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It's April eleventh, two thousand and one. Twenty year old
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Branson Perry is at home in Skidmore, Missouri. He's cleaning,
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getting things ready for his dad to come home from
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the hospital. A friend is there helping him. It's the
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middle of the afternoon. At some point, Branson steps outside
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just for a moment. He tells his friend he'll be
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right back, but somehow, in the middle of the day,
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from his own home with people just a few feet away,
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Branson Perry vanished. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Case Uncovered,
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where we uncover some of the most compelling and lesser
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known true crime cases. I'm your host, Gen Rivera, and
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this is Missing in the Midwest, a series where I
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cover missing persons cases across the Midwest to help bring
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more awareness to these cases. These are the stories that
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don't always make headlines, but they are the ones that
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families are still living with every single day. Today's case
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takes us to Skidmore, Missouri, where a twenty year old
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man disappeared in the middle of the day from his
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own home with multiple people nearby, and more than two
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decades later, we're still asking the same question, what happened
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to Branson Perry. Skidmore, Missouri, sits in the northwest corner
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of the state, surrounded by farmland and long stretches of
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open space. It's the kind of place where homes aren't
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packed tightly together, where there's distance between properties, and where
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you can see someone moving across a yard, but you're
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not always close enough to hear what's happening. During the day,
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people are around, cars come and go, neighbors move through
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their routines, and there's enough activity that the town doesn't
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feel empty. But it's also not crowded. And that's what
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makes this case so difficult to understand, because nothing about
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this setting suggests that someone could disappear without being noticed,
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and yet that's exactly what happened. Branson didn't go missing
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miles away from home. He didn't disappear in a highway
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or in the middle of the night. He stepped outside
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in the middle of the day on a property where
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other people were already present, and within a very small
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window of time, he was gone. Branson Kine Perry was
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twenty years old when he disappeared. He had grown up
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in the Skidmore area, in a place where families knew
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each other, people recognize names, and someone like Branson wasn't
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a stranger moving through town. He was part of that community.
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He had graduated from Notaway Holt High School in nineteen
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ninety nine, just a couple of years before everything happened,
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and like a lot of people in that stage of life,
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Branson was still figuring out what came next. He had
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worked different jobs after high school, including roofing work and
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a job connected to a traveling petting zoo. Those details
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might seem small, but they helped paint a picture of
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who he was at the time. Someone doing physical work,
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someone used to being outside, someone not afraid of a
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job that was hands on and hard work. He was
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active too. Branson lifted weights, he enjoyed being outdoors, and
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had a black belt and hap Keto ab kito was
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a Korean martial art focused on self defense, control and
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joint locking techniques. So while that doesn't mean Branson couldn't
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be harmed, it does give us important context. He wasn't
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someone who seemed physically defenseless. If there had been a confrontation,
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especially one that happened right there near the house, it
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raises even more questions about how that could unfold without
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anyone nearby saying or hearing something. At the time he disappeared,
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Branson was living with his father, Bob Perry. His parents
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were divorced, and Bob had been in the hospital. He
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was expected to come home soon, and Branson wanted the
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house ready for him. That matters because it tells us
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where Branson's mind was that day. He wasn't preparing to leave,
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he wasn't making plans to be gone. He was doing
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something ordinary and thoughtful, cleaning the house before his dad returned.
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And there's something about that detail that makes the case
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feel even heavier, because this wasn't a day that began
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with chaos. It began with the son trying to get
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the house in order for his father, and within a
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few hours, that same house would become the last place
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anyone could say for certain that Branson Perry was seen.
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By the time April eleventh, two thousand and one, arrived,
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the day itself didn't appear to begin with anything unusual.
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Branson's friend Jenna Crawford was there at the house with him,
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and outside there were two men working on Bob's car,
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so there were people there. That part is important because
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this was in a case where Branson was last seen
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walking alone down a remote road, or leaving a store
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by himself, or heading out late at night without anyone around.
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He was at home in the middle of the day,
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with his friend Jenna inside the house and two men
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outside working on a vehicle. There were people extremely close by,
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and on a day like that, with several people moving
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in and out of the space, you would think someone
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would notice if something suddenly changed. But as the afternoon unfolded,
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there were small moments that would later become harder to explain.
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At one point, Jenna saw Branson go quickly into the kitchen.
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He opened one of the cabinets, took something out, and
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went outside. It happened so fast that it stood out,
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but not in a way that immediately felt alarming. When
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he came back inside, Jenna asked what he had been doing,
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and Branson didn't really give her an answer. He acted
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like nothing had happened and moved on. At the time,
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that may have been easy to brush off. People do
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strange little things all the time. They grabbed something and
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forget to explain it. They step outside for a second,
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they come back in and continue with whatever they were doing.
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But when someone disappears. Just a short time later, those
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small details start to feel different, because now you're not
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just asking what happened after Branson walked outside, you're asking
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what was already happening before he ever made it to
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that door. Later, Jenna stepped away to take a shower,
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and while she was in the shower, the house was
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still active. Branson was still there, the two men were
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still outside working on the car. Nothing had happened yet
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that would have made anyone believe they were inside the
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final hours of a missing person's case. But when Jenna
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came out of the bathroom, she saw something that didn't
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fit with the rest of the afternoon. One of the
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men who had been working on the car was now
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inside the house. He was in the kitchen going through
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the cabinets, not grabbing a drink, not asking for a tool,
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not calling out to Branson or Jenna for something he needed,
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just going through the cabinets. So Jenna asked what he
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was looking for, and the man said nothing. He went
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right back outside. And again it doesn't appear that this
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turned into a confrontation. In that moment. There wasn't a fight,
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there wasn't an argument. It was one of those things
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that probably felt strange, but maybe not strange enough yet
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to understand what it could mean or what was really
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going on. But when you place it next to the
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earlier moment, Branson quickly taking something from the cabinet and
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then refusing to explain what he was doing, it becomes
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harder to ignore. Because now the cabinets come up twice,
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first Branson, then one of the men outside, two separate moments,
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same area of the house, and no clear explanation. And
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that detail doesn't tell us exactly what happened, but it
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does create a question that follows the rest of the case.
