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Branson Perry ////// 484

April 29, 2021 / 01:00:41

This episode covers the disappearance of Branson Perry from Skidmore, Missouri, the investigation into his case, and connections to local crime.

Branson Perry was last seen on April 11, 2001, when he left his home to return jumper cables to a shed. His family reported him missing days later after he failed to visit his father in the hospital. The investigation revealed that Branson's van was found at home, and his personal belongings were still inside.

Key discussions include the involvement of unnamed mechanics who were working on Branson's father's vehicle on the day he disappeared. The episode raises questions about the timeline of events, the state of the vehicle, and the behavior of those present at the house.

Additionally, the episode touches on a neighbor's alleged drugging of Branson, which his father believed was a serious incident. The investigation later connected to Jack Wayne Rogers, a convicted child pornographer, who had a necklace belonging to Branson.

Ultimately, the episode highlights the ongoing mystery surrounding Branson's case, with law enforcement suspecting foul play and knowing more than they can disclose.

TLDR

Branson Perry vanished in 2001; foul play suspected with connections to local crime and a convicted child pornographer.

Episode

1:00:41
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[Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:00:44
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are available everywhere you listen to podcasts and colonel that is enough of the business all right
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everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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[Music] uh skidmore is a small town in northwest missouri a state that we have ventured off to on
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true crime garage before but not often we covered the horrific case of kent heitholt who was found beaten and
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strangled in a columbia-missouri parking lot in 2005 ryan ferguson was wrongfully
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convicted of that crime charles erickson the alleged accomplice remains in prison
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obviously there is much debate if that case should be closed or reopened we covered the still
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unsolved mysterious disappearance of three women dubbed the springfield three stacy mccall her good friend suzanne
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streeter and suzanne's mother cheryl leavitt that case began on june 7th 1992 when all three went missing
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from cheryl leavitt's home in springfield missouri all of their personal belongings
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including cars and purses were left behind again that case is still unsolved and
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all three are still missing skidmore is a small town not just in size less than 0.4
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square miles but also in population in fact it's estimated that only about 260 people
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live in skidmore and for some reason the population has been decreasing a little more each year for the last 100
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years in 1981 skidmore got the reputation of a town that wouldn't take any crap a
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town that takes care of itself and watches out for their own this became known when ken rex mcelroy
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the town bully was shot to death and dozens of people were present but like the old saying nobody saw a
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thing skidmore is a small town that is far away from the big cities of columbia and
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springfield missouri but certainly not too far that it is free from big city problems
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this week we go to skidmore and examine a story that involves a strange disappearance
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an abduction and murder this is true crime garage [Music] branson perry was born on february 24th
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1981. his parents are becky clino and bob perry branson was born and raised in skidmore missouri the town
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sits on a hill above the nodaway river amid cornfields in northwestern missouri the residents farm and there is one lone
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gas station in town some of the citizens work at the factories nearby at some point branson's parents
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split up but this was not when he was young branson was the oldest of two boys and
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he went to live with his father his little brother lived with branson's mother branson was close with his father and
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not only that branson's father bob had some ongoing health concerns so there is some thought that maybe
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branson chose living with his father in a way to take care of him regardless we should point out that this
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was not a messy or nasty divorce that took place during branson's high school years
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branson and his father were close and did a lot of father-son bonding type activities
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together especially outdoorsy type stuff like fishing hiking and so on one activity that the
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two enjoyed together they both trained in the martial art of hapkido hapkido is described as a hybrid korean
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martial art this is a form of self-defense that employs joint locks grappling throwing techniques kicks punches and
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other striking attacks it also teaches the use of traditional weapons there are different levels of belts and
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according to the charlie project's website branson was a black belt but i don't think we can fully say with
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confidence just how skilled he was one website i found says that there are only black belts
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in this discipline and different degrees of black belt right so that makes sense because
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in other forms you'd have like a white belt and that would be your starting point but here they're saying okay just
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black belts and then we give you different degrees as you get better and again this is according to one website
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that i found i don't i'm not going to pretend to know much about hapkido i actually had to look up how to spell
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the darn word so this is a fun cool and interesting thing to study and practice and a great
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thing for father and son to do together but i don't think captain that we should
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assume that branson was like carlos norris or steven seagal you know a one-man wrecking crew sort of
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thing jc vide a perry graduated not away holt high school in 1999 and has been employed by
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a roofing company and a traveling petting zoo he worked as like a maintenance man for
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the petting zoo for some time not easy jobs he was unemployed at the time that he would go missing and he was
