It's the Kelley Brannon case like you've never heard it before.
The story of the missing activist and musician has been covered in national news, major podcasts and has been a part of an international investigation. However, the Two Sleuths Podcast has something others don't- firsthand knowledge and information from boots-on-the-ground reporting that started just days after the 36-year-old vanished into the night. Through co-host and veteran journalist Katie Kaplan's reporting, listeners will have access to unique details of the case, as well as interviews with Kelley's friends, law enforcement investigators and Kelley's boyfriend Eddie Emerson.
Part 1 will cover the basic information. It's the summer of 2020 when Kelley and Eddie embark on a cross-country move.
They are caravanning in their respective Toyotas until Eddie's truck breaks down on Interstate 75 in north Florida. After several days of camping out in the heat of the deep south, they rent a room at the Sunshine Inn near the small town of Live Oak. But quickly, an argument turns ugly. The fight continues on for several hours. Kelley is relegated to the parking lot of the motel, while Eddie and his dog hang out in the room.
Kelley Brannon and boyfriend Eddie Emerson.
The disagreement is documented in dozens of text messages that continue on for hours.
Eddie says he was asleep when he received a final voicemail from Kelley just before 1 a.m. She is livid, angry at being "locked out" and tells him she is sick of his abuse, but the voicemail is cut short when the 36-year-old abruptly declares, "I'm getting in a car right now, goodbye."
Kelley hasn't been seen since.
Kelley Brannon performing in Gainesville with her punk band, 'The Friendly Cunts.'
Police say she had no I.D. and no money. Several eyewitnesses at the motel claimed to have seen her walking away from the property toward downtown around midnight with her guitar slung over her shoulder.
Detectives believe the key to cracking her case could be a left-handed, Fender Stratocaster guitar with a sunburst design and a brand sticker missing on the headstock. (See image below.)
Brannon vanished along with her rare, left-hand Fender Stratocaster guitar that had a sunburst finish and unique headstock. If you find it, call Live Oak PD.
If you know anything about the Kelley Brannon case, or you believe you have seen the rare guitar, call Live Oak PD at 386-362-7463, or make an anonymous tip via Suwannee Valley Crimestoppers at 386-208-TIPS. Your information could be eligible for a $1,000 cash reward and might bring a lot of pain and suffering for Kelley's loved ones to an end.
Since that day more than three years ago, an international search has been launched by a group of Kelley’s friends while detectives from the small-town police department have worked to chase down leads and tasked with the daunting job of sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of emails and tips this case has generated.
Make sure you tune in to Part 2 on the Kelley Brannon case as we talk about the many theories of the case and relay information told directly to us by investigators, Kelley's friends and Emerson himself.
Sources:
UNSOLVED FLORIDA: Occupy Wall Street activist, Kelley Brannon, vanishes- Pt. 1 (wctv.tv)
UNSOLVED FLORIDA: Kelley Brannon caught on camera the night she vanished- Pt. 2 (wctv.tv)
https://www.whereiskelleybrannon.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Kelley_Brannon_VM.mp4
Suwannee Valley Unsolved: https://fb.watch/nSUIVnvjrj/
Episode Transcript
EmHost00:01 Where is. Kelly Brandon. Speaker 3Host00:02 Where is Kelly Brandon? Where is Kelly? EmHost00:04 Brandon? Where is Kelly Brandon? Where is Kelly Brandon? Where is? Katie KaplanHost00:06 Kelly. Speaker 2Host00:07 Brandon? Where is Kelly Brandon? Where is Kelly Brandon? Yeah, this is your review, so go ahead. Oh, I'm just getting in the car now. Katie KaplanHost00:17 Good night Police say those are the last known words of Kelly Brandon. The 36-year-old vanished in the summer of 2020, her last known location a parking lot of a North Florida motel. She wasn't familiar with the area and had just been passing through with her boyfriend before a series of unfortunate events happened. She hasn't been seen since. EmHost00:38 Since that day, more than three years ago, an international search has been launched by a group of Kelly's friends, while detectives from a small town police department worked to chase down leads, including the daunting task of sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of emails and tips that this case generated. That's right, thousands, and that's above and beyond the amount of tips seen in most cases. So what happened to generate such an outpouring from the public, most of whom were strangers to Kelly? Well, kelly's disappearance has gone international and that's thanks in large part to Katie's investigative journalism on this case. It was Katie's coverage of this case that helped catapult it into the mainstream, and soon it was receiving national news media attention, and then several true crime podcasts covered Kelly's story, all of whom used Katie's investigative reporting on this case as their source material for their episodes. Some of the information they've reported has been distorted and isn't accurate, but that is what makes this episode and our coverage on this case truly unique. 