#got to dance for like three hours it was so fune
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The night of April 3, 2004 would be the last time 23 year old Alonzo Brooks was seen alive.
Brooks was one of five children born to Billy Brooks Sr and Maria Ramirez in Kansas. He was quiet, well liked, and loved to play football.
Brooks lived with his mother in the suburban city of Gardner, Kansas where he worked as a custodian at Countryside Maintenance.
While Brooks had many friends who he spent time with, he loved to be home with his mother and siblings.
So, when Ramirez received a call on the morning of April 4, 2004 asking if Brooks was home and she found that he wasn't, Ramirez knew something was very wrong.
The night before, Brooks and his younger friends Justin Sprague, Daniel Fune, and Tyler Broughard set out to the rural city of La Cygne, Kansas for a party.
Brooks and Sprague had made the hour- long trip together. As they drove up the long gravel driveway they could see a small creek and all the party guests that had already arrived.
Over the next few hours Brooks drank, played cards, talked to his three friends and the other guests, and overall it's said he had a great time.
Around 11p.m. Broughard left the party with Fune soon following.
At some point, Sprague and Brooks ran out of cigarettes so Sprague left to go pick up a few packs at a nearby gas station. 30 minutes later, Sprague calls a friend at the party and asks him to tell Brooks he made a wrong turn and is now lost and got his car stuck in the mud and wouldn't be coming back. The friend states he would give Brooks a ride back home. But when noone can find Brooks the next day, that friend says he didn't see Brooks again and figured he got a ride from someone else so he left.
Brooks' best friend, Rodney English, knew something very wrong had happened when he learned Brooks was missing. That morning he had the other three friends, who he had never met before, take him and Brooks' family members to where the party was.
After looking around the vacant property for just a few minutes, both of Brooks' boots and his hat were found.
Ramirez quickly notified the police who along with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation came to search the property but, found no other trace of Brooks.
Sprague, Fune, and Broughard were not suspects but were questioned about the night. Fune and Broughard comment that they didn't know over half the people who were at the party and Brooks was the only African-American person there. Fune also tells police at one point he had to step in to break up an arguement between Brooks and another partygoer over a girl Brooks had been dancing with.
Sprague gives his story of being lost but, Ramirez states he has changed that story in some way over six times.
On May 1, 2004 Brooks' family is allowed to come back to property and search it more throughly themselves. Not even an hour into the search, Alonzo Brooks' body is found in the shallow creek.
The autopsy did not show any signs of blunt force trauma, broken bones, or drowning so no cause of death was listed.
In June 2020, the FBI reopened the case and offered a $100,000 award for any information given. US Attorney Stephen McAllister stated, "It is past time for the truth to come out. The code of silence must be broken."
A month later, Netflix rebooted the much loved show Unsolved Mysteries, which included Brooks' case in the episode titled 'No Ride Home.' Also in July 2020, Brooks' body was exhumed and the Armed Forces medical examiner concluded the injuries sustained were not consistent with decomposition.
As of 2021, the FBI has stated they are now investigating the case as a homicide and possible hate crime.
If you have any information please call 816-474-TIPS
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