(mysterious music) - Hey everyone. Welcome
back to my channel. I'm happy to have you
here for another video. If you are new, welcome. Today we are gonna be talking about a case that I first saw on the
reboot of "Unsolved Mysteries" which was on Netflix. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it. As many of you know, "Unsolved
Mysteries" is an older show that was, you know, kind of re-imagined and brought back on
Netflix, and personally, I think it's incredibly well done. I think they did such a fantastic job of telling these stories in the right way. They didn't have some
annoying salacious host. You know, they weren't grasping for every bit of drama in the situation. They kept it very real and
what I really liked about it is for the most part, I
think almost all of it, they really let the
victims' family members tell their story. A lot of the cases on that
show really piqued my interest, made me want to look into them more, but there was one in particular
that just stayed with me. I don't know what it was about
it. This case is intriguing. It's incredibly frustrating,
but it's also just so sad. Today we're gonna be
talking about Alonzo Brooks. His family was featured in the
"Unsolved Mysteries" episode and I just really felt for them. There was something about these people that seems incredibly genuine, warm, real, and how open they were about
the pain they've been through was really inspiring to me. Like, it's not easy for these
families to get on these shows and talk about the worst thing that has ever happened
to them in most cases. They are really looking for
more awareness on their case. Obviously the "Unsolved Mysteries"
episode was huge for them but things have quieted down a little bit. However, there have been
updates since that has come out and I will go over all of that, but let's go ahead and jump into the case. So this is Alonzo Tyree Brooks. He was born on May 19th,
1980, in Topeka, Kansas to his parents, Billy Brooks,
Sr. and Maria Ramirez, and Alonzo was the youngest of five kids. He had three older sisters,
Demetria, Felicia, and Esperanza and he also had an older
brother, Billy Jr., who he was very close with. Alonzo had a lot of friends. He had a lot of family
he was close with as well and most of them actually called him Zo. That was his nickname. Eventually Maria married
Alonzo's stepfather who's name is Stuart Porter
and he had kids of his own and they all actually got
along really, really well. Alonzo loved his step siblings
and his regular siblings and they were one big happy family. There really wasn't anyone that
Alonzo didn't get along with according to his family. He was such a friendly
guy, such a low-key dude, and really never caused
drama or issues with people. He just didn't have enemies. - He liked anybody and everybody. He was real friendly, very friendly guy. He was just my baby. That's what he was. He was my baby. - So Zo had a lot of friends,
but there was one friend that he considered his best friend and that was Rodney English and they had been friends
for a really long time. They grew up together, they
considered each other brothers, always there for each other. They spend a lot of their
childhood running around outside, building bike ramps and playing games. One of their favorite
things to do was climb to the top of the compost pile and try to play king of the hill which is where you knock
the other person down and try to get to the top first. Zo was also a natural athlete. His favorite sport to play was football and he made several of his
closest friends while playing. He was a very athletic guy. He also liked basketball and karate. So oftentimes as the baby of the family, you aren't able to do the things that your older siblings are able to do. And that was the case with
Alonzo and his siblings. Sometimes Alonzo would
feel a little left out but his mom would always make sure to give him extra attention and make sure he felt really cared for and involved, even though he couldn't
always do everything that they could do. And Alonzo's older brother, Billy, thought that his mom coddled
him a little bit too much. His main reasoning for that was because he knew the
world could be tough and he wanted his brother
to be prepared for anything, but whenever the two of them
were, like, roughhousing, his mother would step in
and tell them to stop. She would never want Alonzo to get hurt. And Billy kind of thought
that was coddling. When he was a teenager, Zo was very polite and he even cared about
his appearance quite a bit. His sisters would actually make fun of him for ironing his pants before wearing them. Alonzo's favorite color was red and most of his clothes were red and black and he also was known for wearing beanies. So after he graduated
from Topeka High School, he and his mother decided
to move to Gardner, Kansas, which is quite a bit
different than Topeka. It's a lot more rural and
it was a change for them. Alonzo got a job working
for his stepfather, actually, at a maintenance
company and he liked it okay but the change from Topeka
to Gardner is a big one. Topeka is the state capital, you know, it has plenty of things to do and a population of over 125,000 people but Gardner is a small town. In 2004, the population was only 13,001. So it was a big adjustment for
Alonzo but he was open to it. You know, the transition was a struggle but he actually could see himself
