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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Cassie Compton · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: School of Humans talkably Havel Catherine looking to the disappearance
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of Patsy Thompson in the city of Stuttgard, Arkansas, about
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: ten years ago. They could.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: On the evening of Sunday, September fourteenth, twenty fourteen, fifteen
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: year old Cassie K Compton went out for a pack
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: of cigarettes down the road from her house in Stuttgart,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Arkansas and never came home. At least that's the official story.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: This is one of those Arkansas cold cases that have
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: become legendary, one of those stories that have been covered
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: tons of times, and yet almost ten years later, we
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: have no arrests and no answers. We do know a
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: few things for sure. Cassie had been spending the weekend
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: with a male friend of hers named Hunter. They went
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: with his family to an auto demolition Derby and de Witt,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: which is about forty miles away. They had a great
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: time hanging out, and then Cassie went back to Hunter's
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: house and slept up there on Saturday night. Tracy Snyder,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Hunter's mother, has said that this was not out of
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: the ordinary. In fact, Cassie spent a lot of time
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: at their house because Tracy said things were chaotic at
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Cassie's house. Tracy said that her house had become a
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: sort of refuge for Cassie. Hunter drove Cassie home on
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Sunday evening. Shortly after that, Cassie texted Hunter to say
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: she was going out to get some cigarettes. Then Cassie,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: who was described in her missing posters as petite, around
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: five foot three, weighing around one hundred pounds, with blue
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: eyes and blonde hair, apparently walked down the road and
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: never came back. I have found a lot of new
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: information about a murder for higher plot, a man posing
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: as a woman, sex crimes, and cover ups that made
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: me see the police's main person of interest in a
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: whole new light. What really happened to Cassie Compton and
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: what was she running from at home?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Townsend.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: seven four four six one four or five. That's six
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: seven eight seven four four six one four or five.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. So we need to
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: take a step back to understand what was going on
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: in Cassie Compton's life.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Cassie K.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Compton was born in Oklahoma. After her mother, Judy Compton Kimsey,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: was divorced from Cassie's father, Roy in two thousand, Cassie
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: and her mother moved from Oklahoma back to Arkansas.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And there's no way to sugarcoat this.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Both Cassie's mother, Judy and her father, Roy were registered
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: sex offenders, though Judy's name had been removed from that
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: list after fifteen years of good behavior. We're going to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: get more into those charges later, but for now, we'll
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: say that Roy was convicted of inappropriate sexual contact with
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a miner, ludacts with a child, and indecent proposals to
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: a miner back in Oklahoma. According to multiple sources, that
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: miner was Judy's older daughter from a previous marriage, so
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: his own stepdaughter. Roy was sentenced to twenty three years
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: in prison for that abuse. In Stuttgart, Cassie was homeschooled
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: and working to get her ged. Her friend said she
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: was kind and funny, except when she was troubled, which
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: had become a little more frequent in the time period
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: before she disappeared. Her friend said when she was troubled
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: she could get a little quiet. There was someone else
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: in the home, Judy's fiance, twenty four year old Brandon
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Lee Rhodes. Now a lot of people pointed out that
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the age difference between Brandon and Cassie was actually less
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: than it was between Brandon and Judy, who was forty two.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: As we said, that weekend, Cassie had been spending time
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: with Hunter Snyder and his family. On Saturday, September thirteenth,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Hunter's mom, Tracy, said her son had picked Cassie up
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: at her house at around one pm.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: That night.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: They all went out to the Auto Derby. They had fun,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: and then Cassie spent the night at the Snyder house.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: The next day, September fourteenth, Cassie hung out at Hunter's.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: They had brunch with his family, then later Hunter drove
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Cassie home. Hunter and Cassie left his house at around
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: six oh five pm. Her house was around a fifteen
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: or twenty minute drive away, so that would put them
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: there at Cassie's house between six twenty and six twenty
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: five pm. According to Tracy, when Hunter and Cassie pulled
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: up to the house and Cassie got out of the car,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Hunter said that he saw Brandon Rhodes outside, but he
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: said he did not see Brandon speak to Cassie. The
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: last thing he saw was Cassie walking up the driveway
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: straight into the house. Hunter got home at around six
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: forty five pm. According to his mom, Cassie sent a
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: text to Hunter at around seven or seven fifteen pm,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: saying she was going out to get a pack of cigarettes.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: That was the last text that was ever sent from
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Cassie's phone. Judy, who was on disability and sometimes took
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: pain medications, later said when Cassie came home, she was
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: sick in her bedroom, which was in the back of