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said to have been looking for work branson was 20 years old at the time of his disappearance and
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he was still living with his father on west oak street in skidmore missouri now the day in question will be
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wednesday april 11 2001. this is reported to be the date that branson was last seen
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right he was reported missing by his family and depending on which report you read
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this was either five or six days after he disappeared but either way he is officially
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as far as the sheriff's department is concerned officially missing by the following tuesday
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on april 17 so we don't have a clear-cut definitive this is the last day that he was seen we had the report that
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he was last seen on april 11. but there were some things and i think possibly very important things going on
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before branson went missing right so we already established that branson is living with
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his father bob everything we could find shows that it was just the two of them living together
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in that home right now bob on wednesday april 11 he is laid up in the hospital but he is
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due to come home soon so on this wednesday there is going to be a lot of activity at the house
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branson to me looks to be prepping the house for his father's return or is just being as productive as
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possible as he doesn't have a job so he's probably helping out by getting some things done around the house
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right this also gives us a good opportunity to introduce joanne stinnett joanne is branson's
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grandmother and i think she likely is the one to have organized the events of april 11.
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so on this day captain we are going to have some house cleaning and some vehicle repair and others will
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be involved so we have gina crawford who was a good friend of branson's she is at
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the house she is helping with some cleaning and some household chores there are two men at the house these
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guys are replacing the alternator in branson's father's vehicle now one thing here is that gina is mentioned by
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name and almost every source that i could find these two men however are not in some sources they are
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referred to as two men working on bob's vehicle right other sources as two mechanics
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and in some outlets they are even referred to as two unnamed men or two unnamed mechanics
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yeah it's difficult here because you have such a small town that it wouldn't be unlikely for a
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mechanic to come to your house and just do the work uh hey i'll just come off on my off day and i'll i'll do the
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work over at your house we don't need to take it into my shop so it's not unlikely but you know well
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who are these guys they could be mechanics and like you said it wouldn't be uncommon especially in a town this
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small for them to come to the property and work on the vehicle we're talking about
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a town that is less than 0.4 square miles in size so everybody lives within blocks
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of one another so if you have a vehicle that cannot move cannot operate you save
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everybody the hassle of a tow company picking it up and moving it just to fix it when you could walk
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three blocks over to your neighbor's home and fix it in the driveway and maybe they're also
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just being called mechanics because they're fixing the car but changing an alternator in most cars is not the most
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complex mechanical work so there's a lot of people that don't even know much about
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cars that could change that themselves because of the small town in the population
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and we know gina crawford's name and we know joanne stinnett's name i just am curious why these guys are unnamed it
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seems purposeful purposeful by the cops or purposeful just by by the way by all involved that may know the names of
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these two individuals it it also could be two guys that were cleared by cops and but maybe they have a a history
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of a criminal history and so they don't want to bring up those names to have people
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run wild with rumors we see that a lot with cases that afternoon joanne and gina are
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working inside the home according to gina around 3 p.m branson was inside the home and he
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retrieved something from a kitchen cabinet he said nothing and then walked outside a little after 3
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p.m gina looked out the window and saw perry talking with the two men gina says that she opens up the window
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asking branson hey what are you doing he tells her i'm going to put some jumper cables back in the shed and
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then i'm going to go out for a bit and i will be back soon gina watched him throw the cables in the
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shed and then watched branson leave the property on foot now we said branson and his father were
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tight right so branson was in the habit of visiting his father every evening or night while bob was at
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the hospital so the next day joanne branson's grandmother she's at the hospital visiting bob
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during which it comes up in conversation that branson did not visit his father in the hospital
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the night before apparently it was known to the grandmother and to bob that sometime on the evening of april 11
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branson would make his daily visit to see bob joanne is learning that that did not
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happen so after the visit to see bob at the hospital now she's going to go back to
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the house and check on branson so this is on april 12th joanne senate goes by the house when she
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gets there she finds that the doors are open i don't have an exact time for this
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captain but with the events of that day and from some things that i've seen i think it's safe to say that this
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is in the ballpark of noonish yeah midday so joanne finds the house empty no branson
