The Search for Brooke Henson

deeply invested in Brooke Henson's case. In fact, when I first started poking around on the story, he actually reached out to me. He wanted to share what he knew in the hopes that by getting the word out there, he might finally solve this case. So when I first got into town, we drove around owned for a while, gave me a little tour, and we talked about the case, about all the competing theories and what happened, and then

we headed back to his office and talk some more. Honestly, it's unusual for law enforcement to be quite this candid, So today we're sharing some of that conversation, and one of The first things that Ben shared with me was that he'd grown up here in Traveler's Rest, and so everything that happened here with Brooke Henson it was personal for him. I'm Jake Halbern and this is deep cover this week or going back to Traveler's Rest. So what was it like growing up here? I'll just give me

a sense for her. Yeah, yeah, So you know, quiet small town. You pretty much knew everybody, and you're you knew of everybody, so there weren't many things that could get kept secret around here. So you know, it was a quiet little town, not a whole lot of crime, you know, just a great place to grow up. Really, Brook Henson must have been about your age, maybe a bit younger. She was a little younger than me. Yes, did you know her or her family growing up? I

did not. I didn't know. I was five years I see, five years older than her. I believe my brother actually is three years younger than me and actually knew her, and actually my my wife knew her from school, so I have those connections that they knew of her, and and Brooke dropped out of school early in high school, in tenth grade. I believe it was But but growing up through middle school in high school. Yeah, I've got family members and my wife that that kind of knew her.

Does that change things in terms of making them more personal? Like this is not just some random person who you're investigating. What happeness is someone that you have personal connections to in a small town. It does for me. And even when I worked to another agency, the Maldon Police Department, I knew of this case. I knew of this case my entire career. When I worked to other agencies and I knew that she was missing and it was unsolved.

And if there were people that I came across that I thought may know something, I would ask And it wasn't even my case. Then I worked for other agencies, but I would ask and if if they had good information, I would refer them up here to travels rest to see if they could help help out with the case. So it does. It does make it a little more personal. I have an investigative background throughout my career. Most of my career has been investigations, and it's something that that

I don't like to give up home. It's just especially when when it hits home and it's so close to people that I know. So there's so many of different accounts in the media, and I know a lot of uh, there's a lot of misinformation out there. But let's maybe just start like, what do we know about the facts of this case? Are what are the things that we can say relatively certain, and what don't we know about

the facts surrounding her disappearance. So interestingly enough, what we thought were facts in this case may not have been now that we've we found out in the last year. So what was reported was that Brooke was last seen at her residence at about two thirty in the morning, outside of the residence going for a walk. That's reported by her mother and a couple of other individuals family members there that spoke to her saw her. That's their account.

We don't actually know if that's true or not. They're they're conflicting stories now saying that no, she never walked away from the house. She was other places. We have several statements now that she was last seen alive up in the River Falls community of Greenville County, which is about six or eight miles north of Traveler's Rest, and we believe that she was last thing alive up there on the same night or a different night. It would be the same night, the same night she was known

to leave and maybe walk around the town. She was known as a walker around town, and she may walk to get some cigarettes or walk up to the to the local store, and there was some pool tables there and a little hangout. Of course, these places were closed this time of night, which makes it even more strange on why she would have went for a walk. Then, however, we have statements that say that, you know, this person picked her up, or this person picked her up, or

we have so many different statements. Don't know what's true and what's not. So what we're finding out is the deeper we dig, the more stories we're hearing. I heard one the other day and I can't go into detail about some of the stories, but allegedly this person killed her now and we never heard that person's name in twenty three years, and this is how this person did it. So you know, we're we're still following up on that obviously, but but you know, she was The facts remain in

the case file that she was last seen at her residence. However, we do have statements she was seen in Riverfalls, so we believe somebody picked her up what we believe now took her to River Falls to some more parties. We've been told there were parties up there too that night, so we believe that she was last seen alive up there. What happened that all of a sudden a year ago, this changes. I mean we're almost more than twenty years out, so what happens that kind of gets this new information going.

So when I came in the end of twenty eighteen, I started digging into the case myself. I wanted to look at it and see after a couple of years of doing that off and on, you know, being the police chief, I have other responsibilities too. There's a friend of mine, this retired law enforcement that he and I talked about this case a little bit, and he wants to be anonymous, and I'm going to keep him anonymous.

