0:00

April 3rd, 2004. Lassine,

0:04

Kansas. 23-year-old

0:07

Alonzo Brooks vanishes while attending a

0:09

party at a farmhouse, and his body

0:11

is discovered on the banks of a nearby creek

0:13

nearly one month later.

0:15

While a forensic pathologist is unable to determine

0:17

Alonzo's exact cause of death,

0:19

rumors start circulating that he was the victim

0:21

of a hate crime before his body was placed

0:24

at that location.

0:25

In 2021,

0:27

after Alonzo's body is exhumed and given

0:29

a new autopsy,

0:30

it is announced that his death has officially been

0:33

reclassified as a homicide, but

0:35

there's still no conclusive answers about how

0:37

he was killed. After that, the

0:39

trail went cold.

0:55

Hello everyone,

0:58

and welcome

1:01

to our latest episode

1:04

of The Trail Went

1:06

Cold. I'm your host,

1:21

Robin Warder, and this

1:24

week we're going to be exploring a highly

1:26

requested case which is featured on the Netflix

1:28

reboot of Unsolved Mysteries,

1:30

the 2004 unexplained death

1:32

of Alonzo Brooks. Or,

1:35

I guess we can now officially call it the

1:37

murder of Alonzo Brooks.

1:39

This is a story of a young man who went missing

1:41

after attending a party at a farmhouse

1:43

in rural Kansas before his body

1:46

was discovered on the banks of a nearby creek

1:48

nearly one month later.

1:50

While Alonzo's exact cause of death could

1:52

not be determined, there was no direct evidence

1:54

of foul play,

1:56

but since Alonzo was one of the only persons

1:58

of color attending a party in the county, Alonzo was a very good a predominantly

2:00

white area, the authorities did explore

2:03

the possibility that he was the victim of a hate

2:05

crime. There was also some controversy

2:08

over the fact that the area where Alonzo's body

2:10

was found had been extensively searched

2:12

during the 27-day period he was missing,

2:15

leading to speculation that someone planted

2:17

his body there at a later time. It's

2:20

now been nearly three years since the Unsolved

2:22

Mysteries Netflix reboot was launched, and

2:25

a number of their episodes have featured cases

2:27

where a victim's death was officially ruled to be suicide

2:30

or an accident,

2:31

but their loved ones were certain that they had been murdered

2:33

and were seeking justice. But

2:35

one of the biggest criticisms the series has

2:37

received is that it has often twisted

2:39

their narratives and left out key

2:42

details about these stories which do

2:44

point towards the deaths being suicide or

2:46

an accident after all. However,

2:49

the Alonzo Brooks case may be the exception

2:51

to this, because shortly after the Unsolved

2:53

Mysteries episode aired, his body

2:55

was exhumed for a new autopsy and

2:58

new evidence was uncovered which led to the authorities

3:00

officially reclassifying his death as

3:02

a homicide. Of course, this

3:05

took place just over two years ago, and

3:07

there have not been any new developments in the investigation

3:09

since then,

3:10

but at the very least, we now know that

3:12

there is an actual crime to solve and

3:14

a perpetrator or perpetrators to bring

3:17

to justice.

3:18

The details of how Alonzo was killed and

3:21

how his body wound up on the banks of that creek

3:23

are still unclear, so we're going to have

3:25

a lot to analyze on this episode. However,

3:28

before we get started, just a quick reminder that

3:30

The Trail Went Cold is a weekly podcast

3:32

which is currently available for download on several

3:35

platforms, including Apple Podcasts,

3:37

Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

3:40

So if you like this podcast, be sure to subscribe

3:42

to it, and please leave us a rating or

3:44

review on any of those sites to help

3:46

spread the word.

3:48

The Trail Went Cold is on Patreon, so

3:50

if you would like to learn how to support the show, please

3:52

visit our page at patreon.com

3:55

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3:56

For as little as $1 a month, you

3:59

can garner access.

3:59

to exclusive rewards, including

4:02

stickers and thank you cards, early accessed

4:04

episodes, and bonus content.

4:07

So with all that out of the way, let us now explore

4:09

the death of Alonzo Brooks. Our

4:35

story begins in Kansas in 2004 and

4:37

our central figure is 23-year-old

4:39

Alonzo Brooks. Alonzo

4:42

was originally born in Topeka to an African-American

4:44

father, Billy Brooks Sr., and

4:46

a Mexican mother, Maria Ramirez.

4:49

He was the youngest of their five children and

4:51

described as being a quote-unquote surprise

4:54

baby since he was born many years

4:56

after his brother and three sisters.

4:58

At some point, Billy Sr. and

5:00

Maria got divorced and she got remarried

5:03

and moved to the town of Gardiner. While

5:05

Alonzo remained in Topeka and worked with his

5:08

father until he was in his early 20s, he

5:10

ultimately decided to relocate to Gardiner

5:12

and move in with his mother and got a job

5:14

as a custodian for his stepfather's janitorial

5:17

company.

5:18

Alonzo was always described as a homebody

5:21

who loved spending time with his family, but

5:23

while he was a bit shy, he was also

5:25

known for being a very nice person who got

5:27

along with everyone and never caused any

5:29

trouble.

5:30

On the evening of April 3, Alonzo

5:33

and his circle of friends made plans to attend a

5:35

party, as one of them was leaving to join

5:37

the military and they wanted to celebrate

5:39

his departure.

5:41

The party would take place at a rural farmhouse

5:43

on Highway K-152 just outside Lecinne, a small

5:47

town located in Lynn County with a

5:49

population of around 1,100 people.

5:52

Lecinne is 47 miles south of Gardiner,

5:55

so the group of friends would travel to the party in separate

5:58

vehicles and

5:59

since Alonzo did not He hitched

6:01

a ride with a friend named Justin Sprague. Before

6:04

he left, Alonzo told his mother that he

6:06

would return home later that night, but

6:08

this would turn out to be the last time she ever saw

6:11

him alive.

6:12

When Alonzo and his friends arrived at the farmhouse

6:14

for the party, they

6:15

apparently thought it would only be a small gathering,

6:18

but throughout the course of the evening, it's believed

6:20

that upwards of 100 people showed up and trickled

6:23

through there.

6:24

The attendees appeared to be between the ages

6:26

of 16 and 25, and while

6:28

Alonzo and his friends recognized a few of them from

6:30

Gardner, they did not know most of the people

6:33

there. Regardless, everyone

6:35

described Alonzo as being more outgoing than

6:38

usual at the party, as he drank a lot of alcohol

6:41

and appeared to be having a great time.

6:43

However, one of Alonzo's friends, Daniel

6:45

Fuhnd, would

6:46

later describe an incident in which he noticed

6:48

that Alonzo had gotten into an argument with

6:50

another party goer until Daniel intervened

6:53

and pulled Alonzo away before the confrontation

6:55

could get physical. When

6:57

the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, Daniel

7:00

and another friend of Alonzo's named Tyler Bocard

7:03

agreed to be interviewed. They both

7:05

discussed leaving the party at different points throughout

7:07

the night and saying goodbye to Alonzo, but

7:09

said there was nothing out of the ordinary when they last

7:11

saw him.

7:13

Alonzo was supposed to get a ride home with Justin

7:15

Sprague, but when the two friends both ran out

7:17

of cigarettes, Justin offered to step

7:19

out and drive somewhere in order to buy some. There's

7:22

been a lot of dispute about what happened next,

7:25

and I'm going to discuss this in more detail later

7:27

on in the episode, but for now, here's

7:30

the version of events that Justin shared during

7:32

his interview on Unsolved Mysteries.

