Brooke Bennett 12yrs old missing 6/25/08 Randolph Vermont(BODY FOUND)

[Rob]

The most famous use of the word Breckenridge would obviously be the world renown ski resort. Quite a few people from Vermont do take part in many outdoor activities. The land is very beautiful. I wonder he Jacques (pronounced Jakes) got the idea for the name of his little abuse empire by traveling there and skiing. If so, there could be more victims there as well.

[bleachedblack]

Vt police reports progress in search for girl

July 1, 2008, 6:15PM
 BETHEL, Vt. — The head of the state police said Tuesday that authorities are making "great progress" in the search for 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, but he gave few details.

"I think we're eliminating possibilities where she may be. I just don't want to be in the business of predicting how close we are. Our efforts right now, our unfettered efforts, are to locate Brooke and bring her home to her family," Col. James Baker said at a news conference.

Baker reiterated that Michael Jacques, Brooke's uncle, remains a "person of interest" in her June 25 disappearance. He declined to say if the same is true of her stepfather, Ray Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, whose arrest muddled an already confused situation Tuesday.

Baker said Gagnon, who has family in Vermont, was arrested Monday night and was expected to be charged with sexually assaulting a minor last year in the Royalton area.

His arraignment was canceled, however, and federal authorities took over his case.

At the afternoon news conference, an FBI agent with Baker said Gagnon was expected to be charged with obstruction of justice for destroying evidence. They didn't elaborate about what evidence he is alleged to have destroyed.

Authorities said Gagnon was on a regular visit to Vermont from Texas when he was arrested after questioning at the state police barracks in Royalton on Monday evening, said Baker. He was being held at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.

State police arrested Jacques, 42, of Randolph on Sunday, charging him with aggravated sexual assault. Jacques has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which involve a girl other than Bennett.

Police continued Tuesday to scour Jacques' property, including with search dogs.

Court papers say the victim in the case against Jacques told police Jacques was to be her trainer in a "program for sex" and that she had met three men affiliated with the program.

Girls in the program were warned that "the first (girl) who does it lives and the second gets her throat cut," according to an affidavit filed Monday at Vermont District Court for Orange County.

Baker said Tuesday investigators aren't sure whether there is a sex ring.

"We're not prepared to say if that there is a ring or there's not a ring at this point in time. We're still researching evidence and analyzing evidence," he said.

James Bennett, Brooke's father, identified Gagnon as Brooke's stepfather. Bennett said Gagnon had been married to Brooke's mother, Cassandra Gagnon. He said they separated about four years ago and may have divorced.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5866625.html

[Sea Searcher]

7 Main street share's an address with the Randolph County Clerk. That's odd. This is suppose to be a convenience store.


does anyone have the approximate locale where the clothing was found?

Rob...

I believe it was off RT65 in Brookfield, near Sunset Lake (which was searched) but
the clothing being found was told by the uncle so it may be false to misslead police.

As far as sharing an address...up here its common to have businesses grouped
in one building...

[Blonde]

The Criminal Past of Brooke's Uncle

Chelsea, Vermont - July 1, 2008

We have learned more about Brooke Bennett's uncle Michael Jacques and his prior conviction for kidnapping and rape in 1992.

Jacques, 42, was charged Monday with raping a child repeatedly for five years and taking part in a sex ring called Breckenridge. This is not the first time the 42-year-old has been the focus of a sex crime investigation.

In 1992, he was convicted of kidnapping and rape. Court records show that the victim was an 18-year-old woman he supervised at a fast-food business in Rutland. The records show he and a friend got her drunk and then he alone forced her into his car and over the next four hours raped her several times while she was choked with a rope around her neck, gagged with a cloth in her mouth, and handcuffed with police-style cuffs.

The victim later told police that Jacques told her he had killed a 12-year-old girl he raped in Arizona in 1985 because she threatened to go to the police, so he had to kill her.

The police were unable to confirm his claimed killing of the 12-year-old in Arizona, but Jacques did plead no contest to the charges of kidnap and rape in Vermont. In return, under a plea agreement, he got six years in prison, but was released after serving only four and half with credit for good time.

That 1992 plea deal also required Jacques to complete the sex offender treatment program before he could be released from probation. According to the records, he did complete the therapy program, and was released from state supervision in December 2006. His new charges stem from crimes that allegedly happened while he was undergoing sex offender treatment and still under state supervision.

