Disappearance of Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook

On March 18th, 1990, 15-year-old fraternal twins Jeannette and Dannette Millbrook vanished after leaving a gas station during their walk. The next destination was supposed to be their home, but they would never arrive.

Earlier that day, the girls had told their mother that a strange man driving a white van had been following them. Nothing more is known about this individual or the encounter.

Gloria, the gas station employee and last person known to have seen them, hadn’t noticed anything odd when they left and no one saw them enter a vehicle that afternoon.

From the outset, the investigation into their disappearance would be beset by a cloud of confusion created by misinformation and an apparent lack of interest on the part of law enforcement to look for these girls. Their family has never given up on finding them, though, and is still fighting to raise awareness for their case.

What happened to Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook?

Dannette and Jeannette

Two of eight children, Dannette Latonia Millbrook and Jeannette Latrice Millbrook were born on April 2nd, 1974, to parents Mary Louise (who goes by her middle name) and John. Their father was allegedly abusive and was no longer an active part of their lives at the time they went missing. However, he did live nearby.

They resided with their mother and siblings in Augusta, Georgia.

Dannette and Jeannette were described by those who knew them as good girls and normal teenagers who enjoyed staying home with their family and watching television. Both were friendly, but Jeannette was quiet and shy, whereas Dannette was outgoing and unafraid to stand up for herself or her sister.

The Final Walk

They attended church on March 18th, 1990, after which they all returned home at approximately 12:30 p.m. Louise asked Jeannette and Dannette to head over to Church’s Chicken to pick up a lunch order for the family.

They made the 15 to 20-minute walk to the restaurant and then came back with the food. It was then that they informed Louise about an encounter that had shaken them: They’d been followed by an unknown man in a white van.

Unfortunately, the twins gave no other details, such as a description of the person, how far he had followed them or whether or not he’d spoken to them. Neither one mentioned this incident to anyone else that day, but there would be reason later to think they had still been unsettled by it.

The family had recently moved and were now located further away from Lucy Laney High School, which Jeannette and Dannette attended. As Louise didn’t have a car or money for bus fare, she asked the twins to go over to their godfather Ted’s home that afternoon and see if he would give them a week’s worth of money for the bus.

They departed around 3 p.m. and arrived safely at his house. He was happy to help and gave them not only enough money for bus fare but also a bit extra so they could purchase snacks as well.

Afterwards, they walked to their cousin Juanita’s residence. They talked to her briefly and asked if she would accompany them home. Juanita’s mother was uncomfortable with this idea, as it would have meant that Juanita would have to walk back alone after nightfall, so she said no.

Next, the twins stopped at their older sister’s home and, as they had done with their cousin, asked if she would walk with them. However, she’d just recently given birth and didn’t feel up to it, so she declined.

Their loved ones would later find it odd that the girls had made these requests for company on their walk, as it was out of character for them. In retrospect, however, it seems likely that they were still thinking about the man in the white van. Had he made a reappearance? Or were they just concerned that he might?

Then they went to the Pump-N-Shop gas station, a place at which they, as well as the other members of the family, often shopped. They bought snacks while they were there. Gloria, the woman who worked there, was familiar with them and remembered them coming in that afternoon, but not what happened after they left.

“Miss Gloria don’t remember if they got in a car with somebody or not,” said Shanta, the twins’ younger sister, “because it happened too fast. She was ringing up another customer, and she looked up and they was gone that fast.”

Gloria would put this final sighting of Dannette and Jeannette at approximately 4:30 p.m. After this, their trail goes cold.

Where Are They?

When the girls didn’t return by that evening, Louise grew worried and began making calls, hoping that she would be able to locate them. But no one knew where they were or had seen them since earlier in the day.

She attempted to report them missing to the police, but was told that she needed to wait at least 24 hours before doing so.

Even after a full day had passed with no sign of the girls, law enforcement failed to take the disappearance seriously, simply writing off Dannette and Jeannette as runaways. The original case files also contained several factual errors, misreporting the twins’ birthdate, as well as misspelling their surname and Jeannette’s middle name.

Authorities never interviewed potential witnesses or looked for the girls in the days and weeks following their disappearance. Their loved ones did what they could on their own, but with no assistance from investigators they had no luck in finding the twins.

Case Closed

Although Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook were still very much missing, law enforcement made the puzzling choice to close the case in 1991, reportedly telling the family that as the girls would be 17 now they could no longer be compelled to return home if they didn’t want to.

However, their family was certain that they hadn’t run away and there was nothing at all to indicate they had. They had never done such a thing before. Furthermore, they were believed to have had no more than $20 between them and had left all of their belongings behind, including the seizure medication that Dannette needed to take daily.