7:34

According to Justin, after he drove

7:36

away from the farmhouse, he took a wrong

7:38

turn on some gravel roads and got lost

7:41

until he wound up getting his car stuck about 30

7:44

minutes away from Lassine.

7:46

Since Justin did not want to go to the trouble of finding

7:48

his way back to the farmhouse, he used

7:50

his cell phone to call another friend of his at the

7:52

party named Adam.

7:55

Justin wanted Adam to tell Alonzo that

7:57

he had gotten lost, and Justin said that he could

7:59

even hear a lot of people's voices. Lonzo joking about

8:01

it in the background.

8:02

Justin said that Adam promised him he would give Lonzo

8:05

a ride home, but for reasons that are

8:07

still not entirely clear, this never took

8:09

place. It

8:11

seems like Alonzo and Adam lost track

8:13

of each other, or there may have been a miscommunication

8:15

of some sort, but Adam wound up

8:17

leaving without him. Media

8:20

outlets at the time reported that a fight took place

8:22

at the party sometime between 2 and 3 a.m.

8:25

on the morning of April the 4th, though

8:27

it could not be confirmed if Alonzo

8:29

was involved in it.

8:31

They also reported that the last time Alonzo

8:33

was seen was at around 3 or 4 a.m.,

8:36

but what actually happened to him would become a

8:38

major unsolved mystery.

8:40

Later that morning,

8:41

one of Alonzo's friends called his residence

8:43

and spoke to his mother.

8:45

Maria had assumed that Alonzo returned home

8:48

in the middle of the night, but when she checked his bedroom,

8:50

she discovered that Alonzo was not there and

8:53

his bed had clearly not been slept in.

8:56

Alonzo's friend suggested that he might have spent

8:58

the night at someone else's house, but Maria

9:00

immediately became concerned since it was

9:02

out of character for him to do this without contacting

9:05

her. When Maria called Alonzo's

9:07

other friends, she could not find anyone

9:09

who could confirm having given him a ride from the

9:11

party,

9:12

and no one seemed to know where he was.

9:15

This prompted Justin and some of Alonzo's

9:18

other friends to drive back to Lassine, and

9:20

they were also joined by Rodney English, a

9:23

childhood friend of Alonzo's from Topeka

9:25

who had not attended the party, but was concerned

9:27

about his absence.

9:29

They proceeded to perform a search of the area surrounding

9:31

the farmhouse, but could not find any trace

9:34

of Alonzo.

9:35

Alon drive way separated the house

9:37

from the highway, and while looking around there,

9:40

Rodney came across Alonzo's hat and one

9:42

of his boots in the ditch across the road.

9:45

It wasn't long before Rodney found Alonzo's

9:47

other boot in a ditch on the opposite side of the

9:49

road several feet away.

9:51

Since these items were lying out in the open, it

9:54

did not appear that anyone had made an attempt

9:56

to conceal them,

9:57

and Rodney suspected that they were thrown from

9:59

a movie.

9:59

vehicle.

10:01

While Rodney and the rest of Alonzo's friends attempted

10:04

to continue their search, a man driving

10:06

an ATV suddenly showed up and

10:08

told them to leave the property.

10:10

While this was going on, Maria attempted

10:13

to contact the police and file a missing persons

10:15

report for Alonzo, but

10:16

was told she would have to wait at least 48 hours. On

10:20

April the 5th, Alonzo's brother, Billy

10:22

Brooks Jr., and sister-in-law Cindy,

10:25

decided to travel to the farmhouse in Lassine.

10:29

They learned that the house was a rental, and

10:31

that the tenants were four men in their 20s who

10:33

were not from the area,

10:34

but the place was empty when Billy and Cindy

10:37

arrived.

10:38

The identities of these four men have never

10:40

been released publicly,

10:41

but it's been reported that they were evicted from

10:44

the house a short time after Alonzo

10:46

went missing.

10:47

Billy and Cindy tried searching through Lassine and

10:50

the surrounding area for Alonzo, but

10:52

could not find him,

10:53

and noticed that they seemed to draw suspicious

10:55

looks from the local residents.

10:58

They finally decided to travel to nearby

11:00

Mound City in order to pay a visit

11:02

to the Lynn County Sheriff's Office. Billy

11:05

and Cindy both spoke with Sheriff Marvin Stites,

11:08

who did not seem overly concerned about Alonzo's

11:10

disappearance, and said that he was probably just

11:12

quote-unquote out walking around.

11:15

Well needless to say, Billy and Cindy

11:17

did not believe this, since both of Alonzo's

11:19

boots were found lying in ditches, and

11:21

he had recently suffered an ankle injury while playing

11:24

basketball, which made it difficult

11:26

for him to walk long distances.

11:28

In spite of this, the Sheriff's Office did

11:30

eventually agree to open a missing persons investigation

11:33

for Alonzo, and on April the 7th,

11:36

they turned the case over to the Kansas Bureau

11:38

of Investigation, aka the

11:40

KBI.

11:43

While rumors started circulating throughout the

11:45

area, that Alonzo's disappearance might

11:47

be race related, as Lassine had a predominantly

11:50

white population,

11:51

and Alonzo was only three persons of color

11:54

who attended the party that night.

11:56

Some witnesses would claim that after Alonzo's

11:58

friends left the party,

11:59

a number of racial slurs and threats

12:02

started getting tossed around.

12:04

Alonzo was supposedly seen flirting with a

12:06

white girl there, which may have escalated

12:08

some tensions,

12:09

and one witness would claim they overheard someone

12:11

say that Alonzo quote-unquote won't

12:14

get out of here alive.

12:16

Even though Alonzo was known for being an easy-going

12:18

guy,

12:19

his friends believed that he was capable of getting

12:21

mad and starting a fight if someone

12:23

used a racial slur in his presence. For

12:26

this reason,

12:27

the KBI brought in the FBI to assist

12:29

them with their investigation and look into

12:31

the possibility that Alonzo may have been the

12:33

victim of a hate crime.

12:35

They conducted hundreds of interviews with witnesses

12:38

who attended the party, and Alonzo's friends

12:40

who went there with him that night were extensively

12:42

questioned.

12:44

A major search effort was performed of the area,

12:46

and even though the farmhouse was mostly surrounded

12:48

by fields, there was also a large

12:51

stream of water called Middle Creek located

12:53

about 250 feet away. On

12:56

April the 12th,

12:57

the Lee's Summit underwater rescue

13:00

and recovery team were brought in to search the

13:02

creek

13:02

where the water was only about three feet deep,

13:05

but they failed to turn up any trace of Alonzo.

13:08

While this was going on,

13:10

the Brooks family constantly phoned the Lynn

13:12

County Sheriff's Office for updates,

13:14

but were eventually told to stop contacting

13:16

them because they were quote-unquote busy

13:19

working on things.

13:20

Since the search effort was coming up empty,

13:23

the Brooks family wanted to perform their own search

13:25

of the property surrounding the farmhouse, but

13:27

even though this request was repeatedly denied for

13:29

weeks,

13:30

Sheriff's sites finally granted them permission

13:32

to do so.

13:34

On May the 1st, 27 days

13:36

after Alonzo was last seen, his

13:38

relatives and friends started searching the property

13:41

alongside around 50 volunteers.

13:44

Well, only about a half hour after they started,

13:47

some of the search volunteers started heading towards

13:49

a white shed on the property, but

13:51

while cutting through some brush in order to clear

13:53

a path, they suddenly came across Alonzo's

13:55

body on the banks of Middle Creek.

