Chapter 2: March 25th, 2004...According to Joey

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According to Joey Hi, I'm your host, Jules, Let's get started. Everything that Joey Benton, Jennifer's fiance, says happened after he returned home from his job at a construction site after being called from the Benton home to do so is alleged. I want to make this clear. So many details of this case have been written as fact because Joey's version has been so widely spread. It's been even documented in the media multiple times that people are now believing it to be the truth. It makes sense. You see and hear something enough times and pretty soon you assume it's fact. But it has never been corroborated, nor has any individual outside of Joey ever confirmed any parts of his version. I feel comfortable in this next claim as well. No part of Joey's version has been successfully corroberated by law enforcement. This includes Robertson County Sheriff's office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation the TBI. So what do we have. We have one last confirmed phone call from Jennifer Wicks from inside the Benton home to her aunt Lisa. This has been confirmed by law enforcement per phone records from the Benton home. I am going to take you through Joey's version of events, everything he has said over the last twenty years on record about what happened to Jennifer and Adriana Wicks on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four. And while I do so we will be going over official police reports, statements, published news articles, in family, comments on public forums. Joey Benton full name William Joseph Benton tells authorities that after a phone call was made to him at his work site, he headed straight home. What is unknown to us is who was on that call. What is known is that phone records show that the call came from inside the Benton home, the same home where Jennifer and Adriana Wicks were living with Joey and his parents, Joe and Cindy Benton. According to the story Joey Benton has been telling for years, on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, he arrives home to find that Jennifer and Adriana have locked themselves in their bedroom. We do not have any more information about that, and we do not know the truth behind this claim either, but we do have to ask, if this was true, what would the motivation be to lock her and her baby girl inside a room and a home she was living besides fear? And if this is not true, what would be the purpose of this statement made by Joey Now? I have reached out to Joey multiple times via cell phone ask him to speak to us for our podcast. We tried to make it very clear that we wanted to tell all sides who wanted to be heard, but I never received a response. I also informed him that a lot was being sent about him, but not from him, and he was welcome to approve questions asked ahead of time, and also to record our interviews for himself. But crickets. Instead of confirming the picnic, Joey says, instead, the three of them went for a drive. He then says that while they drive around talking, they get into a heated argument and decide to break up. Joey says Jennifer told him to drive her to the Food Value, a local grocery store in the heart of Cross Plains, Tennessee, just a few minutes drive from their home. I want you to pay special attention to the following details, because well, you can see for yourself. According to an official police report followed by responding officer Mike Campbell, on March twenty seventh, two thousand and four, which is two full days after anyone had seen or heard last from Jennifer or Adriana quote, Deputy Campbell spoke with William and he stated that he had not seen Jennifer since Thursday, when she left with a friend. When Deputy Campbell asked who the friend was, William stated he didn't know. William then stated that he was mistaken and took Jennifer and the two year old baby girl to Exon and drop them off around nine thirty Thursday night. End quote. I just wanted to let that mayrinate a little bit. Okay, let's continue with the report quote. Deputy Campbell asked William a few more questions concerning the whereabouts of Jennifer and her daughter, and before leaving, Deputy Campbell asked William again, when was the last time he saw Jennifer. End quote. Now, before we dive into William, Joseph Benton or Joey's response, if you're keeping track, One, Joey says Jennifer left with a friend. Two Joey says he last saw Jennifer when he dropped the girls off at the ex On gas station. And now we have three from the police report. Quote. William's response was Jennifer left his house in a white four door Mustang and then stated, no, it was a white four door Camaro. End quote. The last time he saw Jennifer was when she drove away in a white four door Mustang or white four door Cameo. So which was it? When was the last time Joey saw her car? Enthusiasts will know immediately what is suspicious about this statement, and it's because you, guys, if you're not a car enthusiast, there's no such thing as a four door Mustang, and there is also no such thing as a four door Camaro. Two days later, on March twenty nine, two thousand and four, Officer Mike Campbell and another SHARE's deputy follow up with more interviews with Jennifer's family. They speak with Jennifer's aunt, Lisa Robertson. Now. According