Since 12-year-old Brooke Bennett was reported missing last Wednesday evening, each succeeding has brought new—and sometimes shocking—developments. A day-by-day timeline of events follows:

Wednesday, June 25:

State police receive a report at about 9 p.m., about a missing 12-year-old from Braintree. State police later confirm that Brooke Bennett was reported missing by her grandmother, about 12 hours after she was dropped off at Cumberland Farms, by her uncle, Michael Jacques.

Thursday, June 26:

By early Thursday morning, posters about the missing pre-teen start appearing in Randolph.

At 11:14 a.m., state police issue a missing person bulletin. Police say that Bennett had said she was meeting a friend in town, and would travel to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to visit that friend’s sick relative.

Police also note that some items that might belong to Bennett were located in Brookfield, and that law enforcement search and K-9 teams were being mobilized for the search.

At a 3:30 p.m. press conference in Brookfield, state police report that they had determined that Bennett "was communicating with an unknown online," and that they believed that the hospital story was "a ruse." Police said divers would search Sunset Pond the next day, near where the found items had been discovered. Also, police say the standards needed to issue a nationwide "Amber Alert" for Bennett have been met, based on "new developments" in the last hour.

Friday, June 27

At an 10:30 a.m. press conference in Bethel, Col. James Baker, director of Vermont State Police, reports that the scope of the investigation has dramatically widened with seven FBI agents, the state crime lab, two K-9 teams, U.S. Border Patrol, the "Internet Crimes against Children" team from Burlington, plus 30 VSP detectives now on the case.

He confirms that it was "articles of clothing" that were found in by Route 65, and emphasizes that "This case is about MySpace." Surveillance tapes from Cumberland Farms shows both Bennett and her uncle, Michael Jacques of Randolph Center, entering the store together, and leaving, heading in separate directions. Bennett was last seen Wednesday morning, about 10:30 a.m., at the Randolph Village Laundromat.

Following a morning search by divers at Sunset Pond, a false rumor—that Brooke’s body was found—circulates around town in the afternoon and evening.

Saturday, June 28:

In a 3 p.m. press release, state police say investigators are "following up on the more than 150 leads that have been generated." Police work includes "an extended ground search" near Sunset Pond and extensive computer forensics.

Sunday, June 29:

At 10:30 p.m., police issue a release reporting that Bennett’s uncle, Michael S. Jacques, 42, had been arrested that afternoon for aggravated sexual assault against a minor. Police noted the arrest was a result of the on-going investigation into the Bennett’s disappearance of Brooke Bennett, but that the charge involved another minor. The arrest comes a few hours after police re-interview a juvenile, with her mother present. As they would continue to do in succeeding days, police emphasize that the primary focus of the investigation remains locating Bennett.

Monday, June 30

A day of major developments and revelations.

Jacques is arraigned in Orange District Court (see separate article) on the aggravated sexual assault charge, while dozens of searchers, including K-9 teams and a helicopter, scour the Jacques property on East Bethel Road in Randolph Center. The two-page affidavit supporting the charge against, filed by the investigating officer, alleges that he sexually abused a female relative for five years, on a weekly basis. The alleged victim, now 14, told police that Jacques was her "trainer" in a program for sex, called Breckenridge, and that other minor girls and at least two other men were involved in it. The affidavit indicated that Jacques had been convicted of kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in Orange County in 1993, and that he is, as a result of that conviction, a registered sex offender in Vermont. He was ordered held on $250,000 bail.

At 4 p.m., VSP Col. Baker convenes another press conference. The investigation into Bennett’s disappearance, he reports, has "shifted dramatically" as a result of computer forensics work done late Saturday night into Sunday morning: "The scope has narrowed; progress is being made," with an estimated 50 detectives now involved in the case.

In questioning from the press, Baker says that the articles of clothing found Thursday morning by Sunset Pond were found by Jacques, and that police had not yet been able to confirm whether or not there was actually a "Breckenridge" sex ring, with other abusers or victims. Police searchers from Massachusetts and Connecticut are now assisting in the hunt for Brooke Bennett.

Meanwhile, grassroots efforts to assist in the search expand, with the appearance of banners, pin-on buttons, e-mails, and appeals on media by family members. And, the ongoing investigation draws a slew of reporters, photographers, videographers, and TV-news vans equipped with satellite dishes to the area.

Tuesday, July 1

At 10:20 a.m., state police issue another bombshell release on the "Missing Brooke Bennett." Bennett’s former step-father, Ray A. Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, Texas, has been arrested for aggravated sexual assault on a minor. "This arrest is in connection with the aggravated sexual assault arrest of Michael Jacques … and is a result of the on-going investigation into the disappearance of Brooke Bennett," police report. Gagnon is accused of sexually assaulting another minor in the Royalton area during the summer of 2007.

He is scheduled for a 1 p.m. arraignment in Windsor District Court on the assault charge, but that hearing never occurs, as he is taken into custody by U.S. agents on a superceding federal charge of obstructing justice.

At a 4 p.m. press conference at Whitcomb High School in Bethel, John Pikus, special agent in charge of the federal investigation, notes that the obstruction of justice charge against Gagnon is "related to the destruction of evidence related to this investigation" (into the disappearance of Bennett). It is reported that Gagnon will appear the following day in federal court in Burlington on this charge, with the state charge of aggravated sexual assault pending.

At the press conference, VSP’s Col. Baker states that the investigation continues to progress and is in "a crucial stage." He confirms police have obtained and executed somewhere between 20-25 searches, since Thursday, with some of the searches occurring off of the Jacques property. Jacques, he says, remains "a person of interest" in the disappearance of Brooke Bennett, but Baker declines to comment whether Gagnon can also be so characterized.

Baker adds that police at this time have not yet confirmed whether or not there actually was a "Breckenridge" sex ring. Searches will continue Wednesday, at sites to be determined, and the search of the Jacques property is nearing completion, the colonel reports.

In the only thing approaching good news, Baker notes that "no additional victims have stepped forward."

Wednesday, July 2

Gagnon's arraigment in federal court is supported by an affidavit with another bombshell. The victim of Jacques' five years of abuse ("Juvenile 1") testifies she was in the car when Brooke was left off at Cumberland Farms but that she and Jacques picked Brooke up later and returned to his Randolph Center home. Juvenile 1 said she believed that Jacques wanted her for sex and that she would be "taken into the Breckenridge program".

Later in the evening, a large crowd of supporters is anticipated to attend an 8 p.m. candlelight vigil in Randolph Village (after The Herald goes to press).

 

Day-by-Day Timeline:
The Search for Brooke Bennett
By Sandy Vondrasek