13:58

He was lying on top of a pile of dirt. debris,

14:00

and aside from his missing boots, Alonzo

14:02

was fully clothed, so investigators

14:05

from the KBI and FBI were quickly

14:07

summoned to the scene to recover his body.

14:11

Alonzo's autopsy would be performed by

14:13

Dr. Eric Mitchell,

14:14

a forensic pathologist who was Douglas

14:17

County coroner at that time.

14:19

Dr. Mitchell was unable to determine Alonzo's

14:21

exact cause of death,

14:23

as his post-mortem examination turned up

14:25

no broken bones or fractures, no penetrating

14:28

injuries, no sign of blunt force trauma,

14:30

and no gunshot or stab wounds.

14:33

Mitchell could not rule out the possibility that strangulation

14:36

may have occurred, as the soft tissues

14:38

of Alonzo's neck had been decomposed

14:40

and damaged by animals and insects, and

14:43

even though there was no water in Alonzo's lungs,

14:45

he could not completely dismiss the idea that he

14:47

drowned.

14:49

But since there was no direct evidence of foul

14:51

play,

14:51

Alonzo's cause of death was officially ruled

14:54

to be undetermined.

14:56

Since Alonzo had been drinking at the party, one

14:58

potential theory was that he became so

15:00

intoxicated that he wandered away from

15:02

the farmhouse towards Middle Creek before

15:04

he passed out and died of exposure.

15:08

While Mitchell could not say with any certainty

15:10

that Alonzo's death was accidental,

15:12

he did believe that the evidence found on

15:14

his body was consistent with having

15:16

been on the banks of the creek for nearly a month.

15:20

While Alonzo's loved ones had a hard time believing

15:22

that, as he only had a mild level

15:24

of decomposition on his body,

15:26

which they felt did not support the idea of

15:29

him being out in the elements for 27 days.

15:32

Mitchell theorized that Alonzo could have wound

15:34

up in Middle Creek and was trapped underwater

15:37

in a clog of branches and other debris

15:39

before a rainstorm caused the water levels

15:41

to rise, and his body was jarred loose

15:44

and floated towards the bank where he was found.

15:47

However, Alonzo's family did not believe that

15:49

he was underwater for an extended period of time,

15:52

as his body did not appear to be bloated and

15:54

his skin complexion looked normal.

15:57

Furthermore, Alonzo also had

15:59

a number of problems. personal items on them,

16:01

such as a billfold wallet and a bandana,

16:04

which show no signs of water damage.

16:07

The Lee's Summit underwater rescue and recovery

16:09

team were also certain that they would

16:11

not have missed Alonzo's body during their initial

16:14

search of Middle Creek,

16:15

since the water was only a few feet deep

16:17

at that time.

16:19

The theory provided by Alonzo's brother,

16:21

Billy,

16:22

is that when Sheriff Stites gave his family permission

16:25

to perform their own search of the property,

16:27

Stites may have told other people about it,

16:30

and word eventually got back to those who were responsible

16:32

for Alonzo's death.

16:34

They then responded by placing Alonzo's

16:36

body on the banks of Middle Creek for his

16:38

family to find.

16:40

Indeed, one unconfirmed rumor

16:42

which has always circulated throughout the community

16:45

is that Alonzo's body was kept inside

16:47

a freezer during the 27-day window

16:49

he was missing, which

16:51

is why the body only had mild decomposition

16:53

when it was discovered.

16:56

But even though dozens of witnesses who had

16:58

attended the party were interviewed by law enforcement,

17:01

none of them provided information that led the investigation

17:04

any closer to a resolution,

17:06

and some of these witnesses reportedly lawyered

17:08

up before they could be questioned and declined

17:11

to take polygraph tests.

17:13

The case would remain dormant until June of 2019,

17:16

when the KBI announced that they were unable to

17:18

turn up any evidence that Alonzo had been

17:21

the victim of a crime, so they were closing

17:23

the investigation into his death. But

17:26

one year later, on June 11, 2020, it was publicly

17:28

announced that

17:29

the FBI,

17:32

the Department of Justice, and the United

17:34

States Attorney's Office had reopened

17:36

the investigation and were still exploring

17:38

the possibility that Alonzo had been the victim

17:41

of a hate crime.

17:42

A $100,000 reward was now

17:44

being offered for information which

17:46

led to the arrest and conviction of

17:48

the individual responsible for Alonzo's

17:51

death.

17:52

According to Stephen McAllister, the

17:54

U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas,

17:57

the case had been brought to their attention by Unsolved

17:59

Mysteries, and the case was not who were about to launch

18:01

a reboot of their show on Netflix. During

18:04

an interview with Entertainment Weekly, one

18:06

of the show's co-creators, Terry Dunmuir,

18:09

confirmed that Alonzo's story had been on

18:11

their radar since 2017, and

18:14

they were always hoping to feature it on Unsolved

18:16

Mysteries when they relaunched the show. Well

18:19

on July the 1st, the reboot finally

18:21

dropped on Netflix, and Alonzo's

18:23

episode was titled, No Ride Home.

18:26

As a result, a number of new tips

18:28

came in and were passed on to the FBI.

18:32

One new piece of information which was later

18:34

shared publicly,

18:35

is that a second party had taken place

18:37

in La Cine on the night Alonzo went missing.

18:40

When a fight broke out there, a number

18:42

of the attendees wound up leaving and

18:44

heading over to the party at the farmhouse,

18:47

so investigators were hoping that anyone who

18:49

attended both parties might have some

18:51

useful information and come forward.

18:54

Just over three weeks after the release of

18:56

the Unsolved Mysteries episode, the

18:58

FBI had Alonzo's body exhumed

19:01

and transported to Dover Air

19:03

Force Base in Delaware for a new autopsy

19:06

from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner.

19:09

In April of 2021, the FBI

19:11

announced that this autopsy had allowed them

19:14

to conclusively determine that Alonzo's

19:16

death was not an accident. While

19:18

they've been secretive about specific details,

19:21

they did state that this examination revealed

19:24

that Alonzo had injuries to his body

19:26

which were inconsistent

19:29

with normal patterns of decomposition.

19:32

Therefore, his death was officially reclassified

19:35

as a homicide.

19:37

Timothy Langan, the special agent

19:39

in charge of the Kansas City branch of the FBI,

19:42

stated, While the

19:43

FBI has launched a new investigation into Alonzo's death,

19:46

no new developments have been publicly released

19:48

during the past two years.

19:53

years,

20:00

so the circumstances of how he was killed

20:03

continue to remain an unsolved mystery.

20:06

So I guess you could say the trail

20:08

went cold.

20:25

So I still remember when the episode about

20:27

this story dropped on Netflix, and

20:29

Unsolved Mysteries fans were instantly comparing

20:32

it to one of the most memorable cases from the original

20:34

series, and thus the unexplained 1981

20:37

death of Kurt Soba.

20:39

As you probably know, that story was

20:41

also featured on the trail went cold,

20:43

and it involved a 17-year-old kid who went

20:45

missing while attending a party, until his

20:47

body was discovered in a nearby vacant

20:50

lot five days later. Even

20:52

though Kurt had supposedly been drinking a lot of alcohol

20:54

on the night he was last seen alive,

20:56

the medical examiner was unable to determine

20:59

an exact cause of death.

21:01

This lot had also been searched on a previous

21:03

occasion during the five-day window

21:05

Kurt was missing, and his body was not

21:07

there, so of course, there was

21:10

speculation that whoever was involved in Kurt's

21:12

death placed him at that location

21:14

to be found.

