Going West: True Crime - Branson Perry // 409

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

In April of 2001, a 20-year-old man seemed to vanish into thin air from the yard of his father’s house after heading out to the shed to get something. As his disappearance was investigated, police locked in on numerous different people, including one who was known to perform illegal surgeries for his own sick pleasures. Eerily, this was far from the first strange thing to happen in his tiny Missouri town, which has been regarded as the Creepiest Town in America. This is the story of Branson Perry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west. Hello everybody. Big thank you to Catherine for recommending today's case. It's one of those incredibly strange young man disappearances and we've known about this one for a little while because it happened back in 2001 but we didn't dive into it until recently and it is incredibly strange. There are so many different angles to this story. It's wild. Yeah and not only that but some other things have happened in this town that are extremely mysterious. So this one is interesting just all the way around. It really is.

So without further ado, let's go. All right, guys, this is episode 409 of Going West. So let's get into it. Everyone's got a thirst, a drive to be the next big thing, to put the world on notice. If you answer when your thirst calls, Sprite's for you. Sprite's for the makers and creators, the visionaries putting in the work to build their dreams. Whether you're shooting a cinematic masterpiece on your phone, filling notebooks with sketches, or up all night turning your bedroom into the booth. Thirst is everything.

Ah. Obey your thirst. Right. In April of 2001, a 20-year-old man seemed to vanish into thin air from the yard of his father's house after heading out to the shed to get something. As his disappearance was investigated, police locked in on numerous different people, including one who was known to perform illegal surgeries for his own sick pleasures. Eerily, this was far from the first strange thing to happen in his tiny Missouri town,

which has been regarded as the creepiest town in America. This is the story of Branson Cain Perry was born on February 24, 1981 in Skidmore, Missouri to Becky and Bob Perry, and he was later joined by a little brother named Phil. The Perrys were known around their small town, which is located in the northwest corner of Missouri, for being a kind, hardworking family. Growing up, Branton loved animals, especially reptiles, and he was very interested in fitness, with weightlifting being something that he enjoyed most. But he also earned his black belt in the Korean martial art, hokkido.

So he was strong and he could fight. In 1999, Branson graduated from Nodaway Holt High School and started working for a roofing company for a little while and then for a traveling petting zoo. So he was trying different things just attempting to figure out what career path he wanted to pursue. In November of 2000, Branson's parents divorced and his mom Becky moved about 20 miles or 32 kilometers outside of town. And when this happened, Branson's younger brother Phil went to live with her to finish out high school and Becky did eventually remarry it and to a man named James.

But Branson decided to live with his dad Bob on the 300 block of West Oak Street in Skidmore, which is a very rural area, hosting just around 300 people in 2001 surrounded by creeks, rivers, and large grassy fields. And we will post photos of the surroundings so you guys can see as well as the house that this story takes place at. Now the last person known to have seen Branson alive was a young woman named Gina who called herself his best friend. She described Branson as quote a kind person who would do anything for anyone. Also noting that quote, he had the blondest hair and the prettiest blue eyes. On Tuesday, April 11th, 2001, 20 year old Branson was at his dad's house cleaning up again.

This is where he lived. And he was cleaning with the help of Gina. Because basically, Branson's dad Bob had just been hospitalized for a few days and he was due to be home soon so Branson had had the house to himself for a short while and he wanted to make sure that it would be ready for his dad. While Branson and Gina tidied inside, two men were out front working on Bob's car which had a faulty alternator. But it's unclear who called these guys to the property, and they have never been named

publicly, so very little information is available about them. But anyway, so Branson, Gina, and the two men were the only four people known to be at the house that day. Now the timeline of details of the day that Branson went missing are murky at best, I mean even to his mother Becky, who has arguably done more legwork on this case than anybody else. She admits quote, the events of the day are fairly sketchy to me and often make no sense. I don't have a timeline of when they occurred, only sporadic comments that were made.

