Kriti Mehrotra
An episode titled ‘No Ride Home’ on the Netflix reboot of ‘Unsolved Mysteries‘ gave us the mind-boggling story of the disappearance and death of 23-year-old, Alonzo Brooks. On April 3, 2004, he, along with some of his friends, was headed to a rural house party just outside of La Cygne.
His mother, Maria Ramirez, still remembers that she had told him to be safe, after all, he was her “baby.” Unfortunately, his ride home had to leave him and after that, he never made it back home to Gardner. It took a month for his body to be found, but even then his perpetrators couldn’t be caught. Suspected violence, racism, hate crime, and murder, what could be worse?
Where is La Cygne?
Located at 38°20′49″N 94°45′44″W (38.346841, -94.762171), La Cygne (pronounced luh seen) is a small town that is situated on the east bank of the Marais des Cygnes River, a few miles southwest of the city of Linn Valley, in East Central Kansas. The city is named after the Marais des Cygnes River, which is a basic French translation of an Osage appellation meaning “marsh of the swans.”
It offers public water, sewer, and natural gas services to its residents and businesses. And even local and long-distance phone service, cellular phone service, television, and high-speed Internet services are all available to them through the La Cygne-based Peoples Telecommunications, LLC. Fishing, camping, and other recreational activities can all be done on La Cygne Lake, Kansas.
According to the 2010 census, the population of the small town is just below 1,200 and it is predominantly white, accounting for 97.3% of the population. The other racial makeups of it are – 0.6% African American, 0.9% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.7% of the population.
Being a part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, La Cygne is about an hour away by car from where Alonzo lived at that time. 33 miles direct in the northwest direction and about 50 miles via road following the US-69 N Route. Even if Alonzo had decided to walk back home after getting drunk and not having been able to get a ride it should have just taken him a day or two maximum.
But, that’s not what happened. His friends had found his boots and beanie discarded by the side of the road and it became evident to them that something had happened to him. His family even pointed out that when they visited the area they could feel eyes on them from every direction and did not feel safe, at all. Although it hasn’t been proved in any sense, they all think that Alonzo was a victim of a hate crime. (Featured Image Credit: FBI)
Read More: Alonzo Brooks Death