01:45 Katie is the only reporter or journalist who has had boots on the ground at different key locations. She has worked alongside the investigators and personally connected with Kelly's many friends and loved ones. She was also just at a public event held for Kelly, where the lead detective, captain Jason Roundtree, presented, and so she got the most up-to-date information. And then Captain Roundtree jumped on a call with Katie and I, where he spent about two and a half hours talking with us openly about the case and we brainstormed investigative moves to make going forward. So stay with us for this two-part case as we tell you about Kelly, the events that transpired before she disappeared and the ensuing investigation and persons of interest and, most importantly, an object that, if found, could lead to solving Kelly's case. Katie KaplanHost02:32 I'm M, a former special agent and I'm Katie Kaplan, an investigative journalist, and you are listening to Two Sleuths. Morning. EmHost03:16 It's July of 2020, the dead of summer in the deep south, which means it's hot, humid and sticky. We are a few months into the pandemic, but it's still relatively new. Some businesses are shut down, people are fearful and, at this point in time, everyone's still debating how the virus has spread. As I'm sure you all recall, things were really weird in the world at this point and throughout this period of uncertainty. 36-year-old Kelly Brannon finds herself in a small north Florida town called Live Oak. It's not far from the Georgia-Florida line and it sits between the state capital of Tallahassee and then the bigger city of Jacksonville. Katie KaplanHost03:53 I've been there many times covering this case. It's a pretty rural area, there's a lot of farmland and it has an old, historical downtown. Now there are many of these types of places across the state and really the region and other states, but what makes this one different is that smack dab in the center of town, two US highways intersect and there are also two major interstates that cross not far outside the city limits. So police say the population of Live Oak can swell from its small population of just under 7,000 residents to more than 30,000 cars a day just due to the traffic patterns that travel through the town. So a lot of coming and going, right, a lot of strangers coming and going. EmHost04:37 And as we dive into this case, we'll learn more about the small town in northern Florida, only covering 11 square miles geographically. But we need to stop here and start with Kelly so people can get to know her and understand how she ended up in this situation. Right off the bat, it's important to know that Kelly wasn't from the town that she went missing in. In fact, she didn't know a soul in this town and only ended up here by chance. Katie KaplanHost05:02 Yes, so Kelly was actually born and raised in Charlestown, new Hampshire. It's a small town, with the last census showing it has about 5,000 residents and it's said to also have a vibrant art scene, and that might have influenced Kelly quite a bit growing up. She is one of two children and her father died suddenly of a heart attack when she was just 5 years old. Her family say this was a really traumatic thing for Kelly and the entire family and they've never really gotten over it. Kelly has a brother who struggles with mental health issues, so friends say they weren't really close. However, kelly and her mom were, and even though Kelly hadn't lived at home for years and had been a bit of a nomad for her adult life, she is described by friends as being very protective of her mom, always checking in and not wanting her mom to worry. EmHost05:50 And this is one of the reasons her friends say that there is something off about her disappearance All of the holidays and birthdays that have passed without Kelly contacting her mother it's just so out of character for her Friends cannot believe this would ever be a choice she would make willingly Right. Katie KaplanHost06:07 And it's also been really hard on Kelly's friends. I will tell you there are a lot of them from all walks of life Lifelong friends, art school friends, friends from when she lived in New York City and friends she met along the way. It's been especially hard on her childhood best friend, cheryl Speak, who would often go to visit Kelly's mom on a regular basis after she disappeared. Kelly and Cheryl met in the fourth grade and became close as they grew up. Here's how she described Kelly to me when I interviewed her in 2021. EmHost06:37 Kelly Kelly's. Unlike any other person, I will probably ever meet in my life she well, I guess you could say a free spirit. Speaker 3Host06:47 You know, even early on she was just always ready for an adventure. EmHost06:52 