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[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:01:46
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with less friends than Ted kazinski here is the captain
00:01:53
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episodes are available everywhere you listen to podcast and current that is enough of the business all right
00:03:32
everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music]
00:03:58
crime [Music] Skidmore is a small town in Northwest Missouri the state that we have ventured
00:04:16
off to on True Crime garage before but not often we covered the horrific case of Kent heol who found beaten and
00:04:24
strangled in a Columbia Missouri parking lot in 2005 Ryan Ferguson was wrongfully
00:04:29
convicted of that crime Charles Erikson the alleged accomplice remains in prison obviously there is much debate if
00:04:39
that case should be closed or reopened we covered the still unsolved mysterious disappearance of three women
00:04:46
dubbed the Springfield 3 Stacy McCall her good friend Suzanne streer and Suzanne's mother Cheryl levit that case
00:04:54
began on June 7th 1992 when all three went missing from Cheryl lit's home in Springfield
00:05:02
Missouri all of their personal belongings including cars and purses were left behind again that case is still unsolved
00:05:11
and all three are still missing Skidmore is a small town not just in size less than4 square miles but also in
00:05:21
population in fact it's estimated that only about 260 people live in Skidmore and for some reason the population has
00:05:30
been decreasing a little more each year for the last 100 years in 1981 Skidmore got the reputation of a
00:05:40
town that wouldn't take any crap a town that takes care of itself and watches out for their own this became known when
00:05:47
Ken Rex maoy the town bully was shot to death and dozens of people were present but like the old saying nobody saw a
00:05:57
thing Skidmore is a small town that is far away from the big cities of Columbia and Springfield Missouri but certainly
00:06:06
not too far that it is free from Big City problems this week we go to Skidmore and
00:06:13
examine a story that involves a strange disappearance and abduction and murder this is true crime
00:06:28
garage Branson Perry was born on February 24th 1981 his parents are Becky klino and Bob
00:06:50
Perry Branson was born and raised in Skidmore Missouri the town sits on a hill above the nway river amid
00:06:57
cornfields in North Western Missouri the resident farm and there is one lone gas
00:07:05
station in town some of the citizens work at the factories nearby at some point Branson's parents
00:07:12
split up but this was not when he was young Branson was the oldest of two boys and he went to live with his father his
00:07:20
little brother lived with Branson's mother Branson was close with his father and not only that Branson's father Bob
00:07:27
had some ongoing health concerns so there is some thought that maybe Branson chose living with his father in a way to
00:07:36
take care of him regardless we should point out that this was not a messy or nasty divorce that took place during
00:07:44
Branson's high school years Branson and his father were close and did a lot of fatherson bonding type activities
00:07:53
together especially outdoorsy type stuff like fishing hiking and so on one activity that the two enjoyed together
00:08:01
they both trained in the martial art of HAPO hapkido is described as a hybrid Korean martial art this is a form of
00:08:10
self-defense that employs joint locks grappling throwing techniques kicks punches and other striking attacks it
00:08:19
also teaches the use of traditional weapons there are different levels of belts and according to the Charlie
00:08:26
projects website Branson was a black belt but I don't think we can fully say with confidence just how skilled he was
00:08:33
one website I found says that there are only black belts in this discipline and different degrees of black belt right so
00:08:42
that makes sense uh because in other forms you'd have like a white belt and that would be your starting point but
00:08:48
here they're saying okay just black belts and then we give you different degrees as you get better and again this
00:08:54
is according to one website that I found I don't I'm not going to pretend to know
00:08:57
much about HAPO I actually had to look up how to spell the darn word so this is a fun cool and interesting thing to
00:09:05
study and practice and a great thing for father and son to do together but I don't think captain that we should
00:09:11
assume that Branson was like Carlos Norris or Steven sigal you know a oneman wrecking crew sort of thing jcvd a Perry
00:09:19
graduated nway Holt High School in 1999 and has been employed by a roofing company and a traveling petting zoo he
00:09:29
worked as like a maintenance man for the petting zoo for some time not easy jobs
00:09:34
he was unemployed at the time that he would go missing and he was said to have been looking for work Branson was 20
00:09:42
years old at the time of his disappearance and he was still living with his father on West Oak Street in
00:09:47
Skidmore Missouri now the day in question will be Wednesday April 11th 2001 this is reported to be the date
00:09:59
that Branson was last seen right he was reported missing by his family and depending on which report you read this
00:10:08
was either five or six days after he disappeared but either way he is officially as far as the sheriff's
00:10:16
department is concerned Officially Missing by the following Tuesday on April 17 2001 so we don't have a
00:10:24
clearcut definitive this is the last day that he was seen we have the report that
00:10:29
he was last seen on April 11 but there were some things and I think possibly very important things going on before
00:10:37
Branson went missing right so we already established that Branson is living with
00:10:41
his father Bob everything we could find shows that it was just the two of them living together in that home right now
00:10:49
Bob on Wednesday April 11 he is laid up in the hospital but he is due to come home soon so on this Wednesday there is
00:10:59
going to be a lot of activity at the house Branson to me looks to be prepping the house for his father's return or is