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What was it that they were looking for? Did it
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have anything to do with what happened next? By around
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three pm that afternoon, the house seemed to move back
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into its normal rhythm. Johna was upstairs, the men were
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still outside, and then she heard the front porch door close.
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Not a slam, not anything that would have immediately sounded
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like a problem, just the sound of someone leaving the house.
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She looked out the window and saw Branson outside. He
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was still there, still close to the house and still
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on the property, so she asked him where he was going,
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and he told her he was going to put the
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jumper cables away in the storage shed. He said he
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would be right back. That is the last confirmed moment
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anyone has of Branson Perry, and what makes that moment
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so important is how ordinary it is. He wasn't saying
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he was leaving town. He wasn't saying he was going
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to meet someone. He wasn't acting like he was about
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to be gone for hours. He was walking outside to
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put something away. It should have taken almost no time
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at all, and because it was such a small task,
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there would have been no reason for Jenna to stop him,
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no reason to follow him, and no reason to think
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that anything about that moment needed to be remembered. But
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it would become the moment everything in this case came
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back to, because after Branson walked outside, he never came
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back in, and somehow, with people still on the property,
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no one could explain where he went. At first, there
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wouldn't have been an immediate reason to panic. Branson said
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he would be right back, but people get distracted. Maybe
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he stopped to say something to the men working on
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the car. Maybe he stepped into the shed and started
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moving something around. Maybe he walked a little farther than expected.
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For a few minutes, there are still normal explanations, but
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then those explanations begin to run out, because putting jumper
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cables away is not something that should take a ton
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of time. It doesn't require planning, it doesn't require leaving
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the property, it doesn't require going anywhere that would keep
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him away from the house, and yet Branson doesn't come back.
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The longer that goes on, the more that simple errand
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starts to feel like the dividing line in the entire case.
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And what makes this so difficult and so suspicious is
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that the two men outside that were working on the
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car claim they never s Branson. They didn't see him
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walk away, they didn't see him leave the yard, they
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didn't see him get into a vehicle, they didn't see anything.
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And that leaves this case sitting inside a very narrow
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window of time, a few minutes where Branson is supposed
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to be doing something completely ordinary and then is suddenly gone.
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And another interesting piece of this case is that when
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investigators later checked that shed, those jumper cables should have
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been there, but according to Branson's mother, they were not.
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And that detail changes the way you look at the timeline,
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because if the jumper cables were not in the shed
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when police first looked. Then one possibility is that Branson
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never made it there. Maybe something happened between the house
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and the shed, maybe he was interrupted before he could
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finish what he said he was going to do. But
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then around two weeks later, during another search, the jumper
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cables were found in the shed, and that's where the
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detail becomes even more unsettling, because if they weren't there
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at first but then were found later, then that question
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becomes obvious. Who put them there. Was it possible they
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were missed during the first initial search, that's always something
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you have to consider, But if they weren't missed, if
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they truly appeared later, then someone had to return to
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that shed after Branson disappeared. Someone had to place them there. Now.
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Branson was not reported missing immediately, and in cases like this,
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that gap matters because those first hours are critical. At first,
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people may have assumed he was somewhere nearby, maybe with friends,
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maybe out doing something and not checking in. In small towns,
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especially when someone is an adult, there can be a
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hesitation before anyone wants to say the word missing. But
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by Friday, no one had heard from him. That's when
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his grandmother, Joanne Stinnett, went to check on the house,
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and what she reportedly found was unsettling. The doors were open,
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the radio was still on. There's something about that image
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that stays with you because it doesn't feel like someone
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in a planned way. It feels like a house that
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was interrupted, a day that was never fully closed out,
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a space where people had been living normally, moving through
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normal routines, and then suddenly something happened that stopped everything
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in place. By Monday, a missing person's report was filed.
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That was five days after Branson had last been seen,
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and by then the case was already more complicated than
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it would have been if police had been called in
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the first hour. People had come and gone, the house
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had not been preserved as a possible scene from the beginning,
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the shed had been searched, the jumper cables had become
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a question, and Branson was still nowhere to be found.
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When investigators began looking at Branson's life and what he
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left behind, there were details that made it hard to
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believe he had simply walked away. His belongings were still there,
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his wallet was still there. There was no indication that
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he had packed anything or prepared to be gone. And
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that's important because when someone leaves voluntary, even suddenly, there
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is usually some kind of movement that points in that direction,
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a bag, a vehicle, a phone call, a message, something.
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But in Branson's case, what was left behind seemed to
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point to the opposite. He had stepped outside expecting to
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come right back in, and the fact that his wallet
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and belongings were still in the house made the disappearance
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feel even more tied to that property, to that yard,
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that shed, and that short walk from the house. Then
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detectives organized a searge within a fifteen mile radius. That's
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a large area, especially in rural Missouri, where fields, treelines, creeks,
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farm roads, and outbuildings can create an enormous amount of
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ground to cover. Searchers looked for any sign of him,
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but nothing turned up. No clothing, no belongings, no body,
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no clear direction, and that lack of evidence is part
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of what makes the case so difficult, because it doesn't
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give investigators a path to follow. It leaves them with
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the same starting point. Ranson walked outside and then was gone.
