The Unfinished Story of Brittany Locklear

On January 7, 1998, five-year-old Brittany Locklear was abducted from her bus stop in Bowmore, North Carolina—just steps from her home. Hours later, her body was discovered, and a community was left shattered. Despite eyewitnesses, leads, and years of investigation, her murder remains unsolved. This episode examines the desperate search, the investigative missteps, and the decades-long pain carried by Brittany’s family and the Lumbee Tribe. More than 25 years later, justice is still possible—and the fight for answers continues.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The heartbreaking abduction and murder of five year old Brittany
Locklear still haunts Beaumore, North Carolina. This episode explores the
events of January nineteen ninety eight, the investigation and its challenges,
and the lasting impact on Britney's family and the Lumbee community.
Let's examine not just the facts, but the echoes of

(00:22):
a case that demands justice decades later. Welcome to beyond
the silence whispers across America. I'm Sammy, your host, driven
to shine light on the dark corners of forgotten cases,
demand justice, and keep alive the voices the world has
tried to silence. Today, we're diving into a case that

(00:45):
is haunting even after all these years. Baumore, North Carolina,
January seventh, nineteen ninety eight. A lot of these stories
I cover start with words like it was just a
normal day. And that's the thing. These tragedies slide in
on days when life's supposed to be as ordinary as ever.

(01:07):
Brittany Locklear was five, the kind of little kid everyone loves,
hugging everybody she met, excited to go to church, and
fiercely proud of her Lumby roots. That morning, her mom,
Connie did what so many of us have done. Picked
out her daughter's outfit, that bright green and white T shirt,

(01:28):
those green overalls, little pink sneakers, even a green tie
for her hair. Brianna, Britney's baby sister, just eighteen months old,
gotta hug before Brittany shrugged in her red riding hood coat.
Connie and Brittany head out hand in hand to the
bus stop, less than five hundred feet from their front door.

(01:51):
It was right there in the clear sight line of
their home. Connie's gotta use the bathroom, and just like
any one of us, probably thinking I'll be two seconds
the bus might come. Brittany, who I imagine was just
shuffling her feet the way kids do when they're bored
or impatient, stays at the stop. When Connie comes back,

(02:15):
Brittany's not there. That split second, A gut punch right.
She checks at the school, hopeful, but Brittany hadn't arrived.
Within moments, the reality set in. Brittany was missing. Here's
the thing that always rattles me. Neighbors saw it happen.
They saw a truck tires screeching, a man getting out

(02:36):
and grabbing Brittany before speeding off. It's the kind of
nightmare detail that keeps you up at night. Calls went
out to police, words spread like wildfire. One Hundreds started searching,
But it was Britney's clothes discovered just two miles away,
that hinted at the horror beginning to unfold. I wish

(02:58):
I could say this kind of unthinking is rare, but
it's these routine days that make the ground fall out
from beneath families covering cases like Brittany's. I always wonder
how those little moments, something as every day as leaving
your child for a second, can haunt a family forever.
I don't know, maybe I'm rambling, but the normalcy hurts

(03:20):
the most. The Lockleyers morning could have been anyone's. That's
what sticks with me. The early investigation, it was frantic
and honestly a mess in ways only hindsight makes clear.
Law enforcement neighbors just about everyone in Hope County hit
the ground searching. Registered sex offenders within fifty miles were

(03:42):
hauled in for questioning. Tips flooded in hundreds of them.
Agents scribbled notes onto whatever paper was handy, tracking leads
on paper, forms and spreadsheets. But let's be real. Systems
got overwhelmed, some tips slipped through the cracks. Detective j Tilley. Yeah,

(04:03):
he later admitted straight up, we know there was info
we didn't follow up on. We weren't prepared. And look
as the weeks ticked by and call slowed, things got muddy.
New sheriffs came in. Bird was replaced by Jim Davis, who, well,
let's just say the Locklear family does not look back

(04:23):
fondly on his tenure. By their account, he tried to
scare confessions out of them, even pinning the crime on
Britney's step grandfather James Stevens. There was a lot of
pain there, family torn between grief and suspicion. Meanwhile, evidence
and hope seemed to evaporate in that sea of leeds.

(04:48):
Then in two thousand and two, you might remember folks
thinking maybe this is it. A firefighter from Fort Bragg
gets busted for robbing a bank and bizarrely they find
a photo of Brittany in his locker. I mean, come on,
that's a weird break. But the hope fizzles just as
quickly as it appeared. Turns out his DNA didn't match

(05:11):
what was found on Brittany. The photo just a newspaper,
clipping that sense of being on the edge of answers,
then slipping right back into the unknown. Britney's case is
full of those moments, false starts, lost, momentum, pain upon pain.
For a family still searching decades later. They always say, naw,

(05:35):
time is the enemy. In cases like this, memories fade,
people move, evidence gets lost, but someone knows something. These
stories don't just vanish Through all this. Brittany's mom, Connie,
was left picking up the pieces. Imagine the year's passing.

(05:55):
You're trying to raise Brianna, who'd never again wait for
the school bus s alone, who learned to shoot a
gun at age three because fear and loss colored her
childhood from the start. Connie and Charles, Britney's stepdad, tried
to hold on, but the weight of unanswered questions pulled
them apart. There's this ache in every part of their lives.

(06:17):
It's the kind of thing that changes a family forever.
And it's not just the lockleers. Britney's murder echoes in
the whole Lumby community, and more painfully, in the broader
pattern of violence against Indigenous women and girls. Statistics are brutal.

(06:37):
Indigenous women are killed at ten times the rate of others.
Murder is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous
women and girls in America. Brittany Locklear, just five years old,
is one more heartbreaking marker in those statistics, a name
that deserved to be so much more than a number.

(06:58):
Yet hope is hard to kill. In twenty fifteen, law
enforcement finally got enough DNA to make a genetic profile
of Brittany's killer. There's still a twenty thousand dollars reward
for information leading to an arrest, and every year, memorials
bloom in Beaumore, ceramic angels, flowers, crosses bearing her name.
The Lumbee tribe keeps her memory alive this community. Britney's family,

(07:22):
they aren't done fighting. Neither are we. Answers are still
out there. Cases like Britney's, well, they're exactly why I
do this. The pain doesn't fade, but neither does the
hope for justice. Somebody knows, someone out there has a
piece of the puzzle. If you know anything about what
happened to Brittany Locklear, please don't let the silence win.

(07:45):
That's it for today's episode. The questions remain, and the
search continues. Because every missing person deserves answers and every
story deserves to be heard. What are your thoughts, What
do you believe happened? Share your voice, because sometimes the
smallest detail can spark the biggest breakthrough. I'm Sammy and

(08:06):
this is beyond the silence whispers across America. Thank you
for listening. Stay safe, and I'll see you next time.