Brandon Billings /// Part 1 /// 158 | Forensic Files

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crime Auto school is in full swing the leaves start to change colors and the nights start to get cool
and every Friday night students everywhere gather at high school football stadiums to experience the
magic of the Friday Night Lights and cheer their team on to Victory [Music] on October 4th 2002
at Galax high school that Friday night the students faculty and family members gathered around the field and under the
lights to cheer on the mighty maroon tide one of their favorite student athletes
was a gentle giant 320 pound senior football star Brandon Billings Brandon was dedicated to his fellow
teammates his friends and his family and every Friday his parents attended the games
on Saturday October 5th 2002 Brandon celebrated his 18th birthday for Brandon everything was falling into
place he's halfway through another great football season the exciting times of his senior year a milestone birthday and
planning for college that Saturday night Brandon went out to celebrate his 18th birthday with his
friends his parents were shocked when Brandon failed to return home that night what was even more uncharacteristic he
didn't even call to say he was staying at a friend's house it was a day that was supposed to bring
joy and happiness and only left Brandon's family and friends heartbroken this is the case of Brandon Billings
[Music] [Music] Kyle Brandon Billings was born October 5th 1984. he lived with his mother and
dad this is Sherry and Kyle Billings and his sister Angie in Virginia we have two
Kyle's in our story Captain we have Kyle Billings the father and his son Kyle Brandon Billings right and that's why
everybody calls the sun Brandon Billings and not Kyle Brandon Billings now our story starts in 2002 in 2002 the
Billings family was living in the Galaxy area full disclosure here Captain the newspaper articles on this case named
several small cities and two or three counties and I'm not super familiar with that area so forgive me if I sound like
a nitwit here but uh we're we are saying that the Billings family lived in the Galax area but the key thing here is
Brandon attended Galax High School Brandon is a star on the football team we're going to say star because that
seems to be one if not the most important thing to brand and Brandon was a big dude yeah big boy over 300 pounds
he played I believe it was on the offensive line uh he also played a little bit of linebacker yeah it was
weird because it seems like uh some reports would say he's a linebacker some people would say he's the lineman
obviously there's you know there's a big difference but I mean 320 pound linebacker coming at you that's uh
that's a scary sight yeah and I tend to lean with the thought here that he might
have been offensive line because of it won his size and two his number number 79 that's typical offensive line number
um but Brandon's dad Kyle he never missed one of Brandon's games he was at all of the games and he was also one of
those fathers that would attend a lot of the practices whenever he could the Billings family they sat in the stands
at Galax High School countless nights watching Brandon take to the football field the school's team is called the
maroon tied and this is a very small area I mean the counties would have less than 20 000 people so October 4th is a
Friday and just like most or all of the Fall Friday nights Brandon played on the
varsity football team so Brandon had a football game that night the next day is Saturday October 5th this is Brandon's
birthday Brandon Billings turned 18 years old on this day so a mild a milestone birthday yeah well on that
Saturday Brandon let his father Kyle borrow his pickup truck that morning there was something called the Galax
Lords acre sale some type of community event Kyle Billings had a funnel cake stand so
Brandon let his father the truck so he could pull the stand to this event later that day once Brandon got his
truck back he loaded up the bed of his truck and he delivered a bunch of firewood to his grandmother's house
so I probably exchanged like hey deliver this firewood I'll give you the truck so I think just you know looking at that
Friday and Saturday we get a pretty decent idea of what kind of dude we have here in Brandon Billings a a dedicated
football player and someone that could have you know he could have been out running around with his friends or just
doing whatever on that Saturday however we have him helping out his father and then later helping out grandma Yeah and
normally when it is your 18th birthday I mean he might have partied a little bit
on Friday night after the game uh there was normally always somewhere to go after the games in my town anyways and
then uh but we see him that he wakes up at a decent time and he starts doing some chores and whatever he needs to do
because he he does want to hang out for his birthday that night well after delivering the firewood to his
grandmother's place he came home Brandon came home and he took a nap apparently according to Brandon's parents Brandon
must have overslept because when he woke up he was he was in a hurry to leave the
house okay he basically went running out the door despite hearing his parents calling for him to you know wait a
minute where are you going those typical questions right Brandon just simply saying I can't I gotta go and with that
he was off well Brandon may have been late to join some friends for a birthday dinner would
be my guess right because we have a friend of his his name is Jason Cole a good friend of Brandon's they had dinner
together that night at a Mexican restaurant so we we know that Brandon hung out with
several friends that night uh Jason Cole who he had dinner with we also have Seth
Greer and Joseph Wright two other close friends of Brandon's and Brandon hung out with his girlfriend that night as
well and her name is Elizabeth Edwards they were going to be partying that night and in part to celebrate Brandon's
birthday at some point Elizabeth his girlfriend takes a photo of Brandon that evening
wearing a party hat Brandon is going to be hanging out well past midnight that night so now it's early morning hours of
Sunday October 6th Joseph Wright says that he saw Brandon Billings at the on the way that's the name of a a small
convenience store uh he saw them and he talked to Brandon briefly he said that Brandon Billings
appeared to be in a good mood he didn't say anything out of the ordinary and after they talked for a little bit
