Missing Wix Girls /// Part 2 /// 916

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Welcome to True Crime Garage.

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening.

I'm your host, Nick, and here at The Garage, we say fat bottom girls, you make the rockin'

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With me, ladies and gentlemen, of course, the captain.

And don't forget about those fat bottom boys.

It's good to be seen and good to see you.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for taunting, Frank.

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Alright, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, let's talk some True Crime.

Then and where we left off from episode one was the largest, the biggest pivotal moment

in our timeline, and that is Thursday, March 25th, 2004.

This is when Jennifer, age 22, and her little daughter, age two, Adriana Wicks, vanished.

After that date, we have no sight, no sound of either.

So March 26th and 27th, 2004, are going to be filled with alarm, conflicting stories,

and a missing persons report.

On March 26th, 2004, Jennifer's mother, Kathy, became to alarm when she couldn't reach

her daughter, Jennifer.

Now, as we had said before, Jennifer might not have spoken to her mother daily, but Jennifer

rarely went a full day without speaking to someone in the family.

And remember, she had promised to call her mother on this day.

Now as Kathy searched for a way to reach Jennifer, the family learned some information that

immediately felt very wrong.

Joey told Jennifer's sister Heather that he and Jennifer had broken up, and that he had

dropped Jennifer and Adriana off at a gas station.

But Joey gave a different explanation to Jennifer's cousin, Jeremy.

Remember, Jeremy is Joey's good friend, the one that introduced Jennifer to Joey.

So Joey tells Jennifer's cousin, Jeremy, his friend, saying that Jennifer had gone to

a friend's house, naming a friend identified as Helga.

So I want to go into this a little bit more here.

We're going to we'll circle back to the gas station story in just a bit.

But for this story of him telling Jeremy that Jennifer had gone to a friend's house,

the way that this comes about is that night on the 26th, they are Jeremy and his significant

other along with another couple.

They are at Joey's property for a bonfire that night.

This was pre-arranged, it was they were plans that they had made earlier in the week.

And it was supposed to be a couple's thing.

So there should be three couples there, however, missing from that equation is Jennifer.

So when the other couples inquired as to, well, you know, where's Jennifer?

Thought we were all hanging out.

He says all she's at a friend's house and he references this friend named Helga.

Does he say that they broke up?

That part is missing from the story.

That's interesting.

I don't know if that was part of the equation or part of the story, but it's not as far

as what I have been able to find.

Now that doesn't gel well with him telling Jennifer sister, Heather, that they had broken

up.

So yeah.

On March 27th, Kathy calls Helga.

This is somebody of the family knew, knew well, Helga says she hadn't heard from Jennifer.

And actually being told that she was at Helga's, this made Helga think something must be very

wrong here.

And Kathy agrees she thinks something's very wrong.

She already thought something was very wrong the prior day.

Now this Helga story gets to her.

She reaches out to Helga.

There's no Jennifer.

Kathy filed a missing persons report for Jennifer and Adriana on March 27th, 2004.

They filed this report with the Robertson County Sheriff's Department to which the Robertson

County Sheriff's Department then issued a Boloa beyond the lookout for mother and daughter.

That same night, a deputy from the Sheriff's Department went to the Benton home to perform

a welfare check.

Joey, as the report goes, is the only one that is home at the time of this welfare check.

Or at least he answers the door and the deputy does not believe anybody else to be in the

home.

Joey tells the deputy, look, I understand that you're here for a welfare check.

However, she's not here.

Jennifer's not here.

Adriana's not here.

I haven't seen them.

And he tells the officer, if you want to come inside, you're going to need to come

back with a warrant, if you want to search this property.

Back to the gas station story here, Captain.

Joey's, Joey Benton's account of what happened involved a gas station, a white car, and then

Jennifer returning.

Okay.

So the way that this goes down, Joey provided law enforcement with a nice little narrative

here.

He claimed that he and Jennifer argued they broke up and Jennifer asked for a ride to

a grocery store and cross planes so that she could use the phone.

