0:00

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to

0:02

the vanished ad-free right now. Join

0:04

Wondery Plus in the Wondery app

0:06

or Apple Podcasts. There's

0:20

a lot more than meets the eye going on

0:22

down there and has been for a long time.

0:24

It was definitely planned. To me, this could have

0:26

been solved the very next day it happened. There's

0:30

a lot of times in Brenda's case I try to

0:32

keep my mouth shut because I don't want

0:34

that beast that grows in you after

0:36

31 years to crawl out of there.

0:39

I always tell people that my best description

0:41

of having a missing loved one is like

0:43

purgatory. Because you're stuck

0:45

in between two worlds. You

0:48

don't know what to do and that's one thing

0:50

that will slowly kill you. It

0:53

has had such a detrimental effect

0:55

on my family and our mental

0:57

state. That is the saddest part

0:59

about having a missing person is you don't realize

1:01

how much damage is done. You can spit by

1:03

bit. I don't think there's going to be

1:05

closure because there's so much that's been

1:07

taken. With us, you know, we

1:09

lost Brenda. She was kind of the boss of

1:12

our party. She kept our

1:14

family life and she kept us family. On

1:18

July 26, 1992, 22-year-old Brenda Lambert

1:20

spent much of her day at

1:22

her home in Blue Well, West

1:24

Virginia, celebrating her son's first birthday.

1:27

Brenda was surrounded by close family and

1:30

many extended relatives. This should have been

1:32

a joyous occasion for Brenda, who loved

1:34

being the mother of her two young

1:37

children. But something was off that

1:39

day. Brenda seemed upset or

1:41

bothered. During the party, Brenda quietly asked

1:43

several of her siblings if they could

1:45

stay the night with her. But

1:47

they each had a reason why they couldn't

1:50

stay that evening. By the next morning, Brenda

1:52

was gone. Her car, purse, and keys were

1:54

all left behind at the home. Rumors

1:56

began to spread around town about what had

1:59

happened to Brenda. Even stories that

2:01

her disappearance was connected to another missing

2:03

person. However, Brenda's family has

2:05

been adamant since the very beginning that

2:07

they know exactly who made Brenda Lambert

2:10

disappear and why. I'm

2:12

Marissa and from Wondery, this is episode 427 of

2:14

The Vanished. Brenda

2:17

Lambert's Story. Audible's

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audible.com/mia or text mia to 500-500 to try

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Audible free for 30 days. Before

3:21

we get started, we'd like to mention

3:24

that at the time this episode was produced, no

3:26

one mentioned in this episode has been

3:29

charged or convicted of a crime related

3:31

to Brenda's disappearance. The views

3:33

and opinions expressed are those of our guests. We

3:36

hold no opinion of any person's innocence

3:38

or guilt and are not qualified to

3:40

give legal opinions or advice. Now

3:43

on to the show. You

3:45

may have recently heard about Brenda Lambert's

3:47

disappearance when she was featured on the

3:49

television show Cold Justice in early 2023.

3:53

Up until that time, Brenda's case

3:55

hadn't received national attention. Sure,

3:58

it was the talk of the town locally. But

4:00

that was really it. When

4:02

22-year-old Brenda Lambert vanished, she was

4:04

a young mother with a 5-year-old

4:06

daughter, Krista Dawn, and a 1-year-old

4:09

son, Raymond Jr., or Junebug. Brenda

4:11

had always dreamt about being a mother someday,

4:13

and she married young. Her family

4:15

was living in a home in Blue

4:18

Well, West Virginia, which is located in

4:20

Mercer County, near the southeastern border with

4:22

the neighboring state of Virginia. Things

4:24

seemed to be going well in Brenda's life,

4:26

until the months leading up to her disappearance.

4:29

She and her husband Raymond had hit

4:31

some major bumps in their relationship after

4:33

Raymond had been unfaithful. He

4:35

had cheated on Brenda with her own cousin,

4:37

Tammy. But despite all of

4:39

their relationship troubles, Brenda tried

4:42

to make the best of things on

4:44

July 26, 1992, for the sake of

4:46

their son's first birthday party. It

4:48

was clear to those close to Brenda that

4:50

she couldn't hide her emotions no matter how

4:53

hard she tried. Brenda was

4:55

upset, and to make matters worse, her

4:57

cousin Tammy, who had been carrying

4:59

an affair with Brenda's husband, showed up

5:01

to the event uninvited. Over

5:04

the last three decades, Brenda's loved ones

5:06

have looked back on their photos of

5:08

that party, searching for any clues. And

5:10

what jumps out to them is the look on

5:12

Brenda's face in those pictures. Brenda

5:15

had a lot on her plate as a 22-year-old

5:17

with two babies to care for, and an

5:19

uncertain future with her husband. But

5:22

Brenda was determined to do what was best for her

5:24

children, because they were her world.

5:27

After the party ended and all of the guests

5:29

had returned home that Sunday evening, she disappeared

5:31

from her home that night with few

5:33

clues left behind to explain what may have happened

5:36

to her. Brenda's children grew up

5:38

wondering if she had left them. But

5:40

Brenda's loved ones don't believe that she would have ever

5:42

done such a thing. Brenda was

5:44

so devoted to her babies. She

5:46

was looking forward to her five-year-old daughter starting

5:49

school in the coming weeks, and had been

5:51

out shopping for cute outfits for her first

5:53

day. Brenda was even looking

5:55

further ahead and planning to spoil her little

5:57

ones at Christmas. Brenda never

5:59

got to see her. see her daughter board the school

6:02

bus for the first time. She never got to put

6:04

presents under the Christmas tree for them. Brenda

6:06

missed out on all of the

6:08

milestones that were ahead, including graduations, marriages,

6:10

and the birth of grandchildren. Sadly,

6:13

Brenda's daughter passed away in 2020,

6:15

without ever having answers about what

6:17

happened to her mom. We'd like

6:19

to begin by taking a look back at

6:22

Brenda's life to better understand who Brenda was

6:24

and the experiences that shaped who she became.

6:27

Brenda was born in December of 1969. Brenda's

6:30

family was large, and her siblings were

6:32

very close. We spoke to two

6:35

of Brenda's sisters and one brother for

6:37

this story. Here's Brenda's younger sister, Kristie,

6:39

with more about Brenda and their family.

6:43

When my dad had six kids by his first

6:45

walk, and then he had seven with my mom,

6:47

my parents were from an older generation. And

6:50

my dad was born in 1919. And

6:52

my mom was born in 1946. So there's a

6:54

26 year difference. And we have Pat, Kat,

6:56

Tim, Kay, and then Brenda. She was the

6:58

fifth. They were born like one year after

7:01

the other. My mom and dad waited eight

7:03

more years and then there was me, and

7:05

then five more years. And then we had

7:07

a little brother. She was eight

7:09

by the time I came along. So she was

7:11

more like a grown kid. Brenda came into

7:14

this world being mischievous and she

7:16

kind of stayed that way. I

7:18

just remember her teaching me how to

7:20

fight. She was a tomboy and she

7:22

would teach me how to climb trees

7:24

and swings on grape vines. She was

7:26

a prankster. I mean, she

7:28

loved to play practical jokes on people.

7:31

I remember how much she loved Michael Jackson.

7:33

She was absolutely in love with him. Yeah,

7:35

there's Michael Jackson's on and she

7:38

would not let me touch it. But she

7:40

was very protective. She was always protective. You

7:42

did not look at me wrong on a

7:44

school bus because Brenda

7:47

would be right beside of you to ask you

7:49

what's the problem is. She'd like to embarrass me

7:51

a lot. But it's a big sister thing, which

7:53

I have pictures of us growing up and you

7:55

can see she's always close to me. She's told

7:58

of me or she's got her arm around me. or

8:00

something, even though she likes embarrassed

8:02

me, nobody else was going to do that. Even

8:05

right before she disappeared, we were having water

8:07

fights and hide and seek. We were

8:09

still doing a lot of the fun things. You don't really

8:11

want to let go of your childhood. It was

8:13

probably about a month before she disappeared. We

8:16

all had a sleepover at her house and

8:18

she woke us up, me and my sister,

8:20

she loved dogs. And she said, there's

8:22

a dog in the road out here. She's just coming to

8:24

help me move him. And she ran out and we're just

8:26

kind of blindsided. We're just trying to get up and

8:29

we get out to the end of her driveway

8:31

and there's no dog and there's no Brenda. And

8:33

she just jumped out of the bushes with a

8:35

water hose. And that water went on like

8:37

all night long. That's who she

8:39

was. And she'd want to put your

8:41

makeup on. She always did my homecoming

8:44

dances. She'd always did my makeup and

8:46

find me a really pretty dress to wear.

8:48

And she'd do my hair. And she was

8:51

a really good makeup artist and a hairstylist.

8:53

People who didn't know her, she

8:55

was extremely reserved. She would come

8:58

off as cold, but that was just

9:00

her personality until you got used to her. Brenda's

9:03

closest sibling in age is Pamela

9:05

who goes by Kay. Brenda

9:07

and Kay were always very close and

9:09

spent a lot of time together. Since

9:11

Kristie was eight years younger than Brenda,

9:14

she had a different relationship with her.

9:16

Brenda was almost more of a mother

9:18

figure in her life. Kay gave us

9:20

her perspective on Brenda. Me

9:23

and her have been close in age. We went to

9:25

school together and everything. She was very shy in school,

9:27

but she was more like a palm boy. She

9:30

was just happy go lucky all the time. Always

9:32

happy. Just very playful

9:34

and loved the joke and played

9:36

all the time. Constantly on the go.

9:38

I've been raised in the mountains. We

9:41

played from the time we got up to the time we went to

9:43

bed. She liked to dance and stuff

9:45

like that and sing. We did that all the

9:47

time. She'd do anything for anybody. If somebody needed

9:49

something or wanted something, she'd take it out of

9:51

her own hands and give it to you, even

9:54

if that's all she had. She's just a down

9:56

to earth, good hearted person. Brenda's

9:58

older brother, Tim. also has many

10:01

fond memories of growing up in rural

10:03

West Virginia. The kids all played out

10:05

in the wilderness and had a blast together. I

10:08

am about four

10:11

years older than Brenda. Well it's

10:13

pretty close, yeah, during her childhood

10:15

playing cold together. This picture that

10:17

is where me and Brenda had

10:19

been playing in a coal pile

10:21

and it's a cute picture,

10:23

you know, because we both look like

10:25

coal miners. We used to catch

10:27

crawlads all the time together and fry

10:30

them up, made them, and we made a

10:32

little tree house and put a seat up

10:34

in an old car seat. We'd sit up

10:36

there and watch people walk by. We was

10:39

up in the mountains with it like a

10:41

little field back behind our house and then

10:43

a creek went through and we'd go across

10:45

that creek twice because that creek come around

10:47

a bin like. Then we had a

10:49

big oak tree area that you could get up in and

10:52

we took that car seat up in there and put

10:54

it across to the limbs. I'd

10:56

say we're probably about 15 foot high. Then

10:59

when all the kids got in, we'd make

11:02

a whole tree house out of it. We had

11:04

a good childhood. Brenda always

11:06

had a mischievous nature. She loved to

11:08

play practical jokes on others. When Brenda

11:10

was a teenager, Kristie said this led

11:12

her to get into a little bit

11:15

of trouble in school.

11:17

Brenda, the teachers, who

11:19

had teachers call, if one would

11:21

walk into his closet in the classroom, she would

11:23

run up and she would lock the door and

11:26

lock him in. One time she

11:28

made fudge and she put a

11:30

black thing in and she took it to

11:32

school and she set it on the teachers lounge

11:34

table. She was really mischievous like

11:37

that when it came to authority figures.

11:39

The principal at that school asked my

11:41

mother if she would go ahead and

11:44

let Brenda quit at 15 and he

11:46

wouldn't turn nothing in until she

11:48

was 16 because he just wanted her

11:50

gone. Brenda always had

11:52

dreams of becoming a mother. She

11:55

wasn't overly interested in school or pursuing

11:57

a career. When Brenda was still

11:59

a teenager, she met a man named

12:01

Raymond Lambert who was a few years older

12:03

than Brenda. The two began

12:05

dating and later decided to get married

12:07

after Brenda became pregnant with their daughter.

12:11

She was 16 and he

12:13

was 20. He was working with my brother.

