WEBVTT - Episode 1: The Dark Corner 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:22.676 Pushkin. This is a story about a young woman who 0:00:22.796 --> 0:00:26.676 ran away from home. At least that's how it all started. 0:00:27.236 --> 0:00:29.116 I think people think that I had this master plan 0:00:29.196 --> 0:00:31.356 and I went out and did it, and like, you know, 0:00:31.476 --> 0:00:35.836 like it's not fun, right, You're constantly scared. You have 0:00:35.876 --> 0:00:38.076 no support, you have no one to talk to, which 0:00:38.116 --> 0:00:41.196 is part of the reason it got so carried away. 0:00:41.236 --> 0:00:45.076 Like if I had just talked to somebody, they would 0:00:45.076 --> 0:00:48.796 have been like this is crazy. Along the way, there 0:00:48.796 --> 0:00:51.316 were plenty of moments where she could have stopped running, 0:00:52.116 --> 0:00:56.476 but she didn't. Sort of like I got on a 0:00:56.516 --> 0:01:00.396 train track. There was clearly the wrong train track, and 0:01:00.476 --> 0:01:03.236 like my train is running away, and at some point 0:01:03.716 --> 0:01:05.836 you're not thinking crap, how do we get off this 0:01:05.916 --> 0:01:08.316 train track, or just thinking crap, how do I stop 0:01:08.316 --> 0:01:11.756 this train from going off the rails? You know, just 0:01:11.836 --> 0:01:15.156 kept making a horrible decision after horrible decision after horrible decision, 0:01:16.236 --> 0:01:18.836 just trying to keep the train from crashing and killing me. 0:01:18.876 --> 0:01:25.036 At that point, we're going to come back to this 0:01:25.076 --> 0:01:28.196 woman and go deep into her story, so you'll hear 0:01:28.236 --> 0:01:31.836 more about all that, but not just yet, because this 0:01:31.956 --> 0:01:36.196 is actually a story about not one, but two young 0:01:36.236 --> 0:01:39.796 women who vanished at about the same time. The two 0:01:39.836 --> 0:01:42.636 of them were roughly the same age, but in so 0:01:42.676 --> 0:01:45.436 many other ways they could not have been more different. 0:01:46.236 --> 0:01:49.276 One grew up in rural Montana, where she was raised 0:01:49.276 --> 0:01:53.316 in a sheltered, devoutly religious home. She was shy and 0:01:53.516 --> 0:01:56.756 kind of a nerd. The other was a kind hearted 0:01:56.796 --> 0:02:01.516 free spirit from South Carolina. She partied often and sometimes 0:02:01.676 --> 0:02:05.276 hung out with a rough crowd. They both disappeared in 0:02:05.396 --> 0:02:09.636 nineteen ninety nine. Their families searched for them but didn't 0:02:09.676 --> 0:02:14.596 find many clues, and then improbably their stories collided when 0:02:14.596 --> 0:02:19.716 a lone investigator got involved and quickly became obsessed. I 0:02:19.756 --> 0:02:23.756 think of a situation as a sweater. So sometimes you 0:02:23.836 --> 0:02:26.516 have a loose thread and you pull the thread and 0:02:26.556 --> 0:02:29.116 you get a knot. And sometimes you pull a thread 0:02:29.316 --> 0:02:32.716 and it just keeps unraveling and you just keep falling 0:02:32.756 --> 0:02:37.156 invulnent bulling. This investigator was convinced that the fates of 0:02:37.196 --> 0:02:40.516 these two young women, the free spirit and the nerd, 0:02:40.956 --> 0:02:44.756 were linked, and that by solving one of their cases 0:02:45.076 --> 0:02:48.276 he might also solve the other. Not just that he 0:02:48.396 --> 0:02:51.756 suspected that one of them was a master of deception, 0:02:52.316 --> 0:02:55.436 a highly trained chameleon who conned her way into the 0:02:55.476 --> 0:02:59.396 ivy leagues. He began an investigation that ultimately drew in 0:02:59.676 --> 0:03:03.596 the Secret Service, the US Marshals, and the Justice Department. 