Brandon got in his truck and he pulled out of the parking lot and he headed west on U.S 58 towards independence well
now a lot of these small towns they have a strict curfew so normally the curfew for anybody under 18 is I think midnight
uh you can actually get pulled over and arrested for being out past curfew but now you know Brandon's an adult now so
maybe this is one of the reasons why he chose to hey I could you know I can stay
past curfew well the thing here is like you said Brandon Brandon is by himself reportedly by himself according to this
Joseph Wright who saw him at the on the way convenience store and this is 3 40 a.m so it this is very
kind of out of the norm out of the norm for Brandon yeah and at this point we kind of lose track of Brandon Billings
but there seems to be like you said some questionable things going on here first
this seems late right late at night for a young man that reportedly from both of
his parents stated that he observed the curfew laws and he would call if he would be late or if chain if plans were
to change right and he was going to stay the night but like you point out here we
have something interesting going on because this is the first night that he's 18. who knows what who knows what's
you know what has changed for him maybe he thinks you know I don't have to call anymore well I don't have to observe the
curfew laws how were your parents in high school um so my I lived with my father when I
turned 18 and he he spoke with me and he basically said this he's like look you're 18 now you can kind of come and
go as you please um you know if you come in late at night I'm that's not going to bother me as
long as a you don't wake me up you know and you know as long as you're not rude about it uh what about changing your
plans calling and changing your plans do you have to call um no I didn't I didn't have to call for
for that once I once I was 18. now when I was under 18 I I was to kind of keep the parents involved in what I was doing
and and you know up to date yeah because I was lucky just to I mean I could call
at any time and they would just you know what whatever I said was fine they never questioned it I remember one
time I I you know I got hammered and I shouldn't have been that drunk and I remember calling my father and saying
I'm drunk and uh and I was real nervous too because it was like you know 11 o'clock at night and I was like oh God
but I felt like I gotta call him because I'm not obviously coming home and it was
simply you know I'm drunk and he was like okay uh are their parents there and I was like
no he goes well just don't leave and they they hung up the phone never talked about it after that that was it well
that's what's strange here though Captain because the Brandon's parents their concerned that he's not home but
maybe this just kind of slipped through the cracks maybe it didn't occur to them
hey Sun's turning 18. this is a conversation that we need to have or or maybe they expected them to be out a
little bit later you know and maybe they're already in bed they're already asleep so they don't even know that he's
not back yet but we should also point out that his according to his friend Joseph Wright Brandon Billings didn't
appear to be speaking or doing anything out of the norm well and this is 2002 so I'm
assuming that Brandon doesn't have a cell phone right especially because it's a small town so even back then I would
it would have been odd for any of my friends to have a cell phone um maybe a a pager or something well and
the other thing that I want to point out here is that according to this report uh
by his friend that Brandon would have been heading would have most likely been heading in the opposite direction of his
home so it doesn't look like he was planning on returning home at 3 40 a.m now on Sunday October 6th we have a man
this is Ricky Stewart he's in his 30s he's with his wife Arlene they are on the property of Larry carrico a property
off of Rock House Lane this is a very rural area now Ricky and his wife are there with Larry's permission to deer
hunt on the property this is something that Ricky had done many times now Larry lives in a house at the top of the hill
Ricky and his wife are they're not on the top of the hill they are down by the creek this is around 11 30 a.m to about
noon on that Sunday Ricky said that he didn't see anyone else in the area and for whatever reason
I found this to be a strange observation but like I said Ricky had hunted in this
area many times and he said that he found the area to be unusually clean I guess there were
usually you know like trash strewn about they were out looking for deer for about two hours or so
and Ricky Stewart said that he and his wife decided to head back toward the road this is when he saw what he thought
was the reflection of either sunlight off of a windshield or sunlight off of a tail light
this caught his eye through the brush then when he studied it more he was sure he was seeing a section of a vehicle
so Ricky Stewart said that he went down through the brush to what he could clearly now see was a pickup truck
as he got closer he saw a body partly hanging out of the driver's side door the person was obviously dead
but Ricky Stewart did not know who this person was he said he was incredibly startled and
shaken by this discovery obviously I don't think anyone leaves the house expecting to find a body
he tells his wife to call 9-1-1 but her cell phone would not get any service down there by the creek
so they drove up to his boss's house uh Larry's house at the top of the hill and he asked Larry's wife to call 9-1-1
which she did well they stayed at the house for about five or ten minutes and then they went back down to where they
had found the truck right so first on the scene was uh EMTs then we have officer Barnett
he says he reported to the scene about 10 minutes after the call came in the first thing that the officer noticed was
that the truck that held the body of the at this time Unknown man it was sitting in the soft dirt of the
creek the tires were sunk into the dirt almost almost all the way up to the steel rims of the tires
there were some tracks around the truck but they were quickly able to determine that those were from the First
Responders here's one thing that's going to upset you a little bit Captain there was there
was one what they're labeling as one good footprint in the soft mud that was of interest to the investigators
but before they could take an impression of this it was accidentally stepped on by the