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more alarming the doors are unlocked and open she does say she walks through the house
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and nothing seemed to be missing from the home other than branson she specifically checked
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for some of branson's personal belongings checking to see if things are missing or out of place maybe
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that would clue her in on where to look for branson or where he went none of his personal belongings were out
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of place on wednesday april 11 this is the last time any friends or family reportedly saw
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branson and no one is really sure where he was going when he said when he left that day so so
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when he puts up the the cables the car cables and he says i'm leaving he doesn't say
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where he's heading to he simply says i'm returning these cables to the shed i'm heading out for a bit
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and then he leaves on foot says he'll be back i think he says he'll be back in a
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little bit or in a few minutes whatever it was at least according to gina's story
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it doesn't sound like she had the impression that he would be gone very long one it's not clear to me so maybe you
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can make it clear is he able to visit his dad in the hospital by walking there well
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let's get into that because that took quite a bit of further digging there's a lot of these
00:16:32
stories out there about branson and his disappearance when you really start digging
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you can fill in the gaps in the big blanks that are left in a lot of the stories out there about
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branson so as we said earlier branson is reported missing to the local authorities
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this was by bob and becky his parents and again it was either on april 16th or april 17th
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i'm guessing here captain but one would think this missing report likely may have coincided with bob's return
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home from the hospital now there will be some leads and some persons of interest in branson's case
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but again before we get into those we should stop and examine something a little
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further now i'm not saying that there is any reason to question branson's family as
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they have been extremely active looking for him and looking for answers over the
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years and likely local law enforcement probably have filled in a good number of these blanks that i mentioned
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but again captain i really get bothered anytime we have friends i want to be clear about that
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friends because we have gina crawford and two unnamed individuals or family telling about the details surrounding
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one's disappearance and there are so many holes and gaps and lack of information in
00:17:50
the overall story right recently we discussed the logan schindleman disappearance out of
00:17:55
washington state a fascinating case with some very bizarre stuff going on in that one
00:18:01
and really the bizarre stuff it really overshadows what i think was really going on in that situation that
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someone close to logan is responsible for his disappearance and for whatever reason a person or persons in the family
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are slow to act and then there are big chunks of the story missing or parts of the story that
00:18:22
just do not make sense real quick a shout out to the good people that participated in the honk and wave
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event in grand mound washington last week raising awareness for logan's case matthew anfeld's case and
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karen bodeen's case back to our case captain here is what is missing from the story
00:18:43
and again law enforcement likely has filled in all of these blanks so branson leaves and the person's at
00:18:51
his home that day they do not know where he is going i get that but joanne says when she arrives at the
00:19:01
home less than 24 hours later branson is gone and the house is unlocked and the doors
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are open so when did the people leave the house the day before and when did joanne leave and when she
00:19:16
left if she was the last one to leave did she lock up the house or was she not the last one to leave and
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it was general information at least between joanne and bob that branson would go visit
00:19:27
bob on the 11th this is after the time branson was last seen so how was branson getting to the
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hospital as you pointed out captain did branson have a vehicle was he going to drive his dad's vehicle
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maybe ride a bike the hospital is 15 miles from branson's home a 19 to 22 minute drive according to my
00:19:49
map app right if he was taking dad's car to go see dad that is a fine explanation but
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we know two men two unnamed men were replacing the alternator in the vehicle on that day in question
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so was the vehicle even operable before this switch out job because if it wasn't then again how was
00:20:10
you know branson how did he get to and from the hospital the previous day and the day before that and the day before
00:20:15
that to visit to visit his father right it couldn't hurt the investigation to shrink the
00:20:22
time frame of when this dude actually went missing this would really help us to have a better understanding of where
00:20:30
whatever it was that went down to prevent branson from coming back home because he could have
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run into some trouble when he went out that day or if we knew if joanne gina or either of
00:20:44
these mechanic guys locked up the house after leaving well then it would most certainly look
00:20:50
like branson probably returned at some point and maybe something went down at the house right who knows but i'm
00:20:57
again concerned with the lack of details here yeah why don't we do we have details on
00:21:02
when these mechanics left that house we do not have an exact time captain of when these two men left the property
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but what has been reported is that they left sometime after branson left on foot look the the way that this
00:21:20
case is generally told is a young man branson perry tells a friend i'm taking some jumper
00:21:27
cables to the shed he vanishes into thin air forever two weeks later these jumper cables magically reappear
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in the shed apparently they were not there before or until that point that's the version of this story that
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gets clicks views and so on right it's similar to some of the issues you and i had with the
00:21:50
brian schaefer case a man walks into a bar and disappears right well that's not that's not the
00:21:56
true story that's not the full story and same with branson's case captain there are
00:22:02
a lot more here there's a lot more to this so i think we've already filled in some of the blanks but let's see
