Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 27-The Disappearance of Brittany Robinson
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The story of missing teenager Brittany Robinson begins with pure excitement – a 14-year-old girl bouncing with joy at the rare opportunity to spend a weekend with her estranged father in Mobile, Alabama. So enthusiastic was Brittany that she had to run back into the house to give her mother one last kiss and "I love you" before heading off on what should have been a simple two-day visit. That June weekend in 2012 marked the beginning of a mystery that has haunted her family for over a decade.
Brittany's mother described her as the quintessential caring teen – bright, bookish, opinionated yet shy, with an unwavering moral compass and a smile that could light up a room. Despite her father's minimal presence in her life, Brittany maintained hope for connection, making this visit all the more significant. When she failed to return home, her mother's initial worry about a custody dispute quickly evolved into something far more sinister as the weeks passed with no sign of her daughter.
The investigation took a disturbing turn when authorities located Demetric Hooper, Brittany's father, at a mental health facility in Arkansas six weeks after her disappearance. Not only was Brittany nowhere to be found, but Hooper possessed her pink iPod along with knives and rope. His erratic travel patterns across multiple states, history of schizophrenia treatment, and constantly changing story raised immediate red flags. Yet despite searching his home and questioning relatives, investigators struggled to piece together what actually happened during that fateful weekend visit.
After years of investigation, cold case detectives gathered enough evidence to secure a murder indictment in 2024, though prosecutors acknowledge the significant challenges of trying a case without a body. As Brittany's mother poignantly asked through tears, "Did he give her to somebody? Did he sell her?" These agonizing questions persist as the legal process unfolds. If you're drawn to cases where family dynamics, mental health issues, and determined investigators intersect, this episode offers a heartbreaking yet compelling exploration of a mystery that continues to evolve.
Source Material:
Poole, Summer, Nov. 11, 2023, Brittany Robinson: 14-year-old goes missing while visiting with her dad, https://www.wkrg.com/true-crime/brittany-robinson-14-year-old-goes-missing-while-visiting-with-her-dad/
Gunter, Brad, May 23, 2024, 12 years later, Brittany Robinson’s father back in Mobile to face murder charges, https://mynbc15.com/news/local/12-years-later-brittany-robinsons-father-back-in-mobile-to-face-murder-charge
Keith, Damali, Nov. 30, 2023, Missing Brittany Shante Robinson last seen 11 years ago at 14 years old, https://www.fox26houston.com/news/the-missing-14-year-old-missing-more-than-11-years
Jones, Jeremy and Poole, Summer, June 12, 2024, Brittany Robinson’s father pleads not guilty in connection with murder, https://www.wkrg.com/mobile-county/brittany-robinsons-father-pleads-not-guilty-in-connection-with-murder/
Brittany Robinson's Disappearance
Speaker 1Brittany Robinson reported missing after a visitation with her father. He was later found by law enforcement in an Arkansas mental health facility without Brittany. This is Hold my Sweet Tea. Hello, hello, I'm pearl and I'm holly.
Speaker 2Welcome you guys to hold my sweet tea again. My fingers hurt. I I've made two balloon arches today and and I was tying off balloons and my fingers are still sore and I got like this little balloon tying like apparatus that you put on your fingers. It still doesn't help. No, it does not help. So my fingers hurt.
Speaker 1Well.
Speaker 2I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 1Yeah, but the balloon arches look really cool yeah, so two things I guess we could talk about. Yeah, thank you to our listener, andrea and algiers, who found us on tiktok. Thank you, andrea. She sent us an email which I finally found. Yes, she's like I sent one a while back.
Speaker 2I'm like oh, sorry, I had to go dig in, but I found it, yes.
Speaker 1So she gave us some really cool suggestions to look into and I appreciated that. And then we also got a comment on one of our older episodes on YouTube. On one of our older episodes on YouTube the Mont Hiley case someone decided that they needed to say I don't think you're ever going to cover this case, bored with the chit chat.
Speaker 2Literally there's like three or four minutes in the front. I mean we got a banter, I mean we need to talk. But yeah, we're gonna get into it. But if you don't like it, you could skip forward.
Speaker 1Like it's not that hard there is a little 10 second. You can go increments to get to that part. You don't have to listen to it but I'm like I literally replied that you know, that's actually why a lot of people do listen to us because they like the little extra, because they feel like they're our friends and we're all just sitting around talking about this stuff. I just told her, you know I appreciate that you gave us a try. We know we're not going to be everybody's cup of tea.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean thanks for the feedback, absolutely, absolutely.
