Brittany Phillips

All witnesses, suspects, and purses of interest are considered innocent until proven guilty in. A court of law. Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail, as well as talk of sexual assault. Please listen with discretion. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. I feel like it's been a hot minute since I've done it right now in true crime. But here we are right now in true crime. We have a little bit to catch up on. So first thing is first Brian Walsh. This week, his trial has officially started for the murder of his wife on A Walsh. Now. She has yet to be found. Her remains have yet to be found. He did plead guilty to a couple of charges, but he didn't exactly plead guilty to her murder. So basically with. The defense is saying is that she died of some natural causes and he started spiraling when he found her and didn't really know what to do, so he started to make random Google searches. About how to dismember a body, and he has pled guilty to that, and he also said that he lied to police about what was going on, but it was just pure panic, and that is the story that the defense is putting up. So it's going to be very interesting. I think the trial is expected to last for about a month, and if you remember recently, there was some question about whether or not he was mentally competent to stand trial, so there's a lot going on here. I think he has to testify at this point. I don't know if that means he will, but I feel like he kind of has to. I don't really feel like the defense has a lot to go on here, but it's going to be interesting to see all of this unravel. Jigi from Pretty Lies and Alibis is doing daily trial coverage updates in episode form on her podcast, so if you want a cut and dry, just the facts episode, check her out. I think she's going to try to do a couple a day just to kind of get all of the information in. And if this trial does go on as long as they're expecting, it's going to be a little bit of time. So it should be interesting to see all of this unravel. But keep in mind too, her remains still have not been found. So if he truly did just find her deceased and panic, which I think is such a bullshit excuse, but that's just my opinion. If he did find her deceased and decided that he was going to go down a rabbit hole on Google and Google had to dismember a body and was in a panic to do so, he could still tell her family where she is. I mean, this was the mother of your children. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I will be sure to keep you guys updated on any updates on this one. And like I said, it's going to be a long one and I feel like if he testifies, it's going to be very interesting because I really want to hear what he has to say. But I'll keep you guys updated as it progresses. All right, next thing I want to talk about. This is out of Austin, Texas, and this is very interesting. So this gal named Brianna Aguilera. She was nineteen years old. She was a. Texas A and M university student, and she was from Laredo and she's nineteen, so we can kind of guess that she was a freshman, So she went over the weekend to Austin for the A and M and UT game and she attended the tailgate that they had, and then Saturday night, she was found deceased outside of a West campus apartment early Saturday morning, So Friday night into Saturday morning and her body was discovered around one am. Now, initially I heard that she was found deceased in the apartment, but now it's appearing that she was deceased outside of the apartment. From the very beginning of this investigation, authorities have said they're not suspecting any foul play or anything suspicious that has gone on, but Brianna's mom has been very vocal about the fact that she thinks that there's something more going on here. So her mother shared that a detective told her that she might have fallen potentially from seventeen floors and Austin police are saying it's not being investigated as a homicide, but the investigation is ongoing and that there has not been any suspicious circumstances or signs of foul play. The Travis County Medical Examiner is currently reviewing the official cause of death, and until that determination is made, they are kind of just in limbo, but obviously her family is devastated. She was a young young girl in Austin for this football game event and then something like this tragically happens. Her family does not believe that she took her own life, that she jumped and willingly put herself through this. None of this makes any sense to them. And I think this is so important because I know that people do take their own lives, and I know sometimes they can be very outwardly. Not sad, not upset, not emotional, not depressed. I completely understand that, but I think in a situation like this, where it is so out of the blue and so left field, especially given everything that her family's saying, it very much gives me Ellen Greenberg vibes where things just aren't really adding up. There are way more questions than answers, but everybody is so quick to dismiss it and just say, oh, she must have done it to herself, instead of actually thoroughly investigating, which maybe they are doing behind the scenes. I'm not saying that they're not, but it seems that her family is being very vocal about what is going on, and I think that this one's going to be a very very interesting one. So they are asking if anybody was in the West Campus area late Friday night into early Saturday morning, if you saw or heard anything related to this incident, to please contact Austin