becoming a farmer one day, living on some land raising animals. He actually was really into
the idea of that lifestyle. Alonzo also had a close
group of friends in Gardner that he would spend most of
his off time weekends with. They would go to a lot
of parties together, little kickbacks and just hang out. So one Saturday, April 3rd, 2004, one of his friends heard that
there was gonna be a party in another town and it
was a little ways away and it was supposed to be
for a guy who was going into the military and it was
kind of a sendoff for him. But people from a bunch of different towns were gonna be at this party. Alonzo was the oldest friend in the group and he was also the only
black friend in the group. This isn't something that his friends or Alonzo really ever thought about but unfortunately it
really matters in this case because not only was he
the only black person in this group of friends, he was also one of
maybe three black people that were at this party
they were going to. I've heard mixed things. I've
heard he was the only one. I've heard there were two
other people there as well. I'm not sure, but it was
a very sketchy situation because this town they were
going to was known for racism. Alonzo wasn't a huge partier by any means. He hadn't been to that many
parties in his young life but he decided that he really
wanted to have a good time at this party and go all out. So the group of friends
meets at Alonzo's house and they all talk about how
they're gonna get there, who's gonna drive, whatever. Zo was all ready to go.
He was pumped to go. He was wearing jeans, a T-shirt,
a sweater, and a skull hat. And he also wore a pair of boots and he wore them quite often and normally he would
wear them with two socks to make them fit, you
know, a little better and he also had a hurt ankle
from playing basketball. So he had kind of a slight limp going on and he ended up rolling
one of his socks down to, you know, create more
support around his ankle. Before he left, he gave his
mom a kiss and a hug goodbye and he told her he would
see her later that night. And then Zo drove to the
party with his friend, Justin, and then the other guys followed
behind in a different car. Now, this party was nearly
50 miles away at a farmhouse which was pretty creepy
outside of the La Cygne area in Linn County. This is in East Central Kansas and it has a population of
barely over 1,000 at the time. So La Cygne makes Gardner look like a big city in comparison. So as they're going, they're driving down all these
random country back roads that they had never heard
of or been on before and Justin was driving. Alonzo is just relaxing
in the passenger seat. But basically they were going to the middle of nowhere for this party. When they finally got there, the first thing they noticed
was how long the driveway was. It doesn't look like it in the photos but the driveway was
actually decently long. They had to go quite a
ways to get to the house. And this farm house is
surrounded by woods and fields and there's a small creek
running along one side of it called Middle Creek. And this creek branches off
into two other directions. As they walked up, a few
people were just standing outside of the house,
drinking and whatever, and Alonzo walked up to them and kind of made his
presence known by saying, "Who wants a beer?" Justin actually remembered this being a little out of character for Alonzo because he was a pretty reserved, shy guy and he didn't know a lot
of people at this party, but for some reason that night, Alonzo just seemed in a really good mood and really wanted to party. A little while later, the
rest of their friends arrived and they realized they
were probably the only ones from Gardner at this party. Many of the other people
at the party seemed to be part of a tight-knit
group who had probably been born and raised together out in the country and a lot of them were
dressed in boots, cowboy hats. It wasn't Zo's normal
crowd, but like I said, he really got along with anybody. Zo's friends estimated that there was about 30
to 50 people at the party but as investigators have
looked a little more into it, it could have been as many
as 100 that came through. And most of the people at the party were on the younger side, like 16, 17. Alonzo was probably one of
the oldest ones there at 23. And in most ways it was
just a typical party. There was music, dancing, and, you know, people gathered around different tables, playing drinking games like
flip cup and card games, and nearly everyone at
the party was drinking. Some were also smoking weed and right away Alonzo wanted
to get in on the action so he started playing a drinking game as soon as he got there. And all of his friends really noticed that that particular night, he seemed to be having such a great time. He was very outgoing, which
wasn't that normal for him. I mean, he was friendly
with people, he was social, but he was a little bit more reserved in the way he went about it. So they just thought, wow, he really wants to have
a good time tonight or he's in a great mood or something. At one point, so his friend
Daniel Fune found him in the kitchen and they
took a few shots together. After they took their shot, Daniel left briefly to
talk to someone else and he came back later
and Alonzo was in a fight with someone, not physically, but he and this other guy