to one of the deputies reports quote when Miss Robertson spoke to Joey Benton on the phone after the disappearance of Jennifer Wicks, Joejoey Benton told her that a white four door vehicle picked her up at the Exxon station on Highway twenty five. Miss Robertson clearly remembers that Joey described occupants of the vehicle as a white male was ready complexion, and a white female, and Joey Benton's later testimony to investigators. He explained he never saw the occupants of the vehicle end quote. So we do have a few things to dissect. Joey told Deputy Campbell. Initially he could not recall which Exxon gas station he'd dropped Jennifer and Adriana off at. Well, guess what in a town's population of fewer than fourteen hundred people at the time, There are records of only one Exon gas station in Cross Plains, Tennessee at the time, and it's the same one Aunt Lisa was referring to that Joey told her. By Interstate sixty five entrance and exit Exit one twelve to get to Nashville, Joey would have to drive past this gas station to get to Kentucky, where he was doing construction work that week. He'd have to drive past this Exon to get to work. Then, when Aunt Lisa finally gets in touch with him, he recalls which gas station it was. Here's the kicker Lisa talked to Joey before Robertson County Sheriff's office did. If what Aunt Lisa reports to Robertson County Sheriff in his report is true, this would mean that between the time, Joey tells Lisa that Jennifer and Adriana were dropped off at the Exon by the Interstate, and then, twenty four hours or so later, Joey's question by police and he forgets which Exon it was. Could he have truly forgotten over the course of twenty four hours or so that he dropped his fiance and her baby off at at night? His choices in Exon gas stations and cross planes were between the one at the I sixty five Interstate off exit one twelve or nothing. That was the only Exon in cross planes at that time. So let's break this down. Joey tells the responding officer first that Jennifer left his house with a friend he couldn't name a friend, and then quickly changes his story. He now recalls that he dropped the girls off at an Exxon gas station, but he cannot recall which one. This is a small town where every establishment is known and frequented, and there was just one Exxon. Anything is possible when we don't have facts. Absolutely, of course, but wait, here's one more story from Joey that is inconsistent with the others. Here's a fourth one. If you're keeping track. According to the same March twenty ninth police report, Deputy Campbell reports quote, according to Jeffrey Grayson, Joey Benton had originally told him that he drove Jennifer Wicks to Jerry and Helga Jackson's home in or around the Dixon Road area. The Jacksons have since explained that they had not seen Jennifer Wicks since November of two thousand and three. Four four different stories you can about Jennifer's movements on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, and all four originating from Joey himself. Noticed that Jeffrey, who was Joey's best friend at the time and Jennifer Wicks's first cousin, never even mentions an Exxon gas station story. The location is completely new to him. In a two thousand and five newspaper article published at the one year mark of the girls's disappearance by Robertson County Times titled mother daughter still Missing one year later, reporter Cindy Kelly writes, quote, Benton twenty four told authorities that he last saw Wicks when he dropped her and her daughter off at an Exxon station around ninet thirty that night, he said they left with someone in a white car end quote. My question is this, why not include everything Joey told authorities. The narrative that Jennifer and Adriana Wicks were last seen at an Exon gas station on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, when Joey dropped the girls off at nine thirty PM has now become the story. Without the reports and the evidence of the evolving statements, the public will absolutely believe and lean into the legend narrative that Joey was pushing. Don't think I'll leave you hanging with this. I'll be addressing this in chapter three, but first I have to pause and be one hundred percent transparent with you. If I am asking you to stay with me throughout this first season and to trust me, I need to tell you a few things. Number One, as I am writing this podcast, I am actively learning new information all the time. In Number two, I refuse to hurt this case. So everything I share here is what I've discovered, researched, investigated, read, been told, or have seen myself. I will never share any exclusive leads just to rank in the charts. This has built foremost on trust between me as a producer and the victims, the families. I will absolutely screw up along the way. I am learning on the job, But anything I share with you has been vetted based on this one goal. Will this help bring the girls home? Please keep that in mind while I share information alibi's theories, etc. Which may recently be debunked but are not yet eligible to be shared with the public. What I won't do is lie to you. Do I know more than I am sharing. Yep. Am I trying to be respectful of the family as to not cross boundaries and ruin our relationship. Yes, this is their life, their real trauma, their real grief. Behind