Jacques does have another conviction-- in 1985 in Washington County for lewd and lascivious conduct. We are working to get the records in that case.

Read the affidavit containing the police evidence against Michael Jacques in the CURRENT case.**

**WARNING: This document contains graphic and explicit content not suitable for children. WCAX News chose to black out some information from this document that we feel may identify the victim.

Brian Joyce - WCAX News

http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8587385

TEAM www.helpfindthemissing.org

[Blonde]

Uncle found her cloths 10  miles away from drop off location.
He may have doe this  to mislead police.

[Red]

Sex Ring? Ray Gagnon, Step Father of Missing Brooke Bennett is Arrested & Accused of Destroying Evidence in Connection of Disappearance of Brooke Bennett

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2008/07/01/sex-ring-ray-gagnon-step-father-of-missing-brooke-bennett-is-arrested-accused-of-destroying-evidence-in-connection-of-disappearance-of-brooke-bennett/

Talk about stumbling on to the tip of an iceberg.

The discussion of a Myspace on-line chat may turn out to be a full fledged sex ring.

How did Brooke survive as long as she did with these animals surrounding her.

BTW, the mother should be slapped for actually allowing her daughter to be alone with a registered sex offender.

[klaasend]

Uncle found her cloths 10  miles away from drop off location.
He may have doe this  to mislead police.

I was thinking the same thing Blonde

[klaasend]

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/NEWS01/80630028

July 1, 2008


Search for Brooke: 'Great progress' in investigation, police say

By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer

 Photo Gallery of search

BETHEL — The head of the state police said this afternoon that authorities are making “great progress” in the search for 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, but he gave few details.

“I think we’re eliminating possibilities where she may be. I just don’t want to be in the business of predicting how close we are. Our efforts right now, our unfettered efforts, are to locate Brooke and bring her home to her family,” Col. James Baker said at a news conference.

Baker reiterated that Michael Jacques, Brooke’s uncle, remains a “person of interest” in her June 25 disappearance. He declined to say if the same is true of her stepfather, Ray Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, Texas, whose arrest muddled an already confused situation Tuesday.

Baker said Gagnon, who has family in Vermont, was arrested Monday night and was expected to be charged with sexually assaulting a minor last year in the Royalton area.

His arraignment was canceled, however, and federal authorities took over his case.

At the afternoon news conference, an FBI agent with Baker said Gagnon was expected to be charged with obstruction of justice for destroying evidence. They didn’t elaborate about what evidence he is alleged to have destroyed.

Authorities said Gagnon was on a regular visit to Vermont from Texas when he was arrested after questioning at the state police barracks in Royalton on Monday evening, said Baker. He was being held at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.

State police arrested Jacques, 42, of Randolph on Sunday, charging him with aggravated sexual assault. Jacques has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which involve a girl other than Bennett.

Police continued today to scour Jacques’ property, including with search dogs.

Court papers say the victim in the case against Jacques told police Jacques was to be her trainer in a “program for sex” and that she had met three men affiliated with the program.

Girls in the program were warned that “the first (girl) who does it lives and the second gets her throat cut,” according to an affidavit filed Monday at Vermont District Court for Orange County.

Baker said today investigators aren’t sure whether there is a sex ring.

“We’re not prepared to say if that there is a ring or there’s not a ring at this point in time. We’re still researching evidence and analyzing evidence,” he said.

James Bennett, Brooke’s father, identified Gagnon as Brooke’s stepfather. Bennett said Gagnon had been married to Brooke’s mother, Cassandra Gagnon. He said they separated about four years ago and may have divorced.



The 12-year-old girl went missing after she was dropped off at a Randolph convenience store by Jacques. Police said they were told she was planning to meet a friend at the store and travel with her to a Lebanon, N.H., hospital to visit a friend. Police believe that was a lie.


Surveillance video from the store showed Brooke and Jacques — who is married to the sister of Brooke’s mother — leave the store and go in separate directions.


Monday, Baker said, “As a result of information developed late Saturday and early Sunday, the focus of our investigation shifted drastically.” He said it was during the weekend that the computer forensics probe “eliminated the whole world out there and narrowed our focus.”


