, oh yeah,
3:06
Speaker 1: they're like's they put like Harry Potter music to them.
3:09
Speaker 1: They're like and they're like expell you almost. They're shooting
3:11
Speaker 1: like spells at each other. But it's just fireworks are
3:14
Speaker 1: blasting at each other.
3:15
Speaker 2: We didn't actually hear very many fireworks on Canada Day,
3:18
Speaker 2: Harley at all.
3:19
Speaker 3: I think there was a tiny bit.
3:21
Speaker 1: Well, it got a little bit stormy in the evening.
3:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's probably why, which is nice because
3:25
Speaker 2: Honey's a terrified of them.
3:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, our dog, yeah, she hates them. A lot of
3:28
Speaker 1: dogs hat fireworks.
3:29
Speaker 2: But anyway, but we hope, gosh, we hope you enjoy
3:32
Speaker 2: your day Happy July.
3:34
Speaker 1: For we are Debbie Downers a little bit in our
3:37
Speaker 1: pre show too. We're being Debbie Downers here today, So
3:39
Speaker 1: I enjoy your day. We're just tired, just I haven't
3:42
Speaker 1: had all my coffee yet.
3:43
Speaker 3: That's which tired.
3:45
Speaker 1: Just tired, that's what we're gonna blame it on.
3:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't actually sleep super good last night. You did.
3:50
Speaker 1: I went to bed early.
3:51
Speaker 2: Well, you went to bed at like eight thirty, and
3:52
Speaker 2: for some reason, I was like Parde and I stayed
3:55
Speaker 2: up until like midnight. Well, watching TV.
3:57
Speaker 1: I went to bed at eight thirty, but I scrolled
3:59
Speaker 1: my phone till nine and then I went to bed.
4:02
Speaker 1: I probably fell asleep at like nine and nine fifteen, which.
4:05
Speaker 3: They say is so bad.
4:07
Speaker 2: I think that's why I haven't been falling asleep very
4:09
Speaker 2: early lately, because like screen time before you go to
4:13
Speaker 2: bed is like not great or whatever. Yeah, but it's
4:16
Speaker 2: hard because like watching TV, I guess you could read
4:18
Speaker 2: a book or something instead.
4:19
Speaker 1: Could or you could listen to a true crime podcast
4:22
Speaker 1: like the story we got today, which a lot of
4:24
Speaker 1: people do. It is a survival story.
4:26
Speaker 3: Whoo.
4:27
Speaker 1: So that's good. But are you ready for this? Should
4:30
Speaker 1: we get into it?
4:30
Speaker 2: Yeah?
4:30
Speaker 1: I think we've talked and chatted long enough. So In
4:34
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen ninety six, Brooke Weber was an
4:37
Speaker 1: eighteen year old from Houston, Texas, just starting to experience
4:41
Speaker 1: the freedom and excitement of adulthood. Like so many young
4:43
Speaker 1: people her age, she was living in the moment, meeting
4:46
Speaker 1: new people, falling in love, and making memories she thought
4:49
Speaker 1: would last a lifetime. And that's when she met an
4:51
Speaker 1: individual by the name of Jeffrey wolf Now Jeffrey was
4:55
Speaker 1: twenty one, was everything you'd hope for in a new boyfriend,
4:59
Speaker 1: you know, ki, outgoing, easy to be around. His father,
5:03
Speaker 1: Pascal Wolfe, remembered him as an all American boy who
5:07
Speaker 1: loved football, motorcycles, dogs, and in every sense, Jeffrey was
5:11
Speaker 1: living a simple, happy life. The relationship between Brooke and
5:15
Speaker 1: Jeffrey was fresh. They had only just known each other
5:18
Speaker 1: for a few weeks, but they clicked quickly. When Jeffrey
5:21
Speaker 1: suggested they take a road trip together to Mississippi, it
5:24
Speaker 1: felt spontaneous and even exciting. He told Brooke they'd be
5:27
Speaker 1: making the trip for a quick business deal, but they
5:30
Speaker 1: could turn it into a fun little getaway. Brooke agreed,
5:34
Speaker 1: not knowing that decision would unfortunately change her life forever.
5:38
Speaker 1: On August twelfth, nineteen ninety six, Jeffrey picked her up
5:41
Speaker 1: early in the morning. Brook hissed her family goodbye, and
5:44
Speaker 1: they hit the road. The plan seemed harmless, six hour
5:48
Speaker 1: drive from Houston to Moss Point, Mississippi, where Jeffrey was
5:51
Speaker 1: going to meet someone named Gary Simmons to settle a
5:54
Speaker 1: debt and collect the money that he was owed. Brooke
5:57
Speaker 1: didn't think too much of this or asked too many questions.
6:00
Speaker 1: Was supposed to be a short trip, business trip turned
6:02
Speaker 1: into something a little bit fun, nothing more. But when
6:05
Speaker 1: they pulled up to Gary's house that evening, something immediately
6:08
Speaker 1: felt wrong. The house was dark, no porch light, no
6:12
Speaker 1: welcoming sign that their arrival had really been expected. Gary
6:16
Speaker 1: was sitting outside on the steps, waiting, but something about
6:19
Speaker 1: his appearance struck Brooke as unsettling. Still, Jeffrey seemed comfortable
6:24
Speaker 1: these were his acquaintances, so Brooke pushed her unease aside.
6:28
Speaker 1: Brooke and Jeffrey followed Gary into his house, Stepping into
6:31
Speaker 1: what looked like an ordinary home. The kitchen lights cast
6:34
Speaker 1: a soft glow over the room, and everything appeared normal.
6:39
Speaker 1: Gary offered them a drink, and the conversation between him
6:42
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey started off casually, just as two guys talking business.
6:46
Speaker 1: While Brook sat quietly nearby, half listening but not concerned.
6:51
Speaker 1: There was no warning, There was no argument, and no
6:53
Speaker 1: sign anything was about to go horribly wrong. In fact,
6:57
Speaker 1: Brooke barely had time to process what was happening when
7:00
Speaker 1: sound of gunfire ripped through the room. She looked up
7:03
Speaker 1: just in time to see her boyfriend, Jeffrey, his body
7:07
Speaker 1: jerk violently as bullets tore through his chest, blood splattering
7:11
Speaker 1: across the blinds, and his body collapsing on the floor,
7:15
Speaker 1: lifeless damn. Standing behind him was not Gary, though, but
7:20
Speaker 1: another man she hadn't even realized was in the house.
