What happened to the Millbrook Twins, two kids who fell off the face of the Earth?

The Millbrook Twins, Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook, vanished without a trace on March 18, 1990, in Augusta, Georgia.

The events of that seemingly regular day turned into a lifelong nightmare for the Millbrook family. On that fateful Sunday, the twins attended church services, as was typical for the family. However, upon their return home, the twins mentioned to their mother, Louise, that they had noticed a man following them. While this alarmed Louise, there were no immediate signs of danger that could have foreshadowed what was about to transpire later that day.

The day of the disappearance

Later in the day, Dannette and Jeannette decided to visit several family members. After visiting their godfather, the girls decided to go to their cousin’s house. Once there, they asked their cousin to accompany them home, but the cousin’s mother refused to let her daughter walk with the twins. Undeterred, Dannette and Jeannette made their way to their older sister’s house, hoping she would escort them home. However, their sister also declined their request. This was the last time anyone from their family saw the twins.

After their requests were met with rejections, the twins stopped at a local gas station. They purchased a few snacks and were seen by witnesses who later reported that nothing seemed amiss. The girls appeared to be in good spirits and were behaving as normal. The twins were supposed to return home. However, after this, the information trail goes cold. They never returned home and were subsequently reported missing by their family.

Follow-up actions and investigations

The initial investigation into their disappearance faced significant issues. The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office was criticized for its handling of the case. The family reported that the police initially treated the case as a simple runaway situation despite their insistence that the twins would never run away. This assumption led to a delay in launching a full-scale investigation. The critical first hours during which most successful missing persons investigations begin were thus lost. The family also reported that the police failed to follow up on several leads and did not communicate well with them regarding the progress of the case.

One of the most significant issues was that the case was incorrectly marked “cleared” by the sheriff’s office shortly after the disappearance. This error went unnoticed for many years, effectively halting any further investigation into their case. It wasn’t until the family pushed for answers decades later that this mistake was discovered. The case was reopened in 2013.

The twins’ sister Shanta Sturgis believes the authorities didn’t prioritize the investigation because the girls were black and from a low-income family. Shanta stated that on the “poorer side” of the Augusta area where the twins lived, “there are more crimes that go unreported” compared to the more affluent side of the city.  Another sister, Jessica Logan, said the “better well-off side” has “the money to push to look for family members if they go missing” and “get more help quicker than a woman would with a heap load of kids that lives in the projects.” 

The family’s suspicions of racial bias in the handling of the case are not unfounded. Studies have shown that missing persons cases involving people of color often receive less media attention and law enforcement resources compared to cases involving white individuals. As Shanta said, “The whole year of 1990, we didn’t get no information, you know, about them. They really didn’t get no media attention. They were put on the news once.” Further, Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree acknowledged there was a racial divide in Augusta back when the girls went missing in 1990, and that institutional racism still exists in the city today.

In recent years, the Millbrook twins’ case has gained renewed attention thanks to the rise of true crime podcasts and social media. Notably, The Fall Line podcast played a crucial role in reviving interest in the Millbrook twins’ case. Despite their efforts, the case remains unsolved, and the whereabouts of Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook are still unknown.

The disappearance of the Millbrook twins is a tragic example of how critical the first few hours are in a missing persons case and how systemic issues can impact the outcome of an investigation.