0:03:04.076 --> 0:03:08.356 The media soon got wind of this, Allegations of murder, fraud, 0:03:08.476 --> 0:03:14.676 and spaje swirled. Eventually, a nationwide manhunt got underway, all 0:03:14.756 --> 0:03:19.996 because of this one investigator and his hunch. Now, given 0:03:20.036 --> 0:03:23.116 the gigantic scope of all this, you might think that 0:03:23.156 --> 0:03:26.796 our investigator worked for some big city police department or 0:03:26.836 --> 0:03:30.636 a fancy federal agency, or maybe even an international outfit 0:03:30.716 --> 0:03:35.316 like Interpoll. Nope, he was a small town cop who'd 0:03:35.356 --> 0:03:38.596 just become a detective. He didn't have a partner, or 0:03:38.756 --> 0:03:42.916 for a while even a computer. But he was doggedly stubborn, 0:03:43.556 --> 0:03:47.996 almost perversely. So I just pulled a thread and it 0:03:48.116 --> 0:03:50.236 just kept going and going and going to the whole 0:03:50.236 --> 0:03:54.516 thing unraveled. I get it. I love pulling on threads. 0:03:54.916 --> 0:03:58.036 As a journalist. I've done this so many times, pulled 0:03:58.076 --> 0:04:00.756 and pulled until I've lost track of what I was 0:04:00.796 --> 0:04:04.076 originally looking for or whether it was worth it. And 0:04:04.196 --> 0:04:08.516 sometimes most of the time, in fact, it's not. But 0:04:09.156 --> 0:04:11.956 every once in a while there's a set of facts. 0:04:11.996 --> 0:04:15.756 It's so irresistibly curious that I just can't let go. 0:04:17.516 --> 0:04:20.876 And I suppose it doesn't matter whether you're a journalist, 0:04:21.076 --> 0:04:25.116 or a detective or just a nosy neighbor. So many 0:04:25.156 --> 0:04:28.596 of us believe that great mysteries lurk in the periphery 0:04:28.636 --> 0:04:32.716 of our lives. So when we find an especially curious thread, 0:04:33.436 --> 0:04:37.636 we keep pulling because we won't be satisfied until we've 0:04:37.676 --> 0:04:56.676 unraveled at all. I'm Jake Albern and this is deep Cover, 0:04:57.516 --> 0:05:25.916 Season three, Never Seen Again, Episode one, The Dark Corner. 0:05:31.116 --> 0:05:33.916 The detective that I told you about. His name is 0:05:34.036 --> 0:05:37.396 John Campbell, and he's just about the friendliest guy I've 0:05:37.436 --> 0:05:40.836 ever met. He has whispy brown hair and a boyish grin. 0:05:41.276 --> 0:05:44.236 He wears a pair of those wraparound sunglasses that dads 0:05:44.276 --> 0:05:47.356 always wear a little league practice. He's also got this 0:05:47.516 --> 0:05:51.316 goofy and totally lovable laugh that he breaks into all 0:05:51.356 --> 0:05:55.356 the time. So not an old timey lawman. In fact, 0:05:55.516 --> 0:05:57.596 one of the first things that he tells me is 0:05:57.636 --> 0:06:00.236 that he doesn't care for guns. When I retire, I 0:06:00.276 --> 0:06:01.876 can't wait to put this in a drawer. I mean, 0:06:01.916 --> 0:06:04.036 this is this is a this is the thing I 0:06:04.116 --> 0:06:08.196 banged my elbow on all the time. So it's not 0:06:08.236 --> 0:06:10.276 about carrying a gun. I carry gun because we have to. 0:06:10.356 --> 0:06:13.316 I'd rather be like Andy Griffith and just be shared 0:06:13.396 --> 0:06:17.316 without a gun. I met John Dunnan Traveler's Rest, South Carolina, 0:06:17.396 --> 0:06:19.916 where he lives. This, by the way, it was also 0:06:19.996 --> 0:06:22.596 the hometown of the free spirited young woman that I 0:06:22.636 --> 0:06:25.196 told you about, one of the two that went missing 0:06:26.356 --> 0:06:29.796 back in the early two thousands, when our story really starts. 0:06:30.316 --> 0:06:33.676 John was the town's loan detective. I asked him what 0:06:33.716 --> 0:06:36.876 this was like. He told me that back then this 0:06:36.996 --> 0:06:41.196 was truly a sleepy backwater. Traveler's Rest was almost a 0:06:41.276 --> 0:06:44.876 dry town. We had one bar and one liquor store, 0:06:45.116 --> 0:06:47.556 and the liquor store closed I think at eight or 0:06:47.636 --> 0:06:51.036 nine o'clock at night. The bar closed at midnight, and 0:06:51.236 --> 0:06:53.956 we rolled up the streets and the only problems we 0:06:53.996 --> 0:06:57.716 ever had was at the bar, and so we shut 0:06:57.756 --> 0:06:59.636 the bar down two or three times, took their license. 