Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Brittany Locklear

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

When a little girl goes missing from her bus stop in 1998, it’s just the start of one community’s decades-long search for justice.If you have any information about the disappearance of Brittany Locklear on Wednesday, January 7, 1998, in Raeford, North Carolina, please contact the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office anonymous tip line at 910-878-1279, or the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at 888-624-7222. Tips can also be submitted online.May 5th was Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day and in honor, audiochuck is supporting Ohkomi Forensics, an Indigenous-led organization that provides forensic services to Indigenous families affected by the MMIP crisis, in correlation with our coverage this week. To learn more about or donate to Ohkomi Forensics, please visit this link!For more information about Season of Justice, or to apply for a grant, please visit www.seasonofjustice.org.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-brittany-locklear  Have you heard yet? National DNA Day was Thursday, April 25th, and in honor of the special day, Ashley and audiochuck have partnered with an Indy based cidery to release a limited edition cider called Cheers For Chuck. Cheers For Chuck cider helps solve cold cases - with every purchase, a portion of proceeds goes to Season of Justice. A cider that can crack crime? We'll cheers to that! This is an extremely limited drop, so visit cheersforchuckcider.com to get your order in before it sells out. Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllc Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today's story is about a young girl from the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, a girl who would have been 32 years old now if her life hadn't been cut short in the most unexpected and cruel way. Now, May 5th is Missing and Murdered

Indigenous Persons Awareness Day. And as many of you know, violence against Native Americans and Alaska Natives continues to be an ongoing, overwhelming national crisis that has yet to slow down. And although the numbers keep rising, the lack of awareness and justice remains. So we're gonna be sharing a story today, but we didn't wanna stop there.

So tomorrow, we're also gonna be releasing a bonus episode that will feature five different cases of missing and murdered indigenous people that still need answers. And though this doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the thousands upon thousands of other cases that remain open and unsolved, we're hoping it's a start to highlighting the injustice

that these communities continue to face. And we hope that it encourages you crime junkies to help us in spreading the awareness. But to start, I want to tell you the story of Brittany Locklear. On On a cold Wednesday morning in January of 1998, Connie Chavis and her five-year-old daughter Brittany make the nearly 200-yard walk from their front door to the end of their driveway to wait for the school bus. According to reporting by Laura Aaronshield with the Fayetteville Observer, Brittany is all bundled up tight in her little red riding hood coat. They live in rural Hope County, North Carolina, outside of a small city called Rayford.

So this isn't your stereotypical suburban neighborhood. I mean, the driveway's a hike, like I said, 200 yards long, and the closest neighbor is somewhere within eyeshot, although it's a distance and the view can be obstructed. So they get out there, and as they're standing there waiting, Connie realizes that she's gotta go. She makes the split-second decision to leave Brittany there to wait for the bus on her own. Now, normally she watches her get on, but I mean, for real, she has gotta go, and the

bus is supposed to be there by now, so it should be coming any second. Though she doesn't see it coming down the road, but it might just be running late. So I imagine in that moment, she tells Brittany, like, listen, I will be right back. And if the bus hasn't come to get you by the time I get back, I will keep waiting with you. It only takes her a couple of minutes to walk into the house,

go to the bathroom and walk back out. And when she does, she's actually relieved. She told Brittany to stay, cause she's gone now, which means the bus must have come while she was inside. Right. So she heads back up the driveway one more time to start her day, but it's not long before she's interrupted.

There's someone knocking on her front door and not a casual, are you home knock? This sounds urgent. When she opens the door, it's her neighbor, Rose Johnson, with a look of just straight panic on her face. And the words that spill out of Rose's mouth almost don't register with Connie. They're so unexpected. She says she thinks that Brittany got kidnapped. She tells Connie that she just watched it happen, because she was keeping an eye on her own kids from her

house as they also waited for the bus, I think at the end of their driveway. Rose is quoted in the Charlotte Observer saying, I saw a truck come flying around the curve and down toward Brittany. It slowed down quick and someone hopped out of the truck real fast. He bent over like he was picking something up, hopped back in the truck and drove out of there fast. Did she actually see the driver grab Brittany though? No, I don't think so.

She just saw this weird thing. And then a few minutes later, the bus comes to pick up her kids. And she realizes that the bus didn't stop at Brittany's house. So that's when it all kind of clicked into place for her. She realized what she had actually witnessed. So that's when she comes like running over to Connie's.

