True Crime with Kimbyr - She Dreamed of Solving Crimes - Then She Became One | The Case of Brittney Gregory

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

The Brittney Gregory case is one of the most heartbreaking true crime stories to come out of New Jersey. In July 2004, 16-year-old Brittney Gregory, a straight-A honor student at Brick Township Memorial High School who dreamed of becoming a forensic scientist, vanished after calling her mother for a ride one summer night. How does a bright, promising teenager with her whole future ahead of her disappear on an ordinary night? Who was the last person to see her and why did it take so long to find answers? In this episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, we trace the full Brittney Gregory case: who she was, the night she went missing, the search that gripped Brick Township, and the heartbreaking reason behind her death.❤️‍🔥 Support us by browsing our shop! https://darklivity.com/🔎 Come Find ME: https://www.instagram.com/kimbyrleigha/

Imagine you just celebrated your 16th birthday. You're dating your high school sweetheart and enjoying the summer before your junior year. You dream of becoming a forensic scientist to help uncover clues and solve murder cases. But what you don't know is that before the summer is over, someone will be trying to solve yours. As promised, I told you I would let you know if there was any episodes that would be more than one part. This is part one of a two-part series. If part two is out, it will be linked right below in the show notes, so you can easily jump to part two once you finish the episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlea. If you've never been here before, nice to finally meet you. And the person we're

going to be talking about today. Her name is Brittany Mae Gregory. She was born in New Jersey to Deborah Gregory and Joe Dunn on April 1, 1988. She was an April Fool's baby. And Brittany is the youngest of Joe and Debra's five children. Her other siblings are Brian, Brianna, Bobby Joe, and William, who they call Boomer. Because when he was baby, he used to fall down the stairs in his walker. Brittany was the cutest little girl, in my opinion. And she was super sweet. She loved ballet and dance and cheerleading. And Brittany was close with her sisters. But she wasn't as wild and rebellious as they were. She was a quieter and she matured faster. And maybe that is because she did have older siblings that taught her

everything. But her family said that she was just born different. She was born with a love for learning and a very curious mind. She excelled in school and she had a natural talent for understanding concepts, especially scientific ones. As she got herself into her freshman year at Brick Memorial High School, she found herself in Mr. Doug Hauser's science class, where she never got one question wrong on any of his tests. She had a 100 average. Yes, Brittany was a very bright student. She was a straight A student. She continuously broke the curve time and time again.

And as a matter of fact, Mr. Hauser, as much as he enjoyed having her as a student, he told Brittany it might be unfair to some of the other students. So he actually suggested that Brittany take honors biology. but she insisted that he let her stay in his class. She really liked all of her fellow students. She had got used to it, and she loved being somewhat of a teacher's assistant. She didn't want to go to a different class.

Whenever another student was having a difficult time, she took pride in the fact that if she was finished with her assignment, that is, she would stop what she was doing and help them. She was one of the brightest students that Mr. Hauser had ever had in one of his classes. She was hardworking, and almost everyone knew why. It was because Brittany had her sight set on becoming a forensic scientist.

These are the type that analyze and examine evidence at crime scenes. We hear about them in every video. She may have been quite the bookworm, but she was also extremely bubbly and outgoing. Brittany described herself as an enthusiastic teen with a zest for life. It's just sad that hers had to end too soon. It's almost unfair that some of the brightest lives are snuffed out before they can truly shine. The year was 2004. Brittany was a 16-year-old sophomore and joined the summer before going into her junior year of high school.

She was living with her father, Joe Dunn, and his girlfriend, Lori Peterson, as well as Brittany's 20-year-old sister, Brianna. They lived in a two-bedroom, one bath house, located just three minutes away from her high school. The home was part of the Greenwood Park neighborhood. This is a middle-class community that features cozy little homes situated in rows down several blocks of well-manicured tree-lined roads. They lived at 306 Greenwood Loop Road. It's the very last house at the far end of the neighborhood on the southwest corner. Behind it is sort of this grassy backyard area and then Greenwood Loop Road and after that woods. Lots of woods as far as the eye could see and more.

Greenwood Park is part of Brick Township. Now we talked about townships in my very last video. You could think of them as their own governments. It's a close-knit community, even though it's one of the largest cities on the Jersey Shore. There is a lot for a fun-loving teen to do in a place like brick. But there's also a lot to do outside of it, like go to the beaches along the Jersey Shore. Locals refer to the beaches in New Jersey as the shore. I'm sure you've heard of it before.