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Cases like this are difficult because they begin in places
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that feel safe. He wasn't in an unfamiliar city. He
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was at home in the middle of the day, and
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still something happened. That's why I talk about being prepared
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in everyday moments, because safety isn't just about the situations
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00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:24.799
that feel dangerous. Sometimes it's about having something with you
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00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:28.240
before you ever think you'll need it. Safely as a
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you every day, but practical enough that it gives you
255
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an added layer of protection when you're walking to your car,
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heading into a store, or even just moving through your
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Thank you to Safely for sponsoring today episode. Now let's
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get back to the case. As the investigation continued, another
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part of the story came forward. Jenna told police that
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she and Branson had used methamphetamine in the hours before
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he disappeared. Other reports also reference marijuana and amphetamines being
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part of what investigators looked at, and this detail has
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to be handled carefully because drug use does not explain
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away a missing person. It doesn't make someone less deserving
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of attention, and it doesn't mean that whatever happened to
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Branson was somehow less urgent. But in an investigation, it
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does matter because it can widen the circle. It can
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introduce people who may not have been part of someone's
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everyday life but were still connected to them in certain moments.
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It can create situations where people are afraid to talk,
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where witnesses hold back, where rumors spread faster than confirmed information,
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and in Branson's case, it became one of the angles
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investigators had to consider because if drugs were involved in
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the hours before he disappeared, then law enforcement had to
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ask whether that connected him to someone else that day,
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someone outside the house, someone he may have owed money to,
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someone he may have planned to meet, or someone who
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may have come to him. That doesn't mean any of
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those possibilities are confirmed, but it does mean the case
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was no longer just about a young man disappearing from
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his yard. It became about what else may have been
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happening around him in those hours, and whether the answer
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was connected to people or places that were not immediately
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obvious when he first went missing. Over time, one location
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kept coming up. A house near Quipman, Missouri. Equipment is
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not far from Skidmore by car, about seven miles roughly
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a ten minute drive, but it's not a place Branson
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could have casually reached on foot in the middle of
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the afternoon without that becoming part of the timeline, and
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that's one of the biggest questions. Authorities received tips that
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Branson had been seen after leaving his home at a
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house a mile east Equipment. That house was reportedly known
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at the time as a place where drugs could be bought,
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so if Branson was seen there, then someone had to
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explain how he got there because his father's car was
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being worked on, and nothing about what he told Jenna
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suggested he was leaving the property, let alone traveling several
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miles away. That creates two very different possibilities. Either the
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sighting was wrong and Branson was never there, or the
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sighting was right and someone transported him. And if someone
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transported him, then the timeline at the house becomes even
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more important because that means Branson's disappearance may not have
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ended in the yard. It may have started there and
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then continued somewhere else. The equipment house becomes even more
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important because of what happened next. Less than a week
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after Branson disappeared, and before he had even beneficially reported missing,
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that house burned to the ground. Nottaway County law enforcedant
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later described the house as a place where there had
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been a lot of activity, and when responders got to
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the fire, there was essentially nothing left. It had burned
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down completely. By then, the people connected to the house
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had reportedly already abandoned it, and that timing is hard
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to ignore because if the house had nothing to do
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with Branson, then it may be one of the stranger
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coincidences in the case. But if Branson had been there,
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if something happened there, or if anything connected to him
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had been inside that house, then the fire could have
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destroyed evidence before investigators even knew they needed to look there.
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That is why this lead has remained so troubling, not
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because it proves what happened it doesn't, but because it
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creates a possibility that evidence may have existed at one
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point and was gone before the case was even fully underway.
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And when a case already has a delayed report, a
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questionable timeline, and people who say they saw nothing. A
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fire at a possible drug house within that same window
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becomes more than just another rumor. It becomes one of
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the central unanswered questions. Was the fire connected or was
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it just another event that happened near the edge of
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Branson's disappearance. Either way, investigators couldn't ignore it. As the
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weeks and months went on, investigators conducted more than one
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hundred interviews. That tells you two things. First, law enforcement
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was taking the case seriously and trying to understand not
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just Branson's final moments, but the full circle of people
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in places around him. And second, there were a lot
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of people to talk to, friends, people in town, people
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connected to the house, people connected to the drug rumors,
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people who may have heard something, seen something, or believed
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they knew something. But even with all of those interviews,
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the case didn't come together in a clean way. There
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were leads, there were rumors, there were possible suspects, there
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was FBI involvement, but there was no body, no confirmed scene,
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no charges. And that's where a case like this becomes
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incredibly difficult. Because investigators can have a strong suspicion, they
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can have names, they can have people who keep coming
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up again and again. But suspicion is not the same
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as proof, and without the physical evidence needed to connect
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the pieces, the case remained suspended between what people believed
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happened and what can actually be proven. That's one of
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the hardest parts of Branson's case. It has never felt
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like there was nothing to go on. It felt like
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there were many pieces, just never enough of them in
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the right place at the right time. Years after Branson disappeared,
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investigators publicly acknowledged something important. In twenty twenty two, an
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investigator told the news press that the agency had a
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suspect in the case, but they didn't have enough evidence
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to bring charges without Branson's body. That is a significant
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statement because it tells us that in the eyes of
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law enforcement, this case is not simply an unknown mystery
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with no direction. There is someone they have looked at,
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someone they believe may be connected. But belief is not
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enough to take a case into court, and especially in
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a case where more than two decades have passed, Investigators
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need evidence that can stand up legally. They need something
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stronger than rumor, stronger than suspicion, and stronger than everyone knows.
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That may be why Branson's body or evidence connected to
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his remains matters so much because without it, investigators may
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not be able to prove what happened, where it happened,
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or who was responsible, and that leaves Branson's case in
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a painful place, close enough that law enforcement can say
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there's a suspect, but not close enough to make an arrest.
