Chapter 2: March 25th, 2004...According to Joey

Send us a textChapter 2: March 25th, 2004...According to Joey

Jennifer Wix was just 21. Adrianna, her baby girl, was just 2. On March 25, 2004, the girls were never seen or heard from again.

Jennifer and Adrianna were living in the Benton home at the time of their disappearance. This is everything on record that Joey Benton has told police, reporters, and friends.

 Joey declined our invitation to come on the podcast.  

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Episode Transcript

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Missing in Hushtown Season one is proudly sponsored by the
following relive studio, Andy B's Boutique six one five real
Estate Advisors, and Hometown Connect. Thank you to our sponsors.
Thank you to our sponsors, Concordia Insurance, Harris Holt Martial Arts,
Like Mother, Like Murder podcast, Small Towns Talk, and We've

(01:54):
been listening. This is Missing in Hushtown Season one, Chapter two,
March twenty fifth, two thousand and four. According to Joey Hi,
I'm your host, Jules, Let's get started. Everything that Joey Benton,

(02:30):
Jennifer's fiance, says happened after he returned home from his
job at a construction site after being called from the
Benton home to do so is alleged. I want to
make this clear. So many details of this case have
been written as fact because Joey's version has been so
widely spread. It's been even documented in the media multiple

(02:52):
times that people are now believing it to be the truth.
It makes sense. You see and hear something enough times
and pretty soon you assume it's fact. But it has
never been corroborated, nor has any individual outside of Joey
ever confirmed any parts of his version. I feel comfortable
in this next claim as well. No part of Joey's

(03:13):
version has been successfully corroberated by law enforcement. This includes
Robertson County Sheriff's office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
the TBI. So what do we have. We have one
last confirmed phone call from Jennifer Wicks from inside the
Benton home to her aunt Lisa. This has been confirmed

(03:34):
by law enforcement per phone records from the Benton home.
I am going to take you through Joey's version of events,
everything he has said over the last twenty years on
record about what happened to Jennifer and Adriana Wicks on
March twenty fifth, two thousand and four. And while I
do so we will be going over official police reports, statements,

(03:56):
published news articles, in family, comments on public forums. Joey
Benton full name William Joseph Benton tells authorities that after
a phone call was made to him at his work site,
he headed straight home. What is unknown to us is
who was on that call. What is known is that
phone records show that the call came from inside the

(04:17):
Benton home, the same home where Jennifer and Adriana Wicks
were living with Joey and his parents, Joe and Cindy Benton.
According to the story Joey Benton has been telling for years,
on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, he arrives
home to find that Jennifer and Adriana have locked themselves
in their bedroom. We do not have any more information
about that, and we do not know the truth behind

(04:39):
this claim either, but we do have to ask, if
this was true, what would the motivation be to lock
her and her baby girl inside a room and a
home she was living besides fear? And if this is
not true, what would be the purpose of this statement
made by Joey Now? I have reached out to Joey
multiple times via cell phone ask him to speak to

(05:01):
us for our podcast. We tried to make it very
clear that we wanted to tell all sides who wanted
to be heard, but I never received a response. I
also informed him that a lot was being sent about him,
but not from him, and he was welcome to approve
questions asked ahead of time, and also to record our
interviews for himself. But crickets. Instead of confirming the picnic,

(05:23):
Joey says, instead, the three of them went for a drive.
He then says that while they drive around talking, they
get into a heated argument and decide to break up.
Joey says Jennifer told him to drive her to the
Food Value, a local grocery store in the heart of
Cross Plains, Tennessee, just a few minutes drive from their home.
I want you to pay special attention to the following details,

(05:45):
because well, you can see for yourself. According to an
official police report followed by responding officer Mike Campbell, on
March twenty seventh, two thousand and four, which is two
full days after anyone had seen or heard last from
Jennifer or Adriana quote, Deputy Campbell spoke with William and
he stated that he had not seen Jennifer since Thursday,