Police or crime stoppers. She was a beautiful girl. I just can't imagine that she decided she was going to go to Austin and end her life. It just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Again, we don't really know much about what she had going on personally. I don't really think it matters at this point because I think there was obviously a tragic death. It happened while she was out of town. Who lived in that apartment complex? Was she's staying there with somebody? All of these things are questions that we need to have the answers to, and I think that her family probably feels the same way. So I'll keep you guys updated on this one. But my heart breaks for her family. I can't imagine what they're going through. She was only nineteen years old, her whole life ahead of her, and this one is definitely not sitting right with me, just my own personal opinion. But we'll see what else. Comes out, all right, Last thing I want to talk about. This was a pretty big break in a cold case, one that I have not covered, but it's been on my list. But now I am. So glad to be telling you that I don't have to cover it because we finally have resolution in the nineteen eighty one disappearance of Alanie Rogers. She disappeared in January of nineteen eighty one, and it had been long suspected that her husband at the time had something to do with her disappearance and possible death. So I've been on the Facebook page for Alanie for a long time, following along, and on Wednesday of last week, her daughter posted on the face book page the following, I come to you today on the eve of Thanksgiving with the news I never in my lifetime thought I would hear. I am incredibly grateful to share that my biological father, Clinton Bud Rogers, has confessed to the brutal murder of my mother in January of nineteen eighty one. He was taken into custody by the Pennsylvania State Police earlier today and is now incarcerated. I will provide further updates when I am able. For now, I ask for your prayers as my family processes is this development. Thank you all for being part of this journey to try and find answers and justice for my beautiful mother. And honestly, this confession from him in twenty twenty five is so wild because this happened in nineteen eighty one and Lonnie's daughter, Allison was very young when her mom was killed, and the fact that she has not stopped talking about her mom, searching for her mom, trying to keep her mom's name out there is proof that eventually the bad guys are going to talk because they are so uncomfortable with the direction that everything is going. They're tired of fingers being pointed at them, They're tired of hiding in plane sight. And I'm so glad that he finally confessed because the writing was on the wall in her case, it seemed in my opinion that he was involved, but just for her family to finally know answers and to know that he is the one who's responsible, a hundred percent, definitively it was him. There's been a confession, and that happened in nineteen eighty one, so he has been living with that for such a long time. And given the fact that her family was not letting up on keeping her name out there and making him extremely uncomfortable. With what he had done. This is why we never stop saying their names, we never stop sharing their stories, and we never stop calling out the people who are potentially responsible. Because i will tell you I don't think without Allison's work and dedication and keeping her mom's name and story out there and keeping the pressure on, I'm not sure that he would have confessed, and he probably would have taken that secret to his grave. It's one thing to suspect somebody of doing something horrible and nefarious, but it's a whole another to actually have them confess and face criminal charges and responsibility. So this is huge in the cold case world. We are so glad that this has finally happened. Prayers to Lonnie's family because they have been fighting for a long time for these answers, and slowly they're probably going to get them. So I'm glad to be able to share that with you guys. That is the whole reason I do this podcast and share the stories is so hopefully every single cold case, every single family member attached to these cold cases, can have. Some answers and get some resolution and. Finally be able to lay their loved one to rest if it's somebody that is missing, just to have those answers and a little bit of finality, I assume has to. Offer some level of peace. Obviously, it doesn't change what happened, It doesn't make it any less sad and tragic, and I'm sure it doesn't change the way that people grieve, but at least there's some little bit of resolution and answers, because that's really what these families are craving is just somebody to be honest with them and somebody to give them answers as to what happened to their loved ones. So glad I was able to share that. I will keep you guys updated if there's anything else going on with that case and that story, but we are going to go ahead and get into today's episode. Okay, guys, sorry, I have to add this a little bit on to the end of right now in True Crime because the Austin Police today provided an update on the death of Rihanna and they said that she went to the tailgate on Friday. They said she became intoxicated to the point of where she was asked to leave She then stumbled into a wooded area and she lost her phone and her other belongings, which police said they later found, and then eventually she made her way back to the twenty one Rio apartments. She asked to use one of her