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if we can fill in some more along the way because there were some leads in this case and
00:22:14
there were some theories [Music] [Music] all right we're back you true crime animals
00:22:52
cheers to you cheers cheers cheers first off captain early on in this investigation there was a theory that
00:23:00
maybe branson hitchhiked a ride out of town but his family and friends they all said
00:23:06
that they have never known branson to hitchhike ever even you know one single time at that so that will
00:23:15
immediately lead us back to well what the heck was his vehicle situation because most sources do not go
00:23:23
this far into the story but the charlie project page dedicated to branson's case says branson
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owned a van and that the van was in fact found parked at branson's home after he failed
00:23:37
to return or at least the next day when his grandmother came over on the 12th noticing that branson was
00:23:44
not home right so he had a van but we don't even know if that van was rule that's that was my next question
00:23:51
that i had so what we ended up finding here he owns the van it's found at his home
00:23:57
i found three other sources that that reference branson's van so again i think it's safe to say that he
00:24:03
had his own transportation and the way that the van is discussed it sounds like it was operable at the time
00:24:10
and it sounds like this was the method that branson had been using to get to and from the hospital
00:24:15
to go see his father so then my question would become for his family and friends where would
00:24:22
branson go without his van without his van was there a coffee shop around the corner was there
00:24:28
a mcdonald's that he liked to just walk to and get something to eat this i think that's
00:24:33
another key thing here is understanding the the setting understanding the the city
00:24:39
well i shouldn't even say city i don't know that they even have enough people to be city status depending on what
00:24:44
missouri's rules are on that but it's a town of roughly 260 people from the reports i read there was one
00:24:54
gas station in the entire town there was one bar in the entire town i don't know that there were i'm
00:25:02
assuming there might be a restaurant or a diner but it's not a place where you have a lot of
00:25:09
choices as far as shopping or dining or any you know really anything like that at
00:25:16
all so after you date a couple people you have to start dating your cousins right that's certainly an option the uh
00:25:24
two guys you wanted to know about the two guys working on dad's car so it's my understanding captain
00:25:30
that yes the van was operable that was branson's method of getting to and from the
00:25:35
hospital but the two guys working on dad's car fixing the alternator well they were trying to fix the vehicle
00:25:41
because branson's father bob originally was scheduled to be released that evening
00:25:47
and it sounds like branson was going to pick him up in his father's vehicle that would make
00:25:53
sense i can't say if the following is true or not but i like to think that it is branson was close with his father
00:26:01
that is well known by all and i like to think that he was having the vehicle fixed as a surprise for his
00:26:08
old man now as for the people at branson's house that day this is where things get tricky only one
00:26:17
source that i could find states that branson's grandmother was even there on that day however however
00:26:25
however that in my humble garage opinion was a very very good source so let's take that a step further i
00:26:35
believe that if she were branson's grandmother were in fact there on that day that she probably
00:26:41
was just there very briefly and left before branson left and i say that because later
00:26:49
in an interview i found with branson's mother his mother states that look we only have
00:26:55
one person telling us the story of branson going missing this gina crawford friend of branson's
00:27:02
only one person gina is the only one ever on record saying that she saw branson retrieve something from a kitchen
00:27:10
cabinet she believed he was trying to conceal whatever it was that he pulled out from the cabinet right and then of
00:27:17
course a short while later she says she asked branson what he's doing he says he's going to take these jumper
00:27:24
cables to the shed and then go out for a bit to fill in some more of the blanks in in
00:27:30
that same interview branson's mom says gina and the guys working on the car they all say that they left
00:27:38
for the day when they finished working on whatever their project was and branson had not returned by the time
00:27:45
that they left so to be clear it does not sound as if they all left together but rather
00:27:52
once when they had finished you know the car was done and then when the house was done yeah so
00:27:58
once the mechanics were done they left and once the house was done that that she left my question then
00:28:04
becomes was that vehicle now could you drive that vehicle could you drive branson's dad's vehicle were they done
00:28:13
putting that alternator in or or were they not successful that's a great question
00:28:19
i do not know the answer to that you know one thing left out of a lot of the sources
00:28:25
are what i believe are more key pieces of information maybe even possible evidence
00:28:34
right so continuing with that branson's mom says that the shed was in a side lot
00:28:41
remember we have gina again this is the only person telling us what is going on activity wise
00:28:47
at that house or what branson was up to that day that he's last seen branson tells gina i'm going to replace
00:28:55
these take these cables to the shed i'm going to leave for a bit i'll be back in a few
00:29:00
minutes vanishes forever branson's mom says that the shed was in a side lot so bob owned a double lot side by side
00:29:08
the shed was not in the backyard like most would expect but in a side yard and then becky also says that the jumper
00:29:15
cables were typically kept on the porch so the shed comment about the cables is strange to her
00:29:22
completely gina the friend that was over that day said one of the guys working on the car at some point this after
00:29:29
branson left came into the home and she says went to the same cabinet that she had earlier seen
00:29:37
branson retrieve something from and according to gina this guy too behaved strange
00:29:43
when she saw him branson's family says not only was branson's van found parked at the
00:29:49
house but they found all of his personal belongings inside the home including branson's wallet
00:29:56
and to joanne's statement the grandmother's statement about finding the doors to the home
00:30:01
open and unlocked according to gina if you do some further digging she closed up the house when she left
00:30:09
i cannot say if this included locking the doors or not but she says she closed up the house
00:30:16
so that makes me wonder captain did branson come home later that day and then go out again or
00:30:22
did something happen at the home right so we're going to add to the story a little more because
00:30:28
joanne's if you do further digging says not only were the doors open but the stereo was on at the house and
00:30:35
the music was turned up when she arrived on the 12th and branson was not there that's strange right so doesn't it look
00:30:43
to you like there are other things going on at this home even after branson supposedly walked off
00:30:51
on his own yeah and let's go back to those jumper cables real quick because she goes oh
00:30:55
well those were kept on the porch okay well if they're kept on the porch that that's probably because the car
00:31:03
again the alternator is it runs and feeds energy back to your battery right if it doesn't feed
00:31:10
energy back to your battery then you normally have to jump it so they would want those wires to be
00:31:17
accessible and maybe you want to put them in the shed because you don't want to walk you know 10 feet
00:31:23
every time you have to jump the car because it's a common occurrence but you're having the alternator fixed
00:31:30