00:11:09
just being as productive as possible as he doesn't have a job so he's probably helping out by getting some things done
00:11:16
around the house right this also gives us a good opportunity to introduce Joanne stinnet Joanne is Branson's
00:11:25
grandmother and I think she likely is the one to have organize the events of April 11 so on this day Captain we are
00:11:34
going to have some house cleaning and some vehicle repair and others will be involved so we have Gina
00:11:42
Crawford who was a good friend of Branson she is at the house she is helping with some cleaning and some
00:11:49
household chores there are two men at the house these guys are replacing the alternator in Branson's father's vehicle
00:11:58
now one thing here is that Gina is mentioned by name in almost every source that I could find these two men however
00:12:05
are not in some sources they are referred to as two men working on Bob's vehicle right other sources as two
00:12:14
mechanics and in some Outlets they are even referred to as two unnamed men or two unnamed mechanics yeah it's
00:12:23
difficult here because you have such a small town that it wouldn't be unlikely for a mechanic to come to your house and
00:12:30
just do the work hey I'll just come off on my off day and I I'll do the work over at your house we don't need to take
00:12:37
it into my shop so that's not unlikely but youo well who are these guys they could be mechanics and like
00:12:46
you said it wouldn't be uncommon especially in a town this small for them to come to the property and work on the
00:12:51
vehicle we're talking about a town that is less than4 square miles in size so everybody lives Within in blocks of one
00:12:59
another so if you have a vehicle that cannot move cannot operate you save everybody the hassle of a toe company
00:13:07
picking it up and moving it just to fix it when you could walk three blocks over
00:13:11
to your neighbor's home and fix it in the driveway and maybe they're also just being called mechanics because they're
00:13:17
fixing the car but changing an alternator in most cars is not the most complex mechanical work so there's a lot
00:13:26
of people that don't even know much about cars they could change that themselves because of the small town in
00:13:33
the population and we know Gina Crawford's name and we know Joan stinnett's name I just am curious why these guys
00:13:43
are unnamed it seems purposeful purposeful by the cops or purposeful just by by by all involved that may know
00:13:52
the names of these two individuals it it also could be two guys that were cleared
00:13:57
by cops and but maybe they have a a history a criminal history and so they don't want to brain up those names to
00:14:05
have people run wild with rumors we see that a lot with cases that afternoon Joanne and Gina are working inside the
00:14:14
home according to Gina around 300 p.m. Branson was inside the home and he retrieved something from a kitchen
00:14:22
cabinet he said nothing and then walked outside a little after 3:00 p.m. Gina looked out the window and saw Perry
00:14:31
talking with the two men Gina says that she opens up the window asking Branson hey what are you doing he tells her I'm
00:14:39
going to put some jumper cables back in the shed and then I'm going to go out for a bit and I will be back soon Gina
00:14:48
watched him throw the cables in the shed and then watched Branson leave the property on foot now we said Branson and
00:14:55
his father were tight right so Branson was in the habit of visiting his father every evening or night while Bob was at
00:15:05
the hospital so the next day Joanne Branson's grandmother she's at the hospital visiting Bob during which it
00:15:14
comes up in conversation that Branson did not visit his father in the hospital the night before apparently it was known
00:15:21
to the grandmother and to Bob that sometime on the evening of April 11 Branson would make his day daily visit
00:15:29
to see Bob Joanne is learning that that did not happen so after the visit to see
00:15:37
Bob at the hospital now she's going to go back to the house and check on Branson so this is on April
00:15:44
12th Joanne stck goes by the house when she gets there she finds that the doors are open I don't have an exact time for
00:15:54
this Captain but with the events of that day and from some things things that I've seen I think it's safe to say that
00:16:00
this is in the ballpark of Nish yeah midday so Joanne finds the house empty no Branson more alarming the doors are
00:16:10
unlocked and open she does say she walks through the house and nothing seemed to
00:16:15
be missing from the home other than Branson she specifically checked for some of Branson's personal belongings
00:16:22
checking to see if things are missing or out of place maybe that would clue her in on where to look for Branson or where
00:16:30
he went none of his personal belongings were out of place on Wednesday April 11th this is the last time any friends
00:16:39
or family reportedly saw Branson and no one is really sure where he was going when he s when he left that day so so
00:16:48
when he puts up the the cables car cables and he says I'm leaving he doesn't say where he's heading to he
00:16:56
simply says I'm returning these cables to the shed I'm heading out for a bit MH and then he leaves on foot says he'll be
00:17:04
back it it I think he says he'll be back in a little bit or in a few minutes whatever it was at least according to
00:17:11
Gina's story it doesn't sound like she had the impression that he would be gone very long one it's not clear to me so
00:17:20
maybe you can make it clear is he able to visit his dad in the hospital by walking there well let get into that
00:17:29
because that took quite a bit of further digging there's a lot of these stories out there about Branson and his
00:17:37
disappearance when you really start digging you can fill in the gaps and the big blanks that are left in a lot of the
00:17:47
stories out there about Branson so as we said earlier Branson is reported missing
00:17:52
to the local authorities this was by Bob and Becky his parents and again it was either on April 16th or April 17th I'm
00:18:00
guessing here Captain but one would think this missing report likely may have coincided with Bob's return home
