Gone in a Blink
There are an estimated 8 billion people in the world. In the US, approximately 2,300 people go missing every day. While some of those cases may be of their own accord, others are because of something far more sinister. Gone in a Blink is a true crime podcast that dives head first into the most mysterious and terrifying missing person cases in existence. Hosts Heather and Danielle take a deep look into some of the most horrific missing person cases that will leave you on the edge of your seat and absolutely terrified at just how fast a person can be Gone in a Blink.
Gone in a Blink
Mystery in Skidmore: The Haunting Disappearance of Branson Perry
What if a small town held more mysteries than it could ever reveal? In this gripping episode, we unravel the haunting disappearance of Branson Perry, a 20-year-old who vanished without a trace from his front yard in Skidmore, Missouri. We get to know Branson through the eyes of his friend, Jenna Crawford, who offers an unsettling account of the day he went missing. From his hobbies and health struggles to the disturbing incident with his neighbor, Jason Bierman, Branson's story is as perplexing as it is tragic.
But the shadows of Skidmore don't end with Branson. We explore the interconnected tragedies that have plagued this tiny town, focusing on the gruesome murder of Bobby Joe Stinnett and the tragic death of Wendy Gillenwater. Both women were connected through their grandmother, Mary Jo Stinnett, amplifying the collective grief experienced by their family. We also delve into the controversial figure of Rogers, a suspect in Branson's case whose online confessions and the steadfast belief of Branson's mother create a complex web of suspicion and doubt.
Skidmore's notorious reputation for violence is not a recent phenomenon. We take you through a macabre history, from the 1910 Hubble family murders to the 1981 vigilante killing of Ken Rex McElroy, and beyond. Through a series of chilling events—including the Merrigan family massacre, Tessie Hilt's unsolved murder, and the monastery shooting by Lloyd Robert Jeffress—we expose how this small town has become synonymous with tragedy. As we close, we invite you to support the podcast, share your thoughts, and suggest future cases, reminding everyone to stay vigilant.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Branson_Perry
Eerie details emerge in disappearance of man, 20, who vanished without a trace from a shed near his home | The US Sun (the-sun.com)
Branson Perry, The 20-Year-Old Who Vanished From Missouri In 2001 (allthatsinteresting.com)
Branson Perry: Mysterious Small-Town Disappearance in Missouri - The CrimeWire
Music:
CrimeTrap by Muza Production
Things That Live in the Cellar by Geoff Harvey
Gone in a Blink is created by Heather Hicks and Danielle E.
Written and produced by Heather Hicks and hosted by Danielle E. and Heather Hicks.
Gone in a Blink theme: Crime Trap created and produced by Muzaproduction
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Thanks for joining us on the airwaves. And remember......Be Safe, Be Smart, and Try Not to Blink.
Skidmore, missouri, a small, sleepy town tucked away in the heart of the Midwest With a population of just under 250 people. It's hard to imagine that such a small town could harbor so many secrets and, as it turns out, a town that may not be so sleepy after all. It has an ominous feel about it and, with its murderous history and dark, vigilante past, many of the locals tend to shy away from answering questions, and perhaps they have a very good reason. When 20-year-old Branson Perry disappeared from his own front yard on the afternoon of April 11, 2001, many people had their own theories of what may have happened to him. Three other potential witnesses were at the home at the time of the disappearance, yet no one saw a thing. This is the case of Branson Perry, and this is Gone in a Blink hey true crime fans.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, heather, and I'm Danielle.
Speaker 1:Welcome to episode 22 of Gone in a Blink. It is finally August. I actually can't believe that it's already August and I really can't believe how fast the summer has gone by. Kiddos are getting ready to head back to school and some kiddos are probably already back.
Speaker 2:It's kind of sad. I dropped my daughter off at college yesterday.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's hard, that's really hard. Well, my daughter is getting ready to start middle school, and that's a challenge in itself right now, but it's exciting and we're ready to get the kids back to school, and that's that's a challenge in itself right now, but it's exciting and we're ready to ready to get the kids back to school.
Speaker 2:I bet you are. Haven't they been home all summer? They have been home most of the summer.
Speaker 1:Yes, so they are probably sick of me and I think they need to be in school right now.
Speaker 2:Don't worry.