0:06:59.956 --> 0:07:06.356 Outside of town, well, that was a different story. The 0:07:06.476 --> 0:07:09.916 thickly wooded slopes quickly rose of the peaks of the 0:07:09.916 --> 0:07:14.276 Blue Ridge Mountains. The land was steep and craggy. Some 0:07:14.396 --> 0:07:19.316 called it the Dark Corner. For generations, it was known 0:07:19.356 --> 0:07:22.876 as a place where Mountain folk brewed moonshine and lived 0:07:22.916 --> 0:07:27.996 by their own rules Mountain Justice. By the nineteen nineties 0:07:28.036 --> 0:07:31.716 that had begun to change. Newcomers were arriving, retirees and 0:07:31.796 --> 0:07:35.116 the like, but the Dark Corner remained a place where 0:07:35.116 --> 0:07:37.876 it wasn't wise to venture at night or turned down 0:07:37.876 --> 0:07:41.556 a road you didn't know. I talked to one local 0:07:41.596 --> 0:07:44.356 who told me he once found a great big log 0:07:44.516 --> 0:07:47.836 blocking the road with a stack of dog skulls on it, 0:07:48.396 --> 0:07:57.876 and then he just knew better turn around. John says 0:07:57.916 --> 0:08:01.156 that occasionally the Mountain folks would just show up at 0:08:01.236 --> 0:08:04.116 John's office. Here, this roar of a truck would come in, 0:08:04.356 --> 0:08:06.556 and people would pile out, and they'd say, we're looking 0:08:06.596 --> 0:08:09.076 for the law, you know, And Mountain Justice had fail 0:08:09.516 --> 0:08:11.796 and they had to come to into town to find 0:08:12.676 --> 0:08:16.476 some law enforcement for the police and Traveler's Rest. The 0:08:16.596 --> 0:08:20.836 key was basically to secure the town's perimeter. So I 0:08:20.916 --> 0:08:23.076 called Traveler's Rest of the circle of wagons. So we 0:08:23.156 --> 0:08:25.236 had seven square miles that was like a circle of 0:08:25.276 --> 0:08:27.916 wagons in our little town, and we kept all the 0:08:27.916 --> 0:08:30.756 crime out of our little circle out into the county 0:08:30.836 --> 0:08:33.276 bushed it out. Wait, so your job was basically just 0:08:33.356 --> 0:08:37.356 like make sure that the criminals stayed out of the circle. Yeah, 0:08:37.356 --> 0:08:40.796 pretty much. Did you ever like like tell guys like 0:08:40.916 --> 0:08:42.756 not in here your other Oh yeah, what did you say? 0:08:42.796 --> 0:08:47.076 This is our town out? Take that up the mountains. 0:08:47.436 --> 0:08:51.316 John says this strategy it worked. Not much happened in 0:08:51.316 --> 0:08:54.836 the way of major crime in Traveler's Rest. But then 0:08:55.076 --> 0:08:59.276 one day, something rather sinister happened in this small town, 0:09:03.396 --> 0:09:07.196 something that broke the humdrum rhythm of daily life. A 0:09:07.276 --> 0:09:11.556 twenty year old girl went missing. Her name was Brooke Henson. 0:09:12.276 --> 0:09:15.796 She vanished from within the town's limits, inside the circle 0:09:15.836 --> 0:09:20.236 of wagons, and her disappearance would ultimately send John Campbell 0:09:20.556 --> 0:09:24.836 on an epic quest. It would become a huge case, 0:09:25.196 --> 0:09:29.956 a national case, and John, the small town detective who 0:09:30.036 --> 0:09:33.356 hated carrying a gun, would be at the center of 0:09:33.396 --> 0:09:41.236 it all. The day before Brooke Henson went missing, John 0:09:41.276 --> 0:09:45.116 Campbell says he saw her on the street totally by chance. 0:09:45.716 --> 0:09:49.436 It was July of nineteen ninety nine. John wasn't a 0:09:49.436 --> 0:09:52.156 detective at the time, he was still just a patrolman 0:09:52.436 --> 0:09:56.356 making the rounds. He remembers that day crisply, and he 0:09:56.396 --> 0:09:58.836 recounted it to me while we were driving around town 0:09:58.876 --> 0:10:04.316 together in his truck. When I saw Brooke. She was 0:10:04.396 --> 0:10:09.836 walking down this street here, close to her house, and 0:10:09.956 --> 0:10:12.956 she turned around and looked at me right about right here. 0:10:13.356 --> 0:10:15.436 It was where I saw her. And so that's her 0:10:15.436 --> 0:10:19.636 house where that sign is, it's your driveway. The street 0:10:19.676 --> 0:10:22.876 that we're on, where Brooke used to live, is shrouded 0:10:22.916 --> 0:10:27.116 in thick, tangled vegetation. The woods thrum with