Murderer Confessed, But Wasn't Convicted

listen to love and murder podcast on apple podcasts

listen to love and murder podcast on spotify

**Episode Transcription

Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our motto is, you’re either someone’s last love or their first murder.

I am your host Ky, along with my summer co-host, the Fan and in today’s episode, we’re discussing an unsolved and mysterious case of an entire family going missing except for the father.

Before we begin, I want to say that this episode is sponsored by my LaMs in Patreon. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support.

Be sure to subscribe to Love and Murder right now while you’re listening so you don’t miss a case. If you didn’t know, you can also subscribe on our Patreon so that you don’t have to hear intros or commercials and you’ll be a sponsor of Love and Murder. Our last bonus episode over there was a reaction video between Char and I where we watched a video of an interrogation of a serial killer nurse. You should definitely subscribe to watch it. patreon.com/loveandmurder. I’ll talk about our Patreon more after the show.

Listen to Love and Murder on all platforms including Spotify, Apple, Goodpods

Now also before we begin, I want to address the fact that the episode is coming out on Monday and not Sunday. Well, that’s because I did record the episode for you all and I was editing it to have it out on time, but I did not like the sound quality. I did not like how I put together the story. I just didn’t like it and I wasn’t going to give you all crap, so I deleted it and I am now re recording it. So apologies for the lateness, but I didn’t want to give you crap. So now, as we always say, every week,

In the meantime though, grab your butts, grab your apple juice, and let’s get into some Love and Murder.…

James Michael Brown and Carolyn Denise Brown were parents to sons Barry Michael Brown and Brandon Mitchell Brown. Carolyn also had a daughter, Sheketah Michelle Brown, from a previous relationship.

However, she lived with her entire family. Her mom has stepdad and her two brothers in Port St. Lucie, Florida. At the time of this case, Sheketah was ten, Barry was six and Brandon was two, and the couple had already been married for ten years. James had a master’s degree from Florida Atlantic University and both he and Carolyn worked as teachers in Fort Pierce, Florida. However, James’s teaching license had been taken from him two years before this case. The reason why is because he was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to three years of probation. Now, you might be asking what happened? Did he do something to the kids in school? Well, no.

What happened was one day Sheketah wanted a pencil. She just wanted a pencil, which could have been for school, which could have been because she saw a cute little Barbie or strawberry shortcake pencil, and she decided to take $0.10 out of her lunch money. So her lunch money, she took $0.10 out of it to buy a pencil. And when she got home and showed her family the pencil, james decided to beat the snot out of her for doing that. So when Sheketah went to school, her teachers saw bruises, welts, and cuts on her and called officials about it. So it was investigated, found out what happened, and James got his license taken away from him. After he pled to aggravated child abuse, he ended up getting three years of probation and community service, and his license would be revoked for those three years of probation. However, even though his license was revoked, he was able to become a four age counselor, so they still kept him around children.

Now, it was reported that not only did he harm Sheketah but he did that to Caroline as well. As a matter of fact, Caroline would normally take the children and stay in church for the entire day to keep her and the children away from James, which my question is, why didn’t you just leave? Like you’re not in the house already, so just keep going. It was reported that James had mental health issues, and this is kind of why he was abusive, which still isn’t a reason to stay, because now you’re putting your kids through that, which can cause them to have mental health issues, and the cycle just keeps going on and on and on. In August of 1985, Rosa Walker, which was Caroline’s mom, called police and asked them to do a wellness check. She told them that basically she hadn’t heard from her daughter since July 4 of 1985. And usually because they live 5 hours apart, caroline would call her mother, like every week. Well, since July 4, she hadn’t heard from her daughter, so we can assume it’s been four weeks since she hasn’t heard from her daughter. So police went out just to do a wellness check, knocked on the door, nobody answered.