7:23
Speaker 1: This was a man named Timothy Mulano. He was holding
7:27
Speaker 1: the gun, and he had pulled the trigger. In a
7:30
Speaker 1: matter of seconds, Brook's world disintegrated. Before she could react
7:35
Speaker 1: or even scream, Gary lunged at her and grabbed her
7:38
Speaker 1: in a crushing bear hug and carried her like she
7:41
Speaker 1: weighed nothing over his shoulder. Brook's terror was instant and overwhelming.
7:48
Speaker 1: She was sure in this moment that she was about
7:51
Speaker 1: to die.
7:52
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, for sure, like I would think so too.
7:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
7:56
Speaker 2: Now.
7:56
Speaker 1: Instead of killing her, though, Gary dragged her into another room.
8:00
Speaker 1: There he hog tied her hands and feet, shoved a
8:02
Speaker 1: gag into her mouth, and forced her inside a large
8:05
Speaker 1: coffin like metal box, something she couldn't have imagined in
8:10
Speaker 1: her worst nightmares. Even the terror wasn't over, though after
8:15
Speaker 1: some time, minutes, maybe hours, Brooke wasn't sure Gary returned.
8:21
Speaker 1: He opened the lid of the box, took her out,
8:24
Speaker 1: untied her just enough to move her, and coldly explained
8:27
Speaker 1: to her that her survival right now depends solely on
8:32
Speaker 1: how well she performed sexually.
8:35
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I was like praying that wouldn't be
8:38
Speaker 2: the case.
8:39
Speaker 1: That's exactly the case.
8:40
Speaker 4: Damna Brooke was unfortunately raped by Gary Simmons, and her
8:46
Speaker 4: life was reduced nothing more than to a twisted test
8:49
Speaker 4: of obedience.
8:51
Speaker 1: And when it was over, he locked her back inside
8:53
Speaker 1: that same box.
8:55
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that is just so disturbing.
8:58
Speaker 1: That is one of the most demeaningmoralizing things you can do.
9:01
Speaker 1: And then locking him in that box for solitary confinement.
9:05
Speaker 3: Like a complete piece of shit.
9:07
Speaker 1: Yes, So there alone in the dark, she was bruised, terrified,
9:11
Speaker 1: and Brooke sat in that box, surrounded by silence and
9:14
Speaker 1: her own racing thoughts. She didn't know what Gary planned next,
9:17
Speaker 1: and she didn't know what Jeffrey's lifeless body would be doing.
9:21
Speaker 1: And in fact, she didn't even know that it already
9:24
Speaker 1: had been taken away and discarded. She didn't even know
9:27
Speaker 1: if she would ever leave that house alive. In her mind,
9:31
Speaker 1: she began to pray, not for a miracle. She didn't
9:34
Speaker 1: believe there was a way out of the situation. Instead,
9:37
Speaker 1: she prayed for the suffering to be quick. But while
9:42
Speaker 1: Brooke lay trapped inside that suffocating box of horrors, let's
9:46
Speaker 1: put it outside this prison, she couldn't even imagine the
9:51
Speaker 1: things that were going on. So Gary and Timothy, they
9:56
Speaker 1: were in the process of erasing every trace of her boyfriend,
10:00
Speaker 1: worked with chilling efficiency, cleaning the house, dismembering Jeffrey's body
10:04
Speaker 1: into dozens of pieces, and discarding the remains in the
10:07
Speaker 1: murky waters of the bayou behind the property. The gruesome
10:11
Speaker 1: task carried out in cold, calculated silence, and every bit
10:17
Speaker 1: as monstrous as it does sound.
10:20
Speaker 3: That just made me really nauseous for some reason.
10:23
Speaker 2: Rightfully so, like I don't know, just the thought of
10:26
Speaker 2: like cutting up someone's body to discard of it is
10:31
Speaker 2: quite gross.
10:32
Speaker 1: Well, there hope though, like to discard there's reason behind
10:36
Speaker 1: how they're doing this. You have to remember, we are
10:40
Speaker 1: in the bayou here.
10:41
Speaker 3: I don't even know what that is, like the swamps in.
10:44
Speaker 1: The southern Florida and so okay, okay, so what's in
10:47
Speaker 1: these waters?
10:48
Speaker 3: Oh shit?
10:51
Speaker 1: So they're hoping that the remains get eaten.
10:55
Speaker 2: Okay, and it'd be easier by gaiters. Like a gator
10:57
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't consume a whole body.
11:00
Speaker 3: I mean it could.
11:01
Speaker 1: It probably rip him apart.
11:02
Speaker 2: But I do remember because we went on some sort
11:05
Speaker 2: of like little swamp tour thing.
11:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, gator sighting or something.
11:10
Speaker 2: I remember the guy saying like that, they wouldn't consume
11:13
Speaker 2: like a whole human body, probably, but I mean, I
11:16
Speaker 2: guess it depends if they're big enough too.
11:18
Speaker 1: Well, they're going to chunk off.
11:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're not going to consume a body whole, but
11:22
Speaker 1: they will rip it apart to eat. And so if
11:24
Speaker 1: you already do that, it's super easy, especially if you
11:27
Speaker 1: do have smaller ones come across the pieces. So not
11:30
Speaker 1: only are they discarding it, but it's their way of
11:32
Speaker 1: ensuring that the body isn't found by doing so.
11:35
Speaker 2: Well, if you weren't nauseous before, you are now oh.
11:39
Speaker 1: Gosh, yuh, now inside this box Brooke's mind was spinning,
11:44
Speaker 1: exhaustion was setting in her arms and legs were numb
11:46
Speaker 1: from the ropes cutting into her skin. The air was
11:49
Speaker 1: thick and suffocating inside. But then there was a sound.
11:55
Speaker 1: A telephone rang somewhere inside the house, and Brooke heard
11:58
Speaker 1: it while she was inside that box. The phone rang
12:01
Speaker 1: once and then again, but it wasn't being answered. What
12:07
Speaker 1: Brooke didn't know was that far away, Gary's estranged wife Laurie,
12:11
Speaker 1: was desperately calling, worried sick about her brother Timothy, who
12:16
Speaker 1: hadn't come home yet. Each unanswered call jolted Brook awake
12:21
Speaker 1: from a haze of fear. But that sound proved something
12:24
Speaker 1: crucial to her. No one was answering the phone, which
12:29
Speaker 1: meant no one was there.