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More recently, the case took another turn. Authorities questioned two
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individuals about Branson's disappearance, and both reportedly pointed investigators toward
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a particular location in the rural equipment area. They claimed
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his remains were there, and when investigators searched that area,
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they didn't find Branson, but they did find something. The
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ground had been disturbed, something had been buried there at
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some point. That detail is important because it doesn't confirm
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Branson was there, but it also doesn't allow investigators to
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simply dismiss the tip, because disturbed ground means something happened
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at that location, something was placed there, something was later moved,
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And in a case where there had already been tips
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claiming Branson was buried, dug up, and reburied multiple times,
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that discovery adds weight to a possibility that is incredibly
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difficult to sit with that. Maybe Branson's body has not
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been in one place all these years. Maybe the people
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responsible moved him, maybe more than once. Maybe every time
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law enforcement got close someone reacted again. None of that
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is confirmed, but it is part of what investigators have
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had to consider, and it raised one of the most
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painful possibilities in the entire case, that Branson may have
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been close to being found before and then moved before
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anyone could bring him home. Even after all these years,
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Branson's case is still open, and that's so important. Because
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00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.839
some case is fade from public conversation. They remain technically open,
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but very little happens unless a new tip comes in.
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Branson's case has continued to resurface because law enforcement still
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believes there are answers to fined. Captain Austin Hahn with
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the Sheriff's Office has said the investigation never really stopped
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00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:36.599
and that they continue to take in tips and follow
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up when they believe those tips are credible. That shows
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that this case is not being treated as forgotten. There
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00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.799
is still movement, there are still people willing to talk,
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00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:49.160
and there are still leads being checked. But there's also
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one major missing piece Branson, and until he's found, investigators
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are left trying to build a case around absence, around accounts,
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around rumors, around locations that may have once held evidence
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but no longer do. And that is why public attention
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00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.440
still matters, because sometimes in cases like this, the difference
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between silence and movement is one person deciding that, after
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all these years, they are finally ready to say what
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they know. While the investigation continues, Branson's family has had
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to live inside the uncertainty, and that's its own kind
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of trauma in itself, because when someone is missing, the
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00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:32.480
grief doesn't move in a straight line. There's no funeral,
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no final moment, no confirmed answer, just the same questions
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over and over again. Branson's mother, Becky Clino, searched relentlessly
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for her son. She kept his name alive and continued
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pushing for answers. His father, Bob, died in two thousand
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and four. He never found out what happened to his son.
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That same year, the family experienced another devastating tragedy when
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Branson's cousin, Bobby Joe Stinnett, was murdered in a case
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00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:05.000
that became nationally known. Bobby Joe was pregnant and her
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baby was taken from her womb. The baby survived and
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was returned to her father, but the violence of that
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00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:13.799
case added another layer of grief to a family and
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a town already caring so much. And then Branson's mother
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died in twenty eleven. In her obituary, Branson was listed
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as having passed before her, a reflection of the reality
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she had been living with for years, even without knowing
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exactly what happened to him. That detail is heartbreaking because
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00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.839
officially he was still missing, but emotionally, his mother had
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been living for years with the belief that something terrible
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00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:43.839
had happened to her son. Then in twenty fifteen, Branson's grandmother,
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Joanne Stinnett, also passed away, and with each passing year,
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more of the people closest to Branson have died without answers.
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That is why keeping his case in the public conversation
439
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.039
is so important, because when the people who knew him
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00:25:58.119 --> 00:26:01.319
best are gone, the response its ability to remember him
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00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:05.640
cannot disappear with them. When you look at Branson's case
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00:26:05.640 --> 00:26:08.279
from beginning to end, there are several details that continue
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00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:12.079
to stand out. The cabinet incidents, Branson taking something from
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the kitchen and not explaining it, one of the men
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00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:17.759
going through the cabinets later on and also not explaining it.
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00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:20.240
The jumper cables not being in the shut at first,
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00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:23.720
but then reappearing there later, the men outside saying they
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00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:27.319
never saw him leave. His belongings and wallet left behind,
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the delay before the missing person's report, the tips about
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00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:33.599
a house and ear equipment, the fire that destroyed that
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house before Branson was even reported missing, the later suspect
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00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:40.559
law enforcement couldn't charge without a body, the disturbed land
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at a location where people claimed his remains had been buried.
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None of these details alone, unfortunately, solve the case, but
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00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.039
to gather, they create a pattern of unanswered questions, And
456
00:26:52.079 --> 00:26:54.559
the biggest question of all is still the simplest one,
457
00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:59.039
what happened between the moment Branson walked outside and the
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moment everyone realized he was gone. Because that window seems
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00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:08.119
so incredibly small, too small for the amount of mystery
460
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:11.839
that followed, and yet more than two decades later, that
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00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:16.279
window is still where this case sits. For Branson's family,
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00:27:16.359 --> 00:27:19.440
Time didn't move forward in a normal way after April eleventh,
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00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:22.839
two thousand and one. It stopped in that yard, in
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that moment between the house and the shed, in the
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space between I'll be right back and the realization that
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he wasn't coming back, And while the world kept moving,
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his family was left with the same questions, the same silence,
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and the same absence for more than twenty years. If
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you have any information about the disappearance of Branson Perry,
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00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:46.240
please contact the Notaway County Sheriff's Office at six six
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to zero five eight two seven four five one. Even
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00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:56.680
the smallest detail could lead to finding Branson. Thank you
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00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:59.079
so much for joining me for this episode of Case
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00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:02.839
uncovereds missing the Midwest, and for listening to Branson's story.
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00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:05.720
Make sure to follow the show wherever you're listening to
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stay safe out there. A d D.
