Tom Brown's Body | Trailer
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Let me tell you what the criminal law is not about. Disprove me. Evidence proves the case. So at some point, in respect for Tom, we have to say, even though the result is not what we want, we're going to respect the evidence that there is. You want to remember Tom? Put up signs in your yard that honored parts of his life. Great football player. Great family. Went to church. Yeah.

In the tiny panhandle town of Canadian Texas, there are two identical signs. They're planted on an empty lot on Main Street, just up the road from a handful of century-old red brick buildings. Each one is four feet tall and eight feet wide. At the very top of each sign, in bold red letters, is the phrase "Justice for Tom." Beneath that are two sentences: "There is a killer among us. Please pray that Tom's killer is found and brought to justice."

In the fall of 2016, Tom Brown was one of the most popular kids in town, the president of his senior class, a standout in the school's drama club, and an offensive lineman on the football team. But on the night of November 23, 2016, the night before Thanksgiving, he vanished. For two years and two months, the residents of Canadian searched for him. Finally, in January 2019,

A sheriff's deputy made a discovery. Breaking news tonight. The 18-year-old was last seen November 2016. Investigators from multiple different law enforcement agencies confirm his remains have been found. Tom's disappearance and death has now been investigated by four law enforcement agencies. They've given lie detector tests to Canadians on Sheriff.

to a globe-trotting private investigator hired to work on the case. Even to members of Tom's own family. Nearly everyone involved in the case has fallen under suspicion. Probably the first way to jump in is to put on really, really high boots because it's nasty. It's nasty in this thing. Conspiracy thinking is rampant. I'm the one that killed him. I put him in a wood chipper.

I had gay sex with him. Some guys called me at the football field that night and they killed Tom on the football field. I got there and I covered it up. I buried him. They kept telling me that I had talked to Thomas. I knew what happened. I knew where he was at. I had found him that night. I moved his body.

There's a lot of lying going on and it's hard to know who's lying and who's not. And there's pieces of this that I don't know who's lying. Lying or just misinformation based on the wrong evidence? Something's lying. I don't know who. Why in Pretty Little Canadian did Tom Brown suddenly disappear? And what happens when a whole town gets obsessed with a single tragic story? A town that to this day remains swamped with suspicion.

Finger-pointing. Sensational allegations. In one dark rumor after another. I'm Skip Hollinsworth, and for more than 30 years, I've written true crime stories for Texas Monthly magazine. But I've never come across a story like this. From Texas Monthly, this is Tom Brown's Body, coming September 29th. I have no enemies.