Has anyone called the police yet? I don't know. I think maybe Rose has. It's a little bit muddy. And I'll tell you why I think that in a second. But either way, so she runs to tell Connie, Connie is trying not to spiral because before she calls police, she has someone actually drive her to the school where they wait for Brittany's bus.

I mean, they're moving so fast they get there before the bus. And she's hoping to reassure herself, whoever's driving her, that Brittany is safe and sound. But when the bus finally does arrive, Brittany is not on it. It's not like her bus driver, a woman named Nancy, didn't notice her absence at the bus stop. She did, but she just assumed Brittany's mom and stepdad had taken her to school. So for her to get there and see Connie there waiting, everyone is on the same page. Like this is not good. And everyone agrees that it is time to call this in.

Connie calls 911 to report Brittany missing, and this is why I say I think Rose might have already called. Because according to Michaela Muck for WNCT, the operator tells her that she's not the first person to call about it. So I don't know if it was Rose. I don't know if it was someone else that Connie might have talked to. To me it seems like it would have been Rose, but again, that's not actually stated. Well, Rose or not, I assume her description of the truck and stuff eventually gets to the police. It does, and not even just the truck, like the guy too. Because even though she was inside watching from her own house, her kids were out there on the driveway. So they actually saw it all go down too.

They think that the guy they saw was a white guy. And what they described to the Hoke County Sheriff's Office is this brown truck with a rack of overhead lights, which I don't think comes standard. So that could be super helpful in narrowing it down. It's something that could set this brown truck apart from all the other brown trucks. I mean, unless the guy is smart enough to take these lights down. Well, yeah, and I know that that detail does get publicized eventually. That's how I know about it. So when they first get this information from the witnesses,

they're basically in a race to find him before he changes too much, before he knows that they know what they do. before he knows that they know what they do. Mm-hmm. HCSO gets a massive search effort up and going almost immediately. They get dozens of deputies started on a land search, and the State Highway Patrol even gets a chopper with an infrared camera up in the air, which gets grounded before long because of the wind. But they also send a deputy and an agent from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, or SBI, out to Pembroke, about 30 minutes from Raeford, to go check the home of Brittany's

biological dad. According to reporting in the Rocky Mount Telegram, he's been MIA since she was born, so they don't think that it's likely he was the one to come pick her up, but they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't at least check him out. Right, right. Yeah, and it's not clear what he tells investigators, but whatever it is, they're satisfied by the end of the interview that he had nothing to do with her kidnapping. Though I'm sure on some level, everyone was probably hoping he was involved. That maybe at the end of the day, this was a messy custody dispute. I mean, I don't know

anything about this guy, but at least they would know where to look if that was the case, right? Right, right. It's still be messy. It's still be bad, it'd still be very scary, but you would know where she is. It's a starting point. Yeah, it's something. Well, he may not have given them any clues as to where to look, but it doesn't take long for ground searchers back near Rayford to find one. An ominous clue at that.

Around 9 a.m. that morning, this would be January 7th, flashes of pink and green and purple catch the eyes of some searchers in the woods a few miles from Brittany's home. When they get closer, they see that what caught their eye was a child's purple backpack, some sneakers, and a small pair of green overalls, the same ones that Brittany had picked out to wear to school that day just a few hours earlier. So they immediately like span out all over the area looking for any additional signs of Britney's things or Britney herself. Hour after hour passes with nothing. It's almost like these things were just dropped there. So the question is was Britney there and

then taken with whoever discarded those items or there wasn't any blood on these items or anything, right? Nothing has been reported like that. No. So I think everyone is still really hopeful, but their hope dwindles with the daylight and eventually they're forced to call off their searches until the next morning. By then, Hope County Sheriff Wayne Byrd has recruited as many as 300 ground searchers. I mean, he's got sheriff's deputies, obviously, but also officers from other agencies, DOC employees, soldiers from Fort Bragg, firefighters, and community volunteers.

Even Brittany's stepdad, Charles, gets out there, although Connie is too distraught to participate. Now, more clothing is found on Thursday, presumed also to belong to Brittany. But before they can even confirm that it's hers, one officer makes a terrible discovery. Michaela Muck reports for WNCT9 that it's about 2 p.m. when Brittany's unclothed body is found submerged in water in a drainage ditch just a few miles from her home. Now, there are no apparent gunshot wounds or puncture wounds or any indication that she'd been tied up.