She says Kelly was artistic, independent and full of energy and ambitious as she was. The first thing on her list was getting out of her small hometown right after graduation. So, in typical Kelly fashion, after high school she bought a car and, with only an atlas to guide her, she spent a year traveling alone. Amid her travels, however, her car gave out, but this didn't deter her. She started hitchhiking, going up to Canada and down to Mexico, crossing all over the United States and the entire time documenting her travels in an online blog. The videos of her travels are still up online and several platforms. We'll link them for you in the show notes. Katie KaplanHost07:32 Kelly really lived her life as one big adventure. EmHost07:36 She did, and while she was carefree and independent, she was also very goal oriented and focused on getting an education. Her friend Cheryl says that this was really important to Kelly, so she eventually returned to the East Coast and enrolled in one of the nation's oldest art schools, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she got her bachelor's degree. But she didn't stop there. Katie KaplanHost07:58 She went on to get her master's in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont, and that, right there, gives us a lot of insight about Kelly as well. Cheryl says Kelly was always creating and there's documentation of that all over the internet Kelly's art in the form of poetry and photography, the films she's made, even music. In a way, you can kind of see how colorful her mind was, clearly brimming with thoughts and ideas. And Kelly also had a big heart. She was an organizer and an activist. There is documentation that shows she was at the forefront of the Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011 and at Standing Rock protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. EmHost08:39 And she was also a fierce advocate for women's rights. Katie KaplanHost08:42 Oh yeah, she was. EmHost08:43 That is detailed in the lyrics of a lot of her music and after all of her adventures hitchhiking across the country earning her degrees, kelly was ready to stay in one place and so she moved to the Big Apple and it was here she picked up an interest in creating and playing music. 08:59 Her friends say it was kind of this creative outlet where all of her interests and artistry came together. And it was here she also really found a community, specifically at this little bodega in her New York City neighborhood. It was here that she hosted these open mic nights and through them she forged a lot of friendships. Some of these people would be the ones really leading the charge and pushing for answers after Kelly went missing. After about 10 years in New York, kelly's sublease was up, and by this point her passion for music had led her to start her own one-woman punk rock band and, with no home to tie her down, she decided to take her show on the road. Her friends say that Kelly bought a van, a drum set and a guitar and kicked off a solo tour up and down the East Coast. Katie KaplanHost09:46 Right. So here's another example of Kelly just taking control and going after what she wants and what she believes in. She names her band the Baby Killers. Yes, it's controversial, but that's what she was going for. A lot of her lyrics, as I mentioned, focused on women's rights. Here's a little example. EmHost10:11 The pressure is thick, my head stinks. Can't think straight Under these weather nights. Speaker 2Host10:21 Time will sting, adjust as a spell. EmHost10:25 Everyone except the November 19th and is taking an Earthy stay, or a grandmother, if you're poor or too likely a point in life. Katie KaplanHost10:36 So she starts playing house parties and at small bars and making her voice heard in front of different state capitals. She'd set up and play there and of course she was documenting this all as well. She eventually makes her way all the way down to the Sunshine State, to Gainesville in central Florida, where she meets a guy, good ol' Eddie Emerson. EmHost10:56 Oh, eddie, there's so much to say about Eddie. Katie KaplanHost10:59 There really is, and we're going to get into that as this case unfolds. EmHost11:03 But the beginning of their story goes a little something like this it's June of 2019. Eddie walks into a bar and he sees this raven-haired musician up on stage. As a fellow musician himself, he notes that she's impressively playing a left-handed Stratocaster and she's jamming away Filling the bar with her outspoken lyrics, and Eddie is entranced. They start talking after she finishes her set and, despite the fact that Eddie was six years younger, he says that they quickly learned how much they had in common their music and personal views on important topics, and they instantly hit it off With Sparks flying. Kelly accompanied Eddie home that night and after that they were inseparable and even Eddie joined Kelly's show and the duo began touring together. Sounds like a fairytale, but was it Right. Katie KaplanHost11:54 Whatever honeymoon period there