Chapter 11: ...And Now We Know

Send us a textChapter 11:

...And Now We Know

And now we keep fighting.

Thank you for becoming a Wix Warrior. We're just getting started.
xox Jules & Casey

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 5 (01:50):
At a very early age, I was taught that there
are bad people in this world, and I've spent the
last twenty years of my life living in fear that

(02:10):
what happened to Jennifer and Adriana can happen to me
or someone I know, someone I love. And the unfortunate
truth is that it can, and it can happen to anyone,

(02:33):
And no one's really going about their life thinking about
things like this unless you've been through it like me.
But I guess this podcast to me is more than
Jennifer and Adriana. Of course I I did it for
them and I and I want it to help spread

(02:53):
awareness for the case. But the deeper I got into it, and.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
You know, the more I've.

Speaker 5 (03:03):
Thought about it, I really think that Jennifer and Adrian
are gone. And if they're gone, then I want to
use their names and their story to help other people,
to tell other people as far and wide as I

(03:30):
can yell it to anyone who will listen, to.

Speaker 6 (03:35):
Not let your guard down, don't.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
Just accept people at the surface, because a lot of
times people are not who you think they are, and.

Speaker 6 (03:54):
They almost always turn out to be someone you don't
think they are. And so yeah, I guess this podcast.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
I just want to let it live on and their
legacy and you know, teach people that I want them
to be aware of their surroundings, to get out of
bad relationships, to use Jennifer and Adrian a story to

(04:25):
make sure that this stops happening to other people, and
that they are always aware of their surroundings and looking
out for the best interests of their children, And that
anytime anyone that you love anywhere is in distress, you

(04:50):
find a way to get to them as quick as possible.
And don't let any time play into that. Just just
get there. And so, yeah, it could happen to anyone.
And that's a very ugly truth that it's a truth

(05:15):
that needs to be told, and it's something that needs
to change. And so I guess I'll just start here.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
This is missing in Hushtown Book one, season one, chapter eleven,
and this is the last chapter of this book. I
want to tell you it's not the end of our series.
We promise there is a sequel already in production. We've
been meeting weekly and recording behind the scenes currently as
I write this podcast now, and in this episode, we're

(06:16):
going to dive a little deeper into Casey's pursuit of
justice for her sister and her niece. This episode is
a bit more conversational. I'd like for you to get
to know Casey and stick around. The last minute of
this podcast just may change everything. March twenty seventh, twenty
twenty four. I was on my way to get groceries,

(06:38):
my carefully curated list of our regulars in hand, my
wonderful mother at my home, watching my boys reading the
list over eggs, milk, cotta, cheese, bananas, more bananas or
in a perpetual banana fas here bacon kilbasa pasta. When
my phone starts blowing up pun intended on the family's
Facebook page, Justice for Jennifer in a Wicks, Casey posts

(07:01):
about police activity at the Benton home. I hurriedly put
on my seatbelt and reverse down my long gravel driveway.
My bluetooth starts trilling through my speakers, Casey answers, and
before she can tell me anything, I tell her, do
you need me to go to the Benton home?

Speaker 6 (07:17):
Now?

Speaker 4 (07:17):
I am on my way unless you say otherwise. And
she didn't say otherwise. In fact, she asked me to
stay until she could arrive for nine hours. I walked
up and down the street in front of the Benton home,
knowing it was eerie timing, as it was almost to
the minute the twenty year anniversary of when a missing's
person's report on Jennifer and Adriana Wicks was filed. It

(07:41):
was this day, twenty years ago that Kathy caught up
Robertson County Sheriff's office and demanded to know why they
didn't alert the media of a missing mother and daughter.
And now I stood in the cemetery the same cemetery
where gunshots were heard at the four year anniversary vigil,
the same cemetery where two gunshots were heard at the

(08:04):
memorial vigil for two missing individuals. The bent And home
was full of law enforcement activity, unmarked federal cars belonging
to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the local detectives, the
bomb squad, and the Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms squad
all in attendance, and we didn't have answers. Was this

(08:24):
for Jennifer and Adriana? Were they searching for the girls' remains?
What was the new lead?

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Was it a tip?

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Was today finally the day to bring the girls home?
Casey and her husband Pat arrived to the scene with Kathy.
They get out and we walked to the cemetery to
get a good look into the Benton property and that
home that was being built just after the girls went
missing in two thousand and four. That log home, that's
the one they were searching. That's the home that Joey,

(08:54):
his mother, and his father now all currently reside in.
Casey was intacted by the TBI and was told that
there was a search warrant being executed on the bent
And property, but it was not for Jennifer and it
was not for Adriana. News crews started pouring in and
I watched just Casey composed herself like a media professional
to get information out in a matter of fact and

(09:17):
straightforward manner. Here are some clips from videos that Casey
and I film that day. Hey guys, so we are
still here at the scene of the investigation. I guess
that's just where they're executing a search warrant for an
ongoing case. And we cannot confirm if it is for
Jennifer and Adriana wis. But I do have Jennifer's sister,

(09:38):
Casey with me here. Can you tell us what's going on?