12:16

So that is how they met. She ended

12:18

up getting pregnant with her daughter and I

12:22

really remember her being

12:24

pregnant in a white dress. So that

12:26

is when they got married. I

12:28

was eight when she got with him and

12:31

she was 16 and he was tweeny, which

12:33

is the age of consent in West Virginia. Kay

12:36

remembers when Raymond started coming around

12:38

and wooed Brenda with his flirty

12:41

personality and cool cars. She

12:44

never got through high school. We were

12:46

still at home. She got pregnant and got

12:48

married early. He was older than her. He

12:50

was already of course adult age and she

12:52

was just a teenager. He was

12:54

coming down the house for a while. He was

12:56

very flirty, flirty with everybody. But she

12:59

ended up liking him. That's what happens when

13:01

you're stuck at home all the time. Some

13:03

guys look appealing, shouldn't look appealing, but they

13:05

do. I thought I could

13:07

tell you about him other than like I said, he was real

13:10

flirty and just would take everybody

13:12

riding. He worked at a car lot.

13:14

So he'd bring different cars, motorcycles, take

13:16

everybody for a ride. It

13:18

was 1986 when Brenda and

13:21

Raymond married and that year the

13:23

two also welcomed their daughter, Krista

13:25

Dawn. In 1991 they had a son, Raymond Jr. Kristi

13:29

had a close relationship with Brenda,

13:31

Raymond and their children. By

13:33

this point in time, their parents were

13:36

older and Kristi spent a lot of time with

13:38

Brenda at her home in Blue Well. Kristi

13:40

said that Brenda and Raymond became more like parents

13:42

to her and she loved doting on

13:45

their children. From Kristi's perspective, Brenda

13:47

and Raymond seemed to have it all.

13:50

She loved him. Her kids was

13:52

her loss. When she got pregnant,

13:54

the world kind of stopped with

13:57

her face. You don't have kids that

13:59

come to me. that Brenda Baby said it

14:01

and like I loved her. A lot

14:03

of them is Raymond's nieces and nephews and they're

14:05

like you know I love Brenda I still miss

14:07

her she babysit us and we just had such

14:09

a good time. Brenda was a kid person. She

14:12

loved kids. They were like my second mom and

14:14

dad. I love being like a dad. My mom

14:16

was just really laid back. She was an introvert

14:18

and my dad was just older and when

14:21

I became a teenager they didn't want

14:23

to do the things that teenagers wanted to do so Brendan

14:25

Raymond just kind of like okay we got her you know

14:27

don't worry we got her. I've seen

14:30

so much good from them together. That's

14:32

who I've always modeled what I want

14:34

in a relationship I love. I've

14:37

seen that couple who would slow dance

14:39

to their song Shameless by Garth Brooks

14:41

in their kitchen. He would come

14:43

home and help her cook. They would sit down we had

14:45

all played Monopoly. I still hate Monopoly because they loved it

14:47

so much and we played it all the time. We

14:50

were paying her waz of cash and

14:53

say here you know Christie go to the mom

14:55

go shopping or something. Brenda

14:57

enjoyed married life and being a mom.

15:00

She was content staying at home with

15:02

the kids caring for them and hosting

15:04

family gatherings. Brenda

15:06

was so excited to have a little girl and

15:08

a little boy that filled everything for her. She

15:10

had what she wanted. She couldn't wait to have

15:12

a little boy. She showed him off to everybody

15:14

bragged on him all the time. Brenda

15:17

loved cooking meals for everybody you know she

15:19

wanted to please my parents and she wanted

15:21

them to come up and cook for them

15:23

for change because my mom was a

15:25

hard worker at home taking care of all of

15:27

us and cooking for us. So Brenda was wanting

15:29

to return the favor and she just loved it.

15:31

Somebody said oh that's good. That little bitty compliment

15:34

just made her day. Christie

15:36

mentioned that Raymond had worked with her older

15:38

brother Tim. When we spoke to Tim he

15:40

told us more about his take on Raymond

15:43

since he had spent a significant amount of

15:45

time with him. As

15:47

we got older I was already

15:49

getting a job moving out finishing

15:52

up for high school years when she met Raymond.

15:54

I used to like Raymond and him. He

15:56

used to ride the work together. He picked me up at

15:58

330 in the morning. and docked me

16:00

off at nine o'clock at night. We worked

16:02

in dots in North Carolina at a chicken

16:05

plant. We worked six days a

16:07

week down there. We knowed each other pretty

16:09

good because we both worked in the warehouse

16:11

loading trucks together. I started

16:13

riding with him and we were splitting the

16:15

gas money. I was happy for him because

16:17

they were really doing good together when they

16:19

first got together. Tim

16:22

didn't have any reason not to like Raymond.

16:24

His sister seemed happy with him, but there

16:26

was one strange thing that happened during one

16:28

of their rides to the chicken plant, something

16:31

that Tim thought was odd at the time,

16:33

but didn't really jump out until years later

16:35

after Brenda was gone. The time

16:38

that he stopped on that

16:40

bridge out there on New River, going

16:42

across New River Bridge in Virginia, he

16:45

stopped on that bridge and he said there's

16:47

a swirl right down there Tim. He said

16:49

if you ever kill anybody, let parenthai block

16:51

them over at bridge. You'll never

16:53

see him again. There ain't nothing else

16:55

about that. You know what I mean? I'm not a murderer.

16:58

I don't even know why he thought about that. I don't

17:00

plan on killing nobody. By 1992, Brenda

17:04

and Raymond's relationship started to break

17:06

down. Raymond had affairs with other

17:09

women. For Christy, she always thought

17:11

that Brenda and Raymond were the perfect couple,

17:13

so this was all a shock to her.

17:16

What I know is that he cheated on

17:18

her before and even with

17:20

her best friend. That is the only issue

17:23

I actually seen with him after

17:25

I started finding things out was that he

17:27

did cheat on her a couple of times.

17:29

She had the best friend that he cheated

17:31

on her with and I believe that was

17:33

the end of friendships for her, but we

17:35

were a big family and he had a

17:37

big family and between going back and forth

17:39

between four sisters, two brothers, and then her

17:41

husband and her kids and then all his

17:43

family, she really didn't have time to squeeze

17:45

in friends. Kay says

17:48

that the cheating didn't stop with Brenda's

17:50

best friend. Raymond had made advances toward

17:52

her as well and she was disgusted

17:54

by it. She was

17:56

so happy to have a big beautiful home to

17:58

make it hers. I mean, that girl

18:00

would clean her house so thick and span, you

18:02

can eat off her floors. Had the

18:05

idea of kids and family and was going to make

18:07

it work. He's a womanizer. He tried

18:09

things on me all the time behind her back.

18:11

And at first I didn't tell her cause my

18:13

mom wouldn't let me because she's afraid

18:15

that would literally kill her on the inside.

18:17

Cause she was so crazy about him. You

18:20

know, she's a young, very young girl, 15,

18:23

16 years old, ended up pregnant by him. Of

18:25

course my dad told him he had asked

18:27

to marry her. He's like, I know I'm

18:29

going to. I want to, but all the

18:31

while he still tried things on me and

18:34

my mom didn't want me to tell her

18:36

because she didn't want that to affect her.

18:38

That sounds bad, but you'd have to be

18:40

there to know the situation. I

18:43

used to babysit for his brother. They'd go out

18:45

before and he'd come to pick me up and

18:47

give me a ride home without Brenda. And I said,

18:49

where's my sister? But then he'd try something on

18:51

me. That's all he thought about. While

18:54

Brenda may have looked the other way

18:56

in the past, her relationship with Raymond

18:58

began to rapidly unravel when she learned

19:00

that Raymond had been having an affair

19:02

with Brenda's cousin, Tammy. This

19:04

cousin had not been close with Brenda

19:06

growing up. She hadn't lived nearby, but

19:08

Brenda wasn't going to just allow this

19:10

to carry on. My

19:13

cousin stepped in. She was having an affair

19:15

with Brenda's husband. They had been called at

19:18

our aunt Bonnie's house who is Tammy's

19:20

mother. My other sisters caught them

19:22

bread handed together. And then Tammy wanted him

19:24

so bad that she was going to make

19:27

sure that she did end up with him,

19:29

whereas his other affairs was just

19:31

kind of like a hit and gone. She

19:34

lingered. She really wanted him. I

19:48

know we say this every year, but I'm feeling good

19:50

about 2024. It

19:52

just feels like the coming year is going to have

19:54

a lot of fun surprises in store for us. The

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22:00

According to what Brenda had told her

22:03

family, it was after Brenda had confronted

22:05

Raymond about the affair with Tammy that

22:07

things turned violent. Chrissy was

22:09

still pretty young at this point and acknowledges

22:12

that Brenda didn't tell her all of the

22:14

details because she was protective of her little

22:16

sister. He came

22:18

from a very controlling, abusive,

22:21

you know, women are disposable,

22:23

women are supposed to stay in the house

22:26

and have babies and cooks type of sloths.

22:29

Brenda was like my second mom and

22:31

Brenda protected me and shielded me from

22:33

anything bad just the same way she

22:35

did for kids. The only thing

22:37

she ever told me that was negative about

22:39

him was that he was

22:41

screwing Tammy and that was the night

22:43

she disappeared. You see Brenda was

22:45

highly protective over her baby sister's

22:48

feelings and not wanting to introduce

22:50

me to a bad side of

22:52

the world, I guess. And

22:55

the only time I ever heard of him

22:57

laying hands on her was there when she

22:59

started catching on to his affair with her

23:01

cousin. Since Kay

23:03

and Brenda were closer in age, Brenda confided

23:05

in her about the details of what had

23:07

been happening. Kay remembers the day

23:10

that Brenda showed up with visible injuries on

23:12

her body and Kay took Brenda to the

23:14

police station. I

23:16

think she always knew, I don't think, I

23:18

know she always knew he's a womanizer. But

23:21

you know how young girls are, he'll probably

23:23

change. You know you deal with it, you

23:25

start having kids by these people and you

23:27

deal with it and you try to make the

23:29

best of it. But it got so bad to

23:31

the point to where if she called him up

23:33

in something, that's where he started turning violent because

23:36

she called him in it and she would confront

23:38

him about it. She

23:40

came to the house before and you could see red

23:42

marks around her neck, you could tell her face was

23:44

swollen and she told me that he

23:47

beat on her and that he even bent her

23:49

over and beat her between the legs. We

23:51

made her lay down, she fell asleep and

23:54

Raymond ends up calling and I answer the phone

23:56

and I ask him, you know, what the hell

23:58

did you do to my sister? And

24:00

he said, I knew she's gonna run down there

24:02

and tell you all I beat her to death.

24:04

But I accidentally stuck my finger in her eye

24:06

when me and her was talking, and it probably

24:08

bruised her eye. I said, it's made her whole

24:10

face swell. I said, what about the red marks

24:12

around her neck? He tried to argue with me

24:14

that she must have made them before she got

24:16

down there to make it look bad on him.

24:18

And I took her to the police station. I

24:20

really couldn't drive a five speed. So I was

24:23

trying my best to get there, but she was

24:25

too tore up too. So I took her up

24:27

there. And of course, he tried to run me

24:29

off the road, so I pull over. He gets

24:31

out and starts arguing with us. And my legs

24:33

are shaking like jello, so I can't move the

24:35

car. So she makes me get in the passenger

24:37

seat so she can drive and we drove off.

24:40

We went on to the police station, filled

24:42

out a domestic violence petition against him. Of

24:44

course, I even had to write it for

24:46

her because she was too nervous to her

24:48

up. He never beat her that hard. And

24:50

I know it's gonna sound silly of me

24:52

saying that, but he knew how far to

24:54

go and went to quit. And that's exactly

24:56

what he did about three or four times

24:58

before this happened to her. He

25:00

quit every time before he actually took

25:02

her off. And that's because he was

25:05

so possessive over her. I mean, he

25:07

was crazy about Brenda in an ignorant

25:09

way. He's one of the men that

25:11

that's a possession. It wasn't true love.

25:13

It was a possession. That's kind of

25:15

love that he had. He owned Brenda

25:17

in his mind within a two

25:20

weeks time. He wanted her to drop

25:22

that domestic violence against him so he

25:24

could come to junior's first birthday and

25:26

they can be around each other for

25:28

the kids and he did. With

25:31

this upcoming birthday party on the horizon,

25:33

Brenda decided to drop her petition for

25:35

a protective order. That happened

25:37

on July 10th. In between

25:40

that time and the party on July 26th, Brenda

25:43

had voiced to her family that she was

25:45

planning to divorce Raymond. She

25:47

had a secret appointment with a divorce

25:50

lawyer because she was trying to get

25:52

custody of them before he did because

25:54

they were already keeping them from her

25:56

at his mom's house on Coda Mountain.

