Cassie Compton ////// 786

Summary

True Crime Garage – Cassie Compton ////// 786

Episode Summary – September 10, 2024

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Episode Overview

In this episode, hosts Nic and the Captain tackle the haunting disappearance of Cassie Compton, a 15-year-old girl who vanished from her home in Stuttgart, Arkansas, in September 2014. The hosts dig into the confusing timeline, family dysfunction, shifting stories, and lingering questions that have stymied the investigation for a decade. With characteristic banter and depth, they break down the known facts, main suspects, and wild leads, probing whether Cassie was a runaway, a victim of foul play, or entangled in something darker.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Cassie's Background and Circumstances

• Cassie’s family dynamics (03:35–09:00):
  • Cassie lived with her mother Judy; older siblings remained in Oklahoma.
  • No contact with her father.
  • No close friends visible in media coverage—only adults have spoken about her.
  • Cassie was homeschooled, possibly due to bullying and severe allergies; mom claims (without evidence) Cassie was bipolar and clinically depressed.
  • Previous reports of Cassie running away for short periods.

"[The lore about Cassie is that she was not happy with her life... she was unhappy because of her mom's fiancé, Brandon Lee Rhodes.]" — Nick (09:35)

• Living situation:
  • Judy’s fiancé, Brandon Rhodes, lived with them; significantly younger than Judy, closer to Cassie’s age.
  • Tense relationship between Cassie and Brandon.

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The Timeline of Cassie's Disappearance

• The Days Leading Up (09:54–14:00):

  • Thurs, Sep 11: Doctor's appointment for Cassie's cold.
  • Fri, Sep 12: Believed to have attended high school football game.
  • Sat, Sep 13: Cassie hangs out with friend Hunter Snyder. Picked up at 1:30 pm, attends demolition derby, spends the night at Hunter’s.
  • Sun, Sep 14: Cassie has brunch with the Snyders, is dropped off at home around 6:25 pm.

• Key Messages & Last Sighting (12:52–17:39):

  • Texts to mom around 6:02 and 6:03 pm: “are you home?” and “be home in a bit”.
  • Last text from Cassie’s phone at 6:55 pm to Hunter: "going to go find a pack of cigarettes". Unclear if Cassie herself sent this message.
  • Judy claims she was sick in bed and didn’t see or hear Cassie after she came in.
  • Conflicting accounts from Brandon Rhodes (sometimes says he saw Cassie, sometimes says not).

"I can tell you that her phone sent that message to his phone, but I do not know who scripted that text." — Nick (17:39)

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The Aftermath and Initial Police Response

• Search efforts and early police missteps (24:33–28:15):
  • Cassie's bag and purse found in her room; only her phone missing (not the charger), casting doubt on the runaway theory.
  • Police initially classify as a runaway, no Amber Alert issued.
  • File with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and follow up with Oklahoma family due to Cassie's past connections.
  • Assistant Chief later says early leads contradicted the runaway theory.

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Investigation, Suspects, and Key Theories

• Surveillance and Search (34:37–40:14):
  • No trace of Cassie on camera or from eyewitnesses.
  • Cell phone pings lead to search in Casco area, but nothing found.
  • Second search is grimly called a “recovery mission,” volunteers told to look for dismembered remains due to suspicion of non-vehicle transport.

“They tell the searchers immediately that you might be looking for some small dismembered pieces here... for transportation purposes.” — Nick (37:36)

• Sex Offender “Roundup”:

  • 15 registered sex offenders live along routes Cassie was known to walk; police interview all with no leads resulting.

• Family Under Scrutiny (40:56–51:22):

  • Police seize Judy’s and Brandon’s phones; both reportedly fail polygraph tests (Judy blames medication).
  • Captain points out Judy’s history as a registered sex offender: convicted for protecting Cassie’s abusive father, who molested another child.
  • Judy on pain meds (fentanyl patches) at the time—possibly “checked out,” unreliable, and stories change over time.

“She started slapping on those fentanyl patches, and that’s when she checked out. I think her story changed a lot because she didn’t know up from down.”— Nick (51:20)

• Brandon’s Troubled Background (59:12–64:16):
  • After Cassie’s disappearance, Brandon racks up arrests (meth possession, squatting, then caught with stolen weapons).
  • Makes bizarre “I’m a hitman” confession, later claims he did it to get sent to prison on purpose.
  • Notorious for being manipulative, controlling, and pretending to be other people—even potentially pretending to be Cassie for deceptive texts/calls.

"This dude... it's a long trip to crazy town with this guy." — Nick (64:03)

• Hunter and Tracy (Cassie's Friends):
  • Hunter (friend who last saw her) and his mom Tracy provide the most reliable timeline.
  • Police state Hunter has cooperated and is cleared.

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Alternate Theories and Wild Leads

• Other Suspects:
  • Mention of “Dustin,” a man in his 20s rumored by locals to have had contact with Cassie; no evidence of relationship or involvement.
  • Possibility of human trafficking or accident/overdose at a party (searches in Casco prompted by tips).

“Tina [the PI] parsed through Cassie’s social media... men and boys unknown to Cassie’s mother posting sexual comments... whether those are true or not, we don’t know.” — Nick (70:10)

• TikTok Double (71:34–73:00):
  • Years later, viral TikTok video sparks false hope; girl not Cassie, proves her identity and safety to FBI.
  • Reinforces how desperate and uncertain the case remains.

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Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “She was gone like a whisper in the wind.” — Brandon Rhodes, as quoted/interviewed by Nick (56:55)
• “The changing stories are very—it’s easy for me to get very angry with this mother. And I also think that she may have no clue what happened to her daughter. I think both could be possible all at the same time.” — Nick (47:34–48:20)
• “This is a child that was neglected.” — Captain (54:48)
• "I wouldn't put it past [Brandon], though." — Captain on possibility of his involvement (51:20)
• “If I had to bet money, he’s responsible for why Cassie Compton’s missing. But he, he is a riddle.” — Captain (74:40)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Cassie’s background and family situation: 03:35–09:00
• Detailed timeline (days before disappearance): 09:54–17:39
• Last messages, contradictions in alibis: 12:52–19:34
• Initial search, investigation, and family statements: 24:33–28:15
• Searches and “recovery mission” details: 34:37–40:14
• Brandon Rhodes’ background and behavior: 59:12–64:16
• Alternate theories, TikTok sighting: 69:17–73:00
• Call to action for tips/info: 75:16–76:10

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Notable Conclusions

• No closure, only theories: Despite years of investigation, rumors, and social media “breaks,” no hard evidence points to Cassie’s fate.
• Family dysfunction and suspicion abound: Judy’s and Brandon’s histories and inconsistencies overshadow the case.
• Law enforcement’s initial approach likely hampered progress: Dismissal as a runaway delayed deeper investigation into the family and key suspects.