Speaker 5 (09:41):
Yeah, we've been out here since around like six o'clock
or so. I got here as fast as we could
today with everything going on. Started getting a bunch of
messages today, a bunch of people reaching out, neighbors, to
the to the Benton family, and they were saying, you know,
you got to get out, there's something going on. So
we didn't have any idea what was going on, but

(10:03):
we just came out here. We've been kind of hanging
out to see, you know, if we can find out anything.
We were all evacuated a little bit ago, and the
neighbors were as well, just due to some things that
they found potential bombs or explosives or something like that.
So it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds and

(10:25):
if it turns into something.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, we'll keep you guys updated. Like I said, I
am working with Casey to try to get a word
out there. So the best thing you can do is
share it and share Jennifer and Adriana story and their
picture and hashtag justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. Thanks guys.
We were soon cleared a few blocks back by the

(10:47):
fire department because there was now a valid threat of
bombs discovered on the bent And property and this was
recorded that night. Hey guys, it's Jules and I am
going to update you on the Wicks case. So I
am still here. It is eight o'clock Central and I
am still on scene. I am with the family member,
So Jennifer, who has been missing for twenty years, her
mother Kathy and her sister Casey are here with me

(11:10):
as well on scene and I will be here as
long as I need I am needed, and if it's
all night, then that's all night. So I will update
you as much as we know right now. We have
been evacuated for threats of bombs that were bomb making
materials that were found in the residence of the Benton home. Now.
Jennifer and Adriana wit missing in two thousand and four

(11:31):
and haven't been seen or heard from since. Today at
six point thirty eight PM, was the twenty year anniversary
of when the missing person's report was filed. Jennifer twenty one,
was dating Joey Benton at the time of her disappearance
and was said to have been the last person to
have seen her alive. Joey Benton still lives at this

(11:51):
residence and it's the same residence where Jennifer and Adriana
two were living at the time. Now, Adriana was not
the daughter of Joey Benton, but she was living there
with her mother Jennifer at the time. As of right now,
we're just sitting. We're waiting for any more updates whereas
close as we can get per the evacuation orders. We're
not in any threat back here, we don't feel, but

(12:13):
I will update you as we know more information. I
cannot confirm this is about Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. We
have no confirmation of that. We watched as trucks carried
high risk crates out of the site. We read forms
of people speculating on what happened. Everyone was asking, is
this It is this when we find the girls?

Speaker 6 (12:32):
But it wasn't.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
As everyone was packing up close to nine pm that
night and the last law enforcement officer drove away, we
ourselves packed up a little bit defeated, but there was
a spark I hadn't seed in Casey's eyes yet, a
spark of hope. And here's what we learned about that night.
Joey's father, Joe Benton, was out on probation for an
aggravated assault charge after a physical altercation with his own wife, Cindy,

(12:58):
on their family property. Cindy then proceeded to file a
police report against him, and what's interesting is that report
wasn't filed immediately but a few weeks later. Either way,
it violated his probation and he was arrested. Then, someone
in the Benton family provided law enforcement with a computer
owned by Joe Benton which contained material which constituted a

(13:20):
charge against Joe Frank Benton of sexual exploitation of a miner.
The Wicks family was able to confirm to the public
that it was a photo of a miner taken twenty
years ago. With this information, the small town starts talking,
but more loudly this time. People started asking out loud,

(13:40):
is that photo of Adriana twenty year old photo of
a miner in your anniversary? And we find a twenty
year old photo of a miner? Is it Adriana? But
alas it was not Adriana, but it was someone It
was still a victim, and it is still someone out
there who fears. Joe Benton will not release this individual's name,

(14:02):
nor will I ever. This individual is also a victim.
This individual is a victim on the Benton family side,
and we don't believe that it just stops at one victim.
It's tragic, it's disgusting, and we're so sorry. Since March
twenty seventh, two thousand and four, I've gone to the
Robertson County Court House in Springfield, Tennessee, to watch each

(14:24):
one of Joe's hearings. You know, he's tall, He's much
taller than I imagine, and he looks ill, frazzled, fragile,
and confused. His hair is gray and looks unkept. Since then,
I've been able to see him a few times in court,
and he looks worse each time, And I fear will
this man die in court? And will what he knows
about Jennifer and Adriana die with him. He has over

(14:48):
forty charges of bomb making material and firearms against him
from that rate on March twenty seventh, Folks, he's not
getting out of Jailly time soon. We hope his trials
it starts this October. He has pleaded not guilty for
sexual exploitation of a minor. For me, it's no longer
become a question do they know? But what do they know?