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: the house. She said she heard Cassie moving around and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: said hey, baby girl to Cassie through the door, but
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Judy said she didn't actually ever see Cassie. Brandon told
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: police Cassie was only at the house for about five
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: minutes before going out again. When she walked out the door,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Cassie apparently had her black LG smartphone with her, but
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: no charger for the phone. Hunter's mom, Tracy, said she
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: got three calls from Brandon that night. On the first call,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: at nine to fourteen pm, Tracy said, Brandon asked if
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Cassie was still there, I guess, meaning still with them. Now,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: this is weird because Hunter said clearly Brandon saw Cassie
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: when they pulled up to that house. Also, both Brandon
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: and Judy told investigators that they had seen or at
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: least heard Cassie at home. Hunter lived kind of far out,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: it was not walkable, So why would Brandon be asking
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: if she was still with them when he knew Cassie
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: had been dropped off. Tracy said she told Brandon to
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: call the police, and after he'd called back a couple times,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Brandon told her that he had done that. Now, Brandon
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: did not have her driver's license, so he had a
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: bike that he would ride around everywhere. He told Tracy
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: that he'd ridden his bike to the police station to
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: report Cassie missing, but he said police told him he
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: had to wait seventy two hours. Tracy called the police
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the next morning. She said that she talked to a
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: detective and they told her that was not true. They
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: said no one had made a police report the night before.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: On that next morning, which would be Monday, September fifteenth,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Judy saw that Cassie was not in her bedroom. She
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: started texting and calling Cassie, but got no response and
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: the calls went straight to voicemail. Judy called Cassie's friends,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: but no one had seen her, so Judy called the police. Eventually,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: through a foyer request, the Stuttgart Police did release the
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: original incident report. Judy's name is on it, so it
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: can be confirmed. Judy reported Cassie missing on Monday, September
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: fifteenth at nine fifty two am. Brandon's name was not
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: on that report. To that report, Judy told police that
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Cassie had a possible mental disorder and may have been bipolar.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: She said Cassie had been prescribed and a deepressants in
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: the past, but she said she would flush them because
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: she didn't like taking them. Judy told police if Cassie's
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: mood swings got bad, that Cassie would sometimes go out
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: for a walk. In that report, Judy said that she
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: heard Cassie come in and heard her change and leave
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: from the back bedroom. Judy also gave a description of
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: what Cassie was wearing. She said she had on a
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: blue spaghetti strap top, black and white plaid shorts, blue
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: and gray cowboy boots with a two to three inch heel,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: but later Judy clarified. She said she based that on
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: the clothes that were missing out of Cassie's closet, because again,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: she was in the bedroom the whole time. She never
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: physically saw her daughter, and it didn't take police long
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: to see that Brandon and Judy's stories had a few discrepancies.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Brandon and Judy first told investigators that Brandon was cooking
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: in the kitchen when Cassie came home. He said he'd
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: been cooking breakfast for dinner. He said he saw Cassie briefly,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: but that Judy did not see her at all. Later,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: another story came out. Judy told Tina Stores, a private
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: investigator who looked into the case, and some other people,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: that Brandon went out for cigarettes on Sunday night also,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: and that Brandon was gone for quite some time, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: that when he did come back, he spent a long time,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: like an hour in the bathroom vomiting. Remember, Brandon did
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: not have a driver's license, but he had been known
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: to take Judy's.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Car in the past, especially if she was sleeping.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And him going for cigarettes in Judy's car at around
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: the same time Cassie said she was going out for
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: cigarettes seems like a big coincidence. It seems reasonable to
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: wonder could they have gone together or could Cassie have
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: gotten into the car with him. Also, Brandon is saying
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: that he somehow had time to cook dinner, get in
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: his car, buy cigarettes, then then ride his bike to
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the police station to report someone missing, and have a
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: vomiting spell, all in the two hour period before nine
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: to fourteen when he called Tracy. In twenty nineteen, Cayla Lafferty,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: a reporter from KTV Channel seven, did a podcast called
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Timeline the Disappearance of Cassie Compton, and in that podcast,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: she talked to a friend of Judy's who said Judy
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: told them that both she and Brandon were given Lie
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: detector tests and that both of them had failed. This
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: friend said Judy told her that she thought she failed
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: her lie detector test because she was taking pain medications
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: at the time. At first, it did seem like police
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: were treating Cassie as a runaway, and they've admitted this publicly.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Stuttgart Police Chief Mark Duke said, quote, you think, all right,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: she's mad, she left, We'll find her, and then it
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: went sideways from there end quote. Police also said on