So this is the sequence of events as far as Becky is aware of. Now Bob was due to be home from the hospital in two days, on Friday, April 13th. While Branson and Gina were cleaning up the kitchen, Gina observed that Branson quickly removed something from one of the kitchen cabinets and then he darted outside quickly with whatever that object was. When he came back in, Gina asked him what he had gotten rid of, but he just kind of brushed it off and didn't want to give her the details. A while later, Gina retired upstairs to take a shower, and when she returned downstairs, she came upon one of the men who had been fixing the car outside going through one of the kitchen cabinets of the home. So this is weird, you know, he's doing a job on the car outside, like no reason he should be inside,

let alone in the kitchen going through the cabinets, like kind of ruffling through in a secretive kind of way. Exactly, and you know, it's strange to me that nobody knows who called these men to the property, because you would imagine that Bob would have said, oh oh yeah I hired those guys to come by and fix my car or that you know Branson might have told Gina the reason why those guys were there. Yeah it just hasn't been released which I agree it's crazy because they were two of the only people at the house that day. Exactly so when Gina asked what he was looking for this guy that was working on the car, he brushed her off just like Branson had when he himself went into the cabinet, and then the guy just

went back outside and kept working on the car. Around 3pm that day, Gina heard the front porch door close and looked outside the window to see Branson walking away from the house. She called out to Branson to ask him where he was going, and he said that he would be right back and that he was just going to stash a set of jumper cables in the shed in the yard. And this shed was adjacent to his dad's home, and right in front of where the men were working on Bob's car.

And we are going to post a street view of this house as well as photos from the time this happened, though there are a few of them because today the shed looks different, but it'll kind of give you an idea of how close they were. Yes, and the shed and the house are visible from this small little road that the house sits on. And there are other houses around it. It's not like a suburban neighborhood like you might be imagining. It's kind of like a country neighborhood. This road is very small, but there are houses on either side of Branson's dad's house and

across the street. And we're going to post photos so you guys can see. But this is very out in the open, essentially. Yeah, definitely. And I mean, again, this town has like 300 people in it, so not very big. Probably most of the houses in that town are pretty rural. So after Branson headed out to apparently stash this set of jumper cables in the shed, Branson never returned inside, and Gina claims that she never saw him again.

The men working on the car also said that they didn't see or hear anything while they worked outside on this car even though Branson would have had to have walked right by these guys to get to the shed and strangely the jumper cables were not on the property either so it's presumed that Branson never made it to that shed and then he just disappeared with these cables. Yeah, like this is... Imagine you're just outside going to your shed. That's right... It's right next to your house, and then you just vanish into thin air.

Well, let's paint this town a little bit. So, a half a block from his house is the main road that crosses through town. It's technically a highway with one lane on each side. It's the Missouri 113. And this is the road that crosses through downtown Skidmore, which is just a block up from Branson Street. But it's not the downtown that you might be thinking because today there is a post office, a fire department, city hall, a church, a motorcycle repair shop, a small farm equipment supplier store,

and then just outside of downtown, there is a cemetery and that is it. Like it genuinely looks like a ghost town when you see photos of like the small buildings that are still standing there downtown. It's super rundown, but I'm not sure if 20 years ago there were more shops. I know that there was a bar and also a cafe in town at that time,

but they have since closed. So basically just painting the picture that even though it would have taken Branson just a couple minutes to walk into the downtown area from his home, there wasn't much at all to do. So it's not like he's like, oh, I'm going to go downtown and do this and this and this errand. There's almost nothing there. Everything that you need is in a neighboring town. But even so, Gina apparently claimed that Branson had stepped out to run an errand. Again, what kind of errand, we can't be sure. Or that he had stepped out and gotten sidetracked

from his task and done something else and gone somewhere. So she left after finishing up what she had been working on in the kitchen. Neither Branson's dad, nor his mom, nor his paternal grandma Joanne, all of whom he checked in with almost daily, heard from him after this afternoon. By Friday the 13th, so two days later and the day that Bob was due to be home from the hospital, his family was growing very concerned. So Becky and Joanne both headed over to the house individually, separately, but they both found it empty when they arrived. Music was left blaring, the furnace was on high, and the doors had been left open. So this is the scene that was left.