(15:11):
And how do I know this?

Speaker 6 (15:13):
Well?

Speaker 4 (15:14):
How do I feel so confident to say that publicly
on a podcast that's going to reach thousands of years.
I'm going to let Casey explain it herself. Oh, don't
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Speaker 5 (17:32):
Obviously this year, a lot of people know about the
grade at the Benton home in March or on March
twenty seventh this year, and you were there with me
for quite a bit for the last couple of months,
so you know. But I just really wanted to let
the world know where we're at and what we've been
going through the last couple of months, just kind of

(17:54):
behind the scenes. And there's not a lot that I
can share as far as details of what I'm going
to say will probably sound vague and maybe a little
bit frustrating because I know that I'm going to leave
some holes where people are hoping to get this information.
But any information that I share right now, with the

(18:17):
investigation being open, if I give any details or anything
like that, it could potentially hurt the case and our
chances of prosecution. Everyone knows really about the raid back
in March twenty seventh of this year.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
Joe had been arrested a few.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
Weeks prior to that, and he was a convicted felon,
so he wasn't supposed to have firearms there at his home.
He wasn't supposed to be in possession of them, purchase
any of them, anything like that, and so that wasn't
what they were originally there for. I'll tell you a
little bit about that. About a month after that, March

(18:56):
twenty seventh grade. On April twenty ninth, I got a
message which I find really strange because I had reached
out to Joey before this and just kind of asked him,
you know, hey, will you talk to me? And I
you know, he wasn't responding really, And on April twenty ninth,

(19:17):
I get a random Facebook message from Amy, his sister,
and I didn't recognize the name on the account. It
went to like that weird in box thing, and I
didn't see the message in time. I had stepped away
from my phone for maybe like ten minutes to play
with the kids or something in the backyard. The next
thing I know, the music on the speakers outside just
kind of goes silent, and that just means I'm getting

(19:39):
a call with my mom, And I guess my mom
had gotten this same message from Amy from this random
Facebook account, and she said she needed to send us
some urgent information and ask for our emails. So my
mom sent her email and I did two and she
and Amy ended up forwarding me the same email. But
she'd written me a letter, and just to summarize the letter,

(20:03):
I'm not going to.

Speaker 6 (20:03):
Go into a lot of detail, but to summarize.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
It, she wanted to let us know kind of the
background about the raid on March twenty seventh, the reason why,
you know, her dad was arrested and what he was
in jail for what they had found, and they had
found some things that his family felt like that they

(20:27):
needed a turnover to law enforcement, and so they turned
that over to law enforcement. And that does have to
do with one of his charges, the sexual exploitation of
a minor. So what they found they turned over to
the Robertson County Sheriff's Department, and I from Amy of course,
according to her, she says that that's what they were

(20:49):
there looking for, is whatever else they could find pertaining
to that. And I guess while they were there they
found weapons and explosive material and whatnot from you know,
being there at the search that day, and things that
law enforcement had come across whenever they turned in some

(21:10):
things to law enforcement. So she wanted to bring me
up to speed on that or bring us up to speed,
she said, we deserve to know.

Speaker 6 (21:18):
She did talk about Jennifer and Adriana some I'm.

Speaker 5 (21:21):
Not going to share what she talked about for Jennifer
and Adriana, but she just talked about having her own
children and grandchildren and how much she has to look
out for them.

Speaker 6 (21:34):
And she talked.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
About how she, her brother, and her mom have been
treated over the years by her dad and how horrible
it's been. And so she just wanted to kind of
give me background, I guess, and bring me up to speed.
And so yeah, I got that first email, and I
was like, whoa, Like she just opened up a can

(21:56):
of worm.

Speaker 6 (21:57):
She just opened up dialogue with me.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
And gave us a plethra of information that you know,
we didn't know before because we didn't know what the
raid was for at that time. We hadn't seen any
new charge yet at this time, you know, so we
didn't know. And so yeah, we got that email on
April twenty ninth. And then the next day I text

(22:23):
Joey and I was like, will you just talk to
me please? And he wrote me back like less than
five minutes later, which is uncommon because before he wasn't responding,
and he just said sure, and I said, uh, okay, Well,

(22:45):
he said, give me like ten or fifteen minutes or
something like that. He was like, I'll give me ten
or fifteen minutes and we can get on a call.
I said, okay. So I scrambled around, I found my notebook.
I wrote down a bunch of questions. You know, it's
been twenty years. What am I going to say to him?
I have no idea, and I don't want to just
rant on and on and not ask him the important

(23:06):
things that I want to ask him. I wanted to
be ready, so I jotted down a few questions. You know,
I wanted to ask about the picnic. Did you have
the picnic? I wanted to ask about, you know, did
you love Jennifer? Did you take them to the gas station?
Can you walk me through that? You know whatever? So
I told him, I was like, okay, I have like
thirty minutes. And I said, so, I've got like thirty

(23:28):
minutes and we can talk again if you want to
after that. But we jumped on a call. We were
on the phone for like an hour, and you know,
I said I had thirty minutes, but I was in
school pickup line, and I did not want my kids
to get in the car in the middle of that conversation.
But I stayed on the phone all the way until

(23:48):
you know, I was going through the line and almost
ready to pick them up. And I got quite a
few of my questions answered on that.

