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E113: Valeri Brooks
2.3k Plays4 years ago
A young mother was working the night shift at Thornton’s gas station in the small town of Versailles, Kentucky, but it was a shift from which she would never return home. Thirty-one years later, the family of Valeri Brooks is still fighting for coverage and still praying for answers.
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Transcript
Starting a Podcast Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
Slutowns, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own. Whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are.
00:00:17
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was a way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends and from where our listeners hail.
00:00:43
Speaker
Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So, what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today. If you use our Coffee & Cases referral code, 709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes, not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan.
00:01:11
Speaker
It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
Connection to Kentucky
00:01:26
Speaker
I'm sure every listener out there to some extent feels the same way about their home.
00:01:32
Speaker
as I do about Kentucky. But I genuinely believe that there is something about being from the same state that connects us. There's something that happens when a stranger says they're from the same place that you call home that makes this vast world feel a lot smaller and it brings the familiar sense of comfort that tugs at you.
00:01:55
Speaker
Yes, I realize that not everyone from Kentucky has had the same childhood and daily experiences, but I do think that most of us know the look of bluegrass swaying in the wind, the smell of a honeysuckle bush in the spring, or of leaves in the fall that have been swept into piles perfect for jumping. Most of us are the kind who will start talking to you in line at the grocery store, who will run to help someone in need, who knows the taste
00:02:25
Speaker
of the perfect glass of sweet tea, or reminisces about a loved one's recipe for fried chicken, fried apples, or flaky biscuits. You know what people mean when they say words and phrases like y'all, or bless your heart, or that they're fixing to do something, or pickling around, or dadgummit, or if someone is feeling fair to Midland.
00:02:48
Speaker
You know, a hauler is both a noun and it's a verb. And unless you're from a big city, you say what county you're from. And above all, if you're from Kentucky, you know the importance of college basketball.
Introducing Valerie Brooks' Case
00:03:03
Speaker
Our case this week is of a 22 year old young woman from the Bluegrass state.
00:03:08
Speaker
who had the whole world in front of her. She was a loving mother to her two young boys, the kind of friend who we all need, who will support you when you need supported, yet tell you the hard truth when that's what you need to hear. She was a fiercely loyal sister to her siblings, and she loved Kentucky with every fiber of her being.
00:03:31
Speaker
According to her sister Tracy, she was a Kentucky girl in every ounce of who she was and would rather have been living in Kentucky working hard to make ends meet than to make more money but live outside of the state she loved so much. And that's why on December 31st, as of 2021, having her murder still be unsolved 31 years later feels like a betrayal.
00:04:00
Speaker
by the state she deeply treasured. How could we have let her down so much? This is the case of Valerie Brooks.
00:04:44
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
Community Engagement and Support
00:05:05
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, and to follow us on Instagram at Coffee Cases podcast and on TikTok at Coffee and Cases podcast. Because as these families know, conversation helps to keep their missing family member in the public consciousness, helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:05:33
Speaker
Before we get into the case this week, let's give some shout outs, Maggie, to our new patrons on Patreon. All right, so shout out to Emily F who says, I love the show and I'm so happy for you. So excited for Patreon. And we are too, Emily. Thank you so much for this week's comments and for listening. Yup. Shout out to Lynette. Lynette says,
00:05:56
Speaker
I love listening to you as a teacher myself. I feel like you could be teaching next door to me. You ladies keep it real. Thanks, Lynette. And you know, there is a special bond between next door teachers because that is our friendship. So we would love to be teaching next to you too, Lynette.
00:06:13
Speaker
And the final shout out this week goes to Aaron M. Aaron, thank you so much for supporting us and listening each week. You really are the best. If you would like to get immediate access to some bonus content, learn a little bit more about Maggie and me and hear your name read on our show, be sure to subscribe to our Patreon page at patreon.com forward slash coffee and cases, all one word.
00:06:40
Speaker
For a limited time, you can get what will become the $8 a month level for only $5 a month. And I feel like Allison, everybody could use a Delta dummy story. I mean, you know what? If you're not on Patreon, you don't know what that is. That's right. And if you are already one of our Patreon members, but you have yet to fill out the shout out form, don't forget to do so because we want to announce your name and to celebrate you.
00:07:09
Speaker
you inspire us each week to do the work that we do and you push us to continue to be better.
Deep Dive into Valerie's Case
00:07:15
Speaker
Now, speaking of feeling pushed and inspired, after having spoken to so many members of Valerie Brooks' family for this week's case, I feel so personally connected to it that I actually found it hard to write the episode because for every word, I wanted to make sure it was the right word.
00:07:38
Speaker
And I just pray that for them, I do the coverage of her case, the justice that it deserves, because I don't want them to feel let down again. And this has been in the works for a while. I've been working on this case for several months. Maggie, for this case, I had the pleasure of speaking with Valerie's sister, Tracy.
00:08:04
Speaker
her brother, Michael, her son, Andy, and to provide some additional information, I also spoke with news reporter, Lee Circe, and Versailles police chief, Mike Murray. You have been busy. Yes, I have been busy working on this case, trying to get as many details and answers that I possibly could.
00:08:24
Speaker
And you know, you know this, Maggie, the first question when I interview a family member or friend is to ask them to tell me a favorite memory of the person. So I will start with a couple of those and then tell you about some of the other favorite memories along the way.
00:08:43
Speaker
was the oldest child. Her was three years younger th Tracy was the baby of the
00:08:57
Speaker
And it was when I spoke with both Tracy and Michael that I first began to realize not just how special Valerie was to the both of them, but how like I mentioned in the introduction, she was that special kind of person who could just like read you and know exactly what you need, right? Like if you need support, she's gonna boost you up. She's gonna be there. If you need the hard truth, she's gonna tell you. A reality check. Yes, exactly.
00:09:22
Speaker
So let me tell you some of the memories that were shared to me by Michael and Tracy to illustrate that. So first for Michael, his favorite memory is of living out by the airport and there were all of these trees in the front yard. He said that in the fall they would rake the leaves into a maze or a fort and like play in it for hours.
00:09:44
Speaker
And he distinctly remembers the lyrics of Terry Jack's season in the sun blasting out the front window of the home while he and Valerie played. And he said that Valerie was three years older than him, but she never made him feel that way. Yeah. For Tracy, Valerie also provided a sense of comfort.
00:10:07
Speaker
too. But in a way that Tracy needed it. So Tracy said of herself, and I just thought this was, I just had to use it word for word. She said, quote, I was a barefoot, wild haired, tree climbing, stinky little human that nobody wanted a lot to do with. But she looked past all of that. I was like a feral cat. And she was the only one. Yeah. And so I think
00:10:34
Speaker
that just shows how close of a relationship they felt despite the age difference. And still that same kind of sense of comfort, I think that Valerie provided for both of them. And Tracy said that sometimes she would call her sister at like three in the morning just to talk. And Valerie was always there for her. That's more than I could probably say. I'd be like, call me back at a reasonable hour. Yeah. So I think Valerie just understood people. Yeah.