But on Friday, the day of her autopsy, the sheriff confirms what everyone already feared, that she had been sexually assaulted. The Emmy office also finds that she died by drowning, although this fact isn't disclosed to the public for months. In fact, Night Chamberlain reports in the news and Observer that it's at a primary campaign event in March for his re-election as sheriff that Sheriff Byrd finally confirms this, saying quote,

She was held underwater until she drowned. I think she was drowned right where we found her. End quote. Hold up. I'm sorry, he discloses this at a campaign event? Yeah, held it until that moment, which feels gross, right? And yeah, it won't be the last time that her death is used as campaign fodder. Just wait. But I don't want to jump too far ahead of ourselves.

By Friday, January 9th, the FBI and the SBI have been brought in to assist the Hote County Sheriff's Office, and the FBI even offers up experts from its child abduction and serial killer unit. They set up dedicated tip lines and boy do tips come in. Reporting in the Herald Sun indicates that throughout Friday, they're getting as many as 30 calls per hour. And then another 1,500 calls come in over the weekend, which I mean we we know all too well

It's like this is a blessing and a curse because great people are talking about it. People are providing information Yeah, and each one could be the tip the one that cracks the case wide open But they aren't all the tip which means you have to figure out which one that is. Right. Some are just dead ends that take up time and resources, and you don't know which is which until you run every single one down. And I assume during all this, they're also doing like an inventory of sex offenders in the area if they haven't started that already. Done and done. But as one FBI agent says in the news and record, quote, we don't have anyone within our crosshairs. We're just settling in for the long term here, end quote.

And mind you, this is just Saturday, three days after she initially went missing. And they're already talking about settling in for the long term. Though, by Sunday the 11th, they'll be singing a different tune. Because that's when an investigator passes'll be singing a different tune. Because that's when an investigator passes a guy driving a brown truck on the very road Brittany was abducted from. When the officer sees this brown truck, he makes a quick U-turn to pull the guy over

for a little chat. But the driver of the truck doesn't pull off to the side of the road like he's supposed to. Instead, there's a little bit of a chase. Mm, tell me you've got something to hide without telling me you've got something to hide. Right, and when he finally does pull over, he's got an underwhelming explanation for why he fled. The guy says he was late for work.

Cool, he's about to be a lot more late for work. Yeah, I know. He does get hauled in for questioning, obviously, and he spends the next six hours being grilled by investigators. He does consent to a search of his house and his truck, which Sheriff Byrd says in the News and Observer, they dismantled searching for evidence. But in the end, they are pretty sure he's not their guy. So he literally was just late for work? I guess so. This is where like, again, these like older cases, you just get stuff that's so spotty, they never really say for sure. All Sheriff Byrd says is, quote, after several hours, we determined there was no reason to hold him.

And there is no reason to think we will bring him back in again." The same day they have to let their first real person of interest go, a wake is held with a whopping 4,000 people in attendance. Same thing at the funeral the next day. And I can't help but think that many of the attendees from the community probably see their own kids in Brittany. You see, she was part of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, which has deep, deep roots in the local community.

Hoke County is among a cluster of counties in Lumbee Tribal territory. And according to an episode of the Red Justice Project podcast, 11% of Hoke County is comprised of members of the Lumbee Tribe at this time, and the figure is even higher in some of the adjacent counties. Now, we'd be here for weeks if I tried to fill you guys in on the full history of the Lumbee Tribe, but you should at least know this. They show up. They were almost single-handedly responsible for driving the KKK out of the area in the

late 50s, and that was at a standoff that came to be known as the Battle of Hayes Pond. And just as they came out in droves to protect their community in the 50s, they come out in droves to honor Brittany. Now, investigators are placed strategically in the crowd to observe the mourners, looking out for any odd behavior. But it doesn't seem like they spot anybody of interest, although Sheriff Bird does ask the local TV stations for copies of their footage of the event so that it can be reviewed for anything they might have missed in the moment.