the buzz 0:10:27.116 --> 0:10:30.796 of cicadas. We pull up to Brook's old house. This 0:10:30.876 --> 0:10:33.596 is the front of the house as you can. You 0:10:33.596 --> 0:10:36.076 can't see it. I mean, it's completely over her own. 0:10:36.316 --> 0:10:39.516 Was it always this overgrown? The front was grown up, 0:10:39.556 --> 0:10:42.116 but it was no You could see the house and everything, 0:10:42.316 --> 0:10:45.116 but you can't even tell there's a house in there. Yeah, 0:10:45.116 --> 0:10:48.076 I mean it looks like like Radley's house from To 0:10:48.156 --> 0:10:52.796 Kill a Mockingbird. It's almost abandoned looking now. John didn't 0:10:52.796 --> 0:10:56.756 really know Brooke, but other people who did described her 0:10:56.796 --> 0:11:01.676 to me as easygoing, kind, free spirited. She shopped at 0:11:01.756 --> 0:11:05.396 thrift stores, wore Doc Martins and flannels. She was a 0:11:05.476 --> 0:11:08.916 huge fan of Nirvana. She dropped out of high school 0:11:09.116 --> 0:11:11.596 and in the summer of nineteen ninety nine, she was 0:11:11.636 --> 0:11:15.276 still living at home with her parents. Now I've gone 0:11:15.276 --> 0:11:17.476 through a bunch of accounts of what happened the night 0:11:17.516 --> 0:11:21.636 she went missing, including the original police report, which was 0:11:21.676 --> 0:11:25.316 basically a statement from Brooke's mom, But there's not a 0:11:25.356 --> 0:11:28.396 whole lot that we know for sure. What we do 0:11:28.516 --> 0:11:31.316 know is that she disappeared early on the morning of 0:11:31.396 --> 0:11:35.316 July fourth. There'd been a party at Brooke's house that night. 0:11:35.756 --> 0:11:39.636 Her boyfriend, a guy named Ricky Sewn Shirley, was there, 0:11:40.316 --> 0:11:44.716 and apparently the two of them were fighting. According to 0:11:44.716 --> 0:11:48.636 the police report. At two forty three am, Brooke told 0:11:48.636 --> 0:11:52.156 her mother, quote, I'm getting out of here. Her mom 0:11:52.196 --> 0:11:55.756 told her it was too late to wander about. Brooke replied, quote, 0:11:56.196 --> 0:11:58.916 I'm not going anywhere. I'm just seeing what he'll do. 0:11:59.196 --> 0:12:03.396 I'm messing with Sean. Brooke then left the house. She 0:12:03.516 --> 0:12:09.196 set off into the night. She never came home. In 0:12:09.236 --> 0:12:12.036 the morning, Brook's mother found a note on her bed. 0:12:12.516 --> 0:12:16.436 It was intended for Sean, her boyfriend. It read, I'm 0:12:16.476 --> 0:12:29.076 walking follow me if you care. The million dollar question, 0:12:29.156 --> 0:12:32.956 of course, is this where did she go? And there 0:12:32.996 --> 0:12:35.116 are a lot of theories about this. But the theory 0:12:35.156 --> 0:12:37.236 that I heard most was that she was headed to 0:12:37.276 --> 0:12:41.076 a nearby store. Apparently Brooke went there from time to 0:12:41.156 --> 0:12:44.076 time to get cigarettes. This is the store where she 0:12:44.156 --> 0:12:47.196 was headed, by the way, the store right here behind 0:12:47.276 --> 0:12:52.236 us gas station. Yeah, to get cigarettes. Like, why would 0:12:52.276 --> 0:12:54.036 she go to the store. She would have known the 0:12:54.036 --> 0:12:56.716 store was closed because it was like two thirty in 0:12:56.756 --> 0:12:59.836 the morning, so that store was not open at that time. Well, 0:12:59.876 --> 0:13:03.596 she would have known the store was closed. Also, I 0:13:03.596 --> 0:13:09.476 mean those roads, it's it's dark here that night. Yeah, 0:13:09.516 --> 0:13:12.756 and especially back then, we rolled the streets up at 0:13:12.796 --> 0:13:16.196 nine o'clock and travel's rest. I mean, there was nothing 0:13:16.276 --> 0:13:28.476 going on at night in this town. The whole thing 0:13:28.636 --> 0:13:31.596 was more than a little mystifying. How does a young 0:13:31.636 --> 0:13:34.516 woman vanish off a small town street in the dead 0:13:34.556 --> 0:13:37.596 of night en route to a store that's not even open. 0:13:38.916 --> 0:13:42.556 Even the note that she left was enigmatic. Follow me 0:13:42.636 --> 