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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Brooke Allensworth (Archive Episode) · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

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