00:11:00
Speaker
And at the same time, Valerie sounded like a spitfire, which I also love. When Valerie was 17 and her oldest boy, Andy, was born, Valerie's dad had gone back to see her in the hospital. And the story goes that Valerie held Andy up and she was like, look what I did. So it's hard not to smile at memory like that. And she was also the kind
00:11:26
Speaker
who knew what she wanted and she wasn't scared to make it happen. So what did she do? Like what was her job? So she, when the story is taking place, she is working as a gas attendant at Thornton's. She had plans to become an accountant, but she hadn't started kind of that stage of her life yet. The Burke's family, dad and stepmom,
00:11:50
Speaker
had moved to Connecticut from Kentucky with her brother, Michael, joining them when he turned 18. And then eventually, Valerie and Michael and Tracy's mother also moved to Connecticut as well. It was funny because Tracy actually said something like, it was like the Clampett's moved around, like it was a sight to see.
00:12:13
Speaker
Valerie had only ended up staying in Connecticut a year because she just missed Kentucky. She missed home. So she packed up all of her things and she moved back. And of course, younger sister Tracy, remember she was like, I'm like a feral cat. She's the only one who could touch me.
00:12:28
Speaker
she wanted to be wherever Valerie was. So she actually told me that she purposefully acted up as much as she could. Yeah. Until her mom threw her hands up and she was like, let your sister deal with you. My plan worked. Yeah. Those were magical words to Tracy's ears. And as it was getting close to Christmas in 1990,
00:12:52
Speaker
Tracy recalled getting an early Christmas present. It was a box that had some tinsel on it. And inside of it was a little poem letting her know that she was going to Kentucky to visit her sister Valerie and that a courier was supposed to be stopping by with her plane ticket. So she's like super excited.
00:13:13
Speaker
Valerie and Tracy's brother Michael, his girlfriend at the time had horses and so they had all gone out that day to feed them when Tracy heard a vehicle outside and she's like, oh my gosh, this is a courier with my plane ticket. I'm so excited. She runs excitedly outside, but what she saw made her even more ecstatic because outside she found a maroon Camaro with a green hood and out popped her sister Valerie.
00:13:40
Speaker
Smiling and yelling, do you like my sleigh? Because it's like maroon and green. So even though the Camaro was crammed with Valerie, Valerie's significant other, Edward, Valerie's sons, Andy and Chase, and now Valerie's sister, Tracy, all in a drive from Connecticut back to Kentucky. So it was like filled to the max. That drive was so much better than like a lonely plane flight would have been.
00:14:09
Speaker
They got back to Kentucky on Christmas Eve and they got back late, but Valerie had waited to decorate. So Tracy can help her. Yeah. And then one of Tracy's favorite memories that night of Christmas Eve into the morning of Christmas, she and Valerie stayed up all night long decorating the Christmas tree and wrapping presents. And Valerie had gotten Andy this fire truck toy that she knew he would love.
00:14:36
Speaker
And that toy is now one of Andy's most prized possessions next to his family because the joy of that last that he was able to share with his mom that last Christmas means so much to him. For her youngest boy Chase, Valerie had gotten a Sesame Street train set.
00:14:57
Speaker
that they were trying to like put out around the tree. Yeah, but Tracy remembers, she called it, it was like train track twister because she said, you know what it's like when you get like one piece connected and then another one pops up, like all the way on the other side. So you run over there and you get it hooked back in and then another one pops up. That was like when we tried to do our floor downstairs and it was like that click and stick one.
00:15:21
Speaker
And so she remembered that she and Valerie were laughing so hard that tears were rolling down their face. And this was what Christmas was all about, right? Like joy, family, love. Sadly, less than a week later, the very person who was the glue of the family in so many ways would tragically be taken from those who loved her and replaced with a whole impossible to be filled.
00:15:50
Speaker
It would leave her parents and siblings searching desperately for answers and leave her voice to only hear second hand how proud Valerie was of them.
00:16:02
Speaker
At the time, Valerie was working as an attendant at a Thornton's gas station in Versailles, Kentucky, which for those of you outside of the area, it's a small town in central Kentucky with a population in 1990 of around 7,200. It's a cute town. It is a very cute town. It's like an older, it's a slow paced working class town where most people know one another.
00:16:27
Speaker
Valerie had been working there while, like I said to you a second ago, Maggie, her eventual goal was to become an account. But right now she was like, you know what, I'm just going to save up some money, you know, pay my normal bills, make ends meet, right?
00:16:42
Speaker
And so that's what she was doing. And the Thortons, which was currently undergoing some remodeling, was usually a bustling place. I believe the Thortons that stands now, and this is near the castle, is not the Thortons that was when Valerie disappeared. But they built it in like the exact same spot. So you get the idea of location.
00:17:08
Speaker
So it was usually this bustling place. It was where a lot of the local officers would stop to get a cup of coffee to help them get through their night shift. And yes, there is a castle in Kentucky. You all do not have that. There is. And you can even stay there. Yeah. Or eat there.
00:17:23
Speaker
Um, but it was a place where Valerie would sometimes work alone on the night shift. That scares me. It does me too. But I asked Tracy if Valerie would, was like ever scared to work that late alone. And Tracy answered like resounding like quick, no. Well, I feel like that's Tracy though. Like she doesn't seem, or not Tracy, Valerie, she doesn't seem like
00:17:47
Speaker
She's really scared of anything. Yeah, she's not. And that's, that's what Tracy said. She said, Valerie doesn't really get nervous. And she basically told me a Valerie's personality. And I get so many of the things that Tracy said, I was like, I'm putting this word. So, but she said that Valerie was a kind where
00:18:08
Speaker
These are Tracy's words. If you're sweet, I'm sweeter, but if you're mean, I'm meaner. Whatever you come at me with, I'm coming back at you, Tim. Again, I admire someone who, if you're sweet, they're sweet back, even if they're having a bad day, but if you're going to be rude to them, they have enough gumption to stand up for themselves. Valerie should have been a teacher. Yes, she should have been.
00:18:32
Speaker
Um, so she, yeah, she wasn't the kind who was going to take crap off of anybody, you know, so Tracy and Michael both said that Valerie was kind though to everyone and she always had a smile. So really only if you were like going to cross her, then you would get that whole other version. Right. Um, Valerie was always willing to step in and help a friend, but if she saw you doing something wrong,
00:18:58
Speaker
then she would tell you that it's wrong. And I tell my students all the time, I'm like, you need a friend like that. Yeah, you do. Like somebody who's not just gonna agree with everything that you do. Yeah. If you do something dumb, it's gonna be like, mmm. Why are you doing that? Right, that was dumb. That was dumb. Right. And it's that desire to help out a friend, though, Maggie, that drove Valerie to pick up a shift at the gas station for a coworker. Okay. So Valerie was the night that she
00:19:27
Speaker
disappeared. I'll go that far right now. Okay. Was actually supposed to get off work earlier, but she had stayed because that coworker said, Hey, can you stay later? I cover my shift. Okay. So the night that this happens, Valerie wasn't even supposed to be there. Nope. I hate that. And it was that shift on December 31st, 1990, from which Valerie would never return.