medical examiner Fami Malik Jesus no uh but small town so I mean uh you know probably not that many murders
take place in this County so uh you got to give them somewhat of a leeway on not
knowing how to um you know they might know how to investigate a scene but that doesn't
mean that they've done it enough where it's going to be you know a hundred percent to the book well and the other
thing here is the the medical examiner is not showing up hoping to destroy evidence uh the medical examiner
probably hopefully not yeah what I'm assuming is 99.9 times you know it sounds it sounds
bad that that he or she was the one that stepped on the the footprint but let's keep in mind somebody else one of the
investigators or somebody already on the scene could have pointed it out hey don't step there yeah or you know roped
it off yeah there you go how that's an idea yeah there you go okay so officer Barnett uh he didn't get much of a
chance to investigate the actual scene where they found this truck in the body because he was sent to interview people
up and down the street up and down the road there to see if they knew anything regarding
their findings but no one that lived on that street had seen or heard anything uh that seemed of
any of importance nobody heard any gunshots we'll get to that because there's some information here but nobody
saw anything that day is what you're saying correct as far as officer Barnett goes while he's investigating and
talking to these The Neighbors in this area they've not seen or heard anything now they asked Ricky Stewart and his
wife the two that had found the body if they had seen or heard anything of importance now Ricky said that when they
were heading out of the Creek area to go up to the house to call 9-1-1 they saw a
little silver or gray Nissan coming into the area so a small car but they had just glanced at it what
does that mean into the area into the area where the truck was yes yes so that this area that the truck was in
um this was kind of known to the kids as like kind of a make out alley type thing
yes not really Ally but it's kind of like a country road but you know hey we can go by the creek and uh it's a
secluded spot back there do some tongue battling so maybe I'm not describing it good enough but we have the truck that
was found with the body in it is basically in the Creek area okay and they had to Ricky and his wife who found
the body they have to leave the area they have to go back up to the house so they they can call 9-1-1 when they're
heading up to the house this little car is driving in toward the creek toward the truck but it could just be somebody
turning around yeah there was a turnaround in that area now he said that he couldn't tell
um he couldn't recall anything about the people inside the truck inside the Nissan or even how many people were in
the car uh he said he just glanced at it he also said that when they went back down to the area of the crime scene he
did not see the Nissan again but the sheriff's deputy's car was already there by this point so Ricky
Stewart told the officers that when he got closer to the truck that he had spotted he could see the driver's side
door was slightly open not this the door wasn't open all of the way just a little
bit yeah and he also said that driver was hanging out he said that there was nothing in the way of the door so it
could have been opened all the way but it had not he said that the young man's body was
partially outside of the truck on the driver's side and Ricky actually went up and he checked the body for a pulse but
he said that there was none as for the small Nissan car now Ricky when questioned about this car
he said that he tried to actually flag down the car he wanted to you know kind of warn them right about what they had
seen he said that the vehicle was going too fast that they they may not have noticed
that he tried to wave at them he decided not to follow the vehicle not to follow
the Nissan because they wanted to call 9-1-1 as soon as possible now at this point after having called 9-1-1 remember
at the scene we have EMTs there we have the officer that responded first officer
Barnett right we have the medical examiner dancing all over evidence actually I don't think by this point the
examiner has arrived but we have another officer that arrives at the scene his name is Terry Anders
now Terry Anders very quickly tells officer Barnett this thing looks like a homicide and not like a traffic fatality
to him the thing here is you got to keep in mind Captain we have a truck with with a
body in it that's down in the creek basically it could have potentially been a traffic accident or a traffic fatality
we don't see any signs of a wreckage on the vehicle right and well and but we also don't see any bullet holes in the
vehicle either there was some damage to the truck my guess is that it wasn't until after
this officer Anders arrived that officer Barnett would have been sent off to interview people up and down the street
well what kind of damage are we talking about see I don't know that oh I know that there was damage to the vehicle
there's normal wear and tear damage I mean uh trucks are notorious you know anybody that owns a truck knows that
people like to hit you like you know normally when somebody's backing out like in a parking lot or something
they'll hit the bed of the truck so you'll see a lot of trucks that have little dings and stuff on the bed
because somebody wasn't paying attention and didn't see the bed well some of the first observations that
this officer Anders makes the driver was wearing a t-shirt the deceased was wearing a t-shirt and it had been pulled
up over his head the seat belt on the driver's side appeared to have been cut he saw what
appeared to him to be two gunshot wounds behind the deceased ear the truck itself
he figures out that it's registered to a Kyle and Sherry Billings so I'm assuming
the officers are going to call the Billings house well let's go to the Billings house so
we have we have Sherry and Kyle Billings who they're concerned because they've discovered that their son had not come
home from that Saturday night right Sherry Billings she started to call around to Brandon's friends the morning
after to find out where he was they're probably pretty worried but not probably super worried because it was his
birthday so you got to kind of take that into account it sounds like the and this
is kind of a typical situation I'm guessing it sounds like Mom was pretty concerned
and it sounds like Dad had just thought well it's his birthday he probably just got a little wild maybe a little crazy
