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

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crime Autumn 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 [Music] Victory on October 4th
2002 at G 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 lb
senior football star Brandon Billings Brandon was dedicated to his fellow teammates his friends and his 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
[Music] Billings [Music] Kyle Brandon Billings was born October 5th 1984 he lived with his mother and
dad this is Sher and Kyle Billings and his sister Angie in Virginia we have two in our story Captain we have Kyle
Billings the father and his son Kyle Brandon Billings right and that's why everybody calls the son Brandon Billings
and not Kyle Brandon Billings mhm now our story starts in 2002 in 2002 the Billings family was living in the GX
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 are saying that the Billings family lived in the G area but the key
thing here is Brandon attended G High School Brandon is a star on the football team uh we're going to say star because
that seems to be one if not the most important thing uh to Brandon 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 cuz it seems like uh some reports would say he's a linebacker some people would say he's a
lineman obviously there's you know there's a big difference but I mean 320 PB 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 one 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 G High
School countless nights watching Brandon take to the football field the school's
team is called the maroon tide 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 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 mil a milestone birthday
yeah well on that Saturday Brandon let his father Kyle borrow his pickup truck that morning there was something called
the G Lords acre sale um some type of community event right 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 probably exchange 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 um 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 mhm well after delivering the firewood to his grandmother's Place uh 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 you going those typical questions right Brandon just simply saying I can't I got
to go and with that he was off well Brandon may have been late to join some friends for a birthday dinner would be
my guest 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 two 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 mhm Joseph Wright says that
he saw Brandon Billings at the on the way 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 us58 towards independence
well now a lot of these small towns they have a strict curfew so normally the curfew for anybody under is I think
midnight uh you can actually get pulled over and arrested for being uh 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 mhm 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 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 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 change if plans were to change and he
was going to stay the night but like point out here we have something interesting going on because this is the
first night that he's 18 who 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 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 um 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 cuz 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 like never question it I remember
one time I you know I I got hammered and I shouldn't have been that drunk and I I
remember calling my father and saying I'm drunk and uh and I was real nervous too cuz it was like you know 11:00 at
night and I was like oh God but I felt like I got to call him cuz I'm not obviously coming home mhm and it was
simply you know I'm drunk and he was like okay uh uh are their parents there and I was like no he goes well just
don't leave 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 they're concern that he's not home but maybe this just kind of slipped through
the cracks maybe it didn't occur to them hey son's turning 18 this is a conversation that we need to have or or
maybe they expected him 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 uh it would it would have been odd for any of my friends to have a cell phone um maybe
a a pager or something uhhuh 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 arleene they are on the property of Larry carico a property
off of Rockhouse 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 mhm 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 um 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 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 911 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 911 which she did well they stayed at the house for about 5 or 10 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
Barett 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 FY 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 100% 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 the what I'm
assuming is 99.9 times you know it it sounds it sounds bad that that he or she was the one that stepped on the the
footprint mhm 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 here 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 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 911 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 because
that this area that the truck was in um this was kind of kind of known to the kids as like kind of a make out alley
type thing yes it's not really alley 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 uh tongue battling so I 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 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 TR 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
depuy'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 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 911 as soon as possible now at this
point after having called 911 remember at the scene we have EMTs there we have the officer that responded first um uh
officer Barnett right and 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 MH 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 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 what kind of damage are we
talking about see I don't know that all 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
Sher and Kyle Billings who they're concerned because they've discovered that their son had not come home from
that Saturday night right Sher 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 they both walked to the back door where they didn't find Brandon as they had expected but they
found Sheriff Wilson along with him investigator Glenn hayatt Sher sher'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
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2023 [Music] all right 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 well by 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 G 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 M 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 4:00 a.m. which he knew because they checked the time when they were startled awake
by the noise so these gunshots startle 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 um 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 this
second round of shots and while in bed he 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 certain 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 GX High School the delps
studio this is one of those photo studios donated a 16x2 portrait of Brandon to the Billings family and the
owner provided photos of Brandon to all members of the G football team and the senior class let's get into some of the
evidence Captain so Brandon Billings was found shot to death 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 cuz 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 can't 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 here's what I can gather okay so we know that the tires were found in 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 make out 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 the 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 stuff there
well my parents always made sure that they had a special spot at our house for children to make out now so 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 mhm uh 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 de damage was on the
truck right this was a tough case I mean there 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 occur before
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 Rockhouse Road okay
they said that yeah because the big question here you you got to start with why was Brandon out that late what the