12:31
Speaker 2: Yep.
12:32
Speaker 1: With her heart pounding, she began working on the notts,
12:35
Speaker 1: the ones that were binding her wrists in agonizing fashion. Slow,
12:40
Speaker 1: she moved her way to get these things undone. Her
12:44
Speaker 1: fingers were stiff and clumsy, but panic gave her the strength.
12:47
Speaker 1: She fought the ropes until she could slip one hand free,
12:50
Speaker 1: then the other. Then she managed to push the lid
12:53
Speaker 1: of the box open. Okay, yes, she felt it shift
12:57
Speaker 1: just enough adrenaline surge, and she forced it open inch
13:02
Speaker 1: by inch until she could climb out into the dim
13:06
Speaker 1: stillness of the house. And it was very quiet.
13:10
Speaker 3: Wow, good for her.
13:12
Speaker 1: There's no voices, no footsteps, and no sign of her
13:16
Speaker 1: captors anywhere. Without stopping to think, she scanned the room
13:20
Speaker 1: and spotted a butcher's knife left on the kitchen counter.
13:23
Speaker 1: She grabbed it, and, clinging to that knife as her
13:26
Speaker 1: only lifeline and protection, Brooke ran. She ran, barefoot, bruised
13:31
Speaker 1: and terrified, bolting out the front door into the dark
13:34
Speaker 1: Mississippi night, her body trembling as she sprinted towards the
13:39
Speaker 1: first house she could find. She pounded on the door,
13:43
Speaker 1: knife still clutched tightly in her hand, and screamed for help.
13:46
Speaker 1: The words tumbled out in panic quote. They shot him,
13:50
Speaker 1: They shot him. The startled homeowners immediately called nine one one,
13:55
Speaker 1: and within minutes police were racing towards the scene.
13:58
Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah, yes.
14:02
Speaker 1: By the time police arrived at Gary Simmon's home in
14:05
Speaker 1: Moss Pointe, Mississippi, they were alerted by the frantic cries
14:08
Speaker 1: of a terrified young woman clutching that butcher knife. They
14:11
Speaker 1: were walking into a crime scene that didn't look like one.
14:15
Speaker 1: The house was spotless, There was no blood, no signs
14:17
Speaker 1: of a struggle, no immediate evidence anything violent had even
14:21
Speaker 1: happened there at all, except in the middle of the
14:24
Speaker 1: otherwise ordinary homes. At this large box or container, if
14:28
Speaker 1: you want to call it that, it was big enough
14:30
Speaker 1: to hold a human. Officers couldn't make sense of it. First,
14:34
Speaker 1: where was the man? Brooke kept screaming about where was
14:37
Speaker 1: the body? And there was this box. This is where
14:40
Speaker 1: she was reportedly held. As investigators searched the property, their
14:43
Speaker 1: attention shifted to the back of the home, where thick,
14:46
Speaker 1: swampy waters of the Mississippi Bayou stretched out into the distance.
14:50
Speaker 1: It was here by the waterline that officers found the
14:53
Speaker 1: first clue something terrible had taken place. Bloodstained smeared along
15:01
Speaker 1: the side of a small boat. Then an axe, it's
15:04
Speaker 1: blade still sticky with dried blood, laying discarded near the dock. Damn,
15:09
Speaker 1: I do want to clarify. I think I said Florida earlier.
15:12
Speaker 1: It's not Florida, it's this is Mississippi. But right, yeah,
15:16
Speaker 1: So it was a gut wrenching discovery that led police
15:19
Speaker 1: to the water itself. And then there floating among the
15:23
Speaker 1: reeds and the dark currents, they found human remains, dozens
15:27
Speaker 1: of pieces floating. In total, they found eighty eight separate
15:33
Speaker 1: pieces of human flesh and bone. Seriously, yes, they recovered
15:39
Speaker 1: eighty eight separate pieces from the Bayou waters.
15:42
Speaker 2: Oh see, my brain is just I don't know, too innocent.
15:46
Speaker 2: I'm thinking there would have been like six or twelve.
15:50
Speaker 3: No, there's a fricking lot much more. They just like
15:53
Speaker 3: destroyed that body.
15:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was all that remained of twenty one year
15:56
Speaker 1: old Jeffrey Wolf.
15:58
Speaker 3: Damn.
15:59
Speaker 1: It was a level of brutality that stunned even seasoned
16:02
Speaker 1: law enforcement officers. The clean house, the dismemberment, the methodical
16:07
Speaker 1: scattering of the body pieces, it all spoke of a cold,
16:09
Speaker 1: calculated mind. This wasn't a crime of passion or something
16:13
Speaker 1: in the heat of a moment. It was something far darker.
16:16
Speaker 1: At that moment, investigators didn't know who Gary Simmons really was.
16:20
Speaker 1: They didn't know about the disturbing fantasies in fact that
16:22
Speaker 1: he kept hidden in binders, or the twisted imagination that
16:26
Speaker 1: had driven him to not only kill, but butcher a
16:29
Speaker 1: man like an animal. All they knew was that a
16:33
Speaker 1: killer was on the loose, a young woman had somehow
16:35
Speaker 1: survived something unspeakable, and there was a box at the
16:38
Speaker 1: center of it all, an object built for imprisonment, control
16:44
Speaker 1: and terror. As news of the gruesome discovery in the
16:48
Speaker 1: Bayou began to spread, one crucial question loomed over the investigation.
16:53
Speaker 1: Where was Gary Simmons. On August thirteenth, nineteen ninety six,
16:59
Speaker 1: the very same day Brooke was found, Gary casually walked
17:02
Speaker 1: into an electronics store in Mobile, Alabama, just thirty five
17:07
Speaker 1: miles away from the scene of the crime. Surrounded by
17:10
Speaker 1: unsuspecting shoppers and employees, he pulled out a video camera
17:13
Speaker 1: and began recording himself. It wasn't a selfie type setup
17:17
Speaker 1: that we think of today. He wasn't walking around doing
17:20
Speaker 1: it holding it. It was a photography type backdrop, an
17:23
Speaker 1: area meant for this sort of thing. But his tone
17:26
Speaker 1: and conversation to the lens was strange and different than
17:29
Speaker 1: anything people really used to seeing from this area. His
17:33
Speaker 1: words were calm, very calm. He said, I never think
17:38
Speaker 1: about the consequences of my actions until everything has already happened.
