Cold case: $100K reward offered in case of man found dead in a Kansas creek in 2004
A $100,000 reward is being offered in an investigation of a suspicious death of a man whose body was found in a creek over 16 years ago in east-central Kansas, federal authorities have announced.
Stephen McAllister, U.S. attorney in Kansas, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Timothy Langan made the announcement Thursday, stating the reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the death of Alonzo Brooks.
Brooks was found dead in La Cygne on May 1, 2004. The 23-year-old man was last seen alive at a party almost a month prior at a farmhouse on the outskirts of town.
McAllister said authorities were investigating whether Brooks was murdered. Prosecutors also said the FBI was looking into Brooks’ death as “a potential racially motivated crime.”
According to prosecutors, Brooks was one of three African American men who attended the party among a crowd of about 100 people at the farmhouse in April 2004.
Rumors circulated that Brooks had been the victim of foul play. According to persecutors, some said Brooks may have flirted with a girl, others said drunken white men wanted to fight an African American man, and some said racist whites resented Brooks’ presence.
Family and friends contacted the Linn County Sheriff’s Department after Brooks, who lived in Gardner, didn’t come home the next day, prosecutors stated.
Nearly a month after Brooks was reported missing, family and friends organized a search near the farmhouse. They found Brooks’ body partially on top of a pile of brush and branches in Middle Creek.
Forensic analysis of physical evidence found at the scene was limited at the time due to the lapse of time between his disappearance and when his body was found, according to prosecutors. An autopsy conducted in 2004 was unable to determine his cause of death.
The U.S. attorney office and the FBI reopened the investigation over a year ago, have been reviewing evidence, reinterviewing people who attended the party and talking to new witnesses.
McAllister said he is asking anyone with information on what happened to come forward.
With the large reward announced Thursday, Langan added that the FBI hopes to bring renewed attention to the cold case.
“I have stood under the trees on the bank of Middle Creek where Alonzo’s body was found,” McAllister said in a statement. “It is a quiet place of profound sadness to one who knows its history, but no answers are there. I am convinced, however, that there are people who know the answers, people who have been keeping terrible secrets all these years and bearing a horrible burden. We are asking one or more of them to come forward now and to lay down that burden at last, so that we can ease a family’s suffering, and serve the cause of justice.”
Anyone with information on Brooks’ death is asked to call the FBI at 816-512-8200, call the TIPS Hotline anonymously at 816-474-8477 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Cold case: $100K reward offered in case of man found dead in a Kansas creek in 2004."