Welcome to Hold My Sweet Tea
Speaker 1That's what I said. I appreciate, you know. We appreciate the feedback. Sorry that you feel that way.
Speaker 2But it was a really good case, so like if you want to give it another chance, just skip forward a little bit and listen to it.
Speaker 1So hopefully she fast forwarded and listened, but I don't know. But yeah, so there's some interaction happening anyway, awesome.
Speaker 2We love that. We're still waiting for some of our Australian listeners to interact, because we want to hear from you guys. Yeah.
Speaker 1There's at least two of you, right. We want to be able to do something in your area too. So we'd love some suggestions of something that you know y'all would like to hear?
Speaker 2Absolutely, that would be really cool. So bull show, yeah. So what are we getting into today?
Speaker 1we are going to talk about the disappearance of britney robinson out of mobile alabama today. So she was last seen on juneth 2012, and she was 14 years old. Her mom said she's like super smiley, happy child. Like you know, she was one of those that would befriend anyone. Like even though she was kind of shy, she was like very outspoken and so like she really stood for what she believed in. Like if she was not going to be, you know, you are not changing her mind.
Speaker 1She's at that table with the change your mind change my mind, sign change my mind but but you're probably not going to do it.
Speaker 1But and she read a ton she said that that girl lived with her face in a book. That's awesome, so super smart. That girl lived with her face in a book that's awesome, so super smart, super funny, super sweet, very friendly 14-year-old she was visiting her father, dimitri Hooper, for a weekend visit. This is not something that she did really often, because he wasn't really in her life like that. She really wanted him to be, but he just wasn't. So she was pretty excited to get to go and actually spend some time with him for a change, and I believe it was one of her aunts that picked her up from her mom's and took her and dropped her off at her dad's.
Brittany's Background and Character
Speaker 2And that's awesome, that she was excited, because I mean, it happens a lot and dads just kind of disappear and then they all of a sudden want to be dad this week and then they don't want to be dad for like six months, you know, or my favorite, my favorite.
Speaker 1I can't afford to give you your child support this week because I have to pay blah blah, blah, blah blah and I'm like yeah, so do I. Yeah, right, but I don't get to tell somebody I'm not going to pay for my like, take care of my kids still.
Speaker 1Right, right, favorite, favorite excuse His home was actually on McCoverry Road in, like West Mobile, alabama. The visit obviously, like I said, was a weekend visit, so it was only supposed to last for two days. Yet 13 years later, there's still no sign of Brittany. That's so awful. So when she didn't return to her mom's home like she was supposed to, her mother then reported her missing, mainly because I felt like she thought maybe the dad was just trying to keep Brittany away from her, like decided, oh, I'm just not going to send her back. Yeah. So in her mind, I believe she thought that maybe there was just like a custody violation going on here, and not necessarily what it ended up being.
Speaker 1Strangely enough, it appears that Hooper left Mobile pretty quickly after Brittany was reported missing by her mom. When Hooper was found at the mental health facility in Arkansas in September of 2012, he was allegedly getting treatment for schizophrenia. There is evidence that Hooper had been in other mental facilities many times in Alabama suffering with mental health problems, long before Brittany had disappeared. Oh, wow, so a real ongoing struggle, yeah, which I mean may explain his absence.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a possibility, because, I mean, schizophrenia is no joke, right, but if you're medicated and that's the thing with schizophrenia like a lot of people don't like to medicate themselves, yeah, so it goes untreated and then bad things happen.
Speaker 1Yeah, or they're on their meds for a while and then they think, oh, I'm great. And then they just get off of it because they think they don't need it anymore because nothing's happened. Well, that's because you were on the medicines, right right?
Speaker 2right, yeah, happens a lot. You're not having hallucinations because of the medicine, no, it's like get back on it.
Father's Mental Health History
Speaker 1Yeah, don't stop taking it. That was what was keeping you, okay? Yeah, for sure. So an arrest warrant was issued for Hooper six weeks after Brittany went missing. When law enforcement found Hooper in Arkansas, brittany was not with him. He was charged with felony custodial interference. Like I said, they just thought maybe that was the deal. He just was keeping her away from her mom. There was also evidence that Hooper had in fact traveled a lot throughout the Southeast states after his daughter had gone missing, so he literally had traveled to many different places before ending up in the mental health facility in Arkansas. Yeah, because that was six weeks later, right?
Speaker 2Yeah, he wasn't in a car.