and he went and did something that uh he normally wouldn't have done at some point that evening
a vehicle drove up to their home and it parked behind the home just where Brandon would always Park his truck
well at this time Sherry called out to her husband Kyle and said hey your son's finally home
so they both walked to the back door where they didn't find Brandon as they had expected but they found Sheriff
Wilson along with investigator Glenn Hyatt Sherry's mind immediately leapt to a car
accident yeah she was totally unprepared for what they were about to tell her that they had found Brandon he had been
found shot to death around 2 30 p.m on that Sunday October 6th just one day after his 18th birthday
foreign [Music] [Music] we're back cheers mates cheers let's get into this investigation Captain because
we have this situation where we have 18 year old Brandon Billings he's been killed he's been found dead in his truck
in a creek near the New River we'll buy a creek by the creek and now they've identified their victim and now we have
an investigation that's going to take place we mentioned that they went to the Billings home and told the parents that
Unfortunately they had found their son dead now they're going to ask them of course when was the last time they had
seen Brandon right they're going to tell the investigators the story of Brandon oversleeping the day before waking up
saying he was running late for something and basically rushing out the door right
but we're assuming that's his birthday dinner correct because later his parents said later that day they had seen his
pickup truck parked outside of a Mexican restaurant in Galax that evening so this
obviously is where he was having dinner so I think this is important for a couple of reasons one the parents having
seen Brandon's truck parked in the parking lot so obviously it corroborates the story of Brandon having dinner with
his friend but we also have a situation where Kyle Brandon's father said that he could see
the truck clearly and it did not appear to have any damage on the vehicle at the
time that he saw it in the parking lot right now we we do have some witnesses you asked about if there were any
Witnesses or if people had seen or heard anything the witness we have this is Albert
Barkley Jr he's 68 of Huntersville North Carolina he and his wife were camped across the river from the scene of the
crime in their RV Barkley said that he had heard what sounded like three gunshots around 4 a.m which he knew
because they checked the time when they were startled awake by the noise so these gunshots startled you awake and
you don't call the cops but maybe you don't call the cops because this is an area that people hunt in so maybe you're
just assuming that there's Hunters out early on the weekend well yeah I found that a little confusing too now Barkley
said that after hearing the first set of shots he then heard a second round of shots this time two gunshots and he saw
lights in the dark across the river at what would later be identified as the actual crime scene now he went back to
bed after the second round of shots and while in Betty her heard a final shot he
got up again so he he hears a total of how many shots three and then another round and then another single shot
correct so so by this point he hears three then two then one according to his account so a total of six shots yeah
maybe you don't call the cops just because you hear the gunshots but once you see the lights from a vehicle I
would assume at that point that you would call the cops yeah he told them he that he saw again he saw lights from
what appeared to be a vehicle they asked him if he could describe the vehicle he
said that all he could say is that he saw lights he couldn't tell you what it was he thought that it might be a truck
but he wasn't he couldn't say for cert now Albert Barkley and his wife they said that later that morning they left
to go visit some friends in the Elk Creek area when they came back by this time it was the afternoon and this is by
then they had already stumbled upon the crime scene so the crime scene was being
investigated at that point and that's when he reported having heard these shots in the wake of Brandon's death the
police pursued leads and interviewed more than 100 people looking for Clues while they awaited for the autopsy
report investigators met daily to discuss their findings stating that we we answered all the tips that were
coming in at the time anytime anyone calls they went out and checked out the tip meanwhile friends and family began
raising money for the funeral turkey knob Church where Sherry Billings was a member held a bake sale to raise money
family friend Sherry bear began another fund drive setting up donation jars at businesses to collect money her daughter
Holly was a classmate of Brandon's at Galax High School the delps studio this is one of those photo studios donated a
16 by 20 portrait of Brandon to the Billings family and the owner provided photos of Brandon to all members of the
Galaxy football team and the senior class let's get into some of the evidence Captain so Brandon Billings was
found shot today shot to death from multiple gunshots but his truck had no bullet damage right
the truck was in a small Creek near the New River on Rock House Road off of Patton Mill Road by a creek because we
keep saying in a creek but it was just by the creek well I think I actually think that both descriptions might be
correct just depending on who's giving it and that sounds like a be both correct yes I I think they can it sounds
confusing but this is a confusing crime scene and actually the way that it's described in the newspaper accounts
doesn't help to clear much up in my mind here's what I can gather okay so we know
that the tires were found in what's reported as the soft mud or soft dirt near the creek yeah see I wonder if it's
like a service road that you have to go down and that you know because like I said I mean this was kind of known as
like a makeout area for the local kids or like the high school kids would you know you don't have a place to go make
out at your parents house or whatever so you go to these Service Roads and that's
kind of what I'm envisioning in my head because I know in my town we had a couple Service Roads that people would
you know go do naughty stuff there well my parents always made sure that they had a special spot at our house for
children to make out now so that sounds so bad the way that it sounds to me Captain is okay so we know the truck was
