True Crime with Kimbyr - Vanished on Her Morning Drive: The Chilling Disappearance of Jessica Dishon : Part 3

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

In the final part of Jessica Dishon’s story on True Crime with Kimbyr, shocking revelations come to light, turning the case on its head. As investigators narrow in on a suspect, long-held secrets unravel, painting a picture of betrayal and unimaginable tragedy. What really happened on that quiet September morning? And how does the community recover when trust is shattered? Join Kimbyrleigha for the conclusion of this emotional journey, where justice is sought, and hard truths are revealed in one of Kentucky’s most devastating cases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now, it did take a considerable amount of time. About 16 months went by, and in January of 2001, a grand jury was convened to examine all the evidence in this case. But following those court proceedings, an indictment was granted, and it led to the arrest of David Bucky Brooks. He was officially charged with capital murder in the death of Jessica Dition, as well as kidnapping, tampering with physical evidence and complicity. His brother, 35-year-old Joseph Tommy Brooks, was also charged.

with tampering with evidence. Bucky was placed in custody while he was waiting his trial and he was held without bond. Now his brother Tommy on the other hand, he was granted the option of posting bail. That was set at $100,000. The Dishon family was obviously very relieved. They finally felt that they were getting somewhere.

Here's what Edna and Mike had to say when they were outside that courthouse talking to reporters. Now maybe they get the murders off the street and it won't be no other innocent girl get kicked. Right. Thank God. just very happy knowing that justice is finally going to be served. It was definitely an emotional time.

I can see the tears in Edna's eyes. In an interview with the Courier Journal, Edna shared her profound experience during this pivotal moment. She described feeling like Jessica's spirit had passed through her as if her daughter was there with them. Jessica's father said that the news of Bucky Brooks finally being charged with Jessica's murder was almost too much for him to even comprehend.

Think about it. It's someone they knew, someone close to their family. It's hard to believe that they would do something like that and why. But like I said, not everyone believed that Bucky was guilty. Irene Bucky's wife, who had married him when she was only 16 years old, she said she had doubts that he was guilty. And even though he was arrested, he maintained his innocence arguing that all this evidence against him was merely circumstantial. So you're watching this video, you're getting to the end and you're probably thinking this is a slam dunk case. You can leave the video because its case closed. Of course, it appears as though the investigators have done everything they needed to do. They found the killer, and now they're going to lock him up for the rest of his life.

Well, you're going to find with this story that nothing is ever that simple, is it? Buggie's defense team, they brought a whole new perspective on what the investigators had regarded as indisputable evidence. The trial didn't begin until January of 2003. Bucky found himself facing the death penalty, but I told you things would go in a direction that you wouldn't have expected. Let's start at the top. A sample of Bucky's DNA had been collected

during this investigation, and this sample was compared to the DNA found on and around Jessica's body. Those two samples were not a match. Bucky's lawyer also mentioned something that is very important to remember with this case, and it's something I mentioned early on foreshadowing this exact moment. Recall that I said that Buckeeslawing

that Bucky had an IQ that was quite a bit lower than average. In fact, his IQ was so low that it actually did qualify as a learning disability. This makes Bucky very impressionable, so impressionable that when faced with seasoned FBI agents who were demanding that he answered their questions in an interrogation room, he might say whatever they want. His IQ also meant that he might not have fully understood

these questions, and that changes things, doesn't it? But wait. What about when he referenced Jessica's body? Well, investigators now admit that Bucky's interrogation had never been recorded and that there was just notes taken and they weren't verbatim. This means that they were paraphrased. So what is all this saying? Well, it's saying that, you know, these officers are taking notes that might not be that reliable.

And in addition to that, they said that they had already been referring to Jessica as Jessica's body in the interrogation before Bucky even used that term on his own. Wow. And I've seen this before. It's not even a shocker to me. But remember when I mentioned police incompetence, that definitely should have given you your first clue of how this case was going to go. I know that all of you are very detail-oriented just like me. I know you're taking mental notes. Well, this case had tons of bad police work that could not be ignored. The defense was opening every door to show the jury each misstep. For example, remember those pictures that were taken by Deputy Greenwell of Jessica's car when he first went over to the Dishan's home? Well, they were nowhere

to be found. I would say that's pretty questionable, don't you think? Wouldn't you keep these very important photos in a safe place? Then Detective Charles Mann, remember him? When questioned, he admitted that he didn't remember ever speaking to some of the witnesses that claimed to have seen Jessica after her disappearance. So did he just make that up? Because he also doesn't remember talking to James. You remember the guy with the Black Camaro who allegedly was Jessica's drug dealer?

