B (23:29)
The next morning, Brooke was supposed to meet her friend at a car show at 9am but she never came. And when he tried to get a hold of her, of course, like I said, she wasn't responding. And that concerned him right away because it was unlike her. And he was so concerned that he went ahead and reached out to her family. And as soon as they heard that he couldn't get a hold of her, they were concerned as well because of course they start reaching out to her and no one can get a hold of her. And so they are frantically trying to figure out what happened to Brooke after the party. They start calling everyone in her life, everyone she could have been with the night before. And of course they called Jared and he told them about those texts that she sent while she was out at Josh's house. And then he gave them Josh's number. So Brooke's older sister Tasha decided to call, call him and if you already have a bad feeling about this guy, which how can you not, based on the things that I have already told you? Just wait until you hear about their conversation, okay? It's so weird. So Josh tells her that he didn't know where Brooke was because at around 6am he left his house because he felt uncomfortable being alone with Jared's ex girlfriend and also didn't want to be there when Jared came to pick her up. So he claims that he went to go tend to his horses so he could get out there. And he says that when he left, Brooke was sitting on his couch having a cigarette and talking about a party in Rock Castle county that she was going to. And then other than that, he says he doesn't know anything. And their call ended. Which, for as weird of an explanation as that was, it actually gets even more bizarre because just a few minutes later, he calls Tasha back and this time he tells her that actually, Brooke left a lot of her belongings at his house, including her purse, her overnight bag, and the cowgirl boots she was wearing. And I'm sure Tasha was like, what? Why would she leave all of that there? But she asks him if he could take a look at her purse to see what was in there, which is when he tells her that he's actually standing outside of his home looking at the items through a window, and he can't get to them. Why can't he get to them, you may ask? Well, turns out there was a fire in his home. And, yeah, for some reason, he didn't mention that to Tasha anytime before this, that there was a fire in his home. Didn't even bring it up in their first conversation. And it gets even more suspicious because this was a very specific fire. The only thing that was on fire in his home was the couch. The exact same spot where he said Brooke had been before she disappeared. And the flames didn't spread anywhere else, but they were definitely intense. The couch was burned down to the metal frame, and there was damage to the floor underneath it as well, but nothing else in the entire house was damaged, which makes no fucking sense. Right. And what's even more weird is that I couldn't confirm whether or not Josh even called 911 about the fire. We do know that after the call with Tasha, she called the police, but I wasn't able to determine whether she was the first one to report the fire or if Josh had already called about it. But either way, responders did go to the home. Any missing persons report was officially filed, which is when law enforcement started their search for Brooke. And one of the first things they investigated was the supposed party in Rock Castle county that Jared received the text about. But they were unable to verify if this party even happened. And I don't think it did, because not a single person they spoke to knew anything about it. No one in Brooke's life, none of her family, friends, any locals that they spoke to, had ever heard of it happening. And what's even more concerning, and even more so, tells us that this party did not occur is that they went through Burke's phone, and there was no evidence that she had been told anything about this party. So how would she have known that she wanted to go? And even if this party did exist, why on earth would she all of a sudden want to go to it? It was so late at this point, and she was trying to get home. This party was 15 miles away. It just makes no sense. And that wasn't the only weird thing that her phone revealed. They also found out that her phone. Phone wasn't shut off for two to three days after she disappeared, which was likely just because the battery had died by that point. And during that time, Brooke literally got thousands of texts and calls, and she didn't respond to anything. There was no outgoing activity on her phone whatsoever. And they were also able to determine that her phone last pinged in the Blue Lick area, which is approximately 30 miles west of both Josh's house and Rock Castle County. And obviously, their next step at that point is to figure out how the phone got out there and also if Brooke was out there, too. So the Kentucky State Police conducted extensive ground searches around the Blue Lick area. And this was very difficult because the Blue Lick area is very rough, rugged terrain that's also very unsafe. There are cliffs, lakes, ponds, drop offs, even very dense forests with wild animals and snakes, which, of course, makes it extremely hazardous for people to search through. However, the