It wouldn't make sense that Branson walked away from his life with all of this going on. It seemed like he went outside to do something really quick just to return, but then never returned. Also, the pets were unfed, which is something that Branson never would have done. Like everything was as he left it, as if he was still in the middle of cleaning up and there was no sign of a commotion or a struggle. So with that, Becky had a really uneasy feeling and began contacting his friends to see if any of them had heard from him or seen him, but nobody had. On Monday morning, April 16th, 2001, Bob was finally released from the

hospital, so he was released a few days late. Then the following day, Bob, Becky, and Joanne headed to the Nodaway County Sheriff's Office to report Branson missing because he was still not home and hadn't made any contact with anybody. As officers arrived at the home and they went through Branson's things with Bob, it quickly became obvious that something nefarious had happened to Branson. He had left everything behind,

including his car, which was not working, and his wallet. He had opened a checking account just days before his disappearance, which may or may not have been a coincidence, but there had been no activity in the account since he disappeared anyway. account just days before his disappearance, which may or may not have been a coincidence, but there had been no activity in the account since he disappeared anyway. So Branson had somehow vanished into thin air between his father's house and the shed with nobody reporting seeing anything.

It was such a puzzling missing persons case that Becky recalls the police department pushing the narrative that her son had left on his own accord Because there was evidence of nothing but she says that she never believed this was the case because this was monumentally out of character for her son and Gina agreed saying quote Branson doesn't just leave and not come back. That's just not him Branson doesn't just leave and not come back. That's just not him. So Becky was really disappointed at the inaction of the sheriff's department, and she believed that the case received a slow start because of the assumption

that Branson had left on his own accord. But actually, many people believed that they didn't get a start on it in a timely manner because they believed drugs were involved. Because like much of the country, especially small towns where jobs and entertainment could be scarce, Skidmore was suffering from an epidemic of methamphetamine use, which came with associated crimes and the endangerment of the people who lived there. One recent statistic estimated that Skidmore's rate of violent crime is over 100% higher than the national average, which is pretty shocking considering again this town basically had a population

under 350 people, and now under 250 people. But according to locals, multiple households in the neighborhood were known to be manufacturing methamphetamine, and it seems as if Branson had possibly gotten mixed up with them. His family claims that they hadn't realized that he was struggling with drug abuse, but he apparently told his aunt, Gail McMurray, just a few days before his disappearance, that he wanted to get clean, and he wanted to stay away from that lifestyle once and for all.

One source even claimed that he was due to enter a rehabilitation facility within a few days of his disappearance, but this came as a surprise to most people who knew him. And this could explain why he took something out of the cabinet in the kitchen and then why the guy working outside tried looking for something in there, which makes those men look all the more suspicious, especially if Branson wanted to get clean and maybe even report someone. Well, Gale later said, quote, "'If he was in drugs, I didn't know it,

"'because he kept that side away from me.'" Well, fingers have frequently been pointed at Gina for leaving the house after her supposed best friend vanished into thin air without so much as a goodbye. And some sources claim that Branson had actually told her that he was leaving for a bit after putting the jumper cables away, even though they weren't found, and that that's why Gina didn't think it was odd that he left the house. Cause she left without incident and didn't realize that there was anything wrong until

days later according to her. But because she has never been identified outside of her first name, it's not known whether or not she was ever considered to be involved in the disappearance. But it is certain that the details of her story are at least a bit questionable. Yeah, I completely agree with that. But one of the eerier components of Branson's case came about two weeks after he was reported missing, when those jumper cables that he had been walking outside to put away reappeared inexplicably resting against the wall of the shed.