off the road um it was it was in the dirt or mud however you want to describe it where
some people may say to be in the creek you have to physically be in the water right it wasn't in the water however it
may have been damn near close to it where others might describe that as well the truck was found in the creek so I
think that's the reason for the confusion and I think that maybe um we can use some of this this autopsy
that the police are waiting on to help clear up some of these questions that you and I have so as you had said this
was a favorite Party location for the local teens oh Party location also that's what the the locals refer to it
as Party location now the police state that they didn't know whether the vehicle had wrecked before or after
Brandon was shot okay so this would be clear because I wasn't clear before there was definitely some sign of
wreckage there was some sign of wreckage to the vehicle there was no uh bullet damage found on the truck itself I'm
unclear as to what the damage the wreckage damage was on the truck right this was a tough case I mean there was a
lot that was not clear but we do know that it was wrecked because the police outwardly say we don't know if the wreck
occurred before or after he was shot because he could have been in the driver's seat the vehicle on in drive
you get shot and then you let your foot hit the pedal and take off or you or you
let up off of the brake and the vehicle heads down towards the creek right all these things are possible the police
also said that there is no evidence that Brandon was abducted or forced to drive
to Rock House Road okay they said that yeah because the big question here you got to start with why
was Brandon out that late what the heck was he doing and he was by himself like yeah I could understand if
he was with his girlfriend or with some buddies that would make sense to me but it sounds to me like he's driving away
from his home right and he's by himself yeah he's heading somewhere where is he heading to and he wasn't this is not a
kid that was reported to have any missed dealings you know it said you know all of his family and friends
basically said he was a gentle giant he was the kind of dude that if he saw trouble he would just turn and walk away
I'm not trying to I'm not trying to throw shade but you see this happen a lot of times in cases where somebody Is
tragically murdered and and they were an angel in the community and they were the
perfect person and then sometimes if you do some digging that you find out not so
much in this case though there's no wavering on this this guy was uh you know basically a big teddy bear well and
it's not just his parents saying that he was an awesome guy it's his friends as well you know his his contemporaries are
saying he didn't do drugs and he yeah he did party a little bit they said he would attend parties and he'd probably
I'm guessing would consume a little alcohol at these parties but what the friends had said was he was the type of
dude that only went to the parties to be with his friends he wasn't like the Wild
guy that was leading the party you're showing up with bottles of booze right you know he wasn't that guy
um what else did the police find so they found that his body was bruised and I don't know the locations of these of the
bruising but the police did say that these bruises could have resulted from either a truck wreck or from
Brandon having played a football game that Friday night right so I'm I'm assuming that these bruisines are on his
chest or shoulder so again anybody that's been in a pretty difficult car wreck you'll a couple days later you're
gonna see like bruising across your chest from the seat belt but also anybody that's played you know Sports
you know you wake up on on Monday and kind of notice bruises especially football you know you get hit with a
helmet and the ribs and then next thing you know your whole side is is bruised well we both played a little football
growing up and I were pretty good oh man I was like I was like the Bo Jackson of
Columbus Ohio The Glory Days no but um he would run up walls and stuff it was great but the thing is when you when you
play football not just the bruising the ribs but remember that you would you'd wake up losing of the ego you'd wake up
a couple days later and you would have like like purple and blue marks and black marks on your on parts of your
arms and your forearms yeah yeah that you don't even they weren't things that hurt at the time during the game or
during practice you didn't even recall that and why would it have bruised so much
um but but I'm assuming when they say bruising on the body I'm assuming chest or stomach area uh not so much the arms
because I think they would have stayed it as such well you you could be right but the reason why I went ahead to point
that out was that these could be taken either way these are very obvious bruises that I would expect to see
someone having played a football game that Friday but they would also be obvious bruises of someone I would have
expect for like defensive wounds if there were some kind of altercation if he was in some kind of fight well or or
the wreck if there was a wreck that could you could have sustain those injuries so there's three options and
that makes it even more difficult here's another here's a weird thing and I'm telling you Captain the last
couple nights I've laid in bed and I've thought about this crime scene and it just doesn't make there's I can't make
any sense of it so all right sorry I just I let you in my head there for a minute but I don't
want to be in your head Brandon's wallet was missing but police did come out and
said that they they did not assume robbery was a motive for his murder well his parents would know if he had a bunch
of money on him or like birthday money on him but uh you're talking about an 18 year old kid I mean
why would you rob a 18 year old kid you're not hitting the lottery with that well the medical examiner who performed
the autopsy on Brandon Billings uh stated that Billings had sustained two bullet wounds on the left side of his
head and one on the right side as well as a shot to the neck three that doesn't make any sense three
of these shots were from an indeterminate range she estimated that one that the one on
the right side of Brandon's head was fired from a distance of about 6 to 12 inches so we have we have four bullet
wounds we have three that they cannot determine the distance from which the the bullets were fired right and one