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Call to Action

If you have any information about Cassie Compton’s disappearance, contact:

• Stuttgart Police Department: 870-673-1414
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 1-800-843-5678

---

“Until next week, be good, be kind, and don’t litter.”

Transcript

[Nick]

Picture this. It's the end of a long week.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Nick]

Welcome to True Crime Garage wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who would like to know what's the story? Morning glory, here is the Captain.

[Captain]

You know what I mean. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

Today we have Vengeance on tap. That's right. We are excited to be featuring Vengeance Jalapeno Cream Ale by the creative folks over at Jack Pine Brewery. Vengeance is a spicy twist on an already delicious cream ale. This is Dead Branch Cream Ale simply infused with fresh cut jalapenos. Some folks like to mix it in with a Bloody Mary ABV 4.6% garage grade. Three and a half bottle caps out of five. And how about we deliver some thank yous and some toast to our good garage friends. First up, a big cheers to our friend Julie, five star in Minnesota.

[Captain]

And a big we like your jib goes out to Rachel Stricker from Tumball, Texas.

[Nick]

Here's a long distance cheers to Alina in Frankfurt, Germany.

[Captain]

And a big cheers goes out to Pete from Sioux Fall, South Dakota.

[Nick]

Next we have Marla from Pleasureville, Kentucky. With a town name like that I have all kinds of questions. And last but certainly not least we have Brian, Michigan born but currently residing in Phoenix, Arizona. Everyone we just mentioned they went to truecrimegarage.com clicked on the pint glass and helped us out with this week's beer funding. For that we thank you.

[Captain]

Yeah, BWR you and beer on. If you need more True Crime Garage for your earballs, make sure you subscribe to us on Patreon or Apple podcasts. And Colonel, that's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right everybody gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. No way out. A 15 year old girl walked away from her home in September of of 2014. She took only her cell phone. After that she was gone like a whisper in the wind. Her case was treated as a runaway and then a missing child, but many fear that it is much, much worse. Did she die in an accident? Was she murdered? Was this a human trafficking case? Or did she indeed run away? There are so many alternative facts and so many unanswered questions in this case, starting with the changing stories told by the people in this girl's life, compounded with the unverified information floating around. There are so many people close to her who failed this girl. Now we fear this case will never be solved. This is True Crime Garage and this is the case of Cassie Compton. In September of 2014, Cassie Compton was 15 years old and living with her mother Judy in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Stuttgart is a town of about 9,000 residents that is famous for its rice production and duck hunting. Every year thousands of hunters descend on Stuttgart for duck season and duck calling competitions. There are a big deal. Sadly, Cassie would go missing from this town of 9,000 in September of 2014. Leading up to the day in question, Cassie and her mother Judy had moved to Stuttgart just five years prior, the two making the move to Arkansas from Oklahoma in 2009. Judy said the move was prompted by her becoming a piano player for the Stuttgart Church. Judy had been married to Roy Compton and Cassie was born December 4, 1998. She had three older siblings, two brothers and a sister. The older siblings remained in Oklahoma and when Judy and Cassie moved to Arkansas, it started off just the two of them. We reference a KATV interview with her older brother Chris where he said that out of the four children in the family, he was the closest with Cassie. Cassie did not have a relationship with her father. This case is unique in that we do not have any personal friends of Cassie who have spoken to the media. We have only the word of adults who knew Cassie, her mom, her friend Hunter's mom, her stepfather to be Brandon, and her brother Chris to tell us about Cassie. The police have revealed very little in this case. There have been different stories that have been told about who Cassie was and what her life was like. Cassie's mom, Judy, says they were very close. She says her daughter was a normal teenager. She liked bowling, cookouts and movies. But Cassie didn't go to school. She was homeschooled. Her mom tells it that Cassie said the kids at school were mean to her and she didn't want to go, so she studied at home for her ged. Judy has also said that this decision was in part because of Cassie's severe allergies. Judy has said that she was allergic to the environment. I'm guessing she's meaning everything. Cassie apparently had an EpiPen that she kept in her backpack. And Judy told lots of people, reporters, the police, that Cassie was bipolar and or clinically depressed and that she was prescribed medication for this condition, but she didn't like to take her meds and flush them down the toilet. However, there is no evidence that Cassie was ever actually diagnosed by a doctor and prescribed anything. This, according to the Stuttgart police chief, Mark Duke. Duke was one of the original officers who responded to Cassie going missing, and he knew the family from a previous unrelated visit to the home. The lore about Cassie is that she was not happy with her life. This is backed up by some evidence. One is that Judy told a private investigator who worked closely with her. Her name is Tina Storrs of HALO Investigations, that Cassie had run away a couple of times before, although she always came home on those previous occasions after just a couple of days. And another was Cassie's brother, Chris. Chris said Cassie would confide in him and say that she was unhappy. She was unhappy because of her mom's fiance, Brandon Lee Rhodes. Chris said, quote, they would fight all of the time. They didn't get along and she didn't want to be around him.

[Captain]

Well, Brandon was quite a bit younger than her mother. He was actually closer to Cassie's age than Cassie's mother's age.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Nick]

The two met through mutual friends. They end up getting engaged. In 2012, Brandon was living with Judy in her house on 15th street in Stuttgart with Cassie and Judy, obviously.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Brandon had been in Cassie's life since she was about 13 years old. Cassie had a black LG straight talk smartphone and would post often on her Facebook page, sharing information with her 93 friends on there. Her page is not set to private. Most of her post are very short. So we get things like I made cookies or my cat had kittens. However, it's not clear whether a post on Cassie's page on February 8th, 2014 saying I'm engaged and a life event got engaged was to be taken seriously. She was only 15 at the time. A year before, on May 12, her page marked a life event saying in a relationship. But it's not clear who this relationship was with. Neither post tagged anyone else. A lot of the timeline in the days leading up to Cassie's disappearance is simply speculative. Since Cassie didn't attend school, we have some gaps and police haven't really released much of anything that they may have obtained through her phone records. We are going to go through what we know about four consecutive days a Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in September of 2014, starting with Thursday. The Stuttgart Daily Leader reported that Cassie had been to the doctor a few days earlier for a bad cold and was on medication. A local familiar with the case posted that Brandon Rhodes had driven Cassie to the doctor on that Thursday. We don't know anything else about this doctor visit on Friday night. So now we're at September 12th. It is believed that Cassie went to the Stuttgart High School football game. We have zero information on who she went with or who she was hanging out with. Now we go to Saturday, September 13th. Cassie was going to hang out with her friend Hunter Snyder. And there have been some questions here, Captain, if the two were in a relationship. No one's ever said that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. It's always been reported and stated by the people that knew the two that they were simply best friends. But she's going to go hang out with Hunter Snyder. I couldn't track down this guy's age. I, from what I could read and what I could find, I believe him to be close to Cassie's age. Maybe slightly older.

