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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.
In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.
My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.
Today, I'm discussing the disappearances of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. Before I tell you about this case, I want to let you know that I got 55 requests to cover this. So, thank you to everyone who submitted this case to me.
I can tell how much you care about Jennifer and Adriana. Honestly, this is what it's all about. But let's talk about Jennifer and Adriana. In the summer of 2003, Jennifer Wicks, a 20-year-old mother of one, was living with her aunt when she started dating Joey Benton. At first, Jennifer was excited for her new relationship.
But things quickly went downhill. Joey was controlling, mean, and violent. Their relationship was unstable, and they would often break up, then get back together again. By March 2004, Jennifer and Adriana were living with Joey and his parents out on their rural northern Tennessee property.
Jennifer's family was worried about the safety of Jennifer and Adriana. Jennifer assured them that everything would be okay. But everything wasn't okay. Jennifer was having serious issues with Joey and his parents. On March 24th, Jennifer called her mom, Kathy, to tell her about all the horrible things she'd been going through lately. She said it was clear Joey's family didn't want her or Adriana to stay with them.
Their behavior and attitude toward her had escalated, and she was scared. Jennifer's mother, Kathy, asked if she could come pick up Jennifer and Adriana, but Jennifer said no. She would take care of it. Before they got off the phone, Jennifer said she'd call Kathy the next day, but Kathy never heard from Jennifer or Adriana again. This is the case of Jennifer and Adriana Wicks. Jennifer K. Wicks was born on August 16th, 1982.
Her mother, Kathy, told the Hendersonville Star News that Jennifer taught her what love is all about. She was known for her kind spirit and trusting nature. Jennifer's parents, Kathy and Michael, did not stay together, and Kathy went on to have two more daughters, Casey and Heather. All together, Jennifer has five sisters.
Growing up just north of Nashville, Tennessee, Jennifer was close to her family. And although obviously Jennifer loved all her siblings, she was especially close with her younger sister, Casey. I was able to connect with Casey for this episode. Here she is to tell you more about what it was like growing up with Jennifer.
Jennifer was very mothering to me because there was an age difference there. As my mom tells me, my memory is horrible too because I guess trauma related, but I honestly only have a couple of memories, even though I was 15 when she disappeared, you'd think I had more, but yeah,
My mom just tells me whenever I was born, she took care of me from the get-go. She acted like I was a baby doll. And we have a middle sister, too. Jennifer has five sisters total, and three of them are on her dad's side, and then me, Jennifer, and my middle sister between Jennifer and I. And Jennifer and I just kind of vibed a lot better. The middle child always gets kind of shafted and left out, but...
We just, you know, could snuggle and hang out. And like, as she got older, even like I would ride places with her, like even right before her disappearance, she would borrow my mom's car and I would be riding shotgun with her through town. She would take me like to the store with her. And I was really very close with her whenever she had the baby. And, um,
You know, I think we just always had like a really super close bond, just very similar in personality, just kind of like strong, silent type is how I would describe Jennifer. Like she was very quiet and soft spoken and just really kept to herself. She didn't have like a super social life, but it was like,
One of the girls that had a bunch of guy friends, which I kind of was like that growing up too, but she was more so, but she'd have a bunch of guy friends, not really like a huge girl squad. And, you know, everyone...
just really liked her. She didn't give anyone a reason really to not like her. And I know people say that, but I mean, she wasn't out there being mean to people and doing things like that, you know, in high school and whatever.
Like she just never really did anything to make people not like her. And everyone that talks about her now to me and like shares memories and whatnot, like they always share how sweet she was and a nice thing that she did for them. And, you know, it's good to get to hear those memories from other people because like I said, I don't, I don't have a ton just because of everything that's happened and
But yeah, we were really close and got closer whenever she had the baby. But she was always kind of like, you can describe her as my mom's unruly child. Like she...
didn't want to wake up for school in the morning. Like we would have the most God awful time waking her up for school. Um, the alarm would go off, we'd all be ready and we're waiting on her. And, you know, I just remember like being super loud and trying to wake her up in the morning on purpose and her being so mad at us. And yeah, I just, I have a few memories and, um,
she just was like your, to me, your typical teenager. She was like, just went to school and, and had just like a small social circle and just from a small town, like a small town girl that just, you know, was nice to people and didn't live like any kind of extraordinary life. She wasn't like on any kind of sports teams or anything like that. She was really, really big into writing, um,
She liked poetry and often communicated with people through letters. Like I have letters and poems that she's written where, which makes me feel really good because I can see her handwriting and just remember that part of her. But
she would write like if she and mom got into a fight or something like that like that's how they would make up Jennifer would leave her like a letter on her nightstand or something like that so she was really big into that and would write stuff to like her boyfriends or friends and even me whenever right before they disappeared I lived in Las Vegas with my mom and she would um
write me a letter right before she went home. She and the baby came to visit us in Vegas. And I have a letter that she wrote me that I got when I woke up in the morning because she had to leave and catch a plane. But I have that letter. And, you know, I just remember having her having like this really like sweeter, softer, like introverted side. She wasn't extremely extroverted or anything like that. But yeah,
Yeah, I think she was just kind of like your simple small town girl. And, you know, everyone really liked her. I mean, she was a teenager. And the memories that I have of her are a lot of her just doing teenager things. Like I said, not waking up or, you know, going here with friends or, you know, dating a boy. I have a lot of those memories. And then, of course, whenever she had the baby.