were yelling at each other. And to Daniel, it looked like things were close to getting physical so he decided to step in and break it up. And in the "Unsolved Mysteries," Justin talks about how he believes that that fight was over
Alonzo's skin color. He said in their group of friends, it was never something
that they thought about or was never an issue, but
in this area in La Cygne, there was a lot of racist people. But Alonzo didn't seem too
bothered by it, honestly. He decided to let it roll off his back. He wasn't gonna let anyone
else ruin his night. He was there to have a good time. So his friend Daniel stayed
at the party with him for about another hour until they decided to go to a different
party and he got a ride to this other party and
they left Alonzo there. Before he left, he said goodbye to Alonzo, and Justin, his other friend,
was still there with him so he wasn't completely alone. The plan was for Justin
to take Alonzo home and around one a.m., Justin realized that he
was out of cigarettes. So he decided to just go out
quickly and get a new pack. So he tells Alonzo, you know,
I'll be back in a little bit. I'm just gonna go get cigarettes. And Alonzo tells him,
hey, if you're going, just get me a pack too. And he says he'll see him later and they'll drive home together. That's the plan. Now, to head back to town,
Justin was supposed to, when he left out of the
long driveway, take a left but instead he accidentally took a right. He ended up stuck out on a gravel road. He'd gone, like, 30 minutes
before realizing it. So he was completely lost with no idea how to get back to this random farmhouse. So Justin calls another
friend who's at the party and asked him if he can take Alonzo home. And he actually could hear
Alonzo in the background kind of giving him shit for
getting stuck and, you know, having him drive home basically with someone he didn't really know. Justin thought, you know, because he was already 30
minutes out and he was stuck, once he got unstuck, he was
just gonna go straight home, not come back to the party,
pick him up, and then go home. But that would've been the smart move. And this is why the buddy
system is so important when going to random parties
or parties in general. So the next morning is Sunday, April 4th, and Maria, his mother,
gets a call from someone, one of Alonzo's friends, asking if he made it home that night. And she was very surprised
that he'd be calling to ask her that. She figured that he was just in his bed like he normally would be. I mean, she said that Alonzo,
as much as he would go out and stuff, would always come home and she knew her son would end up at home at the end of the night in his bed. And if for some reason he wasn't
gonna be able to get home, he would let her know. - He never spent the
night over anyone's house. He always was the type of
person that wanted to go home to his own bed. - So she went into his room
and that's when she noticed that his bed was still made. He clearly hadn't been in the room at all. She called his name in the
house thinking that, you know, maybe he had slept in the
basement or something, but got no response and realized
that Alonzo was not home. So she told this friend to start calling all of the other boys that
were at the party that night and had been with Alonzo
and figure out where he was. And right from the
beginning, she was terrified because she just knew that
Alonzo would never do this. This was so out of character. He would always come home
at the end of the night. He'd find a way. - I knew something was wrong because Alonzo didn't call or... That's not like Alonzo. - That morning, all of Alonzo's friends that he was with that night
were woken up with frantic calls asking if they had seen him
or if they were with him. And none of them had seen
him since the night before. And all of Alonzo's friends said that this was just unlike him. You know, he would not have not come home and then not called his mom. They all knew something
was very, very wrong. So Justin decided to call the friend who was supposed to take
Alonzo home from the party who he had talked to the night before. And when he talked to him, he said that somehow the two
of them missed each other at the end of the night, that he basically just left without him. I think he thought he already left and he may still have been
there and he left without him. But no one's sure. He said that he had figured that Alonzo had already left though and gotten a ride with someone else. Maria decided to call
Alonzo's lifelong best friend who was not there that night, Rodney, and he was extremely concerned as soon as he heard
about what was going on. He hadn't even met any
of the friends in Gardner that, you know, Alonzo had, but he rushed over as soon as he could, dropped everything to help. So Justin ended up driving
Rodney and a few other friends out to this random farmhouse
where the party was. Right off the bat,
Rodney was just surprised that they went so far away
and that he was left there. They pull up to the house. They all got a really eerie
feeling but they got out anyway and started looking around
for any sign of Alonzo or maybe any of his belongings. At this point, you know,
maybe it was possible that Alonzo had gotten really drunk and passed out somewhere on the property and they were hoping they could find him. They ended up walking to a