17:42
Speaker 1: But that's how it works. When you cross certain limits,
17:46
Speaker 1: you pay the price. The footage was unnervingly mundane, a
17:51
Speaker 1: man filming himself in broad daylight while carrying the weight
17:55
Speaker 1: of unspeakable violence. No one in the store knew what
17:58
Speaker 1: they were standing next to a man who had just
18:01
Speaker 1: murdered and dismembered someone, or that the very box he
18:05
Speaker 1: had locked Brooke inside was of a fantasy he had
18:08
Speaker 1: spent years obsessively creating.
18:10
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I just like despise this person.
18:13
Speaker 1: Oh you will. But Gary wasn't just on the run.
18:17
Speaker 1: He was also reaching out to his past. He was
18:20
Speaker 1: reaching out to his estranged wife, Laurie Simmons, who had
18:24
Speaker 1: received package at her a package, I should say, at
18:28
Speaker 1: her work office. Inside was a VHS tape, the one
18:31
Speaker 1: he had just filmed the electronics store. In it, Simmons
18:35
Speaker 1: spoke directly to her, his voice emotionless yet disturbingly intimate,
18:40
Speaker 1: starting off by saying, Hello, Laurie. I guess it's a
18:44
Speaker 1: real mess, isn't it. It wasn't supposed to go like that.
18:48
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you. I guess it's time.
18:52
Speaker 1: I love you.
18:54
Speaker 3: Huh okay.
18:55
Speaker 1: To anyone else's message might have seemed like an odd
18:58
Speaker 1: and strained ramblings of a desperate man. But to Laurie
19:01
Speaker 1: it was a chilling reminder of the monster she had
19:04
Speaker 1: once married, the man who had once terrorized her inside
19:08
Speaker 1: the very same house where Brooke had just been held
19:11
Speaker 1: captive Dan. Now, at this point, the public didn't yet
19:15
Speaker 1: know the depths of Gary Simmons's darkness, but Laurie she knew,
19:21
Speaker 1: and with him still at large, she was terrified she
19:24
Speaker 1: might be his next target. Now to understand what happened
19:28
Speaker 1: in Moss Point that night, investigators and eventually a public,
19:31
Speaker 1: had to understand who exactly Gary Simmons really was. The
19:36
Speaker 1: truth wasn't just that he killed a man or imprisoned
19:39
Speaker 1: a young woman on a whim or out of a
19:41
Speaker 1: moment's of rage. The truth was that this nightmare had
19:44
Speaker 1: been building for years, and it started long before Brook
19:48
Speaker 1: ever set foot at Mississippi. Six years earlier, in August
19:52
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety, Gary had married Laurie, a mother of
19:55
Speaker 1: two who believed she was getting a fresh start after
19:57
Speaker 1: her first divorce. Gary was, at first glance, an ordinary man.
20:02
Speaker 1: He worked as a groundskeeper at the daycare Laurie's children attended.
20:06
Speaker 1: He was quiet, seemingly gentle, then moved into the same
20:09
Speaker 1: house in Moss Point, where years later the violence unfolded.
20:14
Speaker 1: But early in their marriage, Gary confided in Laurie that
20:17
Speaker 1: he liked to write short stories, which sounds harmless enough,
20:21
Speaker 1: sounds great, but Laurie eventually became curious. She took a
20:26
Speaker 1: peek inside of one of his binders one day, and
20:28
Speaker 1: she found herself staring into the mind of a predator.
20:32
Speaker 1: Every story that he had written in this book was
20:35
Speaker 1: about captivity, about domination, about women being held against their
20:40
Speaker 1: will and forced into sexual slavery.
20:42
Speaker 3: Oh man.
20:45
Speaker 1: When she confronted him about these stories, Gary didn't deny it. Instead,
20:49
Speaker 1: he calmly told her, quote, these are my fantasies. I
20:53
Speaker 1: have secrets you know nothing about.
20:56
Speaker 2: Oh, that would be quite alarming. Hey, yeah, across that.
21:00
Speaker 2: I mean, okay, maybe there's like one, but then the
21:03
Speaker 2: rest are normal or something.
21:04
Speaker 1: But like, uh, it speaks volumes about that kind of person.
21:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:08
Speaker 1: Now. Laurie tried to brush it aside. She didn't want
21:10
Speaker 1: to believe she had married a man capable of such cruelty,
21:13
Speaker 1: a monster exactly, But the mask Gary was wearing was
21:17
Speaker 1: beginning to slip. After the birth of their first child,
21:21
Speaker 1: she refused his advances eventually, and instead of accepting that,
21:26
Speaker 1: he raped her coldly without hesitation.
21:29
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
21:30
Speaker 1: It was the first time, but not the last, and
21:33
Speaker 1: Laurie didn't know how to react. Really, she wasn't even
21:36
Speaker 1: sure if it was actually considered rape since they were married,
21:39
Speaker 1: which side note fun fact relationship status doesn't matter. Rape
21:43
Speaker 1: is fucking rape? Yeahs No, it's a shit yeah. So
21:48
Speaker 1: the violence escalated from there. He built a box, just
21:52
Speaker 1: like the one in his stories, and he began to
21:54
Speaker 1: act out his sadistic fantasies on Laurie's Seriously, he would
22:00
Speaker 1: her down, blindfold her, and press a butcher's knife against
22:04
Speaker 1: her skin, whoa tracing the outline of her face with
22:07
Speaker 1: the flat side of the blade as she lay paralyzed
22:11
Speaker 1: in fear. Any flinch or any twitch seemed to excite
22:15
Speaker 1: him even more. The man she thought she knew was
22:18
Speaker 1: gone and was now replaced with someone who found pleasure
22:21
Speaker 1: in control, terror, and pain. Desperate to escape, Laurie tried
22:27
Speaker 1: to file for divorce, but in a cruel twist, Mississippi
22:30
Speaker 1: law at the time required her to take a pregnancy
22:33
Speaker 1: test first, and she discovered she was pregnant. What the yeah? So.