The Jersey Shore is actually about 130 miles of coastline that stretches from the north to the south and includes four different counties. Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May. Brick is in Ocean County. The most famous part of the shore is Seaside Heights, and that's where the show Jersey Shore was filmed. That stretch of the beach is only about 20 minutes from brick, and it's worth it. There's a wide sandy beaches, an exciting beach. an exciting two-mile boardwalk, including 101-foot ferris wheel, roller coasters, and lots of other

carnival-style rides and games. And it's just steps away from the ocean, but that's not all. There's a lot of fun for adults, too. There's all kinds of food. You got pizza, cheese steaks, not that younger people don't like food, but there's steamed clams. I mean, anything, you name it. There's also a lot of fresh squeeze lemonade. And there's tons of bars and restaurants that line the shore as well and they're open during the day and at night and this is what makes it such a popular tourist destination living in brick also means you're not far from new york either it only takes a little over an hour and you could be enjoying the sights and sounds of the big apple in new york city i tell you all of this to say there's a lot of fun things to do but also a lot of trouble that you can

get into being born and raised in new jersey but brick has a small town feel to it in 2006 the township earned the title the safest city in America out of 371 cities nationwide. In 2003 and in 2004, Brick Township was ranked as the second safest city in the United States. Except we wouldn't be talking about Brick if it really was safe, especially back in 2004 when the events I'm going to be telling you about occurred. By the summer of 2004, Brittany had been dating her 18-year-old boyfriend John Fitzgerald for about a year and a half. He only lived about two and a half miles away and was going into his senior year at Brick Memorial High School. 2004 was the year that Brittany turned 16. She had been looking forward to turning 16 for a very long time. And I think for many of us,

it's quite the milestone. Because at least where I'm from, you can start driving at 16 years old. But that's not why Brittany was excited about turning 16. It was because she wanted to get her belly button pierced. Both of her sisters already had theirs done and they were allowed to get them when they were only 13. The thing is, Deborah, she noticed that once she let Brianna and Bobby Joe get their belly buns pierced, their shirts started to get shorter. They started to wear skimpier and skimpier outfits to show off their new piercings. Well, Brittany was Deborah's baby. She wanted to hold her back at least a couple years. She was just a really, really good kid. and she wanted Brittany to hold on to her innocence for as long as she could.

Even though Brittany didn't live with Deborah, they were very close and she was still a huge part of Britney's life. I'm going to tell you more about why Brittany was living with her father a little later, but that year they had a pretty laid-back 16th birthday party for Brittany. Deborah was in attendance as well as Britney's boyfriend John, her three-year-old little niece, Sierra, who is so adorable, and a few other close family friends. just a handful people celebrating Brittany's milestone Sweet 16. I would say bitter sweet 16 because the image is taken at that birthday party were the last photos the family would ever have of Brittany Gregory.

And this would be the very last birthday Brittany would ever get to celebrate. In the pictures, Brittany looks so happy. She's just beaming. She's got that big, bright white smile. You can't miss it. It just radiates from across the room. and now she was going to get a belly bun piercing to match something shiny and sparkly to match that bright white smile and those sparkling blue eyes. Deborah wasn't the only person that was protective of Brittany.

If someone didn't treat their sister right, they had no problem taking that person right out of their life. Be it friends or even boyfriends, it did not matter. Family meant a lot to these young girls. Even if they got irritated with one another sometime because siblings do, they shared friends as well. The girls were not that far off in age. Brittany was 16, Bobby Joe was 18, and Brianna was 20. If you were friends with one of the girls, you were bound to meet the others, especially when all of the girls were younger. So they still had friends that hung out with all of them. When they were all younger, they would have sleepovers together and hang out and talk and watch TV shows and movies. And actually, Brittany didn't love movies, but she loved cartoons. And her favorite was SpongeBob Squarepants.

When she wasn't doing something, she'd be sitting in her room watching SpongeBob. So yes, siblings, they have sibling rivalry, especially when you share a room, because Brittany and Brianna did. So they would get annoyed with one another. It's the typical stealing each other's clothes, picking on one another from time to time, but it was all in good fun. These sisters really loved each other. Deborah used to have a nickname for Brittany that used to annoy her. She would say, Mom, stop calling me that. But Deborah would refer to Brittany as, her two-digit midget and it was because she was only five feet tall and about 105 pounds. No matter what was going on in their lives, they made sure to make time for each other.

That summer before school was set to begin, the girls were planning a trip to Las Vegas with Deborah to see Deborah's grandma. That was their great grandmother Beatrice Maywood. She was in her 80s. So Deborah thought this would be a great time for the girls to get together, have a nice vacation, and unite all the generations for. for one last time because grandma was getting old. She was even more excited because there was a new addition to the family that was expected to make their appearance that summer, a new great-granddaughter

for Grandma Beatrice to meet. Brittany's brother Brian and his girlfriend had their own little girl coming into the world and she was expected that July. Brittany's great-grandmother was very special to Brittany because Brittany was given the middle name May in honor of her great-grandmother. It looked like it was going to be a very busy summer for the girls, and they were all excited. When she wasn't with her friends or family, Brittany spent most of her time with her boyfriend, John Fitzgerald. They had been dating for almost two years at the time the summer came around. From the day they got together, they were inseparable. Friends knew as soon as they found out that Brittany and John were dating, it was going to be a perfect relationship.