The original investigator, on the other hand, explained the decision to close the case by saying that he’d received word from a juvenile case officer that Dannette and Jeannette had been located and were trying to get to Texas (though they knew no one there and had never expressed an interest in the state).

Despite this claim, there was no solid evidence—and never has been—that they were ever found.

Louise contacted the police department periodically, hoping for an update and continuing to make them aware that the twins were, in fact, still missing.

The family was eventually told that the girls had been placed in foster care, but this was later proven to be false. Another relative had children in the foster care system and it is believed that this may have been the source of confusion on this point.

Still, law enforcement made no effort to investigate the disappearance of Dannette and Jeannette, nor did they listen to the family’s pleas that they do so.

Suspects

The prevailing theory among those familiar with this case is that Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook were abducted. But, if so, who was responsible?

There were multiple killers active in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina in the 1990s. A couple of these men have been suggested as potential suspects.

Henry Louis Wallace, also known as “The Taco Bell Strangler,” murdered at least 11 women and was apprehended in 1994. While all of his victims were Black women, he mostly targeted people he knew, specifically coworkers of his at Taco Bell, and isn’t known to have killed anyone in Georgia.

A more plausible suspect, however, is Joseph Patrick Washington. Washington was a rapist and murderer who happened to live and work in Augusta in 1990. Interestingly, he also knew Dannette and Jeannette’s father, though the exact nature of their connection is unclear.

Washington’s victims were Black girls and women with short hair, who ranged in age from teens to thirties.

He was known to pursue them in his vehicle, pulling up next to them and forcing them at gunpoint to get inside. He would then transport them one to four miles away from the abduction point, shoot them and then sexually assault them, before leaving them for dead.

A few of his known victims survived, but at least two did not. Were there more? Did he also abduct and murder Dannette and Jeannette? That remains unknown, but it is worth noting that both fit his victim profile. Washington died in prison in 1999.

He had three vehicles, none of which was a white van. However, he worked in transportation for a local brickyard and had access to other vehicles. Whether or not a white van was among them is unknown.

And of course, it’s also possible that their assailant is an unknown individual who has managed to evade being connected with their case, especially since no official investigation was carried out during those crucial early days and weeks.Subscribe

The Inmate’s Account

In 2017, an inmate named Ernest Vaughns came forward with information that he claimed would explain what had happened to Dannette and Jeannette.

“What if I told you that I know where you might could find them? Can you help me? As you may already know, I’ve been incarcerated for 22 years and just come up for parole.”

Vaughns, a convicted murderer, had a connection to the twins’ father, John Millbrook. Millbrook had helped him dispose of the body of a man he’d murdered years earlier and was arrested for this in 1996.

Vaughns had known Millbrook for much longer, however. By the time he was 12 years old, he was selling drugs and the individuals for whom he worked used Millbrook’s home as a base of operations.

This is where Dannette and Jeannette come in. He claimed that he was at John Millbrook’s home one day when the twins were there as well. He said the girls were smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. Other men who were present attempted to rape one of the sisters, according to Vaughns, and when the other tried to intervene and put a stop to that, she was struck.

“One of the dudes hit her… I guess she fell, and she hit the table, that is. I think she bust her head open on the table. I don’t think them girls was alive after that.”

John Millbrook had dementia by then and couldn’t be questioned about the veracity of this story. He has since passed away.

It doesn’t appear that Vaughns was able to provide any solid evidence for his claims or lead authorities to where the girls are allegedly buried. They ultimately concluded that his story wasn’t credible.

It’s also worth noting that neither Jeannette nor Dannette was known to drink or use drugs.

Case Finally Reopened

Many years would pass since the Millbrook twins vanished before the police department would take a serious look at this case. In 2013, the current sheriff announced that they were officially reopening the investigation.

“We think a terrible injustice has been done for the last 20 years,” he said.

Aiken County Jane Doe—a murder victim discovered in South Carolina in 1993—was once believed by Louise to be Dannette, as the facial reconstruction done of this woman bore a resemblance to her daughter. She was eventually ruled out, though, and the identity of Aiken County Jane Doe is still a mystery.

The family, especially Louise and Shanta, have worked tirelessly to keep their case in the public eye. In recent years, podcasts like The Fall Line and Unresolved have garnered a great deal of attention for their disappearance as well.

The original case files have been lost.

It’s unclear if Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook’s case is still being actively investigated.

Sergeant Randall Amos of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office had this to say to Dateline in 2023:

“At this time I am going to respectfully decline to comment on this case.”

However, he also stated that his office “is willing to look into any new evidence/leads that become available.”

If you have any information regarding their case you are encouraged to call the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office at 706-821-1080.