School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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On March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, Jennifer Wicks and her daughter, two year old Adriana disappeared. Last week, we talked to Jennifer's younger half sister, Casey, who has been fighting for ants about what happened to her sister and her only niece. Casey said that since Jennifer disappeared, their family has heard conflicting stories about the last time that Jennifer was seen from Joey Benton, Jennifer's boyfriend.
At the time.
Since December of two thousand and three, Jennifer and Adriana had been living with Joey and his family on their property, first in an outbuilding and then in the Benton's three bedroom family home. But according to Casey and Jennifer's mother Kathy, Jennifer's life at the Benton House had become chaotic. Though obviously we're only hearing one side of the story, we do know from phone calls that arguments were happening between
Jennifer and members of Joey's family. On March twenty fifth, twenty twenty four, the day Jennifer and Adriana disappeared, Jennifer called her aunt Lisa. She told her Aunt Lisa that she was going to tell Joey that she was leaving the Benton House. She said she was going to try to get joe to move out with her, but she said that if Joey didn't agree, Jennifer was leaving with Adriana on her own and coming to her aunt Lisa's.
Lisa said that they could stay at her house and left out her spare key, but Jennifer never used it and after that day she was never heard from again by anyone in her family. Jennifer's family has claimed that Joey told their family in law enforcement different stories about what happened that day. Casey said that Joey told her that on the day Jennifer went missing, he picked Jennifer and Adriana up at his family's home after leaving work.
This was two thousand and four. Jennifer did not have.
A cell phone, so Joey said that he drove Jennifer to a local grocery store and that she went.
In to use the phone.
He said that he then drove her and Adriana to a gas station in cross Plains. There, he says Jennifer and Adriana got into a vehicle, which he described as a white four door Sedan.
After that they disappeared.
Initially, Joey had told police a similar story about leaving work and then driving Jennifer and Adriana to a grocery store and then to an Exon gas station.
But then in.
Twenty thirteen, the Robertson County Sheriff's Office posted a statement about the case. They said that Joey had stated something different, that Jennifer had come back to his home and that he had seen her alive and well a day later, on March twenty sixth. In twenty twenty four, Joey's father, Joseph Benton Senior, was hit with multiple weapons charges and charges related to sexual exploitation of a miner. This led to the Benton family home where Jennifer and Adriana had
been living, being raided. After that raid, Jennifer Wix's family filed a civil lawsuit against the Benton family for wrongful death, and in that lawsuit, they allege that Joseph Senior may have been responsible.
For Jennifer and Adriana's death.
After the raid, Joseph Senior was released but failed to appear for a hearing, so he ended up on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Most Wanted Fugitives list. Then Joseph Senior disappeared until on July fourth, twenty twenty five, a decomposing leg was found near Sulfur Fork Creek in Springfield. Days later, forensics confirmed that leg was Joseph Benton Seniors.
I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast, Helling Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their fa families.
And their communities.
If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five, Or you can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. So this week I want to take a closer look at the conflicting information that Jennifer's family say they have received over the years.
Could Jennifer have left voluntarily and started a new life. Could she have left with someone in that white car and then that person harmed her or Adriana, Or could as the Wicks family suspects, the answers lie closer to where Jennifer was last seen on or around the one hundred acres.
Owned by the Bentons.
First, let's explore the theory that Jennifer could have left with the person in the white car, and she could be living somewhere else and for whatever reason, just voluntarily disappeared.
And wanted to go off the grid.
Jennifer's family have been adamant they do not believe that this is a possibility, and I got another piece of information that makes me agree with Jennifer's family. According to what Jennifer's sister, Casey, has been told by law enforcement, since March twenty fifth, not only has Jennifer not been in contact with anyone in her family, there is no evidence that she has been in contact with anyone at all. There has been no trace of Jennifer or Adriana being
alive anywhere else since that day. Casey told me that, according to her conversations with law enforcement, neither Jennifer nor Adriana's Social Security numbers, which she would have needed for lots of things, including doctor visits for herself and her daughter, was never used again. Kathy told Dateline she believed that her daughter was deceased, but at the time she was holding out hope that Adriana may still be alive and
out there somewhere. Kathy told Dateline that even if something happened and someone killed Jennifer, that that person would not take the life of such a small, innocent child. That Adriana had been left somewhere or given to someone else. Law enforcement has shared an age progress photo of Adriana in case Jennifer's killer or killers either took Adriana or
gave her to someone else. Kathy told news Channel five that she also did an ancestry DNA test just in case Adriana is still out there, if there was any possibility of that, however remote. She wanted to make sure that Adriana could reach out to her family someday and that they could be reunited. But Kathy, Casey and the rest of the Whigs family feel that the Benton property could have answers as to what happened to Jennifer. And then there was Joseph Benton, Senior's decomposing leg You may
remember that last week. Casey told us that in twenty twenty four, she met with the district attorney in Robertson County, but that the meeting got cut short after Joey came in and said that he had information that he wanted
to turn over to investigators. After that, he allegedly told Casey and her mom, while Casey was on speakerphone, that Jennifer and Adriana were already dead in their room when he came home from work that day on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, so Joey seemed to be saying he found their bodies but had nothing to do with their deaths.