Speaker 1:I won't tell. Well, today's case is out of the tiny Midwestern town of Skidmore, missouri. Skidmore has in fact been in the news quite a bit in the past, both locally and nationally as well. It has quite a history attached to it, with some of the most bizarre stories that seem to have come straight out of a horror movie. We will mention some of these other strange occurrences. However, today's case is over the mysterious disappearance of Brandon Perry. So if you're ready, let's jump right in. Branson K Perry was born on February 24th 1981 to parents Bob and Rebecca Perry. Branson's parents ended up getting a divorce later on and he remained living with his father in their home at 304 West Oak Street in the small town of Skidmore, missouri.
Speaker 1:Branson graduated from the Nottoway Holt High School in 1999 and would often work various odd jobs to make extra money, including working as a roofer as well as helping to maintain a traveling petting zoo in the area. Some of his hobbies consisted of lifting weights and practicing Hapkido, which he had a black belt in, and he was also known to suffer from tachycardia, which is a condition in which the heart beats at a very excessive rate. So he was kind of dealing with health issues that could have quite possibly slowed him down in his hobbies, but he was a fighter, so just a little bit about him. So then, on October 7th, four days before his disappearance, branson visited the home of his neighbor Jason, I think you pronounce the name Bierman. It could be Byerman, but I think it's, I think it's Bierman. While there, he had been drugged with an unknown substance, causing him to become extremely intoxicated, and I think intoxicated is probably putting it very, very mildly. While Branson was under the influence of this drug, he allegedly danced around the house naked, shaved his genitals and then engaged in sexual activity with Bierman. After Branson had sobered up and realized what happened, he was visibly upset and confessed everything to his father, who was absolutely livid, like any parent would be, and he wasn't mad at his son, but rather at Bierman for drugging Branson and taking advantage of him. Bob Perry had always suspected that his son was homosexual and had engaged in sexual activity with men in the past, but never anything quite like this.
Speaker 1:So then, the following Wednesday, on April 11th 2001, branson invited his friend Jenna Crawford over to his house to help clean because his father, bob, had been in the hospital and he was expected to return home within a few days after.
Speaker 1:So at this time, two other men, whose identities have not been named, were at the residence that day working on Bob's car and changing out the alternator. Once Branson and Jenna were finished cleaning, jenna told authorities that Branson suddenly grabbed something out of the cabinet and immediately went outside, and she thought that was a little strange. But when he returned he didn't tell Jenna what it was that he grabbed or where he went. Jenna decided she was going to take a shower and get cleaned up after a long day of cleaning, and when she finished she saw one of the mechanics rifling through a kitchen cabinet. Jenna asked the man what he was looking for, but he responded that it was nothing, and then he went back outside.
Speaker 1:Now this info may or may not hold any weight in the case whatsoever, but I think it was definitely worth mentioning because he is still missing. So after this, jenna decided to go upstairs and rest for a bit, and this made me think, because she's like cleaning the house and then she goes upstairs in Branson's house to rest. They're probably pretty close friends and she's probably very comfortable at this house, I would think.
Speaker 2:That's what it's sounding like. That at first struck me as odd, but I mean that just maybe shows how close they are.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I was thinking the same thing. That she's off obviously has a certain comfort level at at Branson's home. Soon after, at around 3pm, she happened to glance out the window and notice Branson leaving the house. She called out to him and asked where he was going. He told her that he was going to put away a set of jumper cables in the shed and then run out for a bit, and that he'd be back in a few minutes.
Speaker 1:That was the last time anyone saw or heard from Branson Perry again, bob Perry was still in the hospital and was expected to be there for a few more days, a few more days than what was originally expected. So on April 12th, branson's grandmother, joanne Stennett, decided to drop by the hospital and visit Bob. She asked if Branson had been by to see him the night before, but Bob explained that he hadn't seen him. Joanne thought this was odd, since Branson had been by to see his dad every night since his dad was hospitalized. She ultimately shrugged off any concerns she was having until she dropped by the home where Branson lived with his dad and found the doors unlocked and Branson was nowhere to be found. She found this highly unusual, and so she made it a point to call the residents several times over the next few days, but still she got no answer. She then called Branson's mother, rebecca Cleno, and discovered that she had not heard from Branson either.
Speaker 1:By this time, joanne, branson's mother, rebecca, and his father were all in a state of panic. Bob ended up getting discharged from the hospital several days later than expected, so after his release he and Rebecca filed a missing persons report. On April 17th, ground search teams were organized almost immediately by the Nottoway County Police, who searched the area within a 15-mile radius of the Perry house. They searched fields, farms and abandoned buildings, but unfortunately the search turned up nothing. During the search, police were unable to find the jumper cables that Branson was returning to the shed before he went missing. But two weeks later the jumper cables were located just inside the door to the shed that police had already searched weeks before.