00:19:56
Speaker
Tracy, remember, she had come back to Kentucky with them. She was staying with Valerie at the time and she had been over, because this is New Year's Eve, she had been over at a cousin's house and had walked to the neighborhood grocery to give Valerie a call to see what time Valerie was gonna come pick her up. And it was then that Valerie told Tracy, well, it's not gonna be any time soon. I'm actually working over. And she said, how about you just stay the night
00:20:25
Speaker
you know, with our cousin. But Tracy was like, I'd rather walk. Yeah, I'd rather come home. So she just started walking because it wasn't that far. Yeah. And again, like Rissell's is a small town, sidewalks. I don't think that'd be totally out of the norm. Right. And remember, it's 1990. So we are in like a different time. And
00:20:48
Speaker
While she was walking home, a local officer, Keith Broughton, actually passed by and saw Tracy, like this young girl, walking in the cold, because it was really cold out, and he had offered to drive Tracy back to wherever she was going. So he drove her back to Valerie. Oh, that's good. And for sales, it's a small town. So people knew who Valerie was, and the cops always stopped into that Fortons. Yeah, so they would definitely know her. Yeah. So he took Tracy back.
00:21:17
Speaker
And later on that night, Broughton actually stopped by Thornton's and he said in a news report that Valerie thanked him for stopping by to pick up Tracy and take her home.
00:21:30
Speaker
But when Tracy got back, Edward, remember Valerie's significant other, was asleep. And Chase, who was Valerie's youngest, being a typical little kid, had actually gotten into Tracy's makeup. Oh my God. Yeah. So Tracy was freaking out. She was worried that it was going to make Chase sick.
00:21:50
Speaker
Right? So she calls Valerie at the Thornton's to be like, what should I do? He's eating my makeup. He's eating makeup. Yes. Valerie, she said was super calm and she was like, you know, just, he's going to be okay. You just get a washcloth and wash his face and you let me talk to him.
00:22:09
Speaker
And so Valerie had spoken with Chase and, you know, made sure he was okay. Tracy had gotten his face washed off. But actually, Edward had woken up when Tracy was like freaking out. Yeah. And so Valerie ended up talking to Edward and then she ended the call by talking again to Tracy. But Tracy told me, quote, that was it. That was the last time we talked to. Wow. So sometimes soon
00:22:39
Speaker
After that phone conversation, the robbery alarm was triggered at Thornton's gas station. Okay. From my understanding. So was the gas station closed by this point or is this gas station open? No, it was open. Okay.
00:22:54
Speaker
So from my understanding, that alarm would, within like 90 seconds, register a call to 911. So kind of like a bank. Yeah. Then would go to the local police station to respond. Okay.
00:23:10
Speaker
From most of the sources I read, there were at least four officers within a quarter mile of Thornton's when the call came in, including one officer who was sitting down at Woodford feed, which is only about a 10th of a mile from Thornton. So a one minute drive.
Crime Scene Details
00:23:30
Speaker
But even with that, by the time the responding officers arrived, Valerie was gone. So did they get there quickly though?
00:23:40
Speaker
I never read exactly how quickly they got there. I do know that the alarm was triggered that quickly. I know that the call went out that quickly. And even when I talked to Chief Murray, he said that there was like witness testimony that they had within minutes of the alarm triggering.
00:24:10
Speaker
So was told to a detective by a witness who had driven by within minutes. I guess they saw that it was like like police cars or something. I'm not sure. Okay. So that part I do not have a concrete answer on. But just like last week when
00:24:26
Speaker
You talked about Jamie's family coming in and like noticing that things. Like small things, but big things. Yes, similar thing in this week's case. So there were some odd things about the scene at the gas station. So knowing what I told you about Valerie, if I told you now that she had been abducted from a gas station, what would you expect to see?
00:24:53
Speaker
Well, if her sister said that like, if you're mean, she's going to be meaner, then I would expect to have seen signs of a struggle because I think she would put up a pretty decent fight. And that's exactly what you would expect. But there was none. There was no sign of a struggle.
00:25:13
Speaker
Tracy even told me that like right outside of the attendance station, there was a display of two leaders and it was still neatly stacked. And Valerie's purse was still inside sitting on the counter.
00:25:32
Speaker
So I'm telling you right now, okay, right now, if a stranger had come by and forcibly taken Valerie, in almost every scenario that I could think of, there would have been signs of a struggle. And she would have grabbed whatever she could get her hands on to aid in that problem. Yeah, I would have been throwing those two liter bottles of vodka somebody. Exactly, kicking them, doing whatever. And the only scenarios that I can think
00:26:00
Speaker
that there wouldn't have been a struggle is if she had been outside like sweeping or gathering up the garbage because then she wouldn't be anywhere near the two liters and her purse might have been
00:26:15
Speaker
sitting on the counter, right? Or maybe helping somebody with an issue at a gas pump. If they were like, I can't get the pump to work or something like that, then she might have left you a ten-minute station. Which maybe could have been a good way to draw her out. Hey, I'm having issues with this pump. Right. Or something. Could you come help me? Exactly.
00:26:32
Speaker
or potentially if someone had pulled up and said that there was an emergency with somebody in her family. And I feel like in that scenario, she would have, but only in that scenario, if you said, because even if she's outside, she still has to get into a car. And so if anybody had been driving by, I feel like they would have seen a struggle. If somebody's like forcibly putting in her car. And that's a pretty busy road. And I feel like even in Nati Nandi would have been
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah, pretty busy traffic. Yeah. But like, or if they said there's an emergency, okay, then she would have willingly jumped into a car. Yeah. Right. But even in that case, like I know I personally would have said, Oh, let me grab my purse and I would have grabbed my purse and locked the door. I don't think I would have left a gas station and open, you know, I would have grabbed my purse and locked it.
00:27:30
Speaker
but her purse is still there and the gas station isn't locked. So by the time law enforcement arrived, they didn't see a car speeding away. They didn't locate any suspicious people. There was just an empty store that had seemingly been robbed and the attendant Valerie Brooks was now missing. So was it robbed? So again,
00:27:57
Speaker
All of the reports said that there was a robbery. I never read, nor was I able to get a clear answer on like how much money was taken from the till or anything like that. And the reason I use the word seemingly robbed is not because I'm trying to imply that the store wasn't robbed at all, but because again, before we even get further into the case, I already have some questions and concerns.
00:28:26
Speaker
And I brought these up with Tracy and Michael, so I wanted to bring them up with you, Maggie. First, if this is, if robbery was the initial intent,
00:28:37
Speaker
And they're taking money from the cash register. Why would they have not taken Valerie's purse? Right. Cause it would have had at least something in there you would think. Yeah. One would assume that there's also money in there. Right. Like I would be like, give me all this in the register and give me your purse too. Right. Yeah. So it wouldn't be that the money would be gone from the cash register and yet her purse is still sitting there. Yeah. When I spoke with for sales police chief Mike Murray,
00:29:03
Speaker
I asked actually if I could see an inventory of what was in Valerie's purse. Cause then I was thinking, well, maybe.