00:18:07
from the hospital now there will be some leads and some Persons of Interest in Branson's case but again before we get
00:18:15
into those we should stop and examine something a little further now I'm not saying that there is any reason to
00:18:20
question Branson's family as they have been extremely active looking for him and looking for answers over the years
00:18:28
and local law enforcement probably have filled in a good number of these blanks that I mentioned but again Captain I
00:18:35
really get bothered anytime we have friends I want to be clear about that friends because we have Gina Crawford
00:18:41
and two unnamed individuals or family telling about the details surrounding one's disappearance and there are so
00:18:49
many holes and gaps and lack of information in the overall story right recently we discussed the Logan
00:18:55
schindelman disappearance out of Washington State a fascinating case with some very bizarre stuff going on in that
00:19:02
one and really the bizarre stuff it really overshadows what I think was really going on in that situation that
00:19:10
someone close to Logan is responsible for his disappearance and for whatever reason a person or persons in the family
00:19:18
are slow to act and then there are big chunks of the story missing or parts of the story that just do not make
00:19:25
sense real quick a shout out to the good people that participated in the honk and
00:19:30
wave event in Grand Mound Washington last week raising awareness for Logan's case Matthew anfel case and Karen
00:19:39
boden's case back to our case Captain here is what is missing from the story and again law enforcement likely has
00:19:47
filled in all of these blanks so Branson leaves and the persons at his home that
00:19:54
day they do not know where he is going I get that but Joanne says when she arrives at the
00:20:02
home less than 24 hours later Branson is gone and the house is unlocked and the doors are open so when did the people
00:20:11
leave the house the day before and when did Joanne leave and when she left if she was the last one to leave did she
00:20:20
lock up the house or was she not the last one to leave and it was general information at least between Joanne and
00:20:27
Bob that Brans would go visit Bob on the 11th this is after the time Branson was
00:20:32
last seen so how was Branson getting to the hospital as you pointed out Captain did Branson have a vehicle was he going
00:20:40
to drive his dad's vehicle maybe r a bike the hospital is 15 miles from Branson's home a 19 to 22 minute drive
00:20:49
according to my map app right if he was taking Dad's car to go see Dad that is a
00:20:55
fine explanation but we no two men two unnamed men were replacing the alternator in the vehicle on that day in
00:21:03
question so was the vehicle even operable before this switch out job because if it wasn't then again how was
00:21:11
you know Branson how did he get to and from the hospital the previous day and the day before that and the day before
00:21:16
that to visit to to visit his father right it couldn't hurt the investigation to shrink the time frame of when this
00:21:25
dude actually went missing this would really help us to have a better understanding of where whatever it was
00:21:33
that went down to prevent Branson from coming back home because he could have run into some trouble when he went out
00:21:40
that day or if we knew if Joanne Gina or either of these mechanic guys locked up
00:21:47
the house after leaving well then it would most certainly look like Branson probably returned at some point and
00:21:55
maybe something went down at the house right who knows but I'm again concerned with the lack of details here c yeah and
00:22:02
why don't we do we have details on when these mechanics left the house we do not
00:22:08
have an exact time captain of when these two men left the property but what has been reported is that they left sometime
00:22:17
after Branson left on foot look the the way that this case is generally told is a Young Man Branson Perry tells a friend
00:22:28
I'm taking some jumper cables to the shed he vanishes into thin air forever 2 weeks later these jumper cables
00:22:36
magically reappear in the shed apparently they were not there before or until that point that's the version of
00:22:44
this story that gets clicks views and so on right it's similar to some of the issues you and I had with the Brian
00:22:52
Schaefer case a man walks into a bar and disappears well that's not that's not the true story that's not the full story
00:23:00
and same with Branson's case Captain there are a lot more here there's a lot more to this so I think we've already
00:23:07
filled in some of the blanks but let's see if we can fill in some more along the way because there were some leads in
00:23:14
this case and there were some theories oh [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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[Music] that all right we're back you True Crime animals cheers to you cheers cheers
00:25:39
cheers first off Captain early on in this investigation there was a theory that maybe Branson hitchhiked a ride out
00:25:47
of town but his family and friends they all said that they have never known Branson to hitchhike ever even you know
00:25:56
one single time at that so that will immediately lead us back to well what the heck was his vehicle situation
00:26:06
because most sources do not go this far into the story but the Charlie project page dedicated to Branson's case says
00:26:14
Branson owned a van and that the van was in fact found parked at Branson's home after he failed to return or at least
00:26:23
the next day when his grandmother came over on the 12th noticing that Branson was not home right so he had a van but
00:26:31
we don't even know if that van was operable that's that was my next question that I had so what we ended up
00:26:39
finding here he owns the van it's found at his home I found three other sources that that reference Branson's van so
00:26:47
again I think it's safe to say that he had his own transportation mhm and the way that the van is discussed it sounds
00:26:54
like it was operable at the time and it sounds like this was the method that Branson had been using to get to and
00:26:59