[Captain]

Yeah, I believe he's slightly older. But he's been cooperative with police and as far as my research goes, he's the only individual that police have came out and said that they've cleared him.

[Nick]

Hunter's mom's friend picked Cassie up at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon and brought her to Hunter's house. They all left at 3:30 to go to the Arkansas County Fair demolition derby in DeWitt. After that, Cassie spent the night at the Snyders. According to reports, Hunter and Cassie were newish friends and Hunter is described as her best friend. Like we said, the next morning they had Sunday brunch and a, quote, lazy day. In the evening, Hunter took Cassie home to her mom's house, which was located on East 15th street in Stuttgart. This is not in a rural area. It's urban on Google Maps, it's the block of East 15th street between Grand and College. So we have both homes and businesses are in this immediate area. We have a one sided text chain from that weekend. These are text from Cassie to her mother that were posted on a message board from a user going by the name Caring for Many which pulled this from a broken Daily Leader article. So this is a phone text timeline for Cassie and she's communicating with her mother Judy. But we only get the one side that was released. So on Saturday September 13th at 9:47am Cassie texts to her mother, nothing much, I'm fine. Still got a cough though. But it's getting better still on Saturday. Now in the evening time at 6:56pm she replies yeah, two minutes later, love you too. So we get to hear the one side of that conversation. Now we go to Sunday the 14th starting at 3:19pm she tells her mom text her says just tired. Then 3 minutes later at 3:22pm yeah, just feel like I haven't got enough sleep. At 6:02pm this is where we start to get very near the time in question here. She's texting her mom at 6:02 saying are you home? We don't know what the reply was or if she got one. But one minute later she's sending another text to her mom at 6:03pm saying be home in a bit. This 603 text appears to be the last text from Cassie to Judy. Now we go to cnn an interview with Tracy. Who is Tracy? Tracy is Hunter's mom. Remember what we know about this timeline so far is Hunter is returning Cassie to her mother's house on this Sunday evening. This interview is conducted by Jane Valez Mitchell. So Tracy, Hunter's mom says he left our house at 6:05 and he got back by 6:45 talking about her son Hunter. We live out of town so it was a bit, a little bit by the time he got there and dropped her off and got back home. She did send him a text message saying that she was going to go out and quote, find a pack of cigarettes and that is the last response he got from her. So she's telling the public my son dropped her off and here's some communication that the two had after he dropped her off and he had returned home.

[Captain]

Well like you said, we have the communication between her and her mother and she's asking hey, are you home? We don't know what the reply is but again we have this speculation. We have people saying that maybe Cassie wasn't super comfortable in the living situation with Mom's boyfriend or fiance, Brandon.

[Nick]

We are kind of overlapping this information here to show that some of it it seems to stack up nicely.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right.

[Nick]

If she's Texting mom at 602 saying Are you home? Then at 6:03 saying Be home in a bit. And then we have Tracy Hunter's mom saying that they the two left our house at 6:05. So that all seems to gel real nice. Based off of what Tracy is saying about that trip to drop Cassie off, it would appear to me, Captain, that that it was very likely about 6:25 ish when Cassie would arrive home.

[Captain]

Hunter also told his mother that she wasn't very talkative on the way home, which I think is more indication that she didn't want to go home or

[Nick]

wasn't feeling well as the other text had indicated. So now we got 6:55pm this is when we are told that Cassie text Hunter saying that she was going to go find or get some cigarettes. I want everybody to to put a question mark after this. Keep in mind it's Cassie's phone that sends this message to Hunter's phone. I cannot sit here and say 100% that Cassie text that message to Hunter. I can tell you that her phone sent that message to his phone, but I do not know who scripted that text. There was no back and forth or not much of a back and forth as far as what we've been told here. In that statement. In that text, she does not mention getting a ride from anyone or anyone coming to pick her up or meeting anybody. She just simply says she was going out to find some cigarettes. Cassie's mom, Judy Compton, has changed her story slightly over the years. Some things have remained consistent in her retelling of the events of the evening of September 14, but some things have not. Judy was sick in bed that evening and could not even get up without having a dizzy spell. So she remained in bed the whole time. She said that she heard Cassie come in that evening. So getting dropped off by Hunter, she comes into the house that Sunday evening, to which Judy then says that she shouted out, hi, baby girl. But she later said that Cassie did not come into the bedroom. So she says she heard her come into the house. She shouts out to her, but to be clear, she's saying, I never actually saw her. I never saw her come. She didn't come into the bedroom. Yeah.

[Captain]

Cassie's mother claims that she never saw her. I believe she also says she never

[Nick]