In the spring of 2001, around a year after she graduated high school, Jennifer told her family she was pregnant. They were surprised and shocked because Jennifer was only 19 years old, but they came together and supported her. Jennifer continued living with her mother, stepfather, and two younger sisters. On January 14, 2002, Jennifer gave birth to a baby girl, Adriana Nicole Wicks.
Because Adriana's father did not want to play a role in her life, Jennifer planned on raising her alone. Here is Casey to tell us what Adriana was like as a baby and her role in her and Jennifer's lives at this time. Once we were over the initial shock of, oh, she's having a baby, then it was like, okay, she's having a baby. And so we made space in our home for
for her to have like her own little apartment. We had a bonus room above the garage and Jennifer and Adriana stayed up there. So it was, I mean, there was a couch up there, TV, her bed, the crib, like everything was like up there, kind of like a studio-ish apartment, you know, right off the kitchen. So she had her own space, you know. So whenever the baby was born, Jennifer
Still had to work, you know, and still wanted to make money and go after life. And so she worked a couple of jobs and a lot of them because she didn't have her own car. A lot of them were second or third shift, you know, so when my mom would get home, she would, you know, trade off and we would take care of the baby and she would go work at night.
Um, so her schedule, she was like an extreme night owl. Uh, and, and so that worked out for her being awake, but then she would sleep a lot during the day and be so tired. But because she wasn't there at night, I slept up there in the bonus room in their room for a very long time when Adriana was an infant, you know, until pretty much when we moved out of that house. And so I took care of her at night when she would,
I mean, I was 13 years old taking care of a newborn baby, waking up, doing the things that now I know what it feels like to wake up in the middle of the night as a mom multiple times, having no idea what your baby needs. But I did that for Adriana. And so she and I bonded a lot. And so I know I didn't have a lot of time with her, but I feel very close with her.
I think because of that reason, like we spent so much time together. I mean, Adrian, I mean, what can you say about a two-year-old beautiful baby girl? You know, like she was just so, I mean, she was just so beautiful and so like excited about everything and, you know, getting to that stage where she would like point at things and, you know, what's that? What's that? You know,
She was just kind of like at that stage and just, you know, so sweet and cuddly. And I mean, there's not much that you can say about a two-year-old. You haven't really seen them in other stages of life. But I mean, she was perfect. When Adriana was about one, Jennifer's mother, Kathy, accepted a job promotion in Las Vegas, Nevada. Casey moved with her, while Heather, Jennifer, and Adriana stayed behind in Tennessee.
Heather lived with Kathy's parents, while Jennifer and Adriana bounced around between the houses of various family members. By July 2003, Jennifer and Adriana were staying with Jennifer's aunt Lisa and Lisa's son Jeffrey. While there, Jennifer became acquainted with Jeffrey's best friend, William Joseph Joey Benton, who frequently came over to hang out. It wasn't long before Jennifer and Joey were dating.
However, their relationship wasn't stable, and they became an on-again, off-again couple. In late summer 2003, Jennifer and Adriana were staying with Jennifer's paternal grandparents. Now, Jennifer and Joey were on a break, so she and Adriana traveled to Las Vegas to visit Kathy for three weeks. While there, Jennifer confided in her mother that she didn't like living with her grandparents. Her
and it seems her fear was that having a baby around was probably disrupting them. She didn't know what to do. Kathy suggested Jennifer and Adriana move in with her, but Jennifer said Vegas was too far away. She really wanted Adriana to grow up with her cousins and aunts like Jennifer had. Kathy told the Portland Sun that Jennifer, quote, "...wanted to keep that family connection," end quote.
When Jennifer and Adriana got back to Tennessee, Jennifer got back together with Joey Benton. It wasn't before long Kathy received a call from Jennifer, who was distraught and crying. She'd just been dropped off at her grandparents' place by Joey's mother. Joey had threatened Jennifer, Adriana, and himself with a gun, then told his mom to get them out of there. Following the incident, Jennifer and Joey broke up, and
and Kathy decided to temporarily move back to Tennessee. Her mom had just moved into a new house, and hadn't sold her old one just yet. The old house, which was located in the heart of Cross Plains, was sitting empty, so Kathy rented it from her mother.
In the basement, Kathy set up an apartment for Jennifer and Adriana, but Kathy had to lay down some rules. After they moved in, Kathy made it very clear to Jennifer that Joey was not allowed at her house due to the violent threats he made against Jennifer and Adriana. Jennifer agreed, and it seemed like everything was going well. Until December 21st. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost?
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That day, Joey and Jennifer, who had gotten back together, showed up at Kathy's house and started packing up Jennifer and Adriana's belongings. Kathy followed them around as they packed and told Jennifer what a bad idea this was. She did not want her daughter or granddaughter to be around Joey, let alone live in his house. Joey didn't like what Kathy was saying, so he got about two inches away from her face and said, quote, "'You don't have a daughter anymore, bitch.'"