from the hospital to go see his father so then my question would become for his family and friends where would Branson
00:27:08
go without his van without his van was there a coffee shop around the corner was there a McDonald's that he like to
00:27:14
just walk to and get something to eat this I think that's another key thing here is understanding the the setting
00:27:22
understanding the the city well I shouldn't even say City I don't know that they even have enough people to
00:27:27
City status depending on what Missouri's rules are on that but it's a town of roughly 260
00:27:35
people from the reports I read there was one gas station in the entire town there
00:27:41
was one bar in the entire town I don't know that there were I'm assuming there might be a restaurant or a diner but
00:27:51
it's not a place where you have a lot of choices as far as shopping or dining or
00:27:58
any you know really anything like that at all so after you date a couple people you have to start dating your cousins
00:28:05
right that's certainly an option the uh two guys you wanted to know about the two guys working on Dad's car so it's my
00:28:14
understanding captain that yes the van was operable that was Branson's method of getting to and from the hospital but
00:28:21
the two guys working on Dad's car fixing the alternator well they were trying to
00:28:25
fix the vehicle because Branson father Bob originally was scheduled to be released that evening and it sounds like
00:28:33
Branson was going to pick him up in his father's vehicle that would make sense I
00:28:39
can't say if the following is true or not but I like to think that it is Branson was close with his father that
00:28:46
is well known by all and I like to think that he was having the vehicle fixed as
00:28:52
a surprise for his old man mhm now as for the people at Branson 's house that day this is where things get tricky only
00:29:02
one source that I could find states that Branson's grandmother was even there on
00:29:07
that day however however however that in my humble garage opinion was a very very
00:29:17
good source so let's take that a step further I believe that if she were Branson's grandmother were in fact there
00:29:25
on that day that she probably was just there very briefly and left before Branson left and I say that because
00:29:33
later in an interview I found with Branson's mother his mother states that look we only have one person telling us
00:29:41
the story of Branson going missing this Gina Crawford friend of Branson's only one person Gina is the
00:29:49
only one ever on record saying that she saw Branson retrieve something from a kitchen cabinet she believed he was
00:29:56
trying to seal whatever it was that he pulled out from the cabinet right and then of course a short while later she
00:30:04
says she asked Branson what he is doing he says he's going to take these jumper cables to the shed and then go out for a
00:30:11
bit to fill in some more of the blanks in in that same interview Branson's mom says Gina and the guys working on the
00:30:21
car they all say that they left for the day when they finished working on whatever their project was and Branson
00:30:29
had not returned by the time that they left so to be clear it does not sound as if they all left together but rather
00:30:38
once when they had finished you know the car was done and then when the house was
00:30:42
done yeah so once the mechanics were done they left and once the house was done that that she left my question then
00:30:49
becomes was that vehicle now could you drive that vehicle could you drive Branson's dad's vehicle where were they
00:30:57
done putting that alternator in or or were they not successful that's a great question I do not know the answer to
00:31:05
that you know one thing left out of a lot of the sources are what I believe are more key
00:31:14
pieces of information maybe even possible evidence right so continuing with that
00:31:21
Branson's mom says that the shed was in a sid lot remember we have Gina again this is the only person
00:31:29
telling us what is going on activity-wise at that house or what Branson was up to that day that he's
00:31:36
last seen Branson tells Gina I'm going to replace these take these cables to the shed I'm going to leave for a bit
00:31:44
I'll be back in a few minutes vanishes forever Branson's mom says that the shed was in a side lot so Bob owned a double
00:31:52
lot side by side the shed was not in the backyard like most would expect but in a
00:31:57
side yard and then Becky also says that the jumper cables were typically kept on
00:32:02
the porch so the shed comment about the cables is strange to her completely Gina
00:32:09
the friend that was over that day said one of the guys working on the car at some point this after Branson left came
00:32:16
into the home and she says went to the same cabinet that she had earlier seen Branson retrieve something from and
00:32:25
according to Gina this guy too behaved strange when she saw him Branson's family says Not only was Branson's van
00:32:33
found parked at the house but they found all of his personal belongings inside the home including Branson's wallet and
00:32:41
to Joanne's statement the grandmother's statement about finding the doors to the
00:32:45
home open and unlocked according to Gina if you do some further digging she closed up the house when she left I
00:32:55
cannot say if this included locking the doors or not but she says she closed up the house so that makes me wonder
00:33:02
Captain did Branson come home later that day and then go out again or did something happen at the home right so
00:33:10
we're going to add to the story a little more because Joann's if you do further digging says not only were the doors
00:33:17
open but the stereo was on at the house and the music was turned up when she arrived on the 12th and Branson was not
00:33:24
there that's strange right so doesn't it look to you like there are other things
00:33:30
going on at this home even after Branson supposedly walked off on his own yeah and let's go back to those jumper cables
00:33:39
real quick cuz she goes oh well those were kept on the porch okay well if they're kept on the
00:33:44
porch that that's probably because the car again the alternator is it runs and feeds energy back to your battery right