21:16

Well, I'm sure you can already see the parallels

21:18

with the Alonzo Brooks case,

21:20

though I'd say this one is even more puzzling.

21:23

Instead of five days, Alonzo had

21:25

been missing 27 days before he was

21:27

found, and his body was at a location

21:29

which had been extensively searched by numerous

21:32

law enforcement agencies. And

21:34

while the circumstances of how Kurt Soba

21:36

died are still a mystery, the

21:38

consensus seems to be that it was accidental,

21:41

and possibly the result of something like alcohol

21:43

poisoning, so I doubt that a homicide

21:45

took place.

21:47

However, that's certainly not the case with Alonzo

21:49

Brooks, who

21:50

was a person of color who went missing

21:52

and was found dead in a predominantly white

21:54

area that seems to have reputation

21:57

for racism among its residents.

21:59

Now that it's officially been confirmed that foul

22:02

play took place, there has been

22:04

speculation that he was the victim of a hate

22:06

crime. As you can imagine,

22:09

this theory picked up a lot of steam because

22:11

by pure coincidence, the Unsolved

22:13

Mysteries episode happened to drop just over

22:15

a month after the murder of George Floyd,

22:18

so as you can imagine, racial

22:20

tensions were running high in the United States

22:22

at that time. Even

22:24

though the Kansas Bureau of Investigation

22:27

had closed Alonzo's case in 2019,

22:30

the FBI and the Department of Justice

22:32

still felt it was worth pursuing, and

22:34

I find it interesting

22:35

that they publicly announced they were investigating

22:38

his death as a hate crime a few

22:40

weeks before the Unsolved Mysteries episode

22:42

came out. I'm sure they sensed there

22:45

would be a strong reaction to the presentation

22:47

of Alonzo's story, and wanted to

22:49

preemptively assure the public that yes, they

22:52

were working on the case and taking it seriously.

22:54

And

22:55

sure enough, it wasn't long before

22:57

Alonzo's body was exhumed and given

22:59

a new autopsy,

23:00

which uncovered new evidence to compel

23:02

the authorities to officially reclassify

23:05

his death as a homicide.

23:07

All we know is that they made this determination

23:10

based on a re-examination of injuries

23:12

on Alonzo's body,

23:14

as I'm sure a lot of details have been withheld

23:16

from the public,

23:17

and we have no idea what new leads, if

23:19

any, that investigators may have looked into

23:22

these past two years.

23:24

I mentioned in the intro that the biggest criticism

23:27

of the Unsolved Mysteries reboot is

23:29

that they've covered a number of cases involving

23:31

suspicious suicides or accidental deaths,

23:34

and had a tendency to leave out key details

23:37

which do not fit the foul play narrative.

23:40

Like the original series,

23:41

this reboot could potentially be used as a

23:43

valuable tool to bring a resolution to

23:45

Unsolved Crimes, but it doesn't

23:48

really help much when they're focusing on so many

23:50

stories in which there is no actual

23:52

crime to solve.

23:54

Whenever they drop new episodes on Netflix,

23:57

it's become tradition for media outlets to

23:59

publish articles.

23:59

about the featured cases titled, What

24:02

Unsolved Mysteries Left Out. We've

24:04

seen this type of article for their episode on

24:07

Alonzo Brooks, as they did leave

24:09

out some details, but to be fair,

24:11

I haven't found any new information

24:13

during my research, which would point towards

24:15

Alonzo's death being an accident,

24:17

or the show giving a dishonest presentation

24:20

in order to fit their narrative.

24:22

But out of all the cases featured on the Unsolved

24:25

Mysteries reboot, I think the

24:27

death of Alonzo Brooks is probably the one

24:29

in which you're going to find the largest amount of rumors,

24:32

gossip, and unconfirmed speculation

24:34

online.

24:35

They even acknowledged this during the episode

24:38

and discussed some of the uncorroborated theories

24:40

which have been shared on places like Reddit and

24:42

social media these past two decades.

24:45

Back in 2010, a blog

24:47

called Cold Case Kansas published

24:50

a post about this case,

24:51

and its comments section is just flush with

24:53

people claiming to be from the Lecene area

24:56

who have shared all the rumors and gossip that

24:58

have supposedly spread throughout the years. This

25:02

case has often been described as one of those small-town

25:04

mysteries in which the entire community

25:06

knows who did it, but a cover-up has been

25:08

orchestrated to protect the guilty parties,

25:11

and the authorities lack the necessary evidence

25:13

to make an arrest. Well,

25:15

one thing the Unsolved Mysteries did not

25:18

do is present the names of any potential

25:20

suspects or persons of interest, and

25:22

other than three of Alonzo's friends,

25:25

we do not know the identities of anyone who

25:27

hosted or attended the party which

25:29

took place on the night Alonzo disappeared.

25:32

But if you search hard enough online,

25:34

you can find the names of some local residents

25:36

who are rumored to be involved in Alonzo's

25:39

death.

25:40

Since their names have never been shared by law enforcement,

25:43

I'm not going to repeat them on this episode,

25:45

but

25:45

I will mention that a number of them hail

25:48

from a prominent family in the area, which

25:50

is why there have been so many conspiracy theories

25:53

about a cover-up.

25:54

One of the most prevalent rumors is that

25:56

Alonzo's death occurred because he flirted

25:58

with a young white woman at the time of the murder.

25:59

the party who was a member of this family,

26:02

which may have paved the way for a hate crime.

26:06

During an interview she gave with Dateline, Alonzo's

26:09

mother Maria Ramirez stated, quote,

26:11

I'm Mexican and his father is black,

26:13

so he's mixed.

26:14

They didn't just target one race, or kill

26:17

one race, they killed two. He

26:19

was targeted because of the color of his skin, end

26:21

quote. So

26:23

honestly, before Alonzo's death was

26:25

reclassified as a homicide, I

26:27

had mixed feelings about the case following my

26:30

initial viewing of the Unsolved Mysteries episode.

26:33

On one hand, I seriously doubted that

26:35

this was a simple case of an intoxicated

26:37

man wandering away from a party and dying

26:39

of exposure.

26:41

It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me that

26:43

Alonzo would leave the farmhouse, walk

26:45

to the end of a long driveway, remove

26:48

both of his boots, toss them each into

26:50

separate ditches, and then walk back

26:52

onto the property in the opposite direction

26:54

towards Middle Creek.

26:56

Admittedly,

26:57

people can do incredibly strange and illogical

27:00

things when they're drunk, but

27:01

I had a hard time believing that his body could

27:04

have been missed at that location for nearly

27:06

an entire month.

27:08

Of course, I've covered a number of other cases

27:10

on this podcast where people have gone

27:12

missing in a rural or wilderness area,

27:14

and the remains were missed during the initial search

27:17

effort, only for them to be discovered

27:19

in the same area months or even

27:21

years later.

27:23

If Alonzo's search effort had only been conducted

27:25

by a small-town police department who were

27:27

inexperienced at this sort of thing, I

27:29

could give them the benefit of the doubt that they missed

27:32

his body,

27:33

but this particular search involved the KBI,

27:35

the FBI, and an underwater rescue

27:38

and recovery team who were specifically

27:40

trained at this sort of thing.

