a girl stayed home alone for a short period of time and disappeared Without a
Trace what happened next felt more like a detective Thriller than a real case
because it was impossible to believe that something like that could have happened in real life it took 15 years
to finally learn the truth and when it happened everyone was enraged and
shocked Jessica dishan was born on May 2nd
1982 in the small American town of Shepherdsville Kentucky it was a quiet
place where a lot of residents were involved in farming and knew each other
well Jessica had two younger brothers and from an early age she helped her
parents to take care of the kids while they were working this made Jessica more
independent and her parents could always rely on her when she was 15 she took a
part-time job at a local restaurant to save up for her first car she dreamed of
a red Pontiac and a few years later she had saved enough money to make that
dream a reality despite her part-time job Jessica had excellent grades and started
to make plans to attend college to become an accountant after school in the
fall of of 1999 when she was 17 Jessica entered her
senior year she also started dating a boy and was thrilled about it on the
morning of Friday September 10th her day began as usual Jessica’s parents left
for work while she was still asleep her younger brothers went to the bus stop
and left for school Jessica stayed home and was supposed to drive to school in her car
soon after her brothers somewhere around noon her mother returned home and immediately
noticed something weird Jessica’s car was parked in front of the house
although she should have been in class at that time the mother entered the house and went to her daughter’s room
her initial thought was that Jessica might have overslept and miss school but
she wasn’t in her bedroom next the mother thought that for some reason
Jessica might have asked her father for a ride to school she called him but he
said he had gone to work alone that morning thinking there might be something wrong with Jessica’s car the
mother took a spare key from the house to try starting it however as soon as
she approached the car she saw a disturbing scene firstly the driver’s
door was slightly open secondly and more alarming Jessica’s cell phone lay on the
seat with the numbers 9 and one on the screen beneath the front seat lay one of
Jessica’s shoes and her keys and in the back seat were her textbooks work
clothes and purse the mother immediately feared the worst it was evident that someone had
tried to dial 911 on Jessica’s phone but didn’t finish it moreover over Jessica
obviously couldn’t have just left all her belongings in the car and walked away the family lived on the outskirts
of town so she would have had to cover several miles along the road on foot
Jessica’s parents called the school only to hear that their daughter hadn’t
attended class somehow the school had failed to notify them about this as it
should have done a few hours later Jessica’s best friend from the
restaurant where they both worked called her parents saying that Jessica hadn’t
shown up for her shift increasing their concern concerned about Jessica’s
absence from school and work and the fact that her belongings including a
phone with nine and one dialed were left in an unlocked car her parents decided
to call the police however the sheriff simply suggested that Jessica likely wandered
off and would return home eventually he didn’t even pay any
attention to the fact that one of her shoes was left in the car making it
difficult for her to go far without it Jessica’s parents tried to convince the
sheriff that their daughter might be in danger but despite their pleas he
refused to open an investigation leaving them with no choice but to return home
after after that Jessica’s parents decided to take matters into their own hands they contacted relatives friends
and acquaintances but no one had seen her together they started to search for
Jessica throughout the town but she was nowhere to be seen the next morning her
parents went back to the sheriff and told him that Jessica still didn’t make
it home this time he dispatched two officers to inspect her car but their
parents faced yet another problem the officers examined the vehicle without
gloves touching everything inside with their bare hands they also didn’t check
Jessica’s Room although it was standard procedure once again let down by law
enforcement Jessica’s parents tried to get some help from the local media drawing their attention to their
daughter’s disappearance and the police’s lack of Interest alongside relatives and friends
they initiated their own search and also began Distributing Flyers with information about Jessica the search was
led by Jessica’s father and his brother Stanley who knew the area well fearing
the worst they decided to search the vicinity near a local River the area had a pretty bad
reputation as it was popular among local drug dealers and and other criminals due
to its overgrown and secluded nature for hours Jessica’s relatives combed through
the difficult terrain near the river but found no trace of her the next morning
something extremely weird happened Jessica’s parents were at home and their
son was playing in the yard suddenly he rushed inside claiming he heard a cry
for help that sounded like his sister’s voice Jessica’s father grabbed his shotgun and
rushed outside trying to locate the source of the cry at the same time his
brother drove up to their house and quickly joined the search soon they noticed something there
was a smoke rising from their neighbor’s property a 40-year-old man named David
Brooks as they approached they saw him burning something that resembled clothing on his land it looked highly
suspicious so Jessica’s father asked Brooks for permission to search his farm
Brooks however refused and asked them to leave this wasn’t the only weird thing
about Brooks before Jessica’s disappearance her relatives had maintained a normal relationship with
him and his family however shortly after that Brooks began behaving strangely he