So someone had clearly placed them there after the investigation began, probably hoping to avoid being connected to his disappearance. But even with this little clue, police had no idea what happened. According to Becky, multiple people were questioned and dozens, if not hundreds of tips poured in. A few people who were questioned were even administered lie detector tests, and here is what Becky had to say about that. Quote,

Some passed it and some didn't. I was not given those details, which I understand. In an announcement made just four months after Branson's disappearance, the sheriff at the time, Ben Espy, claimed that he knew exactly who was last seen with Branson, the culprits who were responsible for his disappearance and likely his death. He confirmed that polygraph tests had been administered, though he would not divulge who was tested, and he said frankly that he quote, doesn't expect any help from them. So he says he knows who did it and essentially just can't prove it enough to arrest them

Which is great. Yeah, awesome. That's really really great news for this case But anyway, so billboards and signs sprung up all over Skidmore and beyond pleading for information and offering a $10,000 reward which later climbed to $20,000 more than $10,000 reward, which later climbed to $20,000. More than 1,300 signs, billboards, and posters were circulating between Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. For years, Becky had been putting aside money to take her dream vacation, which was this tropical cruise, but when her son was taken from her, she diverted all of her money into a reward fund.

Becky said hopefully quote, I put everything I had into this reward. I even sold property to fund it. I'm just hoping it's enough to bring somebody who knows something forward. So as the end of the year loomed, Branson's grandma, again Joanne Stinnitz said quote, Everything is at a standstill. The longer it gets, the harder it is. Time doesn't help this. There's an emptiness that comes with not knowing. She remembered fondly that she would see her grandson almost every day when he would pop by to chat or share a piece of his favorite dessert, which was

Joanne's peach pie. That's so cute. I know, really cute. And she added, quote, I made peach pie the other day and thought, if Branson came in, I wouldn't just give him a piece, I'd give him the whole darn thing. That's a good grandma. Definitely. So, the family even brought in a medium, hoping to shed light on any aspect of his disappearance, but the results were inconclusive.

Police steadily conducted searches on nearby farms and bodies of water, extending out farther and farther from the location of his father's house. One search was conducted in which multiple canine unit dogs indicated to a particular spot but no remains were found there. This led police to surmise that those responsible for Branson's murder had been tipped off and had actually relocated Branson's remains. And this kind of means that maybe the spot that the dogs indicated to is likely where the body was for a period of time. Well, the rumor mill continued to churn, and everyone in town seemed to have a different version of what exactly happened to Branson, but nothing led police to his body or an arrest

of anybody that was involved. Then, after two years of dead ends, an arrest was finally made in connection with Branson's case. Almost exactly two years after Branson's disappearance, in April of 2003, the case was revived when a man named Jack Wayne Rogers was finally arrested. This part is fricking nuts. So Jack was taken down as part of a larger sting

on child pornography operated by the FBI, nicknamed Operation Candyman, which aimed to crack down on the sharing of explicit images in online chat rooms. When a medical student named Michael Davidson was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material, that is what it's called now, that's what it should be called,

also known as child pornography, his computer was searched and investigators found chat Transcripts between him and a user named bugger butt Which is a screen name for 58 year old Jack Wayne Rogers the guy that Heath just said was arrested in connection With Branson's case the fact that his name his chat name is bugger butt Just knowing everything that we're about to get into just is terrifying to me. He is so disgusting. And actually, Jack was a retired Presbyterian minister and Boy Scout troop leader, disgusting, from Fulton, Missouri, which is about four hours southeast of Branson's hometown of Skidmore.

I mean that just makes the whole thing that much more horrifying. The fact that he was in charge of children and led ministry. Yeah, because listen to this. It's going to get insane. So Jack in the chat rooms told Michael Davidson that he had been driving through Skidmore when he spotted Branson on the side of the road and picked him up, offering him a ride. Bragging in the disgusting chat rooms he frequented, Jack referred to Branson as it, writing that

he quote, tied it to a tree with its legs spread, prepared a steak for it, S-T-A-K-E, and that Branson quote, screamed nicely. But his claims of involvement in Branson's brutal murder were just the beginning of his crimes because after his arrest, his computer, home, and vehicle were searched, and on his hard drive, the FBI found a sickening amount of child sexual abuse material, as well as disturbing images that Jack had captured himself while performing amateur medical services on another man. And basically, these pictures showed an unconscious person in a motel room, while Jack performed