the scenes, this case is changing every single day, and I'm on the scene. The cameras have been rolling, the microphones have been on, and I've been saving it all for the day that we can expose everything. So with that being said, back to Joey's story, I do not believe it. I do not believe Joey ever went to Food Value. I do not believe a phone call was ever made. I do not believe he ever dropped the girls off at the Excellent gas station. But it is not enough to insert my opinion, and truthfully, I expect to catch some heat from doing so. Throughout this process, I've had to step back and play devil's advocate. I've had to ask myself if I am looking at this information objectively. I've had numerous late night calls to Jennifer's sister, Casey, where I do ask her the tough questions and push back on what they have always thought was the truth. In this case, I did not come to this conclusion lightly or quickly. But if you were to ask me, with my hand on the Bible, if I believe anything Joey says happened on March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, once he returned home from work, I would tell the world that no, none of Joey's versions of events have ever been proven, and I don't believe they ever can. Now, back to the police reports, Deputy Campbell continues with his police work and dutifully retraces Joey's steps. According to his final statement to police, that he dropped Jennifer off at the local food value, where she got out of his car and made a phone call inside. Then she returned and told him to drive her to the Exxon gas station where he then says, the girls got out of the car and Joey drove across the street and sat in the church parking lot for ten minutes until that white car arrived to get the girls. So, according to the police report by Deputy Campbell, Deputy Campbell went to talk to the cashier at Food Value who was working within the time frame. Joey says he brought Jennifer by to make a call, so that would be March twenty fifth, two thousand and four, between eight and nine pm. Quote. The cashier stated that she did not see Jennifer or the child anytime that night. She also stated that the store locks its doors at nine o'clock every night. The cashier then stated that when she left for the night, she walked to her car and remembered some coke she had forgotten in the store. She then returned to the doors of the store to retrieve her cokes. During the walk to the car, then to the store back to her car, she doesn't recall anyone else being in the parking lot. End quote. Casey and I drove to the former Food Value in its place sits now? What is a pigly wiggly? The remnants of a payphone still stand erect at the edge of the parking lot next to the Pigley Wiggly Marquee proudly displaying the meat specials of the week. And then we drove to the Exxon and we drove past the Benton home. We wanted to see how long it would take us to drive through this town to all of these establishments that Joey said we're involved with his alibi. Take a listen, okay. So now we are parked in front of the Benton family home on Owen's Chapel Road, where Jennifer and Adriana were living with Joey and his parents. And eventon, Anna got Casey with me and we're ready. To rock a roll. So we're going to test out some tinan today. We wanted to see in person the route that Joey said he took, So I think we're going to test out the route he said he took from his house to the gas station. Don't go anywhere, We'll be right back. Six one five real Estate Advisors People over profit. Six one five real estate Advisors are committed to bringing people in our community home every single day. This includes Jennifer and Adriana Wicks, located in Robertson County, Tennessee. Six one five real estate advisors proudly serve all of Middle Tennessee. Andy B's boutique custom tees for all your needs, creating faith, pet and family friendly designs for all. Visit shopandybees dot com for an exclusive Jennifer and Adriana Wick shirt. Andy Be's boutique will donate profits from each Wick shirt back to the Wicks family to fight for justice. That website is shop andybes a and d i bs dot com. In the Shadows of the City, a business missed a crucial chance, neglecting the power of captivating content while others captured hearts. Their story remained hidden, but you can rewrite your story. Relive Studio transforms your brand with striking photos and video content. Visit www dot relive dot studio. Mention this ad and. Receive free photos. With your video package. Unlock the story your brand deserves. Hometown Connect your local list, Hometown Connect your ultimate list, bringing communities together through small town business connections. They're your go to app for all things Middle Tennessee. They empower local businesses and promote the shop local revolution through advanced technology. While never sacrificing online privacy. With innovative bluetooth, proximity marketing, direct customer messaging, and in app marketing tools, they're your ultimate local list, hometown connect. What do you want to first? Yeah, and we might have to make this drive twice, which is kind of annoying, but there's two routes he could have taken into town. This is all we gotta do, which is not annoying. We'll do it five times. So yeah, the first thing we need to do is, you know, come out of there, did you start it? Come out