Found Deceased TX - Thomas Brown, 18, Hemphill County, 23 Nov 2016 #2
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Welcome to the thread Nahalem20. Glad to see some interest! Glad to have you!
Yes, welcome!
They have not tried to explain because there is no logical way to explain it ..... so in an attempt to keep their diversion pointing away from foul play, they had to create a bizarre illogical scenario that Tom's family is involved in his disappearance.
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Per Tom Brown's Body Chapter 2 Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 2: Tom’s Loop
It was around 5pm on Thanksgiving afternoon that Tom's Durango was returned (the very day that it was found...had it for less than 12 hours):
Within minutes, the news about Tom’s abandoned Durango was racing through town like a prairie fire. Some residents postponed their Thanksgiving meals, drove to the water treatment plant, and started searching for Tom on foot, horseback, and four-wheelers. Trey and Christian Webb continued scanning for Tom from their helicopter, and the Webbs’ son, Emmett, joined the search in a second helicopter. Game wardens arrived with a tracking dog. But no one spotted Tom, and the dog couldn’t find a scent to follow.
As the day wore on, friends and neighbors dropped by Penny’s house with leftover turkey and pumpkin pie and words of encouragement. Tom and Tucker’s father, Kelly Brown, a bank examiner, drove in from Perryton, 46 miles to the northwest. (“I was shaking so bad I couldn’t stand it,” he told me.) At some point that afternoon, Sheriff Lewis talked to Penny. He asked if anyone in her family owned a .25-caliber pistol. No, she said. “And then, he just said he was returning the car,” Penny told me. “I said, ‘Why are you bringing the car back?’ And he said, ‘Well, we’re done with it; we don’t need it anymore.’ And I said, ‘You’re telling me you processed the car? You’ve gotten fingerprints or whatever from the car?’ ‘Well, we don’t need it anymore,’ he told me. I said, ‘Okay.’ ”
And then the following morning (Friday) they took it back for further processing (any evidence found would be considered compromised at that point!)
When the Durango arrived, Tucker did his own examination of the vehicle and found nothing “out of the ordinary.” But the next morning, Lewis ordered that the Durango be towed back to the sheriff’s department. He told me he had spent a sleepless night thinking he should inspect the Durango one more time to make sure no evidence was overlooked. “We did everything again,” he said. “We re-wiped the blood spot. We went and we put more ink on that car, fingerprint dust, than you can imagine to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
It's hard to believe Lewis could talk about processing the Durango with a straight face....it's tragic the way Tom's disappearance was handled. It certainly points to purposeful misdirection imho.
It was around 5pm on Thanksgiving afternoon that Tom's Durango was returned (the very day that it was found...had it for less than 12 hours):
Within minutes, the news about Tom’s abandoned Durango was racing through town like a prairie fire. Some residents postponed their Thanksgiving meals, drove to the water treatment plant, and started searching for Tom on foot, horseback, and four-wheelers. Trey and Christian Webb continued scanning for Tom from their helicopter, and the Webbs’ son, Emmett, joined the search in a second helicopter. Game wardens arrived with a tracking dog. But no one spotted Tom, and the dog couldn’t find a scent to follow.
As the day wore on, friends and neighbors dropped by Penny’s house with leftover turkey and pumpkin pie and words of encouragement. Tom and Tucker’s father, Kelly Brown, a bank examiner, drove in from Perryton, 46 miles to the northwest. (“I was shaking so bad I couldn’t stand it,” he told me.) At some point that afternoon, Sheriff Lewis talked to Penny. He asked if anyone in her family owned a .25-caliber pistol. No, she said. “And then, he just said he was returning the car,” Penny told me. “I said, ‘Why are you bringing the car back?’ And he said, ‘Well, we’re done with it; we don’t need it anymore.’ And I said, ‘You’re telling me you processed the car? You’ve gotten fingerprints or whatever from the car?’ ‘Well, we don’t need it anymore,’ he told me. I said, ‘Okay.’ ”
And then the following morning (Friday) they took it back for further processing (any evidence found would be considered compromised at that point!)
When the Durango arrived, Tucker did his own examination of the vehicle and found nothing “out of the ordinary.” But the next morning, Lewis ordered that the Durango be towed back to the sheriff’s department. He told me he had spent a sleepless night thinking he should inspect the Durango one more time to make sure no evidence was overlooked. “We did everything again,” he said. “We re-wiped the blood spot. We went and we put more ink on that car, fingerprint dust, than you can imagine to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
It's hard to believe Lewis could talk about processing the Durango with a straight face....it's tragic the way Tom's disappearance was handled. It certainly points to purposeful misdirection imho.
