WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Cassie Compton [From the Archives] 0:00:46.480 --> 0:00:51.960 School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.360 case murders in an effort to raise public awareness, invite 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.760 witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.960 be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.160 from family and community members, their statements should not be 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.960 considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.000 inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.160 presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 0:01:17.960 --> 0:01:20.840 Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.600 that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.120 is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.120 Talkab Catherine look into the disappearance of Patty Tompson in 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.240 the city of Stuttgard, Arkansaw about ten years ago. 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.440 Take on the. 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.720 Evening of Sunday, September fourteenth, twenty fourteen, fifteen year old 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.560 Cassie K. Compton went out for a pack of cigarettes 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.440 down the road from her house in Stuttgart, Arkansas and 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:50.400 never came home. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.880 At least that's the official story. 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.480 This is one of those Arkansas cold cases that have 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.720 become legendary, one of those stories that had been covered 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.200 tons of times, and yet almost ten years later, we 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.680 have no arrests and no answers. We do know a 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.840 few things for sure. Cassie had been spending the weekend 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.480 with a male friend of hers named Hunter. They went 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.320 with his family to an auto demolition Derby and de Witt, 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.080 which is about forty miles away. They had a great 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.360 time hanging out, and then Cassie went back to Hunter's 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.680 house and slept there on Saturday night. Tracy Snyder, Hunter's mother, 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.040 has said that this was not out of the ordinary. 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.120 In fact, Cassie spent a lot of time at their 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.360 house because Tracy said things were chaotic at Cassie's house. 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.640 Tracy said that her house had become a sort of 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:43.320 refuge for Cassie. Hunter drove Cassie home on Sunday evening. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.920 Shortly after that, Cassie texted Hunter to say she was 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:51.280 going out to get some cigarettes. Then Cassie, who was 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:55.040 described in her missing posters as petite, around five foot three, 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.200 weighing around one hundred pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair, 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:04.640 apparently walked down the road and never came back. I 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.080 have found a lot of new information about a murder 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.360 for higher plot A man posing as a woman, sex 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.920 crimes and cover ups that made me see the police's 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:16.600 main person of interest. 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:17.400 In a whole new light. 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.360 What really happened to Cassie Compton and what was she 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:23.680 running from at home? 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:27.920 I'm Catherine Townsend. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.000 If you have a case you'd like me and my 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.280 team to look into, you can reach out to us 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.680 at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.040 seven four four, six one four or five. That's six 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.240 seven eight seven four four six, one four or five. 0:03:42.040 --> 0:04:19.920 This is Helen Gone Line. So we need to take 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.560 a step back to understand what was going on in 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.800 Cassie Compton's life. Cassie k Compton was born in Oklahoma. 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.680 After her mother, Judy Compton Kimsey, was divorced from Cassie's father, 0:04:31.840 --> 0:04:35.000 Roy in two thousand, Cassie and her mother moved from 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:39.160 Oklahoma back to Arkansas. And there's no way to sugarcoat this. 0:04:39.840 --> 0:04:43.720 Both Cassie's mother, Judy and her father Roy were registered 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.440 sex offenders, though Judy's name had been removed from that 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.880 list after fifteen years of good behavior. We're going to 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.080 get more into those charges later, but for now we'll 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.400 say that Roy was convicted of inappropriate sexual contact with 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.760 a miner, lud acts with a child, and indecent proposals 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:05.480 to a miner back in Oklahoma. According to multiple sources, 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.560 that miner was Judy's older daughter from her previous marriage, 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.320 so his own stepdaughter, Roy was sentenced to twenty three 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.960 years in prison for that abuse. In Stuttgart, Cassie was 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.600 homeschooled and working to get her ged. Her friend said 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.640 she was kind and funny, except when she was troubled, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.680 which had become a little more frequent in the time 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.400 period before she disappeared. Her friend said when she was 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.640 troubled she could get a little quiet. There was someone 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.360 else in the home, Judy's fiance, twenty four year old 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.480 Brandon Lee Rhodes. Now a lot of people pointed out 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.680 that the age difference between Brandon and Cassie was actually 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.720 less than it was between Brandon and Judy, who. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:47.200 Was forty two. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.120 As we said that weekend, Cassie had been spending time 0:05:51.280 --> 0:05:55.280 with Hunter Snyder and his family. On Saturday, September thirteenth, 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.240 Hunter's mom, Tracy, said her son had picked Cassie up 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.080 at her house at around one pm. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:00.920 That night. 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.120 They all went out to the auto Derby. They had 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.960 fun and then Cassie spent the night at the Snyder house. 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.080 The next day, September fourteenth, Cassie hung out at Hunter's. 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.160 They had brunch with his family, then later Hunter drove 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.920 Cassie home. Hunter and Cassie left his house at around 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.080 six oh five pm. Her house was around a fifteen 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.720 or twenty minute drive away, so that would put them 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.960 there at Cassie's house between six twenty and six twenty 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:32.240 five pm. According to Tracy, when Hunter and Cassie pulled 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:34.320 up to the house and Cassie got out of the car, 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.440 Hunter said that he saw Brandon Rhodes outside, but he 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.480 said he did not see Brandon speak to Cassie. The 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.440 last thing he saw was Cassie walking up the driveway 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.720 straight into the house. Hunter got home at around six 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.800 forty five pm. According to his mom, Cassie sent a 0:06:51.840 --> 0:06:55.040 text to Hunter at around seven or seven fifteen pm 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:56.440 saying she was going out. 0:06:56.280 --> 0:06:57.400 To get a pack of cigarettes. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.440 That was the last text that was ever sent from 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.680 Cassie's phone. Judy, who was on disability and sometimes took 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.680 pain medications, later said when Cassie came home she was 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.400 sick in her bedroom, which was in the back of 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.280 the house. She said she heard Cassie moving around and 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.760 said hey, baby girl to Cassie through the door, but 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.080 Judy said she didn't actually ever see Cassie. Brandon told 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.560 police Cassie was only at the house for about five 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:29.600 minutes before going out again. When she walked out the door, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.520 Cassie apparently had her black LG smartphone with her, but 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:38.480 no charger for the phone. Hunter's mom, Tracy, said she 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.960 got three calls from Brandon that night. On the first call, 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.760 at nine to fourteen PM, said, Brandon asked if Cassie 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.440 was still there, I guess, meaning still with them. Now, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.560 this is weird because Hunter said clearly Brandon saw Cassie 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.760 when they pulled up to that house. Also, both Brandon 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.960 and Judy told investigators that they had seen or at 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.400 least heard Cassie at home. Hunter lived kind of far 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.760 out it was not walkable, so why would Brandon be 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.760 asking if she was still with them when he knew 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:14.000 Cassie had been dropped off. Tracy said she told Brandon 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.680 to call the police, and after he'd called back a 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.280 couple times, Brandon told her that he had done that. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.960 Now Brandon did not have her driver's license, so he 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.920 had a bike that he would ride around everywhere. He 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.480 told Tracy that he'd ridden his bike to the police 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.680 station to report Cassie missing, but he said police told 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.520 him he had to wait seventy two hours. Tracy called 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.520 the police the next morning. She said that she talked 0:08:39.560 --> 0:08:42.040 to a detective and they told her that was not true. 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.720 They said no one had made a police report the 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.920 night before. On that next morning, which would be Monday, 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.000 September fifteenth, Judy saw that Cassie was not in her bedroom. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.560 She started texting and calling Cassie, but got no response 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.240 and the calls went straight to voicemail. Judy called Cassie's friends, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.160 but no one had seen her, so Judy called the police. Eventually, 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.520 through a Foyer request, the Stuttgart Police did release the 0:09:07.560 --> 0:09:10.960 original incident report. Judy's name is on it, so it 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:15.000 can be confirmed Judy reported Cassie missing on Monday, September 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.120 fifteenth at nine fifty two am. Brandon's name was not 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:24.280 on that report. According to that report, Judy told police 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.880 that Cassie had a possible mental disorder and may have 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.000 been bipolar. She said Cassie had been prescribed and a 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.760 depressants in the past, but she said she would flush 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.160 them because she didn't like taking them. Judy told police 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.600 if Cassie's mood swings got bad, that Cassie would sometimes 0:09:39.680 --> 0:09:42.600 go out for a walk. In that report, Judy said 0:09:42.680 --> 0:09:45.680 that she heard Cassie come in and heard her change 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:50.160 and leave from the back bedroom. Judy also gave a 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.760 description of what Cassie was wearing. She said she had 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.120 on a blue spaghetti strap top, black and white plaid shorts, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.240 blue and gray cowboy boots with a two to three 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.880 inch heel, but later Judy clarified She said she based 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.720 that on the clothes that were missing out of Cassie's closet, 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:07.880 because again, she was in the bedroom the whole time. 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:09.280 She never physically saw. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:13.040 Her daughter, and it didn't take police long to see 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:18.320 that Brandon and Judy's stories had a few discrepancies. Brandon 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.360 and Judy first told investigators that Brandon was cooking in 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.920 the kitchen when Cassie came home. He said he'd been 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.440 cooking breakfast for dinner. He said he saw Cassie briefly, 0:10:27.560 --> 0:10:30.120 but that Judy did not see her at all. Later, 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.920 another story came out. Judy told Tina Stores, a private 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.600 investigator who looked into the case, and some other people 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.440 that Brandon went out for cigarettes on Sunday night also, 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.520 and that Brandon was gone for quite some time, and 0:10:44.560 --> 0:10:47.400 that when he did come back, he spent a long time, 0:10:47.680 --> 0:10:52.120 like an hour in the bathroom vomiting. Remember, Brandon did 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.520 not have a driver's license, but he had been known 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.040 to take Judy's. 0:10:56.680 --> 0:10:58.880 Car in the past, especially if she was sleeping. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.040 And him going for cigarettes in Judy's car at around 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.320 the same time Cassie said she was going out for 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.080 cigarettes seems like a big coincidence. It seems reasonable to 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.600 wonder could they have gone together or could Cassie have 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:16.840 gotten into the car with him. Also, Brandon is saying 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.720 that he somehow had time to cook dinner, get in 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.360 his car, buy cigarettes, then ride his bike to the 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.400 police station to report someone missing, and have a vomiting spell, 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.880 all in the two hour period before nine to fourteen 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:36.440 when he called Tracy. In twenty nineteen, Kayla Lafferty, a 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:40.480 reporter from KTV Channel seven, did a podcast called Timeline 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.640 the Disappearance of Cassie Compton, and in that podcast, she 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.160 talked to a friend of Judy's who said Judy told 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.600 them that both she and Brandon were given Lie detector 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.600 tests and that both of them had failed. This friend 0:11:53.680 --> 0:11:57.240 said Judy told her that she thought she failed her 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.960 Lie detector test because she was taking pain medications at 0:11:59.960 --> 0:12:03.720 the time. At first, it did seem like police were 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.680 treating Cassie as a runaway, and they've admitted this publicly. 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.600 Stuttgart Police Chief Mark Duke said, quote, you think, all right, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.840 she's mad, she left, We'll find her, and then it 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.000 went sideways from there end quote. Police also said on 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.800 the record they formed this assumption based on what they 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.480 heard from family members and other people close to Cassie, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.280 but no one saw Cassie on that road after she 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:30.000 left her house. 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.760 She was never seen again in any. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.880 Verified sighting, even though there were a lot of tips 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.720 called in. People reported seeing her everywhere from Walmart to 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:40.760 random highways. 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.000 None of those young women was Cassie. 