25:58

I know. that him and his family

26:01

were very controlling over her. They

26:03

were very controlling with her with the kids. He wouldn't

26:05

give them back to her or let her see

26:07

them. In fact, he had told her that

26:09

he would kill her before he

26:12

would ever get the kids. And that is why

26:14

she had a secret appointment with a divorce lawyer,

26:16

July 30th of 1992, to

26:19

seek custody of the kids and to go ahead and file

26:21

for a divorce. If they would

26:23

have went and arrested him earlier that month

26:25

when there was a warrant out for his

26:28

arrest or domestic violence, it may have not

26:30

have escalated to that point too. Brenda

26:33

was tough and she was little, but

26:35

she was a stick of dynamite. She

26:37

was really hard-headed, stubborn, independent. And, you

26:39

know, she knew she was tough. She

26:41

had taken down boys all over a

26:43

while. She was only 22. And

26:45

I can imagine being in her spot at 22, having

26:48

my babies taken from me and

26:50

then being beat on. Do

26:52

is pretty much still a baby in a way.

26:55

And I look back, she didn't even get a foot in the

26:57

door of adulthood, I don't

26:59

think. She did the best she could with

27:01

her age just being controlled by this man

27:04

and his family. Brenda

27:06

would never end up making it to that appointment with

27:08

an attorney on July 30th, 1992. Just

27:11

days before that, they were having a party for

27:14

Brenda's son. On the day

27:16

of the party, Tammy showed up uninvited

27:18

and Brenda was upset. Kay

27:20

witnessed Brenda and Raymond fighting about the fact

27:22

that Tammy was in her home. Here

27:25

come her big old first cousin inviting herself.

27:27

And I heard a margin on the porch.

27:29

Brenda wanted to know why he invited her.

27:31

And he said, I bet, and I thought you did.

27:34

Now he knew better than that. He knew

27:36

she wouldn't have invited her. I believe

27:38

that Tammy, she knows this family didn't want

27:40

her at that birthday party. We already know

27:42

she was sleeping around with Raymond. And

27:45

my sister was getting beaten, choked by him. Why

27:47

the heck would we want to see his mistress

27:49

there, especially her? You invited yourself to

27:51

a party. You knew you would have Brenda tore up

27:53

and upset. And anybody can look

27:55

at Brenda's pictures from that party and see how tore up

27:58

she was and scared. She was a snake. Anytime

28:00

a picture was accidentally snapped of her, if

28:02

you see her looking at Brenda, it looks

28:04

like she could kill her already. Brenda was

28:06

such a kind-hearted soul to her. She could

28:08

have tore her head off for what she

28:10

did, but she didn't. She just left her

28:12

alone and Brenda just tried to go on

28:14

and block her out because she's her first

28:16

cousin. That's how good Brenda was. And that's

28:18

what she got for it right there. Hated

28:21

even more. That girl hated Brenda

28:23

with a passion, she could not hide it. She

28:26

wanted Brenda's life. Friends

28:28

were running high at the party. Brenda

28:30

was so mad about all of this. And

28:33

as she left to make a quick run to the

28:35

store for some party supplies that she had forgotten, she

28:37

let something slip in front of Kay, that

28:40

Kay believes may be an important piece of

28:42

the puzzle. The day

28:44

of the birthday party, when me and her,

28:46

I don't remember if it was a lighter or candles that

28:48

she forgot for the birthday. We was going to run to

28:50

the gas station down the hill. She wanted me to ride

28:52

with her. On her way down the

28:54

steps, Raymond comes out and says something. She turns

28:56

around and they start arguing. She just all of

28:58

a sudden comes out and says, you shut up.

29:00

If you don't shut up, you want me right

29:03

now to tell something in front of everybody here,

29:05

something to get you and your family put away

29:07

in prison for the rest of your life. We

29:09

got in a car. I told her, I said,

29:11

my God, Brenda, don't ever do that. She said,

29:13

no, I don't care. I'm tired of being scared

29:15

of him. So anyway, she disappeared that night. During

29:18

the party, Brenda's family could see that

29:20

she was visibly upset. A first

29:23

birthday party is usually a time when

29:25

loved ones take many pictures. And this

29:27

was no exception. Today

29:29

they have photos from that party to document

29:31

this. Christy didn't know all

29:33

of the details of what was going on with

29:36

Brenda, Raymond and Tammy, but she could tell that

29:38

something was wrong. And Brenda later

29:40

blurted it out to her on the porch

29:42

and everything began to make sense. She's

29:45

so powerful and this is the way she

29:47

was acting towards Brandon that night. The

29:50

birthday party pictures, she was just watching every move

29:52

Brenda made. She was giving Brenda stink off. And

29:54

I started following Brenda around and I'm like, if

29:56

she's going to do anything to Brenda, I'm going

29:58

to get her back right because. wasn't doing

30:00

anything. I didn't think that would happen that

30:02

she would be murdered and she would disappear.

30:05

I found out that night because

30:07

she was telling me on the porch and what

30:09

she said was Raymond is screwing Tammy and I'm

30:11

like, oh my God. And it just occurred to

30:13

me. Well, that's why Tammy's given her mean

30:15

looks. And then Raymond and Brenda was on the

30:18

porch. They were arguing about who invited Tammy and

30:20

neither one of them would admit to it. And

30:23

that's when I guess it was found

30:25

out she just came uninvited and she

30:27

started just kind of taking over and

30:30

Raymond actually snapped a picture of me,

30:32

Brenda and Tammy. As Brenda's walking by,

30:34

Tammy is just, she gets caught, stinking.

30:36

That's what she was doing to Brenda.

30:39

But you'll see me like tagging with Brenda. In a

30:41

lot of these pictures, I thought Tammy

30:43

was going to jump her. While

30:45

everyone was celebrating, Brenda went around and spoke

30:48

to several of her siblings one on one

30:50

and she asked them to stay with her

30:52

that night. They didn't know that she had

30:55

asked multiple people until they had the opportunity

30:57

to compare notes later on. But each

30:59

of them had a reason that they

31:01

couldn't stay which they all deeply regret

31:04

to this very day. Christy was a

31:06

teenager and didn't grasp the magnitude of

31:08

the situation at the time. She had

31:10

felt the tension in the room during the entire

31:12

party and was looking forward to getting the heck

31:15

out of there once the party was over. She

31:17

never imagined that this would be the last

31:19

time she ever saw Brenda. At

31:22

the end of the birthday party, Brenda went from car

31:24

to car asking if one of us would stay all

31:26

night with her. And usually I would, but

31:28

she had gotten into such a raw mood and I

31:30

was like, no, I'm not staying all night with you.

31:32

And she said, well, I love you. And I was

31:34

like, I love you too. That's the last time I've

31:36

seen her. I just realized how

31:39

much guilt I have about that. That

31:41

I've hidden even from myself is the

31:43

guilt that you feel because you're not there.

31:45

I was right there and I could have

31:48

stayed with her and I didn't. Brenda

31:50

also looked to her big brother, Tim, to protect

31:53

her. Tim wanted Brenda to leave

31:55

and stay with him, but Brenda didn't want

31:57

to go. And then she tried to

31:59

minimize the condition. There and that she had voice to

32:01

Tim. In hindsight, tim believe she

32:03

did this. Protect her own family

32:05

members, Narrow. Lane

32:07

and. Also. An idea abuse

32:09

of command that. Some my mom told

32:12

me that mind the combat. I would a black

32:14

guy. What? I remember most last

32:16

time i same brand and she told

32:18

me rival muslim killer that not. We.

32:20

Stopped up for it was getting your

32:22

birthday party. I can't remember when I

32:24

was at Forty Muscles his name's Long

32:26

Island document that goes out and Ninety

32:28

Nine Eleven. She told me Rain Will

32:31

what said he was known as Kill

32:33

Her That Matt. Nice. Said Randy

32:35

in a to go out with ladies. And

32:37

good wife early, she said that

32:39

lately, my kids in the sad

32:41

that as night out, but layer

32:43

give Miranda we'll take your kids

32:45

who. And she some but there

32:47

was no jealousy real day at a lawyer

32:50

said no able to that a were I

32:52

live they don't We get that upper hand.

32:54

As I actually and was scared that

32:56

they would go down there my mom

32:58

and dad is she told our sisters

33:01

one of our sisters that pay me

33:03

and my mom was plotting to kill

33:05

her proceed during the killer relying on

33:07

his family and there was a good

33:10

of hours as Geoffroy shit that I

33:12

didn't choose mine would again said I've

33:14

been. Or come home where my

33:16

your stay up or Marcell but she

33:18

taught rely on by saying i always

33:20

say that near me on the you

33:22

have been. Kept. Saying daisy

33:24

convince me of it. At

33:27

first I really didn't like i'm I'm

33:29

with those Markets. Hey,

33:31

who was pregnant at the time and uncomfortable in

33:33

the alpha that she had worn to the party

33:36

to render that she wanted to go home, but

33:38

a brindle could pick her up later. However,

33:41

Brenda never showed up. To

33:43

tried to call Brenda putting an answer.

33:45

In. The moment. she didn't think much of

33:47

it. Perhaps friend was on her way over.

33:50

Or maybe she and Raymond we're talking things

33:52

out. To this post,

33:54

come get me she wanted. Somebody to still

33:56

not with her the not about birthday party

33:58

and not already state or so. I'm

34:00

a homebody and I love them at my mom's. That

34:02

our state the for a lot cause you

34:04

know we just run around had one funded

34:06

ever the i was just tired and one

34:09

of the stay home and shamefully I did

34:11

use the excuse but called off pregnant and

34:13

I had taught James on of course I

34:15

haven't read don't me. But October I wanted

34:17

to go home and signs and shouldn't come get me.

34:19

I. Am sooner did show up. Which.

34:21

Rob town and she never answered. That.

34:23

Our fault. she could either be on

34:25

away My mom thought. Of this sooner we

34:28

thought why wonderful I in went back and by

34:30

talk to each other and got together. They have

34:32

done it the past but not when he started

34:34

by non choking or that's when it changed. Remus.

34:37

Has stated that after the party ended

34:39

around eight pm, Brenda wanted him to

34:41

take the kids back to his parents'

34:44

house, perhaps implying that Brenda had other

34:46

plans that night. But. Hey, remember

34:48

this differently. She says I'm Brenda Wanted

34:50

to keep the kids. With her that

34:52

evening. Say the knob

34:54

The birthday party Him and his mommy took

34:56

Crisper and Junior up at his house even

34:58

though she's it was against Brenda's wages but

35:00

he has mommy and daddy were main entree

35:03

auto and I took him up there. He

35:05

always sits on to his family's house by

35:07

what litter. Hi I'm. Like to come

35:09

all the tom from her. Argue.

35:11

With are or what. You gotta have down there for

35:13

a yeah, you're getting a bright when that led a

35:15

sin on lot about. At first we knew a little

35:17

bit was going on but you know you don't try

35:20

to get the middle of stuff to you know how

35:22

deep it really is. Some.

35:24

Once a party at wrapped up it was

35:26

Brenda at her home all by herself. Raymond.

35:28

Had taken the kids over to his parents'

35:31

house. What? Happened next remains a

35:33

mystery to this very day. We know

35:35

that Raymond reported bring the missing two

35:37

days later on July twenty eighth. He

35:39

said that he went to the house

35:41

on Monday afternoon and discovered that Brenda

35:44

was missing. However, some of Brings his

35:46

family members have reported that Raymond knew

35:48

that Brenda had disappeared long before Monday

35:50

afternoon because he was the one who

35:52

alerted them much earlier. It. Was

35:54

late on the night of the party that

35:57

he remembers Raymond showing up on her parents

35:59

doorstep. He came down

36:01

to the house and that was ask

36:03

a massively same brenda. And. Always last

36:05

won't leave else you'd miss him and he's like

36:07

well our i went to the health of kept

36:10

on cowslip months or so went to house and

36:12

see what bomb and this name was so nervous

36:14

a child to the same that something was wrong

36:16

lol bad totem what you don't her because they

36:19

just know something happened and I gave yourself a

36:21

way by home and dumber than lucky that way

36:23

to find I once asked about Unchecked Honor the

36:25

first place you this post come get me. Christie,

36:29

Didn't see Raymond that night when he

36:31

stopped by the house. Perhaps she had

36:33

already gone. too bad since K remembers

36:35

him coming by late at night, but

36:37

Christie does remember the next morning. I

36:40

didn't see their that my sister a

36:42

my mom is that he had come

36:44

down my mom's house later that aid

36:46

may national birthday party like a couple

36:49

hours afterwards. And. Was spraying

36:51

take and with Bucky Athena go

36:53

an old. Ask him if anybody

36:55

had seen Brenda. We. Figured that

36:58

maybe she was as hard and priming

37:00

or something. It fires the next day when

37:02

bring the did not come down. nobody would

37:04

buy answering her phone at her. how

37:06

a month or a column on than everybody

37:08

that great of would be around and know

37:11

by back when we knew. We.