so maybe that's why he thought well i can put the cables finally back into the shed
00:31:35
that makes a lot of sense and the the weird thing with the jumper cables always has been the reason why this part
00:31:41
of the story sticks and refuses to go away is that according to every report that i could
00:31:48
find the jumper cables were not present they couldn't find the jumper cables and then two weeks later they magically
00:31:56
reappeared and they were inside the shed yeah and look again i would love to know the names of
00:32:04
these guys that were quote unquote the mechanics because they could have simply went all we need to jump the car to get
00:32:12
it started to let it run to feed energy back to the battery if they completed the job we don't know
00:32:19
if they completed the job or not and they used the jumper cables one of them threw it
00:32:24
through those cables in the back of their car or the back of their truck and didn't
00:32:29
realize those aren't my cables a couple weeks later they come back and return them but if it had if it was nothing
00:32:35
nefarious why wouldn't somebody just come forward and explain why they you know hey it was me that
00:32:40
returned the jumper cable again if if somebody has a record they you know these might be the reasons why
00:32:45
they're not coming forward and going hey i my name is frank and i was one of those
00:32:50
i trust you believe you mean the sheriff's department knows who these men are that were working on the vehicle
00:32:58
oh yeah yeah they're not going to let gina crawford uh maybe she's the only one that says she
00:33:03
saw these men they're not going to go into a town of 260 people and believe somebody that they don't
00:33:09
know at least one of the men's names well no and on top of that so branson puts these
00:33:17
you know jumper cables away and people just didn't know where they were and so then they they they see them one
00:33:24
day that that doesn't mean that that the jumper cables ever went missing it just means that maybe they didn't
00:33:32
recognize the spot they were located in for a week or so possibly i'm i'm going with the that
00:33:40
part sticks because i heard it from the sheriff himself say that you know they weren't there and then they were
00:33:47
there uh so again these things need to be explained there's an answer for them that answer might lead you to whatever
00:33:54
happened to branson right so our situation regardless is of course that there is no real physical
00:34:04
evidence or information that's really pointing law enforcement in the direction of where this young man
00:34:10
could be we have to keep in mind that law enforcement is working five or maybe even six days
00:34:16
after branson disappeared so they are already at quite a disadvantage remember bob
00:34:23
had scheduled his scheduled release was for that night on the 11th but that got changed at the last minute and
00:34:30
bob was kept at the hospital longer than expected so this is probably a good explanation for the delay
00:34:39
that was going on so you're hoping to find a breadcrumb from the branson's you know from branson's
00:34:46
family and friends what was he up to where does he normally go where do you think he would go if maybe
00:34:53
if he were in some type of trouble that sort of thing you're going to be asking those
00:34:58
questions hoping that you can find that breadcrumb to give you some kind of lead in this
00:35:04
investigation yeah i mean let's let's do our our big tech sweep real quick no mention
00:35:11
of branson having a computer no mention of branson having a cell phone would he have any way to
00:35:18
communicate with anybody once he left the property other than maybe a pay phone or something
00:35:25
well the first interesting breadcrumb comes from branson's father right so first there is this weird bit
00:35:36
that took place on april 7th so four days before this is all alleged information but
00:35:44
branson's father seemed to believe this enough that this story has gotten passed along
00:35:50
time and time again right bob said branson's father bob said that on april 8th branson told him
00:35:57
a story and because of the seriousness and because of branson's tone bob believed it
00:36:03
branson told his dad he was hanging out with a neighbor this guy is named jason this is the day
00:36:10
before on april 7th and jason gave him a pill and then the two engaged in sexual activity together
00:36:18
bob says he was furious because jason was older than branson and bob felt based on what branson's reaction was and
00:36:27
how he told the story that branson was victimized by this guy bob felt that jason drugged his son and
00:36:36
took advantage of him right bob said he was pretty sure that his son had homosexual tendencies
00:36:44
and probably explored that during his life but right it gets tricky because if you're taking a drug that
00:36:52
you don't know how you're going to react to how can you really be how can you really consent to anything
00:36:59
if you don't know how you're going to react to a drug could have been i have even seen some throw around the
00:37:05
word rape in regards to this situation i'm not going to pretend to know exactly what went down
00:37:11
if i had to really think that there was some drugs involved i also know that branson was an adult at
00:37:18
this time he was 20 and look branson could have been a victim here probably was i'm just
00:37:23
pointing out that this is not a man and little boy situation this could have all been
00:37:30
consensual or could have been predatory behavior and again i think because bob seemed to believe this story
00:37:36
and had took you know took a big issue with this situation we would be remiss to not mention it now
00:37:45
either way it's something that needs to be looked into and could be a solid lead for the
00:37:50
sheriff's department this is the not away sheriff's office investigating the case by the way
00:37:57
the other lead that stems from this same story about the neighbor is bob says to
00:38:04
detectives that maybe because of this event branson needed to you know he may have been
00:38:08
seeking some help from a friend branson had a longtime friend a close friend that lived out of state so maybe he went
00:38:17
there this neighbor story and then the out of state friends story the sheriff's office were made aware
00:38:24
of both of these situations very early on and from everything i saw captain both
00:38:31
were fully investigated and nothing came out of either of these possibilities the other concern too is that at the
00:38:40
time there was quite the drug problem going on in and around skidmore missouri during that general time frame remember
00:38:49
when attempting to profile an offender you have to profile the victim the area and the situation we do have a psychic
00:38:57
situation here captain and some people get all weird about the psychics something but we like them and it's our
00:39:02
show so that you can do what you want when you get your own show uh well we're not saying
00:39:06
that they're accurate what we're saying is that they're interesting to to hear from from time to time
00:39:12
well and i think that the general problem that the general public has with the psychic situations
00:39:18
in these cases is the same thing you know we echo this we echo this concern is that sometimes a
00:39:25
psychic will see vulnerable people vulnerable people that are experiencing the loss of a loved one
00:39:32
a loved one's either missing or has been murdered and the psychic will present themselves to the family
00:39:38
right and then start you know requesting money and things for information and these people
00:39:44
are desperate for any type of help in some situations the family seeks out a psychic
00:39:50
so it does go the other way sometimes i don't know what happened here who sought out who i will say this
00:39:58
branson's father and mother extremely obvious to me and everyone else else out there
00:40:05
they loved this kid and they were desperate for answers so maybe they sought out the psychic
00:40:12
but regardless what happens here is the psychic says to mom and dad you know i can see that your
00:40:20
son has been murdered he was tortured he suffered a long brutal torture before he was killed
00:40:29
