Episode 14: The Murder of Brooke Bennett
12-year-old Brooke Marie Bennett was like any other pre-teen in 2008: She loved to play basketball and lacrosse, enjoyed watching Hannah Montana and SpongeBob, and hanging out with her friends after school. True to the era, Brooke also used MySpace as a form of social media and as a place to share her thoughts and chat with friends after school.
On June 25th, 2008, Brooke, who had just finished 7th grade in Randolph, VT, was led to believe that her schoolyard crush was going to be at a pool party. This, of course, definitely made Brooke want to go. After being dropped off at a local Cumberland Farms by her uncle, Michael Jacques, she was walking down the road when Jacques turned around and convinced her to get back in the car. Also in the vehicle was a 14-year-old girl that Jacques had groomed and manipulated for the past 5 years. The two brought Brooke back to his apartment, where the two girls watched TV into the afternoon. Eventually, Jacques asked Brooke to come into his bedroom to “show her a magic trick.” This ended with Brooke being drugged, raped, and strangled. The 14-year-old, known as Juvenile-1, then left the house, not knowing of Brooke’s fate; she believed that Brooke was going to become a member of the fictitious child-sex ring called “Breckenridge” that Jacques had groomed her to be apart of.
Three days after Brooke went missing and Jacques’ apartment was searched, he was arrested on unrelated child pornography charges. His laptop and desktop were searched and subsequent information was obtained- he had forged a MySpace post from Brooke’s account, making it seem as though Brooke was going to meet someone on the morning she disappeared.
A week after she was reported missing, Brooke’s body was found just one mile away from Jacques’ apartment, covered in dirt in a shallow grave. She had been suffocated with a plastic bag.
In the trial of Michael Jacques’, which took 5 years before he was finally sentenced, Jacques pled guilty to six federal counts of kidnapping, rape, and murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus 70 years, without the possibility of parole.
Image sources:
Vermont Digger - “Brooke Bennett’s family confronts killer at sentencing”
Rutland Herald - “Brooke Bennett murder case Jacques deal triggers high emotions”