Brooke, who just finished seventh grade at Randolph Union High School, has not been seen since. She is the subject of Vermont’s first Amber Alert, issued Friday.


Police, assisted by the FBI and an array of police from Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, have scoured the area around Randolph since Thursday.


Divers also searched Sunset Lake after clothing items belonging to Brooke were found nearby. Baker confirmed that Jacques was the person who reported finding the clothing items.


Baker said investigators continue to believe that Internet social network sites like MySpace may have played a role in Brooke’s disappearance. He declined to say whether Jacques was tied to the use of the Internet sites by Brooke.


Baker said Jacques was arrested by police Sunday afternoon at his home without incident.


Monday, wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans, Jacques was led in shackles to his arraignment at the Chelsea courthouse.


Judge Theresa DiMauro set bail for Jacques, overruling a request from Orange County State’s Attorney Will Porter to have Jacques held without bail given the seriousness of the claims in the affidavit.


DiMauro said she would consider having Jacques held without bail at a later date but voiced concern that the allegations against Jacques in the affidavit had not yet been sufficiently substantiated by other witnesses.


Police have confirmed that Jacques is on the state’s sex offender registry. In 1993, he was convicted of kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.


Jacques did not speak during the court appearance and showed little emotion, occasionally looking over to a group of family members who attending the proceeding.


“It’s a hard thing this family’s been through,” said Storm Woodard, 54 of Sharon, who said Brooke is his grand niece. He said he was not surprised by Jacques’ arrest, but was worried what it will mean for his family.


“This is not doing a good thing for my family,” he shouted to reporters as he departed the courthouse.


According to the police affidavit in the Jacques case, he had engaged in various sex acts with the alleged victim beginning when she was 9 years old and continuing for five years. The most recent incident occurred earlier in June.


The victim said her first contact with the “Breckenridge” program involved a phone call and a note under her pillow that informed her that she had been chosen to participate in the “program for sex.” Jacques was designated to be her “trainer,” the affidavit said.


Police said she told them she was one of three girls who were enrolled in the program. She also said she had met three men from the program, one of whom was Jacques.


Baker said police spent much of Monday searching the Jacques home in Randolph. He declined to say whether Brooke was one of the girls involved in the Breckenridge program.


“It’s too early in the process to comment on that,” he said.

[Bearlyhere]

http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=8587260

Police: Search for Brooke at Crucial Stage





Bethel, Vermont - July 1, 2008

"She was really happy all the time. Always had a smile on her face. Nothing got her down," says Spencer Brown.

Brown shoots hoops in his Braintree yard and talks about his missing friend, Brooke Bennett.

"She was a really nice girl. We like to play sports, she was just all around a good girl to hang out with. She made friends really easily," he says.

Brown has been friends with Bennett since she first moved to Vermont from Alabama four years ago.

Bennett was last seen on surveillance video leaving the Cumberland Farms in Randolph Wednesday morning. A massive State Police investigation has ensued-- uncovering scores of evidence including some of the 12-year-old's personal belongings.

"We are at a very crucial stage of the investigation and for us to comment on evidence is going to jeopardize our ability to close out this case," says Vt. State Police Col. James Baker.

Baker did say that the current focus of the investigation remains on the home of Michael Jacques, Bennett's uncle. He was the last person to have contact with Bennett before she disappeared and is considered a person of interest in the case.

"I believe we are making great progress," says Baker. "I think we are eliminating possibilities where she may be. I just don't want to be in the business of predicting how close we are."

Bennett's friend is just trying to make sense of the whole scenario.

Asked if he thinks she might have run away, Brown replies, "She might have. Because the last couple months she's been kind of tense. Just, you know, wanting to get away somewhere."

But Brown says that Bennett loved Vermont and he is hopeful that she will return soon.

"I'm just hoping she comes home OK and nothing bad happened to her," he says.

That's the scenario everyone is hoping for.

There will be a candlelight vigil tomorrow night for Brooke. It will take place Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at the gazebo on Main Street in Randolph. The public is invited.

Adam Sullivan - WCAX News

[Rob]

7 Main street share's an address with the Randolph County Clerk. That's odd. This is suppose to be a convenience store.


does anyone have the approximate locale where the clothing was found?

Rob...