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: the record They formed this assumption based on what they
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: heard from family members and.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Other people close.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: To Cassie, but no one saw Cassie on that road
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: after she left her house.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: She was never seen again in any.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Verified sighting, even though there were a lot of tips
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: called in. People reported seeing her everywhere from Walmart to
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: random highways.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: None of those young women was Cassie.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: On October third, twenty fifteen, two and a half weeks
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: after Cassie went missing, police took Brandon and Judy's phones. Then,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: shortly after detectives left their home, a house fire started.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: The small house fire at Brandon and Judy's residence was
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: pretty quickly put out, but the timing was bizarre. By
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: late fall, the investigations seemed stalled. Police were still saying
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: the only official people of interest were Judy and Brandon,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: but some strange things were happening on social media. For
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: one thing, Cassie's personal Facebook page liked the missing page
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: for Cassie, and law enforcement stated that more than one
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: person had access Cassie's personal Facebook page. Also that fall,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: starting around September twenty fifth, police and the FBI started
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: searching the area that began around the Stuttgard airport. They
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: were looking into reservoirs, riverbanks, under bridges, all kinds of
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: hiding places near Cassie's home. According to the website find
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Cassie Compton, the police were considering the theory that someone
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: could have transported Cassie's remains walking or by bicycle, possibly
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: in pieces. They looked for rolled up rugs or garbage bags,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: but they found nothing. Judy and Brandon started talking to
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: the media. Actually Judy did most of the talking, but
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: when Brandon spoke, he said this.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: She was gone, Mike, I whispering.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Win. I found his wording a bit strange. How does
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: a fifteen year old vanish into thin air like that?
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Now this was late summer, so even though sunset was
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: around seven to twelve pm, it would not have been
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: fully dark until half an hour or so later. And
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: yet not one person saw Cassie after she left her house.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: There were a few theories about what could have happened
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: to her. Some people believe she could have been kidnapped,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: either by strangers or by someone she knew, or possibly
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: she was sex trafficked. Maybe going out for cigarettes was
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: code for something. Maybe Cassie had plans to run away
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: or maybe something else happened to Cassie in that house
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: and she never made it past the driveway for other reasons. Then,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: a few weeks after Cassie went missing, Judy.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: And Brandon broke up.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Judy told Channel seven quote, I believe Cassie would come
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: back if she knew he was not in the picture
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: end quote. She mentioned that Cassie and Brandon had not
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: gotten along. She kicked Brandon out. He started living on
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: the streets. He was arrested for squatting at a property
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: and given a hundred day jail sentence. The Stuttgart Police
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Department started working with the FBI and the state Police.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Judy announced one thousand dollars reward for any information that
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: would help lead to her daughter. Then in October, police
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: found something under the Biometro bridge about fifteen miles from
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Casco on the White River. This was near the place
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: where Cassie's cell phone had last pinned. Police reportedly found
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: objects that included a gatorade bottle, two men's shirts, men's
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: toiletries including shaving cream, folded drapes, a girl's Hugs and kisses, sweater,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: a Teddy Bear in two bags. Two my knowledge, police
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: have never confirmed if those items belonged to Brandon Roads,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: but a lot of people thought that the shaving cream
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: might have some significance because Brandon normally had a beard,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: and when he was arrested a few days after this
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: stuff was found on unrelated charges, he was clean shaven,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: so by now a lot of people in the community
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: were fixated on Brandon Roads. Police said the same thing
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: they often say in these investigations, that Brandon and Judy
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: were people of interest, but no one was arrested a charge,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: and they said no one could be ruled out. Neither
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Brandon nor Judy have ever been charged in connection with
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Cassie's disappearance. Over the years, Judy's opinion of whether or
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: not Brandon could have been involved seemed to shift, at
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: least publicly. In November of twenty fourteen, Judy talked to
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: a reporter from ABC channel seven about her relationship with Brandon.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: She said Brandon could be controlling. For example, she said
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: he would always pick up the phone and interrupt her
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: when she was talking to law enforcement. Judy also talked
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: about her past and about the incident that led to
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: her being on the sex offender list in Oklahoma.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: According to court documents.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Judy was found guilty in Marshall County, Oklahoma, of permitting
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: abuse or neglect.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: In November of nineteen ninety.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Eight, Judy told the reporter that Roy, her ex husband,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: had assaulted her daughter. She said that she was charged
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: with failure to protect her child and basically forced to
