The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the death of Alonzo Brooks. Brooks’ body was found in a creek in La Cygne, Kansas, on May 1, 2004.
The FBI has reopened and is investigating Brooks’ death as a potential racially-motivated crime.
Brooks, who was 23 years old at the time he died, was one of only three African-American men at the party he attended with approximately 100 people at a farmhouse on the outskirts of La Cygne.
Brooks, 23, was a native of Topeka, Kansas, but had moved to Gardner with his mother to work for his step-father’s janitorial company.
On a chilly night on April 3, 2004, he and his friends had decided to go to a party a couple of miles outside of La Cygne in east-central Kansas.
It was around an hour-long drive away, so of course, people grouped up and carpooled together.
When Brooks failed to come home the next day, his family and friends contacted the Linn County Sheriff’s Department.
From the beginning, there were rumors that Brooks had been the 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.
After the party, two troubling facts were indisputable: Alonzo could not be found; and no one who attended the party would admit to knowing what happened to him.
According to reports at the time, the Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies searched areas around the farmhouse, including parts of nearby Middle Creek, but did not find Alonzo.
After Alonzo had been missing for almost a month, a group of his family and friends organized a search. They began on the road near the farmhouse and walked the two branches of Middle Creek. In just under an hour, they found Alonzo’s body, partially on top of a pile of brush and branches in the creek.
Because Alonzo died in 2004 and because of the lapse of time between his disappearance and discovery of his body, forensic analysis of the physical evidence at the time was limited.
The official autopsy performed in 2004 did not determine a cause of death.
This reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the individual or individuals that may be responsible for Alonzo’s death.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the FBI at 816-512-8200 or 816-474-TIPS or submit a tip online at fbi.tips.gov
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