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It's April eleventh, two thousand and one. Twenty year old
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Branson Perry is at home in Skidmore, Missouri. He's cleaning,
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getting things ready for his dad to come home from
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the hospital. A friend is there helping him. It's the
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middle of the afternoon. At some point, Branson steps outside
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just for a moment. He tells his friend he'll be
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right back, but somehow, in the middle of the day,
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from his own home with people just a few feet away,
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Branson Perry vanished. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Case Uncovered,
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where we uncover some of the most compelling and lesser
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known true crime cases. I'm your host, Gen Rivera, and
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this is Missing in the Midwest, a series where I
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cover missing persons cases across the Midwest to help bring
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more awareness to these cases. These are the stories that
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don't always make headlines, but they are the ones that
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families are still living with every single day. Today's case
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takes us to Skidmore, Missouri, where a twenty year old
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man disappeared in the middle of the day from his
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own home with multiple people nearby, and more than two
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decades later, we're still asking the same question, what happened
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to Branson Perry. Skidmore, Missouri, sits in the northwest corner
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of the state, surrounded by farmland and long stretches of
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open space. It's the kind of place where homes aren't
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packed tightly together, where there's distance between properties, and where
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you can see someone moving across a yard, but you're
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not always close enough to hear what's happening. During the day,
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people are around, cars come and go, neighbors move through
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their routines, and there's enough activity that the town doesn't
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feel empty. But it's also not crowded. And that's what
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makes this case so difficult to understand, because nothing about
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this setting suggests that someone could disappear without being noticed,
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and yet that's exactly what happened. Branson didn't go missing
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miles away from home. He didn't disappear in a highway
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or in the middle of the night. He stepped outside
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in the middle of the day on a property where
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other people were already present, and within a very small
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window of time, he was gone. Branson Kine Perry was
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twenty years old when he disappeared. He had grown up
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in the Skidmore area, in a place where families knew
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each other, people recognize names, and someone like Branson wasn't
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a stranger moving through town. He was part of that community.
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He had graduated from Notaway Holt High School in nineteen
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ninety nine, just a couple of years before everything happened,
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and like a lot of people in that stage of life,
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Branson was still figuring out what came next. He had
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worked different jobs after high school, including roofing work and
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a job connected to a traveling petting zoo. Those details
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might seem small, but they helped paint a picture of
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who he was at the time. Someone doing physical work,
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someone used to being outside, someone not afraid of a
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job that was hands on and hard work. He was
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active too. Branson lifted weights, he enjoyed being outdoors, and
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had a black belt and hap Keto ab kito was
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a Korean martial art focused on self defense, control and
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joint locking techniques. So while that doesn't mean Branson couldn't
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be harmed, it does give us important context. He wasn't
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someone who seemed physically defenseless. If there had been a confrontation,
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especially one that happened right there near the house, it
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raises even more questions about how that could unfold without
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anyone nearby saying or hearing something. At the time he disappeared,
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Branson was living with his father, Bob Perry. His parents
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were divorced, and Bob had been in the hospital. He
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was expected to come home soon, and Branson wanted the
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house ready for him. That matters because it tells us
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where Branson's mind was that day. He wasn't preparing to leave,
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he wasn't making plans to be gone. He was doing
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something ordinary and thoughtful, cleaning the house before his dad returned.
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And there's something about that detail that makes the case
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feel even heavier, because this wasn't a day that began
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with chaos. It began with the son trying to get
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the house in order for his father, and within a
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few hours, that same house would become the last place
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anyone could say for certain that Branson Perry was seen.
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By the time April eleventh, two thousand and one, arrived,
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the day itself didn't appear to begin with anything unusual.
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Branson's friend Jenna Crawford was there at the house with him,
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and outside there were two men working on Bob's car,
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so there were people there. That part is important because
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this was in a case where Branson was last seen
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walking alone down a remote road, or leaving a store
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by himself, or heading out late at night without anyone around.
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He was at home in the middle of the day,
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with his friend Jenna inside the house and two men
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outside working on a vehicle. There were people extremely close by,
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and on a day like that, with several people moving
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in and out of the space, you would think someone
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would notice if something suddenly changed. But as the afternoon unfolded,
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there were small moments that would later become harder to explain.
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At one point, Jenna saw Branson go quickly into the kitchen.
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He opened one of the cabinets, took something out, and
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went outside. It happened so fast that it stood out,
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but not in a way that immediately felt alarming. When
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he came back inside, Jenna asked what he had been doing,
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and Branson didn't really give her an answer. He acted
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like nothing had happened and moved on. At the time,
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that may have been easy to brush off. People do
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strange little things all the time. They grabbed something and
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forget to explain it. They step outside for a second,
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they come back in and continue with whatever they were doing.
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But when someone disappears. Just a short time later, those
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small details start to feel different, because now you're not
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just asking what happened after Branson walked outside, you're asking
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what was already happening before he ever made it to
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that door. Later, Jenna stepped away to take a shower,
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and while she was in the shower, the house was
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still active. Branson was still there, the two men were
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still outside working on the car. Nothing had happened yet
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that would have made anyone believe they were inside the
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final hours of a missing person's case. But when Jenna
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came out of the bathroom, she saw something that didn't
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fit with the rest of the afternoon. One of the
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men who had been working on the car was now
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inside the house. He was in the kitchen going through
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the cabinets, not grabbing a drink, not asking for a tool,
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not calling out to Branson or Jenna for something he needed,
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just going through the cabinets. So Jenna asked what he
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was looking for, and the man said nothing. He went
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right back outside. And again it doesn't appear that this
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turned into a confrontation. In that moment. There wasn't a fight,
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there wasn't an argument. It was one of those things
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that probably felt strange, but maybe not strange enough yet
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to understand what it could mean or what was really
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going on. But when you place it next to the
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earlier moment, Branson quickly taking something from the cabinet and
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then refusing to explain what he was doing, it becomes
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harder to ignore. Because now the cabinets come up twice,
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first Branson, then one of the men outside, two separate moments,
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same area of the house, and no clear explanation. And
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that detail doesn't tell us exactly what happened, but it
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does create a question that follows the rest of the case.