Speaker 6 (23:55):
Call, you know. I you know, I called him.

Speaker 5 (24:01):
And he picked up, and I was like, Hey, is
this Joey And a lot of people don't call him that,
and he was like, uh, you know yeah, And I said,
I've been wanting to talk to you for a while
and he said, yeah, I'm sure. And you know, I

(24:21):
started it off by saying like, I don't want to
take that too much of your time. And I mean,
he was very you know, cordial on the phone call.
He just said, I mean that's okay, you can talk
to me anytime. I've been fine with y'all talking to me.
He was like, you can call me any night after seven,
and so I was like, oh, okay.

Speaker 6 (24:38):
You know, so we're on.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
This call and I'm you know, empathetic to the situation
that they're going through about the raid that had happened
and things that they're uncovering about his dad and you
know what's happened in their home, and you know, I
do have empathy there, and I shared that with him.
I told him, you know, we're not horrible people. We
don't want you know, we don't wish bad things on

(25:01):
anyone who's innocent, you know.

Speaker 6 (25:03):
But at the same time, you know, and.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
He said, he said, I understand the reason why y'all
have been upset and the reason why you didn't believe
me because my story, like I don't have much to
go off of, and I can't prove it. And so
he like understood, like the gas station story, like there's
nothing we can go off of, no one can prove it.

Speaker 6 (25:24):
He even told me on that.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
First call, like he I said, it is the did
you take them to the gas station? Did you take
them to the food value and then to the gas station?
He said, yes, all of that is true with a
lot of conviction. And so I was like, okay, And
then I said, and then she came back to your
house the next day and he said, he said, yeah,
she came back to my house the next day, and

(25:47):
he said that he was there, and he said his
dad was there, and he said that he don't think
his dad saw Jennifer, and he said that Jennifer came in,
you know, got a few things and left and said,
you know, did y'all you know.

Speaker 6 (26:01):
Talk at all?

Speaker 5 (26:02):
And he was like, no, not really, I mean she's
just got some things, said she come back the next day,
and I'm like, okay, well, you know, I asked him,
you know, like did y'all have the picnic? And he said,
I mean, I wouldn't call it a picnic. Like Jennifer,
you know, had just made some sandwiches and we went
to the barn to have like alone time and talk.

(26:24):
And you know, that was the first time that I
had ever gotten, I guess, the confirmation about the picnic
that I have been looking for, Like I've always wondered,
did the picnic happen?

Speaker 6 (26:37):
Did it not happen?

Speaker 5 (26:38):
You know, because he, as far as I know anyways,
does not mention the picnic to law enforcement in his statement.
But Jennifer mentioned it to her dad on the phone,
and you know, so I was like, it must have happened.
But I hadn't had any confirmation up until I talked
to him on this conversation that I had, and so

(27:00):
I was able to get that confirmed. You know, he
told me that they were driving the Explorer, the Ford Explorer.
I mean, he told me that Jennifer was pissed that day.
He said that she wanted to move out of their house.
He said he never knew why she wanted to move out,
and that he you know, didn't really ask why. He

(27:20):
was just in the dark and she didn't share with him.
But she wanted to move out. She wanted to move
back into the barn, and he didn't want to because
they had a baby, and that there was no running
water in the barn, and he was like, that just
doesn't make sense, like we'll just stay in the house.
But she wanted to move out, and so they argued
about that. And he said the night before whenever, you know,

(27:43):
he was asleep in the room whenever they were sleep
training Adriana and Jennifer talked to mom on the phone.
He said that, you know, he was kind of mean
to her that night. He had to work early the
next day, be at work early and wake up early,
and Jennifer was.

Speaker 6 (27:57):
Wanting to talk to him about something. He just said,
she wanted to talk to me about.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
Something, not about the barn part and wanting to move
into the barn but she wanted to talk to me
about something, and he said he just kind of blew
her off and was kind of mean to her and
was like, no, I don't want to talk about that
right now. And he went into the room basically to
get away from having to discuss things with her, you know,
and be annoyed with a with an argument whenever he

(28:22):
has to work in the morning. So he went into
the room with Adrian at a sleep train that night.