But he came into the picture and we talked a little bit, and I allowed him to look at the case file, which is, you know, for bankers box full of information. Of course, I scanned it and put it on digital format so he could look at it and that type of thing. So when he came on the scene, he had some it was a fresh set eyes. It was a retired law enforce a officer. This is just volunteer in his time. So at that point we really sort of hitting it hard and talking to more and

more people. And so about a year. It was April of last year, April twenty twenty one when we started that, and that kind of jolted us in this investigation to spend more time working on it. The main thing that we've heard in the last year is that it's not necessarily how Route was killed, it's what happened to her afterwards, and that it's much bigger than we could ever imagine. That's what people are telling us, So we're trying to

figure out what they mean by that. And and the different theories that have come into play is one has to do with some type of satanic worship or cult, some something's you know that could be a possibility. Um, there's been mentions of of maybe biker motorcycle clubs involvement. UM, I won't go in specifics because you just don't know if it's true. We haven't proved any of that. And then there's there's also been mentioned of of cartel of

Mexican cartel involvement and over drugs and stuff. Is that carteller was that cartel active at that time in this area. They were, They were not and not the way that they are in today's world with the with the methamphetamine trade and things like that. But and again I'm not gonna accuse any which one of those because I don't know yet. Um, but you know, these may be distractions

as far as we know, we don't. We don't know, but there's a lot of things that lead us that point to those different possibilities with the Satanic worshiping and then the drugs and the money, you know, because when when people go missing or or get killed, you know, funny and drugs and greed, you know, lust, those are big reasons why people die. Among those three theories, is there a front runner or is it impossible to say? I think it's impossible to say right now. Depends on

what week it is. And one week we're looking at at the theory of the Satanic worshiping and the black magic, and then uh, the next week something points us in a different direction. So we're just trying to keep an open mind to all of it and not get tunnel vision on it. The one key thing we're really missing, it's the body, and that's the big, big thing we're missing. I believe that if we could find the body, then this case would move forward faster. We just don't have

a body. Talked me through how that would be true. So when you have a missing person, you can't there's no crime. So somebody that's missing, there's no crime. If you find a body, and then you can determine if the person was murdered normally, or if they died of natural causes or whatever the case may be. Brooke could be alive in California right now. Do you think that's a possibility. I don't know. I don't think that she would have left her mom. Her mom and her very close.

I don't think she would have left her mom or friends. And if she had, she would have she would have made contact by now. I don't believe that's a possibility.

So the body you were saying, if you could find, if you had the body, then what if we had the body, that would confirm one of the many stories we have or theories about how she died about maybe, for example, if the body is in said grave and said wooded area, then we take it and go back and look at all the tips that came in and say, okay, well these ten tips now may be true because of where the body's found. I see. So it's kind of like putting the putting the puzzle together, but we don't

have that that main piece we need. It's almost like you know how the story ends, and then you can work backwards to figure out what happens in between. Correct. Correct. We believe that in the case file the answers are in there. We just don't know. It's like a multiple choice tests. We don't know which one is true. But we believe that the answers right there in front of so we just don't know which one's true yet. That sounds like that could drive you crazy. Absolutely can Absolutely

it has been driving me crazy for three years. Now. Can I ask you why is this so important to you? I mean, I get I think I understand it. But someone might look and say, hey, this happens so long ago. Parents are both deceased, Brook appears to be deceased. Why why is this so important to get to the bottom

of this? Because this is my hometown, and when someone goes missing and allegedly something happened to that person, somebody needs to fight for justice for her, and if the family has passed on, there are friends of hers, and there's me, and there's this police department that will fight for justice for And I don't plan on giving up, even though it gets frustrating, because someone needs to fight for her. And if we don't fight for her, then who then who's going to fight for the justice for her?

If this person or those persons killed her. We want to get to the bottom of it and hold those individuals accountable. So it's justice is what it's about. For me. I get that. And I could also see how it in some ways to finds this place and sense of like, this is not okay to happen in this town, right and we're not gonna accept this right exactly, And in twenty three years, this is the only cold case we have,