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: take a plead. Judy told Channel seven, quote, my ex
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: husband was messing with my oldest daughter and I didn't
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: know anything about it. Then my oldest daughter told my
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: mother end quote.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: But I went through.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Those court documents and I saw that not only was
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Judy put on the sex offender registry, she was also
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: given a five year suspended sentence in connection with that case.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yet when she talked with the reporter, she kind of
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: made it sound, in my opinion, like something that happened
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: to her rather than something she was complicit in.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I found out even.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: More details about these charges, and this case was dark.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: He is charged with leude molestation in this case. According
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: to the court records, the child was traumatized and wanted
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: to give video evidence rather than face Roy in court,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: which the court allowed. Roy was given a twenty three
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: year prison sentence. According to the records, I found By
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: the way, Roy was in prison when Cassie went missing
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: and still appears to be incarcerated. Does this past behavior
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: mean that Judy knew anything about what happened to Cassie. No,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: but in my opinion, it does show that she appears
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: to be capable of minimizing abuse inside the home, and
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: that worries me. After Cassie disappeared, Judy had to deal
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: with multiple heartbreaks over the years, including one cruel person
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: who actually impersonated Cassie and pretended that she was alive
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: and wanted to talk to Judy. I cannot even imagine
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: what that must have been like. Cassie's disappearance made local
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: and nation news, but there were no arrests. In addition
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: to Brandon, because this was a fifteen year old girl,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: police also looked into other young men who Cassie had
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: been talking to. On September seventh, twenty fourteen, there was
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: a post on Cassie's Facebook page, actually her last post,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: in which she wrote, quote, let's get one thing straight.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I was not with Dustin, okay, and she mentions a
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: last name as well, which we're not going to mention.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: So a lot of people were asking Dustin about this
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: so underneath her comment, he replied and said he and
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Cassie were never together. He was a little older, I think,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: so I can imagine him getting nervous if a miner
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: went missing. Anyway, police apparently followed that lead and ruled
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Dustin out. Things kept coming back to the home, back
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: to Brandon Rhads. One of the things I found most
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: frustrating about this case is that over the years we've
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: heard a lot about Brandon Rhoades, so many rumors u
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: concrete backs. He continued to get into trouble with the
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: law after splitting from Judy. In twenty fifteen, Brandon was
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: arrested on drug charges, including possession of a controlled substance methamphetamines.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to two years in prison.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Then a couple of years later, he was arrested again,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: this time it had nothing to do with Cassie Compton.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: On October sixteenth, twenty eighteen, Brandon was stopped by police
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas. They saw that Brandon was driving
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: on a suspended license, so they arrested him.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: The officers searched the.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Car and they found a loaded AR fifteen assault rifle
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: with a red scope and a lot of other tactical gear. Later,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: police determined that that weapon had been reported stolen. They
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: got information that Brandon had been paid several hundred dollars
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: to kill the wife of one of his acquaintances, so
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: they brought Brandon up on capital murder charges. I wanted
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: to understand more about this, so I looked into the
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: court documents. Brandon had a different story. He said he
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: didn't remember anything from the night before. Later he changed
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: his story and said, yes, he was in Batesville to
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: follow someone. He said that a man had paid him
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: two hundred dollars to follow around this man's wife, so
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Brandon was acting as kind of an unofficial private investigator.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Brandon also said he had no idea he had a
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: stolen gun in his truck, but the guy who reported
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: the gun stolen said Brandon was at his residence the
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: night before. The next morning, Brandon and the gun were gone,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: So it didn't take Charlote Holmes to figure out who
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: took that weapon. Again, there's been almost nothing reported about
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Brandon's background. I wanted to know who he really is,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: so I found buried in a lot of different court
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: documents related to his arrest, the forensic reports that were done,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: and they had a lot of very interesting information. I
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: think we learn a lot more about Brandon Rhades from
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: these documents than we have in any of the interviews
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: that he's done. According to court documents, Brandon was born
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: in Little Rock. He grew up with his mother, grandmother,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: and younger brother in Greenbrier, Arkansas, but he said they
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: moved around a lot to several different states. He told
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: the examiner that he had a stepfather in his life
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: as well, who was in a motorcycle gang. Brandon said
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: his stepfather physically and sexually abused him between the ages