Later that day, two more brown pickup trucks are pulled over, and their drivers are brought in for questioning, but just like the guy from the day before, they're released when investigators are satisfied that they weren't involved. Then there's another truck that ends up being a wild goose chase too. One that they got a tip on saying that it was abandoned in the woods in Lancaster, South Carolina. But Sheriff Byrd personally makes the two-hour trek to check that out himself, and yet again, it's determined not to be involved. All the while, investigators continue interviewing registered sex offenders in the area, even considering a possible link

to a few recent unsolved abductions, one in North Carolina and one as far away as Texas. It seems like until they rule something out, every possibility is in, including Brittany's mom and stepdad. Connie and her husband, Charles, know that they're basically suspects by default and they ask to sit for polygraphs so that they can be ruled out. And they also provide

voluntary hair and blood samples. And Night Chamberlain reports for the News and Observer that this is enough for Sheriff Byrd to knock them off his suspect list. You said they provided voluntary hair and blood samples. Does that mean investigators might have a DNA profile of their perp? I don't think they have the profile yet, but the FBI tells Sheriff Byrd that they got enough material from the Emmy's office to build one. So it's like a work in progress. So I think they're just kind of ruling them off based on the polygraph and the fact that they were even willing to, you know what I mean?

Right. They're like asking to be ruled out. Right. Now, meanwhile, the FBI has compiled a suspect profile outlining some behaviors that people should be on the lookout for. And I mean, they're mostly common sense things. I mean, you can probably guess them from watching enough Criminal Minds episodes. Right.

Like changing appearance, drinking more or less than usual, seeing stressed out for no reason, like just odd off behavior. Yeah. Missing work or school, getting the heck out of Dodge, is selling this vehicle that everyone's looking for, especially if it's a brown truck. So, I mean, they're putting this out and if someone who knew the guy was paying attention,

it might help, but I mean, it is a little vague and it's possible that no one is paying attention because investigators aren't having any luck zeroing in on a potential suspect. Until, that is, they catch wind of a rumor that's been making its way through town. A rumor involving someone entrusted not only with Britney's care, but with the care of countless other children as well. And this rumor has everyone asking if there is a wolf in sheep's clothing hiding among

them in plain sight. The person at the center of this rumor is none other than the principal of Brittany's elementary school, a man named George Marston. George, who, by the way, was even quoted in early reporting on the case saying he passed Brittany at the bus stop every morning as he drove to work. Dude, way to place yourself at the crime scene. It gets worse.

Foonery reports for the Charlotte Observer that the rumors started soon after Brittany was found when quote, a front page story in the Fayetteville Observer Times about how her school was coping mentioned that Marston sometimes picked up Brittany and brought her with him, which is... Super sus.

Yeah, now, to be fair, George swears he was misquoted. In the same article, he explains that he wasn't saying he did take Brittany to school. He was saying that he, quote, often thought of taking Brittany to school, end quote. I don't like that one either. I don't either, also because like how many other kids were you passing on your Brittany to school." End quote. Hmm, I don't like that one either. I don't either. Also, cause like how many other kids were you passing on your way to school? And maybe he was thinking about taking all of them, but all that's mentioned is Brittany.

The context, the way he's saying it, nothing sounds great. He says that he never did it though because it's against school policy. Uh, yeah. Obviously. I know. Well, either way, I actually do think he's telling the truth about being misquoted. I still don't like the real quote he's saying or whatever, but Connie says there's no way he could have taken Brittany to school because she'd always watch Brittany get on the bus

except for those few minutes in the morning she was taken. And Sheriff Byrd says that while everyone is considered a suspect, George isn't at the top of their list. So he, I think what she's saying is like he could have never taken her to school in the past because she's like, I watched her get on the bus every single day. I'm always there. Yeah. This one time I wasn't, et cetera, et cetera.

So does this George guy have a brown truck? No, not a brown pickup, not any pickup for that matter. But Sheriff Byrd and his team obviously took the rumors somewhat seriously because investigators did interview him, not once, but twice. Though again, they landed at George isn't at the top of their suspect list. For the next few months, it's more of the same. They get a couple of leads about sex offenders driving trucks that potentially match the ones seen by witnesses.