Then, Joey took some stuff out to the car. So, Kathy shut and locked the front door behind him. 15-year-old Casey held Adriana, while Kathy tried to talk some sense into Jennifer. At that point, Joey started banging on the door. Kathy physically tried to stop Jennifer from leaving. But then, Joey literally kicks the front door down. Casey is still holding Adriana, so she runs to the bedroom and dials 911.
Before the police arrived, Jennifer told her mom that they had to take off because Joey had something in the car that he didn't want police to find. Jennifer didn't mention what it was. And then, Jennifer and Joey took off, leaving Adriana with Casey. Later that day, Joey's mom brought Jennifer back to Kathy's to pick up Adriana. Casey said they didn't want to let Adriana go, but there was nothing they could do. Neither had any legal rights over Adriana.
Here is Casey to tell us about this day in her own words. So everything started
Seemed to be going fine, you know, and Jennifer was under strict orders living under my mom's roof, even though she's an adult at this point, but living under my mom's roof, like, you know, there's going to be some ground rules here. And after that incident, she was like, you're, you don't need to be speaking to him anymore. You know, like, that's a very scary thing that happened. Like, you don't need to be talking to him. So for all we knew, they weren't talking anymore, but yeah.
On this day when I had to call 911, he shows up at the house and my mom was still at work and I was home from school. And he shows up at the house and goes right downstairs into the basement. And Jennifer and him both are packing up all of their things, the baby things, Jennifer's things, packing a bag and stuff, and then bringing it up and taking it out to his truck.
And I go down there and I'm like, you know, he's not supposed to be here. And then my mom walks in the door. I go upstairs. I'm like, Joey's here. He's downstairs. They're packing. And my mom goes down there and she's,
she's like what are y'all doing you know and starts like walking with them as they're walking back and forth taking stuff in and out of the house and she's like walking with them you know pleading with jennifer like don't do this like i didn't even know y'all were talking again like you're not supposed to be with him you know do you remember what happened do you remember how scary it was like trying to like talk some sense into her you know and she's got the baby and um
you know, at this point, like everything's pretty, I mean, it's tense, but like nothing crazy. The baby's not crying or anything. And, um,
They continue. My mom starts pleading with Joey at this point. She's like, you know, that place is not a good place for a baby. You know there's drugs. You know there's weapons. You know there's things that she shouldn't be around in that house and in that barn. They were going to live, they called it the party barn where he lived. It was kind of like a shed that they had redone to make
like the inside of a house that had drywall and it wasn't finished or anything or didn't have electricity, but my mom, mom knew where they were going. And she was like, that's not good enough for a two-year-old. She can't live there, you know? And then she's like, and really it's not even good enough for my daughter. And then he stops her and gets about two inches from her face. And he looks like the craziest person. I can remember it to this day, just like
psychopath eyes. I can't explain that anymore, but just shaking and like the worst look in his eyes. And he gets two inches from my mom's face and says, you don't have a daughter anymore, bitch. And then of course, everything just goes downhill from there. They walk upstairs with the baby. They're about to leave. He walks out the door and
With their stuff, their last little bit of stuff to put it in the car or in his truck. And when he walks out, we shut the door. So, and lock it. Jennifer and Adrian are still in the house, in our living room, in the front room. You know, right outside the door is where he is now banging on the door, you know, and she's yelling for him. Like she wants to get out to him and we're not letting her. And my mom's still pleading with her, you know, Jennifer, you know,
like come on you can't do this and then at this point like things start getting physical like no you're not leaving you know pulling her you know trying to physically keep her from leaving like this is my mom being like no like I can see where this is going this is someone who threatened to kill my child you're not going you know I would do anything even physically to stop my kids from leaving with someone I knew could hurt them you know so
They just started fighting. The baby started crying, you know, and I was standing kind of in the doorway watching everything. And then before I knew it, like our front door had been kicked down, like off the hinges, off the chain, like completely kicked down, like an insane amount of adrenaline and our door just laying on the living room floor. And I took Adriana and just ran to my mom's bedroom, like maybe like 10 feet away. It wasn't a long hallway. And, um,
I just remember like sitting in between the bed and the wall by the nightstand, like calling 911. You know, I had never had to call 911 before.
still never have to this day. You know, just extremely traumatic experience. Just, I'm just like, I already knew that this guy had talked about, you know, hurting himself, hurting my sister and the baby. Now he's kicking down our front door. You know, I didn't know what he was going to do. So I just called 911 and, and Jennifer and Joey left. He grabbed her. They left without the baby. And I,
which is just absurd to me. I'm just like, okay, like you're going to leave. And they did and come to find out it was just because he had something in the car. He didn't want police to find, but they ended up, the police came to our house, you know, took our statements or whatever, and then went to their house and took their statement and
And then Joey's mom drove Jennifer back to get the baby. And of course we have to let her go. You know, it's not our baby, it's Jennifer's baby. And she didn't want to be there. And it was just like the hardest. Yeah, it was, it was a hard day. That was, you know, pretty much like the last experience that,
you know, that we got with either of them, like on good terms, you know, before, before that day.