37:13

Were so close knit. You know you just

37:15

know you just feel when something is all.

37:18

According to Christie to of Brenda sisters

37:20

when we're home the next day to

37:22

check on Brenda. When they arrived they

37:24

found that the house was locked. Team.

37:27

He also appeared on scene and show

37:29

them how to climb to the second

37:31

floor to a window that didn't lock

37:33

and enter into the house that way

37:35

which to them seemed odd. There's.

37:37

Been many accounts of what was left

37:39

behind. apprentice home to car was still

37:42

parked outside and all this is teens.

37:44

Ninety Ninety Two article in The Bluefield

37:46

Daily Telegraph stated that a small amount

37:48

of clothing brand as purse and keys

37:51

were missing. Though Christie dispute sat

37:53

and we do often see incorrect

37:55

information and early reporting which can

37:57

be troublesome later when it's repeated

37:59

as. Christie said that

38:01

Brenda's purse was at the home and that

38:03

it was found inside a toy box and

38:06

had everything in it that should have been

38:08

there. They even found Brenda's wedding ring inside.

38:11

Christie saw with her own eyes that the clothing

38:13

that Brenda had worn to the party was outside

38:15

of the bathroom door in an area where Brenda

38:17

would throw her clothes if she was going to

38:19

jump into the shower. There were

38:21

other reports stating that clothes were left on

38:23

a sink. Christie said that many people were

38:25

in and out of the house and

38:28

she doesn't know if the clothing had been

38:30

moved. Christie has also been told that all

38:32

of Brenda's underwear was missing from the home

38:34

so she can't say for sure if that's

38:36

accurate or not. She said that

38:38

Raymond allegedly claimed that all she took with her

38:40

was her underwear. There were also reports

38:43

of a suitcase being by the door with

38:45

some of Brenda's clothing inside like she

38:47

was planning to pack up and go

38:49

somewhere. The okay dispute said somebody

38:52

said there was a suitcase at the door where

38:54

they weren't two days after she disappeared because I

38:56

went in her house and looked around. That suitcase

38:58

wasn't at the door so they went back and

39:00

planted that one. Kay

39:02

also has a memory of seeing Raymond driving

39:04

around the very next morning carrying a

39:07

load of what looked to be trash in

39:09

the back of a truck which she believes

39:11

may hold some significance. Also

39:14

the very next day after Brenda disappeared I

39:16

smoked at the time so and my mom did so

39:19

we didn't smoke inside we'd go sit on the porch

39:21

and smoked and it was a crack of daylight. We

39:23

sitting there smoking a cigarette and I saw Raymond's truck

39:25

go down because it had trash in it and

39:28

my mom said ain't that Raymond I said yeah

39:30

and then it wasn't a minute later here goes

39:32

Tammy in her car so they were together. Kay

39:35

can't recall exactly when this happened

39:38

but she knows that it was in the

39:40

days immediately following Brenda's disappearance that

39:42

a call came into her parents house and there

39:44

was a disturbing sound on the other end of

39:46

the line. I don't

39:48

remember for sure if it was the next

39:51

day or two days later. I

39:53

remember getting a phone call my mom and

39:55

I couldn't figure out why we was hearing

39:57

this but I heard a

39:59

dinging noise. He's like a door somebody left their car

40:01

door open. And Raymond did have a white work truck

40:04

at that time that had that noise. And

40:06

I heard somebody sound like they've been

40:08

choked to death and crying real hard.

40:10

And you can say that, you know,

40:12

if you hear one of your

40:14

kids or your siblings crying real hard, you're going

40:17

to know which one it is. I don't know

40:19

how you could just tell by that voice and the

40:21

way they cry. It sounds like

40:23

Brenda. I don't believe she was alive and

40:26

maybe she could have been and they kept her and

40:28

then did it. I believe he's sick enough to record

40:30

something like that. So my mom would hear it because

40:32

he hated my mom for no reason. My

40:35

mom knew that something was going on when I was

40:37

listening to that on the phone. And so she got

40:39

to it, they hung it up. I

40:41

would believe he would record it just so he could play it

40:43

for my mom. Cause he's sick in the head like that. He

40:45

hated her. He hated her because of her

40:47

closeness with her kids and keep not trying to keep

40:49

eye on him anyways. It

40:51

seemed from the very beginning that there were attempts

40:54

made to mislead the investigation to make

40:56

it look like Brenda had just left and was

40:58

out there somewhere alive. Raymond had

41:00

mentioned to the police that Brenda may have been

41:02

with a boyfriend named Mike. No one

41:04

else knew of any boyfriend or if

41:06

this Mike person even existed. This

41:09

was a difficult lead to track down,

41:11

especially considering how common the first name

41:13

Mike is. But Christie said that

41:15

there were even more attempts to mislead the police.

41:19

When Brenda first disappeared too, if his sisters

41:21

caught in with sodding the Brandon, law

41:23

enforcement took that as a, okay, she must be

41:25

out there somewhere. Tim

41:27

can recall that in the days after

41:30

Brenda had gone missing, people began cleaning

41:32

Brenda's house, which was something that struck

41:34

him as odd. His

41:36

family had been down there two days

41:38

after Brenda got missing washing the walls

41:40

down in her house, which they've never

41:42

done before ever. None of them never

41:45

come down and help her clean her

41:47

house. His sisters and his

41:49

mother, they cleaned it two days

41:51

after she's gone. Now, I

41:53

don't know why law enforcement didn't lock that

41:55

house up. It wasn't

41:58

long after Brenda had disappeared. Raymond

42:00

moved back into the home that he had shared

42:02

with his now missing wife. But he

42:04

wasn't living there alone with his two children

42:06

as a single father. Tammy

42:08

had moved in too, which Brenda's loved

42:10

ones found to be deeply disturbing. She

42:14

moved in a week after Brenda disappeared because she knew

42:16

she wasn't coming back. And even

42:18

Krista was just five. And Krista

42:20

told me, Tammy knocked her

42:22

mommy's picture down, told her, stop putting

42:24

that picture up. Stop putting

42:27

that damn picture up. Said she

42:29

heard Tammy and Raymond arguing a few

42:31

times this happened. She said, you

42:34

want me to tell them why their mommy's not coming

42:36

back? I know Krista called me in 2011.

42:39

She was telling me that story again. And

42:42

she told me that Raymond took a gun,

42:44

the end of the gun, and beat Tammy

42:46

with it. I have no sorrow for

42:48

that girl. I don't care. She got what she went

42:50

and took. She took him. She got it. At least

42:52

she's still alive more than I got saved to my

42:54

sister. She horned in on my

42:57

sister. And like I said, a week after

42:59

Brenda's gone, she's in our washing dishes and

43:01

Brenda's window. Thought, wow, I already made myself

43:03

at home. Move right in. The

43:06

night that Brenda had disappeared, her children

43:08

stayed with Brenda's in-laws at their home.

43:11

And later, Brenda's five-year-old daughter began making

43:13

comments about things that she says she

43:15

saw the night her mom disappeared. And

43:17

to all of the grownups around her,

43:20

these memories that she was recalling were

43:22

frightening. She told me

43:24

that when her grandma made her lay down

43:26

and go to bed, she kept hearing noises.

43:28

And she got scared. So she got up

43:30

and looked out the back window. This kid

43:32

wouldn't have told me this if she didn't

43:35

see this. She said she didn't see this.

43:37

She said that she

43:39

saw her daddy dragging her mommy's body across

43:42

the grass and she looked dead. And

43:44

I thought, well, naturally, why would he be

43:46

dragging her across the grass? If she looked

43:48

dead, it's because she was. Tim

43:51

found these statements that Brenda's daughter

43:53

made to be particularly unsettling and

43:56

not something that a child that age would just make

43:58

up. Five year old

44:00

kids don't make this shit up. The

44:02

five years old, she said she was standing at

44:04

her bedroom window at her mom on pipe off,

44:07

seeing her daddy dragging her mother through

44:09

the backyard, her lifeless body. Didn't

44:12

look like she was alive, that's what she said. Grandmother

44:15

took her and put her, told her, you need

44:17

to go back to bed, baby, you're having a

44:19

nightmare. She having nightmares standing

44:21

at the damn window? Told police

44:23

about that. A real kid doesn't make that

44:25

up. They don't have that kind of mindset.

44:27

Pissed me off, though, and that

44:29

part right there really pisses me

44:31

off. That kid seen that.

44:34

And she lived her old life knowing that.

44:37

Daddy trying to tell him her mother walked

44:39

off laughter. According to

44:41

Kristie, there was something else that Brenda's daughter

44:43

recalled from that night as well. She

44:46

also remembers that her dad and her grandpa

44:48

was just in and out all night long.

44:51

Vanessa and I, her mom disappeared. I've had

44:53

another one of his brothers say that it's

44:55

a shame what they did to that poor

44:57

girl, but if he hadn't

44:59

been in jail, he would have helped him. I

45:02

do believe that she's seen Brenda

45:04

being drug in the backyard, but she

45:06

passed away. She had went in to talk

45:08

to the law a few years before

45:10

she died, and she also had her DNA

45:12

stored in codis with me. Tim

45:15

remembers attending an early search for Brenda.

45:18

After Brenda had disappeared, Tim got to thinking

45:20

about what Raymond had said to him years

45:22

prior on that bridge. And he

45:24

wondered if that could be what happened to Brenda.

45:26

So he decided to bring it up to law

45:28

enforcement. I thought about

45:31

that after she got gone. They

45:33

had a search in the mountains up there

45:35

by the manor apartments, Blue Well Manor Apartments.

45:38

I think she used my language on this because I'm

45:40

gonna tell you what I said. I said, where in

45:42

the hell is Raymond Lambert at? Just a big crowd

45:44

of people, okay? I said, where the

45:46

hell is Raymond Lambert at? Why ain't he out here

45:48

looking for her? I said, you know why he ain't

45:51

out here looking for her? Because he knows where she's

45:53

at. That's why he ain't out

45:55

here in the detectives. They say, oh, wait a minute,

45:57

I'm Brenda's brother. I'm the one that goes all over

45:59

the place. when they say she's at this house

46:01

or that house, I'm the one that goes and

46:03

says and watches them houses to kill out that

46:05

she's not at them houses. Who I am, he

46:07

said, well come out here and let me talk

46:10

to you out here in the woods for me.

46:12

I walked out there and we stand on this

46:14

big rocker and we was looking over at the

46:16

highway and he said, you know and I know

46:18

too that boy killed that girl. Told

46:20

him a fat big swirl hole what Raymond

46:22

had told me about and he said, and

46:24

that's probably what he's done. He said, and

46:26

if I were you, don't ever tell

46:28

nobody what I said, but he's getting going from

46:31

now I can say what he said. He said,

46:33

if I was you, I ain't telling you what

46:35

to do or nothing, but I'd kill that

46:37

son of a bitch. He said, and I

46:39

walked his foot and throw him over at

46:41

New River Bridge cause you know he killed

46:43

your sister. He said, we just can't prove

46:46

it. He said, nobody, no murder. In

46:49

the aftermath of Brenda's disappearance, her family was

46:51

devastated and didn't know what to think

46:53

or do. They struggled to make sense

46:55

of it all and hope that Brenda

46:57

would turn up. It was like

46:59

a nightmare. You know, I was still living at home when

47:01

it happened. So my mom was

47:03

just in a nightmare state, like

47:06

a disbelief. One minute she wants

47:08

to say, I know she's going to be out there

47:10

somewhere. She must just be behind. Then the next minute,

47:12

no, I know she's not, or she wouldn't do this.

47:14

Then the next minute she's gotta be out there somewhere.

47:16

That's, that's what you live with. You're

47:18

trying to convince yourself that she's got to be

47:21

alive. So she must be out there somewhere.

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vanished. If

48:50

you look up Brenda's name online,

48:52

you'll see another missing person mentioned

48:54

frequently as possibly being connected to

48:56

Brenda. His name is Mark Cook.

48:59

Mark disappeared from the same area

49:01

in January of 1993, just

49:04

months after Brenda's mysterious disappearance.