that appears to have been shot at close range 6 to 12 inches the back of his left wall and which one
was the six to 12 inches uh that was the one on the right side okay so he's in the driver's seat
six to 12 inches you either have a pretty long arm because this is a Ford Ranger
so it's it's not a huge truck so you could actually reach in with your arm and shoot somebody and be six to 12
inches away you can reach in through the passenger side window right so then my question would be is that window was it
open or shut and determined on how much his his face was turned his head was turned the shock could have come from
the driver's side window or remember he was found partially outside of the the vehicle door right and him being
partially outside of the vehicle door may explain why there was no bullet damage to the truck that's the problem I
have here I can't I look at this crime scene and I go through the autopsy and we got plenty more to get to here I
can't determine if he was in or outside of the truck at the time that the shots took place yeah because he could have
been shot by uh you know an individual or two individuals and they and they place them back into the truck or half
back into the truck I mean you know he could have been standing by his truck when this attack takes
place and he's a big boy and maybe that is one of the reasons why he only got half back into the truck you
know I mean because because he was such a big boy the back of his left hand had gunpowder grains on it so this
suggesting that his hand was possibly up when he was shot you know maybe kind of
trying to defend himself okay so or Shield himself in some way just to throw this out there and tell me if I'm
ludicrous uh okay so he has gunpowder residue on his hand is there I mean did they do any testing to see if
he fired uh anything uh it's it's actually described as gunpowder grains which I
don't know if that's different than gunpowder residue but I'm guessing that it is because it's described as such
um we should call it our buddy Austin he would have told us yeah so my guess is that they seem pretty certain the
medical examiner she seems pretty certain that that this would have been him kind of shielding his his face or
his head from from possibly somebody approaching him with a gun now she surmised that Billings was first shot on
his left side and the neck wound was probably the last and that one was coming from his right
side um well here's what they State they state that he his head was probably in a
downward position when he was shot in the neck um and the medical examiner believes
that the first shot that hit him was one of the shots on the left side of Brandon's head so if if
anybody close to Brandon out there if you were listening you might want to tune this out for for just the next
couple minutes here because I kind of want to clear this up the way that it sounds like the medical examiner
understands this to have gone down so she states that one of the first shots would have been those two shots to
the left side of his head which we already know is from an indeterminate range so we don't know the distance of
where those were fired from but then we have the next shot would be the one to the right side of his head which is
estimated to be from a distance from 6 to 12 inches right and then the final shot would be that of the one that hit
him in the neck while his head was down so the way that I'm guessing that this goes down according to the way that she
has kind of figured this out and pieced it together all these shots came from the same gun
so it sounds like he was probably fired upon twice the gunman then approached him to get closer to to hit him from
that 6 to 12 inches range I'm guessing at that point is when he probably put up his hand
and received those gunpowder grains to the hand when that close range shot hit him he may have been dead before he was
even hit that fourth time or or in the process of that and that's where he was slumped down and then shot in the neck
okay so we have the autopsy coming in and they're saying that they believe that this all these
shots came from the same gun right so what does that tell us do we then assume there's one individual I
would guess so I'm guessing that this went down fairly quickly and here's why we know that he was reported to have
been leaving the on your way convenience store at 3 40. and that's not just that's not just the uh his friends
saying he left at 3 40. we have surveillance footage of him leaving at 3 40. what did he buy there
that I don't know they didn't give they didn't give the particulars of that in this statement right because he's not
old enough to buy buy booze so yeah and the thing too is you know sometimes they
call these things convenience stores and you know different parts of the country
seem to call things different things you know where here like we might say somebody may have stopped at a
convenience store but you and I know if there's a gas pump in front of that convenience store it's a gas station to
you and I we don't care how big the store is inside and how many things they sell we would always refer to that as a
gas station right so is it possible that he that he filled up some gas is it possible he just stopped in there to get
something to drink that I don't know but we do know he left at 3 40. what we also
know is that these shots were first heard by the guy that was camping with his wife in the RV at four o'clock right
so a 30 minute window 20 minute window so oh yeah 340 sorry yeah and the you can't feed me beer and expect me to do
math well in the the I don't have this right on me right now we'll get to it later because I know it's in the notes
somewhere but the drive time this would not have left a whole lot of time for something to go down so whenever he
arrived at this location he was shot fairly quickly after arriving at this location
so okay a couple questions that I have and that we have so far is where was he heading why was he out
that late um was there more than one individual was he in the truck or out of the truck
uh and why did he pull off that road you know and then I guess the other question is was the damage
um before the attack or was it after the attack the damage to the vehicle yeah yeah and that's one thing that the
police seem to really be focusing in on because they questioned the medical examiner quite a bit about this they
wanted to know that would he have lost Consciousness after the first shot or the first two shots
they're trying to determine if the crash if he crashed the truck before or after