"It's hard to believe Lewis could talk about processing the Durango with a straight face...." You are correct 8th Bob-White. Once the Sheriff released the Durango back to Penny, he broke the critical evidence chain-of-custody. Remember the OJ Simpson case when Detective Vanatter violated chain-of-custody protocols for the "third party" blood evidence found at the murder site, then all of the DNA controversy in court? Lewis violated a Cardinal Rule of evidence by returning the Durango without forensic processing. Very incompetent .... or was it very clever?
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CLEVER is probably the better description 
One thing I can't quite reconcile is that Clapp & Ortega were there when they "processed" the Durango...it wasn't just Lewis (or Gregory). Ortega is the one that dropped by Penny's house the following day as a friend/mom vs official capacity. She said she tried to keep them from rummaging around the Durango. Was it just Clapp & Ortega not crossing the "thin blue line" to blow up this investigation? Clapp's testimony about the supplemental files filed late by Lewis is what got him fired but then quickly re-hired once Lewis resigned. Were they aware & couldn't seem to do anything about it or were they part of it?
One thing I can't quite reconcile is that Clapp & Ortega were there when they "processed" the Durango...it wasn't just Lewis (or Gregory). Ortega is the one that dropped by Penny's house the following day as a friend/mom vs official capacity. She said she tried to keep them from rummaging around the Durango. Was it just Clapp & Ortega not crossing the "thin blue line" to blow up this investigation? Clapp's testimony about the supplemental files filed late by Lewis is what got him fired but then quickly re-hired once Lewis resigned. Were they aware & couldn't seem to do anything about it or were they part of it?8th Bob-White, those are ALL very good questions. We will never know exactly how everything occurred at the site and who actually did what. But, I think we do know enough to understand that evidence at the scene was grossly compromised by HCSO actions as well as by their neglect to follow well know protocol for collecting and preserving evidence. For example, the killers when under the extreme emotional stress throughout the dark, cold night invariably would not be able to prevent leaving at least some amount of trace evidence behind including fingerprints and touch DNA. Heck, one of them even urinated next to the Durango before walking off. That in itself indicates that the killers were not very conscious of trace evidence that they may leave behind. The killers were driving as well as in and out of that vehicle for 6 hours!
From the TM article: "But the next morning, Lewis ordered that the Durango be towed back to the sheriff’s department. He told me he had spent a sleepless night thinking he should inspect the Durango one more time to make sure no evidence was overlooked. “We did everything again,” he said. “We re-wiped the blood spot. We went and we put more ink on that car, fingerprint dust, than you can imagine to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
What did Lewis mean when he said, "We did everything again"? The female deputy told Penny that HCSO did not check for fingerprints before returning the vehicle on the day it was found. That is the real reason that Sheriff Lewis had a "sleepless night" and decided to take possession of the vehicle a second time. A week or so later when Penny picked the vehicle up she stated that there was fingerprint dust all over the outside of the vehicle. She noted that she saw no fingerprint dust inside the vehicle. Fingerprint "dust" is an extremely fine graphite based powder (or similar) and is difficult to clean, especially from cracks, crevices, leather/vinyl such as are found on the interior of a vehicle. They did not "dust" the interior because they knew it was useless at that late point. IMO they brushed "dust" over the entire outside of the vehicle in a weak attempt to make their efforts look better.
From the TM article: "But the next morning, Lewis ordered that the Durango be towed back to the sheriff’s department. He told me he had spent a sleepless night thinking he should inspect the Durango one more time to make sure no evidence was overlooked. “We did everything again,” he said. “We re-wiped the blood spot. We went and we put more ink on that car, fingerprint dust, than you can imagine to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
What did Lewis mean when he said, "We did everything again"? The female deputy told Penny that HCSO did not check for fingerprints before returning the vehicle on the day it was found. That is the real reason that Sheriff Lewis had a "sleepless night" and decided to take possession of the vehicle a second time. A week or so later when Penny picked the vehicle up she stated that there was fingerprint dust all over the outside of the vehicle. She noted that she saw no fingerprint dust inside the vehicle. Fingerprint "dust" is an extremely fine graphite based powder (or similar) and is difficult to clean, especially from cracks, crevices, leather/vinyl such as are found on the interior of a vehicle. They did not "dust" the interior because they knew it was useless at that late point. IMO they brushed "dust" over the entire outside of the vehicle in a weak attempt to make their efforts look better.
TB essentially went dark at midnight. Minutes after he filled the Durango w/ gas.
Did TB turn off his phone? Possibly to keep family from disturbing him knowing he wouldn't be available?
Was he hoping to have a "fling" at Lake Marvin after midnight?. His Mom says he's never late.
If it was someone else who turned the phone off, it had to happen quick.
