Three Suspects & A Moron

Cassie Marie Brooks was born on December 22nd, 1990 in Safford, Arizona, the second of four children of Chuck and Darlene Brooks. She was a high achiever: a mini Miss Graham County, a dancer, a straight-A student, a member of the National Honor Society and the Future Business Leaders of America, and a letter winner in five sports in her senior year. She wanted to be a doctor and took college courses while still at high school. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She was pregnant at 16, and within a month of having the baby she graduated from high school, married Brad and moved out of her parents' house, at 17. She began college and became a registered nurse rather than a doctor.

Brad became a Silver City police officer on March 24th, 2008, and the family moved to Silver City, New Mexico. Cassie completed her associate's degree and RN at Western New Mexico University and worked at Heeler Regional Medical Center, later called Silver City Hospital, while raising their son and daughter and working towards a BSN.

The marriage was abusive. Brad was controlling: he monitored her phone and computer, restricted her money and clothes, took her belongings, isolated her from her family and tracked her movements. He beat her, once held his police service weapon to her head and dry-fired it, and choked her during sex when she did not want it. He bound the children's hands and feet with duct tape and put tape over the baby's mouth, calling it a game. Cassie told her mother, nurses Sonya Sanchez and Mary Flores, nursing student Robert Scott, and an insurance agent, Ralph Jimenez, that she feared he would kill her. She said calling the police was pointless because her husband was an officer. In 2013 they separated and Brad filed for divorce, and custody of the children became the main fight. He once took the children and refused to tell her where they were. She moved into a trailer in Silver City rented from Charnel Williams, a fellow nurse and former instructor, and began dating David 'Dave' Berry, who moved in with her.

Brad resigned from the police force on September 25th, 2013. On January 27th, 2014 Cassie filed for temporary immediate custody. In March she told her mother that Brad wanted to take the children to Arizona on March 23rd and that she had refused. On March 23rd he visited the children but was not allowed to take them out of town, and he learned that his son was calling Dave 'Daddy David'. Cassie had just been given a job in the emergency room and was working graveyard shifts.

On March 24th, 2014, six years to the day after Brad became a police officer, Cassie finished a graveyard shift at Silver City Hospital. She told her mother she planned to get the children to school, sleep, collect them, feed them and go to another shift. She never collected them. The school called her parents, and Darlene asked Charnel Williams to check the trailer. Charnel found water running out of the bathroom and Cassie face down and fully clothed in an overflowing bathtub, still in her nursing scrubs. She called 911 and said Cassie was stiff and she could not do CPR. Water was also running in the second bathroom, where the towel rack had been pulled from the wall, the shower curtain was hanging crooked and Cassie's glasses and a hair ribbon lay on the floor. The bed was made, her work backpack and lunch box were at the foot of it, and there was no sign of forced entry.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The family then found the broken glasses, ribbon and towel rack, and when they pulled the plug on the bath they saw black rubber scuff marks in the tub. The next day Billy Lee, Charnel Williams's boyfriend, tore the wet carpet out of the master bedroom and disposed of it, and two days after the murder he left for Alaska. Dr Michael Hunter, a forensic pathologist, concluded that Cassie died of strangulation, probably by a chokehold, with a deep injury to her back, scrapes and bruises to her face and neck, ruptured blood vessels in her eyes and bleeding in the muscles of her neck. She had fought.

Suspicion fell on three men: Brad, Billy Lee and Dave Berry. Dave Berry had left for work at 5 a.m., before Cassie got home, and was eliminated. Billy Lee said he had been working on his cabin roof out of the county with a co-worker, and after months the alibi was confirmed, though his polygraph was inconclusive. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The family complained, and Sanchez was removed from the case. Sergeant Jess Watkins took over and focused on Brad, partly because the injuries looked like a police chokehold.

DNA found under Cassie's fingernails did not match Brad. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Five days later he was photographed at the Angry Crab barbecue restaurant in Tucson in a Facebook post by his sister Melanie, captioned 'We earned a nice lunch'. The prosecution moved to revoke his release, but the judge let him stay with his parents.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The prosecution case was circumstantial and relied heavily on Cassie's statements to friends, family and co-workers that Brad would kill her. Darlene Brooks, Lieutenant Ray Tavison, Sanchez, who had to be brought in on a bench warrant, Silver City officer Melinda Hobbs and DNA analyst Samantha Rhinus testified. Hobbs said Brad made sobbing sounds but had no tears. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Cassie is buried in Safford City Cemetery in Safford, Arizona. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it