0:00

What's up you guys? I'm Andrea. And

0:02

I'm Hailey. And

0:04

you're listening to In Human, a true

0:07

crime podcast. Hello,

0:12

hello, and welcome back.

0:14

Hello. Happy new week.

0:16

I would

0:18

say happy week.

0:21

Why do I do

0:32

that? Happy week. Happy new

0:34

week. Hope

0:37

everybody had a great weekend.

0:39

Like nice chill vibes. Yep.

0:42

And it's Valentine's Day week

0:44

slash Galentine slash love yourself.

0:46

I feel like I'm just

0:48

like, everybody's kind of like in

0:50

the mode of like Valentine's Day should just be about like,

0:54

love in general, whether that be for like

0:56

true a partner or friends or

0:59

family or yourself. So

1:01

in honor of that, we love you

1:03

guys. Yeah, we love you guys so much. Happy

1:05

Valentine to all of you. Yeah.

1:07

Yeah. And I'm actually going

1:09

to a Galentine's party tonight,

1:11

today's Saturday while we're recording this. And

1:13

my sister is throwing a little Galentine's

1:15

shindig. So I'm excited for that because your

1:18

girl needs a break. That

1:20

sounds like so much fun. And ever since you told

1:23

me that yesterday or a couple days ago, I was

1:25

like, I want to throw a Galentine's party. And then

1:27

I was like, there's no way I can do that

1:29

this year. But next year, I'm going

1:31

to do that. Yeah, if you were

1:33

closer, you could totally come with me. But I know

1:35

I'm just gonna hop on a plane real quick, fly

1:37

out there, come to the party,

1:39

fly back. See you later.

1:42

So funny. I

1:44

feel like that would be something that like our

1:46

group of friends would do, though, just like hop

1:48

on a plane real quick and like hang out

1:50

and then go back home. Oh, yeah, like Rob

1:53

comes home with the baby, my husband comes home

1:55

with the baby and I'm just gone at the

1:57

airport flying to South Carolina. It's like, what the

1:59

hell? It's fine. smoking the freezer you'll

2:01

be alright. Yeah. Alright,

2:04

well, all jokes aside, let's

2:06

go ahead and jump into today's case.

2:09

And I'm going to be

2:11

discussing the death of Alonzo

2:13

Brooks. I've never heard...

2:17

Well, I don't know, I feel like that

2:19

name does sound familiar, but... So,

2:22

his case was featured, and I will

2:24

talk just a little bit about that

2:27

later in the episode, but it was

2:29

featured on the new reboot of Unsolved

2:31

Mysteries on Netflix. And

2:34

I'd actually watched it, I guess back in

2:36

2020 when it came out, and then forgot

2:38

that I had consumed that.

2:41

And then when I was doing the research, I was,

2:43

you know, I always try to look for articles

2:46

and documentaries or whatever on cases.

2:50

And I was like, oh, I already watched this.

2:52

But I watched it again because I wanted to

2:54

see if there was any information that I

2:57

may have missed from other sources. Right.

3:01

And it is just a really awful

3:03

sad case. And I

3:05

just, first and foremost, I just feel

3:07

so much for his mother.

3:11

You know, as a mother, of course, we can

3:13

always resonate a little bit with that, but I

3:16

just... This has really, you

3:18

know, affected her. And even to this day,

3:20

she just... Because unfortunately, there's

3:22

no resolution, no closure. It's

3:25

unsolved. Yep, it is unsolved.

3:28

So his whole family, he was the

3:30

youngest of five children. So he was the baby of

3:33

the family. And it's just

3:35

such a sad, awful case.

3:38

But with all that being said, let's just get into it. Okay.

3:42

Alonzo Tyree Brooks came into the world on

3:44

May 19, 1980, to

3:47

proud parents Billy Brooks Sr.

3:49

and Maria Ramirez. As

3:53

the youngest of five children, Alonzo

3:55

was affectionately referred to as the

3:57

surprise baby by many family members.

4:00

due to the unexpectedness

4:02

of his arrival, which

4:05

I can kind of resonate with

4:07

that because my two

4:09

younger sisters were both surprise babies. So

4:11

which I was thankful for, they'll like

4:15

please let me not be a only child

4:17

anymore. Yeah, that's

4:20

so cute. I love that. Alonzo

4:22

and his siblings, Billy Jr.

4:24

Demetra. I think

4:26

it's Demetra. If I'm saying that wrong, I

4:29

apologize. Felicia and

4:32

Esperanza are biracial.