of their driveway? And then we're going to turn up on Roy Cole and starting it. Now. Okay, there's the church, Owen's Chapel, United Methodist Church. Okay, so this route is going to take us into cross Plains. But Jennifer's last phone call was to my aunt and that is now confirmed with law enforcement. After our meeting, I was always kind of like, did it did it not? They've only ever confirmed the call with her dad, But she made her life one called to my aunt and I don't know exactly what time it was. My aunt said it was around one. But anyways, this route that we're taking is going to go past my aunt's house. Her her house ishsh right here around the corner to buy her house. Well, my aunt whenever Jennifer talked to her, my aunt said that she told her, I would leave you a key. It'll be in the grill if you need if things get bad and you need to come here. And I feel like there's probably more in that conversation if I could talk to my aunt, but she's not talking to me right now. She's not talking to me either. Yeah, she was going to, but I feel like she could. She potentially said some things in it, like maybe she said I'm leaving, Like if he doesn't move out of that house with me, then I'm leaving. You know what, what did Jennifer say that made Lisa right? That's what I think you for you. I always assumed it was just because of the fighting the night before, you know, and her telling her about that just keep going, you just keep going. Yet it'll it'll run into a stop ton it's the it's twenty five. So if my aunt was like, I'll leave you a key out here things get bad, like this would be the first place. It's right around the corner, the quickest place for him to be like, I hate your guts. We're breaking up, and and Jennifer would be like, take me here because it's the closest. This is not her house, but it's the next mailbox. Right here is my aunt's house. No way, yeah, so do you see how fucking close that is? And if my aunt's like, I'll leave you a key here, it is no. Wait? How long did that take us? Driving the speed limit even slowing down just a tiny bit? It's this, it's this, this, this trailer right here? Yet five minutes? There's no kin that lived there? Still no, But that's the picture of Adriana and her Easter dress is right there in there front case. Five minutes. I've driven by this like every day the last ten years. That was my aunt Lisa's house. And how did that casey? I that is so wild because this is where we get our pumpkins. Right here. This is my commute to work every day. No are we going to food value? Oh okay, so then you have to pass their house. But you can also drive through here to get to his house and Woodrow. Uh, I mean you can. Will The main roads are going to be that one Roy Cole or down Cross Plans Road. If you're trying to get to where he said he took them, not to Lisa's house, right, but to where he said he took them. Those were the route. Even if he took that way though the back way or through that way, it's still dumpsy right at Lisa's house. Yeah, so you would turn left and go fifty feet. And they stopped at the Food Value and then they went to the gas station. So now we're on our way to Food. Value where she went allegedly made a phone call. Allegedly. Yeah, I don't think speed limits have really chagd No, I don't think in the last twenty years, if anything, we would be going a little bit. It would take a little bit longer to get somewhere because of the work traffic. Okay, so we're passing the city Hall and cross plains and I used to live right here on the right with this little yellow door. This was my old house. Whenever Jennifer means red door, a little the yellow door with their yellow it's red. Oh, I bet it's not fun glasses, but I don't know what it would make it yellow. There's Samantha's house they live in now, and then this town is so freaking small that this is it, like, we're this is town. We're coming up on the blinking red light. We're about to town. Right here in the middle of cross plane. There's the old bay. There's the old in one of the original establishments. Here in the that's on the courthouse will This. Was a general store. They used to have hitching posts. Here's the old pharmacy. So this gas station right here on the corner Terry's Market. There's a lot of gold, so keep going straight. There's a lot of gossip that Keith or that goes on there from leads that I've gotten people always over here. This Dollar General is where my mom met Jennifer and Joey that Tuesday. This is the food value right here, the current Wiggly Yes was a food value. My boyfriend's family owned this store when the girls disappeared, and so we knew the people in it. We knew everything ten minutes. That's that's insane. Yeah, that's crazy because I never knew that box was a former payphone. But according to Joey in his statement to the police, he dropped Jennifer here. Jennifer went in and made a phone call. Did she bring Adriana with her and was she sitting in a car seat, because that will come into play hugely, come into play if she was in a car seat or not, because of what Officer Campbell will tell us. I need to know about this car seat. I feel like there's so much more to that like that, I too, will be the big smoking gun, I think, especially since they only had one car seat and what car was he driving? And who came home to give him the car because