Reddit Has Theories on What Happened to Alonzo Brooks

From Men's Health

Warning: The following story contains details surrounding the fourth episode of Netflix's new reboot of Unsolved Mysteries, which focuses on the mysterious and potentially racially-motivated death of a man named Alonzo Brooks.

• The 2004 Kansas death of a Black man named Alonzo Brooks is the subject of a new Netflix Unsolved Mysteries episode, titled "No Ride Home."

• The episode suggests that his death could have been a racially-motivated hate crime.

• Many on Reddit are suggesting theories and evidence surrounding Brooks' death.

One of the more anger-inducing and deeply-upsetting episodes of Netflix's new iteration of Unsolved Mysteries is "No Ride Home," which focuses on the 2004 death of a Black man named Alonzo Brooks, which many believe could have been a racially-motivated hate crime.

As the episode details, Brooks, who was from Gardner, Kansas, went out for a night of partying in a rural area (a town called La Cygne, about an hour drive away) with three of his friends, all of whom were white. At the party, there was typical party stuff—drinking, dancing, flirting. In the Unsolved episode, though, one of Brooks' friends says that he was getting flirty with a woman who was there. It was also said that racial slurs were uttered toward him and tension seemed to heighten.

Due to what the episode deems a misunderstanding, three of his friends left the party, leaving Brooks an hour away from home, alone. The next day, when he didn't return home, Brooks was declared missing, with his boots found along the side of the road.

When he was not discovered by authorities after nearly a month, the Brooks family was allowed to search the grounds of the house where the party in question was held. On the very first day of that search, Alonzo Brooks' body was found next to a creek, adjacent to the house where the party was held. His body didn't have any signs of blunt force trauma, broken bones, or drowning. This raised further suspicion that not only was foul play involved, but, as Alonzo's brother suggests, his body could have been stored somewhere—potentially a freezer—for a period of time.

In June 2020, the investigation into Brooks' death was reopened as a cold case, with a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of anyone responsible.

Unsolved Mysteries co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer told Entertainment Weekly his team had been following Alonzo's disappearance since 2017—before even pitching the reboot of the show to Netflix. As it turns out, the episode's production may have been what caused the investigation to be reopened in 2020.

"We had been tracking that story for a while. The people who reopened the investigation said they really started looking at it again a year ago, when we were filming the episode in Kansas," Meurer said. "Seeing them offering that $100K reward was a very happy surprise to us. We had no idea they had reopened the investigation until a couple of weeks before the show premiered. I think the fact we were producing this episode shined a light on the case and helped them want to take a look at this case again. These are important cases, and we really hope that the exposure brings renewed interest and encourages viewers to come forward."

And now since the show has been released, a few true-crime obsessives, fans of the series, and online sleuths have shared a few of their thoughts to Reddit.

Reddit Evidence 1: Some Potential Suspects

One user named u/ariadne94 claims to be a Kansas resident and has been following details of the Alonzo Brooks case for years. This poster mentions details from a Cold Case Kansas blog, and goes on to detail a few names of people who are connected with many of the details we saw on-screen. A few of those names include:

Pat and Jerry Boone - Two brothers whose names are commonly mentioned as persons of interest in the case.

Tiffany Boone - Supposedly the name of the woman who Alonzo's interaction within the episode was with; potentially the inciting incident.

Mandy Jenkins - A relative of either Pat or Jerry who supposedly drunkenly bragged about their involvement in the murder.

Now, this is all hearsay, obviously, but it's interesting to know that there's further speculation and more details about the case out there for people who are interested in looking in deeper. The user also mentions that the family is supposedly talking to a filmmaker who plans to make both a documentary and a podcast that will dive deeper into the case and some of the key suspects (including those mentioned above).

Reddit Evidence 2: What about the friends?

Another popular Reddit thread, from a user named u/GunBrothersGaming, raises suspicion around Alonzo's three friends who accompanied him to the party and "accidentally" left him there. The original post brings up a number of points:

1. They talk about how they didn't ever really think about race. Bullshit, I have a lot of black friends and where these lived, they would be called all sorts of things for hanging out with a black guy.

2. These guys left Alonza [sic] at party they knew no one at besides each other.

3. 2004 wasn't exactly the height of cell phones. How did they communicate? Justin's "got lost" and then "got stuck" was convenient. He called to say he wasn't coming back and asked his friend Adam to take Alonzo home?

4. This is the middle of no where. Where was Justin planning on getting a pack of smokes from? He already said he didn't know the town and small towns... this was after 11:00pm. Where was he going to get smokes after 11:00pm in a small town that probably closed at 8:00pm?

5. If this town is small, and even if Justin had a cell phone, out in the middle of no where and he had reception? Maybe, that might be plausible, but even today I have shitty cell reception in places like this.

"I don't think the friends are to blame. They were idiots? Yes. But that doesn't mean they were guilty of what happened," writes u/Tourito, another commenter in the thread, as a response. "These were kids, lots of booze, party with lots of people, these things happen every day - people left out at a party by their friends hoping someone will give them a ride home. Everyone has done that at that age." The user continues to say something that's unsaid in the episode: the focus should be on more of the party guests. This user also rightly points out that the friends didn't have any sort of theory, or point anyone toward any particular person who might have been of interest. Another take comes in the comments from a user named u/Rossington1234:

In other words, the user claims there may have been something more sinister at-play.

Reddit Evidence 3: How did Brooks die?

A user named u/Goober-Smooch was also floored by the episode, and wondered many of the same questions as everyone else. However, they also raised a few specific theories as to how Brooks died. The first idea suggested something we mentioned earlier: the fact that Brooks had no blunt force trauma, no signs of drowning, etc. This user suggests that not only might Alonzo have been stored in a freezer, but he could have been put there and frozen to death alive.

"Due to the condition of his remains, some people suggest we was kept in a meat locker until being dumped," they write. "As egregious a suggestion it might be, I don't think we can rule out that Alonzo was placed into a freezer alive, possibly very drunk or even unconscious, and left to die "cleanly". The poster acknowledges that this might not check out scientifically, but it makes a decent theory for a Reddit post.

Another theory from the same posted brings up the idea that the house hosting the party was visited the next day—and was completely empty. As the user writes:

1. Alonzos own friends took him to this empty house and murdered him. I mean why would one of the friends leave after 45 minutes of party when the DRIVE was over an hour?

2. A group of teenagers murdered Alonzo Brooks and informed their families of their mistake. Their families came and cleaned up their mess, going as far as to hide the body. Likely the child of somebody in law enforcement

We don't know what happened to Alonzo Brooks right now, but with the case reopened by the FBI, and what sounds like future documentaries and podcasts on the way, we're just as eager as anyone else to get to the bottom—hopefully—of what really happened, and hope that whoever is responsible is brought to justice.

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