If that was a lead, why wasn't it followed up? Because he's saying he doesn't even remember James being brought in for questioning. It's the defense's job to possibly show that there are other suspects, other people who could have committed this crime and not Bucky. And the defense actually suggested

it could have been James and his friend Jason. Both men had allegedly admitted to the police that they had an encounter with her the night before she went missing, and they were selling her drugs that night. The defense further emphasized that two pieces of LSD were discovered in Jessica's purse, which they argued could have been connected to James and Jason. Yet this wasn't even looked into by the prosecution at all. However, the defense attorneys, they did look into it. They got that Camero, they tested it for DNA and fingerprints, and they found no evidence of Jessica. Edna was not happy. She expressed a lot of frustration and disappointment with the defense team.

She felt like they were focusing on Jessica's alleged drug purchases as a deliberate attempt to make her look bad and take the attention away from Bucky and she was not happy about it. And the only thing the prosecutors really drove home in their opening statement and their presentation of the case was Bucky's varying accounts to the police regarding the last time you saw Jessica. These inconsistent statements were highlighted as. the key element in the prosecution's case against him. They didn't even suggest a motive, not that they had to for a guilty verdict, but their arguments

were lacking. The defense claimed the detectives involved in Jessica's case failed to pursue any other potential suspects other than Bucky once he was on their radar. An easy way to put all this is that they had tunnel vision, and it kept them from apprehending the real killer, and that's frightening. When the jury members listened to both sides of the story, they were pretty sure that they weren't going to be able to decide on this case. There were way too many things to question.

But then, there was an unexpected twist. They never even got to deliberate on a verdict. Because during Detective Charles Mann's testimony, he was asked why the police were so laser focused on Bucky. And his answer put this whole trial to an end. He said that police were suspicious of Bucky because he failed a lie detector test. I mentioned this earlier, but the results of lie detector's tests are not. allowed in court. This also means that they can't be mentioned during testimony because it

could influence the jury. This judge had no choice but to declare a mistrial. According to Bucky Brooks attorney, the sheriff deliberately did this because he wanted to ruin this trial because he thought that Bucky was almost going to be acquitted. It's clear that even though the judge had brought this trial to a sudden end, the jury themselves had already decided there was not enough evidence against Bucky to prove he was guilty. Here's one of these jury members right now talking to reporters. I felt that Bucky Brooks absolutely was not guilty. An innocent man was in jail while there was a killer still on the streets.

Some of the people in the jury actually said they were disgusted that Bucky was charged in the first place. I know that's hard for some of us to believe, but with the lack of evidence, it became clear that this is probably a botched investigation. Soon after the judge declared this mistrial, prosecutors decided, that they were going to dismiss the entire case against Bucky. In September of 2003, Bucky walked free after just two years in prison. Now Bucky's brother, he had already seen his charges completely dismissed.

In an interview with the news courier, Bucke Bucke expressed his shock. He was shocked, but also excited that he was being released. However, Bucky's emotions were not shared by the majority. They were not happy. Jessica's family was devastated when they learned that the prime suspect and the murder of their daughter had his charges dropped. After years of hoping they were going to get justice, this felt like a major setback, and it was. They thought this case would never be solved. Year after year and nothing.

No new suspects, no new leads. And the truth about what happened to Jessica seemed to be slipping further and further away. In September of 2004, family and friends gathered together on the 5th and of 5th and 1st, of her murder. 30 people came together at her grave. They were there to honor her memory. There was still this underlying concern that Jessica's story would fade from the public. Her family really wanted the media to remember her, to keep her name alive, and to get justice.

For over a decade, this family endured an agonizing weight for answers. But then 13 years after her murder, Jessica's case was back in the headlines. And it was all because of one tip. and that tip came from the most unlikely and not always the most reliable place. It came from prison. An inmate came forward with a story to tell, and by then, a woman named Lynn Hunt had been appointed as a new lead detective in this case. When she heard that a prisoner had decided to come forward with information about the case,

she could not wait to hear what he had to say. When Detective Hunt was assigned to Jessica's case, one of her first task was to familiarize herself with Jessica's family. She made it a priority to meet Jessica's parents and her brothers, and she went to Jessica's home. When she entered that house, Detective Hunt was struck by the site of Jessica's bedroom. It was meticulously preserved like a shrine for the past 13 years. She couldn't help but be in awe of Edna and Mike's commitment to preserving their daughter's memory. So she wanted to be as committed to putting the killer behind bars.