he didn't have a car when he went to work. That's why he got the ride, right. Yeah, so someone would have again, Remember it's like, according to him, like eight o'clock at this point, and it's eight thirty. In between eight thirty and nine came down here. Yeah, so the Pigley closes at nine? Yeah, I think it was nine. Which way do we? You? Uh? Left? Wait, let me start my clock. Because I also read that the girl working left she forgot something in there and she went back in and she still didn't seen any one in the parking lot. Yeah, it's too bad they can't get the records from the payphone that would be an easy fix or the Pickley Wickly records at the time, that would are easy fixed. I'm sure they have all that way to share. If they don't, that's embarrassing. Wow, it's likely not gonna lie minutes south of Kentucky. The old drives fifteen minutes. So this gas station was here, Ah, this isn't it though it was here during the time. Now, if police work would have been done correctly, they would have had cameras. We could have fooled. Here's the church he supposedly parked in the parking this what And here's the. Where the gas station? That's what I thought. Okay, so you can turn left right there and then we can kind of park right there. Yeah, so we need to get out, I feel okay. So that was a fifteen minute drive. So this then we went from the true Value, which is now the Pigley Wiggly and Cross Plains, and we drove just a few minutes down to this gas station. But we had to drive past your family home to drop her off at this gas station for her to get a ride where because her aunt's house, her mom's house, they were right down the road. Just talked to her aunt that day, talked to my mom the night before, made plans with my aunt if something went awry, and they and they needed to come back. She still had a room at your aunt's house. It was still there, and your house she had a key. She didn't even need to call your aunt to get a hold of her to go over there. She just had to get the key out of the grill. Okay, it's so bizarre. Who would she to entertain the idea that she did call someone? Who would she have called? No one? I mean, there's no one. Did they look into the Helga story? I assume so, because then they have a white car. They had a white Camaro, A white yeah Camaro, because in the police report then he changes the story to a wait, Camaro, And I wonder if he said that saying Camaro and then it changed to just a white four door sedan. Yeah. How long after he says she made that phone call to the car picked her up? How long was that? How much time went by? I mean he just said I waited about ten minutes, so to drive from he waited in that parking lot, and to drive from that true value that was over here five minutes and then wait for ten minutes of fifteen minutes. That's got If it's true, that's someone. Local, someone had to be local from. Coming from White House, some rainfield, cross planes, yeah, somewhere in Robertson or some ner Yeah. Could Jennifer have gotten out of the car and made a phone call from the parking lot payphone instead of from inside. Perhaps Joey was confused and simply got one tiny detailed wrong. What if she did get out of the car, but instead of going in, she walks over and puts a few coins in the payphone and makes her call within side of Joey. The best way would be to pull the phone records of the Piggly Wiggly and the payphone. The family can't confirm that this was done, and to their knowledge, there was no security footage from that evening or even a camera at all at the time. All we have our statements from the workers at Food Value who cannot confirm seeing anybody at that time. The bagger was contacted, and he also did not recall seeing anyone come into the store during that timeframe. With Jennifer's description, and we know that Joey had a cell phone and that Jennifer would use it and he would get upset over her using his minutes. So why wasn't Jennifer able to just use his cell phone. So Deputy Campbell moves on to the Exon gas station, but the clerk who was on shift at the time isn't there. However, the family does talk to the clerk later on. The clerk was a school friend of Jennifer's and she will go on to relay to the family that if Jennifer and Adriana had arrived at the gas station, she would have known and remembered. Recall, it's the end of March and it's Tennessee, which means the temperatures drop quite drastically into the night. If Jennifer and Adriana got out of Joey's car, as he says they did, and he drove across the street for ten minutes to wait for them to get picked up, Jennifer would not likely wait in a freezing parking lot with a toddler, especially when she was friends with the Exon clerk working that shift that night. Also should be noted Adriana had one jacket, a purple jacket, which was later returned to Kathy from the Benton family in a trash bag. Did Adriana not even have a jacket on? According to Joey's story, if she waited outside. She would be waiting outside in the end of March at night, in freezing cold temperatures with a toddler who did not have a jacket on. Could it be possible if during those ten minutes Joey says that they were at the gas station around nine twenty to nine thirty PM, that that cashier was otherwise occupied. Surely she could see anyone standing in the gas station parking lot for any