New autopsy report reveals 2004 death of Alonzo Brooks was a homicide

The death of Alonzo Brooks, whose body was exhumed in 2020 after Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series brought his case to the forefront, has been ruled a homicide, federal authorities announced.

In 2004, Brooks went missing after attending a party. His body was found a month later in a creek. The official autopsy at the time didn’t determine a cause of death and the case eventually went cold.

“We knew that Alonzo Brooks died under very suspicious circumstances,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard in a news release. “This new examination by a team of the world’s best forensic pathologists and experts establishes it was no accident. Alonzo Brooks was killed. We are doing everything we can, and will spare no resources, to bring those responsible to justice.”

Alonzo Brooks autopsy

His body was transported to Dover Air Force Base for examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner after it was exhumed, according to the news release from the Federal Bureau of Investigations Kansas City Division.

While the details of the examination are being withheld for investigative purposes, the new autopsy focuses on injuries to Brooks’ body that the examiner concluded are “inconsistent with normal patterns of decomposition,” according to the release.

The Case

Alonzo Brooks was 23 years old when he was found dead. He was one of only three Black men at a party in La Cygne, Kansas, that had about 100 guests, according to the FBI. He rode to the party with friends, but they left before him, leaving Brooks without a ride.

When he didn’t return home the next day, his family contacted the police who began searching for Brooks. It wasn’t until a month later, after a group of his family and friends organized their own search, that his body was found on top of a pile of brush and branches in the creek, according to authorities.

The official autopsy performed in 2004 didn’t determine a cause of death and Brooks’ case went cold.

But the case would take a promising turn.

In 2019, the Department of Justice and FBI reopened the investigation into his death. Additionally, the FBI announced in June 2020 that they were offering a reward of up to $100,000 to anyone who has information about Brooks’ death.

In July 2020, the FBI exhumed his body from his grave at a Topeka cemetery.

The FBI also added that his death was being investigated as a potential racially-motivated crime.

From the beginning of his case, there were rumors that Brooks was a victim of foul play.

“Some said Brooks may have flirted with a girl, some said drunken White men wanted to fight an African American male, and some said racist Whites simply resented Brooks’ presence,” the FBI said.

Brooks’ mother, Maria Ramirez, always maintained her son was targeted for his race.

“I’m Mexican and his father is Black,” Ramirez told NBC Dateline in June. “So he’s mixed. They didn’t just target one race. Or kill one race. They killed two. He was targeted because of the color of his skin.”