Following the incident on December 21st, Jennifer did not talk to Kathy for quite some time. She was upset that a police report had been filed. Like Kathy feared, Jennifer and Adriana moved in with Joey in the barn he had on his parents' property in Springfield. This is about 13 miles from Cross Plains. As they quickly learned, like Kathy warned them, it was a
It was way too cold in the winter months for a toddler. So Jennifer, Adriana, and Joey move into Joey's parents' home located on the same property as the barn. At first, Adriana stayed with Jennifer and Joey in their room, but that wasn't working very well. So they set Adriana up in her own bedroom with a bed Joey built for her.
By January, Jennifer still wasn't speaking to her mother, and she didn't invite Kathy or Casey to Adriana's second birthday party.
The lack of invitation was, of course, devastating to Casey and Kathy, who loved Adriana to pieces. Eventually, Jennifer softened and started talking to her mom again. Kathy was really excited to talk to her daughter again, but she remained adamant that Joey was not allowed over at her house. So that made things a little tricky because Jennifer didn't have a car. She relied on Joey to take her places.
So instead of meeting at Kathy's, they started meeting in a public place, usually at a McDonald's playhouse. In late February 2004, Casey turned 16 years old, so Joey brought Adriana and Jennifer over to visit Casey. While they went inside to say hi, Joey stayed in the car. Casey said on TikTok that this visit from Jennifer and Adriana is the last memory she has of seeing them.
For the next few weeks, Casey said everything seemed normal with Jennifer and Adriana. She now knows that was not the case. During that time, Joey had been controlling and mean to Jennifer and Adriana. Then things quickly escalated on March 22nd. On that day, Jennifer told her mother that Adriana was running a fever and wasn't feeling very good at all. She wanted to take Adriana to the ER, but Joey and his family wouldn't drive them.
Kathy suggested she come pick them up, but Jennifer said no, she was too scared. Joey's parents hated Kathy for reporting what happened on December 21st. Jennifer warned Kathy that Joey's parents would probably shoot her if she pulled into the driveway. So, Kathy said okay, and Jennifer ended up calling her Aunt Lisa for a ride.
Hours later, on the way home from the ER, Jennifer called Kathy and said that Adriana had been discharged. It was determined that she had an infection that's usually seen in sexually active adult women. Jennifer was worried someone had been assaulting Adriana. Jennifer took Adriana to her pediatrician the next day, March 23rd.
Until recently, it was unclear what happened that day. For years, Kathy wasn't able to view the file because she wasn't on the HIPAA form. However, authorities told the media they reviewed the medical files, and there were no signs of abuse found.
Casey told me that the family was recently able to view the records as well. They now know what kind of infection Adriana had, but are not at liberty to release that information. Casey added that there are a lot of reasons Adriana could have had that infection, including being in a dirty diaper for too long, but that's all she could say.
In the evening hours of March 24th, Jennifer called Kathy. She was upset over an argument with Joey and his mother. Kathy heard Adriana crying, and Joey's mom yelling at Jennifer in the background. Joey was now passed out in Adriana's room. Jennifer said that Joey's mom told her she was a terrible mom, that she didn't deserve to be a mother. She threw Jennifer and Adriana's dinner out the back door, and told them, why don't you go eat it off the ground like dogs do?
Joey's father had even gotten in her face, and he was usually pretty nice to her. Jennifer said it was clear that Joey's family did not want her in their house any longer. Jennifer also explained to her mother that sleep training Adriana wasn't going well. She was trying hard to get Adriana to sleep in her own bed, but she wouldn't fall asleep. She'd just cry. Anytime Adriana cried, Jennifer would give in and let her get back into bed with her and Joey.
This really upset Joey's mother, who was quote, going nuts, end quote. Kathy suggested Jennifer get Adriana, who was still crying, and sleep with her that night. Sleep training could wait. It was clear from the noise Kathy heard in the background that Adriana was currently in a very tense and heated situation, and it was unlikely that she'd be able to sleep alone.
After picking her up, Jennifer told her mom something absolutely heartbreaking. Quote, Mom, it's so sad. She just laid down on my chest and went to sleep. End quote. Kathy asked if she could come get them, but Jennifer said no, she could handle it. She promised to call the next day. The events of the next day, March 25th, are not completely clear. We can only account for Jennifer's whereabouts until just after 2 p.m.,
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Here's what we know for a fact happened that day. In the morning, Joey rode to work with Jennifer's cousin Jeffrey because his truck broke down. They worked at a construction site about an hour from home. Joey's mother was possibly at work. Casey stated that authorities supposedly confirmed that she was at work, while the Wicks family has no way to confirm that she was. No one knows where Joey's father was that day.