heck was he doing and he was by himself like 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 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 Mis 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 and 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 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 or 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 bruisings are on his chest or shoulder so again anybody that's been in a pretty
difficult car wreck you'll like a couple days later you're going to see like bruising AC cross 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 uh especially football you know you get hit
with a helmet and the ribs and then next thing you know your whole side is is is
bruised well we both played a little football growing up and I we 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
when you play football not just the bruising of the ribs but remember that you would you'd wake up bruising of the
ego you'd wake up a couple days later and you would have 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 stated 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 the 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 sustained 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 I 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 m 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 Mo for his murder well his parents would know if he had a bunch of money on him or
like birthday money on him mhm but uh you're talking about a 18-year-old kid I mean why would you rob a 18-year-old kid
you're you're not hit in the lottery with that mhm 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 see 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 a distance of about 6 to 12 in 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
close range 6 to 12 in the back of his left well and which one was the 6 to 12 in uh that was the
one on the right side of Brandon's head so he's in the driver's seat 6 to 12 in you either have a pretty long arm cuz
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 6 to 12 inches away you could 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 it the shot
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 him back into the truck or half back into the truck mhm you know what I mean you
know he could have been standing by his truck when this attack takes place and he's a big boy yeah but and maybe that
is one of the reasons why he only got half back into the truck mhm you know what I mean cuz cuz 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 mhm 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 have called 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 okay 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 and if anybody close to Brandon out there if
you're listening you might want to tune this out for for just the next couple minutes here CU 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 in 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 in 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 C 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 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 way convenience store at 340 and that's not just that's
not just the uh his friend saying he left at 340 we have surveillance footage of him leaving at 340 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 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 340 what we also know is that these shots were first heard by the guy that
was camping with his wife in the RV at 4:00 right so a 30 minute window 20 minute window what oh yeah 340 sorry
yeah and the you can't feed me beer and expect me to do math well and 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 mhm 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 after he was shot mhm the medical examiner could not necessarily
clear that up for the det Ives 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 a 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 attacked well I wonder
if the vehicle was found in park or not that's a good question that that's a really good question something that they
left out of the report um the pathologist also found that Billings had suffered blunt force
trauma and El laceration to the face stating that he struck an object or an object struck him
okay again you wonder I because we don't know what the injury is is this possibly
an injury that could have taken place during during a game MH um I'm I'm guessing 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 clear 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 point out 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 mhm 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 going to 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 report finding a body or actually the one that
put it there right um but how about this Ricky Stewart don't Litter buddy yeah 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 yeah
I'm going to make a call to Larry I'm going to make a call to Larry we're going to shut this Ricky guy down yes
tell him hey yeah and you know no remember when uh he was saying uh I noticed it looked very clean that's cuz
you haven't been on the property littering everything that's exactly littering everywhere you litter bug uh 5
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 one of them you I read scratching my
head I read this report and it really screwed me up and I had to do some really interestingly boring fact cheing
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's 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 fisherman 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 KY as compared to our other Ricky Stewart which is r i k
Ki okay so two different completely different Ricky Stewarts are involved in the same so
that you get now why the the factchecking 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 wa way to put me on the on the put me on the spot here to to
name I'm wrong 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 5 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 run tide 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 my friends and most people I knew didn't have a cell phone so 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 where 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 did not find a gun or any other evidence I'm assuming there
was no money in the wallet yeah I 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 through 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 threw them
all out roughly in about the same place and 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 and they're disposing of evidence and I'm sure some people were 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 uh surveillance on you at all times but the you know people probably scratching 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 fish on man
fish on well I actually don't find any problem with that I think I think it's I look it's not ideal right you would you
you would think that in 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 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 just to get some confidence yeah I don't know what to do here bro tell me what to do now the
other thing uh 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 1,200 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 MH the twin County Crimestoppers this is unfortunate the twin County Crime Crimestoppers did not
have enough funds on hand to pay a $1,000 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
appealed 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 board 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 yeah 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
[Music] 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
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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 rookie [Music]
Stewart [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dream when you find a professional on Angie to
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Brandon Billings /// Part 1 /// 158

Part 1 of 2

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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

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Brief Summary

Brandon Billings, a high school football star, was found shot dead after his 18th birthday, leading to an ongoing investigation into his murder.

Key points

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The Mysterious Case of Brandon Billings. Brandon Billings, a star football player, goes missing after his 18th birthday celebration.
Investigation Unfolds. Officers arrive at the scene and begin to piece together the circumstances of Brandon's death.
Brandon's Tragic Discovery. Brandon Billings was found shot to death just a day after his 18th birthday.
Community Comes Together. Friends and family rally to support the Billings family during their time of loss.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What was even more uncharacteristic, he didn't even call!

Highlighting Brandon's unusual behavior the night he went missing.

5:06WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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