Speaker 6 (28:28):
So and on that call, I mean, of.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
Course, and rightfully so, I guess like he was still
really worked up about, you know, what had happened at
their house on March twenty seventh, and his dad potentially
getting out of jail.

Speaker 6 (28:43):
You know, they they're.

Speaker 5 (28:44):
All pretty fearful of that, and so we talked a
lot about that. And yeah, So that phone call lasted
about an hour, and I thought it went really well,
and I you know, thought about that conversation over and
over and over again, and I just remember feeling like, like, wow,

(29:11):
he could be telling the truth. So that was on
April thirtieth, my call with him. On May third, we
had our first meeting with the district Attorney General Nash and.

Speaker 6 (29:25):
That meeting went really well.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
They told us that they'd been in contact with joe
who was currently in custody there at the Robertson County
Detention Center across the street from where our meeting was,
and that they had also been in touch with Joey
and his mom, Cindy, and.

Speaker 6 (29:44):
His sister Amy, and so.

Speaker 5 (29:48):
They had been I guess interviewing them and talking to
them trying to get more information about Jennifer and Adriana already,
and so we were just kind of brought up to
speed a little bit, and we got more information and
had a more like open conversation during the meeting with
the district attorney than we typically do whenever we're just
meeting with law enforcements. And so he doesn't currently they

(30:09):
don't currently have our case, but they potentially will. Meetings started,
I was like, listen, we are passionate about getting justice
for Jennifer and Adriana, and we all want to work together.

Speaker 6 (30:23):
We're all on the same team.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
And I really left that meeting that day, and my
mom and Billy, Uh, I think we all agreed leaving
that meeting that we felt supported and heard and validated,
and it was really good for mom.

Speaker 6 (30:43):
Because she had never gotten that in the past.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
Right before we broke from lunch, the district attorney's office
gets a phone call and we start seeing everyone get
up from the table. I mean there's about like ten
of us in the room, you know, total, when everyone
starts like one by one, like getting up, and they
tell us, you know, Joey's called up to the district
Attorney's office and we're like, oh, really, And he had

(31:10):
text me on the way to the district attorney's appointment
and asked what time the meeting was. Of course, he
may have seen it on social media because he already
knew we had the meeting, or I might have mentioned
it to him on our call because our call was
just a few days before that, and I probably told him,
But he had asked me, like, what time is your meeting?

(31:30):
And I went straight into the meeting and didn't respond
and didn't see him asking or whatever. But he called
up to the district Attorney's office, and we don't know
what he said to them, but they came back in,
sat down and was like, we're gonna break for lunch.
So we all went to lunch for about like forty
five minutes and then whenever we get back, we're walking

(31:51):
in and our TBI agent comes outside and he says,
you're not gonna like it, but we're gonna have to
ask you to leave. And we're like what, and he's like, yeah,
we're gonna have to ask you to leave. Joey's gonna
come up here, you know he did. He came, and

(32:14):
we waited and waited and waited because we were like,
surely they're gonna call us back in there at some
point we didn't get to finish our meeting. Mom and
I drive back and we of course debrief and talk
about everything on the way home. We get home, we're
eating dinner and we just feel like exhausted after the day.
Like adrenaline's big whenever you're like meeting with these people

(32:34):
and it's a super important meeting. You know, you don't
want to make any mistakes or say the wrong thing,
and you know, emotions are heightened, your adrenaline's going. Anyways,
we're eating dinner and just feeling really like exhausted and deflated,
and I get.

Speaker 6 (32:49):
Another message.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
And the message is from Amy and she's sending more emails,
and the emails that she send I'm not gonna go
into detail about them, but there's two or three of them.
And she says, hey, I need to send you some
more information.

Speaker 6 (33:13):
And the one thing that I will point out is.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
The very first line of her email says, and this
is a quote.

Speaker 6 (33:21):
She says, quote She's.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
Certain that I can tell you where to find Jennifer
and Adriana and end quote, and then she gives a
potential location.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
Again.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
I find it very interesting it's coming from Amy. But
Joey messages me later in the evening and says, you know, hey,
can you talk. I was already in bed and missed it,
but he says, hey, can you talk. The email that my.

Speaker 6 (33:52):
Sister sent is wrong.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
All through May, I'll just say, Joey and I text
back and forth here and there. You know, after this
information that they're giving us, and this is crazy information
that if I did share it with people, they would
be like like, oh my god. And I can't share it.

(34:14):
And I don't even wish that I could. I would
never send what they sent me to anyone because it's awful.
But they have sent some crazy information that just like
made all of us be like what on earth? Like
this is the biggest like biggest piece of information and

(34:38):
biggest lead.

Speaker 6 (34:40):
In our entire case existence.