We know that Jennifer made a few phone calls that afternoon, one to her father Michael and one to her Aunt Lisa. The call to Michael lasted from around noon to 2pm. Jennifer spent those two hours telling her father everything she and Adriana were going through. She told her father how scared she was. She also mentioned that Joey's mother was acting really strange and mean. When Michael asked what was going on with Joey's father, Jennifer said that he was usually nice to them, but was
but was now being mean as well. Michael told Jennifer that she should have her mother or grandmother pick her up, but Jennifer said she didn't want to do that because she and Joey were going on a picnic soon. Joey was on his way home from work as they spoke.
That's pretty much all we know about the context of Jennifer's conversation with her father. There are a few other details to note. During the call, Michael heard a woman's voice in the background. This woman has never been identified. Joey's mother said she was at work, and no other women besides Jennifer lived in the house. Casey has stated it's possible the voice was from Joey's sister.
Next, Jennifer made her last ever confirmed phone call. It was to her aunt Lisa. This call didn't last long because Lisa wasn't free to talk, but Jennifer did tell her aunt at least part of what was going on. Lisa told Jennifer that she would leave a key out for her. She lived just down the road from the Bentons and would have been the perfect place for Adriana and Jennifer to escape to. Lisa said she'd call Jennifer later, and she did, but she never received a reply.
Meanwhile, Joey left work early. According to Jennifer's cousin Jeffrey, he and Joey were in the middle of working when Joey got a phone call from someone. He's not sure who. After the call ended, Joey walked up to Jeffrey and said, we gotta go now. Jeffrey doesn't remember asking why they had to leave, but he knows for sure that they did leave early. Jeffrey dropped Joey off at home midday. He says he didn't see or hear anything suspicious.
What happened after Joey got home is unknown. After this point, every detail about this day comes from Joey and his parents. We'll talk more in a bit about what they say happened. The next day, March 26th, Joey went to work at his construction job.
Jennifer's cousin Jeffrey wasn't working that day, so Joey caught a ride with a different co-worker and his girlfriend. They later said he was acting "very strange" during the ride. Hours later, Joey and the crew finished the job early, and Joey was home by midday. Meanwhile, Kathy was trying to get a hold of Jennifer. She'd been calling since the day before and hadn't received an answer.
After calling multiple times, Joey finally answered the phone. Kathy asked where her daughter was, and Joey said that he and Jennifer had broken up. He explained that on the evening of March 24th, they went out for a drive. He wasn't sure if Adriana was with them or not. During the drive, they got into an argument because Jennifer wanted to move back into the shed. After Joey pulled into his parents' driveway, Jennifer refused to go inside. Instead, she told him to take her to the gas station.
At around 9 p.m., Joey drove Jennifer and Adriana, who didn't have her car seat, 15 minutes into town. First, they stopped at a grocery store. He assumed they stopped there because Jennifer wanted to use the phone. After that, Joey dropped Jennifer and Adriana off at the Interstate Exxon with some people he didn't know. He says he saw them leave in a four-door white Mustang.
Joey told Kathy that Jennifer would probably be back in a few days because she was expecting a $500 tax refund. This was set up to be direct deposited into Joey's dad's account.
Now, Kathy felt like Joey's story didn't add up for a lot of reasons. One glaring issue being that Joey owned a Mustang and would have known that they don't come with four doors. Another was that Joey and Jennifer would have had to drive right by Kathy's house to get where Joey said he dropped Jennifer off. If Jennifer had Adriana with her, why would she want to use a phone in public instead of going to her mom's where she could use the phone while Kathy watched Adriana?
It just didn't make a whole lot of sense. Kathy continues calling around, hoping to find her daughter, but no one had seen her. In the evening hours of March 26th, Joey hosted a bonfire, which was supposedly pre-planned as a couple's get-together. At this bonfire was Jennifer's cousin Jeffrey and his girlfriend, along with another couple. While at the bonfire, Jeffrey asked where Jennifer was, and Joey said she was at a friend's house. He didn't mention that they'd broken up.
Meanwhile, Jennifer's Aunt Lisa returned home and realized she had a message on her voicemail from Joey's father. He says he has Jennifer's tax return money. He further explains that Jennifer had come by earlier that day looking for the money, and he wanted to give it to her. Now, Lisa was very interested in this message because she knew no one had talked to Jennifer since the day before.
Lisa called Joey's father and told him that no one had heard from Jennifer. Next thing Lisa knew, Joey and his father showed up at her house, ready to tell her what happened when Jennifer came over earlier that day. Now, this is something Casey told me the media always gets wrong. They say that Joey dropped Jennifer off at the gas station and that was it. They don't talk about this next part. But Jennifer was supposedly seen again. Joey said that Jennifer had shown up to pick up her tax return.
She was driving the same white car he'd seen her and Adriana get into at the Exxon the night before. After Joey told Jennifer that his parents weren't home, she went inside the home to grab a few things, including Adriana's diaper bag and clothes. Then she left. Lisa did ask Joey for more details, but he said he didn't ask Jennifer any questions about who she was with, where she'd been, or where she was going.
Joey and Lisa put their heads together and tried to figure out who owned the white four-door car. Joey says it could have been one of Jennifer's friends. I do want to take a moment and say that the Wicks family is aware of who this person is, but they've chosen not to name her.