This was a huge and.
Shocking revelation, and this led to Kathy and Casey following a wrongful death civil lawsuit against the Bentons. They stated in that lawsuit that Joseph Senior killed Jennifer and Adriana and that Joey helped him cover it up. In a July ninth, twenty twenty five filing responding to that lawsuit, Cynthia Benton and Joey Benton completely denied these allegations. They say they had no knowledge of involvement in or connection with the disappearance of Jennifer or of Adriana. We reached
out to Joey and Cynthia for comment. We didn't hear back from Joey, and Cynthia told us she did not want to comment. Cynthia Benton has filed a motion to dismiss the civil lawsuit, and in that dismissal, she claims that the civil suit quote failed to show how she and Joey Benton caused injury or harm to Jennifer or Adriana end quote. While this was happening, while the drama with the raid and the civil lawsuit was unfolding, Joseph
Senior seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. Remember, police raided the Benton family property in March of twenty twenty four. Leading up to that, in February of twenty twenty four, there were domestic assault charges filed against Joseph Senior related to an alleged assault of his wife. He
was arrested and held on those charges. Now, at some point, someone we don't know who alerted police to the presence of a photo that Joseph had in his possession, which, according to court documents, showed a minor child in a sexual situation. And someone also alerted police that Joseph had multiple weapons at home, which, as a convicted felon, he
was not allowed to have. Then, in March of twenty twenty four, the raid on the Benton property happened and police found the weapons and a photo of a minor
child in a sexual situation. As we said last week, that photo was not Adriana, and it turned out this raid had nothing to do with her and Jennifer's disappearance, but the photo, which according to court documents, was in Joseph's possession between January and March of twenty twenty four when the raid happened, was a photo of a family member. After the raid, Joseph Senior was briefly locked up in jail,
then he disappeared. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Information, Joseph's last known address was listed as homeless.
According to media reports.
Cynthia Benton said she had no communication with her husband since his release from jail in March. She said she had no idea where he was. She had also filed for divorce after the raid since he hadn't been seen in months. The Tennesseean asked the Robertson County Sheriff's office if there had been a missing persons report filed for Joseph. The department said no, there had not. Then there was the shocking news about Joseph's leg being found in Springfield
near a creek. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed that they were able to test the DNA from the leg against the CODIS database and because Joseph Senior had pleaded guilty to that count of possession of prohibited weapons in US of twenty twenty four. His DNA was in the system, so they got a match. Joseph Senior's remains were found about ten miles from the Benton home.
But it's been difficult.
To find out any more information about what's going on with this investigation into Joseph's leg and his disappearance. The Tennesseean reported they have the same problem. In fact, the newspaper wrote they couldn't figure out who was leading the investigation. The newspaper reported that they had reached out to a spokesperson for the TBI, and this person referred them to Robertson County Law Enforcement, saying that they were leading the investigation.
But then when the newspaper contacted the Robertson County Sheriff's Office for comment, they were apparently told the Springfield Police were in charge, but a spokesperson for Springfield told the newspaper the Robertson County Sheriff's Office and the nineteenth Judicial District Attorney General's office were the ones leading the investigation. This is very confusing, and they were not the only
news outlet trying to get answers and clarity. On August twenty fifth, twenty twenty five, news Channel five also reported that they reached out to the Springfield Police for more details about the investigation. They said the department got back to them and stated that the leg was the only body part found, that there were no other body parts found, and they said there was quote no indication of foul play at this time end quote.
Now, a lot of people posted.
Comments on YouTube under that news story that reflected what I'm sure a lot of you were thinking, which is, how do you find a severed leg and come to the conclusion immediately that there's no foul play. There are a couple of possibilities that.
Occurred to me.
Again, we don't know anything about the evidence that the police have, so this is pure speculation.
But one possibility could.
Be that Joseph Senior was out in the woods and either took his own life or possibly died of natural causes, and then there was some animal likedvity and that could be the reason why his leg was separated from the rest of his body.