John was known to be caring, nice, respectful, just a really kind guy. And those qualities seemed to match Brittany's humble, compassionate, generous, and sweet personality. So whenever you saw Brittany, you saw John and vice versa. They were very affectionate with one another. They definitely did not hide the fact that they were crazy about one another. They were always holding hands and hugging, walking together in the hall, just the epitome of high school sweethearts. And John is exactly who Brittany wanted to see on the evening of July 11th, 2004, when she was home alone watching SpongeBob on a Sunday night in the middle of the summer.

Brianna and Deborah were out of town. They had gone to be with Brian and his girlfriend because little McKinsey Gregory was born. It was around 8.30 p.m. and Brittany makes a call to her mom saying that she needs a ride to her boyfriend John's house. And she sounds upset. She sounds depressed. just like something was really eating at her. But Deborah lets her know they cannot come help her right now, but to give them about an hour and Brianna will be back home to give her a ride.

They were in a town called South Tom's River, which is about 20 minutes away from Brick. So Deborah relays this message to Brianna, who ends up calling Brittany about 45 minutes later, but she doesn't get an answer. So Brianna figured Brittany probably either found a ride or decided to maybe do something else or even fell asleep. Brianna then goes to a friend's house and spends the night.

It wasn't until the next morning when Brianna came back home that she realized Brittany wasn't there. That wouldn't be that unusual, but for the fact, the room did not look slept in or lived in, and things were left behind, specifically, Britney's cell phone. So Brianna began checking with all the immediate family members, and when no one had heard from her since, the night before she called friends. Still no one knew where Brittany was. Brittany's dad's girlfriend,

who live with them, she said that she came back home around 10 p.m. the night before, and when she came in, no one was home. So nobody had seen Brittany. By the time 4 p.m. rolled around, Brianna was frantically rushing into the Brick Township Police Department to report Britney missing. Sometimes the police will hesitate filing a missing person's report. They will assume that if it's a teen, they ran away. They left on their own, especially a teen with a boyfriend that was trying to see him the night before. But Brianna tells the police, you don't understand. My sister is a really good girl.

She is not the type of kid that wouldn't let you know where she's going and would just disappear without letting anybody know. She would definitely not run away. She was adamant that her sister was missing. She explained. She's a straight-A student. She spends most of her time in the library. She wasn't the typical 16-year-old, and police jump on this case quickly, because she actually is typical in one way.

She's the typical type of child that is victimized every day. Majority of kids that are abducted are females from the ages of 12 to 19, so they don't waste any time going over to Brany's dad's house to take a look in her room and see if they can find any clues to her whereabouts. The investigation was off to a good start, considering I had a bad taste in my mouth in regard to townships following my research into who killed the Detroit singer Egypt Covington in my last video. If you haven't seen that, I'll link it below. But knowing that this was a township police department, I was skeptical. But they were seemingly taking this case very seriously from the beginning.

And that helped renew my faith in police officers as a whole. They begin the search by going through Brittany's room. The fact that her phone, her ID, her makeup, and especially her purse was left behind was troubling. Even back in 2004, when, you know, our phones aren't like they are now, a 16-year-old did not leave her phone behind. So the police are starting to ask questions. They want to know everyone who lived in the house. They question Brianna, Joe, his girlfriend, Lori, as well as Bobby Joe, to find out where they were and what they were doing when Brittany disappeared. After gathering pertinent information from each of them, as well as their alibis,

and ruling out any involvement, they moved on to the next step. Since Brianna had already preliminarily checked with basically everyone she thought Brittany could be with, the officers decide to canvas the surrounding area, starting with all the homes within the boundary of Greenwood Park community. This sounds like a simple way to start, but it's actually quite a task. There are over 150 homes in this small community alone, each of them with a number of residents living inside. Meanwhile, Brianna waits by the phone in case one of the people that she called calls back, letting them know that Brittany was safe. I feel I would be half mad and half scared in this circumstance. Mad because you wish she would have kept you in the loop and apprised of what she was doing and what was going on and scared.

because most of us have a fear in the back of our heads that something could happen to either us or someone that we love. We never truly think it's going to happen, but there's just this dark place where the possibility lies in the back of many of our minds with the worst case scenario just mapped out as a genuine possibility. And as beautiful and sweet as Brittany was, the worst case scenario was going through a lot of people's minds at this moment. It was getting darker and darker outside. A whole night had already passed. Where was Brittany? Not only do officers go door to door to ask whether or not the residents have heard or seen or even know who Brittany is, but they're also sizing up the residents themselves. They want to know who lives in close proximity to Brittany's house. Do any of these people stand out? Are they acting strangely, but most of all, are there any eyewitnesses who might have seen where Brittany went that

