Netflix’s reboot of the true crime series Unsolved Mysteries has led to a flood of tips concerning some of the cases being presented, and in the most recent news, the case of Alonzo Brooks, a 23-year-old who was found dead after attending a house party, is being looked into by the FBI.
Update: The body of Alonzo Brooks was exhumed this morning. His case was recently reopened by the @FBI who are offering a $100K reward for tips leading to an arrest. If you know something please come forward. #unsolvedmysteries #Justiceforalonzobrooks https://t.co/5l38xxFr5r
— Unsolved Mysteries (@Unsolved) July 21, 2020
In episode four, “‘No Ride Home,” we hear the story of Afro-Mexican Alonzo Brooks who was left alone by a group of white friends after a house party in La Cygne, Kansas. His body was found a month later in a creek near that house. No one was ever arrested in connection to the case, and the autopsy couldn’t determine what caused his death, so the case was closed.
Yesterday, the Unsolved Mysteries Twitter account shared that Brooks’ body had been exhumed after his case was recently reopened by the FBI. Last month, it was labeled a hate crime. U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister stated: “It is past time for the truth to come out. The code of silence must be broken. Alonzo’s family deserves to know the truth, and it is time for justice to be served.”
Since the premiere of this new season of the show, there has been a flood of tips being sent into tiplines from people trying to add their “information” to the narrative. According to executive producer Terry Dunn Meurer, as of the time he spoke to Variety last month, they had received “around 2,000 tips and comments.”
Alonzo’s case was one of the ones that got the most attention, probably because there would have been witnesses at the party who stayed after Brooks’ friends left that might have information. All of this attention might have actually shaken something loose.
“Alonzo Brooks was probably [the case] we’ve received the most emails on,” Meurer continued. “Lots of theories that we had already heard when we were producing the episodes, but there are some new names that have come in and that we forwarded onto the FBI.”
As for their process of how they determine what tips are seen as credible:
“There’s a team of about five, six people on different shifts so that we have somebody on the website all the time, going through the tips. And we still have tips and leads in cases getting solved from the original shows. There’s a 30-year-old case, it’s probably going to get solved in the next month or two that we’ve been working with a detective on. I kind of always refer to it as a living, breathing television series where it has a life of its own. You never know when you’re going to get a phone call from the French police and they say, “You know what? We found Xavier [Dupont de Ligonnès].” That’s the mission of the show is to solve these cases. That’s the goal.”
Growing up, Unsolved Mysteries was a staple in my household, and even then, I was always chilled by these stories—the unanswered questions and how just flawed policing in the early parts of the case can throw a wrench in everything. I hope that Brooks’ family finds peace and that there can be some resolution to his sixteen-year-old cold case.
(via Yahoo, image: Netflix)
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