The inmate told her that one of his buddies in prison had told him a crazy story. He said that it happened back in 1999, that he kidnapped and strangled a girl in Shepherdsville. But he also gave a name, Jessica Dishen. The reason the man said he murdered her? Well, because he had been having sex with her for years. Now remember, Jessica was only 17 at the time of her murder. So any adult that was having relations with her, even at that point, let alone years before, would definitely be a cause for concern.

And this man went on to say that he decided to murder Jessica because she had a new boyfriend, and she was getting closer and closer to him. And this man was afraid that Jessica was going to reveal all of the disgusting secrets that he was making her keep for so long. The man had held onto this story for years because he feared that if he told the truth, he would lose the love and support of his family.

not just because everyone would know what a monster he was. That was part of it, but it was worse than that. This man's brother was Jessica's father, Mike. It turns out the man who had just confessed to killing Jessica was none other than her own uncle, Stanley Dishon. Remember he was helping Mike search through the woods until he felt sick and wanted to turn in? Well, now you know the real reason,

and I'm sure he was sick, because he is sick, knowing that his true nature was going to be uncovered. Stanley was not a good man, obviously, we know that. But when this inmate came forward with the story, he was already serving a 10-year sentence for being inappropriate and completely indecent with two young children, 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. He was also facing even more legal trouble after it came out that he was doing the same disgusting acts to relatives' children. That's right. So more people were coming forward. Stanley had access to children because he needed a place to stay and guess who gave him a place

to stay? His own flesh and blood, his relatives. So he bounced back and forth and all around between different relatives. And if they had children, guess what? They would take them in. They would feed him. They would clothe them. You know what he would do to repay them? He would do awful things to their little ones. He had lived with ed, and then Mike on and off for years, which meant he was able to gain access to Jessica and hurt her. Stanley's name had actually come up during Bucky's trial because of the news of this deviant behavior that he had. However, Stanley was never questioned during this investigation. Yep, I can believe it, and I'm sure you can too. Stanley's ex-wife actually commented that she

was surprised that he had never been interviewed because according to her, his His behavior during Jessica's disappearance was really strange, that he was obsessed with watching news about this case on TV. That is absolutely frightening. Mike also remembered his brother's behavior as being very odd. He said that Stanley was part of the search parties, but then he became even more excessively involved to the point where he was being overbearing. Mike also said that when the search party were getting closer to the area where Jessica was eventually found, Stanley was shaking. He couldn't handle it. Finally, when Jessica's body was found,

he remembered that Stanley had thrown up. He vomited. So he did get sick after all because he is sick. He's a monster. Mike said that he found it very odd for Stanley to have such a dramatic reaction because him and his wife, they didn't even have a reaction like that.

It was even more intense. And Mike started to think back to their childhood. And he realized that he remembered Stanley being very violent. There were two incidents. he remembers. One time, Stanley stabbed one of his brothers and another time he shot one of his brothers. And this man was still allowed to be on the streets. If he could do this to his own family, imagine what he could do to a person that doesn't even share the same blood. It's hard to imagine that this man was right in front of the investigators face this entire time and no one thought

to question him. When he was eventually interviewed more than a decade later, he denied all of the allegations. He swore that he would never, ever hurt his own niece. And this was despite the fact that he was serving time for hurting other relatives' children. Once investigators identified the man they believed actually killed Jessica, prosecutors were left with a couple of choices, either take Stanley to trial and seek the death penalty or offer him a plea deal. But what they thought was a choice ended up not being a choice at all thanks to police incompetence yet again. It turns out that none, zero, none of the evidence relating to Jessica's case had ever been stored, correctly. This meant that forensic teams, they were not able to test Stanley's DNA or anyone's

DNA against anything found on or around Jessica's body. Do you sometimes think that investigators or police should be charged with anything in these cases? I'm just curious. I'm not trying to start any fights in the comment section. Prosecutors had also tried and failed to convict another man of the same crime, so their odds weren't great against securing a guilty verdict against Stanley. Jessica's family had always firmly believed that Stanley had been wrongly accused and wrongly imprisoned on those sexually related charges. And that belief was going to be a challenge for Detective Hunt. It was going to be difficult to convince Jessica's parents that her own uncle was responsible for her murder. Hunt realized that in order to overcome this obstacle, she needed to find concrete physical evidence linking Stanley to Jessica's murder.