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: of seven.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: And nineteen years old.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: He said that from a young age he was abused.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: He said he was abused with fists, a board, an
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: electrical cord, He was thrown across the room, and when
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: things got too difficult at home, he would escape to
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the woods. Sometimes he would sleep outside. He went to
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: school in Mount Vernon and Stuttgart High School, but he
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: was expelled several times for having an explosive temper. He
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: said he stopped going to school in ninth grade and
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: went to work. Brandon said when he was seventeen, he
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: went to meet the man he believed was his biological father,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: but later a DNA test showed that that man was
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: not his father, which I can imagine must have been
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: crushing for him. He also said he had been smoking
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: pot around three times a day for as long as
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: he could remember. He said he developed a meth habit
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: in high school. At first, like a lot of people,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: he said, he started taking it to keep him awake
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: at work. Brandon worked several different jobs. He worked at
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: lumber one in Stuttgart, but he got fired from that job. Later,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: he did some landscaping and worked for a company and
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: DeWitt fabricating metal for farming equipment. By twenty eleven, Brandon
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: was on his own. He was living in abandoned houses
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: for a few weeks at a time. That's when he
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: got into a relationship with Judy and he moved in
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: with her and Cassie and Stuttgart. Now, if you look
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: at his old Facebook posts, which have been inactive for
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: a long time, this seems to have been a happy
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: time for him, at least on social media. Judy is
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: his cover photo the whole thing, and he has a
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: post there saying that Judy baptized him in twenty fourteen.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: In this interview with the psychiatrist, Brandon discussed his criminal history.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: He told the examiner about Judy and Cassie and said, quote,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I would not be surprised if someone is trying to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: kill me because they believe I killed her daughter and
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: buried her somewhere.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: End quote.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: I don't have time to go through the entire case,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: but the case, by the way, is wild. Police were
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: trying to figure out which story to believe what was
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: going on here. They found text messages between Brandon and
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the man who allegedly hired him to follow his wife.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: In those texts, they were discussing the fact that this
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: woman was allegedly cheating on her husband with another man,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: a love rival. So at first Brandon and the husband
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: talk about beating up the other love rival. Then Brandon
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: was apparently planning to plan drugs on this love rival. Later,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Brandon and the husband also talked about just killing the wife.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: The whole time, Brandon was saying he's obsessed with the
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: punisher Frank Castle from the comic books.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: For those who haven't read it.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: He's the vigilanti who tortures bad guys and has a
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: very twisted view of dispensing justice. Police interviewed the wife
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: whom Brandon followed. She talked about how her husband had
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: paid someone to stock her, how she'd seen a white
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: truck the type that Brandon drove around. Police also found
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: evidence that Brandon called this woman and pretended to be
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: a woman, and that in that phone conversation he told
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: her that she was a mother who needed to be
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: taking care of her kids. This gets even deeper. Brandon
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: told police he had gender dysphoria. When they arrested him,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: he was wearing fake breasts and a sports brath And
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of text messages in these documents
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: where Brandon was talking to this love rival, and in
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: these texts he was pretending to be a woman and
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: trying to entice this man into doing some very sexually
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: graphic things. It seems to me from these police interviews
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: that Brandon sees himself as a violent anti hero vigilante.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: He also said he was never close to his mother.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: He later told police he did not like women. And
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: yet it's complicated because according to his behavior, it seems
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: like he's also in many ways presenting as a woman.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: The case continued to get more and more bizarre. Then
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: in early twenty twenty one, there was another very strange incident.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: In early twenty twenty one, a video of a woman
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: on TikTok and other social media started making the rounds.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: This this woman had black hair and two black eyes
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: and was in the car with a couple of guys
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: who were rapping the whole time. She was just looking
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: forward with this kind of dead stare. This woman looked
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: identical to Cassie Compton. People believe this could be her.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: This brought new life into rumors that Cassie could have
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: run away on her own.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: The video went viral.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: And people started posting about a missing person's case that
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: was solved by TikTok.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: The FBI Little Rock Office.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Confirmed that they were looking into who this mystery woman was,
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: but sadly, this was not Cassie. The woman was later
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: identified as Hailey Grace Phillips. She was a young woman
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: from Los Angeles who actually made her own video to
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: say she was not Cassie Compton. She said she'd recently