wooded area across the road, directly across from the farm house, and they found just out in the open one of Alonzo's boots and his skull hat. They kept looking and down
the road on the same side as the house, they ended
up finding his other boot and it was just lying
along the creek bank. And Ronnie immediately
thought that it looked like maybe someone had just thrown
these items out of their car as they were driving down the road. And after they found the second boot, a guy that they didn't know
drove up on a four-wheeler and told them that they had to leave. They got really sketched
out, just bad vibes. Alonzo's friends from
Gardner wanted to stay, fight back, and tell
this person to fuck off, but Rodney was really freaked out and he wanted to get
the hell out of there. He knew that this was a mostly white area that was known for racism and he was the only black guy in the group so he needed to get to safety. - We're not naive, we're
not ignorant to know that there is racial issues out there and a lot of us in our family, 'cause it's a big family
we have, come across it. - And this incident really
made Alonzo's friends realize the giant mistake that they had made leaving him at a party in this town, and right away, Rodney couldn't help but feel very frustrated with Justin. You know, he was his ride.
He was responsible for him. And he should not have left without him. He should've gone back and got him, and Justin felt terrible. I mean, it was a mistake but there was nothing he
could do at this point and he kinda justified
the situation saying that, you know, when he left,
everything looked fine. Everyone was cool. No one was fighting. He thought he was gonna
be back in a little bit. I mean, it's understandable, but again, this is why it's so important
that when you go to parties where you don't know people
or in a different town, that you have a buddy system
and that you stick to that. So they reported back
to Maria what they saw about the boots and about the
man who told them to leave and she immediately went
to the police station to report Alonzo missing,
but they ended up telling her that she had to wait 48 hours
to report him as missing because he was an adult,
which is bullshit. But they tried to assure her
that he would just show up soon but she knew that this was not true. Something was seriously wrong here. That night, she called Alonzo's siblings and she was hysterical. She didn't know what to do.
She didn't know who to go to. So Zo's brother, Billy, told
her that he would drive down to La Cygne first thing in the morning to find out what was going on. And he and his wife, Cindy, found out who owned this random farmhouse and it turns out that it
was a rental property. So they drove out to the house to have a look around for themselves. When they got there,
they got out of the car, went down the driveway and
looked into the windows, and realized that the
house was mainly empty. She was really surprised that
there had been a party there just a few nights ago. It looked like no one had been there. And as they drove through the
town, they noticed right away that they were getting
a lot of dirty looks from white residents. They ended up meeting with
the sheriff in the town and he wasn't concerned at all. He said Alonzo was probably
just walking around because that's something people just do, spend days just walking around. It makes no sense. It's so frustrating. Plus they pointed out that Alonzo wasn't wearing shoes clearly since they had found them, so it's not like he was just
out barefoot walking around. They felt pretty hopeless
when they left the scene. All they could do was hope that the sheriff would look more into it. The sheriff sent Deputy Paul
Filla out to the property where Alonzo was last seen to investigate. Paul checked out the farmhouse,
walked along the creek, and searched the surrounding property, but he didn't see any signs
of Alonzo or anyone else. When he was done looking, he
reported back negative contact. And at that point, the
case was turned over to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and within just a few
days, the KBI organized and launched a full intensive search for Alonzo Brooks in this area. They brought in their evidence
recovery team, cadaver dogs, and the Kansas Highway Patrol
supplied helicopters as well and investigators meticulously searched the fields and wooded area. They walked down along
the creek with the dogs and there was no sign of Alonzo. Then on April 10th, 2004, the
FBI ended up getting involved, which was really big, and it
was only, you know, a few, like a week after Alonzo had gone missing. So this was really good and they were immediately
under the suspicion that this was a hate crime
and that Alonzo was targeted for being black, for
being Hispanic, or both. And the media also started reporting that this could potentially
be a hate crime. They reported that Alonzo
was being called racial slurs at the party by several attendants. - Both Alonzo's mom and the FBI think he was a victim of a hate crime. They say he was one of
the few black people at a mostly white party and they also said there were racist comments
made at that party. - And the residents of La Cygne were actually really
pissed about this coverage. They thought it made La
Cygne look like a bad place and they said there were people from other towns at the party as well and that La Cygne wasn't
some horribly racist place after all, but investigators