and the psychic refused to go into details about what actually happened to branson because they didn't they simply
00:40:39
couldn't didn't have the heart to tell the family so then you wonder about this neighbor
00:40:44
but you also wonder about the town itself again it's small but we have we have surrounding areas
00:40:52
and and some of those people are are not as open-minded about sexuality so is it is this possibly a hate crime
00:41:03
because psychic is saying that branson was tortured well i think let's go ahead and give a
00:41:10
description here because this is a missing person's case the case itself is classified as
00:41:15
endangered missing foul play is strongly suspected in this case and we will be getting into that more so
00:41:23
but branson is a white male he was 20 at the time when he went missing he would be 40
00:41:29
years old today he was five foot nine inches tall 155 pounds athletic build not a great clothing description but it
00:41:39
said that he was possibly wearing size 32 shorts a size medium or large t-shirt and necklaces
00:41:48
with leather trinkets or chains with some arrowheads on them now branson does have a medical condition it's a
00:41:56
racing heart condition and he is also allergic to penicillin he has blonde hair blue eyes
00:42:02
he wears his hair typically short yeah he was a good looking kid and has a small faint scar on the upper
00:42:09
part of his right cheek and a small scar on his left knee again we'll post pictures on our instagram
00:42:15
and twitter and facebook all right this takes us to a weird part in this whole story captain
00:42:23
it actually takes us to another investigation not in any way meant to be connected to
00:42:29
branson's missing persons case about 20 years ago and for several years the fbi ran a
00:42:36
project called operation candyman the very basic goal of candyman was to identify and round up
00:42:42
as many as possible child pornography collectors traders sellers suppliers makers all from the
00:42:49
internet and i hope and pray that this is a continued thing just running under different names over the years because a
00:42:55
lot of sickos and a lot of potentially violent dangerous sickos can be outed and locked up using this method
00:43:03
this is the old pervert roundup undercover style yeah the old prus so this operation leads to dozens of
00:43:10
arrests when god they identify these computer pervs they go to their homes they go to their
00:43:19
you know through their things and more importantly through their computers and communications
00:43:23
so one of the sickies that they uncovered in this operation candyman is a man named michael adam davidson
00:43:30
this is in 2002. this perv was a medical student down in alabama he would later plead guilty to multiple
00:43:38
charges of receiving and attempting to receive images of child pornography pleading guilty in federal court on his
00:43:45
computer amongst some other really gross stuff they found a child pornography movie mp3
00:43:52
and a short short snuff film mp3 that showed a man dying it would have been mp4 davidson had communications
00:44:01
with another man that he thanked for the snuff film file the man davidson thanked frequently chatted with davidson
00:44:10
even calling the man his mentor this mentor told davidson in not such a short way
00:44:19
that he was a sexual sadist and he had killed a number of boys men one of the stories this man discussed to
00:44:27
be clear these were discussions and i promise i'm not going to go through all of it
00:44:33
it's lengthy it's disgusting and frankly i don't want to have to say some of the things that i have read and
00:44:38
heard the man tells davidson when he was at the walmart the other day he spotted something that reminded him
00:44:45
of something he had done now this man is attempting to be cryptic he says he was reminded of something
00:44:52
that's missing he says it was not really missing it was just never returned he said he had a great fondness in
00:45:03
memories of it and said that the thing with most prey is they are not worth looking for
00:45:10
it was a runaway or so it told me and they again are referring to prey they are just throwaways
00:45:18
no one gives a [ __ ] this man chatting with davidson when he was talking about something that
00:45:24
wasn't really missing it was just never returned it was determined that he was talking
00:45:29
about seeing a missing persons flyer for branson perry at the walmart now again i'm going to
00:45:34
keep this short as there is a lot to this chat and it's vulgar really depraved stuff so the short of it
00:45:42
is he picked it up hitchhiking on the interstate it told him he was from skidmore
00:45:52
the two partied together drinking and he gave it a pill the combo of the pill and the drinking
00:46:00
made it most compliant he took it out to a remote location that the man called basically a campsite
00:46:08
stripped it tied it to a tree and tortured it physically mentally emotionally and spiritually
00:46:16
until it begged him to kill it this man said that these were activities that he had done before and
00:46:23
his favorite part of these activities was breaking it afterward he said he burned all of the
00:46:30
clothing and he was very descriptive about destroying the clothing and other evidence
00:46:36
he said he eviscerated it so the body would not float or bloat and tossing the guts into a ditch in the
00:46:44
body into deep water he described the area simply as an ozarks overnight stay and it as an 18
00:46:55
project the fbi tracked down this man this was a fulton missouri resident fulton is about 250 miles south east
00:47:06
of skidmore and they did a search and seizure at the man's home work vacation property basically
00:47:14
described as a campsite with a trailer on it and his vehicle they uncovered a plethora of child porn
00:47:21
on his home and work computer and bondage items these are devices some would say torture tools and devices
00:47:29
these were found in the trailer at the campsite of course this man is arrested and they are looking for evidence of any
00:47:38
crimes this man may have committed but specifically looking for evidence that he killed and
00:47:43
concealed the body of branson perry now what they find in relation to the perry case is a leather necklace
00:47:50
with beads and a turtle's claw this is shown to branson's parents and his father says
00:47:56
the necklace is identical to the one branson had so who is this monster well it's 59
00:48:06
year old business owner and resident of fulton missouri he is the owner operator of decker and
00:48:11
decker employment services in columbia missouri he also is an ordained presbyterian
00:48:19
lay minister and a boy scout leader oh yeah this this guy he's already been convicted on child porn
00:48:29
charges before so how he was allowed to be involved with this church or the boy scouts
00:48:36
i have no clue no answers for you there captain now he reminds me a lot of buffalo bill like if you look at him
00:48:45
just real quick he doesn't look normal he looks uh you definitely can see the evil coming out in this individual
00:48:55
back in the 90s this man served a few months on child porn charges this is jack wayne rogers and his whole story will
00:49:04
just get stranger and stranger and i'll read some of this here captain this is from
00:49:09
cbs news out of columbia missouri a former church minister and boy scout leader who cut off another man's
00:49:18
genitals in a makeshift gender reassignment surgery in a hotel room pled guilty to first-degree assault and
00:49:26
practicing medicine without a license jack wayne rogers age 59 of fulton missouri
00:49:32
admitted he performed the grizzly operation the judge followed the recommendation of
00:49:38
prosecutors sentencing rogers to 17 years in prison for assault and seven years for the illegal surgery
00:49:46
the prison time is to run concurrently with a 30-year sentence handed to rogers after he pled guilty to child
00:49:54
pornography and obscenity charges rogers promised the victim he'd remove his genitals
00:50:01
in a four hour operation that time passed complications developed and bleeding refused to stop
00:50:08
the victim says she didn't feel like a victim at first but changed her mind after prosecutors presented