(06:06):
when she left with a friend. When Deputy Campbell asked
who the friend was, William stated he didn't know. William
then stated that he was mistaken and took Jennifer and
the two year old baby girl to Exon and drop
them off around nine thirty Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
End quote.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
I just wanted to let that mayrinate a little bit. Okay,
let's continue with the report quote. Deputy Campbell asked William
a few more questions concerning the whereabouts of Jennifer and
her daughter, and before leaving, Deputy Campbell asked William again,
when was the last time he saw Jennifer. End quote. Now,
before we dive into William, Joseph Benton or Joey's response,

(06:47):
if you're keeping track, One, Joey says Jennifer left with
a friend. Two Joey says he last saw Jennifer when
he dropped the girls off at the ex On gas station.
And now we have three from the police report. Quote.
William's response was Jennifer left his house in a white
four door Mustang and then stated, no, it was a

(07:09):
white four door Camaro. End quote. The last time he
saw Jennifer was when she drove away in a white
four door Mustang or white four door Cameo. So which
was it? When was the last time Joey saw her car?
Enthusiasts will know immediately what is suspicious about this statement,

(07:31):
and it's because you, guys, if you're not a car enthusiast,
there's no such thing as a four door Mustang, and
there is also no such thing as a four door Camaro.
Two days later, on March twenty nine, two thousand and four,
Officer Mike Campbell and another SHARE's deputy follow up with
more interviews with Jennifer's family. They speak with Jennifer's aunt,
Lisa Robertson. Now. According to one of the deputies reports

(07:54):
quote when Miss Robertson spoke to Joey Benton on the
phone after the disappearance of Jennifer Wicks, Joejoey Benton told
her that a white four door vehicle picked her up
at the Exxon station on Highway twenty five. Miss Robertson
clearly remembers that Joey described occupants of the vehicle as
a white male was ready complexion, and a white female,

(08:15):
and Joey Benton's later testimony to investigators. He explained he
never saw the occupants of the vehicle end quote. So
we do have a few things to dissect. Joey told
Deputy Campbell. Initially he could not recall which Exxon gas
station he'd dropped Jennifer and Adriana off at. Well, guess
what in a town's population of fewer than fourteen hundred

(08:37):
people at the time, There are records of only one
Exon gas station in Cross Plains, Tennessee at the time,
and it's the same one Aunt Lisa was referring to
that Joey told her. By Interstate sixty five entrance and
exit Exit one twelve to get to Nashville, Joey would
have to drive past this gas station to get to Kentucky,
where he was doing construction work that week. He'd have

(08:59):
to drive past this Exon to get to work. Then,
when Aunt Lisa finally gets in touch with him, he
recalls which gas station it was. Here's the kicker Lisa
talked to Joey before Robertson County Sheriff's office did. If
what Aunt Lisa reports to Robertson County Sheriff in his
report is true, this would mean that between the time,

(09:22):
Joey tells Lisa that Jennifer and Adriana were dropped off
at the Exon by the Interstate, and then, twenty four
hours or so later, Joey's question by police and he
forgets which Exon it was. Could he have truly forgotten
over the course of twenty four hours or so that
he dropped his fiance and her baby off at at night?

(09:46):
His choices in Exon gas stations and cross planes were
between the one at the I sixty five Interstate off
exit one twelve or nothing. That was the only Exon
in cross planes at that time. So let's break this down.
Joey tells the responding officer first that Jennifer left his

(10:07):
house with a friend he couldn't name a friend, and
then quickly changes his story. He now recalls that he
dropped the girls off at an Exxon gas station, but
he cannot recall which one. This is a small town
where every establishment is known and frequented, and there was
just one Exxon. Anything is possible when we don't have facts. Absolutely,
of course, but wait, here's one more story from Joey

(10:29):
that is inconsistent with the others. Here's a fourth one.
If you're keeping track. According to the same March twenty
ninth police report, Deputy Campbell reports quote, according to Jeffrey Grayson,
Joey Benton had originally told him that he drove Jennifer
Wicks to Jerry and Helga Jackson's home in or around
the Dixon Road area. The Jacksons have since explained that

(10:53):
they had not seen Jennifer Wicks since November of two
thousand and three. Four four different stories you can about
Jennifer's movements on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four,
and all four originating from Joey himself. Noticed that Jeffrey,
who was Joey's best friend at the time and Jennifer
Wicks's first cousin, never even mentions an Exxon gas station story.

