WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 The heartbreaking abduction and murder of five 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:06.080 -year -old Brittany Locklear still haunts Bowmore, 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:09.580 North Carolina. This episode explores the events 00:00:09.580 --> 00:00:14.339 of January 1998, the investigation and its challenges, 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:18.160 and the lasting impact on Brittany's family and 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.059 the Lumbee community. Let's examine not just 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:23.500 the facts, but the echoes of a case that demands 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:28.660 justice decades later. Welcome to Beyond the 00:00:28.660 --> 00:00:32.020 Silence, Whispers Across America. I'm Sammy, 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:35.520 your host. Driven to shine light on the dark 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:39.359 corners of forgotten cases, demand justice, and 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.799 keep alive the voices the world has tried to 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:45.259 silence. Today, we're diving into a case that 00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:50.119 is haunting, even after all these years. Bowmore, 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:55.140 North Carolina, January 7th, 1998. A lot of these 00:00:55.140 --> 00:00:57.939 stories I cover start with words like, it was 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:01.420 just a normal day. And that's the thing. These 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:03.960 tragedies slide in on days when life's supposed 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:08.840 to be as ordinary as ever. Brittany Locklear 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:12.400 was five, the kind of little kid everyone loves, 00:01:12.519 --> 00:01:15.579 hugging everybody she met, excited to go to church, 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:19.640 and fiercely proud of her Lumbee roots. That 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:23.239 morning, her mom Connie did what so many of us 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:25.920 have done. picked out her daughter's outfit, 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.260 that bright green and white t -shirt, those green 00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:32.840 overalls, little pink sneakers, even a green 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:36.439 tie for her hair. Brianna, Brittany's baby sister, 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.780 just 18 months old, got a hug before Brittany 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:43.920 shrugged in her red riding hood coat. Connie 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:47.099 and Brittany head out, hand in hand, to the bus 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:50.099 stop less than 500 feet from their front door. 00:01:50.579 --> 00:01:53.689 It was right there. in the clear sight line of 00:01:53.689 --> 00:01:57.069 their home. Connie's got to use the bathroom, 00:01:57.230 --> 00:01:59.489 and just like any one of us, probably thinking, 00:01:59.689 --> 00:02:03.950 I'll be two seconds, the bus might come. Brittany, 00:02:04.150 --> 00:02:06.769 who I imagine was just shuffling her feet the 00:02:06.769 --> 00:02:09.469 way kids do when they're bored or impatient, 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:15.610 stays at the stop. When Connie comes back, Brittany's 00:02:15.610 --> 00:02:19.349 not there. That split second, a gut punch, right? 00:02:20.139 --> 00:02:23.159 She checks at the school, hopeful, but Brittany 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:26.139 hadn't arrived. Within moments, the reality set 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:30.340 in. Brittany was missing. Here's the thing that 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:33.439 always rattles me. Neighbors saw it happen. They 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.180 saw a truck, tires screeching, a man getting 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:38.479 out and grabbing Brittany before speeding off. 00:02:39.539 --> 00:02:41.800 It's the kind of nightmare detail that keeps 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:45.259 you up at night. Calls went out to police, words 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:48.250 spread like wildfire. Hundreds started searching, 00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:50.610 but it was Brittany's clothes discovered just 00:02:50.610 --> 00:02:53.830 two miles away that hinted at the horror beginning 00:02:53.830 --> 00:03:00.030 to unfold. I wish I could say this kind of unthinkable 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:03.550 thing is rare, but it's these routine days that 00:03:03.550 --> 00:03:05.750 make the ground fall out from beneath families. 00:03:06.449 --> 00:03:09.289 Covering cases like Brittany's, I always wonder 00:03:09.289 --> 00:03:11.710 how those little moments, something as everyday 00:03:11.710 --> 00:03:14.509 as leaving your child for a second, can haunt 00:03:14.509 --> 00:03:18.310 a family forever. I don't know, maybe I'm rambling, 00:03:18.509 --> 00:03:21.990 but the normalcy hurts the most. The Locklear's 00:03:21.990 --> 00:03:24.610 morning could have been anyone's. That's what 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:29.090 sticks with me. The early investigation, it was 00:03:29.090 --> 00:03:32.650 frantic, and honestly, a mess in ways only hindsight 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:36.550 makes clear. Law enforcement neighbors, just 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:38.509 about everyone in Hope County hit the ground 00:03:38.509 --> 00:03:41.710 searching. Registered sex offenders within 50 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:45.129 miles were hauled in for questioning. Tips flooded 00:03:45.129 --> 00:03:49.030 in. Hundreds of them. Agents scribbled notes 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:51.330 onto whatever paper was handy, tracking leads 00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:54.909 on paper forms and spreadsheets. But, let's be 00:03:54.909 --> 00:03:58.810 real, systems got overwhelmed. Some tips slipped 00:03:58.810 --> 00:04:03.289 through the cracks. Detective Jay Tilly, yeah, 00:04:03.409 --> 00:04:06.370 he later admitted straight up, we know there 00:04:06.370 --> 00:04:09.490 was info we didn't follow up on. We weren't prepared. 