friend's phones, where she had an argument with her boyfriend who lives out of town, and then two minutes later, a nine to one call came in for a body that was found on the ground outside of the high rise apartment building. During the investigation, detectives found that she had fallen from the seventeenth floor balcony to the street below. They also said that they found a delete digital suicide note on her phone, which was day to Tuesday, November twenty fifth of twenty twenty five, and it was written to specific people that were in her life. They then went on to say that she had made some suicidal comments in the past leading up to her death, so they have officially ruled her death suicide. I know that as far as what I've heard, her family does not believe that she took her own life. So it's going to be interesting to see if anything ends up developing with this. Because we also had the Ellen Greenberg case, which we all know her death was also ruled a suicide, and so many years later, we are still trying to navigate that whole thing. I don't know really what to think about this, but I did want to put that little update in since I recorded the right now in True Crime a couple of days ago before they came out with this, I wanted to be sure to put it in so you guys had the most up to date information. If anything more comes out about this, I will be sure to bring it to you on next week's episode. And now we're officially going to get into this week's episode. All righty guys, today we are jumping into a brand new unsolved case. I feel like it has been a while. Since I've recorded one of these, since I had back to back interviews, but we are going to dive right in. So today I'm going to be sharing with you the unsolved homicide of a college student named Britney Phillips out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. One truly amazing thing about the true crime community is that you get the opportunity to meet so many new people, and you get introduced to so many stories and cases that otherwise you never would have been introduced to. And one of those cases that I. Have become familiar with is that of Britney Phillips, and that is all because of her mother, doctor Magnie Zigmund's diligence and hard work to get her daughter's case out there and ultimately get her daughter's case solved. I did have the pleasure of getting to meet and chat with Maggie a little bit at this past year's crime con in Denver, and I told her that I would be interested in covering Britney's case. And now here we are, so let's go ahead and get into it. Brittany Avon Sarah Phillips was born on October fourth of nineteen eighty five in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Brittany had an. Older brother, Josh, who was only about fifteen months older than her, so they were very close in age. Now, Somewhere along the line, Maggie and Brittany and Josh's father ended up splitting up, and from there Maggie would pretty much raise the kids on her own as a single mother. They moved from Florida to Kentucky and then ultimately moved to Oklahoma, which would become their home. So, like I said, Brittany and Josh were pretty close in age, and they were pretty close as siblings as well. Although they had the typical brother and sister relationship like any siblings would, they did get along fairly well. So Brittany was a great student. She excelled high school and ended up receiving a full scholarship in chemistry to eckerd College that was located in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and that is the same college that her mother, doctor Maggie Zingman, also attended. Maggie obtained her degree and works as a trauma psychologist. So Brittany had plans to attend this college and she wanted to devote her life. To cancer research. She made this decision after her grandmother passed away due to cancer, and as someone that works in healthcare and stands beside a very good friend currently in her cancer journey, people like Brittany are true heroes and we really need more people willing to devote their time and energy to this work because I do fully believe that there is a cure out there, and I think this monster that took Britney's. Life robbed the world of all the good that she was going to do. Not just in the cancer research spectra, but as a whole. This person robbed the world of such a good person. So besides that, Brittany also loved to act, dance, and sing, and everybody that knew her loved her. She was the type of girl that. Would be friendly to everyone and the kind that would say hi to you in school, even if she didn't really know you that well. If she saw you in the hallway, she would say hi. So Brittany would go on to graduate from high school in May of two thousand and three at the age of seventeen. In August of two thousand and three, Britney packed her bags and headed to Saint Petersburg for college. So Britney's dad lived in Saint Petersburg. However, she didn't really see him that often, even though he. Was pretty close by now. Going off to college in. Two thousand and three, Like I said, Brittany was seventeen years old, so she was also younger than all of the other freshmen that surrounded her at school. So during Christmas break of two thousand and three, she had come home to Oklahoma and expressed how she was feeling homesick, and then in May of two thousand and four, near the end of her freshman year, she officially made the decision that she wanted to move home. She said that she was still homesick, she missed her family, and she very much wanted to be closer to home. She ended up