he was shot the medical examiner could not necessarily clear that up for the detectives she simply reported that he
most likely would have lost Consciousness he would not have been able to be alert or to do anything with
purpose and what she's stating there is he could have been operating the vehicle
in some form some fashion after having been shot but he would not have been doing it with any purpose or or he would
not have been alert doing this meaning like we said earlier his foot could have just simply came off the break or went
to the gas pedal and he moved the vehicle after being shot after attack well I wonder if the vehicle was found
in park or not hmm that's a good question that that's a really good question something that they
left out of the report um the Pathologists also found that Billings had suffered blunt force trauma
and a laceration to the face stating that he struck an object or an object struck him
okay again you wonder because we don't know what the injury is is this possibly an injury that could
have taken place during during a game [Music] um I'm I'm guessing this I'm guessing not
but no this to me sounds like something that happened that night that that either and probably during this attack
or the result of the truck uh wrecking right I failed to mention this earlier but
when they were going through the crime scene after the police had been there for some time remember the homeowner the
Larry who had let the people hunt on his property him and his sons eventually came down to the crime scene at some
point and one of his sons uh noticed that there was a rock that had what appeared to have been blood on it uh and
they cleared this up in the in the lab test in the autopsy reports it was a blood it was actually blood that was on
that rock and the rock is reported to have been found about 100 feet from where the truck came to rest okay so we
should put in point out that the medical examiner is not a blood spatter expert but she stated it was possible that one
or two wounds may have occurred at the location of the Rock The Blood On The Rock was later identified as that of
Brandon's right or The Rock was a weapon I mean he got smashed in the face with something
they also found a cigarette butt in the area um this was found at the scene this had
Ricky Stewart's DNA on it uh Ricky Stewart had been smoking and in his statement said he had been smoking and
tossed the cigarette out before he found the body that's always something that I
think about is if you do find if you stumble upon a crime scene and you're the one that reports it to the
cops that you're gonna be the one question obviously yeah and I can't remember there is a there is a certain
percentage that comes with that that people having reported finding a body are actually the one that put it there
right um but how about this Ricky Stewart don't let her buddy yeah yep all right don't throw your cigarette butts
in the woods and you can prevent forest fires there Ricky Stewart yeah and how about your buddy is nice enough to let
you hunt on his property and you're out there flicking your cigarette butts all over the place litter bug
I'm gonna make a call to Larry I'm gonna make a call to Larry we're gonna shut this Ricky guy down yes Tom hey yeah and
you notice remember when uh he was saying uh I noticed it looked very clean that's because you haven't been on the
property littering everything that's exactly littering everywhere you litter bug uh five days after Brandon's body
was discovered a fisherman putting a boat in the New River this is near the crime scene he looked down and he
spotted two items in the water all right there there are almost always these strange stories and coincidences
in these cases that just make you scratch your head and this is one of one of them you know I read the scratch in
my head I read this report and it really screwed me up and I had to do some really interestingly boring fact
checking here how can it be interesting and boring well it was tedious my friend because
listen to this okay it's something that really doesn't matter at the end of the day but well thanks for wasting
everybody well I mean it kind of It kind of matters but let me tell you this okay
okay just tell us what the situation is the fishermen that spotted these items in the New River his name are you ready
for this yeah is Ricky Stewart what yeah Ricky Stewart this is Ricky Eugene Stewart Ricky
r-i-c-k-y as compared to our other Ricky Stewart which is r-i-k-k-i okay so two different completely
different Ricky Stewarts are involved in the same so that you get now why the the fact checking was pretty
boring on that one yeah but was Ricky Stewart like some kind of race car driver like he's like a famous guy in there
like back in the day and then like a bunch of people named their kids after way to put me on the on the put me on
the spot here to to name something strong I think you know I know there was a Jimmy Stewart there you go
anyway so the items that Ricky Stewart found in the water five days after Brandon's body was found well it was
Brandon Billings driver's license and a credit card okay so he decides to place these items on
the front of his boat and he continued to fish for about 15 minutes or so while he was trying to figure out what he
should do yeah stop fishing he decided that he was going to get the boat out of the water and he was going to call in
the evidence that he had found well when he's exiting the water he ends up finding another item and this is
Brandon's maroon tied ID card from his uh High School yeah so Ricky Stewart drove up the hill to get a cellular
signal and called his brother who in turn called the police I'm surprised with you know these counties being such
a small County and it's also like I said uh you know this is time I'm familiar with most of my friends and most people
I knew didn't have a cell phone there's a lot of cell phones in this case so the
the officers having this information and this new evidence uh they they went the
next day to wear this item where these items were recovered yeah and they were searching
the area and they ended up finding Brandon's wallet in the river uh it stated that it was found quite a
ways away from the crime scene but not in a direction that it would have been carried by the river itself right they
also used metal detectors to search part of the New River for a gun or other evidence but it did not find a gun or
any other evidence I'm assuming there was no money in the wallet yeah I don't think there was anything in the wallet