Joey said that he drove Jennifer and Adriana to the grocery store and then drove the two

of them to an Exxon gas station near Exit 112.

This is off of Interstate 65.

And he said that this would have been around 9.30 p.m. on March 25th, 2004, the night, the

day in question.

He claims that he parked his vehicle in a church lot, which is across the street from the

gas station.

He wants to keep an eye on Jennifer.

And he says while he's parked over there, he watched Jennifer and Adriana get into a white

four door early 1990s mid-size car as he described it, though he did not see the driver.

For time, my friend, accounts of Joey's car description became and should be and should

remain a focal point, okay?

Because Joey initially described this to be a quote white four door Mustang or a quote

white four door camera.

The problem with that statement, Captain, is those cars don't exist.

2004, they don't exist.

There's not a four door Mustang.

There's not a four door camera, Jennifer's family says, this is nonsensical.

This cannot be.

The family also stated that an original police report containing that early description

of the white vehicle, they say it was later amended and that a conflict arose over what

Joey actually said or did not say, all right?

What did he say in that report?

What did he not say because they say that it, he said it was a white four door Mustang

doesn't exist.

White four door camera doesn't exist and that that was later changed in the police report

and the family says we can prove that he originally made those statements because we have retained

the original version of that report stating those statements to the sheriff's department.

The way that this goes down as I understand it is that after Joey gave his initial statement

to the sheriff's department that his father or somebody in Joey's family went to the sheriff's

department in protest to get the statement changed.

As I understand it, the statement was then changed.

The official record as it were was changed and I do believe there was some kind of repercussions

for whoever amended that statement within the sheriff's department.

Some kind of punishment, I guess, or consequence.

That's bizarre.

The bizarreness continues, continues, continuation of bizarreness.

To be continued with bizarreness.

We're saying that a lot.

I have a question if it's a word.

It's a garage word, if you were.

Joey claims that on March 26th, so this would be the following day, 2004, so the day after

the gas station story, the Jennifer returned to his house, the Benton house.

He says she was alone.

She was driving that same white vehicle.

He said that she came there with the purpose of retrieving her income tax refund money,

which that does make some sense.

There is some sense to this statement, because what we do know took place is she did get

a tax refund that year, and that's about the time of year when you get your tax return

money.

She doesn't have resources.

She doesn't have resources.

She doesn't have a bank account.

When the check came in, the check was given to Joey's parents, so one of them could

cash it or put it in their bank account.

He says she returned to the house to retrieve the tax refund money.

Joey claims his parents weren't home, so she would have to come back at another time

to gather the money.

But she did, according to Joey, collect some of Adriana's and her personal things while

she was there, saying that she took Adriana's diaper bag and other items and then left,

saying she would return later at a later time or date for the money.

Jennifer's family saying, look, okay, whatever good story, but it doesn't make a whole

lot of sense to us, because later they're going to find other items that Jennifer would

have had to have left behind.

They say that these items would have been essential for Jennifer to take with her.

These are not items that she would have abandoned and just left at Joey's property.

These items include, we don't have a full inventory here, but Jennifer's classes, she didn't

need all the time, but needed a decent amount of the time.

It's a valuable item to somebody.

A safety item here to Captain Adriana's car seat.

There was a time in my life where I was terrified to be without a car seat.

The problem with all these stories is leading up to all this.

We have a child with infection, so we have no record of her getting treatment for that

infection.

That's correct.

I don't know if treatment was required.

We do know that she did see and receive medical attention, right?

She was a diagnosis, had the advice of the persons in the ER as well as her regular

physician.

I don't know if it was required, but she did see and receive medical attention as far

as that is concerned.

That's an interesting thing here, too, because oftentimes if you're prescribed medicine,

I would think in that case maybe it's some kind of topical or something that you might

need.

I don't know, but oftentimes you can't pick that up right away.

It's got to be called in, but yeah, you're exactly right, but the list, while we don't

have the inventory, there's a kind of general statement of, well, she left a lot of her belongings

behind.