moving back home to Tulsa and decided she was going to enroll in Tulsa Community College. Now. Her mother, Maggie, was living about two hours away at this point in time for work, but she was still in Oklahoma, and Brittany was very much looking forward to being back home, back around family, in close proximity to everything that she knew and everything that she loved. So Britney temporarily lived with friends and then started to work as a waitress at Applebee's. Didn't really like that job very much ended up moving to another waitressing job. But all of this work that she was doing was to try to save money so she could find a place of her own, find her own apartment, get back on her feet a little bit, and start her life back again in Oklahoma. So in August of two thousand and four, Brittany and her mom were able to find her an apartment in a very familiar area. This was right across from where Brittany went to high school, and it was called the Glen Eagles Apartments, located at nine four zero seven East sixty fifth Street, Apartment thirty two sixteen. Brittany had a second story apartment that faced the back of the complex. Now, Maggie did her research on this place because she wanted to make sure that the area that Brittany was living in was safe, and Brittany also was very safety conscious and wanted to make sure that she was moving into a place that was safe. There was a storage unit business located behind the complex, and they had a security camera that basically looped every twenty four hours and erased after that twenty four hour loop. But it was. Deemed safe, and given that this was in a very familiar area, that was just another bonus for Brittany. So in the midst of all of this, in mid August, Brittany stopped working for a little while because she was going on a trip to visit one of her friends named Kim near Padre Island. Now, Kim had been assaulted months prior, and Kim had reached out to Brittany asked her for support, and Brittany was a very good friend, So she instantly dropped everything and went to Padre Island to support and visit with her friend. So she went there for a few days. She visited with Kim. She was there for about five days. Now at this point in time, the perpetrator of this assault still has not been identified. But I do think that this is important to mention given what we're talking about here, which unfortunately is the murder of Britney Phillips. Now, Brittany did not share the reason for why she went on this trip. Maggie did not find out about the reason for this trip until twenty thirteen, when Kim shared with her what had happened. It of course could be nothing and there could be no connection, but there could be some type of connection there. And I think if we're really gonna sit here and tell Britney's story, we need to give all of the details that we know so that way maybe we can get to an end result of finding out who took Britney's life. It's one of those things that when you have an investigation that you're looking into, you want to cross things off. And in my opinion, I do think that this is an important tidbit to consider when you're looking over all at Britney's case because you don't know if this person could also maybe have followed Brittany back to Tulsa. At this point, we really don't know if there is any connection, but I wanted to bring it up because I think it's important to this case, if for nothing else, just to show that Brittany was the kind of person that would go out of her way to help her friends, and she was a very reliable person. And we all have that friend that we would call up if something horrible happened to us, and for Kim, Brittany was that friend. And I think that says a lot about who Brittany was, her character and who she was as a person. So at this point, Brittany gets back from South Padre, she is taking classes at the community college and gets settled into her apartment, and every other weekend she goes to visit her mom in Chandler, Oklahoma. I think what's super important to establish here is that Brittany and her mom had a very close relationship. They talked frequently, and they were close. Brittany would kind of keep her mom afloat as to what was going on in her life, but she was also a busy college student, so there would be times that it would take her a couple of days to get with her mom and chat with her mom. So it was not unusual for them to go a couple of days without chatting. And because it was two thousand and four, texting was not what it is today. I honestly don't even remember if texting was a thing at all, to be quite honest with you, Back in those days, it might have been like in its infancy, if you had a super fancy phone. I did not. But it's definitely a way different world than today. And there's a reason that I'm bringing up that there would often be times that it would be a few days in between times that Brittany and her mother would talk, because that's an important part of this next part of. What we're going to talk about. So that is going to kind of segue into what we're going into now. So all of the starts on September twenty seventh of two thousand and four. Brittany was at class at North Campus of school, and she hadn't been feeling well. She was having some like ongoing sinus problems, and she decided that she was not going to go to her or seven thirty PM class that she normally. Would go to. She saw her brother Josh at school in the cafeteria. They chatted a little bit. She ends up leaving campus with one of her friends to go to urgent care because of her sinus problem. She calls her mother, Maggie