Join MY Spotify Premium Feed

GET STARTED

They walked around to see if anything was missing or miss or none of the doors were broken down. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. So somehow they did gain entrance into the house. And they did see some really unsettling things. Like, first of all, they did see like, a meal was at the table, but it was spoiled. Like somebody had set a meal out and then just walked away and left it, and it was just sitting there spoiled. Then there was food still sitting on the stove, and that also obviously, was spoiled. And all the clothes were still in the house, no clothes were taken.

And when they went into the garage, they found caroline’s purse on the floor in the corner. So she didn’t have her purse, no ID. And everything. Speaking of ID, her ID. Was shredded and just on the floor. Then they noticed that the master bedroom had been freshly painted, which was like, okay, well, they could have been remodeling, but other than that, they didn’t see any signs of struggle. They didn’t see blood. They didn’t see a body hacked up in the corner.

So they just figured that maybe the family just up and left know, wasn’t calling the mom at the moment. So they decided for the moment not to treat this as a missing person’s case. However, things changed when school started, and neither caroline or james came to work. Not only that, the children didn’t come to school. So when that was reported, in addition to what the mother had reported, they officially began treating it as a missing person’s case. A little while after that, caroline’s sister got a surprising call. James called her out of the blue. What the you’re supposed to be missing.

And he was like, yeah, well, anyways, I’m just calling to tell you that I don’t want anything in the house. You can come and take everything out of the house. I don’t need it, I don’t want it. Come and get it. And she was like, not really interested in what’s in the house. I just want to know where my sister and nieces or my niece and nephews are. And james was like, they’re out there, and then hung up, and that was it. So she reported that to police.

And then a little while after that, another call came into police, which was a friend of james, who said james had called him as well. And, you know, don’t worry about us. I’m working overseas now, and the boys are with me, so don’t worry about us. I’m overseas. We’re good. So, yeah, that’s all I have to tell you. So he was like, okay, well, where’s caroline and Sheketah? And james was like, look over there. Squirrel click.

Just hung up the phone. So he didn’t give any answer to where Sheketah and caroline was. So, like I said, the friend told investigators that. So with all of this, they’re now trying to find everybody. They did track down james’s car, which was in georgia, at an auto repair shop, but they couldn’t find caroline’s car. Then they went back to the house, and that’s when they decided, hey, let me see what’s under this paint. Well, under the paint were areas of blood. So certain areas in the room had blood all over it.

I don’t want to say blood all over it, like blood splatter.

Never Miss an Episode!

Subscribe below and we’ll notify you when new episodes go live.

A little while after this, in September, a man named Demetrius Jones checked into a hospital in Savannah. You might be wondering, okay, how did this story go from James and Caroline to Demetrius Jones? Stay with me now.

So this guy checks into a hospital in Savannah, Georgia and he has a gunshot wound to his head. So of course, medical staff went into immediate, oh, we got to treat him, let’s get him together. He might die. Let’s hurry up and help know so they’re not worrying about who exactly you are. You checked in as Demetrius, we’re going to call you Demetrius, Mr. Jones, whatever. After he was treated, hospital staff asked him, well, what happened? Like how did you get this gunshot wound to your head? And he said that he was shot when somebody tried to rob him. Well, now this is a problem for the police.

So they called the police and the police came out and started interviewing Demetrius. And that’s when they found out, oh, this isn’t actually Demetrius, this is James Brown. Dude, where have you been? And secondly, where’s your family? So he know, well, I guess here I am. You caught me. My family’s out there, like he said before. So they took him in for interrogation. When he got to the police station, this is what he told them. He said on July 14, he saw Caroline sleeping with Brandon, two year old Brandon right next to her.