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.080 On a October third, twenty fifteen, two and a half 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:51.280 weeks after Cassie went missing, police took Brandon and Judy's phones. Then, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.680 shortly after detectives left their home, a house fire started. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.920 The small house fire at Brandon and Judy's residence was 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:06.080 pretty quickly put out, but the timing was bizarre. By 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:10.160 late fall, the investigation seemed stalled. Police were still saying 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.000 the only official people of interest were Judy and Brandon, 0:13:13.680 --> 0:13:17.720 but some strange things were happening on social media. For 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:22.840 one thing, Cassie's personal Facebook page liked the missing page 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.720 for Cassie, and law enforcement stated that more than one 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.480 person had access Cassie's personal Facebook page also that fall. 0:13:31.560 --> 0:13:35.560 Starting around September twenty fifth, police and the FBI started 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.840 searching the area that began around the Stuttgard airport. They 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:43.200 were looking into reservoirs, riverbanks, under bridges, all kinds of 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.480 hiding place near Cassie's home. According to the website find 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.960 Cassie Compton, the police were considering the theory that someone 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.960 could have transported Cassie's remains walking or by bicycle, possibly 0:13:56.080 --> 0:14:00.120 in pieces. They looked for rolled up rugs or garbage bags, 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:07.160 but they found nothing. Judy and Brandon started talking to 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.400 the media. Actually Judy did most of the talking, but 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.960 when Brandon spoke, he said this. 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.880 She was gone, like I whispering to win that. 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.840 I found his wording a bit strange. How does a 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.560 fifteen year old vanish into thin air like that? Now 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.720 this was late summer, so even though sunset was around 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.880 seven to twelve pm, it would not have been fully 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.200 dark until half an hour or so later. And yet 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.360 not one person saw Cassie after she left her house. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.160 There were a few theories about what could have happened 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.680 to her. Some people believe she could have been kidnapped, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:48.240 either by strangers or by someone she knew, or possibly 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.880 she was sex trafficked. Maybe going out for cigarettes was 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.400 code for something, Maybe Cassie had plans to run away, 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.280 or maybe something else happened to Cassie in that house 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:06.520 and she never made it past the driveway for other reasons. Then, 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.320 a few weeks after Cassie went missing, Judy and. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:10.280 Brandon broke up. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:15.000 Judy told Channel seven quote, I believe Cassie would come 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.040 back if she knew he was not in the picture 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.040 end quote. She mentioned that Cassie and Brandon had not 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:24.400 gotten along. After she kicked Brandon out, he started living 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.120 on the streets. He was arrested for squatting at a 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.840 property and given a hundred day jail sentence. The Stuttgart 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.960 police department started working with the FBI and the state Police. 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.480 Judy announced one thousand dollars reward for any information that 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:42.240 would help lead to her daughter. Then in October, police 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.960 found something under the Biome Metro Bridge about fifteen miles 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:48.920 from Casco on the White River. This was near the 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:53.840 place where Cassie's cell phone had last pinned. Police reportedly 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.560 found objects that included a gatorade bottle, two men's shirts, 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:03.160 men's toiletries including shaving cream, folded drapes, a girl's Hugs 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:07.160 and Kisses, sweater, a Teddy Bear in two bags. To 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.680 my knowledge, police have never confirmed if those items belonged 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.200 to Brandon Roads, but a lot of people thought that 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.920 the shaving cream might have some significance because Brandon normally 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.440 had a beard, and when he was arrested a few 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.640 days after this stuff was found on unrelated charges, he 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.040 was clean shaven, so by now a lot of people 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:27.400 in the community. 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:28.800 Were fixated on Brandon Roads. 