4:34

Their mom is Mexican and their

4:36

dad is black. And

4:38

the only reason I even mention that is because

4:40

it comes into play a little later in the

4:42

story. There

4:45

was a significant age gap between

4:47

Alonzo and his older siblings, so

4:50

his mother was especially protective of

4:52

her youngest son. Like

4:54

the baby of the family. Yeah,

4:56

like I mean,

4:58

of course I'm protective of both my sisters,

5:00

like, and their babies. There's

5:02

a significant age gap between us as well.

5:05

So I can understand that. Like I'm protective

5:07

and protective of my own kids too.

5:10

So all the way around, protective. Alonzo

5:14

was fondly described as a

5:16

well-mannered, good natured prankster who

5:18

had a deep love for

5:21

football, martial arts, and animals.

5:24

Yeah. I love the

5:27

martial arts aspect

5:29

of that because if you

5:31

guys didn't know, I did karate for 10

5:34

years and have a black belt. That's what

5:37

blows my mind every time I'm like, Haley's

5:39

a black. Sometimes it'll just hit me. I'll

5:41

be like, Haley's a black belt. Yeah, I

5:43

think because it's now been about 10 years

5:45

since I practiced it. Like I like forget

5:47

about it sometimes, but it was such a

5:49

huge part of my life for so long

5:52

that whenever I hear like somebody else is doing

5:54

like any type of martial arts or like if

5:56

a friend has their kid

5:58

like start martial arts. I'm like, oh yeah,

6:00

like heck yeah, this is awesome. Cause

6:03

yeah, I did like self-defense martial

6:06

arts, not like Taekwondo or anything.

6:09

Oh, okay. That's very awesome. Especially

6:11

as a woman. I know, I

6:13

feel like like my husband will ask me

6:15

like, do you think you'd remember anything, like any of the,

6:17

cause we had a lot of like moves that

6:20

were set together into

6:22

like techniques. And he's like, do you think you'd

6:24

remember any of those? And I was like, honestly,

6:26

no, but just the like fact that I knew

6:29

how, like learned how to punch and learned

6:32

how to like put them together.

6:35

Yeah, exactly. So anyway,

6:37

total side tangent, but I love

6:40

whenever somebody does martial arts because

6:42

it's such a big part of my life for so

6:44

long. That's awesome. So

6:46

go Alonso. Today

6:54

I want to talk about the hellscape that

6:56

is technical diagramming, right? Everybody's nodding their heads

6:58

right now. And there is

7:00

a potential solution that I want to share.

7:03

There was one name that several people brought

7:05

up. I did some digging and it's kind

7:07

of nuts how much this program Miro has

7:09

for developers. I have to share this. It

7:11

could potentially be a game changer for you.

7:14

So my favorite part about Miro is that

7:16

half the work is already done. Like right

7:18

now, typically we spend hours starting diagrams from

7:20

scratch, right? Gathering information, you get buy-in from

7:22

every team. Following up, that's

7:24

a lot of work to do, but

7:26

Miro has a full set of integrations

7:28

with the tools you're probably already using.

7:30

And they also offer open APIs and

7:33

SDKs for custom solutions for all those

7:35

niche diagramming use cases we have to

7:37

do, right? So the

7:39

end result is the same, but it

7:41

doesn't take forever. It's a massive, massive

7:43

time-saver. I'm transforming basic flow charts and

7:45

network architectures, and it all lives in

7:48

one place. So are you using

7:50

Miro? Have you used it? I want to hear.