So he walked up to her and basically shot her in the back of the head. And then because Brandon was sleeping right next to her, he took a pillow and smothered him. Then he woke up the other two kids and he claimed that he traveled about an hour away from Point St. Lucie to Palm Beach County and disposed of Caroline’s and Brandon’s body. Then on July 16, that’s when he called Betty, Caroline’s sister and told her to come pick up everything from the house because he’s not going to come back. Then on July 17, he took Shakita and Barry 4 hours away. He drove them 4 hours away to Brunswick, Georgia and along the way he shot them on I 95 and then just threw their bodies out along the highway. As he’s telling the cops this, he also admitted to shooting Shakita in the face and Barry in the head.

He said that when all of this was going on, he was depressed and suicidal, and this could have played the role in why he decided to do all of this. And he also said, well, also, not only was I depressed and suicidal, but also that I thought I gave my family a venereal disease. You gave them all VD, even the kids. Okay, but that’s what he said. He then said that on July 18, he drove to Savannah, Georgia, and tried to kill himself by shooting himself in the head, but he didn’t die. And then he gave the false name to the hospital and false name and date of birth to the police and everything, and we’re up to date, basically. Officer so police went out and searched for the bodies, but they couldn’t find anything anywhere that he told them the bodies were located. However, they arrested him immediately anyway, and as soon as he was arrested, he was like, wait, why are you arresting me? And they said, well, obviously because of what you just told us.

And he was like, well, no, that was a joke. I didn’t do that at all. I don’t know. I was trying to help you all out, trying to find out what happened to my family, but I didn’t murder my wife, stepdaughter and sons at all. That wasn’t me. So police were like, yeah, whatever, go sit in jail while we do an investigation. And they did a story investigation of the house. Like, they didn’t find any evidence of the house.

They didn’t find any evidence of where the bodies were supposed to be buried. They couldn’t find anything. So he went to trial with no evidence against him except what he told them in the interrogation room. And he ended up being acquitted on the grounds of mental insanity. And he was diagnosed with that by several court appointed mental health professionals who said he was a paranoid schizophrenic. So they found out that he reportedly suffered from hallucinations, having visions, hair and voices, and so they told the court that he has schizophrenia. So maybe he’s telling the truth of what he did, or maybe this is something that he thought he did but didn’t actually happen, being that there is literally no evidence out there. And so he didn’t face charges for the deaths of his son.

Chattahoochee, I think, right? Tell me if I’m wrong, because you all always do in Chattahoochee in 1985, and he was supposed to be there for ten years, which he was, because then in 1996, he was moved to a halfway house. But in July of that same year, officials at the halfway house wrote the court recommending that James should be transferred somewhere else, anywhere but here, because they said that he’s not doing well in here. And so they said, okay, well, we have a plan for him to go live with his sister, because we think he’s fully recovered, although he had just gotten in trouble a year prior. And the officials of the halfway house said, we are kind of uncomfortable with this plan. I don’t think you should do that. And they literally said, quote, we were uncomfortable with this plan for him to go live with his sister. So during the trial, that was meant for him to get out and prove that he can stay with his family.

And in 1997, he was released from the program. Even though he was released on the program, they told him he would still be required to take medication and attend daily therapy sessions. Now, I really hope that they have somebody constantly watching him twenty four, seven, I guess, on our tax dollars, because that is one of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Like, you’re going to get to a point where you feel like you don’t need the medication anymore. You feel like the government or whoever, the facility, whoever is giving you this medication, and they’re out to harm you because paranoid paranoia. So you start getting paranoid, then you stop taking the medicine because you feel like they may be harming you. And look at how I feel without the medicine, so much better. And then you stop going to your therapy sessions because I don’t need therapy anymore.

Look, I’m better. So you can tell somebody like that this is what they’re supposed to do, but how are you going to enforce it? In 2005, he went back to jail because he went to rob a bank and threatened to kill a bank clerk during the robbery. Good job. So to this day, nobody knows where the family is, nobody knows where Caroline is or any of the children, and there’s literally no clues. So it’s an unsolved mystery, and that’s it. So I went in search of what people had to say about this. Now, one person on reddit well, a couple people on reddit. The first one I’m going to read has a theory that either James put the bodies other places that he told the cop.

