Skidmore, Part Two - The Disappearance of Branson Perry

Skidmore, Missouri, has seen more violence and wickedness than the average small American farm town. While the story I’m going to tell here is not one of murder exactly, it is by no means less sinister or ominous.

On April 11, 2001, 20-year-old Branson Kayne Perry disappeared into thin air from outside his home in Skidmore. Three years later, his cousin Bobbie Jo Stinnett would be murdered and have her 8-month-old fetus cut from her womb and kidnapped. The previous year, another of Branson’s cousins, Wendy Gillenwater, was beaten to death by her boyfriend.

I will say here that these cases are unrelated. They just lead us to wonder how one small town could be subject to so many tragedies. Or is there something going on in Skidmore that is just beyond any kind of human comprehension?

Missing Person Profile

Height: 5”9

Weight: 155 pounds

Clothing/Jewelry Description: Possibly size 32 shorts, a size medium to large t-shirt, and necklaces and leather trinkets or chains with arrowheads on them.

Medical Conditions - racing heart condition (tachycardia), allergic to penicillin.

Distinguishing Characteristics - Caucasian male, very short blond hair, blue eyes, has a small faint scar on the upper part of his right cheek, small scar on his left knee. Perry's wisdom teeth have been removed and he has a few fillings in his other teeth. He is right-handed.

Branson Perry’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Poster (source: Facebook - Branson Perry)

Who was Branson Perry?

Branson Perry was born February 24, 1981 to Rebecca (Becky) Klino and Bob Perry. In November of 2001, Rebecca and Bob divorced. Rebecca moved out of the family home at 304 West Oak St. in Skidmore to another town about 20 miles away, while Branson stayed at the family home with his father.

In 1999, Branson graduated from Nodaway-Holt High School. He began working odd jobs, initially as a roofer, then for a travelling petting zoo. His hobbies included weightlifting and martial arts, specifically hopkido, which he had a black belt in.

In April 2001, 20-year-old Branson was unemployed and still living with his father.

Branson Perry (source: Bring Branson Home)

The Day Branson Disappeared

The information I gathered about Wednesday April 11, 2001 came from the written account by Branson’s mother, Becky Klino, which can be found here.

Bob Perry was in the hospital that day and due home on Friday April 13. Branson planned to clean the house in preparation for his father’s return, and had asked his friend Gena Crawford to help him. There were two men at Branson’s home working outside on Bob’s car, which needed its alternator replaced.

Becky stressed that the events of the day were not completely clear to her. I assume that Gena originally reported this information to police and possibly to her directly.

Gena and Branson were in the middle of cleaning when Branson abruptly went into the kitchen, took something from a cabinet and went outside. When he came back, he would not tell Gena what he had taken from the cabinet or why he had gone outside.

When they were done cleaning, Gena took a shower. On coming out of the bathroom, she saw one of the men who had been outside working on the car going through a cabinet in the kitchen (it is unclear if Branson knew the man was in the house). Gena asked the man what he was looking for. He told her it was nothing, and went back outside.

At 3pm, Gena was upstairs when she heard the front door close. She looked out the second story window, seeing Branson going down the front porch steps. She called out to him, asking what he was doing, to which he replied he was going to put jumper cables in the storage shed (next to the house) and he would be right back. This was the last time anyone would see Branson Perry.

The Perry home - don’t ask me about the giant multi-colored tarantula in the yard (source: True Crime Diva)

The Perry storage shed, where Branson planned to store the jumper cables (source: here)

Gena waited a bit longer for Branson to return, but he never did, so she left. I do find it a little odd that she didn’t look for him. Bob had to stay in hospital for another couple days, so his mother (Branson’s grandmother) Jo Ann Stinnett stopped by the house on Friday to see Branson. The doors were all unlocked and the radio was on, but Branson was nowhere to be found. She thought this was strange, but assumed he had probably just stepped out for a bit, so she left, and came back the next day.

Everything was exactly as it was the day before and there was still no sign of Branson. Slightly worried by this time, she began calling his friends, but no one had seen or heard from him. On Sunday, Jo Ann called Bob and then Becky, telling them that Branson was missing. Bob was discharged from the hospital on Monday and went to meet Jo Ann and Becky at the police station. A missing person’s report was filed for Branson on Tuesday, who by that time had not been seen for six days.

Bob returned to the house and began looking to see if any of Branson’s belongings had disappeared, but everything was there, including his wallet and the van he usually drove. Authorities searched the storage shed for the jumper cables but there was no sign of them. Two weeks later, they mysteriously appeared in the shed behind the door.