Speaker 5 (34:44):
And so of course I'm keeping contact with Joey in
you know, the weeks after that in May, we're texting
back and forth, cordial, and he said, do y'all have
the wooden rocking horse?

Speaker 6 (34:56):
And I said no, I thought probably y'all had it.
He was like no.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
He was like, if we do, it'll be you know,
in our storage barn or shed or whatever. And he
was like, if we got it, you can have it,
you know. And We've had like moments like those where
I've been like you know, like where I've been all
over the place, like mentally in my head, just being
like he's telling the truth.

Speaker 6 (35:20):
Like you have to remember, like.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
We had that first conversation a couple weeks prior, and
I'm like building this relationship with him, and he I
called a relationship.

Speaker 6 (35:30):
I don't know what it is, but you.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
Know, he he built my knees, this playhouse and this
wooden rocking horse, and he's saying I can have it.

Speaker 6 (35:41):
Like he's telling the truth. You know, he's he's.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
Gotta be and that those are the thoughts that are
going through my brain, like he's helping. He's he's finally
coming forward and helping, you know, And and so I
really felt like we were on the right path at
that time.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
I really did.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Like a couple weeks into May, and we knew law
enforcement was out there searching it. You know, we knew
that they were out there. We knew there were things
going on. Again, I'm not giving that location out, but
it is local to Robertson County. And in the beginning
of June, like the first week of June, I had

(36:22):
a lot of like unreturned text messages from him, like
he just like stopped like being as reciprocating to like
whatever we were doing there.

Speaker 6 (36:35):
But around June.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
I think it was June tenth, we had our second
DA meeting, and you know, we wanted to talk to
them about like, Okay, we know y'all are out there
searching this location, you know, like it was given to
you by them, by you know, by the Bentons, and
so like where do we go now now that y'all

(37:00):
been given this information and been told this extra information.
So anyways, that meeting went really good. We learned some
things in that meeting that I can't share, but again
I can let you know that law enforcement was, you know,
in contact with Joe and with Joey, and I believe
by this time Joe had been appointed his.

Speaker 6 (37:23):
Attorney. As it's Jewels from podcast Missing in Hushtown, Thank
Casey than Casey.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Casey is Jonnithan Wicks's sister and Adrianna Wix's aunt and Casey,
do you want to explain to everybody.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
What we're doing.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
Yeah, we're at Joe Benton's court date today. He is
having arraignment for his charges. So yeah, we're just anxiously
waiting right.

Speaker 6 (37:46):
Now, dinner all day.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
He's about to come up in front of the dead
and we are waiting to see where that leaves.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
You will be there and we'll let you know.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
It was after the second DA meeting that I was
just kind of like, okay, Like he has a lawyer,
the district's attorney is working with his lawyer, his attorney, uh,
Joe's attorney, and if he's working with him, like Joey
only has so much time before his dad is gonna

(38:19):
come forward and say something.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
And we had been.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
Told uh by an anonymous source, uh, someone that knows
someone in my family and supposedly they worked at the jail,
but we had been told that his dad had told
Joey uh since he had been in jail, that he
was gonna tell them that he did it, that.

Speaker 6 (38:44):
Joey did it.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Whether that's true or not, we don't know. We can't
hear the recorded phone calls, but that's what we had
been told. And so by this time, Joe's been appointed
this attorney, we're working with a working with the distric's attorney.
They're out there searching for Jennifer and adrianas remains at
this potential location or up any potential locations. And we
were like, Okay, Joey, you.

Speaker 6 (39:04):
Don't have that much time.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
So I leave this district attorney's meeting and I'm like,
he has to do something, he has to help us,
and so I just at that point start urging him,
Like I just remember messaging him later that evening and
just being like, like, you've got to do something. You
have to come forward and tell what you know. If

(39:28):
what you've told me is true, fine, but if it's not,
this is the time to say it, because your dad
is gonna say something first. And I mean, I just
remember talking back and forth with him about that.

Speaker 6 (39:43):
We sent a few text messages.

Speaker 5 (39:45):
Back and forth, you know, and he was like, you know,
I'm trying to help, I'm trying to think of things whatever,
you know. And at this point we had heard something
from law enforcement and the district attorney, but we had
not heard him directly from Joey.

Speaker 6 (40:06):
So I keep responding.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
To Joey and keep, you know, keep on him about
you need to help us, you need to show us,
you need to come up with something. There's got to
be something that that you can help point us in
the right direction where our Jennifer and Adriana what happened
to them. There's got to be something somewhere, you know.

Speaker 6 (40:24):
And I just say to him one day, you know,
like are you gonna help us or are you not?