started regularly driving slowly slowly pass their home staring at them with an
ominous smile Jessica’s parents also received mysterious phone calls where an
unknown man remained silent and just breathed heavily they suspected Brooks
was behind it but couldn’t understand the reason for such Behavior after witnessing Brooks burning
clothing on his property Jessica’s parents decided to once again speak to the police who had shown little interest
in the case from the beginning they shared their observations asking officers to visit Brooks with kadaver
dogs and they agreed using Jessica’s clothes to track her the dogs LED them
to the fire pit on Brooks’s property but no substantial evidence was found the
dogs also discovered black gloves in one of the sheds signaling the presence of a
smell associated with decomposition throughout the search Brooks displayed increasingly suspicious
Behavior yet the police failed to connect him to Jessica’s disappearance
once again leaving empty-handed disappointed by the police
Jessica’s father decided to reach out to the FBI the bureau usually refrains from
initiating investigations based solely on calls from the relatives of missing
persons but this time they decided to get involved immediately in light of the
disturbing facts presented by Jessica’s parents and after a thorough research
the FBI concluded that something truly horrific might have happened to her from
this point on a real investigation began one that local cops had been reluctant
to conduct FBI agents collected fingerprints from Jessica’s room and her
car they also seized all potential evidence for analysis and sent it all to
the lab investigators also organized extensive search on the ground using
helicopters and Gathering volunteers they thoroughly examined the bottom of the pond near Jessica’s home considering
the possibility that her body might be there FBI agents meticulously combed
through Brooks’s farm and there they found something very alarming in one of
the sheds they found a printed photo of Jessica after this disturb ing Discovery
detectives were almost certain that Brooks was somehow involved in her disappearance they also suspected his
35-year-old Brother Joseph as he behaved strangely while the police were
searching his property however there was a problem during the search investigators found no
evidence substantial enough to arrest the brothers so they focused all their
efforts on the search in the area almost certain that Jessica was no longer alive
on September 27th 17 days after her disappearance the police received a call
a woman was driving along the road near the river where Jessica’s father had searched for her in the initial days she
saw something strange near a tree just off the road and decided to inspect it
the woman came closer realized it resembled a human body and called the police right away
the FBI agents arrived at the scene and indeed found the lifeless body of a
young woman missing some fingers and limbs she had a rope with tracks of red
and silver paint tied around her legs parts of her clothing were missing leading detectives to believe that the
perpetrator sexually abused her due to the advanced state of decomposition they
couldn’t confirm if it was Jessica the officer went to her house and asked her
parents to help identify her Jessica’s father couldn’t bring himself to look at
his deceased daughter but her mother agreed she arrived at the scene and at
first couldn’t identify her but soon she noticed a small butterfly tattoo on the
body identical to her daughter’s and located on the same spot later medical
experts confirmed the identity of the ceased and determined that her cause of
death was strangulation numerous bruises were also found on her body experts revealed that
her Limbs and fingers were detached postmortem meaning she was still alive
at the time but even that wasn’t the most devastating fact it turned out that
Jessica had been alive for approximately 3 days after her disappearance it meant
that the police had a chance to to save her yet they took no action whatsoever to do that after the discovery of the
body the FBI decided to reinter Brooks and this time they found out something
new during their initial conversation he claimed to have seen Jessica near her
house on the morning she vanished however this time he changed his story
stating that he hadn’t seen her at all that day now he claimed he was at home
in bed with his wife that morning and when detectives questioned his wife she
contradicted her husband’s testimony the FBI continued to question Brooks asking him what he would do if
they found his fingerprints on the victim’s body although there was no such
evidence found Brooks’s response was extremely suspicious he said he would
have to confess to everything in that case later he failed a polygraph test so
the FBI decided to arrest him and move forward with the trial they were aware
that the chances of a guilty verdict were relatively low as they hadn’t found any solid evidence linking Brooks to the
murder all they had were disturbing but indirect indications of his
involvement the detectives continued working on the case searching for any additional evidence as the trial
preparations unfolded investigators recalled another interesting detail
during the search of Brooks’s car they found a rope similar to the one used to
tie the victim’s legs however no DNA samples were found on it making it
another piece of circumstantial evidence the trial began in January 2003 Brooks’s
lawyer insisted on the complete absence of evidence and declared his client’s
innocence something else came to light during the trial when the body was discovered
investigators also found some missing limbs of the victim nearby they placed them in special
containers and handed them over to the local police ignoring labels that said
store it in the refrigerator they left the boxes at room temperature causing
extensive decomposition so even if there was some potential evidence including possible
DNA traces from the killer it was lost due to this error all other
circumstantial pieces of evidence against Brooks lacked sufficient weight