00:29:11
Speaker
even though this doesn't make much sense to me and I'll get to why here in a second, maybe they took her wallet out. Oh, and just left like the rest of the purse. And even though he would not allow me to see a list of the contents, he did verify that her purse was left on the counter. So I did get that piece of information verified. Now I know I'm not a robber and even though I don't know the contents of her purse,
00:29:38
Speaker
I personally don't think that a person coming in with the intent to rob a store would have just left a purse on the counter that did contain money. And I also don't think that a robber would take the time to rifle through a purse just to find the wallet to take in. Unless he had been like, give me your wallet. See, I feel like he would have said, well, I guess he could have said, give me your wallet. But I feel like if he's grabbing her,
00:30:05
Speaker
I don't know, that's just one more thing to carry. It just doesn't make much sense to me, that whole part. And my second issue, and this is something that Tracy and I discussed, is that if the intent was to rob the store, and Valerie posed a problem, right, because she wasn't just gonna let you take
00:30:24
Speaker
I feel like she would have tried to stop you in some way. What was the case that we covered where this was very similar? The case corner, the grocery store. They literally just killed them and left them there. They did. And that is, that's what I was getting ready to say is that if Valerie posed a problem, like trying to stop somebody from taking something, like trying to stop this robbery from happening, if this is a robbery gone wrong, then usually
00:30:49
Speaker
that would lead the robber to pulling a gun right there and shooting the attendant. Yeah, because if you're like
00:30:57
Speaker
If you're stealing from a store and the attendant is the problem, like to me, you're already stealing. So like shooting them, I feel like it just gets them out of the way. But kidnapping them adds a whole new level of there's another witness. Like now what are you going to do with this person? Like it just adds a whole new level. And I feel like you would have to somehow incapacitate a person like Valerie because otherwise
00:31:26
Speaker
She's still going to be fighting you from the back seat. Yeah. Right. So it just seems odd to me. Yeah. A robbery gone wrong doesn't usually lead to an abduction. And the rest of this case that I'm going to tell you about now, a sexual assault and then a murder that happens elsewhere.
00:31:49
Speaker
which are the next two things. So it's not just this door is robbed and she's found dead. It's like this store is robbed and several other things happen. Right. So after getting off the phone with Valerie, Tracy had called her boyfriend back in Connecticut and she was on the phone with him when she heard a tap at the window.
00:32:11
Speaker
It was her grandmother, Betty Todd, and that name, if you live in Versailles or have ever lived in Versailles, then everyone knows the name Betty Todd because Miss Betty was a school bus driver and head custodian at Woodford County Middle School for forever. Oh, so she's an hour. Yes. So there's a tap at the window. And when Tracy opened the door, her grandmother gave her the news.
00:32:36
Speaker
Valerie's missing. She had heard it on the police scanner. This is like such an old person thing. My puppy also had a police scanner and like he stayed up on all the tea with his police scanner. No, everything. So yeah, so Miss Betty came over and she's like Valerie's missing.
00:32:53
Speaker
And while Tracy was standing there, like trying to process what she had just heard, Edward had heard that knock also, and he came flying out of the bedroom. He heard the news. He jumped into his boots. Tracy told me that within a very short time, she said, quote, we had half the county out looking for her. Wow. And for the next few hours though, all Valerie's family knew was that she was gone.
00:33:23
Speaker
That is until, just as the day was beginning to break, the coroner at the time, Steve Ward, showed up at the door. And it's then that Tracy said she, quote, goes blank for several days. So she heard the news that Valerie had been found murdered. Okay, and I feel like that's a very common occurrence with people and something very traumatic happens. There are like,
00:33:52
Speaker
probably hours, if not days, chunks of time that I don't remember what happened after I found out my brother died. So I feel like that's just like your brain just kind of like, nope, we can't do this. And while Valerie's family had been searching,
00:34:09
Speaker
Obviously, you know, because they're searching around the county. A woman who lives out in a rural part of Woodford County, yeah, Maggie's favorite word, rural, in a rural part of the county, nine miles south of the center of her sails, was on her way to work early in the morning and was pulling out along this narrow lane that curves around the ridge where this new house was being built. And this lady stopped when she saw something.
00:34:37
Speaker
and when she realized what it was called the police, because what she saw was Valerie. And so this was like early morning? Yeah, so this was only a few hours after that robbery alarm. But this is like basically before a daybreak, correct? Yeah, because the coroner comes like right as the day is breaking to give them the news. In full disclosure, Maggie, this case had barely
00:35:05
Speaker
anything written about it in the newspapers. Which is weird. Yes. And just about the only coverage over Valerie's case has been the sole mission of one news reporter, Lee Circe.
00:35:19
Speaker
a mission that Valerie's family feels so incredibly grateful for. But in terms of information in the printed media for me to use while researching this case, barely anything and nothing of the crime itself other than that Valerie was taken from Thornton's and that she had been murdered off of a small rural lane near Nonesuch, which is a community in Woodford County also that's
00:35:45
Speaker
So small it's not even included in the census information. But those were the only two things that I mentioned. She was taken from Thornton's. Her body was found off of this rural lake. Which is crazy to me because this is a small town. We like to gossip in small towns. So you would think this would be big news in a local newspaper. Yes. And when I asked for sales chief Mike Murray about the details, he refrained from giving me a name.
00:36:13
Speaker
because he said that Valerie's case is still considered an open investigation. So all of the details, and this is a full disclosure I wanted to share, all of the details I'm giving you about the crimes, so about the sexual assault, about
00:36:30
Speaker
what we know of her murder, the crime scene, the evidence, all of that comes from Valerie's family and my other contacts, not from news sources nor law enforcement. Now listeners, I will stop right now to tell you that the details that I am about to include may be hard for some listeners. So discretion is advised.
00:36:57
Speaker
According to her family, Valerie had been brought to this location from Thornton. So the person who took her from the gas station brought her to this rural lake. Like purposefully, they think. Purposefully. And they believe that whoever did this to Valerie, that the original intent wasn't to murder her, but to scare her. And the clue that makes them believe this claim
00:37:26
Speaker
is that according to them, and I asked the police chief this, but he said he couldn't give me the details. But according to them, the murder weapon was a pocket knife. Why would they just want to scare her, though? Do we have fairies? Well, I'm going to get into some of these. But if that is the murder weapon as a pocket knife, then I do agree with them that the intent must have been to scare her and not to kill, because you would have brought, like,
00:37:52
Speaker
a larger knife or something like that. And the reason they said it's a pocket knife is they said they know.
00:38:00
Speaker
because according to Valor's family, the blade of the knife was actually broken off in her hand, tucked up behind her back. So they said that's how they know it was a pocket knife. And I do know that they have a copy of the coroner's report. So I don't know if it's included in that or not, but according to them, and I would agree wholeheartedly as I just said, if the intent were murder from the beginning, then,
00:38:31
Speaker
that would not have been the weapon choice. It would have been a gun or something strangled. Right. Sadly, again, based on details given to me by Valerie's family, her death was also not a quick one. As I mentioned earlier, Valerie was a fighter and that was true of her final moments as well. Tracy told me that from what she knew,
00:38:58
Speaker
Valerie had gotten away from her attacker three separate times based upon pools of blood in separate areas. So she had gotten through some trees, had run along the fence row and back to the corner of that driveway where she was found. So she had fought for her life to the very end. But the crimes that happened that night, as I mentioned earlier, weren't even limited to Valerie's murder. She had also been sexually assaulted.