night? That's important. One of the residents, Barbara Brown, who actually used to be Britney's babysitter when she was younger, said that she had seen Brittany recently. She said she saw her walking home on Friday evening in the neighborhood. However, that wasn't very helpful since police knew Britney's whereabouts up to Sunday evening. It's still important, though, because it does, helped to build a timeline. That is a critical piece to putting everything together, to understand the mindset, the actions, and the circumstances surrounding Brittany's life before the evening of July 11th. What was she doing? What was she thinking about? Where was her mind at? Was something significant happening in her life? Well, you are going to find all of that out. There were a lot of

things happening in Brittany's life. A lot that no one knew about, especially when it came to her home life and her family. Let's just say that the saying you never know what's going on behind closed doors really does play a role in understanding who Brittany was and possibly what happened to her. More importantly, it's crucial to lock down details about where Brittany spent most of her time. Who was she closest to? Who would she confide in? Because a lot of things aren't what they seem on the surface. If you can't find out what you're looking for at the tip of the iceberg, you need to dive deeper. Before police gather any of this information, all they have is just a blank slate with nothing on it. They want to understand Brittany's lifestyle. Did she go out a lot? Was she someone

that partied? Did she drink and do drugs? Where would she find herself on a typical Sunday night? And that means, according to people who truly knew her, not just those who were. who knew what was going on on the surface. But by all accounts, people had nothing but positive things to say about Brittany, the things that we've already heard. No, they wouldn't ever assume that she would be at a party or run away or have, you know, like a secret boyfriend or anything like that. But speaking of boyfriend, they're interested in talking to John because he was the one she wanted to see that night. She was trying to get a ride at his house. So did she ever show him? up? That's going to have to wait because right now evening has turned into night and it has

been over 24 hours since anyone has heard or seen from Britney Gregory. That's really disheartening because if this was an abduction, if she was taken against her will, most victims are not alive after 24 hours. Right now the police have to go back and talk to the family to put together all the information that they have just found and there wasn't much. Out of all the houses that they can only two residents saw or heard something, but it wasn't even significant. However, now police have to figure out how they're going to proceed. In the first few days of someone's disappearance, it's critical to disseminate information all across the local area to the public. And then later, it'll go out to other police stations and other police forces throughout not just the different cities, but the entire state.

The faster this happens, the more clues and the police forces. more clues and leads can come in, especially if Brittany is no longer in the vicinity. They reconvene with the family, and that's when they find out a vital piece of information. Brianna tells them that the afternoon Brittany disappeared. She got a call from her, and she was really upset. She told Brianna she was in an argument with her boyfriend, John, that they'd actually been arguing for about a week or so. Apparently, something had gone down on Friday, July 9th. just two days prior to her going missing.

So now police want to understand if this had anything to do with why she needed to go to John's house on the night of the 11th. As we know, and I say in probably every video, the people who are the closest to the individual who is missing or presumed missing are of the utmost importance and interests to the authorities. They want to know who this person is because most of the time,

they either know something or they have something to do with what happened. And even though, according to all Brittany's friends and family, John is a great guy, that doesn't mean much. We know that. They might not have anything negative to say about John, but they might not even know who the real John is. What were they arguing about? Why had they just apparently broken up after dating for as long as they had? Brianna explained that she already called John, and he told her the last time he spoke to Brittany was on Sunday morning around 11.30 a.m. That day he was at the beach with some of his friends.

It was loud. Brittany could hear people in the background, and she wanted to know what was going on. So when he told her, she got pretty upset and she ended up hanging up on him. The police wanted to gather all of John's information, so Britney's family gave them his phone number and address. The very next day, Brittany's family is starting to put up missing persons posters all around town. They had a big picture of Britney and her name was on it, and they had a disdainee. description short blonde hair blue eyes five feet tall 105 pounds pierced ears and a pierced belly button the posters also said that her hair was shorter than it was in the picture that they chose of brittany

which i have to say is absolutely gorgeous it is my favorite picture of her i would be out of my mind if this was my daughter and if i had to see those posters with her face on it it It must have just been this realization that this is happening, that Brittany was not there. Where was she? Someone had to have seen something. At this point, investigators are also getting involved, and they're interested in speaking with John Fitzgerald. The detectives went over to John's house, and they asked him to come back to the Brick Township

Police Department for questioning. Without hesitation, he followed them back to the station. As they started to ask him questions, he was actually surprised. He said that he had no idea they were still looking for Brittany. He assumed she had already gone home and he had no idea where she was and he was concerned. They could tell he seemed genuinely concerned about her whereabouts and her safety. They wanted to understand what the whole situation was in regard to why she was trying so hard to get to his house on Sunday night and did she ever show up. John explained what we already know, that he was at the beach with a lot.

his friends early on Sunday morning, then he was with a group of friends Sunday night. He willingly told the officers about the fact that Brittany and him were arguing. He said she was trying to get him back after they had broken up. He broke up with her, but he was kind of already seeing someone else and Brittany found out. And that is what prompted her to want to come see him. I guess in his mind, because this was what he said in attempt to try to make things right. However, John says he actually didn't have an idea that she was trying to come over there. And no, she never arrived. He was trying to give detectives as much information as possible. So he let them know the last time he saw Brittany was actually on July 10th. That day,

she met up with him to give him a handwritten letter. She was trying to make up with him and trying to see if the relationship could ever work out again. Of course, the detectives want to see this letter. they're starting to think there could be a possibility that there had been some animosity here maybe things went south after this meeting maybe john did have something to do with why brittany was gone they even thought that john might be trying to offer up this letter as a way to get the attention to go in a different direction and make him look as though he had nothing to do with anything suspicious or shady now i actually did get the opportunity to read this entire letter but the way that it was captured in pictures was not good.