27:42

Members of this team were even interviewed on

27:44

Unsolved Mysteries, and they seemed

27:47

pretty certain that if Alonzo had been on the

27:49

creek bank the entire time, they would

27:51

have found him. While they certainly

27:53

could be capable of making mistakes,

27:55

I think it says something that when Alonzo's

27:57

family who were not trained

27:59

thing, performed their own search of this property,

28:02

they came across his body within half an

28:04

hour. But

28:05

while the Unsolved Mysteries episode left

28:08

me with the impression that something strange

28:10

occurred and that Alonzo may have been the

28:12

victim of foul play,

28:14

my biggest issue is that I cannot figure

28:16

out how he was killed or why his

28:18

body would be concealed for 27 days

28:21

and planted near the creek.

28:24

The theory pushed forward by Alonzo's family

28:27

is that when Lynn County Sheriff Marvin Stites

28:29

granted the permission to search the property,

28:32

word got back to the people who were responsible

28:34

for Alonzo's death,

28:36

so they responded by placing his body on

28:38

the creek bank for the family to find. But

28:40

where did they keep his body for nearly

28:42

a month?

28:43

The mild level of decomposition on Alonzo's

28:46

body really seems to go against

28:48

the idea that he was lying out in the elements

28:50

for weeks, and since he was carrying personal

28:53

possessions which did not have noticeable water

28:55

damage, it's unlikely that he was submerged

28:57

in Middle Creek.

28:59

This is why a theory has spread around that

29:01

the body was kept inside a freezer for

29:03

a few weeks, and I think one of the

29:05

reasons this rumor caught fire is because

29:07

the family suspected of being complicit

29:10

in Alonzo's death apparently owned

29:12

a restaurant in the area with a large freezer.

29:15

All that being said, it would be incredibly

29:17

risky and brazen to store

29:20

the body of a murder victim at your place of

29:22

business.

29:23

In fact, why even hold on to the body

29:25

to begin with?

29:26

Lucene is surrounded by a lot of open

29:29

land, so there would be plenty of spots to

29:31

bury a victim and ensure he would never

29:33

be found.

29:34

But then, perhaps the responsible parties

29:36

felt that if Alonzo continued to remain a

29:39

missing person,

29:40

people would keep returning to the area to keep

29:42

searching for him for years to come,

29:44

so they felt they should leave them something to find.

29:47

Of course, until the most recent autopsy,

29:50

one of the biggest issues with the homicide

29:52

theory was that there did not appear to be any

29:54

noticeable injuries on Alonzo's body

29:57

or anything to indicate his exact cause

29:59

of death. Dr. Eric

30:01

Mitchell, the forensic pathologist

30:03

who performed the original autopsy, acknowledged

30:06

that he could not rule out the possibility of drowning

30:09

or strangulation, but did

30:11

seem to feel that the evidence supported the idea

30:13

that Alonzo's body had been lying on the creek

30:16

bank the entire time he was missing.

30:19

But while Mitchell was Douglas County coroner

30:21

at the time he examined Alonzo,

30:23

he does have a pretty controversial background.

30:28

Before he relocated to Kansas, Mitchell

30:30

had worked in upstate New York as the Onondaga

30:32

County medical examiner, but resigned

30:35

from his position in 1993 over

30:37

allegations of misconduct, as his offenses

30:39

included harvesting organs from deceased victims

30:42

without the consent of their families, and

30:44

improperly storing skeletons and body

30:46

parts inside his office. Mitchell

30:49

has also recently been at the center of a wrongful

30:51

conviction case from Douglas County, as

30:54

a daycare worker named Caridy Buckhorn

30:56

was charged and convicted of second degree

30:58

murder for her alleged role in the death

31:00

of a 9 month old infant named Oliver Ortiz.

31:04

The conviction was made possible by Dr.

31:06

Mitchell's testimony,

31:07

as he believed that Oliver had a skull fracture

31:10

which was caused by his head being stepped on.

31:13

But it would later come out that the child actually

31:15

died from congenital heart disease, and

31:17

there was never any foul play, so

31:20

Buckhorn's conviction was overturned, and

31:22

she was released from prison last year, after

31:24

serving 4 years for a crime that never

31:26

happened.

31:28

So this obviously shows that Mitchell has some

31:30

credibility issues, and that he may

31:32

have made mistakes during his autopsy on Alonzo,

31:35

and missed something which showed that he was the victim

31:37

of a homicide. All

31:40

we know about the second autopsy from the armed

31:42

forces medical examiner, is that

31:44

Alonzo had injuries which were quote

31:46

unquote inconsistent with normal

31:48

patterns of decomposition. If

31:51

I had to make an educated guess, I

31:53

think that Alonzo may have had injuries to

31:55

his neck, as Mitchell even acknowledged

31:58

that he couldn't rule out the possibility of

31:59

strangulation.

32:01

When Alonzo's body was found, the

32:03

soft tissues of his neck were gone due

32:06

to decomposition and damage

32:08

from animals and insects. If

32:10

Alonzo had some noticeable wounds on his neck

32:12

when his body was placed on the creek bank, then

32:15

it's only natural that this would be the first

32:17

spot that scavengers would feast upon.

32:21

So I would not be surprised if the second autopsy

32:24

found evidence of damage to Alonzo's

32:26

neck.

32:27

I don't know how true this is, but it's

32:29

worth mentioning that one of the many unconfirmed

32:31

rumors which is spread around the community

32:34

is that a shock collar ordinarily used to train

32:36

dogs was placed around Alonzo's

32:38

neck in order to torture him.

32:42

Another issue I always had with the

32:44

foul play theory

32:45

is the idea that Alonzo could have been killed

32:47

at this party in the presence of several witnesses,

32:50

and they have all somehow managed to keep their mouths

32:52

shut about it for nearly 20 years. Of

32:55

course, there have always been allegations that

32:57

this cover-up was made possible because

32:59

the responsible parties had ties to local

33:01

law enforcement, but I'm not sure

33:03

that's an entirely fair assessment. The

33:06

Lynn County Sheriff at the time was Marvin Stites,

33:09

who has since passed away and is no

33:11

longer around to comment on the case, but

33:13

the Brooks family did not have many flattering

33:15

things to say about him on the Unsolved Mysteries

33:18

episode. On the one hand, he

33:20

did not seem to take Alonzo's disappearance all

33:22

that seriously at first, and if he

33:24

really did try to imply that Alonzo left

33:27

the party, took off his boots, and attempted

33:29

to walk home even though he lived 47 miles

33:32

away, then yes, that's pretty ridiculous.

33:35

But on the other hand, Stites did contact

33:37

the KBI for assistance only

33:39

four days after Alonzo went missing,

33:42

and of course, the rumors about a potential

33:44

hate crime soon led to the FBI

33:46

becoming involved in the investigation. If

33:50

Stites was attempting to orchestrate a cover-up

33:52

to protect Alonzo's killers, I

33:54

have my doubts that he would bring in all these outside

33:56

law enforcement agencies so quickly.

33:59

It's also worth noting that even though Lassine

34:02

is a very small town,

34:03

Alonzo's death was not the only high-profile

34:06

criminal case to occur there during that

34:08

time period.

34:10

Notorious serial killer John Edward Robinson

34:13

happened to live on a farm near Lassine and

34:15

was arrested there only four years earlier

34:18

in June of 2000.

34:20

Robinson is currently serving multiple life

34:22

sentences in prison and was responsible

34:25

for the murders of at least eight victims,

34:27

two of whom were found inside some chemical drums

34:30

on his property.

34:31

Marvin Stites was still Lynn County Sheriff

34:33

at that time, so he was no stranger

34:36

to bringing in outside agencies like the

34:38

KBI and the FBI when

34:40

the investigation was too large for him to handle.