there was nothing reported as having been in the wallet so it almost looks like somebody had the wallet pulled out
the ID cards and threw them and then then through the wallet so they probably weren't thrown together
right they somebody was going through it somebody took the time to go through the
wallet discard these items it looks it sounds to me like they threw them all out roughly and about the same place in
the same location but this shows us we have somebody who is discarding evidence um how did they get that wallet they
must have pulled it from either his truck or from his pant pocket after having shot him
and now they're a ways away quote unquote a ways away from the crime scene in their disposing of evidence and I'm
sure some people are scratching their heads you and I had this conversation off of uh you know in the garage when
the mics were not turned on a lot of well I have a surveillance on you at all times but the the you know people
their heads wondering okay this fisherman finds these the ID the driver's license of a guy that is known
to have been killed in the area and then he gets in the boat and he goes fishing
for a few minutes while he decides what to do is Sean man fish on well I actually don't find any problem with
that I think I think that I look it's not ideal right you would you you would think that even in that situation all of
us would immediately rush to call the authorities he then calls his brother instead and then brother calls the
authorities I don't find anything wrong with that just because I think some people get scared I think some people
they they stumble across something they didn't expect to find yeah and it just it startles them it just it it unnerves
you a bit and you don't think clearly for a few minutes well it's probably the reason he called his brother first to go
hey I found this what what should I do right to get some confidence yeah I don't know what to do here bro tell me
what to do now the other thing I'm actually happy that he waited a few minutes just because he ends up finding
more evidence when he's exiting the water so who knows had he not found that if he would have chose to do differently
the the um Brandon's Funeral was one of the largest ever accommodated at the local
Funeral Home in Independence with an estimated 1200 people attending for Christmas that year the family
received a headstone that they placed at their son's grave this was a gray granite in the shape of a of a football
the twin County Crime Stoppers this is unfortunate the twin County Crime Crime Stoppers did not have enough funds on
hand to pay a one thousand dollar reward to offer a reward for information in the
case but not a lot of crimes in this area right so I mean it is a shame though they
appealed to the County Board well but here's what's more sad is why we need to put a dollar amount on you know doing
the right thing if you have information on somebody's death you come forward and
if you don't then I just question your morals in general or your character yeah they they appeal to the county board for
money for a reward uh the board decided against using public funds for a reward and they kind of threw it back at the
public to make donations and that's why it's so important you know we mentioned some of the donations and the
fundraising earlier uh but friends planned a benefit for the reward fund this started in January the January
after Brandon was killed and many local businesses and individuals did donate to
this fund while the County's decision not to contribute to the reward fund was upsetting to the Billings family
Brandon's mother Sherry said that her biggest fear was that without an arrest another teen could die or be killed
stating that the killer may think hey I got away with that one Brandon's mother said she wanted closure she wanted to
know why her son died and who was responsible for killing her son Brandon Billings
[Music] all right a lot more to get to in part two of the case of branding Billings and
we teamed up with some awesome guys over amn clothing they helped us out and made
some really cool t-shirts these guys are real artists with great designs and you
can check those out at their website what Captain what is their website it's amandclothing.com or you could go to
truecrime garage.com and click on the store Page they'll be available for a limited time a limited number so you
want to get them now and they come in multiple colors but I think everybody will really dig the logo all right thank
you Captain and thank you to everybody out there for listening and for telling a friend and for the five star reviews
we will see you back here tomorrow bring your butt back to the garage until then
be good be kind and don't litter yeah Ricky Stewart [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brandon Billings /// Part 1 /// 158

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

October - 2002; Brandon Billings an 18 year old Galax High School student and football player, was found shot to death near the New River in Grayson County, Virginia. The crime scene was confusing and there were not many leads. The killing remained a cold case without a break for more than a decade. Then the investigators received information that led them back to one of their original persons of interest.Beer of the Week - Blue Mountain Breweries Classic LagerGarage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

Brandon Billings, an 18-year-old football star, is found dead after his birthday celebration, leading to a complex investigation into his murder.

Key points

Brandon Billings' 18th Birthday. A promising young athlete celebrates his milestone birthday, but things take a dark turn when he goes missing.
Discovery of a Body. Ricky Stewart stumbles upon a shocking scene while hunting, leading to a police investigation.
Brandon Billings Found Dead. Brandon Billings was discovered shot to death just one day after his 18th birthday.
Investigation Unfolds. Police pursue leads and interview over 100 people following Brandon's death.
Autopsy Reveals Multiple Wounds. The medical examiner confirms Brandon sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
Missing Wallet Raises Questions. Brandon's missing wallet leads to speculation about the motive behind his murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was a day that was supposed to bring joy and happiness.

Reflecting on Brandon's birthday that turned tragic.

4:22WatchNov 28, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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