22:40
Speaker 1: Now trapped by legal and financial barriers, she reached out
22:43
Speaker 1: to domestic violence organizations, eventually managing to get herself and
22:47
Speaker 1: her children into a safe apartment away from from well
22:51
Speaker 1: this monster.
22:52
Speaker 3: Yikes, that just seems too difficult take.
22:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, couldn't divorce because she's pregnant.
22:59
Speaker 3: Yeah so.
23:00
Speaker 1: But even after she left Gary shadow loomed over her life.
23:04
Speaker 1: By the summer of nineteen ninety six, Laurie had finally
23:07
Speaker 1: built something of a life some distance honestly from her
23:11
Speaker 1: past violence. She was raising her children on her own
23:13
Speaker 1: and living in a small apartment, trying to rebuild the
23:16
Speaker 1: pieces of what was left after escaping the abusive marriage
23:19
Speaker 1: from Gary. But even though she was no longer living
23:22
Speaker 1: under his roof, danger still lurked just outside her door
23:25
Speaker 1: because her younger brother, Timothy Milano, was quietly still in
23:29
Speaker 1: contact with Gary, and Laurie had no idea so Timothy
23:36
Speaker 1: that summer was living with her to help her out
23:38
Speaker 1: with the kids. He had moved in temporarily, and Laurie
23:41
Speaker 1: thought nothing of it, just her brother being supportive. Then
23:44
Speaker 1: late one night, at around eleven PM, a knock came
23:47
Speaker 1: at the front door. It was Gary. Oh, scary, Laurie froze,
23:54
Speaker 1: she hadn't seen him in years, and Timothy answered the door.
23:57
Speaker 1: Gary asked to speak with him outside. Few minutes later,
24:01
Speaker 1: Timothy came back inside and casually told Laurie Gary needs
24:04
Speaker 1: my help. Alarm bells rang in her head and she
24:08
Speaker 1: told him plainly, you have no business being involved with
24:11
Speaker 1: that man. But Timothy gave her a hug, promised he'd
24:14
Speaker 1: be back within the hour, and however, he didn't come
24:17
Speaker 1: back that night.
24:18
Speaker 2: I wonder if he knew the extent of what probably not,
24:22
Speaker 2: he wouldn't probably have a relationship with Gary, if he
24:24
Speaker 2: knew the extent of what he had done, or he
24:26
Speaker 2: yeah he had done to her, probably not.
24:29
Speaker 1: At around three thirty am, Laurie began to panic. She
24:33
Speaker 1: called Gary's house, no answer. She called again, and on
24:36
Speaker 1: the third call, the phone still just rang endlessly. What
24:39
Speaker 1: Laurie didn't know at the time was that just across
24:42
Speaker 1: the state line in Moss Point, eighteen year old Brooke
24:44
Speaker 1: Weber was now trapped inside that box, and her phone
24:47
Speaker 1: calls left ringing to an empty house were the exact
24:51
Speaker 1: thing that Brooke needed to make her move. While Gary
24:55
Speaker 1: was out, Brooke had stirred exhausted and terrified, heard the
24:59
Speaker 1: phones ringing in the other room, and that noise was
25:01
Speaker 1: the small detail and gave her enough courage to act.
25:05
Speaker 1: Inside that box, Brooke began to work and loosen the
25:08
Speaker 1: bindings and pressed her back against little of the box
25:11
Speaker 1: with everything she had, and she forced that locked lid
25:14
Speaker 1: open enough to climb out. She was free. She grabbed
25:18
Speaker 1: a butcher's knie from the kitchen counter bolted out the
25:20
Speaker 1: front door into the night, running barefoot as fast as
25:23
Speaker 1: she could down the street. She spotted a house with
25:26
Speaker 1: nearby lights on. That was her target. She pounded on
25:29
Speaker 1: the door, still clutching the knife, screaming for help, and
25:33
Speaker 1: then she felt terror all over again. Before nine one
25:38
Speaker 1: one was able to be called. She looked over her
25:41
Speaker 1: shoulder and she saw headlights coming her way. It was
25:45
Speaker 1: Gary Simmons, and he pulled back into the driveway of
25:48
Speaker 1: his house that she had just escaped. For a split second,
25:53
Speaker 1: she was certain that he had seen her, and she
25:56
Speaker 1: ducked behind a bush, trembling with fear, her breath shallow
25:59
Speaker 1: and quick, bracing herself waiting for him to find her.
26:04
Speaker 1: But Gary didn't. Instead, he went inside, and minutes later
26:09
Speaker 1: realizing that she was gone, came out, got back into
26:13
Speaker 1: his car and sped off into the night. Brooke was
26:16
Speaker 1: still hidden, still shaking, and she knew she had made it.
26:21
Speaker 1: The neighbors then called police officers arrived quickly and took
26:25
Speaker 1: her into safety. It was only then, hours later that
26:29
Speaker 1: Brooke learned the full horror of what had happened to
26:31
Speaker 1: her boyfriend, Jeffrey Wolf, and how he was dismembered and
26:35
Speaker 1: cut into eighty eight separate pieces and discarded like garbage
26:39
Speaker 1: and the bayou behind the house.
26:40
Speaker 2: Oh man, I like, she's already going through so much,
26:44
Speaker 2: and then to learn that, hey.
26:46
Speaker 1: Exactly so, she didn't just escape to save her own life,
26:50
Speaker 1: though what she managed to do was light a fuse
26:54
Speaker 1: on a man hunt that followed Back at Laurie's apartment.
26:59
Speaker 1: The hours dragged on, Timothy finally returned home. Something in
27:04
Speaker 1: him was different, though, he was quiet, distant, like he
27:08
Speaker 1: wasn't really there. And then he told her I had
27:12
Speaker 1: to do it. I had to help him. He threatened
27:15
Speaker 1: you and the girls.
27:17
Speaker 3: Ah, that's so hard, hey.
27:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, Timothy Milano was the one who shot Jeffrey Wolf
27:25
Speaker 1: oh seven times in the back in fact, and twice
27:27
Speaker 1: in the chest. Dang Okay, just after Brooke escaped, he
27:32
Speaker 1: turned himself in.
27:34
Speaker 2: That makes it way worse that he was the one that,
27:37
Speaker 2: like Gary, made him the one pulled to pull the
27:40
Speaker 2: trigger and stuff. Hey, because say if he was just
27:42
Speaker 2: helping with dismemberment or whatever, which is still terrible, but
27:47
Speaker 2: I don't think that the sentencing would be quite as hard.