(11:17):
The location is completely new to him. In a two
thousand and five newspaper article published at the one year
mark of the girls's disappearance by Robertson County Times titled
mother daughter still Missing one year later, reporter Cindy Kelly writes, quote,
Benton twenty four told authorities that he last saw Wicks
when he dropped her and her daughter off at an

(11:37):
Exxon station around ninet thirty that night, he said they
left with someone in a white car end quote. My
question is this, why not include everything Joey told authorities.
The narrative that Jennifer and Adriana Wicks were last seen
at an Exon gas station on March twenty fifth, two
thousand and four, when Joey dropped the girls off at
nine thirty PM has now become the story. Without the

(12:02):
reports and the evidence of the evolving statements, the public
will absolutely believe and lean into the legend narrative that
Joey was pushing. Don't think I'll leave you hanging with this.
I'll be addressing this in chapter three, but first I
have to pause and be one hundred percent transparent with you.
If I am asking you to stay with me throughout

(12:22):
this first season and to trust me, I need to
tell you a few things. Number One, as I am
writing this podcast, I am actively learning new information all
the time. In Number two, I refuse to hurt this case.
So everything I share here is what I've discovered, researched, investigated, read,
been told, or have seen myself. I will never share

(12:43):
any exclusive leads just to rank in the charts. This
has built foremost on trust between me as a producer
and the victims, the families. I will absolutely screw up
along the way. I am learning on the job, But
anything I share with you has been vetted based on
this one goal. Will this help bring the girls home?

(13:04):
Please keep that in mind while I share information alibi's theories, etc.
Which may recently be debunked but are not yet eligible
to be shared with the public. What I won't do
is lie to you. Do I know more than I
am sharing. Yep. Am I trying to be respectful of
the family as to not cross boundaries and ruin our relationship. Yes,

(13:26):
this is their life, their real trauma, their real grief.
Behind the scenes, this case is changing every single day,
and I'm on the scene. The cameras have been rolling,
the microphones have been on, and I've been saving it
all for the day that we can expose everything. So
with that being said, back to Joey's story, I do
not believe it. I do not believe Joey ever went

(13:48):
to Food Value. I do not believe a phone call
was ever made. I do not believe he ever dropped
the girls off at the Excellent gas station. But it
is not enough to insert my opinion, and truthfully, I
expect to catch some heat from doing so. Throughout this process,
I've had to step back and play devil's advocate. I've
had to ask myself if I am looking at this
information objectively. I've had numerous late night calls to Jennifer's sister, Casey,

(14:12):
where I do ask her the tough questions and push
back on what they have always thought was the truth.
In this case, I did not come to this conclusion
lightly or quickly. But if you were to ask me,
with my hand on the Bible, if I believe anything
Joey says happened on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four,
once he returned home from work, I would tell the

(14:34):
world that no, none of Joey's versions of events have
ever been proven, and I don't believe they ever can. Now,
back to the police reports, Deputy Campbell continues with his
police work and dutifully retraces Joey's steps. According to his
final statement to police, that he dropped Jennifer off at

(14:55):
the local food value, where she got out of his
car and made a phone call inside. Then she returned
and told him to drive her to the Exxon gas
station where he then says, the girls got out of
the car and Joey drove across the street and sat
in the church parking lot for ten minutes until that
white car arrived to get the girls. So, according to

(15:15):
the police report by Deputy Campbell, Deputy Campbell went to
talk to the cashier at Food Value who was working
within the time frame. Joey says he brought Jennifer by
to make a call, so that would be March twenty fifth,
two thousand and four, between eight and nine pm. Quote.
The cashier stated that she did not see Jennifer or
the child anytime that night. She also stated that the

