Speaker 1: 0:02

When I started this podcast, there was still a sliver of hope holding out that Jennifer and Adriana Wicks were still alive. After 15 months of investigative podcast efforts, interviews with family and friends and behind-the-scenes happenings in this case, which are changing daily, can confidently say with 100% conviction that young mother, jennifer Wicks, just 21, and her baby girl, adriana Wicks, just two, never lived a day past March 25th 2004. Nor do we believe the girls ever left Robertson County, tennessee, alive, aka this season's Hush Town, and I will share everything. I'll start with the information I was given, the information that we've been led to believe has been the truth for the last 20 years, but now we know it was all a lie. And then I'll take you along the real-time happenings. I've been there each step of the way recorder rolling in a field with a shovel in my hands, digging at sites, chasing a desperate father through cornfields to race against the setting sun, and I promise we'll share it all in due time, but for now, this is where I started, so this is where I'll take you first. Someone in this hush town knows what happened and I think I know who. Small Towns Talk and we've been listening.

Speaker 1: 1:28

This is season one of Missing in Hushtown the 2004 disappearance of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks from a small historic town in Middle Tennessee. I'm Jules Thorpe. Hi, I'm your host, an independent investigative podcaster from this small town working with the Wicks family and the Robertson County community to flip the script on what was once a hush town run by good old boy handshakes to what will hopefully be a town run by justice and community. 20 years have come and gone since the girls disappeared 20 years. Let's not wait another day to treat this like it's the first 48 hours of this case. The girls deserved better and this is Missing in Hush Town season one. You are now a Wix warrior. Let's go, thank you.

Speaker 1: 2:52

About 30 minutes north of the rustling and bustling music city of Nashville, tennessee, sits a small, peaceful farming town in the heart of Robertson County. Cross Plains, founded in 1778 by Thomas Kilgore, is still known for its quaint rural drives and focus on family values, with generations upon generations still choosing to settle roots within the comfort of the good old days and raise their families with generational religious values. Shops are closed on Sundays and if you drive through the one streetlight square around noon, you're likely to see children running up and down sidewalks in their Sunday best waiting for their parents and grandparents to finish conversations on the church steps. The streets are lined with historic homes where each porch has a swing and a few rocking chairs, typically occupied with someone's waving meemaw Football rules. These small towns with someone's waving meemaw Football rules. These small towns Imagine Friday Night Lights and varsity blues, mixed with a little bit of southern rock country song, and go ahead and let's add a little Mayberry in for good measure. Winters can be dangerous, with thick layers of ice coating the roads, but the summer makes up for it, with extreme heat and humidity that will squeeze your soul.

Speaker 1: 4:06

In 2004, cross plains boasted a population of just 1,381. And on March 25, 2004, that population became 1,379, when young mother Jennifer Wicks and her baby girl Adriana were never seen or heard from again. And what will transpire in this small town over the next 20 years will not only frustrate you, but may incite you to stand up beside us and become a Wicks warrior in the pursuit of justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wix. Jennifer's sister, casey Robinson, has joined me to produce a story that takes you through this journey far beyond anything that's been done yet on these girls. I sat for numerous hours watching federal and local law enforcement agencies execute search warrants on the Benton property. I've sat in courthouses to hear charges. There are over 40 hours of recorded interviews and not just from the Wicks family and friends Over the course of this season.

Speaker 1: 5:04

My goal is to tell you the story of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks and how their 2004 disappearance has impacted their family and friends in this small town we call Hush Town. Hush Town is not a jab at this town. We love this town enough to stand up and say no more Hush Town. This is a story of how one town is fighting to take control back from the good old boys who botched this case 20 years ago. The script is flipping. Where people were once afraid to speak above a hushed whisper about, this is a story of how a town is coming together to bring their Wix girls home and fight for a better future for the next generations. This is a story of how one family refuses to give up on their girls, how one family, led by some of the strongest and bravest women I've ever seen, take on small-town giants to make the county care more about justice than image. This is not just the story of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. It's their legacy and the love they left behind. That will fuel the efforts for a safer town for those who continue on.