8:00

When Alonzo who was often referred to

8:02

as though so he kind of went

8:04

back to little nicknames sometimes like Lonzo

8:07

and so okay my

8:09

friends and family But

8:12

when he was growing up He would frequently

8:14

become upset when his older siblings went out

8:16

and he couldn't join them due to the

8:18

difference in age Oh Which

8:21

I can also relate to even though I'm

8:23

the older siblings Like when my siblings were

8:26

like teenagers and stuff and they were like

8:28

going to parties and dances I was like,

8:31

why do you guys wait so long to have kids? Yeah

8:34

Especially when it's like your siblings going

8:36

out and doing stuff You're like, you

8:38

know You want to be with them

8:40

and the fact that he was so much

8:42

younger and like couldn't I'm sure for him

8:45

Oh, yeah for sure So

8:47

after Alonzo's parents divorced kind of unclear

8:50

the time frame on that but they

8:52

did sadly divorce He initially

8:54

lived and worked in Topeka, Kansas with

8:56

his father But then in

8:59

his early 20s, he moved to his mother's

9:01

and Gardner, Kansas Okay

9:04

Unlike many Alonzo wasn't one for going

9:06

out instead He preferred staying home and

9:08

appreciated those special moments with his family,

9:10

especially his nieces and nephews So he

9:13

was really close with his siblings and

9:15

his nieces and nephews and love just

9:17

like spending time hanging out babysitting

9:20

whatever the case may be But

9:24

on April 3rd 2004 Alonzo

9:27

decided to attend a party with a few

9:29

friends Justin Sprague Daniel

9:32

Fune and Tyler Broguard

9:34

and they went to

9:36

Lacing which is approximately an

9:38

hour away from where Alonzo

9:41

lived Okay So

9:44

this little party was being held at

9:46

a farmhouse situated in

9:48

a particularly remote area just

9:50

outside of town and Maria

9:53

Alonzo's mother recounted in an interview

9:56

with Dateline that she still to

9:58

this day has vivid elections

10:00

of that evening. She

10:03

described it as a brisk night and

10:05

remembered Alonzo getting ready for the party.

10:09

According to Maria, Alonzo informed her that

10:11

the party was a send-off to

10:13

someone who was joining the Navy

10:16

and she told him before he left that

10:18

he should dress warmly, that she

10:20

loved him, and that she would see him later that

10:22

night. According

10:25

to Alonzo's friends who were interviewed later,

10:27

as they arrived

10:29

at the farmhouse they immediately

10:31

noticed the large crowd congregating

10:33

outside. Upon entering they

10:35

observed numerous groups of people engaged in

10:38

drinking games such as Flip Cup and

10:41

Alonzo was excited to join in.

10:43

He appeared to be enjoying himself.

10:46

Okay another tangent Flip Cup

10:48

is the same thing as...

10:50

oh my

10:53

god why am I blinking? Rage

10:55

Cage right? Never heard it called Rage Cage

10:57

but... Well I think it

10:59

depends where you live. Yeah we call

11:02

it Flip Cup down here in

11:04

La Salle but I know

11:06

there's like other games other drinking games especially

11:08

that have different names depending on where you

11:11

live so yeah that makes sense that it

11:13

might be called something like Out Where

11:15

You Live or like when you're in college? No

11:18

I think where I... well we play Rage

11:20

Cage here but now I'm thinking maybe that's not the

11:22

same game? I can't

11:24

remember honestly but I feel like...

11:26

Flip Cup is where you flip the cup and

11:28

then when it lands on its like right side

11:31

up then you drink and then the next person

11:33

goes. Okay now that's not Rage Cage. Rage

11:35

Cage is where you bounce the

11:37

ball into like from...

11:40

you Rage Cage is where you bounce the ball and then

11:42

you can like oh that's what it is.

11:44

Rage Cage is the same thing as Stack Cup. Some people

11:46

call it Stack Cup. Okay yeah yeah yeah. So

11:49

never mind. Flip Cup is just Flip Cup but

11:51

yeah it is... when you

11:53

play there's certain games that like are

11:55

called different things or like in college

11:57

we called a daytime party

11:59

a a dartie, but my sister

12:02

in college in California called it

12:04

a danger. Oh,

12:06

like a day rager. Day rager. So that

12:08

was like something. Anyway, total

12:11

side tangent, but that's funny. So

12:15

it's reported that his friends

12:17

were kind of taken aback

12:19

by his uncharacteristically outgoing and

12:21

energetic energetic behavior that evening,

12:24

because Alonzo was typically more

12:27

quiet, more reserved. So

12:30

he was kind of like, woo, ready to

12:32

rage. You know, like, let's have a good

12:34

time. Like, let's get some drinks. And

12:37

that wasn't like him. And that wasn't like

12:39

him. No, but he also like never partied

12:41

either, really. So, you know,

12:43

when you're in certain environments, like it just kind of brings

12:45

out that side of you. Yeah, maybe

12:47

he was just like excited to finally be

12:49

like letting loose. Yeah. So

12:52

most of the people at the

12:54

party, they didn't know like their group

12:56

of friends. And it seemed like a

12:58

pretty tight knit group. So

13:01

right there, that kind of

13:03

to me feels a little problematic.

