NETFLIX’S Unsolved Mysteries reboot has been flooded with 1500 new case leads in its first week – with show creator Terry Dunn Meurer teasing new arrests.
It’s believed the case of Alonzo Brooks – who disappeared from a Kansas party in 2004 – could be the first case to be solved.
Terry told TMZ that around 50 of the 1500 tips the team has received have been “forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agencies”.
Alonzo was last seen on April 3, 2004, at a local house party in rural Kansas.
His friends, confused about who was giving who a ride home, accidentally left Alonzo at the party. He never made it home.
It’s unclear what happened to him after he left the property when threatened with violence.
Two days later, Alonzo’s family filed a missing persons report, with police searches finding his hat and boots near to the party house.
Multiple agencies say they made searches of the nearby area and found nothing.
A month after Brooks disappeared, his family were finally given permission to search the immediate surrounding area and found his body by a nearby creek within an hour.
Alonzo’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition and the coroner ruled his death undetermined – this meant they were unable to determine how he died.
Alonzo’s father described the search for his son as “awful”.
Billy Brooks Sr. said. “To find my boy like that. Nothing can describe that pain.”
The tragedy and the ensuing investigation did not lead to any suspects being accused or even arrested.
Alonzo’s family believe he was killed as a result of a hate crime.
His mother Maria told US news show Dateline: “I’m Mexican and his father is Black.
“So he’s mixed. They didn’t just target one race. Or kill one race. They killed two. He was targeted because of the colour of his skin.”
Attorney Stephen McAllister agrees with this statement: “It defies reason to believe that Alonzo’s death was a suicide or that he somehow accidentally tumbled into a relatively shallow creek, in Linn County, leaving behind his boots and hat, all with no witnesses whatsoever.”
Police are also investigating a potential racist motive, with Alonzo being one of three black people at the 100-strong party, which took place in a predominantly white neighbourhood.
To add to this theory, Alonzo’s friends claim he was the target of several racial slurs during the party and that he was angrily approached by a white man.
According to witnesses several “brawls” broke out that night, but it is unclear if Alonzo was involved in any of these.
The first series of Unsolved Mysteries is available to binge on Netflix UK now.
The show, which dropped on Netflix on July 1, is a reboot of the 1987 show of the same name.
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It is a 12-part series where each episode looks at a different unsolved mystery.
The first episode is Mystery on the Rooftop, and looks at the 2006 death of Rey Riviera.