were really worried. I mean, they knew the history in the town and they told their
family to try to stay away from La Cygne as much as possible. And since they couldn't directly
help out with the search, their family decided to
make T-shirts and flyers with Alonzo's picture that
said "Lost but not forgotten." And then eventually an underwater
rescue and recovery team were brought in to help as well. And they were hopeful about this. This was an all-volunteer
rescue team that specializes in forensics, dive operations
and evidence recovery and they use high-tech equipment and the latest technologies in the field. So their family was feeling
very positive about it. You know, they figured
if there was a body, Alonzo's body in the water,
that they would find it. Now, during their search, they realized that the creek was no deeper
than three feet at any point and they could pretty much
always see the bottom. The divers ended up separating
into two different teams and they cleared all the
brush along the water and searched every inch of that creek. But at the end of it all, they
didn't find any indication of a body in the creek or
any sign of Alonzo at all. They reported their findings
to the police station and they offered to come back if needed, but they ended up never being called back and eventually the investigation into Alonzo Brooks'
disappearance was closed. Overall, law enforcement
did, like, six searches of the property, of the
farmhouse and the creek. There were over 40 people
searching in the group and they literally went
to shoulder to shoulder, combed every single area and
searched them multiple times, and at the same time, the KBI and the FBI are conducting tons of
interviews with people who were at the party to see if they could figure
out what had happened. Some of the witnesses were
willing to take polygraph tests. A lot of them were not, but they did give them out
to people who volunteered. And Zo's family kept
hearing rumors about a fight breaking out around three
or four in the morning. This would have been after all
of Alonzo's friends had left but the details around
it were really sketchy. His friends met up with
investigators several times and talked to them about what
they had witnessed that night. They gave them more names,
more phone numbers of people to contact who may know something, but they were told over and over again that Alonzo probably just got drunk, kicked off his shoes,
and tried to walk home, maybe got lost along the way, but that just didn't make any sense. And Justin was trying to
tell them over and over again that there was no way
he would have done that 'cause he had a hurt ankle. Why would he do that? He had that sock rolled up to
support his ankle for a reason so if he's gonna walk home, why would he take shoes off to do that? Plus there's no way he would've
started trying to walk home. But it didn't seem to matter how much his friends pushed back. The investigators seemed stuck on the idea that there was no foul play involved. For three weeks, Alonzo's
family members called the Linn County Sheriff's
Office every single day asking for updates on the case, trying to get permission
to join the search, but eventually investigators
told them to stop calling. They said, "We'll contact
you when we know something." But then finally almost a
month later on May 1st, 2004, the family was given the
green light to go ahead and search the property for themselves. At this point, Zo of
course had been missing for almost a month and they
didn't have a lot of hope for finding anything. They were just more focused on finding any possible evidence, anything that may belong to Zo or could give them a little
bit more information. They weren't really suspecting
to find him, of course, but they rounded up friends
and a few community volunteers and headed out to the property to look. There was more than 50 of them that actually gathered at the property. They put on orange vests
and started to scour every area of the property
and the creek behind it. There was one group that was led by a volunteer named Karen Turner. Karen decided to search
an area around a shed and as her group walked towards this shed that they were gonna go check out, they're clearing a bunch of
thick brush around the creek and when they reached
the edge of the ravine, she looked out over the water
and suddenly saw Alonzo. He was just lying there. It almost looked like he was still alive. She knew he wasn't, but he was just lying there so peacefully almost as if he had, like,
fallen asleep in the creek. They were totally shocked
that they actually found him on the property, that he
hadn't been found yet, so she used the radio to
alert Zo's uncle Edward, then told Billy that they had found his little baby brother's body. And he ran over to the spot that he was and when he got there, he
said it just took everything in him not to run over and grab him, but they knew they had to
leave everything untouched. And of course, as soon
as they found Alonzo, they knew that something
horrible had happened, that there had been foul play involved and they knew that there was just no way that the search and rescue team and the cadaver dogs, the helicopters, all of that missed him
right on the property. It didn't make any sense so they believe that someone got word that
they were gonna be finally able to search the area and