13:06

Because I know I've been to parties where I

13:08

didn't really know anyone. And like my group of

13:10

friends just kind of randomly showed up to like

13:12

crash the party or whatever. And people were like

13:14

giving us the side eye and the stank eye

13:17

and all that stuff. So that's

13:19

what that's the vibe I'm feeling from this. Okay,

13:23

got it. And it was initially supposed to

13:25

be just kind of like a low key

13:27

party, but there ended up being about 100

13:29

people in attendance. Whoa. And

13:33

it was quickly evident that Alonzo

13:35

stood out as one of the

13:37

few if not the only black

13:40

guest. Wow, okay. Yeah. Most

13:45

of the partygoers were 16 to 20 years old. So

13:48

you can imagine there was also a lot

13:50

of underage drinking going on. At

13:55

a certain point during the evening,

13:57

Alonzo and another individual engaged in

13:59

a heated altercation apparently

14:01

stemming from a dispute over a

14:04

girl. I saw it reported

14:06

as different things and different sources but

14:08

it kind of seemed like maybe Alonzo

14:10

was just casually talking

14:13

to a girl and her

14:15

boyfriend, significant other interests, whatever kind

14:17

of got jealous and okay. Okay.

14:23

Reportedly offensive and racist

14:25

language was exchanged prompting

14:28

one of Alonzo's friends to step in

14:30

to try and diffuse the situation before

14:32

it escalated further. Soon

14:35

thereafter his friends Daniel and

14:38

Tyler learned about another party and

14:40

around 11 p.m. they left for

14:42

that party. So but

14:44

he's still at the party. He's still at

14:46

the party and his other friend that he

14:48

came with Justin were still

14:50

at the party. So they're

14:53

both at this party but they're occupied

14:56

with their own activities, they're doing their own

14:58

thing, they're not really interacting much which also is

15:00

kind of normal for a party like depending

15:03

on how comfortable you are but

15:06

this is the the recollection from

15:08

Justin. Okay. He also

15:10

reported Justin that at some

15:12

point in the night he and Alonzo

15:14

were both out of cigarettes so

15:17

he set out to purchase some for the

15:19

both of them. Okay so now Alonzo is

15:21

the only one from the original group at

15:23

the party. Yeah. Okay. Yes. According

15:26

to Justin he inadvertently took

15:29

several wrong turns as he

15:31

was unfamiliar with the area

15:33

and became lost. After

15:37

a period of time Justin contacted a friend

15:39

named Adam and asked

15:41

if he could give

15:43

Alonzo a ride home to

15:45

which Adam agreed. Later

15:48

Adam informed Justin that he was

15:50

unable to locate Alonzo and he

15:53

eventually left the party assuming that

15:55

Alonzo had found another ride home.

15:57

And it's interesting because

16:00

in a couple of the sources

16:02

it said that Justin just

16:04

went home after this but

16:06

in a couple of the other sources

16:08

it says that he went

16:11

to a strip club with

16:14

some other friends and they actually got

16:16

kicked out of the strip club allegedly

16:18

so I don't really know what the

16:20

real story is for that but if

16:23

he ended up not going home I don't know that's

16:25

just a little suspicious in my opinion yeah especially

16:27

because like the friends that he went

16:29

to the party with were all not

16:32

there so like who did he go with not that

16:34

he didn't have other friends but like I

16:36

don't know that's just right makes

16:38

me nervous yeah yeah according

16:43

to Alonzo's childhood friend Rodney

16:46

English it was

16:48

alleged that Justin's story has never

16:50

remained consistent through the years of

16:52

interviews with law enforcement Alonzo's

16:55

mother Maria stated that Justin

16:57

quote changed his story six

17:00

times concerning the night of

17:02

the party and Rodney was

17:04

deeply insulted by the numerous

17:06

revisions in his claims so I don't

17:10

really know I haven't I saw

17:12

so I saw in the episode of

17:15

unsolved mysteries you know

17:17

him recounting what happened that night and I've

17:19

seen a couple of quotes and articles and

17:21

those were kind of consistent with

17:23

each other there might have been just like

17:25

one tiny detail so I'm not exactly sure

17:27

what the different claims were over the the

17:31

course of the the course of

17:33

several years that he was interviewed and

17:35

it's also reported that he was allegedly

17:37

under the influence of both alcohol and

17:39

marijuana that night so maybe he doesn't

17:41

even have a clear memory of everything

17:43

right now explain why it's changed

17:47

multiple times if right

17:49

yeah but I just wanted to

17:52

mention it because obviously his family

17:54

his friends are pretty upset that

17:58

this has happened and that they don't

18:00

have a clear idea from

18:02

friends because they left him

18:04

at the party, you know? Yeah,

18:07

yeah, that's understandable. Problem, yeah.