What her family is saying is a lot of that included what they deemed to be daily necessities,

be it either for Jennifer or Adriana or both.

Her family also emphasized the emotional reality of taking a two-year-old and going away

with somebody, leaving on her own or what have you.

They're saying that Adriana had a lot of comfort items.

Even us as adults, we have comfort items, but especially a two-year-old is going to have

comfort items.

One of the things a specifically reference here is an Elmo toy that the little girl was

known to be obsessed with.

This wasn't one person in the family saying this.

This was a lot of people in the family saying this, and they all found it very difficult

to believe that Jennifer would leave without these things, but especially without the Elmo

toy that the kid carried around 24-7, especially you got all this movement going on.

This would be something that would calm and soothe the little girl.

You're taking this item.

I mean, there's parents out there listening to this right now going, yeah, I'm going way

out of my way to find that Elmo toy and deliver it to the toddler and keep it with her.

They get it.

Another detail, heighten the family suspicion around the whole timeline and all the

events within the timeline.

One event we didn't get to yet actually took place on March 25th, so this would be the

day in question, right?

This to me, and I hope we have time to circle back to this before we wrap today.

Because this one, my friend, I put a big, big question mark on this, this event here.

So on March 25th, 2004, Joey got a ride to work in Franklin, Kentucky from Jennifer's

cousin, Jeffrey.

Remember, Jeffrey's his real good friend.

This is a matter of fact because Jeffrey told this to police, Jeffrey told police that

Joey at some point during the work day received a call at work.

And then abruptly said to Jeffrey, who he's relying on transportation from, he says, quote,

we have to leave now and quote, citing a family matter.

And Jeffrey says that they left Franklin, they left Franklin, Kentucky shortly after this

request, heading home, heading back to the Benton family property.

And within, within the family's understanding here, this fell close to the last confirmed

time that anyone had heard from Jennifer Wicks.

Well, yeah, this goes back to my statement is, is Joey involved or is his mother involved

or is the father involved or anybody on this compound or is a combination of people?

Exactly.

And of course, the search is going to begin the 26 carry on through the 27th, the searches

will escalate on March 29th.

This is when searches escalate, but the Benton family cooperation will seemingly end.

Oh, surprise, surprise timeline.

Yeah, so law enforcement, they're seeking answers to the missing individuals.

They are seeking these answers, they, or at least they sought these answers on the

Benton property.

And to which the Benton family initially agrees to allowing them to search on March 29th,

Robertson County Sheriff's deputies conducted a walkthrough of the Benton home, looking

for signs of a struggle or evidence of foul play.

Over time, multiple searches occurred in parts of the property or on parts of the property.

Authorities reported draining a pond and searching surrounding areas without finding

Jennifer or Adriana.

The Benton family was questioned and claimed to know nothing.

After four searches, they stopped cooperating.

Okay, so keep in mind though, if something bad happened, I'm going to give them a little

bit of a pass, right, because they were being cooperative, right?

So if they're not involved at all, you could see a situation where you go, well, yeah,

I understand that we have a shit ton of land and I understand that we have a shit ton of

shit trees here and that you want to go sniffing around our shit.

You did four searches.

Okay, we are now going to say, you want to search more, you're going to have to force us to

let you search our property again.

Yeah, and the other thing we need to point out too is, Joey did agree to a polygraph examination.

Oh, really?

He submitted to a polygraph and he passed it.

Oh, shit.

He passed it.

Now that coming.

So the thing I wanted to point out before we got to the polygraph portion of this was,

yes, they agreed to the search.

Yes, they agreed to allow them to walk through the Benton home, the ranch home.

I think one thing that complicates this searching scenario is that other families live on this

very large property, right?

So who owns what, who can give permission for what seems a little dicey,

little shaky to me, but they allowed the walkthrough.

But keep in mind, this walkthrough that they're allowing is taking place March 29th.

The day and question, night and question is March 25th.

