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After more than a year of not knowing, there still is no word about what happend to Brandy. |
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Entry for June 23, 2009
Name: Brandy Renee Hanna
Classification: Endangered Missing Adult
Date of Birth: 1972-11-16
Date Missing: 2005-05-20
From City/State: Charleston, SC
Missing From (Country): USA
Age at Time of Disappearance: 32
Gender: Female
Race: White
Height: 69 inches
Weight: 115 pounds
Hair Color: Sandy
Eye Color: Blue
Complexion: Light
Identifying Characteristics: Tattoo of a "sun" on right shoulder, tattoo of a "heart" between thumb and forefinger of right hand,
three piercings in left ear, two piercings in right ear, gap in upper front teeth, crooked upper teeth, missing molars.
Clothing: Possibly wearing a light blue shirt, blue jeans, white athletic shoes.
Jewelry: Diamond ring (very small diamonds make up the shape of a flower).
Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Brandy was last seen after 10:00 pm on May 20, 2005 at her residence in the vicinity of
the 3300 block of Florida Ave. in Charleston, SC. All of her belongings were left behind.
Investigative Agency: North Charleston Police Department
Phone: (843) 745-1015
Investigative Case #: 2005019398
Everything in Brandy Hanna’s apartment suggested she would be right back: A cup of tea on the table, the tips she’d made
waitressing that day, a pillow and blanket rumpled on the couch where she had curled up to watch TV for the evening. Nothing in
the apartment was missing except Brandy and her new cell phone.
On the night of May 20, 2005, Brandy Hanna vanished from her North Charleston, South Carolina apartment without a trace. For more
than four years, her family and police have led a frustrating investigation that has turned up no solid evidence but has produced
a number of wild claims, conflicting stories and disturbing clues. Police are baffled, and call Brandy’s disappearance one of the
greatest mysteries the Carolina Lowcountry has seen in years.
In the spring of 2005, Brandy Hanna had reached a turning point in her life. A pretty, outgoing 32-year-old, she had started
working at Alex’s restaurant, a local diner managed by her mother, Donna Parent. Brandy was a good worker, always had a smile, and
was popular with her customers. After ending a long-term relationship several months earlier, she had recently moved into her own
apartment. Her mother had protested, saying the area had a high crime rate, but Brandy said it was all she could afford.
Initially, she shared the apartment with her new boyfriend, Zeke Lankford, but he had recently moved out.
“I begged her to come home, but she wouldn’t,” Parent said. “She’s a grown woman; she wanted a place of her own.”
Brandy had big plans for the weekend. After getting off work that Friday afternoon, she planned to go shopping with her best
friend. On Saturday, she would go to the beach with Lankford. On Sunday, she was going to have breakfast with her mother and
brother.
During her shift that day, Brandy received a disturbing phone call on the restaurant’s main line. She never said who called or
what they said, but if left her shaken. She told one of her customers that she was scared of someone, but wouldn’t say who. She
never told Parent about the call.
By 2:30 p.m., when her shift ended, Brandy was her usual happy self again. She had no car, and caught a ride home with one of her
customers. She walked out of the restaurant carrying a to-go cup of iced tea.
At 5:30 that afternoon, she talked to her mother on the phone. Brandy loved her new cell phone, which her mother had bought her,
and kept it stuck to her ear. A few hours later, she sent a text message to her friend, asking if they were still going shopping.
But by the time Amy McAdams arrived at Brandy’s apartment, it was nearly 10 p.m., and no one answered when she knocked on the
door. She tried to call Brandy on her new number and her old, prepaid cell phone. From outside, Amy could hear the prepaid cell
ringing inside the apartment. McAdams figured Brandy was asleep but thought it strange that the phone didn’t wake her up. In fact,
Parent had tried to call her daughter on her new cell earlier that evening and, when she got no answer, began to worry. Brandy
never missed a call.
No one saw Brandy for the rest of the weekend. Parent tried to call a couple of times, but figured Brandy was an adult and
entitled to her privacy. She hoped Brandy was simply out with her boyfriend. But when Brandy didn’t show up for work on Monday
morning, Parent called the police.
The police found no sign of forced entry or a struggle at Brandy’s apartment, and no hint that she had taken off on an extended
trip. All her clothes were there, her money, everything she owned. Detectives contacted her phone company, but could not trace
her. Brandy’s cell had been turned off – the company could get no signal. The police immediately questioned her last two
boyfriends, Ray McAdams and Zeke Lankford. She had dated McAdams for several years, but broke up with him months earlier.
Initially, her family was suspicious, especially after neighbors reported seeing a truck similar to McAdams’ in the parking lot
that Friday night.
Both McAdams and Lankford passed polygraph tests, and said they had had no contact with Brandy. Lankford, who had allegedly
planned to take Brandy to the beach on Saturday morning, told police he had not been able to get off work and did not stop by
Brandy’s apartment that weekend.
Police and missing persons teams, including the North Carolina-based CUE Center, searched the Lowcountry throughout the summer,
but found no trace of Brandy. Police could find no evidence of foul play, but Parent knew Brandy would not simply wander off on
her own. She was close to her family, and kept a tight circle of friends. She rarely socialized with anyone else. Somebody, Parent
thought, must know something. McAdams and Lankford accused each other of playing a part in Brandy’s disappearance.
By summer, Parent began to raise reward money to give anyone with information on her daughter’s whereabouts, but she got no
credible information. One man claimed to know what had happened to Brandy, but demanded the money up front. He said if Parent did
not pay, she would never see her daughter again. Police suspected the man was a scam artist. Another person claimed they had seen
Brandy walking down a local road.
Parent explored every avenue she could, plastering posters with Brandy’s picture all over the city. Over the next several months,
there were a few tantalizing clues: one person claimed to have seen Brandy in a local store, but when Parent and police looked at
the store’s surveillance cameras, they did not see her in the videos. A psychic claimed Brandy was buried beneath a tin hut near
her apartment. Once, searchers found a woman who looked like Brandy wearing shoes that were identical to those she was last seen
wearing. The shoes were too big for the woman, but they were Brandy’s size. She claimed to not know where she’d gotten the shoes.
Parent kept the case publicized through candlelight vigils on Brandy’s birthday and the anniversary of her disappearance. She
managed to get Brandy’s face on Lowcountry billboards, but no credible tips ever came in. Police said it was the strangest thing
they’d ever seen. No one simply vanished.
Police wanted to test McAdams truck for DNA, but he died mysteriously in 2007. His family sold the truck before the police could
get it. Brandy’s family and friends fear that if McAdams knew anything about Brandy’s whereabouts, that information died with him.
For Parent, it is a nightmare that has lasted four years. Every time the body of a young woman is found, she dreads the call from
police. Police have little hope of ever solving the case, but Parent will not give up. Alex’s Restaurant still has missing posters
on the wall and Parent wears a button with Brandy’s face on it every day. She hopes that one day, someone will see Brandy’s
picture and remember something – anything – that might lead her to the answer, and hopefully her daughter’s safe return. After all
this time, it has not gotten any easier.
“The good, the bad, I’ve got to know,” Parent said. |
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