Speaker 2:Whoa, that's weird. Yeah, so almost like kind of like an inside job. So somebody that was helping look for Branson may have been there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I am absolutely like they. It makes it sound like they knew that he was, that the police were looking for those jumper cables, and so they were like, oh crap, better put the jumper cables back in the shed. That's so weird though I mean, why would you even bother with that?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I guess just thinking that maybe to throw people off, like, oh well, they were looking for these jumper cables, they couldn't find them, and then, oh, they just happened to show up, like maybe the police made a mistake to make it look something like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess that is a good point. Within the first month and a half of the investigation, investigators interviewed more than 100 people. Jenna Crawford, who was with Branson on the day he disappeared, told investigators that Branson had been experimenting with such drugs as marijuana and amphetamines. Police questioned multiple people who were drug acquaintances of Branson's in the St Joseph area, which, st Joseph, is approximately 48 miles south of Skidmore. Although rumors began to spread that Branson owed some drug dealers money, everyone who was questioned informed police that they had not heard from Branson and all were given a polygraph test and all passed.
Speaker 1:Bob initially thought that maybe his son had left to stay with friends in the Kansas City area and that he may be hitchhiked because Branson didn't have a car. So this didn't appear to be the case, according to investigators, who worked tirelessly in the hopes of finding some clues. So on April 10th 2003, a 59-year-old man by the name of Jack Wayne Rogers was on police's radar. Rogers lived in Fulton, missouri, which is approximately 251 miles southeast of Skidmore, so it's a good distance away, and he was also a Presbyterian minister and a Boy Scout leader. So this guy's story wasn't necessarily related to Branson's disappearance. But because it's so crazy what I'm about to tell you. They thought there was a good possibility. So rogers was arrested for first degree assault and practicing medicine without a license when he performed surgery on a woman by removing her genitals, while attempting a makeshift gender reassignment surgery in a hotel room in Columbia Missouri. Um what? Yes, this guy is insane, and the scariest part of it is probably the fact that he's a minister and a Boy Scout leader.
Speaker 2:Now the Boy Scout leader, I mean with all the stuff that's been going on with them over the past few years. That doesn't surprise me. That's been going on with them over the past few years. That doesn't surprise me. So, man, but I'm a little surprised by the woman as well that would allow herself to have a makeshift gender. What is the proper name of it? Reassignment Reassignment in a hotel room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems very, very sketchy and I don't know why anyone would let someone put a knife to them. I would not let somebody put a knife to me in a makeshift surgery in a non sterile motel room or hotel room, but I don't know. This was back in, I think, two. I think I said this was back in 2003. So a lot of things were different in 2003 than they are now and even though it doesn't make it any less insane, maybe back then doctors didn't perform those surgeries and this woman must have been incredibly desperate, but she went for it. Into Rogers. Police found child pornography which doesn't surprise me on his personal computer as well as posts made on a public message forum under different usernames. Those usernames included quote Booger Butt. Actually, I don't know if it's Booger Butt or supposed to be bugger butt.
Speaker 2:Oh hail satan and extreme body mods, you bring up a good point that this is 2001, time frame 2003. A lot of things were different then. I feel like not a whole lot was known about the, the boy scout leaders at that time. I mean that this would be something very shocking at the time. I mean, you say that he's a minister but has a username or handle of oh Hail Satan. So it almost seems like that those positions, those titles were covers for, you know, boy Scout leader, maybe so he could get closer to two children, the minister just probably, especially in a small town, to be. Oh well, he's a minister, a stand up citizen and but really in disguise, living what it looks like, a double life.