So even though he said behind the convenience store on I 95, he actually didn’t do that. They’re probably in the woods somewhere. So it could either be that or this person said their personal theory is that they think the family fled because James was violent. I don’t think he murdered them at all. I think he beat Caroline and one of the other children and left the bloodstains, and she grabbed the kids and ran while the kids were in the middle of eating breakfast. I mean, I was saying, why doesn’t she leave? Maybe she did up and leave, and maybe she did plant all these things so that they would probably think that she was murdered. I mean, that’s a possibility. Somebody else from Reddit said, I’d love to believe they’re still alive, but I’m afraid I’m just not that positive of a person.

He confessed to killing them. And I know confessions can be false, but I see no reason to doubt him here, given the circumstances of the family history. I think if Caroline and the kids had run off, she would have at least contacted her mother to let her know if they were okay. If he did do it, he must be wondering how on earth he got away with it. To attempt suicide out of apparent guilt, fail in the attempt, then go on trial and not get convicted. He must be feeling like the luckiest sob out there. Okay, he could have given a false confession. He thought it was real.

But schizophrenia? You can think a lot of stuff is real that’s not real. And how do you know that Caroline didn’t contact her mother and this was all a ruse? Like her mother was supposed to call the cops and that’s how everything is supposed to look like, oh, he murdered them, and it was a trail of false evidence. You know what I’m saying? It could be that her mom could know where she is and you know, because her mom is trying to keep them safe. Her mom’s not going to tell anybody anything. Her mom, her sister, everybody’s going to be like, I’m as clueless as you, so I hear what you’re saying, but still, holes can be punched in that theory. Somebody answered that person and said she could have run away. She could have told her mother and told her that she should call and say she hasn’t heard from her since such and such time and set up a scene about them going missing. See, same as I was thinking.

Something violent did happen because of the blood in the bedroom. I wonder if it was enough to have come from someone who died, though. Good point. Didn’t think about that. I wonder if they ever checked the other rooms. Good point. And I wonder if they ever checked the car for signs of the baby. That’s right, because he packed up Caroline and the baby and went and dumped them, according to him.

I don’t want to use such a crass word as dump, but that’s what he said. That’s true. Did they ever look at the car for signs of a decomposed? Or even if it’s not decomposed, the signs of a body or blood or anything was in the car, I wonder. And then somebody else said, also smothering someone with a pillow causes saliva transfer. I mean, that’s really pushing it, because you drill when you sleep. But I guess it would be a different kind of saliva transfer if you’re smothering somebody. So I wonder if they check that. So what do you think? Do you think she fled or do you think he murdered them? I would like to hear your thoughts.

I personally hope and think that she fled with the kids and that she’s out there and possibly her family knows where she is and of course, nobody’s going to talk. So this is what I personally hope and I personally think. I want to hear what you think and you have 3 ways of sharing them with me:

You can tell me in the comments below
You can join the LaM facebook group. It’s a free and welcoming group where you can discuss the cases with the rest of the LaMs
You can join the exclusive LaM community here at www.patreon.com/loveandmurder Right now we have options starting at only $1/mo

Speaking of which, if you join Patreon at only $3/mo donation, you get commercial free episodes – so like this episode minus the commercials and also with all the additions of the case – pictures, videos, pictures of evidence. You can actually get all of our bonuses now on Spotify if you search Love and Murder Premium Feed. You can just click on the link in the show notes below – that’s the easiest way to get there. The best tier is the $5/mo and above because not only do you get these things, but you also get bonus episodes and access to everything that I post throughout the web. You get it all here in this one little community.

www.patreon.com/loveandmurder. Come on over, we’d love to have you.

Before you go, don’t forget to give me a 5 star review on whatever platform you’re on. You can also download Goodpods and rate Love and Murder on there too! You doing this would help me out greatly and it takes no time at all. So thanks in advance.