(15:36):
store locks its doors at nine o'clock every night. The
cashier then stated that when she left for the night,
she walked to her car and remembered some coke she
had forgotten in the store. She then returned to the
doors of the store to retrieve her cokes. During the
walk to the car, then to the store back to
her car, she doesn't recall anyone else being in the
parking lot. End quote. Casey and I drove to the

(16:00):
former Food Value in its place sits now? What is
a pigly wiggly? The remnants of a payphone still stand
erect at the edge of the parking lot next to
the Pigley Wiggly Marquee proudly displaying the meat specials of
the week. And then we drove to the Exxon and
we drove past the Benton home. We wanted to see
how long it would take us to drive through this

(16:20):
town to all of these establishments that Joey said we're
involved with his alibi. Take a listen, okay. So now
we are parked in front of the Benton family home
on Owen's Chapel Road, where Jennifer and Adriana were living
with Joey and his parents. And eventon, Anna got Casey
with me and we're ready.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
To rock a roll.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
So we're going to test out some tinan today. We
wanted to see in person the route that Joey said
he took, So I think we're going to test out
the route he said he took from his house to
the gas station. Don't go anywhere, We'll be right back.

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Speaker 4 (19:07):
What do you want to first? Yeah, and we might
have to make this drive twice, which is kind of annoying,
but there's two routes he could have taken into town.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
This is all we gotta do, which is not annoying.
We'll do it five times.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
So yeah, the first thing we need to do is,
you know, come out of there, did you start it?
Come out of their driveway? And then we're going to
turn up on Roy Cole and starting it.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Now. Okay, there's the church, Owen's Chapel, United Methodist Church.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Okay, so this route is going to take us into
cross Plains. But Jennifer's last phone call was to my
aunt and that is now confirmed with law enforcement. After
our meeting, I was always kind of like, did it
did it not? They've only ever confirmed the call with
her dad, But she made her life one called to

(20:03):
my aunt and I don't know exactly what time it was.
My aunt said it was around one. But anyways, this
route that we're taking is going to go past my
aunt's house. Her her house ishsh right here around the
corner to buy her house. Well, my aunt whenever Jennifer
talked to her, my aunt said that she told her,
I would leave you a key. It'll be in the

(20:24):
grill if you need if things get bad and you
need to come here. And I feel like there's probably
more in that conversation if I could talk to my aunt,
but she's not talking to me right now.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
She's not talking to me either.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Yeah, she was going to, but I feel like she could.
She potentially said some things in it, like maybe she
said I'm leaving, Like if he doesn't move out of
that house with me, then I'm leaving.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
You know what, what did Jennifer say that made Lisa right?
That's what I think you for you.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
I always assumed it was just because of the fighting
the night before, you know, and her telling her about
that just keep going, you just keep going. Yet it'll
it'll run into a stop ton it's the it's twenty five.
So if my aunt was like, I'll leave you a
key out here things get bad, like this would be
the first place. It's right around the corner, the quickest
place for him to be like, I hate your guts.

(21:15):
We're breaking up, and and Jennifer would be like, take
me here because it's the closest. This is not her house,
but it's the next mailbox. Right here is my aunt's house.
No way, yeah, so do you see how fucking close
that is? And if my aunt's like, I'll leave you
a key here, it is no. Wait?

Speaker 3 (21:31):
How long did that take us? Driving the speed limit
even slowing down just a tiny bit? It's this, it's this, this,
this trailer right here? Yet five minutes? There's no kin
that lived there?

Speaker 4 (21:42):
Still no, But that's the picture of Adriana and her
Easter dress is right there in there front case. Five minutes.
I've driven by this like every day the last ten years.
That was my aunt Lisa's house. And how did that casey?

Speaker 3 (21:57):
I that is so wild because this is where we
get our pumpkins. Right here. This is my commute to
work every day.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
No are we going to food value?