To make things as simple as possible, I will refer to her as Megan. This is not her real name. After Joey suggested Megan could have been the driver of the white car, Lisa passes the name on to Kathy and her daughter Heather, who actually knew where Megan worked. Kathy and Heather went straight to Megan's work, but quickly found out that she was out of town. This lead was a dead end.
But then, the next evening, March 27th, Megan got back into town, and her co-workers let her know that Kathy and Heather had stopped by to talk with her. Megan contacted them, and revealed that she hadn't seen Jennifer since November. Megan said that if Joey was claiming Megan had seen Jennifer recently, then something was wrong.
This conversation with Megan prompted Kathy to report Jennifer and Adriana missing. Ebola was issued by police, and the Wicks family gathered at Kathy's house to form search parties.
An officer was also sent to the Benton house to conduct a welfare check. Joey answered the door and said that he and Jennifer had broken up. He told the officer the same story he told Kathy, about dropping her and Adriana off at Exxon, and seeing them get into a white four-door Mustang. When the officer questioned how a Mustang could have four doors, Joey quickly corrected himself and said he must have the wrong model of car.
The officer then asked if he could come in and take a look around, but Joey said no. He couldn't come in unless he had a warrant. The officer went back to Kathy and told her that something was wrong. This officer did try to get in touch with detectives, but they said that they'd deal with it the next day.
On Sunday, March 28th, detectives went to the Benton house and conducted a consented walkthrough. They were looking for signs of a struggle, but there were none. Detectives spoke with Joey again. This time he adds to his story, telling detectives that after dropping Jennifer and Adriana off at the Exxon gas station, he drove away and parked in a spot where he could still see them. Five to ten minutes later, Joey watched as Jennifer and Adriana got into a white four-door car.
Joey says the next day, Jennifer drove to his house in the same white car she'd gotten to at the gas station. Adriana wasn't with her. Jennifer was looking for her tax return money, but he didn't have it. She said she'd be back. Then Jennifer left, and he hasn't heard or seen either of them since. Kathy later told the Robertson County Times that the $500 tax return was a big deal to Jennifer. It didn't make sense to her that Jennifer had disappeared before picking up the money.
In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Kathy and Jennifer had spoken on the phone numerous times. Jennifer always talked about the stuff she was going to spend the money on. Kathy said, quote, she was watching for it. Why would she not wait for that check? It came that day, end quote.
Joey also told detectives that Jennifer was mad at her mom, not him, because Kathy had threatened to take Adriana away. Kathy says this isn't true. She did talk to Jennifer about how she was in a bad situation, but she never threatened to take Adriana away.
With no signs of a struggle, investigators tried to corroborate Joey's story that he had dropped Jennifer off at a grocery store to use the phone. But no one remembered seeing Jennifer in the store. They didn't even remember anybody coming in to use the phone. No one recalled seeing them or Joey at the Exxon either.
Investigators turned to Jennifer's bank and phone records, but they found she didn't have either. That meant they couldn't see if she'd made any phone calls or withdrawn any money. Two leads that are very helpful in a missing persons case. And it seems like the investigation sort of peters out here.
Kathy later told the Gallatin News, "...our case was not handled right. Everyone just thought she was a scorned lover and was just mad. They all thought that she would be back." The thing is, Jennifer never did come back, and neither did Adriana. Kathy tried to get people to join the search for her daughter, but she didn't get as much help as she'd hoped for. When she tried to hang up a flyer at a gas station, she was told it was against policy to do that.
This, unfortunately, is something we see all the time in these cases. It was almost as if no one cared that a young woman and her toddler were missing. And to make matters worse, the media barely reported on the story. If you search for this case on newspapers.com, there are seven results for the entire year of 2004. The first article was published by the Robertson County Times on March 30th, three days after Kathy reported Jennifer and Adriana missing.
In that article, Kathy said that Jennifer was known for staying in constant contact with her family. Jennifer's Aunt Lisa added, "...this is completely out of character for her to not call anybody in the family. She calls several times a day and talks to some of us. I knew something was wrong when she didn't call."
Kathy's husband Nick added, "...she tries to be a very caring parent. She could be anywhere because she's so trusting. We are so worried about her." For weeks, Kathy took a leave of absence from her job and drove around looking for Jennifer and Adriana and speaking with anyone who could possibly know something.
Kathy was either on the road or on the phone. She didn't eat or sleep. She ran on pure adrenaline. Searching for her babies became her full-time job.
Kathy followed leads to other states, living in her car along the way. At one point, a psychic told her that Jennifer and Adriana were in a Missouri town with two words, one of which was white. So, Kathy purchased a map of Missouri, circled every two-word city with the word white in it, and drove to each one. But there was no sign of Jennifer or Adriana.
When she was home, Kathy didn't want to leave the house. She couldn't even go to the store. She said, quote, I slept on the sofa with the porch light on, so if she came back running scared from something in the night, I could hear her banging on the door trying to get in. End quote.
Kathy told the Knoxville News Sentinel that she didn't stop living her life this way until her two teen daughters, Heather and Casey, told her, quote, Mom, we've lost our sister, and we've lost our niece, and we miss them so much. But now we've lost you, too. End quote. It was a big eye-opener for Kathy.