So you got about three, four days to clean up any messes, hide things if you need to,

not saying that that's what happened, but my pushback would be that when they first went out

to the property when first called on the 26th or 27th, they got told no.

And yes, they did agree on the 29th, but originally,

and it sounds like it was only Joey's call.

Maybe he made a bad call and told them no, or maybe he was just angry.

What have you?

But earlier, he told them no on the 29th, they're allowed in.

And it could be as simple as Joey thinking, look, this isn't my home.

It's my parents home.

They're not home.

I'm not giving you permission unless you speak to my parents.

The way that the record is or what has been reported all these years is that he said,

you got to come back with a search warrant.

Now back to the polygraph here, Captain, he agreed to the polygraph.

He passed it.

And that's according to Robertson County Sheriff's Department.

Right.

He was asked at a later date.

I don't know how much time transpire between test number one and then the

request for a second polygraph examination.

But you read some of these reports and it's kind of short and sweet where it says he declined

a second polygraph.

One version that's much more interesting, however, is that he agreed to the second polygraph

examination, got as far as being in the building.

But before the test could start, his dad, Joe Sr., starts acting up and yelling about

something causing a commotion and then during which Joe Jr. says, nope, I'm out of here.

I'm not taking your test.

Yeah.

Now while investigators worked, Jennifer's mother Kathy did what families often do when

silence stretches too long without answers.

She tried to replace that silence with getting vocal, getting out there.

She took time off of work, put up flyers.

She was searching for and pushing leads.

The Robertson County Sheriff's Department would very quickly start working with the

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to generate national publicity.

We do have a little girl missing here.

Tips do come in, but as we know, none, none unfortunately,

brought Jennifer or Adriana home.

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Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub listening to your favorite

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All right, we are back tall cans in the air cheers to you.

current.

Raise them high, my friends. Raise them high in the sky. Over time.

Authorities moved on. They start treating the case differently. They moved on from treating

the case as a missing persons case toward investigating a double homicide reports cited

investigators acknowledging by the third anniversary of this disappearance that the case was

being investigated as a double homicide with leads pursued across the country. So they said

that they were receiving leads that they pursued that came in from California, Florida, Michigan,

and Oklahoma. Unfortunately, these leads seem to have dried up and go very far even though it

took them very far in July of 2011. They're working once again with the National Center for

Missing and Exploited Children. This was with the purpose of releasing an aged an age-progressed

image showing what Adriana might look like as a nine-year-old little girl. Again, this produced

tips again, non-produced answers. Yeah, but a lot of times with these cases, people want to help.

So they might have saw something small and they don't know if it matters to the case. So

let's call it in or how many times do we get emails after we cover our case where somebody says,

hey, I was listening to your podcast and I had a hunch. And again, they're not stupid or naive.

They just want to try to help. And if I could give this information to somebody, maybe it could

move the needle forward. But it's also just difficult when you have missing people

and no sign of a crime or no side of a homicide because really, you need to investigate all these

cases as a homicide first. But and then it's hard to go back. I'm just going to use the Brian

Schaefer case as an example because we've been trying to collect some more evidence behind the

scenes on that case. But when you're talking to these investigators and these detectives, certain

steps didn't happen because it was just a missing person case and he could show up the next day

and then no big deal. But now 20 years later and he's still missing, they wish they could go back

and go, well, I wish I would have talked to that person more. I wish I would have followed up

this other lead that I got a little bit more. But at the time, it was just a missing person case.

2013, this case was formally reclassified as a homicide. So there was talks of it being looked

at that way around the third anniversary, but it would be 2013 that was formally reclassified.