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.320 Police said the same thing they often say in these investigations, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.680 that Brandon and Gudi were people of interest, but no 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.840 one was arrested a charge, and they said no one 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:48.480 could be ruled out, neither Brandon nor Judy have ever 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.840 been charged in connection with Cassie's disappearance. Over the years, 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.440 Judy's opinion of whether or not Brandon could have been 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.480 involved seemed to shift, at least publicly. In November of 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.320 twenty fourteen, Judy talked to a reporter from ABC Channel 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.400 seven about her relationship with Brandon. She said Brandon could 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.600 be controlling. For example, she said he would always pick 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:12.760 up the phone and interrupt her when she was talking 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.800 to law enforcement. Judy also talked about her past and 0:17:17.120 --> 0:17:19.440 about the incident that led to her being on the 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:24.040 sex offender list in Oklahoma. According to court documents, Judy 0:17:24.120 --> 0:17:27.240 was found guilty in Marshall County, Oklahoma, of permitting abuse 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:27.840 or neglect. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:29.280 In November of nineteen ninety. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:33.040 Eight, Judy told the reporter that Roy, her ex husband, 0:17:33.360 --> 0:17:36.960 had assaulted her daughter. She said that she was charged 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.640 with failure to protect her child and basically forced to 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:41.240 take a plead. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:43.920 Judy told Channel seven. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.920 My ex husband was messing with my oldest daughter, and 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.040 I didn't know anything about it. Then my oldest daughter 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.360 told my mother end quote. 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:55.160 But I went through. 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.160 Those court documents and I saw that not only was 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.440 Judy put on the sex Offender Registry. She was also 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.520 given a five year suspended sentence in connection with that case. 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.160 Yet when she talked with the reporter, she kind of 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.480 made it sound, in my opinion, like something that happened 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:16.560 to her rather than something she was complicit in. I 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.480 found out even more details about these charges, and this 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:20.640 case was dark. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.520 Roy was charged with leude molestation. In this case. 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.680 According to the court records, the child was traumatized and 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.120 wanted to give video evidence rather than face Roy in court, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.840 which the court allowed. Roy was given a twenty three 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.960 year prison sentence according to the records I found. By 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.080 the way, Roy was in prison when Cassie went missing 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:44.920 and still appears to be incarcerated. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:46.960 Does this past. 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:51.240 Behavior mean that Judy knew anything about what happened to Cassie. No, 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.840 But in my opinion, it does show that she appears 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.760 to be capable of minimizing abuse inside the home, and 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:06.600 that worries me. After Cassie disappeared, Judy had to deal 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:11.120 with multiple heartbreaks over the years, including one cruel person 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.480 who actually impersonated Cassie and pretended that she was alive 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:16.760 and wanted to talk to Judy. 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:18.600 I cannot even imagine what that must have been like. 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:23.720 Cassie's disappearance made local and national news, but there were 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:27.320 no arrests. In addition to Brandon, because this was a 0:19:27.360 --> 0:19:30.320 fifteen year old girl, police also looked into other young 0:19:30.360 --> 0:19:33.960 men who Cassie had been talking to. On September seventh, 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.000 twenty fourteen, there was a post on Cassie's Facebook page, 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.920 actually her last post, in which she wrote, quote, let's 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.120 get one thing straight. I was not with Dustin, okay, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.320 and she mentions a last name as well, which we're 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.280 not going to mention. So a lot of people were 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.880 asking Dustin about this. So underneath her comment he replied 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.240 and said he and Cassie were never together. 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.600 He was a little older, I think, so. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.360 I can imagine him getting nervous if a miner went missing. Anyway, 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:09.720 police apparently followed that lead and ruled Dustin out. Things 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.160 kept coming back to the home, back to Brandon Rhads. 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:15.960 One of the things I found most frustrating about this 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.120 case is that over the years we've heard a lot 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.120 about Brandon Rhodes, so many rumors, so few concrete backs. 0:20:24.360 --> 0:20:26.560 He continued to get into trouble with the law after 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.960 splitting from Judy. In twenty fifteen, Brandon was arrested on 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:36.520 drug charges, including possession of a controlled substance methamphetamines. After 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.080 pleading guilty, he was sentenced to two years in prison. 