ultimately the jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous decision so the man walked
free according to state laws he could only be charged again if new evidence
was found for Jessica’s parents this was a devastating blow they had almost no
doubt that Brooks was behind their daughter’s murder moreover had the
police taken their job more seriously their daughter might have been saved so
in the end they lost all hope of achieving Justice in the following years
this case remained unsolved and eventually it was almost entirely
abandoned in 2012 a new detective Lynn hunt joined
the local police department she was assigned to investigate unsolved cases
and her initial Focus us fell on the murder of Jessica dish upon reviewing
the case files she was shocked by the negligence of her predecessors most of
the documents were filled with errors missing any reference to conversations with the involved parties and the
evidence wasn’t properly documented in other words it was so ineffectively
handled that she had to essentially start the investigation from scratch 13
years after the murder her first step was to speak with Jessica’s Family one
of her brothers now an adult living separately from his parents handed her a
box of Jessica’s belongings from her car he had kept it since the police returned
these items to the family once again hunt was astonished at how carelessly
her colleagues had handled the evidence failing to store it properly according to protocol now after so many years
these items were unlikely to help her yet she diligently continued to examine
everything she could find soon she discovered an interesting detail among the documents it was Brooks’s medical
examination report it stated that his IQ was only 61 which is quite low this
raised concerns about all police actions including Brooks’s
interrogations given his significantly low IQ he might have not fully understood most of the questions and
could have given less than adequate answers all of this led hunt to consider
that the man might have no connection to the case at all as his weird Behavior could easily be explained by his
extremely low IQ then hunt began to think who else
could have committed this Murder She extensively researched everyone involved in the case or living
nearby this went on until September 2014 nearly 15 years after Jessica’s
death a colleague from another department called hunt to share intriguing information an inmate from a
Kentucky State Prison claimed to know the real identity of Jessica Dish’s
murderer hunt approached this lead with slight skepticism usually when inmates
wanted to share some information with the police it ended in disappointment and wasted time many of them just
imagine some stories to secure early release or improve their conditions in
prison still she understood that she couldn’t ignore this lead without
verification she went to the prison and met with the man who supposedly had the
information according to him he shared a cell for some time with an individual
convicted of child abuse the same charge as his on this Common Ground the two
became friends and exchanged details about their crimes occasionally one day the cellmate told
him that among other things he had murdered Jessica dishan after that the
informant dropped a bombshell giving the detective the name of this man leaving
her in shock it was Stanley dish Jessica’s Uncle her father’s brother
according to the the informant Stanley told him that he had sexually abused Jessica for several years while living
in their home he threatened to kill her or someone close to her if she ever talked about it in the spring of 99 when
Jessica got a boyfriend Stanley began to fear that sooner or later she might
confess to him about the abuse by her own uncle on the morning of September 10
Stanley arrived at her home when Jessica was alone she was outside getting into her car
having already loaded all her belongings Stanley approached her and demanded that
she break up with her boyfriend but Jessica refused and threatened to expose
him if he didn’t leave her alone he started threatening her and she reached for the phone attempting to dial
911 Stanley tried to grab her but Jessica Broke Free and ran into the
house the man followed her her to her room struck her and bound her in her
sheets before taking her to an abandoned shed not far from where her body would
later be found Stanley kept her alive there for several days subjecting her to
abuse and torture then he killed her moved the body to a visible location
near the road and buried the sheets in the ground beneath the shed He also
mentioned that after the murder he removed some of the the victim’s limbs hoping to mislead the police into
thinking drug traffickers were involved detective hunt realized that this
information was never disclosed only Jessica’s closest relatives knew about
the missing limbs so the informant couldn’t have fabricated this detail at
last he also added that Stanley buried Jessica’s shoe beneath a broken Tree
near the shed hunt decided to verify all this information about the the buried
evidence given the shortage of stuff in the local police department no one from there could help her so she reached out
to Jessica’s brother and a few other relatives who agreed to participate in the search she didn’t tell them that
Stanley might be the murderer as she decided to find some evidence to support these shocking accusations first on the
first day of the search they failed to uncover any clues under the pouring rain
they dug in the areas matching the informant’s description but it yielded no results the next day Jessica’s
brother and Hunt returned to the site on the way he pointed out an abandoned Barn
alongside the road they headed there and started digging the soil inside and
almost immediately there was a long awaited breakthrough they discovered a buried bed sheet hunt collected the
evidence and hurried to Jessica’s home throughout these years her her parent
hadn’t made any changes to her room it remained exactly as it was on the day
their daughter vanished thanks to this hunt was able to confirm that the found