was, it didn't last long. Let's just say that, according to accounts from Eddie, mutual friends and public record dipole, their relationship grew to be contentious and toxic as passionate as Kelly was about her activism and art, she was also battling some demons. Right. Kelly's friends tell me that she had been diagnosed with PTSD and, according to police records, appeared to be dealing with some other mental health issues and she could at times be a heavy drinker. However, eddie wasn't a peach either. He had been dealing with some demons of his own. EmHost12:31 And a history of the turmoil in their relationship can actually be found through a series of documented police contacts. In the months leading up to Kelly's disappearance, the two had been living on a farm in McEnnopee, which is just south of Gainesville in the central part of the state, and while they were the ones to call it a farm, police described it as just a rundown building without any running water. During their time at this property, they have contact with law enforcement roughly 12 times. Katie KaplanHost12:59 That's just between early April and the end of May in 2020, just a few months before their doomed road trip. So we have incident reports. Collectively, they are 27 pages long and they detail several domestic disturbances, including alleged physical arguments between them and a few alleged suicide attempts by Kelly. At least one of these prompted a massive search with ground teams and a helicopter, although it's unclear if these suicide attempts were real, if they were made up for attention by Kelly or if they were fabricated by Eddie to police At some point. 13:32 The man who owns the property he's just had enough of the chaos. He lives in Alabama and he had been letting Eddie stay there, but he has a falling out with Eddie and Kelly and he just wants them gone. So he starts getting the eviction process started by this point. Kelly's friends are extremely concerned over the toxicity of the relationship. By the third week of May, her lifelong friend, cheryl, is so alarmed that she buys Kelly a plane ticket home to New Hampshire. Kelly takes it, leaves Eddie and flies home to her mother's house. But she keeps in touch with Eddie through texts and phone calls and it isn't long before he flies up there with plans to rekindle their relationship. And it works. They are back together within two months of her leaving Gainesville. And while all this had been happening, kelly realizes she is sitting on a pretty penny. She had filed a disability claim for her PTSD and then kind of forgot about it. So by the time she was aware of it she had $6,000 in the bank and with a sudden windfall. EmHost14:32 This is what the two decide to use for a fresh start. As they're repairing their relationship, they make plans to move to Michigan. So Kelly had lived in Detroit, where she squatted for a period of time in a home that she was fixing up in 2015. And, of course, during this time, she blogged about it. It's among the things we'll link so you can get to know Kelly through her art and experiences being a nomad. 14:54 There was a lot of reasons Detroit made sense. She still had a storage set up there with a lot of her belongings in it, and she knew that she could get a home there for really cheap. After the recession, rows and rows of homes had been left abandoned in a disarray for years afterwards, and they were being sold as is. Therefore, you could buy them for dirt cheap. Not to mention, detroit is a music hub. It's the birth of Motown, and its landmark as a musical destination was really cemented when Kiss released their song Detroit Rock City, earning a new nickname for the town, and so it just makes sense that all of these things would draw Kelly and Eddie in. Part of their plan to move north included purchasing a fixer upper with some land for about $2,000. And from here they planned on putting down routes and starting their relationship fresh. According to text messages between them, they even had a specific home picked out. 15:49 So before Kelly leaves New Hampshire she buys an older Toyota Camry and drives it down to Florida. Police say this journey is documented through text messages and even some police interactions. She stops in Savannah at one point and spends the 4th of July on the road. Eventually she arrives back to the farm where Eddie is waiting for her by July 8th. The next day, on July 9th, they pack up the rest of their stuff, including a flock of eight chickens and Eddie's dog Gordon, and together they set off on this new adventure Eddie and his 1999 Toyota pickup truck and Kelly and her 82 Toyota Camry. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the first domino fell, setting this whole mystery into motion. Katie KaplanHost16:33 So they don't make it very far. In fact, they were only on the road for about an hour and a half when Eddie's car breaks down on Interstate 75. He pulls over on the side of the Interstate and the car is immobile. So they actually have to push it off and exit ramp. But they are being conservative with the money that Kelly had. It doesn't appear Eddie has much of his own, and so they actually sleep in their cars that night, according to Eddie. 