Robertson County authorities held a press conference. The sheriff announced that investigators

believed Jennifer and Adriana were dead. He said new information developed in the prior weeks

led them to conclude there had been foul play and that investigators, the investigation was being

renewed with the cooperation between the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Robertson

County Sheriff's Department. The Sheriff's Department underscored a key point during the press conference

saying despite years of investigative work and numerous interviews, Joey Benton's story

of taking Jennifer and Adriana to the grocery store, then the Exxon gas station,

and then seeing Jennifer return the next day was never independently corroborated. Sheriff Holtz

did not publicly label Joey as a suspect, but he did state that no one had been eliminated

as a suspect, including Joey. Yeah, because when somebody's telling you the story and like you

said, he passes a test, but if they're calling them back in, I wonder if it's just like faulty

equipment possibly or maybe they just felt like there was some reason that maybe he passed or maybe

they weren't happy with the questions that they gave him. So they called in another expert just to

get a second opinion, but he tells you this story about a vehicle or two vehicles that don't

really exist. And then I'm sure investigators then go back to the gas station and go, hey,

did you see a lady with her kid here? And did you see her get picked up by this person?

And so we have the gas station story and then we have the story of her coming back to his property.

And then I'm sure they talked to the other family members on the compound and go, did you see

this vehicle? And if nobody's coming out and saying that we saw this vehicle or we saw a lady with

her kid, then you go, well, this story could be complete horse shit. Joey's grandmother, this is

Carol Benton. She spoke publicly, spoke out publicly as well at this point. She said the family

had cooperated initially and she did express a lot of sorrow that Jennifer and Adriana were missing,

but insisted that the missing two, they were not on the Benton family property and that the Benton

family knows nothing. They have no idea where the two have gone. She also acknowledged that the

openly that the family later refused additional searches when those searches were requested.

In February of 2014, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam announced a $15,000 reward for information

leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible in this case.

Jennifer's family added an additional $10,000, bringing the total to $25,000, the family later

emphasized regardless of bureaucracy or the age of the pledges that came to get to that $25,000

that they would do what they had to do to ensure that someone who came forward to help would be paid

in some form or fashion, possibly the full amount. We've had many years of gone by since those

that reward money was presented, so I don't know the state of it. In 2021,

Jennifer's family arranged for a private search using cadaver dogs on parts of the Benton

property where permission was obtained. The way that this works is the grandfather. Joey's

grandfather was getting up there in age. The case was still in the media. The story was still in

the media and I don't know if it was under pressure or if, you know, just, hey, let's let them search

one last time and kind of be done with this. So the grandfather agreed to allow them to bring

cadaver dogs. This was a private search though. This wasn't police conducting it. It wasn't the Sheriff's

Department conducting it. I am a little disappointed in the way this was reported that the family,

Jennifer's family reached out to the Sheriff's Department and said, Hey, we're doing the search

using cadaver dogs. We have permission from the Benton family. Can you be out here during this time

and from the way that it's been reported and from my review, the Sheriff's Department was kind of like,

well, if you find anything, let us know. I don't want to beat up on anybody too badly here, but

chain of custody is extremely important when we're talking about evidence. I don't know why you

wouldn't at least send one one car out there, one badge and one car out there to just sit

sip water and and observe. Anyway, yeah, pick up, but nobody's paying me to run a run a county,

but so what do I know? The dogs reportedly here, you don't know shit, alerted on a, at a spot,

at a location in the woods, yeah, the family dug, but found nothing. They did report this to

law enforcement and as far as, as far as the public record goes, or as far as I know, law enforcement

had no follow up to, to finding this. Now, the dogs, you've heard me say it. If you listen to this

in your first time listening to the show, I look, I love these dogs. Years ago, we, true crime garage,

we provided a county with a, with a police dog. They're very expensive. We provided a county in

Florida with a police dog. So very proud that we were able to do that. These dogs are incredibly

valuable to police, to police work. We're still paying on the dog. The one part of this, though,

that is always kind of a hiccup is the dogs can't talk. Even if no matter how smart they are,

no matter how well trained they are, no matter how well trained the handler is, the dogs can't talk.

They were hitting on that location for a reason. What that reason is, is left to our interpretation.

Now, they find nothing. Well, just to be clear, dogs can't talk, but you have to be extremely high.