27:51
Speaker 1: Now. By the time police knew what Gary Simmons had done,
27:54
Speaker 1: he had already vanished. He didn't stay hidden for long though.
27:57
Speaker 1: Gary wasn't the kind of killer who would disappear into
27:59
Speaker 1: the world hoods or cross state lines under a fake name. No,
28:02
Speaker 1: he wanted to be seen. He wanted to be heard,
28:05
Speaker 1: and on August fourteenth, nineteen ninety six, just one day
28:08
Speaker 1: after Brooks escape and Jeffrey Wolfe's murder, he mailed that
28:12
Speaker 1: VHS tape to his strange wife, Laurie. Laurie, already reeling
28:16
Speaker 1: from revelation that her brother had helped commit this murder,
28:19
Speaker 1: now face the terrifying possibility that she might be this
28:22
Speaker 1: next target. The man who had once bound her, torment her,
28:26
Speaker 1: tormented her, and traced her face with a butcher knife
28:29
Speaker 1: was free and reaching out to her too.
28:32
Speaker 2: Knew where she lived, like yeah.
28:34
Speaker 1: What she didn't know though, was Gary wasn't far from her.
28:39
Speaker 1: Just hours after the tape arrived at her workplace, Gary
28:43
Speaker 1: made a phone call to police. He was ready to
28:45
Speaker 1: turn himself in, and when officers located him, he was
28:49
Speaker 1: only a few blocks away from Laurie's office. He surrendered
28:55
Speaker 1: without a fight soon after. Both Gary and Timothy were
28:59
Speaker 1: booked into jail. The evidence was overwhelming. They had an
29:02
Speaker 1: eye witness testimony, a dismembered body, a box built for captivity,
29:07
Speaker 1: and a survivor who had lived to tell the tale
29:09
Speaker 1: all about it. But still, prosecutors knew the trial would
29:13
Speaker 1: hinge on Brook or whether she could face the man
29:16
Speaker 1: who nearly ended her life and tell the jury exactly
29:18
Speaker 1: what he had done. But even from behind bars, Gary
29:22
Speaker 1: hadn't let go of his need for control. Before the
29:25
Speaker 1: trial even began, Brooke was informed that he had tried
29:29
Speaker 1: to have her killed, allegedly putting out the word from
29:32
Speaker 1: jail to silence her.
29:35
Speaker 2: H I mean shock it out on her. That shocked me,
29:38
Speaker 2: But when you think about it, it's not shocking at all.
29:41
Speaker 1: Now. Thankfully it didn't work. Brooke was still alive, and
29:44
Speaker 1: now she was ready to speak against him. By the
29:47
Speaker 1: time the trial began on August twenty fifth, nineteen ninety seven,
29:50
Speaker 1: one full year had passed since Brook's escape from the
29:53
Speaker 1: house in Moss Point, but time did little to dull
29:58
Speaker 1: her fear for Brooks. In that courtroom, it meant facing
30:03
Speaker 1: Gary himself, the man who had locked her in the box,
30:06
Speaker 1: raped her and butchered, the man that she loved, and
30:08
Speaker 1: he was sitting now just a few feet away from
30:12
Speaker 1: the moment Brooke took the stand, her body was betraying her.
30:15
Speaker 1: Her hands shook uncontrollably, her legs wouldn't stop trembling. She
30:19
Speaker 1: tried sitting on her hands to hide it, but it
30:21
Speaker 1: was impossible to steady the overwhelming fear. She later described
30:25
Speaker 1: the experience as one of the most terrifying moments in
30:28
Speaker 1: her life, not just because of what had happened, but
30:31
Speaker 1: because she knew the weight of what she was there
30:34
Speaker 1: to do.
30:34
Speaker 3: There was like so much pressure.
30:36
Speaker 1: She was the only witness. Yeah, so if something had
30:39
Speaker 1: happened to her before that moment, if the alleged hit
30:42
Speaker 1: Gary tried to arrange from prison had succeeded, he might
30:45
Speaker 1: have walked free and Brooke knew that the entire case
30:48
Speaker 1: was resting on her voice. However, she looked at Jeffrey
30:54
Speaker 1: Wolfe's parents sitting in that courtroom, grief across their face
30:58
Speaker 1: as they had lost their son and how he was butchered,
31:02
Speaker 1: and she made a decision, if they can sit there
31:06
Speaker 1: and face this, so can she.
31:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, good for her.
31:10
Speaker 1: Brooke told the jury everything, the road trip, the gunshot,
31:14
Speaker 1: the box, assault, the escape, the horror of hearing it
31:18
Speaker 1: all like after it was all over, that Jeffrey was
31:20
Speaker 1: cut into eighty eight pieces, discarded like trash in the swamp.
31:24
Speaker 1: The details were almost too brutal to process. The jury
31:28
Speaker 1: heard about how Jeffrey had been shot nine times, seven
31:31
Speaker 1: in the back, twice in the chest by Timothy. They
31:33
Speaker 1: heard how Gary and Timothy methodically dismembered his body and
31:37
Speaker 1: tried to erase any sign of the crime. They heard
31:40
Speaker 1: how Brooke was kept alive only because Gary still wanted
31:43
Speaker 1: to well use her.
31:45
Speaker 3: Put it that way, yeah.
31:47
Speaker 1: By August twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, the jury returned
31:50
Speaker 1: with their verdict. Gary Simmons was found guilty on all
31:54
Speaker 1: counts the murder of Jeffrey wolf The kidnapping and rape
31:57
Speaker 1: of Brooke Weber and the grizzly abuse that followed. He
32:01
Speaker 1: was sentenced to death. Timothy Milana was also convicted, receiving
32:07
Speaker 1: life in prison without the possibility of parole, for pulling
32:10
Speaker 1: the trigger that killed Jeffrey.
32:13
Speaker 2: I was kind of hoping that would have been a
32:15
Speaker 2: little more lenient, but he also still did very much
32:19
Speaker 2: so a like monstrous act.
32:21
Speaker 1: He murdered someone he had not murdered, but he dismembered he.
32:25
Speaker 2: The reasonings behind it were okay, I guess like he
32:28
Speaker 2: was prying to protect his sister.