00:50:15
her with roger's checkered criminal history peppered with allegations of cannibalism
00:50:21
and a pornography collection that included photographs of severed genitals quote i didn't know his motivation when
00:50:28
i went into it she said i was under a lot of emotional stress and it seemed like there was no
00:50:34
alternative rogers public defender said she advised her client to plead guilty to avoid
00:50:40
further prison time quote he is getting concurrent time she said if he had gone to trial he very
00:50:46
well could have gotten consecutive time he is still being investigated in the torture and killing of skidmore
00:50:53
man branson perry who disappeared in april 2001. a police search of roger's property
00:50:59
turned up that necklace that we already mentioned belonging to branson perry oh okay we know he's a
00:51:05
piece of [ __ ] right we know he's capable of doing this and his name gets thrown around and like if i'm
00:51:12
hearing you correctly at some point that jack was telling somebody this is what i did confessing to
00:51:21
somebody that this is what i did to branson yes yeah yeah now after he's arrested for
00:51:29
these child pornography charges the what led them to this illegal surgery that this man
00:51:36
performed was he had photos and evidence of it on his computers and so you know you can't just be out
00:51:44
there performing surgeries and so they were able to charge him not only with the child pornography charges
00:51:50
but this illegal surgery that could have led to this individual's death this man's not a doctor he's performing
00:51:59
this surgery where there's going to be a lot of blood in a hotel room and as sick as this individual sounds
00:52:07
jack wayne rogers from what he is chatting about in chat rooms and of course the
00:52:12
nasty stuff found on his computers right as weird and strange and he describes himself as a sexual sadist
00:52:20
that poor individual that's so damn desperate to to change their life to alter their life
00:52:26
could have ended up being severely victimized by this man in the end captain rogers has denied
00:52:34
killing branson perry and he's never been charged with anything in relation to branson's
00:52:40
disappearance he said his writings and discussions were works of fiction fantasies that he lived out online and
00:52:48
frankly i don't know what's more disgusting the most disgusting thing obviously is the idea that maybe he actually did
00:52:55
all or some of what he said he did but even if he didn't i don't know what is more appalling the idea that he has
00:53:02
these fantasies and acts and lives them out online or the fact that a bunch of others want to sit around and listen to
00:53:09
it branson's mother attended jack wayne rogers trial every chance she got she begged him
00:53:18
to tell her where he hid branson's remains he offered no answers so where does the
00:53:25
case stand today sadly branson's father bob died in 2004 and his mother becky died in 2011.
00:53:34
branson has never been located in branson's mother's obituary it is noted that her son
00:53:41
branson perry pre-deceased her so even though no remains have been found becky who had cancer and knew that
00:53:49
she was going to pass went to her grave knowing in her heart that branson was dead of
00:53:56
course as we said earlier foul play is suspected in this case that's law enforcement stance now where
00:54:04
the case stands today and why becky put in her obituary chose to put in her obituary that her son branson
00:54:14
pre-deceased her will be quite clear we're going to fill in some more blanks here
00:54:20
go for it there's a man a retired sheriff the sheriff that worked the case at the
00:54:25
time this would be not away county sheriff ben espy and if you could take a mound of clay
00:54:33
and mold it into a sheriff this is what you would get this guy was born to be a sheriff you you should see
00:54:41
this guy in interviews he's got that cold dark stare when he's asked a dumb question by some reporter this man is
00:54:51
all business all the time he knew that branson's mother becky was dying this was a battle
00:54:58
with cancer and it was coming to the end he wanted to offer her some kind of answers before she left this
00:55:10
earth and he said look it is my job to investigate these cases i however don't make arrests i don't prosecute
00:55:24
people it's the prosecutor's job to tell me who to arrest and who to convict in court yeah he's
00:55:31
just gathering evidence get said suspects and keep in mind this lead with jack wayne rogers that looked very
00:55:38
very promising this is happening a couple years into the investigation sheriff espy said basically what was
00:55:45
going on was we were we were going to follow every lead that came in every tip that came in
00:55:52
especially the jack wayne rogers that all needs to be looked at it all needs to be sorted out
00:55:58
but he said you know what at the very beginning very early on in this case we knew what happened to branson we knew
00:56:06
who was responsible we just couldn't put together the evidence and i think a lot of that was not being
00:56:14
able to locate and recover the remains to bring forth charges on some individuals that
00:56:21
were responsible espy points out back to the drug problem at the time and he says look
00:56:27
unfortunately branson perry was no angel he was not a saint he was a good kid but later in life he got mixed up with
00:56:34
the wrong crowd and he was involved in some of the drug manufacturing and peddling
00:56:43
that was going on at the very local small level in the area at the time espy is on record after being retired
00:56:52
saying that branson perry was shot in the head and he was buried somewhere and he said
00:57:00
that two people at least two people are responsible for the murder of branson perry
00:57:06
and he believes and has evidence that will show that nine approximately nine people are
00:57:12
either involved or aware or know exactly what went down with branson's case these are all people
00:57:19
on the local level the everything leads back to the small town of skidmore missouri
00:57:26
right and over the years captain they've gone to several locations and done these excavating digging
00:57:36
looking for the remains and i really think that if they would have had those remains
00:57:41
they could have brought this thing to court but again this murder is all at the local level it's
00:57:50
not from some sicko that lived in fulton missouri it's all about the drug trade and the
00:57:56
drugs that were being trafficked in the local area of skidmore missouri and again
00:58:02
the sheriff's department knows who is responsible for this young man's murder they've even gone so far to say that not
00:58:10
only do we know who's responsible we know who else is involved we know that he was buried at some point
00:58:15
and we also have evidence and reason to believe that at some point they went and moved the body well it
00:58:22
sucks that they can't collect enough evidence to bring charges against these individuals yeah and
00:58:28
sheriff ben espy said look he he had to give this information to branson's mother
00:58:36
before she was passing and he believed that even though they couldn't bring charges against these individuals
00:58:42
that they owed her the truth uh as the evidence and as their investigation showed
00:58:50
the truth to them jack wayne rogers although not involved in this case other than being kind of a side story that
00:58:59
gets lumped in because of his sick fantasies that he's living out online he's an older man he's
00:59:06
probably about 75 years of age and if my calculations are right he's about 10 maybe 12 years left on that 30-year
00:59:15
sentence so hopefully he'll die still with the status of a federal inmate but because but because of his
00:59:25
actions and his fantasies and for the sake of the communities and just public safety in general the feds better
00:59:32
make sure that he serves every minute of that 30-year sentence and join us here in the garage tomorrow
00:59:53
for another case cheers to you colonel cheers to you captain cheers to everybody out there
00:59:59
join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't [Music]
01:00:12
litter [Music] you