around eight thirty and tells her that she's frustrated because she's waited at the urgent care for two hours and hasn't seen a doctor yet. Maggie encourages her to. Go ahead and leave and she can come to Chandler that coming weekend so that way they can find a doctor for her. And Chandler, they have a normal conversation. They exchange I love yous, and they hang up. Now. Unfortunately, this is the last time that Brittany and her mom will have a conversation. Brittany allegedly drops off this friend that she was with at the appointment at her place and then goes to the Bank of America atm and then goes back came to her apartment the next day, which is September twenty eighth of two thousand and four. Maggie calls Brittany later on in the day she does not get an answer. Maggie knew that Brittany had late classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, so she just assumed that is why she wasn't answering. Now. It does later come to be that Brittany missed both her Tuesday and Wednesday classes. Her friends that she has at school start to get concerned. They haven't seen Brittany. They aren't able to get a hold of her. She's very punctual when it comes to being in class. It's just not like her not to be there. So on Wednesday, the twenty ninth, Maggie calls and leaves Brittany a message, and she at this point was very much starting to get concerned. But she also again in the back of her mind, she knew that Brittany hadn't been feeling well and was taking different classes and late classes. And in your head, you very much want to just kind of think, Okay, she has stuff going on. You don't automatically assume the worst. So on Thursday, September thirtieth, Maggie called Brittany again and left her a message, and she wasn't really sure of her schedule and all for that day, but she basically says I know you're okay, but please call me. And in the midst of all that, one of Brittany's friends has decided that she needed to do something because Brittany miss class again and she still wasn't answering any calls from anybody, So that friend ends up going to Brittany's apartment and knocks on the door and there's no answer. So with this, she realizes the apartment is unlocked. She immediately gets a very uneasy feeling and ends up calling her dad, who tells her to call the Tulsa Police Department for a wellness check. So she goes through those motions and the Tulsa Police Department make entrance into the apartment September thirtieth around nine pm, and they find Brittany on the floor of her bedroom next to her bed, and she, unfortunately had been murdered. On October first of two thousand and four, Maggie received a knock on her door in Chandler around one am. They tell her that she needs to contact the Tulsa Police Department and they give her the news about her daughter's death. She gets into her car and drives to her daughter's apartment in Tulsa. She finds out that Josh has already been notified of Britney's death. Investigators share that Brittany was identified by her driver's license that was found in the apartment. Her body had already been sent to the medical examiner before Maggie was able to arrive. Of course, the apartment was a crime scene, so they did not let Maggie into the apartment. According to the medical examiner's report, Brittany was found supine on the floor immediately next to her bed. Her head was turned to the right, and there were numerous towels on Brittany and items of clothing adjacent to her. She was clothed in only a shirt. Her cause of death was as follows, and this is directly from the medical examiner's report. Exphyxia due to neck compression, cutaneous abrasions on neck, peticial hemorrhages, acute hemorrhage of strap musculature bilateral. Now, this is very common with strangulation two homicide. There is no suggestion of ligature use. There are ovoid marks on her neck that are noted in the report. Her high bone was intact. Toxicology negative for all substances. There were also. Signs that Brittany had been sexually abused, so this is obviously horrible. Whoever did this was truly a horrible person, and that person needs to be off of the streets. So the last ping on Britney's cell phone was sometime between nine pm on September twenty seventh and eight am on September twenty eighth, which is very telling for the timeline because Brittany was not found until the thirtieth, all the time that she was missing class not answering calls from her friends and family, that is kind of in that timeframe as well. Brittany was laid to rest on October fourth, two thousand and four, which would have been her nineteenth birthday, which just absolutely completely breaks my heart for her family. So after Britney's murder, investigators of course are trying to figure out who could have done this. Brittany had only been back in Tulsa a very short time before her life was taken, and she didn't have any known enemies, she didn't have a steady boyfriend, and there was seemingly nobody that would want to harm Brittney, So who could have done this? It's also very important to note that there was no sign of force entry in Britney's apartment, but there were theories about how the killer made entrance. Did he come to the front door, or did he use Britney's balcony to access her apartment. It did appear from the scene that Britney had fought back against her attacker. The Tulsa Police Department got to work now. They did find semen on Britney's bed sheets, which of course they collected, and then there was also a droplet of blood that was found in Britney's apartment as well. The blood