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Oh okay, so then you have to pass their house.
But you can also drive through here to get to
his house and Woodrow.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Uh, I mean you can. Will The main roads are
going to be that one Roy Cole or down Cross
Plans Road. If you're trying to get to where he
said he took them, not to Lisa's house, right, but
to where he said he took them. Those were the route.
Even if he took that way though the back way
or through that way, it's still dumpsy right at Lisa's house.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, so you would turn left and go fifty feet.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
And they stopped at the Food Value and then they
went to the gas station. So now we're on our
way to Food.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Value where she went allegedly made a phone call.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
Allegedly. Yeah, I don't think speed limits have really chagd No,
I don't think in the last twenty years, if anything,
we would be going a little bit. It would take
a little bit longer to get somewhere because of the
work traffic. Okay, so we're passing the city Hall and
cross plains and I used to live right here on

(23:11):
the right with this little yellow door. This was my
old house. Whenever Jennifer means red door, a little the
yellow door with their yellow it's red. Oh, I bet
it's not fun glasses, but I don't know what it
would make it yellow. There's Samantha's house they live in now,
and then this town is so freaking small that this

(23:33):
is it, like, we're this is town. We're coming up
on the blinking red light.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
We're about to town.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
Right here in the middle of cross plane.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
There's the old bay. There's the old in one of
the original establishments.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Here in the that's on the courthouse will This.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Was a general store. They used to have hitching posts.
Here's the old pharmacy.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
So this gas station right here on the corner Terry's Market.
There's a lot of gold, so keep going straight. There's
a lot of gossip that Keith or that goes on
there from leads that I've gotten people always over here.
This Dollar General is where my mom met Jennifer and
Joey that Tuesday. This is the food value right here,

(24:15):
the current Wiggly Yes was a food value. My boyfriend's
family owned this store when the girls disappeared, and so
we knew the people in it. We knew everything ten minutes.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's that's insane. Yeah, that's crazy because I never knew
that box was a former payphone. But according to Joey
in his statement to the police, he dropped Jennifer here.

(24:54):
Jennifer went in and made a phone call. Did she
bring Adriana with her and was she sitting in a
car seat, because that will come into play hugely, come
into play if she was in a car seat or not,
because of what Officer Campbell will tell us. I need

(25:18):
to know about this car seat. I feel like there's
so much more to that like that, I too, will
be the big smoking gun, I think, especially since they
only had one car seat and what car was he driving?
And who came home to give him the car because
he didn't have a car when he went to work.

(25:39):
That's why he got the ride, right.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
Yeah, so someone would have again, Remember it's like, according
to him, like eight o'clock at this point, and it's
eight thirty. In between eight thirty and nine came down here.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Yeah, so the Pigley closes at nine?

Speaker 4 (25:57):
Yeah, I think it was nine.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Which way do we?

Speaker 4 (25:58):
You?

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (25:59):
Left? Wait, let me start my clock.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Because I also read that the girl working left she
forgot something in there and she went back in and
she still didn't seen any one in the parking lot. Yeah,
it's too bad they can't get the records from the
payphone that would be an easy fix or the Pickley
Wickly records at the time, that would are easy fixed.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
I'm sure they have all that way to share. If
they don't, that's embarrassing. Wow, it's likely not gonna lie
minutes south of Kentucky. The old drives fifteen minutes. So
this gas station was here, Ah, this isn't it though
it was here during the time. Now, if police work

(26:49):
would have been done correctly, they would have had cameras.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
We could have fooled.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
Here's the church he supposedly parked in the parking this
what And here's the.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Where the gas station? That's what I thought.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Okay, so you can turn left right there and then
we can kind of park right there.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, so we need to get out, I feel okay.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
So that was a fifteen minute drive.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
So this then we went from the true Value, which
is now the Pigley Wiggly and Cross Plains, and we
drove just a few minutes down to this gas station.
But we had to drive past your family home to
drop her off at this gas station for her to

(27:28):
get a ride where because her aunt's house, her mom's house,
they were right down the road.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
Just talked to her aunt that day, talked to my
mom the night before, made plans with my aunt if
something went awry, and they and they needed to come back.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
She still had a room at your aunt's house. It
was still there, and your house she had a key.
She didn't even need to call your aunt to get
a hold of her to go over there. She just
had to get the key out of the grill. Okay,
it's so bizarre. Who would she to entertain the idea

(28:04):
that she did call someone? Who would she have called?