I believe it was off RT65 in Brookfield, near Sunset Lake (which was searched) but
the clothing being found was told by the uncle so it may be false to misslead police.

As far as sharing an address...up here its common to have businesses grouped
in one building...

Hi Sea Searcher - Thanks for the info. I have found that there is a North Main Street and also a South Main Street. The North Main street is the only one that appears to have a business district. So, I'm assuming that is the location.

I'm not finding Rt 65. I see all of the major highways (93)(87)(89)(90)(95)(112)(143) and all of the other routes (3)(4)(5)(202)(302)(7)(4). I see a few lakes, but I am not finding Sunset or Brookfield.

I would like to add this location to the map where Brooke's clothing was found. I realize this could be a ruse, but I still want to add it to track the movements of Michael S. Jaques.

Thanks for any help you can provide. If you are unable to ID the area, no worries, I'll find it eventually.

[Rob]

Sea Searcher - I have found Route 65 and there only appears to be one lake there. Is that the lake? Route 65 is not a very long road compared to others in the area. And there is only one lake.

[Rob]

[Rob]

POSSIBLE ROUTE TAKEN BY MICHAEL S JACQUES



MY AREA OF INTEREST

[Rob]

If you guys look on the Google Earth maps, you will see the address of Michael S Jacques, and the area where the clothing was discovered. (Area where clothing was discovered is not exact, but close).

There is no way Michael S. Jacques accidentally "discovered" Brooke's clothing. That would be the proverbial "needle in a haystack" theory.

I could possibly understand if the clothing was found along a road that leads to his house, but the area is too far away for this to be a coincidence.

IMO - this guy is directly involved. He knew[/i] where the clothing was at - he knew the exact location.

- *all predicated on the fact that he did find the clothing there* -

[Blonde]

Asked if he thinks she might have run away, Brown replies, "She might have. Because the last couple months she's been kind of tense. Just, you know, wanting to get away somewhere."

But Brown says that Bennett loved Vermont and he is hopeful that she will return soon.

I hope she ran away, why would she go back home, no one was there for her.
Her Dad should make a statement on TV letting her know she should call him and he will protect her. Poor Brook but be scared

[NM]

Hey Monkeys,
sorry if this was already pointed out.

Dingledine said Jacques has a full-time job as an operations manager for a company in West Lebanon, N.H., owns his home and a rental property next door, has strong family ties and a family that depends on his income.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/06/30/search_for_missing_girl_turns_to_uncles_property/



The 12-year-old girl went missing after she was dropped off at a Randolph convenience store by Jacques. Police said they were told she was planning to meet a friend at the store and travel with her to a Lebanon, N.H., hospital to visit a friend. Police believe that was a lie.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/NEWS01/80630028

[bleachedblack]

Asked if he thinks she might have run away, Brown replies, "She might have. Because the last couple months she's been kind of tense. Just, you know, wanting to get away somewhere."

But Brown says that Bennett loved Vermont and he is hopeful that she will return soon.

I hope she ran away, why would she go back home, no one was there for her.
Her Dad should make a statement on TV letting her know she should call him and he will protect her. Poor Brook but be scared

Stupidest answer, the guy is lying. What would a 12 year old have to be tense about? duh maybe a family full of perverts making her life hell? ya think?  Haul this guy in and keep him there until he talks. POS

[bleachedblack]

Vigil planned for missing girl

11:55 a.m.
July 2, 2008
RANDOLPH -- A candlelight vigil for missing 12-year-old Brooke Bennett is being planned for 8 p.m. today in downtown Randolph.

The Braintree girl has been missing since June 25 after she was dropped off at a convenience store in Randolph by her uncle.

The vigil will be held at the gazebo in the center of Randolph Village.

Because of the vigil, Randolph Police will close Main Street (Route 12) in the village at the junctions of School Street and Salisbury Street at 7 p.m.

Traffic on Route 12 through the village will be diverted on to Summers Street during the vigil. It is anticipated the vigil will conclude at about 10 p.m.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/THISJUSTIN/530685321

[tcumom]

Uncle brought Brooke back to his house to have sex.

This is from an affidavit just released.  Fox News.

[klaasend]

Uncle brought Brooke back to his house to have sex.

This is from an affidavit just released.  Fox News.

Yes, I just heard the same thing.  Looking for the same in print.  This is sickening.