00:39:28
Speaker
And that's one of the parts that hits Valerie's brother Michael the hardest, partly because that additional crime of sexual assault, of rape, has never been reported in the media in relation to his sister's case. Why? I don't know.
00:39:47
Speaker
And he was struggling to figure out why as well because he's saying that's yet another crime. So why are we not publicizing it? I feel like that takes, okay, so I feel like at first you had someone who would commit robbery. Then you narrow it down because you have someone who would commit robbery and murder. Then you can narrow down the suspect list even further because they're committing rape, murder, and robbery.
00:40:14
Speaker
And I feel like it's the robbery that seems a completely outlier to all of this. And, you know, that's another part of the reason why all of this hits Michael harder is because it makes it harder for him to believe that the robbery and what happened to his sister are linked or that they were committed by a stranger. With that sexual connotation to it,
00:40:44
Speaker
There is, like you said, Maggie, another layer of complexity that's added to the case. Because just like you said, and I completely agree, now we have multiple different types of crimes. You have the robbery, the rape, and the murder, and different crime scenes. For all three. So from what I ever said from the family,
00:41:09
Speaker
They believe at least the Thornton's and the Lane, but one source that I spoke with had always heard or believed that there was a third location as well. That source told me that it was their belief that the robbery happened at the store, the murder on the Lane where her body was found, but that in between, Valerie had been taken down by the river and that the rape had happened
00:41:37
Speaker
I wonder if police checked that. That I am not sure. When I spoke with police, I gave them a list of names that I had heard. Two of the names Chief Murray told me had been investigated, but the third hadn't from what he knows. So he said he would add that into the list and look into it. But whether that third location is true,
00:42:03
Speaker
I don't know, but each act and place seems done or chosen with intention. Because it's not like because of the location of where her body was found, it's not like you would have committed this robbery and this is not a place you would just happen to go to. But I'll get to that here in just a second.
00:42:25
Speaker
So at the time, news reporter Lee Circe was a senior at Western Kentucky University and she was interning at local CVS affiliate WKYT. WKYT. That's right. This was the first story of a murder in the first case of this magnitude that she had covered. And that's why she says it always stuck with her. And to this day, she remembers speaking with Valerie's sons. And this is what she told me, quote,
00:42:55
Speaker
They have their mother's eyes. This case having consumed me all these years, it's like you're looking right at her. She lived on through her voice. The first time I saw Andy in person, I got chills because he has her eyes." And though Andy's eyes were what had an effect on Circe, it was his words that she felt positive
00:43:25
Speaker
would move her viewers. In an attempt to push towards closure in Valerie's case, Circe conducted an interview with Detective Starks in a piece that was called Letters from the Heart, since it included in that segment a letter from then eight-year-old Andy to Detective Starks. And this is how it read, quote,
00:43:49
Speaker
Thank you for coming to talk to me and giving me your card. I know you're very busy and work hard catching criminals. I hope you catch the person who killed my mom someday. I loved my mom so much and I know you will do your best to get him." End quote.
00:44:08
Speaker
This is just too much. So yes, after that segment aired, Circe felt positive that somebody would feel even an ounce of guilt. I'm like crying over here. I know, but no one ever did. And here we are 31 years later with no answers and a lot of frustration.
00:44:33
Speaker
And I feel like I've said this a lot, like I need to be completely transparent, but here's yet another time.
00:44:41
Speaker
To be transparent yet again, much of the frustration is from Valerie's family with law enforcement's handling of the case over the years. So I'm going to go into those frustrations now. I will then provide law enforcement's response. Right, because you talked to law enforcement. And then I'm going to go into a couple of theories about who could have committed the crime.
00:45:06
Speaker
So the first frustration from the family was the result of what was, for them, the united response of the news about Valerie. So several of the family members who actually lived out of town, including Valerie's brother Michael, as soon as they heard Valerie was missing, had started driving back to Kentucky. And as soon as they got to Kentucky, they went straight to the police station
00:45:31
Speaker
to ask what they could do to help. Saying like, what questions do you have of us? Because we know that you need to exclude people. And in my interview with both Tracy and my interview with Michael, each of them separately stated that law enforcement had told them that they were being quote unquote, too helpful. Is that a thing?
00:45:52
Speaker
Well, yeah, I never knew that it was, if it was. And it's that comment that cut at Michael because he scoffed, quote, too helpful with two little boys at home without a mother anymore. That is an asinine statement, end quote. Yeah. And despite the too helpful comment, Tracy noted that even though she was the last person known to have spoken with Valerie before the crime was committed,
00:46:22
Speaker
She said that law enforcement didn't even ask to speak with her at first. She said that the local police didn't actually interview her, like they spoke with her, but they didn't interview her until years later when there were quote, names I couldn't remember, conversations I couldn't remember, end quote.
00:46:45
Speaker
I feel like every case that almost every case we talk about the last person, I mean, just like last week, Ricky senior was the last person seen with Jamie and that was the first person that they went to. And over the years, the relationship between family and law enforcement has only become more and more strained. When asked neither Tracy nor Michael could remember the last time law enforcement had contacted them about the case. Like I said, you know, when's the last update? And they were like,
00:47:16
Speaker
years and that was about as clear of an answer. I wonder if that's common though. Well and obviously the problem is that the family has felt let down again and again because
00:47:32
Speaker
Anytime there was a new detective assigned to Valerie's case or a new agency involved with the case, then they were like gung ho trying to find answers. And then they're like, we're going to keep you updated. And then months go by with nothing. So like no contact, no news. And there was actually a push about three years ago by Valerie's brother Michael to have all of the evidence turned over to the state crime lab.
00:48:01
Speaker
So the state crime lab actually did get all of the evidence, and they told the family that they were going to review the whole case from the beginning. They promised to communicate with the family. They said, we're going to call you every month. Tracy noted, quote, that was three years ago, and we haven't heard anything since, end quote.
00:48:25
Speaker
So again, empty prom. And how do you contact these people? Like how do you call them? But then that's part of the frustration is they said like we could call and call and call and they might say like, yeah, it's still an open investigation. We're still working on it. But there wasn't any reaching out to them as a family. And I don't think their expectation was like, reach out to me every month. I think their expectation was like, Hey, give me an update once a year. Yeah. And the thing.
00:48:55
Speaker
And so Michael said something similar to Tracy in my conversation with him, he noted, quote,
00:49:02
Speaker
Last I knew, everything was at the state crime lab in Frankfurt. They had a doctor that wanted to review pictures of the scene along with the case file information, then nothing. Never once in 30 years has anyone from the local police department reached out to us other than the first week or so. No, hey, we got this new thing we're working on, nothing, end quote.