Speaker 4 (28:12):
No one? I mean, there's no one.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Did they look into the Helga story?

Speaker 4 (28:22):
I assume so, because then they have a white car.
They had a white Camaro, A white yeah Camaro, because
in the police report then he changes the story to
a wait, Camaro, And I wonder if he said that
saying Camaro and then it changed to just a white
four door sedan.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah. How long after he says she made that phone
call to the car picked her up? How long was that?

Speaker 4 (28:48):
How much time went by? I mean he just said
I waited about ten minutes, so to drive from he
waited in that parking lot, and to drive from that
true value that was over here five minutes and then
wait for ten minutes of fifteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
That's got If it's true, that's someone.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
Local, someone had to be local from.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Coming from White House, some rainfield, cross planes, yeah, somewhere
in Robertson or some ner Yeah. Could Jennifer have gotten
out of the car and made a phone call from
the parking lot payphone instead of from inside. Perhaps Joey
was confused and simply got one tiny detailed wrong. What

(29:28):
if she did get out of the car, but instead
of going in, she walks over and puts a few
coins in the payphone and makes her call within side
of Joey. The best way would be to pull the
phone records of the Piggly Wiggly and the payphone. The
family can't confirm that this was done, and to their knowledge,
there was no security footage from that evening or even
a camera at all at the time. All we have

(29:50):
our statements from the workers at Food Value who cannot
confirm seeing anybody at that time. The bagger was contacted,
and he also did not recall seeing anyone come into
the store during that timeframe. With Jennifer's description, and we
know that Joey had a cell phone and that Jennifer
would use it and he would get upset over her
using his minutes. So why wasn't Jennifer able to just

(30:12):
use his cell phone. So Deputy Campbell moves on to
the Exon gas station, but the clerk who was on
shift at the time isn't there. However, the family does
talk to the clerk later on. The clerk was a
school friend of Jennifer's and she will go on to
relay to the family that if Jennifer and Adriana had
arrived at the gas station, she would have known and remembered. Recall,

(30:35):
it's the end of March and it's Tennessee, which means
the temperatures drop quite drastically into the night. If Jennifer
and Adriana got out of Joey's car, as he says
they did, and he drove across the street for ten
minutes to wait for them to get picked up, Jennifer
would not likely wait in a freezing parking lot with
a toddler, especially when she was friends with the Exon

(30:57):
clerk working that shift that night. Also should be noted
Adriana had one jacket, a purple jacket, which was later
returned to Kathy from the Benton family in a trash bag.
Did Adriana not even have a jacket on? According to
Joey's story, if she waited outside. She would be waiting
outside in the end of March at night, in freezing

(31:20):
cold temperatures with a toddler who did not have a
jacket on. Could it be possible if during those ten
minutes Joey says that they were at the gas station
around nine twenty to nine thirty PM, that that cashier
was otherwise occupied. Surely she could see anyone standing in
the gas station parking lot for any duration of time

(31:42):
from most vantage points from the interior of the station,
And even if she had gone in the back, it
wouldn't be for full ten minutes, as she was the
only employee there. And now we hit a second blow.
Any video footage recorded from that evening was not available.
Why there were cameras at that Exxon gas station in

(32:03):
two thousand and four, and guess what law enforcement did
ask for it? How tight was that window to get
the footage to corroborate Joey's story, Well, we can confirm
it was sooner than one day the tapes were recorded
on each morning. Twenty years of questions could have been
handled within the first twenty four hours of this case

(32:25):
had it been taken seriously and acted upon with urgency
per the family's desperate please to law enforcement. Joey's statements
quickly shift from being unclear of details to having very
specific recollections of that evening. It appears that once his
final statement is made, he sticks with that story and

(32:46):
stands by it for the next twenty years, That is,
until recently. If you recall, Joey was asked by Deputy
Campbell when the last time he saw Jennifer was, and
he says when she came by his house in a
white four door Camaro or Mustang car. This is following
what he had said earlier in the same interview that