Speaker 1He was traveling by train and bus and stuff like that, so there was a trail that they could follow as to where he was when, and I think Tennessee was his last stop right before hitting Arkansas Arkansas, okay. Upon his arrest, items that were found in his possession included knives, rope and his daughter's pink iPod. He insisted he was not involved in the disappearance. He did plead guilty to these charges and was released from jail in like 2016. So he spent a little bit of time in there over the felony custodial interference charge. Yeah Now, hooper also had a record of past arrests for domestic violence and third-degree assault. But despite all of this, even Hooper's relatives did not believe that Hooper had anything to do with Brittany's disappearance. Law enforcement also searched his house, but really didn't find any evidence of, like you know, foul play or anything going awry. There was like nothing, really.
Speaker 2But I mean he had her.
Speaker 1What did he say happened like she left on her own so I left her there like his story changed many, many times. Of course he literally was like you know, oh, I didn't, I didn't see her, like saying like she never showed up at her at his house, to like, well, she was there but then she left and I haven't seen her since. Right, you know, just like anything he can to try to figure out a way to make it sound like you know, yeah, he has no idea what happened.
Speaker 2Wow, that's insane. Yeah, I as a mother, I don't think I would ever put my child in that position and be like here go go to your crazy fathers, but also, she's 14. She's 14.
Speaker 1So she probably felt like if she felt unsafe, she'd tell someone, right, right.
Speaker 2So she was like okay, I'm going to give you a chance. I know where you're at, your aunt's coming to get you and all that stuff, so I get that and everything. But oh yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 1So you, yeah, it's tough. So you know Brittany was supposed to be going into high school that fall at Murphy and her mom, tiana Hogue, told Fox 26 that the day Brittany left to go visit her dad, you know she was like, like I said, super excited because she had not seen him in a while and you know she was like hopping around that she like left out of the house and had to come run back in to give her mom a kiss and tell her she loved her before she left, so she was like just that excited that she was just like woo, you know, but in which you know Brittany had a very special relationship with her mom because that's all she had, and so you know she would like constantly make sure her mom was taking her meds.
Speaker 1And's all she had, and so you know she would like constantly make sure her mom was taking her meds and stuff like that, you know. So it was like she was caring for her mom even though her mom was caring for her. So it was like really really close relationship. Hogue also expressed her grief through her tears, saying did he give her to somebody? Did he sell her to somebody? I allowed her to go with someone who I thought give her to somebody? Did he sell her to somebody? I allowed her to go with someone who I thought was supposed to love and care about her and she never returned and there's nothing I do or can do about it except beat myself up yeah, I would definitely beat myself up yeah, so it's like a constant, yeah, a constant battle with yourself at that point because, you're like why did?
Speaker 2I do this. Why did?
Investigation and Murder Indictment
Speaker 1I let her go. Why did I do? Whatever you know, it's, it's really really, yeah, one of those like I don't know, it's like I can almost feel, it's like almost suffocating feeling when something like that occurs and you can't.
Speaker 2I wonder if she, like I guess maybe she was under the impression that he was on his medication.
Speaker 1I'd have to imagine so because, like she said you know, she's like I thought I was sending her, you know, to someone who loved and cared for her. I I would imagine she believed she would have been safe. You would hope. I mean I don't think, just knowing how their relationship was. I don't think that she would have sent her if she thought this could have been even a remote possibility.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't see that either. That's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1It is very, very sad. So through cold case investigation enough evidence was eventually obtained to present the case to a grand jury in Mobile County in February of 2024. The grand jury did return an indictment for murder for Hooper.
Speaker 2On what grounds? Like is it?
Speaker 1They did not give any details. They say that like just that they had evidence and it was enough evidence to convince a grand jury that, yeah, they think that he murdered his daughter. There has never been anybody found. Right Even to this day they've not found her.
Speaker 2And the thing is is like he's denying on one hand, like oh, I didn't even have her, you had her pink iPod.
Speaker 1Yeah, I didn't even see her.
Speaker 2How did you get that? Yeah, right, yeah, and I used to have an iPod. I know everybody did Right the iPod Nano, the regular iPod. Yeah, I was going to say we had all of the versions, the Nano, that like clipped on. Yeah, you had to have them all.
Speaker 1I mean, could you even walk without it Right I?
Speaker 2don't know. The iconic like white cord headphones yeah Right.
Speaker 1The iconic like white cord headphones yeah I mean it's so much better than trying to walk or run with a dang Walkman.
Speaker 2Yep, you can play CDs and run and skip. Yeah, mine was green, though I had a little green iPod Nano.