0:13:49.636 if you care. Brooks's parents are both deceased now, so 0:13:49.676 --> 0:13:52.516 I couldn't talk with them. Instead, I had to rely 0:13:52.636 --> 0:13:55.996 on what few clues I could glean. Brooke's mom did 0:13:56.036 --> 0:13:58.716 file a report with the police the day after she 0:13:58.796 --> 0:14:02.556 went missing, but at first the police didn't do much. 0:14:03.316 --> 0:14:06.396 Seems like no one did. A few missing posters went up, 0:14:06.756 --> 0:14:11.356 that's about it. No one was sounding alarms. I spoke 0:14:11.396 --> 0:14:15.236 with Brooks's cousin, Holly Henson about what she remembers from 0:14:15.236 --> 0:14:19.796 this time. I was staying out a friend's house in Marietta, 0:14:19.996 --> 0:14:23.316 just above Traveler's Drest, and her mom took us to 0:14:23.356 --> 0:14:27.476 the gas station and I saw a missing poster with 0:14:27.676 --> 0:14:30.276 Brooks picture and name on it. So I told my 0:14:30.356 --> 0:14:35.236 dad and brooks family had never told us that she 0:14:35.356 --> 0:14:39.356 was missing, but she had just went missing. Kind of odd, right, 0:14:40.196 --> 0:14:44.076 This is how she learns about her cousin's disappearance, But 0:14:44.276 --> 0:14:47.956 cousin Holly says that her family and Brooks had kind 0:14:47.956 --> 0:14:51.116 of grown apart in the years leading up to her disappearance. 0:14:51.836 --> 0:14:55.356 Holly's mother told me that she disapproved of brooks parents 0:14:55.636 --> 0:14:58.476 of the way that they raised their children, allowing them 0:14:58.516 --> 0:15:01.556 to drink and party and come and go as they pleased, 0:15:01.796 --> 0:15:04.556 like there were no rules. She did not want that 0:15:04.676 --> 0:15:08.276 for her own kids. But when they learned that Brooke 0:15:08.356 --> 0:15:12.876 had gone missing, they rushed over. Everyone went cousin Holly, 0:15:13.156 --> 0:15:17.356 her sister, Patty, their mom. They wanted to show solidarity 0:15:17.716 --> 0:15:20.916 to help if they could. When they showed up, the 0:15:20.996 --> 0:15:24.436 scene at Brooks house was somber. We were just all 0:15:24.476 --> 0:15:27.796 sitting in the livenary and it was just the whole 0:15:27.796 --> 0:15:31.276 thing was just weird. It was quiet, nobody was really 0:15:31.316 --> 0:15:36.756 saying anything. That's Brook's other cousin, Patty. She and Holly 0:15:36.916 --> 0:15:40.436 both remember the silence. Some of Brooks friends were present, 0:15:40.876 --> 0:15:44.956 sitting there mutely. Brooke's mother was on the sofa just crying. 0:15:45.556 --> 0:15:47.436 From the way they described it, it was like a 0:15:47.516 --> 0:15:51.036 vigil for someone who died. The odd part was that 0:15:51.156 --> 0:15:54.556 Brooke had just gone missing. It wasn't all that unusual 0:15:54.596 --> 0:15:56.516 for Brooke to just go off and disappear for a 0:15:56.556 --> 0:16:00.516 few days, visiting friends or whatever. Here's cousin Holly again. 0:16:01.076 --> 0:16:04.636 Brooke was allowed to come and go as she pleased. 0:16:04.676 --> 0:16:06.516 She could be gone for two or three days. And 0:16:06.556 --> 0:16:09.316 you know, there wasn't cell phones back the end, and 0:16:09.516 --> 0:16:12.716 her parents wouldn't really know where she was. But when 0:16:12.756 --> 0:16:19.396 Brooke went missing, her mama was very, very upset, as 0:16:19.396 --> 0:16:24.236 if she knew Brooke wasn't coming home. The whole gathering 0:16:24.236 --> 0:16:27.636 at the Henson House left a chilling impression on Holly 0:16:27.716 --> 0:16:31.276 and Patty's mother mary Anne Henson. She was Brook's aunt. 0:16:32.116 --> 0:16:36.516 It was very eerie. It was something I don't want 0:16:36.516 --> 0:16:40.996 to ever experience again. According to Aunt Mary Anne, the 0:16:41.036 --> 0:16:43.636 only person who seemed to be doing much of anything 0:16:44.116 --> 0:16:47.396 was this one guy that someone had invited. He was 0:16:47.476 --> 0:16:51.756 walking through the house, going through Brooks possessions. Who ever 0:16:51.916 --> 0:16:55.076 got him? I'm not even sure. And I don't think 0:16:55.076 --> 0:16:58.836 he was really an investigator. I mean, they said he was, 0:16:58.956 --> 0:17:03.316 but he was an odd person. He was an older man, creepy, 0:17:03.916 --> 0:17:06.316 but they said he was kind of like a psychic too. 0:17:09.396 --> 0:17:12.196 He would just like pick her things up. I remember 0:17:12.276 --> 0:17:16.956 him picking up the hairbrush, and I mean, it was 0:17:17.036 --> 0:17:21.116 like a bad movie. Becausin. Patty was also confused about 0:17:21.156 --> 0:17:25.356 the whole thing. I feel like, why weren't the police there? 