Meanwhile, Joey's family refused to help search for Jennifer and Adriana. Instead, they continued on with their normal lives. They were busy building a new house on their 56 acres of land, pouring concrete, and putting in a new septic tank. They also relocated the shed Joey, Jennifer, and Adriana once lived in together.
Two to three weeks after the disappearances, Joey brought six black trash bags full of Jennifer and Adriana's belongings to Kathy. In one of the bags was Adriana's pink coat. This proved to Kathy that Jennifer never planned on leaving. In March, Tennessee nights can be pretty cold. Adriana would have needed her coat. Jennifer and Adriana's case went cold, but the family refused to let anyone forget Jennifer and Adriana Wicks.
For years to follow, they kept the case in the public eye by hosting motorcycle rides, balloon releases, and putting up a billboard on the interstate. By the time the first anniversary of their disappearances rolled around, Robertson County Sheriff's Lt. Don Bennett told the Robertson County Times that they'd had 104 sightings due to the information the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had sent out across the country.
Bennett said, quote, End quote.
But the leads were all dead ends. None of the sightings had actually been of Jennifer or Adriana. In January 2006, just before the second anniversary, Jennifer and Adriana's case was featured on America's Most Wanted. Shows like Nancy Grace and Montel Williams later covered the case as well. Still, no leads went anywhere.
In March 2006, Jennifer's grandmother, Peggy Calvert, was running for sheriff in Robertson County. She told the Robertson County News, quote,
End quote.
Peggy also adds, quote, I know that people would say I'm only running for office to pursue my own case, and if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be running. But I see how unfair we've been treated, and I don't want that to happen to everybody else. End quote. I've said it before, and I will say it again, you guys. Injustice breeds passion.
Now, Peggy didn't win the election, but she did manage to show the world just how desperate she was to get some answers for her family.
That same year, Jennifer's family founded a support group called the Tennessee Alliance for Families of the Missing. Karen Pentecost of the Alliance told the Tennessean, "...we want to get awareness out to the people that this is a situation that can happen to any of us at any moment. Often the emphasis is on children. And we also want to point out that teenagers and missing adults require the same attention in finding them."
They had a website where they listed information about cases. They also held awareness events where they distributed flyers about missing people, offered child identification kits to anyone in attendance, and had guest speakers.
In 2007, detectives announced that after investigating nearly 1,000 leads in this case, they were approaching it as a homicide. However, it was not officially reclassified. Lt. Bennett told the Tennessean, "...it has been a missing persons case. We are now looking at it as a missing person and presumed dead case. With all these sightings and nothing concrete, we have to presume they are dead."
Kathy told the same publication that keeping Jennifer and Adriana in the public eye is crucial. She said, quote, End quote. Jennifer's grandmother Peggy added, quote, End quote.
In August 2009, Kathy told the Knoxville News Sentinel that she strongly believes Joey and possibly his father know something about what happened.
Kathy added that she wants whoever is responsible to be held accountable. However, it wasn't her focus. She said, "...at this point in my life, I really couldn't care less if anyone ever goes to prison. What I want most is to just find my daughter and granddaughter, so I can bury them properly and respectfully in the Christian way, and there can be a place where I can take them flowers at Christmas and on Mother's Day." End quote.
The following year, long-term law enforcement officer Bill Holt ran for sheriff in Robertson County. One of his campaign promises was to solve the Wicks case. After he was elected, he got to work in hopes of making good on his promise. In 2011, Kathy told the Hendersonville Star News what she thought happened to Jennifer and Adriana. She said, quote,
End quote.
That same year, newly promoted Captain Don Bennett updated the Robertson County Times on the progress they'd made in the case. He said that they'd tracked alleged sightings and leads as far away as Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma, and California. He also mentioned that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had recently released an age-progressed photo of Adriana. Who would have been nine now?
In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.
Hear the story on Where's Dear. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In December 2013, almost 10 years after the disappearances, Sheriff Holt announced that the TBI was joining the case, and it was officially being reclassified as a homicide. During a press conference, Holt said, quote,
We've developed some new information in the past several weeks that brings us to the conclusion that there was foul play involved." Now, Holt wouldn't say what the new evidence was. However, he did say that no one, including Joey Benton, has been eliminated as a suspect. Authorities revealed in a statement that Joey told multiple stories about what happened. His last story was that he took Jennifer and Adriana to a grocery store after Jennifer asked him to.
Then he dropped them off at Exxon near exit 112 off I-65, and they left in a white car. Jennifer came to his place the next day and said she needed time away. She grabbed her stuff and left. He never saw her again. It was also revealed that authorities had searched the Benton property four different times. At least one of those times, they'd used a cadaver dog. They'd even drained and searched a pond on the property, but they didn't find anything.
Now, I do want to note here that Casey says all of these searches were done with the consent of Joey's family while they were present. She would love to see the police obtain a search warrant to conduct a more thorough search without the Benton family being there. Authorities said that they believe someone in the community knows what happened.