This is it? We don't We don't have a lot of violent crime happen here, well, you know, and I pride myself on that, and I love this city because of that. And we're four and a half square miles. It was small. We're small, seven thousand residents, and we have about five violent crimes a year, which I love. But this one, you know, if we don't try to find out and give it my all. I'm gonna try it to the day I retire the best I can

to try to find out what happened to her. And if we don't try, then who John Campbell and I and view him today was talking about being involved in the early days at this case, and he said a few things that were interesting. One he said he took over about two years into it, and he said all he got were some written notes that were pretty hard to make sense of because it was pre computer days. And he wished that it had been treated as a

murder right from the beginning. What's your take on that. Yeah, you know, anyone that looks when you put a new set of eyes on a case like this, you can always say, well, why didn't they do this, why didn't they do that? And some of that's been frustrating for me too, you know, wondering why they didn't document it better,

or why they didn't do this or that. Unfortunately, you know, after you spend a couple of days worrying about that, you kind of have to let it go because it's just not there and you kind of move on with what you have. But but John's right there there. I

wish it had been treated differently. But then again, you look at you know, hundreds of thousands of people go missing every year in this country, and if every one of them was treated like a homicide, imagine how many officers it would take to, you know, follow those cases correctly and work them like a homicide. Sure, we may get a missing person called this afternoon and then thirty

minutes find the person, and that's the happy ending. We find the person, they're safe, and you know, then we may get one that maybe another twenty three years we haven't found. So you never know how it's going to end out. So I guess back then they thought it was just another runaway and that maybe she just ran away, she'll be home in a couple of days. You know, it was kind of thought of that way, and you

never really know. So unfortunately it was handled in a way that that turned out to not be just another runaway. John made a reference to an area. Didn't tell me where, but that there was a place where they thought the body might be. What can you tell me about I understand that's sensitive, but what can you tell me about about that? There's several places mentioned in all of these tips that came in where the body may be, and some of the places are very difficult to navigate. If

and I'm going to mention just a pond for example. Okay, if you have a pond and over the course of twenty plush years, and the pond is in the mound, the sediment that rolls that comes down the mountains over twenty plush years, gathers in the bottom that pond. So the bottom of the pond is not the bottom of the pond that it was twenty years ago. Or if you have concrete that is sixteen feet deep and a body is put in concrete fifteen feet down, how are we ever going to get it? How are we going

to know it's down there? So these things are those hypothetical? Are those those are possibilities? Those are actual possible possibilities, their possibilities, there's real possibilities. But I don't I don't know which one is to me. They're all equally important to check out. So what do you do with those

two possibilities. Well, you hope that technology comes along far enough and you get someone that can either volunteer their equipment or maybe get the FEDS involved, or maybe Greenville County helps out and tries to locate you know, a body in in these areas. UM. So a combination of all those things. And then UM, you know one you know, you think you can drain a pond. You know, ponds can be drained, but depends on how big the pond is, how deep it is. There's so many factors that come

into play. UM. Concrete, you know, you can't just tear up the concrete unless you have something solid to to show, yes, that body is down there. So then you look at you know, equipment like UH or penetrating UM, I forget what the solar penetrating or you know, the ground penetrating radar, that's it ground and you look at that and using that, but it's not going to show a three D image of a body or bones. It may just show avoid

you know. So technology, it depends on technology, It depends on and and I do believe that if we were ever to find a body, UM, then you do you have DNA possibilities. You know, Now, if there's anything with the body, maybe we find one of these suspects DNA in there with it. You know, So that type of thing. That's why I mentioned the body's important right now. But um, you've got whales. People have said she's been put in

a whale. Well in the country, there's lots of whales and if and to look in whales, we had to We've looked in one whale. We had to get a camera from a local um a company, drop it down about fifty feet and look around in that whale. And of course we didn't find anything. But there's a lot that goes into trying to use the equipment and check out these places. It seems it seems overwhelming very much. So it is I go home with this, I think

about it all the time. I have to try to set it aside because I have a family, you know, I have to try to set it aside and just not think about it all the time. But when you open up this Pandora's box of of what happened to Brooke, then you know there's fifty people that have my work cell phone number and they'll call me weekends nights if they have information. They don't mind calling, and I don't mind them calling me because I want to try to get everybody involved I can to see if we can,

you know, find out. But it weighs on me a little bit. I think I've had hair turned gray and turned loose a lot over the past couple of years, given me both. I mean, the other thing that seems that they would kind of mess with my head is that there are folks walking around this town. You said, you said, one of the first things you said we said this interview is they're not a lot of secrets in this town. And yet we're talking about maybe the

biggest secret right here. Because if what you're saying is right, there may be multiple people who know what happened to her. Now. I believe that. I believe multiple people know. I believe in my mind six eight ten people know what happened to her. And I believe there were accomplices and there were people that helped help move the body or help you know, bear the body. There's I believe a lot