0:17:25.516 --> 0:17:28.996 Are they? I don't understand why the police weren't there. 0:17:29.036 --> 0:17:32.916 It was the whole thing was weird. That night, when 0:17:32.916 --> 0:17:36.156 she got home, she says she had a dream. It 0:17:36.316 --> 0:17:38.916 was one of those dreams that was so vivid and 0:17:39.076 --> 0:17:41.836 life like that it felt like it was really happening. 0:17:42.276 --> 0:17:44.556 I was getting up to go to the bathroom and 0:17:44.756 --> 0:17:48.836 the shower curtain was cracked, and I kind of looked 0:17:50.156 --> 0:17:52.756 and did a second look, and it looked like muddy 0:17:52.796 --> 0:17:58.236 water and the bathtub. And then I got down on 0:17:58.356 --> 0:18:02.436 my knees and Brooke was coming up from the water 0:18:03.836 --> 0:18:06.516 and she was grabbing my arms like she was scratching 0:18:06.556 --> 0:18:10.596 my arms. And then I said, who did this to you? 0:18:10.676 --> 0:18:13.836 And she said, Sean Charlotte his first name and his 0:18:13.956 --> 0:18:20.836 last name, Sean Shirley. That was Brooke's boyfriend, the guy 0:18:20.876 --> 0:18:23.636 who she left the note for. They'd been having a 0:18:23.636 --> 0:18:27.916 fight the night the Brook disappeared, and apparently their relationship 0:18:27.996 --> 0:18:31.716 was a turbulent one. According to cousin Patty, he'd hit 0:18:31.796 --> 0:18:34.956 Brooke on a few occasions, and there are other accounts 0:18:34.956 --> 0:18:38.396 that he was violent. Three days after Brooke went missing, 0:18:38.876 --> 0:18:42.196 Sean was actually arrested on a separate matter. He was 0:18:42.356 --> 0:18:46.276 charged with criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. He 0:18:46.356 --> 0:18:50.476 eventually pled down to lesser charges. The one time that 0:18:50.516 --> 0:18:53.476 the cousins met him, they didn't get a good feeling 0:18:53.516 --> 0:18:58.116 from him, so cousin Patty's dream it felt spot on, 0:18:58.716 --> 0:19:03.276 like it just confirmed her worst fears. In the coming weeks, 0:19:03.556 --> 0:19:08.116 as Brooke remained missing, rumors began to circulate. One of 0:19:08.156 --> 0:19:10.916 them was that on the night of her disappearance. Brooke 0:19:10.956 --> 0:19:13.436 had gone to a party in the mountains in the 0:19:13.556 --> 0:19:17.796 Dark Corner. Aunt mary Anne told me that her husband 0:19:17.876 --> 0:19:21.636 Patrick was determined to have a look checked this place out. 0:19:22.316 --> 0:19:24.836 After all, he was Brooke's uncle and he felt he 0:19:24.836 --> 0:19:29.356 should be doing something. Before going, he visited Brooks parents 0:19:29.636 --> 0:19:33.276 to see if they might help. Apparently they didn't want 0:19:33.276 --> 0:19:39.636 to come. Brooks daddy said, happy hunting. I mean, this 0:19:39.756 --> 0:19:43.596 is my family, and I'm about to cry because that 0:19:43.996 --> 0:19:47.836 that's very odd. Happy honey. And I can't even imagine 0:19:48.676 --> 0:19:53.556 not hunting from my shore friends. I talked with Uncle Patrick. 