Even though Skidmore, Missouri, has a small population of just a couple of hundred people, this place is known for several high-profile cases that shocked the nation.
The most mysterious one is the disappearance of Branson Perry, a 20-year-old who simply vanished from his front yard.
After 13 years, the police are finally confident they are on the right track.
Background
Branson Kayne Perry was born on February 24th, 1981, to parents Bob and Becky. He grew up in Skidmore, Missouri, a small farming community far from major urban areas.
Branson graduated from Nodaway-Holt High School in 1999 and soon found work as a roofer. The teen also occasionally helped out at a local petting zoo. Branson’s parents divorced in November 2000, which came as a shock to the entire family.
Becky moved to another town, 20 miles away from Skidmore, and since Branson didn’t want to leave his friends behind, he stayed with his father at the house on 304 West Oak Street.
Branson loved spending time outdoors and often engaged in activities such as hiking and running. In his mid-teens, Branson learned he had tachycardia and was advised to stop rigorous cardio exercises.
So, Branson focused on strength training and hapkido, a form of martial arts that focuses on self-defense.
The Disappearance
On the morning of April 11th, 2001, Branson called his long-time friend Jena Crawford and asked if she was free because he needed help with deep cleaning the house.
Branson’s father, Bob, was in the hospital and scheduled to come home in two days. Jena agreed and was at Branson’s house shortly after.
While they were tidying up the downstairs area, two mechanics worked on Bob’s car, which was parked next to the house. The vehicle needed a new alternator.
Just before 2:00 pm, Jena saw Branson opening the kitchen cabinets and taking something out. He quickly left the kitchen through the back door.
When he returned a few minutes later, Branson refused to tell Jena where he went or what he took from the kitchen.
At some point, Jena decided to take a shower and went to the upstairs bathroom. When she came back downstairs, she saw one of the mechanics in the kitchen.
He was searching through the cabinets. When Jena asked if he needed anything, the man said no and left through the back door.
Around 3:00 pm, Jena was upstairs in Branson’s room when she heard the sound of the front door closing. She looked through the window and saw Branson holding jumper cables in his hand.
Jena asked him where he was going, and Branson answered he was heading to the storage shed. He said he would be back quickly.
The two mechanics left after 3:00 pm. Believing he had gone somewhere and lost track of time, Jena headed back home. Branson was supposed to visit his dad in the hospital that evening, but he never showed up.
His grandmother, Jo Ann, found that strange, so she stopped by the house on the morning of April 12th.
The doors were all unlocked, but there was no sign of Branson. Thinking he had just run out of the house, Jo Ann left and tried to reach him by phone later that day. However, no one picked up.
Jo Ann contacted Branson’s mother, Becky, who confirmed she hadn’t heard from him since April 11th. Bob Perry wasn’t discharged from the hospital on Friday, April 13th. Instead, he stayed until Monday, April 16th.
On that day, Bob and Jo Ann reached out to Becky, and the three went to the local police station to report Brandon Perry missing.
The Initial Investigation
Nodaway County authorities took the case seriously and immediately launched an investigation. Since Skidmore was a tight community where everyone knew each other, they quickly tracked down Branson’s closest friends.
Investigators soon learned that Jena Crawford was the last person to see Branson, so she described the events of April 11th in detail.
Meanwhile, officers searched the Perry residence and discovered that all his personal belongings were still there. He didn’t even have his wallet with him.
However, one discovery confused the investigators: the jumper cables weren’t in the shed. This suggested Branson had taken them with him on the day he disappeared.
A ground search was organized, and police officers checked all the farms and fields in the 15-mile radius of Branson’s home, but there was no trace of the missing young man.
Two weeks after the initial search of the Perry property, police were back in the shed. Shockingly, the jumper cables were there.
This suggested someone went back and returned them. Unfortunately, investigators were unable to lift any prints from the cable.
Police continued to interview the residents of Skidmore who had a connection to Branson. Bob Perry shared an event that happened just a couple of days before his son’s disappearance.
On April 7th, 2001, Branson visited his neighbor Jason Biermann. The young man came home several hours later visibly upset and locked himself in his room. In the morning, he told his dad what had happened the previous evening.