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: been mugged, that's why she had black eyes, but she
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: was fine and safe.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Another dead end.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Back to twenty nineteen, Caylea Lafferty is doing her podcast
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: called Timeline The Disappearance of Cassie Compton. She ended up
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: interviewing Brandon Rhodes at the Independence County Jail. By the way,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Kayla was not able to record the interview with Brandon,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: but she did record her thoughts immediately afterwards. She said
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: she asked Brandon what he thought had happened to Cassie.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: She said Brandon told her that he believed the text
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: that Cassie sent that text to her friend Hunter about
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: cigarettes with some kind of code. He believed that she
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: had been waiting for someone and that she got picked
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: up and never made it out of the driveway. Kayla
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: said that Brandon told her that Judy was sick and
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: that when Cassie came home from Hunter's house, he said
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: he was in the bedroom with Judy. So now he
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: seemed to be saying that he never saw Cassie. Now,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: this totally contradicts what Judy has said in the past
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: about Brandon being in the kitchen cooking, and it contradicts
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: what he himself has said in the past. He said
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: he saw Cassie, she came in, She was there for
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: a few minutes, and she left. By the way, that's
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: also a different story than Hunter tells, because remember Hunter
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: said that when he and Cassie pulled up, Brandon was
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: outside and saw Cassie going into the house. Cayla said, quote,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: he was talking about how people think he's a psychopath.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: He asked me what I think makes a psychopath. He
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: was going on and on about how it's pain that
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: creates a psychopath. I then asked him, are you a
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: sociopath or a psychopath? He was like, what, No, But
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: the whole time he was staring me dead in the eye,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: trying to intimidate me into believing he's a psychopath, I
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: think end quote. She also asked him about these very
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: strange murder for higher charges, and he told her a
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: version of what he told the police, that he was
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: paid a few hundred dollars, but that actually he was
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: just posing as a hitman and the reason he was
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: doing that was so that he could work under cover
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: and be sent to prison on purpose, so that he
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: could work on Cassie's case from the inside. Cayla also
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: said Brandon told her that a psychologist to diagnose him
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: with multiple personality disorder. So, in my opinion, interactions with
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: law enforcement and Brandon show a picture of someone who
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: is clearly disturbed and.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Does have some issues.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: But I want to go back to the court documents,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: and I want to go back to what the trained professional,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: the forensic examiner found, because the examiner who did a
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: clinical interview with Brandon found nothing like that. No mental
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: disease or defect, no depression or anxiety. They found Brandon
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: was competent to stand trial. No multiple personality disorder or
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: suicidal ideation. They did notice that Brandon's speech was low
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: volume and slow rate, but they said that did not
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: indicate any type of mental deficiency. On the contrary, they
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: found he had very good short term and long term memory.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Brandon said something to the examiner that I think is
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: very telling. He said, quote, I am a violent person,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: very volatile, but I know when I can or can't
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: be violent depending on situations. Here at the doctor's office
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: or court is not a situation where you can be
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: violent end quote. To me, this signifies that he understands
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: exactly what was going on. So what's next for Cassie's case.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Some people in Judy's family, including her son Chris, have
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: said they still believe that Brandon may have been involved.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: When Judy last talked to media, she said that she
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: no longer believes that Brandon could have harmed Cassie. Judy
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: has said, quote, he looked at her like his daughter,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: you know, and if he did, it would be shocking
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: to me.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: End quote. But based on Judy's.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Past some of these patterns, we can deduce that even
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: in the most generous and best case scenario, she is
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: not always the best judge of character. And we already
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: know that Brandon's a liar and by his own admissions,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: has some very disturbing thoughts and complicated feelings about women.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: So now we're left with this suspicion's behavior stories that
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: don't match. But as far as I know, no physical
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: evidence finding Cassie's remains would be a major break in
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: the case. I don't know how many of y'all remember
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: those topics threads. I know the site has been shut
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: down for a long time now, but people still have
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: screenshots from the old days where people were talking about
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: rumors on there. Some people have made the point that
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Brandon was into prepping and that.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: He would know where to hide a body. He actually said.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: In his police interview that he was very into prepping
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: and talked about that a lot. Maybe there's a clue
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: there somewhere. If Brandon did do something to Cassie, if
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: he did kill her, where would he put her body?