Speaker 1: 6:21

You may think you've heard about the Wicks case, but you haven't heard the full story yet and we're going to tell it all. Stay with us. Small towns talk and I've been listening. Join me as I dive deep into Robertson County, tennessee, and the longest unsolved homicide case of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. This case is solvable. It was solvable 20 years ago and we refuse to remain quiet. No more hushing justice. We're getting loud and we're asking you to join us to bring our Wicks girls home. What do you do when everyone in the town claims to know what happened but is too fearful to come forward? You stand together and you face your fears because pretty soon David will beat Goliath. We just have to keep getting back up and standing together. Let's start with the day the girls went missing and then work our way back to how they got there, with the day the girls went missing and then work our way back to how they got there. Small towns talk and we've been listening. This is Missing in Hushtown, season one. Thank you for becoming a Wix warrior. Season one, chapter one of Missing in Hushtown, thursday March 25th 2004. The last contact ever After lunch.

Speaker 1: 7:41

A muffled voice travels through the closed bedroom door. Jennifer, frustrated at the invasion of the little privacy she's been given in her boyfriend's family home, puts the receiver down and covers a mouthpiece on the telephone, the cord fidgeting between her fingers of her free hand. She glances down to the worn carpeted floor to her baby girl, adriana, playing with her well-loved Elmo doll. Adriana meets Jennifer's gaze and smiles, blue eyes twinkling up at her mama. Despite being in physical discomfort from a recent diagnosis of vaginitis, the two-year-old was still her sweet and loving self. They were exhausted, and rightfully so.

Speaker 1: 8:24

Jennifer spent a majority of the evening prior fighting with her boyfriend's parents, the owners and residents of the home where she was currently living. Jennifer is again interrupted with an irritated voice through the door. Her deep brown eyes roll in frustration. I am on the phone with my dad. Her voice echoes through the door. Her deep brown eyes roll in frustration. I am on the phone with my dad. Her voice echoes through the door. She pauses, hears nothing in response and returns her attention to the man on the phone call her father, michael Wicks.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Jennifer is a daddy's girl. The two have a special and close connection. She makes plans with him for the next week and then tells him about her plans later that day to go on a picnic. Joey Benton was going to take her and her daughter on a picnic when he returned from his construction job. Initially, this picnic was just going to be Jennifer and Joey going to dinner, with Joey's cousin already lined up to babysit Adriana that evening. In fact, jennifer was going to borrow a beautiful red dress from his cousin for that occasion. But something made Jennifer change her plans. Instead of leaving Adriana with a member of Joey's family, someone who she'd gotten to know over the last few months, she said all three were now going to celebrate as a family. She'd no longer need the fancy dress or the help watching Adriana. You see, all the headlines up to this point have referred to Joey Benton as Jennifer's boyfriend, but he was about to be much more to Jennifer. Joey and Jennifer had gotten more serious and decided they wanted to get married. So he bought her a gold band that she proudly wore. She was planning on becoming Jennifer Benton. They were planning on celebrating their new lives together as a family of three Jennifer, joey and toddler Adriana.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Using the word family was something Jennifer never said callously. Her family was so important to her that she was very dependent upon their support, emotionally and financially. Taking Jennifer as a bride was symbolic of him taking responsibility over Jennifer's future and her daughter's. He was knowingly stepping in as a father figure to a little girl who so adored him. Jennifer confides to her father that Joey's mother, cindy, is worrying her, making her fearful, actually because she was acting very oddly towards Jennifer lately. Jennifer and her father say their goodbyes, hang up the phone and this is the last time Michael Wicks will speak with his daughter ever again. It's confirmed that a second phone call is made from the Benton home. Right after Jennifer talks with her father, an outgoing call is made to Joey Benton at his work site. It is unconfirmed who called Joey, just that the call was made from a landline from inside the Benton home. Joey leaves work earlier than planned to head home after telling the foreman that he has to go home immediately for a family matter.

Speaker 1: 11:19

This particular day, march 25, 2004, a Thursday, joey did not have his own operating vehicle. He typically relied on his best friend, jeffrey, who also, coincidentally, was Jennifer's first cousin, to give him a ride to work, work. But it remains unclear and contradictory according to whom you ask as to whether Jeffrey drove Joey to work that morning or not. But what is known and widely accepted is that since the only operating vehicles were being used by Joey's father, joe Sr, and his mother, cindy, joey received a ride to work from someone he knew who also worked at that same site. But even more interesting to note is that between Joe Sr and Cindy there was only one working car, a black Explorer. So we're left to wonder how did Joe Sr and Cindy get to their prospective commitments? Did they borrow a car from someone, or did Joe Sr drop Cindy at work and come home early?

Speaker 1: 12:20

Jennifer didn't have her own car. She was not given a Benton family car to use. She also did not currently have a job. Nor did she have anyone enlisted to babysit Adriana. It was just the Wicks girls. This would mean that once everyone was off to their appointments or jobs, jennifer and Adriana were in the Benton home alone, allegedly. In fact, this is what the Bentons claim. Nobody was home that morning.

Speaker 1: 12:50

According to the Benton family alibis, joe Sr was not at home, cindy was not at home. So that leaves the question of this who was talking to Jennifer while she was on the phone. Who was that voice that Jennifer's father knows he heard Recall. He heard his daughter reply to someone. And what if I told you that voice, the irritated one hollering at Jennifer through the locked bedroom door? It was female.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Michael Wicks shares how, when Jennifer shared with him how Joey's mother, cindy Benton, had behaving in such an odd way lately, to the extent that Jennifer said she was fearful of Cindy. He recalls how he encourages Jennifer to call her mother, kathy, or her grandmother, granny Wicks, to come pick her and Adriana up and take them from the Benton home. He relays how Jennifer assured her again that Joey would be home soon and they would talk when he takes them on their picnic. Again, it is not confirmed who the voice actually is in the background and who Jennifer was talking to in the background. The TV was on, according to Michael Wicks, so could it be that he heard the voices on the television in the background? It still wouldn't account for Jennifer's conversation to someone other than her father, and if she was talking to Adriana, it would be very odd for her to refer to Adriana's grandfather as my father. It would also be out of character for Jennifer to use such a harsh tone with her daughter.

Speaker 1: 14:13

But we do need to look at all the angles Now. It has not been made public knowledge whether or not the Benton alibis were corroborated by the sheriff's office at the time, or even independently. Since and because this was 20 years ago, ailing memories are not on this case's side Like tchotchkes collecting dust on a sun-bleached windowsill. These little collections of information from this case remain untouched. Yet they continue to grow in value each passing year, and so we continue to clear off the dust and assess the value of each piece of information we're uncovering, as if it was still March 25, 2004.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Could it be possible that one of the Bentons returned home unexpectedly? Could one of the Bentons have come home without telling the others? Perhaps they finished their day earlier than anticipated? Did Joey's parents have engagements in the morning but not the afternoon? Okay, this would make sense why Joey needed a ride. Maybe Joey didn't know someone else in his family was going to be returning home so soon. Joey's alibi of being at work holds true, but his alibi is only withstanding until he is called home by someone from inside the Benton home. After that, nothing about Joey's accounts of the next 48 hours can be corroborated. But don't take our word for it. We're going to present all the information we can and allow you to form your own assessment of the investigation conducted or not conducted, with Joey still at work. Jennifer makes one more confirmed phone call, per police phone records and per the receiving party's written statement, to the Robertson County Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Jennifer Wicks calls her aunt Lisa Robertson. The Robertson home is situated closer to the heart of the small historic town, cross Plains. Jennifer was always close with her Aunt Lisa and Lisa was always there to help Jennifer when she needed it. Jennifer had recently moved out of Lisa's house where she and Adriana were staying for a few months up until Jennifer moved out to live with Joey. Jennifer tells her Aunt Lisa about her concerns stemming from the night prior and the contention in the Benton home between herself and Joey's parents. Aunt Lisa is not able to stay on the phone call very long because she is walking in to do a job interview, but she tells Jennifer that there is a house key outside in the grill and to come over whenever she needs. In fact, jennifer and Adriana still had a bedroom at Aunt Lisa's house. Jennifer knew she had access to Aunt Lisa's home and knew she was welcome at any moment. No questions asked Again. Aunt Lisa's home was just 2.5 miles from the Benton residence and Jennifer would have had to pass it on her way into town to go to any commercial establishment in Cross Plains.

Speaker 1: 16:54

After Jennifer and Aunt Lisa hang up the phone, nobody in Jennifer's family or friend network will ever hear or see from Jennifer again. How does a young mother without a job, a car, a cell phone, just disappear along with her two-year-old daughter? Social security numbers have not been used since 2004. Bank accounts have not been opened, phones have not been registered, cars have not been purchased.

Speaker 1: 17:18

People who are dependent upon others for every facet of their lives do not just disappear and start a new life successfully, never to be heard or seen from again. Who was recently engaged to her boyfriend, who was concerned about her daughter's physical health, who was known to call her family members every single day, who did not have access to financial freedom or transportation, just vanishes. Or could she have run away, like the Robertson County Sheriff's Office told Jennifer's mother, kathy, that first week of her disappearance? After all, jennifer was an adult and had a right to walk away from any current life she had, without explanation, absolutely. But then, if that was true, how did she execute this. It is with the utmost confidence that I have come to the conclusion that the Wicks Girls never left Robertson County alive you.