The Investigation

Once the Perry property was searched, Nodaway Country Sheriff’s Dept. and public search parties began combing the area within a 15-mile radius of the house. Abandoned buildings, farms and fields in the area were thoroughly searched, but turned up nothing. The fact that Branson had already been missing for six days before the search truly began was a serious setback for investigators.

During the six weeks following the disappearance, police interviewed over 100 people. A claim I find really strange is the two men who had been working outside on Bob’s car the day of the disappearance said they saw nothing. Surely, if Branson had just walked off, they would have seen him? Or if he was attacked and thrown in a vehicle, it would have been impossible to miss? It makes me think they’re hiding something.

Gena was questioned, and admitted that she and Branson had been experimenting with drugs including marijuana and methamphetamines. This led detectives to believe that Branson’s disappearance was drug related and there had likely been foul play involved.

Authorities were able to track down some acquaintances of Branson’s in the nearby city of St. Joseph, MO, who he had done drugs with or had bought from, but questioning them turned up nothing. Several were given lie detector tests, which they all passed. They could not determine that Branson owed any drug dealers money. Given the secrecy associated with these people, I would hope that detectives did not simply take them at their word and move on. Unfortunately, murders in which drugs are the motive are always far more difficult to solve.

Branson Perry missing person billboard (source: All That’s Interesting)

The Suspects

The two main suspects which come up again and again in this case are Branson’s next door neighbour, Jason Biermann (some sources spell it with just one ‘n’), and Jack Wayne Rogers, 59-year-old Presbyterian minister and all-round vile human being.

Jason Biermann

Most of the info I found on Jason which is reported here is second-hand information that originally came from a book called Baby Be Mine by Diane Fanning, which is primarily focussed on Bobbie Jo Stinnett. I could not access the book, but it is sourced multiple times on Wikipedia and other true crime blogs. No news reports mention Jason, and I’m unsure where Fanning found these details about what went on between Jason and Branson.

On April 7, 2001, just days before Branson went missing, he went to Jason’s home. I don’t know if there was a specific reason that he went, or if they were just planning to hang out. I also do not know how old Jason was at the time, though I did a little searching on his name and found a 49-year-old man living in Mound City, MO (about 25 minutes from Skidmore), with the name Jason Biermann. If this is the Jason, he would be 11 years older than Branson, and 31 at the time Branson disappeared.

According to Fanning, Jason drugged Branson when he came over. Branson then supposedly stripped off all his clothes, danced around Jason’s house naked and shaved his pubic hair. Branson and Jason then ‘had sex’. Nowhere does it say that Branson was raped, but with Branson having been drugged, it sounds suspect.

When Branson came to, he realised what had happened and was completely humiliated. Branson then apparently went home and told his father what had happened (which I find this kind of surprising). Bob wasn’t surprised that Branson had had sex with another man, as he had suspected his son was gay for a while, but was appalled that Jason had taken advantage him. I read that Bob did think about “teaching Biermann a lesson”, but decided against it. Maybe it being a very conservative part of the country where homophobia is rampant, Bob did not want to draw attention to what had happened. Some also speculate that Bob, having been in and out of hospital, did not have the strength to confront the younger man.

Bob told detectives about what had happened between Branson and Jason on April 7. He personally thought that Branson may have been so embarrassed that he ran away to stay with friends in Kansas City.

Many are sure that Jason is responsible for Branson’s death. I’ve seen talk on forums (again, I don’t know how accurate this is) that after Branson disappeared, Jason Biermann left Skidmore for 2 weeks. No one knew where he went. I couldn’t find anything about whether detectives had questioned him on this matter. Maybe Jason was worried that what had happened between them would come out, so he killed Branson and drove somewhere far away to bury his body.

Jack Wayne Rogers

Rogers, a Presbyterian minister and Boy Scout leader from Fulton, Missouri, became a suspect in Branson’s disappearance in April, 2003, when he was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography. He was also charged with first-degree assault for a botched attempt at a gender-reassignment surgery (he had no medical qualifications or knowledge) on a trans woman, Madison (born Michael) Abercrombie, in hotel room in Columbia, Missouri. Abercrombie nearly died from blood loss and paramedics had to be called.

Detectives searched Rogers’s computer, finding the child porn, as well as multiple posts where Rogers detailed picking up a blond male hitchhiker from Skidmore, who he raped, tortured, murdered and then buried the man’s body in the Ozarks.

When questioned about this, however, Rogers denied it had anything to do with Branson, and claimed he did not know who he was. He claimed the whole account was made up and just fantasy. Detectives also discovered a turtle claw necklace in Rogers’s car, which looked like one belonging to Branson.