And they really just, they talk a lot of gibberish. Well, and the thing I wanted to point out

here, though, Captain, is that our date and question when our, our individuals that we're looking

for go missing is 2004. This private search is conducted in 2021. A lot of stuff can happen

in that time period and what I'm getting at in a very roundabout way. And it's not out of the realm

of possibility that someone or something could have been buried there or concealed at that spot

in haste and then at a later date and time removed. Yeah, and discipline levels advocate when you

have a shit ton of property, then, and I'm going by the real estate, the over and under on the S word

for these episodes is at 30. Well, that's my new favorite word this week, but when you have a lot

of property, there, there's a very good possibility that you have an animal that dies and then

there's decomposition. And I know that the decomposition is different for animal than for a human,

but if you have a lot of property, I'm sure there's plenty of animals that have passed away on

your land and you didn't even know, know about it. A question for you, my friend, does a body

in this particular case in Europe and it does it lead to an arrest here, Captain? Does a body,

I think you need a body in order to try to get a conviction, yes. Right, I agree on that, but what

I'm getting what I'm saying is I guess my question was flawed, I apologize. You know, we've seen

cases where all they are is waiting on finding that body and then then charges will be filed.

Right, we've seen those cases. This case to me feels like, and I apologize to Jennifer's

family for saying this, but from what I've reviewed, it feels like there's a lot missing. So to me,

where where the body could be helpful to getting to those charges, I think what is very key here,

and it keeps, that's where my mind keeps going back to the idea of maybe something could have

been concealed or buried in haste and then later removed. Right, I think a very important part

here would not just be the discovery of a body, but where the body or bodies were found, right? Like,

I mean, if they're found on the benton property, that's a whole bigger can of worms than if Jennifer

unfortunately would be found several counties away. Yeah, yes.

All right, so I've already opened up the crazy door here, so I'll just keep it going,

because some other things that I cannot shake, some other suspicions and ideas that I cannot shake,

and there's no polite way to say this, so I'll just say it. I'm sure there's, look, our listeners

are fantastic, extremely bright, most of them smarter than us, but I know somebody out there driving

their car, jogging on the treadmill, lifting weights, cutting the grass, they're thinking

the same thing. Somebody out there's thinking this crazy garage theory here, Captain,

with the child's illness, let's call it an illness, but we know the part of the body, the portions

of the body that they were examining, and what the medical findings were, were, they said it could

be as simple as staying in a diaper too long, but they did say it's uncommon to professionals,

as far as everything I've reviewed, at least to professionals said this was uncommon,

could this be an indicator of some form of sexual abuse on this child? If it were to be evidence,

or indicators of such, the persons that would have to be looked at the most in my humble garage,

opinion would be Joey, or his father, Joe, and that, you want to say that there was stress,

turmoil, conflict within that home, prior to going to the ER, can you imagine if that was the

suspicion after leaving the ER, and what that could result in? One, and that could also

have been their motivation for saying, hey, you don't need to take her to the doctor.

True, right, hide it. It's very difficult for us to determine what was going on inside those

four walls, very suspicious of the diagnosis that takes place, and also the timing of that diagnosis.

That happens. Look, there was problems before. There were severe, horrible problems before

going to the ER. They disappear almost immediately after, right, within days, 48 hours, 72 hours of

that ER visit. Absolutely.

Timing is everything in these cases. We say it time and time again, but it can also be revealing.

It can also be revealing. Then let's go down a whole different other road here, please.

Let's ignore everything that I just said. We do know that there were heated arguments, violent

arguments between Joey and Jennifer. We have at least one family member. We have multiple

family members on Jennifer's side reporting that there were arguments and problems between her

and Joey's mom. We have at least one family member on Jennifer's side saying that Jennifer,

at some point, expressed that she was scared. She was afraid of Joey's mom. Then you have that

story from Jeffrey saying, we were at work and all of a sudden, he gets a call and says,

we got to leave now. We have to leave now and says there's like a family issue. But no, no

better description than that. We have to leave now. If the path I'm trying to take you all down

is this, was he able to pass that polygraph examination because he doesn't fully, he didn't witness

what happened, but he came home to help clean it up. He kind of knows, but he doesn't know.