32:30
Speaker 1: But still, yeah, just like the last case we covered,
32:32
Speaker 1: you know, someone who was a victim they went on
32:34
Speaker 1: to murder. You still got to serve the time for
32:36
Speaker 1: the consequences of your actions.
32:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, So for Jeffrey's family, the Wolf family, justice had
32:43
Speaker 1: been served. But for Brook, though, the nightmare was far
32:46
Speaker 1: from over. Even with Gary Simmons locked away on death row,
32:50
Speaker 1: Brooke Weber's life did not return to anything resembling normal.
32:54
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, how would you even go about trusting anyone ever?
32:58
Speaker 3: Again?
32:58
Speaker 2: Well, exactly when you faced such a like fucked up
33:02
Speaker 2: thing that happened to you.
33:04
Speaker 1: For years, Brooke lived in a state of constant hypervigilance.
33:09
Speaker 1: She changed her name, She cut her long blonde hair
33:11
Speaker 1: short and dyed it dark. She moved from place to place,
33:15
Speaker 1: always looking over her shoulder, convinced that somehow Gary Simmons
33:19
Speaker 1: or someone connected to him would come for her. Yeah,
33:23
Speaker 1: the terror wasn't irrational. Gary had already tried to have
33:25
Speaker 1: her killed once from prison, behind prison bars right, and
33:29
Speaker 1: in Brooke's mind, as long as he was alive, she
33:32
Speaker 1: wasn't safe. And it wasn't just fear of him. In fact,
33:37
Speaker 1: it was his family. She feared his family, his children,
33:40
Speaker 1: or anyone who might have viewed her as the person
33:42
Speaker 1: responsible for putting him behind bars. The way to that
33:46
Speaker 1: paranoia followed her everywhere. She didn't just run from the
33:50
Speaker 1: Simmons family, she ran from everything that was tied to
33:54
Speaker 1: that family too, Not just Gary, but the kids, you know, everyone.
33:59
Speaker 1: For years, she kept her distance, not from just Mississippi,
34:02
Speaker 1: but from anyone who may have reminded her of that
34:05
Speaker 1: time in her life, even from Laurie Simmons, you know,
34:09
Speaker 1: his ex wife, who he had also abused. She believed
34:13
Speaker 1: that she might seek revenge for, you know, getting her
34:15
Speaker 1: ex husband put behind Bars, the father of her kids.
34:18
Speaker 3: I'm sure she wouldn't though, But yeah.
34:21
Speaker 1: Well, Brooke once said quote, I thought maybe I ruined
34:24
Speaker 1: their perfect marriage and his family would grow up hating me.
34:28
Speaker 1: It didn't matter that she was the victim. In her mind,
34:31
Speaker 1: the entire ordeal marked her, or turned into turned her
34:34
Speaker 1: into like a target. Yeah. So the years stretched into
34:38
Speaker 1: decades of this man. Brook missed out on milestones, relationships,
34:42
Speaker 1: and the sense of stability. She built walls around herself,
34:46
Speaker 1: living in survival mode long after the immediate threat was gone.
34:50
Speaker 1: The weight of trauma and the burden of being you know,
34:52
Speaker 1: the girl who got away consumed much of her adult life.
34:56
Speaker 1: It wasn't until she built a family of her own
34:58
Speaker 1: that something inside her became to shift. She no longer
35:02
Speaker 1: wanted to be defined by what Gary Simmons did to her.
35:05
Speaker 1: She no longer wanted to live in fear of shadows.
35:07
Speaker 1: She wanted her life back. But as fate would have it,
35:11
Speaker 1: true closure would come from an unexpected place to her,
35:15
Speaker 1: the very woman she'd spend decades running from. By twenty
35:20
Speaker 1: twenty three, it had been twenty seven years since Brooke
35:24
Speaker 1: Weber escaped from that box. She was no longer the
35:27
Speaker 1: terrified eighteen year old girl that she once was. She
35:30
Speaker 1: was a forty five year old mother and still living
35:33
Speaker 1: with the scars of what had happened in that house
35:35
Speaker 1: on the edge of the bayou. But she was tired
35:38
Speaker 1: of running. Brooke knew that survival alone wasn't enough, and
35:41
Speaker 1: she needed to reclaim her life the parts of herself
35:45
Speaker 1: that Gary Simmons had stolen, and that meant facing not
35:48
Speaker 1: just memories, but the people connected to them. But what
35:52
Speaker 1: she didn't expect was one of those people wanted to
35:54
Speaker 1: face her too. While filming an interview for Investigation Discovery,
36:00
Speaker 1: Brooke was told that Laurie Simmons, Gary's ex wife, wanted
36:04
Speaker 1: to meet with her.
36:06
Speaker 3: Oh my goose fulms are insane right now listening to this.
36:10
Speaker 1: For decades, Brooke had assumed Laurie hated her, huh, or
36:14
Speaker 1: would one day come after her, seeking revenge for the
36:17
Speaker 1: role that she played and putting Gary behind bars. But
36:19
Speaker 1: the truth was something entirely different. Laurie Simmons had lived
36:24
Speaker 1: her own nightmare. She hadn't just known the monster Brook
36:27
Speaker 1: escaped from, she had survived too, and when the two
36:31
Speaker 1: women finally met, they hugged and there was an awkward
36:35
Speaker 1: moment of silence, and then Laurie spoke the words Brooke
36:38
Speaker 1: never expected her to hear. She looked at Brooke and
36:42
Speaker 1: she said, you are my hero.
36:45
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. Oh that's too much. It's too much.
36:50
Speaker 2: Holy shit.
36:51
Speaker 1: Brooke, visibly emotional, could heartily process it. Laurie went on
36:56
Speaker 1: to explain that because of Brook's bravery, because she escaped,
36:59
Speaker 1: because she came farward, Laurie and her children have been
37:02
Speaker 1: able to live their lives in peace. Quote, We've thanked
37:07
Speaker 1: God for you every day since you escaped. I have
37:10
Speaker 1: four grown children because of you. I'm here because of you.
37:14
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I mean, okay. For Brooke to hear that, like,
37:19
Speaker 2: it's just I don't know, it just like warms your heart.
37:24
Speaker 2: But then it's also so devastating too that she lived
37:27
Speaker 2: so long, like thinking Laura now otherwise.
37:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, she was in fear of Laurie, thought Laurie hated her.
37:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, like that's enough to just make you solve, like
37:35
Speaker 3: that's so sad.