and semen did in fact belong to the same person. Investigators from the Tulsa Police Department did their due diligence with what they had. They interviewed and tested a lot of different individuals DNA to try to roll them out. During the initial stages of the investigation, anyone that was questioned or brought in as part of Britney's inner circle had their DNA tested against the DNA that was found the scene. Many were ruled out right off the bat. Then they entered the blood and seamen samples into CODIS, which at the time was a newer system and it was really only used for the DNA if people convicted of a crime, and we know our justice system sometimes gets it wrong and charges are dropped and some people are let off with a slap on the wrist. And that basically means if Britney's killer had offended before but was never convicted, that person's DNA would not show up in the system and would not be able to match this DNA from her apartment. And that's exactly what happened here. They entered it and there was no match of the DNA found at the scene and anyone in the CODA system. So almost a whole year goes by, and although investigators are doing everything they can to try and solve this case, they have come up empty handed each time. So in August of two thousand and five, they officially put together a five thousand dollars reward for information on Britney's case. Investigators are and trying to figure out who could have done this. Was this somebody who maybe typically robbed apartments, but on this particular night decided they wanted to sexually assault somebody and it quickly turned into comin like a homicide. There was a pillow case that was found at the scene that investigators thought possibly didn't belong to Brittany, and they thought that maybe the killer had brought it in themselves because it didn't fit in with any other of Britney's linens. But nothing really ever came of that theory. I honestly do think that investigators were doing everything they could try and solve this, but unfortunately, everywhere they turned it just ended up not amounting to anything. So years had passed by this point and nothing new was really happening in Britney's case. Maggie was upset to learn that although Britney's life had been taken, the apartment complex wasn't letting new tenants know that an unsolved murder had taken place there. They didn't seem learned that this horrible thing had happened. Maggie ended up putting up some billboards asking for info on her daughter's case, and in two thousand and seven, Maggie decided to launch Caravan to Catch a Killer, which is a campaign to generate tips on her daughter's case. She had a car wrapped purple and pink, which were two of Britney's favorite colors, with pictures of Brittany and a phone number to call with tips. She knew locally that the case was getting attention, but there was no movement, and she wanted to take it national. So that's exactly what she did. And then she decided she was going to drive this vehicle across the country to generate more people knowing about Britney's case, but not just that, hopefully generating some tips, because there is a probability that Britney's killer isn't necessarily in Tulsa anymore, and maybe somebody saw something that day or know something that they don't even know, and seeing her picture and seeing the car will generate something in their mind. Now I will say present day, twenty twenty five, Maggie still drives the caravan to catch a killer across the country. And it's not. Only helping spread awareness about her daughter's case, but other cases as well, because she's connecting with other families across the country that have also had to deal with the unknown of what happened to. Their loved one. Now, this is actually how I became familiar with Britney's case. I saw Maggie have posted something on I think one of the crime con groups that I belonged to a couple of years ago with her picture of the van and was talking about Britney's case and I looked into it a little bit at that time. That was before I did true crime podcasting. And then this past year Maggie was again at Crime Con and I got a few minutes to speak with her, and she is amazing the work that she is doing, what she has done to keep. Her daughter's story alive. I will tell you that Maggie is the type of person that you want in your corner. She is a fierce woman. She is a fighter, and she's not going to give up until she finds out what happened to her daughter. In two thousand and nine, KJRH Tulsa News released an article discussing Britney's case, and they talked about how the Tulsa Police Department had tested the DNA found in Britney's department against many, many, many different persons of interest, and how unfortunately, although they had very much thoroughly investigated the case, the case was still unsolved. They did also say. That they did not think that Brittany knew her killer at that point in time. Now, there were several people that were brought in that did not willingly want to give their DNA to be tested against this unknown DNA that was found in Brittany's apartment, and of course, when something like that happens, it does kind of raise the red flag because if you're not involved, why would. You deny your DNA. So ultimately, there was an individual who Brittany had gone in a single date with, and he worked security at the local mall, and he also worked security at the apartment complex where Brittany lived, and somewhere in the midst of that, she also blocked his number. So this guy refuses to give his DNA sample, and they go through the