One guy who lives about an hour and a half north in Alamance County actually ticks a lot of boxes, except it's determined that he wasn't anywhere near Hope County the morning that Britney was taken. By May of that year, investigators have worked roughly 2,000 leads, including a false confession out of South Carolina. But all in all, they have little to show for it. Then there's a tip that comes in that month about someone specific that actually

gets everyone pretty excited. Sheriff Byrd says this person is their best suspect so far. He's a white guy, the right age, between 25 to 40. He drives a brown pickup truck. He even lives nearby, although not in Hope County. In the news and Observer, Sheriff Byrd says he, quote, fits four of the six criteria we have developed as a suspect profile for this case. End quote. And then he goes so far

as to say that, quote, if he fits just one more, I'll charge him. And this gets everyone's hopes up, including Brittany's family. But yet again, either there was no fifth characteristic that lined up or they found something that excluded him because he is never charged. And the reporting on that suspect, whoever it was, kinda just drops off. Sheriff Byrd said in June that he asked SBI to take the lead on that suspect because he lived outside the county and then that's the last we hear of it. Now there is a big shakeup for the case at the end of the year because that re-election bid that Sheriff Byrd made, well, he ends up losing.

So you're telling me his strategy of dropping major case developments at campaign events didn't actually pay off? Yeah, didn't work for him. And so on December 18th, a new sheriff named Jim Davis is sworn in. And similar to what often happens when there's a new sheriff in town, there can be like this cleaning of house, if you will, like all new people brought in,

which means a bunch of people who know nothing about the cases that are open and active. By January of 1999, the entire investigation is turned over to and run by the SBI, though by the end of the year, HTSO will be looped back in on the investigation. But now, SBI Special Agent Fred McKinney isn't exactly subtle about his opinion of Sheriff Byrd's management of the case. He says that all Sheriff Byrd's boasting about potential persons of interest scared off some people that they'd been hoping to interview. He says that all Sheriff Byrd's boasting about potential persons of interest scared off some people that they've been hoping

to interview. He also says his team is reviewing all of the work that's been done so far and doing their own evaluations of what and who is credible. And just how deeply they're digging becomes apparent in April of that year when they basically tell the public to disregard everything they've heard so far about that guy in the truck.

What do you mean disregard everything? Like the guy in the truck didn't really happen? Well, the initial witness reports describe a white guy in a brown truck, but Lee Dyer reports in the Charlotte Observer that that might be wrong. That the guy could be white, or he might not be, and his brown truck, I mean, maybe it wasn't brown after all. Maybe it was tan, heck, maybe it was blue or red.

It seems like they're trying to get people to think outside of the box, maybe to get witnesses to come forward who were talking themselves out of saying something before because the information they had wasn't exactly right. But even this doesn't seem to bring about any new developments, or at least none that the public or family have been looped in on. So it comes as a huge shock when in February of 2001, investigators with the HGSO

bring Brittany's family members in and accuse them of being behind her murder. I mean, there's a moment when they straight up accuse Connie of killing her daughter. And they up the ante with Connie's father-in-law, who was the one to drive her to the school that day, by making him look at autopsy photos and insinuate that he is a sexual predator. Where is any of this coming from? To be perfectly honest, it doesn't seem like they have much of anything. I mean, like I said, they weren't talking much to the public in those last couple of years,

but I mean, they haven't said much about this afterwards either to tell us what led them there or what- So they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Yeah, which I mean, when you're like throwing spaghetti and your spaghetti is murder accusations toward a grieving mother with no proof, like, I don't think you get to be as flippant. And make no mistake, it does not seem like much is sticking.

So when a whole nother year and a half goes by without any developments and Sheriff Davis is about to face his own reelection challenge, he decides it's time to throw the entire effing dinner table at the wall. Anna Griffin reports for the Charlotte Observer that Sheriff Davis holds a press conference in August of 2002, saying that he has uncovered a giant conspiracy, one engineered from the start by his old rival, Sheriff Byrd, to throw everyone off the real killer's tracks. According to Sheriff Davis, the killer is former Sheriff Byrd's son, Robin Byrd. Now Robin is in prison at the time,

serving a 23-month sentence for trying to burn down the house of Sheriff Davis' campaign manager. Okay, hold up. I'm not really connecting the dots here. All I see is a reason why Davis would hate Robin Byrd. Yeah, well, basically it comes down to a guy, this witness, named Jordache Leach. Jordache has a record of his own, which includes a conviction for armed robbery. And back in 1998, Jordache was one of the witnesses who told investigators he'd seen a white guy in a brown truck driving near Britney's bus stop right around the time of

her abduction. But according to Sheriff Davis, that wasn't his original story. I guess his original story was that he'd seen Robin in a blue truck driving nearby. Which makes you wonder, is this why they put out that whole, like, forget what you know about the truck and the driver thing? Yeah, but they never said that. We only get this story from Sheriff Davis. And he adds that investigators coerced Jordache to change his story somehow. And yeah, like, the details are kind of lacking around this whole thing, and mostly because Sheriff Davis keeps things pretty vague.