heard her, which is weird because there is a statement that she says where on one Occasion. Judy states that Cassie denied dinner, which sounds confusing to me, but and maybe to some others. But as we go through these other statements, it will make a little bit more sense. I think a couple things could both be true here, Captain. Right. She could have not never heard her daughter and Cassie could have also denied dinner because Brandon lives there as well. She could have. Her daughter could have told Brandon she didn't want dinner. And that means can mean that mom didn't hear that interaction. Judy says that she dozed off. She did not hear Cassie leave. When she Woke at about 8pm Cassie was gone. After a while, Judy's fiance, Brandon Rhodes started calling around looking for Cassie and the Snyders. So Hunter Snyder and Tracy, who we've already talked about, were the first call. Hunter's mom, Tracy told CNN. Well, there was three phone calls. They started at about 9:14 that night and he first asked if Cassie was still at our house. Hunter told his mom Tracy that when he pulled into Cassie's driveway at her house to drop her off on that Sunday evening, Cassie got out of the truck and walked up the driveway toward the house. Brandon Rhodes, Judy's fiance, was on the porch smoking and observed Cassie walk up the driveway and into the house. This is according to Hunter. She did not speak to him. He didn't speak to her. Hunter turned around and went home, arriving around 6:45 when Brandon called Tracy at 9:14 asking if Cassie was still with them. This made no sense since according to Hunter, Brandon had seen her come home and Hunter leave. Brandon called back two more times saying they still hadn't found Cassie and asking if Hunter had heard from her. Tracy says she kept repeating to Brandon through these phone calls to go to the police department or call the police and report her missing. In the third phone call, he said that he did. He went to the police department and they told him it would be about 72 hours. The Stuttgart police have not confirmed that this happened, but a Web sleuths verified insider says that SPD has acknowledged at some point that Brandon Rhodes did in fact ride his bicycle to the police station that evening and two officers took a statement from him and told him to go home and see if the teenager would eventually come home that night or call now at 9:52am on Monday. So we've the whole night has gone by. We wake up now. We're at 9:52am on Monday, September 15th. Judy, Mom. Judy spoke with two officers who came to the house. This is Kyle Stokes and then Lieutenant Mark Duke. Remember, he goes on to become the police Chief, the missing persons report on Cassie says the incident occurred on Sunday, September 14 between 6:52 and 7:00pm What a short little window of time to have in question here. The description is only a few sentences long. On this report it states, quote, On September 15, 2014, I met with Ms. Judy Compton. She stated that her daughter left the house located on 15th street between 6:45 and 7pm on September 14, 2014 and has not returned. Cassie Compton is a 15 year old with blonde hair and blue eyes, approximately 100 pounds, has a scar on her left cheek. Subject was last seen wearing a blue tank top and teal plaid shorts. Ms. Compton states her daughter has been diagnosed with a mental disorder, possibly bipolar. End quote.

[Captain]

Well, a couple things before we move on. I always hate in these missing person cases where when law enforcement just assumes that this person is missing without any foul play, but we have two parental figures that are not being that cooperative and probably not being that truthful. And this report of what she was last seen wearing, this is all speculative. Her mother actually didn't see her, nor did she hear her come into the house that night. So she is basing what she was wearing off of what she knows is missing from her wardrobe at the house.

[Nick]

Yeah, and what else was missing or what else wasn't missing from the house? I find to be interesting too, Cassie's overnight bag that she had just taken with her to Hunter's house was found in her room. So if she did in fact take that bag to Hunters, then we know that the portion of the story where Hunter returns her home happened, that bag didn't make its way on its own. What's weird too is her purse was also in her room. I think a lot of people find that extremely weird. I don't find it to be as weird because she's 15. And if in fact that text is correct, that she was going to go find a pack of cigarettes, she might have to go to a couple of establishments to get somebody to sell her a pack of smoke. She's not old enough to buy cigarettes and it's a little difficult. Right. If you walk into the place with your purse strapped around you and say, oh, I, I don't have my id, it's a little more believable if you walk in there with no purse on you and say, yeah, I'm of age, I just don't have my id, well,

[Captain]

you first have to believe that she is the one that sent the text.

[Nick]

The other thing too is her cell phone's gone, but not her charger. If she wanted to go away for a good amount of time or even overnight. Right. She's. She's. According to her mother, has ran away on at least two previous occasions, but came back within a couple days. Yeah.

[Captain]

This is a case of a runaway.

[Nick]

The overnight bag she would have taken with her, the cell phone charger she would have taken with her as well. And the captain's exactly right. The description of what she was last wearing is kind of cobbled together based off of items that might be missing from her room, maybe some of what Hunter says she was wearing when she was dropped off. And if. If Brandon saw her that night or not.

[Captain]

Well, originally, Brandon says that he did see her and then later changes his story.

[Nick]

As said in the trailer, police initially treated Cassie's case as a runaway. It was reported in the September 19 report on KATV that since there was no imminent harm or possible death, that Cassie's case didn't qualify for a Morgan Nick Amber Alert. The Stuttgart police said while they don't believe Cassie has been abducted, they did file Cassie's description with the national center for Missing and Exploited Children. They've also been following up on leads with the family in Kingston, Oklahoma. According to this report. Remember, she has extended family living in Kingston, Oklahoma. This is about 375 miles away. So this included her brother Chris, who said that he told police that if she had run away, he believed that she would have come to him. But obviously she didn't turn up. Eventually, what we get here, Captain, and it's fairly quick. Eventually we get Assistant Chief. We get Assistant Police Chief Stephen Bobo. They said that leads gathered early on in this case contradicted the runaway theory. So now we have to shift gears and start saying, well, maybe something else happened here.

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the summer upgrade your rotation needs. And their tees are are soft enough to live in all day. And the lightweight cotton sweaters are exactly what you want when summer nights cool down. I love quints. I love [e-mail] for all of my clothing needs. It's how I fill my wardrobe and my closet. And I didn't make up the statement that their tees are soft enough to live in all day. They absolutely are. I love their tees. I love their socks. They especially for summertime tees from Quince can live in all day long. What does that mean? I wear them to the pool. I wear them when I go out to the restaurants and I have several that I've reserved as pajama tops because they are that comfortable, they are that breathable and they are super soft. They make you want to relax. The clothing on quints.com is super high quality with great looks, great fashion and very affordable.

[Priceline Spokesperson]

Affordable.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Plus the checkout and shipping experience is

[Nick]

always a good one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to quints.com garage for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U I N C E.com garage for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com garage.

[Captain]

All right, we are back. Cheers mates.

[Nick]

Cheers to you Carl and cheers to you Captain. Cheers to everybody out there in listener land having a grand time, I hope. Police. One of the first steps that they were going to take looking for Cassie, they're going to look for leads, right? We need a breadcrumb trail. If in fact she did go off walking to go find some cigarettes as the text said, then we need a breadcrumb trail leading us from her house to where we will find her. And so they started checking surveillance footage at the stores and businesses in the nearby area. We have a several businesses not limited to the ones that I'm going to list here, but we have a Shell gas station, a Family Dollar store, a Walmart. So they collected surveillance from all of these locations. Hopefully they were successful. You know, they show up and they actually have footage to share with the Police. But none of these stores seem to have any footage of Cassie. About two weeks after her disappearance, the Stuttgart Police Department asked for assistance from the Arkansas State Police and the FBI. Law enforcement announced an official search for Cassie that would take place on October 4th. Calling for volunteers to help in the search. They were searching this area that's called Casco. And I think this is rather important here. So while the search didn't turn up anything, the officials were calling this search a recovery mission. That's not good. It doesn't sound to me like they were hoping to recover an alive and well Cassie. So they're calling this a recovery mission. And according to some of the locals, what the rumor was at the time was that they were searching this specific area because of some cell phone ping information. Now, at the time, we're not told whose phone they're pulling that information from. Later, it is said that it was Cassie's phone, that they had some cell phone ping information in this area. This Casco area.