37:37
Speaker 1: Yeah. So for Brooke, the moment was life changing. For
37:41
Speaker 1: the first time, she saw herself through someone else's eyes,
37:44
Speaker 1: not as a victim, not as the girl who was hunted,
37:46
Speaker 1: but as a survivor who stopped something even worse from happening. Yeah,
37:52
Speaker 1: they hugged and the tension just melted away. The two
37:56
Speaker 1: women who had both been trapped by the same monster,
37:58
Speaker 1: each carrying their own weight of ti trauma, finally found
38:01
Speaker 1: some measure of healing together. Brooke later said quote, I've
38:06
Speaker 1: never looked at it that way. You kind of make
38:09
Speaker 1: it okay.
38:10
Speaker 3: Now, Oh my gosh.
38:13
Speaker 1: The story and survival of Brook Weber is not just
38:16
Speaker 1: another true crime headline. It's a brutal reminder of how
38:19
Speaker 1: easily evil can hide behind the mask of normalcy. For years,
38:23
Speaker 1: Gary Simmons hidden plain sight, a man with a family,
38:26
Speaker 1: a job, and a collection of horrifying fantasies that he
38:29
Speaker 1: tucked away in binders. Laurie Simmons tried to warn people,
38:33
Speaker 1: tried to escape him, but the laws and the stigma
38:37
Speaker 1: around domestic abuse left her trapped longer than she should
38:40
Speaker 1: have ever been. It took Brook's survival and testimony, along
38:45
Speaker 1: with the senseless, gruesome murder of Jeffrey Wolf, to finally
38:48
Speaker 1: bring the darkness to light, and even then justice came
38:52
Speaker 1: at a cost. In the end, Brooke isn't just the
38:56
Speaker 1: girl in the butcher's box. She's the woman who broke free,
39:00
Speaker 1: the woman who helped bring two killers to justice, the
39:03
Speaker 1: woman who, finally, after decades of running, looked her past
39:07
Speaker 1: in the eye and chose to stop hiding. Her story
39:10
Speaker 1: teaches us that monsters don't always come with warnings. Sometimes
39:14
Speaker 1: they look like friends, neighbors, husbands, brothers, and sometimes it
39:19
Speaker 1: takes an extraordinary amount of courage to stop them. Brooke
39:23
Speaker 1: Weber's courage didn't just save herself. It saved others in
39:27
Speaker 1: more ways than she may ever fully know. And that's
39:32
Speaker 1: the survival story of Brook Weber.
39:37
Speaker 2: Oh, that one seems like, honestly, it's so nice that
39:41
Speaker 2: she survived and stuff, but also seems like a little
39:43
Speaker 2: sadder than some of the other survival stories because like.
39:48
Speaker 3: It affected her.
39:49
Speaker 2: I mean, I know, it affects their life for a
39:52
Speaker 2: long period of time and stuff, but it you know,
39:55
Speaker 2: she definitely like missed out on things, and.
39:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, well she she was in fear for so long.
40:01
Speaker 2: And like thinking other thoughts of like what Laurie would
40:04
Speaker 2: think of her and stuff, which, yeah, it's it's almost
40:06
Speaker 2: too bad. I guess they couldn't have had that meeting
40:08
Speaker 2: a little earlier. That's true life, right, but it still happened,
40:12
Speaker 2: and that's great.
40:13
Speaker 1: That's good it did. And honestly it's it's quite the
40:16
Speaker 1: uh the interview to watch when they.
40:19
Speaker 2: Oh, that's actually like out there.
40:22
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh okay.
40:24
Speaker 2: I often will get like goosebumps during these stories, but
40:26
Speaker 2: mine were like next level during that little piece there,
40:29
Speaker 2: like that is just it's I don't know, I don't know.
40:34
Speaker 2: If I want to watch that, I'll probably cry probably
40:37
Speaker 2: probably huh wow.
40:41
Speaker 3: Well yeah, so what a story.
40:44
Speaker 1: And when I came across it, I knew it was
40:46
Speaker 1: one of the ones that I wanted to share for sure.
40:48
Speaker 2: Do you even know? I mean you might not even look,
40:50
Speaker 2: because who the fuck really cares? But is this scary
40:52
Speaker 2: guy still alive?
40:54
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't give a fuck. Yeah, he's
40:57
Speaker 1: locked up forever. He's probably still alive because there's a
40:59
Speaker 1: lot that goes on with death or death roll yeah
41:02
Speaker 1: sort of stuff and death sentence.
41:03
Speaker 3: But yeah, he's like in there forever.
41:05
Speaker 2: Like when you get life, I don't think you ever
41:07
Speaker 2: ursory when you get the death sentence, Like, I don't
41:09
Speaker 2: think you're ever gonna get and get the hell out
41:11
Speaker 2: of there.
41:12
Speaker 1: There would have to be convictions overturned and sentencing overturned
41:17
Speaker 1: on a new trials. There would have to be a
41:19
Speaker 1: lot for that to occur, Yeah, and legislation to change
41:23
Speaker 1: for those trials and retrials to actually happen.
41:26
Speaker 2: Because I have a feeling this guy. Like, you know,
41:29
Speaker 2: rehabilitation yay and stuff, it does work, but like not
41:33
Speaker 2: with this guy. I feel like he's just too much
41:35
Speaker 2: of a piece of shit.
41:36
Speaker 1: Agreed. So anyways, I kind of want to end it
41:40
Speaker 1: there because that's what there was. Just it was a
41:42
Speaker 1: lot emotionally, so I don't really want to talk after
41:45
Speaker 1: this this episode. I just want to say thank you
41:47
Speaker 1: for being here. You guys are awesome and stuff. In
41:48
Speaker 1: the description that we're an indie podcast and that.
41:51
Speaker 3: That's go sit outside and reflect online for.
41:55
Speaker 1: A little bit, I might, but I do honestly think
41:58
Speaker 1: it goes without saying that Brook is obviously our badass
42:02
Speaker 1: of the day. Shout out to Brook for that.
42:05
Speaker 3: Laurie deserves a little bit of that too.
42:07
Speaker 1: So we have two bad ass of the days. Sure
42:09
Speaker 1: we got too bad ass of the days Brook and
42:10
Speaker 1: Laurie both yep. Okay, Well, thank you for being here,
42:15
Speaker 1: and until next time, stay wicked.