what reports described as, quote, makeshift gender reassignment surgery. A woman named Madison now claims that she had sought gender reassignment surgery from Jack, who was confident in his ability to complete the operation. Madison, who identifies as a female but was assigned male at birth, had her genitals removed by Jack on the bed in a hotel room. But after four hours of intense bleeding,

needed to seek emergency medical attention. Yeah, I mean, this really is the stuff of nightmares. Truly. And more disturbing than this improvised layman surgery, if it can get more than that, were the pictures that Jack took of it. While Madison lay bleeding out, Jack snapped pictures of her mutilated body even posing with her dismembered genitalia. Madison later reflected that at the time she felt like she was out of options and that Jack was

offering a solution that was supposed to work. But by the way, this guy was not a doctor, so I don't know what he told her to make her believe this. This is just a sick, sick dude. I mean, come on. Surgery in a motel room? Not a good thing, not a good look. Well, Madison initially declined to press charges, but when she heard of Jack's depraved and deviant other acts, she felt like she had been a pawn in his scheme to accumulate more explicit photographs. Madison, a nursing student, recalled, quote, I didn't know his motivation when I went into it. I was under a lot of emotional stress and it seemed like there was no

alternative, which is so heartbreaking. And after the whole ordeal, she was forced to undergo more surgeries just to correct the damage that had been done and to complete her transition. So, obviously Jack, who again was in his late 50s, had made these claims in the chat room that he had assaulted and killed Branson. But there's actually a physical connection because a search of Jack's car turned up a turtle claw necklace that was believed to belong to Branson Perry. Accompanying the sickening charges that were against him, rumors began circulating in Skidmore that Jack had tied Branson to a tree after abducting him in his vehicle from outside of Branson's house.

And remember, Branson didn't have a working car, so maybe he needed to go somewhere and took Jack up on a ride, like not knowing that he was a monster? Right, and Branson allegedly had his genitals cut off and consumed by Jack as he lay bleeding out. However, there was no evidence to prove this claim was true and after bragging about these acts in the chat room Jack went back on his word and claimed that he fabricated the entire story I mean, of course he did, you know because he had gotten caught obviously he could be lying people lie all the time But just knowing the other surgical things that he's done to people makes you wonder

because this shows what kind of disgusting, horrific person that he is. So I don't know. I still wonder about this connection. Yeah, absolutely. And on top of that, all of the child sexual abuse material that he had on his computer. And Branson was only 20, but he did look very young. Yeah, I mean, yeah, he definitely looked like between 18 to 20 to me. But ultimately, Jack was not found to have any connection to Branson or his disappearance, and was not believed to be in Skidmore on April 11, 2001 when Branson disappeared.

Jack was not tried for the murder of Branson Perry, but he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the child pornography charges, as well as 17 years for assault and 7 years for the illegal surgery, the latter two sentences of which would be served concurrently with his 30-year sentence. But Becky was hopeful that Jack was in fact the perpetrator and could put to rest two years of agonizing searching for her son. She even attended Jack's trial, pleading with him to give up the location of his remains, but Jack told her that he didn't know and continuously admitted

that his chat room ramblings were simply imaginative and a story that he concocted after reading online about Branson's case. Like he had just kind of seen it in the papers and started talking about it in this chat. And maybe, I mean honestly, maybe even fantasizing about it. Fantasizing about being the one who did it if he was not the one to do it, because clearly, he enjoyed mutilating people. Yeah, I would not put it past Jack the piece of shit to be imagining that he committed this crime. But, ultimately, police concluded that they did not believe that Jack was involved in Branson's disappearance, and publicly denounced him as a possible person of interest.

As the case grew cold in the years past, many questions remained, including how the disappearance could have gone unsolved in a community of only a few hundred people. Branson's disappearance going unsolved makes more sense when you consider the bizarre and sinister history of the town of Skidmore. On July 10, 1981, 47-year-old Ken Rex McElroy, widely known as the Town Bully, was executed in broad daylight with upwards of 40 people watching. And I'm sure a lot of you guys have at least heard of this story because it's out there. You know, this is a wild story. So Ken was a complicated and controversial figure in the small community of Skidmore.