duration of time from most vantage points from the interior of the station, And even if she had gone in the back, it wouldn't be for full ten minutes, as she was the only employee there. And now we hit a second blow. Any video footage recorded from that evening was not available. Why there were cameras at that Exxon gas station in two thousand and four, and guess what law enforcement did ask for it? How tight was that window to get the footage to corroborate Joey's story, Well, we can confirm it was sooner than one day the tapes were recorded on each morning. Twenty years of questions could have been handled within the first twenty four hours of this case had it been taken seriously and acted upon with urgency per the family's desperate please to law enforcement. Joey's statements quickly shift from being unclear of details to having very specific recollections of that evening. It appears that once his final statement is made, he sticks with that story and stands by it for the next twenty years, That is, until recently. If you recall, Joey was asked by Deputy Campbell when the last time he saw Jennifer was, and he says when she came by his house in a white four door Camaro or Mustang car. This is following what he had said earlier in the same interview that he last saw her when he dropped her off at the Exxon gas station. So which was it? When was the last time he actually saw Jennifer? Well, according to Joey's statement over the years, which he has appeared to stand by until recently. Thursday, he drops Jennifer and Adriana Wicks off at the Exxon off exit one twelve and cross plains Tennessee, watches as she gets in a white four door car. He then says he goes to work Friday, the twenty six The job is finished early, so he's back home late morning early afternoon. According to Joey, Jennifer stops by his house. She is driving that white four door car which came to pick her up the previous night, But nobody else is in the car. No Adriana, no mystery people who came to pick her up. According to Joe Joe, this would be two times within the last twelve hours that Joey has seen this white car, yet he still cannot accurately describe the make and model. He says. Jennifer came by asking for the five hundred dollars tax return that Joe Benton was going to write her a check for since it was auto deposited into his account. Joey tells her his father is at home, and he says that Jennifer tells him she will return Saturday morning to collect it. Then he says, she gets a few of her things from him and leaves the beloved Elmo doll, the one Adriana couldn't sleep without. It was later returned in the black trash bag of items to Kathy Nail, Jennifer's mother, take a listen. The baby's sleep partner, her little Elmo, her stuffed Delmo, her Melmo. She called him. It was there. That was alarming to me because being a mama, I know, you don't go anywhere for one night without your child's to that they are going to cry and beg for when they go to bed, And that's exactly what she would do. When she was at my house. She had a crib in my bedroom and if if her Elmo was in the other room, she you know, she wouldn't lay down without it. She would she would just. My mal Moo, I want my Malmo, you know. Hany'd had to go and find Elmo and bring him in there. So when that little dirty drug around everywhere Elmo was returned, that was alarming to me. We cannot confirm who took Joey to or from work either day the twenty fifth or the twenty sixth, but we do have confirmation that a former friend and co worker, Nolan Rye, took Joey home from work on either of those days, March twenty fifth or March twenty six It's been twenty years, and obviously we're battling against Fadi memories, but it is documented and Nolan's stay that Nolan was getting picked up early by his girlfriend. Joey hears this and asks him for a ride too, since he received a call to hurry home, he must leave the site early. Here's Nolan Rye. We were working in Franklin, Kentucky, around the time that Jennifer went missing, me and an ex girlfriend. Our girlfriend at the time had carried Joey home sometime around the time that Jennifer and Adriana went missing. I'm assuming the week of because it was only a few days later that we hear that she was missing. She was coming to get me from work early that day. I left around lunch and Joey had found out that I was leaving early and came and asked if we could carry him home that day, and I told him yeah, that was fine, and acted very strong that day. It's always kind of weird, a little bit weirder that day to the point my girlfriend at the time was kind of fricked out by him. I didn't know his father. He coached me at ball one year for about half the season until they kicked him out made him not be the coach anymore. Never met Joey's mama, never met Jennifer. To be honest with you, when Joey and Jennifer started dating, Joey he kind of just he didn't hang out with anybody that I know, maybe John, maybe Jeffrey, I don't know, other than at work. I mean, I mean, I do feel like Joey loved her time. You know, the time that the detective from Robertson County come that he had another guy with him. I'm assuming it might have been a TBI guy. I'm not sure. Off the hand, I can't remember I did. I went down there voluntarily and talked to him at the Sheriff's office, and you know, they asked a few questions and I told