The last time anyone saw 20-year-old Branson Perry was at 3 p.m. at his home in Skidmore, Missouri, on April 11, 2001. He went outside to put some jumper cables in the shed, but never came back into the house. He was reported missing on April 17, six days after he mysteriously vanished.

According to Branson's family, it was extremely out of character for him not to be in contact with his family and friends for more than a few days.

He left his van and all other belongings behind. The first time the police checked the shed, the jumper cables were not in it. But two weeks later, the jumper cables were found in the shed.

Branson lived with his father at the time of his disappearance. On the day he disappeared, his father was hospitalized but expected to come home shortly.

Branson wanted to clean up the house before his father returned, so he asked a friend to help him out. Two men were also at the house repairing Branson's father's car.

At the beginning of the investigation, a man named Jack Wayne Rogers was considered a possible suspect. He was arrested in 2002 and convicted of charges related to child content and assault in 2004. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The police found messages written by Jack on an online messaging board about picking up a blonde male hitchhiker and torturing and assaulting him before burying his body.

The physical description of the victim appeared to match Branson, and the police found a necklace in his belongings that looked like one of Branson's.

However, Jack claimed that he had never met Branson, and the description of the murder was just a fantasy. Branson's mother believed that he had nothing to do with her son's disappearance, and the investigation moved on.

Facebook - pictured above is BransonFacebook - pictured above is Branson

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It's important to note that Branson and his friend group had recently started experimenting with drugs before he vanished.

The friend who was with him that day, Jena Crawford, told the police that they had used methamphetamines in the hours before he disappeared. The men who were working on the car claimed that they never saw him with the jumper cables.

Authorities got tips that Branson was spotted at a house about a mile east of Quitman, Missouri, after leaving his home that day. At the time, that house was known as a popular place to buy drugs. Less than a week after Branson's disappearance, the house burned down.

In 2024, the authorities questioned two individuals about Branson's disappearance. They both named a specific spot in the rural Quitman area and claimed that his body was buried there.

The police dug up the spot and didn't find Branson's remains, but something had been buried there previously.

Branson Perry graduated from Nodaway-Holt High School in 1999. After graduation, he worked for a roofing company and a traveling petting zoo. He was unemployed when he went missing. He liked to lift weights, enjoyed the outdoors, and had a black belt in hapkido.

Foul play is suspected in his case.