He was an 8th grade dropout who had never learned to properly read or write, and by the end of his life, he had been married five times, sometimes overlapping in unions, and is believed to have had as many as 19 children, though the official number is 10. In what the town described as a reign of terror, Ken committed over 20 felonies throughout his time there including arson, burglary, sexual assault, and at least one attempted murder. However, he evaded serious consequences for all of these crimes by intimidating those

involved and strong-arming them into dropping their charges. Like the small town police force simply could not keep up with this guy. While married with children, he began a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl named Trina who was 23 years his junior. Then two years later, when Trina became pregnant with his child, her family brought rape charges against him. Fearing arrest for the rape charge, he fled to Kansas with Trina and married her there. Trina then moved in with Ken and his other wife Alice and their children, as Trina and

Ken added their children to the mix. But after Trina had their first child, she claimed both she and Alice were being abused by their communal husband, and the two fled to her parents' house. I mean, yeah, it's not out of the question for this guy. No, this guy is crazy. So Ken forced them to move back home under threat of physical harm, and after this, Trina's parents' house then burned down and their dog was shot, both of which were rumored to be retaliatory efforts of Ken's.

On the day of his murder, Friday, July 10, 1981, a town hall meeting was called with the sheriff present. The Nottoway County Sheriff at the time, Danny Estes, suggested the citizens of Skidmore form a neighborhood watch, but instead, something much more violent formed, and the group quickly evolved into a vigilante effort. As Ken and Trina sat at the local bar, the D&G Tavern, dozens of people gathered around his truck, parked right out front. When Ken got into his car, shots were fired, rumored to be from multiple people and multiple

weapons, and then the crowd quickly dispersed. Trina, who was seated next to her husband in the front seat, bore witness to his death, and she claims that she knew exactly who had pulled the trigger, but that she had been spared. A loose investigation followed, but the town of Skidmore kept its secrets, and they protected each other against what they felt was a completely justifiable crime. And Trina, fearing for her own safety, fled Skidmore, settling in another small Missouri town. She remarried eventually and had eight children, including those that she shared with Ken, and she lived out a happy, peaceful life before she passed of cancer on her 55th birthday.

After Ken's vigilante murder made international headlines, a local journalist said, quote, that's the inexplicable thing about it. If Ken was such a problem, then why didn't the town live happily ever after? Why didn't the violence end with his death? Because it hadn't ended. Horror and mayhem have visited that town over and over and over again. Aside from Ken's murder and Branson's disappearance, two more gruesome cases in Skidmore have made headlines.

In October of 2000, just six months before Branson vanished, 25-year-old Wendy Gillenwater was killed in a brutal attack perpetrated by her boyfriend. Wendy's boyfriend of five years, Greg Dragu, took her life in a violent assault that he later said was fueled by meth rage. On October 16, 2000, Greg savagely assaulted Wendy, so much so that her body was nearly unrecognizable. Her mother Sandra was forced to identify her by the rings that she wore on her fingers.

By some accounts, Greg chained her to his truck and dragged her down the road, but others say that he simply quote, stomped her to death, kicking her so hard that he actually bruised the tops of his feet. No one stepped in to help her as the abuse allegedly continued for the entirety of their relationship, nor did anyone try to stop him when he was beating her to death in their yard. But when police reported to the scene, they arrested Greg without incident and he was sentenced to life in prison for Wendy's murder. On December 16th, 2004, there was another unthinkable murder of a local. 23-year-old Bobby Joe Stinnett, who was born and raised in Skidmore, and her husband Zeb

were excitedly expecting their first child. That Thursday afternoon, Bobbi Jo's mom stopped by her house to find it eerily quiet and static. And inside, on the carpet, she found Bobbi Joe's limp body surrounded by blood. It wasn't until paramedics arrived and pronounced her dead that they realized what happened. Her infant daughter, one month from being born, was gone. Thankfully, the perpetrator left a very sloppy paper trail because, through Bobby Joe's computer records, it was discovered that she had been conversing with a woman who claimed that she wanted to purchase one of Bobby Joe's puppies. But instead, when Bobby Joe greeted the woman, later confirmed to be 36-year-old Lisa Montgomery

