I am apparently in the minority here, but i think suicide is the very obvious answer, but has unfortunately been blurred by incompetence, small town politics/religion and opportunistic hangers on.
The pristine phone is the only evidence that points to any kind of weirdness. Everything else can to me be easily explained away. I will admit I am not buried in casefiles/evidence and might be making some assumptions based on incorrect information, but it cant be any worse than some of the outlandish theories ive read on this forum.
number one, keep it simple. Is it more likely that there is a huge coverup/conspiracy or that a few weird things coincided with certain types of people and behaviors in small town texas to make the events seem more nefarious than they actually are?
number two, i dont trust the opportunistic self aggrandizing Klein, so i'm negating anything that comes from him basically flat out. This includes luminol, and all other wild theories. If texas rangers/fbi whoever else didnt find that stuff, i'm not taking his word for it.
so what does that leave me. A kid about to graduate highschool and possibly go off to college which is a big moment; a stressful time... a kid who by several accounts hid his true self, "wore a mask" ...who told several girls about a very embarrassing sexual kink; who might feel like any opportunity for a normal life and relationship was out of reach. Who might feel his religion/parents were not available to him to open up about it. Im not even including possible homosexuality here but that could be another factor in a town like this. He quits foot ball. Dumps his GF. A kid who on the night he dies GOOGLES SUICIDE HOTLINES. His own mothers first gut reaction when questioned is suicide. Multiple family members have killed themselves previously. The night of he requests his friend play a couple of songs whose lyrics could be viewed as subtle good byes/suicide notes. He seems sad to her. Once alone that night he drives around for hours. then to a remote location to do the deed. But maybe he cant do it. Hes scared. Hes not a gun guy, maybe he pulls the trigger once just to see what its like, leaving the shell casing. Maybe he tried and missed because hes so nervous. he gets out and starts walking, trying to build up the courage. Its not an easy task and hes wrestling with his morality. Its cold, and hes slightly under dressed, but no more so than he was earlier that evening while he was out with friends. He walks for hours. The avett brothers playing in his head. Finally he's exhausted. he sits down by some trees and ends it.
After that its a combination of incompetent police not equipped to handle this situation. A distraught mother in shock and denial, not remembering things correctly or behaving in ways that people cant identify with, a sleazy PI with dollar signs and headlines in his eyes. Again, there are some hinky things here and there along the way but real life is weird, sometimes strange things happen that dont fit your narrative of what "should" happen. I once left my phone on top of my car and drove an hour on the highway. It was still there when i arrived. If my murder investigation hinged on that fact no one would believe it. Maybe that lawnmower drove right over Tom's phone and missed it by a millimeter. who can say? But that doesnt mean everything is a giant conspiracy. People misremember and misrepresent. Again, not a coverup. I dont know, something in this area feels a lot more real to me than 90% of what i read on here. People like the movie narratives but they are too complicated and convoluted. keep it simple.
I understand where you are coming from and you do a very good job in explaining the reasons for your thoughts. It is good to hear other points of view that are not radically crazy and totally illogical. This case is full of twists and very unusual circumstances. Years later, there are still a lot of unknowns; bottom line, nobody in the public sector actually knows for sure what happened to cause Tom’s death (unless, of course it would be somebody that was involved in some way).
I agree that the answers most likely lie within the simplest explanation possible …. but only as long as the answers provides logical explanations for unusual twists and circumstances. I have attempted to evaluate both the homicide and the suicide theories using Occam’s Razor as a general basis. IMO, the most confounding part of a suicide theory is the fact that the Durango was abandoned about 12 miles from where the remains were found. I recently purposely took a short walk in the woods behind my house in 34 degree weather with light clothing and no flashlight. 34 degrees is
very cold under those circumstances. Even with a somewhat depressed state of mind, I cannot imagine that any person would
choose to walk away from a perfectly good vehicle to take a 12 mile hike under those conditions, especially along the dense brushy
Canadian River (I roamed many areas of the Canadian River and its breaks as kid and am familiar with the type of terrain). No weapon found near remains and the vehicle ~12 miles remote. So, just in my experience, I cannot make the suicide theory logically work without incorporating another party; in other words, assisted suicide which adds a very significant degree of complexity that is simply not likely at all. I just do not see there being a prior planned collusion between Tom and a “friend” whereas they would agree to meet at midnight on Thanksgiving morning to jointly carry out the plot.
The scattering of items including computer/backpack, books, gun holster/pouch, clothing, and other undisclosed items along Lake Marvin road would be the action of person(s) in a panic mode getting rid of “evidence” and IMO not typical of somebody who was depressed, despondent, and totally focused inwardly. It is a strange coincidence that the vehicle drove from the south side of town to near the Water Treatment facility location at
precisely a few minutes after the initial early morning search for Tom ended.
And to a location that would be very convenient for the driver to walk a short distance to a residential area before sunrise. I believe the location where the Durango was abandoned is logically very material to the case.