00:33:54
if it doesn't feed energy back to your battery then you know normally have to jump it so they would want those wires
00:34:01
to be accessible and maybe you want to put them in the shed because you don't want to walk you know 10 ft every time
00:34:08
you have to jump the car cuz it's a common occurrence but you're having the alternator fixed so maybe that's why he
00:34:16
thought why I can put the cables finally back into the shed that makes a lot of sense and the the weird thing with the
00:34:23
jumper cables always has been the reason why this part of the story sticks and refuses to go away is that according to
00:34:32
every report that I could find the jumper cables were not present they couldn't find the jumper cables and then
00:34:39
two weeks later they magically reappeared and they were inside the shed yeah and look again I would love to know
00:34:48
the names of these guys that were quote unquote the mechanics because they could
00:34:53
have simply went oh we need to jump the car to get it started to let it run to feed energy back to the battery if they
00:35:03
completed the job we don't know if they completed the job or not and they used the jumper cables one of them threw it
00:35:09
threw those cables in the back of their car or the back of their truck and didn't realize those aren't my cables
00:35:16
couple weeks later they come back and return them but if it had if it was nothing nefarious why wouldn't somebody
00:35:21
just come forward and explain why they you know hey it was me that returned the jumper cable again if if somebody has a
00:35:27
record they you know these might be the reasons why they're not coming forward and going hey I my name is Frank and I
00:35:34
was one of the the I trust you believe you me the sheriff's department knows who these men are that were working on
00:35:41
the vehicle oh yeah yeah they're not going to let Gina Crawford uh maybe she's the only one that says she saw
00:35:48
these men they're not going to go into a town of 260 people and believe somebody
00:35:54
that they don't know at least one of the men names well no and on top of that so
00:36:00
Branson puts these you know jumper cables away and people just didn't know where they were and so then they they
00:36:08
they see them one day that that doesn't mean that that the jumper cables ever went missing it just means that maybe
00:36:17
they didn't recognize the spot they were located in for a week or so possibly I'm
00:36:23
I'm going with the that that part sticks because I heard it from the sheriff himself say that you know they weren't
00:36:31
there and then they were there uh so again these things need to be explained there's an answer for them that answer
00:36:38
might lead you to whatever happened to Branson right so our situation regardless is of course that there is no
00:36:47
real physical evidence or information that's really pointing law enforcement in the direction of where this young man
00:36:55
could be uh we have to keep in mind that law enforcement is working five or maybe
00:37:00
even six days after Branson disappeared so they are already at quite a disadvantage remember Bob had scheduled
00:37:09
he his scheduled release was for that night on the 11th but that got changed at the last minute and Bob was kept at
00:37:16
the hospital longer than expected so this is probably a good explanation for the delay that was
00:37:25
going on so you're hoping to find a breadcrumb from the Branson's you know from Branson's family and friends what
00:37:32
was he up to where does he normally go where do you think he would go if maybe if he were in some type of trouble that
00:37:40
sort of thing you're going to be asking those questions hoping that you can find
00:37:45
that breadcrumb to give you some kind of lead in this investigation yeah I mean let's let's do our our big Tech sweep
00:37:54
real quick no mention of Branson having a computer no mention of Branson having a cell phone would he have any way to
00:38:03
communicate with anybody once he left the property other than maybe a pay phone or something well the
00:38:12
first interesting breadcrumb comes from Branson's father right so first there is this weird bit
00:38:21
that took place on April 7th so 4 days before this is is all alleged information but Branson's father seem to
00:38:30
believe this enough that this story has gotten passed along time and time again right Bob said
00:38:38
Branson's father Bob said that on April 8th Branson told him a story and because
00:38:43
of the seriousness and because of Branson's tone Bob believed it Branson told his dad he was hanging out with a
00:38:51
neighbor this guy is named Jason this is the day before on April 7th and Jason gave him a pill and then the two engaged
00:39:01
in sexual activity together Bob says he was Furious because Jason was older than
00:39:08
Branson and Bob felt based on what Branson's reaction was and how he told the story that Branson was victimized by
00:39:17
this guy Bob felt that Jason drugged his son and took advantage of him right Bob
00:39:25
said he was pretty sure that his son had homosexual tendencies and probably explored that during his life but right
00:39:34
it gets tricky because if you're taking a drug that you don't know how you're going to react to how can you really be
00:39:41
how can you really consent to anything if you don't know how you're going to react to a drug could have been
00:39:47
I have even seen some throw around the word rape in regards to this situation I'm not going to pretend to know exactly
00:39:54
what went down if I had to really think that there was some drugs involved I also know that Branson was an adult at
00:40:03
this time he was 20 and look Branson could have been a victim here probably was I'm just pointing out that this is
00:40:10
not a man and little boy situation this could have all been consensual or could have been predatory behavior and again I
00:40:19
think because Bob seemed to believe this story and had took you know took a big issue with this situation we would be
00:40:26
remiss to not mention it now either way it's something that needs to be looked into and could be a solid lead for the
00:40:35
sheriff's department this is the not away Sheriff's Office investigating the case by the way the other lead that
