Chapter 1: What happened to Brittany McGlone on May 4, 2007?
All right, everyone, if you have been waiting for the perfect moment to pick up my latest novel, The Missing Half, this is it because it is officially out on paperback and there is more waiting for you inside. There is nothing better than getting cozy and diving into a story that you can't put down.
And now you can take the missing half anywhere, crack the spine, roll the cover, and lose yourself in a mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. And in paperback, the ending extends beyond where the story has before. And just when you think you have it all figured out, now there is a new chapter. One more piece of the puzzle. One more twist that you didn't see coming.
If you're ready for a story full of secrets, surprises, and a final turn that will stay with you, grab your paperback copy of The Missing Half now, wherever books are sold. Hi, Grime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today takes place in small-town Winsboro, Texas, where everybody knows everybody. Or at least they think they do.
Chapter 2: Who were the key people involved in Brittany's last day?
You know who's trouble. You know who's got a temper. Who to tell your teen daughter to stay away from. So when a 19-year-old's found dead in her boyfriend's bed, it doesn't feel random. You can practically hear the gossip at the gas pump, in the church parking lot, echoing through the checkout line. There are men with motive, men with violent pasts, men the town already talks about.
But here is the thing I'm hung up on. Only a handful of them even knew where she would be that day. And when the circle is that small, someone inside it knows exactly what happened. This is the story of Brittany McGlone. It's mid-afternoon on May 4th, 2007, when mom Patricia gets a call from her daughter's boyfriend, Jeff Stogner.
And that alone is kind of strange because Patricia is not exactly Jeff's biggest fan. So they've never been like on casual calling terms. But she answers anyway to a concerned Jeff asking, have you heard from Brittany?
Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
And Patricia's like, what do you mean? Have I heard from her? She's supposed to be staying with you. But he's saying that he left early that morning to pick up his grandma a couple of hours away. And every time he tried to reach Brittany, she hadn't been picking up her cell. Whatever is happening feels wrong to Patricia. So they hang up and she tries Brittany's cell over and over.
But she's not answering for mom either. So she ends up calling Jeff back. And as she does, it sounds like he's pulling up to his house. And he gives her the last moment of relief she may ever have. Because he says, never mind. Her truck is still outside the house. She must just be sleeping really hard. And this is at what time? This is like 3.30 in the afternoon. Oh.
But Brittany just had worked an overnight shift at the Lowe's distribution center. So like normally when she gets off sometime before like 5 a.m., she would like go home, shower, sleep, maybe see Jeff later. But this day was different. So instead of going home first, she went straight to Jeff so that they could hang out a little bit before he had to go pick up his grandma.
So it seems like it would be normal for her to like sleep in. Yeah, she worked overnight. I guess why is he calling her mom so soon then?
Well, so yes, normal for her to sleep in because she could have used the extra sleep, but she rarely got it. So in addition to her overnight job, she also had one at this place called Alco, which is a discount store. and she was doing both jobs because she planned to save up money for nursing school.
So, again, could have used the sleep, but it was pretty unlike her to be asleep like that all day, which it seems is maybe what made Jeff concerned enough to call her mom to begin with.
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Chapter 4: How did the investigation unfold after Brittany's murder?
And it turns out he had every right to be concerned because when Jeff walks into his bedroom, Brittany is still in his bed where he says he left her, but she is not sleeping. Brittany is completely naked and there is blood everywhere, on the sheets, on the pillow, cast off on the wall behind the bed, like the kind of pattern you would see when someone is struck over and over again.
But the thing is, whatever she had been beaten with, something that they later determined to possibly be like a tire iron or a crowbar type thing, that isn't around anywhere. In fact, nothing other than Brittany seems out of place. Her jeans and boots are still right there on the floor where she left them when she changed out of her work clothes earlier that morning.
Now, interestingly, Jeff says that she was wearing a T-shirt and underwear when she hopped into bed with him. The shirt, not on her, but still there. But the underwear she had on, that's gone. And here's the thing that really stands out to Wood County Sheriff's deputies once they arrive. In the bathroom, there are signs that the killer took a shower.
Oh, that's kind of like someone who was comfortable there.
My thoughts exactly. Everything so far points to this being close and personal. Someone who could keep composed enough to clean themselves up while Brittany lay bludgeoned to death in that bed.
In that bed, in her boyfriend's bed, the one night she broke her routine and went there instead of home.
And that part is really important. Like you said, this wasn't routine for Brittany. I told you she would normally go to her house first. And apparently Jeff's mom didn't like her very much either. Brittany wasn't close with the family. She and Jeff had only been dating like six months and they'd been unmarried. on and off in that time.
So to Brittany's mom, Patricia, it sort of felt like too much of a coincidence. Like, okay, the one time that Brittany does this, this happens.
So who all knew that she was going to be there?
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Chapter 5: What were the initial suspects and their alibis?
Now, that morning, brother went to school. Sister had stayed over with her boyfriend, so she's not there. And I guess she just went straight to school from his place. And stepdad drops mom off at work. But he's back at like 7.45 or so. And then he, Jeff, and Brittany are all there until stepdad and Jeff leave together to go to grandma's at around 9 a.m.
So when they arrive back home that afternoon and Jeff makes this horrific discovery, supposedly stepdad is just right around the corner, close enough to hear him yell. But here's where something caught my attention.