(33:06):
he last saw her when he dropped her off at
the Exxon gas station. So which was it? When was
the last time he actually saw Jennifer? Well, according to
Joey's statement over the years, which he has appeared to
stand by until recently. Thursday, he drops Jennifer and Adriana
Wicks off at the Exxon off exit one twelve and

(33:28):
cross plains Tennessee, watches as she gets in a white
four door car. He then says he goes to work Friday,
the twenty six The job is finished early, so he's
back home late morning early afternoon. According to Joey, Jennifer
stops by his house. She is driving that white four

(33:49):
door car which came to pick her up the previous night,
But nobody else is in the car. No Adriana, no
mystery people who came to pick her up. According to
Joe Joe, this would be two times within the last
twelve hours that Joey has seen this white car, yet
he still cannot accurately describe the make and model.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
He says.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Jennifer came by asking for the five hundred dollars tax
return that Joe Benton was going to write her a
check for since it was auto deposited into his account.
Joey tells her his father is at home, and he
says that Jennifer tells him she will return Saturday morning
to collect it. Then he says, she gets a few
of her things from him and leaves the beloved Elmo doll,

(34:34):
the one Adriana couldn't sleep without. It was later returned
in the black trash bag of items to Kathy Nail,
Jennifer's mother, take a listen.

Speaker 7 (34:42):
The baby's sleep partner, her little Elmo, her stuffed Delmo,
her Melmo.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
She called him. It was there.

Speaker 7 (34:51):
That was alarming to me because being a mama, I know,
you don't go anywhere for one night without your child's
to that they are going to cry and beg for
when they go to bed, And that's exactly what she
would do. When she was at my house. She had
a crib in my bedroom and if if her Elmo

(35:13):
was in the other room, she you know, she wouldn't
lay down without it.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
She would she would just.

Speaker 7 (35:20):
My mal Moo, I want my Malmo, you know. Hany'd
had to go and find Elmo and bring him in there.
So when that little dirty drug around everywhere Elmo was returned,
that was alarming to me.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
We cannot confirm who took Joey to or from work
either day the twenty fifth or the twenty sixth, but
we do have confirmation that a former friend and co worker,
Nolan Rye, took Joey home from work on either of
those days, March twenty fifth or March twenty six It's
been twenty years, and obviously we're battling against Fadi memories,

(35:57):
but it is documented and Nolan's stay that Nolan was
getting picked up early by his girlfriend. Joey hears this
and asks him for a ride too, since he received
a call to hurry home, he must leave the site early.
Here's Nolan Rye.

Speaker 8 (36:12):
We were working in Franklin, Kentucky, around the time that
Jennifer went missing, me and an ex girlfriend. Our girlfriend
at the time had carried Joey home sometime around the
time that Jennifer and Adriana went missing. I'm assuming the

(36:37):
week of because it was only a few days later
that we hear that she was missing. She was coming
to get me from work early that day. I left
around lunch and Joey had found out that I was
leaving early and came and asked if we could carry
him home that day, and I told him yeah, that
was fine, and acted very strong that day. It's always

(37:02):
kind of weird, a little bit weirder that day to
the point my girlfriend at the time was kind of
fricked out by him. I didn't know his father. He
coached me at ball one year for about half the
season until they kicked him out made him not be
the coach anymore. Never met Joey's mama, never met Jennifer.

(37:26):
To be honest with you, when Joey and Jennifer started dating,
Joey he kind of just he didn't hang out with
anybody that I know, maybe John, maybe Jeffrey, I don't know,
other than at work. I mean, I mean, I do
feel like Joey loved her time. You know, the time
that the detective from Robertson County come that he had

(37:50):
another guy with him. I'm assuming it might have been
a TBI guy. I'm not sure. Off the hand, I
can't remember I did. I went down there voluntarily and
talked to him at the Sheriff's office, and you know,
they asked a few questions and I told him, I

(38:11):
said it. I told him I didn't know anything, and
I didn't want to know anything. And they asked me, well,
why don't you want to know anything? I said, Well,
if he did kill her and I knew something, I
feel like that would be a target on my back,
you know, and he would likely kill me. But if
he was gonna come to try to kill me, one

(38:37):
of the two of us would end up dead. And
I'm hoping it wasn't me, you know, because I was
in The cops were like, well that makes sense, you know.
I'm like, look, I wish I knew something to tell y'all,
to help y'all. Do I think they did it? Hell, yes,
I think they.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Did it, But.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
I don't know anything.

