A (7:41)
According to reporting by Tracy Breton for the Providence Journal, the same night Regina got home from the hospital, she called a domestic violence hotline to report that Willis had beaten her. Willis took the phone from her hand and told the volunteer that the baby wasn't his and that he'd just caught Regina in bed with his best friend. Then he hung up the phone. Whatever help Regina was calling for that night, she wasn't able to get it later. Blood tests on both Reyna and Regina's son proved that Willis Brown Jr. Was in fact their biological father. But it didn't matter. Willis continued to accuse Regina of cheating on him and started telling people she was using drugs. Things got bad. In April of 1984, Regina called the police after Willis tried to choke her. He was arrested, but the charges were later dropped in favor of Willis seeking psychiatric help. According to Willis later testimony, the advice of the doctor was to leave the house anytime he felt like an outburst was coming on, and Willis said that's exactly what he did. Moving forward, they stayed together. But Willis still wasn't living with Regina. And he was away most of the time, either on long trips for the Airline or staying on Block island, where he ran a moped and bicycle rental business during the high season. He also had an apartment in Queens, New York. So for the next two years, Regina worked when she could and took care of the two babies, sometimes with the help of a live in babysitter. Willis visited on occasion, and he gave Regina money here and there to help with the kids, but not much. The following summer, In August of 1985, Regina welcomed her third child, another daughter. Again, Willis denied paternity of the baby. He believed the girl's father was actually a major league baseball player who Regina met while working a flight. And Willis later testified that he filed a lawsuit against the man for financial support of the child. Regina was embarrassed and exhausted by the repeated accusations. She insisted all of the children were Willis's and and that she'd never been unfaithful to him and there was never any evidence that she used drugs. But Willis again filed for divorce on November 27, 1985, listing in his complaint that Regina had committed adultery, quote, with various persons at various places, and the three children she had between 1982 and 1985 weren't his kids. As the divorce proceedings began, Willis decided he wanted everyone to know the kind of person Regina really was. In February of 1986, Willis wrote what would later be referred to as his book. The 21 page letter described Regina as a pathological liar and a manipulative woman with a criminal mind. He warned anyone who met her not to be fooled by her pretty face and soft voice. When he was finished finished with this book, Willis mailed it to Regina's family, friends and to her bosses at the airline. Regina was humiliated, but more than that, she was scared. Willis was controlling and unpredictable. She confided in her best friend, Hope Lambert, and they held prayer circles at Regina's house, asking for God's protection over her and the children. Despite his repeated claims that the children weren't his, Willis occasionally visited them at the house and brought them things. On July 1, 1986, Willis stopped by with new shoes for the two older kids and said he wanted to talk to Regina about something. According to Regina's later testimony, Willis confronted her while she was standing in the bathroom. He was upset because he saw the babysitter who regularly took care of the kids, kiss the children on their mouths. As Willis tells it in his testimony, he warned the babysitter not to do that, but she did it anyway, right in front of him. He wasn't happy about it. Regina didn't respond to him immediately. And started to walk out of the bathroom into the hallway. That's when she says willis balled up his fest so and raised his arm at her. Then he lunged for her neck and said, regina, this is it. You're dead. Regina testified that her vision clouded at that moment until everything went dark. When she regained consciousness, she was laying on the bathroom floor, and she could hear the children crying. Willis was now walking towards her with a length of rope. He stepped into the bathroom with Regina and closed the door. He sat down next to her, though apparently more subdued. Regina asked Willis why he did it, what caused him to attack her like that. Willis responded that he must have been in shock. And then he started begging Regina not to call the police. He told her he'd lose everything if she called the police, but then said, I might as well hang myself and kill us all. Regina insisted she wouldn't call the police, promised over and over that she wouldn't have him arrested. But she also begged Willis to get some help for himself. Eventually, he relented and promised to get help. When Regina felt safe enough to leave the bathroom, she went to the phone book to find the number of a psychiatrist, one who had observed Willis a few