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What was it that they were looking for? Did it
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have anything to do with what happened next? By around
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three pm that afternoon, the house seemed to move back
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into its normal rhythm. Johna was upstairs, the men were
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still outside, and then she heard the front porch door close.
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Not a slam, not anything that would have immediately sounded
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like a problem, just the sound of someone leaving the house.
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She looked out the window and saw Branson outside. He
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was still there, still close to the house and still
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on the property, so she asked him where he was going,
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and he told her he was going to put the
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jumper cables away in the storage shed. He said he
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would be right back. That is the last confirmed moment
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anyone has of Branson Perry, and what makes that moment
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so important is how ordinary it is. He wasn't saying
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he was leaving town. He wasn't saying he was going
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to meet someone. He wasn't acting like he was about
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to be gone for hours. He was walking outside to
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put something away. It should have taken almost no time
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at all, and because it was such a small task,
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there would have been no reason for Jenna to stop him,
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no reason to follow him, and no reason to think
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that anything about that moment needed to be remembered. But
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it would become the moment everything in this case came
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back to, because after Branson walked outside, he never came
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back in, and somehow, with people still on the property,
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no one could explain where he went. At first, there
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wouldn't have been an immediate reason to panic. Branson said
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he would be right back, but people get distracted. Maybe
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he stopped to say something to the men working on
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the car. Maybe he stepped into the shed and started
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moving something around. Maybe he walked a little farther than expected.
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For a few minutes, there are still normal explanations, but
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then those explanations begin to run out, because putting jumper
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cables away is not something that should take a ton
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of time. It doesn't require planning, it doesn't require leaving
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the property, it doesn't require going anywhere that would keep
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him away from the house, and yet Branson doesn't come back.
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The longer that goes on, the more that simple errand
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starts to feel like the dividing line in the entire case.
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And what makes this so difficult and so suspicious is
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that the two men outside that were working on the
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car claim they never s Branson. They didn't see him
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walk away, they didn't see him leave the yard, they
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didn't see him get into a vehicle, they didn't see anything.
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And that leaves this case sitting inside a very narrow
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window of time, a few minutes where Branson is supposed
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to be doing something completely ordinary and then is suddenly gone.
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And another interesting piece of this case is that when
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investigators later checked that shed, those jumper cables should have
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been there, but according to Branson's mother, they were not.
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And that detail changes the way you look at the timeline,
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because if the jumper cables were not in the shed
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when police first looked. Then one possibility is that Branson
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never made it there. Maybe something happened between the house
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and the shed, maybe he was interrupted before he could
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finish what he said he was going to do. But
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then around two weeks later, during another search, the jumper
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cables were found in the shed, and that's where the
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detail becomes even more unsettling, because if they weren't there
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at first but then were found later, then that question
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becomes obvious. Who put them there. Was it possible they
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were missed during the first initial search, that's always something
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you have to consider, But if they weren't missed, if
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they truly appeared later, then someone had to return to
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that shed after Branson disappeared. Someone had to place them there. Now.
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Branson was not reported missing immediately, and in cases like this,
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that gap matters because those first hours are critical. At first,
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people may have assumed he was somewhere nearby, maybe with friends,
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maybe out doing something and not checking in. In small towns,
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especially when someone is an adult, there can be a
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hesitation before anyone wants to say the word missing. But
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by Friday, no one had heard from him. That's when
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his grandmother, Joanne Stinnett, went to check on the house,
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and what she reportedly found was unsettling. The doors were open,
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the radio was still on. There's something about that image
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that stays with you because it doesn't feel like someone
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in a planned way. It feels like a house that
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was interrupted, a day that was never fully closed out,
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a space where people had been living normally, moving through
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normal routines, and then suddenly something happened that stopped everything
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in place. By Monday, a missing person's report was filed.
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That was five days after Branson had last been seen,
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and by then the case was already more complicated than
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it would have been if police had been called in
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the first hour. People had come and gone, the house
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had not been preserved as a possible scene from the beginning,
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the shed had been searched, the jumper cables had become
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a question, and Branson was still nowhere to be found.
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When investigators began looking at Branson's life and what he
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left behind, there were details that made it hard to
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believe he had simply walked away. His belongings were still there,
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his wallet was still there. There was no indication that
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he had packed anything or prepared to be gone. And
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that's important because when someone leaves voluntary, even suddenly, there
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is usually some kind of movement that points in that direction,
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a bag, a vehicle, a phone call, a message, something.
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But in Branson's case, what was left behind seemed to
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point to the opposite. He had stepped outside expecting to
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come right back in, and the fact that his wallet
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and belongings were still in the house made the disappearance
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feel even more tied to that property, to that yard,
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that shed, and that short walk from the house. Then
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detectives organized a searge within a fifteen mile radius. That's
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a large area, especially in rural Missouri, where fields, treelines, creeks,
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farm roads, and outbuildings can create an enormous amount of
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ground to cover. Searchers looked for any sign of him,
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but nothing turned up. No clothing, no belongings, no body,
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no clear direction, and that lack of evidence is part
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of what makes the case so difficult, because it doesn't
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give investigators a path to follow. It leaves them with
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the same starting point. Ranson walked outside and then was gone.
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Cases like this are difficult because they begin in places
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that feel safe. He wasn't in an unfamiliar city. He
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was at home in the middle of the day, and
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still something happened. That's why I talk about being prepared
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00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:20.559
in everyday moments, because safety isn't just about the situations
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00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:24.799
that feel dangerous. Sometimes it's about having something with you
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00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:28.240
before you ever think you'll need it. Safely as a
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and a glass breaker. It's small enough to carry with
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you every day, but practical enough that it gives you
255
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an added layer of protection when you're walking to your car,
256
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heading into a store, or even just moving through your
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Thank you to Safely for sponsoring today episode. Now let's
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00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:06.399
get back to the case. As the investigation continued, another
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part of the story came forward. Jenna told police that
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she and Branson had used methamphetamine in the hours before
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he disappeared. Other reports also reference marijuana and amphetamines being
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part of what investigators looked at, and this detail has
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to be handled carefully because drug use does not explain
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away a missing person. It doesn't make someone less deserving
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of attention, and it doesn't mean that whatever happened to
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Branson was somehow less urgent. But in an investigation, it
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does matter because it can widen the circle. It can
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introduce people who may not have been part of someone's
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everyday life but were still connected to them in certain moments.
