The Unexplained Death of Tom Brown

Jan 1 2021 • 36 mins

This episode contains potentially triggering topics of suicide and suicide ideation.

On the night of Wednesday, 23rd of November 2016, Tom Brown and some friends met at a Middle School car park. An ordinary night filled with driving, listening to music and big dreams to leave the small town of Canadian, Texas behind and start their lives.

Tom and friends Christian and Kaleb bundle into Christian’s car and they drive around town, stopping to go for a walk. Soon 11 pm rolls along so the trio decided to call it a night. Christian drives the boys and herself back to the car park where they get into their own cars. Kaleb watches Tom get into his red Dodge Durango at 11:26 pm and drive away, not knowing this would be the last time he saw his friend.

At the Brown residence, Tom’s midnight curfew comes and goes without any sign of the 18-year-old and mother Penny begins to worry as it was very unlike him to be late. The minutes slowly trickle by and after a few texts, Penny is advised by her husband, a volunteer firefighter and Tom’s stepfather, to ring a sheriff’s dispatch And after 45 minutes a deputy responds and search for Thomas begins.

What ensues from this night and well into the days, weeks, months and years is a truly bizarre and baffling case. A case where misinformation, a thousand different stories and rumours attach themselves to a case already beset with issues such as private investigations and rumours of a cover up.

But behind the controversy and small-town gossip, lies a heart-breaking case and questions that remain unanswered, what happened to Thomas Kelly Brown, a young man who played football, video games, was well liked and a class president. How did his car come to be abandoned at a water treatment plant, his belongings scattered for miles beyond and ultimately where his remains would be found three years later? In this episode we explore the disappearance and eventual discovery of Tom Brown.

SOURCES:

https://truecrimesociety.com/2020/06/29/a-death-in-canadian-the-story-of-tom-brown/#:~:text=D.,the%20family%20it%20was%20suicide.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/dvldbj/update_unsolved_death_of_thomas_brown_from/

http://charleyproject.org/case/thomas-kelly-brown

http://www.findtombrown.com/case-history.html

https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/thomas-browns-dad-speaks-about-his-sons-case

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/7hssxd/unresolved_disappearance_what_happened_to_thomas/

https://www.newschannel10.com/2019/01/17/investigators-detail-how-thomas-brown-was-found-whats-next/

https://www.facebook.com/ABC7Amarillo/videos/2206038473035538

https://casefilepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/85-tho

https://www.newschannel10.com/2019/11/12/hemphill-county-sher

https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/tcole-investigation-of-reveals-new-information-about-thomas-brown-case