Some of the words were cut off. I still want to show it to you, and I want to read it to you. I'm going to do it the best way that I can decipher what it says. But before I do, let me give you the lowdown on the breakup. Allegedly, John said that he was accusing Brittany of kissing another guy. There were apparently some rumors going around that she made out with somebody else. so immaturely in return he went out and kissed another girl well this didn't go over well and they got into a huge argument and john decided to end things police started thinking maybe brittany didn't want to

take no for an answer could it be possible that she confronted john and he just wasn't having it because he didn't want to ruin what he had with his new love interest there are so many thoughts that are going through detective's minds because they have to think of everything, every situation, every scenario. But let me go ahead and read this letter to you to give you an idea of where Britney's mind was at the time. But I want you to keep in mind she's a 16 year old girl. Hey you, what's the matter with you? You can't talk to me at all anymore? Damn, I didn't know you hated me that much. I know I was a horrible bitch to you, and I don't expect us to ever get back together, but I really would like a friend. That's all I want. I'm sorry for breaking your heart.

I'm a whore, cunt, scumbag bitch, like you say, and I don't deserve you. I'm sorry it had to end this way. It has been great this past year, but all good things have to come to an end sometimes, and this is our time. You're a great man, and I hold nothing against you. I hope I hope you have a great life and find the right woman. I thought we were right together, but we weren't. You have fun while you can. Hang out with your friends and live it up, sweetie. I'm sorry for the horrible things I used to say and do to you,

and for how I acted all the time. I'm a baby and I need to grow up. We're young and don't deserve the stress we give each other. All I want is to be the best friend I can be, and I hope you don't hate me forever, If you need anything, I'll be here for you. Don't hesitate to call me. I'll always be here.

Well, not always. But if I'm not, leave a message. And remember, I'll always love you. You don't care, but I just want you to know that. Good luck, babe. Then at the bottom, it looks like it's signed with love always, bridge shit. That's what it looks like to me, I'm not sure. But there is a picture of lips and there's an arrow pointed to them and it says,

I'll never forget your kisses. on the way bottom of the letter, I could not make out exactly what it said, but it started with, I'm not trying to get you back. This is just how, and then it cuts off. I'm not really sure what she was saying there, but as you can see, this is a letter from a 16-year-old. We know that John is older. He's 18. It's his last year of high school, and it seems like maybe he did want to play the field. Maybe he wanted to see what his other options were. That's what it seems like in the letter, that she was just letting him go to do what he wanted, which in her mind was to hang out with his friends and find the person that was right for him because clearly they're not right

together, even though she always thought that they were. They're not for whatever reason. And since we're not really hearing what happened from Brittany, we don't know what's true. We don't know if she supposedly kissed someone and then he kissed someone and then they broke up. We just don't know. Detectives just want to understand what happened after the call that Brittany made to her mom at 8.30 p.m. on Sunday night. They have a lot of questions, even more than they started with. But since they don't have any reason to hold John, they let him go. However, they do ask him if he's willing to take a polygraph and he says yes, but he needs to come back at a later date. They can't make him do it. So they just say, okay,

and they have to just hope that he'll be true to his word and come back and give the polygraph. However, there is one thing that John said in that interview that piqued the detective's interest. He said that sometimes Brittany would walk through the woods in the back of her house to meet with him. This young 16-year-old girl would walk through a densely wooded forest alone to meet up with her boyfriend. Wow. So now the detectives are thinking, this might have been exactly what happened on Sunday night. Did she try to make the trip on her own because she couldn't find a ride? She could be out there in the middle of the woods and she could be hurt.

This area is scary during the day, let alone at night or in the middle of the nights. Anything can happen out there. They're animals, streams, ponds. This is not a shortcut. This is definitely the long way and not a safe way. But the desperation in Brittany could have caused her to do something she wouldn't normally do. But then again, John says she would normally do this according to him. So now they have to get investigators out there to search those woods and fast.

Meanwhile, tips are coming in. People are seeing the posters. Even Mr. Hauser, Brittany's freshman science teacher. And I talked about him in the beginning of the video. When he saw her picture on that poster, his heart sank. No one could believe what they're seeing and they're trying to be as helpful as possible. Police have to look into every single tip they get. The biggest tip that they have to go on right now is about the woods.