According to Branson, Jason spiked him and then assaulted him. Branson opened up to his dad about this, who told him to report Jason to the police.
Branson declined, saying he wanted to just forget about the ordeal. Bob told the investigators he knew his son was attracted to men and provided him with full support after Branson came out to him.
Thinking Jason Biermann could’ve harmed Branson to keep him quiet, the police went to his house to talk to the neighbor. However, he was nowhere to be found.
Jason emerged two weeks later and was interviewed by the investigators. He was ruled out as a suspect soon after.
The mechanics who worked on Bob’s car were also interviewed as a part of the investigation, but both men said they didn’t see anything strange or suspicious on April 11th, 2001.
Meanwhile, Jena finally admitted to the investigators that the two had been experimenting with substances in the last couple of months, which led the police to consider his disappearance to be substance-related. However, no one was willing to talk.
The Arrest Of Jack Wayne Rogers
On April 10th, 2003, a man from Fulton, Missouri, was arrested during Operation Candyman led by the FBI. After making an arrest in Alabama in late 2002, agents discovered hundreds of chat logs on a suspect’s computer.
This information led investigators to Jack Wayne Rodgers, a 59-year-old Presbyterian minister who posted horrifying accounts online, including claims of ending the lives of young men.
Furthermore, Rogers admitted to performing gender reassignment surgeries even though he didn’t have a medical license. He did his operations in hotel rooms.
But, a particular post on a message board stood out to the investigators. Rogers told a story about picking up a blond-haired hitchhiker outside Skidmore, Missouri.
According to the post, Rogers assaulted the young man before taking his life. He disposed of the body somewhere in the Ozarks.
When questioned about Branson Perry, Rogers denied picking him up, claiming it was all a fantasy. Rogers had allegedly seen multiple online articles about Branson’s disappearance and decided to write a fictional story online.
Shortly after Rogers’ arrest, his house and computer were searched. He was known for taking photos of the gender reassignment surgeries, and agents found plenty of evidence on his hard drive.
Even though they expected to uncover images of Branson, there were none. The only potential clue was a turtle claw necklace similar to the one owned by Branson.
In April 2004, Rogers was sentenced to 54 years behind bars for multiple charges. Branson’s mom, Becky, was at the sentencing and asked Rogers to tell her where her son was buried.
Once again, Rogers denied harming Branson, and Becky believed he was telling the truth. Later that year, Branson’s father, Bob, passed away.
Becky did her best to keep Branson’s disappearance from being forgotten by the public and launched a website urging people to leave tips she could then forward to the police. But years went by, and the case turned cold.
The Investigation Continues
In 2009, the Nodaway County police re-interviewed individuals involved in the initial investigation.
This time around, Skidmore residents were more willing to talk, and several people mentioned Quitman, Missouri, as the location of Branson’s body.
Quitman is around 7 miles away from Skidmore. According to some witnesses, Branson was shot and buried in a field.
The young man was allegedly seen in a house in Quitman on April 11th, 2001. That particular location was known among law enforcement for narcotics activity.
The house where the shooting happened burned down to the ground on Saturday, April 14th, 2001, two days before Branson was reported missing.
Law enforcement headed to the field in Quitman, ready for excavation. The earth was disturbed in a particular spot, and police had evidence that something was buried there before their arrival.
They dug for several days but failed to find any trace of Branson. However, the new tips resulted in a credible theory that could explain the baffling disappearance.
Investigators believed that Branson’s body was indeed buried in the field in Quitman for years, but the killers were tipped off by someone.
They moved the remains to a different location before law enforcement arrived in June 2009. The house in Quitman was set on fire to cover up the evidence of the murder.
In August 2022, the Nodaway County Sheriff told the media that law enforcement had identified the prime suspect.
Unfortunately, they still haven’t found the body, which is the evidence police need to make an arrest.
They urged the people to come forward, but it seems like those who have more information about the murder are too scared to talk. As of November 2024, the disappearance of Branson Perry remains unsolved.
Sources
https://bringbransonhome.wordpress.com/a-mothers-plea/
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