49:07

Mark was close in age to Brenda, just 24

49:09

years old at the time that he went missing.

49:12

And by this point, January of 1993, Brenda

49:14

would have turned 23 years old the month prior. Mark

49:19

was last seen leaving a bar called Pedro's

49:21

in the early morning hours of January 14th, from

49:24

3am. The funny thing about

49:27

this, if you look at some databases

49:29

online, some list Mark as Brenda's boyfriend.

49:32

Even the West Virginia State Police website

49:34

says, quote, Brenda had a boyfriend by

49:36

the name of Mark Cook, who disappeared

49:38

five months later. The police believe the

49:40

two cases to be connected. But to

49:43

be fair, their website also lists Brenda's

49:45

missing date as October of 1991. Both

49:48

the month and the year are incorrect. Brenda

49:51

disappeared in July of 92. But

49:54

this left us questioning, did Brenda have

49:56

a boyfriend? We know that Raymond told the

49:58

police that she may have had a boyfriend. named Mike.

50:01

Did he have that wrong? Could it have been Mark?

50:04

Brenda's family says no. Had Brenda recently

50:06

met someone and didn't tell them about

50:08

it, we wanted to know where this

50:10

story originated. We began digging

50:12

through newspaper archives and

50:14

the first mention that we saw of

50:16

Brenda and Mark's cases possibly being related

50:18

was in an article in the Bluefield

50:21

Daily Telegraph dated October 22, 1994.

50:24

It states that the cases could

50:26

have been related and that a suspect

50:28

had been interviewed. A representative from the

50:30

Sheriff's office said that they had evidence

50:33

that the two may have been seen

50:35

together before their disappearances. It

50:37

seems that after this time that information

50:39

got repeated and sometimes articles

50:41

would say that they were friends, sometimes

50:44

acquaintances, and other times a couple. We

50:46

don't have any evidence that they were in fact

50:48

a couple. They did go to the same school

50:51

for a period of time and it's likely that

50:53

they did know each other. A November

50:55

6, 2005 article in

50:57

the Bluefield Daily Telegraph states that in 2003, a

50:59

tip came in that both

51:02

Brenda and Mark's bodies could be found

51:04

in a local pond. The Sheriff's department

51:06

worked alongside the fire department utilizing pumps

51:09

to drain the pond. They were

51:11

able to drain out thousands of gallons of water

51:13

but they were still unable to drain it all

51:15

the way. Next, they tried to

51:17

send a diver in but there was

51:19

so much growth in the pond that

51:21

the diver couldn't see much. Then they

51:24

contacted another law enforcement agency who loaned

51:26

them underwater cameras but they never

51:28

found a single shred of evidence during these

51:30

search efforts. The subject of

51:32

a possible connection between these cases has

51:34

been a controversial one. Kristie told us

51:36

what she knows about this. Brenda's

51:39

friend Mark took witness in five months

51:41

after she did. Word got spread

51:44

around they left together which

51:46

was seriously stupid. It

51:49

was started by a member of Raymond's family

51:51

and I know the name. There's been multiple people

51:53

come and tell me who it was and

51:55

whether they're connected or not I don't know

51:57

because that's a big ongoing battle in this.

52:00

people say they're not, a lot of people

52:02

say they do. The guy who had this

52:04

for 20 some years, he's the one that

52:06

kind of, I guess I grew up learning

52:08

from. He said he'd have to have proof

52:10

before he'd say they're not. Because they did

52:13

receive evidence that those two were seen together

52:15

prior. They were just friends though in my

52:17

mind. But I have two people

52:19

come forward here lately and said that Brenda

52:21

had confided in my mom that her and

52:23

him had started talking. And of course it

52:25

didn't get that far. Because Mark, you know,

52:27

he was smart with her, tried to give

52:29

her flowers. And I believe from a broken

52:31

heart perspective that made her feel a little

52:33

bit better. But she was still

52:35

much in love with Raymond, I think, until

52:37

she just realized, you know, he's not gonna

52:40

stop. Tammy's being too persistent. They're keeping my

52:42

kids from me. I'm being threatened. You know,

52:44

I'm just gonna get out of this. But

52:46

I don't know. There's so much controversy and

52:48

it's been 31 years of

52:50

just so many people arguing and stating different

52:52

facts. Kay gets

52:54

really frustrated when this alleged possible

52:57

connection between the cases gets brought

52:59

up. She is adamant that she

53:01

knew Brenda so well. They were so close.

53:03

Brenda would have told Kay if she was

53:05

seeing someone. She

53:08

never had no relationship with Mark. I'm gonna tell

53:10

you I ran with Brenda every single day. Like

53:12

I said, we're close in age. I was the

53:14

only one still living at home. So naturally I

53:17

could go. Well, I mean my sister Kristy was.

53:19

She was in school. I was an adult. So

53:21

I went with Brenda everywhere. We went out all

53:24

the time. We went to high school together, grade

53:26

school together. And I'm gonna tell you

53:28

she did not go out with Mark. I

53:30

wish people would get over that. But

53:32

I know it's not gonna happen. Somebody threw

53:34

that in there trying to throw it. Her

53:36

case off is all. That's my belief. Mark

53:39

is just a guy who supposedly went to

53:41

Bramble High School where Brenda went. But I'm

53:43

gonna tell you if Brenda knew of a

53:45

guy that she liked, she would tell me.

53:48

I never heard his name ever. They said

53:50

he went to Pedro's to ask them about

53:52

Brenda and got beat up. I never heard

53:54

that before in my life until now. That

53:57

whole time that I still live back

53:59

at home. all the years that

54:01

we searched for her and never in my

54:03

life heard that till maybe a year or

54:05

two ago. So I don't even know where

54:07

that came into play. Who said it?

54:09

There's no proof of that. They weren't friends.

54:12

I was with Brenda too much for anybody

54:14

to make me believe that. If they showed

54:16

me proof, I'll admit that I'm wrong. But

54:18

until then, I'll never admit it because I

54:21

was with this girl too much. I never

54:23

heard Mark's name. I never seen Mark. And

54:26

of all the times that I went out with her, I never

54:28

in my life seen him. I happened

54:30

to know Brenda's style and taste. She

54:32

wouldn't have went out with him and I'm not trying to

54:34

be me. I'm just being honest about her. I just think

54:36

it was just a throw off to be honest. I feel

54:39

bad whatever happened to that boy, but it has

54:41

nothing to do with my sister. And I know

54:43

that without a shadow of a doubt. I don't

54:45

care what anybody else says. They can say what

54:47

they want. Like I said, I'm just, I'm being

54:49

honest with myself for Brenda. And I think maybe

54:52

some people have gotten confused and think that they've

54:54

seen him around her. But

54:56

I don't believe that. Well, I believe they were in the

54:58

same high school year. You might know some people that you

55:00

want by that you went to high school with and you

55:02

might not know half of them. You know, you're not going

55:04

to know half of them. Go to

55:07

school there very long. In

55:09

2021, the YouTube channel, mysterious

55:11

West Virginia took up Brenda

55:13

and Mark's cases and worked

55:15

alongside the sheriff's department and the DA's

55:18

office to put together a very informative

55:20

piece, which you can find on

55:22

their YouTube channel. The host, Sean

55:24

McCracken was given the opportunity to

55:26

review police files with the investigator

55:28

at the time. And they

55:30

were able to establish that Brenda and Mark may

55:32

have known each other through school. Brenda

55:34

may have chatted with Mark at his

55:36

job at a local fast food restaurant,

55:39

but their relationship was described as platonic.

55:41

One important takeaway from the mysterious West

55:44

Virginia video is that while they

55:46

were reviewing files, they found that there were

55:48

no mentions of Mark and Brenda's file or

55:50

of Brenda and Mark's file until 2005, 13

55:52

years after Brenda had disappeared. In

55:56

March of 2023, the television show, Cold Justice

56:00

covered Brenda's story. They

56:02

too examined the potential links between the

56:05

two cases with local law enforcement and

56:07

came to the conclusion that there was no evidence

56:09

that they were linked or that Brenda and Mark

56:11

were in a relationship. Kay

56:13

gets frustrated by the fact that the Mark

56:16

Cook connection gets brought up in her sister's

56:18

case over and over again. She

56:20

believes that it muddies the waters

56:22

and serves as a distraction. It

56:24

made Brenda sound like she probably ran off with a man

56:27

and was sleeping around it. She didn't do that.

56:29

I don't care if nobody said. Brenda did not

56:31

sleep around on Raymond. She could not get herself

56:33

to do it. She's not like that. She didn't

56:35

have it in her. Very

56:38

early on in the investigation into

56:40

Brenda's disappearance, the family began

56:42

hearing stories about where Brenda's body may

56:44

have been concealed. These stories kept

56:46

going back to a property that Raymond's family

56:49

owned that had a sawmill on it. Christie

56:52

firmly believes to this very day

56:54

that that property is where her

56:56

sister's remains will be found if

56:58

they're ever found. Here's Christie

57:00

again. I'm about

57:02

four miles from where Brenda's body is and

57:05

they're trying to find dogs and then he

57:07

said he doubts he would get a search

57:09

warrant. They said they don't have enough

57:11

probable cause. Like I have two

57:13

people that is actually kin to Brenda's husband

57:15

that told him that her body is at

57:18

this sawmill. My mom died in in

57:20

96. My dad died in 98. I

57:22

was too young to be included in a

57:24

lot of this stuff. I was kind of

57:27

shielded from a lot of it but they

57:29

did learn that she was on the sawmill

57:31

and they were buried maybe two minutes away

57:33

from where they had been told her body

57:35

was just to be as close to her

57:37

as they could in their death. So that's

57:40

how conventional they actually bought once. It's his

57:42

brother's property. I don't remember a lot

57:44

of his brother. What I've heard about him

57:46

is he has said that my

57:48

whole family is full of SHIT, that Brenda

57:50

ain't up on it, property. You know, he's

57:52

had a few bad words to say about

57:55

it and then anytime and I've

57:57

had multiple people come and tell me that

57:59

they had gotten too close to that

58:01

sawmill property and he'll come out with a

58:03

gun and run people off or threaten to

58:05

shoot them. And this has been multiple people,

58:08

people that don't even know each other. Kay

58:11

had heard the stories about the sawmill too and

58:14

she wishes that law enforcement could search the

58:16

property. If Brenda isn't there, they could

58:18

rule it out and move on. I

58:21

heard that story said that Raymond and

58:23

his dad was up and on off

58:25

of that mountain that night trying

58:27

to cover it up. For some reason, for

58:30

two weeks, they kept taking dirt up on

58:32

that mountain. And I know where

58:34

there supposedly had been a well, they had filled

58:36

it in, covered it up and built a sawmill

58:38

on top of it. Within two weeks

58:40

after Brenda was gone, I mean, I don't know

58:43

if that ain't a slap in the face,

58:45

what would be. We talked to the cops

58:47

about it. We told them about probable cause

58:49

and they tried to say, oh, there ain't no

58:51

probable cause. They couldn't go up there on

58:53

hearsay. We've been given the runaround for

58:55

many years. In

58:57

the 2023 Cold Justice episode, they went

58:59

to Raymond's home to ask him some

59:02

questions. While speaking with Raymond,

59:04

the sawmill property was brought up and

59:06

what Raymond said was strange to Christie.

59:09

He first denies that the land belongs to

59:11

his friends. I wonder, I'll tell him about

59:13

this land. He straight up lies and he

59:16

says they don't own it and they

59:18

do. And then he gets real nervous and he's

59:20

like, oh, well, it's overgrown. And

59:22

so, you know, that right there, that confirmed this

59:24

30 euro mystery to me. The way he's lying

59:26

about it. And I'd already got

59:28

the information about how they did own it

59:31

because it's public record. But there's another place

59:33

too. I've been told about it that his

59:35

parents' house, it's like a minute down the

59:37

road from the sawmill under a concrete porch.

59:40

His nieces and nephews would tell me stories

59:42

that when they were little, if they misbehaved,

59:45

he would tell them he's going to put them under the concrete

59:47

porch with Brenda. I really leaned

59:49

towards the sawmill just because of the way that

59:51

he was acting on the show about it. What

59:53

we were told was that he put her in

59:56

the back of a car and drove

59:58

her up there to Togo Mountain in his day. had

1:00:00

helped him do all this. But I

1:00:02

don't know if they ever searched the car,

1:00:04

luminized the car. I don't know where the

1:00:06

car is now. I've tried to ask them,

1:00:08

like, can you not just run that VIN

1:00:10

number and cause they're wanting something DNA, some

1:00:12

kind of DNA evidence. And I'm like, okay,

1:00:14

but how about her car? See

1:00:16

the house that she lived in, it

1:00:19

burnt down six years after she disappeared.