At the press conference, Kathy said, quote, There's someone out there who does know exactly what happened to Jennifer and Adriana. And I am pleading and begging as a mom and a grandmom for whoever that person is to please search your conscience and do the right thing. Help me find my girls and lay them to rest with respect and dignity. We get up every morning and it's the first thing on our mind.
End quote.
Following the announcement, Joey's grandma, Carol Benton, told the Tennessean, "...I don't think they've ever had another suspect other than Joey. I'm sorry she went missing, don't get me wrong. We loved that little girl. She would come up to the house and eat supper with us. So when they asked us, we let them search. We never refused. But she's not on our property. We don't know nothing about it."
Carol did admit that the last time authorities asked to search the property, the family said no. By April 2015, there still hadn't been much movement in the case. So, Jennifer's family hired a private investigator. Kathy told the Robertson County Times, "...the only thing I can tell you is that he talked to a lot of people who have tidbits of information, a lot of people who haven't spoken to members of law enforcement. I feel like it will all tie into the timeline and help convict someone at this point."
He tells me he'll solve it. I have a lot more faith in him than I do in law enforcement. He has the heart for it. They're busy. I understand that. They have new cases every day. End quote.
Three years later, Kathy told the Gallatin News that she doesn't believe Jennifer and Adriana are still alive. She has a theory on what happened, but that's it. She said, "...because we don't know, there is so much speculation. There have been times I was so angry with her. I thought to myself, why did you stay there? I just don't understand why she was there."
In July 2020, Kathy's husband died without knowing what happened to Adriana and Jennifer. A month later, Kathy told WKRN, "...it's messed with my mind as far as the passage of time. It seems like just yesterday in a lot of ways. When you actually do the math, or something kind of forces you to realize how long it's been, it's kind of shocking."
End quote.
In addition to Kathy, Jennifer's sister Casey has tried to keep this case in the public eye. She's also tried to keep detectives actively working on the case. She's had a difficult time doing so, at least until recently, when Casey started talking to some of Joey's family members, who no one had talked to in years.
These talks have prompted authorities to search the property where Jennifer was last seen. In September 2021, Casey told WKRN that there's new information, but she couldn't discuss it. In December 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created another age-enhanced photo of Adriana. Casey told WHNT, quote,
If she happens to see this and recognizes herself, or if friends recognize her, it would be a Christmas miracle. We are not giving up on finding answers. End quote. On TikTok, Casey has mentioned that she finds it interesting that Jennifer told her father that she and Joey were going on a picnic once he was home early from work.
Casey said Joey's car was broken down, so he would have had to borrow a vehicle. The family only had one other working car. If his mom was at work, it's possible she had the car. So, which car did they take on the picnic? Now, Casey said that she doesn't have copies of Joey's parents' statements. But she doesn't believe anyone besides Joey's father has brought up the picnic Joey and Jennifer supposedly went on.
If you recall, the Benton family was pouring concrete on their property around the time Jennifer and Adriana went missing. Casey has been told that the concrete was checked for bodies, but the Wicks family hasn't been able to confirm this. Casey does know that investigators never looked at phone pings, and they haven't looked into the call Joey received while he was at work on the day Jennifer went missing. She also knows the foreman on the job has never given a statement.
Casey said Joey has taken a polygraph and supposedly passed it. But when he was set up to take a voice polygraph test, he walked out after questioning began. Joey's parents have not taken any type of polygraph. No persons of interest have ever been named in this case. Which brings me right to our call to action.
The Wicks family is looking for anyone who can remember seeing or hearing from Jennifer, Adriana, or Joey and his family the week before, of, and after their disappearance. I guess my call to action would be if you know anyone in our area or close to it, even a little bit like north, like on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, like Franklin, Kentucky is where her boyfriend was working at the time. Just anyone.
share our story with them specifically. So I know that social media does huge things. I know that it can, but sometimes like you're reaching like this crowd that just loves true crime, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I appreciate every effort, but I,
a more pointed effort and something like that to where we can share it locally and get, you know, more people in our area talking about it. And I think the billboard will help too. I think that's my call to action. If you know someone who lives close to Nashville, close to Tennessee, Kentucky border, if you can share it with them personally versus sharing just on social media, you can do that too. But I think that will be really helpful to us.
As a reminder, 21-year-old Jennifer and 2-year-old Adriana were last heard from on March 25th, 2004. Jennifer is a white female with brown eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5'4-5'6", 125-135 pounds. Her hair was brown with red highlights, and she wore silver oval-shaped glasses. She has a tribal tattoo on her lower back.
Her ears are pierced twice and her tongue is pierced once. At the time of her disappearance, Adriana was 3'5" and weighed 25 pounds. She is a white female with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She has a birthmark on the front of her upper right thigh. She may go by the nickname Nina.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Robertson County Sheriff's Office at 615-384-7971. You can also submit a tip on the Robertson County Sheriff's Office website or call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND. Callers remain anonymous. There is currently a $25,000 reward.
But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time. Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice Media original. This episode contains writing and research assistance by Haley Gray. If you love what I do here, please don't forget to rate and review the show in your podcast player. It's
It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify. And for even more content, or if you just want to support the show, check out my Patreon page at patreon.com slash voices for justice.