Katharina Buczek
According to Chessie, Brittney left home between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. that day and apparently said she was going to a friend’s house.
Chessie remembers seeing her walk out of the front door– carrying a tote bag– and walk down the street until she was out of sight. And tragically, that was the last time Chessie ever saw her daughter.
It was later revealed that even though Brittney was believed to have been going to her friend’s house, her uncle– Donnie Holland– actually picked her up near the end of Lenardo Drive.
Then, they traveled to a house in Robertsdale, about an hour away from Brittney’s home.
Throughout that evening, her phone records indicated that Brittney had been communicating with friends via texts and calls. However, at 11:30 p.m., her communications ceased; and at about 11:36 p.m., all incoming calls began going straight to Brittney’s voicemail.
Alarm bells did not start to go off until two days later, on June 1, though, when Donnie was found severely injured in his SUV. The SUV was parked in a secluded wooded area, and he had suffered a gunshot to the back of his head.
After being discovered by officials, Donnie was promptly air-lifted to a Pensacola, Florida, hospital but did not survive.
Authorities officially ruled his death a suicide, but Chessie and other family members believe that, given the location of the gunshot wound, he was murdered.
Moreover, the gun used is believed to have been Brittney’s– which was later found with her cell phone battery inside the SUV.
According to a friend of the teens, Brittney had gotten the gun “for protection” right before she disappeared.
Nonetheless, the news of Donnie’s death shocked the Wood family– who, on June 1, began frantically calling Brittney to let her know what had happened.