1:00:22

As you heard Kristie mention the home that

1:00:24

Brenda was living in at the time is

1:00:26

no longer standing after a fire in the

1:00:29

late nineties. Kristie said that

1:00:31

she was told that at some point the home

1:00:33

was searched with luminol, but she admits that she

1:00:35

doesn't know much more about that. In

1:00:37

the mysterious West Virginia video about Brenda

1:00:39

notes that the original responding officer had

1:00:41

taken back in 1992 were discussed. And

1:00:45

he stated that the downstairs area of Brenda's

1:00:48

home was tidy, but the upstairs was a

1:00:50

mess with clothes all over. He

1:00:52

noted that there were no undergarments or bedding,

1:00:54

which is odd. If there

1:00:57

was evidence of foul play inside that

1:00:59

home, unfortunately it's now long gone. In

1:01:02

a case like Brenda's, it's always the natural

1:01:04

progression of things for the spouse to be

1:01:06

looked at. And when they began

1:01:08

looking at Raymond, there were many red

1:01:10

flags including that affair with Tammy along

1:01:12

with Brenda's apparent plans to divorce Raymond

1:01:15

and the abuse that she had reported

1:01:17

to local police weeks prior. But

1:01:20

beyond Brenda's husband, there has always

1:01:22

been suspicion about Brenda's own cousin,

1:01:24

Tammy, who had been having an

1:01:26

affair with Raymond. My

1:01:28

cousin Tammy, she is not innocent. She moved

1:01:30

in a week after Brenda disappeared. And then

1:01:33

the things that she told my niece over

1:01:35

the years, like she would look at

1:01:37

Raymond right in front of Brenda's kids and say,

1:01:39

why don't you tell them what really happened to

1:01:41

their mommy? And then slamming Brenda's

1:01:43

pictures down in her daughter's room, wouldn't even

1:01:45

let her keep a picture of her own

1:01:48

mother up in her house. Tammy stood to

1:01:50

gain a whole lot with Brenda's disappearance. There

1:01:52

was the man, there was the money, there

1:01:54

was the house, there was the land, but

1:01:57

the truth of the matter is, is she

1:01:59

came and. she wanted Brenda's life

1:02:01

and she got it. Supposedly Tammy had

1:02:03

walked in a couple months after Brenda

1:02:05

disappeared and this is Tammy's mom telling

1:02:07

me this that Tammy had walked in

1:02:10

and Raymond was holding some of Brenda's

1:02:12

clothes crying. It seems like there is

1:02:14

at least some regret. For years you

1:02:16

know I expressed you know can you

1:02:18

not look more into Tammy because she

1:02:20

had just as much reason if not

1:02:23

more to get rid of Brenda. You know Raymond knew he

1:02:25

was gonna be put under fire. They gave

1:02:27

my cousin Tammy a polygraph and they said

1:02:29

she passed it. Raymond

1:02:31

and Tammy stayed together for many years

1:02:34

and later divorced. Kay explained that after

1:02:36

their breakup Raymond moved on to someone

1:02:38

else. Someone who happened to look

1:02:40

a lot like Brenda. Now

1:02:42

they've been divorced for a pretty good walk. He

1:02:45

remarried again. He married a much

1:02:47

younger girl this time and she just looked

1:02:49

like my sister Brenda but now she's left

1:02:51

him. Just here recently I think it

1:02:53

was probably due to exposure from

1:02:56

the Cold Justice. After that she

1:02:58

left him. Kristie

1:03:00

hoped that after Raymond and Tammy had split up

1:03:03

that maybe now something would finally shake

1:03:05

loose. Well he was

1:03:07

making his way through his own family.

1:03:09

When he divorced our cousin, he went

1:03:12

and married his second cousin. I guess

1:03:14

she started following me on social media

1:03:16

after the show came out she was

1:03:18

on their pictures bragging like I love

1:03:20

my psychopath and she started following

1:03:23

me on social media and then

1:03:25

she left him. So I think

1:03:27

that she just needed more proof

1:03:29

and she's really young and she's

1:03:31

really naive. I think she just

1:03:34

needed more proof you know something

1:03:36

that completely turned his

1:03:38

laws around on him. So she

1:03:40

left him thank God. Tammy

1:03:42

supposedly what I've been told has

1:03:44

a tell-all tape that if anything

1:03:46

happens to her everything gets told.

1:03:48

So that may be why she's

1:03:50

still alive. Brenda's

1:03:52

siblings have always felt that perhaps Tammy

1:03:55

had a hand in Brenda's disappearance or

1:03:57

at the very least she knew more. In

1:04:00

the cold justice episode, they went to

1:04:02

Tammy's mother, Bonnie, and interviewed her. Bonnie

1:04:05

defended her daughter and said that after the

1:04:07

party, Tammy came home and stayed the night

1:04:10

with her. Bonnie went on

1:04:12

to say that later that night, around 11

1:04:14

p.m., Raymond called them and wanted

1:04:16

to know if they had heard from Brenda,

1:04:18

which again, lines up with what Kay had

1:04:20

told us about Raymond showing up at her

1:04:22

parents' house that evening and asking about Brenda.

1:04:25

But on the other hand, it conflicts with

1:04:27

what Raymond had told the police, that it

1:04:29

wasn't until the following afternoon, when he stopped

1:04:31

by the house, that he found that Brenda

1:04:33

was missing. If he didn't know

1:04:35

until Monday afternoon, why was he

1:04:37

driving around and calling family to look for her?

1:04:40

Bonnie went on to tell a story about

1:04:42

Brenda and Raymond's daughter. She recalled her saying

1:04:44

that her father and grandfather, Raymond's father, were

1:04:47

on and off of the mountain all night

1:04:49

on the evening of her mother's disappearance.

1:04:52

She also told them another story, which you

1:04:54

heard Kay mention earlier, that Raymond had hit

1:04:56

Tammy in the head with a gun at

1:04:59

some point during the course of their relationship.

1:05:01

Bonnie said that Tammy thought that Raymond was going

1:05:04

to kill her. Later on in

1:05:06

the episode, they went and spoke to Tammy, who

1:05:08

claimed that she didn't know that Brenda and Raymond

1:05:10

were married when she began a relationship with him.

1:05:13

She said that Brenda and Raymond were already

1:05:15

having problems long before she came into the

1:05:17

picture. Tammy went on to say,

1:05:19

quote, He said that she went to go. She

1:05:21

was going to go file for divorce. And there

1:05:24

was no way he was going to let her

1:05:26

have the house and the man. What's his is

1:05:28

his and what's mine is his. At

1:05:30

the time, I thought she actually ran off. But

1:05:33

when things started to go by, like

1:05:35

her kids graduating, mom passing, and she

1:05:37

didn't come back then, then

1:05:39

I started thinking, well, she didn't run

1:05:41

off. Tammy claimed that Raymond

1:05:43

later became abusive with her as well. She

1:05:46

said that he would smack, choke, backhand her

1:05:48

and leave her with black eyes. She

1:05:51

also mentioned that like Brenda, she had caught him

1:05:53

cheating on her, too. Earlier,

1:05:55

Christie spoke about all of the rumors

1:05:58

surrounding the sawmill. the

1:06:00

investigator and Cold Justice team that Raymond's

1:06:02

sister had told her that Raymond and

1:06:04

his father were gone for hours on

1:06:06

the night that Brenda went missing. After

1:06:08

they came back, they headed out to

1:06:10

the sawmill. This story also lines

1:06:12

up with what Brenda's own five-year-old daughter had

1:06:15

reported about her father and grandfather being on

1:06:17

and off of the mountain all night long.

1:06:19

In the Cold Justice episode,

1:06:21

they concluded that Tammy was another

1:06:23

victim here. She had also

1:06:25

been abused and they believed that she was

1:06:28

cooperative. Kay takes issue with

1:06:30

framing Tammy in this light and the

1:06:32

suspicions still linger for her. Kay

1:06:34

believes that going back to the night of the

1:06:36

party, that Tammy was there to scope things out.

1:06:39

She was just coming to see what house she

1:06:41

was going to get to move into and take

1:06:43

over. That's why she moved in a week after

1:06:45

Brenda disappeared because she knew she wasn't coming back.

1:06:47

She sat there on that show and tried to

1:06:49

say, I didn't know they were married. She

1:06:52

said, yeah, you did. You knew they was married

1:06:54

the first day you come into town and they

1:06:56

were introduced to you. They portrayed her as an

1:06:58

innocent victim and I was walking around like she

1:07:00

sat in there laughing talking about how well she

1:07:02

knew Raymond and that she did not know Brenda

1:07:05

anyways. That sounds awesome saying that.

1:07:07

I don't care if nobody says they

1:07:09

can discount her. Some people say, I don't believe

1:07:11

she had nothing to say. She's the victim too.

1:07:13

Are you serious? You sit here and tell

1:07:15

me she's a victim. She was sleeping with

1:07:18

my sister's old man. He really didn't want

1:07:20

no relationship with her. He was just sleeping

1:07:22

with her. He wanted to stay with Brenda,

1:07:24

but Brenda wasn't going to have it. So

1:07:26

he ended up stuck with Tammy. I don't

1:07:28

want to give him no credit, but I

1:07:30

believe she's the reason that this happened. I

1:07:32

think she was actively involved. That's why she

1:07:34

didn't have no fear in her at all.

1:07:36

Brenda coming back, wanting her home. She supposedly

1:07:39

have a tape in

1:07:41

case something ever happened to her on Raymond.

1:07:44

I know that side of her family knows

1:07:46

too, so I don't even fool with them.

1:07:49

I just know they know. We

1:07:51

heard mention of Raymond's father's alleged involvement

1:07:54

in the case. He has since died,

1:07:56

but he was brought up by Brenda's daughter who claimed

1:07:58

that it was Raymond's daughter. and his father who were

1:08:01

on and off of a mountain

1:08:19

all night. Tammy

1:08:22

told the Cold Justice team that she was told

1:08:24

the same information by Raymond's own sister. Tim

1:08:28

believes that there's more than one person

1:08:30

involved in Brenda's disappearance, but it's

1:08:33

difficult to know exactly what happened because they've

1:08:35

heard so many things over the

1:08:37

years. What's true and what's rumor? You've

1:08:57

heard multiple mentions

1:09:26

of this threat that Brenda had made. It

1:09:29

was something about Raymond's family that Brenda knew

1:09:31

about, and Christy wonders if that may

1:09:33

have been part of the motive because of the

1:09:35

timing. While

1:09:43

speaking with Brenda's relatives, we heard several stories

1:09:45

about what Brenda may have known that she

1:09:47

was planning to tell the police about. No

1:09:49

one can be certain about what Brenda was

1:09:52

planning to spill, but they believe that Brenda

1:09:54

knew a lot. It's important to mention here that we have

1:09:56

no proof of any such crimes, but we were told that

1:09:58

the crime was not a crime. told about

1:10:00

alleged money laundering, chop shops, arson

1:10:03

for the purpose of insurance fraud,

1:10:05

and sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by

1:10:07

an older family member. But

1:10:10

Kay was able to tell us about one

1:10:12

secret that Brenda had told her about, something

1:10:14

that Brenda witnessed that frightened her. The

1:10:17

secret that she told me, that's bad. She

1:10:20

said this house that they lived in

1:10:22

had, it's like a block

1:10:24

house. It had the big vents in the

1:10:26

floor where you have a furnace at the

1:10:28

bottom or in the basement. And

1:10:30

so her and was

1:10:33

standing up in the kitchen. And she was

1:10:36

scared to death when she told me about

1:10:38

it. She said she had to tell me.

1:10:40

Her and her was standing up

1:10:42

looking through the vent and Raymond

1:10:46

was downstairs and he was taking off bloody

1:10:48

clothes and throwing them in the furnace and

1:10:50

asking for an alibi that night that they

1:10:52

were there. Raymond, he wasn't in on that.