from Melvern, Kansas, Lisa attacked her. She started by strangling Bobby Joe and then cut the baby out of her womb. Lisa then fled with the baby, driving home to her husband Kevin, who thought that his wife had been pregnant this whole time. Lisa told him that she had gone into labor while on a shopping trip in Topeka, Kansas, and asked him to pick her up from the parking lot of a restaurant. And somehow, Kevin didn't question any of this. And it's also worth noting, by the way,

that Lisa had already birthed four children, and she had undergone a hysterectomy. So how her husband Kevin was not suspicious, we do not understand. I mean, is this guy stupid? Like, I'm sorry, but... He might be. Like, literally. Your wife can't have children anymore and then all of a sudden she has a baby?

Come on. And she said she was pregnant and now is using this as an excuse, which was probably her plan the whole time. And we've covered cases like this before, sadly. She was probably looking for a baby to steal. 100%. So at 12.45am on December 17th, 2004, an Amber Alert was issued for the baby. And after about 24 hours missing,

the baby was located and Lisa was arrested for the cruel murder and mutilation of Bobby Joe Stinnett and the kidnapping of her daughter. Thankfully, the baby was healthy and was released to her father on the day of Bobby Joe's funeral. Lisa Montgomery was charged with first degree murder and though this is a rare sentence for female offenders, Lisa was actually given the death penalty. And she was put to death via lethal injection on January 13th, 2021. In an incredibly strange and sad coincidence, Branson, Wendy, and Bobby Joe were all related.

Joanne Stinnett, Branson's grandma, was Wendy Gillenwater's step-grandmother, and Branson and Bobby Joe were cousins. So weird. Yeah, like strange connections here in such a small town. Like not only are these horrible crimes happening in this tiny town over a fairly short period of time, but most of them are related via family, yet case-wise somehow unrelated. And frustratingly, very little progress has been made in the missing persons case of Branson Perry.

Sheriff Ben Espy, who is now retired, blamed a pattern of violence that has been allowed to continue for decades. He attested, quote, If a parent gets by with something, then the next generation down or two, they think that they're going to get away with it. And in the case of Skidmore, there's a possibility that it did drop from one generation to another, to another. Because we know exactly what's happened to Branson Perry. We know who was involved.

And I can tell you right now that they were from Skidmore. Wow. In 2009, law enforcement searched a property in Quitman, Missouri, just nine minutes up the road from Skidmore. The farm property belonging to a man named Darryl Kever was excavated, leaving a hole about 23 feet deep. And law enforcement announced that they had quietly conducted another search of the Quitman area a year and a half prior to that.

Like the search of Darryl's property, holes were dug and a well was searched, but as far as the Sheriff's Office has announced, nothing of note was found there. Then in May of this year, the case received its first update in years. On May 15, 2024, so two weeks before this episode is being recorded, law enforcement conducted a search of yet another Quitman property, acting on what they described as a credible tip. Four agencies assisted in conducting this search, including the FBI, and a specialized team that was also enlisted to search a well that was on the property.

Multiple wells have now been searched in relation to Branson's case, so it kind of seems as if the town rumors and tips have led police in this direction. It doesn't appear that they found anything that would be helpful in Branson's case, but the Nottoway County Sheriff's Office has remained quiet on the details since this obviously just happened. So we'll definitely be keeping an eye on updates. Many Skidmore locals on social media have claimed that all or most of the perpetrators in Branson's case are now deceased, but that it's been a well-known secret who the guilty

parties are. According to the nameless allegations being leveled, there were four young men involved, all of whom lived in the area and one of whom resided on the Quitman property that was searched. And a local alleges that he grew up alongside the people believed to have killed Branson and that they would frequently brag about having shot him and disposed of him in a well, while another rumor indicated that Branson had been fed to hogs on a farm. So it does seem like, you know, police are consistently working on this case. They feel confident that they know who did it. They have for years.