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It can create situations where people are afraid to talk,
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where witnesses hold back, where rumors spread faster than confirmed information,
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and in Branson's case, it became one of the angles
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investigators had to consider because if drugs were involved in
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the hours before he disappeared, then law enforcement had to
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ask whether that connected him to someone else that day,
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someone outside the house, someone he may have owed money to,
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someone he may have planned to meet, or someone who
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may have come to him. That doesn't mean any of
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those possibilities are confirmed, but it does mean the case
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was no longer just about a young man disappearing from
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his yard. It became about what else may have been
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happening around him in those hours, and whether the answer
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was connected to people or places that were not immediately
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obvious when he first went missing. Over time, one location
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kept coming up. A house near Quipman, Missouri. Equipment is
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not far from Skidmore by car, about seven miles roughly
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a ten minute drive, but it's not a place Branson
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could have casually reached on foot in the middle of
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the afternoon without that becoming part of the timeline, and
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that's one of the biggest questions. Authorities received tips that
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Branson had been seen after leaving his home at a
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house a mile east Equipment. That house was reportedly known
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at the time as a place where drugs could be bought,
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so if Branson was seen there, then someone had to
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explain how he got there because his father's car was
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being worked on, and nothing about what he told Jenna
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suggested he was leaving the property, let alone traveling several
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miles away. That creates two very different possibilities. Either the
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sighting was wrong and Branson was never there, or the
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sighting was right and someone transported him. And if someone
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transported him, then the timeline at the house becomes even
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more important because that means Branson's disappearance may not have
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ended in the yard. It may have started there and
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then continued somewhere else. The equipment house becomes even more
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important because of what happened next. Less than a week
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after Branson disappeared, and before he had even beneficially reported missing,
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that house burned to the ground. Nottaway County law enforcedant
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later described the house as a place where there had
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been a lot of activity, and when responders got to
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the fire, there was essentially nothing left. It had burned
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down completely. By then, the people connected to the house
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had reportedly already abandoned it, and that timing is hard
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to ignore because if the house had nothing to do
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with Branson, then it may be one of the stranger
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coincidences in the case. But if Branson had been there,
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if something happened there, or if anything connected to him
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had been inside that house, then the fire could have
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destroyed evidence before investigators even knew they needed to look there.
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That is why this lead has remained so troubling, not
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because it proves what happened it doesn't, but because it
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creates a possibility that evidence may have existed at one
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point and was gone before the case was even fully underway.
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And when a case already has a delayed report, a
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questionable timeline, and people who say they saw nothing. A
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fire at a possible drug house within that same window
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becomes more than just another rumor. It becomes one of
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the central unanswered questions. Was the fire connected or was
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it just another event that happened near the edge of
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Branson's disappearance. Either way, investigators couldn't ignore it. As the
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weeks and months went on, investigators conducted more than one
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hundred interviews. That tells you two things. First, law enforcement
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was taking the case seriously and trying to understand not
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just Branson's final moments, but the full circle of people
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in places around him. And second, there were a lot
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of people to talk to, friends, people in town, people
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connected to the house, people connected to the drug rumors,
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people who may have heard something, seen something, or believed
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they knew something. But even with all of those interviews,
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the case didn't come together in a clean way. There
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were leads, there were rumors, there were possible suspects, there
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was FBI involvement, but there was no body, no confirmed scene,
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no charges. And that's where a case like this becomes
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incredibly difficult. Because investigators can have a strong suspicion, they
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can have names, they can have people who keep coming
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up again and again. But suspicion is not the same
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as proof, and without the physical evidence needed to connect
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the pieces, the case remained suspended between what people believed
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happened and what can actually be proven. That's one of
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the hardest parts of Branson's case. It has never felt
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like there was nothing to go on. It felt like
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there were many pieces, just never enough of them in
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the right place at the right time. Years after Branson disappeared,
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investigators publicly acknowledged something important. In twenty twenty two, an
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investigator told the news press that the agency had a
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suspect in the case, but they didn't have enough evidence
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to bring charges without Branson's body. That is a significant
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statement because it tells us that in the eyes of
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law enforcement, this case is not simply an unknown mystery
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with no direction. There is someone they have looked at,
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someone they believe may be connected. But belief is not
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enough to take a case into court, and especially in
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a case where more than two decades have passed, Investigators
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need evidence that can stand up legally. They need something
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stronger than rumor, stronger than suspicion, and stronger than everyone knows.
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That may be why Branson's body or evidence connected to
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his remains matters so much because without it, investigators may
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not be able to prove what happened, where it happened,
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or who was responsible, and that leaves Branson's case in
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a painful place, close enough that law enforcement can say
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there's a suspect, but not close enough to make an arrest.