Speaker 1I had an orange one.
Speaker 2Funny. And here you are now. Android lady, I know I'm like all about the android. You're like f? F apple, apple. Well, I had an apple I almost said ethel I'm sorry ethel, sorry ethel. I had one up until like the five plus, if that tells you anything, anything. And then I was like I just don't like iPhone and I switched and I've never gone back. But you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1So at the time that this indictment was issued, cooper was actually in jail in Oklahoma City, oklahoma, for unrelated felony charges, so he had to be extradited back Good.
Speaker 2Lord. So he was just all over the place, huh.
Speaker 1So yeah, he was in jail in a lot of different places.
Speaker 2And mental institutes and he just skipping and hopping around committing crimes.
Speaker 1Everywhere. So the funny thing is about him being in all these different jails, there's one common thing that occurred in every single place he filed complaints, slash suits against all the officers that he dealt with, against britney's, against Hulu, netflix, walmart oh my goodness, there's like a laundry list of people and it's all in these different places that he's filing all this stuff and it's all civil rights related.
Speaker 2Oh, wow, wow yeah, and then.
Speaker 1So civil rights violations and prison conditions and stuff like that are all noted in all these legal files. And I'm just going what on earth are we doing here?
Speaker 2yeah, well, that was kind of like my first story with donald evans, like he had filed all kinds of complaints and they weren't feeding him and he didn't get the right kind of food and they would had these conditions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. So, yeah, it was, it was weird.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I guess that's kind of the uh, the thing to do when you're in there and you're guilty of something crazy.
Speaker 2Yeah, Let me go to the library and see you know, see what I can file. I can file.
Speaker 1See how much of uh the court's time I can waste on a bunch of stuff and money. What's so sad is, though, like if something actually legitimately terrible like that was happening to someone, like, how do you weed through that and find the ones that are?
Speaker 2real? Are they really going to take you serious if you do file it, because so many people file this, this and this?
Speaker 1Or just you yourself, the one time that it's true, they're like it's another one.
Legal Challenges and Case Updates
Speaker 1Whatever, he files these everywhere you know, yeah, I mean, I just think that's a terrible idea. In June of 2024, hooper was in court to make his plea on this indictment. Hooper did plead not guilty. Mobile County District Attorney stated that not having a body will make this case more difficult. However, we felt that after some further investigation and a fresh look at the case that there was sufficient evidence to make this arrest and we will move forward with this to a jury trial. So I don't think there's going to be any kind of offer of a plea agreement at this point because it seems kind of whatever. But he also stated that the details probably would not come out until that trial. So they're kind of just keeping all what they've got under wraps until the actual trial, which I guess is good. A status hearing was set for August 2024. Unfortunately, I can't find anything past that court date and there's nothing on the status hearing that I could find anywhere Like. That's why I found all the other stuff he had filed, because I was digging digging, digging.
Speaker 2Well, maybe it got postponed or something. Yeah, I mean, it's a possibility, who knows?
Speaker 1but here we are May of the following year. So I'm just I'm curious to find out what happens, and hopefully someone reports on that, as to whether or not we definitely want updates on that yeah. So that's a new Google alert. Yay, google alert. Can't really call this one solved, because nothing's finished, right?
Speaker 2So you know, it's just that's just awful, though, that they never found her.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that's the really sad thing is like there is no body, and for me I'm like, if he did do this, I sincerely hope that he would just allow himself to at least tell somebody where she is, like Right, give her some Respect At that point. Yeah.
Speaker 1And you know, let Like do the right thing and just go ahead and say, let her be found so that she can be respectfully buried or whatever their plans were for her, like I don't know if she wanted, you know, cremation or whatever, but anything would be better than just flat out missing, dumped somewhere, buried somewhere like that. He took her, who knows. Yeah, Like it's just really really sad. I know there was like some theories that maybe she was trafficked, like maybe he did give her to somebody and maybe he was in some schizophrenic issue. Something happened and she ends up with somebody else. There was apparently some video surveillance of like a store Not real sure which store, not real sure which store but there is some that say that they saw him, brittany and some unknown woman on camera.
Speaker 2Oh, wow. So, so yeah, that could have happened?
Speaker 1The theories, the theories the theories. So it's like, who knows, everybody's in the dark like mushrooms.
Speaker 2That's awful, Getting fed the doo-doo, we're all just waiting in the dark, all just waiting in the dark to you know, in the dark, dark. Get plucked up and dust it off, because you don't wash the poo off your mushrooms, you just wipe it off, okay.