0:19:54.236 --> 0:19:55.876 He told me that he went up to the Dark 0:19:55.876 --> 0:20:00.036 Corner anyway to have a look. Eventually he found the 0:20:00.076 --> 0:20:04.036 place where the parties supposedly happened, a cabin back in 0:20:04.076 --> 0:20:08.116 the woods. A man answered the door. He was shirtless 0:20:08.156 --> 0:20:11.596 and had nipple pierce. The man said that Brooke was 0:20:11.636 --> 0:20:15.956 at the beach. Uncle Patrick didn't believe it. He kept searching, 0:20:16.516 --> 0:20:21.116 but he didn't find her, not even a trace. It 0:20:21.156 --> 0:20:23.796 would be just one of many dead ends in this case. 0:20:24.556 --> 0:20:27.516 No one could find Brooke, not her family or the 0:20:27.556 --> 0:20:35.356 Traveler's rest police or that creepy psychic investigator. She was gone. 0:20:39.196 --> 0:20:42.676 It was roughly two years later, two years after Brooke 0:20:42.676 --> 0:20:47.956 Henson's disappearance, that John Campbell was promoted from patrolman to detective. 0:20:48.836 --> 0:20:51.516 It was at this point, in two thousand and one, 0:20:51.796 --> 0:20:56.196 that he became the principal investigator in the case. By then, 0:20:56.316 --> 0:20:59.716 the case was cold. John says he reviewed the files, 0:20:59.916 --> 0:21:03.196 but many of the witness statements, which were handwritten, were 0:21:03.236 --> 0:21:07.116 actually illegible. John spoke with people who had partied with 0:21:07.156 --> 0:21:10.316 Brooke the night she went missing, but their stories were 0:21:10.356 --> 0:21:16.276 often convoluted and conflicting. John suspected that Brooke had been murdered, 0:21:16.676 --> 0:21:19.756 but without a body, it was difficult to build a case. 0:21:20.716 --> 0:21:24.356 He surmised that her boyfriend, Sean Shirley played a role 0:21:24.396 --> 0:21:28.076 in all of this. The Travelers Rest police did bring 0:21:28.116 --> 0:21:31.356 Sean in and interview him, but he was never charged. 0:21:32.156 --> 0:21:35.476 There's no detailed records of what was said, but apparently 0:21:35.716 --> 0:21:40.676 Sean offered no useful information. At one point, John thought 0:21:40.676 --> 0:21:44.556 he almost had the evidence to prove Sean's guilt. It 0:21:44.596 --> 0:21:47.636 came from an informant who gave him a tip. One 0:21:47.676 --> 0:21:49.956 guy came to me and said, I saw a confession 0:21:50.636 --> 0:21:56.196 written by Sean Shirley in a box in a wall 0:21:56.236 --> 0:21:59.916 behind a brick. That's right. This guy who knew Sean 0:21:59.996 --> 0:22:03.676 Shirley claimed that he'd been in Sean's house poking around 0:22:03.956 --> 0:22:07.516 when he'd found this note. Here's what the informant told John. 0:22:07.956 --> 0:22:10.436 I was looking for drugs. I knew he kept his 0:22:10.556 --> 0:22:12.316 drugs in the basement. I went down there, I pulled 0:22:12.356 --> 0:22:15.116 the brick out. There was a little box. I opened 0:22:15.156 --> 0:22:17.516 the box. There was a folded up note in there, 0:22:17.556 --> 0:22:20.316 and it was basically a confession saying that he killed Broke. 0:22:20.836 --> 0:22:24.676 Sound far fetched maybe, and John was never able to 0:22:24.676 --> 0:22:27.556 get to the bottom of it. The problem was the 0:22:27.636 --> 0:22:32.036 tip from this informant was cold. The informant had waited 0:22:32.116 --> 0:22:34.596 too long to tell the police about what he'd seen, 0:22:35.396 --> 0:22:38.396 so when John went before a magistrate to ask for 0:22:38.476 --> 0:22:42.156 a search warrant, the judge nixed it, said too much 0:22:42.236 --> 0:22:45.516 time had passed. That's the most frustrating thing in the 0:22:45.556 --> 0:22:49.276 world to think there is a confession in a box 0:22:49.476 --> 0:22:52.956 in behind a brick in the wall, and I can't 0:22:53.036 --> 0:22:55.676 get the legal permission to go in there and get it. 0:22:55.676 --> 0:22:58.476 I mean, as part of you wonder if that's still 0:22:58.516 --> 0:23:02.436 behind that brick, the house in there anymore? So the 0:23:02.476 --> 0:23:05.476 house is burned down, so it's not there anymore. And 0:23:05.556 --> 0:23:08.236 that's kind of how it went with this case. There 0:23:08.276 --> 0:23:11.956 were these missing moments, but they never seemed to pan out. 0:23:13.316 --> 0:23:16.676 There were times when John got these tips that Brooke 0:23:16.876 --> 0:23:20.756 actually was alive. There were sightings, people who claimed they'd 0:23:20.756 --> 0:23:23.636 seen her. After all, Brooke's face was on a whole 0:23:23.676 --> 0:23:26.476 bunch of missing posters. It was