Rogers was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for assault and seven years for the illegal surgery. He was also sentenced to 30 years for possession of child pornography. The sentences would run concurrently.

Becky Klino attended Rogers’s sentencing hearing and begged him to tell her what he had done with Branson’s remains. He insisted he had nothing to do with Branson’s disappearance, however. She would later say to the media regarding Rogers:

“The police are not completely ruling him out, but now the investigation has turned towards Skidmore again. They have received new leads there. I suppose time has a way of unraveling secrets. I believe someone in that area knows what happened to Branson. In my heart, I don't believe this suspect is responsible. Despite the nightmare I lived through [at his sentencing], I am thankful that someone with that much evil will never walk the streets again”

What was in the cupboard?

Internet detectives/web sleuths are very focused on whatever was in the kitchen cabinet that Branson took outside. Most speculate it was either drugs or money. Perhaps, he took whatever it was to someone waiting outside. If it was drugs or money, they counted it, and realised it was not enough. So they sat in their car, waiting for Branson to come out of the house again – they didn’t want to just barge in, knowing Gena was there. When Branson came out of the home with the jumper cables, they grabbed him, threw him into their vehicle and drove off. I’m leaning towards there being at least two people; although Branson wasn’t very big, he did he did work out and do martial arts, so likely would have been able to defend himself if there was only one person.

The Jumper Cables

Many speculate that he was strangled with the jumper cables, but I think it’s more likely that they would have just grabbed him and sped off – strangling someone takes time, and the longer they stayed by the property, the more likely it would be that someone would have seen them. Branson was holding the jumper cables when he disappeared, so they just ended up in the vehicle with him.

The only reason I can think of for the jumper cables turning up in the storage shed two weeks later is that whoever kidnapped Branson wanted to mess with detectives (why else would they take them back to the home, which would increase their chances of being spotted?) As far as I know, the jumper cables were never tested for any kind of DNA evidence.

My Thoughts

I found a lot of the information on this case to be really sketchy with regards to details; everything was so vague. Obviously all my research is done online, which explains why this story has some gaps.

Firstly, I’m curious about Gena Crawford. If she was a good friend of Branson’s, which she must have been to agree to spend the day cleaning with him (and then showering at his house), why didn’t she look for him before she left? It also sounds as though she didn’t try to get in touch with him again after Wednesday, which you’d think that she would, if he just disappeared and then she left without saying goodbye. I wonder if she did try to get in touch with him, but when she couldn’t, perhaps thought he had been doing drugs with other people and just didn’t want to get involved. This could also explain why she didn’t contact the authorities, as she didn’t want to get him into trouble.

Missing poster for Branson with age progression to 25 years.

As mentioned previously, I’m suspicious of the men who were fixing the car and how they claim to have seen nothing. Also extremely strange is one of them wandering into the house and going through a kitchen cabinet. I also wonder why Gena never mentioned this to Branson. Perhaps she did, but I couldn’t find anything saying she did. I just know that if some men fixing a car at my house wandered inside and began going through the kitchen cabinets, that would be alarming (unless they were actually friends of Branson’s?) It’s very strange.

According to the Charley Project, Branson’s family and friends said that it was ‘extremely uncharacteristic’ of Branson to be out of touch with friends and family for more than a few days. It just makes me wonder, if this is so, why no one raised the alarm before he had already been missing for 6 days?

Since Branson’s Disappearance

The only way, in my opinion, that we will ever know what happened to Branson is if someone comes forward. Searches have taken place every year, but nothing has turned up. Tips are few and far between.

The case is being treated as a homicide. In April 2019, Nodaway County Sheriff Randy Strong stated that he has a good idea of who was responsible based on information gathered by the previous sheriff. The same names continue to pop up in the case files. It is difficult when there is no body, but Strong is sure that they are closer than ever to finding out what really happened to Branson. When he feels they have enough evidence to prove their case, it will be taken to the prosecutor’s office.

Bob Perry, Branson’s father, died in 2004. Becky Klino, who dedicated her life to finding Branson after he disappeared, tragically died from melanoma in 2011. She was 52. Her friends, family and the community promised that they would continue to search for her son.

Sgt. Roger Phillips, an investigator for the drug and crime control division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and friend of Becky’s, stated after her death:

"Just because [Ms. Klino] is not here doesn't mean this train is not going to keep moving. It's about getting to the truth."

Becky was buried alongside an empty plot which had been dug for Branson. The headstone lists his death as the day he disappeared, April 11, 2001.