[BetterHelp Narrator]

Yeah.

[Captain]

So we have no record of Cassie on surveillance footage of any of these stores. We don't have any eyewitnesses claiming that they saw her that night or in that area. So really, this idea that she went anywhere, we have no evidence of it. Well, but we have her cell phone movement. So we do have some cell phone ping technology there. So we know that her cell phone moved. We just don't know if Cassie was with that cell phone or if she was alive at that time.

[Nick]

And one thing here regarding this, this second. So there's a second search that takes place, right? You hear recovery mission. That's not something you want to hear. But then this other statement is something you definitely don't want to hear. But I want to set this up, Captain, by saying we had mentioned that Brandon Rhodes, the fiance, Mom's fiance, his. What he's saying is that he rode his bicycle to the police department to report her missing. Cassie missing that Sunday night. That wasn't because he was just looking to get a little extra exercise. Brandon did not have a driver's license while he was known to drive illegally, using Judy's car on occasion at all. The locals say the same thing. You would see this guy riding his bicycle around town all the. All of the time. So on the second search, they are advising the volunteers. This search starts off much closer to Cassie's home, to the Compton residence. And they tell the searchers immediately that you might be looking for some small dismembered pieces here. And the statement that. That they used to follow that up with was that we think that we might be looking for dismembered pieces because it would be easier for transportation purposes. That to me, reading between the lines seems to indicate to me we might be talking about trying to transport something without the use of a vehicle.

[Captain]

Hashtag, ban the van.

[Nick]

That's just what I'm saying. Police also search bodies of waters in the area. They interviewed residents along Cassie suspected walking route. So this is interesting here. They learned that Cassie liked to walk to the Walmart in one direction or the Laundromat or the Stuttgart apartments where she was known to hang out with some friends. Okay, so these are going to be key areas. Now, one thing we haven't done here in the garage in a long time might be overdue. The old pervert roundup. So on this route, right, you go one direction from the Compton home, you go to Walmart, you go the other direction. It's the Laundromat and the apartments. Between the apartments and the Walmart, we have 15 registered sex offenders in this area. The police department did go door to door to their homes inquiring about Cassie. None of these individuals admitted to seeing her. And according to what we can find, no suspects came of any of this, of these interviews.

[Captain]

I believe at first, law enforcement wasn't taking this super serious. It's very common for a teenager to get an argument with her parents and disappear for the day. Once you look into the background of her, Cassie's not in a good living situation. And they're not, I believe, being that truthful with law enforcement. So now we have to start digging up, well, what is their criminal history and what information can we get from them? Can we give them a lie detector? Can we obtain their cell phone so then we can get cell phone records from them? And that's what law enforcement starts to do.

[Nick]

Yeah. On top of that, we're seizing the cell phones belonging to Judy and the fiance, Brandon Rhodes. Now, this reportedly happened on October 3, which is interesting to me because the Casco search took place the following day, October 4th. That could be coincidence. It's tough to. That's a tough hurdle to clear. Let's talk about Cassie's mother, Judy. The Stuttgart Daily Leader reported the following. This is on October 14th. After interviewing Judy, where she says the next morning, she's talking about Monday, September 15. She says that she found that Cassie wasn't in her bedroom and started texting Cassie. After no quick response, she sent another text, then started calling her mother, said Cassie always answered her text and calls. She called friends to See, if Cassie was there and she wasn't. It was then that worry began to set in and law enforcement was called. Those are Judy's words. So this timeline is very strange, right, Because Brandon Rhodes claimed that he went to the police station on Sunday night and told them that Cassie was gone. Yet Judy is claiming that she didn't know her daughter was missing until the following morning. That makes no sense because this, what this means is that she was unaware that Cassie was missing and Brandon took it on himself to call around and ask people if they had seen her.

[Captain]

Okay, you know, or somebody's lying.

[Nick]

Look, I get it. The. The official report is that Judy wasn't feeling well, couldn't get out of bed without a dizzy spell. But to be completely oblivious to your daughter being missing until 9:20 something the next morning, boyfriend doesn't tell you anything. If that's all, none of that is. Is making any sense at all.

[Captain]

Well, like I said, their stories keep changing. At some point, Brandon says was in the kitchen and I was cooking breakfast for dinner and that he saw her. And then later he says that he never saw her. But we know that she did make it home because of the items that returned.

[Nick]

Yeah. And then we talk about she never sees her daughter. But then another version of the story says that she heard her leave the house. So that would kind of back up the going out for cigarettes.

[Captain]

And at some point, Brandon has a. He's in the bathroom throwing up. He has some kind of sickness going on.

[Nick]

Yeah. And so I. Look, maybe it's. Maybe the past history that she's reporting to police is. Is true, is truthful. But regardless, let's say. Let's say it is truthful or it's a lie. Judy totally contributed to the police's runaway theory, either accidentally or on purpose. And keep in mind, the initial report, she's saying Cassie was bipolar or possibly bipolar, even though there was no evidence of that. According to the police, if she was trying to set up something, she's planting the seed that she ran away and all. She's unstable as well.

[Captain]

And I have all types of problems with her mother. Her mother is a. Or her mother was a registered sex offender. And that is because Cassie's father, which is in jail, and he's in jail because he was molesting his. Which I believe was his stepdaughter. And Cassie's mother's story is that she didn't know what was going on. And basically what she was charged with was the fact that she did know what was going on. And was basically protecting her husband from getting in trouble.

[Nick]

Yeah. So this, this takes a while to come out. Okay, so this does. This is not a part of the immediate information.

[Captain]

Well, not the immediate information from the, like coming from the media, but law enforcement would have known this from jump

[Nick]

street if they checked.

[Priceline Spokesperson]

Right?