00:40:43
stems from this same story about the neighbor is Bob says to detectives that maybe because of this event Branson
00:40:51
needed to you know he may have been seeking some help from a friend Branson had a longtime friend a close
00:40:59
friend that lived out of state so maybe he went there this neighbor story and then the out of state friend Story the
00:41:08
Sheriff's Office were made aware of both of these situations very early on and from everything I saw Captain
00:41:16
both were fully investigated and nothing came at of either of these possibilities the other
00:41:23
concern too is that at the time there was quite the drug problem going on in and around Skidmore Missouri during that
00:41:31
General time frame remember when attempting to profile an offender you have to profile the victim the area and
00:41:38
the situation we do have a psychic situation here captain and some people get all weird about the psychics some
00:41:46
people but we like them and it's our show so that you can do what you want when you get your own show uh well we're
00:41:51
not saying that they're accurate what we're saying is that they're interesting to to hear from from time to time well
00:41:57
and I think that the general problem that that the general public has with the psychic situations in these cases is
00:42:04
the same thing you know we Echo this we Echo this concern is that sometimes a psychic will see vulnerable people
00:42:12
vulnerable people that are experiencing the loss of a loved one a loved one's either missing or has been murdered and
00:42:20
the psychic will present themselves to the family right and then start you know requesting money and things for
00:42:28
information and these people are desperate for any type of help in some situations the family seeks out a
00:42:34
psychic so it does go the other way sometimes I don't know what happened here who sought out who I will say this
00:42:43
Branson's father and mother extremely obvious to me and everyone else else out there they loved this kid and they were
00:42:53
desperate for answers so maybe they sought out the psychic but regardless what happens here is the psychic says to
00:43:02
Mom and Dad you know I can see that your son has been murdered uh he was tortured
00:43:08
he suffered a long brutal torture before he was killed and the psychic refused to go
00:43:16
into details about what actually happened to Branson because they didn't they simply
00:43:24
couldn't didn't have the heart to tell the family so then you wonder about this neighbor but you also wonder about the
00:43:32
town itself again it's small but we have we have surrounding areas and and some of those people are not as
00:43:41
open-minded about sexuality so is it is this possibly a hate crime because psychic is saying
00:43:50
that Branson was tortured well I think let's go ahead and give a description here because this is a missing person's
00:43:57
case the case itself is classified as endangered missing Foul Play is strongly suspected in this case and we will be
00:44:06
getting into that more so but Branson is a white male he was 20 at the time when
00:44:12
he went missing he would be 40 years old today he was 5'9 in tall 155 lbs athletic build not a great clothing
00:44:23
description but it said that he was possibly wearing size 32 shorts a size medium or large t-shirt and necklaces
00:44:33
with leather trinkets or chains with some arrow heads on them now Branson does have a medical condition it's a
00:44:41
racing heart condition and he is also allergic to penicillin he has blonde hair blue eyes he wears his hair
00:44:48
typically short yeah he was a good-looking kid and has a small faint scar on the upper part of his right
00:44:55
cheek and a small scar on his left knee again we'll post pictures on our Instagram and Twitter and Facebook all
00:45:02
right this takes us to a weird part in this whole story Captain it actually takes us to another investigation not an
00:45:11
any way meant to be connected to Branson's missing person's case about 20 years ago and for several years the FBI
00:45:20
ran a project called operation Candyman the very basic goal of Candyman was to to identify and round up as many as
00:45:28
possible child pornography collectors Traders sellers suppliers makers all from the internet and I hope and pray
00:45:35
that this is a continued thing just running under different names over the years because a lot of sickos and a lot
00:45:42
of potentially violent dangerous sickos can be outed and locked up using this method this is the old pervert Roundup
00:45:50
undercover style yeah the old P us so this operation leads to dozens of rest when got him they
00:45:59
identify these computer perves they go to their homes they go to their you know through their things and more
00:46:05
importantly through their computers and Communications so one of the sikis that they uncovered in this operation
00:46:12
Candyman is a man named Michael Adam Davidson this is in 2002 this perv was a medical student down in Alabama he would
00:46:22
later plead guilty to multiple charges of receiving and attempting to receive images of child pornography pleading
00:46:28
guilty in federal court on his computer amongst some other really gross stuff they found a child pornography movie
00:46:36
MP3 and a short short snuff film MP3 that showed a man dying it would have been an mp4 Davidson had Communications
00:46:46
with another man that he thanked for the snuff film file the man Davidson thanked frequently
00:46:54
chatted with Davidson even even calling the man his mentor this Mentor told Davidson in not such short way that he
00:47:04
was a sexual stist and he had killed a number of boys SL men one of the stories this man
00:47:12
discussed to be clear these were discussions and I promise I not going to go through all of it it's lengthy it's
00:47:19
disgusting and frankly I don't want to have to say some of the things that I have read and heard the man tells Davids
00:47:26
when he was at the Walmart the other day he spotted something that reminded him of something he had done now this man is
00:47:33
attempting to be cryptic he says he was reminded of something that's missing he says it was not really missing it was
00:47:44
just never returned he said he had a great fondness in memories of it and said that the thing with most prey is