of people know. However, the people that they're scared of, the ones above them that are run that we're running the show back then, or that they help control over them, that's why they can't tell. And I believe a lot of the people that are several of the people that know are dead now. Ricky Shawn Shirley, he's dead now, and I believe he knew what happened to her. It sounds like your investigation would be helped by support from

the county and maybe even the FEDS. Yeah, And to be honest with you, the FEDS have been here, They've talked to us, they're assisting us on some things. The FBI is they've worked with us a little bit when a halftime. The county has helped us on some things with some searches of some areas outside of our jurisdiction here in the city. We do not believe our bodies in this city. We believe it's out in the county. All these different locations that that Dopu mentioned as possibilities

that they're all out in the county. Yeah, talk to me about a little bit about the Aster Reid situation. Obviously that's first of all, you weren't here in Champa's rest and it's kind of peripheral to to brock Hanston's story. But do you remember that unfolding at the time, What were thoughts about about all that? I do remember that unfolding, and when that happened, it really piqued my interest, and I actually called John back then and I said, John,

what's going on? Is this a possibility, and he said, I'm checking, I'm checking, let me check, And I said, do what you gotta do. You know, I'm just because I knew John worked here. Um. I was an investigator in another agency at the time, and it really piqued my interest that Now, when you say a possibility, do you mean that that that this was really Brooke Hanson. It was up in New York at Columbia, right right? I mean it would it would have been um, it

would have been very interesting. Um. You know, one tip back then in the Brooke Henston case was that that she left and went to California, and she just ran away to California and wanted to be on her own. So it was feasible that she could have possibly went to New York, you know, and stayed up there, so

that it was a possibility. But then it didn't take much checking to determine the truth, obviously, But but it did pique my interest in the case, and I was very curious at the time and talked with John about it a little bit back then. What I mean, there was for a brief while there was a ton of media attention, mainly ons to read, but probably also spill over into Broke Hanson. Me. Look here, I am all these years later. What did that do for the case?

Between two thousand, Between about two thousand and I guess two thousand and six, there was hardly anything done on this case. Very little. John did a little bit, but there wasn't a lot to go on. When Esther read happened, all kinds of tips started coming in after that, so they determined that Esther Reid was Ester Reid, not Brooke Henson. But then more tips came in and more tip It brought more attention. It brought it back to life, so

to say. And that's kind of what I did when I came in twenty eight, twenty nineteen, kind of bring it back to life. So it was very it was good attention. It was sad that it happened the way it did, but it was it kind of brought it back to life. And and uh so, so the friends of hers wouldn't forget, so the community wouldn't forget. And as far as as as long as I'm here, um, we'll use our social media to always remind the community will never forget. I was surprised that you reached out

to me in all my years as a journalist. I don't think I know a case where the law enforcement reached out. I mean, this is a missing person, but clearly this must be part of your mission. It is, and transparency is what I'm all about. I don't mind sharing. Of course, you know there's details of the case. I can obviously and you understand why. But why hide We need the we need help. If if if one of your listeners here's here's this and says, you know what.

I know the truth and I'm tired of you know it needs to come out now, and it'd be great. And like I said earlier, if if we don't care, who's going to care? If I retire from here in whatever year I retire, it may be the end of it. Maybe nobody picks up, maybe nobody messes with it anymore. It's just my mentality. I don't want to let it go. Do you think you're going to solve it today? It

feels like I'm not. Why do you say that? Because tomorrow it may change And one day I feel like I will, and the next day I feel like I want it based on what information has come in that day that has changed my mind. And last week there's some information that came in, I felt really good about Today I don't feel as good about it. So this

is unlike any other case I've ever worked. I could work a case and I could tell you with one hundred percent certainty, I'm gonna solve this case, or with one hundred percent certainty, there's no way I can solve this case because I don't have any evidence in this case. There's a plethora of information, but we don't have a body. Yeah, I honestly think that we won't solve this case unless

we have a body. After speaking with Ben Ford, I spent the next several months reporting this story, making the season that you just heard, But I never stopped thinking about Ben and the enormity of the task that he faced. Part of me hope that maybe after the podcast came out he might get some new leads. So when our last episode dropped, I called him up to check in. That's next after the break? Any you there? Yeah, I hear you that. How are you any good? How are

you I'm good, I'm good. I want to check in with you on a few things. So it sounds like you had a chance to to listen to the podcast. I wondered, like, what your reactions were. You know, I really enjoyed it. I didn't know a lot about Esther Reid in that case, just for what John Campbell told me and what I read in the news. I mean, I was very surprised that you had a conversation with Esther and I loved hearing what was going on in