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: How would a prepper handle this situation? Did he use
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: his bike or could he have used Judy's car or
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: another vehicle that.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: We don't know about.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Brandon, who was always completely denied any involvement in Cassie's
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: diay appearance, is now out of prison. Brandon seems to
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: paint himself in his interviews as the victim of circumstances.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: But we're about to hear about the other side of
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Brandon Rhoades, this time from one of his victims. As usual,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: I found the answer I was looking for buried in
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: some otherwise boring court documents that, to my knowledge, no
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: one has ever talked about. In twenty twenty three, a
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: woman asked for an order of protection against Brandon. Now
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: this is public information, but out of respect and concern
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: for this victim, I'm not going to make her name public.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: I'm telling this story because I believe it is very
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: important and potentially very relevant. Here's what she wrote, in
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: her own words in twenty twenty three.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to read an excerpt here, not the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: whole thing.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: This victim said that Brandon has tackled her to the
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: floor multiple times, that he has called her names, that
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: he would scream at her, call her a bitch and
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: a cunt and a whore. She said he has sexually
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: assaulted her, that he has put her in a chokehold.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: She wrote quote, he has told me about his two
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: people inside his head, chaos and insanity, and has brought
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: them out to meet me and belittle me. Brandon told
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: me when we first got together that has ex abused
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: him and that he was getting in trouble for nothing.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: None of this was true.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Brandon has major anger issues. He's a time bomb. He
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: was arrested on domestic battery from his previous relationship where
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: he did the same things to her. I am scared
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: for my life if he gets out tomorrow and comes
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: to the apartment. I'm having neck and back and shoulder
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: and down into my arms searing.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Pain from the abuse.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I can provide documents and photos of bruises. He also
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: forced me to put my Facebook messenger in snapchat on
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: his phone. He has searched me online and paid for
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: it getting all my info. I am scared to death.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: When he gets out and finds out I'm doing all this,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: I'll be dead end quote. The order of protection was granted.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I have no desire to publicize someone's private life like this,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: but at the same time, I feel a responsibility to
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: this victim because this man is out there, and if
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: something does happen to this woman, I want the man
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: who's abusing her to know that a massive audience of
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: people know what is going on, and that these listeners
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: care about what's happening and will report it immediately to
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: law enforcement. Something that does jump out to me immediately
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: when I read this, other than the sheer horror of
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: this statement, is the fact that this woman said something
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: really interesting. She said Brandon forced her to have her
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: social media on his phone, that he stalked her social media,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: so we know that he's savvy with social media. I
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: wonder about that because we know that a few days
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: after Cassie went missing, her Facebook page was liking a
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: page on Facebook. I want to believe that Cassie Compton
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: ran away and it's somewhere her best life, and maybe
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: she is, But honestly, I don't think that's likely. Also
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: find myself thinking about that last text, the one that
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Cassie sent saying she was going out for cigarettes, and
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: wondering whether she really sent it at all. On September fourteenth,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, as the sun went down behind that small
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: house in rural Arkansas, what really happened that night? If
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: you have any information about Cassie Compton, please call the
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Stuttgart Police Department on eight seven oh sixty seven three
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: one four one four. An alternative number that they've given
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: one eight hundred eight four three five, six seven eight.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Music is contributed by Ben Sale.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: at our Helengon Murder Line at six seven eight seven
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: four four six one four five that's six seven eight
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: School of Humans,