they moved his body there for them to find. As soon as they found
his body and reported it, a bunch of law enforcement
came to the scene. Alonzo's body was then
taken to Shawnee County where seasoned pathologist,
Dr. Erik Mitchell, performed an autopsy and he
said that he found no trace of acute penetration, no bone
fractures, gunshot wounds, no evidence of stabbing,
drowning, or strangulation, although he said that
there really was no way to determine if he was strangled because all of the soft tissue around his neck had been
decomposed, and, you know, a lot of it had been eaten by bugs and animals in the ravine. There was no water in his lungs, but that doesn't necessarily mean he couldn't have died from drowning. There were also no marks that
could be seen on his bones, but that doesn't rule out the idea that he could have been
stabbed, bludgeoned to death, beaten to death, but with
the way his body was, the pathologist said that there was no way to prove exactly how he died and his death was ruled as undetermined. And what's really strange
is right after the autopsy, the sheriff in the area
came forward and said that he believed that this was a murder, but then a few days later,
he retracted his statement and then he started calling
it a death investigation. When he was asked about how Alonzo's body could have ended up in the creek after it had been searched
several times thoroughly, he said, you know, nature
had to take its course and his idea really was that the body could have gone down the creek and it could have taken some time. He could have been stuck in some trees or a dam at some point, but Alonzo's friends and
family were not buying it. They believe that someone
placed him there conveniently when they heard they
were gonna be searching. - Within an hour, and
I'm gonna say 36 minutes they were out there, they
found my son that quick. That tell me something right there. They were hiding my son. I
know they were hiding my son. - And we knew in our heart,
we knew it was murder. - The family talked with the
leader of the dive team as well that looked through the creek and they said that there
was no way his body was in the creek when they searched, that if it was, they would have found it. Some investigators do believe that maybe his body was
stuck somewhere in the ravine and that as the creek filled more, because the water level did go up, that his body was carried downstream. And of course that's possible, but it doesn't make a lot of sense because Alonzo had quite
a few belongings on him. And in the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode, his mom brings out all the
stuff that they found with him, you know, his wallet, his
movie card, his bandana, papers that he had that still had writing. He had all of this stuff
on his body in the water and none of it was damaged. It all looked completely fine. So it really doesn't seem
like he was in the water for that long, plus Billy said that when he first found
him, he looked normal. His skin looked full of life. Like, there wasn't any discoloration or anything you'd expect
to see when someone dies. So with Alonzo's death,
there are two big mysteries, how he died and where his
body was until May 1st. Unfortunately, with no
evidence of a hate crime, the FBI left the case and left the family with pretty much nothing. All there is is rumors and
speculation, and boy, are there. All over Reddit, people claiming they know what happened that night, claiming they were at the party or they knew someone who was at the party and they know exactly what
had happened to Alonzo. Some people have said he
was dragged by a truck. Some people said he was beaten to death. There's so many different versions and that's gotta be so hard as a family, so traumatizing to just think
through all the possibilities and then, you know, people are constantly
bringing up new ideas and then you have to think about that. I mean, it's exhausting. I guess a lot of people from
the party have lawyered up and have gotten out of
taking polygraph tests. They don't want to be talking to anybody. I'm sure in the town there's
a lot of rumors going around about people, names specifically, but nothing that I could find. And then there's people
out there that think that maybe his friends actually know more than they're saying, which,
you know, who really knows? It's hard to say, I mean, watching the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode, I felt a lot of sadness
coming from his friends, especially Justin, a
lot of regret and pain and I think he truly feels guilty. I mean, they really fucked up
that night, leaving him there. But of course it's hard to
tell how someone really is over a Netflix documentary. I wish there was more information. I wish there was more to work
with, but there really isn't. Of course there's a
theory that Alonzo's death could have been an accident,
that maybe he drank too much and he wandered off and
got injured or passed out, and of course that's a possibility. But if that had happened, they
would have found him, right? They would have found a trace of him and how do you explain his
shoes just randomly being thrown clearly out of a car on
the side of the road? There's also the idea that
maybe he drank too much at the party and that people were scared that they'd get in trouble for
having alcohol at the party but this theory doesn't