Specifically, an area called sawmill track. This is the target area for the search. The investigations division of the Burink Township Police Department is supervised by one detective lieutenant and staffed with 10 detectives. This team of detectives is responsible for conducting all follow-up investigations of reported crimes occurring within the township. of Brink. They are the department that has been tasked with the job of searching this forest for Brittany or any signs of her. I went ahead and googled sawmill trail. I wanted to show you where it was in proximity to where the back of Brittany's house was. It's pretty far. You have to travel a long way to get to that entrance of sawmill trail. And apparently this trail leads to the area where John lived.

Now tell me if you already knew how to do this because in all the years that I've been using Google Maps, I did not know that you could measure two points on the map without actually using the get directions feature. If you're on a desktop, you can right click the map, then choose measure, and then choose the other location. I had no idea. So I did this because I wanted to estimate how far Brittany's house was from the end of sawmill trail. And you can see the total distance is 4,203 feet, which is about 1.3 kilometers. And for those of you that speak in miles, it's about a half a mile walk through the woods. I noticed when I went to the front where the sign is of sawmill trail, it's a bicycle trail.

Of course, I wanted to investigate this area just like the investigators would have. When I went to the sawmill bike path website, it said that the path is a few miles long and stretches between Burn Tavern Road, which is right here, and Herbertsville Road in front of the fire station, which is right here. There's also a turnoff halfway through the two entrances that bring you right toward Brick Memorial High School. And that's very interesting considering Brittany attended Brick High School. She most likely knew about and used this path. So this was of interest to me as well.

I wanted to know everything about it. So when I mapped the two entrances, I saw that the trail actually goes through the woods across where the back of Brittany's house was. So it did make perfect sense why they would. consider that she might have taken this path to John's house. This is where the search began. I was able to find some photos and you can see. There's bridges that go over little creeks. Sometimes it's just a cement path right through the woods and other times there are areas that look like this with like picnic benches. It really does consist of a whole lot of nothing but nature. I found a YouTube channel called random reviews and they showcase

this bike trail. I wanted to show you a clip of that to give you an idea of what it looked like to be out in the woods during the day, mind you, during the day. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like a night with, like I could imagine croaking of frogs and spider webs you can't see being in front of your face and walking over things and under things and hearing a noise. It's just not for me. I don't think I would do it. No, I know I wouldn't do it. To each their own, you would not find me walking on that trail. I don't, I don't bike, I don't hike. Definitely not a night. It's a no for me. But I can imagine, in desperation, Brittany doing it and how scared she must have been if she was walking in those woods at night. The search of this wooded area and the surrounding

areas where John's house was, as well as near the high school and elsewhere, had been thoroughly and extensively searched for three whole days. And they turned up nothing. At this point, in the investigation, things are still close to home. The media has not gotten a hold of Brini's case yet. It's still just a local township situation. Even though other departments are aware that the brick township are looking for a missing teenager. No other municipalities are on the case at this point. So the detectives are mobilizing other teams to now come help them with the search. They're going back to friends and family, they're questioning them about whether or not they could think of any new information they could provide. There is a woman who gives some information to the detectives. She said

she saw something. She comes forward and tells them that she was meeting up with her brother on the night of July 11th around 1030 p.m. and that she was waiting at the entrance to Greenwood Park community. Her and her brother noticed a truck drove past them. The brother gave the police that description as a Chevy avalanche with a very distinctive rims. Do you remember those rims that had spinners on them when the wheel would stop? The rim would spin on the inside. They're very, very distinctive. And according to the witness, this vehicle was coming into the complex at 10.30 p.m. Then the next day, that same vehicle caught the woman's eye because it was leaving the complex. So she ran outside, followed the vehicle and wrote down the license plane number.

So she gives all of this information to authorities, and they begin to investigate. When they ran the plates, a name came up. Anthony Geiger. Now, Anthony wasn't just anyone. No. When the families questioned about whether they knew him, Bobby Joe was like,

uh, that's Tony. That's my ex-boyfriend. And even though you might not want to think it, I'm sure it's it's kind of hard not to think like what's going on here. Did he have something to do with this? She does say that Tony was not the best boyfriend. I mean, clearly they are not together anymore. He wasn't faithful to her.

They used to fight all the time. But not only that. One of the arguments that they had gotten into in the past was over the fact that Tony was a little too friendly with Brittany and it wasn't okay. Bobby Joe actually thought that her boyfriend at the time might be attracted to her younger sister. He was 23 years old and this was a 16 year old. He's a grown man. So that's a problem.

That's a red flag. Word travels fast through this little neighborhood and one of Brittany's friends comes forward. Her name is Jacqueline. She's a very good friend. She also lives in the Greenwood Park complex and has information about Tony as well. She said he was creepy. He was always looking at her. and he would try to separate Bobby Joe from her family or friends in a possessive and jealous way.