18:10

So the following day, after the party, Maria

18:13

awoke to a flurry of calls from Alonzo's

18:15

friends, all trying to determine if he had

18:17

made it home that night. He

18:20

hadn't. Worrying

18:23

Maria reached out to various family members

18:25

and close friends, yet none of them

18:27

had any news of Alonzo. Maria

18:31

called authorities to report her son missing, only

18:33

to be told she had to wait 48

18:37

hours. Refusing to accept this,

18:39

she insisted on filing the

18:41

report immediately, firmly stating that

18:43

she knew her son, and

18:46

this was highly uncharacteristic of

18:48

him. Her

18:51

conviction was supported by Alonzo's siblings,

18:53

who reiterated that he always returned

18:55

home, being a true homebody who

18:57

cherished his own bed for a

18:59

good night's sleep. Yeah,

19:01

I mean, it definitely, from

19:03

everything you've said about him, it doesn't

19:05

make sense that he would not

19:08

go home. Perfectly. Yeah,

19:10

exactly. Yeah, yeah. The

19:15

day after the party, the Brooks

19:17

family and Alonzo's friend Rodney traveled

19:19

to Leising to look for Alonzo.

19:23

They reached out to the Linn County Police Department

19:25

as well to notify them as to what was

19:27

going on. One

19:29

of the initial observations they made during

19:32

their search was the

19:34

emptiness of the farmhouse where this

19:37

rowdy party had occurred the previous night.

19:41

To their surprise, there was no furniture,

19:44

no trash, or any signs

19:46

of occupancy at all. And

19:49

how long after is this? The

19:52

next evening. So, less than 24

19:54

hours? Not even 24 hours,

19:56

yep. Hmm. Later,

19:59

they were... would discover that the property

20:01

was a rental. And that kind

20:03

of led me to speculate whether the person

20:06

who threw the party perhaps illegally

20:09

gained injury to the home and hosted

20:11

the event without the consent of the

20:13

property owners. Yeah, and then cleaned up

20:15

real quick. Yeah, which I feel like

20:18

is like, I'm not

20:20

going to say it's like a normal thing

20:22

in the country or out in the more

20:24

rural areas of town. But

20:26

I feel like it's easier to get

20:28

away with something like that. Yeah, and

20:30

it definitely happens. Or like, yeah, or

20:33

like if somebody threw it, like threw

20:35

a party at their parents' house, and their parents

20:37

didn't know. And like, you had to clean up

20:39

real quick before they get home the next day.

20:41

Like, that could explain that. But

20:43

it is still very odd. Just

20:47

very odd, yeah. And the fact that his friends

20:49

didn't mention that there was like no furniture or

20:52

like anything in the house. I

20:54

mean, obviously they were playing flip cup on what?

20:57

Right. Yeah. Yeah. It

20:59

was just odd to me. But as

21:02

they continued their search, they

21:04

came across Alonzo's boot and

21:06

hat, which were situated across the

21:08

street from where the party had taken place. Shortly

21:12

after, they found his other boot. And

21:16

I'll share a picture of this

21:18

because they were not in close

21:20

proximity to one another. That's

21:24

suspicious. Yeah.

21:28

As they continued to canvas the area,

21:31

an unidentified individual on a

21:33

four-wheeler confronted them and insisted

21:36

that they leave. So

21:40

this is a

21:42

large property, like lots

21:44

of acreage, super

21:46

long driveway from the road to the

21:48

house. The house is situated way off

21:50

the road. So it

21:52

would be, in my opinion, if somebody

21:54

was watching or somebody was close by, pretty

21:57

obvious that there was a group of people.

22:00

searching on this property without, quote unquote,

22:02

without permission. Because they just went to

22:04

look for him, which I don't blame

22:06

them. But somebody

22:08

was watching, and they went out and

22:10

told them to leave, which is fair

22:14

if that's your property. Or it's private property.

22:16

Yeah. But

22:18

they were still frustrating because they're just trying to find

22:20

a loved one. And especially his

22:23

boots being found. Exactly.

22:25

Yeah. So I would be

22:27

like, ah, what if he's

22:29

right there and we're just not there yet?

22:31

You know? Yeah. Oh. Yeah.

22:35

They promptly reported their encounter and

22:38

their discoveries to law enforcement. And

22:40

surprisingly, it did prompt an extensive search

22:43

of the area by police.