Then there is the pristine cell phone. As I understand, the road ROW had been mowed at least two times between 11/24/2016 and 10/14/2017. During that time period there was approximately 17 inches of precipitation in the area. The internal moisture detection (present in Apple phones since 2006) reportedly indicated that the phone had not been exposed to moisture. As per AG investigators the phone was “wiped clean” with no accumulated dirt or crud on the phone or in crevices. No fingerprints or DNA. Perfect condition. Wiped perfectly clean.
The obvious “simple” explanation is that the phone was planted shortly before the search began. It is not so simple to determine “why” the phone was planted.
So, this is where some theories of suicide get really bizarre and unbelievable (and, of course, far from simple). Theories that involve Tom’s family and indicate that the family actually disposed of Tom’s body in order to cover-up suicide because of “embarrassment”. Then conspired with their PI and staff to work an ongoing narrative that places blame toward others, including planting the phone. Really? Oh my, this family has lost a son/brother and do not deserve such brutal, thoughtless, and ridiculous innuendo. All they ever wanted is to know the facts regarding what caused Tom’s death ….. and they have some perfectly valid questions that have thus far remained wholly unanswered.
I believe there are people who know exactly what happened that morning. I believe that those people are increasingly nervous and apprehensive that the truth will eventually be known. I believe that the crazy and bizarre theories that attempt to implicate the involvement of Tom’s family attests to that panic.
With regard to Penny’s initial thoughts toward possible suicide ….
1. In a small rural close knit community like Canadian, you just do not
initially think about murder being a possibility. Unlike larger gang infested cities across the nation, homicide is not common in Canadian and other small rural towns (2011 a woman was killed by an out-of-town person involved in a road rage incident whereby he intentionally rammed his vehicle into her vehicle several miles
outside of town on Hwy 64; in 2001 a Deputy Sheriff was killed while serving a warrant; 21 years earlier in 1980 a known drug user
from another city, while in the act of burglarizing the pharmacy, fired a shotgun through a plate glass window and killed a Deputy Sheriff who was responding to an alarm.)
2. By morning on 11/24/2016, Tom’s Durango was found to be intact, so vehicle accident and run-away are virtually eliminated as viable possibilities.
3. Because homicide is so rare in/around Canadian and with little information available at that point in time, the thought of the possibility of suicide would naturally cross a parents mind.
I can easily see where the possibility of suicide would cross
any parent’s mind under those small town circumstances. Their emotion and stress levels would be pegged out while trying to process possible scenarios at a time when
very little information is available. I can’t fully imagine the emotion and stress under those circumstances.
But shortly, other information started becoming available which started to raise some valid questions regarding what may have really happened that night. In my opinion as well as in the opinion of others, many of those questions and much of the evidence, coincidences, controversies and actions point in a direction other than suicide.
Regarding Tom’s apparent stress. Kids, for the most part are coddled, nurtured, protected, educated, guided, defended, and provided for by parents from the time of birth. Sometimes their biggest worries are typical teen minor social issues and status among their peers. Their “world” is actually pretty small in most cases. Then at the age of 17-18 they begin to realize much of that will soon be their own responsibility. They are faced with the thoughts of a magnitude of changes that are about to actually happen. Some handle it better than others. No doubt such concerns can lead to some more serious thoughts or actions among a few. Although there was reported to be a
single iPhone search for a suicide prevention site, there were no reported follow-up calls to the site that were noted. It would not require an FBI forensic investigation of the phone to learn of phone calls; all phone calls would already be listed on the carrier’s monthly statement or on records that LE obtained from the carrier early in the case.
Even though I believe that overall evidence and circumstances point toward foul play, I admittedly don’t have an explanation for the web search of a suicide prevention site other than it may possibly provide some insight that Tom was more troubled than what would be typical of the average teen in that age group. With no other information available, that is the simple assumption that I will go with. However, it seems very unusual that a person would do such a web search at 9:11 PM while with friends and while planning to gather the following day. Tom and other friends had also made plans to see a movie over the holiday period.
There are a significant number of other things that I believe strongly indicate foul play that I won’t take the time to list here. Some of those have been discussed at length in other parts of this forum; many others have not. There are some factors that are not widely known “publicly” but I believe are known by investigators. IMO, when I look at the totality of the evidence along with very unusual actions & inactions, the many unresolved controversies, numerous “coincidences”, and a string of illogical theories that obviously avoid any mention whatsoever of the possibility of foul play …… I see the cause of Tom’s death to clearly be pointing away from suicide and more toward some level of homicide (Capital murder, murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide).
In any case, it does not matter if I am correct or incorrect on all or part of my assumptions. What matters is that this case continues to be in the forefront and aggressively investigated by the OAG so that the family of Tom Brown have the best chance possible to learn the truth, whatever it may be, about what happened during the early morning hours of November 24, 2016.