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Episode Highlights

  • Skidmore's Dark Reputation
    Skidmore is known for its tight-knit community and a history of unresolved crimes.
    “A town that takes care of itself.”
    @ 04m 38s
    April 29, 2021
  • The Disappearance of Branson Perry
    Branson Perry vanished from his home in Skidmore, Missouri, on April 11, 2001.
    “Branson was last seen on April 11.”
    @ 08m 51s
    April 29, 2021
  • Branson's Mysterious Disappearance
    Branson was last seen leaving his home to take jumper cables to a shed, but he never returned. His family is left searching for answers.
    “Branson vanished forever.”
    @ 29m 00s
    April 29, 2021
  • Psychic's Disturbing Revelation
    A psychic told Branson's parents that their son had been murdered and tortured, raising questions about his disappearance.
    “He was tortured. He suffered a long brutal torture before he was killed.”
    @ 40m 20s
    April 29, 2021
  • Jack Wayne Rogers' Gruesome Confession
    Rogers described horrific acts he committed, including torture and murder.
    “He said he had a great fondness in memories of it.”
    @ 45m 03s
    April 29, 2021
  • The Search for Branson Perry
    Law enforcement investigates Rogers for the disappearance of Branson Perry, uncovering disturbing evidence.
    “They are looking for evidence that he killed and concealed the body of Branson Perry.”
    @ 47m 39s
    April 29, 2021
  • Sheriff's Insights on Branson's Case
    Sheriff Ben Espy reveals knowledge of Branson's murder and the involvement of multiple suspects.
    “We knew what happened to Branson; we just couldn't put together the evidence.”
    @ 56m 06s
    April 29, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • Nobody saw a thing.
    Branson Perry ////// 484
  • Branson was last seen on April 11.
    Branson Perry ////// 484
  • Branson vanished forever.
    Branson Perry ////// 484
  • He was tortured. He suffered a long brutal torture before he was killed.
    Branson Perry ////// 484
  • These were activities that he had done before.
    Branson Perry ////// 484
  • Branson's mother begged him to tell her where he hid Branson's remains.
    Branson Perry ////// 484

Key Moments

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage00:40
  • Beer Review01:23
  • Branson's Background05:41
  • Last Seen08:51
  • Missing Report16:51
  • Torture Confession46:19
  • Mother's Plea53:18
  • Sheriff's Truth58:32

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown