Crime Junkie - MISSING: The Millbrook Twins

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

When twin sisters Jeannette and Dannette Millbrook go missing in Augusta, Georgia in 1990, police are quick to write them off as runaways…even though the signs point to something much more sinister.And if not for a family that refused to give up… and a podcast that shed light on some of the injustices they’ve faced…we probably wouldn’t know anything about them. Because even though this is one of the only open cases of missing twins in the country…it took decades for them to get the national spotlight. There is $50,000 reward being offered for information through August 2023. You can leave anonymous tips through www.themillbrooktwins.com or by calling 404-590-2975 or 706-821-1080.For additional ways to help check out these resources: The Millbrook Twins Billboard Fund: GoFundMePrivate Investigations for the Missing, visit: www.investigationsforthemissing.org/For updates, follow the Facebook page set up for the twins.For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-millbrook-twins/

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and the story I have for you today is so infuriating, you're probably going to be screaming at your whatever device you're listening to this on. When twin sisters from Georgia vanish in 1990, police are quick to write them off as runaways, even though the signs point to something much more sinister. And if not for a family that refused to give up and a podcast that shed light on some of the injustices they faced, we probably wouldn't know anything about them. Because even though this is one of the only open cases of missing twins in the country, it took decades for them to get the national spotlight. Now, let me warn you right from the start, nothing about this story

is simple or straightforward. And there are so many twists and turns, you practically need a map to follow along. And since police pretty much closed this case before it began, there are way more questions than answers. But their family is still hoping that someone can help bring these girls home. This is the story of Danette and Jeanette Milbrook, the Milbrook twins. It's early evening on Sunday, March 18, 1990. And in Augusta, Georgia, Mary Sturges, who everyone calls Miss Louise, is starting to get worried because her 15 year old fraternal twin daughters, Danette and Jeanette Milbrook, still haven't arrived back to the family apartment that they share with five of their six other siblings and their mother. They recently moved into this new

apartment because it gave them more space. But it meant that Danette and Jeanette would have to take the bus to finish out 10th grade at their old high school. Well, listen, the family has to watch every penny. And that Sunday, there wasn't enough money for the girls to have bus fare for school on Monday. So Miss Louise suggested that the girls ask their godfather, this guy, Ted, who agreed to give them some money if they just came by and got it. So the twins had left for his house that afternoon at around 2.30 or three to trek the four miles or so to their old neighborhood where he lives. So it's not a short walk by any means, but it's been hours at this point, and they should have been home by now. Miss Louise calls Ted, who tells her that, yeah,

the girls made it, they were there, they were just fine. He'd given them 20 bucks for the bus, plus a few extra dollars for spending money. But he's like, that was a while ago, and they've already left. So Miss Louise calls her oldest child, Aciander. She lives near Ted, and it would make sense for Donette and Jeanette to maybe like, stop by and see her before they came home. Aciander tells her that the twins did stop by for a little bit. They had wanted her to walk them home, which was kind of an unusual request. But Aciander just had a baby a couple of weeks ago, and she wasn't up for it. So the girls left on their own headed in the direction of a nearby gas station called The Pumpin' Shop. So Miss Louise hangs up the phone, and it's reassuring to be able to trace

the girls' steps to some degree. But it's getting late, and it doesn't stop her from getting worried. So she asks a friend to watch her younger kids, and she and her 12-year-old, Jeanette, set out for the Pumpin' Shop. Their mom figures that the girls want to spend the extra money maybe that Ted gave them, maybe they're still there, and if not, their paths should cross on the way. Jeanette told our reporter Nina that she remembers looking everywhere on the way to the gas station. There was still some light in the sky, but it was fading fast, and they made it all the way to the gas station without any sight of them. And when they make it there, they do get some information from Gloria, the cashier who knows the family. Like, they were all regulars in the

store before they moved. According to the Falling podcast, Gloria tells them that the twins came in around 4.30 p.m. They seemed totally fine. They bought chips, candy, some drinks, and then they left. Gloria saw them in the parking lot once they were out of the store, but again, she's like busy ringing up another customer. And when she looked back out there, they were gone. So she doesn't know which direction they went in. Ms. Louise and Chante, hurry home. I mean, there's a small chance that the twins got back while they were out searching for them since they didn't pass them. But they're holding out hope, though that hope is dashed when they get back to the apartment and the girls are nowhere to be found. By now, Ms. Louise knows something must be wrong,

and she wastes no time calling the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, who tell her that she should call them back in 24 hours. She sits up all night waiting and praying for them to come home. And the next day, the moment that 24 hours is up, she calls again. This time, they send an officer over to take a report. And I'm not sure if this was known at the time, but it turns out that half of the information that he puts in the report is actually wrong. The officer lists their names as Milbrooks, like with an S instead of Milbrook. He writes down the wrong birthday, and he doesn't even get the name of the street that their godfather lives on correct. And if you think that's bad, it's not until a week later that investigator finally shows

up at their door. It's a guy named Jim Ship. Now by then, the family had already started doing some digging of their own, and they've learned more about the twins' last known movements. They tell Ship that the girls stopped over at their cousin Juanita's house, in between teds and going to their sisters. Juanita lives over on Tin Cup Road, close to their godfathers, so they, like, popped over quickly to ask if she could also walk them home, which, again, was unusual. It's not something that they normally asked people to do. And Juanita's mom wouldn't let her leave, since it would be dark by the time she got back. So that's when the twins headed over to their big sister's place. Now, your minds are probably like red flag, red

flag. Why did these girls keep asking people to walk them home? Well, there are a few possible reasons. They could have just wanted company, or realized that it was getting dark out soon. And Augusta isn't like this small, sleepy town. It's a city of about 200,000 right near the border of South Carolina. And like any other place, it can be dangerous, especially in certain areas. But beyond all that, the twins did have a specific concern that day. Earlier that Sunday, once the family had gotten home from church, Miss Louise had sent the twins to get everyone lunch with some money that their pastor had given them. And when they got back, Jeanette told her mom that she thought that they were being followed by a white van.

Now, Miss Louise immediately checked outside, but she didn't see anything suspicious. Now, the van could have just been heading in like the same direction. My Nancy Drew filled mine, like Rand Wilde when I was young, but knowing that the girls are now missing, maybe someone was following them. The family continues to tell Investigatorship every detail they can think of that might help. But he already has a theory about what happened to the girls, a theory that the family doesn't believe for a moment. He says that they probably just ran away. But their mom insists the girls have never done that before. They're not troublemakers, they're homebodies who go to school, hang out with their family. They're not exactly living

a wild lifestyle. Plus, all of their stuff is still at home, including the medication that Danette takes for her seizures. And remember, they had like 20 bucks at most, even in 1990, that's not going to last for very long. So again, there are red flags left and right, but the investigator handles a lot of missing person cases in the area. And he says he knows that most of them are just runaways. According to Augusta Chronicle reporter Carmela Thomas, 70 children are reported missing every month on average in Richmond County. And Investigatorship told the reporter that most of them are back within a couple of days. But while they're gone, they cause a lot of manpower and shortage issues for police.

But in my mind, I'm like, hi, it's been more than a couple of days and they're not back. So why he's lumping them in with all of these other cases is beyond me. Maybe because they're teens, he's just like used to teens running away, maybe because they're black and live in the projects. Maybe he's jaded. I mean, it could be a combination of all of that. And there's also other factors that could be at play. Augusta has pockets of extreme wealth and extreme poverty, with major disparities from one neighborhood to the next. I mean, this city is home to the Augusta National, which is considered the most exclusive golf club in the world. I mean, that's where the famous Masters Golf Tournament is held every year. And its members include people like

Warren Buffett. But according to the Fall Line podcast, there's also an underbelly of sex trafficking, drugs, and other crimes in Augusta. And it's possible that some of these things are played down so that tourism doesn't suffer. I mean, that year of the Masters was held in early April, just a few weeks after the twins vanished. And I don't know if that played a role in how people decided to publicize their disappearance, but there was virtually no media coverage about the girls. Chantay told us that she remembers like two quick TV news segments, but like blink and you'll miss it kind of thing. And the effect of this is that a lot of people, even in their own community, don't even know that the twins are missing. So no one's really

looking for them. And even though things look the same to the outside world, inside the twins house, everything has changed overnight. The boisterous happy home that Chantay grew up in is just a memory. Now it's like there's this heavy cloud of fear and sadness hanging over them at all times. Chantay says she stayed inside as much as she could. She was afraid to go out. You see, she had actually begged the twins to let her tag along that afternoon, but they said no, they'd be back soon. Like don't bother. And they might have thought, you know, she's their little sister. Maybe she was going to slow them down. But she keeps thinking, what if they had said, yes, would she have disappeared to? Would the outcome have changed in some way? And it's

something that she just spirals on like she cannot stop thinking about it. Now, meanwhile, the family's church rallies around them. Members drive around town looking for the girls. They stop by with food and words of encouragement. And they tell the grieving mom not to give up, keep calling the police for updates, even though they don't return your calls. Keep asking for answers. Do what you have to do to find Annette and Jeanette. So that's what she does. And Chantay told us that finally, a few weeks after the family's initial meeting with investigators ship, he stops by the house to give them an update. Chantay

By now, ship has been to their high school and he says that the principal told him that he had seen the girls near the school after March 18. He had apparently called to them and they like took off in the opposite direction, trying to avoid him. Now, the investigator says that he also spoke with some students who shared a couple of rumors with him that bolstered his theory even more. So he tells Ms. Louise that he heard the twins left home because she, their mother, had quote unquote, too many kids. He also heard one of the twins was pregnant and that they both left home to avoid getting in trouble. But as the following points out, neither of those stories makes any sense, especially the pregnancy rumor. I mean,

their older sister, Aciander, is a teen mom and Ms. Louise is still there for her, which is obviously something Danette and Jeanette knew. So even if it wouldn't have been an ideal situation and maybe they'd have been nervous to tell their mom if one of them was pregnant, they wouldn't have thought that she was going to like disown them or anything. Plus, even though it's a full house and I'm sure that everyone gets on each other's nerves sometimes, because hello family, they all love each other. The sisters do everything together. They go skating, play outside, practice cheerleading moves. I mean, they're all close, but it doesn't matter. Gymship is sure that he's right. And while he does look into a few leads, there are some

major steps for a basic missing person's investigation that he just does not take. Like he doesn't talk to their older sister. He doesn't talk to their cousin Juanita. Again, two people that they last saw before they went missing. And shockingly, especially considering how much more likely it is for a child to be abducted by a family member than a stranger, he doesn't even talk to John Milbrook, the twins' father. And listen, there are plenty of reasons why this dude should have warranted an interview at the very least. According to a documentary from the Oxygen Network called The Disappearance of the Milbrook Twins, when John and Louise were married, he was abusive and he even assaulted her while she was pregnant. Now these days, he's not very

involved in his daughter's lives, but he lives nearby and the girls go visit him sometimes. So you'd figure that he would at least be somewhat concerned that they're gone. But when Miss Louise contacts him periodically to see if he's seen them or heard anything, he tells her there's no point looking for them, that they're probably off with a man somewhere. So this is what the family is up against. And all they can do now is wait and pray. Even if they did for some reason run off, their mother and sisters are still going to try their best to find them and bring them home. They do get some help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They help them distribute flyers to the public. The family canvases their old neighborhood. They jump every time the

phone or the doorbell rings. Chantay starts checking the newspaper looking for clues. But the whole first year passes with little to no movement in the case. And even though Miss Louise calls police to check in, she never really hears anything back. Until April 8th of 1991, when investigators ship comes by, Miss Louise's heart stops when she sees him at the door. She thinks that he's come to tell her that they found the girls. But instead, he informs her that the sheriff's office is closing the case. He said the twin 17th birthday had just passed. And he says that in Georgia, anyone 17 or older has a right to disappear. So even if he did find the girls, he couldn't make them come home, which to him means there's no point in him taking this any

further. Now, this is bananas to me because yeah, sure, if adults have the right to go missing, but they went missing as children and they're still missing. And I've seen this one other time. I was researching another case and I found out that like back in the 60s, at least in California, where the specific case was that it didn't matter, say a five year old went missing on their 18th birthday, they would basically destroy the case file. Like all of a sudden, if you're missing at 18, you don't matter. And that's basically what he's saying here. Like, okay, there's 17 now, doesn't matter. Though there's clearly this undertone that ship has that like it's their choice. Like, you know what I mean? He's not even looking for anything else. So clearly the police have

given up, but that does not mean Danette and Jeanette's loved ones have. They still call the sheriff's office hoping that eventually investigators will listen to them. But here is the really bizarre thing. At some point over the next couple of years, the family starts to hear a different story from law enforcement. Actually, more specifically, they start to hear a different excuse as to why police can't help them. It's not because Danette and Jeanette turned 17, like ship had said. They're now told it's because they're not missing at all. But by the way, they're not home either. So where are they? That is the million dollar question. Chantay says that her mom desperately tries to get more information. What do you mean? Like,

they're not missing? Like, can you give me an address or something? How do you know? And all she keeps hearing back is that investigators say they were located. But like, that's it. They're located period. No more information. Then the situation goes from bad to worse in 1993, when Miss Louise hears from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The organization says that they're removing Danette and Jeanette from their database because police reached out to them to let them know that the twins had been found. Now poor Miss Louise, she is like begging with them. She is trying to tell them this is not true. The girls are still missing. The family has not seen or heard from them since they walked out the door on March 18,

1990. So, you know, obviously the centers like hearing this, they're like, okay, you know, we're willing to check again. So they call this sheriff's office again. And Richmond County again verifies, yeah, no, pull their page down. The twins have been found. So the girls are officially removed from the national database of missing people. And I have to imagine that by this point, the family felt like the entire world was gaslighting them. Although they do find one sympathetic ear in law enforcement, a probation officer for the Richmond County juvenile court named Leroy Westbrook, Jr. Now, Miss Louise already knew Leroy. And when he hears what's going on, he says that he's going to try and help if he can, kind of like in an unofficial

capacity. The case is baffling to him. He doesn't understand how two teenage girls with no resources could just vanish into thin air. But even with Leroy on their side, it is just the same old run around that they get. They keep calling police. They reach out to all like the big talk shows hoping to get the twins some national news coverage. Honestly, they take any news coverage, but they don't hear back from anyone. They even contact the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Nothing. And then in the late 90s, Shantae sees something on TV that takes her breath away. There's a news segment about a Jane Doe whose charred skeletal remains were found a few years ago in Aiken County, South Carolina. That's right across the border from Augusta.

The victim is a black female, and the image of her facial reconstruction looks jarringly like Jeanette. So Shantae immediately calls the Richmond County Sheriff's office and straight away she is told that the Aiken County Doe is not either of her sisters. Now, they don't say how they know. They just insist that it is not them, not Jeanette, not Jeanette end of story. And listen, like Shantae is a smart cookie. She knows that police couldn't have compared the twins DNA to their Jane Doe because they don't even have the girl's DNA on file. And even if they did, they wouldn't have checked because as far as investigators are concerned, Jeanette and Jeanette aren't even missing. And this goes on for years. Every path they try to take leads

to a dead end. Every conversation goes in circles, except for one that veers right off the rails. During one of Shantae's regular calls to the Sheriff's office, an investigator tells her, you know, you should really be directing these inquiries to the county's family and children's services department. Because, you know, he says the twins aren't really missing. They had been removed from their mother's home and put into foster care years ago by child protective services. But this makes no sense. Shantae knows that this is not true. Why would CPS remove the twins and let all of the other kids stay in the house? Why didn't anyone ever come get Donette's seizure medication? And why wouldn't the girls reach out to their family in all of the years since?

No part of this story is even remotely logical. And as far as anyone can tell, there is zero documentation of this. Shantae pushes and she's like, this explanation is basically impossible. But she says that when she pushes, this investigator or detective or whatever got like really snippy with her and said that he didn't appreciate her calling his officers liars. So to me, it sounds like this information must have come from one of the cops. And I don't know if it was written down ever anywhere, somewhere in the case file or what. But clearly this is the message kind of going around internally. Now, some people might have just given up at this point, but that is not an option for this family. In fact, Shantae eventually takes over the effort.

She can't stand to see what it's doing to her mother. She says that she just wants to give her some peace of mind. So she keeps calling. She keeps pushing. And in 2013, it seems like the tide is going to turn because there's a new sheriff in town, literally. When Richard Roundtree is elected, he is the first black sheriff in Richmond County's history. Shantae had seen his campaign ads, which focused on his desire to help the community that he grew up in. She figures she has nothing to lose by reaching out again. Maybe this guy will have a little more compassion for a black family. So not long after he takes office, she calls again and brace yourself because this time she actually hears back, although not from the sheriff directly.

A captain calls Shantae the next day and tells her that they're going to reopen the case, not because they have new information or leads to follow up on, but because it never should have been closed in the first place, which yes, Shantae already knew. But of course, the question is like, okay, what's changing their mind? Well, turns out Jim Ship never actually saw or spoke to the twins. He said that other people were reportedly in contact with them. And he told the fall line that one of them was Leroy Westbrook, the juvenile probation officer that I mentioned who was helping Ms. Louise. So now Ship says that after he closed the case, it was turned over to Leroy who told him that he was in touch with the girls and that they were

like going to Texas or something. But like so many other things in this story, that does not make sense. It doesn't look like Leroy was ever officially assigned the case, even though he was again one of the only people who actually tried to help. And I have to assume that Leroy would have told Ms. Louise if he was in touch with the girls. I mean, even if he wasn't allowed to say where they were, he could have like at least assured her they were alive and well. So to me, it sounds like Jim might just be trying to throw this guy under the bus. And Leroy isn't even here to defend himself. He died years ago. But the fact is, even if Leroy did tell Jim that he was in contact with the girls, which I seriously doubt, it's all hearsay. Sheriff Roundtree tells Huffington

Post reporter David Lore that a terrible injustice has been committed. He wants to help fix it, but it's not going to be easy. More than two decades have passed by this point and no one has been looking for the girls outside of their family this whole time. The sheriff can't say why the twins were removed from the national database because there's no reason listed. Even though it's standard protocol to keep a record of that information. He also can't tell who was responsible for having them removed, although the family has a pretty good idea. And you know, because this is apparently the Murphy's law of investigations, police claim that they can't even find the original case file. Although as far as I can tell, it never really becomes 100% clear what if anything happened

to it. So they're really starting from square one. So it's at this point that age progression photos are made for the first time ever. Danette and Jeanette are re-entered into the national database and so are DNA samples from Miss Louise and some of her daughters. What's strange is that John Milbrook won't give a sample. In fact, he even tries to discourage his other daughter, Aciander, from giving a sample of her own, which she does anyway. And he tells her that if police do come around looking for him, that she should tell them that he's dead. I'm not sure police finally do question him, but if they did, he obviously didn't say anything that led to anything substantial. And after this flurry with kind of like all this new activity calms down,

the family is just left disappointed once again. Sheriff Roundtree says that their DNA samples don't match any unclaimed remains. And even though some of the newer investigators are more helpful than gymship, which admittedly is a pretty low bar, in general, it's just more of the same. Chante makes calls that are never returned and waits for updates that never come. And eventually, she comes to her own conclusion about this new investigation and them reopening the case. It must have all been talk, just a publicity stunt. And for them, it's like they're reliving the trauma all over again. It's not until 2017 that things start looking up for the family. That's when Chante gets a surprising message on a Facebook page that she had set up for the twins,

from someone who wants to do a real deep dive into the girl's disappearance. Brooke Hargrove and Laura Norton are making a podcast about underreported cases in the southeast. And after hearing about the Milbrook twins on an episode of another podcast, they think Danette and Danette's story fits the bill. In fact, by the time they speak with Chante, they had already begun to investigate. And when they share their findings with Miss Louise and Chante, both women are floored. Because even though law enforcement was totally unconcerned when the twins disappeared, there was a lot going on in Augusta in the 90s that should have set off major alarm bells.

First, there was a serial rapist named Joseph Patrick Washington, who was also an alleged serial killer who had been wreaking havoc in the city. He was a short man, only five foot four, but he was vicious. He'd kidnap women off the streets at gunpoint and take them to other places to assault and rape them. One woman described how he pistol whipped her, then rubbed her blood all over his face and penis and forced her to perform oral sex on him. This dude was very active in the area that the twins were walking on the day they disappeared. He even abducted one of his victims a few blocks away from the pump and shop where they were last seen. And his victims shared some physical characteristics. They were young black

women with short hair just like the twins. Now, here's the thing, there was news coverage on this guy, but no one ever connected the dots to the twins, since almost no one knew they were even missing. And if you're expecting the police to connect the dots, they're convinced that the girls ran away, so don't hold your breath waiting for good old Jimbo. Now this Joseph guy worked transport at a local brickyard and drove at least three different cars filled with evidence. Law enforcement collected some of that evidence after his arrest in 93, but by that point the twins case was already closed. Joseph was convicted of kidnapping and raping five different women, three of whom he shot. They all survived, but he was also the prime suspect in three unsolved

homicides. And he was serving 17 consecutive life sentences and still waiting for trial for one of the murders when he died in prison in 1999. But get this, Joseph lived just a few blocks away from John Milbrook. And according to Sierra Cummings reporting for WRDW News 12, they had ties to each other through criminal activity and drug use. And John meanwhile, he had also gotten himself into some serious trouble over the years since his daughters went missing. He was one of four people charged in connection with the murder of a man named Jermaine Burris in December of 96. John helped dispose of Jermaine's body, but he didn't participate in the murder itself, so he was only sentenced to a few years in prison,

but his co-defendants were convicted of murder, actually two murders. Jermaine was apparently shot to death in a drug turf war and within the month they killed another man because he knew too much about Jermaine's murder. So to go back to the podcast, they're doing some investigating, and by the time the podcast starts up, John is in a nursing home with dementia. Chantet told us that they did try to speak with him, but it was really hard to get any kind of coherent response. When they first asked if he knew where the twins were, he said they were dead, buried so deep that no one would find them. But then he said he didn't know, and then he said that Chantet should ask her mother where they are. So Brooke and Laura, they're the reporters'

producers for the fall line, reached out to a couple of John's co-defendants, including a guy named Ernest Vons Jr., who's still in prison. And Ernest writes them back in October of 2017. He says he doesn't mind answering their questions, but he has one for them too. He's been locked up for 22 years, and he'd actually just been denied parole again. What if he can help them find the twins? Can he get some help in return? Chantet doesn't know what to think about this guy, but she can't help but feel somewhat hopeful that he does know something. Like, he seems willing to talk, even if they can't help him get out of prison, so maybe he's telling the truth.

Brooke and Laura turn the letter over to authorities immediately, and they beg police to follow up. But they don't hear a word about it, until 2019, when the Oxygen Network decides to make a documentary on the case. Ernest is one of the first people that they want to speak with for the show, and producers connect with him through his daughter, April, who lives in Augusta. He agrees to do an interview, and when the hosts of the show manage to get him on the phone, he has quite the story to tell. He says that in March of 1990, John Milbrook was struggling with addiction. He lived in an area with a lot of drug activity, and he would lend his home out to dealers in exchange for crack. Ernest wasn't even 12 yet, but he was already selling drugs for

a dealer who set up shop in John's house, so he spent a fair amount of time there. Now, Ernest says he didn't know the twins, but he remembers them coming by to visit their father on the day that they went missing. He claims that one of the girls started drinking and smoking weed, and when some of the other men in the house saw that she was high, they sexually assaulted her. When her sister realized what was happening, she confronted one of the guys, and in response, he punched her. She fell backwards onto a table and split her head open, and then one of the twins started screaming, and someone in the house told Ernest and the other people to get out, leave and come back when things were quieter. Now, he's not saying

their father killed them, but his allegation is that John was there when this went down. I don't know if Ernest meant that he was actually in the room or in the house or what, but he says that he thinks the whole situation is, quote, what drove John crazy. He believes that the girls were killed and that their bodies may have been left in an area called the Mary Brothers Brickyard Ponds, which, by the way, Joseph, that serial rapist and murderer that I talked about earlier, he actually worked for Mary Brothers Brickyard and traveled between their locations, including the ponds. In fact, that's where he brought some of his victims, so it's a really interesting connection. But Ernest claims that a lot of people actually

use this spot as a body dumping ground, and he doesn't say who he thinks is responsible for killing the girls. But he does mention a couple of men who he says allegedly were at the house at the time. He says he only knows their street names. There's Oodle Boy, who apparently drove a white van, and Oodle Boy's nephew, Little Cheese. Now, this is a little interesting to me because, remember, the girls had said something about being followed by a white van earlier, though, to be fair, no connection is ever made back to Oodle Boy. Now, Chantay says that she doesn't even recognize the nickname Oodle Boy, but she has heard of Little Cheese. He and his brother, Big Cheese, were supposedly major drug dealers back in the day, and they lived over by John.

And when Sheriff Roundtree hears these names, he knows exactly who all of these guys are. They've been popping up in drug and homicide investigations for years. Plus, there was definitely drug trafficking going on at John Millbrook's house. Police have the case file to prove it, which tells me that they at least kept one case file in their department. Now, before anyone gets too excited, this is not a perfect lead by any stretch of the imagination. For one thing, Chantay insists that the twins didn't drink or do drugs. And if you watch the whole oxygen documentary, it sounds like Ernest has some inconsistent details in his story, but it is plausible enough, and this scenario could help explain John's reaction to the girl's

disappearance. So the Sheriff seems really interested in following up. Although, you'd figure if he was that interested, he could have talked to Ernest after the fall line turned over that letter in 2017. Anyway, at this point, he assigns new investigators to the case, and over the next couple of weeks, detectives pay visits to Ernest, Oodle Boy, and Little Cheese, possibly Big Cheese, although I'm not 100% sure about him. Like Ernest, Little Cheese is in prison for an unrelated murder, so it's not hard to find him, but he won't talk to police without a lawyer. And Oodle Boy apparently doesn't tell detectives anything relevant. Ernest, meanwhile, well, the Sheriff says that while some of the things that he said can be corroborated,

police think that he's actually describing a different double murder. When investigators press him for details, Ernest supposedly admitted that he was lying but only about Donette and Jeanette's connection to the incident. Like he's saying the events took place but the twins weren't involved. So if this is real but didn't involve the twins, who the heck was murdered? We did a little digging and Nina found record of a few double homicides around the area in the early to mid 1990s, but the only one involving two female victims was in another county, and the circumstances were like completely different. A man shot his estranged wife and her teenage daughter. So I don't know what incident police are even referring to.

And according to Oxygen, the reason investigators think that Ernest is talking about a different case is because of his description of a suspect. Ernest said that one of the men in the house was using a wheelchair when all of this went down, but the guy that he's talking about wasn't paralyzed until a police shootout two years after the twins went missing. Listen, I'm not saying that he's telling the truth. I definitely think there are huge holes in his story, but if that's the only reason police think that he's talking about a different case, to me, that's flimsy. Like, I mean, our memories fail all the time. Is it possible that he got confused? Again, they're coming back to this guy 20 years later. And if he knew this guy in a

wheelchair for 20 years, maybe, guys, I don't know why they were so quick to write this off. But just wait, there is more. Ernest's daughter, April, also happens to be Chante's former daughter-in-law. She and Chante's son have four children together. Ernest has been in prison since April was a baby, so Chante didn't know much about him and obviously hadn't seen him at any family events. April, meanwhile, knew that the twins were missing, but didn't realize that her father might have had some connection to the case. It actually wasn't until the fall line contacted Ernest that Chante realized, like, oh my god, this guy and I have grandchildren in common. So after police tell Chante that Ernest lied about the twins, she asks April to speak with him,

just to try and get to the bottom of this once and for all. April asks her father if his story about the twins is true. And Ernest says it is, but that the Richmond County investigators told him to say he made the whole thing up. Sheriff Roundtree says that Ernest's claim is preposterous and doesn't make any sense, but either way, police say that they won't be pursuing his lead any further. And even if they did want to search the brickyard, the sheriff says that it is such a vast area that they'd need to narrow it down to a particular spot. Now, real quick, before I get off the topic of police, I want to talk about Jim Shipford. Just a minute. Remember, he was the lead investigator on a lot

of missing person cases. So it's interesting and frankly maddening to see what he's had to say about all of this over the years, like in a 1994 Augusta Chronicle article about missing kids. He tells reporter Kim Henderson, quote, if they're missing one minute, give us a call. That's what we're here for. People sometimes feel like they have to wait 24 hours, and by then the trail is cold, end quote, which might I remind everyone that is exactly what Miss Louise tried to do and she got nowhere with him. And then in 1997, he says, quote, there used to be federal laws that said you had to wait 24 hours to report someone missing. That's not true anymore. Whether it's an adult or child, people should call police as soon as

they think someone is missing. So a search can be started as early as possible, end quote. And listen, I went pretty deep in the weeds with this. So I can say with confidence that he's wrong about that. There was a 24 hour waiting period for the FBI, specifically the FBI to investigate kidnappings, because by then the victim may have been taken across state lines. But there was no federal law requiring police departments to wait 24 hours to take missing person's reports. During a congressional subcommittee hearing on the Missing Children's Assistance Act, which was held in 1984, six years before the twins went missing, a lot of the focus was on how detrimental it is to delay these investigations and how law

enforcement in general is too quick to label missing teens as runaways. An investigator who testified before the committee said quote, there is no such thing as a 24 or 48 hour waiting period law. It is only departmental policy. Now, in fairness, it was a pretty common policy at the time. It's not like this only happened at one sheriff's office in Georgia. But the fact is Richmond County could have taken the report the moment Miss Louise called them. And they should have at least heard them out when she told them Danette and Jeanette wouldn't run away. She knows her own daughters much better than they do. And that's one of the many things that is just so heartbreaking about this case. Who knows what the outcome might be if police had just put in an ounce

of care into this investigation. And by the way, according to the Unresolved podcast, the twins family is not the only ones who have had issues with Jim ship. On June 6, 1994, nine year old Tiffany Nelson went missing in broad daylight a few miles away from where the twins disappeared. She was last seen at a gas station pumping air in her bicycle tires. Her aunt who she was living with told the media that she waited until June 7 to report her missing because she thought you had to wait 24 hours. And that's one reason that these waiting period myths which still persists today are incredibly dangerous. Anyway, the local media reported that there was a massive search effort for Tiffany who's black, but apparently her family later

said that police were slow to investigate and that Jim ship was also quick to label Tiffany nine year old Tiffany a runaway. But Jim was wrong because tragically Tiffany's remains were found in a shallow grave in 2005. Now the host of the following podcast did speak with Jim ship and so did the host of the oxygen documentary, although he declined to be on camera. The fall line team asked him if he thought the twins were alive. The hosts say his response was that he doesn't know why they wouldn't be. And then he laughed and said quote, if you find two dead twins, you let me know. I'm gonna like break here for everyone out there to just give like a giant what the f*** in unison. If you want to do it in three, two, one, same. He told Oxygen that he

always assumed the twins had run away because they and their family were quote unquote known to law enforcement, which doesn't add up since we know neither twin had ever been arrested and there was no record of any behavioral issues. Now he does admit that he was the one who told the national center for missing and exploited children that the twins had been found. To him, the case was closed, so he told them to close it. Like this dude genuinely seems to believe that they left voluntarily. And he still says that the high school principal told him he saw the girls and tried to get them to come back to school. But that's another thing that no one can confirm because the principal died a while ago. Oh, and get this, he claims that he touched base with Miss Louise every couple

of weeks during the investigation, even though the family says it was three times tops total. And when he's confronted with that, he says that, you know, maybe Miss Louise didn't remember these interactions because of her IQ. To me, this was worse than an apathetic investigation, because it seems like not only was the investigator callous to the twins family, he also poisoned the well for any other detectives who may have been able to help find these girls. Now there was some effort to go back and redo what can be redone decades later, which is very little when this much time is lost. For instance, they finally compared the Aiken County Doe's DNA to the twins. But according to reporter Renetta DeBose of WJBF, it wasn't Danette or

Jeanette. And it turns out that Doe might actually have been the victim of a serial killer, because based on reports from the Doe network, the Aiken County Doe was actually one of three black females whose remains were found within a half mile of each other near Shaw's Creek from 1987 to 1993. There was speculation that a man named Henry Lewis Wallace was responsible for all three of their deaths. We actually just talked about him in our headlines episode this past May in the fan club. Henry was known as the Taco Bell Strangler because he had worked there as a manager and several of his victims were his employees. Henry targeted black women in both North and South Carolina in the early 90s. And after he was arrested in 1994, he confessed to nearly a dozen

murders, although none in Aiken County. As of this recording, the Aiken Doe is still unidentified. Danette and Jeanette's family still run into so many brick walls today. Chantay told us she never hears from police. Apparently a sheriff round tree wasn't thrilled with the way that he was portrayed in the oxygen documentary. And since it aired, it looks like he's turned down just about every interview request about the case, including ours, by the way. It also doesn't look like police have made any recent public statements, so we don't know where the case stands now. And John Milbrook died in January of 21. So if he did know something about what happened to his daughters, he took it to his grave.

But it's not all bad news. In May of 2021, a nonprofit organization called Private Investigations for the Missing started supplying the girl's family with a private investigator, free of charge, which is amazing. And Chantay is blown away by the amount of support and encouragement that her family has received. She told us, quote, for 20 something years, we thought nobody cared nothing about us. But it wasn't that they didn't care. We know that now. They just never knew. Nobody knew. And now that they do, a lot of people want to know what happened to those girls, end quote. And if by some miracle, the twins are listening to this, Chantay wants them to know that their family loves them. They never stopped looking for them. And they never will. Both girls are black

with brown eyes and black hair, which they wore styled in shoulder length, Jerry curls. They have pierced ears and scars near their navels from hernia removal operations. They had not long after they were born. Danette is bow legged. And at the time of her disappearance, she was five, six and 130 pounds. She was wearing a white shirt with a picture of Mickey Mouse on it, white jeans and black shoes. Jeanette was five, four, 125 pounds wearing a blue pullover shirt, a white turtleneck, a beige skirt, white stockings and white sneakers. Now you guys know, these are more than stories. What can you do next? There are different ways to help. And we're going to have all of those listed on our blog post and in the show notes, but I just want to give them a mention here too. The fall line has

a billboard and therapy fund that you can donate to on Patreon. 100% of the money raised goes towards helping families. Currently, it's split between providing tele therapy for family members of victims in cases that they've featured on their show and billboards. They have managed to get a billboard going for the Millbrook twins in Georgia and pay for two family members weekly therapy sessions, which is amazing. Now we asked people closest to this case, what's the best way for us to help? And they said upping the reward for information. There was an $11,000 reward for information leading to finding the twins. But everyone we talked to said that's not enough. If someone's going to come forward, if someone has information, there needs to be more incentive. So we are

pledging an additional $39,000 for one year to hopefully encourage those who may have stayed silent up until this point to finally come forward. So if you have information, there is 50 grand on the table. If after one year, no one comes forward, half the money will go to billboards for the twins and the other half will be given to private investigations for the missing. You can leave anonymous tips through themillbrooktwins.com or by calling 404-590-2975. You can also contact the Richmond County Sheriff's Office at 706-821-1080. I'd like to give a special thanks to the Fall Line podcast. They were critical in bringing this story not only to our attention, but to the public's attention. Their work was invaluable

and they were so kind to talk to us and help us make sure we got this episode right. If you want to take a really deep dive into the twins case or if you want to hear stories of other victims, whose cases haven't gotten much attention, check out the Fall Line wherever you get your podcasts. To see photos and our source material, you can visit our website crimejenkipodcast.com. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Crime Genki Podcast and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Genki is an audio chuck production. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?