00:49:32
Speaker
Now that does seem a little, a little extreme to never reach out. Right. I mean, I feel like maybe as years, the years go by, it would be fewer and fewer contacts from police, but at first I feel like it would be heavy contact with a family. Right. But the biggest concern has come from what Michael has called a quote, lack of investigative curiosity, end quote.
00:50:00
Speaker
Valor's family doesn't feel that law enforcement have shown the level of inquisitive investigation, time, attention to detail or acceptance of outside expertise that they should have in order to solve this case. And for Tracy and Michael, there have been many illustrations of this concern.
00:50:19
Speaker
At the time, a forensic scientist by the name of Dr. Henry Lee was working in New Haven, Connecticut. And if it tells you anything, there is now a forensic science institute. Yeah, I knew that name. And a quick Google search will tell you that he has assisted law enforcement in the investigation of over 6,000 cases and figured prominently in high profile trials and investigations like that of O.J. Simpson and John Benne Ramsey. And even by 1990,
00:50:48
Speaker
when this case occurred. Dr. Lee had just aided in closure of the wood chipper murders in Newtown, Connecticut. And Lee is known as he did in that case of the wood chipper murders. He is known for finding microscopic evidence that others have missed. So Michael is like, we need this guy. He calls and calls and calls and calls until he finally got a hold of Dr. Henry Lee.
00:51:16
Speaker
According to Michael, Lee said, of course I'm willing to lend my expertise. He said, this is what Michael told me, the Brooks family was willing to pay for Dr. Lee's flight and his lodging. And so Dr. Lee would come at no cost to the state. And I feel like any police department would be like, oh my God, yes, please come on. But all he needed to come
00:51:40
Speaker
was for the state of Kentucky to request Dr. Lee's service from the state of Connecticut, because he worked for the state of Connecticut at the time. And Michael remembers calling the chief of police at the time, which is not the chief of police now, but the chief of police at the time, excited because he's like, oh my gosh, we have this new possibility of finding answers. And then he felt deflated when they didn't share his same excitement.
00:52:06
Speaker
Michael was later told that the state had passed it to the mayor, who had passed the decision to the coroner, who had passed the decision to the chief of police, who said something to the extent of, we don't need him. He's a blood spatter expert. He won't do us any good. And that was the end of that. So he can work on John Bonnet Ramsey and OJ Simpson and all these other big profile cases, but can't work on Valerie's case. Right. Okay.
00:52:35
Speaker
A second illustration of their frustration has to do with evidence. In 2008, a piece of evidence, a watch that Valerie's mother had given her right before her death was mailed back by an investigator to Valerie's mother, a watch that originally they believed to be missing.
00:52:54
Speaker
And it was something that the family had speculated could have been either taken by the murderer or come off in the car because at first they believed that this watch was missing. And then it's mailed back to the family from police in 2008. So to understand the family's reaction, let me read you a portion of the email that Valerie's brother Michael shared with me that he sent.
00:53:18
Speaker
to that investigator. Quote, I am writing an utter disbelief. You released a piece of evidence to my mother without performing any forensic testing on it? That is unimaginable. The watch in question was a focal point early in the investigation when it was trying to be determined if the murderer kept any souvenirs.
00:53:41
Speaker
I have been told that the watch was simply quote-unquote overlooked and was in Valerie's purse the whole time. That doesn't make any sense. The purse and its contents should have been processed into evidence with a detailed inventory of what was in it. Have you looked at that inventory? Was the watch listed? If not, how did it get there? It seems highly unlikely that a watch that size would simply be overlooked.
00:54:11
Speaker
Who had access to her purse while it was in evidence? As much as it may be uncomfortable to admit, it is equally likely that an officer or detective in your police department could be the murderer, as likely as some of the people who've been investigated, that's for sure. I'm not saying that I'm implicating any officer in particular, just simply pointing out that the possibility exists
00:54:34
Speaker
and you have broken the chain of custody irrevocably. Did you consider for one moment to find out whose fingerprints were on the watch? Was there any blood evidence in the joints of the watch band? These are questions that you chose not to ask. It's a small detail, but how did you miss it? A thorough investigation appears once again highly unlikely.
00:54:58
Speaker
I have asked my mother to leave the watch sealed in the box you mailed it to her in. I would highly advise getting the watch back and testing it. It would most assuredly not be admissible in court as evidence, but it also may point you in a direction you never considered. The family deserves an answer to why this latest situation was allowed to happen. And if the watch is so unimportant, why not send back the whole purse to my mother?" End quote.
00:55:28
Speaker
So can, okay, let's say you think that the investigation is being so poorly handled. Is there not a way we can protest who's handling this case? Can we not say like,
00:55:48
Speaker
somebody needs to take this case over, kind of like how the Crystal Rogers case, like the FBI is doing it now. Right. I think that was where the push came from with Michael to send all the evidence to the state crime lab, but still nothing. I feel like the FBI needs to step in. Was done.
00:56:07
Speaker
Um, but Michael did get an email response. I was like two sentences. It was very hurt. And it said, quote, it has been determined that the watch has no evidentiary value. My apologies for wanting to give your mother something back that has no evidentiary value, but has great sentimental value. End quote.
00:56:29
Speaker
But again though, cause you were not allowed to see the inventory list in her purse. Right. I was not. So where did this watch come from? If it was missing, but then randomly showed up. Right. They said that they had just overlooked it, but I think Michael's final question is a valid one. Like if the watch is not, does not have evidentiary value, then why not send back other items that were in her purse? Hmm.
00:56:55
Speaker
The final illustration of their complaints has been with DNA in the case. According to the family, the DNA, which is sperm DNA from the sexual assault, has never been entered into CODIS. What? Nope. The family has been told that there aren't enough genetic markers to enter it into CODIS, which the family finds hard to believe. Well, but it's sperm. Right.
00:57:22
Speaker
How could there not be enough DNA? And again, this is from family because as I will say, and so chief Murray and I will give his response here in just a moment, but I will say that when I walked in, the first thing he said was because this is an open investigation, I will not discuss anything having to do with DNA. So I still ask the questions, but of course every response was.
00:57:49
Speaker
I can't answer your question. I can't answer your question. So the family had told me that the DNA is sperm DNA, but I could not bear it. I could not respond, but they were told that regardless, whatever kind of DNA, so they know that they have DNA, we do know that, but they were told that whatever DNA they had, there weren't enough genetic markers to enter it into CODIS, but the family said, quote,
00:58:16
Speaker
They're finding people from DNA left on cigarette wrappers from 30 years ago, but they're sperm and there aren't enough genetic markers.
Challenges with DNA Evidence
00:58:25
Speaker
Right. Which was kind of my reaction. And my big question is this.
00:58:31
Speaker
I happen to know that they have tested the DNA sample with DNA of specific individuals. So if there isn't enough genetic markers to enter it into CODIS, then how are there enough genetic markers to compare the DNA with specific individuals who were considered potential suspects? I don't know.
00:58:54
Speaker
Like that doesn't make sense. Cause you have enough for one, but you don't have enough for the other. Right. And the family has even asked for the remaining DNA to be sent to a place called parabon nano labs in Virginia, where they do like this genetic testing. It's like state of the art, like extended genetic genealogy testing. Yes.
00:59:18
Speaker
And they're doing like these innovative testings that could actually produce something of like a permanent product of the sequencing. And you would think that, especially since the family has been told that there aren't enough genetic markers to run the DNA through CODIS, that this would be something
00:59:40
Speaker
that could give something tangible that could be used, right? However, the invitation to Parabon for help, and this is the response I actually, I wrote to Parabon myself to find out. And I reached out to them and they said that for Parabon to help in an investigation, they had to be invited and the invitation had to come from the investigating agency and the detective in charge.
01:00:08
Speaker
But since the Brooks family has been very vocal about their support of using parabon and nothing has been done as of yet, my guess is that, yeah, it is not currently.
01:00:21
Speaker
on the table. So those are the family's concerns. So I brought up those questions and concerns with the current for sales police chief Mike Murphy. Right, because it's so far very one-sided. Right. And I told him, I said, I'm going to mention the family's concerns in my podcast episode. And I said, I want to bring those up with you to give you the chance to respond.
01:00:45
Speaker
So while before we began our interview, like I said, he told me that he was not going to be addressing anything having to do with DNA because he said Valerie's case is still an open and active one. He told me that he recognizes that it has been 31 years of work on Valerie's case and that he understands the family's frustration with how long it has been.
01:01:12
Speaker
While chief Murray said he personally was not aware of the Dr. Henry Lee connection because he was not the chief at the time, nor would he let me see an inventory of Valerie's purse. He said that his department has done all they could to aid in the investigation of Valerie's case, including providing space for state police detectives to work on the case. And he stated that even though his department is small,
01:01:41
Speaker
that they get the same National Forensic Academy training as larger departments. So I think he was trying to tell me that just because they're small doesn't mean they're handle. But like, I guess if I were him, I would be like, oh, I've never heard of this Dr. Lee thing. Let me look into that and check it out. Because if that's a possibility, then maybe we could contact them.
01:02:06
Speaker
right and see if that's something that even though now he's like world famous yeah that he could still help right yeah maybe he would be willing to
01:02:15
Speaker
Um, I asked him how often someone has from his department looks back on Valerie's case to work on it. Cause I was just curious about that. Cause it's, it's not considered a cold case, but it's an old case. And I was like, you know, is there one detective assigned to it? Like how does that work? And he did tell me that they do a yearly relook that they continue to share information with other police departments and that if there was a new lead, like a similar crime that's been discovered.
01:02:42
Speaker
that they create a supplemental report. But I then followed up by asking him when the most recent piece of information has come in for Valerie's case. And though he wouldn't explain to me what the information was, nor what the update was, he stated that the last update was in 2018. Which isn't that long ago. So I don't know if that's when the evidence went to the state crime lab and if they were able to find something.
01:03:10
Speaker
or what I understand the family is not aware of whatever this new information is. He did ask that I share with the family that he thinks about Valerie's case every time he drives by forms, that he has gone to visit Valerie's grave and that he wants them to know how committed they are to finding answers. He said that while he can't say what they're doing right now with the case,
01:03:40
Speaker
that they are a progressive police department and have consulted with other independent labs and agencies. And he noted that he said the volume of this case is massive, which I found interesting because there's been no media about the case. And yet the volume of this case is massive. And I don't know if he means the amount of evidence that's been collected. He did say that they have interviewed many suspects over the years.
01:04:10
Speaker
So I don't know if that's what he was referring to. And I'm wondering like, I mean, our listeners know we support.
01:04:20
Speaker
police and we most of the time back what they say and back their decisions. But I'm wondering like how many of these answers are just kind of like standard answers that they give. Like we're fully committed to solving your case and like if it's just kind of empty. Right. You just hope that it's not service. And he said that he does want the family to know that every year at this time he thinks about Valerie's case because
01:04:50
Speaker
You know, Maggie and I were reporting this episode a bit early, but it will air on December 30th. So one day before the anniversary of Valerie's case.
01:05:03
Speaker
The problem for Valerie's family, though, well, they do think about her every day. Yeah, they think about her every day, not just this time of ride. And looking for closure for them is a daily effort and not a yearly one. And they would hang on to every detail that would make them feel that true closure could be one day closer.
01:05:25
Speaker
So like maybe if they got that yearly phone call, like when the yearly report is written, I'm just saying, hey. You know, we went through everything. Right, we took another look at, even if they didn't find anything new, just to say, hey, we took another look at. The contents of her purse or whatever. But we do have a couple of theories, most of which revolve around the perpetrator being local. So Tracy, Michael, Lee Circe, and Police Chief Murray,
01:05:53
Speaker
all feel in their gut that this is the case that it was someone local because of where Valerie's body was found. Well I kind of agree too because like if okay just when I drive from my house to your house I have to go through
01:06:13
Speaker
like back roads in Woodford County and surrounding counties. So if you're not from that area, you have no idea where you're going and those roads are scary when it's dark because they're completely pitch black like
01:06:32
Speaker
creepy. Yes. And I was actually talking about this case with some of my coworkers who are from Woodford County. Yeah. And they didn't even know where this road was. So this is a road that even if you are from for sales, most people don't even, they couldn't tell you where it is. So
01:06:54
Speaker
If the crime were committed by an out of towner, that person from that Thornton's would have headed on one of the main roads that's right there. Yeah. Cause you can go to Lexington or Frankfurt. That's exactly right. But they didn't, they would have taken one of those roads and gotten back onto an interstate. But instead the perpetrator went on a drive that would have taken them past the police station and to this rural spot that in Tracy's words, if you didn't know it was there,
01:07:24
Speaker
you wouldn't know it was there. And Chief Murray added that few people knew that the gravel road, like, because it has all these trees and bushes, he says, you can see drives, but you can't see houses. And so like, for our speculation purposes, Maggie, that would mean that only locals would have known that there weren't houses built at the end of those drives yet. Because they were just, there was one house that was just being built.
01:07:52
Speaker
So though there are two theories, possibilities of out of towners, the first is actually of a construction worker. Okay, so then he would have known that area. Exactly. The house was currently being built on that lane. So could a construction worker have decided to rob the Thornton's and then abducted Valerie taking her to this spot because he knew it was so secluded? That is theory number one. That's maybe.