task of getting a warrant for his DNA, and they collect his DNA and it does not match the DNA that was found in Britney's apartment. So this guy is essentially crossed off the list. So remember it is two thousand and four. Cotis only had DNA of people who had been convicted of violent crimes in their database, not people who had been charged or arrested for violent crimes. And Maggie very much thought that Brittany's killer could have slipped through the cracks. He could have definitely been somebody who had done something like this before. But just wasn't in the system because he was never convicted. So Maggie very much pushed in every way, shape and form to get this changed in the legislature of Oklahoma to make it that even if you were arrested or charged with a felony crime, that your DNA would automatically go into CODIS, And due to her diligence and hard work, they finally passed this law in twenty sixteen. Since then, many other states have also passed this law, but there are still several that only will collect the DNA once a conviction is made, and in my opinion, this needs to change. Every state should have this type of protocol when it comes to collecting this DNA. Not every case will go to trial, not every case will end in a conviction, and I think this would be a huge way to make sure that nobody is slipping through the cracks, because there are repeat offenders out there, and if you get away with it once, you're sure as hell going to try to get away with it again. And major shout out to Maggie for her hard work on this. She spearheaded this entire thing and continues to fight. But like I said, there are still sixteen states that do not have laws for collecting DNA upon arrest. Those states are Delaware. Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Texas actually just passed these laws in twenty twenty three, and in my personal opinion, we are way too far advanced in the DNA technology realm to not require this for all states. But again that is just my opinion, and I do think that we are working towards this in general. So this is just one. Way that Maggie has used what happened to her and her family and use it to get something done that needed to be done all along. So in twenty eighteen, one of the cold case detectives at the Tulsa Police Department decided to take the DNA that was found at the scene and kind of make a phenotype of the suspect. So basically, with this, they use the DNA markers to see what this suspect might look like. They look at their gender, the nationality, their hair color, their eye color. So they sent this off to pair of Bonnano labs, and they did indeed come up with a suspect image and description. The DNA was used to create a composite sketch of what the man would look like at twenty five years old. Now, they did say that they don't know how old this person was at the time of Britney's murder or how old he is now, but this is what they came up with. According to the phenotype report, the DNA color at the scene belongs to a white male with a fair complexion and possibly green or blue eyes and either brown or blonde hair. So now, the mission that this image had been created was to find this person, and with the help of genealogist Cee Seymour, they did find this person. They identify the person whose DNA was left behind in Brittany's apartment. This name was given to the Tulsa Police Department and this person was brought in and interviewed. Now keep in mind this was fourteen years after the murder. This individual gave. An alibi, and I personally don't know what that alibi was, but it was enough to clear this individual according to the Tulsa Police Department. So how did this individual's DNA get in Brittany's apartment. So this guy was Britney's friend's boyfriend, and Brittany had let her friend and her boyfriend stay over at her apartment at one point in time and stayed in her room. Now he claims that he and his girlfriend, who was Britney's friend, had had sex in Britney's bed, which is. His explanation for the semen. Now, the explanation for the blood that was found, he didn't really have one, except for he thought that maybe he had gotten a nosebleed at some point. So this whole time, they are focusing on this DNA that might not have even been related to this case. And I'll be honest, I really don't know what to think about this. I have researched this case and looked into everything, and at the end of the day, I don't really know what to think about this DNA that they were so focused on in the beginning, not even being the DNA that is related to Britney's case. Now, I will say that the other DNA evidence that they do have, like the DNA from under Britney's fingernails, does not match this person. So going back to this DNA that was found, the semen the blood. If you remember, everybody that they interviewed and checked off their list was cross checked against this DNA. Everybody that they thought might have been a potential suspect or a person of interest was tested against this specific DNA and none of those people's DNA match because it belonged to this other individual. So that means all of those people that were checked off the. List need to be reinterviewed and the DNA analysis needs to be Redone law enforcement said that the swabs they got from Britney's body were not sufficient enough to test. And obviously DNA is evolving and getting better day by day, but back in two thousand and four, this semen and the blood was all they really had. So my question for the Tulsa Police Department is what are you doing with the swabs that were taken from