"Dannette was a good child, too.". window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { Sign in to watch thousands of shows and movies available anytime. ", But, as she told News 12 this month, "So from 1991 to 2013, nobody was looking for my sisters. Their mother, Mary Louise Sturgis, who goes by Louise, called the nearby Pump-N-Shop gas station, then located at 12th Street andMLK Boulevard, then Milledgeville Rd.,in Augusta, as that was a place the family went to frequently. 15 year old twins Jeanette and Dannette went missing on March 18, 1990 in Augusta, Georgia. },false) Support, Available on USA, Oxygen, E!, Telemundo, Syfy, Bravo, iTunes, Hulu, NBC. There is also a local billboard that directs people tothemillbrooktwins.com, where they can submit tips in the case. Shanta says the twins made it to his home, collected the bus fare, and were given a few extra dollars to get some treats for their walk home. Nobody but family.". He had little to do with the twins' upbringing. Both twins had short hair. The local CBSNews 12 would later report, and confirm with the family, that an unnamed person had told authorities they saw the girls leaving (leaving whatthe neighborhood? Examining the disappearance of the Millbrook twins, who were dismissed as runaways. Aired: 11/23/2019. It's one of the only cases of missing twins in American history, but their case was scarcely investigated and most of the country has never heard of them. Shanta saw a video on TV of the newly-elected Sheriff of Augusta-Richmond County, Richard Roundtree. }); Nearly thirty years ago, 15-year-old African American twins, Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook, vanished off the street near their home in Augusta, Georgia. All rights reserved. Despite being one of the few cases of missing twins in American history, their disappearance gained little media attention and many question whether it was properly investigated. Joseph Patrick Washington was active in the girls' neighborhood and some believe that he may have been involved in the girls' disappearance. When the girls returned home, the family sat and ate lunch together for what would end up being the last time. The letter had been submitted to the Richmond County Sheriff's office two years ago, but they heard nothing at all after that. So far, the stories and investigations about the case have talked of the same old leads - the girls had seen a white van follow them home from Church the day they had disappeared. eventAction: 'view' #Dateline https://nbcnews.com/dateline/cold-case-spotlight/little-sister-still . Her Fianc Was Just Charged with Murder, Man Connected to Death of Ga. Father Found Rolled Up in Carpet Taken into Custody, Ga. Father Who Vanished on Business Trip Found Dead in Louisiana Rolled Up in Carpet, Wrapped in Plastic, Police Say No Signs of Foul Play in Death of Georgia Man Found Wrapped in Carpet and Plastic, More Than 15 Years After Madeleine McCann's Disappearance, Questions Remain Unanswered: 5 Things to Know, Father of Missing Tenn. Internet Service Terms A close relative did have children in the foster care system, leading the family to believe that this was the source of the confusion. Her daughters were fed up with her spending on alcohol since they wanted new clothes and a house with a swimming pool. Im gonna assume something had to [transpire] for them to want somebody to walk home, Shanta said. }); Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. They was acting normal, Shanta said of the attendants response. The girls vanished on March 18, 1990, becoming one of the few cases of missing twins in American history. Someone somewhere would have had to know what happened to them. If he had located them, he said he couldnt make them come back home because they were 17 years old, Shanta recalled. The remains were found near Shaw's Creek off of Highway 191 in Aiken County, South Carolina. "For nearly three decades the family of Jeanette and Danette Millbrook have been waiting for them to come home," said Will Packer, Executive Producer of ". We exhaustively searched for the answers to this incomprehensible tragedy, while offering hope to a family that is struggling for closure.. From retracing the twins last known steps to following intriguing new leads, the series will take viewers on an unexpected journey and attempt to tackle the unanswered question: What happened to the Millbrook twins? The case remains cold to this day, but the Oxygen special enlists former federal prosecutor Laura Coates and former homicide detective Page Reynolds to take a fresh look at it in an attempt to find justice for Dannette and Jeannettes relatives, who refuse to give up hope that they may still be alive. Dannette, Shanta said, was a bit louder and was always the one to stand up for Jeannette if she needed it. She was an alcoholic and suffered from depression. Their 16th birthday came and went. eventAction: 'click_image_ads' hitType: 'event', Mom of 2 Who Vanished Under 'Suspicious' Circumstances, Police Say, Boyfriend of Missing Nursing Student Irene Gakwa Pleads Guilty to Stealing Her Money After She Vanished, Ga. Dad Found Dead in Rolled-Up in Carpet Had Fentanyl in His System, Coroner's Report Says, 2 Fla. Teenagers Killed, 1 Left Brain Dead in Separate Shootings and Police Say Incidents May Be Connected, 2 Juveniles Arrested in Murders of 3 Fla. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. According to Shanta, on the day of their disappearance, Dannette was wearing white jeans with a white Mickey Mouse shirt and Jeannette was wearing a khaki skirt and a white turtleneck. Now, a new two-hour television special attempts to answer the still-lingering questions surrounding the case. The family has pleaded for help for decades with no relief. Oxygen's two hour special 'The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins' digs deep into the baffling and frustrating case and appears to go further than ever before. They had grown up in the same neighborhood in the projects, Bethlehem, so the clerk Gloria knew them. In the same area that the girls went missing from or were taken away lived a serial killer by the name of Joseph Patrick Washington. Moreover, the mystery surrounding the girls' removal from the national registry of missing children remained unsolved, with Roundtree unable to find out who had made the call or why. When the team reached out to him, he said that he had spoken to Mary Louise, the mother, every two weeks. hitType: 'event', The van or the man in it was never identified or tracked down. [3][11] A meeting with the sheriff's department led the Millbrook family to believe the reward would be officially announced and matched by the sheriff's department, but the sheriff's department denies making this commitment. ga('ads.send', { The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins is produced by Will Packer Media and Texas Crew Productions with Will Packer, Kelly Smith, Brad Bernstein, David Karabinas and James Buddy Day serving as executive producers. }) [1] There is much debate as to why exactly the case was initially closed. He wanted to help his community and stuff like that., Feeling like a fresh set of eyes might be exactly what her sisters case needed, Shanta decided to reach out tothe sheriffs office. pg.acq.push(function() { Now, former federal prosecutor Laura Coates and former homicide detective Page Reynolds attempt to unravel the mysterious unsolved case in the hopes of finally finding justice forDannette and Jeannette. Dateline reached out to the NCMEC to check if the girls had been unlisted on the site and later relisted. The family later confirmed to the local CBS News 12 that someone had called police to report seeing the girls leaving (leaving whatthe neighborhood? In 1990, twin sisters Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook disappeared in Augusta, GA. Law enforcement dismissed the girls as runaways. In 1993, someoneinformed the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to report that the twins had been found. In today's episode, we discuss the Freeway Phantom, an unidentified serial killer, who was active in Washington D.C. from April 1971 through September 1972. Three more birthdayscame and went. Listen to this episode from Criminal Curiosity on Spotify. I finally got the sheriff on the phone and the next day he told me he was going to reopen the case. Shanta remembers that her sisters had been sent to pick up the familys order from a nearby Churchs Chicken. window.adsContainer = {"positionAfterTitle":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position2":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position3":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Below_Next_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position4":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position5":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle1_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position6":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle2_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position7":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle3_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position8":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle4_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position9":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position10":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle6_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position11":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle7_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position12":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle8_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position13":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle9_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position14":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle10_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position15":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle11_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position16":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle12_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"positionTop":{"code":"Article_Desktop_970x250_Header_Rel","isOrganicUserAd":false,"max_width":970,"max_height":250},"positionBottom":{"code":"Article_Desktop_Sidebar_Bottom_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":300,"max_height":600},"positionBottomRight":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280}} [3] These calls ultimately led to the case being reopened in 2013. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Their disappearance remains the only case of . [2] At the time of her disappearance, she was 5'6 and 130 lbs. eventAction: 'click_ads' It's one of the only cases of missing twins in American history, but their case was scarcely investigated and most of the country has never heard of them. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); ", Added Sturgis, "I figured someone was bound to listen. Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook are still featured on theRichmond County Sheriffs Offices Missing Persons pageunder Millbrooks. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. [4] She is the last person to see Dannette and Jeannette. Eventually theoriginal case file disappeared, too. [1] Dannette was last seen wearing a white shirt with an image of Mickey Mouse, white jeans, and black shoes. In 2017, a series of podcasts were created about the girls' disappearance. But"every time you think you got somebody to help, and you think you take a step forward, you got to take a step back. hitType: 'event', Its one of the only cases of missing twins in American history, but their case was scarcely investigated and most of the country has never heard of them. Dateline reached out to the Richmond County Sheriffs Office to discuss the case and the search efforts that were done following the twins disappearance and in the years since and received an email from Sergeant Randall Amos, saying, At this time I am going to respectfully decline to comment on this case. In a follow-up email, the sergeant said that his office is willing to look into any new evidence/leads that become available.. Despite being one of the few cases of missing twins in American history, their disappearance gained little media attention and many question whether it was properly investigated. The special, for the first time in 30 years, digs deep into the story of the two teens who went missing on March 18, 1990, and have not been seen or heard about since. But she didn't give up, and on June 5, 2013, Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtreewho had just been elected in 2012announced he was reopening the case. The attendant told Louise that the twins arrived at the Pump-N-Shop with treat money in hand. I called down there once again after all them years and finally somebody called me back, she said. eventAction: 'render' [3][1] Mistakes in reports from the original investigation, such as misspelling the last name as "Millbrooks" and listing Jeannette's middle name as "Latressa", have remained unchanged in case files and can still be found on associated databases today, such as The Charley Project and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They ended up at gas station convenience store near the corner of 12th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where they bought chips and a drink. The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins: After three decades, investigators dig deep into one of the most baffling missing cases By Priyam Chhetri Published on : 19:00 PST, Nov 23, 2019 Nearly three decades ago, 15-year-old African American twins, Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook, vanished off the street in Augusta, Georgia. "We exhaustively searched for the answers to this incomprehensible tragedy, while offering hope to a family that is struggling for closure.. The Details Surrounding Susan Cox Powell's Unsolved Disappearance and the Death of Her Sons Don't Get More Chilling Than This, National Center for Missing & ExploitedChildren. [3] The case of the twins disappearance has been discussed on several other podcasts including My Favorite Murder, Thin Air, The Trail Went Cold, Unresolved, and Crime Junkie. The twins left the house againat around 3 p.m. and headed to their godfather's houseto getmoney for their bus fare, riding the city bus being how they got to and from school. A billboard went up to publicize a reward of $8,000 that had been raised for information that would help resolve their disappearance. the city? "He had so many mixed emotions over the years," she says, "but I do know if that had been my kids' father, I knew I would've wanted him to be involved in wanting to look for his kids.". Trademarks belong to their respective owners. Subscribe to Spectrum TV and start watching today. Whoever answered told them they had to wait 24 hours before they could report anyone missing. The family reports that they were told the case was closed when the girls turned 17 because they had reached an age at which they could no longer be legally forced to come home if found. So for the last 20 years they have not been in the system. "For some unknown reason they were removed from the system, but there is no report indicating why they were removed. They learned from other family members that Dannette and Jeannette had stopped at both a cousins house and their older sisters house on the way back, asking if someone could accompany them back home. She has been very involved in trying to find her daughters. }); Shanta said her mother and eldest sister gave DNA samples to authorities in 2017. Louise Sturgis called authorities to report the pair missing that evening. They were put on the news once.. if(document.querySelector("#adunit")){ I thought, you know, by them opening it, maybe they could have found out what happened to them, she said. They planned to murder her and use the internet to do so. Ernest Vaughns says he knows what happened to Jeannette and Dannette Millbrook. ga('ads.send', { "We think a terrible injustice has been done for the last 20 years," he told the Huffington Post at the time. Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and celebrity gossip. I don't think they think my children were important enough to go out and look for. The investigators reach out to Vaughns themselves through his daughter April Kettle, and what they heard shook them awake. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Richmond County Sheriffs Offices Missing Persons page, Missing Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. }); Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Period. Because they were juveniles at the time of the crime, their identities are protected . March 18, 1990, started as a normal day for 15-year-old twin sisters Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook, according to their younger sister, Shanta Sturgis, who was 12 at the time. The two-hour special dives into the disappearance of 15-year-old twins,Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Shanta had known "Lil Cheese" as a known drug dealer and that they knew him when they were kids. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotOnload', function(event) { When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. All rights reserved. Coates was quoted saying, "He said, 'If you find two dead twins you let me know'". Specifically, what happened to the Millbrook twins, why do many believe the police were apathetic about their disappearance and why did the media largely ignore the entire case? "Jeannette, she was a cautious person and she was a good student,"Mary recalled to localNewsChannel 6in 2018. Shanta just hopes theres still time to find answers. However, the family was not given a reason why. When the family asked if the girls had been acting strangely, the attendant told them they had not been. Former federal prosecutor Laura Coates and former homicide detective Page Reynolds, aided by Norton and her co-podcasting sleuth Brooke Hargrove, set out to uncover the mystery that has spanned decades. After lunch, they set out for his house, which was only a short walk away. "I had been trying for years to get the police to help us look for them and I was always told there was nothing they could do," she told the Huffington Post in 2013. [3] Further investigation revealed this to be false. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your device and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. }); The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins. In 1978, her5-day-old sonwas taken from her Atlanta homeby a woman she had just befriended at the hospital. According to the Richmond County Sheriffs Offices records, this final sighting of Dannette and Jeannette happened at about 4:30 p.m. When they had reached out to him to see if they had heard about the twins, he had written them a letter that said that he had some information. [3], Concerned about the lack of publicity for the reward, the producers of The Fall Line and Unresolved podcasts worked together to raise money for a billboard to advertise the reward fund. MEAWW brings you the best content from its global team of Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. [3] The twins were known to be good teens and were not troublemakers; they did not have a history of running away and there appears to be no motive for their disappearance. RT @DatelineNBC: Disappearance of Georgia twins still a mystery 33 years later. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Their mother, Mary Sturgis, had expected them back home by nightfall. The other came to her rescue but was punched by one of the men and fell backward, hitting her head and hurting herself badly. How much did racial and socioeconomic divisions in Augusta come into play in determining how Jeannette and Dannette Millbrooks' case was handled? "We've tried to get the FBI involved," Sturgis told the Huffington Post. Laurah Norton and Brooke Hargrove reveal to former homicide detective Reynolds that when they dug around, they had come across an inmate named Earnest Vaughns, who is currently serving out a life sentence in Dodge State Prison for murder. For decades, their family pleaded for help, but the case went cold. }); EPISODE 1. At the time, the case garnered very little local media attention, and many believed police could have done more. The family was given several explanations for the closure of the case, including the explanation that the girls had been removed from the home and placed into foster care, where they were eventually adopted. He lived in Hale street near the Pump-n-Shop where the girls were last seen and would be seen on the Martin Luther King Jr. boulevard. According to Shanta, after the twins vanished, the arriving officer misspelled her sisters names, and mis-recorded their date of birth. This is a tragedy that cuts deep into Americas never-ending struggle with race and class. Examining the disappearance of the Millbrook twins, who were dismissed as runaways. ga('ads.send', { "I ain't going to give up on them." document.querySelector("#google_image_div").addEventListener('click',function(){ In short, there was no investigation from Detective Ship. I talk about it to people to let people know, even though they dont know what their faces look like or whatever, I want people to know what happened to my family, she said. [3][4] After their disappearance, family members considered it unusual that the twins made multiple requests for company on the walk home that day. Reality 2019. It was nearly 30 years ago that 15-year-old twins Jeannette and Dannette Millbrook vanished from the streets of Augusta, Georgia, without a trace. A nationwide search came back empty. Oxygen Media, the destination for high-quality crime programming, searches for answers in the upcoming two-hour special The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins premiering onSaturday, November 23 at 7pm ET/PT. But almost 30 years later, despite the deep dive in Oxygen'sThe Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins, in which they examine the inexplicable behavior ofthe girls' father, John Millbrook, who wouldn't give a DNA sample when the case was reopened in 2013 and told his oldest daughter (who's since passed away) not to provide one either (she did anyway); and despite the justified outrage overthe entrenched bias of alaw enforcement system that initially dismissed Jeannette and Dannette as probable runaways, not to mention media outlets thatgave them short shrift because the family isn't affluent and white that doesn't change the fact that thegirls' fate remains unknown. [9] The current investigating agency is the Richmond County Sheriff's Office. the state?wasn't explained) and that was all they needed to consider the case closed, barely a year after Dannette and Jeannette first went missing. Although they are . window.googletag.cmd.push(function() { "They said the case was closed and there was no missing children report.". Anyone with information can contact the Richmond County Police Department dispatch at the non-emergency line of 706-821-1080, or the Criminal Investigations Division at 706-821-1020. A prison informant claims he knows what happened to Jeannette and Dannette Millbrook. Their 16th birthday came and went. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Mom Vanished 6 Weeks Ago, Car Found Abandoned with Phone Inside, Mother of Athena Strand, 7, Joins Child's Father in Suing FedEx After Their Daughter's Death, Suspect in Mich. State Mass Shooting ID'd, Caller's Tip Led Police to Him. Once again, the family is left with questions about what happened to their twins. Nobody. [8] In media releases the sheriff was quoted as saying, We think a terrible injustice has been done for the last 20 years which helped to fuel interest in the new investigation. }); When the original investigation was opened in 1990, the detective on the case Jim Ship had dubbed them as runaways and shutout the family from any information regarding the case. ", Shanta, who maintains a Facebook page dedicated to keeping Jeannette and Dannette's names out there,added, "They're my sisters, but they're her daughters, you know. At lunch, the twins mentioned that they needed bus fare to get to school for the upcoming week, so Shanta says their mother told them to go to their godfathers house to ask him for bus fare. pg.acq.push(function() { The first season of The Fall Line podcast explores the details surrounding the disappearance of the Millbrook twins. Teens, 3rd Suspect at Large: 'These Kids Had a Full Life Ahead of Them', 15-Year-Old Goes Missing in Chicago After 2 Women Found Dead in Same Area, An Ohio Art Student Mysteriously Vanished 12 Years Ago. Now, former federal prosecutor Laura Coates and former homicide detective Page Reynolds attempt to unravel the mysterious unsolved case in the hopes of finally finding justice forDannette and Jeannette. Its one of the only cases of missing twins in American history, but their case was scarcely investigated and most of the country has never heard of them. After that, the trail runs cold. Itwould be more thantwo decades beforethe twins started getting the amount ofattention that Mary and Shanta felt should have been paid to them from the beginning. "I know about cold cases, and if they don't stay active, they stay cold," Greentold NewsChannel 6. She said they came here and bought something to drink and some candy and some chips.. And it is bad, because you start to see other people families going through it and then some of the little ones get found, Shanta said. Nobody. [5] The twins did not have a history of misbehavior, outside of a single instance that occurred as a result of one of the twins being bullied at a bus stop. In April 1991, an investigator informed the family that the girls could no longer be compelled to return home, police apparently still entertaining the possibility that they had run away. The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins will premiere on Oxygen on Saturday, November 23 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Entertainment Television, LLC A Division of NBCUniversal. When they returned, they informed their mother, Louise, that a man in a van had followed them for part of their walk. Shanta also said that The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children updates Dannette and Jeannettes age progression photos every five years. Their Family Still Wants Answers", "28 years missing: The Millbrook twins' family still searching for answers", "Missing twins' family to fundraise for reward in 1990 case", "Woman's slaying in 1992 thought to be by serial killer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Disappearance_of_Dannette_and_Jeannette_Millbrook&oldid=1149892365, "The Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins - Part I", This page was last edited on 15 April 2023, at 02:56. Whoopi Goldberg interrupts 'The View' live segment, raises her voice and hits co-host, Demi Moore has not left Bruce Willis's side and is doing everything to make his 'last moments happy', Baywatch star Jeremy Jacksons ex-wife Loni Willison spotted looking for food in LA waste, 'Liza took a final breath and sighed': Liza Burke, 21, dies 6 weeks after stage 4 cancer diagnosis, 'Go for a size bigger': Honey Boo Boo slammed for flaunting 'tight' prom dress with boyfriend Dralin Carswell. I see him talking on the news, and Ive seen some of the commercials that they had been making, she said. You know, if something were to happen to her, I want her to be able to rest knowing that she found out what happened to her daughters, Shanta said. Shanta said this was an odd request, as the twins knew the area and had walked alone before. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('impressionViewable', function(event) { Search Intensifies for Minn. [5] Persistent calls to the sheriff's department from Shanta prompted the case to be reopened in 2013. Shanta told Dateline that something later stood out to the family about the sisters walk home from their godfathers place that day. and Oxygen are both members of the NBCUniversal family.). Watch S1 E1 Home Watch March 18, 1990, started as a normal day for 15-year-old twin sisters Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook, according to their younger sister, Shanta Sturgis, who was 12 at the time. hitType: 'event', media-tech companies with hubs around the world. The Fall Line told her storylast year as well. },false) The special also sees the pair interviewing eyewitnesses and confronting local law enforcement in addition to retracing the girls last steps.
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