PART 1:THOMAS BROWN MURDER RESEARCH

 

Research Questions

1. What is the history of this case? (Timeline)

https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/a-timeline-of-events-in-the-case-of-thomas-brown

• Thomas was last seen on the Eve of Thanksgiving on November 23, 2016, just minutes before midnight at a gas station in his Dodge Durango. He never made it home at curfew.

• His brother Tucker went in the morning with the sheriff’s deputy to look for his car. They drove past a water treatment plant. Tucker noticed the gate open, a gate that is never open. Said they should look, the deputy said no.

• A friend of Thomas’ went with her dad and took their helicopter to look for Thomas’ car. It was found in the water treatment plant (the same one with an open gate that the deputy declined to go inside). 

• Sheriff Nathan Lewis went to Tom’s car, held it for a few hours, then returned it to his mother, Penny Meek, and told her Tom had killed himself (with no evidence suggesting he did). Lewis returned it without doing a proper investigation, sweep of evidence, and many other requirements.

• Two months later, a search party found Tom’s backpack nearly four miles from his car.

• In July of 2017, Penny Meek came out and said she “has lost all hope in the Hemphill County Sheriffs Department” and she wanted it turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS). 

• In October 2017, a search party found an iPhone 5, a small caliber pistol pouch, and clothing.

• In February 2018, the Texas Attorney General agreed to review the case.

• A scholarship was announced in Thomas’ name in May 2018.

• In June 2018, a podcast titled “Thomas Brown: Seeds Of Doubt” was published, making the public notice the case.

• July 2018, Klein Private Investigators went to Canadian, TX, to interview anyone with information, and an email announced for tips. The lead investigator about the case’s progress. 

https://www.newschannel10.com/2019/01/17/investigators-detail-how-thomas-brown-was-found-whats-next/

• January 9th, 2019, a man was walking down a path near Lake Marvin Road and noticed what looked like a body and called the authorities immediately. 

• The Texas OAG and Texas Rangers confirmed that confirmed, after forensic testing, that the remains belonged to Thomas Brown.

• PI Klein said that the area Tom was found was not “missed” but was not searched. He stated it was flown over by a helicopter, the south side of the lake was looked over, and a trace sergeant and her dog checked the south side as well. The north side of Lake Marvin had not been checked yet.

• Klein would not speak about the condition the remains were in but said there is no doubt this is a homicide investigation. 

• Klein said they would go back over the evidence of the car, the shell casing, and the blood. “The actual timeline between 11:38 and 12:05 I think is very, very, very, very important.”

• When Klein was approached with questions regarding the concerns of there being a murderer among the community of Canadian, TX, he stated that everyone can sleep at night, but if you are a parent, be cautious. He also stated that everyone should be “asleep with one eye open” until the case is solved.

• Klein stated he does not believe this was a premeditated homicide.

• Klein said for the community to steer clear of Lake Marvin as it is still an active working crime scene. He understands that the community is hurting for Tom and wants to set flowers and markers out there but now is not the time.

• Lake Marvin road is being looked over again, and there are persons of interest floating around.

• Klein said the Texas OAG will determine the announcement on the timeline of the cause of death regarding Thomas Brown.

https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/new-details-released-in-canadian-teens-death

• November 6th, 2019, Klein Investigators released that the Texas OAG, after taking over the case in February 2018, and after they could not determine how Tom died, suspended his case back in August 2019 until more evidence became available.

• Also Nov. 6th, the PI’s released a controversial statement/photos since investigator Klein’s conclusions disagree with the OAG. They posted 7 photos showing evidence that has never been seen in the case. Philip Klein said that the photos show patches of blood on the driver’s side of Tom’s car after luminol was used, blood that was uncovered after it had been cleaned up by who? An “enormous” amount of blood was found, shocking the investigators. The blood was tested and confirmed to belong to Thomas. The photos also show a cadaver dog alerting outside of Thomas’ Dodge Durango, showing a dead body had been inside the car. Klein said that despite what the law enforcement believes, he always believed Thomas’ death to be a homicide. “Let the public know this is not a suicide,” he said regarding what local and state law believe to be the cause of death. Penny Meek said something just out of the frame of the pictures is something you cannot see. “What people don’t understand is about the pictures Mr. Klein released is that on the one-year anniversary of Thomas going missing, we luminoled the car. My husband, my son, and I watched it all go down.” Klein decided to release the photos just a couple weeks before the third anniversary for a reason. “We want the killer to know what we know. We want the killer to know we are working on this case. We want him or her to know you can’t get away with murder. We want them to know we are coming after them.”

• THEORY: Klein said that because Tom was 6-foot and 195lbs, it’s more likely that more than one person was involved. “Our theory has been and always has been that someone must have come up behind Tom while he was sitting in the car and shot him in the head. We say that for a couple of reasons. Number one, again, because of the pooling of blood in the area (Thomas’ driver’s side). Number two, because we found a .25 caliber shell casing in the car. Number three, there was a small splatter pattern in Thomas’ car that can be deduced as a gunshot wound. We don’t believe the bullet exited his skull. What we believe is the bullet stayed in the skull but there was probably a major vein or artery hit that caused that kind of damage inside the car.”

• TIMELINE OF EVENTS ON NOVEMBER 23, 2016: The last ping on Thomas’ phone is within 100 square yards of the Canadian football stadium. “We believe the incident happened near the football stadium. We believe Tom’s body was pushed to another part of the car,” Klein stated. He did not say where in the car Tom was moved to. They believe Thomas was driven out to Lake Marvin Road and put under a tree about 500 feet from the road. It’s believed his personal items (backpack, phone, books, clothes, etc.) were thrown out of the car on Lake Marvin Road after his body was dumped. The car was left near the Canadian’s wastewater treatment plant around 5:35 am, the driver got out of the car, urinated, and cleaned up the blood. It is believed that towels could have been used to clean the blood in the car. A charger was found in the car, but not the same kind Thomas used. Tom already had a car charger in the car.

Klein also revealed more details about how a Hemphill County Sheriff’s deputy found Thomas’ body in January 2019. 

“At 2 am a sheriff’s deputy walking around in the same area as Tom’s body was found approximately a year and a half, two years later and he is supposedly at 2 am looking for deer antlers or deer scat and he comes across a body.”

Klein is not saying that Pyne Gregory (sheriff’s deputy) is a suspect, but said they have extreme concerns as to why this man could find a body out there. Other law enforcement disagrees with Klein about this being a homicide since Thomas had looked up, in secure mode, about the suicide hotline. Klein called Apple and got ahold of some technicians and they said they’re not so sure [Klein] could get that information and that they believe the Texas OAG may have seen something regarding that.

Philip Klein also said that there are other factors that point to homicide. Like his body, as the crow flies, was 14 miles from his car. “If you are going to have a suicide or suggest suicide or something to that effect, how did Tom kill himself and drive himself over and put himself under a tree? It makes no sense.” 

• On November 6th, 2019, the Klein investigators released a document sent to them by a Texas government agency.