16:58 However, the next day they call AAA, who sends out a tow truck driver, who then tows the truck to the nearest mechanic, which happens to be Reese's auto repair in Live Oak. It ends up that Eddie's pickup needs a new transmission, but they're going to have to find this particular transmission from a junkyard or somewhere else for this older model truck, because Reese's just doesn't have it. Lucky for them, they still have one working car between them, but they know it's going to be a few days before they're back on the road toward Detroit. So again, it's the two of them, eddie's medium sized dog, gordon, eight chickens and a car packed with all of their belongings. That's Kelly's 80s era Camry. So they need to find a place to store their chickens and they start going into the businesses nearest to the auto shop to try to ask people about where they can house their chickens. This includes a sub shop and a daycare and yes, we're told some people, especially at the daycare, thought this was a little odd. EmHost17:55 But coincidentally, someone eating at that sub shop overhears them and, as it turned out, he had an empty chicken coop on his property. So this man's name was Alfredo and we will come back to him, but for now you just need to know that Eddie and Kelly made the roughly 20 mile ride out to this man's property where they dropped off their chickens and his coop. According to Eddie, they then head over to neighboring Lake City where they rent a room at a motel. However, an issue over the dog does pop up and Kelly and the motel owner get into an argument and the police are called. Everything ends up getting worked out without incident and no report is made. 18:32 The next day Kelly and Eddie get up and have breakfast at the waffle house. They head back to Live Oak and check out some of the little shops in the downtown area. They buy a $3 tent at a thrift store and they take some photos. And then they go to a frame shop where they drink some wine and hang out with the owner. Kelly, being the artist she is even draws a picture of Eddie, which the police still have a picture of today. Katie KaplanHost18:55 So later that night, unbeknownst to Alfredo, kelly and Eddie head back to Alfredo's property and they pitch their tent next to the chicken coop. Now, the next day they get up, they stop by Reese's Auto and then they head to St Augustine to check out a transmission, and they sleep outside. According to Eddie, they eventually find the transmission they need in Lakeland, so they pick it up, drop it off outside Reese's, which by this time is closed. So at this point, what did they do? Well, they head back to Alfredo's property without permission again to squat for the night. But the next morning Alfredo's wife discovers them and she has a fit, according to police, and she tells Alfredo that they need to leave. So they load up the chickens into the crate and they head back to the auto body shop. EmHost19:42 In the dead heat of the Florida summer and with the anxiety of the situation, several days of camping and driving around in Kelly's car just trying to fix this truck. They were tired and tensions were starting to mount, and so they break down and are finally ready to spend a little bit more money on lodging. They decide to rent a motel room at the Sunshine Inn, and this is located near the heart of Live Oaks, downtown. It's the afternoon of July 14, 2020, and they check in. Kelly puts the $40 a night room on her card. Katie KaplanHost20:17 Kelly and Eddie are given room number 70, located on the very western end of the second floor of this two-story low-budget motel that's right off Amin Artery into the heart of downtown. Now, by the time they're settled there, it's about 5.30 in the afternoon and they begin to argue over the chickens and what to do with them. Kelly wants to bring them into the room. Eddie wants to leave them to roam free outside, saying they're too dirty. He doesn't think they're going to venture off too far. So this argument goes on for hours, escalating through the night over text messages, while Eddie is up in the room and Kelly is down in the parking lot. For the most part we have the text. They are screenshots taken from Eddie's phone a few days after Kelly went missing, and it's quite a lot, starting around 6.30 pm until her last text at 12.48 am. EmHost21:09 And what's clear in these text messages is they're both pushing each other's buttons. But what is more common throughout this is the barrage of texts from Kelly about how she feels about this relationship. So here are some of the things that she says to Eddie that night I'm not going to be a white trash Florida girl letting you throw me around in the parking lot of a cheap motel. Thanks for ignoring me and locking me out, con man. Katie KaplanHost21:33 In other texts she's calling him an abuser. She says at one point enjoy the car, got my guitar and a new bag of