He's quoted in that same reporting by Anna Griffin saying, "...the original investigation was intentionally misdirected by local law enforcement as a result of a wide-ranging political conspiracy." And then he takes it a step further than that. He says there wasn't just a conspiracy to cover up the murder. The murder itself was the conspiracy. Anna goes on in her reporting to explain that, Davis said he believes Brittany's death was politically motivated

and its inquiry purposely bungled. He noted that the girl disappeared two days before candidate filing opened for 1998 elections when he ran against Wayne Byrd." End quote. Okay, Ashley, you know. I love a conspiracy. I love a few things more than a conspiracy theory.

I'm like the easiest person to convince that it goes all the way to the top. Right. Like, I love to jump on the bandwagon of stuff like this. However, am I not seeing something? Just because two events occurred around the same time in the same Week or so doesn't really mean they're connected. Am I wrong? Is everyone else buying? No on this story. No, they're not no one's going out and getting their pitchforks just yet Even former sheriff bird is like, okay

Like weird flex because my son actually never even drove a blue truck, like I don't know what this means. And the SBI basically does like a shrug emoji and says that they don't know what the Sheriff Davis is going on about. They notably decline Sheriff Davis's invitation to attend the press conference. Even the DA goes on the record, pointing out that Jordache isn't exactly a credible witness.

And it would almost be comical if it wasn't so horrific because we are still, again, you wanna talk about all the madness surrounding this, we are talking about a murdered little girl. There is a real grieving family involved here. And Connie, I mean, she is there at that press conference in person and she is so offended by the whole thing

that she stands up and walks out after about five minutes and says Sheriff Davis is exploiting her daughter's death for a political campaign. And she's not the only one to think that. Anna Griffin notes, quote, the news conference did have the feel of a campaign event from the buffet of mini donuts and juice to the 10 minute delay as a deputy struggled to straighten a banner bearing the sheriff's name." You won't be surprised to hear that this little sideshow goes nowhere. Sheriff Davis doesn't even win his re-election campaign. A new sheriff, Sheriff Hubert Peterkin takes office later in 2002, and in the summer of 2003, the investigation, seemingly at a standstill ever since Sheriff Davis's press conference

Once again does start picking up steam because of an unrelated crime Police in Carthage, North Carolina about 45 minutes away from Rayford Arrest a guy by the name of Keith Douglas Laundrie on suspicion of armed robbery and this guy Keith He's a firefighter at Fort Bragg, which is about 30 minutes away from Rayford. Or I guess I should say Keith was a firefighter at Fort Bragg. The whole armed robbery thing kind of ended that. Right, right, right.

Well, following his arrest, some of his fellow firefighters are tasked with going through his locker on the base. I don't know what firefighters normally keep in their lockers, but I'm guessing they're expecting to find, like, toiletries, a change of clothes, that kind of thing. What I don't think they expect to find are pictures of a murdered little girl. And yet they do. This guy has pictures of Britney? He sure does.

Needless to say, none of this sits well with the people who find this, and word of what they find makes its way back to the Sheriff and HCSO. Before long, they're executing a search warrant at Fort Bragg. Hoke County Chief Deputy Troy McDuffie tells Cindy George, quote, we did conduct a search warrant on Fort Bragg in regards to a subject. He's a firefighter on Fort Bragg, but we have not identified him as a suspect." End quote. So, he's a subject, not a suspect. You got it.

