Chapter 1: What tragic case does this episode focus on?
lights out everybody what's up everybody and welcome back to another episode of lights out today i am joined by one of my producers over on my other show mile higher ian hello hello how you doing good man how are you i'm good i'm good i'm happy to be sitting in the chair yeah in the chair what do
Like you were saying, it forces you to have good posture.
It does. There's no leaning back.
No, it's impossible.
Yeah, it's not the most comfortable chair, but they do look cool, that's for sure. But today we're going to be covering a very important case, and a case that's near and dear to my heart, as well as Mile Heart Media just in general, because this is the unsolved murder of 14-year-old Brandi Hutchins. And her case is just...
It got really messed up because of the time period that her murder took place in, in 1988. So we're kind of in the height of the satanic panic. And, you know, we've covered a ton of satanic panic cases on the show. And what we see time and time again is authorities at the time looking at very crude evidence and making a judgment based on very little.
And their judgment usually ends up going in the complete wrong direction, which is what happens in this case. Because when they look at the crime scene, They immediately think a group of Satanists or occultists must have done this.
Right. And it's just, it's disappointing to see this, not only in this case, but in every case. And we'll talk about a few others when we get to it. But it's disappointing to see how not only investigators more or less fall for this, but also how the media pushes it so heavily. Right. And that influences everything. It taints the whole well.
And once that happens, it's very hard to come back from that. And also just precious time is lost. People who may have been involved, the murderer themself, may have ample time to get away. And I really feel like that's the case here is, you know, because they kind of went on this wild goose chase and...
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Chapter 2: How did the satanic panic influence Brandy Hutchins' murder investigation?
And so, you know, she kind of develops this, this sort of You know, more defiant, angry personality and start sort of having this lack of respect for authority. And, you know, that's some of that is sort of just normal teenage behavior, but obviously it's going to be amplified when you consider all the other circumstances going on.
But Brandy did keep in touch with her mother over the phone, but she obviously struggled with the abandonment issues. She began acting out, often getting in trouble at school. She talked back to teachers and even physically fight with other kids. The adults in her life didn't really know how to properly handle some of her behavioral issues.
And at times her family said it was just easier to sort of let her do whatever she wanted, which, you know, makes sense. And that happens a lot. But here's a clip of Brandy's cousin, Julie, describing her.
She was a whole bunch of stuff rolled up into one ball. She was very sweet, bubbly. She never met a stranger, ever. She was very giving and generous. She was happy all the time. I mean, she just, she always had a smile on her face. Brandy also was very troubled and had behavior problems and didn't have a real stable home life.
I think she would have went anywhere and done anything just to be accepted and loved, you know, which I think is probably what ultimately got her into so much trouble.
But Julie suspected that Brandy might have had oppositional defiant disorder, which the Mayo Clinic defines as a frequent and ongoing pattern of anger, irritability, arguing, and defiance toward parents and other authority figures. Julie said discipline was never consistent with Brandy. She became very strong-willed, and when she wanted something, she wouldn't take no for an answer.
A counselor named Mary Ellen Patton, who worked at the Johnson County Westside Elementary where Brandy went to school, said this, Now this has been a long time ago, but Brandy was not from a home where she would have been sheltered. She was definitely troubled and a wanderer. She was not one to go home after school to be supervised. She was always out and about, and she was very boy crazy.
Many characterize Brandy even as an outsider. And so you kind of hear sort of that description. I think it paints a very clear picture of just what Brandy's struggles were at the time and not having that lack of structure or having a parental figure sort of guide them during this period.
And if that just sort of is allowed to run wild, I mean, it can go a lot of different ways and not necessarily in a good direction.
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Chapter 3: What details about Brandy Hutchins' life are revealed?
an abandoned home on Whippoorwill Road in Coal Hill, Arkansas. Town folklore says it got its name from the man who lived there decades ago, and over the years, it became nothing more than a dilapidated structure. And in the late 80s, teenagers would often use it as a place to party.
So I feel like this was a pretty common occurrence, especially in the 80s, you know, going out to the woods and finding an old abandoned structure and, you know, doing whatever, partying in it.
I mean, we even had that in the early 2000s in Golden. There was like this old mine on the Mace, on the Mesa, not the Mace. And same sort of situation. We'd go there. We'd have airsoft wars. It would be a place to get away from your parents, but still be kind of enclosed.
Yeah.
That's sweet. I wish I lived somewhere where there's somewhere abandoned. It's just open fields for miles. It was like the one place that we would go to that sort of had some haunted history to it was just like an old bridge. See, but bridges can be really, really.
They can be fun. They can be fun for sure.
So Brandy didn't give up on what she wanted. She begged her father to let her go. And after a while, her begging and pleading eventually worked. Jerry caved in and agreed that she could go. On November 10th, the day of the party, Brandy spent most of it in her room where she wrote a letter to Aaron.
And while we don't know the contents of this letter, her family believes that she was telling him about her pregnancy and planned to give him the letter that night. Then around 4 p.m., Jerry took Brandy to the party. She also borrowed $5 from one of her uncles so she could stop along the way to buy some cigarettes.
And back then, plenty of store clerks often didn't mind selling cigarettes to children. She's 13 years old. They're like, ah, whatever. Whatever. A sale's a sale. Right. No ID required. So she picked up a pack of Marlboros and went on her way. After that, Jerry and Brandy arrived at the old John Emery house.
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