‘Unsolved Mysteries’: Fans Believe They Know How Alonzo Brooks Was Killed
Unsolved Mysteries made its return to TV with a riveting new season on Netflix. The true-crime series dropped with six episodes on July 1, and since then fans have been digging into the various cold cases introduced on the show.
Episode 4, “No Ride Home,” explores the 2004 death of a young Kansas man who was body was found near a creek with no determined cause of death. Armchair sleuths have been trying to piece together clues, and some think they know how Alonzo Brooks was killed.
‘Unsolved Mysteries’ examines Alonzo Brooks disappearance and death
The fourth episode of Unsolved Mysteries documents the disappearance of Alonzo Brooks, with testimony from his family, friends, and various law enforcement officials involved in the case. The 23-year-old, who lived in Gardner, Kansas with his mom, went to a house party in LaCygne with friends and never returned home.
At the April 3 party, Brooks’ friends say he was the target of racial slurs and got into a brief altercation. They left him at the party, assuming he would get a ride with someone else. But the next morning, his friends and family realized he never made it back.
Brooks body is found weeks later
On Unsolved Mysteries, Brooks’ childhood friend says he returned to the site of the house party to find him but instead found his boots and hat scattered across fields near the property. Then, with indications that Brooks may have been the target of a hate crime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, searched for Brooks’ body near the house.
After weeks of searching unsuccessfully, authorities finally allowed the Brooks family to conduct their own search on the property. Within 30 minutes, the family found Brooks’ body near a creek behind the house.
Law enforcement officials said they believed his body was underwater for weeks, which is why they couldn’t find him. But his mother points out that all of his belongings, including his wallet, money, and papers, were intact and didn’t look they were submerged in water. And his brother says that upon finding his body, Brooks still had color in his skin and did not look like he had been dead and underwater for nearly a month.
Fans think they know what killed Alonzo Brooks
In the episode of Unsolved Mysteries, forensic pathologist Dr. Erik Mitchell says he examined Brooks’ body and found no broken bones or obvious injuries. But, on the question of strangulation, he says that it would be nearly impossible to tell because of decomposition. Mitchell was unable to determine a cause of death, which ultimately left the case unsolved.
But some internet sleuths think they know how Brooks may have died. Some Redditors found comments on a blog called Cold Case Kansas which allege that certain people connected to the house party were heard bragging that they used a dog shock collar on a person of color. And some think that Brooks may have been killed with one of those shock collars, which would explain why there were no other physical injuries found on his body.
“A shock collar would actually make a lot of sense, and quite possibly be the breaking point of this whole thing,” one Reddit user suggested. “The reasoning for the neck tissue being mainly gone and decomposed way more than any of his other body parts is because electricity is known to speed up the process of decomposition.”
Of course, this is all speculation. And as of now, there is no official evidence to support this theory. But hopefully, with all the attention Brooks’ case is getting, authorities will find a lead that will explain what really happened.