Okay, why do I feel like I'm having a little bit of deja vu right now? Didn't we cover another case, like kind of recently, where some random dude was found carrying around a picture of a little girl who'd been murdered? Yes, I... But I don't think it was a picture, I think it was a newspaper clipping, but it was in our episode on the alphabet murders, um, which was like from the 70s in Rochester, New York. Yeah, but like, this guy was someone who got arrested,

like, on the other side of the country or something. For like, something else, and then when he's in custody, he's like carrying on newspaper clippings from about Carmen Colon and her case or whatever. Yeah, but he like wasn't their guy. He just had these newspaper clippings. Yeah, and if I remember, it wasn't even a case of like, oh, he looks good for it,

but we can't definitely put him in Rochester. Like he hadn't been anywhere near Rochester when Carmen was killed or in California or the United States for that matter, like he had been on deployment in Vietnam. Which makes it like worse or weirder at least. Strange. Yeah.

Yeah, like I don't, that's the thing that never got explained in that case is like, why did you have it to begin with? Which brings us back to Keith. Why do you have this picture of this murdered girl? Now Cindy George mentioned something in her reporting that I don't think is ever confirmed, but it does seem important or at least relevant. Do you remember how the original sheriff, Sheriff Byrd, brought a whole bunch of searchers in from nearby agencies when Brittany was still

just missing? Yeah, there was like hundreds of them. Right, well, a lot of them were firefighters, including, I think, firefighters from Fort Bragg. Mmm, how long has Keith been a firefighter? I was just gonna say, and he's been there a long time. He'd been with the department since 92. So there's a really good chance he was involved in that ground search. Exactly, so, again, I don't know anything about the Carmen Colon case or why that guy had

her newspaper clippings. There is at least a chance that maybe he has pictures of Brittany because he searched for her. He was affected by the whole thing. And that might be the most logical or the one that I tend to like jump to, the reason I tend to jump to, because it takes a whole year. But in May of 2004, the HCSO decides to go get a DNA sample from Keith when he's in prison. And by doing that, I mean, by this time, they've been able to like test their sample

and get something to compare it to. And he's ruled out. He was not the one who left the sample on or in Brittany's body. And Keith is the last good lead for a long time. By 2009, over a decade after the murder, Sheriff Peterkin and his team basically start the whole investigation from scratch.

And though he says that this will give them, quote, a better visual of what we're dealing with, yet another decade passes with no resolution. He's quoted in 2020 in Michael Futch's reporting for the Asheville Citizen Times saying, "'It would mean so much when I think about it. "'Even though it didn't happen under my administration, "'it makes me tear up.

"'It hurts. "'I can only imagine what it would do "'for the family and the community. "'This community still holds this case close to its heart. It's always good for them to know we're working on it." End quote. One thing he's adamant about is that Brittany's case is not cold.

He says that his office continues to run down leads all the time. Michael Futch even quotes him again as saying, "'What happened before doesn't matter. That case is just as important to my staff and me as if it happened yesterday. It is still a tremendous weight to carry with it not being solved. That's why I'm adamant about getting it solved." Sadly, Sheriff Peterkin passed away in 2021,

but his dedication to solving Britney's case lives on, and maybe you have the information investigators are waiting for. If you do, please contact the Hope County Sheriff's Office anonymous tip line at 910-878-1279, or the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at 888-624-7222. Tips can also be submitted online. I mean, we know there are so many options with DNA now. I mean, if they have a full profile that hasn't gotten a hit in code,

as genealogy testing would be an option. So if anyone connected to the investigation or to Brittany's family is listening, please check out Season of Justice. It is a nonprofit that will fund the cost of that advanced testing, which I know can be prohibitively expensive for many departments. I founded the organization a few years ago, and it's gone on to fund testing for numerous cases, and some that have since been sold. So again, if anyone in her family, if anyone with the agency is listening to this, you can get more information at seasonofjustice.org. And there is one more amazing organization that I want to give a shout out to.

And that is Okomi Forensics. Okomi Forensics is an Indigenous-led organization that provides forensic services to Indigenous families and communities affected by the MMIP crisis. From field and excavation services to forensic anthropology lab services and DNA testing, Okomi Forensics is hard at work supporting the search and return of missing and murdered Indigenous people, and they could use your help. AudioChuck is supporting Okomi Forensics in correlation with our coverage this week by donating $25,000 to support their search and recovery efforts, as well as their work in spreading public awareness. So please, please go learn more and maybe even donate if you're able to at okomiforensics.com, which we're going to link out to in the show notes.

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at Crime Trinkie Podcast. Don't forget we'll be back tomorrow with a brand new bonus episode or you can head over to our fan club to listen to that right now. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?