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More recently, the case took another turn. Authorities questioned two
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individuals about Branson's disappearance, and both reportedly pointed investigators toward
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a particular location in the rural equipment area. They claimed
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his remains were there, and when investigators searched that area,
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they didn't find Branson, but they did find something. The
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ground had been disturbed, something had been buried there at
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some point. That detail is important because it doesn't confirm
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Branson was there, but it also doesn't allow investigators to
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simply dismiss the tip, because disturbed ground means something happened
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at that location, something was placed there, something was later moved,
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And in a case where there had already been tips
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claiming Branson was buried, dug up, and reburied multiple times,
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that discovery adds weight to a possibility that is incredibly
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difficult to sit with that. Maybe Branson's body has not
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been in one place all these years. Maybe the people
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responsible moved him, maybe more than once. Maybe every time
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law enforcement got close someone reacted again. None of that
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is confirmed, but it is part of what investigators have
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had to consider, and it raised one of the most
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painful possibilities in the entire case, that Branson may have
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been close to being found before and then moved before
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anyone could bring him home. Even after all these years,
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Branson's case is still open, and that's so important. Because
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00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.839
some case is fade from public conversation. They remain technically open,
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but very little happens unless a new tip comes in.
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Branson's case has continued to resurface because law enforcement still
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believes there are answers to fined. Captain Austin Hahn with
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the Sheriff's Office has said the investigation never really stopped
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and that they continue to take in tips and follow
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up when they believe those tips are credible. That shows
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that this case is not being treated as forgotten. There
404
00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.799
is still movement, there are still people willing to talk,
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00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:49.160
and there are still leads being checked. But there's also
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one major missing piece Branson, and until he's found, investigators
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are left trying to build a case around absence, around accounts,
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around rumors, around locations that may have once held evidence
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but no longer do. And that is why public attention
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00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.440
still matters, because sometimes in cases like this, the difference
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between silence and movement is one person deciding that, after
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all these years, they are finally ready to say what
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they know. While the investigation continues, Branson's family has had
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to live inside the uncertainty, and that's its own kind
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of trauma in itself, because when someone is missing, the
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grief doesn't move in a straight line. There's no funeral,
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no final moment, no confirmed answer, just the same questions
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over and over again. Branson's mother, Becky Clino, searched relentlessly
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for her son. She kept his name alive and continued
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pushing for answers. His father, Bob, died in two thousand
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and four. He never found out what happened to his son.
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That same year, the family experienced another devastating tragedy when
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Branson's cousin, Bobby Joe Stinnett, was murdered in a case
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that became nationally known. Bobby Joe was pregnant and her
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baby was taken from her womb. The baby survived and
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was returned to her father, but the violence of that
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00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:13.799
case added another layer of grief to a family and
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a town already caring so much. And then Branson's mother
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died in twenty eleven. In her obituary, Branson was listed
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as having passed before her, a reflection of the reality
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she had been living with for years, even without knowing
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exactly what happened to him. That detail is heartbreaking because
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00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.839
officially he was still missing, but emotionally, his mother had
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been living for years with the belief that something terrible
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had happened to her son. Then in twenty fifteen, Branson's grandmother,
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Joanne Stinnett, also passed away, and with each passing year,
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more of the people closest to Branson have died without answers.
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That is why keeping his case in the public conversation
439
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.039
is so important, because when the people who knew him
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00:25:58.119 --> 00:26:01.319
best are gone, the response its ability to remember him
441
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:05.640
cannot disappear with them. When you look at Branson's case
442
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from beginning to end, there are several details that continue
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to stand out. The cabinet incidents, Branson taking something from
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the kitchen and not explaining it, one of the men
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going through the cabinets later on and also not explaining it.
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The jumper cables not being in the shut at first,
447
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but then reappearing there later, the men outside saying they
448
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never saw him leave. His belongings and wallet left behind,
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the delay before the missing person's report, the tips about
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a house and ear equipment, the fire that destroyed that
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house before Branson was even reported missing, the later suspect
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00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:40.559
law enforcement couldn't charge without a body, the disturbed land
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at a location where people claimed his remains had been buried.
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None of these details alone, unfortunately, solve the case, but
455
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.039
to gather, they create a pattern of unanswered questions, And
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the biggest question of all is still the simplest one,
457
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what happened between the moment Branson walked outside and the
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moment everyone realized he was gone. Because that window seems
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00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:08.119
so incredibly small, too small for the amount of mystery
460
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that followed, and yet more than two decades later, that
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window is still where this case sits. For Branson's family,
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Time didn't move forward in a normal way after April eleventh,
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two thousand and one. It stopped in that yard, in
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00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:25.480
that moment between the house and the shed, in the
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space between I'll be right back and the realization that
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he wasn't coming back, And while the world kept moving,
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00:27:32.599 --> 00:27:35.640
his family was left with the same questions, the same silence,
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00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:40.000
and the same absence for more than twenty years. If
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00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.759
you have any information about the disappearance of Branson Perry,
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00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:46.240
please contact the Notaway County Sheriff's Office at six six
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00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:50.519
to zero five eight two seven four five one. Even
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00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:56.680
the smallest detail could lead to finding Branson. Thank you
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00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:59.079
so much for joining me for this episode of Case
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00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:02.839
uncovereds missing the Midwest, and for listening to Branson's story.
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00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:05.720
Make sure to follow the show wherever you're listening to
476
00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:08.640
podcasts so you don't miss new episodes of Case Uncovered
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00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:12.599
every Tuesday and Thursday. And if you're a longtime listener,
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00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.039
thank you so much for being here. If you're new, welcome.
479
00:28:16.759 --> 00:28:18.920
If you want to keep hearing cases like this each week,
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00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:21.000
the best way to support the show is by leaving
481
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:24.559
a five star rating and review. Case Uncovered is an
482
00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:27.880
independent podcast, and that support helps get these episodes in
483
00:28:27.880 --> 00:28:30.640
front of more listeners so more people can hear these
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00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:34.160
stories and help bring attention to these cases, and you
485
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:37.359
never know it could lead to somebody who knows something
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00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.680
about the case. To learn more about my real life
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00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:43.519
advocacy work through my five oh one c three nonprofit,
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00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:47.279
The Reignited Project, you can visit the Reignited project dot
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00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:52.680
com And until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and
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00:28:52.720 --> 00:29:45.519
stay safe out there. A d D.