1:10:55

He was at home. It was his that

1:10:57

came looking for an alibi for that night

1:10:59

burning his bloody clothes. Again

1:11:02

we have no proof of any of

1:11:04

these alleged crimes. But did Brenda disappear

1:11:06

because someone wanted to silence her? At

1:11:09

the end of the cold justice episode

1:11:11

about Brenda's case, the family was told

1:11:13

that Raymond was quote, the person that

1:11:15

had the motive and the opportunity and

1:11:17

the means. Your case is never going

1:11:19

to get any better than it is

1:11:21

right now. We want Raymond Lambert arrested

1:11:23

for first degree murder. They went on

1:11:25

to say that it was now time

1:11:27

for them to present everything they learned

1:11:29

to the Mercer County prosecuting attorney. Before

1:11:32

they told the family what the prosecutor had

1:11:34

said during their meeting, the investigator commented that

1:11:36

he was retiring in a month and really

1:11:38

wanted to solve this case. It

1:11:41

was the hardest case that his department had. They

1:11:43

met up with some of Brenda siblings and said

1:11:45

quote, so we had met the prosecutor. He

1:11:47

wants to take a look at a few things.

1:11:50

I don't want to go into too much

1:11:52

specifics, but I feel really, really good. Things

1:11:55

are going to start moving like you've never

1:11:57

seen. Both Tim and Christy were

1:11:59

on camera. at this time and Tim

1:12:01

said, I mean it's already moved further than

1:12:03

I've ever seen in my life. I want

1:12:05

to tell you I appreciate it. Christie expressed

1:12:08

gratitude and relief hearing the news. She said,

1:12:10

I'm kind of lost for words. It's really

1:12:12

hard to let that sink in after 30

1:12:14

years of really not having

1:12:17

a lot of hope. It's been hard carrying

1:12:19

this on my shoulders and it just feels

1:12:21

like it's been lifted up off of me.

1:12:23

It's a lot of relief. It

1:12:25

was the first time that they had hope after 30

1:12:27

years of waiting. However, after

1:12:29

the production crew stopped filming and pulled

1:12:32

out of town, something changed. The family

1:12:34

isn't quite clear on exactly what happened,

1:12:36

but it felt almost like nothing had

1:12:38

happened. They were under the impression

1:12:41

that Raymond was going to be charged and

1:12:43

arrested for Brenda's murder, but then nothing ever

1:12:45

came of it. Christie told us more about

1:12:47

this experience. Last

1:12:49

year when we were filming Co-Justice,

1:12:52

I developed panic attacks from knowing

1:12:55

that I was going to have to

1:12:57

face 30 years in 10 days.

1:12:59

I literally had this huge breakdown because they

1:13:01

let me come in the war room with

1:13:03

them. I had this huge breakdown

1:13:05

in the war room. I don't look at

1:13:08

her pictures and they had this billboard of

1:13:10

her pictures. One of my favorite ones I've

1:13:12

always used for her missing poster, it was

1:13:14

staring at me. She just got such a

1:13:16

beautiful smile on this picture and it resonates

1:13:18

who she was. Everything that

1:13:20

she had rolled up and gave to

1:13:22

Joe Parks, which was the cop on

1:13:24

the case, who did the show too.

1:13:26

Everything that she had there and he

1:13:28

took into the courthouse. The

1:13:31

prosecuting attorney's like, okay, you've been in this longer than

1:13:33

anybody else, so what do you think happened? I told

1:13:35

him exactly the only thing I can come

1:13:37

up with Raymond murdered her at the house and then he

1:13:39

put her in a car and he took her body up

1:13:41

on Cudano. That's the best thing

1:13:43

I can come up with with all the facts

1:13:45

that we have, not my opinion, not my theory,

1:13:48

just with the facts that's on the table. I

1:13:51

believe it was premeditated because she had

1:13:53

told one of my sisters before she

1:13:55

disappeared that she believed that Raymond and

1:13:57

Tammy was planning on killing her. Now,

1:14:00

put so much work into it and try

1:14:02

to get them everything that they possibly need.

1:14:04

I went and had her declared deceased last

1:14:06

year and then it just seemed I got

1:14:08

told that she's still just considered a missing

1:14:10

person still yet and I kind of understand

1:14:12

that but I'm like why did you have

1:14:14

me declare a deceased? There's a lot of

1:14:16

people especially my family when you talk to

1:14:18

my sister she's not going to have a

1:14:20

lot of nice things to say about the

1:14:22

police. Probably about the only one that

1:14:24

has any faith at all in them

1:14:27

and it's dwindled quite a bit

1:14:29

but I'm still holding on. I

1:14:31

think after 31 years you know you just come to

1:14:33

a conclusion that nothing's ever going to happen.

1:14:36

Kay said that she's been so confused about

1:14:39

how this all unfolded. She watched in a

1:14:41

state of bewilderment when the episode aired months

1:14:43

later. They told us

1:14:45

that if we was to go to court

1:14:48

and he got out of it they'll take

1:14:50

him back again but I mean why on

1:14:52

cold justice did they say let's go arrest

1:14:54

Raymond for first-degree murder and then they didn't.

1:14:56

He never got arrested. I mean even I

1:14:58

got so into it this is how silly

1:15:00

it was I was sitting there I got

1:15:02

so into it that I got real

1:15:04

excited when I heard that and I thought wait a

1:15:06

minute this was done months ago and he's

1:15:09

not arrested. I tell how far my mind

1:15:11

got into that and that's what they want

1:15:13

so I don't know why they didn't go

1:15:15

do it. There's something crooked somewhere nothing comes

1:15:18

out of anything it doesn't matter how far

1:15:20

this case gets it nothing comes out of

1:15:22

anything it just always comes to

1:15:24

a dead end. I've never seen a case

1:15:26

go this far and keep going dead. That

1:15:29

one person that has it all in their hands

1:15:31

won't do it. That's just the only thing I

1:15:33

know. You just give up hope on your

1:15:35

own. It's not that I give up on her. I just

1:15:38

give up on anything happening. The only

1:15:40

people that can do it you know

1:15:42

people in this business because we are

1:15:44

little people. Our voice is barely heard

1:15:47

and you know that's the sad part

1:15:49

because we've had so many tell us stuff

1:15:51

even some people in his family and it's

1:15:53

still nothing. I don't understand it. I'll

1:15:56

just get confused. I'll start talking about it. We

1:15:58

just realized there's no hope. Christie's been

1:16:00

done a lot. We tried to do this stuff

1:16:03

on foot and with whatever we could

1:16:05

do back then we didn't have no

1:16:07

technology. We gave up because we knew

1:16:09

we're not gonna be heard. We're like piss ants.

1:16:11

We're nobody. Nothing ever happens. Not

1:16:14

a thing, honey, and never has. I

1:16:16

would think that someone would want to

1:16:18

put the bad guy behind bars and

1:16:20

be putting a paper and held as

1:16:22

a hero that he saved the day.

1:16:24

He helped his family. That's why we

1:16:26

had so much hope. We thought, oh we're on

1:16:28

it. Yeah, they're gonna do this. Just

1:16:31

shut down no matter what we go up

1:16:33

there with. What we find out. Who tells

1:16:35

us what I mean? Brenda's own daughter told

1:16:37

us all this stuff. Joe Parks got in

1:16:39

on the case. God, he done some amazing

1:16:41

stuff but then it dead silent. Once again

1:16:43

dead silent. Nobody's speaking. So

1:16:45

I don't know what the heck is going on. It don't

1:16:47

matter who comes in on this case and

1:16:49

how far somebody gets. It's all of a

1:16:52

sudden a dead stop. Nobody's answering. Christie, nobody's

1:16:54

done nothing. I'm like, I don't get it.

1:16:56

Small-town secret somewhere. To me,

1:16:58

this could have been solved the very next

1:17:01

day it happened. They knew she was on

1:17:03

it. They knew the Lambert's. They had a

1:17:05

reason, probable cause to go up there. She'd

1:17:07

already had a violent petition on him. We

1:17:09

failed the light of Texas tests on everything

1:17:11

he was asked. We were told he had

1:17:13

two and we were told he failed. More

1:17:17

than three decades have passed and Brenda's

1:17:19

case still remains unsolved and it feels

1:17:21

as though the hope is dwindling. Kay

1:17:24

believes that Brenda's disappearance was staged to make

1:17:26

it look like Brenda had taken off on

1:17:28

her own but she firmly believes that Brenda

1:17:30

would have never left her children or the rest

1:17:32

of her family. I can

1:17:35

tell you that Brenda was very

1:17:37

family-oriented. She would have never, not

1:17:39

a million years, left anybody of her

1:17:41

family, even her sisters or her mom

1:17:43

or somebody. She couldn't do without us

1:17:45

long. See, Raymond already tried to alienate

1:17:47

her from us several times through the

1:17:49

years and it wouldn't be long. Brenda

1:17:51

would go, it'd be thunderstorm and lightning.

1:17:53

Brenda went out into the road where

1:17:55

a mud puddle was and laid down

1:17:57

and said, I'm gonna let it kill me if you don't.

1:18:00

take me see my mom. That's the only reason

1:18:02

he brought her back around because he wouldn't let

1:18:04

us come and see her and wouldn't let her

1:18:06

come and see us. And she couldn't do that

1:18:09

her mom, none of us could. We were all

1:18:11

raised very close together and we stayed very close.

1:18:13

You know sisters get upset at each other a

1:18:15

little bit. It didn't take long. We'd be eating

1:18:17

each other up. She loved her family. Brenda's

1:18:21

disappearance was traumatic for her entire family.

1:18:23

It had ripple effects that touched

1:18:25

multiple generations. Kay watched

1:18:27

her own mother struggle to come to terms

1:18:29

with Brenda's disappearance up until her death. I

1:18:33

know it killed my mom because she couldn't

1:18:35

take it. She just grieved, grieved herself to

1:18:37

death and my dad grieved herself

1:18:39

to death because it took her

1:18:41

grieving over their kids. What do you

1:18:43

do when your kid's missing? You don't know

1:18:46

what to do. That's torture. That's just something

1:18:48

that's hard for any mother on this earth

1:18:50

to deal with. To lose one's bad enough.

1:18:53

There's no word for it. But to

1:18:55

not know, especially you already know

1:18:57

somebody took her away but you can't

1:19:00

prove it. Nothing you can do. Nobody's listening.

1:19:02

Nobody's looking. So you're just a sittin' duck.

1:19:04

You sit down grieving till you die because

1:19:06

somebody's gonna do nothing. That's the way we

1:19:08

all feel. Like it don't matter. It's done

1:19:11

done over with. Just let Raymond keep on

1:19:13

living that good old life. Makes us sick

1:19:15

to think he's still walking around. Christy

1:19:18

too saw the impact this had on her

1:19:20

mother. She was never the same after Brenda

1:19:22

was gone. She was

1:19:24

attached to get to my mom. It destroyed

1:19:27

her. I remember her looking out the

1:19:29

window like if it would snow or rain and

1:19:31

she'd say it's snowing on my baby or she

1:19:33

would be staring out the window thinking that any

1:19:37

minute Brenda's just gonna come riding down

1:19:39

that road back home and I

1:19:41

could sit and just hear

1:19:43

my mom sob. It wasn't

1:19:45

just a regular short cry.

1:19:47

It was pure misery type of crime

1:19:50

that she would try to muscle it

1:19:52

not when she was trying to sleep.

1:19:54

She ended up going from perfect health

1:19:56

to being riddled and I mean

1:19:58

absolutely ate up with cancer from

1:20:00

head to toe and the doctor told

1:20:02

her the kind of trauma and stress

1:20:05

that Brenda's disappearance had on her is

1:20:07

what started it all. And then my

1:20:10

dad, he died two years after my

1:20:12

mom did. His health went down losing

1:20:14

Brenda and then when my mom left,

1:20:17

you know, he just, he wasted away

1:20:19

to nothing too. That is kind of

1:20:21

the effect that having a missing person

1:20:24

can take on a human body. She

1:20:26

tried her best that you could just

1:20:28

see it. There was certain songs she

1:20:30

couldn't listen to. She would break down.

1:20:33

She become very protective and her

1:20:35

whole off at the end was just focused

1:20:37

on finding Brenda and making sure the rest

1:20:39

of her kids were safe. You know, when

1:20:42

my first grand baby was born,

1:20:44

I wanted her to be there. Her mom, my

1:20:46

dad, I've healed a lot from my mom and

1:20:49

dad's best because I know what happened where they're

1:20:51

at and I can go visit them with Brenda.

1:20:53

It's so different because Brenda should still be here.

1:20:55

She should have been there to hospital with me

1:20:57

holding up my baby, my daughter. She should have

1:21:00

been there with me holding my

1:21:02

grand baby. She should have been there holding

1:21:04

her own grand baby and she's got

1:21:06

four and she should be here holding

1:21:08

them. They should know their grandma, which

1:21:10

Tammy still calls herself their grandma too.