Jacqueline had been friends with Brittany for a couple years. They met because they lived right next door to each other, and they became friends really quick. Jacqueline was there to give Brittany advice about high school. It was something Brittany was scared about because she had been going into her freshman year at the time. Jacqueline spent time going through her entire yearbook with Brittany and pointing people out that were students of the high school, and she would tell Brittany who she thought she would get along with and people she should probably

watch out for. She was just taking Brittany under her wing. She was protective of her and she thought that Tony was a creep. She told the detectives that she remembered very, very distinctly a time when Tony was hanging out to the house with Bobby Joe and Brittany and Brianna and her. And Tony looks over at Britney and he says, hey, you want to come to the store with me? But he wasn't. asking anyone else if they wanted to go. So she found that to be very odd and it made her feel uncomfortable. Jacqueline goes on to say that Tony had even tried to hit on her in the past and she was younger than him. So right away detectives want to look into Tony and what he's all about. The fact that a grown man has some kind of obsession or infatuation with a young girl gives them reason to

believe that there's a possibility of some kind of sexually motivated situation. And that could have escalated into a crime, especially since it seemed like Tony had some kind of access to the household, not to mention the fact that he does know Brittany and has hung out with her on many occasions. One of those occasions, according to Bobby Joe, was the day before Britney went missing. Yeah. Apparently, he had taken Britney, Brianna, and Bobby Joe out to lunch. Was it a coincidence that he had just seen Britney? And then she goes missing. That's what the investigators want to find out.

Meanwhile, John, he stayed true to his word. He came back to the station and he took a polygraph test and he passed. John was completely cooperative from day one. And he spent most of those days between the time he found out that Bernie was missing until he passed the polygraph, just sitting in front of Britney's house waiting to hear news about whether they had located her or they found any clues about what happened. He was ruled out as a person of interest or a suspect of any kind. In all lies were on another man of Brittany's life, turning their attention back to Tony. Once they tracked him down, he was very defensive.

He did not like the fact that he was being questioned as in his mind a potential suspect. He wasn't having it. He didn't like the fact that people had already told the police things about him that he did not consider accurate. But the most important thing was that he was that he was. did admit to taking the girls to lunch. He said that nothing out of the ordinary occurred. They went to lunch. Brittany had her usual. She ate a ham and cheese sandwich and it was a good time. In regard to the supposed eyewitness, he said he was never in that neighborhood at 10 p.m. on July 11th. That was incorrect. He said he showed up the next day, the day that she got the license

plate. He was in the neighborhood to see if Bobby Joe was there, but she wasn't. So we ended up leaving. He also gives the detective an alibi. He says that he was home that night with his new girlfriend. But that doesn't really mean much to them because his house is only six miles away from Britney's house. They still need to confirm the alibi with his girlfriend and they did. So at this point, they didn't completely dismiss Tony as a person of interest, but there wasn't that much information so they didn't have a reason to hold him. And in these matters, you can't waste any time. They had to move on and try to find more leads. They had nowhere else to go with this investigation. So they started to analyze that letter that I read and detectives come up with a new theory that really upsets Britney's

family. They did not like this. The theory was that perhaps Brittany, in the state of mind she was in as a teenager who wanted her boyfriend back, who didn't want him to be with anyone else, who was desperate to get to his house, could have possibly done something to harm herself. Well, That was completely out of the question. Her parents said no. She was way too level-headed, way too smart and way too bright, and had way too much potential in life to do something like that. She would never harm herself.

And investigators are not trying to offend the family. They're not trying to make Bernie look bad. They just need to cover all of their bases. So now that they're starting to rule out walking to Johns, harming herself, someone coming into the neighborhood that she knew and her leaving with them, they started to turn their attention to the possibility that someone took Brittany against her will, possibly even someone that didn't even know her.

This area was quiet in the beginning of the year, but right after April, things start to pick up from spring break all the way through the summer. There's a huge influx of strangers just pouring into this area and the surrounding areas to vacation to visit places like the Jersey Shore. And with all the places that Brittany could have been from April, to July, investigators wonder if she had possibly been being watched, being stalked, being followed, and that the night she was finally home alone by herself, that this person could have made their move. The fact that the house sits on the end of a complex and butts right up to the woods and has a trail, there's just so many possibilities and so many ways that someone could have come in and gone completely unseen. This means that the Brick Township Police Department needs help.

They have to call in the surrounding police departments. So they start putting the word out, and this is when the news stations start to pick up Brittany's story. The first article that I could find was posted on July 16th, and the headline said, police and brick searching for missing girl 16. The article just gives general information about the case that they're looking for Brittany. the last time anyone saw her talk to her and they left the department's contact information. Obviously, when the news starts to pick up, it's going to get more widespread, which means there is a possibility that people in the surrounding areas will have tips. And maybe they had seen something or seen Brittany herself.