I will say.
Though, that, in my opinion, though it does seem a little odd to immediately assume there's been no sign of foul play. They may mean the leg did not appear to be cleanly severed, meaning that it wasn't immediately obvious that Joseph had been dismembered. But as with so many things in this case, the exact status of the investigation into Joseph Benton's senior's death is unclear. So where does this lead the investigation into Jennifer and Adriana's disappearances and
Jennifer's family. Over the years, Joey Benton has not said much publicly about the state of the investigation. Joseph Benton, Sr. Did talk to some journalists in two thousand and eight. He told Fox seventeen News, quote, we done everything we could for a year to try to help find Jennifer, and we just don't know where Jennifer is end quote. Eventually Casey started doing her own investigating. Now, obviously Casey
and her mother are not impartial. They have made it very clear that from the beginning they were suspicious of Joey and his family. They started a Facebook page in twenty eleven, and more recently, in twenty twenty four, Casey was interviewed on a podcast called Missing in Hushtown. And in that podcast, she claimed that at the time Joey and Jennifer were dating, that he had issues with drugs and that he had had police reports filed against him
by other women. And as she kept digging, Casey found even more discrepancies in Joey's story about what really happened the day Jennifer and Adriana disappeared. Since Casey started investigating, she's heard a lot of conflicting information about what Joey
said in the day's following Jennifer and adrian His disappearance. Remember, Joey and Jennifer had initially met through Jennifer's cousin, Jeffrey, and Jeffrey told Casey about something that happened on the night of May twenty fifth, two thousand and four.
That night, there was a bonfire happening at his house that Jennifer was supposed to be at, and it was kind of like a couple's bonfire. There were three couples, and Jennifer was one of the couples with Joey, and so my cousin was there and my cousin's like, well, where's Jennifer And he says, she's at a friend's house.
This seemed odd to Casey.
Why would Joey tell Jeffrey that Jennifer was at a friend's house when he told police the next day that he and Jennifer had broken up in that car ride to the grocery store and then went to.
The gas station.
When the Robertson County Sheriff's Office put out that statement on their website in twenty thirteen, they said they were changing Jennifer and Adriana case for missing persons to homicide, and in that post they said that there was quote no independent confirmation that Jennifer had been at either the grocery store or the gas station on March twenty five
to Casey's shop. The post also said that at some point Joey told law enforcement that Jennifer stopped by his house on the next day, on March twenty sixth.
He says that Jennifer comes back to his house on Friday Friday. He was working at the same job site, but they got off work early, and so he was sitting in the living room and Jennifer pulls up to their house in the same white car, but alone. She's driving this car without Adriana, and she comes in to get a few things, the car seat, the diaper bag,
and a change of clothes and stuff. And she's there to get her tax refunds money, her five hundred dollars and he says, well, my parents aren't here to give it to you, and she says, okay, I'll come back tomorrow, and of course never shows up.
Later said that Joey's mother wrote her mother Kathy, a check for the five hundred dollars that she said Jennifer had gotten from her tax returns and deposited into one of Joey's family member's accounts because at the time, Casey said, Jennifer did not have her own bank account. Casey also
has questions about the car. Joey told law enforcement that the white car that Jennifer drove to his house was the same one that Jennifer had gotten into the day before, but he said he couldn't identify the car more precisely than saying it was a four door white vehicle.
He can't make out what kind of car it is, even though he changes that story. Originally in the police report, it says a white fourd do or Camaro or Mustang, which those do not exist, so he changes it from that to just a white board or car.
We know that Jennifer was arguing with the Bentons, but we don't know much about those arguments or who the main family member was who Jennifer had a problem with. As we said last week, law enforcement have said the last person to talk to Jennifer was her father, Michael, at around eleven am on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four. That was the conversation where Jennifer told Michael that Joey's mom was acting strange and that she was scared.
Casey told me something else about that phone call. Apparently, at some point Jennifer was under the impression that she and Joey were going on a picnic on that day, a detail that Casey is not sure that Joey told police.
On the phone call with her dad after she said I'm scared, dad, and he said of what she said of his mom, she's acting weird. Her dad said, well, why don't you have your Grainny come get you or your mom come get you? And she's like, no, Joey's on his way home. We're going to go on a picnic. At that point in time, I guess joe had already told her before he left her work or she had talked to him earlier in the day. I don't know what it was, but they had plans for him to
come home early. She knew he was on his way home. That's kind of an important thing to note because when we're thinking about who made the phone calls from the house, that it potentially could have been her.