always some kind of 0:23:26.636 --> 0:23:29.676 vague sighting that, you know, I saw her at a 0:23:29.716 --> 0:23:32.836 phone booth in at the Outer Banks or something like that. 0:23:32.876 --> 0:23:35.836 You know, how do you follow up on something like that. 0:23:35.876 --> 0:23:37.956 There's nobody there now. But it was just enough to 0:23:38.116 --> 0:23:40.436 give the family a spark of hope, and it would 0:23:40.436 --> 0:23:43.796 give just enough question as to whether or not she 0:23:43.876 --> 0:23:49.116 was actually dead. And then one day, in June of 0:23:49.196 --> 0:23:52.996 two thousand and six, almost seven years after Brooke Henson 0:23:53.036 --> 0:23:56.716 had vanished, John got a big break. It was a 0:23:56.716 --> 0:24:00.396 phone call from a state law enforcement official. He said, 0:24:00.436 --> 0:24:02.956 I think I found your girl, and she's alive. She's 0:24:02.956 --> 0:24:07.836 in New York. And I said, really more on that 0:24:08.396 --> 0:24:22.636 after the break. Okay, so it's two thousand and six. 0:24:22.996 --> 0:24:26.476 John gets his big break, a call saying Brooke Henson 0:24:26.796 --> 0:24:30.596 is alive. And the state law enforcement official, the one 0:24:30.596 --> 0:24:33.996 who called John here's the deal with him. He was 0:24:34.036 --> 0:24:36.756 a point of contact in this case, worked for the 0:24:36.756 --> 0:24:39.596 state of South Carolina, and his name in a phone number. 0:24:39.596 --> 0:24:42.116 It was on one of the Brook Henson missing posters. 0:24:42.756 --> 0:24:46.356 Someone had seen this poster online and called in a lead, 0:24:46.876 --> 0:24:51.116 a very promising lead. The callers said that Brooke Henson 0:24:51.476 --> 0:24:55.076 was now living in New York City in Manhattan, where 0:24:55.116 --> 0:24:59.196 she was a student at Columbia University. The caller provided 0:24:59.236 --> 0:25:02.396 Brooks home address, an apartment on West one hundred and 0:25:02.436 --> 0:25:05.116 eighth Street, and said that the Brook who lived there 0:25:05.436 --> 0:25:07.476 had the same date of birth as the Brook from 0:25:07.516 --> 0:25:11.316 South Carolina, that she also looked like the Brook and 0:25:11.356 --> 0:25:15.196 the missing poster. John couldn't wrap his head around any 0:25:15.236 --> 0:25:18.796 of this. It didn't make sense. Brooke Henson had dropped 0:25:18.796 --> 0:25:21.036 out of high school and vanished in the hills of 0:25:21.076 --> 0:25:24.956 South Carolina seven years ago. How is she now a 0:25:24.996 --> 0:25:29.076 student at Columbia University in Manhattan. The only thing that 0:25:29.196 --> 0:25:31.236 John could think of was that this was some kind 0:25:31.276 --> 0:25:34.556 of elaborate stunt, and that when he tracked down this woman, 0:25:34.756 --> 0:25:39.636 this Columbia student, she'd explain everything. Eventually, John got in 0:25:39.676 --> 0:25:42.636 touch with a cop, and the NYPD who agreed to 0:25:42.636 --> 0:25:45.396 help him out, said he would find this Brooke Henson 0:25:45.516 --> 0:25:49.836 character and see what the deal was. So anyway, the 0:25:49.956 --> 0:25:54.036 NYPD cop figures out who she is, intercepts her between 0:25:54.076 --> 0:25:59.756 classes and asked her who she is, you know, if 0:25:59.756 --> 0:26:02.836 she's really Brooke Henson. She said, I am Brooke. I 0:26:02.876 --> 0:26:07.356 am a victim of domestic violence, and I'm just hiding 0:26:07.396 --> 0:26:12.276 out here and I don't want anybody to know. Don't 0:26:12.316 --> 0:26:16.276 tell my family. So the NYPD caused and he says, yep, 0:26:16.556 --> 0:26:22.116 she's broke. You can clear your case. So much of 0:26:22.156 --> 0:26:25.516 it added up, the name, the date of birth, the 0:26:25.596 --> 0:26:28.316 general likeness of the photo, even the fact that she 0:26:28.436 --> 0:26:32.276 was fleeing domestic violence. It was a little hard to fathom. 0:26:32.356 --> 0:26:35.916 But wasn't it possible that when Brooke Henson walked out 0:26:35.956 --> 0:26:38.836 the door that night, away from Sean Shirley and her 0:26:38.876 --> 0:26:41.916