22:45

And they did both ground and

22:47

air searches. However,

22:50

no further trace of Alonzo was found.

22:53

Despite what seemed like thorough

22:56

search efforts by the local

22:58

police, and eventually Kansas State

23:00

investigators in the following days,

23:02

Alonzo remained missing. And

23:06

like you said, what if he was just somewhere there?

23:09

And by the time official

23:11

searches happened, he was gone.

23:14

Right. I mean, from what

23:16

I gathered, they searched the area for a

23:18

good little while because it was starting to

23:20

get dark. So if they got there in

23:22

the evening and it was starting to get

23:24

dark, they probably had a couple of hours

23:26

maybe. Yeah. An hour

23:28

to two hours of search. So

23:30

they did get a good canvassing

23:34

of the area. But

23:36

like I said, it was huge. But

23:39

you said it was a big property. So they didn't get

23:41

to search every corner. OK. And

23:44

then Alonzo's family was notified

23:46

that they were not to

23:49

continue searching for him on the property, which

23:52

understandably frustrated them and left them

23:54

feeling defeated and hopeless. So

23:57

police say. basically

24:00

were like, we have done the search. He's

24:02

not there. You are not

24:05

allowed to search for him either.

24:07

So. Wow. Okay. But

24:10

they were just like, how could he just

24:12

vanish vanish into thin air? Especially

24:14

with his boots being there. Like, yeah,

24:18

I clearly something happened. Yeah,

24:20

either he, in my

24:23

mind, was running and

24:26

lost his boots as he was

24:28

running. Yeah. And his hat

24:31

or somebody tossed them. Hmm.

24:34

Okay. After

24:36

damn near a month

24:39

of extensive, quote unquote searches conducted

24:41

by low, both local and state

24:43

departments, Alonzo's family

24:45

was finally at last

24:48

granted permission to conduct their own

24:50

search of the surrounding property. On

25:07

the very first day of this new

25:09

search, Alonzo's body

25:11

was discovered. He

25:14

was found partially resting on a

25:16

pile of brush and branches in the

25:19

creek that was nearby, approximately

25:23

250 feet from the farmhouse. Oh

25:26

my God. So was

25:28

he there the whole time? I don't

25:31

think he was. I mean,

25:33

the fact that they like searched

25:36

and he was only that far from

25:38

the farmhouse, like, yeah, I'll show I'll

25:40

share a picture of the overview of

25:42

that too, where you can see the

25:45

farmhouse and then see the creek that

25:47

kind of runs. It's

25:49

not exactly like adjacent, but

25:51

it's part of it is

25:53

and then it kind of curves off to the what

25:56

left or whatever. Right.

25:58

But it's like, if they

26:00

searched, law enforcement searched.

26:03

In my humble opinion, there's

26:05

no way that they overlooked his

26:07

body being there. No, no.

26:11

Even though it's like kind of separated and

26:13

not like right there, that's not far. Yeah,

26:16

250 feet. And of course they're

26:18

going to look around the house

26:20

first. Right. And then kind of

26:22

slowly disperse outward. Right. Oh

26:25

my God. Alonzo was fully

26:28

clothed and there were no visible signs

26:30

of trauma on his body. Like

26:35

I just said, the question that

26:37

arose was how his body could

26:39

have been overlooked during the extensive

26:41

searches conducted over the past month. It

26:45

just doesn't add up to me. No.

26:50

The official autopsy could not determine a

26:52

cause of death. Oh. The

26:54

postmortem examination revealed that Alonzo did

26:56

not have any broken bones, signs

26:59

of blunt force trauma or injury.

27:03

There were also no biological signs of

27:05

drowning in his lungs. Okay.

27:09

Investigators remain unable to gain a clear

27:11

picture of what took place at

27:14

the party, even after speaking with

27:16

his friends who had also been there. And

27:19

regrettably, Alonzo's case goes cold.

27:23

At some point between 2004 and 2019, it's

27:26

unclear exactly when this

27:28

took place, local

27:30

and state law enforcement passed Alonzo's

27:32

case to the FBI. Okay.

27:37

In 2019, the FBI made

27:39

the decision to reopen his

27:41

case, expressing their concern that

27:43

Alonzo died under highly suspicious

27:45

circumstances. This

27:48

led to a comprehensive review of the evidence

27:50

spanning back 16 years. Wow.

27:53

They initiated re-interviews with numerous witnesses

27:55

who had been present at the

27:58

party where Alonzo was last seen.