34:43

It's yet to be conclusively proven if Alonzo's

34:46

death was actually a hate crime, but

34:48

even if it wasn't, these rumors have helped

34:50

ensure that the FBI have continued

34:52

to take the case seriously. I

34:55

know that many of Alonzo's friends and family

34:57

members have always believed that racism

35:00

played a role in his death,

35:01

as we have the account from his brother Billy

35:04

and sister-in-law Cindy

35:05

that people were looking at them very strangely

35:08

while they were searching through Lassine.

35:11

There's also a vivid moment during the Unsolved Mysteries

35:13

episode when Alonzo's friend Rodney

35:15

English, who also happens to be black,

35:18

revisits the spot where he found Alonzo's

35:20

hat and boots

35:21

and then tells the camera crew that he needs to get

35:23

out of there because he doesn't feel safe

35:26

at all.

35:27

Rodney, as well as Alonzo's family,

35:29

have always felt a lot of resentment towards Alonzo's

35:32

other friends for leaving him behind at

35:34

the party.

35:35

Since all of these friends were white, I

35:37

get the sense that Rodney believes they

35:39

severely underestimated the racial tension

35:42

surrounding Alonzo's presence that night and

35:44

should never have left him alone in such

35:46

a potentially hostile environment.

35:49

And while Alonzo was known for being a very sweet

35:51

and easygoing guy who got along with everyone,

35:54

it sounds like he would show no hesitation

35:56

to confront someone if they used a racial

35:59

slur in his presence.

35:59

But

36:01

if Alonzo was murdered at the farmhouse,

36:03

how would these events have played out? Well,

36:07

the Unsolved Mysteries episode features

36:09

interviews with three of Alonzo's friends who

36:11

attended the party with him,

36:12

Justin Sprague, Daniel Feud, and

36:15

Tyler Bogart, though we know there were

36:17

other friends who went with them and did not appear on

36:19

camera.

36:20

The story goes that they decided to spend the night

36:23

celebrating because one of these friends was leaving

36:25

to join the military.

36:26

But what's frustrating is that it's never been made

36:29

clear why they decided to leave Gardner

36:31

and travel to this particular party in Lecinne.

36:35

Since Alonzo was described as being more of a homebody,

36:38

his family was a bit surprised that he even

36:40

wanted to go to this party, so I

36:41

get the impression that this was not his

36:44

idea and he just wanted to take along

36:46

with his other friends.

36:48

While their identities have never been made public,

36:50

this farmhouse was being rented by four young

36:52

males at the time,

36:54

but it sounds like they weren't really living there per

36:56

se, and just decided to use the location

36:58

as a party house which wound up attracting

37:00

people from outside the area since it was

37:03

an ideal spot for underage drinking.

37:06

While Alonzo was 23 at that time, he

37:08

was actually a few years older than most of

37:10

his other friends from this group who were technically

37:13

not the legal drinking age yet. I

37:15

have read that one of Alonzo's friends had a

37:18

loose connection with one of the four

37:20

individuals renting the farmhouse and

37:22

that they had once gone to the same high school together,

37:25

so this might explain how they found out about this

37:27

party which was taking place nearly 50 miles

37:30

away from where they lived. Now

37:32

it goes without saying that Alonzo's friends have

37:34

received a lot of criticism for leaving

37:37

him behind at the party, and some

37:39

online sleuths have gone so far as to accuse

37:41

them of being responsible or involved

37:44

in Alonzo's death. At the very

37:46

least, there's been suspicion that these friends

37:48

have never told the whole truth about what actually

37:51

happened, but it's worth noting that

37:53

they were extensively questioned and investigated

37:55

by law enforcement who have never

37:58

publicly stated that they believed any of them. or

38:00

withholding information. And

38:02

personally, while I would certainly find them guilty

38:04

of being young, drunk, and irresponsible,

38:07

I would stop short of accusing them of

38:09

being complicit in a murder.

38:12

At the very least, I think you can

38:14

cut some slack towards Daniel Few and

38:16

Tyler Bogart,

38:17

as they both said goodbye to Alonzo when they

38:20

left the party and said that nothing seemed out

38:22

of the ordinary.

38:23

Since Justin Sprague had driven Alonzo

38:25

there, I'm sure they assumed that Justin would

38:27

give him a ride home.

38:29

There appear to be contradictory accounts

38:31

from Daniel and Justin during their Unsolved

38:34

Mysteries interviews, as Daniel said

38:36

that Alonzo got into an argument with another partygoer

38:39

before he intervened and pulled him away,

38:41

while Justin reported seeing no confrontations

38:44

or hostility at all and said that Alonzo

38:46

was having a great time.

38:48

While this doesn't necessarily

38:49

mean that Justin is being untruthful,

38:52

because if he was separated from Alonzo at that

38:54

time and not present to witness this

38:56

altercation with the partygoer,

38:58

then he was probably completely unaware that anything

39:00

happened and had no qualms about leaving

39:03

Alonzo alone to go out and buy

39:05

cigarettes.

39:06

Justin's story is that he got lost and

39:09

his car got stuck on those rural gravel

39:11

roads, so rather than go to the trouble

39:13

of making a lengthy drive back to the party,

39:16

he called a friend of his named Adam and

39:18

asked him to give Alonzo a ride back home to

39:20

Gardner.

39:21

But of course, Adam was not interviewed

39:23

on Unsolved Mysteries, and since we've never

39:25

heard him speak publicly to share his side

39:27

of the story, it's unclear what he

39:30

left without Alonzo. Well,

39:32

I previously made mention of a post about

39:34

this case at the Cold Case Kansas blog,

39:37

and it makes mention of a guy named Edward

39:39

Smith,

39:40

which I think is probably an alias for the mysterious

39:43

Adam.

39:44

According to this post, Edward slash

39:46

Adam

39:47

did approach Alonzo about leaving the party,

39:50

but Alonzo told him that he wanted to stay and

39:52

would get a ride home with someone else.

39:54

If this account is true,

39:56

then it's possible that Alonzo may not have even

39:58

been aware that of his other friends

40:01

were gone and there was no one left to

40:03

give him a ride, but if he was intoxicated,

40:06

it's understandable that he wouldn't be thinking clearly.

40:09

We also have all these uncorroborated

40:11

rumors that Alonso had been flirting

40:13

with a young white woman at the party, and

40:15

if these rumors are accurate and Alonso

40:18

thought he was getting somewhere, well, this

40:20

could provide a reason for why he wanted to stay

40:23

and turn down Adam's offer for a lift.

40:26

So on August the 7th, 2020,

40:29

the Daily Mail published an extensive

40:31

article about Alonso's case, containing

40:34

a lot of information which was not mentioned

40:36

during the Unsolved Mysteries episode. I

40:38

should add the disclaimer that since the Daily

40:40

Mail is a notorious tabloid which

40:43

is known for being an unreliable source of information,

40:45

I

40:46

would take what I'm about to share with you with

40:48

a huge grain of salt, but

40:50

if their reporting is accurate, it

40:52

could shed some additional insight into

40:54

why Alonso was left behind at the party.

40:57

Rodney English was interviewed for the article

41:00

and claimed that the story shared by Justin

41:02

during his Unsolved Mysteries interview was

41:04

different than the one he shared right after Alonso

41:07

went missing,

41:08

as he apparently never mentioned anything

41:10

about getting lost and only said that his

41:12

car broke down and he was able to fix

41:14

it himself by the side of the road. Alonso's

41:17

mother Maria also alleged that Justin

41:20

has changed his story about six

41:22

times over the years. While

41:24

the Daily Mail spoke to an anonymous source

41:26

who was supposedly close to Justin,

41:29

and claimed that he had received death threats since

41:31

his appearance on Unsolved Mysteries, and

41:33

felt that the show had let him down by

41:35

editing out significant parts of his interview.