Speaker 8 (38:55):
I mean, hell, joe and them was growing weed in
their little building out there. They didn't even tell me,
But I was hanging out with them some you know,
so why would they tell me something to that extent?
You know, he had a temper. Yeah, I probably saw
it a time or two. Actually, when I worked for
his dad, we got into it one day, Me and

(39:15):
Joey got into it, and uh, we got up in
each other's face and had some words, and.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
My temper went off.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
I mean I did that day. I kicked that.

Speaker 8 (39:36):
A gallon yellow sucking a yellow paint up against the
wall and I walked out that day and paint went
all over the wall.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
And uh, I remember Joey's.

Speaker 8 (39:49):
Dad saying, called along, and called along, and Joey's like,
it's just Nolan, let him go. You know, he'll call
him down in a minute. And you know it was
nothing was never said of it, you know.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
But uh, that was the last day I worked first dad.

Speaker 8 (40:08):
But I mean, that's probably one of the last times
I've ever talked to Joey really, to be honest with you,
I don't recall going and hanging out with Joey after
Jennifer hitting them went missing. H would the year, so
however long they dated, I really didn't hang out with

(40:30):
Joey then other than seeing him at work, you know,
if we were working on the road, you know, obviously
be at the same hotel. That was about it.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
I know.

Speaker 8 (40:42):
The cops asked me that day when I went down
there if I thought he did it. I said, yes,
I did. And he asked me if anybody else would
have known if they did it, who would know? And
I said his daddy wouldn't know. But as far as friends,
I don't know. Jeffrey or John would know more than me.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
You know. I hope they get justice.

Speaker 8 (41:07):
I really do. It's a bad deal. I'd hate to
know one of the females in my family went missing.
I'd probably done a hunted him down. He probably wouldn't

(41:29):
be found today. I really would say we'd get some closures,
some justice something.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Jennifer's aunt Lisa provides a written statement to law enforcement
that Joey's father, Joe left a message on the answering
machine stating that he was looking for Jennifer to give
her the five hundred dollars tax return check. If we
go off the Benton statements. Jennifer came by that Friday
morning on the twenty sixth to get her check, tells

(41:57):
Joey she'll return the next morning. On Sadaturday, the twenty seventh,
joe Senior calls Jennifer's aunt's house to find Jennifer. Now,
this is the home where Joey's best friend, Jeffrey, who
was also Jennifer's first cousin, lives. So by the time
March twenty seventh, Saturday comes around, Jennifer never shows up

(42:18):
at the Benton home for her check, but Deputy Campbell does,
and you're going to want to hear what he has
to say. Deputy Campbell saw something that day in the
Benton home, something that may make you question all of
the Benton statements, and we're going to hear it directly
from Deputy Campbell himself next time. I'm missing in Hushtown,

(42:40):
Deputy Mike Campbell. Thank you to our episode sponsors, Concordia Insurance,

(43:16):
Great Protection at a great Value, Harris Hold Martial Arts
Academy in Clarksville, Tennessee, and Like Mother, Like Murder, a
True Crime mom cast covering the good, the badass, and
the crime. Missing in Hushtown was executive produced and written
by Me Your Host, Jules with and The Audio House LLC.

(43:36):
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 and Adriana Wicks. This page is personally managed
by Casey herself and you can find me Jules Hi

(43:58):
on Instagram at your host Jewels. 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 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

(44:20):
for justice, please visit GoFundMe dot com slash Jennifer and
Adriana Wicks and to support the podcast and to help
us continue this production, you may clicks support the show
and the show notes 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,

(44:42):
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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