The Disappearance Of These 15-Year-Old Twin Sisters Remains A Georgia Mystery

Dannette and Jeanette Millbrook were twins who lived in Augusta, Georgia with their mom and siblings. They were in the 9th grade at Lucy Laney High School.

On March 18, 1990, they went to church with their family as usual. Later that day, their mom asked them to get lunch from Church's Chicken. When they came back, Jeanette said that a white van had been following them. Mary checked outside, but the van was gone. She thought it was just a coincidence and didn't worry about it.

The Millbrook family had relocated to a new apartment, which was cheaper but three miles away from the twins' high school. Mary didn't want her daughters to walk that far, but they couldn't afford to take the city bus. She suggested that they should ask their godfather, Ted, who lived in their previous neighborhood, for some money to take the bus.

The twins contacted their godfather Ted, who agreed to give them $20 - enough for a week's bus fare and some extra for snacks. To collect the money, Dannette and Jeanette walked three miles from their home to Ted's house, leaving at 3 pm. However, they never came back home and disappeared completely just 20 days before their 16th birthday.

In the evening, Mary became worried when Dannette and Jeanette didn't come back home. She called Ted to ask if he knew where they were.

Ted told her that he had given the girls $20 before they left to visit their older sister, Aceander, who also lived nearby. However, when Mary contacted Aceander, she told her that the twins seemed worried and had asked her to walk them back home. Aceander declined because she had just given birth a few days earlier.

After leaving Aceander's place, the twins went to see their cousin Juanita, who lived close by. They asked Juanita to walk them home, but her mother declined as it was getting dark. The last time Juanita saw the girls was when they headed towards a nearby store.

At around 4:30 pm, Dannette and Jeanette went to the Pump'n'Shop convenience store located at the intersection of 12th Street and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard to buy some snacks like soda, candy, and chips. Gloria, the store clerk, knew the Millbrook twins since she was a friend of the family. She was the last person who saw them.

Gloria informed the investigators that she saw a car parked outside, but she didn't pay attention to the make or model as she was busy with another customer. When she looked up, both the car and the girls were gone.

When Mary realized that her daughters were missing, she contacted the police to report the matter. However, the police refused to file a missing persons report, stating that they could not do so until 24 hours had passed. This delay wasted precious time. Mary had to wait for 24 hours before calling the police again. Even then, it took a week before an investigator named Jim Shipp was finally assigned to the case.

After being assigned to the case, Jim Shipp visited Lucy Laney High School and talked to some of the twins’ classmates. Some of them claimed that the girls had run away because one of them had become pregnant and didn't want to get into trouble. However, this was just one of the many baseless rumors that were circulating in the school.

Age-progression photos of (L)Dannette and (R) Jeannette Millbrook at 39 years old

Another rumor suggested that the girls left home because their mother had too many children to take care of. Such rumors are common in high schools.

Jim also had a conversation with the high school principal, who has since passed away. The principal claimed that he saw Dannette and Jeanette after they went missing. According to him, he called out to the girls, but they ran away in the opposite direction. Based on this statement alone, Jim closed the case in April 1991, one year after their disappearance, and concluded that the twins had run away. He informed Mary about his findings.

It's concerning that Jim didn't follow up on the suspicious white van that had followed the twins earlier that day. It's possible that this van could have been related to their disappearance. Additionally, not speaking with the twins' father seems like a missed opportunity for potential information or leads.

According to Mary, John had a history of abusive behavior during their marriage, and although he wasn't actively involved in the twins' lives, they still visited him occasionally. When the twins went missing, John allegedly showed little concern and suggested that they had run off with a man.

He also refused to provide a DNA sample to the police, in case their bodies were found, and attempted to persuade Aceander not to give one either. Nevertheless, both Mary and Aceander did provide DNA samples, but no matches have been found yet.

Shante, who was only 12 years old when Dannette and Jeanette disappeared, stated in 2019,

“He [John] basically didn’t even want to be involved in the girls’ case. He didn’t even want my mom looking for them. We’ve been trying to find out for the longest why didn’t he want to be involved. These are your daughters. Why wouldn’t you want to look for them?”

In 2013, the Millbrook twins' case was finally reopened after receiving little media attention and appearing to be ignored for many years. It went through five different investigators before being reopened, adding to the frustration and pain of the Millbrook family.

Joseph Patrick Washington, a potential serial killer, was named as a suspect in the case in 2017. He had resided and worked in close proximity to John Millbrook and was known to have been involved in drug trafficking with him. Washington's victims were typically young black girls and women with short hair, which matched the description of the Millbrook twins.

Although he was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 1995, he passed away in 1999 before being questioned about the twins.

While in prison, a man named Ernest Vaughns told investigators that when he was 12 years old, he was at John Millbrook's apartment with the Millbrook twins and some other men. According to Ernest, one of the twins was sexually assaulted by one of the men and when the other twin tried to help, she was also assaulted.

Ernest said that when he came back later, the girls were gone and no one knows what happened to them.

Shante believes that her sisters did not drink or use drugs. Unfortunately, John cannot be interviewed as he is in a care home for Dementia patients. In 2019, Shante visited John and asked him about the twins. He initially said that they were dead and buried, but later changed his story and refused to talk about them again.

Jim Shipp still thinks the twins ran away, but their mother and sister don't believe it. They say the girls were good students who always came home after school, and they never got into trouble.
Mary Sturgis, who is now 67 years old, is still searching for her two daughters after 33 years, saying that she will continue to wait as long as she lives.

A $50,000 reward is being offered to anyone with knowledge of the Millbrook twins’ whereabouts.