And searching this property is just a part of hopefully bringing this case to a conclusion if he is somewhere on that property or one of the other men's properties. on that property or one of the other men's properties. Before she passed, Becky penned a heartbreaking plea to the people who took her son away in the town that was sheltering them. She wrote on Branson's website, quote, I have never been a person to ask for much. I am asking, pleading, even begging for your help in finding my son or finding out what happened to him. I need for this nightmare to end.

It is a roller coaster that doesn't ever stop. From the outside, I may appear to be fine. Inside, I will never be okay. If you have ever lost someone who has died, then you know that feeling of complete despair. Over time, it eases and becomes bearable. You know the cause of what happened and you have to be able to put your loved ones to rest. You will always have that sense of emptiness and at times it overcomes you but you are

able to put it into perspective again. Parents of missing children never have that feeling of ease. It never becomes bearable, only easier to hide. One minute you're okay and functioning, the next minute something triggers inside and you plummet to the deepest ravine you could ever imagine and can't find any way out. It can be something as simple as a smell, a taste, a sound, a touch, and all the horror is there again. It never ends.

Please, please, please find it in your hearts to come forward if you have any information. You may think it's insignificant, but it may be the key link to answers. You can remain anonymous if you want. I continue to pray to God that Branson is safe, is happy, and will come home soon, but I fear the worst has happened. I fear I will never see my son's beautiful smile again or hear his voice." Branson's father Bob passed away in 2004 after a lengthy health struggle. His mother Becky, his biggest advocate, followed, succumbing to cancer in 2011. His grandma Joanne died in 2015. His stepfather James and aunt

Gail McMurray continue to fight to see justice, among a few other concerned citizens who want to see resolution in this case. His Facebook page and website are still active and Gale is still hopeful that Branson's case will be solved even if many of his loved ones won't be here to witness it. Gale said quote, someone knows something. I promised his dad and grandparents that I would never give up on finding Branson. Gina said in a recent interview that though his parents are gone, there are still people looking for him.

She confirmed quote, the family and I think it needs to stay in the media to let everyone know we haven't given up. We're still looking for him and for answers. Branson Perry stood at 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed about 155 pounds, and had blonde hair and blue eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he was believed to have been wearing shorts and a t-shirt, along with necklaces adorned with leather and arrowheads. He was allergic to penicillin and had a mild heart racing condition. He has a scar

on his upper right cheek and a scar on his left knee. If you have any information on the disappearance of Branson Perry, please call the Nodaway County Sheriff's Office at 660-582-7451 Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, we appreciate you guys listening to this episode. If you want to see photos of the area in which Branson disappeared they're gonna be on our socials. We're on Instagram at going West podcast and we're also on Facebook. Yes please let us know what you think about this case. I really do feel like it is so close to being solved. If police feel this confident that they know who

did it like it's only a matter of time, even if they are past, that we know what happened. But that's what is horrible, is if they do find his remains buried somewhere or in the bottom of some well, and the people behind it are dead, how many real answers can come forward, you know? Yeah, I mean, it just feels like there isn't gonna be total justice, but at least Branson will be found. But we'll see, you never know. So thank you guys so much for tuning in.

This was such a crazy story to dive into across the board and learning so much about what, by the way, is regarded as the creepiest town in America. Yeah, I mean that is one scary place, no offense to people that live there, but I mean just the amount of craziness that has happened in that town darkness yeah of just 300 people all right guys so for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger I'm just a little bit of a wimp. If you make your purchases while working, eating or even listening to this walk, then you know and love the excitement of the shopping. But are you afraid of getting the best deal? Rakuten members, are, yes.

They store the brands they like and make important savings, in addition to cash returns. And you can also start making cash returns in your favorite stores like Old Navy, Best Buy and Expedia, and even accumulate sales and cash returns. It's easy to use and you get your returns by Paypal or by check. The idea is simple. The stores make Rakuten to send them to people who store them.

And Rakuten shares the money with you in remittances format. Download the free Rakuten app and never miss a good deal. Or go to rakuten.ca to get more for your money. It's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.