Disappearance of Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook

After the girls were discovered missing, the family was told to wait 24-hours before making a report.[3] Little is known about the initial investigation, as the original police file is reportedly lost.[1] There is much debate as to why exactly the case was initially closed. The family reports that they were told the case was closed when the girls turned 17 because they had reached an age at which they could no longer be legally forced to come home if found. The original investigator claims that he was told by a juvenile case officer that the girls had been found, which led to both the case being closed and the girls’ removal from the national registry of missing children.[3][1] Mistakes in reports from the original investigation, such as misspelling the last name as "Millbrooks" and listing Jeannette's middle name as "Latressa", have remained unchanged in case files and can still be found on associated databases today, such as The Charley Project and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.[3][1][2][6][7]

Despite the case being closed in 1991, family members continued to persistently contact the sheriff's department to inquire about the whereabouts of the twins over the years. The family was given several explanations for the closure of the case, including the explanation that the girls had been removed from the home and placed into foster care, where they were eventually adopted.[3] Further investigation revealed this to be false. A close relative did have children in the foster care system, leading the family to believe that this was the source of the confusion.[3] These calls ultimately led to the case being reopened in 2013.[8] In media releases the sheriff was quoted as saying, “We think a terrible injustice has been done for the last 20 years” which helped to fuel interest in the new investigation.[9] The current investigating agency is the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.[1]

Although in 2017 the Sheriff's office met with the Millbrook family to discuss the case and collect familial DNA samples,[3][8] as of 2019 it is unclear if the case is continuing to be investigated by local law enforcement.[10]

The producers of the podcast The Fall Line have taken an active role in the search for Dannette and Jeannette, and helped raise a $10,000 reward.[3][11] A meeting with the sheriff's department led the Millbrook family to believe the reward would be officially announced and matched by the sheriff's department, but the sheriff's department denies making this commitment.[3]

Concerned about the lack of publicity for the reward, the producers of The Fall Line and Unresolved podcasts worked together to raise money for a billboard to advertise the reward fund.[3][12] As of March 2018, a little over $2,500 was raised and plans were in motion to create the billboard.[12]

Skeletal remains of an unidentified black female were found in Aiken County on January 25, 1993 and were believed to be the result of a homicide occurring sometime between 1990 and 1992. The remains were found near Shaw's Creek off of Highway 191 in Aiken County, South Carolina. This woman remains unidentified and has become known as one of the Aiken County Jane Does. The family strongly believes that facial reconstructions of these remains resemble and could be Jeannette. When the remains were originally found, the family was told that it was not either of the twins. However, the family was not given a reason why.[8] As of August 2017, the coroner's office reportedly has plans to compare DNA from the Aiken County Jane Doe to familial DNA.[4]After the analysis it was discovered that the skeletal remains found did not belong to the twins.

Joseph Patrick Washington was active in the girls' neighborhood and some believe that he may have been involved in the girls' disappearance.[13] Washington was sentenced to 17 consecutive life sentences in 1995 for numerous criminal convictions associated with abductions and sexual assaults of 5 women, three of whom survived. He faced the death penalty in the murder of Marilyn Denise Kelly and was suspected in the murder of Loretta Dukes but died in 1999 before the trial started.[14]

The first season of The Fall Line podcast explores the details surrounding the disappearance of the Millbrook twins.[3] The case of the twins’ disappearance has been discussed on several other podcasts including My Favorite Murder, Thin Air, The Trail Went Cold, Unresolved, and Crime Junkie.

† Briefly discussed The Fall Line podcast and the case, did not cover as a featured story.

Oxygen Media aired a two-hour television special on the case, which premiered on November 23, 2019.[15]