That could be a t-shirt. He kind of knows, but he doesn't know, no.

Then I have to wonder too if this case is not allowed me to sleep very much in the past couple

days. The other thing I have to wonder about too is, let's say that something sporadic took place.

Something instantaneous, there's some kind of eruption, some kind of fight that breaks out.

Parties involved don't know, but it's Jennifer and somebody and something happens,

knee jerk reactions, smacker over the head with something or a trigger is pulled or choking,

whatever. There's, we've reviewed hundreds of cases. There are bad people out there. There are

people that do things in one moment that they would never do for the rest of their lives. That could

be here too, but there are people out there that in the heat of the moment, they would strike out,

lash out and harm someone, hurt someone, kill an adult would never be able to harm a little tiny

kid. Is there a possibility? I've heard the family say that we've kind of lost hope in that

regard of them being alive, but is there a possibility that something terrible happened to Jennifer

and then this little girl, only two at the time, she could have been re-homed. She'd be in her

20s now. Yeah. It's impossible. All of the time in these cases, when Nick Meck,

when National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are involved and they do these age-progressed

images, and I've been lucky enough to meet the team members there in one of their in their

home office in Virginia that work on these every day. That's their only job is to work on

age progressions of these missing little kids. They do a fantastic, it's really, truly fascinating

the way that they do it. You guys should reach out to us. We'll have you on the podcast. I'd

love to. I can't explain it. It's too involved for me to be able to explain it in any intelligent

manner to our listeners, but in this case, it's always important to have those age progression

images, but in this case, I mean, I see it as being a strong possibility here in this. And

speaking of which, in 2022, so very recently, Tennessee officials did release another age-progress

photo of Adriana Wicks. In 2023, Captain, they assigned a new detective to the case, the Robertson

County Sheriff's Department assigned a new detective, the family. For all these years, they've

continued pushing the case publicly through vigils, rallies, balloon releases, billboards,

podcasts, social media, keeping Jennifer and Adriana's names in circulation, long after most of

the public had stopped looking. And always with these types of cases, alongside the official

timeline runs the family's private and sad reality, a grief made sharper by the absence of

certainty. Jennifer's sister Casey, in multiple interviews, described how the family's greatest

desire was not even punishment, but to find Jennifer and to find Adriana and to lay them to rest.

She acknowledged the haunting thought that sometimes visits the families of the missing,

that maybe someone could still be alive somewhere, even though, as said, her family don't truly

believe it here. She also described the, on these podcasts, the kind of mother Jennifer was,

and the kind of child Adriana was. And she said that Adriana was born. When she was born,

Jennifer sometimes worked late shifts and family members would help out. Jennifer's sister recalled

being 13, 14 years old at this time and spending nights caring for her niece for little Adriana,

feeding her, comforting her when she cried, feeling proud to be needed, feeling proud to be an aunt.

She described Adriana as a sweet and bubbly child who didn't get enough time in this world.

This case is a sad one, a frightening one. And upon review of this true crime story,

instantly we have to accept a sobering acknowledgement that this case

has never been about a single disappearance. And now more than 20 years have passed without

answers for Jennifer and her little daughter Adriana. And sadly, time has a way of bearing

unresolved stories unless someone keeps digging them up. Jennifer's sister Casey, she has done so

many interviews, especially podcasts, trying to keep the story visible. Peace she says would come

from certainty, bringing them home, giving them dignity, ending the endless waiting.

Casey and the family, they also maintain case-focused social media with Facebook,

Justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wix is the Facebook page, Instagram, Jennifer and Adriana Wix,

TikTok. The Facebook page, Casey says is the primary hub, the place that she keeps most actively

updated. Well, like you said, this is probably not a simple situation like some other crimes

where you discover a body and their bam, you have all the answers that you need or all the evidence

that you need to to get charges at least. And then you can start building a case. It'd be

interesting to know what whole back information law enforcement has on this particular case.