[Nick]

Right. You don't, you don't. There's. It's not the scarlet letter where they just put a big giant sign above your house that says registered sex offender lives here. And into. To. To say, hey, wait 48 hours or 72 hours or what have you. Look, this is the other thing that bothers me. I get that. All right, you have somebody that potentially has a history of running away. I get it. That that is protocol in a lot of the police departments and, and has been for a long time. It's changed in some jurisdictions over the years, but in some jurisdictions it's going to say stay this way. The thing I've never understood, like, okay, so Stuttgart is not like this crime ridden area. In 2014, there was not even, there was not a single homicide that we are aware of. Right. Cassie Compton may have been murdered, but it's never been labeled homicide. So in 2014, you have no homicides. And it's not a crime. It's not just, it's not this filthy, seedy, horrible area where there's just crime after crime after crime. If you guys ain't got nothing to do, let's take this report seriously for a couple of hours. Please. Please. But, but then, then as much as you, you want to get angry and, and shake a fist at law enforcement, here you go. What the hell is going on at home? Because that's seems to be. If there was a problem, that seems to be where it all started. You're not getting. So it's difficult to say that the, the Judy and Brandon were not cooperative because on the surface it feels a little bit like they're cooperative. They blow. They both reported her missing. They both attempted to describe the situation, report the situation to police. And they are talking with police and mother Judy's talking with the media. And we, we referenced some of those interactions with the media and interviews that she was doing, camera some for newspapers. But in most of those, she's pleading to her, she's making a plea to her daughter. Please come back. You know, we're not mad at you. It's safe to come home. And whether there was anything bad going on at home or not, that that would appear that there is some level of cooperation. What makes it so that there Is not this perfect level of cooperation and is the changing stories. The changing stories are very. It's easy for me to get very angry with this mother. And I also think that she may have no clue what happened to her daughter. I think both could be possible all at the same time.

[Captain]

Yeah, but I think. Look, I think the mother is a loser. I think she tried.

[Nick]

She's never won mother of the year award, never even been nominated.

[Captain]

Well, we have. She was on the registered sex offender list because law enforcement believed that she was protecting a child molester, and she was protecting a child molester that was molesting her own child. So that's what law enforcement. That's what that criminal history tells us. We now have a situation where she moves to this new location. Okay, maybe that's to better her life. Maybe that's to benefit her child's life. But then the child is not in school, doesn't have a lot of friends, and then what does she do? She moves in this individual that's quite a bit younger than she is, and he doesn't have much going for him. He might be loser of the year in that county. And then. Yes, okay, so she's sick. She's not feeling well. But it seems like she also just believed whatever story Brandon, her boyfriend, was telling her that night. And instead of saying, hey, well, we really need to take this serious, she's almost giving evidence to law enforcement why they shouldn't take it serious. Now I do have to applaud her because at some point, she breaks up with Brandon, gets him out of the house, and then is hopeful, well, hey, maybe if my daughter finds out that he is gone, and if that is a possibility of why she would want to run away, maybe she would come back. So I do applaud her for that.

[Nick]

Yes. The difficult thing here is that's when her story changes to old. Brandon was in the bathroom throwing up that night.

[Priceline Spokesperson]

Right.

[Nick]

Well, that might have been something you might want to tell the police about day one on. On one of multiple times of being interviewed or you did multiple interviews with police and media before you ever mentioned that. Now he's out of the house, and now that's when you choose it. So, all right, let's. We'll peel back the curtain a little bit here because she says she's sick, couldn't get out of bed, dizzy spells, whatever. She was on fentanyl patches at the time.

[Ryan Reynolds]

She.

[Nick]

She may very likely may have been air quote, sick because of the drugs being introduced to her body.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And he later Will have meth charges, and I don't think it was his first time around on that. What we're trying to point out here is I don't. We can't say. I can't say definitively that mom was doing anything wrong to Cassie. That boyfriend, Mom's boyfriend, was doing anything wrong. What I can say is.

[Captain]

Wouldn't put it past them, though.

[Nick]

I'll wager a Franklin. And guess who's going to win the colonel once again. Because I will tell you, mom done checked out a long time ago. She started slapping on those fentanyl patches, and that's when she checked out. I think her story changed a lot because she didn't know up from down.

[Captain]

Here's the other problem with my issue with law enforcement. When you start questioning the family and you know something's not right, well, then you question, well, where was Cassie before this? And if you started talking to her friend and her friend's parents, you'd quickly figure out that Cassie wasn't in love with her home situation. And so to me, that's a red flag. And so maybe not day one, but by day two, we're looking at this case with different eyes. And both of these individuals, I believe, failed their polygraph test. Now, I don't think that's been reported publicly, but I believe in one of the interviews, the mother stated that she failed the test, but she believed because she was on drugs or. Or. Or the stress of her daughter going missing. I can't remember what her horrible excuse was.

[Nick]

Yeah, So I, again, those. It could be reasonable. It could be that she couldn't physically give a proper test with what drug she was on at the time. But this was a mother that didn't work, that was on fentanyl patches and who knows what else. And a loser boyfriend that, as the captain pointed out, was closer in age to Cassie, our victim, our missing person, than he was to his fiance now. Okay, so let's talk about her, Hunter and Tracy. Hunter is her friend that she stayed the night at their home, hung out with until she's dropped off, and then goes missing on that Sunday. And Tracy is his mother. There's good and bad with. With. With that group, in my opinion. But one thing that it points out is when we go through the timeline of that Thursday, the Friday, the Saturday and Sunday, what did we have for Thursday and Friday? She went to the doctor, and it's reported that she went to a high school football game. No other information. 48 hours of life, a family life. And we have two events that were known about. And now mind you, part of that is she didn't attend school.

[Mint Mobile Spokesperson]

Right.

[Nick]

She was to call it homeschooled is not. I mean, she's reading a textbook at home.

[Mint Mobile Spokesperson]

Yeah.

[Captain]

She's hanging out at home. You're watching K. She was responsible for her own education.

[Nick]

This is, this is the best information we get about that timeline. The four days leading up to her disappearance is from Hunter and Tracy.

[Mint Mobile Spokesperson]

Right.

[Nick]

That gives us several more events because those are. Seem to be. That's what we would have. I, I think to me that just is more proof that, that even though she lived under the same roof as mom and boyfriend, they were checked out. They were. They were absentee.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right.

[Captain]

Put it mildly.

[Nick]

Right. If so if they weren't doing anything at wrong at all, what we do know is they weren't raising her.

[Captain]

Right. This is a child that was neglected.

[Nick]

Now to. To say that she was completely unhappy with her life at home. That seems true. Based off of what her brother Chris says. I. I'm not so quick to believe Hunter and Tracy as it appears that they only knew each other for like three weeks. But Tracy seems to have fully diagnosed the whole living situation of this girl that she knew for a very brief period of time and knew very little about.

[Captain]

Yeah, but here's the thing. When you have a child that is neglected and nobody's taking care of them, when they get around an adult or a parent that they feel safe with, she might have shared so much information with her just in a couple hours of conversation, she could have, which would be better conversation and more information that was shared between Hunter's mother than with her own mother. And what her mother has is a history of turning an eye when her child is being molested. And I wouldn't put it past her boyfriend, this Brandon Rhodes. I wouldn't put it past him to. Again, there's no evidence of this. But if this person, if. If Cassie is not enjoying her home life and she hates this individual, well, why does she hate the individual? And is it possible that he was molesting her? Was it possible that he was abusing her physically or mentally? So I, I think these are all things that law enforcement had to question.