bed sheet was part of Jessica’s bedding it was absent from the bed and the other
linen shared the same pattern immediately after this discovery Stanley
was arrested and brought in for questioning he refused to confess to the
crime although he appeared visibly shaken during the conversation with the detectives eventually he was charged
with murder and the case proceeded to court Jessica’s father couldn’t believe
that his own brother had committed such a heinous act against his daughter he
went through a phase of complete denial but eventually came to terms with this
unbearable reality later he recalled that in the early days of Jessica’s
disappearance it was Stanley who who suggested searching for the body near the river however during the search he
suddenly felt sick and his brother drove him home it turned out this happened
just a few hundred yards from the barn where Jessica was located suggesting
that Stanley deliberately diverted them from finding her while she was still alive during the preparation for the
trial detective hunt researched the suspect’s past trying to find some
additional evidence she already knew he had served time for assaulting another girl in
their family but hunt soon discovered an even more disturbing fact several other
women closely related to Stanley told the police that he had sexually abused
them at a young age the pattern was consistent he would tell his relatives
that he temporarily had nowhere to live and asked them to let him stay in their home for a while when left alone with
the girls Stanley committed his vile Deeds using threats to silence them
hearing all of these stories the police concluded that Stanley had been doing this for three
decades despite all of this detective hunt realized that securing a conviction
for the murder would be challenging since there were almost no straight pieces of evidence against Stanley such
as fingerprints or DNA she continued to dig into the case until
she stumbled upon a box of old files she hadn’t examined yet looking through its
contents hunt was once again shocked by the incompetence of her predecessors who
initially handled the case in the box there was a letter dated June 26
2002 another informant wrote to the police the same story that hunt heard
only 12 years later from the Kentucky Prison inmate by the summer of 2002 Stanley was
already serving time for assaulting an underage relative during that time he
told his cellmate about murdering Jessica the cellmate who happened to be
a police informant wrote a letter to the department handling the case disclosing
all the gruesome details of what Stanley had done to his niece and what do you think the police
did they simply ignored the letter likely convinced of Brooks’s involvement
in those years so they didn’t bother considering other suspects once again hunt was
disappointed by her colleagues’ lack of professionalism If Only They had paid
more attention to their job this case could have been solved back in 2002 by now after all these years she
could only await the trial hoping that Stanley would finally face delayed Justice for his
actions the process began in 2015 and Stanley declared his innocence
present in the courtroom Jessica’s parents could hardly look at their relative who had destroyed their lives
they were also Furious that he couldn’t just confess to give them some sort of
closure the prosecution believed that the chances of obtaining a guilty verdict on murder charges were
relatively low mainly because there was almost no substantial evidence against
him there was also a problem with the assault charges involving other girls in the family all of them would have to
testify in court describing Stanley’s actions against them in great detail so
the prosecution decided to offer Stanley a plea deal they agreed to drop the
death penalty in exchange for Stanley’s confession both in assaults on relatives
and Jessica’s murder in the end he agreed and pleaded guilty as part of the
deal he wasn’t required to disclose any specific details of the crimes Jessica’s
parents who desired to know the whole truth weren’t happy about it but Stanley
remained silent under the plea deal terms the murderer received a 20-year prison
sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years given that he was 56 at
the time of sentencing Stanley might be released at 71 after the trial Jessica’s
father promised that if his brother doesn’t die in prison he’ll be waiting for him to take matters into his own
hands in 2019 Stanley gave his first interview
claiming he didn’t kill Jessica according to him he was at work that
morning but it was impossible to verify after two decades he also couldn’t
explain how two unrelated informants came up with identical stories including
details only known to the murderer such as a bed sheets burial site as for David
Brooks detectives still don’t rule out his potential minor involvement in the
case Stanley knew him and could have asked for help in disposing of the victim’s belongings given Brooks’s low
IQ he might have not fully understood the whole situation it’s possible that
he burned the girl’s clothes in the fire and Stanley might have handed him the gloves with the scent of the body that
the dogs detected it’s also possible that he left Jessica’s photo in Stanley
shed to frame him however the truth may never be revealed as Brooks passed away
in 2021 due to heart problems it’s worth mentioning the moment when on the third day of
Jessica’s disappearance her younger brother heard a cry for help outside thinking it was his sister it’s still
impossible to say with certainty what happened at that time the girl could have still been alive but Stanley was
holding her in the barn a few miles away from her home most likely the child
either imagined it due to stress or someone else was screaming but there’s a somewhat unlikely version as we recall
right after Jessica’s father rushed outside Stanley drove up to the house which means he was nearby it could be
that the girl was in his car with her mouth taped shut or unconscious however this Theory seems
highly improbable