Was it like TB to gas up before going home? He had the time before curfew.
Is the picture of TB at the gas station important because someone unknown took the picture? Why did the Sheriff originally show the picture to Penny?!
What was he hoping to gain from that.
Honestly, it bothers me that Penny suggested suicide right off. I know about the family history but still...does she know more than she is saying about TB's mental state?
The glitch here is the Durango seen via cctv at 5:00 that morning. Was the truck a manualshift or automatic? I'm always suprised at those who don't know how to shift.
Could TB have been driving? If so, how did he get 12 miles down the road where he was eventually found?
Sorry, just thinking aloud again.
Did TB turn off his phone? Possibly to keep family from disturbing him knowing he wouldn't be available?
Was he hoping to have a "fling" at Lake Marvin after midnight?. His Mom says he's never late.
If it was someone else who turned the phone off, it had to happen quick.
Was it like TB to gas up before going home? He had the time before curfew.
Is the picture of TB at the gas station important because someone unknown took the picture? Why did the Sheriff originally show the picture to Penny?!
What was he hoping to gain from that.
Honestly, it bothers me that Penny suggested suicide right off. I know about the family history but still...does she know more than she is saying about TB's mental state?
The glitch here is the Durango seen via cctv at 5:00 that morning. Was the truck a manualshift or automatic? I'm always suprised at those who don't know how to shift.
Could TB have been driving? If so, how did he get 12 miles down the road where he was eventually found?
Sorry, just thinking aloud again.
Merry Christmas to all of the folks out there on Websleuths! Most of us can be thankful during this Holiday Season that we do not have a loved one missing. We can keep those families across the nation who do have a loved on missing in our thoughts and prayers.
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Couldn't have said it better...Merry Christmas to everyone! Here's hoping that 2021 brings some answers for Tom's family and so many others that have been waiting for far too long.
I'm trying to put myself in TB's head at the gas station:
I used to de stress by getting in my car and driving aimlessly listening to the radio.
Could he have been doing that? Maybe he drove to other nearby towns thus using up gas.
Was it Tom that drove his truck back and put it where he did because he needed to urinate?
But what happened then?
I don't believe for a minute that the family would have hidden TB's body.
Who else was out on the road at 5am.
I used to de stress by getting in my car and driving aimlessly listening to the radio.
Could he have been doing that? Maybe he drove to other nearby towns thus using up gas.
Was it Tom that drove his truck back and put it where he did because he needed to urinate?
But what happened then?
I don't believe for a minute that the family would have hidden TB's body.
Who else was out on the road at 5am.
Sorry I am new to this case and am hooked. I had heard about Thomas' last phone ping being at the football field. I then listened to a podcast that mentioned the brown/copper truck. I, as many, checked google maps. Looking at this street view picture from May 2014 at the football field and looking at the truck in the photos that Outwest posted it looks like the same truck. Maybe I'm way off but let me know what you think. I see a possible lifted brown/copper F250 tinted windows and even a white storage space in the bed of both trucks. I at least would like to know who owns the truck at the football field.
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Welcome to the forum, TravisPA. Glad to have you. Yes, this case has many twists, turns, and "coincidences". IMO the initial crime was a pretty straight forward homicide. The appearance of complexity is related to the ongoing coverup which involves a lot of strange coincidences, as well a outright deception and lies.
All Dodge Durangos of that vintage have an automatic transmission.
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Does anyone remember what time Football practice started on Thanksgiving day? It was a mandatory practice and its where most of the teens leaned Tom was missing.
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I'm pretty sure it was on Thanksgiving morning per the conversation with Carolyn Gear and Chris Jones on Tom Brown's Body podcast. It doesn't seem to be in the written version of Chapter 4, but I recall it being discussed on the audio podcast
Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 4: Lake Marvin Road
Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 4: Lake Marvin Road
January 9 marked two years since the remains of Thomas Brown were found. The biggest case news in 2020 was that a Grand Jury would be convened at some point in late 2020 or early 2021. I'm not sure if the GJ will hear "new" evidence and/or if its purpose will be to basically sort out the truths from much of the misinformation and lies that have earmarked this case. Whichever, IMO we can be sure that the step toward a GJ is a positive step forward in the case. What we don't know at this point is how large or how small that step is. Maybe nobody knows for sure at this point. A lot of developments can happen behind those closed doors with no media present and when witnesses are presented evidence while being under oath. Maybe ..... just maybe, Tom's family is closer to finally getting the answers that they have been seeking.
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I hope there is something going on behind the scenes, but I am not holding my breath. Im not convinced anyone -- besides Toms mom-- wants to get to the real truth anymore. Maybe I am just disappointed that after so many years, we are still here with few known truths.
Exactly my concerns as well.
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