28:00

seen alive. They also gathered

28:02

statements from new witnesses

28:04

and reviewed all accessible

28:06

physical and forensic evidence.

28:10

On June 11th, 2020, the FBI made

28:13

a public announcement regarding a $100,000 reward

28:16

seeking information that could

28:18

potentially lead to the

28:21

arrest, prosecution, or

28:23

conviction related to Alonzo's case.

28:27

In the following month of July,

28:30

Alonzo's body was exhumed and the

28:32

FBI revealed their intent to investigate

28:34

his death as a potentially racially

28:38

motivated hate crime. Wow.

28:41

My God. Yeah.

28:44

So whatever evidence that they gathered, there's

28:47

something other led them to this.

28:50

Wow. Okay. Yeah.

28:53

Nearly nine months after these developments on April

28:55

5th, 2021, an update was

28:58

disclosed by the FBI.

29:01

They released a statement announcing

29:03

the outcomes of a new

29:06

autopsy, which was conducted

29:08

at the Dover Air Force

29:10

Base in Delaware. This autopsy

29:12

revealed that Alonzo's cause of

29:15

death was homicide and

29:18

that his body had injuries inconsistent

29:20

with normal patterns of

29:23

decomposition. Okay. The

29:26

acting attorney general for the district

29:28

of Kansas stated in a press

29:30

conference quote, we knew that

29:32

Alonzo Brooks died under very suspicious

29:34

circumstances. This new examination

29:37

by a team of the world's

29:39

best forensic pathologists and experts establishes

29:42

it was no accident. Alonzo

29:45

Brooks was killed. We

29:48

are doing everything we can and

29:50

will spare no resources to bring

29:52

those responsible to justice, which

29:55

is like, hell yeah. Like I'm

29:57

so fucking thankful that somebody is. doing

30:00

this even though it's a

30:02

little late but you know we accept

30:04

it and that they're saying he was

30:06

killed so whatever there's

30:08

evidence showing that because you don't just

30:11

say that like if there's no

30:13

evidence so there's evidence showing he was killed

30:15

which means there might be evidence that

30:17

could lead to his killer exactly

30:20

so there are

30:24

several theories into what people

30:26

think happened to Alonzo and

30:28

obviously we don't know the

30:30

full you know realm

30:32

of what the FBI gathered when they

30:34

conducted this new autopsy but based on

30:37

the fact that his injuries

30:42

were inconsistent with normal

30:45

patterns of decomposition most

30:47

people feel like

30:50

he was kept in some sort

30:52

of freezer until

30:55

being dumped because like we

30:57

said before there's no possible

30:59

way that he was missed during the

31:02

searches and yeah son boom there he

31:04

is yeah there's no way or brother

31:06

finds him you know yeah

31:09

so a lot of

31:12

people theorize that maybe

31:14

he was under the

31:16

influence of something or even unconscious

31:18

maybe like you said from alcohol

31:20

poisoning and left

31:23

in the freezer to die which

31:25

could explain why the initial autopsy was

31:27

inconclusive and a true cause of death

31:29

cannot be determined at that time Wow

31:34

another theory allegedly let

31:37

me just say that first and foremost was

31:40

that Alonzo's friends took

31:42

him to that empty farmhouse and

31:45

murdered him now we

31:48

don't have a motive for why this could

31:50

be but it is

31:52

suspicious to a

31:54

lot of people that they

31:57

brought him to a party and then left him

31:59

there knowing that that he was being called

32:01

the N word, that he had altercations with

32:03

people because of his skin color. It just

32:07

doesn't make sense that these people were his

32:09

true friends, why they would just abandon

32:11

him, essentially. I agree. But I

32:14

don't think that they took

32:16

him somewhere and murdered him. Yeah.

32:20

Like, I agree, they shouldn't have left

32:22

him there. But

32:25

I also am hesitant to say

32:27

that it's super suspicious. Like, I

32:30

don't think they did it out

32:32

of like, with like, malintent. Yeah.

32:35

I think they were just drinking and figured

32:37

like, he's around other people

32:39

or yeah, like, you

32:42

know, people make poor decisions when they are

32:45

under the influence. And so I don't think that

32:47

they were like, we're gonna leave him here

32:49

so he can get hurt. Right. No,

32:52

yeah. I don't lean towards

32:54

this theory either. I lean more

32:56

towards the him being

32:58

kept somewhere. Like,

33:01

that just makes more sense that he

33:03

was taken somewhere, even if

33:06

he died accidentally because of

33:08

alcohol poisoning or like

33:10

drugs or something. He

33:12

was clearly like somewhere

33:14

and then moved. Right.