I want to give a shout out to Kathy, Jennifer's mother and to her sister, Casey and all of the

family, of course, but specifically them for keeping the story alive in the media. Casey has

done a lot of podcast interviews as we said about this disappearance. If you would like to listen to

one, I recommend our friends Mike Morford and Jess Betancourt over at Missing Persons,

who longtime listeners of this show, our show True Crime Garage, will remember we have worked

with them over the years. Their podcast Missing Persons featured this case October 7,

2023. Go here, Casey, Jennifer's sister, Adriana's aunt, keeping the story and people's minds

in on their hearts. Without knowing where Jennifer and Adriana are, there is no end to this story.

No final chapter, no body to mourn, no certainty to hold. It is morning suspended as I see it.

And the family is desperately trying to keep Jennifer and Adriana from becoming forgotten.

You know, we said, long cases go quiet. We know leads dry up. The world moves on. The family

doesn't. So they keep pushing because attention is often the only force that keeps a cold case

from freezing entirely. They point out time and time again here, Captain, that Jennifer didn't have

much. She didn't have a car. She didn't have a phone. She didn't have money. But Adriana was

cared for, saying that Jennifer found ways. We know living with a boyfriend and his family at times

living with her mother and sisters at others, relying on relatives when she needed to,

because everything she had went to her daughter. And they point out that Jennifer wasn't the type

of person to even casually disappear. The thing that you have, if you're not seeing it,

do not miss the fact that she depended on her family. That makes it even more, that makes it,

like we said in episode one, squash the idea that she just walked out. The idea that Jennifer

left without essentials, without the car seat, without key belongings. Yeah, my gut feeling is

that whole story that Joey told was completely fabricated. He knows more. I don't, I'm left here

wondering if he knows everything, but I know that he knows more. I know that he knows more.

Jennifer's normal life ended on March 25th, 2004. After that, everything became second-hand stories,

conflicting explanations, searches that felt incomplete, reports argued over leads that collapsed

in a long public waiting for the one thing that could change the shape of the case. Credible

information that says where Jennifer and Adriana went and why they never came home.

If anyone has information about the disappearance of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks,

contact the Robertson County Sheriff's Department at 615-384-7981 or the Tennessee Bureau of

Investigation at 1-800-T-B-I-Fine.

I want to thank everybody for joining us here on the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling

your mother, thanks for telling your brother. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the

beautiful listeners? Well, it's a bit self-serving here, Captain. Sure. It's lost on me,

but I'm going to recommend my book, The Delphi Murders, The Quest to Find the Man on the Bridge,

still available on Amazon. Unfortunately, we don't have any left and stock, and the reason why I'm

bringing that up is we have our great event that I'm so looking forward to April 18th,

Brudog Columbus, which is technically now Winchester. If you, if you've been in Ohio, you know what we're

talking about. Brudog is a fantastic place to go even if the Captain and the Colonel are not there,

but guess what? Double down, baby, because it's extra exciting and it's going to be extra fun,

because we're going to be there. We're going to be having fun talking and chatting with you,

raising money for a good cause, the porch light project, and it occurred to me. There might be some

folks that want to pick up a book and have you or I or both sign them. You can't pick up a book,

so get it on Amazon. Bring it with you to the show. We'll sign it. We'll take a picture. We'll

have fun. We will have some merch there, but we are out of stock of that book on our website.

So can't wait to see everybody that can make it Saturday, April 18th. We're going to have a

fun evening, folks. Tickets are available on our website, truecrimegarage.com. On the left of

your screen there, you'll see a tab for live events. So click on that and get your tickets before

they are sold out. Yeah, not many tickets left, and we want to see you there. I want to

smell your musk like they say. Until next week. Be good, be kind, and don't let.

Hey, everyone, it's me Morgan Stewart, and I have a new podcast called The Morgan Stewart Show.

Join me each week as I talk about pop culture fashion, my personal life, and just a warning,

I'm going to be giving my opinion on everything. I'll also have some really fun guests to join in on

the fun. The Morgan Stewart Show is out now. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts or

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