41:38

According to the source, Justin did

41:40

leave the party to go purchase cigarettes, but

41:43

the episode did not mention that he was

41:45

actually accompanied by another friend. They

41:48

did apparently get their car stuck in the ditch,

41:51

but Justin elected not to call for help

41:53

because he was drunk and high at the time, and

41:56

since he was about to enlist in the army, he

41:58

did not want a DUI

41:59

charge to potentially screw that up. So

42:03

if Justin was not entirely truthful

42:05

about how events unfolded that night, this

42:07

could explain why.

42:09

However, the Daily Mail reported that phone

42:11

records did support Justin's story

42:14

that he used his cell phone to call Adam

42:16

at the party,

42:17

and that surveillance camera soon showed

42:19

that Justin went to a gas station and

42:21

withdrew $200 from an ATM.

42:24

Justin and his friend then went to a strip club,

42:27

but they wound up getting ejected from there for unknown

42:29

reasons. Thus far, the

42:32

Daily Mail is the only media outlet

42:34

I've seen which has published this account of

42:36

Justin's story,

42:37

but if it's true,

42:39

then it gives him an alibi placing him

42:41

away from the farmhouse and would clear

42:43

him of any direct involvement in Alonzo's

42:45

death.

42:46

So yes, while Justin may have been irresponsible

42:49

that night,

42:50

it sounds like he does not have any further insight

42:52

into how or why Alonzo was

42:54

killed.

42:56

And during his Unsolved Mysteries interview, Justin

42:58

became fairly emotional, so I

43:00

get the sense that he was genuinely guilt-ridden and

43:02

remorseful about not being there for

43:05

his friend. There's

43:07

another detail mentioned in the Daily Mail article

43:10

which I think might shed some light on all the

43:12

confusion surrounding the circumstances

43:14

of Alonzo's disappearance. The

43:16

party was held when daylight saving time

43:18

took place, and the clocks moved forward

43:21

an hour at 2 a.m. on the morning

43:23

of April the 4th. For this reason,

43:25

investigators had a hard time nailing

43:27

down a precise timeline because when you're

43:29

dealing with a bunch of partygoers who have been drinking,

43:32

I'm sure that not all of them are going to be keeping

43:35

track of when the clocks move forward or

43:37

have an accurate recollection of what time

43:39

that certain events happened.

43:41

It's been reported that a fight took place at

43:43

the party sometime around 2 or 3 a.m.,

43:46

though it's unclear if Alonzo was involved,

43:49

and the original reporting on this story said

43:51

the last time Alonzo was seen was at

43:53

around 3 or 4 a.m.

43:56

I'm sure these inconsistencies are the result

43:58

of different witnesses having a

43:59

having different recollections of what

44:02

time these events took place, as

44:04

I doubt that all of them would have taken the time

44:06

change into account. But

44:08

what's important is that we don't seem

44:10

to have a solid concrete account of

44:13

the last time Alonzo was confirmed to

44:15

be alive.

44:16

During her interview on Unsolved Mysteries, Cindy

44:19

said that when she and Billy travelled to LeCine

44:21

to search for Alonzo and check out the farmhouse,

44:24

she looked in through the window and saw that

44:26

the house was empty,

44:28

and did not look like a place where they had a huge

44:30

party the night before.

44:32

The wording is a bit ambiguous, so

44:34

I'm not sure if Cindy is trying to imply

44:37

that the house had been completely cleaned up and

44:39

cleared out. But this could

44:41

be taken as a sign that something happened to

44:43

Alonzo inside the house, and

44:45

the responsible parties made sure to do a very

44:47

thorough cleanup job in order to get

44:49

rid of any potential evidence.

44:52

One thing that has never made sense to me

44:54

is why Alonzo's hat and boots were

44:56

found in separate ditches across the road

44:58

from each other near the end of the farmhouse

45:01

driveway. I didn't find

45:03

it likely that Alonzo would have taken off his

45:05

boots there and then walked back onto the property

45:08

towards the creek, but if he was

45:10

murdered, it's also weird that someone

45:12

would get rid of his boots at that particular

45:14

spot. Rodney English

45:16

theorized that someone may have driven to the

45:18

end of the driveway and tossed the hat

45:20

and one of the boots into the ditch across the road

45:23

from their moving vehicle, and then tossed

45:25

the other boot into a different ditch after

45:28

they turned right and started heading in

45:30

that direction. When

45:32

Justin picked up Alonzo at his residence that

45:34

night,

45:35

he said that Alonzo put on two pairs

45:37

of socks and rolled down one pair

45:39

to tie his boot tighter since he had recently

45:41

suffered an ankle injury.

45:44

But if Alonzo's ankle was bothering him that

45:46

night, could he have decided to remove

45:48

his boots at the party before something happened?

45:51

If Alonzo was not wearing his boots when

45:53

he was killed,

45:54

this could explain why they were found separate

45:57

from his body.

45:58

But then why not just get rid of the boots?

45:59

entirely rather than leave them

46:02

out in the open at a spot near the farmhouse.

46:05

This has caused speculation that perhaps the

46:07

responsible parties wanted the boots

46:09

to be found in order to send some sort

46:11

of message, which adds to this whole aura of

46:14

Lascene being a close-knit small town

46:16

concealing a dark secret with most

46:18

of the residents feeling powerless to do anything.

46:23

Now the Daily Mail article also

46:25

said that a number of different sources gave

46:28

them the name of an out-of-towner who picked a

46:30

fight with Alonso, though it's unclear

46:32

if this is the same individual who was involved

46:34

in the argument that Daniel Fuhn had witnessed.

46:37

But

46:37

the story goes that when this guy left the party,

46:40

he drove nearly 200 miles out of state,

46:42

and he was one of the partygoers who refused to take

46:45

a polygraph and lawyered up when

46:47

investigators attempted to question him.

46:50

While I'm not saying this guy was responsible for

46:52

Alonso's death, it does open up the

46:54

interesting possibility

46:56

that Alonso was killed by someone who

46:58

did not actually live in the Lascene area.

47:01

If Alonso realized that all of his friends had

47:03

left and he no longer had a ride home,

47:06

could he have accepted a ride from a stranger who

47:08

he just met at the party that night?

47:10

Could this person have murdered Alonso at another

47:13

location and then brought his body back to

47:15

Lascene and planted it on the bank of

47:17

Middle Creek? What's interesting

47:19

is that when Dr. Mitchell performed his original

47:22

autopsy, it sounds like he was unable

47:24

to provide a conclusive determination of

47:27

how long Alonso had been dead before

47:29

he was found,

47:30

though he was inclined to believe that his body

47:32

had been lying on the creek bank the entire

47:34

time he was missing.

47:36

But how can we be so certain that

47:38

Alonso was dead during that entire

47:41

27-day window?

47:43

We've heard all these wild theories about Alonso's

47:45

body being kept inside a freezer in

47:48

order to explain why he had such mild

47:50

decomposition, but the alternate

47:52

explanation is that someone could have abducted

47:54

him and held him in captivity for

47:57

a few weeks before he was killed,

47:59

and then they

47:59

proceeded to bring his body back to the property

48:02

and dump him on the creek bank. Of

48:04

course I'm not entirely sure why they would keep him

48:06

alive this entire time, as it's

48:08

not like he had any noticeable injuries

48:11

on his body to suggest he was tortured.