33:17

Which means somebody did

33:19

something and needs

33:22

to be held responsible. Yeah, because that's

33:24

illegal too. I mean, just doing that is illegal

33:26

in and of itself. Yeah. And

33:28

and I don't believe that he like,

33:32

I don't believe that there was no foul

33:35

play involved. Right. And I mean, pretty much

33:37

the FBI has confirmed that, you know, he

33:39

was murdered, he was killed. Yeah. So whatever

33:41

that is, there's some sort of evidence showing

33:43

like, somebody did something

33:45

purposefully to him. Right.

33:49

And another theory is that

33:51

whoever did this potentially

33:54

had connections to law enforcement, so

33:56

it'd be easier to evade police

33:59

or an investigation. and that they could

34:02

hide, they could cover it

34:04

up basically. Again.

34:07

And then that's why like years went by before

34:10

it was like passed on to the FBI. Yeah.

34:13

So again, these are all theories, these

34:16

are all alleged. There's no evidence to

34:18

support any of them necessarily aside from

34:20

it just being

34:23

unusual that he didn't have

34:26

normal decomposition to be left

34:28

in a field for a month. Right.

34:32

In April. Right. But yeah,

34:34

I definitely think somebody did something

34:36

to him and

34:39

then held him until like a bunch

34:41

of the searches had happened and they

34:43

thought that he wouldn't be found and

34:46

then put him in the field so that

34:49

he could decompose and then that

34:51

search happened and he

34:53

was found. Yeah. That's my theory.

34:56

Yeah. I think so too. Breaks

34:59

my heart that his family just like doesn't

35:01

have answers, but at least it does seem

35:04

like, you know, the FBI is working

35:07

on it and. Absolutely.

35:09

They're driven for sure.

35:12

Just the fact that they've come out and

35:14

said like he was killed proves

35:16

that there's some sort of evidence that we

35:18

don't know about that hopefully means one

35:21

day there will be answers because there's probably

35:23

more that we don't know about. Right.

35:27

As I previously mentioned

35:29

in 2020 Unsolved Mysteries

35:32

featured Alonzo's case on

35:34

an episode titled, No

35:36

Ride Home, which is like so

35:39

sad and heartbreaking because that's exactly what

35:41

happened. He had no ride home and

35:43

then this horrible thing happened.

35:46

Yeah. But Silver

35:48

Lining since that airing Unsolved

35:51

Mysteries has received thousands of

35:53

tips in his case. Okay,

35:56

well that's good. At least it's getting

35:58

attention. Right. Those

36:01

that seem credible have been passed along

36:03

to the FBI and explored further. Alonzo's

36:06

case has received the most tips out

36:08

of all the cases on the show.

36:11

Wow. Which is amazing. Yeah. But

36:15

despite the fresh interest in Alonzo's case,

36:17

there are still no answers as to

36:19

what happened to him nearly 20 years

36:22

later. Knowing

36:24

who and why someone

36:26

may have committed this horrific crime.

36:30

Anyone with any information is encouraged to call

36:32

the FBI at 816-512-8200 or 816-474-TIPS. Or

36:43

you can submit a tip online

36:45

at fbi.tips.gov. And I will have

36:47

all of that linked in the

36:49

show notes. Because

36:52

if you know something, say something.

36:55

You can be anonymous.

36:58

Exactly. Like you

37:01

are holding this family back

37:03

from getting closure that they

37:05

so desperately need and deserve.

37:09

And especially if you were not

37:11

involved and you just hold the information,

37:13

like do the right thing. Clear your

37:15

conscience, come forward and do

37:17

the right thing. Truly.

37:22

But that is all I have for

37:24

you guys today on the death of

37:26

Alonzo Brooks. That's so sad. Again, I

37:29

just feel so much for his mother,

37:31

especially in his family, his siblings. To

37:34

lose their baby brother this way is just

37:37

unfathomable. I really hope

37:39

that there are going to be answers.

37:41

And it does seem like, you know, if

37:44

there are answers to be found, they're

37:46

working on it. And

37:48

so I think it'll happen. I just hope it's sooner

37:50

rather than later. I do too.

37:53

I think that the FBI is on the cusp

37:55

of solving this case. But

37:58

thank you guys so much for listening. have a

38:00

brand new case for y'all later this week and

38:02

until then keep it human. Bye

38:05

guys.