www.justiceforchandra.com

[maryland missing]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142103,00.html
http://www.news-record.com/news/now/pwrbllfnd_122004.htm
_________________
Maryland's Missing persons
www.marylandmissing.com

[rd]

What a sad way to go, on Scary Creek Road in West Virginia. Question will be whether it is related to her grandfather's millions or just something gone wrong and she is hidden down the road from where she was murdered.

Very sad either way.

rd

[fallout]

I met Brandi Bragg when her Grandfather brought the family up to New York to appear on the morning talk shows the day after he won the Powerball lotto. She and her sister (cousin?) were looking for clothes to wear on the Today show but they got in to the hotel after midnight. I tried to get the manager at Barneys to open up for a quick shopping spree but he wouldn't come back in to the city. I wound up borrowing a dress from a female impersonator but she didn't wear it.

The whole family seemed nice and polite but somewhat innocent and unworldly. Very sorry to hear about their tragedy.

James

[rd]

Nice personal touch there, James. This is another one of those "she wasn't here in the morning" stories. Her car was, but she was found down the road "behind a church" a couple of weeks later.

Had to be way behind the church or she was just recently dumped there. I don't have any details, but the guy who said she wasn't there in the morning is said not to be a suspect. I think the whole suspect thing is suspect.

rd

[rd]

Ok, here's more details from CNN. Looks like she OD'd and the boyfriend wrapped her in plastic and put her behind a junked van. Real WV'ish, but I'm from there so I can say it. :)

I had read of another girl dying in Whittaker's house but now that little detail at the end of the article is starting to make that little neck of the woods mighty busy for the local police.

rd


from www.cnn.com (fair use)

Lottery winner's granddaughter found dead
CNN
Tuesday, December 21, 2004

SCOTT DEPOT, West Virginia (AP) -- The 17-year-old granddaughter of the nation's largest lottery winner was found dead near her boyfriend's home, her body wrapped in a sheet and plastic tarp.

Brandi Bragg, who lived in the nearby town of Hurricane, was last seen alive December 4. She was reported missing five days later by Jack Whittaker, who won a $314.9 million jackpot on Christmas Day 2002 but has battled legal and other problems since then.

The cause of death was under investigation. Authorities said there were no obvious signs of violence. An autopsy was planned for Tuesday, and police said Tuesday morning there was nothing new to report.

Bragg's body was found Monday behind a junked van several hundred feet from the home of Steve Crosier, whose son Brandon was Bragg's boyfriend, said Trooper S.E. Wolfe.

A preliminary investigation indicated that Bragg may have died in the Crosiers' house and her body was later moved.

Wolfe said Monday's discovery was based on interviews with Brandon Crosier and others. "We are focused on him but I wouldn't call him a suspect yet," he said.

Steve Crosier, in a brief conversation with reporters outside his house, said: "All I know is she OD'd and Brandon freaked out."

But police would not comment on whether drugs were involved, and in a later telephone interview with The Associated Press, Crosier said he did not know any details of Bragg's death or when her body was placed outside on his property. Crosier said he had been busy tending to his daughter, Jennifer, who died of cancer December 13.

Bragg's body was identified by tattoos on her neck, said State Police Sgt. Jay Powers. "The troopers had talked to her in the past and knew her," Powers said.

Whittaker and other family members did not return messages Monday. There was no listing for Bragg's mother, Ginger McMahon of Beckley, who is Whittaker's daughter.

Shortly after he won the lottery, the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in U.S. history, Whittaker said he had few plans for himself but wanted to lavish his winnings on his daughter and Brandi, then 15.

But Whittaker -- already a wealthy contractor before his lottery win -- has had several brushes with the law since he won the prize. Earlier this month, a magistrate ordered him to go into rehab and surrender his driver's license after his second drunken driving arrest this year. He must report to rehab by January 2.

He has also been accused in two lawsuits of assaulting female employees of a racetrack. And his vehicle, business and home have been broken into.

In September, an 18-year-old friend of his granddaughter was found dead at Whittaker's home. That death remains under investigation. Whittaker was out of town at the time.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press