Speaker 1:And that is what is so incredibly scary right now. Sad, too, for the true ministers and true Boy Scout leaders and anyone else with a respectful title that are into things like this and child pornography and just horrible things like that, that do use a cover as someone that's typically well respected within the community a police officer, a teacher, a coach, things like that and so it's scary. And these, unfortunately, pedophiles like this I mean this guy went beyond pedophile, he's just batshit crazy. But a lot of times you know, more times than not actually they don't look like some scroungy drug addict. They look like well-dressed, well-respected, well-educated people. They're people that you wouldn't expect to be. Having these dark, dark secrets like this and it's very scary Makes you not want your children to go around anyone really.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, if you think back just in this day, especially with Boy Scouts, I mean that's someplace where parents kind of felt that their kids could be safe, that their sons could kind of learn wilderness training, things like that. And I mean we were just learning in 2003, if we knew at all at that point of how sinister some of these Boy Scout leaders were.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's the ones that you trust that end up being the ones that you can't trust. So, under these usernames, he described the graphic torture of multiple men that he had castrated. In another post made under the same usernames, he made claims that he had raped and murdered a blonde hitchhiker, and the man's body was buried in a remote area near the Ozarks. Police suspected that the man mentioned in the online posts could be Branson, convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for assault, seven years for performing surgery without a license and 30 years for child pornography, and I feel like maybe he should have gotten more for the illegal surgery charges than what he actually did. But Rogers won't be eligible for release until the year 2028. And by then he will be 83 years old.
Speaker 1:During sentencing, branson's mother begged Rogers to tell her where Branson is. However, rogers told her that he never knew Branson and had not been a part of his disappearance. Rebecca believed, after speaking with Rogers, that he had nothing to do with her son's disappearance, and I don't know, something made her really feel like it, and I don't know that they have much proof other than him saying that he raped a man that resembled Branson and killed this man. But whatever it was, she is fully convinced. Maybe it's a mother not wanting to accept that her son has been murdered, or maybe he was just that convincing and she has a gut feeling that it was something totally different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of understand that as a mom, you don't want to believe it's a closed case. And no, he. I mean if, even if he did rape Branson, he didn't know him, he didn't pay attention to the kind of person he was. He was just out to rape and and to kill and so I could also. So I definitely understand that the mom's point of view. But I can also see that the this murderer just totally closed himself off, compartmentalized, like oh, I didn't, I didn't know him. It because it was nobody to him unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Yep, it was nobody, and that's how it usually is. It's. It's nothing more than a kill um, and that that's crazy. But police have not completely ruled rogers out as a suspect. However, other than a turtle claw necklace found in Roger's car that resembled one like the one that Branson owned, they have not found any solid evidence to charge him with Branson's murder, if Branson was murdered. So Skidmore, missouri, as I mentioned, has a very dark history. Some of our listeners and true crime sleuths may recognize the last name, stennett, and the ties that it has to Skidmore. So Branson's grandmother, joanne Stennett, is also the grandmother to Bobby Joe Stennett.
Speaker 1:Bobby Joe Stennett, a very pregnant soon-to-be mother, was a dog breeder living in Skidmore, missouri, with her husband. In 2004, she made arrangements with a woman by the name of Lisa Montgomery to sell her one of her puppies, and Montgomery showed up at the Sten at home and murdered Bobby Joe before cutting Bobby Joe's unborn baby from the womb and fleeing the scene with Bobby Joe, before cutting Bobby Joe's unborn baby from the womb and fleeing the scene with Bobby Joe's child. Lisa Montgomery was tracked down and arrested and the baby actually lived, thank God, and was reunited with her father, zeb Stennett. Lisa was later convicted and sentenced to death in 2007. She was executed in January 2021 and was the first female execution in the US since 1953.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's crazy, I guess. I was kind of wondering too if the baby lived. So many times you hear that once the baby's cut out that they don't live. So I am glad that she did live and was reunited with her father.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am very glad and very surprised because you can imagine it was probably a very bloody scene. Incident tied to the town of Skidmore happened back in 2000 when a man by the name of Greg Dragoo, who was a hardcore drug user and had a history of domestic violence, beat up his 19-year-old girlfriend, Wendy Gillenwater. He then chained Wendy's body to his car and dragged her over the country roads surrounding Skidmore. Dragoo is now currently serving a life sentence in the Jefferson City Correctional Center. This town's got a lot of stuff, Got a lot of terrible, terrible things happening, unfortunately. Now, all three of these tragic events were nothing short of horrific. However, something insanely crazy that all three of these events have in common is the fact that Branson's grandmother, Mary Jo Stennett, was the grandmother of all three victims Branson Perry, Bobby Jo Stennett and Wendy Gillenwater.