1:21:12

She's never going to let Brenda's life

1:21:15

go. Brenda's children may

1:21:18

be the ones who lost the most. Krista

1:21:20

was old enough to have some memories of

1:21:22

her mother but her son had just turned

1:21:24

one at the time and didn't remember her

1:21:26

at all. Krista was

1:21:28

longing for a mom. The mom she had

1:21:30

read about and seen pictures of as all.

1:21:32

She could barely, faintly remember certain things but

1:21:35

Brenda was crazy about her kids. She was

1:21:37

robbed and so was Junior. Kristi

1:21:40

saw the impact that Brenda's disappearance had

1:21:42

on her children, especially her daughter. They

1:21:44

were raised to believe that Brenda had

1:21:46

abandoned them, which was yet another trauma

1:21:48

on top of Brenda's disappearance. For them

1:21:50

to think that she didn't want them.

1:21:52

Kristi said that there was a postcard

1:21:55

that arrived in the mail years ago,

1:21:57

allegedly penned by Brenda. But since that

1:21:59

time the postcard card has mysteriously

1:22:01

disappeared. Krista, she

1:22:03

was just completely tortured with her mommy being

1:22:06

gone. Brenda was really looking forward to Krista's

1:22:08

first day of school that fall. She had

1:22:10

had Krista's cute little outfit matching bows, matching

1:22:12

socks, all ready to go. And she just,

1:22:15

she would show everybody that came over like,

1:22:17

look what I got her. So, you know,

1:22:19

that's not a mommy that is going to

1:22:21

walk away. She died at 33. She

1:22:24

left three babies behind. She had so

1:22:26

many issues with losing her mommy and

1:22:28

they were told they were abandoned and

1:22:31

told them that she just didn't want them. Brenda's

1:22:33

daughter had wrote down a page front

1:22:35

and back of things for me to

1:22:37

take into the sheriff's office. And I

1:22:39

did. And, you know, there was a

1:22:41

lot of information on there, but nobody

1:22:43

stepped in and done anything. There was

1:22:45

actually a postcard that disappeared from her

1:22:48

file at Marshall County Sheriff's Department that

1:22:50

they had in a bag in her

1:22:52

file, but supposedly came from her saying

1:22:54

that she didn't want them anymore. And

1:22:56

she was moving on and starting a

1:22:58

new law. And it had

1:23:00

disappeared when co-justice came in with

1:23:02

a handwriting analysis. So her daughter

1:23:05

suffered incredibly and she would call

1:23:07

us over the years, bawling. In

1:23:10

cold cases like Brenda's, it isn't unheard

1:23:13

of for evidence to be destroyed or

1:23:15

lost. But we can understand the family's

1:23:17

frustration over this. To Tim, it feels

1:23:19

like more than a coincidence. The

1:23:22

detectives that were sitting there said, well, the

1:23:25

evidence always stays in the evidence room. What

1:23:27

did they do? Get up and walk away

1:23:29

itself? And now somebody might have

1:23:31

took it home with them. Well, why would

1:23:33

they be taking it home with them? Strange

1:23:35

to me, too. Somebody took it

1:23:37

home with them, go to their house and get

1:23:39

it. Key pieces of evidence gets gone and you're

1:23:41

not looking for it. Christy

1:23:44

understands why this was so difficult for

1:23:46

her niece to reconcile, because she struggled

1:23:48

with it, too. She had

1:23:50

loved Raymond and looked up to him as a

1:23:52

father figure. She didn't just lose Brenda on that

1:23:54

Sunday in July of 92. She

1:23:57

lost that whole entire part of her family.

1:24:00

I have defended him. They could never find

1:24:02

nothing on him. And I

1:24:04

know how he was to me and I've

1:24:06

seen how good he was to Brenda, but

1:24:09

I guess it took a lot of self-reflection

1:24:11

to actually get to the point to realize

1:24:13

that this man who took me in as

1:24:15

his kid too could be that

1:24:17

way behind closed doors. So it wasn't

1:24:19

like a lot of people portray

1:24:21

him as some type of 24-7 monster. I

1:24:25

mean, I practically lived with them on and off. As

1:24:28

somebody who looked up at him as a father

1:24:30

figure, he's never said a bad word to me.

1:24:33

No matter what I've done, no matter how

1:24:35

many times I've put Brenda's name out there, everybody

1:24:38

knows who he is, who's just never said a bad word

1:24:40

to me. Just from being there so

1:24:42

much, I mean, their kids were like my brother and

1:24:44

sister more than anything. Now, he was really

1:24:46

good to all of us. And anytime that,

1:24:49

like even after Brenda disappeared and

1:24:51

we would see them out somewhere, he would just, he

1:24:53

would get excited and he would just run up and

1:24:55

hug me. And I'd hug him back

1:24:57

because I didn't think he did it. I know Tammy

1:24:59

would just give me that same thing guy and just

1:25:01

walk on by with her nose in the area. And

1:25:04

then, you know, you keep going on down the

1:25:06

line. I didn't just lose Brenda. And this is

1:25:08

just me personally. I lost Raymond

1:25:10

and I lost those kids. And

1:25:13

I was crazy about her son. Absolutely.

1:25:15

That was my baby. And you just keep

1:25:18

going and you start seeing your family deteriorate

1:25:20

over the years. So to me,

1:25:22

there's nothing that I don't even know what closure

1:25:24

would mean. I would love to be

1:25:26

able to bury her with our parents because that was

1:25:28

what my mom asked us for. But

1:25:31

closure, there's no kind of closure. It'll never

1:25:33

be like it was. Nothing

1:25:35

will. It's damaged us for 31

1:25:37

years now and it keeps going. My

1:25:39

big brother, as strong as he is, there's

1:25:41

some things that he just can't do. And

1:25:43

I've seen him, like he broke down on

1:25:45

the show. One of my

1:25:48

sisters, he tried to talk about Brenda,

1:25:50

you can just see she starts shaking

1:25:52

and she has to walk away. They

1:25:54

can't mentally grasp it. In

1:25:56

the end, Kristie said that her main goal today

1:25:58

is to find Brenda. She understands that

1:26:01

there may never be justice in this case,

1:26:03

but she wants to lay her sister to rest.

1:26:06

Kristie won't be at peace until she can do

1:26:08

that for Brenda. I

1:26:10

want her back and whether I get a day of

1:26:12

jail and I know some people describe that as justice,

1:26:14

I don't care if there's a day of jail served

1:26:16

as long as I get her body back as a

1:26:18

trade for me. I want to get her back and

1:26:20

on layers by my mama and I want

1:26:22

to take her flowers. Raymond and I

1:26:25

hate to say that but he knows

1:26:27

something. He has to know Tammy, possibly

1:26:29

my Aunt Bonnie. What gets me is

1:26:32

all these years, I mean I understand

1:26:34

Tammy wouldn't share nothing about Brenda's disappearance

1:26:36

like flyers and articles, stuff like that.

1:26:39

But my Aunt Bonnie never has either.

1:26:42

None of her sisters ever have. They've

1:26:44

commented on a couple of things. They know he'll get it,

1:26:46

you know, God's going to get him at the end. But

1:26:48

they never really share her stuff. Raymond's

1:26:51

family, I think that they

1:26:53

know. I won't say if one of

1:26:55

them is involved or not because I don't have

1:26:57

that information. But I don't believe that they know.

1:27:00

I know Raymond has that his dad is

1:27:02

dead now but he has said before that

1:27:04

his dad done it. And I'm

1:27:06

like, Raymond, if your dad did it,

1:27:08

buddy, go tell them all where, when,

1:27:10

how and why. You can't

1:27:12

just blame a dead man and just,

1:27:14

I mean, they're so quiet about it.

1:27:16

Publicly, at least. That those, publicly, at

1:27:18

least, that those out there, it's

1:27:21

Raymond and Tammy and Raymond's family.

1:27:23

And I won't say that they actually had

1:27:25

something to do with it, especially not all

1:27:27

of them. But they have to

1:27:30

know. I hate saying anything

1:27:32

without hardcore facts because I've been led

1:27:34

wrong so many times by so many

1:27:36

different people that now I'm scared to

1:27:38

believe anything or say anything as a

1:27:40

fact, not unless I have it proven.

1:27:44

So what happened to Brenda Lambert after her

1:27:46

son's birthday party in July of 1992? We

1:27:49

know that after everyone had left the party,

1:27:52

Brenda was there alone. Raymond had

1:27:54

taken the kids to go stay with his parents

1:27:56

for the night. Brenda disappeared leaving almost

1:27:58

all of her possessions. behind, including

1:28:00

her purse, car, keys, and

1:28:03

wedding ring. If Brenda had planned

1:28:05

to run off, wouldn't she have taken some of

1:28:07

those things with her? But Brenda's

1:28:09

family never believed that she had just left.

1:28:12

We know that in the lead up to

1:28:14

Brenda's disappearance, she had discovered that her husband

1:28:16

was having an affair with her cousin, Tammy.

1:28:19

Brenda had gone to the police to report

1:28:21

that Raymond had abused her, and she even

1:28:23

had an upcoming appointment to consult with an

1:28:25

attorney about a divorce. All

1:28:27

of this seemed to come to a head on the

1:28:29

day of the party, after Tammy showed up and

1:28:31

invited. Brenda was visibly upset. Her siblings

1:28:34

witnessed Brenda starting to tell the police

1:28:36

something about his family that she believed

1:28:38

would leave them all behind bars. Brenda

1:28:41

also asked several siblings if they could spend the night

1:28:43

with her. Brenda seemed scared to be

1:28:45

alone, and something did happen to

1:28:47

Brenda that night, and she was never seen

1:28:49

or heard from again. Brenda's

1:28:52

loved ones have always suspected Raymond and Tammy,

1:28:54

and wonder if others could have assisted in

1:28:56

a cover-up. But to this

1:28:58

day, no one has ever been charged

1:29:01

or convicted of any crimes related to

1:29:03

Brenda's disappearance. Is there a chance

1:29:05

that something else happened to Brenda? A

1:29:07

random stranger abducting her from her home,

1:29:09

taking all of her underwear and sheets?

1:29:11

Well, nothing can be ruled out until

1:29:14

Brenda is found. Her loved ones

1:29:16

believe that there are people who had a strong

1:29:18

motive to silence Brenda, and they could disappear forever.

1:29:21

And they hope that someday they'll be able

1:29:23

to find Brenda and learn the truth, because

1:29:25

Brenda and everyone who left her deserves to

1:29:27

have answers. If you have

1:29:30

any information regarding the disappearance of Brenda

1:29:32

Lambert, please call the Mercer County Sheriff's

1:29:34

Office at 304-487-8364. I

1:29:40

put up a white Christmas tree for Christmas

1:29:42

every year because it was Brenda's favorite tree.

1:29:45

I would tell everybody about her mischievous side,

1:29:47

but Brenda was the kind of person that

1:29:50

if you didn't have a Christmas tree,

1:29:52

me and her at Harvard, it's

1:29:54

not mine. We were hiking knee

1:29:56

deep in snow to go up

1:29:58

to a flat. about my mom in

1:30:01

Dias' house that had trees, little pine trees growing

1:30:03

on it. And we would, she would cut them

1:30:05

down and we would drag them back and she

1:30:07

would take them to whoever didn't need one. So

1:30:09

she had a big golden heart too. And

1:30:12

I see the injustice done

1:30:14

to Brenda and to her kids and

1:30:16

to her grandkids and to everybody in

1:30:18

her family. And I don't ever

1:30:20

want anyone else to go through this. No

1:30:22

one. Because this is not a lot

1:30:24

for anyone to live. And I tell everybody, I don't want

1:30:26

no kitty. I want you to learn. This

1:30:29

helps too when somebody wants to hear about this, you

1:30:31

know, and when they want to hear about her, not

1:30:34

just all the tragedy, but her

1:30:36

too. Let's focus on her. Brenda was

1:30:38

his possession and he still got her. He will

1:30:40

turn her loose. I believe the man will go

1:30:42

to his grave line. That's why

1:30:45

all this stuff that we tried to get them to understand,

1:30:47

you know, I'm not going to try again to understand.

1:30:49

I know they already know that Brenda's on that hill.

1:30:52

She's been laying up there in a cold dark grave

1:30:55

on that hill because he won't turn her loose. Bra

1:31:27

That brings us to the end of

1:31:29

episode 427. I'd like to thank everyone

1:31:31

who spoke with us for this story. Do

1:31:34

you have a message on the e-mail message? There's

1:31:36

a case publishing. Hey

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