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.480 Then a couple of years later, he was arrested again. 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.800 This time it had nothing to do with Cassie Compton. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.840 On October sixteenth, twenty eighteen, Brandon was stopped by police 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.360 in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas. They saw that Brandon was driving 0:20:55.360 --> 0:20:57.960 on a suspended license, so they arrested him. 0:20:58.400 --> 0:20:59.680 The officers searched the. 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.960 Car and they found a loaded AR fifteen assault rifle 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.360 with a red scope and a lot of other tactical gear. Later, 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.400 police determined that that weapon had been reported stolen. They 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:15.440 got information that Brandon had been paid several hundred dollars 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.960 to kill the wife of one of his acquaintances, so 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.840 they brought Brandon up on capital murder charges. I wanted 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.560 to understand more about this, so I looked into the 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:30.200 court documents. Brandon had a different story. He said he 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.600 didn't remember anything from the night before. Later he changed 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:35.880 his story and said yes, he was in Batesville to 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.000 follow someone. He said that a man had paid him 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.800 two hundred dollars to follow around this man's wife, so 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.960 Brandon was out acting as kind of an unofficial private investigator. 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.560 Brandon also said he had no idea he had a 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.680 stolen gun in his truck, but the guy who reported 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.120 the gun stolen said Brandon was at his residence the 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:58.080 night before the next morning, Brandon and the gun were gone, 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.400 so it didn't take Charlock Holmes to figure out who 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:07.640 took that weapon. Again, there's been almost nothing reported about 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:08.720 Brandon's background. 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:10.680 I wanted to know who he really is. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.800 So I found buried in a lot of different court 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.520 documents related to his arrest, the forensic reports that were done, 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.120 and they had a lot of very interesting information. Actually, 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.760 I think we learn a lot more about Brandon Rhodes 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.720 from these documents than we have in any of the 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:31.640 interviews that he's done. According to court documents, Brandon was 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.880 born in Little Rock. He grew up with his mother, grandmother, 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.720 and younger brother in Greenbrier, Arkansas, but he said they 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.840 moved around a lot to several different states. He told 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:44.080 the Examiner that he had a stepfather in a life 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.440 as well, who was in a motorcycle gang. Brandon said 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.920 his stepfather physically and sexually abused him between the ages 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.520 of seven and nineteen years old. He said that from 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:57.440 a young age he was abused. He said he was 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:01.000 abused with fists, a board, an electrical cord, He was 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:04.520 thrown across the room, and when things got too difficult 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.480 at home, he would escape to the woods. Sometimes he 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:10.480 would sleep outside. He went to school in Mount Vernon 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.360 and Stuttgart High School, but he was expelled several times 0:23:14.360 --> 0:23:17.480 for having an explosive temper. He said he stopped going 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.560 to school in ninth grade and went to work. Brandon 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.600 said when he was seventeen, he went to meet the 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:26.760 man he believed was his biological father, but later a 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:29.760 DNA test showed that that man was not his father, 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:32.960 which I can imagine must have been crushing for him. 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:36.360 He also said he had been smoking pot around three 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:38.120 times a day for as long as he could remember. 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:41.440 He said he developed a meth habit in high school. 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.360 At first, like a lot of people, he said, he 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.600 started taking it to keep him awake at work. Brandon 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:50.960 worked several different jobs. He worked at lumber one in Stuttgart, 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:53.560 but he got fired from that job. Later, he did 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:56.880 some landscaping and worked for a company and DeWitt fabricating 0:23:56.920 --> 0:24:01.800 metal for farming equipment. By twenty eleven, Brandon was on 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.920 his own. He was living in abandoned houses for a 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:07.480 few weeks at a time. That's when he got into 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:10.240 a relationship with Judy and he moved in with her 0:24:10.360 --> 0:24:13.320 and Cassie and Stuttgart. Now, if you look at his 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:16.680