01:08:21
Speaker
Theory two of an outsider is a serial killer by the name of Glenn Edward Rogers. They all have three names, y'all, but all of them. He had been nicknamed the cross-country killer after committing murders in Florida, Mississippi, California, and Louisiana. And he even self-proclaimed, though obviously this couldn't be proven to be true, said that OJ Simpson had hired him to kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. So he said those murders
01:08:51
Speaker
Mine also. Yes. Rogers did have family connections in Versailles. Okay. So there is a connection. But when I look at his information to me, it doesn't fit because his first like known murder doesn't happen until 1993. So Valerie's would have been like the first years before. And several of the articles stated that DNA from Valerie's case was tested against
01:09:21
Speaker
Rogers, which that's what led to my DNA question earlier, like how do we have enough to test it against an individual if we don't have any markers to put in Dakotas, but regardless. I digress. But from my understanding, the DNA that was sent for testing in 2013, I've seen nothing about the results. I feel like you probably wouldn't, considering there's so little media coverage on her case. I think they would have at least said
01:09:49
Speaker
It wasn't him. Or they would have told the family. Right. You will. Right. Theory three is that the crime was personal. Okay. And by someone local in my discussion with Lisa or see, she stated that to, for someone to have stabbed Valerie, as many times as she was stabbed, the crime felt personal. She said what they did to her was quote unquote pure evil.
01:10:17
Speaker
And again, I saw nothing about the number of times she was stabbed. And it was with a pocket. So it would have been a lot. Right. She has always thought that the crime was likely committed by more than one person. She said, quote, I just don't think somebody could do that much harm.
01:10:37
Speaker
by themselves." And that does make sense to me because I mentioned earlier, like how are you going to grab all the money from the till plus a person and get them into a vehicle without anybody driving by and noticing. Then again, you know, she would have been fighting with the sexual assault. Well, we said that there was potentially three
01:11:03
Speaker
side. Yeah. And how would you, unless you initially incapacitated her at the Thornton's, somebody would have to keep her subdued in the vehicle while in the vehicle was driving, unless she was put in a trunk or something. I don't know. But, so she has always believed that it was more than one person. My mind keeps going back to a story that I haven't told you about yet though Maggie.
01:11:29
Speaker
that Tracy told me about an individual who was the significant other of one of Valerie's coworkers. So Tracy said that Valerie didn't like the significant other. She didn't like this man because he was abusing her coworker. She remembered, Tracy did, how this man kind of insinuated himself into the funeral. Tracy said he was always there.
01:11:57
Speaker
which they have a lot of people say like they will show up at places like that. Yep. And Tracy remembered, she wondered if maybe Valerie had said something to him. And so he came to the store to confront her because she was kind of, she would have called you out on her bullcrap. And I wonder something similar, but in my mind,
01:12:20
Speaker
Here's what I wonder, especially after I found out that the extra shift that Valerie picked up that night was for the coworker that she believed was being abused. Oh, so he would have known she was going to be there. So I wonder if that man came to Thornton's looking for his significant other. And then when he sees Valerie there instead,
01:12:41
Speaker
He's like, where is she? Like demanding answers and that Valerie being Valerie wouldn't have told him. So could that have angered him so much that he then drove her to that lane to try to scare her into giving him information? Or even he could have been like, why are you putting your nose into my business? This has nothing to do with you. Stay out of my life. Right. And that makes perfect sense to me.
01:13:10
Speaker
But then why the robbery? And the rape. Yeah. Why the sexual assault. And if that's the case, then there would have been a sign of struggle because he would have forcibly taken Valerie from the gas station. Right. Unless what you said, like he, yeah, or she's like outside taking the trash out or something. So there wouldn't have been like anything for her to knock over or whatever. It's just those multiple crimes don't make sense to me.
01:13:38
Speaker
And yeah, it's just that combination that seems so baffling and that leads us in so many different directions because to me it is a different nature of robbery versus
01:13:49
Speaker
rape and murder. And that has made Tracy and Michael speculate whether the two were actually separate crimes, that maybe Valerie had already been abducted and then seeing the Thortons empty, then the robbery had happened like a crime of opportunity. That's what they believe. But I asked Chief Murray about that. And he actually did give me an answer on that. And he said that he still believes
01:14:19
Speaker
that the two are connected. So Maggie, what do you think is the most likely scenario? Oh, Lord, I don't even know because I don't know. I almost feel like she would have had to been like knocked out and taken somewhere. And then we could say maybe it was one person, right? Cause she was knocked out and put into the backseat of this car. But then like you said,
01:14:51
Speaker
I need to know if there was actually things taken from the Thortons because then I feel like if there was, then maybe we could say it was a crime of opportunity for a second person. And this person just did the sexual assault and the murder, which in my mind makes more sense because murder and robbery are very different crimes of, you know, one's violent and, you know, I do kind of think that it has to be,
01:15:19
Speaker
a local person unless they're just driving aimlessly and find this like backcountry area. Me too. And then I would have never been able to get out and would have had to say, Hey, can you help me find the interstate? Yeah. Yeah. I think it has to be local. That's what everybody else believes too. I wish I knew whether the watch had been
01:15:43
Speaker
in her purse. I want to know the contents of the purse and I want to know what was taken from the Florida. And why not enter the DNA in this or at least send it to this lab. Yeah. To see what we can find. It's been 31 years. Yeah. Just, I feel like just kind of take a chance at this point. Right. In Valerie's case, all of us who have looked into the case find ourselves continually saying, if only,
01:16:09
Speaker
If only the police have passed a speeding car and turned their attention to it, could they have stopped the perpetrator? If only she hadn't covered that extra shift. And as one source stated, if only there had been film in the Thornton security cameras as there should have been, we might have answers now instead of questions. Speaking of answers, reporter Lee Siercy in our discussion expressed her sadness of the passing since Valerie's murder
01:16:39
Speaker
of Valerie's father and grandmother. But the one thought that comforts her is, quote, wow, now they finally know, end quote. But we all agree that answers also need to come for the living. According to Tracy, quote, this is something that has caused ripples throughout generations. And it makes me wonder who else has been caught in those ripples? Did the person who did this have children?
01:17:09
Speaker
Did they have family members who know? How has it affected them? I know what the devastation is from our point. It's vast. That's what this past 30 years of no answers has done. It has lent a vastness to our lives, end quote. It's those ripples that make the Brooks family skeptical about people keeping their word to help.
01:17:35
Speaker
It's those ripples that make Andy, now grown, worry even more than normal at times about his own family's safety. It's those ripples that make Michael think back to that memory of jumping in the leaves with Valerie and hearing the lyrics to Terry Jack's Seasons in the Sun, lyrics that now hold a far different meaning. Quote, it's hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky.
01:18:04
Speaker
Now that the spring is in the air with flowers everywhere, I wish that we could both be there." The only consolation I can give to this family for whom I pray for closure is that the ripples are also connections to Valerie, to her character and to her spirit, because it's also those ripples that allow Tracy to see Valerie's mannerisms in her own children.
Call to Action for Information
01:18:33
Speaker
The ripples also connect and spread. And now I too am caught in those ripples. And so are you, Sleuthhounds, because you have heard her story. Now let's turn those ripples into waves. Waves of actual movement and pushing for renewed interest in the case and for answers. Anyone with information about the Valerie Brooks case is asked to contact the Versailles Police Department.
01:19:03
Speaker
at 859-873-3126, or to reach out to Tracy Brooks, that is T-R-A-C-I-B-R-O-O-K-S, or Michael Kane, K-A-N-E Brooks, on Facebook.
01:19:25
Speaker
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01:19:47
Speaker
Please tell your friends about our podcast so that more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to write our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon. Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.