Britney's body in two thousand and four. It is almost twenty twenty six, and DNA testing has evolved so much. Technology has become so much more advanced. Test what you have and see what comes up. As of right now, twenty twenty five, we don't really know if they have done any of that. We don't know if they have taken this DNA from Britney's body and run it back through. We don't know if they've reinterviewed, retested all of the potential suspects. The current Tulsa Police Department unfortunately does not keep Maggie informed of anything, which in my opinion is truly terrible, because Maggie is the one keeping Britney's case going and keeping everything up to date and organized and keeping this case in the public eye. So in January of twenty twenty three, Maggie finds something else out that is very interesting and could very much change the course of Britney's case, or at least the timeline for Britney's death. So Britney's dad had remembered that he had received a card in the mail from Brittany in two thousand and four that she had sent to him to give to his father, so Britney's grandfather, And this was all in the midst of Brittany losing her life and then planning Britney's funeral and everything. So the card came in and he just kind of put it in a drawer and didn't really think anything of it, I guess, until twenty twenty three Now what's interesting about this card is it had a Post Office stamped date September twenty ninth, two thousand and four, which is actually two days after the police believe that Brittany lost her life. And that's also according to the medical examiner's report. And this stamp that was on this envelope was bought at one of those stamp machine kiosks, and when they print it, it prints the date, so it's not like it was bought and then post March September twenty ninth. The stamp was bought on September twenty ninth. And who else would have went and bought it and mailed it other than Brittany. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it very much raises the question of investigators timeline and the actual time of death. So it's very interesting, nonetheless, and it makes us question everything. And this is kind of where things stand today with the Tulsa Police Department. Like I said and said, Tulsa Police do not communicate with Maggie on a regular basis. She basically has to beg for any type of information. And I don't really understand why this is a thing. It's twenty twenty five. This woman had her daughter brutally taken from this earth, and she just wants answers, and if there are no answers right now, she just wants people to communicate with her and let her know where the case stands. She has already been through enough and unless you are trying to hide something, you need to be openly communicating with the victims' families in these unsolved cases. Anyone with information on. The death of Britney Phillips is asked to call Crime Stoppers at nine one eight five nine six, cops, the Homicide tip Line at nine one eight seven nine eight eight four seven seven, or email Homicide at Cityoftulsa dot org. It really does break my heart that I'm bringing you this case and it is still unsolved. We still don't have any more answers than we did in two thousand and four when all of this first started. I think that this case has. A huge possibility to be solved any day, but the pressure needs to be put on by us as a true crime community that we cannot let Britney's case fall off and become a case that in twenty years we're still asking questions about her case. Can be solved, and it can be solved very very soon. They just need to use what they have, take another look at things, re examine all of the evidence, reinterview all the suspects, bring all the other persons of interest in and check things off. One by one. I am going to have some photos on my social media of Britney Phillips. She was a gorgeous, gorgeous girl. Honestly, we're not too far apart in age, so this one really personally has touched me. And getting to meet Maggie at crime Con again. She is such a true angel and I admire her and everything that she has done in her search for Britney's killer. The Caravan to Catch Killer is. Such an amazing thing that she's done, and I know she's helping so many others with everything that she's doing. And I'm going to be linking all of the social media and everything below in the show notes as well, so you guys can go follow along. And I really hope that one day soon I'm coming on here to tell you that they have made an arrest in Britney Phillips's case, and it was because of the pressure that we as a community and Maggie are putting on the Tulsa Police Department because. That is what is going to take. So thank you guys so much for letting me tell you Britney's story. I really hope that I did it just I probably could have talked a heck of a lot longer on everything, but I wanted to get it out and get to the point of me basically saying there's no reason that this should be unsolved. So next week is Thanksgiving, which is so crazy to even think about, and I am bringing you an episode from one of my podcasting friends, Caedra with Perplexity, a mystery podcast. She's actually going to be bringing you a case that took place on Thanksgiving Day, so I thought it was appropriate that I released that. And then we are headed into December and we're going to finish the year strong covering these unsolved cases that desperately need our attention. I hope you guys have a great weekend and I will see you next week for a brand new case from Cadra. You guys, have a good one. Bye you cou