00:47:52
they are not worth looking for it was a runaway or so it told me and they again are referring to prey they are just
00:48:02
throwaways no one gives a [ __ ] this man chatting with Davidson when he was talking about something that wasn't
00:48:09
really missing it was just never returned it was determined that he was talking about seeing a missing person's
00:48:15
flyer for Branson Perry at the Walmart now again I'm going to keep this short as there is a lot to this chat and
00:48:23
it's vulgar really depraved stuff so the short of it is he picked it up hitchhiking on the interstate it told
00:48:33
him he was from Skidmore the two partied together drinking and he gave it a pill the combo
00:48:43
of the pill and the drinking made it most compliant he took it out to a remote location that the man called basically a
00:48:52
campsite stripped it tied it to to a tree and tortured it physically mentally emotionally and spiritually until it
00:49:02
begged him to kill it this man said that these were activities that he had done before and his favorite part of these
00:49:10
activities was breaking it afterward he said he burned all of the clothing and he was very descriptive about destroying
00:49:18
the clothing and other evidence he said he eviscerated it so the body would not float or bloat
00:49:26
and tossing the guts into a ditch in the body into deep water he described the area simply as an Ozark's overnight stay
00:49:37
and it as an 18-hour project the FBI tracked down this man this was a Falton Missouri resident
00:49:48
Falton is about 250 Mi southeast of Skidmore and they did a search and seizure at the man's home work vacation
00:49:58
property basically described as a campsite with a trailer on it and his vehicle they uncovered a plethora of
00:50:05
child porn on his home and work computer and bondage items these are devices some
00:50:12
would say torture tools and devices these were found in the trailer at the campsite of course this man is arrested
00:50:21
and they are looking for evidence of any crimes this man may have committed but specific
00:50:26
looking for evidence that he killed and concealed the body of Branson Perry now what they find in relation to the Perry
00:50:33
case is a leather necklace with beads and a Turtles claw this is shown to Branson's parents and his father says
00:50:41
the necklace is identical to the one Branson had so who is this monster well it's
00:50:51
59-year-old business owner and resident of fton Missouri he is the OWN owner operator of Decker and Decker Employment
00:50:58
Services in Columbia Missouri he also is an ordained Presbyterian lay Minister and a Boy Scout
00:51:07
leader oh yeah this this guy he's already been convicted on child porn charges before
00:51:16
so how he was allowed to be involved with this church or the Boy Scouts I have no clue no answers for you there
00:51:24
captain no he reminds me a lot of Buffalo Bill like if you look at him just real
00:51:31
quick he doesn't look normal he looks um you definitely can see the Evil coming out in this individual back in the 90s
00:51:41
this man served a few months on child porn charges this is Jack Wayne Rogers and his whole story will just get
00:51:50
stranger and stranger and I'll read some of this here Captain this is from CBS news out of columia
00:51:58
Missouri a former Church Minister and Boy Scout leader who cut off another man's genitals in a makeshift gender
00:52:06
reassignment surgery in a hotel room pled guilty to first-degree assault and practicing medicine without a license
00:52:14
Jack Wayne Rogers age 59 of Fulton Missouri admitted he performed the grizzly operation the judge followed the
00:52:22
recommendation of prosecutors sentencing Rogers to 17 years in prison for assault
00:52:29
and 7 years for the illegal surgery the prison time is to run concurrently with a 30-year sentence handed to Rogers
00:52:37
after he plad guilty to child pornography and obscenity charges Rogers promised the victim he'd remove his
00:52:45
genitals in a 4-Hour operation that time passed complications developed and bleeding refused to stop the victim says
00:52:55
she didn't feel like a victim at first but changed her mind after prosecutors presented her with Rogers checkered
00:53:02
criminal history peppered with allegations of cannibalism and a pornography collection that included
00:53:09
photographs of severed genitals quote I didn't know his motivation when I went into it she said I was under a lot of
00:53:16
emotional stress and it seemed like there was no alternative Rogers Public Defender said she advised her client to
00:53:23
plead guilty to avoid further prison time quote he is getting concurrent time she said if he had gone to trial he very
00:53:31
well could have gotten consecutive time he is still being investigated in the torture and killing of Skidmore Man
00:53:38
Branson Perry who disappeared in April 2001 a police search of Rogers property turned up that necklace that we already
00:53:46
mentioned belonging to Branson Perry well okay we know he's a piece of [ __ ] right we know he's capable of doing this
00:53:54
and his name gets thrown around and like if I'm hearing you correctly at some point that Jack was telling somebody
00:54:03
this is what I did confessing to somebody that this is what I did to Branson yes yeah yeah now after he's
00:54:13
arrested for these child pornography charges what led them to this illegal surgery that this man performed was he
00:54:22
had photos and evidence of it on his computers and so you know you can't just be out there performing
00:54:30
surgeries and so they were able to charge him not only with the child pornography charges but this illegal
00:54:36
surgery that could have led to this individual's death this man's not a doctor he's
00:54:43
performing this surgery where there's going to be a lot of blood in a hotel room and as sick is this indivi
00:54:51
individual sounds Jack Wayne Rogers from what he has chatting about in chat rooms
00:54:56
and of course the nasty stuff found on his computers right as weird and strange and he describes himself as a sexual
00:55:04
stist that poor individual that's so damn desperate to to change their life to alter their life could have ended up
00:55:13