clothes. Guess you'd figure you'd get the car eventually. Congrats, you won. Eddie responds to this particular one by saying why don't you come and sleep? EmHost21:50 And Kelly responds with no. I'd rather starve to death or jump off a bridge or be eaten by vultures than to share a room with someone like you. It's a haunting text in the final hour before she disappears. And Eddie responds to that one with a single letter Okay. And then in some of Kelly's last texts she makes a threat I'm leaving, I'm pressing charges and I'm reporting the car stolen. Katie KaplanHost22:15 So there are several empty threats like that in this text exchange where Kelly says she's going to do something or go somewhere and she doesn't. There's clearly an effort on her end to try and get a rise out of Eddie and he's clearly not paying any attention to it, icing her out to try to make her even more mad. And that's something that he later admits to police. And it is important to note that Captain Roundtree has confirmed the phone records between Kelly and Eddie's phones with these text messages match each other. So during this escalating feud, kelly is mostly in the parking lot hanging around her car and with some of the other people that are staying at the sunshine in. Eddie is in the room with a dog, but around 10 30 that night a man staying in room 69, which was right next to Eddie, reportedly knocks on Eddie's door and basically says hey man, you need to come down and get your girl. She's upset. It's not a good situation. And Eddie says a short time later he went down and this is what transpired. Speaker 3Host23:15 I went downstairs and she was crying. She was miserable, she was drunk. I didn't come for her or anything, I just took her keys off her waist. I just said you can't drive right now. All right, there was still a few chickens out. We didn't get all the chickens back in. She was upset about that. I just went back in the room. Stupidly. I went back in the room. Katie KaplanHost23:33 So he grabs her keys, he goes back to the room, locks the door and heads to bed. What appears to be his last text to Kelly that night was around 12 37 am. Kelly calls him 22 minutes later, at 12 59 am, and leaves that final voicemail and the last evidence that we have of Kelly. Eddie says he didn't hear that voicemail until the next morning. But here is how it goes. Speaker 2Host23:57 Well, right, you're just gonna. I'm so bad at this Since you came before. I need to make your party and you love me and pay you all of me so much and all of you, yeah. 24:06 So I'm gonna get my car. Well, anyway, I was in the own room that was searching in an Everett Corp. It was stolen. It told them who stole it. So expect cops not at your door, and I will be right next door. They all in your motel room. Because I'm not watching the statement to you. You can't blame me if you don't get this any second, because you only look out for you. It's your money, it's just for you. I'm telling you for both of us. Essentially, we're just supposed to recognize you. Obviously, we're not going to do this to try to take you home. We're going to Iceland. It's not a partner. They're not a partner. They're just asking you to return me at a door. And I'm sorry, way better. I did nothing to be called a fucking idiot and I did nothing, even follow the cops. So they know that you're a fugitive. So go ahead. You can't get a car Now. Good night. Katie KaplanHost25:09 Now Captain Roundtree, who was on the case within two days of Kelly disappearing, tells us that the call records show that phone call came from Kelly's phone and it is the last one that was made from it that is essentially what we believe to be the last contact that Kelly physically had with anybody that we know of or have evidence. Now, the next morning, Eddie says he woke up, he realized Kelly wasn't there and he was immediately alarmed. EmHost25:35 And just like that, kelly was gone, leaving behind her car, her driver's license and her credit cards. And that's, luths, is where we're going to leave you for now, but we'll be diving deep into episode two. We're going to retrace Eddie's steps in the days after Kelly vanished, and we're also going to continue talking about the other persons of interest that are on Live Oak PD's radar. Katie KaplanHost25:57 We also want you to know that if you are in an abusive relationship, you are not alone and there are resources to help. You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. We also have resources on our website and if you have a tip about the Kelly Ranin case, you can call Swanee Valley Crime Stoppers at 386-208-TIPS, that's 386-208-8477. EmHost26:26 And if you guys are enjoying our podcast, please take just a second and do us a favor. Leave a five-star review rating for us in your podcast player, and if you have another second, it would be pretty awesome to hear from you guys. So if you wanted to write a little review for us, we'd love to read it, but for now, stay vigilant and stay curious, fellow sleuths.
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