years earlier as part of the court order. Before Willis left the house that night, Regina told him she was going to leave with the kids and go to Texas. He gave her money for the flights, and she left four days later. She and the children stayed in Texas for three weeks, and while she was away, Regina called to check on Willis and see if he'd made an appointment with the psychiatrist. Willis asked Regina for what? It was clear he hadn't kept his promise. He later testified that he didn't think he needed to see a doctor. Three months later, in September of 1986, Willis threatened her again. Testimony shows that on September 3rd, for whatever reason, Willis was at the Connecticut house making phone calls. When Regina checked in with him before she planned to leave the house with the kids, Willis seemed annoyed out of nowhere, and his annoyance quickly escalated to anger. They argued. Regina asked Willis what this was really about. She suspected he had a girlfriend at the time, and it was the girlfriend that was causing him problems. But Willis then waved a bag of white powder at Regina, saying that he found her cocaine stash and was going to turn it over to police. He walked out the door and got into his car, but before he pulled away, he told Regina, I want you out of this house. If you're not out when I get back, you're dead. The next day, on September 4, 1986 Regina filed an emergency request with Danbury Superior Court for temporary exclusive possession of their family home on Whippoorwill Hill Road in Newtown. The request was ultimately granted and Willis had to remove all of his personal belongings and was restricted from entering the house or having physical contact with Regina until until further court order. And that bag of white powder. It was later found to be baby cereal. Regina was no longer holding onto the hope that Willis would seek help and that their marriage could be salvaged. Through the fall of 1986 and into spring of 1987, divorce proceedings pushed forward. Documents show that Regina requested Willis submit to a blood test to establish paternity of the children once and for all, just as she knew they would. Each paternity test proved that Willis Brown Jr. Was in fact the father of Regina's son and two daughters. In March of 1987, even though there was a restraining order in place, Willis was at the house in Connecticut on a few separate occasions. Edward Erickson reports that during one of those visits, Willis asked Regina to co sign on a home equity loan so he could pull some money out for his moped business, but Regina refused to sign. Willis also later testified that he was at the house another time in March to drop off a check to Regina, presumably for child support. And he was there again on March 24th or 25th to look for some tax documents he kept at the house, he said. But we don't know exactly what happened when Willis was at the house in late March of 1987. We don't know the specific interactions between Willis and Regina or if there was any contact at all. But we know that the next time Regina talked to her best friend Hope Lambert, the message she relayed over the phone was cryptic and her tone was frightened. It was clear to Hope that Regina was in fear for her life. Hope Lambert's account of her March 25 conversation with Regina Brown is described in the Hartford Current. Regina spoke urgently. She said that it was late and very, very dark outside and she had a long way to go. She told Hope that the two other kids were already in Texas and she was going to put her youngest daughter on a flight there with a babysitter the next day. Once all her kids were safely with or en route to family, Hope Regina planned to make some payments on furniture she bought and then close her bank account before heading to Texas herself. As Hope remembers it, Regina's next words were Willis is really trying to kill me this time. He means it, Hope. He means it. Regina went on to give hope specific instructions. Regina's flight to Texas was on Thursday, March 27, and she would call Hope on the 28th. But if Hope didn't hear from her that day, Regina told her to wait two days and then call her parents in Texas. If Regina's parents hadn't heard from Regina at that point, she told Hope to wait two more days and then called back. If her parents still hadn't heard from Regina, she said, Willis will have done what he said he would. The last reported sighting of Regina Brown was on March 26, 1987, when she dropped her youngest daughter and the BabySitter off at LaGuardia Airport in New York, just like she told Hope she was planning to do. Tracey Breton reports for the Providence Journal that Regina called her mother in Texas to let her know the baby was on her way. Regina's mom asked what she was going to do with the next few days. Regina responded that she was so tired and just wanted to rest. It's possible Regina made it back to her house in Connecticut that day, but where she went next is exactly what investigators have been trying to determine for more than three decades.