Kentucky State Police still did their best by bringing out horses and cadaver dogs. They also had divers out there that were combing through different bodies of water. And overall, 16,000 acres were searched around three different counties. But unfortunately, no evidence was uncovered. And only about a month after Brook's disappearance, all regular ground searches were called off. Law enforcement issued an alert in four different counties, including Rock Castle, asking people to check their property or land for any signs of Brook. But that didn't turn up anything easy either. Now I have someone on my team who knows two people who live in the Berea area, and they were able to give us some insight into what it was like around town during that time. And like I said, in the beginning of the episode. It's a very small town where a lot of people, most people just know each other. And also very little crime happens there, especially any violent crime. So I guess when Brooke first went missing, it was really hard for people to wrap their minds around anything violent happening to her. But in the weeks that followed the disappearance, it was hard to deny that possibility when there was no sign of her. From my understanding, it didn't take long for pretty much everyone in town to know about Brooke, and everyone wanted to know what happened to her. And unfortunately, all these years later, people in town, and most importantly Brooke's family and her friends, all of her loved ones, are still waiting for answers. There haven't been any significant updates in Brooke's case since she first went missing in 2013. However, years later, some major news dropped about Josh. It turns out he is a bad person. And that becomes all the more clear in 2020 when the Kentucky State Police Electronic crime branch learned that three men in Berea possessed and distributed child sexual abuse images. And one of those men was Joshua Hensley. He was arrested and charged with crimes related to possessing csam, as well as harmful behavior to a minor. And while I was reading through all of his charges, it was very clear that this man does not care about harming others, and he's, in my opinion, a danger to society. Based on what I could find, it appears that Josh was convicted in 2021, and then he was released in August of 2025 and is under supervision until 2030. And you would think that his arrest would have been major news, right? I mean. I mean, the last known person to have been with a missing younger girl, remember, he was 23 at the time. And now he's facing charges like this. It's a big deal, or it should be. However, one of the other two men arrested was actually a professor at a local college. And he ended up taking his own life in the midst of everything, which just sort of overshadowed Josh's involvement. So there was barely any media attention given to his connection to Brooke. And those two locals that I mentioned earlier that we spoke to said that when the news of this first came out, there was this, I mean, understandably feeling of hope that maybe the arrest would lead to more information or maybe they would finally find out what happened to Brooke. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. And they are still left wondering what happened all of these years later. Here we are in almost 2026. And that brings me to all of the theory, theories surrounding this case. And obviously, the most Prominent one is that Josh did something to her that night. And in my opinion, it is not hard at all to jump to that conclusion. Of course, the man's innocent until proven guilty. We know. But given what we do know here, it's just too weird. I mean, first of all, we can't ignore Brooke's own words when she texted Jared saying that she was scared while at Josh's house. To me, and I'm sure you agree it's extremely telling that something bad, or at the very, very least, inappropriate, had happened for her to have sent these three very urgent text messages to Jared, very close together. Please hurry, you know I'm scared. And then suddenly shift her tone so drastically to never mind, I'm going to a party. Just doesn't add up, which is why people speculate. And I'm sure you're thinking the same thing as me, that that last text about the party in Rock Castle may not have been sent by Brooke. And there's no proof that this party even took place. Place. In my own theory, in my opinion, I think Josh did something to her. Something bad. And then he went through her phone either before or after that happened, and he saw that Jared was planning to come pick her up, and he knew, I can't let him come see what's going on here. So he sent that text message to get Jared not to come to think that Brooke had left his house. And then, of course, it gets even weirder when you look at the conversation he had with Tasha and. And telling her that he wanted to go tend to the horses because he knew that Jared was coming and didn't want to be there. I mean, all of that's bizarre, but the weirdest thing of all is the fact that his couch, and only his couch, was on fire. And that's the last place that he says Brooke was. And then another thought. If he was so concerned about being there with his friend's ex when his friend arrived, why wouldn't he just take her home? Seems like you could have dealt with that really easily.