48:13

But then again, maybe something was found

48:16

during the most recent autopsy to

48:18

indicate that Alonzo experienced violence

48:20

before he died.

48:22

Whatever the case, coming up with a concrete

48:25

theory about what actually happened to Alonzo

48:27

is incredibly difficult because even though there

48:29

are a ton of rumors, gossip, and hearsay

48:32

about events which may have taken place at that

48:34

party,

48:35

there are very few verifiable facts.

48:38

Other than Justin, Tyler, and Daniel,

48:41

no one who was in attendance that night has gone

48:43

on the record to speak about it, and assuming

48:45

these three guys are all telling the truth, they

48:47

would have already been gone before the events

48:50

which caused Alonzo's death took place.

48:52

Even though we've heard reports about people from

48:54

that party lawyering up and refusing

48:57

to be questioned or take polygraphs, that

48:59

doesn't necessarily mean that they're guilty or

49:02

concealing information,

49:03

because refusing to take a polygraph or

49:05

speak to the police without an attorney are

49:08

always considered to be sound legal advice even

49:10

if you're an innocent person. It sounds

49:13

like the lack of a coherent timeline

49:15

has always been one of the biggest obstacles

49:17

for this investigation, because we know

49:19

at some point that party had to come

49:22

to an end, but

49:23

we have no idea if Alonzo was still there

49:25

at that time, and when the last confirmed sighting

49:27

of him took place. I've

49:29

always found it hard to believe that something bad

49:31

could have happened to Alonzo at the party in

49:34

full view of several witnesses, because

49:36

I just don't believe that many people could

49:38

keep a secret for two decades.

49:40

Remember, this case has been investigated

49:43

by many agencies, including the KBI

49:46

and the FBI, so even if local

49:48

law enforcement was corrupt,

49:50

witnesses would have many avenues to turn

49:52

to if they wanted to talk. Granted,

49:54

we're not privy to all the

49:56

details from the investigation, so

49:58

perhaps people have come to

49:59

forward to share important information with

50:02

the authorities, but they still don't have the necessary

50:04

evidence to file charges against anyone.

50:07

I still wouldn't rule out the possibility that

50:09

Alonzo's death did not actually take

50:11

place at the party, but instead occurred

50:14

after he hitched a ride with someone who harmed

50:16

him at another location. If

50:18

this is what happened, then there may only

50:20

be one or a small handful of people

50:23

who know the truth about how he died. One

50:26

other thing I wanted to mention is that there's

50:28

a website out there at alonzobrooks.com

50:32

which has been used to promote an upcoming documentary

50:34

series and accompanying podcast about the

50:36

case, which is being put together

50:38

by a Kansas-based filmmaker named

50:41

Josh Pratt.

50:42

According to the website, Pratt has been

50:44

working on this project for several years, even

50:47

before the Unsolved Mysteries episode came

50:49

out,

50:50

and it's going to contain a number of interviews

50:52

with people connected to the case, including

50:54

Alonzo's friends and relatives, law

50:56

enforcement officials, and even persons

50:58

of interest. However, I have

51:01

no idea when this series is going to be completed

51:03

or when its projected release date might be, and

51:06

perhaps the reclassification of Alonzo's

51:08

death as a homicide in 2021 has sent the project

51:11

in

51:11

an entirely different

51:14

direction.

51:15

Whatever the case, if and when

51:17

this series does get released, it

51:20

may finally shed some additional light on things

51:22

and answer a lot of the questions I've had.

51:25

By all accounts, Alonzo Brooks was

51:28

a very nice person who loved his family

51:30

and never caused any trouble,

51:32

so if he was the victim of a hate crime and

51:34

the responsible parties have managed to get away with

51:36

it for two decades, then that's a terrible

51:38

injustice.

51:40

We still can't be 100% certain that his

51:42

death was a hate crime,

51:43

but even if that wasn't the actual motive for

51:46

his death,

51:46

a young man still had his life stolen away

51:48

from him. When

51:50

I watched the Unsolved Mysteries episode back

51:52

in 2020,

51:53

I have to admit that I had mixed feelings

51:55

about Alonzo's death being a homicide, as

51:58

I felt that his death could have been some sort of

51:59

accident such as negative reaction

52:02

to drugs or alcohol so someone

52:04

decided to conceal what happened to him before

52:06

placing his body out in the open.

52:09

However, the results of the latest

52:11

autopsy do seem to confirm with

52:13

absolute certainty that Alonso was murdered

52:16

and even though it's been two years since that announcement

52:18

was made, I do hope that things are still going

52:21

on behind the scenes to build a case against

52:23

the responsible perpetrator or perpetrators

52:25

and that they will eventually face justice.

52:28

So if you happen to have any information about

52:30

the death of Alonso Brooks, please

52:32

contact the Kansas City FBI office

52:34

at 816-512-8200. That's 816-512-8200. You can also

52:38

submit

52:43

a tip through the FBI website or

52:45

call the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers

52:47

Tips Hotline at 816-474-TIPS. That's 816-474-8477. But if

52:50

you just have your own thoughts

52:52

about what happened,

52:56

feel

52:58

free to leave me a comment or send me an email

53:01

to robin.worder at iCloud.com.

53:03

That's

53:04

robin.worder at iCloud.com.

53:07

Now the reminder that The Trail Went Cold is on Patreon,

53:10

so please visit Patreon.com

53:12

slash the trail went cold to learn how you

53:14

can support our podcast and become eligible

53:17

for some pretty neat rewards. This

53:19

past month, I released an episode about

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the 1947 disappearance of

53:23

Army Lieutenant Ray Hickingbotham,

53:25

a Cold War era story which was featured

53:28

on Unsolved Mysteries, and explored the possibility

53:30

that he was recruited by the government to start a new

53:33

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53:35

to perform some top secret work for them.

53:38

I've also dropped an exclusive bonus episode

53:40

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53:42

in which myself and my two co-hosts, Jules

53:45

and Ashley, discuss the disappearances

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And for our patrons in Tier 3, I've

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also recorded another new audio commentary

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53:59

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54:03

I'd also like to take a moment to give a shout out to our

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Alexis W., Molly S., Linda

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I., and Lauren M.

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Thank you all so much for your support. And

54:17

before I bring this episode to a close, I'd

54:19

like to play a promo for a British True Crime

54:21

podcast hosted by two women I recently

54:23

met at CrimeCon UK,

54:26

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it's Kazza and Loza here from the Blue Murder

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are a fairly new True Crime podcast,

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and I'll let my co-host

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Lauren explain a little bit about what we've done. Why

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not come over and check our back catalogue.

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We've got Jack the Ripper,

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we've got Delroy Grant, we're up to

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season four now, so we're covering American Horror

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Stories, um, Murderous,

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should I say? Yeah, Inspiration. Last week

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we put out Columbine in a way. We did,

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and then we've got Mengele. Yep,

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Josie Mengele this week. Yeah, so we've got

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quite a few shockers there. Yeah,

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and we've also had guests like I could murder

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a pod on, we've interviewed them about their

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love of True Crime. So yeah, pop

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over and see us, we're on all listening

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platforms.

55:14

Yep, I'm Lulu, so I'm pie-chewing. Yeah,

55:16

lovely. Thank you. Thanks. I

55:19

also wanted to mention that the trail went cold we'll be

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Once again, that's truecrimepodcastfestival.com

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55:52

I just wanted to give another shout out to my supporters

55:54

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55:56

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55:58

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56:08

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56:30

Thanks for watching. Bye!