being severely victimized by this man in the end Captain Rogers has denied killing Branson Perry and he's never
00:55:21
been charged with anything in relation to anon's disappearance he said his writings and
00:55:28
discussions were works of fiction fantasies that he lived out online and frankly I don't know what's more
00:55:35
disgusting the most disgusting thing obviously is the idea that maybe he actually did all or some of what he said
00:55:42
he did but even if he didn't I don't know what is more appalling the idea that he has these fantasies and acts and
00:55:49
lives them out online or the fact that a bunch of others want to sit around and listen to it Branson's mother attended
00:55:56
Jack Wayne Rogers trial every chance she got she begged him to tell her where he
00:56:05
hid Branson's remains he offered no answers so where does the case stand today sadly Branson's father Bob died in
00:56:14
2004 and his mother Becky died in 2011 Branson has never been located in Branson's mother's
00:56:23
obituary it is noted that her son Branson Perry pred deceased her so even though no remains have been found Becky
00:56:33
who had cancer and knew that she was going to pass went to her grave knowing in her heart that Branson was dead of
00:56:41
course as we said earlier Foul Play is suspected in this case that's law enforcement stance now where the case
00:56:50
stands today and why Becky put in her obituary chose to put in her obituary that her son
00:56:58
Branson pred deceased her we'll be quite clear we're going to fill in some more blanks here go for it there is a man a
00:57:06
retired Sheriff the sheriff that worked the case at the time this would be nway County Sheriff Ben espie and if you
00:57:16
could take a mound of clay and mold it into a sheriff this is what you would get this guy was born to be a sheriff
00:57:26
you you should see this guy in interviews he's got that cold dark stare when he's asked a dumb question by some
00:57:34
reporter this man is all business all the time he knew that Branson's mother Becky was dying this was a battle with
00:57:43
cancer and it was coming to the end he wanted to offer her some kind of answers before she left left this
00:57:55
Earth and he said look it is my job to investigate these cases I however don't make arrest I
00:58:08
don't prosecute people it's the prosecutor's job to tell me who to arrest and who to convict in court yeah
00:58:16
he's just Gathering evidence get said suspects and keep in mind this lead with Jack Wayne Rogers that looked very very
00:58:23
promising this is is happening a couple years into the investigation Sheriff espie said
00:58:30
basically what was going on was we were we were going to follow every lead that came in every tip that came in
00:58:37
especially the Jack Wayne Rogers that all needs to be looked at it all needs to be sorted out but he said you know
00:58:44
what at the very beginning very early on in this case we knew what happened to Branson we knew who was responsible we
00:58:53
just couldn't put together the evidence and I think a lot of that was not being able to locate and recover the remains
00:59:02
to bring forth charges on some individuals that were responsible SB points out back to the drug problem at
00:59:10
the time and he says look unfortunately Branson Perry was no angel he was not a saint he was a good kid but later in
00:59:18
life he got mixed up with the wrong crowd and he was involved in some of the drug
00:59:25
manufacturing and pedaling that was going on at the very local small level in the area at the time espie is on
00:59:35
record after being retired saying that Branson Perry was shot in the head and he was buried somewhere and he said
00:59:45
that two people at least two people are responsible for the murder of Branson Perry and he believes and has evidence
00:59:53
that will show that nine of approximately nine people are either involved or aware or know exactly what
01:00:00
went down with Branson's case these are all people on the local level that everything leads back to the small town
01:00:09
of Skidmore Missouri right and over the years Captain they've gone to several locations and done these Excavating
01:00:19
digging looking for the remains and I really think that they would have had those remains they could have brought
01:00:28
this thing to court but again this murder is all at the local level it's not from some sicko that lived in fton
01:00:38
Missouri it's all about the drug trade and the drugs that were being trafficked in the local area of Skidmore Missouri
01:00:46
and again the sheriff's department knows who is responsible for this young man's
01:00:51
murder they've even gone so far to say that not only do we know who's responsible we know who else is involved
01:00:58
we know that he was buried at some point and we also have evidence and reason to
01:01:03
believe that at some point they went and moved the body well it sucks that they can't collect enough evidence to bring
01:01:10
charges against these individuals yeah and Sheriff Ben espie said look he he had to give this information to
01:01:20
Branson's mother before she was passing and he believed that even though they couldn't bring charges against these
01:01:26
individuals that they owed her the truth uh as the evidence and as their investigation showed the truth to
01:01:36
them Jack Wayne Rogers although not involved in this case other than being kind of a side
01:01:43
story that gets lumped in because of his sick fantasies that he's living out online he's an older man he's probably
01:01:51
about 75 years of age and and if my calculations are right he's about 10 maybe 12 years left on that 30-year
01:02:01
sentence so hopefully he'll die still with the status of a federal inmate but because but because of his
01:02:10
actions and his fantasies and for the sake of the communities and just Public Safety in general the feds better make
01:02:18
sure that he serves every minute of that 30-year sentence and join us here in the garage tomorrow
01:02:38
for another case cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain cheers to everybody out there join us back here in
01:02:45
the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't lit [Music] you can live out your Master Chef
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