him, I said it. I told him I didn't know anything, and I didn't want to know anything. And they asked me, well, why don't you want to know anything? I said, Well, if he did kill her and I knew something, I feel like that would be a target on my back, you know, and he would likely kill me. But if he was gonna come to try to kill me, one of the two of us would end up dead. And I'm hoping it wasn't me, you know, because I was in The cops were like, well that makes sense, you know. I'm like, look, I wish I knew something to tell y'all, to help y'all. Do I think they did it? Hell, yes, I think they. Did it, But. I don't know anything. I mean, hell, joe and them was growing weed in their little building out there. They didn't even tell me, But I was hanging out with them some you know, so why would they tell me something to that extent? You know, he had a temper. Yeah, I probably saw it a time or two. Actually, when I worked for his dad, we got into it one day, Me and Joey got into it, and uh, we got up in each other's face and had some words, and. My temper went off. I mean I did that day. I kicked that. A gallon yellow sucking a yellow paint up against the wall and I walked out that day and paint went all over the wall. And uh, I remember Joey's. Dad saying, called along, and called along, and Joey's like, it's just Nolan, let him go. You know, he'll call him down in a minute. And you know it was nothing was never said of it, you know. But uh, that was the last day I worked first dad. But I mean, that's probably one of the last times I've ever talked to Joey really, to be honest with you, I don't recall going and hanging out with Joey after Jennifer hitting them went missing. H would the year, so however long they dated, I really didn't hang out with Joey then other than seeing him at work, you know, if we were working on the road, you know, obviously be at the same hotel. That was about it. I know. The cops asked me that day when I went down there if I thought he did it. I said, yes, I did. And he asked me if anybody else would have known if they did it, who would know? And I said his daddy wouldn't know. But as far as friends, I don't know. Jeffrey or John would know more than me. You know. I hope they get justice. I really do. It's a bad deal. I'd hate to know one of the females in my family went missing. I'd probably done a hunted him down. He probably wouldn't be found today. I really would say we'd get some closures, some justice something. Jennifer's aunt Lisa provides a written statement to law enforcement that Joey's father, Joe left a message on the answering machine stating that he was looking for Jennifer to give her the five hundred dollars tax return check. If we go off the Benton statements. Jennifer came by that Friday morning on the twenty sixth to get her check, tells Joey she'll return the next morning. On Sadaturday, the twenty seventh, joe Senior calls Jennifer's aunt's house to find Jennifer. Now, this is the home where Joey's best friend, Jeffrey, who was also Jennifer's first cousin, lives. So by the time March twenty seventh, Saturday comes around, Jennifer never shows up at the Benton home for her check, but Deputy Campbell does, and you're going to want to hear what he has to say. Deputy Campbell saw something that day in the Benton home, something that may make you question all of the Benton statements, and we're going to hear it directly from Deputy Campbell himself next time. I'm missing in Hushtown, Deputy Mike Campbell. Thank you to our episode sponsors, Concordia Insurance, Great Protection at a great Value, Harris Hold Martial Arts Academy in Clarksville, Tennessee, and Like Mother, Like Murder, a True Crime mom cast covering the good, the badass, and the crime. Missing in Hushtown was executive produced and written by Me Your Host, Jules with and The Audio House LLC. Casey Robinson was co producer. Special thanks to John Thorpe, Patrick Robinson, my parents, and Jen Rivera, and to our children. To follow our continued efforts on Justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wicks, you can find us on Facebook at Justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. This page is personally managed by Casey herself and you can find me Jules Hi on Instagram at your host Jewels. Notes and updates can be found on our website www dot Missing in Hushtown dot com. Please help us continue to grow by considering leaving a five star review and rating wherever you're listening. If you have a tip for this case, please please call one eight hundred TBI find help us bring the Wix Girls home. To donate to this family's continued fight for justice, please visit GoFundMe dot com slash Jennifer and Adriana Wicks and to support the podcast and to help us continue this production, you may clicks support the show and the show notes and donate a wis kiss. Ten percent of all profits from season one of Missing in Hushtown will be given to the Wicks family indefinitely. As always, You're wanted, you are loved, and you deserve to be found. Don't you forget it. I'll see you next time. Why it is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to chumpback Casino dot com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chump A Casino has over one hundred online casino style games, all absolutely free. 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