[Nick]

And like the captain pointed out, at some point, Brandon is not only absent from the home because Judy says that she asked him to leave, broke up with him. She states that she didn't break up with him because he failed the polygraph. I believe that's the same interview that she brings up the polygraph information

[BetterHelp Narrator]

or

[Nick]

that she believed that Brandon had done something to her daughter. She says she broke up with him because she caught him stealing from her. We don't get any particulars about that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We.

[Nick]

But now he's absent. He's removed from the home and he's now removed from these interviews that Judy's doing with with the local news at this point. And at some point for one of the interviews that he was present for, he's on camera with Judy. This is a KATV interview. This is shortly after Cassie goes missing. He kind of creeps everybody out when he tells the interviewer about Cassie walking out the door saying, quote, she was gone like a whisper in the wind. Then we fast forward to they split up. He's no longer in the picture. We get this completely different story from Mom. So remember, we had referenced a Tina Stores. She is a private investigator working with this HALO organization. She spent about a week or so with Judy, talking with her, working with her closely, trying to help out in the case. And then she goes on and will continue to help with this case, but working with a Kayla Lafferty from the local news while they're working together. The story that Judy told Tina, listen to how different this is than the stories we've heard previously. She tells the private investigator that Hunter dropped Cassie off on Sunday evening when Judy was sick in bed and was out of it. Cassie said nothing to either of them, meaning Brandon or herself. Brandon is making pancakes for dinner and trying to get Judy to eat. According to this version of the story, Cassie changed her clothes and went to go get some smokes or a smoke. And she's basing this off of per her text to Hunter. But Judy told Tina that around this same time, Brandon told Judy he was going to get cigarettes.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

He left at about the same time as Cassie. He leaves in Judy's car, I believe.

[Captain]

She says Brandon's gone for quite a

[Nick]

time period, a few hours, and then

[Captain]

when he comes back, he's throwing up in the bathroom. Now, here's my speculation is that Cassie never text anybody to say she's going to get cigarettes. I believe that's Brandon texting Hunter, saying, you know, pretending to be Cassie. And then he leaves to go get cigarettes and he comes back and then he's throwing up for some reason.

[Nick]

Yeah. So the way that this timeline would have to play out is she gets home around 6:25. The text to Hunter comes in about 6:45. Judy saying that they both leave around this time. Or, you know, who knows, who knows how much weight you can put into this story at this time. But what we do know is that by 9:14 we have Brandon on the phone calling people looking for her. So that's like two hours and maybe 15 minutes. The his time is unaccounted for. And again Judy's story very different, much more vivid with detail at this point saying he's gone for a couple of hours and then when he returned he went straight into the bathroom and was sick. Now eventually Brandon, he's out of Judy's house, out of her life. He is arrested for squatting in a vacant home.

[Captain]

Yeah, because he was homeless.

[Nick]

And he is also gets charges of possession of methamphetamine at the same time.

[Captain]

Well like you said, it's probably not his first run in with methamphetamines but his run ins with law enforcement are just going to continue.

[Nick]

Yeah, he gets out on the charges that we just talked about. But then he is stopped for speeding in October of 2018 and he still doesn't have a driver's license at this point he's arrested in the car. He was pulled over and was searched. It was observed that the passenger side window was broken out and a military style bag was lying on the front seat. Inspection of the contents revealed an AK15 rifle loaded with a 27 round magazine, gas mask, military style equipment, belt, camouflage shirt, eye protection, goggles, a large 9 inch fixed blade, another knife and a helmet. The affidavit. So this is an arrest warrant affidavit that was obtained by the Timeline podcast which is a was an eight part series all based around the missing Cassie Compton case. And this is put together by that Kayla Lafferty from katv. So she spent extensive amount of time working on this case and researching this case. She gets her hands on this arrest affidavit for Brandon Rhodes. And the affidavit states that the gun and tactical gear had been reported stolen from a house that Brandon was staying at at the time. And in Brandon's wallet was found a piece of paper with names, numbers and odd statements on it. Brandon was interviewed after the arrest. He allegedly said that he had been paid 200 bucks by a man to follow that man's wife and kill her. The affidavit says, quote, he stated he chose to pose as a hitman because he knew it would get him back into prison for a long time and not hurt anyone. So later he says he know he made all this up because he, he, he wanted to spend a good amount of time in prison.

[Captain]

Yeah, and one of his claims is so he can work his missing, you know, girlfriend's daughter case from the inside of the prisons.

[Nick]

Yeah. Which is funny too because he also later would say, oh, I posed as a hitman to get this long prison sentence, but really what I was doing, I was going after the people that took Cassie.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

So this is, we can keep going down this rabbit hole of Brandon Rhodes. But what I keep seeing here, I don't know if it's a combination of his, of the drugs. Methamphetamine will fuck you up and your life.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Make no mistake about it. And unfortunately it's one of those drugs that a one time use could be, that could be forever. So don't, don't even experiment. This is not, this is not marijuana where you can experiment and see if you like it or not. This will ruin you. And I don't know if it ruined Brandon or if it's a combination of his brain, his heart, his soul and the drugs or what, but to continue down the Brandon Rhodes Road, it's a long trip to crazy town with this guy. I.

[Captain]

Short trip.

[Nick]

Well, it's a short trip for him, it's a long trip for us because there's many stops and it veers off in many different directions. I can't make heads or tails of this dude because I don't think he can make heads or tails of the world.

[Captain]

I really want to know what the conflict was when she got home. And that's something that her mom would probably know if she wasn't passed out at the time.

[Nick]

Yeah. The other statement too, that really disturbs me among many statements that are disturbing in this case. It's from the arrest affidavit. From the arrest warrant affidavit. Right. So this is taken to be like a sworn statement from Brandon Rhodes himself. The affidavit says, quote, he stated he chose to pose as a hitman because he knew it would get him back to prison for a long time and not hurt anyone. You have to be severely unstable or have severe violent thoughts to pretend to have committed crimes or an attempt to commit crimes that you really weren't attempting to do because you think that the best place for you is to be locked up so you don't hurt anyone. Was that an ability he didn't possess at other times in his life leading up to that event?