Because without it, it was going to be nearly impossible to establish a convincing case. against Stanley. So she embarked on a diligent search, finding any trace, any clue, any evidence that could definitively connect Stanley to this crime. And one of the details that this inmate confessed that Stanley told him was that he buried Jessica's shoe at the base of a large tree near where the body was found. So Detective Hunt actually went out there with Michael Jr., Jessica's little brother, and searched that area, but they didn't find anything. However, when they were on the way back, they walked past an abandoned barn where Michael said that he and Jessica used to hang out with their friends when they were growing up. And the detective was stunned. She thought, could it be

possible that this was the barn where Stanley had been keeping and had eventually killed Jessica? So on a hunch, she went into that barn to investigate. And when she was in there out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bed sheet sticking out of some mud. The pattern matched a comforter that she had in Jessica's perfectly preserved bedroom. How could this even be possible? Could it be possible? While the detective ran back to the Dishon's house, she asked to go inside and check the bed

and she couldn't believe it, there was a sheet missing from Jessica's bed. Edna identified the muddy bed sheet inside the barn as the one that should have been on her daughter's bed. Wow. Imagine if a thorough investigation had actually been done by the police so many years ago. years ago. When the news broke that Jessica's uncle Stanley had murdered her to conceal the years of his

harm, her family was left in shock. It shattered their perception of the person they thought they knew and trusted for so long. Jessica's entire family struggled to come to terms with this horrifying reality. It was difficult to fathom that someone so close within their own bloodline could commit such a heinous act. As this investigation unfolded, more dark secrets began to surface. Other relatives started coming forward, revealing that they had also fallen victim to Stanley's harm over the years. The absolute courage of these individuals to share their painful experiences shed so much light on the extent of this monster's crimes. And it impacted the family so much. The Mike Dishan said that he wanted to see his brother die for what he had done. At this point, Stanley was told

by his lawyers that the prosecutors would be allowed to submit evidence of his previous sexually related convictions if he was tried for Jessica's murder. So they offered Stanley a plea deal. He could plead guilty to manslaughter, as well as the other sexual crimes that he was accused of, and in return, he would only serve 20 years in prison. Finally, after a long and intense interrogation, Stanley could no longer bear the emotional burden anymore. He entered an Alford plea, which is just pathetic to me.

But anyway, it's a legal maneuver where defendants maintain their innocence, but they will acknowledge that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict them. couldn't even admit it. In January of 2015, 15 years after Jessica was murdered, Stanley finally accepted the offer. Jessica's killer was finally brought to justice. On the day of Stanley edition sentencing hearing, the survivors of the horrific crimes,

they all gathered in the courtroom wanting answers. They wanted to know why he committed these acts. But to their dismay, he chose to remain silent. It is his right, but he is a monster. Edna and Mike sat in that courtroom together. even though they were divorced at the time, they sat in the front row united in their grief and their shared loss.

They wouldn't look at Stanley. They couldn't even bear to see him. It's difficult to listen to Jessica's story and not feel a sense of frustration at all the ways the law enforcement failed her right from the moment she disappeared. She was assumed to have been a runaway, despite everything indicating something more sinister had occurred.

She was presumed to have been kept alive for days after she was kidnapped, which means that she was kidnapped, that that was a crucial time that investigators could have used to find her and save her. Even after her death, she was let down. The case was so badly mishandled that now the person that killed her was able to walk away from prison in only 20 years. 20 years in exchange for a life as vibrant as Jessica's seems like a huge miscarriage of justice to me.

And let's not forget the other victims in this case. Bucky, whose life was turned upside down, Jessica's parents and siblings, who went far too long without justice and all the residents of the town of Shepherdsville. We can only hope that Jessica's family was finally set free by the truth that they waited so long to hear, even though there's never really any closure in these cases. And for Jessica, one hope for her is that she too is free

and that she's soaring with the butterflies that she loves so dearly. As we're wrapping up today's case, we're left to face a disturbing truth that haunts the memory of Jessica Dition. Her killer wasn't a faceless monster lurking in the shadows. He was someone who was someone who was a disturbing truth. who walked freely among his friends, his family, and his community.

He was welcomed into the Dishin household by those who trusted him the most, and he repeatedly forced poor Jessica to do things against her well-thinking that she would keep their family secret. According to the inmate on the morning Jessica disappeared, she had a confrontation with her uncle. He was still hurting her, and that morning Jessica had enough of it. She was growing up, and she threatened to tell someone about what he had done. This made Stanley mad. The inmate told Detective Hunt how Stanley admitted to punching Jessica in the face and incapacitating

her. Then he took her to an abandoned barn where he had his way with her for days, then strangled her and left her body in the woods. In the years after he murdered Jessica, this man sat at the same table as her parents and siblings, pretending to feel grief, mimicking mourning and concealing his guilt behind a mask. of supposed normality. The reality of the situation forces us to confront an uncomfortable question, one that offers no easy answers. Would you know if a killer was sitting right beside you? Thank you all so very much for giving Jessica your time. Thank you so much for being here and supporting me

and this channel. I will see you in my next video. Bye.