Casey spoke to Joey and says he told her that he and Jennifer did have a picnic, but that it wasn't any particular destination, that they just hung around the barn on the Benton property, and that after that he and Jennifer went on the drive. Over the years, Casey says she and the rest of her family have only become more convinced that Joey and his family were hiding something.
The Sheriff's off estated quote no one, including Joey Benton, has been eliminated as having potential involvement in the disappearance of Jennifer and Adriana.
Wicks End quote.
Between two thousand and four and twenty thirteen, the Robertson County Sheriff's Department has searched the Benton property on four separate occasions, They reportedly drained a pond on the land as well. Jennifer's family told the Tennessee And that there was another search in twenty twenty one that scent and cadaver dogs were on the Benton property and that ground penetrating radar was also used. They told the newspaper that the dogs and the radar ultimately did not lead to
any human remains being found. Then there was the big raid in twenty twenty four on the Benton property, and before Casey knew that the raid wasn't related to her sister and niece's disappearances, the family briefly had hope again, they said in a statement to news Channel five, quote, twenty years ago today we reported the missing. Law enforcement have never been on that property to conduct a warranted search. That house has the answers we need, and we're hoping this is the day we get them.
End quote.
We don't know a lot of details about the searches that have happened on the Benton property over the years, but reportedly nothing of evidentiary value related to Jennifer's case
has ever been found there by law enforcement. When Robertson County Sheriff Bill Holt contributed to that posting on the department website in twenty thirteen, he said that the Sheriff's office was quote absolutely committed to not letting Jennifer and Adriana Wicks be forgotten, and he went on to say, quote, I strongly believe that there are persons.
In this community who know what happened to Jennifer.
And Adriana, but who have been reluctant to come forward for one reason or another. We today strongly encourage our citizens to help us provide answers and closure to the family, and as circumstances warrant justice to these two young persons who chose to live in our area.
End quote.
So from that statement, it seems like police believe there are people, maybe people right there in that community who have information that could lead to finding Jennifer and Adriana or the remains. The police have a number that you can call with tips at the Robertson County Sheriff's Office. The number is six one, five three, eight four, seven nine seven one. It's also listed on the department's Major
Unsolved Cases page. There's also a crime tip section on the sheriff's department website at www.
Dot robertson sheriff dot Com.
From there you can navigate to the crime tips page. There are still so many unanswered questions in this case, including did Joseph Senior's disappearance have anything even indirectly to do with Jennifer and Adriana's case, and if not, what happened to him? And where is the rest of his body? Since I wrote this episode, there have been some updates. We just learned today that more remains have been found
in Springfield. Smoky Mountain News reported that they had rec received a statement from the City of Springfield confirming that possible human remains had been recovered near the Greenway by sul for Fort Creek. This is the same general area where Joseph Senior's leg was found. This happened on October
fourth and October fifth. The statement from the City of Springfield explained that on those two days, the Springfield Police Department was contacted concerning the discovery of possible human remains in the creek near the Greenway. The department stated that they also conducted additional searches, including an underwater dive unit
in canine cadiver units. On the next day, October sixth, as of this recording that was yesterday, the department wrote in a statement, quote, the Springfield Police Department can confirm that possible bone remains were recovered in the water located in close proximity to the Greenway and Springfield on all three dates listed. All potential remains showed significant signs of
decomposition end quote. The department went on to say they have not identified any of the remains and that the remains have been sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office for further identification. Again, this is a developing story. We don't know if the bones are human, if they are human, if they could be Joseph Senior or someone else, And the department stated that we won't know more about the identification until they get a report back from the State
Medical Examiner's office. This could take weeks or months, but we will keep you posted. Again, this is a developing story and we will keep following it. After so many years, it just goes to show even in the coldest cases, things can still happen, and Jennifer's family has never given up. I ask Casey if she believed today that Adriana.
Could be alive.
No, I don't feel like Jennifer or Adriana are alive. I mean, there's a lot of people over the year that say, I can understand how someone could do that with an adult. You know that someone's arguing with you in the heat of a moment or whatever. But people can't seem to grasp someone doing that to a two year old. And I always tell them it happens every day. We cover these cases, and people are hurting and harming children every day. I would like for that not to
be the case. But hearing him say that for the first time last year just really solidified for me that they are dead.
I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans.
And iHeart Podcasts.
It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Cammer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr and L. C.
Crowley.
Listen to Helen Gone ad free by some describing to the iHeart True crime plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen gonepod.
If you have a case you'd like me.
And my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
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