Speaker 1As I turn on the sink right, I'm like wash my mushroom I don't care if it's wet all right, it's getting sauteed anyway.
Speaker 2Exactly they're like you're just supposed to wipe it off. You know, you know, back in the day when you found mushrooms in the cow field, just eat them Right there, just make Kool-Aid. Well done suckers, yeah something Disinfect those babies.
Speaker 1That was an interesting case and I hope that not super long, but no, but I mean it was a good one, and hopefully there's some some update I can give at some point. I mean, the sheer fact that they were in court last year is leaves me hopeful that right that they have there's progress and something's going on, so we'll hopefully get an update on this one at some point, but it's like super sad.
Closing Thoughts and Show Notes
Speaker 1You know, I guess I rolled into this one off of you know, the one where the husband did it and the one before that where you know Myra Lewis is missing and nobody understands what happened to her and her whole entire family just up in skedaddles.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Doesn't check in or anything. I know that the world of the internet is like they know something.
Speaker 2Yeah, you know so are the police at that point? And also I'd like to thank all of our Jackson and Madison listeners who, like really shared the mess out of Myra Lewis. Lewis case. That's awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1Absolutely. That was much appreciated, for sure.
Speaker 2And Richland and all the surrounding areas. Yeah.
Speaker 1I know I don't think like you know, everybody that's on the what's Happening Jackson page is not necessarily Justin Jackson.
Speaker 2Yeah, Justin Jackson.
Speaker 1So it is definitely metro area and there are a lot of people who, like, commented you know that they remembered that happening and that baby still being missing now is like heartbreaking, and it absolutely is.
Speaker 2It's so sad to have no answers at all so I mean, even though this one was in mobile, maybe you know it's close enough to miss it. Yeah, that's close, you know, I think it's a neighbor. Mobile is like just one of the prettiest little port cities and everything, but I absolutely hate the tunnel. Every time I get to the tunnel I start. I'm like I know I can't stop because you have to go underwater and through the tunnel. That's my favorite. I love the tunnel and I'm sitting there going like I find myself holding my breath and I'm like why am I holding my breath? And I'm like, hurry up, hurry up, before a big truck comes up.
Speaker 1We've watched way too many terrible movies.
Speaker 2Final Destination.
Speaker 1Where bad things happen in there.
Speaker 2Right, I don't know. I can go over high bridges Anything. I've been through mountains, I've drove around the damn Hoover Dam and that's like up and down, up and down, all that stuff. Tunnels Do not recommend them. Yeah, I don't like it.
Speaker 1You know we've done some silly stuff and driven over that way just to go to Foley to eat at Lambert's.
Speaker 2Oh, that's where they throw the rolls. Home of the throw rolls.
Speaker 1Yeah, yes, absolutely, we love it. It's so yummy. I love fried okra, so every time they come around, because that's like a path around- yeah.
Speaker 2So every time they come around like tapping my table, like yeah, give me some more of that. I'm not an okra fan, but it was like fried mushrooms or something, maybe yeah.
Speaker 1I like those too. I do too. My favorites are the littler ones, because they're juicy, yeah, and fried green beans, those are good too.
Speaker 2My favorites are the littler ones because they're juicy, yes, and fried green beans, those are good too. Yeah, I don't know, I don't eat a lot of fried stuff anymore, but they're so good occasionally. Also, I'm hungry. I know Me too.
Speaker 1I'm like I'm starving. That's what we get for recording in the afternoon. Surprised, there's not grumbling noises in the microphone.
Speaker 2I had to run to the store and buy an Alani because I had a caffeine headache.
Speaker 1Oh Well, we've made it through Right, yeah, so keep watching for that merch.
Speaker 2Yes, it's almost time because I got my shirt in.
Speaker 1It looks awesome, yeah that's what we were waiting for by the time you hear this.
Speaker 2Hopefully it'll be launched.
Speaker 1So well, I guess I need to plan to wear my shirt so we can take pictures of each other in our shirts so you can see them on a live person, right, I mean, they're on people in the shop.
Speaker 2They have like models, yeah, but they're just like plastered on the front. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1So it'll be cool to post pictures anyway with it. So we'll do that and get it all ready for you, yeah, absolutely. But hopefully you enjoyed this episode and our theme music, which everyone enjoys all the time, I'm sure was created by Patty Salzetta. Make sure you guys are sharing us with your friends. Send them the link to an episode, any episode, all the episodes, all the episodes. Yeah, like hey, did you hear this one yet? Just send it.
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