As the Jersey State Police Department gets involved, other investigators started to come over to Brittany's house to search through her room and her belongings and the entire premises. even though those areas had already been searched when other departments get involved, it's their job to do their own investigation. So on July 16th, investigators were back at the townhouse and brick where Bernie lived. And while her family is just standing there outside waiting for information, they are just tearing through everything. One thing that was very ironic was her family was sitting there watching these gloved investigators

sifting through everything. And Brittany had told everyone that she knew that her passion was to be a forensic scientist. She wanted to be the one doing that job, and now investigators were doing that job to find her. And one thing the investigators did notice is that there were no signs of force entry into the house. At this point, the Missing Children's Division

of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, they get involved. They posted Bernie's picture on their website. They handled 10,000 cases in the year prior, and the subjects of 95% of those cases were located. But sadly, in 1999 alone, nearly 800,000 children were reported missing nationwide. Deborah is just beside herself. The family is getting more and more withdrawn. As the days go by, Deborah is just sitting there, just clutching the fun.

She's afraid that when it rings, she's going to hear someone say, are you sitting down? And the family said that they'll talk to anyone who wants to talk to them. Anyone who calls, they will talk to them. But they're just afraid of what they might hear. So as much as Deborah wants to answer it, she doesn't want to answer it because she doesn't know what someone is going to say. She just wants Brittany to come home. Quite frankly, Brittany's family was getting pretty fed up with. in their minds was a lack of clues about their daughter's whereabouts. So late on Saturday

night, July 17th, Joe and Deborah decide to conduct their own search. They felt like their hands were tied. They were just sitting at home waiting by the phone. So they said, you know what? Let's make a list of everyone that has come through this house and let's start making our own calls and our own visits to people. Let's see if we can find out anything that they can't. They went to all the houses that they could think of, and they were out there all night until like 4 o'clock in the morning, just knocking on their friend's doors, going face to face with people that they knew, just desperate to get to the bottom of all of this. I have to say, I would do the exact same thing. I don't think I'd be able to sleep. And while Brittany's parents are doing their own investigation, investigators are actually investigating them.

That's right. Completely necessary because as they're sifting through things in Brinney's room, they come across her journal. And in that journal, they find a letter. And the letter appears to be a submission of some kind to either a pageant or a contest called America's sweetheart. I believe it's a pageant because I was in the pageant circuit as a young girl and I lived in New Jersey at one time and New Jersey is a big part of the pageant circuit. So that's just what I thought, but regardless of what the purpose of the letter was, the content of the letter was very significant to police. A lot of the cases I choose are ones that I personally relate to in one way or another,

or there's suggestions from you about ones that have touched your heart in some way. And I saw so much of myself in Brittany when I read this submission. I was in tears reading it. And I try not to tear up here. But it happens. And I'm going to read it to you everything that she wrote. Here goes. My name is Brittany Gregory.

And I want to be America's sweetheart. I try to help everyone as much as I can. If an individual in my class doesn't understand something about a subject, I try to help them to the best of my ability. I'm very motivated. I try to make it to school every morning, even if I don't feel well. Some kids even make fun of me for getting good grades and loving school, but it does not bother me. People can take anything from you, but no one can take your mind. That's my motto. On the weekends, I tried to balance my life, like hanging out with my friends and boyfriend, hanging out with my family and doing my schoolwork.

Every Sunday, I go to prison to visit my brother. I always try to give him support. I come from a disturbed family. My drug-addicted mother left me when I was about nine, and I've had to live with my father, who I am not close with and his girlfriends after that. I have overcome many obstacles and learned a valuable lesson from this. I will never put myself in that situation like my mother did.

I'm even more dedicated now to succeed in life. I want to be a forensic scientist so I can help solve crimes. I have done things I'm not proud of, but no one is perfect. I want to be America's sweetheart, but if I'm not chosen, I will still continue to help everyone I can and be a good citizen. I am kind-hearted, and I think I have everything it takes to be America's sweetheart. Oh, it was hard.

It hurts to read those words. And this had to be written pretty recently, considering it says she has a boyfriend. I'm assuming that is John. One of the reasons that it made me tear up was because of how innocent and naive she was. In many ways, she's very wise, very smart, very bright and talented little girl. But she was also naive in my eyes. She clearly never sent in the submission unless she made an exact handwritten copy. I'm glad she didn't because we got to read it.

It opened up a window into Britney's world, not just the world that people saw when they saw her walk down the hallway at school or saw that she got an A on her report card. but the life that happened when she closed the door to her bedroom every night. In a house that she possibly didn't even feel like was her home, abandoned by her mom at nine, and having to overcome many obstacles that children her age have never even known about. Investigators have a lot of questions. Who was Deborah Gregory and Joe Dunn? What kind of company did they keep? I told you in the beginning that we were going to dive into the reason

why Brittany doesn't live with her mother, even though her mom only lives 20 minutes away. This is the end of part one of Britney's case for now. Check back in a couple days for part two or check below in the show notes for the link if it's already out. I'll see you soon.