Speaker 5 (40:36):
Is everything that you told us a lie? Because if
it is, like you need to come forward and tell
us right now. And he said, I'm ready to tell
y'all everything. And I said, okay, you know, do you
want to do that on a call?

Speaker 6 (40:56):
Do you want to do it in a meeting?

Speaker 5 (40:57):
And he said I'd rather do it face to face.
And I said, okay, well, I'll try to get with
mom and and set something up.

Speaker 6 (41:07):
And he said, I want.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
To he said, I'm fine if you're there, but I
feel like this is something I need to tell your
mom face to face.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
And I said, okay.

Speaker 5 (41:18):
So I got with Mom and I set up the meeting,
and you know, we let law enforcement know that we
were going to be meeting with him and when, and
you know, we tried to make it like a like
an open place, like somewhere visible and out in public,

(41:39):
you know, for the safety of everyone, for you know,
him to feel more comfortable and for Mom, but somewhere
with enough privacy where they could, you know, have this
private conversation after all these years. And we were like,
oh shit, like what does he mean he's ready to
tell us everything? Like he had that first phone call

(42:00):
with me and he told me that it was all
true that she went to the gas station and that
she got in his car and he never saw her again.

Speaker 6 (42:10):
Like what does he mean He's ready to tell us everything?
And so, I mean, it was.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
Very surreal, very.

Speaker 6 (42:22):
I was very anxious.

Speaker 5 (42:23):
Mom was very anxious, and unfortunately I couldn't be there
in person, and we didn't want to let this opportunity
slip by. So Mom agreed to go meet him in person,
and I said that I would be on speakerphone. We
would do it together, our private investigator and Billy went
and stayed nearby in case Mom needed them. And Mom

(42:48):
sat down and waited for Joe to show up. He
showed up right on time, and he came in, He
sat down, and he just jumped right into it, and
he just said, basically, he said whenever, whenever I got
home on Thursday, they were dead. And you know, he

(43:12):
said a lot more during that conversation. But and I
wanted so badly to share, you know, more about these
conversations with everyone, but I just can't, Like I just
can't bring myself to do it. I can't jeopardize justice

(43:33):
for Jennifer and Adrian, and I can't, and I and
I won't. But I was on speakerphone, and I had
every intention of just letting Mom lead that conversation. And
I can't imagine, you know, finally being able to sit
face to face with him after all these years. Not
that he wouldn't have led us before, but I honestly

(43:53):
don't think that anyone had ever tried. And I don't
even know that it's it's that they didn't try. I
think that it's more that they were just investigating, like
on the back end, like like doing behind the scenes stuff,
and they never went straight to the source. In the beginning,

(44:16):
Mom and Joe sat down, and in Mom's notes it says,
you know, they sat down in April, after the girls
disappeared in March, and uh, I remember reading it and
it said, you know that Joe came by the house
to drop Jennifer and Adriana's things off in the black
trash bags, her her rocking chair that her granddad made

(44:36):
her in, you know, some of her things.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
And I remember Mom writing down.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
What Joe said happened, and he said he got home
from work and that they were locked in their bedroom
and they went for.

Speaker 6 (44:48):
A drive decided to break up.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
They got back to his parents' house and Jennifer refused
to go in. She said, take me to the gas station,
or take me to cross Plains. And I remember reading
that and then so all this is like flashing through
my brain. Mom's sitting there in front of him, and
I'm just like this is wild, Like Mom is sitting
face to face with him after all this.

Speaker 6 (45:11):
Time, Like what guts, like what.

Speaker 5 (45:17):
Like power and control to self control, to have over
and discipline to have over yourself to fit right across
from the person who has lied to you for twenty
years and may or may not be responsible, but is

(45:39):
sitting here telling you I've lied to you for twenty
years and they're dead. And Mom didn't falter, she didn't cry,
she didn't attack him. She sat there cordially and reserved

(46:03):
and had a conversation as sanely as she possibly could.
And she said her peace though. She said to him,
you know that your dad is evil. She said, you
know if you're a victim in all of this, like like,

(46:25):
you know, we feel bad for you. And she said,
you know, I pray for you. I'm sorry what's happened
to y'all. But this is a lot for us to hear.
And and of course I wanted Mom to lead that conversation,
but of course I.

Speaker 6 (46:40):
Jumped in trying to keep it on track. You know
a lot of times Mom is like the one that.

Speaker 5 (46:47):
Leads with emotion, and I'm the one that is kind
of like the let's stay on track person. And so
you know, I'm firing out the questions and I ask,
and you know, uh, what did you see whenever you
got home?

Speaker 6 (47:02):
Who was there?