Wood County 911. What's the problem right now? What's the exact... His girlfriend's dead in the bed. She's dead? Yes. Okay. It looks like somebody came in there and hit her in the head with something.
That sure doesn't sound like Jeff or his stepdad.
Yeah, because it's Jeff's mom.
Isn't she supposed to be at work?
She was, but somehow around the same time Jeff and stepdad are finding Brittany, Jeff's mom is either already back home and just like didn't like notice Brittany. Maybe she didn't go in the room or she just so happens to show up like at the same time they did to call 9-1-1.
And if that's the case, the timing is kind of wild because I don't think she normally got off work early enough to be there at 3.30. But apparently on this day, she wanted to leave early because she needed to clean the house before grandma got back. Again, they're going to pick up grandma. Grandma's coming over for a visit. And I don't know, this could be absolutely nothing.
There's just nothing in the reports that explains when mom got there, how she ended up getting home, because she would have needed a ride. Right, because stepdad dropped her off. They only had one car. I know our reporter Madison wanted to ask all of these questions, but Jeff's mom and stepdad have both since passed away since 2017. In old police reports, though, stepdad does vouch for Jeff.
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Chapter 6: What new developments occurred in the case years later?
Like when the deputy show up and during all of the aftermath?
Devastated. I mean, distraught. I guess how you would expect. But they still took him down to the sheriff's office and went in on him because according to Brittany's family, there's real motive there. You see, we've talked to a lot of families of the murdered.
And usually when a cop shows up at their door telling them that their loved one is dead, most of the time their first thought is like some sort of accident, right? Like because that is just so much more serious. Likely. Right, like a car crash or something. Right, but that was not Patricia's first thought.
She told Madison that the deputies who showed up would only tell her that her daughter was deceased at first. They would not tell her how or when, like zero details. But she was sure that her daughter had been murdered. And her immediate suspicion was her boyfriend, Jeff.
So what's the history there?
It's not deep, but Patricia told us that Jeff was just like on a completely different path than Brittany. Not as responsible, no stable job. And like the way she described it, she thought he was kind of dark, like emo vibes, but not in like the cute boy band kind of way. So she actually discouraged Brittany from dating him. But even more than that, I mean, it's the timing of it all.
You see, Brittany and Jeff had just gotten back together. According to Brittany's mom, Jeff was Brittany's first love, her first of a lot of things, but they had been broken up the month before, and during that time, Brittany ended up sleeping with another guy. Brittany actually told Jeff about it, so it's not like he found out from some other place.
But people had wondered if maybe, like, that could have been the thing behind this. Though when detectives ask Jeff about this, he tells them absolutely not. They were broken up when this happened. It was like fair game. Brittany did nothing wrong.
Was there any abuse in their relationship?
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Chapter 7: How did the new sheriff approach the cold case?
So in the meantime, they do what they can to go down other paths, like checking out this guy that Brittany has supposedly slept with. Right. It's like in a month ago or whatever. Now, the guy cooperates. He sits down with them and says the same thing as everyone else. Their hookup was just this, like, one-time thing. They'd been drinking. No hard feelings. Like, it didn't become more.
And that's it. They cross him off the list.
I mean, let's go back to the fact that hardly anyone knew that she would be over at that house. Like, who are those people again? That's, like, Jeff, his family, like, I guess her mom. But, like, who else?
Well, that was one of the questions they first asked Jeff. And Jeff brings up this guy named Cody. He admits that Cody is his weed guy. And he says that morning before he left, he'd put cash under this garden gnome outside their house. This was like their little system. Leave the money there. Cody would swing by later, drop off the weed. Except, he says, this day was different.
Because by the time Jeff got back that afternoon, the money was gone. But there was no marijuana. So detectives go and track this Cody guy down. And his story complicates things. Yes, he admits that he sold weed to Jeff, but he says he didn't that day. He says that Jeff was like blowing up his phone, texting him like, did you drop it off yet, dude? Like, did you go by the house?
And Cody admits he like got annoyed. So he just texted back, yes. But he says he didn't actually go over to the house.
So either Jeff's telling the truth and he left the money. Cody went there and took it, putting him at the scene, which means he's lying about being there.
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Chapter 8: What is the current status of Brittany's case?
Or Jeff could be lying when he says the money got picked up because he's trying to place someone else there.
Or, option C, whoever else in this small circle of people who knew Brittany was there alone maybe also knew about this garden gnome arrangement. Now, within about a week after Brittany's murder, her family and friends gather for her funeral. And if you've ever been to a small town funeral, you know how they feel. The whole place shows up. People you haven't seen in years. People you barely know.
People whispering about who may have done it.
And probably people you don't even want to be there for.
And although detectives seem to be moving farther and farther from Jeff the more they dissect his alibi, Brittany's family makes it clear. Jeff and his family are not welcome. Emotions are high. Nobody knows what happened yet. All the trust is thin for good reason. But them showing up anyway isn't actually the only drama that sticks with Brittany's sister, Hope, at the funeral.
Because there, somebody else shows up, someone she actually might be more concerned about in this moment. And that is their grandfather, James McGlone. Now, this isn't their grandfather by blood. It's their dad's adopted father. And Hope told us that at one point, he walks up next to her, like puts his arm around her and says, have you gone to see the body yet?
And she froze because this wasn't just a grieving grandpa asking an awkward question. See, no matter how many people are there at the funeral, she knows something that no one else does yet. A secret that Brittany had been keeping that was big enough to be motive for murder.
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