make a lot of sense because he was over the legal age. People have also brought up the idea that maybe someone had
given him some type of drug and he ODed on it and
this person felt guilty or was scared and they hid his body, but most of the rumors
and most people theorize that this was a straight up murder. This was a hate crime. There were a lot of people who claimed to have seen Zo that night hanging out with a young white woman and
getting really close with her, laughing with her, kinda,
you know, flirting, and a lot of people theorized that there could have been
someone there that day who did not like that and
did not want to see Alonzo with a white woman and
could have killed him. This could have led to some type of fight, altercation, that then led to murder, or maybe it was premeditated
murder from the start. Alonzo's friends know that
if he was in that situation that he would have fought back, he would have done everything
in his power he could to save himself. Here's also the theory that
maybe he did try to walk home at the end of the night. Really doesn't make sense about why he would take his shoes off, but maybe someone picked
him up along the way, that maybe he just came in
contact with a random killer. But that seems unlikely. No matter how he died, though, his family are convinced
that he was kept somewhere for some period of time, dead or alive. His brother believes
that he was likely kept in a meat locker and that's why his body
was in decent condition when they found him. But with the way that his body was, there was no way to see
when he actually died. There's no time of death at all. Some people believe that
his body was in the creek that whole time, just really
well hidden for almost 30 days. Others believed that
he was held somewhere, possibly alive, and then killed or that he was killed, stored somewhere, and then put there later on. The pathologist, Dr. Mitchell,
believes that it's unlikely someone would have moved
his body out there. He said that when people
hide bodies, move bodies, they try to do the most
convenient thing possible and that it's rather
inconvenient to bring him all the way out through
this brush out to the creek. But that doesn't mean
someone didn't do that. I mean, someone absolutely
could have done that. Maybe a group of people. Alonzo's family was finally
able to give him a proper burial and hold a funeral service. He was buried in Mount
Calvary Cemetery in Topeka, but for his family, especially
his mom, his brother, not knowing what happened to him is a pain that they will never,
until they get answers, you know, be able to move forward from. Imagine how you would feel
if you've lost someone, someone important to you in your life, and you didn't even know
what happened to them. You didn't know who was responsible. I mean, that would just be
eating away at you every day. Justin said that he is just haunted by what happened that night,
that he feels incredibly guilty about what happened to Alonzo and he feels that if he never had left,
this never would have happened. And I think he's probably right. His mom, Maria, is
incredibly heartbroken, hurt, and angry and a bit paranoid
about her other kids now. She is obsessed with making
sure that they stay safe and she's terrified to lose another. In March of 2019, their family received even more devastating news. The KBI released a statement that they were officially
closing the case. His family was totally shocked. They didn't understand how they could just
completely wrap up a case when they still had no answers. They had no idea what happened to Alonzo, no idea how he ended up in the creek. I mean, there was just nothing, but luckily Netflix was already working on their reboot of "Unsolved Mysteries" and when they heard about Alonzo's case, they knew they had to include
it in one of their episodes and I'm so glad they did
because it got a lot of eyes on this case, and so Netflix
started sending out requests for information to the FBI. So Steven McAllister, who is the US Attorney for
the District of Kansas, immediately started looking into this case 'cause he had never heard of it and he realized that this
should have never been closed. And luckily the case was reopened because of the Netflix
show in April, 2019. And since, the FBI has
also rejoined the case, which is great. They're continuing to
investigate the possibility that Alonzo's death was
part of a hate crime and it's still an open investigation. They're still interviewing
witnesses, looking over evidence, trying to put the pieces of what happened at that party together. And in June of 2020, the FBI
announced a $100,000 reward for any information that
could help solve the case. And, you know, this happened in 2004. Many of the people who
were at the party were kids and they've grown up since then. Maybe they have more of a conscious now. Maybe they'll be willing to
talk. Maybe they saw something. If for some reason
you're listening to this and you know something, please consider getting that information
to the right people. His family is still begging for anything, even if it seems small, any
information that you could have or that you know about La Cygne, about people who could
have been at this party, all of that is important and could end up helping
them solve this case. - You need to come forward. You know, you've grown up now. It's time. - Also investigators announced that there were some positive