Speaker 5 (47:03):
Where did you go, what happened after that? Where are
Jennifer and Adriana? And he told us? And I don't
know if what he said is true or not. And
I I don't believe what he told me is the

(47:26):
reason for Jennifer and Adriana's deaths. I don't believe it
at all. And I think that there's still work to
be done, and there's still truth to be told, and
I'm waiting on him to do that. I don't know

(47:48):
when it will be. I wake up every day checking
my phone, hoping that he was up late thinking about
all of this, thinking about my family, thinking about Jennifer
and Adriana, and that he has decided to tell me
the truth. I think that he's told parts of it,
but I don't think that he's told all of it.

(48:12):
I don't even believe that when he got home that
day that they were already dead. But what I took
away from that conversation that day.

Speaker 6 (48:25):
Was, now we know we've spent twenty years not knowing.

Speaker 5 (48:33):
We've spent twenty years riding down the interstate, looking over
in the lane next to us if a car is
slowly passing us, and wanting to see the person in
the car to see if it's Jennifer or Adriana.

Speaker 6 (48:47):
Is she's here somewhere and we just can't find her?
Is she like? We spent twenty years doing that. I
spent twenty years.

Speaker 5 (48:55):
Driving down the roads of Robertson County looking at barns
after barn after barn, wondering if my sister is in it.
Are they being held captive somewhere and someone's shitty basement,
chained up like you see on movies, and like you've

(49:16):
seen in other cases, and they somehow get free and
they get out to tell their story. Was that Jennifer
and Adriana. Twenty years we spent doing that, And then
whenever we met with Joey, we finally got that conversation

(49:38):
on July ninth this year, with that note, you don't
have to worry anymore. You don't have to look over
into the car next to you. You don't have to
wonder if Jennifer just hated you so much that she's
just living somewhere else, living her best life.

Speaker 6 (49:57):
She got a different family.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
You don't have to wonder if she got human trafficked
or if someone actually did pick her up in that
fucking white car. Because it didn't happen. It was a lie,
and he told us that day and so they sat

(50:25):
there for I don't know how long it was, maybe
two hours having this conversation, and you know, that was that,
and then he just left. And since then we haven't

(50:46):
had a lot of communication, maybe like a message here
or there. I do remember asking him on that call.
Whenever I was on speakerphone at that meeting, I remember
asking him like, if this is what you are saying happened,
then I want your help. I asked him, can my

(51:10):
family come on your property?

Speaker 6 (51:11):
Can we do a proper search?

Speaker 5 (51:13):
He said yes, he said yeah, you're not gonna find anything,
but come on. And I said, okay, well you might
say that, but like we don't know, so can we
do it? And he said yes. And then I said,
if this is what you believe happened, then you have
to help me. I need you to help me. And
he's like, I don't know what you're asking me to do.

(51:33):
And I said, I want you to come out publicly.
I want you to come out publicly and say what
you know to be true. I want you to support
my family. Finally, I don't want it to be your
family against my family anymore. I wanna work together, and
I've yet to see that. I think that he's tried

(51:54):
to be helpful in ways, or tried to appear helpful.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 5 (51:59):
And uh, there's a lot of distrust there because and.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
I told him that on the call. I said, you'll have.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
To forgive me because on our first call, just a
couple of weeks ago, you told me the gas station
story was true. So you'll have to forgive me that.
I may not trust what you're saying now. And he said, yep, yep,
I get that. And so you know, there's this person
sitting here that a couple of weeks ago told us

(52:26):
that what he had told for twenty years was the truth.

Speaker 6 (52:28):
Yes, yes, it's true, he said.

Speaker 5 (52:31):
And then now he's saying something completely different than saying.
Jennifer and Adriana's last day was March twenty fifth, two
thousand and four, and now we knew.

Speaker 6 (53:12):
Now we know.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
Missing in Hushtown was executive produced and written by me
your host, Jules with An The Audio House LLC. Casey
Robinson was co producer. Special thanks to John Thorpe, Patrick Robinson,
my parents and Jen Rivera, and to our children, to
follow our continued efforts on Justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wicks.
You can find us on Facebook at Justice for Jennifer

(53:58):
and Adriana Wicks. This page is personally managed by Casey
herself and you can find me jewles Hi on Instagram
at your host Jules. Notes and updates can be found
on our website www dot Missing in Hushtown dot com.
Please help us continue to grow by considering leaving a
five star review and rating wherever you're listening. If you

(54:18):
have a tip for this case, please please call one
eight hundred TBI find help us bring the Wix girls home.
To donate to this family's continued fight for justice, please
visit GoFundMe dot com slash Jennifer and Adriana Wis and
To support the podcast and to help us continue this production,
you may clicks support the show and the show notes,

(54:40):
and donate a Wis Kiss. Ten percent of all profits
from season one of Missing in Hushtown will be given
to the Wicks family indefinitely. As always, You're wanted, you
are loved, and you deserve to be found. Don't you
forget it. I'll see you next time.

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