[Captain]

Well, we'll hear from ex partners of him that he was controlling and he had a short temper and that he also had a rough childhood, abusive childhood. That is not to dismiss anything that we think he did or was capable of doing. But that kind of puts some perspective to all this. Again, was there a conflict? He lost his temper, did something, disposed of her body. But also people have stated that he was very controlling and had to have the information of their cell phones or information from their social media. So again, that would put in to play this idea that this individual was capable of sending messages to people pretending to be something he was not. I guess at one point he was making calls to this lady that he was tracking and stalking and made calls and pretended to be a woman. And we have later on in the case where somebody contacted Cassie's mother and pretended to be Cassie. And so then one could question was this individual Brandon? Did Brandon call her up and pretend to be Cassie?

[Nick]

Is that the same story of the 13 year old boy? Because there was a 13 year old boy that was using a cell phone that on multiple occasions called pretending to be Cassie. And they, they were able to figure out.

[Captain]

Yeah, they figured out it was the teenage boy.

[Nick]

I'm just saying he was actually arrested and charged.

[Captain]

Right, But I'm just saying this still puts Brandon in the realm of possibilities of using Cassie's cell phone, using Cassie's Facebook. Who else was he contacting and pretending possibly to be somebody else? I'm just saying he has the capability of it because we know he's done it in the past.

[Nick]

There, there are, we, we, we've been circling like vultures around Brandon Rhodes and we should be clear here, there are other possibilities in this case. While he looks to be a character that nobody wants to invite over to Thanksgiving dinner, let alone live with under

[Captain]

the roof, have him come over to my house. I'm not going to make him some pancakes.

[Nick]

There are other possibilities here. I mean he looks like prime suspect number one. I believe the police have never.

[Captain]

Well, she didn't run away.

[Nick]

Well, and I don't believe that the thing here is I couldn't find any information that anybody had been cleared per police saying that to the media. I, but I also couldn't find any information stating that Brandon was prime suspect number one. The other. There are some other possibilities here. We, there's an individual named Dustin that we didn't talk about a whole lot that did have some interaction with Cassie. He was, he was an older boy. He. The, the ages depending on what source you go to vary for this young man. But at the time he would have been in his 20s. I couldn't find anything to say that he was younger than the age of 20. But we have zero actual evidence that Dustin did anything to Cassie at all or that they even had a relationship. Even though there are a couple locals that said that, that they may, these two may have had a relationship. Of course, maybe Hunter's been ruled out. I've not seen that. But the other things that we should probably touch on here too is, well,

[Captain]

as much as you look at Brandon and you go, this guy's a piece of. Right. And you think, okay, he's going to slip up and we're going to, we got him. But what happens in this case, and probably good to keep this case in the spotlight and keep people talking about this case, is we have an individual that pops up in a TikTok video that kind of looks like Cassie and people start thinking, well, this might be Cassie. And so you can point the finger all day long at Brandon, but if Cassie's still alive, then obviously he didn't kill her.

[Nick]

Yeah. And you know Tina Storrs, the private investigator that we've referenced a few times, she's brought up the fact that Cassie would often walk to the local Walmart. She said that this area that she would be walking through, she considered it to be unsafe. We mentioned abandoned homes earlier. She's saying there's abandoned homes on this route. There's squatters at times in these homes. There are drug dealers or users using these homes on occasion. I, I kind of think that if it was an unknown killer, unless they wanted abduction was the number one goal, that we would have found her.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

By now. Trafficking is certainly a possibility in this situation. We have Police Chief Duke who maintains that as part of the investigation, human trafficking experts were consulted. Tina Storrs believes it's possible she has a background in working human trafficking cases. She says that she parsed through Cassie's social media and through tips that came in. And she states that there were men and boys unknown to Cassie's mother that were posting sexual comments about Cassie on social media. Whether those are true or not, we don't know. Tina reported that she saw these posts and messages and in one of them, Cassie said, replying to these men, don't worry about me, I'm working this side of town. We don't get any follow up information as to what that exactly means. I don't think that the, I don't think that Tina Storrs knows exactly what that statement means.

[Captain]

Well, and back to this girl on the TikTok video. So this is, this blows up. And this is shared by many social media creators or content creators, whatever you want to call them. Eventually this goes to the FBI. The FBI is able to make contact with this individual and she ends up making videos on her own social media to say, hey, I am not Cassie Compton. And, and, and then she explains who she is and that she's okay because in the video she was in the backseat of a car with two men and she had black eyes. Well, she had black eyes because she was robbed and she came out and said everything was okay. And then she even said that she's contacting FBI to let FBI know, hey, I'm not Cassie and I'm going to prove to you I'm not Cassie. And also I'm going to prove to you I'm okay. So everything as far as that story checks out. But what a weird twist in this story to go, hey, something happened to this 15 year old girl, we don't know what happened. And then years later we think that we see this girl on social media.

[Nick]

Yeah, and the other possibility, which doesn't seem highly probable but has to be considered here, accidental death. You know, Cassie could have died from some kind of accident or an overdose. Maybe the people she's with panic, they hide the body. So I bring that up because one of the, the search and rescue personnel from the halo's investigations were. We talked about a couple searches, remember the. They're stating that Cassie's phone pinged in that Casco area. In Casco and so that's why they were searching there. And it's been brought up that perhaps she went to a party there and something happened. In fact, this same HALO person told the Timeline podcast that he got a tip to the effect that Cassie was at a party and somehow got killed and was buried on private property. The tip was a text from a woman that said Cassie had been accidentally run over and buried behind an abandoned house. A guy who lives in the Stuttgart Apartments was allegedly involved. Now remember, that's the apartment complex that we know she was. That she would frequently. He indicated that he knew where she was buried behind this old abandoned home. And another tip comes in that it's somewhat similar but indicated that Cassie had died and was put in a barrel in a creek. All of these tips were passed along to the police. And truly you gotta believe they were followed up on. And really, who, who knows whether any of these tips contain even a kernel of the truth?

[Captain]

Right? Again, I just want to point out that this parental figure, Brandon Rhodes, was known to pretend to be somebody he wasn't, whether that's male or female. So are there tips out there? Are there false leads that he has created. Who knows? I mean this guy is a pile of and if I had to bet money he's responsible for why Cassie Compton's missing. But he, he is a riddle.

[Nick]

Cassie Compton has been missing for 10 years now. She was just 15 years old when she was last seen in September of 2014. It was September 14th. She is 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. Anyone with new information about Cassie is urged to contact the Stuttgart Police department by calling 870-673-1414 or contact the national center for Missing and Exploited children by calling 1-800-843-5678.

[Captain]

Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling a friend. Thanks for sharing these cases on social media.

[Nick]

Until next week, be good, be kind and don't litter.

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