Speaker 2:That is pretty ironic. I am wondering, though, how? How large did you say that the town was? Though the town has approximately 200 and just under 250 people, very, very small town even with 250 people, that's still pretty ironic that all three would have the same grandmother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean something horrible, absolutely horrible would happen to all three and they would share the same grandmother. That's pretty ironic. Or near Skidmore include the Hubble family murders that occurred in 1910, the 1972 Merrigan family massacre when, on October 11th 1972, the bodies of Marion Merrigan and Kathleen Merrigan, who were husband and wife and their children William and Helen Merrigan, were found dead in their home. All of them had died from gunshot wounds. A man by the name of Benedict Kemper was charged with those crimes. Other cases include the 1973 unsolved murder of Northwest Missouri State student Tessie Hilt. Hilt was strangled and stabbed to death in her off-campus apartment in Maryville, missouri, which is approximately 14 miles northeast of Skidmore. So it's pretty close.
Speaker 1:And probably one of the most infamous and notorious bizarre murders to ever take place in the town of Skidmore was the 1981 vigilante murder of local town bully and violent criminal Ken Rex. Mcelroy McElroy was shot to death as he sat in his pickup truck by a huge group of local Skidmore residents who had reached their breaking point with the assaults, harassment, point with the assaults, harassment, bullying and attempted murder. At the hands of McElroy McElroy was shot twice and no one saw a thing. The killers were never identified and therefore no one had ever been arrested for the crime.
Speaker 1:Mcelroy's wife had been in the truck next to him and she ended up settling a wrongful death lawsuit against the town of Skidmore and the county in the amount of $17,600 before packing up her stuff and leaving town for good. So not the whole town. Well, maybe maybe it was a whole town, big old mass of people that could have included all the residents, or at least the majority of them, in the little town of Skidmoremore. But they had enough. They had enough of this guy harassing and bullying everyone and intimidating everybody and they grouped together and just like, went after him and shot him dead in his truck and everyone refused to talk that is is so interesting.
Speaker 2:I don't know if any of our listeners are from Skidmore or around that area. It'd be really interesting to talk to someone that maybe was around at that time or have heard of With any small town. Of course, there's lots of rumors, but it seems like there's been so much happening in this town.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, there's been a tremendous amount and I would love I would absolutely love to hear from anyone that is from Skidmore or surrounding areas to give us a little more insight about it. I don't like to paint this town bad, because I'm sure it's a great town full of wonderful people town bad because I'm sure it's. I'm sure it's a great town full of wonderful people. It it's terrible that all these things that have happened happened to this town. So I am curious, if anybody is from the area and would like to give us a little more insight, I would absolutely love to hear about it. So a few more infamous murders that happened in or around the Skidmore area. There's more, there's a few more. I mean, I'm probably only saying a few are the ones that I found. There's probably been others too, but some of them included the 1994 murder of Deborah Taylor by her husband, william, who had deliberately caused a harvesting combine to roll on top of her.
Speaker 1:A lot of these seem pretty isolated. I don't think, you know, it doesn't sound like there's a random person just going around killing people, but they're horrible things to happen in one town. So then there's the 2002 murder-suicide of Lloyd Robert Jeffress I think I pronounced that right who opened fire in a monastery, killing two monks. And then the 2013 courtroom suicide of Steve Parsons. Parsons, who deliberately swallowed a cyanide pill after being sentenced to prison for seven years for the statutory sodomy of his 14-year-old babysitter. So, needless to say, skidmore, missouri, has been dubbed the creepiest town in America.
Speaker 2:It's sad, but I mean you wonder the people that live there now what their thought of that.
Speaker 1:I mean maybe it keeps people outsiders away, perhaps that's a really good point, and maybe that's what they want after all of this, all of this stuff, that's happened. So, as of May 2024, investigators, along with the FBI, have been following a promising tip into Branson Perry's case. Police are pretty confident that the, with the FBI, they can collect enough evidence to finally put away the person responsible. Unfortunately, branson's father, bob, died in 2004. In 2010, branson's mother offered a $20,000 reward for any information leading to her son's whereabouts. Then, sadly, in 2011, branson's mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. In Branson's mother's obituary it was mentioned that she was preceded in death by Branson and she was buried beside an empty plot for Branson that lists his date of death as April 11, 2001, which is the same date that he had disappeared. If you have any information into the disappearance of Branson Perry, please call the Nottoway County Sheriff's Office at area code 660-582-7451. This case is so crazy, and what is even crazier is that Branson's grandmother had to endure the loss of three of her grandchildren, and I sincerely hope that this family gets some sort of closure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to another episode of Gone in a Blink. If you love our podcast, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and we would totally love for you to follow us on any of our social media sites and we will put those on our show notes. So we are always up for ideas also for a show. So if you have a case you'd like us to cover, please email us at gone in a blink pod at gmailcom, and always, please remember, be safe. No-transcript. No-transcript.
