The Skeleton Key Chronicles

15 hours ago

When Chantel “CiCi” Brooks finished work in San Francisco shortly after midnight on July 17th, everything about the beginning of her trip home appears fairly ordinary. She made the roughly 40-mile drive back to Fairfield and stopped at a CVS not far from home. There, surveillance footage captured her leaving the store at about 1:45 a.m. and walking back toward her black Infiniti SUV. That was the last confirmed sighting of Chantel.

Her family filed a missing persons report on July 27th after becoming concerned when they were unable to reach her, ten days after she was last seen. Her black 2021 Infiniti QX50 SUV is still missing as well, although according to Chantel's family, a license plate reader detected her vehicle on 55th Avenue in East Oakland later that same evening she disappeared. But other than that, there have been no confirmed sightings of Chantel since that early-morning stop at CVS. Her vehicle, a black 2021 Infiniti QX50, is also missing as well.

One of Chantel's neighbors later told KRON4 that on July 17th, he heard what sounded like fighting and several thuds coming from her home. He also said the garages were left open for several days afterward, and that his wife texted Chantel about them but never received a response.

According to Chantel's family, a license plate reader detected her SUV later on July 17th on 55th Avenue in East Oakland, more than 30 miles from Fairfield. But it was hard to identify the driver, making that early-morning stop at CVS the last time anyone saw Chantel.

Fairfield Police began trying to reconstruct what happened after Chantel left the store, and the investigation has since expanded considerably. Detectives have searched her home and other locations in Fairfield, Oakland and San Francisco, reviewed surveillance footage, examined more than 10 digital devices, searched multiple vehicles and conducted ground and aerial searches across Solano and Alameda counties.

Investigators say more than 500 hours have gone into the investigation and search for Chantel so far. They have also said that information uncovered during the investigation has led them to suspect foul play in her disappearance, although they have not publicly revealed all of the evidence behind that assessment or named a suspect.

While the search continues, Chantel's 37th birthday came and went on August 13th. More than six weeks have now passed since she walked out of that Fairfield CVS, and investigators are still trying to determine what happened after she headed toward her SUV that morning.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

August 30th marks a date Ventura County investigators spent more than three decades trying to make sense of. In 1993, a cleanup crew working near Beardsley and Wright Roads outside Camarillo, California, came across partial human remains.

An anthropologist determined that what had been found were lower-leg bones from a male believed to be between 13 and 18 years old. There wasn't enough to connect him to any known missing person at the time, and eventually the case picked up a name of its own: “Camarillo Teen 1993.”

This year, genetic genealogy finally gave him his real name. He was Joseph Patrick Reardon, born in Fresno County on June 17th, 1970. And once Joseph had a name, pieces of his earlier life began coming into focus. In 1985, he was living at a group home in Oxnard and briefly attended Channel Islands High School as a freshman, where he was known as Joe Gilbreth. The following year, he attended Hughson High School near Modesto using that same name. The photo being circulated now is from his time at Hughson.

But there's still a huge piece of Joseph's story missing. He was born in 1970, meaning he would have been 23 by the time his remains were discovered in 1993, despite the original age estimate of 13 to 18. Exactly where Joseph went after those school years, what happened to him and how part of his remains eventually came to be outside Camarillo are questions that still don't have answers.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit is hoping to hear from anyone who remembers Joseph Patrick Reardon or Joe Gilbreth, even someone who knew him only in passing. After finally learning who he was, they're now trying to fill in the part of Joseph's life that's still missing.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

A glass casket, what appeared to be a full-size mummy, and a collection of items investigators believe may include human remains. That's just some of what authorities say they found inside a rural Wisconsin home earlier this month, but none of it was what brought them there in the first place.

Police went to his Fond du Lac County home earlier this month after a woman reported years of unwanted contact from a man she'd briefly dated more than a decade ago. Then they saw what was inside the home of 47-year-old Benjamin Larson.

When they entered on August 14th they encountered several items including ten binders devoted to Ed Gein, along with objects represented as having come from his former property or grave. Other pieces were labeled as being connected to other cases, including one particularly unusual jar reportedly associated with Gacy. But whether everything in this collection is actually what its label says it is remains a very big question.

The reason police were at the house in the first place goes back to 2013. According to the complaint, Larson and a Madison-area woman dated for about two months before the relationship ended. She told investigators that unwanted contact continued for more than a decade despite her moving to Canada and not responding. In July, she went to Madison police. Larson has since been charged in connection with those allegations. Once investigators encountered all of the other interesting items during that search, however, Fond du Lac County authorities obtained a separate warrant and an entirely different investigation began.

A forensic anthropologist has now examined some of what was recovered. Authorities say much of the material is believed to be ancient Native American remains, but several other items still need specialized laboratory testing before investigators can determine their origin.

And that's where this already strange case is sitting now. What began as an investigation into allegations involving a relationship that ended 13 years ago has left authorities trying to figure out exactly what was being kept inside this Wisconsin home. Some of what was recovered may already have an explanation. Other pieces still need testing to determine what they are, how old they are and where they came from. The sheriff says getting all of those answers could take months.

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