FBI investigating 23-year-old cold case in northern Missouri
SKIDMORE, Mo. — The FBI is assisting in a 23-year-old cold case in Skidmore, Missouri, the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office told NewsNation affiliate WDAF on Wednesday.
Its office received a tip concerning the case of Branson Perry, who disappeared in 2001.
“We feel like it’s a good tip. So, we want we want to invest in it,” said Captain Austin Hann with the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office. “The FBI has a specific resources to provide. They have specialized resources to provide that we do not.”
Hann confirmed to WDAF that its investigation includes a well in Quitman, Missouri, six miles north of Skidmore, Perry’s hometown.
This is not the first time that the sheriff’s office has been investigating the case off a tip from the community.
According to retired Police Ofc. Michael Kurz, two individuals were being questioned in relation to Perry’s case in 2009.
“They both identified a spot in Quitman or a particular area of land where Branson’s remains were,” he said.
“Law enforcement agencies dug up a plot of land and didn’t find Perry’s remains, but they did indicate that the earth was disturbed there. They did think that probably something was there before, and they could not find it at that time.”
Hann could not confirm what they were searching for on Wednesday, but said that cases like Perry’s are only solved through tips from the community.
“Any time that we have a tip come in that we can look into and maybe have a chance of providing some of that closure. That’s what we want to do,” Hann said.
He said that resolution in the case would mean a lot to the community.
“It’s a case that a lot of people know about. A lot of people, you know, have interest in. And I think it reaches people outside of just, you know, this area,” he said.
“They’re looking at this case now as not as a missing person anymore,” Kurz said. “They’re looking at it as a homicide. Branson was a very well-liked kid. He liked everybody. Everybody liked him. He liked to lift weights, enjoyed the outdoors. I think it would mean a lot to the whole community if there was a resolution to this one.”