00:04:11.050 --> 00:04:14.090 And look, as the weeks ticked by and calls slowed, 00:04:14.310 --> 00:04:17.740 things got muddy. New sheriffs came in, Bird 00:04:17.740 --> 00:04:21.579 was replaced by Jim Davis, who, well, let's just 00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:24.259 say the Locklear family does not look back fondly 00:04:24.259 --> 00:04:27.899 on his tenure. By their account, he tried to 00:04:27.899 --> 00:04:30.860 scare confessions out of them, even pinning the 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:33.139 crime on Brittany's step -grandfather, James 00:04:33.139 --> 00:04:36.980 Stevens. There was a lot of pain there, family 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:40.680 torn between grief and suspicion. Meanwhile, 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.870 evidence and hope. seemed to evaporate in that 00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:51.889 sea of leads. Then, in 2002, you might remember 00:04:51.889 --> 00:04:55.629 folks thinking, maybe this is it. A firefighter 00:04:55.629 --> 00:04:58.089 from Fort Bragg gets busted for robbing a bank. 00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:00.949 And bizarrely, they find a photo of Brittany 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:05.250 in his locker. I mean, come on, that's a weird 00:05:05.250 --> 00:05:08.290 break. But the hope fizzles just as quickly as 00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:11.329 it appeared. Turns out his DNA didn't match what 00:05:11.329 --> 00:05:15.699 was found on Brittany. The photo? Just a newspaper 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:18.519 clipping. That sense of being on the edge of 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:21.000 answers, then slipping right back into the unknown. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:25.959 Brittany's case is full of those moments. False 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:30.339 starts. Lost momentum. Pain upon pain for a family 00:05:30.339 --> 00:05:34.199 still searching, decades later. They always say, 00:05:34.259 --> 00:05:38.879 time is the enemy in cases like this. Memories 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:43.120 fade, people move, evidence gets lost. But someone 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:46.259 knows something. These stories don't just vanish. 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:50.879 Through all this, Brittany's mom, Connie, was 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:54.220 left picking up the pieces. Imagine the years 00:05:54.220 --> 00:05:58.439 passing. You're trying to raise Brianna. Who'd 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.920 never again wait for the school bus alone. Who 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:03.149 learned to shoot a gun at age three. because 00:06:03.149 --> 00:06:05.550 fear and loss colored her childhood from the 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:09.350 start. Connie and Charles, Brittany's stepdad, 00:06:09.529 --> 00:06:12.490 tried to hold on, but the weight of unanswered 00:06:12.490 --> 00:06:15.470 questions pulled them apart. There's this ache 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:17.569 in every part of their lives. It's the kind of 00:06:17.569 --> 00:06:22.370 thing that changes a family forever. And it's 00:06:22.370 --> 00:06:25.870 not just the Locklears. Brittany's murder echoes 00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:29.910 in the whole Lumbee community. and more painfully 00:06:29.910 --> 00:06:32.769 in the broader pattern of violence against indigenous 00:06:32.769 --> 00:06:37.709 women and girls. Statistics are brutal. Indigenous 00:06:37.709 --> 00:06:40.709 women are killed at ten times the rate of others. 00:06:41.350 --> 00:06:44.050 Murder is the third leading cause of death for 00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:47.230 indigenous women and girls in America. Brittany 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:51.069 Locklear, just five years old, is one more heartbreaking 00:06:51.069 --> 00:06:54.110 marker in those statistics, a name that deserved 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:58.860 to be so much more than a number. Yet hope is 00:06:58.860 --> 00:07:02.360 hard to kill. In 2015, law enforcement finally 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:05.459 got enough DNA to make a genetic profile of Brittany's 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:09.199 killer. There's still a $20 ,000 reward for information 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:12.079 leading to an arrest, and every year memorials 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:15.620 bloom in Bowmore. Ceramic angels, flowers, crosses 00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:18.879 bearing her name. The Lumbee tribe keeps her 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:21.899 memory alive. This community, Brittany's family, 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:25.939 they aren't done fighting. Neither are we. Answers 00:07:25.939 --> 00:07:29.680 are still out there. Cases like Brittany's, well, 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:33.160 they're exactly why I do this. The pain doesn't 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:35.199 fade, but neither does the hope for justice. 00:07:35.699 --> 00:07:38.920 Somebody knows. Someone out there has a piece 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:41.620 of the puzzle. If you know anything about what 00:07:41.620 --> 00:07:44.399 happened to Brittany Locklear, please, don't 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.220 let the silence win. That's it for today's episode. 00:07:47.850 --> 00:07:49.870 The questions remain and the search continues 00:07:49.870 --> 00:07:53.230 because every missing person deserves answers 00:07:53.230 --> 00:07:56.529 and every story deserves to be heard. What are 00:07:56.529 --> 00:07:59.189 your thoughts? What do you believe happened? 00:07:59.790 --> 00:08:02.149 Share your voice because sometimes the smallest 00:08:02.149 --> 00:08:05.850 detail can spark the biggest breakthrough. I'm 00:08:05.850 --> 00:08:08.670 Sammy and this is Beyond the Silence, Whispers 00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:11.970 Across America. Thank you for listening. Stay 00:08:11.970 --> 00:08:13.649 safe and I'll see you next time.