DAVIE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — It’s been 19 years since a North Carolina family last saw the woman they call a sister, aunt and mom, but the case is still act
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Sisters search for Davie County mom 19 years after disappearance: ‘She’s missed really important parts of our lives’
By Madison Forsey,
DAVIE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — It’s been 19 years since a North Carolina family last saw the woman they call a sister, aunt and mom, but the case is still active.
It’s tough for Ashley Perkins and Sky Underwood to think about all the things their mom, Brandee Canipe, has missed.
“She’s got kids growing up. She’s missed really important parts of our lives,” Underwood said.
She’s missed weddings and birthdays.
“Prom. Things girls go through that they need their mom there. We had each other,” Perkins said. “We always had hope she was coming back.”
Perkins and Underwood say their bright young mom has a hippie spirit.
The two girls, along with their brother, would sing in the car with Brandee with the windows rolled down and dance around the house to music videos on TV while they cleaned.
“She was crazy protective and funny. She was super funny. She was not quiet. She was not afraid to stand up and say something,” Perkins said.
The two women mainly lived with their grandparents, but knew that no matter where their mom was, she loved them. Brandee always left the girls with a little pocketbook that had her number written down in it so they could call.
Perkins recalls the last time she saw Brandee when she and her sister were staying at their grandparents’ house.
“Momma was trying to get us to come with her, and we did not. I said, ‘I didn’t want to.’ I don’t know why we didn’t go, but neither one of us wanted to go,” Perkins said.
Then in 2006, nothing. It was like she dropped off the face of the Earth.
According to investigators, the last time there was any trace of Brandee was in 2006. She was living at her boyfriend’s home in Davie County at the time. It wasn’t until 2007 that people started wondering where she was.
Perkins and Underwood’s grandparents passed away within a short time of each other, and the family chose to have their funerals together.
“Our whole world got turned upside down because we lost momma, and we lost our grandparents who raised us,” Underwood said.
But Brandee wasn’t there.
“She … never would have missed that. That’s when everyone started saying … ‘Where is Brandee? ‘” Perkins said.
Years passed, and another family member reported her missing in 2010, which is something that bothers the pair to this day.
“There were so many people in her life that could have reported her, and with us being kids, it almost feels like, ‘Should I have done it at 11 or 12 years old? ‘” Perkins said.
Four years passed between the last known sighting and the missing person’s report, which is an eternity for investigators.
“It’s a lot of time where there was some evidence that definitely went stale and some different tracks that went stale and things like that,” said Kyle Shuping, a reserve deputy with the Davie County Sheriff’s Office.
Shuping was one of the first deputies assigned to the case and still works it to this day. Captain DJ Smith was with the NC State Bureau of Investigation when Brandee first disappeared. Now, with the DCSO, her case is one of many he’s devoted to.
“The people who were closest to her were the siblings and her children. They were very young at the time, so you’re relying on pre-teens for information from years ago. That makes it difficult,” Smith said.
Investigators searched the home of her then-boyfriend back in 2012, but there was no evidence that anything had happened there.
They also looked into a home in the Belew’s Creek area that Brandee briefly stayed at with family in 2006 but didn’t find anything there.
Investigators do know Brandee used to hang out at a bar in Winston-Salem called the Metal Rebel off of Peter’s Creek Parkway.
“I do know for a fact she worked there for three or four months. I interviewed the owner who remembers her working there, and then she left,” Smith said.
Smith and Shuping say the people who used to hang out at the Metal Rebel in 2006 could know more than they think.
“I would love to find Eric in the red truck,” Shuping said.
That’s the last person investigators believe saw Brandee 19 years ago.
“We’ve not given up. Everybody thinks this case has gone cold … It’s always been an active investigation,” Shuping said.
Smith says as recently as a few weeks ago, he conducted new interviews related to the case.
It’s hard for Perkins and Underwood to have hope.
“There’s days that we’ll just call each other and say … ‘I’m not having a good day. I don’t want to get out of bed,'” Perkins said.
They look for Brandee in grocery stores and hope to see her car on the highway. Perkins teaches her kids who their grandma is with a cake on her birthday every year.
“We drag all the pictures out, and they can point out who she is in every picture,” Perkins said.
The sisters hold on to hope that their mom won’t miss many more moments.
“We wish she could have been there,” Perkins said.
If you know anything about Brandee and where she could be, you’re asked to call the DCSO at (336) 751-6238.