her mind. What did you make of this kind of new stage of her life where she's after Matthews and she's a professor atak and Zaga. What did you what did you make of that? Well, you know, hearing where she came from and what she went through and you know when she was younger. You know, it just showed me and it confirmed that anybody, know, anybody can do what they put their mind to. And she chose to live one way and do certain things a certain way for a long time, and then she decided to do

it a different way. I'd love to see when people actually turned their lives around, and there's six more successful than they were when they were making bad decisions. So I thought it was great. I thought it was a great story. Oh, I appreciate that. I'm wondering if, since the podcast came out, whether any additional tips or bits of information have come your way. We haven't, not since

the not since the podcast has come out. Ironically, though, before the podcast was released, I did have a man contact me from our county's attencive Center and we talked with him and eventually we got him in here and he gave us some information and he actually said I knew where Brooke is buried whoa And we said, well, how do you know that? And he said, well, I heard two people talking about it and they said where

she was buried at? I said, can you take us to the spot, and he said yes, I said, let's go. So we went to the spot. Um, it was on a piece of property that belongs to a family that the mom and dad are deceased there. So the sister was in charge of the property and gave us permission to look on the property. So we went on the property. He pointed out the location. We put him back in the vehicle away from the scene, and we brought in

cadaver dog. Cadaver dog alerted. So we took that dog away and we brought another dog in and that dog at what is that when you said cadaver dog alerted? What does that mean? Exactly? So that means they picked up what they believed to be the scent of decayed body or bones. Now it's it's not a it's not a perfect science, and it's it's not an absolute So that's why we use two different dogs, and we had a statement from somebody, so we used all of that

in order to get a search warrant for the property. Well, Greeble County came out and helped, and we dug and found nothing. So we kind of like climax there, thinking we were gonna we were on something and we didn't find one ball, nothing and we dug a lot big area. Do you think this was at the time where you like this this is in or were you we use skeptical You know, I try to not to get my hopes up, um and I I try not to show that I get my hopes up because I've been let

down so many times, you know. But in this case, you know, I thought there was gonna be something. I thought, yeah, this is a very good possibility. Let's let's find her. And and so I did think it was, but I didn't want to show too much enthusiasm due to the fact I've been let down so many times. So when we found out it wasn't, I was disappointed. But then yet again, it's another lead that we've checked off. Wow, it's true. It's it's like, you don't know, you have

to follow up every lead. I guess that seems even remotely credible. I guess right, that's the only Yeah, and you know, we we were hesitant to listen to him at first, But anytime somebody says I know where the body's at, I can show you. I mean, we've got to go. We've got to go with it and we've got to check it out. Um. But that's that's the most we've done with the case. In the past few months.

I've had people ask me too, whether you're any further along than they beginning some ground penetrating radar at the at the water treatment plan. So you know, I did some more research and I found a company and they volunteer their services to law enforce in all of the country and they have ground penetrating radar. So who are I'm planning to call? Nick? Yeah, please let let me know how let me know how that goes, whether I mean, if that ends up happening, or just stay in touch

with me. I'd be curious. I really wouldn't be curious. Look is so so by far to you again and you'll have a good weekend there, Okay, take care of Ben.

Bye bye, thank ye. Talking to Ben and getting this update on the investigation, it really hit home for me how there were all these leads, all these people who claim to know what happened to Brooke, and how each time one of these leads surfaced he had to take it seriously, and that inevitably part of him hoped that this one might be the breakthrough, the one that helped him solve the case and at long last bring some

closure and some healing to this town. But so far it was just dead ends and heartbreak, and then inevitably a new lead and the cycle would begin again. I could see how, after so many years, this would all take a toll on everyone. And yet He's still added, we'll keep you updated if we hear anything else from the Travelers RESTPD. Then Ford is still working diligently on the Brookenson case. So if you have any new information at all that might be helpful, please contact him at

Ford at tr police dot com. That's fr D at tr police dot com. Deep Cover is produced by Amy Gaines and Jacob Smith. This episode was edited by Sophie Crane, mastering by Sarah Bruger. Our show art was designed by Sean Karney. Original scoring and our theme was composed by Luis Gera Special thanks to Karen Shakergie Mia Loobelle, Greta Khne and Jacob Weisberg. I'm Jake Halper