developments made in the case. They said this is actual evidence that Alonzo was the
victim of a hate crime. They said that night that there was a racially motivated fight and that someone at the party
had used the word brawl. - There are numerous reports
from those who attended of fights breaking out during the party, sometimes described even as brawls. There are also reports of
racist comments being made. - The Netflix "Unsolved Mystery"
episode about Alonzo's case was released on July 1st, 2020. His family organized a little watch party to view it together and they
had a renewed sense of hope that they might finally get
answers about what happened to Alonzo after all this time, especially with more people
aware of the situation. - Every day it's like reliving, you know, it over and wondering what
happened, who was responsible, you know, looking for help to
try to help solve the case. - I hope that it will let
the people out there know that we want an answer
and we need answer now. And I hope they just get
around to everybody out there. - After the episode aired, a lot of tips came in which was great, and at least three of those
tips were credible enough to be investigated fully by the FBI. And then that same
month, the FBI announced that they had evidence that justified them
exhuming Alonzo's body. This was a huge step forward. That means they have something big. I mean, to exhume a body normally means they have something quite substantial. That's not something that's
just done willy nilly. His body was brought to
the Dover Air Force Base to be examined by the
top forensic pathologists and experts in the field. They use new DNA technology
that wasn't available in 2004. And the forensics team is
certain that he was murdered. They said that the injuries
on his body are inconsistent with normal patterns of decomposition and on April 5th, 2021,
all these years later, Alonzo's cause of death was
finally changed to homicide. This was a huge new development. They are very, very happy and
having a renewed sense of hope that they may actually get
the justice that they want. - And I know we will get answers this time and I know we'll get justice. I just know someone out there
knows what happened to my son. - [Reporter] I reached out to Othram, a company that specializes
in forensic evidence, to see how medical examiner
experts would be able to determine how a person
died 16 years later. The director for case management, Michael Vogen, couldn't
speak to this case, but says technology has advanced a lot the past couple of decades, allowing for more
information to come from DNA. - If any of those items
have been analyzed for DNA and there's a profile present
that's not the victim's, so in other words, it's an
unknown human DNA profile, they could potentially do
the type of testing we do at Othram to figure out
who that DNA belongs to. - Alonzo's family is so happy
that they finally have this. I mean, they've known all
along that this was a murder, that this was a homicide, but now they have the proof that it was. And with all these new developments, all of the new work that the
FBI is doing behind the scenes, their family is hopeful that
Alonzo's case might be solved, that we might finally get some answers about what happened that
night and who killed him. As of right now, the
investigation is still ongoing, but it seems like amazing
developments are being made after all these years. I mean, this happened back in 2004. There's so many cases out there that have been closed long ago, cold cases that never get answers. So it's really encouraging to see that their family feels hopeful. You know, I'm so happy that Netflix got this
out to so many people and this latest update
is just fantastic news. I really hope in the future
we see justice for Alonzo, that we see closure for this family after everything that
they've been through. I mean, I think it is one
of the most fucked up things on Earth when a family member
or a friend of a family member are the people to actually find
their lost loved one's body. I mean, that is one of the most
heartbreaking things to me. Every time I hear about
that in a case, I just, I get so emotional 'cause I cannot imagine what that would be like, you know? it's just not something that family members
should have to experience. And I just really, really hope
that people go down for this, that someone is held
accountable for Alonzo's death, because he did not deserve this. He sounded like such a wonderful guy and his family has been, I mean, their lives are forever
changed by this one night. It's incredibly sad. Of course. I want to
know what you guys think. Is there one theory
that stands out to you? I know I only went over a
few of the possibilities. So many things could
have happened that night. So I want to know what you think. I'm sure you guys will
be just as frustrated at the end of this as I am, but let's just hope with
all of these new updates that we get some answers eventually and that justice is served, but that's it for me today, guys. Definitely want to know what
you think about this one. Leave your comments below. Also for updates on
cases that I've covered and my other random thoughts, you can follow me on social media. That'll all be linked below. But that's it from me today, guys. I hope you're having a great day. Stay safe out there and
I will see you next time. (mysterious music)
